Creamy Cucumber Gazpacho

Blogging Marathon# 66: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: 3 Veggies that are Fruit

Dish: Creamy Cucumber Gazpacho

Can't believe it's July already and half the year passed off so quickly. We are starting a new edition of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is dishes made with 'Veggies that are fruit'.

Technically speaking fruit is a part of the plant that develops from a flower. It is also the section of the plant that has seeds. Other parts of the plant are considered vegetables -- like stems, leaves or roots. Good example of  'veggies that are fruit' are cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, squash and so on. But from a culinary point of view, vegetables are more savory and fruits are sweet.

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Chai Spiced Pound Cake

Using different spice mixes in baking gives the baked goods different taste and feel. So by changing the spices used in a base recipe, you can make recipes appropriate for any season. For example use pumpkin pie spice in this pound cake and you have a perfect fall cake. Or use just one spice that you really like, may be cinnamon and cardamom for another tasty twist to the basic pound cake.

This Chai spiced pound cake recipe is from King Arthur flour catalog. The cake is perfectly tender and mimics the flavor of a cup of chai. I can never understood what 'Chai-Tea' means. It is on almost all of the bakery, coffee-shop and juice bar menus. I want to tell them that Chai and tea are synonymous and it makes no sense saying tea-tea. Well I guess it's gourmet or fancy way of saying tea.

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Tzatziki Sauce

Buffet on Table: Week 3 -- Condiments from Countries

Day 16: Greece - Tzatziki Sauce

After yesterday's creamy red pepper walnut dip, today I have a creamy yogurt dip from Greece. Tzatziki sauce needs only 3 main ingredients -- thick yogurt, cucumber, dill and that's it you can make a delicious dip that makes pita or falafel sandwich so much better. I even ate it by the spoonfuls.

My husband has an aversion to yogurt -- he can't tell it's smell, color or texture. I enjoy yogurt based dishes quite a bit but don't make them often. Even though I was tempted to try tzatziki at home, I was never really motivated enough. So this condiments week was the perfect time to make this dip and enjoy it all by myself :-)

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Strawberry-Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Fruits in any form

Dish: Strawberry-Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup

For the second day under Kid's Delight -- fruits in any form theme, I made strawberry pancakes and served them with strawberry maple syrup. My kids love pancakes and waffles for breakfast, but I rarely make them. After a lot of nagging from them, I finally treat them with some pancakes.

Last month, we went strawberry picking and seeing all the beautiful strawberries we got too excited and picked way too much than we can really handle. Strawberries are quite fragile and need to be treated very gently. I sorted them out and put them in a single layer on paper towel lined baking sheets in the fridge.

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7 Layer Mexican Dip

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Movie Night Snacks

Dish: 7 Layer Mexican dip

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Snacks for Movie Night'. Family movie nights have become rare with my husband's crazy travel schedule but we try and catch up once in a while. I'm not big on snacks, I rather eat a full meal and I'm happy. But the kids and the husband love snacks. So for the next 3 days, I'm going to share some make ahead or quick to make snacks that are great for a movie night (or for any night or party for that matter).

First up is a Mexican layer dip. It has 7 layers with gaucamole, refried beans, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, olives and scallions. If you are up for it, you can make some of the layers at home, or if you are like me, just buy some good quality guacamole, refried beans and salsa.

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Eggless Fudge Brownies with Nuts

I recently joined Gayathri's Baking Eggless group. She gives a dish that has eggs and wants the group to come up with an eggless version of the same. This month, she picked Joy the Baker's Extra Nutty Dark Chocolate Brownies recipe that has 3 eggs and asked us to come up with an eggless version.
Egg replacer powder (I use Bob's Red Mill brand) is my go-to substitute for eggs and I always keep a packet of it in my fridge. But that usually works only for recipes with 2 eggs. Any more eggs, I don't think the vegetarian option gives the desired results in the baked goods. Ground Flax seeds (Flax see meal) can also be substituted instead of the egg replacer powder.

So for this recipe with 3 eggs, I substituted 2 of the eggs with the egg replacer powder and for the last egg, I used 1½tbsp of sour cream. The resulting brownies tasted very close to the real thing, they were fudgey and delicious. I shared few of the brownies with couple of blogger friends and one of them said she couldn't stop eating them because they were so fudgy and yummy :-)
One thing to note about baking brownies in general is that to remove the pan from the oven when the top does not look glossy anymore -- there might be a few wet crumbs sticking to the toothpick, but resist the urge to bake it longer because that might lead to dried out and crumbly brownies.

Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker:

Ingredients:

Unsalted Butter - ½cup (1stick)

Dark Chocolate - 5oz., chopped

Unsweetened chocolate - 2oz., chopped

Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 

All purpose flour - 1cup

Baking Soda - ¼tsp
Coarse Sea Salt - ½tsp
Light Brown Sugar - 1¼cups, packed
Egg replacer - 2tbsp whisked in 6tbsp water
Sour Cream - 1½tbsp
Vanilla extract - 2tsp
Pecans - 3tbsp, halved
Walnuts - 3tbsp, chopped

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 8" square baking pan with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Lightly grease the parchment too.
• In a microwave safe bowl, combine butter and the chocolate. Microwave the mixture 30 seconds at a time, stirring until glossy and completely melted. Stir in cocoa powder and mix well to combine.
• Whisk egg replacer mixture, sour cream and brown sugar in a mixing bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in vanilla extract.
• Add the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.
• Next add salt, baking soda and flour. Mix well to combine all the ingredients, spoon into the prepared pan. Top with the nuts.
• Bake for 30~35 minutes until the brownies are slightly puffed, the nuts are golden brown and the top is no longer glossy.
• Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Homemade Tortilla Chips with Creamy Avocado Dip

Blogging Marathon# 30: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Kid's Delight - Summer Special
Dish: Homemade Tortilla Chips with Avocado Dip

We begin our 3rd week of Blogging Marathon# 30 today and my theme for this week is 'Summer Special' dishes for Kid's Delight event being hosted by lovely Chef Mireille @ Gourmet Global. Valli @ Spicing Your Life is the brain behind Kid's Delight event. 

