Here I am!

So, yes, it's been like decades since I posted something here! What can I say? Still, to the point of sounding very cliched, I do have to say that too much has been happening in my life lately. For starters, we had our baby, then got totally into the 'what-just-happened' phase where everything was so overwhelming! Then when I slowly started getting it, we moved house. Then there was more of that overwhelming feeling with at least a few dozens of cartons waiting to be opened and things inside to be put away, all while managing to maintain the routine that we had painstakingly set up for our Little Miss. Phew! Talk about growing up, it kind of suddenly happened in our lives I guess :)

In the midst of all this, I still cooked. And sometimes made some yummy, really nice things. But as usual, I did not take pictures and write down recipes. Like I had the energy and patience, didn't I just finish whinging? And then slowly, the strong creative juices, bottled somewhere deep inside my soul, started oozing out to the surface and I did make it a point to take some impromptu pictures on my (new buddy) iPad. 'I'll blog about it later', I'd say to myself as I clicked a few pictures before things went on a plate and into our (waiting) tummies.

Here's something I made when we had friends over on a Saturday night - Black Forest Cake. I'd never thought I'd attempt to make it at home, something we always bought from a bakery for Birthdays and Anniversaries. But then I thought I'd try it myself when I saw how easy Madhura made it look. Actually, I had stocked my pantry with everything I needed and had planned to make it when a good friend had come to stay with us with her little darling kids. But sadly, the big baking project was doomed right at the beginning when the base chocolate cake gave way and cracked right in the middle as my heart let out an exasperated sigh. So we just salvaged the crumbly cake and ate it as is.

But the next time I was careful. I started by baking two round chocolate cakes, then carefully sliced them into two, so ended up with four layers of basic chocolate cake, waiting to be transformed into the much-loved Black Forest cake. You could make the chocolate cakes from scratch, but I cheated and used cake mix. If I can do it, so can you. Here are the other things you'll need -

• Cherries in syrup (or fresh cherries and then some cherry liqueur, mmmm)
• Thickened cream, the kind suitable for whipping
• Icing sugar
• A bar of chocolate

Once your layers are ready, drizzle a couple of tablespoons of cherry syrup all over them so they turn nice and juicy.

Next start assembling your cake, preferably on a cake pedestal.

Whip cream and icing sugar until fluffy and stiff enough to spread. The amount of cream and sugar is entirely up to you and depends on how much you want to slather on your cake (yum!). I used about 2 jars of 300mls thickened cream and about 3/4 cup icing sugar.

Now simply layer all the slices with a generous spread of whipped cream between each layer.

Once you put the last layer on top, cover the entire cake with whipped cream. Top with cherries and grated/shaved chocolate. You could go all over the cake, the sides and everything with grated chocolate, but I couldn't get how to do it without it looking messy. Then again, who cares right? Messy or perfect, chocolate and whipped cream? You could never go wrong :) As you see in my picture, I do need some serious cake decorating lessons :) But the cake? Oh-so-delicious! And the gooey feeling in your heart that it is home-baked is absolutely awesome! This turned out to be a rather tall cake with some really gigantic slices, but no one's complaining :)

Classic, all-time favourite!

There are some dishes I can eat every day of my life, if I have to. Classics that never go off the 'favourites' list. One of them is this simple, really quick Balekai fry (sauteed cooking bananas, the green ones). An all time favourite and for me, best eaten with hot plain rice and ghee. Maybe some clear rasam (Indian lentil and tomato soup) as well...Just like it used to be at Amma's :)

Here's how I make it. Try it and chances are it'll creep into your 'favourites' list too, if it isn't already there :)

