Almond Pistachio Craisn Biscotti

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Recently I discovered magic and power of library system here. The minute I stepped into library I knew I am going to pick lot of books and variety of topics. I must have spent more than 5 hours that week just browsing through books and selecting what all I like. I got this book on the desserts and it had this recipe. First time I made, I tried word to word with few changes in ingredients but this time I changed the proportion of butter, maida as well. I loved how nice and crispy it turned out. We are now set for atleast a week of 4pm snacks :)


Ingredients
3/4 Cup Butter
2.25 Cup Sugar
6.25 Cup Maida
2 Spoon Baking Powder
2 Lemon's Zest
4 Eggs
1 Cup Almonds
1 Cup Pistachios
1 Cup Craisins
2 Spoon Fennel Seeds
1 Spoon Salt

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
• Beat butter and sugar together until combined, about a minute.
• Add in Maida, baking powder, salt and lemon zest and beat again till mixed well.
• Add in one egg at a time and beat till mixed well.
• Add in chopped almonds, pistachios, craisins and saunf and again mix well.
• Dust the flat surface with little bit of maida and pull out the mixture and knead and shape it into two 12 inch logs that are just over 1 inch in height.
• Line a baking pan with the parchment paper and transfer the logs into it.
• Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Pull the logs out of oven and let them cool down for around 10 minutes
• Using sharp knife, slice the log diagonally around 1/2 inch thick slice.
• Transfer the logs into pan with cut side facing up, bake at 350F for another 25 minutes.
• Let the biscotti cool and then transfer into the container.

Notes
I used almonds, pistachio and craisins but really you can use any nuts and dry fruits. In fact this time I forgot to add saunf but last time I made this, I had added it and it gave nice taste and everyone loved it :)
I used my kitchenaid standing mixer to beat in everything, as it was much easier that way than the hand mixer. But if you don't have it, you can use hand mixer too.

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Pear Bars

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was looking to bake something new and yet something that would be ready in couple of hours. This turned out amazing twist to the lemon bars I had made last month. Since with lemon bars I felt the presence of egg was too strong for my liking, I was interested in something that would use less egg and that's when I decided to create these using fusion of cheese cake and bar. I cant believe that this was my so far the most bold *experiment*given that I was to serve the friends who were coming over for dinner right away without any margin to recover but thankfully this turned out really great.


Ingredients
1 Cup Butter
2.25 Cup Sugar
1.5 Egg
1.5 cup Maida
2.5 Spoon Vanilla Essence
2.75 Cup Pecans
12Oz Cream Cheese
2 Pears
1/2 Spoon Cinnamon Powder

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
• Using handheld mixer cream the butter till very fluffy and light.
• Add in 2/3 cup of sugar and cream further.
• Add in 1 spoon of vanilla essence, sieved Maida and cream further.
• Mix in the coarsely chopped nuts.
• Grease two baking pans of 6inch in size and spread half of mixture evenly in each pan.
• Bake in oven at 350F/175C for 22 minutes.
• Let the base layer cool down in the pan itself for about 30 minutes
• After 30 minutes, with the handheld electric mixer cream the cream cheese till soft and even.
• Add in 1.5 cup sugar, egg and remaining 1.5 spoon of vanilla essence in the cream cheese and cream till soft and even.
• Cut the pears such that their center is removed and then slice them. Add in 1 Spoon of sugar and mix well. Keep aside.
• Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
• Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly in both the baking pans half in each.
• Spread the pear slices on top of this mixture.
• Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining (around 1 spoon of) sugar evenly on top of pears.
• Bake in the oven over 370F/190C for about 35 minutes.
• Take out of the oven. Let it cool for 30 minutes and then transfer it to fridge for at least another hour and then serve by making square pieces.

