Plain Vanilla Cake with Tutti-Frutti

My darling friend from work, ‘S’, was kind enough to lend her hand blender to me last Friday so that I could bake some delights and test it at the same time. Her Oven is dead for the past few weeks and she told me to keep it for a month at least, till she fixes her Oven! YAY!

I do not remember when I last baked a Cake and had almost nothing fancy in my stockpile, hence decided to bake a Plain Vanilla Cake, found some Tutti-Frutti left from the last batch of Biscotti, hence dusted them in some plain flour and added them too, it gave a lovely look to the end product.

(I was impatient when I flipped the cake and was tapping the cake pan too hard, which made that crack, excuse me please)

Here is what you will need to make my Plain Vanilla Cake with Tutti-Frutti:

·         All Purpose Flour : 1.5 cups

·         Granulated White Sugar : 1 cup

·         Pure Vanilla Extract – 2 tsp

·         Butter : ½ cup – at room temperature (I used salted Butter, as I did not have unsalted one, hence I did not add Salt to the batter)

·         Eggs : 2 – at room temperature

·         Baking Powder : 2 tsp

·         Milk : 1 cup – at room temperature

·         Tutti-Frutti : a handful (optional)

Here is the method to bake my Plain Vanilla Cake with Tutti-Frutti:

·         Preheat the Oven to 180C / 356F

·         In a big missing bowl, cream the Butter and the Sugar, beat till a good amount of air goes into the batter, till fluffy

·         Add the Eggs one by one, beat one in then add the second one

·         Add the Pure Vanilla Extract and mix one more time

·         Mix the All Purpose Flour and the Baking Powder and beat in to the batter little at a time, keep the speed of the blender low, else your face will be covered in Flour

·         Add the Milk and beat it in, once the flour is added, beat as less as you can as the more you beat at this stage, the harder your Cake will get

·         Grease the Cake pan with Butter

·         Dust the Tutti-Frutti with a tsp of flour so that when added to the batter, they do not sink to the bottom

·         Fold the Tutti-Frutti into the batter

·         Pour the cake batter into the cake pan

·         Bake at the same temperature for 40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean

·         Let it cool down on a cooling rack for about 10 mins

·         Loosen up the sides with a butter knife and turn it upside down onto a plate

·         You can let it cool or eat it warm, with a little ice cream, some topping or some whipped cream, as you like it :)

Creamy Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Weekends are a complete mess these days, Saturday goes mostly in shopping and Sunday goes in preparing for the next week. As the temperature shoots up to a searing 40 degrees, we are living off fruits, coolers, iced tea, cold coffee, squashes, crushes, ice-creams and  when it comes to eating a meal, it is mostly a lentil soup, some rice accompanied with a slice of a fried fish. After two days of staying indoors and eating these plain-Jane meals, it was time for us to indulge into something nice and light, not full of rich spices but something simple. I had a Chicken Breast sitting in the freezer (I usually get a few Chicken Breasts and boil them with a pinch of salt to 5 whistles, shred them and store them, so that I can throw them in into any dish that I am making, they come in very handy when I am making noodles, pasta, fried rice or sometimes even use them for sandwich filling) and had some Spaghetti Pasta too so decided to make this incredible Creamy-Cheesy-Chicken- Spaghetti. This tasted so wonderful that I had to post the recipe. It needs only a few ingredients and can be on your week night menu, always :)

Here is what you will need to make this Creamy-Cheesy-Chicken- Spaghetti:

Serves – 2

·         Chicken Breast – 1 – shredded (I used my hands to shred it)

·         Spaghetti – 200 gms

·         Garlic – 4 cloves - grated

·         Onion – 1 medium – finely chopped

·         Green Bell Pepper – 1 small – finely chopped

·         Fresh Cream – 200 gms (I used 1 tetra pack)

·         Tomato Chili Sauce – 1 tbsp

·         EVOO – 2 tbsps

·         Cheese – 1 Cube – grated, I used 1 cube from a Mother Dairy pack

·         Salt to taste

·         Pepper to taste

How to make Creamy-Cheesy-Chicken- Spaghetti:

·         Cook the Spaghetti as per instructions on the pack to al-dente and set aside.

·         Heat the EVOO; add the grated Garlic and sauté.

