It is tough for me to stay away from baking.Fortunately,I am lucky to share my baked goodies with friends,which is the sole reason and inspiration for me to bake more and more.Imagine sitting with a huge cake and no one to share it with,of course I do get greedy at times and wished it was a possibility but sanity prevails.
Off late I haven't been baking much.In fact I scratched my brains and figured that it's been one whole month of not baking.Blasphemy,right?I decided I am baking something definitely today.Was not in the mood for an elaborate bake as I didn't want anything to to put me off.Almost decided on this,but was out of Nutella so decided on this super simple,quick and delicious 2 minute Brownie.
All it takes is less than 3 minutes,to assemble,mix and bake.Isn't that amazing?Dangerous even.
Eggless Microwave Brownie in 3 minutes
Recipe source - Art of Dessert
Ingredients
Melted Butter - 2 tbsp
Milk - 2 tbsp
Vanilla - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 4 tbsp
Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
Flour - 2 tbsp
Chocolate chips - 2 tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Method
In a bowl,mix together all the ingredients and make a batter.
Pour the prepared batter into a Microwave safe dish,I used 2 ramekins.
Microwave at full power for 1 minute and 30 seconds.Let it rest for another 2 minutes.
Tastes delicious on its own,but best served with a dollop of Vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce.Yumlicious:)
I sleep well in the night if I know what's for breakfast the next day.Not necessarily ready to eat stuff,but things like vegetables chopped for masala dosa,freshly ground dosa batter and grated coconut for chutney.Or even ideas for breakfast.But there are days when I am left staring inside the fridge,scratching my head for breakfast ideas.On those days,I turn to bread.
We are not a bread-omelette eating family.I don't eat eggs and Ajay is not a big fan of eggs,so bread breakfast mostly means toasted bread with butter and jam along with oats or cereals.Bread usli is saved for tea time.When last time in-laws were here,ma-in-law made this delicious bread upkari which tasted very similar to upma and which was so good on its own.Perfect breakfast in 15 minutes!
Bredda Upkari / Bread Upma
Ingredients
Day old bread - 1 loaf
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Green chilly - 2,slit
Red chilly - 1,broken into two
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Onion - 1,sliced
Thick curd - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Method
Chop the bread slices into small pieces.
In a thick bottomed kadai add oil and splutter mustard seeds.
Mix in the green chilly,red chilly and curry leaves.
Add in the sliced onions and saute till they turn golden brown.
Meanwhile mix together curds,sugar and salt.
Add in the grated coconut followed with the curd mix.Mix in the bread slices and cook till the bread cubes turn golden brown and crisp.
Update - Adding curd to the Bread Upma is a unique idea of my ma-in-law.She started making this upma with wheat bread.As it is,wheat bread becomes hard and chewy when it is stale,adding curd makes it soft.I follow the same method for white bread too which makes the bread soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.
Many a times,my cooking is based on justification.Yes,you read right.If at times it is for justifying an impulse cookbook purchase,other times it is for making use of the impulse wholesale purchase of vegetables.Sometimes it is for making myself feel good(read Pasta)or sometimes it is for making our friends feel good,so on and so forth.
A while back,I had purchased few Tarla Dalal books saying I didn't have enough ideas for North Indian side dishes for rotis and rice.I was shocked to discover I hadn't tried out a single recipe from it and it has been at least 6 months since the purchase.Add to it the two blocks of paneer I had bought when one came free with the other.So I had to justify these two purchases,right?
Right along came this recipe.Anything paneer is a sure shot favorite of mine and no doubt,this one is too.Combining two of my favorites,Paneer and Baby corn,this tangy curry or rather dry sabzi goes well with rotis and is tasty on its own too.
Paneer Baby Corn Jalfraizi
Recipe source - Tarla Dalal
Ingredients
Paneer - 100 gms
Onion - 1
Capsicum - 1/2 of one medium
Baby corn - 6-8
Tomato - 1
Haldi - 1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder - 3/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp
Fresh Tomato puree - 3 tbsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish
Method
Cut the paneer and vegetables into thin strips.
In a kadai add oil and saute onions.Mix in the capsicum and saute for 2 minutes.
Add baby corn,haldi powder,red chilly powder and coriander powder.
Saute for a minute and then add the tomato,tomato sauce and tomato puree along with salt to taste.
Mix well and let it come to a boil.
Add the paneer and vinegar.
Add garam masala,sugar and coriander leaves,give a good mix.
Serve with rotis.
I think it must have been at least 15 years since I've been hearing about Taj Mahal cafe-about the yummy breakfast,sweets and the special brew of coffee and lots more.Few years back,while we were in Mangalore,we were lucky to taste a few dishes from Taj Mahal as part of a breakfast fare we were served at an aunt's place.Ever since,the craving has only increased.
We had headed to Mangalore to join the family for a wedding and number one agenda on our minds was a breakfast at Taj Mahal's.We were there at the crack of dawn,not surprisingly to a packed restaurant.The door opens at 5 in the morning,we were told.
There is no written menu as such,though outside a white board with specials for the day is written,no one is interested in that.The regulars know which day what special item is served.We relied on the expertise of a cousin who accompanied us.
First item to reach our table was Teekha Roti.As the name says,it is a spiced poori,crisp on the sides and soft in the middle,accompanied by thick coconut chutney.
We also got a Potato bhaji,which is also known as 'Bhattali bhaaji aka poojari/pandit's bhaji' since it does not contain onion or garlic.Though it appeared initially as though we ordered too many rotis,they were gone in a few seconds flat!
Biscuit Roti was the one to arrive next.I don't think I've had hot biscuit rotis from the kadai to my plate anywhere else.Of course homemade ones are an exception.The filling was spicy and sweet and the roti was crisp and hot!
After another set of teekha roti,we ordered Buns.Yes!Buns the size of our palms,pillowy soft inside with the right hint of banana and just sweet enough to pair with chutney,it was truly a treat for our palates.
Tuppa Dose was next.Maybe I had huge expectations from this one,as it was one of the first dishes I'd had a while back or maybe that's the way it is supposed to be,or maybe the earlier dishes were all out of this world.Tuppa dose didn't match our expectations.It was tasty no doubt,but we wanted something more:)
Ended the breakfast with coffee specially brewed in the restaurant.Wanted to come back for more but that's for another time.
A breakfast for five including coffee cost us Rupees 270/-.Read more about Taj Mahal here and here.
Food - 9/10
Ambience - 7/10
Service - 9/10
Value for money - 10/10
Disclaimer-This is not a paid review.I liked the restaurant and thought of sharing my experience with my readers.
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