Yule log

This is my first log cake. Could've been better if I hadn't rushed through some steps. Fold in your maida as slowly as possible into the beaten eggs. I rushed through that step and so my cake was not too spongy, but still the result was good. I got this recipe from "Vanitha" magazine

Ingredients

• Egg - 3
• Maida - 3/4 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Water - 1/3 cup
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Salt- a pinch

 Method

• Prepare a rectangle cake pan. 15 x 10 inch pan is apt for this recipe. Put baking paper on the pan.
• Keep your oven ready. Preheat it. 
• Mix maida, salt and baking powder. Sift and keep
• Beat the eggs until really fluffy. Beat it continuously for 5 minutes on high speed. 
• Add powdered sugar in small quantities at a time. Blend with mixer on high speed.
• Then add water and vanilla essence and blend on low speed.
• Add maida, baking powder salt and fold in slowly. 
• Pour the batter into the pan and keep in oven. 
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or as per your oven adjustments.

For the filling I used ganache

• Semi sweet chocolate chips- 1/2 cup
• Thick cream - 1/2 cup

Method

• Melt the chocolate chips in microwave or on double boiler. 
• Heat cream and let it start to boil. Take off the flame and pour over the melted chips. 
• Beat with mixer and keep it fridge to thicken. 

For icing I used whipping cream. 

• Whipping cream - 1 pkt (mine was a small pkt of 44 gms)
• Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp
• Icing sugar - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Method

• Keep the vessel in fridge for a few minutes before beating
• Whip it as per given on instruction on packet. You can add cocoa powder while whipping. 
• Beat your whipping cream during this time. You can add a tbsp of icing sugar, vanilla essence and 1 tbsp of cocoa powder and beat.

For assembling

1. Place a baking paper (or a cotton clean towel) bigger than your cake on the table top. 
2. Sprinkle some icing sugar on the paper/towel. 
3. Once cake is baked, over turn it on this paper (or a cotton towel) while it is hot. 
4. Slowly remove the paper from the top of the cake and roll the cake along with paper/towel below (the one which you sprinkled sugar on). Keep it as such until cooled or for atleast 30 minutes. 
5. Once cooled open the cake and spread the ganache and roll it (this time without paper)
6. Keep this roll in fridge again. 
7. Take out the roll, place it on the display plate, cut both edges and then put the whipping cream on top. Give designs with fork and use fondant  for trees and leaf designs 

Checkerboard cake with fondant

It was long time dream to try a fondant covered cake and checker board cake. So this time on my husband's birthday I decided to try both. I baked the cakes (plain and chocolate) in advance. Made the fondant also in advance and kept it in airtight container. On the day I made buttercream and arranged the cake. To get more ideas on designing a checkerboard fondant sheet check here

Ingredients 
for plain cake

1. Eggs -2
2. Maida (all purpose flour)- 1 cup
3. Sugar – ¾ cup
4. Butter – 25 gms
5. Milk – ½ cup
6. Baking powder – 1 tsp

Method

• Sieve together maida and baking powder.
• Beat sugar and eggs over heat until fluffy. (I used a double boiler method. Keep the vessel with egg and sugar over a bowl of hot water. Beat until really fluffy)
• Add vanilla essence. Add ½ of maida and baking powder mix
• Warm milk and add butter into it and mix until butter melts.
• Add this to the batter
• Add the remaining dry ingredients. 

Ingredients 
for chocolate cake

1. Eggs -2
2. Maida- 3/4 cup
3. Cocoa - 1/4 cup
4. Sugar – ¾ cup
5. Butter – 25 gms
6. Milk – ½ cup
7. Instant coffee - 1/2 tsp
8. Baking powder – 1 tsp]

Method

• Sieve together maida, cocoa and baking powder.
• Beat sugar and eggs over heat until fluffy. (I used a double boiler method. Keep the vessel with egg and sugar over a bowl of hot water. Beat until really fluffy)
• Add vanilla essence. Add ½ of maida, cocoa and baking powder mix
• Warm 3/4th of milk and add butter into it and mix until butter melts. Into remaining 1/4th add coffee powder
• Add both to the batter. Mix 
• Add the remaining dry ingredients. 

