Eat like a German...Zimtsterne

Snow has fallen, X'mas trees decorated, lights are up......and I am sure, the german homes have begun baking too( I do get the aroma of freshly baked cookies when walking by some homes). As I had mentioned in my previous post, I am keen on preparing a few german goodies. The supermarkets are all loaded with oh so many baking ingredients, it would be a pity if I never tried out something different.  When this particular recipe came up on the Live like a german website, I thought it would be the ideal cookie to start with.

     Zimtsterne or Cinnamon stars are classic German Christmas cookies. The mixture of almond and cinnamon dough are rolled out and cut into star shapes and maybe topped with white sugar icing. I was a apprehensive when trying these out, cause it was my first time with cookies. To my surprise they turned out awesome(though they didn't look as good, got to improvise on it though..)

Ingredients :

• 300g almonds with skin
• 3 egg whites
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 250g powdered sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Powdered sugar for rolling
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar or few drops vanilla essence

Method :

1. Grind the almonds with skin to a fine powder.
2. Beat the egg whites along with the lemon juice till very stiff.
3. Gradually add the sugar, mixing well until fully dissolved.
4. Reserve three fourth of this mixture aside.
5. To the remaining mixture, fold in the ground almonds, cinnamon and vanilla essence.
6. Cover and allow to sit in a cool place for 30 minutes.
7. Heat the oven to 150 degrees celsius. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. Sift powdered sugar over a working surface.
9. Roll out half the dough to approximately quarter inch thick.
10. Cut into stars using a star shaped cookie cutter.
11. Place the stars on the baking tray. Brush them with the set aside egg white mixture. Take care that it does not dribble down to the sides.
12. Bake stars on the lower and middle racks for 25 minutes, switching the sheets about halfway through baking time.

The above recipe makes 36 cookies. If you have a family like mine who gobbles up the cookies the moment they are out from the oven, then you need to definitely bake more or time your baking accordingly.

Walnut Cake

I have begun my hunt for Advent recipes. Unlike last year, where I was over come with sorrow because of the move, this year I am in high festive spirits and intend to prepare both Indian and German sweets for X'mas.

Imagine my surprise when leafing through the pages of the Good Housekeeping magazine, I found this recipe listed as a traditional Indian Christmas recipe. All the while I thought that the rich plum cake was the Indian traditional  recipe.  Anyway, I didn't bother to do further research on the topic and thought to myself "Well Mr. Walnut cake, I am not gonna wait for X'mas to bake you!! I am gonna bake and we are gonna eat you now!!! :D" Funny that I called a cake Mr. :)

Ingredients :

• 250g unsalted butter
• 250g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 250g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 300g walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 5 drops vanilla essence
• 50g walnuts, halved

Method :

1. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and keep creaming.
2. Sieve together flour and baking powder
3. Fold chopped walnuts into the flour mixture. Add to the creamed butter and fold in. Add vanilla essence too.
4. Line 8-inch cake tin with butter paper. Pour in batter. Arrange walnut halves on top(optional). Bake at 180 deg celsius till golden brown. Insert toothpick; if it comes out clean, cake is ready.
5. You can replace walnuts with mixed nuts, or mixed/dried candied fruit and peels - spike them with some rum or brandy if you like. Line with butter paper when packing.

So, what do you think?  Does this qualify for an X'mas cake without the rum and spice???

Chilly Chicken

Chilly Chicken.....this dish in itself transports me back to my childhood. Back then, we cousins always looked forward to travelling to Mandya (a small town 50 kms from Mysore). Our mom's elder sister, Aunty Crecy along with our cousins lived there. My aunt is an excellent cook and all of us had our favourite dishes which she would prepare just for us. One of them being chilly chicken!! I remember traveling in the rickety red KSRTC buses(i cannot imagine stepping into one now), a good 8 hour journey and all the way long we would just be talking and imagining digging into aunty's awesome preparation. Too bad I have no shots of us all surrounding the plates, digging into the chunks of soya marinated chicken, putting our parents to shame as though we had arrived from no man's land where there was not a morsel to eat!!!! :D

           Post marriage, hubby and I loved going out to eat. RR Restaurant on Church Street road, Bangalore was one of our favorite places to eat and guess which dish we loved the most......you are right!!! The only difference being the dish was prepared more so to suit the Andhra palette( I think there were more than 15 green chillies involved in the recipe!!!!). With each morsel we had to down a glass of water, but that never stopped us from wanting to eat more, always.....

Over a period of time, I happened to mention to a neighbor of mine about our fondness for the dish, and she said that she had one of the best recipes and that we would indeed love it. Her preparation was easy and quick to make. It also sounded like a combo of both my aunt's and RR preparation. And trust me, to this date it has been a family favorite especially Markie's who wouldn't mind eating it on a daily basis :D

Ingredients :

1. 1 kg chicken cut into small pieces( I cut mine medium as I had no more patience to cut it further)
2. 1/2 bunch of spring onions(both bulbs and greens)
3. 8 green chillies slit( more can be used depending on the level of tolerance to spice) 
4. 2 inch ginger finely chopped
5. 3 tblsps soya sauce
6. 1 tblsp tomato sauce
7. 1/2 tsp pepper powder
8. 1 tblsp cornflour dissolved in water
9. salt to taste
10. 5 tblsps oil.

