This Kue Lapis I post here is my mother's recipe. Normally, she will use fresh Pandan Leaves and Suji Leaves to get the green color and the aroma. But we can use Pandan Pasta instead. Because it's kind a difficult to find the leaves here in India. If Pandan pasta is not available, replace it with green food color (or any color you like) and a little vanilla ekstract to get the good aroma.

Ingredients:
For Fish Masala:
500 grams King Fish
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 - 2 tsp chili powder (as required)
1/2 tsp salt

3 Onions (big size), finely sliced
1 big tomato, chopped
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
2 tbsp curd
1 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
salt as required

For the Rice
3 cups of Basmati rice
6 cups of water
1 Onion, chopped
2 tbsp ghee
5 cardamom pods, Crushed
3 sticks of cinnamon
3 cloves
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt (as required)

Roasted Cashew Nuts and Yellow raisins..

Preparing the fish:
Clean and wash the fish pieces, drain it well. Marinate them in turmeric powder, chili powder and salt for about 1/2 - 1 hour. Heat oil in a pan, then fry the marinated fish. Keep aside

Preparing the masala:
Heat a small amount of oil in pan. Add sliced onions and fry on a low flame, till it becomes slightly brown. On medium flame, add ginger-garlic-green chilly paste and tomato, stir it until it become paste around 5 minutes. Add garam masala powder,curd, coconut milk, coriander leaves and salt and stir it for 5 min. Add fried fish pieces and reduce the flame and cook till it starts to boil. Keep a side.

Preparing the rice:
Heat ghee in a pan.Add cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and onions and fry till onion turn slightly brown. Add rice and stir for another 5 minutes. In a pressure cooker put water along with salt and let it boil. Pour the rice into the boiling water then close the cooker with the lid and cook until one wistle. Turn off the flame.

Preparing the biriyani:
Take a deep bottom vessel and layer rice and fish masala. Pour 2 tbsp of ghee and tightly cover with a lid. Keep it on a very low flame for 10 min.Garnish with roasted nuts and raisins.

Onde-onde ketawa. It means Laughing Onde-onde (!?). No, better not to translate it to English.... ;-p. It sounds better if we call it just like it should be : Onde-onde Ketawa.

Ingredients:
100 ml water
175 grams white sugar (I used only 150 grams)
1 egg
2 tbsp cooking oil
300 grams all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp soda powder
100 gram white sesame seeds
oil for frying

Boil water and sugar in a pan until the sugar dissolved. Let it cool. Beat cooking oil together with egg in a low speed mixer until well combined (2 -3 minutes). Add sugar syrup little by little and beat them for another 1 minute. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda powder into the sugar mixture. Mix well with a spatula.

Make balls (10 grams each) from the batter. Drop it into water, then roll it over a bowl of sesame seeds. Deep fry the balls in medium hot oil with medium flame until golden brown. Remove from pan. Drain it with kitchen towel.

Ingredients:
500 grams tapioca, finely grated (or make a paste of tapioca)
100 grams fresh grated coconut
200 grams jaggery, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla powder (optional)
2 - 3 banana, cut into long pieces
banana leaves as required

Mix all the ingredients until well-combined. Take one sheet of banana leaf. Put one tablespoon of tapioca mixture and add one piece of banana. Wrap them by rolling the banana leaf and fold in both end of the leaf. Repeat wrapping process to the remaning mixture. Put all the wrapped lemet into a hot steamer, and steam for 40 - 50 minutes. Let it cool before serve.

Tips:
- To make the work easier with the banana leaves, heat the surface of the leaves over a small flame. It will make it more soft and easy to fold without breaking it.
- To make the tapioca paste, you can cut them to small pieces and put it in a blender (food processor) instead of grate it.

Recipe Source: Lemet Pisang a la Bunda

For recipe please visit DapurBunda or click here

I was in a trip to Hyderabad a couple years ago when the first time I tried this kind of tea. Normally, I make an ordinary type of tea. Simply boil some water and add tea powder in it. Sometimes I pour in milk or just let it plain without milk and sugar. Even enjoying tea with milk is quite a new thing for me. I just knew it after my marriage with my husband, and learn about tea time tradition in India.

