Patterned Swiss Roll with Pineapple and Cream filling

Am I too late in posting a valentine’s day treat? :-) Well let me state it out bluntly, I have been laaaazy this month. I have been vacationing and then working and then falling sick (a lot, thanks to our sub zero temperatures) and then when weekends roll by, we have so many lovely friends whom we get-together with and well I’ve been busy and lazy all at once.  So this lovely pretty cake that I made on Valentine’s Day and which I was planning to share with you all that very weekend had to wait this long.

Oh! And before I start rambling on about the cake let me share another happy happy moment. My interview for Mommy Page just got published. Yippeeee!! This is my first interview and the first of its kind after I started this blog, so I’m mighty proud about it. Go here and read all about it and then come back…Pretty Cake awaits you! ;-)

I have forever wanted to try a patterned roll cake.  I have seen several such cakes all over the internet and was always intrigued by the simplicity yet awesomeness of it. They are sooooo easy to make and I can’t help but blame myself for waiting this long to try it out. 

My first try at making this cake did not turn out as pretty as I had hoped for. Most of my decorative writing got stuck to the parchment paper  and the next issue was after I rolled up my cake, I allowed it to cool for a longer period, due to which my cake got stuck to the kitchen towel and more pattern came off, but my friends still loved it and the cake was a super hit!

Since I still had some more of the decorative paste left, I made it again the next day ;-) and was very careful not to repeat the mistakes I did. And voila! A pretty pretty cake it turned out to be.  It’s so fancy and yet a perfect way to decorate your cake specially if you do not want to use too much frosting on your cakes. 

The cake is a fatless sponge (yes, no butter or oil) and I did a Pineapple and Cream filling….yumm! This is not an eggless cake, but I will definitely try an eggless version soon for all those who asked me for one. 

I have tried to provide stepwise pics and it’s quite self-explanatory and yes I took too many pics of this lil'beauty queen and well, I hope you enjoy the pics as well. 

Patterned Swiss Roll with Pineapple & Cream filling
Recipe adapted from LRF

You’ll Need

For the decorative pattern:

1 Egg white

Granulated Sugar - 30 gm

All purpose flour - 40 gms

Butter (softened) - 20 grams

Color, as desired ( I used red and pink gel colors)

For the fatless sponge cake:

4 eggs, room temperature

Sugar - ¾ cup

All purpose flour  - 1 cup

Baking powder  - 1 tsp

Vanilla extract  - 1 tsp

Water  - 1 Tbslp

For Pineappale and Cream filling

1 cup whipping cream

1-2 Tblsp powdered sugar

Crushed Pineapple / Pineapple slices in juice (Del Monte brand) – One 20 oz can

Directions

Decorative paste for the pattern:
1. Grease a half sheet pan (I used 11”x 17” size). Place decorative template on one side of your pan and line it with parchment paper.  Grease the parchment paper.

2. In a bowl beat the egg white with a fork. Add in sugar and then the flour. Mix well.  Beat in the butter to make a smooth paste. Divide batter if necessary and color as desired.

3. Put in piping bags and using the template as a guideline, neatly pipe the pattern (If doing alphabets or number patterns, write it in mirror image). Remove the template.
Put in the tray in the freezer/fridge to harden up for at least 15-20 minutes while you make the cake batter.

For the fatless sponge cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a stand mixer, fit it with a beater blade or whisk attachment and beat the 4 eggs on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually add in the granulated sugar and beat for another 5 minutes until the mixture is pale, thick and smooth. Stir in the vanilla extract.

2. Sift the flour with the baking powder in a separate bowl. Fold in the flour till well combined. But do not overbeat. Add the water and fold again gently.

3. Take the sheet pan with the piped pattern out of the freezer/fridge. Remove template from under the parchment paper. Pour the batter over the pattern.
4. Spread across evenly. Bake for 8-10 minutes (mine was done at 8 mins). The cake is done when you lightly touch the surface with the tip of your finger and the cake springs back and make sure it doesn't brown too much.

