Baking ~ Carrot Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes recently. The flavours were fresh, the cupcakes light and buttery. These can be served as tea cakes, snacks for children or even as dessert served warm, with icecream.

Carrot Cupcakes (Makes 12)

Maida                                                            11/4 cup

Sugar                                                             1 cup

Baking Soda                                                ½ teaspoon

Baking Powder                                          1 teaspoon

Cinnamon Powder                                   ½ teaspoon

Nutmeg Powder                                        ½ teaspoon

Salt                                                                 A pinch

Melted Butter                                            100 ml

Eggs                                                               2 or replace with ½ cup yogurt

Milk                                                               ½ cup

Finely Grated Carrots                            1 cup

For the Frosting

Cream Cheese                                             100 grams

Icing Sugar                                                   3 tablespoons

Few drops of vanilla

Grated Carrot                                             2 tablespoons

Carrot Cupcakes

Sift the Maida with the cinnamon and nutmeg powder, salt and baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the grated carrots.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and line a muffin pan with paper cups or grease it lightly.

Beat together the milk, eggs, melted butter in a blender for 2 minutes and pour it into the flour and carrot mix.

Stir gently till everything is mixed well. Spoon about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake case.

Bake for 22-24 minutes and check with a toothpick at 22 minutes. If it comes out clean, your cupcake is baked.

Leave the baked cupcakes on a wire rack to cool completely.

Beat the cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla essence till smooth. Pour it into a zip lock bag. Snip off the end and draw designs on the cupcake. Add a few strands of grated carrot as garnish. Serve.

Easter Recipes ~ No Cooking ~ Chocolate Eggs in a Nest

Chocolate Eggs in a Basket

It is the easy way out that i like…and in keeping with the theme, no long drawn story. I wanted to make nests filled with chocolate eggs. Everything is store bought and just assembled. no cooking except melting the chocolate. Will make for nice kids party offerings as well.

Chocolate Eggs in a Basket

Eggs in a Nest (Makes 8 – No Cooking)

Wheat Flakes or Corn Flakes                     2 cups

White Chocolate                                            100 grams + 50 grams

Round Chocolate Candy                             24 pieces (I used Cadbury’s shots)

• Melt the White chocolate in a double boiler. Whisk to remove any lumps and make it smooth.

• Take the wheat / corn flakes in a wide bowl and pour the melted chocolate over it. Mix gently with a spoon to coat fully.

Spoon about 2-3 tablespoons into a muffin pan or use small individual steel bowls. Spread the wheat flakes around so that it forms a shallow nest shaped dish.

• Keep it in the freezer for 20 minutes or till you are ready to serve. Remove each cup gently using a blunt knife, easing out the edges. Be gentle and do not break the cups.

Grate the 50 grams of white chocolate and sprinkle on the wheat flake nests. Add 2-3 chocolate ball candies to the nest. Serve immediately.

 

Easter Recipes ~ Baking ~ Candy Studded Vanilla Cookies

I’ve been wanting to bake these cookies for years. Just plain laziness that I haven’t done it till now! Somehow I give cookies a very step motherly treatment. Am not very fond of cookies, I simply find cakes and cupcakes much more satisfying to make and eat! But even if i may say so myself, these cookies are very good. they have a cake like taste and texture. they are crisp and buttery and not very chewy. They are almost the perfect cookie.

Gem Studded Cookies (Makes 12)

Maida                                                              11/2 cup

Egg                                                                  1 (lightly beaten)

Sugar                                                               1/3 cup

Softened Butter                                              ¼ cup

Baking Powder                                               11/2 teaspoon

Coloured Candy                                             36 (use gems)

Grind the sugar to a fine powder.
Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. You can use a hand beater or do this with a whisk.
Add the egg and whisk till it is creamy.
Sift the Maida with the baking powder. Add this slowly to the butter and sugar and mix gently till you get a sticky dough.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with foil.
Drop one tablespoon of the dough onto the baking sheet. Make sure the cookies are at least 1 inch apart from each other. Do not overfill the cookie sheet.
Press in 2-3 candies into the cookie dough and bake for 12-14 minutes or till the edges are turning golden.
Remove from the oven and cool completely. These can be stored for a week in an airtight container.

Mangalore Style Potato Sukke

Mangalore Style Potatoes with freshly ground masala

I made this for the weekly recipes I write for Hans India. It turned out fabulous even if I say so myself! I took inspiration from my dear namesake’s recipe. Who by the way, visited me last month from Singapore, baby A and husband in tow. We spent the whole day together, talking, shopping, talking, eating, talking and shopping some more! What can I say, apart from the fact that we share the same name, we apparently have a deep abiding love for our voices. After we were done with all the talking and other stuff in between, we headed to my place, to be joined by her child and our respective spouses for a lovely evening that ended too quickly at roughly 3 a.m. These are the things blogging has given me…friends…for life.

