Cinnamon Rolls

There is nothing as comforting as sitting at home during rainy weather, watching the droplets fall one by one from the leaves with something interesting to eat. The cravings usually tend to be for something fried along with with something hot to drink. But the effort of making bajjis (vegetables dipped in lentil flour and fried) with little one at hand seemed to be a huge task. Also I was craving for something sweet. The thought of baking something seemed to make more sense. I had ready made cinnamon roll dough on hand. The warm smell that spread through the house was enough to bring cheer into the gloomy evening.

Ingredients

Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls with Icing - 1 can
Walnuts - 1/3 cup

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Place cinnamon roll on baking dish. Chop walnuts. Add walnuts in between the spirals of the roll. Bake as specified in the package. Apply icing after removing from oven. This is best eaten when it is warm.

Cinnamon rolls are ready and yummy!

Eggless Spicy Butterscotch Pudding

• Ingredients
• 
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch chilli powder

Preparation

Whisk together the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a pan until smooth. Add the milk and cream. Mix well. Bring the ingredients to a simmer over low heat whisking constantly. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove the pan from heat. Stir in vanilla, butter, cinnamon and chilli powder. Pour the pudding into a bowl and chill for 1 hour before serving. Alternately you can pour in individual bowls and chill before serving.

Spicy Butterscotch Pudding is ready and yummy.

Recipe inspiration: Melissa D Arabian show in Food Network

Semi Homemade Lemon Pound Cake

Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances. According to Wikipedia, the sensation of taste can be categorized into five basic tastes: sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness and umami. Sourness is the taste that detects acidity. Generally between India and US, I find people in US more receptive to the sour taste. There are so many items exhibiting the sour taste profile. I had been using lemon as an added flavor to our Indian dishes while making lemon rice occasionally. But after seeing so many recipes in Food Network where lemon was used as a star ingredient, I was inspired.

The lemon is presumed to have originated from India, northern Burma and China. It was introduced to the Americas in 1943 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages. Lemon juice, rind, and zest are used in a wide variety of culinary applications. In my recipe I have used lemon juice and zest. 

Ingredients

Pound Cake or Yellow Cake Mix - 1 packet (I used Betty Crocker's Yellow Cake)

Ingredients as per the cake mix

Lemon - 4 (Depending upon the sourness level that you want, you can change this)

Sugar - 1 cup

Preparation

Prepare the cake batter as per the instructions given in the selected cake mixture. (If you are preparing the cake batter on your own, prepare the batter for plain sponge cake). Zest the four lemons. Extract the juice and keep it separately. Add the lemon zest to the batter. Mix thoroughly. Bake the cake as you normally would. Once the cake is ready, place it on a wire rack for cooling.

For Lemon Glaze

Melt sugar with 1/2 cup of water. (If you need nice white frosting replace plain sugar with confectioners sugar). Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

Pour the lemon glaze over the baked cake slowly allowing the cake to absorb the mixture. Lemon Pound Cake is ready and yummy!

Strawberry Preserve

You know those people who like to reveal the entire plot of the recently released movie and say that the movie sucks big time? I keep wondering why they do it. Is it because they think they are being generous to save us some money by spoiling our only major outing plan?  Well they could not stop me! On Friday, the day slated for Raavanan's  release, the only updates I could see on facebook were either the plot and opinions about the movie. Not to say none of the opinions were on the positive and it was continuing to be the same all through the weekend. But did it stop me from seeing the movie? No! :-)

I ended up going for the night show or should I call it the evening show. Not that it mattered. We were sitting in the theatre along with 10 other people with a secret joy of having the entire theatre to us.  All of us became silent when the titles started. Then came couple of Hindi actors. We were all watching couple of dialogues, parts of a song and were eagerly waiting to find out how exactly all this fit into the Tamil movie.

And then it came, long sighs...when we realized, we were watching a trailer for an upcoming movie. The actual movie "Raavanan" then started. (Missed the whistles which is an integral part of watching a movie in India) Loved the movie. Found it visually stunning. I could see the movie again for all the visuals. Loved the climax location. "Beautiful" is how I can describe it. The underlying factor for the movie is "Love". Of course it is an integral part of Indian cinema. I would care less about the story (if any) and the acting. Finally there it was on Facebook. A positive review about the movie.

