Spicy Tomato Cake

This one is a gift, for Uncle N. To sorta appease him for my no-show at his house today. I'm sending the Spicy Tomato cake as my stand-in.

Uncle N is an old family friend. He and my father have a funny 'thing' of calling each other 'Sami', which in Tamil means God. They've been friends since childhood. I remember when we were in Kuwait, Uncle N drove me to drawing class once. Until then I'd never encountered anyone who drove so slowly on Kuwait's pristine roads. He was doing something like 20 to 25 kms/hr. And when a Kuwaiti overtook him too fast, he rolled down the window and shouted 'Pannikku Poranthavane!', which means "Born to a pig!" I was laughing so hard, ducking in the back seat. :D So anyway, he has diabetics and a heart problem, and I had to come up with something tasty to send him that didn't have sugar and was too rich. And I came up with this.

The cake tastes absolutely delicious, but it didn't really rise. It was a bit dense. Maybe because its eggless? Anyhow, I think I'll experiment with different water and baking powder levels the next time.

Spicy Tomato Cake

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp vegetable oil
1.5 cups tomato paste
4 to 5 cloves garlic
1/2 inch piece ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 handful curry leaves
2 dried red chillies

(I made the tomato paste- I reduced home made tomato puree with vegetable stock and some salt to make it more flavorful.) Place the flour+salt+baking powder in a bowl. Add the tomato paste. Mince the garlic and ginger and fry it on a little oil. Add the curry leaves to the oil right at the end and stir. Add this to the flour mix. Finely chop the dried red chillies and add this to the dough along with the oil. Mix well with a spoon and pour into a greased cake or loaf tin. Bake for 40 mins at 180 C.

Like I said, I'll have to work on getting the proportions right to get the cake to rise better. I'll update this at some point.

Beet Cake

The beets have begun to haunt us. I had disturbing dreams last night and I'm not completely sure, but I think there were red-tinted people in it. Anyways, I managed to do away with one big beety fellow. I grated him to oblivion, or rather, to the cake tin.

The aroma floated through the house in almost cartoon like fashion, bringing everyone to the kitchen. The cake was absolutely delish!

The batter was so gorgeous, I wanted to eat it all. What color! I anticipated losing all the color once the cake was done but it is sorta reddish, especially on the inside. Yum Yum.

Beet Cake

1.5 cups grated beets
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 pinch cinnamon powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts (walnuts, cashews)

Beat eggs till frothy and add sugar. Beat well, till the batter is thick. Add oil and the extract. Then add the sifted flour+baking powder+salt+cinnamon powder. Mix till just incorporated. Fold in the grated beets and chopped nuts. Bake for 35 mins at 180 C.

I'd recommend doubling the recipe for one big cake or two nice layers that can be frosted together. Cream cheese frosting works well with this cake- a natural way to color it would be to swish some chopped cubes of beet in the beaten cheese till you get the rich color. Remove the beets once you're done. Alternatively, you could just add a dollop of beet puree.

Beet Soup and Baby corn Surprise!

We have a farm out here that's just chock full of vegetables- and that's something I simply love. This week, the beets outdid themselves and overflowed into our home.

Most chefs profess a love for this radiant vegetable- the color, the ease and versatility. I'm no exception. It's a wonderful healthy way to add color to any dish. My mom and I sometimes add a few of them into our Biriyani. We enjoy eating pink spicy rice, for some reason.

Today I decided to make beet soup. Some people just puree the boiled vegetable and add their seasonings. But one thing that I don't like about beets is their raw smell. So I also cooked the soup for a bit in between pureeing and chilling it.

Chilled Beet Soup

1 large onion
4 medium sized beets
1 or 2 garlic cloves
1 sweet orange-pulp and juice/ 1/4 cup orange juice
Beaten Yogurt, to taste.
Salt
Pepper

Chop each beet into eight and boil them or pressure cook them till soft. Cool and add to that the orange pulp, garlic cloves and some salt. Grind into a smooth paste.

Heat some oil and add the chopped onion. Cook till nicely brown- this imparts more flavor than lightly cooked onion. Add the puree, salt and pepper, cover and cook till nicely thick and the raw smell has gone.

Cool and add the beaten yogurt. How much you add is a matter of taste and color. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.


This soup is actually tasty at any stage from when it leaves the stove. Hot soup with no yogurt in it is delicious too! Another possibility is to make this a dip or a spread. Instead of pureeing the boiled beets, simple mash them with a pestle, add sour cream or yogurt and season well. A dash of lime will round it off nicely. For a slightly different flavor, roast the beets instead of boiling them. There are many options :)

Another dish that I personally loved was the Baby corn Surprise. The reason I'm calling it so is because it was just an experiment and came as a complete surprise that it turned out so well! Now, I cannot reveal the recipe as the marinade is my mom's secret- one she uses regularly for fish. Being a vegetarian, I've always wanted to try it on some vegetable and the baby corn looked just right.


And how! The baby corn was perfect- the texture was great and it really went well with the cooked marinade. A perfect bite. I'd encourage anyone to try this with their own fish or meat marinade.

Baked Spring Rolls

Hmmm, third recipe. But third time not so lucky. These baked spring rolls were not a raving success. The problem was with the spring roll wrappers.

