My First Cake

Today I tried baking a cake for the first time. It came out looking decent, though not very clean and sharp. I didn't bother to cut off or level the top portion- so that's on me. When I checked out some recipes, it seemed like: huh, not that tough, really. But, I think baking is something that definitely comes only by practice. Here's how I made the cake:

What you need:

Dry ingredients: maida/flour, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, Oreo biscuits

Wet ingredients: unsalted butter, milk, thick curd, cooking oil, vanilla essence

How to make:

1. Take 2 cups of maida, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup of cocoa powder- sift them together and mix well. 

2. Take unsalted butter at room temperature, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of thick curd, 2 tsp cooking oil, 1 tsp vanilla essence- whisk all the wet ingredients well and make sure there are no lumps. 

3. Slowly add the dry ingredients in the wet ingredients and whisk them till smooth batter consistency is reached. There should be no lumps. Add pieces of Oreo biscuit and gently fold it into the batter.

4. Take the pressure cooker, add some salt to the base. Keep a stand, and pre-heat the cooker for 15 minutes on medium flame. You should not put the weight on the cooker. Do not forget to remove it.

5. Meanwhile, coat the cake tray with cooking oil, line it with butter paper. Pour the batter, and tap the tray gently to make it even.

6. Bake for 40 minutes on low flame, and let the cake cool down completely. 

Your cake is basically ready!

How I made the frosting:

1. I made chocolate ganache by melting Dairy Milk chocolate, adding cocoa powder and milk to it until it reached a creamy consistency. I used this on the top of my cake. 

2. I took some Oreos, removed the cream, and powdered the biscuits. The cream can be whisked with cooking oil and some fresh cream milk to get a nice white frosting, which I used for the side of the cake.

3. I stuck some Oreo powder to the sides. 

4. I topped the chocolate ganache with gems!

My cake has turned out looking decent, and I am actually yet to taste it! This is the first time I am ever baking anything. The cake is far from anything perfect. Baking is after all an art that is mastered over time. But, by how it looks- it's not that bad for a first try! Also, with all the Oreos, I am wondering if it is going to be a little too sweet. I'll let you know soon, stay tuned!

Paneer Burji Gravy

We had another packet of paneer after I made momos the other day. So, that called for another paneer dish. And, this time I made paneer burji gravy for dinner. This is a simple, creamy dish that can be had with rotis, and it takes only 20 minutes to make it. Here's the recipe that'll serve four people.

What you need: 1 tsp jeera, some chopped ginger, 4 medium sized tomatoes, 2 onions, 1 cup water, garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, cashews, one cup thick curd, one packet of paneer, fresh coriander leaves

How to make:

1. Take a thick bottomed vessel and add some cooking oil. Let it heat up a little, then put the jeera and let it splutter. 

2. Add chopped ginger and onions, and saute for 2-3 minutes till the onions turn pinkish/transparent.

3. Cut up the tomatoes in big pieces and add them to the pan. Cook till the tomatoes start losing water and become squishy. It'll take around 3-4 minutes. Turn off the gas.

4. Take the mixer. Add the fried tomatoes, onions and ginger into it. Add 5-6 cashews to this. You can add red chillis as per taste if you want, I didn't. Grind into a smooth paste.

6. Put the paste back into the same thick bottomed vessel. Add a cup of water, and cook in low flame till the raw smell of the paste goes away for 4-5 minutes.

7. Add a pinch of turmeric, 1/2 tbsp garam masala, 1/2 tbsp coriander powder, and cumin powder as per taste. Also, add salt as required. Let the gravy cook for 5-6 minutes.

8. Grate the paneer, and add the grated paneer to the gravy and gently mix the paneer and gravy. Do not break the paneer further by being too hard or too fast while mixing. Add a little more water after checking the consistency, only if needed. Let the mixture cook for 2-3 minutes.

9. Add a cup of fresh, thick curd to the gravy, and give it a good mix. Let it cook for a minute.

10. Check salt, and add as per taste. 

11. Add finely chopped fresh coriander leaves. Switch off the gas.

The dish is done. It is creamy, not very spicy, and has a fresh taste. It is extremely simple to make. One lesson that I have constantly learnt with such dishes is that if you want to increase the quantity, always increase the number of tomatoes and onions proportionately. Do not add water in hope of increasing the quantity as it always messes up the consistency.  So, increasing the amount of tomato-onion paste is what you should be focusing on while trying to increase quantity. 

I have always like paneer burji dishes, whether dry or with gravy, because you feel like there is no dearth of paneer! The best part is you can add more to it if you want- like chillies/chilli powder to make it spicier, or garlic if you like it. You can also add crushed methi to make this dish more rich in it's texture and flavour. Whatever you add or leave out, this dish comes out nice in all versions!

So, do give it a try!