Coming back to my post, N had gone strawberry picking. He knew that I loved strawberries and my art of finishing a box of strawberries in one day. But what I did not expect was that, he would get 7 pounds of strawberries and expect me to finish it in a day since they were overly ripe. It was a day of strawberries for us. Strawberry dessert, strawberry milk shake and still there were 6 pounds of strawberries. Finally ended up making strawberry preserves taking the idea from Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Strawberries (cut into halves with the top portion removed) - 6 cups

Sugar - 1 cup (Change according to your taste)

Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Salt - a pinch

Preparation

In a big pot, add sugar, water and lemon juice. Once the sugar has melted add the strawberries. Add salt. Lower the heat to low setting. Allow the entire mixture to simmer and thicken. Cook until the mixture gels on a cold plate (I kept the plate in the freezer) Once the mixture has reduced remove from heat. Allow it to cool and transfer to jars to use later.

I use these preserves for waffle topping, making milk shake, ice cream topping or just have a spoon of it whenever I feel like having something sweet :-)

Strawberry Preserves are ready and yummy!!!

~ Ramya

No Bake Eggless Honey Sponge Cake

There are always those lovely memories that you keep thinking about. One of my memories is of having the Honey Sponge Cake in Leo Fortune Bakery in Adyar, Chennai. Just thinking of the cake makes me drool!!! Call me a foodie :-) Nowhere else have I seen that cake so soft and moist. I wanted to check if that recipe was available in the internet but nowhere could I find it. I hit upon a link for Honey Sponge Cake recipe. But let me tell you, this is nowhere similar to the Leo Fortune cake. Anyways I decided to try it and this is one recipe which is going to stay since it does not involve baking :-).  Here is my adaptation of Honey Sponge Cake:

Ingredients


All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 2 tsp

Butter - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Honey - 3 tbsp
Vinegar - 2 tbsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tbsp

Serves: 4 adults

Preparation

Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Keep aside. In a bowl, add melted butter and sugar and mix well. Add honey and vanilla essence. Beat well. Add vinegar and mix well. Add the flour mixture, little by little. Mix well after each addition. The batter is ready once the dry and wet ingredients are combined together. Pour this to a well greased dish and cover it with an aluminium foil (see notes). Place the dish on a steamer and steam on low flame for 35-45 minutes. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes.You can drizzle it with honey if required.

Eggless Honey Sponge Cake is ready and yummy...that too without baking!!!

Notes:

• I would have reduced the quantity of sugar since it was too sweet for me. 
• I did not drizzle it with honey at the end. Still I was able to get the lovely glaze on top of the cake.
• The cake hardened a bit on the next day. It is best served when warm.
• I forgot to use the aluminium foil as mentioned in the original recipe. I dont know what difference that makes though, since the cake anyways came out good.

This being a no-bake cake, I am sending this to Apy Cooking's No Bake Event.

~ Ramya

Kesari without lumps

Now that only me and N are here, there has been lot of 'ME' time. I have finally been able to read through blogs and bookmark recipes. Of course, the bookmarked list is overflowing but then why leave a chance of me forgetting that recipe.

Kesari, it is such a simple sweet. But anything that I do with Rava / Sooji always turns out to be a disaster. Maybe I have been jinxed!!! Till now I have tried Kesari exactly twice. Both times it came out perfect. 

Thanks to Jayashree and Viki. I love Viki's version because it ensures that there are no lump. 

Here is how I adapted Viki's original recipe:

Ingredients

Rava / Sooji - 1 cup

Water - 3 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Garnish - cashews, raisins, almond flakes (optional)

Preparation

1. Heat a thick bottomed vessel which has a tight lid. (I used non-stick pan.) 
2. Dry roast rava till it starts turning slight red / brown and has a nice aroma to it. 
3. Transfer it to a plate and keep aside. 
4. In case you are garnishing with cashews and raisins: add ghee to the pan. Once it is hot, add cashews and roast tor 15 seconds. Remove and keep aside.  Add raisins and roast them for 5-10 second. Remove and keep aside.
5. Add water to the pan. 
6. Add a tablespoon of ghee to it. (Can be skipped if you are doing Step 4)
7. Allow the water to come to a full boil.
8. Reduce the flame to the lowest possible. 
9. Add rava slowly in a wide spread manner. Do not stir.
10. Close the pan with the lid. (Steps 7,8,9 are very important to ensure that there are no lumps)
11. Check often to see if the water has been absorbed. (Took 2-3 minutes for mine)
12. When there is no water, add sugar and stir well. 
13. When sugar is dissolved, add remaining ghee and stir until the kesari starts leaving the sides. The kesari will be little bit sticky.

