Palak Shorba

On a dark and gloomy night when it is raining cats and dogs, a comfort food is therapeutic specially if it is in the form of a soup. This desi style soup is a healthy option with all its vitamins and goodness and perfect for a rainy evening.

Ingredients

• Spinach - a bunch, washed
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Onion - 1, chopped
• Green chilli - 1, chopped
• Garlic - 1 tbsp, cliced
• Potato - 1, small, peeled and cut into cubes
• Bay leaf - 1
• Black pepper 2-3
• Salt
• oil - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Steam the spinach in a microwave steamer for 2 minutes and immerse in ice code water immediately to retain the color. Drain and blend to a smooth puree in a mixer. Keep aside.
Heat the butter in a pan. Add the chopped onions, green chilli and half of chopped garlic and saute for 5 minutes. 

Add the potatoes, bay leaf and black pepper nd mix well. Continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Add three cups of water and cook covered till the potatoes are tender. Remove and strain reserving the liquid and the potato mixture. Let it cool for 10 minutes. Blend the potatoes in a blender with a splash of reserve liquid. Then mix it with the spinach puree and return to the pan with all the reserved liquid.Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Adjust the salt.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds and remaining sliced garlic and saute for 10-15 seconds.

 Pour it over the soup and serve immediately.

Perfect Marble Cake

Finally, the perfect marble cake and this cake is quite special to me. This is the first cake my son has baked independently without any help, (I have arranged the ingredients for him and then gone for my weekend afternoon siesta) and it tastes superb. He has adopted it from Pritha's blog and he has followed it to the Tee to get that delicious masterpiece. 
Since we didnot make any modifications to the recipe I am copying it directly from her blog. You may find the original recipe here.

Ingredients:

• Butter, at room temperature: 150 gm
• Olive oil: 100 ml
• Caster sugar: 200 gm
• Eggs: 4
• Vanilla Essence: 2 tsp
• Flour: 200 gm + 1.5 tbsp
• Baking powder: 2 tsp
• Milk: 50 ml
• Cocoa powder: 3 heaped tbsp
• White Chocolate Chips: 50 gm

In a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder and set aside.
Cream the butter, oil and sugar in a large bowl with a hand blender till soft and fluffy.

Add the eggs one by one and continue blending after each addition till the mixture is smooth and pale. Add the vanilla and blend again. Add milk and blend. 

Gradually fold the flour into the egg-butter-sugar mixture and mix gently. Do this bit by bit till everything is smoothly incorporated and there's no lumps.

Now divide the batter into two bowls. In the first bowl, add 1.5 tbsp of flour and 50 gm white chocolate chips and fold everything together. In the second, add sifted cocoa powder and fold that in.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter the sides of a circular cake tin and line the base with parchment paper.
Place the cake mixtures into the prepared tin by alternating spoonfuls of the vanilla batter with the chocolate batter. 
Bake for 45 minutes or until a fork inserted into the middle comes out clean and it is springy to touch.
Let it cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes before de-moulding.

Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee.

Pan Fried Chicken

Marinated the chicken legs with ginger paste, chilli flakes and some sauces, and this fav is born. Wonderfully soft and juicy chicken fried in minimum oil, a must for an impromptu party!!

Ingredients

• Chicken Thigh - 3, with slits
• Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp
• Chilli flakes - 1 tsp
• Soya Sauce - 1 tbsp
• Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp
• Salt - As per taste
• Black Pepper - As per Taste

Wash the chicken thighs and make 3-4 slits using a knife. Marinate the Chicken in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non stick flat bottomed pan. Place the chicken thighs evenly onto the pan so that all the pieces are in direct contact of the pan. 

Keep on high heat for 5 minutes turning once or twice so that the chicken is browned from all sides.

Lower the heat. Water may come out of the chicken. Now sprinkle some more water and cook the chicken with a lid, till it is cooked through. Turn couple of times in between to ensure even cooking.

When chicken is cooked and the gravy is completely dry, remove from heat. Serve hot with some salad.

