Eggless Chocolate Marble Cake

Found an awesome Eggless Chocolate Marble Cake recipe on simply vegetarian . Super soft and moist. Sorry for no photo because the cake vanished in 2 mins after coming oven fresh :)

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour - 2 cups +2 tbsp
• Baking Powder - 2 tsp
• Baking Soda - ½ tsp
• Salt - ½ tsp
• Sugar, fine grain - 1&1/3 cup
• Cocoa powder, unsweetened - 4 tbsp

• Vegetable Oil - ½ cup
• Yogurt, thick at room temperature - 1 cup
• Milk, room temperature - ¼ cup
• Hot Water - 4 tbsp
• Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 350*F / 180*C. Take a regular size Cake Loaf Pan (7-8inches) and grease it lightly. You may also line it with a parchment paper for easy handling.

Mixing the Ingredients

1. Take a big bowl and sift 2 cups all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into it. Mix it well with a fork. Set aside.
2. Take another big bowl. Add Sugar + Oil + Yogurt in it. Take the electric Egg Beater and whisk all the ingredients for 2 minutes, till light and sugar is mixed well.
3. Add milk + flour mix to this sugar and yogurt mix.Mix all the ingredients gently till dry ingredients are incorporated well.
4. Meanwhile dissolve 4 tbsp of coco powder in 4 tbsp of hot water. Mix well till it becomes kind of sauce. Set aside.

Dividing the Batter 

1. Now divide this batter into 2 equal parts. In one part of the batter, add vanilla essence and 2 tbsp of all purpose flour (optional, check consistency of batter to decide). Mix it well till incorporated in the batter. This is your vanilla batter.
2. In other half of the batter, add the coco powder sauce. Mix well with a fork till well incorporated and the whole of this batter turns chocolate brown in color.

Pouring the Batter in Cake Loaf Pan

1. Add vanilla batter first at the bottom of the pan.
2. Then pour the chocolate batter on top.
3. Tapped the pan on the counter few rimes so that the batter settles down evenly with no gaps in between.
4. You may pour the vanilla and chocolate batters in the pan in alternate sequence or the sequence of your desire, may be chocolate first and vanilla later. However you want to do it.

Baking the Eggless Marble Cake

1. Place the cake loaf on the lower middle shelf of the oven.
2. Bake it for 35-45 minutes. The time will vary depending upon the type of your oven.
3. I would recommend you to check the cake for done-ness with wooden pick test, after 30 minutes.
4. Check every 5 minutes in the middle of the cake, after 30 minutes to see if the cake is baked

Shami Kabab
 Use a packet of SHAN Shami Kebab Masala. In Pune, it can be found at Dorabjee's.

1. The recipe is printed on the back of the packet. 
2. Soak the chana dal for at least 30 minutes before start of cooking.
3. Here is a list of things to do to tweak the printed recipe into truly yummy and Nawabi:

• In a wok pre-heated to 180 C, pour two tsp mustard oil or ghee (I prefer mustard oil) and heat to just below smoking point. Saute coarsely chopped onions and garlic in this until the onions start turning translucent.
• Add boneless mutton to the wok, increase heat to 200 C, and stir fry until the water released by it reduces by half.
• Drain chana dal and add to wok.
• Keep stir-frying the mutton and chana dal together in the wok until there is some liquid still left in the wok.
• Add all the SHAN masala to the wok and continue stirring the contents. When dry enough to grind to a paste of the consistency of atta dough, turn off gas and let cool.
• Chop a bunch of 100 gm fresh mint leaves and add to dough.
• Soak 10 thin strands of kashmiri saffron in warm water for an hour, and add to dough.
• Knead the dough thoroughly well with your palm and fingers after adding the soaked saffron.
• Pass the dough through the grinder in small lots for one last time!
• Break two eggs in a bowl and whisk.
• Add the whisked eggs to the dough and knead again. 
• Make patties of the size that suits you.
• Shallow fry and serve. 

Pesto Pasta

I have recently been to Italy and still am missing the amazing food. I was never a big fan of Italian food until I happened to taste it in Rome, Florence etc and I can tell you, I just fell in love with everything I ate! Even the Pizza! and Pesto Pasta!! Top two things I would always run away from.

So much so, that the moment I mentioned that it might be hard to replicate it in India, given that it's so difficult to find such high quality ingredients, my brother took an offence and ordered basil leaves when I was out of city. And ever since I came back, he has been pestering me to use them.

