Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

-Courtesy Joy Of Baking

Ingredients:

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups (125 grams) sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoons (10 grams) regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cups (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk

1 tablespoon liquid red food coloring

1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8-10 tbsp  Cream Cheese 

200 gm of Whipped Cream

Preparation:

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and line 12 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.
In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

In a measuring cup whisk the buttermilk with the red food coloring. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter. 

Working quickly, divide the batter evenly among the 12  muffin cups and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 18 -23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes and them remove from pan. Let cool completely before frosting. Either spread the frosting with a knife or offset spatula, or use a large 1M Wilton open star decorating tip to pipe the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add cream cheese to this whipped cream and whip again. Blend both the ingredients well. Refrigerate and use a piping bag to decorate the cupcakes. You can also use the colorful sprinkles to  make them look attractive.

For video recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCupcakes.html

Veg Cutlets

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes; boiled and mashed
1 cup chopped carrots and french beans each
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp red chili powder
1 tbsp Garam masala powder
1-2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp juice
Bread crumbs
Salt
Coriander
Oil

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a wok. Add cumin seeds, ginger-garlic paste, carrots and french beans. Toss the veggies properly and let them cook. This will take about 7-10 min.
2. Add red chili, turmeric and garam masala powder, salt, lemon juice and mix well. 
3. Add mashed potatoes to this and mix it properly.
4.  Take wok off the flame and add bread crumbs to it after the mixture cools down. Mix the bread crumbs with your hands and check if the mixture has reached a consistency where it can be rolled into cutlets. It should form a tight dough-like mixture. You can use maida/all purpose flour or corn flour instead of bread crumbs to bring this desired consistency.
5. Roll small balls of this mixture(lemon sized) and press them gently to give that 'tikki look'. Shallow fry on low flame.
6. Serve with mint chutney or tomato ketchup and some fresh green salad.

Cornflakes Bhel

-Courtesy Sanjeev Kapoor

Ingredients:

2 cups of plain corn flakes
1 small onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1 cucumber chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
Half cup of pomegranate
Paprika/ Red chili powder
Chat masala
Half tsp icing sugar
Salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Mix all the above ingredients and toss well. 
2. Serve immediately after preparing or the corn flakes will become soggy. 
3. You can add some sev to it and top it off with  fresh coriander leaves.

Mushroom Lemongrass Soup

Ingredients:

4-5 large button mushrooms
2 stalks of lemongrass
4-5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 stalk of celery
1 inch ginger
2 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
A pinch of sugar
4 cups water
Fresh cilantro

Preparation:

1. Boil 4 cup of water and add lemongrass and celery stalk to it. Boil it for about 30 min.
2. Strain the resulting stock and discard lemongrass and celery. (You may throw in your choice of vegetables along with these; like carrots, beans etc)
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan (preferably olive oil) and add chopped garlic to it. Add slices mushrooms and saute for 5-7 min. Then add the prepared stock.
4. Boil the soup and add the powders and sauces mentioned above. Add some sugar as per taste.
5. Finish it off by garnishing with some fresh cilantro.

Thai Omelet

Ingredients:

2 eggs
Half onion chopped finely
3-4 medium button mushrooms sliced
4 basil leaves finely chopped
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
Some chili flakes
A pinch of sugar
A blob of butter

Preparation:

1. Break the eggs and mix in onions, mushrooms, basil and the sauces.
2. Beat the mixture properly.
3. Add chili flakes and pinch of sugar.
4. Heat a pan and add butter to it. After butter melts, spread half of the egg mixture on the pan and cook it just like your usual omelet.
5. Serve with chilly sauce.

