Been away for a while...

I have been away from my blog for quite some time, but I am back now. As some of you may know, a lot happened in these past six months...a lot of awesome things! :)

In the presence of God, family and friends, I married the man who makes me the happiest I have ever been and every day since has been a blessing. In addition to enjoying togetherness, we have been busy shifting stuff, furnishing and decorating our house and much more. :)

Second update is that I changed my role at work. I was a banker for five years and after a short break I joined my new role. I am still getting familiar with the work but the good thing is that life is more balanced and relaxed now. There are no more demanding schedules as it was the case in banking and being able to do all the things i had wanted to in past few years is just precious. Having said that, I do miss banking for the things I learnt, the people I met including my husband <3 and how it taught me to appreciate and enjoy little things in life!

I am settling down well, enjoying married life and of-course the work-free weekends ( i am using them quite productively) :) by baking and cooking often than before. This is what I recently made - Doughnuts with strawberry glaze served with mangoes and whipped cream :)

Sandwich Maker Doughnuts

adapted from AllRecipes.com

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 egg beaten

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter

Strawberry Glaze

1 tablespoon strawberry jam 

1-2 teaspoons hot water 

• Pre-heat the sandwich maker for a minute
• Sieve flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt and keep aside
• In a bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Add the flour, milk, beaten egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar and mix well

• Using a spatula, put the batter in a zip lock bag. Cut a small triangle in lower corner of the bag. Apply pressure to pipe out the batter in the doughnut tray

• Cook for 3-4 minutes ( It can take a few minutes more depending on the size. The tray i used had makes 6 mini doughnuts at a time)
• Cool the doughnuts before removing from the tray

• For the glaze, mix jam and hot water together in a small bowl. Brush the doughnuts with jam glaze on both sides

I served the doughnuts with cut mangoes and whipped cream with a drizzle of strawberry glaze :). With these  new beginnings, i look forward to writing more often and sharing my kitchen experiences with you :) Cheers!

Easy Vanilla Pudding Pie with Jelly

Work has been keeping me occupied and its been more than a month i made anything. Last week, the closest i came to making anything was this vanilla pudding pie with strawberry jelly. You must be thinking that why am i talking like that if i made the pudding that looks like this....

.... and tastes absolutely divine (trust me on that). Well, the thing is that this time I wanted to make something that is quick and doesn't take a lot of time. So i made my own pie crust, used boxed pudding mix and topped it with strawberry jelly. Voila! the outcome is this wonderful pudding which some may think is result of some serious handwork and time in the kitchen.


Easy Vanilla Pudding Pie with Jelly

1 packet vanilla pudding mix (egg-less with china grass)

1 packet strawberry jelly (you can use any other flavour)
1 packet digestive biscuit
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
pinch of cinnamon powder

Method
For the Pie Crust

• Grease the pie pan
• Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush to crumbs using a rolling pin
• Mix the crumbs, melted butter and cinnamon thoroughly and press the mixture around the bottom and sides of the pie pan until an even layer is formed ( use back of a spoon to press evenly)
• Bake at 160°C for ten minutes. Cool on wire rack

For the Pudding and Jelly Topping

• Follow the instructions on the box to make the pudding. Once it cools down and starts to thicken cause of the china grass, pour it in pie pan with the prepared crust 
• Put the pudding in fridge and allow it to set for 30 minutes 

•  Follow the instructions on the box for jelly and prepare the jelly
• Once the jelly has cooled down a little, take the pudding out of the fridge and pour the jelly on top of the pudding and spread it to form a thin layer of jelly on top

• Keep it back in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours allowing the pudding to set completely

Mom's Bread Halwa Recipe

Do you sometimes wonder what to do with the bread loaf in the fridge which if not eaten will go bad? I had half of white sandwich bread in the fridge and after some thinking I made this recipe of bread halwa which comes from my mom. The recipe is quick and despite being low on fat, scores full marks on flavour making it a preferable recipe for me. I made the halwa for dinner and enjoyed it with family and friends (not to forget the spoon fight for the last bite :) ).

