Easycooking

Sunday, July 31, 2011

One-Bowl Triple Vanilla Cupcakes

It is turning out to be more difficult than I imagined to get back to blogging,baking and cooking in general.I think a 'home' holiday does that to you.I am still mentally stuck at my home in Ekm,with my baby boo[bro's kid] and family around.Luckily,I had a few posts in my drafts to see me through the so-called blogger's block.

Lack of anything 'nice' to eat made me bake these cupcakes.The name itself says it all.It is a one-bowl cupcake with minimal fuss.You throw couple of ingredients together in a bowl and tada,your cupcakes would be ready.By the time I started to put everything together,I got excited and decided to use my precious Vanilla beans that I had stashed away in my cupboard.

Using just one vanilla bean,these cupcakes can be turned into triple vanilla cupcakes and you'd end up with a cupcake with a highly pronounced vanilla flavour,which is so different from the regular cupcakes.
One-Bowl Triple Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients[makes 18 cupcakes]

Butter - 125 gms,unsalted-at room temperature
Powdered Sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla bean - 1,cut into half lengthwise using a sharp knife and scrape the seeds
Flour - 1 1/2 cups [I used Cake flour]

Baking powder - 2 1/2 tsp

Eggs - 3 [I used 2 and the cupcakes turned out just fine]
Milk - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.Grease/line a cupcake tin.
Powder the sugar with the used vanilla bean to get vanilla sugar.Sieve and keep aside.
Sift together flour and baking powder.
Cream the butter and powdered sugar along with the scraped vanilla seeds for a minute.
Add the flour,eggs,milk and vanilla essence and beat on low speed till everything gets mixed.Beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes till the batter becomes pale and fluffy.
Divide the batter equally among the cupcake moulds and bake for 20-25 minutes or till the cupcakes become golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack and dust with powdered vanilla sugar before serving.

*Recipe courtesy - Lakshmi Nair

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Methi Thepla/Paratha

Though I love Methi,I totally detest the task of cleaning the leaves.Ever since I started making this pulao,methi makes a very regular appearance during our vegetable shopping.I finally sat with the bunch one morning while watching a Mohanlal movie on tv.I was hoping the movie would see me through the cleaning process,but the multitude of ads made sure I finished the task even before the interval!

I've been meaning to make Methi thepla/paratha ever since Raks posted this on her blog.I remember tasting it at a friends' place and was hoping to recreate the taste.I looked around for a few recipes and found that though all the recipes sounded very similar,every recipe had a unique ingredient very different from the other.So while one made use of Dried Methi leaves/Kasoori methi,one made it with the addition of banana.This recipe uses Besan and this one used ginger and garlic!

I followed Raks' recipe mostly and should say it came out very close to the one I had tasted.Though it did not score any marks in the looks department,I am still wondering why it didn't come out round:-O,it tasted great.I served it with some Raita and Mango Chundo and it made for a very delicious meal.

Methi Thepla/Paratha

Ingredients

Atta/Whole wheat flour - 2 cups

Methi leaves - 1 cup,loosely packed

Besan/Channa dal flour - 2 tbsp

Sambhar powder - 2 tsp[or a mix of red chilly powder and coriander powder]

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Haldi/turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 3-4 tbsp

Buttermilk* - as required to make the dough

Method

Cut off the methi leaves from the stem using a kitchen scissor-makes the job much easier,clean and roughly chop it.Saute the cleaned leaves in a non stick kadai till it slightly changes in colour and reduces in volume.
Add the sauteed leaves along with all the other ingredients in a shallow pan and mix well to form a dough.Start with 4-5 tbsps of buttermilk and add more if required.
Knead for a few minutes to form a soft and pliable dough.
Make equal sized golf-ball sized balls and thinly roll into a round shape or whichever shape you fancy;).
Heat a tava and add a tsp of oil and cook the thepla on both sides till it is well cooked and starts browning.

Notes

*I used around half a cup of yogurt diluted with a couple of tbsps water to make the dough.
Methi thepla/paratha has a higher shelf life which makes it ideal travel food.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

I love your Blog - Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen

There was a time when I hopped on to the internet and searched..and searched..and kept searching for easy cake recipes.That was the time when I was still taking baby steps in blogging and had got myself an oven.Armed with a few trusted recipes,I kept searching for easy baking recipes I could try out in my kitchen.'Quick Blender Cake' sounded quick and easy and try-able.I wrote down the recipe in my cookbook and decided to try it out.

To this day I haven't tried the recipe.Nothing wrong with the recipe,far from it.I was hooked to the blog and the other recipes in it and kept bookmarking one recipes after the other and the first recipe went down further in the long list.Here's one among my immediately-try list-

One-Bowl Vanilla Yellow Cake

Yes,I am talking about Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen.One look at her blog and you'll get mesmerized with the pictures she takes and her way of writing.In fact,once I openly admitted to her that someday,I'd love to take pictures like she does--simple,no-nonsense,precise and clear.In this post,the prep pictures look so pretty,don't you think?

Eggless Spiced Cranberry & Chocolate Bread Pudding with a Lime-Vanilla Sauce

Aparna started the blog to feature Palakkad Iyer cuisine,but as the name of her blog states,it is much more than that.Her repertoire of recipes include Kerala specialties,Palakkad Cuisine,North Indian fare and much more.She bakes extensively and even says people mistake her blog to be a baking blog!!No wonder!!She has a knack of turning baking recipes into eggless ones as she is not very fond of eggy smells in her bakes.Like this one-

Figolli-Eggless Version

Every post of her's comes with a detailed history about the recipe,the ingredients used the method of cooking etc.Just goes on to show how much time and effort she puts in every single post.Here's an example,where she has made Rasgulla from scratch!

Rasgulla & Rasmalai

As much as she loves trying out different cuisines,she says she's a South Indian by heart and like every Southie she loves pickles and dedicated one entire day to try out pickles from different cuisines.There's Avakkai,Stuffed Chilli Pickle,Lime pickle and many more and she makes it all look so easy!Check out this post and you'll know how!

Pickle Mania:)

As she says,her recipes are a good mix of traditional Iyer cuisine as well as International fare.Either ways,the recipes are well-researched and tried out.Like this Nombu adai which is typical festival fare.

Kaaradayain Nombu Adai

I have tried out many a recipes from her blog.All have come out well though please do not compare the picture quality:)

Coffee and Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies