Divine Orange Cup Cakes with Orange Apricot Marmalade

On the 5th of March was one of my close friend's birthday and incidentally, I totally forgot about it! Sometime that afternoon, my pet friend, Facebook reminded me! I was then wondering what do I do for her. My basic instincts took over and I decided to bake! I have dried and powdered orange rind just for such special occasions! I love oranges and since they are so in season now, I decided to make orange cup cakes!

And yes when I do things impromptu, they always turn out delicious or the best! So here it is, I guess my best batch of cupcakes ever!

For this you will need -

200 gms - Flour
200 gms - Sugar
1 1/2 tspn - Baking Powder
110 gms - Unsalted Butter
1/4 tspn - Salt (If using salted butter, omit this)
2 Nos - Eggs
1 full pod - Vanilla (If you don't have this, 1 tspn - Vanilla Extract)
120 ml - Yogurt
3 tspns - Powdered Orange Rind
Juice of half an orange

Orange- Apricot Marmalade for filling


Method -

Ensure all the ingredients are at room temperature.
In a bowl, take the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt (if using). Mix well with a wire whisk. Now add the butter and beat well till it is completely incorporated. Now add the eggs, one by one and beat each time. Add the vanilla extract/pure vanilla, orange rind and juice of orange. Mix with wire whisk. Finally add the yogurt and beat for a couple of minutes till it forms an airy cake mixture.

Pour this into cup molds lined with paper cups. Make sure you fill only half or two thirds of the paper cup, not more than that.

This mixture makes about 15 cup cakes. Bake at 180 deg C for 20 - 25 minutes. A fork inserted should come out with a few crumbs of cake, this means they are ready. These cup cakes don't actually forma golden brown top, so don't wait for that too happen. If you do, you may end up with burnt cakes.
Take them out and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Then scoop out the center of the cup cakes.

I had this incredibly divine Sarabeth's orange apricot marmalade. It is simply the best! If you can get it from New York, please do. Thanks to my brother, I had it! Now pour 2 tspns of the marmalade in the center and voila, you have with you a moist gooey centered delicious cup cake!

You can substitute with any other marmalade or jam or even plain cream with orange rind in it!

Chicken Chettinad

Chettinad cuisine originates from a region in the state of Tamil Nadu in the south of India. These people are known to ge great tradesmen and with their trade, their food travelled. Today, it is considered to be one of the spiciest and earthiest of cuisines. They use a variety of spices and specialise in non-vegetarian cooking.

I got this recipe from a TV travel show, where the host actually went to one of the tiny restaurants in the Chettinad region and got the recipe from the chef himself. I guess this is as authentic as it gets until someday I meet a chef from that region and check if indeed this is authentic :)

For this you will need -

250 gms - Chicken (It should be with bone, but here I've used bonelss as that's what I had that day!)
1/2 inch - Ginger
5 pods - Garlic
3-4 nos - Red Chillies
1 tspn - Fennel Seeds
1 tspn - Cumin Seeds
2 tspn - Black Pepper Seeds  (Add depending on how spicy you want it to be)
2-3 - Cloves (Add depending on how spicy you want it to be)
1 inch - Cinnamon Stick
1 tspn - Cumin Seeds (Into the oil)
2 nos - Onions (Chopped fine)
5-6 nos - Curry Leaves
1 no - Tomato (Chopped fine)
1 tspn - Turmeric Powder
2 tbspn - Oil
Salt as per your taste


Method -

Wash the chicken thoroughly and keep aside.

Grind all the ingredients from ginger to cinnamon to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a wok. Add the cumin seeds and then the curry leaves. Now add the chopped onions and allow to turn golden brown. Then add the ground paste and fry for a few minutes. Then add the chopped tomato and the turmeric powder. Fry till the tomato softens and then add the salt. Now add the chicken pieces one by one and allow the masala to coat each of them. Fry for 4-5 minutes and then add hot water till you get a gravy like consistency. Close and cook till chicken is tender. Garnish with coriander and serve.

The leftover, if at all, can be used as a delicious pizza topping! That's what I did!

