This Kue Lapis I post here is my mother's recipe. Normally, she will use fresh Pandan Leaves and Suji Leaves to get the green color and the aroma. But we can use Pandan Pasta instead. Because it's kind a difficult to find the leaves here in India. If Pandan pasta is not available, replace it with green food color (or any color you like) and a little vanilla ekstract to get the good aroma.

Ingredients:
For Fish Masala:
500 grams King Fish
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 - 2 tsp chili powder (as required)
1/2 tsp salt

3 Onions (big size), finely sliced
1 big tomato, chopped
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
2 tbsp curd
1 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
salt as required

For the Rice
3 cups of Basmati rice
6 cups of water
1 Onion, chopped
2 tbsp ghee
5 cardamom pods, Crushed
3 sticks of cinnamon
3 cloves
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt (as required)

Roasted Cashew Nuts and Yellow raisins..

Preparing the fish:
Clean and wash the fish pieces, drain it well. Marinate them in turmeric powder, chili powder and salt for about 1/2 - 1 hour. Heat oil in a pan, then fry the marinated fish. Keep aside

Preparing the masala:
Heat a small amount of oil in pan. Add sliced onions and fry on a low flame, till it becomes slightly brown. On medium flame, add ginger-garlic-green chilly paste and tomato, stir it until it become paste around 5 minutes. Add garam masala powder,curd, coconut milk, coriander leaves and salt and stir it for 5 min. Add fried fish pieces and reduce the flame and cook till it starts to boil. Keep a side.

Preparing the rice:
Heat ghee in a pan.Add cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and onions and fry till onion turn slightly brown. Add rice and stir for another 5 minutes. In a pressure cooker put water along with salt and let it boil. Pour the rice into the boiling water then close the cooker with the lid and cook until one wistle. Turn off the flame.

Preparing the biriyani:
Take a deep bottom vessel and layer rice and fish masala. Pour 2 tbsp of ghee and tightly cover with a lid. Keep it on a very low flame for 10 min.Garnish with roasted nuts and raisins.

Onde-onde ketawa. It means Laughing Onde-onde (!?). No, better not to translate it to English.... ;-p. It sounds better if we call it just like it should be : Onde-onde Ketawa.

Ingredients:
100 ml water
175 grams white sugar (I used only 150 grams)
1 egg
2 tbsp cooking oil
300 grams all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp soda powder
100 gram white sesame seeds
oil for frying

Boil water and sugar in a pan until the sugar dissolved. Let it cool. Beat cooking oil together with egg in a low speed mixer until well combined (2 -3 minutes). Add sugar syrup little by little and beat them for another 1 minute. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda powder into the sugar mixture. Mix well with a spatula.

Make balls (10 grams each) from the batter. Drop it into water, then roll it over a bowl of sesame seeds. Deep fry the balls in medium hot oil with medium flame until golden brown. Remove from pan. Drain it with kitchen towel.

Ingredients:
500 grams tapioca, finely grated (or make a paste of tapioca)
100 grams fresh grated coconut
200 grams jaggery, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla powder (optional)
2 - 3 banana, cut into long pieces
banana leaves as required

Mix all the ingredients until well-combined. Take one sheet of banana leaf. Put one tablespoon of tapioca mixture and add one piece of banana. Wrap them by rolling the banana leaf and fold in both end of the leaf. Repeat wrapping process to the remaning mixture. Put all the wrapped lemet into a hot steamer, and steam for 40 - 50 minutes. Let it cool before serve.

Tips:
- To make the work easier with the banana leaves, heat the surface of the leaves over a small flame. It will make it more soft and easy to fold without breaking it.
- To make the tapioca paste, you can cut them to small pieces and put it in a blender (food processor) instead of grate it.

Recipe Source: Lemet Pisang a la Bunda

For recipe please visit DapurBunda or click here

I was in a trip to Hyderabad a couple years ago when the first time I tried this kind of tea. Normally, I make an ordinary type of tea. Simply boil some water and add tea powder in it. Sometimes I pour in milk or just let it plain without milk and sugar. Even enjoying tea with milk is quite a new thing for me. I just knew it after my marriage with my husband, and learn about tea time tradition in India.

This Masala Chai tastes excellent. I fell in love with it instantly. When I reached back to my home in Cochin, I started to make my own masala chai. Well, it takes more time for me to get the best taste I expected. But this recipe below is perfect. At least for me and my husband. So enjoy your tea...

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
3 tsp tea leaves/ 2 tsp powdered tea
1 piece of Dry Ginger, crushed
4 cardamom seeds, crushed
4 cloves
1 piece cinnamon stick
4 black pepercorn
1 cup of whole milk
sugar as you desire

In a medium pot, bring water to boil, add tea leaves/powdered tea to it. Boil again until the liquid darken. Add all the masala to the tea. And let it simmer for another 30 seconds to 1 minute. Do not over-boil because it will make the tea taste too strong. Remove the tea from the heat. Strain and pour the tea to 3 cups equally. Add milk and sugar as desired. Your Masala Chai are ready to serve.

There is a very easy way to make the Chai in a minute. Go to a big Supemarket and get yourself an Instant Masala Tea Powder in a box .. ;-p

You don't need to add anything to it, except milk of course. Just boil it with water and the Chai is ready. I brought some of these Instant Masala Tea to Jakarta early this year when I go home to visit my parents and family. It's so easy to make...

Well, I got to go now... Want to enjoy my tea... :-)