 5. While the cake is baking, sprinkle powdered sugar on a kitchen towel or sheet of parchment paper bigger than the size of your sheet pan. Once the cake is baked, flip it onto the sugar dusted kitchen towel/parchment paper

6. Once flipped over, pull the parchment paper out from the cake. Be gentle when taking out the parchment paper over the decorated area. Flip the cake over again carefully.

7. Now roll the cake with the kitchen towel, starting from the end opposite to your pattern.  Let sit on counter, rolled till it’s completely cooled.

For pineapple & cream filling:

1. While the roll is cooling, make the filling. Start by straining the pineapple from its juices and if using pineapple slices then chop it into smaller chunks. Else use strained crushed pineapple.
2. Whip the cream with the sugar till just about stiff peaks are formed. 

Assembly:

Unroll the patterned cake roll, and spread the whipped cream on top. Add the chopped/crushed pineapple on top. 

Now roll the cake tightly to form a log again, again starting from the end opposite your pattern such that the pattern rolls up on top in the end. You may cut out both the ends for a neater presentation and enjoy!

Note: Moisten/Brush the top of the cake roll with the strained pineapple juice if you feel its getting dried out. This will also remove any powdered sugar that got stuck to your roll after unrolling from the kitchen towel

And please use a washed and clean kitchen towel ;-)

Isn't each slice a work of art?....oh! I love this cake! And I shall definitely be trying out more patterns and varieties of these cakes and the filling options are endless...imagine making a simple jam roll so creative....c'mon go ahead, bake it right now and impress your family and yourself :-)

Here's me signing off with ...

-Manju :-)

Valentine's day Ideas :-)

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, infact it's this Friday (Feb, 14th). I bet some of you already know how you plan to spend this day of Love. Do we really need a special day to spend with our loved ones, you may ask....I have no real answer to that but I'm absolutely smitten about the idea and love to celebrate it. 

This year we are planning to spend it with friends...a grand dinner and then mayb a movie or some games. Anyways Valentine's Day is all about spending time with loved ones and I absolutely love that idea ;-)

This year I haven't come up with any new dishes but I want to share what I have done over the years and hopefully these will inspire you too to make a grand dinner or special dessert for that special someone in your life incase you haven't planned yet.

My most popular post and favorite Valentines Day dinner of all has been this special candle light dinner that I cooked all by myself at our home for my sweetheart 2 yrs ago. 

My baby was still too little to go out for a late night dinner so the best option was to keep it at home...Enjoy a romantic dinner while the baby sleeps ;-). Read all about it here.

These are the dishes I cooked up (yes all home-made):

Appetizer :  Creamy & Peppery Cauliflower soup

                     Thai Fish Balls with Lime-Cilantro Mayo dip

Main course : Jerk Chicken served with Coconut Rice and Mango-Peach Salsa

Dessert : Yogurt Panacotta with Strawberry jelly

Last year we did not make dinner plans, but instead my lil'boy and me got up really early and made a scrumptious breakfast before going off to work and daycare respectively :-) And yes, everyone got little V-day gifts as well!!

Heart shaped French Toasts filled with Nutella and Strawberries

Here are few more ideas on how you can make something special to show your love in the form of food :)

Planning Banana bread for a V-day brekky? Well then you must try this fun and totally V-day worthy Banana bread with a hidden heart and wow your loved ones!! 

If your family prefer spicy dishes, make them a heart shaped Tuna Cutlets using a heart shaped cookie cutter ;-) Its super yummy and a winner recipe. If you do not eat non-veg, make a veggie version with your own recipe. 

Another cool idea I thought of was to fancy up even your glass of simple water with pretty Heart shaped Ice-cubes infused with fruits, citrus-peels or mint leaves. It definitely adds a sparkle and flavor to that glass of water!! 

One pot meals are always an easy option and there's no compromise on taste. Try out these simple rice dishes and pair it with wine and/or any decadent dessert of your choice. Keep it simple yet classy! 