Here is the recipe. Make it on a day when you are bored of plain fried potatoes. The coconut and red chillies really jazz it up. Tastes best with hot rice and dal or rasam.

Potato Sukke (serves 2-3)

Sukke is a semi dry preparation made with freshly roasted masalas.

Potatoes                                              6 medium, boiled, peeled and cubed

For the Sukke Masala

Freshly Scraped Coconut            ¼ cup

Dry Red Chillies                               3-4

Tamarind Paste                                1 tablespoon

Whole Coriander Seeds                 1 teaspoon

Fenugreek Seeds                              ¼ teaspoon

Turmeric                                             ¼ teaspoon

For the tempering

Oil                                                          1 teaspoon

Mustard Seeds                                  1 teaspoon

Curry Leaves                                     a few

Asafetida                                             a pinch

Dry roast the fenugreek and coriander seeds in a pan. Grind them along with the coconut, red chillies, turmeric, tamarind paste and a little bit of water to a smooth paste.

• Add the masala to the boiled, peeled and cubed potatoes and mix to coat them like a marinade

In a pan, heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds, curry leaves, add the asafetid.

Add the potato mixture to this and a little water if needed. Cook this covered, stirring a couple of times for about 5 minutes.

Remove the lid and cook a few more minutes till it is almost dry. Serve hot with rice and sambhar, dal or rasam.

Accompaniment Suggestions

Pepper Rasam

Tomato Dal

Dosakaya Pappu (Lemon Cucumber Dal)

Sambhar

Baking ~ Whole Wheat Masala Spinach Bread

Whole Wheat Masala Spinach Bread

Summer is upon us. No two thoughts on that. I am functioning like half my brain has melted already. Copious amounts of ale has been drunk in the name of managing the heat! and power cuts for 3-4 hours a day are a reality (also very annoying in the mornings when breakfast has to be made).

A few months ago, I began Oding on this blog. I like the writing style… the recipes and the pictures…. no styling, no set up, no fluff… really good pictures of easy to do recipes… just up my alley… so a light form of obsession took place.

In between all the whining I have been doing, I baked this Whole Wheat Masala Bread. I swapped out a few ingredients for what I had on hand. It turned out fabulous… toasted or not, plain or with butter… it was yummy!

I’ve been using wholewheat (chapati) flour for a lot of bread baking and also cakes and the like. I think because I use the food processor to make the dough, I do not get a crumb as fine as is shown in the original recipe… not a deterrent tho because the bread itself was delicious. I also had to bake it in a tin because my dough was too, how shall I put it – loose? it wouldn’t hold shape.

The only thing I wish I had not done, was to leave the loaf in the tin to cool off for a couple of hours. the steam trapped between the bread and the tin, made it wet. Once the loaf was removed from the tin and left to air dry, all was well again.

Whole Wheat Masala Spinach Bread

Whole Wheat Masala Spinach Bread

Whole Wheat Flour           2 cups

Salt                                          1 teaspoon

Cooking Oil                           3 tablespoons

Active Yeast                        2 teaspoons (I used 1 teaspoon, as I have overactive yeast!)

Warm Water                         ¼ cup

Sugar                                       1 teaspoon

Warm Milk                            1/4 cup

Water for kneading as required

Spinach Leaves                   1 cup, washed, cleaned and chopped

Red Chilli Powder              1 teaspoon (or more if you want it more spicy)

Turmeric                               1/4 teaspoon

Cumin Powder                    ½ teaspoon

A dash of asafetida Ginger Garlic Paste            ½ teaspoon (optional but recommended)

Add the sugar and warm water to the warm milk, add the yeast and stir to dissolve a bit. Leave it in a warm corner for 15 minutes to froth up. This step is very important to make yeasted bread. If the yeast does not froth, the bread will not rise.

Mix together the whole wheat flour with the salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, asafetida and cumin powder.

Add the chopped spinach to the flour and toss it about. Add the ginger garlic paste to the milk – yeast and mix well. Pour it into the flour with the oil and mix. Add enough water to make a pliable dough. I used the dough blade of my food processor to do this. This dough is easy to make without any equipment as well. Knead the dough for a few minutes till it resembles a sticky mass. Leave covered in a well oiled bowl to rise for about an hour.

After an hour, when the dough has doubled, tip it onto a clean surface, dust with a little dry flour and knead for 5 minutes, using the heel of your palm. If it feels sticky, add more dry flour, but sparingly so.

Shape it into an oval loaf and place on a baking sheet lined with foil or baking paper. Or place it into a loaf pan. Cover with a clean cloth and leave to rise for the second time. For about 30-40 minutes.

In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 F or 200 C.