We are currently experiencing a heat wave in our neck of woods and it has been might hot outside. Kids and I are staying inside and only get out if it is absolutely necessary. I guess that's the joy of being a stay at home mom. It has been a challenge feeding a picky eater who's home for summer vacation and he says he's hungry ALL the time. So I've been looking for some quick and healthy snacks to feed my little one.

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Strawberry Mango Gazpacho

Blogging Marathon# 29: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Pick 2 Ingredients & Cook from a Book
Ingredients/ Book: Strawberry & Mango/ Vegetarian Times
Dish: Strawberry Mango Gazpacho

I didn't have to look hard for today's recipe. As I was browsing through this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, I saw a very vibrant picture of this Strawberry Gazpacho and I really wanted to make it because the picture was so appealing and I had all the ingredients in hand. This was even before Valli announced this month's BM themes. So I knew right away that one of my combos was going to be Strawberry & mango.

I made this dish twice already and it is so refreshing that I can't stop myself from eating the while bowl all by myself. This is a no-cook recipe and all the ingredients go right into the blender. Lime cilantro cream topping is completely optional, gazpacho tastes great without it as well.

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Party with Fruit Cream

Last weekend we had a party for my son’s birthday. We ordered Indo-Chinese food from Moghul catering and it was very good. I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for decent Indian food in New Jersey area. Good service and I especially liked their party tray packing; there is little or no scope for spillage.

This is what we ordered (no pics.. sorry):
Appetizer: Paneer chutney Pakodas
Main Course: Vegetable Fried Rice & Chili Garlic Noodles
Side Dish: Vegetable Manchurian

I wanted a dish with tofu, so I made Penang Curry from Jugalbandi.
For desserts, I made Instant Rasmalai, Fruit cream and of course the cake.

My rasmalai was a jugalbandi was recipes from here and here. I squeezed the rasgullas Jugalbandi style; for the milk part, I used 1 15 oz. can condensed milk, 10 oz. of evaporated milk and about ½ cup whole milk. They were just sooooo delicious. I can have these everyday.

Fruit cream was my sister’s colleagues’ recipe and it was a bit hit with the guests. There were a lot of recipe requests for this one and I was expecting I would be asked for the rasmalai recipe. Well.. here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
Whip Cream – 1 tub (a.k.a Cool Whip; found in the refrigerated section of your grocery store)
Sour Cream – ½ of 16 oz. container
Powdered Sugar – 2-3 tbsp (or to taste)
Fruits – Canned Mandarin oranges, pineapple chunks, mango, pears etc

Method:

• Using a hand blender, blend whip cream, sour cream and sugar until well combined; takes about 2-3 minutes.
• Drain the fruits and fold them into the cream to make “Fruit Cream”. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

You can most definitely use fresh fruits, but if using bananas or apples, make sure there are no leftovers, or it will turn brown/black. Mandarin oranges are a must according to my sister’s colleague. This is the quickest dessert ever, it may not be one of the healthiest one, but it is worth indulging on once in a while.

Guinness Cake

Are you wondering why I have a picture of a beer bottle under Chocolate cake? I used it to make my cake. I was surprised when I saw the recipe (in Vegetarian times) too, but I wanted to try it out and what better occasion than my husband’s birthday. He loves moist chocolate cakes and he wanted me to make a cake with only chocolate and nothing else (no nuts or preserves or frosting). This recipe has ingredients like sour cream and beer that are not generally used to make a cake, but it still fit my husband’s liking with no extra stuff in it.
Very easy to put together, most of the ingredients were in my pantry, except of course the Beer. You need “Stout” like Guinness brand beer.

Ingredients:
Stout – 2/3 cup
Butter – 10 tbsp (1 stick plus 2 tbsp)
All purpose flour – 1 1/3 cups
Sugar – 1 1/3 cups
Cocoa powder (unsweetened) – ½ cup
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Eggs – 1 large plus 1 large yolk
Sour cream – 2/3 cup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter an 8” round pan and line with wax paper or parchment paper.
• In a heavy bottom saucepan, bring the beer and butter to a simmer on medium flame. Add cocoa and whisk well to incorporate. Remove from heat and cool slightly (about 10 minutes).
• In the mean time, sift flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.
• In another bowl, beat the egg, yolk and sour cream with electric mixer until well blended. Add the beer + butter mixture to the eggs and beat till incorporated.
• Add the flour mixture; beat on lowest speed for 30 seconds. Use a rubber spatula and fold the flour till well incorporated.
• Pour the batter into prepared pan, bake for 50-55 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool on wire rack. Cut and serve with ice cream or whipped cream, or just sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Enjoy.
  

I have to tell you, cake does have a slight beery smell to it, but it is so moist that you just want to have one more piece. Yummy..