Loaded Nachos

Ingredients:
1 (18 ounce) package restaurant-style tortilla chips
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, or more to taste
1 (15.5 ounce) can refried beans
1 cup salsa
1 cup sour cream or more to taste
1 (10 ounce) can pitted black olives, drained and chopped
4 green onions or red onions, diced
1 (4 ounce) can sliced jalapeno peppers, drained
1 avacado(optional)

Method:
Set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.Spread tortilla chips on the prepared baking sheet; top with Cheddar cheese and dot with refried beans.
Broil in the preheated oven until cheese is melted, watching carefully to prevent burning, 3 to 5 minutes.
Top nachos with salsa, sour cream, black olives, avacado,green onions, and jalapeno peppers.

Banana Nutella Crepe Cape

This Multilayered breakfast treat only looks complicated.It's as easy to make as a stack of pancakes.

  Crepes:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt 2 large eggs and 1 egg yolk
1-1/4 cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp(1/2 stick) melted butter,for the pan

Filling:
Nutella
Bananas, sliced
confectioners sugar

Method:

For crepes:- In a food processor,pulse flour,sugar and salt until combined.Add eggs and yolk;process until blended.With the motor running,slowly pour milk and vannila;process until smooth.refrigerate batter for 15 mnutes,or up to overnight.

Warm a 9-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.Add just a bit of butter to coat the pan.Pour about 3 tbsp of batter into hot pan and swirl it around to evenly spread batter.Place back on heat;cook for 30 sec.using a spatula and fingers,flip crepe;cook for 30 sec.crepe should be almost firm to the touch and spotty brown.Transfer to a cutting board.Repeat process with remaining batter to make about 10 crepes.(you may have extra crepes;add them to the stack.)

Preheat broiler.line a baking sheet with a parchment paper.Layer two crepes on a prepared pan.spread a thin layer of nutella onto the top crepe;add a few banana slices.Top with another crepe and layer more nutella and Bananas.Repeat this process with remaining crepes.Top with a final crepe.Place baking sheet under broiler until cake is warmed through.Sprinkle cake with confectioners sugar.
Serves 6

 TIP:Crepe batter can be made up to 2 days in advance.Store tightly covered in the refrigerator.

BAKLAVA

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey.Its a Greek or turkish favorite that makes everyone think you are a master chef and is sooo easy to make!!The phyllo or Filo dough for this recipe is found in the freezer section of most grocery stores.Almonds,pistachios and walnuts are excellent for this recipe.Working with phyllo needs a lot of patience becoz they are fragile and break so easily but its ok if they tear up.There are lot of hints to make this dessert a great success.Below are some of the useful tips:-

TIP 1:Get all the ingredients ready before you begin .
TIP 2:phyllo sheets tend to dry quickly so it has to be covered with damp cloth when not in use.
TIP 3:Make the sauce ahead and cool completely.Its either way :Pour HOT SYRUP over COOLED BAKLAVA or COOLED SYRUP over WARM BAKLAVA.
TIP 4:Never cover you baked baklava as it gets soggy.Store at room temperature

INGREDIENTS:
1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
1-1/2 cup butter
For Filling:
1 pound chopped nuts(I prefer almonds ,pistachios and walnuts)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

for the syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.
Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside.
Unroll phyllo sheets. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work.
Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.
Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows then make the diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.

Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool.Sprinkle with coarsely ground pistachios for garnish. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

Wishing all my fellow cooking enthusiasts a very Happy and Wonderful
NEW YEAR!!!!

Mermaid Doll Cake

Side View...

Back view..



This is my second doll cake.I made it for one my friends B'day.For this adorable cake I used the trusty Wilton "Wonder Mold". The baking pan is meant to look like the bottom of a dress when a doll is placed through the center. So here it is a mermaid cake Its a simple chocolate cake with butter cream filling and icing.Just couldn stop working on it.Loved making it.I used gummy fish for added decoration.I also made some star fish using gummies.So Except the doll everything else was edible.I used different icing tips to pipe out shells,flowers,grass etc.Hope you guys Like this cake.If you have any Questions about decorating please post Your comments. Your comments are so Encouraging to me...

Ribbon Pakoda

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup besan or chickpea flour
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1-2 tsps chilli powder (or more!)
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method:
Heat oil in a wok.Sift the flour mixtures and combine well with the chilli powder,salt and asafoetida or Hing.Add water little by little to form a dough.If it is too watery add rice flour to adjust.

Apply little Oil or use a spray to the murruku maker .Use the Ribbon Disc and and squeeze the dough in the hot oil to make flat ribbon shaped pakkodas.Drain on to the paper towels. Let cool before storing them into the airtight containers.

Roasted gram Ladoo or Dalia Ladoo or Maladoo

This is a very quick sweet made for any occasions especially during Krishna Jayanthi.A wonderful treat made with simple ingredients.

Ingredients:
1½ cup Split roasted gram or Pottukadalai(tamil)
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Ghee
1 no Cardamom crushed
7 nos Cashews

Method:
Powder the Pottukadalai / Split roasted gram / Dalia / Chickpea to a fine consistency along with that one cardamom . Also powder the granulated sugar too and keep aside. Now measure equal quantity of both the powders(1:1 ratio), for every cup of powdered gram flour its 1 cup of powdered sugar. Mix them both in a big bowl.

Break the cashews into small pieces and then fry them in little ghee until golden and add it to the flour mixture.

Heat the remaining ghee until melted and slowly add it to the mixture. (Ghee mentioned may be slightly more, so add little at a time, don’t pour all at once)
Keep working until it reaches a crumbly texture.

When you press and knead you should be able to make small laddoos. That’s the texture we are looking for. Once ready, apply some ghee to you hands and start making small laddus. They tend to break easily so work it up with ghee.Yields about 10-12 ladoos.