Paneer-Vegtable Momos (from Momowoman)

This pandemic has stopped the usual Momoman trips my friends and I used to take through the semesters, situated at a ten minute ride from the college campus. So, I decided to make paneer veg momos today, to which a friend promptly said 'Momowoman' when I sent a picture. So, all the credits of that part of the title goes to my friend!

Let me tell you how I made the momos today!

What you need for the dough: two cups of maida, oil, salt, water

1. Prepare the maida dough: take the required quantity of maida, add salt, add a spoon of oil, mix it well, and slowly knead it by adding small quantities of water every time until it becomes a dough. The dough should not be too soft or too hard. This is important because a dough that is too soft or too hard will make it difficult to seal the momos after stuffing the filling.

What you need for preparing the filling: onion, cabbage, ginger, capsicum, carrot, beans, one packet paneer

Other ingredients you can add(but I didn't today): chopped green chilli, ginger, soy sauce

2. Chop all the vegetables. You can chop ginger, capsicum, carrot, onion, and beans finely, while cabbage can be chopped wispy(like how it is inside spring rolls). Grate the paneer evenly.

3. Take a thick bottomed pan, pour a little bit of oil. You can use butter instead of oil if you prefer. 

4. Saute ginger and onions first, until they turn golden. Then put the rest of the vegetables and fry them well until all the wetness of the vegetables dry out. Let the vegetables cook well on low flame. Add paneer, and gently mix it well with the other vegetables. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes. 

5. Add salt and pepper powder as per taste. Mix them all well, and let it cook in simmer for 5 minutes. 

Your dough and filling is now ready. Time to make momos!

6. Take a really small ball of dough. Ideally it is the amount of dough you take to make a poori. Dust the ball of dough in maida, and flatten it to the thin sheet. Make it as thin as you can. The thinner they are, the better the momos!

7. take 1-2 spoons of the filling and heap it in the centre of the flattened dough. Start making frills in the edges and close the filling by bringing the frills to the centre. This is for a round momo, you can check out other shapes that can be given to momos, if you prefer otherwise.

8. Repeat the steps until you are done with all the dough and filling. 

Time to steam the momos!

9. Take steaming deck/steaming plates. I used our idli plates today because they are the perfect steaming decks for this that we already have at home. Crease the plate well with oil. This is very important. Otherwise, the momos will stick to the plate after they are done, and it would be difficult to remove them without tearing the momo.

10. Arrange all the momos on the steaming deck. Take your pressure cooker, and fill the base with water. Take a bowl, fill it up with water and place it in the cooker. On top of this arrangement, place your steaming deck. Close the cooker, and steam for 20 minutes. 

11. After 20 minutes, switch of the gas and wait fro 5 minutes before you open and serve hot!

Time to eat!

The momos today came so well! The shape was slightly bigger and flatter than the ones that we get in the restaurant. But, the taste came out very well. We had it with spicy tomato pickle! It is really simple, and the process may seem elaborate, but I think it is just a matter of getting used to it. It makes for a simple and satisfying dish!

Remember that doing all the small steps like making the dough in the right consistency, creasing the steaming plates, flattening as thin as possible, and other such small tips truly change how the momos might turn out. Do try it out and let me know how it comes!

Paneer Paratha

An alternate picture- because I didn't
really hit it up with the toasty smell
of parathas. At least, we can smell
the weekend!

I tried making Paneer Parathas today, because its recipe seemed way too simple to not try. However, the result was a little different from what I had expected. Let me tell you how I made it!

What you need: atta, oil, paneer, onion, ginger, garam masala, cumin powder, chillies (if you prefer), coriander leaves, salt.

1. Prepare chapati dough (take the required quantity of atta, add salt, add a spoon of oil, mix it well, and slowly knead it by adding small quantities of water every time until it becomes a dough)

2. Grate paneer; finely chop onions, ginger, and coriander leaves. Put them all in a big bowl. Add garam masala, salt and cumin powder to taste. You can add finely chopped green chillies to this if you prefer. Toss them all well so that the masala and salt coat well.

3. Divide the stuffing and the dough into corresponding equal amounts. 

4. Roll out the dough, then keep the stuffing in the centre and fold the sides to cover the stuffing. 

5. Flatten out the dough again as much as you can- to the point that the stuffing doesn't come out. 

6. Cook them well on the tawa. Add generous amounts of ghee to enhance taste.

I did all of these steps, and it was great while doing it- seemed right. But I think the amount of stuffing that we prepared versus how it tasted was kind of misleading. We used 300g of paneer and one big onion primarily for the filling, and it definitely looked like it was more than enough for 4 people, and in fact it looked like there was a lot more than we needed. But, in the end result, I had only one feeling while eating it: where did all the filling go?! Somehow the filling wasn't at all enough to feel the taste well, I thought. 

