No Bake Chocolate Oreo Tart ~ No Bake Desserts

We are starting the August edition of BM and the week 1 is going to be No Bake Desserts. I didn't realize that I ended up picking up two dessert themes, I am doing Nutella Dishes in Spice your Life! And no Bake dessert here and naturally that also means I end up making something with chocolate only.

I was getting into the kitchen after a long time and all I could see on the counter were different chocolates and moulds that had to be decked up. I was making about 4 to 5 in one shot and somehow my regular capabilities were not up to the mark. I managed somehow. Obviously kids were so delighted to have so many chocolate treats for the weekend!

For day 1, its a No bake Chocolate Oreo Tart. The Oreo cookies were bought couple of weeks before, I was hoping I would be able to make it and boys were warned not to look at it. They were happy knowing they will anyway get to eat them in a different form and this tart was so enjoyed to their heart's content. I was inspired by this. I was so happy with the final taste!

That one slice is all I got to taste!

No Bake Chocolate Oreo Tart

Ingredients Needed:

Oreo crust:

Oreo cookies - 20 nos
Butter - 1/4 cup

Chocolate Cream filling:

Cream - 1/2 cup
Dark chocolate - 1 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp

To decorate:

Chocolate chips
Sprinkles

Pie moulds - 6" 2 nos

How to make No Bake Chocolate Oreo Tart


To make the crust, crumble the oreo cookies and blend well. Add butter and mix well. Ensure the cookies hold well.

Press the cookie mix to the moulds and freeze for 10 mins.

In a pan, bring cream to boil, remove and add the dark chocolate and butter. Let it dissolve, and then pour over the oreo crust. Decorate with chocolate chips, sprinkles and some Oreo biscuits.

Chill for 2 hours at least, or overnight. Unmold, serve, and enjoy!

Mendiants au Chocolat

We are on the final day of cooking French Cuisine. I know I picked up a simple dish, which practically didn't look like cooking at all to me. However I have been want to make this shape and prepare exactly this way that I decided to make it for this theme.

Infact this was the first one I made when I decided on French Cuisine. My kids do not like dry fruits or nuts other than cashew nuts. So even in a chocolate, if its fruits and nuts, its not touched. Since I do not like cashews, most times those chocolates stay for a while.

However since we thought we should get them try these, we decided to get Konda initiated into the dry fruits. She said she won't mind if I make the chocolates with these. So hubby dear that it was my task to get it done and that's how this came into picture.

I was lucky that I remembered that this is a French specialty and I searched for it.

So wiki tells me that Mendiant is a confectionery originated from France. It has just two ingredients, chocolates and dried nuts and fruits.

Traditionally it was a chocolate disk studded with nuts and dried fruits representing the four mendicant or monastic orders of the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans and Carmelites. Each of the nuts and dried fruits used refer to the color of monastic robes with tradition dictating raisins for the Dominicans, hazelnut for the Augustins, dried fig for Franciscans and almond for Carmelite.

Now this confection has moved away from the traditional combination of nuts and fruits to other combinations incorporating seeds, fruit peels and other items. And I could see recipes using so many different combinations.

When I made this at home, boys didn't even touch it, while the entire batch was enjoyed by Hubby dear and Konda. I used Dark chocolate along with roasted almonds, raisins, walnuts and cashews.

Mendiants au Chocolat

Ingredients Needed:

Dark compond - 1 cup
Cashews, Raisins, Almonds, Walnuts for topping.

MW chopped dark chocolate for 30 secs in two spurts. Temper well and drop a teaspoon of melted chocolate on parchment paper.

Place each nut on top and refrigerate.

No Bake Chocolate Cake ~ No Bake Desserts

For the final day of No Bake Chocolate Dishes, yes I know the theme is supposed to be No Bake Desserts, I ended up cooking only with chocolates, else I won't be finding customers to eat all that I make.

With the adventure I have had over the last few days, making all the No Bake dishes and Nutella dishes, you can imagine how excited my kids will be. This No Bake Chocolate Cake was inspired by this and I couldn't wait to make it.

Infact boys couldn't restrain themselves and touched it couple of times before it could even set. Finally both didn't owe up who the culprit was. Anyway I know it was both. When the final pictures was clicked and given for tasting, they were going ahh and ooh..this surely is the ultimate chocolate bliss!. I am not sure how this can be called a cake, well as I say who bothers what a dish is called, when there is nothing left to even ponder!

I hope you all enjoyed as much I as did cooking and feeding my chocaholic kids!

Check out the Nutella Mousse in Chocolate Cup

No Bake Chocolate Cake

Ingredients Needed:

Dark Chocolate - 1 cup
Heavy Cream - 1 cup
Butter to grease pan
Allspice - 1/4 tsp
Espresso - 2 tsp
Cocoa powder, to serve

How to make the No Bake Chocolate Cake

Grease a mini loaf pan with butter and line it with parchment paper and set aside.

