Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle Squares

Lofty plans! I think I have achieved mastery in this category. I have these ideas, seemingly brilliant at first. Then I do some research to see if others have had similar ideas and whether these ideas ever became reality. People talk about their stories. What went right, what went wrong. And then someone posts this oh so simple solution to the problem. But they also add a rider, "I am not sure if this will work in reality". And then I decide that I must be the one to check. Simply because the thread stopped right there.

The plan was to make a layer cake. Pound cake, cheesecake and jelly on top. It turned out to be a mosaic cake as I simply couldn't wait for the jelly to set before adding the cheesecake mixture, could I? The next time I attempt something like this, I will bake the cake, then set the cheesecake over it and then pour the jelly topping on top. But here's how I made it this time.

The cake recipe makes two 8" cakes. I used just one for this recipe.

Ingredients

For the pound cake:

1 1/2 cups Cake Flour/Plain Flour

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups Ricotta Cheese

1 1/4 cups Sugar

3 Eggs

1 teaspoon Strawberry Essence

6 Strawberries, pureed

A few drops Red Colour (optional)

Butter and Flour/Spray for preparing the cake tin

For the Cheesecake:

1/2 tin Condensed Milk (400g tin)

250g Cream Cheese

1/2 tbsp Gelatin

2 tbsp boiling hot Water

Juice of 1/2 a Lemon

6 Strawberries, pureed

For the Jelly Topping:

1 Packet Strawberry Jelly, prepared as per instructions on the pack

To make the cake:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Prepare two 8" round tins.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar and ricotta until the mixture is fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the strawberry essence and strawberry puree and beat well. Add the food colour, if using. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the batter, adding a little at a time.

Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool.

To proceed:

Line a Springform 8" pan base with cling film and then fit the sides portion. Pour the jelly liquid over the base and allow it to set in the refrigerator.

For the cheesecake:

Beat the cream cheese and the condensed milk until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the lime juice and the strawberry puree and beat well again.

Dissolve the gelatin in the hot water. Add this to the mixture and pour it over the the jelly. (At this point, my jelly hadn't entirely set and so began to break. I quickly mixed the two layers to get the mosaic effect.)

Place the cooled cake over the the cheesecake jelly mixture and allow the cheesecake and jelly to set completely.

When set, place a plate on top of the cake, turn it over and remove the springform tin. Slowly remove the base of the tin and peel off the cling film. Cut into squares.

That is what I call a bite sized piece of happiness. And as I have done every year in the years before today, I come back here to share this little piece of happiness with all of you. After all, Sachin's birthday comes just once every year.

Happy Birthday Sachin! Happiness Always.

Cherry Polka Dot Cake

Life isn't all just one flavour. It would be terribly boring if it were. The people that make our lives what they are come in all shapes and sizes, not to mention flavours. Some people are themselves very sweet at times, a tad sharp at others and every meeting with them leaves you with a strong memory. This cake is very representative of someone just like that.

1/2 cup Flour

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Milk

1/4 cup Oil

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 Egg, beaten

1/2 cup Cherries, deseeded and halved

Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).

Prepare an 8 inch cake tin by greasing it and dusting it with flour.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.

In a mixing bowl, add the egg, milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla essence. Beat well together. Add the flour mixture to this and blend well. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Arrange the cherry halves on top of the batter. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife/skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.

Get ready to enjoy the sweet and tart flavours of this cake.

For all the sweet and sometimes tart times that we've shared in the years we've known each other, here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday, S.

Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins

Happy Birthday Sachin!

We went to Kasauli to spend the "birthday weekend". But just as soon as we returned home, even though the birthday was almost over, I baked a blueberry cake. Birthdays just aren't complete without the customary "cake cutting", are they? I haven't had a chance to post the pictures of the cake I baked for S. That would warrant a separate post.

For today, I leave you all with a quick simple recipe of one of my favourite muffins. The addition of chocolate chips and walnuts take these otherwise plain banana muffins to an altogether different level.

1 3/4 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
¾ cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Toasted Walnuts, chopped

1/3 cup Chocolate Chips
3-4 Bananas (overripe), peeled
1/3 cup Oil
2 Eggs

Sift the dry ingredients together. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Prepare the muffin pans by lining them with paper muffin cases.

Combine the bananas, eggs, oil and brown sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend all these to a rough paste. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and add the toasted walnuts and chocolate chips. Mix well and pour into the prepared muffin cases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy these muffins warm (but I must tell you they taste great the next day or so). I was lucky I had some left over 2 days after I'd baked them. So, I really know. On that really sweet note, S, I wish you a very happy birthday and happiness always.

Karnakizhangu Mashiyal (and some plagiarism)

Just as I can handle copious amounts of coconut, I love sour food. I have a problem with acidity and so I don't indulge in sour, hot or spicy food too often. But on Pongal, one of the dishes we make is Lemon Rice. I love eating it with another citrus flavoured dish, the karnakizhangu mashiyal.

