Gung-Ho Attitude

Another phrase I have never really understood was "gung-ho attitude," but that didn't keep me from loving this line from one of my son's Star Wars, The Clone Wars books.

What does it mean to be "happy as a clam?"

Mission or Adventure

Pumpkin Almond Cup Cakes

Few days back I made 'Khatakhata' - a special mixed vegetable dish from konkani cuisine. It needs pumpkin and I looked for it through all grocery stores, super markets, indian stores but every one said its out of season. But Wholes food had canned pumpkin and I thought of giving it a try. But when I opened the can I found that it was mashed one and not cubed ones. So I couldnt use that in the khatkhata. (Yes recipe will come for it when I cook it next time as this time I forgot to take pics). Then I was looking for all pumpkin recipes that can use puree of Pumpkin and found that cupcakes use them. So finally after reading lot I came up with this my version. Once it started baking it spread so much of aroma that I just couldnt wait for them to get ready. What a nice way to eat Pumpkin :)


Ingredients
2 cup Pumpkin Puree
3 Cup Maida
1 Cup Butter
1.5 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Castor Sugar
2 Spoon Baking Powder
1/2 Spoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Spoon Cinnamon Powder
1/2 Spoon Cloves Powder
1/2 Spoon Nutmeg Powder
1/4 Cup Almond Sliced
1/2 Spoon Pistachio Essence
2 Eggs

Method

• Sieve through Maida, baking powder, baking soda few times.
• Mix Nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and cloves powder. Keep aside
• In a bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and castor sugar together untill mixture is fluffy and sugar is completely mixed
• Add in each egg at a time and beat them into the mixture.
• Now add the sieved maida-bakingpowder mixture little at a time till completely accomodated. Stir with a spatula and dont use blender here.
• Add milk and mix well. Mixture will thin down a little
• Add pumkin puree and pistacheo essence and mix gently using the spatula
• Mix in the almonds except few to decorate in the batter.
• Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the cup cake trays and fill in the mixture upto 3/4th level in each cup
• Garnish with remaining almonds
• Bake in the oven on 350F/180C for 20 minutes. Knife inserted should come out clean.

Notes
If you are using fresh pumkin, just steam the pumkin and then mash it in mixie. I guess that should work too.
Made around 16 medium sized cup cakes

Very Berry Cake

Right now we get so many variety of berries out here that I thought it would be a good idea to try out this cake.


Ingredients
3 Cups Maida
4 Spoon Baking Powder
2 Eggs
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Milk
2 Cup Rasberry
2 Cup Blue Berry
3/4 Cup Black Berry
6-8 Strawberries
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix the butter and sugar with the handheld mixer.
• Add Egg and mix again till thick and smooth paste
• Sieve the maida, baking powder and salt together.
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Add the maida-baking powder mixture in to the egg-butter-sugar mixture with constant mixing using handheld mixer
• When the complete maida and baking powder mixture is mixed it would be quite thick. Add milk and mix well
• Add all the berries (used whole berries except for stawberries which i chopped in to four pieces as they were big ones) and mix with a spatula
• Grease the baking pan and pour in the mixture.
• Bake for 35 minutes at 350F/180C

Notes
I used powdered sugar so that it can dissolve in quickly.
Also I used the fresh fruits directly from fridge so that they dont over cook.
You can also use frozen berries available in the market. I might try freezing the fresh berries and using them unthawed next time.
Also I used salted butter and added salt to so it tasted little extra salt. So if you are using salted butter dont use salt or vice-a-versa.

Pineapple Muramba

Almost a month back I got the big pineapple from costco. I just remembered mom's pineapple muramba and thought of giving it a shot. Called up mom and asked for recipe.. And it turned out that it was quite easy to make it and hence prepared that night immediately :)


Ingredients
5 Cups Fresh cut Pineapple
3 Cup Water
1.5 Cup Sugar

Method

• Mix pineapple pieces with water such that it barely submerges pineapple
• Cook the mixture over medium flame keeping a lid till pineapple are cooked.
• Strain the mixture and separate out pineapple and water
• In same water mix the sugar and bring to boil
• With constant stirring keep heating water over medium flame till it becomes 1 string consistency syrup
• Now add pineapple pieces and boil once again
• Let it cool down and refrigerate in the fridge

Notes
The muramba needs to be stored in fridge and it would stay for few months.
Good side dish to eat with chappati/paratha
I dont like too much of sugar syrup and hence the above recipe gives very less sugar syrup mixed pineapple muramba.. If you like you can add another cup of water + 1/2 cup of sugar to get traditional version which has more liquid

Raskadam

Its been quite a few months since I had Raskadam one of my favourite sweet. So thought of giving this a shot. The recipe was adapted from 'Ruchira' a well known recipe book in Pune.


Ingredients
3.5 Cup Milk
1 Spoon Vinegar
1.5 Cup Sugar
1.5 Cup Powdered Sugar
4 Cup Khoya
A pinch of Saffron
1 Cup Grated Paneer

Method

• Warm couple spoon of milk and add the safron. Keep aside.
• Heat the remaining milk
• When the milk starts to boil add vinegar mixed with a spoon of water and stir continuously.
• When the milk cudles and water is separated out, throw out excess water and run it through the cold water
• Squeeze this mixture in a cotton cloth and drain out the water.
• Mix it thourghly and make the dough out of it.
• Prepare around 25 balls out it (small sized
• Mix the sugar with the 6 cup water in the cooker and boil it
• Add these small balls in it and let it boil for around 5 minutes
• Cover the cooker with lid and boil for another 5 minutes
• Remove the lid, add half cup of water and boil for another 5 min. Let the balls cool down. Take out these balls and spread them on the plate and keep aside
• In a nonstick pan on medium flame cook the grated paneer till golden in colour and keep aside to cool down
• Mix grated khoya, powdered sugar, safron-milk and make the dough out of it.
• By now the paneer would be cooled and crispy. Powder it in the mixie and spread it in a separate plate.
• Now is the time to assemble the raskadam. Cover the cooked ball with the khoya mixture by froming a cup shape around it and closing it after inserting a ball in it. Roll the ball in the powdered paneer

Notes
Be careful not to burn the paneer and stir it continuously while cooking, I did that so that it was easy to powder the paneer and the raw smell from it goes away.
The ball preparation for the raskadam is similar to the rasgulla except prepare small sized balls and quantity of sugar-water.
You can add orange or pink - red colour in the khoya mixture but i didnt have it and hence didnt use it.