Mini Cheese Cake (& my 100th post)

Today it is my 100th post. I'm glad and thankful to each one of you who took time to visit my blog space and left comments. All your comments were warm and a big stimulus to go forward. Keep visiting when you find time. Today's post is an eggless no bake cheese cake (upside down). It is divine and very devilish at the same time. I made it in cupcake tray. De-moulding the cake was bit tricky. You just need to be careful while doing it.  The below recipe yields 6 mini cheese cakes. You can make this into one medium size cheese cake in a round spring pan and refrigerate. Cut and serve as required.

You need

1. Cream cheese - 140 gms
2. Paneer cubes - 20 small cubes (crumbled)
3. Milkmaid (condensed milk) - 3 tbsp
4. Glucose biscuits - 10
5. Butter - 2 tsp
6. Hershey's strawberry syrup

Method

• Powder the biscuits and mix it with butter to get a bread crumb texture.
• Crumble the paneer with your hands
• Beat together the ingredients 1 to 3 very well until it becomes airy and fluffy (high speed for 5 minutes)
• Butter your cupcake holes in the tray.
• Take 1 tsp of biscuit crumbs and press into the bottom of the cupcake hole. Flatten it well
  with your fingers. 
• Repeat this for rest 5 spaces
• Spoon in the cream cheese mix above the biscuits layer.
• Refrigerate in freezer for 1 and 1/2 hour. 
• The trickiest part is scooping it out without disturbing it. I used a butter knife and spoon. 
• Also you can line you trays with cupcake liners and then once the layers are set, you can peel it off. 
• Serve with strawberry syrup

Note: Once you demould the cheese cake leave it in lower part of  refrigerator until serving.

Puff Pastry Pie

Again I had some broken puff pastry sheets and couldn't make it into a puffs. The below one is not a recipe, it is just a method I tried at home to make a pie. Thought I would do some ad for puff pastry again. It was a surprise hit at home. 

You need 

• Puff pastry - 6 pieces (I get small square ones here)
• Any filling of your choice (Here I used chicken manjurian as the filling)

Method

• Oil the base of the baking dish
• Line the baking dish with puff pastry sheets. I used a loaf pan of 19.5 cm x 9.5 cm. 
• Fill it with the filling of your choice

• Cover the top with the remaining pastry sheets and brush lavishly with beaten egg.

• Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degree centigrade for 15-20 minutes or until done. 

Easy Fish Fry

Yesterday we bought some lovely kingfish steaks. I couldn't resist putting up a mouthwatering fish fry. Some of might use ginger-garlic paste also for the marination. My marination is always plain and we love it this way. 

You need

1. Fish steaks – 2
2. Chilli powder – 2 tsp
3. Pepper powder – 1 tsp
4. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil for shallow frying

Method

• Mix together all the ingredients from 2 to 5 adding little water. Marinate the fish with this and leave for
  atleast 20 minutes.
• Shallow fry both sides in oil until done.

Spicy Sausage Stir Fry

This is a slightly spicy sausage stir fry which is good for making chappathi rolls and sandwiches. There aren't much ingredients but the combination of onion, sausage and spring onions with spices gives it a very special taste. 

You need

• Sausage - 5 (chopped into tiny pieces)
• Onion - 4 small (sliced)
• Garlic - 2 cloves (chopped)
• Spring onion - 1/2 a bunch chopped
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Oil for sauteeing

Method

• Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel
• Add chopped garlic. 
• Add sliced onion when garlic turns slightly brown.
• Add salt to taste (remember sausage contains salt. So add accordingly)
• Now add the chopped sausage, chilli powder and pepper powder.
• Saute well for 5-7 minutes
• Add chopped spring onions, saute for a minute
• Serve with chappathi or in sandwiches. 

Sendind this to Surabhi's event @ Pragyan's Let's Party Fusion food

Baked Doughnuts

On my last birthday I got a number of baking dishes as gift from my better half. It is like the old saying "kill two birds with one stone". He gets to eat all the good baked stuff and can also satisfy my gift desire too. :)  A doughnut pan was one of them. It took a while for me to use it. I got this from recipe from here. It was spongy and not so sweet. But along with the cocoa glaze it was great.

