Chocolate Brownie with chocolate Sauce......Super chocolately and meltingly gooey :)

Hello Everyone!!!!!! Sorry I had vanished for a while, I was on a week long Vacation and then it took me another week just to get back to the GRIND..........
I was vacationing in Goa, and I have brought back loads of great culinary experiences to share, that for later though.....
The first thing my husband requested was for me to make this Chocolate Brownie with chocolate sauce dessert that he has been missing. As I made it I realized how amazingly easy this recipe is and had to share it...... So here is the  amazing Chocolate Brownie with White chocolate chips recipe.
This recipe does not need eggs and butter if you wish, but comes better than any of brownie recipies with eggs. I make this dessert everytime I find myself looking for that prefect moist gooey.....Chocolate cake, all of my family and friends who have tried this have loved it.........and come back for more. This is quite a rich dessert and goes very well with good quality Vanilla ice cream.

Dry Ingredients:All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cups (225 gms)

Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp

Baking soda - 3/4 tsp

Baking powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms) (Increase it to 1 cup if you dont use choco chips)

White Chocolate Chips - 1/4 Cup

Wet Ingredients

Water - 1 cup (250 ml)

Half a Vanilla Pod / Vanilla essence  - 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice / White Vinegar - 1 tbsp (I used lemon juice)

Oil / Melted Butter - 1/4 cup (60 ml)

In a bowl, add the water, vanilla essence, sugar, lemon juice or Vinegar and oil or butter. Mix well till sugar completely dissolves . Keep aside.
Take flour, baking soda, baking powder and coco powder and sift together to make sure the flour, soda and baking powder and coco powder is evenly spread out (If you dont have time to sift then just add the ingredients and mix) .Then slowly add the the sifted flour mixture to the wet ingredients mixture may be in 2 parts.
Mix well so no lumps are formed, then add half of choco chips and gently mix it. The batter will be runny like. Preheat oven to 180 deg C for 10mins. By the time grease the cake pan with few drops of oil and pour the batter into the cake pan and top it with remaining choco chips. Bake it at 180 deg C for 35 min. It will be set on the top like the brownie and as you cut through there will the gooey chocolate sauce. This dessert is best served warm with a good quality Vanilla ice cream. If you refrigerate the left over in the fridge be sure to warm it up before serving, as such the dessert will remain good for 24 hrs if left out as well, in a cool place.

Mom style chilli chicken :-) Delicious

Hello...... Thought I will quickly post a recipe om my mothers chilli chicken. There is nothing authentic about it, but it's just so delicious I can eat and eat and eat some more. You guys should try it. Without any doubt I am confirming that it will turn out gorgeous. By the way, I would like to add that Maa deciphered this recipe because my my sheer love for Chinese food, and by Chinese I mean Hindustani Chinese .I have traveled to Bejing and Shanghai and I have had authentic Chinese there and I will confess it's rather bland for our taste. I am not saying it wasn't  nice, in fact it was delicious , though you have to be prepared to handle the smell of fish sauce, its just that I prefer the Indian version.
 Here I would like to also say that, thanks to my working with some really nice media companies , they have taken us to some nice places and that's given me an opportunity to experience a varied range of cuisine. When my colleagues were happy to eat the Indian food arranged for them, I was always open to going out and trying the local cuisine. The sea food platter at Bali was gorgeous, it was a beach side shack and over twenty of them and each had like ten tables, with the last table almost into the sea, and you could feel the waves on your feet. In the night these tables were lit up with candles and the only sound you could hear was the the sound of waves and people chatting away softly. In a distance you could see the flights land and take off from Depensar airport. The view was breath taking as you feel the flight is landing into the sea. To sit there, have wine and gorge on the sea food, was an experience i cant explain enough. So was the fish and lobster that a few colleagues who are fond of food like me and I, bought live at Pattaya and got it cooked in front of us, when they served it, it seemed the fish would come alive anytime, as it looked the same, but when you close your mind to all that and taste the fish you will feel an explosion of flavors in your mouth, fresh fish made in fresh ingredients, fabulous. The Chinese at Shanghai or the late night dinner at a really small joint in Hong kong. There is a really interesting story about Hongkong. So I am at this place eating my food and these two girls sitting at the table next to me exchange pleasantries and then say " in our country no eat alone", I have to confess it was really sweet of them. They shared their food with me and explained to me in their broken English what I should eat with which sauce. I did though return the favor the next day. I was at this restaurant all alone once again experimenting with food as I really wanted to try peaking duck. Since I was alone they requested me to share the table with a few people. They also said that I had to order a full duck as they wouldn't serve pieces. So I requested the people sitting on my table to join me. They willingly agreed and it was a blast. The food of course was delicious and the experience incomparable.

