cuizinedehaza`Hello everyone,
I am Niznaz. The chef, author, photographer and editor behind Cuizine de Haza. I am from Kerala, India settled in UAE . My family is my world - My husband is my backbone, my pillar, my tastetester and strong criticizer without whom my dream of Cuizine de Haza would still have been a dream and my 2 little boys who make me a busy mommy 24*7 and i love to do that. My dad who gave me the confidence that u can do it, my mom who first identified the chef in me and my brother who is a great fan cum motivator of my cooking and my sissy lend great support to Cuizine de Haza. Not failing to mention my CdH group who is with me for all the efforts that i take and that is the first step i took towards Cuizine de Haza. Love u all.
Mom’s Magic Again!!!!!!! It was from her did I learn the basic, soft , spongy melt in mouth recipe of the cupcakes. How much do we love them! Yummmmmm……. I believe cupcake comes to our rescue when in mood swings . Yes, true.. Try it and let me know how you feel. And when you need cupcakes, Why buy them? when you can bake amazing ones at home.
The best part of these cupcakes is that, They can be baked at home in a jiffy and that too with very less, easily available ingredients. The cupcake is soooo spongy that I bet, you can’t stop eating just one.
A beginner in baking? No worries… Try this No fail cup cake recipe.
Off to the recipe,
INGREDIENTS:
All purpose flour – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Baking powder – 1.5 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Egg – 1
Milk – 1 cup
Oil (Sunflower/Canola/Veg) – 1/2 cup
Nuts/Chocolate chips – As needed for toppings
METHOD:
Sieve together the flour , salt , baking powder and set aside.
Beat the egg and sugar until creamy.
Add the oil and mix well.
Add the milk , vanilla essence and mix well.
Add the sieved dry ingredients and mix with the help of a spatula. Do not overmix.
Pour the mix into cupcake liners in cupcake moulds ,If adding toppings, add the nuts/ chocolate chips and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-25 minutes based on the timings of your oven.
Crispy and Crunchy Deep Fried Restaurant style chicken
Back to my blog baby after a loooooooooooong time. I seriously missed blogging and all my dear friends. Thanks a ton to all those who kept in touch with me and kept on asking me why I was away from blogging for such a long time.
I am back again with a fantastic recipe, seriously a good one – Crispy coated crunchy fried chicken with a juicy and succulent centre . Excited ?? I am very much… Coz am a great fan of fried chicken..
Off to the recipe,
INGREDIENTS:
Chicken – 1/2 kg
Salt – As needed
Chilly Powder – 2 tbspn
Egg – 1
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala – 1/2 tsp
Chat Masala – 1 tsp
Lemon – 1
Ginger garlic green chilly paste – 2 tsp
Green chilly/Red chilly/hot sauce- 1tbspn (optional )
Oil – For frying.
For the coating:
Cornflour – 1 tbspn
Maida – 1 tbspn
Rice flour (Puttu podi) – 1 tbspn
Method:
Make a thick marinade of all the ingredients from 2-10.(Salt, Chilly powder, Turmeric powder, Garam Masala, Chat Masala, Lemon, Gingergarlic green chilly paste , chilly sauce)
Add chicken pieces and mix well.
Keep in the refrigerator for 30 mins – 1 hr.
Add the cornflour, maida, rice flour and mix well.
Chicken Marinated with cornflour, riceflour and maida.
Deep fry in hot oil.
Eat to your tummy’s content.. Crunchy crispy deep fried chicken.
Great for parties , as finger food, and as appetizers
Pizza lover ?
Yes…
What’s your favorite flavor ?
Chicken Barbeque..
This is a common conversation that I hear . Commonly in my office among my colleagues and among my friends. Once, we were discussing the pizza topic at office, about which we never get tired of when one of my colleague told me I love the Hawaaiin flavor with the pineapples in it. That was when I remembered, oh I have tasted that too. It was yum.
That was a day, when I took home made bbq flavored pizza for my friends. She asked me, If I could make Hawaiian flavor for her. I gladly accepted but then regretted due to the fact that —- Pineapples.. Oh no…I am very lazy to cut fruits and I told her..no,, I cant because pineapples is very difficult to peel and slice. She said I will bring pineapples and gladly agreed.
