Jams, Chutneys and another Award !!

I have been talking about posting the recipes of my jams and chutneys I have been making since long. And finally I have managed to put them down from my diary to my "cyber-cookbook" here!

For the recipes, please go here.

These were the different ways I enjoyed eating my chutneys and jams...

MANGO PINEAPPLE GINGER CHUTNEY
...on a slice of bread,

...with buckwheat-potao pakodas,

TOMATO APPLE ONION CHUTNEY (RELISH)


with my delicious zucchini bread, both made fresh at that moment........eternal bliss till the last bite!
We have been enjoying them with all kinds of things. It was a wonderful decision to make this chutney, whose inspiration came from a Dr. Oetker booklet on jams and relishes. But, I made mine with a lot more Indian spices.

MANGO PINEAPPLE RASPBERRY JAM
Heaven on toast.... The best jam I have made so far! Rishab loves it too, but he loves the simple strawberry jam I made for him (picture not shown) as much too!

FIGS GINGER CHUTNEY
Turned out to be much spicier than I expected. Even though I am enjoying eating it, I would reduce or maybe even leave out fresh ginger net time (next year!), as the taste of figs is getting hidden behind that of ginger. I can imagine my father telling me that it has turned out perfect, but next time I might try adding more cinammon and cloves instead and maybe also ground green cardamoms (for recipe - see link on top).

Here are a few pictures to show the steps :
Wash, peel, chop and / or puree (or both) the fruits....
add citric acid (or lemon juice) and sugar/gelly sugar to it, mix and let stand for a while...
Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. and bottle them in cooked jars or botttels.
Turn them up side down....
for about 5-10 minutes or even sometimes 15-20 minutes, before turning them back. Helps create a vaccum!
Let it cool down.
Keep in a cool, dark and dry place or at best in the refrigerator.
Use within a few months. I have kept my jams in the fridge for up to a year and they tasted excellent even at the end of the year. Chutneys, I have made them for the first time and being not so sweet, I'm not sure if they will all stay good for so long too. Maybe it would depend on the ingredients.
Important Note: Do not tighten the bottles again after they have cooled down!!

While making such preserves, one has to keep in mind that they should contain enough of the fruit acids, like citric acids or others. There are fruits which have low amounts of it. berries like red currents are usually sour enough that they do not neccesarily require any addition of citric acid, for example. On the other hand, mango, pineapple, pears, peaches and such similar fruits require addition of citric acid or any fruit acid (ascorbic acid - vitamin C , but it gets damaged by heat!).
Sugar is a natural preservative, but since too high amounts are not healthy, a good sterile working method while preparing them is a good idea. Cook the preserves for long enough, if you plan to keep them for long. Amounts which are to be used up fast (within weeks) don't need too many precautions.

And now about something special which made me feel sooooooo very happy! Dear Ivy of Kopiaste awarded me with this :
This is my second award now. Now, need I tell you, why I am happy? I guess not! And I must say that I am as happy to get it as I was the first time.
I would soon forward it to others, once I have come down from cloud 9 ! :)

White beans curry

I saw this packet of white beans at the grocery store and felt like trying it out. I have tried a different variety of white beans, the Italian Cannellini very often, but not this one so far. A couple of days later, when I was going to prepare the white beans, after soaking them for 12 hours (!!!) as per the instructions on the packet, I saw this pile of apples I had from my neighbours house, and thought of the recent post I had seen at Deesha's blog Vegetable Platter, where she had prepared an Apple daal. I felt doing my experiment with white beans. These are a very mild, but tasty variety of apples, but, which taste best only once they are ripe. Half of these apples fall on our side of the house and our neighbours, an elderly couple, said that we could use the apples if we wanted, so I collected some of them. I didn't remember to take a photograph, but they resemble the "Boskob" variety a lot. The neighbour is also not sure, but thinks the same.
So, I washed and cored one apple and cut it up and used it for my Indian style white beans.
Now, it was only after I had prepared the beans that I got to know that these beans are the ones used for the famous American (or even British?) "baked beans". And then I thought "Of course...they look the same too!" . Although, I have yet to come across a "baked beans" which tastes good to me. Maybe it is time to prepare this dish myself......

