Poori - Valentine's Day

Yet another Valentine's day is here :) Wanted to do something simple and different from regular cakes that I usually end up doing every year. A heart shape cutter was winking at me when I opened the kitchen shelf...tada...yes, a heart shaped poori :) and it's family favorite too!

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 3 cups

Salt - a pinch

Semolina /Rava - 1 1/2 tsp

Water - 2 cups

Oil  for deep frying

Method:

1. Take wheat flour in a bowl and add salt and semolina
2. Add water little by little to make a smooth dough (May be you end up using less than 2 cups of water)
3. Cover the dough
4. Heat the oil in a deep pot
4. Make small lemon sized balls of the dough and flatten them using a rolling pin
5. Once the oil is hot slowly slide the flattened poori into it and slowly press them with the back of the spoon/spatula. You can see them puff up.
6. Deep fry until golden brown on sides.

Note: It's optional to add semolina. This will help to retain the shape of the puffed poori.
I usually use the dough immediately to make poori without resting it for a while.
Here, I used a heart shapped cutter to shape the poori's  , you can roll out the poori's in any shape as you wish :) Hope you enjoy!

valentine

0

Anchovy / Netholi fry

Anchovy / Netholi is a small fish and it has many health benefits. It's great to fry as well as to make fish curry. I prefer fried crispy one's. They are so yummy!

I use very simple ingredients to fry this fish and it is super easy!

Ingredients:

Anchovy/Netholi - 15
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp or as per your taste
Oil - 1 tsp and 1 1/2 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and clean the fish well.

2. Take a small bowl and add Turmeric Powder, Chilly Powder, Ginger garlic paste and salt and give a quick mix.

3. Add 1 tsp oil little by little to make it a paste of the above mix.

4. Apply this to the cleaned fish and keep it aside preferably 20-25 minutes.

4. In a frying pan add the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp oil and add the marinated fish . Add some curry leaves for an added flavor.

5. Turn the fish when one side is cooked and turned light brown color and cook the other side the same way.

6. Enjoy with rice and curry :)

Netholi

1

Beans Biscuits

I am not sure why the name 'Beans' for this biscuit, maybe it resemble beans during baking process.

Many out there would have indulged with a pack of these biscuits in your childhood or maybe even now. No wonder as it is melting, soft, crispy and you will go on having more n more :)

To make this at home, you will need very few ingredients and time. Kids and grown up's enjoy this tiny biscuits a lot. 

Sorry, I don't have good pictures before baking :(

Ingredients:

All purpose flour /Maida - 6 tbsp

Eggs - 2

Sugar - 2/3 cup

Baking Powder - a pinch

Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 120 degree celcius

2. Prepare the baking tray with a baking sheet

3. First sieve the flour with baking powder 4 times and keep aside

4. Beat the egg using a elctric / hand mixer well. (Make sure eggs are at room temperature)

5. Add sugar and vanilla essence to it and beat it well until its soft , creamy and double in volume.

6. Add the flour and give it a nice fold. (Do not beat the mixture)

7. After it is well combined transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.

8. Drop by drop add the batter to the baking sheet leaving some space in between.

9. Bake it for around 15 minutes or until the side of the biscuits turns light brown.

10. Let it cool (it will be soft immediately out from oven, but will become crisp and hard very soon) and you can store it in air tight containers.

0

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 5 small/medium

Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Method

Pre-heat oven in 180 degree and keep a 6 inch tray lined with parchment paper /baking sheet ready

1. Firstly, sift flour three times and keep aside.

2. In an electric mixer or in a bowl beat egg one by one.

3. Add sugar gradually and beat in every addition .

4. Beat until the mixture becomes light and creamy, around 7-10 minutes on high speed

5. Then add vanilla essence and whisk for few minutes in high speed until it it well combined.

6. Add half of the flour and fold the batter.

7. Add oil

8.Add rest of the flour and add fold the batter until well combined. Do not over mix.

9. Add the batter to the prepared tin and bake it for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes clean.

Note: The sugar and egg should be mixed very well until it is very light and creamy (it took me almost 30 minutes with my basic electric mixer)and this will decide how soft and fluffy the cake be!

Good luck!

0

First Birthday Cake - Chhota Bheem

First Birthday Cake - Chhota Bheem 

The long waited day! Our little naughty cutie pie turned ONE in December and it was very exciting to make his big ONEderful day very special :) 

He was very fond of Chhota Bheem soft toys when he was around 6 months old and always curious to look at it's stickers, pictures etc! And the love to it grew with him :) It was easy for us to chose the theme of his first birthday cake but I was a bundle of nerves!! I never did a cake with many shapes , fondant, cream, different layers etc, but 'his' support gave me the confidence to go for it and yes we believe our efforts paid off without much heavy issues.

We planned to bake three cakes with two cakes as the base for the chhota bheem cake at the top. It was indeed nerve racking to place the top layer chhota bheem cake without any distortion to it! And here is how it looked at the end.

I baked three vanilla sponge cake and filled with vanilla butter cream frosting. A crumb coat followed by another layer of frosting and covered with yellow colored fondant. Did the same with the top layer and used a chhota bheem picture to cut out the shape. Other little things like balloons, laddoo, roses, elephant are made using fondant.

You can find the sponge cake recipe here!

0