Factoring in today's experience, the amount of paneer that seems to be required takes me by surprise. Probably, we're better off doing a paneer dish to pair with rotis, rather than making a paneer paratha. Anyway, doing it was still fun, and it looked really nice while doing it. My dad was just telling me today: appearances are deceptive! Also, I don't have a picture to show you. But, you have another picture up- a happy reminder!

But I am sure, that with the right quantity (which seem to be a lot) of stuffing, the dish would have been very, very tasty. So, if you wanna try- you know what to look out for! 

Steamed Chocolate Cake

I tried my hand at steamed chocolate cake today, and it came out looking really good! This steamed cake is essentially just bourbons and milk, and I have topped it and created a dressing according to my own choice and preferences. Here's the simple recipe! The amounts mentioned here give a dessert for four people. 

What you need: Two twenty-rupees Bourbon packets, milk at room temperature,  almonds, any biscuit of your choice.

How to make:

1. Take the bourbons, and separate the cream from the biscuit part for all the biscuits.

2. Grind the biscuits to a fine powder.

3. Slowly, add milk to the Bourbon powder, and whisk it continuously till it reaches the consistency of a flowing batter. 

4. Take the cooker, or any thick bottomed vessel, and add some water in the base of the vessel. Keep a stand, or a cup inside the vessel on top of the water. Turn on your gas, and pre heat the vessel for a couple of minutes till it starts steaming. 

5. Take an aluminium tray or a cake tin, and grease the insides of the tray with cooking oil. Make sure to grease it generously so that there is no trouble later while removing the cake. Now, add half the quantity of the cake batter into the greased tray. Tap the tray firmly to spread the batter into an even thickness.

6. Keep the tray on top of the cup inside the steaming vessel. Cover the top of the steaming vessel with a cloth, and then put a lid over it. Make sure that the cloth is not flowing down to the gas as it can catch fire. The purpose of the cloth is to absorb the water while steaming, so that the cake doesn't come out soggy. Steam it for around 5-10 minutes. 

7. Meanwhile, take a few almonds and crush them. You can also take a biscuit of your choice and crumble it. I used a Gooday choco chip cookie. This step is optional, and only for additional taste. 

8. Take a little part of the bourbon cream and smash them together. When they are smashed up, add a few drops of milk and whisk them fast to get a creamy chocolate syrup-like texture. Keep it aside. 

9.  After 5-10 minutes of steaming, open the lid and check. When it has been steamed, arrange the rest of the cream, that wasn't used to make the syrup-like liquid, on top of the steamed batter. You can also sprinkle part of the almond-cookie crushed mixture along with the cream. 

10.  Pour the rest half of the cake batter on top of this cream arrangement and spread it equally. Sprinkle some more almond-cookie crushed mixture on top of this final layer of batter. Follow step 6 and steam again for 10-15 minutes. You can open and check after steaming it for 15 minutes. 

11.  Insert a toothpick, or the edge of your knife, to check if it has steamed completely. The final cake will not stick to the toothpick when inserted. This means, that the cake is done. Let it cool down. 

12. After the cake completely cools down, take it out carefully and transfer it to a plate. Add the syrup-like chocolate sauce that you made using the bourbon cream and spread it out nicely on top of the cake. Sprinkle all the rest of the crushed almonds and cookies. I had a KitKat at home, so I just put it on top for a better look and tastier cake! Give it a couple of minutes for it all to set. 

The cake is ready!

It was tasty, and very, very chocolaty. The top dressing was sweet, and the bottom steamed cake made of biscuits balanced the sweetness. The cream that we put in between the two batter layers made sure there's a little gooey cream between the steamed layers! The almonds and the crushed cookies add very nicely to both the aesthetics and the taste! 

One line of warning: this is a steamed cake, not a baked one. So, it will not be fluffy and spongy, don't expect what we usually have in mind as a 'cake'. What it really feels like is a sweet, chocolaty dessert. 

It came out well! Do check it out!

What Is It About The Rains And Bajjis?

What is it about the rains that makes us crave for those bajjis and pakodas? Even half an hour into a constant, incessant pitter-patter, our thoughts abandon all productive activities and seek comfort in the dream of bajjis, fried crisp and eaten when it's still hot from the frying pan. As the temperature drops thanks to the soothing rains, our bodies crave for the hot and spicy fried fritters. There is an undeniable connect, to all Indians in their own ways, when it comes to a rainy day and bajjis/pakodas. In truth, the thought of bajjis is hardly comforting. It only paves way for even the laziest human alive to get to the kitchen and fulfill the cravings on the rainy day. 

I happen to be a person who'd most likely fantasize about chocolates than bajjis. That is only mostly. However, with the mellow sound of the constant rain today, my mind wandered to the comforting thought of hot, crisp bajjis without the slightest trace of shame while struggling with the not-at-all-perfect bicycle crunches during my workout session. 