White beans curry


Ingredients:

1 cup white beans, soaked overnight or for 8 hours with at least 4 times the quantity of water
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cooking apple, washed, cored and cubed
2 cups water
1 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/8th tsp asafoetida, crushed with the flat side of a large knife on a cutting board

Chaunk (Tadka):
2 tbsp oil (I used one each of rapeseed- and sunflower oil)
1tsp cumin
1 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
1/4 tsp red chili powder or to taste
1 large onion, halved vertically and chopped finely
1 clove garlic, finely grated or chopped
1/2 inch ginger, grated or chopped
1 large tomato, chopped coarsely
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 pinch black salt

Method:

• Change the water of the soaked beans in between (reduces the substances from the beans causing flatulence)
  
• Cook the beans in 2 cups fresh water in a pressure cooker for about 15 minutes*
  
• Add cubed potatoes and apple, and turmeric and salt and cook for another 10 - 15 minutes*
  
• In a fry pan, heat oil on medium high heat and add the spices so that they splutter
• Immediately add the garlic, ginger and onion and stir and fry till the onion becomes golden
  
• add the tomatoes and the tamarind paste and cook till the required firmness or softness of tomatoes
  
• Add to the cooked beans along with black salt and mix
• Serve warm with rotis or steamed basmati rice, or even buttered toasted bread slices

*NOTE:

• If you do not have a pressure cooker, then you would require at least 1 hour of cooking in a covered vessel
  
• Depending on the pressure cooker used, the cooking times could vary, something one has to figure out on ones own,
  
• The cooking time also depends on the size of the cooker and the quantity of food.
  
• Usually the smell of the cooked food can also be an indication.
  
• Use the booklet accompanying the pressure cooker for guidance.

This curry turned out really good and I loved eating it. I would have loved to add some more spices, but restrained bacause of sonny boy, who has yet to learn eating spicy food. And hubby...well....let's put it this way: He didn't complain, and on being asked even said "good", but also told me that he didn't like the apples in the curry. So, it is also a matter of taste. And that means, for my family's sake this is probably the last time that I prepared it with apples. But, I had good fun doing this small and successful experiment! And it was a really good combination too, if you like it, like I did. Otherwise you wouldn't have seen it here.

I'm sending this off to My Legume Love Affair, Fourth Helping started by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and being hosted this month by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive.

Pumpkin halwa with Butternut squash

I wanted to make a nice sweet for Diwali this year (on 28th October-if you want to know more about Diwali, go here). It had to be something special, but no kheer or the kinds, and I was in no mood for gajar halwa (carrot halwa). Somehow I don't like the taste of these orange carrots found here despite cooking them in milk and adding cream or butter or ghee. But then I remembered the event Tried and Tasted by the Zlamushka and thought of Indira and her wonderful blog Mahanandi.

While searching, I came across this yummy recipe there and I knew it was just the right thing for Diwali. Something totally new to me. I have never made any other halwa with vegetables except for gajar halwa (carrot halwa). And I was on the look out for something simple but Indian to make at home for Diwali. And on seeing this recipe, I knew this one had to be it. On reading further, I found that she was using butternut squash, a North American variety which is not so common here, but I had seen it the last time I had gone to Edeka, a supermarket which usually has a large variety of things, including the lactose free milk products for my son I'm so thankful about and fruits and vegetables from all over the world. Now, these were not brought from some far off place but rather grown locally here, but still is something fancy with fancy prices too! But, I had made up my mind and went to buy my very first ever butternut squash and brought it home and began my experiment, which reallly turned out to be one.....!Before I continue, a very concise information on the health benefits of pumpkin is here at About.com. The main features are the high amounts of beta-carotines, a part of the pro vitamin A found in pumpkin, high amount of potassium - a very important mineral for a healthy cellular functioning, and it is high in fiberes. Although raw pumpkin also contain good amounts of Vitamin C, I'm not sure how much of it remains after cooking or baking. And I think it is a well known that pumpkin seeds have the repuation of helping against prostrate problems and incontinence.

