I hate missing my workouts and last night it was a forced rest day. I reached home late from work and then you know its a chain reaction.  So I decided to take the day off and relax. I looked in the fridge for possibilities and was super excited to see a jar of Pumpkin Puree.

I don't think that I’m ready for this Oh-My-God-it's-Fall attitude The internet has suddenly adopted this theme and like every year is going ga-ga over pumpkins. I am not a fan of Indian Pumpkin recipes. I think as a kid I opposed every gooey vegetable. So if the pumpkin is hidden well in the dish I have no issues eating it. We all have our quirks. Maybe, someday I will start eating like a grown-up .

I have incorporated pumpkin in to my breakfast and before you roll your eyes let me tell you that it tastes divine. I will share that recipe soon. So I normally make pumpkin puree at home for my weekly usage. Meal prep rocks!

I finished 1/4th of the cake before realizing that I needed to click a picture

For now, let me share this beautiful pumpkin cake recipe which I developed last night:

Ingredients:
1 Cup White Flour
1/3 Cup Ragi Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1.5 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup milk
2/3 Cup Cane Sugar
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 Tsp Cinnamon powder
1 pinch of Nutmeg
3 eggs

Note: The idea was to use 1.5 Cups of White flour but I ran out of supplies. I decided to do some modifications and used 1/3 cup Ragi flour. You can use 1.5 cups of white flour or maybe mix and match with some wheat flour.

I had cane sugar available at home. You can use brown sugar, white sugar or jaggery sugar.

Method
I greased the pan and allowed the oven to pre-heat for 10 minutes.
In a bowl I mixed Flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk well.
Mix  eggs, milk, sugar, pumpkin puree in a separate bowl and whisk well
Add the dry mixture to the wet one in 3 parts and mixing well after each addition.
Pour the batter (Will be quite runny) on to the greased pan and put it inside the oven and bake until a toothpick when inserted comes out clean.

Tip: I baked the cake on the highest setting (250 Degrees C in my case) for the first 15 minutes and then lowered the temperature to 200 for 20 minutes. 

Overall I was quite happy with the texture and taste. You can even add pumpkin spice to your cake. It is not easily available in India though.

Do you have any other cool pumpkin recipes?
Ciao..
P.S: I am starting a new Pumpkin series and will post quite a few pumpkin recipes with time

***************** Edited to Add*****************************************

Pumpkin Puree
This is in response to Sonal's comment. Check the simplest ways to make pumpkin puree:

Method 1:
Peel pumpkin 
Soak it in little water (1/4 cup water for 1 cup cut pumpkin)
And boil. You can pressure cook pumpkin too.. I prefer doing without it (Because I hate cleaning pressure cookers). Drain excess water and puree the boiled pieces using a blender/ processor

Method 2 (Only when I am in good mood):
Cut pumpkin (with skin) to small square pieces (1-2 inches)
Grease a tray with little oil and arrange the pieces upside down on it
Bake for 20-25 minutes. The pumpkin pieces will become tender and it will be easier to cut them with the skin on. 
When cooled remove the skin and puree the pieces using a blender/ processor 

 
 

I have been running for the past 11 years now and have been competing participating in races for the past 3 years. I have been obsessed with fitness for a while now. It is a big part of my identity and my lifestyle. I love every thing about it. It is a journey. I eat EVERYTHING. Crash diets are not for me and I realized that a long time ago. The fact that I have a sweet tooth does not help either.

I am at a stage in life where I need to lose a few kilos to improve my half marathon performance. I made some conscious decisions last year and the outcome has been great so far. I think I have hit the wall now. Some might argue that a runner does not have to do anything to lose weight because you know running does it for them. It is a myth. Running might help newbies in losing weight but for a seasoned runner (I am taking that liberty here) it gets difficult. Your body starts storing extra water, muscle weighs more than fat and all that jazz. The biggest challenge is that you are always hungry or what I like to call #rungry.

Last week I decided to take matters in to my hands. I have decided to go for a self imposed clean eating challenge. I know it is going to be super difficult but I gotta do what I have to do to reach my target and what better way than to blog about it?

So I will try and post recipes of my dinner. My days are smooth without any issues. I am very disciplined through the day. Sometimes I just go ballistic after my dinner and eat whatever I can. Stress eating is another one of my problems.

