Christmas Cake

Ingredients

Maida / White Flour - 300 Grams
Butter - 225 Grams
Brown sugar (Dark) – 250 Grams.
Egg - 5 Nos.
Baking powder - 2 Teaspoon
Salt - 1 Tea spoon
Nutmeg (grated) - 1 Tea spoon
Powdered Cardamom, Cloves & Cinnamon all together – 1 Tea spoon
Almond essence - 3 drops
Lemon essence - 3 drops
Vanilla essence - 1 Tea spoon
Caramel sugar - ¼ Cup
Pineapple Jam - ¼ Cup
Mixed fruits - ¼ Kg. (Dates, Cashew nuts, Almond, Currants)

Method

Items 1,5,6,7 & 8 mix properly and sieve. Out of this take ½ Cup and mix with fruits.
Cream butter and brown sugar till light and fluffy. Then add eggs one by one. Add essences them add maida mix, caramel sugar then fruits.

Baking temp. 110 degree Celsius for 10 minutes, then 130 deg C for 2-1/2 Hours
After baking, take out and pierce all over with a fork when it is hot. Pour ½ cup wine and wrap in foil paper.

Its a delicious Christmas cake.

Citrus Queen of Puddings

This is a different variety of bread pudding.Main difference being the presence of lemon curd.

Ingredients

Fresh Bread - 170g,torn into small pieces
Butter - 2 tsp,at room temperature
Castor sugar-90g
Egg yolks - 4
Milk - 2 cups + 2 tbsp milk
Lemon rind - 2 tsp
Lemon curd - 4 tbsp or more
Lemon juice -2 tbsp

Lemon curd

Sugar - 1/4 cup
Cornflour -1 and 1/2 tsp
Hot water - 1/2 cup
Salt-a pinch
Butter - 1 tbsp
Lemon juice -1 and 1/2 tbsp
few drops of yellow food colour

For the meringue

Egg whites - 4
Castor sugar - 3 tsp
Dessicated coconut - 1 tbsp (for sprinkling)

Method

In a pan,bring milk to a gentle simmer with lemond rind. Remove pan from heat ,add sugar and butter.stir well till combined. Soak bread pieces in it for 10 minutes. Mix in egg yolks and turn onto a greased shallow ovenproof dish. Bake in a preheated oven 180 degree celsius oven for 25 minutes.

To make lemon curd,mix sugar,cornflour,hot water and salt in a small pan and cook until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat,add butter and lime juice. Add yellow food colour and allow to cool. Combine lemon curd with lemon juice and spread over the baked bread.

With an electric beater at high speed,Beat egg whites stiff. Sprinkle sugar little by little till all the sugar is used up. Carefully spread the meringue over the lemon curd and sprinle the coconut gratings over the meringue. Bake in a pre heated oven at 160 degrees celsius for 5 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown. Serve hot or warm.

Mutton Chilli Fry

Ingredients

1. Mutton-750g
2. Dry chillies-16
3. Ginger sliced fine-2 dsp
4. Garlic sliced-2 dsp
5. Chopped tomatoes-1 cup
6. Onion sliced-2 and 1/2 cups
7. turmeric powder-1 and 1/2 tsp
8. cinnamon-1 piece
9. Cardamom-5
10. Cloves-6
11. Coriander seeds-1 and a 1/2 tbsp
12. Curd-3/4 cup
13. oil (3 tsp)
14. salt to taste
15. Lemon juice-1 lemon
16. Chopped coriander leaves-a small bunch

Method

Wash and cut the meat into 2 inch cubes.Marinate the meat with turmeric powder and salt for half an hour.

Heat 1 tsp oil and roast the dry red chillies and keep aside. Add more oil and saute the ginger and garlic pieces and keep aside. Heat the coriander seeds in 1 tsp of oil and keep aside to cool. Once cool, grind all the ingredients in a dry ginder.

In a pressure cooker, fry half the onions till dark brown and keep aside (this is for the decoration). In the rest of the oil, saute the rest of the onions, when golden brown add the marinated mutton pieces. Saute well till the liquid has evaporated.then put the chopped tomatoes and stir till dry. Put the ground ingredients and mix well. Pour the curd and mix well. Then add about 1 cup water and enough salt and cook till soft after closing the pressure cooker. Remove with very little gravy. Pour the lime juice before taking off from fire.

Serve in a dish and sprinle with the fried onions and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.