Black Grape Cake or Jeweled Cake

I was driving past a fruit cart and the gleaming black grapes caught my attention. My mother really loves these and she was telling me the other day how much she misses them in Kolkata. Well, I made a mental note to carry some in the my next trip, along-with the usual white onions for Baba, and the idea of baking a cake with them came my way.

So, all you need is half a kilo of black grapes, 1/5 cups of flour, 4 tbsp vegetable oil, 2 small lemons, 1/2 cup of sugar,1 tsp vanilla essence, a pinch of baking powder and 2 eggs.

Beat the eggs well. Add the sugar and beat some more till the sugar dissolves. Add the oil and beat for another minute. Now add the vanilla essence, lime juice and grated lemon rind. In the side sieve the flour and add the baking powder. Now mix the wet and dry ingredients and fold in the batter together. If a bit stiff, add a little milk just to make your movement easy.

By now ensure your oven is preheated. Now in your baking tin ready with baking paper, pour a bit of the battera nd spread it out. Throw in the grapes randomly. Continue in layers till the batter is finished. Right on top jewel the cake with some more grapes. bake at 140 degrees for 45 mins or till it is cooked. Use the usual needle testing method. The colour is light and soft. 

BBQ'ed Chicken sticks

Tara and I were driving to Crawford market, my first time, and discussing new ideas for starters with chicken. Lo behold, this lip smacking starter was born! I included it in a menu for a Saturday night party at a successful couple's and many of their guests asked for the peppercorns contact. Yay!

Marinate boneless chicken pieces(Chilly chicken sized) with Bar-B-Que sauce (Kraft, the best and Fun Foods pretty good too) , generous amount of cayenne pepper seasoning and salt. Keep in the fridge for 24 hours.

At cooking time, warm olive oil in a wok. Add crushed garlic. When the garlic turns light brown, add in the chicken. Stir fry at low heat on a covered wok for 15 minutes. Keep stirring every 2/3 minutes. The chicken will cook in its own juices. In the last minute, increase the flame and stir fry till chicken is dry and golden brown in colour and of course well-cooked and soft. Keep the chicken aside till it reaches room temperature.

On small sized wooden skewers or tooth-picks, add cheese cubes, length wise cut half black grapes and chicken pieces, all one each.

You are ready, now get to the Margarita!

Breakfast Toast Cups

Kavery discovered this recipe and Ishani tried it. I am late in the band wagon. It was high time and it is also a lovely day, wish all of you a happy Gudiparwa, 2013. A simple quick-to-do breakfast for a happy family.

Apply olive oil or butter on the muffin tray. Take FRESH bread and fit it into the tray like in the picture below.

Stick it into the oven for 8-10 mins at 150 degrees.

Till then, stir fry finely chopped onions. once pink, add in baked beans. Another 2 minutes of stirring and you are done with that. Now take some beaten eggs and garnish with salt and pepper. Once the bread gets slightly crisp, take them out. Fill each cup with beans, the beaten egg, some bacon or ham or sausages chopped and crisped and lastly some flaked Parmesan or any grated cheese for that matter.

Put the tray back into the oven and toast for 10 more mins or so. Once done the toast cups come out of the muffin cups cases easily. Serve hot.