Butternut Squash Halwa

Based on the recipe from Indira's Mahanandi


Ingredients:

1 Butternut squash (1,6 kg), peeled and grated
3 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1 1/2 l Milk (low fat lactose free)
2 cups sugar, or adjust to suit your taste
8 caradamoms
3 tbsp rosewater
1/2 cup almonds, soaked overnight or in hot water for about 2 hours, and chopped
1/2 cup ground almonds with skin, readymade



Method:

• Cook the milk and sugar on medium low heat till it thickens and reduces to one fourth its quantity - mine became quite brown with time, maybe because I ket the heat to about medium high and later medium and while I cooked it in a deep pan I needed 1 1/2 hours instead of the 40 minutes as in the original recipe (explaination: Maillard reaction?!)
• In the mean while grate the squash
  
• grind the caradamom seeds to a fine powder and chop the almonds - I did not grind it to a fine paste like in the recipe, but used ready made ground almonds for it
  
• heat ghee in a large saute pan and cook the peeled and grated butternut squash in it till it turns yellowish and soft - I cooked it for very long and it had become quite soft, but mine never turned orange like in the original recipe
• Once done add the thickened brown khoya or kova to the pumpkin and the ground cardamom and almonds as well as the chopped almonds and the rose water and stir to mix evenly.
• My pumpkin had turned very soft and mushy and I had to cook it for another half an hour and later again for another half an hour bake in the oven at 120 °C and let cool in a slightly open oven till it thickens
  
• Place them on the table and let it cool down. Cut it into pieces - very soft pieces!

NOTE:

• Although I have cut it into pieces, it was so soft that one can only eat it with a fork or spoon and not with ones hands.
• It became quite sweet as I didn't take into consideration that at the end the quantity would reduce. One could easily reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup. But, it was just the way I actually like it!

My verdict, despite all the differences that appeared compared to the original recipe - Fabulous!...Great taste!!... Marvelous!!! And a wonderful recipe!
I'm very happy to have made it for Diwali. Something I'm surely proud of, as I have never made something sweet with pumpkin before. And what I loved about Indira's recipe was the method of preparing the halwa. First prepare the thickened khoya and then after cooking the vegetable or fruit for short, be it pumpkin or whatever, mix the both. Genial! Unlike the way I know and have tried so far where you add everything together and cook it for very long. This is one way of cooking I'm surely going to adapt more often, for sure!

This recipe goes to Zlamushka's T&T event: Mahanandi.

And of course, how could I forget to send it to the Festival Jivha being hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons, which I was so happy to discover and A Fruit A Month (AFAM), an event started by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual and being hosted this month by Madhuram.

And I just realised, now that it has turned brown, it would be a good entry for the event Food in colours: Brown at Sunshinemom's Tongueticklers for this month too! So, be it!


Now, the list of events to which this blog post is going is getting longer an longer!
But this one has to be, I feel, which I just saw and feel is very appropriate for this event:
Time to be Thankful at Ivy's Kopiaste

