Wiltons Cake Decorating Class

              Its time to share what I was doing for the past whole month. Since I got busy now on weekdays (due to my job, obviously) all I am left are only weekends to write new posts. And when it gets to weekend my body joints start yelling at me and ask me not to do any work. Precisely I get too lazy. But my love towards my blog gets my hands working and I get motivated to write something.


Well for the last month I did not post any thing. And that's only because I was busy even on weekend. It was Wilton's Cake Decorating Class. Oh man it was fun learning experience. And I am going to share it here.


Many of you might have already taken this class , heard about it or are right now wondering who is Wilton....!!!  :) Well lets start with it then.


Wilton is a number one Cake Decorating company. They are the best in cake baking, cake decorating supplies and ideas. They conduct these classes in many of the local stores. The classes are programmed by Wilton and the instructor is trained and asked to follow the process that's is set by Wilton.


What will you learn ?

Basically Wilton cake decorating classes come in 4 levels. It goes from basics to advanced. First one being basic, here you will learn

• tips to perfectly bake your cake, techniques to store cake, how to cut cake
• how to make icing, what are different consistencies for icing and what to use when
• make different flowers, make leaves, rose flower, using the most popular star tip and what all we can do with it, borders
• decorating cupcakes
• drawing pictures on your cake, writing on the cake (use of piping gel for this)

Isn't that enough for a newbie like me. The stuff you learn in basics class is not hard and can be learnt easily at home. But then who will motivate you to do this at home :) :). I know there are hand full of girls out there who can do this at home as well but it was  sheer fun for me to go there, look at other's decorations, their creations and then of course the value able tips that you get from the instructor.

How can one learn at home ?

I said this can be done at home because each class comes with a kit and a plan book. Kit is where you find all the tool you need and book is where you get to read all the instructions and then its easy...

Where are these classes conducted ?

Search for these classes in any of the local craft store. Here at my place these are conducted by Joann and Michaels.

Tips for purchasing the supplies and enrolling in the class ?

All these craft stores have a huge coupon program. Some things you should do if you want to enroll in the class and also want to save some bucks :)

• Subscribe for the coupons on the website of these local stores.
• Go to the store and get the booklet of the classes. Here you might come across the discounts for the classes.
• On some special days like "Open House" the class could be at half of its price. I was luck to grab this deal.
• You always get 40 to 50% of coupons and always always use it towards your purchases of supplies. Saves a lot.
• Find a partner. You can share your tools and help each other during the class.

During the class ?

• Take pictures and videos for your future reference
• Take pictures of the cakes decorated by others on the last day. You get to learn a lot from each of them
• Try to reach to the class at least 10 minutes ahead of time. This is to good seats. :). I never made it :(
• Ask questions to the instructor
• Ask questions to your friends out their
• And Have Fun .............. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well here are some pictures from my class....

This one is by me :)

And here are by others.......

 

Vegetarian Thai Basil Rice

I am a great fan of flavors. And when I discover something that is new to me I desperately want it to try on my own. I know this does not happen all the time but the desire is always there ;). But this time I could make it happen. I prepared this dish in a week just later after I tried it.

Have you ever wondered using basil in cooking? At least I never thought of it until in the last week when I ordered this aromatic dish, Thai Basil Rice. Basil is one of the key ingredients and a must present ingredient in the Thai kitchens.

I simply love Thai cooking, the flavours and the ease with which it is prepared. Its quick , required handful ingredients and no extra or tiring preparation, yet tastes so good. As many of you know all the dishes in Thai cuisine use lots of vegetables. This makes it healthy. To add to this we have Tofu (which is a protein power pack).


When I started eating this dish I decided that I am definitely going to try this. It had so less ingredients and just the aroma of basil. I knew this is simple to cook. I searched (Binged/Googled whatever :)) and found out the key of this rice. First, it required the Jasmine Rice, which is abundantly used in Thai cooking. And this sure makes a difference as this rice had a different texture and had  a property to stick together but was not sticky. And of course the Basil leaves. In India we worship the basil tree but never used it in cooking. Often it is used in homemade medicines but never in cooking (at least to my knowledge, (I may be wrong)). Thai basil leaves are bigger than the Indian Basil. You can get these in any Asian store both rice and leaves.

Non vegetarian eaters can enjoy this rice with chicken and fish oil. Here is the vegetarian version :). And I am so happy with the outcome of my recipe.

