Matcha /Green tea Chiffon cake

I have been keeping the Matcha powder I got from Japan like a little piece of jewel for the past few months.

Every time I see it in the cupboard, I just open it ,smell it ,close it tightly  and dare not to use it .. I paid quite a hefty price for the small can of Matcha powder.

In the past 3 months I just used 1 tspn of it for making a batch of cupcakes.

So this weekend I decided to bake something with the fragrant matcha powder and the dice fell for the Chiffon cake

Who doesn’t love the soft, fluffy, melt in your mouth chiffon cakes.

This one has a teeny tiny hint of bitterness from the Matcha powder and it has an amazing fragrance!

Matcha /Green tea Chiffon cake

Ingredients- for 6 inch Cake

2 Eggs

20 ml Milk

20 ml Oil

40 gms Self raising flour

70 gms Caster Sugar

¾- 1 Tbspn Matcha Powder

Pinch of Cream of Tartar

Directions

Beat the egg whites until foamy, add the 50 gms sugar and cream of tartar and continue to beat until still peaks are formed.

Add the remaining 20 gms of sugar to the egg yolk and beat well.

Add the matcha powder, oil,milk to the egg yolk mix and mix well.

Folk in the flour to the mix.

Lastly fold in egg white into the egg yolk mix in 3 batches.

Pour the batter into a chiffon tin .

Bake in a 170 degrees preheated oven for 35 min.

Remove from oven and invert the cake as quick as possible on to a cooling rack.

After 10-15 minutes you can gently remove the tin, the cake will fall off by itself.

Tofu Veggie Scramble

This is the best  vegan alternative to egg scramble..

The best thing about tofu is that it is mostly like a sponge, it absorbs the flavors soo well.

You can throw in the spices and veggies of your choice and prepare this easy recipe in few minutes

Here I added some Chili powder and Garam Masala to give the scramble a hint of spiciness

I served the Spicy Tofu scramble with some warm Naan and we loved the combo!

 

Tofu Veggie Scramble

Ingredients

100 gms Firm tofu

1 Carrot grated

1 Onion finely chopped

2 tomatoes-pureed

¼ Cup Green peas

Few mint leaves

1/2  tspn Turmeric power

½ tspn Chili powder

½  tspn Garam Masala

½ tspn Ginger Garlic paste

½ tspn Cumin seeds

1 tspn Oil

Salt to taste

Directions

Pat dry the tofu using some kitchen towel and crumble it using a fork

Heat the oil in a wok. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds.

Add the ginger garlic paste and sauté for few seconds

Now add the onions and sauté until the onions turn translucent.

Add the purred tomatoes and the spice powder-salt,turmeric power, chilly power and Garam masala.

Add the grated carrots , peas and Tofu.

Add two tablespoons of water and cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

Add the mint leaves and mix well.

Corn Juice/Corn Milk

Corn Juice does that sound weird to you?

Then you have to trust me on this recipe! This  drink is just awesome, a healthy ,power packed juice

I had it during my last visit to China. During one of the dinners we noticed that the corn juice is among their specials.

Although the menu said it is a Corn juice, it tasted more like a Corn milk.Whatever the name may be, it tasted awesome!

Corn Juice/Corn Milk

Ingredients

2 Sweet Corns

½ Cup Soy Milk or regular milk

1 tspn Sugar

1 Cup water

Directions

Wash and peel the corn. Transfer the corn to a large pot, cover with enough water and bring it to a boil

Simmer for another 5 minutes and  let it cool down

Once cooled down, slice the corn kernels from the cob.

Add about 1 cup water and the kernels to a blender and puree it.

Sieve the juice. Now add the juice, milk, sugar-optional to a pot and bring it to a boil.

There you have the nutritious corn juice /corn milk.It is best served cold.

Matcha /Green tea Cupcake with Red bean Filling

Back to blogosphere after another long breakJ

After settling my work related stuff in Shenzhen, we travelled around Guangzhou a bit.I have to admit I had a tough time finding vegetarian Chinese foodL

12 days in China, I could eat Chinese food for only 1 meal. Rest of the days I ate all cuisines Italian, western, Japanese, Mexican..basically everything except Authentic Chinese food!!

I managed to go the infamous toilet restaurant as well. After reading the reviews and seeing the funny pics, I just had to go there!But once I saw the menu and the toilet seats and not to mention the items on tables around I was taken back…a lot!

I chose to stick just to the dessert and a drink. To be honest, that itself was bit too Argghhhh for me.

Here are few picksJ

If I managed to disgust you enough! Let me come back to Matcha Cup cakes!

The fluffy ,moist and Green tea cupcakes is one of the best cupcakes I made till date!