Chicken Biriyani or Fish Biriyani  or Curried Veg Pulav

Rich & Creamy Chocolate Pudding can never go wrong for a V-day dessert...it's so easy to make. And better yet, its Eggless :-)

Well, If it was upto me, I still have several more dishes that I can scoop out of my blog and share here as V-day special, but I'll leave that to you :-) Do feel free to check  out My Recipes list and pick out your favorite recipes and cook it up and enjoy your day.....

Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers! May you have a beautiful day and year ahead filled with Love and Happiness :-)

-Manju

Focaccia with flavorful Herbed Oil

Those of you who’ve been following my blog for a while now, knows my love for baking and experimenting with new recipes. Bread baking is something that I am still learning and with each new recipe I try I learn a new technique and I love the whole process.

Focaccia is similar to Pizza but with few variations. I have read that in Pizza dough the amount of yeast used is less resulting in a thin, flat and flexible crust, while focaccia dough uses more leavening, causing the dough to rise significantly higher (source: Wikipedia). Another difference is in the shape, Focaccia is often shaped into a square, oval or rectangle shape. Sometimes the toppings used are added into the Focaccia dough instead of being topped.

Anyways whatever the differences are, all I can say is that it’s a soft spongy bread with a lovely  crust on top, perfect for dunking into soups or stews. 

Several of my blog buddies have been baking this particular Focaccia recipe shared by Aparna and all their pics tempted me so much that I just had to try it out. The actual recipe was for a Focaccia Caprese (Focaccia topped with Caprese toppings along with Herbed oil) but fortunately/unfortunately for me I had none of the Caprese toppings available on hand...not even tomatoes, so I decided to just bake the Focaccia with the Herbed oil on top and it did not disappoint at all.

Now where do I begin raving about this Focaccia. The dough was so simple to make and it rose beautifully. The herb oil gets wonderfully absorbed by the bread while baking which creates a nice crunchy flavorful crust and the aroma and flavor seeps into the bread as well and finally yields a soft and spongy bread.

The Herb Oil is simply superb made using staple pantry ingredients and after brushing the Focaccia dough with the Herb Oil, you can later dunk your baked Focaccia into the same oil (if any leftover) and enjoy the bread, its just that good!

Focaccia with Herbed Oil

You’ll Need

For the Dough:

Active Dry Yeast – 2 ¼ tsp (1 sachet)

Luke warm water – ¼ cup

Sugar – 2 tsp

All-purpose flour – 3 ½ cups

Olive Oil – ¼ cup (can use any oil of choice)

Warm water – ¾ to 1 cup (use as needed)

Salt – 1 tsp

For the Herbed Oil:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – ¼ cup

Dried Oregano – 1 tsp

Dried Basil leaves – 1 tsp

Grated or minced Garlic – 2 or 3 cloves

Red Chilli flakes – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Directions

1. Mix together all the ingredients of the Herbed oil and keep aside.
2. First proof the Yeast:  Add 2 ¼ tsp yeast to ¼ cup warm water with 2 tsp sugar and let it stand for 10 mins undisturbed until it doubles in volume. If your yeast is active it will beautifully bloom and foam. (If your yeast doesn’t bloom even after 10-15 mins, throw it and make a new batch, else your dough will definitely not rise well)

3. Add the All-purpose flour, Olive oil, Proofed Yeast and Salt in to a bowl and using a kitchen aid stand mixer or your hands, knead the dough by mixing in ¾ cup to 1 cup warm water. Add water as needed to form a smooth yet mildly sticky dough.

4. Shape the dough into a ball and add it to a well oiled bowl and turn the dough around to coat all over and let it sit covered for about 1 hour until it doubles in volume.

5. Once the dough has risen, punch it down slowly and you can either bake it into a single focaccia covering your entire pan or 2 medium sized Focaccia or 4 smaller focaccias. (I divided the dough into two equal parts and used just 1 part and froze the rest for later use)

6. Take a 11x17 rectangular sheet pan and place wax paper  or silicon mat on it. Place your dough on it and roll it out smoothly into a rectangular shape  (I dint measure the dimensions of my focaccia, but a thick and roughly rectangular shape is good).  Let the dough rest again for 20 mins .
7. Oil your fingertips and create dimples in the dough. Brush the herbed oil all over generously.

