Modak for Ganesh Chaturthi and Indian Cooking Challenge

Dear Foodies,

This is the first time i made modak at home for ganesh chaturthi and as you can see i wasnt very successful in my attempt. The only problem i faced was that i couldnt give them proper shapes, the dough was sticky and becoz of which it kept on tearing in between. Even though the shapes of modak were not proper i did go ahead and served them to lord ganesha after all what matters is your honesty, sincerity and your undying faith. The recipe followed was the same as mentioned by Srivalli on the ICC post. 
These are off to Indian Cooking Challenge by Srivalli and Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi event by Purva and Priti

Modak from Mints
Ingredients Needed


For the Stuffing -
2 cups freshly grated coconut (she says you can use frozen unsweetened coconut)
1 cup jaggery (grated)
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp cardamom powder
one pinch nutmeg (optional)
2 tbsp water (i used rose water)


For the outer layer or Cover -
1 cup rice flour
1.25 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tbsp oil

Procedure for Stuffing:

• Roast the poppy seeds in a small skillet and let it cool down. Grind it coarsely and keep it aside. If you have roasted poppy seeds, its fantastic no hassles!
• In a heavy bottom kadai, take the grated jaggary, add 2 tbsp of water and melt to liquid. Sieve to remove impurities if any.
•  Then add the liquid back to the kadai and add the grated coconut. Keep stirring so that it does get burnt in the bottom.
•  In about 5 -7 mins you will see the mixture getting solid, at this stage add the cardamom and nutmug powder if you are using it.
• When you see the mixture turning yellowish, more like golden and sticking to the sides, you can turn off the flame add the poppy seeds powder, mix well and set it aside to cool down. 

Procedure for outer cover :

• Take a thick bottomed vessel with a lid. Start boiling water in that vessel, add salt and oil.
• When water starts boiling, lower the heat and slowly add rice flour. Please do not dump all the flour at once.
• As you add, start mixing vigorously with a ladle. Once all the flour is done, keep mixing well till you see a smooth well mixed mixture.
• Now close the lid and take the pot off the heat. Let the covered pot cool down for 15 minutes or so. Then using a ladle, mix the dough properly. If you want to mix with your hands, you can dip your hands in water and quickly mix the dough. But ensure you don't use too much water.
• Mints suggests 1-2 tbsp of All purpose flour to be added to get the dough a bit more sticky. But I just went ahead with just rice flour.

Making the Modak:

• For making the Modak divide the dough into 20 balls and the stuffing into equal size of 20 balls. You can use those Garlic shaped mould or else in your palm you can press them and gather them together as a tear shaped.
• I used the modak moulds you get, grease the molds with oil. Then close the mold, stuff one ball into it and press it against the shape evenly making a hold in middle. Then take the suffing, press it into the hold in the middle, close the opening with extra dough and press tightly to ensure its all sealed well. Continue with the rest until you are done with all.
• Even in this you may have extra dough in the tip, which after steaming can get hard. So you can remove the excess before steaming. Retain just enough to form the shape.
• If you don't have the molds, you can make these easily in your palms. Take one outer ball, gently press in the middle getting it in shape of bowl, with the sides being thinner than the center, fill with stuffing, gather the sides towards the center, seal well and continue making till you are done
•  I used my idly cooker to steam the Modak. Grease the plates with oil and place the Modak over it. Just as you do the regular Idli steaming, fill the bottom with water and put it on the stove.
• This takes about 15 - 20 mins to get cooked. Take the steamer off the vessel and let it sit for 5 minutes before removing Modak from steamer.

My First Daring Baker's Challenge - Dobos Torte

Dear All,

This is my first Daring Bakers Challenge and i am very much excited about it. I wanted to join the Daring Baker's league from a very long time but never got enough courage to do so. Last month finally i convinced myself to give it a try and here i am with my very first challenge. The challenge was to make this exquisite 6 layered Dobos Torte. The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!). It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties.

