CLICK Citrus – August 2008

This month CLICK Citrus edition is quiet exciting and the Orange honey post was an out come of the many oranges and lemons I bought for this wonderful event. Thanks Bee and Jai for a great theme and I would say the most useful thing I got about it is the orange honey.

As usual my pics turned to be out-of-focus, not-to-my-exception category but I loved working for this. I planned for the this but could not make it for this month. I should be using it from next month’s event (my sis has promised me to help me out making it )

Out of several ideas and CLICKs the below is the one I liked most. Hope you all like them too Anyway the judges won’t like it (ha ha!)

O-for-Orange

And these were my trials. I wanted to show them all as what else will I get for making these many trials.

Orange stripped off

Stripped off Orange in candle light…

Tried to balance an orange upon an orange …

Probably I should plan for a Digital SLR camera to get the effect I long for or should search for a book which teaches me to handle those depth-of-field, focus tricks, lighting tricks with my humble

Warm and Cozy – Noodle soup

Rain Gods are kind enough to shower the land. Yes the weather has turned to be great! I love rains.

From childhood rains are for being at home, laying besides the window with my sis and brother giggling and chatting, making paper boats, collecting the rain water(the rain water is the tastiest one I had ) in small vessels and what not ?

Amma used to warm us with nice hot pakodas, bajjis, chips and tea. Those days we were not familiar with soups and thus they were never in our menu (other than the weekly mutton soup or prawn soup episode).

At home myself and amma were the noodle lovers and others won’t favour them neither as a snack nor as a meal. But for us its just that good comfort food. Many of my blogging friends have blogged about noodle soup and I was so very tempted to try them at home but something or the other will stop me for cooking just for me and amma.

These rains were the perfect season to have them and I made it last weekend. Top Ramen Curry noodles is our favorite brand and I used it here.

Ingredients:

Top Ramen Curry Noodles – 2 packs
Thinly sliced vegetables – 1 Cup (I used carrots, capsicum, beans)
Onions – 1 (thinly sliced)
Tomatoes – 1 chopped
ginger garlic paste – 1/4 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Water – 5 Cups
Peanut oil – 1 tea spoon
Chilli powder – 1/2 tea spoon
A handful of chopped sping onions (the green part)

How to make it?

Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger garlic paste and fry till they turn golden. Add the onions and saute for 2 mins. Add the tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy. Add the vegetables and saute for 2 mins. Add the chilli powder and saute for one more minute. Add the water, 1/4 tea spoon salt and the seasoning from the two packs of the noodles and mix well. Cover and bring to a boil. Within 5 mins the veggies will get cooked. Now the water will be in a rolling boil. Add the noodles broken to the pan. Cover and cook until the noodles is done. Add the chopped green onions and Serve hot!

The kids went to bed early and myself and amma had it with a nice chat sitting near the window. The showers were stopped then but the weather is crisp and chill and its simply perfect !

Note : If you want to add salt check once the noodles are done and add if required. If you want it spicy add freshly ground black pepper in the end before serving.

Oats Almond Biscotti

My sis recently bought 2 packs of oats from a sale. She wanted me to use it in baking and as this weekend is a long one she pressed me to try something.

Last week I was reading this blog with such a load of baking recipes.

I tried an almond biscotti with the oats we bought. It turned to be really fabulous as it disappeared in no time.

Oats Almond Biscotti (Adapted from here)

Ingredients:

Egg whites – 3
castor sugar – 1/2 Cup
Oats – 1 Cup
Slivered almonds – 1/2 Cup
Cardamom – 3 pods

How to make it ?

Pre-heat the oven. Beat the egg whites and sugar until it turns glossy and thick. Grind the oats with cardamom pods in a mixie. Sift the oats flour 1/4 cup at a time to the egg whites and mix until incorporated. Add the slivered almonds and mix to combine. Pour into a loaf tin 6″ x 9″ and bake at 180C for 30 mins. or light brown on top. Remove the pan and let it cool. Using a very sharp knife slice the loaf thinly. Spread the slices and broil for further 10 minutes or until the slices turn crisp and brown.

Note : Since I do not have a loaf pan I poured the batter in a 9″ pan and baked for 12 minutes. Then after its cooled broke it in to small pieces and broiled in the over for further 15 minutes.

They were crisp, melt in the mouth kind and wonderful with tea. As it did not have baking powder or AP flour my Sis is very pleased with the result.

Orange Honey

This Duo is definitely driving me crazy by this month’s CLICK event. Since the theme is Citrus I am dreaming Oranges and lemons

Last week bought couple of these fruits just for experimenting my so called photographic skills (LOL). Tried several clicks after torturing those colorful balls ! In that effort (will list them all in my CLICK post) I was left with finely grated zest of one orange. This is the first time I am laying my hands on them and so many baked goodies lined up in my mind.

Before I could decide anything on that my sis showed me a bottle of fresh honey from Kolli Hills. As she gets them as a monthly supply in lots for her hospital needs she said this time they collected the honey by the arrow method (They shoot a thin arrow on the hive and a long thread is attached to the arrow’s tail which gets in to a collecting vessel. The honey gets down the thread and collected in the vessel). The taste was sure nice and what I did was add 2 T spoon full of the zest in 1/3 cup of this honey.

My sis warned me that this should be kept under sun if I am going to keept it for a while but my idea is to soak the zest in the honey to impart its flavour. Yet the next day I kept it under the sun for 3 hours and I could not wait to taste it. I licked a spoon ful and it kicked my taste buds and its very much tasted like the orange marmalade. What a simple way of making marmalade ? Since Appa loves orange marmalade but he’s resricted to have it due to his diabetes this would be the best substitute.

Then I had so many ways to finish off the Orange honey in just a day. Yes, I had them in bread (toasted & plan) with butter, with a warm paratha and amma added it to her black tea too! It tasted as good in everthying its paired up!

This honey got its bright orange color from the zests of the orange and hence going to Easy Craft’s WYF:Color in food.

Note: You can increase or decrease the amount of zest in the honey based on how strong you want the citrus zing.

Tried & Tested Jugalbandi – Chocolate pudding

I have tried many of Jai and Bee’s recipes before and have blogged about it but have to make something special for this event Tried and tested hosted by lovely Zlamushka.

I made this lovely pudding (long awaited recipe) for my brother’s b’day.

I know its a mistake to alter the recipe but I did not have any Lavender thus I added a spoon full of vavila essence. It is such a delish and have this one photo for the ‘”Proof is in the pudding”. Thats my younger one licking her spoon during the threatedened second helping with a loud tantrum

Thanks Jai and Bee for all that you share!