Red Velvet cake

This became one of my favorite cake after coming to US. When i was in India i haven't heard about this. I once got a chance to taste a small piece of this cake. Wow what a tasty cake. Look at the color. Hmm who wont like this???.. First time i didn't have this red color and cocoa powder in my pantry, so i tried with orange color and just omited the cocoa powder. But didn't get the taste like the one that i sampled earlier. Next time got these ingredients and tried this for our First Wedding Anniversary. Wow!!! No words to express the unique taste of this cake. I simply applied vanilla frosting to make my work easier. Can try with homemade icing too. That will be delicious.

You will need:

For the cake:

• 2½ cups sifted cake flour
  
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2½ ounces red food colouring
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 pound confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Preparation method:

For The Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.

2. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

In a medium bowl...

1. sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt

2. set aside.

In a large bowl...

1. Cream together sugar and butter.

2. Beat in eggs one at a time.

3. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk.

4. Beat in food coloring and vinegar, then add vanilla.

Spread the batter evenly in the pans.

1. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

2. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

For The Frosting:

1. In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter.

2. Beat in confectioners' sugar until fluffy.

3. Beat in vanilla. Stir in pecans.

4. Use frosting to fill and ice cake.

5. Slice and serve on individual plates.

Besan dosa/ gram flour omelete

After marriage i was making kara bajji's using potatoes and onions. Sometimes with eggs too. But whenever i make something with gram flour my hubby simply liked it. So thought of trying some varieties of dishes with gram flour. Once i heard from my friend that North Indian people have some dosa recipes using gram flour. So i just gave a try to make this dosa. Simple superb and perfect for gram flour lovers. It smells like omelet. I tried it without eggs but we can smell egg in that dosa. You can give a try for breakfast or as simple dinner.

Description:

This dosa is fully made with gram flour. So those who like gram flour can try this dosa. I mean those who like bonda, kara bajji, kara boondhi will surely love this recipe. It will smell like omelete.

You will need:

• 1 cup Besan / gram flour
• 2 tbsp Onion ( finely chopped) use food chopper or very finely chop using knife
• 2 tbsp Tomato (finely crushed or chopped)
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 green chilli (finely chopped)
• ¼ tsp chilli powder
• ½ cup coriander leaves
• pinch of asofoetida
• ¼ tsp ajwain seeds(omam)
• 1 egg (optional)
  
• salt to taste
• water to mix (just to get dosa batter consistency)
• oil for making dosa

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients with water to form like a dosa batter except oil. Please don't forget to add ginger garlic paste and also to chop all the ingredients finely. Heat griddle/tawa/ nonstick pan pour a ladle of batter and roll it around to spread it evenly. Cook one side pour some oil around and turn other side to cook .When done remove and serve


You can top one side of the dosa with sliced panner or cheese to get cheese omlete.

Enjoy you besan omelete. One good thing about this dosa is , it doesn't need any side dish. Hope this makes you happy!!!!!

Strawberry cake eggless

You will need:

• 1¼ cup All purpose flour
• 3½ tbsp butter(room temp)
• ½ tsp vanilla essence
• ½ tsp strawberry essence
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup milk
• 1 cup strawberries chopped (fresh or frozen) if frozen thaw it before mixing it
• ½ tsp lemon juice
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• pinch of salt
  

Step 1:

Preheat the oven:

Preheat the oven to 375 degree F.(190 degree Celsius)

Step 2:

Preparing strawberries:

Mix 1 tsp sugar and lemon juice on freshly chopped strawberries and keep it aside. This will make the strawberry juicy and soft.

Hint:

If using frozen you can skip step 2.

Step 3:

Mixing dry ingredients:

Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sift it with a sifter.

Step 4:

Mixing wet ingredients:

Cream butter and powdered sugar using electric mixer. Then add milk to it.

Step 5:

Mixing dry and wet ingredients:

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients little by little till you get all ingredients mixed together.

Step 6:

Mixing strawberries:

Using the spatula fold in the chopped strawberries with the above mixture.

Step 7:

Bake:

Prepare the baking pan by buttering it nicely just to avoid sticking. Then pour the mixture into the baking pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Same old technique to check whether the cake is baked. Just insert a tooth pick in the middle. If it comes out clean its done. Allow it to cool for 5 to 7 minutes.. Before serving dust it with some powdered sugar.

