Spicy Chicken Biyani

I usually make biyanis in dum style. But my Mom and MIL always make it in the pressure cooker. Since dum biyani calls for at least 3 different pans, I wanted to try the pressure cooker way. My plan was to make mutton biryani from Live to Eat. Since I did not get decent mutton, I made the Spicy Chicken Biryani from Cooking 4 All seasons. I did modify the recipe a teeny weeny bit because I did not have mint and I had to make the recipe for 8 people. Here is how I made it

Spicy Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

For Marinade:

Chicken - 1 lb

Yogurt - 1 cup

Chili powder - 2 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder a pinch

Garlic - 4 - 5 pods

Ginger - 1 inch

Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup

For Rice:

Basmati Rice - 2 1/2 cup

Onions - 2.5

Green chillies - 4

Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tsp

Cinnamon - 2"

Bay leaf - 1

Cloves - 4

Cardamom - 2

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Instructions

1. Clean chicken and cut into required pieces
2. Grind coriander leaves, ginger and garlic into a coarse paste
3. Mix the chicken with yogurt, chili pwd, coriander pwd, turmeric pwd and the cori-ginger-garlic paste. Leave it for 15 - 20 mins



4. Clean and soak the rice for 15 mins
5. Slice onions and chilies lengthwise
6. Heat ghee and oil in a pressure cooker
7. Add the whole spices and fry for 15 secs
8. Add the sliced onions
9. Fry till light brown
10. Add ginger- garlic paste and chilies
11. Fry till the raw smell goes away
12. Add the chicken along with the marinade
13. Cook in high flame for 5 mins and simmer till oil comes out
14. Add the rice and mix
15. Add 5 cups of water and salt
16. Turn the flame to high and bring it to boil
17. Close the cooker and place the weight once the steam comes out forcefully
18. Lower the flame and cook for 12 mins
19. Switch off the flame and open the cooker once the pressure is off by itself

The biryani was spicy and tasty. I am definitely make it again. I served it with mutton cutlets and onion raitha. I'm sending this for One-Pot wonders hosted by Pavani at Cook's hideout .

Sweet Maida dosai

I'm addicted to anything sweet. I have not come across a sweet I did not like. Anyway, I wanted to have something sweet after dinner today. I could have had a piece of cake which I made couple of days back. But then I wouldn't have anything to write in this blog and participate in Dosa Mela :). So, I made sweet maida dosai. When I told the recipe to my MIL, she told me that it resembled Surul appam. I checked it out and it is very similar. So, much for thinking that I 'invented' a recipe :) . So, anyway, here is how I made the dosai,

Sweet Maida Dosai

Ingredients
All Purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Rava - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Baking soda - a pinch
Salt - a pinch

For stuffing
Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup (or to taste)

Instructions

1. Place flour, baking soda, salt and yogurt in a bowl
2. Whisk them together by adding water gradually to prepare the dosai mix.
3. Set this aside and combine coconut and sugar together. Adjust the sugar to your taste. This is very sweet.

4. Heat dosa tawa and once its hot, pour a ladle of the dosai mix.

5. Immediately top the dosai with 1/4 cup of the coconut mixture

6. Cover the dosa tava and cook the dosai.

7. It will be done within a minute or so.

8. Fold the dosai in half and press hard. There is no need to flip the dosai.

This goes to Dosa Mela hosted by Srivali at Cooking 4 All Seasons .

Garlic

Garlic is an amazing vegetable with many medicinal uses and health benefits. Its botanical name is Allium sativum L. It is believed to be a powerful anti-carcinogen. It is a powerful antibiotic. It is supposed to increase milk supply for nursing mothers also. This garlic milk recipe comes from my Mom.

Garlic Milk

Ingredients
Milk – 1 cup
Garlic – 3 pods roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Place the milk in a pan and bring it to boil
2. Add the chopped garlic and boil till garlic becomes soft
3. Let it cool down a bit and add sugar to your taste. Drink the milk along with the cooked garlic.

My Father-in-Law has the below date-garlic couple of days a week in the morning to prevent cholesterol. He said that the date is to cut through sharpness of garlic. While this is not the only healthy habit he has, he is a very healthy and fit 75 years old.

Date - Garlic

Ingredients
Garlic – one small pod or half of a large pod peeled
Dates – 1

Instructions

1. Slit the date in the middle and remove the pit.
2. Place the garlic pod inside the date
3. Eat the date-garlic

I’m submitting both these recipes for April JFI - Garlic hosted by Mathy of Virundhu

Banana date cake

I was craving for something sweet today. I was just going to settle for a plain pound cake and enjoy it. But DH did not want something ‘plain’. He wanted something with orange and nuts in it. There were no oranges or nuts. Then I remembered that I had cashew nuts in the pantry. I always have cashews since you never know when you have to make a last minute dessert. I adapted the Granny cake recipe from the Better Home and Gardens New baking book to make this cake.

