Monday, January 25, 2010

Zebra Cake


I remember around a year back I had received a mail from a colleague here about tasting the check box cake. She had described a lot about its procedure so when I was looking for something similar yet something where I wont need those card boards etc to make those check box texture. Then I came across the very famous concept of zebra cake. So today I gave it a shot and result was very impressive :)

Zebra Cake
Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Cup Milk
2 cup Oil
1 Spoon Vanilla Essence
8 Spoon Coca Powder
4 Spoon Baking Powder

Method
  • In a bowl add eggs and sugar and blend them together till the mixture is fluffy.
  • Add in Milk and Oil keeping two spoons of each aside. Blend well
  • Sieve in maida gradually in the mixture. Blend well for a smooth batter
  • Blend in vanilla essence and baking powder.
  • Separate 4.5 cup of batter into other bowl and add in sieved coca powder in the separated batter. Blend well
  • In the coca batter, add the remaining milk and oil (2 spoons each) into the batter and blend again
  • Preheat oven to 350F/180C
  • Grease the baking pan
  • Add 1/4 cup of white batter in the center alternating with half cup of coca batter. Keep adding till the pan fills in half in quantity. Repeat same for other pan. The batter would spread on its own in layers
  • Bake the cakes in oven at 350F/180C for 40 minutes

Notes
If you are going to make the cake in single big baking pan, then instead of adding 1/4 cup of mixture, add in 1/2 cup to make the correct sized strips. I noticed that if the layers are too thin then after baking they wouldn't be too clear to mark out the layering clearly.

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Peanut Sauce


A must have dip for Chicken Satay, I had to make this. Especially for Ajoy as he is such a fan of this sauce that he sometimes asks for it in Chinese restaurant too :) forgetting that he is in Chinese restaurant instead of Thai :)

Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
1 Cup Peanuts
2 Spoon Brown Sugar
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
2 Spoon Soya Sauce
1 Spoon Oil
1 Garlic Clove
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
Salt to taste

Method
  • Dry roast the peanuts and let them cool
  • Add peanuts, brown sugar, red chilli powder, soya sauce, oil, garlic clove, lemon juice and salt in a mixie and grind to sticky powder
  • Add half cup of water and grind again till smooth paste

Notes
I had used double quantity of red chilli powder but it had become little extra hot so I have suggested only 1/4 spoon for red chilli. If you feel it is too mild for you try adding some more chilli while grinding

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Chicken Satay


Chicken Satay is one of our favorite stater in Thai cuisine. So this time when we got the chicken from costco, I decided to give this a try. I had made this earlier but it was over even before I could click photo :) So now this time I made sure we click photos before making the strike.

Chicken Satay
Ingredients
400g Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 Spoon Brown Sugar
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
2 Spoon Oil
2 Spoon Soya Sauce
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Milk
Salt to taste

Method
  • Make thin and rectangular slices of the chicken
  • Add brown sugar, garlic cloves, corriander powder, jeera powder, turmeric powder, black pepper powder, oil, soya sauce, lemon juice and salt and mix well. Keep aside in refrigerator for 4 hours
  • After 4 hours, attach the strips of chicken on to scewer sticks, 2 pieces on one stick.
  • Bast the chicken with the milk.
  • Heat a non stick pan and cook the chicken with scewers on medium flame by flipping them over continuously every 2-3 minutes till done.

Notes
I read in lot many recipes to add fish sauce to the marination, but I investigated a bit and found that it is some what salty liquid and usually used instead of salt. Hence instead of going to asian shop for fish sauce I used normal table salt instead.

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