Butter cream icing

• Softened Butter - 100gms,
• Icing sugar - 200 gms
• Beat well till thick. add a pinch of salt and beat well again

For assembling checkerboard cake. 

• Cut two concentric circles of each cake. 
• Alternate the middle pieces (check pic above). 
• Use buttercream as a glue to fix your pieces. Before fixing the middle piece put buttercream on inner edges. 
• Before covering the cake with fondant cover the cake with buttercream. It acts as glue. 

For the white fondant

• Marshmallow - 150 gm
• Water - 2 tbsp
• Icing sugar - 300 gms + extra

Method

• Butter your microwave bowl. Also butter your wooden spoon and hands.
• Add marshmallow into the bowl.
• Add 2 tbsp water
• Heat marshmallow in the microwave for 30 secs to 1 minute, stirring in between. 
• Once marshmallow has melted well put icing sugar into it stir & mix with a wooden spoon.
• It'll be sticky and you'll feel like mixing with your hands. But instead continue with wooden spoon. Add more sugar. At one point you'll feel it is coming together. Now butter you hands and knead it until it becomes a soft pliable dough. If you need add little more butter to your hands. 

For chocolate fondant

• Marshmallow - 60 gm
• Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1 handful 
• Water - 1/2 tbsp
• Icing sugar - 100 gms + extra

Method

• Butter your microwave bowl. Also butter your wooden spoon and hands.
• Add marshmallow and chocolate chips into the bowl.
• Add 1/2 tbsp water
• Heat the bowl in the microwave for 30 secs to 1 minute, stirring in between. 
• Once marshmallow has melted well put icing sugar into it stir & mix with a wooden spoon.
• It'll be sticky and you'll feel like mixing with your hands. But instead continue with wooden spoon. Add more sugar. At one point you'll feel it is coming together. Now butter you hands and knead it until it becomes a soft pliable dough. If you need add little more butter to your hands. 

Note: Store fondant in zip bags. Use it when you are ready with your cake. If your fondant seems hard, just heat it in microwave for 10 seconds and knead it. Still if your fondant is breaking add 2-3 drops of water

Oats Upma

This is a healthy breakfast dish. Most of us feel oats don't have any taste. Try this another recipe of my friend Swapna chechi whom I think should seriously start thinking of writing a blog. I persuaded her many times but she is lazy, more lazy than me. Nowadays my main job is to search her kitchen and find new dishes. There will be something simple and new items in her space everyday. This is one such quick and yummy savoury dish.

 Ingredients

• Oats - 1 cup
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Onion - 1 big (chopped)
• Ginger - 1 small piece (chopped)
• Green chilli - 2 (chopped)
• Tomato - 1 (chopped)
• Coriander leaves - few leaves
• Curry leaves - a few
• Salt to taste
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Water - 3/4 to 1 cup

Method

• Dry roast oats in a pan for 2 minutes. Keep it aside. (Dry roasting means you've to roast items in a pan without oil)
• In a pan heat oil.
• Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Let it splutter.
• Add chopped ginger, onion, curry leaves and green chilli. Saute for 2 minutes or until onions are transparent.
• Add salt to taste.
• Add chopped tomato.
• Saute for 1 minute.
• Add dry roasted oats and mix well.
• Add water (3/4 of a cup and add more if required)
• Mix well. Put the flame on low. Cover and cook for 4 minutes.
• Sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves. Mix well.
• Serve hot. ( Try with a little sugar. You'll love it)

Grapes Jam

I got some juicy fleshy grapes from Swapna chechi and she suggested to make jam with it. I was hesitating in the beginning but then decided to try it. Now I'm completely sure I'm not going to pick any jam jars from supermarkets anymore. These homemade ones are easy to make and yummy too. My son loves it. My mother used to make these jams at home. I took the snaps when jam was hot. So it was a bit loose in texture. This is the consistency when you've switch off the flame. It will become thick as it cools. Sorry I was too lazy to click and upload then. :)

