Dark Chocolate cake

Moist and Gooey with pockets of chocolate cake

I prefer to call this cake sinfully chocolaty cake for the reason that the amount of chocolate added to it is enormous. This cake has just perfect balance of bitterness of chocolate and sweetness of brown organic sugar. Since it is made in olive oil thus it is not heavy and remains moist even when kept in fridge. I just love the molten chocolate pockets and the gooeyness of the cake.

Preparation Time: 30-35 minutes

Baking Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 1kg cake (approx.)

Ingredients Required For Making Dark Chocolate Cake:

• 100 gm. Whole wheat flour (Atta) I used Multigrain Atta
• 50 gm. Hershey’s / nestles coco powder I used Hershey’s
• 150 gm. Dark chocolate bar I used Geraldine’s
• 100 gm Brown sugar
• 6 Medium size eggs
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 Pinch Salt
• 2 teaspoon coffee powder
• 75 gm Olive oil
• 100 ml water
• Dark Chocolate chips
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla essence
• 1 Teaspoon Apple cider / synthetic vinegar

Directions For Making Dark Chocolate cake:

• Preheat the oven to 175 degree centigrade.
• Powder the sugar.
• Break the dark chocolate bar to small pieces of 2 cm. size at least. Divide the pieces into two parts.
• Boil water and add coffee to it. Boil for 5 minutes on low flame.
• Remove from heat and add one part of the chocolate pieces and whisk till all chocolate dissolves. Keep aside for later use.
• Mix
• Atta
• Chocolate powder
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt

• Sieve this dry mixture 3-4 times
• Separate egg white and egg yolk. Whisk egg white to stiff peaks. Keep the egg yolks and egg white aside for further use.
• Take olive oil and sugar powder in a deep bowl and whisk for 3-4 minutes.
• Add eggs yolk one at a time and whisk till all egg yolks are incorporated. The mixture will be fluffy and light but not like we get with butter.
• Add atta mixture and whisked egg white alternately starting with atta, mixing with either hands or spatula with cut and fold method. Do not beat the mixture.
• Add the coffee and chocolate mixture and 1 teaspoon Apple cider and mix carefully. Do not over do the mixing part.
• If some chocolate coffee mixture is left in the bowl add 5 ml. of boiling water dissolve the remainder mixture and add to the batter. Mix slowly.
• Add pieces of chocolate pieces coated with atta.
• Give a swirl to spread the chocolate pieces evenly.
• The batter will be comparatively thin as compared to normal cake batter.
• Pour the batter to the pre-prepared baking dish. Tap the pan three four times to remove any air bubbles.
• Arrange the chocolate chips on the top of the batter.

Batter ready for baking

• Bake at 175 degree centigrade for 30 min. Check for doneness of cake with a dry cocktail stick / thin skewer / tooth pick if it comes out clean the cake is done. If it comes out with some sticky material then bake for some more time till the testing stick comes out clean.
• My cake cracked because I forgot to adjust the temperature after previous bakeJ.
• Remove from oven immediately and cool on the rack.
• Remove the cake from the baking dish and enjoy. I love my cakes naked as they give full flavor of cake unadulterated with frosting.

Sinfully Dark Chocolate cake

Moist and Gooey with pockets of chocolate cake

• Frosting can be done with chocolate ganache / mud bath to make it chocolatier or with fresh cream to subdue the chocolaty flavor.

Tips:

• Always weigh the eggs. The eggs I use by and large weigh 50 gm.
• While mixing the ingredient to make batter heavy beating or over mixing should not be done. Swirl movement and cut and fold method should be used.
• Venegar synthetic or fruit based enhances the levening property of baking soda thus it is added to the batter. Always add in the step required by the recipe.

• Make sure the temperature is correct. High temperature will cause the cake to crack from top like my cake.
• While checking for the doneness of cake if the skewer/cocktail stick comes out with little gooey material unlike half-baked batter it may be molten chocolate, just taste it else you will be baking the cake way after it is baked.
• If you are unsure just take out the cake in the pan out from oven and press it slightly with your palm, it should not sag but spring up on removal of your palm.

Suggested Variations:

• Olive oil can be replaced with any cooking oil except mustard, coconut oil and clarified butter. Basically strong smelling fat should not be taken.
• Butter can replace oil, while replacing oil with butter always calculate 100:60 ratio of butter and oil.
• Walnuts can be added to the batter.
• Brown sugar can be replaced by equal amount of plain sugar.

