Spider Web Chocolate Fudge Cup Cakes

These are the perfect Hallowe'en treat, they are light and chocolatey. The kids would love it. Adults too as i ate few of them as I love chocolate.

I also had so much fun making them. Ofcourse i saw my daughter flashing to the kitchen each time and licking the chocolate icing....................

Sugar, sour cream, melted butter and chocolate etc...

Ready to go in the oven

Just finished the icing......

Ingridients.
50 gm/3 oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces
85 gm/ 3 oz butter
1tbsp milk
200 gm/8oz selfraising flour
Half tsp bicarbonate of soda
50 gm/2oz muscovado sugar ( if you don't have them u can use normal sugar but i think it is this sugar which fives it the fudgy taste)
50 gm /2oz caster sugar
1 egg
150 ml sour cream / youghurt

For the topping.
100 gm/ 4 oz dark chocolate broken into pieces and melted
100 gm/ 4 oz white chocolate broken into pieces and melted

Preheat the ovzn to 190° c and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
Heat the chocolate abd butter with milk until melted. Stir and cool.

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and both the sugar.
Beat the egg in a another bowl and stir in the sour cream., then pour this onto the flous mixture and add the cooled chocolate.
Stir just to combine, don't over mix it.
Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Cool the cakes on a wire rack.

Now for the topping. Spread a muffin with dark chocolate, then pipe four circles of white chocolate on top. Drag a skewer ( i used a tooth pick) from the centre to the edge to create the cowweb effect.
Alternate dark chocolate for the opposite effect.

I loved the one with the dark chocolate toppings.

Omlette With Potato

The beautiful lovely Kanchana from Married to a Desi is hosting Weekend breakfast blogging event OMELETTE. This is my contribution for her event.

The event was started by Dr.Nandita Iyer of Saffrron Trail.

Let me see what can i say about this omelette. Nothing much. Actually it is my MIL make this omlette when she have left over potatoes when my hubby and his brother were small.

So when my daughter stayed in their place when she was younger ( well to be honest she always wanted to stay with her Oma ( that is what she calls her grandmother) when she was younger as you know kids love their grandmothers. She would still go and stay there now ,but she have too much school work. MIL used to make this for her and after a while i started also making this for my daughter as she love to have this omlette.

You can add any filling you want. I made this for my daughter so NO VEGETABLES as she dislike most of them.
If i was making it for myself i would have added few slice of mushroo, onions or capsicum etc....for reall carnivores they can add ham etc :-))

Eggs and potato in the pan

This is what my daughter had for dinner this evening :-)

Ingridients
2 eggs
1 large Potato cooked and fried in a bit of oil
1 slice of cheese
Butter or oil for frying.
Salt and pepper to your taste

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and whisk.

Heat the oil or butter in a non-stick frying pan and pour in the eggs.
Add the potatoes to it. Cover and cook till the eggs are almost done, then add the slice of chees.
When it is melted. Remove the omlette to a plate and serve.
If you want you can turn the omelette upside down too then both the sides are crisp and then add the cheese.

Pumpkin Soup

What can i say about this soup.
Well Nothing much than it is a very easy and a delicious soup.

Here in the shops they have this time around a lot of Pupmkins, so i bought this huge pumpkin. So you can expect a another soup recipe from me next week with the other half of the pumpkin :-)

Pumpkin,onions........

Warm and Delicious

Ingrigients:

1 to 1 1/2 kg pumpkin peeled and chopped .
2 l vegetable broth ( i used broth tablets)
1 fat leek chopped
1 onion chopped
2 tbsp concentrated tomato pulp
2 tbsp butter or oil
200 ml cream
Pepper and salt to taste ( Tste the soup when it is done and then add the salt as the broth cubes are mostlti salty)
Method:
Heat the oil and add the onions and leek and fry till they are soft. Then add the pumpkin and the vegetable broth and the tomato pulp and the pepper. Cook for 25 minutes or till the pumpkin is soft.

Puree the soup with a mixer. I always use a hand mixer which is very easy.
Add the cream and enjoy.

I always make my soup in the pressure cooker. So it takes only 10 to 15 minutes to cook.

Mostly when i make this soup i have a whole big pot so i freeze the rest of the soup in portions for another lazy day :-)

Peach, Raspberry and Almond Tart

I love peaches. Always eat them fresh. Never ever cooked with them.
But then I saw Fruit of the Month is Peaches.
So this Is my entry for the AFAM-October hosted by Manasi Desai of Fun and Food

I have been searching for fresh peaches to make this wonderful Tart. But in Vain the season for peaches are long gone here. I even went to three different supermarkets, still coudn't find them fresh. In the end i decided to do with tinned peaches.