Karnakizhangu is a vegetable very similar to Yam. Think of a sweet potato shaped vegetable with the taste and texture of yam and you'll have pictured the karnakizhangu. This is truly a "once a year" vegetable. At least at home. I doubt I've even seen this vegetable in the shops at other times.

2 Karnakizhangu, peeled and diced

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

2 Red Chillies

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry leaves

Juice of 1-2 Limes

Salt to taste

Pressure cook the vegetable with the tamarind paste and red chillies. Grind to a paste.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add the paste along with the salt and cook for a few minutes. Add the lime juice.

Serve hot with rice. Or, if you're like me, enjoy a double dose of lime and have it with Lemon Rice. I'm sending this to SunshineMom for this month's edition of FIC-Yellow.

I was at Divya's blog and I noticed that she had a recipe for breadfruit fritters. I googled to get my own recipe so that I could share that link with her. The google search for Divkadgye Phodiyo actually revealed this link as the the top most link:

http://food.sulekha.com/cuisine/karnataka/divkadgye-phodiyo/recipes/divkadgye-phodiyo/20774.htm.

I was curious to see what that recipe looked like and I found my picture sitting right on top. I also noticed that the recipe was copied from my blog word for word. Someone called AndhraMirchi blogged about this dish on September 16, 2008, whereas the original post on my blog was posted on September 13, 2007:

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2007/09/divkadgye-phodiyo-breadfruit-fritters.html

I have left a comment asking her to remove the post. I have written to Sulekha.com outlining my problem. I do hope something will come of this.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Happiness comes in small packages. At least that's the message that muffins and cupcakes seem to keep sending out to me. With muffins, it always seems like there's more to go around. Of course, the fact that there's no greasing and flouring, and the fact that the baking time is a lot less does tend to give muffins an edge over regular cakes.

While I can safely say that I've mastered the banana muffin, I'd been reading a lot about how well chocolate and banana go together. I really had no idea. These low fat muffins showed me how two flavours that I like in muffins can come together and create magic. This recipe yielded 18 muffins and after distributing some among friends and colleagues, we ate the remaining over 3 days.

2 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

3 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/2 cup Demerara Sugar

2 tbsp Golden Syrup

2 Eggs, beaten

4 tbsp Milk

4 tbsp Oil

3 medium over-ripe Bananas

Prepare the muffin pans by lining them with paper muffin cases. Heat the oven to 375 F.

Sift the dry ingredients together.

Combine the bananas, golden syrup, milk, eggs, oil and brown sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend all these to a rough paste. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix until just about combined.

Pour this batter into the prepared muffin cases and bake for 15 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven, these muffins make for a great breakfast. And a great breakfast is always a good start to the day. Just as having a great birthday celebration is a good start to the year. To me, a great birthday means having family, friends and loved ones close by. All of you have been with me through the last year and a half, looking out for me when the going got rough, sharing in my joys and my excitement. And for that reason, I chose to make muffins for you all. There's always enough of them to go around. Just the way all of you have always been there for me. On my birthday, I invite you all to my little party. And all you have to do is sing, "Happy Birthday!".

Celebrating with a Cake

It is taking me longer than I expected to get back to blogging, especially this blog. After almost three months, I updated my first blog. The break at The Singing Chef seems longer even though I have been away for just a month. I think it has to do with the regularity with which I have been posting here. So many of you have left messages and sent me mails asking if I’m fine. I am, thank you very much. And I was truly overwhelmed by your messages. It is not like me to abandon my blog and I really haven’t. I was away on a much needed two week vacation. At one point, I thought I could use my time to schedule posts, but we had no time for anything really.

We rested (that was one of the essentials) and we met friends and family (which was the main reason we traveled). We did, though, eat an awful lot. I didn’t take pictures of food on this trip, and God alone knows how much restraint I exercised. In Hyderabad, we had some home cooked meals. I did a little bit of cooking and shall remember not to attempt any such thing in the future. More heartburn, not worth it. I did meet Arundati who gave me free chocolate making lessons. I will attempt making chocolates very soon. We ate at Persis, Little Italy, and Minerva. Persis is just the same. The same biryani that the world somehow thinks is the best. Little Italy is just down the road from where I lived. Nice food, great ambience. Thank heavens it wasn’t there during my time. I’d probably have eaten there everyday. In Bangalore, we ate at home a lot. We ate stuff from the should-be-world-famous-soon Ganesh Upahar in Anand Nagar, and at TGI Fridays and Little Italy (again). I so wanted to have Chhole Bhature at Shiv Sagar. ( I believe in next times.) We were 10 minutes late at Shanthi Sagar and were denied idlis at dinner time. Madras rocks when it comes to food. More so on this trip of ours. We had some home made food again (I cooked a little bit again) and ate out a little. Ratna café, Minar at Savera, etc. But I had proper amchi banana leaf meals at the SGS Sabha as I was there for the Gowri-Ganpati festival. I celebrated my second Gowri Puja with Amma in Madras.