I used half of the recipe given as i had used an 7inch baking pan instead of 9 and still managed to get 6 layers. Making the cake wasnt difficult just a little time consuming with lots of patience. I wasnt too keen on using the butter cream as the filling as personally I am not fond of buttercream but as this was my first challenge i did stick to the recipe, only that i didnt use any eggs in the butter cream, just butter, icing sugar and dark melted chocolate did the trick! I used powdered halzelnuts and some chocolate sprinkles to decorate the sides of the cake.

My Recipe for the Dobos Torte Sponge Layer: 3 large eggs seperated 90 gms of icing sugar, divided 60 gms sifted cake flour 1 tsp vanilla essence Chocolate Buttercream: 100 gms dark chocolate chopped 1/3 cup of softened butter 1 cup confectioner's sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence Caramel Topping: 1/2 cups of super fine sugar 6 tbsp of water 4 tsp of lemon juice Finishing Touches: Finely chopped or powdered hazelnuts Chocolate sprinkles
Directions for the sponge layers:

NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

• Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).
• Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)
• Beat the egg yolks, 45gm of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)
• In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 45 gms of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
• Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet.
• Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack.
• Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of 7 layers (6 for the cake and 1 for the top caramel one).

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required

• On a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate until smooth. Set aside to cool completely.
• Once the chocolate is cooled, add in the softened butter and beat together until smooth.
• Slowly add in the icing sugar, little by little and beat together to form creamy icing.
• Finally add in the vanilla essence and once again give a quick beat.

For Caramel Topping:

• Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into equal 6 to 7 wedges, this would depend upon the size of your cake.
• Heat together sugar , water and lime on medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
• Now turn the heat at high and let it boil for few mins until a dark caramel color is obtained
• Immediately pour the caramel on the wedges and with lightly greased spoon or spatula cover all sides of the wedges with caramel.
• Remove them to a seperate sheet and cool completely.

Assembling the Dobos Torte:

• Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
• Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 inch cardboard round or a plate and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 5 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
• Arrange the caramel wedges on top of the cake.
• Decorate the sides of the cake with chopped hazelnuts and chocolate sprinkles.

Green Peas Pulav with Toor Dal for Taste & Create

Dear All, First of all, here's wishing you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi, may lord ganesha bring happiness and wealth to everyone!

For this month's Taste & Create I was paired up with the very talented Shaista Tabrez from MixCalculations. She has some really good collection of recipes so do check out her blog. I chose to make Green Peas Pulav and Toor Dal from here blog and I am so glad both turned out fantastic. It was a perfect sunday night dinner for me and so simple to make! I did make few changes to the original recipe like omotting garlic in the pulav and addition of jaggery in dal. The recipe below will serve 4. This entry is off to Taste&Create event started by Nicole of ForTheLoveOfFood and is hosted by Min of BadGirlsKitchen Green Peas Pulav is also off to Chaitra's RiceFeast event and Toor Dal is off to MyLegumeLoveAffair-14 hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. Nandini and Ammu both have passed the below awards to me, thank you dears, thats very sweet of you gals. Ingredients for Peas Pulav: 1 cup basmati rice soaked in water for 30 mins 1/2 frozen cup green peas 1 medium onion thinly sliced 2 green chillies slit 2 Bay Leaf 1 cinnamon stick 2 whole star anise 2 tbsp cashewnuts 3 cardamon pods 3 cloves 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp butter 1 tsp oil

Salt to taste 2 cups water Procedure for Peas Pulav:

• In a heavy bottom pan heat together butter and oil, add in cashews and sliced onions.
• Fry them for 3-4 mins until golden brown. Remove them and keep aside.
• In the same pan add in cardamon pods, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds and slit green chillies. Saute for 2 mins.
• Now add in the rice, green peas, salt and water.
• Cover and cook until the rice is cooked properly.
• Garnish with brown onions and cashews.
• Serve hot with dal or raita.

