Baking Partners - New baking group for bloggers

Checkout the new baking group "Baking Partners" at the following link:
http://www.zestysouthindiankitchen.com/2012/07/baking-partners-new-baking-group.html

Send in your requests to Swati at favoriterecipes12@gmail.com if you are interested. Do mention your blog URL in your request. I love the button designed for this group :)

Giveaway on Little Food Junction!

Do check out the wonderful handpicked giveaways from Zansaar.com at Little Food Junction. I am in love with the sunny shades of their bakeware!

Best Tart Event - Roundup

I hope you remember the event held on this space through September, 2012: Best Tart Event

First of all, I apologize for the late roundup. I was swamped with work and with the festive season in tow, I hardly had any time to blog at all. I extended the deadline to 15^th October and had decided to do the roundup by 31^st October, but I missed that too. So here I am doing the round-up late in November. Apologize again for the delay.

So without further ado, let us look at the entries:

1. Julie of Erivum Puliyum

URL to post : http://erivumpuliyumm.blogspot.com/2012/09/fresh-cherry-tartlets.html

This is a wonderfully rich cherry tart. I am sure it tasted as yummy as it looks!

2. Achu of Tangy Minds

  

URL to post: http://tangymind.blogspot.com/2012/08/tricolor-flag-tarts-independence-day.html

This is a very creative tri-color tart celebrating Independence day! Hats off to Achu for her patience with this creation.

3.  Kanaka Priya of Myriad Musings (2 entries)
URL to posts: 

1. http://kpks.blogspot.in/2012/09/a-sweet-tart-with-chocolate-and.html

2. http://kpks.blogspot.in/2012/09/chocolate-tart-with-poached-pears.html

Priya has two wonderful entries. Her wonderful tarts include Chocolate with Pomogranate and, Chocolate with Poached pears. She seems to have a flair for combining chocolate with rich juicy fruits – an mouth-watering combo indeed!

4. Amrita of Sweet'n'Savoury

URL to post: http://amritavishal127.blogspot.in/2012/09/florentine-tarts-with-frangipane-filling.html

Florentine tarts with Frangipane filling. These are a visual treat!

5.  Anita Menon of Slice of My Lyfe

Post URL : http://sliceofmylyfe.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/parenthood-a-plum-tart/

Plum tarts, another visual treat along with a side serving – a beautiful write-up on parenthood.

That brings us to a close of the wonderful entries for this event. 

Thank you all for the beautiful looking and yummy tart recipes!

Now as for the most awaited draw for the winner of the give-away… Ah... Ahh.... Not so fast!... Hold on... 

I used random.org to organize the list from the folks who had sent in entries, followers of the blog and those who commented on the post. I excluded family and friends (non-culinary) from among the followers. So scroll down to see who won the beautiful vibrant colour pie-dish that I handpicked from Zansaar.com

There were 24 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Achu of Tangy Minds

Congrats, Archana! 

Thank you, everyone for your continued support on my posts. You comments and feedback mean a lot to me and I look forward to your unwavering support on this blog. Please stay tuned for more exciting events and give-aways. And yes, please spread the word! 

Best Tart - Event Announcement and a Giveaway

Hello Friends,

As mentioned in my previous post, here is the exciting event announcement. When I first started baking, I was only familiar with cup-cakes, cookies, breads and cakes. But with blog hopping and some reading I came across brownies, muffins and tarts. I understand that there was a whole new world out there and I had barely scratched the surface. I was skeptical about buying tart tins, as I was not sure if there is so much variety that I can bake with tarts. But I was wrong. Tarts are interesting. They require a pastry base and then a filling. The filling can be anything ranging from fresh berries in some syrup to something that is baked with the tart shell. With the mini tart tins without removable bottoms, the trick is to remove the tart shell without breaking. I see that tarts are not too common in blogs I visit. So I figured, I might as well host an event and encourage fellow bloggers out there to bake more of these sinfully delightful pastries.

So herez to the best tart/tartlet that one can bake.

Guidelines:
1. Bake any tart/tartlet (only sweet) of your choice. We will skip the savory quiches for this event.
2. Post the recipe (include the logo) between 1st-30th September.
3. If updating an older post, please include the logo in the post and update it.
4. You can use Eggs in the tart base or filling but no meat.

5. Send me an email at priyam41@gmail.com with the following details:
a) Your blog name
b) URL to the post
c) Your email-id

If you do not blog, feel free to send the write up of the recipe with atleast one picture to my email id.

