Chicken Cobbler

Chicken cobbler - I dont know how this dish got its name and dont know which country this dish belongs to!. Anyway, I was very much attracted by its name and its appealing look. I came across this very unsual recipe quite sometime back and I make this when I feel like eating something different from the usual spiced up Indian dishes. Chicken cobbler has creamy chicken and vegetable gravy lightly seasoned with salt,pepper and mustard paste and topped with flaky and golden scones or cobbler.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, 1 medium potato,1 medium carrot
2 leek
2 chicken fillets cut into strips
6-8 Spring onion
1 tsp - Mustard paste
150 mls Cream
1 cup Chicken stock
1 tsp + ½ tsp - Black pepper
Salt as required
2 cup Plain flour + 1 tbs
1 tbs Baking powder
2 tbs + 5 tbs Butter (cold)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preparation :
To make sauce:
1. Cut carrot and potatoes into small cubes. In 2 tbs of butter, sauté carrot and potato until they are almost cooked .Take them out and keep them aside.
2. In the same pan, add thinly chopped onion and sauté until pink. (Add a dash of oil if needed.) At this stage, add chicken strips and sauté until half done. Add leeks chopped thickly to the chicken and cook until the chicken is golden brown in color. Add one tbs of plain flour and sauté for a minute. Add the sauted carrots and potatoes back to the pan containing chicken.Now add 1 cup of chicken stock and mustard paste and cook for some more time. Add cream and spring onion and cook for 2 more minutes. Add 1 tsp pepper and salt to season. Mix well.

To make cobbler:

1. Sieve flour. Add salt and baking powder to it and mix well until well combined.
2. To this add 4 tbs of butter and mix well until they look like breadcrumbs. Add cheese and pepper and mix well again. Add enough water to make dough that’s quite soft (as that of chapatti dough). You should be able to roll it out and cut shapes out of it.
3. Take half of the dough and roll it into a thickness of about 1.5 cm and cut out several round shapes out of it
4. Take a baking dish and pour the chicken sauce. Level it using the spoon. Now arrange the round shaped cut dough in a way that each circle overlaps the next one. Continue repeating the process until the whole sauce is covered with the cobbler.See the picture below..

5. Bake it in a preheated oven at 190°C for about 25-30 minutes or until the cobbler (the top) is golden brown colour. Serve it hot with steamed broccoli or any other vegetables.

Chocolate cake with Chocolate Wipped Cream filling and Ganache Topping

I always wanted to bake a moist and excellent chocolate cake but always I ended up in disaster. I sometimes wonder how things can go so wrong when you follow the recipe as such. I have tried another chocolate cake before and I should say that it was so bad that I had to throw out the whole stuff. And thought, I wouldn't try them again. But recenlty I saw this cookery show on TV in which the chef baked a chocolate cake. I got so tempted that I baked the cake next day itself. It came out so good, it just melts in mouth. I have chosen to layer the cake with chocolate whipped cream and top it with a gooey ganache that took from JoyofBaking. If you want to read more on ganache you can see it here.

I love the light bitterness of the dark chocolate. And since quite lot of cocoa powder is used to make this cake , it's slightly, very slightly bitter. But if you are the kind of person who love dark chocolate, you are gonna love this. Else you can reduce the amount of cocoa used. Believe me, its amazing.


Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 ¾ cup - Plain flour
¾ cup/175 gm Butter at room temperature
2 - large Eggs
¾ cup – Sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 ½ cup milk
A pinch of salt

For the Moistening Syrup :6 tbs sugar
10 tbs water

Preparation:

For the cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/ Gas Mark 4/ 350° F.
2. In a large bowl, put butter and sugar and beat well using blender or whisk until creamy.

3. Add vanilla essence and beat again. After that add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift flour 2-3 times. Add cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda to the flour and mix well until all ingredients are evenly distributed.
5. Add this dry mixture to the egg mixture in 2-3 batches and mix well. Add milk and mix well with spoon until you get a smooth velvety batter.
6. Grease a 9’’ baking pan and bake it for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted. This way you can make sure the cake is cooked.
7. Cool the cake completely by placing it on the wire rack.

