WHAT THE FUDGE.....

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE FUDGE

Last semester, my friend Mukta sashayed into my room and popped a indecently small, i should say, piece of the most awesome, melt in your mouth, almost orgasmic chocolate brownie fudge in my mouth and walked on to the next room. A second later I had jumped out of bed and followed her out hoping to get a  few more bites of that delicacy. Alas, it was over. But, I did manage to finagle the recipe out of her.

So when my childhood friend, Vartika, decided to come over for the weekend to spend time with me and well I wanted to do something special for her. Since she is a chocolate lover but refuses to eat branded chocolates (another one of her activist whims), I decided to whip up a batch of these exotic chocolate brownie fudge for her.

She absolutely loved them and finished the entire box in a single day ( This stunt was performed by an expert and I am sure that much fudge in a day is not good for the stomach, so please don't try this stunt at home.) So here i give you the much loved, the yummilicious, the fantasy-tical chocolate brownie fudge recipe -

INGREDIENTS:


1. For the batter

Flour (1cup)
Powdered sugar (2 cups)
Eggs (4)
Butter (1/2 cup)


2. For making it Fudgy

Cadbury cocoa powder (12 tbsp)
Coffee (1 tbsp)
Butter (3/4 cup)


1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree

2. Put all the batter ingredients in a mixer and beat them into a fluffy mixture.

3. On very low flame or in a double boiler melt the 3/4 cup of butter and add the cocoa powder and coffee to it, stirring all the while to form a smooth paste. (Don't taste it, it's darn bitter!!!)

4. Now fold in the chocolate paste into the egg batter and mix it properly.

5. Pour the batter in a lightly greased cake tin and sprinkle choco-chips and walnuts over it. Put the tin in the pre-heated oven for around 40-45 minutes in a 180 degree oven.


The original chef (Mukta) recommends that you serve it either with ice-cream or chocolate sauce.

But, if you are anything like my best friend or me, believe me you won't have the patience to adorn the fudge 'cus it's perfection in itself so just go mad over the chocoliscious delight and gobble up!!!!

PASTA - POPEYE STYLE

If I had to one character from the POPEYE THE SAILOR-MAN.........I'd definitely be Bruto.
like Bruto i hate the sight of the dreaded green vegetable - Spinach.

But even for a cynic like me there are two ways in which one just can't go wrong with Spinach. With cottage cheese ( Palak Paneer) and secondly, the Italian way i.e. with Pasta. So here is a tried and tested and totally rocking recipe of a healthy yet delightful Spinachy Pasta.

Ingredients:
Pasta
Spinach (15-20 leaves)
Butter (2 tbsp)
Flour (1/2 cup)
Milk (half liter)
Cheese (there's never enough of cheese)
Diced Capsicum, Carrot and Tomatoes ( 2 cups)

1. Boil any pasta of your choice till al-dente. blanch in cold water. Keep aside.

2.For the Spinach puree
Boil 15-20 leaves of spinach in just enough water to soak them for 5 mins.
Add salt, a little pepper and chilly and blend the boiled spinach to make the puree.

3. For the white sauce
Put a saucepan on medium flame add the butter. Add the flour to melted butter while stirring. When it gets
a slightly golden tinge slowly start adding a little milk. Keep stirring.
When the sauce starts to thicken a bit, add a half tsp of salt and stir in the vegetables. let it all simmer for 3-4
minutes. By now the sauce should have reached the desired consistency.
Mix in the puree and cheese, stir and add in the already cooked pasta. Cook for two minutes. Take off the flame.
Add freshly ground pepper and finely chopped parsley and lots of grated cheese. Serve Hot.

The pasta tastes yummilicious.
But what made it one of my best culinary success ever is when my cousin asked - "Is it okay if I eat directly from the pan" and the sound of the pan being scraped of the last dibs of sauce was music to the ears.

SNEAK PEAK...........STEAL AND EAT

If you ever follow Nigella Lawson's cookery show, you'll notice that the last clip is always the one where she sneaks out to her kitchen at night and plops into her mouth whatever in that huge fridge of hers catches her fancy.

Now, i have spent the last year living in a hostel where i have full freedom to eat whatever i want and whenever i want it. So, i never understood the novelty of sneaking food into my stomach this way.

Still i was pretty intrigued....

So this past month i decided to follow in Nigella's footsteps. And guess what - it is actually a lot of fun. It's suicide for the health but the entire hidey-ho feel of staving off hunger and, more importantly, boredom is really quite awesome.

To sneak downstairs at two in the morning, all the way assailed with the constant fear of waking up my light-sleeper mom. Peaking all around the staircase in the dim lights of my mobile display so as not to do a Humpty-Dumpty. Walking barefoot on the cold floor and opening the kitchen door all the while praying it won't squeak. Phew.

It has actually been so much enjoyable that till now I've managed four such trips downstairs. Once for coffee and plum cake (yummy) and the next time to warm up the bowl of noodles (mmmm..) sitting in the fridge. Coupled it with a few episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and it actually made for a blissful night of sleep.

It is something that i found that i quite love to do right before i slip into my warm toasty duvet with a good book. The laughs that James Herriot hilarious novels draw are very well complimented with that stolen last piece of melt-in-the-mouth chocolate pastry or a hot cup of tea and a pack of biscuits.

I can only assure you that all of this food which i tasted snuggled in my bed tasted ambrosiac that late at night. The sneak peak...steal and eat routine actually makes me hungry and the food that i manage to sneak into my room had some amazing flavour quality to it.

This post might seem exaggerated, but i think that those stolen moments of childlike behaviour render some of its sweet and salty quality to the food. And although, I guess, following Nigella this way is not exactly a good habit. But a bit of fun never hurts, huh.

 So do try to sneak in your kitchen sometime at night. Oh! And remember to steal something that your mum will definitely notice missing the next day. The perplexed expression on their face is just added bonus :P