Mini Orange Cupcakes with chocolate chips


Orange Cupcakes turned out well and I used some chocolate chips top it off with the rest of my batter. You can access the Orange cupcake recipe from this link. These cupcakes are delicious and you would love it.

You could bake in the muffin tins with small moulds or regular or silicon liners.
Baking, Baking with Orange, cupcake,
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Orange Cupcakes


Earlier I tried lemon cupcakes and they were delicious. You can find the recipe on my old blog. Click here to access it. I replicated that recipe with teeny change, I replaced lemon zest with Orange zest and Lemon juice with Orange Juice. I also used orange essence you could very well ignore it.
This recipe makes 12 delicious cupcakes, you could reduce or increase as you need. You may also top it off some pretty frosting to complete the look, I am yet to practice the icing techniques, my first experience wasn't great. But I am definitely going to try again when I get some quality time.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 t.spn
Baking Soda - 1 t.spn
Salt - 1/4 tspn
Softened Butter - 1/3 cup (75 gm)
Regular Sugar - 3/4 cup. If you prefer medium sweetness use 1/2 cup
Eggs - 2
Orange Extract - 1 t.spn
Vanilla Extract - 1 t.spn
Orange Zest - 1 tbl spn
Milk - 1/2 cup
Orange Juice - 2 t.spn

 Preparation:
Sift all dry ingredients beginning from Flour to salt and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl add butter and sugar. Mix well until it becomes light and fluffy. I used a hand mixer.

Add the eggs one by one while mixing. once it's incorporated well with mixture add Orange zest, vanilla extract and orange extract mix well.

Then add the dry ingredients in 3 parts and mix well. First add 1/3 of flour mixture and blend well, pour in 1/3 of milk & blend followed by 1 t.spn orange juice. Repeat the same procedure for rest of the flour.

Transfer to muffin tins with or without liners and bake for 15 - 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C. The timing vary based on the type of oven and the quantity. I got mine baked in 17 minutes in convection (6 muffin tray). You could also bake in silicon liners.

Note:

- ensure all ingredients are at room temperate especially butter, egg and milk.
- Do not melt butter to liquid, simply microwave it for about 10 sec or place on a warm lid. 
Baking, Baking with Orange, cupcake,
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Chinese Greenbeans Stir fry with chicken



Chinese food has always been one of my favorite and there are several easy dishes which I tried and never tried chicken with green beans. I experimented this dish with several Chinese Sauces. You could leave out certain sauces if you do not have or do not like them. Most Chinese recipes would call for minced Garlic like Italian food. 

I used one chicken breast which would be more than sufficient for 2 servings. Cut through the breast so that you have two evenly cut breast we want the chicken pieces to be thin and slender. Refer to this page for assistance with cutting the breast. After that cut them length wise into small pieces. Click here for some ideas. Sorry I didn't take pictures of ingredients this time. 

Marinate chicken with some salt, lemon juice, soy sauce, pepper powder let it sit for 30 minutes. This dish is prepared in three easy steps. 

Step 1 : Cooking green beans. You could either use whole beans but I like to cut them into halves. Bring a pot of water to boil with little salt and oil . Remember this would be really boiling with bubbles. We need to cook beans in this water for couple of minutes, not longer. The beans would be crunchy to bite but not raw. Strain and run cold water over it. This will stop the cooking process. Set this aside.

Step 2: Stir fry chicken with Garlic. We would need few medium sized garlic pods about 8 - 10. Mince garlic (chop finely) and sprinkle corn starch over the chicken marinade and coat them well. 
Heat a large fry pan with 1 to 2 tb.sp oil (Oil of your choice) and stir fry the garlic for few seconds. Add chicken to it and fry them on both sides so that they are cooked. Do this in high heat chicken would change color and would brown slightly. You can sprinkle very little water only if required to prevent smoke.

Step 3: Preparing the sauce and putting everything together. I have used the following sauce.
- Soy Sauce - 2 tb.spn - I used light.
- Oyster Sauce - 1 tb.spn
- Chili Oil - 2 tb.spn
- Sweet chili sauce - 1 tb.spn
- Sesame oil - 1 t.spn
- Hoisin Sauce - 1 t.spn
- Sugar and Salt as needed.
- Some water

To prepare the sauce first heat regular cooking oil (about 1 tb.spn) with chili oil in a large pan or wok. Saute few minced garlic,Ginger julienne whole red chili. Ensure the chili is slit so the flavor gets incorporated with the dish. Do not brown them. 

Add all the sauces mix well. Add 1 tb.sugar and water as per gravy. Taste the seasoning , now you may add salt and more sugar if needed to balance the taste. Add chicken and beans, cover and simmer the heat, let them cook in this sauce for couple of minutes. You may add little water if needed.

Finally the sauce need to be thickened. Mix one t.spn corn starch with little water and add into the sauce little by little until the sauce reaches desired thickness. 

