Valentine days special Chocolate cake

Friends, I think you have noticed that I did not post any baked item in my blog so far because I was not having OTG in my home.Yesterday My hubby brought a new OTG for me seeing my passion for cooking.. It was really a pleasant surprise for me.Today morning I thought of inaugurating that by preparing any dish on that and so I started with making the simplest form of a cake using available ingredients left in my kitchen as I couldn't resist myself anymore from trying my culinary experiments on that. I usually make this type of cake in pressure cooker but it came out so nice in OTG that I got impressed by its spongy look and lovely taste and I succeeded in giving my hubby the first oven baked cake. He loved it very much. So this recipe is definitely dedicated to my dear hubby. Thanks a lot dear .. Happy Valentines day.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour 1 cup
Sugar 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder 2 tsp
Baking powder 1tsp
Butter 3 tbsp
Eggs 2
Milk 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Raisins 20 gms
Cashew 20 gms

Almond 20 gms

Method:
1.In a large bowl beat melted butter and sugar together with a wire whisk until it become light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs and beat continuously.
3.Mix Flour, baking powder and Cocoa powder together and add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture and mix thoroughly in one direction so as to

avoid formation of air bubbles.Add some milk in small amount to make it smooth batter.
4. Add vanilla essence and again mix thoroughly.
5 Grease the baking pan with butter and pour the mixture into it. Spread dry fruits (cashew, almond and raisins) on the top.
6 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Now bake the cake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool the cake for 10 minutes before inverting on to a serving tray. Decorate it with chocolate frosting it or chocolate syrup.

Alu Kabli/ Aloo chat

Street foods are always tempting everyone's
taste buds and makes you drool when you view
it at roadside chaat stalls. Aloo Kabli or aloo
chaat is one of the famous Bengali chaats which
is easily available on roadside chaat stall served
specially in a dry leaf bowl. It actually reminds me of my childhood days when I was not allowed to eat chaat or other roadside food as chaats are junk food made unhygienically but we could never resist ourselves from having a bowl of aloo kabli at our neighborhood chaat stall.Even now when I get a glimpse of it anywhere I cant restrict my temptation to have it right away. I prepare this chaat most often for my kid without adding chili as she also likes this very much.

Aloo Kabli is an amazing hot and tangy combination made of potato and chana (Black gram) with the aroma of Green chili mixed with lemonjuice and fresh coriander leaves.

Ingredients:

Chickpea 1/4 cup
Potato 250 gms
Onion 1 (chopped)
Lemon 1
Red chili powder 1tsp
Cumin powder 1tsp
Green chili 2-3 (chopped)
Coriander leaves
Method:

1.Soak the Chana(black gram) overnight. Boil it adding a teaspoon of salt. Drain off water and keep aside.

2.Boil the potatoes without taking out its peel (potato should not be over boiled). Now peel it out and cut into small cubes.

3. Add red chili powder, roasted cumin powder along with the onions, green chili and
salt mix well. Take care so that potato piece remain intact.

4. Spread chana, lemon juiceand chopped coriander leaves. Toss it so that it gets evenly mixed with the potatoes.

Serve in a bowl and garnish with coriander
leaves.

This recipe is going for the Kids delight event in Srivalli's blog.

Chana Masala (Chhole masala)

Chhole Masala is an authentic north Indian dish which is actually chickpea simmered in a rich tomato based curry with aroma of authentic Indian spices. The recipe is very simple yet it taste delicious.

Ingredients:

Chickpea (Kabuli chana)250 gms (soaked overnight)
Onion 1 (paste)
Ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
Cumin seed 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1 tsp

Coriander powder 1 tsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Tomatoes puree 1/2 cup.
Red Chilli pwder 1 tspo
Garam masala 1 tsp
Salt as per taste

Sugar 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves.

Method:

1. In a pressure cooker. Add soaked chana,1 cup of water and salt and pressure cook it for about 20 minute in low flame. Now drain of the water and keep the chana aside.

2. In a large pan heat oil. Add cumin seeds.Now add onion paste and saute them til become golden yellow. Now add ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder and saute for about 5 minutes. Fry the masala until the oil get separated from it.
3. Add tomatoes puree and saute again. Now add boiled chana, salt and sugar and mix it thoroughly. Add garam masala, cover it and let it cook for another 5 minute in low flame.
4. Finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves and chopped onion.

5. Serve hot with Naan or Roti.

Imarti

Since I started blogging after a long pause, I will start this sweet beginning with a sweet post. Hope you all will like it.

Imarti is a very popular sweet which is available in all sweet shop. It is basically a variant of 'Jalebi' in which Urad dal batter is used in place of flour. Imarti are usually drier than Jalebi and the shape is also different which is often a small ring in the middle and around which the pattern is made geometrically. Though it is very popular sweet we usually don't try this at home as it is readily available everywhere. Few days back I even didn't know that it is made of urad daal before I got to know from one of my friend. Then thought of giving it a try after seeing the design of the ready made ones and believe me in my first try itself, it came out very nice. though look wise it may be not as perfect as the ready made ones, but it was very good in taste.