The next day, she came with a huge tin of canned pineapples and there I set to make the hawaiian pizza. Now coming to the pinwheels part, Pizza pin wheels is a common at my home. I usually make this for my younger one, who is a die hard pizza fan . Since pizza wheels are bite sized and also because it is easy to make for parties (you get more quantities at one stretch 😉 )I prefer the pizza pinwheels than the normal pizza.
She had seen my pizza pin wheels pic earlier , and loved it for it’s cuteness that I decided to make her hawaiin pizzas in the same form.
Off to the recipe,
Ingredients
All purpose flour – 2.5 cups+ extra flour to dust
Salt
Sugar – 1 tbspn
Instant yeast -2 tsps
Olive oil – 3tbspn +3 tbspn
Oregano – 2tsp + 1 tsp
Water – 1.25 -1.5 cups
Mozarella cheese – 1/2 – 1 cup
Pineapple – 1 cup chopped (For Hawaiian flavor)
Vegetables * – 2 tbspn each
Sauce ** – 1 cup
Corn flour – 2 tbspn
Want a non veg pizza ?? Don’t worry…..Just add in any left over fried chicken chunks or you can fry small bite size pieces of fried chicken/beef to your pizza.
Niznaz notes:
This dough is sufficient enough to make 24 rolls or you can make 12 rolls plus one large size pizza.
Add all the vegetables of your choice like – Capsicum, corn, mushrooms(sauted), olives, jalapenos, corn, onions, tomatoes. (Adjust the quantity and vegetables as per your choice)
Sauce is your choice of flavor – you can use pizza sauce/ pasta sauce/ sweet thai chilli sauce /barbeque sauce or any sauce you love.
Method:
In a bowl add the flour, salt, sugar, instant yeast, oregano and mix.
Now add the 3 tbspn olive oil and water little by little and form a smooth dough.
Knead well.
Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 45 mins – 1 hr.
The dough will double in size.
Now be ready with your kitchen top. Punch your dough and knead it once again. Your dough is ready.
Dust the kitchen top with flour, flatten your pizza either with your hands or with the help of rolling pin.
Transfer the dough to an aluminium foil brushed with olive oil.
Randomly poke small holes with the help of a fork. Apply 1 tbsp of olive oil.
Spread the sauce all over. Now add the mozzarella cheese. Add the chopped pineapple. Add in all your favorite veggies. Top it up with more cheese if you please.
Now slowly roll the pizza into a thick log.
The most important step : Chill the log in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes before cutting into thick discs.
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Bake the discs in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes in a lined tray dusted with cornflour or you can even bake them in a muffin pan dusted with corn flour. (Corn flour helps to give a crisp bottom to the pizza pinwheels).
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Serving Suggestion:
While serving just top the pizza pinwheels with mozzarella cheese and heat in a microwave for 30 seconds. Your cheesy gooey pizza pin wheels is ready to be devoured upon.
Lollipops……I guess its the favorite of many many many around here… However grown up, We are never tired of eating these flavored sugar candies stuck to a stick. Lollipop is mine and my kid’s favorite too, and the thing is they always love licking them especially wen we go to the medical centre nearby for kids.These lollipops are given to them complimentary every time they visit a doctor, and for this mere reason my kids are never tired to meet the doctor even if they have to wait for 3-4 hrs and I am not at all exaggerating.
That is when I decided to make them at home so that they could have it with no preservatives and good ones. My search for a recipe in the internet all went vain because, all the recipes had corn syrup as the main ingredient which was something expensive and extra for me to buy coz, I was sure I will not use them again in any of the dishes except this lollipops. So, I decided to try it without that and success, There it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My 3 ingredient Lollipop…..
To top it all, you do not need a lollipop mould to make this.
Pick and choose, the color and flavor is yours……Off to the recipe,
INGREDIENTS:
Sugar – 1/2 cup
Mango essence – 3 tsps.
Yellow color – a pinch.
Niznaz Notes : Play around with flavors and colors…The choice is yours.
METHOD:
Add all the 3 ingredients to a nonstick pan. Heat in a low fire until all the ingredients get melted without any lumps to a liquid form. (Do not hurry and burn the sugar, Patience is the key)
Now slowly pour these into the moulds and allow it to set.
