Coffee Muffins

Coffee the one thing that can brighten up a lousy morning and muffins are the one thing that can perk me up anytime :-) so last weekend I decided to whip up a batch of coffee muffins good enough to satisfy the cake-a-holic in me!

Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter (soft at room temp)
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1.5 tsp of baking powder
1 tbsp of instant coffee powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder and sugar with a fork.
3. Separate the yellows and whites of the 3 eggs into 2 bowls.
4. Beat the egg yellows, butter until light yellow in color.
5. Mix the milk and instant coffee until well dissolved.
6. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy.
7. Mix everything except the egg whites together in the large bowl until smooth.
8. Slowly fold in the egg whites with a large spoon or spatula until whole mixture is combined.
9. Butter the muffin tin and dust with flour.
10. Pour out 1 the mixture into the muffin/cupcake tin and bake for 20 min at 350 deg.

I know.... it doesnt look too great.... that because my photography skills suck.... but I can promise you the muffin packs a powerful coffee punch!!  :-)

Fruit pie

Ingredients:
Ready made biscuit crumb pie crust,
Vanilla cook and serve pudding,
2 kiwi,
1 apple

1. Peel the apple and chop it into very fine tiny pieces.
2. Peel and slice 1 kiwi thinly and line the base of the pie.
3. Cook the vanilla pudding.
4. Add the chopped apple into the pudding stirring it in well.
5. Pour the pudding into the pie crust.
6. Decorate the top of the pie with the remaining kiwi slices.
7. Keep outside for 2 hrs to cool well. Then refrigerate overnight.
Serve cold.

Time taken : 1/2 hour + overnight to set.

Potato Dosa

Potatoes - 2 (medium size)
Rice flour - 1 cup
Rava - 3/4 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Cumin seeds - a pinch or according to taste
Curry leaves / coriander leaves chopped
Salt
Water

1) Cook the potatoes well. Peel it and mash it after it cools a bit.
2) Mix the rice flour, rava and yogurt very well in the mixer by adding a little bit of water to make it smooth.
3) Add the mashed potatoes and a little more water into the mixer and mix till the batter becomes very smooth and lumpless.
4) Pour the smooth batter out into another vessel and add the cumin seeds, salt to taste and curry leaves or chopped coriander leaves.
5) Heat the tava well and smear it with oil.
6) Pour out the batter to make potato dosas. The dosas become crispy when spread thinly and brown a bit like naans when spread a bit more thickly.

Rava Dosa

Ingredients :
Rava -1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Ginger - 1 finger length piece chopped
Green chilies - 2-3 chopped
Curry leaves - 4-5
Onion - 1 big chopped
Cashew nuts - chopped small
Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Salt - to taste
Ghee

Preparation -
1. Mix all the ingredients except the chopped onion with 5 glasses of water. The batter should be the consistency of buttermilk.
2. Heat the tava very well amd rub it with oil.
3. Sprinkle the chopped onion on the tava according to taste.
4. Sprinkle the batter on the tava like watering plants.
5. Rava dosa takes double the time of a normal dosa to get crisp.
6. Once one side has become cooked rub on some melted ghee and flip it over.

Guacamole

Ingredients : soft avocado, onion, tomato, lemon juice, chilly powder, salt, tortilla chips

1. Scoop and mash avocado.
2. Add finely chopped onion, skinless tomato
3. Add pinch of salt and chilly powder.
4. Squeeze lemon juice to this.
5. Mash and mix everything finely together.
6. Eat with tacos or tortilla chips.

Time taken : 5 mins

Chicken mushroom soup

Ingredients: boneless chicken, mushroom, turmeric, salt, pepper, ginger garlic paste, flour, milk, cilantro

1. Cook chicken in water with turmeric and salt.
2. Keep chicken and resulting stock separately.
3. Mince cooked chicken into small pieces.
4. Chop the mushroom into small pieces.
5. Take the chicken stock in a soup pot and keep on simmer.
6. Add 1 tsp of flour and dissolve completely.
7. Add the mushroom and chicken
8. Add pepper and salt according to taste.
9. Add 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste.
10. Add 1/2 cup of milk and add little water if too thick.
11. Bring to a boil on medium flame. Stirring often.
12. Add chopped cilantro when serving.

