Che(e)rry delight !!!

It is the season of fresh, gorgeous and lusciously red cherries. A single bite into the sweet, juicy fruit has the power to transport you to the high heavens of culinary delights. But if you thought that the only way to eat this delicate fruit was in its raw form, think again. I ventured beyond the usual and decided to mix my passion for baking with love for the fruit. The result indeed put my family members (my usual guinea pigs...:D) into a che(e)rry mood.

While the fruit in itself has a moist flavour, think of adding this texture to the soft spongy speciality of a cake. The result, tried & tested, would be would be a volcano of tastes, which would include the rich sweetness of soft cherries along with the softness of a sponge cake that would explode on your tongue. So all the myths related to the fruit cakes stood the test of time and my 'Cherry cake' was one of the best recipes that I have tried till date. 

The best thing that I love about cooking is the fact that with every recipe you tend to learn something new. In this particular case, I learnt the art of pitting (removing the seeds from) the cherries. While a number of cherry pitter tools may be available in the market, I stuck with a hiomemade equipment, which nonetheless turned out to be extremely affective. All you need is a paper clip. Open the clip, insert it into the cherry and remove the seed. If you have never done this process before, don't get scared if the first few tend to become soggy. Trust me, you will get the hang of it soon enough.

So here comes the recipe of this delicious and mouthe watering cake. Enjoy!!!

Cherry cake recipe -

Ingredients -

Fresh cherries (pitted) - 450 gms (1 pound)

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups (195 gms)

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsps

Salt - 1/4 tsps

Eggs - 2 large

Granulated white sugar - 3/4 cup (150 cups)

Unsalted butter (melted and cooked) - 1/2 cup (110 gms)

Milk - 1/3 cup (80 ml)

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Zest (the outer yellw skin of a lemon) - 1/2 lemon

Method of preparation -

• Pit the cherries. Keep 1/4 of the cherries aside.
• Beat the sugar, butter and eggs in a bowl till they take the form of a yellow batter.
• Mix the flour and baking poder. Add this mixture to the previously prepared batter.
• Add lemon zest, milk, vanilla essence to this mix and beat well.
• Add the larger portion of the cherries to the mixture and mix slowly and carefully.
• Preheat your oven to 205 degrees celcius.
• Meanwhile butter your baking tin and dust it well with flour. 
• Pour the mixture into the baking tin and put it for baking.
• After 15 minutes take out the baking tin and put the rest of the cherries on the top layer of the slightly thickened batter.
• Return the dish back to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or till the time the crust turns light brown and the cake leaves the side of the baking tin.

 Take the cake out of the baking dish onto an attractive dish. Serve it with a side of vanilla ice cream and watch yout loved ones enjoy this preparation. :) 

Sumptuous Tomato Oats Soup

Today was a day to try out something new. So I tried a new type of soup...with OATS!!

Oats are generally considered "healthy", or a health food since it has healthy cholesterol-lowering properties hence becoming an efficient tool in battling heart diseases. It also lowers blood sugar hence is an excellent meal choice for diabetics.

Generally we consume oats in the form of porridge for breakfast but since I’m quite bored of the sweet variations of oats it was time to omit the sugar and add the spice. In the past my mom had urged me a lot to try making soup with oats, encouraging me with the nutritional values and the “it sure does taste good” factor.

So while I was sitting bored I searched through the internet and found this new recipe for a tomato and oats soup. It was seemed so easy and so fast to make, I thought why not give it a shot now. So it took me less than 15 mins from start to finish making this soup. It might look simple n perhaps even boring, but I must warn you this soup packs in more flavour and punch than an ordinary clear vegetable soup. It’s thick, sumptuous, and flavourful all in all the fastest most delectable soup I’ve made ever!!

I’m one who prefers their soup with a thick consistency and generally I add in corn starch to thicken the soups, but I’ve learnt that oats can also be used as a thickening agent in soups. Oats is any day 100 times better than corn starch so the next time you want to add corn starch to soup, substitute it with oats (powder it if you don’t want the flaky pieces of oats).