Get a couple of green cooking bananas. Pick fairly firm ones and avoid the ones that have a slight yellowish tinge to them (which means they're probably ripening). If you live in Aussie land, you can find them at most fresh fruit 'n' veggie stores or your local Indian store.
Then, wash and peel them. Try not to take off too much of the insides while you peel. Just lightly run your knife down the sides and get rid of the fibrous green skin.
Now slice each banana in half and then quarter. Next, slice into bite sized wedges, neither too thin nor thick. Make sure the pieces are somewhat similar sized to ensure even and fast cooking.
Then heat about a tablespoon of oil in a pan or wok (non-stick works really well). Once the oil is hot, add 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard seeds and let them crackle. Next add 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin, a pinch of hing (asafotieda) and a pinch of turmeric. Also add in some fresh curry leaves (yum!). 
Tip in the sliced banana and give it a good mix so that they are coated well with the tempering.
Saute, uncovered until the bananas are well cooked. Somewhere in between the cooking process, add salt and chilli powder to taste and mix well. You should be aiming for them to turn out sort of crispy, sort of tender, well cooked and well flavoured. This really shouldn't take very long, say about 10 - 15mins.
You could cover the pan to speed up the cooking process, but I don't like to do that as the whole dish tends to get a bit soggy.

Do make sure it is well cooked. Under cooked green bananas are notorious for not-so-pleasant tummy issues :)

This is a great dish to serve on the side if you're cooking a south Indian feast.
Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Fries (in the oven)

Hey there! Trust everyone's been cooking well and eating well :)
As you may already know, Pinterest.com can be a serious addiction! I may have to sign up for Pinterst-aholics Anonymous soon. (Of course, someone is bound to come up with that soon!) Meanwhile all is well at the inspiration land, so much to see, so much to admire and quite a bit to try as well. Like these super awesome sweet potato fries. KFC had them for a limited time and I was in love. And there was this one time we ate at a nice cafe-restaurant kind of place and we ordered their hand-cut sweet potato fries which were really delish. So it's small wonder that I tried them at home the same evening I saw it on Pinterest. Got to love Pinterest! They turned out so great! (Unfortunately, I don't have a record of the blog I found the recipe from).

It's super easy. All you have to do is get yourself a sweet potato (or two) and wash it thoroughly. You'll be leaving the skin on so it's important to clean it very well and get rid of any dirt on it. Then simply cut them into sort of chunky slices and place in a bowl. Drizzle a wee bit of olive oil all over it. In another little bowl, prepare your spice mix - now I used paprika, salt and cumin powder. You could use anything you like, although my spice mixture tasted really good in the end :-)

Now place the chips on an oven tray (you may want to line it with foil first) and put into a preheated oven at 180 deg. Leave to cook for about 20 minutes, but keep checking on them as oven temperatures and cooking times may vary. When you take them out after they're done, they should be kind of crispy, kind of soft, kind of sweet 'n' salty...mmmm, you get the idea!

We had ours with home-made pizza, yum!

An exciting medley of flavours!

Baby in bed - check
Movie to watch - check
Yummy dinner with minimum effort - check

That Friday night was a treat for us! 

It all began over coffee 'n' scone late that afternoon. Having just come back from India, husby and I were rambling about all the eating we had done there. Our (at least mine) taste buds hadn't yet accepted that the holiday was over, and the scone wasn't doing anything for me. I needed something tangy, something with that punch, you know? And husby was not willing to drive me all the way to Parramatta, 'just for a plate of chat', in his words. He tried reasoning it out, pointing out that the traffic would be mad that time of the day and most importantly the (tennis) match would begin at 7 something. Pah! Anyway, he did promise to take me there the next day though. But 'tomorrow' wasn't good enough for me, I wanted chat and that was it.
So then of course we stopped by at the Indian store, picked up a couple of things so I could make it all at home and headed back home with a happy and convinced husby. And that's how that Friday night was a treat :) I made bhel puri and papdi chat for dinner and we watched Nanban, while baby slept peacefully, oh bless her!