Notes
I know 1.5 egg is hard to measure :) but I tried using the mixture with 1 egg and 1 cheese packet but it wasn't enough to cover both pans. For the next egg, I beat the egg and took half the quantity. But in case you are baking this in single pan you could use 8-9 inch pan and use 1 egg with 1 packet of cream cheese. Note you would need to use 1 cup of sugar in that case.
I used pecan nuts because I had them available at home, but you can theoretically use any nuts, they give nice crunch and crisp taste.
I used little overripe pears so they turned out nice tender and I didn't have trouble while making pieces of the dessert.
When you take out the final bar out of the oven, there might be liquid on top, don't worry about it, it sets after the bars cool down.

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Kaju Katli

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been wanting to try this for a while now. I made this almost two years ago for Diwali when mom dad were here. After that it just slipped out of radar so this time when Ajoy asked me to make these I was not sure if I will remember what I had done and the learning's from the last time. But thankfully I had rough notes from then that I had sent to mom. So it was pretty easy to recollect. This time it came out perfectly and I did big photo session of them :) so I cannot find any excuse to not post this. This recipe has to be easiest to make and something that will get you lot of appreciation in return.


Ingredients
6 Cup Cashews
1 Cup Milk Powder
2 Cup Sugar
Pinch of Cardamom Powder
Silver Leaf

Method

• Grind cashews into fine powder in the mixer
• Mix the cashew powder and milk powder together
• Heat tawa till very hot and then take off the heat
• Add the cashew and milk powder mixture into the tawa and keep stirring till the mixture is warm to touch. Keep aside in a bowl
• Heat 1.5 cup water with sugar to make 2 string syrup.
• Add in the cardamom powder and the sugar syrup in the cashew mixture and mix well. Knead to get the soft dough.
• On a baking pan or any big plate, lay out butter paper and put the dough and press it hard and spread the mixture.
• Apply the silver leaf and let the mixture cool for atleast couple of hours.
• Cut the kaju katlis and serve.

Notes
Getting the sugar syrup right and kneading well is one key for the success.
Also when spreading the mixture into a plate, pressing it hard and then smoothing it with butter paper will get you correctly set katli.

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Harabhara Kabab

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I made these kebabs on Saturday and I felt they were so much better than earlier version. Everyone was asking for recipe so here it is. (Note I had this in my drafts for 2 months and finally getting around to put it on the blog :))


Ingredients
6 Cup Muttor
2 Big Potatoes
1.5 Cup Paneer
3 Handful Spinach Leaves
2 Handful Coriander Leaves
1 Handful Pudina Leaves
3 Green Chillies
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Chaat Masala
1 Spoon Aamchur Powder
1/4 Cup Breadcrumbs
1 Cup Cashews
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook potatoes and let them cool off. Peel off cover and mash them into big bowl.
• Microwave 4 cups of muttor for 3 minutes.
• Add the muttor and spinach leaves to mixie and grind to fine paste.
• Add in coriander leaves, green chillies, garlic cloves and salt. Grind again to fine paste. Pour the paste into the bowl with potatoes
• Add grated paneer, chaat masala, aamchur powder and breadcrumbs and mix well.
• Microwave remaining 2 cup muttor for 2 minutes and add it to the bowl and mix well.
• Make small balls, flatten them, press in a cashew and shallow fry the kebabs on medium heated tawa till dark brown on both sides

Notes
The mixture was little sticky when I used it immediately. But I had remaining paste stored in fridge and when I used it directly out of fridge it was easier to fry them without disturbing its shapes.
Also note that unlike other recipes where it yields product for around 4 people, I made this for party of around 12 people as starter.
I used fresh paneer. Boiled 1 liter of 2% reduced fat milk and adding one lemon's juice in it. Drained the mixture after milk curdled on a cloth and used it by crushing it into fine powder by hand.