A hearty dinner with fish and potato casserole and the sustainable seafood event

Eating fish in a sustainable way, without a bad conscience? Yes, it is possible. But, no, it isn't an easy task.
Not, once you know what is happening with the seas, how they are being overfished and what ways are being used to destroy the marine ecosystems. The news is everywhere, but somehow nobody seems to care. Atleast not the governments. It is all left to the individual to decide what they want to do.
I had been reading about fishes being overfished since many years now. But, since we weren't such big fish eaters, I didn't bother. And when we did buy, we bought these cultured trouts (German: Forelle) from the fish shop, baked them with some vegetables and wine in the oven and that's it. But, with time I learned that frozen fish is as good, still it was rare that we bought fish. And the couple of fish names I got to know through the newspapers, I started avoiding them. I rememeber some, like Atlantic cod (Kableau), or the halibuts (Heilbutt) and the hakes (Seehecht) and the European plaice (Scholle). And then I got a baby. And to put it simply, we started eating fish more often. We bought that which was offered in the cold shelves of supermarkets, usually Redfish (Rotbarsch) or Alaska pollock (Alaska-Seelachs) and also Zander (closely related to perch) and salmons sometimes.
So, if you are well informed about the state of the oceans and their (over-)fishing, then there is nothing so great about it. But, then you assume that the governments must be taking required steps and doing controls etc. What a fool I was. My sister in law expressed her concerns about it once when we had gone out for dinner. That was about a couple of years back. So, I checked the greenpeace website, as she also said to have this information from them. And I actually found a list of fishes to avoid. But, then the whole thing started for me, where I got to know more and more about these reports and I saw and read more and more and went into more details adn the more i read the more horrified I was. In a way, I shouldn't have been surprised. What else does one expect, fish eating has almost become like a trend. Being more healthy and the exquisiteness associated with them and now we can all afford everything, we don't need to be rich to eat fish or meat every day if we want. But, when you look deeper into the matter - you don't have to look so deep, though- the moment you get to know of the methods of fishing being used, you don't have to think long to realise the the huge impact of these on the oceans and the ecosystems in them. Wonder what is left of that now, after we have been ruthlessly, and I really mean it - ruthlessly, overfishing the oceans. So, I'm not surprised that my SIL has stopped eating fish.
I haven't stopped it. I am still in a phase where I am trying to figure out a way to combine both: of taking up my responsibility and not waiting for the others to do it, and at the same time being able to do something as simple as eating fish now ans then.
Since I have got to know of this and realised it, we have reduce eating fish a lot. Also, because Rishab gets his "healthy" portion in the kindergarten (Now, don't ask me what fish they eat there, I don't know and I am not in a postion yet to question them, not yet atleast). But, still the urge to eat it is there and I do want to know what and how I can do it to be able to eat fish without a bad conscinece. Initially I thought it is going to be simple, just leave out the ones you want, but then the more I looked the more difficult it became. We love shrimps or prawns and I still have to figure out which one are Ok, if there are any. As for warm water prawns , they are not Ok. And I was happy to know that the cold water shrimps (Pandalus borealis) I can buy here are a good choice, but I'm not so sure any more. It is not so easy to get the right information ans noby seems to care. All the restaurents, the canteens and the whole market. All the endangered stocks of fishes are being exploited and nobody seems to care. I would love to get hold of a good German source about it.
I think I have written enough. This post was my vent to my thoughts. But, before I end this I also want to give you the information i have been able to collect here at my blog. This post was meant to be shorter and now I would finally write about the recipe I want to post here.
I had initially planned to make something else and I ended up making this, something totally different, another one of my experimenst which worked out!
I wanted to make "Rotkohl" with this not-so-red pointed cabbage. It is a variety which looks like cross between red cabbage and a pointed (green) cabbage. I'm not sure of "pointed cabbage" is the correct name, this is how we call this variety of cabbage here, which in my opinion tastes much like the Indian variety than does the "traditonal" German white ones.
I wanted to bake the potatoes with some broccoli pieces in a white sauce and in addition have a red cabbage side dish, as it is traditonally made with apples. I had choosen a recipe from Le Cordon Bleu: Vegetables (the German version of it), a series of books brought out by the cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. It is a simple but tasty recipe I liked immediately. But, then one thing led to the other and I decided to modify and bake this preparation along with the potatoes.