Anyway, Chef Kumar woke up today and decided precisely at 8 PM that we should make pesto sauce today. While the Parmesan was missing and needs to be added to the processor tomorrow, here is the recipe I used

Ingredients (depending on serving size you would like to choose) - though I can share upfront, that I chose the one in middle with 0.75 cup of basil leaves and let me tell you, that with my brother around, it will barely be enough for 2 people - leave alone 6.

And there are two methods - one without cream and other with one. I followed the one without cream. I think oil could be a lot less than what appeared in the recipe. For one serving, use ~100 gm pasta.

	Servings	1	2	3	4	5
Ingredients	Measure
Basil leaves	Cup	0.5	1.0	1.5	2	2.5
Parmesan	Cup	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25
Pine nuts + Walnuts	Tbsp	2	4	6	8	10
Garlic	Gloves	0.7	1.3	2.0	2.7	3.3
Extra virgin olive oil	Cup	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.2	0.3
Heavy Cream	Cup	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.8
Salted Butter	Tbsp	0.7	1.3	2.0	2.7	3.3
Salt	To taste				I used 2 tsp
Pepper	To taste				1 used 1 tsp

METHOD 1 - Pesto cream sauce (this is inspired from the site - certifiedpastryaficianado)

1. Toast pine nuts and garlic (still in peel) in a small saute pan over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove garlic and roast pinenuts till they get dark golden brown, about 2 more minutes. 
2. Remove garlic from peel and place into food processor with basil leaves, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and salt and pepper to taste. Begin processing, drizzling in olive oil while it mixes. Set aside.
3. Add cream and salted butter to saute pan over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer, Add pesto and combine. Heat through for a minute or so until hot. Add pasta (al-dente) to pan 

METHOD 2 –  Basic Pesto sauce

1. Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.
2. Pick, roughly chop and add the basil leaves, then bash to a paste (or pulse in a food processor).
3. Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and pound again, then stir in half the Parmesan.
4. Drizzle in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
5. Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste, and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.

EDITS: So after completing the first attempt, realized that above ingredients definitely needed adjustments. Lesser oil, more basil, more pine nuts (I actually added walnuts apart from pine-nuts too - that really gave amazing flavor)  etc. You also do not need to use cream at all. And definitely Italian stomachs might be smaller but given Indian appetite, it's no way going to be able to serve so many people. Done all edits in table above

And the final look is as follows. Proud me!

Penne Arrabiata - Vegetarian Version

Living in middle of cooking legends at my home failed to pressurize me and the chef in me woke up today. So I decided to make the yummiest Penne Arrabiata in the world and I felt super proud of it till I spoke to my sister.  (Well,  one of the other reasons was that eons ago, I bought the pasta box and if I had not acted sooner, it may have soon hit it's expiry date).

Anyway, I called up my sister to share my accomplishment and she went ROFLing over to say.."but didi..it's the easiest dish to make in the entire world".

(While I do agree with her,) I will still not let my sense of pride go down and hence am sharing the version of Penne Arrabiata.

Ingredients:

• 250 gm Penne (Al dente) - I used wholewheat penne
• 6 Tomatoes (medium size, blanched, roughly chopped)
• 3 Onions (Finally chopped)
• 1/2 Cup Tomato Puree
• 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 4 Cloves Garlic (can put 1-2 more too, if you really like garlic)
• 1 Tbsp Oregano
• 1 Tbsp Red Chilli Flakes
• 1 Tbsp Parsley
• Half cup Parsley leaves
• Salt (to taste, I used 1 or 2 Tbsp may be. Ok put whatever! )

Method

1. Boil penne in plenty of boiling water with 2 Tbsp salt till al dente (I did that for approx 10 mins in the penne I had). Drain and set aside to cool.While it's getting cooled, you may want to add 1 Tsp of olive oil and toss very lightly so that the penne doesn't stick with each other
2. Heat olive oil in pan. Put garlic and saute it for 30 secs
3. Put red chilli flakes and onions (on medium heat). Cook till onions are translucent
4. Keep the flame on medium heat. Put tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, oregano and parsley powder. Let this cook for 8-10 mins. Add parley leaves (save some for garnish). For fans of cheese,you can also add grated Parmesan cheese
5. Add penne slowly and toss lightly. 
6. Remove from heat, add parsley leaves as garnish (and more Parmesan - actually you can add as much as you want)  and serve hot!

