Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cake and Eggless Italian Meringue VanillaButtercream

Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cake

Tried making this Gluten free  -- Vegan Chocolate cake with Almond flour, Rice flour , Corn starch and coconut milk and icing with
Gayathri Kumar's recipe Eggless Italian Meringue Buttercream.... Thank you Gayathri... It came out superb... Just loved it.

http://suskitchenbysumitra.blogspot.com/2015/07/gluten-free-vegan-chocolate-cake-and.html

Ingredients 

1 cup Almond flour (to make the Almond flour just take a cup of Almonds and grind it) 

1 Cup Rice flour

1/2 cup Corn starch or Potato starch 

2 tbsp of Coco powder 

1 cup of Castor Sugar 

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Soda bicarbonate 

1/2 cup Oilve oil

250 Ml +(more if required) Coconut milk or Soya milk or Almond milk 

2 tbsp Apple Cider vinegar 

Method 

Take a bowl. Sift in Almond flour, Rice flour, Cornstarch or Potato starch, Baking powder, Soda bicarbonate and  Coco powder and keep it aside. Take a bowl add in  250 ml of Coconut milk or Soya milk or Almond milk, mix in the vinegar and keep it aside. Take a mixing bowl add oil and sugar. Beat the oil and sugar till the sugar incoperates with oil. Add 1/2 the coconut milk or what ever milk in used and 1/2 the flour mix, beat the batter, add rest of the flour and Coconut milk. Beat the batter till smooth, glossy  and of thick dropping consistently.. Add in more coconut milk little at a time if required... Grease in a baking tray, add the batter in the baking tray. Bake at 190 degrees celcius for 35 to 40 minutes or till the cake is done in a preheated oven. Check the cake by pricking in a tooth pick. If it comes out smooth then the cake is done. 

Cool the cake before icing the cake. 

Eggless Italian Meringue Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Chickpea Brine / Aqua Faba/ Boiled Chickpea Water 

1 cup + 2 tbsp Sugar

1/4 cup Water

1 1/2 cup Butter

1 tbsp Vanilla Essence 

Method 

Take the Chickpea water and start to whip. It takes around 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile while the whipping is on, take the sugar and water and add it in the sauce pan. Keep the sauce pan on a low flame, mixing the sugar and water so that it melts completely. Cook the sugar and water syrup till the sugar syrup starts to boil on a high temperature for 1 minutes. If you are using candy thermometer the temperature should reach 248 degrees Fahrenheit. Take the sugar syrup off the fire. Now at this stage the meringue will also get stiff peaks. While keeping the mixer running, slowly pour the syrup inside the meringue. Keep on mixing. Make sure that the hot syrup doesn’t come in contact with the wall of the bowl or the beater. Once all the syrup has gone inside, keep on beating the meringue until the bowl is cool to touch. It will take around 10 minutes to cool down. Keep on beating and the meringue will become whiter and shiny. Once cool, start adding butter one table spoon at a time. Add a table spoon of butter and beat until incorporated before adding the next spoon. Keep on adding until you finish with all the butter. At this stage the mix will be like a curdled soup. Keep on beating. After some time you will see that the mixture transforms to light fluffy butter cream. Once the cream is fluffy and there is no water left, stop beating. Vanilla essence should be added once the butter has become fluffy and creamy and no water is left. This can be used frost and pipe. If the climb is very hot.. It can start to melt... Keep it in the fridge till it is workable for piping.

Stuffed Eggplant with Herbs and Prawns (Optional)

Stuffed Eggplant with Herbs and Prawns (Optional) 

For the stuffed Eggplants
8 small size Eggplants
1/2 cup Rice washed, soaked and half boiled

1/4 cup small Prawns chopped (Optional)
1 Garlic cloves chopped
1 tbsp Coriander leaves chopped
1 tbsp Chives chopped
1 tbsp Dill chopped

1 tbsp Dried Parsley

1/2 tbsp Olive Oil 

Salt to taste
1/4 tsp of each  (cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, chilli flakes and pepper powder)
1 cup Hot water 

Method 

Slice off the tops of the eggplant and scoop the flesh out of the eggplants, leaving at least 1/2  cm Wall of the eggplant intact. Keep aside the scooped  flesh of the eggplant. Take garlic, all the chopped herbs, salt, olive oil, rice and  prawns. Mix the stuffing. Arrange the eggplants in a baking dish, hollow end facing up. Spoon the filling into the hollowed eggplants. Pour hot water into each eggplant, up to the top. Pour another 2 cm of hot water into the bottom of the dish. Cover the tray with foil and put into the oven to bake. Bake at 200 degrees celcius for 60 minutes, till the eggplants are cooked and the rice looks fluffy..

For the Sauce:

Scooped flesh of the Eggplants
1/2 cup Yogurt 

 Mixed chopped Herbs ( 1/4 cup Coriander leaves, 2 tbsp Chives, 2 tbsp Dill, 1 tbsp dried Parsley)

1/2  tbsp Olive oil
Salt to taste

Method

Take a pan. Add oil. Heat the oil. Add the eggplant flesh into a frying pan and stir fry. Once it starts to stick, pour some water into the pan and cover. Cook the eggplant flesh until soft.  Dry of the water from the eggplant and stir till brown. Mix the cooked eggplant with yogurt , chopped herbs  and salt to taste.  Serve the sauce alongside the eggplants.            

