Opera cake - Baking partners challenge

    This month's Baking partner challenge was suggested by Savitha,  Opera cake is an famous french pastry where almond flavoured sponge is filled with  coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache with an liberal soaking of coffee syrup.  The final layer is glossed with tempered chocolate and is refrigerated overnight for the coffee flavour to infuse.

The first time, I tried almond sponge, it completely broke, and yes, sadly landed in garbage.  After watching an lot of youtube vidoes,   I gave them another shot.  Yayy... my sponge came out right!  I, divided the recipe by one third as I had an small oven, with baking tray supporting 9 inch by 10.5 inch.  This cake requires an lot of labour, so prepared sponge by day one.  Day two,  morning, prepared syrup, ganache and buttercream.  Assembled by evening and refrigerated overnight, this cake was ready for consumption by third day.

One bite into this pastry, was fabulous with an strong hint of coffee and some chocolate.  Initially, I was  worried when both sponge recipe and buttercream recipe demanded eggs.  But, this pastry had no eggy smell at all.  They were soft and delecious, like Bakery bought ones.  I never though that I could make them this delecious, thanks to Savitha and Swathi Iyer for bringing out such an challenging recipe.

Kundapura kozhi chaaru

    This morning, I was going through my recipe diary.  Initially, when I started to cook, I had this habit of writing down all interesting recipes from TV program.  As week-end special, we always have chicken- so when particular page read, ' Kundapur kozhi chaaru' I got very excited!  All ingredients mentioned was handy at home, so tried these for this week's CCC Challenge.

Kundapura kozhi chaaru is an regional speciality from Karnataka, in a place called, 'Kondapur'.  This curry is more like an soup.  Yes, chaaru is an equivalent term for, 'rasam' in tamil.  This soupy broth is best when served with rice.  This recipe also, involves in an special masala, that imparts an fresh taste to this curry.  To, top this coconut oil and curry leaves added an mystique flavour that circulated the entire home.  Do try this and let us know :)

White chocolate cups with beet cream

   We are always in for chocolate treats.  My freezer will never be out of chocolate/compounds.  This gives me an ample time, to experiment or to cook throughout the year.  Beets are always favoured with chocolates through cakes, and I wanted to bring out their partnership in yet another way.  Hence, these treats.

This dessert cups, have an amazing way of bringing out the creamy texture from beets.  An bite into this, I could bring out the beet flavour as well as delecious cream finishing on an sour note.  Even kids, who dislike beets, will give an special attention to these cups.  What better way to bring out the veggies, on the dessert table?   :)

Gongura mamsam

   There always used to be five to six types of spinach around my place, though I always end up buying palak, methi.  I, got intrigued with puntikura, after an taste of gongura chutney at my mother's place.  So, when I asked an fellow lady, who, I chanced upon picking these, she told me that they used to add in gosht prepartions.

So, I happily picked these and left home.  With my 'The Essential Andhra Cookbook' handy, I zeroed over an recipe called Chigoor ka salan.  Though these were made of tamarind leaves, this recipe also suggested any addition of spinach.  So, I nailed it replacing tamarind with gongura.  This curry had an high sour quotient along with balanced spice and salt.   This was completely unique,  and we did enjoy this as an family.   Do try and let us know.  

Shrikand cookies

Cookies are always an essential bites at home.  They lift up every occasion and cheers us all.  Following Zebra cookies, here comes Shrikand cookies, made by hung curd.  This fusion cookie starts with rich flavour and ends on an sour note. 

Their speciality is their cake-like crumbly texture, appealing to crowd of all age.   I had them garnished with cardamon, almonds and saffron to coincide with traditional shrikand.  Here, everybody enjoyed the bite and are  having an good time :)  Hope you guys try and let us know.