Valentine's Day - Heart Shaped Chocolate cakes with chocolate centres

This one is dedicated to my Hubby. He loves chocolate in any form. So i baked this for him On Valentine's day.
Ingredients:

Refined Flour - 2 cups,
eggs - 2
Cocoa Powder - 2 Tbsp
Oil - 3/4 cup
Sugar  - 3/4 cup
Milk- 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 1 Tbsb
Vanilla Essence - 2 tsp
 For Chocolate Ganache:
100gm dairymilk chocolate
3 Tbsp milk cream
1 tbsp butter

Recipe:

To make choco ganache, take chocolate, cream & butter in a bowl & cook it over boiling water till smooth. Keep in the freezer for one hour till firm. Scoop out into balls and place one in the indentation in the batter in each mold.

For cake batter mix all the ingredients. Fill 1/3 of the mold with cake batter, then place the choco ganache balls.Then on top again add the cake batter.
 Bake in 180degree for 15-20 mins.
Result was amazing.Try it once, u'll definitely love this one.

Trip to Bheemeswari & Shivanasamudra Falls

Bheemeswari is around 3 hours journey from Bangalore. From there Shivanasamudra Falls is around 45 minutes. Though Bheemeswari was disappointing but trip to Shivanasamudra Falls and the coracle ride made my day. We passed under the fall in coracles with water splashing all around us. It was simply stunning and would cherish for longtime to come.
We had started early in the morning. As planned our potluck breakfast consisted of Dahi Vada, Puri, alu mutter, dum aloo, peetha and many other delicious odiya dishes. We reached there by 9:30. When i got down the tempo traveller i was mesmerized by the view. We spread our mats near the river. Started to serve our dishes & then....... We had company. We were surrounded by monkeys. They outnumbered us. With every passing second they were drawn closer by the food. Most of us gulped down the breakfast which we would have liked to relish. The jungle resort at Bheemeshwari organizes rafting & fishing camp. They were overbooked due to holidays, and fishing camp is only in the morning. This we would plan some other day. So after breakfast we went to the river, spread our mats and sat near it. But within one hour we were bored by the scenic beauty. So we decided to leave for Shivanasamudra falls. I would describe the journey to Shivanasamudram some other time.

Dahi Potal

Potal / parwal is very common in oriya food. I normally make potal kurma, alu parwal masala or alu potal bhaja. But one day when googling i found this recipe in Suparna's Food Fascination. Its a bengali delicacy. In many ways oriya & bengali foods are similar, may be because of geographical proximity. I tried it out with little changes to suit our taste buds & it came out great.
Ingredients:

4 to 5 Potal/ Pointed gourd/ Parwal
¾ cup curd, whisked
½ tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
3 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 bay leaves
1 tsp garam masala
Salt and sugar to taste
4 tbsp oil

Recipe:
Wash parwal. Peel the skin every 1/2" inch apart.Trim the edges. Make ½” slit at both ends (do not cut them into halves). Deep fry the parwal one by one and set it aside. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the Kadai add bay leaf, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, salt, chilli powder.
Keeping the flame low add curd, parwal, sugar and sprinkle some water cook uncovered for 5-6 minutes stirring occasionally. Add garam masala, mix so that the masala coats the vegetable evenly. Cook till done. Serve hot with rice or roti.

This is a very simple recipe, using very few ingredients & can be made within 15/20 minutes if u have everything in place.

Happy Diwali 2010

Noodles Sandwich

Does it sound little odd? It was my Hubby's idea. He used relish this one during his hostel days. I tried it for the first time. But believe me it was worth trying.

Ingredients:
One Maggi masala noodle (u can use whatever noodles u want)
4 brown bread slices
some fried peanuts
One small onion cut into thin long slices
Tomato Ketchup

Recipe:
First toast the bread slices. Simultaneously cook the noodles as per instruction written on the pack. Keep one slice of bread on the plate. Place some noodles on it. Add some peanuts & onions. Cover it with another slice of bread. Cut it into halves & serve immediately with tomato ketchup.

Vegetable Noodles

I love noodles. I love so many dishes that i can't count. May be this love for food has inspired me to experiment with cooking. I will share my noodle recipe which I have treasured since my college days. Very basic, very simple recipe. But I love this one. My hubby also likes it very much. This is ideal for snacks and dinner.

Vegetable Noodles
Ingredients:
Noodles
vegetables like carrot, bean, capsicum (all these cut into thin long slices) - Add vegetable as much as you want, I also add green peas & roasted or fried peanuts. My hubby doesn't like capsicum so i avoid to add that one. U can also add /skip between these vegetable whatever u want.
Onions & green chili cut into thin long slices,
garlic cloves cut into small pieces
Black pepper powder & salt as per taste
Soya Sauce- 1/2 tspoon, Chili sauce as per taste
Refined Oil as required

Recipe:
Boil water. Add little bit of oil in it. Then put noodles & cook as required. Remove water & cook aside.
Or Cook as per the instruction written on packet.
In a pan take 2Tb spoon of oil. When oil becomes hot put the onions, garlic, chili . After 2 mins add all the vegetables. Cover it & let it cook. When vegetables are cooked add the soya sauce, chili sauce (u can skip this one), salt & black pepper powder. Mix it. Then add noodles & mix everything thoroughly. Now vegetable noodles is ready to serve.
I add tomato sauce after served as per individual taste.

Panas manji chuin alu bhaja

Its an authentic oriya recipe.The name "Panas manji chuin alu bhaja" suggests about the ingredients. In oriya jackfruit seeds are called Panas manji, chuin means drumstick & alu is potato.
Ingredients:

1 potato cut into 2 inch long thin slices(just like french fries)
2 drumsticks cut into 2 inch long slices
few jack fruit seeds(sun dried for 4 to 5 days & cut into half)
2tspoon mustard seeds
1/2 t spoon cumin
2 to 3 whole dry red chillies
Salt as per taste & little bit turmeric powder
refined oil

Procedure:

First make a paste of mustard seeds, cumin & whole dry red chillies adding a little bit of water. Wash the vegetables. In a pressure cooker put all the vegetables . Add the paste. Add some salt & turmeric powder. Mix it & close the lid. After a single whistle remove it from flame. In a pan add little bit of oil. Add some cumin seeds & 1 whole red chili. Then add the vegetables & saute it for 2-3 minutes.
Now its ready to serve.Its usually served with rice, dalma & tomato or mango khata.