Asparagus Thoran/ Stir Fry

Asparagus is a native of Europe, North Africa and West Asia. I never knew about the wonderful vegetable before I came to the US. When I started watching Food Network channel, always wanted to try this, but was not sure how it would taste. I did take the courage of making it...so didn't want to take risk with complicated recipe, so i just saute'd it with butter, garlic, salt and pepper. It tasted so good and we really loved it. 

Asparagus is known as "Cleansing and Healing" Veggie. It's stalks are high in antioxidants and rich in Vitamin C.

It also adds on decreasing blemishes on face, by washing the face with water from cooking Asparagus.

Well to talk about this recipe, again I wanted to keep it simple, easy and fast, so added a little touch of Kerala style cooking, by adding coconut to it.

Ingredients:

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1 bunch Asparagus, hard stems removed and chopped

1 small Onion chopped

1/4 tsp Ginger grated

1-2 Green Chilies Slit

4-5 Curry Leaves

2-3 tbsp Coconut (fresh or desiccated) I used the desiccated

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

Method:

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1. In a kadai or pan, add oil, when it's hot enough add the mustard seeds.

2. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, dry red chilies.

3. Now add curry leaves, green chilies, and ginger.

4. After few seconds add onion, saute it until translucent.

5. Add chopped asparagus, salt, turmeric powder and coconut, mix it once and cover and cook for about 7-8 mins in medium low flame.

6. Make sure all the water is evaporated.

7. Off the flame and serve it with cooked rice and any curry.

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Rainbow Cupcakes

Last week I was busy. My cousins visited our home. We spent the whole day chitchatting and watching movies. The next day, my brother went out to meet his friends. One of my cousins asked me to prepare a pizza which she has been demanding for a long time. I prepared vegetable pizza rite from kneading the dough (of course, left the kneading part to them :)) The pizza came up well and so it was gone in 60 secs :). Only then, I remembered that my brother had went out to meet his friends and didn't save any pizza for him. So I wanted to prepare something for my bro too. Last Monday was his birthday and to celebrate the occasion, I prepared this rainbow cupcake.I surprised him with this colorful rainbow cupcakes when he returned home.



I have been trying to bake this cake for a long time. Baking colorful cakes is a bit time consuming. But every minute spent is is worth and satisfying after seeing its outcome. I have bookmarked this recipe almost a year ago from Baking Bites after baking this colorful Suji Crystal Cookies. I used more colours whereas in the original recipe, it has only 4 colours. It is up to you to use less or more colours based on the availability.



Try baking this colourful rainbow cupcakes for Merry Christmas.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Makes: 10 nos

Ingredients:



For Cupcakes:



All purpose flour / Plain flour / Maida - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1 and 1/2 teaspoons

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Oil / Melted butter at room temperature - 1/2 cup

Eggs- 2 nos, large size

Butter milk - 1/2 cup (see notes)

Vanilla essence - 2 teaspoons

Food colours - Red, Green, Blue and Yellow



For Butter Cream Frosting: (For 10 cupcakes)

Butter - 1/3 cup

Icing sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups

Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Method:



For Cupcakes:



1) Mix all the dry ingredients(All purpose flour, baking powder and salt) in a medium size mixing bowl.

2) Mix sugar, oil, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla essence in another large size mixing bowl.

3) Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

4) Mix well without any lumps. You will get a smooth creamy batter.

5) Divide this white batter into 6 equal parts(approximately 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon).

6) Preheat the oven to 175C(350F) for 10 minutes and line the cupcake try with cupcake liners. Keep it aside.

7) Mix food colour to each of the bowls.

Red - 1/2 cap

Green - 1/2 cap

Blue - 1/2 cap

Yellow - 1/2 cup

Orange - mix both red and yellow

Purple - mix both red and blue

Increase or decrease the food colouring as per required colour texture. If you like more vivid colours increase / decrease the food colour accordingly.

8) Start from purple, start pouring the batter to the cupcake tray (approximately 1 tablespoon). Do not mix the batter. If it is overlapping by itself, no worries, it is perfectly fine.

9) Bake it for 15 minutes in preheated oven.

10) Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and cool completely.



For Frosting:



1) Beat the butter till it becomes soft, creamy and fluffy.

2) Add icing sugar slowly and make a creamy paste.

3) Add vanilla essence and beat it again.

4) Transfer the frosting to the piping bag and you can create your favorite frosting patterns on the cupcakes. I made very simple patterns as all my cousins were waiting for it to grab.

Notes:

1) I baked for two servings totally 24 cupcakes and both the times, I got perfect spongy cupcakes.

2) When I made this dish for the first batch, even after adding vanilla essence, I felt the smell of egg slightly. So if you want, you can add more vanilla essence to the cake batter.

3) If you don't have buttermilk at home, mix 1 teaspoon of lemon juice in the 1/2 cup of milk and keep aside for 5 minutes. You can use this as a substitute for butter milk. I have tried this and it gave perfect results.

Cookie Swap

For the first time this year I partook in the the Great Food Blogger Cookie swap. Here is my recipe:

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 170g tube Carnation Condensed Milk
• 200g oats
• 150g self raising flour
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 150g raisins

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 180◦C, (160◦C for fan ovens), Gas Mark 4.
2. 2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and condensed milk until pale. Mix in the flour, oats and cinnamon and then finally the raisins.
3. 3. Roll the dough into 20 golf ball sized balls and place on baking trays, spacing well apart.
4. 4. Bake for 15 minutes until golden.