Sandwiches

Mushroom Onion Sandwich:

• Cut mushrooms and onions lengthwise
• Saute onions and then mushrooms, add salt and pepper to taste in olive oil until half cooked
• Bake them at 180'c for about 7 mins. This maintains the flavor of the mushrooms. If don't wanna bake, then pan fry them until fully done. 
• Place in between 2 Sandwich breads withe a slice of cheddar cheese. Grill in tawa or griddle or sandwich maker. Yummmyyyyyyy

Vegetable Sandwich:

• Butter 2 slices of bread 
• Spread Mint or coriander chutney on one bread, top it with a layers of cucumber,tomatoes, lightly boiled slices of potato. On top of a slice of cheese, close with the second bread slice. 
• Grill in tawa or sandwich maker.

Egg Sandwich:

• Boil 2 Eggs. Cut into halves. Scoop out the yolks. With a fork mash the egg yolks with 1-2 tsp mayonnaise. Chop the egg whites into small pieces and mix with the egg yolks mixture.
• On a slice of bread, spread a large amount of egg mixture. Top with crisp lettuce leaf and close the sandwich.
• Wrap the sandwich with foil or paper and eat.

Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

1. 2 Cups Warm Milk
2. 2 tbsp Butter
3. 1 tsp Custard powder (vanilla)
4. 3 Eggs
5. Pinch of Cinnamon powder
6. 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
7. 5 tbsp Sugar
8. 8 -12 Bread slices

• Add butter to warm milk and let the butter dissolve. 
• Mix custard powder in little milk and mix it with milk-butter mixture
• Beat 3 eggs lightly with cinnamon, vanilla and sugar. Add this to the milk mixture and stir to combine all.
• Cut bread into little squares or triangle (or use the whole bread slice).
• In a prepared baking dish, place a layer of cut bread pieces, the pour milk mixture, sprinkle some raisins, then another layer of bread and milk mixture. 
• Make sure all the bread pieces are soaked in the milk mixture.
• Bake at 170 c (340 F) for 45 to 50 mins till you see a brown color on top.

Lemon Sponge Cake

Do you like key lime pie? Then you will love this one...
Ingredients:

1. 1 cup granulated White Sugar
2. 3 tbsp Unsalted Butter at room temp
3. 3 large Eggs at room temp (seperated)
4. 1 tsp Vanilla
5. 1 tbsp lemon zest
6. 1/3 cup All purpose flour
7. 1/4 tsp Salt
8. 1/4 cup Lemon juice
9. 1 cup Whole Milk at room temp
10. 1/8 tsp cream of tartar (can be substituted by a drop of lemon juice)

• Preheat oven to 160 C
• Butter 6 ramekins
• Set aside 2 tbsp sugar to use when whipping the egg whites.
• Cream remaining sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
• Add 3 egg yolks one at a time and beat until incorporated. Add vanilla and lemon zest.
• Add flour and salt and beat until combined.
• With mixture at low speed gradually pour in lemon juice and milk. Set aside.
• In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar/ drop of lemon juice and continue beating until soft peaks form.
• Gradually add remaining 2 tbsp of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
• Gently fold egg whites into the bater in three additions, mixing only until incorporated.
• Carefully pour the batter into the prepared ramekins. You can fill the ramekins almost to the rim as the cake wont rise much.
• Place the ramekins in a larger baking pan. Pour in hot water in the pan until halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
• Bake for 40-45 mins (until sponge cakes are golden brown).

It turns out to be a soft and spongy cake on the top with gooey pudding in the bottom. Serve warm. 

Candied Banana Wontons

Looking for a simple and delicious dessert to go with your Chinese dinner. Here is one.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Wheat flour
2. 1 cup Maida
3. 1 tbsp Oil
4.  Salt to taste
5. 5 Bananas
6. 5 tbsp brown sugar
7. 1/4 tbsp cinnamon pwdr

• Knead together wheat, maida, oil and salt to a soft dough and leave for 15 mins. 
• Cut the bananas into thin slices. In a bowl combine cut bananas, 2 tbsp brown sugar and cinnamon powder.
• Roll thin layers with the dough (like rumali roti)
• Just heat the chapatis very lightly on both sides in a tawa.
• Cut the sheets into rectangular shape.
• Place 2 or 3  banana slices in the center of a rectangular sheet and close the sheet to make wontons. Use thick maida paste (made by mixing maida and water) to stick the edges of the wontons. Makes about 10 wontons.
• Deep fry in medium heat until the wontons become light golden brown.
• Heat the remaining brown sugar with 2 or 3 drops of water in pan in medium flame. When the sugar is dissolved, which with take about 30 secs, drop the wontons in the pan. Saute carefully without braking the wontons until the sugar caramelizes around the wontons. 
• Serve warm with icecream.

