Pineapple Upside Down Cake (1)

Pineapple upside down cake is a very simple, fashionable and traditional cake.  It’s very easy to make and can be serves for any occasion. I mostly make it for tea time. And today I made it to celebrate the 100^th like of facebook page. Next time I am going to try the eggless version.

Ingredients

Butter for greasing – about 1tsp

Brown sugar – 2tsp

Canned Pineapple – 4 to 6 slices and about 3 tbsp of the juice in the tin

Canned  cherries - 10

Maida – 100 gm

Caster sugar – 100 gm

Egg – 2

Salted Butter – 100gm

Baking powder – 1tsp

Baking soda – ½ tsp

Pineapple essence – 1tsp

Method

 

1.      Preheat the oven to 180^oC. 

2.      Take a 6” cake tin, grease it with butter.

3.      Sprinkle 2tsp of brown sugar.

4.      Arrange the pineapple slice according to a pattern or as the pattern shown in the picture.

5.      Fill all the gaps cherries.

6.      For the cake batter, mix the butter and caster sugar

7.      To this add the egg and essence and colour and mix well.

8.      Swift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix to the above batter.

9.      Add the juice from the pineapple tin to make a little thin batter.

10.   Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry studded pineapple base and spread evenly.

11.   Bake for 40 min.

12.  When it is baking properly.  Remove from the oven and let it cool for 15min.

13.  Run a knife around the edge of the tin. Holding a plate tightly on top of the baking tin, with the tap, turn it upside down.  The cake will fall on the plate, if it doesn’t just give a tap on the top.

14.  Now cut and serve plane or with whipped cream or pineapple sauce. 

Hot Cross Buns

My younger son Hansel has started going to formal school.  Where he was taught the famous rhyme “Hot Cross Buns, One a Penny, Two a Penny, Hot Cross Buns”.  After this, the demand was to eat hot cross buns. But this is something which you can’t get it in the market.  So, I promised him this Good Friday I will bake for him Hot Cross buns.  And I kept my promise. 

The recipe is the adaptation from a recipe in BBC good food by James Martin. I have not done any variation to the original recipe.

So do try and enjoy.  And don’t forget to leave back your feedback.

Ingredients

For the dough

Maida – 450gm

Yeast – 7gms

Caster sugar – 50gm

Warm milk – 150ml

Warm water – 50 ml

Egg – 1

Salted Butter – 50gm, melted

Butter or oil for greasing

Cinnamon powder – 1tsp

Nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp

Black current – 100gm

To decorate

Maida – 4 tbsp

Granulated sugar – 2 tbsp

Method

1.      In a large bowl mix flour, yeast, caster sugar cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder and the black current.

2.      Mix well and make a well in the center.

3.      To this pour the warm milk, warm water, beaten egg and melted butter.

4.      Mix everything together to form dough. ( if the dough is too dry, add a little more warm water and if it is too wet add more flour).

5.      Transfer this dough into a floured kitchen platform and knead until the dough becomes smooth and springy.

6.      Transfer this dough to a clean lightly greased bowl and cover it with a plastic cling.

7.      Leave this in a warm place for about an hour. ( the dough would roughly rise to double it original size.

8.      Punch the raised dough in the center. Then knead it lightly.

9.      Now divide this dough into 8 equal portions.

10.  Shape each portion into a smooth round shape.

11.  Place this on a greased baking sheet, leaving space between each bun for it to rise.

12.  With a sharp knife mark a cross on the top of each bun.

13.  Cover it with a damp towel and leave in a warm place for about an hour. It will double in size.

14.  When the bun is ready to bake, mix the plain flour with just enough water to make a thick paste.

15.  Spoon into a piping bag and pipe a white bag into the crosses you cut earlier.

16.  Pre- heat the oven at 200 degree C.

17.  Bake for 15-20 min at the same temperature.

18.  When the buns are done, when it is still warm, melt the granulated sugar with 1 tbsp of water in a small pan to form a thick syrup.

19.  Then brush this syrup over the bun.

Indari Appam / Pesaha Appam & Pal

Indari appam and pesaha  paal is made only one’s in a year on Munday Thursday.  This is the day we celebrate the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles.  It is in remembrance of the Passover meal, that we make the unleavened bread. 

The Kerala Syrian Catholics follow the tradition of making Indari Appam and Pesaha Pal, wherein after the Mauday Thursday church service all the family members and friend come together and elders cut and give the appam and pal to everyone.

As I always say for me every food  is associated with lots of memories. When we were kids, I remember my mother and her friend our own Chunni Aunty would share in their knowledge of the recipe.  As those days there were no phones to talk to your mother or aunts to get the recipe and we were staying in Nagpur.  Finally both of them would make their version of appam and pal.  And we as kids waited desperately for the mass to get over and then to reach back to our home to taste it. It was real partying time. And then we went back to the church for the worship of the Eucharist in Malayalam.  All of us would sleep royally on church floor and our parents prayed.

As we grew up we went out of Nagpur to study and work and started staying in hostels.  As Good Friday was a holiday, we traveled back from our respective palaces on thursday evening and started missing all these celebration.  But on Friday morning when we reached back home. The first thing we asked mom was the leftover Pal. So, the best part is to drink the leftover pal the next morning.  It tastes heavenly.

