Pav Bhaji or Pao bhaji ....... both made at home , from scratch

When I made these beautiful pao breads some time back, B wanted to have Pav  bhaji .
So I made some. .

But with so many chores and other things to deal with, including ‘I don’t feel like doing anything today’ too, I spread out the preparation into a couple of days.
After I made the bread, I had to wait for sometime for the already cooked food in the fridge to get used up.

Meanwhile, I boiled the vegetables ( I used potatoes, cauliflower, green peas, tomatoes, carrots and some frencjh beans .... you can use whatever you have at hand ) and stored them.
I peeled garlic and stored them ( I do that anyway ) .
And then one fine day, brought out everything.

Heated the bread with a smear of butter .... B wanted the inside as is .... soft ... and not fry with butter.
Mashed the vegetables and tempered them with chopped garlic, chopped green chillies, turmeric and red chilli powder and store bought pav bhaji masala 
Added salt and sugar. 
Simmered till the extra moisture dried up and the mash turned thickish. .
.
Served with chopped onions, lemon and coriander leaves sprinkled.
And of course, a big blob of butter. .
Yummm 😋 .
.

Contrary to how rich it looks, homemade pao bhaji is actually very healthy as well as nutritious.
A great way of eating a lot of vegetables together, this bhaji was made with just one teaspoon of cooking oil.
I have eaten pao bhaji outside only once in my life.
One taste and I have never touched it again.
Not when eating out.
For me, the homecooked version is way better, much more tastier. 

Here is a look of the Ladi Pav that I had baked earlier. 

It is super yummyhot,  just out of the oven , with a good smear of butter.

A closer look! 😊
Tempting, eh? 

 

Oven baked Bread Croutons .... and the stars don't shine down anymore

"Don't sweat the small stuff.
... and it is all small stuff."

I had picked up this book when B had forcefully taken me to Crossword one weekend, a few weeks after we had returned from my home.
I had given up talking to anyone, not even on the phone, going out, eating, sleeping.
Walked around or just sat for long hours in a daze.
It was difficult on B too. He was with me throughout the ordeal that had stretched into several months.
It was  one of his endeavours to bring me out of my shell and reintroduce to normal days again.
So, inspite of being surprised, he had kept quiet when I had wandered to the self help section of the book store and picked this book up.

Never, in my life, had I imagined that I would need to read self help books.
I am the one people came to when they needed something to share ... more of grievances than happiness.
I am the one who used to leave one shoulder free for my friends, even strangers, to cry on.
Now I needed self help books, assurances from anyone or anything, that this was all a nightmare and I will wake up again to my old, comforting world.

The family was there ... the whole, huge one,  complete with near, far and extended relatives.
Friends were there ... both from the real as well as the virtual world.
But I did not want anybody.
I did not want to hear anything; from anybody.
I needed assurance. But I kept pushing everyone away.
Those who genuinely cared stuck around. Never left me for a moment.
Subtly, but surely, they were around ... without intruding. Gave me my space.
Yet kept sending messages, mails.
I am grateful for them.

Progna, who is more of  a soul sister and a tremendous positive personality herself, warned me, along with other warm words .... "It's okay to be sad. Just don't let your sadness push away ppl who care."

That line struck sense into me. 
I took her advice seriously and slowly started to take interest in moments again.
It is not easy.
But I have started taking small steps ... watching the rice boil, feel the water running through my fingers under the tap, listen to B speaking and listening to it too, open the door to the bell and talk to whoever it was ....
I have called three people so far ... on my own. And spoke to them for a while too.
Earlier, all I did was hold the phone and keep staring at Bapi's number, afraid of calling and not getting to hear his voice.
I could not bear to hear someone else's voice on his number.

I am trying hard to come out of my daze. 
To look, hear,feel and search for my old world again.

Aparna, who I idolise,  wrote  .... "Time heals Sharmila. Just doing the normal regular things helps. Start writing again. Even if they are fb posts."