Brinjal in tamarind based gravy (Tamilian recipe)

Ingredients:

Serve 3 to 4

• 6 to 8 nos - small brinjal
• 10 to 15 – Sambar onion / small onion (chopped finely)
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp - Red chilli powder ( or add as needed)
• 2 tsp - Coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp - Garam masala powder
• 1 no – Tamarind ( gooseberry sized ball)
• 5 to 10 nos – Curry leaves
• Salt to taste

For grinding:

• 1 tsp - Oil
• 10 nos - Small onion / sambar onion
• 1 medium - Tomato (chopped)

Seasonings:

• 1 tbsp – Oil ( pref sesame oil)
• 1/4 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp - Split black gram 
• 2 pinches – Fenugreek seeds 
• 5 to 6 nos - Curry leaves (fresh)
• 1 pinch – Asafoetida

Preparation method:

1. Soak tamarind in warm water and squeeze out the pulp. Set aside.
2. Wash brinjals, make 4 cuts on the back, without removing the stem (the way you would do for stuffed brinjal)
3. Heat oil in a pan, add sambar onion and tomato, saute until they are well cooked. Allow them to cool completely and grind them to coarse paste.
4. Heat oil in a pan, season with items given in the list for seasonings. Add chopped onion, brinjals along with little salt, cook over low flame stirring it now and then. Cook until brinjals are 1/2 done.
5. Now add ground onion tomato paste and saute for few seconds. Then add all masala powder given in the ingredient list and saute until raw smell goes.
6. Add 2 cups of water and required salt, bring it to boil. Cover with lid and cook until brinjals are almost cooked.
7. Now add tamarind water and cook for 5 to 10 or until raw smell of tamarind goes and when you reach desired consistency. Finally garnish with fresh curry leaves, switch off the stove and serve with hot rice.

Dhokla

My mom's recipe again.

It's easy to make, healthy and a very yummy snack

Ingredients

• 1 cup besan
• 1/3 cup sooji
• 3/4 tea spoon baking soda
• Ginger and green chilli paste (as per taste)
• 1 tea spoon oil
• 3/4 cup curd
• 1/4 tbsp Eno Fruit Salt
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• A pinch of hing
• 1.5 tbsp sugar

For garnishing 

• Mustard seeds
• Curry Leaves
• Sliced green chillies
• White sesame seeds

Process

• Mix besan, sooji, baking soda, ginger and green chilli paste, lemon juice in curd. Add a bit of water if required. The thickness should be a bit more than idli batter.
• Leave the mixture aside for 45 mins.
• Line the baking container with oil.
• Add Eno Fruit Salt mixed in a spoon of water. Mix well, the whole mixture will now become fluffy.
• Steam for 10 mins at high steam and 2-3 mins at medium heat. Check with knife if its done.
• Turn off gas and let it be for 5-7 mins.
• Take out the steamed dhokla from the container.

Garnishing

• Heat oil in a pan.
• Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and sliced green chillies.
• Add sesame seeds. Just roast the sesame seeds a bit, it should not become red.
• Pour the mixture on the dhokla. 
• Cut square pieces of the dhokla.
• Add 3/4 cup water with sugar. When the water boils, turn off the gas and pour it on the cut dhokla so that it absorbs the water.
• Serve with green chutney.

Rohu in mustard gravy

My mom's recipe...

Ingredients

• Rohu (cut into slices) - 1 kg
• Yellow mustard - 3 tbsp
• Garlic - 1.5 pods
• Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Panch foran
• Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
• Red chilli powder - as per taste
• Turmeric - 2 tbsp
• Salt - As per taste
• Mustard oil

Process

• Wash the fish slices thoroughly. Squeeze out the water by lightly pressing with hand.
• Add salt and 1 tbsp turmeric and marinate for 15 mins.
• Deep fry in mustard oil and keep aside.
• Make a fine paste of yellow mustard and garlic separately.
• Make a paste of onion and tomato
• Add panch foran in oil. Add garlic and fry for a while. When its light brown, add the mustard paste.
• Add coriander powder, red chilli powder and the remaining turmeric powder.
• Add the onion tomato paste.
• When the masala starts leaving oil, add water and salt. 
• Add the fish pieces when the water boils and let the fish pieces cook in the gravy for 5-7 minutes on medium heat.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve with rice.

Note : If you wish, you could also add fried potato and fried brinjal pieces with the fish in the gravy.