Kesari is done and yummy!!!

~ Ramya

Eggless Sponge Cake with Chocolate Chips

The last few weeks have been happening. I have been exploring the house like a new child who has just started to explore things. Though my dad has been living here for quite a few months, he had not unpacked any of the cartons. So it was a week of unpacking. By the time I unpacked everything, I felt that I could start a mini Indian grocery store. Together (me, N and my dad) had got so many Indian groceries. Good for us I should say. 

With all the new enthusiasm I thought I would make pizza. I made the pizza, finished putting the toppings and switched on the oven. I put the pizza in the oven and after 5 minutes the fire alarm starting ringing loud in the entire house. It was my first experience and I panicked since gas lines run around the house. N, meanwhile patiently opened all doors and windows and switched off the oven. After ringing for around 10 minutes, it finally stopped. That is when I appreciated 'Silence'. Well the pizza was a disaster...This entirely dashed my hope of baking anything.

I was talking to my neighbors and they gave me the solution for avoiding the fire alarm. I tried it and when it worked, I decide to bake a small pound cake. 

I adapted Madhuram's recipe. Here is my version:

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Butter - 1 stick (1/2 cup) - I used salted butter

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Milk - 2 tbsp

Flax Seed Powder - 2tbsp thoroughly mixed with 6 tbsp of water

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Chocolate Chips - 10-12 pieces

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour your cake pan. Sift together flour and baking powder. Beat butter and sugar using low speed for about a minute. Add milk, vanilla. and flax seed mixture. Beat well. Add flour mixture and blend with a mixture using low speed. Spread the batter in the cake / loaf pan.  I used round cake pan. Add chocolate chips on top on the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes. When I did the knife test, it came out clean. after 25 minutes. But after cooling I the center to be little bit soggy. So I would suggest baking it for 30 minutes at least. Once the cake has rested for at least 20 minutes, invert it and then slice it.

Cake is ready and yummy!!!

~ Ramya

Pal Adai Pradhaman

The last couple of weeks have been going pretty crazy. I had to coordinate with several packers and movers for getting quotations. Yes...I am shifting from Pune to US soon.  I was keen on emptying my kitchen when I noticed that I had a packet of Rice Ada. I had never tried to make it before due to my laziness. But when I actually made it, I noticed that making Pal Adai Pradhaman was very easy to make (atleast when you used ready made ada's). So now I have been making this atleast twice a week. Here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Rice Ada - 0.5 cup (equivalent to 2 handful)

Sugar - 1 cup (increase / decrease based on taste)

Milk - 1 litre

Cardamom - 1/2 tsp

Milkmaid or condensed milk - 1/4 cup

Cashews / Raisins / Almonds - For Garnish

Ghee - For frying the garnish items 

Preparation

Over heat in a pressure cooker, add rice ada, sugar and milk. As soon as the slightest bit of steam appears put the weight.  Turn down the heat to the sim (or lowest possible). Switch off the gas after 30 minutes. Once the pressure releases add milkmaid and boil for a 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile fry cashews / raisins / almonds with ghee.  Garnish the pal adai pradhaman with the fried items.

Tips

1. Ensure that you put the weight as soon as the slightest steam appears. Otherwise milk will tend to come out. 
2. The heat should be reduced to as low as possible otherwise milk will tend to come out when the cooker whistles.
3. You can replace milkmaid with Creamers / Dairy Whiteners but ensure that you add it along with the milk itself.

Pal Adai Pradhaman is ready and yummy!!!

