Bake-Off(2/25/2011)

To participate, read this.

Next Bake-Off will be on '3/4/2011'. Bake-Off archive can be found here.

In the order we have, 

Pani Popo from 'Vegetarian Tastebuds'

Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from 'Sang's World'

Quick Cardamom Buns from 'Kitchen Celebrations'

 

Baked Mathri from 'EatWriteThink'

Pistachio Hot Milk Sponge Cake from 'Cakes and More'

Bread and Butter Pudding from 'Foodie Corner'

Fat free banana and almond bundt cake from 'Spicebuds'

Sourdough Semolina Bread from 'Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen'

Happy Baking.

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Sourdough Semolina Bread

When I moved from India to U.S more than a decade back, I knew about only 2 kinds of loaf bread.  I had not seen the face of the oven and all I had eaten was 'Ordinary bread' and 'Special bread' from the Iyengar bakery. Ordinary bread was just plain white bread and special bread was a little more sugary with tutti fruity in it. I do recall that some bakeries had 'Milk Bread' along with these two which, resembled the taste and texture of Brioche, but in loaf form.

Long story short, I was confused with all different bread names and shapes when I saw them in the grocery store for the first time. Used to promptly buy bread (whole wheat and sometimes white) up until 6 years back. I had seen the bread recipe for Semolina Cranberry Bread  which, was promptly bookmarked long time back. This is adapted based on that recipe. I used more sourdough starter and part whole wheat flour. I have replaced cranberries with tutti fruity.

Ingredients:
Preferment:
Sourdough Starter - 3/4 cup at room temperature (100% hydration)
Warm Water - 1/4 cup
All Purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Dough:
All of the preferment
Warm water - 1 cup
Semolina - 1 cup (coarse ground not flour. Fine Sooji works the same way)
Honey - 1/4 cup (Could use agave nectar or maple syrup for vegan version)
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Whole Wheat flour - 1 3/4 cups (Start with 1 1/2 cups) plus more for kneading
Instant yeast - 1/2 tsp
Dried fruit - 1 cup (You could use sweetened cranberries, raisins or in my case tuttti fruity)

Method:
Night before you plan to bake this bread, mix all the ingredients mentioned in the preferment section. Cover with a plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature overnight. If your starter is not very active, you could add a pinch of yeast.
The day of baking the bread, add all the ingredients mentioned in the 'For the dough' section except the dried fruit to the preferment bowl. Start using only 1 1/2 cups of flour in the beginning. Stir with a wooden spoon. When you can no longer stir, make a bed of flour and dump the contents of the bowl on to it. Start kneading adding more flour as and when necessary. When I had used 1 3/4 cups of flour, I needed only a TBSP or two to finish kneading. Knead for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. You should be able to make a smooth ball from the dough and it could still be a little tacky but not sticky.

Leave the ball of the dough uncovered for about 10 minutes. Add the dried fruit of your choice and incorporate that into the dough. Oil a bowl and place the dough ball in it. Rotate the dough so that all the sides are coated with oil. Cover and let it rest for 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle semolina on the top. Set aside. Divide the dough into two pieces. Pat into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Roll tightly from one end and pinch the seam tightly. Roll the whole roll back and forth to taper it a little. I was aiming at not too fat loaves, so made them a bit longer.  Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Sprinkle semolina on the top of the loaves. Cover and let rise for an hour to hour and a half or till doubled. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Prepare for steam by placing a cast iron skillet in the bottom most rack of the oven. Boil some water in a pan at the same time. When ready to place the loaves in the oven, slash them in couple of places and place it in the oven. Immediately pour the boiling water on to the cast iron skillet or a cookie sheet and close the oven door. Bake for 30 minutes or till golden. Rotate the pan halfway. Remove from the oven and cool on the wire rack completely before slicing. These are great toasted or as is with a dab of butter or jam or nut butters.

These loaves are yeastspotted and are my entry to BBD#37.

