Vegetables in Spicy Garlic Butter.

Ingredients :

• 200 gm mushroom
• 200 gm broccoli
• 200 gm baby corn
• 2 red or yellow capsicum
• 1/2 cup minced garlic
• 1 tbsp pepper freshly ground
• 3 tbsp butter
• salt to taste

Method :-

1. Combine garlic, pepper, salt and butter. Beat well and set aside to infuse.
2. Wash vegetables and cut into bite sized pieces.
3. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Stir in 1 tbsp salt. Add baby corn, cook for 1 minute, strain and set aside. Blanch broccoli in the same water, strain.
4. Toss vegetables in the butter mixture and bake, steam or microwave for 5-7 minutests till crunchy but cooked.
5. Serve with grilled chicken and Mini Jacket potatoes(to be posted later)

Rich Dark Chocolate Cake.

I am back to browsing through my Good Housekeeping magazines. This particular recipe caught my eye, because the ingredients didn't look like the usual ones we use. This recipe does not use any flour at all. I was curious to try it out and see the outcome. I followed the ingredients in the recipe to the T with an alteration in the baking time .....

Ingredients :

• 8 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp coffee powder
• 12 tbsp water
• 1 and a half tsp vanilla or rum essence ( I used rum)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 slices slightly stale bread
• 1 cup almonds
• 200 gm butter preferably white
• 300 gms sugar
• 8 eggs seperated

Method :

1. Mix together the cocoa, coffee, water, essence and cinnamon powder. Stir to a smooth mixture. Set aside.
2. Process the bread to fine crumbs in a grinder or mixer. Pour some boiling water over the almonds and slip off their skins. Process to fine crumbs as well but seperately.
3. In a bowl beat the butter and sugar till fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the powdered almonds and chocolate mixture. Stir in the breadcrumbs.
4. Beat the egg whites till they form soft peaks. Fold into the cake mixture.
5. Grease and line a large 14 inch cake or two smaller ones.(I used a large round tin)
6. Bake in an oven preheated to 160 degrees. Bake at 40 minutes or till done. The smaller cakes take less time.( This is where I made the change. I baked a good hour and a half since the centre of the cake was still undone after an hour too).
7. Before serving, pile on ice cream attractively at the top.
8. You may also add some chopped fresh or tinned fruit.
9. If you prefer, substitute the ice cream with fresh, whipped cream.
10. For an exotic touch, drizzle over some of your favourite liqueur - coffee flavour goes wonderfully          ( Thats what I did, I used cherry liqueur, though the kids preferred to have it as it is.)

 Note : The batter turns out to  be quite liquidish, so I was wondering if it would finally turn out to be a cake. I was relieved it did and it turned out to be one of the moistest cakes I had ever made.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

May 13th was Father's day in Germany!! It seemed to be a busy week for the kids with both mother's and father's day in close succession. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!! So, there I was in the kitchen, baking a Pineapple upside down cake while the kids were busy with their cards!!

Ingredients :-

• half cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 can pineapple slices drained
• 4 eggs separated
• pinch of salt
• half cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method :- 

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2. Melt butter in a pan. Add the brown sugar and stir until blended.
3. Pour this mixture into a 10 inch diameter baking tray.
4. Place the drained pineapple slices on top in one layer and set aside.
5. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1 tbsp butter until smooth.
6. With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with salt until stiff. Fold in the sugar, 2 tbsp at a time Fold in the egg yolk mixture.
7. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Fold into the egg mixture in 3 batches.
8. Pour the batter over the pineapple and smooth level.
9. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
10. While still hot, place a serving plate on top of the baking tray, bottom side up. Flip cake over. Serve hot or cold.

Final verdict : Anna was surprised to see the gooey texture on top and didn't like the look of it!! For the first time in her life, she refused to eat cake:-(  Dad was very happy and loved it!!!

Black Forest Cake!!!

As I mentioned in my post here, Wednesday was a cause for celebration at home. And I chose to bake the family's favourite!! The Black Forest cake. Though I had seen the recipe many months before, I had not understood this particular sentence....sprinkle cake with Kirsche. Now I know that Kirsche is cherry in Deutsch and since the cake is a wet cake, we are supposed to soak it in a cherry liquid. I tried the dictionary, google translator but none could help me as to what the liquid is called. Not knowing who to ask, I just let it be.

