Anniversary Special: Coconut Choco-Chip Cupcakes

It was our anniversary yesterday and because I did not have time to buy him anything I decided to do what I do best, bake/cook something for him.  Unfortunately, I had some left overs that I had to finish so we had all that for lunch and were planning to go out for dinner…so baking was my only option. He brought me a bunch of gorgeous flowers when he came for lunch and I made him these dainty cupcakes...there ended our gift exchange for the day :-)

I had imagined this cupcake in my mind (inspired by the Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cookies) and decided to go for it because he had liked the flavor combination in the cookie form.

The result: absolutely delicious little cupcakes.

Ingredients

For cupcakes

Wheat flour - 1 cup

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Brown/white – 3/4 cup

Milk – ¾ cup

Oil - 3 tbsps (I used canola)

Nutmeg – a pinch

Toasted coconut – ½ cup

Chocolate chips – ¼ cup

For frosting

Cream cheese – ¼ cup (approx.)

Confectioner’s sugar – to taste

Coconut flakes for garnish

Method

For cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350^oF.

In a pan set to low-medium heat, toast grated coconut until it turns medium brown. Stir occasionally to avoid burning. *You can use store bought dried coconut. I used frozen grated coconut.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside. Mix wet ingredients in a bigger bowl. Slowly add the dry to the wet and mix well.

Pour into cupcake liners and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick poked in comes out clean. *You could of course bake a bigger cake with the batter; I chose mini cupcakes because they look really cute.

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before applying the frosting.

For Frosting

For best results, use cream cheese at room temperature. In a bowl, whip together the cream cheese and sugar until you have a smooth mixture. Slather the cupcakes with the frosting. Sprinkle some toasted coconut flakes and devour. 

Oats Idly (Savory Oats Cakes)

Oats is an ingredient that has gained a lot of popularity over the past few years, especially in India. People who ate only traditional foods like idlys, dosas etc., made of rice are slowly shifting to oats. This could be because oats are loaded in dietary fiber and have cholesterol-lowering properties. But the unfortunate fact is that since oats is a recent entrant to the Indian food scene, there aren’t many creative uses for it.

I love experimenting with recipes and have tried to make oats more attractive to the palate. Here’s my most recent attempt.

The final product was very close to the very popular rava idly and hence the combination of potato masala (as served in Bengaluru’s famous MTR restaurant).

 Ingredients (Makes 4)

For Idlys

Oats – 1 cup

Yogurt – ¼ cup

Channa dal (split chickpeas) – 1 tbsp

Dried red chili/chili flakes – 2 or 2 tsps

Curry leaves

Eno fruit salt – ½ tsp

Oil – 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Water as required

For Masala

Big potato (diced) – 1

Medium sized onion (diced) – 1

Green chilies (finely chopped) – 2 (more if you want it spicy)

Ginger (finely chopped) – 2 tsps

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Oil – 1 tbsp

Curry leaves

Water a required

Salt to taste

Method

Idlys

Toast the oats until they turn a shade darker and give out an aroma. Allow it to cool and then grind into a slightly coarse powder. Heat oil in a pan and add the channa dal, curry leaves and chili. Sauté until the dal turns a shade darker. Add to the powdered oats.

At this point, the mixture can be stored in the refrigerator/freezer to be used later.

To the oats mixture, add yogurt, salt and water to make a thick batter. It should be thicker than idly batter.

Grease the idly plates and keep ready. When you are ready to make the idlys, add the Eno fruit salt and pour the batter into the idly plates. Steam for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the steamer plates and serve hot with a chutney/potato masala/podi. 

Masala

Add the potatoes, onion, chilies, and ginger along with the turmeric powder, salt and water (enough to cover the mixture) to a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles or for about 15 minutes. You can do this in a regular vessel too, just cover and allow the vegetables to cook thoroughly. Take oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. As they start spluttering, add curry leaves. To this, add the cooked potato-onion mixture and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the masala comes together nicely.

This can be had with pooris, rava idlys, regular idlys and of course my oats idlys. 

For more interesting oats dishes, please visit Chatpata Oats , Oats Dumplings (Kozhukatta), My Experiments with Granola, Oats Chakkara Pongal.

Papaya Payasam (Kheer)

A few weeks ago, I chanced upon a cookery show on Asianet (a Malayalam channel) and the host was starting to make papaya payasam. Until then, I had not heard the words papaya and payasam together so I was intrigued.

The process seemed simple enough and I decided to try it. But I didn’t make it for a few weeks…even though there was a papaya sitting on my counter, waiting to be cut. The thing is, if I make anything sweet, and my husband doesn’t care for it much, I end up having the leftovers. To avoid that, I waited for an opportune moment and finally made it when a cousin visited us for dinner.

The payasam was an absolute hit and received a thumbs-up from both the tasters. My cousin had a hard time figuring out what the payasam was made of, he guessed and guessed and finally gave up!!!

Ingredients

Cooked papaya – 1 ¼ cups (approx.)

Melted jaggery – ¾ -1 cup (to taste)

Coconut milk – 1-1 ¼ cups

Cardamom powder – a pinch

Ghee – 2 tsps

Raisins and almonds/cashews for garnish

Water for cooking the papaya and melting jaggery

Method

Deseed and dice a ripe papaya into chunks. Place the papaya in a small saucepan, pour enough water to submerge the pieces, cover and cook until mushy. At this point, you can either transfer the cooked pulp to a blender to make a smooth paste or whisk it to a slightly lumpy consistency. I thought it would be better to leave some lumps, so I did not blend it. In the same saucepan, melt jaggery with a little bit of water. Once it has completely melted, add the papaya pulp and mix well. Allow it to heat through, on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Slowly add the coconut milk and mix well. Technically, the recipe calls for the first, second and third milks extracted from a coconut. I had just one kind…the kind that comes from a can :-). Reduce the heat to low and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes more. Add the cardamom powder.

*If you are using freshly extracted coconut milk, pour the third (most diluted) version first, then the second and finally the first. The payasam should not be cooked too long after the addition of the thickest milk.

Heat the ghee in a small pan placed on low heat. Add the nuts first. As they start toasting, add the raisins and sauté for a couple of minutes. Once they plump up, remove and pour onto the payasam. Serve warm or cold, tastes divine either way. Bon Appétit. 

Note: *To extract fresh coconut milk, you’ll need lots of grated coconut, hot water, regular water, and a blender/mixie. Pour a little hot water onto the coconut and squeeze away. The thick white extract you get is the first milk. Now put the coconut into a blender jar, add some more water and grind until it’s a fine paste. Add some more water and squeeze out the extract. This is the second milk. Do this once more and you have the third milk.