Besan Laddu

I am a proud Indian. I do not live in India now but that does not make me any lesser an Indian. It hurts me to see Indians fighting in the name of religion, state, caste and anything you can possibly think of. How better a country we would be once we start appreciating the uniqueness of the country. Where else can you find a country so diverse - just imagine the number of dance forms even within a state! The state of Kerala for example boasts of Mohiniyattam, Kathakalli, Ottam thullal, oppana, Thiruvathira, Marghamkali and many more to go. If this is the story of one state in India, summing up that of all states together will have dance forms that is beyond math I can do now! The festivals , the religions, languages, food, culture also follow the same swing. India is a country that defines the spirit of UNITY IN DIVERSITY! Let that not go waste due to the selfish intents of a handful who stand to gain. I am proud I belong to a country like this and our heritage is something that needs to be preserved and not washed away. If we do end up fighting amongst ourselves, we are just heralding another era of the British invaders divide and rule policy which can be of no good - zilch economic development coupled with brain drain!

Having said that, Diwali ( I am inclined to say - the most celebrated festival in India) is just a few days away. Being a Christian, I have no religious affiliation with this festival but I do take part in the celebrations since I am an Indian. There was a time in childhood were crackers were part of my household too during Diwali - well gone are those days!  You can't take cooking away from me though - so here is our Diwali recipe. 

I loved the tiny Besan laddu at the bakeries in India which comes in small boxes and easy to gulp down. I just tried making a replica of the same. I cannot say I got it exactly the same but I would say its somewhere close!

A Very Happy Diwali to you all!

Ingredients

1. Besan/ Gram Flour - 1 cup tightly packed
2. Ghee - 1/4 cup
3. Semolina/Rava - 4 tbsp
4. Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup
5. Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Method

• In a thick bottomed pan, heat 1 tbsp of ghee. Add the semolina and roast it until color begins to lightly change. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Keep aside 2 tbsp of ghee and pour in the rest into the same pan. Add the gram flour and roast until fragrant and the color begins to change to brown. Ensure that the flame is either on low or medium low else the flour tends to burn from the bottom or get roasted unevenly.
• Turn off the flame and add the roasted rava and once the mix is warm enough to handle with bare hands, add in the powdered sugar along with cardamom powder. Combine this mix well using your hands. In case you need more ghee, use the ghee set aside at this stage.
• Make balls out of this mix and set on a plate. Give it about half an hour to set well before gobbling it down:)

You may also note -

1. It takes about 20 minutes to roast the gram flour. A bit of patience goes a long way here:)

Raspberry Lime Granita

I have always had a hateful relationship with the summers. I wished for summer vacation to fall during winters! As a kid I was prone to heat boils in summer that would irritate me day and night until my aunt found a solution through it through MEDIMIX soap - now, all Indians especially a malayalee will would relate to this brand of soap:) Moving to Bangalore, made summers a tad bit bearable. When my groom hunt was on, one thing I was very particular of was - No wedding in April and May. Weddings are supposed to be happy moments not disgusting and sweat drenched.

This is my third summer in Dubai and you can imagine the plight of a summer hating creature like me surviving in this part of the world. Coupled with humidity, the weather makes it impossible to step out even for a few fleeting moments. Even if you do all you can think of is getting back under the shower which is not much of a solace because you have hot water running in the taps. I look forward to the summers bidding good bye - the only happy aspect of summer is feasting away on cold guiltless pleasures - ice cream, milkshakes, lassi, anything and everything that comes cold.

Weather in this part of world is slightly getting bearable. Stepping out in evenings is not as daunting a task it used to be the last few months and I am looking forward to the cold season - hoping that it lasts long. Meanwhile sharing the recipe for Raspberry Lime Granita which was made about a month back. It was hard to get a perfect shot because the heat made it melt very quickly.  I had to refreeze it twice to finally a get a decent shot.

Ingredients

1. Raspberry - 250 gms
2. Water - 1 cup
3. Sugar - 1/4 cup ( vary as per your level of sweetness)
4. Lime Juice - 2 tbsp

Method

• Stir water along with sugar on medium heat until dissolved. Set aside to cool. Squeeze in the lime juice when cool.
• Pulse the raspberry in a blender. Strain to remove any excess pulp/ solids.
• Mix this with the sugar syrup until well combined.
• Pour this into a baking tray or any other shallow dish such that syrup does not form a very thick layer.
• Freeze for an hour. Then scrape it using a fork 3 to 4 times at intervals of  half an hour to help it form granules.
• Freeze for another 2 to 3 hours before scooping it out into a glass and serving.

Chocolate Cherry Pudding

There are days when my mind wanders to my home country and my desire to go back there gets stronger. I am sure these thoughts resonate with atleast a few of the expats. Sometimes I busy myself with some work to shut away these thoughts and other days I whine and whine. After some whining, I turn to my laptop to cheer me up. The one show that makes all the worry lines cease to exist is FRIENDS. I just can't have enough of it. I have watched season by season and now go on to youtube to catch some scenes from it. All the characters have become so etched in me that I feel they live around me. Like any other Friends fan, I would love to see that Reunion happening till then I can continue to watch it in a loop. 