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup oats
• 5 large tomatoes, halved and sliced
• 1/3 cup onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 2 green chillies (optional; can be omitted if you don’t want the soup to be spicy)
• 3 cups water, divided
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander leaves
• 2 chicken stock cubes/vegetable stock cubes: for flavour (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Heat a large deep pan or non-stick pot over medium-low heat. Pour in the olive oil, and let it heat up. Add the oats; cook and stir until toasted.
2. In a blender or large food processor, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic, chillies, 1 cup of water, and coriander leaves. Blend until smooth. Pour into the pan with the toasted oats. Stir in the remaining 2 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Mix in the salt and chicken/vegetable stock cubes. Cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Enjoy hot or warm. 

Hariyali Dal

Green green all around, trees..grass..plants...all filled with the summer spirit!!! so why not a preparation with green ingredients! An ode to this green summer with a healthy recipe which everyone should definitely try!

Here is a dal curry preparation made of green moong dal which is renowned for being rich in proteins.  This dal is healthy yet extremely yummy accompanied with rice or roti.

Green moong beans are widely used all over Asia, particularly in India, China, and far East. Its health benefits classify this class of lentils as the best ingredient for diet recipes. Sprouted green moong beans are eaten raw by many as a form of snack accompanied by a bit of chaat masala, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes.  I vaguely recall being taught in school how to make a form of chowmein (noodles) by adding a handful of these sprouted moong beans to the mixture of noodles and sauces. I personally did not like the taste of raw sprouts but in the form of a chowmein I sure did love them!

This particular dal curry is what I used to make a lot during my stay in UK when I had to cook something for myself and my roomie without labouring away the hours in the kitchen.  It was a pleasant and homely feel we got while digging into this dal, being so far away from home in a cold and rainy land.  If you add a dollop of butter to it, you’ll get extra heat to survive snowy days and minus degree temperature nights.  If there is left over dal it tastes as good or even better the next day! Can’t find and roti or rice around? Have this dal with bread, yes bread! Sounds weird probably but this dal sure does taste good even with plain old bread!! So if you don’t have green moong dal at home, make sure you buy some next time you go grocery shopping. Make a batch of this dal and enjoy this powerhouse of nutrition and goodness :) 

Ingredients:

• Whole Green Moong dal : 1 cup (You can use sprouted Moong dal too)
• Onions : 1 chopped finely
• Tomato : 1 chopped 
• Green chilies : 4...or you can also use red chilli powder (2 tsps)
• Garam Masala : 1 ½ tsp  
• Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp
• Ginger and Garlic paste : 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves : 3 to 4 
• Oil : 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method Of preparation :

1. Soak the whole moong dal for over night or if you are in hurry soak it in hot water for one hour at least (otherwise if you have no time at all to soak, want to make it immediately just pressure cook it for 4 whistle and use it).
2. Then pressure cook the soaked moong dal with ½ cup water for three whistles.
3. Heat oil in a pan with cumin seeds and curry leaves fry them in low flame for a minute.
4. Add Onion and green chilies fry them till it becomes golden brown . (If you add red chilli powder the dal will have a darker brownish colour but still taste as good as ever.)
5. And add the ginger garlic paste and fry them till the raw smells goes.
6. Now add the chopped tomatoes in to it with little turmeric powder and salt.
7. Mix it well till the oil separates from the mix and add in the cooked and mashed moong dal with 1 cup of water.
8. And close the lid let it boil for 5 minutes in high flame till you get the desired consistency you want. Also add in a 1 ½ tsp of garam masala and salt as per taste (I always add 1 tbsp, taste, and keep adding according to how much more I want) and mix well.
9. After that remove from heat and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot! Warm or cool dal just doesn't taste good. 

Cheers to a summery 'Nirvana'

It is peak summers in North India and hot gales blow outside, forcing most of us to sit cooped up inside our homes. We wonder when and how respite will come to our summer weary souls. However, in such a scenario what would you say to a quick, easy to assemble and cooling drink? A big yes, is it? Well, I tend to agree.