Happy baking

Mushroom Soup in Cream Of Coconut

Cream of Coconut and Mushroom Soup

When it comes to mushrooms I get as innovative as possible to make the recipe packed with nutrition, flavor and taste. Mushroom soup with herbs, cream of mushroom soup now what? I looked at the remainder of beans and a carrot in the fridge and decided to make a thick, Coconutty flavored sour and sweet mushroom soup which will have added flavor and nutrition. The result was amazing and the gentle flavor of lemon grass added the zing to the soup.

Nutritional value of the soup:

These are approximate values for the total soup prepared from 100 gm mushrooms, 50 gm carrot, 25 gm French beans, 100 ml fresh thick creamy coconut milk and 20 gm curd of skimmed milk.

Calories 248

Saturated Fats 20.0565 gm (Mainly from Coconut milk)

Cholesterol 0.408 (From skimmed milk curd)

Poly unsaturated fats 0.16 gm (from mushrooms)

Mono unsaturated fats 0.001 gm

Sodium 21 mg (From Mushrooms, beans and curd)

Carbs 23 gm (from mushrooms, carrot and beans coconut milk)

Sugars 8.5 gm (Mainly from carrot)

Proteins 5.7 gm (From mushrooms, beans, curd)

Dietary fibers 6 gm (From mushrooms, carrots and beans mainly)

Vitamins A, C miniscule amount of Vitamin B if found

Minerals Iron, Calcium

Medicinal value: Anti- microbial, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic. These medicinal qualities are imparted by fresh coconut milk and lemon grass.Coconut milk has fats from Lauric acid, which is found in mother’s milk also and helps in brain development and bone health.

Preparation Time: 15-20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4 Medium servings

Ingredients Required for Making Mushroom Soup In cream of Coconut:

• 100 gm. Button Mushrooms/ Table mushrooms
• 50 gm. Carrot (1 medium size carrot)
• 25 gm. French beans
• 3-4 fresh leafs of Lemon grass
• 20 gm. Curd of skimmed milk
• 1/2 Teaspoon Black / white Pepper powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 Teaspoon Olive oil

Direction for Making Mushroom Soup in Cream of Coconut:

       How to make coconut Milk:

• Grate kernel of a coconut and pulse it in the mixer with as little water (50-75 ml added in small portions) as possible till it turns to paste.
• Put the paste in a muslin cloth and squeeze out thick creamy coconut milk. One coconut should give 100 ml thick milk. The rest of the solid can be pulsed in mixer adding 100 ml water and then squeezed to take out all milk from it. This milk will be thin and can be used to make coconut gravy for savories.

Fresh thick creamy Milk o0f Coconut

• Whisk the curd to make it free of lumps.
• Wash and dry the mushrooms.
• Separate the stalks and head of mushrooms. Cut the stalks to very fine pieces (Forgot to click pic) and slice the heads (caps of mushrooms) to 1/2 cm. thick slices.
• Wash carrot and beans. De-vein the beans. Do not peel the carrots just remove the fibrous roots. Peeling causes loss of nutrients of carrot.
• Cut carrot and beans to small pieces.

Mushrooms and veggies

• Cut the lemon grass to approximately 1 inch pieces.
• Heat 1/2 teaspoon olive oil in a thick bottom pan. When the oil is hot add lemon grass pieces and cook for 30 sec. This will cause the flavor of lemon grass to seep in oil.

Lemon grass in Olive oil

• Add finely chopped beans and carrot.
• Cook for a min. or so on medium flame with continuous stirring. Do not cover.

Veggies being sauteed

• Add thick creamy milk of coconut and bring the heat to high. Cook with stirring till it starts boiling. Lower the flame and cook for 2 min maximum.

Veggies cooking in cream of coconut

• Add finely chopped stalk  and mushroom cap pieces and cook for a 2 minutes on medium flame with stirring.

Mushroom added to veggies cooked in cream of coconut

• Add curd and cook on medium flame with stirring.

Cream of coconut and Mushroom soup before pepper is added

• Add pepper mix and give it a final boil.

Pepper added to the soup

• Switch off the gas and add salt as per requirement.
• Mix nicely and serve hot creamy mushroom soup in cream of coconut, loaded with nutrients. Flavor and taste.

Cream of Coconut and Mushroom Soup

Tips:

• Devein the beans as the veins of beans are very unpalatable in soup.
• Remove any dirt and fibrous roots from carrot but avoid peeling, else you will risk loosing many nutrients of carrots.
• Finely chopped stalks will make the soup creamier.
• If you will cut big and thick pieces of beans and carrots they will remain undercooked and in process to cook them you may turn the veggies mushy and mushrooms chewy.