·         Add the Onion and Green Bell Pepper and sauté for a minute or two.

·         Add Salt and Pepper and stir.

·         Add the Tomato Chili Sauce for a little bit of tang (optional).

·         Add the cooked shredded Chicken and mix well.

·         Add the Fresh Cream and mix, let it simmer for a minute, don’t let it dry out, it should be able to coat the Spaghetti’s properly and should be thick.

·         Taste the sauce, add more Salt and Pepper if needed.

·         Turn off the gas, add the Spaghetti and mix with a tong softly.

·         Serve into a plate, top it with grated Cheese and enjoy!

Jeera Rice - Cumin flavored Rice in the Rice Cooker

The most important change I made to my original Jeera Rice recipe to make this one was adding Mint and Coriander; it added a brilliant flavorful punch to the dish. I made this in the Rice Cooker which is also something I did not previously, but now that I know how to make it in the Rice Cooker, I would prefer to cook it this way rather than on the Gas stove where I have to keep a constant watch on it. It is super easy and needs a very few ingredients as well.

Here is what you need to prepare Jeera Rice:

·         Basmati Rice – 1 Cup

·         Ghee / Clarified Butter – 2 tsp

·         Cumin Seeds / Jeera – 2 tsp

·         Green Chillies – 3-4  (to taste)

·         Mint Leaves – 7-8 (optional)

·         Coriander Leaves  - 2-3 sprigs

·         Saffron / Kesar – soaked in 2 tsps of water

·         Salt to taste

·         Fried Onions – 2 medium (optional)

How to prepare Jeera Rice:

·         Wash and drain the Basmati Rice and keep

·         Heat Ghee / Clarified Butter in a pan

·         Add the Cumin Seeds, Green Chillies, Mint and Coriander leaves and stir

·         Add the drained Basmati Rice and mix in

·         Add required amount of Salt

·         Transfer entire contents to a Rice Cooker

·         Add two cups of water and let is cook

·         After some when most of the water is soaked, add the Kesar

·         Once done, garnish with fried Onions and serve

We ate this with Murgh Achaari and a wonderful mixed Salad

Aloo Dum-e Dumdaar - Baby Potatoes with Green Peas, Tomatoes and whole spices

  

I have never been fond of any preparation with boiled potatoes in them till I ate this dish made by my Mum-In-Law. Baby Potatoes with some whole spices and deseeded tomatoes this is, to be eaten with warm Phulkas (Roasted Indian Flat Breads) on cold winter nights. No Green Chilies are used in this dish, only peppercorns, chopped Red Chillis and a dash of Chilli Flakes and Black pepper powder to garnish – that provides enough heat to the dish. The original recipe does not have Green Peas in it, I wanted to add a dash of green along with the red from the Tomatoes and the Chillies and it looked fabulous; it did not hamper the taste in any way.

I had picked up some baby potatoes from the grocery store over the weekend with particularly this dish in mind, texted my Mum-In-Law for the recipe before calling her, so that she would be ready with one of her numerous recipe notebooks (she has this huge..no HUGE collection of fantastic recipes spread across various notebooks). Later I called her and she was very kind to explain everything well. This was our dinner last night and we totally loved it.

Here are the ingredients needed to make Aloo Dum-e Dumdaar:

Serves: 4

·         Baby Potatoes – 500 gms – peeled (Quartered regular potatoes can also be used, but the dish looks much better with Baby Potatoes)

·         Onion – 2 medium – chopped

·         Garlic – mined – 1 tsp

·         Ginger – cut into fine 1 cm long strands – 10-12

·         Tomato – 1 large – deseeded and chopped

·         Green Peas – a handful

·         Whole Red Chillies – 4 (as much or as little as you want) cut into small slices using a Scissor

·         Cloves – 4

·         Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp

·         Fennel Seeds – ½ tsp

·         Whole Peppercorns – 10-15

·         Some Chilli Flakes to garnish

·         A dash of Black Pepper powder

·         Cooking Oil

·         Salt to taste

·         Sugar to balance

How to make Aloo Dum-e Dumdaar:

·         Pressure cook the baby potatoes for 1 whistle on low, let the pressure go down on its own – once the pressure goes down, drain, smear the potatoes with Salt and keep

·         In a Pan, heat cooking oil, add Cumin Seeds, Fennel Seeds, Cloves, Whole Peppercorns and let them sizzle