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Saffron Pistachio Ice Cream

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This one is my father's favorite ice-cream and when I was small, i never liked it that much. Then, it was always fig ice-cream which I ended up having. But last few years, I have started liking saffron for the flavor and color it gives, so when mom dad were here I decided to make it. Then I couldn't click the photo nor could i click after that around 4 times I prepared this one. So this time, i made sure to click one before the ice-cream got over :)


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1 Cup Pistachios
2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Spoon Saffron

Method

• In a half liter milk add in sugar and blend it in mixer.
• In a bowl take a cup of milk and bring it to boil. Add in saffron and mix well till the milk turns bright yellow.
• Mix remaining milk and the boiled milk with milk that was sweetened earlier.
• In a mixer make pistachio powder and mix it in the milk.
• Add in cream and mix well. Keep the mixture in the fridge for an hour.
• Add the mixture to the ice-cream maker and let it set.

Notes
Its important to boil the milk and add in the saffron for the flavor to mix well with the milk.
Also mixture needs to be kept in fridge otherwise it's warmth wont let it set in the ice-cream maker.

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Banana Kofta

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This recipe is mere inspiration from all the food network shows I watch.. When I was sitting watching TV i thought why not make something different with bananas that we had in fridge. So i think about koftas.. Then for gravy i was literally smelling and adding spices as per the aroma.. Felt wonderful to create a dish based on my intuition and mood.


Ingredients
3 Raw Bananas
1 Cup Cashews
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Spoon Ginger
1/2 Spoon Sugar
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Stick of Cinnamon
2 Cup Milk
1/4 Onion
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Grate bananas and add finely chopped garlic, grated ginger, black pepper powder, 1/4 spoon saunf and salt to it. Knead well.
• Make small round balls and fry them in oil over high flame till golden brown in colour. Keep aside.
• In a mixie, add cashews, black pepper, remaining 1/4 spoon saunf, cinnamon and grind it to fine powder
• Add in onion and grind again.
• Add a cup of milk and make smooth paste.
• Heat a spoonful of oil and add in grinded paste, 1 cup water and remaining 1 cup milk. Cook over medium heat till mixture starts thickening.
• Add in salt, sugar and koftas and let it simmer for another 2 minutes.

Notes
Bananas were such a good choice for koftas, they get crispy quickly and they dont soak oil unlike potato or eggplant.
I tried to give two distinct flavors to kofta and gravy. They both gel well as well as can be tasted distinctly.

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Lemon And Apricot Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was on lookout for something more like pound cake yet not something plain for Ajoy's birthday celebration. He enjoys plain cake more than anything so something based of that yet something more richer would make perfect for the occasion. I wanted to either use lemon or orange especially after seeing all these food networks making use of their zest. So when i found a recipe for this cake in one of the books i have, i modified it bit to his taste and came up with this.


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
175g Apricot
1 Cup Almonds
1.25 Cup Pistachios
2/3 Cup Sliced Almonds
2 Cup Sugar
1 + 1/3 Cup Butter
1.25 Spoon Baking Powder
3 Eggs
1/3 Spoon Salt
1 big Lemon

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F
• In a bowl, blend butter and 1.5 Cup sugar together till smooth
• Sieve together maida and baking powder 3-4 times.
• Add it to the butter-sugar mixture.
• Add in eggs, salt, zest of the lemon and 1/2 cup of warm water and blend till smooth.
• Fold in chopped apricot, 1 cup almonds powdered and 1 cup pistachios chopped.
• Line the loaf pan or any other cake pan you want to use with parchment paper on bottom as well as sides and spoon all the batter in it.
• Put remaining pistachios and sliced almonds over the mixture and press it lightly over the cake.
• Bake the cake in oven for 75 minutes on 180C/350F, covering the top with foil after around 50 minutes.
• Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• In the mean time, over medium heat with constant stirring, cook lemon juice of the lemon with remaining sugar till sugar dissolves completely an mixture bubbles up slightly.
• Pour the mixture over the cake and then take out the cake on wire rack to let it cool completely.

Notes
Covering the top midway into baking helps not overcooking the nuts and burning them. The lemon-sugar syrup adds the flavor as well as a little moistness to the cake.

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Cabbage Broccoli Kabab

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

You may notice that the last recipe I posted used Cabbage too.. Its because, this is left over from the last week's Cabbage :) I had lot of left over Broccoli too.. So last evening I decided to make a mix vegetable out of it but it was only when I actually started making it I thought this would make great Kababs. They are really tasty and very easy and quick to make. I made them in half an hour.