Moistening syrup:

Heat together sugar and water until all sugar melts and the syrup just boils. Turn off the flame.

Assembling the Cake:

Once the Chocolate Cake has cooled completely, place it on a large dish. Using a stitching thread, cut the cake, horizontally, into two layers. I normally Use a thread to cut a cake. I find it easier and to divide a cake using a thread. You can use knife as well. Turn over the top layer of the cake (so the top of the cake becomes the bottom) and sprinkle half of the sugar syrup all over. Then, spread the chocolate whipped cream. Always make sure that the cake is completely cooled before adding the cream.Place the second layer of cake, cut-side down, on top of the chocolate cream, gently pressing to compact. Make sure the cake is upside down, so that you will get a flat side on top. Pour the remaining syrup over the top of the second layer. pouring this surup makes the cake really moist. Cover with plastic wrap and place the cake in the refrigerator for several hours, before covering with the ganache. Garnish with strawberries and chocolate shavings or chocolate curls and dust with cocoa powder or icing powder.

Orange and raisin cookies (makes around 20)

I found this particular yummy recipe on the raisin packet that I bought from store. The dough was a bit sticky and soft compared to the normal cookie dough. So while making the cookie, I rubbed a little oil in my hands, so that the dough wont stick to my hand. It was worth a try. The cookie was wonderfully delicious with a light orange flavour and orange smell with chewy raisins in between.

Ingredients:
150 gm (5 oz) plain flour
100g (40z) castor sugar
100 (4oz) butter, softened
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla essence/orange essence
100 gm seedless raisins
1 tablespoon grated orange zest

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven to 190° C/375° F/ gas mark 5 and grease three baking sheets.
2. Place all the ingredients except orange rind and raisins,into a large bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon.
3. Stir in the raisin and orange rind.
4. Take a dessertspoonful of the mixture, place into palm and press with the fingers to shape it into rounds of around half cm thickness and place it in the baking sheet leaving 2 inches apart.
5. Bake it for 15-17 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.
6. Remove from the baking sheet and cool it on a wire rack.

N.B: While taking the orange Zest, take care not to take the white sheath that comes under the zest, because it can turn the cookie really bitter and ruin the taste. And you can always scrape of the orange zest before making juice and reserve it by freezing it for any later use.

Butter Shortbread cookies

Yesterday morning I was sitting bored and was thinking of doing something different,new! But dint have anything in mind. After that,I just went and checked our mail box to find few recipe cards that had come in the mail. in that recipe card was the recipe of this shortbread. Thought I will bake them....and here is the recipe of that delicious butter shortbread cookies...Its so delicious,I would just call it 'Simply Irresistible'. Here, I have taken the picture of the recipe card instead of typing it. So, Click on the picture to get a larger (readable)view of the recipe.

Pizza (Serves 3)

I have always wanted to make pizza, but never dared to. Thought it was just for the expert cooks and I had a strong feeling that it might not come out good if I make it. Infact I used to like only the 'Pizza Hut' pizza and dint like any other pizza that I tried else where. But this one is real good. I really liked it. My family too. Give it a try and you wont be disappointed. Best part is that,it doesnt take much effort, the ingredients are readily available everywhere and its not messy. Easy to make for a lazy day!

Update: 18.05.2010
Note: I did not use measuring spoon for this recipe and it tasted different when I made it using measuring spoon. Please bear with me until I get the standard measurements sorted.

