Recipe - Pohe

Ingredients

1. Pohe - (beaten/flattened rice) medium thickness - 100 gms
2. Onion - 1 big
3. Potato - 1 big
4. Green chilli - 2 medium
5. Curry leaves - 10
6. Turmeric - 1 tsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
8. Green peas/peanuts - handful - optional
9. Salt - as per taste
10. Fresh coriander - for garnish
11. Grated coconut - for garnish

Method
1. Use a sieve to filter and throw out all the smaller bits of pohe

Soaked Pohe

2. Sprinkle water on the pohe and ensure that all of them are wet(don't over do it). Keep away
3. Peel and chop the potato into smaller pieces of thickness of about 2-3 mm. Any thinner than this, and they will get cooked before the onions get cooked
4. Chop the onion and green chilli

5. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok. Put cumin seeds in it followed by green chillies and curry leaves

6. When they are slightly crispy, put in the onions and potatoes together. Mix well and cover. Let them cook on small-medium flame

7. If you want to put green peas or peanuts, this is the time
8. After about 5 min, check if potatoes are cooked. If yes, then put turmeric powder and mix
9. Put the pohe and mix well till all of them are yellow with turmeric
10. Put salt as per taste (around 1 tsp should do it)
11. Cover the wok and cook for 1-2 min
12. Garnish with fresh coriander and grated coconut
13. Serve with a good mango pickle

Tips -

1. Pohe come in three forms usually - thin, medium, thick. For making this dish, the medium or thick version is better as the thin pohe tend to get soggy very quickly while sprinkling water on them
2. Can put some red chilli powder in the dish as well
3. Sprinkle some sugar for garnish if you want. Tastes different

Recipe - Victorian Sponge Cake

This is a basic Victorian cake. I haven't been able to take photos of the intermediate steps coz I had messy hands :). Also, you could convert this cake into a Victorian sandwich, by slicing the cake into two layers and applying strawberry jam between them.

Ingredients

1. Maida (All purpose flour) - 200 gms
2. Sugar - 200 gms
3. Unsalted butter - 200 gms
4. Eggs - 4
5. Baking powder - 1 tsp
6. Baking soda - 1/4th tsp

Method

1. Mix maida, baking powder and baking soda using a thin wired sieve. Pass through the sieve 3-4 times to mix it well
2. Beat butter in a glass bowl till fluffy. It's a lot of effort, but then you do get mechanical egg beaters that make it slightly easy for you.
3. Start adding one egg at a time and continue beating it. The other option is to beat the eggs separately in a blender and mix with the butter and again beat it for sometime.
4. Grind the sugar to a powder in a grinder and add to the egg and butter mix and beat it again. Remember, you have to beat it till it's fluffy. If you overdo it, it will become slightly lumpy.
5. At this point, start pre-heating the oven to 200C
6. Apply butter to thee sides and bottom of the baking pan and dust it with some maida.
7. Now put the maida/baking powder mix in batter and fold it in slowly. DO NOT beat it. Just move a wooden spatula in a clockwise or anti clockwise direction in the bowl to mix it slowly. Do not change direction midway. Fold the mixture in this way slowly so as not to release the air that has already built up inside the batter.
8. Pour the batter in the baking pan upto slightly more than half the height.
9. Keep it in the oven at 200C for 5 min.
10. Change the temperature to 180C and bake it for another 25-30 min.
11. If you pour this batter in the cup cake bowls, the baking time reduces by a few minutes.
12. Once the timer goes off, take out the pan and insert a knife into the cake. If the cake sticks to the knife blade, keep it inside for another few minutes.
13. Once done, take out and put on a reverse wire mesh in order to air it.
14. You can do some icing on it if you want after it has cooled down.