Ingredients
2 Cups Cabbage
3 Cups Broccoli
1 Tomato
1 Spoon Oregano
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Mustard
1 Spoon Chaat Masala
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Lemon
1 Spoon Coriander Leaves
1 Spoon Pudina Leaves
2 Spoon Maida
1 Spoon Rice Powder
A Pinch of Asafoetida
1/4 Cup Cashews
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Heat half spoon of oil and add in tomato puree.
• Add in oregano and red chilli powder and cook till completely done. Keep aside.
• In a pan, heat another spoon of oil and let mustard, jeera splutter. Add in Asafoetida.
• Add in Broccoli chopped into small pieces and cook with constant stirring till broccoli is almost done
• Add in finely chopped cabbage, pudina leaves, coriander leaves and cook till cabbage turns light brown.
• Add in earlier cooked tomato paste, lemon juice and salt to taste and cook for another minute. Take off heat and let it cool down.
• Add in maida, rice powder and chaat masala. Mix well. Make balls with these mixture and press them between palms with a cashew.
• Heat pan and add 2 spoons of oil and cook on both sides till they are brown.

Notes
I even had tomato paste ready for I had made it for Rice Bowl last week. I had made double quantity and had used half of it. Its a great item to store in fridge for quick flavoring

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Cashew Pistachio Cookies dipped in Chocolate

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I made this for taking with us to trip tomorrow for memorial day weekend. Perfect snacks for travel. Its inspired by the short bread Ajoy got from Costco couple of times.


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Butter
1.25 Cup Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/2 Cup Pistachios
1 Cup Semi-sweet Choco Chips
1/4 Cup White Choco Chips
5 Spoon Shortening

Method

• In a bowl cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
• Add in egg yolk and vanilla essence and cream again
• Grind the cashews to fine powder and add it to the above mixture
• Sift in maida and mix together till nice stiff dough is formed.
• Form the lemon sized balls and store them in fridge for around 1 hour
• Preheat oven to 375F/190C
• Chop the pistachios
• Press each dough ball using palms to thick discs. Sprinkle the pistachios on half portion of each cookie disc and press lightly to secure the pistachios in the cookie
• Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and grease it. Transfer the discs on to the baking pan keeping an inch of distance between each of them
• Bake at 375F/190C for 12 minutes
• Let the cookies cool for 5-10 minutes.
• In a bowl mix in semi sweet chocochips and 4 spoon of shortening and microwave for 1 minutes stirring once after 30 minutes. Mix till nice glossy.
• Line the baking sheet with fresh parchment paper. Dip each cookie's part which isn't covered by pistachios in the chocolate and set it on parchment paper.
• Mix white choco chips and remaining 1 spoon of shortening for 30 seconds and stir in till smooth and glossy. Fill it in a piping bag and make zig zag lines over the semi sweet chocolate on the cookie. Let the chocolate set for an hour.

Notes
If you dont have microwave you can heat chocolate and shortening in a bowl set over the boiling water. Stir till the mixture is smooth and dont let the chocolate burn. Microwave is really easy method and one doesnt need to worry much except to check it every 30 seconds so I prefer to temper the chocolate in microwave.

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Sugar Free Date Almond Laadu

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Yesterday I was going to prepare Chocolate Macaroons for which I had to powder the almonds but when i made the almond powder it was little moist and not a fine powder that i needed for the macaroons. That is when I sent Ajoy to get more almonds and i made these laadus. They are very yummy and sugar free is bonus :)


Ingredients
2 Cup Almonds
1 Cup Dates
3-4 Spoon Raisins

Method

• Powder the almonds.
• Divide it in two batches. In each batch add 1/2 cup dates and make a thick paste in mixer.
• Knead the mixture. Make small round balls inserting couple of raisins in each of them. Serve.

