Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookies

I have heard about oatmeal cookies so often; but have somehow never eaten them or even tried to make them. My mother enjoys eating oat porridge (I don't) and therefore, I saw a huge bag of oats in my kitchen shelf a few days ago. Understandably, something had to be made!

I knew that the basic idea of oatmeal cookies was that you replace some of the flour with lots and lots of oats. It was too late in the night to bring out all the 'heavy equipment' and that is why this is the easiest recipe ever. Even I was surprised by the results - crisp yet chewy at the same time. 

This recipe makes 12 medium sized cookies

Ingredients

• 1tbsp soft Butter
• 3tbsp Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Flour
• 2 cups Oats (I used regular instant oats)
• 2tbsp Cinnamon

Beat the sugar and butter till it is light and creamy, add the egg and beat for a further minute.

Add the flour and oats to the egg mixture and gently mix in. You will be left with a rather sticky dough.

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll into small balls. Arrange on your baking sheet, and flatten slightly till they are about 1 cm thick disks. Sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon over each cookie. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 200C for 10 minutes, and a further 3-4 minutes at 225C. Allow to cook slightly and then place on your cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Creamy Coconut Prawn Curry

Every year; I go to West Bengal to visit my father. It is a refreshing change from the heat and the traffic in Ahmedabad. Also; I get to eat prawns to my hearts content.

Manas Da is one of my fathers closest friends; he is a wonderful person with a voice like an angel. His wife is incredibly sweet, and we somehow manage to converse even though we barely speak the same language! Considering my father is Marvadi, we never used to eat meat in the house till my father decided to build an outhouse. Before that (and even now), it was Manas Da who would satisfy all my meat cravings. It was he who introduced me to prawn heads and made me fall in love with them!

Manas Da and his family are true food lovers and appreciate good food. Understandably, they are also incredible cooks, especially his wife and mother. I still remember the taste of the prawn curry Moni used to make.

This recipe finally materialized in Pune when I was truly desperate for prawns. It may not be absolutely authentic, but it sure is delicious.

Recipe inspired by Manas Da and his wife Moni; two amazing people and true food connoisseurs; who enjoy eating just as much as they enjoy feeding people.

Ingredients

• 1kg shelled Prawns
• 2 fresh Coconuts, grated
• 2tbsp Ginger, roughly chopped (do not peel the ginger as the skin holds a lot of flavor)
• 1tbsp Cumin seeds
• 5 green Chilies, roughly chopped
• 2 onions, ground to a paste
• 3tbsp Mustard oil
• 1tsp Turmeric powder
• 1tsp red Chili powder
• Salt to taste

Marinade the prawns in the turmeric powder and chili powder for a few minutes. Heat the mustard oil in a deep wok and fry the prawns till they are almost cooked; set aside.

Grind the ginger, cumin and green chilies to a fine paste.

Mix 4 cups of hot water in the grated coconut and squeeze through to get the coconut milk.

Pour a small amount of the coconut milk (this will act as your oil) in the wok (the same one you fried your prawns in to retain as much of flavor as possible) and heat. Mix in the onion paste and the ginger paste and fry till the mixture is cooked through (you will notice a little bit of oil releasing on the sides and the mixture will be rather fragrant). Add the prawns and fry for a minute. Pour in the remaining coconut milk and simmer on a low flame for a further five minutes. You can now add salt as per your taste. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Kalonji and Onion Seeds

Kalonji is widely used in Indian cooking. They are little black colored seeds and add a nice peppery flavor to your cooking. They are mostly used in pickles and achaar. People often refer to Kalonji as Onion Seeds. This is not true!

The botanical name of kalonji is Nigella Sativa. They look almost exactly like onion seeds, but the flavor slightly differs. Onion seeds are rarely used in cooking and are mainly for actually growing onions!

Although you will find many sources that say onion seeds and kalonji are the same; even I thought they were; this is not the case! Kalonji and Onion Seeds come from two completely different families.

Indian Working Hours

Working in an international call center, it is difficult to find out what the official working hours for the respective countries are. It is only due to my work that I discovered that different countries have different work weeks and break patterns. For example, UAE takes their week off on Friday and Saturday with Thursday being a half-day. Their timings are also incredibly different, they work for a couple of hours in the morning and then take an elongated break till the evening when they start working for a couple of hours again. Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia follow a similar pattern. This is incredibly different to India.