 

Ingredients:

Jasmine Rice - 1,1/2 Cup
Fresh Basil Leaves - 20-25 (if they are full size) or three bunches
Tofu Cubes - 500 gms
Capsicum - 1 Cup, Julienned
Onion - 1 Cup, Julienned
Garlic - 4-5 cloves, minced
Green Chillies - 2, chopped finely
Salt - per taste
Soy Sauce - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 2-3 tbsp
Cucumber for garnishing


The original recipe calls for using fish sauce but being a vegetarian I had to find something else. I searched a lot on Internet and found there are some vegetarian replacements available for the fish sauce. I remembered the taste of the rice and I decided to try out tamarind water :) And you know what, it worked very well .

Tamarind Juice - 1-2 tbsp

Method:

1. Rinse the rice before cooking. To cook Jasmine Rice add 2 Cup water to the rice. Add little salt. Bring it to boil and then reduce the heat to low, cover it with a lid and cook for another 15-20 minutes or till the rice is entirely cooked. Then turn off the heat and keep it covered for another 10 minutes. Keep it to cool.

2. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry tofu till it turns a little brown. We need to do this so that the tofu cubes remain intact. Once done keep them aside.

3. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and saute a little. Then add onion for 1 minute and add capsicum. saute for another 3-4 minutes. Keep burner on high flame. Make sure the veggies are not overcooked.

4. Gently add tofu and basil leaves and stir.

5. Add Soy sauce, tamarind water and salt per as per taste.

6. Now add the jasmine rice and stir evenly.

7. Cover for 2-3 minutes. Garnish it with cucumber and serve.

Tips: 

• @Veggie lovers - Make this more healthy by adding broccoli, carrots, snap peas..whatever veggie you like. :)
• @Perfectionists - In the first attempt you will not get a perfect idea for the number of basil leaves to be used, which is OK. :) . Enjoy !!!!!!!!
• @Non-vegetarians - use fish sauce and chicken.

Sending this to Serve it - Stir Fried Event (Denny's page), Hot and Spicy Treats

Dal Baati (Oven Cooking)

                            Baati is a hard Indian Bread and is an authentic Rajasthani dish. Baati is usually cooked by deep frying and hence even being my favorite I could not enjoy it a lot ...(you know the age of calorie consciousness ;) ). Well a very dear friend of mine shared this oven version with me which tastes as good as the fried version but not better than that. (Nothing beats the fried versions after all) ....

Baati is super filling food. Highly nutritious as along with wheat, lots of "ghee"  there is also intake of variety of dals. Its what we call "a complete meal". Bati is a favorite of all the Marwaris and its oftenly a wedding meal for them.

Ingredients:

To make Bati:

3 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Cup of Semolina
2 tbsp Clarified Butter, Ghee
2 Tsp Carom Seeds, Ajwain
Salt to taste
1 tsp Baking powder
Water for kneading

To make Dal:
This is where you can have any type of dals and there combinations.
Typically the Dal is made using 5 dals or else just Toor and Chana Dal. I am going to explain the 5 Dal recipe

Toor Dal: 1/2 Cup
Chana Dal: 1/2 Cup
Split Moong Dal: 1/2 Cup
Masoor Dal: 1/2 Cup
Udad Dal : 1/2 Cup
Garam Masala Powder : per taste
Red Chili powder : per taste
Salt : per taste
Lemon juice : per taste
Oil, Mustard Seeds, Cumin Seeds, Asafotida (hing), Curry leaves for seasoning
Chopped Coriander for garnishing

Some people do not like a particular Dal. You can increase / decrease the quantity used as per your liking.

Method:

Baati recipes:

1. Mix wheat flour, semolina, baking powder, Clarified butter (ghee), ajwain, and salt in a bowl.

2. Using water knead the flour to make a hard dough. The dough for Bati is different than that for Rotis. This is hard and you can see cracks in it. Once done, cover it for 1 hour.


3. After an hour knead the dough again. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Make small batis as shownin the picture form the dough. Place the batis on the baking sheet. Spread some Ghee
on top of each baati.

4. Bake the batis for atleast 15 minutes or till they are done from inside.

Dal Recipe:

1. Mix all dals and soak for and hour or two. Then pressure cook daals till they get cooked.

2. Heat oil in a skillet. Add mustrad seeds and once they crackle add asafoetida and cumin seeds to it. Then add curry leaves.

3. Immediately add Garam Masala and red chili powder and add the cooked dals.

4. Adjust masalas as per taste and add salt.

5. While serving you can have another round of temepring. But this is optional and I particulary avoid it as it brings extra oil in the meal.

Tips:

To enjoy this, break the baati into pieces, add dal and little Ghee and enjoy till it is hot.