Till date I call up Chinnu aunty every Mauduy Thursday before I start preparing the appam.  I call her in the pretext of check the quantity or the ingredient. But I know from my heart that it’s a ritual which I can’t break.  “A remembrance of my Mother”.

So her I go with the recipe ; 

Indari Appam

Ingredients

Roasted Rice Powder – 2 ½ cup

Grated Coconut – 1 cup

Urad Dal – 5 tsp

Jeera / cumin – 1 tsp

Garlic – 5 to 6

Sambar onion - 6

Salt to taste

Water as required

Method

1.      Soak urad dal for 2-3 hrs.
2.      Grind together soaked dal, cumin, onion and garlic into a paste.
3.      Grind the coconut to a course paste.
4.      Put both of this paste in a mixing bowl and add in the rice flour. 
5.      To this add in the water to make a thick batter (it should be thicker than a idli batter). Mix it nicely.
6.      Line a round steel or aluminum plate with a banana leaf and grease it with oil.
7.      Now pour the batter in the greased plate.
8.      Get your stemmer/idle cooker ready with water.
9.      Take two palm leaf which you got on Palm Sunday. Cut the edges, one should be bigger than the other.
10.  Just before keeping the batter in the stemmer make a cross in the center with the palm leaf.
11.  Steam it till it is cooked about 20 min.
12.  Once it is done let it cool before you remove it from the container. 
13.  It is ready to serve with Pesuha/Archana Pal on Mauday Thursday.

Pesaha Paal

Ingredients

Coconut milk – from 2 coconuts (about 3-4 cups)

Gud/ Jaggery/ Sharkara – ½ kg

Rice powder – 4 tsp to thicken

Cardamon powder – ¼ tsp

Cumin/ jeera powder – ¼ tsp

Method

1.         Grate the jaggery.

2.         In one cup of water melt the Jaggery.

3.         Filter this syrup.

4.         Add one more cup of water to this and boil.

5.         Dissolve rice flour in a little water and add it to the above mixture ( stirring continuously), so that the mixture thickens. Switch of the heat.

6.         Now add the coconut milk and heat on low flame, stirring continuously.

7.         While it is getting heated  cut small pieces of the palm leaf  you got on Palm Sunday.

8.         Now add the cardamom powder and cumin powder and mix well.

9.         It is ready to be blessed and consumed with Indari appam along with your family on Maundy Thursday evening.  

Chana Masala

Chana Masala is a very popular north Indian dish.   Chana puri is suitable for any festive occasion.  In north India I have observed devotees serving chana puri as prasads.  Kids love it with puries. And chana is rich source of protein. So, why not try making it and enjoy.

Ingredients

Kala Chana (black chickpeas) – 1 cup (soaked in water for over)

Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp

Onion – 1 finely chopped

Tomato – 2 finely chopped

Green chilly – 2 whole

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Red chilly powder – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 2 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Cumin / jeera powder – 1 tsp

Amchoor / mango powder - ½ tsp

Salt as per taste

Coriander leaves – 2tbsp, finely chopped

 Method 

1.      Boil the chana in a pressure cooker with 1 ½ cup water and salt or in a large pan till it is soft.  (For pressure cooking :  in a closed pressure cooker cook for one whistle, lower the heat and then cook for 5 more minutes)

2.      Heat the oil in a deep pan ( kadahi), add the onion and sauté  till is becomes transparent.

3.      To this add the ginger garlic paste and cook till it is light brown.

4.       Now add the red chilli, coriander, turmeric, cumin and mango power and mix well.

5.      Add the tomatoes and salt, cook for 5 min.

6.      To this add the boiled chana without much water and cook till the water completely evaporate and the gravy is dry.

7.      Granish with chopped coriander leave and it is ready to serve. 

Glucose Biscuit Cake

We all have lots of memories of school day.   This biscuit cake is one such memory.  I don’t remember the exact year but yes I should have been in class 5^th or 6^th which is about 20-22 yrs back.  In one of our catechism stay back class, a classmate who stayed near the school brought some cold cakes for all of us. I just remember her first name, Bhavna.  She had made it herself and there was no baking required.  She did tell us the recipe which I vaguely remember.  So, on this base I started searching in goggle and got similar recipes and came out with my version, which is penned below. It still has not got the taste of Bhavna’s cake

Ingredients

Glucose biscuits – 6 packets or as require make 4 layers (I used Parle- G)

Corn flour – 4 tbsp.

Milk – ½ ltr

Milk – ½ cup to mix the corn flour

Sugar – 1cup

Coco powder – 2tbsp

Instant coffee – 2tsp

Almond flakes – to decorate

Method

Prearrangement

1.    Mix the corn flour to ½ cup milk and keep it aside.

2.    Boil ½ ltr of milk.

3.   When it is boiling, lower the heat and add the coco powder and sugar and mix well.

4.    To this add the corn flour mixture prepared in the first step and keep stirring continuously till the mixture thickens and boils to form custard.

5.    Let the mixture cool completely.

6.    In a bowl take ½ cup luke warm water and mix the instant coffee.

To assemble

7.   Dip each biscuit in the instant coffee mix and spread it in a square pudding dish.

8.   When on layer of biscuit is spread on the dish, spread the custard over it, so that the biscuit layer is completely covered.

9.    In the same process make 3 layers ending up with the custard.

10.   Now keep the prepared dish to cool and set in a refrigerator for about 2 hrs.

11.  Decorate it with almond flakes and serve.