The wonton warps can be made much ahead and stored in zip-locks in the refrigerator. This is the time consuming step. The Banana filling can be made about and hour ahead. After dinner, fill the wraps with bananas, close them and deep fry. The caramelizing takes about a minute or two. This is one of the quick and delicious desserts for a large crowd.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Also called Sticky Dates Pudding, this soft and very moist cake is one of my favorite desserts.


















For Pudding:

1. 180 g Dates pitted and chopped (use unsweetened dates)
2. 1 cup Water
3. 1 tsp Baking soda
4. 1 1/4 cup Flour
5. 1 tsp Baking powder
6. 1/2 tsp salt
7. 4 tbsp (55 g) Unsalted Butter
8. 3/4 cup Caster or Brown sugar
9. 2 Eggs at room temp
10. 1 tsp Vanilla drops

For Toffee Sauce

1. 2 cups Cream
2. 1/2 cup Demerara sugar
3. 2 1/2 tbsp Molasses/honey
4.  Pinch of Salt

• In a pan, combine all the toffee sauce ingredients and bring to boil. Stir constantly until the sugar melts. In a low flame keep stirring until you get a think mixture.
• Take a baking dish and pour half the sauce and freeze it. Keep the other half for serving.
• To make the pudding: In a pan, add water and dates and bring to boil. Once the water starts boiling remove from heat and add baking soda. Keep it warm.
• Sift together four, baking powder.
• In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. The beat in the eggs and vanilla drops.
• Now stir in half the four mixture, then the dates mixture and then the remaining flour. No need to beat it, just mixing with a plastic spatula is sufficient
• Remove the baking dish from freezer. Pour the batter on top of the sauce in the baking dish and bake for 45-50 mins at 180' C. Test the cake by inserting toothpick in the center, it should come out with mist crumbs.
• Serve with vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce.

Few ingredients for this cake is not easily available in India. I have substituted molasses with honey for the sauce. Likewise demerara sugar can be substituted with brown sugar. The toffee sauce calls for heavy cream but I used fresh cream and it worked well. Just look out for the consistency of the sauce. The brown sugar combined with salt increases the sweetness of the cake. If you are not a sweet tooth go with caster sugar.

Next time I am going to blend the dates mixture and then add it to the cake batter. Lets see how it turns out.

French Crepes with Caramel Apple Filling

I made some delicious French crepes with caramel apple fillings last Friday. This is a very simple dessert which is exactly what I was looking for my first trial. Here goes the recipe.


Crepe Batter
                2 cups All purpose flour or Maida
                2 1/2 cups Milk
                4 Eggs
                2 tsp Powdered Sugar (Optional)
                2 tbsp Butter
                Pinch of salt
                Vanilla extract few drops

• Sift together flour and salt in a mixing bowl
• Beat eggs separately and add to the flour and mix steadily
• Add milk slowly while stirring to avoid lumps. Keep stirring until you get a creamy consistency.  Add sugar to the batter.
• Melt the butter and stir in. 

Use a medium size pan. On a medium flame pour approx 1 1/2 scoops of batter. Rotate the pan to spread the batter evenly to make round thin crepes. Cook for 30 secs and flip the crepe and another 30 secs on the other side. You can make 12 crepes with the above measurement.

Caramel Apple Filling

                4 Apples

                1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder

                2 tsp Brown sugar

                2 tsp fresh creme

• Saute apples with butter and cinnamon over a medium flame. 
• Once cooked add sugar and take off heat immediately 
• Add fresh creme and mix.

Spread a crepe. Place 1 1/2 tsp of caramel apple in the center. Make a pouch out of the crepe and tie it with a string. Before serving, in a small size pan over medium heat, place a crepe pouch. Pour rum or brandy or tequila (I used it for the lack of brandy at the moment)  on top and around the crepe and flambe. Serve immediately with rich vanilla ice cream.

Karthik and I had fun making it together. He helped me tie the string around the pouch. First I placed the crepe pouches on a serving plate and poured tequila on it and tried to flame. It didn't work. Karthik suggested to do it on stove top. It worked! You can also have it without flaming. Just serve warm. Next time I have to make sure to cut the string if it is not burn out.