Potato Red Cabbage Casserole
with Pan fried Fish (see below)

Ingredients:

6 small potatoes, peeled and cut into 5 mm (1/5th inch) thick round slices
1/2 broccoli, cut into small florets
1/2 red cabbage, quartered and thinly sliced (I used a pointed cabbage variety)
salt to taste
1 large red onion, halved vertically and thinly sliced
1 cooking apple, thinly sliced into small pieces
1 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp white wine vinegar, depending on its strength and to your taste

White sauce:
30 g butter (about 2 heaped tbsp)
30 g all purpose flour (about 2 heaped tbsp)
300 ml milk (or soya milk)
100 ml water (or the broth of the potatoes)
1 1/2 tsp vegetable broth (powder)
1/2 tsp salt , or to taste
1 tbsp soya cream (17% fat)
chilli powder or black (or white) pepper


Method:

• Cook the potatoes in water for 15 minutes on medium heat, they should not be cooked through
  
• Cook the broccoli and red cabbage⁽¹⁾ slices for 3-5 minutes⁽²⁾ till they are slightly tender (not cooked through)
  
• In the meantime heat butter in a fry pan on medium heat and add the onion slices and stir
• Add the apples and cook both till they begin to take a nice brown colour, reduce heat if required and then set aside
• Prepare white sauce :
• melt butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour
  
• stir till it is roasted without turning brown⁽³⁾ and has a nice aroma and throws bubbles
• remove from heat and while whisking add milk,
  
• keep whisking, add water and the vegetable broth powder
• whisk till you have a smooth mixture
• put it back on the heat and cook on high heat while stirring with the whisk till it starts boiling
  
• reduce heat to medium or medium low so that it keeps throwing bubbles
  
• cook for another 3 minutes while whisking
  
• it will thicken, add the soya sauce and stir
  
• remove from heat and check the salt and add pepper or chili powder to taste, set aside
  
• Remove the vegetables and place in a bowl, add the vinegar and mix carefully to get back the red/pink colour of the cabbage
  
• Remove the potatoes and place in a colander to let drip and then place in a baking casserole porcelein baking dish
  
• Layer the vegetables over the potatoes, followed by the fried onion and apples
• and pour the sauce ovet it
• bake in a preheated oven at 165°C (150°C convection) for 20-30 mnutes till it gets a nice brown colour on top
• serve warm with fish or meat of choice or just eat wit some bread⁽⁴⁾
  

NOTE:
the quantity of vegetables can be increased and it can be baked with a layer of grataed cheese of choice on top

1. the red cabbage on adding to hot water turns violett, but it will get back its colour the moment vinegar is added to it.
   
2. Blanching the vegetables together with the potatoes saves energy, but they can also be cooked / blanched separately
   
3. Roast the flour in butter on medium low heat so that it does not turn brown, but remains whitish yellow
4. If it is to be use as a vegetarian meal:
• the quantity of vegetables can be increased
  
• and it can be baked with a layer of grated cheese of choice

Pan Fried Fish:
for 3 servings

Ingredients:
3-4 Fish filets (I used frozen MSC certified Alaska Pollock)
juice of one lemon
salt
pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten (optional)- I left out this step
2-3 tbsp all purpose flour
olive oil for frying

Method:

• To fry the fish, thaw it, wash it once and pat dry.
• Then let it marinate in the lemonjuice, salt and pepper.
• Before starting to fry the fish, dip in the egg (I left out this step) and then roll the fish filets in the flour on a large plate to coat them properly.
• heat olive oil in a large saute pan on medium heat.
• Place the fish filets in the pan and cover with a lid
• After a few minutes change sides,
• Be careful not to break the pieces, if the fish sticks to the base, reduce heat if required
• Cook for another few minutes untill you get a nice brown colour
• Don't cook for too long as it will get dry otherwise.
• Serve with a lemon wedges to sprinckle on it.

Enjoy it while it is still warm and juicy! Guten Appetit!

