Friday 30 December 2011

Soccer Ball Cake


Hey all !
I know I havent been posting much here. It has been a hectic week.

Made 2 cakes. Very detailed work i tell you!

This cake was made for a Manchester United fan. 
I did extensive search to get the hexagons and pentagons right.
But i thoroughly enjoyed making this cake, from baking the layers to decorating it. Took me two days :D

Had to bake the cakes a day before, so that it would be easier to carve the next day.

Covered the whole cake in white fondant and attached the black pentagons. 

 Made my own black color by mixing all the three primary colors, i dont know how much i added each but i kept adding till i got the color right.
(I'm still waiting for my Wilton's black)

And this was my first experience with making figurines, i was a little skeptic but in end happy with the result.

Here are a few pictures, Enjoy!
There's coconut everywhere so, excuse the mess please












Sharing this post with Thursday treasures
Sharing with  Decorating Challenge 4

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Singaporean Rice


II'll be sharing a recipe for Singaporian rice with u today,
and i'm not even sure if there is such thing as Singaporian Rice in Singapore :D
But I made it today, And enjoyed every bite of it.

This is not my recipe, its a recipe by a great chef/designer and the person who inspires me to cook
Farah Jahanzeb Khan.
You can check out her group here.
I've adjusted the recipe and the ingredients slightly to suit my taste.

This recipe has a lot of prepping and a lot of steps, 
you'll have to be in the kitchen for a long period of time. 
But in the end, when you are done and you come to table for dinner, you'll be happy
and when you can a bite of this, you'll want to make it again !! :D

So yea that sums it up to how delicious this dish really it !

Ingredients :
(For the Gravy)
1/2 kg of boneless chicken
1 inch piece of ginger
5-6 cloves of garlic
1 cup of tomato puree
4-5 tbsp of tomato ketchup
2 tbsp of Soy Sauce
1 tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp of Vinegar
Salt to taste
1 1/2 tbsp of Red Chili flakes (adjust according to taste) (Farah Jahanzeb used Paprika powder instead of this)
1/2 tsp White Pepper
2 tbsp of Brown sugar
2 cups of Chicken Stock
1/2 tsp of Chinese Salt
2-3 Green Chilies (sliced)

(For the Rice)
750 gms of Rice.
1/2 tsp of Ginger Garlic paste
Green part of about 4 Spring Onions
1 Carrot
1 Capsicum
1 tbsp of Soy Sauce
1 tbsp of Chili sauce
1 tbsp of Vinegar
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp of freshly ground Black Pepper
1/2 tsp of Chinese Salt

(For the Vegetable Stir fry)
1 Capsicum
1 Carrots
1 Onions
(you can use any veges you like, like cauliflower, cabbage, corn)

(For the Mayo Sauce)
1/2 cup of Mayonnaise
1 tbsp of Chili Sauce
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp of Black pepper

Spaghetti : 1/2 packet boiled.
Fry 3-4 cloves of garlic till golden.

Method:

(For the Gravy)

Cut Chicken in cubes

Roughly chop ginger and garlic.

Heat a little oil in a wok, stir fry chicken with a pinch of salt and black pepper

...when cooked, take out and keep aside.

In the same wok heat around 2 tbsp of oil, add ginger garlic. When fragrant...

...add tomato puree, tomato ketchup..

...salt, red chili flakes, white pepper, Chinese salt, brown sugar...

...soy sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire Sauce. Mix.

And let cook for 2 3 minutes.

Add chicken stock and the fried chicken (taste and adjust seasoning at this point). Cook till thick and delicious.

In the end add sliced green chilies. 
The gravy is DONE !! yay !!

(For the Rice)

Boil rice. Drain and keep aside.

finely dice the vegetables.

Heat about 3-4 tbsp of oil in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste. Saute till fragrant.

Add the vegetable and fry on high heat for a minute. Add the sauces, salt, black pepper and chinese salt.

Add the rice and mix.

(For the Vegetable Stir fry)

Cut the vegetables as desired :D

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok, add the vegetables and stir fry with a pinch of salt on high heat. 

(For the Mayo Sauce)

Add everything in a bowl

and mix !!! 

Now for Assembling.

Fill the rice on the base in the dish in which you are going to serve

...than a layer of chicken gravy..

...Stir fried vegetables...

... spaghetti...

Fried garlic..

Mayo sauce...

Top it of with sev if you like.





Enjoy!!!

Tips : You want everything to be hot at the time you serve than this is how you'd proceed.
1st : Boil the spaghetti and rice.
2nd :  while they are boiling chop up your veges and everything.
3rd : make the gravy.
4th : make the mayo sauce.
(these steps can be done like an hour or two before serving)

Now you have to work fast.
5th : make the rice base.
6th : heat the gravy while you are making the rice.
7th : stir fry veges and directly add on top.
8th : heat the boiled spaghetti in the microwave for a minute and add.
9th : fry the garlic and add.



Submitting this recipe at Midweek Fiesta.

Sharing this post with Thursday Treasures

Friday 23 December 2011

Matar Pulao with Tomato Chutney



I have weird sleep cycles this winter, i'm not sleepy at night and i cant seem to wake up in the morning

I'm sleepy and lazy all day, I don't feel like doing anything.

I know, not a good way to spend my vacations. 
(well i am kinda compensating for the sleep that i would be losing for my papers in April :D)

But yea, I'm getting kinda annoyed with myself now.

I should do something productive, so i'm going shopping tomorrow for the things i'd be needing for a baking spree next week.
I have 3 awesome cakes planned.
Will keep you guys posted :)

So anyways, this recipe is purely my mother's.

An all time favorite at my home and a definite life saver when you cant figure out what to cook for dinner.

I'm sure everyone has their own version of this recipe, this is the way I make it !

These rice would work awesome with mint raita or plain yogurt !




Ingredients:
These are the same amount of ingredients that i used. You can easily adjust according to your requirement.

(For the Rice)
2 1/2 cup of Rice
Peas : 1/2 kg
1 large Onion (Sliced)
1 tbsp of Ginger Garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp of Cumin
Salt to taste
1 large tomato (chopped)
5-6 Green chilies (slice half of them)

(For Tomato Chutney)
4-5 tomatoes (roughly chopped)
2 Onions (sliced)
Salt to taste
2 tsp of Red Chili flakes
4-5 Green Chilies (chopped)
2 tsp of Sugar


Method:
(For the Rice)

Clean and soak rice in water for 30 minutes.

Heat about 1/2 cup of oil in a pan and fry onions till light golden

Add ginger garlic paste and Cumin. When fragrant...

...add chopped chilies and tomato

..and the whole chilies as well. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover immediately.
Let it cook till the tomatoes are tender.

Than add the peas and let them cook for about 7-8 minutes.

Add a little less than 5 cups of water. 

When it comes to boil..

...add the rice. At this time you should take a spoon full of the stock and check the seasoning.

Cook on medium flame till almost all the water evaporates. Than cook on very low flame for 10 minutes.


(For the Tomato Chutney)

Heat oil in a pan. Add onions. Fry till transparent.

Add all the other ingredients. and let it cook on low flame till the tomatoes are tender...

...and it looks somewhat like this.

Enjoy !!




Submitting this recipe to Cooking with Seeds : Peas


Submitting this recipe to Midweek Fiesta

Sharing recipe with Lets Cook Rice