Star Wars Cake - R2D2 Cake - Vanilla Sponge Cake with a Vanilla Buttercream frosting - Step by Step pictorial

Happy 3rd Birthday to my blog! I am so excited that the little journey I began 3 years ago has brought me to this place in life. Though this year has been a little slow with respect to the number of recipes posted, it has been a wonderful year. The highlight of it is the Indian Food Bloggers Meet. I was able to meet some food bloggers who I have come to regard as some of my closest friends (and a little sad to have missed some of them).

When it comes to a birthday, there has to be a cake. I wish I could tell you that I am a big Star Wars fan and this cake is a dedication to that love. But no, the star wars fan is a my 5 year old son. And this cake was baked way back in July for his birthday. I traveled to India a couple of days after his birthday and never got to post it for you.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - 500th post

Peanut Butter Cups from Reese's (Hershey) is a family favourite. So it is no surprise that when my husband travelled to US last week that was what my little one and I wanted for Sweeties. My little one calls it 'the american chocolate'. I wanted to make something special for my 500th post and when he landed a couple of days ago with a bag of these, I knew I wanted to bake with them. Totally loved it.



Now coming to the milestone. You know I love you all for staying with me, reading all that I write, trying recipes, giving me feedback, and encouraging me. It been amazing journey. Every Milestone that I achieve is special. Its almost going to be 2 years (well couple more months to go). And I have enjoyed this journey thoroughly. Thank You all.



This post also is for the Palooza ( Anu, Radhika and Me) Theme this month of making a couple of things in the muffin/cup cake pan. I wanted to do something that is not a muffin or cupcake for that. But this fits so perfectly. The last one I do for that theme will defenitely be something different. I promise (well, I will try).



Recipe from here

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour 163 gms (11/4 cup)
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp

Peanut Butter 2/3 cup
Butter 113 gms (1/2 cup)
Caster Sugar 150gms (3/4 cup)
Eggs 2
Vanilla 1 tsp
Milk 3 tbsp

Peanut Butter cups 12

Method of Preparation

1. In a bowl or stand mixer, add the peanut butter and butter. Cream them together.

2. Add sugar and beat till it is light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time and beat till combined.

4. Add the vanilla extract as well and mix.

5. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

6. Add the flour and milk to the bowl and mix till combined. Do not overmix.

7. Scoop into lined cupcake tray. Use an icecream scoop to easily scoop the batter.

8. Place peanut butter cups on each cake and gently press it in.

9. Gently cover the chocolate with the dough from around it.

10. Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F).

11. Bake for 23-25 min till well baked.

12. It tasted great as is. But if you are really interested you can make a simple glaze.

Add 1 tbsp of peanut butter, 2 tbsp of powdered sugar and 1 tbsp of milk. Mix it all together till nice and smooth.  This should be enough to glaze 3 cupcakes. Top it with some chopped Reese's Peanut Butter cups.

Gajar Ka Halwa - Carrot Halwa - 400th Post - Step by Step recipe

Gajar Ka Halwa / Carrot Halwa is a very popular Indian Dessert. The sweeter the carrots, the better the taste. Basically it is Grated Carrots cooked in milk and sweetened with a little sugar. You can optionally add some Khoya (crumbled paneer) to this to give it some richness.



My blog which I started as a small little venture has grown so much under my eyes. Well, I might sound quite formal here. But I have to say it. It could not be achieved without your support. My family (my Husband, little one and my dad) have been very good Guinea Pigs. Eating up all that I make. The friends (and some very special ones) that I made in the blogging world. You have become like a family to me. And then my friends who encourage me when I meet them or thru online feedback. Some of you who try the recipes posted, some who tell me they got inspired to cook cause of me and many whose recipes I try out! And all the internet users who come my way.. Wow, it really feels great. Thank you for encouraging me and teaching me.. Love you all.



Ingredients

Carrots Grated 2 cups
Milk 2 cups
Sugar 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
Cashews few
Ghee 3 tbsp



Method of Preparation

1. Wash and Peal the carrots. Grate the carrots. I used a fairly big size grater. That was a thing I wondered before I started making. The size of the grater. I was not sure if I should go for smaller size. Looking around I realized that bigger size is better. Otherwise the result will be very mushy and will not have a texture.



2. Heat ghee in a pan. I added 2 tbsp and reserved 1 tbsp for the end. Add cashews. Fry till they brown a little. Take out of the ghee and keep aside.



3. Add the grated carrots to the ghee and saute till the carrots are slightly cooked.



4. Add milk and simmer till the milk is all drained out. Keep stirring in between. Using a non stick pan will help cause other wise, at this step it will start sticking to the bottom of the pan.



