Banana Pudding with Caramel Sauce

One of the easiest desserts to make...takes practically no effort and is so delicious and comforting, it would make anyone happy!

Ingredients

175g butter, softened and chopped

1cup (175g) brown sugar

½ cup (110g) caster (superfine) sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup mashed banana

3 eggs

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour, sifted

½ teaspoon baking powder

Caramel sauce

1 ½ cups (375 ml) pouring cream

¾ cup (135g) brown sugar


 

Method

Preheat oven to 170C (325 F).

To make the pudding, place the butter, sugars, cinnamon, banana, eggs, flour and baking powder in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed for 1 minute or until just combined.

Pour the mixture into a greased mould lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for approx 40 min or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

To make the caramel sauce, place the cream and brown sugar in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.

Slice the pudding and pour over the warm sauce. Yum!

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Apple Compote

I had made this looooong ago but had messed up a few things. The ingredients were just lying about at home so I was forced to do something about it. Its ridiculously easy to make...and absolutely delicious as well!

For the panna cotta:
1 tetrapack Amul cream (about 1 cup or 200 ml of cream)
50 g sugar
1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water

Heat the cream and sugar in a pan until the sugar dissolves. Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla. Put the gelatin in the cold water and let it remain for 3-5 minutes. Now the original recipe says to pour the gelatin directly into the cream and stir. But when I had done that last time, it hadn't worked. The instructions on the packet of gelatin say heat the gelatin in a double boiler until it dissolves...should take about 5 minutes. After it  dissolves, take it off the heat and pour it into the cream mixture and mix thoroughly. Pour the cream into the moulds and let it set for 6 hours. 

You can pour it into wine glasses and serve it directly with whatever topping you have decided or you can unmould the panna cotta onto plates and serve, as I did. I used the normal bowls that everyone has, greased them with a little oil and kept them in the fridge.

For the apple compote:

2 apples, cubed

1 tablespoon orange juice

A pinch of cinammon powder

Mix all the ingredients in a pan. Put on the lid and let it simmer for about 10 minutes until the apples are soft.

When serving, run a knife along the edges of the mould to shake it loose. Alternatively, dip the moulds in boiling water for a few seconds and then unmould onto the plate. Top with the apple compote and serve.

Mango Cupcakes

Today I finally managed to go to Crawford and bought cupcake moulds!!!! The tart pan I bought a while back, but its still new, so there it is.

I was so excited about them that I instantly decided as soon as I get home, I will make cupcakes! It was a toss up between lemon and mango, but since all the ingredients for lemon weren't at home, I hit upon the mango...this is like a mango festival :)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (approx 156 g)
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup sugar (approx 94 g)
1 stick of butter at room temperature (113 g)
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk
3/4 cup ripe mango puree
¼ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt

Mango Frosting
2 sticks of butter (226 g)
2 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
¼ cup ripe mango puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350 F or 176 C. Beat the butter and slowly add the sugar to it, beating until the sugar is dissolved. Add the eggs, one at a time into the mixture, and beat well.

In another bowl, measure the flour and the baking powder. Pour dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix well. Then add the mango puree, ginger and the milk and continue mixing. Don’t over beat!

Pour into pan and bake for about 26 min. I baked for 20 min and it was done perfectly. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.

It was the first time I was trying cupcakes and I was so over excited that I kept jumping about in front of the oven.

I deliberately bought the silicon molds. They need no greasing, they cool down fast, and can just be peeled off the cake. Saves a whole lotta mess! Also, even after removing the cake, they are ridiculously clean!

Next step: Icing

Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy, add half of the confectioner’s sugar, mango and vanilla and continue beating until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 min. Add the rest of the sugar and continue beating, for about another minute.

The cake itself isn't too sweet because of the ginger. Next time I would reduce the ginger and add more mango for it to suit my taste! But the icing makes all the difference. It is much more mango-ey and that's when you feel like you are eating a mango cupcake!