Preeti, the sweetest person ever, has been in constant touch with me through messages on fb.
Encouraging me to chat, to rant.

And then there are others, all gems of people with loving hearts, who have come over and written on my posts and have sent messages on fb, noticed my absence and wrote on my timeline that they have missed me, been with me always.
I am trying to write again.  
And just writing this post has already helped me. I feel I am talking to you, my friends, who have always been there for me.

I have started to cook again.
Slowly, surely, cooking and all the paraphernalia that comes with it, seeped into me.
Deciding on what vegetable to buy, the menu, when to cook what.
My mind is coming back from numbness.

Of course, there are break downs still.
There are times when I just leave everything and go back into the darkness.
Evenings are difficult.
Every evening I look up to the sky, searching among the stars that smiling face of love.
All I see, through my tears, is a blurred sky. The stars do not shine any more.

But I am trying.
I, honestly, am.

Today, I will not leave without a recipe ... that is what my blog is all about after all.
I had made some croutons a few days ago, when both B and I were down with the sniffles and fever, to go with some tomato soup.
Baked them with a dash of olive oil and some dry herbs.

They are  very crisp, crunchy, full of your favourite flavours and absolutely guilt free.
Ma used to deep fry them ... but these turned out great.

I make these often and store them ... they make great snacks with a cup of tea or coffee too.
This time I wanted to click some photos, and so here goes the recipe.
Not much actually, but is a great help when it comes to munching on something and not having to worry about what you are snacking on.

Need :

Bread slices, preferably those that have been sitting in the fridge for a few days
Olive oil
Mixed Italian herbs
Freshly crushed black pepper corns
Garlic cloves (optional)

How to :

Cut the bread slices into small cubes.

Mix the herbs and the black pepper into the oil.
You can use butter too.
Toss the bread cubes in the mixture.

Spread them on a baking tray and set them in the oven at 100 degrees C for 10 minutes
and then 150 till they turn golden brown.
I threw in some garlic cloves that turned beautifully crisp and brown too.

Remove and cool.
Store in an airtight bottle.

Serve with your favourite soup.
Or just munch on as a snack.

I had made a light, oil free, fuss free, tangy Tomato and Carrot soup.
Both were perfect together.

Hope to see you all around soon. 

Orange Cupcakes & Vanilla Sponge Cake

In spite of my trying real hard, I have not been able to post as frequently as I'd like to.

The days stay busy, with a thousand chores
awaiting.
And I need more time than usual to finish a job now.

In the midst of all this I cook.
But of late cooking has mostly been on the spur.
Decide, prepare, cut/chop, cook, serve.
With almost no time to arrange a plate and click snaps.

But it does nag at the back of my mind when I prepare something good enough to share
with you all.
So no matter how quick I have to be, I try to manage a few clicks.

I've been craving for some good old fashioned Vanilla cake for a while now.
With eggs.
So baked one last weekend.


With winter gone and the weather turning dry and hot,
it is the evenings that are so endearing now.
A heavy breeze blows that takes me back to summery evenings back home.
Our garden had a grapefruit tree.
And the only thing I loved about it was the flowers.
Or rather their smell.

Citrusy, fragrant and so so sweet.
The evening air would be heavy with a mix of their smell and the smell of wet earth from the
just watered garden.
The elders would be sitting down to a cup of lemon tea
accompanied with something baked ...
either cakes or bakery biscuits.

I baked this cake just around evening, heart heavy with memories.

Just as I set about pouring the batter into the baking bowl,
I spied some beautiful oranges sitting on the table.
Immediately kept some batter aside
and added some orange zest to it.
Baked some cupcakes out of that batter.
Ok ... not some, exactly 5 cupcakes.


The zest gave such a wonderfully warm golden and light sunshine colour
to the cupcakes that
it almost hurt to eat them.
And the aroma of orange coming out of a warm cake is just so heady!

I threw in some choco chips that promptly sank to the bottom.
But it was fun to break open a cupcake and discover the chips in them.

