Beetroot Chocolate Cake by Ross Burden

Super MOIST chocolate cake.

Ross Burden - Model, Celebrity Chef and once voted the most eligible bachelor of UK!

But he is no more. He passed away on 17 July 2014.

This is my tribute to the Master Chef from New Zealand.

Imagine a chocolate cake with Beetroot...Crazy. But trust me, it is AMAZING!!

Notes:

*This recipe uses beetroot puree. I found that if I used 300 gms of sugar as the original recipe needed, the cake is very sweet, especially as it has a ganache on top. So, I used only 100 gms.

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 2 large

Sugar (powdered) - 100 to 150 gms*

Eggs - 3

Maida / all purpose flour - 200 gms

Cocoa powder -30 gms

Baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Vegetable oil / butter - 240 ml

Dark chocolate - 85 gms

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Ganache:

Heavy cream + milk - 200 ml

Cooking dark chocolate - 200 gms, broken

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C for 10 minutes.

2. Grease a 10 inch cake tin and keep aside. If you wish, line it too. Mine is non-stick with removable bottom.

3. Peel and cube the beetroot. Cook in a covered vessel with just enough water. Keep adding more water, as required. Once it gets well cooked, cool the beetroot and puree.

 Use only 300 gms of this Beetroot puree.

4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Keep aside.

5. Melt the 85 gms of cooking chocolate on a double boiler or microwave high in 15 second pulses while stirring often till melted.

Method:

Beat the sugar and oil / butter until sugar melts.

Adds egg one at a time and beat well.

Add in the beetroot puree, melted chocolate and vanilla.

Mix well.

Now fold in the sieved flour mixture. Do not over-beat.

Pour into the prepared tray.

Bake for 30 minutes and check with a skewer to see if the insides are cooked. (It should come out clean.)

If not done, cook for 5 more minutes.

Once done, cool in tray for 10 minutes and then unmould.

Preparing ganache:

Heat the cream and milk until it nearly boils.

Pour over the broken cooking chocolates. Stir until the chocolate melts.

Pour this ganache over the warm cake. 

Coconut Burfi

My tryst with Coconut Burfi started years ago. In 2011, my attempt to make 'burfi' was a disaster, but a very tasty disaster. I called it - Not Raffaello!
While watching TLC on television, "Food Safari" by Maeve O'Meara was showcasing Indian food and in this particular episode an Indian woman "Rene Singh" showed her aunt's recipe of making 'coconut burfi'.
Find the link of that part of the said episode here.
As usual, I have NOT followed the recipe completely. I have used fresh coconut in my recipe and have NOT used water to help make balls. I feel that Ghee is better.

Ingredients:
Fresh dessicated Coconut - 200 gms
Dessicated dry coconut - 50 gms
Milkmaid / sweetened condensed milk / Mithai Mate - 375 gms (1 tin)
Cardamom - 2 , pounded
Almonds / cashew / pistachio - 2 tbsp , pounded
Ghee / clarified butter - 1 tbsp

Method:
Mix the fresh dessicated coconut, milkmaid, cardamom and pounded nuts together in a heavy bottomed vessel.
Heat this mixture on low flame till it starts coming together.

Now grease your hands with little ghee.
Make small balls of the heated mixture.
Roll in the dessicated coconut.
Cool to room temperature.
Store refridgerated.

Colorful bell pepper fry with dry coconut-peanut-til powder / capsicum dry fry

Such a eye-pleasing dish.
Crunchy Capsicum / bell pepper with a dusting of crunchy nutty spicy powder.
I still remember seeing these colorful capsicums at the market and just wanting to buy them.
I have made some other curries using these beauties like Vegetable Jalfrieze and Italian Pasta with grilled vegetables, but this is a very easy side dish to make.Hardly takes time.

Ingredients:

Capsicum / bell pepper in all 3 colors - 1/2 of each
Onion - 1 large
Peanut - 1 tbsp
Til seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1/2 tsp
Dry Red chilly - 2
Dry Coconut / copra - 4 slivers
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Cut the onion and capsicum into 1 inch squares. Try to separate the onion into individual layers.