It’s been about 10 days since we got back. I’ve become more organized since then. All the vegetables for the week are now neatly processed during the weekend so dishing out breakfast and lunch together only takes me 30 minutes. Dinner is also a 20 minute affair, in terms of cooking that is. All this leaves us with more time to do all the things that we’d like to. Hit the gym, take a walk, watch more eposides of Three’s Company, cook more wholesome meals… even cut fruit and eat it as an after dinner snack. Something we’d never thought of doing before. I haven’t gotten around to doing any baking yet. We’re planning a small dinner party on Saturday and I hope to do some baking then. But until then, let me leave you with this small cake that I’d baked for a friend when she asked for an encore. The chocolate orange marble cake with a chocolate glaze icing and sprinkles. Simple and sweet. Perfect for that little celebration. Coming back to my beloved blog after a break does call for a celebration.

Doing that on my second wedding anniversary calls for a bigger celebration. S and I complete two years in wedlock today. I am not cooking anything special. We’re planning a small dinner at a local restaurant that’s supposed to be a perfect candle-light romantic dinner place. See you all very soon.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

The NaBloPoMo took its toll all right! But I had to come back and post right away. I couldn’t let Sachin’s birthday go by without as much as a simple post. I threw a small get together to ring in his birthday and then we cut this cake in the wee hours of the morning. There was a lot of food. I made some Corn and Cheese Croquettes, Mini Cutlets, and Cocktail Pizzas for the starters. We had some Peas Pulao , Paneer in Coconut Milk , Egg Curry, Aloo Jeera and Rice Rotis for dinner. There was more food than we could eat which always helps in a post birthday hangover because I don’t like cooking the next day.

(And amidst all this cooking, I met up with Anita who had brought over some yummy pickle and her famous Goda Masala. I have been wanting to try out her cluster beans recipe for about a year now. Ask and you shall receive is the key phrase here. I asked and I received. Thank you so much Anita!)


I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the food, but I did manage to take pictures of the cake.

2 cups Flour
6 tbsp Oil
¾ cup Sugar
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg, beaten
2/3 cup Milk

For the Icing:

6 tbsp Butter, softened
2 1/3 cups Icing sugar
1/4 cup Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
1/3 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Grease and line two 8-inch cake tins. Mix together the ingredients for the topping.



Mix the flour, baking powder, and sugar together. Add the oil, milk and beaten egg and whisk together. Divide the batter between the two cake tins.


Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

For the icing:

Beat butter in a mixer jar. Add icing sugar and chocolate syrup alternately with the milk; beat to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in the vanilla.

To Proceed:

Place one cake and pour the icing over it. Place the second cake over this and cover with icing. You may refrigerate the cake to help the icing set.

After the dinner party on the eve of his birthday, I treated S to lunch at Punjabi By Nature after which we went shopping. I bought much more for myself than I did for him and I feel bad about it. But all the discount sales are only around his birthday, so I can’t really help it, can I? Happy Birthday Sachin!

Cherry Crumble Cake

I spent 12 years at one school. I have the fondest memories of school. I have had some trying times, but they simply added to the overall experience. Several of my classmates changed every year because of the nature of their parents’ jobs. I was accustomed to seeing new faces each year (or sometimes even the middle of a class year). And although I was waiting for college to start, I was very apprehensive about what it would be like. There are some snobs I keep meeting who consider my college the most conservative and boring place, but I had this one friend who told me I would be comfortable in that environment.

I had grown up in a co-ed environment. Most of my friends from school are guys. I didn’t know how I would react to being in an all-girls’ environment. But when I stepped into my classroom, I saw a few faces that made me feel at home. I had never met them before, but I was certain that some of them would become my friends.

14 years later, I count them among a few of the constants in my life. I know now what it means to be able to take someone for granted. To know that regardless of what lemons life throws your way, these friends will be the first to bring out the tequila and salt. Despite each one being in a different corner of the world, each one leading a life that is extremely different from the other, we are in touch almost on a daily basis.

Today is the birthday of one of these girls. My dearest friend Sujatha. Hers was the first birthday we celebrated in college as it was immediately after we started college. While we all parted ways after graduation, Sujatha and I landed up at the same university for our Masters'. And in the same hostel, with just a room between us. That meant two more years of tete-a-tetes, two more years of (longer) bus journeys, two more years of fun. But more than all of that, it was two more years of comfort. Of having a known and trusted face just a shout away. I understand the importance of all that more today than I did 11 years ago. I woke her up at midnight today just as I did in the hostel 11 years ago (and just as I have for all the years in between). But I had to wish her here as well. This cherry crumble cake seems ideal for the party.

2 cups Flour

6 tbsp Oil

¾ cup Sugar

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 Egg, beaten

2/3 cup Milk

2 cups Cherries, pitted and halved

For the Topping:

¼ cup Butter

½ cup Brown Sugar

½ cup Flour

1 tbsp Icing Sugar for dusting

Grease and line two 8-inch cake tins. Mix together the ingredients for the topping.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and sugar together. Add the oil, milk and beaten egg and whisk together. Divide the batter between the two cake tins. Arrange the cherries on top of the batter and sprinkle the topping over the fruit layer.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Outside of eating cherries straight out of the bowl, this has to be the best way to enjoy these summer fruits. Happy Birthday Sujju. May you get the best that life has to offer as anything less just won't do.

