Navratan Korma - A Royal Vegetable Dish

I wish all the readers of my blog a very Happy New Year. I hope 2013 brings you good health, happiness and great food. Since food tastes good only when the cook is happy, I hope each day of yours is filled with great joy which in turn will lead to tastier food.

I have been wondering what recipe I should start the new year with and I couldn't make up my mind. Should I start with a starter and follow through with a complete meal or shall I start with a decadent sweet? Well inspiration just struck and I sat down to pen down this wonderful recipe. This is a medley of vegetables, in a rich, flavorful sauce which is also a little sweet. The dish is called "Navratan Korma". "Navratan" means nine gems and "Korma" means a medley. So literally it is a dish which has at least 9 starring ingredients, mainly vegetables, fruit or dry fruit and paneer. It is cooked in a rich cashew based sauce traditionally with cream added to finish it off. I wanted to lighten the recipe. Also, as I was planning to serve this to many people, I did not want to use any nuts in case of allergies. It was a great success and I must say that I received the best compliments from my friend's nine year old who not only ate all the vegetables, but asked for seconds and told her Mom that this was one of the best vegetable curry she had ever tasted.

Ingredients
1 large red onion, finely diced
1 tbsp + 1tsp butter
3-4 canned whole tomatoes (puree it)
1 tsp corriander/dhania powder
red chilli powder to taste
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp corriander-cumin powder (dhania jeera powder)
1 tbsp garam masala
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 green chilli, sliced into 2 pieces
1 potato, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cauliflower, florets separated into medium size pieces
1/2 cup  green beans, diced
6-7 baby corns, diced into 1 inch pieces (I used canned baby corn)
1/2 cup paneer, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
3-4 sliced of pineapple (I used the ones which are canned, but not in syrup)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup low fat milk
3/4 cup cream
salt to taste
1 cup water

Method
Heat 1 tsp butter in a flat pan, sprinkle some salt and shallow fry the paneer pieces till they are lightly browned on all sides. Keep aside.

Heat the butter in a pan which will be able to accommodate all the vegetables. Add the red onion and saute it till it is softened and translucent. Then add the ginger garlic paste, and the green chilli and fry this till the raw smell goes away. Next, add the tomato puree and cook this mixture for a few minutes. Stir and do not let this brown. Then add the turmeric, garam masala, dhania jeera powder and dhania powder. Stir and fry these spices for 2-3 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup water. Then, add the potatoes, green beans, carrots, cauliflower and red bell pepper and boil this for a few minutes, till the vegetables a partially cooked through. Then, add the rest of the vegetables, the corn, pineapple, and the peas. And finally add the paneer. Cook all of the ingredients together till the all the vegetables, especially the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked through. Then, in a small bowl, mix the milk and cream together and slowly add this mixture to the gravy. Add salt and raisins and boil for a couple of minutes. Serve hot, with some naan or tandoori roti. You can garnish this with some grapes.

Tips
Feel free to choose any combination of vegetables. You can use fewer than 9 ingredients as well. If you do not want the sweet tinge, then don't add the pineapple and raisins. If you want a richer gravy, then soak 1/4 cup of raw cashews for a couple of hours and make a paste of these cashews.  Add this paste along with the cream instead of milk. You can also add yogurt instead of cream. Make sure to whisk it till it is smooth.
I used canned baby corn and pineapple. If you use the fresh version, then remember the cooking time will increase and you should either add it in along with the potatoes (specially the corn) or may be semi-cook these in the microwave for a minute before adding to the gravy.
If you don't have canned tomatoes, then you can use fresh tomatoes. To peel them, boil water, then add the tomatoes to the boiling water. As soon as you see the skin is starting to tear up, remove these and put them in a bowl of cold water (ice water is preferred). It will be very easy to remove the skins then.

Pineapple Cake with Whipped Cream icing

I enjoy baking and icing cakes. I have been trying out a variety of  cakes off late. One of my friends suggested that the next time I bake a cake, I should make a pineapple cake. Well, it was her birthday recently and I got an opportunity to try it out. I decided to make it for her. I was able to work the pineapple into the cake batter and infuse a good amount of pineapple flavor into the cake, by adding chopped pieces into the layers of the cake. I was very happy with the result. I iced it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream icing. Absolutely delicious!

Ingredients
Cake
1and 1/4 cups, plus 2 tbsp of all purpose flour (maida)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter - room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup pineapple juice (unsweetened)
1/4 cup pineapple pieces, canned and chopped finely

Icing
2 cups  heavy whipping cream
4 tsps powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling
1/4 cup pineapple pieces, canned and chopped finely
whipped cream icing (see above)

Method
Pineapple Cake
Grease a baking dish with some butter and dust with some all purpose flour. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together and keep aside. Sieve these ingredients a couple of times. In another bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar. Beat it till the butter is fluffy. Add one egg at a time to this and beat each egg into the mixture till it is nice and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence. Add one third of the dry ingredients to the batter and fold it in. Then add half of the pineapple juice and mix. Alternate between the pineapple juice and the dry ingredients till they are all incorporated into the batter. Then add the pineapple pieces to the batter and fold it in carefully. Do not over mix and deflate the batter.

