Nimki...

I'm late, horribly late. A post that I wanted to share with you all during Bijoya Dahsami or Dushera, I'm writing it now, a day before Diwali. Sometimes I get busy with so many other things in life that blogging takes a back seat. All other priorities, family, friends and health always come first. But this time it was me and my laziness. May be it was the Pujo hangover. I'm still reeling with all the fun and gossip we did.

How to make a simple vanilla cake...

Today I'm going to share a simple basic recipe for making a vanilla cake. A recipe that can be followed by anyone. For a long time I have been requested to post this but haven't done it till date. Though I bake this cake at least thrice a month as a snack for my kid. It is so easy and simple that my nine year old knows how to do it. 

This is the recipe I have seen my mother and aunts use while baking cakes in winter. It was like a ritual in our house to bake at least one cake during our winter break. I remember it was such a exciting day for us. It was more of an event. We used to announce with pride to our friends "today Ma's going to bake a cake, so we can't join you to play badminton this morning". Badminton, oranges and cake were such integral part of our winter days.

Coming back to the cake, there was an electric oven to bake the cake, a small round shaped aluminium  oven with flat top and bottom with a glass top from where you can see the cake rising. It was my father's duty to take out the oven from its box. Yes, it used to be kept in its original box throughout the year waiting to be used during winter for our family celebration of Christmas and new year.

Blueberry cake...

It's surprising how life changes lane, taking a new turn,  sometimes showing you a different perspective altogether. You do things that you never thought of, you love  things that you  may have hated till now...life changes or we change, I feel we grow as we go on. Like I never knew I would love baking so much. For me baking was just a cake during Christmas. And now it has expanded to various breads, cakes, cupcakes etc. I now love every single step of baking. Measuring, mixing, working to get the perfect texture and so on. Baking is such an addiction.

Usually I bake a simple vanilla cake as a snack for my family. This time the kid bought a box of blueberry. She enjoyed baking last time, and we had  baked a fruit and nut bundt cake together. Yeah summer break!!! fun for the kid, not always same for the parents though. :) So it is the story of a box full of blueberries and a heart shaped cake.

This above picture of blueberries is my entry to "The Color Me Photography Challenge Series". The series is organised and hosted by Priya of The Humpty Dumpty Kitchen. The month of July is for "Colour Me Purple (And Blue and Violet!)". 

Back to the cake. It is a simple vanilla cake, I added the blueberries as the kid wanted it that way. I used the heart shaped pan just for fun.

Things needed to make blueberry cake:

(This will make a 10 inch round cake, or two 6 inch heart shape cake)

• Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup
• Sugar: 1 and 1/4 cup
• Eggs: 4
• Flour: 1 and 1/2 cup
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Milk: 1/4 cup
• Blueberries: 1 cup
• Extra butter to grease
• Extra flour to dust

Steps of making blueberry cake:

1. Bring all the ingredients to room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Grease the pan with butter or oil, sprinkle four or you can line the pan with parchment paper.

2. Wash the blueberries well, pat them dry.

3. Cream the unsalted butter and granulated sugar. I used a hand blender for this. Add eggs one by one, mix well after adding each one. Scrape the sides with a spatula as you are mixing. Add vanilla essence, mix well.

4. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder. If you are using salted butter, then don't add salt. Mix one third of the flour mix and gently fold it in. Add half of the milk, mix with spatula. Repeat till all the flour and milk are used.

5. Pour cake batter in the prepared pan. Drop some blueberries.

6. Bake at 375 F for 30 min, on the middle rack. Check with a toothpick or skewer whether the cake is done or not. Remove from oven, cool on a wire rack. You can decorate cake as you like, I sprinkled confectionery sugar on the cake.

And dusting the cake with sugar left such a beautiful design on my table. I couldn't help but take a picture of that.

Pretty, isn't it? I call it a sugar heart. And again this little things that may not be very important to others, but I love them, tiny, insignificant but enough to make me happy.

Print Recipe

Blueberry cake
(for one 10 inch round cake)

Ingredients:
Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup
Sugar: 1 and 1/4 cup
Eggs: 4
Flour: 1 and 1/2 cup
Milk: 1/4 cup
Salt: 1 tsp
Baking powde: 1 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Blueberries: 1 cup
Butter to grease pan
Flour to dust pan

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Grease and dust pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one by one, mix well.
3. Add vanilla extract.
4. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder.
5. Add 1/3 of flour mix, fold in with a spatula. Add half of the milk. Repeat till all the flour and milk are used.
6. Pour cake batter on prepared pan, drop few blueberries, bake for 30 min at 375 F.
7. Cool down on a wire rack.

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Stuffed Jalapeno..

Jalapeno(pronounced as halapeno) is a Mexican chili. It's green in color, becomes red when ripe. Mature jalapenos are super-hot. One can use it as pickle, or as topping for pizza, over nachos, with fajita, or grill and have it as a side, options are endless. I like to have them in a very desi-way. I stuff the jalapenos with boiled mashed potato and dip them in gram flour batter and fry them. I serve these potato-stuffed jalapeno with steamed rice and dal. You can use any stuffing of your choice. Be it cheese or chicken it taste equally good.

