150th post and a Zebra Cake in my Kitchen too!

Finally Shab’s Cuisine hits another milestone! It’s been more than two years that I have been blogging my recipes and thoughts and in here and I very much enjoyed every moment of it. I never ever thought I could go so far because I am not the kind of person who is so much dedicated to any hobby apart from blogging. I get all bored after a while and stop it and then forgot about it. But this blog which once was just started to save my recipes and a mere time pass has become a passion and more than that a place to virtually pour my thoughts! I never knew I even had love for cooking until I started this little space of mine! I guess it was hidden in me until I started a blog.

I have never bothered to learn cooking until I settled down completely with my husband, and I guess there are plenty out there like me. During my college days, all I used to do was carrying some dictated recipes of my mom to UK whenever I paid him a visit during my holidays. I thought cooking was so easy, that I could easily cook whatever is written in my book taken from my mom who always gave me approximated measurements. I never bothered to peek into kitchen those days when my mom used to cook for us. When I started cooking from the notes, I realised that it was not an easy thing to start with and I didn’t even know the very basic of cooking like know how much salt to add, how long onions to be sautéed for a simple curry and even how to boil rice! Even then, I turned my back on cooking and din’t bother to learn a bit. That was how much I hated cooking once! Later when I completed my studies and settled with my hubby, I felt that I need to learn at least basic cooking to survive. Started collecting recipes on bits and pieces of paper, and little books, diaries etc . I lost many of my precious recipes because those were scribbled on bits and pieces of paper which I left somewhere carelessly and got lost. I used to see so many blogs around and try many recipes with successful results and that was when I thought I also should start saving my recipes online after perfecting them to suit our taste! Started a blog for fun and here it is now! I still am not sure how far I will be going on with this, but as long as I have support from my readers and friends.

 

Initially I dint even know something like measuring spoons and cups existed, so all the measurements used to be taken down using regular spoons in my kitchen. I tried the same recipes with measuring spoons and it gave me different results. So I am trying to edit all the recipes using standard measuring spoons and cups.I have learnt so much from blogging, I am introduced to wide range of foods from around the world and fantastic foodies. I also prepare loads of them at home and try to perfect them as it goes. After the blog was started, I did watch too much of cookery programs which ate up so much of time once which I have reduced almost to none due to lack of time. But I still search loads of recipes, peek on many blogs, comment on as much as time allows me. The number of cook books on my shelves is also on tremendous increase and too are the vessels! My camera was upgraded from a simple but a high end point and shoot camera to a Digital SLR. I also believe that my photography (at least for the macro pictures) has become much better than before. Hasn’t it? I also try to collect anything and everything that looks good on pictures be it a shell, a ribbon, flowers, leaves or a piece of paper to make a better background for my pictures, but sometimes I take pictures in a hurry not giving importance for anything. I have also gained loads of wonderful friends and readers who are so inspiring without whom this blog would have far been dead. Thanks to all for the wonderful comments and inspiration. That really kept me going and still keeps me going.

Now, coming to the recipe, Zebra cake is one of the prettiest cakes on its own. It looks pretty as it is, without any frosting done. The cake is similar to the marble cake, but the patterns is zebra striped which make it look stunning. I have seen this cake baked on so many blogs, so this might not be new to many of you. I had prepared this quite a while back with half the amount mentioned in the original recipe and using a 6 inch pan. The result was perfect except for the sweetness part which was really low for our taste. For that reason, I added more sugar and a pinch of salt when I made it the second time. Last weekend we had a get together with our friends and I baked this cake and took along. I also made a simple icing to go with it that I prepared for Celebration chocolate cake. It tasted fantastic with the icing on and everyone absolutely loved it. I first spotted this cake on Farida Azerbaijani's Blog. Have a peek at her wonderful blog to get the original recipe. Here is my tweeked version of it to suit our taste.

Ingredients:

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 1/3 cup castor sugar
1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups+ 2 Tbsp plain flour

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup milk at room temperature

2 pinch salt

For icing,:

Refer Celebration chocolate cake.