Enjoy. Pin It

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Truffles

My kids are very fond of Lindt truffles. Particularly the white chocolate ones. I have a big doubt that since my husband likes them so much, he made them like it too and now they are all hooked on to it. Even when I don't buy it all the time, when I do, it becomes apparent how expensive these are.

A truffle basically is a thick chocolate ganache rolled into a ball and coated with either powdered sugar, cocoa or nuts. This recipe uses cream cheese. This one is not my recipe. When I was active on a cake decorating forum, one lady had shared this recipe as one of the fillings she uses for her cakes. I have made this many times. With semi sweet chocolate, with milk chocolate chips and now, with white chocolate chips. I have used them in cakes as filling. Trust me on this one. It is to die for. It is that good. It stays in the freezer as long as your butter and cream cheese expiration dates. This is not a typical truffle which gets kind of hard. The softness of this depends on the type and quality of chocolate you use. White chocolate tends to stay soft compared to the semi sweet chocolate. If you are used to the not so soft ganache truffle, you might not like the texture of this. But, the taste is so much better since a little bit of tang of cream cheese adds a totally different palate stimulation.

Ingredients:
Cream Cheese - 8 Oz block softened (I used 1/3 fat cream cheese)
Confectioner's sugar - 1 cup
Butter - 2 TBSP
White chocolate chips - 12 Oz bag or 2 cups (Use good quality chocolate chips or baking bars. I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips)
Vanilla or almond extract - 1 tsp

For Rolling:
Confectioner's sugar or cocoa or you could dip in melted chocolate.


Method:
Beat the cream cheese with confectioner's sugar well. Set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and the chocolate chips together. Do this in the intervals of 30 seconds and stir after every 30 seconds. When the chocolate chips have melted, add it to the cream cheese and sugar mixture a bit by bit and beat. Add vanilla or almond extract and beat to combine. This will get thick once you add the chocolate chips.
You have couple of choices from this point. You could refrigerate it and make balls out of it after it chills for about 30 minutes. You can then roll them in powdered sugar or cocoa powder or nuts. Or you could coat them with melted chocolate bark or chocolate chips to get the hard coating. I just rolled them in powdered sugar. Quite a bit was consumed even before that anyway.
This is my entry to 'Kid's delight - Restaurant Recreation' started by Srivalli and being guest hosted by me.


Enjoy Pin It

Vegetable Vindaloo

We used to watch 'Outsourced' on the TV. We could relate to it better than a lot of American folks since we are from India and living in America has exposed us to both the cultures and environments. On one episode, employees fool Todd (the American in-charge of the call center in Mumbai office) saying it is a vacation day called 'Vindaloo day'. He believes it and says everyone can go home. I cracked up laughing so much watching that.

My husband who knew that 'Vindaloo' is a spicy curry asked me more details. To be honest, I had no idea. Then I totally forgot all about it till I saw 'Indian Food Made Easy' on the TV. In that, the host Anjum Anand was teaching a friend how to make 'Pork Vindaloo'. I adapted that recipe but used vegetables of my choice.
A little about Vindaloo - It is a portuguese inspired Goan dish. It uses Vinegar (vin part of the name) and 'aloo' is mistaken for potato. But, it is not. It sounds similar for the name 'Garlic' in portuguese. Portuguese used wine to preserve their pork on sea and in hot weather of India. When short of wine, they subbed it with vinegar. Since vinegar is cheaper than wine, they started using vinegar. That is the history of 'Vindaloo'. Most of the recipes you see have different spices in varied amounts. I do not know how authentic Anjum Anand's recipe is, but I followed it pretty much.

