Orange Loaf Cake - Love at first Bite

Like any apprehensive girl, when the time for finding a suitable partner came, I approched my parents with a "million dollar" question.

Me: How will I know if *He* is suitable for me?

Dad: You will just know!

Me: (scratching my head) what do you mean by that? Comeon dad - dont make this cinematic!!

Mum: It would be cinematic, if we said "Bells will starts ringing", "Butterflies will start fluttering in your stomach", "World will suddenly transform into a rose based aromatic field with you singing duets", "thunderboldts zigzagging",...

Me: Ok Ok stop! Forget that I ever said that...but but, How do I know that he is Mr.Right!

Dad: You will of course not know that *He* is Mr.Right - But the minute you speak to him, you will know! Know that there wont be any major compromises in life - But even if there are, you wouldn't mind doing them. That you would be seeing the world through two eyes instead of 4 - but if you do, you won't mind to see the world through *his* too. That you would struggle, be happy, be sad,in short, live as one instead of two.

Me: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What! Really!!! How!!!!!!!!!!!

Dad: You will know! (sly smile and a mysterious silence!)

Well, I do know now. I know what it is "to know". It happens for many things in life for me now. I don't need the reason..I just know, exactly like what happened with this recipe for Orange Loaf Cake. The minute I saw it, I knew I would love it. I knew that I wouldnt have to tear apart the recipe to enhance it, knew that it would be almost perfect as it and I would love the sensation that it would impart with my first bite.



I first saw this recipe in a Eye doctor's place!(Really!). Went for my regular annual checkup and they had these plethora of mags lying around among which was this Taste of Home edition. I was flipping through it when I saw this recipe. It clicked immedietely and since I had no paper or pen to note it down, I used my phone camera to copy the same. The only changes I made to it(and thats only cos I wanted to use all my oranges and nothing else!) was to increase the Orange juice and decrease the no. of eggs whites from 4 to 2 to accomodate more Orange juice. I also added Orange zest for that extra zing.The rest was just right for me.

Ingredients


• 1-3/4 cup Cake flour
  
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
  
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
  
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
  
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
  
  
• 1 cup Orange juice
  
  
• Zest of one orange
  
  
• 2 egg whites
  
  
• 2 tbsp confectioner's sugar for dusting
  

Method

In a mixing bowl, conbine the dry ingredients



Add oil and orange juice, beat until smooth.



In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.



Fold it into the Orange mixture.



Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.



Bake for about 1 hour in a pre-heated 350F oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out neat.



Cool for 10 minutes, dust the loaf with confestionaer's sugar and enjoy! :)



I loved every slice of it..Make it and tell me..Did you fall in love at first bite just like me?:)

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This Loaf is packed for a picnic held by Trupti at recipe center

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Ricotta Cheese Fritters or Eggs in a nest?

Remember the two angels from this post? Everytime they come to my place, something special always seem to happen and this time was no exception. It was rainy, day was gloomy and the kids got hungry. They asked me to make some thing with cheese - "I luv jeeze - lotta jeez" said the little one. Her mother informed me that although she has just started making sentences, she can ask for cheese (jeez, i.e) very well and thats the first thing she ever said!:) Adorable! I had some Ricotta cheese waiting to be used, a little slab of Parmesan and was wondering what I could make for them when it happened!!!



Last time they had visited us, there was a bird's nest right outside our house, on the porch light where we could see all the eggs. It was right where we could sit in our living room and check them out. It had 4 eggs, brown and cute. The kids spent hours last time (I had to lift them every 5 minutes to let them check if they have hatched or not! My hands were paining like crazy at the end of the day! Oh well that's a topic for another day!) The eggs dint hatch that day although they did 2 days later and I went on to see little ones being hatched, open their sweet beaks to get food from mama bird, take their first flight and then leave the nest for ever! Capturing them in photo was really hard given that they were so close. The smart mama bird seemed to have tought them well..the minute the little ones see us watching, they will lie down subdued but the minute we hide or go away from their line of sight they will start chirping like crazy :) It was funny indeed!



So when the little ones came this time and found the nest empty with only Bird droppings inside, the little one started crying. She wanted to see the eggs. I was amazed how she rememberd this after all this while. Thats when I told them that we would make our own eggs and put them in our own nest - clean one and not filled with droppings.