Dal Makhni

Ingredients:
1 cup toor dal (cooked in a pressure cooker)
1 small onion finely chooped
1 tomato chopped
1 green chili finely chooped
1/2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
7-8 curry leaves
1 tsp Mustard seeds+Caraway seeds
1/2 tsp Asafoetida
2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
1 tsp Garam masala powder
A pinch of turmeric poder
Coriander chopped for garnishing
1 tsp Kasoori methi powdered
2 tbsp Butter
A pinch of sugar
Salt
Water

Procedure:

1. Whisk the cooked dal lightly so that it forms a thick paste.
2. Heat butter in a pan. Add mustard and caraway seeds. Once the mustard seeds start crackling, add asafoetida, chopped green chilies and curry leaves.
3. Add chooped onion and saute. Add chopped tomato and let it cook for 2-3 min.
4. Add red chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder. 
5. Add the thick dal paste. 
6. Add little water (about half a cup). Add kasoori methi powder and mix it properly. 
7. Add salt and sugar.
8. Garnish with a dollop of butter and some coriander.
9. Serve hot with Jeera rice.

Italian

Mexican

French

Continental

Lebanese 

Starters:

1. Lehsuni Rawas Tikka

Curries:

1. Goan Fish Curry

Rice:

1. Garlic-prawns rice

Goan Fish Curry

This is a recipe from HM journal and its one of the best fish curries I have ever had. So, its completely my pleasure to share this sumptuous recipe with you fine people!


Ingredients:

Do not panic looking at the huge list of ingredients. These are all basic ingredients, usually present in every kitchen. Just go through the list and thats it!

1. Pomfret/ King Mackerel- 5 pieces
2. 1 Onion sliced
3. Ginger- 2 inch
4. Garlic- 8-10 pods
5. Ginger-garlic paste- 2 tbsp
6. Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp
7. Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp
8. Red chilies- 4-5
9. Turmeric powder- 2 tsp
10. Fresh coconut milk- 1.5 cups
11. 1 Tomato chopped
12. Curry leaves
13. Tamarind pulp- 1 tbsp
14. Salt & turmeric for marination
15. Kokam- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Marinate fish with ginger-garlic paste, salt and turmeric.
2. Grind together coriander seeds, cumin seeds and red chilies together. Add tamarind pulp and tomatoes to this and form a smooth paste.
3. Heat oil in a fry pan and saute onions. Add chopped garic, ginger and curry leaves.
4. Add the freshly ground masala to this and again saute. 
5. Add water to this mixture and simmer for few minutes.
6. Add the fish and let it cook properly. This will take anything between 10 to 15 min.
7. Add Kokam and coconut milk followed by salt; mix well. 
8. Serve hot with steam rice.

American Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

1.  Chicken legs- 1 kg (2 or 3 leg pieces)
2. Ginger-garlic paste- 3 tbsp
3. Worcestershire sauce- 2 tbsp
4. Orange juice- 1/2 cup
5. Pineapple juice- 1/2 cup
6. Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
7. Chilly sauce- 2 tbsp
8. Honey- 2 tbsp
9. Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
10. Salt and Pepper for seasoning
11. Oil

Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper. Keep in fridge for 1 hr.
2. Take the chicken out of fridge and add all the sauces and juices mentioned above. Keep it immersed in this marination for another hour.
3. Preheat the oven at 210^oC. Grill or roast the chicken legs for 30-40 min.
4. Serve hot with a nice crisp salad.

Cookies

1. Lemon Cookies
2. Butter Cookies

Butter Cookies

So it was 12.12.12 and I was wondering the whole time how do I make this day special and memorable.
Suddenly a wild thought came to my mind about COOKIES. The 'terms and conditions' in my mind were not about the flavour or shape or colour. All I knew and wanted was that anyone who grabs a bite should pleasantly get lost in the cookie and "Oh wow.." should be the words he/she utters. Naturally, it has to be something like 'heaven in mouth'.
So I got this recipe from a website which I modified according to my preferences and the outcome was delightful. It truly was 'Heaven in my mouth'.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

100 gm (salted) Butter
The reason I have used parentheses is that they say use 'Unsalted' butter. But then also mention about adding salt. So instead, I used Salted butter i.e. our regular Amul Butter. 100gm is one entire small packet of Amul Butter. Remember the butter should be hard i.e. cold and not soft or melted. So put you butter in freezer for like 20min before using.
1 cup cornflour
1 cup icing sugar
1.5 cups All Purpose Flour(APF)
4 tbsp icing/caster sugar for coating

Well, the website recipe also mentioned about adding vanilla essence. But I did not use any. You can go for any flavour of your chocie though.