 Ok let's get back to the recipe.

                                                  Mom style chilli chicken. 

 What you need:

 Chicken 1 kg on the bone or Boneless as per your preference. Ask your purveyor to make u chilli chicken size pieces.

 For the chicken marinade: 

4-5 tbsp tomato sauce
1 1/2 tbsp soya sauce
4-5 spoon chilli sauce
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp vinegar
2 eggs
1 tsp oyster sauce (I add ) optional.
Salt to taste.

 To finish the dish. 

Lots and lots of garlic cloves, say 2 full garlic bunch
12 green chillies slit through the center
Spring onions 2-3  

What you need to do: 

 Take a bowl, add all the ingredients of the marinade and mix well, add the chicken to it and mix so that the chicken is coated well. Fry this chicken in batches, it cooks really quickly so make sure it doesn't burn. Once all the chicken is fried, in the same oil add the chillies garlic and spring and slightly fry, add the chicken back to the pan and stir. In the mean time to the bowl where you had made the marinade add 3 spoons of tomato sauce , 4 spoons of chilli sauce, 1 spoon of soya sauce, and 1 spoon of vinegar. Mix and add it to the chicken. Stir and leave for 5 minutes. Chilli chicken mom style done.

 Note: If you want gravy just add a cup of or more water to it and adjust the seasoning of the sauces. Take a bowl, add all the ingredients of the marinade and the chicken to it.

Weekend Menu Continues. Peas pulao, Spicy mango chutney And Kachumbar

I will get straight to the point guys. Along with the mutton and the aubergine i had served Peas pulao, a spicy coriander and raw mango chutney and Kachumbar.

                                                 Peas Pulao 

What you need:

250 gms good quality rice.
100 gms frozen or fresh peas.
Whole garam masala mix ( 1 black cardamom, 3 green cardamom,  1 small piece cinnamon, Cumin 1tsp, 2 bay leaves, 5-6 cloves)
1 large onion finely chopped.
Some cashew nuts and almonds chopped.
2tbsp Ghee or Unsalted butter.

How you do it.

Finely chop the onions. Wash the rice and squeeze a lemon in it.  Take a pan and add the Ghee/butter, when it starts to sizzle add the whole spices listed above together. Let its aroma rise, but don't let it burn. Be careful, cloves generally spurt in hot oil/ghee/butter. as soon as the smell starts to rise add the onion and saute it high till brown.
Now add the peas and the dry fruits and slightly saute it and add the rice and mix well. The rice should coat well in the flavored ghee and peas mix well in it.You can add some extra ghee before you add the rice if you feel the pan is too dry and the ghee has burnt out. Take it off the gas. Now take microwave dish add the rice to it and double amount of water e.g. 250 gms of rice will need 500ml water. Cook in the micro for 18 minutes. You check then it should be done. If its not gave it a few more minutes.

Note:

• If you don't have a micro , don't bother, just add water to the pan you sauteed the rice in. Again water will always be double the amount of rice. Put the flame on high and cook uncovered till the water and rice starts boiling, as soon as that happens, reduce the flame and partially cover ( so that there is some space left for the steam to escape) and cook. Keep checking in between.
• Remember the best way to know that the rice is done is take a knife and run it through the center. When you pull out, no rice should stick to the knife. That's Maa's trick to check. :-)
• I didn't add salt and whatever i was serving it with would have salt. You can add a pinch if you want.
• You can also add Cauliflower, carrots etc along with the peas and make it a veg Pulao and serve it with Raita. Will tell you guys a nice raita recipe soon.

                                   Spicy Coriander and green mango chutney. 

What you need:

1 Green mango
a bunch of coriander
6 green chillies
5 cloves of Garlic.
Salt to taste.
Mustard oil to Garnish.

What you need to do:

Peal the green mango and chop out the pulp.  Was the coriander but don't chop out the stalks. In a blender, add all the ingredients except mustard oil and blend to a fine consistency. Once done in a bowl add 1tsp of mustard oil and add the chutney to it. Mix well. The mustard oil will add an amazing punch. The number of chillies you use can always be adjusted. You could start with 2 and then make it spicier if you want to.

                                                         Kachumbar.

