Chocolate Pudding (eggless!)

Chocolate pudding

If you are a chocolate lover, you will love this. I wanted to make this for my son to have as pudding after dinner to mark his first full day at school. It went down a treat with my son and husband, that means it must have been atleast good J. I used dark chocolates I got from Lidl and find their quality quite good and would strongly advise to get fine chocolate otherwise it will show in the quality of the dish. You can keep this in the fridge for about 3 days if it lasts. If you have a chocolate loving guests, you can make these the previous day and refrigerate. Here is the recipe, no fuss and just indulgence...

Makes 6 servings (6 ramekins)

1 pack of dark chocolate

2.5 cups of milk

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoon cornflour

Add the cornflour to the milk and beat so there are no lumps. Heat this on a double boiler while stirring all along and do so until it coats the back of the spoon

Add the chopped chocolate and sugar and keep stirring and keep it on the double boiler until all the chocolate melts and it thickens and it looks shiny.

Pour into serving dishes, cover and refrigerate for atleast 3 hours

Yum yum!

Potato and Cauliflower stem sabji

Potato and Cauliflower stem sabji

Call me frugal but I just love to find ways of using as many edible parts of a vegetable as possible. When I was in college, my mom once mentioned that some of her colleagues cook the cauliflower stem. By stem, I am referring to the rib of the outer leaves that cover the curd. I then tried using it in a gravy and was quite good. Years later, I am beginning to do the same again. This time, I have used it in a dry sabji and when combined with potatoes, anything would go down with my better half. It is quite nutritious as well so that makes me even happier that I managed to use it. Avoid using the thick ones as they are very fibrous, the tender ones are ideal. Here is a simple recipe...

1 onion, chopped

About 10 baby potatoes, boiled and peeled

Tender stalks from cauliflower, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon chilly powder

½ teaspoon sabji masala or garam masala

Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

½ teaspoon amchur powder

Cooking oil

Heat some oil and add the cumin seeds. Once it browns add the onions and cook until it just begins to change colour

Add the stalks and little salt and cook covered until it is cooked i.e. soft

Add the boiled potatoes, turmeric powder, chilly powder, garam masala, more salt if needed and amchur powder and cook until all raw smell goes away.

Ready to serve

Nutella cookies

Nutella Cookies

What a day it has been!! I have barely slept in several nights, thanks to the kids becoming poorly one after another. Not to mention that has not left me with my usual energy levels, however, when special days come around, one just has to find the energy from somewhere. So what was special about today, it was my kid’s first day at school! I wanted to make something that he would like to have as an after school snack and thought a chocolate cookie is unlikely to go wrong. I wanted it to be reasonably unhealthy as well and not pure indulgence so I added millet flour and wholewheat flour. I tried dusting the cookies with icing sugar before baking them hoping it will have a nice white appearance when baked but it did not turn out as expected as it melted in the oven. However, it did give an interesting texture and taste and was not all too wrong afterall. You may want to try it or skip that bit.

4 tablespoon nutella

80 gram i.e. 1/3 cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

½ cup wholewheat flour

½ cup ragi flour (if you do not have any, you could use any other millet flour or more wholewheat flour)

½ cup all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon soda bicarbonate

1 tablespoon milk, if needed

2 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degC. Line the baking tray with greaseproof sheet

Cream together the butter, nutella and sugar

Sift the flours with the soda bicarb and baking powder. I also added a tablespoon of coco powder to make it more chocolatey. Mix to form a soft dough, add a bit of milk if needed. When you pinch a ball and roll, it should just about hold comfortably

Pinch small lime sized balls and flatten with your hand by pressing down. Dust the cookie in icing sugar and line on the tray with atleast an inch between each other

Bake for about 8-9 minutes. Be careful as i is hard to determine if the cookies have browned as the chocolate is already brown. I usually go with the smell. By eight minutes, it is aromatic, utmost a minute more would usually be enough.

Leave on the tray outside for about ten minutes as they will be very soft. Then cool completely in a cooling rack