Chocolate Cake with Butterscotch Icing

I’m wishing you another year

Of laughter, joy and fun

Surprises, love and happiness,

And when your birthday’s done,
I hope you feel deep in your heart,

As your birthdays come and go,

How very much you mean to me,

More than you can know.

I came across this wonderful poem on a site called www.poemsource.com. This site is a wonderful resource for poems and these are wishes I am sending my brother’s way. Fifteen years ago, I baked a Black Forest Cake from scratch for his birthday and today I’ve arranged for a Black Forest cake to be delivered to him.

Fan and critic rolled into one, he’s the “guy” I always wanted to be. There was a phase in my life when I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to wear shorts (and use the washroom without having to sit down). I wanted my “curfew time” to be the same as his. Never mind that he was almost 5 years older. I always made it look like he’s being allowed whatever because he’s a boy and not because he was much older. (Something which irritated my parents no end.) Then came a phase when I wanted to be nothing like him. I was becoming my own person, with my own likes and dislikes. Though, in retrospect, I realize that even when I didn’t want to be like him, my likes and dislikes were governed by his. Just that, now, his likes became my dislikes. So, I really don’t know if I hate hard rock and lady’s finger that much any more.

When it comes to food, I’ve made him the guinea pig for loads of stuff that I cooked. He had, and continues to have, a keen eye for detail and a fantastic sense of good food. Some of our food related conversations that stand out are:


While making potato curry:

H: Now put the mustard.
Me: OK
H: Wait till it splutters.
Me: No, let’s put the potato.
H: No, Amma always waits till the mustard splutters.
Me: But that’s only to check if the oil’s hot. We know it’s hot.


All this when I was 6 and he 10 and my mother was working late.

Later, when I was 13 and he 17 or 18, my parents were away in Holland and I was cooking for the two of us.

H: I’m going A’s house.
Me: I’ll come along. Drop me at S’s place please.
H: No way. I’m going alone.
Me: OK, you eat bread till Amma gets back.

It was pure blackmail. I knew he’d succumb and he did. The way to any man’s heart is really through his stomach. So what if he’s your brother?

Today, he still relishes stuff that I make, but we haven’t really lived under the same roof for 16 years now so the occasions are few and far between. He’s also a lot more conscious about what he eats and so, in a way, I figure I can’t blackmail him with food anymore. He does return the favour by making me dosas when I visit. He makes better dosas than even Amma. When I took S home for the first time to meet my family, H very lovingly made dosas for his “Alludu” as well.

We don’t fight as much anymore. In fact, I’d say we don’t fight at all anymore. He does tease me the same way he used to when I was 3 and my reaction is almost, “Amma, to makka chidaytasa. (Amma, he’s teasing me.)” And then I have to stop myself and deal with it differently. The 4 ½ year gap seems a lot less in our thirties than it did in our twenties and teens. Despite everything we’ve gone through in life, and despite anything that will come our way, I know we’ll be there for each other.

Here’s a small chocolate cake to celebrate H’s birthday.

1 1/2 cups Flour
1/3 cup Cocoa Powder
4 tsp Baking Powder (Or 3 tsp Baking Powder and 1 tsp Baking Soda)
1 1/4 cups Sugar (Indian sugar is sweeter, so 1 cup will do)
a Pinch Salt
1/2 cup Oil
2 eggs
1 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla

Butter and flour for dusting

For the icing:

6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Icing sugar
3 tbsp Butterscotch Syrup
1/3 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Sprinkles for decoration

Sift all the dry ingredients for the cake together into a food processor jar with the dough blade. Pour in all the liquid ingredients and run the processor for 2 minutes.

Prepare two 8 inch round cake tins by first smearing a little butter all over the tin and then dusting it with flour.

Divide the batter equally between the pans and bake for 30 minutes at 350 F. The cakes are done when a knife or skewer inserted into them comes out clean. Remove the cakes to a cake rack and cool completely.

Cut the tops of the cakes to make them even.


For the icing:Beat butter in a mixer jar. Add powdered sugar and butterscotch syrup alternately with milk; beat to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in the vanilla essence.

Place one cake and spread the icing over it. Place the second cake over this and cover with icing. (I found the icing a little too sweet even though I cut down the sugar content from the original recipe.) Decorate with the sprinkles.


This is one horrible attempt at frosting a cake! But it is still made with a lot of love and sent his way. H, here’s wishing you every happiness. You deserve it! Happy Birthday!