Ingredients

• Nice fleshy grapes - 500 gms (eat and see, you need really big fleshy and sweet ones)
• Sugar - 7 tbsp 
• Water - 1 cup
• Lemon - 1 small
• Red colour - optional (1 drop)

Method

• Clean and cook your grapes adding water in pressure cooker. It takes 2-3 whistles. Cook well. 
• When the cooked grapes cool, run it in a blender.
• Pour the blended grapes into a strainer and get all the pulp you can.
• Pour this into a thick bottomed vessel. Add sugar. Put on flame. 
• Allow it to simmer and reduce. Stir in between. The whole process of reducing takes about 20-30 minutes. 
• The jam thickens as it cools. So you've switch off the flame when the consistency is a bit loose in texture. 
• Towards the end before switching off add the lemon juice and simmer for 2 minutes. Add a drop of colour at this stage if you want. 
• Switch off the flame. 
• Pour into clean glass vessel before it starts thickening. 

Kaalan (Onam special)

Hi,
This was a long break. First we had our vacation and then the time for settling back to the daily routine in Bahrain. The heat was too much when we came back. It brought more heat when I thought about the pleasant rains at home. Now that I'm back to routine and Noel started school, I got time again to sit here and write to you. Next week it is onam and so why not start with a traditional recipe. Today I made kaalan. It is an easy to make veg curry. Have it with rice.

 Ingredients

1. Green plantain (thadiyan kaa) -2
2. Grated coconut - 1/3 of 1 coconut
3. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
4. Green chilli - 3
5. Shallots - 3
6. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Curd - 1 cup

For tempering

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Shallots - 2
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method

• Cut the plaintain into small pieces
• In a pressure cooker add little water along with plantain pieces cook it well and mash.
• Grind ingredients from 2 to 7 adding little water into a smooth paste.
• Add this paste to the mashed plantain and mix well.
• Switch on the flame and let it cook for a minute. Do not allow it to boil. 
• Mix well and remove from flame. 
• Add curd after 2 minutes and mix well. 

For tempering. 

• Heat coconut oil in a pan.
•  Add mustard seeds when oil is hot. 
• Add sliced shallots when mustard seeds splutter. Add fenugreek seeds
• Remove from heat and pour over the curry. 

A pretty cake

This post is for someone who is very passionate about cooking and baking. She is my friend and cousin Swapna chechi. She did one amazing fondant cake with cosmetic theme on her daughter's birthday. It was the first time she was trying fondant and the cake looked beautiful. All the little girls who came for the party was surprised to see an edible palette of cosmetics on the cake. The cake was a combination of red velvet cake and vanilla layers. The fondant was made of marshmallow and tasted nice. She made marshmallow fondant 3 days in advance and kept it covered with cling film and in an air tight vessel in refrigerator.
Here are the some steps of decorating the cake.

• The cake was of three layers bottom and top layer being vanilla and middle one red velvet. The cake was covered with chocolate butter cream (kid's favourite). 
• The nail polish bottom part is fondant and the cap is dark chocolate. The eye shadow base is caramel toffee which she flattened. The mascara stick is a toothpick dipped in chocolate and chocolate vermicilli used for decorating. 
• The lipstick is coloured fondant and the base is chocolate. The blush is a combination of caramel toffee and chocolate. 

