Simple Chocolate Cake!!!

I have started making smaller portions of cakes. For two reasons – much smaller portions get distributed amomgst family members, which are health-wise good & second is I get to try different varieties at shorter intervals. It also gives me a chance to improvise on the dish, next time around.

So, immediately after the coconut cupcakes, decided to make a chocolate cupcake.. Have actually video-shot making the coconut cupcake, but due to some technical errors, can’t seem to edit it… don’t know when that will happen – my first video blog

Ingredients              

Dark chocolate	60 gms	Melted
Butter	60 gms	Cut in smaller pieces
Brown Sugar	1/4th cup
Eggs	1
Cocoa powder	2 tspn	Sifted
All-purpose flour (maida)	1/4th cup	Sifted
Baking powder	1 tspn	Sifted

Method

this is before the melted chocolate

1.    Put the pieces of dark chocolate in a saucepan over low heat and let it melt (keep checking and stirring or else it might start burning. I started this step just before the melted chocolate goes in the blender). Remove 10% of the chocolate bar and make very small pieces of those and keep aside

2.    Preheat oven to 160°C





3.    Cut the butter into small pieces and put them alongwith the brown sugar in a bowl. Blend both with an electric hand mixer (till such times, the mixture becomes even; u will still find the crunchiness of the brown sugar – don’t worry about it. Keep blending for 5 to 6 minutes)

4.    Add egg to the mixture and further blend for 2 minutes

5.    Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and add all of them to the blender to whisk more



in the greased cupcake; ready to go
in the oven



6.    Now, add the melted chocolate for a good 2 to 3 minutes (the mixture becomes nice and gooey & there should be no roughness of the brown sugar. Try it now to correct it in terms of more chocolate or sugar) (here, u can add those small pieces of chocolate. Do not blend after you add the pieces. We want the pieces to be felt while eating)





7.    Put the mixture in a greased baking tin or cupcakes (I used cupcakes for this dish – could fill in 3 cupcakes). I greased the cupcakes nicely with butter and baked for 30 minutes at 160°C (keep checking with a tooth-pick until it is withdrawn clean)

8.    Let it rest in the outside for 15 – 20 minutes in the tins

9.    Remove and gobble..

It goes well with a chocolate sauce on top.. I avoided it..

An honest and sweet delicacy awaits you.. gather around the table and eat it together.. quickly…

Another Donna Hay Recipe

Attempt at Some salad!!!

Me and Anushka have always been salad freaks. We love the greens and the leaves on the plate.

If I have nothing planned to do, then I just make a salad – so, you see me either doing either of this – cutting in cubes, dicing, slicing in juliennes, peeling.. then either serving it with basic seasoning of salt and pepper or a dash of vinegar at times or honey or olive oil or just some mixture of the above.

Yesterday, I made something and can’t figure what I should call it. Anushka lives by the rules and would never suggest mixing a warm and a cold salad. For me, it’s what the heck???

SO, I call it – “Tomato salsa on a bed of sautéed spinach"

Ingredients              

Tomatoes	2 small	Diced very finely
Onions	2 small	Diced vertically
Spinach	10 sprigs	Blanched
Available herb	½ tbspn	I used rosemary; u can use thyme or oregano
Onions	2	Finely chopped
Tomato	1	Finely chopped
Olive oli	1 tbpsn
Cumin	1 tspn
Salt	To taste
Pepper	To taste
Carrots	Some long juliennes	For garinsh

Method

1.    Blanch the spinach – put the spinach in boiling hot water for not more than a minute. Remove and it straight goes in refrigerated cold water

2.    Remove from the water and cut it finely. Keep aside

3.    In a frying pan, sauté the cumin and onions over 1 tbspn of olive oil. Add the blanched cut spinach and keep stirring for few minutes. Add salt and pepper. Keep aside to rest

4.    In a separate bowl, combine the diced tomatoes, rosemary, salt and pepper and keep aside (haven’t put onions in this; although I would have loved to use the green part of spring onions)

5.    In a serving bowl, layer the bottom with the sautéed spinach, lay the carrots to stand on the side and put the salsa tomato in the centre of the bowl

6.    Serve!!!

I enjoyed making it! loved eating it!! Bon appétit!!!

Conti - istyle!!!

Wednesday, 9^th November 2011

We were just back from a beautiful vacation. 6 Nights spent in bangalore, mysore and coorg. Great trip.. great memories..

This was the day when I was still on leave and as usual, headed to the supermarket to buy some things, when…

 Anushka gave me a long list of ingredients to get from the market. Comprised of chicken breasts and legs, paneer (cottage cheese), dil and curd. Not fully knowing what she is cooking with them, had a faint idea that it’s going to be some continental dish.

