Cream and brownie in a glass

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu.

This is one of the easiest yet tastiest brownie recipes. Too good.

Ingredients for the brownie

Maida/All purpose flour: 1 cup
Cocoa powder: 1/4 cup(I used Cadbury's brand)
Powdered sugar: 3/4 cup
Baking Soda: 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Fresh thick yogurt/curd: 6 tbsp
Milk: 5 tbsp
Melted butter: 5 tbsp
Walnut: 1/4 cup(chopped)
Vanilla Essence: 1/2 tsp

Ingredients for the cream

Fresh Cream: 2 cups(chilled. I used Amul Fresh Cream)
Powdered Sugar: 4 tbsp
Vanilla Essence: 1/4 tsp
Canned Peach halves: 8(I did not use this)
Cherry for garnish

Procedure to make the brownie

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degree C
2.Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside
3.Mix all the wet ingredients.
4.Fold in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients without over mixing.
5. Pour the batter in a greased baking tray and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out almost clean.
6.Cut small pieces once cooled and keep aside.

Procedure for the cream

1.Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and doubles in volume.(Mine was thick enough and that shows in the photo too.)
2.Fold in the sugar and vanilla essence.
3.Fill the cream in a piping bag and keep aside.

Putting it together

1.Pipe out some cream in a tall glass(I did not use a piping bag. I used a spoon to put the cream in the glass)
2.Place a few brownie square and top with a peach half.
3.Repeat step 1 an 2 again and garnish with a cherry.
Serve chilled or as it is.

Yogurt based Carrot-mayonnaise salad and Garlic Toasts

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu.

Yogurt based Carrot-mayonnaise salad

Ingredients to serve 4 adults

Thick Yogurt/Curd: 2 cups
Carrot: 2(medium size, grated)
Eggless Mayonaisse: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl just before serving.

Garlic Toasts

This is actually celery-garlic toast in the book. As I don't get celery here, I just made with garlic. Nevertheless, it tasted nice.

Ingredients

Bread slice: 10
Garlic: 3 to 4 cloves(chopped) or around 1 tsp chopped
Butter: 1/8 cup(at room temperature)
Salt to taste
Grated cheese to top the bread while toasting(optional)

Procedure

1. Grind the garlic and butter in mixer. Grinding was bit of a challenge for me as the quantity was very less without the celery.
2. Add salt to the ground mixture and mix.
3. Apply the ground paste on the bread slices. Add grated cheese if desired.
4. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes or till the toasts are evenly browned.
5. Cut into halves and serve.

Pasta and vegetable casserole

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu.

This pasta is a combination of vegetables and cheese sauce, baked with cheese topping. It was one of the best pastas that I have made. Instead of cutting and toasting the onions and tomatoes as per the book, I chopped the vegetables into very small pieces in the food processor and sauted them with some olive oil.

Ingredients to serve 4 adults

Cooked pasta: 2 cups(I used fusilli)
Tomatoes: 2 cups(chopped)
Onion: 1/2 cup(chopped)
Capsicum: 3/4 cup(I used red and yellow, cubed)
Garlic: 2 tbsp(chopped)
Oilve oil: 3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Grated cheese: 4 tbsp(used while baking. I used britannia cheesiza)

Ingredients for the cheese sauce

Maida/All purpsose flour: 1 tbsp
Milk: 1 1/2 cup
Grated cheese: 4 tbsp(I used britannia cheddar)
Butter: 2 tbsp(at room temperature)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Procedure to make the cheese sauce

1.Melt butter in a pan, add flour and saute on a low flame for ½ a minute or till you get the aroma of the cooked flour.
2.Add the milk gradually while stirring so that no lumps form. Bring to a boil, by increasing the flame, but constantly stirring.
3.Add cheese, salt, pepper and mix well and heat till the sauce thickens.(around 10 to 15 minutes. It is OK if it is semi solid. When cooling down, it solidifies to a thick sauce)

Procedure for preparing the vegetables

1.In a pan/kadai, add olive oil.
2.Add the onion and garlic and saute.Then add the tomatoes and saute.
3.Once it is cooked, add the capsicum and saute for some more time.
4.Add salt and mix well. Put off the stove and keep aside.

