Eggless Wheat Cookies

Ria had chosen this simple cookie for the March Sweet Punch. Since all the ingredients were readily available in my kitchen, I took it easy and thought this can be prepared any time I want. It was just yesterday that I realized it was 6th of the month and I had to prepare it. After having recently tried my hand at making Checkboard Gateau, I am flying too high. I wanted to add some complexity to these simple cookies. I had planned something else when I made two different doughs. But as I was unable to roll these doughs due to their softness, I ended up making them this way. Best cookie recipe for beginners and also for anyone who gets a sudden cookie craving as these can be made in a jiffy.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter - 4 ounces or 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
Almond flakes - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp or as needed
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:
1. Mix together wheat flour, sugar, salt, almond flakes, cardamom powder and butter. At this stage I divided this mixture into two and added cocoa powder to one mixture to get the chocolate dough.
2. Add milk and knead to get a soft dough.
3. Make balls, flatten them (I made a big ball of wheat dough flattened it, pressed the centre a bit and placed a small flattened chocolate ball. I garnished with choco chip and almond flake) and place on baking tray with atleast an inch of space between them.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 360F for about 15-18 mins (Depends on the thickness of your cookies and temperature of the oven) or until the cookies are golden brown.
5. Let then stand for 3-5 minutes.

Before baking:

After Baking:

 

Quitters Do Win!

Mark Twain said “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times”

It takes me by awe at the way smokers have ready-made statements in their defense as you count the ill-effects of smoking. Yes someone rightly said that ‘A cigarette is a pipe with a fire at one end and a fool at the other.’ I have done a lot of research on Smoking and ways to quit smoking in my attempt to help Abbas quit this addiction. But I sadly admit that this is one thing that I’ve failed at in my life. I am not a quitter and I keep trying to make my dear husband a quitter!

When in Kolkata, I told my niece Ummi that I can make a dog out of cigarette packets. And we asked Abbas to get some empty packets of cigarettes from work. Everyday Ummi and I would collect and count daily as to how many we had collected. Ummi would innocently ask, “How many more do you need, Pi?” Once we attained the desired number, I made this dog which I had learnt from my neighbour in Kundapura – Poornima Aunty. This was one of my first early exposures at craft. I’m told I was too small when I actually made my first Cigarette packet dog.

Finally another quote for all those cigarette addicts out there -

The cigarette does the smoking - you're just the sucker.  ~Author Unknown

Geeta Baliga | Stuffed Green Capsicum

Ingredients:

Long green capsicum - 6 nos, slit lengthwise and remove the seeds if the seeds are spicy

Peanuts - 100g (roast and remove the skin and grind to a paste)

Tamarind pulp - 1 tbsp

Jaggery powder - 2 tbsp

Coriander leaves - 1 cup, finely chopped

Garam masala powder - 2 tbsp

Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1 large sized, chopped 

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp 

Salt to taste

Oil - 4 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

1.Mix all the ingredients with peanut paste. Stuff capsicums with this paste. If any masala is remaining spread over the sides of the capsicums.

2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.  Splutter cumin seeds in it.

3. Add the stuffed capsicum in layers and pressure cook till one whistle or or even lesser. 

4. Keep this in a tray over the foil and bake it till done.

5. Serve hot with rotis or Jolad (Jowar) rotis.

Geeta Baliga | Palak Paneer

Ingredients:
Spinach / Palak - 1 big  bundle or 3 small bundles, clean and wash thoroughly

Paneer - 200 g

Green chillies - 3

Cloves - 3or 4

Onion - 2 medium size , chopped

Ginger - 1" piece, chopped

Garlic cloves - 4-5, mashed or ground (Garlic paste 1 tbsp)

Tomato - 1 medium sized, chopped

Salt to taste

Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Pressure cook spinach with green chillies, cloves, half of the chopped onions, ginger. Cool and grind this in to paste.

2. Heat oil in a pan.Fry chopped onion, garlic or garlic paste and tomato and saute till it becomes mushy.

3. Add the ground spinach paste, salt and stir for a while adding little water according to ur consistency.

4. Add the paneer cubes and mix. Serve hot with rotis.

When Raju stuffed Shrimps down his belly - Shrimps stuffed Mackerel Fry

I love surprises especially when I’m not at the receiving end. Frankly speaking, I’m glad Abbas seldom throws me surprises. Reason?