 

C3 Cake with a surprise!

Ha ha! Wondering what three Cs have I used?! Well, Carrot (Yes it is), Coconut and Chocolate! And the surprise, read below! Some very different ingredients but turns out to be one delicious thingummy :)

For this you will need -

3 Nos - Eggs
200 gm - Flour
100 gms - Dessicated Coconut
150 gms - Sugar
5 Tbspns - Oil ( Any odourless one)
150 gms - Grated Carrot
50 ml - Milk
1 tspn - Vanilla Extract
1 tspn - Baking Soda
100 gms - Dark Chocolate (Cut into big cubes/chunks)

Method -

Grease the cake tin and sprinkle flour all over. Keep aside.

Take the eggs in a bowl. And whisk them well. Now add the sugar and oil. Beat this for a minute. Now add the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate, one by one and keep on mixing, till you get a batter that looks like this.

 

 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Now press the chunks of chocolate into the batter with a spoon at various places. Basically scatter it and press enough so they are hidden inside. So when the cake bakes you will have melted chocolate surprise in your mouth!!

 

Bake this in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 30 mins or till a fork inserted comes out clean.
If you want dust with dessicated coconut and icing sugar. I didn't do that, didn't have time that day. Had to rush this to a friend's place, so took it straight out of the oven and dashed to the car!

All the photos of the baked cake are taken by my friend Manogna Reddy. Click to see more great pictures from her!



 

Bas saaru, palya (Spicy sweet broth with a stir fry)

Last Sunday's veggie shopping turned out to be a happy coincidence! I was just talking to my friend earlier in the week and whining that we don't get as many greens in Hyderabad as I used to in Banaglore and on Sunday, I find honagonne soppu (Kannada) ! I was super thrilled as this wonderful green leafy weed is delicious and a staple of the famers in Karnataka.

It's called ponnanganni keerai in Tamil, ponnangantikura in Telugu, ponnankannikira in Malayalam, Garundi in Hindi, sesiile joyweed/dwarf copperleaf in English!

What is made from these leaves is basically a broth with lentils and the actually greens and the lentil is stir fried and served with the broth. In Kannada we call the broth "bas saaru" (basiyodu - strain the liquid, saaru - broth) and the stir fry "palya".

Bas saaru Recipe -

4-5 Tbspn - Toor Dal ( Bengal Gram)
150 - 200 gms - Honagonne soppu ( You need to take only the leaves, stalk only if it is tender, else discard)
3 Tspns - Oil
1 No - Onion
3-4 Pods - Garlic
3 Tspn - Sambhar Powder
2 Tspns - Poppy seeds
3 Tbspns - Grated Coconut/Cut into small pieces
8 No - Curry Leaves
A pinch of asfoetida
Jaggery as per your taste
Salt as per your taste

Method -

Soak the toor dal for half an hour. Wash the leaves thouroughly. Now pressure cook the leaves wth the dal and ample amount of water (2-3 cups). Just give two whistles only. Now strain the liquid from the dal and leaves. Keep it in that codition till it completely cools and all the liquid is collected separately.
Grind the onions, garlic, sambhar powder, poppy seeds,

coconut, curry leaves and asfoetida into a fine paste with water.

Now the take a shallow pan with oil in it and add the ground paste and give it a good stir. Then add the broth and once it begins to boil, add salt and jaggery. Taste till you find what seems perfect to your taste buds.

The saaru/broth is ready!

Palya Recipe -

3 Tspns - Oil
1 Tspn - Mustard Seeds
4-5 Nos - Curry Leaves
3 Nos - Green Chillies
Dal + Leaves
Salt as per your taste
A litte bit of jaggery
2 Tspns - Red Chilli Powder (Optional)

Take the leaves and the dal which is now devoid of any liquid. Heat some oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and wait for it to splutter. Now add a few curry leaves and the slit green chillies. After a minute, add the leaf dal combo and finally salt and a dash of jaggery. If you want it to be a little spicy, you can add some red chilli powder as well.

Serve hot with rice or raagi mudde (raagi balls) and raw onions!