       Since the past 2 months, we have had Maria come home to tutor the kids in the German language. Maria and I love to discuss and share information about our respective countries. I happened to share with her my new found passion for baking and asked her about Kirsch. Not only did she tell me what was it, she wrote it down for me and explained in length where I would find it in the supermarket.

 It is called Schattenmorellen.

The recipe I saw was for a very large cake. I was not confident of trying in such large measure, so I proceeded on my own and will share what I baked.

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• 200 gms sugar
• 350 gms flour
• 100 gms cocoa powder
• 200 gms butter
• 1 and a half tsp baking powder

For the filling and topping :

• 1 bottle cherry conserve(cherries soaked in sugar water)
• 2 and a half cups whipped cream
• 3 packs whipped cream stabilizer
• 3 packs vanilla sugar
• grated chocolate
• fresh cherries for decoration

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease a square baking tray.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together and keep.
3. Beat eggs and sugar together till frothy.
4. Add butter and continue beating.
5. Add slowly the sifted flour, continue beating and mixing well.
6. Pour batter into the greased tray and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or insert knife and check if it comes out clean.
7. Allow the cake to cool well.
8. When completely cooled, slowly remove out from tin and slice  the cake through in between to form 2 layers.
9. Prick each layer slightly with a fork, then sprinkle with the cherry water. 
10. Whip the cream along with the stabilizer and sugar in a bowl until it starts to thicken.
11. To assemble, spread one cake layer with cream and then cherries. Then place the second layer cake, on top of it cream and then cherries.
12. Spread the remaining cream all over the cake. Press grated chocolate on the sides and on top and decorate with cherries.

Participating in 

Vegetable Lasagne.

What do you cook on a day you are thoroughly disappointed with the way life is going and are in absolute no mood to cook in the kitchen and yet you have a hungry family waiting for dinner!!! Cook LASAGNE!!!!!!!!!! Yup, just because I was disappointed, didn't mean that the family would compromise on dinner. I have never eaten lasagne before, so i do not know how is it supposed to taste!! Nevertheless, the family did relish what I made and for once the kids devoured their dinner in a jiffy!!! The recipe is from the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine. The only change I made was to replace minced meat with broccoli ...

Ingredients :
For the bolognese sauce :

• 1 tbsp olice oil
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 3 medium carrots finely chopped
• 1 celery stick finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 200 gms broccoli chopped
• 500 gms button mushrooms, chopped
• 1 and quarter vegetable stock(use stock cubes)
• 5-6 tomatoes chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped

For the bechamel sauce :

• 2 and a half cups milk
• 1/2 small onion
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 and a half tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp maida
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• Lasagne sheets
• Grated Parmesan cheese( as much as you want)

Method :

1. Make the bolognese sauce : Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add chopped onion, carrot, broccoli, celery and garlic and cook for 8 minutes. Add the mushrooms and fry for 1 minute.
2. Stir in stock, tomatoes, puree and oregano. Season with salt and fresh black pepper. Bring to boil, cover and turn the heat down low and simmer gently till veggies are tender and sauce is well reduced. Check seasoning and stir in parsley.
3. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Make the bechamel sauce : Pour the milk into a small pan and add the onion, pepper and bay leaf. Bring almost to boil, then remove from heat and infuse for 10 minutes. Strain, reserving the infused milk and discarding the onion, pepper and leaf.

      4. Melt butter in a pan; add maida carefully over low heat, bit by bit, stirring to avoid lumps. Cook stirringfor 2 minutes until the mix is bubbling but not coloured. Remove from heat. Gradually pour in the   reserved  milk, stirring constantly. Return to heat and cook, stirring until sauce is thickened and smooth.  Stir in the nutmeg.

     5. Spoon a third of the bolognese sauce into the base of a greased baking dish. Cover with lasagne sheets, then a layer of bechamel sauce. repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of bechamel sauce to cover the top completely. Grate the Parmesan cheese over.

       6.Bake for about 30 minutes until golden and bubbling. Keep aside for a few minutes to allow it to cool before you portion it. Serve with a salad of mixed leaves and finely sliced spring onion, if you like.