Turkish Manti (Dumplings) and Hadari (Garlicky Yogurt Dip)

Turkish Manti (Dumplings)

      Manti is a part of Turkish cuisine. It is also known as Tatar Boregi. It is a 13th century Dish introduces by the migrating Turks traveling back from Mongolia. It was made popular by nomads. In 15th century, art infiltrated the culture and cuisine of Turkey and one began to see the presentations of food coming out of the palaces. Over the past couple of centuries varieties of manti can be found throughout the region. It is served with yogurt dip. The preparation of this dish is quite simple but does require patience.

Information from the net....

For the filling

Ingredients

250 grams Chicken keema

1 Onion chopped

1 Egg

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp Pepper powder

1/4 cup Coriander Parsley chopped

Method

Mix all the ingredients together. Keep it aside.

For the Dumplings

Ingredients

Ready made Chinese Spring roll wrappers cut them into 1.5 inch. squares around 20 squares needed

1 Egg white

Chicken filling

2 cubes of Butter

1 cup of Chicken stock or water

Method

Arrange the sheets on a flat platform. Keep a small portion of the filling on the sheets. Take the egg white. Brush the egg whites on 2 ends, leaving the other 2 ends. Fold the dumplings. The top portion of the dumpling will be open for the filling to be seen. Cover the dumplings before it dries out. Once all the dumplings are sealed then place them on a round greased baking tray. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes in a preheated oven. Remove from the oven add cubes of butter and a cup of chicken stock or water, put back into the oven for another 15 minutes. After the second baking,the edges of the dumplings should turn crispy golden brown. Serve the dumplings with a garlicky yogurt dip called Hadari.

Hadari ( Garlicky Yogurt Dip)

Ingredients

1/ 4 cup hung Yogurt

1 Garlic cloves crushed

1/2 tsp Dried Mint or 1 tbsp fresh Mint finely chopped

1/2 tbsp fresh Dill finely chopped

Olive oil to drizzle

1/4 tsp Lemon juice

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

Salt to taste

1tbsp grated Feta(optional)

1 tbsp chopped Walnuts

Method

Combine all the ingredients except Olive oil and chilli flakes. Refrigerate until required.Drizzle with a little olive oil. Garnish it  with a sprig of fresh mint or dill, and sprinkle with just a little chilli flakes.

Yogurt Soup

Yogurt Soup

Yogurt soup  sometimes known as yayla çorbası, it is a meal of Turkish cuisine. This soup is cooked with a variety of herbs rice or chickpeas whatever is available... 

Ingredients 

2 tbsp Rice

5 cups Water

3/4 cups Yogurt

1 Egg 

1 tbsp All purpose Flour

1 tbsp Butter

2 tsp Dried Mint OR 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh Mint

1/2 tsp Red chilli flakes

Salt to taste

Ingredients

Boil rice in 5 cups of water with salt until very, very soft. In a bowl,add egg and flour and whisk it well, then add yogurt and whisk it again. Add 1-2 tbsp water lighten up this mixture. Put the yogurt mix in a pot, cook it on very low flame to above curdling. Cook on low heat for approximately 15 minutes and keep stirring. Slowly pour in rice along with water into the soup. Keep stirring. First let the soup boil on medium heat and then lower the flame, cook for another 10 minutes. Heat butter in a pan. Once it sizzles, add mint and chilli flakes, stir for few seconds. Pour it into the soup. Serve it hot. 

Garlic Cheese Bread

Garlic  Cheese  Bread

Ingredients 

2 cups of All purpose flour

1 1/2 tbsp of Dry yeast

1 tbsp Sugar

Salt to taste

1/2 cup of Luke warm water

1/2 cup Grated cheddar cheese 

1 tbsp Garlic Crushed 

1 tbsp Butter

1 tbsp Oil

Butter + Milk mix for brushing

1 tsp Dry Oregano for sprinkling 

Method 

Take a mixing bowl, add flour and salt. Take Luke warm water, sugar and yeast. Mix it, let it rise. Pour the yeast water in to the flour. Add more water if required to get a soft dough, add 1/2 tsp of oil and knead the dough well adding some more oil in between for 5 minutes. Cover the dough and  let it rise double in size. Sprinkle some flour on the platform, take the dough and knead it again. Divided the dough into 2 portions. Roll out one portion of the dough. Add 1/2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp garlic crushed, spread it on the rolled dough. Sprinkle 1/2 the grated cheese. Fold the dough in to half. Lightly slit the dough into strips. Let it rise for 20 minutes. Brush with milk + butter. Sprinkle with dry oregano seasoning. Bake at 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or till brown in colour in a pre heated oven.  Brush with butter. Cool a bit and then take it out from the tray.