A Pinch of Love

Wish list - Kashmiri pulao

2012-01-17T23:34:00.010+02:00

Hola gente! I had tank list of dreams to chase soon after PhD, like very student have, to do this to do that, my list is still growing. One on the priority is to travel to Spain, Iceland, Athens and once again to Rome to eat all over again and again! let me see how far i can go. When mum was here we planned but couldn't get them working, winter was too rough on her. But we had gala time with heavy baking and shopping. She flew to India and i'm back to work as post doctorate researcher for short term, not doing much of research work i seriously mean it! You know dissertation hang over, i need full solid holiday to get out of it, which i hardly see any near! There are more than 15 recipes, many trip photos to edit and post, which should be one among the wish list....so better get active and stop ranting. (note to self).

Lets go Kashmiri pulao which mum made last year, for my Finnish God parents they thoroughly enjoyed it. Since combination of fruits, nuts and salty rice is something special. Not many may like and i can't handle pineapple there. The very tiny tinky pineapple in photo was used just for the photoshoot. The use of fruit can be according to ones own choice, make sure to mix the fruit with lukewarm rice just before you serve, to prevent cooking of fruit, if done well in advance pulao may become slushy.

Ingredients

150 gram basmathi rice

1 tbspn ghee

1 tbspn oil

1 large onion sliced

2-3 green chilies slit

3 bay leaves

1 star anies

2 mace of nutmeg

good pinch of black cumin seeds/shajeera

5 cloves

2 inch cinnamon

1/4 tspn ginger garlic paste

Salt to taste

Water required according to rice variety ( I used 1 and half glass of water)

Cut fruits 100 gram or more depending on your taste (we used apple, orange, grapes, mango, pomegranate and pear)

Almonds 10 numbers skinned and fried to golden brown (to skin soak almonds in water and peal the skin)

Cashews 10 numbers fried to golden brown

1 tbspn of finely chopped coriander

Method

Soak basmathi rice for 30 minutes. In a big pot (heat medium high), add oil and ghee. When oil warms up, add in cinnamon, cloves, star anies wait for 30 seconds for them to warm, then quickly add in bay leaves, mace of nutmeg, green chilies. Next onion goes in soon after the spices starts to splutter, fry the onions till they turn transparent or pale pink, don't fry for too long or colour of rice will change (manage heat accordingly). Followed by quick frying of ginger garlic paste till raw flavor subsides. Drain the rice and and add in and fry for about 2 minutes. Add required amount of water, salt and cook for 2 minutes on high heat, then turn it to medium heat for about 12 - 15 minutes. Check after 10 minutes if the rice is 75 % cooked and turn the heat to low. (If you are using hot plate turn off the heat) and let them rest for another 10 minutes. After which give it a very gentle stir. Mix cut fruit, chopped coriander and fried nuts with lukwarm rice and serve immediately!

To prevent oxidation of fruits squeeze few drops of lemon juice.

Happy New Year - Chocolate Kiwi - Mousse Cake

2011-12-30T19:19:00.001+02:00

Another year is coming to an end, and it has a been a glorious end, with me designated as Dr.Ananda Rajashekar. I'm yet to come back from state of elation. It was a beautiful experience, hard to describe in few words with a nervous start in the morning, then gradually getting engrossed in conveying my 6 yrs of research followed by hours of thoughtful discussion.... The day ended with great party with most dear people, cherished speech, gifts and their love.....A day I enjoyed the most and a day I would remember for life! Will write more in detail with pictures soon!

Thought i'm still enjoying my ~~holiday~~ break feels fantastic to be back into delicious world of blogging. This cake was baked for my dear friends birthday. Since Kiwi is her fav fruit, the creation of this cake happened. I tried my hands on kiwi mousse, but kiwi didn't allow the mousse to set, so ended up with simple mascarpone, fresh cream and kiwi, it worked wonders....birthday girl was happy!

Here is glossy cake and me wishing you all a joyful and wish fulfilling New Year. Big shout thank you all you lovely people, for all your support and wishes for past months!

Picture straight from birthday party!

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

4 eggs

150 gram sugar

110 gram all purpose flour

50 ml of oil

1/4 tspn salt

1 1/4 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn baking soda

2 1/2 tbspn cocoa powder

1 1/2 tspn vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Butter, flour and line the bottoms 18 cm round cake pan.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and sieve to mix.
In a separate bowl, beat sugar and egg yolk until creamy, next add in vegetable oil. In a another separate bowl beat in white egg to soft peak. Very gently incorporate white egg and dry ingredients in parts to the sugar yolk mixture till well combined. After the cake batter is mixed well. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake it for about 35-40 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Kiwi Mascarpone whipped cream:

250 gram mascarpone cheese

200 ml whipping cream

80 gram sugar (Depending on the sweetness)

1 tspn vanilla extra

3 ripen kiwi fruit, (de skin and dice the fruit to small piece )

Combine sugar and cream and beat until single stiff peaks are formed. Soften mascarpone cheese and combine with whipped cream, whipping cream on low speed till soft peaks are formed, be careful not to over beat them. Mix diced fruit to whipped cream.

Chocolate Ganache

250ml Fresh cream

250gram Dark chocolate chopped (But I used milk chocolate)

30gram Butter

Bring the cream to boil in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and throw in the chocolate and let them rest for 2 minutes then add butter and let aside for about 5 to 10 minutes and very gently mix the chocolate till they become glossy and has good pouring consisting. If it too runny let them rest for a while for them to thicken.

Assembly

Start assembling the cake while waiting for the ganache

Slice the cake into three layers,

Divide the cream in two portions

Place top layer of the cake at the bottom and spread one portion of the cream uniformly, try not to take cream to corners. Now place the middle layer of the cake give a very gentle press next spread the other portion of the cream. Now place top layer of the cake. Place the cake on the wire rack, pour the ganache on the cake and tap them a bit till it spread uniformly. Top it fresh fruit or anything you desire!

D-Day coming up!!

2011-12-11T18:39:00.003+02:00

The date I will be defending my thesis is on Dec 16th. Join me and send me all your wishes. You all have been a part of my PhD journey. Without all your good wishes the day wouldn't be complete. Thesis is ready, this is the copy of pre-print version (today i'm correcting printing errors). Presentation is ready, wardrobe is ready, venue, menu all set and organised. I'm excited equally nervous.... Sigh!!....all I dream of is my opponent whipping and baking me as a cake!

Here goes my invitation and copy of my thesis to you all :) will get back pretty soon!

A guest post by Devaki Das from Weave Thousand Flavors - Cantina Carnitas, Soft Tacos and Pico De Gallo.

2011-11-20T00:18:00.002+02:00

Oh I miss being here, its been a month i logged in to see what is happening so many new comments and appreciation, sorry lovely people, last four week has been hysterical. I hardly slept but now i'm bit on the relaxed side. Yesterday I submitted my articles and thesis for pre-examination. Officially my dissertation date is also marked, its 16th of Dec, my opponent is from IBM, USA: I'm pretty excited, getting ready for open war haha...have less than a month to get prepared, fingers crossed, will put my best foot forward to work harder....shall soon post in my invitation for dissertation and party ...get prepared to join me :)

Devaki Das from Weave Thousand Flavors is here to energies latent APL. Devaki isn't new here, most of you know she was the winner of zucchini competition. A lady who I adore, for all the scrumptious food she makes and the way she pens. I'm a person who lack when it comes to vocabulary, her blog is a dictionary for me to learn new words and note down in my own notebook of words, since until unless i write them down, it can never reach brain. All her prawn recipe brings me on my knees, one of which i have baked atleast 3-5 time so far is spanish style baked prawns and don't miss to read this post, me and mum so much enjoyed reading it, will related to every blogger family, few other favorites are rassavala chicken and tres leches cake. Devaki a bag full of thanks for accepting and do this post, bearing with me for delays, request and for the hug.... you are a sweetheart. So people here is Devaki from Weave Thousand Flavors which will take to the sunny lanes of soulful wide range of deliciousness and vivacious thoughts!

Oh ya as this is dangerously good pork recipe, as Devaki says and first pork recipe in apl!

For those of us who have been following Ananda here for any length of time are wise to a few things :

1. Ananda is the reigning Queen of desserts & cakes

2. There are few who rule the camera like she does

3. And she is in the last throes of her doctoral thesis which makes us fellow bloggers oscillate between moments of awe to moments where we just want to give her a big hug like a mama bear (well maybe that’s just me)

So when Ananda asked me to do a guest post on her blog, not only did I jump on the opportunity with a fair amount of gushing but decided to stay well clear on the subject of desserts and other such sugary delights.

Instead I bring you exciting spicy flavors from yonder - namely Mexico. Now most of you don’t know me from Adam and therefore I think we should kick off our first introductions on a proper footing i.e. complete honesty. You see when it comes to some eats I suffer from a predilection of culinary snobbery.

For those of us who lived or have for any length of time lived it those states of the US that abut the Mexican border, we've had the opportunity to taste some seriously good Mexican grub.

Not the kind that is regularly dished out to the unsuspecting folk in other parts of the world but the kind available in little cantinas, barrios and little abuela-owned hole-in-the-wall places.

So you will forgive me when I don't jump up and down in glee when you suggest we go for 'Mexican' in let's say – Maine or Paris. I mean no offense but I wouldn't dream of getting lobster rolls in Arizona or Paris - so there, we're even!

Now before I offer you the recipe for some of the very best Carintas you will ever chow on, let me be clear - there is no one true and blue recipe for Carnitas - it's a recipe that has evolved naturally with each family adding their own special twist. I know families who marinate theirs in orange juice, many in beer, some load theirs with hot serrano chiles and some who barely spice theirs at all.

My Carnitas have evolved over the time we spent in the Southwestern US. And I won't tweak it, change it or mess with it for all the Dos Equis in the world. The pork is spiced, marinated in beer overnight and then slow cooked for about 6 hours. Once shredded, I add no additional fat and saute it in its own juices till the meat is a rich mahogany brown.

The meat is served over griddle warmed corn tortillas with a touch of ghee (oh yes! clarified butter has been used in traditional Mexican cooking for ages) & double layers of pan fried corn tortillas to soak up the juices of course!

Finally topped with Pico De Gallo. What makes this dangerously good? In addition to the usual ingredients of tomatoes, onions, cilantro and jalapenos, the trio of lime, beer, & sugar work their magic and takes this Pico De Gallo to a whole other level.

Pork butt is the meat of choice which by the way has nothing to do with piggy bottom. It's rather the upper portion of the shoulder.

Enough talk - it's time to put the Carnitas where the mouth is & see for your self!

Gather the ingredients for :

Carnitas :

4-5 lb pork butt, bone-in

1 jalapeno

4 garlic cloves
1 medium yellow onion,

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs New Mexico ground chile (or another chile with dry-heat)

2 cups beer Dos Equis or a South American beer of choice

2 limes

1/2 tbs salt

Pico De Gallo:

9 cocktail, campari or grape tomatoes (to yield 2 cups)

1 small red spanish onion (to yield 1/2 cup chopped)

2 garlic cloves

1 jalapeno chile,

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1/4 cup beer

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 lime

~
Corn tortillas, 6-8 per person (2 per soft taco)
Ghee for pan frying

Prepare the ingredients -

Onion - Peel, discard ends and skin and roughly chop.

Garlic cloves - Peel, discard skin and cut into rounds.

Jalapeno - Halve. Do not deseed.

Limes - Halve and juice

In a non-reactive mixing bowl combine all the above ingredients including the ground chiles, cumin and cinnamon. Rub together with clean fingers.

Pork Butt - Cut into big chunks. Leave the fat and bone as-is.

Place the pork butt in a large gallon plastic, zip-loc bag. Add the marinade from the bowl into the bag and rub all over the meat. Wash hands throughly with soap and water. Just before sealing the bag, pour the beer in the bag. Seal bag and refrigerate, overnight.

Next morning - Before you head out to work or for a busy weekend :

Remove the meat from the ziploc bag and place all its contents into the slow cooker. Set to cook for 6-8 hours on high setting.

Remove the meat on a platter or use a cookie sheet if you prefer - with a large slotted spoon. Leave the juices in the slow cooker for the moment. Using kitchen shears cut away and discard all excess fat and the bone. Using two forks shred the meat as best you can.

In a large saute pan add all the shredded meat and meat juices from the slow cooker.

Simmer on high heat till all the excess liquid has evaporated. Continue to saute on medium heat till the meat begins to stick at the bottom of the pan and the meat is a wonderful rich brown hue. This whole process should take about 30-40 minutes.

The meat will cook in its own fat and will be incredibly moist and juicy. Taste and adjust salt if needed.

Meanwhile, begin working on the Pico De Gallo :

Prepare the ingredients -

Tomatoes - If using cocktail or campari tomatoes, was and quarter. if using grape tomatoes, halve.

Onion - Peel, discard ends and skin and finely chop.

Garlic cloves - Peel, discard skin and finely chop.

Jalapeno - Halve. Deseed and finely chop

Cilantro leaves - Discard stalks and finely chop

Limes - Halve and juice

In a serving bowl :

Add the beer, sugar, lime juice and salt to the chopped ingredients. Toss together. Taste and adjust seasonings. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving for flavors to mature.

To assemble & serve -

Warm the meat on a low-medium heat. Meanwhile prepare the corn tortillas.

Heat a griddle on medium-high heat. Add a 1/4 tsp of ghee when it fumes, place a corn tortilla on the griddle. When bubbles appear, flip over and add another 1/4 tsp ghee. Press down with a spatula to cook for a few seconds. Remove and keep warm on a plate lined with a cloth napkin.

Repeat till desired number of corn tortillas are warmed and ready to serve.

Cook's Note - I needed 8 for each of the grown-ups and 4 each for the kids. That serves 3 carnitas soft tacos per grown-up and 2 for each of the kids.

Best served hot, place two warm corn tortillas on a serving plate, pile high with Carnitas and top with Pico De Gallo

Serve immediately. While you fold over each of the tacos and bite into it, while the juices flow down your chin, I'll be surprised if you don't let out a sound of pleasure only to realize it came from you!

I urge you to treat yourself to culinary 7th heaven and fix these.

Thank You once again to Ananda and A Pinch of Love for having me over and to all of you for taking the time to read this post.

xoxo

Devaki @ Weave A Thousand Flavors

A guest post by Anamika Arun from Taste Junction - Aloo Paneer Kofta in Makhni Gravy

2011-10-18T22:33:00.002+03:00

My fingers are still dancing on key boards non stop! I never thought that writing thesis would need creativity, it not only needs some but a LOT taking away all the oxygen and blood from brain. There is no realization of what day it is or if at all it is morning or night. Though I knew this how it will be, living thro' it is very challenging. Am waiting for my mom to arrive to give me a hug and a bowl of warm food...sometime to get to kitchen for a simple dinner is like moving a mountain!

With this scenario Anamika of Taste Junction wholeheartedly volunteered to write a post for me. Not so long ago Anamika stopped by my blog, I visited hers just few time, sincere apology to her and to many others, since i'm doing no justice, but shall return back to normal mode within two months! Her blog as it says is a junction where cuisines from world meets. I was seriously surprised when she gave me options to pick for a guest post, she sounded like a pro chef! From all her great recipe dahi vada stole my heart, exactly what i would like to enjoy now ...so why wait for here is very talent Anamika from Taste Junction. And thanks bunches Anamika for understanding and coming over you saved my nerves

Just like any home reflects the personality of the resident; so do I feel about the virtual window or the blog. The moment I visit a new blog, I immediately personify the blogger with the cues of the space. And though technical aspects have a huge role to play in that, yet there are some sure sure-shot giveaways, like the choice of color schemes, fonts and writing style.

So the very first time I visited Ananda's blog (which unfortunately was not too long ago), I felt a sense of calmness and aesthetics. And after lingering a little more than I needed to, admiring her beautifully captured images and thoughtfully prepared delicacies, I knew it was not going to be a short stay.

So here I'm, pleased to take this appreciation a step further with a guest post, while she dedicated herself to some meaningful research. I'm sure her tired body and mind can get a bit re-engerised after having some home made comfort food.

I'm sharing with you all a popular North Indian curry – Aloo paneer kofta in makhi gravy. You might even be knowing this dish as “Malai kofta”. Difference is that malai kofta is sweeter with cashews/ rasins/sugar and richer with cream, while this is lighter and bit on the spicier side than sweet. But to offset the spicy koftas, I add it to sweet makhni sauce to get a good balance.

Koftas are deep fried dumlings of spiced and mashed vegetables. This one is made with potatoes and cottage cheese. But 'kofta” of spinach, carrots and cauliflowers, lauki are also very popular. If you prefer you can bake the dumplings than frying, but of course the taste and texture will be little different.