 You need

• All purpose flour - 2 cups
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Eggs - 2 
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt - as required

Method

• In a large bowl mix together flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. 
• In a bowl beat the eggs, add milk, vanilla and oil. Blend well.
• Into the wet mix, add the dry mix and blend well. 
• Pour into each doughnut hole till half the height.(If you fill it too much, you won't be able to get the hole in the middle when it rises)
• Bake in a preheated at 150 degrees Centigrade for 10-15 minutes

For the glaze
You need

• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Butter - 2 tsp
• Cocoa - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup (add as required)
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

• Mix together sugar and cocoa.
• Add milk to this and mix well. Put on flame
• Add butter.
• Stir continuously as the mix thickens. 
• Stop at the required thickness and allow it cool (It will become more thick as it cools)
• Dip each doughnut in your glaze and leave to set

Award

Thank you dear Leela Govind for sharing this awesome blogger award. It is a big inspiration
and a constant boost to get them. Do visit her space. It is wonderful blog with lots of beautiful things. 

Sharing this award with

Shweta of Shweta in the Kitchen

Manju of Manju's Kitchen

Recipe World 

Supriya of Supriya's Rasoi

Tisa of Blessings from My Kitchen

Enjoy and share your awards. 

PT of Indian Kitchen shared this beautiful award. Thank you :)

Fish in Coconut Gravy

Here it is weekend and this is one of the favourite curries we have with steaming hot rice. I love this combination for the flavour of coconut, the tanginess of kudam puli (gamboge) and the spices. My mom and my mil don't make this often, but I try this here on most weekends. It is creamy, not that spicy and full of flavours. Have a great weekend

You need

1. Fish - 500 gms (I used kingfish)
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
4. Garlic - 2 cloves
5. Ginger - 1 small piece
6. Grated coconut - 1 cup
7. Chilli powder- 2 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 2 tsp
9. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Coconut oil (for sauteeing and for final stage)
11. Kudam puli (gamboge) - 2 pieces

Method

• Grind together all ingredients from 6 to 9 into a very fine paste adding water
• In a vessel heat oil and add mustard seeds
• Once it starts spluttering, add fenugreek seeds
• Add chopped ginger and garlic.
• Saute until they turn light brown.
• To this add the above coconut paste. If it is thick add water. 
• Add salt to taste
• Wash kudam puli and tear it into small pieces. Add to the gravy.
• Once the gravy starts simmering, put the fish pieces. Cover and cook on low flame for 20 minutes. 
• After 20 minutes drizzle a little coconut oil on top. Switch off and keep covered for 5 minutes.
• Serve with rice. 

Fried Fish Masala

I was bored to make the usual side dishes for chappathi and tried this fish dish. It went really well with it. It is simple but has a little bit of oil in it as it requires frying the fish first and then sauteeing it with masala. Otherwise it is a finger licking one. I used king fish pieces to make this.

You need

• Fish pieces  - 100 gm (bones removed and cut into small pieces)
• Onion - 1 big
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Ginger - 1 small piece
• Garlic - 2
• Green chilli - 1
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp + 1 tsp (for marinating) (see Note)
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp (for marinating)
• Oil for sauteeing and frying fish
• Salt to taste

Method

• Marinate the small fish pieces with chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Keep aside for 20 minutes. 
• In a frying pan heat oil and fry the fish pieces.
• Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel
• Add chopped ginger, garlic, green chilli and chopped onion
• Saute until pink and transparent.
• Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder. Saute until the raw aroma leaves.
• Add chopped tomato. Add salt to taste. (Remember you've marinated fish with salt)
• Add the fried fish pieces. Stir fry on low flame for atleast 10 minutes (the longer the better)
• Serve with chappathis

Note: Adjust your spices according to your spice levels

Zebra Cake

Yesterday I tried a zebra cake. It was fun to make it and exciting to see the zebra like stripes inside when I cut it. It is one easy cake to make. You might think it is hard to make the designs. I used the website here to make this one. She had mentioned a big cake. I reduced the quantities and used it. Instead of dark cocoa I used combination of drinking cocoa powder and instant coffee. I used a 19.5 cm diameter round pan.