5. Add sugar and mix. The mix will start to be liquid again.


6. Add 1 tbsp of ghee to this while cooking. Cook till all the water is absorbed again.


7. Garnish with roasted cashews. Serve warm with some Vanilla Icecream.

Vegetable Pizza - 350th Post

I am glad to be posting my 350th Post today. Before I started blogging, I never used to bake and now I make a lot of things in my oven. Blogging does have advantages!! This Pizza features regularly at our house and we all love it. It is sooo easy to make and tasty too... You will never order a take out pizza.

I have a really crazy problem when it comes to making Pizza at home. I am lactose intolerant - which means no cheese for me.. I used to enjoy pizza so much before, but these days I am not so  keen. You can't blame me, can you? Then the other two ppl in my house. Husband wants a set of vegetables in his Pizza and little one wants pineapple, corn and cheese. Who would have thought a 3 year old would know exactly what he wants.

But guess what. I took care of this situation. Made the pizza dough with 3 cups of flour. Made a medium pizza with about half of that. Made two personal pizza with the rest of the dough. Though we did not finish the whole lot, we were all stuffed by the end of the meal.



Ingredients

Bread Flour (or APF) 3 cups
Fast Action Yeast 2 (7g) packets
(Note : though I used 2 pkts, now I use only 1 and I find it has a better taste. So use just one)
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Warm Milk 11/2 cup (I used a little more than 11/4 cup)
Oil 2 tbsp plus a little to layer the top

Vegetables of choice
For Medium Pizza - I used a few slices of red pepper, green pepper, onions, some chopped sun dried tomatoes, chopped baby corn and mozerella cheese

For my personal pizza - i used about the same toppings as above without the cheese.

For my little ones pizza - i added chopped baby corn, pineapple (from can) and loads of cheese.

Method of Preparation

1. Take flour in a big bowl. Add yeast, salt,sugar and oil. Mix well.

2. Add milk a little at a time and mix well till you get a spongy dough.

3. Apply a little oil on top. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and rest for about an hour till the dough raises to atleast double.

4. Punch out the air and knead quickly. Take the required size of dough to make pizza. This will make 2 medium pizzas. As I said before I made 3 pizzas out of this. The method is same for both pizza. Timing will vary for both. I have given my timing below

5. Roll into a circle. Grease a Pizza tray with oil a little. Place the dough in it. With your fingers gently push the dough towards the edges. Keep the end a little thicker than the pizza. For the smaller pizza, I just used by cake tray.





6. Brush the pizza with a little oil and keep in a preheated oven for 5 minutes. I baked it at 220C. This is a trick I learned from Radhika to keep the pizza from getting all soggy. For smaller pizza, just keep for 2-3 min.

7. Take out. Time to top your base. Add a layer of pizza sauce. Add vegetables as desired and top with cheese. You can add dollops of tomato sauce on the top.





8. Bake @220 C for 15-20 minutes. Mine was done in 16 minutes. The smaller one was done in 10 minutes.

7 cup cake - Diwali Special - Happy 1st Birthday to the blog - 300th post

This sweet marks a few different occasions. Happy 1st Birthday to my little blog!!! And my 300th post... Plus of course wishing all of you a very happy Diwali!



My mom was a champ in making Mysore Pak. I still remember her making it even in the morning just before going to work to take to her colleagues or my dad's colleagues. It will still be warm when they dig in. It used to take her 15 min to make and may be 10 minutes to cut and pack.. I always grew up thinking it is the easiest thing to make.

I made it for the first time when I was in Chennai. I had her on the phone. It came out pretty good for a first timer who did not know even the basics of cooking :-)

Then my mom learned 7 cup cake from my chitti. It gets its name from the number of cups of all the ingredients together. It is quite easy to make as you do not have to worry about the 1 string consistency :-) My MIL and SIL make this often and make it pretty good. And so we are addicted to it. Though this always figures in MIL's diwali list, her important items are Mixture and Boondi Laddoo..

I am yet to post my Mysore Pak. Will do it soon. And have to try making Laddoo some day...



Ingredients (Makes around 30 pieces)

Besan/Kadala Maavu 1 cup
Coconut 1 cup
Milk 1 cup
Ghee 1 cup
Sugar 3 cups



Method of Preparation

1. Grease a plate with ghee and keep ready.

2. Sieve besan into a pan. You can just add it. I sieve it cause it removes all lumps and makes mixing easy.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan. Mix well.

4. Place it over heat. You can initially keep it in high till it starts to boil. After that switch to medium heat and towards to final stages keep in low heat.

5. Keep stirring continuously. You will notice that it will start thickening. I have tried to add a picture to show the different stages, Hope that helps. You basically keep stirring till the sweet leaves the sides of the pan. If you stop early, you will end up with a halwa like consistency. If you stir longer than required, it will be hard sweet. The right time to stop will come with practice. You will get an idea after your first time or if you are really good (or lucky), it will be perfect the first time :-)

6. Pour into the greased plate. At this stage it will still be a little watery. Don't worry. It will set in some time as it cools.