Mom's Bread Halwa
1 cup bread crumbs (Grind a few slices or use your hands)

4-5 tablespoons ghee

1 cardamom pod

1/4 cup sugar

Handful shredded pistachio nuts 

Handful toasted watermelon seeds
2-1/2 cups water

• Heat ghee in a pan and add bread crumbs

• On low flame, continue to roast the bread crumbs till the color changes to brown

Keep roasting the bread crumbs on low flame

Bread crumbs have roasted and color has changed to darker brown

• Peel and grind cardamom pod and add to the roasted bread followed by sugar

Grind cardamom in a pestle

Add sugar to the roasted bread

• Keep the flame low and add water. Keep stirring continuously in clockwise spoon movement till the halwa starts to thicken and starts leaving the pan

Add water and stir continuously

Keep stirring

Halwa is ready

• Once done turn-off the flame and add the nuts and serve hot

Rajma Masala (Kidney Beans Curry)

Rajma Chawal is one of the most popular dishes savored by both elders and children equally and is an extremely simple dish that can be prepared using simple ingredients. You can call it no-fuss joyful food both in terms of cooking and eating :).

Rajma is usually cooked in tomato gravy with whole spices that are used to enhance the flavour of this wonderful curry and is often accompanied with rice. In our home, we would have rajma chawal for lunch and any left over rajma curry with home made tandoori rotis for dinner. All you have to do is put the curry on low flame till it thickens and add a dollop of fresh cream and relish it with hot rotis. I can actually remember the aromas from my mom's kitchen when we would all be sitting together and daddy would make small bites and feed us as mom prepared hot rotis :). Isn't it amazing how food can act as time machine and transport you back to the best times!

Rajma Masala ( Kidney Beans Curry)

1 cup rajma (kidney beans) soaked overnight
Whole spices: 1 badi elaichi ( black cardamom), 2 clove buds

For the Gravy Masala
1 tablespoon oil
1 big sized onion finely chopped
1 small chilli finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger / ginger paste
3 red tomatoes pureed
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
Salt to taste
Pinch of garam masala
Fresh coriander

• Pressure cook rajma in 2-1/2 cups of water along with the whole spices until rajma is cooked and becomes soft ( this should take ~1/2 hour. After first whistle turn the flame to low or sim)

Pressure cooked rajma or kidney beans

• In a separate pan heat oil and add ginger, onions and chopped chilies. Saute for two minutes

• Add the pureed tomatoes and the dry spices powder i.e. coriander, chilly, turmeric powder and salt. Let the gravy masala cook on low flame till spices leave the oil

The masala  or spices have started cooking

The masala has left the oil 

• Add the garam masala from top

• Mix the cooked masala with boiled rajma and bring the entire rajma gravy to boil. Garnish with coriander  leaves

• Serve hot with jeera (cumin) rice or boiled rice 

I made jeera rice and I can tell you that rajma chawal tasted great with perfect balance of spices and tangy flavour that tomatoes bring to the curry. Hope you enjoy making this and eating it as much as i did :) 

Easy Homemade Pizza

Last week I was accompanied by the most adorable cook in the kitchen and she helped me in making theis wonderful pizza :). The wonderful guest was my four year old niece Suhani. My cousin sister, brother-in-law and their daughter Suhani came over for lunch and we made pizza at home plus there was this amazing masala pasta in tomato based sauce which my cousin cooked at home and brought along with her.

For the pizza, I used this recipe for the pizza dough and the sauce, and Suhani's favorite vegetables for topping.

Easy Homemade Pizza

Pizza dough
Pizza sauce
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 capsicum cut into flowers
1/4 cup mushrooms cut into small pieces
Handful american corn
Mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon olive oil

• Preheat the oven to 200ºC
• Grease the baking tray with some olive oil. Roll out the dough and spread the sauce on the pizza

• Put onions, capsicum, mushrooms, corn and fresh basil leaves on top of the pizza

• Top the pizza with mozzarella cheese ( you can be generous with cheese just like Suhani who kept on saying she loves to eat cheese as she was sprinkled cheese from top :) )

• Bake the pizza for 15-20 minutes and serve hot with a smile :)

The pizza turned out to be crisp and was full of flavor with the taste of basil leaves standing out with each bite. It was a wonderful afternoon spent over lunch and I had lots of fun listening to Suhani in the kitchen as she took over the task of decorating the pizzas using her creativity.