Passion Cake, Page Ten and Cloud Nine

Of late, I have been having a lot of conversations with friends about food and cooking. I really love cooking, but more than that, I love good food. So much so, that I'm not even particular about eating it. I can read cookbooks to pass time. (We all read each other's blogs, don't we?) I think about meals (though I don't really plan ahead) and food combinations a great deal. I also wonder about food habits and how they come to be what they are. The other thing I wonder about is the "I'm a working girl and so I can't cook" syndrome. Now, I don't believe that cooking is a woman's job. But I also don't believe that a woman who goes to work cannot manage the kitchen. Maybe it was because of what I saw growing up. Amma had a full time job and yet she managed to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. Back then, "home delivery" and "take away" weren't exactly commonplace. And even if they were elsewhere in the city, the IIT campus allowed us no such luxury.

Life has fallen into a routine for most of us. And I am no exception. Cooking our meals is a part of that routine in my case. It irks me no end when I see young colleagues run into the office huffing and panting from barely 2 km away because they "had" to make lunch. I asked one such what the big deal was and she said, "I don't know how you manage to cook and reach in time. But I can't. I don't know why I am expected to. At my mother's place, education was given importance, not cooking." That usually does it. End of conversation. Because in a way, it is as though in my house, I was made to cook instead of study.

I think there are several issues here:

• The feeling that girls "have" to do the cooking
• The myth that education and cooking run as two parallel lines
• The bigger myth that a working girl cannot run a home
• The biggest myth that cooking is laborious, boring and time consuming

I hear things like, "Oh, we never cook in a pressure cooker. My mother is very particular about cooking things the right way." Excuse me! Who decides the right and wrong ways? I am also told, "You can get away with pasta and all that, my husband has to have rotis, rice, dal, vegetables and salad at every meal." I have not been able to understand how "I get away with pasta". But more importantly, even that entire meal is ready in less than 30 minutes in my kitchen. With some prior planning of course. I have been baking for 22 years and cooking for about 19 years now. Did it interfere with my education? Maybe it did. But it didn't stop me from being a gold medalist at University. Does it interfere now with my career? Maybe it does. But it hasn't stopped me from enjoying what I do for a living or giving it my very best. I have never thought of these as chores. On days when I really don't feel like cooking (and S is also knackered!!), we eat out. I don't fuss over our food or our mealtimes. I merely enjoy them. And there's every attempt to eat right. (Mangoes and icecream do make a meal, don't they?)

I baked a little cake today. I'm on cloud nine. Why, you ask? For a multitude of reasons. I got a raise and I got a bonus at work. But why would I talk about that here? This has to be about food, right? Yes, you're right. This is not only about food. This is about this very food blog. The Singing Chef was featured on Page 10 of this morning's Metro Plus, a supplement of The Hindu under

Food Bytes. I have not yet read the newspaper clipping, but my dear friend, Aarti, told me about it in the morning. Appa has kept aside a clipping and will show it to me when I meet him in May. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the internet edition. So, I made this fat free Passion Cake because I firmly believe that the proof of the passion is in the cake!

1 cup Carrots, grated

1 cut Zucchini, grated

3 Eggs, separated

2 tbsp Almonds, ground

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Zest of 1 Orange

1 tbsp Icing Sugar (for dusting)

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease and line a square baking tin.

Sift the wheat flour along with the baking powder and cinnamon.

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks along with the brown sugar, orange zest and almond powder. Fold in the flour mixture and the grated vegetables alternately. Fold in the egg whites carefully. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. When done, sprinkle icing sugar through a sieve over the cake.

Cooking and baking aren't as tough as they're made out to be. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I'm about the laziest person you'll ever meet. So, if I'm saying these aren't tough, then you have no choice but to take my word for it. In the words of Peter Pan, "All you need is faith and trust... and a little bit of pixie dust!"

Light Fruit Cake to celebrate

Not many can have a father

Who’s half as great as you.

Others might try, but they fall shy

You’re a top-notch father, it’s true.
So that’s why on your birthday,

I want to make sure you know,

I admire your sincerely and love you dearly,

And those feelings continue to grow.

I came across this wonderful poem on a site called http://www.poemsource.com/ and this poem was penned by Karl and Joanna Fuchs. And I could relate to the emotion. I am in Chennai to celebrate, among other things, Appa's birthday. I owe this man a great deal. He has always stood behind me in everything I've wanted to do. Pushed me to excel in just about everything I did. And as far as helping me hone my culinary skills, while he always maintained that he can "boil water without burning it", he has been a willing guinea pig. The man who ate semia upma and told his then 13 year old daughter it was delicious. Much later I realized that I'd used twice the amount of water I should have. A lot of my initial cooking happened when Amma was out of town and that meant that H and Appa were left to my "raj". While on the face of it, he may have thought I don't really care about his likes and dislikes, one word of appreciation from him can put me on cloud nine for a long long time. And so, while I didn't exactly learn any cooking from him, he taught me a lot.

I baked a cake late last night ans brought it with me this morning. The first thing we did after entering the house was to have him blow off the candle and cut the cake.

