Fruit Trifle

One of my all time favourite desserts has to be the ubiquitous trifle. It is found on the menus of every single club that I have been to. I think it is one better legacies of the British Raj. As children, whenever we went to the club for a meal, it was always a trifle pudding that completed the outing. I am sure many of you out there will know exactly what I am talking about. It is with a lot fond memories that I decided to post about this wondeful dessert.

Though each chef has his or her own recipe, the basics are the same. One of the easiest desserts to make, it is more a matter of assembly rather than acutal cooking/baking. With simple easy to get ingredients, making this dessert is a real breeze.
A trifle is just varying layers of fruit, custards, cake, cream and jelly.



Ingredients:

Cake crumbs 250 grams ( You can use leftover cake slices, crumbs, whatever takes your fancy)
Custard powder- 2 tablespoons
Milk - 200 ml
Sugar - 3 tablespoons
Jelly - one packet of any flavor ( strawbery, raspberry being most preferred)
Water 200 ml
Jam - a couple of tablespoons
assorted fruit diced into bits
1/4 cup of fruit juice
Sweetened whipped cream - 200 ml

Method:
Make the custard :
Mix the custard powder in a tablespoon of cold milk. Heat the remaining milk till boiling. Mix the custard powder mixture into the boiling milk and stir briskly. Make sure there are no lumps. It also burns very easily so ensure that you are stirring all the time till it thickens. Add the sugar and mix well till sugar dissolves. Leave to cool down.
Make the jelly by heating the water till boiling and pour in the jelly crystals. Leave aside till set.
Take a decorative glass bowl. Press the cake crumbs into the base tightly.
Pour the juice over it evenly and soak it well.
Put the jam over this in a thin layer.
Place the fruit on top and spoon in the jelly in between.
Pour the cold custard over. Top up with the whipped cream.
Leave for a few hours in the refrigerator till all the flavors meld well together.

Serve cold and enjoy.

Vangi Bhaath And Old Memories

One of the least eaten or liked vegetables has to be brinjals aka aubergines or egg plant. For some reason, this is a very acquired taste. But this was one vegetable that was cooked regularly at home in one form or the other. I think one reason for this has to be that it is my mother's favorite veggie. She made it in so many different ways and made sure that all her kids loved it as much as she did. One never realises how many different ways the same veggie can be made until such time that we sit down and start writing about it. It then hits you like a tonne of bricks that this was the same veggie in an entirely new avatar.

But I had never eaten vangi bhath till I got married. Thats when my mother in law mentioned this dish for the very first time. Loving brinjal as much as I do, I was totally excited about the combination of rice and brinjal. The icing on the cake was the fact that the end product had a very sweet, spicy and tangy taste all at the same time. Quickly learnt how to make it and it has been a staple on our dining table ever since.

Very easy to make particularly with the MTR Vangi bhath masala so readily available.


Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 cups brinjal cut up into little bits
3 tablespoons gingelly oil
2 tablespoons cashewnuts
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
8-10 curry leaves
2 tablespoons MTR Vangi bhath masala powder
1 lemon sized ball tamarind soaked in water and juice extracted
1 teaspoon powdered jaggery


Method

Mix the tamarind juice, vangi bhath powder and jaggery till well blended.
Heat one tablespoon oil. Fry the cashewnut bits till golden brown. Keep aside.
Heat the remaining oil. Fry the mustard seeds till they crackle. Add the curry leaves and then the brinjal bits.
When well fried, add the tamarind/vangi powder paste to it. Cook till raw smell of tamarind disappears.
Add the cooked rice to this and mix well till the masala coats each grain of rice well.
Garnish with the cashewnuts and serve hot with papads.

Vangi Bhath Masala Powder:

Grated coconut- 3 tablespoons
Chana dal - 2 tablespoons
Urad dal - 2 tablespoons
Coriander seeds- 2 tablespoons
Sesame seeds- 2 tablespoons
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cloves - 2
Green Cardamom - 1
Jeera - ¼ teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds- ¼ teaspoon
Red chillies - 5
Cinnamon- 1" piece
Asafoetida - a pinch



Heat a pan and dry roast the grated coconut till a light golden colour and keep it aside.
Roast red chillies to light brown color and keep aside. Dry roast all other ingredients. When cool, grind all the roasted ingredients together to a fine powder.

Happy Deepavali and Badam Burfi

Happy Deepavali to all my readers. Its that time of the year again. I simply love Deepavali. It is really a festival that brings so much excitement into our lives. The new clothes the crackers, the sweet making, the yummy food that we eat. The list goes on and on. Deepavali is a time to bend all rules and simply enjoy.


My sister in law and I decided to make something really ultra simple this year. So Badam Burfi it is. Minimal ingredients, very simple to make but in my opinion, the lesser the number of ingredients, the taste of each ingredient really stands out. In this case there are only two main ingredients. Almonds and sugar. You can put in other add ons but that is entirely optional and suited to each ones taste. But it does not lack for anything even if you use just these two main ones.Now I had a lot of help cutting the burfi from my little niece ( I hope that explains the little uneven edges :) ). She very ably assisted me every stage even in the stirring and when she could not help, she hopped onto to a stool and gave me company in the long and hard process of waiting for the ball like stage.



