Thomas and friends Cake | Train Cake | Butterfly Cake | Decorated Cakes |

Its been ages since I wrote my last post. I thought of taking a short break Initially when we planned to move to Brussels for the kids school. But then there was a visit from my In-laws for 2 months, followed by my son's 3rd birthday and then the school. The kid took some time to settle down and demanded more attention from me, and there you go, another reason for me to prolong my hibernation. Summer was hectic as we were travelling a lot, visited Rome and Paris again. I never get bored of Rome, its such a lively place filled with architectural wonders. 
When everything was in place and I was almost ready to blog, my laptop gave away all of a sudden, and thats it, I thought I will never be able write a post this year. Still it's in the same condition,  can browse only for about 30 minutes at a stretch, as it runs with just battery power, awaiting a new one next week though.(hurray!!!). But during the past one month I realised how much work gets done, if you dont sit in front of your computer for hours together. Yeah, I learned something on that front and I promised myself that I will not sit and browse or blog for more than an hour at a stretch. (India calls excluded  :) ).


During my break I did lots of cooking, tried new things and the best part is I overcame the fear of Icing.
Yes, I baked a Birthday cake for my son's Birthday and a few other ones after that. Though I love to bake and try out different recipes, this is the first time I attempted to do a decorated version with Icing and all.


It was hard to find certain ingredients called for in the recipe, I had go with alternatives.I took a lot of help from Champa of   "The Versatile Kitchen' as I desperately needed some advice and tips from a person who is good at this. Her posts on cake decorating basics were very useful and informative.learned a lot of new stuff from there.She was very patient enough to answer all my questions through email. Thanks Champa :)
I also took help from another blog , Aqua's "Served with love".  She also has some simple tips and techniques in her blog which guides you where to start  for starters like me.


Here are some of the pictures of the Cakes.


I made two train cakes for my son, as he is crazy about trains and a big time fan of "Thomas and Friends".
I used a train mould to bake the following cake, decorated with Fondant and placed over a half sheet cake covered with Fondant.

The Following cake was cut out from loaf cakes and decorated with buttercream Icing. Though its not perfect I loved this one than the above cake, as this took lot of time for me.

Here's another one I made for a friends daughter.I cut out the butterfly  from a 9" round cake with help from Betty Crocker's Kitchen.They have got some great ideas there. If you hit the Google you are sure to land up there :)

Here's another one I made for my Hubby's B'day. Cinnamon Sponge cake with Chocolate butter cream Icing. Cake recipe from Passionate about Baking.

The making of the Train cake and decorating  it for the birthday was a huge effort.I had to do two trial versions before the final cake.Would I do it again ? definitely  yes , just to see that lovely smile in my kids face :)  worth all the effort.


See you again this week with another interesting Bake that I made with a recipe.
 Have a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Cabbage Pakoda and some scenic pictures from Austria

Last week was pretty exciting  for us as we went on a 5 day trip to Austria and Venice.
Austria was gorgeous and Venice was too beautiful. With nothing much to say, I want to share a few pictures from the trip  for you all to see what we saw and a recipe for quick snack.

Snow Clad Alps...

Bright and sunny Venice..

Now coming to recipe...

Cabbage Pakoda:

2 cups shredded cabbage.
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
1 cup Besan flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 green chilli finely chopped.
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds.
1/2 tsp chat masala(optional)
Curry leaves(optional)

Method.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl along with the required amount of salt.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of water and mix gently.
Heat up oil in a deep sauce pan in medium high heat.
Drop the cabbage mixture in irregular shapes , 4-5 at a time.
Fry till golden brown.Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Have a nice week ahead

Family Favorites - Masal Vadai Kuzhambhu

I thought of writing about the dishes that I loved growing up, ones that brings back memories every time I make them at home(even now), ones that are favorites of a particular member of the family , ones that amma makes often on repeated requests from us..ones that are Grandma's special..well , the list continues...Hence this family favorite series. This is my second post in this one, but honestly this kuzhambhu should have been in the first post.
Generally any tamarind based gravy with a main ingredient is referred to as 'Kuzhambhu' and it forms an integral part of any Tamilian Menu. This one is prepared with the Masala vadai as the main ingredient. The paruppu vadai soaked in the tamarind gravy is a delicacy and its such a favorite at our home.My mother makes this as a special dish, whenever we have some vegetarian guests for lunch.
You dont have to make any side dish or veggies, just some papads will fulfill the entire meal, because I am sure that your guests will not reach out for the rasam or curd to end the meal.

For the Masala Vadai:
Ingredients:
1 cup Channa dhal
1 green chili
1 tsp sombu/fennel seeds
1 medium onion
curry leaves

Method.
Soak the channa dhal for atleast 3 hrs.
Grind the dhal along with sombhu and salt, without adding water.
The mixture should be coarse in texture.
Slice the onion thinly and add to the dhal mixture.
Add the finely chopped chilli and curry leaves.
Mix well and make equal sized balls.
Heat oil in a pot, flatten each ball and deep fry them in medium heat.
Note:
The vadai's should be thick and soft inside, not thin and crispy.