Chicken with Mushroom

Chicken and button mushroom cooked in a saucy mixture, kind of a Indo Chinese dish. Best enjoyed with some Chinese style fried rice.

Ingredients

• Boneless Chicken pieces - 300 gm
• Mushroom - 1 pack
• Onion - 1
• Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp
• Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
• Capsicum - 1
• Spring Onion - for garnishing
• Soy Sauce - 2 tsp
• Maggi hot and sweet sauce - 2 tsp
• Chilli Sauce - 1 tsp
• Fresh red chilli - 2-3, chopped
• Oil, Salt, Sugar - as required
• Sesame seeds - for garnishing

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 30 seconds.

Add the chicken pieces. Stir fry over very high heat for about 5 minutes till the chicken is browned from all sides.

Add the chopped red chilli and chopped onions and stir fry for 2 minutes.

Next goes the mushroom and capsicum and stir fry over high heat for about 2 minutes.

Mix all the sauces along with salt and a pinch of sugar in a cup of water and add it to the pan. Stir well to mix and cook for a couple of minutes till the chicken is cooked through. 

If the gravy is too runny, add a spoonful of corn flour mixed in 2 tbsp of cold water. Sprinkle chopped spring onion.

Remove from heat with a sprinkle of sesame seed and serve immediately.

Choco Raisin Cake

Ahha...My first ever cake where I have used whole wheat flour and olive oil instead of butter. 
This recipe is adapted from my fellow blogger Rakhi's blog, 'My world of baking'. If you remember, some days back, we at Kolkata Food Bloggers had an event called 'Know your bloggers' and every week one of our friend was the star of the week and we all have tried some recipes from her blog and posted it online. Ok, I could not manage to keep pace with it for 'n' number of different reasons but I have promised myself that whenever I get the chance, I will complete the event on my own. So, last week, when I saw her post on this raisin cake, I immediately decided to give it a try. It was really yummy and well accepted in my family. I am also happy and feeling less guilty of stuffing the family with calories since some part of the cake is whole wheat flour and it contains olive oil.  

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour: 1/2 cup
• All purpose flour: 1 cup
• Sugar: 1 cup
• Eggs: 2
• Vanilla essence: 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder: 1.5 teaspoon
• Cocoa powder: 3 tablespoon
• White oil: 1/2 cup
• Milk: 1/4th cup
• Raisins : 1/4th cup

Beat the eggs well. Add powdered sugar through a sieve and mix well.

Now add oil, milk, and vanilla essence.

In a deep-bottom bowl, add the whole wheat flour, APF, cocoa powder and baking powder. Sieve atleast twice to get a fluffy cake.

Now add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in two batches. Mix well till you get a thick, lump-free batter.

Fold in the soaked raisins. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan. Make sure that batter fills up only half the baking pan. Sprinkle a few chopped raisins on the top surface of the cake.

Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven. Set aside to cool.

Slice and serve with your favorite cuppa.

Dudh Pabda with Cashew Nut

Such a versatile fish this is, you can cook it in many ways. This is quite a popular fish in our household and we have plenty of family recipes like a normal 'tomato based curry' or the ever famous 'Pabda Sorshe'. Even you can rustle it up with some curd to make 'doi pabda'. I already have a no fuss 'Dudh Pabda' recipe in my blog but this time made it a bit exotic by adding some cashew nut paste. 

Ingredients

• Pabda Fish - 4, washed and cleaned
• Cashew nut paste - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• green chilli - 5-6
• Kalonji Seeds / Kalo jire - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
• Kashmiri chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt, Turmeric powder
• Mustard oil - As required

Smear the fish with Turmeric powder and salt and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Fry the fish lightly in batches.

Add the kalonji seeds and green chilli to the same oil. Mix the turmeric, salt, cumin, coriander powder and kashmiri chilli powder in little water and add it to the pan.

When water evaporates and oil comes out, add the cashew nut paste and fry well.

 Add the milk and mix well. 

When the milk starts boiling, add the fried fish. Let it boil for 5 minutes on medium heat.

Once fishes are cooked, remove from heat. Keep covered for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle coriander leaves(optional) and serve with plain rice.