Mango Panna Cotta

My dad randomly expressed a desire to have panna cotta. Now I remember I had made it months ago, but I didn't like it too much because I thought it was too bland and the topping excessively sweet. But then I thought what's the harm in trying again! However I didn't want to make it plain-jane like how I did last time. So obviously the first thing that I thought of was mango! I am going to carry on making mango desserts until I am completely sick of it. Panna cotta is super easy to make and I'm hoping that I do like it this time.

Ingredients

250ml/1 cup cream
2 mangos
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons gelatin

1/4th teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup caster sugar (I used brown sugar for the topping...just because!)

Peel one mango and cut it into pieces. Our aim is to make mango puree. The usual method is to put it in a blender and strain it, but my mother said that wastes a lot of mango. So I put the mango in the blender with two tablespoons of milk as per her suggestion.

After the blending was done, I had a wonderfully smooth pulp without any wastage!

Mix the gelatine with two tablespoons of cold water and leave it standing for about 5 minutes to activate it. Meanwhile, place the cream and sugar into a saucepan and over a medium heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved. Continue stirring until the cream almost reaches boiling point then remove from heat.

Then add the gelatin and stir until it is completely dissolved. Add the mango puree and the vanilla extract and stir until fully blended.

Pour it into the moulds. I used the bowls which are found in anyone's house as a mould because I plan to serve it by un-moulding it. I used a drop of oil to lubricate the mould so its easier for the panna cotta to slip out. An alternative is to pour it into pretty glasses or bowls and serve with the mango topping in that itself. Last time I made it in wine glasses, but I wanted to try the other way this time because I think it would look prettier!

I then put it in the fridge to set. It's supposed to be kept for minimum four hours, but I took them out after a good 6 hours.

For the topping, cut the mango into dice. Sprinkle the sugar into a pan and heat it until it starts melting. 

Quickly add half the diced mango and keep stirring. The mixture may harden, but will eventually soften. Add a little water to help if necessary. Once its slightly thick, add the rest of the diced mango. Stir briefly to coat the mango and take it off the heat. Let it cool a little before using.

To unmould successfully, dip the mould in a pan of boiling water and then overturn it onto a plate. Spoon the caramelized mango over it and serve. Doesn't it look beautiful?!

Lemon Pound Cake

Well I have been working hard since my internship started and did not have the energy to do something adventurous on the weekend. My friend had made this cake last week and I liked how it tasted. Plus its so easy that even an amateur with no experience cannot get it wrong! I took it to office with me and it was quite a hit :)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup vanilla or plain sugar
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

For the lemon glaze:
Juice of 2-3 lemons
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Method

Grease and flour the sides of the mould.

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract, lime juice and zest.

With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots.

Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean.  I baked it for 40 minutes and it was perfect. But maybe that was because my mould was slightly big. Basically, you need to keep watching it.

While it's baking, make the glaze. Stir in the juice into the sugar, and stir till all lumps have dissolved. Add some more powdered sugar if it isn’t as thick as you like it. The glaze should be nice and thick, yet of flowing consistency. Add a little zest if you like. I didn't add it, but that's just a matter of taste. Keep tasting the glaze until you get something you like.

After the cake is done, poke holes all over it and and use a spoon to spread the glaze. I did it twice, but it really depends upon the glaze itself. It came out perfectly and within two days, two of these cakes are over!

Mushroom Orange Rice

Since there were so many mushrooms left, I thought the easiest thing to do would be put it in rice. I vaguely remembered this recipe and looked it up again. I got the idea to put orange juice from it, but I changed the veggies a bit. It is such an easy recipe, that any veggies can be put in it and it will still taste delicious :)

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked white rice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, cut into 1/2-inch dice
8 ounces button mushrooms, stems removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup corn

Coriander

Procedure:

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and mushroom; cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add corn, cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in cooked rice, zest, and juice. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone and Rosemary

I have been simply dying to try this out for more than a year, merely because the photos looked so pretty! Also, because the combination fascinated me and I was sure it was unlike anything I would have eaten before. I finally picked up peaches and ran back to the kitchen!