Now, hubby is not a very big fan of white sauces, but just as I had guessed the fried onion and apples had given so much flavour to the casserole that he appreciated it a lot and sonny boy was picking out the onions lie always, whenever he saw any large pieces, even though I had tried to slice them really fine. This made a wonderful combination with the fish. The slightly sweet and a hint of sourness from the white wine vinegar in the casserole and the fish with the thin brown crust was wonderful.
This one goes to a very special event "Teach a Man to Fish" at Jacqueline's wonderful blog The Leather District Gourmet. I am really happy to be able to take part in this event. I had seen the one from last year and it was good to see others who think like oneself. I'm really looking forward to this years round up.

This is my packet of MSC certified Alaska pollock or walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma)

A Birthday, the Day of German Unity and Apple Cheese Pie!

It was Friday, the 3rd of Oktober. It was the Day of German Unity and my sister's birthday. It being a holiday, we had all the reasons to celebrate them - one being an excuse for the other. I always tell my sister, "you see, the whole of Germany is celebrating your birthday!" :D
I wasn't sure of what cake to bake, except that it had to be something with quark, as this time I had bought for the first time lactose free quark for my son, as he is on a lactose free diet. So, it had to be a cheese cake, as we call them here. It is nothing to be compared with the American recipes, as these cakes are called cheese cake because of the quark present in them.
But, then I found that I didn't have any canned fruits at home to use for the cake and none of the fruits I had in the fruit basket were appropriate for a cake, except for the apples. "Apples in a cheese cake.?!" I thought. I had come upon a recipe in one book, but not satisfied I decided to search further in the internet and came upon a lovely recipe - a very tempting one with pictures at Chefkoch.de. It was a time consuming recipe, but the efforts paid off at the end, to my relief. As, this time I wasn't sure of the results.

Apple Cheese Pie
Recipe from Chefkoch.de

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Resting time (includes further preparation time): 1 hour
Baking time: 55-60 minutes
Baking temperature: 170°C (150°C convection)
For 1 Springform (Ø 26 cm)

Ingredients:

Crust:
250 g all purpose flour (I used type 405)
125 g butter
1 pinch salt
30 g sugar
1 egg (I used an egg white in addition)

500 g apples (4-5 apples), peeled, cored and sliced
juice of 1 lemon

Cheese layer:
500 g quark (low fat)- I used lactose free quark
2 tbsp oil
200 g sugar
30 g cornstarch (or any edible starch)
zest of 1 lemon
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites

Top layer (custard):
2 egg yolks
200 ml heavy cream (I used lactose free cream)
50 g sugar
1 envelop vanilla sugar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch (or any edible starch)


Method:

• Quickly prepare a pie crust by kneading all the ingredients together
  
• Place in bowl covered with a clingfilm and refrigerate for 1 hour
• In the mean time wash a lemon under hot water, zest it and keep the zest aside
• Sqeeze out the lemon juice, peel, core and cut the apples, sprinckle lemon juice over the slices
  
• Beat all the ingredients of the cheese layer except for the egg whites to make a fluffy quark cream
  
• beat the egg whites in a deep bowl to make it stiff*⁽¹⁾ and gently fold it in⁽²⁾ the quark cream to make the cheese layer
  
• beat all the ingredients of the top layer together
• grease the bottom and sides of the springform
  
• Roll out the crust and place over it, followed by the cheese layer, then the apples and then the custard (top layer)
  
• Bake in the preheated oven at 170 °C (150°C convection) for 55 - 60 minutes⁽³⁾

*NOTE:

1. It is very important that no traces of egg yolk or fats are found in the bowl or on the egg beater while beating the egg whites. They say that the eggwhites should not fall out on turning the bowl upside down
2. To fold in the egg white, don't use an egg beater, but use a spatula for slow downwards and upwards rotating movelments
3. I baked the cake at 160°C convection for 45 minutes and kept it in ther oven after swithing it off for another 10 minutes