Ingredients for Toor Dal: 1 cup toor dal (Yellow pigeon peas) 2 medium onions finely chopped 2 tsp ghee (clarified butter) 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp mustard seeds 2 cloves 2 green chillies slit 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp jaggery Salt to taste Procedure to make Toor Dal:

• Pressure cook toor dal along with turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder. Add enough water about 2 cups.
• In a vessel, heat ghee, add in cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cloves , split green chillies, ginger paste and onions.
• Saute onions for 3 to 4 mins, until they are lightly browned.
• Now add in the cooked toor dal and jaggery along with little water if the dal is too thick. Simmer on medium heat for another 5 to 6 mins.
• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.
• I had some left over onions and cashews so i used the same for garnishing.

Sun Dried Tomato, Basil and Cashewnut Pesto with Pasta

Dear All,

It has been a long and rather stressful week at work not that I am complaining, i like to keep my self busy but not that long where i start missing on my lunch and dinner. Dont you all think we should work 4 days a week and get 3 days off? Sometime back we were having this discussion in the office and everybody agreed that we should follow 4 days work rule but the problem here is though everyone agrees on this no one takes any action!

Now after a long day's work i was feeling lazy to cook so settled for something quick , easy and fulfilling. What better than jazzing up some pesto with pasta! It was ready in less than 30 mins and personally i love the flavors of tomatoes and fresh basil, one of my favorite combinations. I have used cashewnuts here to enhance the richness of the dish, you can use any of your favorite nuts like walnuts, almonds or pine nuts.

As you can see I have changed my blog layout as well. I was in search of a new layout from a very long time and finally found one! I am planning to make few changes as well so do watch out! Do let me know how do like my new layout and if you have any suggestions to make it more user friendly :)

Sending this to Presto Pasta Nights guest hosted this week by Helen of Fuss Free Flavors, started by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast

Its been raining awards in our blogosphere and of course I am drenched too :) Sushma, Pinky, Faiza Ali, Priya, Shri and Shabs all have passed these wonderful awards to me. Thank you all for your wonderful gestures, you all have made my day! Padma has tagged me to share my ABCs....hmmm suddenly my mind is now remembering the abc nursery rhyme...let me see if i remember it all :)

The Rules: 1. Link the person who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Share the ABCs of you. 4. Tag 4 people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. 5. Let the 4 tagged people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. 6. Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so that there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag. The Tag: 1. A – Available/Single? Huh? 2. B – Best friend? Many 3. C – Cake or Pie? Cake 4. D – Drink of choice? Buttermilk 5. E – Essential item you use every day? Laptop, Phone and Sunscreen lotion 6. F – Favorite color? Sky Blue 7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? Loved Gummy Bear Cartoon on disney :) 8. H – Hometown? Aamchi Mumbai 9. I – Indulgence? Lots - chocolates, ice creams, chaats etc 10. J – January or February? hm....January thats close to my birthday :) 11. K – Kids & their names? Not Applicable 12. L – Life is incomplete without? My Family and friends 13. M – Marriage date? Not Applicable 14. N – Number of siblings? 2 - 1 sister, 1 brother 15. O – Oranges or Apples? Oranges 16. P – Phobias/Fears? Insects....cant stand them 17. Q – Quote for today? Whatever Happens, Happens for the Best 18. R – Reason to smile? Many - Old memories, appreciation, when i see a small baby etc 19. S – Season? Rainy in India, Spring outside India .20. T – Tag 3 People? Just 3? 21. U – Unknown fact about me? I still have to discover myself :) 22. V – Vegetable you don't like? Bitter Gourd 23. W – Worst habit? Speak tooo fast, trying to change 24. X – X-rays you've had? Many... 25. Y – Your favorite food? Lots..food made by my mom, right now craving for pani puri 26. Z – Zodiac sign? Capricorn Friends I would like to Tag are Nithya, Lone Acorn, Lena and Rekha Ingredients: 1 cup pasta boiled of your choice (I used spagetthi) 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes 12 - 15 cashewnuts 1 big tomato chopped 1/4 cup olive oil (I used from the sundried tomatoes) 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves 1/2 paprika flakes (optional) Salt and Pepper to taste Procedure:

• Roast cashewnuts lightly in oven for 5 mins. We donot want some golden brown.
• In a pan saute the tomatoes with very little oil for about 2 mins, until soft.
• Grind together sundried tomatoes, basil, chopped tomatoes, cashewnuts, paprika flakes and oil together into smooth paste.
• Season the pesto with salt and pepper according to your taste.