7. After 10-15 minutes draw small lines to cut into squares (or diamonds). Don't cut thru at this stage. Wait for it to cool some more.

8. Cut into pieces and store in an airtight box.



Linking this to Lets Cook - Potluck - Event by Radhika

Linking this to South Indian Cooking - Event by Anu, Hosted by Sangee

Ada Pradaman - 250th post

My blogging journey has brought me to yet another milestone - my 250th post. I am also looking forward to the approach of my first anniversary. Special thanks to everyone who has encouraged me - husband and little one for enjoying my meals, my friends - blogging ones and the others for the feedback.

Remember - i always love to hear from you if you try one of my posts. If something did not come out well (hopefully not many), I would love to hear about that so I can work on my negatives. Click photos and add to my FB page. Oh while we are at it, please do like the page to see posts in your wall. Love you all.



In this post I present to you my favourite payasam - Ada Pradaman. Pradaman is a term used to describe payasam made of jaggery and coconut milk. Note that unlike normal payasams, sugar and milk are not the base ingredients. I made this as part of my Onam Sadya



Pradamans can be made with a variety of ingredients - Parippu Pradaman (channa dal, moong dal), Chakka Pradaman (jackfruit), Nedram Pazha Pradaman (Banana), Gothumbu Pradaman (Wheat), Ada Pradaman (Rice chip pasta) etc.

Ada is basically small chips made of rice flour. Traditionally it is made by making a paste of rice flour, smearing on plantain leaf and then either steaming it or by adding to boiling water. I have not perfected making it yet. So will post one day when I get it right. I used store bought ones this time.

Ada can be used to make Pradaman or Pal payasam. Usually small square chip ones are used for making pal payasam and long ones for pradaman. I really like the long ones and use that for both. Check out the pal ada payasam recipe in my blog. You can use a pasta as a substitute.



Ingredients

Ada - 1.5 cup (approx) (use pasta as substitute).
Jaggery 1 cup
Coconut milk 1 can (about 1.5 cups)
Cardamom 1/2 tsp
Cashew few
Raisins few
Coconut pieces 1 tbsp
Ghee (clarified butter) 1 tbsp (or use oil for Vegan)

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the ada in about 3 cups of water. It will take about 10-12 minutes. This depends on the ada. Follow packet instruction. You can make your own ada as well.

2. Once the ada is cooked, if there a lot water drain some. Mine did not. So I just kept the water.

3. In a separate pan, add jaggery and 1/4 cup of water. Melt and remove impurities if any.

4. Add jaggery to the ada along with cardamom powder. Remember that Jaggery will stop ada from cooking further. So make sure it is cooked before you add jaggery. This is true for all Pradamans.

5. Add coconut milk. Simmer the gas. If you keep in high it will curdle. I used store bought coconut milk. You can make your own milk. If you do, add the second (watery) milk first and once it is almost ready, add the first (thick) milk.

6. Once it gets heated up, switch off. Please note that pradaman will thicken with time. So make it a little watery if you are not serving for some time.

7. In a small pan, heat ghee. Add the coconut pieces. When it is slightly browned, take out and keep aside. Add cashews and fry till it is browned. Remove and add raisins. Add all of this to the payasam.



Linking this to Onam Special @ Sharan's Samayalarai

Mirchi Ka Salan - 200th Post

Food cooked, Photos taken, Recipes written - And most importantly Food Enjoyed!! It has been an interesting journey so far. Today I post my 200th post!! I have been blogging for around 250 days. I was split between posting this dish vs a sweet dish that I made. This is by far the best dish that I have ever prepared. Hubby dear agrees that this is one of the best. So he suggested that I post this one... So here you go

A milestone post will not be complete without a special thanks to all those who support me - husband and kid who enjoy the meal that I make (irrespective of how it tastes) and say 'thank you amma' every single time, my friends who try my recipe and give me feedback (I love that bit a lot), my friends in the blogging world without whom this journey would have been quite boring and all those who love me :-)

Mirchi Ka Salan is a popular Hyderabadi dish. It is basically Green Chillies roasted and then cooked in a sauce. I had this dish for the first time in a restaurant Rani Bistro in Brooklyn, MA a few years ago. When Kaveri announced the theme for this month's EP - Herbs and Spices event as Fenugreek Leaves and Green Chillies, I really wanted to post some dishes with Methi Leaves (you know my love for Methi by the array of dishes in my blog). But I could not get hold of methi... I suddenly remembered this dish and wanted to try it.



