Kolhapuri masala

    Kolhapur, city from South-west Maharashtra, has been blessed with delecious cuisine.  From, taambda rassa, pandra rassa to  sukka, they have also been entrusted with loads of vegetarian dishes like Misal, bharleli vaangi and ghavachi kheer as well.  What makes Kolhapur additionally special is largest production of jaggery owing to massive sugarcane fields around.  Not only on culinery terms, they excel in Jewellery, leather chappals and wrestling.  Relegiously, they have also been termed as, 'DAKSHIN KAASI' due to presence of Goddess Mahalakshmi.

    Though they multi-excel, our key point to note would be the entire soul for Kolhapuri cuisine - Kolhapuri masala.  The unique combination of dry roasted spices like sesame seeds, coconut,  garlic along with garam masala like cinnamon, cloves, star anise flavours this masala in an wholesome way.  Special regards to the chilly used here - Bedgi mirch (dark in colour, mildly spicy), Jawari mirch (lightly toned, but highly spicy)  So, when I saw an recipe by Prachi Joshi from GOOD FOOD Magazine (May 2014), I could hardly resist myself from preparing them.

So, here they are.  The given recipe yields 250 gm of Kolhapuri masala (You could half them, for an small batch also).  At room temperature, this can be stored in an airtight container, for almost ten months.

Chocolate conecakes - My anniversary treat

    First I saw them on an random google image search, I was stunned.  These cute conecakes were simply amazing to look, and would definitely be an 'hit' dessert for any occasion.  I decided that I will bake my own version someday.  And when that 'someday' turned out for my anniversary, I was completely excited.

I had baked these few weeks back, for my daughters's summer camp party.  At first, my other half mocked me, by saying, 'Can you do those, all by yourself?'  This, itself was like, enough to trigger the 'baking' fire on me.  But, unfortunately he was right and I flopped first time.  But, second time, I tried keeping in mind, all my flaws, I got them perfect.  Don't worry guys, I will share all my flaws with you, so that you need not suffer any, 'first loss'  as I did.  Just keep yourself hooked till the end of the post for all kind of tricks and tips.

These conecakes, usually are baked from short-bottomed cones.  But, here I have used normal cones, we can see at every ice-cream parlour.  The batter I have filled is chocolate sponge cake, with whipped white chocolate ganache and an dark chocolate ball, to top with.  Overall, these triple chocolate conecakes, were an delight to watch, delecious to eat, everything I have imagined them to be....

Whipped ganache

 I had plans to bake an awesome cake for my wedding anniversary, and so inspected my refrigerator for my available ingredients.  With cream and white chocolate lying around, I happily proceeded to make ganache sauce...  Later, I was shocked to realize that instead of planning an icing for my cake, I had settled for an sauce :/  sigh..... So, as I started browsing around, I had,  understood that this ganache sauce can be whipped up to form an icing.  OMG, that was sooo close, an blessing in disguise, actually :)

Ganache, an sauce is used as sinful filling in truffles.  Dark chocolate and cream are usually added in 2:1 ratio, but milk and white chocolate can alternatively used too.   It is an myth to refer white chocolate as an, 'chocolate' because they have an lot of cocoa butter content in them than the actual cocoa iself.

Care should be taken that ganache should be an smooth pudding-like (ie, an thick sauce) before whipping, if they harden after refrigeration, they must be brought under room temperature till they become saucy.   Alternatively  overwhipping might also result in grainy textured output.  So, whipping till they increase in volume and become fluffier might be suggested.

Karahi chicken

   'Karahi Chicken', an Pakistani dish, derives its name from the round, circular shaped wok (called as karahi) they are cooked with.   Prepared with tomatos and green chilly as its base, this gravy is not only flavourful, but also was delecious.  

With an toddler around, I decided to go with moderate amounts of green chilly (If you wish this dish to be highly spicy, you can add more amount of green chillies) Remaining amount of green chilly, was substituted with capsicum slices to give an sweet touch.  This dish, is cooked as an one pot meal and traditionally was cherished till late nights.  Simplistic approach, with easy-peasy ingredients and no-oil cooking complements this dish an lot.

Araichu vitta sambhar

Running out of sambhar powder?  Or often wondering the secret-ingredient for restaurant-styled thick sambhar??   Don't worry.... this, araichu vitta sambhar comes to your rescue :D  'Araichu vitta' in tamil means freshly grounded, accordingly this sambhar utlizes an medley of spices from your kitchen, that are freshly dry-roasted and powdered.  This powder, not only comes in handy when your sambhar powder goes out of stock, but also acts as an, 'thickening agent', thus making the latter more fragrant, more tasty and restaurant-styled.

And, one other difference from sambhar is that, in araichu vitta sambhar, tempering is done by the end.  Since, we add no spices other than dry-roasted ones, we may not be sure about the spice- content of sambhar.  Hence, tempering accordingly with number of red chillies might yield you an perfect, balanced output.  This is really, an blessing in disguise, isn't it?