The cake was perfect.
Brown and slightly crusty top.
Very soft and fluffy inside.
Melt in the mouth perfect sweetness.
Am so happy with it that I'm going to write the recipe here.
If not for anybody else,
then for my own self ... lest I forget.

By the time the cupcakes came out, we had finished half of the sponge cake ...
warm and just out of the oven.
So just the other half for a click.


Need :

1 cup maida / refined or all purpose flour
2 eggs
a little milk ( I use it only to make the batter thin )
vanilla essence - 3 big drops
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of baking soda
a little less than 1 cup sugar
3 tbsp cooking oil

Around 1 tbsp orange zest to be added for the cupcakes.


How I made them :

Set oven to 160 degrees C to pre heat.

Grind the sugar into a powder.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and oil in a bowl.

Add the sugar and mix well.

Beat the eggs for a while and mix in.

Add milk ( I needed just about a quarter cup or less ).

Add the vanilla essence.

Stir well till there are no lumps in the batter.

The batter should be of easily flowing yet slightly heavy consistency.

Brush a baking bowl with butter or cooking oil.

Dust it with some maida / apf.

Pour in the batter and bake at 160 degrees for around 15 minutes.

Switch off oven. Do not take the cake out immediately.

After around 10 mins remove and cool.


The Cupcakes

Just add the orange zest to the above batter.

If you want add some choco chips too.

Oil a muffin tray, pour in the batter and bake at 150 degrees for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool and serve.


All golden in colour,
soft as sponge, sweet, with a bite of chocolate, these cupcakes were beautiful!

We enjoyed them with some light and flavourful
Darjeeling leaf tea.

And I kept smelling my fingers where the wonderful fragrance of
the orange zest lingered ...
long after every crumb was gone. :-)

Other Cakes with eggs on Kichu Khon

Rum Cake with Fruit & Nuts
Coffee Cake
( Yep ... just two!! All others are eggless! )

Ringing in 2011 with Eggless Coffee Choco Nuts Cake

Wishing you a very Happy New Year 2011 !!

A full year gone. How ... I won't get into that.
I had committed I'll come back ... so am here.

And a post on the first day of the year seems so ... well ... appropriate.

But had no idea what to cook to make the first post of the new year seem special ...
... if not to anybody, at least to me.
Couldn't think of anything that can be done on the fly.
So did what I do best ... cook on a whim.

Grab hold of whatever I have ... mix them all together and bake.
Easy.
The difficult part is when it comes to naming my experiments. :-)

Anyway ... am still not very much in my element.
My arranging skills have become rusty.
Need to relearn to hold the camera properly.

But I still love to bake.

And so do not wait to see if I have eggs in the fridge or do not.
This cake was made with whatever I had at hand.


Need :

1 cup maida/APF
(a little more than) 1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup milk
1 small piece of cinnamon
1 piece of clove
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of baking soda
coffee powder ( to taste )
choco chips
chopped almonds and raisins
( this was all I had ... you can add others )
5-6 drops of vanilla essence

How to :

Pre heat oven at 110 degrees C.

Run the sugar in a mixer with the cinnamon and clove.

Mix the maida + oil + sugar + baking powder + baking soda well.

Mix in the milk and stir well till there are no lumps.

Add the chopped dry fruits.

Add the coffee and give a stir.

Sprinkle the choco chips on the surface.

Oil a baking bowl and pour in the batter.

Bake at 110 degrees C till an inserted toothpick or knife or skewer comes out clean.

Cool and serve.

The choco chips melt to give a chocolatey taste to the strong coffee flavour.
Turned out super moist and gooey.

I had made some Orange syrup with fresh orange juice and zest a few days ago.
Poured a little on a piece.

Tasted wonderful.

The tartness and zing of the orange syrup combined with the coffee and chocolate gave the cake a mixed flavour of ... well ... maybe of the gone year ... 2010. :-)

May the New Year bring happiness and health to you !!