I cannot recommend this dish enough. This is a spicy dish. But will not be as spicy as you think. The chillies are all roasted and so mellow down. But if that is not for you, you can still make this dish by using peppers (green, red, yellow or orange) and also reduce the chilli powder in the gravy.



Ingredients

Thin Hot Green Chillies 10
Thick (Medium spicy) Green Chillies 9 (60gm)
Thick (Medium spicy) Red Chillies 5 (60gm)
Cumin 1 tsp
Mustard 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves few
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp
Cumin powder 1/2 tbsp
Chilli powder 2 tsp
Tamarind paste 1 tsp
Coriander leaves to garnish

Oil and Salt to taste

To be ground to dry powder 
Roasted peanuts 2 tbsp
Roasted sesame seeds 2 tbsp
Roasted cumin 1 tbsp

To be ground to a paste
Garlic 6
Ginger 1 inch piece
Onions 1
Tomatoes 2
Coconut 3 tbsp



Method of Preparation

1. Heat a pan. Add the peanuts and roast. When they are almost roasted, add the sesame and cumin. Roast till a nice aroma comes. Powder them. Keep aside.

2. Make a paste of garlic, ginger, onions, tomatoes and coconut. Keep aside.

3. Heat oil in the pan. Add the chillies. I used the small thin chillies as is. I sliced the thicker medium spiced chillies vertically to two. Leave the stems on on both chillies. Fry them till  white patches appear. Please be very careful at this step. The moment chillies start roasting it will sputter. Oil and chillies will go every which way. So partially cover the pan (kind of like a shield). Remove from oil and keep aside.

4. In the same oil, add mustard seeds. When it sputters, add cumin, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.

5. When it sizzles, add the ground onion-tomato paste. Saute till the colour starts to change.

6. Add coriander powder, cumin powder, chilli powder, turmeric and the sesame-peanut powder. Mix well and cook for a couple of minutes.

7. Add tamarind paste and 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil.

8. Add the chillies and salt. Simmer till the sauce thickens. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis. It tasted great with rice as well.




Linking this to EP - Herbs and spices - Fenugreek Leaves and Green Chilli Event by Julie, hosted by Kaveri

Linking this to Walk thru Memory Lane - Gayathri's event hosted by Kalyani
Linking this to Celebrate - Olympic games Event by Jagruti, hosted by Priya

Dil Khush - 100th post

I am so excited today. Today marks the 75th day of my blogging. And I am happy to present to you my 100th post. It was a fun journey so far. Many of my friends have given me feedback that they love seeing what i have posted and trying it out at home. I have made so many new friends in the blogging world. And have learnt quite  a few new recipes. I rarely repeat any dishes these days at home.

I was not sure if I was going to make anything special for this post. Many of you might have read my story about how I tried to bake something. If not, check the link. It is quite funny. I tried making something again a couple of days ago and it was ok. But not blog worthy. One of my friends advised me to start with a sponge cake and nothing too complicated. Seems like a sensible idea. Might do that. I will be a little busy for the next 2 months. So you may not see many posts from me. I will surely try and do some baking may be in April or May.

Anyways, with the fear of oven, I did not want to make anything in it. But when I saw 2 bloggers Julie and Smita make Dil Khush this week, I was drooling. Though it says in the internet that it is famous in Kerala, I have never tasted Dil Khush in Kerala. My only time eating it was at an aunt's place in Chennai, a distant relative of ours when I was little. My cousin went out and got all of us this warm bread based dessert from a bakery. Though I do not remember it too well, it lingered in the back of my mind. I am sure it looked a lot like how Julie has made it.

Now, as you know, I will not bake now. At least not another adventure. So I decided to make it with pastry sheets, keeping the filling the same. As luck would have it, I was buying pastry sheets in UK for the first time and came home with Filo sheets instead. They looked the same in the cover for me. When I got home, it was not what i expected to see. But I decided not to be deterred by it.

Now off to the recipe



Ingredients (Makes 4 pieces)

Filo Sheets 2
Coconut 1/4 cup
Fruit Mix (i used a mix of raisins, currants, orange peal, lemon peal etc - a dry fruit pack I got in store). Ideally it should be tutti fruity. 1/4 cup
Almonds 1 tsp
Cashews 1 tbsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Butter melted 2 tbsp for brushing

Method of Preparation

1. Mix together the coconut, dry fruit mix, almonds, cashews and sugar in a bowl and keep aside.

2. Pre heat the oven to 175C/350F.

3. Cut each sheet into half and add 2 tbsp of the above mix. Fold into rectangles like a puffs. If it were pastry puffs, I would have just folded and sealed the edges.

4. Set into on a baking tray. Spread a little butter on the top with a pastry brush

5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes till it is golden on the top.

Cool and serve. I was so excited yesterday when my husband came home, tasted it and said it was too good. We all really enjoyed it. Dil Khush!!!