Swiss roll

I had attempted making swiss roll once before, however I had failed miserably. So I tried again and atleast sponge wise I got successful. Since my oven is small I was not able to make beautiful long cake, ended up, cutting perfect square cake in rectangular shape and then divide in 2 sheets LOL :D.

So it appear bit mess but it was perfect sponge and delicious. Yeh I admit pattern is mediocre, but given I was very afraid of trying it again, I used my lucky charm, yeah my daughter's name :) I know there are lot expert bakers out there who can mend this recipe more perfectly.

Enough talking here is what I followed:

For pattern:
1 egg white
30 gms granulated sugar, need little more if using powdered sugar
40 gms all purpose flour
20 gms butter

- Mix sugar in egg white with wire whisk or spoon, till its nicely glazed.
- Add in butter and mix well, here you can add any food color.
- Mix in flour to make smooth batter.
- Fill it in piping bag, and make pattern over parchment paper
(If you are choosing some writing as I did, then make sure your writing should be mirror imaged.)
- You can get pattern templates online as well, so you can put them below parchment paper and then simply trace them over parchment paper, make sure parchment paper is greased a bit, this avoid pattern stick less on paper while baking.
- Put tray/paper in freezer for atleast hour before baking. So that pattern shall become hard.

Cake with pattern

For Swiss roll:
5 eggs yolks
5 eggs whites
2/3 cup granulated sugar (Divided in 2 equal portions (i.e. 1/3rd )
1 tsp - orange juice (lemon juice can be substituted)
1 tsp - orange zest (lemon zest can also be used) (If you don't have orange flavor put more zest)
2/3rd cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp melted butter
1/4 tsp salt


- Whisk egg yolks with orange juice and zest, add sugar slowly and whisk until nice and fluffy.
- Whisk egg whites till soft peaks are formed. At this point start adding sugar slowly and continue whisking till hard peaks are formed. At this point whipped mixture shall not fall even if bowl is inverted :D
- Now fold in yolks to egg whites, make sure to fold it gently so that egg whites are not much deflated. Fold in melted butter at this stage.
- Fold in half of flour at a time, till all flour is folded in.
- Bake on flat tray for almost 10-12 minutes on 375 F or 190 C.
- Once baking is done, slowly flip the cake, and take out parchment paper very very slowly, so that pattern shall separate from paper.
- Again flip the cake and let cake cool down a bit, once its cooled down. Put any stuffing you want, I used simple whipped cream, you may use butter frosting or cream cheese etc. and roll cake sheet nice and tight, from the opposite end of pattern, so once you are finished pattern will be on top.

Rolled cake with whipped cream filling 

Enjoy your cake and be creative in patterns :)

Mushroom cream sauce

Mushroom cream sauce is on of my most favorite and easy preparation. Here is how i do it.

Ingredients:

1 cup sliced mushrooms (use any mushroom of your choice)

1 cup cream

dash of white wine

1/4th cup mixture of finely chopped onion, celery and carrots 

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp basil, oregano, rosemary each

salt and pepper for taste

Method:

Saute onion, celery and carrots on butter along with mushrooms till they are cooked.

Add dash of white wine and cook through till it evaporates, this will infuse wine's flavor in all mixture. 

Add cream and mix well, add in herbs, salt and pepper and mix well.

Bring to boil and let it become bit thicker. 

Your sauce is ready, enjoy with your favorite dish or with some meat preparation. 

Enjoy :)

chicken meat loaf

I had watched some recipe for meatloaf on TLC channel, so I wanted to try out something similar but with chicken. So here is my try for the same

Ingredients for meatloaf:
500 gms of boneless chicken / minced chicken.
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumb
1/2 cup diced cheese cubes
1/4th cup cream
1/4th cup spring onion finely chopped
1/4th cup finely chopped carrots
1/4th cup finely chopped celery (optional)
1/4th cup finely chopped tomatoes
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 green chilly in 4-5 small pieces
salt and pepper for seasoning, feel free to add

Method:
- Saute together onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes with ginger garlic paste and rest of ingredients, till they are cooked.
- let it come to room temperature and then make fine paste of it in grinder.
- Mince chicken along with cooked paste.
- Add diced cheese cubes (Once baked cheese just oozes out and taste delicious :) )
- Add egg along with cream to mixture and knead well
- Start adding breadcrumbs to this mixture, here mixture shall start to become thick. Add enough breadcrumb so entire mixture gets bread dough kind of consistency.
- preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius or 350 degree F, grease up loaf pan with little oil
- Put mixture in loaf pan and make sure to spread mixture evenly.
- Bake for about 30-45 minutes until its done, check for internal temperature of 160 F or 70 degree Celsius.
- Meat loaf is done. Cut thin slices and serve with garlic bread and mushroom cream sauce or any other sauce.

