Cheese Sauce

 

Cheese sauce

 

Cheese Sauce is widely used in Sandwich , Toast , Pizza , Burger , Tortilla etc.  The beauty of this sauce is , even after it is heated along with other ingredients , it remains liquid and is really creamy.   This creamy cheese sauce is really very easy to spread and also easy to prepare at home using cheese slices.  Recipe courtesy by  Bharat Wadhwa .

 

Recipe:

150 gms/ 10 : White Cheddar Cheese Slices

7 gms / 2 tsp : Milk Powder

48 gms / ¼ : Cup Full Cream Milk

4 Gms / 1 tsp : (cold) Salted Butter

Chop slices into tiny bits. Mix all the ingredients and keep it in air tight vessel and keep the vessel  in hot water for 15 minutes or until it gets melts completely and becomes liquid consistency.  Mix nicely.

Your creamy cheese sauce is ready to use.

 

·        Try to make the cheese sauce by weight and not by volume.

·        Cheese can be kept in the fridge for 10 days

·        I used all ingredients of Amul products … you can use any brand of your choice.

·        YOU NEED TO CHILL THE CHEESE SAUCE BEFORE YOU USE IT..

 

Strawberry Juice

Strawberry Juice

 

One of the tasty fruit is Strawberry .  Eating strawberries are enjoyable as we need not cut or remove skin or seeds… we can have whole fruit . Generally I prefer to have all the fruits as it is but sometimes , just for a change , I do smoothie or Juice out of them.   Even if you opt for smoothie or juice , try not to filter the fiber as they are also highly nutritious.

Recipe:  

Strawberry chopped : 1 cup

Sugar : 2 tbsp

Lemon juice : ¼ tsp

Salt : a pinch

Water : 1 glass

          Blend all the above ingredients nicely.

I don’t prefer to filter but if you want you can strain and have.

Serve with Ice Cubes. Very tasty Strawberry Juice is ready .

 

Please don't hesitate to give comments as they really encourage me a lot.

Salsa / Kachumbar

Salsa / Kachumbar

Salsa / Kachumbar is a delicious starter served with Tacos or Chips or Papad.  A cup of Juicy Salsa can be had as it is, just like salad at any time.   Very easy to prepare and not much cooking involved in this.

Tomato : 4

Shallots  : 2

Cucumber : 1/2

Garlic : 2 cloves

Coriander leaves : 1/4 cup

Green chilly : 1

Lemon juice extracted from 1 fruit.

Salt to taste

Pepper powder : 2 pinches

Cumin crushed : 2 pinches

Oregano crushed : 2 pinches

First we have to Barbeque tomatoes.  Brush a drop of oil on each tomato. Keep 2 tomatoes at a time on a wire rack, on stove top.

Fire roast tomatoes keeping them one inch over the low flame… let the flame doesn’t touch the skin of the tomatoes.

Turn all the 4 sides and roast. And when the skin becomes little bit dark and start shrinking from all the sides, remove from flame.

For a tomato it may take hardly a minute to get roasted.

Let the tomato comes to room temperature.  Peel the skin.

Meanwhile, Remove skin and chop other veggies into cubes.

Except tomatoes, put all the other ingredients in the food processor and blend them into small pieces.

Add chopped  tomatoes and blend it well again to get coarsely ground Salsa, to your desired consistency.

No need to grind very fine like Chutney.

Consistency should be little bit juicy, with very finely chopped veggies.

Salsa can be stored in fridge for a week.

Serve Salsa with Tacos / Appalam / Chips … as a starter.

Salsa can also be served with Pulao / Fried Rice / Bread or simply like Salad.

·      Shallots can be replaced with Onions.

·      Jalapeno can be added along with veggies.

·      Bell pepper can be added.

Tom Orange Juice

Tom Orange Juice

 

The combination of Orange and Tomato make a perfect refreshing Juice.  Very rich in colour and tasty juice will be a very healthy option instead of store bought fruit juices. 

Tomato : 4

Orange : 2

Salt : 2 pinches

Sugar : 6 tbsp

Basil Leaves for garnishing.

          In a vessel keep the whole tomatoes in cooker and cook for a whistle.

Peel the skin and make puree by grinding in mixie along with sugar..

Take juice from oranges.

Mix orange juice + tomato puree + salt.

Add water according to the consistency you like.