8. Place it into the 450F pre-heated oven and bake for 16-18mins until it is almost done and turning golden brown. I rotated the tray after 10mins, again brushed the herb oil all over and baked for another 6 mins (so mine was done in 16mins)

9. Let the focaccia cool for few minutes , then serve warm and enjoy!

Suggestions:

1. If using Active Instant yeast, you need not proof it separately, just add it along with the flour and other ingredients for the dough with 1 tblsp sugar and make the dough as usual.

2. Actual recipe states to bake for 18-20 mins, but mine was good and golden brown after 16mins so keep checking towards the last few minutes.

The aroma, texture, taste everything about this focaccia was super-duper and both Manish and my lil’guy munched on them as soon as it was out of the oven. Even the mild spice from the red chilli flakes in the herbed oil din’t bother my lil’one. I quickly made a tortilla soup with chicken sausages and we dunked the yummy focaccia in it and ate up almost ¾th of the bread. 

My favorite portion of the focaccia were the sides, the crusty bread was simply a delight to munch on. I would suggest you all to give this a try, its really simple and remember, if I can bake bread, then you can too :-)

-Manju

Spicy Beef Curry with Spinach...easy Pressure cooker method

How many of you make New Year’s resolutions? I never make b’coz for me they just end up being January resolutions…yeah, hardly ever stick on to it beyond a month. But I know I used to make resolutions when I was a kid, like ‘this year I’ll improve my handwriting’, or ‘this year I’ll top the class’ and all such kinda stuff but it just lost its charm as I grew older I guess.

Now 'This year' there are few things that I plan to do and hopefully I’ll see if I can stick on to them. Some people believe in not sharing their wishes to others thinking it might get jinxed and not work, and I belong to such a category, so I won’t share them here now but if they work I’ll definitely be sharing them :-) They are not resolutions or anything but few things that I learnt from mistakes made last year which I want to correct and get better at this year…Opportunities that I missed/lost/foolishly did not take up last year which I want to this year….and the list quite goes on, but I don’t think they are un-doable ;-)

This year I want to also include several different cuisines to my list of recipes. I love trying out all sort of cuisines as long as everything I’m eating is fully cooked…NO raw sushi or rare cooked meat for me plssss! And I do cook/experiment with a variety of cuisines at home, but most of my experiments are done at night either after I come home from work or weekend dinners, so photographing them is a challenge. I’m trying to find a solution to this as living in Minnesota, especially during winters, getting enough light after 3pm can be a challenge and I want to be able to click whenever I want and not just when the dear Sun decides to show up. So that’s one or two agendas on my list. 

Anyways, enough of my ramblings for today. Today’s dish is a simple, quick to cook and yummy to eat naadan (homestyle) Beef curry. I don’t cook much beef or pork at home, though we eat them at restaurants etc, we are more of the chicken and fish eaters at home, but occasionally I do buy beef and I like cooking them in our typical Kerala style preparations with roasted spices and coconut slices  and to make it a teeny bit healthier I added lots of baby spinach. 
I prefer to buy the stew cut meat as they cook easily and are soft. And a pressure cooker makes life so much easier :-)

The Beef curry is spicy and flavorful, go ahead and check out the recipe

Kerala style Beef curry with Spinach

You’ll need

Stew cut Beef meat – 1lb or ½ kg (cut into smaller pieces)

Baby Spinach (roughly chopped) – 2 cups

For tempering:

Oil – 2 Tblsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 sprig (8-10 leaves)

Dry red chilli – 1 or 2 broken

Coconut thinly sliced – 1 Tblsp

Remaining ingredients:

Red Onion (thinly sliced) – 1 big or 2 medium

Green chillies (slit lengthwise)- 1 or 2

Ginger (thinly sliced or grated) – 1” piece

Garlic cloves (sliced or grated) – 5 or 6
Tomato (chopped) – 1 medium

Red chilli powder – 2 tsp

Corriander powder – 2 Tblsp

Garam masala – 2 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Black pepper powder – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Water – as needed for gravy

Corriander leaves – for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil in your pressure cooker and crack mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering, add the cumin seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilli and coconut slices and fry until coconut slices are mildly brown.