Ingredients:

Almonds - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Little milk to grind the almonds maybe 2 -3 tablespoons

Method:

Soak the almonds in boiling hot water for a few minutes. Peel the skin.
Then soak in hot water for about 6 to 8 hours.
Grind to a smooth paste using the milk.
Place a piece of foil on the counter top and grease it with a little ghee or butter.



Pour the almond paste into a non stick pan along with the sugar and start cooking on a low flame.
Keep stirring and make sure the flame is on low. At this point you can add some cardamom powder if you like the taste.




After about 40 minutes to an hour it will start to gather together and become a ball.
When it does FINALLY (!!!!!%$#@%$$%^) become a ball and your hand is ready to fall off, Then take it off the stove.
Spread on the foil and flatten. Leave for a few minutes to cool and cut into shapes.

Chocolate Eclair Pudding and a Great Holiday

Just back from a fabulous holiday, totally relaxed and well rested and raring to go. I was really looking forward to a holiday for a while now but somehow it just did not happen. Finally made plans and just got onto to the plane. There is nothing like a holiday to cheer you up. The only downside was that I was by myself minus husband dear.

Since I was on a no travel, no do anything holiday, I thought I would have enough time to cook and blog every single day. And since I was visiting the US I thought I would have access to all ingredients that I don't usually use here in India. But somehow did not feel like doing even that and did not do anything. I just lazed and watched television. Shopped a bit. So all my grand plans for blogging everyday just fell by the wayside. But thats ok. I don't feel guilty at all.

There was only one recipe I just had to try out. This was a an easy peasy recipe for a chocolate eclair cake which I had seen many years ago and have been dying to try out.

It turned out quite yummy and all that it promised to be - comfort of the custard, the decadent taste of chocolate and the crunchiness of the biscuits in between. To top it all it was the easiest thing to make with it taking only about 15 minutes to assemble. My little niece enjoyed it so much. Now as it is such as easy recipe which does not call for any cooking at all, she has promised to try making it herself. Let's see how it pans out.

Though the ingredients call for instant vanilla pudding , making batch of custard works just as well. Instead of the frozen whipped topping you can substitute 200 ml of fresh whipped cream and instead of graham crackers, our marie biscuits works well.

Ingredients:

10 Graham crackers ( Marie biscuits work just as well)

1 packet Instant vanilla pudding. ( Vanilla flavored custard powder - 2 tablespoons)

1 1/2 cups cold milk

200 ml fresh whipped cream or 8 ounces of frozen whipped topping

3 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder

100 grams butter

1/3 cup milk

1 cup sugar

Method:

Make custard using the milk. Stir in whipped cream into cold custard till well blended. ( If using fresh cream, take care that you do not over beat the cream. It will result in splitting it. Whip it till it holds its shape.)

In a sauce pan combine the last four ingredients. Cook over low flame till the butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Cool it down and it will gradually thicken.

Now for the assembly.

Line a pudding bowl with the graham crackers. Pour half the cold custard mixture over it. Line with another layer of graham crackers. Pour more pudding mix over it.

Top with a final layer of graham crackers.

Pour thick chocolate topping on top.

Refrigerate.

It tastes best after a minimum of 12 hours in the refrigerator.

Enjoy.

The Ultimate Cookie - Chocolate Chip Cookie

My husband loves teasing the kids. Now that is a father's prerogative, wouldn't you say? Each time we have cookies on the table, he says "hey kids pass the biscuits, please". They hate it. They have a clear distinction between a cookie and a biscuit and just don't like the words interchanged. In India all small baked goodies are called biscuits. I think it just depends on which part of the world you are from. Cookies if you are from the US and biscuits from most of the other countries. When I asked my kids what the difference between a biscuit and a cookie was, one said biscuits are freely available everywhere whereas cookies are more special things. The other said the textures were different. I guess basically when we say biscuits, we refer to the ready made molded bits of dough baked in mass quantities whereas cookies would refer to non molded variety.

Whatever the definition, in my opinion cookies are little bits of deliciousness which go perfectly with milk or coffee. It provides just that right amount of sugar and butter to give you a lift without overloading on the calories (as long as you stick to one or two at the most).






The Chocolate chip cookie just has to be the one cookie that is loved by everyone. It is the ultimate in taste and cannot be surpassed. I should know. I come from a family of chocoholics. They are true connoisseurs of the chocolate taste. If I have to be really honest here, thats not true. They just love chocolate in any form. In absence of any other chocolate to eat, they don't mind eating even just plain drinking chocolate out of the box or even plain cooking chocolate. My little one especially can get quite desperate if he does not get his daily chocolate fix.







Here is one recipe which never fails to please him or the rest of the family. In fact I have it on best authority that these cookies are the best in the world. My two little nieces who visit from the US, who say, "Kamini Athai, these cookies are yummy. They are better than those we get back home." I can get them to do anything with a bribe of these cookies. Well thats the way the cookie crumbles....(I just could not resist slipping that in.)

Now for the recipe...

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (200 grams approx)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Mix flour, baking soda and salt and keep it aside.

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla.

Mix in the dry ingredients until well blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Roll the dough into 2 inch balls and place them 3 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 20 to 23 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.