Pumpkin Cake

Obviously, I had to make something special and write about it here. It has been so long. I am sorry for being away for so long.

I have been cooking a lot but somehow I never got a chance to click pictures and write about it. I feel that I am missing out on something but I can not get back to it. I have been shifting cities and have taken up a job which keeps me engaged.

Enough of excuses though! Let me first take you straight away to the food.

I made pumpkin cake. Actually, the plan was to make pumpkin muffins but my muffin plans have never succeeded. I have baked muffins twice and they have kind of over flown and flattened out on me. I know, I know, it is hard to imagine a person having a blog and trying to preach cooking having difficulty baking muffins. So, I made 6 muffins out of the batter and when I saw their beautiful faces, I decided I would bake cake with the rest of the batter. The cake came out really well. I am a bit proud as I made changes to a Dorie Greenspan recipe successfully. We all know that she is amazing and so are her books and her recipes. I bought her book "From my home to yours" just 2-3 months back and now, whenever I have to bake something, it is the first place I peep into.

I changed the recipe to make it healthier. My boy friend is on a strict and healthy diet these days and I did adjustments so that I could provoke him to eat it. I succeeded. I know I am putting all the blame on him but I myself keep searching ways to replace all purpose flour and butter in all these recipes. So far, I have been quite successful. I replace all purpose flour with whole wheat flour and butter with olive oil. It is not that simple as it sounds though. First of all, do not use these replacements when you are baking breads. Breads work with very specific ratios. Secondly, go step by step. Do not replace the complete two cups of flour with whole wheat flour, as both have different densities and different characteristic aroma and you might need to adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour and same goes for butter.

Here is the recipe.

Pumpkin Muffin
Recipe Adapted from : Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients:
1. 3/4 cup (170 g) unsweetened pumpkin puree
2. 110 g (1 cup) all purpose flour
3. 120 g (1 cup) whole wheat flour (Original recipe adds two cups of all purpose flour)
4. 1 stick (110 g) unsalted butter (I used 55 g of butter and added olive oil to compensate for it)
5. 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6. 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
7. 1/2 tsp ground ginger
8. 2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/4 tsp baking soda
10. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
11. 3/4 cup (170 g) sugar (original recipe adds 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar)
12. 1/4 cup (60 ml) buttermilk
13. 2 eggs
14. 130 ml milk
15. 1/2 cup (50 g) soaked raisins
16. 1/2 cup (50 g) cashew

Steps:
1. Beat the butter and sugar together. The original recipe mentions doing this using an electric beater. I have always been using a hand beater though. I heat the sugar and butter a bit before hand to get a head start.
2. Add the eggs one by one and beat well. Add olive oil, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree.
3. Sift the flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda together.
4. Slowly add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture. Add some amount and mix well. While mixing the flour, add buttermilk and milk to keep a good consistency of the batter. The batter should neither be too thick nor too runny. You can adjust the amount of milk accordingly.
5. Add the raisins and cashews and mix well.
6. Preheat the oven to 205 degree C or 400 degree F.
7. Grease a regular size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffins cup. Bake for about 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes clean.
8. Cool the muffin pan for 5-10 minutes before taking out the muffins.

It is a delicious cake. The pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and the whole wheat flour worked out so well together.

Go bake :)

Baingan Bharta (Eggplant mash) - The Rustic Style

A creation that inspired me through one of the social groups. I liked it instantly and got up to make it. I was also a little biased as baingan bharta has been my favorite since childhood. Whenever I saw papa bringing those big eggplants home, I would be happy. I knew it was bharta time. I would eat a lot of it and sleep merrily. Those childhood days! 

The concept of roasting the eggplant fascinated me. So rustic and dramatic! The aroma of the roasting eggplant would fill the house. The process of making bharta felt like a celebration to me. Though, we always made it by roasting the eggplant and frying it in onion & tomato. This time, I made it in a more rustic style. I roasted the eggplant along with garlic and green chilly. Then, I just added salt, cumin powder and coriander to it. No oil and no frying involved.  It had a different taste and aroma.

I had it with ghee ke haath ki roti (a  variation of chapati that my mom makes and is delicious, will post the recipe soon), onion and curd. It was an amazing meal. I felt satisfied and happy that I tried it.

This preparation is very healthy as it does not have any oil and is not fried. The original recipe involves the addition of sesame oil as well. I skipped the sesame oil, though I am sure that would also taste nice. Our experiences with lebanese and turkish cuisines tell us that eggplant and sesame seeds/sesame oil goes well together. 

It is a simple recipe. Hope you guys enjoy preparing it. Take some time out from your busy day and feel the pleasure of roasting the eggplant. The color intensifies and the eggplant releases a different aroma in the kitchen. A treat to all the senses. 

Be careful while buying the eggplant. Tap it to check if it sounds hollow or too tight. If it sounds hollow you are good to go else avoid it. The ones which are too tight are full of seeds and will take ages to roast.