If you do not have a mould, spread a baking paper and pour teaspoon full of the melted sugar mix in any free flowing shape. Allow it to set.
Wait for 2 minutes (Start count 1,2,3…..120) before inserting the lollipop sticks to the mix.Else the stick would melt in the heat of the sugar. Insert it well, so that the stick is in the middle of the lollipop.
Wait , wait , wait for 5 -10 minutes before your lollipop cools down and demould them….
Off late, I am posting many baked goodies at CuizinedeHaza because my mom was here with me last month and she has been baking many cakes to make me and my kids fully happy. We just love her soft, moist and unexplainably tasty cakes.
Now to the pink velvet cake, mom had intended to make strawberry cakes, but the addition of buttermilk gave her recipe a wonderfully soft and velvety texture that we were forced to name it the Pink Velvet cake – a twist to the original red velvet cake with a strawberry flavor. This cake can be frosted with cream cheese frosting / butter cream frosting to make a pink,cute girl themed cake..
As for the recipe, The recipe is similar to my butter cake recipe except for the flavor and addition of butter milk. Off to the recipe,
INGREDIENTS:
Flour – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Egg – 1 (room temperature)
Butter – 25 gms (room temperature)
Vegetable oil – 3/4 cup
Butter milk – 1 cup
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Baking powder – 1.5 tsp
Strawberry essence – 2 tsp
Pink food color – 1/4 – 1/2 tsp (As required)
Niznaz notes – Add food color according to the quantity of the color required for your cake. I used the liquid food color – rouge (Foster clarks brand).
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METHOD
Sift together the flour – 1 cup, salt – 1/4 tsp , baking powder – 1.5 tsp and set aside
In a bowl, mix together egg and sugar – 1 cup until creamy. To this add the strawberry essence and the pink color.
Add the butter and mix again. To this, add the vegetable oil and mix well until well combined.
Now slowly fold in the flour -salt-baking powder mix and the butter milk alternatively. Do not overmix. Batter is ready.
Pour the batter into a lined cake tin and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Happiest New Year 2019.. Wishing all my dear readers – a heapful of love, luck, peace, prosperity and happiness in the year 2019. This is my first post of the year. And I wanted this to be a different and a sweet one.
Buko Pandan is a dessert very popular in the Philippines made with tender coconut strips and pandan flavored jelly mixed in a milk sauce. I can tell you, this is one of the easiest desserts which you can prepare in less than 20 minutes . NO…NO…NO..I am not exaggerating. I am not taking into consideration, the time taken for the jelly to set and the time taken for the dessert to chill. I am just talking about the time for the efforts you put in.
Buko is tender coconut cut into strips, and Pandan is a herbaceous tropical plant that grows in Southeast-Asia. In Chinese, it is known as ‘fragrant plant’ because of its unique, sweet aroma. The cultivated plant features upright bright green leaves, and it’s the leaves that are desired for cooking up many Thai and Southeast-Asian dishes. In Southeast Asia, pandan leaves are used to lend a unique taste and aroma to some savory dishes, but mainly it is used to flavor desserts and some drinks. Pandan leaves have a naturally sweet taste and soft aroma. After tasting it once, you will never forget the flavor. Pandan leaves can also be used to wrap savory foods, such as chicken or sticky rice. The leaves impart these foods with an aromatic note and also give dishes visual appeal. Pandan leaves are much thinner in width compared to broad banana leaf.
Off to the recipe,
INGREDIENTS:
Gelatin – 1 packet, 25 gms (Pandan flavored)*
Water – 1 litre
Buko (coconut strips) – 340 gms (I used siblings brand)
Condensed milk – 1 tin
Evaporated milk -1/2 tin – 1 tin (based on the quantity of sauce required)
Thick cream – 2 packs
Method:
Mix together the condensed milk, evaporated milk and thick cream together well. The milk sauce is ready.
Strain the excess water from the buko (coconut strips)in the bottle.
Cook the pandan flavored gelatin as follows:
a. Add 1 litre of water to a sauce pan. Empty the contents of the sachet in to the water, and cook stirring until it gets dissolved and the water comes to a rolling boil.
b. Strain the liquid and pour into a tray and allow it to set for minimum of 30 minutes. Cut into desired shapes of bite sized pieces.
