Carrot & Pineapple Cake with Walnuts

Hey girls, 

It's been way too long since I put in something useful for our blog so here goes the recipe for the cake I made for Ram's b'day. I basically hunted for a not-too-complicated recipe that was reasonably healthy too (Ram's big eating healthy at the moment) so found this recipe which, with a few changes, came out yummy! :)

Cake: 

2 cups granulated sugar (i used raw sugar)

11/3 cups veggie oil (i used olive)

3 XL eggs 

1tsp vanilla 

21/2 cups all purpose flour 

2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional, i didn't have any so didn't add any but tasted just fine)

2tsp baking soda

1/2tsp salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup finely diced fresh pineapple (guess you can try crushed tinned too?)

Frosting: 

50-60g cream cheese (i used fat-free, used half of a 113g pot) at room temperature

200g unsalted butter at room temperature

1tsp vanilla 

some finely diced pineapple (optional)

confectioners sugar (i added according to taste)

Directions:

- Butter up and set aside 2 x 8inch round cake tins, preheat oven to 300F

- Beat sugar, oil, eggs in a bowl till light yellow and add vanilla essence

- In a separate bowl, mix 21/2 cups flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt

- Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches

- Toss walnuts in a tablespoon of flour

- Fold in carrots and pineapple 

- Add walnuts to the batter and mix well 

- Divide the batter into the two pans, bake for 60min

Frosting

- Mix cream cheese, butter, vanilla until just combined.

- Add sugar and pineapple and mix till smooth

I used the frosting to layer the cake as well as as the final topping. Overall, it came out pretty yummy and didnt' taste overly sweet or anything. 

:)

Corn Chowder

Hello ladies
 
Okay so I know it's summer there but I just made the most awesome corn chowder and I had to share....
 
You need
2 medium sized onions chopped up
1 carrot chopped up
1-2 green chillies chopped up
1 teaspoon vege stock powder or 1 cube of vege stock
2 garlic cloves chopped
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 tin lite coconut milk
1 tin trim milk
 
In a little bit of olive oil put the onions garlic carrots all together and sautee them, then add green chillies and corn...sweat them off for a while then add the coconut milk and trim milk bring to a simmer and add the stock.  Add salt to taste and keep simmering until all veges are softened and fully cooked.
 
then put everything into a blender and blend till smooth.
 
Put back on the heat add a little bit of pepper and then add a small pinch of freshly chopped corriander before serving.
 
It's soo yummy and the trim milk and lite coconut milk actually make it quite healthy.
 
Give it a go and let me know what you think....
 
xoxoxox
Meeeeee :)

Chicken & Peanut noodles

Yesterday I made a stirfry that turned out quite a hit at home...and the whole thing took just half an hour and I just made it using whatever ingredients were at home. 

For the marinade:

2-3 tsp peanut butter

2 tsp lemon juice

1-2 tsp honey

2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp crushed garlic

Rest of the ingredients:

About 1/2-3/4 pounds boneless-skinless chicken, cut into smallish pieces

1 packet noodles (i used japanese noodles but i dont think it makes any dif)

1-1.5 cups finely chopped veggies (i used capsicum, spring onions and corn)

3 cloves garlic

1 green chilli/jalapeno

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp corn flour

Handful of roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed

Marinate the chicken and leave it for a while (i think i left it for about an hour)

Once marinated add some cornflour into the mix (i did it because it looked too watery and i wanted the chicken to be dry but what it did was created a really nice crust to the chicken! discovery by accident)

Boil the noodles with some salt based on instructions on the noodle packet and drain.

In a pan add a bit of oil and let the oil get sizzle a bit before you drop the chicken in. If the oil is hot the outside of the chicken will brown nicely. Once it starts to get brown (shouldnt take more than 2-3 mins), turn the heat down and cook for another 7-8 mins till the chicken is cooked.

Take the chicken out. Add a bit more oil to the pan and put in the garlic and green chillis. After a couple of minutes add in the veggies (except green onion if you are using it). stir fry the veggies for a few mins till they are done to the way you like it. Add some soy sauce and mix it in. Add the cooked chicken and check for salt (i didnt need to add too much because of the soy sauce). If not spicy enough, add some more red pepper flakes. Finally mix in the noodles into the pan. Add the peanut powder and spring onions and mix them in. Shouldnt take more than 3 or 4 mins after that.

:)

Cherry Almond Cake

The blog has been a bit dormant lately so thought I'd kick start it...last weekend I was in the mood to bake but not in the mood to go grocery shopping so I had to improvise with what I had and it turned out pretty good!

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

3 eggs

2 tbsp butter/margarine

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar (i used raw sugar)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup fresh cherries

1-2 tbsp almond slivers

Cream the butter a little with a fork so it's smooth. Add and beat in the eggs. Add the milk. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Fold in the dry mixture in the wet mixture. Pour into a baking dish. Cut the cherries into halves and remove the stones. Top the cake batter with the cherries and the almond slivers. Bake at 375F for 40 mins.

It was so simple and quick but definitely was good - especially warm with a bit of vanilla icecream :)

(On the same day Saugar made this roast lamb - which was un-freakin-believable. Probably the most tender lamb i've ever had...that recipe coming up :)

Creamiest Dal ever

So this was a completely flukey discovery I made a few weeks ago - and have since repeated it like 4 or 5 times because both me & Saugar love it. Made it this past weekend for my in-laws as well and they enjoyed it too.

 

I was about to make dal and instead of the usual toor dal I decided to use moong dal and added a new ingredient as a random experiment and it turned out brilliant.

