Monsoon Potluck

“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” 
― Mark Twain

Meeting friends for a potluck during monsoon or Bihu or any special occasion has become a ritual since last few years now. This year was no exception; but this year we decided to get surprised items but surely "not desi"  but try to keep it as Asian as possible. 
Of course we decided on who was getting starters or main course or dessert. The result and the spread was simply super. 

Bonding over good food with varied conversation with good company make all the difference. 

Here are the photos of what we ate..

Starters : 

We had Devilled Eggs with a Mayo and Tuna twist.

Noodles with stir fried vegetables and chicken in orange juice.

Grilled Chicken with Kaffir Lime

Garlic and Orange Mint prawns with Avocado and Wasabi Guacamole.

Starters

My plate of Starters

Main Course :

Main Course

Chicken Rendang
Nasi Lemak
Malaysian Sambal
Roasted peanuts, salads and boiled egg.

Dessert :

No bake cake with Icecream and Mascarpone Cheese
Coconut Macaroons

Dessert

Every dish was simply delectable and the love that had gone behind preparing and presenting shone through each one. 

One Confession : Both the starters; Grilled chicken and Prawn with Guacamole were prepared by my better in kitchen half. I just ate. 

Make a wish and mix - Christmas Cake mixing at Renaissance Hotel

Thank you Renaissance Hotel and Convention centre, Mumbai for giving me the chance to be a part of my first ever Christmas Cake mixing ceremony. I have always read about it, seen photographs and wishing how I also wanted to be a part. That wish came true today and guess what, this gave me a chance to make another wish too.

 It is said that the Christmas Cake mixing ceremony dates back to 17^th Century in Europe. This ceremony marked the arrival of harvest season and lots of fruits and nuts were harvested and then preserved for the next harvest season. This turned into a family get-together where everyone would join hands, literally, to soak the dry fruits and nuts in Rum, Wine and Brandy. Over the years it became of big ceremony which fall well in advance of Christmas so that the fruits totally soak in the liquor and thus when mixed in the cake, they add to the whole taste of it.

Roasted Pork Leg

My lunch

Before the ceremony actually started, we were treated to the sumptuous Italian brunch spread at Fratelli Fresh. I loved the roasted Pork leg with the apple sauce. The Ravioli and Gnocchi were phenomenal. I had 2 new desserts Crostata di Fruta and Zuccotto; and I liked the former more. 

Desserts

Then the bell went "ting ting" marking the beginning of Cake mixing ceremony. The guests were given chef caps, aprons and gloves before everyone put their hands into the large trays of fruits and nuts. Bottles of Rum, Wine and Brandy were poured into the fruit trays and then there was lots of laughter and giggles all around. We all joined our hands with the chefs and mixed the fruits and nuts into all those booze. These booze soaked fruits and nuts will be kept in air tight containers for 3-4 weeks. By the that time they will completely soak in the booze and be ready to add much more flavour to the final 

cake. 

The guests getting ready

In action

And yes I did make a wish as I was mixing. That I would like keep as a secret for the time being. 

All set

Eggless Ragi Cup cakes

My confidence in baking is increasing every time I bake something; be it cakes or vegetable or fish. Along with it , the number of experiments are also increasing. Today I tried baking Eggless Ragi flour Cup Cakes.
Ragi Flour,also known as Finger Millet or Nachni is much healthier than refined flour or maida.

Here goes my recipe

One small teacup of ragi flour
One small teacup of sugar or one can use sugar free as per taste.
One tea spoon of baking powder
One pinch of baking soda
One tea spoon of Cocoa powder.

Half a cup of oil ; I used Ricebran oil.
Half a cup of milk ( in room temperature) 

Mix all the dry ingredients together.Add the oil and mix the ingredients. Once oil is mixed well, pour in the cup of milk. Now beat the mixture thoroughly until it is smooth and runny. Keep aside.

Pre heat the oven at 180C for 10mins. 

Now grease the cup cake mould and place the paper cups. If you have a silicon mould, then the mixture can be poured directly into the mould. Mine is an aluminium cup cake mould. 
Please do keep in mind that the whole cup must not be filled up as the cakes will rise. Just fill up half of the cup cake moulds and put in the oven for 15 minutes at 180C.

Once done check with the toothpick test. If done, let it cool and serve.

Eggless Ragi Cup Cakes

PS : I put 1 or 2 pieces of dry fruits in the cup cakes. 

Lemon Semolina Cake

      This Valentine, husband gifted an OTG. So now no excuse for not baking, I mean serious baking. 
Since then my experiment with the OTG is going on full swing. Besides the regular cake with all purpose flour aka Maida, I am trying to find out if this chief ingredient of cake can be replaced with some other flours like whole wheat ( atta ), semolina ( suji ), ragi (nachni) etc. In such attempts, I came across a recipe by none other than Nigella Lawson about a "Lemon Polenta Cake". Here she uses Cornmeal or Polenta and butter both of which I replaced to what I had in my kitchen and of course for health reasons. ( Both I and my husband are trying to avoid butter as much as we can). I will call it Lemon Semolina Cake.

        Here's my version of the Lemon Semolina Cake:

Ingredients for the Cake

One small cup of Semolina / Suji
Same cup full of refined oil; I used Rice bran oil.
Half a cup castor sugar or as per your taste
One teaspoon full of baking powder
2 eggs
Half a cup of milk
Zest of one lemon. Keep the lemon aside as we will need the juice for the syrup. 

Few almonds to garnish

Mix all the dry ingredients together. 
Beat in the eggs and oil first in a bowl.
Add it to the dry mixture, add the cup of milk and beat thoroughly so that it turns to a smooth paste. Of course it will not be as smooth as maida mixture. But smooth enough. Leave the batter for 10 minutes.

In the mean time pre heat the oven in 180C . Now transfer the batter into the greased baking tin. Bake it for 40 minutes at 180C. When you try putting in a fork in the middle and it comes clean, the cake is done. Also the cake will start to shrink from sides and come out of the walls of the tin when it is done. Leave it inside the tin while we make the syrup.

For the Syrup
Boil the juice of the lemon whose zest we used in the cake. Add a spoon full of castor sugar to it.

Prick the cake all over with a fork or the cake tester. But go very slow while you do that because it may lead to disaster since the cake is still hot. Now pour the syrup all over the cake. Let the cake get soaked in the syrup while it cools down.

Take it out of the tin and enjoy.

Trust me it tastes equally good like an all purpose flour cake.