One year back - Cake Decorating Basics Part V
Ingredients:
Eggplants - 2 medium cut into big chunks
Potatoes - 2 cut into big chunks (I used red potatoes)
Green Bell pepper - 2 chopped into big chunks
Red Onions - 1 large or 2 medium chopped fine
Oil - 3 - 4 TBSP
Salt - to taste

To powder:
Coriander - 1 tsp
Cumin - 1 tsp
Cloves - 5
Black pepper - 10
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp or to taste (If you can get kashmiri red chilli powder, use that along with the regular chilli powder to get that beautiful color. I didn't have it)
Cinnamon - one 2" stick
Cardamom - 2 pods seeds only

To make a paste:
Powder from above
Garlic - 5 pods
Ginger - 1" piece peeled
Red wine vinegar - 1/4 cup (Or white wine vinegar)

Method:
Place eggplant and potato pieces (or the vegetables you are using) in a large bowl. Prepare the powder in a spice blender. Place the garlic, ginger, vinegar, spice powder in a blender or food processor and make a paste. Pour this on to the vegetable pieces in the bowl. Set aside. Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add onions. Sprinkle some salt and let it cook. When they are half done, add bell pepper. Continue to cook for couple more minutes. Add the vegetables in the bowl with the vindaloo spice paste and stir. You can add about 1/2 cup of water at this point but not more than that. Stir well and cover with the lid and let it cook. Give it an occasional stir and add water if it has become dry. It takes about 30 minutes for it to cook and the flavors to blend well. Check for the salt and adjust if needed. Serve with rice.
You could garnish with some fried nuts if desired. You can use any vegetable of your choice, but meatier veggies like potato, pumpkin, certain kinds of squash, yams, plantains, sweet potatoes make a good vegetable vindaloo.

Enjoy. Pin It

How to make Rubbed Sage in 5 minutes

I have a book which has a bun recipe that I have been wanting to try. It calls for 'rubbed sage'. I could've used something else in its place, but wanted to see how it smells and tastes. So, I went to get rubbed sage. Mind you, it is expensive to buy rubbed sage mainly because you cannot get local or store brands of this. You have to buy brands like McCormick which, I should say are expensive. It is not so expensive that it would make me not to buy it. But, without knowing how it tastes or smells, there is a chance that it could go to waste. I wanted to make sure that I would use it.

To try it, I went and bought a small bunch of fresh sage. I got this for a dollar in a produce junction. Same would've cost me 2.49 in a store like Wegman's.
I looked up how to make it. It is very simple. Dry the leaves in a dehydrator or under hot Sun (BTW, where is Sun these days? I haven't seen him for quite a while now where I live). Or you could dry in the oven under low heat. But, that would make a huge impact on my gas bill since it has to dry for hours. So, I did this in the microwave in less than 3 minutes time.

If you are one crazy person like I am, try it. If not, skip this and buy the rubbed sage in a fancy bottle. If you are saner than that, don't make anything that has rubbed sage in it. I am fine with any of the choices.

I am talking about a small bunch of fresh sage leaves converted into rubbed sage in 5 minutes. Not a commercial sized batch.

Method:
Pick leaves and spread on a microwave safe plate. Spread as thin as you can but if the leaves are overlapping, that is just fine. Microwave for 30 seconds. Mix the leaves. Microwave again for 30 seconds. Mix and microwave again 3 times in the interval of 20 seconds or until all the leaves are dry to touch. It took 3 minutes for my batch. Keep aside.
Take a colander. Place it on a clean plate. Put the dried sage in the colander. Rube it with your fingers / palm. Whatever falls through the colander is your 'rubbed sage'. See? it wasn't  hard. Store in an airtight container and use in the recipes calling for this herb. You could either throw away the stalk part of the leaves or use your muscles to powder them too.

Enjoy. Pin It

Chocolate Pudding

I have a reputation among my friends.
They say "Champa doesn't help the economy". They are so wrong.
Their reason is because I try to do everything myself without buying the pre-made stuff.
They are so wrong because if I don't go to a grocery store, that store gets closed (I am sure I am exaggerating).
My grocery bills are huge.
I write this blog and even if a fraction of people who read it cook/bake some of the stuff, they are helping economy. In turn, I am helping economy.
Don't you agree with me? Please say "Yes".