Coffee Cinnamon Cake

I am not a daily caffeine addict but yes I do need my dose every once in a while. I love it in any form, hot filter coffee/mocha/cappuccino or cold iced and flavoured! But most of all I love coffee desserts. Here's one of my recipes that infuses a cake with the aromatic coffee and the sweet cinnamon!

For this you will need -

1 Cup - 225 gms

1/2 Cup - Butter (Unsalted)
3 Cups - Flour
3 Nos - Eggs
3 Tspn - Baking Powder
1 Cup - Powdered Sugar
1/2 Tspn - Salt
1 Tspn - Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tspn - Baking Soda
1 1/2 Cup - Yoghurt
1 Tbspn  - Coffee Powder
1 Tspn - Cinnammon Powder
3 Tbspns  - Coarsely ground mixture of nuts (cashews/almonds/pistachios) and sugar

9 inch round cake tin

Method -

Grease the cake tin with butter and sprinkle flour and keep it ready. Mix the coffee powder, cinnamon powder and the nuts mixture to form a aromatic mix.

Blend 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature with the eggs, one at a time. Do this till you get a yellow ribbony consistency. Then add the cup of sugar and the vanilla extract and blend again.

Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt and sieve thrice. To this add 2 tspns of coffee powder.

Add the baking soda to the yoghurt and keep aside. It'll immediately begin to froth.

Now add the flour and the yoghurt mixture alternately to the egg mixture and fold all the ingredients.

Now pour half the batter into the tin. Then sprinkle the aromatic mix over the batter.

 

 

Pour the remaining batter and bake at 180 deg C for 30 - 35 minutes.

 

 

 



You will get a moist fluffy cake with a crunchy cinnamony coffilicious layer in the middle :)
 

Tomato Salsa

The perfect accomapaniment to the Capsicum-Carom seed rice is this! Fresh, light and crunchy!

For this you will need -

2 Nos - Onions ( fine chopped)
3 Nos - Tomatoes ( fine chopped)
1 No - Green Capsicum (fine chopped)
1 No - Red Capsicum (fine chopped)
2 tbspns - Roasted Peanuts
3 tbspns - Tomato Ketchup
2 tspns - Black Pepper powder
2 tspn - Vegetable Oil
Salt as per your taste

Method -

Heat the oil in a pan and add half of teh chopped onions and tomatoes. Cook till they are soft and mushy. Take it off the heat and allow to cool. Now add the remaining raw onions, tomatoes, capsicums (green and red). Toss them nicely. Add the salt, papper and the ketchup. Give it a good mix. Finally add the roasted peanuts. This gives a super crunch and a great flavour!
 

Capsicum - Carom seeds Rice

I know it's been really long since I updated my blogs. I have been travelling and been really busy with other important stuff, so sincere apologies. Let's not waste any more lines and dive straight into this aromatic and delicious rice recipe.

For this you will need -

250gms  - Basmati Rice
1 tbspn - Oil ( Non odour )
3 Nos - Medium sized Green Capsicum
1 tspn - Carom Seeds (Ajwain/Ohm seeds)
3-4 Nos - Green Chillies
1 cube - Veg Maggie Superseasoning (You will get this in all supermarkets)
100 gms - Fresh Paneer (Cottage Cheese) cubes
2 tspn - Ginger -garlic paste
Salt as per your taste

Method -

Wash and soak the basmati for atleast half an hour. Deseed the capsicums and smear oil on the outside. Now microwave them for 3-4 minutes, till it decolours. Or you could char them on the stove top, for a slightly burnt flavour.

Once cooled, add this, carom seeds, one cube of maggie superseasoning and green chillies to the blender and blend to a smooth paste.

Take a pressure cooker. Heat the oil and once hot, add the ginger - garlic paste, soaked rice, without the water and the ground paste. Fry for a couple of minutes. Then add salt, water equal to the amount of rice taken. That is if you have one cup of rice, add one cup of water. Close the lid and give three whistles. Once the pressure is gone, add the paneer cubes and mix well. Keep the lid closed and serve hot.