Vol-au-vents

Well I'm finally back to blogging some recipes after more than a very eventful year! My little girl is now 15 months old and I think she's going to be a foodie just like her elder brother (he just baked a carrot cake with only minimal help from me) ... I just started catering for small events and finger foods for office meetings, so here are a couple recipes from my last order:


Vol-au-vents:

1. Frozen vol-au-vent shells (you can make these from scratch but the ready made options make things very simple): 1 dozen or as per your requirements.
2. Basic white sauce:
- Warm 30 gms butter in a saucepan.
- Add 30 gms all purpose flour and continuously whisk on a low flame till cooked but without the flour changing colour.
- Gradually add part of approx one quart milk and whisk to remove lumps.
- Pour in the reamining milk and stir till sauce thickens and coats the back of wooden spoon.
- Remove from flame, add a dot of butter to prevent a skin from forming and set aside.
3. Filling:
- Diced cooked chicken, Sweet corn niblets and chopped sun dried tomatoes

Method:

1. Bake the vol-au-vent shells as per package instructions. Make sure to do them in the coolest part of the oven - the upper most level as they bake very quickly and tend to burn easily.
2. Once cooled, arrange the shells on a patterned plate.
3. Add the filling to the cooled white sauce and adjust seasoning with salt and white pepper.
4. Carefully fill the shells with a spoonful each of the mixture and garnish with parsley leaves.

A good place to get creative ideas for vol-au-vent fillings is available here and here http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Chicken-and-Mushroom-Vol-au-Vents-L5059.html

Vol-au-vents are a great idea for finger foods that look and taste great especially for when you want to go light on a cocktail dinner.

Rich Chocolate Cake with Ganache topping

I am a wannabe baker - although I never seem to have the right implements - the shiny cake tins of just the correct size, pretty ramekins and such like. But that doesn't stop me from going ahead and taking up baking projects head on which I know I'm usually unsuited for! I've gotten to be quite ok with cakes though ... especially as my little boy loves mucking around with me in the kitchen everytime we make one. We never need to scrub the mixing bowls too hard after we're done - he is really good at helping me with that :)



So just for him, I decided to make this cake on Holi along with the other traditional sweets like ghujiya etc. and his friends and him had a blast blowing out the candles and stuffing their faces with lots of the choco icing.



Ingredients - for the Fudge Cake:
1. 250 g unsalted butter at room temperature
2. 400 g sugar
3. 4 eggs
4 125 g dark cocoa powder (Hintz is especially good and not too sweet)
5. 375 ml milk
6. 500 ml corn oil
7. 10 g baking soda
8. 400 g maida or all purpose flour

For the Ganache:
1. 500 ml fresh cream
2. 50 ml water
3. 500 gm mix of dark and sweet chocolate (any good cooking chocolate brand)
4. 20 ml melted butter

Method - For the Base Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, oil and milk to the mixture and whisk well by hand or using an automated whisk.
3. Next, add the dry ing (flour, cocoa powder and baking soda) through a seive and slowly fold in taking care to scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl.
4. Grease a cake tin with some butter, dust with sugar to get a caramelised effect on the cake, pour in the mixture and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or till done.



For the Ganache:
1. Break the dark and sweet chocolate pieces and melt over a double boiler (if you don't have one, use a large pan with boiling water and place a smaller pan with the chocolate on top and stir continuously).
2. Boil the cream and water separately and pour over the chocolate.
3. Finally add the melted butter, mix slowly till blended and remove from heat.

Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack. Then using a sharp bread knife, slice horizontally from the centre - spread the ganache on one half, place the sliced half on top and spread the remaining ganache on top of the cake till it is covered. Dust the top with cocoa powder and serve.

Whole Cauliflower or 'Gobi Musallam'

A very Happy Holi and Easter to all of you wonderful bloggers! We had a wonderful brunch at home yesterday with a few close friends and although we didn't play with colours, we made sure to make up for it by eating most of the traditional holi foods. I will be posting a longish one on that next - for now, wanted to share this easy recipe for cooking whole cauliflower or "Gobi Musallam". Makes for a nice change from the usual gobi recipes.

Ingredients:

1. One whole medium cauliflower or 4 baby cauliflowers with stems removed.
2. One tsp each kashmiri chillie powder, aamchur (dry mango powder), turmeric powder and salt to taste mixed to a paste for the marinade.
3. Four green chillies slit and stuffed with kalonji (nigella) seeds:



4. Two tbsp tomato paste.
5. One tsp each red chillie powder and cumin seeds (jeera) powder for the gravy.
6. Half a cup beaten yoghurt.
7. Two tbsp corn/olive oil.
8. Half a cup water.

Method:

1. Apply the marinade (Ing 1) all over the cauliflower taking care to rub the paste between the stalks as well. Leave aside for 10 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a deep pan and brown the marinated gobi on all sides. Keep aside.



3. In the same pan, add the stuffed green chillies and allow the seeds to pop - about 15 seconds.
4. Now add the tomato paste and dry masalas (Ing 5) and fry well.
5. Add half a cup of water and bring to a boil.
6. Gently place the browned cauliflower in the gravy. Cover tightly with a lid and simmer on dum (place the pan on top of a heavy griddle or tava to achieve this effect) till cooked but not mushy.
7. Remove the lid, pour the beaten yoghurt over the gobi and cook for two minutes while gently mixing the curds through.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with phulkas and yellow moong dal.