What you need:

2 onions
2 Tomato
4 green chillies
salt to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
A pinch of Fried Cumin powder/ Chat masala / Aamchoor.

What you need to do:

Finely chop all the above listed ingredients. Before serving, add the lime juice, salt and which ever flavor u chose from the above. Get experimental use what you like.

The above listed recipe's go very well with the mutton recipe i gave you earlier. Try the combo....
Happy Cooking :-)

Lunch Date with "Kanpuriya" and Aubergine with a curd Garnish.

A nice weekend just went by and we are back to the grind, and I am already hoping today was a Friday :-(. Anyways, no more Monday blues , lets go back to the weekend and tell you all about it.

Its been bloody hot in Mumbai, and finally rain Gods have shown some mercy and monsoon is hit Mumbai. I remember i moved here last year exactly in June and experienced my first brush with Mumbai rains. To say the least , it indeed is beautiful and at the same time dreadful, with bad ass traffic and water logging.By the time its October, it gets on to your nerves , your clothes take days to dry and its all soggy and a weird feeling. Oh Yes!!!!! your electronic equipments go for a toss.But you know what , Just walk out one day into the rains , to Marine Drive or the Worli Sea Face, or Juhu, Or even our very own beach near 7 Bungalows. One walk and you will forgive all the above mentioned vices. Its heavenly , to just stand with your arms spread , your eyes closed and soak in the feeling of those constant drops of water soaking your body. Its Divine.

I guess i got carried away :-), coming back to the weekend, Friday was chill, just sitting at home and drinking. I have a friend who has just moved from Delhi to Mumbai and is staying over. We had planned to go out for a film but Smita , ya that's her name, backed out and said she just wanted to chill at home. we chatted and slept really late and consequently woke up only at 4pm the next day! The weather was cloudy and i had an instant urge to eat Mutton, so we went out and got some, in the process felt the first few drops of Mumbai rains. Now, i have this habit of never buying small quantities of Meat. I generally buy whatever parts that i want and then get it weighed. That way i get the appropriate type of pieces that i want to serve. Moreover, left overs are always welcome and serve as my lunch for the next few days to office.

The recipe for the same is already listed. Kanpuriya aka Priyanka is a really old and dear friend and she was due to come home for a really long time. So I was glad it was finally happening. She did ask me if she could get Tom, and I was more than happy to welcome him. Tom happens to be a German and the menu was all Indian so I was a little skeptical, but then what the hell, I thought the least he would be is sporting enough to at least try the food and boy sporting he was, and I shall get to that later. Sunday was when the lunch was,and like I told you earlier I don't by mutton miserly,hence I had enough to serve for lunch. Now all I had to do was a veg side dish and a peas pulao. There was of course a spicy dhaniya(coriander ) chutney, and a kachumbar to enhance the food. Priyanka had promised to get some wine and I shamelessly had asked her to get 2 bottles :-). It began to pour by the time she was to arrive with Tom , and the mood was absolutely set for good lunch, with friends and wine of course. What I did for the veg side was an aubergine curry served with a curd garnish. I will be honest here, I was never a huge fan of aubergine my self but this friend from Calcutta had called me for dinner once in Delhi and her mother had made this dish and insisted that I try. Trust me it blew my mind away. She was generous enough to share the recipe and I have fed a lot of my friends that and they all have loved it. Hence sharing it. This one is a must try guys. Here is how you make a simple aubergine absolutely exotic.
 
                                     Susmita Aunty's aubergine with a curd garnish.

What you need:

Small aubergine (baigan)12-15
1 tsp cumin (Jeera) seeds
1 tsp Nigella Seeds( kalongi/mangrail)
1 tsp Carom Seeds (Ajwain)
1 tsp Fennel Seeds (saunf)
1/2 tsp Asafoetida (hing)
1 tbsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya)
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Chat Masala.
1/2 tsp Turmeric (Haldi)
250 Gms Curd
1 Tbsp Sugar
salt to taste.
Garnish with fresh coriander.

How its done.:

Chop off the stem of the Aubergine, and chop each into 4 pieces not smaller than that. Sprinkle some salt and red chilli powder on it. Mix well and let be for say 10 -15 minutes. Take a kadhai / or a non stick pan, add some oil to it and once the oil is hot add Cumin seeds, Nigella seeds, Carom Seeds, Fennel Seeds and Asafoetida all at once. When it starts to sizzle add the aubergine along with all the salt and chilli and stir well so that its coated with all the spices in the pan. Now add the coriander , turmeric and the chat masala, add one cup of water stir again and cover and cook on a low flame. Keep checking in between, if you feel its getting dry, you can always add water in small quantity. Cook till its done.
While its cooking, take the curd and beat it well , use a fork its really convenient. Add the sugar and the salt to balance. Keep beating it so that the sugar dissolves. Add a pinch of red chilli powder mix well and keep it in the fridge. The curd should be really cold.