2.  Add Ginger-Garlic-Green chillies and sauté for a minute, then add Red Onions, a pinch of salt and cook until the Onions soften.

3.  Add tomatoes and sauté again for a minute.

4.  Add all the spice powders: Red chilli powder, Corriander powder, Garam masala, Turmeric powder, Black pepper powder and enough salt and mix and cook everything until the raw smell of the spices wear off (2 mins)

5.  Mix in the beef and enough water as per gravy required (I added ¼ cup water) and cover the pressure cooker, put on the whistle and cook for 3-4 whistle blows.

6.  Turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker cool down and then remove the whistle and open the cooker. Add the baby spinach and mix everything. Garnish with coriander leaves if desired.

Few suggestions:

1. You could use Ginger-Garlic paste instead of fresh ginger & garlic.

2. If using regular raw spinach, sauté it separately in a pan and add it to the beef. Baby spinach can be eaten raw so it doesn’t matter if included without cooking it separately.
3. I prefer a thick gravy so added only ¼ cup water, you can add more if you want a runny gravy but note that the beef will release a bit of moisture while cooking which adds to the gravy content.
4. I use Kashmiri Red Chilli powder which is milder in spice but gives a gorgeous reddish-brown color to your dish. 

Look at that lush gravy...yumm! We ate this with some kerala matta rice, beetroot thoran and moru curry and it was a quick and yummy lunch. But the curry pairs very well even with Appam, Idiappam, Chapathi, Porotta, Naan, Basmati rice...even bread etc.
My lil’one wasn’t very keen on trying the spicy dish but I hope he will develop a taste to it as he grows :-)

-Manju

Kerala style Chicken Stew

For Christmas eve last year, I decided to have a potluck dinner with some good friends. While planning the menu for our party I knew that Appam with Chicken Stew had to be there. I absolutely love the combo and trust me once you try it you'll also fall in love with this combo.

In keralite christian households, Appam with Stew combo is usually served for breakfast on special occasions, specially Christmas (The stew can be made of veggies, chicken, mutton etc). Chicken stew is also called as Chicken Ishtoo in Kerala (I'm not sure if the colloquial pronunciation makes it sound like that) and is prepared by stewing the chicken with plenty of spices, with/without veggies along with three stages of coconut milk. Traditionally 1 or 2 coconuts are freshly grated and this is squeezed tightly with hands or within a cheese cloth and thick coconut milk is strained out from it (this is first stage). Then some water is added to the remaining strained coconut and the second stage of coconut milk is squeezed out. Finally again some more water is added and the third stage of coconut milk is squeezed out , which is the most dilute form of coconut milk.  These three stages of coconut milk is used for the preparation of this stew....But I haven't done any of this, just used 1 can of coconut milk and used it to mock the three stages of coconut milk and prepared the stew. No matter how it's prepared, it's simply superb and a must try dish.

And Chicken Stew is best served with Paalappam....soft spongy and lacy Appams dunked in creamy flavorful Chicken stew is a must savored dish and I urge you all to try it. Usually I make Potato stew or add boiled eggs to the potato stew whenever I make Appam, but special occasions call for special dishes :-)

For our Christmas party night, Manish went and got this gorgeous Christmas ornament wreath and beautiful White roses and I felt they need to be shared here...the sparkly Christmas trees were a gift from me to him for our wedding anniversary and it all added to the deco of the party!!