Garnish with crushed basil leaves.

Serve with Ice cubes.

·      Can replace basil leaves with mint leaves.

 

No Bake Mini Cake

No Bake Mini Cake

No Baking ... Still this yummy Cake will satisfy your sweet craving.

Just mix everything and refrigerate ...  That's it.

Delicious Cake is ready.

Recipe:

Marie Biscuits :  100 gms

Almonds :  Hand full

Sugar : 30 gms

Water : 60 ml

Coco Powder : 12 gms

Bournvita powder : 12 gms

Unsalted Butter:   20 gms

Chocolate Syrup for toppings

Caramelized Cashews :  ½ cup for Decoration

Strawberry: Few for Decoration.

Method:

Break biscuits into pieces.

Dry roast Almonds and chop them.

Mix Sugar, coco powder, Bournvita, water and butter in a pan and heat till all the ingredients mixed well and sugar gets melted.

Let the coco syrup comes to room temperature.
 

 

Mix chopped roasted nuts, broken biscuits and coco syrup nicely.
 

Mould them into desired shape and refrigerate it for 4 to 5 hours.
 

 

Spread chocolate syrup on cake and decorate with caramelized cashews and chopped Strawberry.

·       Can use any caramelized nuts

·       Can decorate with whipped cream

·       Can add any fruit of your choice

·       Instead of moulding into small pieces, you can make them into a single cake. 

·       Can add essence of your choice in coco syrup for extra flavor.

 I would like to hear from you....  Waiting for your lovely Comments

Caramelized Nuts

Caramelized Nuts

 

Caramelized nuts are healthier evening snacks for kids. 

Can use caramelized nuts for decoration/garnishing .

Yummy when added with Ice cream or Cake.

On every bite, Very crispy and yummy caramelized nuts are very tempting and you will prepare it frequently.

Advantage is , This can be prepared in no time. 

 

Caramelized Nuts recipe:

Cashews : 25

Sugar : 4 tbsp

Butter : 2 tsp

          Chop cashews into halves.  Pour cashews, sugar and butter in non-stick pan and heat.  In a low flame, sauté it, continuously stirring for few minutes, till the sugar melts completely. 

Syrup will get honey colour when it is caramelized. 

Switch off and immediately pour the content in a plate.

Using fork separate each piece of cashews before it gets cool down.

Otherwise all the cashews will stick with each other.

Coating on nuts will get cool down within a minute.

Don’t worry if some of the nuts gets stick together, you can easily break them with your hands.

Use these caramelized nuts for garnishing or have it as it is.

Very tasty and easy and quick Caramelized Nuts are ready to serve.

 

 

·       Can use any nuts like Walnut, Almond or mixed nuts

·       Can shop into pieces but don’t chop the nuts too small.

·       You can even mould caramelized nuts before it gets cool down.

 I would like to hear from you....  Waiting for your lovely Comments

 

Baking Tips and Measurements

Measurement:

 

Sugar  :  1 cup  =  200 grams

All purpose flour  :  1 cup  ==  130 grams

cocoa powder   :  1 cup =  105 grams

Water/ Oil / Milk  :   1 cup  =  240 ml

 

Some Important Points to keep in mind while Baking.

 

·        Most Important thing in Baking is don’t tweak the recipe, if you are trying for the first time.  Just follow the recipe to the letter and don’t tempt to interchange the steps to be followed.

·        If you are scaling up or down, the Baking time will differ.

·         Instead of going by cup measurement, weigh the ingredients and use for the perfect outcome. If you plan to bake regularly it is worth investing in weighing scales & an electric hand mixer – It simplifies the work & gives good results. .

·         Never attempt to interchange the ingredients. .

·         Always sieve flour before using to get light texture.  And if the recipe calls for weighing the flour after sieving , do the same.

·         Use Unsalted Butter or Cooking butter.

·         Castor sugar is generally used.  We can powder the sugar in mixie and use.

·         Baking powder & Cooking soda should be fresh.  Generally fresh product gives best result.

·         When using icing sugar for decorations, always sieve before using.

·         Don’t fill more than 3/4th of the baking tin .

·         Grease & dust the baking tins with flour ,only if specified in the recipe.

·         For baking, aluminium tins are best.

