No mommy no good

I realized what love is one day when I called up my mother and told her that my mobile phone has stopped working. I was howling. She calmly told me, "Why worry? I will buy you ten more. Now stop crying." Even I know she would never do that, but just the fact that she was willing to say that to shut me up convinced me that love exists. So this mother's day, I fell for the concept hook, line and sinker. I made her something. I mean thats how I demonstrate love these days. Make food. Get love. Mostly. 


So today, I present a delicious fruit cake. No, not the christmasy kind, but a legit-lets eat the fruit and not cut it up and stash it in a cake kind. You will soon see what happened. Boo yeah. 


Lovely source: http://artofdessert.blogspot.in/2010/02/egg-free-fresh-fruit-cake.html


SHMANCY VANILLA AND FRUIT CAKE 


What you need 


An occasion 
(Mothers day works beautifully. Also it looks so beautiful that one feels like showing off) 


One and a half cups flour 
Three fourths cup of sugar 
One teaspoon baking powder
Half teaspoon salt
Two to three tablespoons of butter 
Less than one fourth cup of oil 
One cup of milk 
Half a tablespoon of vinegar 
One egg (optional) 
One teaspoon vanilla essence 


For the fruit 
(Grab all edible seasonal fruits and slice them) 
I used: Kiwi, grapes, apples, pow-them-granates


Essential extras


For the sugar syrup
half cup of water
one fourth cup of sugar


For the custard cream 
Two tablespoons of custard powder 
One package of cream (200 grams) 


What to do: 


1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 


2. Mix all the cake ingredients together. Put the dry ingredients first (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt). Then the butter, oil, milk, vinegar, essence and egg. 


3. Grease a baking tin. Add the batter and bake for 20 minutes. Keep checking, it may take less or more time. Dont trust the oven, trust yourself. 


4. While its baking, combine the sugar and water together in the microwave on high for five minutes, or over a slow flame. It should basically become sugar consistency. 


5. Cut up all the fruits. 


6. Make the custard cream by following package instructions, just replace the milk with cream. So first dissolve two tablespoons of custard powder in some water, then add that mixture to the cream, and bring to a boil. Once its ready, your cream is ready. Boo. 


To assemble 


1. Take the cake out of the oven, and slather sugar syrup over it. 


2. Then slather a layer of custard cream. Eat up all the extra custard cream. 


3. Then arrange the fruits as you like, and put more sugar syrup on them. 


4. Keep in the fridge for a bit, say 20 minutes. 


5. Surprize your mom. 

Birthday aa gaya! *Day K and A*

So the Birthday happened yesterday, and I was too blahed out to write about it, so I am today. I promise to be better next time. Really really do. Ok so umm here goes. 


With the K, the 11th letter of the alphabet, I made some Kheera soup, using cucumber, yogurt and vinegar. Figure out the recipe yourself. If I feel benovelent sometime in my life, I will let you know. 


And then, with the A, the 1st letter of the alphabet, I made a tomato tart, with the base using an Anda, or egg. 


So if you umm, join all the letters together, you get NEEHARIKA! :) 


This person is by far one of the best things that has happened to me, considering I know her for the past 19 years, since I could barely talk myself. I kind of completed this challenge, but im planning on keeping the blog posts coming this year, with a lot more interesting things. La la la. Ive got the choons, you aint got scooby. 

Arre dekho birthday aa raha hai! *Day HARI*

So I have been meaning to blog for a couple of days but things just kept getting busier and busier, and I know that excuses dont work but blah. So im making up for that, Im blogging H, A, R and I today. :D 


So we start with H, the 8th letter of the alphabet. I made haricot vert, or green beans, in french. :) 


This turned out to be great for my lunchbox, a light lunch, which made sure I worked without dozing off. So here goes. 


HARICOT VERT IN MY LUNCH BOX 


What you need: 


Around a handful of haricot vert (green beans) 
Three garlic cloves and a knob of ginger, crushed
Salt to taste 
Oil for cooking 


What to do: 


1. Cook the beans by first dunking them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then taking them out and running them under cold water in a colander. 

2. Heat up some oil in a wok, and add the ginger and garlic. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the beans and salt. 


