To all those reading my blog.....

This has been the longest gap ever from the time I started blogging. Sad , very sad. I should not be blaming it on my two year old, for not letting me sit at the laptop,or for moving into a new place and having my husband live out of cardboard boxes for almost two months,while I shuttled back and forth to India, as my MIL was diagnosed with lung cancer.
I guess with so much going on I was simply not motivated enough. And with me being pregnant with my second one, blogging was the last thing on my mind. But I have happened to realize one thing and that is its now or never.

So for all of my lovely followers you have been there following me , even though there readers would not ping with a daily post from my blog, I thank you and I am grateful to each one of you. I am motivated and excited about all the new changes that I am going to make to my blog and I hope this time around I have all my readers captivated.

Thanks and happy blogging.

Fruit Smoothie with Cereal- for my 10 month old

I must admit, making baby food, feeding your baby and remembering to take a picture is something I still have to master. Amidst all the mess of learning how to self feed and baby food all over the place, with little food covered hands reaching out for every new thing....food photography was the last thing on my mind.

Having said that, it was something I tried with my nearly 10 month old daughter for the first time. Though I thought she would have it as a snack, but then she enjoyed it as an early dinner.

SO here goes the quick , simple recipe.

Ingredients:

Mango-1 slice

Banana- 1/4th piece

Strawberry- 1

Multi-grain baby cereal ( I use Earth's Best)- 1 tbsp

Yogurt- 1-2 tbsp

Method:

Simple add everything to a blender and blend away. This made two 1 oz jars. I do not know if this would freeze well, but it surely can stay in the refrigerator for a couple of days and is a great snack too.

Next time i promise a few pix.

Till then happy eating.

Baby and more

Motherhood is sure not a piece of cake.....hats off to all the mothers in this entire universe.

Though my little one is almost ten months old now, I still don't seem to find time.

Cooking has come down to the basics, getting two meals on the table is what my aim is. Leave alone the fact that it needs to be anything fancy or anything new for that matter.

Blogging..........I feel sad to abandon my blog like this. It was after all my first baby.........

So when I mentioned this to my husbands aunt, she suggested I start blogging about home made baby food. Not a bad idea, but I wonder if baby food makes for good food photography? something to think about.

Well just to keep my blog up and running, and keep all my dear friends and followers still hooked on to foodie by nature, I thought it wont be a bad idea to slip in a few baby food recipes. Till the time I can get back my culinary flare that is.

So on that note look out for a few "yummy for my tummy" gourmet baby foods, as I would call them.

Yummy smoothie recipe coming soon.

Pineapple cake

With a three month old, there is no such thing as a routine. But its a boon to have my mother around, giving me the much needed break. The break is usually utilized by hitting the bed and getting a power nap. But I see things getting a little more manageable now. The fact that I actually got time to bake a cake for my husband's birthday and take a few pictures, actually says a lot.

Usually I would have done dinner and called friends over, but this time it was only cake cutting post dinner. Nothing fancy just a simple sponge cake with pineapple and whipped cream icing.

So here goes the recipe

For the sponge cake you will need:

Eggs: 4

All purpose flour: 1 cup

Sugar: 2/3rd cup

Butter: 2 tbsp

Vanilla essence: 1tsp

* this is good for an 8x8 sponge, we would need two cakes like this.

For the icing:

Tinned pineapple (in pineapple juice) : 2 tins

Pineapple jam or preserve: 1/2 cup

Heavy whipping cream: 2 cups

Sugar: 2-3 tbsp

Dry coconut: 1 cup

Method:

For the sponge cake

1. Grease an 8x8 cake tin, and preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Beat the eggs and the sugar over a warm water bath, till it reaches the ribbon stage. This means, that when you lift up the beater, the batter falls down like a ribbon.
3. Add the vanilla essence.
4. Slowly fold in the flour one tablespoon at a time. Make sure you DO NOT add the flour all at once, as this will make the sponge flat and result in a hard cake. Fold with a gentle hand.
5. To this add the melted butter, and pour it into the prepared tin.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Let it cool.
8. Cut horizontally right through the middle.
9. Make two cakes like this, if you want a four layered cake.

For the icing.

1. Beat the heavy whipping cream with the sugar, till firm. Do not over beat or the cream will turn into butter.
2. Reserve the pineapple juice from the tin. Chop up 8-9 rings of pineapple, and keep 4-6 rings for decoration.
3. Now place one layer of cake on a cake stand or any other plate your going to present the cake.
4. drizzle a few tablespoon of the pineapple juice on the cake,to moisten it.
5. Spread a little of the pineapple jam or preserve, add some chopped pineapple and spread a generous helping of the whipped cream. Add the other layer of cake on top, and repeat.
6. Repeat till you use up all the four layers of cake.
7. Now on the top most layer, add the whipped cream, and spread it all over with the help of a flat spatula or a butter knife. Cover the sides too. Dont worry if it looks untidy, here is where the grated coconut is going to come to use. Take the coconut and stick it onto the sides of the cake.
8. Decorate the cake on top with the pineapple rings.
9. I had some cherries so added that for the decoration.

Done, now all you have to do is run the knife through and serve a slice on the plate.

Must tell you , a pretty easy cake that tasted really yummy. I must tell you though that the cake tasted much better the next day. So my suggestion make the cake a day before and let it be in the refrigerator overnight, trust me the cold pineapple along with the whipped cream and the moistened sponge cake...........simply delicious.

Hope you guys like this recipe. Feels nice to be back. Hope to hear feed backs.

Thanks

Its a Girl

In my last post I wrote about my pregnancy and today I am elated to share with everyone the good news.

Our little girl is already two months old. Still getting use to her cues and learning every step, what motherhood has to teach. Simply the most challenging role,is that of being a mother. With sleepless nights, dirty diapers, hunger cries and tons of burp cloths, taking care of a newborn is sure overwhelming at times. But as soon as you hold your little one in your arms and feel her warmth its priceless.

After two months, I am slowly trying to get back to a little routine. I am hardly cooking as my mom is here from India, and I am simply letting her take charge of the kitchen. But it wont be long before I get back to some cooking.

Just wanted to share this news with all my blogger friends. Will see you all soon around.

Love and keep cooking

Karuna

Me and my pregnancy

As an old saying goes, for men may come and men may go but time goes on forever.......

It just felt like that, today when I actually logged on to finally get my blog going again. It felt like the blogging world just doesn't stop, it goes on forever. I last logged in January......god!!! But there were other things much much more important to take care of.

The biggest change that could happen in a woman's life, that could actually turn things around is- Pregnancy. From physical to emotional, to hormonal, social.....you name it and pregnancy comes with it all. For me its not been even one bit different. In my third trimester now, everything seems to be going well, except that I was diagnosed with Gestational diabetes. Another solid reason for not getting on to the food blogs, as all it would do is trigger more cravings and hunger.

The sugar test is usually done around 28 weeks, when mine came back positive and they asked me to do a three hour Glucose tolerance test, I was in a state of denial. I searched the Internet about why and how could I get Gestational Diabetes. I was frustrated and sad.

Thanks to my husband,who talked to me and helped me come to terms with the situation and told me to take control of it all.

On my doctors reccomendation I met with a Diabetic educator, who would explain me about carb counting and would ask me to test my sugar 4 times a day. They gave me a two week period, where in if levels would not be normal I would have to take insulin. That was yet another ordeal. And the ironical part was, that I have been a Nutritional counsellor myself 4 years back when I was working in India. I was totally bumped.

My meeting with the Diabetic educator went off well. She told me about counting carbs, restricting my intake to 30 gms for breakfast and snacks, and 45-60 gms, for lunch and dinner.

She gave me a glucometer and told me to monitor my sugar levels, four times a day, which included fasting, and post meals.

I took this up as a challenge. Being a Nutritional counsellor, helped. I must say. After two weeks when I went to my doctor, he was pleasantly surprised and happy, that my levels were well under control and the baby measured fine too.

Its been two months now, and I am just four weeks away from my due date, and I have managed to keep my levels under control. offcourse with a lot of monitoring, yoga and walks.

It does get taxing at times, specially when you go out with friends. But its all worth the effort.

That is why I was avoiding all food blogs and updates, as it would have added fuel to the fire.......!!!

The sample diet that I got from the Diabetic educator was very generic. It simply divided the carbs through out the day. But I needed something that fit our Indian eating pattern. I searched for diet samples online and did not find anything that catered to our Indian palate.

So I thought it would be a good idea to simply write down what I ate and put it up on my blog. Just in case someone needed help with planning menus during Gestational Diabetes.

Because I eat non-veg, it became a lot more easier to plan and count my carbs. So from now on, I will share a few sample menus on my blog, which I think might be a little helpful for Indian pregnant women suffering from Gestational Diabetes.

The waiting game has begun for me. And I hope and pray everything goes well.

More later.

Karuna

"Mix It All Up Salad "

Salads: My husband is not a big fan, I simply love them. I find them easy to prepare, fresh, bursting with colour and flavour and not to forget that they are pretty healthy too.

I often end up making salads by mixing up all that is available in my fridge and I must agree sometimes- actually most of the times, the concoctions turn out to be pretty good. Though I don't always remember to document them.

The other day, I was hungry at lunch time and did not want to have the usual Chapati and vegetable combo. So I started to look through my fridge and see what all I had to make dish out a salad. Well to start off with I did have this bag of salad leaves and some cherry tomatoes. One ingredient after the other.......and my "Mix it all up" salad was born. Voila.

lolzzz, enough of my dramatization, here goes the recipe.

You would need:

Ingredients:

• 1 small bag mixed salad leaves
• 1 Pear
• 4-5 Mozzarella balls (I had the ones you get in trader joes, they are dipped in oil. You could simply use any cheese cut into cubes. )
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 celery-chopped
• 3-4 baby carrots,halved
• 8-9 almonds
• 1 tsp jalapenos-chopped. (This is optional, I just wanted to add some zing...)

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup Taziki sauce (A greek yogurt sauce. You could simply use some thick yogurt)
• 1 tsp tomato sauce
• sea salt,to taste
• pepper
• 1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar

You have to :

1. Mix all the ingredients for the salad dressing and keep aside.
2. In a large bowl, add the salad leaves, the mozzerella balls or cheese cubes, the cherry tomatoes, baby carrot, jalepenos, celery and pears
3. Pour the dressing on top.
4. Mix it all up and add the almonds for the crunch.
5. Now all you would need to do is simply....dig in.

Extremely simple and trust me the crunchiness of the almonds, and the tangy taste of the dressing complimented perfectly to the sweet pears and the bite of the carrot and celery.

Enjoy.

A Very Happy 2010.

Woww, we are already four days into the New year. 2009 got over with a blink of the eye. I donut think it was just me who felt that way, lots of my friends had the same to say. Wonder why?

Well hope 2010, paces itself. Hope we all have our dreams come true, and achieve our goals and aspirations. And hope all of us are able to keep up our New year Resolutions. Mine being......Be regular with my posts. Well I think I will be cause as of now, there is isn't much of extra curricular activities to distract me.

On that note, Here's wishing every one a very Happy and safe 2010.

Though no new posts I would like to send in a few entries to Divya's Show me your cake event. Here are the entries.

A total of five entries are allowed. I choose the best 3 cakes that I have made.

The first one is Praline and Fresh Fruit Gateau

The Second one is the one, that I had made for husband's 30th birthday.

The Corona Beer Bottle and Beer Mug Cake

And the last but not the least, my all time favourite,

The Marble cake

Here's wishing all a very sweet 2010.

Take care.

Enjoy.

Veg Au Gratin.

ooo, the camera lens got misty with the steaming hot pasta

Somtimes we simply dont feel like eating chapati at night and both my husband and I are not great fans of rice either. So it actually gets really difficult to think what to make for dinner. A couple of nights back I just did not feel like cooking. I checked the freezer and nothing seemed intresting and then I noticed I had a bag of mixed vegetables in Butter sauce. I had got this from Trader Joes. Humm,I thought that would save me a lot of trouble of cutting veggies. yes, that was it I decided to make Veg Au Gratin.