Time taken : 1 hr

Mini Quiche

Ingredients :

4 eggs

1 carrot finely shredded

1/2 cup chopped spinach

1 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp baking powder or 1/4 tsp baking soda mixed with 2 tsp yogurt

1tbsp flour

salt

pepper

3tbsp butter

For baking:

spraying oil

cupcake cups

1. Break 10 eggs into a bowl and whisk them
2. Add all the ingredients and make it into a loose smooth paste.

3. Add 1/4 tsp of baking soda to 2 tbsp of yogurt and mix them well with a spoon and then add it to the mix. Otherwise, if you have baking powder then mix 1/2 tsp of it directly into the mix.
4. Mix them all together very well.
5. Preheat the oven at 400 deg for abt 10 mins.
6. Line the cup cake pan with cupcake cups and spray them with a bit of oil. If cupcake pans are not available you can also make regular Quiche by pouring into a regular baking tray.
7. Scoop out the mix enough to fill 1/2 of each cup.
8. Reduce the oven heat to 300 deg and place the pan inside. Bake for about 15 mins. You will be able to see the mix rise like a cupcake.
9. Best served immediately out of the oven.

Time taken : 10 mins for prep + 15 mins bake time

My cake creations

For the past 1 year I have been hooked 24X7 on Food Network..... especially Ace of Cakes, Challenge and Cake Boss on TLC. I often caught myself staring open mouth at the amazing cakes they made..... Now finally, after seeing almost a million episodes I have started turning my small kitchen into my own little Carlos Bakery / Charm City Cakes :-)

Here are my cakes :

3 layer Vanilla and Chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream and chopped fresh strawberries filling. Covered with chocolate whipped cream frosting and marshmallows.

A wedding anniversary cake for 4 friends sharing the special occasion.

Looking at the cake I realize that my cake writing skills are really pitiable :-) hehe

Chocolate brownie cake covered with chocolate ganache.

A birthday cake for my husband.

Vanilla Pound cake

Wet ingredients -
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
13 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

Dry ingredients -
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated white sugar

1. Sift all the dry ingredients well.
2. Beat all the wet ingredients together until it looks all fluffy together.
3. Beat adding the dry ingredients 1 cup at a time.
4. Preheat the oven for 10 mins at 350 deg.
5. Butter the baking pan well with butter. I used an 8x8 pan. And dust it lightly with flour.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 350 deg for 55-60 mins.

Chorakka/ louki masala curry

Ingredients:
1 medium sized chorakka/ louki. (snap attached)
1 onion (savala)
1/2 a tomato
Mustard seeds to sputter
Salt to taste
3-4 curry leaves
Masala powders: ( these 3 can also be replaced with 1 tsp of chicken masala powder)
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chilly powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1. Heat some vegetable oil and sputter the mustard seeds in it followed by the curry leaves.
2. Add the onions and saute them till they become soft.
3. Add the tomato and saute it for a min or 2 along with the onions.
4. Add the salt and curry powders. Mix well.
5. Add the chorakka which has already been chopped into very small pieces. Mix well.
6. Cover it with a lid and let it cook for about 10-15 mins or until the chorakka becomes soft.

