Pooojaaa's desire to make Eggless walnut brownies for her husband !

 A cousin, one day dropped in a message " Hey ! I hogged in a lot of brownies and now am driven to make the eggless ones for my husband. Recipe Please. "

A simple message yet shows a lot of her love for husband and yes for food too that indirectly fulfills her desire to please her husband. Lovely na !.. For me it is best way to show a person how much you love when you try your hand in kitchen and at the end of a tiresome day, just pop up in front of your loved one with a lovely dish in your hand a sweet smile on your face.
And still amazing a feeling it is when that loved one bites it and you see that first expression of happiness. And later you see how happy and engrossed he/she is in finishing the whole thing . :-)
Eggless Choco - Walnut brownies : [Makes 8 pieces]
Ingredients: 
Dark chocolate - 250 gms, chopped
butter - 1/2 cup, softened
castor sugar - 1/4 cup
Maida or all purpose flour - 1 cup
soda bi-carbonate - 1/4tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Curd - 1/4 cup, beaten
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Walnuts - 1/2 cup, chopped
Method :
1. Take a  6 inch tin and grease it and line it with butter paper. Keep aside.
2.Sift the flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate together and keep it aside.
3. Put the dark chocolate in microwave proof bowl and microwave on HIGH for 1 min and more if needed. 
    I melted it through a double boiler method. Boil water in a container and put on top of it a microwave
    [borosil] vessel and put chocolate in it. The steam of boiling water will melt it.
4.In another bowl,  beat butter and sugar together  till soft and creamy. Add to this the melted chocolate and
   mix well. Now put in it curd , vanilla essense, flour mix and walnuts. Fold things well but lightly.
5.Pre-heat microwave at 200 degrees and  bake for 10-15 minutes or till you feel its done by inserting a
   tooth pick. Remove and let it cool
6. When needed, microwave it for a minute and serve with ice cream, chocolate sauce drizzle and yes a lot
    of chopped nuts. :)))))

MY desi RED BULL .

Summers are really energy draining. In a day, with in an hour of drive to your office in morning, you might feel that Ohhh man ! I don't have energy.  Frankly speaking this is my daily story in this season.And the ultimate solution to this is MOM or GRANDMA. In my case, both played a vital role. The moment I entered home after my school, I had only one thing to say, "Ma! No energy and no freshness" . Then popped in my nani one day with a glass of this golden drink and guess what since then till today, I am grateful to my nani. She used to call it GOL NU PANI and so do we. But translating it to english or giving it a fancy name, is something I should do  ;-) . So I delightfully christen this slender glass of energy as MY DESI RED BULL :-) . It definitely gives you wings - wings of energy and freshness in this scorching heat.

Mom and nani had traditional ways of making it. They used to put all the ingredients together in a jug and just keep it in refrigerator. The ingredients took their own sweet time to dissolve on their own for hours . But in this fast life, I don't think I or anyone of us has that sweet time and patience like these ingredients earlier had :). So here is my instant method for making it.

Ingredients:

Jaggery - 100 gms
Lemon juice - of 1 lemon
Salt - 3/4 - 1 tsp
Iced water- 1 ltr or as per sweetness you want you can reduce or increase the amount of water.
                  What I do is, just put in 2-3 trays of ice :-)
Regular water - 1/2 cup

Method :

1. In a small sauce pan, put jaggery, lemon juice, salt and regular water. Boil for 2-3 minutes or till the jaggery gets dissolved.

2. Pour this in the jug and pour in it iced water. Give a quick stir. 

Yey ! Its ready :)

I can bet you will not find such a healthy energy drink anywhere. Its lots of iron and vitamin C. Apt for the scorching  heat :)
         

A SMALL ONE BUT AN ACHIEVEMENT !

It feels great when out of no where, the website you have been running and the culinary skills that you possess get a recognition by  a fashion magazine ! Amazed I am ! Delighted it feels ! ........ And the feeling to see your own self and your food web page on a Fashion magazine like FEMINA ! no word to express that.

Yes ! This year's april brought a lot of success for this webpage as it was chosen to be featured in the national issue of Femina. Don't know how to thank you all and how much to thank you all for being so supportive and for being  a part of this webpage.

I started learning to cook when I was 13, helping mom in kitchen and learning to roll out chapatis from her. They were all different maps of different sizes but one fine day I made a good round roti like the earth and not like any map of the country on this earth. Slowly and steadily she taught me much more than chapatis. The time came, I entered my college and don't know when but something inside me told me  "heli, are u just going to roll out rotis and make regular meals? No ! y don't v experiment on something new "

Thats how the actual journey began. It took little efforts to convince mom that Hey mom! I m going to experiment on new dishes and thats how going to waste ingredients and money spent on them. :)

You all know a mom is a mom. As expected, she too reacted a little and was like do you know what are u asking for? . People don't have food to eat and you are sweetly asking for a permission to waste this same thing called food. And guess what ? Shamelessly I was grinning on her words :). But later a little she was convinced. But a little !

