Strawberry Margarita (Non-Alcoholic)

Hi All,

Strawberries are the angels of the earth, innocent and sweet with green leafy wings reaching heavenward  -Terri Guillemets

Its been quite hot lately with temperatures roaring high it has become impossible to step out of house in the afternoons. The evenings on the other hand are lovely, the temperature drops down and is much more pleasant. From past couple of days the evenings have been extremely windy and standing in the balcony facing almost an empty ground does lift your spirits after a hectic day at work. Strawberries do have a natural way to make one feel refreshed, one look at those plump, juicy and vibrant berries and I am sold. What could be more refreshing on a summer's day than cool and sparkling strawberry margarita?

Eggless Strawberry Cupcakes/Eggless Strawberry Muffins

Dear Foodies,

Hello everyone! I know I have been away for quite sometime but last two weeks have created quite a stir! First of all there is this never ending assignments and work in office, on top of this monsoon has finally hit India. Last couple of days have been a complete mess. It rained quite heavily here in Pune, with strong winds blowing there was quite lot of destruction. Several trees have fallen, cables wires have been uprooted, infact we almost had an accident in our office with the glass doors bursting due to strong winds! Thank god no one was hurt! With electricity gone for 2 days and maid not turning up for work I was really frustated!

So when V asked me if i could bake a batch of muffins for her office party I got the much needed break! She wanted something other than the usual chocolate and vanilla flavors. I had strawberry extract in my pantry, so thought of making some Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. She loved the idea and she wanted to use the same color combination which I had used for the cake which I made for my parents anniversary.

This is off to Bangalore Baker's Bake-Off event!

Eggless Strawberry Cupcakes/Muffins
Recipe yields - 9 muffins
Ingredients:-
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tin (200 gms) sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp strawberry essence
1/4 cup limca or plain aerated soda water

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 180 degress C, grease and flour 9 muffin moulds.
• Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda together.
• Beat butter, condensed milk and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the strawberry essence.
• Alternatively add flour and limca and beat well after each addition.
• Fill in the muffin cups to 3/4 full and bake the muffins for 15 to 18 mins until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and cool them completely before going ahead with icing.

Buttercream icing, recipe here

Verdict? I got great reviews on these cupcakes and everyone in the office loved them! As compared to other eggless recipe, i like this one the most as I have always got fantastic results! Muffins were light and fluffy, perfectly baked! With vanilla buttercream icing it was a winner! Do try these and let me know, you can replace strawberry essence with any other flavor and it will still work like a charm!

Strawberry Sorbet

Last weekend I visited a Strawberry farm where I picked some really fresh and BIG strawberries. It was such a great experience, the owner of the farm allows you to eat as many strawberries as you want and you can also buy fresh strawberries picked by yourself on a very reasonable rate. I got so excited i bought almost 2 kilos of them. I am planning to visit the farm again for some more strawberries and fresh raspberries :) Sorbet are one of my favorites and perfect for summers. With so many strawberries how could i not make one? Its the most simple and delicious desserts of all and not to forget so very refreshing!! I prefer to make sorbets using fresh and juicy fruits, berries go well, even pineapple, mangoes and peaches go extremely well. Personally we loved the strawberry sorbet, it tasted yummy and i just loved the color! Looking at it only made me feel all happy and cheerful.

Strawberry sorbet is making its way to Strawberry Feast hosted by Happy Cook and to Ben's Home Made # 5 Ice Creams.

Ingredients: 1 kg fresh strawberris chopped 3/4 cup sugar 1 tbsp fresh lime juice 1/2 cup water (optional only if required) Yeah thats it just 3 ingredients to get this fresh and refreshing sorbet!!! Look at the color, isnt it gorgeous?

Procedure:

• Mix the sugar and strawberries and keep aside for minimum 4 to 5 hours, until the berries have released water and become mushy.
• Blend together the strawberry and sugar until smooth. Add in little water if required. I did not add in any water as the juices released from strawberries were enough.
• Pass this through a sieve to remove the seeds and to get a smooth sorbet. If you like crunchy you can skip this step.
• Now add in the lime juice and mix well.
• Freez the sorbet in a broad flat vessel or you can even make lollies out of this.
• Remove from the freezer and refrigerate for 15 to 20 mins before serving, this will help the sorbet to become soft and you can easily scoop the sorbet.
• Scoop sorbet in glasses and serve chilled. You can drizzle little chocolate sauce if you like or garnish with colorful sprinkles.

Strawberry Swiss Roll and an award....