And lil'Appu wasted no time in enjoying the gorgeous rosy fragrance from the beautiful Roses... :-)

Oh and before I forget, I wanted to share a mishap that occurred while I made Chicken stew for our Christmas potluck dinner...I'm usually very picky about the stores from where I buy certain produce, specially non-veg, but due to certain other commitments I did not get time to go to my regular store and instead had to buy the chicken from a different store. Anyways, I thought it should be fine and went ahead and started making my chicken stew for our dinner. But even after cooking the damn thing for almost 2 hrs I realize that the chicken I bought was terrible....it was rubbery and chewy and absolutely inedible. With a broken heart and completely panic struck I shared my plight with Manish, who was being a darling helping out with cleaning up the house. Well he was in no mood to go out (just few hours before the party), but then that would mean no chicken stew for dinner, he wasn't planning to let that happen :-P So he finally went to my usual trusted store and got some fresh chicken and I dumped the entire chicken stew I initially prepared straight into the trash **sigh** And then I went ahead at lightning speed to make it again and get it ready before our dinner...phew!!
Lesson learnt: No matter your commitments, buy your produce from trusted stores before the day of a party....experiment on other days :-D

You have seen now what it looks like, now go ahead and make it yourself and know how it tastes too :-)
I like to add some veggies in my stew for some color. Sometimes I also like to add fried cashew nuts and raisins and/or fried onions but its all personal choice. I like to mildly spice up my stew which is why it looks mild brown shaded.

Kerala style Chicken Stew

You’ll Need

Whole skinless, bone-in Chicken (cut into medium sized pieces) – 1 kg

Initial spice mix

Butter – 1 Tblsp

Cinnamon – Two 1 “ sticks

Green Cardamom – 3 or 4

Cloves – 3 or 4

Whole black peppercorns – 1 tsp

Fennel seeds – 1 tsp

Star Anise – 1

Bay leaves – 1

Remaining ingredients

Red Onion (sliced or cubed) – 1 large or 2 medium

Green chillies (split lengthwise) – 2

Ginger (thinly sliced) – 1“ piece

Garlic (thinly sliced) - 4 cloves

Curry leaves – 8 - 10

Carrot (cubed) – 1 medium

Potato (cubed) – 1 medium (russet or gold)

Green peas – ¼ cup (optional) {I like it for the color it adds}

Corriander powder – 1 tsp

Garam Masala – 1 ½  tsp

Can of Coconut milk (14 oz) – 1

Salt – to taste

Directions

1. If using Canned coconut milk, do not shake it, instead open it and scoop out the thick coconut cream from the top (1^st coconut milk). Then pour about ½ cup of the coconut milk in a separate bowl (2^nd coconut milk) and to the remaining coconut milk add ½ cup water and keep aside (3^rd coconut milk) .

2. In a large cooking pan, heat the butter and as it melts add all the spice mix ingredients and sauté until you can smell the aroma of the spices (be careful not to burn)

3.  Next add in the onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies and curry leaves along with a pinch of salt and cook until the onion is soft.

4.  Then add the potato, carrots, green peas and Chicken pieces along with the 3^rd coconut milk with enough salt and cover and let it cook on medium-low heat until chicken is almost cooked. Can stir in between.

5.  To the 2^nd coconut milk mix, add the garam masala and coriander powder, mix without lumps and add it to the stew. Again cover and cook until the chicken is fully cooked and is bone-tender (i.e, comes apart easily when pulled)

6.  Finally take the 1^st coconut milk (coconut cream), give it a stir. Lower the heat to low and add the coconut cream to the stew. Stir well and turn off the heat. Enjoy with hot lacy Appams…

Some suggestions:

1. There is no need to add any water for the gravy as the chicken itself will have enough moisture while it cooks and then there’s coconut milk, however if you feel gravy is less after the initial cooking, then add some more water to the 2^nd coconut milk mix along with spice powders.
2. You can add fried cashew nuts, fried raisins and/or fried onion to the stew.

3. I like my stew to have a bit of spice, so sometimes I add crushed black peppercorns as well, about 2 tsp. Its purely optional though.

4. You can make the stew with just chicken and potatoes if you don’t want any other veggies, but they add color and it's good for you :-)

5. If you have the patience to grate fresh coconut and squeeze out the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd coconut milk as its traditionally done in Kerala, be my guest. That would result in a supreme Chicken Stew!

Hope you all are tempted by now to prepare this dish...do try it out and let me know. My lil'Appu really loved the dish as it was mild on spice and of course the chicken and veggies are soft and yummy! So it's very kid friendly as well. 

Have a lovely week ahead you all...see you all soon!

-Manju