Guest post-2: Ney Pathal

Today I am really overwhelmed with joy, as my post of Ney pathal has found its place in Lubna’s “Joy from Fasting to Feasting”.

This is my second guest post in Lubna’s Yummy Food blog. Last year I did one during Ramadhan and the post was about “Thari Kanji”.

Do check out the recipe for “Ney pathal” here...

Radish Paratha / Mooli ke Parathe

These days I am busy gathering lunch box recipes for my little one who has to take her lunchbox to school as she will be in school till 4. So daily I have to think about new dishes, because if I repeat the dishes, I know the box will be back as it is. I used to make different kinds of rotis, parathas and many more rice dishes, but I never made this radish paratha since I never liked the radish smell. Once the radish gets cooked, we couldn’t figure out that the dish contains radish. So tried making this paratha and completely loved it.

Mooli or radish paratha is another stuffed flat bread. In this paratha, the grated radish is well blended with spices that is stuffed in wheat dough and made into parathas. This is an easy dish which can be taken along for long journeys, does not require any side dish. These parathas are great when smeared with butter and eaten along with thick curd or pickle.

Ingredients:

1. Wheat Flour- 2 Cups
2. Salt- as required
3. Oil- 1 tbsp
4. Water- to knead the dough
5. Radish- 2 nos
6. Ajwain- 1 tsp
7. Onions- 1 no
8. Salt- as required
9. Turmeric Powder- ½ tsp
10. Red Chilli powder- 1 tsp
11. Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
12. Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp

Method:

1. Knead the wheat flour, oil and salt along with water to form a pilable dough.Keep this aside for sometime.
2. Meanwhile grate radish and keep this aside for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, squeeze the grated radish to remove excess water. We can add this water to knead the dough.
3. Heat a pan with oil. Add ajwain, when it splutters add the chopped onions and fry till it turns translucent.
4. In this add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and coriander powder. When the raw smell disappears add the squeezed radish, salt and stir well. Close with a lid for about 5- 10 minutes. When it is done, transfer to a dish.
5. Divide the dough and radish stuffing into equal number of balls and roll each dough slightly and keep the filling inside and pull all the edges to the center, cover the filling with the dough and spread into thick parathas.
6. Heat a tawa, drizzle some oil, cook both the sides and serve along with butter, pickle and curd.

Barbie Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

After much demand from my friends and my husband, today’s post is about a cake and this post has been sitting in my draft since past couple of weeks. I made  this barbie cake two weeks ago for my little one’s birthday who is a die hard barbie fan… :).

When her birthday was nearing, she promptly demanded a barbie cake. As I am not a professional baker, I was in a dilemma on where to start and how to go about it. And my search for barbie cakes started and after so much of googling and going through dozens of blogs, videos etc., I was able to gather the process which resulted in a beautiful cake.

I made the basic cake a chocolate one and I filled the layers and covered with ganache and sugar syrup so that the cake turns into a chocolate truffle cake.  I made a hole in the center of the cake by using an oval shaped cutter for the barbie to squeeze in.

Filling the layers using ganache

Before inserting a barbie doll into the center of the cake, measure the length of the lower part of the barbie i.e from the waist to the toes and then bake cakes accordingly. For some barbie cakes we require to make 3 cakes and for some four. I made four cakes and then cut each cake into two layers. My cake was an eight layered chocolate truffle cake which is covered with strawberry buttercream icing to look just like a barbie’s layered gown.

I never expected that one day I will make a barbie cake which looked so awesome, which even I couldnt believe I did :-). For decorations you can put fondant flowers or use different coloured icing or sprinkle some silver balls around the buttercream.

If I can make a barbie cake, I am sure you can also bake one and surprise you little ones ...

Ingredients:

Chocolate Truffle Cake

1. Flour- 1 Cup
2. Cocoa Powder- ⅓ Cup
3. Baking Powder- 1 tsp
4. Salt- as per taste
5. Eggs- 3 nos
6. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
7. Butter- ½ Cup
8. Sugar- 1 Cup
9. Milk- ⅓ Cup

Sugar Syrup:

1. Water- ½ Cup
2. Sugar- 5 tbsps

Method:

• Boil water and add sugar. Stir for some time and remove from flame. Let it cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache:

1. Heavy Cream- 1 Cup
2. Chocolate Pieces- 1 ½ Cups

Method:

• Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and just when it starts boiling remove from flame and add the chocolate pieces. Stir well till all the pieces are melted and blended properly.
• Allow the ganache to cool.

Method for chocolate cake:

1. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt trice. Keep this aside.
2. In a clean glass bowl beat the eggs along with vanilla essence till it turns creamy and light.
3. In another glass bowl beat the butter and sugar well using a hand mixer. Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture and beat well in one direction till all the ingredients are well incorporated.
4. In the above mixture, alternatively fold the flour and milk till well blended (in one direction). Pour this cake batter in a greased cake bowl.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Bake the cake for about 30- 40 min or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
6. Remove the cake from oven and let it cool completely before building the barbie cake.
7. Using this measurement, prepare two more cakes to complete the full barbie dress.
8. In this the top most cake that starts from the hip of the barbie, should be made in a glass bowl which has a curved bottom. So that when the cake is inverted from the glass bowl it will look like a dome shape.

