My First Chocolate Cake

For an ardent chocolate cake lover like me it took me this long to bake one. I like plain chocolate cake with simple icing , not those which are loaded with layers of cream. So I usually satisfy my craving by settling on the store bought mixes. But this time I decided to give it a go and tried out the recipe from Pusiva's culinary studio. I did'nt like the strong bitter flavour of the cocoa powder that I get here, so used chopped cooking chocolate instead. The cake turned out to be moist and perfect, exactly the way I like it.

We had the cake with some whipped cream, but next time I will make a single layer of chocolate Ganache.




Recipe Adapted from Pusiva's culinary studio.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup plain flour
50gms of cooking chocolate.
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp hot water
1 tsp instant cofee powder or granules
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup water


Method:
Melt the chocolate by double boiling method and allow it to cool.
Mix the coffee poder in the hot water and allow it to cool.
Grease and prepare the cake pan
Seive the flour , baking powder and soda together.(if you are using cocoa powder, include that here)
Beat the buttr and sugar until light and fluffy.Add the egg and beat well for a min.
Now add the cooled chocolate, cofee mixture, vanilla essence , beat for approxately 2 - 3 min.
Add the flour little by little alternatly with water, finally ending with the flour mixture.
Give it a gentle stir by hand until all the flour dissolves. Do not beat while adding the flour.
Pour the mixture on to the prepared pan and bake in an 175C oven for 40 - 45 mins.




Note:
If your cake is browing quickly throw in a sheet of foil over the top of the pan after 20 mins of baking.
I baked the cake twice with and without the coffee powder , it tasted great. So the coffee powder is completly optional.


Having baked my first Chocolate cake I have gained confidence to try out so many different versions of chocolate cake out there with diffrent Icing. So you can expect few more posts on chocolate cakes from me in the future.

Enjoy !!!
Iam sending this Chocolate Cake over to Cook for Yourself event at Food for 7 stages of life.

Spicy Chettinad Chicken Fry / Chettinadu Kozhi Varuval

We have had an overdose of chicken lately for the past few weeks which made me try out some special chicken dishes and thus ended up with this wonderful recipe. I learned this one from a TV show in which some famous Chettinad ladies showcased their family recipes. At that time I wondered how few red chillies can bring spiceness to the dish, but I should warn you, It was really really hot and awesome. I generally try to avoid Chettinad dishes because of the grinding of the spices involved( as I dont have a smaller mixer), and also because of the amount of coconut involved( as I try not to use coconut in our diet). But after trying out this recipe I started searching for chettinad recipes for each and every vegetable that I had in my refrigerator and the whole week was like a chettinad fiesta. In this process I also stumbled upon Solai's chettinad kitchen blog, very nice blog for people who love spicy food with some fabulous recipes.
Here is the recipe for Chettinad Chicken Fry:

Ingredients

Chicken - 1/2 kg

For Marination:

red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

lemon juice - 1sp
For frying

red chillies  - 4-5
cinnamon - 1 inch piece

cloves - 2 nos

fennel seeds/sombhu - 1tsp

chopped garlic - 2 tsp

chopped ginger - 1tsp

1 medium onion finely chopped

few curry leaves

salt to taste
Method:

Wash and marinate the chicken pieces with chilli powder , turmeric, ginger garlic paste,salt and lemon juice for atleast 1/2 an hour or overnight.

In wide pan heat few tblsp of oil.

Add cinnamon, cloves, curryleaves, sombhu and redchillies to the hot oil.

Give it a stir for a minute and add the chopped onions, garlic and ginger. Fry till translucent. Now add the marinated chicken pieces, stir well, add 1/2 cup of water and close with a tight lid. Cook in medium flame for 10 mins. Open the lid, stir well , check for salt and cook till the water is absorbed(approx 10 more mins). Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. 

Special Note:-Alternatively you can cook the marinated chicken first by adding them to a pot of boiling water along with cinnamon, cloves for about 6-7 mins.Strain well and reserve the liquid for making soup. Then follow the above process by adding little amount of water. Both method works well.

Some pictures of the Chettinad Chicken Kuzhambhu/Curry and Pepper Rasam that I made on the next day for lunch.

Kodhumai/Wheat Rava/Cracked wheat Uppuma and Coriander-Peanut Chutney

This is a very simple and filling meal which makes its way in to my kichen atleast once a week. Usually I make this uppuma for dinner whenever I make sambhar for lunch, so that I need not put extra effort for making any chutneys.Sambhar and wheat rava uppuma are a classic combo. But yesterday for a change I made this coriander - peanut chutney to go with this delicious uppuma, which equally tasted good.
Change is always good right..