Creamy Veg Balls

Hellooo, it is very hot in bahrain now. The cooking part is tough these days because of the heat. But still tummy rumbles for some yummy snacks once a while. This happened on one such day. This appetizer/snack is made of white sauce and vegetables. You can include veggies of your choice/chicken/mushroom.  Serve hot :)

Ingredients

• Butter - 2 tsp (unsalted)
• Olive oil - 1 tsp
• Maida - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• Onion - 1 medium (chopped)
• Carrot - 1 medium (chopped) see Note
• Green peas - 1 handful (frozen)
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp (or as per your spice level)
• Salt to taste
• Egg white - 1 (OR) corn flour - 2 tsp 
• Bread crumbs - as required for coating

Method

• Cook the carrot and green peas adding little salt. (You can use veggies of your choice like mushroom, corn etc.)
• To make white sauce heat butter and olive oil in a kadai.
• Add maida and stir it for 10 seconds.
• Don't let it burn. Add milk and stir very quickly so that it doesn't form lumps. 
• Let it simmer and thicken.
• Add salt to taste and pepper powder. (Be careful to add salt as required as you're cooking vegetables with salt.)
• Switch off the flame. 
• Add chopped onion, cooked carrot and green peas. Mix well.  see Note
• If the mix seems loose, switch on the flame and thicken it so that u can take scoops of it. 
• Switch off the flame.
• Put bread crumbs in a plate. 
• Keep beaten egg white/loose cornflour paste (add 1/2 cup water to cornflour and make a paste) ready
• Take a scoop of the veg mix and put in crumbs. 
• Roll in bread crumbs. 
• Dip the roll in egg white/cornflour paste
• Again roll in bread crumbs
• Deep fry in oil. 

Note

If using chicken, cook it boneless with salt and pepper. Shred and mix in white sauce along with vegetables
If you want it more rich add grated cheese while mixing vegetables. 

You don't need any sauce to enjoy this  :)

Chicken 65

Hi ladies this time it is a spicy starter post. But before that I just wanted to ask a question. Have you checked out this website CupoNation.in while online shopping. It gives you the best deals on various things of your choice. This publishing website offers variety home and kitchen related discount coupons too for a number of leading online retailers in India like flipkart, snapdeal, homeshop18 and many more. See this site and try it next time when you do your online shopping.

Now coming back to today's recipe. Kids will love this and won’t be able to stop munching. You can marinate the chicken and keep in fridge and fry it as required. It serves well as a party starter or evening snack or as a filling with mayonnaise, thinly sliced onion and capsicum to make chappathi rolls. Try as any and enjoy. 

Ingredients

1. Chicken breast - 500 gms (cut into small bite size pieces)
2. Ginger - 1 small piece
3. Garlic - 2 cloves
4. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5. Coriander powder - 1/2 tbsp
6. Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp (Increase if you need it more spicy)
7. Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
8. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Rice flour - 2 tsp
10. Lemon Juice -1 tbsp
11. Salt to taste
12. Egg - 1 (optional)
13. Oil for frying

Method

• In a mixer add ingredients from 2 to 11 and grind well to a very smooth paste.
•  Mix the above marinade with beaten egg. (Avoid this if you don;t want to add egg).
•  Put the marinade on the chicken bite sizes and mix well. Keep in fridge for 3 hrs (or atleast 20 minutes).
•  Heat the oil in a thick bottomed vessel. Deep fry until golden brown. Maintain the heat at medium so chicken gets enough time to cook inside. It’ll be ready in 6-8 minutes.
• Serve with tomato sauce.

 There are chances that it’ll be over by the time you go to take the sauce. J

Chocolate Cake Balls

This is an item which I did when my cake didn't come out as well as I thought it would. There was some flop show in between and so ended up with chocolate balls. These balls were an instant hit. It is very easy to make and kids will love it. I always had this chocolate ball affinity whenever I saw it inside bakery glass boxes. So this did satisfy most of it.

 Ingredients

• Chocolate cake - 1/2 kg
• Chocolate syrup - as required (I didn't use any)
• Hershey's semi sweet chocolate chips - 100 gms

Method

• Melt chocolate chips on a double boiler. When it starts melting mix well using whisk so it melts well and doesn't get burned.

                                                             OR

• Microwave chocolate chips for 30-40 secs on high power. Take it out. Use a whisk to mix well. If the chips have not melted again keep for 10-20 secs. Don't keep on microwave too much as chocolate will get burned.

