Stir fry mixed vegetable peanut noodles

Happy New Year to everybody !! I know I am a bit late , but better late than never. This year I made a resolution to eat healthy (as most of the people I see on weight loss ads on TV) :)) . Let me see how much I can control my cravings. I followed one diet, learned few good things and few not so good things about that diet. I have a book purchased on low-fat cooking andthat's something I look forward to everyday these days.


Recently we bought some Imitation Egg Noodles for the first time. Both me and V are great fans of Maggi Noodles, and every time we do our Indian grocery , V makes sure he buys at least 3 Maggi packets. This time we did our Indian grocery in a Chinese store (have to say, they sell it much cheaper than the Indian stores). They had all sorts of Asian spices and condiments. In the Thailand Isle (yes they had Korean, Thai, Philippines, Japanese, and Indian (have to say most of their customers were Indian ;-) ] we found this imitation Egg noodles for just 99 cents. We thought of trying this out.


I am very fond of Chinese food (not like a daily basis), especially their delicious Soup and spicy dishes like Kung Pao , and Lo Mein. I love Kung Pao mainly because of the spicy and tasty peanuts they put. It adds a nice crunch to the whole dish. Lo Mein is another of my favorite dish. I decided to make a vegetarian version of Lo Mein (Indian style). I sliced and diced one Red Bell Pepper , Onion, Carrots, Mushroom, a little tofu. Slit 5-6 green chillies, mashed some garlic and grated fresh ginger.

Cooked the noodles in lots of water with a 2 tablespoons olive oil and a little salt, until soft and done and drained. Then I added 3-4 tablespoons olive oil to a hot wok, spread the oil to coat the entire wok. Added the peanuts, green chillies , garlic, and ginger, reduced flame to medium, stir fried until chillies become a bit pale. Then I added the rest of the vegetables, diced tomatoes, and salt and stir fried until everything cooked, added tofu , spices (1/2 teaspoon of coriander powder, chilly powder), 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Stir fried and mixed everything until cooked. Lowered the fire to medium-low. Added the noodles, mixed well with the rest of the ingredients. Stir fried Noodles ready.

Red Velvet Fruit Cake

The fiery red color of this cake was the reason I got fixated on making it from the time I saw it on one of the websites where it was made for Daring Baker's Challenge. I do not remember the website. I then saw it on TV , where it was made by Paula Deen. It was a long time back. But every time, I would forget or keep it for a later time. This time I saw this recipe on Joyofbaking which is my favourite site when it comes to Baking. The author at Joyofbaking explains why this cake is also called Devil's Food cake : "A Red Velvet Cake is really a Devil's Food Cake that has red food coloring added to it. John Mariani tells us in his book "The Dictionary of American Food and Drink" that the name 'Devil's Food Cake' is so called "because it is supposedly so rich and delicious that it must, to a moralist, be somewhat sinful."

I made up my mind and decided that its high time I made this cake. I followed the exact recipe, except for the addition of fruit peel mix to the cake batter and a different recipe for the Frosting. The color of the cake amazed me and the final appearance of the cake , especially after cutting the slice was even more amazing! Of course, my tiny bottle of red color got over after I opened it for the first time after I purchased it, as the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of red color. I used the "safe to use color" brand of food color.

The completed cake was moist. Since I added the rum soaked fruits, the cake was tasting better the next day and the next. If you plan to frost and decorate, the cake needs to be consumed within 2 -3 days of preparing. If you are planning to just make a bright red fruit cake :) , you might want to leave the cake covered in plastic on your kitchen counter top for 5 days, as the taste will increase day by day :)
The amount of cake was a lot, so I found it the perfect time to share it with my neighbours in the apartment :) . You may visit Joyofbaking website for the original recipe

Here goes my version of the recipe:

Ingredients:
----------------------

For the Red Velvet Fruit Cake:

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour (If you don't have cake flour, follow this link which gives an easy way for substituting cake flour )

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Cocoa powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar

Rum soaked fruit peels (the original recipe doesn't call for Fruit peels, but I had a lot of these fruit peels left, hence I decided to use it up. Its optional though)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons liquid red food coloring

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

Sweetened dessicated Coconut for topping

For the Coconut- Cream Cheese frosting:

1 packet (8 oz) (227 grams) (1-8 ounce) Cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup sweetened dessicated coconut

Method:

For the Red Velvet Fruit Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour two same size round cake pans (I used the aluminium foil pie pans (Hefty brand) and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper (grease the parchment paper too). Set aside.