Horlicks Mysorepak

On the 1st day of the year I always have a policy to donate blood. As a result I got a kilo of Horlicks. Horlicks is one drink that I really hate. As the ad says, I love eating it just like that.  But how could I finish 1 kilo just like that? Thats when I had an idea to make Horlicks Mysorepak. I had seen them at Ananda Bhavan at Chennai. Here is my version:

Ingredients

Besan - 1.5 cup

Horlicks - 0.5 cup

Sugar - 2 cup (increase / decrease depending on the taste)

Ghee - 0.5 cup

Water - 1 cup

Preparation

Over medium heat, in a thick bottomed vessel, add sugar and water. As soon as the sugar melts (I dont wait for one thread consistency), add besan and horlicks (Tip: Mix horlicks with warm water to form a  pourable paste. Otherwise it has a tendency to form into lumps easily). Keep stirring to ensure that there are no lumps. Add ghee and keep stirring. The mixture will start frothing up. As soon as the mixture starts leaving the sides transfer to a ghee smeared plate. Sprinkle sugar over the mixture. The mixture will start to solidify after the few minutes. When firm cut into the desired shape.

Horlicks Mysorepak is ready and yummy!!!

Taking inspiration from Jayasree, I decided to take picture of my kolam. Compared to hers, mine are small and simple ones. Here we go:

Pathishapta Pitha

Pathishapta is a Bengali sweet dish. I got to know this from a Bengali aunty staying in our flat. She is a great cook and manages to make this every week. She has now gone back to Calcutta. So I decided to find out how to actually make this dish in the internet. But the only problem was I did not know what it was called. I did a search for 'Bengali Sweet - Coconut Filling' and I had a look at some of the recipes. I finally found out that I was eating Pathishapta all this while.

Pitha is usually prepared during Poush Parbon. Makar Sankranthi marks the end of the Bengali month Poush. The original recipe is here. Here we go with my version:


Ingredients

For the Batter

All purpose flour or Maida - 2 cups
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1 cup

For the Filling

Grated coconut - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cream - 2 tbsp
Cardamom - 1/4 tbsp
Raisins - 10
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation

Mix all the batter ingredients and let it stand for 30 minutes. Make sure that the batter is smooth without any lumps. The batter should be free flowing.

Heat a frying pan. Add ghee and fry the raisins. Add coconut, sugar, cream and cardamom. Keep stirring it constantly and you will notice that the mixture would have loosened. as the sugar starts to melt. Keep stirring for 1-2 minutes to ensure that the mixture comes together. (Note: The mixture will tend to harden after you remove from the stove. So if the mixture is watery it is ok).

Make small dosas / pancakes / crepes out of the batter in a tava. Keep the filling lengthwise and fold it from both sides. The crepes are done when it is light brown.

Pathishapta is ready and yummy!!!

Carrot Halwa

It had been a long time since I tried Carrot Halwa. The last time I tried was the recipe given in Mallika Badrinath's microwave cooking. It did not turn out to be as authentic as I wanted it to be. So when I saw the Carrot Halwa post of Jayashree, Kailas Kitchen fame, I was bent upon trying it immediately. The season for carrots has started in Pune and I thought what a timely post by Jayashree.


The difference between mine and Jayashree's is:

1. I grated the carrots in the food processor using the fine grating blade
2. I did not use cardamom powder
3. I reduced the quantity of sugar to 1/2 cup for 3 cups of carrot.

and I cooked the entire halwa on stove top.

Happy Cooking!!!

~ Ramya

Walnut Burfi in Microwave

I am back from US to Pune. It is always a luxury when you return back to India even if you are gone for a week. The heat, people, dirtiness, the ability to break rules....mmm..I love it. After coming back, as usual had loads of work that other than the traditional cooking, I just did not have time to experiment anything. But then I was feeling guilty that I was not updating my blog. So yesterday I made some Walnut Burfi (source: Tarla Dalal) but my version. It did not come out like a traditional burfi. It was chewy (like Rice Krispies).

So here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Walnuts - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 tbsp
Milk Powder - 3 tbsp
Milk - 3 tbsp
Ground Nutmeg - a pinch
Ghee - 1 tsp

Preparation

In a microwave safe bowl, mix together the walnuts and ghee and microwave on High for 2 minutes, stirring once after 1 minute. In a bowl mix sugar, milk powder, milk and nutmeg. Add this to the ghee & walnuts. Mix well and microwave on High for 2 minutes. Remove and spread in a round plate and allow it to set for 20-30 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Walnut Burfi is ready and yummy!!!

Note: The number of minutes may vary by a minute or 2 depending upon the power of the microwave.

