Maida 101 with my famous Bitter Orange Cake!!

All-purpose flour has been given a bad name since long. Let’s get to the bottom of it, as I am a known cynic, and I never take a fact in without proper due diligence. And this is my corner in the internet where I will write about all I feel. So with your love of pointers, here I go-

• Refined flour is basically a product of wheat kernels that has been pulverised in machines for a long time, and bleached to attain a pure white colour. In the process we actually strip down most of its health benefits, fibres and vitamins. What we are left with has a certain amount of protein, in the form of gluten; and starch.

• Soft pillow-y structure of a bread made with maida makes it extremely easy to chew and digest, and hence it has a tendency of being over consumed. The lack of fibres too doesn’t help. Fibres give us the feeling of being full, no fibres- no signal; and you end up eating double the amount required.

•  This is the main cause behind vilification of refined flour, it is so light that you over eat and gain empty calories for your body to store as fat. Fat deposits leads to major health problems in the long run.

• Obviously whole wheat flour which is milled in front of your eyes is a healthier option than maida; but in moderation usage of maida won’t harm us at all.

Today, I am healthifying my cake by adding full orange with skin in it, which would add the much needed fibres back in the cake. Try it once, and you would become a fan of this cake, as has my family! Cheers!!

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour/maida

2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

A handful of chocolate buttons

3 eggs

3 small size oranges, cut as shown in the video

½ cup of oil, I used light olive oil

1 cup sugar

Few drops of vanilla essence or ½ tsp of vanilla paste

Swiss & Britannia Chunkies Ice cream Sandwich!!

When back in the sweltering heat, I started missing the cool climate of Switzerland the most. Even

with its incessant rain and cloudy overshadows, the climate was better than the furnace Gurgaon 

has become for sure. So yes, this summer, we spent a week in Switzerland, and it was one of the

most beautiful places to be. I was fortunate enough that my first trip to the Europe actually made

me see life in Europe inside out. We met real people, living real life; unlike the fantasy one that

Bollywood movies want us to believe. We weren’t taking a conducted tour, and instead we hopped

on the train to visit places many Indian touring companies wouldn’t know of. We looked at hidden

gems of Switzerland, which was green rather than white; and had such a merry time too. But that

one trip to mount Titlis opened my eyes. Opened my eyes to what Indians are capable of doing when

they are away from their home. 5 bare chested hairy men stood in a line on the snow-capped Titlis,

screaming INDIAAAA INDIAAAA, while their wives and sisters threw snowballs at them. I mean, let’s look at it this way- that group did have a lot of fun, but it came at the cost of fellow tourists who

were not included in that group. The quiet Europeans do look down upon these things, because even 

I, being a loud Indian can’t look up at it. Were they right or wrong, is a decision I leave upto you to

decide. But coming back to my point, yup I saw the real life, lived it for a few days and now I am

missing it with a bitter sweet tang.

One thing that I most certainly do before I embark on a flight back home, is a visit to a local

supermarket. And the priced possession I am back with is a set of 3 Swiss knives that comes with a

lifetime warranty on the sharpness. Today I plan to use it to make a sumptuous dessert. A hack that

is so awesome that all you lovely people are going to be so enthused to use it this summer. Let’s

make ‘Britannia Good Day Chunkies ice-cream sandwich.’

Britannia’s Chunkies was an obvious choice considering that these crumbly cookies are overloaded

with melt in mouth chocolate chips; and their perfectly crisp outside would go very well with the

chill of the ice cream in the centre. This is hardly a recipe, but more of a skill to master. But the

outcome is so satisfying, and divine that another 1000 words won’t be able to justify it.

Ingredients

1 packet of Britannia good day chunky cookies

1 small tub of vanilla ice-cream

Sharp knife

Sprinklers or chocolate chips to garnish

Method

Tear open the cookies packet to reveal 5 perfectly imperfect chocolate chip chunkies. Snack on one while you assemble the rest of the recipe together.

Take a solid tub of ice-cream out of your freezer and place it on your cutting board.

Now with a swift jig saw motion, cut an inch of the bottom off from the ice-cream tub. Place a cookie on the cut side and invert. Carefully remove the packaging material and gingerly place a beautiful cookie on top.

Transfer the cookie sandwich in the Britannia’s cookie tray and put it in the freezer to set firm. If you plan to serve it in a party, keep it covered in the freezer, until you are ready to use.

Just before serving, carefully lift the delectable sandwiches from the plastic tray, and roll it, ice-

cream side down on a platter full of sprinklers/chocolate chips. Serve fast, in the utmost casual setup

possible. These little parcels are best shared for a private dinner date, as it is the right combination

of messy sensuality to trickle in.

Cheers!!

P.S.- Apart from being super delicious cookies, Britannia Good Day Chunkies is also giving you a great chance to meet the amazing hosts of Master Chef Australia!

Here's what you need to do:

Step 1: Make an amazing dish with Chunkies, nothing like the dish above mind you!

Step 2: Upload a picture of the dish with a Chunkies pack on your FB/Twitter/Instagram account with #ChefsWithChunkies. Also, put up your recipe as a note on FB or on your blog and share the link in your entry.

10 lucky winners stand a chance to meet the Masterchef Australia hosts in person on the 4th of June, 2016!

For contest terms & conditions, visit - https://www.facebook.com/BritanniaGoodDay/?fref=ts

Depression Vs One Pot Penne, Indianized!!

So now that Indians have agreed on being the most depressed and the most addicted to chocolate, it is time to change that. Change because I feel a chocolate with its dark colour and addictive quality gets me more depressed, and oppressed, and stressed; and all pressed at the same time, every time (hee hee, yes I can’t stop saying this sentence again and again!). I hear you when you say cocoa has power to solve anything and everything, but this wonderfully vibrant pot of pasta have powers bordering supernatural which can cure even a broken heart. And I say so with a lot of conviction because a friend indeed with a broken heart was mended with this very pasta dish. Infact that was the birth of this recipe, a birth I cherish the most after my toddler’s. So this had be the star of the anti-depressant series that we are working on.

Now to talk about the recipe a bit, you will notice that it is quite an Indianized version of our Italian favourite pasta. If we have our own version of spicy Indo-Chinese cuisine, then we rather have a delicious version of Indo-Italian cuisine too. And this my friends, is my ode to the great new cuisine I am giving birth to. The idea is simple; the fusion is made to ensure we use ingredients that are easily available to us in our own kitchens. And obviously, the Indianized version appeals better to our palette. Its fast, it’s easy and its perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks and/or dinner. I have kept the recipe completely veg, but if you want a non veg version, just thrown in some bacon or sausages in it.  

A cup more liquid than this!

Ingredients

500 gms Durum/whole wheat pasta

2 small onions sliced

2 medium capsicum

3 big cloves of garlic peeled and chopped

A big pinch of roasted red pepper flakes

A bigger pinch of dried oregano

A handful of coriander leaves chopped

A handful of olives, chopped

3 big tomatoes, puréed

A splash of red wine vinegar

A splash of apple cider vinegar

A splash of balsamic vinegar

A splash of basic tomato ketchup

A splash of extra virgin olive oil

Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

And enough water to submerge the pasta in.

For the Process as to how to make it, Click here- http://www.smartindianwomen.com

More from the series-

• Depression Vs Sandwiched French Toast!!
• Depression Vs Strawberry Oats Bars!!