·         Each oven varies in cooking time depending upon the brand, size  – there is no correct time. Cooking time also differs according to the climate of the place. So check after about 2/3 of the time given in the recipe.

·         Do not open the oven door frequently – the cake is likely to collapse halfway through.

·         Never cool a cake under the fan – this will make the cake hard.

·        

Sponge Cake

Sponge Cake

A very tasty , Sponge like textured Cake can be done at home will little effort.  Major part of preparation is beating eggs.  If you have Stand mixer or Hand mixer for beating eggs, making Sponge cake is very very easy. 

But you can also do the same , even if you don’t have any electric mixer.  But don’t use food processor or mixie for beating eggs. 

If you don’t have stand mixer or hand mixer , it’s better to beat eggs with hands. 

As I don’t have electric mixer, I beat eggs with hands using wire whisk.  It may take time to beat eggs but still the effort we put will give excellent result in the form of very soft, spongy and tasty Cake.

Sponge cake can be prepared without eggs but the result will not be the same.  I don’t want to compromise in texture or taste, so I opted to make Sponge Cake using eggs.

Recipe:

6 : Eggs

87.5 grams ( 100 grams minus 2 tbsp) :  All-purpose flour / Maida

12. 5 grams (2 tbsp) :  Corn flour

1/4 teaspoon : baking powder

1/4 teaspoon  : salt

200 grams :  granulated white sugar, divided

1 teaspoon :  vanilla extract

2 tablespoons :  water

2 pinches : Zest of a lemon  or orange (outer skin)

3/4 teaspoon: lemon juice

. Grease the baking tin with oil and then dust it with the flour.

First we have to Separate Egg Whites and Yolks.  Separate the cold eggs, placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl. Cover the bowls with plastic wrap and bring the eggs to room temperature (about 30 minutes).

Meanwhile sift and weigh the All-purpose flour.  Again, sift the sifted flour with corn flour, the baking powder and salt. Set aside.  

Beating the eggs:

      Place the egg yolks and 2/3 cup (135 grams) of the sugar in the bowl .  Using egg beater ( wire whisk ) , Beat on high speed until they are thick, fluffy and light colored (when you slowly raise the beater the batter will fall back into the bowl in a slow ribbon). Then beat in the vanilla extract, water, and lemon zest. Set aside while you beat the egg whites.

     In a clean bowl using separate clean wire whisk , beat the egg whites until foamy. Don’t use the same whisk which is used for beating egg yolks.  Even a small amount of fat will prevent egg white to form good consistency.

 When the egg form foamy with log of bubbles, add the lemon juice and continue beating until soft peaks form. 

Gradually add the 1/3 cup (65 grams) of sugar.  Add 2 tbsp of sugar at a time. Let it mix nicely. Then add next batch of sugar.  Don’t pour all the sugar at a time, at one place.  Continue beating until the egg whites are shiny and just form stiff peaks. The process may take 4 to 5 minutes if done in electric hand mixer or stand mixer.  It may take 20 minutes , if you do it with your hand with egg beater.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Sifting flour is to get air trapped inside so don't miss the step. Sift the flour mixture over the beaten egg yolks (about one third of the flour mixture at a time) and gently but quickly fold (with a wire whisk or rubber spatula) the flour into the egg yolk batter.

Then gently fold a little of the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten it, and then add the rest of the whites, folding just until incorporated. (Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate.)

 Pour the batter into the greased and dusted baking pan, smoothing the top.  Don’t fill more than half of the tin.

Bake in preheated oven @ 180 degree C,  for 28 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately invert the pan on the greased wire rack. (turn upside down).

 Allow the cake to cool completely before unmolding (about one hour). 

You can be able to unmold easily .

After Unmold... Back side of the Cake

Optionally you can remove the top layer of the cake . The cake can be served plain with a dusting of powdered sugar , sift powdered sugar on top of the cake. Can add fresh fruit and softly whipped cream.  Or can even dust,  Bournvita / Boost ( which we use for mixing with milk ) on top of sugar dust.  

Dusted with powdered Sugar.

Added Fruits as toppings

Dusted with Bournvita 

·       Lemon zest : Keep the Lemon in freezer for half an hour and grate only the top, yellow portion to get lemon zest.  Don’t grate white parts as it may taste bitter. 

·        Orange zest : For Orange , just grate the orange portion of the skin.  Don’t grate white portion.