Mango Mousse Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

At Hardik and Shweni's farewell party, there was this mango mousse cake that I liked a lot. The first bite into it and I wanted to make my own cake :) In fact the cake was such a hit that people wanted to leave Seattle so that they get farewell and this cake :) When everybody were talking about this, I was quite and when they turned to me, somebody mentioned: "No, Sheetal doesn't need to leave Seattle, she will make it herself :)". I thought the expectations from me are rising, so i didn't say anything that time, but that was the very moment I had decided to try this out over weekend itself. The one we ate had used artificial mango flavor, I decided to use using Alphonso mango pulp, the taste has come out really well. Now I just need to invite all the party attendees to validate if Cake is at least as good as the one they had got :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
3 Eggs
200g Cream Cheese
3 Cup Whipping Cream
5 Cup Alphonso Mango Pulp
1 Spoon Corn Starch
2 Spoon Milk Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Powder
1.75 Cup Sugar
4 Spoon Gelatin
4 Spoon Lemon Juice
2 Spoon Oil
1.25 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1/4 Spoon Salt

Method

• Preheat oven at 350F/175C.
• Sieve through Maida, corn starch 5 times. Add in milk powder, baking powder and sieve couple of times. Keep aside
• In a standing mixer whip egg whites and salt together till foamy.
• Add in 1/4 Cup Sugar and whip till peaks can hold. Keep aside.
• In a bowl whisk egg yolks, 1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essence and 1/4 cup Sugar and whisk till sugar dissolves.
• Add in oil and another 1/2 spoon Vanilla Essence and whisk for 30 seconds.
• Carefully fold in egg whites.
• Fold in Maida mixture 1/3rd at a time. Don't over stir.
• Line the springform or any 9inch round baking pan with parchment paper, grease it and pour in the batter.
• Bake the cake in oven at 350F/175C for 20 minutes.
• Immediately take out the cake on the wire-rack and let it cool down.
• In the mean time, in a pan heat 1/4 Cup Sugar and 1/4 Cup Water together with stirring till it boils. Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes and then take off the heat. Add in 1/4 Spoon Vanilla Essence and let the mixture cool down a bit.
• While the sugar syrup is cooling down, in a bowl whip cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 2 spoon lemon juice together till soft.
• Heat 1/4 Cup Water in microwave for 1 minute. Add in 2 spoon gelatin and mix till it dissolves completely. Whip it in cream cheese mixture.
• In separate bowl, whip whipping cream till its fluffy and can hold peaks. Fold it in the cream cheese mixture.
• Fold in 3 cup mango pulp till mixture is smooth consistency.
• Now divide the cake into two layers. Put one layer at bottom of the 9inch springform pan. Brush 1/2 of sugar syrup over the cake. Pour in half of mango cream mixture. smooth it with spatula. Put the second layer of cake, brush it with remaining sugar syrup. Pour remaining mango cream mixture and smooth it with spatula. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
• After the cake has refrigerated for 45 minutes, take remaining 2 cup mango puree in bowl, add in 2 spoon lemon juice and heat it over medium flame. Cook the mixture till its hot, don't let it boil or you will loose the flavor. Take off heat.
• In a bowl microwave 1/4 cup of water for 1 minute. Add in remaining 2 spoon gelatin and let it dissolve completely. Mix this mixture in mango puree and stir thoroughly. Let it stand still so that its warm to touch. Stir the mixture again.
• Take off the cake from refrigerator and pour the mango puree over all over the cake. It should form uniform layer over the cake.
• Refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. Remove the ring, decorate with fruits and cut into pieces.

Notes
The second layer of cake if is of same diameter as the spring form cake, cut its side so that when you remove the cake there is only base layer visible. My cake was fluffy in the middle so when i cut it into two layers, the top one was automatically less in diameter so worked out perfect.
If you let the cake cool out in pan itself, it will stick to the pan so it is very important to flip it on wire-rack immediately.
I have used mango pulp which is sweetened hence if you are using fresh mango puree then sweeten it with sugar.
Even though process looks lengthy, after first try you will know that the process isn't tedious. Once you know what to do, it is easier and off course the end result is mind blowing :)

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Cabbage Pattice

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. With parents around, then our vacation, in last few months, I had to hardly anytime make breakfast. So given the long break from cooking breakfast and Jetlag which makes me wake up really early in the morning, i was set to try out something different for breakfast. So here comes the new entry.