But for sure next year in summer I am going to make this tart again with fresh peaches.
I like the tart but my husband loved it. He even said oh!!! you can't buy this in a cake shop.They never have them like this.
He even said it was so nice that I should have done it for sunday afternoon coffee. But hey i was impatient coudn't wait till sunday.
It was a delicate tart combinig fresh summer fruits ( even though the summer is long gone) with almonds.

Few of the ingridients. I used reday made pastry

All ready to go to the oven

This is how it was looking straight out of the oven

Here is my peach dessert

Ingredients
grated zest and juice of 1 large orange
1 tbsp caster sugar
6 peaches, peeled and cut into slices
150gm Raspberries
25 cm dessert pastry tart shell, blind-baked ( I used ready made pastry)

For the Frangipane
white of 2 large eggs
90 gm sugar
90g ground almonds
3 tbsp Amaretto or light rum

To serve
Whipp 200 ml cream with 1 tbsp of vanilla essence and 2 tbsp of icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas 3.
Add the orange zest and juice to the caster sugar in a small pan and bring to the boil.
Place the peaches and raspberries in a bowl, pour in the hot orange syrup and set aside.

To make the frangipane, whisk the egg white until stiff, then fold in the sugar, ground almonds and Amaretto or rum.
Fold the peach mixture into the frangipane and pour into the tart shell.
Bake the tart in the oven at 170c for 40 minutes.

Serve warm with a generous spoonful of Whipped Cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

Click The Photo event

It has been raining EGGS in the blog world because of the event hosted by the famous Duo Jai and Bee or is it Bee and Jai :-)) from Jugalbandi
So this is my entry for their event
For the last weeks I have seen so many photos of eggs. And still i didn't know what to do.

For days i have been reminding myself , don't be difficult just take a egg and click it.

Two days back i even thought of asking my teenage daughter for help as she is good in drawing i thought i will ask her to draw something funny on the egg and then take a picture.

But she has been really very busy with her school work and all the afterschool activities I felt really bad about asking her to help me.........

So now as there is only 2 or 3 more days left for sending in the entry i thought I will better do it now.
The camera i used was from Nikon Coolpix 7900. That is the only thing i know about the camera. And i didn't use any special technic just put the things on the table and clicked.

So here are the pictures i clicked. And the egg didn't go for waste i made scrambled eggs.

Mango Kulfi With Coconut

Mango Coconut Kulfi

I didn't know what to call this Kulfi.
It had Mangoes, coconut milk, Almonds, Saffron etc............

When I saw Sunita's this month spice event, I knew what i was going to send her. As i have been wanting to make this kulfi for a while.

So this is my entry for Sunita's Think Spice...think Saffron



Kulfi was really delicious, if i may say it myself, I don't know if I will add the Almond powder next time as I personally thought it was not necesary. But the recipie had asked it so thought i will make it exactly.

I was surprised how easy it was to make this, there wasnot cooking at all involved.

Mangoes, Saffron, Almond powder etc....

Such a Beautiful Colour

I bought the kulfi moulds in India....

Refershing Kulfi

Ingridients:
1 big ripe mango peeled and pureed
Coconut Milk 250 ml ( I used canned coconut milk)
Saffron 1/2 to 1 tsp
Cream 250 ml
Almond Powder 60 gm
Sugar 3 to 4 tbsp.

Method:
Into a bowl add the pureed mango, then add the coconut milk, cream and sugar. Stir well and add the rest of the ingridients.
Pour into Kulfi moulds and freeze them for few hours.

Done told you it is a super easy kulfi.

Chicken Noddles Soup

This is a soup I make a lot, especially if someone is having a cold at home.
The ginger and chillies just open up ones nose :-)) after having this soup.

If you are a vegetarian you don't have to use chicken and use vegetable broth.

Ingridients

Hot bowl of soup

Ingridients

1 onion cut fine.
150 gm chicken in small pieces.
1 small piece of ginger grated.
2 to 3 chillies or according to your taste.
One and a half litre Chicken broth ( i used readymade broth tablets)
1 tbsp soya sauce.
1 to 2 tbsp oil
Noddles 100 to 150 gm

Method:
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions for a few minutes. Then add the chillies and ginger. Fry for few seconds and add the chicken and the broth. Cook for 10 minutes.
Now add the noodles and boil for few minutes.
Serve hot. You can farnish with spring onions ir corriander leaves.

When i made this i didn't had both of them so didn't use it.

Laddoo

"Laddoo" is typically a popular Indian sweet prepared on festive occassions and also served as Prashad in the Hindu temples of india.

According to the Hindu mythology, it is associated with Lord Ganesha, whose favourite is besan laddu. It is often prepared during the festival of Diwali.

This is my entry for RCI Tamil Festival Cusine event hosted by Vcuisine

I had mailed and asked Viji if i can make Laddoo's for the event ( I have never ever made laddoo in my whole life, for me they were sweets which were bought from the sweet shop).