Baingan Bharta (Eggplant mash) - The Rustic Style

Recipe Adapted From: Baingan Bharta

Serves : 2

Level: Easy

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium sized eggplant

2. 5-6 garlic clove

3. 7-8 green chilies ( also depend on the bitterness of the chilly and your liking for spicy food )

4. 1/2 tsp cumin powder - Optional

5. fresh coriander - chopped

6. salt to taste

Steps:

1. Make about 5-6 slits on the eggplant. Stuff the garlic cloves and green chilies inside. 

2. Roast the eggplant on open flame. Check if done by pressing the eggplant using your finger. It will take about 10-15 minutes depending on the type of eggplant. 

3. Now remove the peel off the eggplant when it cools down a bit. 

4. Mash the eggplant along with the garlic cloves and green chilies.

5. Mix salt, cumin powder and fresh coriander to the mash.

6. Serve with chapati/naan/parantha.

Something worth a try! A different style of creating something you have been eating since childhood. Easy, healthy, homely and comfortable food. 

Pohe (Flattened Rice)

I am at a new place. I think its either my steps or just coincidence but something or the other keeps happening to the gas stove since the day I have come. We have multiple other options like induction plate and my otg. The induction plate though detects utensils as per its own liking and there is really nothing much you can do about it. I thought I would not act brave and cook something simple for breakfast. What could be more simpler and lighter than Pohe? :)

I want to start posting more frequently for the quick recipes section. I want to post like one recipe per day so that my readers and friends have more options if they want to make something quickly for them. Let me try and settle up the systems here at the new place and I would be more frequent, a lot more frequent.

Pohe is a breakfast or one such food item that is eaten through out India and people have their own versions of it. Do get down at train stations in Rajasthan or Gujarat to enjoy it. I do that when I travel and I enjoy the Rajasthani verison most. They have a steamed verison of Pohe and not the sauteed one and they garnish it with sev, onion and Chaat masala. The Maharashtrian and Gujarati version has some sugar also.

I have been making Pohe since my childhood. It has been the same recipe through out with minor changes as per the geographical region where I am at that moment. In up north, I make the simple mom version of Pohe and in down south or in Maharashtra, I add a few flavors and tantrums such as curry leaves and pea nuts. Both are beautiful additions I must say. I have to soon make rice flakes the Rajasthani way though.

People think it is hard to make pohe as sometimes they get too sticky. There are very simple tricks to make them and the simplicity keeps the deliciousness intact. Also it depends on the type or variety of Pohe. The sticky version of Pohe is also liked by some people. This time, I also used the not so perfect Pohe, so they got a little sticky but I enjoyed them. Try to buy a good variety and the one which has small rice flakes. The bigger rice flakes absorb more water and hence turn more sticky. So buy a good variety, cook with a few tips I give you and you should be good to go.

Nonetheless they are always delicious, light, healthy, easy and super quick.

Pohe (Flattened Rice)
Preparation Time: 8-10 minutes
Makes for 1

Ingredients:
1. 1 tbsp olive oil
2. 1 tsp mustard seeds
3. 4-5 curry leaves
4. peanuts - as per taste
5. 1 red onion - finely chopped
6. 1 green chilly - chopped
7. a bowl full of Pohe/rice flakes (basically take a handful or heap up one of the bowls you use for pudding)
8. 1 large pinch red chilly powder (adjust as per taste or put one more green chilly)
9. 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
10. salt as per taste
11. juice from quarter lemon ( I love lemon a lot more and hence I sometimes use half a lemon for just one portion of pohe)
12. coriander leaves to garnish


Steps:
1. Heat up a pan or wok
2. Add 1 tbsp olive oil (makes it even healthier)
3. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves.
4. Add peanuts and roast them (if you already have roasted peanuts you don't need to do this).
    This will take about 4-5 minutes (basically until the peanuts brown up a little).
5. Add onion & green chilly when peanuts are ready and saute them till onions turn translucent.
6.  Now while the onions are being sauteed, wash the rice flakes.
This is a very important step. Do not soak them in water. Just put in the water and take out or run through water for a few seconds. The longer you expose them to water, the more water they will absorb and the stickier they would get. That is why the larger rice flakes gets sticky as they have larger capacity to soak water.
7. Now add the rice flakes to the onion.
8. Sprinkle salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder and  lime juice.
9. Mix well but with a light hand. If you apply too much strength, rice flakes will be mashed.
   So husbands and boyfriends or my fellow male readers please be nice & gentle. :)
10. Saute the rice flakes for a minute till they get warm. No need to keep frying them else they will turn crunchy.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve warm.

It is the fastest , lightest breakfast you could imagine and absolutely tasty too. Enjoy with hot tea or coffee. You can also sprinkle sev over Pohe and add some crunch to it. Some people also eat pohe with tomato ketchup. I used to do that too but not anymore. ;) You may try.

Well have fun cooking and eating Pohe. Now the weekend is here, it would also make a nice weekend breakfast if you are preparing for a heavy lunch.