EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE with ALMOND PRALINE TOPPING

So this must be the 100th time I'm talking about our Chicago trip. As you all know by now, we celebrated Easter in Chicago with Jobin's cousin and family.It was good fun.We both ate so much yummy homemade goodness for every single meal! It was like a seafood festival for me! There was seafood in every possible dish...I'm talking about the Malayali curries like Chemmenum Mangayum,Chomanna Meen Curry,Ayila Varuthathu,Chemmen Olathiyathu etc. The Easter lunch was a potluck so there was an enormous spread of Kallappam, Kappa Biriyani,Mutton Curry,Thorans, Mezhukkupuratti's, Rice, Puddings etc. I ate continously from the time I woke up till I went to sleep. Burp!

We left early morning on Saturday and took this cake with us as a surprise for his cousin who was celebrating his b'day that day. When we reached there, I got plenty of time to make the puddings for the Easter lunch that I had signed up before. Jobin helped me with the prep work as we were expecting around 40 guests. I made the Chocolate Biscuit Pudding and Cold Frost Pudding. Then after all that, we set out the cake and candles and waited for the birthday boy who had gone hiking with his cousins.

When they came back, he was in for a surprise because it's been 2 years since he cut a cake at home as he was away in other countries for his studies. The cake was a big hit and no one even felt that it lacked eggs or was made eggless. So I didn't bother telling anyone, except for the next day when an Aunty asked me for the recipe :-)

I have made this cake before and it was enjoyed by all who ate it. The almond praline topping is a quick fix of mine whenever I need a topping for a cake or a pudding. I love the crunch it gives the soft cake beneath it. It hardly takes anytime to make but the effect it has on your palate is worth enjoying! Amma uses praline a lot for decorating puddings and also in her Praline Vanilla Sponge Gateau.

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE with ALMOND PRALINE TOPPING
Recipe for the cake: Anushruti
Recipe for praline: Amma

Ingredients:
For the cake
1 1/2 c flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp sugar
1 tin condensed milk
150g butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c water

Method: Preheat the oven to 300F/ 150C and prepare an 8 inch cake tin.
In a large bowl,mix the dry ingredients together. Add the melted butter and other wet ingredients to it and beat on high till there are no lumps, about 1 minute. Do not overbeat. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 -30 mins.Cool in tin for 5 mins and then invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

For the praline recipe, refer here

Assembly: Place the cake on a serving plate and cover it with a Chocolate Ganache (half qty). Sprinkle the praline over the cake and cover the sides too, if you like. Decorate the top  with rosettes/ stars using whipped cream. If you like, you can make some Lacy Oatmeal Cookies and pile them up in the centre.

This cake was loved by all irrespective of age & gender ;-) It has a nice texture with a delicate crumb. No one would ever guess it's eggless unless you mention it to them. This cake can be layered or used as whole, like how I did here. I am sure I will be using this cake again! If you want, you can bake them into cupcakes but keep an eye on the timing when you do so. It is delicious on it's own or you can dress it up with some icing and serve alongside with some real good vanilla ice cream. If you want to get adventurous, go drizzle some caramel sauce too!

VANILLA SCENTED PLUM CLAFOUTIS

Now a days, I'm trying to incorporate more fruits into my diet and end up picking quite a lot of fruits thinking they all would go into my belly in their raw state. It doesn't happen like that most of the time.No matter how much I try, I end up pairing them with flour, butter & sugar. This one was no exception. Everytime I opened my fridge, I would see the ripe plums sitting pretty in a bowl and staring at me.

Enough of staring dear plums, come to me, let me put you into good use! So I searched a way of using them up, a way I haven't travelled before. Of course, the Google came into my rescue! Just type in those magical words you want to see and there you have it, in all forms right in front of you!

I've noticed that Jobin loves desserts with fruits in them. He scrapes his bowl clean whenever I've made Orange-Blackberry Cobbler, Cherry Crumble, Nectarine-Blueberry Galette,Lavender infused Stone Fruit Tartelettes, Pear & Chocolate Crumble etc in the past. This time, I decided to go with a soft filling like a custard with plenty of fruits in it and see how he would enjoy it. It was a winner all the way!

Clafoutis is a French dessert of  Black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a flan like batter. It is then dusted with powdered sugar and served warm. Source - Wikipedia.

Cherries are not in season here right now but a lot of other stone fruits are. Plums, peaches,nectarines etc are available in plenty. I think most of them are imported as it's still not the season here for the local fruits. The plums which I bought were from Chile. They were the size of an orange we get in India.



The original recipe didn't call for Vanilla but I love using them in everything.I still have a big bag of Organic Vanilla Beans that I carried with me all the way from India. So I pulled out a bean, split into half, scraped it out with the blunt side of my knife and added it to the custard mix. The empty bean was then cut into 4 and was dumped into my sugar container to infuse my regular sugar and convert them into the fragrant vanilla sugar.