Aloo Paneer Kofta in Makhni Gravy Recipe

Ingredients

For the Kofta:

3-4 large potatoes, boiled and mashed

3 tbsp of crumbled paneer

2 tbsp of grated carrots

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander

1- 2 finely chopped green chillies (as per taste)

3/4 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp chaat masala (optional)

½ tsp red-chilli powder

Salt To Taste

Oil for frying

For the gravy

½ kg tomatoes - chopped

1 tbsp cashews

1 bay leaf

1 tsp cumin

2-3 black peppercorn

1 cinnamon

1 clove

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp butter

Pinch of sugar

Salt as per taste

1 tsp red chilly powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp dhania powder

1/2 tsp kasturi methi

½ tbsp oil

1 tbsp butter

Method – for kofta:

Heat oil for frying in kadahi/ deep pan. Mix all the ingredients of the kofta in bowl. With a lightly greased palms, make small balls of the mixture.

Check if the oil is hot enough by putting a small drop of mixture. If it immediately comes on top, oil is ready. Now place koftas in it at high (gas mark 6) and then reduce it to medium-high (gas mark 4) to get crispy koftas.

Once well browned on both sides, drain on tissue and keep aside.

Method – for gravy:

Add ½ tbsp oil in a pan. Then add butter to it. Once butter melts, add bay leaf, cumin, peppercorns, clove & cinnamon. Let the cumin splutter

Then add the cashews & fry it for a while till lightly browned

Now add chopped tomatoes along with salt, sugar and all spices, except garam masala & kasturi methi

Add milk & cook tomatoes till all pulpy. Remove from stove & let it cool.

Remove the bay leaf and cinnamon and put in blender and blend it as puree with very little warm water (I like to keep some texture, but depends on you)

Put it back in the pan and bring it to a boil. Add kofta balls and add garam masala and crushed kasturi methi.

You can finish the dish with a tbsp of cream and chopped coriander.

If serving later:

Always add koftas to gravy only 10-15 mins before serving, since once added to gravy, kofta becomes soft and breaks. You can even warm up the kofta and gravy separately before adding it so that they do not beak and are at same temperature.

A guest post by Kankana Saxena from Sunshine & Smile - Cream Puffs filled with Strawberry and Mascarpone

2011-10-02T19:05:00.000+03:00

I'm trying my best to keep up with race of time, it is ridiculously running fast, possibly there is no way I could make it go bit slow.....sigh! Anyways I have started writing my thesis and the D day is not so far...shall keep you all posted as soon as it gets official, there is endless list of things to complete, send me good wishes folks, to reach the red line!

This week guest post is from Kankana of Sunshine & Smile chirpy young lady, exactly as her blog name says, very positive and encouraging! She never fails to impress me with every single post she makes. She is one among my friends with whom I very quickly gelled with, at-least from few emails I felt she is like my childhood friend, she being so organised tolerated my absent-mindedness. Thank you Kankana for coming over and making such a gorgeous dessert. Let me say it was a surprise dessert for me, thought I knew its gonna be a dessert I hardly knew wat it was....and these little darlings made my morning a day before. They took me to the days in Rome where I indulged in Sicilian dessert, as soon my defense is over I'm sure to bake them. So people jump over to Sunshine & Smile not only for her wonderful and indulging recipes but her beautiful pictures....you are sure to get hooked ...few fav of mine are ohh mushrooms, Rosemary in cookies and Baigan bharta pizza

Thanks a lot Ananda for inviting me over to your gorgeous space. It's truly an honor!

I visited Ananda's blog few months back and fell in love with it immediately, the layout, the photography and her baking skill, she is one talented girl. We became friends very quickly and with her busy schedule, we hardly get time to chat much but we stay connected. And when she said ’my heart always beats for sweets, anytime of the day', I wanted to make something sweet for her.

I am not much of a sweet tooth person, but there are few sweet treats to which I will never say 'No' and one of those is Cream Puffs. After some serious thought and hours of internet browsing, I decided to take an attempt and bake it at home.
And thank god I did ... cause they were delicious.

I was surprised and smiling from cheek to cheek as I saw those cream puffs rising tall in the oven. Kept my fingers crossed and hoped that it doesn't fall flat after a while. It didn't and they were still standing firm when I took these out of the oven. I kept staring impatiently for these to cool down and after a while, I held one in my hand.. they were perfect (at least in my world)!

I jumped like a crazy girl, told the whole world about it and did my happy dance for a very long long time :)
I am not much of a baker and that explains why I don't have any piping bag, without which it's tough to give the puffs a neat shape. Therefore, I improvised and used a zip-lock bag as my piping bag and as you can see, the shape weren't that bad either.
After the puffs came out the way I wanted, I had to look for some filling to use and what's better than mascarpone with strawberries, right?

It took me hardly any time to whip up the filling. The best way to enjoy these puffs is to slit these in half, spread your choice of cream filling and let these chill in the refrigerator for a while.
It was all worth the wait!

Every bite was delicious.. buttery.. creamy.. and the berries made it sweet and juicy. A perfect treat with pure indulgence!

This will make about 8 to 9 puffs.
Ingredients:
For the puffs
ñ 6 tbs unsalted butter
ñ 1 cup water
ñ 1-1/2 tsp sugar
ñ a pinch of salt
ñ 3 large eggs
ñ 1 cup all-purpose flour
For the filling
ñ 1 cup mascarpone cheese
ñ 1/2 cup heavy cream
ñ 1 cup powdered sugar (may vary depending of tartness or sweetness of strawberries)
ñ 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
In a deep pan, boil water and drop the butter in the water.
After the butter is melted, add sugar, salt and keep stirring.
Bring the heat to medium, add all the flour at once and using a wooden spoon, keep beating until the mixture forms a dough. This should take about 3 minutes.
Stop the heat and remove the pan from the stove.
The next step is to mix the eggs with the dough which can be done in two different ways :-
1. Beat all the eggs in a bowl. Then, pour the beaten eggs in the dough little bit at a time and keep stirring until all the eggs are mixed nicely with the dough (as shown here).
OR
2. Put the hot dough in the food processor, add the eggs all at once and pulse it for a while till it mixes properly (as shown here).
I used the second method to mix the dough with eggs until it was smooth and thick in texture.
Next, spoon or pipe 8 to 9 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet. Make sure to space them about 1-1/2 inch apart as they will spread while baking.
Wet the tip of your finger and tap the top of the dough slightly just to make sure it's smooth on top.
Bake it at 400 F for 15mins.
Reduce the heat to 350 F and bake for another 30 minutes or until they are all puffed up and get golden brown in color.
Once done, let these cool completely before you start filling.
For the filling, whip together mascarpone cheese with heavy cream and sugar till it's firm. Chop the strawberries and mix it with the cheese mix.
For final plating: Cut the puffs in half , spread the strawberries and cheese mix on the bottom half, place the top half of the puff shells and dust some icing sugar on top. You can serve it immediately, but I feel it tastes best when chilled for about an hour before you serve.
Enjoy!

A guest post by Tanvi Srivastava from Sinfully Spicy - Tomato-Mustard Shrimp Curry

2011-09-14T20:44:00.002+03:00

Haallo lovely people, I'm delighted to introduce to you another post from guest post series. This month treat is from Tanvi of Sinfully Spicy. She is the sweetest girl I have know form blogging world and the one on earth who gave me an award for cooking, may be will be the only one, can't forget for years to come. If you enjoy the the act of love and tad bit of emotions to go with ur food Sinfully Spicy is one place. One thing I have always enjoyed in Tanvi's blog is the way she beautifully pens stories related to the food she makes. Many time it reflects her mom kitchen or her family cooking together which is most case at my home too, so you know why I land in there! Not only you will find delectable spicy food in her blog which she definitely is famous for but bunch of decadent desserts with gorgeous pictures. My fav has always been her popular thumb print cookies.

When my most favorite food is cooked just for me, you will find with me dancing all the way he he ha. Thanks a bunch Tanvi for coming over especially with my favorite prawns :D I'm sure to glare at ur picture till I get them cooked. Girls and boys here is Tanvi of Sinfully Spicy!

Hello to all the readers of Ananda's Blog. I have known Ananda & her blog since my initial days of blogging. Her blog is as beautiful & inspiring as its name.Thanks for having me over dear girl, I m honored. When she asked me about a guest post, she did not give me any preference. She said, anything I like. How sweet is that? Having known the wonderful baker & dessert maker Ananda herself is, I did not really want to do anything sweet, which left me with perfect room to stick to my love for savory indian dishes :) I remembered from few initial interactions with her that she loves seafood. This shrimp recipe is one, which I have been wanting to share whole of this summer on blog, but somehow every time I made it, I missed on taking pictures. This guest post presented me with the best opportunity to cater to Ananda's seafood love and share the recipe before summer bids us goodbye.

Unlike most of my recipes which root back to my mom's kitchen, this recipe is what I picked up from one of our neighbors back in Delhi, the indian state I hail from. The recipe has an east indian influence though I wont call it a pure bengali dish. It is perfect for those days when you are looking for curry comfort in the true sense. When I say that, I mean slurping a soupy & spicy broth full of flavors...sans the thick, nutty, creamy textures. The ingredients are few and this is not your normal onion- tomato base for the curry that generally defines indian cuisine. This might not be the prettiest curry around but is different, light, healthy, heart warming & satisfying. It makes appearance on our summer dinner tables at least once a week. Try it before summer goes away!

The freshly ground yellow mustard seeds are the star here. The mild yet pungent & rustic taste from them pairs up well with the sweet & acidic taste of ripe tomatoes. Garlic & fresh green chilies give the paste the required kick and aroma. A dash of nigella seeds (kalonji) enhances the pungent flavor if you manage to lay your hands on them, however they can be dropped if not available. Another thing, which I really want to highlight, is that if you have mustard oil at home; try to use it while making this curry- it makes a ton of difference as far as traditional taste goes but again if you can't get it, its okay. Virgin mustard oil, which is widely used in north & east indian cooking, is easily available in indian stores and on Amazon too, in case you are interested. Lets jump to the recipe now.

Printable Recipe

I m giving the recipe in two parts. You can make the basic mustard paste and then use it to make curries with boiled potatoes, okra, eggplant, taro root, yams, summer squashes, scallops, hard-boiled eggs, crabs etc. I have tried this recipe with most of the items mentioned & it tastes delicious with all simply because of the mustard (y) flavor.

Ingr edients: - [Ser ves 2-3]

4 tbsp mustard oil (preferred but can be replaced with canola/vegetable oil)

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana)

1/2 tsp dry mango powder (amchoor, substitute with fresh lemon juice)

7 oz raw shrimp, cleaned [approx 20 nos extra-large shrimp]

1.5 cup water (adjust depending on desired consistency)

Salt to taste

Fresh chopped cilantro for garnish

For the mustar d paste: -

1/2 tbsp yellow mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Nigella seeds (Kalonji)

4 fresh tomatoes (use any variety which is not very sweet)

3 cloves garlic

3 Thai green chilies (adjust to tolerance)

1 tsp red chili powder (adjust to tolerance)

3/4 tsp turmeric powder

Method: -

Make the mustar d paste: - Coarsely chop the garlic, tomatoes & green chilies. Tip in the yellow

mustard and nigella seeds into the blender jar. Grind the ingredients to a very smooth puree. Add

few tablespoons of water if required to grind. This will take about 8-10 minutes since mustard

seeds take few extra minutes to grind. (Soaking in water for 30-40 helps if you have extra time

on hand). Once ground, transfer to a bowl and add turmeric and red chili powder. Mix well & set

aside.

Making the Cur r y: - In a wide-mouthed, heavy bottomed pan/kadhai, pour the mustard oil

and heat it on high till it starts smoking lightly. Once smoking, reduce the heat to low, wait

for 2 minutes and temper the oil with fenugreek seeds. Sauté for 20 seconds till you smell the

aroma. Next, very carefully add the ground mustard paste to the oil. While adding to hot oil, the

paste will splutter so you might want to wear gloves. Add the salt and mix well.

On low heat, cook the mustard paste, covered, for about 15-20 minutes with regular stirring

in between so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook the paste till you see oil

separating on the sides of the pan as well as it changing color to shiny, deep reddish-yellow. As

the paste cooks, it splutters a lot, be careful.

Once the paste has cooked, add the water, check the salt, cover and bring to a boil on high heat.

About 3-5 minutes. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low medium and let simmer for another 6-8

minutes.

Add the shrimp next and cook for another 2-3 minutes till they change color to whitish & a

cooked but tender. Keep a watch as shrimp overcooks fast. Remove from heat, add amchoor (or

lemon juice) and garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve warm with steamed rice.

Notes: - If using other vegetables or eggs or meats in this recipe, you will need to adjust the

cooking time.

A guest post by Nisha Thomas from Look who is cooking too - Grilled chicken wings in a chilli garlic sauce

2011-08-25T20:54:00.003+03:00

Since you already know the story of me running like a headless chicken, cooking only once or twice a week, spending time with my handsome 1.7 MV pelletron at work for 16-18 hrs and stay like a dead log next day, leaves me unable to generate anything decent to present here. On other hand leaving this virtual place unattended thro which, I got connected virtually with beautiful people around the world, left me pondering. There is no life when I live my days without human connections.

So what’s next? Why not start a guest post series (this was the surprise btw) and ask a helping hand from those beautiful people? Nisha Thomas of Look who is cooking too was first on the list. She kindly agreed. Her space is filled with delectable recipes and witty, transparent, lucid writings promising to leave with a smile and doping an urge to come back for any reason oh not forgetting her gorgeous picture! Honestly I keep Nisha's blog post to read in the mornings, you know start the day with a light heart. I eye all her chicken/non-veg recipes and I adore these two; especially her mom's chicken recipe ohhh LOVED it.

Ladies and gentlemen here is Nisha Thomas, tune in to her blog for more. And bundle of thanks to you Nisha for coming over with my fav chicken!

I stumbled upon Ananda's blog 'A pinch of Love' quite by chance and if im not mistaken she had just started her food blog. The pictures made me go back again and again and soon we were exchanging comments on each others' blogs. Then I guess it was the power of Facebook that eventually brought her into my friends circle and there was no looking back. I love the way she pens down her thoughts on her blog and the pics are to die for. If I let you in on a little secret- I sometimes head to her blog and take a peek at the gorgeous salmon soup pics taken in the beautiful snowy setting. There is something about that picture that screams out warmth and cosiness. I am so happy that Ananda asked me to do a guest post on her blog and I hope I have done justice to it with these spicy chicken wings in a chilli garlic sauce.

The recipe was the aftermath of a chicken wing obsession which I have been am still going through. Once I discovered skinless and cleaned chicken wings, there was no looking back. I love how easy it is to cook with them- marinate, grill and if I feel like it, make a sauce and serve. Since the supermarket stocks only a couple of these at a time, when I find them, I go ballistic and stock atleast 2 packs in my freezer, scared they would suddenly stop stocking them or something. Yeah totally weird behaviour if you ask me. I have become a lunatic when it comes to storing some stuff like this (I'll leave the story of the frozen Swedish meatballs for a later time). Sadly my freezer has not much space (which Ro thinks is good, because one day he opened the middle rack to find about 10 to 15 packets of frozen chapatis and freaked out). I mean who does things like that? Well me for sure because, believe it or not, I dont know how to make chapathis. So in fear of them stopping the manufacture of these chapatis, whenever i find them i stock them to hearts content.

Anyways, we are not here to talk about my pitfalls are we?. I'm sure you'd like to know more, but let me not steal the limelight from the chicken wings. So these are so damn easy to make and taste amazing with some chilled beer or cider. The best part- you dont need to have a BBQ grill or any such fancy schmancy appliance. Just your oven grill would do. The marinade is a mixture of all sorts of sauces (from various countries that too) and like Ro says, is slightly confused as to which ethnicity it belongs to. But who cares when it tastes so darn yummilicious? So without further ado, here is the recipe for some finger licking food.

Chicken wings- 1 kg

To marinate:

Tomato ketchup- 1 tbsp

Worcestershire sauce- 1 tbsp

Soy sauce- 1 tbsp

Franks hot sauce- 1/2 tbsp (optional)

Garlic powder- 1 tbsp (or use 1/2 to 1 tbsp garlic paste)

Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp

Dried oregano- 1.2 tsp (optional)

Salt and pepper- to taste

For the sauce

Onions- 1 large, or 2 small, finely chopped

Garlic- 10 cloves, peeled and finely chopped

Ginger- 2 inch piece, peeled and chopped

Tomato- 1 large, roughly chopped

Tomato ketchup- 1/2 tbsp

Soy sauce- 1/2 tbsp

Oyster sauce- 1 tsp

Oil- 1 tbsp

Salt- to taste

Water- 2 tbsp

Cut off the tips from the chicken wings, clean them under running water and pat dry as much as possible. Transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, add all the ingredients under the 'to marinate' section in a bowl. Mix well and add salt and pepper accordingly.

Pour this marinade over the dried chicken wings and mix well, coating them as much as possible.

Keep aside for at least 30 minutes, or cover with a cling film and marinate in the refrigerator overnight

Preheat the oven on grill mode and line a baking tray with aluminium foil. I'd advice you to double the layer in order to be prevent the juices from spoiling the tray.

