Garam Masala Tuesdays: Channa Masala with easily available ingredients

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I started Garam Masala Tuesdays with three aims- one, to familiarize non-Indians with Indian cooking; two, to familiarize Indian cooking to Indian ladies like me, who had only recently forayed into Indian cooking and who like me did not have the pleasure of their moms to guide them through various aspects of Indian food and three, to share recipes handed down by my mother or friends or relatives or seen on different sites along with giving a little background about the dish.

Now, because of the above three aims I am always in a dilemma when I write any post for the GMT. I wonder if I am writing the recipes for Indians, non-Indians or for Indians who are living abroad.

Indians living in India have access to all kinds of spices and vegetables and their taste buds are used to eating Indian flavored dishes. Indians living abroad have access to most spices, but might not have access to all and if they have been born and raised abroad might not be used to the different flavors of Indian cuisine. Non-Indians might not have any of the spices and even though they like Indian food, they might find it a pain to stock up on the oh-so-many spices that most Indian dishes call for. On the other hand, if I post a recipe without the necessary spices, Indians who might cook from my blog will lose out on the flavor that these very spices hand to the dish- and then for them the particular dish won’t be the real thing.

So, the dilemma always remains- how do I make sure I cater to everyone’s needs?

Of course I can’t and won’t even attempt to. And today I thought I’ll try to cook from a non-Indian’s pantry perspective. I think that’s something that GMT misses out on occasions.

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April SRC: Cooking from “I Was Born to Cook”

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I have been busy the past few days and it’s going to be like that for the next few days as well. This is also the reason why there have been no Office Thursdays for a while and I missed last week’s GMT.

I’ll try to blog as often as I can but if I go missing in between it’s because my in-laws are here and I will be busy catching up with them. Also, unlike with V, where I can tell him to wait for food while I photograph stuff, I doubt I’ll be able to do that now.

Fortunately, I was able to make and photograph my SRC assignment few days back, and able to schedule my post while V’s parents were getting over their jet lag.

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Guest Post for The Heritage Cook: Mom’s Date Cake

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I was introduced to Jane’s site when she was assigned my blog as part of her Secret Recipe Club assignment. But it was when I was assigned her blog a few months later (as part of my SRC assignment) is when I really took to her blog, bookmarking tons of recipes. I finally zeroed in on an apple crisp recipe from her site and loved it.

A few days later I tried her red wine poached pears recipe, one of the many I bookmarked. And that recipe too was absolutely amazing.

Basically what I am trying to say here is that I just love Jane’s blog and all her recipes.

So when she asked for some help with guest posts, I jumped at the opportunity. I also owed her for the delicious coconut layer cake recipe that she had guest posted on my blog.

I decided to share my mom’s famous date cake recipe, which has got my mom several compliments over the past few years.

Some call it the sticky date pudding, but I have always known it as Date Cake with toffee sauce. The sauce is to die for and the cake is perfect served heated for just a few seconds in the microwave.

Head over to The Heritage Cook for the recipe and more. This is one recipe you would definitely want to try!


Guest Post for The Heritage Cook: Mom's Date Cake
 
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Ingredients
Date Cake
  • 225 grams (7-1/4 oz) seedless dates
  • ½ cup chopped toasted walnuts
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 85 grams all purpose flour
  • 60 grams sugar (see note)
  • 100 grams (2-3/4 oz) butter, cut into pieces
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ tsp vanilla essence
  • Pinch salt
  • ½ tsp baking soda
Toffee Sauce
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 6 tbsp fresh cream, at room temperature
  • ½ cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts, optional
  • Instructions
Instructions
Make the Cake:
  1. Chop the dates, and soak them in 5 tbsp water and baking soda for 30 minutes. Keep aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 150°C / 300°F. Grease and dust with flour an 8-inch square cake pan. Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl.
  3. In a stand mixer, or with an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add in the eggs and beat well. Add the vanilla essence. Mix in the dates and walnuts to the flour mixture.
  4. Fold in the flour date mixture into the liquid mixture, mixing only until well combined.
  5. Bake in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. I would suggest checking after 50 minutes, my cake is generally almost done after 50 min. Remove from the oven and leave in pan for 5 minutes, before unmolding it.
  6. Prick the cake slightly with a fork for the sauce to seep in.
Make the Toffee Sauce:
  1. Caramelize the sugar on medium heat, until just about brown (not too dark, but light golden. It will continue to caramelize when you add in the butter and cream, so don’t let it turn too dark).
  2. Quickly add the butter. Stir for a few seconds only, and then quickly add the cream (be careful as it will sputter a little). Stir as you pour to avoid lumps. Return to low heat.
  3. Stir for a few seconds until well blended, removing the lumps, if any. (My mom sometimes adds a little milk if she has too many lumps of sugar, stirring it until all the lumps are removed). Do not bring to a boil.
  4. Spread on the cake immediately to get an even coating of the sauce. Quickly top with the chopped walnuts.
  5. Yield: 1 (8-inch) square cake or an 8-inch loaf tin (preferable)
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