Some ground rules that I have set for myself are:

1. No Alcohol
2. No Refined Sugar
3. No substituting honey for sugar
4. No chocolates on rest days or easy workout days
5. Only 2 squares of chocolate allowed on heavy intensity days
6. No Junk food
7. No Biscuits (Another bad habit that I have recently picked up). Only 3 biscuits allowed on heavy intensity days
8. Ice cream only allowed if I am running more than 13Kms
9. Protein with every meal
10. Less portions and 7 meals in a day
11. Eat cheat meals every once in a while

So lets start from yesterday:

Mexican Bean Salad:

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Boiled red kidney beans
1 yellow pepper
1 shredded carrot
1 onion chopped
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup baby corn
1/2 cup sweet corn
Garlic pods chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms finely chopped
Dried rosemary sprigs

Dressing
1 sweet lime freshly squeezed
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Soy Sauce
Pepper
Chilli Flakes
1 tsp Vinegar

Guacamole:
I used the standard Food Network recipe

Method:

In a pan heat a little oil and add chopped garlic pods and when garlic starts turning golden brown add mushrooms, rosemary sprigs and saute well.
Add yellow peppers and all the other vegetables one by one with broccoli at last.
Add beans and mix everything

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, mix well and pour it in to the pan. Mix everything well.

Serve it with Guacamole..



Ciao..

A slice of cake, a good coffee and a good song. You just need simple things to get you started. 
Sometimes you just need a cake. On that note let me tell you that I love coffee cakes. 
Give me a light fluffy cake and I am the nicest person on this planet. I am really a cake person. 

Today morning I realized that I haven't had any cake in a while. So I looked around in my fridge and felt like a winner when I spotted two Valencia Oranges sitting prettily. A friend of mine got me a bag of Valencia Oranges from his farm. I love these oranges. They are so packed in flavor and are so sweet and refreshing. There is a little bit of tartness but it wakes you up. I have used them for salad dressings, as a snack, for chicken marination and I think it was time to use them in a cake. 

I looked around for a recipe and then decided to create my own. 

Upside Down Valencia Orange Cake

Ingredients:

1 orange thinly sliced (with the peel)
2 Tbsp Jaggery Sugar (Can use brown sugar)
2 Tbsp Butter
1.5 cups flour
1.5 tbsp baking powder
0.5 cup Jaggery sugar (Can use brown sugar)
0.25 cup white sugar
0.5 cup oil (I used rice bran oil)
0.5 cup thick yogurt (I used store bought)
Juice of 1 orange 
2 Tbsp orange zest
0.25 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 eggs

Note: I make my own zest. I peel the skin off and cut it in small pieces. In a pan I heat 2 tbsp water and 1 tsp sugar. I then add the zest to it and cook it for a minute. The zest becomes sweeter due to the mixture in which it is cooked

Method:


Brown the butter in a thick bottomed pan and then add 2 Tbsp Jaggery sugar when the mixture turns thick add the round slices of orange.

In a cake tin arrange slices at the bottom. Sprinkle the leftover butter-sugar mixture on them.


In a separate bowl sift flour and baking powder. Whisk the dry ingredients together.

In another bowl - Add sugar, yogurt, oil, orange juice, zest, eggs, lemon juice and mix them well.

Add dry ingredients to the wet batter in batches and whisk well.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Bake it thoroughly, especially in the center, or it may settle when it cools. 

Once the cake is done, let it cool. Place a plate and place the cake tin upside down. Remove the cake tin slowly. 

Enjoy The Cake

Ciao..

I love food. No surprises there. When I talk about my love for food it is not just the eating bit that I appreciate. I love shopping for groceries (Which is mainly online these days) also. When I was in Germany I made sure I visited Farmers market every week for  fresh produce. I create and construct recipes in my head. I come up with ideas, pairing of ingredients and then the task of executing my idea. I do this everyday.

When I moved in with Archana and Deepal back in 2006 I realized the importance of cooking for oneself. Before that I was mainly dependent on tiffin services. Every now and then I hear people moan that they don't like cooking for one person. C'mon how could you not love yourself enough to go through that process. I love cooking and the numbers don't matter anymore. Thankfully fitness is a major part of my life and it has only helped me in my cooking and the choices that I make. Almost Everyday.

The other day I was talking to a friend when she suggested that I share recipes, ideas and tips that I use on a daily basis. She wanted me to bring together my two passions - cooking and fitness. Her suggestion made sense and I have decided to blog about that as well. Let's see how I get on with it.

