Buttery marble cake

Well, here's my recipe for an extremely awesome buttery marble cake....being true to my punjabi self, who likes everything buttery, n not too sweet except for jalebis... i fixed this recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Flour - 2 cups
2. Baking powder 2+ 2/3 tsp
3. Salted butter - a lill more than 2 sticks of butter - 225 g
4. Eggs - lightly beaten -4
5. Sugar - 2/3 cup
6. Orange Juice - 1 teacup -I just used Tropicana - if you are using fresh orange juice then make the sugar 1 cup
6. cocoa powder - 3 tablespoon

Method:

Heat the oven to 190C
Beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs slowly n beat.
Add flour to the butter and eggs mixture and fold in.
Divide the batter into two parts.
Mix half orange juice with cocoa. Fold in one half of the batter to this.
To the second half of the batter add the orange juice.
Line the baking pan with baking paper or prepare the pan by greasing with a little butter.
Add the two batters to the pan in alternating spoons.
Once all the batter has been added, swirl the mix once.
Bake at 190C for 45 minutes or till a toothpick when inserted comes out clean.
Let the cake cool on a wire rack.
Slice and enjoy with a cup of tea/coffee, as you like it best ;-)

Chocolate Banana Muffins

It has been long since I posted in this space, but in the mean time, I have cooked a lot of things & fine tuned the recipes for sure.

So here's one of my favourites, I have made it a couple of times & it comes out just well :)
The original recipe is from Joy of baking but I have made a few changes to it, really so minor that you may call them negligible.

The below recipe is for 6 small muffins:

Ingredients:
1. Roasted nuts - 2 tbsps chopped (I use about 10 - 12 almonds & roast them on a dry pan on medium heat, turning them often, for about 7 mins, & then chop them)
2. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup & 1 tbsp
3. Cocoa powder (non dutch) - 1 tbsp
4. Sugar (granulated) - 4 tbsp
5. Baking powder - 1/3 tbsp
6. Baking Soda - 2 pinches
7. Chocolate chips - 2 tbsp (optional)
8.  Eggs - 1 lightly beaten
9. Butter - 2tbsp (molten and then brought to room temperature) - I use Nutralite, & trust me it gives a much better flavour than butter & is a little lighter on calories too ;-)
10. Banana - 1 mashed
11. Vanilla extract/essence - 1/3 tsp
12. Nutmeg powder - 1/3 tsp

The original recipe asks for a pinch of salt too, but omit if you are using the salted butter/nutralite.

Method:
Heat the oven at 180 C
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl except chocolate chips. Use a whisk to mix them all really well.
Mash the banana, keep aside.
Mix beaten egg, butter, vanilla together.
Add the egg mix to the dry mix & add mashed bananas to it.
Using a wooden spoon, mix all the ingredients to just ensure that the flour mix is wet. Do not over mix at this stage, or the muffins would turn out tough. a few small lumps is Ok.

Butter/ line the muffin tray & pour the batter using a spoon/ice-cream spatula.
Bake in the oven for about 20 - 25 mins or till a toothpick when inserted comes out clean.

Let the muffins rest in the tray on a wire rack for a while & pull them out gently.

Voila, your muffins are ready to impress along with a wonderful cup of Assam tea or a coffee :-)

 

Inspiration.....

I know I am a bit too late to claim that I have seen this movie... but you know I'm not much of a movie-buff. For the longest time I wanted to see Julie & Julia and finally I did watch it last night... I must say I am quite inspired, not by the individuals, but by the idea of cooking towards a goal. So far, I only cook when I need to cook for friends n husband or when I need to unwind... But cooking coz you should seems to be a good idea to ensure you try out new recipes religiously. So yeah I am gonna give this crazy idea a trial, not as ambitious as Julie: I am just gonna make 60 recipes in 52 weeks, considering that one, I am a bit novice & also I cook only during the weekends......
So, well lets see what comes up next weekend.... Open to ideas, if you wanna spring by any......

Butter Chicken my isstyle....

Well, Butter Chicken is kinda synonymous to Punjabi.... So being a Punjabi, taking pride in cooking, I ought to know how to make a signature Butter Chicken... Here's my version of it sans the tandoor....

Serves 3
Ingredients:
Chicken - 750g
Curd - 1 cup (100 - 150g)
Onions - 3 medium finely chopped (preferable pureed)
Garlic Cloves - 8
Ginger - 2 inches (Make a paste of ginger & garlic)
Tomatoes - 5 medium pureed
Lemon - 1
Green chillies - 3 finely chopped
Black Pepper - 1 teaspoon
Butter - 2 tablespoons (I use Amul butter, since making white butter would have taken longer)
Cooking Oil - 2 tablespoons
Salt - To taste
Red Chillies - To taste
Chicken masala - 1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon

Cooking Instructions:
In a bowl mix curd, ginger & garlic(paste), salt, chicken masala, black pepper, squeeze a lemon in it, a teaspoon of cooking oil. In this mixture marinate the chicken & set aside for 45 mins.

In a cooking pan - heat some oil (1 tablespoon).
Add the chicken only from the marinade, leave the marinade aside (keep it to be added later)
Cook for approx 10 mins n high - medium flame till the chicken turns a bit white. (It loses its pink color). Keep the chicken aside.

In the same pan, add 1 tablespoon of butter & 1 spoon of oil. Add cumin seeds to it, once they start sputtering add the onion paste. Cook till it turns light brown (a stage above golden brown)
Now add the tomato puree & green chillies. Cook for approx 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally, till the mixture turns a deep brown.

Now add the remaining marinade paste while stirring. Add some water to make a gravy.
Now add the chicken pieces & cook for 10-15 mins.

Garnish with cream or a lill dollop of butter & the chicken is ready to be served with some lovely lachchaa paranthas.