1 cup Raisins

1 cup Apricots

1 cup Figs

1/2 cup Sultanas

1/4 cup Currants

1/4 cup Dates

1/4 cup Candied Peel

1/4 cup Glace Cherries

1 cup White Wine

1 cup Dark Rum

3 cups Flour

1 cup Oil

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

1/2 tsp Nutmeg Powder

1/4 tsp Clove Powder

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup Sugar

Soak the dry fruits for at least 2 days in the white wine and rum along with the spice powders.

Heat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Prepare two 8" cake tins.

Sift the dry ingredients. Add the oil and sugar and beat well. Add the beaten eggs with the essence and then fold in the flour mixture. Stir in the fruits along with the liquid and then divide the batter into the cake tins. Bake for 45 minutes.

As India celebrates her Republic Day, we celebrate the other occasion that makes the 26th of January ever so special. Happy Birthday Appa!

Incidentally, this is my 200th post. I can't believe I've reached a double century. It is thanks to all of you.

Cream of Carrot Soup

Year after year, my summer vacation was a 50 day affair. Starting on the first Sunday in May and ending on the last Sunday in June. The routine never changed. Except for the summer of '92. I had just taken my Class 10 exams and was free from the 14th of March. And school was not to resume until July. Three and a half months. It was the summer of several firsts. I attended shorthand classes that summer. I learnt tailoring from my aunt. I discovered a very different world that existed only for me. One that I entered everyday almost as soon as Amma left for work. The world of exotic and ordinary cooking. The world of Tarla Dalal.

Amma is one of ten children and the youngest of eight sisters. Her eldest sister had come to spend the summer with us. This aunt was married even before Amma was born. Many of my friends mistook her to be my grandmother and my aunt and I always joked that she was old enough to be my mother's mother and so there was nothing wrong if people thought she was my grandmother. This aunt was my partner in crime that summer. The very first day of my vacation, I wanted to make soup. She tried to tell me that it would be a waste as Amma had already made lunch. (As an IIT campus family, we all came home for lunch from school, work etc. and then went right back.) She also told me that when someone comes home on such a tight schedule, it is hard enough to eat a three course meal, let alone have soup first.

After much convincing, I agreed to make soup on a Saturday. It was a hit. After that, I started making a different soup each night for dinner. In between sessions of Rummy and endless TV watching (without any cable), I'd start making soup for dinner. My aunt was extremely fond of food. And I, of cooking. So we made a great pair and I think that was one of the factors that led to the summer of '92 being as enjoyable as it was. I learnt to make pakodas and some other amchi food. I also tried my hand at pani puri and bhel puri and made her the guinea pig. She wasn't the type who'd say something was good if it wasn't. So, if she said something was good, then you could bet all your money that it would be. She put up with my first attempt at handmade lasagne, navaratan korma and even enjoyed my black forest cake.

It was during this time that I learnt to make Carrot soup. I have modified the recipe over the years, but each time I make it, it turns out just fine. The recipe (found in one of Tarla Dalal's initial books) calls for English carrots, but I love the colour that the local carrots impart. And with most of my recipes, this one has also been tweaked.

6 large Carrots, chopped

2 Onions, diced

4 cloves Garlic

1 Potato, diced

1 cup Milk

Salt, Pepper and Mixed Herbs to taste

Pressure cook the carrots, onions, potato and garlic with about 2-3 cups of water. Cool and blend in a liquidizer. Bring the mixture to a boil over low heat and stir in the milk. Add the salt, pepper and herbs and simmer for five minutes. Serve with warm toasted bread.

The 12th of January would have been my aunt's 90th birthday had she been with us. She departed last Saturday night. I will miss her for sure. But I think I had already started missing her over the past few years as she slipped into the illnesses that old age often brings. Her love for food, people and gossip is something I will fondly remember. Her affair with the "good things" in life took her all over the world, into the homes and hearts of many. Her generosity is something that has ensured she will be remembered for a long time. Not many people give away what they have with abandon.

Dearest Ramapachi: For touching lives in a way that only you could have, for love given unconditionally, for a life fully lived, I will always remember you.

The Year That Was

I haven't been able to view too many blogs in recent times. I manage to read some through my Google Reader, but there are so many more that I simply cannot view. I don't know what the matter is, but I hope it gets resolved soon. I miss commenting on people's blogs, learning new stuff from there, trying out new recipes and then blogging about them.

I noticed a lot of blogs had a round up of the year that went by and finally managed to read Nupur's blog. Now I know what this is all about. It looks like several food bloggers started their blogs sometime this year. I thought I was terribly late to join the wagon, but I know I am not. There is a food blogger born every day.

 

I had been blogging for quite some time when I chanced upon Nandita's blog. I had never visited a food blog before. And I definitely did not think of starting my own. For some reason, I thought food blogs were run by people who make exotic stuff everyday. So, how could I, someone who has made one black forest cake (that too some 14 years ago), think of having a food blog? Most of the stuff I make would come under the express meals category. Most would, again, be what I consider "normal" food. But Saffron Trail was an eye opener.