Add the buko, gelatin to the milk sauce and give a gentle stir.
Allow it to cool in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes. Serve chilled.
Delicious, Aromatic and Healthy Buko Pandan is ready with the least of the efforts.
My dear husband is a great fan of vegetables and would love the veggies in our meal whatever the form may be. His mom that is my dear mother in law is a great cook . If you have been a regular follower of my blog, you would have seen that in my many posts that she is a great cook her specials being Chicken Taj.
Apart from Chicken Taj, she is an expert in veg stir fry. Her hands add magic to the veggies that is what I can say coz I am not a big fan of vegetables except potato and cauliflower and when it is she who cooks, they have a special flavor and I love to have them whatever the vegetable may be. That is how my husband grew up and that is why he loves vegetables soo much.
Now coming to the dish, Cabbage is a regular in our weekly grocery and the only thing I used to cook with it was the regular stir fry which pairs very well with rice and sambar and also add it in mixed rice, as well as stuff it in any fillings for snacks.
But for us, this is the best way to cook cabbage, all 4 of us at home as well as my parents are a great fan of this yummy and comfort side dish for rice.
Off to the recipe,
Ingredients
1. Cabbage – 2 cups sliced
2. Green chilly -2+1
3. Salt – As needed
4. Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
5. Moong dal – 2 tbspn
6. Channa Dal – 1 tbspn + 1 tsp
7. Coconut – 3 tbspn
8. Cumin – 1 tspn
9. Water – 1 cup + 1/4 cup approx.
10. Rice flour – 2 tbspn
11. Coconut oil – 3 tbspn
12. Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
13. Cumin seeds – 1/4 tsp
14. Red chillies – 2 torn
15. Curry leaves – few
Niznaz Notes
You can add any dal of your choice. You can either add moong dal only or channa dal only or a mixture of 2 dals.
Water needs to be added as per the consistency required.
If you like you kootu curry to be mashed cook for 4-5 whistles.
Method:
Grind together 3 tbspn of coconut + 1 tsp of cumin + 1 green chilly + 2 tbspn on rice flour along with 1/4 cup of water and set aside.
In a pressure cooker, add 2 cups of cabbage, 3 tbspn of dal, 2 green chillies, salt and 1/4 tsp of turmeric along with 1 cup of water.
Cook for 2-3 whistles based on the consistency needed.
When the pressure is gone, open the lid add the ground coconut cumin paste and allow it to boil.
If you feel the gravy to be dry add 1/2- 1 cup of water.
Season the kootu curry by adding mustard seeds – 1 tsp, cumin seeds – 1/4 tsp, red chilly 2 torn, curry leaves few in medium hot coconut oil.
A simple recipe. Mom baked. Sudden and natural photoshoot. Perfect for kids. Nothing much to tell except for the assurance that this is a super easy and wonderful recipe – tried tested tasted and approved by many of my taste testers.. You are gonna love it…
Off to the recipe,
Flour – 1 cup
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Butter – 1 tbsp. *
Oil – 3/4 cup
Baking powder – 1.5 tsp
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Strawberry essence – 2 tsp
Pink color – As needed
Egg – 1 *
Milk – 3/4 cup
Nuts – chopped (optional)
Niznaz Notes *Egg and butter should be at room temperature. You can top the cupcakes with chopped nuts which is completely optional.
Method:
Sieve together 1 cup of flour, 1.5 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt. Set aside.
Beat together one egg and 3/4 cup of sugar until creamy.
Add the 1 tbsp of butter and beat again. Now add in the 3/4 cup of oil and beat well.
Add the 3/4 cup of milk and mix well.
To the above mixture add 2 tsp of strawberry essence and give a stir. Add in the pink color as needed.
Now add in the dry ingredients part by part slowly giving a gentle mix. Do not over mix.
Pour them in cupcake liners arranged in a muffin tray.
Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees.