I also told them, these will be delicious looking ones and which they can eat too :) :) So here are my eggs and nests

Ingredients


• Approx 2 cups of Part skim ricotta cheese
  
  
• About 4 whole grain stale bread slices
  
  
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs (optional. You can use the whole grain bread crumbs instead)
  
  
• 1/2 cup Parmesan grated
  
  
• few sprigs of cilnatro/parsley
  
  
• salt to taste
  
  
• few tbsp of italian seasoned Bread crumbs for coating
  

Method

Grind the bread slices to make fresh bread crumbs. This should make approximately 2 cups.



Add all the ingredients together.



It will come together into one dough



Make small balls out of it and then coat it with bread crumbs



Drop them in a hot oil



and fry them until golden brown



Serve warm, as they are or with ketchup.



I used cilantro leaves to make the nest and placed these goodies in the middle.



Which of these final photos should I send to Click ? One of the two in the top of this page or one of the two at the bottom? Can you help me decide?

Update: Thanks Guyz. I have decided to send the second last snap for the event.

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Sending these over to Trupti's MBP : Kids event. This recipe has been inspired by Amy Savoury Ricotta Fritters post

Sending the snap to Jugalbandi's Click : Tofu/Cheese Event

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Wholemeal Banana (Wal)Nut Muffins

I Love using Bananas for Baking as evident from my Low Sugar Banana Muffins and Banana Walnut Bread. I like ti even more with walnuts. For me nothing tastes better than a combination of Banana and Walnuts. That being said, I was amazed to see that I dint have Banana Walnut Muffin posted when I have been making one quite a lot. I find having such treats around help me to avoid reaching for junk foods at the danger time - you know, the time between lunch and dinner. I read somewhere that if this period is not handled right, then thats where one goes bersek with their dieting strategies!



Anyways I have made these Banana Muffins with wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and it has healthy ingredients for a guilt free gluttony :) It is immensely moist with a crunch of generous walnut pieces. I have used minimal fat.

Ingredients


• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  
  
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  
  
• 2 large bananas
  
  
• 1/8th cup of wheat germ
  
  
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
  
  
• 1 egg (you can skip this to make it eggless.)
  
  
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
  
• 1/4 cup milk
  
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
  
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
  
  
• 1-1/2 tbsp butter
  

Method

Add the flour,salt,baking powder, wheat germ together.



Add the wet ingredients together . Mash the bananas with a fork. I do this to get little chunks of banana in my muffin. If you dont prefer that, mash it in a food processor until smooth.



Mix both of them until well incorporated. Blend in some nuts.



Drop spoonfuls of the batter into lined muffin pans.



Top it off with some nuts and bake in a preheated oven 350F for approximately 30-40 min or until done.



Serve warm. Some tea with this muffin would make you feel all the more good about yourself :), the way it does to me.

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This is my entry to Roma's JFI event:Wheat

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Millet Upma/Kitchidi/Pilaf

I know of a person, who for logical and personal reasons, undergoes strict diet. Whenever I hear her diet, I start feeling hungry!! No not because she has some delicious meals as part of her diet, nor is it that she makes her diet sound appetising, its just that, the deprivation puts my mind into auto-hunger mode fearing that I would deprive my body the same way (and this even after a full meal!!!!!). All said and done, my hats off to her determination and discipline. To say it and do it are parallel lines and when I see one in flesh and blood actually doing it successfully makes me ashamed sometimes at my so called "will-power" or rather the lack of it - when it comes to dieting ( I suck at it - so finally I gave it up a year back! :) )



An acquaintance of ours, was telling us about how it is difficult for the body to process carbohydrates after noon. So, later the day, the more hard it is. He was telling us about how it would be a good idea to eat all carbs in the beg. of the day and nada during evening and night.umm! Ohn well...Too many calculations and planning as if the weekly Menu that I plan ( which incorporates all the essential nutrients from all quarters of the pyramid) is not enough! I dunno about you - but it takes close to an hour to write down b/f,lunch,snacks and dinner for 7 days keeping all this points in mind!!!!! Anyways, with all this health and balanced diet going on, I planned to cut down on rice (My body is made of rice- cutting it down is like taking out a vital part of the body- gotto tell you that ;-)). Anyways, so went for Millet Upma/ Pilaf - call it what you will - along with a hearty tomato and herb dumpling soup! Made a very hearty and nutritious meal and ya well, it dint make me miss rice at all.