Dry fry peanut, til seeds, coriander seeds and red chilly separately.
Heat the oil, fry the dry conut until golden. remove using a slotted spoon and add to the rest of the fried ingredients.
Cool and powder coarsely. Keep aside.

In the rest of the oil, splutter the mustard and add the onions and capsicum together.
Keep the flame high. Keep stirring the vegetables.

Fry till you hear the popping sound from the skin of the capsicum.
Now add the powdered spices and salt. Mix well.

Turn off flame and serve hot.
You can add a little lemon juice, if you so wish.

Paneer Makhani

Paneer Makhani is YUM!
Rich buttery tomato gravy with chunks of paneer and capsicum.
Fantabulous!!

If you have the base ready, then the curry gets ready in a jiffy.
This is Makhani curry, the amount of butter used HAS to be high!

Ingredients:
Makhani gravy - 1 cup
Butter - 75 gms
Milk - 1/3 cup
Onion - 2 medium
Capsicum / bell pepper - 1/2 large
Paneer - 100 gms
Kasuri methi - 1 tsp / healthy pinch
Salt to taste
Jeera - 1 tsp

Method:
Cut the onion, capsicum and paneer into slightly big cubes. Keep aside.
Heat the butter in a thick bottomed pan and add the onion.
Reduce flame and once the onion starts becoming translucent, make a well in the middle and add the jeera in.

Next add the cubed paneer. Fry for 1 minute and add the capsicum.

Increase flame and fry for 1 minute.
Now add the tomato gravy, followed by the kasuri methi, milk and salt.

Cook covered on low flame for 5 minutes.
Serve hot with chapathy or nan.

Makhani Gravy

Paneer makhani, peas makhani, vegetable makhani and even Chicken Tikka in makhani gravy are very famous.
The one thing common is Makhani gravy.
So, if you can make and keep this gravy in advance, then when you are running short of time or suddenly guests arrive, you can feel relaxed.
This is my version of makhani gravy and it tastes a bit like tomato shorba. All the spices are cooked with the tomato in a pressure cooker, then ground, strained and cooked till thick.
The recipe is so easy that I would advice all to have a stock of this frozen in the freezer.
I have made this gravy with 1 kg of Tomato. This will yield makhani gravy for 12 people.
You will notice that, even though the gravy is called Makhani, there is no Makkhan (butter) added to it.
That part comes when you make the curry.
Do not be deterred with the scandalous amount of butter used in making the curry!!

Note: There is no salt added to the gravy, you add it to the curry.
          Similarly, remember cloves add a lot of heat / spiciness.

Ingredients:
Tomato - 1 kg
Ginger - 4 inch
Garlic - 4 to 6 large pods
Green Chilly -5
Red Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Cloves - 10
Cardamom - 8
Pepper - 1 tsp, optional

Method:
Quarter the tomatoes and add all the above mentioned ingredients into a pressure cooker with 1/4 cup water.
Cook for 2 whistles.

Now cook and grind into a smooth paste.

Strain to remove all 'thari' pieces, skin of tomato etc.

Keep this for boiling on a low flame.

Cook till the gravy thickens and you can draw a line on the spatula and it holds.

Cool and store in 4 small batches.
Freeze 3 batches.
Find the recipe of Paneer makhani here.

Mango Thokku / Sweet and Spicy Mango Jam

Thokku is a mildly sweet, mildly spicy mango jam made usually with 'moovandan' mango. So it is not really a pickle. It is relished with Dosa, Upuma and also curd rice. We have gone a step further and used it as a bread spread too!
My maternal Grandmother (Late Mrs.Lakshmi Suryanarayanan) made the BEST thokku, ever.
This recipe was given to me by her daughter, my mother - Mrs. Radha Parameswaran.
If you want a simple recipe of mango pickle, click here.

Note:
The Mangoes for thokku are usually grated, but I prefer to chop them. Please feel free to grate your mangoes.
My grandmother used to squeeze the juice of the mangoes, after grating and use that water to melt the jaggery. This syrup used to be sieved before getting added to the mangoes.
The green chilly , ginger and curry leaf step is optional.