Notes
I decided to use sweetness of raisins and dates to complement Almonds instead of adding sugar or jaggery which really worked for me as I don't like items too sweet. You can add couple of spoon sugar in case you feel it lacking sweetness.

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Fig Gelato

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Since childhood my favourite fruit was Fig more than even mango.. With known love i share for mango it would be hard to believe but its true :) Whenever i had to choose something while playing i would always pick fig.. Then as i grew up i was introduced to Sujata's (the famous ice-cream parlour in pune) fir ice-cream... Even till date whenever I go to pune i have atleast a tub of fig ice-cream.. So now you might wonder how come i waited so long to make this ice-cream then, but the thing is it was so hard to find dried figs here that I had to get them from India :) So now that I have it I couldnt wait but make this awesome gelato..


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
250g Dried Fig
3/4 Cup Honey
1 Spoon Lemon Juice

Method

• Soak the figs in two cup of milk. Keep aside for atleast two hours
• In a mixie grind the soaked fig to paste, keeping aside 4-5 figs.
• Add in lemon juice and honey and blend again.
• Add this paste to remaning milk and stir well.
• Set the ice-cream as per ice-cream maker instructions.
• Dice the remaining figs and mix it in the set ice-cream.

Notes
I dont like to wait after i start making ice-cream, so I use chilled milk. Also while soaking figs, i keep them in fridge that way they chill too and i dont need to wait for the mixture to chill before i put it in ice-cream maker.

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Ras Malai

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy wanted me to make this for Dasara but ended up getting the raw material (aka milk) quite late on sunday. So I made it yesterday. It has turned fabulous and the sweetness is perfect not too sweet not too bland..


Ingredients
2 Liter Milk
2 Spoon Vinegar
1 Pinch of Saffron
1/4 Spoon Cardamom Powder
1/4 Cup Almonds
1/4 Cup Pistachios
3 Cup Sugar

Method

• Boil 1 liter of milk in a pan.
• Mix vinegar in half cup water and add it gradually to the boiling milk.
• When the whey separates from milk fat strain it on cheese or muslin cloth. Run through cold water and let it hang for an hour or two so that water is drained completely out from the paneer
• Start boiling remaining 1 liter of milk in a wide pan, stir continuously and let it reduce to half.
• Add in safron and 1/2 cup sugar in it and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Mix in remaining 2.5 cup of sugar with 1.5 liter of water in a cooker or wider pan. Bring it to boil
• Mean while knead the paneer really well till its smooth. Make small flat discs and drop them in the boiling sugar water. Cover with the lid (if in cooker don't put the whistle on) and let it cook for 10 minutes on high.
• Let it sit covered for another 5 minutes and then uncover the pan and keep the discs in syrup and let it come to warm temperature. At this point the discs would have doubled in size.
• Take each disc in your palm and press lightly to remove the syrup from it, then drop these discs in a bowl.
• In earlier prepared milk add in cardamom powder and finely chopped almonds and pistachios. Pour this milk over the discs in the bowl. Chill and serve.

Notes
I soak the almonds in water for couple of hours so that you can very easily chop them.
You can also use half liter of half and half instead of using 1 liter milk to make ras of the ras malai. Just let it simmer and add in saffron.
I didnt have big vessel to accomodate all the discs in one go for cooking, so i cooked the half of discs as mentioned, then added 2 cups of water to the syrup and cooked rest of the discs. Keeping sugar syrup thin is key to make those discs soft. Dont overcrowd the disc so that they have space to double in size

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Nutty Butterscotch Chocolate Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Yesterday I was looking for cake recipe so that I can bake a cake to take into my cake decoration class. First I thought I will bake some simple quick cake and get done with it, but as I approached kitchen I couldn't resist but look into my recipe book for some instant reference to cook something different. I liked a peanut butter recipe in there but because I didn't have peanut butter I decided to give it twist and make my own version of cake. It was delicious and even smelling so good that it was huge hit in my decoration class as well.