Cooking does cheer me up but imagine cooking and watching Friends at the same time :P I do it often these days.( I hate it when I have to turn on the blender, the noise is such a distraction:P) From Monica's jam to Ross' Fajita , Rachel's English Truffle to Joey's sandwich, Phoebe's chocolate chip cookies to Chandler's cheesecake - food becomes an integral part of Friends. Those who have watched Friends can sure co-relate.  Cooking these days is more fun that it used to be ( Hope my Dad doesn't read this - he was very particular that we do one task at a time and not multi task but I can't just help it!)

Over to my recipe, a rarity on my blog - a dessert. I have adapted the recipe from Spinneys magazine - when I read this recipe two months back I knew I simply had to do it. I went hunting for cherries and came back empty handed - Cherries were available nowhere. The recipe lay forgotten until few days back when I saw cherries at a local supermarket - then I knew I had to make this desert. And I am quite pleased with the result:)

There you are - 

Ingredients

1. Butter - 150 gm
2. Semi sweet chocolate - 200 gm
3. Powdered sugar - ½ cup
4. All purpose flour - ¼ cup
5. Cherry - 150 to 200 gm
6. Egg - 2 no.s

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 degree centigrade.
• Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl placed on top of simmering water. Mix using a spatula and combine well. Let it cool.
• Beat the egg and fold in the powdered sugar and flour.
• Add the chocolate mix to this along with pitted cherries.
• Transfer the mixture into a baking tray and let it bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
• Serve it warm along with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Coconut Barfee

That was a pretty huge break from blogging. After a wonderful trip to Cyprus - (details on a travellogue soon) and also a bout of sickness, I am back in the kitchen. Now that Diwali is right around the corner, why not a sweet dish?

Diwali is probably a festival that brings together the entire country. From lighting the lamps to bursting the crackers, everyone irrespective of age and religion join in. The energy can be felt in every lane in India and the hustle bustle in every household. The earliest memories of Diwali for me is the kids in our colony gathering for Diwali celebration at a neighbors house. We joyously lined the walls with candles and lit them, took part in the pooja, burst crackers and finally gobbled down really sumptuous food. This was a day, we the kids of Vidyanagar colony looked forward to. Crackers were not my favorite but I loved lighting the lamps and loved going on a drive to see the beautifully lit houses.

This is my first Diwali away from India and discussions in office are on what to do for Diwali? That is when I felt that this was the moment to try out some sweet dishes. Barfee is what came to my mind first. Coconut Barfee, I recall my mother making it often. No time wasted, I immediately asked for her recipe and here it is. The only change from her recipe is that I used rose water instead of water.

Ingredients

1. Coconut - 1 cup grated
2. Sugar -3/4 cup
3. Rose water - 1/4 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Ghee - 2 tbsp
6. Cashewnuts

Method

Fry the cashew nut in ghee and keep aside.

In a pan, add water and sugar. Stir on low flame and add the grated coconut. When bubbles start forming on the edges add ghee, fried cashew nut and cardamom powder.Stir until the mixture starts separating from the pan.

Move this mixture to a greased pan. Set it using a spoon or fork and cut it into desired shape while still warm.Allow it to cool down and and serve making this Diwali special.

Swiss Roll/Jam Roll

Jam roll always reminds me of the summer vacations while we were still at school -a long two month hiatus in Kerala along with my cousins. There was a routine established for the four of us and the most important of it all being the 5 pm wait on our balcony for my aunt to get back from work - for pouncing on the goodies in her bag. She never failed us. 

Jam Roll was my favorite, it always intrigued me. Sometimes I would just bite into it hungrily and sometimes I took the time to unroll it lick away the delicious mixed fruit jam and then dig on the cake. The 'little me' never would have imagined that she would actually be making jam roll one day.

The idea of trying out something like this popped up when we brought orange marmalade. I was tasting it for the very first time and it did not fascinate me much. I had a bottle full of it and did not absolutely want it to rot away. That is when my hubby told me why not try a Swiss roll? I was clueless how this was done. Yet, I decided to try out on a weekend as we were expecting a few guests. I baked the cake for the roll but it was adamant and refused to roll, cracking up when I tried to roll it.  I could not let it go waste. So I decided to sandwich the marmalade between two slices of cake cut into circles and dust it with powdered sugar. It tasted good but the cake had turned out a little harder making the rolling difficult. I decided to research on this a bit more and this time it turned out the way just I had wanted it to.

Honestly, making a jam roll is not complicated as it looks. Just a little bit of patience and there you are.