For the Kuzhambhu
Ingredients:
Lemon sized tamarind
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped tomato
1 green chilli
1 inch ginger finly chopped
few curry leaves.
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dhal
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
11/2 tsp chilli powder
3 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

Method
Soak tamarind in 1 cup of water
Extract the pulp completely and add 3 more cups of water to it.
To the extract add all the dry powders and salt.
Take 2 tblsp of oil in a wide bottomed pot.
Add mustard, urad dhal, fenugreek, and curryleaves.
When the mustard pops, add the thinly sliced onion, ginger, green chilli and fry till translucent.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook till mushy.
To this add the tamarind mixture and close with a lid.
let it boil for approximatly 10 mins or until the raw smell goes.
Reduce the heat to minimum and add all the vadai's.
Switch of the stove after 2 mins. Close with lid.
Let it sit for an hour before serving.

Note:
If the kuzhambhu is watery, crush one or two vadai's to help thicken the gravy.
Check for salt before adding the vadai's.
You can also use 3tsp of sambhar powder instead of chilli pwd and coriander powder.

Bread Rolls/Parcels

Though I have read about bread rolls several times in many cookbooks, magazines, blogs, and foodwebsites I have never tried it until recently for a potluck lunch. It didnt soak much oil as I initially thought and it retained its crispiness even after few hours.I have made it twice after that and it came out very well each time. Makes a great party starter.

The recipe for the filling is very versatile, and you can make it according to your tastebuds. This is how I made it.
This recipe make 10-12 bread rolls

For the Filling:
Ingredients:

4 medium potatoes 
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 medium onion chopped

1 tsp jeera
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp chat masala powder.
1 tblsp lemon juice

Method.
Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and mash it .
Add 2 tblsp oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.
When it crackles add the chopped onion and saute well.
To this add the ginger garlic paste, and all the dry powders and fry till the raw smell disappears. Sprinkle some water if necessary.
Now add the mashed potatoes, and mix well with the masala.
Finally add salt, chopped coriander leaves  and lemon juice, mix well to combine.

For the Rolls:

Ingredients.

12 slices white bread.

a bowl of water.

2 cups bread crumbs

oil for frying

Method:
Trim the edges of the bread and keep aside.
Take each slice , dip in the water, keep inbetween your hands and squeeze out the water.

Spread the sqeezed bread slice on a flat surface, place the filling towards one edge, roll it and seal the edges by slightly pressing them.
Roll it over the bread crumbs and fry in hot oil.

Note: The oil should be hot , not smoking hot. Coat the rolls well with bread crumbs and pat it your palms before dropping it in oil.This helps in shedding the excess crumbs, that might clog the oil.

Family Favorites: Lamb/Mutton Soup and Pepper fry

Lamb /Mutton is one of my favorite Non-Veg dish while growing up, especially the soup. In my family we prefer to take the soup as the final course, like rasam along with rice. Due to the high fat and cholestrol scare, we stopped taking red meat after marriage. Sometimes when I get the cravings I buy lamb ( completly trimmed of fat ) in a little quantity and make this soup. This happens once or twice in a year.
But lately, since my son has lost a lot of weight due to frequent sickness, I was suggested both by my parents and in-laws to start adding mutton to his diet.
So now once in two weeks I make this soup for my kid and this delicious pepper fry for us with the cooked meat.

For the Lamb /Mutton Soup:

Ingredients:

4 pieces of lamb/Mutton Chops
4 galic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of  finely chopped/grated
1 small onion finely chopped
1 small tomato

1/2 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of coarse pepper powder
1 tsp of coarse jeera powder
salt as per taste

for tempering

1 tsp of sombu/fennel seeds

1/4 inch cinnamon stick
2 cloves

Method.
In a pressure cooker add the meat, onion , tomato, garlic , ginger, turmeric, pepper , jeera and salt.Add 3 cups of water and mix well.
Pressure cook for 4-5  whistles.
When the pressure subsides, remove the meat from the soup and keep aside.
In a small tempering pan add a tsp of oil and all the tempering ingredients when the oil is hot.Pour this over the soup and bring it a boil . Add a handful of chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with hot rice.

Lamb /Mutton Pepper fry.

 Ingredients:
4 piece of lamb chops  cooked as said above.
(reserve 1/2 cup of meat stock before tempering the soup)
1 small onion finely chopped
1 tsp ginger garlic paste or ginger and garlic finely minced
1/2 tsp of chilli powder.
1 tsp of coarse black pepper
1/2 tsp of jeera powder
Method:

Heat a pan and add 2 tsp of oil.To this add the onion and fry till translucent.
Add the ginger garlic paste and chilli powder, fry till the raw smell goes and oil leaves the sides of the pan.Now add the meat along with the pepper and jeera powder, stir well to be coated with the masala.
Add the reserved liquid and close with a lid and cook for 10 mins or till all the water disappears. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves