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Happy Mother’s Day – Celebrating with Panacotta

08 May

Panacotta is an Italian “melt-in-mouth” Dessert. The ingredients are simple but the dessert is so rich and can be made in whatever flavors you like them. One of our favorite dessert these days. Last week my daughter asked to prepare for her again. But I wanted to do it and surprise her on Mother’s Day.

I know that Riya has been making presents for me over last week in her KG.  She wanted to keep everything as a surprise to me until today morning.  Additionally, Whenever she gets a paper in hand, she was drawing and coloring lot’s of heartin and gifting me. Today was wonderful for me . I felt like as if my B’day is celebrated one more time with lots of love, fun and hand made presents.

I am lucky to get all these presents from Riya. They are looking  lovely.

One more cup of Panacotta…

Ingredients:

  1. Fresh Cream( Whipping cream) – 300 ml
  2. Milk – 200 ml
  3. Gelatin – 10 gm ( Powdered or Gelatin sheets)
  4. Sugar – 80 gm
  5. Flavors – few drops ( I have added Strawberry Essense, the color the flavor was together)
  6. Color – favourite food color, little

Method:

1.  Add gelatin in a bowl and add little water to soak it. Leave it for 5 minutes.

2. Heat the fresh cream and milk  in another utensil and  add sugar. let it for 5 min in medium flame.

3. Now add the gelatin and mix it well . You can see the gelatin getting dissolved in the milk.

4. Add flavoring and color as per your wish  and switch of the stove. At this point this mixture can be separated in to portions for adding different colors and flavors.

5. Finally pour this mixture in a bowl and leave it the refridgerator overnight.

Note: After pouring the cream milk mixture in to the bowl, I have added few drops of essence and made like swirls which gave me a marble pattern effect . I drew other designs as well when the mixture is still liquid. After Refridgerating it , the outlines were drawn.

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Wish you all a Happy Mother’s Day.

 
7 Comments

Posted in Dessert

 

A Simple Mocktail and a Super Moon…..

23 Mar

March 19th 2011 was a historic and special day for few reasons. Holi festival, Supermoon and a cool mocktail. Holi is a religious Hindu festival celebrated on the last full moon day during feb and March. During this day people share their happiness by spraying different colors on friends,family and neighbours. For Riya, it was her first time in preparing mocktail all by herself. All decorations were her own ideas. This mocktail is a mix of apple juice and water. I was slicing some mango pieces for dinner, and then she asked me one for her to taste. But after few minutes, when she showed me the final product , it was really cool. I can already see that she started showing lot of interest in my area.

While this was going on, we were all excited to watch the Supermoon in sky. It was amazing to watch the beautiful bright moon.Supermoon is our own moon, but on this special day, it came closer to earth in its elliptical orbit. It is also called lunar perigee.  Though the moon was bigger, it was unable to differentiate with naked eye. Lasttime it happened 18 years ago.

Bright Supermoon.

A Closer view of  Supermoon…

Supermoon view from our city…

 
11 Comments

Posted in Drinks, others

 

Berliner – German Carnival cakes (Doughnut without a hole)

16 Mar

Ha ha!. One of my long awaited recipes in my list and finally, its time to be out during this Carnival Season. During February and March Carnival is celebrated in Europe. Berliner is the most popular theme food during Carnival Season. Neverthless, it has its unique place in every bakery and it is a common selling thing. Like Bretzel, Berliner is a favorite of  many children.  Berliner is a soft , puffy fried doughnut, filled with Jam or Jelly. It is also called Krapfen or Pfannkuchen (pancakes) and has different names in other parts of Germany.

 Until few months before, I was not aware that this is a fried bread because, it is so soft and spongy and one can not find any traces of oil in it . The most interesting part of the bread is the stuffed jam. Every time I tasted the Berliner, I liked the soft jelly jam in it. I was wondering what was the jam inside as it always reminded me of the “Kissan mixed fruit jam” from India. One fine day, I asked the baker near by, it was revealed to me that it is Himbeere Johannisbeer Gelee(Raspberry and Redcurrant Jelly). The next 5th minute, I got that from supermarket . The procedure is to make bread dough into small balls and allow them to rest till it gets double the size. Once it got that consistency, its fried in the oil on both sides. An important note is that the oil in pan should be just enough to fry only one half of the doughnut. This leaves an yellow ring in the middle, which looks nice. The doughnut floats on top of oil when it is being cooked. Also it doesnt need that much oil like poori or so.  Heat should be kept low as it turns dark when overheated.  After which small amount of jam or jelly is squirted inside the bread using a filler. Finally some powdered sugar is sifted on top of it. Though it is special in carnival season, it is available throughout the year in Bakery.

Ingredients:

  1. All purpose flour – 4 cups
  2. Egg – 2
  3. Butter – 50gms at room temparature
  4. Sugar – 1/2 cup
  5. Milk - 1 /2 cup , lukewarm
  6. Yeast – 25 gms (dry yeast)
  7. Powdered sugar for sifting on top of bread
  8. Jelly or jam to stuff the bread
  9. flour for dusting
  10. Oil – 1/2 ltr

Method:

1.  Mix flour, eggs, butter, sugar, yeast and add the milk slowly and combine this mixture with the spatula in to smooth dough consistency and knead it.

2. Allow it to sit in a warm place until it raises its volume .

3. Now again knead the dough and make in to small balls of 12 to 15 numbers. Place the balls on well flour dusted kitchen towel or baking sheet or non stick plate.

4. Cover it with a kitchen towel and allow it to raise to double its size.

5. Bring the oil to heat and the oil should not go to high heat at any point.

6.Carefully lift the berliner balls using a flat spatulla and place it in oil. Allow it to cook for 3-4 minutes on both sides.

7. Remove from oil and place it in paper towel. Now carefully squirt about 2 tbs of  jelly on the side of the bread.

8. Finally sift the powdered sugar and enjoy.

 
13 Comments

Posted in Bread, others

 

Choco Banana Cake – A Valentines Day Special

14 Feb

I was surprised by the fact that 5 year old knows already about Valentines day. Riya say’s that it is a heartin day and everyone  should wish their loved ones with greeting card.  She did wish her Dad and me. She also made a greeting card already and sent to her dear friend. She is supposed to wear a pink or red dress to KG as a theme for celebration.

I am sure that so many hearts around the world is dreaming and waiting for this special day to wish their loved ones. Some may be waiting to express their first love. Red roses , Chocolates, greeting cards, customized presents are going to have a good sale. Great day for these Businesses.

Here goes the recipe of this Beautiful Choco Banana cake…

Ingredients:

  1. All purpose flour – 1 1/2 cup
  2. Banana – 2(large ones or 1 1/2 cup mashed)
  3. Sugar – 1 Cup
  4. Cocoa – 2 Tbs
  5. Oil – 1/2 cup ( Sunflower or Canola oil)
  6. Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp
  7. Baking Powder – 1 tsp
  8. Egg – 1

Chocolate Ganache

  1. Dark chocolate – 100 gms
  2. Whipping Cream – 50 ml.

Method:

1.  Beat the egg, and add all the other ingredients one be by continue mixing it.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C and pour this mixture in the bake tin and bake for 30- 40 min at 170 deg C.

3. Allow the cake  to cool down completely.

4.  For Choco Ganache, bring the  whipping cream to a boil  and add the Chopped chocolate .

5. Continue stirring till the chocolate melts and switch off  the heat.

6. Let the Ganache cool down for 10 – 15 min. (Let it sit in the fridge for 5-10 min)

7.  Now spread ganache on cake and let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes.

8. Later,decorate the cake  with chocolate shavings and pipe the left over Ganache on the plate.

I wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day.

 
13 Comments

Posted in Cake, others

 

Veg Dosa – Indian crispy Pancake with Vegetables

01 Feb

                 The food in India has different colors too!!. In North India, people like to have wheat based main food. Whereas in south India,  Rice is their main food. Every state and city has unique food, it is because they use the ingredients which is available locally. Every religion has its own special food associated and every family will have their own variation in recipes.( But Indian cooking is not as complicated as it is looks or feels,  because of vast recipes)

Though the food in India is varied among the state, one food which everyone likes in common and popular all over India is DOSA.  Dosa is rich in Carbohydrates and protein. It is considered as easy to make comfort food  in South India. The natural fermentation makes it special and one has to wait atleast 15 hours to get the batter ready. But once it is ready it can be saved in refridgerator for a week or so. Vegetable Dosa is  a slight variation from the traditional Dosa. However different toppings can be added on top of Dosa.

The Recipe….

Ingredients:

  1.  Parboiled rice – 2 cups ( Idli Rice)
  2. Raw Rice – 2 cups
  3. Urad dhal – 1 cup
  4. Fenugreek seeds – 1 tbs
  5. Oil – few spoons of oil
  6. Vegetables- grated carrots and any vegetable finely chopped and sauted
  7. Salt – as per taste

Method:

1. Soak rice together in water and let it soak for 2-3 hours.

2. Soak Urad dhal and Fenugreek for 2 hours.

3. Grind it separately in a grinder or a mixer.

4. Add salt and ferment it for overnight . It the room temp is low , let the batter sit in the warm oven till it gets fermented. Make sure that oven is switched off when the batter is inside. It lets the bacteria to ferment the batter.

5. Heat a Non stick pan and pour the batter and spread it in a circular motion. Add 1 spoon of oil over the edges . If Dosa is very thick turn it over and cook again.

6. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side. Sprinkle some vegetables and it is ready to go with Chutneys and Sambhar.

Note: For making Dosa, particular type of parboiled rice is used. It is called as Idli Rice or Dosa Rice and it will be available in Indian grocery stores.

 
9 Comments

Posted in Breakfast

 
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