When the second rise is done, place the risen dough in the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes. When the top has lightly changed colour, remove from the oven. Let it cool for 5 minutes in the pan before removing it from the pan and leaving it on a wire rack to cool completely. I left it in the pan and wandered off for a couple of hours. The result was that the bottom of the loaf became soggy from the steam of the hot bread. I had to leave it out to dry out completely after that.

Slice the bread after it is completely cool. Enjoy with a robust gravy curry like this, or this whole masoor dal like Haathi served it with, toasted with chai or just slathered with butter. It tastes divine anyway you eat it.

This bread has a shelf life of about 24 hours in Hyderabad’s heat. You can store it in the fridge for a few days more, but I wouldn’t know, cos it did not last that long!

Curries to serve this bread with:

Mushroom Masala

Whole Masoor (red Lentils) dal

Fake Meat and Potatoes

Bottle Gourd Kurma

Valentine’s Day Trifle ~ Chocolate Cake and Strawberries

Chocolate Strawberry Trifle

Yes I know that Chocolate and Strawberries are a Valentine’s day cliche…. but they are a cliche for a reason. They taste so bloody good together! So if you want a really quick to put together dessert to celebrate this day of love… or a quick and easy dessert to make ahead when you have guests… or better yet, make it and hoard it in the fridge to indulge at midnight when hunger pangs hit…. whatever the reason, make these bite sized desserts, do make it to spread the love.

Chocolate Strawberry Trifle

Chocolate Strawberry Trifle - (Makes 4 servings)

Chocolate Cake                       100 grams (use store bought)

Vanilla Custard Powder      2 tablespoons

Fresh Strawberries               1 cup (hulled and sliced)

Sugar                                          2 tablespoons

Milk                                            1 cup

To make the custard

1. Heat the milk with the sugar.
2. Dissolve the custard powder in ½ cup of chilled water and mix till there are no lumps. Add this gently to the hot milk and sugar and stir continuously and cook till the custard begins to thicken.
3. If you remove the spoon from the pan, the mixture should coat the back of the spoon thickly.
4. Set aside and cool completely.
5. Cut the chocolate cake into ½ inch slices to fit into the serving bowl.

To assemble the trifle

1. Layer the bottom of the serving bowl with a slice of cake. Add a couple of tablespoons of custard over it. Layer it with the slices of fresh strawberry.
2. Repeat the entire sequence once more. Chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours before serving.

Potato Hearts

Heart Shaped Baked Potato Fries

Cheesy as the velvet heart shaped cushion! But when you write for a newspaper, you do things you find personally too mushy as well!  So while I made heart centered cupcakes and chocolate cake pops, I ensured there was a savoury treat albeit heart themed!

these are regular potato fries, made the same way as I use for wedges. A few minutes spent using a cookie cutter to cut them into heart shapes make it Valentine Day compliant!

Heart Shaped Baked Potato Fries

Heart Shaped Baked Potato Fries (Makes 2 cups)

Potatoes – 6 large

Olive Oil – 2-3 tablespoons (you can also use any other vegetable oil)

Salt – I teaspoon

Pepper – to taste (freshly ground)

Red chilli flakes – ½ teaspoon

Special Equipment – heart shaped cookie cutter

1. In a large pan, heat 1 liter of water, add the salt and bring to a boil.
2. Peel the potatoes, slice them to get large oval slices and cut out hearts using a cookie cutter. (reserve the scraps to use in a curry later)
3. Add the heart shaped potato pieces to the boiling water and par boil for 3-4 minutes, drain out the water and cool slightly.
4. Toss the potato pieces with the oil and the spices and lay out without overlapping on a baking tray. Bake in an oven at 400 C for 20 minutes or till the edges are nice and golden brown. Dust with a bit of salt if needed, serve hot.
5. You can lay them out on a nonstick frying pan and cook on a stove top too till golden drizzling a little oil if you do not have an oven.

Valentine’s Day ~ Cake Pops

So the first post of the year limps in just in time for Valentine’s Day! Lame, i know… but the festive season came and went. New year saw me nursing on oral re-hydrant on the rocks to recover from a stomach bug and I have been buried under by work. Not that I am complaining!

Cake Pops for Valentine’s Day

Work has taken center stage at the Escapades household. In between all the endless hours spent on work, food has been cooked and eaten, festivals celebrated, friends met, and weekends come and gone! the only remotely exciting thing has been pet sitting Sage’s friend, a chocolate Dachshund called Snicker while his family was out of town. The two had the time of their lives and even terrorized pedestrians from inside the car by sticking their heads out and nuzzling unsuspecting folks!

Sage and Snicker

If you like me are dog crazy, follow me on Instagram where I post a lot more pictures of the pooch.

Readers of this blog will know that I am not one for special occasions. The one time i planned a romantic candle lit dinner, K wanted the lights on and left all the vegetables uneaten on the plate!

