I Sugges this Recipes

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Friday, April 25, 2014

Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes – Made from the Other Kind of Leftovers

I loved seeing mashed potatoes at the dinner table growing up, not only because I loved mashed potatoes, but also because it meant my mother would be using the leftovers to make fried mashed potato pancakes.

These were nothing more than cold mashed potatoes, shaped into patties, and browned in butter. I loved them, and use that same trick to this day. The potato pancakes you see here were born from another kind of leftover potatoes…the end of a box of instant potato buds.

Id used them while testing the crispy onion rings recipe, but didnt want to keep such an unsightly container in my pantry (you never know when some other celebrity food blogger is going to drop in to borrow a cup of foie gras), I decided to see what would happen if I used it, uncooked, in a potato pancake mixture. What happened were four crispy, buttery, perfectly decent potato pancakes!

One advantage this version has over the freshly mashed one is those contain milk and butter, which makes it much harder to hold together when fried. Im not saying you should just switch to instant, but I felt like I had to find some shred of a culinary advantage.

Logistically, this would be perfect for backcountry camping, or your friendly neighborhood college dormitory for obvious reasons, not the least of which is its cheapness and shelf stability (and by "shelf," I mean an old milk crate, turned on its side).

So, if you have some instant potatoes in the pantry, maybe consider giving this a try. Otherwise, remember this the next time you do find yourself in a similar situation. I mean, who would go out and buy a box just to specifically make a batch of these crispy, crusty, delicious patties? Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup Betty Crocker Potato Buds (probably will work with any similar brand)
fresh chives
freshly ground black pepper
cayenne to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Happy New Year from Farmersgirl Kitchen

Wishing you a very Happy New Year, may your kitchen be filled with food and friends and, as we say in Scotland, lang may your lum reek!

Oh you want a translation... literally it means long may your chimney smoke but I guess Im really wishing that you always have a warm and happy life.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Banana Cardamom Bread Eggless Baking from blogs continues

I have tried several recipes for Banana bread and they have all turned out well. Even a vegan one that uses in all just 2 Tbsp of oil and a mixture of warm water, oil and baking soda to fluff up the mixture.

This one that I found at Simply recipes,yesterday, was slightly richer with 1/3rd cup butter and 1 cup sugar. I kept the butter in as I was baking it for my family and my mom maintains that she doesnt like butterless cakes. Weighing just around 50 kg, she is well justified.

A few modifications that I did-

My usual aversion to using too much refined flour made me replace half of it by whole wheat flour.
Reduced the 1 C sugar to 3/4 C but next time will use only 1/2 C. The 3/4 C sugar was also a little too sweet. Guess it also depends on the degree of ripeness of the bananas and the sugars in the banana.
Didnt use the one egg, replaced it with 2 T milk.
Added 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder to the batter
Sprinkled some cardamom powder and sugar on the top before baking.
I had to bake for just 35 minutes at 175C and then reduced to less than 170C for 5 minutes. By 40 minutes the cake started charring a bit on the top, so I got it out.

A loaf of Banana cardamom bread

The result was a perfectly browned and intensely aromatic cake. The cardamom and banana combination is as magical as the banana-cinnamon combination, if not better. My aunt-uncle and mom called up to say that they loved it. It didnt taste like one of my low sugar, low fat ventures and they were glad about it!

Bake this one, and wrap it in a nice paper and send it across to your friend or relative. Home baked goodies always make the best and most personalised gifts.

Or simply bake it on a Friday and you can enjoy a thick slice of this as a breakfast-dessert.

This is my entry for Weekend Breakfast Blogging # 4 that Pavani has agreed to host end of this month, while Im away on a short break. Do send your breakfast entries to her before August 31st at cookshideout@gmail.com .

For details of the event, click here.

Related posts:

Honey Banana Muffins
Guiltfree Gingerbread

Tags:

Banana bread, cardamom, breakfast, WBB, Baked gifts, dessert

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

ANGLO INDIAN CUISINE A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST

News feature on my new book ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE - A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST in THE HINDU NEWSPAPER on 21st NOVEMBER 2012

This is the link http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/Food/colonial-cooking/article4115559.ece