Trifle Pudding

We recently had a team pot luck lunch at our office. I am thrown into a flurry of confusion when it comes to cooking for a huge crowd... as huge as about 25 odd people. It gets a tough task then. Our pot luck lunch had too many varieties and the food palette was huge. To make a choice, either a vegetarian dish that complimented the main course or a dessert which I consider I am better at, put me into a shudder fit!

To opt for just another curry which would get lost in the already wide variety of dishes (yep, about 15 odds dishes) was not what I wanted. I definitely wanted mine to stand out of the crowd. So I settled for a dessert. Since I was the only one bringing dessert, I knew it was a not-so-easy task for me. A true challenge posed.

Baking was not a good option, as I would have to go through rounds of baking back to back to suffice the crowd. Since the luncheon was organized on a weekday, I had barely any time at hand to spare for an elaborate fancy dessert. I had to work at something that can be quick to whip up, looked worth tons of effort, grand to serve and tasted a connoisseur's delight.

When I brought out this Trifle Pudding post lunch, I was deluged with compliments. Most of them could not stop at just one helping. They came back for some more. Not just the overwhelming adulation, but the satisfied expressions on everyone's faces while devouring these was so comforting, that I was assured it was indeed a winner.

I have been repeatedly asked by my colleagues to make and bring these again! So I ought to share these here. This dessert is quick and easy. It takes less efforts to make this, but it does require some sitting time in the refrigerator. So plan a little ahead as it can't be made in a jiffy. Yet, it tastes heavenly and is great for a big gathering.

Trifle Pudding

Prepare the custard:

1 packet vanilla flavored custard
1/2 litre milk
1/2 cup sugar

Prepare the vanilla custard following the instructions from the custard pack. Dissolve the custard powder in milk. Add sugar. Heat it on low flame it it thickens and is cooked. Stir constantly to prevent from burning. Keep it in the refrigerator for an hour to cool.

Layer the cake:

1 loaf sponge cake
1 tbsp rum
1/2 cup coffee decoction
Fresh fruits, chopped (bananas, apples, peeled oranges, grapes, melons, pineapples, strawberries)
Dried fruits (Raisins, walnuts, dates, prunes)
Nuts (Cashews, almonds, pistachios)

Layer the base of the trifle bowl with a layer of sponge cake. Prepare a mixture of rum in coffee decoction. Sprinkle it gently over the sponge cake so that it absorbs it.

Next layer the cake with freshly chopped fruits. Use as much variety as possible. It tastes best. Top the fruits with dry fruits and nuts. Next spread a good helping of the prepared custard over this.

Repeat with another layer of sponge cake, topped with fruits and nuts and another layer of vanilla custard. Place it in the fridge for few hours (about 4-5 hrs). If you plan to serve it for lunch, prepare it the overnight and let if refrigerate. Remove from the fridge about 5-10 minutes before serving. Garnish with nuts or butterscotch nuts before serving.

This year too unfolded new challenges and we have dared to confront it. With the year ending on a good note, I wish everyone a Happy New Year.

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Christmas Fruit Cake

Like every year, this year too I was in my hometown during the Christmas Eve. There is something mystical about being in Mangalore during this time of the year. With the Churches lit magnificently, carols sung, chimes ringing and the cribs bedecking, it takes me back to my fond memories of just being there, making merry and enjoying every moment.

Now don't hurdle into a flurry of confusion! We are not Catholics and Christmas was never celebrated at home. But, Christmas has always held a special space in my heart. After all it roots me back to my Catholic school where every year this season would be celebrated in utmost fiesta fashion. Infact, our parents encouraged us to celebrate in the ways we could. Bringing home plum cakes or wishing neighbors was never ruled out.

I love the spirit that Christmas brings. It fills the air with a lot of fun and merry everywhere. We love the walk into malls and shops where the Christmas trees are adorned with tiny tinsels, bells and stars. The glitter that these bring to the shops and malls makes the entire place look like we have walked into a fairy land from a fairy tale book. During this time of the year, there is laughter and fun and all are in holiday spirits. Uncork the champagne.... It's another year end. Amazing how a Christmas can infuse so much life into people.

On this occasion, I made the traditional Christmas cake. It's commonly called as Plum cake, though it doesn't contain any plums in it. It has fruits soaked in rum for close to a month. Loads of raisins, sultanas, apricots, tuti-fruities, fruit peels, dates, cashews, pistachios, almonds, etc. with the warm earthy spices infusing this cake with rich aromatic fruit and rum flavors.