·         Add the chopped Garlic and stir for a minute

·         Add the chopped Onions and cook till translucent

·         Add chopped Tomatoes

·         Add Sugar and stir and cook for 2-3 minutes till Tomatoes become tender

·         Add the Green Peas

·         Add the Baby Potatoes, make sure the gas is turned down to the lowest

·         Mix well, cover and cook for 3-5 mins

·         Do a taste test, add more salt if needed

·         Garnish with some Chilli Flakes and black pepper and relish with Phulkas

NOTE: Water is not required to prepare this dish, adding water will spoil the look and taste of the dish, this is essentially a dry preparation

Shrimp Pulav with Coconut Milk (in the Microwave Oven)

My love for Shrimp is unconditional, eternal and next to God! Almost every weekend when we replenish the stock to cook for the coming week, we make sure we have some fresh Shrimps, whatever size it may be, stocked! However, the fish monger has not been getting them for a couple of months now and I had to sustain on the King Prawns served by the Chinese Restaurants nearby. No, he is not the only fish monger in the market, but nobody gets better sea food than him. Last weekend miraculously he got these medium sized Shrimps after ages and we got some without any dish in mind.

I had a terrible cold coupled with an even worse sprained arm (thanks to the roller coaster rides at an Amusement Park the weekend before) and our weekend started early as I had to rest that arm for some time. The Shrimps were still sitting in the freezer and we had to eat lunch, ‘A’ insisted on home delivery as he did not want me to strain my arm any further; I was not very keen, I wanted to make something in a jiffy so that I do not end up damaging my arm further. Hence thought of throwing everything into a pan, sautéing and assembling into the Micro for it to do the work for me. The end result was finger-licking-good!

My other Shrimp Pulao recipe is here. It does not have Coconut Milk in it and is not made in the Micro.

Here is what you will need to make Shrimp Pulav with Coconut Milk in the Micro

Serves: 2

·         Shrimps – medium sized – cleaned and deveined – I kept the tails on as they are too much flavorful to be thrown away – 300 gms

·         Basmati Rice – 1 Cup (I used Gobindo Bhog Rice and it tasted heavenly)

·         Ghee / Clarified Butter – 2 tbsp

·         Cinnamon – 1” stick

·         Green Cardamoms – 4

·         Cloves – 4

·         Bay Leaves – 2

·         Shahi Jeera – 1tsp

·         Black Peppercorns – 10

·         Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilli Paste – 2 tsp

·         Onions – 2 medium - thinly sliced

·         Peas – a handful

·         Carrots – a handful, chopped

·         Spring Onions – 3-4 – chopped – I had these so added, it is totally optional

·         Cauliflower – about 15 small florets (optional)

·         Tomato – 1 medium – chopped

·         Turmeric Powder – 1 tbsp

·         Salt to taste

·         Sugar to balance

·         Coconut Milk – 1 Cup

·         Water – 1 Cup ( 2 Cups of Coconut Milk and no water can also be used - it will just make the Pulav richer )

·         1 large Micro safe bowl

·         Some Cling Wrap

Note: The Vegetables I added was what I had my stockpile, add or subtract whatever you want

How to make Shrimp Pulav with Coconut Milk in the Micro:

·         Wash the Rice and set aside

·         Heat Ghee in a Pan and temper with Cinnamon, Green Cardamoms, Cloves, Shahi Jeera and Black Peppercorns

·         Add the Onions and fry sauté till they are translucent

·         Add the Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilli Paste and sauté for a couple of minutes

·         Add the Carrots, Spring Onions and Cauliflower florets and stir for a minute

·         Add the tomatoes and wait for a couple of minutes till they are a little tender

·         Add the Salt Sugar and Turmeric Powder and stir well

·         Add the Shrimps and stir for a minute

·         Add the Rice and fry for 2-3 minutes, mix everything very well

·         Pour all the contents into a Micro safe bowl

·         Add 1 Cup of Coconut Milk

·         Add 1 Cup of Water

·         Cover with Cling Film

·         With a fork puncture the Cling Film at 2-3 places, so that the hot air can escape

·         Put it in the Micro for 20 minutes on high

·         Once done, take it out and give it 5 minutes of standing time

·         Serve hot