Marbel Cake...TGI Friday special Snacks...!!!

                                                       

                                                Marbel Cake..!!!!



When for the first time, I saw the picture of  the marbel cake in a cook book I was totally surprised and thought that it requires an extra-ordinary baking skill to create something like this.But after reading the recipe, I understood that if I could follow each and every step with a little care then I too could easily prepare this beautiful cake.
After doing some research on the net about the recipe of this cake I found there are multiple recipes available but more or less the basic recipe and the result are almost same.Different people used different combinations to get the marbel effect, like vanilla - chocolate, chocolate - strawberry and few of them created the marbel effect using two diffetent food colours also. I really loved all of them.
 
I opted an easier recipe with vanilla - chocolate combination and made this for today's evening snacks.The result was really good .It made both my daughter and husband happy.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Cake Flour: 200 gm
• Butter:200gm
• Powdered Sugar:200gm
• Baking Powder:1/2 tsp
• Salt:1/4 tsp
• Eggs:2
• Full cream milk/whole milk/Evaporated Milk:90ml
• Vanilla Essence:1 tsp
• Cocoa Powder:1 tbsp

Process:

• Preheat your oven at 180 degrees celcius. Grease a baking pan and dust the inside with flour; tap to remove the excess. 
• At first put all the dry ingredients ,except sugar and the cocoa powder together and mix well.
• Then take another bowl, add the butter and the sugar.Butter should be kept at room tmperature.
•  Beat the butter on medium speed for 3 minutes, add the sugar, and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs, beating for 1 minute after each addition. if the batter curdles or stays curdled do not get worried. It will be fine. 
• Now add the vanilla.
• Reduce to low speed and alternately add the flour (1/3 of the whole) and the milk (1/2 of the whole). Repeat it twice and end with the rest of the amount of the flour.
• Now divide the batter into two portions.

• I divided it into 1:3 proportion.
• Then add the cocoa powder in the 3/4 th portions of the batter and mix well.
• Your Chocolate batter and white batter both are now  ready.

• Now take the baking tray.At first layer it with half of the white batter. 
• Then add the whole chocolate batter on it.
• Add rest of the white batter on it.
• And swirl it with a knife or fork to bring the marbel effect.
• Bake it 35-40 minutes at 180 degree celcius until a toothpick inserted into it comes out dry.
• Remove it from oven,Cut and serve.

                                                      Enjoy Your Food...!!!!!      


 

Prawn Paneer Pulao...!!..In Goan Style..!!

Goan,Malwani and Konkani Cuisine are almost similar to each other and heavenly delicious. Goan Cuisine consists of regional foods popular in Goa, spread across the India's west coast along the Arabian Sea. Seafood, coconut milk and the local spices are main ingredients of Goan cuisine.Honestly my mouth is watering while I am talking about the goan or malwani foods,But sometimes we restrict ourselves to eat the malwani foods ,specially in Mumbai due to its very rich spiciness.But undoubtedly its flavour is just awesome.

So,this time I thought of preparing some goan pulao at my home in my own style and by reducing its spiciness.And the result was extremely good.We enjoyed the freshness of the prawns ,the flavours of curry leaves and the coconut milk,the non oily,non greasy rice without  spiciness.I have also added paneer with it to make it more delicious.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice: 1 1/2 cups
• Fresh Prawns(medium/small sized):250 gms(head and tail less)
• Paneer:200 gms(cut in cubes)
• Ghee:2 table spoon
• Bay leaves:2
• Green Cardamons:4
• Cloves:6-8
• Cinnamon Stick:1 -2
• Onion:2 (thinly sliced) one is for making Barista (fried) and other is for cooking
• Turmeric Powder:1/2 tsp
• Lemon Juice:1 tsp
• Green chillis:2-4(optional as per the taste)
• Coconut Milk:4-5 table spoon
• Salt/Sugar: As per taste
• Fresh curry leaves:4-6
• Coriander leaves : Fresh chopped for garnishing

Process:

1.  At first soak  the rice in three cups of water for about twenty minutes. Drain and keep aside.
2. Soak the paneer cubes in luke warm water for 15 minutes with little salt and slightly fry them till little brown and keep aside.
3. Shell, de-vein and wash prawns very well.Marinate them with little salt and turmeric powder and slightly fry them until pink and keep them aside.
4. Fry the curry leaves in one tsp of oil and keep them aside.
5. Thinly slice the onions.
6. Make Barista with half of them.
7. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions.
8. Keep stirring the onions so that they are evenly brown. Cook until the onions are light golden in color and take out the onions immediately because by the time you get all the onion out it will get a little darker. 
9.  Do not over cook because if the onions get even slightly burnt, they leave a bitter taste.
10. Then heat ghee in a thick-bottomed pan.
11. Add bay leaves, cardamons, cloves, cinnamon .
12. Once they crackle add rest of the sliced onion and sauté till pink.
13. Add three cups of water, turmeric powder, lemon juice and green chillies.
14. Bring it to a boil and add rice.
15. Cook for a minute and add prawns and coconut milk.
16. Season with salt and sugar. Stir light. 
17. Stir till rice absorbs all the water and then cover it with a lid and cook it on low heat till rice  cooked.
18. While the rice almost absorb 3/4 th of the water add the paneer cubes and mix carefully.
19. Add the fried curry leaves ,mix and trun of the gas.
20. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and barista.
21. You may add scrapped coconut while serving.