Things needed to make Stuffed Jalapeno:

• Jalapeno: 5-6
• Potato: 1 large
• Roasted Cumin powder: 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder: 1 tsp
• Chat masala: 1/2 tsp
• Gram flour/Besan: 1 cup
• Rice flour: 2 tbsp
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Ginger (grated): 1 tbsp
• Garlic paste: 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Water
• Oil for deep frying

How to make Stuffed Jalapeno:

1. Wash and peel the potato. Cut potato into quarters and cook till soft. I used a pressure cooker to save time.

2. Let the potatoes cool down. Mash the potato and add roasted cumin powder, garam masala powder, chat masala, salt to the mashed potato, mix well.

3. As the potato is being ready, wash the jalapeno and pat dry with kitchen towel. Make a vertical slit on one side and take out the seeds with the help of a spoon. Either you can retain the stalk of the jalapeno or cut it off, as per your choice.

4. Sprinkle salt on the jalapenos and let it stand for 15-20 min. It will release some water discard that. Stuff the jalapenos with the potato.

5. In a bowl take gram flour (besan), rice flour, juice from the grated ginger, garlic paste, salt and make a paste by adding water. Make a smooth paste, without any lumps. If like you can add some kalonji(black seeds) in the batter, too. The thickness of the batter should be like the picture below.

6. In a deep pan or kadai heat enough oil to deep fry the jalapenos. When the oil is hot reduce the temperature, dip the stuffed jalapenos in the batter and fry till evenly golden brown. Keep the temperature to medium to medium high.

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Chicken Bites

Crunchy Munchy Chicken Bites

Like most kids of her age,  my daughter also loves to eat in McD or Chick-fil-A. But I love to make my kid's favourite food at home, which I feel is always a more healthier option. And seeing your kid appreciate the food and finishing off the plate without complaining is a reward indeed. Today I made some chicken bites for her. It is a very easy and a kid friendly snack.

The things you need to make the bites are:

• Chicken breast (cut into 1 inch cubes): 400 gm
• White onion (grated): 1 tbsp
• Garlic (grated): 1-2 cloves
• Corriander leaved (finely chopped): 1 tbsp
• Worcestershire sauce: 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder: 1/4 tsp
• Egg (beaten): Half
• Panko breadcrumbs: 1/2 cup
• Oil

How to make the bites:

1. Wash the chicken and pat dry it with  a kitchen towel. Cut into 1 inch cubes.

2. Mix grated onion, grated garlic, chopped corriander leaves, worcestershire sauce, salt, black pepper and egg together, and marinate the chicken for 1hr. in the refrigerator in a closed container.

3. In a plate or a baking sheet spread panko breadcrumbs. Take the marinated chicken pieces and shook off the excess marination. Coat the chicken pieces with panko breadcrumbs.

Panko is a type of breadcrumb used in Japanese cuisine. This is more coarse, flaky and larger than normal breadcrumb.I like using it is, as it gives a nice crunchier  and crispier coating than normal breadcrumbs.

If you do not have panko at home, do not worry just go on with regular breadcrumb. But once you try this Japanese version of breadcrumb, I am sure you will use it everytime...:)

4. Now fry the chicken bites to golden brown and serve with tomato ketchup.

Your little one will love them for sure.

Mushroom cutlets

Mushroom and Green Pea Cutlets

It was raining. So wanted to make something to go with a hot cup of tea and something that my daughter would like. Luckily I had a box of button mushrooms, EUREKA!! So here it is, a simple kid-friendly(even her father liked it) mushroom-green pea cutlets.

The things you need are:

• Button mushrooms: 12-14 (chopped)
• Boiled potato: 1 medium size
• Onion: 2tbsp (chopped)
• Green pea: 1/4 cup
• Olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Sugar: 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper powder: 1/4tsp
• Garlic: 1 clove (crushed)
• Cinnamon powder: 1/4tsp
• Parsley:1/4tsp (dried) [If you do not have parsley, then replace it with 1 tbsp of chopped fresh corriander leaves]
• Egg:1
• Breadcrumbs

How to make the cutlets:

1. Take a non stick pan and heat some olive oil. When the oil is hot add crushed garlic. Add the chopped onions. Cook for 5min in medium heat, stir in between.

2. Add the chopped mushrooms. Cook in high heat. The mushrooms will release a lot of water. Add green peas and the mashed potato. I used frozen green peas, so I washed and thawed them before adding. If you are using fresh green peas, boil them in water for 5min, strain and add.

3. Add cinnamon powder, salt, black pepper powder, sugar and dried parsley. Mix well. The mix should be dry. Just take a little of the mix and try to make a ball, if it falls apart then it needs to be cooked longer. And if you can make a ball with it then it's just right.

4. Let the mix cool down. Shape it into cutlets or whatever shape you like.

5. In a bowl mix egg and water(1:1). Dip each cutlet into the egg then coat it with breadcrumbs. Let it stand for 5min, then again dip it in egg and coat it with breadcrumbs. Repeat this process for all the cutlets.

6.Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot fry the cutlets to nice golden brown color. I shallow fried the cutlets, but you can always deep fry them.

Sit beside the window, take a bite of the cutlet, sip the hot tea and watch the rain, enjoy the simple pleasure of life.