Mascarpone Magic!

Vanilla sponge cakes dressed in pinaeapple mascarpone icing and coffee mascarpone icing

Hello foodies :) the long awaited home- made mascarpone cheese is atlast histroy in my kitchen :) yes!! this was the one thing I'd been eyeing for a very long time...but was'nt sure "to make or not to make" Then Parita's post came as a tempter which I couldnt resist ;) and I had to be done with it ..so made it the very next day.

The crazy bug that I am...I started jumping with joy at the last stage of the cheese making process...lol, and after refrigerating it ...I used to peep into the container every 30mts .. that says it all isnt it!!! The final product was kinda thrilling...lol(Coz I was reeeeeeeeeeeeally ealted, thrilled and what not!)

When in Chennai, I had to shell a bombarding price for a tin of mascarpone ...which I had bought to make Tiramisu :) The experience of making mascarpone cheese at home is simply superb and super easy..and all thanks to Parita !!! Thanks sweetie :) for that little encouraging push! :)

here's the recipe for mascarpone cheese from her blog

I was in an experimentation mode so made 2 eggless vanilla sponge cakes :), not the same day though ;) baked one cake in a round tin and another in a loaf tin...

The recipe for the cake is as follows:

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake:

Recipe adapted from: one of the bakes from collaborative curry , Thanks dearies :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup oil

1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup cold water

How to get started:

1. pre-heat the oven to 180*C , grease a baking tin and set it aside

2. Sieve the flour, sugar , baking powder and salt a couple of times and ensure it's lump free

3. Add the vanilla essence, oil and gently stir once, then slowly add water and keep stirring gently till the cake batter consistency is reached.

4. Pour the batter in the greased tin and bake for 25-30 mts, or till a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven and cool completely before decorating/icing.

* Note: Both the icing called for Whipping cream, I omitted it...the final result was still mmmmmmmmmmmmm :)

Coffee Mascarpone Icing:

Ingredients:

4 &1/2 tsp instant coffee powder

1 tbsp hot water

1 cup chilled whipping cream ( I didnt use it )

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

pinch of salt

How to proceed:

• Stir coffee powder and water in a bowl till disolved set it aside.
• sieve sugar and make it lump free, set it aside.
• Add mascarpone, (whipped cream), vanilla essence, salt, coffee mixture in a wide mouthed vessel and beat until thick and smooth, to form firm peaks * dont over beat for it may curdle.
• The coffee mascaropne icing is ready to adorn ur cake :)

Pineapple Mascarpone Icing:

Ingredients:

1 cup mascarpone cheese

3/4th cup powdered sugar

1&1/2 tsp pineapple essence

1-2 tsp cold milk

How to proceed:

• sieve the powdered sugar to make it lump free
• In a wide mouthed bowl add the mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, pineapple essence and beat till thick and smooth, you may add a spoon or tow of cold milk to get the desired consistency. dont over beat as it may tend to curdle
• The Pineapple mascarpone icing is ready to dress the cake :)
  

Have a great week ahead!

Take care! Be Good ! Be Happy!!

Whole Green Moong Stir Fry

Hi dearies!! It's been a long week and the group of words"THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY" seems to be the line for me :) This week was busy as I had to complete all the pending work that I had piled for 'later'( am sure many of us do that) It's not only the work but my new interest in Warli painting that has kept me busy...believe me it's addictive and interesting.

Here take a look :)

After all that ranting let's get to business :) Whole Moong green is one of my favourites not only for health reasons but also it's pleasure to work with...it easily takes in any kind of experiment that one would want to try...and the combination of spices and vegetables that one can use with it is infinite :) Today's recipe is whole moong stir fry..... simple and delicious...here's the recipe:

Whole Green Moong Stir Fry:

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups: Whole green moong, pre-cooked
1 onion: finely chopped
1 tomato: finely chopped
1 tsp: cumin seeds
1 tsp: mustard seeds
1 sprig: curry leaves
2 -3 tsp: oil
1/2 tsp: saunf
1 tsp: haldi powder
1 tsp: jeera powder
1 tsp:coriander powder
1 tsp: aamchur powder
1 tsp: kitchen king masala/sambar powder (optional)
1 tsp: ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
coriander leaves: finely chopped for garnishing

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadhai, add cumin seeds, saunf, mustard seeds, curry leaves once it splutters throw in the onions and ladel it till it becomes slightly golden brown
• Add tomatoes, ginger garlic paste , haldi powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, kitchen king masala, aamchur powder, salt and fry till the oil is seen around the edges of this mixture, if necessary add/sprinkle some water if it is too dry.
• Once the masala is done add the pre-cooked whole green moong and mix well so as to coat the moong with the masala .
• cover and cook for some time and take it off the flame .
• Garnish with coriander and serve hot.

Happy Weekend!

Cauliflower Kofta Curry

India is famous for it's spiced curries, the list of curries is just endless ..the diversity of the nation plays a major role in this I guess :) The vegetarians here dont have to miss out on the taste and flavours as much as the non-vegetarians relish their meat dishes...koftas are a fine example for this. There are umpteen number of vegetables to choose from, for koftas , these vegetables are minced and mixed with spices and deep fried and dunked in rich gravies...These dishes have a Mughlai richness to them. It's said that Punjabi's rule the roost in this case:) Their love for rich food spices have given the world some great dishes to savour and treasure. Cauliflower kofta curry is one such recipe that is relished world over..here's the recipe ...