For the base
Plain flour – 200 grams or 2 cups
Sugar – 1 tbs
Salt – as required
Yeast – 1 tsp
Butter/oil – 4 tbs
Luke warm milk – half cup
Water – as required

For the topping
Tomato puree – 4 tbs
Soya sauce – 2 tbs
Brown sugar – almost 2 tbs
Salt- as required
Oregano – ½ + ½ tsp
Olive oil – 2 tbs
Paprika powder/chilli powder– ½ tsp
Sausages – 1 cup (thinly sliced and sautéed in oil)
Mushrooms – ½ cup (thinly sliced and sautéed in oil)
Boneless Chicken – 1 cup (Cut into small pieces, stir fried by adding salt and pepper) or 1chicken fillet
Corn – as required.
Capsicum – 1
Black olives – ½ cup (sliced thinly)
Cheddar cheese – 200 gms (May use less)
Mozzarella – 200 gms (May use less)

Preparation

For the base of pizza:
Mix sugar and yeast in lukewarm water and allow to bubble. This indicates the activation of yeast. This may take few minutes. If small bubbles doesnt occur,it shows that the yeast is not activated and you will not get a good dough. So make sure the yeast is good before making. Also take care not to use boiling or hot water because the yeast will not be activated too and again, the dough will not rise.
In another bowl mix salt with flour and add butter. Mix well until the dough looks like bread crumbs. Then slowly add the milk and knead the dough until it reaches the consistency of chapatti dough. Add water if required. Cover the dough with a wet towel in order to avoid drying out and leave in a warm place to rise to almost double the size. The dough should be soft and springy to touch at this stage.

For the topping and assembling of pizza:

1. Heat a sauce pan and add olive oil. Add tomato puree, soya sauce, half teaspoon oregano, brown sugar, salt and paprika powder/chilli powder and cook for few minutes on medium heat (around 4-5 mins).
2. Now, for assembling, divide the dough into two equal size balls. this is to make two 9" pizzas. Take one part of dough; roll it into less than half centimetre thickness. Spread half of tomato sauce very thinly on the dough making sure you leave 1 cms around the edge.

3. Shred some cheese (mixture of both the cheeses) on top of the sauce. Place a layer of sausage on top of cheese, then sprinkle some sliced olives, corn, shredded chicken, mushroom and capsicum all over. Top again with plenty of shredded cheese (Mozzarella and cheddar mix) and sprinkle the rest of oregano.

4. Preheat the oven to 180° C. And bake the pizza for about 20 – 25 minutes or until the base is raised, has a golden brown colour and the cheese is completely melted. Can omit the non vegetarian part if u need a vegetarian pizza.
5. Repeat the same process with the other half of the dough. You can create your own topping with ingredients of your choice!

Lemon Tart

For the base:

Plain flour – 200 grams
Sugar – 3 tablespoon
Butter - 100 grams
Egg – 1 small
Cream – 1 tablespoon

For the filling:

Orange juice – 200 mls
Sugar – 150 grams
Butter – 50 grams
Egg yolks – 2
1 lemon’s rind
Cream – 100 mls
Cornflour – 4 tablespoon
Water – 50 mls+ 4 tablespoon
Gelatine Powder – 2 teaspoon

Preparation:

1. First prepare the base. For that, In a large bowl mix butter and flour and mix well with hands until it looks like bread crumbs. You can use the egg whisker for this. At this stage, add cream, sugar and egg and knead well to make into a dough as seen in picture 1. Refrigerate for an hour or two.

The tart dough

2. Dust the rolling surface with flour and roll out the dough evenly into a thickness of half a centimetre. With the help of the rolling pin, slowly lift the dough and transfer it to the baking flan. Prick all over the pastry inorder to prevent bubbling during baking. Bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degrees, for about 20-25 minutes or until it turns golden brown.

Tart base pricked all over with fork.Before baking and after baking

3. Meanwhile, for the filling,heat orange juice,sugar and butter until all the sugar dissolves. At this stage mix cornflour with water and add it to the juice mixture. Consequently add egg yolks and mix well. Add 4 tablespoon of hot water to gelatine and mix well. Then add this gelatine mixture, cream and lemon zest to the juice and heat for some more time until all the gelatine mix well.
4. Transfer this mixture on top of the base and chill overnight. Serve cold.

(Tart before setting and after setting)