 

In a pressure cooker cook a cup of moong dal (the yellow version) with whatever veggie you might want to add (optional). I usually add roughly chopped carrot or spinach. You only need to cook it for 1 whistle because moong dal cooks super fast.

 

In a pan fry some jeera, mustard and garlic with green chillies and curry leaves. Add half a cup of chopped onions and let them cook till light brown. Into the pan add the cooked dal. Once you mix in the onions and tadka into the dal properly, add a cup or so of soy milk (this was the random discovery...the dal had turned out too thick and instead of adding water I added soy milk). Add salt to taste. Turn the heat down and let it simmer slowly till you get the consistency you want.

 

My mother-in-law when she had this said she wouldn't mind taking it to work just by itself to eat as soup. It was just very creamy and comforting. Plus it's added protein!

 

Give it a try! :)

Loughborough Butter Chicken

Just saw the postings on the blog and realized there were none in April!! Slow month for experimental cooking??  Everyone must be busy with work/home etc..

 

Weekend before last when Prudy was here I had not seen him for two whole weeks, so decided to cook something VERY special and labour intensive.. I was meant to cook a homely chicken curry but when it was done it looked a lot like butter chicken :) So decided to call it Butter Chicken of Loughborough .. hehe.. 

 

 So I used thigh pieces and drumsticks for this.. would have used breasts but this was a special occasion so decided to indulge a little. In a bowl I mixed some mustard oil, chopped ginger, chopped garlic, lime juice and little corainder powder.  I marinated the chicken in this for a couple of hours.  After about 2-3 hours I applied a second marinade to the chicken.  In a pan with a tiny bit of oil I roasted whole garam masala (2-3 cloves, 4-5 peppercorns, cinnamon, bay leaf, black cardamom) and chopped/peeled almonds.  I crushed it all together, using a bowl and side of a belan :) then mixed it all in some plain yogurt, I also put in a bit of red chilli powder to this.  I coated the chicken pieces nicely in this marinade and leaved it for another 3-4 hours. This was done on a Friday and I was working from home so it worked out alright.. otherwise would have done it over night.

 

For the gravy, in a pan with oil I fried cumin seeds, chopped ginger/garlin and chopped onions and chopped green chillies till onions were translucent. I mixed a bit of coriander powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, salt in a bit of water and added to the pan. I also added 1 tsp of Shaan chicken curry powder not sure why I did that since all the masalas that were suppose to be in it I had already put in the chicken marinade or the pan... not sure if adding it made any difference.  Then added tomato puree (lots) to this mixture.  I then added just the chicken pieces from the marinade.  Once they were slightly cooked from the outside, I added the rest of the yogurt marinade, covered it with a lid and started cooking it on low heat.  Since the chicken pieces had a lot of oil and I had added some oil in my first marinade I didnt feel I needed to add any butter or cream, the yogurt already made it quite creamy as well. 

 

One tip that I saw on the net which I could have done as it sounded pretty cool.. was to make a small bowl out of aluminium foil and put inside it couple of small pieces of hot coal, you then float/place it in the cokking pot on top of the gravy while it is cooking and cover it.  It apparently gives a nice charcoaly flavour the the curry.  I will def try it next time.  My flatmates are into sheesha so there is always small pieces of coal available.. hehe..

 

Garnished the dish with chopped coriander and had it with rice and it was yummy as!!! :)

 

Ciao!

S

Honey-soy glazed roast lamb

Hello girls...

 

checking in after a long time.. things have been pretty quiet at work today so figrued I would catch up on a few things that I have been meaning to do for a while now.. thought I would share a couple of recipes that we have tried in the last couple of weeks that have turned out really good!

 

First roast leg of lamb (you may have seen pics of it on my FB album.. :)

 

We bought a big leg of lamb from the supermarket... not sure how much it weighed exactly but I think it was more than 1kg but less than 1.5kg.  We pre-heated the oven to about 180C.  To prepare the lamb we scored it in a cross hatch pattern and seasoned the leg really well with salt and pepper all over.  Make sure you rub it in real well.  Prudy really enjoyed doing this..hehe.. (hmmm should I be concerned!).  We then put dried rosemary and thyme all over it and rubbed that in as well.  Chopped fresh herbs are the best but we could not find any fresh rosemary/thyme in the supermaket that night.  We also chopped fresh garlic and sprinkled it all over (not too much).  Once the oven is hot we put the lamb in on top of a grill placed on top of a tray to collect all the dripping oil from the meat.  We left the lamb in for about 1.5 hours in total but I think it could have done alright with about 20 more minutes.  Ours was a little pink in the middle which was fine and we liked it that way but if you like it well done leave a little longer.

 

About half an hour into the roasting we dressed the lamb with our honey/soy dressing.  In a bowl we mixed lots of lemon juice, a big tablespoon on honey and a generous dash of soy sauce and mixed it really well.  We then spooned it all over the lamb.  Waiting abot half hour/45 minutes into the roasitng to do this meant the lamb was well sealed and the glaze stuck to the outer layers of the lamb making it shiny, crispy and tasty.  We repeated it again another 20 minutes into the roasting. 

 

Once done, we left the lamb out to rest for another 20 minutes.. it does take a lot of time to cook it.. not something you would want to make if you are really hungry and need something fast!  Prudy then carved and served it.. he was so happy!! hehehe.. And everyone in our flat loved it! We had it with chunky steak fries and garlic mayo.. hehe..

 

Enjoy!

S