Desserts

Strawberry marshmallow mousse

| Rekha Vengalil
 
These delicious do-ahead dessert is so easy and don’t take long to make up.  The recipe is from BBC food. I have not made any change but added a few mint leaves that gave way to a nice flavor.
 

How to –

  • Fresh strawberries– 250 grams, halved (Set aside 2-3 berried if you want to garnish)
  • Caster sugar – 25 grams
  • Mini marshmallows – 140 grams
  • Mint leave – 4
  • Double cream – 200 ml
  • Water – 100 ml
 

You need –

In a sauce pan put strawberries, mint leave, water and sugar. Cook over a medium heat until soft enough to mash.
 
Turn off the heat and mash the berries, using a fork, until pulpy. Add the marshmallows into the hot strawberries and stir continuously until the mallows have completely dissolved. Leave to cool.
 
In a clean and dry bowl, whip the cream until it holds its shape. Gently fold the cream into the cooled strawberry mix.
 

Spoon into the serving bowls and chill for about 2 hours or till set. 

You can garnish with the reserved strawberries and serve..



 

Bread Gulab Jamun

| Rekha Vengalil

The festival of lights is here and on this auspicious day may god bless you with happiness, prosperity and success. Wishing you a Happy Diwali!

It’s also the time to savor on some sweets/methai.   On that note here’s a recipe of Gulab Jamun which is made from bread.
A recipe from Nithya’s Nalabagam, is delicious and quick to make too. I have not made any change to the recipe except for adding in Rose water to the sugar syrup. 
You need –
  • Milk bread – 4 slices, edges trimmed
  • Milk – 2.5 tablespoons
  • Sugar – 1/2 cup
  • Water – 3/4 cup
  • Rose water – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Cardamom – 2 pods
  • Saffron – a good pinch, soaked in 1 tablespoon warm water.
  • Oil/ghee – to deep fry
How to –
 
In a food processor, crumble the bread slices. In bowl mix the crumbled bread and milk and knead with your palms to a soft dough. Make small equal sized balls. set aside.
 
In a sauce pan add the sugar, water, and cardamom. Bring to a rolling boil and turn off the heat. Add the rose water and stir well.
 
Heat a oil in frying pan/ skillet. Over a medium heat deep fry the bread balls till brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel.
 
Soak the fried balls in the sugar syrup for at least 30 minutes before serving. 
 
Garnish with soaked saffron and serve.
 
 
 
 

Apple slices with crispy and crumble topping

| Rekha Vengalil
A recipe from the cook book “cakes and desserts”. With baked apples and a crispy topping; is absolutely delicious. Team it up with a scoop of ice-cream too.
 

You need –

  • Sharp red apples – 4
  • Butter – 60 grams, cold and cut into cubes
  • Caster sugar – 3 tablespoons
  • Lemon juice – 2 teaspoons
  • All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
  • Brown sugar – 1/3 grams
  • Porridge oats  – 3 tablespoons
  • Ground cinnamon – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Salt – a pinch

How to –

Butter a 8 inch spring form cake pan.Set aside. Pre-heat the over to 180 C.
 
Peel and core the apples and cut into slices. In bowl combine the apples, lemon juice and sugar. Toss well and spread them over the cake pans.
In food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt and pulse. Add the butter cubes and pulse again till everything starts to form lumps.
 
Spread the crumble over the apples and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely before slicing and serving.
 
 

Spiced carrot cupcakes

| Rekha Vengalil
This is a recipe I am going to turn to more often. Perfectly spiced and so light; one of the best cakes I have had/baked in the recent times. I could eat a raw carrot but not when it is cooked/baked/grilled. I remember my mom always struggling to get me eating a curry or stir fry. I would conveniently fish all the carrots in the curry and put aside.
 
And a carrot cake is not something I liked either (had baked one, 2 years back and never tasted it). The other day a friend wanted me to make it for her and I made these cupcakes. I wanted to keep only two back(for the little one and hubby) and was going to pack most of it for her. A bite to taste changed my mind and only half of what I baked went to my friend. 

