Sqid Abalonetti

A squid belongs to the general family of cephlapod and looks like a mini octopus because of its tentacles. Just like the octopus it discharges a dark fluid into the face of its predator when threatened with potential danger. The average length of an edible squid generally varies from 5cm to 100cm although some colossal squids could be as big as 20m.The squis which forms a part of most Mediterranean cuisines, has a firm white and sweet tasing meat.

However, if you want to cook any squid dish at home, you have to follow some preliminary steps. You have to start by cleaning a squid, for which the mantle has to be separated gently from the head. Next, the interior of the mantle has to be thrown away, removing the edible ink from it. Now pull the membrane from the mantle away, cut off the tentacles just under the eyes and discard the hard beak. 

After you wash the squid thoroughly, it is ready to be tenderised by making 2 cm slits along its body and bashing the flesh with a mallet. In order to prevent the squid flesh from toughening, you must start cooking it while it is still fresh. The only time taking squid dish is prepared by braising 7.5 to 10 cm long pieces of squid that need to be cooked for at least 1 hour. 

Here am going to provide you an easy recipe of squid through a baking process.

SQUID ABALONETTI:

Ingredients  :

• Squid – ½ Kg
• Water –1 cup
• Salt to taste
• White sauce
• Grated Cheese

    * Boil the squid until it is tender and add water accordingly to bring it to complete 
    boiling. When its boiled drain the water and keep aside

    *Greece the baking  pan with butter and keep aside.

Method for Preparing white sauce:

1  1.    In a sauce pan place heat the butter in medium heat.

   2.   Add the flour, stir constantly for about a minute and add milk and whisk thoroughly 
    until the sauce thickens and come to boil.

   3.  Add mustard paste, salt and pepper finally.

Method for baking:

    *  Preheat the oven at 350* Fahrenheit.

    *   Layer the squid in the baking pan and add run white sauce on top.

    *   Add the remaining squid and this time add white sauce as a top layer and spread 
   grated cheese on it.

    * Bake for 15-20 minutes and remove from the oven and serve hot.

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Ethapazham payasam

Banana fruit has many health benefits. It is rich source of potassium. Bananas are also a natural source of iron. Banana is nutritious fruit and help us from weight loss, constipation , blood pressure, brain power , anemia. In addition to the cardiovascular benefits the bananas also help us to boost healthy bones. Banana plays an important role for reducing depression. It gives us relax, improve our mood and generally make us feel  happier።

Ingredients :

• Ripen large Banana  - 4
• Jaggery - 3 cubes
• Coconut Powder - 3 tspn
• Rice Powder - 1 tspn
• Water - 1 cup
• Salt - 1 Pinch 
• Cashew nuts - 1 tbspn
• Raisin - 1 tbspn

Steps to Prepare:

1. In a saucepan pour water to boil.
2. Slice the bananas vertically and take off the seed and chop to least small size.
3. Add the bananas to the water and boil for 10 minutes.
4. Add the melted Jaggery, salt and stir well.
5. Dissolve the coconut powder in little warm water separately and stir well. combine it to the sauce pan.
6. To bring little thickness if necessary add rice powder stirred in small quantity of water separately.
7. In a separate fry pan heat ghee and crackle the cashew nuts and raisins and temper on to payasam.

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Weight Control & Nutrition

"Things I came to know to balance weight and be freed from sickness, with good nutrition. It's easy if you concentrate a bit in your daily busier life.."
  
Fill up On fibre: 

Fibre is great because it not only has tonnes of health  

  benefits, it also makes you feel fuller sooner and helps 
  move fat through your system faster so that less of it is absorbed.
  
Drink more water: 
It`s quite common to confuse thirst with hunger. Most of the time when we think we are   hungry, we are actually thirsty. Next time you feel starving, try drinking a couple of glasses of water first. If the feeling still doesn`t subside, you can be confident your are   hungry rather than thirsty.

     

Size of Meals: 
For better digestion, blood-sugar, energy levels and metabolic function, it’s better to stick with the smaller meals. 

Do not Skip Meals: 
Eating small frequent meals help to balance your calorie intake throughout the day and also keeps your blood sugar level balanced. Instead of eating 3 big meals, try to eat 5 - 6 smaller meals throughout the day.

Avoid Crash Diets: 
This is possibly the worst thing you can do to lose weight, as you will find when you go off crash diet, you will probably put on more weight than what you started with. Crash diets promote mainly water and muscle loss, which is exactly what you want to avoid, because the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be. 