Preparations:

 

1.Grease and line a 9 inch deep cake pan. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius 10 minutes before baking.

2. Combine sugar and eggs and beat on high speed around 8 minutes until it becomes thick and pale yellow in colour.

3. Add in milk and oil and beat for 30 seconds until thoroughly combined. Add in vanilla essence and beat again.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder and mix well.

5. Add this flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat just until combined and no dry flour is visible. Don’t overbeat the mixture after adding the flour since it will knock out the airy bubbles and result in a heavy cake.

6. Divide the batter into half. In one half of batter add sifted cocoa powder and mix well. Leave the other half plain.

7. Now pour 3 Tablespoons of plain batter in the centre of the pan. Pour 3 Tablespoons of cocoa batter in the centre of the white batter. Don’t spread the batter or wait to spread. It will spread by itself as it goes. Pour Another 3 tablespoon of white batter in the centre of cocoa batter and then cocoa batter. Continue pouring until all the batter is used up. I used separate spoons for both batter to make it easier. If you have a ladle that holds 3 tablespoons of batter, you can use that. Here, I used heaped tablespoon of cocoa batter and scant tablespoon plain batter, hence more prominent cocoa stripes and less white straps.

8. Place the pan in the centre of the oven and bake till done or when the skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. The original recipe mentions 45 minutes, but mine took 1 hour 5 minutes.

Once the cake is completely cooled, serve as required, plain or with whipped cream frosting or any icing. I did the same frosting that I did for celebration chocolate cake and it tasted just divine.

Pistachio and Cardamom Cookies

Is there anyone out there who don't like cardamom? I love the smell of the cardamom and try to sneak it in anything possible....You can add them in anything imaginable from cookies, Kulfi’s, tea, desserts, kheers, sweets, fudge and cakes to rice, curries, smoothies and even pickles!...anything and everything you could imagine. It is such a versatile ingredient with a very sweet smell, that it makes one of the best flavouring ingredients in most of the dishes especially for desserts. The other day I was preparing some Arabic Rice ‘Machbous’ and I ran out of cardamom powder and had to grind some fresh ones. The smell of the ground cardamoms left me craving for some cardamom cookies that we used to get back in India. I guess it’s the ‘Good-day’ brand cookies that are unavailable here or may be available in some remote unreachable Indian grocers.

 So I looked upon net for any recipes that uses cardamom and pistachio combo and came up with these. Oh my! The cookies were simply delicious and divine much better than I thought and I just loved it to core. Pistachio and cardamom paired perfectly. The texture was light and melt-in mouth type- not hard, not crunchy but very light texture, somewhat like a very good butter cookie. I have added more cardamom here than the recommended amount, but that’s up to you how much to add! The cookies had a light green hue from the pistachios which made it look soooo pretty! Since my son loves shapes, I cut them into different shapes to make it more appealing for him. I tell you, these are one of the best cookies ever and a definite keeper. I got around 28 medium sized cookies. You can view the original recipe which is double the amount given here.

I started taking the pictures when I started, then I forgot to take the pictures as I continued! So I just have two pictures that I captured in the beginning of the process until I mixed the sugar. Sorry about that, but I am sure you will be able to follow the recipe because it is a straight forward and a simple recipe.

Pistachio and Cardamom Cookies

Makes around 28 medium size cookies

Adapted from Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska

Ingredients:

½ cup pistachios

½ cup – ½ cup plus 2 TBSP castor sugar (Depending on the sweetness you prefer)

½ cup butter, at room temperature

1 medium egg

1 cup + 4 Tablespoons Plain flour, plus extra to flour the Rolling surface

3 Tbsp corn flour

1/8 tsp salt

¾ tsp freshly ground cardamoms

½ tsp vanilla essence

Granulated sugar to sprinkle on the cookies

Few pistachio halves for garnishing

Preparations:

1. Finely grind pistachios and sugar in a Grinder. You can leave it slightly coarse if you wish.

2. Cream butter and half of pistachio-sugar mixture till smooth using a wooden spoon.

3. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence and mix wel scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in remaining pista-sugar mixture and stir till smooth.

