Roulade

It's a great pleasure to know Jxxx recently. We've some similarities such as buying a "weird" oven which had given us lots of headache and fun too! There are some sense of humour between our conversation. The most similarities is we've a same interest, BAKING!

We just notice we're baking swiss roll in the same time without telling each other until I saw her posting. And it'd given us so much things to talk about through the comments corner. That, I feel so much interesting.

I baked two roulade days ago, they're almost the same which is rolled with chocolate sponge with oreo biscuits crumbs. It's just the decoration had a bit different which had added strawberries. The oreo chocolate roulade taste richer whereas the strawberry chocolate roulade is much refreshing.

Recipe:

5 whole large eggs
125g sugar
1g salt
100g plain flour

2g baking soda
15ml oil
50ml milk
20g cocoa powder
200ml whipping cream

20g caster sugar

1 pack of oreo biscuits (punch it into crumbs)

some strawberries

How I made it:

1. Mix cocoa powder, milk and oil until a thick paste.
2. Whip the eggs and gradually add in sugar. Whip until very light yellow and fluffy.
3. Fold in shifted plain flour and baking soda. Do this gently.
4. Fold in cocoa paste (1) until well combine. Pour into a rectangular baking pan with baking paper.
5. Bake at 200'C preheated oven for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the cake together with the baking paper onto a wire rack and quickly put the whole thing into a big plastic bag until it completely cool. (Make sure no air will go into the plastic bag. This is to prevent the cake drying and keep moisture so that it wouldn't crack during the rolling process.
7. When the cake completely cool down, whip the cream until thicken. Fold in some oreo crumbs. Spread the oreo cream onto the cake evenly and roll in carefully.
8. Spread some leftover oreo cream onto the cake roll surface and garnish with oreo crumbs.
9. Put it in the fridge for an hour before slice. Best served in two days.

Madulam Pachai Payaru Sundal or Pomegranate Green Gram Salad

MADULAM PACHAI PAYARU SUNDAL or

POMEGRANATE and GREEN GRAM SALAD

This post goes to the POM Wonderful Content hosted by Jenn of the The Foodie Blogroll (weekly give away) and POM Wonderful ($5000).

Here is a simple recipe that contains two very delightful ingredients. Combining freshly sprouted green gram, and the ruby red pomegranate, make this dish not only a powerhouse of nutritional benefits, but also entices with visual appeal, and a lovely taste.
Whole green gram or payaru is used in the preparation of Sundal for various occasions. Sundal can be called a cooked salad, mainly prepared out of soaked or sprouted whole lentils. South Indian Meals prepared during weddings and other festivals always include two varieties of Sundals or Kosumaris. Kosumaris are similarly made of soaked lentils, but are not usually cooked.

Many caterers are innovative and they introduce variations in the traditional dishes which are appreciated by the connoisseurs. One such innovative dish that I tasted at a thread ceremony is Madulam (Pomegranate) Pachai Payaru (green gram) Sundal. It was a real treat to the eyes and palate.

INGREDIENTS:
Sprouted Green Gram Dal (whole mung beans) – 1 cup
Pomegranate peeled with membranes removed (aril) – 1 cup
Green chillies – 2
Curry leaves – a few
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Salt – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Lime juice – 1 tbsp
Vegetable Oil – 2 tsps
Fresh coconut slivers – 2 tbsps

Water for cooking - 2 cups

METHOD:
1. Prepare by soaking the whole green gram over night, or for 12- 14 hours.
2. Wash and drain the green gram, and cook it in 2 cups of water to make it soft. Don’t overcook it, as it spoils the texture and taste, and also destroys the nutrients! If you use more water its okay. However, I avoid it, as I don't like to drain the grains and away all the nutrients along with excess water!
3. Heat oil in a pan. Add asafoetida and mustard seeds.
4. When the mustard splutters, add chopped green chillies, curry leaves and turmeric powder.
5. Next add the cooked green gram and salt and sauté for a minute.
6. Add lime juice and the coconut slivers and blend.
7. Turn off heat.
8. When the Sundal becomes cool mix in the red pomegranate seeds.

This delicious and colorful sundal can be relished as a side dish , or as snack by itself.

This yummy vegan sundal also goes to Vegan Ventures, Round 2, at Suganya's Tasty Palettes blog.

Basundhi(Paneer kheer) - I call it heaven!

Ever since Sujatha of Spicykhazana posted paneer kheer recipe, I have been dreaming about it. I call this dessert-Basundhi. I usually make it by stirring whole milk and sugar for atleast an hour. But this recipe was much easier and consumed less time than the original method.
Thanks to Sujatha! I love Basundhi from hotel-Saravana bhavan. It tastes out of the world. My mom makes awesome Basundhi too.

I modified the recipe to suit my taste.

Sending this to Aparna's one year of blogging celebrations and Srilekha's EFM Sweets.

Ingredients:

Half and half(full fat milk)-1.5 cups

Evaporated milk-1.5 cups

Grated paneer-1 cup

Sugar-1/4 cup(or according to your taste)

Cardamom- 1/4 tsp

Saffron- a few strands

Method:

Boil half and half. When it raises, lower the heat, add evaporated milk. Let the mixture continue to cook on low flame for 15 minutes(stir every 2 minutes). Add paneer, sugar, saffron and cardamom now. Mix well and continue heating on medium low flame stirring frequently until the mixture becomes very thick(time varies from 10-20 minutes). The mixture would have reduced by 1/2 in volume now. It will look semi solid. After refrigerating, it will become even more thick. Garnish with nuts and seve cold.

Note:1. Use a non stick pan.

2. Evaporated milk and Sugar can be replaced by condensed milk. I like to add evaporated milk because I can control the amount of sugar.

3. Amount of milk and evaporated milk can be reduced to 1 cup each to get the desired basundhi consistency in lesser time. Quantity of paneer may be increased from 1 cup to 1.5 cups. How about that? I am going to try this proportion next time.