Happy's Cook

Sunday, January 04, 2015

Tuticorin Macaroon | Thoothukudi Macaroon | Christmas Special Recipes | My 150th Post

You are reading my 150th post!! It's been a wonderful ride and this blog gives me so much energy in my day-to-day activities. When I started this blog, I often wonder if my interest in the blog would wane after the initial enthusiasm. Here, I am with 100+ posts in this lovely space of mine. I'm still not posting as often I would like, but it's definitely better. I take this opportunity to thank all my friends and family who encourages me with their support.

Today's post is about my childhood favourite Tuticorin Macaroon. This special type of macaroon is available in Tuticorin, a place in southern Tamil Nadu. Macaroons in general are made from ground almonds. Tuticorin macaroons are different since they have cashew nuts as their major ingredient. One kg of Tuticorin Macaroon costs around Rs 600. My chithi is from tuticorin and whenever she visits us, she brings macaroon. The last time she even couriered us this to chennai on request of my mom for Happy. I tried this for Christmas and it came out really well. I packed few for my team mates and I got good feedback from them. With the measurement given below, I got 250 grams of Macaroon.

Happy and Jany enjoys it to the core. When I was editing the pictures, Happy was asking "Maco venum"(Need Macroon) :) So Planning for a next batch in the coming weekend for her.

Prawn Dum Biryani Recipe | Prawn Biryani

I wanted to post many Biryani and Pulao recipes in this space. I have already posted Chicken Biryani here and Mutton Biryani here. I have few other biryani recipes in my drafts, which I will be posting it soon. Today's post is especially for seafood lovers like me. I baked the half cooked rice and prawn masala by layering it alternatively in this recipe. You can dum cook it as well in stove top and I have explained it at the end of the recipe.

Vattayappam Recipe | Vattayeppam | Sweetened Steamed Rice Cake

Happy New Year 2015 to all my friends and their families. Hope everyone is having a wonderful time!!! To begin this year, I am presenting the traditional Kerala tea time snack, Vattayappam recipe. Vattayappam is a steamed round cake leavened with yeast, flavoured with cardamom, sweetened with sugar or jaggery and garnished with ghee fried cashews and raisins. Here, we go for the step-by-step preparation.

Chocolate Cupcake | Chocolate Cupcake with Whipped cream frosting | Christmas Special Recipes

Cupcakes may come in many flavours, but the chocolate cupcakes are still everyone's favourite. It's my dream come true to make cupcakes decorated with frosting and sprinkles. Since we don't prefer butter cream frosting, I tried it with whipped cream. The cakes turned out to be super spongy and looks adorable. Though the decorations I made are not professional, we loved it. This is one of the best holiday dessert in this festive season. Let's go for the preparation steps:

Vanilla Tutti Frutti Cake | Tutti Fruit Cupcake | Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake| Christmas Special Recipes

Tutti Frutti brings back beautiful childhood memories. Mom always had tutti frutti in her pantry. Whenever she makes vanilla ice-cream, the simple topping she uses is the tutti frutti. She even uses tutti frutti along with coconut and sugar as stuffing when she makes kozhukattai. I am obsessed with this now and grab a pack whenever I find it in the supermarket. Already I have posted tutti frutti cookies and this time I made a loaf cake along with some cupcakes. The cake is absolutely soft, moist and fluffy. Let's go for the step-by-step preparation of this delicious plain sponge cake.

Final pictures updated on 14/12/2020

Chicken Kuruma | Chicken Gravy | Chicken Recipes

When it comes to chicken curry, I mostly make mom's varutharacha chicken curry which I posted here. My friend gave me this yummy chicken kuruma recipe and it goes very well mainly with tiffin. It resembles the taste of the salna we get in hotels for Parotta. This is also one of my family favourite chicken dish which I make. Off to the recipe:

Chocolate Walnut Fudge Brownie Recipe | Christmas Special Recipes

Yet another recipe from Gateway's Pastry Chef Joe Francis. I prefer to have milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate. Jany, on the other hand, has always been a dark chocolate addict. So I always wanted to try a brownie for him. When Joe gave the recipe, I was super excited and gave it a try. The chocolate brownie is very rich and can be served as a dessert with a dollop of vanilla icecream. These brownies are very soft, moist, dense, fudgy and chocolaty. The walnuts add extra zing to the brownies. So this is for all the chocoholics out there.

The only challenge with all Brownies is how long they should be baked. This is a fudgy brownie and these brownies are done when the toothpick inserted still has a little batter clinging to it and a few moist clumps. The top of the brownie will have cracks. The brownies are over baked if the toothpick is clean. Always use cooking dark chocolate for this recipe. If you are looking for a cakey brownie, then you should bake my Eggless Walnut Brownie. I have a peanut butter banana fudge brownie recipe as well in the blog.