Rainbow cake trial #1

So, I've been planning baby's first bday for the last few weeks already! And it's going to be Rainbow theme. I am set on that. Since it's still a while away (she's not even 4 months yet!), and I've been itching to try out the rainbow cake I decided to take the opportunity on 11.11.11 as it was my niece's bday. Though my niece is in Dhaka and I am here, it doesn't matter. I can still have a cake for her! I really loved the way my cake had turned out. I used Americolor food gel color, and I liked how vibrant the colors had turned out!

So here are the pics....

Milk Burfi: Indian Dessert

Recently, I'm going through another bout of youtube cooking videos addiction after a long time. Unlike previous times, however, this time I am determined to try out some recipes. Yesterday, I already made sheek kabab, since I followed that recipe almost to a T (well, almost except 1 ingredient that I didn't have handy), I didn't feel like writing about it or posting about it here.

Today, I made an Indian dessert that I never had before. It's called- Milk Burfi or in some places Kalakand. It's made of purely milk and sugar only.You just need varieties of milk..whole milk, skim milk, condensed milk, evaporated milk, cheese (freshly made out of milk of course)...well, you don't need all those types of milk in one recipe, but the variation of it.

I watched two videos on this, but I didn't like either fully. I liked some part of 1 and the other part of another recipe. For ex, in 1 recipe, they simply used store bought Ricotta cheese and used a cup of sweetened condensed milk and cooked it up in microwave..............yuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkkkk!!! I would never "cook" anything in a microwave, I reluctantly "warm" food in a microwave let alone cooking. However, I did like the idea of using condensed milk in the recipe.

In the other video, cook used regular whole milk and made fresh cheese out of it. And then used more whole milk and white sugar to complete the process. I didn't like the use of sugar here...so, then I combined the two recipes and add one extra thing in mine and came up with below and it tasted GREAT!! Veryyy sweet...but that's how I like my dessert....sweet.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

To make cheese:
3 cups of whole milk
3 tbs vinegar

1/2 cup of evaporated milk
1 cup of whole milk
1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk
Pistachio-grated about 2 tbs


Method:

Make Cheese:

Add 3 cups of whole milk into a pot and let it boil

Once it comes to a boil, add 3 table spoons of vinegar and give a stir

Turn off the heat and let the milk separate

Once milk is completely separated, drain the curled up milk/cheese and discard the water

Drain the cheese using a cheesecloth or paper towel very well, it should be dry.

Proceed:

Pour 1/2 cup of evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of whole milk to a pot on a medium heat

Start stirring and keep stirring for about 1 min

Add cheese to the mixture and keep stirring

Let it boil and let the liquid completely dry up (continue stirring on and off)

Once the milk-cheese mixture is all dried, keep stirring so it doesn't burn and turn off the heat.

Pour the cheese mixture into a serving plate or any square/rectangular shaped bowl

While hot press the mixture with spoon and try to make the surface as even as possible and sprinkle pistachio

Let it cool for few minutes and then put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes so it's completely cools and hardens up

Take it out from the fridge, and cut it up in square pieces and enjoy!

Now, the pictures:

Add 3 cups of whole milk into a pot and let it boil

Add 3 table spoons of vinegar  and turn off the heat and let the milk separate

Drain the curled up milk/cheese

Once it's drained using a cheesecloth or paper towel squeeze out all water it should look like this

Pour 1/2 cup of evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of whole milk into a pot on a medium heat and stir for a minute

Add cheese to the mixture and keep stirring

Let it boil and let the liquid completely dry up (continue stirring on and off)

In the meantime have the pistachios ready..grated

Once the milk-cheese mixture is all dried, keep stirring so it doesn't burn and turn off the heat

Pour the cheese mixture into a serving plate or any square/rectangular shaped bowl

While hot press the mixture with spoon and try to make the surface as even as possible and sprinkle pistachio;
Let it cool for few minutes and then put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes so it's completely cools and hardens up

Take it out from the fridge, and cut it up in square pieces

Enjoy!!

Zucchini Patties : My easiest recipe

This is the easiest Zucchini patties recipe that anyone can ever find! It requires minimal numbers of ingredients and it's D.E.L.I.S.H.

BTW, I came up with the recipe, and I couldn't come up with anything easier than this!

I mean yes..you could come up with just Zucchini, Flour, Salt and Oil...but let's be honest that wouldn't taste anything...so, here we go!

Ingredients:

 Zucchini 2 - grated
 Flour (all purpose) 2 cups
Cilantro Half bunch - finely chopped
Onion 1 medium sized - finely chopped
Red pepper powder- to taste
Salt- to taste
Oil- to fry

Method:

1. Peel and grate those Zucchinis

2. Chop Cilantro and Onion

3. In a separate bowl, add water to 2 cups of flour and make it a runny dough

4. Add Salt, Red pepper powder to the runny flour mixture

5. Add the grated Zucchini, chopped Cilantro and Onion to the runny flour mixture

6. Give a good stir

7. In a frying pan, heat oil

8. Scoop the Zucchini-Flour mixture in a spoon and pour into the heated Oil.

9. Fry till it's Golden Brown ( I prefer to fry over low heat for a long time than on a high heat for a short time caz then the flour really gets cooked thoroughly)

10. Remove from oil and drain the extra oil by placing those on a paper towel

11. Done and eat while it's still hot!!!

Here we go with pictures!

Grated Zucchini- 2 long Zucchinis here



Chopped Onion and Cilantro



Flour mixture- Water, Salt and Red pepper powder

Flour mixture- now added with grated Zucchini, chopped Onion and Cilantro

Oil being heated in a frying pan...umm yea this pan has been used a LOT

Pour spoonful of scooped Zucchini mixture into hot Oil and fry till Golden Brown



Now enjoy these Hotties!!

These will taste great with some sort of yogurt sauce, however, I didn't make any and ate as was and still was yummmm!!! So, next time when you go to a Turkish restaurant, don't order Zucchini Pate and spend the money there. Instead spend the same money and make it at home and feed more people!

My take on Vegetarian Chili

When you are having meat aversion but craving Chili what do you do then? You eat Vegetarian Chili! Simple.

 

Couple of months ago that was exactly what was happening to me. I wanted to eat chili badly, but not the one with meat. So, I looked online for a recipe and found Emeril Lagasse's Vegetarian Chili recipe, which had pretty good customer rating. It was cold February day and perfect for a  bowl of hot Vegetarian Chili. I followed the recipe, however, not to a T. I made some changes, didn't add vegetables that either I didn't like ever or didn't care for that time.

 

Changes I made: I didn't have broth on hand, so I used plain water and it worked perfectly well.  I didn't use mushroom, caz I never liked those. I like corn, but then I didn't want to eat, so didn't use. I added cucumber to the mix. I also didn't add cumin spice, just didn't care for it that time.

 

Here is how my Vegetarian Chili turned out! It was yummy...yumm yumm yumm...