One such summer afternoon I searched through my recipe book and discovered I have a variety of safe drinks (non-alcoholic, unfortunately..:P), which can be distinguished on the basis of their colours. While I had a varied choice from the colours red (tomatoes), yellow (pineapple) and even brown (chocolate), I decided to go with the most soothing colour of them all, green (khus).

It is a well known fact that colours affect out moods and emotions. According to scientists, green colour has a very calming and relaxing effect on average human beings and i would like to believe that I belong to that category of individuals. Thus, in order to calm the angry heat building up inside my system after a typical North Indian summer day, I decided to soothe myself with the popularly safe 'green' coloured drink to brighten up my evening.

With an average preparation time of 5 minutes, I was able to surprise my family members with a beautiful looking, awesome tasting drink that evening. As they sipped their way through the chilled, iced delight, their faces bore expressions that told me that the drink had been aptly named 'Nirvana'.

If you believe in quick results, with as less work involved as possible, 'Nirvana' would be a perfect way to reach the balance between the elegant and fast. So this summer, surprise your guests or just enjoy a summer evening with your loved ones enjoying the chilled, sweet flavours of 'Nirvana'. Here comes the recipe. Cheers!

Nirvana recipe -

Ingredients - (For 3 glasses)

Khus Syrup - 1/4 cup

Limca - 2 bottles

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Vanilla ice cream - 3 tbsp

Method to prepare -

• Pour an equal amount of the Khus syrup into three glasses.
• Next mix the lemon juice.
• Put single scoops of vanilla ice cream in all three glasses. 
• Top the glasses with Limca.
• Add a stirrer and serve chilled. 

Here's to a sweet beginning!

First post in our blog....yippeee :) So we thought why not start with something sweet? To our delight we discovered that our common favourite sweet treat is....the heavenly delicious Chocolate Walnut Brownie.

If you want to create a good impression on someone, what do you do? Well of course you score ‘brownie points’ with them ;) literally or relatively by baking a batch of delicious and awesome brownies. You might be performing a good deed, for example, giving your loved ones freshly baked brownies to ease out disagreements or making difficult discussions simpler while munching on a piece of chocolaty goodness.

However do not take this as a notion to give your next interviewer some brownies to help you get the job...:P You could perhaps give them some after getting the job...:D 

The Brownie was introduced in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century and popularized in both the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the twentieth century.

According to author Palmer Cox in his article, “The origin of Brownies”, Brownies were mythical creatures from old Scotland with good-natured little spirits or goblins of the fairy order and true to their name brown in colour. They were little men, and appeared only at night to perform good and helpful deeds or enjoy harmless pranks while weary households slept. They never allowed themselves to be seen by mortals.

That gooey yet firm, cocoa enriched mouthful, which is revered by any human who indulges into this piece of luxury, is the humble yet world famous Brownie. To all those who thought that brownies are difficult to make, here are some eye-opening facts that will gladden your chocolate loving hearts.

Brownies can be made in a wide variety of ways. Some of you may like your brownies more fudgy and chewy; some may like it crunchy on the inside while others prefer walnuts or chocolate (white or dark) bits in their slice. You can alter the texture in any way you want while keeping the basic recipe similar.

Try baking a batch of these sinful delights to surprise your family, or to celebrate a special occasion with your loved one. Trust us; the look of delight on their face will make all the work worth it. So here comes the recipe! Enjoy!

Chocolate Walnut Brownie recipe –

Ingredients –

Cocoa – ½ cup

Sugar – 1 ¾ cup

Butter – 2/3 cup

Vanilla essence – 2 tsps

Eggs – 3

Flour – 1 cup

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Walnuts – 1 cup

Vanilla ice cream, Chocolate sauce as required

Method –

·        Add powdered sugar, butter and eggs to a bowl. Blend well.

·        Mix the flour and baking powder in another bowl. Add to previous mixture.

·        Add, vanilla essence, chocolate powder and walnuts to the bowl, all the time stirring the mixture.

·        Grease the baking tin with light butter. Pour the mixture in the tin.

·        Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 275 degrees.

After removing from the oven, cool the brownie. Cut it into squares. serve it hot with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.