Delicious chocolate cake

I made a delicious moist chocolate cake this afternoon. I think what really made a difference was the first step, after I  creamed the melted butter and brown sugar, I added about a cup of melted semi sweet chocolate chips to the mixture. Then add two eggs, a dash of almond essence and mix well. Separately sift flour and baking powder together and then add this to the creamed mixture. Add about 1/2 cup of milk to make sure the mixture is nice and creamy. Pour into a well-buttered baking tin and bake about 25 minutes or till toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I frosted the cake with a delicious frosting made easily by melting chocolate chips with some butter and 2 teaspoons brown sugar. Frost when cake is cooled. 

NOTE: this is not an exact recipe, in the sense I havent given any quantities, oven temperature etc that is because I am assuming that those of you who try this will already be familiar with a basic cake recipe or two.

Green and white

Nicely blanched greens are delicious looking and tasting. I blanche a lot of greens --kale, choi sum, baby mustard, broccolli florets -- they all taste equally good and usually I add a tiny pinch of tumeric to the salted boiling water. I serve blanched kale with crisp fried garlic flakes for added crunch.

My daughter loves eating sticky rice. Well made sticky rice is so delicious we can eat it by itself, but usually we make a meal of poached ginger chicken, steamed or blanched greens, the sticky rice and a wonderful tangy fiery dipping sauce made with bird's eye chilli, fish sauce and green onion (my daughter eats the chicken and rice without this sauce). Try it, tastes delicious and looks very appealing too!

Thinking of home Sunday lunch...

So this was Sunday lunch...

*fried bitter gourd with dried red chilies

*eggplant with tomato and onion

*garlic spinach

*cruchy fried shrimp

*homestyle fries

*chile and tumeric stuffed okra

*sambar

*basmati rice

Easy chicken pulao

This is an easy chicken pulao recipe that my little girl loves. the ingredients in this recipe serve two, just increase quantities as suits your requirement.

bay leaf --2

couple of chicken pieces

tomato 1 large

shallots 2-3 chopped fine

garlic 3-4 cloves

1/2 cup basmati rice

a cup of peas

two hard boiled eggs

tumeric powder
a few curry leaves
salt to taste
oil 

Make a rough paste of the onions and garlic in a mortar and pestle.

In a deep pan, heat some oil, add the bay leaf and curry leaf, onion and garlic paste, tomato, salt to taste, curry leaves. Fry this well, then add the chicken pieces and fry till well browned. Add the washed basmati and fry well a couple of minutes. Add hot water (a couple of cups), peas, mix well, reduce heat, cover until all water has been absorbed and rice is cooked well.

Fry the hard boiled eggs till a nice golden color. Add the fried hard boiled eggs to the rice and mix in gently. Serve hot.