Rasaswad

Here's an easy, casual cake, which can add a special touch to a nice, relaxed evening with friends. For me, the recipe really worked when our friend, D. said that it reminded him of his childhood in Spain. Here's the original recipe, but I made a whole bunch of tweaks: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/flourless-lemon-almond-cake-385 I added some flour, baking powder and almond extract, got rid of the cinnamon and added a lemon glaze and sliced almonds. Here's what I did: Preheat oven to 375. Butter and flour one 9 inch cake pan. Separate 4 eggs. Beat the yolks with a pinch of salt, and 2 Tbsp sugar until pale. Add the zest of about 4 lemons, a small dash of almond extract (~1/2 tsp), 1 1/3 cup almond flour,  2 Tbsp flour, and 1/4 tsp baking powder. Remove this thick paste (almost dough-like consistency) in another container. Clean the mixer bowl and whisk really well. Beat the egg whites and 1/8 tsp cream of tarter until soft peak forms. Add about 5 Tbsp...

This makes for a perfect hostess gift, packed tightly in a mason jar, with a nice card with instructions on using it.  Use all nuts in raw form unless specified. Also, they should all be unsalted. 2 cups almonds 2 cups cashews  2 cups walnuts, very lightly toasted  1 cup pistachios  1 cup flax seeds, toasted until they start popping.  2 tbsp cardamom seeds (not pods, but seeds) 3/4 whole nutmeg 1 really big pinch saffron 2 1/2 cups sugar  In a food processor, grind each nut separately until fine or coarse. Towards the end, add a quarter cup of sugar for each cup of nut to aid grinding. The nuts Should not turn to butter. Grind flax seeds finely in a grinder or magic bullet. Grind each of the spice separately with a couple of tablespoon of sugar in a spice grinder. Mix everything together nicely and pack in air tight container.  For serving: mix 2-3 tbsp of powder with a cup of milk. Microwave for a minute, let steep...

The idea is to make almost everything ahead of time and set it out. Ragda Pattice is the only thing that needs to be warm. Mango Lassi Thandai Pani Puri Ragda Pattice Papdi chaat Kachori Pulao Raita Gulab Jamun Gujiya Paan

I figured I should start writing down the menus I plan for parties... This one was a potluck: Diwali snacks: chakli, chevdo, farsi puri, cholafali, mathia, mawa peda (prasad), chocolate cookies Amiri Khaman Dahi vada Fried balls of awesomeness Methi Malai Matar Rajma Mix veg. Korma Rice Triangle paratha Boondi raita Papad Moong daal halwa Paan 

In a small ziploc bag, crush half a pack of swad cashew chikki into big crumbs using a rolling pin.  In a small pan, heat about 1/3 cup sugar until amber colored. Add about a tablespoon of salted butter, and a few splashes of heavy cream. Add a good pinch of sea salt, and cook until the sauce get a nice consistency. Prepare ice-cream base according to the machine instructions (this was our first time using it). I used  1 cup milk + 3/4 cup sugar + 2 cups heavy cream + 1 tablespoon vanilla + 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste. I removed about half of the vanilla ice-cream to eat by itself. In the remaining mixture, stir in most of the chikki crumbs, and some of the caramel sauce. Remove into a container, and then drizzle more caramel sauce, and sprinkle the chikki crumbs, followed by more caramel drizzle. Cover and keep in the freezer.

This cake for L.'s Birthday started with grand plans which quickly turned into a series of shortcuts due to complete lack of energy to bake on a Friday night. It turned out to be one of the tastiest cakes I've ever made and L. simply loved it. So I figured I'm going to keep this shortcut recipe. I did end up using two frostings, which I think was worth it, since I couldn't have had the correct balance of chocolate and hazelnut flavors otherwise. I did end up winging most of the measurements though.. The cake had five main components: sponge, syrup, ganache, frosting and nuts.  The sponge was inspired by this original version (but I ended up changing the process a lot): http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/opera-cake-230481 The Nutella frosting was inspired by this: http://cookiesandcups.com/whipped-nutella-frosting/ For the sponge, here's what I did. Preheated over at 425 and prepared two 9 inch round pans with butter, flour and parchment paper. I...

It's L.'s Birthday today, and I wanted to make a nice, comforting breakfast for him. Instead of going the fancy route, I went back to basics, and he loved it. Here's what I did: Microwave one russet potato till cooked. Peel and mash by hand. Take about 1/4 cup of store bought shredded carrots and chop it further to get a very fine dice. Prep about a tablespoon of In a small pan, heat about 1 teaspoon of oil. Add a few mustard seeds, add 1/4 teaspoon each of crushed ginger and green chillies, and a pinch of hing. Add the carrots and saute for a few seconds. Add about 1/4 cup, or less of peptite green peas, and saute a little more. Add a pinch of turmeric, a pinch of red chilli powder, a big pinch of amchur powder, a pinch of chat masala and salt. Add the potatoes, 2 tbsp ricotta cheese (or fresh paneer crumbs), cilantro, juice of half a lime, mix everything and turn off the flame. I used four slices of a nice pane bread (with sunflower seeds) for two sandwiches. Spread...