For the barbie:

• Wrap the lower half body  and the hair of the barbie with a cling film, so that when it is inserted in the cake it won't get spoiled and it will prevent staining from the food.

Make hole in the middle of the cake:

1. Make a hole in the center of each cake using a sharp knife or with an oval shaped cutter and make sure that the barbie inserts in the hole properly.
2. Make each cake into 2 layers and place the base i.e one of the cake on the cake board and sprinkle some sugar syrup and then spread the prepared chocolate ganache. Place the next layer of cake and repeat the process. Stack the cake one after the other alternatively sprinkling the sugar syrup and spreading the ganache, ending the cake layer with the dome type cake.
3. When all the layers of the cake are stacked properly, cover the entire cake using this ganache.
4. Place this ganache covered cake in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
5. After taking out from the refrigerator insert the barbie in the cake and decorate with buttercream icing.

Covering the cake using ganache

Buttercream icing:

1. Beat the icing sugar, butter and strawberry essence till light and fluffy. Divide the batter into the ratio of one third to the two thirds. Add a few drops of pink colour to the two third of teh icing and fill these in two piping bags with a zigzag nozzle.
2. Pipe the basic buttercream on to the cake as shown in the pic and cover the remaining portion of the cake from base to the top, until you reach the barbie’s waist.

Decoration on Barbie cake:

• Decorate with silver balls on to the barbie cake by placing them randomly. Remove the cling film from the barbie’s hair.
• Now the barbie cake is ready for the birthday party.

Kootu Curry/ Mixed Vegetables and chana dal in coconut gravy

This is one of the delicacies served along with the Onam sadhya. Its basically a combination of mixed vegetables along with cooked chana dal, blended in coconut gravy. In this we can add as many vegetables as we like. For eg: yam, carrots and so on.. Instead of chana dal we can also add chana.

During my school vacation time, my grandmother used to make all such traditional kerala dishes for us. Among them, I always liked mampazha pulisserry (mango in yogurt) and this kootu curry the most. So few days back, I thought of making this myself.

If you haven’t tasted this before, I would recommend you to try this delicious preparation of veggies. This is prepared in different styles in different parts of Kerala. Just try this out and I am sure that you will fall in love with this.

Ingredients:

1. Chana Dal- ¼ Cup
2. Pumpkin (diced)- ¼ Cup
3. White Pumpkin (diced)- ¼ Cup
4. Snake Gourd (diced)- ¼ Cup
5. Ash Gourd (diced)- ¼ Cup
6. Raw Banana (diced)- ¼ Cup
7. String Beans- ¼ Cup
8. Coconut- ½ Cup
9. Green Chillies- 3 nos
10. Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp
11. Salt- as per taste
12. Oil- 1 tbsp
13. Mustard Seeds- 1 tsp
14. Red Chillies- 1 no
15. Curry Leaves- few

Method:

1. Cook the chana dal along with salt and turmeric powder in a pressure cooker. Keep this aside.
2. Cook all the diced vegetables with required amount of salt. Grind the coconut along with green chillies to a fine paste.
3. Add the cooked vegetables and ground coconut to the cooked chana dal and mix well.
4. For seasoning add oil in a small kadai, splutter the mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves.
5. Pour this over the above curry mixture, mix well and enjoy this delicious magic of vegetables with hot steaming rice.

Raspberry Cupcakes

During my UK trip last year, I got to eat some of the freshest berries I could get… :-). Here in Bangalore, I am getting only the dry version of these berries so when I went to a supermarket I got this raspberry preserve and grabbed it, so that I could have it whenever I want.

So I thought of baking raspberry cupcakes for my little one as she is a big fan of cupcakes and she likes to eat spoonfuls of this raspberry preserve.

Raspberry cupcakes are simple to make and tastes delicious. This is ideal for parties with its pretty pink frosting. Since this was made at home, I didn’t frost the cupcakes as my little one will be taking them to school. Just try these amazing pink cute cupcakes and I am sure you cannot resist eating one…

Ingredients:

1. Flour- 1 Cup
2. Sugar- 1 Cup
3. Butter- ½ Cup +2 tbsp
4. Baking Powder- 1 tsp
5. Salt- a pinch
6. Eggs- 3 nos
7. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
8. Milk- ⅓ Cup
9. Raspberry Preserve / Jam- 4 tbsp

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt trice and keep it aside.
3. In a glass bowl beat the eggs and vanilla essence till they turn fluffy.
4. Beat the butter and sugar well till they turn pale in colour. In this add the above beaten egg mixture little by little and mix well with the beater.
5. Add the raspberry preserve and mix till everything is well incorporated.
6. In the above batter fold the sieved flour and milk alternately till combined.
7. Transfer this batter to lined cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes.
8. Yummy and delicious cupcakes are ready to eat anytime.