Putting everything together

1.pre heat the oven to 200 degree C
2.Spread a layer of vegetables in a baking dish.
3.Tp with the cooked pasta.
4.Cover with the cheese sauce and top with the grated cheese.
5.Bake for 10 minutes or till the cheese is browned and serve hot.

Verdict: This was the best of all preparations for the dinner menu. Only negative point is that it is too in high in calories. May be the next time, I will reduce the amount of cheese used.

Two in a bowl soup

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu. It consists of two soups in a bowl. I did not make the brocolli soup as I did not get it here. But I have given the recipe for both the soups.

Ingredients for the potato soup

Potato: 1 cup(peeled and cubed)
Garlic: 1 tsp(chopped)
Onion: 1 cup(chopped)
Dry red chilli flakes: 1/2 tsp
Milk: 1 1/2 cup
Warm Water: 1 1/2 cups
Refined Oil: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the brocolli soup

Brocolli florets: 2 cups
Onion: 1/2 medium sized, chopped
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 tbsp
Water: 2 cups
Butter: 2 tbsp
Salt and powdered pepper to taste

Procedure to make the potato soup

1.Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic and onion and saute for a few minutes.(around 2  to 3 minutes)
2.Add the potatoes and saute for a few minutes.(around 3 minutes)
3.Add water and salt and simmer till the potatoes are cooked(around 15 minutes. The flame can be increased to medium once in a while)
4.Cool the potato mixture and blend into a smooth puree in a mixer by adding the milk.
5.Add the chilly flakes and keep aside.

Procedure to make the brocolli soup

1.Heat butter in a pan, add the onion and saute for a few minutes.
Add the brocolli and stir for 4 to 5 minutes.
2.Sprinkle the flour over the brocolli and continue stirring for another 2 minutes.
3.Add water stirring continuously.
4.Simmer till the brocolli is tender and add salt and pepper.
5.Cool slightly and blend to a smooth puree in a mixer.

Putting two soups in a single bowl

1.Before serving re heat both the soups separately.
2.Carefully pour the soups on opposite sides of the bowl, so that both the soups have a line of differentiation.
3.Repeat with 3 other bowls and serve hot

Note: Both the soups should be thick so that they do not mix easily.

Verdict: I made only the potato soup. My husband tasted it. He said, “Its nice, but it does not taste like soup.” That says it all. But he did take a second helping. I being a very cautious eater did not even taste it.

"No fuss American" Dinner Menu

I bought "Seven Dinner Menus" mini series book by Tarla Dalal sometime back. The book has dinner menus from Delhi, Mexico, Middle East, Italy, China, Thailand and America. I liked Middle East the most which had very nice recipes for hummus with sesame lavash, labneh, sesame tabouleh, falafel and baklava. l was reluctant to make pita after one failed attempt. I finally decided to make the "No fuss American" dinner menu. It included Two in a Bowl Soup, Crunchy Salad, Pasta and Vegetable Casserole, Celery garlic toasts and cream and brownie in a glass. I really don't know if all these dishes come under american food, it looked more like Italian to me. To be loyal to the book, I am naming the menu “No fuss American”. I made these dishes a month back.

I was forced to make the “2 in a bowl” soup to just “1 in bowl” soup as I did not get broccoli here. I omitted the crunchy salad completely as we are not used to eating raw spinach, lettuce etc. So I replaced it with our all time favorite yogurt based carrot-mayonnaise salad. The celery garlic toast had just the garlic as celery was not available. “Cream and Brownie in a glass” did not have the peach layer as this fruit is unheard of here. In spite of making these changes, all the dishes tasted really good. I should accept that it was very hight in fat content with lots of cheese, milk et al.

This post would become pretty long if I provide all the recipes here. So I thought of sharing each recipe in a post. I have provided the link to each recipe in this post..This is also my entry to Raji of Raks Kitchen's Cooking For Guests event.

"No Fuss American" Dinner Menu

Two in a bowl soup
Yogurt based Carrot-mayonnaise salad
Pasta and Vegetable casserole
Garlic toasts
Cream and brownie in a glass