MW the chocolate for 30 secs in two spurts. Whisk well.

In a separate medium pan heat the cream over gentle heat. Stir in the allspice and the espresso, if using. When the cream is very warm / hot to the touch, remove from heat.

Pour the chocolate into the cream. Combine everything together. Pour into the prepared pan, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled throughout, a few hours, or overnight.

When ready to serve, remove from the pan, let set at room temperature for ten minutes or so, dust with a bit of cocoa powder, and slice. Alternately, you can slice and serve from the pan.

Mughlai Keema Masala

After a long time we took out pressure cooker recipe booklet and decided to cook from it. Amma said we should start with it as those cookbooks have been with us for a while now. Seeing this different take on our regular mutton keema, she was hesitant to try. However I said we should try it as we never change from our recipe at all.

As expected boys didn't like the keema being in a different colour, rather not their usual brown curry colour and in green. However rest of the folks liked it a lot and infact felt it was more rich and nice. The original recipe calls for omelette strips to be placed on the plate and served with this mughlai keema. I was somehow not for it and skipped it.

So stay tuned for some more recipes coming from the pressure cooker booklet!

Mughlai Keema Masala

Ingredients Needed:

Mutton Keema - 1/2 kg
Onions - 2 large
Tomato 2
Turmeric 1/2
Oil for cooking
Salt to taste

For the paste
Shallot / Sambar onions - 7-8 nos
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Garlic - 1 pod
Ginger - 1"
Green chilies - 5 nos
Bunch coriander leaves
Cardamon -2
Clove - 2
Cinnamon 1"

How to make the Mughlai Keema Masala

Wash and clean the keema, then add a cup of water and pressure cook.

Grind to a smooth paste all the ingredients listed under the paste. Keep it aside.

Then heat a kadai with oil, add onions, saute till golden brown, then add tomatoes, turmeric, salt, cook well. Then add the boiled keema, saute well.

Now add the ground paste and cook in simmer, till everything gets nicely cooked and done. This takes about 10 - 15 mins.

Serve with rotis.

Croque Provençal | How to make French Grilled Cheese & Tomato Sandwich

We are starting the second week of BM#55 with a tour around French Cuisine. I didn't have enough time to read through all the courses, so I was looking out for specific course of meal and decided it was best to start with a sandwich.

I have quite an affinity towards French, it was my second language for four years, starting with school and continued in college. However the only words I seem to remember right now is Bonjour and Mademoiselle. Of Dame, from le dame sans merci, which seem to have struck in memory forever!  Would you believe if I say I rather wanted to write pages and pages on my memories associated with French and finally as it seem to happen offlate with me, I ended up working on this post the night before?

Well you got to believe! Life has suddenly become very hectic. Athamma has left for her daughter's place and everything has been even more tightly wraped to manage! Anyway with all things apart, I didn't want to delay writing this post and with a moment's free, which has become quite rare, I sat down to cook myself this sandwich and write about it right away!

Trust me, the steps are so simple that I felt it was not worth bothering to do a step by step.

The sandwich for the day is based on Croque-Monsieur. Its a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, topped with bechamel. It was popular in French cafes and bars as a quick snack. The cheese typically used is Gruyère, however I used processed cheese slices. As with any recipe, there are many variations to this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croque-monsieur

I decided to make croque provençal or with tomato. This sandwich is made with toasted bread, cheese, sour cream and tomato slices. Its grilled till crispy. Additionally one can add eggs as well.

I kept to sour cream/mayo, tomatoes and cheese.

Croque Provençal

Ingredients Needed

Wheat Bread Slices - 2
Tomato Slices - 4 nos
Cheese Slices - 2
Pepper powder to taste
Sour cream / Mayo - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 1 tsp

How to make French Grilled Cheese & Tomato Sandwich

Spread the bread mayo/ sour cream. Put slice of cheese on one piece of bread.

Add tomato slices. Sprinkle with salt, pepper.

Cover tomato slices with other slice of cheese, then cover with other piece of bread.

Heat pan with butter, spread butter on top of each side of bread.

Grill until sandwich is brown on both sides and cheese is melted.

Dhabe de Chole | How to make Punjabi Dhabe de Chole

For the next day of cooking from my bookmarked recipes, I picked up Vaishali's Dhabe de Chole. This recipe is supposed to the Punjabi Dhaba style of making Chhole. I have always been obsessed with Punjabi food, more-so with Dhaba dishes. So the moment I read that it was Dhaba style, I had to make it.

Since most of our Sunday Breakfast is Poori Channa, I thought it would be a good thing to change the channa and see if the kids like. It was a super duper hit and kids enjoyed their meal. I was so happy that I was including yet another chhole recipe to my collection! Vaishali says she got this from her Punjabi friend's mom, so its authentic recipe and not much of a fuss in making it.