Serving Suggestions: Pesto goes very well with pasta or you can serve them with crackers and bread sticks, makes wonderful appetizers! I know its been a long post, signing off here, have a wonderful and fun filled weekend !!!

Luv,

Badami Hariyali

Last weekend we had a farewell party for one of our close friends. It was a potluck party and i took kesar pista rasmalai and this deliciously sinful curry. Initially i thought of making Methi Malai Mutter as its a breeze to make and tastes rich but as i started making i realized i was out of cashews which is the key to make the curry rich and creamy. In such crisis what does one do? Think out of the box..so i put on my thinking cap and thought of various alternatives, after all it was question of 20 empty stomachs :) Few years earlier at one of our family gatherings i had tasted a mix veg curry made with almond paste and it was pretty darn good. So I made few changes to my methi malai mutter and came up with Badami Hariyali. You must have guessed why the name badami, the gravy is made with skinned almonds with onions and as i have used only green vegetables so the word hariyali :)

Verdict? It was fantastic, everybody loved it, few of them also asked me for the recipe and it was over in no time! I would consider this as a BIG hit. Its perfect with naan and phulkas or you can even enjoy it with pulav or jeera rice, whichever way you choose you will surely crave for more!

This is my entry to OriginalRecipes event by Lori.

Ingredients:

5 big white onions, quatered

3-4 green chillies

1/2 cup almonds skinned

2 tsp ginger paste

1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves

1/2 cup methi leaves finely chopped (I used dried ones)

1 cup green beans, chopped boiled

1 cup frozen green peas

2 tbsp fresh cream

2-3 tsp sugar

1 tsp cumin powder

2 bay leaf

2 whole star anise

2 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

Some fresh crumbled paneer for garnishing

Procedure:

• Grind together almonds, onions, coriander leaves, green chillies and ginger paste with little water into a smooth fine paste.
• In a big vessel heat oil along with star anise and bay leaf for about a min.
• Now add in the onion and almond paste and fry for 2 to 3 mins until the raw onion smell disappears.
• Now add in methi leaves, green peas, salt, sugar and cumin powder and cook for 7 to 8 mins.
• Add the boiled green beans with fresh cream and cook for another 2 to 3 mins.
• Adjust salt and sugar as required.
• Drizzle little cream on top and garnish with fresh crumbled paneer.
• Serve hot with naan and enjoy this creamy and rich goodness!

Luv

Creamy Butter Beans and Green Peas

Let me start by wishing you all a very Happy Independence Day! Today India celebrates her 63rd Independence Day. As children this day is always remembered as a holiday from school, buying national flags and showing them off on your cars, singing national anthem, watching the flag hosting and eating sweets. I have some really special memories attached with this day, back home our residential complex celebrates independence day every year in our building garden. Every year on this day national anthem and other patriotic songs are played from morning 7 am. I remember waking up hearing them :) Light snacks and a packet of Frooti is distributed later on to all the children. Small small children sing patriotic songs and give speeches on indian history. Later on we watch the flag hosting ceremony on the national DD channel, my dad never misses this parade and always insist we too watch along with him. Childrens and students from overall states of india perform in the parade by dancing, singing, sports etc. If you havent watched this parade as yet, i request you to please watch it next time as the efforts taken by the students is worth while and i salute them for their talent! The co-ordination and consistency between the performers is remarkable!

Now coming on to today's recipe, i had seen this recipe at Meeta's blog and immediately bookmarked it. In gujarati butter beans are also known as "Vaal" and usually cooked with usual masalas in a curry style. I loved the idea of making them with cream and I am so glad it came out delicious. I have made few changes to the recipe and used green peas instead of leaks. Its simple and creamy dish and you can enjoy it as a side dish with roti or rice or even have it all by itself.