Garnish with roasted white sesame seeds. Serve hot with steamed rice. If you cook this as a dry dish this could be served as an appetizer as well.
Chinese, Chinese green beans stir fry Indo chinese, Continental,
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Banana Chocolate Cupcakes


Banana is a fruit filled with plenty of nutrients. Combining this with chocolate would only enhances the flavor and make these cupcakes delicious. I am not a chocolate lover hence reduced the sugar.

This recipe makes 12 muffins of normal size. I used the regular ripe green bananas available in India. These aren't large in size you could



Dry Ingredients:

Plain Flour - 1 cup
Regular Sugar - 1 cup
Cocoa Powder  - 3/4 cup
Baking Soda - 3/4 t.spn
Baking Powder - 3/4 t.spn
Salt - 1/4 t.spn


Wet Ingredients:

Ripe Banana - 2 - Mash well using a fork.
Oil - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Milk - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Water - 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Egg - 1
Vanilla Extract - 1 t.spn

Preparation:

Sift all dry ingredients, mix and set aside.
In a separate bowl beat egg and add other wet ingredients and whisk well.
Pour wet mixture into the dry ingredients bowl and fold in gently. The batter would be of liquid consistency.
Pour into muffin tin or liners and bake for approx. 17 to 20 minutes. Oven should be preheated to 180 °C.

I got my muffins done at 18 minutes in convection. I baked in a muffin tray with 6 moulds. The baking time might vary slightly based on the type of oven.

This cupcake remains spongy even when refrigerated. 
Baking, banana muffins cupcakes, breakfast muffins,
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Orange Dates Muffins with yogurt


Recently I made lemon cupcakes and then tried orange ones, now with little alteration to the main ingredient yogurt instead of milk. You could also try making this with buttermilk instead of yogurt. Below ingredients make 12 large muffins. This is filled with nutrients as it contains wheat flour and dates.


Plain flour - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Firmly packed light brown sugar - 2/3 cup (140 gm)
Baking Soda - 1/2 t.spn
Baking Powder - 2 t.spn
Salt - 1/2 t.spn
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 t.spn
Dates chopped - 1/2 cup

Melted butter - 1/4 cup
Yogurt 1 cup
Egg - 1

Orange Zest - 1 tb.spn
Orange Extract - 1.tsp
Vanilla Extract - 1.tsp
Orange Juice - 1/3 cup (80 ml)

Preparation:

Mix all dry ingredients from first section and orange zest with hand and keep aside.
In another bowl beat egg, yogurt, butter and mix using a wire whisk or spatula. To this mixture add orange juice, and flavoring extracts.
Pour the wet ingredients to dry and fold everything together well gently.
Transfer to the muffin moulds or liners and bake at a preheated oven (180°C) for 16 to 20 minutes.

I got mine baked at 17 minutes in convection. Set the time to 17 minutes, check and increase the timing as per the results.

You may add any topping of your choice. I have used some chopped cashews.

While using yogurt ensure you use set thick curd and not the thin packet curd. Whisk the set curd with a whisk or in a blender so that the yogurt would be free of lumps, and it would be smooth.
Baking, breakfast muffins, Food,
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Fiery Baked Chicken with Indian Spices & Herb


Ever since I tried baking chicken with different combination of spices, I wanted to try and replicate KFC's fiery grilled chicken. I attempted to do it and the result was remarkable. Like the name say Fiery it's hot. You could alter the ingredients to your choice.



Step 1: Slit and Poke the chicken drumstick with a fort so it absorbs the flavors from the seasoning. Rub some salt, lemon juice all over and let this sit for atleast 15 minutes.

Step 2 : Preparing the seasoning for the drumsticks. I dry roasted some Indian spices and blended it with herbs. I used dried red chilies, Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Pepper corns. Blend this to a coarse powder.

Herbs - I used the combination of both fresh and dry herbs. For example 1/4 t.spn dried Rosemary and and about 1/2 t.spn finally chopped fresh rosemary. It's totally upto you. Ensure you don't over power it. You could use one herb or a mix of few. I used Rosemary, couple of basil and parsley.

Step 3: In a bowl mix the powdered spices, herbs, garlic powder ( 1 tspn), granulated chicken bouillon (1/2 tspn), onion powder 1/2 tspn (optional) and some olive or vegetable oil. Mix everything well.
Step 4: Marinate the chicken with the above mix using hand. Cover the container with cling film wrap or with lid and refrigerate for an hour or 2. You could also let it sit overnight.

Step 5: Baking time :)  bake on a preheated oven of 190°C for 40 to 50 minutes. You might want to turn the chicken after 30 minutes. I baked mine on a convection oven.
Bake Chicken, Baking, Indian
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Quick & Simple Zucchini Pasta Noodles blended with Indian spices



Zucchini is one of the low calorie vegetable isl loaded with nutrients. This is eaten in throughout the world and now available in Indian markets as well. Although we might find this only in supermarket stores.