We all enjoyed eating this delicious cake. It got late by the time I finished it and Rishab just about managed to eat it before he could brush his teeth and go to bed. I purposefully left out the ground or chopped nuts, which I usually like to add to cake crust or batter and also the raisins, as this time both hubby and sonny boy unanimously agreed on not wanting any raisins! I also felt that this cake could do without them. Rich as it already was with quite a number of eggs I am not used to. It was also my luck that I had just bought some eggs and had a good stock on eggs to be able to make this cake. If this cake did not have so many eggs and wasn't so time consuming I would readily make it again. But, now I would ove to try it out with a new ingredient I have discovered at Madhuram's Egglesscooking.com as an egg replacement.
But, this recipe, as it is, is a wonderful recipe and is worth all the efforts put in it. And it is versatile enough that one can easily replace the fruits with anything else of choice. If I were to grade it, it would get an A+ from me and my family.
And I'm sending this over to wonderful Ivy's wonderful Sweet Pies event at Kopiaste.

Chocolate muffins

I feel like I have made them hundreds of times. Whenever we have friends over, which usually means Rishab's friends rather than ours, I practically toss everything together and put them in the oven to bake ready while I finish up the rest of things before we expect our guests. Most of the time it is last minute preparations. Muffins are so easy to make, require small amounts of everything, can even be made without eggs, easily, and are ready so fast, in about 40 to 50 minutes if you are quick and use a simple recipe like this one.
Chocolate muffins, we love them and they are my son's favorites. Well... now that I think of it, it isn't that easy to decide, but he never says no to chocolate in any form! Maybe also because he does not get it so often. I made them quite spontaneously and found all the ingredients I needed for that, most important of it: chocolate of course!

Chocolate Muffins
(Basic recipe)

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 25- 30 minutes

Dry Ingredients:
250 g (10 oz) all purpose flour
3 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
50 -60 g (1 1/2 -2 oz) dessicated coconut, grated (optional)

Filling:
12 large or 24 smaller pieces of any type of chocolate like chocolate chips, 6 bountys - halved, chocolate filled with whole hazelnuts, or with raisins and nuts or with almonds, or even chocolate with biscuits

Wet Ingredients:
3 tbsp apple puree/ yoghurt (instead of 1 egg)
200 g yoghurt
75 ml sunflower oil
125 g sugar
1 envelop Bourbon vanilla sugar (or use a teaspoon of vanilla extract)

Glaze:
1 packet (200 g ) chocolate couverture/icing, melted in a water bath or double boiler on low medium heat

Method:

• Mix the dry ingredients evenly in a bowl
  
• add the chocolate pieces now or later, just before pouring the batter into the muffin tin
  
• In a large bowl stir the wet ingredients together for short
• Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix everything for short with a spoon, just to make everything wet
• DO NOT STIR anymore!
• Quickly spoon the batter into the muffin tins, if the chocolate is not already inside, add the pieces into each of the muffin moulds
  
• And bake at 165 °C in convection oven (175 °C electric) for 25-30 minutes
• Check with a knife after 25 minutes if they need to be baked further or not.
• In the meantime melt the chocolate couverture/icing and dip the muffins into it by turning them upside down and
  
• place them on a plate to cool down or serve warm
  
• If desired, you can always serve these with some whipped cream or chocolate sauce instead of the couverture

I made these muffins with bounty chocolates. I just halved them and tucked each piece into each muffin pan for the 6 muffins I made. I used to make 12 muffins, but then I realised that you end up collecting too many and eating them all away is doing no good to our healths, so I started making them with half the quantity and it works out great! And at the end you are left with no muffins anymore either...... to my relief!
It is wonderful to bite into these chocolaty
Can you get bored of these muffins? Nooooo...........!! Not of course! Not us.

I'm sending this over to the Event Food in colours: Brown, this months colour, at Sunshinemom's Tongueticklers.