What is it about the rains? Why does it make us crave for these crisp fritters? What is it about the rains that makes us head to the kitchen, light the stove, and prepare for the fritters, a source of instant gratification? Why do the crispy bajjis give us so much comfort and happiness as the rain pours happily outside? 

Is it one of those things that no one knows how it started, and yet it continued for years together naturally influencing us in its ways? Do we get these bajji/pakoda thoughts because that is what we have grown up seeing? What makes these bajjis so gratifying on a rainy day? 

If you are expecting answers, I don't have them. All I have is a bemused thought, and a happy smile after snacking on these comfort fritters. The satisfaction it brings on the seemingly dull, rainy day is something that we all know. But, what do you think: what is it about these rains and bajjis?

Dal Bati: A Modest Attempt

I first saw this semi-brown hard bread served with dal in my college. I neither knew what it was, nor knew how to eat it. And so, the first several times that I found this in the mess, I just skipped it because I couldn't understand at all how we were supposed to eat it (after a few weird attempts of trying to bite it or just dip it in dal and eat it). A friend saw me struggling once, and actually taught me how it is eaten. And, from then one, this has been one of the most satisfying, tasty dishes I have ever had. 

Dal Bati is a delicious Rajasthani dish, most typical in the arid areas of Rajasthan. In fact, it is the dish that the Rajasthani cuisine is most famous for. The popular combination to eat this is dal-bati-churma. The bati is the hard bread that is crushed while eating and is mixed with the tasty and spicy dal, while also accompanied by the semi-sweet churma. I absolutely love this wholesome combination that I got introduced to during my semesters. With the college shut down for a couple of months now, a conversation with a friend about dal bati made me try it out today!

Traditionally, batis are made in the fire and ashes of wood and cow dung- which gives it the authentic smoky flavour. However, in other places and at home, it is usually made in a grilled oven or tandoor. The hard knead dough is made into even-sized smooth, round-ish balls of dough which are then placed in the oven till they are baked inside out! But today, I've tried to make them without an oven, as I don't have one at home, and the recipe for making batis without an oven can be found here! I am not discussing the process of how it is made, so those interested can look up on page that I have linked. 

Considering that doing it on a stove was basically a substitute for oven, which in itself was a substitute for the traditional cow dung fire, I was skeptical as to how it would turn out. But, the pictures speak for themselves! Even if may not be as great as the authentic ones, for a first time it was as good as the my college benchmark. I feel really happy that it turned out well!

While preparing, kneading the dough thoroughly is very important. Simply put: better the keading, better the batis. The secret to batis that taste and smell absolutely delicious seems to be the ajwain/omam (carom seeds). They made them smell wonderful and made them feel like how batis should be. Heavily doused in hot, molten ghee, and with a tasty dal to eat it with, batis are sure to steal your heart! 

I had fun preparing it, and felt really happy eating it! If you are skeptical about trying without an oven, don't be- it turns out just fine!

Why Do We Splash Some Water On The DosaKal?

Image from Adobe Stock

Dosai (or more popularly dosa as you'd say it if you were talking in English), is a wonderful dish. I haven't met a single person who hates dosas. There are so many varieties and variations that one can do with a dosa. It's one of those dishes that you'd never be tired of having daily. 

I can make decent dosas (quite well, actually). I have earned the badge of being consistently good at it, thanks to the critics at home- brother, mom and dad. My grandmother is a huge inspiration for me. She is the ultimate dosa master in our family, and she makes such wonderful dosas. I always aim to be as good as her, and that is why I think I have the interest and the motivation to try and make every dosa well. 

So, how do you make a dosa? You take a scoop of batter and pour it in the centre of the hot tava on the stove, and then quickly work your way in circles from the centre to the outer edge, spreading the batter to a thin, round looking sheet of batter. You put some oil on the edges, and then when the base is cooked, you turn the dosa over to the other side. That's it. Seems easy? Not that easy, though it will come to you easily if you have interest. 

Before making the next dosa, we usually sprinkle water on the tava(called DosaKal). I never understood this part alone. Why do we splash water on the DosaKal? When I asked my dad he gleefully pointed at the noise that the water makes on sprinkling on the tava, the famous whoosh that you hear when people make dosas. But is that the real reason? I did some googling to discover that people do it so that the tava doesn't get overheated. Now, this makes absolute sense to me. 

One of the most important things to successfully make dosas is to have the DosaKal in the right temperature range. It can't get too hot, and it can't lose too much heat- everything about the making the dosa is about cleverly managing the DosaKal! I felt really happy to understand why I was doing what I was doing. It makes so much more sense now. 

Everything that we do as a part of a process does have a reason. It is up to us to find out the reason before we conclude anything about it. The reason may be relevant or not in today's set up, but it is not without reason that something is/was followed. All it takes is a little interest to find out why!