You need –

  • Grated carrots – 200 grams
  • Self rising flour – 225 grams
  • Soft brown sugar – 125 grams
  • Egg – 2, room temperature and beaten
  • Sunflower oil – 1/2 cup
  • Ground cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
  • Ground cardamom – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Ground nutmeg – a good pinch
  • Baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Zest of one orange
  • Salt – a pinch
  • Paper cupcake/muffin liners – 12-14 nos
 
How to –
 
Pre-heat the oven to 180 c.
 
In mixing bowl, add the egg, sugar and oil. Beat till well combined and sugar has dissolved.
 
In separate bowl sift together the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, orange zest and salt. Fold this into the egg mixture. Add the grated carrots and fold gently till everything is well combined.
 
 
Divide the batter equally into  lined paper cupcake/muffin liners and bake for 20-25 minutes or when toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes and then place the cupcakes on a cooling rack to cool completely.
 
 
Ice the cake as per your choice. I have used butter cream icing. For cream cheese frosting click here.
 
 

Semiya Payasam / vermicelli kheer

| Rekha Vengalil
Wishing all  Malayalis a very happy Onam! And for those who are new to this term, here is something to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onam 
 
And this Onam it’s semiya payasam for us. An all time favorite of mine; though hubby and daughter is more for parippu payasam. The recipe I share  is with Condensed milk, that’s made the payasam so creamy and rich and so fitting for the celebration. Please adjust the sugar to suit your taste.  I have used store brought roasted cashews for garnishing instead of fried cashew. You may opt for this or do the traditional way of frying the cashews and raisins in the ghee as mentioned in the recipe below.


You need –

  • Vermicelli/semiya – 1 cup
  • Milk – 1 litre
  • Condensed milk – 1 tin
  • Sugar – 2 tablespoon or as per taste
  • Cashew nuts & raisins – 1/4 cup each
  • Cardamom powder – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Ghee/clarified butter – 1 tablespoon + extra for frying cashews and raisins

 

 
How to –
 
Heat 1 tablespoon ghee in a heavy bottom pan and roast the semiya till golden brown.
 
Add milk and cook over low flame till semiya is cooked through and milk has reduced and bit thick. Stirring frequently. Add condensed milk and sugar. Mix till well combined.  
 
Add cardamom powder and turn off the heat.
 
In a pan, heat the ghee and fry the cashew nuts till golden brown. Add the raisins and fry till they puff up.  Add this to the payasam and serve hot or chilled.
 

Sending this recipe to the event – ” Favorite Food Event – Payasams/ Kheers” hosted by The Big Sweet Tooth

Kadala parippu pradhaman / Chana dal Kheer

| Rekha Vengalil


Onam is here again! and I have planned to post onam sadya recipes this week. Unsure if I will be able to do all of it by 16th; yet promise to fit in as much as possible. I already have a few that you might want to check out

And today I have this delicious payasam/pradhaman made of coconut milk and chana dhal. Traditionally fried coconut pieces are also added in but I forgot to buy them and realised only when I started making the payasam. 


You need –

  • Chana dal – 250 grams, cleaned & washed
  • Palm sugar/ Jaggery – 400 grams, grated
  • Coconut milk
    • Think Coconut milk – 3/4 cup
    • Medium thick coconut milk – 1.5 cups
    • Thin coconut milk – 3 cups
  • Ghee – 2 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon of frying cashewnuts
  • Cardamom powder – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Cashewnut and coconut pieces – 40 grams each

How to –

In pressure cooker, cook the dal with enough water (around 3 cups). Once done mash roughly and set aside.


In pan melt the palm sugar/jaggery with 1/4 tablespoon water and aside. Now heat a heavy bottom pan and add 2 tablespoons of ghee. Add the cooked dal and melted jaggery and mix well. Be careful as the ghee will start to splatter so take care.

Stir till everything is well combined. Now add the thin coconut milk and bring to a rolling boil. Add the medium thick coconut milk and cook till the payasam thickens and reduces to half. Stir frequently. Add the Thick coconut milk and bring to a gently simmer.
Turn off the heat add the cardamom powder and mix well.


In a small frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashew and coconut pieces (if using) till golden brown. Add this to the payasam and mix well. Serve hot.