Using tongs place the chicken wings in rows. If your tray is small then you can do this in two batches as well.

Place it on the top most shelf, just under the flaming grill and cook for about 7 to 8 minutes on one side.

Once the time is up, take them out, turn them over and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes. My wings (that sounds so corny!!) are done in exactly 17 minutes. If i want a more charred look i keep it a little longer but be careful, you dont want to burn it (been there done that, plenty of times..ha)

While that's being taken care of, make the sauce.

Place a large chefs pan on medium high heat and add the oil.

Once its hot throw in the garlic, onions and ginger and stir fry for a couple of minutes till the onions have wilted and the nice smell of ginger and garlic is obvious.

Add the chopped tomato and continue cooking till it is nice and mushy. Oil doesn't really have to leave the sides, but make sure the tomato is cooked thoroughly.

In goes the sauces- tomato, soy and oyster. Mix well, add salt and pepper as required after doing a taste test and then the water.

Bring to a light boil and turn off the flame. Keep aside.

Once the chicken wings are grilled to perfection, transfer them to the chefs pan with the sauce.

Place it back on low- medium heat and mix well to coat the wings and lightly heat up the sauce.

Serve hot with a salad or even rice.

Notes: This is not really a spicy dish even after adding Franks hot sauce. Add chilli powder to the marinade (as per taste), if you prefer a more spicier version

If you dont prefer the sauce, the wings are good as it is, especially if its a bbq party or so where you dont want to waste time mixing the two together.

Do the mixing bit just before you serve, as it also heats up the chicken wings in the process.

Thanks to Ananda once again for giving me this fabulous opportunity.

Irregularities - Strawberry bavarian mousse/mirror cake

2011-08-17T00:27:00.005+03:00

Final experiment running, data to be analysed, research articles to be massaged and finally a thesis should be generated. You heard me right? yes all these final stuffs has been keeping me occupied (no complaints, I'm happy with this phase) and also in such a state of mind that I kept adding sugar instead of salt to curry and was thinking huh this summer tomatoes are too sweet, hello excuse me in which world? Before I could realise the curry was almost a dessert! Wish to note down all these kinds of incidents, which makes me go fierce at that moment but it, would be a comic book for me in the future alas it will be a endless comic book!

So lovely people kindly bear with me, you will see the regular irregularities of my presence in APL on the brighter side you are soon going to have some surprises stay tuned!

This recipe is from my Japanese friend, Reiko, she made it as layer cake (green tea cake+ agar agar+ strawberry mousse) it was fantastic. I replicated only mousse part with thin eggless chocolate cake and strawberry jelly/mirror on top! The mousse is very special, not too sweet with tad bit of sourness, smooth and rich. If you all are wondering what is that leaf? I have no idea except for the fact it's edible. The name was written in Finnish which obviously I forgot to note it down! Basically used them to bring some contrast. Enjoy the cake till the blogger part in me wakes up again :)

Eggless Chocolate Cake

(I wouldn't state it as world best eggless cake but it was just fine, it's first time i tried eggless version, it was not too fluffy but soft and moist, served the purpose of being good base!)

Ingredients

50 ml milk (i used 1.5% fat)

100 gram sugar

120 gram melted butter

150 gram all purpose flour

30 gram cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix the dry ingredients first (flour + baking power + cocoa powder).

Melt butter, then add in sugar, then slowly mix flour and milk in steps till is uniformly mixed and required consistency is obtained. (If batter is too thick, adding milk in step of 10 ml till the required consistency is obtained). Pour the batter in greased 18 cm baking pan and bake in preheated oven at 180 C for about 30 to 40 minutes till tooth pick inserted comes out clean).

Let the cake cool aside, it definitely should be at room temperature; else it would melt the mousse. I let them cool over night.

Bavarian Mousse

Ingredients

200 gram strawberries (room temperature) ( or 4 tbspn strawberry jam)

60 gram sugar

Lemon juice 1/2 tbspn

Water 50 ml

Gelatin 5 gram

Fresh cream 150 ml

Put strawberry + sugar+ lemon juice in blender and blend until smooth. Next filter the smoothie. Add gelatin in warm water in order for them to melt. Then sieve in gelatin into the smoothie, be quick and make sure your strawberry smoothie is at room temperature.

Next whip cream unil light and fluffy (single peaks are formed). Slowly incorporate cream to the strawberry smoothie and until it is uniformly mixed. Then place the bowl over the bowl of ice water, till the liquid gets viscous.

Assembling

Use a detachable cake pan and skillfully place cling foil to the inside sides of the cake pan.

Then place cooled chocolate cake and press with fingers so that cakes sits well to the bottom. As soon the mousse mixture gets viscous pour into the cake pan. Let it set in refrigerator for about 4 hrs.

Once mousse sets next prepare the strawberry jelly or mirror part.

Strawberry juice

Strawberry 14 grams

100 ml water

50 gram sugar (add more if you want them sweet, try drinking the juice and check)

Blend together and filter the juice

For mirror

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tbspn water

3/4 tbspn gelatin powder

Few drop of red food color

In a small bowl pour lemon juice and water, sprinkle gelatin over the mixture and let it aside till soft. Next pour strawberry juice in a sauce pan and bring to simmer and pour the juice to gelatin mixture. Stir till gelatin melts, next add food colour. then place the bowl over bowl of ice water till the liquid becomes syrupy, when its just beings to thicken pour it over the top of the cake and refrigerate until set.

After the cake sets un-mold the cake pan, remove the cling foil and serve the cake cold!

Bliss! - Uurainen Summer Cottage

2011-07-21T00:00:00.006+03:00

Have you observed little puppies getting up after sleep? bit of stretching, yawning, then getting back to sleep. It's pretty much the same here wrt to blog. After crisp holiday I was so energetic that work is like a pleasure, days of blue moon. Here are the pic's from summer cottage, didn't cook anything apart from Nigella's cookies and pancakes so don't have food pic, only nature for you to enjoy! Soon the story and pic from Bergen will follow! Missed all ur food pic's guys, on my way ta da!!
More pic's here

A house, away from hustle and bustle.

Tearing routinism, entering placid state.
Lake, still water, soothing wavering thoughts.
Blossomed white lilies, spreading fragrant of joy.

A baby with infectious smile, raw innocence.
Her twinkling eyes, a new hope for tomorrow.
Her chirpy babbling, rattling sounds of positivity.
Bestowing sunshine....lil Ms Sunshine!

Handful acquainted human connections,
Few words spoken, deep silence shared.
Home chef, served Thai food to satisfy souls.
Nothing in common, apart from care for each other.

Green the color, thunderous dark clouds.
Sky and earth dancing for the tunes of rain.
Dive in the lake, after earthen sauna.
Rejuvenating self, a must trip to remember for ever!

Holiday's on card - Coffee orange cake

2011-06-30T14:15:00.002+03:00

My holidays are starting tomorrow one week in summer cottage then I'm flying to Norway Bergen for next couple of days, so folks will be off for next two weeks :D Nothing much to say other than "I'm super excited". Packed, work, silly people, physics, research tightly and threw it in lake, time to relax and have fun....yay yay! Will come back with pic to share till then enjoy ur summer days all you lovely people!!

Made this cake for my friend's birthday followed this recipe, substituted orange oil with orange extract though the author asked not to do so, that was one reason why my topping (streusel) sank down but still they were good, loved the orange flavours. Sorry guys couldn't get to many of ur blogs shall get back soon after my holidays!

It's Papa's day! - Sunny side up - Breakfast idea!

2011-06-19T18:12:00.011+03:00

My Papa best, my papa best is the only advertisement (remember dhara ad?) breezes through my mind, just with the thought of my papa!. I'm sure every son and daughters in the world would feel the same.

Right from the days as little girls (me and my sister) till the date my sis got married and I moved to Finland, we have stayed completely over protected, right under the shadow of dad, hardly did we know what the world was. Our world used to revolve around, mum, dad, school and college. We still are quite tightly knitted family. Never did we have the feeling of want nor any desire since it was already there for us when it has to be. No we weren't spoiled but they thought us where our limits should be. Moving far from them has been a challenging but a beautiful learning experience.

It was just me and sis who never learnt how to drive bi-cycle amongst all my cousin's since he feared, what if we fall. Later when I moved to Finland, bike (cycle) being only easy medium of transport I had to learn biking during late twenties, my dad was so much worried how will I manage alone since it was all uphill and down the slope. At the same time, he was SO proud when I learnt, till date he keeps checking if the gears and breaks are in good condition and did I buy helmet? No I still didn't...oh I dislike, it spoils my hair.

He is our pillar strength to all we wanted to achieve in our lives, he never let any thorns to come across in order to make our path smooth. Just becoz I hate travelling in bus and car he takes me everywhere in his bike, is one such example. As much as today whenever I go to India, myself, dad and niece (only she wears helmet ha ha) we go on a very long drive, talking hundred of stories, buying all the fav food from restaurants and street food, convincing mum if I fall sick he will take me to doc.

Like I mentioned earlier, what I enjoy the most with papa is to have endless talk/discussion/argument over many things. He is a intellectual person with an excellent command over language and stunning hand writing. Now an honest confession, I'm never good with language, stood last in all dictation test and language exams. I used to make (still do) millions of spelling mistakes when I write, you might have noticed the trait in my blog. Pops has been helping me right from school days. After moving to Finland we have been exchanging quite a lot of emails where he has been correcting and polishing, I'm still learning. Having grown so much in this area is just becoz of HIM! I wish I had few percentage of command over language of what he has sigh! The trick is that he asks me to read a lot and maintain a dairy to note down all the new words I come across, which has helped me to improve, hopefully more in the future.

So papa, here is our fav breakfast, sunny side up (bulls eye as we call it in India) as much as we both love it, mum and sis run away from it. Never mind, wish you were here with me over a cup of tea, fav food, loud music and endless talk I miss you!. You are our hero, our strength, our hope and THE one who we always look up in Life. We love you! Happy Pop's day!

One thing my friend Elisabeth's dad said to me was, "no matter what, always remember to walk on the sunny side of the life! To all the best dads in the world happy fathers day!"

And to my reader Sofie, thanks for ur comments and asking me to improve more on my writing skills, thanks a lot felt very encouraging. Will take best effort to get it done, you will see it future! :)

Toasted bread, with sunny side (cook the egg more if you don't like runny egg yolk) have kept my yolk in medium consistency and some marmalade...And indeed glass of milk or tea, choose urs. Happy breakfast!

Kiddos! - White chocolate apricot shortbread

2011-06-05T21:31:00.005+03:00

Months after I stepped to Finland in 2005, I got to know three wonderful Finnish family who have adopted three Indian baby girls, two from south India and one from north. To connect with these family has been a blessing for me, have seen them growing for past five years. First time when I met one of those babies, her parents ran to me asking if was from south of India and could I speak in Tamil? Initially she used to very well understand Tamil and smiled when I spoke with her that's when we started to connect later I got to know two other families. These days they hardly remember any Indian languages, but speak perfect Finnish!

I meet them now and then since not only I get chance to be with three lil girls but also with other blue eyed cute Finnish boys, families own kids. Most of the time, I hear their stories, though I don't understand, play toys or just run up and down! My evening with them are so relaxing and enjoyable. Last summer (yes pretty old recipe I say which was resting in hard disk, had to come out finally) for a evening with one of those kids, made apricot white chocolate shortbread, thinking she would like it. I was wrong!

As always we went around up and down, they had two fat cats, am not cat person they freak me out, knowing that she made sure cats sits on me and I was literally running from her, letting her to laugh loud and her mum saying stop!!

Then came cookie time, the moment she saw my cookies, she asked "Mita...?" (what is ....) followed by "Ei..." " No...." all that was running in my mind was "Oh Ananda, you failed to impress a little girl, go jump into the lake". Beside my shortbread, there was yum strawberry fresh cream cake glowing, no wonder she hardly had a look at my shortbread. Even-though her mum tried to convince her she didn't bother much as she was licking clean her mum's cake. I wasn't sad but was smiling all the way and enjoying the cake aswell, but others were happy with my creations.

Later she was in the mission to teach me some Finnish, after hearing my poor Finnish pronunciation. We sat down and were learning, slowly her mum came and said in ears she is teaching you bad words. I was again thinking, 5 yrs in Finland, my knowledge level in this area is less than 5 yrs kids, jump again into lake. Oh don't worry guys, I'm living city of lake!

End of day, I came back home, with some cartoon tattoos and stamps on my wrist, some flowers which she picked and some gifts from their trip to India, wonderful evening it was. Another lesson learnt, to bring food into kids attention is difficult. This is not the first time, I have failed with my niece as well. Have to work more on it!

Note: this recipes makes a big batch, following day took it to office for coffee, colleagues enjoyed it, realised it was more for grown ups!!

Ingredients

150 gram butter

200 gram sugar

230 gram cream cheese

300 gram flour

200 gram white chocolate (chopped)

150 gram dry apricot ( cut in small pieces)

Method

Butter, cream cheese should be at room temperature.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly mix in cream cheese till it is evenly mixed. Add in white chocolate and dry apricot, then gently mix flour till a dough is formed. Make small balls out of dough. Give a small stab with fingers to flatten a bit and bake at 165 C in preheated oven for 15- 20 mins till turn pale pink brown.. Cool them for while for them to crisp up a bit!

....and winner is....for Culinary Smackdown Battle Zucchini Time.

2011-05-31T21:57:00.004+03:00

...end of the run, only one can be a winner and how hard it is to select one among many best.

When I started the competition, thought to follow the thumb rule, order all you guys, followed by request, cajole then beg....but believe I didn't proceed after 2nd rule, would have helped for more spread of words!. Anyway thanks folks for taking effort to cook for this event and sending it thro'. Never thought 9 recipes will be submitted, it was fun to sit down and get into each and everyone's recipe and select one. Can't believe I'm judging a cookery competition fantastic feeling it is, though I laugh at it sometimes, you already know I'm still an amateur cook!

Here are the recipes in the order of submission and added one special thing I liked in the recipe

Una carbonara speciale from Ely's Nella cucina di Ely - addition of saffron in pasta is interesting!

Fruit nut palooza zucchini cake from Devaki's Weave Thousand Flavour, olive oil and spices in cakes can get me down on my knees!

Zucchini Fritters from Akheela's Torview like the Indian flavour there!

Makkai ka zucchini from Deepika of My Life and spice, use of corn meal healthy version!

Ridge gourd and egg delight from Priya Sreeram of Bon Appetite, never had egg with veggies, it's interesting!

Zucchini bread with toasted almonds from Nutan of Rice N Spice, liked addition of cinnamon and nutmeg in bread!

Zucchini pineapple ginger cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting from Zesty South Indian Kitchen, maple cream cheese yum!

Zucchini banana bread from Treat and Trick, banana in it perfect for breakfast!

Zucchini kefta from My Tasty Treat never thought of making kefta with Zucchini !

And Now The WINNER you would have already guessed, it is Fruit nut palooza zucchini cake from Devaki's Weave Thousand Flavour. Congrats Devaki! send me your address, your gift is waiting to be despatched :)

Congratulation all others as well. Wish to send you all those gifts packs may be next time will try to be more generous ha ha ..but will try all ur recipes soonish!

Now it is turn for Devaki to host the event for June, so lets tune in to see what theme she comes up with.

Catch you all in next post till then ciao from still sunny and beautiful Jyvaskyla, Finland!

PS: apologies for using all ur pic's without permission..hope it is ok with you guys! If not let me know, shall remove it!

A Little Reminder - Bunch of Zucchini recipe ideas!

2011-05-23T21:11:00.003+03:00

Things get evaporated out of my brain easily, wanted to make series of zucchini post, but couldn't get it done. Moreover the fact that I'm organizing an event flushed out of my brain...oh btw hello peeps.....

I'm heavily clouded at work, so unfortunately kept my blog starving! Thought instead of making a full post on one recipe, here are pic's of all recipes I wanted to share, promise to post few of those in following days...

Sail in zucchini boat with shrimp, pine nuts, rosemary, cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese on top!

Zucchini chocolate cake with walnuts

So guys, so far I have 5 interesting entries, make my life more tough to choose the best one, send in yours for Zucchini Battle. Here some ideas for you, you never know may be it can help you to formulate (physics is running high in my blood) kick ass recipe.

Spiced ricotta cheese zucchini rolls with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Simple zucchini shrimp masala

Guess wat? I completed my first cake order. Yes first cake order for my colleague defence party on Saturday, was pretty excited, since whole group and few other from the department were present. It went fine, made choc caramel cake and black forest cake. Now after completing my PhD if I don't find a job, I know what to do!

Chocolate caramel cake

Black-forest cake

And Devaki darling from Weave Thousand Flavors is organising a exciting food trip to Sicily : An Epicurean Voyage to Sicily, sounds fun right. Hop into her blog and join all the foodies on a fantastic journey to Sicily!!

Cheery tomatoes, prawns zucchini pasta

Want some?

