Our Nighoj Trip

This post is about a small half-day trip to a nearby place called Nighoj village (105 km from Pune) which is famous for its potholes. Well - before you get this all wrong and laugh at me, and invite us to your neighbourhood to see huge craters on the roads, let me tell you that these potholes are special! They have been created due to water action on basalt rocks. Due to this erosion, the river has carved out these huge craters which gives the area the popular name of "Moon land". Posting some pictures from our trip - check them out. It was a nice short trip...200 odd km round trip with a few friends from Ashrut's office.

No - this post has nothing to do with food..except perhaps that I was planning to bake a cake for all of us, which in the end, I did not ;D

Orange Chocolate Cake

I have baked this yummy orange flavoured chocolate cake umpteen number of times, and is amongst my most successful baking creations so far;)

This aprticular pic was taken by Annu sometime last year - so you can imagine how late I am in posting this. The recipe has been modified from Neeta Mehta's cake recipe book - I will post the recipe soon.

Ashrut's birthday cake

Had baked and frosted this chocolate cake for Ashrut's birthday on the 25th Apr.
For the 1st time in my life, I tried my hands in piping :) - though its not gr8, but it served the purpose. Have tried to draw a small red-nosed plane (Ashrut is crazy about plane models and is making a P-51 Mustang right now). I used "Magic candles" and we all (mom n pa-in law, as well as Annu) had fun time cheering him as he tired to blow the candles. Can you make out the small red-jacketed pilot amongst the candle haze?? No - its not edible, but again is a tiny candle:)

Mushroom Quiche

Baking a quiche was on my to-do list for quite sometime. I even got my Mom to get me a pie dish (ones with removable bases and fluted sides) - but somehow I was not getting time and motivation enough to bake one. But I had planned it out this week to bake a mushroom quiche this weekend - so right after coming back from office on Friday evening, the 1st task I did was knead the dough for the pie shell. I did lots of blog surfing before I started on my task, and some of the blogposts I read were http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001753mushroom_quiche.php and http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2007/12/mushroom-pie.html.

I was quite concerned about getting it right, since all the blogs seemed to tell me that its difficult to get it right the 1st time. How I got the pie shell is here:

1 cup flour + 1 tsp salt
~ 100 g cold white butter (I grated this into the flour)
3-4 tbsp ice cold water
I took care to use all ingredients which were cold and also not to knead the dough a lot. As soon as the dough stuck together, I stopped the kneading and packed it in a ziploc bag and put it in the fridge (not the freezer).

This evening, I simply rolled out the dough, then realized that my pie dish is ~ 12 inches, so my dough will not be enough for it:( So ultimately I used the smallest baking disk I have, and lined it with Al foil, which I kept longer than the edges of the dish. After carefully placing the dough in the lined dish, I punctured holes in the base of the shell and baked it for 10 mins at 190C. I did not use beans to weigh down the pie dough to prevent it from rising, but kept small steel dish on top;)

For the filling, I sauted some sliced button mushrooms and finely chopped shallots in olive oil. This I seasoned with salt, pepper, marjoram and dried italian herb mix. I then grated 2 cubes of cheddar cheese on the base of the pie shell, put the mushrooms on top, grated some more cheese on top and poured egg mixture (beat 2 eggs + 1/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup thick cream + salt/pepper) on it. I then placed the dish in a preheated oven and baked it for 25 mins at 190C.

I am quite a happy (and relieved) person after trying out this dish:) This was weighing onmy mind for quite sometime. I really liked the outcome (dont the pics speak for themselves?), and so did my hubby. We had initially decided to eat a couple of slices with evening tea on Saturday and spare a few for Sunday b'fast - but as you can very well realise, we polished up the entire quiche in the evening itself:) My hubby has already planned on making a chicken version of this quiche very soon - and I wait for his
trial.