Banana-Date cake (adapted from Granny cake recipe from BHG New Baking book)

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, softened
2 cups mashed bananas
1 cup pitted and chopped dates
¼ cup orange juice
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped cashews

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour a 10 inch fluted tube pan
2. In a small bowl, combine chopped dates and orange juice
3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and salt

4. In another mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds at medium speed using a electric mixer.

5. Add bananas, eggs, vanilla and the orange-date mixture to the beaten butter and beat till well combined.

6. Add all the flour mixture and beat at low speed till combined.

7. Beat at medium speed for a minute

8. Fold in the chopped cashews

9.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 75 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted towards the center comes back clean.

10.Cool the cake in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes

11. Remove the cake from the pan and cool thoroughly

I never change or substitute ingredients when it comes to cakes. Today's experiment was new to me. I was very happy with the cake. It was moist and sweet. It did taste a bit like banana bread.

Here is the final cake,

Baby shower cake

One of my favourite things to do is to bake cakes. Most of my cakes come out pretty well, if I do say so myself :) But I never used to decorate them. Once I started seeing some of the gorgeous creations in the blog world, I wanted to try my hand at decorating. I made this cake for one of my friend's surprise baby shower. She is expecting identical twin girls. She is an amazing person and I wanted to make something special for her. I decided to make a pink and white stacked cake and decorate it with fondant. Since I was going to use fondant, I needed to make a dense cake. I have a wonderful recipe for pound cake and buttercream icing which I got from the "Instructions and Recipes for Your Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer".

Old-Fashioned Pound Cake recipe from "Instructions and Recipes for Your Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer"

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups butter, softened
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
6 eggs


Instructions

1. Combine dry ingredients in mixer bowl.
2. Add butter, milk, vanilla and orange extract to the dry ingredients.
3. Stir everything together till combined.
4. Beat everything together using a electric mixer until light and fluffy. If you are using a stand mixer, it would take 6 minutes to do this.
5. Stop and scrap the bowl. Turn the mixer to slow speed(speed 2) and add one egg at a time. Let it mix for about 15 seconds between each addition. Turn to medium speed(speed 4) and beat about 30 seconds.
6. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 mins.

Buttercream frosting recipe from "Instructions and Recipes for Your Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer"

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup cream or evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups powdered sugar
low fat milk, if necessary

Instructions

1. Place butter in a mixing bowl
2. Beat the butter till light and fluffy
3. Scrape the bowl and add cream, vanilla, salt and 1 cup powdered sugar
4. Stir well and beat it till well-blended, about 1.5 mins using stand-up mixer
5. Scrape the bowl and in low-speed slowly add the 3 cups of sugar and mix until well-blended.
6. Turn to medium speed and beat till smooth, about a min.

I used these two basic recipes and made some small changes to make the cake I needed.

After I made the batter, I divided them into two. To one part, I added 1/4 cup of strawberry syrup and 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam and mixed it well. Instead of a tube pan, I used two 9 inch pans and two 6 inch pans to make the cake. I divided the plain batter between the 9 inch pan and 6 inch pan. I did the same with the strawberry flavoured batter.

I made the buttercream frosting using the recipe above. I substitued low fat milk instead of evaporated milk. Instead of low fat milk to adjust the consistency of the icing, I used strawberry syrup. I used the filling recipe below to fill the cakes.

Filling recipe

Ingredients
A jar of strawberry jam
small pack of unflavoured gelatin

Instructions

1. Melt the strawberry jam on stove top or microwave
2. Add the gelatin to the melted strawberry jam and mix well
3. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 15 mins

Once the cakes were cooled, I left them in the freezer for 30 mins. I used a serrated knife to level and trim the cakes. You can find all you need to know about levelling and trimming at http://www.baking911.com/decorating/cakes_cut_layers.htm .

Here is how I assembled the cake

Assembling the cake

1. Place a 9 inch plain cake on the plate you are going to serve the cake
2. Spread the filling on top
3. Place the 9 inch strawberry cake on top
4. Frost the sides and top of the cake with the strawberry buttercream frosting
5. Place the 6 inch plain cake on a cakeboard
6. Spread the filling on top
7. Place the 6 inch strawberry cake on top
8. Frost the sides and top with the strawberry buttercream frosting.
9. Let both the cakes dry for half hour. You can prepare the fondant during this time
10. Knead 1lb fondant and color it pink. I used the Wilton Rose color to color the fondant.
11. Roll the pink fondant and make two circles big enough to cover the 9 inch and 6 inch cakes.
12. Cover the cakes with fondant. Smooth the fondant on top and sides.
13. Knead 1/2 lb fondant and roll it out. Cut two strips of white fondant to be used as a ribbon around the 9 inch cake. Use water to moisten the strips and stick it to the pink fondant like a ribbon. Fashion two bows from the left over fondant and stick it to the ribbon so that the edges won't be seen.
14. Spread a small amount of buttercream on top of the 9 inch cake and transfer the 6 inch cake on top of the 9 inch cake
15. Repeat step 13 for the 6 inch cake.
16. Place the cake topper on top of the 6 inch cake

I also made buttercream dots on the pink fondant since I thought it looked too plain. I used a 'Super Mom-to-be' cake topper and two pink pacifiers as cake toppers.The photo I took of my end result is not the best. I'm yet to master the art of photgraphy. Here is the end result,