Ingredients
4 Cup Maida
2.5 Cup Butter
1 Cup Hazelnuts
1 Cup Almonds
1.5 Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
2 Cup Butterscotch Chocochips
2 Spoon Baking Powder

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Grind hazelnuts and almonds to fine powder and keep it aside.
• Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
• Add in hazelnut-almonds powder and whisk again.
• Add in each egg one at a time and beat well after each addition
• Sieve maida and baking powder couple of times. Add salt to taste.
• Add maida-baking powder mixture alternating with milk slowly into the egg-butter-sugar mixture and fold in carefully.
• Microwave chocochips for 1 minutes and stir well to get molten chocolate. Fold it in the batter lightly
• Grease the pan and line it with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well. Pour the batter in the cake till half full.
• Bake the cake in oven on 350F/180C for 40 minutes
• Decorate with icing or serve as it is.

Notes
I used two 8 inch round tins to bake the cake but after baking I thought I should have used one 8 inch and one 6 inch instead to get perfect rise in both the cakes.
I iced one cake with butter icing as part of my cake decorating classes and we ate another cake as it is. Both taste awesome, but I would use dark chocolate or less sugar if I am going to ice the cake next time.
Recently I came to know that preheating oven at least 15 minutes in advance helps to get oven to heat uniformly even hot so I tried this time and results were superb, the cake rose from all sides and there was literally no bump.

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Sandwich

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This is my favorite bengali sweet. So when I was making Ajoy's favorite mishti dohi i decided to pamper myself with these. Turned out very delicious.


Ingredients
2 liter Milk
4 Spoon Vinegar
1 Spoon Rawa
2 Cups Khoya
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
2.5 Cup Sugar
Silver leaf
Pistachio Powder
A pinch of Baking Powder
Couple Pinch of Saffron

Method

• Keep 1/4 cup milk aside and bring remaining milk to boil and add in vinegar mixed with two spoon of water.
• Stir till the whey separates out and milk cuddles.
• Strain it through sieve and run through cold water. Let it sit there for 5 minutes so that water drains out completely.
• Mix sugar with 6 cups of water in a cooker and bring it to boil.
• Take out this paneer from the sieve and knead till very soft dough forms.
• Add in rawa and baking powder and knead again.
• Make thin flat squares and add half of them into the sugar syrup boiling in cooker
• Close the cooker lid and let out one whistle. Lower the heat and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Let it cool
• Takeout the cooked paneer and add another 2 cups of water in the cooker. Bring it to boil and add remaining paneer pieces to cook just like the earlier ones.
• When the second batch is cooled down store all paneer pieces with the syrup in the fridge overnight
• In the morning grate the khoya and add in powdered sugar in it.
• Warm the remaining 1/4 cup of milk and add in the Saffron in it. Add it to the khoya and knead till smooth.
• Take out the cooked paneer pieces from the fridge and cut each into triangle shape
• Make sandwiches by adding a layer of khoya paste we made between two triangles. Also sprinkle some pistachio powder on the khoya layer as well as on top of the sandwich
• Garnish with the silver leaf and serve chilled.

Notes
Instead of making thick pieces and cutting it through i made thin slices to begin with. So i could use single piece as it is.

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Dry Fruit Chocolate

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

One day while watching Foodnetwork channel I saw this recipe and liked it at that very moment, for it is so simple yet so elegant. Dont remember exact measures and all but here is my own version of the same.


Ingredients
350g White chocolate
120g Dark Chocolate
1 Cup Walnuts
1/2 Cup Apricot
1/2 Cup Cranberries

Method

• Heat oven to 350F/180C and bake walnuts in it for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool down.
• In a bowl microwave white chocolate for 1.5 minutes stirring it every 30 sec. It should be smooth soft molten chocolate.
• In another bowl microwave dark chocolate for 1.5 minute stirring it every 30sec.
• Line a plate/tray with parchment paper and pour the white chocolate in the center. Spread it over the plate to get smooth layer
• Pour dark chocolate on four corners and with a fork mix it in with white chocolate creating patterns
• Dice apricots and walnuts, sprinkle them along with cranberries on top of the chocolate.
• Let mixture come down to room temperature and then transfer it to fridge to set it hard.