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Kerala Sambar

 Ingredients  :

• All indian Vegetables equally proportion - 1 kg
• Onion – 1
• Tomato – 1
• Tamarind pulp – 1 cup
• Garlic – 4 cloves
• Chilly powder – ½ tspn
• Turmeric Powder – ¼ tspn
• Red Daal – ¼ cup
• Salt to taste
• Water – 1 cup

          # Boil the above ingredients in a cooking deep pan for about 15 minutes.

    Ingredients for Gravy:

• Mustard seeds – ¼ tspn
• Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tspn
• Small Onion – 4
• Oil – 2 tbspn
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Curry leaves – 1 trunk
• Red Chilly – 1
• Cumin – ¼ tspn
• Asafoetida – 1 pinch
• Chilly powder – 2 tspn
• Turmeric Powder – ¼ tspn
• Water – 1 cup

Steps to Prepare:

1. In a separate pan add Oil.
2. When its heated up crackle the mustard and then add fenugreek  & Cumin seeds.
3. Add garlic cloves, red chilly, curry leaves and onions and stir until brown.
4. Add chilly powder and turmeric powder and sort for few seconds till a chilly flavour smells out. Turn off the flame.
5. Cool it and blend it by adding 1 cup of water.
6. Pour the Gravy into the cooked vegetables and flame until it boils.
7.  Tamper the sambar by heating some oil in a separate pan and crackle the mustard. Add some curry leaves and red chilly to garnish.

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Home made Pizza

Ingredients  for Dough:

• Flour - 2 Cups
• Baking Powder - ½ tspn
• Yeast - 1 tbspn
• Oil (vegetable or olive oil) - 4 tbspn
•  Sugar - 1 tbspn
• Salt - ½ tspn
• Water - 3 - 4 tbspn ( as required to make a perfect dough)  

1.      Mix all the above ingredients and prepare the dough and  cover it in a bowl.
2.   .  Keep aside for about 30- 45 minutes.

             
       Ingredients for Topping:

• Pizza Sauce / Tomato Sauce - 2 tbspn
• Cheese shredded -  ½ cup
• Chicken Tikka Chunks/any meat chunks boiled with pepper & salt & finally shredded - ½ cup 
• Onion - 1
  
• Mashroom chopped - ¼ cup 
• Capsicum -  ¼ cup 
• Oregano leaves/Coriander leaves - ¼ cup

Steps to Prepare:

1. Preheat the oven in 180* C.
2. Get ready with the dough only once the specified time is over and the dough has been raised.
3. Patter the hand with flour holding the dough to make a ball.
4.  Roll the dough on to a floured surface making circle with hand according to your preference and how much the thickness of the crust required.
5. Transfer the dough into an oiled/flour pattered flat baking pan or a glass pan.(I have used my micro oven's glass plate)
6. Spread around the ingredients leaving 1 inch base free. Top up sauce, little cheese, Chicken chunks, onion pieces,mushroom, capsicum, oregano or coriander leaves and good quantity of shredded cheese on top.( If you don't have shredded cheese, you can shred the Cube cheese with vegetable shredder.)
7. Bake the Pizza for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and cheese turns brown .

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Lovely babies

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Walnut Banana Tea Cake

Ingredients  :

• Cream – 1 cup
• Lemon – ½ piece 

* Add the lemon to the cream to get sour cream and keep aside

• Walnut crushed – 4 tbspn
• Cinnamon powder – 2 tbspn
• Sugar powdered  ( icing Sugar) – 3 tbspn

  *Mix the three above and keep aside

  * Greece the baking pan with butter and keep aside.

• Unsalted Butter – 8 ohns
• Egg – 2
• Banana – 2 smashed
• Sliced banana- 1
• Vanilla extract – 1 tbspn
• Flour – 2 cups
• Baking Powder – ½ tspn
• Salt – ¼ tspn
• Sugar – 1 cup 

Steps to Prepare:

1. In a bowl beat butter, eggs, sour cream,mashed bananas, vanilla extract.
2. Fold in with hand flour, baking powder, salt & sugar.
3. Spoon half of the batter in the tin and put half of the walnut mixture sprinkle.
4. On to the top place the sliced banana and layer on rest of the batter.
5. For garnish you can add some walnut pieces on the cake.
6. Bake for about an hour till skewer inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Cool in a wire rack and carefully overturn and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

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