When Magali Cooks...

Yummy Chocolate Birthday Cake [Photograph]

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:25:00 +0000

It's the last few minutes of my Mom's birthday & I though I'd share a photo of one of her two chocolate birthday cakes. We buy this one from a bakery near home. It may not 'win' in looks, but it taste, it's chocolatey & gooey & yummy & it kicks ass!

Hope you had a fun day too.
♥,

Traditional Masala Dosa [Photograph]

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:51:00 +0000

A few days ago I promised you food photographs- Here's the first one!

A picture of a yummy Masala Dosa from Trivandrum City, Kerala.

South Indian Masala Dosa

We do get pretty good Masala Dosa here in Mumbai but since this was South India it was served in a completely different style (i.e. on a banana leaf).

Masala Dosa is a dish native to South India.

It's made of :

Rice - 1 Cup

Urad Dahl -1/2 Cup

Fenugreek Seeds- 1 tspoon

Add one tea spoon of Channa Dal or table spoon of Poha (Beaten rice) or Pulp of Winter Melon (Boodu Kumbala) to serve a Crispy Dosa.

But there are ready-mixes available all around the world. But even though it seems oh-so-easy when being prepared by dosa making experts. But trust me this seemingly easy dish can be messed up pretty bad!

So wherever you are in the world, if you have never tasted a Masala Dosa I suggest you do it soon.

Cheers,

I am going to food blog hell...

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:49:00 +0000

...for not posting on this blog for three whole months.
I could just send this post telling you guys why I didn't post. You know, the usual stuff like long holidays, busy days etc.
I cooked a lot but didn't find the time to upload the pictures or write the recipes. But I do have some yummy stuff lined up.
Until then I'll just post a couple foodie holiday pictures, starting soon.
Hope you guys enjoy them.

Cheers,

I'll never stop

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:32:00 +0000

Some of you guys must have been wondering why I haven't posted in a long time. Well, as I wrote on my personal blog, I've been busy.

But just because I haven't posted in all these days doesn't mean I haven't cooked. First, we (mom & me) tried making Khichdi, a typical Indian dish. It turned out quite well, I promise a recipe soon!
Then I made devilled eggs again. Delicious, as ever.
Then I tried making carrot & apple muffins (with cream cheese frosting). And guess what, they turned out perfect! Yummy! :D Recipe coming soon!
Then, mom also made her signature Kulfi, an Indian dessert. You'll get a recipe of that too, with pictures!
So do come back soon!

Not always perfect

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:06:00 +0000

The day before yesterday, I (with quite a lot of help from Mom) baked Strawberry Muffins (adapted from the popular recipe of Raspberry Muffins). I had hoped that it would be my next recipe up here. And guess what? They weren't that good! :( They weren't bad either. However, we made too much batter. The muffin tins fell slightly short, so we filled them a little more than 3/4th (When baking muffins/cupcakes it is always known that you must not fill the tins more than 3/4th) Then after that, we realized that all the muffin cups wouldn't fit into the oven. After half an hour, what came out of the oven wasn't as spectacular as I expected it to be. The upper crust was more brown than it was supposed to be, (that part can easily be blamed on the not-so-detailed recipe I followed. I'd rather not link to it. And also keep in mind that the recipe doesn't have to be good just because there were beautiful photographs.) & I kept finding faults with the whole thing though Mom kept telling me it was a very good first attempt. *sigh*
So, when someone has a cooking incident like that, they would probably act like it never happened, let along blog about it, right? Well, after two day's thought, I decided to blog about it. Because my shepherd's pie turned out wonderful the first time itself, doesn't mean it has to be the same for everything. Even really good chefs have totally botched-up dishes. All I'm saying is, if the same ever happens to you, that doesn't make you a bad cook. There are many things that could be wrong.

