Spicy Pasta Thai Style

Today was a holiday and I played kitchen queen. Being busy with job and business school, I cherish every holiday that is sent my way. It just happened that mom had a plan to visit some relatives in the morning, which meant that the kitchen was all mine. It was one of those rare times when I was left alone to my devices in the kitchen without any interference or advice on how should I be going about my way. Don't you just like the feeling of queening over the kitchen?

I decided on making some desi style chinese food. So I made some vegetable fried rice, chicken soup, and some pasta. Dessert is a must in my household, but after all this effort, I found it tiresome to make some from scratch so I made some instant pudding.

I am kind of bored with the typical stir fried vegetable desi chinese style noodels/ spaghetti/ macarooni/ pasta ,therefore I made some pasta inspired by thai food. The recipe I used is an adaptation of Spicy Thai Noodles.

I would omit the green onions next time I make these, because I don't like the strong after taste of green onions.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 packet (400 gm) pasta (any shape) 

3 tbsp oil

1 tsp red chilli flakes

4 - 5 tbsp soya sauce

4 - 5 tbsp honey

Salt, to taste

Red chilli powder, optional

3 - 4 dry red chillies, optional

1/4 cup green onions, sliced

1/4 cup carrot, cut into thin strips and boiled for 1 minute

3 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped

2 tbsp sesame seeds, roasted

Method:

Boil pasts according to directions. Set aside. 

Heat oil and red chilli flakes for a couple of minutes over medium heat. Don't let the red chilli flakes burn. Strain the oil to remove red chilli flakes, and reserve the oil. Add soya sauce and honey in the oil and mix. 

Pour the sauce in a pot, add the boiled pasta, and place it on a medium flame. Add the green onions, shredded carrots, and the cilantro. Toss lightly. Add some salt and mix. Taste. If it is not hot enough you can add some red chilli powder. Or you can break some dried red chillies and add the seeds. ( I did both :D )

Sprinkle the sesame seeds and toss the pasta around. Dish out in a platter. Serve warm. Happy cooking!!!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

I have bought a new lens for my very basic DSLR, the 50mm/f1.8 lens and being the amateur food photographer that I am for my blog, I have fallen in love with it; which is not unusual as a I have a long list of love affairs with my gadgets (including my smartphone and my laptops). Every gadget I own is very near and dear to my heart. I am not familiar with many big words of digital photography as I am learning my ropes yet, but I love what I see when I use the 50mm/f1.8 lens. It is an inexpensive lens when compared to the the pricier lenses. So I come here with the first recipe I photographed with this lens for my blog, others I had done for Baker's Canvas as a home business.

I have my eyes on this cake for long. The only thing stopping me form achieving the goal was lack of ingredients. If I had lemons, I didn't have poppy seeds. If I had poppy seeds, they weren't clean. If I had poppy seeds, I didn't have lemons, or eggs, or cake flour or some other crucial ingredient. Today, finally I had all the ingredients, so I didn't waste any time and made the lemon poppy seed cake.

I have seen many picture of poppy seed cakes with black poppy seeds. Mine were brown and beige and I was sceptical about the results. On one hand the poppy seeds weren't as visible as their darker counterparts, but I think the taste was there, so was the slight crunch that come with the presence of tiny seeds in the cake. The picture has tiny brown flecks, which you may see on close inspection. These would be prominent if darker poppy seeds are used.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
Zest of one lemon
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp poppy seeds

Glaze
1 cup icing sugar
2 - 3 tbsp leon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 350F/ 180C.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt). Beat together sugar and oil in a separate bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour and milk to egg mixture alternatingly in two additions. Beat well to incorporate. Fold lemon zest, lemon juice and poppy seeds with a rubber spatula. Pour into a greased pan and bake for 30 minutes or until done. The time may vary, mine took 45 minutes. Remove from oven cool.

Put the icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Put the bowl over boiling water and mix to prepare a runny glaze. Pour hot glaze over the cake, and allow it to drip on the sides of the cake. Let the glaze set before serving. Happy baking!!!