So please go ahead, read and share your thoughts.. I have decided to kick-start this series with dressings and Sauces.  My preferences keep changing. It is quite a seasonal thing for me. My favorite five dressings/recipes these days are:



1. My favorite dressing these days is Sweet Lime Chilli Dressing
Method: One fresh lime freshly squeezed, 1 tablespoon dark Soy sauce, Chilli Flakes and 1 tsp Honey. Mix well and toss veggies in this dressing

2. Date and Tamarind Sauce: This is my latest obsession after Priyanka shared her dessert recipe with me. Her dessert was too good to be true so I flicked the idea for creating savory dishes.
Method: Soak tamarind and then extract the pulp, mix a tsp of Date sauce with chilli flakes and sea salt
It works really well with chicken

3. Orange-Yoghurt-Dill dressing: Squeeze a fresh orange (I used Mandarin) and mix it with thick yoghurt - 1/2 cup (store bought). Whisk well. Add Dil, Lots of Garlic, Salt and a bit of olive oil. It works like a charm and goes really well with chicken

4. Coconut Milk Dressing: Mix skimmed Coconut milk- 1 cup (I use - Homemade by Dabur), Soy sauce - 1 tbsp, chilli sauce - 1tbsp, Peanut butter - 1 tsp, Garlic- Finely chopped and mix well

5.Plum Sauce: I know I should posting about all things apple now. I am not yet done with Plums though. I love this fruit for the kind of variety that it offers.
Method: Chop plums and then caramalize them in a heavy bottomed pan and add soy sauce (1 tsp) and chilli flakes. It goes really well with chicken and can also be used for marination

What do you think? Yay or Nay?

Ciao..

I bought lots and lots of apples last week, 18 if you must know. This is what I am good at. The moment I spot seasonal fruit in the market I go C.R.A.Z.Y. Apples are not seasonal anymore but I refrain myself from buying them in the summer months.

I think at the back of my mind I just wanted to bake a pie. Sometimes you have that itch to get over with something and that's how it was with me. 

So I researched on the internet for the recipes and after an hour settled for this one. I adapted it a bit. Here is my version of the recipe:

Ingredients

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
0.5 stick tablespoons cold butter
2 Tablespoons milk
(The original recipe said 1 egg but I didn't have it)
1 tablespoon Refined Oil


Filling:
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Note: I was out of lemons so I just used half a lemon and 1 tablespoon Vinegar
4 apples
2/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the pie
Note: I used jaggery sugar here
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Generous pinch of ground nutmeg

Method:
Prepare the dough. In a bowl, whisk the flour. cut butter in to pea sized pieces and work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resemble crumbled meal. Knead the dough for a bit and add oil to pull it together. You can add cold water over the mixture.

Note: You can use the food processor to prepare the dough easily. I prefer using my hands.

Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour.

Filling

Using my Instagram pic which I shared with my run

Slice and core the apples.
Note: I never peel my apples. I think thats just nutrition lost.

Cut each half into 4 wedges. Toss the apple with the lemon juice. Add the sugar and toss to combine evenly. Add lemon juice.


In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the apples, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to simmer, about 2 minutes. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until the apples soften and release most of their juices, about 7 minutes.

Strain the apples in a colander over a medium bowl to catch all the juice. Shake the colander to get as much liquid as possible. Return the juices to the skillet, and simmer over medium heat until thickened and lightly caramelized, about 10 minutes ( I added a bit of jaggery and the juice became quite thick).

In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the reduced juice and spices. Set aside to cool completely. (This filling can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated or frozen for up to 6 months.)

Cut the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough into a disc about 11 to 12 inches wide. Layer the dough between pieces of parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet, and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.

Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan with one of the discs of dough, and trim it so it lays about 1/2 inch beyond the edge of the pan. Put the apple filling in the pan and mound it slightly in the center. Brush the top edges of the dough with milk. Place the second disc of dough over the top. Fold the top layer of dough under the edge of the bottom layer and press the edges together to form a seal. Flute the edge as desired. Sprinkle with sugar. Pierce the top of the dough in several places to allow steam to escape while baking. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Note: For the top dough layer I used the very rusty lattice pattern ( can't blame me it was 10:00 PM and I wanted to have pie for dessert)
There's a proper way to do the lattice pattern and next time I will follow that.



Bake the pie on a baking sheet until the crust is golden, about 50 minutes. Cool on a rack before serving. 


Ciao..

I had to come here and write today. I have had a good day in a long while. I am just fed up of heat, humidity and life in general. I have been taking all sorts of shortcuts while cooking. There have been no elaborate meals lately. Well, that's Dilli kii Garmi for you.  It rained beautifully today and I had to celebrate it. I was just too motivated. Nothing could stop me.. I went for a long run in the drizzling weather and it was beautiful. I came back home early and decided to bake the egg less marble chocolate mango cake. This cake is super simple and a total beauty to look at.. 


The mango makes the batter super silky. The best part is that it is butter-less. It is a perfect tea-time cake. I was so anxious to see how it turned out that I made chai (It's the weather) after dinner and enjoyed it with a slice of cake. 

