Carrot cake

One of my good friends was here for a special cake recipe. You must be wondering whether I'm a cake expert. I'm not one but, I have the virtual windows to the world open at my desktop. So she wanted me search for a different, yet simple to make, nutritious cake. I told her this is going to be too much of requirements, but still we managed to find one. I think "the internet" didn't like the way I challenged it. It gave us the best and yet simple recipe and must have thought I should take back my comment.

As she decided to try the new recipe "the carrot cake", a desire was born in me too. Carrot cake is actually very simple. No need to separate yolks and egg whites and make a mess in the kitchen. That was actually the most interesting part that pushed me to try it. Everything goes one after the other into a large bowl, as the whisking goes on and it is not at all time consuming. So I was happy, the batter was ready and the oven also preheated. The dish with batter went in the oven to stay for 50 minutes.

Bobs as usual was in office. He too is a cake freak. I decided to call him and tell about the new adventure. Cake fragrance was all over the room and I wished that the phone could convey the scent. As he picked up after many rings (busy man!!!), I gave him the message "I made carrot cake!!!". I expected a very lovely reply like "wow good... will be coming home early". But instead of something like this I heard a "OH NO!!!!". I was taken aback by surprise. The person who used to jump at the first letter "C" of the word cake, is reacting like this. As my card castle fell, I kept the phone in a state of wonder. The cake came out well and was yummy, but the wonder was still there. As Bobs came in the evening my two curiosity filled eyes looked at him.

Now it was the reasoning time. Bobs was taking salad for lunch these days and carrots were the main veggie in that. When he heard carrot cake, he thought that the cake was made of just carrots and anticipated the recipe as baking a mix of grated carrots and sugar. Oh My God, what a shame for a wife who is a cake expert (may be I can call myself one now). I covered my face with embarrassment as I heard this anticipated recipe. A cake of grated carrots and sugar! Anyway I showed him the cake pieces and soon found him drooling after it. Not so soon, a punishment was necessary for logically arriving at his cake recipe. But how long can we keep the cat away from its milk. He vanished into the cake box as soon as I went to the kitchen to make tea. Carrot cake was a hit for sure, and I'm waiting for new reasons to find topics for the next adventure.




Here is the cake recipe
Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 small cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small cup maida
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
11/2 cups grated carrots

Directions
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, powdered sugar and vanilla essence.
Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Stir in carrots.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees... for 40 to 50 minutes ... enjoy!!!

The dinner dilemma

Ours is a foodie family. We feel sad and bored when there is not anything good to eat. May God forgive me for saying this. Such was our dinners recently. There were things to eat but it was the same items going round and round. Any curry that I made, had potatoes in it. Soon Bobs found potatoes growing his diameter and went on strike. That was a stroke for me. The carrots and beans alone did not help my curry making. I started trying paneer, peas, and any new vegetable that I can lay my hands on. But still I was missing my first love "potato". We decided to change the menu and go on a very different channel. The solution was salad. The night menu became onions, carrots, capsicums and salad cucumbers, all sliced finely. All these mixed with salt, salad oil and a teaspoonful full of vinegar. We had our dinner joyfully, feeling healthy and refreshed.

But I did not know then that this kind of a dinner was only going to be once in 6 months until I found Bobs rummaging through the fridge at midnight. With a desperate look he asked "my stomach is rumbling, is there anything to put in?". We had a nice laugh and had bread and jam then. Anyway the salad was out of the dinner menu. The potatoes were still in the starchy list so couldn't make its way back to the dinner table.

Now it was again maddening to find something to replace. We tend to forget the foods our moms make. I was trying to recollect some of the her dinner tips and that was when the "kanji, payar and chamandi" idea sprang up. Why not try this native whiff? So the very next day it was a new menu which brought a scent of home faraway from home.

The puttu story

Finally after many trial and errors I got my favourite breakfast item "puttu" in shape. I thought it was going to be a never ending process. Living in a far away place from my native, my heart always crave for indian cuisines. I always kept realizing the fact that one should learn cooking whenever there is free time, otherwise all cravings will have to wait until you find the right things and right ways to do it.

This "puttu" is actually very easy to make, but the secret lies in the amount of water you use to wet the rice flour. Mom used to say "I'm going to make puttu, don't have energy for trying anything else". But when I started trying it I was wondering whether she used the right way to explain the making process of puttu. I meant the word "easy". The very first day I made puttu it came out as a hard to eat, rubbery, cylindrical shaped item which I declared is the new-era puttu.

The puttu maker is a cylindrical shaped utensil with a pot. You have to fill the cylindrical part with the wet rice flour mixed with coconut and then let the steam run through it. But my first puttu couldn't let the steam run in, because of the heavily wet flour, that it became a "dough" and blocked the steam. Oh My God, I only know the how I pushed it out of the container. We ate it reluctantly as I was not at all energetic enough to make a new one. The second time I made it I made sure not to wet the flour much. But this time, steam came out but the flour was not wet enough to cook itself. So what happened. It came out as the flour that went in. Tragedy again and Bobs requested whether I'll stop trying "puttu". Actually I was spoiling his wonderful weekend morning. The request was not accepted. I kept on trying and at the same ignoring his moaning and groaning for a better saturday morning. There were changes every time and one day as the photo says, I got it soft and exactly shaped. Saturday mornings became pleasant again.