In a mixing bowl sift together flour (half of the flour), baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes)(I used my hand, you may use a electric mixer, hand mixer). Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Mix the buttermilk with the red food coloring. Using your hand, or with the mixer on low speed, Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

Combine the rest half of the flour with the fruit peels, toss them lightly until well coated (This helps the even distribution of the fruit peels in the cake batter) and mix it with the cake batter.

The next 2 steps requires some fastness:

1) In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter.

2) Working quickly, divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Then invert the cake and place each cake in a different plate and cover the cake with plastic and refrigerate at least for 2 hours. This is to help frost the cake layers better when it is cool. I frosted the cakes the next day.




For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:

Beat the butter and Cream Cheese until well combines and soft. Then add the sugar and combine well until fluffy. Add the coconut. Mix well.





Assembling the cake:

First cut each cake layer further into two horizontally, with a knife. Now you will have 4 cake layers.




In a serving plate, place parchment paper to cover the top of the plate. This is to ensure a clean appearance of the cake in the serving plate without the mess of the frosting as the parchment paper can be removed once the cake is frosted and decorated.

Then place one cake of the cake layer, top of the cake facing down, on the serving plate. Frost the cake's top surface with the frosting. Then add another cake layer in the same way on top of frosted cake and continue frosting this cake (meanwhile lightly frost the sides of the cake too with the excess frosting on the top)


Repeat the above process for the rest of the layers until all the layers are frosted and stacked. Frost the sides of the cake if they are not properly frosted.








Cover the cake with sweetened coconut.






This makes a 4 layer cake.

Slice and serve.
Wish you all a Merry Christmas in advance and Happy holidays !!

I am sending this to:


JZ's Santa's Holiday Challenge Event





My Kitchen Treasures's Homemade Christmas Gift Event











Purva Daawat's Christmas Feast Event













Maninas's Eating with the seasons: December event

I am also sending this to (Food In Color)FIC-WHITE event started by Sunshinemom of ToungueTicklers and hosted by Yummy Food .

Naan

Before going into the details of this post, let me proudly display my Trophy from Recipe Marathon :) hosted by the wonderful DK of Culinary Bazaar. She went ahead and made a nice video called: An Ode to RM # 2 Runners

It was a wonderful event with so many Runners and as a result a big collection of recipes :) We all had a lot of fun running together and I look forward to do it again sometime.


Back to the recipe, I decided to finally try my hand at this famous Indian bread. I followed the recipe of Petrina Varma Sarkar's in About.com and I must say it turned out pretty well :) I served it with Mushroom masala. I am quoting her recipe here:

Ingredients:
---------------------

• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
  
• 6 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
• 3 tablespoons yoghurt
• 3 teaspoons onion seeds (optional)

Method:
------------

Add the dry yeast and sugar to the warm water and stir till the yeast is dissolved. Cover and leave aside for 10 minutes or until the mixture begins to froth. Keep it aside. Mix the flour and salt to taste and sift through a very fine sieve. Put it into a large mixing bowl and now add the yeast mixture, 3 tablespoons of ghee and all the yoghurt.

Mix all this into a soft dough. Once mixed, flour a clean, flat surface and knead the dough till it is smooth and stretchy (elastic). Grease a large bowl with a few drops of cooking oil and put the dough in it. Cover and allow to rest for about 90 minutes or till the dough doubles in volume.
Punch the dough down and knead again for 10 minutes. Equally divide the dough and roll to form 8 round balls. Lightly flour the same surface on which you kneaded the dough and roll out each ball until you have a circle, 7-8 inches in diameter (1/2 "thick).

Gently pull on one edge of the circle to form the Naan into a tear-drop shape ( I did not get this step right, mine was amoebic in shape :) . Do not pull too hard or you may tear the Naan. Instead of rolling the dough out (with a rolling pin) you can also pat it into a circle with your hands (I was doing this too). Preheat your oven 200 C/ 400 F or Gas Mark 6.

Lay a piece of aluminium foil in an oven tray (to cover) and grease it lightly with a few drops of cooking oil. Place as many Naans as will fit without touching each other, on the tray. Brush each Naan with some ghee and sprinkle a pinch of onion seeds all over its surface. Put the tray into the oven and cook till the Naan begins to puff out and get lightly brown. Flip the Naan and repeat. Remove from oven and serve hot .