Molten Center Lava Cakes

Molten Center Lava Cakes

·         Chocolate - 4 oz,113 gms

·         Butter - 4 oz,113 gms

·         Eggs – 2

·         Sugar - 1/3 cup

·         All purpose flour - 1/4 cup

·         Butter - for greasing the ramekins

·         Preheat oven to 180C.

·         Melt chocolate in a double boiler OR Microwave it for 2 minutes with 30 second intervals,checking in between.

·         Once the chocolate melts completely,mix in the butter and stir well-let it cool.

·         In a mixing bowl,beat eggs and sugar till light and fluffy.

·         Mix in the chocolate-butter mix and flour and beat well till you get a smooth batter.

·         Butter bottom and sides of your ramekins and pour the batter about 3/4 full.

·         Place the ramekins on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes,shorter for gooey insides and longer for stiff insides.

·         Serve hot with whipped cream or Vanilla ice-cream.

 

Paneer Drum Sticks

Paneer Drum Sticks

·         about 2 cups grated Paneer (200gms)

·         1 inch ginger, peeled and grated

·         3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

·         2-3 green chillies, thinly sliced (or as per taste)

·         2 large potatoes,chopped

·         1 medium red onion, chopped v finely

·         1/2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

·         salt to taste

·         13-16 pieces of baby corn (i used the canned variety since I dont get fresh)

·         2-1/2 tbsp Cornstarch (or you can use cornflour/soyflour etc)

·         about 1/4 cup of all purpose flour (maida)

·         few springs of cilantro/coriander leaves, chopped

1.      Steam the potatoes with the skin. If you desire, you can peel it - I like to retain it for the nutrition value. Once steamed, mash it well and add it along with the rest of the ingredients except all purpose flour.

2.      You should get a thick. tight dough. Too tight, it will be crumbly so add few drop of water. Too soft, you wont be able to shape it into drumsticks. Add more paneer or cornstarch. Make small rounds of the dough. make sure its smooth.

3.      Now pierce the dough round with the thicker end of the baby corn.

4.      Slowly using your hands, shape them into drumsticks. Press down the dough over the baby corn so that the edges smoothens out along the edges of the baby corn - like a cone. Shape them all likewise.

5.      Depending on the amount of dough you use for each drumstick, you will make around 12-16 pieces. Place them in the fridge for some time - like 20 minutes. Though this step is unnecessary, I find that doing it this way before frying not only helps to keep the food intact without disintegrating but also seems to soak up oil less than norm. Remove from the fridge and meanwhile heat some oil for deep frying.

6.      Place the all purpose flour in a plate and dust the lollipop with some flour. Remove excess flour by tapping it gently against your hands.

7.      Now fry the lollipop/drumstick in batches in oil. make sure its evenly browned it all the sides. Too hot a oil will burn the outside faster. Too low, will make it soggy with oil. Med-high should work perfectly.

8.      Drain onto a kitchen/paper towel.

9.      Now serve them hot either with ketchup or with some chilli garlic sauce. You can also use sichuan sauce.

Curd Rice

Well, curd rice has been vaunted to be the ultimate 'comfort food'. Well, it is comfortable to eat, especially if you like curd a lot :)

• Cook rice, and while cooking use a little bit excess water. You want the rice to be as mashed up as possible. To serve as an indicator, the usual amount we take in cooking rice is twice the rice. 2 cups of water for 2 cups of rice. Use 3+ cups here instead, per each cup of rice. 
• Heat oil/ghee, fry your usual motley mixture - mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chillies, urang dal, grated carrots, green chillies, ginger, cumin seeds etc etc - what all that spark your imagination right at that point.
• Add this fried motley mixture along with curd with the rice and thoroughly mix it up.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Eat till you feel comfortable enough!

Tomato Rice

Ingredients:

Boiled rice
Tomatoes
Cooking oil
Mustard
Curry leaves
Salt, Chilly powder and Turmeric powder
Coriander leaves
For Paste: Ginger, Garlic, Cardamom, Cinnamon,  Clove

Preparation:

1. Make a paste out of ginger, garlic and the spices together.
2. Chop tomatoes and keep aside
3. Heat oil, fry mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the paste. Fry till the aroma rises
4. Add chopped tomatoes, salt, chilly powder and turmeric.
5. Stir well, and keep on flame until well cooked.
6. Once cooked, remove from flame and mix the boiled rice thoroughly.

Serve hot!
:)

Tender Coconut Pudding

Tender Coconut Pudding

Ingredients

• Tender Coconut, fresh- scopped from 2 coconuts
• Tender coconut water- 1 cup, to melt agar-agar
• Agar-Agar or China Grass strands- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 2 cups
• Condensed milk- 1/2 cup or depending upon your sweet level

Preparation

• Scoop out the tender coconut from 2 coconuts and puree it in a blender, keep aside.
• In a saucepan, pour 1 cup tender coconut water and add agar-agar to it.
• Heat the saucepan and let the agar-agar melt completely.
• In the meantime, heat milk and condensed milk in another saucepan over medium heat. Let it come to a boil.
• To the boiled milk and condensed milk, add the melted agar-agar, combine well.
• Remove from the flame and let it cool down for at least 5 minutes.
• After the mixture has cooled down (and not before, because the milk will curdle otherwise) add the pureed tender coconut to the cooled milk mixture and mix everything well.
• Pour the mixture into a cake pan or stainless steel pan.
• Keep the pudding at first in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until it begins to set.
• After that remove the pudding from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator.
• Using a knife gently cut the pudding and serve it in dessert bowls.
• You could granish the pudding with almonds, cashew nuts etc.

Source: http://www.thasneen.com/cooking/tender-coconut-pudding/

Eggless Chocolate cake with Mocha Icing aka Chocolate Muffins! :)

It's Feb. 21. Mummy's bday. And we got thinking. Why not home-made cake this time?
And I began searching for recipes. All thanks to http://www.divyascookbook.com/, we have this extremely delicious, finger-licking good chocolate cake. The same recipe, if microwaved for 10 min, instead of 8 gives you awesome chocolate muffins!

Here goes:
Eggless Chocolate cake with Mocha Icing
Ingredients
1. Maida/Flour-1 cup
2. Milkmaid - 1/2 tin
3. Milk - 1/2 cup
4. Butter - 1/2 cup
5. Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 tbsp
6. Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup
7. Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
8. Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
9. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp


For the Mocha Glaze Icing
1. Cocoa powder - 4 tbsp
2. Softened butter - 4 tbsp
3. Coffee - 1 tsp
4. Icing sugar - 1 cup-sifted
5. Walnuts/Cashew/Badam - 2-3 tbsp,crushed
6. 1 packet jems

Method
For the Cake
1. Sift maida with cocoa powder,baking soda and baking powder-keep aside.
2. Mix sugar and butter,beat till fluffy.
3. Add milkmaid,beat well.
4. Add milk,vanilla essence and maida.
5. Beat well for 3-4 minutes till the mixture is smooth and light.
6. Transfer to a greased baking dish.
7. Microwave on 80% power for 8 minutes.
8. Let it cool.


For the Icing
1. Microwave 4 tbsp water in a bowl for 1 minute.
2. Add coffee,cocoa and butter to it and mix well.
3. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar,mix well.
4. Glaze the cake with the icing and garnish with crushed dry fruits. Place a few gems over the cake and stick some crushed nuts on the sides.
5. Refrigerate till the icing is set.