I was on lookout for something more like pound cake yet not something plain for Ajoy's birthday celebration. He enjoys plain cake more than anything so something based of that yet something more richer would make perfect for the occasion. I wanted to either use lemon or orange especially after seeing all these food networks making use of their zest. So when i found a recipe for this cake in one of the books i have, i modified it bit to his taste and came up with this.


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
175g Apricot
1 Cup Almonds
1.25 Cup Pistachios
2/3 Cup Sliced Almonds
2 Cup Sugar
1 + 1/3 Cup Butter
1.25 Spoon Baking Powder
3 Eggs
1/3 Spoon Salt
1 big Lemon

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F
• In a bowl, blend butter and 1.5 Cup sugar together till smooth
• Sieve together maida and baking powder 3-4 times.
• Add it to the butter-sugar mixture.
• Add in eggs, salt, zest of the lemon and 1/2 cup of warm water and blend till smooth.
• Fold in chopped apricot, 1 cup almonds powdered and 1 cup pistachios chopped.
• Line the loaf pan or any other cake pan you want to use with parchment paper on bottom as well as sides and spoon all the batter in it.
• Put remaining pistachios and sliced almonds over the mixture and press it lightly over the cake.
• Bake the cake in oven for 75 minutes on 180C/350F, covering the top with foil after around 50 minutes.
• Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• In the mean time, over medium heat with constant stirring, cook lemon juice of the lemon with remaining sugar till sugar dissolves completely an mixture bubbles up slightly.
• Pour the mixture over the cake and then take out the cake on wire rack to let it cool completely.

Notes
Covering the top midway into baking helps not overcooking the nuts and burning them. The lemon-sugar syrup adds the flavor as well as a little moistness to the cake.

Last week I had got strawberries to make jam :) But the week was hectic and i couldn't get myself slogging for an hour or two in kitchen so instead yesterday i decided to make icecream instead. I was little skeptical for this was first time i was trying it out and serving without knowing how it is going to turn out added to the nervousness. Glad everyone enjoyed it and that surely calls for this post.


Ingredients
5 Cup Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1.5 Kg Strawberries
4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Lemon

Method

• In a mixer, blend 1Kg of strawberries and sugar together till smooth. Transfer it to bowl.
• Add in milk and whisk till smooth.
• Add in cream and lemon juice and again whisk till consistent.
• In ice-cream maker pour this mixture in batches according to your ice-cream maker's capacity.
• Chop remaining strawberries, and when ice-cream is almost set ad them to the ice-cream and let the ice-cream maker set the ice-cream.
• Freez for another hour or two to get the best results.

Notes
I saved few strawberry pieces so I could add them on top while serving ice-cream.

This chiwada is so easy to make and a sure shot success recipe :) Even when I was small i loved this chiwada the most, for it was light and tasty. Now i love it even more for it is so easy to make too :) I am going to be making this regularly :)


Ingredients
100g Sabudana Poha
1 Cup Peanuts
2.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Spoon Sugar
1 Spoon Salt
Oil

Method

• In a mixie add in red chilli powder, sugar, salt, jeera powder and grind till fine powder. Add this to a big bowl
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the peanuts till light brown. Add them to the spice mixture in bowl and stir
• In the same oil fry sabudana poha, few at a time. After each batch is fried add it immediately to the spice mixture an give it a stir.

Notes
Add in pohe immediately to the spice mixture after you take out of oil, otherwise the spice wont stick to the poha and it wouldn't get the taste.

Friday I when Ajoy asked me to make Chicken Rolls, I made this one for stuffing. I didn't want to make the red gravy so threw in some coriander and spices to go along with it. When he tasted the chicken, he was like this is out of world :) On the other hand, this was such a minor twist to how I cook chicken normally that I didn't even think about clicking photo and putting it as a blog post. My thought was because I made chicken after such a long time, probably he got too excited. But then, when we decided to invite friends for dinner last sunday, he was like you have to make that chicken again. After making it once again, and he giving same reaction after tasting it, I decided to click photos and may be post it. Now that even friends have same thoughts about the dish, I had to post the recipe :)


Ingredients
1/2 Kg Boneless Chicken
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
3-4 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Ginger Paste
1 Big Tomato
2 Cup Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Marinate the chicken with salt, jeera powder, coriander powder, garam masala, black pepper powder and keep aside for half an hour.
• Heat oil in a pan and add in marinated chicken. Cook on medium high till chicken browns a bit.
• Meanwhile, in mixer mince tomato, garlic and ginger paste together.
• Add in coriander leaves and grind it to fine paste.
• Add it to the chicken, add some salt and cook till it reduces to dry gravy.

Notes
You can use this to make chicken rolls with onion or just it as a side dish with rice or roti. It just goes with anything.