India's work week is Monday to Friday, with Saturday being half day in a few organizations. The work day generally starts at 9:00am and finishes at 5:00pm/6:00pm. Lunch break takes place in the afternoon, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm.

This post may not seem of much concern to most of us, but after having to spend hours to find out official break timings and working hours for a number of countries, I'm sure this will help at least some one!

Garlic Salt

I was in Hyderabad for a couple of days last year. We went to a shopping mall to pick up some supplies and I went completely insane. There was so much to choose from. There were even things that you wouldn't think existed! I came across a section that was entirely devoted to salt - garlic, onion, coriander, ginger, celery and so on. Not being a millionaire, I chose from all these options and picked up a jar of garlic salt. It got finished in two weeks!

I have a close affinity with garlic, the flavor of garlic speaks to me and I use it extensively in my cooking. Therefore, I decided to try making a batch of garlic salt. It worked out perfectly! This makes a small bottle garlic salt.

Ingredients -

• 3 pods Garlic
• 4tbsp Salt

Peel and roughly chop the garlic. Cover the garlic with salt and place on a tray. Let it dry out completely in the sun for a couple of days. Blend the garlic and salt to a fine powder in a food processor; store in an airtight jar. 

Aloo ka Paratha

Parathas are a type of roti. They are layered which makes them heavier than normal rotis. You can have plain parathas which are layered with oil making them flaky and crisp; or, you can have stuffed parathas. The most popular fillings being potato, cauliflower, white radish/daikon (mooli), cheese, even left over rice! Parathas are best when they are piping hot, the traditional condiments are yogurt or raita, chutney, butter and pickle.

This is a basic recipe, you can add some grated ginger or garlic, aromatic spices, and tweak the measurements around to suit your taste-buds. This recipe makes 7-8 large parathas.

Ingredients -

• 6 medium sized Potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 2 medium sized Onions, finely chopped
• 4 green Chilies, finely sliced
• 1tsp Salt/Garlic Salt
• 1tsp red Chili powder
• 800g Atta
• Water
• Oil for cooking

Mix the mashed potato, onions, green chilies, red chili and salt together. Taste the mixture and you can add more spice according to your taste. Let the flavors be a little strong as they will become subdued once you stuff them in the atta dough. Divide the potato mixture into 8 even balls

Place the atta in a large dough, add enough water and knead to form a soft dough. You will need about a glass and a half of water. Divide the dough into 8 even balls.

Take one ball of dough and flatten it out slightly, place one ball of the potato mixture in the center and bring up the sides of the dough to get a large ball (potato on the inside, dough on the outside). Flatten this potato-dough ball out with your fingers, and use a rolling pin to roll out to a thickness of about 1/2cm. Cook the paratha on a non-stick frying pan for a couple of minutes on each side, then add half a teaspoon of oil to each side and cook till it is golden brown. Serve hot.

Gooey Center Chocolate

The paternal side of my family is massive. My grandfather had four brothers and three sisters, each having a couple of children, who then went on to have some more; so you can imagine how many cousins I have! Every couple of years, the family tries to come together for some event - a wedding, an anniversary or even a funeral! It was in one such event that I met my cousin Rashi after years.

After a few days of gossiping and exploring; we entered the kitchen. Rashi enjoys cooking and eating just as much as the rest of the family. She's the one who taught me this simple recipe, which has an incredibly fancy result!

Ingredients -

• 4tbsp Condensed milk
• 20g Butter
• 250g Chocolate

Melt all the chocolate over a double boiler and keep aside. (I will upload a post on how to temper chocolate properly later).

Beat the butter till it is smooth and slightly pale. Add the condensed milk and 100g of the melted chocolate. This mixture will form the gooey centers.

Pour little amount of chocolate in your molds and swirl around so that all the sides are completely covered. Upturn the mold over your bowl of chocolate and gentle tap to remove any excess chocolate. Allow these shells to set in the fridge for a couple of minutes. Pipe small amounts of the previously made chocolate mixture into the shells till they are three fourth full. Allow to set again for a few minutes. Cover the shells completely with chocolate and set till the chocolate is completely firm. Pop the gooey center chocolates out of the molds and enjoy!