Date Pudding

Hello blog, and hey my blog readers. It has been a long time since I came up with something to post. Now that I am on vacations, I plan to be a bit regular. I tried something new today, a date pudding. Dates are healthy and nutritious and putting them into a dessert makes the dessert nutritious too. We'll decide on the healthy part after the recipe and taste test ;).

It is kind of cold in my city of desi land. The temperature drops to 11 or 12 C, and seems like it is 2 or C (ok, ok, I have a superactive imagination). Comfort food is a craving. You can make this pudding to satisfy this nagging craving. It is great way to mark the end of the dinner, or to satisfy your sweet tooth. Leave the excuses aside, this pudding is a must try at least once, just for the sake of it.

This recipe is adapted from the book "Sticky and Steamed Puddings" by Confident Cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients
3/4 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup boiling water
50g of butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Syrup:
2/3 cup sugar
10 g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
2/3 cup water

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F. Grease a deep oven proof dish, around 1.5 L capacity. Set the dish aside.

In a bowl sprinkle baking soda over dates and pour boiling water over it. Set aside to cool. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift flour and baking powder together, and then fold in the egg mixture with the dates. Stir until just combined and pour into the prepared dish. Bake for 40 minutes or until done.

While the pudding is cooking, prepare the syrup. Put sugar, butter, vanilla, and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. When pudding is done, take it out of the oven, prick with a fork in a few places and pour the syrup over the pudding. Return to oven for 5 minutes, and allow the syrup to soak in the pudding. Serve with cream or ice cream. Happy baking!!!

Singaporean Rice

Hello everybody, back after yet another very long break. It's not that I haven't been experimenting, I have made a lot of seasonal things, which with one thing or another (I blame it all on business school), I wasn't able to post them. And since they were based on season's available fruit, they are kind of irrelevant now.

This week , I made some Singaporean Rice. And you know what, this is a desi dish and has no roots in Singapore. There is nothing like Singaporean Rice in Singapore. This dish is actually a combination of 3 - 4 separate yet complementing recipes. Served in layers, Singaporean rice is a complete meal in its own regard and doesn't need any other complimenting flavor. It seems like a very complex and time consuming recipe, but it is very easy to make, despite so many ingredients.

People layer rice with spaghetti, I like to use elbow or shell macaronis. It makes it easier to serve and, well, eat. The picture doesn't show Mayonnaise garnish, as everyone might not like it, so I prefer to serve it separately.

Recipe

Ingredients

Manchurian

• 12 - 15 small pieces of chicken, use boneless if you like
• Marinade 

• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

• Sauce
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 3 tbsp ketchup
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 -3 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• oil, as required
• salt, to taste
• Green chilli, for garnish, optional

Vegetable Stir-fry

• 250 gm Carrots, peeled and cubed
• 125 gm Capsicum, cubed
• 250 gm Potato, peeled, cubed and boiled
• 250 gm Cabbage, cubed
• 3 tbsp soya sauce
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• oil

Rice

• 2 cups rice
• 4 - 5 spring onion
• 2 chicken cubes
• Soya sauce, as required
• Oil

Others:
1/2 packet Spaghetti, boiled according to directions
Mayonnaise, for garnish
Ketchup, for garnish
Peanuts


Method

Manchurian

Put chicken and marinade ingredients in bowl. Mix thorughly and let the chicken marinate for 1 hour.
Heat some oil in a pan, put chicken and stir fry chicken , until it changes color. Remove chicken. In the same oil saute ginger and garlic paste. Add tomato puree, ketchup, soya sauce, brown sugar, red chili, and black pepper and mix. Reduce heat and cook for 2 - 3 minutes. Add salt and mix. Pour in the chicken stock, cook for a couple of minutes. Put the chicken and cook until chicken is tender (almost 10 mins or so). Thicken the sauce to your desired consistency. If you like garnish with fresh green chillies.

Vegetable Stir-fry

Heat oil in pan. Add all vegetables. Add the soya sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir to coat to vegetables, Cook for 5 - 6 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside.