My younger one is very fond of chocolate pudding. I made this for her.  When I looked up on the internet for a recipe, there came many. Some using egg yolks and some without. I settled for the one without using eggs. If you compare the price of buying pudding packs and the cost of this pudding, you will see that it is not cheap to make this at home. In fact, it comes out more expensive than the store bought one. But the taste? you can't beat it. This is my entry to 'Kid's delight - Restaurant Recreation' started by Srivalli and being guest hosted by me.

One year back - My kid's birthday cakes
Adapted barely from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
Corn Starch - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Salt - a pinch
Milk - 3 cups (I used 2 %. Source uses whole milk)
Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1 cup or 6 Oz (You could use part semi sweet and part milk chocolate chips for a sweeter pudding, or use part bittersweet chocolate for a rich chocolate taste)
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp


Method:
In a glass bowl, mix corn starch, sugar and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk. Keep it on another pot which has simmering water in it. (This is to mimic double broiler since I don't have one) The bowl shouldn't touch the water and the water must be simmering and not boiling. Keep stirring occasionally. When the mixture begins to thicken (about 15 - 20 minutes), scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and keep stirring continuously. If it coats the back of the spoon, it is ready for you to add the chocolate. (Alternately, you could do this in the microwave too. Keep turning it on at the intervals of 2 minutes. Stir and keep it back till you get the thick mixture) Add the chocolate chips or cut up bars and keep stirring till all the chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and stir vanilla. Pour into cups and place a plastic wrap directly on the top of pudding to prevent skin formation. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving. It can stay in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This makes generous 6 servings or not so generous 8 servings.

Enjoy. Pin It

Butternut Squash Spinach Curry

Cooking is basically using a combination of ingredients. That's all. One of the points to note while combining different things is not to use ingredients that counteract when used together. Best example is of using hing and garlic together. I know what you are thinking. There are tons of recipes which use them together. But, when you do, none of the flavor is present. They are too strong to go together. I found out that butternut squash or pumpkin go very well with spinach. That is the reason for this post.

Another point to note is not to over use certain herbs. Sage can be overpowering. I have a bunch of sage in my refrigerator and I don't know what to do with it. Why did I buy? Because they looked so darn beautiful and I had to bring them home.

Thank god I don't bring home all the beautiful things that I see everywhere. I would be broke otherwise.
Speaking of 'broke', while driving, I saw a sticker on the car in front of me. It said "Can you please fix my husband? He says he is 'broke'". Isn't it a good one?

Ingredients:
Butternut squash - 1 medium sized peeled and cubed into 3/4" cubes
Red Onion - 2 small or 1 big chopped fine
Tomato puree - 1 cup (from about 4 tomatoes or use crushed tomatoes)
Spinach - 1 bunch or 1 pack of frozen (16 Oz or 1 lb bag)
Garlic - 2 pods chopped fine
Bay leaf - 2
Cardamom - 2 whole
Cinnamon - one 2" stick
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Coriander Cumin powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Green chillies - 5 slit lengthwise
Oil - 4 TBSP
Salt - to taste

Method:
In a pan, heat oil. When hot, add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom. When these are toasted, add green chillies. Add onions, garlic and saute. You want the onions to brown, but not burn. Add a pinch of salt to prevent burning and keep it on low heat. When the onions get brown, add the butternut squash pieces. Mix well and leave it for 5 minutes. Now, add the tomato puree, garam masala, Coriander Cumin powder. Mix well and add enough water to cover the butternut squash chunks (barely). Cover with a lid and let it cook. You want to cook it till they are tender but not mushy. When the squash is almost cooked, add the frozen spinach or fresh one chopped fine to the pot and mix well. Adjust the salt and seasonings if required. You could adjust the thickness of the curry too. Leave it on for few minutes in low heat and turn off the heat. Serve with rotis, naans or even rice.