Hope you had a good weekend and are now all set for a new week ahead.

Moist, Eggless Chocolate Cake

I have made this cake a couple of times before and made it again on Friday night after work along with my colleague and friend Ritika. Ritika is an amazing person and apart from being in same office, we both are also proud Rajasthanis :). So it was an ad-hoc after work cooking extravaganza :) where we made this chocolate cake and also made pav-bhaji for dinner proving that too many cooks don't always spoil the food, infact it was quite fun. The pav-bhaji was awesome and so was the chocolate cake which we relished with ice-cream topped with strawberry crush :) yum yum :)

The recipe is little wacky in the sense that it uses vinegar. Huh? that was my reaction when I first read the recipe at Chow Times but then it didn't use any eggs and looked absolutely moist in spite of being eggless. I would recommend you to try this if you don't eat eggs or if you are one who get worried by seeing the amount of butter that goes in any other chocolate cake. This one uses oil and i would saying  moderate quantity, given the big-sized cake it yields. I made two small cakes and some cupcakes using this recipe.

Voila! Ritika in the cute apron with the cakes and cupcakes

Eggless Chocolate Cake

adapted from Chow Times 

3 cups all-purpose flour or "maida"

2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cocoa powder (~1/2 cup)
2 cups water
2 cups sugar ( I used grounded sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup oil
a handful of chocolate chips (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC and grease two 6 inches pans and line them with butter paper. Dust them with some cocoa powder or flour
• Sieve together the flour, baking soda, cocoa and salt and keep aside
• In a bowl, whisk the sugar and all the liquid ingredients, i.e water, vanilla, vinegar and oil until the sugar dissolves completely. I used grounded sugar so that it dissolves quickly
• Add the dry ingredients to the above and mix properly
• Divide the batter in two and pour in the prepared tin. Sprinkle some choco-chips on top if you like
• Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean  
• Take the cake out from the pan and let it cool on a rack
• The cake gets more moist with each day and can be stored in an airtight box for upto three days

We baked two small cakes and saved some batter to bake a few cupcakes for my niece who visited me today and was very excited when she saw the little cupcakes. The cake was absolutely delicious and vanilla ice-cream and strawberry crush were perfect blend of flavors with this chocolate cake and a quick-fix dessert too. One word to describe it -YUMMYLICIOUS :)

French Apple Cake

Before bhaiya left for Mumbai, he stocked up my kitchen with all the fruits i like to eat. And then there were apples too. I am not very fond of eating apples. Strange? Yes, i know but apart from rare occasions i am never excited about eating apples. So I decided to do something different and made this French Apple Cake :) with some cinnamon. I love cinnamon flavour in baked goods especially in this wonderful cloudy Bangalore weather which I am enjoying to the core :). But the Rajasthani inside me really longs for the warmth of the sun and this apple cake with cinnamon just made up for no-sun days.
I bought some more apples today and I guess you know what's coming around :)

French Apple Cake

adapted from Dorie Greenspan - Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large apples (if you can, choose 4 different kinds)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup grounded sugar
3 tablespoons rum
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
100 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon grounded cinnamon

1/4 cup water melon seeds toasted

Icing sugar

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC and grease a 8 or 9-inch pan or line it with butter paper
• Sieve together the flour, baking powder, and salt and keep aside
• Peel and core the apples, then dice them into small (~1 inch) pieces. Sprinkle cinnamon on top and give a mix so that apples are covered with cinnamon evenly
• In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy using an electric mixer then whisk in the sugar  followed by rum and vanilla
• Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter. Mix after each addition so that the batter is smooth
• Add the apples pieces to the batter and gently fold them using a spatula so that they get they are coated with batter

• Pour the batter in the prepared pan and sprinkle handful of watermelon seeds on the top and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean
• Let the cake cool till the cake comes to room temperature and then carefully run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan before taking it out. Ensure no apple pieces are sticking to the edges of pan

The cake can be served hot or cold, it tastes equally nice. I drizzled some icing sugar and ate it while it was warm or heated it in the microwave before relishing it each time. Since the cake is moist its best to store it in a box and cover it with a mesh lid.