• Break the cake into fine crumbs. My cake was very soft and sticky so there was no need to add chocolate syrup. If yours become bit dry add little chocolate syrup. Mix with hand and make small gooseberry sized balls.
• Using a fork and spoon dip each ball in the melted chocolate. Let excess chocolate fall down. Keep on a wax paper and refrigerate for 2 hours. 
• You can keep these refrigerated and thaw it as required.

Coconut chutney

Again I thought of hibernating for sometime and then wake up with a new set of recipes. It was not actually hibernating but a series of cold and cough. All three of us were taking shifts and taking medicines. I've been trying many dishes but became too much lazy to draft it and publish. The snaps are there and so will soon appear here. When I brood it is very difficult to bounce back. This time there was another tension of sending my son to playschool. I had a bad time for almost a week sitting at home without him and adjusting. He also had difficulty to stay away but is ok now. I've been trying different kinds of coconut chutneys and this is one them.

Ingredients

• Coconut grated - 1 cup
• Chana dal - 2 tsp
• Kashmiri chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Shallots - 2
• Garlic - 1 clove 
• Salt to taste
• Water - 1/2 cup

For tempering

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Shallots - 2
• Curry leaves - as required

Method

• Dry roast chana dal
• In the small jar of mixer put all the ingredients and the roasted chana dal. Grind to a very fine paste
• Move to a clean bowl

For tempering

• Heat oil
• Add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter
• Add sliced shallots and curry leaves
• Saute for a minute or until shallots turn lightly brown. 
• Switch off the flame

Pour the above into bowl of chutney and mix well. Serve with warm idli.

Papaya Halwa/Jam

My son is not a big fruit fan. This time it was papaya and he was running around not even trying to taste it. I tried to disguise it as a halwa/jam and gave him in a piece of bread. He loved it. This can be stored in fridge for a week. It is yummy and 100 times better than store bought jams. Some add rice powder in this to make it thick(as in the case of halwa), but I wanted to use papaya as jam too, so I avoided it. Try this for your dear ones.

Ingredients

• Ripe papaya scooped  - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1/2 cup (reduce sugar if your papaya is very ripe)
• Cardamom - 5
• Ghee - 1/2 tsp

Method

• Powder sugar and cardamom seeds
• In a thick bottomed non-stick pan, put the scooped mashed papaya. Switch on flame.
• Add powdered sugar and cardamom powder to this and allow to simmer on medium flame. 
• Add ghee. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally until the mix starts to leave from sides of vessel and becomes thick. 
• Grease a plate and transfer the halwa to it.

Paneer Gujiya/samosa

It was our son's birthday on friday. So had a small snack party at home. This is one of the snacks. It is a very quick and easy to make mildly sweet samosa. You can increase the amount of sugar and add nuts, tutty frutties as your wish. I had earlier tried this recipe as pinwheels. You can prepare this and freeze it. Fry it when you've surprise guests.

 Ingredients

1. Paneer - 15 small cubes
2. Sugar - 3 tbsp
3. Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
4. Cashew nuts - 6 nos. (chopped)
5. Raisins - a few (chopped)
6. Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
7. Maida (all purpose flour)/Atta - 1 cup
8. Oil for deep frying
9. Butter - 2 tsp
10. Salt - 2 pinches
11. Water required to make dough

Method

• Mix together maida, salt and melted butter. Add enough water to make a non-sticky dough.
• Crumble paneer well
• Mix together all ingredients from 2 to 6 very thoroughly.
• Roll out the dough into small circles (poori size)
• Put a spoon full of paneer filling in it and fold over into a half moon. Lock the sides. Give designs with fork. I used a mould to make this. (You get different moulds in market) (At this stage you can freeze it and fry as required)

• Heat 1/2 cup oil in thick bottomed vessel
• Deep fry until golden brown. 