You need

• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Eggs - 2 medium size
• Oil - 3/4 cup
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
• Instant coffee - 1/2 tsp

Method

• Powder the sugar and keep aside.
• Break egg one by one and beat well.
• Into this add oil and blend well using blender.
• Keep a little milk aside and blend the remaining along with vanilla essence into oil-egg duo.
• Into this add sugar and beat well
• Sieve together flour and baking powder.
• Add the flour into the well blended batter and fold in. Avoid over-beating. 
• Divide the batter into two portions. 
• Mix instant coffee and milk (which you kept aside earlier)
• Into one portion of cake batter add cocoa powder, instant coffee and fold in well. 
• Now you've two portions one chocolate and other vanilla. 
• Use a round cake pan
• Into the center add 2 tbsp of vanilla batter. Then add 2 tbsp of cocoa batter into the center over the vanilla.
• Continue the process by alternating the batters. Don't wait for the batter to spread. (The batter will spread at its own pace and fill the pan. You just have to keep on pouring the batters into the center alternatively until it is over.) Check here for pictures
• Bake in an oven at 150 degree centigrade for 30 minutes. 

Mixed Vegetable Upma

We were not big fans of upma until I tried this colourful version. I love to have it with ripe banana while my better half loves it with omlet. :) The little one who is the most difficult one to please loves it with sugar.

You need

• Semolina/rava - 1 cup
• Ginger - 1 small piece (chopped)
• Green chilli - 3
• Onion - 1 medium (chopped)
• Carrot - 1 medium (chopped)
• Beans - 15 nos. (chopped)
• Cabbage - 1 cup (when shredded into long strands)
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Oil - 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Grated coconut - a handful
• Water - 1 and 1/4 cup

Method

• Boil the water and keep aside
• Dry roast the semolina in a thick bottomed vessel for 2 minutes. (Or use roasted semolina/rava)
• Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel (I used a non-stick vessel)
• Add mustard seeds when oil is hot. 
• When it starts spluttering add chopped ginger, green chilli and onion.
• Add turmeric powder.
• Add chopped carrot and beans when onion turns pink and transparent.
• Saute the above. Cover and cook for 5 minutes on low flame. 
• After 5 minutes, add cabbage. Saute again for 1 minute.
• Add boiled water, salt to taste and roasted semolina. Mix well and put on low flame. (You will feel the whole thing thickening very fast. No need to add extra water)
• Cover and cook for 5 minutes on low flame. 
• After 5 minutes, open the lid, add grated coconut. Mix again.
• Switch off and serve warm

Puff Pastry Cups

Earlier I had tried making cups with breads (check bread cups), this time I've used puff pastry to make these small tiny cups. It came out really cute. Actually these puff pastries were low fat ones and had broken due to long time in refrigerator. I didn't have another option than making putting it in cupcake tray and making it small cups. You can make the filling of your choice. I've tried a spicy veg filling here. The combination was very tasty.

You need

• Puff pastry - 3

For filling

• Frozen vegetables - 1/2 cup (you can use fresh ones. dice the vegetables)
• Onion - 1 medium
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Oregano - 1/2 tsp
• Steak sauce - 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Oil for sauteeing

Method

• Thaw the pastry sheets. Cut each one into four squares and line the cupcake holes.
• Puree the tomato and keep aside
• Heat oil in a pan.
• Add chopped garlic. Saute
• Add chopped onion and saute until pink and transparent.
• To this add red chilli powder and oregano.
• Saute for a few seconds and add pureed tomato. Let it cook until all juices dry up.
• Now add the thawed vegetables, add steak sauce and salt to taste
• Mix well, cover and cook. 
• Once the vegetables are cooked, allow it to cool. 
• Spoon into the pastry cups in the tray. 
• You can top it with cheese if you like
• Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until done. 