Wheat Rava Uppuma

Ingredients:

Wheat rava/cracked wheat - 2 cups

water - 4 cups

1 tsp mustard seeds

1tsp urad dhal

1 tsp channa dhal

1 tsp chopped ginger

2 green chillies, slit

1 medium onion chopped

few curry leaves

Method

Dry roast the Rava in a pan without oil i medium flame for atleast 10 mins

(Do not avoid this step , as it reduces the raw smell of the wheat a lot)

Heat a tblsp of oil in a non stick pan/kadai.

Add the tempering ingredients mustard, urad dhal, channa dhal and curry leaves when the oil is hot.

When the mustard pops add the onion , chillies and ginger, fry till onion turns translucent

Now add the water and salt to taste.Close with a lid and allow it to boil.

When the water is boiling, slowly add the wheat rava and stir well. Reduce the flame to medium , close with a tight lid and cook for 10 mins.

Stir well, reduce the flame to very low, close with a lid and cook for another 10 mins.

Coriander peanut chutney:

Ingredients:

1 bunch of coriander leaves

1 handful of mint leaves(optional)

1/2 cup of roasted peanuts

2 green chillies

1/2 tsp tamarind paste

1 garlic pod

Method:

Grind all the above ingredients with the required amount of salt

Make the tempering with mustard , urad dhal, curry leaves and pour over the chutney.

Stir well and serve.

Bhoondhi Laddoo - A Diwali Treat

Made these yummy ladoos for Diwali from my mother's recipe. Though there are different forms of ladoos, bhoondhi ladoo has been my favorite, especially I love the ones from Adyar Ananda Bhavan... I didnt have any special laddle for making them, so used the regular slotted laddle (Jalli karandi) a slightly bigger one. The initial rounds of bhoondhi came out just fine but the final three batches got messed up, as they began to clog together. Probably the heat got reduced or the batter became too thin/thick , I am not sure, but who cares I got enough bhoondhi's to make 25 ladoos. I added chopped almonds and raisins instead of the traditional cashews, not that I dont prefer them , I realised that I ran out of cashews at the last minute, but the almonds tasted equally good and balanced out the sweetness of the ladoo.

The recipe is very simple and it hardly took 1 hour for me to finish . Hope you all give it a try.

Ingredients:

2 cups gram flour

a pinch of salt

a pinch of cooking soda

for the syrup :

3 cups of sugar (for each cup of flour 11/2 cup of sugar)

1 cup of water ( for each cup of flour 1/2 cup of water)

few cardomom pods

1 drop of yellow food colour (optional)

1 cup chopped almonds/cashews

1/2 cup raisins

Method:

- Take few tsp of ghee and fry the almonds and raisins as we do for payasams. Keep aside.

- Take enough oil in a wide bottommed vessel(atleast an inch thick)

- Mix the flour soda and salt with enough water , just enough to resemble Idli batter.(The batter should not be either too thick or too thin).

- Once the oil is hot(keeping the slotted laddle over the oil) , spread a laddle full of batter over the slotted laddle in circular motion. The bhoondhi's will fall in the oil.

- Fry them for 2 mins , take them out and drain in a paper towel.The bhoondhi should not become crisp.

- Repeat the same with the remaining batter.

- Switch on the other stove and heat the sugar and water in parallel. Add the smashed cardomom pods to it.

- Allow it to boil and reach the single string consistency i.e., if you touch and release the liquid between your fingers it should form a string.

- At this point switch of the stove and mix the bhoondhi, and fried almonds and raisins.Give it a stir with a wooden spoon, close with a lid and allow to cool for few minutes.

- While its still warm , make it to lemon sized balls.

Note : If the mixture gets cooled after sometime heat for a minute in a a Microwave.

If you do not have a microwave, Sprinkle some warm milk as you make the balls

This recipe makes 25 - 30 medium sized ladoos.

Sending these yummy laddoos to the following events:

Sweet series host at Mom's recipes

Diwali Dhamaka event at Purva's blog

Sweet Celebrations HOsted by Mansi at Fun and Food Cafe

FIL - Ghee Hosted at Sanghi' Food Delights

Pineapple fresh cream cake

I have been planning to make this cake ever since I saw the recipe in "Passionate about baking". The fear of Icing the cake with whipped cream or for that matter any Icing has kept me away from these kind of cakes. Finally I mustered my guts and baked this cake for my Husbands birthday who is an ardent lover of pineapple desserts.
The cake turned out soft and spongy, but the Icing scared me Initially.I baked the sponge at 2.00am in the night (wanted it to be a surprise you know!), and thought of Icing it early in the morning. But when I started Whipping cream, dont know what happened, the cream started to curdle after 6 mins, probably because I whipped it at high speed. I was totally disappointed as I didnt have any more cream left in the fridge.

With few adventures later somehow made the Icing and decorated the cake by evening. The cake tasted too good , and I have already made plans for making it again.The step by step proceure and the tips in the recipe helped me a lot.

Update : Check out the base recipe for this cake at  Strawberry fresh cream cake.Just substitute strawberries with Pineapple.