Stuffed Chicken

I have this second cousin, Indu who was also my classmate who runs a food blog. Hmmmm. Well not a blog in my league ,definitely. She has classic recipes, well written and humourous contents and pictures that makes your mouth water for days and crave for the dish. So last week when she posted one about a stuffed chicken, i almost jumped at the idea of making one myself. But most of the evenings i am too tired to venture into anything too elaborate and hence kept it off for the weekend... And as friday came i became really brave and decided to kick start the weekend by baking a cake. So in the evening i baked a banana cake which is best not to be discussed. I blame it on the voltage and the husband on the fluffiness of the whisked eggs. Either way it was a near flop and that i went to bed feeling so terrible.. COme on, i am almost 30 and cant even bake a decent cake. My kids would be the ones who will look open-mouthedly at their classmates who bring out yum home cooked delicasies and would be shocked to find that they are made at homes by their mammas and not bought from bakeries :(

Well saturday morning saw me in a better mood. Or rather Indu's pictures on her blog did set me into a better mood and i went about marinating the chicken etc. And it was then i got a brain wave. She did fry the chicken in oil and i decided to bake it in the oven after half cooking it on the stove... I followed her recipes with slight changes, such as adding some more masalas and finally baked the half-cooked bird in the microwave for 40 minutes at 180C.. The result......

I managed to gather back my lost ego and face in front of the husband... And did have dreams of my kids superiorly opening thier snack boxes laden with goodies baked by their Nigella Lawson-like mom.....

To say the least,we had a very early dinner and a very very heavy dinner tooo.. Phew..........

My Caramel Custard

I like to cook something out of the ordinary for Gin when he is on his evening shift. His shift goes on till 11:00 pm and he is back home a little before midnight on these shifts. They come only once in a blue moon and so it is exciting to plan the mid night meal and cook it. Though he discourages me heavily, I understand that he enjoys these meals immensely as it is something light and something that he definitely enjoys (read as in the sweet variety ) ..

I have been wanting to make this caramel custard for sometime. With the different lents that covered most of August and the first week of September, I couldn’t make it because it involved eggs. So when he went for his evening shift yesterday,I got all excited and decided to make it. Caramelising the sugar was new to me and as any sensible person does when doubt arises, I too researched high and low on faithful google. What I found out was quiet scary. Most sites equated caramelizing sugar to bursting a bomb keeping it in your hands. THe warnings went on like this "Make sure it doesn’t come in contact with water or it can spurt and splash on you and burn you with its very high temperatures ". One site even asked people to wear goggles during the process etc.

Anyway, I took it under my sleeves and went through the process. I was cautious and it was a relatively simple process. The challenge being to know when exactly to switch the stove off so that the caramel attains the right color and taste. I was on the phone with Amma during the process and I guess I caramelized it a bit too much. So much for multi-tasking!!!!!! Anyway, Gin was pretty kicked to see the whole thing when he got back. And can you imagine, between the two of us, we completely polished it off .. hehhehehehJ So now I know what exactly to make when we have guests over.. * When ever that will be…….*

I had actually followed 2 different recipes, because I didn’t want to bake the stuff. And here we go with the recipe which is quiet simple and with a yummy result

For the custard:

Eggs- 3 nos.

Milk -1.5 cups.

Sugar - 1 cup ( i used only .75 cup)

For the caramel:

Sugar - 4 tbsp

A dash of water.

How to make the custard:

Boil the milk.Whisk the eggs and sugar together. (I dont have a hand mixer orblender.So used good old mixie so that i can get a nice fluffy texture)Now add the milk to the blended mixture.Blend well.Keep aside

How to Caramialise :

Take the sugar in a pan and add a dash of water to it.Turn on the heat and swirl the pan inorder to dissolve the sugar.Let the mixture boil. Keep swirling in between.Slowly the mixture will turn it's colour. Once it is a golden browntake it off the stove and immedieately pour it into the dish kept forsetting the pudding in.Make sure the dish is dry, or there is a chanceof the caramel splashing once in contact with water.(I used a cake tinto set the pudding in)Now pour the blended mixture into the same dish.

How to steam:

Cover the top of this dish with a Al. foil.Immerse the dish into a vessel with some water in its bottom.Steam the dish for about 20 minutes or till a knife comes out clean.Now you can refrigerate the pudding . Once it is chilled, invert thepudding onto a serving plate, so that the caramel side comes on top :)

Now sit back and enjoy......

Naming

One of the bloggers i follow, The Blue Bride did write a very nice blog about what her kids addresses their immediate family. I got enthu about it and decided to note down Dan's list over here.

Since Gin and me belong to the same community and to the same state, we call both our parents Appa and Amma. Though it creates confusions at times, we survive by addressing them as Thrissur Appa-Amma and Kottayam Appa-Amma, without much of a disaster.

But when the kid was about to be born i didnt want the baby to distinguish the grandparents with a prefix. I think everyone in my family did call the grandparents on both sides Appacha Ammachi and just differentiated them with the prefix. I used to call my maternal grandparents Vakathanam Appacha-Ammachi and the paternal ones were just Appacha-Ammachi. I wonder how my Amma felt about it. I should remember to ask her the next time :) I clearly didnt want it with our kid. And Gin's niece did rescue me from this situation by starting a tradation of calling the grandparents by Maama-Ajjajja :) Who am i to change this wonderful tradition and hence Daniel's paternal grandparents are Maama-Ajjajja and his maternal grandies are addressed as Appacha-Ammachi :-) Win-win isnt it.....

Daniel is very blessed to have one of his great grandparents around. And all the more now, because he is spending time with her in Kottayam. He and her other great grand kids (6 in all) refer to our Ammachi as Valiyammachi....

Our eldest niece did name her mothers younger sisters as "ko"". It was the short form for Kochamma, which is what mothers younger sisters are addressed as. So Daniel also follows the same and that leaves CHech and her husband. They are refered to as Valiyammi and valiyappa. I find that very cute. The brother is addressed as Ammacha and the big cousin brothers caption is still remaining blank ,but his wife will be called P ammayi....

We havent yet decided what Dan will call GIn's brother and wife... I guess we will go with G chachen and R kochamma, the same way as Gin refers to his Appa's brothers and wives.

I think the important people or the people with whom Daniel will interact frequently are named and to his credit he recognises most of them. It was simply amazing when he recongnised whom we were talking about when the subject of Bek-Nan-Tama came up and he promptly pointed to their snaps on the refrigerator. And i dont think he remembers seeing them around 4 months back in May.

Another name worth mentioning is one of my cousins on my Amma's side. She insisted on making Daniel address her as Mema :) I guess that is how northern kerala folks address mothers younger sister. :)

So that is how the nomenclature goes on in the Punnoose family.....