Enjoy. Pin It

Bake-Off(2/18/2011)

To participate, read this.

Next Bake-Off will be on '2/25/2011'. Bake-Off archive can be found here.

In the order we have, 

Divine Chiffon Custard Cakes from 'One creative Kitchen' 

 Apple Crumble from 'Cook like a Bong'

Orange Muffins from 'Dee's Kitchen'

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffin from 'Just Home Made'

 Sourdough Focaccia from 'Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen'

 

Happy baking.

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Sourdough Focaccia

If you have been reading this blog,  you'll have noticed one thing. I bake too many things with 'sourdough' other than bread. You might think "If she doesn't want to bake bread out of sourdough, then why have it? ". Answer is very simple. When I do want to make something out of it, it is available for me.  Starter doesn't get ready to be used in couple of days. It takes weeks for it to be ready.
I converted 'Poolish Focaccia' from BBA book to use sourdough starter. If you don't fall in love with bread baking after you've tried this, I don't know what to tell you.

I did add some green chillies to suit our taste. Omit it if you can't handle the heat. You can use your favorite herb for herb oil or leave it out and use just olive oil.
One Year Back - Chocolate Almond Spread
Ingredients:
For the sponge:
Sourdough starter - 1 cup (ripe)
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Warm Water - 1/4 cup

For the dough:
All of the Sponge
All purpose flour - 1 1/3 Cups
Salt - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 3 TBSP
Water - 1/3 cup (warm)

Additional:
Green chillies - 8 chopped fine (optional - pretty spicy)

To make herb oil:
Olive oil - 1/3 cup
Cilantro - chopped about 1/4 cup

Method:
The day before:
Mix the starter with the remaining ingredients mentioned in the sponge in a non metallic bowl. If your starter is not very ripe, you could add a pinch of yeast here. Cover and let it sit overnight or for several hours. I left mine overnight. You will see lots of bubbles and holes in the sponge after 8 - 10 hours.

Day of:
Mix all of the ingredients mentioned in the 'for the dough'. This dough is super sticky. Beat for about 3 minutes. I was stirring using a wooden spoon and gave up after a minute. I could've let the bread machine do the job, but was lazy to clean one extra thing. I just let it rise for longer time.
After about 4 - 5  hours (remember we have not added any yeast here and it will take time), the dough will be puffy.
Make a bed of flour and scrape the contents of the bowl on to the bed of flour. Sprinkle the top with flour, stretch and dust off the extra flour and fold like an envelop. In the BBA book, they mention to do it twice but since I had not kneaded the dough properly, I went and folded four times. Coat with olive oil and let rest for 45 minutes covered to an hour. (If you use yeast, 30 minutes is good enough)
Repeat the process of this stretching and folding. Every time you do this, dough gets easier to handle. Third time when you do the stretch and fold, let it rest for an hour or more. If you are using green chillies, it is in the third stretch that you would be folding it in. I didn't want the chillies just on the top so I folded them in. Coat with oil and let it rest.

Prepare the herb oil if using. Heat olive oil in a pan. When warm, turn off the heat and add the chopped herb. Let it cool.
When ready to assembly, generously grease a 13 X 9 pan with olive oil. Place the envelop of dough gently and by greasing your hands, spread to cover the pan. Use only your finger tips. Dimple the dough and pour half of the herb oil. Cover and let rest for 2 hours or until puffy. At the end of final rise, pour the rest of the herb oil and if there are any huge air bubbles, break them. Let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 500 F. Sprinkle the focaccia with salt and place in the oven. Turn the heat down to 450 F. Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 10 minutes. Check the internal temperature. Mine was done at this time. It should read 200 F. And the top will be golden. Not a dark, but a pale golden. Remove from the pan and cool on the wire rack. Don't slice for 30 minutes at least.