Ingredients
2 Cup Cabbage
2 Potatoes
2 Spoon Corn Flour
1/4 Cup Rava
1/2 Spoon Jeera
2-3 Garlic Cloves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook potatoes and keep aside till they are cold enough to handle
• Heat a pan and add few drops of oil.
• Let the Jeera splutter in it.
• Add in finely chopped garlic and cabbage and cook till cabbage is brown.
• Grate the potato and add the corn flour, salt to paste
• Knead it well, put couple of drops of oil and finish the kneading.
• Make lemon sized potato balls and press them to make a cup shape.
• Add in half spoon of mixture in each cup and close them. Press each ball lightly to make Pattice
• Roll each Pattice in the rava and cook them on tawa sprinkling drops of oil couple of times.

Notes
I didn't want to make the cabbage very spicy instead i wanted to give it flavor of garlic and Jeera hence i didn't use any other spices in this at all. Its really upto you to decide the spices you want and can vary the flavor each time you make this.

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Veg Manchurian

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I like Indian style Chinese a lot and I make it very regularly. But after loosing Kitchen to Mom :), it was while since we had Chinese. So on Friday, I decided to take the kitchen in control and make Chinese menu for dinner. I have made Veg Machurian so many times but every time I had trouble with photo, so this time since the photo also came out okayish, here is the recipe.


Ingredients
2 Cup Cabbage
2 Cup Carrots
2 Cup Beans
1 Bell Pepper
1 Green Chilli
3 Spoon Corn Flour
5 Spoon Maida
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
2 Garlic Cloves
3 Stems of Spring Onions
1/4 Cup Sweet Chilli Sauce
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
2 Spoon Hot Chilli Sauce
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Chop cabbage, carrots, green chillies, beans and pepper into fine pieces.


• Add in salt to taste and mix well.


• Add in garlic paste, 4 spoon of Maida and 2 spoon of corn flour. Knead well to make the dough


• Make small balls from this dough and roll each of them into the remaining Maida and fry in the medium hot oil till golden in color. Keep aside.


• Heat oil in pan and add in finely chopped garlic cloves, spring onion's white part and fry till light brown in color.


• Add in sweet chilli sauce, hot chilli sauce, soy sauce and mix well.


• Take 3 cups of water and mix in 1 spoon of corn starch. Add it to the sauce that is boiling in the pan. Mix well


• Add in the Manchurian balls made earlier and cook for couple of minutes. Garnish with spring onion's green part and serve.

Notes
Normally I add in salt and keep aside the mixture of finely chopped vegetables aside so that i don't need to add extra water nor do the dough loosens after a while because of all the water that salt would come from the vegetables.
Instead of using sweet chilli and and hot chilli sauces, I have also used 3 spoon chilli flakes, 1/4 Cup Vinegar and 2 spoon sugar instead.

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Paneer Pattice

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Today morning Ajoy demanded something fancy and new for breakfast. After thinking for a while I came up with this :) It was tasty and we had it as brunch instead :)


Ingredients
4 Cup Finely diced Paneer
4 Potatoes
3 Spoon Corn Flour
1 Spoon Ginger
3 Green Chillies
5 Garlic Cloves
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Cook the potatoes in pressure cooker.
• In a mixie grind ginger, garlic and green chillies with 1/4 cup of water to fine paste.
• Heat oil in a pan and turmeric powder and the paste in it and saute for couple of minutes
• Add the diced paneer and salt it in it and cook till paneer is done well. Keep aside
• Peel off the potatoes and mash them to fine paste.
• Add in corn flour and salt to taste and knead to nice dough
• Make lemon sized balls and press down to make cups.
• Fill these cups with spoonful of paneer we made earlier and add close and flatten it
• Heat oil really well and fry till brown on all sides. Serve hot with ketchup

Notes
While frying the pattice, the oil should be really hot otherwise the potato coating will stick to the bottom.

