Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is one easy recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes, this has been tried many times for special treats and has never failed to impress the young and the old alike. This recipe makes a dozen delicious mid size cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons of melted butter, unsalted
1 Egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoon red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Prep a cupcake tin with cupcake liners

Mix all the dry ingredients together except sugar and set aside. Cream butter, sugar, vanilla essence until light. Add the egg, food coloring, lemon juice, buttermilk and beat well until well incorporated.

Add all the dry ingredients and fold until a smooth batter is formed. Fill the cup liners with the batter and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Take the cupcakes out of the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool, as this will prevent the cup cakes from drying out with heat from the tin.

Cream Cheese frosting:
4 tablespoons Philadelphia cream cheese
4 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

Whisk with a wire whisk all the above until soft and fluffy. Use a piping bag to pipe the frosting over the cupcakes. Sprinkle some red colored sugar over the icing.

These cupcakes are luscious and simply mouthwatering!

Clafoutis

This is a french custard pie, generally made with Cherries. I have adapted the original recipe to use a punnet of Blueberries I had in the fridge. I also substituted cream with whole milk, so I suppose that makes this dishy dessert a little less sinful!

Ingredients:

Blueberries - 1 punnet or 300 gms
Eggs - 3
Whole Milk - 1 cup
Self raising flour - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Butter - 1 tsp
Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Method:

Heat oven to 180 degrees C.

In a mixer, add all ingredients except blueberries and the icing sugar and 1 tbsp sugar. Blitz well to form a smooth batter.

Butter a oven proof 9 inch pie dish, add half the blueberries and sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar over the berries. Pour half the batter over the berries and bake for 10 minutes.

After ten minutes, sprinkle the other half of the berries and pour the leftover batter.

Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the Clafoutis is puffed up and a little brown on the surface.

You can serve this warm on its own or with icing sugar dusted when cooled. This sits well for a day in fridge and tastes great cold as a thick set custard slice jammed with fruit.

Paneer Skewers

 These skewers are easy to make and a great hit with both adults and kids alike !

Ingredients:

Paneer cubes - 500 gms
Cherry tomatoes - 250 gms/ 1 small punnet
Capsicums - 2 medium, cubed
Yogurt - 4 tbspn
Ginger and Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Shan Tandoori powder - 2 tbsp
bamboo Skewers

Method:

Make a marinate with yogurt, ginger and garlic paste and tandoori powder. Add the paneer cubes to this and mix well. Let them marinade for atleast 1 hour, or overnight in the fridge if you have time.

Soak the bamboo skewers in a pan of cold water so they don't burn during the cooking process.

Skewer the marinated paneer cubes alternating with cubed capsicum and cherry tomatoes.

You can cook these skewers on a flat pan with little oil or on a grill. I chose to bake the skewers, I used a non stick pizza tray and sprayed it with oil before lining it with the paneer skewers.

Bake for 15 minutes in 180 degrees in a preheated oven, these cook pretty quick so keep checking for doneness, turning once mid point to cook the skewers evenly.

Serve with mint chutney.

Kachi Haldi ki Sabzi (Fresh Turmeric Curry)

Turmeric is one of the key spices used in Indian cooking, besides giving the dish a vibrant golden hue, turmeric is also well known for its medicinal properties - it's an antioxidant and is also known to have anti-inflammatory effects. The benefits are many and we find raw turmeric in abundance here in wet market and supermarkets in Singapore. I wanted to give it a try to incorporate this spice in its raw form and experimented with this favorite dish of Rajasthan, India. Happy to say, it is a dish worth repeating!

Ingredients:

Kachi Haldi (Fresh Turmeric) - 300 gms

Peas - 1 cup

Yogurt - 2 cups

Tomatoes - 3 

Ginger and garlic paste - 1 tsp

Green Chilies - 4

Clove powder - 1/4 tsp

Black pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1 pinch

Coriander powder - 1 tablespoon

Cumin Powder - 1 tablespoon

Hing or Asafetida - 1 pinch

Anise seed powder -1/4 spoon

Ghee or oil - 4 tablespoon.

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash, peel and grate the haldi. Take ghee/oil in a pan and fry the grated haldi. Fry the haldi well to kill the bitter taste of the fresh haldi.

Make a paste with chopped tomatoes, ginger and green chilies to this.

Add the spice powders- cloves, cumin, coriander, anise seed, cinnamon, pepper, hing to the yogurt and whisk.

Fry the peas and keep in a bowl.

Once all the preparation is done, the next step is to bring all these flavors and ingredients together.

Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a pan. Add the tomato paste to it and stir fry until the ghee separates from the paste. Add fried peas and the grated fried haldi. Mix together and now add the yogurt and spice mix, stirring constantly until the curry comes to a boil. Cover and cook for another 5-7 minutes, stirring now and then. 

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with chapati or rice or any bread of your choice.

Nimki ( Quick Mango relish)

This is a quick fix for a mango pickle or relish, takes minutes to prepare and makes a great  accompaniment to the meal.

Ingredients

Raw Mango - 2

Shallots - 2

Mustard oil - 1 tbsp

Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

Ajwain - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Thinly slice the mango and shallots. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss well. This is now ready to eat immediately and will keep well for a week in the fridge.

Sheer Khurma (Vermicelli Pudding)

This one is a traditional dessert made on Eid and the recipe was handed to me by my good friend Naush during my last visit to Perth. I tried this recently and was quite pleased with the result. This dessert is super easy to make and went down a treat with the family. I used full fat milk which gives it a wholesome creamy texture but you can use skimmed milk if you prefer.

Ingredients:
Vermicelli    - 50 gms
Milk full fat  - 1 Litre
Sugar          - 4 tbsp
almond slivers - 1tbsp (optional)
Cardamom     -  1 pod (optional)
Oil/Butter       - 1tbsp

Method:
Heat oil/butter in the pan and add the almond slivers and the vermicelli. Fry until the vermicelli is light brown on a medium flame. Keep this aside.
Add  crushed cardamom pod with seeds to the milk and bring the milk to a boil in a deep pan. Reduce the milk to half its original quantity, stirring continuously. Add sugar, fried vermicelli and the almond slivers to the milk. Cook on a low flame for another ten minutes stirring the vermicelli in the milk.

Serve warm or cold.

Chicken Chettinad

Inspired by a South Indian meal I had the other day at a restaurant in Little India, I wanted to replicate this spicy chicken curry at home. After googling many a recipe (every recipe was different), this is my spin on the Chettinad Chicken curry, which apparently has no short cuts, but I have added dry spices in powder form to keep the grinding work to minimal.

Ingredients

Chicken 1 kilo (thigh, boneless and skinless)

Onions - 3 finely chopped

Tomato - 2 finely chopped

Ginger and Garlic paste - 2 tablespoon

Curry leaves - 20

Green chillies whole - 5

Coconut Milk trim - 1/2 pkt

Oil - 4 tbsp

Salt to taste

Coriander powder - 1.5 tablespoon

Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder - 2 heaped tablespoons

Elaichi or cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon powder -1/4 tsp

turmeric powder -1/2tsp

Method:

Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onion and fry until golden brown.

Add tomatoes, curry leaves, green chillies and all the dry ingredients and cook until you get a well cooked masala that looks like this:

Add Chicken to the pan and mix well. Cook the chicken, stirring now and again on until the chicken is tender.

add coconut milk and cook for another 10 minutes covered on low flame.

Switch off the flame, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.