Its very weird, I have never seen anything like that in the restaurants here in San Diego. But its so common back in India. That was one of the first things I learnt in my Cookery Class when I was in class X. Its a complete comfort food,perfect for a cold evening.

Here is the recipe.

For the white sauce

• 2-3 tbsp Maida
• 3-4 tbsp of butter
• 2 cups milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp oregano
  

For the Gratin

• 1/2 packet Pasta- macaroni pasta or penne. (I used half a packet of the 1 lbs bag)
• 1-2 cups Vegetables (carrot, peas, beans, corn, cauliflower- all diced and boiled). I used the frozen vegetables from Trader Joes.
• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese.

Method:

1. In a pan, melt the butter. Saute the maida till about 5 minutes. Do not let it brown.
2. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, so that no lumps are formed. In case you do get lumps, strain the mixture and then return it to heat.
3. Add the salt,pepper and oregano.
4. Boil the pasta as per the instructions.
5. Drain the pasta. Keep aside.
6. Add the boiled or frozen veggies to the simmering white sauce. cook for about five minutes.
7. Add the pasta and mix everything up.
8. Turn the heat off. Its ok if you find the pasta sauce a little liquidy, the pasta tends to soak the sauce.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
10. Dish out the pasta into an oven proof dish. Cover the top with grated mozzarella.
11. Bake in the oven for 10- 15 mins or till the cheese turns brown.
12. Take it out from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before serving.
13. Serve hot with garlic bread.
    

Yummy. Enjoy.

Note: If the white sauce tends to thicken up, you can add some pasta liquid (the water in which you boiled the pasta). This will help you thin the sauce a bit.

Quick sprout chaat

Sprouts are an excellent source of vitamin C. Yes that's right, Vitamin C. The sprouting process increase the vitamin content of the lentils,or legumes. Not bad right, specially when its actually really easy to make sprouts at home.

I used Green moong dal and black chana,to make sprouts. Soak the lentils overnight. The next morning, tie them in a wet muslin cloth or paper towel. Just make sure the muslin cloth/paper towel,is moist. Keep moistening the cloth, daily. Soon you will see small baby shoots poking out of the muslin cloth. Your sprouts are all set.

I am personally not a fan of raw sprouts, so I always either boil them slightly,or saute them.

The other day I wanted to have something chaat-patta for lunch, so I thought of making chaat The healthy twist came from the addition of sprouts,which, for a change I added raw. Something really quick and easy and a great snack for the mid afternoon or the lunch box. Here is the recipe.

You will need:

• 1 cup mixed sprouts
• 1 boiled potato (diced)
• 1/4 th cup peanuts
• A few papdis (optional)
• Red chilly powder
• Salt to taste
• Chaat masala powder
• 1-2 tbsp of green chutney
• 1-2 tbsp of sweet tamarind chutney
• Lemon juice

Method:

1. Once your sprouts are ready, and the potatoes boiled, there is not much to do. Just mix everything up.
2. In a bowl,add the boiled and diced potato, add all the spices along with the green and sweet chutney.
3. Crush the papdi a little and add that along with the peanuts. Add the lemon juice and mix it all up.
4. As simple as that.
5. You can add more stuff to this, like chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, some fruit like grapes.
6. They would all not only add more colour and flavour,but also enhance the nutrient content of the whole dish.

Enjoy.

This recipe is off to Srivalli's MLLA and Susan's host line up.

Hello !

Woow, its almost the end of November, and within a month we will b wishing every one a very happy 2010.
I don't know, but this year seemed to have simply flown by. Specially the last three months.

After my wedding this was the first time I was involved in a number of community and cultural events, that kept me pretty busy. It was as though I was running a marathon,or some kind of an obstacle race. Balancing all that, along with the house, I actually did not get time to cook, leave alone cook fancy. Hence no recipe updates on my blog. Not to say I did not cook at all, but it was just the basics, my poor hubby dear had to eat a lot of frozen......

My first event was a fundraiser for an organisation I volunteer with . Its called Ekal Vidyalay. A non-profit organisation, that supports schools in the rural parts of India. The fundraiser marked the beginning of the San Diego chapter.
I was a volunteer in the organising committee. So that involved a ton of work. The show was in the middle of September and went off really well.

For the next two months, I was involved in three cultural events, all one after the other. The first was a play by a group called Sdnari. A women's group, supporting women that are subjected to domestic violence etc. My character was that of a friend. Though a very small role, it involved evening practises.
Simultaneously, there was a Diwali celebration. A cultural evening organised by the San diego Marathi mandal group. We were performing a marathi dance for this one.
Though pretty taxing, but this one was real fun. We got our costumes from India.
In case any one wants to see the dance, it can be checked out here

My last and the most important participation was in a cultural show called Rang Tarang. Its an Indian cultural show put up by Qualcomm. One of the largest IT companies in San Diego.
This is the one that I enjoyed the most and was closest to my heart.

The theme was our very own Bollywood, - Hindi movies. The directors came up with this great idea of interspersing an entire play with songs and dances and bhangra along with audio visuals, it was total "paise wassol". The play had all the elements of a hindi movie masala. There was a hero, a heroine, a villain. There was betrayal, agony, and offcourse, at the end there was a happy ending.

So after three months of full blown activities, and then getting things back into routine, I am finally figuring out my blogging world.

Hope all of you'll are doing well and getting ready for the holiday seasons.
Will get back to my recipe posting soon.

Till then,Happy cooking and blogging

Event Entry

It actually seems sooooo long ago, that I actually took part in any blog events, weird. It was high time I felt more involved. each time I saw an event, I use to think to myself that I will make something special for the event and I somehow never got around doing that. This time when I saw Jihva for Ingredients ~ 2009-2010,hosted by Divya of Dil Se . I put off my procrastination, and decided to send in one of my archived recipes

So guys here are my recipes for the event.

For Jihva for Ingredients hosted by Dil Se

Her theme is Rajhma, my all time favourite. Nothing like a sunday afternoon lunch of Rajhma chawal.....and sleeping after that......I called that Bliss....

I am sending in Rajhma Masala

http://myluvforfood.blogspot.com/2008/11/rajhma-masala.html

Enjoy it with chapati, parantha, or as I said with plain rice.
Yummy....

More later
happy Cooking.

My Ashtami celebrations

This year Ashtami was really different and lots of fun. Ashtami is the eight day of the Navratri celebrations. All those who fast throughout the Navratris, break their fast on the eight day. Kanya Pujan is done on that day, where in eight little girls are called home and made to eat "prasad" and given gifts like bangles, earrings etc.

Finding little girls was difficult, so I made the prasad and went to the mandir for Kanya Pujan.

Its such a sweet sight to see. Small girls all sitting in huge circles with their goody bags collecting their goodies, from everyone. It was adorable.

After getting ready, in the morning I decorated my little corner and made the prasad. The prasad consists of black chana, puri and suji halwa. It was good fun coz I had a few friends over for lunch, and then later in the evening we went for dandiya and garba.

Though the chanas I made were pretty straight forward and simple but still here goes the recipes.

You will need:

• 1 cup of Black chana
• 2 tbsp Oil
• Salt
• ginger and green chillies
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp jeera dhania powder.

You have to :

1. Soak chanas over night. Pressure cook them with salt.
2. Heat oil in a pan. add the ginger and the green chillies.
3. Add all the spices and put the boiled chanas.
4. Saute it all, cover and cook till all the masala has coated the chanas.
5. Its all done.

This year I kept the fast and celebrated Ashtami first time after four years of coming here to the US. It really felt good. I realised that all this keeps us involved and sure makes us feel all the more festive.

Hope Durga Ma showers her blessings on all.

More later.

German Chocolate Cake with Chocolate butter icing and Praline

My friends birthday was nearly a month ago and I had made this cake for him. I had already decided that this time I was going to try a cake mix and put all my work into the icing. But what icing and how not to make it similar to all my previous cakes. So I thought and searched , but could not find something convincing enough. not to mention the fact that my husband told me that it was better to get the cake from outside. That I think triggered me off.