Hello everyone..m back from my short trip...oh it was very hectic and tiring but cant complain as i did enjoy a lot :) I know i have missed lot of posts and i promise i will try and read all posts soon....sorry for the delay gals :( In such a short trip of four days i missed blogging so much..my friends have started calling me blogoholic but who cares i love being blogoholic :))

For todays post..i had created this strawberry swiss roll just before leaving for the trip..there were quite few strawberries in my fridge which i wanted to use, this is my first attempt on making a swiss roll and m glad that it came out really good though not perfect. I tried to create polka dots design with few cherries which i had but as you can see I failed miserably :( The sponge turned out to so soft and moist..just perfect..the best sponge cake i made in my life. For filling i have used mascarpone cheese and fresh cream along with fresh chopped strawberries and vanilla sugar....Overall i was pleased with the result and amazed at the rate it got over :) my friends loved it so much that it didnt even last few hours...i was lucky to get one bite :) I am definately making this again. Vrinda of Sankeerthanam has passed this lovely "Awesome Shots" award to me, thank you so much Vrinda...m truly honoured.. Sending this to Strawberry Feast event by Happy Cook...happy hosting :)

Ingredients for Roll: 3 eggs seperated at room temperature 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/3 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence 2 tsp oil (i used sunflower) 8 to 10 cherries cut in half For Filling: 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 3 to 4 tbsp vanilla sugar 1 cup fresh strawberries cut into small pieces Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
• Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks forms, this will take around 12 to 15 mins.
• Now add in yolks and beat for around 1 min.
• Fold in flour gently to make sure no air is escaped.
• Now add in oil and again mix gently.
• Grease and line swiss roll tin, spread the cherries along the tin as shown in the pic.
• Now add the batter and spread it gently to cover all sides.
• Bake for 10 to 12 mins, the cake should spring back when touched.
• Cool the cake completely before proceeding.
• Beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form, now add in mascarpone cheese and sugar, mix well.
• Spread the filling on the cake, add in chopped strawberries and drizzle litle vanilla sugar on top. Fold gently removing the parchment paper into a roll.
• Refrigerate the roll for 2 to 3 hours before serving.
• Cut and serve chilled with fresh strawberries and cream!!!

Strawberry and Tomato Soup

This week has been hectic at work, conference calls, meetings, dicussions phewwwwww the list goes on and on.....Yesterday after a hard day of work, i didnt have the energy to cook a full fledged meal. I wanted something which can be made in jiffy and which is smoothing after a long days work. I had fresh strawberries which i had bought on the weekend, which were screaming to be used, initially i had bought them to make a strawberry roll but what the hell i made this lovely, smoothing strawberry and tomato soup. Mildy spiced this soup is ready in no time and can be served warm or chilled. If served for kids, you can add in some cream and cheese :)) 


Sending this to No Croutons Required event started by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen, the theme for this month's event is berries. Also sending this to CKF - Tomato guest hosted by Rinku mastermind of Sharmi at Neivedyam also to 15 minutes cooking event by Mahimaa, and finally to WYF : Quick Meal Event hosted by EC. Happy hosting gals :)

Ingredients:
1 can tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh strawberries chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp red chili powder
Salt to taste




Procedure:

• Grind together tomatoes and strawberries into a smooth paste.
• Pass through the strainer to remove the seeds
• In a vessel heat this mixture along with salt, sugar and red chili powder.
• Bring it to boil and cook for around 7 to 8 mins.
• Serve hot with salad and bread.

Note: You can increase or decrease the quantity of sugar and chili according to your taste.

Eggless Vanilla Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

I am not a big fan of muffins but as I had a box of strawberries in my fridge which I had bought last week and I had to use them as they were getting spoiled, I thought why not lets make vanilla strawberry muffins, vanilla and strawberry go well together. Even while making strawberry milkshake I always add little dab of vanilla which gives nice flavor...hmmm..I love vanilla. When i started making these muffins i realized, I was out of eggs...hence made eggless version using milk and yogurt. I always used to prepare eggless cakes using milkmaid or condensed milk but somehow i dont like the flavor of condensed milk which empowers the cake, on the other hand yogurt is an excellent binding agent and it also helps to make the cake moist. I have used plain yogurt here but you can also use vanilla yogurt. The strawberries which i had bought were not very sweet, to make them sweeter, I chopped them fine and added little sugar to it and kept it aside for few mins, you can also reduce the sugar in the recipe accordingly. Finally after making the batter, I added few chocolate chips and wow the results were surprisingly good....I took these muffins to a friends place and they were gone in seconds..:) The recipe made 12 medium sized muffins.

This is my entry to the event Egg substitute - Yogurt/Buttermilk hosted by Madhuram, you can find the event details here

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of All purpose Flour

1/2 cup sugar (I have reduced sugar little as I had added sugar in strawberries as well)

1/2 cup yogurt

1 - 2 tbsp milk

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup butter at room temperature

2/3 cup strawberries finely cut

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 180 degree C.
• Sieve all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder together and keep it aside.
• Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.
• Add yogurt in the butter and sugar mixture and beat well.
• Add the dry ingredients in the yogurt mixture along with milk little at a time and beat well. Check the consistency, donot use the entire milk if not required. Sometimes yogurt may be very thin because of which you may not require all the milk given in the recipe.
• Finally add vanilla essence, chopped strawberries and chocolate chips.

• Mix gently, donot overbeat as the strawberries may get mushy.
• Grease the muffin pan or fill them with paper liners.
• Fill in the each muffin mold upto 3/4 level.

• Bake them for 25 to 30 mins, until a knife inserted comes out clean.
• Remove the muffins from oven and cool them completely on wire rack.
• Serve them with cold milk or enjoy them like I do with jam... :)

The muffins turned out to be moist, not too sweet and just perfect for my taste. You can skip chocolate chips and add any other dry fruits of your choice.