Newyork cheesecake with mango jello topping

It was our sixth wedding anniversary and as usual planned on how to spend our day and what dessert to make (yeah! dessert is always part of the plan). We rounded up on cheesecake because it was on the list for too long. First I decided to try plain newyork cheesecake, but then I wanted to make it colorful and fruit based. Mango or strawberry no-bake cheesecake was an option. But I thought a layered look would be more appealing and challenging to try. So I chose to make a mango jello topped cheesecake. I wanted to keep it as a surprise element for my husband, just to see the priceless surprised look on his face when he knows that I inherited some of his experimenting skills. I also made some kesar  milk pedas for my hubby to share with his collegues. But the cheesecake  was the star of the day. One essential thing for making the cheesecake is a springfoam pan. It really helps you get your cheesecake in one piece.

Things you'll need:

Graham crackers (about 30 squares) - 2 cups, finely ground
Ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter - 1 stick, melted
Cream cheese -  1 lb (2 8oz blocks), softened
Eggs - 3
Sugar - 1 cup
Sour cream - 1 pint
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Jello mix - 1 pack (mango flavor)


Yield - 15 to 20 servings

Method:

Step 1:
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the graham crackers, ground cinnamon and melted butter. Grease and dust the springfoam pan and press in the graham mixture evenly on the bottom and on the sides of the pan (It need not cover the entire sides. Just an inch high on the sides will do.). Cover the pan with a plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 15 mins.

Step 2:
Using an electric hand mixer or standing mixer, mix the cream cheese until soft. Add the eggs one by one to the cheese and mix together. Add the sugar, sour cream and vanilla, one at a time, and mix well until a creamy mixture is formed without lumps.

Step 3:
Pour the cheese mixture into the chilled pan and even out. Cover the outer side of the pan with foil and place it in a roasting pan. Add boiling water to the roasting pan not above half of the springfoam pan. Place it in the oven and bake for 45 mins to an hour. The key is the slight browning of the top of the cheesecake, and the center of the cake should still be jiggling.

 Step 4:
Let it cool for 30 mins. Cover the pan and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours. Prepare the jello mix according to the package directions. Allow it to cool down until the mixture feels thick and not watery. But it should not have set yet. Pour the jello mixture on top of the cheesecake. Cover it again and refrigerate until the jello is set.

Step 5:
Run a knife between the sides of the cake and the pan to loosen the cake. Unmold the cake and transfer it to a cake serving plate. Decorate it as u wish and serve.

Tips:
You could add some mango pieces to the jello mixture.
You can alternatively mix mango juice and gelatin instead of store-bought jello.
Decorate it with fresh fruits or whipped cream topping.

Sending this recipe to Vardhini's bake fest event hosted by Archana 

Beetroot cake with buttercream frosting

This is one of our experiments. Since our carrot cake was a success my husband's idea depot opened and he suggested we try the carrot cake with different unusual ingredients. His ideas included beetroot, mango, cantaloupe (seriously?) and some fruits which we couldn't have imagined as a base for cake. First I dismissed the idea thinking he was joking but then decided to help his exploration. We discussed and fixed on a safest bet...beetroot. I thought it would turn out like a red velvet cake which it didn't. It actually tasted very good. We made half of the cake with nuts and half without nuts, frosted both with buttercream frosting. We took it to a get together at a friend's place. Surprisingly the kids didn't enjoy it as much as we did (how did they sense there's a vegetable in there hmm?) I added some pink food color to the buttercream frosting which is optional. Adding nuts enhances the taste. You could add finely chopped nuts of your choice.


Things you'll need:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ground nutmeg - a pinch
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Raw beetroots - 1 cup, grated
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla - 1/2 tsp
Canola or Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Applesauce - 4 oz

For buttercream frosting:
Confectioner's Sugar -  3-4 cups
Heavy cream - 2 tbsps
Butter - 1 cup, softened
Vanilla - 1 tbsp

Yield - 15 Servings

Method:











Step 1 :
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and dust a 9 inch cake pan. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Take 2 tbsp of flour mixture and coat the beetroots in the flour mixture.

