Friday, May 24, 2013

Rainbow Marble Cake



Ingredients

1) Flour : 1 1/2 cup
2) Granulated sugar: 1 cup (depending on the sweetness you want)
3) Margarine (you can use butter instead) : 3 tablespoons
4) Eggs: 2
5) Milk: 1/2 cup
6) Vanilla essence: 6-7 drops
7) Baking powder: 1/2 teaspoon
8) Malibu Rum : a few teaspoons (this one is my personal favourite, you can skip)
9) Sweetened Cocoa powder: 1-2 tablespoons for dusting
Remember this cake is going to be slightly moist !

Procedure

1) Blend margarine and sugar in a bowl. Add in eggs and blend again.
2) Sieve in flour and baking powder into the above mixture and gradually fold.
3) Add milk and mix well followed by vanilla essence.
4) Mix well to get a mixture of a consistency close to that for sponge cake.
5) Divide equally into different bowls depending upon the number of colours you want. I used 4 colours. Add a few drops of food colour into each bowl depending upon the colour strength you want and mix well.
6) Dust a cake tin (6 inch diameter) with flour or grease it generously.
7) Pour each of the coloured cake mixtures one at a time into the cake tin.
8) Preheat the oven to 160 deg C and bake for about 30-35mins at the same temperature. Insert a toothpick to see that it comes out clean. The cake is ready.
9) Remove from oven. Transfer onto the wire mesh and allow it to cool.
10) Dust some cocoa powder on the top and slice into pieces.
11) Ready to serve.

ENJOY !!!!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Grilled Pepper Chicken


This a real simple and healthy recipe !!
I have made my own spice variations. You can try anything to suit your taste bud.

Ingredients

1) Chicken breast: 1
2) Lime: to tenderize and add tanginess
3) Ground black Pepper: to suit your own taste buds
4) Olive oil: 2 tablespoon
5) Everest Garam Masala: 1/2 tablespoon
6) Nutmeg powder: 1/2 teaspoon
7) Salt to taste

Procedure

1) Clean and pat dry the chicken breast. Make sure to remove all water.
2) Make small incisions all over with a knife to allow penetration of the spices.
3) Now, marinate with all the above mentioned spices and refrigerate for an hour or two.
4) Take out and just grill. I have preferably used stove-top grill pan to give that smoky-burnt flavour of a BBQ meat. You can use your bake oven too. Preheat the oven to ~220 deg C and then bake for an hour or so till the top changes to beautiful golden. Or use your electric grill.
After experimenting all ways, I prefer my stove-top grill pan for the real BBQ feel. It's messier but, tastier.
5) Cook well on both sides. After the meat is tender and cooked, remove and serve with corn salad, onion rings and lemon wedges.

Enjoy the home BBQ on a warm day !

Strawberry Jam Cookies


Ingredients 

1) Flour : 1 cup
2) Powdered Sugar: 1/4 cup (keep it on the less sweeter side)
3) Egg yolk: 1
4) Margarine/butter: 2 tablespoon 
5) Milk: as required
6) Vanilla essence: 2-3 drops
7) Strawberry Jam or any other jam of your choice
I have not used baking powder !

Procedure

1) In a bowl take the sugar, margarine, egg yolk and vanilla essence and mix them together with a blender. Use a spoon if you want.
2) To it add the flour and knead it adding very small amounts of milk each time to get a dough softer than we usually make for rotis/parathas.
3) Refrigerate the dough for an hour or two.
4) Take out and roll in into a thin sheet (say less than half a cm thick).
5) Use a cookie cutter to cut out your desired shapes for the base and top as shown in the pics below. 
6) Preheat the oven to ~ 160 deg C. Now put the tray lined with cookies into the oven and bake for about 15mins (or till the tops of the cookies turn golden brown).
7) Remove from the oven and cool on the wire mesh.
8) Dust some powdered sugar on the top cookies.
9) Take the base cookies and slather some jam on it like you do on a bread and then place the top cookie to make a sandwich. Fill in more jam if you want.
10) Final product looks somewhat like this.

 Enjoy !!!!!