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.

Adhirasam

Most of us south Indians know this sweet by the name Adhirasam or Ariselu. This is a traditional sweet we could see almost in all weddings or other family functions. Nowadays many sweet shops also sell this sweet. It has only two main ingredients jaggery and rice flour. But it is not simple to make it. Making soft adhirasams depend on the consistensy of the jaggery syrup we make and the quantity of flour we mix into the syrup. EVery Diwali I have tried to make Adhirasam and succeeded only couple of times. Along with the recipe I would also give some tips to get soft adhirasams and to avoid most common mistakes.

Things you'll need:
Raw rice - 2 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Cardamom - 2, powdered
Oil - for deep frying

Yield - 20 - 25 pieces

Method:

Step1:
Wash and soak the raw rice for 2-3 hours. Drain the rice and air dry in a cloth for about 15 mins. The rice should be damp when touched but not wet. Grind the rice into fine powder.

Step2:
In a wide pan, heat the jaggery and water to make thick syrup until soft ball consistency. The soft ball consistency can be identified by putting a drop of the syrup in a bowl of water. The drop should not dissolve and it could be rolled into a soft ball. Add the cardamom powder to the syrup.

Step3:
Add the rice flour in small batches to the syrup and mix it to combine well without lumps. The dough will be in the consistency of cookie dough. Allow it to rest for at least a day in room temperature.

Step4:
Heat the oil. Take a lemon size ball of the dough and flatten it on a greased plastic sheet (you might want to grease your palms also to avoid dough sticking to your hands). Remove the adhirasam and fry them in the oil in medium heat. When the sizzling of oil is reduced turn the adhirasam and fry it until it is brown on both sides.

Step5:
Remove the adhirasam from oil and squeeze out the excess oil from the adhirasam by placing the adhirasam in a plate and pressing it with a flat bottomed bowl. (I think you get a ready-made press for adhirasams in some shops.)

Let it cool and it's all yours.

TIPS:
Use raw rice instead of ready-made rice flour. It might be a pain, drain and grind the rice but it is the key to make the best adhirasams.
You can use ghee for greasing the plastic sheet so the flavor of ghee would boost the taste of adhirasam.
The heat should be medium. Otherwise the adhirasam will be brown outside but will be uncooked inside and the dough will be squeezed out when u press the adhirasam.






 

Chicken lollipop

Who doesn't like lollipops? Even my kiddo who is not a big fan of candies like to suck on the lollipop for a couple of seconds.  I remember when me and my sister waiting for the lollipop my father used to get when he returns home from the market on Sundays. OK This is going somewhere else..no, I don't know how to make lollipops. I was trying to make a point that we all love lollipops just because its fun to hold and eat it. It is equally fun with chicken lollipops. In recent times whenever we visit an Indo-Chinese restaurant we end up ordering chicken lollipops just because my kid loves it and gobbles it up without a count. It made me think 'if she likes it so much why not make it at home?". So I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly it is not a very hard thing to make. The tough part is to cut them and make into lollipops which wasn't very hard considering its the first time I'm trying it. Rest all is very easy and you can munch in your lollipops in no time.

Things you'll need:
Chicken wings - 3 (you can make 6 lollipops with three wings)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 3 tbsp
Egg - 1
All purpose flour - 2 tbsp
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Chilli sauce - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Garlic - 2 cloves, finely minced
Green onions - 2, finely chopped
Red food color -  2 drops (optional)
Oil - for deep frying

Yield - 6 lollipops

Method:

Step 1:
Cut the wings into three parts and discard the end portion. Make lollipops with each wings by cutting the meat at one end of each wing and pushing it towards the other end. Marinate the lollipops with chilli powder, ginger garlic paste, 2 tsps of soy sauce and salt (be careful when adding salt as soy sauce contains salt), and keep aside for 15 mins.



















Step 2:
Prepare the batter with corn flour, all purpose flour, egg, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp chilli sauce, pepper powder, food color and salt.

Step 3:
Heat the oil in a deep pan. Dip the lollipops in the batter and fry them in medium heat. (The heat should be in medium to allow the chicken to cook thoroughly).










Step 4:
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, saute the garlic and spring onions. Add the remaining soy sauce and chilli sauce and saute for couple of minute. Add a little water or stock mixed with 1 tsp of corn flour to the mixture and stir until it thickens. Add the chicken and mix well.