Spicy Prawns Fried Rice

Everytime I make this my husband and kid starts eating the prawns from the pan itself. This time I begged them to leave a few for taking some snaps. So I had to pick some and keep on top to say it is a prawns fried rice. This is a spicy rice and you can vary the pepper according to your spice level. Also you can substitute prawns with cooked shredded chicken and make it a chicken rice.

You need

• Prawns - 1 cup of medium size prawns.
• Basmati rice - 1 and 1/2 cups
• Carrot - 1 big diced
• Beans - 20 nos. diced
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Ginger - 1 medium size 
• Green chilli - 3
• Onion - 1 big chopped
• Spring onion - 1 bunch
• Pepper powder - 2 tsp
• Soya sauce - 2 tsp
• Oil for sauteeing
• Salt to taste

Method

• Clean the prawns and cut it into small pieces
• Cook basmati rice in enough water, add salt and allow it to cool really well. (Avoid overcooking)
• In a thick bottomed big vessel heat oil
• Add finely chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies
• When the colour changes add finely chopped onions and saute until pink & transparent.
• Add diced carrots and beans. Add soya sauce. Lower flame and saute until they're cooked but yet crunchy.
• To the above add prawns and saute. (It takes only 2-4 minutes to cook prawns)
• Add pepper powder and salt to taste (remember you've used soya sauce above. It contains salt, so add salt here accordingly)
• Finally add the cooled cooked rice and chopped spring onions. Mix well on flame. Stir fry for 2 minutes. 
• Serve warm with any chinese side dish like manjurian

Mathanga Erissery/Pumpkin curry

Pumpkin/mathanga erissery is one of our favourite weekend dishes. Erissery is one of the traditional kerala dishes and can be prepared with many other vegetables too like yam, raw plantain etc. It is very tasty and easy to make.

 You need

1. Pumpkin/Mathanga -  1 small
2. Grated coconut - 1/2 of one coconut
3. Garlic - 1 clove 
4. Green chilli - 3
5. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Water - 1 and 1/2 cups

for tempering

• Oil - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Shallots - 3 (sliced)
• Grated coconut - 1 tbsp

Method

• Remove the skin and seeds of pumpkin. Wash and cut into small pieces. 
• Put the pieces in a pressure cooker with 1 cup of water and cook for 3 whistles or until well cooked. 
• Meanwhile grind all ingredients from 2 to 7 adding water to get a very smooth paste.
• When the pressure of cooker is relieved entirely open it and smash the pieces well. 
• Add the coconut paste into it and cook on low flame for 5 minutes

For tempering

• Heat oil in a pan
• Add mustard seeds when oil is hot. 
• When it starts spluttering, add sliced shallots, dry red chillies and grated coconut.
• Saute until brown.

Pour over the curry. Enjoy with rice

Gobi Paratha

I had a small cauliflower in my refrigerator and was planning to make a curry out of it. But then this was my husband's wish to have it stuffed in a paratha. He prefers these stuffed ones to the usual cauliflower curries. Cauliflower is not one of his favourite vegetable. My parathas are always thick. I stuff a lot of stuffing into it. So one or one and a half will surely fill your tummy.

 You need

• Cauliflower - 1 small size
• Ginger - 1 small piece
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves - 1/2 of a bunch
• Oil for sauteeing
• Wheat flour
• Water required for kneading

Method

• Make a dough out of wheat flour and keep aside
• Wash and rinse cauliflower florets well.
• Chop it into very tiny pieces.
• Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
• When an aroma comes add finely chopped ginger. Saute for a minute
• Into this add the turmeric and chilli powder. Saute for a few seconds
• Add finely chopped cauliflower into this. Add salt to taste and coriander leaves.
• Saute, cover and cook on low flame for 5-7 minutes.
• Open and stir fry until dry. 
• Make a lemon size ball out of the dough prepared earlier. 
• Make a small hole in the center and spoon 1 tbsp of cauliflower mix. Cover the hole with dough
• Roll out into a circle and put on hot tawa.
• Add ghee or oil and cook both sides until done.