(Crispy,flavorful, juicy and succulent fried chicken)
I am a great fan of the red fried chicken which is available at restaurants. It is so crispy and juicy that, the red fried was a regular on our order menu to whichever hotels we go, and whatever the main course be. Be it the Mutton / Chicken Palakkad Dum Biriyani or the Porotta and Green Peas curry, red fried chicken usually called as the chilly chicken will be available on our table.
Leave alone the restaurants, chilly chicken is fantastically made by my mom at home. She had a lot of fans for her cooking skills and everyone who visited our place has been lucky enough to taste the magic of my mom’s hands. This recipe is her own recipe and it is such a perfect one that we have wonderfully enjoyed it when we were kids and we still continue to enjoy this yummy chicken fry even now. Now , my husband is a great fan of mom’s fried chicken followed by my kids. The idea of sharing this easy yet tasty recipe has been in my minds since quite some time and it was yesterday , that I was able to make this and I also got a chance to photoshoot it at day light as we usually make this for dinner.
Coming to the name of the recipe, this recipe tastes better when it is made with boneless chicken and making small pieces of it would look like small red colored stones/ pebbles. Just like the name of Chicken Leg-aan goes, this too was named by my dear dad.
And here goes the mom’s magic recipe,
INGREDIENTS:
Chicken – 500 g (Preferably boneless)
Salt – As needed
Chilly powder – 1 tbspn
Red food color – 1/8 to 1/4 tsp (As needed)
Egg – 1 small
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
Lemon – 1 squeezed
Cornflour – 1 tbspn.
Chilly sauce – 1 tbspn *
Oil – To fry
If you do not have green chilly sauce, just squeeze the juice of 2 lemons instead of 1.
METHOD:
Make a thick marinade of chilly powder, salt, ginger garlic paste, red food color, cornflour, lemon and egg.
Marinate chicken in the marinade for a minimum of 1 hour. For best results, marinate overnight.
Deep fry in hot oil in medium – high flame.
All I can say is Diggggggggg In….. I am sure you cannot stop yourself eating….
If you have been a regular follower of Cuizine de Haza, you will be very familiar with the fish mango curry posted. Pacha Manga Curry is nothing but the vegetarian version of the Fish Mango Curry. This curry can be a perfecto for your lunch meal coz, it is a perfect balance of the blend between spice and sour. If the Pacha Manga curry is there for lunch, I just cant stop counting the number of rice servings I make for myself coz I am such an ardent fan of this curry.This curry was introduced to me by my husband, the recipe credits entirely to my HD. I simply love it to the core, even to watch the way how he prepares it. He just mixes all the veggies with his hands as he strongly believes that , only when we use the hand to mix them, the mango will release it’s perfect flavor. A small confession , I have to make to my dear readers that, the photos of this curry is more than 1 year old. I had done the photoshoots earlier, when I neither owned a camera nor a better phone. I had clicked this, with the help of the Ipad that my brother gave me. So kindly bear with me for the reduction in quality of the images during my learning process.
Off to the recipe,
Raw mango – 3 small sliced
Onion – 1 sliced
Shallots – 10 sliced
Ginger – 1 inch piece sliced
Chilly powder – 4 tsp
Coriander powder – 3 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Thin coconut milk – 2 cups
Thick coconut milk – 1 cup
Green chilly – 6 sliced
Vinegar -1 tsp
Salt – As needed
To season:
Coconut oil – 2 tbspn
Shallots – 5 sliced
Curry leaves – a few
METHOD:
To a claypot or manchatty, add 3 mango , 1 onion , 10 shallots, ginger, chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, green chilly , vinegar and salt.
Rub or mix well with your hands (for a better flavor). Let the flavors set in for a minimum of 10-30 mins.(You can even cook them without the set in time.)
To this mix, add 2 cups of thin coconut milk and cook covered for 10-15 minutes or until the veggies get cooked and mangoes are done. (Take care not to overcook the mangoes).
Now add the thick coconut milk, give a stir without disturbing the mangoes and cook for a few more minutes .(Take care the thick coconut milk is not over boiled.)
The Seasoning:
The seasoning part is completely optional. Seasoning adds more special flavor to the mango curry.
TO season– Heat coconut oil in a pan, throw in the shallots and curry leaves and fry them until brown. Pour this hot seasoning to the raw mango curry. (I did not season the curry)