Enjoy!

Other Cakes on Kichu Khon :

Rum Cake with Fruit & Nuts

Eggless Coffee Cake

Eggless Mango Cake

Eggless Apple & Walnut Cake

Eggless Banana Cake

Pineapple Cake

Savoury Lentil Cake / Handvo

My balcony is no longer mine.

Well ... it has never been mine for that matter. The small ledge is the bane of all good in my life ... read a little time spent on the balcony every evening ... or stand a while to enjoy the rains spray.

But no ... there are other important living beings who have laid claims on my property long back. They are our feathered 'friends'. Honestly .. am in a good mind to refer to them as foes henceforth.

First it were the pigeons. Amongst the fast paced real estate boom ... read numerous flats and buildings coming up ... they zero in on my balcony! After a good number of days spent fighting among themselves .. the most able and fittest get hold of the ledge. I wonder if this should give me some consolation regarding free security.

And then comes a longish time of having a baby ... nurturing it ... teaching it to fly. All through this ... dare I step into the balcony, the parents flutter about ... if I sit on the swing ... one of them will sit right across me on the railing and stare pointedly ... till I give up and go in.



Now this corner of mine has been taken up by two Shaliks ( in Bengali ). I had tried sealing the ledge with newspapers and thermocol boxes .. the enterprising pair scraped away part of the thermocol with their beaks and made a door ... and got a home!

The eggs have hatched and I can already hear the faint chirps and the parents are busy throughout the day carrying strugging insects in their beaks to feed the babies.

I love to be with my greens ... with the monsoon clouds and rain all over ... ok .. I have exactly three pots and 9 plants among them ... so what? I still love to be among my greens.

But no ... the moment I step there ... am shooed off with the best expletives in birdie language ... punctuated with screeches that go zzzzzzinggg .... right thru one ear and out the other. No ... they are not afraid of me or fly away ... it is I who has to give in ... always.

But at least they do not dirty the balcony as the horrid pigeons do.

I had planted exactly 15 saplings of Pui / Poi / Malabar spinach ... out of which only this many survived. DH sniggers everytime I water them or fuss around them ... mentioning something about a butcher taking care of a kid ... waiting.

Well ... I hope I get enough leaves on these so as not to feel guilty even if I do chop off a few for my Chorchori.



A few days back I had made the Dal Panchmela, and since I never measure stuff I am using for cooking I got some soaked dals left.

I usually grind them to a batter and make dosas or adai. But was in no mood to stand in the kitchen and fry one dosa after the other for a long long time.
So threw in a few things that came to my mind while grinding the batter and set it in the oven to bake.

Out came a savoury cake that we relished with tea that rainy evening. It is something close to a Handvo ... but I did check out the recipes for it ... and decided not to call this a Handvo for purists' sake.

This Savoury Lentil Cake came out very fluffy and spicy. Loved every bit of it.



Need :
A mix of 5 dals (Tuvar, Urad, Masoor, Chana, Moong ) soaked together
Fresh Coconut ( optional )
Fresh green chillies
Jeera / Cumin seeds
A pinch of Hing / Asafoetida
Baking Powder
Salt to taste
Lemon juice
A little water
A little cooking oil

Feel free to use whatever spices you want to ... I could not think of much.

How to :
Grind the dals with the coconut, jeera and the green chillies.

Add the hing, lemon juice, salt and baking powder to the batter.

Line a baking bowl with a little cooking oil.
Pour in the batter and bake at 150 degrees C for around 20 minutes.

Remove and cool.

Cut to pieces and serve hot or warm.




I had both my Peanut chutney and our very favourite Onion Chutney in the fridge ... enjoyed with both. And a hot mugga. :-)

Enjoy all !

Eggless Vanilla Muffins

I have been craving for some plain vanilla cake for a while now ... like the ones that were made in my childhood ... with eggs, vanilla, lots of cashews and cherries. Just could not make the time to make one.

