Minty coconut drink...

Having grown up in the land of coconuts i must admit i do have a soft spot for them and use it quiet liberally and lovingly in my cooking. Its delicate flavour, and the creamy texture gives an instant lift to any dish. Very often it helps to remedy goof ups , in my case i should say almost everytime. I am quiet poor in my judgements with salt u see! So cooking without coconuts would certainly make me go nuts!


What i am going to share with you is a supremely simple tender coconut drink with zingy lemon and mint flavouring. My favourite part in this recipe is that i get to use the meat too.

I took ..

Tender coconut water - 1 large glass

juice of half a lemon

sugar according to taste

crushed ice as much as you want

meat of one coconut

very finely cut mint leaves...






Now pour the coconut water, lemon juice , meat of the coconut and sugar in a blender and blintz it just twice...

Fill the glass with crushed ice and pour it over and top it with freshly chopped mint and enjoy!!!

Chocolate Cup Cakes...

NOV is a month of birthdays ! at least in my calendar. So my dear friend 'C'who hates to celebrate birthdays had no choice but to take us in when a bunch of us stood at her door with goodies and tiny birthday slogans !. She is plain embarrassed she says!. But would that stop us from baking cakes and cards and gifts ! No never!.

'L'my other friend baked a beautiful orange flavoured cake with dotty dates chips in them. It was so light and full of flavour!. Now i am going to pester her for the recepie! Honestly it was so good!..

I made chocolate cup cakes!!.

I adapted this from Hershey's recipe and absolutely loved it. I liked it for two reasons . One it did not have even an ounce of butter in it and secondly it called for basic ings.. nothing exotic.

It turned out super moist and super soft. I think it is a must have recipe for all cup cakes fans like me. I adore cup cakes!!.




Choco Cup Cakes

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups cocoa
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Method

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder,b.soda and salt in a large bowl.

Add eggs, milk , oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed of of hand mixer for 2 mins.

Stir in boiling water and continue to mix. ( Batter will be thin)

Pour batter into the prepared muffin cups

Fill 2/3 cups and bake for 20 to 22 mins

Cool completely.

They taste good with out icing or frosting. But those of you who don't mind can dip them in Ganache and enjoy them with a blob of ice cream...


For the Ganache

1/4 cup cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Heat cream till steaming

Remove from heat and add chocolate and let it stand for 5 mins

Add the butter and stir till smooth.


Enjoy!

Pasta with Meditteranean vegetables

After crazy few weeks life seems to be returning to some normalcy. Highlight of this month was last week I celebrated my 13 yrs of bliss with my dear 'P' who took me out for a lovely dinner. Normally the tradition is a quiet dinner at some place far and serene. This time we decided to take the boys along. So i had to explain what the occasion was to them only to have them disappointed that they were not invited for the wedding.

It was a huge spread on the buffet which had Thai, bit of Italian , German and even Burmese food. What i liked about this buffet was that the menu had lot of new things that one would usually not expect. Like barbecued ham with prune sauce, steamed whole fish with lime and ginger sauce, khaosuey, barbecued chicken with schnitzel, baked gulab jamun and many more ..... boy! it was quiet a spread. I didn't know when to stop... shame on me!.

The second best thing that happened to me this week was the stock of fresh organic vegetables that this friend sent me over from his farm. All my favourites.. Zucchini, red and yellow peppers, and mushrooms... I was all set to make Ratatouille then i decided to do a pasta instead.

It is super simple with squishy and juicy vegetables sauteed in lots of garlic and tomato sauce.
It surely is a quick fixer and very very satiating particularly on a hungry day.

Zucchini - 1/2 chopped
Red pepper - 1/2 seeded and cubed
Yellow pepper - 1/2 seeded and cubed
Mushrooms - 10 sliced
Tomato - 3 medium - boiled, peeled and pureed
Passata - 1 tbsp
Olive oil - generously
Garlic - 4 finely chopped
Dried Thyme - 1 tbsp
Whole wheat pasta - 2 cups cooked



Heat oil and add the garlic and saute till light brown.



Add the vegetables and cook for few mins.



Add the pureed tomato and passata and cook till the vegetables become squishy and soft. I like my vegetables half done...



Now add thyme and saute for few more min..

Toss in the Cooked whole wheat pasta an let the sauce coat the pasta. Serve with Parmesan shavings.