Fruit Trifle

During my stay in the U.K., trifle is a dessert which fascinated me a lot. Trifle is an English dessert made with cake, custard, fruits, jelly and cream. All these items are gathered in a glass bowl, as this shows of those lovely colours and makes anybody's mouth water. Trifle can be made with various ingredients and in various ways. Here is my version of trifle. I am using all ready made items to make it easier. You can bake the cake yourself, or make the custard at home.

Ingredients:

1. 200 gms plain sponge cake
2. 800 gms fruit cocktail (500 gms fruit drained)
3. 1 packet of strawberry jelly (You may use different jelly depending on the fruits you use)
4. 500 ml. custard
5. 1 cup whipping cream
6. 1 tblsp. icing sugar

Method:

• Prepare the jelly according to the instructions and let it set before you start making the trifle.
• Cut the cake into 1 inch slices and layer the bottom of the glass bowl with it.
• Drain the syrup out of fruit cocktail and drizzle some of the syrup onto the sliced cake pieces, to soak it a bit.
• Now put half of the fruits on top of the cake layer.
• Pour some custard on top of the fruit layer.
• The next layer should be the jelly.
• You can again layer the items in the similar way or stop it wherever you please.
• Lastly add the whipped cream.
• Refrigerate it for atleast 5 hours and serve cold.

* Whipped cream . In a mixing bowl, beat the cream until it slightly thickens.
Add icing sugar and continue to whip until it forms firm peaks. Whipping cream can also be used to layer in between the ingredients. But always finish off with the whipping cream on top.

Onam Recipes

As Onam is fast approaching, I thought of contributing some recipes specifically for onam on my site. As many of these ingredients as such is not available in Cape Town, I am not posting it on this site and have posted it to my other site http://vanitharecipes.blogspot.com. These recipes are taken from old vanitha magazine, translated and then posted. More recipes will be posted in due course of time.

Chicken Manchurian

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 kg. chicken (deboned and cut into bite sized pieces)
2. 1 egg
3. 2 tblsp. cake flour/all purpose flour/maida
4. 1 tblsp. cornflour
5. 1 tblsp. soya sauce
6. 1 tsp. pepper powder
7. salt as required
8. 1 inch ginger cut into small pieces
9. 4 cloves of garlic cut into small pieces
10. 2 onions cut into small pieces
11. 1 green pepper (I use peppers of various colours)
12. 2 spring onions cut into small
13. 1/4 tblsp. chilli sauce
14. 2 tblsp. soya sauce
15. 1 tblsp. tomato sauce
16. 1 1/2 tblsp. cornflour (read as one and a half)
17. 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
18. Oil for frying and sauteing

Method:-

• Make a paste of items 2 to 7 (not too thick or too thin, able to coat the chicken)


• Heat the oil in a frying pan. Dip the chicken pieces in the above paste and deep fry them until golden brown.


• Take a bigger vessel like a wok and heat a little oil.


• Saute onions, garlic, ginger, spring onions and peppers.


• Now add soyasauce, chilli sauce and tomato sauce. Mix everything properly.


• Add the chicken stock to the 1 tblsp. corn flour and mix until all lumps are broken down. Add this to the entire mix of onions and peppers. When the gravy starts to thicken add the chicken pieces and mix. Adjust salt as per taste. Lower the fire and cook until done.


• Serve it with chappatis, and other breads.

Fried Chicken Curry (Varutha Kozhi Curry)

This is a recipe taken from Lekshmi Nair's magic oven. As promised, Rose here is your recipe. Anybody wanting some specific recipe from Lekshmi Nair's magic oven can contact me and if I have it, I shall surely post it here.

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium chicken (cut into small pieces)
2. 1/4 cup coconut oil ( sunflower oil can be used)
3. 250 gms small onions (sliced small)
4. 15 cloves garlic (sliced small)
5. 2 pieces ginger (sliced small)
6. 6 green chillies (sliced lengthwise from the middle into two)
7. 2 tblsp. coriander powder
8. 2 tblsp. chilli powder
9. 3/4 tsp. turmeric powder
10. 1 tblsp. garam masala
11. 1 cup coconut milk (1st milk) and 2 cups (2nd milk taken from one coconut)
12. 1/2 tsp. fried and ground cumin
13. Few curry leaves

Method:

• Saute the ginger and garlic slices in hot oil.
• Put in this sliced onions and green chillies and saute until the onions are lightly browned.
• Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and saute until it takes out the raw smell.
• Add chicken pieces to this masala, mix and saute further.
• Add garam masala, ground cumin and salt and saute further.
• When the masala has mixed with the chicken properly and the oil starts oozing out add the 2 cups of coconut second milk. ( I normally use coconut milk in tins with added water)
• Let the chicken cook in this coconut milk. When the gravy starts thickening add coconut 1st milk and mix.
• Add some curry leaves and cover the vessel. Switch off the stove.

Source: Lekshmi Nair's Magic Oven Recipes

Tandoori Chicken

This is a fairly easy recipe to make tandoori chicken. Tandoori chicken is usually made in a clay oven called the tandoor, but this can be made at home in the oven or on a grill.

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 kg. chicken pieces (cut into braai/barbecue) pieces
2. 1 tblsp. chilli powder
3. 1/2 inch ginger
4. 5-6 cloves of garlic
5. 1/4 cup curds (plain yogurt)
6. Juice of one lime
7. 2 drops of red food colour or tandoori colour available from indian shops
8. salt to taste

Method:

• Grind the chilli powder, ginger and garlic to a fine paste.
• Mix it with curd/yogurt, lime juice, red colour and salt.
• Marinate the chicken pieces in this mixture for 4-5 hours.
• Take out the pieces and roast directly over the grill until the pieces are soft and dry.
• Serve it with tomato and onion salad.