Ingredients
1 cup millet
3 spring onions, chopped with white and greens seperated
1/2 cup peas (optional)
1 medium red onion
2 garlic, minced
approx 1 tsp grated ginger
1 bell pepper, any color ( go for red/yellow - preferable)
1 medium orange
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2-3 green chillies ( as per taste)
1 tsp cumin-coriander powder
salt n pepper to taste

Method

1.Dry roast the miller in a pan for 4-5 min until you get the toasted smell. Dont make it brown.Set aside



2.Saute the onions,bell pepper,spring onion whites until soft and then add the toasted millet to it.



3. Then add 2 1/4 cups of water/vegetable broth. Zest the orange and add it to the broth along with the juice of orange(and peas if using).Season with salt and pepper to taste and close the lid.



4.Cook until all the water has been absorbed-about 15-20min.



5.Now remove from heat and gently stir in the spring onion greens along with cilantro for garnish and serve. You can add any number of vegetables of your choice.



This goes to JFI - Whole Grains initiated by Indira and hosted this time by Suganya and to dear Aparna for her WBB - Grains ( thanks Aparna :) )

Strawberry Yogurt Icecream

Lemme kickstart the month with something for an equally crazy gal ( and rightfully a great pal !) for her event Frozen Yogurt Recently there was this huge heat wave blowing at the place where I live and I had to make something to chill myself off. I still had some strawberries left after the Jam - I mean I went to costco! what else can one expect! So I made it into an healthy dessert.



Adults are kids in bigger shoes is what i feel! And it would become evident esp when it comes to eating popsicles. Its enjoyed by everyone of all ages, sizes and shapes! ;-) I love them too and so made a Strawberry Popsicle.

Ingredients
About 2-3 cups strawberries
2 cups plain yogurt ( can use low fat-fat free)
5 tbsp brown sugar ( depending on the sweetness of the fruit, +/- the amount)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)


Method

1. Slice the strawberries into quarters.



2.Blend all the ingredients together.



3.Pour them out in popsicle moulds



4.Refrigerate them for 5 hrs or until frozen and remove them from the mould.



5.You can keep the mould under hot running water for few seconds if the icecream does not come out. If you dont have a mould with sticks - dont forget to insert one.

6.Slurp and burp and enjoy :)

Addendum : I am sending this to dear EC for her WYF Event with theme : Juices and Icecreams and to Paajaka's Event : Cool Desserts
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So there have been some amazing entries for OS 2. My God! Its sure going to be a tough time in making a selection for the winner. Chk out the entries yourself and decide! :) Dont forget to vote . What? You dont see your entry in there? Did you remember to send a mail to ifl.opensesame@gmail.com ? Gotcha! You forgot right? - Drop in a line soon with your entry - You dont want to be delayed further. Deadline is already drawn to a close. So buckle up fast. So whats for prize this time?


Quite a few of you might be knowing about Anjali Damerla. She has this myriad range of Spice Extracts. So what exactly are they? In her own words :

"All my products are pure, concentrated Spice Extracts. They contain no preservatives or chemicals and have long shelf life. My Spice extracts contain the volatile oil of the parent spice and a permitted emulsifier to keep it free flowing. That's it. No other ingredient.
You might ask - why use extracts instead of whole spice. Whole spices lose flavor and fragrance and do not have long shelf life. Extracts are free of any contamination, do not lose flavor, fragrance and lets you customize the spice according to individual taste.



Another advantage of my products is that all extracts are concentrated and 1 bottle contain abt 150 - 160 drops and that makes them very economical. For example- 1 drop of cardamom extract = 1 pod of cardamom. So my extract bottle is equivalent to 150 -160 pods of cardamom ( no peeling, no grinding and full of flavor)
Tulsi extract is my favorite example. Winter season is when I need Tulsi the most but the plant loses all the leaves in winter here. But having the pure extract of Tulsi all year round makes it easy to fight cold and cough :) And its easy to give it to kids too."



Now isnt this exciting? To give you a chance to explore what it is all about, she has kindly agreed to give away "Tea Masala extract" and "Ginger extract" to this month's two talented US winners. In case if the winners are from India - then you would be getting a surprise gift from Siri and me.:) Dont forget to check out her Anjali's Blog with recipes with all these natural extracts too.