A few evenings back I found a little time at hand ... and wanted to munch on something. But there was nothing at home except some biscuits and bread. Nah ... did not feel like having them. Again felt like having a slice of cake or a baked cookie.

So just got up and walked into the kitchen. Mixed up some flour with a few other things thrown in ... and I had a mix to bake!
Now what do I want ... a cake or a cookie ?
Cannot make it into a cake ... I ran out of baking powder. Cannot make it into a cookie ... it was too sticky ... had no intention of adding more maida ... means more oil ... and more baking powder ( I had just the empty bottle now ).



So decided to drop them into a muffin tray and see how they behave.
I had once seen Nigella make something like that ... mentioning that the muffin batter does not have to be too smooth ... so went ahead. Whatever will be, will be. If not anything, it will be edible at least. I mean how wrong can a sweetened mix baked well go wrong? ;-)
And that's how I got these. :-)


Need :

Maida / Apf - 1 and a half cup ( a medium sized tea cup )
Baking powder - 1 tsp ( I ran out of bp ... so do not know if a little more would have helped or not)
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Sugar - 5 to 6 tbsp ( you can grind it to a powder too ... I did not)
Salt - very little ... just a pinch
Chopped candied cherries - around 2 tbsp
Cooking oil - 3 tbsp
Cold milk - just enough to make the dough ( very little actually )
Butter - just a little ( 1 cube will do )

How to :

Pre heat oven at 100 degrees C.

Except the milk, mix everything together and knead well.

When everything has mixed properly, add a little milk to mix some more. It will turn into a sticky paste ... do not do anything other than just to bear with it.

Just make sure there are no dry lumps of maida ... the batter should not be very smooth.

Line a muffin tray. Scoop out a spoonful of mix and gently drop it into the slots in the tray.

Bake at 100 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. ( I always bake cookies and muffins at a lower temp to be on the safe side ... have not tried baking at high temp like a pro yet). :-)

Brush a little butter on the top of the muffins and bake for 5 more mins.

Remove and cool. They will harden a little after cooling.



Wonderful muffins ready in a jiffy! They were airy inside, not too chewy, not too dry. Perfect! :-)

They are best when warm ... so run them in the MW for a while before serving.

Enjoy with tea or coffee.
Since it is already very hot here, we had it with tall glasses of cold coffee. :-)



Well ... for those who have been asking me to add something new to my Travelogue, I finally got to post a very short trip and a wee bit longer trip there. :-)

TC folks !!

Whole Wheat & Jaggery Biscuits

What with so many wonderful looking cookies being made everywhere, I have decided to call these biscuits as they are not as thickish or crumbly as real cookies.

When I made and posted these, I got a mail from my regular reader D ( the shy girl is not comfortable with her her name here :-) ) asking me if she could use jaggery instead of sugar.
As I am not so rigid about cooking and exact recipes, I told her she can and asked her to go ahead and give it a try.

She did ... and wrote back that the cookies turned out very dry ... and something was wrong.

I myself had not made them with jaggery, so thought of trying them out myself first. So in the midst of packing and preparations last month ( it is another thing we never made that trip ... everything went against our plans ... sudden work load, then ill health, then the fog playing spoilsport and flights getting canceled in the last minute ... everything :-( ... all in all we rescheduled bookings and tickets thrice ! ... and still ended in a dud) , I baked them one morning and sent her the snaps.

She told me the snaps helped ... she got the idea what went wrong. I do not know if she ever made them again ... just hope she did and was successful ... else my posting recipes will be of no worth.

The one thing I have found out ( am speaking for myself ) is that when baking, you cannot use the minimum of shortening ... say butter / cooking oil, etc. and still hope to get a wonderful result.

True, baking ... or healthy baking ... does use less oil or fat ... especially if you are using it as a substitute to deep frying. But baking tends to dry stuff . So you cannot go completely minimalistic if you want that moist or perfect bake.

Well .... that's my take. Baking experts may feel differently. :-)

Here's the recipe.