Ingredients

2 large ripe peaches
Olive oil for brushing peaches
About 2 ounces mascarpone cheese
Zest of 1/4 lemon
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary, plus some for garnish
A few shakes of salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slice the peaches in half and discard the pits. Brush the flesh with a little bit of olive oil. Heat a grill to medium or place a grill pan over medium-high heat on the stove top. Grill for 3 to 4 minutes or until the flesh begins to caramelize and light grill marks appear.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine mascarpone cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Stir until combined. Divide filling evenly among the four peach halves. Serve.

Spicy Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms

I had been wanting to try baking something which isn't a cake but never found any recipe besides pies etc, which I don't possess the equipment for. This is my first attempt and it did come out well :). Its a very easy recipe too!


Ingredients
24 ounces weight White Mushrooms (3 packets)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
Salt And Black Pepper To Taste
8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, Softened
1/3 cup Sour Cream
1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 package (small) Chopped Spinach

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees or 190 C

Wash and dry mushrooms. Pull the stems off the mushrooms, then chop the stems finely. Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and chopped mushrooms stems and saute for several minutes, or until soft and starting to turn golden. Add  salt, and pepper. Stir and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, add softened cream cheese, sour cream, grated cheeses, and the cooled mushroom/onion mixture. Fold together to combine. Add spinach, a dash of salt, a little pepper, and. Fold together until combined.

Using a spoon, mound the mixture into the stemmed mushroom caps. Use the spoon to round the mixture on top. 

Place on a baking sheet or in a baking dish and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the mushrooms are cooked and the filling is hot. Serve immediately or at room temperature. Yummy!

Tequila Lime Chicken

I hadn't made any chicken thing for a really long time. I was randomly browsing around for recipes and hit upon this one...coz I love anything spicy. It was brilliant, especially the lemony kick to the chicken!


½ cups Fresh Squeezed lemon Juice (for 1/2 Cup You'll Need About 3 limes)
¼ cups Tequila
1 ounce, fluid Triple Sec (any liqueur such as Cointreau or Grand Marnier)
½ Tablespoons Olive Oil
¼ teaspoons Cumin
½ teaspoons Chili Powder
2 cloves Garlic
1 Chilli
1 whole Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

Combine all ingredients listed (except chicken) in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped and mixture is smooth.

Pour marinade into a shallow dish and place chicken in dish to marinate for 1-2 hours. Flip the chicken breasts once about halfway through the marinade time.

Place a pan over medium high heat and sear the chicken breasts on each side. It should take about 4-5 minutes per side. Reserve excess marinade.

After both sides are golden brown, reduce heat to medium low and remove chicken from pan. Put chicken onto a cutting board and slice chicken into strips, about 1/2 inch thick.

Return chicken to pan and add the excess marinade. Stir everything to combine and let simmer for another 3-4 minutes, or until chicken is cooked all the way through.

Remove from heat and use chicken anyway you see fit!

Borracho Rum Cake

This is the start of another cooking spree...which is scheduled for tomorrow! I decided to make this cake in advance and strict instructions have been given to everyone in the house to not touch it until the next day. It was different from other cake recipes I saw and taken from http://www.thefoodieskitchen.com. Today I seem to be having an off day hence this is not my best effort but nevertheless, here goes!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 medium eggs, yolk and whites separated

Sugared Water:
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 ounce rum
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven at 325F which is approx 163 C.

Sift all dry ingredients (just one cup of sugar, leave the rest for the sugared water) and set aside.

Beat egg whites until they can hold soft peaks, then adding the egg yolks one by one.

Add the dry ingredients one tablespoon at the time, mixing well between each one.

When everything is perfectly mixed, you can pour it on a greased and floured 9″ x 13″ Baking Dish.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Pliss to excuse the burnt top of the cake; I dunno how it happened despite constant supervision...as I said I'm having an off day.

While the cake is in the oven, you can prepare the sugared water.