Super Eggless Yoghurt Cake

Last week, I had an appointment with my Doctor in Mumbai, so we planned to stay with our friends Prateek and his new wife Shivangi for the weekend. Since S is a vegetarian, I baked an eggless cake for her. My previous eggless cake experiement was not very successful, so I called up Mom to pass me one of her yoghurt cake recipes. The ones with 'Milkmaid" somehow turn out very dry for my taste.
I have to accept that the cake turned out very well...appreciated by all who had a piece out of it, including my colleagues in office as well as my hubby's colleagues! Most had assumed that the cake had been bought from a bakery shop!! I guess, this was one of the biggest compliments that I have received as yet.
I am sorry - but I did not click any pics of the cake..but it turned out nicely moist, dense and dark chocolaty brown (obviously bcoz of all the cocoa powder).
I did lots of approximations during the measurements, since I was in a hurry. Also, since we were packing for our short weekend getaway, I wrote it hurriedly someplace I dont remember now:) Some of the approx measurements that I do remember are:
1. 1 1/2 cup plain flour or maida (my cup was 200 ml)
2. 1/2 cup or slightly less cocoa powder
3. 1 small container of amul dahi or yoghurt (I think - 200 g pack)
4. 3/4 cup powdered sugar
5. 1/2 cup refined vegetabel oil
6. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking powder
Process -
1. Sift the dry ingredients together
2. Mix curd and sugar together, and to this mixture. add the flour mixture and curd alternately. Also pour in the oil slowly and mix with the hand-held whisk. I just used up one mixing bowl and one whisk to prepare the batter...wasnt that cool!:)
3. The batter turned out slightly thick..Mom had asked me to add a few tbps of milk if the batter was not in pouring consistency, but then I was not in a very patient mood, so I simply dumped the thickish batter into the greased/dusted 9" round baking dish. I baked this initially at 220 degress for 10 mins and then lowered the tenmperature to 180 for the other 20 mins.

I will be making this cake again very soon..since not only was it super-easy to bake, super-dense and moist to eat, but also because it is quite healthy, with no eggs and minimal oil. Just take care of the quality of curd you use for the cake - I purposefully did not use home-made curd for this,since I wanted to thick creamy curd to give the cake its moistness.

The Omnivore’s Hundred

well...since i've not yet blogged about my recent recipes, but am listing the The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred list (from http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/), you can very well understand that I enjoy reading blogs more than writing myself:)

anyways, as asked by the UK bloggers, I will copy the list of 100 things that they think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. The instructions are quite explicit...
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
So! this is it! The verdict is out. I have failed the examination with a measly score of 21/100:(
I guess, it calls for me becoming more experimental in my foodie eatout sessions from today onwards.

Apologies for my inactivity

I am aware that I had promised to be more active on my blog..a promise which I broke within a month's time..but then I know many of you would commiserate with me that it is more fun to read other peoples blogs than to make the effort of writing one oneself:)

But, worry not - I will try to make amends. Last few weeks did not provide me with much online time, what with many relatives over, both of us traveling, planning and arranging long-pending dinners and lunches...yes! I did cook quite a bit in the last 6 weeks. When Annu was here for a fortnight, we also baked many a cakes - I have taken pics of most of these ...will write a post on each as soon as I convince myself to download all the pics from the camera:)

I was visiting my folks recently after they came back from NYC, and they were sweet enough to carry a few baking stuff that I had ordered..a 9" Wilton pie dish, a springform pan and a muffin pan:) I am yet to come across any store here at Pune which has good baking accessories, and since I am right now in a 'baking frenzy', I simply asked my mom to pick these up for me in NYC. I am yet to use these - but I am really excited about making a pie/tart/quiche in my new dish. In his last visit, Annu was really keen on baking a quiche - but we had been limited by the lack of a pie dish. But, Annu - worry not! When you are here next, we will make n number of quiches and tarts as you desire:)

My next few posts will describe the varios cakes I had baked in the last 6 weeks.