Christmas Fruit Cake

INGREDIENTS

50 gms raisins
50 gms sultanas
50 gms apricots
50 gms cashews
50 gms almonds
25 gms dates
25 gms pistachios
1 tsp fruit peels (lemon & orange)
2 tbsp rum
1 tbsp orange juice
1 egg
100 gms butter
250 gms all purpose flour
50 gms granulated white sugar
50 gms brown sugar
A tbsp of water
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Making the Fruit cake would require some preparations ahead of time. So plan in advance. Soak the raisins, sultanas, apricots and fruit peels in rum a few days ahead. Allow it to absorb all of it. Let it rest. Probably refrigerate it. That's how I left my fruits to soak. On the day of bake, bring them out to room temperature. Add the rest of the fruits, dried fruits and tuti-fruties (colored papaya bits) to it. Dust these with a little all purpose flour so as to prevent sinking in the cake batter.

In a pan, add the granulated white sugar with a tbsp of water. Bring it to a boil gently. Allow to bubble through till the sugar syrup turns golden brown. It burns very quickly if unattended. So take care that the sugar is deep golden brown in colour, but not burnt, else it will taste bitter. Add the butter and brown sugar to this and combine well for a minute. Turn off the flame and set this aside to cool a little. This is how the cake gets its golden brown colour. Next add a tbsp of orange juice.

In another bowl, beat an egg. Add this to the above mixture and combine well.

In a mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients like the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the spices. Make a well in the centre of this, add the prepared wet mixture into this. Add in the dry fruits and nuts and fold gently till it's combined.

Spread the batter on a greased baking dish and bake it gently on 180 degrees for about 45 mins till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow it to cool on cooling rack.

This may look like a lot of work, but this is what makes the fruit cake so different and special from the others. Fruit cake is allowed to mature a day or two before consuming. This allows the fruit flavors to infuse well into the cake, making it moist and richer with time. You may also wet a kitchen towel with rum and cover the cake in the rum soaked towel as I did. This makes it better and helps it last longer. This cake is lavish with fruits and nuts with every bite making you feel rich and heavenly!

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Spinach n' Cheese Mini Quiche

When I first purchased the tart molds, my imaginations limited to making sweet tartlets out of these. I had several recipes at hand. However, on the Christmas eve I brought these out, I was not in a mood for making any dessert. I had already been through my baking of sweet treats for the festival. Instead, I craved for some savory to satisfy my hunger pangs.

Even as I dug into my refrigerator with the thought of savory treats, I found all the ingredients stocked that perfected the recipe I had on my mind. Spinach, cream and cheese and that's all I needed to flavor this recipe...

In French cuisine, a quiche is a baked dish that is based on a custard made from eggs and milk or cream in a pastry crust. Usually, the pastry shell is blind baked before the other ingredients are added for a secondary baking period. Other ingredients such as cooked chopped meat, vegetables, or cheese are often added to the egg mixture before the quiche is baked. Quiche is generally an open pie (i.e. does not contain a pastry covering), but may include an arrangement of tomato slices or pastry off-cuts for a decorative finish. Quiche can be eaten warm but is more commonly eaten cold, making it a suitable component of the food served in a typical summer picnic. (Source: Wikipedia)

The best part of this recipe is the base tart which was made crisp and spicy. The spinach filling itself was mildly flavored, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. It could probably have gone with more cheese for the filling which I realized after it came out of the oven. Never the less, it was still great. Although I used cheddar cheese which has a sharp cheesy taste, the spinach fillings can be paired well with cottage cheese as well. The cheese would taste milder then. They might seem intimidating, but they’re easier than you think!

Spinach n' Cheese Mini Quiche

Prepare the tart base:

100 gm all purpose flour
50 gm cold butter, cut to pieces
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
Salt to taste
Ice cold water to bind

Begin with mixing the flour, red chilly powder and cold butter in a mixing bowl using finger tips, till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Work quickly so that the butter does not melt resulting the mixture to become greasy. Next, make a well in the middle and pour in the ice cold water. Using a fork, stir and bind into a smooth dough. Wrap the dough with a cling film and put it into the freezer for 10 minutes. Place the dough between 2 sheets of cling films and roll from the center to the edges till it is about 1/8 inch thick.

Cut out circles larger than the tartlet molds. Gently fit them in the molds and press them to the edges. Blind bake (without any filling) them for about 10 minutes.

