Lemon bliss cake and Chocolate chip brownies

I love going thru food blogs... it is a major time pass for me.. I love the way each blog takes me to another and yet another on a never ending journey of good food.. (and then , since all that surfing has eaten into my cooking time but at the same time all those good pics have me hungry for good food --  I order pizzas! )

Nupur's Onehotstove is one of the blogs I frequent.. I went to her blog yesterday after ages... the pic of her lemon bliss cake looked awesome and so baked one in the evening... while mine did not look equally awesome, it did taste awesome..  and then to do justice to Joy's tummy, baked a brownie from a site I was guided to by the same blog....

(P.S. An amendment -- I recently  baked this cake and glazed it  as per the recipe. And all of us went ga-ga over the cake with the glaze. While the cake is delicious by itself, the glaze gives an altogether different taste to the cake. This time I baked it in a regular pan. Since it did not have a hole in the middle, I poked the cake with a knife to let the glaze enter. Hence those marks on the cake in the pic. Do try the cake with the glaze -- the taste is amazing. Secondly, I could not dissolve the entire sugar and so had some granulated sugar in the glaze. Ab and Joy insisted that it was the crunchiness of the sugar which made it all the more tasty and advised me  not to dissolve the entire sugar in future tries).  

I do not have a bundt so  I used my simple cake pan. I took half the proportions and it took me 40 minutes to bake. On second thoughts, may be I need  to bake it longer since the bottom did not brown as well as Nupur's . I tried overturning the cake but I do not seem to have greased the pan enough as the cake broke. The glaze requires quite a lot of beating as a lot of sugar needs to be dissolved in lemon juice.  I skipped the glaze step as the cake broke and I also realized the cake is very sweet by itself.

http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2008/12/20/lemon-in-the-limelight-taking-a-break-from-chocolate/

The brownie turned out really chocolaty and gooey with the choco chips literally bursting from the seams... It took me 30 minutes to bake and still wasn't dry but I decided I did not want it to  over-dry and quit baking after 30 minutes..I added a little less than half a cup of sugar to make it sweeter as Joy likes them so. 

http://www.blogher.com/frame.php?url=http://www.diannesdishes.com/2007/12/chocolate-chip-brownies-gift-j.html

Kerala Chicken Stew

This was amongst the first chicken recipes I learnt to cook after moving to Sgp... I unfortunately do not remember the name of the book  or the name of the author.. I remember her being based at USA... So regret unable to give due credit to the lady...

What I love about this dish is that this is a single dish of chicken and veggies which can be had with plain rice ....  one of the dishes for the day when I  want something light on spices, nothing elaborate in terms of cooking  but something tasty too..  

8 pieces  Chicken thighs

2 tbspn oil

6 each of cardamom pods (open) and whole cloves

2" cinnamon stick

1/4 tspn pepper corns

2 bay leaves

2.5 cups Chopped onions

2 tbspn chopped green chillies

3 tbsp grated ginger

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp aniseed/ fennel/ saunf (powdered) ( Most important as this is what gives a unique flavor to the stew)

1/4 tspn turneric powder

Salt to taste

2 cups chopped vegetables (carrots/ beans/ peas)

20 curry leaves

1 can coconut milk (200 ml)

Heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Add cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, pepper corns and bay leaves. Saute until fragrant for about 40 seconds.

Add onions and saute till golden. Add chillies,  1 tbsp ginger, fennel,  and saute for two minutes.

Push masala to one side of the pan. Add chicken. Spoon masala over top and brown the chicken. Flip chicken to brown other side. Stir chicken to mix well with masala.

Add 2 cups  water and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer till chicken is partially cooked.

Add vegetables ,curry leaves, 2 tbsp ginger and garlic. Increase heat to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for five minutes. Add coconut milk  and simmer till the vegetables are tender. 

Serve hot with plain rice.

Bon appetit!!!!

Potoler Dorma / Stuffed Parwal/ Stuffed waxy gourds

Potoler dorma brings back fond memories of mummy's cooking.  Potoler dorma refers to stuffed potol. You may stuff it with coconut, potatoes, fish.  I have stuffed the potols with  keema (mutton) .  We are lucky to get large potols from Bangladesh to make these.

 Pic of the scraped potols. Remove the seeds / flesh  inside with the back of a small spoon. 

Frying the stuffed potols in batches

The final dish

The recipe at Shilpi Bose's  blog

http://itistastyma.blogspot.com/2010/11/potoler-dorma-stuffed-parwals-pointed.html#more

Bon Appetit!!!!!

Orange Souffle

This is a very simple and awesomely delicious orange souffle. Not a souffle in the true sense but the result is a very light dish. It delights me that many friends have made this  at their homes after  tasting it our place... 

 Ingredients :
 2  packets of orange jelly ( making one litre of jelly) 
900 ml  of Vanilla icecream
200 ml of sugarless orange juice  

Prepare the jelly. Heat 500 ml of water . Add the jelly crystals, and mix with water for around a minute or more (count till 100)  till all the crystals dissolve. Add another 490 ml of cold water to the same. After the mixture comes to room temperature, put it in the refrigerator ( not freezer)  to let it semi-set. This is the only important part of the preparation, that it should not set completely. Keep checking the jelly to take it out when it is semi-set  ( wiggles dangerously). Take it out of the refrigerator. Scoop it out and put it in a blender.Pour in the orange juice. Break the vanilla icecream into medium pieces and add the same. 

Now blend the three for a minute or so till all three are completely blended. When u switch off the blender, you will notice in a few seconds, the liquid mixture will automatically coagulate and stick to each other. Pour into individual bowls or in a large bowl and keep it to cool in the refrigerator (not the freezer). Take it out only at the time of serving.  If kept outside, the souffle tends to disintegrate. If you are preparing  a large amount to be used over two sessions, recommend placing them in two different bowls. 


Bon Appetit !!!!

Lehsuni Murgh

A local restaurant, Omar Shariff's chicken garlic kebab turned out mouth melting. With the taste still lingering in  my memory, I came across this recipe of lehsuni murgh  at the NDTV website  and gave it a try. It turned out equally mouth melting and on my list of must make again.    The link to the original website is given . I have copied pasted the recipe , as I have not digressed from the original recipe at all.

http://cooks.ndtv.com/recipe/show/lehsuni-murg-98724

Ingredients :

1/2 kg boneless chicken 

2-3 tbsp ghee 

1 small bowl water 

1 small bowl finely chopped onions 

5-6 tsp garlic paste 

3-4 tsp ginger paste 

3 tsp coriander powder 

4 tsp yogurt 

2 tsp red chilli powder 

5-6 tsp badaam paste 

Salt - to taste 

1/4 tsp jaifal powder (nutmeg) 

1/4 tsp javitri powder 

1/2 tsp pepper powder 

4 tsp fried chopped garlic 

2 tsp kesar ka ghol 

2-3 tsp coriander leaves

Lightly roast the badam and soak it in water for a while. Grind it into a paste and keep aside. 

Heat ghee in a pan, and fry onions. Pour in the garlic paste and ginger paste. Mix well. 

Add coriander powder and add 4-5 tbsp of water. Continue to stir. 

Mix in the yogurt, add the red chilli powder and mix again. 

Pour in the badaam paste and cook for some time. 

Add the chicken and mix well. 

Add salt and water, cook for sometime or till the chicken is well cooked. 

Add jaifal powder, javitri powder, pepper powder, fried chopped garlic and kesar. 

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Tuck in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!