And the result was is this yummy cake which all of them really enjoyed.

So here goes the recipes. The pictures don't do justice to the cake as I was more focused on getting everything right for the cake.

You will need:

For the Basic cake

Betty Crocker's German cake mix.

For the Filling
2-3 cups Ghiradelli semisweet chocolate chips.

1 cup Heavy whipping cream

The outer coating of Praline
1 cup sugar

1 cup mixed nuts (pecans,walnuts and cashews.)

For the icing

1 -1 1/2 cup Heavy whipping cream

Sugar

Vanilla Essence

For the chocolate stars

1 cup ghiradelli chocolate chips

Other ingredients

Icing pen for writing.

Coffee liquor for soaking

You have to :

For the cake:

1. Follow the directions on the package and bake the cake. This can be done a day before.
2. Cut it into 2-3 layers.
3. Make the coffee liquor by soaking any coffee in 1 cup of water and heating it till the coffee dissolves. cool it.
4. Spoon the liquor over the layer of cakes. soaking each layer well. This gives a real good taste with the filling.

For the filling:

1. Melt the chocolate either on a double broiler or in the microwave till the chips are melted.
2. Add the cream to this and whip till peaks form. Refrigerate.

For the Praline:

1. Break the nuts into small pieces.
2. Heat the sugar in a dry saucepan till only melted. Be careful, once it melts and begins to caramelize it hardens up very fast.
3. Add the chopped nuts and mix it all up. Pour it out on a parchment paper and let it cool.

The Praline getting cool.

For the stars and the chocolate plaque:

1. Melt the chocolate. Line a cookie tray with parchment paper.
2. Once the chocolate is completely melted pour it out onto the parchment and spread it in a layer. Let it cool.
3. Once it begins to harden, cut out a big round for the plaque with a cookie cutter. The stars or any other shape can be cut using a cookie cutter. If you do not have a cookie cutter, simply cut out long stripes with a knife.
4. Leave to cool completely.You can even put it in the refrigerator.
5. Do not remove it from the sheet. Only give it its shape.

For the topping:

1. Whip the cream with vanilla essence and sugar,till it forms peaks.

To Assemble the cake.

1. Place the bottom layer of the coffee liquor soaked cake.
2. Spread the filling in between.
3. Repeat with all the layers.
4. Know spread the whipping cream around.
5. Make sure you cover all the sides of the cake with a thick layer of the cream.
6. Now break the praline up and stick it all around the sides of the cake. You don't have to be particular about breaking it into small pieces. A little big pieces add to the texture.

8. With the icing writing pen, write down whatever message you want. I wrote Happy Birthday. Decorate with stars, or whatever shapes you have made.

9. Once completely cooled and firm, the chocolate stars and the plaque will come off the parchment really quick.

10. I then piped out some of the filling around the rim of the cake.

And voila, the cake is ready to be cut.

I made two cakes as there were thirty people comign for the party.

The cake as such is very easy to make, but what takes the most time is getting the different components ready to assemble them all together. This is a fun way I came up with, but there are endless possibilities with icing and cake decorating.

Hope you all enjoy this recipe.

More cake recipes coming soon.

My Tea Website

Yuhoo finally, its up and running,

Our tea website

www.nutrichai.com

A real small venture started out by my friend and me. It has taken us a while to get the website going. Its still not absolutely ready, as we would be adding new things slowly and steadily. But I would love to get all your opinions and offcourse if any one wants to order some good Indian tea.

Thanks and more later

Enjoy.

Hot Sprout Chaat.

We all know how healthy sprouts are, but I always forget to soak them. So now whenever I make any of the lentils, I always soak extra. That takes care of the forgetting part.

Personally both my husband and I do not enjoy raw sprouts. We love it slightly sauted and spiced up. So I usually make it as a "garam chaat" or hot bowl of sprout salad. Its quick and great for packed lunches too. Rich in proteins and vitamin C sprouts are an excellent food choice and the possibilities to cook with them is endless.

Add it to curd to make raita

Add it to wraps or sandwiches.

Add it to a salad.

Boil it and stuff it in paranthas.

well I guess I have opened the pandoras box, we have to just keep looking.