Roughly at 1pm, the dishes were platted and served on the dining table and voila, this was simply fine-dine types.

The Menu:

·         Grilled chicken with red wine sauce,

·         roasted potatoes served with sour dil (shepu, in Marathi) cream &

·         simply sautéed herbed veggies.

Sounds great, tasted even better

Grilled chicken with wine sauce, herbed veggies and roasted potatoes, served with dill cream

Now, the thing with anushka is she has something in mind for a recipe and she just, on her instinct, starts cooking, selecting and adding ingredients and turns it into a fine dish. So, when I ask her for the recipe am not sure she knows..

Like the spaghetti primavera, I have to be content with images and the lingering taste.. no recipe, though!!!

Chicken Chettinaad

This was not a pre-decided dish. Anushka was out of Mumbai on a Sunday for her friend’s wedding. So, three of us – me, aarya and my dad headed to the super market to buy groceries, household stuff and non-veg. Fish was the main thing..

While crossing aisles, I saw one readymade pack of chettinaad masala.. looked interesting. Then turned around and bought 500 gms chicken to cook it with..

Ingredients              

Chicken	500 gms	1” Cubes (with bones)
Oil	3 – 4 tspns
Mustard seeds (rai)	2 tspn
Curry leaves	20 leaves
Onions	2	Finely chopped
Tomato	1	Finely chopped
Turmeric powder	¼ tspn
Chettinaad masala	4 tbpsn
Water	1 cup
Salt	To taste
Coriander	Few sprigs	For garnish
Tomato	1	Sliced vertically, for garnish

Method

1.    In a deep frying pan, saute some mustard seeds (rai) and curry leaves in oil (till such time the seeds starts splattering; don’t want it to burn)

2.    Add the onions, turmeric powder and keep stirring for few minutes (more than the translucent stage of the onions)

3.    Add the chettinaad readymade masala and stir for more 2 or 3 minutes. Later, put the diced tomatoes and stir more

4.    Add the chicken in the pan and coat chicken with the entire mixture (let the chicken cook here for 3 to 5 minutes before the next stage)

5.    Add ¾ cup of water to the mix and cook for few minutes (depending on your choice, you can add more water if you want little more gravy (sauce); inherently, this dish is a dry (sukka) dish, but you can always swing it to make it a curry – tastes excellent with rice)

6.    Garnish your dish with coriander and sliced tomatoes on the side

7.    Ready to serve with either chapatti, paratha, roti or steaming rice

Ready to be served; picture taken before sprinkling coriander

another sweet - Chocolate Swirl pastry

I had been ignorant of the pleasures of the process of baking a cake, pastry or cookies and have recently started enjoying using my convection microwave to bake delicacies. Hence, once would see more of such recipes.

We were expecting guests at our place for Sunday and there was an elaborate lunch planned. My mum made vegetarian biryani with raita and valachi bhaji* (another words are dalimbi or birda) and wifey cooked fusili primavera (veg), paneer chilly and garlic bread. So, I decided to bake some sweet.

Now, the guests included 2 of my cousins – cousin sister’s family is strictly vegetarian and cousin brother’s wife (who is pregnant) has turned strictly vegetarian for her pregnancy. Hence, I had to bake a dish without eggs.

At Saturday 2:30 pm, after lunch, decided to bake it. The dish was called ‘Chocolate Swirl Cake’. The outcome was nothing compared to the visuals I had in mind before I started making it. This was inspired by Donna Hay’s recipe.

Although, by renaming the cake, it can go very well as a pastry. The outer-covering was hard and crusty, with lots of chocolate flavor in the middle. The picture can elaborate more on the description..

Ingredients              

Self-raising (rising) flour	1 ½ cup
Caster Sugar	¼ cup	Super-fine
Butter	40 gms	In cubes
Milk	½ cup	A little warm
Dark chocolate	50 to 75 gms	Finely chopped

Method

1.    Preheat oven to 180°C

2.    Place the flour and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine

3.    Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

4.    Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk. Use a butter knife to gradually mix the milk into the flour mixture until just combined (it should resemble a flour dough)

5.    Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gently bring the dough together. Roll out to a 18cm x 24cm rectangle (should look like a paratha, after rolling dough with a rolling-pin)

6.    Sprinkle with the chocolate and roll up to enclose (after sprinkling chocolates, roll like you would do in case of a chapatti roll – it will look like a frankie)

7.    Place in a baking tin lined with baking paper. Brush with extra milk and bake for 25–30 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer

8.    Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and ready to be gorged

Like I said, it turned more like a hard-crusted pastry instead of a cake.. All in all, it was great to eat and was comparatively easy to make