Cream cheese Pound cake (cold oven)

Hello folks! The chances are you have forgotten me completely, owing to my absence in the past few months.... The thing is, I was too busy with my sweet creation, that I didn't want to miss out a single moment of his growing up... I did miss blogging though, but then the baby came first!

Well, now he is over 6 months and giving us a wonderful time. He is a co operative baby, touch wood, lets us do our work provided we are around, talking out to him every few minutes. More updates on him here. Let me now get on to today's recipe!

Here's Cream cheese Pound cake, one of the best cakes I've ever baked! it was baked sometime during my pregnancy, in the second trimester, to carry along for a trip we were going. With my pregnancy hormones in full action, throwing up at its peak, food aversion at its maximum, there were very few foods that I craved for, and that I felt like cooking or baking. One of them was this cake and boy, was I glad I baked it! I just loooooved it! I've had it for breakfast, and lunch and as snack on a couple of days during that trip!

Well, it makes a pretty big cake and keeps well, fresh for at least 3 days. It has such a wonderful taste and a good crumb texture.It is a cold oven cake, meaning the oven is not preheated before placing the batter. We both loved loved having it and finishing off the huge cake in just a couple of days! The calories, you say? Of course, I was pregnant with just a handful of cravings, and we were on a trip to a nature reserve, which involved a LOT of walking and walking!

Now, here's the recipe...

Creamcheese Pound cake (Cold oven)

Preparation time: 15 min 

Baking time: 60 - 65 minutes 

Source: Versatile Kitchen

Ingredients:

Cake flour - 1 1/2 cups (See notes)

Baking Powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Cream cheese - 4 oz (at room temperature)
Butter - 1/2 cup softened
Vanilla - 1 Tbsp
Eggs - 3 large (at room temperature)

Method: 

• Grease and flour a large loaf pan. I used a ring mould that I had recently bought
• In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder. Set aside. 
• Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar till fluffy about 3 minutes scraping the bottom couple of times. 
• Add eggs one at a time and continue beating. 
• Add vanilla and beat. 
• Running the mixer on low speed, add half of the dry ingredients. 
• When it has incorporated, add the remaining and mix it all well. 
• Pour into the prepared pan. 
• Place it in the middle rack of the oven and turn it on to 170 C or 325 F. 
• Bake for 60 - 65 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done in 60 min.
• Cool on the rack in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. 
• Slice after it has completely cooled and you get awesomely neat slices!

Notes:

• To make 1 1/2 cups cake flour, take 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour in a big bowl. Remove 3 Tbsp of the flour from the bowl and add 3 Tbsp of corn starch. Sift very well, 3-4 times.
• The cake can be doubled and baked in a 12 cup bundt pan, says Champa. In that case, the baking time would be about 80 min. 

New kid on the blog!

Hello folks!!

Here's introducing the new kid on the blog - my sweet lil baby boy, born on 13th Oct.

This creation of ours has been taking over all the other creations i was supposed to update the blog with! And guess it will continue for some more time... till then, please be patient with me. I do promise to come back with a lot of exciting stuff to cook and bake.

Till then, Cheers!!
Sum :)

Veggie Thai Red Curry

This Thai curry has been a recent favorite at my place. We both are loving this, made quite often, with varying veggies, mushrooms, tofu etc. Thai cuisine is a close cousin of Indian cousin, with many spices used in common. Also use of coconut milk makes it especially closer to the South Indian cuisine. Eaten with sticky Jasmine rice or any other cooked ice, it makes a wholesome meal.

However, the combination of spices along with some not used in Indian curried and the method of cooking makes it quite different in taste from Indian curries. Most of the Thai curries are generally not vegetarian. And even the veggie ones often contain fish sauce, shrimp paste, making me hesitant to try one at restaurants.

So searching for recipes and experimenting on combinations, this is the one I have come up with and have stuck with it for quite sometime. We're happy with the taste of this customized, vegetarian home made Thai red curry. Here it is....

Veggie Thai Red Curry

Ingredients:
Coconut milk - 1 can
Bell pepper / capsicum - Chopped, 1 cup, a mix of red, green, yellow
French beans - a handful (optional)
Sugar snap peas - a handful
Baby corn - a handful
Firm Tofu - 200g, washed and drained, chopped into bite sized pieces
Eggplant - chopped (optional - i don't use it as i don't like it)
Carrot - 1, chopped (my addition)
Mushrooms - 1/2 cup, halved
Thai basil leaves - a handful
Soy sauce - 1 Tbsp
Sesame / any other oil - 2 Tbsp
Salt to taste - abt 1 tsp
Red curry paste

Red curry paste:
Dry red chilies - 3-4 (vary according to your spice tolerance)
Cumin- 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
Kafir lime leaves / bay leaves - 1-2
Fresh coriander leaves/stalks - chopped, a fistful
Brown sugar - 1/2 to 1 Tbsp
Fresh lemongrass - 2-3 Tbsp. minced
Shallots / red onion - 1/4 cup, sliced
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Galangal / ginger 1 inch piece, grated
Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Lime / lemon zest - 1/2 tsp
Tomato ketchup / tomato puree - 2 Tbsp (optional)
Fresh lime juice - 2 Tbsp

Method:
For the paste:

• Boil 1/4 cup water and turn off the heat. To this, add the dry red chilies and let them sit for 5-10 min.
• After it is cool enough to handle, grind the soaked chilies with the rest of the ingredients for curry paste into a smooth mixture.
• This is the Thai red curry paste. This can be made ahead the previous day and stored in the refrigerator.

For the curry:

• Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add half the oil.
• Optionally marinate the tofu pieces in some soy sauce, salt and pepper powder
• Shallow fry the tofu in this till the raw smell is gone, sprinkle some salt if not marinated and keep aside. 
• In the same pan, add the remaining oil and fry the red curry paste prepared, on low flame
• Once the oil starts separating from the mixture, add the coconut milk, salt and bring to a boil
• Meanwhile add the chopped vegetables, mushrooms and let cook in the coconut milk curry
• Mix in the fried tofu as well and boil for a few minutes
• Add soy sauce and basil leaves
• Make sure the veggies are still crunchy and just cooked. Overcooking makes the veggies soggy.
• Serve hot with some piping hot jasmine rice and enjoy!

Notes:

• Some of the ingredients mentioned in the list may not be easily available in an Indian kitchen - like galangal, kafir lime etc. These I usually substitute with the mentioned alternative ingredients like normal ginger, bay leaves, etc. I don't see much of a difference.
• I add vegetables of my choice to this curry usually and do not always stick to the original Thai veggies.