Step 2 :
With an electric mixer or hand mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil, and applesauce, in medium speed until thoroughly mixed. Add the flour mixture in small batches and mix together. When the dry and wet ingredients are mixed without lumps, combine the beetroots  and nuts with the mixture.

Step 3 :
Pour into the greased cake pan and bake for 45 mins to one hour or till a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool down in the pan for 15 mins and then transfer to a wire rack and allow it to completely cool down.

Step 4 :
Prepare frosting by beating the butter to a creamy consistency then add the sugar in small batches mixing the butter and sugar with a spatula before turning the mixer on (to avoid sugar blowing everywhere). Add the  vanilla and heavy cream and beat it well until desired consistency is achieved. If you want a thick frosting add more sugar and if you want it thinner add some heavy cream one tablespoon at a time

Step 5:
Frost the cake according to your imagination and serve in slices.

Tips:
You can double the cake ingredients for a 13x9 pan or two 9 inch pans.
You can also use crushed pineapple instead of applesauce or omit them both. Adding the fruits results in a moist cake.
You can add food colors to the frosting and draw some designs on the cake.

Sending this recipe to Vardhini's bake fest hosted by tangyminds..

Carrot cake

Recently I was very much into baking cakes, actually from scratch. I used to bake cakes for my husband's birthday or if we have guests coming. But I usually use cake mixes and ready-made frosting. It was easy but not much fun. So I wanted to make at least one cake from scratch. My husband was the one who really motivated me in doing so. We got a perfect opportunity when we were visiting our friends for Christmas and one of our friend's daughter has her birthday on the same day. We decided to make a simple cake and frosting to start with and browsed a lot of  videos. I did so much browsing that my daughter at one stage wanted to watch the 'cake making' videos instead of cartoons...Even she too was so much geared up for making a cake. We finally rounded up on red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. We decided on combining two recipes, which was a grave mistake, and unfortunately it turned out to be a pinkish cake with dripping cream cheese frosting. But we somehow managed to make it up with some ready made frosting I had in my pantry and took it to the get together. Our friends were kind enough to say that the cake looked and tasted great. We promised ourselves the next time we should make a perfect  cake with a proper recipe and we tried carrot cake. Trust me...It was perfect. Even with intrusions from my kid, I managed to make it perfect. As they say there's nothing to go wrong in a carrot cake.

Things you'll need:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ground nutmeg - a pinch
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Raw carrots - 1 cup, grated
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla - 1/2 tsp
Canola or Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Applesauce - 4 oz

For cream cheese frosting:
Confectioner's Sugar -  3 cups
Cream cheese - 8 oz, softened
Butter - 1/2 cup, softened
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Yield - 15 Servings

Method:

Step 1 :
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and dust a 9 inch cake pan. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Take 2 tbsp of flour mixture and coat the carrots in the flour mixture.

Step 2 :
With an electric mixer or hand mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil, and applesauce, in medium speed until thoroughly mixed. Add the flour mixture in small batches and mix together. When the dry and wet ingredients are mixed without lumps, combine the carrots with the mixture.

Step 3 :
Pour into the greased cake pan and bake for 45 mins to one hour or till a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool down in the pan for 15 mins and then transfer to a wire rack and allow it to completely cool down.

Step 4 :
Prepare frosting by mixing the butter, vanilla  and cream cheese with an electric or hand mixer at medium speed, and adding the sugar in batches.

Step 5:
Frost the cake according to your imagination and serve in slices.

Tips:
You can double the cake ingredients for a 13x9 pan or two 9 inch pans.
You can also use crushed pineapple instead of applesauce or omit them both. Adding the fruits results in a moist cake.
You can add food colors to the frosting and draw some designs on the cake.
You could add some finely chopped nuts for a rich taste. Add them along with carrots to the flour mixture.

Baked Veggie Quesadillas

This is one of my favorite Mexican dishes. It can be either made as an appetizer or main course. It can be prepared plain or with veggies or chicken. There is no hard and fast rules for the filling. You can use your own imagination for the filling and seasoning. The following recipe is for veggie quesadillas.