This tasted awesome. Pretty spicy, but it is one of the best focaccia that I have baked. I have been baking focaccia even before I started blogging, so I have had my share of focaccia baking.

To make this without sourdough starter:
If you don't have the sourdough starter, use 1/4 tsp instant yeast along with 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 3/4 cup of warm water. After the overnight rise, to make the dough, you will be using everything mentioned in the 'for the dough' section plus 3/4 tsp of instant yeast. Follow the steps as mentioned with reduced rest periods between the stretching and folding. 30 minutes should be fine in between the folds.

Since Priya was interested in knowing the calories, I calculated it. This is very approximate.

This goes to yeastspotting and BBD#37.
Enjoy. Pin It

Announcing Kid's Delight - Restaurant Recreation

If you are one of those who read food blogs and particularly Indian food blogs, you must've stumbled on Srivalli's blogs. I had participated in her Kid's delight even some time back. When I found out that she is hosting it every month, I asked her if she would let me guest host it this month. Thanks to her she immediately agreed. So, I am hosting 'Kid's Delight - Restaurant Recreation'  this month. The deadline is 15th March 2011.

There is something different about it too. It will be a running roundup. Once I receive the first entry, I will create a post for it, which will be updated every time I get another entry. That way, if there are people whose kids like the same thing, they can give it a shot without waiting for the final roundup. I will update the running roundup page within 24 hours after receiving the entry.
Another new attraction of this event - we are trying to gather a group of volunteers to try out some of the recipes that come in as an entry to this event. If there is any recipe that my kid would like it, I will try making that using your recipe  and posting it on my blog with a mention of the source. So, your creation will be appreciated more than once.

Now to the rules:

Make something that your kid (niece, nephew or any other kid that you know) ate at a restaurant and liked it a lot. Or a store bought food item in your own way. If there are recipes for that somewhere and you follow it, that is fine too. But make sure you provide the link for the source. You could substitute some of the ingredients too. Dishes have to be vegetarian. Eggs are allowed only in baked goods. Send your entry with the link to this page and Srivalli's announcement. Email is to be sent to versatilekitchen@gmail.com with the subject 'Kid's delight'.
Details to be sent in the email are:
Your blog name, dish name, a picture of size 200 X 200, link to the URL of the post.
Non bloggers are very welcome to send the entries too. There are no limits for the entries but, the creation has to be in the current month. No archives please.
For more rules, refer here check out the rules if you have any doubt.

What are you waiting for? Get cooking, baking.
Some of the examples of what my kids like:
Pizza, Strawberry ice cream, Graham crackers, fibre 1 bars, Granola bars, Truffles, Oreos etc.

Running roundup has been posted here.

Enjoy. Pin It

Buttermilk Salad Dressing

Do you like to work out?  I can't say I do.
But since I am a foodie and I am not one of those who have a great metabolism, I have to work out.

I see all sizes in the gym. Chunky, masculine, skinny, hour glass figured ladies, obese, over weight and what not.

When I see obese, over weight, chunky people I feel good about myself.

When I see hour glass figures, I get depressed.

When I see skinny ladies, I decide to eat salad for two meals that day.
But if I have to eat salad all by myself, I get sad.

To avoid that, I should make my husband eat it with me.
To do that, I made this dressing because he loves ranch dressing.  Since I had to eat it too, I made my version without using eggs.

Do you feel 'J' when you look at those skinny ladies? Go ahead make this salad and replace one meal with it. No? Then check out cakes and cookies on this blog and indulge yourself.