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Okra Fry

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

The Inchin bamboo garden here serves this dish and its Ajoy's favorite. Of course it was Milind who introduced us to this dish given his liking for Okra. I wanted to try this out when he was staying with us but somehow it just remained a wish. Today finally I try this and I am glad I did. The dish turned out very nice. Worth making it multiple times.


Ingredients
5 Cups Okra
4 Spoon Maida
4 Spoon Corn Flour
1 Onion
1 Green Chili
3 Dried Red Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
2.5 Spoon Soy Sauce
1/2 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix in Maida, corn flour, red chili powder, garlic paste and salt to taste toegether.
• Add in water and make a running consistency batter for pakodas.
• Add in handful of okras in the batter and take them out into hot oil.
Fry them in oil on medium - high heat till the okras are golden in color. Keep aside on tissues to drain the oil. Fry all of the okra pieces similarly.
• Heat couple spoon of oil and add thinly sliced onion, green chili and garlic cloves. Saute till it turns light brown in color
• Add in dried red chillies crushing them by hand, soya sauce and saute.
• Add in fried okras and stir. Serve immediately

Notes
If you are going to serve this to guests, it would be good idea to keep fried okra ready but saute them in the sauce only just before serving that would help in keeping the crunchy, crispiness of the okra.

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Lauki Kofta

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy just loves lauki kofta so much so that he asks ma to make it every time we go to pune. Till last year, that did work out especially since we visited pune atleast each month. But after coming to Redmond, one thing I am sure Ajoy and me too missed was Ma's special Kofta. So this time when we were in india we did ask her to make it quite frequently but the recipe is so good that eating it once in a year doesn't satisfy the taste buds. So after I got the recipe from her, today I made it on valentine's day. Guess my gift to Ajoy :)


Ingredients
3 Cup Bottle Gourd
1 Cup Carrot
1.5 Cup Besan
3 Spoon Corn Flour
2 Onion
2 Tomato
2 Cup Curd
4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Green Chilli
1/4 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Raisins
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Grate bottle gourd and carrot and mix well
• Heat oil and add in jeera. Let it sputter
• Add in grated bottle gourd and carrot and mix well.
• Cook well stirring occasionally till the mixture dries up completely. Keep aside to cool down.
• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In a mixie add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt. Grind well.
• Add in cooked onion and grind to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In the bottle gourd and carrot mixture, add besan, corn flour make soft dough
• Prepare small balls with cashews, raisins and green chilli pieces in the center of them.
• Fry the koftas in oil to brown color and keep aside.
• In a pan add the grinded paste, 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till gravy attains consistency.
• Add in koftas and simmer for another few minutes. Take of the heat
• In a bowl, mix in curd, sugar and chaat masala.
• While serving koftas, add in the kofta with the gravy, add curd and then garnish with grated carrot and some cashew pieces and raisins

Notes
Instead of carrot you can use raw banana as well.

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Vegetables Stir Fry

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been having lots of vegetables in the freeze for quite some time. So today when we planned for quick lunch before heading out to cycling, how to quick something nice and yet something quick. Indo-chinese being my favorite cuisine I came up with this.


Ingredients
Handful of Ladies Fingers
Handful of Eggplant pieces
Handful of Cabbage
1 Cup Beans
1 Onion
1 Pepper
2 Spring-onions
6 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/2 Lemon
5 Spoon Soya Sauce
1 Spoon Ketchup
2 Spoon Corn Flour
Salt
Oil

Method

• Fry Ladies fingers in the oil and keep aside
• In a pan heat oil and add onions. Fry them till translucent
• Add in garlic cloves, chopped to fine pieces, eggplant pieces, beans, Pepper chopped, cabbage and cook them with constant stirring till the vegetables are cooked well.
• Add in fried ladies fingers, garlic and ginger paste and Lemon juice and stir again
• Add ketchup and soya sauce and stir for couple of minutes
• Mix corn flour with 6 cup of water and add in the vegetables. Cook till gravy thickens
• Add in salt and spring onions and stir for a minute. Serve with rice or noodles

Notes
To give it a little tangy taste, I used lemon but if you are not big on tangerines then you can just skip it. You cna also substitute lemon by a spoonful of Vinegar if you don't have lemon in stock.
I also wished I had some baby-corns and brocollies to add the taste, but never mind, there is always next time :)

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Chilli Prawns

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was looking to make something quick yet something different from the normal preparation (Prawns Masala) and then I came up with this.


