The Three Pepperteers **Au Naturel**

The trio of capsicums is my entry for the event Click.

Cheesecake Pops **Daring Bakers**

The Daring Bakers are back again this month with guess what Cheesecake Pops...the choice of Elle and Deborah



What you need are

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.



I halved the recipe. It took longer than the mentioned 35-40 minutes for the cheesecake to bake. I had to roll out the balls by hand...which was very messy because they would start melting..but I wet my hands and rolled them and they were fine again. I don't get lollypop sticks where I live and hence used bamboo skewers. After having set in the freezer, they were dipped in melted chocolate and then coated with either powdered butterscotch or chocolate sprinkles.


My DH loved it, and for some reason I didn't want to eat it...Still have no clue as to why...and my toddler was picking out the butterscotch and the choc sprinkles!



Ok, that was what I had made...now do go see theirs .



My other DB Challenges
A Party Cake
French Bread
Lemon Meringue Pie
Yule Log
Tender Potato Bread

A Banana Cake **MEC**

What, a microwave cake? You have an oven, Don’t you?.bake it in that…..Don’t expect me to....And a banana cake?? (with an ugly expression on the face)…Why don’t you take it over to your folks? They’ll love it (probably)!!

(Words of someone dear to me :D)

Srivalli.....Did you read that!!!! :D




What you need are

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup ripe mashed banana
1/4 cup milk

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix well and set aside. Stir whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda and salt and set this aside as well. Beat in eggs, vanilla and banana. Gradually add the flour mixture alternately with milk, beating lightly. Pour batter into a microwavable glassware.

Microwave at medium for 10 minutes, rotating a quarter turn every 2 minutes. Sometimes the crust can turn brown fast, hence cover with foil and continue.
Microwave at high for 5 minutes, or until cake pulls away from sides of dish and top is done. Cool and then serve.



End result---My folks had it and so did his folks :D

The moist slice you see was devoured by him..So much for all the talking!!!

This is off to Srivalli's MEC event, which is cakes this month!

Pasta with Ham ***MBP***

Pasta is an all-time favourite. I love it for its varied shapes and its succulence when it is served in a platter drowned in white sauce or when accompanied with sun-dried tomatoes.

I saw this at Happy Cook's abode!
Though the pasta didn't contain sun-dried tomatoes nor was it drowned in white sauce, it fascinated me all the more for the presence of ham in it.

I used all the ingredients, except for the use of peas.

This one-pot dish of pasta goes to Pavani, who is hosting MBP this month.

Olive Oil Bread for Taste and Create

The Taste & Create event caught my attention here . But thereafter there were other things that drew my attention..but then a month further, this loaf of bread for the same event caught my interest, and hence signed in for it.

The Taste and Create event is where the host pairs the participants. I was paired with Laurie of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska . What one has to do is to browse the partner's blog and cook up a dish that caught one's interest..

All of the dishes were lovely and new to me..My main criteria was to find a dish which made use of ingredients that were readily available to me...and since I am in a baking spree now I narrowed down to this.



Ladenia or Olive Oil Bread was so good and I had to resist the temptation to keep munching on it entirely on my own.

According to Laurie, Ladenia is a specialty of a tiny Greek Island-Kimolos. Olive oil is used and the bread gets its name from the word Ladi, which means Oil in Greek.

The bread is topped with Tomatoes and Onions and Olive Oil and is baked. For more on ladenia and the toppings that could be used, read about it here

I did not find the small vine-ripened tomatoes, hence I used the regular medium-sized tomatoes.

Here's something that I gave a lot of attention to

Ladenia must be baked in a pan with high sides. After my first disaster, I baked Ladenia in a 15” round tapsi (a Greek stainless steel baking pan with 1 1/2” sides), but any large high-sided pan, such as the bottom section of the 12” x 14” grill pan that comes with most American ovens, would work just as well.

Laurie had a sprinkling of oregano while I sprinkled a mixed seasoning of dried and crushed basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and sage.


For the Dough

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp. dried yeast
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 3/4 – 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Topping

1 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes, 3/4” dice
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onions
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 – 3 tsp. dried crushed basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and sage.

Work the yeast for 10 minutes in warm water in a large bowl.. Mix in the olive oil and salt. Stir in the flour and knead to a sticky dough.

Spread some olive oil in a deep roasting pan and spread the dough and cover and let it rise atleast for an hour. When it has risen, make indentations using your finger all over the surface. Mix the remaining olive oil, tomatoes, onions and pepper and spread them over the dough. Follow this with the dried seasoning. Bake until the edges turn brown.



My Verdict
Loved the crust and the toppings...For a husband who couldn't stand tomatoes, this got him eating tomatoes....The edges were crunchy and the insides were soft and well done. Loved the extra zing the seasoning and the tanginess the tomatoes added to the Ladenia. This is something that will be made regularly at home..

Believe it or not, I made it a couple of times in 1 week. Thanks Laurie for this bread!


Here is a slice for my wonderful readers!

A little something!

The plight of children in the world worsens every other day. It isn't getting any better though several people claim so.

Something that upsets me a lot is the plight of the girl child in India. (Of other countries, I wouldn't want to comment, because I haven't been a witness to it.)