Prepare the tart fillings:

2 bunches spinach leaves, washed and chopped
4-5 chopped garlic pods
1 tsp melted butter
2 tbsp fresh cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
Salt & Pepper to taste
A dash of lime
Grated cheddar cheese

Finely chop the washed spinach leaves. On a pan, melt butter and add chopped garlic and fry for a minute. Add the chopped spinach leaves and let it to cook for few minutes. Add the fresh cream and the spices. Stir well. Remove from the stove and add and dash of lime juice if you prefer tang. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top each tart with grated cheddar cheese. Fill the spinach filling into the tarlets and bake them again on 180 degrees C for about 15 minutes or till the cheese melts. Tastes best when served warm.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Chocolate Walnut Cupcakes

As we are heading closer to Christmas, we are gearing up in full spirits to celebrate it. Kitchen stocks are being replenished and the bakewares are out for use. We are making preparations in a big way. Yes, I have also been making grand preparations for the big bake to happen at our home. Recipes have been bookmarked. Fruit soaking in rum will be brought out for the cake. Gingerbread and cookies will emerge from the oven.

On this eve, new purchases have been made. Muffin trays, paper cups, pie dish, tart molds were my recent acquisitions. Ask myself, I know how what a great deal of effort has gone into this chase and hunt for the bakewares that I recently got. Getting the muffin trays, the pie dishes and the tart molds weren't easy at all. They posed a true challenge to buy them in India.

My hunt began with the search for muffin trays. I needed them badly. I had gone through every possible online shopping site, none catered to my needs. I must have gone shop to shop, mall to mall, bakeries to bakeries, almost being thrown around in the ping-pong style. Some promised, but never got back, while other turned to a bemused gaze. To an extent that I did not even spare the local kirana stores or even the cosmetic outlets. Contacted my friends abroad to check if they could help. Also crossed the thought that I may probably have to fly down to a different country to get them! That was the tale of my hunt.

As I was about to give up my search, I came across an outlet, Jamaal's which was recently inaugurated in a mall close to our place. These guys hit my bet right. As I walked into their outlet, I was mystified to see the wide range of baking stuffs, kitchen items, cooking gears, crockery sets, etc., all that would satisfy the wants of modern kitchen homes. I managed to grab a few stuffs like the muffin tray and pie dish from them, all costing me a bomb as they were mostly imported. Well, did I have any alternate choice? I managed to get tart molds and mini pie dish from a different store and they were great too. I have been chasing them on a spring form pan which I have not been able get my hands on. So that's going to be a long wait. On a lighter note, I was glad that I could collect these just before the Christmas season.

We are now sailing in the Yuletide spirits and gearing for the year end. At this time of the year, there is a great sense of excitement. An year has passed by and it will be a new beginning, a new start, new hopes and new promises. What can be a better way than starting it on a sweet note?

To get into the Christmas temper, I made these decadent chocolate cupcakes over the weekend.

Chocolate Walnut Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, room temp (50 gm)
1/4 cup sugar (25 gm)
1 large egg, room temp
1 cup sweetened condensed milk (100 gms)
3/4 cup flour (75 gms)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (50 gms)
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter with sugar until they are light and fluffy. Beat an egg. Pour in the condensed milk, vanilla and milk. Add this to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into another bowl and whisk to combine. Add the wet to dry ingredients. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake these cupcakes for about 25 minutes or until the fork comes out clean.

I drizzled these with a tsp of warm chocolate sauce before serving to add chocolate deepness to it. I do not have a photo captured to show how moist and good the cake was when bitten into it. This is because these were all waiting to be gone by the time I took these photos.

The cake turned up beautifully. These sinful chocolate walnut cupcakes were moist and gooey and every bite into this is a pure pleasure for chocolate lovers. The walnuts added a good deal of crunch to complement the moist sweetness of the cake. This surely makes a good start for Christmas bakes to come ahead!

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Strawberry Muffins

I love my cookery shows and I am quite hooked to them. I enjoy watching them on the idiot box more than browsing for recipes over the net. I was recently watching one of these cookery shows called Rachel Bake! By Rachel Allen. Ms. Allen shows some incredible stuffs with baking. Her baking is not just limited to desserts but a wide range of savories, tarts, pies and breads. One of her recipes included Swiss rolls with strawberry jam and cream stuffed between sheets of sponge cake. She shared the recipe from scratch which included making the sponge cake. During the course of teaching this recipe to her cooking school students, she says this is a guilt free version with no butter in it. Now, I had to give this one a try, indeed a no butter would mean truly guilt free!

