Love and Calories!!

Chocolate! Chocolate!! Chocolate!!! I can never get over it...This C word is, was and always will be my weakness and the reason for my weight gain (oops..I shouldn't have told you that). You can ask me to diet if only the menu included a generous piece of Dairy Milk or a Chocolate Mud Cake....oooh! A big thank you to whoever thought of converting those lovely cocoa beans to soft, chewy, rich, smooth and delicious chocolate. So coming to my double chocolate brownies, I baked them two weeks back on a Friday night after coming from work. I was tired, exhausted and wanted to just crash on my couch and watch something nice on TV and welcome weekend. One of the channels were showing Johnny Depp and Juliett Binoche starrer 'CHOCOLAT" ...Oh my God I thought...I loved this movie and immediately went up to check my pantry to see whether I got all the ingredients to bake some brownies. For the chocolate lover that I am, I had everything ready to be baked up. I quickly baked...

Oooh!! PANNA COTTA...This name gives you the feeling that it is the most intricate, sophisticated and  "Oh boy, we can't cook those at home" type of a dessert. Well, atleast that's what I thought until I tried to make it at home. Panna Cotta or "The cooked cream" in Italian is one of the easiest desserts one can make anytime at home. Less time, Less ingredients, Less hassle, No oven (That's a relief), No Egg, Voila....a great looking rich restaurant dish is cooked up!! Panna Cotta, originally from Italy, is a jelly like, rich, wobbly custard made up of cooked cream, vanilla and sugar with a little gelatine to thicken it up. Along with it, I have made a Strawberry coulis to top it off. The silky smoothness of the cream with the tanginess of the berry sauce will make your palate go all wohoooo about it. Make this when your guests come home and earn some brownie points, I say!! ;P Ingredients: 500 ml double cream 5 tbsp sugar 1 vanilla pod 4 sh...

Cupcakes - those little sweet treats are everybody's favourite and have usually seen them so beautifully displayed for almost all occasions. Every one's reaction when they hear or see Cupcake is... "Yummmm"! But is not the case with me. I have never fancied cupcakes in my life. You must be thinking, "C'mon now...Don't like cupcakes?? you must be kidding!!  but the truth is, I never was a fan of these little cute things. But I just love the look of it. Those different creative frostings  on top makes it so special and good looking. And the effort made by the bakers are seen just by looking at the creative topping. For the love of baking alone, I tried to bake some easy cupcakes to start off.  This recipe will be very useful for those who have never tried to bake cupcakes before (just like me) and are now interested to try their luck in baking some. I prefer chocolate to sugary icing and that is the reason why I baked some Devil's food Cupcakes....

Saturday night 10.30 pm, the sun set was 15 minutes ago, it was pouring heavily outside the window (typical English weather) and suddenly it was all dark and silent at home. Arun said he was too tired for the day and snored away immediately. I was left alone in the living room, fully charged up only then. I wanted to engage myself immediately, do something, anything....so I thought why not I bake? Perfect time to be with yourself, and do what you love doing....COOK! I already had the plans of baking a cheesecake this weekend, so I had all the ingredients ready at home. So I baked away a nice "Brownie Crust Cheesecake" at Midnight...and What fun! :) There was a long time request by an ardent fan of my blog and a good friend Poornima, to share a good recipe of a Cheesecake. Since "Baking" is not my forte,  I delayed it too long, but after baking this one, I was feeling quite happy with myself. The Cheesecake not only tasted good, but it also looked perfect lik...

Happy 2012 every one! Since its the beginning of a New Year, I thought of cooking something sweet as to fill the year full of sweetness, good health & prosperity. So I left wondering what do I make to usher 2012?? Then I thought of "Gaajar Ka Halwa", a popular North Indian sweet dish mainly prepared during the Winter Season. Gaajar (Carrot) Ka Halwa (Fudge) is made with bloody red carrots which are grown in abundance during Winter, in India. Its natural sweetness & goodness makes this dessert more slurrrrrp worthy :) Its January & there is still some nip in the air, so I chose to make some Carrot Halwa. I managed with the ordinary orange carrots as I didn't find any red ones here in England. It didn't match the taste of those bloody ones but the dish didn't disappoint me. Anything with sugar gives you a high...isn't it?? Ingredients: 4 cups shredded carrots (preferably red ones) 4 cups milk (boil it & keep it warm) 4 tbsp ghee (clarified butte...

Ho! Ho! Ho! Christmas is around the corner & every one is in a festive mood. Hustle bustle on the streets, malls full of people ticking their Xmas shopping list, Santas giving free goodies to kiddoes, lights & decor galore in shops & homes & FOOD of different varieties are kept to fill in your little tummy. Well, you can almost find me near the Xmas special food aisle, By Default. You must be wondering about the Title of this post by now. The word "Christmas" is fine (she must be putting something special in her blog as it is the most important time of the year) but what is "Centennial" ? Well, I just recently noticed that I have posted almost 97 dishes in my blog since February & 3 more dishes will make my 100th post. So I merged my happiness, festivity & my 100th dish into one big post & thought of publishing it in three different parts. So I came with an idea of creating a simple but grand Christmas 3 course Set Menu which will ...

And the time has come when I post the recipe of the God of all Desserts, TIRAMISU, on my food blog. I have relished this dessert many a times but my love towards it grew when I tasted it in the very own Italy. The lush layered dessert made me feel like an angel with wings flying up and above, reaching the clouds. I truly felt like am in heaven & heaven was in my mouth. No wonder, Tiramisu means "Pick me Up"!! I was on a hunt to get the original ingredients to make it at home so our good old friend Maria Ferreto came to my rescue and not only she shared her original recipe with me but also gave me the original ingredients straight from Italy. I was delighted!! This is a very delicate yet an easy dessert recipe with an explosion of various tastes bursting in your mouth. The coffee liquer soaked savoairdi biscuits, the soft cheesy custard, a hint of Marsala wine strumming your taste buds & finally a coat of chocolaty cocoa.....its all in there in the Luxury Tiramisu. I h...