This Masala Chai tastes excellent. I fell in love with it instantly. When I reached back to my home in Cochin, I started to make my own masala chai. Well, it takes more time for me to get the best taste I expected. But this recipe below is perfect. At least for me and my husband. So enjoy your tea...

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
3 tsp tea leaves/ 2 tsp powdered tea
1 piece of Dry Ginger, crushed
4 cardamom seeds, crushed
4 cloves
1 piece cinnamon stick
4 black pepercorn
1 cup of whole milk
sugar as you desire

In a medium pot, bring water to boil, add tea leaves/powdered tea to it. Boil again until the liquid darken. Add all the masala to the tea. And let it simmer for another 30 seconds to 1 minute. Do not over-boil because it will make the tea taste too strong. Remove the tea from the heat. Strain and pour the tea to 3 cups equally. Add milk and sugar as desired. Your Masala Chai are ready to serve.

There is a very easy way to make the Chai in a minute. Go to a big Supemarket and get yourself an Instant Masala Tea Powder in a box .. ;-p

You don't need to add anything to it, except milk of course. Just boil it with water and the Chai is ready. I brought some of these Instant Masala Tea to Jakarta early this year when I go home to visit my parents and family. It's so easy to make...

Well, I got to go now... Want to enjoy my tea... :-)

These are another cupcakes I made for the birthday. I found the recipes in AYAHBUNDA magazine. Too bad I didn't have a chance to taste it cause there was nothing left in the kitchen. My husband packed and brought them all to his office.

• Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line standard 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners. Sift all-purpose flour together with baking powser, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together: eggs, granulated sugar, palm sugar, pineapple jam, salt, vanilla powder, spekoek powder, and cinnamon powder until it become light in colour.
• Add to the batter one by one: flour mixture, shredded carrot and vegetable oil. Beat on low speed until well-combine.
• Divided batter evently among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool slightly. Frost cupcakes with buttercream

I made these cupcakes for my daughter's 2nd Birthday. There wasn't a party, but distribute some small sweets to our neighbours sound very nice :-) Since I don't make Indian Sweets - well I mean I have never tried to make some, maybe later - baking a cake is the most possible thing for me to do. And small cake is just perfect for a small girl's birthday.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 standard 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners.Into the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Attact bowl to mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; add the eggs and yolk, the milk, oil, vanilla and warm water. Beat on low speed until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divided batter evently among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake come out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool slightly. Invert cupcakes onto the rack; then reinvert and let them cool completely, top sides up. Frost cupcakes with buttercream, swirling to cover and garnish with chocolate curls.

Recipe Source: Vania's Blog taken from Martha Stewart 's BAKING HANDBOOK

For myself, I like it plain. Without chocolate topping, sprinkles, or some powdered sugar. But when you have time, and like to see them in pretty look... just dress them with anything you desire. Crushed roasted peanuts work the best for me. My daughter loves the chocolate, and my husband will eat anything I give him on his plate... ;-p

Ingredients:

500 grams bread flour (I used all purpose flour instead)
100 grams granulated sugar
11 grams instant yeast
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
100 grams butter
250 ml fresh milk

Directions:

1. Mix together in large bowl: wheat flour, granulated sugar, yeast instant, Baking Powder and salt. Stir them until well-combined
2. Add the egg yolk, and followed by butter. Knead until well-blended.
3. Pour in the cold milk in batches. Mix to form a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 1/2 an hour (if you use hands), until the dough become smooth, light and elastic.
4. Form the dough into a ball, place it in a large bowl and cover it with wet and clean cloth. Set aside for 1 hour.
5. Divide the dough into equal size small balls. Make wholes on the balls using your finger. You can use Donuts shaped cutter if it's available.
6. Deep dry it in hot oil with low-medium flame until it's golden brown and rise.

Tips:

- If you use Active Dry Yeast, dissolve it first in 50 ml warm water before you mix it with the flour. Don't forget to reduce the milk until 200 ml
- Use a wooden chopstick to spin the donuts while you fry it. It will helps you to keep the shape of the whole.
- Let them cool before decorate them with chocolate and sugar

I got this recipe from Quaker Oatmeals website. When I have too many oats in my kitchen, I decided to try it. The muffin is very delicious and easy to make.