Ingredients

For the sponge cake-

Self raising flour/Maida - 1 cup

Powdered sugar - 1 cup (3/4 goes into the cake and the rest for dusting)

Eggs - 4 separated

Vegetable oil or butter - 2 tbsp

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Marmalade/ Jam/ Cream - flavor of your choice

Preparation

1. Sift the flour and baking sugar and keep aside.
2. Separate the egg yolk and white. Whisk the egg white along with a little sugar using a hand blender or electric blender for 7-8 minutes so that it becomes thick.
3. Add the vanilla essence into the egg yolk and mix it well. 
4. Into this, add 3/4 cup of the powdered sugar and the egg white. Fold in gently using a spoon or spatula in order to avoid air bubbles.
5.  Add the sifter flour, fold in the mixture well and finish off with the vegetable oil.
6. The cake mix is now ready to go into your oven.
7. Make sure that you pre - heat your oven at 180 degree for 15 minutes. Grease a square baking tray, in case you do not have that, you can use your roasting tray as well. Pour the mix into this and make sure it is evenly spread across.
8. Place in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes. Keep checking to avoid overcooking or browning of the cake.  

9. 

   Roll the sponge cake while hot along with the parchment paper

   Remove it from the oven once done and invert on top of a parchment paper which has been sprinkled with powdered sugar.( In case, the cake is too thick and you want your rolls to be thinner, you may just slice through the center)             Sprinkling of sugar is important else your cake may stick to the paper.
10. While still hot, roll the cake along with the parchment paper till the fag end. Tie up the ends to retain the shape and leave it to cool.

11. Once it has cooled down, unroll it spread the jam or marmalade evenly over the entire length and a little thinner towards the sides as the excess may pop out as we roll. Dust the roll with powdered sugar.Roll it back and cut out the rolls into thickness of your choice

Cut off the ends of the roll where the excess jam has spilled over

Your Jam Roll is ready to be served. Once a while instead of just making a sponge cake, you can layer it with jam and roll it - impressing everyone around you.

Carrot Cake

It all started for Christmas in 2012 when a colleague gave me a cake recipe. The very same day I purchased all the ingredients and made my very first cake. I did not have an oven and resorted to baking the cake in a cooker. ( you need to be careful, you don't use water and gasket and the cooker gets mighty hot). Since then, I have tried a lot of cakes in the cooker. It did turn out tasty but often a little too hard with the bottom and the edges burnt,

I have also tried the traditional method of baking where the cake tray is inserted into a vessel with hot sand generally kept over the traditional chullah. The vessel is then covered with a lid with burning coal on top as well so that the cake gets evenly baked. I was too scared to handle that and it was my mother who was a master in that and me just a by stander.

It was only post marriage in 2014 that I learnt to use an oven to bake cakes. I had no idea about the right temperature nor the timings .After a few burnt and also sometimes under cooked cakes, I do have an approximate idea now.

Initially cake baking was a tedious and tasking job for me - sometimes the cake does not rise, I have too many bubbles in the cake, I have the nuts and fruits settling at the bottom and the top of the cake is not cooked enough where as the bottom is burnt. My husband is a wonderful 'analyser' and I would say 'get it right person'. He often googled up and found solutions to most of my problems.

I have not yet mastered the art of baking and I hope to some day. As of now, I am still learning and correcting as I go along.

Your cakes can turn out right if you learn to love your ingredients and handle them as instructed in the recipes you find across in different sites. For instance - make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature and stick to the measurements provided. Once you have a knack of it, you may try variations.

So let me move on to my carrot cake.

A wonderful evening with Tea, Cake and a Perfect book.

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida - 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1 cup ( you may raise it to 1 and a half cup - neither of us have sweet tooth so I generally add lesser sugar)
Egg - 2( if the egg is really small you may add 3)
Buttermilk - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup
Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Carrot - 2 grated
Raisins
Cashew nuts
Salt

Preparation

1. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl - flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder. Sieve it in order to prevent formation of lumps.
2. Beat the eggs well along with vanilla essence and add in the buttermilk and oil. Combine it well.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mixing it well as you add. Do not beat it further, just enough for the ingredients to mix else it may lead to formation of air bubbles.
4. Add the grated carrot into the cake mix and fold in gently.
5. Roll in the cashews and raisins in a little flour  and keep aside.
6. Preheat your oven at 180 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. 
7. Grease your cake tray with a little oil and dust flour on top of it. Turn the tray upside down and pat away the excess flour.
8.  Pour your cake mix into the pan and add the nuts and raisins evenly . Just run your spoon across once and cover the cake tray with an aluminium foil. Gently fold in the sides of the foil- no free ends should be sticking out touching the corners of your oven. Covering your cake with foil allows the top of the cake to be uniformly heated and baked.
9. Place your tray in the oven at temperature of 180 degree. Check your cake after 20 minutes. Insert a tooth pick or pin and if it comes out clean your cake is ready. Else keep it for 10-15 more minutes. The cooking time may vary depending on the tray you use and the consistency of your mixture. The ideal time would be somewhere between 20 to 35 minutes. My carrot cake took about 25 minutes.
10. Once baked , remove the cake from the cake and let it cool before your slice and have your first bite.

Enjoy every bite of your cake with steaming tea!!