The first ever Kerala Kitchen roundup!

Thank you to all you wonderful people who sent in their amazing dishes to the first ever Kerala Kitchen, our monthly blogging event featuring dishes inspired by Kerala, that was created as a way to celebrate Kerala and connect with others who shared a similar passion for Kerala cuisine and ingredients.

Alice Medrich's simple low fat chocolate pudding and a Joconde imprime /entremets which is not!

T is convinced that I am obsessed with Alice Medrich. It's true- I am! It all began very innocently. I needed a quick baking fix and so made this batch of cocoa brownies which took about 20 mins to make, with really simple ingredients. Then there was this Mocha tart- again simple to make, but a decadent chocolate experience. Since then Alice has become my chocolate Guru. 

My favourite thing to eat these days is pudding. Warm, uncomplicated, familiar like a good friend, pudding. So the first thing I made out of Alice Medrich's gorgeous Chocolate and the art of low fat desserts is this pastry cream or chocolate pudding which is rich and sinfully decadent although it has no cream, no butter or other naughty ingredients- and gets its rich chocolate flavor from Cocoa powder!

Macaron Ice cream sandwiches

Macarons = awesome, Ice cream = awesome

Macarons + icecream =  Infiniteawesomeness!!

The inspiration for these delicious ice cream filled macarons came from my trip to Columbus this Christmas. No, it wasn't the freezing cold or the thick white snow, but a much less abtract source, my favourite ice cream

Healthy Spinach Chicken Curry or Chicken Cheera for your New Year Resolutions!

This January you may have seen many new, earnest faces at your Gym. You would  have had to wait patiently to use your favourite elliptical machine. But come February, by when the achy muscles have worn the motivation off the gym will be nice and empty again. Notice I used "you". Unfortunately I am one of those slackers- who are all pumped up in January, after a month of excess and holiday excuses. Or in my case a year of "Hey I just had  a baby ok?" excuses. Now that the baby has turned one, I have run out of excuses :(
I'm hoping this year will be different and that my New Year resolutions for healthier living sticks.

Baileys Macaron Cocktails- Mactails!

Winter is the time for boozy desserts and while I am not a huge fan of the rum soaked fruit cake, I do like a little liqueur in my desserts. Remember my recent cocktail cupcake fascination? Lately I have been playing around with the idea of  Macarons flavored with sweet dessert wine, Tequila, Grand Mariner, Chocolate Liqueurs .. to create macaron margaritas, macaron mojitos and other mactails! Many, many possibilities!

Chicken Curry in a hurry for Kerala Kitchen

There are those days when you imagine yourself to be the next Julia Child and whip up delicious and elaborate meals with a smile on your face. Then there are those days-when all you want to do at the end of a long and tiring day where everything went wrong, is to eat a hearty dinner and curl up in bed. Those days when cooking, especially a curry with all that frying of onions and masalas, and all the clean up after seems insurmountable.

On those days I call for greasy take out make Pal Pizinja Kozhi Curry ( Chicken curry in coconut milk) an everyday Syrian Christian Chicken Curry that my mom made very often, and now I do too.

UPDATED: Introducing my cooking group- KERALA KITCHEN

UPDATE: Kerala Kitchen round up for January 2011, the very first has been posted here

Check the Kerala Kitchen main page for the host and event details for this month

Welcome to Kerala Kitchen - a cooking club for those who are in love with  Kerala!  I started this group with fellow mallu and talented blogger Ria of Ria's collection as a way to meet  foodies who share a similar passion for cooking. 

This is a food blogging event where we will meet every month to share the dishes we have cooked that are inspired by the flavors of Kerala. Be it by the cuisine itself, that features dishes as varied and delectable as those of the Onam Sadhya to the Malabar parotta or Syrian Christian "ishtoo" or inspired by the flavours of unmistakably Kerala ingredients like the blazing heat of aromatic spices, the sweetness of jaggery and creamy coconut milk, the tang of tamarind or the myriad tastes, smells, textures and sights that remind you of this little state proudly called "God's own country".


Edited to add: To introduce some friendly food blogging competition, Kerala Kitchen will be giving badges for the foll categories:

• Top Dish
• Best Pic
• Top Contributor : The one with the most number of entries
• Member: All participants will get Kerala Kitchen member badges

So get your game on!

To be a part of this month's Kerala Kitchen and the very first meet, all you have to do is:

• Cook a dish that is inspired by Kerala. Be it savory or sweet, a traditional Malayali dish like Idiyappam or Kappa and Meen curry, or your unique take on it, even a dish that features a flavour or ingredient that reminds you of Kerala but may not be typical Malayali fare (like coconut macaroons maybe?) and post it on your blog anytime before or on the 30th Jan 2011

If you are looking for ideas check out Ria's Malabar Chatti pathiri- the inspiration behind this event! Ria's Konju varuthatu, My mother-in-law's recipe for Noolappam, My mom's Stew in coconut milk or "ishtoo", and my grand aunt's Mango pudding  


Some of the typical ingredients : Coconut, bananas and plantains, tapioca/ yucca, mango, jackfruit, lentils, cashews, pepper, cardamom, cloves, tamarind, rice and rice flour, ginger, curry leaves, jaggery, buttermilk... 

• Email me your entry to magpiemails@gmail.com with your name, a photograph of your dish and a link to your post before or on 30th Jan 2011. If you don't have a blog, simply email me your entry and photograph if you want me to include it.

• You can also include posts you made earlier by simply re-posting them anytime between today and the 30th Jan 2011 

• In your post please include  a link to my post or the following : 

         http://magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com/p/keralakitchen.html

• See you all at the round up on the 1st Feb 2011 which will be posted on www.magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com

• Feel free to add  these cute badges with a link to http://magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com/p/keralakitchen.html to your blog post or sidebar and spread the word that you are a proud member of Kerala Kitchen!

looking back and looking ahead!

Happy New year folks! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays and can look back fondly on the good memories of the year gone by.
2010 marked the second year since I got married to T and moved to this country, Jellybean turned one and this little blog turned two!
I thought it would be fun to remember the year past in some of my favourite recipes.
This was the year I tried some things I've never tried before:
Macarons from my macaron making class which led to these nutella macarons and these ginger macarons, with more to come!

This was also the year I got over my intimidation and tried out this awesome and absurdly easy beer bread and then freaked out with the easy yeasty brioche dough from Artisan Bread in 5 technique to make this brown sugar and apple filled braided brioche bread.

I also discovered the joy of making artisan ice cream at home since I couldn't have Jeni's ice cream all the way from Columbus I followed her tips to make our favourite Pistachio ice cream.

Can't wait for summer to try out more flavours with her simple ice cream base. I have loads of ideas :)
I also obviously let my inner chocoholic feast on these chocolate fantasies. Alice Medrich's Mocha tart and one bowl cocoa brownies were the stars as well as my sis-in-law's recipe for the chocolate cake that never fails.

Lots of fruits got baked into pies, like this pumpkin pie and this here pumpkin ginger cheesecake, sunny citrus cakes and puddings
And I made some vegans very happy with my vegan baking fixation.

The new year is here and I'm excited to see what it brings! My new year resolutions include cooking healthier so I'll be trying to post recipes that are healthy and delicious, so hold me to that and chide me when I post about the coffee chocolate  macarons I've been digging into :|

Something else I want to do is partake in more blogger events and maybe even host a few and a personal goal is to get more organised and so all sorts of lists and time tables are being drafted.
All the best with your resolutions and have a happy 2011!