Aaliya's Yummy Cheesecake Recipe!

Okay so I'm posting this from my iPad and I'm asking you guys to ignore the crappy layout! But to make up for the non-posting for ages, here's my yummy cheesecake recipe!!

What you need:

200gms digestive biscuits
50gms butter (Unsalted)
370-400gms cream cheese (I use Britannia)
250gms (That’s two packets) fresh cream
100gms castor sugar (You don’t have to buy special sugar, just grind normal sugar in a food processor)
Fruit crush (Any flavor, I use strawberry and mango. Comes out really well!) as per your taste. (You can use fresh fruit too, just process it before you mix it in.)
2tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp gelatin. (To bloom the gelatin, add 4tbsp of water and heat it in a microwave for 10 seconds. You can double boil it also, if you’re paranoid like me. :|)


Method:

Crush the digestive biscuits, add butter, mix well till properly incorporated.
Put this mixture in a spring loaded cake tin (The bottom can pop out.) If you don’t have one, you can use a regular cake tin, and press down this mix with the back of a spoon or a potato masher till it’s even (I use a potato masher because it’s easy and I’m lazy. :|) Put this in the fridge.
Now whip the cream cheese with the castor sugar, add the cream and whisk well, add the lemon juice till the mixture doubles. After you’re happy with the consistency (It should be soft) you add the crush and gelatin. Now don’t panic because the mix will get very liquidy. Wait for a while, about 5-10 minutes, and it’ll start thickening.
Pour this mixture on your base and set it in the fridge for 2 hours.
Garnish with strawberries or other fancy fruit.


Points to be noted:
1. Make sure that when you bloom the gelatin, it’s LIQUID, and should NOT have any lumps or tiny balls in it.
2. Make sure that the tin doesn’t have any creases on its sides where the cake can get stuck. This cake can’t be flipped over, so you’ll have to cut it in the tin and be very creative in the way you pull it out.
3. You can make a plain version of this by not adding the crush/puree. It's still very yummy.
4. Share it. It’s yummy, I know, but sharing is caring. :P


Tell me how it turned out!

Gaajar ka Halwa Which Will Make Your Grandma Weep With Happiness!

So my friend Ketki got Gaajar ka Halwa to college the other day, and I really really REALLY wanted some but I never got the chance to try any. [</3] 

So I decided to make it on my own! And it came out pretty well, I must say. Not because I made it, no. Because it lasted for about 10 minutes before someone polished it off. 

What you need:

• Carrots- 500mg 
• Milk- 500mg (Warm)
• Sugar- 1/2 cup (According to your taste)
• Ghee [Clarified butter]- 3tbsp (+more if you like ghee.)
• Cashews

Method:

•  Wash, peel and grate your carrots.
• Take a pan, non sticks are the best, and put in a tablespoon of ghee. Sauté your carrots in the ghee for about 5-7 minutes. You'll see that the carrots start getting pale.
• Next, add your milk, and stir. You have to wait till the carrots go dry.
• Once you see that they've started to get dry, pour in your sugar. This'll make your mix get darker and a wee bit soggy, so don't panic!
• Keep stirring till this goes dry. Once it does, add ghee till it gets nice and glossy. 



Saute the carrots till pale



Keep stirring the carrots till they dry up 

• Now in another pan, heat ghee, and roast your chopped up cashews. Pour over your Halwa, stir and voila! You're cooking Indian desserts and soon suitors will be lining at your doorstep because girls, your grandma spread the word, that you can function in the kitchen! 

Points that need to be noted:

• Make sure all the milk has dried up, so you need to be patient!
• Sugar can be added as per your requirement.
• Make sure your cashews don't get burnt because I wasn't paying attention and they got slightly charred.



EAT ME. NAO.

• Be extra careful when you're grating the carrots. Seriously. Because I ended up grating my pinky finger and it hurts. God LORD does it hurt.

So, this one's for Ketki. Go check out her blog, show her some love. Don't stalk her. And tell me how it goes! 

White Sauce Made Easy

Let's start with something so simple, that my 3yr old cousin can make it.

What you need:

• One large onion
• One/two sticks of butter (Salted)
• Two tablespoons of  plain flour (Aata in Hindi)
• A cup of warm milk
• Pepper
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Melt the butter in a pan on a medium flame.
• Chop up the onions finely into tiny cubes and saute them in the butter.
• When the onions start to cook (They basically turn a very pale white.) put in the flour and mix thoroughly.
• After making sure you've incorporated the above properly, slowly add the milk while whisking thoroughly, till the mix becomes thick and smooth.
• Add the pepper and salt- if required.
• Voila! Your white sauce is ready! 

As I've mentioned in my first post, there's no such thing as too much butter! It you want to make it a lot more saucier, add more milk, and make sure that the milk is WARM. I learnt it the hard way when I found yucky lumps in my sauce.
You can use this for any kind of pasta! 

Food, Glorious Food!

So I can cook.

WHAAAAAAT!

I know. It came as a bit of a shock to me, too. I generally tend to set things on fire. (Including myself.. *Nervous laugh*) 

So this blog is for people who think that food is tough, and also who have tried my food and have loved it and pestered me for the recipes. Hope you're happy. (Sense the irritation. Never ask a lazy person to write down recipes immediately after they're done cooking. NEVER.)

My food is full of fat and butter and sugar and cheese and chocolate and fat. So if you're one of those "AHMAIGAD EEZ SA PHATTANEENG" types, go away. The rest of you can do what I do. Cook food way you love to (Or just follow my recipe, because, well.. It is MY blog after all. :|), enjoy every bit of the process, relish the final product, and then curl up under your bed and cry about your thunder thighs.

Hope you guys find this blog as entertaining and fulfilling as I do. Please feel free to post your own versions of it in the comments section, even ways you can make it better, go ahead and post 'em. If you get food poisoning, NOT my fault, because you're the idiot who didn't wash your hands or check your produce. Don't expect anything fancy or complex. But do expect acceptable results. No recipe will be posted after only a few trials, they will be tested plenty of times before I post them here.

And remember, there's no such thing as too much butter.