So here is the quick recipe I made

You will need:

• 1 cup Black chana sprouts.*
• 1 cup Green Moong sprouts.*
• 1/2 red sweet onions diced
• 1 tomato diced
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp chopped green chillies.
• 1/2 tbsp of butter

You have to :

1. Heat the butter in a saute pan.
2. Add the chopped green chillies. Add the onion and saute.
3. Once the onions turn transparent, add the diced tomatoes. Saute.
4. Add the sprouts along with the spices. mix everything up, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Remove the cover and saute on high for another 2 minutes or till any excess water dries up.
6. add the lemon juice.

* To make sprouts: Soak lentils like green moong, black chana, black eyed pea in water overnight. Drain the excess water and tie it up in a cloth or a paper towel. keep the cloth or towel wet and keep sprinkling water on them till you see the small shoots coming out. Store in the fridge.

Enjoy.

Marble Cake

Life is full of the unexpected. A lot of you'll would agree to that I am sure. I had given up all hopes of getting back any of my pictures or data, that went down with the crashed hard drive. But my husband's colleague came in as saviour, and restored almost 40 gigs of the data !. What more all my pictures are safe and sound, just the way I had last seen them. Yipppeeeee!!!!!

Now I can post all my previous recipes with pictures.......

But as of now, I am going to post the cake recipe I made to say thank you. Since my husband was going to take it to work and then give it to his colleague, I did not want to do anything fancy.

As a young kid, my mom use to bake marble cakes for us. Simple, buttery with the perfect blend of cocoa and vanilla. So I decided on that.

I took my recipe from here. The recipe called for cake flour, but I substituted that for some all purpose flour and cornstarch. Here goes the recipe.

You will need

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4th cup all purpose flour
• 6 tbsp of cornstarch
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

You have to

1. In a large bowl, with electric mixer at low speed, beat sugar and butter until blended. Increase speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add flour, milk, baking powder, vanilla, salt, and eggs; beat at medium speed until well mixed. Increase speed to high, and beat batter 4 minutes longer
3. Remove about 2 1/2 cups batter to a medium bowl. With a wire whisk or fork, beat cocoa into batter in medium bowl until well blended.
4. Grease a 10 inch springform pan. (Here a 9 inch would have also worked well). Alternately spoon vanilla and chocolate layers into prepared pan.
5. With a large spoon, cut and twist through batters to obtain marbled effect.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Cool cake in pan, and on a wire rack, for 10 minutes.
7. Remove cake from pan, and cool completely.

Cut into pieces and serve. It tastes great with a cup of tea, coffee or simply a glass of cold milk.

Note: I found this great tip, if a recipe calls for cake flour follow this

1 cup cake flour= 3/4th cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp of corn starch.

A Crashed Laptop,some lost pictures and HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

image source: http://www.pcgeekdom.com/2006_02_01_pcprojects_archive.html

Scene 1: I get back and I am all excited to update my blog with all the latest posts.

Scene 2: I plug my camera to upload all the yummy pics of Masala idly, Sev puri and a yummy birthday cake. Save it.

After a gap of three hours.

Scene 3: I turn my laptop on, and get this blue screen with a weird message. Don't understand word of it, and try to reboot it again.

Entry of my husband. (office laptop in hand)

Husband: "what happened? what's that message?

Me: i don't know, all I was doing was uploading some pics.

Husband reads message, googles it on his laptop and gives his verdict.

Husband: Our hard drive just crashed. We will loose all data.

Me: what? what about the pictures?

Husband: I think we will loose all that. (repents), why dint we back up all this? A mistake.

Both of us (specially me), extremely sad.

As of now: Laptop is back with a new hard drive. And husband's colleague is trying to retrieve data. Hope he succeeds.

Well so that has been my story for the last three days. Pictures are the most priced possessions and we have seem to have lost all that. But I am hopefull.

As for the pictures for my blog, my husband suggests I make all that again and take new pictures. I guess that is a possibility.

So I guess that is that. I have to update my blog from here onwards, and forget about the old stuff.

Will get on with it soon. Some cooking over the weekend and some new pictures.