Happy Mom's day! - Breakfast ideas - Avocado with honey

2011-05-08T21:47:00.003+03:00

Avocado with honey being my mum's fav, thought why not I post it on Mom's day. This light breakfast, we prefer mostly for Sunday mornings.

After reading so many post today where everyone shared many sweet incident with their mom's, all I remember is how I used to nag my mum everyday morning to drink milk, I hated milk to T, so everyday a drama was played. Milk should neither be hot nor cold, no foam, no cream. Mum prepares the way I want it (have no idea how) yet I will keep it my hand for long, then again when cream starts to form I used to say "I will not drink this milk".

As little girl I hated food generally, have troubled her to the extremes that I remember getting few light slaps! After which, I used to cry buckets creating more drama! These are such a sweet memories, puts a smile on my face just with a thought of it! There are endless stories, incident and anecdote that could fill up page. The beauty is we haven't changed much till today. I still do harass/irritate her. She sometime forgets and asks me same question she asked before, I respond saying "Come on Mrs. Rajashekar you can think, think think". In the end I make her to answer. She is the same patient, enduring and loving. Till date I enjoy completely to irritate my mom and sis and argue with dad endlessly. But that's my way of love for them :) You see we were pampered kids!

Ah miss you guys! and Mom you are the best, as always thanks for bring me into this world and for making me what I'm today for giving me the best education for life and for teaching me how I should grow as a good human! These pic are for you mum enjoy drooling over it :)

To my sis who is a mum of two little ones, I'm amazed how beautifully she is playing her role, for her life revolves around my niece and nephew, you are such a gorgeous mum!

And to all the mum's you all are fabulous! happy mother's day!

We consider Avocado with honey as good healthy and easy breakfast.

All you need is

Well ripe Avocado 1

Honey 1-2 tbspn (according to amount of sweetness you need)

Cut the avocado, scoop out the pulp, smash lightly add honey mix well and enjoy!

It's all yours - Culinary Smackdown Battle - Zucchini Time!

2011-05-03T08:06:00.016+03:00

There isn't anything better when you get reward after all the effort given in. I won the dessert book for the Layered Mango Mousse Cake! Hurray! I won for the first time for food, did you hear that? Exactly after one year of blogging was a cherry on the cake! Thank you Tanvi from Sinfully Spicy for graciously stating my recipe as a winner! Love you girl!

Following the myth, now it my turn to host the May edition of this event. I have no experience in hosting neither I'm good in organising an event. But at some point a start has to be made. Considering it as a great opportunity, have selected Zucchini as the theme for the battle.

All you have to do is, don your cooking cap, chop, grind or grate Zucchini and bring out creative Zucchini side in you!

For all the effort you are going to put in, I have some reward for you from Pentik, my fav brand for kitchen stuffs and accessories. I'm more than happy to share with you, spring collection, kitchen towel, table mat, oven gloves and paper towels.

Here are few annoying rules that is to be followed!

Culinary Smackdown Battle – Zucchini time will be held throughout the month of May on A Pinch of Love. Entry submission starts from 3rd May 2011 till 30th May will go according to Pacific Time.
I will select and announce one winner who will also host the next month’s edition of this contest on June 1st 2011.
Only One entry per person please, if you have two very interesting recipe I shall consider!
It is compulsory to link back to this post on your blog.
The entry does not have to be a new post.It can be an archived post
The Smackdown Battle is open to anyone, anywhere in the world.
More than a contest, the purpose of this battle is to reach out to lots of bloggers and foodies around the globe, share culinary ideas and have fun.

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Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

While you submit ur entries in this link, I would appreciated if you send me an email to ananda(dot)apl@gmail.com with one of ur food picture attached. I shall acknowledge the same soonest!

So what are you waiting for? wave your wand and bring out a magic, since the the gift is all packed waiting to reach you.

Oh ya! I'm not exactly sure if zucchini is available in all cites in India, if not you could use ridge guard.

Any more queries, do drop me a mail at rananda(dot)apl@gmail.com or just comment here....

Looking fwd to see ur creation
1st entry Una carbonara speciale from Ely's Nella cucina di Ely, all Italian food lovers this place is for you! yum pasta's!
2nd entry Fruit nut palooza zucchini cake from Devaki's Weave Thousand Flavour filled with fun posts and wonderful recipes, I adore all the good looking prawns there!
3rd entry Zucchini Fritters from Akheela's Torview, a creative place with straight fwd recipes!
4th entry Makkai ka zucchini from Deepika of My Life and spice, who bring interesting stories with recipe!
5th Entry Ridge gourd and egg delight from Priya Sreeram of Bon Appetite, hop in for some more of innovative recipe
6th Entry Zucchini bread with toasted almonds from Nutan of Rice N Spice, pretty new blog for me know sure to enjoy!
7th Entry Zucchini pineapple ginger cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting from Zesty South Indian Kitchen, I admire how she always takes efforts to post step by step pic!
8th Entry Zucchini banana bread lady who brings crisp and interesting post!
9th Entry Zucchini kefta very new for me recipe and blog got to get in too see more!

Happy Feet - Layered Mango Mousse with Saffron and Cardamom

2011-04-30T02:02:00.006+03:00

Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs!

Enjoying sun? Finally spring is here, crisp sun, budding green leaves, cheerful people and so far 16 hrs daylight, Bliss! With joyous attitude I have three happy news to share.

Happy feet1 - We have a new addition in our family, I'm aunt again, my sis delivered a baby Boy two weeks ago, a new welcoming change has been best so far! He is darling sleeping day in and out. can't wait to see him! Not sure when I will go but my thoughts are completely there!

Happy feet2 - A new macro lens in my DSLR kit, very handsome guy I say, one disadvantage which I felt was there was it doesn't have IS, but well manageable. Haven't started playing with him, work has been keeping too much occupied, today's photos are my first trial (have taken in manual mode f/2.8). Slowly I'm sneaking into nook and corner of my house, it's amazing to get into fine details. During spring party I tried few portraits it worked good, waiting for sometime to learn him better!

Happy Feet3 APL turned one. 43 food post, 30,000 views and huge bunch of wonderful people feels like a winner! Thanks to my lens, made a self check with my earlier posts, was shocked to see the date. It was a dubious start, but the journey so far has been glorious. APL has been a platform for me to connect with all you lovely people out here, without you guys, trust me she wouldn't have reached here. You all have been a part my joy, understanding my thoughts, encouraging me for both (blog and PhD) and top most all the love. Big THANKS to all of you, keep us loved! Would like to be more regular in posting to keep the visual treat on, you already know why, will try my best this year.

Today recipe is very special one for me, it was dream to make this kind of layered mousse cake, I spend days in other versatile food pages seeing and getting inspired. When I saw Mango event in Tanvi's Sinfully Spicy, when I saw the book she is going to give as the gift I knew what I have to make. So here is guys, I wanted to try the way I could handle, by keep it extremely simple and very subtle. Base cake (mango saffron olive oil cake) I tried couple of months before when mum went back to India made it for my sis, she was singing glories of it so wanted to it make it for myself....it is fantastic! When I made it for my sis, used normal cooking oil but for the competition made it olive oil, since I didn't taste it last time, not sure if there was change in taste, but I believe there shouldn't be much. I'm submitting it for the Mango event.

That is the end of my happy feet story, I shall dance along it for some more days, you guys have a wonderful weekend and happy may day. Envoi de L'amour :)

Note: I used tin mangoes, so flavour was bit mild, if you use fresh mango it will be just wonderful!

I kept the gelatin level also less since I to have a smooth and soft texture, it did start to tilt after 5 hours. If you want to it be firm for long time you ahead it bit more gelatin

Ingredients

Mango olive oil saffron cardamom cake

2 Eggs

50ml olive oil

55 - 60 gram castor sugar

60 ml mango pulp (I used tin mango pulp)

1/2 tspn cardamom powder

1/2 tspn saffaron

3/4 tspn baking powder

65 gram flour

Method.

Gently mix castor sugar and olive oil. By beating on high, slip in one egg. Beat for about 1 minute, next add in another egg, beat till it forms a frothy mixture. Next gently fold in mango pulp.

In another bowl mix flour, saffron, cardamom, baking powder.

Now by parts add the dry mixture into the we mixture and gently fold them until well combined. Pour the cake batter in greased 9 inch cake tin. Bake at 170 C for about 20 - 25 minutes. When inserted toothpick comes out clean leave the cake to cool and cute in to small 2.3 inch (or desired size) disc using a cookie cutter. I had 8 uniform discs

Step 1 of assembly

If you have pastry tins or mould (not sure about the name though) use them or (i used) transparent pastry sheets 4.5 inch in width and about 9 inch in length. Roll it around disc shaped cake. In such a way that cake form the base and pastry sheets forms the hollow pillar which will be filled with mousse.

Mousse

375 gram mango pulp (you add more if you want more orange flavour, then you will need to add more gelatin)

330 ml fresh cream

150 gram sugar

12.5 gram gelatin sheet (you add 5 more gram it need bit more firm)

250 gram mascarpone cheese

1/2 to 3/4 tspn of saffron

1/2 tspn of cardamom powder

Few drop of mango essence (i added 2 drops of vanilla essence )
A pinch or few drops of yellow food colour (optional)

Method.

Beat fresh cream and sugar till they form single peak. Make sure not to beat too much you will make the cream dry. Next add mascarpone cheese in to soft fluffy cream and continue to beat on LOW till they again start to form firm single peaks .

Next place gelatin sheet in warm water. when it becomes soft. Slowly sieve the gelatin in to the mango pulp. Make sure mango pulp is in room temperature, else gelatin will firm if mango pulp is cold.

(Tip: very gently warm 1 tbspn of mango pulp in microwave and mix the sieved gelatin with 1 tbspn. Stir well then add it rest of the mango pulp)

Next mix the gelatin mixed mango pulp into the macarpone cream mixture and very gently fold in till it is uniformly mixed.

Now divided the mousse in to 3 parts.

To part 1 add about 1/2 to 3/4 tspn of saffron and mix gently till well combined

To part 2 add abot 1/2 tspn of cardamom powder and pinch of yellow food colour to bring some difference in layers. Mix gently till well combined and

To part 2 you could add few drop of mango essence (i added 2 drops of vanilla essence )

Step 2 of assembly

Now pour the mousse into 3 pipping bags (or you could spoon it as well, but it can be messy, or if you have good beaker could pour it as well)

According to you choice layer the mousse and leave them in the freezer to set. After set maybe 6 to 8 hours. peal the pastry sheet and decorate as your wish. I used fresh flowers and sugar stained glasses

Mousse is quite running before set so don't panic when you do it :)

Sugar stained glasses

Same as making caramel, but don't let it turn brown. Place a butter paper in a baking plate and spread some food colour randomly. When sugar is boiling, pour it on the butter paper and squirl it around and let it set. After cooled cut into desired size.

I played too much with it...it was fun!

Tamil New Year - Puran Poli / Obbattu

2011-04-14T07:36:00.001+03:00

Iniya Tamizh Puthaandu Nalvaazhthukkal Happy Tamil New Year. Sorry I have no idea about the significance and rituals, but it is all about new beginning! Next time I visit India shalll try to dig into in elders brain to get into the roots, as of now all I remember is dad doing long pooja (prayer) and mum cooking all good food! As kids my sis being responsible helped mum in cooking and I was forced to help dad for prayer preparation and dad is a perfectionist, I will be assigned to do all the annoying work (you know 2nd assistant work). While all going on in full swing I usually sneak out to play with doggie, my mum not being happy used to say "stop playing and concentrate on God so that you could study well" Dang! I will be left speechless do the necessary.

Special food that will be usually prepared are puran poli's, pachadi (raw mango, jaggery, tamarind and neem flowers not my fav coz of neem flowers, mum will force it into our throats!). We fast till pooja/offerings are done, contentment of food we get after long wait is supreme. Again I'm missing all these fun here! When mum was here with me, she made puran polies as it is in my top listed favourites, she makes the best according to me, neither did I want to miss a chance to note it down. So here is the recipe do enjoy. Mum jaan has stored in the freezer for me i'm going to enjoy my share :D

Forgetting not, THANKS TONS all you lovely people for encouraging words regarding my PhD it DID rise my confidence level and motivated me. Love ya!

This dry the cooked dhal should be

This is how stuffing should be after dhal mixed and cooked with Jaggery

PS. Original recipe demands Jaggery, due to availabilities I used palm sugar, which is one reason why my polies are bit pale in colour!

Ingredients
For stuffing
150 gram dry Channa dhal
150 - 175 gram Jaggery / Palm sugar (you change sweetness accordingly, we like them just there, not real sweet so we opted for 150 gram)

Method
Cook Channa dhal till is soft and dry (not soggy). (Important point here add water just for it to cook, less amount than when making normal dhal)
Once it is cooked, still hot, smash it very well and let them to cool.
In a heavy bottom pan, add Jaggery and let them slowly melt (Just in case if they don't melt evenly, add may be few table spoon of water which helps to melt faster)
Once jaggery is in running consistency, slowly add in cooked dhal and keep stirring.
Soon after both jaggery and dhal is mixed they will appear in liquid form, don't worry, keep stirring on medium or low heat, till water evaporates and they become like soft soggy dough. Now let it cool in refrigerator for a while so it hardens.

For outer dough.
250 gram Mida
1 tbspn of Ghee (clarified butter)
Pinch of salt
Required water ( Dough should be smiliar to dough for roties/ chapatti )

Knead the dough for while, so it become more elastic and super soft.

Now make balls from channa dhal and jaggery mixture, desired size.
Similar make balls from mida dough, one size larger.
Next roll mida dough to small disc, to fit in the dhal stuffing.
Enclose the stuffing inside the mida dough and very carefully seal the outer surface.
Use some dry mida and the rolling pin to roll the puran polies to larger disc, not too thin, very carefully. Use enough amount of dry mida it to prevent sticking to the surface.
Cook the rolled puran polies on preheated skillet, use oil or ghee according to your taste till it cooked on the surface and they slowly starts to char.

Serve it hot with ghee/clarified butter!

Note, mida quantity depends on how think or thin you want the outer layer to be. So mida quantity may vary according to your choice.

Way Back into Love! - Vodka Pasta

2011-03-31T22:26:00.005+03:00

It may sound like a cliché, but still I will go on....!

Few months before my two years experiment bombed, it was a big failure which was hard for me to assimilate. It was one reason why I took time off to think about restructuring, possible? or should I walk off. Our hate relationship has been going on past two years...... you will be surprised if I say when we started, we had the best time going hand in hand.
After thoughtful discussions, my supervisors and family didn't allow me to walk way, according to them it is a common phase of every phd life. When much required support and action was done, I decided not to walk off rather to stay in the battlefield to fight. After crossing the field 70%, thought it is time either to kill or get killed.

I mustered all courage got back, few longest meetings, diverted tracks with one aim to find best of many ways to move forward leaving the rest back. So all set and done, I have fallen in love with Mr. PhD all over again, cajoling him every day to say I love you, my new mantra to check if it can create any magic? ;)

Yes now might all think/ask, why on earth did I take this? I have asked that question million times though it has been my passion and still is!

On a lighter note, PhD is all about Permanent Head Damage yes half done, still 8 more months to go, two manuscripts and one thesis needs to be fixed, then totally damage will be done!

This recipe is from Nigella kitchen. Simple pasta to reach soul on a tired evening. These pictures are taken during mid-winter time, where there were no days without candles. Do enjoy. Catch you all soonish. Chao!

Exactly me! PhD comics

*Pic's are again not its best, sunken eyes bad editing apologies!

Recipe check here

My niece who sparkles my day! -WW

2011-03-23T17:01:00.001+02:00

From riches to rags - Salmon Soup

2011-03-23T17:01:00.000+02:00

After three months of hearty time with mum, present state snoozing alarm, trans-mind, minced words and silence. My lil Ms Sunshine (mum) is back to India and I'm kicked from riches to rags, good time flies fast sigh! Changes and breaks are vital in life, during the time off, experimented quite a lot on food and photography this post is one of those. I heart Finnish salmon soup, the first time I heard about fish in soup, was skeptical how it would be like? it took two years to me to give it a try and no looking back since then.

One of my wildest wish was to do food photoshoot in snow. After a series of thoughts we decided soup with a fancy idea to capture steam from hot soup. One fine day when weather prediction stated -10 C and mild snow, found it be the best day, since lighting would be perfect and fresh snow will help for clean surface to place the food. We had to get prepared quite a lot, felt like we were going for a picnic as we needed whole lot of stuffs to get the food placed well. Hunt for the location was challenging, mum found one good place, very near to apartment and mainly since it was clean and I could also get the forest view. We got ourselves packed and started the shoot, after 5 minutes I couldn't sense my fingers, God it was hurting, poor mum she helped me quite a lot, in-spite it was extremely cold her.

