Birthday Cupcakes!

Lavina was turning "24" so I decided to make (egg-less) cupcakes for the occasion.

Look at these lovely cupcake wrappers!

Mixing up the batter...

Ready to go in the oven

Lavina loves coffee flavored treats. What better than a mocha flavored frosting for these birthday cupcakes!

Foamy, airy frosting courtesy of whipping cream...

There's no instant coffee? Everything is RUINED!

Coffee & whipping cream dissolving to create the ultimate frosting

Whipped deliciousness

Happy Birthday Lavina!

Allergen-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. chocolate extract* *or, you can just include 1 tsp. vanilla extract instead of 1/2 and 1/2
• 1 1/4 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cute polka dot paper liners.

Sift together the cake flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, mix together oil, vinegar, vanilla, and the water until well combined. Add flour mixture and mix until smooth. You will probably need to scrape down the bowl as needed.

Divide the batter evenly among the cute polka dot paper liners, filling each three-quarters full.

Bake, rotating the muffin tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, roughly 20-25 minutes.

Turn the cupcakes onto a wire cooking rack and let them cool completely.

These cupcakes can be stored for up to 3 days (as though they'd actually last that long, hahaha.hahahaha) in an air tight container.

Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp instant espresso powder
• Chocolate coffee beans for decoration

Put cream, sugar, cocoa and coffee powder in a large bowl. Stir, cover, and let sit in the refrigerator for about an hour, until the chocolate and coffee have dissolved.

Remove from the refrigerator and beat with an electric beater until stiff.

Frost the cupcakes right before serving (so, I went Deb, Lavina and Marissa's apartment with my cupcakes and frosting in tow so the cupcakes wouldn't get messed up).

To frost, I used a zip-lock bag, and snipped off a small portion of the end of a bag to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Brrra* - Enchiladas & Peach Ice Cream!

Shrenik loves mexican food. Kim loves guacamole. And I love making ice cream.

We made guacamole per the recipe that Asmi and I used, probably with minor modifications.

The enchiladas are courtesy of Aida Mollenkamp, minor modifications

• 2 tsp. vegetable oil

• 1 red onion

• 1 package of mushrooms

• 3 cups salsa (we picked some green kind that was PERFECT for the recipe)

• 6 ounces monterrey jack cheese

• 12 (6-inch) tortillas

• Sour cream and guac for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Heat the oil in a pan, and once it is heated, brown the red onions. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add a 1/2 cup of the salsa until well-combined.

Warm up the tortillas - either in the microwave or stove top. I heated them up on the stove top kind of like chapatti, ha.

Take another 1/2 cup of the salsa and spread it over the bottom of a 13x9 dish. Take a tortilla and put a couple spoonfuls of the mushroom mixture along with 1 tbsp. of the cheese. Roll it up and put it on the seam side down.

Cover the enchiladas with the remaining salsa, and then top with the remaining cheese.

Bake for about 35 minutes. Then stuff your face! (see below for detail)

Peach Ice Cream (recipe from David Lebovitz)

• About 4 large peaches

• 1/2 cup water

• 3/4 cup sour cream

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extra

• A few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice

You will need to peel the peaches for this recipe. To do so easily, boil some water, cut an X on the bottom of each the peaches, and lower then into the pot of boiling water for 20-30 seconds.

Remove with a slotted spoon, and transfer to a colander to shock with cold water. Once they are cool, you will find it super easy to take the skins off.

Peel the peaches, slice them in half, and remove the pits. Cut the peaches into chunks and cook them with the water in a pan over medium heat, for about 10 minutes.

Remove the peaches from the heat, stir in the sugar, and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature

Puree the peaches/liquid in a blender along with the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla and lemon juice until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in your refrigerator, and then put it in the ice cream maker.

Secret, I think: So, this ice cream was superly fluffy and amazing (just ask Shrenik, Kim, and Lavina who stopped by later in the weekend to try it).

I think this was because Kim and I were talking and giggling and I ignored the timer and let the ice cream maker run maybe an extra 5-10 minutes. Or, maybe it was the sour cream?

And, how could I forget...Kim picked up Skinny Girl Margarita (yay bethenny!) for us to drink.

*Brrrra is the sound Shrenik makes at Mexican restaurants when the waiters are making your guacamole.

Paneer + Lassi!

After yummy guacamole + mexican casserole night I watched cooking channel all day. I was going to order from bricklane, but decided that I should venture out at least once during the day, so I went to the store to pick up ingredients I would need to make Mango Lassi and Matar Paneer.

And the star of the show! Paneer. From whole foods. I didn't have time to go to curry hill to buy my groceries. You can make paneer from scratch, but I haven't done this since like 2004.

Fry away!
Frying the paneer. You can skip this step if you want to be healthier.

Browning the onions, garlic and ginger

Once the onions are browned, I threw in some diced tomatoes, the frozen peas, and garam masala

Simmering away

VOILA!

As if I couldn't get enough mango from my prior week...of course, back for more!

Adding some ground cardamom

Sweet and creamy and refreshing mango lassi!!