For the giveaway:

I have a beautiful ceramic pie plate chosen from zansaar as the giveaway. I bought it a couple of months back, but I got delayed with my 100th post and the event announcement. But I am excited to even look at it. It is a beautiful bold yellow color. See for yourself at this link.
If you have an entry for the event, you automatically qualify for the giveaway.
If not, please do any of the following:
1. Subscribe to follow my blog publicly
2. Leave a comment on this post

I will post a round-up of the event and announce the winner on 10th October, 2012. So keep those entries coming, dear bakers!

Celebrating 100th Post with Rocky Road Brownies

I am celebrating!!! There is so much celebrate... I am celebrating motherhood and will continue to, forever... I am celebrating my lovely little girl... She has an unparalleled maturity and understanding to co-operate with me and yet is so innocent and naughty at the same time... I am celebrating women empowerment... I am celebrating the fact that I have some very satisfying hobbies... Speaking of which, I celebrate baking... I celebrate blogging... And I am celebrating the 100th post on this blog. Yes my dear friends, I have achieved a century on this blog.

Honestly, when I started this blog, I did not have too much of a hope that I will be able to continue blogging at a constant pace. I was not even sure, I would be baking/cooking something special often enough to blog about it.  But this hobby has kind of grown on me. I can steal a few minutes here and there to write up a post and quickly grab my camera for a few clicks, before plating up something I have cooked. 

However, it truly has been a rocky road. I am one of the few bloggers who does not put up posts for festival specials. I miss occasions - cakes on birthdays/anniversaries are not common on my blog... The upside is that on a lazy weekend afternoon I can get into a frenzied excitement and cook up something complicated or elaborate.

So what has kept me going?

• My lovely little girl - I owe this entirely to her. She in not a great eater... but she is a very good critic and if she loves something, the way she relishes it is very heart-warming. That expression keeps me going :) 
• The incredible ladies out there and their wonderful blogs... They are truly awe-inspiring... Those restaurant style dishes and the artistic decoration on their baked goodies... Those perfect pictures  with the apt props... Hats off to all of you!
• My enthusiastic and encouraging readers... You, my friends, are the true reason I strive to do better. I cannot wait to try something new and come back with another post, just to hear your feedback and comments...  
• My family – what would I do without their support… They are so sweetly supportive of my crankiness during one of those frenzied feverish times in the kitchen. 

The celebration is not over yet! Friends, please stay tuned for an exciting event announcement and a fabulous giveaway.

I baked these rocky-road brownies a while back. This was a part of the pantry clearance effort. I had half a bag of "no name" mini-marshmallows. After the initial fascination, my little one had lost interest in these chewy bits and they were lying in the pantry waiting to be consumed. I looked up joyofbaking.com and found the recipe for this rich chocolaty brownie topped with marshmallow, chocolate and nuts. There is no such thing as too much chocolate. Not for me anyways.

There is a reason, I decided to mark this my 100th post - out of the 15 odd posts in the drafts folder. It was truly a delightful experience to bake this, and it is aptly named for the tempo and temperament of the last one year that I have been blogging...

I baked these, while my little girl was playing with an older girl from my neighborhood. I served them both, these brownies warm from the oven and they were overjoyed. The older girl was so excited to know that I had baked these myself and apparently that was the first thing she went and told her mother, "Amma, Aunty had made such nice chocolate brownies. It was to good". That was a wonderful complement. Thank you, Nandita! 

Rocky Road Brownies (recipe source joyofbaking.com)
Ingredients:

4 ounces (120 grams) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt


Topping:
1/2 cup (85 grams) semi sweet or milk chocolate chips
1 cup (250 ml) miniature marshmallows (store bought or home made)
1/2 cup (50 grams) chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, and/or pistachios) -- I omitted this


Method: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan. Optionally you can line with parchment paper.


Melt the chocolate and butter in a large stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.  Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, stir in the flour and salt.


Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. 

Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle the brownies with the chocolate chips, miniature marshmallows and chopped nuts.  Return the brownies to the oven and bake for about 5 minutes, or just until the marshmallows start to melt.  Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Once completely cooled, slice and serve. Makes 16 brownies.

Verdict: These are sinfully delightful. First of all, if you can wait for the brownies to cool down before you cut into it, give yourself a pat. Secondly, if you can manage to stop with one piece, give yourself one more pat on the back. If not, don't worry; occasional binging is fine :)

Lamington Cupcakes - July Eggless Baking Challenge

A lamington is a sponge cake of Australian origin in the shape of a cuboid, coated in a layer of traditionally chocolate icing then desiccated coconut. Although they are of Australian origin they are frequently seen in South African Cafes too.