Notes
The recipe that I had watched only used white chocolate, but I didnt use white chocolate completely as it would make it very sweet. So instead used dark chocolate to balance out the sweetness. Earlier once I had used semi sweet chocochips instead but that too was sweet to my tooth so this time i used dark chocolate. One can use mix of dark and semi sweet chocochips as well.

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Veg Biryaani

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been making this for a while now, but its only yesterday that I actually managed to click the photos. So here I am posting this recipe, esp for all my vegetarian friends who are craving for Biryaani.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
350g Bhendi
250g Small Eggplants
250g Carrots
2 Raw Bananas
4 Potatoes
4 Onion
3 Tomato
2 Spoon Pudina Leaves
10 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Grated Ginger
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Almonds
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Dried Red Chillies
1/4 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
3/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Cardamom
2 Cloves
3 Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Milk
A Pinch Of Saffron
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook 2 potatoes
• Soak rice in warm water for half an hour.
• Soak poppy seeds and keep aside
• Fry the whole egg plants, bhendi, peeled and diced bananas, 2 potatoes, and carrots and keep aside.
• Boil a pot full of water and add in the soaked rice. Cook till almost done Let the extra water drain completely through sieve.
• Heat a spoon of ghee and add in cardamoms, a cinnamon stick, cloves and salt. Add it to the rice and keep it aside.
• Heat oil and add in finely chopped 2 onions. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In same pan heat another spoon of oil and add in jeera, red chillies, coriander seeds, black pepper, saunf, dried coconut, cinnamon, 1/4 cup cashews and almonds.
• Add in garam masala, red chili powder, poppy seeds, pudina leaves and earlier fried onions. Cook till spices start spreading aroma.
• Let the mixture cool down and then adding the chopped tomatoes grind it to fine paste.
• Heat the ghee and add in the ground mixture. Fry till oil separates
• Add in all fried vegetables and salt to taste and cook for couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Warm the milk with safron and keep aside.
• Deep fry the thin sliced onions and cashews till they are crisp and light brown in color. Keep aside
• In a greased cooker layer the sliced boiled potatoes, then 1/3rd of rice, 1/2 of vegetable, again 1/3rd portion of rice, remaining half of the vegetable and remaining portion of the rice.
• With big spatula make through and through wholes in the layer and sprinkle the safron milk.
• Let the cooker sit on low heat till the pressure builds up. Garnish with the earlier fried crisp onions and cashews. Serve hot with raita.

Notes
Instead of cooking vegetables in gravy i added fried vegetables to the gravy. The taste was awesome and i could make sure that none of the vegetables are underdone or overdone.
I also wished I had those baby potatoes instead and could use them whole deep fried instead of diced ones.

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Lemon Date Cupcakes

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Recently i started watching food network and some programs are really good.. One of them is Cup cake wars.. I was amazed at how people come up with their own recipe and create those beautiful cupcakes. So here i my share of mix and match inspired cup cake.


Ingredients
4 Cup Maida
3 Cup Dates
2 Cup Milk
1 Cup Butter
2 Cup Cream
1 Cup Icing Sugar
1.5 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Lemons
1 Spoon Baking Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Soda
Salt to taste

Method

• Grind a cup of dates in with the milk to form smooth paste. Keep aside.
• Whip sugar and butter using hand mixer till mixture is smooth and fluffy
• Add eggs and blend well to get smooth mixture.
• Sieve Maida, Baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
• Add it to the butter, sugar - egg mixture in portions alternating with milk-date mixture, beating well with each addition.
• Add in remaining 2 cups of dates - chopped and a lemon's peel grated and as well as its juice. Mix lightly till combined.
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Line the cupcake pan with the cupcake paper cups and fill each of them to 2/3rd with the cake batter
• Bake the cakes at 350F/180C for 25 minutes. Keep aside to cool down completely.
• Add cream in a bowl and mix it with the icing sugar.
• Whip it using hand mixer on low speed till the cream becomes fluffy and stiff
• Scoop it on each cup cake or decorate using piping bag. Garnish with grated lemon peels.