It took almost 35 minutes for us to get it done. That's when I ~~thought~~ decided never to try any of my crazy ideas. On brighter side soup was great, Marjut, my Finnish food chef/guru thought me how to cook the soup and she certified it was good! In case you are in search of steam in the picture, chuck it off guys, the soup was frozen the moment it was out in the bowl....brrr!

Apart from all these, I can't get out of what is happening in Japan, it's extremely sad for the beautiful country. My friends in japan are safe, but we are still devastated seeing all the disaster. Nuclear explosion, radiation leak has been the talk of my department, questions/politics of nuclear research has started? I pray God for the least consequence of radiation leak. The same goes for the heart wrenching earthquake in Christchurch, immediately wrote to Sue, she is fine but she lost her house, horrible! From my previous post, I did learn that we have no control over nature, but my prayer goes to all the brave souls fighting out there, for strength and hope. Amen!

For more physics behind the radiation leak and earthquake check few links here and here.

Ingredients

250 gram Potato (pealed and cubed)

300 gram Salmon (diced)

750 ml Water

1 large Onion (diced)

One bunch of fresh Dill (separate the stem and upper bunch )

40 - 50 Pepper corn, NOT CRUSHED (I Didn't use the black pepper corns, here we get brown version which is milder, traditionally used for this recipe i followed it, you can replace it black ones)

100 ml full fat cream (I used low fat look for the note below)

25 gram butter

Salt to taste

Method

In a deep pot, pour water, add salt, pepper corns, diced onions and dill stem. When water gets to boil, onions, pepper corns are soft, filter the water and smash the remaining so the pulp gets to the water and flavour remains there. Now add the whole salmon piece inside the soup and let them cook, it hardly takes 5 to 6 mins. Very carefully take the whole salmon piece out and let it rest in the plate. Now in the same water add cubed potatoes. Let it cook it is soft. While potatoes are cooking, peal the salmon skin and carefully dice the salmon into cubes. After potato is cooked add cream and some shredded dill, when it just comes to boil, add the cooked salmon, shredded dill and butter and serve it warm.

In Finland it is typically served with rye bread...yum!

Few Notes: It felt the butter was bit lot for me, next time i will reduced to half, since I'm never a butter person! I used low fat cream, so I felt the cream was not smooth but had but cuddle effect, so I was recommended to used full fat cream.

If you don't like to cook whole salmon piece, you could use the cubed version, you could add them add it after cream comes to boil, take care to cook since it is already diced, the layers might get dissolved in soup when it is over cooked.

Will hibernate for a month - Black Forest Cake

2011-02-14T15:59:00.016+02:00

What's in air? I have no idea whats going around, but yes I'm surrounded by my treasured peoples love 365 days! If you chose today to express yourself, say you love!

In Finland it is celebrated as friends day, every year it has been fun time with friends, food and yum chocolate cake. This year with mum around, we haven't planned anything special (weather is -25C outside) other than warm cozy dinner, with some bruschetta, pasta and molten chocolate cakes ;)

Black forest being Papa's and Mama's favorite cake I made sure to bake them. Since there had been many baking and eating we opted for mini version, later thought giga size would have been better! Previous time when the cake was baked during summer I made the jam from fresh cherries, freshness was scintillating, have added the recipe for it below. For this season I chose jam version, luckily got kind of home made version with chunks of cherries and ofcourse a good dollop of rum in it brought the difference. Fresh cream + mascarpone cheese was the highlight and super moist chocolate cake....Bliss! We relished every slice of it!

This post is for my Mum, Pops and Sis. Mum and Pops, thanks for bring me into this world, for making me what I'm today and for dealing with your overly demanding girl. To my sis who is top on earth patient and extremely supportive. I love you guys.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, I will be off from blogosphere for about a month, sorry about it. I know maybe I need some courses on time management, sigh! Till then have fun, cook a lot, eat well and stay happy. Will hop in once in a while in your blogs, if not pardon me! Happy Valentine days/Hyvää ystävänpäivä!

Ingredients

For chocolate cake:
50 gram flour
70 gram sugar
2 1/2 tbspn of organic cocoa powder
1/4 tspn salt
1´1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
50 ml vegetable oil
75 ml boiling water

Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Butter, flour and line the bottoms of two 9 cm round cake pan.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and sieve to mix.
In a separate bowl, beat sugar and egg yolk until creamy, next add in vegetable oil. In a another separate bowl beat in white egg to soft peak. Very gently incorporate white egg and dry ingredients in parts to the sugar yolk mixture till well combined. After the cake batter is mixed well . Pour the boiling water into the batter and very gently mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake it for about 25-30 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly. Repeat the same process to make another batch so you get four layers or double the process in beginning and divided the batter in four cake pans.

for dark chocolate ganache: click here (1/2 the amount was sufficient)

for dark cherry filling: click here and here

For jam version
Mix store brought or home made jam 4 - 6 tbspn (depending on how much amount of sweetness you need) with one tbspn of rum or brandy (optional)

Mascarpone whipped cream:
250 gram mascarpone cheese
200 ml whipping cream
80 gram sugar
1 tspn vanilla extra

Combine sugar and cream and beat until single stiff peaks are formed. Very carefully whip the mascarpone cheese till they are smooth on low speed. Gently fold in mascarpone into the cream till well smoothly combined. This cream has to be used immediately.

Another method is combine cream cheese, whipping cream and sugar beat on low till soft peaks are formed, be careful not to over beat them...i'm not confident of this method!

Assembly
Spread a thin layer of ganache on top cakes. Let set for at least two hours. On a cake stand, first layer one halve of the cake, spread one table spoon of cherry filling or jam next spread good amount of cream cheese filling. Follow this for next two layers. Frost the last layer with remaining cream cheese filling and decorate with chocolate shavings or coco powder or any kind as you like!

Mom ka Khana - Chicken Briyani & chilli Chicken

2011-02-03T21:29:00.006+02:00

I know I know my blog baby has been sleeping unattended for a while now, I'm left occupied through out with all good warm food right from kitchen, sometime I enjoy warm puries sitting on the kitchen table, can you believe that? Right now I'm like little over grown hamster :D Doesn't actually matter since I will be deaerated as soon mum goes back to India.

We invited Somjai Tero and her mum for Indian lunch, Somjai came with her little princess Aida. Oh my my she is such a darling, very obviously everyone's attention was only towards her. While we were busy eating, everyone had their turns to play and keep her occupied. Baby darling kept us on toe with smile, cry, potty, snuggle and much more. What can I say? Just for couple of hours the whole house was vibrant.

Mum made our typical Sunday special lunch as we do at home, chicken briyani (with coconut milk), chilly chicken, dum aloo, raita and suji ka halwa. This Briyani is very unconvetional type very simple and easy too cook. The whole lot is mum's recipe, hope you guys will enjoy as much as we did....Wish you all a happy weekend :)

February is heart month, so folks eat healthy, exercise some, no to smoking and have a perfect healthy heart!

Ingredients 
Chicken Briyani 
Marinade 
Chicken  1.5 Kgs 
Yoghurt 180 gram 
Green chillies 7 slit (Fresh chilly paste would give more better flavour and taste)
Ginger garlic paste 2 tbspn 
Garam masala 2 tbspn heaped 
Mint leaves 2 spring (Coarsely chopped) 
Salt 
Method 
Mix all the above ingredients except chicken, check salt then throw in chicken and
mix well until each piece is coated well with yoghurt mixture. 
Leave them around for 2 hours. I left them overnight in the refrigerator. 
Briyani
Oil 6 tbspn 
Ghee 1 tbspn 
Onions 3 large sliced 
Cinnamon 2 inch - 3 numbers 
Cloves 7-10 
Bay leaves 4 
Cardamom 4 
Green chilli 3 slit 
Ginger garlic paste 1/2 tspn 
Basmathi Rice 1kg 
Coconut milk 600ml 
Mint 2 handful coarsely chopped 
Coriander 1 handful coarsely chopped 
Method 
Soak the basmathi rice in water for about 30 minutes. 
In pressure cooker or in a heavy bottom deep pan (I used heavy bottom deep pan) add
oil and ghee wait until it is warm, throw in cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves and
cardamom let them splutter. Next add in sliced onions and green chilli fry until it
is golden brown. Next add in ginger garlic paste, sauté until raw flavour vanishes.
Next add in the chicken marinate cook till water from the chicken come out and
chicken is 70% cooked. Next throw in basmathi rice, 600 ml coconut milk mix well,
check salt add chopped coriander and mint. Give one good mix, close lid and leave them
to cook for about 30 minutes on medium heat. After 30 minutes, leave the pan in a
larger pan filled with water for about another 30 minutes, it is different way of
dum. If you are doing in pressure cooker leave another plate on hot plate(on
medium heat) once the plate is warm place the pressure cooker on top of it let it
stay on warm plate for another 30 minutes. Check after 30 mins, if you feel it is
still not well cooked let them stay on dum for another 20 minutes. Give it a very gentle mix thoroughly and serve it warm 
We added 600ml of coconut milk, it might change according to the variety of rice you
use. 
Chilly Chicken 
Boneless chicken 650 gram 
Ginger garlic paste 1 tbspn heaped 
Egg 1 
Corn flour 1 tbspn 
Chilly powder 2 1/2 tspn 
Food colour 1 pinch 
Garam masala 1/2 tspn 
Salt according to taste 
Good amount of oil for deep frying 
Method
Mix all the above the ingredients, except boneless chicken. Check for salt then mix
chicken with marinate and let them for roughly for about 2 hours.
Fry individual pieces of chicken till it is cooked and crispy outside. Serve with
raw onions and lemon piece.

A Tribute to Nature - Who is with me?

2011-01-25T19:49:00.004+02:00

Most of us are aware about the destruction happening around us since Goddess nature has been fierce. Three flood that happened lately (the ones I came/read across) India 2010 followed by flood in Brazil and Australia 2011, which shook the whole world. It was tormenting to watch how much lives were swept away in Brazil, pathetic it was. Though the intensity was extremely high in Australia, life loss was more in India and exceed above 600 in Brazil. Eyes went moist when I saw the totally disturbing pictures. After all this only one question kept lingering in my mind was, why the same creator who created the world, nature and we creatures made the nature go wild and took so many innocent lives away just in one wash? isn't the lives of human being or any living creature precious?

According to me every life on this earth be it good or bad (no offence just a brief distinction) has their own purpose/significance and value, so WHY? Yes we do have a scientific answer but according to spirituality my question remains unanswered.

In recent times a beautiful coherence between the science and spirituality do exists. According to science globe warming is one of the main cause of the nature's disastrous effect. From a spiritual point of view do we people in this generation live a part of our lives for others? Mostly we are self concerned. We are consistently showing or proving that we are stronger than nature or infact going against it by not showing our love for nature, one reason why nature is furious. Isn't time to think, it's OUR WORLD, WE stay here, WE should LOVE and RESPECT her?. By saying this a term positivity is generated around us which will manifold by itself, soon nature will start to protect us.

Now, I start to say "We shall put one foot forward to respect our loving earth" are you ready to take part? Nature is best and beautiful when it is calm and happy, it gives us a chance to stay serene.

My Final words are "Mother nature we still are your humble kids, please forgive us for our uncared attitude towards you, but kindly mellow down for we shall love you from now on". Prayers for strength and courage for each and every individual who was a victim in the catastrophe. And all those adorable domestic animals hope they will find their way back to adopted families.

Few words from Paulo Coelho which kindled my thoughts “Saving the planet” gives a sense of power, action and nobility. Whereas “not letting the planet destroy us” might lead us to feelings of despair and impotence, and to a realisation of just how very limited our capabilities are. Let’s be humble. Let’s respect Mother Earth because if She becomes furious with our behaviour, we are in trouble."

Patent Recipe :) - Basil Chicken

2011-01-16T19:12:00.005+02:00

You got it right, this is my first recipe that originated from my brain, rare it is!! My all time fav, as according to me, its a prefect blend of Italian flavour and with tad bit if Indian spiciness. Recipe hardly takes any efforts to make but very comforting with glass of wine, toasted bread or simply with dhal. It's hard for me to say with which it is best. Since the spark of chillies, zing of tanginess and subtle honey is perfectly indulging no matter what is on the side and most of the time especially with this chicken I will be totally engrossed in watching some good movie. Would strongly recommend chicken wings for this recipe, since meat is very tender and flavours get infused very well in short cooking time, have tried with boneless breast chicken, it was just ok. Do try it whenever you wish to, since all it need is garlic, basil, chilly, lemon and honey, not to forget a pinch of love that brings all the difference :)

Ingredient

1 tbspn olive oil

5 pod of garlic finely chopped

1 medium size onions finely chopped

3-4 green chillies finely chopped (according to your tolerance)

500g of chicken wings

salt to taste

1/2 tspn of honey

1 tspn lime juice

1 bunch of coarsely chopped basil leaves

Method

Warm the oil and fry till golden brown, add in green chillies, sort it for few minutes. Add in onions fry till they are transparent. Then throw in chicken and salt fry till it seals. Cook them in medium heat really slowly so that it become soft and water still remains. Fry will they become light brown say it might take about 20 to 25 minutes. Fry them till they become light brown. End with honey, lime juice and chopped basil leaves. Stir fry for 30 to 40 sec. It is all set and ready.

Inherited recipe - Okra curry / Okra soup kolambu

2011-01-10T09:27:00.015+02:00

I'm sure your new year is bustling like a bee and you are completely into it...Mine started with bit of vacation hangover gradually moved to normal routine - running in and out. Keeping it short since it's Monday morning and you know how Monday syndromes are! This recipe is from my Ammama (Maternal grandma) I don't remember she making it but mum makes them so very often. Yet again it's our favorite, which is quite suitable with rice and papads. For those who are wondering how on earth I'm posting okra recipes during winter, I looted huge amount of okras from oriental shop during early winter and very well stored it my freezer. Now I'm making best use of my all time fav veggie. Have a great productive week ahead.

Ingrediants
15- 20 Okras (cleaned, towel dried and diced)
2 - 2 1/2 tbspn of oil
1 - 1 1/2 inch Cinnamon
5 Cloves
2 Cardamon

1 medium size Onion (Finely chopped)
1/2 tspn Ginger Garlic paste
2 medium size Tomato (Finely chopped)
50 gram Channa Dhal
Pinch of turmeric powder
1 tspn Chilly powder
1/2 cup - 3/4 water

Salt to taste
1/2 tbspn of finely chopped coriander
1/2 tbspn of finely chopped mint

Method
Pot boil or pressure cook Channa dhal till they are soft. Partially smash the cooked dhal. Once done leave them aside
In a pan use about 1 tbspn of oil and fry the okras with pinch of turmeric and required salt till they are cooked. after it is cooked leave them aside.
In the same pan add remaining amount of oil. Once oil is warm add cinnamon, cloves and cardamon and let them splutter. Next add finely chopped onions, saute till they become transparent. Throw in ginger garlic paste, fry till raw flavor vanishes (about 40 -60 sec). Next add finely chopped tomatoes. Fry till oil comes out. Then add fried okras. Saute for about 1 minute. Pour in cooked dhal, add 1 tspn of chilly powder and required amount of salt.Add about 1/2 of water or more to get the required consistency. This curry should have thin consistency, not exactly like soup but between curry and soup. Boil for few mins and garnish with coriander and mint. Serve it warm with steaming rice.

Happy New Year - Chocolate Caramel Cake

2011-01-03T23:41:00.005+02:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR ...Oh was that too loud being late since we are already in the new year? it doesn't matter isn't it? Hope you all partied hard, had fun and very warmly embraced new year.

Myself and mum had a great new year eve. We were in fun filled Desi party, with enormous amount of food, fire crackers and gallons of fun. I made vindaloo chicken, spicy enough for the cold night and chocolate caramel cake for cake cutting ceremony. It was one of the longest parties (12 hrs) we talked, discussed, laughed, played games....and big hangover after that...:p

After a day full of sleep I recovered. This year for the first time in my life I took a resolution, that was by hook or by crook I have to complete my PhD.....God are you listening? Fingers crossed.

Another unforeseen surprise was I bagged DMBLGiT's originality award for my picture. It gave me a great motivation to start the year and brought the feel good atmosphere around me :D. With all goody goody thoughts around me one thing that struck my mind was "reflection". I reflect the deeds I do, my soul reflect the thoughts I think and my reaction reflects the action I do. I'm going to keep a constant check of all these within myself to get a clear reflection of self and there by put a foot forward for a clear world. Possibly you will see that in my pictures in this post.

With the end of "just my thoughts" I wish you lovely people a blessed, glorious, successful, wealthy, healthy and cheerful happy new year.

I adapted the recipe from here. Made some mild modification. My addition was caramel cream layers to the cake.

Caramel Cream

35gram Castor sugar sifted

25gram Brown sugar

2tbsp Butter

3tbsp Milk

1/2tsp Vanilla extract

Method

In a saucepan, melt the butter, add in milk and brown sugar. When they start to melt take them away from heat. Very slowly whisk in sifted caster sugar until it is uniformly mixed. Let them cool for about 2 to three hours. It will become like a thick creamy texture.