One Year Back - Nutty Okra Masala
Ingredients:
Cream Cheese - 4 TBSP softened (I used fat free)
Buttermilk - 1/2 - 3/4 cup (Depending on how thin you want the dressing to be)
Scallions - Chopped very fine about 2 TBSP  (use only green part)
Salt - to taste
Black Pepper powder - to taste
Hot sauce - 2 tsp (optional. Use only if you are used to spicy food)
Garlic - 2 cloves grated
Parsley - 1 1/2 tsp if dried and 1 TBSP if fresh

Method:
Beat the cream cheese till smooth and no lumps are there. Add buttermilk and continue to mix till everything comes together. Use 1/2 cup in the beginning and add the remaining 1/4 cup if required. Add salt, black pepper, hot sauce if using and mix. Finally add scallions, parsley (rub on your palm if using dried herb) and garlic. Mix it for the final time and use in salads.

The salad I made had Red radish, cucumber, tomatoes, green olives, avocado, arugula, baby spinach. You can use any veggie of your choice.

Enjoy. Pin It

Mango Mousse

When I got married, my mother-in-law told me one thing that is so true about my husband. She said "He is never going to say that food is good. If he goes for second serving, assume that he liked it". Till today (12 years now), he always goes for second and many times third serving of the food that I cook. But how many times in these 12 years has he told me that food is good? I believe I can count that with my fingers. Anyway, he doesn't even ask me to make something in particular. One day, we went to Hot Breads and he bought a piece of sponge cake filled with Mango Mousse. He liked it so much that I decided to make it at home. I searched online and found a video on Wareh wah chef. I started making this since then. I make it for the parties at home and fill it in 3 Oz cups and freeze a week before. Just have to get it out of the freezer and place on a tray when it is time for dessert. And everyone loves it particularly kids.

One Year Back - Chocolate Almond Spread
Ingredients:
Sweetened Condensed Mango pulp - 1 can (You can get this in Asian grocery stores)
Water - 3/4 cups
Heavy Whipping Cream - 2 cups chilled or 1 tub 16 Oz Cool whip thawed in the refrigerator (See Notes)
Mango flavored jelly crystals - 2 packets (90 gms each) Or 2 TBSP agar - agar powder
Sugar - 1/2 cup if using heavy whipping cream. Omit if using cool whip.

Method:
Empty the pulp into a large bowl. Rinse the can with 3/4 cup of water and pour the water into a saucepan. Keep on low heat. Add the crystals and keep stirring till they dissolve. It need not boil. Turn off the heat. Keep stirring occasionally to prevent skin from forming. When cool,  add the contents of the sauce pan to the bowl which has mango pulp in it. Stir well to combine.

If you are using whipping cream, whip it to soft peaks with sugar. Fold in the cool whip or whipped cream.  Pour into the serving cups and refrigerate. You can even freeze this. Better still, you can use graham cracker pie crust and fill it with it and let it set in the refrigerator.

Mousse stays fine in the refrigerator for 2 - 3 days. For longer storage, freeze it. If you are a fan of mousse, you should check out these posts too. Strawberry Mousse, Almond Mousse, Eggless Dark Chocolate Mousse.

Notes:
I prefer to use cool whip in this recipe because of one reason. I can use low fat or non-fat cool whip and the texture will be just fine. If you are alright using gelatin, instead of the jelly crystals, you can use 2 envelops of gelatin. Soften with 1/2 cup of water. Let it bloom then warm with another 1/4 cup of water. When it is melted, add it to the mango pulp and proceed. You can get Mango flavored jelly crystals in asian grocery stores particularly Indian and Pakisthani stores.

Check out what other ladies are cooking/baking/blogging on the last day of the marathon.
Srivalli, Azeema, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Meena, Mina, Padma, Pavani,  PJ,  Priya Suresh,Priya Mahadevan,  Rujuta, Santosh, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Sowmya, Suma, Usha, Veena.


Enjoy. Pin It

Ricotta Coconut Fudge (Burfi)

Happy Valentine's day everyone.
I do not really know the history of chocolate and Valentine's day. But, I do know that you make something to feel your loved one feel good. It need not be just chocolate. So, I made these not too sweet Ricotta Coconut fudge or burfi. Instead of using milk powder with ricotta the way we make ricotta peda, I used fine ground coconut powder and the result is an awesome not too sweet but very soft fudge.