Method :

•  In an Indian kadai or chinese wok, heat the oil.
• Drop in spring onions, green chillies and ginger and fry on a high flame for about 4-5 minutes.
• Drop the chicken pieces and continue to fry on a high flame till colour changes. Be careful, not to burn.

• On frying well, add the soya, tomato sauce and pepper powder. Stir well, till the sauce has completely coated all the chicken pieces. 

• Cover and cook on a low flame till chicken is tender or well cooked. 
• Before turning off the heat, add cornflour dissolved in water. Cook on a high flame for a minute or two, stirring continuously till the sauce thickens. 
• Remove from heat.
• Serve hot with fried rice or noodles.

Apple Cinnamon Cake

For quite some time I have been receiving mails or being asked as to why have I stopped blogging? Some were curious to know whether I had stopped cooking or baking altogether!!!! It feels good to know that somewhere, out there, somebody is reading what I write...:)

      After having returned from our home trip, it has taken me awhile to get back into a routine. Also, when you have enjoyed tasty, home cooked meals for 6 weeks, it does take some time to get your act together in the kitchen. 

Right now in Germany, we are flooded with apples. If you happen to come down to Deutschland in the month of September, you will be greeted with sights of red, luscious apples smiling at you from trees!!! Unfortunately, I did not get to really go to an orchard this time, but had the opportunity last year to go to one and pluck some like Adam's Eve( though my Adam was not too glad about it) :D The picture above was taken then and I was going gaga at the sight of these sinful beauties. 

      In the market place you see so many apples, that at some point you get fed up of eating them. I used to always wonder, how best could I use this fruit here, knowing that it is available in surplus!!! So when I stumbled upon this recipe in The Good Life, I immediately got into action cause I wanted something new.

Here's how the recipe goes :

For Filling :

3 apples, peeled and sliced

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1 cup water

For the batter:

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

180 gm softened butter

2 tsp baking powder

Method :

• Grease a baking tray and preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
• In a pan, mix all the filling ingredients till apples are soft. Drain and keep aside.

• Sieve the flour, cinnamon and baking powder together.
• Beat eggs till fluffy. Add the butter and sugar and beat till creamy.
• Slowly add the sieved flour and beat well.
• Pour half of this mixture in the baking pan.

• Top with the apples and then pour the remaining batter to cover well.
• Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

• The cake goes well with a cup of piping hot tea or coffee.... Am off to get a cuppa for me..:)

Sonya's Buttermilk Banana Nut Muffins

Who is Sonya? She is a new friend I have made through the world of blogging. Sonya, an American expat living in the Netherlands blogs on Home Cooking with Sonya. It's hard not to fall in love with her blog(Go, take a look and you will know what I am saying). Her writing, pictures, recipes, I look forward to them everyday. She has been a guiding force for me, encouraging me with her comments on my blogs. Our countries are neighbors and I hope maybe someday we will meet.

        Last month in one of her posts, I had commented that I would try out one of her recipes and would blog about it. Well today is the day. The kids were hungry for muffins, and Sonya's blog had plenty to choose from. With the over ripe bananas lying in the fruit basket, I chose to go ahead with the Buttermilk Banana Nut muffins. Sonya's measures were in cups. I have mentioned before that my cups are more so mugs. So, what I did was transferred all her ingredients from cups into a measuring bowl to make it simpler for my readers. Here goes the recipe:

     Ingredients :

• 500 gm flour
• 100 gm sugar
• 150 gm brown sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
•  250 ml buttermilk
• 250 ml vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 4 ripe bananas mashed
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

     Method :

1. Line a muffin tin with liners. Preheat oven to 180 deg celsius.
2. Sieve flour and baking powder together and keep aside.
3. In a bowl combine buttermilk, oil, vanilla and egg. Beat well till thoroughly combined. Add sugar and continue to beat. Add mashed bananas and mix well.
4. Slowly add the sieved flour to the mixture and mix well.
5. Drop in spoonful of batter into the muffin holder. Sprinkle nuts(I crushed them with my hand) on top.
6. Bake in oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until done(An inserted toothpick should come out clean). Makes 24 muffins.
7. Serve warm with tea or coffee.

Sonya didn't warn me in her blog about the heady aroma of baked bananas my house would be filled with. True to her words, they were the softest and moistest muffins we have tasted. It has been pretty hard keeping Anna away from them. Seeing her eat, I am reminded of the Indian advertisement with the slogan "NO ONE CAN EAT JUST ONE". Thanks Sonya for the recipe. I am gonna try many more...