The pale yellow custard fleckled with vanilla paired with plums sautéed in butter and sugar was a real delight to our senses. There were some pan juices left behind and I made sure it was all added to the pudding dish along with the plums so that they remain juicy and nice. This is a very quick dessert that you can assemble and bake in a few minutes notice provided you have some ripe fruits on hand.

VANILLA SCENTED PLUM CLAFOUTIS
Recipe source : La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients:
450g plums
2 tbsp butter + 2 tbsp sugar
2 eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 c sugar
100 ml cream
3/4 c milk
50g cornflour
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Method: Pre-heat the oven to 410 F . Butter your pudding dish and sprinkle some sugar in it.
Wash and stone the plums. Cut them into 2 inch pieces. Melt butter in a pan and add 2 tbsp sugar and fruits to it . Let it cook on med-high for 5 mins.
In a bowl, mix milk and cornflour.In another bowl, beat the eggs + yolk together. Add sugar and mix well. Add cream and mix. Next,add the milk and vanilla to it. Arrange the fruits in your pudding dish and pour the custard mix over it. Bake till golden and puffed,about 28-30 mins. Once they are out of the oven, sprinkle with sugar and eat lukewarm, preferably.

This dessert is good. It's like eating a soft warm pudding filled with fruits. Since the ingredients are pretty basic, I'm sure it will be loved by almost anyone. I cannot wait for the cherry season to begin here so that I can bake these as much as I want to!

FRIED CHICKEN KABABS... Empire restaurant style!

Is there anyone out here who hasn't tasted the Empire Restaurant's (Bangalore) Chicken Kababs? I'm sure there are plenty and all I can tell them is ' you are really missing out on some good stuff!'. This was my most ordered, favourite item of theirs.I could eat as much as they would give me but they never gave more than 5 or 6 pieces and since we were in our college days, we needed our pocket money for more than just kababs ;-)

Usually when I think of Kababs/Kebabs, they are either baked or pan fried. This one is different from the rest as they are deep fried using a marinade. In Bangalore, you can find people selling these not only in restaurants but also in those road side shops which opens only after 6.30 pm and their menu doesn't go beyond Fried Rice and Chicken Kababs.

There was an old Uncle right across the street from our hostel who sold Fried Rice & Chicken Kababs and we were regular customers of his yummy food. He would make these in front of us but the marinade was made ahead of time and gave me no options to have a sneak peek of what's going into it. I remember asking him once to which he replied,' We use Bombay Kabab Masala'. I really have no idea if such a thing exists ! Once when Appan and Amma came to visit me in Bangalore, I bought them a plate of Kababs from that old Uncle's restaurant and ever since, if Appan goes that side, he buys it and eats them!

I didn't give up my hunt. I remember seeing a recipe in Vanitha for Empire Chicken Kababs and it was just flour,vinegar, chicken, food colour, Empire kabab masala (!?!) and salt. C'mon, when you give a recipe, it should be a whole recipe...how else will you know what's there in that Empire kabab masala? Never mind! I still wrote down that recipe in my favourite navy blue diary.

Like I mentioned in my previous post (Remember the late night Kadala Muttai?), I woke up one fine day with the thought of having the Empire kababs. Now where in Minnesota will I ever get it? Who in Minneapolis can make it for me? No one! I ate Jobin's brains,vented out on Facebook but nothing helped. So the hunt began...now you know where my hunt can lead me to! EMPIRE KABABS!!!! :-)

FRIED CHICKEN KABABS
Recipe from here

Ingredients:
4 tbsp maida/ all purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
2 tbsp red chili powder
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste 
2 eggs
1 tbsp cumin powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
Juice of 2 limes (or to taste)
3 green chilies, finely chopped
1/4 tsp red food colour,optional ( I used it)
Salt to taste

1 kg chicken, with bones (I used chicken thighs)
Oil for deep frying

Method: In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients from maida to salt. Add a few extra drops of water if the batter is very thick. Add the chicken pieces and mix to coat well. Let it marinate, covered, in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Heat oil on high heat, in a deep vessel. Reduce the heat to medium-high and add the chicken pieces, a few pieces at a time. Fry for 3-4 mins turning the pieces occasionally. If you fry it further, the colour of the coating will change from red to brown, if you used food colour. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with a few lime wedges & onions rings.

You are gonna LOVE it!

These kababs are as good as the ones we get in Empire or maybe even better! The chicken remains so juicy after frying that you need to hold a paper napkin underneath to protect your clothes!As soon as the first piece came out of the oil, I had to eat it. I must admit, it was so so good! Even Jobin said the same! When I was photographing these, I really couldn't resist the yummy smell of it and thought 'What the heck! After all it's for me  us!' That's the photograph you saw above :-)

Make this super easy appetizer for your next party and reap the compliments! There's nothing to go wrong in here!