Ingredients:
Raw Green Mango - 4, grated or chopped - yield 3 cups
Green chilly - 5
Ginger - 3 inch 
Red chilly - 30 (increase /  decrease, according to your family taste)
Uluva / menthayam / methi seeds - 3 tsp
Asafoetida / kayam - 2 cm radius round
Til oil / nallena / gingelly oil - 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Jaggery / sharkara - 1/3 cup

Method:
Dry roast the methi seeds and Red chillies separately. Cool and powder them together. Keep aside.
Heat some 1 tbsp til oil and fry the asafoetida in it. Cool and powder. Keep aside.
Chop / grate the mangoes.

Heat 2 more tbsp of til oil in the same vessel and splutter the mustard seeds.
Add the green chilly , ginger and curry leaf.

Into this add the chopped / grated mangoes to this. Stir well.

When the mangoes start getting cooked, add the salt, turmeric powder and asafoetida powder.

When the oil starts seeping from the sides, add the jaggery and mix well.

After 2 minutes, add the powdered Methi + Red chilly powder.

You will see that almost no oil is there in the dish.
After a minute of continuous mixing, add the last 1 tbsp of oil and mix well.
Your Thokku is ready.
Cool and store in air tight containers.

A Tamilnadu Temple Prasadam / Tirukostiyur Tirumaalai Chamba / tamarind rice with brinjal and bittergourd

Since I am a food blogger, I go through various recipes and view many food shows, to increase my repertoire of recipes.
During one trawling sessions, I came upon a recipe of a Prasad served in a temple in Tamil Nadu hinterlands which I KNEW would taste good. My inner-taste buds (there is something like that inside my head!) started salivating and I just HAD to make it.
So I made it and took it to my uncle's house and everyone of them approved the dish!
How can a centuries old unchanged recipe be wrong?

The food served at all Indian temples as Prasadam are very wholesome. It suits the climate of the region, is filling and supports the local farmers. This dish is a true ode to old style cooking where til oil and ghee is used and for spiciness only pepper and not red chillies.

Tirukostiyur is part of the 108 divyadesam and this dish is served to the deity (and later to the devotees) after the evening alankaaram / aarathi (called Tirumaalai).

Basic Recipe Courtesy : Puliyogare Travels

Ingredients:
Raw white Rice / pachari - 1 cup
Pasiparippu / moong dal / cheru parippu - 1 tbsp
Urad dal / uzhundu - 1/2 cup, washed and soaked for 2 hours
Brinjal / aubergine / vazhuthana gai- 1 large (or) 4 small , cut into large chunks
Bitter gourd / kaipakka - 3 tbsp, chopped fine
Green chilly - 1
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Ghee / clarified butter - 3 tbsp + 2 tbsp
Til oil / nallenai - 3 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaf - 2 sprigs
Tamarind- 1 lime sized ball, soaked in warm water
Pepper corn - 5 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds / menthayam /uluva - 2 tbsp
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Grind the urad dal with very less salt and the green chilly into a fine paste without adding water.
Deep fry spoonfuls in hot oil, till golden brown. (Do not bother with shape) Keep aside.

Pressure cook the moong dal and rice in 3 cups water for 4 whistles. Keep aside. It must get well cooked.

Heat a heavy bottomed vessel and dry fry the pepper and fenugreek seeds separately.
Powder both separately and keep aside.

Heat the 3 tbsp til oil and 3 tbsp ghee together in the same heavy bottomed vessel.
Splutter the mustard and then add in the curry leaf, bitter gourd and brinjal.
Fry for 2 minutes and add 2 cups of tamarind extract.
Season with salt, turmeric powder and 4 tbsp pepper powder.
Reduce flame and cook covered for 5-6 minutes.
The vegetables must just soften, not get well-cooked and the raw smell of the tamarind pulp must go.
Add the urad dal vadais and boil for 1 minute.
Now add the cooked rice, fenugreek powder to this.
Mix well.

The dish should neither be too watery, nor too dry.
Add more hot water, if necessary.
Taste and add more pepper powder, if you so prefer.

Serve hot with the rest of the ghee on top.