Refreshing Pear-Berry Smoothie...Aha.....(and my 1st day at work)

                          Today was my first day at work and it was the day of orientation.From tomorrow I will be starting my work and will be part of a team. It feels good to be back in the industry. I am not sure how often will I get to write a post, but I want to be consistent and continue my blogging and I will be posting at least once a week.  The day of orientation was full of information about the company. What, who, where, how and everything one would like to know about the company. It was exciting, all day long presentations, videos etc etc....

Last Saturday I got a pack of Pears from Costco and you know how many of them come in a pack. :O..... Well many times the calculation of the fruits needed in a week is right but there is always a week when it goes wrong :(...And yes this was the week. Since the pears were getting little juicy I thought I should try a smoothie of it. You know...yogurt and fruits...Well then I remembered that I had some frozen berries and I thought it would be great to add some flavor and color to the pear smoothie. So I added some berries to this. No sugar is needed as both the fruits add enough sweetness. Isn't that great....:)

Well this I would say is the simplest version of the smoothie but its first of a kind for me :).

Ingredients:

To make a glass of smoothie

Take 1 whole pear and cut into cubes.
Take 4-5 berries, frozen
Take 1 tbsp of Curd

Method:

Blend in all the ingredients in a blender and enjoy :). Add ice cubes if you like. Also you can add the small pieces of pear in the smoothie.

Looks Refreshing.....Isn't it ??? :)

 

Coriander / Cilantro Paratha (Kothmir Ni Rotli)

                          Its been 2 and half years to my marriage. Besides family I still miss and remember so many other things from my family and my home. There is this endless list that goes on and on when I become nostalgic and kinda emotional ...you know. But these emotions do not bring tears but bring smile on my face. After marriage you walk with a huge responsibility in your new home and before marriage it was rather a very care free wandering. It's the way the tradition is and life is and every woman sails in the same boat and with age things have to change :)..... (but why sometimes I ask my self)......Wellllll there is no answer to this.... :)

The point is I wanted to mention few of my favorite things which I remember a lot (you can call me materialistic , but yeah I have attachment to them :D ) ...

1) The big terrace which always gave a peaceful sight of the sunset

2) The most comfy Sofa ever in the living room. And the king like treatment received in front of the TV sets, lying on those sofas and mom bringing some garama garam stuff to eat. (That's really wonderful) :)

3)  Our bedroom which was shared by me, my sister and my brother. The unusual thing about this room was its color (total green) and its makeover actually (from an attic to a room and a way to it).

4) A biiiig place for Rangoli.. Every diwali I missed it, drawing rangolis with my elder sister. It used to be a total tiring but full of fun experience, I swear.

5) And lastly  "Mummy ke haath ka khana" :( . I miss that a lot. I have tried to copy many of her recipes here. But still I could not have that taste in some of the dishes. There are some favorite dishes which are always on the menu list whenever we visit her. DahiVada, Tomato Omelet, "chakolya" , Dudhi Kofta, Daal Bati, Simple Daal and Rotli, "Matki", Pepper rice and many more...

The Coriander Paratha recipe also belongs to the same list. Absolute simple, healthy and really yummy. I am sure everyone will like this, unless he/she doesn't like Coriander at all. If you have dough ready at you home this will be done in no time. The roti tastes great with simle "kadhi". I will be posting the recipe for this. But you can find it online.

The only steps to make the stuffing are to chop the corriander and add few ingredients to it.

Ingredients:

For Stuffing:

Fresh Corriander - Chopped
Roasted Peanuts - Crushed
Gram Flour (Besan)
Salt - per taste
Red Chili Powder - per taste

I am not giving the quantity here as its way easy to make this. Wear you thinking hats and try it out. The stuffing is also shown in the pictures which can give you a brief idea.

For Dough:

To make 5-6 parathas use 1 Cup of wheat flour

Salt - per taste
Oil 1 tsp
Water

 To spread on top of roti:

Ghee (Clarified butter)
Fresh Lime Juice

Method:

1. In a bowl take the wheat flour, add salt and oil to it. With the help of water knead the dough as usual. Set aside for atleast 15 minutes.

2. Prepare stuffing my mixing all ingredients listed in another bowl.

3. Take a ball of dough and roll it to make abut3 inch diameter of roti. Place the stuffing in the middle and get the edges together and close it to make a ball again.

4. Roll this into a roti of about 6 inches diameter. Take wheat flour to prevent sticking of the roti to the surface.

5. Cook the roti on a griddle, from both sides.

6.Then place it on a direct flame or heat.

7. Cook a little till  a few tiny black spots appear. Now the roti is done and place it in a plate.

8. Make a few pinches with the fingers to the roti. Spread Ghee and some lime juice over it.

Steps 5 and 6 are shown in here. The Stuffing is shown on the right side

Tips:

This  roti can be most enjoyed with a kadhi.