One Year back - Homemade Almond Butter
Ingredients:
Ricotta cheese - 2 cups (I used part skim)
Sugar - 1 cup
Unsweetened dry dessicated coconut fine ground - 2 cups (If you can't get this, run the regular one in the blender/food processor to get powder and then measure)
Ghee or butter - 2 TBSP
Cardamom powder or vanilla - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Method:
Grease a plate with ghee. I lined a 8" cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside. Take a thick bottomed vessel. Add butter or ghee and turn on the heat. Once the butter or ghee has melted, add ricotta cheese. Keep stirring on medium flame till it starts bubbling and spitting the water out. Add the sugar and immediately add the coconut powder. Stir. They all come together in 3 - 5 minutes. When there is almost no liquid left and it makes a huge mass, add the flavoring if using and stir for the final time. Pour it on to the grease plate or the parchment paper lined pan. The mixture won't fall like that of fudge. Take a wax paper and cover the entire surface with it. Flatten by pressing on the top of the wax paper. Let it set and cool. When completely cool, cut into desired shape and size. I made them very small just like the size of fudge. You could also make them into balls when cool enough to handle. Garnish with some chopped nuts if desired. My kids won't even touch it if I used any nuts in them. That was the reason for not using any. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week if it lasts that long.

Check out what other ladies are up to..
Srivalli, Azeema, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Meena, Mina, Padma, Pavani,  PJ,  Priya Suresh,Priya Mahadevan,  Rujuta, Santosh, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Sowmya, Suma, Usha, Veena.

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Sourdough Vanilla Cake (with decoration)

It was my kid's birthday this week. We are planning the party when the weather gets better. I did make her cup cakes to take to school, but she didn't actually 'cut the cake' on that day. When I was talking to some of my friends, I actually asked just a couple of families to come this weekend so that she can cut the cake and the others can sing her 'Happy Birthday' song. Since I had some bubbly sourdough to use up, I decided to make cake out of it. When I asked my daughter what she wanted, she said "Vanilla Cake". She turned six and she has seen me decorate cakes for the past 3 years. For her cake, she usually chooses the color, design and even when they don't work very well, I have to make it work. She wanted butterfly design cake and here is my take on it. I tried brush embroidery, but apparently I need lot of practice doing that.
One of the side views..

A collage of other side views..

Cake will be cut in the evening and I don't know if I will have any left to take a picture in the day light tomorrow. Look at the crumb in the picture where in I have shown torted cakes. Icing is buttercream icing. You can refer to my 'cake decorating' series for the recipe.

One year back - Khasta Kachori
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 3/4 cups
Sourdough starter - 1 cup (fed)
Sourcream - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Applesauce - 1/2 cup (You could increase oil to 1 cup if you don't want to use this)
Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
Egg - 2 Large
Salt - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp
Vanilla - 1 TBSP

Cake decorating pictures.. (All the pictures below were taken under my yellow kitchen light. I work on decorating either early in the morning or in the night when kids are asleep)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans or line with parchment paper. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together sugar, baking soda, salt, flour. Set aside. In another bowl, combine oil, eggs, applesauce, sourcream. Whisk well. Slowly whisk in the sourdough starter. Stir Vanilla in. Add the dry mix to wet mix and stir until combined. Divide evenly between the pans and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on the rack for 10 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Go to town with decorating.
Notes:
Since I was baking this with the intention of decorating, I used bake even strips to prevent too much of doming. I got 2" height 2 layers.

Check out what other ladies are up to..
Srivalli, Azeema, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Meena, Mina, Padma, Pavani,  PJ,  Priya Suresh,Priya Mahadevan,  Rujuta, Santosh, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Sowmya, Suma, Usha, Veena.

Since this cake has sourdough in it, I am sending this to Susan's Yeastspotting.

Enjoy.

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