Matcha /Green tea Cupcake with Red bean filling

 Ingredients

110 gms Flour

50 ml milk

100 gms Caster sugar

50 gms butter

2 tspn Matcha powder

½ tspn baking powder

1 egg+1egg white

Red bean paste about ¼ Cup

Directions

Sift together the dry ingredients- Flour, baking powder and Matcha powder

Cream the butter and Sugar together until it is light.

Add in the eggs and mix well.

Add the milk and dry ingredients in two bathes and mix well.

Now add a spoonful batter to the cupcake liners , pipe a small amount to the red bean paste followed by another spoonful of batter.

Bake in a 170 degree preheated oven for 15-20 minutes

White Chocolate Cupcake with white chocolate frosting

After much effort…By effort I mean my colleagues effort, I am finally able to connect to my blogJ

I am in Shenzhen and enjoying the novelty of being a novelty here!! Haha

In the past , most places , may be exception of Cambodia, there was always a long queue in immigration for foreigners. But to my surprise, in Shenzhen immigration, I am the only foreigner in the queue.

The awkwardness started with the officer going through all my passport pages one by one.Later in the evening when I went out with my colleague I started to notice that people are really starring at me! I mean not in a bad way, guess that they r just curios.

2 days here, I am yet to see a foreigner, let alone an IndianL

Anyways that is not going to stop me from exploring the shopping districts during the weekend.

Coming to today’s recipe, it’s a decadent white chocolate cupcakes. Made a batch on these during last weekend for the birthday of my friends daughter.

White Chocolate Cupcake with white chocolate frosting.

Recipe Adapted from: Baking bites 

Ingredients

1 Cup Flour

1 tspn baking powder

Pinch of salt

125 gms milk chocolate

60 gms butter

1/3 Cup sugar

1 egg+1 egg white

1 tspn Vanilla essence -optional

1/3 Cup milk

For icing

60 gms white chocolate

1 tbspn butter

1 tspn milk-optional

Wilton coloring-optional

Directions

Sift together the dry ingredients- Flour, baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat it well until the color turn lighter.

Add in the egg+egg white and mix well.

Meanwhile melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave. Stir it well using a spoon. Let it cool down a bit

Add the melted white chocolate and vanilla essence to the egg/butter mixture and beat well .

Add the dry ingredients and milk in 3 alternating additions to the batter and mix until no more flour is visible.

Bake in a 170 degress preheated oven for 15 minutes.

For preparing the icing, add the butter to the melted white chocolate and stir well.

I added some pink colouring for the birthday girl .

If you are preparing the icing in advance, you will need to add in a little milk to get the pipping consistency as the icing will be quite thick.

Mango Oats Fudge

I scratched my head quite a bit thinking what to name this lip-smacking sweet!

It looks very similar to the Laddu but the texture is very chewy and fudgy so nailed down on this name!

It’s a simple ,3 ingredients recipe but tastes just yummm!

Mango Oats Fudge

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Mango Purée

1/4 Cup condensed milk

1/3 Cup Instant oats

Directions

Mix the mango puree and condensed milk in a nonstick wok and heat it on low flame .

keep stirring , that is the key

The mix  will start to thicken and change into a slightly darker color in 5-10 minutes.

You can powder the Instant oats for few seconds in a mixer.

Add the powdered oats to the mango mix and continue to stir until it starts to leave the sides and have become a fairly thick mix.

Let it cool down a bit and roll into balls.

You might need to add little less or more oats depending on the consistency of your mango puree to get the desired thick consistency.

Fig and Dates slice -Eggless and whole meal

Back in my home-town,  we usually get dates which are ultra dried , really hard and are super sweet and push you into a Sugar comma!

You have to chew those forever and you would get a jaw ache after eating few of those!

Later once I got the real taste of the fresh ripe dates and the semi dried ones, there was no looking back. I became a buff.I always have a box of dried dates in my pantry, I don’t mean the rubbery ones but the soft, juicy ones!

As I am on a healthy wholesome baking spree, here is a eggless, whole meal, nutritious  snack 

Fig and date slice -Eggless and whole meal

 Ingredients

100 gms Whole meal flour

100 gms Instant Oats

60 gms Brown sugar

75 gms butter melted

75 gms Milk

Juice of half Orange

 For the filling

150 gms Figs/Dates

50 ml water

1 tspn Sugar

Flavoring- I used some ginger syrup

Juice of half Orange

Directions

Chop the dates and figs , add water, sugar, flavoring and orange juice and let it simmer for about 10 minutes until is very soft and mushy. Let it cool down

Meanwhile mix together the dry ingredients- Whole wheat flour, Oats, brown sugar and mix well

Add the melted butter and milk , orange juice and mix well.

Spread half of the mix in a square pan and spread it evenly using a spatula

Spoon the dates/fig mix on top of it and spread it out.

Add the remaining batter and spread using a fork .

Bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until it is golden brown on top

Once cooled down, cut it into slices and enjoy.