Eggless Chocolate Tartlets :

Filling of fresh Whipped Cream and Mango pulp with fresh seasonal fruits topping

After many- many days of chocolate making and reading, learning and experimenting , I gradually entered into Cake decoration. From being a Teacher to a Hobby Photographer to a Chocolatier and now a Cake decorator...have been venturing into different hues of life. And my latest form is of a Blogger. Have posted two posts earlier but not dessert related. And as my blog's title suggests I am not going to restrict myself to only food based blogging. Kids had summer break and my kitchen was filled with divine smell of all sort of food and I was exclusively baking and cooking for my two lovely kids and my hubby. And imagine what...the happiest of the lot was my dearest darling hubby...poor fella had been deprived of everything sweet and also cheese based food till then.

         On 30th June it was my mom's 60th B'day and she is a pure vegetarian and does not like cakes a lot. Though she is not in the same town but thought of making something special to mark her special day. Well I got hold of my all time favorite Baking Encyclopedia and searched for something new which was less sugary and had some fruits to it. Finally zeroed in on one recipe, which was mini fruit tartlets. But that recipe called for one egg white though but i wanted to give it a twist by making it eggless and adding some cocoa powder to it. So searched for eggless white tarts recipe and followed Tarla Dalal's recipe. 

         Had though made tarts earlier too but it was always without cocoa content. 

       After some new twists to recipe i finally prepared some tartlets and here is the recipe which is a new version of how I made it.Though it tasted great but the only thing which needed correction for my next batch is the crust. The crust this time was little thick.

   But still am sharing the pics and the recipe here for you all who are looking for eggless Tartlets. The filling which i had used was a fresh cream whipped by adding little icing sugar to it and then added half pureed mango to it. Which tasted great. and then decorated it with some seasonal fruits. I had some Kiwis, Apples and mangoes in my refrigerator...so decorated it with the same. 

                           Here is my version of the recipe  :

      Ingredients :

For the Crust : 1 Cup maida ( all purpose flour)

                       1/2 Cup of wheat flour (Atta ), if you want to exclude adding this flour can take maida too )

                       1/4 Cup Cocoa powder

                        a pinch of salt

                       3/4 cup of butter, (at the room temperature and if using salted butter then omit the salt )

                       1/3 Cup of firmly packed brown sugar ( grounded)

                       2-3tbsp of chilled water for the binding.

                       Combine the Butter, Cocoa powder and salt together. And gradually sift over the flour. Mix it all and rub with fingers. Gradually add little water. Wrap it in a cling foil and refrigerate for 20 minutes minimum. 

              Roll the dough to the to the required thickness , just to form the base to hold the filling. Line the tart pans with the dough. Preheat the oven at 180ºC and bake it for 20 mins. or until firm. Let it cool down and then remove from the pan. Tartlet shells are ready. You can make it a few days in advance too and store it in an airtight container.

  

For the filling : 1 cup of heavy cream

                      1 tbsp icing sugar

                      1/4 cup of mango pulp (sieved)

                       2-3 drops of mango essence

         Whip (using the hand held mixer) the cream for 2 mins and add the icing sugar to it and whip again for a minute. Then add essence and the pulp to it. Whip again.The filling for the tart is ready. 

                Fill the tart shells as per the requirement and then decorate it with the finely sliced fruits