Ingredients
300g Cleaned Prawns
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
1 Onion
4 Green Chillies
4 Spoon Dark Soya Sauce
2 Spoon Tomato Ketchup
2 Spoon Corn Flour
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Marinate the prawns with garlic paste and salt.
• Deep fry them in oil few at a time for a minute
• In same oil, add halved green chillies, onion and cook them with constant stirring
• Add soya sauce, ketchup and again cook for couple of minute
• Add prawns and stir for another minute
• Mix corn flour in two cups of water and add it to the cooking prawns
• Cook for 3-4 minutes till gravy thickens and prawns become tender

Notes
Well I didn't have spring onions to garnish otherwise I might have added it a bit for garnishing.

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Corn Sikh Kabab

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

We get lots of corn out here and I think its good source of fiber and roughage :) So we eat in abundance. But its normally after roasting it and sprinkling salt and lemon. This time I decided to try something different with it and here is the recipe I came up with.


Ingredients
4 Cobs with the corn
2 Potatoes
4 Spoon Corn Flour
6 Cloves of Garlic
2 Green Chillies
1 Onion
1/4 Cup Corriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Butter or Ghee

Method

• Add water to corn and cook over medium flame for around 25 minutes or till the corn is cooked. Keep aside to cool down
• Pressure cook potato in the cooker and keep aside to cool down
• In a mixie grind garlic, green chillie and onion to smooth paste
• Grate the corns, Mash the potatoes and mix them
• Add the grinded mixture, finely chopped corriander leaves, corn flour and salt to taste.
• Make the elongated kababs from this mixture.
• Preheat oven to 400F/200C
• Grease the baking tray with butter/ghee and spread the kababs
• Bake at 400F/200C for 15 minutes
• Flip the sides of the kabab and bake for another 15 minutes. Server with tomato ketchup

Notes
While making the mixture I tried to use less spicess as possible so that i can retain the taste of the corn and it worked well with hint of onion-garlic-chilli paste. But if you like you can add other masalas as well.
Just for completeness, the given quantity of corn flour worked best for my kabab mixture to be firm. You can add more or use less according to the consitency of the mixture.
You can also cook the kababs over tawa on medium to low heat but oven cooking worked best as i could manage other work while it was getting cooked :)

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Chilli Paneer

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I love chinese and its been ages since I had it outside. Yeah we had gone for it couple of weeks back but whatever we had ordered wasnt upto the mark and hence didnot count :) Hence yesterday I thought lets give it a shot at home. I have earlier tried these stuff at home as well, but then the taste wasnt authentic. But yesterday I can say I mastered it. So here is the recipe for you.


Ingredients
400gm Paneer
1 Onion
6 Chillies
15 Garlic Cloves
A Pinch of Black Pepper Powder
2 Spoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 Spoon Tomato Ketchup
1 Spoon Corn Flour
2-3 Strands of Spring Onion
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Cut the paneer into medium sized cubes and fry them in oil over medium heat till light gold in color. Keep aside
• In same oil fry onions till translucent.
• Add chopped chillies and garlic and cook till fragranant
• Add black pepper powder and Soy sauce and cook for a minute
• Add paneer cubes and tomato ketchup. Cook for 2-3 minutes
• Mix corn flour in a cup of water and add it to the paneer mixture.
• Add more water if needed and cook the paneer with closed lid for 3 minutes.
• Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve

Notes
Chop the green chillies in slanted fashion for this so that you get the same look and feel that you see in restaurants.
Do not fry paneer till its completely crispy from outside. You want to keep it as soft as possible and yet fry it so that it gets the proper texture.
Also if you are looking for it as starter which is dry, add little less water and cook for some more time if required so that the final result is dry :)

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