Here is my version or how I served it:
Meat loaf slices with mashroom cream sauce with garlic toast and sangria and fruity leafy salad.

Tip:
For a moist meatloaf, put loaf pan in water bath while baking.
If you don't have breadcrumbs, use all purpose flour or corn flour.

Enjoy :)

Sangria cocktail

I tested Sangria first time during a visit to Hyatt regency for a lunch party, and I fell deeply for it.
Here is my version to recreate it.

What you need:
90 ml red wine
15 ml brandy
15 ml orange juice
1 tsp powdered sugar
1 cup small pieces of apple, pear and orange.

How to conjure this tasty potion:
Cut small pieces of apple, pear and orange (with peels) .
Mix all ingredients with fruit pieces and give it a nice stir.
Let is seat in your fridge covered for 12 hours (for best results).
serve with in glass and keep some fruit pieces as is.

Enjoy fruity sangria.

Don't drink and drive though :)

Chicken Biryani

If someone asks me what is your most favorite food in non-veg, I'll always reply a perfect aromatic chicken biryani. Its a beautiful food with nice aromatic spices, spicy ofcourse, soft and wonderful chicken and magnificent basamati rice. Its a dish full of joy and no one can stop eating major portion of it if its made perfectly. After numerous failures and somewhat successful tries I was finely able to prepare a perfect aromatic chicken biryani that I always crave for :) Here is joy same perils for you all.

Ingredients for biryani masala (dry):
Using fresh masalas everytime can definitely produce good results, I used shan chicken biryani mix masala, but I found it very similar to what I prefer.

1 tsp shah jira
1 black cardamom (badi ilaichi)
2 green cardamoms  (ilaichi)
2 inch cinnamon stick  (dalchini)
8-10 black pepper seeds (kali mirch ke dane)
2-4 cloves (laung)
1 bayleaf (tejpatta)
2 star annise
1 mace
1 tsp coriander seed powder
1 tbps red chilly powder
1 tsp salt

Grind them to fine powder and keep in airtight container for a while. We are going to use it as marination.


Fried onions:

Fried onions

Take a medium size onion and cut in julienne style  (vertical thin strips) and separate every strip, sprinkle some all purpose flour on them. Meanwhile heat up oil and fry onions untill they start changing color, immediately take them out once u see color change, or else they might get burned. This shall make crisp fried onions. Make 2 portions, reserve one for rice and add other in chicken marinade.  Keep oil as is and use same oil for rest of biryani for additional flavor.

Ingredients for chicken:
500 gms chicken with bones.
1 tsp ginger paste/garlic powder
1 tsp garlic paste
Biryani masala 2 tbsp (We have already prepared it or use any store bought masala mix)
1 tbsp mint powder or crushed mint leaves
2 tbsp fried onion
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (any vegetable oil)

Marinated chicken

Mix all above ingredients with chicken and make sure all chicken pieces are nicely coated with marinade. Keep it covered overnight for best results.

Rice preparation:
2 cup rice (long grained) soak for no more than half hour.
1 bayleaf
1 star anise
1 mace
4-5 black pepper seeds
2 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp salt

Take a sizable pot and add about 4 cups of water in it, then add all above spices and let it simmer for a while. Once it simmers add in soaked rice and cook until its half done. We need a sieve here to take out rice and put in layers for biryani. Read putting it together for final procedure.

Saffron milk:
Take half a cup milk, and heat it up but don't boil it. Add in saffron strands (8-10) and keep it aside, stir occasionally so color is properly mixed. If you don't have saffron strands, then u can use artificial flavor,
and use saffron color. I used strands plus some color for extra rich color.

Saffron milk

Put it all together:
Now its time to put everything together.

All layers in place

- Add 1 tbsp oil in thick bottom pan (I used pressure cooker), and keep it on high heat, add in marinated chicken along with its juices and saute for 2-3 minutes each side.
- Add half a cup of water and saute for another 2-3 minutes each side till very little water is left.
- Lower the flame and start straining rice from water and put down layers on chicken till all rice along with spices has been layered.
- Sprinkle fried onions and roughly chopped coriander leafs on top
- Add roasted almonds, cashews (optional) on top
- Pour saffron milk in center or drizzle over rice
- Put lid on and seal it. Pressure cooker comes very handy here, make sure you keep whistle on.
- Cook biryani for about 30 minutes on low flame (putting biryani pot on tava helps prevent burning of biryani)
- After 30 minutes open up lid and sprinkle/drizzle either kevda water or simply saffron flavored water (I added 5 ml saffron flavor in 2 tbsp water ) and put lid on. Serve after 5 minutes.