4. Sift plain flour, corn flour and salt in a bowl. Add the flour mixture to the above wet mixture and mix to form a soft pliable dough and is not at all sticky. You may add a tablespoon more if need be.

5. Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper

6. Flour a clean surface and roll the dough using a rolling pin that is also coated with flour to avoid sticking. Roll to a thickness of 8mm-9mm and cut using floured cookie cutters to desired shapes. Lift it carefully using a palette knife or a simple knife and place on the cookie sheet. Slightly push a pistachio in the centre of each prepared cookie and sprinkle the cookies with coarse suagr crystals or granulated sugar. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until the bottom edge starts to turn slightly golden. I baked for 11 minutes exactly, but the timing will differ from oven to oven. After cutting the first batch of cookies, there will be left over dough. Form it into a ball and roll it and flatten it again and cut into desired shapes until all the dough is used up. You can just make a ball and flatten it for the last bit of dough. Once they are baked, leave them in the sheet for 3-4 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool them off completely. Once completely cooled, store them in air tight containers. These are perfect with a cup of tea And if you prefer you can have it with cardamom infused tea!

Notes:

I have halved the original recipe. The original recipe calls for a large egg, and I substituted it with a medium egg. So I had to add more flour to make a pliable dough that I could roll. The dough was soft still, but manageable with the amount of flour of flour used. So I tried chilling the half part of the dough to make it slightly firmer and easier to roll without sticking. The result was exactly the same with no difference at all. So you may chill the dough and roll it.

You may use ½ cup of sugar if you like it less sweet, else add ¾ cup of sugar to make it sweet. I used ½ a cup of sugar here, but would love it slightly sweeter.

Mango and Cheese Pudding

Here is another mango pudding that I made quite a while ago from Priya’s blog. It was so simple to assemble and the outcome was equally good. The given measurement makes a huge batch of pudding and it will serve quite a lot of people. So this would be one easy peasy recipe for parties especially if you need to prepare some dessert in a hurry. The cheese in the pudding gave the dessert a slight tang which made me think that, this would be the best filling if we need to convert this pudding to a mango cheese cake. I am not sure on that since I haven’t tried, but I guess it would work fine because the pudding really sets well. It made an enormous quantity and if planning to prepare this as a filling for cheesecake, we should get a good sized two 9 inch size cheese cake because it really made a lot of pudding. We also served with pralines which gave it a nice sweet crunch. We felt the pudding was a bit plain without pralines. You can find the recipe for pralines in my Nutty pineapple pudding recipe.

Ingredients:

200g Philadelphia cream cheese

750 ml (3 ¼ cups) mango puree

250 ml (1 cup) liquid double cream/Whipping cream

250ml (1 cup) milk

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp Powdered gelatine

Preparation:

1. Sprinkle gelatine over milk and mix well. Heat it in a double boiler until all the gelatine granules melt.Dont boil the gelatine for long. Pass the gelatine and milk mixture through a strainer to remove any possible lumps. Set aside to cool. This can also be done in mmicrowave.

2. In a large bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks.

3. Add in cheese, mango puree, sugar and mix well until well combined. You can Pour it in blender and give it a whizz, or use an egg beater.

4. Add the cooled (make sure it is not hot and not cold, because gelatine sets as it starts to get cold) gelatine-milk mixture to this and mix well until well combined.

5. Pour in a large dish that can hold almost 2 litres of liquid and chill in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or until set. Serve cold. This can also be served in individual serving dishes if making for large parties.

Notes:

If canned Mango puree is unavailable, you can peel and puree fresh mangoes and take the required amount of puree as mentioned in the recipe. The puree in the can was really sweet and the given amount of sugar was just perfect. If using freshly pureed mangoes, make sure they are sweet enough, else increase the sugar as needed.