Need : 1 and a half cup of whole wheat flour, a little cooking oil ... around 1 and 1/2tbsp, 1 tsp baking powder, around 5 tbsp jaggery granules, milk ... around half a medium cup ( use just enough to knead the dough ), 2-3 drops of vanilla essence.

If you want you can use powdered jaggery too ... or if you have the big sized lumps, break them down to granules.

I purposely did not melt the jaggery in the milk as I wanted bits of it in a bite. If you want to melt and use ... go ahead.

How to : Knead everything together to make a dough like we make for rotis.



Take a medium sized ball of dough and roll out a thickish circle ... like a big roti. You can use dry flour to dust when rolling.

Prick with a fork all over ( this way the biscuits won't puff up ).

Cut with a cookie cutter ... or any small sized bottle cap will do.

Oil a baking tray or use a baking sheet.

Arrange the cut out biscuits on it.



Pre heat oven at 160 degrees C and bake in the same temperature for around 20 minutes.



Done! :-)




I had made a batch in a muffin tray ... the one on the top is one of them ... slightly thickish.

These biscuits were pretty good ... not to mention healthy ... but not very soft and did not crumble on breaking.
In fact, on a bite, they broke into a half ... that tough ... which I'll attribute to the jaggery.

So the next time I made them, I added a pinch of baking soda ... and it did make a difference.

These stay well for about 2 to 3 days ... maybe more ... I just never got 'round to keeping them very long. Very healthy ... these are great as a snack to munch on anytime ... or with some spicy ginger tea.

Enjoy !! :-)


A few more of my cookies / biscuits / scones
Coffee Cookies
Onion Cookies / Crackers
Whole Wheat Eggless Banana Cookies
Cakes & Rose Cookies
Fruity Scone / Cookies with Strawberry Compote

Rum Cake with Fruits & Nuts

When I came across this wonderful Fruit & Nut cake in Sunita's beautiful blog, I knew I had to try making it. So inspite of not blogging for a while .... oh ... am not away from the kitchen though ... just don't feel like making the beautiful dishes always a subject and train the camera on them till they fall flat or go cold with disappointment.
With a little cold here finally, hot dishes & soups are being enjoyed real hot .... from the stove or oven to the plates and famished tummies. :-)

A small disappointment did rile me for a while ... our travel plans were cancelled .... no, postponed ... for hubby's work. :-(

And my very original Instant Moong Dal Halwa , which has been made and loved by a lot of readers .... both bloggers and non bloggers equally .... showering me with mails and comments .... which has made me very proud of my recipe and happy too ... is unhappy.
A blogger who has appreciated it here has gone and used another blogger's comment space to call it yuck (without trying to make it). :-(
I really don't know what to make of it.

But such little things are not going to put me down.
The first issue is solved ... I have been promised a trip soon .... so am happy. :-)
And I am deluged with visiting friends and family now that the hols have started .... best friend D is here from Dubai ... my KG friend is visiting next with wife .... hubby found a long lost friend from college ... so the days are rushing by in a blur.



I was very excited at the thought of baking a rum cake. Back from a Book Fair, with two huge bundles of books in my arms, I was a spectacle ... well ... the guys in the shop looked real amused ... when buying rum from a shop ( hubby's presence did not help much ). ;-)
I went through Sunita's recipe and for a change did not want to experiment or deviate too much.
Just made a few changes more out of necessity than anything else ...

* I used maida / APF instead of atta / whole wheat flour.
* I reduced the amount of eggs to three.
* I used plain white sugar.
* I added a little vanilla essence lest my veggie ( ok ... eggitarian ) hubby gets a 'smell'.
* I had no nutmeg ... so could not add it.
* Ground a few cloves ( that I put in the sugar jar ) with the sugar.
* And since I tend to keep my cake batters a little too liquid, I added some Cranberry juice ( that was the only juice I had at home then) to make it more liquid.

I have stuck to my usual measurements of a cake ... still the batter was voluminous ... I made two cakes and six cupcakes out of these measurements.