 

 

Flourless Orange cake with Coconut cream cheese frosting

| Rekha Vengalil
It was my Mom-ln-Law’s birthday on the 26th Jun. We were planning to go down to be with her but due to work commitments we could not make it. Hence I decided to bake the cake on her b’day and got Saana to cut the cake. She thinks for everyone’s birthday in the family she is responsible of cutting the cake 😉

Over to the recipe, while browsing through Nigella Lawson’s book the other day I had bookmarked 2 recipes, one being Flan and the other was this cake. 2 reasons why I wanted to make this cake ASAP (Glad I had a reason to bake!!) was because  I had some polenta sitting in the pantry for a while and wanted to use it up and the other, never made a flourless cake before. 

The original is flourless Lemon cake while I made an orange cake, with little changes. The cake was moist and tasted great . 


For the cake –

You need-

  • Unsalted butter – 200 grams soft + extra for greasing
  • Caster sugar – 200 grams
  • Ground almonds – 200 grams
  • Polenta – 100 grams fine
  • Baking powder – 1 ½ teaspoons
  • eggs – 3 nos
  • Orange juice – 20 mls
  • Orange zest – ½ teaspoon

How to-

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a non-stick spring form cake tin lined with a parchment paper. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one by one, mixing continuously.



Once the eggs are fully mixed in, add the polenta, ground almonds and baking powder and mix again.

Once combined, add the zest, juice and continue to blend until fully combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or when wooden skewer inserted in the middle of the cake, comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.



You can decorate the cake with fresh fruits or the frosting of your choice. I have used Coconut cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting –

You need

  • Unsalted butter (softened) – 1/4 cup
  • Cream cheese (softened) – 4 ounces
  • Icing sugar – 2 cups 
  • Desiccated coconut – 1/2 cup
  • Vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon


How to –

Blend butter and cream cheese till smooth and light.

Add icing sugar slowly. Add vanilla. Fold in desiccated coconut.

Spread on cooled cake.

Flan or Crème caramel

| Rekha Vengalil
We in Singapore have been living in the smog for the last couple of day. It’s the forest fire in Indonesia that brings the haze. This noon marked the highest of 401 on the PSI. It’s not been easy for me ever since as I am allergic to dust.  Sneezing, headache, burning eyes has been keeping me company for the last couple of days. Hope it’s a clear sky soon and we get to see the sun and moon too.

So with the haze, it’s been more in-door and that ended up with me making this delicious Crème caramel, as it is also called. It is so easy to whip up and yes the setting time is a long wait but worth.



The recipe is from Nigella Express. 

You need –
  • Condensed milk – 400 grams
  • Evaporated milk – 350 grams
  • Egg – 3
  • Sugar – 3/4 cups
  • Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon

How to –

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C. Boil to 2-3 cups water.

To caramelize the sugar, heat a sauce pan, add the sugar. Stir frequently till the sugar turns to a syrup. Once the syrup starts to turn dark brown turn off the heat (start to look like a maple syrup). Please make sure not to burn. Transfer the caramelized sugar to a oven proof dish. Swirl the dish so the sugar is spread evenly to all sides and well coated. You will need to do this quickly as the caramelized sugar will tend to set very fast. Once done set aside.

Caramelizing the sugar

Now in a large mixing bowl, beat the condensed milk, evaporated milk, sugar, essence; beat till the sugar is dissolved. add the beaten egg and continue mixing till everything is well combined.

Pour the mixture on top of the caramelized sugar. Place the dish into a roasting pan and pour hot water till about half and bake for 45-50 mins or till, when a knife is inserted in the middle comes out clean.





Remove from the oven and remove the dish carefully of the water bath. Allow to cool completely.



Once cooled completely; refrigerate the flan overnight or for minimum 5 hours.



To serve, turn the flan to a serving plate with a enough lip to stop the syrup from running out.


Almond burfi – My guest post

| Rekha Vengalil
It’s my second guest post and this time too it’s for one of my favorite blog- The Big sweet tooth by Rafeeda. Its indeed such a pleasure to have met Rafee right here. I really enjoy reading her blog. I love the way she writes. It seems so effortless and natural. Inspite of being a working mom she is such a regular here which leaves me wondering from where she gets the time and energy to cook and post. Rafee wishing you the best in life always and Stay blessed.


And to the recipe, well what better than a sweet for the Big sweet tooth! Its Almond burfi. Click here to visit Rafee’s blog and for the recipe. Hope you like the post!


Once again thank you Rafee for sharing your space for my post!