Eggless Vinegar Dense Chocolate Cake

Not a regular at TV football, the FIFA world cup does garner excitable energy to generally cheer for the losing team, especially for the 2014th year one, to stay true to The Indian Spirit of being the underdog fan. Must confess here that the Bengali influences were also rather heavy leaving no choice but going for the blue and the white!

Friends, Shalina and Rajesh organised a potluck with a fun mix of buddies and I decided to rustle up a couple of cakes. Crazy night ahead, so why not the crazy cake?

The crazy cake became rather popular during depression since the recipe did not need the usage of eggs. Basically, simply take 3 cups of white flour, 2  cups (1 and 3/4th will also be great) of white sugar powdered in your blender or of course castor sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 cup cocoa. Now sift this all together. Once done, make 3 wells in the mix. In one well, pour in 3/4 cup vegetable oil and in the 2nd well pour 2 tbsp distilled white vinegar. Finally into the 3rd well pour in 2 tsp vanilla extract. Now add 2 cups of cold water and mix well with a cake spatula. 

Pour into a prepared cake tin, use a large tin, 9 by 13 inch is a good size. bake at 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C for about 30 mins or till the cake needle comes out clean. 

Enjoy once cooled. Frosting with your favourite frosting will make it yummy too. The feel of the cake on your palette is moist and rich. It is rather lovely I must add. 

Pho In A Chicken Broth

Vietnamese food so well enjoyed by the French is considered to be the healthiest cuisine in the world. It is known for its balance of five elements. Most Vietnamese food conform to the perfect composition which adheres to the principle of the yin and yang.
Try the Pho, it is wholesome, healthy and happy, happiness enhanced by its communal nature. Families in Vietnam are known to eat together with the only non communal bowl being the small to medium sized bowl with rice or noodles in it. Children are known to serve themselves after the elders have done so. 

The list of ingredients would be one large onion, a 2 inch piece of ginger, a 3 inch stick of cinnamon, one start anise, two cloves, a tsp coriander seeds, 4 cups unsalted chicken stock, two tsp soy sauce and four carrots. Also you will need a bunch of flat rice noodles as shown in the image. For toppings, some mushroom(button ones can do), boiled chicken and posy of pak choy. Finally for the garnish, some scallions, coriander leaves, one Thai chilly, two wedges of lime, a few leaves of Thai basil and Hoisin sauce.

For the broth char-grill in an open flame the onion and the peeled ginger root, this step will take five minutes. Next in a dry heated wok,  dry roast the dry spices. Pour in the chicken stock, bring to a boil and allow it to simmer for 30 mins. Simultaneously boil water and plunge the noodles in the hot water with the heat switched off. When the noodles is soft and chewy drain it out.

Back to the simmering broth, chop the mushroom, pak choy and boiled chicken in semi chunky pieces and add. Simmer for further five mins.

To serve, take a soup bowl or a large deep bowl, at first spoon in the noodles. Pour in the broth along with the toppings so that the noodles get well drowned. As garnish, sprinkle in the finely chopped scallions, thinly slit Thai chillies, chopped coriander leaves, chopped Thai basil, Hoisin sauce and a squeeze some lime.

Run for your chopsticks!

Black Rice Salad With Mangoes

Well, anything forbidden is fun. True to its name black rice alias forbidden rice adds the same extent of intrigue to its dishes. Be it a pudding, a risotto or a simple salad, black rice more like wine in colour when cooked elevates the dish by its sheer presence. Legend has it that black rice was tagged as forbidden rice because the Chinese emperors refused to share the rice with commoners so that only first family could enjoy the high end nutritional qualities of the rice. The rice is a tremendous source of vitamin E, iron and antioxidants

For this salad, take a cup of black rice and boil it till soft. Along with this cup of cooked rice, you need about 4 stalks of scallions or spring onions, one red onion, coriander leaves and diced mangoes. Cut the scallions slating wise in about half an inch sized pieces. The red onion can be cut vertically and the mangoes are diced in cubes. Chop the coriander leaves semi-finely.

For the dressing, make a lemon vinaigrette. In a small blender put in the leaves from 3 stalks of coriander leaves along-with a bit of stalk, 2 pods of finely minced garlic, juice of one lime, salt and pepper to taste and 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt. Whisk for a min. Your dressing is ready.

Dress the salad, serve cold. If you dress the salad for atleast 2 hours before serving, it lends more flavour and therefore character to the salad. It is indeed a beautiful summer salad.