Boil all remaining ingredients together (except for the rum), stirring every once in a while.  I didn't add the vanilla extract either because mine is alcohol-based. Let it cool down, and add the rum.

When both the cake and the sugared water are completely cooled down, you pour a couple of spoonfuls on the cake, letting it soak. Wait from 15-20 minutes in between each spoonful so it can soak better and with consistency.

Make sure that after the cake is completely soaked, you can put it in the fridge and uncovered. It has plenty of water to keep moist.

After I took it out of the oven, I thought I had completely ruined it because it smelt like fried egg! But mother says its alright, the rum will kill the egg taste. Fingers crossed!

Giveaway

Hey everyone, this is a friend of mine Nisha whose make up blog I follow. I share her love of make up (along with a lot of other things ;)) and she is having a giveaway! Please take a look.

http://beautyandthecheap.blogspot.in/2012/05/beauty-and-cheaps-100-follower-giveaway.html

Mango Cinnamon Upside Down Cake

Since I'm on a mission to use up all the mangoes in the house, I hit upon the idea to make this. I used the recipe of the Pear Cardamom Upside Down Cake I posted below, replacing the pear with mango and the cardamom with cinnamon coz I'm not a big fan of cardamom. It seems to have come out better than last time, because I kept supervising it. Last time it got slightly burnt because I put it in for 40 min as prescribed but this time it got done in a little under 30 min. Will update upon the taste. Enjoy :)

Update: It's absolutely beautiful....family is literally speechless at the yumminess. Must try!

Mango Cheesecake

I was very excited about trying a baked cheesecake for the first time. And touchwood, it came out perfectly! I baked a plain cheesecake at first and then made a mango jelly topping and put it in the fridge to set. Now all cheesecake recipes make you bake it in a springform pan, which is basically a pan with a detachable base. Since I don't have one, I used my regular cake mould and lined it with butter paper sticking out over the edges so that I could remove it easily. Now this would obviously screw up the shape a little, but then we are going to eat it, not look at it :P.

The first thing to make is the base. For that you need
2.5 cups digestive biscuit crumbs
4 ounces or 113g of butter (melted)
2tbsp sugar

Combine the sugar with the digestive biscuit crumbs. Stir in the melted butter until moistened. Pour the mixture into a 9 inch springform pan (about 3 inches tall) and make a layer 1 inch thick. Bake for in 10 min in an oven heated to 325 F or approx 160 C.
As my cake mould is heart-shaped, it wasn't the same size, so I made the amount specified in the recipe, and ended up using it for two cakes.

To make the batter you need
4 (8oz.) packages cream cheese (approx 900g)
1.5 cups sugar
3 Tbsp flour
5 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp lemon juice

To make the cheesecake filling, cream the sugar, cream cheese and flour until light and fluffy. On medium low, add eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition. On low, add sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla just until combined. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325.

As mine was smaller, I baked mine for only 40 min. After the cake is done, let it cool in the oven for 5-10 min and then take it out. It may crack at this point. Mine did a little. To avoid this, you can bake it in a water bath, but I didn't have a pan big enough for that so I let it be. Keep it out until it reaches room temperature.

For the mango topping, I squeezed the juice outta two mangoes, dumped half a cup of sugar and heated the pulp with a teaspoon of cornflour until the sugar dissolved. I had kept a teaspoon of gelatin in cold water for about 5 min. This I dissolved in a water bath and mixed it with the mango pulp, poured it on top of the cheesecake and let it set.

When I tried to take it out later, the baking paper tore at the sides because the topping is wet-ish. So I couldn't unmould the cake. When the time came to eat it, we just cut slices directly out of the mould. I had called a whole bunch of people for dinner and I was REALLY hoping that it would taste good....which it did finally :). I will definitely try this again and experiment with toppings and find some way to be able to present it!

Cream Cheese

I'm embarking on a fairly ambitious project - mango cheesecake. I had made a cheese cake looooong back; guava cheesecake if I remember correctly, but that was of the non-baked variety. So I'm nervous and excited about this!

