Straberry Banana Muffins

For August's, Sweet Punch  event, the organizers had challenged our little group to make this  Strawberry Banana Muffins from Joy of Baking.  This was an easy muffin to put together, I followed the recipe to a tee. I was very happy with the results. I am sure everyone in our Sweet Punch group would have made this with out any difficulty as this time we had not only the recipe to get the directions but a video too.
Recipe Source:Joy of Baking
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
2 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1 cup (240 ml) fresh strawberries (cut into bite sized pieces)
2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (160 grams) light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon (4 grams) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 grams) salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or lightly butter or spray the muffin cups with a vegetable spray.

In a small saucepan melt the butter. Let cool to room temperature.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract and mashed banana. Add the melted butter and stir to combine.

In another large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gently fold in the berries, making sure they are coated with flour. (This helps to prevent the berries from sinking during baking.) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are just combined. Do not over mix the batter or tough muffins will result.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Place in the oven and bake until a tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Can be stored for a few days at room temperature.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins. Preparation time: 20 minutes

Rava Ladoo

Last two  months I had been so lazy about my blogging. I was thinking a way to get  past this laziness somehow  when Radhika of Tickling Palates announced the "Blog Hop Wednesday" event. I signed up immedatly and I am happy I did that. How it works is that we bloggers  are grouped and paired, and we visit each other's space to try out new recipes and blog about our experience on alternate Wednesdays. What a nice way to better ourselves as cooks and make friends; right? Thank you Radhika for this wonderful idea. This week I was paired with Suchitra of Simple Indian Food- An Easy Cooking Blog . She has a wide array of dishes for me to choose from. As I was having visitors and short of time, I tried this rava ladoo which she had mentioned can be done in five minutes flat. She was so right! It was an easy and tasty dessert which was thoroughly enjoyed by my family and friends. I did change the quantities a little to suit our taste buds though. To know what other blog hoppers are cooking drop in here

Source:Simple Indian Food
Ingredients:

 Rava (semolina)-1 1/2 cups
 Sugar-3/4 cup
 Ghee - 1/2 cup
 Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
 Cashew/Almonds broken into small pieces-1 1/2tbs
 Raisins-1 1/2tbs
 Milk-1/4 cup
Method:
Dry roast Rava in a pan till they start to turn lightly golden.Powder this along with sugar to a fine mixture. Heat the ghee and roast the nuts and raisins. Add the powdered mixture along with the cardamom powder to this. Add milk little by little, mix well and test if you can form small, firm balls with these by trial and error.

Kerala Kitchen - Aug 2011 Event Announcement

I am delighted to host this month's Kerala Kitchen. This event, initiated by Rose and Ria, celebrates Kerala cuisine and is a very popular one in the blogosphere.  I am looking forward to all your active participation in the event to make it into a grand success.

In case you are new to this check out the rules below. 

In order to submit your Kerala dishes or Kerala-inspired dishes for the month of August, please do so before Aug 31st, 2011 by filling out the form below this post.

Make sure to add a link to this post as well as the main event page of Kerala Kitchen to the posts you are submitting!

Another change from the exisiting rules is that old posts are not allowed for this event anymore.

For more info and guidelines and for the event logos check out the main event page here

Badges will be awarded to:

- Top Dish

- Best Pic

- Top Contributor : Most number of entries

- Member: All participants will get Kerala Kitchen member badges

Tomato Egg Kurma

This is a recipe I had in my collection from almost 10 years back. If I remember correctly, I had noted this down from one of the cookery shows in some Malayalam channel. This is a simple recipe, so easy to make, yet gives good results. When I am short of time and want to give the feeling of having made something special, I make this. Even without adding nuts or coconut milk this curry has the rich gravy for a good kurma.

Ingredients:
Onion - 2 nos, diced
Tomato - 2 nos, diced
Eggs - 2 nos, hard boiled
Garlic - 5 cloves
Green chilli - 3 nos
Curry leaves - a few
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1tsp
Meat masala/vegetable masala - 1 tsp

Method:
Separate the yolk of the hard boiled eggs and cut the whites into small pieces. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai and when hot add onion, garlic, green chilli and curry leaves. Add all the other powders and saute till the raw smell is no more. Add tomato saute for a minute and add 1 glass of water. Add salt to taste and crumble the egg yolks into it. When the gravy thickens, add the egg whites. This curry goes well with chapathis or rice.