And now about one more thing which is special. I never realised what was happening until I saw this article in The Daily Telegraph. I was contacted by someone to give my views to some questions three days before she was supposed to publish her article. I somehow felt like answering the questionnaire, but due to time stress wrote in quick short answers, but to the point. And then the whole thing was forgotten. And then I got an email from the author sending me this link. I was a pleasantly surprised. Hubby dear, who does not care so much about my blogging, when he heard about it on phone while I had called him up for some other matters, even he was happy and said "and you are telling this to me so casually!" I was totally taken aback by his response and it actually made me feel good. Well, food blogging is in trend, so they are being talked about in the media. But, it was fun and somewhat exciting too to see my name and that of my blog in the newspapers!

I'm sending these muffin to Madhuram's Egg replacement event: pureed fruits taking place between 18th November and 31 December 2008.

Home grown tomatoes and my first ever Tomato sauce!

It was a very spontaneous decision to buy three tomato plantlets whe I saw them in the market. I was amazed at how well they grew in my kitchen garden. I also learnt for the first time a few basic things about tomatoes, like, for example, that one needs to pinch off the side shoots just when they start to show up. If they have grown a bit longer then just cut them up and throw them down on the ground where the tomato is growing, apparently they like it. And for the first time I got many tomatoes, but usualy one or two at a time and also with long waitings in between. But then, my happiness knew no bounds when I for the first time, after waiting for so long, got enough tomatoes to be able to make something like a chutney or a sauce.
So, I started searching for some recipes and came across a number of good ones. But then I settled for this one at Aayi's recipes as this seemed to me to be the closest to how I imagined my chutney with a number of ingredients I also wished to have in my preparation.

Tomato sauce

Based on the recipe of Tomato pickle at Shilpa's Aayis Recipes

Ingredients:

1 kg tomatoes, washed and chopped finely (all from my kitchen garden!)
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds
1 tsp Sesame seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 large garlic cloves, grated or crushed
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 tsp tamarind paste (also works as an acidifier)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (I left it out)
5 g citiric acid (1packet of Dr. Oetker)-neccessary to make the sauce acidic enough
1 tsp whole cane sugar (jaggery)
3 1/2 tbsp gelly sugar (contains pectin in addition)
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 pinch red chilli powder (or to taste)


Method:

• Roast the 3 seeds in rapeseed oil in a deep saucepan till they smell good on medium heat
• add the tomatoes, stir and cook for further 5 minutes
  
• add the remaining ingredients, mix and cook for another 5 minutes covered
  
• Remove the saucepan from heat and puree with a hand blender
• Cook further for another 10 minutes covered*
  
• store in boiled jars with twist off lids (check the link)
  
• And let them cool down before placing them in the fridge

I used the leftover gelly sugar I had from my previous experiments I'll be talking about soon to make the sauce a bit thicker, as my tomatoes were very watery. Maybe had I used a larege flat frypan or sauté pan it would have thickened faster, but I think if you want to preserve something for long it is better to use a deeper saucepan and the lid should be kept covered , keeping the spoon with a long handle in the pan all th time, so there is some space for the steam to escape as wll.

*NOTE: Cook for atleast 10 minutes or longer, till you feel that it can be preserved for long in that state.
Do read the guide lines of canning in my link before trying to preserve yorself, if you are a beginner.

And now coming to the results. I made a sauce , at least a tomato sauce like this for the first time. And all i can think of is, "why did I wait sooooo long to try it?!". It is such a wonderful taste I have never tasted before in a tomato sauce. I love this sauce and it will surely go into my tried and tasted and passed recipes which are then preserved in my precious folder with such special recipes. Thank you Shilpa for this wonderful experience which I could have with my home grown tomatoes!

This post goes to this month's MBP event started by Coffee and being hosted this month by Rachel of Tangerine's Kitchen.

And of course I will send this one to Grow your own at Andrea's Recipes, being hosted this time by Andrea herself, the initiator of this wonderful event.