Delicious and aromatic biryani is ready to serve :) Enjoy and let me know how it turns out for you.

Chicken Biryani ready to satisfy you

Jelly candies

I always liked/loved Jelly cubes/candies also known as Jujubs.

While surfing on my favorite group on facebook I came across this recipe from Teji Singh. And here goes my try.

Ingredients..

25 gms gelatin

115 ml water

35 ml lime juice

250 gms sugar 

Colors: As per your choice

Essence: As per your choice

Castor sugar and cornflour for coating (2:1 ratio)

Method

1. Take water is a bowl and sprinkle gelatine on top of it, let it bloom for about 10 minutes. Gelatine will bloom as soak up all water but don't worry it, once we heat up this water it shall dissolve w/o any problem.

(Push it down gently with fingers if required to cover it properly with water)

2. Using a double boiler method , melt the gelatin by gently stirring till it melts, now water should appear bit thick and mushy in color, turn off heat and set aside.

3. Take a thick bottomed pan, mix the lime juice and sugar. Put it on low heat, stir till it starts melting or bubbles start appearing on sides. 

4. Add gelatine water in this mixture while stirring gently on low flame.

5. Keep stirring until all sugar is dissolved (please makes sure flame is on low all the time)

6. Once sugar is dissolved, turn up heat to medium and bring mixture to a boil (temperature shall read about 215 F)

7. Set aside for a while, meanwhile prepare molds with gently greasing them.

8. Here we add essence and color and mix well. Pour into molds and set aside for about 10 hrs at room temperature.

9. Remove any scum or froth after 5 minutes or so and then let molds set undisturbed at room temperature.

Coating:

After 10 hrs we ready to make cubes/stripes or whatever shape u want.

1. Prepare coating mixture from castor sugar and cornflour in 2:1 ratio. I used about 4 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp corn flour for above ingredients.

2. Spread this mixture on parchment/butter paper.

3. Heat up some water in bigger bowl and gently put mold in water say about 30 secs and flip mold on parchment paper.

4. After 2-3 minutes coat remaining surface with same mixture and make cuts with sharp knife. I find using heated knife gives best results.

5.Store it in air tight container. 

6.Since it does not have any added preservative except lime juice and sugar, consume within a week (if kept in fridge).

Enjoy. This recipe shall yield about 20-30 candies.

I don't own this recipe. I have followed this recipe from Teji Singh, link to her blog is => http://tejiskitchen.blogspot.com/2014/07/jujubesjelly-candies.html

Thanks Teji :)

Burmese Khow Suey

Burmese Khow Suey, a beautiful creamy and tasty soup which I had in a fine dining restaurant at Pune.
I became crazy with its creamy delicious taste and beautiful aroma, I couldn't stopped myself for having more than 1 servings and neglecting chicken and fish fingers altogether. Its served with variety of toppings and that's makes it more delicious, just add a dash of fresh lemon juice and that taste gets you. So I decided to replicate this at home. After referring 1-2 recipes from Internet here is my version for the same.

Ingredients:
2 cups of thick coconut milk
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
4-5 curry leafs
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin seed powder
2 tsp oil
1 tsp Indian yellow lentil (chana daal) powder
1 root of lemon grass finely chopped


Method:
Add 1 tsp oil in woke and saute onion first till they become pink in color
Add in ginger and garlic pastes and saute a while.
Add in turmeric powder, curry leafs, coriander powder, cumin seed powder, chopped lemon grass and saute for while.
Let this mixture cool down, then add in yellow lentil powder and blend to make a fine paste, you can add little water just to make sure no lumps are left in paste.
Add in 1 tsp oil and saute this paste for a while, season with salt and red chilly powder (if you wish to make it bit hot)
Stir in coconut milk and now you should start getting aromas of all the spices, simmer for while.
You can add little water if mixture become too thick, just simmer for a while if water is added.
Thats it "Khow Suey" is ready.

This is how it should look

How to serve it:
Serving this soup is an art altogether which determines final taste of your soup.
Generally these toppings are used:
- roasted unsalted peanust
- red chilies cut in thin strips (de-seeded)
- finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
- fried noodles
- finely chopped fried garlic cloves
- lime wedges
- boiled rice noodles
- sprouts

All toppings added

 I served by adding little fried noodles, roasted peanuts, red chilly stripes, coriander leaves, garlic and dash of fresh lime juice, and topped with soup. Trust me it looks and taste delicious.

Final product