Thai Vegetable Curry (with Coconut Milk)

It was our wedding anniversary and we had a delicious dinner in a Thai restuarent. We just loved the authentic taste of the Thai vegetable curry prepared with coconut milk. Why not bring this delicacy to our home. I tried replicating the Thai curry at home the next day. And the result was awesome. It was just as delicious as we had in the restuarent. Just served it with steamed rice. Awesome combo for a lovely dinner. This one is going to be a frequent on my menu now.

Living in a multi cultural place like Sydney gives me lots of opportunities to try different food from different cuisines. I am happy that my blog has extended over multi cuisines.

Here goes the recipe. You should definately give it a try.

Ingriedients:
Veggies - 2 cups (I used carrots, Beans, Brocolli and Raddish)
Coconut Milk - 1 can (You can extract it at home too)
Thai Red curry Paste - 2 tsp (It should be available in any Asian stores)
Salt
Sugar
Onion - 1
Garlic - 4 petals
Canola Oil - 1 tablespoon

Procedure:
1. Take a vok, add 1 tablespoon oil, add garlic and then onions and fry for some time.
2. Once they are golden brown, add the cut veggies of your choice. Add salt and let it cook for some time till the veggies are half cooked.
3. Add the Thai red curry paste and a pinch of sugar and mix well.
4. Add the coconut milk and let it cook for 5-10 minutes till all the veggies have cooked.

The delicious Thai Vegetable Curry is ready. Serve it with steamed rice

Tips:
1. You can use any vegetable oil instead of canola oil.
2. Use vegetables of your choice.
3. Adjust the coconut milk as per your taste. If you find the curry little dry, do not add water, instead add more coconut milk.

Moon n Stars Vanilla Cake

Wedding Anniversary time!! It is our 7th Wedding Anniversary. Time flies really fast and we could not believe that it has been 7 long years for our marraige. Great...Thats calls for a "Bake  a Cake"...

This is my first attempt in baking a cake here in Sydney especially in a oven. But i must tell you, it was a great experience experimenting with new ingriedients.

I tried with a simple cake and decorated it like Moon n Stars.

Ingriedients:
Self Raising Flour - 1 cup
Caster Sugar - Half cup
Eggs - 2
Vanilla Escense - 1 tsp
Milk - 3 tablespoon
Salted butter - 80 gms
Salt - pinch

For Garnishing:
Roseberry Jam\ Any Jam of ur choice
Vanilla flavoured shapes (made of rice, oats, and corn)

Procedure:
1.  Take a mixing bowl and beat the eggs nicely one at a time.
2. Next add the self raising flour and beat well.
3. In a seperate bowl, mix the caster sugar with the melted butter and then add this to the flour.
4. Add in the salt and vanila escense and the milk and beat it for a long time. The best is to use a electric beater.
5. Grease a cake tin with butter or ghee and pour in the cake mix.
6. Preheat the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
7. Bake the cake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees.
8. Check with a fork if the cake is done, insert the fork in the cake, if it comes our clean, its done.
9. Place the cake on the wire rack till it cools dowm.
10. Spread the jam over the cake and then decorate it wih the vanilla shapes.

The delicious Vanilla Cake is ready to cut. Enjoy :)

Nasi Goreng\ Indonesian Style Fried Rice

Nasi Goreng stands for fried rice in Indonesian and Malay. It is more like a national food of Indonesia.

One of my friend, Stefanno who is from Indonesia had given me this Nasi Goreng paste since a long time and it was just lying around my pantry. Today i just tried to prepare my usual fried rice in a Nasi Goreng Style, i just added it to the fried rice and it gave  a complete different taste to it. It was just awesome. Very much thanks to Stefanno.

If you like to try it too, you can pick it up from any Asian stores. Here is the picture of the one that he gave me.

Nasi Goreng is usually prepared with meat or sea food especially prawns, but i tried it with vegetables and it was quite good. If you are a non veggie, then i guess with Prawns would turn out really delicious.