Maybe the recipe wasn't detailed enough. For example, the recipe I followed was from the website of an Asian Girl residing in USA. Wondering why I'm bringing up races? Because here are measure of heat are in Centigrade (C), while in the US, heat is measured in Fahrenheit (F). But all this recipe mentioned was preheat the oven to 375°. It didn't say Centigrade or Fahrenheit. We followed Centigrade, but the oven was obviously too hot.
When baking cakes/muffins, always remember not to fill the tin/pan more than 3/4th (I know this is the third time I'm mentioning it in this post! Just stressing it's importance for first time bakers like me.) The batter will either spill, or rise in a not-so-pretty way (the latter happened with me)
When reading a recipe on the internet, always try to calculate (in your mind) approximately how much batter the recipe will make. If it seems like too much, always remember to scale the quantities down. Evenly. If you halve the amount of flour you're going to use, remember to halve the amount of salt/sugar/butter too!
Also, if it's a food blog you're getting the recipe from, remember to ask questions in the comments section. Food blogger usually love to help you out so your dish can be perfect (At least I know I do! :) ) If your first attempt was bad, ask questions! It was probably a tiny mistake & you can resolve it the next time. Don't lose ♥!

So I just posted this so you can learn from my mistakes. Come to think of it, these could be some nice informal guidelines for anyone wanting to start up their own food blog or people who like to follow recipes from food blogs.

Hope I helped.

Happy Cooking!

Update (19th Feb 2010) : Guess what! Last night my mom was talking to a close friend on the phone (she's my friend too.) We had decided in the beginning itself that we would give her a couple of the smaller muffins. But when we found that the muffins weren't that great, we were in two minds. We finally decided to go ahead with it, because 'first times are special!'
So getting back to yesterday's phone conversation- The lady said she & her husband loved the muffins! She scolded my mom for seeming apologetic while giving them to her, & asked, "What did you want in the muffins? They were absolutely perfect!"
This lady is a pretty good cook herself, & we knew we could get an honest opinion from her. I was absolutely overjoyed! She love my muffins! And then I felt a little stupid. Why didn't I like them? Maybe I just don't like muffins on the whole...

Devilled Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:35:00 +0000

Hi everybody, today I'm going to share the recipe for Devilled Eggs with you.
It is an extremely easy dish to prepare. It is traditionally served at Easter but you can make it any time!
It is a great starter, especially good with alcohol.

Preparation time- 10 minutes to boil eggs + 15-20 minutes for preparation.

Serves- 6 people.

Ingredients-
6 eggs
1 teaspoons yellow mustard sauce
3 heaped spoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons minced (finely chopped) onion
5-8 drops Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
Mixed herbs (dried)
A few stems of coriander (cilantro)

Preparation-
First hard boil the eggs.
Let them cool to room temperature. Shell carefully & cut in halves (lengthwise) using a sharp knife.
Gently remove all the egg yolk. & collect in a bowl.
Take the coriander. Cut the sprigs off & set aside. Finely chop the stalks.
Mash up the egg yolks & add the butter, mayonnaise, mustard sauce, chopped onion, chopped coriander stalks, Tabasco, mixed herbs, pepper & a little salt to taste. Mix everything well till it is a paste.
Now you can either choose to put the mixture back into the egg whites with a spoon or a plastic icing applicator. I had one of those lying around & used it & it gave the whole thing a very professional look. But a spoon works fine too.
Arrange them neatly in a circle in a large plate (if you don't have a large plate you can put them into smaller plates like I did)
Decorate with sprigs of coriander in the middle of the plate.

And here are the pictures of my trial. Would you believe this was my first try? That's how easy it is!

Remember, if you want to make these to serve 12 people, just double all the quantities.

And once you try it, don't forget to tell me how it turned out.

Happy cooking,

Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Magali) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:30:00 +0000

Hi there!
I know people who know me (as a blogger) will wonder why I started a cooking/recipe blog.
People usually blog about something they are expert (or just good) at.
Now if I had started a photoblog, that wouldn't have surprised people. But a recipe blog?
Well, my family & me have never really been into cooking.
Mom is pretty good, but she doesn't do it too often. Cooking is tiring. I know.
But one day I decided to actually try. And I made my first Shepherd's Pie! It was delicious!
Then I did it again. Perfect! (OMG I am so dying to eat a Shepherd's Pie right now!)
So there!
What I'm trying to say to you guys is. I don't cook. But if I could do it, you can too!
Whip up something easy & delicious & impress people.
I'm not sure about how often I'll update, but I promise to do at least one 'project' per month.

Lots of Love,