Celebrate A Party with Homemade Waffle & Maple Syrup

Waffle is directly derived from the Dutch ’wafel’and with ancient origin tracing back to the neolithic age. A waffle is a batter-based or dough-based cake cooked in a waffle iron patterned to give a characteristic size, shape and surface impression.

Waffles are eaten throughout the world, particularly in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the United States.

My first experience with waffles was when I had it in the US and can never forget its wonderful crispy texture with the tasty maple syrup. Recently my SIL gifted me a waffle maker which are available in India too. It fired me up to prepare the waffles at home.

The perfect combination is to have waffles with a spoonful of maple syrup. In India maple syrup is expensive so I found a alternative recipe on the internet courtesy to Peggy on About.com which tasted as good.

So celebrate a waffle party with your family

Ingredients for Homemade Maple Syrup Substitute

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 teaspoon maple extract or vanilla extract

Preparation:
Place granulated sugar in a heavy skillet. Heat until the sugar melts and turns brown.

Meanwhile, place brown sugar into a heavy saucepan. Pour water over brown sugar and bring to a boil without stirring.

Add caramelized white sugar to the melted brown sugar in the saucepan. Simmer, stirring often, until syrup is thickened.

Remove from heat, and whisk in butter and maple or vanilla extract. 

Waffle Ingredients

• 1.5 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 eggs seperated
• 3 tbsp butter melted
• 2.5 cup milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder

Seive the dry ingredients together and keep aside

Seperate the egg white and egg yolk, beat the egg yolk along with butter and milk till it blends

Mix the above dry ingredient to it and make a smooth paste.

Now beat the egg whites in a medium speed till small peaks form

Now add the egg white to the batter and fold it carefully with spatula until it gets incorporated. Dont fold too much

Heat the waffle maker and pour a scoop of batter in each segment and close it. Let it cook until the waffle maker gives the green indication or until it turns golden brown, it will take approximately 7-8 minutes per session

Note:
1. You can replace the butter with oil

2. Batter should be mildly flowy

3. You mix chocolate chips with the batter and make chocochip waffle.

Enticing and Refreshing Melon Melody

With the summer just around the corner in south india, it thought it would be a great idea to introduce you folks one of my favorite mocktails and provides a perfect balance of flavors that will refresh your body and mind.  

The original recipe was adopted from sanjeev kapoor.

I however provided a twist to the recipe and instead of using regular pineapple juice I used pineapple fruit based mogu mogu as it takes away all the strain of peeling and slicing a pineapple.

Mogu Mogu  is a  fruit juice based healthy drink that has come to India after making its presence felt in 40 other countries.Mogu Mogu is a totaly new, exciting drink. It consists of fruit Juice (25%) and Nata de Coco (25%) packed with soft, fruity, tasty Nata de Coco Gel bits which add fiber in the drink.

You will find mogu mogu in any of the "nuts and spices" store in chennai.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup pineapple juice (Mogu Mogu)
• 1 cup water melon
• 1 cup musk melon
• 4-5 mint leaves
• 1/2 tsp stevia or 1 tbsp sugar
• 10 ice cubes

Procedure
Grind water melon, musk melon, mint leaves, stevia and the 10 cubes.

To it add the pineapple juice stir well and serve chilled.

Savory Patra For A Special Evening Snack

Patra is a popular snack in the western region of India. It is known as Aluchya Vadya in Marathi, Patra in Gujarati and Patrode in the Konkan region of India.It is similar to a japanese sushi but made with taro leaves and filled with delicious chickpea stuffing.

This recipe was prepared by my SIL when I visited her recently. It was a lovely snack and got to pack some of these for my hubby back in chennai.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chickpea flour
• 1/2 finely chopped onions
• 1 tbsp chopped green chillies
• 4 tbsp chopped coriander/cilantro
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 2-3 tsp lemon juide
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• salt to taste

Procedure
Clean the leaves and mix all the ingredient and make a smooth thick paste and keep aside.

 

Reverse and flatten the taro leaves and remove the center vein lightly.

Take a lump of paste and spread evenly over the leaf, put another leaf on the top and continue the same with three leaves. 

Then roll the leaf from the pointed side until the other end and finally close the two ends and steam for 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once cooled cut them into one cm thick rolls and shallow fry with tsp oil until light golden brown and crispy.

Serve hot

Note:
1.This dish is a lovely side for steamed rice
2.You can store them in a freezer box for 2-3 months and fry when you need to.
3.You can also deep fry them if you want

Spiced and Flavorful Roasted Baby Potato

This simple and delicious recipe was shared by my SIL. It is a perfect appetizer. There is a interesting ingredient added to this dish that brings out a lot flavor, aroma and freshness ... fennel seeds or commonly known as saunf is the secret ingredient.

I am sure you would enjoy trying out this recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg baby potatos
• 1/4tsp cumin seeds(jeera)
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds(saunf)
• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp dry mango powder(amchur powder)
• salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil

Procedure:
Boil the potatoes ,remove the skin and keep aside.Mix all the dry spice powders in a bowl and keep aside

Heat oil in a nonstick pan ,add cumin seeds,fennel seeds and once cumin splutters ,add the boiled potatoes and saute in high flame till it turn golden brown,then add all the dry ingredients,stir nicely until all the spices coat the baby potatoes and immediately switch off the flame

Serve immediately

Note:
1. It can also be served with rice and roti as a quick side.
2. In place of baby potatoes you can use normal potatoes, boiled and cut into big chunks.  
3. Make sure you dont fry the potatoes after adding the spices.