Rice

Boil rice in salted water. In another pan, heat oil. Put chicken cubes and soya sauce. break chicken cubes to dissolve.Add finely sliced green onions and mix. Put boiled rice over the onion mixture. Dot with some soya sauce in 4 - 5 places. Heat a girdle and place the rice, covered on the girdle. Reduce flame to very low heat. After 10 - 15 minutes, fluff up rice, taking care to mix the green onion mixture thoroughly in rice. Use a light hand so as not to break the rice. Remove from heat.

Others

Heat some oil and fry peanuts. Set aside.

Assembling

Heat all the prepared parts of the recipe. Put rice in a serving platter. Put the vegetables over rice. Put the boiled spaghetti over the vegetables. Pour the Manchurian over spaghetti. Sprinkle the fried peanuts. Garnish with Mayonnaise or serve separately. Serve. Happy cooking !!!

Fried Chicken

Hello everyone after a looooong time. My blogs have been neglected for quite some time now. With business school, job and freelancing, most of my time was spent juggling between my role as a teacher and that as a student. During some days of stress, I woke up to realize, I don't remember what day of the week it is and where exactly do I have to go today. So now that I have a one month break from job (not from business school), I am back to continuing my journey in the kitchen and blogging about it.

This post also is different as after a long time I took the picture with my cell and not my proper camera, so please don't mind if it lacks on quality. I went through a bad system crash and lost most of my software when I did a factory reset (woes of technology :( )

Today I made some fried chicken. I found this recipe on a facebook page I follow. This recipe is very basic and easy, all ingredients can be readily found in every functional kitchen (mostly). Majority of the time is spent in marinating the chicken. Add the spices, put the chicken to rest and go clean your home, watch your favorite TV program or maybe just waste your time doing nothing. Salt and red chilli cab be adjusted to your taste in this recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

Marinade
1/2 kg chicken
1/2 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp red chilli
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp vinegar

Coating
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornflour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
pinch white pepper
1 egg

Dip
Mayonnaise, as required
Ketchup, as required

Mix all ingredients of the marinade except chicken. Prick chicken all over with a fork. Apply the marinade to chicken and leave to marinate for 4-5 hours.

Heat oil for deep frying. Mix dry ingredients of coating together and put them in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat egg with 1 tbsp water or milk.

Dip chicken pieces one by one in egg. Then coat well with flour mixture. Tap chicken piece to remove excess and put into hot oil. Reduce heat and let the chicken cook. After 10 minutes, turn chicken over with the help of serving tongs. Chicken will be cooked through in 15 - 20 minutes (almost 10 minutes on each side). Remove and place on paper towel to absorb oil.

Make dip by mixing any ratio of mayonnaise and ketchup. I prefer more ketchup than mayonnaise.

Serve fried chicken warm with french fries and the dip. Happy Cooking!!!

7-up cake

I saw the recipe for a 7up cake a number of times while browsing recipes over the net. The recipe always intrigued me, as the liquid content in it was 7up. 7up has a very distinct tangy taste. It also is very bubbly, and I was kind of fascinated by the use of 7up in a cake recipe.

On researching about this recipe, I found that there is not one but three different recipes that can be made with 7up. One is something like a pound cake. One uses instant pudding, and one uses coconut. I used the one that used a basic pound cake recipe.

The result was surprising. The cake was moist, slightly tangy, lemon flavored, not overly sweet. This is something I would definitely love to make (if only my family would buy me a small bottle of 7-up instead of the 1 litre one, that sits in the refrigerator and loses its tang in a couple of days). Do men in your family do that too, buy large amounts when a smaller quantity can suffice? This is a big problem in mine. I always get double the amount of any product I ask for :S.

Back to the cake, I even thought of the variations. What about a fanta cake or even a pakola one? But frankly speaking, the mere thought was revolting :O. So I am sticking to 7up for this recipe.

The glaze I used for this cake comes from The Guide to Cake Decoration by Lucienne Newman which is an amazing basic cake decoration book.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 eggs ( I beat one egg and use half of it, you can try using one yolk)
1 1/2 sifted cup flour
1 tsp lemon juice ( I didn't use it)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup of 7up

Glaze:
1 tbsp boiling water
5 rounded tbsp finely seived icing sugar
pinch vanilla powder

Preheat the oven at 180 c/ 350F.