I do not prefer eating this raw like cucumber but grill / bake or stir fry. This is another simple easy dish with little preparation time and cook time. It would be super easy if you have a slicer like I have. Although you could slice them using a knife it would eat a lot of time and the strands would not be uniform in shape and size. I have demonstrated the outcome with and without slicer for your understanding. Let's good into the recipe.

Ingredients:

  1. Zucchini - sliced like noodle threads
  2. Seasoning of your choice . I have used (crushed pepper, garlic parsely powder, granulated chicken bouillon, chili flakes)
  3. Minced Garlic from 4 - 5 medium pods
  4. Grated Parmesan cheese or powder
  5. Salt to taste
  6. Olive oil to stir fry - 2 t.spn or as needed.

Preparation:

  1. Place the sliced zucchini in a colander, sprinkle salt and mix well. Let it sit for about 15 to 30 minutes. The excess water would drain off.
  2. Bring a pot of water to boil and turn off the heat. Blanch the zucchini in this water for about a minute. Immediately transfer to ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain and set aside.
  3. Heat oil in a large pan and saute the garlic for few seconds. Add in all seasoning saute well. Mix the zucchini threads toss. Do not saute too much.
  4. Garnish with grated cheese and other greens like cilantro/ coriander leaves / parsley if you like.
Enjoy this noodles pasta while hot. 

Note:
- You may try curry powder seasoning instead of light spices
- You could also toss in grilled chicken pieces of cooked shrimp or cherry tomatoes 
- Just experiment with what you like and which ever works better for you.
Continental, Food, Pasta,
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Tomato Lemonade


Lemon Juice also known as Lemonade is all time favourite for many. I tried blending this with other fruits and vegetables guess what !!! The results are remarkable. Tomato lemonade is easy to make and do not need any fancy ingredients.


Ingredients:


  1. Ripe tomatoes - 2 large or cherry tomatoes.
  2. Lemon
  3. Mint leaves - 10 - 15
  4. Sugar as needed
  5. Chaat masala - as needed (optional)

Preparation:


  1. Cut tomatoes and remove the seed portion, chop finally.
  2. Extract juice from the lemon, use 1 lemon for 500 ml of juice.
  3. In a blender add all ingredients and blend to make a coarse paste, then add water blend well.
  4. Strain the juice using a sieve. Blend the left over with more water if needed.
Enjoy the drink with ice or you may refrigerate and serve chilled. 
Beverage, Cherry Tomato Juice, Food,
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Oven Baked Potato Wedges with Cheese and Herbs

Now who would not love some potato wedges, except for the ones on diet. I love french fries from McDonalds and Potato Wedges from KFC. Every time I visit one of these fast food restaurants I do not miss a regular in my order.
Baking is recently been added to my culinary skills and I am a newbie in this area as I am still exploring and experimenting.
I tried baking cauliflower, potato cubes, broccoli and the outcome was different with each of these vegetables based on the spices I used. I am going to try the above dishes once again with different temperate and cooking time. But Potato wedges came out so well. I have the list of ingredients I used to season but you are free to experiment with what you have in your kitchen counter.

Ingredients:
  1. Potatoes long medium size - 2
  2. olive oil - 2 tbl spn
  3. Maida (all purpose flour) - 3 tbl spn
  4. Corn Starch - 1 tb spn (optional)
  5. Parmesan Cheese - 3 - 4 tb.spn
  6. Chili powder - 2 t.spn
  7. Pepper powder - 1/2 t.spn
  8. Garlic powder - 1 t.spn
  9. Onion Powder - 1 t.spn (optional)
  10. Dry herbs (Parsley, Rosemary, basil) - 1 tb.spn
  11. Salt to taste
  12. Fresh herbs (Parsely, Rosemary, basil) - finally chopped.
Preparation:
  1. Preheat oven to 200°C
  2. Wash and clean potatoes to remove dirt, as we would cook with skin. Scrape any dirt if found. Cut the potatoes length wise like wedges and place in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add the oil to the cut potatoes and mix well so that the potatoes get coated with the oil.
  4. In another bowl mix ingredients listed under 3 to 11 and mix well.
  5. Add these mixed seasoning to the oil coated potatoes and toss well, you may also use your hand to mix.
  6. In a baking tray lined with parchment or aluminum foil, arrange the potatoes with the skin part facing down.
  7. Sprinkle the fresh herbs on top and bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until it's crispy from outside and soft inside.
Note:

  • You can arrange potatoes in circle or row depending on the kind of tray you have. I have arranged them closely yet got it cooked. I had to turn some potatoes facing down in between.
  • I used only 2 basil leaves with couple of tiny sprigs of rosemary and parsley each.
  • You may use Parmesan / Mozzarella or any other cheese you have. Even powdered cheese work
  • Now the baking time, I got mine done at 35 minutes in convection. Keep checking after 25 minutes and increase the time as desired.
Baking, Food, Home made potato wedges with Indian Spices,
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