Preparation:

1. Mix butter and icing sugar together using a blender or your pretty long fingers (they do add to the taste) until it forms a nice creamy mixture.
2. Add cornflour and incorporate it into the creamy mixture properly.
3. Finally add APF. You can add half the APF first and mix it well and then go for the remaining half. Knead a soft dough out of this mixture.
4. Place it on a cling foil and loosely wrap the plastic around it. Then roll it into a cylindrical shaped dough with a diameter of about 3 inches or depending on how large you want your cookies to be.
5. Place this roll in fridge for about an hour so that it sets well and the butter binds up all the ingredients within.
6. Remove from the fridge after an hour and cut half inch thick discs of this roll.
7. Preheat the oven at 210^o C.
8. Place each disc on icing/caster sugar that we have taken for coating. Coat both the sides of cookie-discs with sugar. Dust off extra sugar, if any.
9. Place a cookie sheet on baking tray and place the cookies 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet.
10. Bake at 210 ^oC for about 10min.
11. Do not touch the cookies once they are out of the oven since they are HOT. Really HOT. Do not get in direct contact with them how much ever tempting that entire scenario be! Place the cookies under fan so that they cool down.
12. Once they cool down, munch on them or serve with coffee or milkshake. Enjoy. Cheers!

Tips:

• You can use decorative stamps to put an impression on you cookie-discs so that they bear that  impression even after they are baked. Here is an image for representation purpose only.           

             pciture courtesy: velvetbrown.co.uk                                         picture courtesy: kaboodle.com 

• You may also use decorative cutters if you are bored of same old round cookies. Again an image for representation purpose only.

     

                                             picture courtesy: thepartyworks.com                                    picture courtesy: gadgetsin.com

Onion Ontology

Source: Email from a well-wisher.

image source: http://www.healthcastle.com

" In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that 

visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu...

Many of the farmers and their families had contracted it and many died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy. 

image source: http://static.indianexpress.com/m-images/M_Id_234675_Onions.jpg

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser. She said that several

years ago, many of her employees were coming down with the flu, and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu. 

Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who

regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this

most interesting experience about onions: 

Thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmer's story...but, I do

know that I contacted pneumonia, and, needless to say, I was very ill... I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put it into an

empty jar, and place the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the

onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better. 

Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around

the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful

antibacterial, antiseptic properties. 

This is the other note.  Lots of times when we have stomach problems we don't know what to blame.  Maybe it's the onions that are to blame. Onions absorb bacteria is the reason they are so good at preventing us from getting colds and flu and is the very reason we shouldn't eat an onion that has been sitting for a time after it has been cut open. 

LEFT OVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS

image source: http://www.care2.com

I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, Makers of

mayonnaise. Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted to share what I learned from a chemist.

Ed, who was our tour guide, is a food chemistry whiz. During the tour, someone asked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise. People are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's answer will surprise you. Ed said that all commercially-made mayo is completely safe.

"It doesn't even have to be refrigerated. No harm in refrigerating it, but

it's not really necessary." He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at

a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment. He then talked

about the summer picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on the table, and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick.

Ed says that, when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials

look for is when the 'victim' last ate ONIONS and where those onions came

from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it's not the mayonnaise (as long as

it's not homemade mayo) that spoils in the outdoors. It's probably the

ONIONS, and if not the onions, it's the POTATOES.

He explained onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked

onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion.. He says

it's not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your

refrigerator.

It's already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit,

that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you

put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!). Ed says if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you'll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put on your sandwich, you're asking for trouble. Both  

the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down.

Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions.

Please remember it is dangerous to cut an onion and try to use it to cook

the next day, it becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and

creates toxic bacteria which may cause adverse stomach infections because of excess bile secretions and even food poisoning. "

image source: http://www.thekitchn.com