(I made two batch of caramel cream)

Chocolate Ganache

250ml Fresh cream

250gram Dark chocolate chopped (But I used milk chocolate)

30gram Butter

Bring the cream to boil in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and throw in the chocolate and let them rest for 2 minutes then add butter and let aside for about 5 to 10 minutes and very gently mix the chocolate till they become glossy let them rest for about two hours they will gradually thicken up.

Ingredients
Chocolate Cake.
5 eggs
75gram Sugar
70gram All purpose flour
30gram Cocoa Powder ( I used organic)
40gram Cooking Dark Chocolate
50gram Butter
1/2 tsp of Baking powder (due to coldness I preferred to add some baking powder)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Method
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler till they are melted and let them aside to cool down.
Separate yolk and white part of the eggs.
Sieve cocoa powder, all purpose flour and baking powder
Beat butter and sugar until light and airy. Add egg yolk and beat until they become creamy and fluffy. Now add dry ingredients by three parts and very gently fold into the mixture. Now add the melted chocolate and fold in gently. Next beat the white egg until single peak is formed. Now fold in the egg white to the cake batter. Pour the cake batter into the 18cm prepared cake pan. Bake them in to preheated oven at 170C to about 25 to 30 minutes.

(I made two batches so that i could get four layers)

Assemble
I baked the cake the previous day so that they would cool down to room temperature.
Very carefully halve the cakes. Select one good bottom part of the cake and let them aside to use it as a top layer.
Place one halve of the cake, then pour in one batch of caramel cake and spread uniformly. Then place next half (upper part) of the cake pour in chocolate ganache spread uniformly. Then again place next upper halve of the cake. Pour in next batch of caramel cream spread uniformly. Now place the good bottom part of cake. (Make sure bottom part of the cake is facing upwards this helps to get the uniform spread of ganache.) Now generously spread the ganache and do any kind of decoration of your choice :)

For caramel basket check this dam good video :)

Merry Christmas - Red Velvet Cake

2010-12-22T22:49:00.001+02:00

For past couple of days I had been running like a headless chicken... I hear "yeah me too" from you all....Well reason was mum arrived on Sunday and she is going to staying with me for three months "Happy Dance". I was in rush to clear the chaos, attending Christmas parties, organising my unorganised schedule and climate being super cold here, I had to take some extra efforts for mum's warm cloths (it's going to reach -30 this weekend). Thought I packed mum with warmers, snow storm horrified her! She ended up saying when will I go back to India? on the day she arrived :O. And since I didn't want her to rush back immediately to India, took a day off saying working from home, to give her some company and make her feel better but ended up making red velvet cake ...mum cleared up the whole kitchen mess! Lucky me isn't it? :)) You see I was actually working! (My boss doesn't know I have a food blog )...ha ha

Anyways, Red velvet cake was in my do list for many months, finally it got chance for this Christmas. Being honest it wasn't red but brick red velvet cake, but the texture, flavor was awesome. Mum loved it, I know mum's are biased to daughters......I handed half cake to my Finnish God Mother and she asked for the recipe ..big yay! so I'm basically not bothered about the color failure...

Here is my Santa Clause with some gift and a piece of brick red velvet cake wishing you Merry Christmas. Have a peaceful and fun Christmas with your Family and friends..Greeting from Finland :)

PS: I did fondant flowers by myself, learned from this video. Made white flowers and painted with red food color!

I followed this recipe to the dot......I strongly recommend it :) have fun guys!

Santa is on his way - Rum fruit cake

2010-12-13T12:39:00.004+02:00

All set and ready? enjoying the bling bling and the redness?. Oh I'm loving it. City has completely turned white and with minimum day light (no complaints) it is glowing with numerous lights and huge decorated Christmas trees. It's fantastic to see many merry people around, shopping, exchanging gifts, excited about their vacation, pretty much the list goes endless. Am sure it's the same with you guys too! I already received three Christmas gifts :)), so during the weekend was wrapping mine, all to be give this week, excited! I love exchanging gifts and may be I sound like school kid, but I'm very impatient until the gift boxes are opened ;p

What have you all been baking as Christmas home made gifts?...I made rum fruit cake, one of my fav cakes, have made it already 6 times still feels fresh whenever I bake them. Have made them as individual muffins, easy and fancy to pack as gifts....This cake has longer life time (well packed and stored-one month). The taste and flavor enhances as it ages, personally I prefer to have them after couple of days. As always I can't resist warm cakes out of the oven but have noticed the difference as the days goes by.

Ah is anyone missing in the pictures below? Yes Santa!...He is all set and ready, reindeer is waiting for him... very soon he will visit ur house with loads of gifts and happiness. Stay tuned :)

Ingredients

For caramel:
175 gram sugar
110 ml water

For cake
275 gram all propose flour
140 gram butter
140 gram sugar
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp baking powder (I usually use 2 1/2 tspn during winters)
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder(You can change the spice powder amounts according to ur preference as well)
1/4 tsp clove powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
200 ml caramel
15 ml dark rum (I used Bacardi)
15 ml of red wine
300 gram mixed nuts+dry fruits+raisins+tutti fruity (according to ur taste, you can add more also)
2 tbsp flour

Method

Caramel

Heat wide heavy bottom pan (maintain at medium heat), gently spread the sugar in the pan evenly. Slowly the sugar will start to melt after couple of minutes. Don't even dare to touch or stir the sugar, they will recrystallize. Just leave them to be on their own. When sugar is completely melted, they usually have beautiful amber color, now you can either use it right away or heat them for couple of more minutes till turn light brown (I prefer them with a tad bit of brown as it gives amazing color to the cake and the sweetness gets reduced very mildly). Take the pan out of heat, take them near your kitchen basin, keep it far away from you, pour in 100ml of water. Warning: expect a small chemical reaction, melted sugar is at very high temperature and with water they will almost try to explode, keep children away during this process, don't panic it isn't that dangerous.
After reaction cools down (within couple of seconds) now slowly stir in water until thick caramel blends well with water, let them rest for a while until it reaches room temperature. If some of thick caramel settles down, don't worry.

Cake
Separate yolk and egg white
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (7 to 10) minutes. Now add egg yolk one by one and beat for about one minutes between each addition until they are smooth. Next add vanilla essence and mix well.
Prepare the dry mixture. Combine flour, baking powder and sieve. Mix all the spice powder and combine well. Gradually, gently fold in the dry mixture to the cake batter (in 3 to 4 batches) until well combined. Now pour the gorgeous thick caramel, rum and wine. Again very gently fold in the bake batter.
Next, add two tbsp of flour to the nuts and toss them well with hands (every piece of nuts should be uniformly coated with flour, this process will prevent the nuts from sinking). Now add the nuts to the cake batter and combine them very gently.

Butter the cake pan and dust it with flour. Pour batter to 20-23 cm prepared cake pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degree C for about 50-70 minutes. After 50 minutes check every 10 minutes with tooth-pick until the cake is baked. It's very dense cake, takes very long time to bake. Don't open the oven before 45 minutes, the nuts in the cake will sink.

If you are planning to make muffins like me, pour in the batter to muffin mold/tins till it is half filled and bake in preheated oven at 170 degree C for about 25 to 30 minutes.

NOTE baking timing may vary slightly according to the oven you are using, so kindly keep a check after three quarter of specified timings.

Cool the cake on the rack till it reaches room temperature and dust caster sugar if needed.

Missing Colors? Pumpkin Scones

2010-12-07T21:07:00.000+02:00

Warning :) Post is heavily loaded with pictures
How are you guys managing with cold and darkness? Are you missing colours? Very strangely this year's darkness is having a huge impact on me. People living on bright side of the world, I'm plain jealous. After one of the most freakish week, I was completely torn off, wanted to be in two place with contradictory situation...this made me go all heebie-jeebies. Basically was giving myself a hard time. Now I have weighted my new priorities, understood the existence of tricky question, tried not to pervert and in a way balancing my inner book! Exuded some repulsive force to be less bothersome and slowly generating few small packets of positive ripples on the surface which is taking me to otherwise happy pond. During all this process, though I have quieten for a while, Autumn colours was helping me out (was editing and clearing my hard drive which has been piling up from 2005 :O) since I was missing the colours. Here it is some fall pictures with pumpkin scone.

I made two version one was tradition sweet scone and another one I jazzed it up few dry chilly flakes and corriander and of course replaced sugar with salt :). Will start right away to catch up with all your post I missed! These Autumn pics are from my 2009 collection my 2010 autumn is here.

Ingredients

One small size pumpkin, halved and baked in oven at 200 C for about 20 to 30 minutes depending on your pumpkin. baking enhanced the flavour and took off the extra moisture. Let them cool for a while. Scrap the pumpkin and mash them well.

For spicy scorn
40 gram butter
200 gram mashed pumpkin
225 gram flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 to 1 1/2 tbspn of finely chopped coriander ( according to ur taste)
2 tsp of chilly flakes (according to ur taste)
salt to taste
3 -5 tbspn of milk

Mix dry ingredients together (flout, baking powder, chilly flakes, coriander and salt). Now throw in butter and form a uniform crumb. Next added mashed pumpkin and milk to form a dough. Remember they will be sticky don't panic. Roll the dough to about 2 to 2.5 cm think and cut into 5 cm rounds (use dry flour to roll the dough). Brush with milk for glazing and bake for about 15-18 minutes in oven preheated to about 200 C. Depending on ur oven the timing may change a bit keep a check after 12 mins. they will turn pale brown.

For sweet scorn
60 gram butter
55gram caster sugar (if ur pumpkin is sweet reduce the sugar or vice versa, or according to ur taste)
1 egg yolk
440 gram mashed pumpkin
375 gram flour
pinch of salt
3 to 5 tbspn of milk

Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar and salt). Add butter make uniform crumb. Next add yolk and mashed pumpkin. add required amount of milk and knead the dough. Remember they will be sticky don't panic. Roll the dough to about 2 to 2.5 cm think and cut into 5 cm rounds (use dry flour to roll the dough). Brush with milk for glazing and bake for about 15-18 minutes in oven preheated to about 200 C. Depending on ur oven the timing may change a bit keep a check after 12 mins. they will turn pale brown.

A Mini Flashback - Garlic Masoor dhal and Okra fry

2010-11-29T19:56:00.003+02:00

It's -17 C today and it's going reach -23 C tonight. I have no issues with coldness. More or less used to it but one problem is coldness makes me lame and useless in the evenings and during weekends. I simply eat and crawl under my duvet. Sigh! It's been three weeks already I haven't made any recipe and did a photoshoot, yes you guessed it right I'm digging my recipe bank! Since I haven't been doing any justice to my blog thought its Mondays let me be productive! So here is it. I have beautiful memory attached to this recipe.

My mum worked as principal (currently retired) for a private school in my home town (Coimbatore) for 29 yrs. The school was managed by three trustees. One of them was very close to our family, they were old couple from Punjab who were like our God parents. Uncle was a great artist, master in abstract oil paintings and aunty was dutiful house wife and very stylish lady. You know olden days people follow strict rules and they have wonderful principles. He was very health conscious man, who used to go for walking every morning at 6:30 AM for one hour and on his way back he used to stop by our house every day except Sundays to enjoy my mum's tea (used to be his fav) and discuss politics with dad. As kids we used to dislike uncle coming to house just for one reason, coz our mum used to wake us up early and we have be ready to wish Good morning to uncle. But what we used to enjoy is to have lunch at their house. Mostly it will be potluck, mum cooked for them and aunty cooked for us. She was great cook, this used to be one of our fav food, roti, dhal, onkra sabzi, brinjal sabzi, simple salad and masala dahi. Since aunty and uncle didn't have their own kids, they treated my parents as theirs, me and my sis were pampered!

During my childhood days, I was interested in wall paintings, still I'm. My parents were generous enough to let me draw on the walls. My dad, smart enough, he painted all the walls in the house with oil paints, so I had many chance to reuse. Main reason was they let me grow with my creativity. Every weekend I used to go to uncle house to get trained with strokes and play with colors, he took me to many painting classes, I did improve after that. These days I paint when I'm extremely stressed out on charts and I concentrate mostly on abstract since they don't need extreme perfection. I simply love to paint on walls becoz they are like big paper to fill in my thoughts and colors. When my sis was expecting her first baby I decorated room with lots of glass painted (where u paint on the glass, later peal and stick it on the walls) toads, stars, doggies, butterflies and dolls just for my niece to enjoy. As days went by, unfortunately uncle became a victim to intestine cancer and we lost him forever, but the knowledge of art he imbibed in me is something I cherish. Slowly we lost aunty due to age factor...but we are still filled with their fond memories. This is the recipe I dedicate to them with lots of love and just to say we miss you! My mum inherited this recipe from aunty and I inherited from mum.

Ingredients

For Okra Fry ( I made very small portion change accordingly)
Okra 150 grams ( Washed, well towel dried and diced in long pieces )
2 tbspn of Oil
2 Large onions ( Diced in large pieces)
2 Medium size tomato ( finely chopped)
1/2 tspn chilly powder
1 1/2 tspn coriander powder
1/2 tspn cumin powder
Pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste

Method
In a pan fry okras with one table spoon of oil, pinch of turmeric and salt, turmeric helps to keep the greenness in okras. After it is cooked leave them aside.
In the same pan add another table spoon of oil, fry onions till they are transparent, add tomatoes cook till oil comes out. Now add cooked okras and fry for 60 seconds. Add chilly, coriander, cumin powder and desired amount of salt and fry for 2 - 4 minutes till masala is well mixed and serve hot.

Masoor dhal
Dhal 100 grams
1 tbspn of oil
3 pods of garlic ( Finely chopped)
1 Medium size onion (Finely chopped)
1 Medium size tomato (Finely chopped)
1 1/2 - 2 tspn of chilly pwd (according to ur taste)
1 1/2 tspn of coriander powder
1/2 tspn cumin powder
Salt to taste
1 tbspn of finely chopped coriander

Pressure cook masoor dhal or pot boil them. Until it is cooked well. Don't over cook them. Masoor dhal are very small and thin version it doesn't take very long time to cook. Once it is cooked add cold water this prevents from over cooking.

In a pot, add one table spoon of oil, when it is warm add garlic, fry till turns pale brown, add onions fry it soft and tender. Next add tomatoes, fry till is cooked well and oil just starts to come out. Now add cooked dhal, next add chilly powder, coriander, jeera powder and salt to taste. Boil till the required consistency. Dhal should of running consistency.Garnish with chopped coriander, if deired with few fried garlic.

Enjoy both the recipes with warm roties and simple onion tomato salad.

For salad, finely chop the onions and transfer in bowl of water with few drops of lemon juice, this will mellow the raw onion flavour for about 5 mins. Mix with finely chopped de-seed tomatoes salt and pepper.

On A Date With Pear - Parmesan With Pear and Wine

2010-11-21T16:16:00.006+02:00

Whenever the feel of my PhD going stray starts to creep within me, instantaneous revitalizing element is to treat myself extravagant or do completely out of my thinking. That's when during working hours shamelessly I end up searching recipes. My desktop either show pale boring LaTex screen with my head tug into it or food picture with palm on my face! The moment any good link is found will quickly pass it over Vinoo thro' skype she does the same. One day we were going thro' our chat history to play word mingle, we could hardly find any written messages there, it was basically all food link. Likewise she sent me this link from academiabarilla, when I was in search of pear recipes. We decided to try it out on the following weekend.

Went in search of wine pink incarnation, wanted to bring in a special effect for the evening. Wala, found it but it was half dead. Switched to giga red rose, romantic enough with few twinkling candles! Next day I made the mousse, Vinoo made spinach ricotta tortellini for dinner. It was perfect evening with wine, creamy tortellini and wine cooked pear. It was fun to cook fruit, wine gave fantastic color and honey induced great flavour. We both were in love the way it looked, texture and fragrance. But mousse had a very delicate taste, as you know Parmesan is salty cheese. The gelatin amount they gave was way too much. That spoiled the whole texture. Overall was an interesting try. I would give thumbs up for cooked pear and average for mousse. For those who would love to try we came up with better solution for mousse, vanilla ricotta mousse or just plain vanilla ice cream would be heaven with warm cooked pear. That was my date with pear, try urs but skip the mousse ha ha :) Note, chef who is teaching the recipe is cute :p

Submitting this for Monthly Mingle happening on Deeba's passionate about baking and Meeta of what's lunch honey?

For recipe check here

But reduce the amount of gelatin. Easy or better solution for mousse is vanilla ricotta mousse or just plain vanilla ice cream.

An Experiment - Baby Shower Cake

2010-11-11T21:47:00.001+02:00

Being an experimentalist, I dare to do any of kind of experiments in whatever field it may concern. For physics research experiment, initially we get into concept, background, expertise advice and training after which, we are left alone to crack, break, fiddle own brains and not the instruments. Then gradually we master the instrument and technique.