                                                      Enjoy Your Food..!!!!

Rainbow Cake...!!!

                            

                

                                           

The word "rainbow" itself  has something which is enough to attract a kid even us, the adult people also. With this word , don't you  remember some sweet memories, the beautiful nature...something that could refresh and refresh  you again. Oh I do...I have very sweet, beautiful and refreshing memories with this word. I could remember that in my childhood , I loved to draw rainbow, always used to pray to God to do something so that I could see a rainbow in the blue sky. And now I see the same expression, excitement in my daughter. And you know, she doesn't want to believe that the rainbow has only seven colors, she used to say me," no mamma , it has loads of colours" and starts to draw a rainbow in her drawing book atleast with 15-20 colours .I understand this is childhood...this is imagination...this is the refreshment...this is the joy...!

So, in this way, sometimes we could also add some colors in our daily boring life too. I thought, if only drawing a rainbow could make my little one so happy, why shouldn't I try to do something so that she could enjoy her food also and in this respect I must mention that this is the only thing for which most of the time I am used to fight with her. Meanwhile I saw a wonderful recipe of rainbow cake and immediately thought to try this. And unexpectedly it was wonderful . My daughter not only enjoyed it to eat but also she shared it with her friends. I was fully satisfied after making this. So, now I am going to share this.
Before I write this recipe, I want to inform that, as during this preparation I emphasized only on colouring and therefore I used a simple cake mix for this instead of using the materials from scratch. But if you want to do from scratch you should go for this.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Eggless Cake Mix(I used Pillsburry vanilla cake mix)
• Baking tray
• Food colors: I used red, green, sky blue and pink(you may use whatever you like)
• Mixing bowls:5( 1 large and 4 small, as I have used only 4 colours)

Preparation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the direction written on the backside of the packet, I at first prepared its batter using melted butter, milk, vanilla essence, powdered sugar in the large mixing bowl.

Then divided it into 4 equal parts and poured them in 4 different bowls.

Then only add 1 drop  each different colours into each  of the bowls.(amount of the colour depends on the amount of the batter,drops may be increased or decreased).Mix the color well with the batter.

Then preheat your oven in 180 degree C for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile take the baking tray.

Grease it with some butter.

Now add the coloured mixture one by one in the tray.

You will wonder to see that the different coloured batters are not mixing with each other.

Then put the tray inside the oven.

Bake it until a toothpick inserted into the cake, comes out dry.

Let it cool for sometime

Remove it from the tray carefully and you will be surprised and delightful again after you cut the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                        Enjoy Your Food..!

 

 

                                                                        


                                               

Shahi Tukda...!!! Double Ka Mitha...!!

                          Shahi Tukra...Shahi Tukda...Double Ka Mitha...Bread Mithai...!!!

The Shahi Cuisine or the Mughlai cuisine is a style of cooking developed in the Indian subcontinent by the imperial kitchens of the Mughal Empire. It represents the cooking styles used in North India  (especially Uttar Pradesh and Delhi), Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Indian city of Hyderabad.

The tastes of Mughlai cuisine vary from extremely mild to spicy, and is often associated with a distinctive aroma and the taste of ground and whole spices.The names of the dishes are quite often Persian because  it was the official language of the Mughal court.

However,Shahi Tukda is a Moghlai dessert which actually  is a rich bread pudding with dry fruits, flavored with cardamon.

I prepared it using  loads of dry fuits and minimized the use of sugar and in this way,tried to create a more healthy,less calorie yummilicious dessert,which is best suited after a nice lunch or dinner.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Bread:4-5 Slices
• Deseeded Dates:1 cup
• Almonds :-8-10(blanched,peeled and sliced)
• Pistachios:8-10(blanches.peeled and nicely chopped)
• Milk:4 cups
• Condensed Milk:4-5 table spoon
• Sugar:1/4 cup
• Cardamon Powder:1/2 tsp
• Rose Water:1 tsp
• Ghee:2 table Spoon(only for shallow frying only).
• Few Strands Of Saffron.