1. His tummy tickles itself till he blurts out to me.

2. He wouldn’t want the surprise to turn out as a shock!

Even today, the child in me gets excited at the sight of ‘Jack popping out of boxes’. What if the Jack hides in my food… The idea struck me as I was planning to make Mackerel Doddak. I had a few shrimps lying in my freezer and the quantity was too meager to make a stand alone dish out of ‘em. That’s how this idea was born. I initially wanted to bake the stuffed fish but later ended up shallow frying on a griddle by coating them in rice powder. The fish fry was good but I loved the shrimp masala more…

Ingredients:

For Shrimp masala:

Shrimps – ¾ cup, deshelled, deveined and cleaned

Salt to taste

Coconut oil – 1 tbsp

For the masala:

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Red chillies – 5-6 (increase or decrease as per spice tolerance)

Tamarind – 1 small marble sized ball

For the fish fry:

Mackerel / Bangda / Raju – 8 nos

Red chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Juice of half lemon

Rice powder – to coat

Oil – for frying

Method:

1. Grind the ingredients called for masala with little water if necessary. Mix with salt and shrimps. Saute this masala in coconut oil for 3-4 mins till it is dry and can be stuffed inside fish.
2. Make a huge slit in mackerel sideways and clean it well. Also, make some light slits all over the body.
3. Marinate with Red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and lemon juice.
4. Stuff the shrimp masala and keep in refrigerator for atleast 10-15 mins.
5. Roll the fish in rice powder and shallow fry on a tawa by covering for some time Flip the fish so that both sides are well cooked. I used coconut oil to fry.
6. Serve with lemon wedges and chillies.

Checkboard Gateau with Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting

With my right wrist tightly gripped with a bandage which extends to embrace the thumb as well, I am unable to freely use the hand. I just hate it!  Once in a while I rip the bandage off when I feel very frustrated but put it back on with a hope of removing it once and for all soon. In such times of crisis, posts lying in Drafts come very handy.

When Ria posted her Checkboard Gateau, I was simply enthralled. I too love experimenting with techniques and she is an inspiration. I love twists and turns to the conventional way. When I’m caught by inhibitions before trying out something, I somehow catch Ria on FB. Her words of encouragement give the necessary thrust to go ahead. I made this cake over the weekend and used Chocolate Mascarpone frosting to cover the cake. In my excitement, I even gave it a chocolate lace border. The top was decorated with left over melted chocolate in the piping bag. The top looks more like a Rangoli now when I see in the pics. (Well, I am improving with each new cake)

Ingredients:

For the vanilla sponge:

3eggs

1/2c sugar

1/2 c flour minus 1 tbsp

1tbsp cornstarch/cornflour

1tsp vanilla extract

For the chocolate sponge:

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 c flour minus 3 tbsp

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1tbsp cornstarch/cornflour

1tsp vanilla extract

For Assembling:

1 portion soaking syrup (Dissolve 1 cup granulated sugar in 1 cup warm water.)

1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped (I used whipped cream powder)

For Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting:

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1 cup whipped cream

2 tbsp coco powder

Sugar to taste (I didn’t require sugar as I used whipping cream powder which already had sugar in it)

Vanilla essence – ½ tsp (optional)

Whip heavy cream till it forms firm peaks. I used whipping cream powder. It gave me very good results. Just make sure you use ice cold water while using whipped cream powder. It’s also recommended to freeze your beater blades before beating.

Gently fold in the rest of the ingredients. (Do not over beat as the mascarpone cheese might curdle)

Method:

For the sponge (Vanilla & Chocolate)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

2. Butter and flour/line a 8' round cake tin with parchment paper.

3. Sift the dry ingredients together. Reserve.

4. Beat the eggs and sugar together till mousse like and almost tripled in volume. This will take about 10-12 mins of beating on high using an electric beater. DO NOT skimp on this as we are not using any leavening agents (baking powder/baking soda). Otherwise the cake WILL NOT rise.

5. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixtures, carefully. The mixture will deflate a little, don't worry.

6. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 28-30 mins or till the top is springy to touch and the skewer inserted comes out clean.

7. Cool in the tin for 10 mins and then invert it onto a rack and cool completely.

To make the checkerboard pattern:

Imagine a cake having 2 more concentric circles in it .Cut accordingly. I used a round my measuring cup for the innermost circle and a container lid the middle circle as the template. So now, you have 3 rings out of one cake. Similarly do the same with the second cake.

Now, interchange the middle ring. While you do so, be careful and try to spread some whipped cream/jam/ganache so that the rings sticks together. Now you will be left with two black and white cakes. Place one cake (with the interchanged rings) on the serving plate and soak it using half the soaking syrup. Spread some whipped cream over it and place the second cake over it. Spoon the remaining syrup over it.

Cover the sides and top with chocolate mascarpone frosting.

For the chocolate lace border:

Melt some chocolate and pour into a piping bag. Measure the height and circumference of your cake pan and cut parchment paper of the same size. Doodle pattern over the parchment paper using the piping bag. When the chocolate is almost about to set, wrap the cake with parchment paper lightly pressing the chocolate lace onto the cake. Keep in refrigerator for about 5 minutes and delicately peel off the parchment paper. It’s really very easy to do…

Serve the cake chilled

Note: My vanilla sponge had a thin portion which was a bit stiff, I dunno why! But on the whole, the cake won me a feather in my baking cap! Thanks Ria.

My li'l assistants at work. The best part is they remind me to click photos of food if I forget to.

Eggless Mango Cheese Cake

‘Aaj sher kaise ghaas kha raha hai?’ (Howcome tiger is nibbling on grass today?) were the comments we exchanged when any non-veg freak friend would opt for vegetarian food. Yes, I shamefully admit that I too have ridiculed several of my vegetarian friends and even pitied on them for missing out on non-vegetarian food. Now that I do my daily rounds of the blogosphere, I realize that we carnivores are actually depriving ourselves from so many exotic vegetarian preparations! Mallika’s Veg Bowl is one such blog which mesmerizes readers with astounding photography and visually appealing presentation. When I first saw her Eggless Mango Cheese Cake pics, I went mangoes (Oops, bananas) over them. I made it and got rave reviews. My pics don’t do justice to the taste of this Cheese Cake.  I have so many people asking me for Cake recipes but backing out just because they don’t possess an oven. This is a No-Bake Cake. You just need a refrigerator to let the cake set beautifully. Prepare this the previous night and leave in the refrigerator if you have guests over the next day. I assure you that this will win you accolades.

Ingredients

For the Base:
100 gm digestive biscuits (I used Parle-G)
50 gm melted butter

Cheesecake Filling:
100 ml 25% fat cream
150 ml mango flavored thick yogurt (I used Amul's Aam Srikhand)
50 gm cottage cheese or paneer
4 tbsp castor sugar (or to taste)
1 tbsp agar agar / gelatin
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Line the sides of a cake tin with a cling film such that extra portions of it hang out. (I used a rectangle cake tin. I did not have a cling film, so used butter paper)
2. For the biscuit base: Put the biscuits into a ziplock bag & crush them to fine powder with the help of a rolling pin. You may also powder the biscuits in a mixie or food processor. Remove and add in the melted butter and mix them well. Press this mixture into the base of a spring form pan or a lined cake tin. Chill this base for 30 minutes.
3. Pulse the cottage cheese to a fine puree along with 75 ml of the milk cream and vanilla. Add in Amul's Aam Srikhand and castor sugar to taste.
4. Dissolve a tablespoon of agar agar in the remaining 25 ml of cream and bring it to a boil. When the flakes dissolve, add this to the above cheesecake mix and give a final vigorous pulse so that all the ingredients are well combined. Transfer this mixture to the prepared biscuit base. Pat the tin gently to remove any air bubble that may have formed.
5. Refrigerate the cheesecake to set for atleast 4-6 hours. Leave it in the refrigerator overnight or for atleast 6 hrs. Before serving, allow it to sit on the counter for 5 minutes. Garnish with fresh mango slices

This goes out to Priya and Aipi's 'Bookmarked Recipes Every Tuesday' event