Things you'll need:
Tortillas - 4
Mexican fiesta cheese blend - 1 lb
Bell peppers - (green and red) 2 cups
Onion - 1, diced
Garlic - 4 cloves minced
Cilantro - few sprigs
Salt and pepper - as required
Fajita seasoning (optional)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Butter - as needed

Yield - 8 pieces

Method:

Step 1:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a pan, heat a little oil and saute onion, garlic and bell peppers with salt and pepper, fajita seasoning, salt and pepper and chilli powder, until the vegetables are almost cooked but still crunchy. Turn off the stove and add the cilantro. Divide the filling into equal parts depending how many tortillas you are using.

Step 2:
Take a tortilla on a paper plate spread some butter on both sides, add one portion of the filling to one half, add required amount of cheese blend, and close the tortilla. Prepare all the tortillas this way.

Step 3:
Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or just smear some butter on the sheet, place the quesadillas and bake them until the cheese melts.

Step 4:
Remove the quesadillas from the baking sheet and cut them into half. Serve them with guacamole and sour cream or your favorite dip.

Tips:
You can also make them in a flat pan in the stove.
Make chicken quesadillas by adding cooked and diced chicken to the above mentioned filling.

Spinach and artichoke dip

Most of the times when we go out to eat in a local restaurant or diner we would scan through the menu for a long time and end up ordering spinach artichoke dip. This cheesy dip may make u feel guilty at first sight but who cares after the first bite. Think on the positive side...there's spinach..full of iron, vitamins and minerals..and there's artichoke high in antioxidants...and the cheese contains calcium. So a little bit of fat wont hurt right? (if we promise ourselves an extra workout the next day it could even be better). I wanted to try the recipe but I couldn't find a smaller version of the recipe serving 2-3 adults and I was not sure about the measure of the ingredients to make just a little for me and my husband. As days passed I totally lost the motivation.
Me and my friends get together at one of our homes and do potlucks once in a while. We usually do a theme like Chinese, Indian, tiffin, snacks etc.,. For the recent potluck we just ran out of ideas and we decided to make whatever we liked to do. Usually I take the dessert option for all the potlucks but for this one my friend overtook me and she wanted to make dessert (good thing she did..otherwise we would have missed the awesome dessert she made). I was ramming my head for days together to decide my recipe and suddenly it struck me..why not spinach and artichoke dip? So I made spinach and artichoke dip and vegetable quesadillas for the potluck and I am so glad that my friends liked it. It was so much that I still had some to share with my husband for dinner.

Things you'll need:

Spinach - 10 oz (I used frozen spinach)
Artichoke hearts - 14oz can
Parmesan cheese -  3/4 cup
Cream cheese - 4 oz
Mayonnaise - 3/4 cup
Mozzarella - 1/2 cup
Garlic  - 2 cloves, minced
Salt and pepper - to taste

Yield - 10 to 12 servings

Method:
Step1:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop the spinach finely. If using frozen spinach, squeeze the water out before chopping. Drain the artichoke hearts and chop them finely.

Step2:
Mix the spinach and artichoke with other ingredients in a wide oven-proof dish and combine until the cheeses and the veggies are mixed thoroughly.

Step3:
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until you see a brown edging.

Serve with tortilla chips, corn chips or toasted thin bread.

Baklava!!!

I didn't know that a dessert named baklava existed before my friend brought this for us when we met in the park. She was suddenly caught with desire to cook desserts and lucky for us we got something to snack every other day we meet in the park. This is a greek dessert not very easy to make, but uses very less ingredients tastes yummy. I made this for a get together, for the first time and got a lot of appreciation. There's nothing to go wrong in this and with a little bit of painting experience (I am not kidding when I say this) you could do this very quickly.