Garnish with spring onions and serve..get ready to receive the praises..

Mysore pak

I always wonder why this sweet has been given this name? I mistook pak to be beetle nut ('pakku' in Tamil means beetle nut). But it did not fit. Then after a lot of thinking I found it must be derived from 'paggu' meaning syrup. But still I haven't found what's Mysore referring to. Doesn't matter. I like the sweet whatever it's named. The yummy taste of this sweet goes back to my childhood days. This holiday season I decided not to buy Mysore pak but to make it at home. It is one of those sweets that are not very easy to make at home. The good part is it doesn't take much time (It took less than half an hour for making it including the prep work). But you need to be focused from the beginning till the end since everything had to be done very quickly that if you take your eyes for even a moment you'll miss the consistency. Still on for it? Check out the recipe..

Things you'll need:
Gram flour - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Oil - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup

Yield -  25 to 30 pieces

Method:

STEP1:
Grease a pan with ghee or oil. Heat 2 tbsp of oil and add it to the gram flour. Mix well and sift the flour to avoid lumps. Mix the oil and ghee and heat it in a pan. Reduce the flame to minimum so that the oil and ghee stays hot.

STEP2:
Prepare sugar syrup to one thread consistency. When the syrup reaches one thread consistency  add the flour one tablespoon at a time. Keep stirring until the flour is incorporated well in the syrup.

STEP3:
Add the oil little by little and keep stirring until the mixture becomes frothy. (Be careful not to miss this stage. Otherwise the Mysore pak will become hard or crumbly.) Immediately pour the mixture into the greased pan. Give the pan a shake to even out the mixture. Let it cool for 15 mins. Cut the Mysore pak into slices. Allow it to completely cool down.

RELISH!!!

(Since everything had to be done very fast and I didn't have help I couldn't take any photos of the process. Will try to click the pics of each step when I try it next time.)

TIPS :
You can use ghee instead of ghee and oil mixture.
The color of Mysore pak depends upon the flame. If you need dark colored Mysore pak increase the flame a little higher.

Boondi laddu

This needs no introduction. People who are addicted to sweets just like me would definitely be in love with laddus be it boondi laddu, mothi laddu, rava laddu etc., The very thought of laddu makes my mouth water. From our childhood we couldn't even remember how many times have we tasted this sweet, one at a time or even more. But we never got bored of laddu or probably never will. Since this sounded a very tricky thing to make at home, I've always bought it rather than making it at home. I attempted once some time after my wedding, but all I got was only boondi and not laddu. After couple of years, one of my friends shared home made boondi laddu for their wedding day (or birthday?) and I was so impressed by the texture and taste of it and it was no different from the laddu we get in stores. I was also surprised when she told me it doesn't take much time and it's not very tricky to make it at all. She gave me some cheat codes on how to make perfect laddu without failure.
But I didn't get it perfect for the first time, but I got confident that I could make it at home and now if my husband asks me whether we could make laddus for an occasion I would never give a second thought.

Things You'll need:
Besan (chickpea flour) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Oil - for deep frying
Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp, chopped
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder or Rose essence - 1 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp

Yield - 20-25 pieces

Method:

Step1:
Mix water to the besan little by little and make a batter of pouring consistency (it should not be very thin or watery). In a heavy bottomed vessel add sugar and water, stir until sugar is melted and bring it to a boil. Let it boil in a medium flame until one thread consistency is reached. (This should take five or six minutes after the syrup comes to a boil. Check by taking little syrup in a spoon and touching the syrup with your index finger and thumb. The syrup should for a single thread when the index finger  and thumb are stuck together and released.). Add the cardamom powder or rose essence to the syrup and switch off the stove.

Step2:
Using a ladle with holes ("jalli karandi")  pour the besan into medium hot oil, so that the besan forms into small balls (boondi) in the oil. Once the balls are fried and float above, pick them up, shake the excess oil and place the boondis in the hot syrup.

Step3:
Repeat with remaining batter. Before adding the last batch of boondis (or even couple of batches before the last) coarsely grind the boondis and add them to the syrup. This will help in binding the boondis together. Mix the boondis well into the syrup.

Step4:
Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the cashews and raisins. Add them to the boondi-syrup mixture. When the syrup is warm enough to handle, scoop a handful of boondi-syrup mixture and press it into a laddu. Repeat with remaining boondi-syrup mixture. Let it cool for sometime until the laddus are bound together and they are all yours.