Sending this to Viki's event Side Dishes for Chapathi and to MLLA 14 hosted by Susan this month.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter beans (lima beans) soaked in water overnight

1 medium onion minced

1/2 cup frozen green peas

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

2 tbsp cream

Salt & Pepper to taste

fresh coriander or parsley for garnishing

1 cup water as required

Procedure:

• Heat oil and butter in a pan, add in minced onions and saute for 2 mins.
• Now add in butter beans, salt, pepper and enough water to cover the beans.
• Cover the cook on medium-slow heat for 15 to 20 mins.
• Beans will be halfway cooked, now throw in green peas and fresh cream.
• Again cover and cook for 5 to 6 mins , until butter beans are soft and creamy.
• Garnish with fresh cilantro or parsley.

Once again wishing you all a very Happy 63rd Independence Day!

Luv,

Creamy Eggplant and Bell Pepper Stew with few rants

Dear Foodies,

I cant tell you how much i have missed blogging in last two weeks. I felt as if an important part of me was missing. I thought all my blogger friends will forget me :((( thats seriously a scary thought and gave me nightmares! Blogging started with a hobby and now has become a passion for me. This blog gave me lots of new things, a new identity, people from all over the world visit my blog and appreciate my efforts, its such a great feeling and thats what every blogger is craving for, right? I got so many new and extremely talented friends, whom i respect and love for their talent of creating marvellous dishes, this blog is also a place where i can share my views and of course my recipes and experiments!

Shifting to a new place has some serious disadvantages. I have misplaced so many things which i am not able to find, either they are taken away by JADOO (remember KMG?) or i have a ghost in my house! Every morning there is a treasure hunt going on, the only difference being there is no actual treasure to be won but only to find my misplaced things back. Boxes and bags are lying around and with working 12 to 16 hours a day I hardly find time to sleep forget cooking and unpacking. Seriously gals if you are living alone dont ever shift apartments, its bad idea. My new kitchen is quite smaller as compared to the older one, it finishes the moment i step in :( At first i thought its ok as this is only a temporary place and as i will be moving back to india in another 2 months but now it has actually started to bother me, which in turn is worrying me .....ah ....sigh....

Now in such a scenario i require something comforting to my taste buds. No traditional khichdis or rasams and rice but today i present you extremely delicious and easy "Stew". Stewing is a method of cooking meat or vegetables using small quantity of liquid at a moderate heat for a long time. This way of cooking helps in enhancing the flavors in the dish and also helps in absorbing the spices in the meats and veggies. More information on Stews here. Do read it, quite interesting! I have adapted the below recipe from Pooja's traditional Ishtu. Thanks Pooja for this wonderful recipe, its one of my favorites now :)

EC, Rekha, Sanghi Indrani and Muneeba all have passed the below wards to me, once again thank you gals, this drives me to deliver more....oooohh talking like an IT professional now, arnt i? Thank you for having faith in me. The tag i have answered in my previous post here.

Ingredients: 1 big eggplant chopped 1 bell pepper chopped (i used an orange one) 1 spring onion chopped 1 medium onion thinly sliced 1 can coconut milk (400 ml) 2 green chillies slit 1 tsp black pepper 1 tbsp olive oil 3 elaichi (cardamon seeds) 1 cinnamon stick 3 cloves 1 bay leaf 1 tsp ginger paste Salt to taste 1/2 cup of water Procedure:

• Heat olive oil in a pan, add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamon seeds , cloves, ginger paste and green chillies.
• Temper for a min, now add in sliced onions and spring onion, keep some greens aside for garnishing.
• Cook them until soft, now add in eggplant and bell peppers chopped.
• Saute for another 2 mins and then add the coconut milk, water, salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook on slow to medium heat for 15 to 20 mins, until eggplants have absorbed the flavors and are cooked.
• Garnish with some srping onion greens.
• Serve the stew warm accompanied with a bread or enjoy it with steaming rice.