Midsummer night fights

At night when all lights are out
Roaches ruling the kitchen march stout
The wings wide open,
And tusks high and sharpened
They rule the place
As if it is there own space
Slowly I go and switch on the light
To see many roaches moving in swift
Hustling the way, running in haste
Slumping into all what they can taste!
I feel sheepish, helpless to act
As these tiny roaches show me the fact
Any weapons with which I can charge
I muse hardly, thinking as a sarge
Then the venomous spray comes in play
And the gnomes perish as I start to slay.

When games become a passion...

Playing games and enjoying it, are ways to free yourself from thoughts and daily anxieties, but what if it becomes a passion? When games becomes a weakness it turns out to reach and feel things with emotional background. This Roland-Garros finals evolved out to be a similar humorous and emotional episode at home.

The TV channel was not broadcasting the match for some technical reasons. The women's final was on the same day. Bobs was waiting for this match from morning, saving each and every molecule of his energy to cheer his player. But as luck wouldn't allow, the channel was off air closely before the match started. The situations that followed was comical. The reactions were like a sine wave, not at all on the positive side. He was sometimes angry, sometimes sad, and involving all negative energies he got, kept on pressing the remote control button to see whether his favourite channel is back. My snacks which were usually good, tasted bad for him that day. The tea also went in without much interest. Later he brooded in front of the internet to check the points minute after minute

Now came the day of men's final. Both are players of his favour. Federer and Nadal are playing. I keep getting calls from office asking whether the channel is back. I say "no sweetheart". He comes home early and runs to take his siami (the remote control, his siamese twin). Still looking very optimistic the control buttons are been pressed and then I hear a scream "NO!!!". I'm sure that again my snacks and tea will go down the drain. The evening is going to be dull. I even cursed the person who invented tennis balls. Suddenly an enlightenment gives him a spark to call the cable people. They say "uh oh" and after some nagging finally agrees to broadcast it. I still don't know how he managed it. A ray of hope shines on Bobs face as he presses channel buttons again. "HURRAY!!!, here it is. My channel is back".

The same snacks and tea again taste good as he cuddle in the sofa to see his sports, but this time with yet another confusion. Both are his favourite players but don't know whom to cheer for.

Cooking basmati rice

I was talking to a friend in melbourne whom I call "idle girl". We used to have lot of fun in college but later lost touch. Thanks to the internet again, it not only finds recipes but long lost friends too. We were talking about our kitchen experiments these days and that was when she complained that her basmati rice for making fried rice was not coming out well. She said that it was coming out as a dough. I said "Lady u need to add a certain amount of water for cooking a particular amount of rice". She was like "is it, uh oh"... We had a good laugh. So this was what we concluded on.

As a general guideline, decide if you like your rice soft or firm, then gradually adjust the amount of water you use: 1 3/4 cups water to 1 cup of raw basmati rice makes just-tender rice. If you like a very firm texture, add 1 1/2 cups water.

So I hope she cooks good firm fried rice from now on.

The sponge cake

The way to the man's heart is through his stomach. I was not a believer of this old saying but as my life started moving through the initial irregularities of married life, I thought of checking it out. I should say my initial experiments in kitchen were not highly disastrous but still not worth the word "good". One day I made a pot full of "hot and spicy rasam". Don't go for the name. The rasam was very hot and very spicy that bobs took hours to talk after that dinner. I made a pot full and had to throw it within hours of its birth. This is just one of the many laughed over incidents. As days passed my little fingers started creating magic (as I should say) in the kitchen. In the meantime we bought a microwave oven. I always dreamt of baking cakes and cookies. I love baking. But at home it always turned out to be dark aliens as they came out of the old conventional ovens. Some how those ovens and my mindset did not work. May be communication gap. Then I joined hands with this new microwave oven which helped to turn my cooking to an absolute joy and second love of my life. Started working with the microwave part first. Then I learnt power cooking and grilling. A visit to the nearby super market with a list of ingredients to make a cake was done soon. The cake was ready. The simple sponge cake. Any one needs to make a small sponge cake can use this recipe. It was divine and I directly paved a way one more time to the better half's heart. ;)

All purpose flour (maida) - 1 cup
Butter - 50 gms
Egg- 2
Sugar - 1 cup (powdered)
Baking powder- 1 teaspoon
Vanilla essence - 1/2 teaspoon

Milk (optional)

Mix the flour and baking powder

In a deep vessel,
1) Mix the butter and powdered sugar. Mix it very well.
2) Separate the egg yolks and the whites. Add the egg yolks to the butter mixture and fold in.
3) Add the flour & baking powder slowly and fold in
4) Now beat the egg white until it becomes a thick froth. Add this to the above batter and fold in.

5) Finally add the vanilla essence

U can add some milk to the batter if you feel that it is thick and not falling from the spoon.

Butter a cake vessel and place a butter paper. Pour the cake batter. Preheat the oven to 160 degree and keep the vessel with cake batter for 40 minutes at 140 C. Check the cake in between. :D

Let it be a poem this time - "Dream"

Life is in a brooding state,
A languid mood fills the air;
This summer days being temperate,
Leaves me futile and in despair.
I look around and finally await
To see my life freeing in a fair;
Ah! there are flowers afar waiting
And candles lit up to be shared.
I move closer, my pensive mood pulsate,
The fragrance adds to my chipper;
But then I widen my sight
To view that all was only a dream.