carrotsandcherries

After lot of thinking, I finally finished my second daring bakers challenge. I was thinking whether to do this month's challenge or not, because there was already lot of baking that was going on here at home. Mostly for the Christmas gifts :) (I really hope that they enjoyed it .......) Two days back I finished baking the stollen late after we had finished eating dinner. I made it eggless, shaped it in the traditional shape and I made only 1/6 th of the original recipe....yes I did scale down all the ingredients ! I wasnt so happy about the result, the bread was eatable, a bit dry and it looked like I should have shaped it into a loaf. So below are the ingredients that I used to make the stollen, All purpose flour - 130 gms Luke warm water - 10 ml + 30 ml Active dry yeast - 4 gms Milk - 40 ml Mascarpone cheese - 25 gms (I used this in place of butter) Raw cane sugar (brown sugar) - 20 gms Salt - 1/8 tsp Cinnamon powder - 1/8 tsp Orange zest - 2 pinches Vanilla extract - 2/3...

Cheers !!!! to all the people who never give up in spite of facing several failures :) This is so apt for someone trying to make macarons :P One day, I found these "glamorous" looking photos of a dessert on one of the food blogs, it was neither a cookie nor a cake. Something so different, that tempted me to give it a try (to make it !). I say glamorous because, it looks so attractive with the colour combinations of the shell and the filling / ganache. It tempts you to just come and have a little bite...... I will melt away in you mouth it says.....hehe The more and more I read about it, the more I was lured to making it. I have made it for 3 times till now. The first time I made it I had not read so much, I did not realise that I had to age the egg whites (very stupid of me indeed !!!!). I used the fresh ones and even thought the taste was fine, they were flat and it had a shell but the bottom were like spread and basically flat big feet ! My husband and myse...

Pizza .......hmmm I have made it from scratch for like 3 times in my life. This time the pizza came out well ...yaay !!!!  ahem ..... excuse me, just got a bit excited. Bread is a bit tricky to make. Baking is new to me, I will not say completely but it is. I wanted to prepare pizza exactly for 2 persons and voila !..I had it, - I scaled down all the ingredients - Changed the steps of baking, because I do not have a pizza stone and the pizza was not quite having the taste. and I did get a decent pizza. Finally !!!! I did everything by hand, no machine ! Basic pizza dough - For 2 pizzas(thin crust) - 27 x 18 cm All purpose flour - 200 gms plus dusting Salt - 1/3 plus 1/4 tsp (we will use it together, easier for measurement) Active dry yeast - 1/3 tsp Olive oil - 1 tbsp Water, chilled - 140 ml Sugar - 1 tsp 1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and then pour in the oil-water mixture and combine to a sticky dough. 2. Knead till the dough is smooth, it leaves the s...

This is a continuation of the last blog (Daring cooks challenge). This is one of those very simple tasty dishes. This is what we need, Colocasia / arbi / sembu - 300 gms dry coconut - 1/8 cup shelled, peeled and dry roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup green chillies - 2 (dont get scared ..... they were not at all spicy, I could just eat them directly !!) onion, medium size, finely chopped - 1 garlic - 1 big clove, finely grated or even paste will be good (I was lazy :P) Cumin seeds - 1/3 tsp Corriander powder - 1/3 tsp oil - 1 1/2 tsp salt - to taste method: 1. Cook the colocasia, peel it, slice in into roundels and let them dry. Dont try to use them immediately because the dish will become slimy. 2. Coarse grind the peanuts and dry coconut. 3. Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin, garlic and slit green chillies; fry for 10 seconds. Add in the onions and fry till the onions are well cooked. 4. Add the corriander powder and mix. Then add the colocasia mix well, add the ground...

This is my first daring cooks challenge and this is a very quick post. I made the simple poached egg using the recipe given  here . I served it for dinner with herbed garlic-dal rasam (South Indian soup) and colocasia fry. Here is how it looked, Thanks for visiting my blog :)

It is snowing, freezing and raining and...... it looks like mother nature is a bit confused......... :P The temperatures are ranging anything between -4 to 2 °C here. The wind is chilly, but not quite like last year. I have become so lazy because of all this and I don't even feel like stepping out of the house. Winter is one season that makes every person feel lazy, tired (hey, I am becoming downright lazy now a days ! too bad.....) Enough of that lazy talk :P.... I have been dreaming food ! (now that is something different ........I mean not so normal in my life). Even though I admit that I am a big time foodie, that is not something I have ever dreamt about, I mean different sorts of combinations just whizzing away like crazy in your head. And you looking for opportunities to test them. Well, I am still in the process of testing those combinations. While all this was going on, there were two egg yolks chilling out in the refrigerator. Now I had to do something with them and wh...