Once the aubergine is cooked , shouldn't take more that 15 -20 minutes, take it out in your serving dish. The gravy should not be too runny. Just a nice thick consistency with all the spices you have added. top this with the curd and serve immediately.

Note : 

•  Its very important the you don't mash the aubergine while stirring. It should cook but keep its shape. 
• You can play around with the chilli and chat masala as per your taste. If you like it spicy or Tangy, its your call. 
• Do add water as it helps the spices to blend with each other and also facilitates the cooking process. But please , when its done the gravy should not be runny or you will not get the desired layers of aubergine and curd. it will all mix up. If you feel that the gravy is too runny when the aubergine is done just uncover and increase the flame and stir gently. the water will dry up and you can get the consistency that you want.
• The trick for serving this dish in the best possible way is that the aubergine should be pipping hot and the curd ice cold.

I really don't have pictures to show as i forgot to click how the table looked, but it was a pretty decent spread.Tom was like i don't like meat on the bone so i was a little worried that he may not enjoy, but he ate well , i wonder whether it was the food or he was being a true gentleman, but it made me happy. And hey we did polish off both the bottles of wine, Priyanka wasn't drinking , she has this cat allergy that she is on medication for and is not allowed to drink. Sorry Pri, but more for us :-P

It was still pouring post lunch so Smita and I volunteered to drop them home , but not before we stopped for a coffee at Costa, to sit out in the rain and just watch the beauty of it.

I also did a peas pulao, kachumbar, and spicy chutney. Will just let you know in a bit how it shaped up.

The holiday and Mom's style Mutton

Hey guys ..... Like i said earlier, early this month I was home and what a blast it was. Basically the reason for being home was , my Nani who was of course a rock star and adored me and for course all the other kids, passed away on 2nd June 13 years back. Since then , every year we have a puja on the day and the whole family gets together to remember her fondly and just bond and have a good time together. I am sure that's what she wanted. We don't mourn her, we just celebrate life they way she did everyday that she was alive. I must tell you she was a true fighter and a very strong woman.

So there i was, since work was easy and allowed me to travel back this year. Everyone from my mothers side had come over so the house was buzzing with kids and my Mama i must mention him... become a kid along with us. So we would sit at the dining table and gossip all day and just eat and eat and eat some more. The puri, dum aloo and jalebi in the morning , the samosa and chaat in the evening, the mutton everyday except the day of puja.

Yes guys, i just mentioned mutton, cause i am finally posting the recipe of mutton made by Maa. Actually mom is taught it to my Cousin Miss Molly Singh and that girl boy i tell you makes it even better than mom. I have tried to replicate it a million times, but have never succeeded. So I sat down with her, and finally wrote down the ingredients and the process. Follow it and i hope you Guys will do a better job than i do, but then i have eaten the original so i am being overly critical about what i make.

Maa's style Mutton Curry - Chef and Recipe Molly Singh (Thank you behna)

What you need:

Mutton 1kg
Onion 700 Gms
2 full Garlic
1 1/2 inch Ginger
12 whole Gol mirch (black pepper)
2 Badi elaichi (Black cardamom)
3 Choti Elaichi (green Cardamom)
1/2 grated Jaiphal (nutmeg)
2 Javitri (Mace)
1tsp Haldi (turmeric)
1 1/2 inch Dalchini (Cinnamon)
10 -12 Laung ( Cloves)
1 1/2 tsp Jeera ( Cumin)
4-5 Whole red chilli's
2 Tejpatta ( Bay leaf)
Salt to taste

What you need to do:

Make a paste of all the spices in a blender. That should leave you with just Mutton and Onions. Now finely chop the onions and keep it aside. Add a Tbsp of mustard oil and a pinch of red chilli powder to the mutton and leave it aside.
Now take a Kadhai , and add mustard oil to it and add the onions and some salt. Lower the flame and cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. The onion will release the water, once that's done increase the flame and brown the onions. (you can adjust the time according to the way you see the onions shaping up, Please keep checking in between so that it doesn't burn or stick to the pan). Now that the onions are brown add the spice paste to it and cook on low flame till the spices are cooked. You can add very little water in between so that the spices don't stick to the kadhai.
While you are doing this, take another pan , add a little mustard oil to it and season the oil a bay leaf, a few garlic cloves. Remember to add only a little oil say 2 tbsp, as the mutton too as some oil. Fry it on a high flame till its all brown say for 5 minutes then lower the flame and cover and cook stirring in between every now and then. This way you can cook the spices and the mutton together and separately.
When the spice is cooked and ready and the meat by now will have released all its water and also slightly cooked in it. Add it to the spices along with the water released from the meat and cook together till the meat is done. You can adjust the amount of gravy by adding water and salt to taste. My suggestion, keep a very thick gravy. Garnish with fresh Coriander.

                  The Meat lovers Who are always ready for a meal on hearing its cooking.

Enjoy.


Note: 

• Your cooking time of the meat will depend on the quality of the meat. If the size of the Goat is big its going to take a long time, but trust me do not use a pressure cooker. Use a high flame only where its mentioned by me. Have patience. Its yum.
• Serve it with Kachumbar( finally chopped, onion, tomato and green chillies, and mixed with salt and lemon juice. You can adjust the dressing as per your taste.) and Rice or Chapatti.
• The same recipe can be followed with Chicken.  Just make sure that this time when you fry the chicken separately you do it only when your spices are ready and chicken takes very little time to cook. So all you need to do is brown it and then cook it with the spices.

Thank you Nikhil for the introduction, Hello everyone! I' am very happy to be part of this forum and to contribute. I love food and love cooking, and for the most part I love to cook, cos I love to eat. Food for me is an art, and it brings together all the senses, sight, sound, smell and taste. In this space I will be sharing recipe's and the various experiences I have around food. I also love travelling so I will be sharing with you as many new gastronomical experiences form different places as possible. That's it from me for now......

Creamy Cauliflower Gravy:     

Today's Recipe is my take on a creamy Cauliflower gravy. I have developed this recipe from one of my friends recipe of Aloo (Potato), Gobi(cauliflower) Mutter (peas) gravy, But since I had only Gobi and needed it in a gravy form I Innovated on the recipe. This Cauliflower comes out as a rich creamy tasting dish.

Will serve 3 people as a main course.

This dish is best accompanied with Garlic Bread and also goes really well all Indian Breads.

Ingredients:

Medium Size Cauliflower - 1 (cut into medium size florets)

Cloves - 3

Cardamom - 2

Fennel - 1 teaspoon

Medium Size Onion  - 2 (finely chopped)

Oil - 4 teaspoons, 2 spoons Butter can also be substituted for oil it only makes it more creamy

Cumin powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon

Turmeric - 1/3 teaspoon
Green Chillies - 3, or according to your taste

Garam Masala - a pinch

Dry Mango (Aamchur) powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Plain Yogurt beaten - 3/4th cup

Salt - I recommend 1 teaspoon, but you can add to your taste

Sugar - a pinch

Heat oil in a pan, add the whole dry Spices (Cloves, Cardamom, Fennel). When you can smell the spices from the oil, add the onion and fry till pale pink. Then add green chillies, Cauliflower and the powdered spices (Turmeric, Cumin, Coriander, Dry Mango and garam masala). Give it a good stir and cook on low flame covered for 10 min.

Take the lid of and add 1 tea cup of water, cover and cook again for 10 min or till the water is 98% absorbed and Cauliflower cooked. Take the mixture of the heat and let it rest for 5 min uncovered and sprinkle a few granules of sugar, Mean while you can beat the yogurt, and slowly incorporate it into the cauliflower mixture, taste and adjust the salt as required.

Note : This dish cannot be reheated after adding the curd, So if you like you can make the Cauliflower in advance and reheat and then add the curd just before serving. This is done cos yogurt tends to break when heated.

Ridhima.... Welcome aboard

Hey all I was on leave last week and was traveling home. Five days of all bliss and hogging and by hogging i mean real serious eating. Will tell you, all about it .... and of course how it was be with family and eat and eat and eat some more. Even cook for them .

For now I will quickly take the opportunity to introduce Ridhima , a friend and food fanatic. To add to that she loves to cook and experiment with food. She will be writing here hence forth and sharing her experiences in her own foodilicious way..... Bring it on Girl.... Together we shall work towards simplifying food and making people want to cook and enjoying it.

Welcome Aboard.