Visit Sunita's World for the original recipe and some great snaps.

Need :

2 cups maida / apf ,
3 eggs,
1/2 tsp baking soda,
2 tbsp baking powder,
1 and 1/2 cup sugar,
a few drops of vanilla essence ( do not use too much ...
... or you can skip it too if you are used to eggs ) ,
a few cloves and cinnamon,
dark rum,
8 tbsp cooking oil,
zest of one orange and juice of one orange ( I used the same orange ),
dates, walnuts, cashews, black raisins.
Any fruit juice ( if needed ) ... I used a little Cranberry juice.

How to :

Chop or break the fruits and nuts and soak them in a cupful of water and rum in 1:1 ratio ( I used a small soupbowl and soaked them for half an hour).

Then pour them into a pan and cook on low heat till they are almost dry. Cool.
Add the orange zest ( added the juice and pulp too ) and keep aside.

Grind the sugar finely with the cloves and cinnamon.
Mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda together.

Whisk the eggs + oil + sugar + a drop of vanilla essence + 4 tbsp rum with an electric beater or in a mixie.
Add the flour in and mix well.

Pre heat oven at 150 degrees ( I am used to baking cakes at this temperature .... refer Sunita's recipe for her version).

Mix in the dry fruits to the batter.

Grease a cake mould and dust it with a little flour.
Pour in the batter and put to bake.
Do not forget to keep checking ... I often switch off the oven in between for even baking.
Bake till an inserted toothpick or skewer or knife comes out clean.

Sunita advises to cover the mould after a while of baking .... listen to her. :-)
I did not ... and the top got browned very quickly.

But all was not lost ... I decreased the temp. immediately and let it bake in a very low temperature.

Later I tried to pry off the top layer ... it was very thin and came away like an obedient child .... and there was nothing noticable at all.




This turned out to be the most wonderful cake I have ever baked .... too soft .... I pressed a piece with a finger and it slowly rose up again!

And when I bit into it, I was taken back to my childhood .... when Bapi ( Dad ) would get a Fruit cake everytime he went to Calcutta on a bussiness trip. I used to pick out the raisins then .... I still do from other cakes .... but this time I savoured every bit.

I just closed my eyes and was back home in the chilling winters .... holidays ..... school chapel .... a singing choir ... the nativity scene .... friends yelling out "Haaaaaappy Holidays!" .... Sisters smiling indulgently when we asked for an extra piece of chocolate cake from the Convent .... and asking us to be good in the holidays and not to trouble our parents .....

Oh! I can go on and on and on .....



Instead .... here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful and Happy New Year 2010 !!

Stay well ... stay warm ... stay happy ... and savour the love and happiness of your dear ones around you!! :-)

Good cheer to all of you .... c'ya all soon!

Eggless Apple & Walnut Cake

When I went through my blog recently, I saw that I have baked quite a few eggless fruit cakes. And by fruit cakes I mean I have used fresh fruits.

Baking has been a challenge for me ... always. It goes against my experimentive nature. I love to play with stuff ... go beyond rigidity. So going by exact measures, exact proportions, exact temperatures .... nah ... is not for me. And to make things worse ... I hate reading or following cook books. I just don't have the patience.

Besides, I do not like anybody telling me what to do ... even if it is a cookbook. :-)

But then ... I love to eat cakes. And to bake them too. So I started baking them. Perfected my Coffee Cake .... the family's favourite now.

Mustered the courage and baked Eggless Coffee Cake too. Successfully.

And then started with fruits. The Eggless Pineapple cake was a huge first time success. So was the Eggless Mango Cake. I baked an Eggless Banana cake too.

I was on a roll. No complex recipes ... as with all my other recipes. I loved the smell of the fruit in the cakes ... which is why I never tried to use eggs in them ... and consequently did not need any vanilla essence. Loved every one of them.