Other things in my snack list were

Chicken rolls

Noodle balls

Puff pastry cups

 and the Marble cake

Noodle balls

I got this recipe from Vanitha magazine. It can be voted as a good starter. Many might think why to mix everything and then fry and have, when you can have it as such. But once in a while it can also be done for a change right ppl??. As starters in a party it is a complete surprise package as your guest won't even guess that they'll find noodles in it. Try this and enjoy their comments

Ingredients

• Maggi noodles - 1 pkt
• Onion - 1 chopped
• Ginger - a small piece (chopped)
• Cooked minced chicken - 1 handful 
• Coriander leaves - a handful (chopped)
• Egg white - 1 (optional) 
• Bread crumbs
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying

Method

• Cook maggi noodles with its masala. I used the cheese one.
• Beat egg white
• Mix together chopped onion, ginger, cooked chicken, coriander leaves and egg white. Add salt as required.
• Put maggi noodles into this and mix well.
• Make small balls and roll in bread crumb and deep fry.

Chicken bread roll

These rolls are sure to fill your tummy and delight your hearts. It takes a little bit time but it is  not hard to make. Got the tips of bread making from Julie's dinner rolls recipe. Everything turned out well and we had a yummy teatime. You can make the filling of your choice or just a sausage would do. Try and love it. 

Ingredients for bread

• All purpose flour - 2 and 1/2 cups
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Olive/Refined oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Yeast - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• Egg yolk - 1
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Egg white - 1

Ingredients for filling

• Boneless chicken - 250 gm
• Onion - 2 big chopped
• Tomato - 1 chopped
• Capsicum - 1 chopped
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Water/Chicken stock - 1/2 cup
• Oil for sauteeing

Filling method

• Cook the chicken with little salt and mince it. 
• Chop onions
• Heat oil in a vessel
• Add ginger garlic paste and chopped onions. Saute until onion is transparent. 
• Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder. Saute
• Add salt as required. Remember you've added salt while cooking chicken. So add accordingly. 
• Add minced chicken, tomato and capsicum. Saute for 2 minutes.
• Add 1/2 cup chicken stock/water, cover and cook for 2 minutes
• Open the lid and saute until the mix is dry. Cool and use as filling.

Bread method

• Warm the milk and add this to yeast along with sugar. Allow to ferment for 10-15 minutes. (Don't overheat the milk as it will kill yeast)
• Mix together maida and salt
• Take 2 cups of maida-salt mix in a bowl 
• Incorporate butter and oil into maida to get bread crumb texture.
• Add one egg yolk.
• Add fermented yeast and mix well to get a sticky dough.
• Add the remaining 1/2 cup of maida as required to get a not too sticky or not too stiff dough. (I had 1/4 cup of maida remaining)
• Brush 1 tsp of oil over the dough and keep it covered for increasing for 3 hours. 
• After 3 hours punch down the dough
• Sprinkle little flour on a surface and roll out the dough and make it into desired shape as per your creativity. I made it triangular.
• Roll out the dough. Cut triangle shape and put the filling on the base of the triangle
• Roll from the base with filling to the vertex of the triangular shaped dough. 
• Preheat oven at 200 degrees centigrade. 
• Keep the rolled dough with filling on a baking tray with parchment paper (butter paper) allow it to rest for 20 minutes.
• Brush with egg white (to get good shiny brown colour)
• Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 200 degree centigrade. 
• Brush with  butter as soon as you remove from oven. 

Tomato Capsicum Chutney

I'm still brooding. I was supposed to post this long back. It is a tangy yummy chutney which you can make on a lazy day. Try this and enjoy your mornings with fluffy idlis.

Ingredients

• Garlic - 2 small pods
• Tomato - 1
• Capsicum - 1 
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 3-4 twigs
• Oil for sauteeing
• Salt to taste

Method

• Heat oil
• Chop garlic and add to the hot oil. Saute until it becomes light brown.
• Add the chopped tomato and capsicum. Saute until it becomes soft. 
• Add the chilli powder and chilli flakes. Saute for a minute. 
• Add little water. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. 
• Switch off the flame and allow the mixture to cool. 
• Wash and chop coriander leaves and add to the above mix.
• Once cooled transfer it to a blender and blend well. 
• Have with yummy idli or dosas.