In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat again.Fold in flour with a light hand, taking care not to lose all the incorporated air. Add lemon juice, vanilla and 7up and fold them in too.

Bake for 1 hr 30 min. Cool to room temperature. When the cake is cold enough make the glaze.

For the glaze: 

Mix the water and sugar in a bowl. The consistency would be thick but beatable. Stand the bowl in a saucepan containing 1 inch of hot water and stir continuously for a couple of minutes. The icing will become thinner with heat. More sugar should be added to maintain a coating consistency (it means that glaze should coat and slowly drop of the back of the spoon). Make sure not to overheat the glaze as it can become dry and crusty. The heat can be tested by removing the bowl from water and touching the base, which should never be too hot to handle. As soon as the desired consistency is reached, pour glaze over cake and spread quickly before glaze sets.

Serve.

(Pssssst, the cake tastes better the next day)

Happy baking!!!

Apple Pie

Apples are in season. Maybe apples are always in season. I am actually bad at keeping track of what comes in which season. For someone who loves to bake, that's actually a shame. My workaround? I ask my mom what will be available in the market before planning to experiment anything. I just might be known to ask for an unavailable fruit or vegetable and getting a hopeless sigh in return.

This is a pretty busy time of the year for me. If any of you know about my other blog Periodic Reflections (ok, I haven't told you about it, but go ahead take a look), you would know that I am studying at a business school. I also am on a full time job as a lecturer at a local private university. With my MBA hourlies next week, exams to invigilate at my workplace and then paper checking, life is kind of hectic. A girl needs something to cheer her up, doesn't she?

So I cheered myself with this easy apple pie (the recipe came from a facebook group). The crust isn't the traditional crust, which uses cold butter, iced water and delicate handling. This quick crust uses oil and cold milk, is used immediately and the pie is covered with a kind of crumbly top. The pie isn't too sweet, the crust turned out to be nice and flaky. I halved the recipe and baked it in a 6 inch pie plate. The apples can be cooked a little if you like a softer and sauce like pie filling.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp cold milk
1 1/2 tsp white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:

6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt

For the topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 F/ 180 C. Mix all ingredients of filling and keep aside.

Mix all ingredients of crust. They will come together to form a dough. Press the dough with fingers into a 9 inch pie dish. Pour the filling onto crust.

Mix all ingredients of topping. It will be a bit crumbly. Sprinkle it over the filling. Put in oven for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Serve warm or cold. Goes best with icecream. You can also serve it with whipped cream or caramel sauce.

Happy Baking!!!

Soft Cottage Cheese

I am back with another recipe, now going for a somewhat healthy option. Who says healthy and yummy don't go together? Cheese...it's good for health and tasty as well. Cottage cheese is a very basic form of cheese, which can easily be made at home. The recipe I am sharing here uses dry milk powder.

I have a very stron dislike for the gawale wala doodh, how much ever people stress upon its health benefit. For my non-desi readers gawale wala doodh is the raw milk that a milkman delivers at your doorstep or you can go and purchase it from a milk shop and it is supposedly fresh and healthy (I have objections to both descriptions). No offense meant, but it stinks. I can't bear the smell of this raw milk when it's heating up. I have always been a packaged milk loving person.

Somehow my family has gotten convinced that the packaged milk variety available in my country is not healthy enough, so the fall back product is dry milk powder.

You can use any dry milk powder for this recipe. I used the instant kind, and that is the only kind I know. If you know any non instant milk powder, you can also give it a try, but I can't guarantee results.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup hot water
3/4 cup dry milk powder
1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar (or fresh lemon juice)
Salt , to taste - optional

Put water and milk powder in a blender and blend until well mixed. Make sure there aren't any lumps in the mixture. Pour milk into a saucepan foam and all, and put on medium low heat. Pour vinegar slowly down the sides of the pan. Stir slowly and heat until curds separate from whey (it would take around 2- 3 minutes). Remove from heat. Let it sit for one minute. Pour into a colander or a muslin cloth. Wash first with hot water and then cold water. Remove all water by pressing the cheese with hands (in muslin cloth) or with the back of a spoon. Scoop out the cheese into a jar or a bowl. If it is too dry add a teaspoon or so of milk or buttermilk and mix.