Prep time: 2 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Veg, Very easy

Chorakka/ louki curry

Recipie courtesy my meena aunty :-)

1 medium sized chorakka/ louki. (snap attached)
4 green chillies
1/2 an onion chopped finely
1/4 tsp of Jeera
1 tsp of pure ghee not oil
Salt to taste

1. Chop the chorakka into very small pieces.
2. Heat the ghee in a pot and sputter the jeera.
3. Add the split green chillies and saute for a couple of seconds.
4. Add salt, chopped onion mix it well and cook it with the lid down for 10-15 mins until it becomes soft.
5. At the end you may add milk. ( I have not added milk)

Prep time: 2 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Veg, Very easy

Semiya Payasam

Semiya payasam

Ingredients

Milk, cashew, raisins, semiya, cardomom, sugar, ghee

1. Boil and cool milk. stir to make sure it does not birn and stick.
2. Roast cashew and raisins separately in ghee
3. Roast the semiya in ghee.
4. Add the milk to the roasted semiya. Stir it continuosly.
5. After it thickens a bit, add sugar.
6. Add nuts and raisins.
7. Add smashed cardomom.
8. If it thickens too much after cooling, add milk and reheat before serving.

Total time: 1.5hrs

Superfast Mango curry

Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
Mango - 1
Green chilly - 3 medium size
Coconut - 1 cup grated
Curd - 1/2 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Garnishing:
Mustard
Curry Leaves
Dry red chilly
Method:
1. Put the mango pieces, salt, green chillies and coconut in the grinder and blend till smooth.
2. Add the curd and water and again blend till smooth.
3. Pour into a pan and put on a small flame. Keep stirring so that the mixture does not stick onto the pan for about 5 mins.
4. Sputter the mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and garnish the curry.
Note:
Using green mangoes is the best and will give a spicy sour taste. Using sweet mangoes will give a sweet touch to the curry. It looks like a mango shake with mustard seeds in it but tastes quite different!! Best with rice :-)

Parippu-Cheera Curry

Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
Parippu (dal) -1.5 cups
Cheera (Spinach) - 1 bunch
Coconut - 1 cup grated
Onion - 1 big chopped
Chilly powder - 1/5 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - few
Salt to taste
Method:
1. The dal has to be soaked in wtaer for abt 1 hr before using. Will help in geting cooked easily.
2. Wash and rinse the spinach leaves thoroughly and chop them into small pieces.
3. Add the spinach and dal into a pressuer cooker. Add salt and half chilly powder and turmeric powder into. Allow it to cook for 2-3 whistles.
4. By then sputter some mustard seeds in a pan. Sautee the onions till tehy become brown add the remining salt , chilly powder and turmeric powder to this.
5. Add the shredded coconut to this. Cook for 2 mins.
6. Add the cooked parippu and cheera mix to this. Mix it well with the onions and coconut.
7. Let it cook for about 2 mins and then its done! :-)

Biscuits

This is what i have been upto in the weekend :-)

You will need:
Maida 2 and 1/5 cups

Butter 3/4 cup (melted)

Sugar 1 cup (finely powdered)

Eggs - 2

Essence - 1 tsp (vanilla, rose flavour or any of your coice)

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Process:

1. Beat the eggs, sugar and melted butter together to get a fine paste. It should not have any lumps. Can even be mixed using a mixer. Add the essence to this.

2. After the loose paste type mixture is very smooth, add in teh baking powder and slowly mix in the maida a bit at a time . Even this can be mixed the same way the butter and sugar was done. Pat and knead the whole mixture into a very soft and smooth dough.

3. After it is done, refrigerate it for abt 3 hours. Later When we take it out, the dough will be more stiff.

4. Preheat your microwave in convection to 175 deg cent.

5. In the meantime, roll out the dough and cut out into shapes which you would like to have your biscuts. I just did it simply with a knife to get square biscuits.

6. After the pre-heating is done, put the cut out biscut dough pieces on a baking tray which is buttered or on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 mins.

7. Let it cool. It will harden more after it cools down. The biscuits are done.

8. Chocolate biscuits can be done in the same way if about 2 heaped spoons of cocoa powder are mixed into the mixture in step 1.

Check out this funny page of biscuit proverbs!! :-)

http://www.borderbiscuits.co.uk/biscprov.html