Happy Holidays! And a short Break...

I'm all set for leaving to India tomorrow for 4 weeks! Will be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks. I will definitely miss you all, but hopefully I'll get some time from there to read all your yummy recipes and posts from there once in a few days. And hoping to learn some new recipes too from mom and sisters...

Before my vacation, I just wanted to quickly post this pineapple cake that my husband made! I usually stay away from oven and hardly bake any cakes, except making chocolate chip cookies once in a while. Somehow, I enjoy the store-bought cakes rather than making my own :) I prefer stove-top cooking rather than baking. Give me a pan and pressure cooker, I will be happily cooking forever :) I get timid about baking cakes perhaps because of so many careful steps involved like pre-heating, pre-coating the pan, timings, batter consistency etc.. and most likely I'm going to mess up atleast one step :) So, I cheer up myself that I'd rather buy the readymade cakes from stores and enjoy it to the fullest, instead of undergoing the hazzle. But this holiday season, I was seriously tempted to try baking some holiday treats in the oven, after seeing many of my blogger friends rocking with super dishes fresh from the oven. Those soft and yummy looking cakes that I see in many blogs are indeed a lure to me, and they often stare at me as if they are challenging me with my cooking skills :)

Fortunately, my husband is interested in experimenting different cake varieties, and thats his only interest in the kitchen :) While I was debating about my baking "kick-off" this year, my hubby came forward to bake his favorite Pineapple Cake for Christmas and I too didn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen because of my India trip preparation. With that as an excuse, I gave up my baking challenge this time too.. Hopefully someday I'll make it!

We all enjoy his pineapple cake that he makes often and its a hit in our family circle too. This is an easy to bake cake recipe and does not take more that 20 minutes for preparation and about 35 minutes baking time. His American friend once brought it to work and from that time on, it has been one of our favorite cakes. The natural sweetness and juices from the pineapple is what makes it really special.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 ( 20 oz. ) can crushed pineapple, un-drained.
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Procedure:

• Beat the eggs
• Combine flour, baking soda, sugar, add beaten eggs, crushed pineapple, and nutsand pour into a greased shallow pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes

His Recommendations:

• Add another 1/4 cup extra sugar but as mentioned above, sweatness for the cake comes from the pineapple.
• Do not bake it over 40 minutes. This helps maintain the juicyness for the cake.
• Use only crushed pineapple un-drained (with the juice in the can) and not chopped.
• Rest the cake overnight before for the best taste.
• Use Parchment Paper to lift this off easily.
• While you make it for the second time, you can get creative and add finely chopped dates, raisns and other nuts if you like them.

Enjoy!

Wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Spicy Egg Masala

I'm going off the grid! Next week, around this time I will be flying to India! My long planned trip is finally around the corner. After booking my tickets what seems like a lifetime ago (actually in June), its now only a week more! I am excited. No matter howmuch ever we blend with the country and life-style here, going to India is always exciting! After all thats where I grew up! I love it when people around me speak the same language I do. That brings a sense of comfort to me. After a long time we all sisters are meeting together and have several things planned during our stay there. Hoping to have some great family time, do lots of shopping, enjoy home-made meals as well as my favorite Street foods!

I've been on my toes this week (shopping and packing) and still have a lot to do before I'm ready to leave. Hence didn't have time to cook anything elaborate in the kitchen and have been managing with some quick meals for dinner this week. Slowly have started emptying the refregirator too. During times like these, eggs are really handy to make a quick meal. A few days before, my sister was asking me for some new spicy egg recipes for a change as she was done trying all the egg recipes from my blog. To be honest, I ran out of egg recipes and I myself have been on the lookout for new recipes already. After my sister's demand, I scoured the internet for recipes, glimpsed through a couple of cookbooks and finally narrowed down a few egg recipes that looked and sounded interesting to me. I have quite a few bookmarked too but finally settled down to make this spicy egg masala that I got from Aayi's recipes, that looked scrumptious and super delicious in the picture. And ofcourse simple too! What I like about this recipe is, the eggs don't require lot of stir-fry because the spice mixture is cooked separately and ground into a paste before it gets stuffed into the eggs. So a quick seasoning and a stir-fry of the stuffed eggs makes it very easy. You can find the original recipe here too.


Ingredients:

• Eggs - 4
• Onions - 1 medium
• Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
• Curry leaves - 5
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Corriander seeds - 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
• Cloves - 2
• Corriander leaves - hand full.

Procedure:

• Boil the eggs, remove the shell and set aside.
• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, season with Cumin, cinnamon, cloves. Once they pop, add corriander seeds. Saute for a few seconds.
• Now add, onions, ginger/garlic paste and fry for a couple of mins. Add chilli powder, salt and fry for a min. Cool and grind the above mixture to a smooth paste.
• Slit the eggs vertically half-way ( don't cut them fully) and stuff the spice paste in each of the eggs.
• In the same pan, heat more oil and season with curry leaves and corriander leaves.
• Now add the eggs and the remaining paste, if any, and saute gently until the eggs are coated with the oil properly.
• Cover for a few mins in medium to low heat. Then increase heat and stir-fry for a min. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.