Bake the cake at 350 F for about 30 minutes. Use a knife and insert it into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean then the cake is ready. If not, bake for a few more minutes.
Take if out and let the pan cool on a wire rack for 10-15 mins. Then invert the pan onto the cooling rack and slide the cake out. Let the cake cool if you wish to ice it.

Icing
In a mixing bowl, mix the heavy cream, essence and sugar and using a hand mixer or whisk, whisk it till the cream has thickened and when you lift the whisk, the cream stays in peaks.

Assembly
Slice the cake into two pieces horizontally. Ice the lower layer with a layer of whipped cream. Next spread out an even layer of the pineapple pieces on top of the whipped cream layer. Then place the next cake layer of the cake on top. The whipped cream and pineapple pieces are sandwhiched between the two cake layers. Then cover the cake with the whipped cream icing. Decorate with maraschino cherries and pineapple pieces.

Tips 
Raw pieces of pineapple are quite tough and hence use canned pineapple in this recipe.
While making the batter, ff the eggs are separated and the whites beaten separately before being added to the batter, the cake will be lighter. You can add the yolks right after the butter and sugar. But fold in the egg whites after all the dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter.
Wrap the cake in foil and then some plastic wrap before you freeze it. The cake will stay in the freezer from a couple of weeks to a month. The cake should be completely cooled down before icing it. If need be, refrigerate the cake or freeze it for an hour before you ice it.

Pineapple Jam

Over the last two years (ever since I started blogging), I have collected many pictures of food. I cook everyday and enjoy trying out new recipes. So, it follows that I end up taking pictures at least a couple of days a week, of new food items and my photo collection keeps growing. The challenge is to keep up with the blog updates as I make new dishes. I was going through the various pictures and trying to decide which recipe to write up next, when I came across pictures of my homemade pineapple jam. It is an easy recipe, to make and to write up too, so it is the perfect choice for blogging on a rather busy day. I had used a method similar to my strawberry jam. It tastes delicious. It has a slightly tangy taste depending on how sour the pineapple is. It is a great accompaniment for bread or hot chapatis.

Ingredients
1 pineapple, finely chopped or grated or coarsely pureeed
sugar (about 1.5 to 2 cups) - quantity will depend on the cooked down quantity of the pineapple
1/8 tsp citric acid

Method
Cook the pineapple on medium heat. You will know that the pineapple is cooked once the color starts to become darker and the puree starts to thicken. At this stage, measure the amount of the cooked puree. Measure out two times the sugar compared to the quantity of cooked puree. I had one cup of the cooked puree and so I took two cups of sugar. Mix the puree and the sugar and heat it on a low flame. The mixture will become watery as the sugar melts and then start to thicken. When this mixture is thick enough where your spoon leaves a slight path when its dragged through it, it is ready to be taken off the heat. Take a little mixture in a small bowl and add the citric acid to it, stir thoroughly so that the citric acid is completely dissolved. Add this back to the warm mixture. Let it cool.  Do not cover the jam as it cools down. Store it in the fridge upon cooling.

Tips
If you puree the pineapple, keep aside a slice of pineapple and cut it into fine pieces. The puree and pineapple pieces will provide the best texture for the jam. Store it in the fridge. Use only dry spoons when scooping the jam out of the container. Introduction of moisture will speed up the spoilage and it will not last for too long.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

One of my favorites. This cake is so pretty. My mom used to bake this occasionally as a treat. I remember my first attempt at baking this cake several years ago. The pineapples got stuck to the base of the cake pan and had to be removed and placed back on to the cake. Though the cake tasted great, I was quite disheartened by the experience and didnt try to bake it again.

Anyway, fast forward several years and I found myself facing a pineapple can. Was I  ready to face the challeng? Did history repeat itself? Will I ever make it again? Stop biting your nails and read on.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour/maida
1 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup pineapple syrup
1 can of tinned pineapple slices - cut one slice into bite size pieces
5-6 cherries (canned) or few cranberries

For the caramel
4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp water

Method
Sieve the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and soda together three times. Add the sugar to this flour mixture. Separate the egg yolks and white. Beat the egg white till its foamy and stiff. Add the vanilla to the the egg yolks and whisk it. Take the butter in a bowl, to this a little flour and sugar mixture. Alternate the flour with the egg yolks mixture. Once all the egg yolks have been incorporated, alternate the flour with the egg white. Do not over beat the batter and gently fold in the egg white. Once all the flour and eggs have been added, fold in the pineapple pieces. Add the pineapple syrup a little at a time so that the consistency of the batter is such that it falls easily when its is dropped from the ladle. 

To prepare the pan
This is an important step so that your pineapple slices don't end up sticking to the base. Grease the pan with butter, then cover the pan with a butter paper. Next pour some caramel syrup to cover the base of the paper lined pan. To make the caramel, heat the 4 tsps of sugar till its turns brown and caramelizes. Add half to one tbsp of water to thin it out. Arrange slices of pineapple around the base. Add the cherries/cranberries in the center of each pineapple slice. Pour the cake mixture over this. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 F.

Tips
Grease the pan well, do not skim on the butter else the pineapple slices will stick to the base. Peel the paper carefully away from the cake after removing it from the pan after it has cooled down a bit. If its too hot, the cake might crumble, but if the cake is too cool, the paper will tend to stick.