Quick 5 minutes Chocolate Mug Cake

It was raining cats and dogs outside and I was feeling like having something sweet within the confines of my home. I was more interested in preparing and eating something at home instead of going out due to the heavy rains. I had some cocoa powder at my disposal in my refrigerator so I started searching for some recipes related to cocoa powder on the net. Luckily for me, I came across a recipe for making a quick chocolate mug cake.

My better half warned me not to try out another cake recipe from the internet because I had prepared a different cake recipe some days ago from a blog which did not taste that good. Hence he was a bit apprehensive and suspicious with regard to how this cake would turn out.

To my spouse’s astonishment this cake recipe turned out to be rather delicious and at the end of all the drama I had to settle for lesser share of the spoils.

Adopted the from here

Ingredients:

4 tbsp flour

5 tbsp sugar 

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tablespoons oil

A pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)

2 drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Method

• Get two microwave safe mugs
   
•  In a bowl mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and sugar. Divide this mixture into two half and add it to each mug
  
• Share equally the quantity of milk, butter and vanilla essence and add to each mug. Whisk the egg in a bowl, divide into two and add to the mugs. Mix well all the ingredients; see that no flour remains at the bottom.
•  Keep one mug at a time in the microwave and cook for about 2 min on medium heat (the time depends on which microwave your using). check the cake if it is not cooked keep an additional 30 sec. The cake has to be moist and soft.
  enjoy it with ice-cream
   

Quick Green Peas Rice

After giving birth to a baby girl on 2^nd of November, 2011, things are not the same for me. My entire focus and energy goes into looking after the requirements of my little one. I am posting for the first time on my blog after a gap of more than a year as now I am getting the hang of the things. I had voluntarily taken a break from my blog during the term of my pregnancy and for some more months post pregnancy to look after my little angel. I will be trying my level best to post new recipes on my blog from time to time in the coming few weeks.

It was a hectic Monday morning as usual and I had woken up late from the bed. I had to prepare breakfast as well as luncheon for the two of us. So I was at my wit’s end thinking about what I can do for him for his Tiffin? I wanted to make something which would be quick and easy to make but look and taste good to his palate as well at the same time. In short, it has to appeal to his senses. My husband’s taste buds are well developed from a very young age and it does not accept anything which is alien to it. He has that uncanny ability to identify and reject items/ingredients in food which are not to his liking. In short, I had limited time and limited ingredients at my disposal to create a dish. I did not have any time to look at any of the cookery books or dig up some recipes online. I had a long look at the items I had in my refrigerator to work with and decided to dish out something on my own. To my surprise, my little experimentation worked and the end result came out pretty darn good. 

Ingredients

1½ cup basmati rice

¾ cup frozen green peas

4 tbsp oil

1 tbsp ghee

1 ts jeera

2 tbsp green chili paste

2 ts ginger garlic paste

2 onions (finely chopped)

1 ts garam masala

Method

• Clean, wash and soak rice for 10 min. Drain and keep aside.
• Put 3 cups of water to boil.
• Heat butter + oil or ghee in a pan, add jeera seeds.
• When jeera starts spluttering, add green chili paste, ginger garlic paste and onion and sauté till onions become golden brown
• Add rice and fry for about 6 to 7 min then add green peas and fry for an additional 2 min.
  
•  Add garam masala, add boiling water and salt. Simmer for 6 min or till the rice is cooked.