Notes
I created a cone that i made from the parchment paper and piped the icing on top of few cakes and scooped the icing on others. So making cone is alternate to using piping bag :)
While whipping the cream its better to use hand mixer as its easy, fast and reliable. :)

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Craisin Pan Cake

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been making these type of pancakes quite often lately.. Each time with different fruit. But today when I made it with dried cranberries (craisins) it was like this batter is meant for it. So here i am posting it.


Ingredients
2 Cup Maida
1 Spoon Sugar
1.5 Spoon Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Melted Butter
2.5 Cup Milk
1 Egg
2 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1 Cup Craisins
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Beat the egg with sugar till foamy
• Add in milk, melted butter and blend in well.
• Add in vanilla essence, sifted maida, baking powder and salt to taste and blend it well
• Heat the pan on low heat.
• Sprinkle some oil and then drop half up of batter at a time on the pan.
• Thrown in some craisins evenly around and cook till the bottom side is light brown.
• Sprinkle couple of drops of oil on top of the pan cakes and then flip them. Cook till the bottom turns light brown.
• Stack them and serve with the maple syrup

Notes
I have tried using apricots, blueberries, raisins and many more other fruits instead of craisins but as I said we liked craisins the best in these pan cakes.

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Dabeli Style Aalu Paratha

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

The day I got dabeli masala from India, i had been meaning to try something like this.. I thought it might be nice change to normal aalu paratha or aalu sabji. Finally today when i had no other vegetable at home i decided to try this one.. Came out really well.


Ingredients
10 Spoon Wheat Flour
1 Potato
1/2 Spoon Kachhi Dabeli Masala
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Tamarind
1 Spoon Peanut Powder
1/2 Spoon Raisins
Handful of Corriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix in wheat flour, salt and a spoon of oil.
• Mix water and knead dough for paratha. Keep aside
• Pressure cook the potato and let it cool down
• Soak tamarind in 2 spoon of water.
• Grate the potato and mix it with dabeli masala, red chilli powder, peanut powder, tamarind water and salt to taste
• Add in chopped corriander leaves and raisins.
• Make 5 balls out of wheat dough and 5 balls from the potato mixture.
• Make a cup shape from wheat ball and stuff in potato ball. Close the wheat cover completely.
• Roll the parathas and cook on tawa til well done on both sides.

Notes
Make sure to cook potatoes really well so that they are soft and can be mashed to the paste.

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Malpua

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Every weekend Ajoy asks me if I can put oil in his hair (he does it for me). So my reply is always same : I can cook whatever you ask but doing the oil massage every weekend just for those short hair and that too for one hour - doesn't work :) :) probably once in couple of months is ok :) :) So when last weekend I replied with the same answer, he mentioned that he wants to eat malpuas. I searched on net for quick recipes, every recipe was quite different so I had to make up my own after lot of research and here I am sharing this.


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
1/2 Cup Rawa
2.5 cup Milk
1 Spoon Saunf
1.5 Cup Sugar
A pinch of Saffron
Almonds, Pistachios for garnishing

Method

• Mix in maida, rawa, saunf and milk and keep aside for 4 hours
• Boil Sugar with 1.5 cup of water to form 1 threaded sugar syrup.
• Add in safron and keep aside.
• Heat oil in a pan and add 1/4 cup batter each time to form the malpuas
• Fry to golden brown on both sides and then dip them in the sugar syrup for couple of minutes.
• Take out of the syrup, garnish with almonds and pistachios and serve.

Notes
Actually lot many videos had asked for frying the malpuas, but i am going to try shallow frying instead next time.
Also I had used 1 cup sugar, water each for the syrup and last few malpuas didnt have enough syrup to soak in.
I have never eaten malpuas earlier except once when badi ma had gotten it to hyderabad. So next time I am also going to ask my mom-in-law for her recipe and see how different it turns out.

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