With the thought of doing a baby shower party, did a detailed research. Mostly cupcakes trees or giant cupcake were made for these kind of parties. Creative and dreamy part of my brain rejuvenated, ordered the giant mold. Crazy me in my fantasy world went on and on imagining only about cake icing. I knew what I want use, yes fondant! Was excited, watched couple of videos did all the shopping step by step. Brought, white pink fondant, blue and pink food color, pink paper flowers, blue ribbons and mold to make fondant flowers. Since Somjai didn't know it was baby girl or boy I had to keep blue and pink. Honestly I gave more important to pink, as I wanted her to have baby girl. Reason is very simple, Somjai is Thai and Tero is Finnish and combination of Asian and Europe is awesome and sorry but Hybrid babies are super cute specially girls.

Next on the shopping list was cupcake sprinkles, brought white, pink sugar pearls, pink sparkles and pink, white sugar heart, where is blue brr I forgot :P. Then chose angel to top the cake as kind of blessing for mum and baby, you know to be on the safe side? since didn't want to loose the kind of challenge. Then randomly picked polka, plain white, blue and pink satin ribbons.

Crap! can you guess what I have missed in my preparation? The cake itself, ok I knew what cake I wanted to make, sour cream raspberry and macadamia cake but how about baking the giant cake is there something I should follow? Did crazy hunt after, but couldn't find one decent recipe specially the temperature and procedure. Finally after intensive literature survey, scribbled scraps and came up with an estimation, was confident to give it a go.

Started baking on the day before the party, first batch cake batter looked fine, started with lower part of the cake, into the oven. 45 minutes not done, 1 hour not done, 1:20 min not done. Horrified, alarmed and funked! 1 hour 40 mins cake was finally done. I could feel oxygen going thro' my lungs. Quickly made the 2nd batch, slipped into the oven. After 10 mins gave brief check thro' the glass. My heart failed, the silicone mold filliped, half of the batter was out. It was 12.00 AM already. Had tears in my eyes. Without losing hope, made simple vanilla cake batter was careful in placing into the oven and another 1:40 mins cake was done! sigh! 2:00 AM. Next was mini cupcake, wanted to complete before sleep it was easy. You know room temperature cakes are better for icing! 4:00 AM I was done. Went to sleep, can't remember if my brain rested. 7 AM was up again. Now you know how adamant I'm. Until unless I get thing completely perfectly done never I can rest, may be the reason why I'm into research.My mum is not very happy with this particular character of mine :p

Early(Saturday 7 am is extremely early for me!) morning started with fondant, made flowers, painted and left them to dry. I looked at the cake, the shape looked fine, kind of felt cake was hard while leveling. Didn't take it to mind, started fondant layering, bottom was white and top was pink. Then arranged the flower followed by decorating with ribbons and flowers. Next was icing the cupcakes, my hands were dead by then, still manged to squeeze the cream, got the most funny shapes ever, efficiently covered it with glitters. Oh forgot to mention before, same day was my best friend Shanthi's surprise b'day party late in the evening. Rum fruit cake was baked for the party, Oh yes I'm super crazy :D

Midori was staying with me previous day and I borrowed her hand for some help. We all landed for the surprise baby shower party. Wooo and ahhh from many of beholder my tiredness started to fly. Somjai was surprised and very happy. Her godmother is a catering teacher she initially thought the cake was made by her godmother, felt like a complement.

RESULT: Time to cut the cake, first thing Somjai asked was why is it so hard Ananda? I could see pregnant women giving maximum force :O, yes the cake crust was hard. Upper vanilla cake was dry and bottom so called raspberry cake was "Strange" it was something like over cooked pudding. All my friends ate the cake piece, How sweet! Cupcakes were just fine. I was feeling like a real crap, Godmother and Marjut said the intention and the message for the day was more important and it showed. So over all cake baking was BAD. It got thumbs up for decorating and the way it looked. Total preparation time was 18 hours, the longest cake baking session I ever had.

Shanthi B'day cake was good, no problem with that. Can you imagine what I wrote in Shanth's b'day card happy "D'bay" We laughed endlessly about it. Next day after Midori left, I crashed onto the pillow, wok up only on Monday morning! I wrote to Sarah from whom I brought the mould she gave tips of baking process, felt I should have done that before, but all experience counts. This is one cake and one night in my life I wouldn't forget.

All set and done, I won! Very beautiful, and super cute baby girl was born about 10 days before. I can't express how I felt when I saw baby for the first time, she smiled while she was sleeping me sitting besides her. She crawled when I touched with my super cold fingers, she slept in my arms. The first time I held my sister's baby I cried as she is the most precious gift in our lives the same I felt with Somjai's baby. I am visiting Somjai so very often these day venting my stress, being with her baby and her mom feeding me, feels like being at home. How blessed I'm to have few friends who become a family. My guess for baby girl was right, though many other friends said it was boy, I have bloody good insight :)) Very Happy!!

PS: My picture quality is not at its best, my tired hand led to many frizzy pictures!
Will write more on the technical details of baking when I get a chance to bake the cake again don't be surprised if it comes after couple of years..

Happy Diwali - Caramelized Fig Tart

2010-11-02T16:19:00.003+02:00

Diwali is around the corner, so all ready for it? what a pity that it falls on working day, chance to have a party or do something good seems to be bit out of question for me in Finland. Anyways Diwali reminds me of many happenings in India, waking up early, bursting crackers, food, sweets, extended family and what not?

For last couple of years, my family calls me in the morning to wish me and then it will be me calling them for every one to two hours asking for updates? I can't be hooked up with lab, computer and keep sulking at boring office. Hearing everyone on phone used to make my Diwali. Sounds better right? Candle season is back in Finland, my favorite, best way to get rid of the darkness and those twinkling lights does cheer me up and few aromatic ones how relaxing. I recently out of great frustration did a big fruit shopping, not know what I will end up doing with all of it, fig was one of them. Turned out to be my new love. Trust me guys, if you haven't tasted fresh fig give it a try. It's worth it.

I made fig tart somewhat suitable for Diwali placing few candles around. With so many wonderful post on Indian sweets and savory all around for Diwali, fig tart can be like a odd man out, pardon me, unfortunately my hands are not very flexible when it come to preparing Indian sweets and from my understanding it needs enormous patience and motivation, which I'm running short of, so why take chance? do you by any chance know a shop that sells motivation and patience? :P My mum always says self praising is donkey praising, but it doesn't stop me singing glories about this quick easy tart. Crunchy fig, crisp tart and wonderful flavor of caramel butter was worth a try

That's the end of my insensate words. Wish you all very happy, prosperous, fantastic and dhamakadar Diwali. For desi friends staying out of India hope you will have your own ways of making ur diwali happy :)

I'm submitting this for Monthly Mingle happening on Deeba's passionate about baking and Meeta of what's lunch honey?

Ingredients

5-6 Fresh fig fruit ( sliced to 6 pieces each)

For caramel butter

50 gram brown sugar

40 gram butter

For tart I used ready made tart dough else you can use this recipe

Method

In a medium size pan over medium heat, throw in sugar, when the sugar just starts to melt add butter wait until the sugar and butter is melted, say about 3 to 4 minutes.. Remove from the heat. Give a quick whisk until sugar and butter is well incorporated. If you find butter floating on top, don't panic just add one tsp of warm water and give a rapid whisk, it will act as an emulsifier. Place sliced fig on a baking plate, pour in the caramel over the figs and roast them in the oven for about 3 to 5 minutes or until they become tender. Set aside.

Next, roll the tart dough to desired thickness and place in a suitable mold. Using a fork pierce the dough this help tart not to swell while baking. Refrigerated it for 15 minutes. Bake in preheated oven, at 180 C for about 15minutes. If you are using store brought dough please follow the given instruction. But take the tart 5 minutes earlier than the given time.

Now arrange the roasted fig or just throw inside the tart, pour remaining caramel butter and bake again for 5 minutes at 180 C. Serve warm!

Disneyland isn't just for kids - Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-27T09:45:00.000+03:00

Lazy Sunday Afternoon - Cinnamon Honey Baked Apricots

2010-10-24T23:43:00.007+03:00

Sometime I crave for desserts which are light, sweet, warm and it should hardly take any efforts to make, after all it's Sunday afternoon. I have mini dark chocolate store (7 to 8 flavors) but they don't help at times. I went and stood staring at them for few minutes, walked to my refrigerator saw few apricots shrinking. Right then active grey matter reminded me of a quick recipe which Vinoo said to me, here it is. I simply love it, thanks Vinoo for coming up with wonderful recipe. Have it warm, for those who don't like white chocolate you can very well have with vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce. Happy working week ahead. Hugs!

Ingredients

5 Fresh for frozen apricots (I used fresh)

Few or desired amount of fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen) say I added 5 to 6 berries in each ramekins

5 tbsp of honey

1 - 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder ( I used 1 1/2)

5 piece of white chocolate (or choose much ever you want :))

Method

Deseed the apricots, make sure that you don't cut them through out. Place each apricots in separate ramekins. Mix honey and cinnamon powder. Pour one tbsp of honey cinnamon mixture into the apricots. Tug in few blue berries into the apricots. Bake the apricots in a preheated oven at 170 degree for 8 -10 minutes. The fruit and berries should become soft and juicy. Place chocolate pieces in each ramekins and bake them again for 2 to 4 mins till the chocolate just starts to melt.

Note: the baking time may vary according the fruit and the chocolate variety you use. May be it might take few mins less or more kindly check according!

Nature's Darling Diamonds - Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-20T02:11:00.001+03:00

Pink/ Breast cancer awareness - Family favorite/Beetroot kurma

2010-10-13T22:55:00.016+03:00

There are quite many to say in this post, but will try keep it crisp. Since October being "breast cancer awareness" month, thought will give you primitive detail about abnormal cells, from which tumors are formed. Every living being is composed of cells and continuous controlled cell division takes place. Due to DNA mutation in the cells, abnormal rate of division of cells happens, resulting in collection of cells called tumor. There two type of tumor benign and malignant tumor. Malignant tumor is the evil guy. The same thing happens in breast, during initial stage and secondary stages they are either treated or removed. At third stage tumor spread to greater extent and results can be fatal. I found two educative slideshow and video, check when time permits. We are precious ladies and we have to treat ourself best in order to serve others good. To keep away from carcinogenic diseases, stay healthy, stress free, no to smoking and most important of all microwave bowls are something which has to be changed now and then, it is not for long term use, they turn into carcinogenic materials after certain time period. Microwave irradiation break the bonds in the polymer changing their original property. Am not a bio student, if you find any of the details wrong, pardon me, correct me, trash me or just chuck it out :)

Now to beetroot kurma, am not a big fan of beetroot but I adore this kurma, this is our family favorite, most important of all my dad's. Usually in this kurma, beetroot to potato ratio is about 3:1, every one in the family will look for those little potato, my dad insists mum to add more of it, but mum says that potato's are added to obtain the right consistency if added more it becomes potato kurma. Oh well..anyways we love..hope you will like it too :)

Thanks guys for the pouring response you all had given for my mango delight, I was overwhelmed and for some comments felt dramatic in positive sense :) For all my dear friends who had been waiting for veg recipe again here it is, Divya this is exclusively for you!

Finally, to stay fit and fine, we got to be happy, keep smiling, worries and pressure will come and go take it easy, after all we have to live the best life out of better possibilities. For all the suffering patience prayers for hope courage, strength and will power. Amen!

   Stay Pink!

I was amazed by the gorgeous texture

On lighter note if you are wondering about the leaves popping out of my beetroot's? didn't care them for bit long time that it started to grow, leaving no option left for me to use them right away...Ahem :P

Ingredients

3 medium size beetroot, diced

1 medium size potato diced

2 to 3tbsp of oil

3 medium size onions (finely chopped)

3 green chilly - slit (according to taste)

3 x 1.5 inch cinnamon

6-8 cloves

3/4 tsp chilly powder

Pinch of turmeric

1/2 tsp of ginger garlic paste

100 ml coconut milk ( i used tinned coconut milk)

Salt to taste

Finely chopped fresh mint and coriander (2 -3 tbsp of each)

1tbsp of fresh lemon juice

Pressure cook diced beetroot and potato. In heavy bottom pan, warm oil, throw in cinnamon clove let them splutter, add green chillies, stay away, they will super react. After 30 to 40 sec quickly add finely chopped onions. Sauté till they are transparent and start to turn pale brown, add ginger garlic paste, fry for 40 to 50 sec till raw flavor vanishes. Then add cooked beetroot, fry for two mins, add chilly powder, turmeric, coconut milk,cooked potato and salt to taste. Bring it boil to required consistence. Garnish with chopped coriander , mint and one tbsp of lemon juice. Goes exclusively well with rice fine even with roties.

Dangerously Delightful : Mango Delight

2010-10-07T23:55:00.001+03:00

Who doesn't like king of fruits Mr. Mango? I'm a huge fan of him. Like mentioned in my previous post, I have a mango tree in our house, every year the yield was around 600 to 700 mangoes. After the harvest, the raw mangoes has to be kept in a special room, with proper setting to maintain the temperature for them to turn golden yellow. Mum and dad does them perfectly using some kind of dry grass and warp them in jute bags. As kids myself and my sis were curious how mangoes turn yellow and we used to peep into those bags every day, which was not good in any sense, but we do them when mummy and papa were away haha. Ripening time is around two weeks or more. Slowly the brusting of flavors will start, man I can't tell you guys it's one of the most wonderful time of the year, with all those gorgeous, succulent ,ultra sweet ones spread on the table. No we don't eat all of them, mum distributes to family member and neighbors and I cry buckets when she does that :D

On top of this my grandpa used to own a mango farm and he sends one basket of king of king Banganapalle mangoes all the way from my native place. With such a heavy duty mango background, when I came to Finland I was devoid of them. Usually I take my vacation during late autumn to escape gray and gloomy time of the year, but it's too late for mangoes in India. After four long years, this year I have been super dooper lucky as one of oriental shop uncle brought some form Sweden for we starving Indians. Can't tell you how we ladies barged into his shop and almost emptied the shelves. I quickly froze few diced mangoes to play around with it in baking. Was searching for weeks to make something exclusive, delectable, enchanting and darling. Total credit goes to dessert.net for this fantastic recipe, followed it to dot. But reduced the quantity to half. Hope you will also enjoy.

For recipe kindly check here Mango Delight, total credit goes to them!

Shortly will retype them here :)

First hand on red meat expt : Kheema vada/Minced meat patties

2010-09-29T20:28:00.004+03:00

Paranoid, is the next word I would link when I think of cooking red meat. I love mutton briyani and kheema vada only when my mum cooks with 'special' ? meat my dad buys. Oh yes am too picky when it comes to lamb. Reason is, meat what we we normally get is from sheep but the one my dad hunts and gets for us is tender goat. Am pretty sure your preference would change once you have tasted the tender goat meat. Being a food blogger I wanted to show am brave enough to give it a try and handle the strong flavor (according to me) and a small inspiration did the magic!

I invited Finnish family friends for an Indian lunch, kheema vada, chicken dum briyani, chicken gravy, potato bean fry, raita and suji (semolina) halwa was the menu. Was excited to cook as I was cooking even dum briyani was for the first time. Spice level for the entire food was moderate, since invites were elders, perfect for them to relish. Here goes the recipe. Was I satisfied? partially yes but still what mum makes is the best :D From today I have increased the size of the picture, haven't yet changed my previous post pictures, will do it slowly, kindly ignore the strange size difference on the page!

Kindly note the spice level for this vada was deliberately kept moderate. Kindly change according to your taste.

Ingredients
300 gram minced lamb
50 gram roasted split chick peas
2 green chili
3 cloves
1 inch cardamon stick

2 piece of 2.5 inch fresh coconut

1 tspn ginger garlicpaste

1 large onions (finely shopped)

4 tbspn of finely chopped coriander

3 tbspn of finely chopped mint

1/4 tspn turmeric powder
salt according to taste
1 egg white
oil to deep fry

Method
Pressure cook/ steam minced meat, green chili, salt and turmeric. Cool down to room temperature after it is cooked. Drain the excess water let it dry for a while Keep aside cooked green chili separately.