This is my "Premier défi or Prima sfida" : My first Daring Bakers challenge :) All went well (Thank God for that !!!!) I registered in the daring kitchen for both daring bakers and for the daring cooks challenges............FUN ! that is what I thought :) so it was. I was super excited with being accepted in to the daring kitchen for both the challenges.  This daring bakers Nov 2010 challenge was to make "CROSTATA" or "PASTA FROLLA" in Italian. It was hosted by Simona from Briciole She had chosen the Italian dessert Crostata. I have seen these kind of tarts here in the pâtisseries and mostly in the supermarkets in the baked or ready to bake section. I have never done this at home and neither had I tasted a tart till the time I had baked one myself :) I used the first recipe version1 of Pasta frolla that Simona had given, We require, Superfine sugar - 1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp (150 ml / 100 gms / 31/2 oz) OR Powdered sugar - a scant 3/4 cup (180 ml / 90 ...

This is a simple way to mix different vegetables into the same dish. I have adapted this recipe from a friend, (long story behind it !!!! :P ) So here's what we need, Aubergine (Eggplant/brinjal) - 1 big Green Capsicum - 1 small (Any colour should be good) Zucchini - 1 medium Onion - 1 big Ginger-garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp Cherry tomatoes - 6 (can be substituted by 2 small ordinary tomatoes) Corriander powder - 2/3 tsp Chilli powder - 1/3 tsp Garam masala -  1/3 tsp Water - 1/4 cup Salt to taste The following spices are to be dry roasted and coarsely ground, Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp (Kalonji - 1/4 tsp can also be added) Method: 1. Slice the brinjal, zucchini and capsicum longitudinally into thin slices as shown below 2. Slice the onions, chop the tomatoes and make the ginger-garlic paste ready. I have taken a photo of this also :) 3. Heat oil and sauté each of the sliced vegetables separately ti...

This is a quick morning post on the blog. We just had some yummy mango milkshake ;) Here is what we need, Mango - 3/4th of a big one pureed and filtered Chilled Milk - 375 ml Powdered sugar - 8 to 10 tsps 1. Pour the chilled milk in the blender, add in the mango puree. Use the pulse mode to blend it once. 2. Now add the powdered sugar and blend it using the pulse mode and the 1st speed. 3. Milkshake is ready to be enjoyed ! Thanks for visiting my blog :)

I was bored !!!! (of cooking ???? Oh my GOD !!!!...............) It happens if I have been in the kitchen for really long stretches (3hrs or more) deep frying something. This Diwali season I made 5 types of savories and 2 sweets. Recently, we had this Diwali get-together at my house (It was so much FUN !!!!), and I had served these savories and sweets that I had made. I was feeling like a blushing kid who had won a prize, when our friends were complimenting me for the snacks :) (Thanks guys !). Ok now back to where we were. The day on which I had fried so many things, I wanted to prepare something that can tingle my tastebuds. Something simple to put together. I already had some fresh salad, and I had to prepare something complementing that. Pasta ! that was the immediate thing that came to my mind which will go along well with a salad. Now, I was thinking of how to make a different type of pesto for the spaghetti that I was going to make for dinner. The basic ingredients had to be ...

It was Rakshabandhan, there was something utterly important missing...... My BROTHER :P . His exams are on, we could not even speak properly over phone ! (He is always occupied with some or the other test, quiz, assignment....... I wonder many times how does he juggle all this ??.............I did not so many things when I was studying ). He manages all this and has time for fun also !!!!! I wanted to dedicate something to my brother that day, something simple and special. Back home mom usually used to prepare a sweet, we than used to pray and then I tied the rakhi on my brother's hand and then all of us are indulging ourselves on the sweet that mom prepared. She mostly used to prepare a simple and tasty sweet on every Rakshabandhan. This is one of the sweets that my brother and myself relish. Well without any more delay, here is what we need to prepare Carrot Halwa, good amount for 2 persons. Carrots - 500 gms, grated with the big grater milk - 500 ml cashewnuts - 10 almonds - ...

It is Varalakshmi Vratham tomorrow said mom, yesterday. Brain starting generating all sorts of choices for sweets the ones that I either never tried like this one and the ones which were a flop in the consistency. hmmm..........I thought, I asked mom "What kind of sweets and savouries must I make tomorrow?". She told me to make a sweet with jaggery and any savoury like vada. Since quite some days I was contemplating to try out the "Boliyal" as it is called in sourashtra, bobbatlu in telugu, boli in tamil. Well whatever it is called I really miss the boliyal that mom used to make at home. The stuffing is made of simple ingredients, easy to combine and moreover tastes so good !! My recipe for the stuffing is adapted from the one mom used to prepare. The dough for the boliyal was a spontaneous one. I got six 4 to 4.5 inch dia boliyals for the measurements below, We need, For the stuffing : Channa dal - 1/4 cup Jaggery - 1/2 cup Coconut chopped - 1/2 cup Cashe...