Pacha Manga Chammanthi( Raw Mango with Coconut)

There are some foods which you assume it to be tasteless just by the sound of it and just then just forget about it. I do it always! This chammanthi was one among that list. I have come across this recipe here and there and in one of my cook books as well. But I never even bothered about it even though I am a core fan of Raw mangoes. Again after a long time, I saw this chammanthi on Collaborative curry and her description really sparked that longing taste of raw mangoes in me. Went ahead, made it, and had it. It was so finger licking delicious! These kind of chammanthi’ s are normally had along with rice and other curries or our humble gruel which is simply boiled rice that is slightly over cooked and served in its own cooked water. Gruel is quite a bland food to eat, but that blandness has some soothing effect and for me it is one of my comfort foods. The amount of coconut can be increased or cut down depending on the sourness of the mango. You can also use frozen mango slices for this. My friend Prathibha lso recommends grinding this chammanthi on a stone grinder (Ammikkallu) and adding Kaanthari Mulaku (Bird's eye chilli) instead of regular chillies to enhance the taste.

You know when I was quite young, I used to stay at my paternal aunts place whenever we pay a visit. I was so adamant that I would force my mom to permit me to stay over at my aunt’s place. I loved raw mangoes and they had it in abundance which they even used to sell it away and sometimes dry them for later use. We either get the mangoes plucked by our male cousins or some workers, or if the trees were short, we plucked them ourselves using a hook attached to a long pole. We ate the mangoes sliced and smeared in salt and chilli powder. Yum! I used to have them so much, that I always ended up having tummy upset by the end of the day. Even then these chammanthi’s were unheard by me or probably I was quite unaware of it. There also used to be chicks, ducklings which I very much loved and even had fun chasing them. I still remember chasing them barefooted as far as I could and coming home with fish thorns pricked on foot.

Here goes the recipe, inspired from Collaborative curry.

Ingredients:
¼ cup Finley chopped raw mango pieces (Skinless)
½ cup freshly grated coconut
½ tsp salt or as required
1 ½ Tbsp chopped shallots
½ - 1 green chilli, preferably kaanthari mulaku (a kind of bird’s eye chilli)

Preparation:

1.Grind together coconut, mango shallot and chilli to a coarse paste.

2. Add salt and mix well.

Serve along with plain rice and  other curries, thoran etc.

Low fat Banana Muffins

Whenever I go shopping I always make sure that I buy some basic fruits like bananas, pears, apples and oranges and vegetables like carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce. Even if they might not be eaten on regular basis, these would be always seen in my fridge. I sometimes end up buying them even if I don’t want them just to give me a feel that I am actually having some fruits and vegetable. I make sure that they are always there at home, hoping myself to eat vegetables and fruits. I am an anti-fruit and anti-vegetable person when it comes to eating it in raw forms. Even if it is the delicious mango, the case is not different. So I always end up using them in my curries (vegetables) or if fruits, it goes into any delectable but calorie laden dessert, smoothie or a cake.

This banana muffin was also born to save bananas from binning. Unlike carrots and potatoes, bananas have a very short shelf life. They ripen at a rapid pace, which if not used up will have to be thrown away. I normally add them to my smoothies like banana and peanut butter smoothie (Has anyone ever tried that?), strawberry banana smoothie, apple and banana etc. This time it was a plain banana muffin. Din’t bother adding any nuts or chocolates because I was not sure of the outcome and my son hates nuts in his cakes. I have reduced the fat as minimum as I could imagine and added some milk to keep some moisture in. The result was a fabulous light and spongy banana muffins. It was made with the intention of low fat muffin so it lacks the buttery goodness or richness from fat. As you can see I just used 3 tbsp oil, but it was really moist and I am quite happy with the result. If you prefer the buttery rich kind of muffin you may omit milk and try adding more oil. I thought it would be just me gulping these muffins, but my family loved it too. So I would try adding more melted butter or vegetable oil next time to see what difference it makes.