So I decided to experiment only in afternoons. The best and well thought reason for this was " Heli! Mom goes to sleep in afternoon. So If I start cooking when she goes to sleep and finish off by the time she is back, IT IS GOING TO BE FUN. Really cunning thoughts they were to save my own sweet self , if the dish turns out to be waste. Practically daily, I would do that.  And happily have thrown thousands of hard breads, burnt breads, burnt cakes, totally badly cooked curries, etc in to the dustbin. And that too before she wakes up :) .

The more amazing part is that It became a routine for all ...ehhe... If I do not speak anything after she wakes up and don't discuss anything with my sibling and dad, It was understood that the dish was a sheeeeeer wastage. And If I jump out of the kitchen, seeking my brother Chirayu to be a scapegoat and try the dish, That means it was well make or atleast edible.

At every front in life, u grow and expand ur horizon . Soon, The number of scapegoats increased. It was chirayu, my sister aditi, my dad and mom. Seeing a little success at food , I started finding more and more scapegoats. hehhehhe... Now they are no more a scapegoat, they are lovers of what all I cook . They are the ones who made it easy for me to blog about my skills. They are the ones who gave me a different sort of motivation to turn the blog into a website and reach masses. 

And see what happened. My website found its way to fashion magazine FEMINA. Or I must say Femina came to my webpage. Actually I feel both the ways of writing are right.

Thank you so much guys for tolerating me and my meals in early times.
And yeah Thank you even more for loving what I cook

ANGOORI THANDAI MOUSSE !!

 Yes ! This is what was served to some very close family people on the dinner last sunday .

ANGOORI THANDAI MOUSSE : [makes 2 ]

It is one of the best desserts to be served in hot summers. Totally soothing experience.

Ingredients:

For Thandai paste:

Cashewnuts - 5
Almonds - 5
Pistachios - 10
Khuskhus - 1tbsp
Melon seeds - 1 tbsp
Fennel seeds or saunf - 3 tbsp
Cinnamon stick - 1/2 inch
Pepper corns - 4-5
Ellaichi or whole green cardamom - 4-5
Rose petals - 8-10

For Mousse -
Freshly made cottage cheese - 1 cup, freshly made and blended to fine paste in a  blender
Whipped cream - 1/2 cup
White chocolate - 1/4 cup, melted one
Sugar - as per the need
Milk - if need to bring it to a right consistency

For Angoori Rasgulla :
Milk - 200 ml
Citric acid - as needed to curdle the milk
Maida - 1 tsp
Eating soda - less than a pinch. Just a hint like
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup or little more

Method :

1. For angoori Rasgulla, boil the milk and curdle it with citric acid. Remove the water from the paneer totally and start kneading it into a soft dough by adding maida and soda. Once soft, make small balls of it. Now for sugar syrup, heat the sugar and water together to make 1/2 strand syrup. Once achieved, put in it the balls and cook till the swell to double the size and the syrup becomes of 1 strand. Remove and cool it totally. Chill it in refrigerator.

2. For thandai paste, soak all the ingredient overnight in the warm water. Next day paste it into a fine paste and keep it aside.

3. For the mousse, blend the paneer well into a smooth textured mousse. Fold in it chocolate and whipped cream. Add sugar powder if needed. Now mix in this the thandai paste and refrigerate for more than 8 hours.

4. Take a glass, pipe in it the mousse first . Put in 2-3 angoori rasgullas and again pipe the mousse on top of it. Now garnish with silver balls and glazed cherries. Serve chilled.

Hot apple cinnamon pudding with chilled apple butter compote

 Sometimes I really think that its always better to put your heart and soul in what all you do and whenever you do. Delicacies are not to be made everyday but one thing is certain that whenever you make a delicacy, it should make your day.

Hot apple cinnamon pudding with chilled apple butter compote.

Ingredients:

Apple cinnamon pudding:
Apple - 1/2 cup, peeled and finely chopped
Maida -1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon powder -  a pinch
Caster sugar -  a little less than 1/2 cup

Apple butter compote :

Butter - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon  powder - a small pinch
Apple - 1/2 cup, peeled and finely chopped
Sugar - 2 tbsp

Method :

1. For making compote, heat the butter in pan and add to this the chopped apple. Cook it till a little soft. Add sugar in it and cook agail till it gets totally soft and puree like in consistency. Now sprinkle cinnamon powder and again mix well. Once done, transfer in other bowl and refrigerate till its nice and chilled.

2. For pudding, whisk butter and sugar in a bowl till butter not only softens but turns in to liquidy ghee like consistency. Now seive in this rest all the dry ingredients and beat a little again. Fold in it the apple and pour this is small muffin tins till 3/4th level.  Now bake in a  preheated oven at 200 degrees for 12- 15 minute.