Instead of making the Strawberry Swiss rolls, I tweaked the recipe to make cup cakes instead. The basic recipe pretty much remained the same with minor changes. Instead of 4 eggs I used only 2 and in turn used a quarter tsp baking powder which was not called for in her recipe. Honestly, I don't like the eggy flavors coming through the cakes. So I prefer using them in lesser quantities than what is generally mentioned in a recipe. Cake turned out good, but not fantastic as I had expected. They really lacked the much needed fat in them. They came out spongy, yet dry in flavors. These did have eminent eggy flavors coming through. Having made sponge cakes in the past, I could clearly perceive the difference. These cakes definitely require a great amount of filling to camouflage and compensate the shortcomings due to missing butter/fat. Luckily, as per Rachel I used strawberry compote as fillings and this supplemented the flavors. You may use any other fillings of you choice. Rachel also recommends raspberry fillings with cream.

Strawberry Muffins

INGREDIENTS

125g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 Eggs
125g caster sugar
2 tbsp warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
Melted Butter, for greasing

For the filling:

6 tsp strawberry jam

DIRECTIONS

Grease the muffin tray with melted butter. Whisk the eggs and caster sugar together in a large mixing bowl until it's light and fluffy. Then add the water and vanilla extract. Add the baking powder and the flour, about one-third at a time, and fold it into the mixture gently. Pour the mixture gently into the prepared muffin tray till it is half way high. Drop a tsp full of strawberry compote in the middle of each batter to form the filling. Cover with the remaining batter about three fourths up and leave room for the cake and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the cake has shrunk away a little from the sides of the tin.

Break open the cake and there you'll notice the strawberry fillings. These strawberry fillings can sink in to the bottom, so be sure that you have filled the batter half way up and then drop the compote and cover them. Bake them immediately. Rachel suggests to place a clean damp tea towel over the cake and leave to cool for 30 minutes. I sprinkled a good amount of fruit juice to keep these cakes moist.

These are great as tea time accompaniments. We enjoyed them over a good cup of masala chai. I ran out of cream, so these went without any frosting. Top them with a good frosting of your choice and you can take double pleasure indulging in these. Of course, you can't call them guilt-free then, yeah! The next time I make these, they will surely be accompanied by a cream topping.

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Stuffed Mushroom Caps

We are not fussy when it comes to eating and this blog is repertoire of that. There are hardly any vegetables or fruits we dislike. With an exception of capsicum which my husband is not particularly fond of, he will eat anything and everything if tastefully made. He doesn't despise eating peppers, but prefers them mixed with other veggies. I make a stuffed version that he truly adores and insists on making it every time we get capsicum home. That's a very Indian stuff with potatoes, onions, nuts and masalas.

I often make stuffed vegetables of different kinds. Sometime baked and sometimes roasted. I make the stuffed and baked vegetables on our weekends when freedom of time is at hand. We thoroughly enjoy them.

Mushrooms were not as common earlier as they are these days. We hardly used to get them home and even if we did it meant a day to treat for us. In fact, whenever we went out to dine in a restaurant, we would ensure that we ordered at least one dish that included mushrooms. Be it Chinese or Indian or Italian or any other cuisine, a must have's on our menu order was either mushrooms or baby corns. That meant delicacy for us, to get away from the routine, something different from the usual food.

It used to be so uncommon then that my friend and me would often joke that we would run a mushroom cultivation business some day and it would turn a big hit in Indian markets. Well! That only remained a joke! Fetching these now is not an issue as we get them in almost every super market.

Recently on a week day, I was back home pretty much tired and strained from work. I had a fresh pack of mushrooms in the fridge and I intended to make usual subzi out of them. However, since I didn't want to strain myself much, I decided to go an easier way. Instead of the Indian stuffing, I opted to use Italian herbs. These stuffed mushrooms were an instant hit and I bet a single bite will not satisfy you.

Quick and easy... these were indulgent and awesome. Served with cheese n' garlic breads, they made a brilliant combo quick meal. They will leave you craving for more.

Stuffed Mushroom Caps

INGREDIENTS

200 gms button mushrooms
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 pods of fresh garlic, finely chopped
1/2 capsicum, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato sauce
A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp Cheddar cheese
Italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS

Button mushrooms work the best as they can hold a good amount of stuffing. Wash the mushrooms and dry them on a towel. Divide the mushroom caps from stems and keep these caps aside.

Prepare the filling:

Chop onions, garlic, capsicum and the mushroom steps finely. Add a tbsp of tomato sauce and Italian seasoning along with a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Fill them in the mushroom cap till the top. Top them with grated cheese. Arrange these stuffed caps on a baking dish. Drizzle some olive oil and bake for 15 minutes on 350 degrees till the cheese begins to melt. The mushroom may leave water while baking, but that's okay. Do not over bake them as mushrooms cook quickly and may tend to get soggy to baked long. Serve hot.

Serving Suggestion: Top with dried Italian herbs and serve with any bread and soup.

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