Zesty Lemon Cake

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So I’m alone at work and it’s almost time to get home. I suddenly crave for something sweet and something tangy. Figured I could bake something myself since it’s been God knows how long since I’ve fallen off the baking wagon. Hopped on to my favorite baking recipes’ website, Joy of Baking. Lemon Bars came to mind but, but I let it pass. Next best thing, Lemon Cake; a spongy, buttery, tangy and delicious Lemon Cake. Fills your home with a zesty lemony aroma, you can’t help but feel lifted instantly.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

¼ cup lemon juice

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Zest of 2 lemons

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

Method:

First whisk the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Use a balloon whisk for this or an electric whisk to make life easy. Now add the eggs, one at a time, whisking continuously. Add the zest, lemon juice and vanilla at this point. Tip in the flour, salt and baking powder and bring together all ingredients to form a thick batter. Pour it into a 9 inch greased baking tin, or a non-stick one like I did. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 30 minutes or till done. Let it cool completely before slicing it up. What you could do to add some more zing would be a tangy sugar glaze. Simply add 1 tbsp. of lemon juice to one cup of icing sugar to make the glaze, add more lemon juice or water to thin it and top the cake with it.

Summer on a plate is what this is.

Chili's

So we’re hungry to the extent where we can physically sense our empty stomachs, and we’re in a mall (read as Inorbit Hyderabad). We spot Chili’s. Mother ship called and we went. We pigged out and how! The obvious craving being for meat we got ourselves the Mini Hamburgers and of course we needed our dairy fix for the dayso the Cheese Nachos came our way. The burgers were tiny but don’t let their size fool you. One bite and the juices started running. Now that’s a good burger. The Cheese Nachos, coated generously with what we identified as cheddar came with a luscious sour cream dip that we couldn’t get enough of. For Ups the bottomless coke in that beer mug made her day.

Sudden Cravings

One of those days with the cravings for greasy noodles with that MSG overdose led us to cook up our own desi Chinese meal at home. Plain noodles with a little hint of garlic and a chicken gravy heavily laden veggies.

Chocolate Happiness

Pallavi makes chocolate cup cakes everytime and I love it!

Minced Prawn with Fennel

This one is a result of experimentation! I would request you to assure yourself about the flavors and texture before trying :) I stumbled upon one of the episodes of Masterchef, where Chef Wan was creating his own Kerabu. I could afford to gather only a few of the ingredients here, so I thought of creating my own interpretation of the ingredients.

Ingredients:
300 gms medium sized prawns (cleaned)
2 bunches of fennel (you could substitute the same with spinach)
1 red chilli
2 teaspoons of red chilli flakes
3 pods of garlic
5 table spoons of Thai Seasonings
2 tablespoons of paprika
3 tablespoons of coconut milk
olive oil
salt to taste
lemon lemon zest

Method:
Marinate the de-veined prawns with paprika, 3 table spoons of Thai Seasoning, a pinch of salt and some olive oil for about 15 mins.
Boil the fennel leaves and strain. Now mince it to a fine paste with garlic and red chilli.

In a hot pan, add some olive oil and lightly fry the marinated prawns. When they are slightly cooked on both the sides, mince them to a thick paste.

In a hot wok, gently fry the minced prawns and pour in the minced fennel. Lid it for about 2 mins. When the mixture is boiling keep adding the seasonings per the level of heat that you prefer. You could add the lemon zest and the coconut milk.

Serving Suggestions:
The Kerabu is basically a salad with a unique dressing. Feel free to serve the minced prawn in a bed of fennel and stripes of raw papaya with some dash of lime, cekur (which is rarely available here). Crispy spinach could be interesting as well.
Have fun!

Zuchini Aubergine Bake

This one’s for my vegetarian friends. I came to realize we have been so engrossed in meats and finding different ways of cooking them, the poor vegetables took a vacation from our lives. Sometimes it just takes a few vegetables and herbs to make a lovely meal for the evening. That’s what I did, of course with a heavy heart ;)
As usual the supermarket had far too many people for my liking, but I somehow managed fill my basket with vegetables like zucchini, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, aubergine and some fresh herbs like tarragon and oregano. I also picked a rustic looking loaf of sourdough bread.

Ingredients: (all vegetables to be cut into bite size pieces)
1 cup zucchini
1 cup bell peppers
1 cup mushrooms
1 cup aubergine
1 cup tomatoes
1 cup mash potato
½ cup chopped onions
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tsp finely chopped oregano
1 tsp finely chopped tarragon
½ cup cheese
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Butter for cooking

Method:
Sauté the garlic in some butter till fragrant and slowly starts to change color. Tip in the onions and sauté till transparent. Now add the zucchini and aubergine and let it cook. When it’s cooked half way, tip in the tomatoes, bell peppers and mushrooms. Let it cook for about 5-7 minutes. Add the herbs now. You can add some dried herbs if you’d like as well. Once all the vegetables are cooked through tip it all into a baking dish. Top it with the mash potatoes, spreading it across the dish. Top this with cheese and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or till the top turns nice and brown.
This smells really beautiful, with the herbs, butter and the different vegetables. I tore up some sourdough loaf to go with this vegetable bake and made a wonderful meal out of it. Who knew vegetables could taste this good with such few ingredients!

Sunday Soul Sante

What a Sunday. What a Sante. This was a new age ‘Mela’ or as in Kannada ‘Sante’. Sprawl across. Tripura Vasini in Palace Grounds, Sunday Soul Sante had it all, or at least what we needed. Music. Food. Shopping. We spent a good half a day in there and it almost transported us to the Anjuna Flea Market in Goa. Colorful stalls of jewelry, bags, paintings, hand crafted shoes, quirky artifacts, books, decorative lights, tarot card reader, cupcakes, brownies, hats, you name it you see it! It was a photographer’s Disneyland.

There was a stage set up for the music concert and fashion show which was such a crowd pleaser. There was one band in particular that we thought took coolness to another level, Live Banned. Quirky and funny, the band was quite talented as well. There were other bands too but we were getting a little hungry and headed to the food court. Established restaurants like Pepper Café, Sukh Sagar and Counter Culture had their stalls there and had people lining up for a taste of their food. We tried out some Pandi Curry (Pork Curry) with buns from a stall called Pig Out. Rs 120 a plate and absolutely worth every dime. We also tried Grilled Lamb Chops and Grilled Butter Garlic Chicken. Delicious meat, grilled to juicy perfection! From the Pepper Café stall we opted for our all-time favorite Beetroot Hummus (!!) with Butter Garlic Pita. Fantastic as usual. Our Sante ended after being stuck in the rain for about an hour – totally worth it J