3. For serving, take a clear and clean glass . Put in it a thick layer of compote and on top of it place a hot pudding. Garnish with a strawberry fan and serve.

CHOLA DHOKLI NU SHAAK

I am really happy with the technological advancement in this age. Just sitting at home, I can keep in touch with my cousins who are staying miles away and chat with them as if we sitting together and chatting over a coffee.

Pooja S (the one settled in China) today came up with a request that she wants to have a Gujarati dinner at her place on 15th with few of her folks. And as usual, I promised I ll put up a nice curry for you on my blog.

Chola is basically the Indian name of Black eyed beans and Dhokli is a boiled version of masala roti (putting it in the simplest possible language).
I am putting the recipe but sorry I don't have a picture of it.
Ingredients:

Oil - 2-3 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Ajwain - 1/2 tsp
Bay leaf - 1
Onion- 1, big sized, finely chopped
Garlic - 1 tbsp , finely chopped
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Green chili - 2, vertically halved
Tomato - 1, big sized, diced into medium sized dices
Water - 2 1/2 cups
Turmeric - 1 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp ( optional but would taste good )
Kokum -2
Salt - to taste
Fresh corriander - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Jaggery - 3-4 tbsp
Sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Fresh coconut - 3-4 tbsp, grated
Chola - 1 full cup (This is measurement of already soak  Chola for 8 hours or you can soak them for 1 1/2
                            to 2 really hot water and drain the water later)

For Dhokli: (makes one rotla for dhokli)
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Ajwain - a pinch, crush between palms and add
Salt - to taste
Turmeric- 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 tsp
Water to knead a dough

Method:

1. For dhokli, mix all the ingredients except water and make a thepla like dough. Roll into a moderate thepla like thickness and cut into diamonds (just like we do in sakkarpara).

2. In a pressure cooker oil and let it heat.Add in it jeera, ajwain and bay leaf. Let it all leave flavours. Once done, fry in it onion and let it soften. Put in it green chilies and stir.Now, add the garlic and ginger. Fry these well so that all the moisture evaporates. Now add in it the red chili powder, turmeric and garam masala. Before this dry masala starts burning, add the tomatoes and keep stirring. They should be well softened and masala should be fried well.

3. Now in this masala, add the sesame seeds and coconut and stir. Pour in this the 3 cups of water and bring it to a boil. While it boils add in this the kokum and jaggery. Stir and once it boils, add in this the dhokli and bring it to a boil. Put in this, the corriander and stir.

4. Now add the salt and boil it till a dhokli little cooked. Dont stir it much. Put the chola in and pressure cook on a low flame for 2 whistles. Once done , turn of gas. Now when the steam releases totally, open the cooker and stir. Now, boil it a little so water gets soaked and curry get a little more thicker and creamier.
It should be a nice creamy liquid. Not thick one. If you feel its thick, you can add water and boil.

Serve hot.

It will be a little sweet, salty and a little spicy curry.

White Chocolate Cigars with Apple creme filling and Crisp praline wafer

 Its such a fun to just enter into the kitchen with a blank mind and suddenly sense some idea on seeing one single ingredient in the refrigerator.
Got up to see what can I do with what all I ve and I ended up making this.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CIGARS WITH APPLE CREME FILLING AND CRISP PRALINE WAFER:

Now for Cigar what you need is

Melted White cocolate  - as needed [I took approximately 50 gms]
Butter - 1 tbsp
Apple - 5 tbsp, peeled and finely chopped

For praline water, Sugar - 3 tbsp, Cinnamon powder- a pinch

For Dark chocolate drizzle -2 tbsp melted with 1tsp milk and a pinch of coffee.


Method:

1. Take a square sheet of plastic and make a cylinder by folding it. Put a cellotape on outer layer around it to hold the cylindrical shape. Now, start pouring melted chocolate in it and gently roll it. Cover with chocolate totally well and put in a plate and keep in freezer to freeze it.

2. In a pan, heat butter and put in it apple and cook till creamy and nice pasty in consistency. Remove from gas and add in it 1 tsp of melted white chocolate. Let it cool. Fill this mixture in the piping bag.

3. Remove cigars from freezer. They should be crisp and tight to touch. Put them vertically in a plate and pipe the apple filling in it generously. Again refrigerate these for atleast half an hour.

4. For praline, heat the sugar and cinnamon powder till sugar turns into nice red caramel. Pour on a plate and let it cool. Crush it in a mixer and make powder. Now put a round stencil on a butter paper and dust the praline dust on it in a thick layer. Remove stencil. Microwave this butter paper till sugar melts. Remove and let it cool till it becomes crisp. Softly remove the butter paper and get the wafer ready.

5. For plating up, Put the wafer at the bottom layer and put the cigar on it. Drizzle the nice dark chocolate and coffee sauce on it.