Things you'll need:
Filo dough (you could find it the freezer section of your supermarket) - 1 pack (contains about 20 sheets)
Sugar - 1 cup +1tbsp
Water- 1/2 cup
Mixed nuts (almonds, walnuts,pecans) - 2 cups (coarsely ground)
ground cinnamon - 1 teaspoon
Pistachios - a handful, coarsely ground
Butter - melted, as required, for brushing the dough

Yield - 24 pieces
Method:
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Remove the filo dough from the wrap and place it flat on the counter covering with a damp kitchen towel. This prevents the dough from getting dry and breaking. Mix cinnamon and 1 tbsp sugar into the nut mixture.










Step2:
Grease a shallow bake pan, arrange one of the filo sheets and brush it with butter (brush liberally to cover the entire sheet). Repeat with 6 more sheets. Divide the nut mixture into halves. Layer one half on the filo dough layer.

Step3:
Arrange seven filo sheets one by one, brushing each sheet with butter, above the nut layer. Layer the remaining half of the nut mixture on top of the filo layer. Arrange the remaining filo sheets, one by one, brushing each one with butter.

Step4:
Sprinkle the pistachios on top, score the sheets into 24 pieces (you don't have to cut through, just score it gently). Place it in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes.

Step5:
Prepare sugar syrup with 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup water. (There is no consistency constraint here..so a not-so thick syrup should do..)

Step6:
When the baklava is ready, Remove it from the oven and pour the sugar syrup evenly over the baklava and allow it to cool.

Wait!  not yet...Chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight for best results..and there's nothing stopping you from savoring the delicious baklava..

 

Hyderabadi mutton 'Dum' Biriyani

I feel so dumb to say I like biriyani..Who doesn't?. If you are a non-vegetarian you sure do like biriyani. There are different varieties of biriyani depending upon the methods to prepare the biriyani. The most popular one is the hyderabadi dum biriyani which I wanted to try for a long time. But authentic dum biriyani seemed a very complicated process with layering the rice and curry in a big vessel, sealing it, placing it in a hot tava at low heat (I've heard some even add some hot charcoal at the top of the vessel to transfer heat from the top of the vessel)..whew! I got tired thinking about all these processes..I thought there should be a simpler way which takes less time without compromising the taste (without the charcoal thing especially). I made some research (no..I just browsed the web) and found that some had found success making this dum biriyani in oven. Wow! that simplifies it. It doesn't take much time and there's no worrying about rice burning out at the bottom of the vessel. Here's the dum 'oven' biriyani..

Things You'll need:
Mutton - 1 lb
Basmati rice - 1 cup
Onion - 1, big, sliced lengthwise
Green chillis - 4, slit lengthwise
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Curd or yogurt - 1/2 cup
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Salt - as required
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Whole garam masala - (cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves) as required
Oil - 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Cardamom  - 1
Mint leaves - a handful
Coriander leaves - a bunch

Yield - 3-4 Servings

Method:

Step 1:
Clean the meat. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Marinade the meat with the chilli powder, coriander powder , turmeric powder, half of the ginger garlic paste, salt, yogurt and lemon juice. Leave it aside for at least an hour or even overnight if possible.

Step 2:
Heat the oil in a pressure cooker, add the whole garam masala, onions, green chillis and ginger garlic paste. Saute until the onions are translucent and soft. Add the marinated mixture and mix well. Add little water and cover the cooker. Cook the meat for 6-7 whistles or until the meat is almost done.

Step 3:
Bring some water in a vessel. Add the rice, salt, cumin seeds and cardamom. Cook the rice until the rice is half-cooked (The rice should look grainy but should be soft when touched).

Step 4:
Drain the rice. Layer half of the the meat mixture and rice in an oven-proof dish. Add some of the mint leaves and coriander leaves. Again layer the remaining meat mixture and rice and top it with the remaining mint and coriander leaves. If you like some colored rice, mix some saffron in teaspoon of milk and add it by spoon at some points of the rice layer.

Step5:
Cover the dish with an aluminium foil and seal the edges so that the steam doesn't escape. Place the dish in the oven and cook it for 10 to 15 minutes depending upon the oven. Remove the dish, allow the steam to settle. Then open the foil and fluff the rice. Don't stir too much or the rice will break. Serve it hot with raita and curry of your choice. I served it with keema gravy and raita.