I was very enthusiastic to make them i even asked viji if i can make mysoore pak forthe event too as it was my favorite Indian sweet. She was really thrilled that i was going to make both the sweets.
But after me trying to make these laddoo's and the disaster i had, when i was making them I have fully changed my mind in making the mysore pak for the next few weeks :-))))

The disaster i was talking about was when i was making the sugar syrup, it was almost sitcky in nature and then suddenly it was all gone crystal and hard, maybe my fire was too high.
So i started from scratch again and the same happened, i was almost in the verge of giving up when my hubby came to the kitchen hearing me grumbling and swearing about the disaster.
He advised me to start making the syrup again with less heat and it worked.

We had the laddoos with coffee and the taste was great.
I was surprsied about the taste and now i am glad that I made them at home.

Ofcourse my hubby takes all the credit for it, he saying that if it was not for his advice I would have thrown everything in the dirtbag when I had the disaster with the sugar syrup!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the recipe from here

Making the bhoondi took time. As it was made a bit by bit.

Few of the things needed

Fried boondhi

My First ever home made Laddoo's

Ingridients:
Bengal gram flour - 1 cup.
Sugar - 11/4 cups.
Cardamom powder 1tsp.
Oil -1/2 kg
Cashewnut1 cup.
Water 1 cup.
3 tbsp raisins
2 tsps cardamom powder
Raisins Few Tbsp
1/4 tsp yellow food colour ( optional)
If i had thought about Sunita's Spice event i would have added saffron. But now it is too late so have to look for a new dish for the think spice event.
Which is also fun.

Method:
Add 1 cup of water to bengal gram flour and mix well.
Keep this mixture aside.Add 1/2 cup of water to the sugar and boil for 25 minutes (until the sugar becomes threadishly sticky in nature )
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Take the laddoo-boondhi spoon (a special spoon with tiny holes especially used and designed for preparing laddoo),and then add 2 tbsps. of the above prepared bengal gram mixture on top of the special boondhi spoon and rub so that the mixture falls into the oil in the frying pan.

I do not have these spoon so i just took a sieve and then added the mixture through this.
Allow the boondhi to get deep fried (till the boondhi turns light brown in color).
Repeat the entire procedure till the entire mixture is turned into boondhis.
Now add all the boondhis into the sugar syrup.
Add cardamom powder to the syrup.
Add ghee fried cashew nuts and raisins
Mix well.
Now,take 4 tsps. of this mixture in your hand and size into a lemon sized ball.
Do this till the entire mixture into balls.Serve hot or cold.

Walnut Cake With Chocolate

I don't know nothing about this cake.
I just saw it in one of my recipe book and I had all the ingridients except sour cream so i went to the shop close to our home and bought the sour cream.
It is not a difficult cake to make. So i am sure lot of you will try it.

All the ingridients....

Ready to go in the oven

Want to have a slice.....

Ingridients:
125 gm butter
2 tsp vanilla essence
220 gm sugar
3 eggs
30 gm almond powder
40 gm selfraising flour
110 gm all purpose flour ( sieve the flour together)
80 gm Sour cream
100 gm dark chocolate , cut in pieces
100 gm roughly chopped roasted walnuts
powder sugar to sprinkle on the cake

Method:
Heat the oven to 160°c. Butter a long cake form ( 11cm x 25 cm ).
Cream the butter , vanilla and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix well after adding each egg. Add the almond powder. Now add half of the flour and half of the sour cream.
Now add the rest of the flour and the sour cream together with the walnuts and the chocolate pieces.
Pour the mix into the cake form and bake for 1 hour or till the cake is done.
Place on a wire rack to cool for a while and then remove the cake from the pan.
Before serving the cake sprinkle on top with powder sugar.

Note: Powder sugar is icing sugar

Easy Onion Soup

The weather is getting colder here so I have started making soups again.
I made this Onion soup which is really very easy and simple.
I know it is not the real French onion soup with wine and beef broth ( it seems if you add beef broth it gives really this dark colour, but i stick to the vegetable broth).
I also didn't do the toast with cheese, as i made the soup for everyday use than special occasion.

Onions

Frying onions

Hot bowl of soup

Ingridients.
4 big onions thinly sliced.
1 garlic finley Chopped.
One and a Half ( 1500 ml) vegetable broth. I used broth tablets.
Pepper powder to taste
1 tbsp flour.2 to 3 tbsp oil/butter
Method:
Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, fry them till really brown (not burned)?
I fry them in slow fire; so the onions don't burn.
When the onions are brown and soft add the garlic and fry for few seconds.
Now add the flour stir very nice ( i use the flour just to make the soup a little thinck).
Add the vegetable stock and the pepper powder stir well and cook for 10 minutes.
If you want you cab serve the soup with toasted bread with melted cheese on it.