White Frosting For Red Velvet Cake

I have always been a sucker for drama cinema with multi starer casts. One such fave since 1989 has been Steel Magnolia. It was to me an iconic movie with inspirational icons like Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley Maclaine and Dolly Parton ruling the screen. In Steel Magnolia I first saw the red velvet cake, it was the groom's cake made in the shape of an armadillo. A few years later the Magnolia bakery in Manhattan popularised the red velvet cupcake and that got struck off the bucket list last summer. Only remaining KRA was making it at home, which got accomplished yesterday. I must add that I was not really 100 percent proud of the cake, which is why I will put up the recipe of the cake later once I have perfected it, but yes, the white frosting was 200 percent on the dot! The frosting had such an interesting flavour to it that you must really try whipping it up yourself soon.

I used 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 11/2 cups milk, 11/2 cups icing sugar, 11/2 cups or 150 grams butter ( I used Indian Amul butter) and 1 tbsp vanilla essence.

Soften the butter. 

Mix the flour into the milk and help it dissolve well by stirring. Now heat this liquid, stirring at low heat all the time till the mix is very thick. Set it aside and allow it to reach room temperature.

Whisk the butter and the sugar together. This should be done in a largish bowl with an electric beater. Whisk at medium speed. Continue till the mix is light and fluffy. Now add in the flour batter slowly, a tbsp at a time while whisking with the same beater at high speed. Go on till the entire flour batter is fluffed into your frosting. Lastly fold in the vanilla. 

When your cake is at room temperature, fill it up with this gorgeous white as snow frosting. You can store the frosting in the refrigerator.

Aubergine Peanut Pickle

I read this recipe in a food magazine while listening to birds chirping in a warm summer morn while sipping dark coffee. It was as calm as it can get in busy noisy Mumbai. Can any other moment be as inspiring? 

I also learnt while googling that aubergines which belong to the nightshade family of plants have relatives which are potatoes and tomatoes. One more really cute finding was that the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, for whom America was named was a pickle merchant before he became an explorer.

I twisted the recipe a bit to suit the ingredient list in my larder, and over a warm summer lunch with friends really enjoyed the pickle.

Chop a large aubergine into small square pieces. Dry roast two fistful of peanuts in a warm wok for 5-7 minutes. Then dry rub the peanuts in your palms till all the skins come off. Next chop one large tomato into small pieces.

Warm a tbsp of olive oil. Throw in a tsp of cumin seeds and a tsp of nigella seeds. When both start sputtering, add in 8-9 curry leaves. In less than half a minute add in the tomatoes. Stir fry for a min. Add in salt to taste, 1/2 tsp red chilly powder and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Toss for a min at low heat. It is time to add the aubergine and mix everything well. I always keep a tamarind paste in my fridge, the Indian brand Funfoods is very good. Add a tbsp and a half of the tamarind paste and stir well. The peanuts go in now and the pickles is ready after tossing gently for another 2-3 mins at low heat. 

A delightful pickle is ready to be picked on! Savour!

Oatmeal Buttermilk Pancakes

Even the most common breakfast food, the pancake has such an interesting story about it. The formally known 'Shrove Tuesday' is called the 'Pancake Day'. It marks the beginning of Lent, a period that commemorates the 40 days and nights that Jesus spent fasting in the desert before beginning his ministry. 

This is a very very very healthy recipe for the pancake batter which does not include flour but includes oatmeal flour and whole wheat flour. Please mark that you need to prepare the batter the night before.

You will need for the recipe;

One cup oats, toast and grind it

¼ cup and 2 tbsp whole wheat flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon powder

¼ cup honey

One large egg

11/4 cup butter milk

Vanilla essence

Once you have collected all of the above, you need to follow the following steps.

Mix the dry ingredients well.

Lightly beat the eggs and add it to the dry ingredients

Add rest of the ingredients and mix all till well combined

Refrigerate overnight

Heat pan well.  Just lightly brush with oil. Spoon one a large spoon of the batter and pour it within the pancake ring. Nicely even it out. Cook pancakes in medium heat. Turn once.

Enjoy with maple syrup

Zucchini Salad

Before I share the recipe I would like to alert my readers that the marinade has to be prepared two days in advance. Critical piece of information to be noted and followed.

Zucchini, a squash is considered to be a vegetable in the culinary universe but is a fruit in the botanical world. The Pennsylvanian joke that on 8th August of every year, children or adults often in camouflage sneak in at midnight and leave bags of zucchini at their neighbours' doorsteps  and make a dash for their life after ringing the doorbell speaks of sweet friendships and neighbourhood sharing. True to this story, I also experienced this salad over a warm dinner at Neha and Glenn's home. 

For the marinade/dressing; mix olive oil, oyster sauce,vinegar,sugar, soy sauce, chopped mint leaves, chopped Thai red chillies and minced garlic. All the ingredients except the red chillies are in equal proportions. Use half the quantity of red chillies. Store in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Slice zucchini, use both green and yellow ones. Toss with the dressing. Serve after 20 minutes. Serve cold.