Ramya

Aval Payasam in Microwave

I use microwave more for cooking rather than for re-heating. I had never tried making Payasam before and this was going to be my first time. I did not have a clue about the cooking time but then my friend gave me an idea in terms of the number of minutes. I decided to do it based on my gut feeling. It did turn out to be good. But then I was sitting near the microwave and watching it so that my milk would not overflow. My milk did not overflow at all :-) So here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Aval or Poha (thin variety) - 1/4 cup (grind into a coarse powder)
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup (depending upon the sweetness)
Elachi Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cashewnuts, Raisins - For Garnish
Ghee - For roasting the nuts

Preparation

In a deep microwave bowl add ghee and microwave for 1 minute. Add cashewnuts and raisins and microwave for 2 minutes. Keep the nuts separately.

In the same bowl, mix milk, aval powder and elachi powder. Boil at 100% power for 8 minutes. Stir once in between. Microwave again at 50% power for 7 minutes. Add sugar and microwave at 50% power for 8 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes.

Garnish with the roasted nuts.

Aval Payasam is ready and Yummy!!!

Note: The number of minutes might vary by 1-2 minutes depending upon your microwave's power outage.

This is going to EFM - Microwave Recipes



and also to MEC Puddings Srivallis MEC Announcement

Dried Fruit Compote

One of the members from the yahoo vegetarian group had posted this recipe.Thanks to MtWitchCat, I loved this recipe. Compote is a dessert made of whole pieces of fruit to sugar syrup. It seemed like a healthy dessert to give to kids. So when my cousins came over I gave them this dessert topped with vanilla icecream. This can be served hot or cold. Both taste yummy.

Ingredients

Water - 1.5 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Ground Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ground Cloves - 1/4 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Dried Apricots - 3/4 cup
Dates (Chopped) - 1/2 cup
Dried Pear (Cut into 4 pieces) - 3/4 cup
Saffron (Optional for garnish)

Preparation

Stir water, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a pan over medium heat till the sugar melts completely. Add the apricots, dates and pears and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to a complete low. Cover the pan and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue simmering till the mixture thickens. This took me about 7 minutes. Sprinkle saffron before serving.

Fruit Compote is ready and Yummy!!!

Strawberry with Cream

Whenever I and Nirmal feel like having strawberries we drive down to Mahabaleshwar. Mahabaleshwar has the best strawberries with cream. There was this one shop called Madhur which served the best strawberry with cream when compared to all the other shops. He told me how to prepare the same at home. Here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Strawberries - 10 pieces chopped into four pieces
Strawberries - 2 chopped into two pieces for garnish
Cream - 1 cup
Strawberry Jam - 3 tbsp

Preparation

Melt the strawberry jam. In a long glass put the melted strawberry jam along the sides and on the bottom. Add about a tbsp of cream over the jam. Add some cut strawberries on top of the cream. Keep following this order: strawberry jam, cream, cut strawberries till the glass is full. Garnish with cut strawberries on top.

Strawberry with Cream is ready and Yummy!!!

Eggless Caramel Custard

Ingredients

Milk - 500ml
Vanilla Custard Powder - 50g
China Grass - 5g
Sugar (for caramelizing) - 3 tsp
Sugar (for custard) - 3 tbsp (increase this for more sweetness)
Water - 2tbsp

Preparation

For Caramel

Add sugar and water. Cook till it becomes brown. Spread it over the cup / mould till the sugar spreads evenly.

For Custard Pudding

Heat milk in a saucepan till it reaches near boiling point. Stir custard powder into the milk. Add sugar and stir the mixture continuously till it starts boiling. Add china grass to the mixture. Stir for 2 minutes. Pour this mixture very gently in the moulds spread with sugar. Refirgerate it for 2-3 hours or until set. Invert the mould and serve.

Caramel Custard is ready and Yummy!!!

Kiwi Cheesecake

I love cheesecakes and when I saw strawberry cheesecake recipe on the TV I decided to try it. But only problem was I did not have any strawberries. I had some kiwi crush and decided to try Kiwi Cheesecake...it turned out to be pretty good.

