Recipe - Chenna Poda or Fresh cheese & Semolina cake

Chenna Poda

Ingredients - 

These ratios are for paneer/cheese made from 1 lit of milk

1. Semolina/Rava - 3 Tbsp
2. Sugar - 150 mg (or less or more as you prefer)
3. Baking powder
4. Raisins, Cashews
5. Ghee/Clarified butter - 2 Tbsp
6. Any other flavour you want to add (powder) - Cinnamon, vanilla etc

For paneer/cheese

1. Milk - 1 lit
2. Lemon juice/vinegar - 1 Tbsp max

Method - 

Making paneer/cheese

1. Start heating milk in a pan
2. Before it boils, put the lemon juice or vinegar in it and mix using a spoon
3. Increase the flame to max so it starts heating faster. This speeds up the curdling process
4. Switch off the flame just as the milk is about to boil
5. While the milk is still warm, strain the paneer using a strainer or a muslin cloth. Strain all the water out by hanging the cloth for about 15-20 min or by twisting and pressing it by hand (be careful not to burn your hand)
6. Save the water that comes out. Some of it will be used later

Rest of the process

1. Once the paneer is ready, break it soften it in a bowl
2. Mix semolina and ghee and start mixing again
3. Add sugar and mix it well. Use the strained water to make this task easier
4. If there are any other flavours you want to add, add half a teaspoon of that powder into the mix
5. Pour a little more of the water to make the consistency just a little thicker than a cake batter
6. Put the dry fruits crushed into smaller pieces.
7. Once it's ready, put baking powder in and mix well. Don't over churn
8. Butter a baking tray properly (or put a butter paper in it)
9. Pour the batter in it
10. Keep in a preheated oven at 160 Celsius (320 Fahrenheit) for about 55 min
11. Use the standard knife/toothpick test to see if it's cooked properly at the end of it (Put the knife/toothpick vertically in the cake and see if it comes out clean)
12. Serve as is or with a little sweet cream on the side

Recipe - Bleeding Hearts (Poached apple in red wine reduction)

Ingredients
1. Apple - 1
2. Sugar - 5 Tbsp
3. Red wine - 5 Tbsp
4. Star anise - 1/ Cloves - 4
5. Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
6. Water - 500 ml

Method -
1. Cut apple slices in about 5mm thickness. Carve into heart shapes.
2. Take a pan and mix water, red wine and sugar. Start heating on medium flame.
3. Put star anise or cloves (both give different taste) and cinnamon powder.
4. Once the water starts to boil, put the apple slices and reduce the flame to low.
5. Poach the apple for 15 min and take them out.
6. Continue boiling the sauce until it reduces to about half of the original quantity. If you want lesser and thicker sauce, reduce it further.
7. Serve the apple hearts with the sauce poured over it 

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.

Recipe - Modak (Sweet Semolina Fried Dumplings)

Today's Ganesh Chaturthi. Lord Ganesh's 10 day festival begins. My parents also do the whole jing bang associated with the festival for these 10 days. We brought the Ganesh statue yesterday (and of course the quintessential mouse - his official "transport"!). All the decoration is done and very soon the proceedings will start.

One thing without which things are incomplete is His favorite dish - Modak (I strongly suspect that He comes to every household for 10 days only for them!). So today, I decided to put the recipe for the Modaks as they are being made right now by my mom. There are various fillings possible and it can be moved from desserts to the starters domain by changing the filling. So go ahead and experiment. This is one of the traditional recipes.

Ingredients - 

1. For the dough
1. Semolina - 100 gms
2. Pinch of salt
3. Clarified butter or peanut/sunflower oil - 1 or 2 teaspoon
4. Water
2. For the filling
1. Dry coconut roasted & shredded- 1/2 cup
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Poppy seeds - 2 tsp (if you like them)
4. Cashewnuts - 10
5. Almonds - 10

Method - 

1. Mix the salt and Semolina. Heat the butter or oil a little and put it on the mixture and use the water (a little bit at a time) to make a soft dough. Once the dough is made, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for half an hour.

2. Roast the poppy seeds a little (on very low flame) and mix it with the sugar. Grind them into a coarse  powder. Make a coarse powder of Cashews and Almonds. Roast bigger pieces of coconut and then shred them into smaller pieces. Mix everything together.

3. Make small balls of the dough and roll them out into small (about 3 inch diameter) circles.

4. Put 1 or 2 teaspoons of the mixture in the middle.

5. Apply a little water along the edge of the circle and seal the edges to make it into a small dumpling.

6. Fry them till they are a little brown on the outside. And it's done!

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As said before, there are so many different variations that can be done. Condensed milk or khoya can be used as filling with sugar powder. If there isn't enough time, any milk based readymade sweet can be used as filling. Ofcourse minced spicy meat can also be used as filling - it won't remain a modak then, it will be a spicy starter with a different name. Maida (refined wheat flour) can be used make the dough. It won't be as crispy when fried. Also, the dumplings can be steamed instead of frying.