Spinach & Basil Pesto

Making pesto is so easy, you will never buy that jarred stuff again.

You will need:

2 cups spinach
1 cup basil

1 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1/4th cup walnuts

salt and pepper

Add all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor and turn on 'HIGH'. While its blending, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. We want the olive oil to emulsify the ingredients. Blend till desired consistency is reached.

Note: Traditional pesto calls for pine nuts, but its the priciest nut around. I substituted it for walnuts which worked beautifully. You can use pretty much any nut as a substitute except peanut. You can also experiment with different leafy veggies to make 'pesto' like spinach or kale .

Two Ingredient Nutella Cake

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

As a prequel to my Nigella Lawson Project, I thought I'd keep it simple. I was invited to a friend's party and wanted something easy and quick to whip up. I had a jar of Nutella and this recipe at the back of my mind that I've been wanting to try out forever. I've been toying with the idea of a flourless cake for a while, and I think Nutella is the perfect ingredient.

Note: This was an experiment on my part with just a mix and match of ingredients in my head. I knew the basics about flourless cakes, but this recipe was a shot in the dark. But it did have amazing results. How can one ever go wrong with Nutella?

My tips on making this recipe:

• DONT CHEAT. There are only two ingredients and it is easy to make. It takes 10 minutes to make the batter, but if you try to simplify it or lose patience with the eggs you will end up will poor results.
• The key to the cake is the whipping of the eggs. The egg whites must be whipped to death. This is what creates the texture of the cake and prevents it from being 'eggy'.
• Warm up the nutella to make it a little runny, but not too hot or your eggs will cook up
• When you fold in the eggs and Nutella, it needs to be done in batches to avoid deflating the egg mix

Ingredients:

4eggs (separated)

Half a jar of Nutella

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius.  In a big bowl, whisk the egg whites till extremely fluffy. I'd suggest you use a stand mixer or a hand mixer, just plain elbow grease won't do the trick. You are looking at a nice thick, silky smooth consistency that is atleast three times the volume.

Microwave the nutella to make it a little softer. Beat the egg yolks and add that to the nutella. Whisk together to form a smooth paste. Add 1/4 of the egg whites and gently fold into the chocolate mix. Repeat till the mix is fully incorporated.

Pour batter into tin and bake for 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean. Let cake cool, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Note: since no flour is use, the texture of this 'cake' is more marshmallowy

Traditional Christmas Cake

Christmas is here!!! Well almost. And how can there be Christmas without cake. Baking the Christmas cake has always been a family tradition...after all the recipe has been passed on for generations. We all have our bits to play while making this cake. My job was to beat the egg whites till peaks form. Unfortunately I won't be sharing my family recipe this time. My family is in moaning, and there are no jingling bells at home this Xmas. I still however, insist on cake. So I'm adapting the recipe for Christmas cake from Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic Goddess. And since it was a Christmas present from my fiancee, this post is dedicated to you Shrey.

You may remember my post on prepping for the Xmas cake. I promised a little short cut to all latecomers like me. The trick is to boil the fruits in your alcohol the night before. Let it cool sit for atleast 6hrs before you use it in your cake. I would ideally like to soak my fruits for atleast a month, some people soak it for months before christmas. I'd say that 6 months should be the ceiling limit, post which the fruits get so laden with alcohol that they come apart and kinda blend into the cake. So you lose the integrity of the fruit.

For the fruit:

My traditional mix involves raisins, currants and candied fruits and peel. I would however (if time permitted me to get my hands on them) add candied ginger, plums and cherries. But you can add any dry fruit or non citrusy fruit you like. My personal favorite (if they were easily available in my country) would be cranberries and prunes. For measurements and quantities Nigella has an amazing chart which you can use depending on how big or small a cake you want to make. Chop the fruit and put it into a huge Tupperware box. Add 1/2 bottle of dark rum or wine or whiskey or brandy. It may seem too much but over the course of the month, the fruits with soak it up. Cover fruits and store.

Tip: You can tip all the boozy fruits into that cake and save the liquid. You can use the spirit in frosting or drink it as your own special homemade christmas tipple.

For the cake:

I was making a big batch of cake, hence the large quantities. These measurements will make you two large cakes. For one big cake, just halve the measurements.

500gms plain flour

500gms unsalted butter at room temperature

300gms brown sugar

12 eggs

250ml molasses

2tsp ground cinnamon

2tsp ground nutmeg

1 1/2tsp baking powder

250gms walnut (optional)

250gms cashew (optional)

The fruit mix

In a large bowl, cream the butter and then add in the sugar. Once combined, add in the fruit mix and the nuts. Mix till combined and then add in the eggs. Now add the dry ingredients one by one starting with the spices and moving to the flour in the end. Mix till all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake for 1hr and then turn down the heat to 150 degrees. bake for another 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Will you look at that crust!

This cake will last you for several months. To enhance the boozy flavour, keep feeding the cake some alcohol every week (if it lasts that long!). Just use the same spirit you used in the cake and brush it over the cake. The cake will absorb the flavour.

Too keep the cake moist, wrap it in tin foil as soon as you bring it out of the oven. The foil will trap the steam, and give you a really moist cake. I like my cake fudgey with a nice crust on top as well, so I omitted this step. If you would like a crunchy crust on top, sprinkle the batter with sugar just before your pop it in the oven. The sugar on top caramelizes to give you a lovely golden crunch.

100 Days Of Nigella...My New Years Resolution

The Nigella Lawson Project:

Most new year resolutions include losing weight, cutting out the sweets and the baked goods, not binging and the likes. So here I am doing the complete opposite.

I've always said, I'm more baker than cook. Baking is my first love, its my true calling. And Nigella Lawson played cupid. Don't you just love her? Her shows are essential to anyone who enjoys procrastination of the culinary kind. And what I love best about her is that she's not a 'chef'.  And as a host, she doesn't issue 'matronly' instructions. She's self taught, and almost goofy around the kitchen...just like me. She eats...good things and bad things. And best of all...she has hips! Its not just about the cooking, its about the enjoyment of being in the kitchen and getting your hands dirty, taking pleasure in the entire process, and relishing the outcome.

In my beef bourguignon post previously, I have ranted on and on about Julie and Julia and how much I like the whole concept of cooking out one's idol. So this Christmas my fiancee gifted me a copy of How To Be A Domestic Goddess and I thought why not?

The Plan...

Now I'm not so ambitious as to have a 365 day bake-a-thon. I do have a day job AND my own wedding to plan....and multitasking is not a quality I possess. Hence the 100 days of Nigella Project. Why 100 you may ask. There are approximately 50 weekends in 2014 which makes 100 days. So my aim is to cook out 100 recipes from the book over the 50 weekends in 2014 (I may skip a few weekends due to said wedding which I will make up for, don't you worry!). The book is divided into nine chapters: Cakes, Biscuits, Pies, Puddings, Chocolate, Children, Christmas, Bread & Yeast. Mind you I live in India so not all ingredients are easy to come by, hence I will cherry pick the easy recipes and dish those out.

So that is pretty much my rules. I'd love to hear your comments on the over the course of the year.

Wish me luck!