The chocolate coating is a thin mixture, into which cubes of sponge cake (one cookbook states 4 cm per side) are dipped, and the chocolate is absorbed into the outermost layers of the sponge where it sets. (Similarly, the strawberry jam or chocolate icing is absorbed into the sponge.) The cubes are then covered with coconut and left to set. Optionally one could use Lemon icing instead of chocolate icing.

I had once made a Vanilla tea cake, which I later sliced up to make lamingtons. You can refer to those two posts. These are the original recipes using Eggs. I was delighted to see that this is the Eggless baking challenge for the month of July. 

However I had one major hurdle - my oven. My microwave oven is not fixed as the turntable motor is not available. I am unable to use it for heavy duty baking or cooking. But I was itching to try this out, lest I miss out on the fun this month as well :(. So I decided to bake lamington cupcakes. 

I had one perfectly over-ripe large banana to substitute for the 2 eggs that the joyofbaking recipe calls for. I happily woke up on Sunday morning having dreamt of baking this goodie and the results being mind-blowing. When I started gathering the ingredients, I could not find the banana. It turns out that my mom found the banana in an over-ripe state and consumed it, thinking it is of no use if kept for another day. So now the second hurdle. What else can I substitute the eggs with? I cannot use butter-milk/yoghurt, as the recipe uses milk. Fortunately I had two choices, one pack of Brittania cream-cheese or one tin of condensed milk. I decided to go with cream-cheese.

Lamingtons Recipe (Adapted from joyofbaking.com):
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs <--- substitute with 1/2 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk --- Refer to Note 1

Lamingtons: 
Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Butter, or spray with a nonstick cooking spray, 12-16 cupcake moulds. 
In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In bowl of electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add cream-cheese, beating well.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with flour.  
Spoon the batter into the cupcake moulds. Bake in preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the moulds and let them cool on a wire-rack. Once the cake has completely cooled, put the cupcakes in a box, and wrap the box, in plastic wrap and refrigerate (to make them easier to frost) for several hours or even overnight.
Note 1: The batter was on the thicker side and I found that the cupcakes had become a little crusty. I could have easily increased the quantity of milk from the original 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup. 
I cooled the cupcakes and did not refrigerate them. Instead, I frosted the cupcakes as soon as they had cooled down. 
I used the recipe from David for the Chocolate icing part:
For the chocolate icing: 6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped - 1/2 cup 1 1/2 ounces (40 g) unsalted butter - 3 tablespoons 3/4 cup (180 ml) milk, whole or lowfat  2 cups (220 g) powdered sugar  2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch-process (sifted if lumpy) 2 tablespoons boiling water
Make the chocolate icing by melting together the chocolate, butter, and milk in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Remove the bowl from the pan of simmering water when smooth, then whisk in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
Assembling the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cup (200 g) unsweetened shredded coconut, spread on a large plate <--- Refer to Note2
Note2: It would work very well with dry dessicated cocunut. But I had only fresh coconut on hand and I shredded it.
Pick up every cupcake and dip it into the chocolate sauce, rolling the cupcake over to coat all sides with syrup. Immediately roll the frosted cupcakes over the dessicated coconut and leave on the wire rack to set.

Verdict: Delicious and sinfully delightful, yet I feel it could have been better if there was a little more liquid in the batter.

Cinnamon Toast

Simple and quick breakfast options are always welcome at home.

Ingredients

Bread slices
Softened butter - to spread
Cinnamon Sugar:
Cinnamon powder - 1 tbsp

Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup


Method:



Spread the butter on one side of the bread slices. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the butter. Heat the girdle and drop a teaspoon of butter. Place the bread slice on un-buttered side, on the girdle. When the bread is lightly toasted, flip the bread on the cinnamon side and let it brown. Remove from heat. You could either cut it in two and eat, or just toast two slices and make a sandwich. Serve with a teaspoon of butter. Simple and quick breakfast for children. 

Verdict:
You could reduce the proportion of cinnamon in the cinnomon-sugar as per your taste. I like it less sugary and more cinnamony and hence I used the above proportion. This is a very easy quick-fix breakfast option for kids.

Jaljeera - Cool Mint-Lime Drink

Jal-jeera is a wonderful refreshing drink in the summer months. With the goodness of lime, mint and cumin, it is also an excellent appetizer. 

It is extremely simple to prepare. I did not know that until recently my husband asked me to make it since we had too much mint leaves on hand. I looked up the internet and came across this recipe from Indobase:

Ingredients:

Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp

Mint leaves - 2 tbspFresh coriander leaves - 1 tspLemon juice - 2 tbspBlack salt - 1/2 tsp Chilled water - 5 cups (750 ml)Sugar - 1 pinch


Method:

Roast the cumin seeds and allow them to cool. Grind the cumin seeds into fine powder. Grind mint and coriander leaves to make a smooth paste. 