 

Despite the fact that I didn't expect so many of you to visit (and I am ever so thankful that you do), I decided to start my food blog. It all started with a humble post on the 2nd of May, 2007. I thought that I could use my blog as a permanent recipe diary. I collect recipes from just about everywhere. My mother remains my greatest source of recipes, not to mention inspiration. My journey with cooking and baking started over two decades ago. Ann Pillsbury, Tarla Dalal and Sanjeev Kapoor have had a role to play in furthering my interest.

Blogging took my interest to a whole new level. Cookbooks can teach you how to make Penne Genovese or Navratan Korma, but how many sources do you have for Kaddu ki Sabji? Recipes are handed down through generations and I am now able to try stuff out. I am able to cook with several vegetables that weren't part of my repertoire. I had not known what to do with Kaddu or Tendli. I have never cooked with Horse Gram before. I'd never attempted to make pizza by myself. (On the non food front, I'd never thought it possible for me to do a free fall into the Ganges 25 feet below.) But when you have a whole bunch of people egging you on, telling you that you can do it, you have little choice but to trust them and yourself.

I have so much to be thankful for this year. This food blog and its success will be a biggie. Success, not in terms of its popularity (I have a long way to go on this one!), but in terms of the sheer number of friends I have made. The fact that I am trying out new things is a bonus. The fact that I now know that participation in food blogging events is not by invitation will count as the cherry on the cake. Be it WBB, RCI, JFI, AFAM, MBP, TST or the A-Z (which I joined in only from S), I have enjoyed participating in each one. It has been like a mini challenge that people posed and even with some really ordinary dishes and some lousy photographs, I still feel like a winner.

My top 5 posts this year would be:

Mava Cake

Ganpati

Black Currant and Raisin Whole Wheat Muffins

Chocolate Chip Buns

Mushroom and Capsicum on Toast

These have either been my tried and tested pieces or things I have been courageous enough to experiment with. It is difficult to say why the five above or the eight below made it to this list, but since the choice was up to me, I picked these.

The best dish from each month:

May: Choco-Walnut Brownies

June: Easy Aloo Tikki

July: A Date with Maggi

August: Tropical Cupcakes

September: Baked Cashew Onion Pakodas

October: Middle Eastern Salad

November: Pizza

December: Candy Cake

My best meal this year (that is featured on this blog) would be Breakfast Burgers

Discovery of the Year: That I can substitute oil for butter in cakes.

Restaurant of the Year: Earth

Post of the Year: This tribute

Ingredient of the Year: Yeast

What will 2008 bring to The Singing Chef? More soups, more salads, lots more cakes and bakes. I noticed that there's an RCI dedicated to Konkani food next summer. So, you can all look forward to more amchi recipes. My big cooking resolution is about not sharing cookbooks. I am not in a position to promise regular posts and so can't say that 2008 will see 366 posts on The Singing Chef. But I fully intend to try out more stuff: from cook books, from your blogs, from just about everywhere. I hope to take another step in the right direction by cooking healthier stuff. I have started and need to do more on these lines. I hope to get a little more organized as far as the kitchen and fridge go. Starting January, I'll resume my commute across the three states of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh as my office shifts base to NOIDA. So, I have to do everything possible to ensure we still eat everyday and that we eat healthy everyday.

My other blog has suffered a bit because of the food blog, but I will revive that and use that space for my non food related ramblings.

I wish each of you and yours a very happy 2008. May it be a year you remember for all the right reasons. May it bring you every happiness. May it keep us all as close to one another as we are now and allow us to embrace new people, thoughts and foods. Bon appetit!

Candy Cake with lots of love

I Owe It All To Mother!
It’s your birthday, Mom.

So I will raise a cheer.

For without you, wondrous person,

I would not be here.
Yes, I owe it all to you, Mom.

From the time that I was small,

You encouraged me in everything,

And tried not to let me fall.
Throughout my life your caring,

Brightened each and every minute.

You loved me and enriched my life,

And I’m so glad to have you in it!

I came across this wonderful poem on a site called http://www.poemsource.com/ and this poem was penned by Karl Fuchs.

Today is the birthday of one of the most important people in my life. She's the lady that many of you admire without even having met her. The lady who broke many barriers in her lifetime, most without even her own knowledge. She travelled to the United States when she was just 20. That too, in the late 50s when most people in India didn't get to travel within their own cities. She married of her own choice, outside her community. Switched careers half way through to be able to have a full time career and raise her two children with no compromise. She has been my source of strength when I've faced trouble at work. She's the woman who called me at 2 a.m. because she knew I'd be awake after a painful breakup. I can count on her to laugh with me and double my joy and to cry with me to reduce my pain. As I always say, "If I can achieve, in my lifetime, even a tenth of what she has so far, I'll count this life a successful one." She says she's lucky to have gotten a great family, but we feel we're luckier because we got her.