Anyway, the point of this post is cream cheese. The recipe calls for 4 eight ounce boxes of Philadelphia cream cheese. When I went to the grocery store, I had a minor heart attack when I saw each box was 350 bucks! No way in hell could I justify spending 1400 bucks on a cheesecake! So I went and searched online for substitutes or alternate recipes and saw that it is SUPER easy to make cream cheese at home. You just have to take curd, hang it in a cloth for a few hours and that is it!

I bought a dabba of Nestle curd (400g) for 40 bucks out of which I got 150g cream cheese after hanging. My mother gave me advice saying that instead of buying curd, I should buy milk, make curd and use that because in this way, you get more curd than you would if you bought. After converting, the total amount of cream cheese I needed was approx 900g. As I already had 150g made at home, I needed to make 750g more of cream cheese. My supermom did all the calculating and concluded that I need to make curd out of 3 litres of milk. So bottom line, instead of spending 1400 bucks on the cream cheese, I am spending a little more than a 100 bucks and making it at home. Howzzat?!

Perfect Cookies!

Well this was my first time baking cookies. I did screw up a few things, but the end result was still great! The original recipe was for choco chip cookies, but since I didn't have choco chips around, I just stirred in some chocolate instead. Next time I will try this out properly. Here is the version I made today.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
14 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar (recipe suggests dark brown, but light brown is also acceptable)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 c chocolate chips (which I didn't use)
Optional: 3/4 c chopped walnuts ( I used almonds as mother insisted they MUST get over soon)

Put 10 tbsp of the butter in a medium skillet set over medium high heat. Allow the butter to melt for 2 minutes and begin to swirl it around the pan, allowing it to brown. Keep the butter moving so it doesn’t burn. Browning should take about 3 minutes and you’ll know it’s done when turns a golden brown. 

Remove the pan from the heat and use a spatula to transfer the butter to a large, heatsafe mixing bowl. Add the remaining 4 tbsp of cold butter to the melted butter, and stir gently until it is melted.

Add the white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt to the butter and whisk the ingredients together. Add the egg and egg yolk and whisk again until mixture is smooth, 30 seconds. Allow the batter to rest for 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds more. Do this two more times; the end result should be thick and shiny. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined, about 1 minute. Gently stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if using.

Make each cookie with 3 tbsp of dough. Form small balls and flatten onto a tray lined with a baking sheet. Bake in an oven preheated to 190 C for about 10 minutes. 

Now this is the point where I screwed up a little. I baked the first batch for 10 minutes. When I checked it after baking, the cookies were still soft, so I thought it needed to be baked a little more and popped it in for 3 more min. Then I got scared they would burn so I just left it out to cool. Then it was perfectly fine! The second batch I baked it for 10 minutes only, but I left it in the oven for a little too long after it 'pinged', so that also got slightly messed up. So basically don't panic if your cookies are still too soft on taking out and do not leave in the oven beyond a minute after the 'ping'! 

Also, I didn't leave enough space between them so the shape also got messed up. If anyone has advice on how to make the cookies look like cookies, please let me know!

Despite the screw ups, the cookies still tasted AMAZING! Please learn from my very amateur mistakes. I will most definitely try this again and make sure I get it perfect the next time :)

Cheese Fondue

My mom was gifted a fondue pot last Diwali and I have been just looking for an excuse to use it! I figured that I might as well do it today as I'm on a cooking roll. The recipe is super easy!

Ingredients

3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
3 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 tsp garlic paste
1 loaf French bread, cubed

Method

Now I used apple cider only because it was lying around at home. It can be substituted by milk or beer also! Also, I have no idea where to get French bread, so I decided to use the most exotic bread I could get my hands on...multi grain! The garlic paste wasn't in the original recipe but I added it, again because it was lying around at home.

Heat apple cider on a moderately high flame until it starts bubbling. Add the cheese, cornstarch and pepper and stir until it melts. Add the garlic paste and stir it in. Pour the mixture into a fondue pot and savour it :)