Since I live in the woods, .....ok, I don't live in the woods, but I might as well. There's just so much stuff that you don't get in small town India. Spring roll wrappers are one of them. I had to make them myself and I did that yesterday and froze them. I don't think the recipe I used was exactly right. Combine that with the whole 'baking instead of frying' process and you get a sort of weird, brittle chewiness.

Which is a shame, because I took time with the filling and made it just right-
Grated carrots, finely chopped cabbage, green bell pepper and celery, lightly cooked with some salt and pepper. I also made matchsticks of firm cottage cheese (Indian Paneer) and lightly fried those. But I left them out because I didnt like thier contribution. I think I'll simple marinate them and add them to the filling the next time around. Ho hum.

Savory Vegetable Tart

I like one pot dishes. You just throw everything in together and wait for the outcome. I'm trying to think of a brilliant analogy about life and all that, but it eludes me. Anyway, today's menu had just one lip-smacking item on it- the mega savory tart.

I've always loved tarts- the sweet versions, that is. The crumbly pastry, the luscious cream, those divine fruits....It's been years since my sister and I went to Shimla together. I remember the trip only in bits and pieces. But one of those memories, complete with a photoshop glow and nostalgic tint around it, is of a bakery there where I got these amazing bite sized tarts. I inhaled them instantly and looked around in suprise. I remember my sister asking me where they were too.

So when I came upon recipes of savory tarts, I didn't really hesitate. And I'm glad I didn't. It was delicious and fulfilling. But is this going to be oft repeated?.....I don't think so. I think the next batch of tarts I make would be sweet, and the next and the next.....

Savory Vegetable tart

Tart Crust:
1.25 cups flour
80 gr cold butter
3 Tbsp cold water
A pinch of salt

Filling:
A handful each of every vegetable you have at home.
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Salt, to taste
Red chilli flakes, to taste

Instructions:
Mix in the butter with the flour and salt with the tips of your fingers or a fork. Add the water and bring the dough together till just mixed in. Pat into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for 40 mins to an hour.

Meanwhile, cook the vegetables in broth, and salt, till tender. Roll out the tart dough into a thin circle and line the baking tin (9") with it. Add the cooked vegetables to the tart. Beat the eggs, milk, salt and chilli flakes together and pour into the tart. Bake for 30 to 40 mins at 180 C.


One thing I feel about tarts is that its definitely better to make a number of small individual tarts rather than one big one. The beautiful crust loses its place in the spotlight when the tart is big and you really cant bite into the dish, which is all the fun. So that's what I think- pies should be big, tarts should be small.

Chocolate Sable cookies

There are some truly inspirational food blogs out there- the kind that make you want to attack your screen in a frenzy of mindless craving. Tartlette pretty much inspires that kind of violence in me. So its fitting that my first entry be her recipe for Chocolate Sable cookies, that I tried out a couple of days ago.

The cookies were perfect- I loved the texture. But I might just a bit more sugar the next time I make them- my sweet tooth doesnt really appreciate subtlety! She actually made sandwiches out of them with cake filling- a combination that boggles my mind- I'll try it out soon!

This is her recipe, reproduced verbatim. The only difference I made was to add banana essence instead of the vanilla. Its something I appreciated two days after I made them- the flavor really came out nicely.

1 stick butter (113 grams) butter, at room temperature

¼ cup (50 grams) sugar

½ vanilla bean, seeded or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

2 egg yolks

1 ½ cups (190 grams) all purpose flour, minus 3 tablespoons

3 tablespoons (16gr) cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla, then the egg yolks, one at a time, scraping the bottom and side of the bowl in between each addition. Add the flour, cocoa powder and salt and beat until the dough just starts to come together. Add some heavy cream if the dough still looks very crumbly and dry.
Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it a little to a small disk and wrap it well in plastic wrap. Refrigerate two hours before using.Lightly flour your work area well and start rolling the dough from the center out, lifting it from the work area every 2-3 times you roll over it. With a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter, cut out 48 rounds in the dough, gathering scraps and rerolling as you go (you might need to refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes if it becomes too soft to roll out easily).
Place the cookies on 2 parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate 20 minutes. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

And so it begins.

I've been cooking for quite a while now- it all started when I went on a major weight loss plan and I had to find ways to cook food that was light and healthy. We have traditional Indian food here at home, day in and day out. So not only was I focused on losing weight, I also wanted to experience different flavor combinations. I guess I was getting bored.

My plans worked and I have lost weight- I'm fit and healthy now. The unexpected bonus was discovering my interest in cooking and baking. I can safely say I'm hooked!

Since then my recipe file has been growing in leaps and bounds. I wanted to stick to the old fashioned way of having a recipe collection on paper. I love my recipe file- its one of those things I'd grab if my house was on fire. (There seem to be too many things on that list!) But I've been toying with the idea of a food blog of late. With a new camera and the daily dose of inspiration I receive from the truly sensational food blogs out there, I've decided to jump in! So here it is- When Mia Cooks!  
*Update, 2/12/2013: To reflect my personality transplant, my blog is now called 'Plop the Slop!' ;)