Till then

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE TO ALL.

Vande mataram.

Gujrati kadi

This is all time staple, at any gujrati household and my personal favourite too. Whats more, is that its super simple to make. The meal is complete with a simple potato curry, chapati, rice, and curd.

Personally I prefer this kadi to the punjabi kadi that everyone relishes at my mom's place. I feel there is to much work involved in that one. Maybe when I am up for it I will make it once and l post the recipe here. But right now its simple kadi recipe. Quick and real simple.

You will need

• Curd- 1/2 cup
• Gram flour (beasn)- 1 tbsp
• Water- 1-2 cups
• Gur- 1/2 inch pieces
• Sugar- 1 tbsp (approx)
• Salt- to taste
• Turmeric powder- a pinch

For the tempering

• ghee- 1 tbsp
• curry leaves- 3-4
• ginger- chopped
• green chillies- 2-3 slit from the center.
• Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
• cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
• cloves- 2-3
• cinnamon stick- 1/2
• whole red chilly-1
• bay leaves- 1-2
• asefotida or hing- 1/2 tsp
• Red chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Cumin and cilantro (jeera dhania) powder- 1/2 tsp

For the garnish

• chopped cilantro
• lemon juice

You have to

1. In a saucepan mix together the curd and the gram flour to a paste.
2. Add water and mix it well. Put it to simmer.
3. Add salt, turmeric, gur and a few of the curry leaves. Let it simmer till the mixture begins to boil.
4. Heat ghee in a separate pan. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and hing.
5. Once they begin to splutter, add the curry leaves along with the green chillies and the chopped ginger.
6. Once you begin to get the aroma of all the spices add the red chilly powder and the jeera dhania powder.
7. Add all this to the simmering curd and besan mixture. Add the sugar. Taste the kadi. If its not sweet, you might want to add some more sweet.
8. Let it simmer for 5-10 mins more.
9. Add some lemon juice and garnish with cilantro.
10. Serve hot with rice.

Yummy.

There are a lot in ingredients, but trust me its really simple to make.

Enjoy!

Quick Vegetable Soup

I think I am posting a recipe on my blog after ages. But after 6 weeks of stay in India, I actually felt a little lost when I was suppose to get dinner on the table. Probably coz I was hardly cooking in India. Enjoying my mom's cooking. And not bothered about the regular thought of " what should I make for dinner tonite"

So a couple of nights back, I did not feel like cooking any thing major. There was frozen pasta in the fridge which took care of my hubby's dinner. I thought of making some soup for myself. Checked the fridge for whatever was available. Got hold of a few veggies.

Sauteed and pureed the veggies, added some spices and there I had it, Quick vegetable soup. Nothing fancy, just a hearty bowl of soup. Here goes the recipes

You Will need

• Green onions- 1, chopped
• Onions-1/2 chopped
• Green bell peppers- 1/2, chopped
• Cauliflower- 1/2 cut in florets
• Carrot- 1 , chopped
• Frozen corn- 1
• Tomatoes- 1 tin (I used the diced tomato ), You could use regular diced tomatoes
• Tomato Sauce- 2 tbsp
• Tabasco sauce- 1 tsp
• Sea salt- to taste
• Pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Meditarrian seasoning from McCormick- 1 tsp.
• Vegetable stock/chicken stock- 2-3 cups
• Olive oil- 1tbsp
  

You have to

1. Heat oil in a saucepan.
2. Add the onions,saute. Add the tomatoes. Saute
3. Add all the vegetables along with the salt. Cover and cook.
4. Add the stock and let it simmer till veggies get cook. Cool.
5. Puree all the vegetables in a blender.
6. Return the puree to the saucepan. Add some more stock.
7. Add the pepper along with the tomato sauce and the Tabasco.
8. Bring to a boil. Taste for seasoning.
9. Garnish with some sour cream/ butter and some green onions.
10. Enjoy it.

I realised after tasting it, that it missed a bite. So croutons could taste really good, even boiled pasta would taste really yummy. This can even be used as a base to make some variations of other soups. Some cream too would make it richer.

Enjoy.