Additionol decoration: To make layer strawberry cake.

Cut the cake into 2 pieces. exactly half. and place the bottom piece in a cake stand. Then apply whipped cream all over the cake. Then put the top piece on top of the whipped cream. Then cover the full cake with whipped cream or vanilla frosting. On top of the whipped cream cut the strawberries and decorated in your own way. I'm not good in decorating. So i did my own style of decoration.

Handy Hint: Before covering the top of the cake with cream you can cut the cake into your own desired shape. like heart shape, tree shape. I prefer round shape. But occasionally will go for heart shapes too.

If you think your cake is very crispy outside(meaning over baked by mistake) just cut the outer edges slightly using knife.Then cover the cake with whipped cream.

Chilli chicken/ Chicken-65

You will need:

• 1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
• 2 egg
• 1 tsp corn flour
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 8 green chillies (chopped lengthwise)
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 10 curry leaves
  
• ½ cup onion (cutting lengthwise)
• pinch of ajinomoto
• ½ tsp red colour
• oil for deep frying
• 2 tbsp oil
• ¼ cup water
• 1 lemon
• chopped cilantro for garnish
  
• salt to taste

Step 1:

Mixing ingredients with chicken.

Cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces and dry it using paper towel. Mix corn flour to it. After that add eggs and mix it very well. Since its a binding agent it should coat the chicken very well. Then add ginger garlic paste, 1 tsp chilli powder, pepper powder, salt and ajinomotto.

Hint: You can allow the chicken to marinate few hours to get better taste.
Step 2:

Deep fry the chicken:

After few hours of marination, deep fry the chicken till it becomes golden brown colour. As you know chicken cooks very fast. So don't over crowd the pan with more chicken. Little by little fry and keep it in a paper towel to absorb the oil content.

Step 3:

Saute all the other ingredients:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and allow it to splutter. Then add onion, green chilli, curry leaves and saute for 3 mins till the onion turn translucent. Now add minced garlic and ginger. Saute it for 2 more mins. Add cumin powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, water, salt and red colour. Then add the fried chicken pieces to it and saute it continuously till you get the desired texture. Now add lemon juice on top.

I like dry chilli chicken, so i saute it till the water evaporates and get a very dry form.



Chilli chicken is ready. Just garnish with chopped cilantro, sliced onion and sliced lemon.

Sambhar recipe

You will need:

• 1 onion(chopped)
• 2 tomatoes(chopped)
• 3 green chillies(chopped)
• 3 carrots(chopped)
• 1 potato(chopped)
• 1 cup green peas
• 2 cup baby spinach
• 1 cup lady's finger (okra)
• 1 cup eggplant(chopped)
  
• 1½ tsp tamarind paste (You can add more or less according to your taste)
• 7 garlic pods
• 1 cup toor dal
• ½ cup channa dal/moong dal
• 4 cups of water
• salt to taste

Hint:

You can add whatever vegetables you have in your refrigerator. This is the nice way to empty your refrigerator.

For tempering:

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
• ½ tsp urad dal
• 3 dry red chillies
• some curry leaves
• some coriander leaves(chopped)
• 3 tbsp sambhar powder
• ½ tsp asafoetida powder(hing, perungaayam)

Step 1:

Microwave chopped vegetables:

Microwave chopped carrots and potatoes for 6 minutes.

Step 2:

In rice cooker:

In a rice cooker add toor dal, channa dal/moong dal, garlic, tomatoes and add 4 cups of water and allow it to cook.

Step 3:

Stir fry okra, eggplant and spinach

Take a non stick pan and add 1 tbsp oil. Add the chopped okra and fry it for few mins. Then add chopped onions, eggplant and spinach along with the okra and stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 4:

Mix veggies with dal

When the dal is half cooked add okra, eggplant, onions,spinach, carrot, potato, peas, tamarind paste, salt with the dal mixture. At this point if you need more water add some. Then allow the dal and veggies to cook till your rice cooker automatically turns to warm position.

Step 5:

Tempering:

For tempering heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and urad dal. When it splutters add asafoetida powder, sambhar powder, curry leaves, coriander leaves. Then add this mixture to the veggie dal mixture and enjoy your sambhar with rice, idli, dosa.

Handy Hint:

If you dont like thick sambhar add some more water and sambhar powder.