Add salt if you like it. You can also add fresh herbs like parsley or corriander leaves . Enjoy on a toast for breakfast or on a salad for lunch. Store in refrigerator. Use with in 3 days.

Happy cooking!!!

Fruit yogurt

Fruit is healthy. So is yogurt. Combined together this dish should be healthy squared, right? I like to think so. Originally fruit yogurt is made with heavy cream. To make it healthy, I used milk. It turned out slightly runny, unlike the solid texture of the cream version. On the good side, it isn't as heavy as the cream one.

This fruit yogurt is a brilliant mixture of sweet and tart. You can use a fruit cocktail tin, or any fresh fruits that you like. Ok, not any, watermelon or persimmon might taste a bit weird in this fantastic yogurt base. So, yes, please avoid watermelon and persimmons, maybe a couple of other fruits whose name I can't remember right now. I used fresh bananas and mangoes.

This isn't overly sweet; the sweet content can be adjusted by changing the amount of condensed milk. This can be a healthy breakfast, or in my case, an after dinner sweet dish.

300 gm of yogurt (more if needed)
1 packet jelly (preferably strawberry or pineapple, but mango works too)
1/2 tin of condensed milk (around 200gm)
Fruit, as required
1/2 cup milk

Mix all ingredients except fruit and milk. Add milk in small quantities until desired consistency is reached. Add fruit and refrigerate for several hours. Serve. Dwell in the heavenly bliss.

Enjoy!!!

Dhokla - A gujrati dish

Baker's Canvas is back after a long break (with another vow to be more regular) and wishes her readers a Happy Ramazan. The month of Ramazan is here and a whole new set of cookery begins in this month, the preparation of Sehri and Iftar. So what is one dish that you can't do without on your table for Sehri and Iftar?

I introduce here the Dhokla, a very beautiful name for a scrumptious Gujrati dish, which can be served at Iftar. Originally, dhoklas are steamed in a basin of water. I tried to find out whether it can be baked or not, but the best teacher is experience, so here is the baked version of Dhokla. I'll include the steaming method as well, but since I haven't tried it myself, so no guarantee if it works or not, even though there is plenty of evidence in Gujratis that it does work. Even my quest on the baked dhokla among Gujrati friends came up with the answer that they always steam it.

The recipe is adapted from Manjula's Kitchen.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

1 cup sooji (semolina flour)
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup water as needed
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of turmeric (haldi)
1 green chili finely chopped
2 ttbsp fine chopped cilantro (hara dhania)
1 tsp baking soda

Seasoning (The bhagar or tarka):
2 tbsp of oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seed
2 green peppers chopped into about 1/4 inch pieces

Mix the sooji, yogurt, salt, lemon juice, green chili, and cilantro together in a bowl and make a smooth batter; add more water if needed. Mix well so that there are no lumps and the batter is of pouring consistency. Allow batter to rest for an hour.

After 50 minutes (of resting batter), preheat oven at 150 C/300 F. Grease a cake pan and set aside.

After the batter has rested for an hour, add the baking soda and mix. The batter will foam up. Quickly pour into the cake pan and put in the preheated oven. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until done (a skewer inserted comes out clean ). It may take more depending on your oven. When done, let cool to room temperature, cut dhokla into diamonds or triangles.

Prepare seasoning. Heat oil and add the mustard seed and green chilli. Heat until aromatic. Pour over the dhokla. Serve with green mint chutney.

Dhokla can be refrigerated, before serving heat dhokla in microwave oven.

Steam method:

While the dhokla batter is resting take a pan larger than the cake pan. Put a cooling rack (or a small bowl of the same height) in the pan, pour some water (should just reach touch the top of rack or bowl) and bring it to boil. Reduce heat to medium. Mix baking soda in the batter, pour in cake pan and place pan over the cake rack or bowl. Cover the complete setup so as not to let the steam escape. Cook for 10 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Follow rest of the steps as above.

Happy Ramazan!!!