Low Fat Banana Muffins

Makes 9 medium muffins, serves 9

Ingredients:

1 cup Plain flour

3 Tbsp/45 mls vegetable oil

2 large bananas mashed (300g, peeled weight)

1 large egg

½ cup castor sugar

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

4 Tbsp whole milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Few sliced bananas – optional

½ cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips - optional

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add in chocolate chips or chopped nuts if using. I left it plain.

2. In another bowl, mash banana. Add to it lightly beaten egg, milk, oil and vanilla essence.

3. Pour the wet ingredients to dry ones and fold until no dry flour is visible.

4. Place 9 medium sized muffin cases in the muffin pan. Scoop the batter into muffin cases until it is ¾ full. Place a slice of banana on top and bake for 20-25 minutes or until it springs back when lightly pressed.

Kadhai Gosht/Kadai Gosht (A North Indian Mutton Curry in Tomato Based Sauce)

This is one of most popular Indian non-vegetarian curry that you will come across almost every Indian restaurant menu anywhere in the world. Much before I started blogging, I was always tempted to try these popular dishes at home, and perfecting it as possible as I could. One among them was this Kadai gosht. When I started preparing this curry dish at home, the recipe was quite different, and I was not 100 percent satisfied with the outcome. Either it was a bit to tang from the tomatoes and the curd and sometimes the lemon juice that was added in the recipe. Made it several times making few tweaks here and there and this is so far the final version that I make these days and the best that I could make. Kadai gosht also known as Karahi gosht is prepared in large woks called ‘Kadhai’ or ‘kadai’ or ‘karahi’ and hence it gets its name. The curry is normally red in colour, quite a delicious one and it’s one of the best combinations of naan bread. Whenever we get it ordered from restaurants, many a times I have also found capsicum added to it. Capsicum would’nt be fully cooked, but crunchy. And I guess that is added at the final stage of cooking to bring that flavour and hold its shape without overcooking it. I have never tried with capsicum though since the capsicum taste will overpower the taste in the dish. You may try it at home, if you love the taste of capsicum in your dish.

Here, my meat got slightly overcooked because I forgot to take into account the time that I simmered the mutton before pressure cooking it and cooked it as it should be done without sautéing. You can see that in the outcome. My meat has started breaking down from overcooking. But apart from that the curry was really good and my hubby even asked me if it was Mutton Kadai even before I told him that it was. It pairs the best with butter naan, or simply plain naan and may be served along with rice, tandoor roti and even chappathis along with plain curd, raita and pickle.

Ingredients:

½ kilo lamb meat cut into 2 inch chunks

Marinade:

2 medium onion grated (scant 1 cup, 220g)

1 Tbsp dry fenugreek leaves (Kasury Methy) crushed using fingers

3 Tbsp creamy yogurt

1 tsp garam masala

½ Tbsp minced ginger

½ Tbsp minced garlic

Salt

Others:

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 cardamoms

3 cloves

2 small pieces cinnamon stick

2 tsp Kashmiri Chilli powder

1 tsp roasted coriander powder

¼ tsp fennel seeds/aniseed

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp turmeric powder

2 large tomatoes chopped (1 cup, 200g)

2-3 green chillies (Optional, add only if you need to give some heat to the curry)

Preparation:

1. Wash mutton pieces and drain well. Marinate lamb with the ingredients under marinade and refrigerate in a container with lid for a minimum of 4 hours or over night. (I always marinate it for one day.)

2. Bring the marinated meat to room temperature before cooking.

3. In a pressure cooker, heat oil. Add cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and sauté for few seconds till it leaves aroma. Add in the marinated meat and sauté for 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

4. Add chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies if adding and tomatoes and stir fry for 8-10 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and the meat is smothered in thick spiced gravy.

5. Add ¾ cup water, stir well and cook till done. Adjust the salt if need be. Normally the gravy is very thick and is delicious that way. But if you want little more gravy, add few tablespoons of water. Since we already sautéed meat for sometime, it would take less pressure cooking time. So don’t forget to check in between for doneness.
Garnish with coriander leaves and ginger juliennes and serve hot with naan.