Not that it is a very elaborate procedure for me to actually blog about it...it's just a simple assembly once you have all the ingredients ready! Everything, you should be able to get easily at an Indian grocery store. Also, there is no set quantity/measurement or anything, just go by what you like. Easy peasy :) Here's what I used -

• store bought papdi
• store bought tamarind chutney (you could make your own)
• store bought green chilly chutney
• ok...so I'll stop saying 'store bought' :-)
• fine sev
• yogurt
• finely chopped onion
• finely chopped tomato
• grated carrot
• finely chopped fresh coriander
• finely chopped cucumber (optional)
• boiled and mashed potato

Method (like there is one, sheesh!)

1. Take out your favourite plate (how big or small is up to you)
2. Arrange (whole, undamaged) papdis in one layer, all over the plate
3. Top with rest of the ingredients, starting with onion, boiled potatoes, carrot, tomato, some tamarind chutney, green chutney and yogurt. 
4. Finally sprinkle chopped coriander and a generous amount of sev.
5. Enjoy!

And the best part is, all the stuff you bought will last for at least a couple of more chat episodes :)

I found time to bake!

Hello hello! I'm still cooking, so I'm alive :-)
With Little Miss' arrival I have hardly been in the kitchen for more than 15 minutes at a stretch, during which I manage to cook some one pot wonder to keep the hard working husband (and myself) well fed.
So the other day I was mighty pleased with myself 'cause I baked this yummy fruit cake/bread. With Little Miss napping peacefully, I was surfing the Internet and generally looking at some recipe videos when I stumbled upon this. So easy! And I had all the ingredients at home, yay! So I baked it right away and when husby darling called out 'Honey, I'm home' that evening, I was super excited to serve him a nice big slice with some hot coffee. Of course, saving a couple of slices was quite a challenge as I'd already started gobbling up pieces of the hot bread, straight out of the oven! I say pieces because I had no patience to let it cool before I could make, how shall I say...civilised slices of it. So I just literally tore it off and popped the still hot pieces into my mouth. A serrated knife works best, by the way and wait it cools down before you slice it. If you want it to look pretty, that is. If you can't be bothered then just do what I did. I'm pretty sure you will :-) Okay, enough said. Here's the recipe. You don't really need to have a degree in aeronautical engineering or something to figure out that this recipe has five cups of something, duh! So here's what you need, a cup of each -

1. self raising flour (I only had plain flour, so I just added 2 tspns of baking powder to it)
2. sugar
3. milk
4. chopped fruits 'n' nuts (I used sultanas, cashews, almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds)
5. dessicated coconut

Actually, you only need about 1/2 a cup of sugar or so, but you know, '5 cups recipe' sounds too cute. I mean '4.5 cups fruit cake' would only sound silly :-)

So then, you sift the flour (and baking powder if you're using plain flour) into a large bowl and add all other ingredients. Mix well with a wooden spoon and pour the (rather thick) mixture into a loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180deg (oven settings may vary) for about 40-45 minutes. That's it, really :-)

So go on, bake this super easy cake, cut a nice chunky slice for yourself, make a nice cuppa and sit back and enjoy! Ah, a blissful moment for me indeed!

I'm here!

Considering that I baked these cookies during Christmas last year, this post is long overdue...way too long! Well, what can I say? I've been so preoccupied lately that my dear little cooking blog has been totally neglected :(
I have been cooking though, more so now that I haven't blogged here for a while - what an irony! I wish I had had the patience and the enthusiasm to take pictures and journal all those recipes I tried and that turned out well. Well...I didn't, so nothing much I can do about it now. So I thought I'd slowly get back to blogging and decided to post about these cookies :)

Recipe Source: Nicko's Kitchen

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 200gms butter
• icing sugar + water + food colour (as desired)

Simply mix the first three ingredients to form a soft dough. Roll out into medium thick sheets and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a cookie tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for about 20mins (check to see they don't over bake and burn).
Have fun decorating them!

It's 2011!!

Hello there! 2011 is here and I don't have any new posts on my blog!! Appalling! I need to focus and manage my time better...
Anyway, hope the new year has started off well with all of you.
I will be back soon!