Grind, cloves, cardamon, coconut, ginger garlic paste, cooked green chili and roasted chick peas, till are fine. Add cooked meat into the mixer, give a quick blend so masala is well incorporated (3 to 5 seconds, should be more than enough) (Don't make it soft, else the vada texture will be ruined)

If required add more salt, throw in one egg white, chopped coriander, chopped mint to the meat dough and mix well. Egg white will help in binding and brings good crispness.
(If you don't drain water well after meat is cooked, meat dough will not be good, if it is soft and soggy, in that case don't add egg, instead add more roasted chick peas powder)

Make desired size balls and deep fry in hot oil. Till they are golden brown. Serve hot

Laid back evenings - Orange cake

2010-09-22T09:58:00.003+03:00

Laid back? not that I come home shrugging and crash on the couch and later do nothing but... This whole week am staying with Somjai, 8 months going to be mama, as her her husband is off for a conference. Having great time with her, I start from office "early" thinking that someone is waiting for me and we have plans to cook together and have dinner, loving it. Then we start to talk, which we did while working together, about work, colleagues in and around department, lots to update....you know :p Giggle, laugh and best is am completely away from laptop and internet, so my dear blog mates, shall get back to all your blog post this weekend :)

Funny thing to be with pregnant ladies is they have increased body temperature and it's around 10 degrees in Finland or even less in the evening but Somjai switches on the fan , ahem ahem. I'm like shivering and dancing sitting inside a cold closet, with sweater and socks on :D we laugh about it. I keep asking baby to kick mama more so I get a chance to sense, but mama bear gets super annoyed :) Sometime baby listens to Aunt Ananda :D

Back to cake, if you are having a less time to make cake or to do during working days this is the cake. Merie's parents visited Finland, myself and Vinoo were invited for home made kerala food. Aunty made Aviyal, chicken kurma, rice, papad, ethnic kerala powder to mix with rice, pickle, now my mouth is watering thinking all those delicious food. It was feast for we hungry beast :)

Best part about this cake is, it can be made previous night and let it cool down the whole night, next day top it up with fresh cream with orange zest, they bring ultimate freshness, flavor, super soft and creamy :)

Ingredients
4 eggs separated
125 gram sugar
150 gram margarine (you can use butter)
1 teaspoons of vanilla essence
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
125 gram all purpose flour
2 large orange’s zest about 2 tbsp ( save ½ tsp of zest for cream topping)

Whip butter and sugar until they are soft and fluffy, next add egg yolk and vanilla essence beat till they form a smooth mixture. Mix dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) together in a bowl. Add them into the butter sugar mixture in small amounts and fold them gently. Add orange zest and mix evenly. Beat white egg till they form single peaks and fold it to cake batter.
Pour mixture into cake pan (I used 18cm). Bake in the middle of the preheated oven at 180 degree degrees for 25 to 35 minutes. Let cool down before you make the topping.

For topping

300 ml fresh cream
200 gram sugar (less or more according to your taste)
1 1/2tsp of vanilla extra
1/2 tsp of orange zest
1/2 tsp of Cointreau

Whip sugar, cream, vanilla extract together until single peak is formed. Add saved 1/2 tsp of orange zest to the cream and fold in gently.

Assembly

Slice the cake into half. Now place the top layer of the cake as bottom and drop in half the amount of fresh whipped cream in the middle of the cake. Spread uniformly make sure that it doesn't reach the corners because when we place the another layer of cake, cream will squeeze out!
Now place the another layer of the cake carefully and gently give a weak press. Evenly spread rest of the cream on top and in the side and make them look the way you want it to look :) I used Kumquats and orange peal flower to bring the whole orange effect.

An email some motivation and tears of joy - Almond cake

2010-09-16T01:11:00.009+03:00

It may sound familiar if I say "there are many individual from childhood days I have lost contact ". Let me give you a short glimpse of my yesteryear's. Say 10 to 15 yrs back during my school days. I was an introvert who had countable number of friends. I was overshadowed by not being a bright student of the class, don't be surprised if I say, I was never good with my studies, since I hated competition (still do) and intelligence being constantly compared to marks got in exams. According to me intelligence is something a person achieves in any of his/her field of interest which finally gets noticed by people but never compared as each individual has their own originality.

From countable number of friends, one girl Bexci Christy who wore only white and black dress, as that was her fav, that too exactly similar pattern whenever we had a chance to wear color dress in school, was first to cross my mind when I thought of her. We studies together, she is taller than me so we didn't share same bench nor we giggled during class hours but ....i don't remember anymore it's 1 AM now my brain is hibernating. Slowly as we moved to higher grades we got dispersed to follow the blueprint with an urge to achieve what we intended in order to survive in the competitive world and to make our parents feel proud one day!

Years rolled, out of sheer hate, trust me it's "the" honest truth, I took physics, since I couldn't get thro' medical. Thank God for that, I have my own way now. Slowly I fell in love with physics, got to know about research and then a way to attain Dr. before my name. That is the 'only' goal in life. I forgot the world when I moved to Finland, since I was seeing the future I dreamt off. Didn't expect it to be a cake walk but neither did I envisaged it to be hard like diamond, huge like mountain, scary as snake, deep as well, unreachable like ocean and lonely like forest. Getting lost period started, thanks to social-networks. That's when I started to get back in contact with my old friends, we had endless thing to share, talk and above all it made me feel like I gained human-connection, without which am a dead girl.

Slowly my blog baby shaped, not even in my wild dreams I thought it would reach this level, thanks to all who gave/giving me a push to do it and believed I could make it. Last week I received a friends request from Bexci and with small message asking for my email id. It was joyful start for the day, it took me back to those innocent days, loved it. She sent me a mail, which brought "tears of joy" in my eyes. It was filled with encouraging, appreciating and motivating words. I was on cloud9 and indeed had goose bumps. We are sharing long replies, about what's going on in each other lives and what are we up to. She is a prof. at a college teaching Visual Communication in India stepping in to area of research, I was super impressed. Getting a designation Prof before ur name isn't easy. It's a pile of hard work ,dedication and intelligence. That exactly proves marks doesn't matter!Kudos Lady!

She did create an impact in me for past few days, since I was again at my lower minima going through tough time with PhD. Like they say how small things makes large difference, it actually worked for me. So thank you Bexci and this is a special cake for you darling for making me realize "though I loose one little thing I gain something precious!"

This is an ultra simple cake, if you are by any chance in nutty mood then this is the cake. Original recipe is from David Lebovitz made few changes, reduced the amount of butter and quantity of eggs. Indeed shared with Vinoo, we loved the cake, as it was subtle chewy of course bit heavy as it contains only nuts but great with tea or for breakfast!

Ingredients

250 gram sugar
225 gram coarse almond paste
140 gram flour
150 ml margarine ( you can use room temperature butter, original recipe asked for 225 gram, I would say 150 gram will be more than enough!)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Method

Soak almond overnight, peal the skin and grind into coarse paste ( I wanted it chewy, its up to you make it smooth or coarse). Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Line the bottom of a 18cm cake pan with a round of parchment paper, butter the pan and dust it lightly with flour, tapping out any excess. With an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and almond paste until smooth. Add butter and beat for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Now add egg yolk and vanilla mix well.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the batter until well incorporated.

Beat white egg until single peak. Gently fold the egg white into the batter.

Transfer the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The baking time may take bit longer due to the variation in oven and the way you grind the nut. Cool the cake on a rack before serving. This cake is extremely moist and will keep well for up to a week if well-wrapped.

Pearly Delight - Coconut Ladoo

2010-09-08T20:01:00.004+03:00

Asima Bengali beauty is well know for the simple and delicious coconut ladoo. Whenever she made those ladoo's either for Indian get together or for some pooja, all of us used to binge on it immediately. As it was moist, light, fresh and indeed delicious. Best thing is, it is cream and milk free. Basically low fat and juicy inside.

I come from coconut background, back in India my home is surrounded by mango, 5 coconut, guava, pomegranate and custard apple trees. Most likely we have some fruits or the other throughout the year. Every 2-3 months either of the coconut trees were harvested. My dad always made sure some fresh tender coconuts were served for the day, oh missing it. When I buy some kind of coconut from normal markets in Finland, I shed blood tears.

So, learning something from coconut was on the priority list, by which I could surprise mom when I go back to India. Asima was very happy to teach me, Shanthi too joined us, so obviously we have short girls evening, with good food and lots of ladoo. Thanks to PhD I have enormous patience, spent two hours to skin off the brown layer underneath the white part, wanted ladoo's to resemble pearl.

Ingredients

500 gram grated fresh coconut
280-300 gram sugar (depending upon coconut sweetness)
1/4 tsp of cardamon powder

Method
Mix all the above 3 ingredients well in a bowl. Warm a heavy bottom pan on medium heat, add the mixture into the pan and mix gently. Slowly the sugar will start to dissolve wait till the water from the sugar evaporates. Take care not to make it dry. Note they will/must be moist, as when sugar cools down they tend to crystallize. Totally the mixture was fried between 10 -12 minutes. Cool down the mixture until bearable heat to make balls. Make desired size ladoo and serve anytime! I used sugar pearls for photoshoot if you are wondering what those little beads are? :)

Vegetable Threat - Radish Sabzi/Recipe?

2010-09-01T11:35:00.007+03:00

You got it right, am being haunted by myself and friends for posting too many desserts and chicken recipes. This being the best season of the year in Finland where I get fresh veggies had no option left but to make use of rare items. I find it difficult to cook veggies because they are delicate. My dad always used to be very specific not to over do them, according to him every vegetable has it's own natural sweetness and it gets lost if it is over cooked. My preference is slow cooking, since I don't like to be in kitchen and keep an eye on the procedures, after coming back home late in the evening specially when I have separation anxiety with laptop, facebook and food blogs :) Finally broke the rules, am trying few veg recipes lately. I got a threat message form Sriram saying he will not visit my blog until unless there is a veg recipe over here....so here it is Sriram :)

Years ago I checked cooking videos on rediff and a lady (sorry forgot her name) made this recipe, I vaguely remembered the ingrediants. Tired it out with my own taste, to be very honest, didn't know how to name it...feel free to name as you like :D

Below pic is inspired form Nisha's beetroot photo, it was stuck my brain for long time. I went around looking for eye catching basket, arrghh, as always didn't get what I want, but brought the bowl which I used for this recipe, so ended up using my fruit basket for photo-shoot :p.

Ingredients
2 small bunch of fresh radish with leaves
1 to 2 pods of garlic
3 to 4 green chili
2 medium size tomato

For seasoning
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 pods of sliced garlic
1/4 tsp of Jeera
Pinch of hing (Asafoetida)
Good pinch of turmeric
salt to taste

Method

Pressure cook or steam, whole bunch of radish, garlic, green chilies and tomato. After it's cooked let them cool down. Blend into a smooth paste (there will adequate water from tomato and radish)
In a heavy bottom pan, warm one table spoon of olive oil, add sliced garlic, let it turn mild brown, then add jeera, let them jump and splutter. Add pinch of hing and turmeric, pour in blended vegetable and let them boil for about 7 to 10 minutes on medium heat untill subzi thickness. I tired with both rice and fresh roti, thumbs up for roti guys, it was fantastic :)

Delicate darling - Pistachios gujiya/puri

2010-08-21T20:52:00.002+03:00

Pistachios gujiya/puri my today's experiment. During diwali my aunt used to make almond (badam) puries, duly copied her recipe but replaced almond with pista. It started great, even puries were surprisingly puffing very well. Must say am terrible when it comes to deep frying, got excited when they were turning out well, eventually I ended up frying my index finger :((

With burning fingers I couldn't continue with puries, so ended up making gujiya's, they seemed quick and easy. Shared it with Ritika and Asima. I was calling them as kachories, thanks Ritika for educating me the difference between kachories and gujiya. Somehow manged to make few click with damaged fingers. Hope you guys will enjoy this recipe at some point, but do with care. This sweet itself is very delicate and lots of care is need while processing. Now my kitchen is like a war field, will go and set them...hope you all have a great weekend...Hugs!

I used cashew in the recipe because they give a smooth texture to the nut paste which is used in fillings.

50 grams of sugar that i used was bit mild so I dusted caster sugar on top of puries and gujiya. Fell free to add directly to stuffing or similar to mine.

Ingredients

For filling
100 gram Pistachios
50 gram cashew
50 gram caster sugar (powdered sugar)
few drops of green food color

For puries or gujiya
300 gram mida (refined flour)
Dash of salt
4 table spoon of warm ghee (clarified butter)

For frying
300 ml of ghee or oil

Method
Soak both the nuts separately overnight. Peal the skin of pistachios (as they have pungent taste) in the morning. Towel dry the nuts and grind them to smooth paste. Now add sugar and food color and mix uniformly. Use ghee or oil and make desired size balls (they will be sticky so play with it ) and refrigerate it.

Now to make dough. Mix salt with dry flour and add ghee, mix uniformly. Using required water (according to your choise) make soft dough. Knead the dough for about 20 to 30 minutes and they will help to bring crispiness after frying.

Make balls, larger than the stuffing one.

For puries, roll the dough just enough to place the filling and cover it perfectly. Now very carefully roll the stuffed balls. Make sure not to add too much of pressure as the filling will squeeze out. Dust dry flour while rolling. Then fry then in hot ghee or oil.

For gujiya's roll the dough into thin puri, place the stuffing and fold the puri in to semi-circle, press the corners and gently fold the corners to get a beautiful design. Fry them in hot oil.

A surprise dessert - Apple oats crumb

2010-08-19T00:02:00.009+03:00

I made this dessert for Somjai as surprise, who is pregnant and is undergoing stages of pregnancy cravings. She was eagerly calling me every week asking me to check at department cafe (they are very good with this dessert) if apple crumb was available as she wanted to eat them no matter what. But unfortunately for all three weeks, apple crumb was not in menu. One Saturday we planned to have dinner at Somjai house, I promised to cook capsicum chicken, Vinoo made chocolate raspberry cupcakes and Somjai made spicy Thai noodle, all what going to be mama wanted to eat! So I planned to bake apple oat for Somjai as surprise, not big one though but I love to watch her million dollar expression. when I gave her big bowl, she asked "oh you cooked so much chicken for me" myself and Vinoo kept quite, until she opens to find the one she wanted...all she said was "Ahhhhhhhiiiiiiiii, one 32 teeth smile and thank you Ananda". I melted! She is very expressive lady and can make anyone on this earth to laugh heart out with her timely jokes, if I find no reason to smile or talk I call Somjai, she will make me laugh in less than a minute and make quick plan for dinner to cheer up, wish I could make many more goodies for her, but 24 hrs seems to be less for a day! :)

This is ultra simple but healthy dessert can be had just like that or with one scoop of vanilla ice-cream. It was even great for breakfast.

This pic takes me to apple wonderland :)

Ingredients

4 Granny Smith apples (green apple, peeled and diced)

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder (you can add more or less according to ur taste)

100 gram rolled oats (we wanted crispy and crunchy, can reduce if u want more fruity)

80 gram of brown sugar (according to apple sweetness, mine was sour)

2 table spoon of butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 C. Granny Smith apples are called cooking apples as they don't get smashed

after it is baked. Mix diced apple and cinnamon powder and place  it in the baking bowl. Now mix

oats, butter and brown sugar. Spread oat mixture evenly on top of apple. Bake to about 20 to 25

minutes until you see juice from apple starts to bubble around the and oats gets crisp.

Heaven on earth! Finnish summer cottage Part2-Lemon Chocolate pound cake

2010-08-12T16:51:00.005+03:00

After a great holiday in Vienna, was on vacation hang-over for almost week, the reason for late part2. Coming back to summer cottage, yes this time we were again on the lake side, but weather Goddess was in bad mood, we had gray clouds and showers! We spent evening indoors. Sitting in front of large window we could see whole lake thro' trees. Trust me I could sit hours staring. Sometime silence are best for humans, I had time for introspection, clearing my wandering thoughts finally some peace. within few hours I felt like my mind was devoid of thoughts, which is very rare. God heaven, felt light relaxed and happy.

Curtain in my room

Papaya salad and fresh super spicy red chilies

Yea tall trees

Still water

For dinner Somjai cooked wonderful Thai food, shame on me I forgot the name, but it was super delicious and extra spicy. Cold outside and warm, spicy food, num num. One another fact I loved was my room. I had my room on the first floor, close to the roof, which was tapering down, so it was like a little princess room. that was enough to make me even more special. After all good food, walk outside and few mins on the lake side peer, I had best sleep of the year. Next day morning for breakfast we enjoyed my pound cake, it was refreshing, flavor from lemon, hmmm yum! Each of us decided to do our own things, photo-shoot, walk on the endless rood, still water, rock and talk tree, spoke millions. It was truly an experience in life.
For lunch again Somjai cooked papaya salad with sticky rice and my mint chicken, wonderful. We slept again then it was smoke sauna time, we girls giggled had fun. Finally next day there was some warm sun, before we left the place. So got to see the blue sky and lake looked gorgeous, Technically I can go endlessly when sun was shining I sat on the peer with ipod, wish I could go once in a month to get recharged........But, and but always remains in Life :)

Endless road

Finally some blue sky

Was totally in love with lemon zest

I got lucky feather in egg box

Don't they look gorgeous?

Perfect with tea!

Ingredients

125 gram butter
180 gram flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large eggs separated
185 gram sugar
1 table spoon of cognac or brandy or rum
1 1/2 - 2 tsp grated lemon zest
50-75 grams of choco chips according to your taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan. Sift the flour along with the baking powder and a pinch of salt. Whip the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks until light and lemon-colored and then add the Cognac and zest. Gradually fold the sifted flour mixture into the butter-egg mixture. Fold in the beaten egg whites just until the batter is smooth. Now add in chocolate chips and mix till they are uniformly mixed Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick pierced in the center comes up clean.