Cake Pops for Valentine’s Day

Here are some cake pops that I made a year ago. I actually would never have made them heart centered although I wanted badly to try cake pops, but I did a special post for Valentine’s for the newspaper that i write for. Cake Pops are easier to make than imagined. Crushed cake crumbs, cream, chocolate and playing with sprinkles! Whats not to love? I had none of the problems others report with making cake pops. Essentially, when the cake ball is swirled around in liquid chocolate, it has to be done gently. any rough handling will result in broken cake balls. If you are generally not gentle and in a hurry, you may destroy your cakes pops. Best attempted when you have a full 30 minutes at your disposal.

Whichever way you choose to celebrate, stay happy!

 Cake Pops (makes 12)

Cake – 200 grams (can use store bought, 6-7 slices homemade or 5-6 cupcakes)

Cream – 4 tablespoons (like Amul cream from the tetra pack)

Dark / Milk Chocolate – 150 grams

Colorful sprinkles or other decorations

12 bamboo skewers or lollipop sticks

1. Crumble the cupcake/ cake in a blender till it becomes like fine bread crumbs, remove to a bowl.
2. Add the cream to the cake crumbs and mix with your fingers till it looks moist. Be careful while adding the cream, adding too much may make the mixture useless. So add half the amount mentioned, check and adjust.
3. Divide the mixture into 12 equal parts and roll between your palms like a laddu. Place on a plate and keep it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler for about 1-2 minutes. Keep a check if using the microwave as chocolate burns very quickly. Mix it well till it is shiny.
5. Dip about ½ inch of the skewer/ stick into the melted chocolate and then poke it into the middle of the cake balls to insert. The stick should be halfway into the cake balls.
6. Dip this into the melted chocolate and using a small spoon, pour the melted chocolate over the cake pops to coat completely. Do not swirl around or it will fall off. Shake gently to allow the excess chocolate to drip off. Pour a few sprinkles or decorations over the cake pops till coated. This step should be done quickly else the chocolate will dry completely.
7. Stick the skewer into a glass filled with uncooked rice/sugar till they dry. Serve. (Shelf life is 1 day un-refrigerated or 3 days under refrigeration)

 

For more Valentine Day Dessert Ideas check out these recipes:

Chocolate Cheese Cake

Chocolate Valentino Cake 

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting 

Chocolate Truffles

You could also give these non Chocolate recipes a shot. Just as pleasing!

Orange and Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla Custard with Pears poached in Orange Sauce

White Chocolate Pannacotta with Raspberry Sauce

Eggless Star Anise Icecream with Strawberry Compote

 

Wishing you a beautiful Christmas

Regular blogging will begin again after Christmas. But I couldn’t go off radar without wishing my lovely readers a beautiful Christmas. Have fun whichever way you choose to celebrate.

Party Appetizers ~ Stuffed Mushrooms ~ Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Cheese

Stuffed Mushrooms ~ Caramelised Onions, Spinach and Cheese

Party Appetizers are a big thing in my head. If there is alcohol involved at a party (which almost always is at Casa Escapades unless you came by for breakfast) most people like something to nibble on. In my rather vast experience, its always a good thing to have an assortment of appetizers and a less elaborate main course. Why do I say this, based on my own preferences and because guests are usually more comfortable if they can walk around or sit with a small plate of nibbles/ short eats and not be tied down by a large plate with heavy food on it while socializing.

This is a dish that can be assembled ahead and left in the frying pan. a few minutes before you want to serve it, on gentle heat, cook covered for 5-6 minutes or till the mushrooms are cooked, cheese has melted and it is ready. I’ll admit that while I rarely stick to the same recipe when I make it over and over again, this one, I have not attempted to change since it already is an established classic.

Stuffed Mushrooms ~ Caramelised Onions, Spinach and Cheese

Stuffed Mushrooms - Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Cheese

Button Mushrooms                 12-15, remove the stems, clean with a cloth and set aside

Onion                                            1 medium, chopped fine

Cheese                                          ½ cup, grated (use paneer for a low fat version)

Spinach Leaves                        1 cup, washed and drained and finely chopped

Garlic                                           1 clove, chopped finely

Salt and Pepper                       To taste

Oil                                                 2 teaspoons

1. In a pan, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil and fry the onions on low heat till they turn brown.

2. Add the spinach and cook till it wilts, but is still bright green. Add salt and pepper and leave to cool.

3. Add the grated cheese into the cooked spinach and onion mixture and mix well. Stuff this into the hollow part of the mushrooms (where the stems were attached)

4. When all the mushrooms have been stuffed, place the mushrooms in the same pan with the remaining oil.

5. Heat the pan to medium high and cook the mushrooms for 5-6 minutes with a lid on till the cheese is melted and the mushrooms are cooked. Serve warm or cold