I didn't bake this cake today. It was my colleague's birthday about a month ago. And I decided to bake a little cake for her. As you can all see from the picture, I'm not exactly great when it comes to decorating my cakes. I have a long way to go. This is yet another recipe adapted from my much used and much loved Ann Pillsbury's Baking Book. The recipe calls for chocolate bits and I ran out of chocolate chips. So, I decorated the top with chocolate vermicelli and confetti. I should really be saying that I tried to decorate the cake.

P, my colleague for whom I baked this, was thrilled to bits. She didn't expect me to get her a cake. And she said this was the first time someone baked her something for her birthday. Well, she liked it. And that is all that really matters.

2 cups Flour

4 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Oil

2 eggs

3/4 cup Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

Butter and flour for dusting

Sift all the dry ingredients for the cake together into a food processor jar with the dough blade. Pour in all the liquid ingredients and run the processor for 2 minutes. Pour into a prepared pan and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the batter and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

I will be making something special today or tomorrow to celebrate. Two other special people also celebrate their birthdays. My friend and partner in crime from my college days, Subha, is one of them. My best friend's daughter, Meghana, turns one today. I was to travel to Madras today and celebrate this special day with my family. But my plans changed. I will be visiting next month. In the meanwhile, I have sent a bunch of roses and a chocolate cake. That's really the best I could do. That's the simplest way for me to be able to say:

Happy Birthday Amma.

Happy Birthday

I am not a narcissist. Really, no. But it is my birthday today and I have to let you all know. Because if you don't know, you can't wish me. And if you don't wish me, you'll all feel bad. And I'll feel bad that you felt bad.

Here's a cake to celebrate one more year on this planet. The rafting expedition made this birthday even more special. I had a whale of a time.

I didn't bake this cake for myself. Far from it. I baked it a month ago for my boss on his birthday. He is lactose intolerant, so I made this lactose free cake. And Cynthia just told me that she is lactose intolerant too. So, I do hope this makes her day. I'd not want to leave anyone out on this special day.

The recipe remains the same as my standard Golden Glow cake and I just substituted 1/2 cup of flour with 1/3 cup of cocoa powder. I substituted soy milk for milk and made the icing by whipping 100g of icing sugar with 4 tsp of ice cold water. Ready in a jiffy and as tasty in a way that only homemade cakes can be.

I can't tell you all how happy I am to be celebrating this special day with all of you.

The Joy of Blogging...

...is something that one rarely gets from cookbooks. The kind of cookbooks I use has a lot of pictures. So I do get a thrill when something I make turns out like it is in the picture. Of course there are those books such as Rasachandrika or Samaithu Paar where there are not many or any pictures and yet I get a thrill. Because what I've made turns out the way I "remember" it.


But blogging, the food variety, gives me kicks like never before. I find recipes of new things that intrigue me, I find recipes of stuff I've tasted at some point, I find recipes I've been hunting for. And the best part is that I can go right back to the blogger and say: THANK YOU.


In the past, I've adapted my


Carrot Chutney from Seema's blog
Eggless Masala French Toast from Coffee's blog
Quick Mango Sandesh from Nandita's blog
Kaddu ki Subzi (Pumpkin Curry) from Richa's blog
Egg Roast from Cinnamon's blog
Almond Raisin Muffins from Sharmi's blog
Cheesy Wheat Bread from Anita's blog
Fried Egg with Curried Mushrooms from Meeta's blog
Goodies for Ganpati: Kozhukattais: Uppu & Ammini from Latha's and Laavanya's blogs


At times they've been exact replicas, at others my posts have been inspired by the originals. These have been individual posts. I haven't been able to blog much of late and don't want to delay this thanksgiving. So a combined post for all the recipes that I have tried out:


Sunny Salubri-Tea from Anita's blog. I mixed it with Lime Tang and was amazed at how good this tastes. And the cute smiling sunflower is the kitchen radio S got me a couple of months ago.

Chelsea Buns from Jai and Bee's blog. It has become a lot cooler in Gurgaon and my dough didn't rise much. And I was in a tearing hurry as always. So, these are not as soft as I thought they'd be and I used a mixture of walnuts and raisins for the filling.

Fried Rice from Jai and Bee's blog: I used whatever vegetables I had and skipped the eggs. It is really surprising how I had everything the recipe called for the very day these guys posted the recipe. This made for a very quick meal just before S and I rushed to catch Ratatouille!

Egg Roast from Sig's blog. I didn't have the patience to slice the onions, so I ground the onions along with the tomatoes and all the spices and just sauted the paste in some oil.

Kadala Curry from Sig's blog. I had eaten this dish 3 times in the past. All three times in Kerala. Each time with a different rice item: Appam, Idiyappam and plain rice. And I loved it. I couldn't believe my eyes when Sig posted the recipe on her blog. I finally got around to making it with Tandlya Rotis for our guests on Saturday night. It was a super duper hit and I've been eating a little everyday since.

I think this covers most of my cooking from other blogs so far. I know I will do more of this as I keep bookmarking new recipes to try. A big thank you to all of out there who keep inspiring me to do a bit more, to try a little harder and most of all, to never give up.