Life is hectic with two young kids around and a hubby who would choose to eat at home skipping even the finest of the food served at the five stars ...! Yes he does this...initially whenever he used to announce he has some seminar or presentation combined with dinner I would have lots of silent plans taking forms about the dinner I would be preparing...! Actually I like Sponge gourds, lauki/ bottle gourd and Besan ke gatte ( being a marwari I am...;)) as he just could never develop taste for these delicacies until recently ...! But then gradually I learnt and realized that he got so used to food prepared by me that he would rather skip the dinner at these places and would choose to have it at home. So these plans of making my fav sabzis or vegetables were now on hold for the lunch times when he was not carrying the lunch along.
                         When my first born child, my son , was just one year old... I used to pack colorful and assorted seasonal fruits for my hubby along with his regular lunch box that till date he gets nostalgic about it...! Yeah its now a memory for him as after my second child's birth life changed in many ways.
         Well its due to the busy schedule of running around with two kids and sometimes some unexpected guests , I learnt my own ways of being prepared before hand for all these emergencies. So some of the basic tips of being prepared beforehand are :
 1) Onion paste : The most favorite time saver preparation of mine is to grate or make a fine paste of raw onions and then do regular tadka of hing jeera and saute it till it turns golden brown. You can add green Chilli slit/chopped, some laung (cloves) and black peppers crushed to it and ginger garlic paste is optional. Let it cool and store it in any container...I choose to store it in glass containers as it lasts longer than any other container ( yes even Tupperware) And believe me I have some over 100 Tupperware containers of all sizes with me...! But over the period i have understood nothing matches the glass containers.
2) Tomato puree : What i do is i chop big chunks of 1 kg of the tomatoes, microwave it for say 4-5 mins (stirring once in between), and then let it cool and then blend it with hand blender. Then I saute it in a non stick frying pan with 2 tbsp of oil till it leaves its sides. It comes handy for making any puree based dish and also comes handy when I have to make Pizza and Pastas...! I do make my own Tomato Cancasse and it tastes yummy... ! My family loves the pastas prepared by me at home. Will soon post its recipe here.
3) Spinach puree....its again a time saver...chop the clean spinach and boil it and then blend it in a smooth paste. Store it in a glass container for future use.
4) Boiled potatoes and green bananas...Yes instead of using all potatoes in any cutlets or pattice preparation or even for Aloo paratha this is my own way of making aloo parathas ...add some boiled and mashed green bananas to potatoes (say if you are using 4 medium sized potatoes remove 2 potatoes and add one large green banana to it ). And we can pressure cook both together.
5) Corn Kernels : Always have some frozen corn kernels in the freezer...its again a time saver...can make instant corn cheese sandwiches and also rolls. If have some spinach then corn spinach dish...!
6) Grated radish : store in an airtight container in the freezer, just remember to grate it and squeeze the water out before storing.
                   I think you might find these tips useful and would surely update you more on other such useful tips... Have a nice day !

Arbi ke patte ki sabzi (Colocsia leaf , Taro, Elephant ear)

            After many years of prodding from my hubby that i must start a blog of my own.  Being busy with rearing up two kids i just could not imagine myself blogging here but then finally i am here. There are going to be many different topics which i would be writing about. But Cooking being my first love i just thought of starting my blog with the much asked recipe of mine...so here it is Arbi patte ki sabzi

                              Arbi ke patte ki sabzi (Colocsia leaf , Taro, Elephant ear)

  
Well being from a Marwari family by birth, this sabzi is one of the often prepared sabzis and liked by almost everyone in the family. It has a unique quality that it can be eaten as snacks with hot tea or coffee and can be served as a main course vegetable too. The only difference can be while serving it as snacks it must be prepared with extra crunchiness and when it is to be served as vegetable then it can be cooked without much crunchiness. 
           Here is the recipe for the

Imli Pulp

 Arbi ke patte ki sabzi...

    Ingredients : 

                       1)  Arbi ke patte              6 in nos.( Medium size)

                       2) Besan                        2 cups 
                       3) imli pulp                     1 tsp
                       4) cumin seeds,              1/2 tsp, mix of both
                          mustard (rai) seeds                                 
                       5) cloves ( laung)             3 nos. powdered
                       6) asafetida  ( Hing)          0ne pinch
                       7) salt as per taste

Arvi Leaves

Besan

                       8) red chilli powder           1/2 tsp
                       9) water                           100 ml
                      10) Corriander powder        1 tsp
                      11)Turmeric powder           1/4 tsp
                      12) Oil for frying                1/2 cup
                       13) Til (optional)               1/2 tsp

 Method :  

Arvi patte is sabzi 

 First, wash the leaves/patte thoroughly in running water and wipe them clean. Remove the stem from the base of the leaves and place aside. Then in a separate bowl sieve besan and add all the remaining ingredients and mix it well. The mix should not be very runny but it should have a consistency like the pakora or Pancake mix. Divide the patte in two parts and then take a set of 3 leaves and apply the thin coat of the above prepared mix over the back of  one leaf ( i.e. the part which is not shiny). and place the 2nd leaf and repeat the process and then place the 3rd leaf and apply the besan coating. Then roll it carefully like a cigar. Keep it aside.  
Repeat the process with the remaining 3 leaves. Then steam cook it on gas or in an appropriate steamer in the microwave or in your Electric cooker for 8 mins. approx. After it is done cut the half inch thick discs of the rolls. 
             Heat oil in a non stick pan or thick bottomed pan and put hing and jeera-rai ka tadka and then gradually put the discs into it and shallow fry it. Fry it till it turns golden brown and then add little til if desired. 



     If you are intending to serve it as sabzi or main vegetable then you can again add more masala to it while still cooking in the pan it makes it tastier. Serve hot.