I am planning to freeze some Mango puree for the next couple of months. Let's see if I manage to do that.










Here's how I made it:

Ingredients: 

2 cups White Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup Mango chunks
1/4 cup Milk (I used non-fat)
1/4 cup Yoghurt
1/4 cup fresh cream
3/4 cup Sugar ( Make it 1 cup if Mango is not sweet)
1/3 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup warm Water 5 tbsp. Refined Oil 

Prerequisites:
Set the oven to pre-heat for 10 minutes
Grease and line the  cake tin with parchment paper.

Directions
I then added all the dry ingredients, except sugar in a bowl.
In a large bowl, I then blended sugar, oil, mango, yogurt, milk, vanilla, cream and mix well. (If you are using mango puree then just whisk it)
I gradually then added the dry mix mixture (1/3rd at a time) to mango mixture and mixed it well to combine the dry & wet ingredients. 
I transferred one third of the mango batter to another bowl and mixed the cocoa paste until thoroughly incorporated.
Once the batters were ready I poured them alternately on to the cake tin. I used a fork to create the swirls..

Baked for approximately 45 minutes, The first 10 minutes at 220 degrees and the rest 35 minutes at 180 degrees. The settings might vary so bake until the cake is well risen and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Saturday: It was a lovely day today. I kick-started my day with a 16 km run. I was so excited and ready to just laze around and do nothing. I went off to sleep for a quick nap at 11:00 am which turned out to be a long siesta. I woke up at 3:00 PM to beautiful weather. My legs were all sore but I was too inspired. Can't blame me? So I decided to bake my version of sticky buns.

Before I type out the recipe let me tell you that it is a great in-between-meals-kinda snack.



















Ingredients:

Buns
425g Flour (Maida)
7gms Yeast ( approximately 1 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp Sugar
3/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup dessicated coconut (Optional)
1/2 cup nuts and seeds mix with 1 tsp sugar sprinkled
2 eggs lightly beaten

Syrup:
1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp Vanilla 
1/4 cup nuts mix

Method

Heat the milk to lukewarm. Mix the yeast and Sugar, and leave until frothy, roughly 15-20 minutes
Cut cubes of butter and mix it with flour in a mixing bowl. Use your fingertips to mix until it reaches the coarse breadcrumbs like texture
Make a well in the centre and add the yeast mixture and eggs. Incorporate flour in circular motion mixing at every turn.
Knead the mixture until smooth and elastic. Cover the bowl with a cling film and leave it to rise (2 hrs approximately)

Meanwhile, prepare the syrup by heating water, brown sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Bring the mixture to a boil until thick and syrupy. Sprinkle nuts and pour about 1 tbsp of syrup at the bottom of each of muffin cups.

Knock back the dough and roll out to a rectangle.
Sprinkle filling (1/4 cup nuts, coconut and sugar) over the dough in  an even manner

Roll up tightly forming a log. Cut the log in to even rounds and place them in prepared muffin cups.
Leave them to rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the Oven for 10 minutes and place the prepared muffin pan to bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees or until golden brown.

Once done, remove from the oven and invert the muffin tin to remove the buns. 
















Sunday Morning: Enjoying this great weather with bun and jam with coffee. The music (The who) is playing in the background and I am already wondering about my next experiment :)

I haven't abandoned this space like my other food ventures. I am pretty sure that this blog is here to stay. I am battling heat in my part of the world. I am not a fan of summers (not Indian summers). They are too harsh for my liking. I am trying my best to stay hydrated and taking best care of myself.. My cooking is all about shortcuts these days and I am definitely giving my oven a break.
Today morning when I woke up it was relatively cooler. Well I don't know about you but over here 39 degrees feel cooler in the summer months. I instantly decided to bake something. The thought of baking a cake was tempting but then it gets difficult to store it. Leaving it out in open in this weather is not a good idea and I don't like refrigerated cakes. This reason was enough to get me back to baking cookies. It can be stored for longish time. It does not need enormous kitchen time and if you are bored you always have the option of freezing your dough and baking it later.

My cookies always used to turn out crunchy. I like chewy cookies so I decided to take the matter in my hands and get on with it. I researched every website, every recipe and every book and then came up with my recipe after a few rounds of trial and error..