Process:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• At first cut the bread slices in desired shapes.
• Then heat 2 table spoon of ghee in pan and shallow fry the breads until crispy and golden in colour.
• Keep them aside in a plate.
• Take a thick bottomed pan and add the milk and in medium flame boil it to make it thick.
• Stir it meanwhile so that it could not stick to the bottom of the pan.
• When the milk starts to boil very well and the condensed milk stir well.
• Then add the cardamon powder  and few stands of saffron and mix.
• Boil the milk until its 1/3 rd is left. Now the rabdi is ready .
• Mix few chopped almonds and pistachios with it.
• Now take each of the fried bread pieces and quickly dip one by one in the hot milk.
• Dont put the fried bread slices into the milk for a long period of time.Dipping shouldnt be more than one minute.
• Then keep the bread slices separately.

• Meanwhile,take the seedless dates and mash it well,add sliced almonds and pistachios and mash again.
• Now make small tikki with your hands using the mixture of the dry fruits and the dates.
• Finally take a serving plate.
• At first add 2-3 table spoons of rabdi on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Then keep a round shaped fried bread piece on it.
• Add a date tikki on the bread and cover it with an another fried bread just like a sandwich.
• Repeat the process similarly with all the bread slices.
• Pour the milk over the breads and serve.
• It can be served hot or chilled too. In that case the prepared rabdi and the milk dipped bread silces should be refrigerated.

 

Niramish Ghugni....Veg Peas Curry...No onion...No Garlic...!!!

       

During my childhood days, I used to see that Maa cooked everything separately for Thamma(My Grandma),as she was a widow and didnt want to eat any non-veg preparation,didnt even touch them. Not only that Maa prepared her food in a different"Unun"(oven),using completely different cooking utensils which are typically used to cook the vegetarian foods only.So,anybody can highly imagine what type of restrictions were there in my family and later when thamma was died,Maa continued  the tradition of cooking the vegetarian dishes  for us very often and nevertheless to tell that the taste was just amazing.

One thing, I highly believe that  A good recipe and the highest quality ingredients can only be transformed into a beautiful dish once it gets the Midus touch of the cook.Similarly,after my repeated trials I cant still bring the wonderful taste of a dish like Maa.It's the magic of her hand,with which only using very small quanity of simple ingredients ,her all the preparations become heavenly deliciuos,specially in case of the purely vegetarian dishes.I have hardly seen her to use garlic except ,chicken or mutton.

Anyways, I followed her recipe to prepare this "ghugni" or "dry green peas curry" on a Friday, which we maintain as a purely vegetarian day at my home. But during the preparation I faced a small problem. Although as per my mom’s recipe I should have used sliced and chopped coconut, but I found it putrid in my fridge and couldn’t  able to use it .So,  I decided to use a little coconut milk in place  of chopped coconut. I ought to mention that the result was surprisingly good and I would like to prepare it again in the same way.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Dry Green Peas: 1 cup

• Potato: 1 (medium,diced)
• Coconut Milk: ½ cup
• Ginger paste: 2 tsp
• Cumin powder: 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds: 1/2tsp
• Bay Leaves:2
• Dry Red Chillis: 2 pieces
• Red chili powder; ½ tsp
• Cloves: 2 pieces
• Cardamons:2-3
• Cinnamon Stick: 1-2
• Garam masala powder: 1/2tsp
• Turmeric Powder:1/3 tsp
• Salt:As per taste
• Sugar: 1/4 th tsp
• Mustard Oil:2-3 tbsp.

Process:

• At first soak the  dry peas at least for 3-4 hours(over night soaking will be much better).Then use a pressure cooker to boil it with water and little salt.Normally in pressure cooker 2 whistles in medium flame are enough to boil the peas.But be careful so that the peas are not over cooked.
• Now drain the excess water,using a strainer.
• Then wash peel and cut the potato in small cubes.

• Now mix the ginger paste and the cumin powder in 1 tbsp of water and keep it aside  for atleast 10 minutes.
• Take a large pan or deep bottom vessel ,add 2 tbsp of  mustard oil ,in medium flame add the whole garam masalas,cinnamon stick,cloves and the cardamons.
• Fry them little for 1-2 minutes.
• When the aroma comes out add the cumin seeds,dry red chilli and the cumin seeds.
• When the cumin seeds start to sputter add the potato cubes.

• Fry them with little turmeric powder and salt until golden brown in colour.
• Now add the mixtyre of the ginger and  the cumin paste.
• At this time, add salt,a pinch of turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
• Mix all the spices very well in medium flame and cook them until the oil starts to release at the sides.

• Now add the boiled peas and mix thoroughly with all the spices.
• Check the seasoning, add little sugar and the coconut milk.
• Let it come to boil, if needed 1/2 cup of water may be used.

• Check whether the potatoes are properly boiled.
• Cook until your desired consistancy,normally ghugni has a medium thick gravy.
• Adjust the sugar and salt .
• Sprinkle little garam masala powder.
• Garnish it with chopped cucumber,carrot,lime juice and dry roasted masala of your choice.
• Serve it with luchi, paratha or naan,even I like it with puffed rice(muri) also.

  

                                                 Enjoy Your Food..!!!