Matar Paneer, loosely adapted from Nigella Lawson (she measures in US metrics) and various recipes from Bawarchi (measures in foreign metrics and I don't know how to measure grams)

• Enough oil to lightly fry the paneer (should you choose to do so). Otherwise, enough oil to sautee the onions, garlic and ginger
• 8 ounces of paneer, cut into cubes
• 1/2 an onion, thinly diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• Sliver of ginger - thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala (yikes - I don't know where to get this if your mom doesn't give you some. Whole Foods?)
• 1 package frozen peas
• 1 tomato, diced
• Handful of cilantro, chopped

Start by frying the paneer. Once all cubes are golden brown, let the "dry" on a plate covered with a paper towel.

Remove most of the oil, leaving just enough to sauté the ginger/garlic/onion. Once those are browned, add the tomatoes and peas. Let those all simmer till the peas are defrosted and warm. Top with paneer and chopped cilantro and mix to blend all. HOM NOM NOM

Mango Lassi adapted from Bal Arneson

• 1 whole mango, diced, the works, etc
• 1 cup yogurt
• ice cubes
• ground cardamom, to top the drink
• Sugar or agave nectar, if you want it

Blend mango, yogurt, ice cubes, and sugar in a blender. Pour into a glass, top with cardamom. HOM NOM NOM!

Guacamangocassa

I was in a guac mood, and Asmi and I were cooking dinner together. I threw out the idea of having a mexican food themed night. * pats self on back *

Hello, healthy shiny hair...

Mash-ups...

We go together like tequila and lime...or avocado and lime...

I bought a ton of cilantro, and it always ends up rotting in my fridge. I happened to find a cilantro plant at the farmer's market! So we will be replacing our dead rosemary with a fresh pot of cilantro. Hoorah!

And...VOILA! Guacamole to salivate over! So good!

Tortilla chips + guac! It was so good I had to make another batch Sunday night and tonight.

Asmi's mexican casserole. Best way to spend Friday night...EVER!

Guacamole, loosely adapted from both Elle Krieger and Rick Bayless' recipes from the cooking channel website.

• 2 Avocados
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Garlic Clove
• Fresh-Squeezed Lime Juice - from 1 wedge
• A handful of cilantro sprigs

Take the avocados and cut them into a bowl. Dice up the tomatoes, onions and garlic clove and mix them in with the avocados. Squeeze the lime juice over the bowl. Mash everything up together. Chop up some cilantro, and add it to the top of the bowl, and mix it in for a final mash.

mango-palooza

Lavina and I decided to go mango crazy. Well, I wanted to make passion fruit ice cream, but for some reason Whole Foods doesn't have passion fruit pulp. Boo hoo hoo :( I'll try China Town next time.

I took my strawberry fro-yo recipe and just replaced mangos into the recipe. HOM.

In America, we only get the reject mangos. I actually don't even like mangos in America. I was pleasantly shocked during my first trip to India in which all mangos I ate were delicious (also refer to Sanjay's tribute to mangos). Asmi later told me that I should try all kinds of varieties and figure out which one is best for this summer treat. I am on a mission now! (after I find the passion fruit).

I'm making frozen mango lassi ice cream! yippee!

Blend away...

VOILA!! Mango frozen yogurt

Now, time for some healthy stuff....Mango Slaw, courtesy of smitten kitchen

Our masterpiece...

Time to eat! nom nom nom

Mango Frozen Yogurt, adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, for Strawberry Fro-Yo:

• 1 bag of frozen mango chunks (or, you can use fresh mango, but this is what I chose to use). This substituted the 1 pound of fresh strawberries from The Perfect Scoop
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup plain yogurt (I used fage 0% to make this "healthier")
• 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Mango Slaw:

• 2 mangos, peeled, pitted and julienned
• 1-1 1/4 pound napa cabbage (trader joe's is great and has a bag of pre-shredded cabbage. This will be more than you need so you can save it for something else)
• 1 red bell pepper, julienned
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 6 tablespoons of fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp. thinly sliced fresh mint leaves (yay for our herb garden)
• 1/4 cup toasted cashews (coarsely chopped)*

*Lavina picked up some fabulous thai-lime spiced cashews from Trader Joe's, which we used instead. It was a great substitution!

Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet

The girls were coming over for some wine, cheese and SORBET. I think that chocolate-coconut sorbet was a good choice.

Bitersweet chocolate:

The Final:

The recipe is from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

8 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 cups Thai coconut milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

The texture of the ice cream was somewhat grainy, but still delicious, and pretty light. Perfect for summer! cin cin...

Bunny Chow*

Below is a photographic adventure of the food I ate while in South Africa and Namibia

The first meal in Africa - at Africa Cafe. Essentially, our waitress brought us out 8 different dishes from various regions in Africa. Some were delicious (Tanzanian Mango Chicken). Others not so much (The dish in the center). The waitresses also performed a traditional dance while we were eating. fun!

Dinner at the Codfather after a long hike at Table Mountain. Delicious prawns for Mozambique!

Springbok loin + pasta on my wine tour. SO YUM.

Mai and "simba chips"

A feast in the desert. This meal included vegetable stew, orix (a type of antelope), chicken and bread.

Passion fruit mousse.

A very delicious candy bar that Mai gave me. It sure did hold me over on our 4 hour car ride!

A pink & white cookie from a german bakery

Some kind of mousse...

Beautiful bbq ribs at Belthazar in Cape Town

Ostrich steak....oh...so good....yum...drooling....

At the airport in Amsterdam...I had some mini-waffles. Farewell, lovely vacation!

*Bunny chow is a South African dish in which a bread is hollowed out (like a bread bowl) and filled with chicken curry