Campanelle with Marinara Sauce

Aishwarya is a big fan of Italian cuisine. I love any recipe that uses more than one veggie in it and is always on the lookout for such recipes. So when I came across this recipe at ABC's The Chew, I adapted it to make a vegetarian version of it. It turned out to be the best Marinara Sauce that I ever tried.

Recipe source: ABC's The Chew
Ingredients
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 cups soaked soy granules/1 pack of morning star meal starters
1 Onion (diced)
3 cloves Garlic
2 Carrots (small diced)
2 ribs of Celery (small diced)
1 28-ounce can Whole Plum Tomatoes
1 cup Dry Red Wine/vegetable broth
1 Fresh Bay Leaf
6 sprigs Fresh Oregano
Salt to taste
1 cup Flat Leaf Italian Parsley (torn)
1/2 cup Parmesan (grated)
2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
2 pound Campanelle / pasta of your choice
Method:
Heat a large saucepan with olive oil. Brown the soy granules/meal starters with a large pinch of salt.(I love to add a 1/4 tsp garam masala and 1/4 tsp of chilli powder to this). Add garlic to saucepan and cook for 3 minutes.Meanwhile add onion, carrots and celery into a food processor and pulse to finely chop vegetable. Add vegetable mix to pan and cook for another 3 minutes. Deglaze the pan with red wine. Add in the tomatoes, breaking them up as you stir them and bring to a simmer. Add the bay leaf and oregano and taste for seasoning. You may want to add a little salt here. Simmer for about 2 hours, skimming off any excess fat that comes to the top.Once the sauce is done, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Drop the pasta in and cook until al dente. Remove from the water with a spider or slotted spoon and add to the sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add a little bit of your pasta water.
Remove from the heat and stir in parsley, parmesan, butter and a drizzle of olive oil and serve immediately.

Praline'N Butter cream Vanilla Cake

Hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's day.
I dedicate this post to all the mothers in my life and all those friends of mine who are mothers.
This cake used to be one of my child-hood favorites. So whenever I feel a little nostalgic and the child in me wants to go back to those carefree days of the childhood, this is something I feel like making. The cake part of this is a vanilla cake, the one called 1-2-3-4 cake, as it uses 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs. But as I was going to make this into a Praline butter cake, I reduced the sugar. I have used the basic butter cream for the icing.
Everyone who had tasted this cake had appreciated the wonderful combination of pralines, butter cream and  vanilla cake to be a real winner.
Ingredients for Butter cream
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream
Method:
Whisk together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Ingredients for Praline
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dry toasted almonds or cashew nuts
1 tbsp water
Method:
Prepare caramel by heating and melting sugar along with water, specified in the ingredient list, until they turn medium brown. When sugar is completely melted and bubbles start coming up and reaches the color you want, turn off the stove and add the dry toasted nuts to it, and pour them immediately  onto to  a lightly oiled cookie tray and let it set. When completely set, crush the caramel  nut sheet using a rolling pin.

Ingredients for Vanilla cake(1,2,3,4 cake)
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups  granulated white sugar(Real recipe calls for 2 cups sugar)
3 cups  sifted all purpose flour/cake flour
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) room temperature milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Method:

Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add  vanilla extract too.Add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions),beginning and ending with the flour. Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Bake 27 to 35 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 degree F  until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in center. Cool completely before frosting.

Assembling the cake:
Place one cake on a cake board or a plate and frost with some buttercream on top of that , sprinkle praline generously on top of the frosting and then place the second cake  Cover the top and side of the cake with a butter cream and  cover the whole cake with powdered praline using your hand applying slight pressure. (in case the cake turns out to be dry, you may sprinkle simple sugar syrup between each layer of the cake before putting the butter cream)

A peek into my mother's day breakfast courtesy my hubby. I was served "no bake Swiss rolls" made by the chef of the day.Thank you dear for this yummy breakfast .I am looking forward for more such beginnings for my day.

Mysore Masala Dosa

Foodelious has a wonderful collection of recipes but as I am still so busy with Aishwarya I tried this recipe which is not so new to me and altered it to suit me.  This was so much enjoyed by my little girl that she ended up having one full Dosa (She does have a poor appetite now) and I was one happy mom.

Recipe adapted from Foodelicious
Ingredients for the Coconut chutney
To Grind-
1 cup freshly scraped coconut
4-5 green chilies
1/4 inch piece ginger
1/2 cup yougurt
salt to taste
1 sprig curry leaves
For the tempering
2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dry red chilies
Method:
Grind together all the ingredients . For the tempering, heat the oil, add the mustard followed by red chilli and curry leaves pour it over the chutney.

Ingredients for the Red chutney
2 onions,quartered
3-4 garlic pods(optional)
1 tsp red chili powder or 4-5 red chillies
1/2 tsp tamarind pulp
salt to taste
Method:
Saute onion and garlic pods in 1/4 tsp oil .Grind together onion and garlic, 1tsp red chili pwd, salt to taste,1/2 tsp tamarind extract.Add enough salt.

Ingredients for Potato Filling
6-7 boiled potatoes (medium sized)
2-3 onions chopped/sliced
5-6 green chilies finely chopped
1" of ginger finely chopped
chopped coriander
oil to cook
a spoon of mustard seeds
2 tbsp of chana-urad dal mix
2 sprigs of curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
Method :
Heat oil , add mustard followed by the dals, when the dals are golden brown add green chilies, ginger,onion and curry leaves. Add the salt and turmeric, followed by  roughly mashed peeled potatoes. Pour 1/4 cup of water to make it a little mushy. Garnish with cilantro/coriander.

For The Dosa batter:
3 cups rice
1 cup urad dal
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
Method:
Soak the rice, fenugreek and the dal separately for 4-5 hrs.
Grind together the rice and fenugreek to a fine paste. Also grind the dal  to a fine paste adding enough water. Mix the rice and the dal and let it ferment over night.
Before making the Dosa, add water to the batter to bring it to a pouring consistency. Add salt and mix.

Final Preparation:

Heat the Non Stick Pan and take a laddle full of batter and spread it in circles, this has to be done quickly. It is a skill which comes with practice. spread little butter or ghee or oil around the edges. Roast the dosa on medium flame and then reduce the heat.When dosa  turn golden brown in color spread the red chutney on the top and then  fill with several tablespoons of the potato filling  roll up and serve immediately with sambhar and chutney.

Baked Crispy Kale Chips

If you are looking for a  low calorie nutritious snack, go no further. If you are like me who cannot stop at eating just one, this is the perfect one for you. These are so crispy and they kind of melt in your mouth. Yet these are so easy to make. Thanks for all your good wishes for Aishwarya; she is doing better and we are hoping to have her up and running in no time .

Recipe Source: Food Network
Ingredients
1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt, for sprinkling
Method:
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Kale should be thoroughly dried or else you will end up with steamed or discoloured kale chips.Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, about 20 minutes.