Durian Butter Cake

I seldom bake recently, life without baking is just so boring and dull. I found an excuse to bake a butter cake last week that had shared with my cousin and family. Although it's just a simple cake, it makes me feel better touching the kitchen stuffs.
After the first attempt on berries butter cake, I would like to give it another try on durian flavour, and also took this opportunity to use a new cake mould. I'm not sure it's called bundt mould or something else, correct me if I'm wrong. Beside berries, durian is also one of my favorite fruit. So, I came out with this durian butter cake. The taste is very flavourful indeed with the slightly moist and rich texture. I feel the bundt cake mould make it looks prettier rather than just baking in a flat baking tray. Hope you will like this recipe of Kevin Chai. His recipes is quite simple and nice. Don't forget to use the sweet and flavourful durian and you will get the result.

Recipe:

250g butter

170g caster sugar

4 eggs

250g durian flesh

230g self raising flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1. Grease a baking mould. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
3. Stir in durian flesh. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder and soda. Mix until well blended.
4. Spoon batter into prepared mould. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until cooked.

Charo on Latino USA

Maria Hinojosa, one our favorite people at KUT Austin has an extended, intimate conversation with the incomparable Charo on her show NPR's Latino USA. Listen here.

"Women Taking to the Streets" , another series of moving stories aired last week, includes interviews with ‘Just Associates,’ a pro-feminist organization active in Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa and a moving piece on Esther Chavez Chano, one of the leading voices against the femicide in Juarez.

Since 1993, NPR’s Latino USA has been documenting one of the most incredible transformations of American life and reality—the exploding Latino population and its integration in the a changing America.

Moong dal halwa ~ Indian Cooking Challenge

I was happy to note the moong dal halwa for December challenge was the North Indian version since I recently made the South Indian version called Ashoka halwa. The recipe is from a fellow blogger Simran's Mom. Thanks to Latakka who tried both the versions of recipe and gave useful notes, before we all started with the challenge. I chose to follow the recipe with the khova version. I had planned to prepare khoya at home but could not make it. So in place of khoya, I used milkmaid and rest of the recipe is same. I was not quite impressed by the end result though it tasted good. I felt it needed some more perfection. After seeing many successful attempts from my fellow bloggers and notes from their experience, I am tempted to try it soon. 

Here is the recipe

Soaking Time : Overnight

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 30 - 45 mins


Ingredients Needed:

Split (Yellow) Moong dal - 1 cup

Sugar -  1 cup
Clarified Butter / Ghee - 1/2 cup

Khoya - 1/2 cup

Cashew nuts and raisins for garnish



You can make any quantity with this as long as you keep this ratio constant : equal amounts of  dal and sugar, half the ghee and khoya.



Method to prepare:

Lightly roast the 1 cup of moong dal, wash, soak overnight and be ground to a fine paste adding  very little water.

Take a thick bottom pan, heat 1/2 cup ghee and fry the moong dal paste till it turns brownish  and releases the ghee.  This step tests your arm strength.

Add sugar and khoya.

Stir fry until both the sugar and khoya are well absorbed. Turn off the heat, then mix in cashew  nuts and raisins.