Meat Balls (Kari Urundai / கறி உருண்டை)

Meat Balls are one of mother's signature recipe. But, all these days I was forfending to do because of the fear of fat (cholesterol) after realizing / experiencing the goodness of Fat. For the first time I attempted to recreate my mother’s recipes in the HFLC style and enjoyed the goodness of meat balls without any guilt. 

Ingredient – 500gms of mined Mutton      ;     2 tsp of ginger garlic paste     ;     chopped medium onion       ;     2 chopped green chili       ;        salt to taste     ;      curry leaves & finely chopped coriander leaves      ;       ½ tsp of turmeric powder      ;      2 tsp of chili powder     ;       10 no’s of chopped cashews     ;      2 tsp of coconut oil       ;        2 tsp of  powdered  fried chana dal       ;    Coconut oil (VCO) for deep fry 

Add turmeric powder to the mined meat and sprinkle with water, pressure cooker for one whistle and remove the cooker from heat.

Meanwhile, fry onion until it change its color. Add green chili, ginger garlic paste, chili powder, curry leaves and coriander leaves and fry for 2 -3 minutes and remove the pan from heat.

Take out the pan from the pressure cooker, strain the water if any. (mutton milagu soup can be made out of this water) add the fried items, cashews, and powdered fried chana dal into the meat and mix well with hand and shape into small balls.

Heat the oil and fry the mutton balls (either shallow or deep fry) till in turns into brown in color. Since, I need the medium chain fatty acids in my diet, I used VCO coconut oil. You may even bake the balls (after brushing with butter or oil) in the 180◦c preheated oven for about 40 min.

Serve them hot with the squeeze of lemon with onion topping or tomato or mint chutney.

 Cholesterol - Vital Substance

 Cholesterol – Most Misunderstood Lipid

Cholesterol - Myth

Dates Choco Bar

Scorching summer! Morning temperature itself is about 40°C. Ice creams are the most preferred choice of dessert in the summer. It’s the only way to beat the heat. This rich creamy Dates Choco bar will not disappoint your taste buds.

Ingredient’s   :   10 to 12 Dates       ;        2 cup of heavy cream        ;         150 gms of chocolate (60 % coco)      ;       1 tbsp of coconut oil

Procedure : Remove the seeds from dates and soak it in the water for 2 hours and then grind the dates  in to fine paste. On the thick bottom bowl, heat the heavy cream. Add the dates paste into the cream and stir well. Once, the cream date’s mixture started boiling remove from the heat and allows it to cool.  

Once the mixture it cooled to room temperature, pour it in an ice cream molds and keep it in the freezer for 5 to 6 hours.

Melt the chocolate in double boiler or in microwave then add coconut oil and mix well and then pour it in the wide mouthed mason jar. So that, it will be easy to dip the ice cream Popsicle into the melted chocolate. 

Once, the melted chocolate cooled just above to room temperature, Un-mold the ice cream Popsicle from the mold and dips it in the melted chocolate in one fast motion. Lay the Popsicle on parchment paper. The chocolate will harden almost immediately. Transfer the choco bars into freeze for an hour. 

Vegan chocolate macarons

 

My first macaron post was in 2014. After I didn’t post any because, it’s quite labor intensive and need a good skill to get a right consistency. Otherwise it will be like a cookie.  (My first Vegan sweet recipe is here)

As I mentioned earlier post, two light, fragile, crispy cookies are stacked together with sweet filling like, jam, chocolate or cream.

The major ingredient for macarons is Egg white. But, here the egg white is replaced with chickpeas water. After seeing this vegan at Aileen post,  I could not resist myself and wanted to try and it turns out pretty good, light, fragile, chewy (not crispy) macarons.  (My first Vegan sweet recipe is here)

Ingredients     :    2 cups chickpeas water (soaked overnight, pressure cooked it with water and drain the water )           ;              1/2 cup of light brown sugar          ;         1 cup of almond flour                  ;                   1/2 cup of powdered sugar                ;            1/4 cup of coco powder             ;           1 tsp of vanilla essence.

 

Filling   :    100gms of melted chocolate       ;        1 tsp of coconut oil         ;        2 to 3 tbsp of coconut milk

 

Decoration :  melted white chocolate & chocolate.

In a small saucepan, bring chickpea liquid to a boil.  Simmer the burner and wait to reduce chickpea water to about 1/3 cup.

Meanwhile, combine the almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder well and transfer the mix into sift. Crush the large chunks if any and sift. Divide the flour mix into three equal parts.

Once your chickpea liquid has reduced, pour it into your stand mixer bowl and whisk at medium speed for about 2 minutes or until to get frothy and foamy. Add brown sugar and beat at high speed for 5 minutes or until the mixture should look like a meringue with stiff, glossy peaks.  

Add vanilla and beat further for 1 more minute. When your meringue is done, add one part of flour mix and fold well and repeat for other two parts. If batter id dry add a teaspoon or two of vanilla into the batter. 

Make sure to get shiny, thick, firm batter consistency. Transfer the batter into the piping bag that attached with half inch hole. Hold the hold the bag upright at a 90 degree angle, and make your own shape or circle shaped macarons on a cookie sheet spread baking tray. Smack the cookie sheets gently few times to release any air bubbles, if any.

Allow the macrons to dry for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Preheat the oven to 120°c and bake the macarons for about 30 minutes and turn of the oven and allow the macarons to sit in the oven for further 15 minutes and allow cool at outside.

Meanwhile, let’s do the filling mix melted chocolate with coconut oil and coconut milk and using  tablespoon, spread chocolate cream on the on the macron and grab another macarons and sandwich them together.