You need any more reason to send us an entry ??

Brown Rice Patties

I make it a point to keep the word 'leftovers' in my house rare. The importance of freshness plays a huge role, thanks esp to super conscious inhabitants ( I am not finicky to that extent though!)of my house. That being the case, what do I do when I do have some leftovers? Till date I have been lucky that it has been mostly cooked rice that has been leftover and I end up making something or the other with it.



Last night I had some leftover brown rice! Was wondering what to do when I came up with Brown Rice Patties. They are nutritious and tasty. If you are not a fan of brown rice and always found excuses to not eat it, then start off the effort with this recipe. You will soon want to incorporate it slowly in your diet too :)

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked brown rice
  
  
• 1/2 cooked chickpeas ( or you can use canned ones. Saves time)
  
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
  
• 2-3 tbsp cashews
  
  
• 1 tsp coriander-cumin powder
  
  
• 1 tsp turmeric
  
  
• 1-2 green chillies
  
  
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  
  
• 1 egg ( optional)
  
  
• 1 carrot, grated
  
  
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
  
  
• 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
  
  
• Cilantro - about 1/2 -1 cup
  
  
• salt to taste
  

Method

1. Heat a tsp of oil in a pan and saute the onions and garlic till soft. Add the spices, cook for 2 more minutes and then add the chickpeas to it. Cook for another 2-3 min and then grind it along with salt, cashews and cilantro.



2. Mix the brown rice, the chickpeas mixture, carrot,the lemon juice, salt and the breadcrumbs along with egg if using.



3. Refrigerate for 20-30min and then form patties of the mixture and cook them in a non stick pan with little oil.



Note : You can deep fry, shallow fry or simply bake them. Baking takes longer and the result is little crunchier than the rest. Remember to drizzle some oil on top of the patties before baking them.

4.Turn the other side when done. Repeat in batches and cook till it turns brown.



5.Garnish with cilantro or serve with any sauce.

My fellow Marathon runners are cooking and running too! Check out:-

1. Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons
2. Bhags of Crazy Curry
3. Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner
4. Raaga of The Singing Chef
5. Lakshmi of The Yum Blog
6. Siri of Siri's Corner
7. Swati of Chat Khor
8. Divya Vikram of Dil Se
9. Arundathi of Arundathi's Food Blog.

Chocolate Date and Walnut Brownies

If you like chocolates, dates and walnuts, then you would be in 7th heaven the minute I say that it is a brownie with all this goodness mixed together. But if you are not that much of a chocolate lover like me, then one bite of this will convince you to reach out for some more.



We had some guests few weeks back and they sure turned out to be v generous with their gift of chocolates. I had a various assortment of those and dint know what to do since I dont like chocolates except probably for those which have nuts in them.



I had some dates and nuts in my pantry and thought of re-creating one Brownie recipe which I had noted down long back with my own modifications.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces ( about 340 gms) semi sweet chocolate, broken into pieces.
  
  
• 1 stick butter, diced
  
  
• 2 eggs ( if skipping eggs, just add 2/4 cup of milk)
  
  
• 1/4 cup honey
  
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
  
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
  
  
• 1 1/2 cups fresh dates, peeled,pitted and chopped
  
  
• 1 3/4 cups walnut pieces
  
  
• powdered sugar for dusting
  
  

Method

1.Preheat Oven to 350F. Grease a 12 X 8-inch baking pan and line with baking parchment.Put the chocolate and butter in a double boiler / large heatproof bowl over a another vessel with hot water and leave until melted. Stir till smooth.



2. In a sepearte bowl , beat the eggs ( if using, otherwise milk), sugar and vanilla.



3.Beat in the chocolate mixture, then fold in flour, dates and nuts.



4.Pour into the pan.



5.Bake for 45m-1 hr until firm and mixture comes away from the pan. Cool and then turn out. Dust it with sugar and serve with creme fraiche. :)




This is my entry to Waiter There's Something In My... with the theme Dry Fruits and Nuts

Check out my Fellow Runners Kitchen :-

1. Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons
2. Bhags of Crazy Curry
3. Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner
4. Raaga of The Singing Chef
5. Lakshmi of The Yum Blog
6. Siri of Siri's Corner
7. Swati of Chat Khor
8. Divya Vikram of Dil Se
9. Arundathi of Arundathi's Food Blog.