3. Cook till the no crunch, no mush stage, maybe five minutes. 


4. Take this for lunch! I took some whole wheat bread along, and my life had new meaning. :) 

The next ingredient I used were Apples! :) So there was a ton of bread in my fridge, and I used it up, and made use of apples, creating a scrumptious Apple Bread Pudding.


APPLES AND BREAD MAKE A PUDDING WITH VANILLA SAUCE
Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grammas-apple-bread-pudding/


What you need: 


Four cups of bread cubes, I interpreted this as tearing bread into small pieces, and continuing this till it made four cups, but you can also use a knife and be all proper and cut it into cubes
One fourth cup of raisins
Two apples, peeled and sliced
A cup of brown sugar
One and three fourths cup of milk 
One fourth cup of butter
One teaspoon of cinnamon powder/ground cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
Two eggs


For the vanilla sauce


A cup of sugar
Half a cup of milk 
Half a cup of butter
A teaspoon of vanilla essence


What to do: 


1. Keep the apples, bread, and raisins in a patila. 


2. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and milk. Keep mixing on low heat till the butter dissolves. 

3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, cinnamon and vanilla essence. 


4. Put the saucepan contents and small bowl contents into the patila. 


5. Add this to a baking dish, and bake for around 30 minutes on a 200 degree oven. 

6. While it is baking, combine all the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Let it cook till it boils. Once that happens, take it off the flame and keep aside. 


7. Take the pudding out of the oven, and dunk the sauce on top. You can also serve it on the side. If you want that is. 

Now, with R, the 18th letter of the alphabet, I used both rice, and rai, or mustard seeds. I learned how to make poha, which is basically flattened rice. I dont have a source for this recipe. I spotted my grandmother telling her help to make this, so I just hung around to see the magic. I have eaten this a bazillion times but never seen anyone make it. So I thought this to be a great opportunity. 


Here it is: 


POLITE POHA 


What you need


A cup of poha, which is flattened rice 
Half a carrot chopped finely 
Half a potato chopped finely 
Half an onion, chopped finely
A teaspoon of urad dal 
Salt to taste
A teaspoon of finely chopped ginger 
Oil to cook 
Half a cup of water
Half a teaspoon of haldi( turmeric) 
A teaspoon of rai and around ten curry leaves
Half a lemon and dessicated coconut (around two teaspoons) for garnish 


What to do: 


1. Keep the poha in a colander, and wash it with running water, twice or thrice. 

2. Put some oil in a wok, I used one tablespoon, and add the urad dal to it. Once its brownish, add the rai, ginger, and curry leaves. Once the curry leaves start turning up at the ends, add the onions. Let them become translucent, and then add the carrot and potato. 

3. The aim is to let the potato cook. This takes some time, so add the water, salt and haldi at this stage. Let it dry up, and when its almost dry, add the poha which is in the colander. 

4. Mix well, and youre done. 


5. For garnish, just squeeze the lemon on top, and sprinkle the coconut, and youre done. 


Poha works really well for breakfast. Really well. Im usually bored of eating toast, so sometimes I have this for breakfast. But it is also great as a light dinner. You could also add some peas if you want. 

Now, with I, the 9th letter of the alphabet, I used ice, to make some lovely iced tea I learnt at a cookery class one lovely saturday. It contains lemon, ginger, sugar, tea leaves(a teaspoon of green tea leaves or a mix of black and green tea leaves would work well). I have a picture, 
which may goad you to make it. :) 

So now, we have progressed from N to I, and we are left with K and A, which will happen tomorrow. :) 

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Arre dekho birthday aa raha hai! *Day E and E*

I seriously cant believe how I managed to do this for 90 days, but I will go on with this latest challenge, now that I have started. So, the 2nd AND 3rd letter of my friends name are E, so today I cooked two dishes with the key ingredient starting with the letter E. :) 


E is the fifth letter of the alphabet. I just counted on my fingers to double check what I have known since I used to do the el o men o pee dance. 

So, the first ingredient today is Edam cheese. 