Suggested Variations;

• Finely chopped fennel can replace lemon grass.
• Fresh herbs (Celery/parsley) can be added for additional flavor. Dried herbs did not give good result. So I prefer fresh herbs which give flavor as well as crunchy texture to the soup.
• Lemon grass has antibacterial quality thus adds to the medicinal value of soup thus instead of replacing it I prefer making addition of herbs.
• If you wish to reduce  then quantity of coconut milk can be reduced to half, replacing the rest half with skimmed milk.
• When in hurry I just pulse the mushroom stalks and caps gently to get a nice non-gooey mixture. Soups comes out great only pieces of mushrooms become too small. you can pulse the stalks and cut the caps/heads of mushroom. Much creamier soup will be made.

Corn on Cob Savory/ Bhutte Ki sabji (Indian savory)

Corn on Cob Savory/ Bhutte Ki sabji

Bhutta / Makka / Corn on the cob is such a wonderful farm produce that it make it any way it just tastes yum. In my previous post I have posted Corn soup which is not only tasty but is highly nutritious as lots of vegetables are added. I recently added 4-5 medium size button/table mushrooms while boiling the paste of corn at it was liked so much by my husband that he wants mushrooms added always to the corn soup along with beans, carrots and herbs.

My help told me that they make vegetable (Savory) from the corn on the cob and it tastes great. I thought why not give it a try. The savory tasted absolutely yummy with mutton like flavor. Now whenever I bring corn on the cob apart from boiled corn on the cob / boiled corn with /roasted corn on the cob / caramelized corn on the cob / soup I always make this wonderful savory. I am so thankful to Razia for introducing this savory to my kitty of recipes.

Preparation Time: 5minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minute

Servings: 3 Large Servings

Ingredients Required For Making Corn on the Cob savory:

• 1 Medium size Corn on the cob (Bhutta/Makka)
• 100 gm. Onion
• 4-5 Cloves of Garlic
• 2-3 Bay leafs (Tej Patta)
• 1 Teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 1 Teaspoon Gram Masala
• 1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder (optional)
• 100 gm. Tomatoes
• 5 ml. Cooking oil (I used olive oil)
• Salt to taste
• Red chili Powder to taste

Directions for Making Corn on the Cob Savory:

• Wash the cleaned con and cut it to round slices.
• In a pan take 2-3 ml. of oil and heat. When the oil is hot place the discs of corn on the cob and let it caramelize on medium heat (2-3 min.). 
• Turnover and caramelize the other side also.
• Keep aside for later use.
• Peel onions and cut to thin slices.
• Peel and chop garlic.
• Cut tomatoes to thin slices.
• In a wok take 1-2 ml. of oil and heat. When the oil is hot add
• Onion
• Garlic
• Tomato pieces
• Cook on low flame till the tomatoes become soft and mushy and onions change color to transparent and become soft.
• Cool the cooked mixture and pulse it in mixer to make nice paste.
• In a wok take 1 ml of oil and heat it. When the oil is smoking hot bring down the heat and add cumin, bay leaves and when they splutter add the onion tomato paste.
• Cook for a minute then add the caramelized corn on the con discs to it.

Caramelized Cob with corn in onion tomato paste

• Mix nicely and cook for 3-4 minutes with the lid on the wok. Keep stirring occasionally for even cooking.
• Add
• Salt
• Turmeric powder
• Chili powder
• Mix nicely.
• Add 100 ml. water and mix. Cook with the lid on the wok for 10 minutes on low flame with occasional stirring.

Spices and water added 



Waiting for Garam masala

• Check for the softness of the corn. By now they should be soft and cooked.
• Add water as per the consistency of vegetable you want and give it a nice boil.
• Add garam masala and mix.
• Cover and let the garam masala flavor seep to the gravy and the corn cob.
• Take out in a bowl and serve with Rice / Chapatti / parantha.

Corn on the Cob Savory / Bhutte ki Sabji

• Since the flavor of the cob is so nice that I do not like to garnish or season the cooked vegetable / savory. But if you want you can season it with fried whole red chilies and garnish with coriander leafs.

Tips:

• Cob used should be with soft juicy corn, not hard., else the corn will become very hard after cooking and will be unpalatably chewy.
• Remove all fibers from the corn before caramelizing them.
• Caramelized corn will look slightly golden brown. I forgot to take picture.
• Do not add lots of water at one go and then boil the cob discs and gravy for long time. This will cause the corn to become hard and chewy due to overcooking.
• If you are not sure of caramelizing then you can skip that step and add the cob discs directly into the cooked onion tomato paste.

Suggested Variations:

• Few pieces of Capsicum can be added to the vegetable along with the spices then cooked.
• Red chili powder can be replaced by green chili paste or finely chopped green chilies.