Since I skipped using tea bags, my chhole is not as dark as Vaishali's. I am sure that also lends some taste to the greavy. Since we don't stock tea bags, didn't have any on hand. However taste wise its very delicious.

If you are fond of chhole, then you must try this.

While I was making this, Veena pinged me asking for my chhole recipe links. She said she wanted to make for fourth week. I was grinning and told her that its funny that I should be also be trying a channa recipe from Vaishali and she was doing from mine!

Well back to the recipe, you make and enjoy with pooris!

Dhabe de Chole

Ingredients Needed:

For the Chole

Kabuli Chana - 1 cup
Potato cubed - 1
Onions sliced 2 medium
Ginger - 1"
Green chilly sliced 2 -3
Coriander - Cumin powder - 2 tsp
Black salt 1 tsp
Roasted cumin pwd 1 tsp
Black pepper pwd 1/4 tsp
Tea bags 2 -3 (I skipped)
Salt to taste

Soak the chana for 5-6 hours or overnight. Change waters couple of times.

Put everything in pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles or till the channa is soft. I PC channa first for 2 whistles and then add all the ingredients and PC for one more.  Let the pressure fall down.

Meanwhile you can make for the masala for tempering

Spice Masala

Ghee - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Bay leaf - 2 
Black cardamom 1
Red chilly pwd 1 tsp
Coriander - Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Black pepper pwd 1/4 tsp
Aamchoor pwd 4 tso
Garam masala 1 tsp

Heat oil and ghee. Add bay leaf and black cardamom. green chillies.

Add all the spices and roast for a few minutes.

When it starts becoming aromatic, add to the channa in the pressure cooker.

Once again pressure cook these for a whistle.

After the pressure falls, remove the tea bags, bay leaf and the cardamom.

Serve hot with ready kulchas/bread /pav/rice /bhatura.

Omelette au Fromage | How to make French Style Cheese Omelette

We are continuing the second day of cooking French Cuisine. While I had gran plans of making dishes like Pissaladiere, Bugnes, Gratin Dauphinois and Flammekueche. Only I didn't get around making any of these above mentioned dishes, though I must have spent many a day drooling over the delicious pictures these names conjured on.

Before going into the recipe, let me share something first. For many years now, I must have watched that "Being Positive" tape at office. While the gist of the tape ever stayed with me or not, one point that struck with me is where the author says we should not use But! He says we should ban the word from our vocabulary.

I have made ardent efforts to somehow remove this word from my usage. No I am not saying I am so good in never saying no to anybody. Just that I have replaced that word with something else or I manage to say no in a different way!

This also reminds me of what Dad keeps telling me on many occasions. Never give excuses! Of course the situations that made him give me this gyan was more dire. Still its something that struck for life and I make an effort never to give excuses for not having done something.

I simply expect the other person to accept that I didn't do!

So you see the critical situation I find myself in right now? I can't use but and can't give excuses as well. Whats left out is the simple brain wave that struck me at about 8.30 pm when I was thinking  about what to cook for Hubby dear for dinner. Parents had taken kids for Dad's birthday treat and it was just two of us left to feed ourselves.

It was just then that Padma pinged me on whatsapp, asking how many dishes did I cook through the day. Knowing that I seem to be cooking about 6 -7 on a weekend, she was shocked when she heard I hadn't cooked any. And on top, I had two more dishes to be cooked and clicked for the French cuisine.

She was very sure of my capability to cook up something and just to ensure my image to be infact, I decided I ought to do something. I am not sure what prompted me to type in Omelette and I was shocked to realize that Omelette is of French origin! Imagine that!

Anyway I was thinking if I could get hubby dear to have Omelette for his dinner. He came back from his walk and I gingerly asked him if he was game to try some Omelette au Fromage. He said what??. Then I explained that I had to cook something french and this Omelette au Fromage seem to be the quickest dish I could make right then. The only thing he asked was, will it be spicy?

So I said even if it wasn't I will ensure he gets his chilies. Of course I added more pepper and not chillies to ensure I keep true to the recipe and not indianised it.

I found this recipe and wanted to ensure I replicate it myself as much as possible. I was missing Konda and I know I will make this for her soon.

Omelette au Fromage

Ingredients Needed

Eggs - 2 nos
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, grated - 1 tsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Gruyere cheese, grated / processed Cheese - 2 tbsp

How to make the Omelette au Fromage

Break the eggs into a bowl.

Season to taste with salt, pepper. Add Parmesan cheese.

Beat the eggs with a fork until mixed well.

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.

Add the butter and allow it to melt and color slightly. It should almost be like turning to ghee. Add the beaten eggs.

Drizzle some oil on the sides and and leave the eggs to cook.

Add the cheese over the surface.

Fold the omelette into thirds and flip it onto a heated serving plate.