Egg Fried Rice

Ingredients:

Rice - 1/2 cup
Carrot - 1 cut into strips
Cabbage - small piece cut into strips
Onion - 1 small cut lengthwise
Beans - 5 to 6 nos. cut into strips
Capsicum/ Bell pepper - 1 small cut in strips
Spring Onions - 1-2 nos cut into small pieces.
Soya Sauce - 2 tsp
Tomato Ketchup - 2 tsp
Salt
Pepper powder
Egg - 2 nos
Oil - 3-4 tsp

Cook rice in sufficient water. The rice shouldn't be fully cooked. It should be little uncooked for any fried rice recipe. Drain the water. Hold the rice under cold water and drain all water. Put a tsp of oil and keep aside.
In a pan add a tsp of oil and stir fry all the veggies starting with onions, carrots, cabbage, beans, and finally capsicum. Put some salt and pepper powder and set aside.
Now take another tsp of oil and break the eggs into the oil. Stir continously till it forms into a scrambled egg mixture. Put some salt and pepper powder on this too. Now add the stir fried veggies and the rice and mix all. Add the soya sauce and tomato ketchup. Mix thoroughly. Check the taste and adjust salt and seasonings. Add the spring onions and fry for a minute. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Note : I haven't added spring onions as i did not have it. This fried rice can also be made without using egg. Rest of the procedure remains the same. Be careful while adding salt as both the sauces also contain salt in them.

Black Forest Cake

I wanted to trying my hand at a Black Forest Cake from a long time. But I wasn't able to find the cherries for this. Everywhere I could find fresh cherries. But for this cake I needed canned cherries which have a beautiful red color. Finally while checking out a new store I found a jar of cherries. I have used readymade cake mix for this. I had only 1/4th cake mix so I could make only a small cake.

Ingredients:

Betty Croker Super Moist Chocolate Fudge mix - 1/4 of the total quantity.
Pillsbury Funfetti Frosting (Vanilla flavor) - 1/2 of the jar
Maraschino Cherries - 10 oz jar
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Hershey's milk chocolate - 1 small bar

Method.

Heat 1/2 cup water and add 1/2 cup sugar and stir till it is dissolved. The sugar should be just dissolved in water. Don't heat for too long. Keep aside to cool.
Bake the cake as per the instructions on the box. Let it cool. The cake should be fully cooled before applying frosting. Once its cooled cut the cake horizontally into 3 equal discs.
Take the first disc. Drizzle few drops of sugar syrup on it. Apply the frosting. Spread frosting with the help of a knife. Put some chopped cherries. Then place the second layer on this. Follow the same procedure for the second one starting with sugar syrup, frosting, and cherries. Then place the final layer of the cake. Drizzle sugar syrup and spread frosting carefully on top as well as the sides of the cake covering the entire cake. Grate the chocolate on the top and on the sides. Place whole cherries on top. Refrigerate and enjoy.


This is the first frosted cake that I made. I thoroughly enjoyed making and eating it. But I was not fully satisfied with the frosting. It became a little hard on refrigerating. Next time i am planning to use whipped cream for frosting.

Update (20/Feb/2009)
Made a 2-layer black Forest cake for our Wedding Anniversary. This time I used Cool Whip for the frosting and Cherries from the Cherry Pie Filling .
I liked this icing more than the previous one but for the cherries I think Maraschino is a better choice as the Cherry Pie filling is slightly sour. This time I did not use the chocolate shavings and instead used some chocolate sprinkles.


Made another one for my birthday with the chocolate shavings.

Chappati Upma

I dont know what to name this dish. This is my mother-in-law's recipe. Leftover chapatis can be converted into this yummy dish. Adding grated cheese and tomato ketchup is my addition to this recipe.

Ingredients:

Leftover chapatis - 2
Jeera -1/2 tsp
Haldi - pinch
Red chili powder- 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder -1/2 tsp
Salt
Grated cheese - for garnish
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Oil- 1 tsp

Method

Cut the chapatis into small pieces. In a pan take a tsp of oil and temper jeera. then add methi and fry for a minute. Put it on a very low flame and add all the spices and salt. Then add chapatis and mix till all the spices have coated the chapati pieces. Switch off the gas and garnish with grated cheese. Dot with some tomato ketchup and chilli sauce. Serve .