Nigella's Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Seriously...I cannot get enough of chocolate...Is it just me or do I have an overdose of chocolate recipes in my blog.....I don't care ....you are gonna see more chocolate anyway.

I don't like to brag ;)......but believe me....... these are super simple .......amazing.......yummilicious.......with an attitude ....... muffins(does that even make sense).

Ingredients
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• 1 3/4 cup All purpose flour
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 4 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup Caster sugar or powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup Semi sweet chocolate chipes
• pinch salt
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/3 cup + 2 tsp Vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/4 cup Chocolate chips to sprinkle

Method

1. Preheat oven at 190 Degree C.Place muffin paper cases into a muffin tray and set aside.
2. In a bowl whisk or sieve together all the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, caster sugar and cocoa powder. Add 3/4 cup chocolate chips and mix well.
3. In another small bowl combine all the wet ingredients - oil, milk, egg and vanilla.Whisk lightly using a fork.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk lightly , do not over mix.
5. Using an ice cream scoop divide the batter evenly among the muffin cases.
6. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top of each muffin.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes or when inserted with a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Transfer onto a wire rack and let the muffins cool completely before digging in.

Penne Arrabbiata

My daughter loves Penne Arrabbiata ......I love creamy Penne Arrabbiata .........and my mom loves creamy cheesy Penne Arrabbiata......Glad that I was able to satisfy everyone with one dish.

Arrabbiata means 'Angry' in Italian...I am guessing it has something to do with the heat in the dish because of the chillies ....So here is some  'Angry Pasta'  for everyone.

Ingredients
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• 3 cups Penne, uncooked
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 10 cloves of Garlic, crushed
• 3 tsp Red chilli flakes(adjust to taste) or 2 fresh red chillies chopped
• 6 medium ripe Tomatoes 
• 3/4 cup Tomato Puree
• Pepper and salt to taste
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 2 tbsp  fresh Basil , roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp  fresh Parsley , roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup Fresh Cream
• 10 Black olives , sliced
• 1/2 Red capsicum,sliced (optional)
• 1/2 Yellow capsicum, sliced (optional)
• 200 g Mushroom, sliced (optional)

Method

1. Make tomato concasse -Boil 3 cups of water, while the water is coming to boil, make a small 'X' on the tomatoes (as shown above). Drop all the tomatoes into boiling water for few seconds(blanching). Remove from hot water as soon as the skin around the 'X' curls up or loosens. Dip the hot tomatoes into cold water to stop the tomatoes from cooking further. Peel the skin of all the tomatoes and keep aside. Cut the tomatoes and remove the pulp and seeds(keep this aside) and chop up the rest of the tomato. This is Tomato Concasse. I went a step further and passed the pulp and seeds through a sieve to get little more sauce, you can skip this step and discard the pulp and the seeds. The whole idea of tomato concasse is to avoid the seeds and the skin of the tomato.
2. Cook the penne-Bring 6 cups of water to a boil, add generous amount of salt. Drop in the penne and stir once and let it cook for 8 to 9 minutes or till al dente (firm but not hard). Drain the water
3. In a pan heat little oil and fry red capsicum, yellow capsicum and mushroom till it is almost cooked.Transfer to a plate or vessel and keep aside.You can skip this entire step. I like my pasta with some veggies.
4. To the same pan add olive oil, add crushed garlic immediately to the cold olive oil, stir for a minutes and add the tomato concasse and tomato puree and cook for few minutes , add little water or stock if the sauce is very thick(since I used the pulp my sauce was of the right consistency). Let the sauce reduce little. Now add red chilli flakes, pepper, salt and sugar(adjust according to your taste)
5. Add the fried vegetables (if you are using any).Mix well. Now add the cooked penne and mix well.Add in fresh basil and parsley and mix well.Sprinkle some sliced black olives. Now this is Penne Arrabiata.
6. I like my pasta creamy so I went ahead and added cream just before serving the pasta you can also add cheese at this point.
7. Serve with garlic bread.

Mississippi Mud Pie

I am posting a recipe after a very long break....went into a month long hangover....sobering up now (hopefully)

I strongly believe that a blogger should never apologize to his or her viewers for not posting for a long time....coz believe me........they won't notice that you are missing (I am excluding Shireen Sequeira :) 

 I felt it was the right time to post this recipe....I never thought I would ever say this ...well I am gonna say it anyways .....'IT'S VALENTINES DAY' (sorry I am not at all a valentine person...plz don't hate me)....well the real reason.....Its my daughters 3rd birthday....yes she is a valentine baby (I am not proud of it :) and yes I am dreading whats going to happen 15 years from now.