To the mint-coriander paste, add the lemon juice, cumin powder, salt and sugar and mix well. Add the water and garnish with fresh mint leaves. Serve chilled. 

Verdict:

You could add the lemon and mint leaves to your taste. You could use normal iodised salt instead of black salt. 

Vanilla Ice-cream

The summer heat is sweltering, even in Bangalore. Once upon a time there was no need for fans in houses in Bangalore. With rapid development of the software industry, and the volume of construction that went on in the city, fans became a must at homes. Now with high rise buildings and four-storey apartments being the norm of any locality, and the unthinking culling of trees in the city, air conditioners have become a must here. All this only adding to the power woes that the city already faces... Contrary to what most folks from hotter parts of the country think, summers are pretty bad here too. I have lived here for the last ten years and every year the summer temperature reaches an all time high, atleast two degrees up from the previous year and thus sets a record every time around.

The road side nimbu paani stalls and the mosambi juice stalls are a common sight now - on the ring road (which is supposedly a highway). Even at home ppl churn butter milk, make cucumber juice etc. to cope with the humidity and heat.

One weekend my daughter was desperate for ice-cream. I had none in the fridge and I remembered seeing some recipes for home made icecream in the blogosphere. I had plenty of whipping cream on hand and so I thought I should give it a shot. I browsed a lot of recipes and finally came up with the following, omitting the eggs and adapting to the ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients:

Fresh Cream - 3 1/2 cups (I used Amul fresh cream)
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Vanilla Essence - 2 tsp

Method:

In a large saucepan, heat the cream, milk and sugar together and bring to a boil. Set it aside to cool down. Add the vanilla essence and stir well. Pour into freezer containers and store in the refrigerator. After about half an hour, pull out the container and using the hand mixer, whip up the icecream, until creamy and thick. Return to the refrigerator. Repeat the whipping for about 4-5 times every half an hour. After the last time, put it in the refrigerator and let it freeze for 4-5 hours. Viola! Rich, creamy icreceam is ready to be relished. Scoop and enjoy!

Verdict:
Although, I meant to beat the ice-cream before it froze completely, I skipped the first time for a few hours and I had to thaw it once more and then start beating it. It did not turn out as creamy as expected due to this reason. But if were to not let the ice-cream freeze completely before starting the whisking process, it would turn out very creamy.

Chicken in Coconut Gravy

I can never tire of chicken recipes. Like the new "makemytrip.com" ad, where a middle aged man is unable to eat any other meat and looks for chicken in a Chinese city. I love the idea of dishing up a chicken dish anytime for dinner or lunch. It is so much simpler and most methods I pick involve little or no pre-preparation at all.

So what is different about this recipe is that we actually need to use the blender to make some coconut gravy with desiccated coconut.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 350 grams (cleaned and skinned)

2. Onions - 2 (medium sized)

3. Tomatoes - 2 (finely chopped)

4. Chilli powder - 1 tsp

    Dhaniya (coriander powder) - 1tsp

   Salt - 1 tsp

   Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

   Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

   Saunf powder (fennel) - 1/4 tsp

   Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp

   Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp

   Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp

   Curry leaves - 15 to 20

   Mint leaves - 15 to 20

   Coriander stalk - 3 to 5

5. Oil - 1 tbsp

6. Coriander leaves for garnishing

7. Desiccated coconut - 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp

Method:


Grind the ingredients in No. 4 together. 
I always keep powdered ingredients (cumin, pepper, chilli, coriander seeds) but you can use 1 tsp of the seeds to get 1/2 tsp of the powder approximately.

I also always use ginger and garlic paste. Only this time I chopped the garlic instead of grinding it. Very often the stalks of the coriander leaves turn out to be too thick for garnishing. In such cases, I use the leaves and save the stalks to grind with masala gravy.

Slice the onions fine. Heat the oil and fry the chopped onions until they are golden brown; add the masala paste and fry until the raw smell is gone and there is good aroma. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chicken pieces and ensure that the pieces are covered well with the masala.

Add a cup of water and boil the chicken until soft.

Grind the desiccated coconut into smooth paste with 1/4 cup of water. Add it to the chicken gravy and boil for just a minute. The gravy thickens as it cools and so you can turn off the heat even with the gravy is a little thinner than desired. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with Chapati or Rice.

Verdict: This was loved and devoured by everyone at home. The mild spices in the coconut gravy are and excellent compliment to the delicate  flavour of the chicken and so this dish goes equally well with rice and rotis.