I made a wonderful summer chicken salad today, modified a recipe I found online, and it worked quite well. Here is the source: http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/342114/Edam--orange---fennel-salad


COOL CHICKEN SALAD WITH EDAM, FIGS, GREENS, and ORANGES 


What you need: 


Half a kilo of boneless chicken, marinaded for 15 mins with two tablespoons of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste 
A handful of washed mixed greens, I used baby spinach, parsley and basil today, any lettuce will work wonders too 
Three oranges 
A tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
Seven dried figs, halved and toasted 
Around 150 grams of edam cheese, cubed 
Two spring onions, chopped


What to do: 


1. Cook the chicken until its white and not pink, and cut into bite sized pieces. 


2. Peel two oranges, and halve the segments. Take out the seeds if you have the energy. Take out the juice of the third orange. 


3. Make the dressing by combining the balsamic vinegar and orange juice. 


4. Assemble the salad by dunking everything, the chicken, greens, orange segments, fig pieces, edam cubes, and chopped spring onions,  into a conveniently sized salad bowl. 


This is what it finally looks like:

The second ingredient today is elaichi, or cardamom. I somehow can never ever call elaichi cardamom. Like really. 

So I was thinking of making shrikhand, this yummy dessert, but then I realized that it is tuesday, and umm, shops are shut. I could have traversed to another market, which I did end up doing for the edam, but the thought of a lovely cup of chai made me keep things simple, and oh so elaichi. 




BLACK TEA THE ELAICHI WAY 


What you need: 


A tea ball ( It is ok if you dont have one, but you should go get one anyway. This just saves you the hassle of draining things out. But if you dont have one, just put everything into the tea anyway, and strain it) 
Two elaichis 
Half a cinnamon stick
A teaspoon of crushed/chopped ginger 
One clove 
Two teaspoons of tea leaves 
Sugar to taste
A cup or two of water, depending on how many people want to experience the magic of this


What to do: 


1. Crush everything in your mortar and pestle, except the tea leaves. Duh. 


2. Put it inside the tea ball, along with the tea leaves, and shut the tea ball. 

3. Boil the water. 


4. Dunk the tea ball into the water and steep till you get the colour you like. Add sugar. 

5. Drink up. Hmm. 

Arre dekho birthday aa raha hai! *Day N*

So, I am back to some kind of serial blogging, (when I say serial, I mean in a serial order!) and my target is a friends birthday. Everyday till her birthday, I will cook with the letters which make up her name. This is to keep things surpriseworthy, not that you need to know. But anyway, so the letter for today, to start things off, is is is...is is is...N! 


N, for the lazy gits among you, is the 14th letter of the alphabet. 


So today's ingredient is nuts! In french walnuts are called 'noix', so I am keeping to my brief here. 


Here is what I made: 


TARTE AUX NOIX 
(A walnut tart, with a lot of walnuts) 


Source: http://m.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Caramelized-Walnut-Tart-105705


What you need:


One pre-baked pie crust or pie crust dough, (as you wish, I prebaked mine) 


For the pie crust recipe see here: 


http://cookingwithsomehelp.blogspot.in/2011/12/day-3090.html

The day 30 recipe calls for a tart shell on top and bottom, but you only need to make the bottom part of the tart shell, not the top, so keep that in mind. 


Filling:


One and one fourth cup of toasted walnuts 
This is how I toasted mine:

Little more than half a cup of cream 
Litle more than half a cup of brown sugar (use brown, or else you wont get the colour you want, which will be sad really) 
One fourth cup honey 
One teaspoon vanilla essence 
A pinch of crushed cinnamon 


What to do: 


1. Mix all the filling ingredients together, in a saucepan. Or in any other vessel with which you believe you can pour easily. 

2. Pour it into the pie crust, and bake in a 200 degree oven for 20 mins, or until the centre appears to have set. 

Cut it neatly and eat it. So the idea is for the filling and crust to come out together, but this may not happen. Keywords here being may and not. 

What I did is, I baked it, then I took it out, and I didnt like what it looked like. So I took a spoon and mashed it all up, and then put it in the freezer. I then microwaved it and served it, which worked for me. To avoid this, do not mash with the spoon. 