Ingriedients:
Onions -1 - chopped finely
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Carrots  - half cup - finely chopped
Bell Pepper - half cup - finely chopped
Green Peas - half cup - chopped 
Garlic - 3-4 petals - chopped
Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
Nasi Goreng paste - bought from store
Pepper - half teaspoon - freshly ground
Soya Sauce - 2 teaspoon (Optional)
Water
Salt

For Garnishing
Eggs - 1
Cucumber
Tomatoes

Procedure:
1. Cook the rice in the pressure cooker with a pinch of salt and keep it aside. In the meantime, chop all the veggies.
2.  Tak a vok, add olive oil, then add chopped garlic
3. Next add chopped onions and a pinch of salt.
4. Fry for some time, Next add all the veggies and fry them on high flame by continuously stirring. The veggies should get cooked properly.
5. Once they are cooked, add the rice and sufficient salt and mix well.
6. Next add soya sauce and then freshly ground pepper and the nasi goreng paste and mix well.
7. Put off the stove. and mix again

Nasi Goreng is ready.
Serve it with a scrambled egg and some cucumber and tomato slices.

Ragi Rotti\ Nachni Roti\ Finger Millet Roti

Ragi  as it is popularly known in south India, means Finger Millets or Nachni (in Konkani or Marathi).

Ragi has immense helath benefits. It helps in weight loss. It is a rich soirce of calcium and hence helps in the strengthening bones. It is very important for children for their bone development. It reduces the risk of diabetes and reduces the cholestrol levels. It is an excellent source of iron too.

With this ample helath benefits, it should be an essential part of our daily diet. As it is not very tasty, we usually tend to ignore it in our diet. With this delcious Ragi rotti, it can have a come back. It serves as as excellent breakfast or even snacks.

Ingriedients:
Ragi flour\ Finger Millets Flour - 2 cups
Chopped Onion - 1
Chopped green chillies - 2
Cumin seeds - half teaspoon
Water - for kneading the dough
Oil - for frying the rotis
Salt

Procedure:
1. Take a mixing bowl and add the ragi flour, salt, choped onions, chillies and cumin seeds. Mix well.
2. Add water and knead it to form a dough. Add little amount of water and then knead the dough and then again add some more water. Keep doing this till you get a soft dough. The dough should be such that it is easy to spread on the pan. But do not make it very watery.
3. Make small balls to spread it on the pan.

4. Take tava, spread some oil on that, place the ragi ball and pat it to spread it on the tava. Try to pat it as thin as possible. While patting, dip your fingers in water. This helps in easy spreading of the dough.
5. Once done, make 2-3 holes and add oil over that, so that it is cooked evenly.

6. After it is cooked on one side, flip it over to the other side.
7. Repeat the same with the other ragi balls.
8. The challenge with the remaining ragi balls is to pat it thin on a hot tawa. For a naive person, this maybe difficult. In that case you can pat it on a clean plastic sheet and then place it on the tawa.

The delicious Rai Rotti is ready. Serve it with chutney, ketchup or even curd.

Omurice\ Japanese Omelete Rice

The word Omurice is a combination of Omelette and Rice. It is quite popular in Japanese households as well as restuarents. The rice is fried with meat (mostly chicken) or vegetables or both and is usually flavoured with tomato ketchup and salt and pepper. This fried rice is then wrapped in a thin sheet of fried egg and the fried egg is usually topped with ketchup again.

I learnt this recipe from one of my friend Kana who hails from Japan. Its a very simple recipe made authentic by its preparation style.

I fried the rice with vegetables and wrapped it in a thin sheet of fried egg and then topped it up with tomato ketchup. Looks Yummy Right :)

Ingriedients:
2 Eggs
Tomato Ketchup

For Vegetable Fried Rice
Rice - half cup
Veggies - Zucchini, Carrots, Cabbage, Sweet Corn, Green Peas, Red and Yellow BellPeppers - finely chopped
Pepper
Salt
Onions - 1 - chopped
Olive Oil - 2 tablespoon
Garlic - 4-5 big cloves - finely chopped

Procedure:
1. Boil the rice and keep aside
2. To prepare the vegetable fried rice,  take a vok, add 2 tablespoon olive oil, Add the chopped garlic, once golden brown, add the chopped onions.
3. Once the onion turn traslucent, add the chopped veggies and fry till they are cooked.
4. Add salt and freshly ground pepper.
5. Prepare the thin omlette using both the eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper. I prepared it in the microwave by poring the egg over a plate (1.5 minutes). You can also do the same using a frying pan.

The Main Ingriedients

 6. Next take a plate, place the fried rice at the centre and top it up with some tomato ketchup.
7. Next roll the prepared omlette over it.
8. Finally top it with tomato keychup.

Omurice is ready. Enjoy it hot.

Notes:
1. For Omurice,  usually the omlettte completly wraps the rice at the bottom also. But I just wrapped it on the top. You can try wrapping it completely on all sides for authetic feel.