A girl child is not given enough care or attention as much as a boy. Female foetuses are destroyed when in the womb without much care. The newspapers frequently carry a column citing instances of an abandoned baby and in most cases, it is a girl.

A larger percentage prefer a boy when asked on the preference of the sex of the child. Such preference is highly prevalent amongst the low-income groups. Probably this is why sex determination tests are banned in India. I had a maid who on when asked on why she prefer ed a boy to a girl said " There is no benefit in having a girl. They are a burden when it comes to marrying them off".

Generally a lot of families (lower-income or whatever level of income )think that a boy is necessary in order to carry forward their family name/generation, because girls when married off, take the name of her husband. This is the level to which the value of a little life is judged.

This attitude can never be changed overnight. But I believe a mother should take a stand in saying a "No". It would make much of a difference because she needs to realize that she is after all a girl too!

This post may seem offtrack but this is the baby story that affects me...

Hence,this little something in the form of strawberry jelly with help from my toddler (a girl) goes to Blog for Babies by Making Little Wonders hosted by the truly phenomenal Mom at PheMom.

For more on it, do visit

"Little Wonders Team" page to sponsor the run.

For the strawberry jelly,

2 cups of fresh strawberries (Pureed)
3/4 cup of Sugar
2 Cups of Water
1 tsp Lime Juice

A lil food colour (optional)

To the pureed strawberry, add the water and strain them. Add the sugar, lime juice and boil the mixture until it becomes a syrup. Now to test if it is done, drop a bit on a surface and if it jellies, it is done. Set aside until it sets.



This bowl of jelly also goes to the Event "Putting Up" hosted by Rosie of Rosie bakes a peace of cake.This event was orginally the idea of Pixie of You Say Tomahto, I Say Tomayto.

Mutton chops in a thick gravy

A chop is cut perpendicular to the spine. It contains a rib and is generally cut from lamb, pork, veal or mutton.

This is a simple mutton chops recipe. The only necessity being the chops need to be marinated for a long period of time. An overnight marination fetches a good result...If there is a lack of time, a minimum of 2 hours of marination is ideal....



What you need are

Mutton Chops-500g

For Marination

Vinegar-2 tbsp
Salt-2 tsp

For Grinding

Chilli Powder- 1 1/2 tbsp
Garlic Paste-2 tsp
Ginger Paste-2 tsp
Cloves-4 or 5
Cardamom-2
Cinnamon-1" piece
Fennel-1 tsp

Tomatoes-3 chopped
Onions-2 sliced




What you need to do

1. Marinate the chops with a mixture of salt and vinegar. The longer the marination time yields a better result.

2. Fry the sliced onions until they turn a golden brown and set them aside.

3. In the same oil, fry the chops to a light brown. They will be half done after this stage. Remove and set these aside as well.

4. Saute the ground paste along with tomatoes until the oil begin to separate.

5. Only after the oil appears, add the chops, salt if necessary and cook adding 1/2 cup of water until a thick gravy is obtained.

6. Serve only after the gravy has thickened.

An awaited appreciation from the little one!

It is in two days that my toddler's school closes for vacation.. She is awaiting her move to a bigger school by June and already proclaims to be in that school. I wonder why I get emotional on her leaving this school..could be due to the lovely teachers, the lovely ambience..,cheerful attenders...and their wonderful activities..et al. My DH just brushes me off saying I am too stupid to get all emotional about this!

Anyways getting my post back on track, I have approximately 350 hand-written recipes catering just to Chicken...Yes..You heard it right..that is a huge collection....and the one I am posting is a scribbled scrap that I found among the many...

It is for a kerala chilli chicken...I twisted the original a wee bit using the ingredients that were available. Whatever the ingredients,it was enjoyed by the three of us..especially the little one who couldn't stop telling her grandparents that finally she liked the chicken that her mother made :D




What you need are

500 g of chicken pieces
2 dsp Oil
1 1/2 tsp Soya sauce
1 1/2 tsp Chilli sauce
1 1/2 tsp Tomato sauce
2 tsp each of Ginger and Garlic paste
2 tsp Pepper Powder
Ajinomotto- a pinch (optional)
7 Chopped Green Chillies
2 Onions- chopped
2 sprigs of Curry Leaves
Water-3/4 cup
Salt -to taste

Fry the chicken until it turns a light brown Add in the suaces and stir them in well. Follow this by adding the ginger, garlic and the ajinomotto.Allow this to cook for a few minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and stir them in well and cover and cook until done.

Serve with chapathis!

A spicy something for the Dosa Mela!

The dosa is a typical south-Indian pancake. Dosa is a favourite food at my home and is an easy solution when one is lazy to prepare a meal.

I present here a simple dosa sprinkled with the spicy powder also known as milaga podi, which is a condiment and it is a mixture that comprises of powdered dry chillies, lentils, asafoetida, sesame seeds and salt. Oil is usually poured into this mixture and stirred in well.



For the Dosa
I used the ready-made batter that is widely available now.

I ladled a ladle (wonder if that phrase is correct [:)]) onto a hot skillet and spread it into a circle. This was followed by a sprinkling of the podi/powder and ghee was dripped over this. Oil can be used as well..and the dosa is roasted. It was folded and served hot.



This simple yet tasty Dosa is off to the Dosa Mela hosted by Srivalli.



I am off for a week-long holiday. So until I get back........