Ingredients
1 Cup Flour
1/4 tsp Baking soda
2 eggs (or 1 large)
50gms Amul Butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cane sugar ( Use Brown sugar if not available)
1/4 cup Chocolate chunks (I prefer chunks over chocolate chips)
1 tbsp Black strap molasses
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method
Set your oven to preheat at 200 degrees and prepare your baking tray with well greased butter paper
Sift flour and Baking Soda together and keep aside

In a pan brown your butter on a low heat. When the froth appears and the color changes to pale brown switch off the gas. It gives a very nutty flavor to the batter

Let the butter cool down, add sugar, cane sugar, molasses and vanilla and whisk them together, add eggs and whisk until mixed properly

Add the flour mixture in 3 parts mixing well each time. DO NOT OVER MIX

Add chocolate chunks

Put the batter in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Use a tablespoon to scoop out batter and place it in the tray (You can use an ice cream scoop as well).
Tip: Form dough balls and leave enough space in the baking tray to allow them to expand
Once inside the oven, after 7-8 minutes I tapped the balls with the back of a tablespoon to flatten them (Read: No patience)

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Take the tray out and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Take the cookies out gently and place them in the oven on the wire rack directly for a couple of minutes.
(The cookies become crunchy if left for too long)

 It feels so good to be back..

I added a new tag to my ever growing collection of hashtags on Instagram. It is called #DinnerForOne. I know that cooking for  single person is a challenge and esp if you don't believe in leftovers. This is a perfect, no fuss recipe and I strongly recommend it.

I wanted to eat Salad for dinner and was at my laziest best on Saturday. I also didn't want any fancy dressing and yet I wanted a comforting salad because hello Sundays are #LongDistanceRun days. Yes, that's how complicatedly we do things around here. The dinner recipe idea had started forming in my head by 8 PM. I looked in the fridge and picked the most fresh ingredients and decided to give it a shot and yes I was done with my dinner by 9:20.. #SoComforting..

When I was in Germany my standard meal/ side meal every day was a plate of roasted vegetables.
I love the flavor of roasted vegetables. It brings out the sweetness of every vegetable and how they all end up infusing with each other. So Beautiful. *sigh*.

So here is my recipe of Oven Roasted Vegetable Salad.


Sorry for a very shabby picture. Hopefully this is the last shabby picture on this blog. 
I am getting a new phone soooooon.

Ingredients:
1 Zucchini sliced thinly
2 Medium sized tomatoes sliced thinly
3-4 Garlic Cloves
1 Onion cut in to chunks
1 Carrot diced
1 Yellow Bell pepper cut in to strips
1 cup cooked spaghetti ( I used approximately 40 gm spaghetti and I broke the strands)
Olive oil for greasing and sprinkling 
Salt
Black Pepper
White Pepper
Chilli Garlic oil ( Can use Olive/ refined)
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Herbs to sprinkle ( I used crushed rosemary, dill and paprika powder)
A few parsley leaves to garnish
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (Optional)
Note: You can select herbs of your choice

Method
I greased the baking tray with olive oil and placed the cut vegetables (except onions) on it with garlic cloves and sprinkled salt and crushed black and white peppercorns on it.

I sprinkled a little olive oil, a little chilli and roasted them in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.
Cutting vegetables thinly helps speed up the process and zucchini was really crispy when I took it out from the oven.. Yum!

In a pan I added chilli garlic oil and sauteed onions, I then added herbs and the roasted vegetables.
I kinda mashed the vegetables a bit using a spatula (Not too much.. just a bit)

When I was done with my light mish mashing I added cooked spaghetti, vinegar and mixed everything thoroughly. I then added grated parmesan.

I garnished the salad generously with chopped parsley..

Note: I have tried different variations and played around quite a bit with it and it was delicious every time.

•  Preheat oven for 7-10 minutes at 200 degrees and prepare your cake tin by lining it with a butter paper, greasing and flouring it well
•  In a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them well
•  Melt butter (I also added chocolate at this step). Add sugar and cream the mixture
•  Add eggs one at a time and beat the mixture thoroughly  
•  Mix vanilla 
• Add dry mixture 1/3rd at a time and beat well. The mixture will be very thick
• Add zucchini and mix well. The water content in zucchini will set the batter consistency right 
• Pour the batter into prepared cake tin and bake for 30-40 minute until the cake is well risen and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Ciao..

I workout in the evenings and light dinners are simply not for me. My plate needs to be warm, hearty and comforting. Anything less and I feel starved. I am very particular about getting my macros right with every meal. I love dishes which are easy, flavorful and full of nutrients.

1. I cut Tofu in to 1 inch cubes and marinated it in vinegar, ginger and a little soy for 30 minutes

1. I sprinkled 1 tsp cornstarch on it and shallow fried it until it turned golden brown

1.  Sauce: Mix water/ broth, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, corn starch, ketchup, garlic paste

1. Sauté vegetables on a low flame for a minute and add the sauce mixture, cook until thickened

1. I sprinkled roasted sesame ( Totally optional)