This time there were a few apples in the fridge. This was the first time I tried making an Eggless Apple Cake. Had some walnuts at hand ... so chopped them up and added to the batter. And purposely kept the apple's age old partner ... the cinnamon ... away.

If you want the complete recipe, just go to the other fruit cakes that I have mentioned here ... and substitute the used fruit with pureed apple. And use Apple juice in place of the used liquid.



But there were some minor accidents while making it ... so the results were slightly different from the usual other cakes.
No ... do not get me wrong. It tasted heavenly. But I am writing down the mistakes more for myself than for the log of the recipe.

Firstly .... I eyeballed ... as usual. But overconfidence does not always work.

Then, the cup of vegetable oil I was using slipped from my hands .... resulting in too much of oil for too little flour. So the cake turned out a little too moist.

Next, I measured the sugar only after grinding it. Baaaaaad idea .... where was my mind? The cake turned out to be toooo sweet. But a plus .... the crust was very crisp. You win some, you lose some.

And used a tablespoon for measuring the baking powder. Result .... a cracked cake. I know ... I should be the one who should be called that. :-p

And last, but not the least ... I added vanilla essence.
So what? So this.
Every bite tasted awesome! But only till you asked "Guess the flavour?".
It was somewhere between mango / chocolate ( I guess the crispy crust ) / what not ... anything but apple or vanilla.



So there folks ... am convinced that am going bonkers. So decided to give myself a break. The cake was just as awesome as the snaps are ... believe me. But I guess I was just plain lucky.

But if I try anything new again, am positive I'll ruin something far more important than the cake. ;-)

So am taking a break. I promise to return with some great but simple recipes again .... soon. Maybe by Christmas .... or early next year.

Till then ... I'll have some fun, family, friends and of course food time for myself !! :-)
Even if it is not a 'Summer holiday' .... I still feel like singing " no more cooking for a week or two ...". :-)

Take care all !! :-)

Whole Wheat Eggless Banana Cookies

( Vegans can use soy milk or plain lukewarm water.)

Am into cookie baking big time these days. Both sweet and savory.
Mostly sweet since the man of the house is starting normal routine these days.
That means going out ... mostly to office. That means carrying homemade stuff ... no outside food.
That means home made snacks.
It took me some time and brain wracking as to what snack could be taken from home that is packed in the morning and will stay good enough till evening.

And then decided biscuits are the best option. So am baking cookies / biscuits these days.


These cookies are healthy .... using whole wheat flour and very little cooking oil. They turned out perfect and are great to carry along with.

I threw in a handful of dry raisins too. But while baking they puffed up like small balloons ... and I realised my mistake. The cookies were too dainty to hold their weight. Next time will run them in a blender / chopper first and then mix into the dough.

I was so fascinated with the sugar not melting in the oven heat when I made these cookies the last time that I went overboard and threw in a lot of sugar this time. Loved the crunch in every bite. :-)




Need : 1 and a half cup of whole wheat flour, 1 pureed ripe banana,
a little cooking oil ... around 1 tbsp ( only a little for the dough to stay moist), 1 tsp baking powder,
a few tbsp sugar ... around 3 tbsp ... (I did not want them to be too sweet), some more sugar to spread on the cookies, milk ... around half a medium cup ( use just enough to knead the dough ).

I forgot to add vanilla essence ... and it turned out to be a boon. The mild flavour of the banana would not have been evident otherwise.

How to : Knead everything together to make a dough like we make for rotis.

Take a medium sized ball of dough and roll out a thickish circle ... like a big roti. You can use flour to dust when rolling.

Prick with a fork all over ( this way the cookies won't puff up ).

Sprinkle some sugar all over and pat it down.

Cut with a cookie cutter ... or any small sized bottle cap will do.

Oil a baking tray or use a baking sheet. Arrange the cookies on it.

Pre heat oven at 160 degrees C and bake in the same temperature for around 20 minutes.




Done!

See you all after Diwali friends. Have a great time this festival of lights !!

Happy Diwali !! :-)