Eggless Whole Wheat Spring Onion Scones and Awards!!!

Dear All, First of all I am very sorry for this unannounced break, frankly i never was on a real break but with all the work pressure and shifting to a new apartment, left me tired and exhausted at the end of the day with no energy to blog. I must say this was my first experience in shifting to a new home and its extremely tiring and painful. Most of the past days i have either taken a take away or had rice for lunch and dinner, didnt find much time to cook. Finally yesterday i got some time to make something which i have been planning to make since a long time now....Scones. This is the first time i have made scones at home and they came out quite well. They taste delicious when served them warm with a dollop of butter, perfect for tea time. Googling i found two wonderful recipes Savory cheese & Scallion scones and 5 herb eggless scones, which i have adapted to make these. Sashi, Suparna, Ann, Faiza Ali and Sushma have passed the below awards to me along with a tag! I would like to thank you all for your support and appreciation. It really means a lot to me. Answers to the tag : 1.what is your current obsession? Blogging! 2. What are you wearing today? Capri and a Tee 3. What’s for dinner? Biryani with Raita 4. What’s the last thing you bought? Groceries 5. What are you listening to right now? Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden 6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Suparna is a sweet heart, have known her for a while and we share a grt rapport , her comments always cheer me up , thanks dear! Her recipes are simple and delicious! Sashi i came to know recently, she has some wonderful collection of recipes on her blog, do check out! Ann has a fantastic blog, i have always admired her healthy way of cooking! Faiza is very creative in her cooking and has some yummy dishes on her blog Sushma's blog is a food paradise, i love her passion and creativity in cooking. Once again thank you all! 7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Definately Switzerland! 8. What are your must-have pieces for summer? Capris, Tee's, cotton clothes 9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Paris or Italy 10. Which language do you want to learn? German and French 11. Who do you want to meet right now? My mom 12. What is your favorite colour? Sky Blue 13. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet? An embroidered blue, pink and white churidar 14. What is your dream job? Would love to be a cake decorator, would like to work for old age homes and for children's orphange. 15. What’s your favourite magazine? I dont read magazines 16. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on? Chocolates! 17. What do you consider a fashion faux pas? Heavy makeup and unappropriate clothes 18. Who are your style icons? None. 19. Describe your personal style? Simple, elegant and classy! 21. What are your favourite movies? Lots! Jab We Met, HAHK, DDLJ, Ice Age 1,2 &3, Hum Tum etc 22. Give us three styling tips that always work for you: Simple hair style, decent comfortable clothes and confidence. 23. Coffee or tea? Sometimes coffee 24. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed? Eat chocolates, go for shopping, bake a cake, read a novel, basically try to divert my mind. 25. What is the meaning of your name? Angel :) 26. Which other blogs you love visiting? Lots, infact all the blogs which i have been following 27. Favorite Dessert/Sweet? Rasmalai and chocolate cake 28. Favorite Season? Rainy 29.Which is your dream destination? I am living currently in :) Switzerland... 30: Which is your favorite international cuisine ? Italian My Question: Your favorite kitchen tool? The rules are: Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Then tag eight or ten other people. I want to pass the awards and tags to the below friends. Please accept these awards and pass on! Priya Nithya Anshika Mandira and Lakshmi of BakingBuddies Shubha Padma Srilakshmi Ushanandini Pratibha Pari

Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (normal roti atta is fine too) 2 spring onions or scallions finely chopped along with their greens and whites 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cold butter 1/3 cup milk (or as required) 2 green chillies chopped finely 2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander Salt to taste (about a tsp) Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C
• Mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda
• Add in butter and mix together to resemble crumbles.
• Now add in the chopped spring onions, coriander, and salt to taste.
• Slowly add in milk as required and make a soft dough.
• Roll the dough to about 1 inch thickness and cut with a sharp knife into pieces, similar to cutting a pizza.
• Bake these for 20 to 25 mins until golden brown.
• Serve them warm with a dollop of butter.