Black Forest Cake

I made this black forest cake for my hubby's birthday . I use Nupur's recipes as posted here . Nupur thank you so much for this awesome recipe. It worked wonderfully and brought back memories of the cakes in India.






I must say this cake tasted mind blowing two days after it was baked. So the next time I will make this way in advance of the event. I did not make any modifications to the recipe except using a little less sugar and a little less of the instant espresso powder. I did feel like my cake layers came out a little hard and that is probably because I did not drizzle enough syrup. But after two days of soaking who cares!!! The taste is just out of this world!!!

In case you are wondering why the cake has the chocolate shavings only on the side, the origical plan was to ice "Happy Birthday" but the brilliant person that I am, I bought the red icing tube but not the front piping attachment for it!! So hubby had to make do with colorful candles on the top!!:)

Vegetarian Chili

Being a spice lover I have always been unhappy about not being able to eat "Chili" and this inspired a vegetarian version of the same. I would say that this is a hipper cousin of Indian Rajma with jazzier stuff thrown in and gets better tasting the longer you keep it although when I made the chili, it only lasted one evening. Needless to say it was a hit! I have drawn this recipe from several different versions online but was especially inspired by the Emeril Lagassa version here . I used 4 kinds of beans instead of just one and did not use as much tomato in the recipe otherwise it over powers other flavors.




Ingredients:

1. Can of black beans - 1
2. Can of kidney beans - 1
   
3. Can of pinto beans - 1
4. Can of white beans - 1
5. Zucchini - 1, chopped finely
6. Yellow onion - 1, chopped finely
7. Red/green/yellow bell peppers 1/2 each
   
8. Crushed Tomatoes - 1 can
   
9. Jalapenos - 1, finely chopped
10. Serrano peppers - 2 finely chopped
    
11. Mushrooms - 10-15 or 3 portabello mushrooms
    
12. Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
13. Vegetable stock - 1 cup
14. Cayenne pepper - 1 tsp
15. Cumin powder - 2 tsps
16. Paprika - 1 tsp
    
17. Cilantro - 3 tbsps finely chopped
18. Sour cream - 3-4 spoons for garnish
19. Lemon - 1

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan and saute the onions until golden brown.
2. Add the finger garlic paste and stir for 1 min. Add in the tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers and let them cook for 15 mins or so.
3. When the veggies are cooked well add the chopped chillies, cayenne pepper, paprika and cumin powder and mix well.
4. Add in the cans of beans and vegetable stock and let it all cook evenly and come to a boil.
5. Garnish with cilantro, lemon juice, paprika and sour cream (not shown in pic) and serve hot with some garlic bread or brown rice.