Recipe source:- Essential Chocolate - Love Food
Ingredients
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for Pastry

• 225g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 150g butter (cold)
• 2tbsp caster sugar
• 1 to 2 tbsp cold water

for filling

• 175g butter
• 350g brown sugar
• 4 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 4tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
• 150g plain chocolate
• 300ml cream

Method

1. For pastry- sift flour and cocoa powder into a bowl.Rub in cold butter till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, now add sugar and cold water and mix to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough and chill for 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven at 190 Degree C.
3. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface and place into a loose bottom tart/pie tin (I used one 7 inch and two 5inch tins). Line the rolled out dough with baking paper and fill with beans. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the beans and baking paper and bake the pastry crust for 10 more minutes.
4. Make filling-Melt chocolate using a double boiler,let it cool. Meanwhile beat butter and sugar in a bowl. Now beat in eggs and cocoa powder.Add the melted chocolate and cream and beat the mixture till well combined.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 degree C. Pour the filling into the baked pastry case and bake for 45 minutes or till the filling has set gently
6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Banoffee Pie......for A Sweet Punch

This months Sweet Punch challenge was ...Banoffee Pie......this pie is filled with amazing goodness and yet so simple...I always wanted to make Dulce de Leche.....once you have made that.....then you have a super simple dessert ready in minutes.....you gotta try this one.......

Recipe source : Swapna's Cuisine
Ingredients
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• 150 g Digestive Biscuits
• 30 g  Butter (melted)
• 200 gms Dulce de Leche
• 2 tsp Instant coffee powder
• 1 Banana (sliced)
• 200 ml Cream
• 2 tbsp Icing powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• 2 tsp Cocoa powder for dusting

Method

1. Powder digestive biscuits in a blender to fine powder, now add the melted butter and pulse till well blended.
2. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes.

3.Transfer the powdered biscuits into a  6 inch pie dish or tart pan with removable base. Press the powdered biscuits firmly with your hand and spread evenly,cover the sides of the pan too.

4.Place on a baking tray and put it into the hot oven and bake for 10 minutes (till the biscuit base looks little brown).Let this base cool completely.

5.Once the biscuit base is cooled, spread the dulce de leche on the base . Dip a spoon into hot water and using the back of the spoon spread the dulce (this makes it easier to spread the dulce).

6.Using a small sieve dust coffee powder on the dulce.

7.Now place the sliced the banana on the coffee powder.

8.Whip fresh cream with icing sugar and vanilla essence till soft peaks are formed. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe on top of the sliced bananas.

9. Dust cocoa powder on the cream.

Dulce de Leche

This is pure magic, when I opened this tin of condensed milk......I closed my eyes and prayed it would look exactly like how I had hoped it would...........and .......you get to see this amazing color....its just beautiful caramel ....its pure magic.

I wanted to make Dulce de Leche long back and came to know that its usually prepared by immersing the condensed milk tin in water and cooked for 3 hours.......I know ......3 hours....I was like.....forget it.....my mom would just set my head on fire....with all the gas prices shooting up....then I came across Divya's Easycooking blog...where she had used the pressure cooker method....I would not be surprised if it was an Indian who actually came up with this idea.....its just so amazing and time saving....though I did tell everyone to vacate the kitchen......just in case......(just kidding)

Recipe Source:Easycooking

Ingredients

• 1 tin Condensed Milk
• Water

Method

1. Place the condensed milk tin inside a pressure cooker, fill enough water to cover the tin.
2. Cover with lid and place the cooker on high flame, when the steam comes place the weight.After the first whistle reduced the heat to low and cook on simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Take the cooker off the flame and let it cool down to room temperature.
4. Remove the tin from the cooker and store in the fridge till further use.

Nungel Meen Ghassi - Dry Fish Curry

According to mom, this is what she would call 'Comfort Food'....if its raining and cold outside....I know what exactly my mom would say.....'This is the right time to have nungel meen ghassi  or chutney with piping hot ganji'....I have to confess that dry fish was not my favorite(I used to hate it)....but I also believe that with age,taste buds mature....mine did.....but my sister's did not....she refuses to even sit next to this dish... The easiest way to flush my sister outside the house.... just make nungel meen(dry fish) ghassi or chutney.

This is definitely one of those dishes that falls into the 'Acquired taste' category.......you can either hate it or just love it .

Ingredients
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• 350 grams Dry fish (I have used thate/shark)
• 1 cup Coconut
• 7 to 8 roasted Red chilllies 
• 2 tsp roasted Coriander seeds
• 1/4tsp roasted Cumin seeds
• 15 roasted Peppercorns
• 1/4 tsp roasted Fenugreek seeds (methi)
• 5 cloves of Garlic (with peel)
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• lemon size Tamarind
• 1 medium Onion- chopped
• 1 small Tomato - chopped(optional)
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Method

1. Soak the dry fish in hot water for 30 minutes to remove excess salt. Remove and cut to desired size.
2. Grind coconut,red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, fenugreek seeds, garlic. tamarind and turmeric powder to a fine paste using water.
3. Place a pan on medium heat,add oil when hot add chopped onion and fry till it turns dark brown. now add tomato which is optional and fry for 2 minutes. Add the ground paste and fry for few minutes till the raw smell disappears and oil leaves the sides of the masala. Now add the fish and enough water to get desired consistency (I used 1 cup). Add salt and bring the curry to a boil. take off the flame.
4. Serve with rice ,preferably with brown rice (roasematta)