Ingredients:

Urad daal 250 gms

Oil 500 ml (for frying)

Sugar 3 cups

Water 300 ml

saffron/food colour

Cardamom Powder

Method:

1 Heat a large pan and add water and boil it now add now dissolve 3 cups of sugar.

2. Add saffron and stirr the syrup in low flame so that it gets reduced to one thread consistency. Add Saffron and cardamom powder. keep the syrup and cool it.

3. Soak Urad daal overnight . wash and drain it and grind it into a fine batter. Keep aside for minimum 3 hours.

4. Take a thick clothe and make a small hole in it (or a ketchup dispenser bottle which is easy to hold) . Pour the urad daal batter and hold it like a pouch.

5 Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan and now press the pouch(or a ketchup dispenser bottle) filled with batter over the oil and try to make the shape of imarti like make a ring first and then make small ringlets all along the ring.

6. Deep fry them until become crisp and turn once so that both side gets cooked well.

7. Drain out excess oil and deep into sugar syrup. Soak imarti in the syrup for about 5 minutes and then drain out and keep aside so that it dries out and become crispy and delicious .

8 Serve hot and crispy Imartis as desert.

I am back

Friends, I am back again after long break of almost an year. Last year I have completely disappeared from my blogging world and my sincere apologies for disappointing my blogger friends and my dear viewers of my blog who visits my blog regularly and comment on my posts. Though I was in kind of hibernation state from blogging, I would like to share with you the fact that last year was one of the most significant years of my life as I was blessed with another little angel. We named her 'Aarshiya' (Divine) and she is now 6 months old. My both kids now keeps me busy for the most of my day. The other significant happening was that we owned our new dream villa and I have designed and decorated that in my own way. We could never forget the effort we have put, in order to make this dream come true.

ARSHIYA

So friends, now since I have made up my mind to return back to my blogging world, I genuinely hope that you all will support me in this effort. I assure you that this time I won't disappoint you at all and will come out with many more delicious recipes as always. I want your precious comments and suggestions to pour in on how to you feel about it.

Express Chicken Fry

This recipe has been contributed by my brother-in-law, who has moved to Mumbai recently. Since, he would be getting his family shifted only by March/Apr’10, presently he’s staying alone in Mumbai. He used to come back from office only after 8:30 pm and still wanted to have a chicken dish cooked at home. In this process, he has developed this recipe which is fast to cook and extremely healthy as it is cooked without using any of the spices but still very good to eat.

Ingredients:

500 gms of chicken (4 pcs of chicken legs)

2 large size onions

8 cloves of garlic

Small piece of ginger

2 nos of green chillies

1 medium size capsicum

½ tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

½ tsp turmeric

Salt – according to taste

Cooking time + preparation time – 25 minutes

Method:

1.Wash the chicken legs thoroughly and make 2 – 3 slits in each of them with kitchen knife. Fill up a sauce pan with enough water and put the chicken legs on high flame for boiling. Add 1.5 tsp of salt and 4 cloves of garlic in the water.

2. While the chicken is getting boiled, cut the onions and capsicum in ½’’ size juliennes. Cut the ginger, chillies & balance garlic cloves in thin strips.

After around 10 – 12 minutes of boiling, get the chicken off the fire, drain the water and pat them dry with tissue paper.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan and put the chicken legs on hot oil. Fry them by turning them occasionally until the color become golden brown. Bring the fried chicken on a plate.

Add cumin seeds to the hot oil. Then add ginger, chillies and garlic to that. After about 30 seconds, add juliennes of onion & capsicum.

4. When the onion and capsicum are softer, add turmeric and salt to that and keep on stirring.

After another 2 minutes, add the fried chicken legs and wrap them with the fried onion and capsicum. Stir fry for another 2 minutes and switch off the flame.

Serve with hot rice & dal or hakka noodles.

Potol Posto (Stripe gourd with poppy seed)

Potol posto is a very common vegetarian dish among Bengalis. Posto means poppy seed is one of the spice which is often used for vegetarian preparations along with combination of different vegetables like Potato, Stripe gourd(potol/parwal), Snake gourd, ridge gourd et.. Here I tried to make something different by adding Potol/parwal/Stripe gourd only and it came out very tasty. I have posted this recipe for the event"Think spice think poppy seeds" in Radhikas and Sunita's blog.

Ingredients:

500gms. Potol/Parwal/Stripe gourd

3 tsp Posto (poppy seeds)

3 green chilli's

1 tsp. turmeric powder

1 tsp. fenugreek seed

salt(as per taste)

sugar (as per taste)

Method:

1. Peel off the stripe gourd and give a slit lengthwise. Heat oil in a pan and saute them in low flame until becomes soft. Take it out and keep aside.

2. Grind poppy seeds and green chili together to get a paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan and add fenugreek seeds. Now add poppy seeds paste and turmeric powder and little water.Fry the masala until oil gets separated from it.

4. Add cooked stripe gourd, salt and little sugar. Add little water and stirr for a couple of minute. Cover it and let it cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove it from fire and pour in a serving bowl.

Serve hot with plain rice.