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It’s been a while since I’ve last updated this blog. But fear not ! I am back and cooking again. Just trying to get my life together. Picking up the pieces of the old life to serve my new life. So here is to something new. A piece of banana bread with some indulging vanilla ice-cream.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Ripe bananas – 5-7
  • Eggs – 3
  • Oil – ½ cup
  • Sugar – ½ cup
  • Cinnamon – 1 Tbs
  • Flour – 2 cups
  • Butter – ½ cup
  • Brown sugar – 1 cup

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Smash 4 bananas in a bowl. Add the eggs, oil, sugar and cinnamon and mix it together.
  2. Pour the flour and combine everything together.
  3. To make the caramel, in a pan heat up the butter until melted. Add the sugar and bring to boil.
  4. On a baking dish, pour the caramel in first. Slice two bananas in pieces and assemble them up on top of the caramel filling in the baking dish.
  5. Add the flour mixture and bake it for 350 degree Fahrenheit / 175 degree Celsius for about 40-50 minutes.
  6. It is optional to serve with some Vanilla Ice – cream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNcHNtadhK4

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Cream Puffs

What can be more sweeter to make for your mother on mother’s day than balushai ? This is my way of adding more sweetness to mother’s day. A sweet little thing for a sweet little person. And of course some chocolate coated strawberries. But that’s a recipe for another day. For today this is an accomplished surprise from me .

INGREDIENTS :

  • Flour/Maida – 1 cup
  • Baking Soda – ½ tsp
  • Salt –  ½ tsp
  • Ghee –  ¼ cup
  • Chilled Yoghurt –  ¼ cup
  • Oil – For deep frying

For the sugar syrup :

  • Sugar –  1 cup
  • Water –  ¼ cup
  • Cardamom powder –  ¼ tsp
  • Pistachios –  For garnishing

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. To make the dough , in a large bowl add the flour, salt and baking soda.
  2. Stir to combine the dry ingredients.
  3. Add the ghee to the dry mixture, use your fingers to form coarse crumbs.
  4. Add the yoghurt and mix everything until it forms a dough.
  5. Cover the dough with a wet cloth. Allow it to rest for 30 minutes.
  6. After which form the shape of a ball and press down on the dough with your thumb very slightly. Do not press too much to shape them as this can cause cracks in the balushai.
  7. Cover the made dough shapes with a wet cloth for 15 minutes.
  8. Deep fry the dough on medium heat to cook evenly.
  9. In a saucepan add the sugar and the water and stir the mixture until the sugar dissolve in the water. Once it is dissolved allow the mixture to come to a boil.
  10. Add the cardamom powder, turn the heat to low and let the mixture simmer until you reach the single thread consistency. You will know that it has reached a single thread consistency when you touch the sugar syrup between your two fingers you will find that it is sticky.
  11. Drop each of the fried dough in the syrup until it gets well coated all around.
  12. Drip the excess and lay it on your serving dish. Garnish with some crushed pistachios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PrQpXSnmO0

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I am back with some more sweetness to share with you all. I had a lot of oranges (mandarins) lying around the house. At first, I felt like making some kind of cake but then I came across this recipe.  I am used to making chocolate (white and dark) brownies. This is the first time I attempted to make fruit flavoured brownies. Honestly, I don’t need anything to make me satisfied after this sweet little addition to my kitchen right now. Needless to say they were all gone in a jiffy.

INGREDIENTS :

  • All purpose-flour – 1 ½ cup
  • Sugar – 2 cups
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Butter (Softened) – 1 cup or 2 sticks
  • Eggs – 4
  • Orange extract ( pure)- 2 tsps
  • Grated Orange -1 tsp

For the glaze

  • Confectioners’ sugar – 1 cup
  • Orange juice – 2 tbsps
  • Grated Orange – 1 tsp

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
  2. Grease well, a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan and set aside.
  3. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt.  Add butter, eggs, orange extract and orange zest, and beat with a handheld electric mixer until well blended.
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven and pierce entire top of cake with a fork.

To make the glaze:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring with whisk until smooth.
  2. Pour glaze over warm cake.  Cool cake and cut into squares.

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Orange-Brownies-771885

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Kalo Jaam

 

So here we are back to making desserts again .. its always so comforting to make something sweet. I feel that it somehow sweetens my soul as I make it. I made “kaalo jaam” after such a long time. My inspiration for making this dessert is the sweetest person in the world – Kakon api. I first had this at her house.. and she was nice enough to send me the recipe as well. It also reminds me of the time when I went to Nipa apus house and made these on a whim. We had a real girls day in. All very good memories attached to this dessert. I miss you all and this is to reminisce our time together.

 

 INGREDIENTS:

  • Milk Powder – 4 cups
  • Self Raising Flour – 1 cup
  • Quart of whipping cream ( Thickened cream)
  • Oil for deep frying

INGREDIENTS FOR SUGAR SYRUP:

  • Sugar – 4 cups
  • Water – 5.5 cups

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. In a mixing bowl combine milk powder and flour .. make a well in the middle and add the thickened cream slowly while mixing everything together .. forming a dough.
  2. Shape the dough in to round balls first and then roll it sideways in your hands to form an oval sphere.
  3. To get your sugar syrup ready .. use a Rondeau pan. The more bigger the pan the better so that when you soak the fried dough in it .. there will be plenty of space for them to increase in size. Combine the water and the sugar and boil it till the sugar is completely dissolved.
  4. Fry the dough on a medium flame. Take your time to do this step as you want the dough to cook thoroughly.
  5. Once all of it is fried, lay all the fried dough in to the sugar syrup and boil for 5-10 minutes with the lid covered. Turnoff the stove and let it soak in to the sugar syrup until you are ready to serve it in to your serving dish.

 

 

 

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Finally I get to celebrate thanksgiving on American land. This year I chose to go with chicken rather than turkey .. Lot’s of chicken .. I got the recipes from my mom ( Chicken fry and Chicken roast ). Cham cham and lobongo lotika was an entire new venture for me. Inspired by Kakon Api .. I will be posting individual recipes later on. For now enjoy the gallery of my thanksgiving spread. Thanks to Maisun aunty for helping me so much in the kitchen .. without you I wouldn’t be able to pull this off all by myself. Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