Here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Kiwi Crush or Squash - 1 cup
Plain Cookies - 1 cup
Butter (melted) - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Hung Curd - 1 cup
Cream - 1 cup
Gelatin - 1 tbsp
Water - 4 tbsp

Preparation

Finely grind the cookies. Mix the melted butter with the powdered cookies. Line the based of serving dish evenly with the cookie mixture. Put in the freezer to set. Mix Kiwi Crush and sugar together. Add hung curd and cream and blend well to make a smooth mixture. Pour it in a bowl and keep aside. Mix 4 tbsps of water to gelatin. Hold gelatin over boiling water till it dissolves completely. Pour drop by drop over the mixture stirring continuously. Pour the Kiwi mixture over the set cookies. Cover and put it in the fridge to set overnight (12-14 hours would be ideal).

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cake in Microwave

The holiday season is upon us as we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and the New Year!! So to enjoy the holiday season I decided to start by baking a cake. Not having an oven has never really stopped me from baking cookies, cakes and scones. While there were some disasters initially, I soon learnt the number of minutes for each recipe and now everything is good.

Here is the recipe for the cake:

Ingredients

Plain Flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Banana - 1
Tutti Fruity a.k.a Papaya Preserves - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Butter or Oil - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Preparation

In bowl, mix the wet ingredients namely banana, butter/oil and vanilla essence. Whisk well. Add flour, sugar, tutti fruity and baking powder. Mix well. Add milk and mix well.

Prepare the cake pan by applying butter/oil on all sides. Pour the cake batter. Spread evenly. Bake at Medium for 10 minutes and then on High for 1 minute. (The minutes may vary depending upon the microwave output. Keep in medium for 8 minutes and depending upon the result keep it for another 2 minutes). Allow a standing time of 3 minutes. The cake is ready when a knife comes out clean after inserting into the baked cake.

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cake is ready and Yummy!!!

This recipe is going to Vandana’s Baking for Beginners, Purva's Christmas Feast Event and JZ’s Santa’s Holiday Challenge.

Wheat Halwa - No Soaking

Nirmal loves wheat halwa. He is very critical about the food that I cook. So everything that I cook has to be perfect otherwise he does not eat it. Last week he suddenly had a craving for wheat halwa. I started searching for the recipe in the internet. But all recipes wanted me to soak wheat overnight for which I did not have time. So I decided to try making the halwa without soaking it. The halwa turned out to be good and Nirmal was appreciative too :-)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Wheat flour- 1 cup
Sugar – 3tbs
Cardamom powder- ¼ tsp
Milk- 3/4 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cashewnut, Almond, Raisin - For garnishing

Preparation

Roast the wheat flour in low flame till the aroma fills the air. Keep it aside. Add ghee (or butter) and sugar. Allow the sugar to melt. Once it has melted add milk and allow it to start boiling. Once it starts boiling add the roasted wheat flour. Keep stirring it to make sure that lumps are not formed. When this mixture leaves the sides of the pan and starts forming bigger lump, turn off the gas. Garnish with fried cashew, raisins and almonds.

Wheat Halwa is ready and Yummy!!!

Eggless Chocolate Cake in Microwave

I dont have an oven. But the love of baking does not stop me from trying out recipes using the microwave. My first attempt to bake a chocolate cake in the microwave. It came out really good.

Ingredients

All purpose flour or Maida - 1.75 cups
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Cocoa - 3 tsp

Sugar - 1 cup
Cream - 0.75 cup
Curd (Should be thick) - 0.75 cup
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

For the Frosting

Cocoa - 1.5 cups
Boiling Water - 1/4 cup
Butter - 3 tbsp
Powdered Sugar - 1 cup

Preparation

Sift all purpose flour, baking powder and cocoa together. Powder sugar. Blend powdered sugar, cream, curd and vanilla essence together. Add the sifted ingredients to this and blend. Butter the cake dish and transfer the cake mixture to the cake dish. Micro on medium for 5 minutes and medium-high for 5 minutes. Allow it to stand for 3 minutes. Turn it over a flat plate and allow it to cool.

Frosting

Add cocoa powder and boiling water. Stir until well-combined. Add the butter and blend until the mixture is smooth. Add powdered sugar until the sugar is mixed well. Blend till frosting is fluffy.

Once cake is completely cool, cut the cake horizontally and place one of the cake layers right side up. Frost the top of the layer. Place the second layer on top, and frost the top and sides of the cake. Slice and serve.

Eggless Chocolate cake is ready and Yummy!!!