Another thing, you do not have to first bake the crust and then bake again with the filling, you can just bake both together. I am going to try that soonish. For this, you prepare pie dough, lay it out in the pre greased tin, and then pour the filling in. THEN bake for twenty minutes. Maybe this works better. 


I love you friend! Keep looking at this space for more surprises! :)

Cooking with no purpose except for love for a friend and a mother

So its been some time since Ive written something, and it feels strange that the challenge is over, but my blogging spirit hasnt died, oh no no no, it hasnt. Maybe it does, maybe it never does. I dont know how to keep the blogging gods happy. Anyway, endure this post. 


So both dishes involve onions, find yourself four small ones, or umm, two big ones. Grr. 


First up is chicken. I dont have a recipe source, the source is my lovely friend across the oceans. I love you so, lets watch the flowers grow! Yoohoo. Hmm. This is called murgh malai but doesnt have anything to do with malai, but its called murgh malai anyway, so here goes.. 


SHAY'S MURGH MALAI WITH NO MALAI 
(chicken with green things and no milk products whatsoever. none) 


What you need: 
Two small onions, chopped finely, lengthwise 
A handful of coriander, more root and stem, less leaves 
One or two green chillies, blanched 
Sugar to taste, approx one tablespoon should be your taste 
Salt to taste 
Half a kilo of boneless chicken 
One bay leaf, some cardamom, (big size preferred), some cinnamon sticks, I used one
Oil to cook 


What to do: 


1. Wash the chicken. Very important. 


2. Fry the onions in some oil, dont deep fry, shallow fry. Keep aside, and when they cool down a bit, blend them in your mixie. 

3. Blend the coriander, keep aside. I added some salt, because according to my domestic help, it would go black otherwise, and I dont really like black looking coriander. Also, you may need to add some water while blending. 

4. Blend the green chillies, keep aside. 


5. Now ready, steady, start. 


6. Heat up some oil in a wok, and add the bay leaf, cinnamon and cardamom. Let them fry around. Before they burn, add some sugar. Then add the onion paste thing, and then the chicken. 

7. Kasso the chicken. "Kasso is when you keep stirring so that the chicken absorbs the flavor." That is said by the expert. :) 


8. Once youve done that, add some salt, then add the coriander paste and after some time, add the chili paste. 


9. It may get watery, but eventually it will dry up to lovely gravy consistency. Wait for it choons. 


10. Once you know its done, (cut one piece and check if its pink. If pink, cook more. If white, its done.) take it off the flame and enjoy. 

It was so good I ate straight off the wok, but you can be all shmancy, go through the rigmarole, and transfer it to a bowl. Blah. 


Ok so the next thing was a vegetarian tian. What is a tian? Here is what it is: A tian -- a layered, baked vegetable dish that originated in Provence but is also common to city kitchens. (source: http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/14/french-vegetable-tian/) 


Here is what my mother wanted me to make for her. Dont get confused. The previous source is for another tian recipe, and this one is what I used today. 


VEGETARIAN TIAN 
Source: http://www.fortheloveofcooking.net/2009/02/vegetable-tian.html

What you need: 


Olive oil 
Two small onions, chopped finely lengthwise 
Garlic, smashed or chopped, to taste 
One large potato, cut into rounds, around a quarter of an inch thick, with the skin unpeeled
One largeish bottle gourd, (lauki), cut into rounds, around a quarter of an inch thick, with the skin peeled 
One zucchini (torI), cut into rounds, around a quarter of an inch thick, with the skin peeled
Salt, pepper, crushed oregano, crushed rosemary, to taste 
Some cottage cheese/parmesan for the top 


What to do: 


1. Grease a tart tin. 


2. Fry the onions and garlic together. Take off wok and add to the tart shell. 


3. Add the potato, bottle gourd, and zucchini alternately. This is what it looked like. 

4. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary. 

5. Bake for approx 20 minutes. Take out, add the cottage cheese, put back in. 

6. Depending on how hungry the mother is, wait for the cottage cheese to brown. I didnt really get to that stage. 

Eat it hot, soon you will cringe at the idea. Imagine, the sun had the gall to peep out today in Delhi.