Ingredients:

For the koftas:

• 1/2 kilo cauliflower, grated
• 4 tbsps. gramflour (besan)
• 1/2. tsp cumin seeds,
• 1/2. tsp ginger garlic paste
• 1.tbsp crushed mint leaves
• Handful of chopped coriander leaves
• 2-3 green chillies, minced
• salt to taste
  

For the Curry:

• 250 gms grated tomates
• 250 gms green peas, boiled
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ginger strips
• 1 tbsp dhania-jeera powder
• 4 green chillies, slit
• 4 tblspns. milk/yogurt
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
• salt and red chilli powder to taste

Preparation:

Mix all the kofta ingredients together.Form the mixture into small balls and deep fry them to a golden colour. Heat 4 thlspns. of ghee/oil, add cumin seeds, when they start popping, add tomatoes, ginger, spices, salt and chillies. Cook the contents till the oil starts to be seen at the edges. Now stir in the peas and 2 cups of water. Boil for 10 minutes.Mix in milk/yogurt and gently stir bring the gravy to a little thicker consistency, *if desired u may mix 1-2 tsp cornflour with a little water and add this to thicken the gravy*, pour this mixture over the koftas. Decorate with coriander leaves.

Recipe adapted from "101 ways to prepare Curries", author : Aroona Reejhsinghani

Brownies

Hi all !! :) Belated Holi greetings to all of you! It's been a great week with the festival of colours as it's yet another reason to visit friends, family eat drink and make merry :)!

Let's talk about brownies today...Ever since I've tasted these yummy brown beauties, I just cant have enough of it :) the combinations with it like vanilla ice-cream, chocolate sauce, nuts or just caramel syrup drizzled brownies are so irresistible!

Everyone has their own recipe for brownies...so when I thought of baking them tried quite a few recipes from blogs, books, magazines. Though I was happy with the result of recipes, I stick to the one recipe which got me the maximum praize from S ;) so here's my favourite recipe!!!

If you have already posted brownie recipe in ur blog feel free to leave the link in the comment column :) I'll def.visit and try ur version too!

One last question before the recipe...would u like to share ur fav. combo with the brownies...I'd love to read about it!

Brownie Recipe:

Ingredients:

3/4th cup Unsalted Butter

1 cup Sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

1 cup Maida

1/2 cup Cocoa powder

1 tsp Baking Powder

Salt- a pinch

100gms- Nuts, chopped roughly

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180* C.

2. Grease the tin with butter.

3. Beat eggs with Sugar, beat till he sugar melts.

4. To the eggs-sugar mixture add vanilla essence.

5. Sift the maida, baking powder and cocoa.

6. Add the dry ingredients to the egg-sugar mixture, melted butter and salt.

7. Finally add the chopped nuts (set some aside) and mix all the ingredients to make it a smooth

lump free batter.

8. Pour the batter in the greased tin and sprinkle the top layer with nuts.

9. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean in the

centre.

10. Cool it on the wire rack, slice/cut and serve.

Strawberry Bread

Baking breads is an absolute pleasure :)I enjoy it thoroughly, so after baking a whole lot of banana breads and also trying out some combinations in banana breads... thought it's time I give some other add ons to the famous quick breakfast breads.

Strawberries are getting noticed just about everywhere, so zeroed in on strawberry bread... Here's a keeper recipe from Joy of baking

Some changes I made to the original recipe:
1. Replaced all- purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

2. Used 2 large eggs instead of 3 eggs as mentioned in the recipe.

3. Added a few spoons of cold milk to the batter to get the required consistency.

4. As the recipe had an option between sour cream and plain yogurt, I chose the later.

5. My oven took an extra 20 minutes to bake the cake to perfection.

How We liked the bread:

The bread was super moist. Cinnamon combined with strawberry takes the taste altogether to another plane :) just heavenly!

It could be a great dessert if had with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream drizzled with chocolate sauce or even better as a filling breakfast with a tall glass of milk :)

I would definitely add this recipe to my list of favourites :)

Spring Onions stir fry

Spring onion stir fry:

Ingredients:

Spring onions - 1 bunch

Saunf -1 tsp

Jeera- 1 tsp

Mustard- 1 tsp

Amchoor powder- 1/2 tsp

Sambar powder- 1 and 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves- 1 sprig

oil- 1 and 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:
1. Wash the spring onions, finely chop(I pressure cooked them before hand) and set it aside.

2. In a kadhai/wok heat oil and splutter jeera, saunf, mustard and curry leaves.

3. Add the chopped spring onions, sambar powder, amchoor powder, salt and gently mix all the ingredients together.

4. cover and cook for a few minutes and turn off the flame.

5. Spring onion stir fry is ready to serve and tastes good with rice/roti/bread :)

Awards Shower!

Over a couple of months and till the recent times many of my lovely blogger friends Asha, Sushma Mallya , Babli, Indrani, Aruna Manikandan have showered me with beautiful inspiring awards. Thanks dearies and sorry I'd not been able to post it from a very very long time for some reason or the other. Now ends the wait ") and ya as it feels great to share and double the happiness ...please feel free to grab these beauties.

Bye and Take Good Care of yourselves :)

TC