Quick Chocolate Cake

Simply delicious and very simple too. This is a lovely eggless cake recipe that my mum has been experimenting with since we were little kids. Till date this is the best homemade cake I've ever had. Here is your chance to test your baking skills even without requiring to bake. Yes...this is a 5 minute microwave recipe for a no bake yummy cake !
Ingredients:
1 cup of refined flour
1/2 cup of butter/vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsps of baking powder
6 tbsps of cocoa
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1/2 tin of condensed milk
1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsps sugar if the condensed milk is sweetened or 6 - 8 tbsps if unsweetened( smaller quantities of natural sugar substitutes are also good here for the calorie conscious)

Method:
Sift the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Beat the butter/oil with the sugar till fluffy. Add the condensed milk, milk and vanilla and beat well. Gently fold in the flour mixture to this. Grease a medium sized microwaveable cake dish and pour this mixture. Microwave on high for 4 to 5 minutes and test with a knife so it comes out clean. Note that the cake rises quickly and pretty high so use a deep dish.
Once done set aside to cool, cut 'em up and dig in !!

My favorite serving suggestion is a generous slice of this cake/any chocolate cake is with some vanilla icecream topped with raspberry sauce.

PS: Will upload a snap in this space soon. I had to capture this while mum was around :)

Boombai Chutney....what?

The Doc & I had our usual long days. While I sat pondering on the usual "what do we have for dinner ?" question, the Doc expressed his craving for "Boombai Chutney".

Doc: I feel like eating "Boombai Chutney"!
Wife: Errrr "Booo...." what?
Doc: Well...my mum makes it and its delicious, I feel like eating it with rotis.
Wife: Okay...lets call your mum and ask her how its done.

We made the one last phone call of the day(while I am about to faint from my hunger pangs...), the ingredients are called out she spoke of the basic seasoning and the word besan*....Thats when it occurred to me that it was nothing but "Pithla" !! Jeepers...the mysterious "Boombai Chutney" is "Pithla". This is a very basic, humble but very tasty concoction prepared in Maharashtra. After having lived in Pune for 10+ years...surely the Pithla has not escaped the ever craving foodie in me! Pithla is typically had with bhakris** all over the state of Maharashtra, I relish it with rotis while hubby likes a more liquid consistency with pooris, its pretty simple and makes for a nice quick meal. You could skip the rotis/pooris and stick to some rice or bread. So here I am with a first truly official post on my recipe.

Total Cooking Time: Between 10 & 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1/2 to a 3/4 cup of Gram Flour/Besan*
1 large Onion - finely chopped
2 or 3 small sized fresh tomatoes cut into cubes
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
3/4 tsp Coriander Powder (I ran out of fresh coriander/cilantro and used this as a substitute. Roast some coriander seeds and grind it to a fine powder, I just pick a box off the shelf from the local grocers.)
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
2 medium/long green chillies split lengthwise in two (you could add more per your taste)
Some Curry Leaves
1/4 to 1/2 tsp Asafoetida (powder)
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
Some water & a little vegetable oil ( 1 tsp should do)

Method:
Preheat a pan on medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes and roast the gram flour until you smell the aroma and the sort of raw smell of the flour is gone. A couple of minutes on a heated pan should do. Remove and set aside. Add enough water to this to get a free flowing paste without lumps.

Add a teaspoon of oil in the pan and heat it a little. Add the mustard seeds. As they start to splutter, add the cumin, curry leaves and green chillies till its just about done spluttering(don't let the curry leaver/green chillies turn brown). Add the ginger-garlic paste, the powdered coriander seed & asafoetida and stir a bit. Add the chopped onion and saute until the onion and the smell of raw garlic fades away. Add the turmeric and the paste prepared earlier.

Stir constantly on medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken and little bubbles start to appear and burst on the surface( you could add a little water while stirring if it turns too thick). Take off from heat, garnish with freshly chopped coriander/curry leaves and serve hot with rice, rotis, pooris, bread or bhakri.

*Besan - Roasted gram flour
**Bhakri - Flat bread made of millet/sorghum/maize flour

Phulka and Pithla meal for 2

The much relished first mango of the season !!

On a progressive regression

Its all over the news and continues to be a much debated subject even today. For a city that boasts of being The Technology Hub for India and attracting eyeballs worldwide, this appears to me as regressive. I support the school of thought that emphasizes the importance for mid-long term residents of a place to respect and make an honest attempt to understand its culture and live in harmony with it. This is more so for kids who need to cultivate relationships at school, fit in and therefore need to understand the language as well. However, it is shocking that the government has taken steps that would deprive 100,000 little children of a decent school education and a potentially bright future. Why ban a global language at all when development seems to lie in the hands of an increasing global economy? Closing schools that do not teach in the native tongue but in English based on a OMG-I-forgot-that-it-existed mandate is unpardonable. Regressive seems like an understatement. The reasons for such mandates are many, to me some of them appear well thought out, some of them rather fanatical. This kind of thinking seems to create a further divide in an already fractured society. Politicos and government reps do nothing to alleviate the already festered wounds of the ordinary citizens.

There have been more than one occasions where we have been subjected to vilification by strangers on the street & autorickshaw drivers for the traffic/pollution and the numerous civic problems that plague any growing city that in its current state cannot support the burgeoning population and the boom in the economy. Being "outsiders" of the state have brought us several pains, but beyond that, being part of the prosperous and booming technology industry here seems to a punishable offense ! This may appear rather cynical, but we also love the city and face the same problems on our way to work, in shops, markets and everyday nothings. I think tolerance is something that has faded away with development.

I am sure that these peaceful folks who continue brooding over the long gone glory of the Garden City must feel tortured but I wish they'd wake up and pick the real fights to fight !

The memoirs of a dying blog ?

Well, did I ever live a full life anyway? I lived a patchy life with an occasional update. There was probably nothing more to say about the monotony of the life and times of the owner of this blog. (Does anyone want to know what she ate for breakfast? ). Hence, its a slow & boring death. By the way, there seem to be signs of a come back, some signs of light at the other end of this tunnel of the mundane.
Nothing like yet another sequel of same old-same old stuff.Yeah right!! Hrrmph...lets see what else she would have to say?