the brown eyed bookie ,

Oats Strawberry Bars

I saw this recipe when I was searching in the internet and found this very interesting and healthy. I did make some changes to the original recipe as I felt it was on the sweeter side. I made this for breakfast and for almost a week, we kept eating this as our daily breakfast. Even Shoj's friend at office asked about it and wanted this recipe, so that even he can save some time while going to office. This is like pick and go kinda bar...not too sweet but very healthy and filling.

Ingredients:
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Filling:
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3 cups fresh or frozen Strawberries
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tbsp Cornstarch

Crust:
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1 1/2 cups All-Purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Quick Cooking Oats
3/4 cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Butter (room temperature)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt

Drizzle:
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1/2 cup Confectioners Sugar or Powdered Sugar
1 tbsp Milk

Method:
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Filling:
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1. Preheat oven to 350F. I used a toaster oven so didn't need any preheating.
2. Wash and remove the stem of the strawberries, crush it in a blender with lemon juice.
3. Add the crushed strawberries in a sauce pan and cook until tender on medium flame for about 8-12 mins.
4. In a bowl mix sugar and corn starch and add this mixture to the strawberries and keep stirring on low flame until the mixture gets thick and bubly for about 1 min. Make sure there are no lumps.

5. Off the flame and allow this mixture to cool a bit.

Crust:
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1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix until you get a crumbly texture.
2. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture for the top.

Drizzle:
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1. Mix the sugar and milk with a fork and keep it aside.

Assembling and Baking:
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1. Take a oven safe glass dish or any baking sheet, grease the bottom of the pan and add the crumb mixture and press down to form a even layer.

2. Now add the filling mixture over the top of the pressed crumbs and even it out.

3. Add the reserved 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture over the top evenly and bake it for about 30 to 35 mins or until the top of the crust is golden brown.
4. Allow it to cool completely.

5. Now you can drizzle with the sugar solution and I also added chocolate syrup over the top.
Note: Make sure you don't drizzle too much, as it will make the bars too sweet. I just used it to decorate for the pic. If you like it to be sweet, then you can add as much as you want. :-)

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Strawberry Swirl Cone

Modakam with sweetened jackfruit filling / Chakka Pooranam Kozhakkattai

Its time for another edition of Blogging Marathon, which is the brain child of Srivalli. The theme I have chosen for this week is cooking with five or less ingredients. I thought this will be interesting to showcase recipes with few ingredients, yet very tasty. Hope you all enjoy this series along with me.

During Vishu, I managed to get a small piece of jack fruit to keep for the Vishu Kani. For the same price, I could get two big fruits at Palakkad. Before buying, husband confirmed if he should buy for that price. And since it was for the kani, I did not want to compromise. Once I cleaned, all I could get was around 10 fruit bulbs from it. I asked my husband's suggestion as to what should I make with that. He gave a simple and easy one - just eat it as it is. I had toyed with various options of making a chakka curry or payasam or ela adai. The images of ela adai made me salivate and I decided its ela adai. I set out to make the filling and then I realized that I don't have the elai/banana leaf at home. And its not easily available near my home. Its then this kozhakkattai/modakam idea clicked and I set out to make it. I got around 8 nos with the filling I had and was happy with the result. I did not measure any ingredients, just added on the go. So what I give is an approximate measurement.

You need

For the filling

Ripe jack fruit bulbs - 10 nos

Powdered jaggery - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

For the outer cover

Rice flour - 1 cup

Salt - a pinch, oil - 1 tspn, water - 1 cup

Method

Chop the jack fruit into bite sized pieces. Take jaggery with a tablespoon of water in a kadai. When the jaggery melts completely, add the jack fruit pieces and grated coconut. The moisture from the fruit and coconut will make the mixture more watery. Continue cooking till the mixture comes together. Don't cook too long that it becomes hard. It should be soft and moist.

In another kadai, take 1 cup of water with a teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt. Bring it to boil. Slowly add the rice flour and mix well. Cook till the mixture becomes dry and is well cooked. Remove it to a plate and leave to cool. Knead the dough to make it smooth.

Pinch a lemon sized ball from the dough and flatten it to a small disc. Keep a tablespoon of the filling in the center.

Gather the edges of the dough and seal it at the top.

Prepare modaks the same with the rest of the dough and filling. Steam them for 10 minutes in a pressure cooker or a steamer. You can check if it is done from its appearance. It must have turned to a pale white with a shiny appearance. Enjoy while it is warm.