Ever since our Goa trip few years ago, I’ve been in love with roasted tomatoes. I ate them plenty almost daily for a week then. I have been looking for a simple recipe to re-create the magic. Finally my search ended and here is the recipe.
The only downside is unavailability of fresh herbs so I used dried. This is one of the simplest & tastiest recipes one can cook up. I will be making this often now.
The firm tomato loosing it’s shape was also a very fascinating watch. I’m sure you would agree with whatever photography I have managed. 🙂
to taste – Salt, Black Pepper, Dried Herbs (better to use fresh herbs)
Method –
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan, large enough to hold all the tomatoes in a single layer.
Add the tomatoes along with salt, pepper & herbs. Cook on low flame for 5-7 minutes tossing occasionally till the tomatoes start loosing their firm shape.
Sprinkle with fresh chopped herbs at room temp or hot.
Strawberries are here! yeyeye! There was a time (read: before marriage) when I hated strawberries, well I still do in any form other than fresh. You got confused, I know! I can’t stand strawberry ice-cream, strawberry jam, etc etc, to me they all taste very sweet, very artificial & always leave a very weird, sort of bitter taste in my mouth. But V loves them, so he introduced me to the fresh fruit, I was quite skeptical, ready to hate them. BUT I liked them. Can’t say I love them but ya now I like & enjoy them in the season.
Eggless Roasted Strawberry Pound Cake
Here in Maharashtra, strawberry plantation is a big industry for both local & export market. Strawberries are available by truck load everywhere, you just cant deny buying yourself a box. 🙂 In Mahabaleshwar & Panchgani, it is a common sight for commoners & tourists to indulge in strawberry picking during the harvest season. I’ve tried doing that too once, but that time season was almost over & we didn’t get the best ones to pick. 😦
Eggless Roasted Strawberry Pound Cake
I decided to put these strawberries to a new use (at least for us) – yes a CAKE! Thankfully for our growing waistline, I baked this for a dear friend & not for us. When I came across this recipe & read the reviews, I just knew I had to bake this one. I replaced blueberries with strawberries, silken tofu with equal amount of home-made ricotta cheese & cake flour with APF & cornstarch. I reduced the quantity by half & baked it in a loaf pan.
Eggless Roasted Strawberry Pound Cake
To give a twist I roasted strawberries in honey, olive oil, salt & balsamic vinegar (again home made). It is very frustrating to google recipes and realize that you can’t make most due to lack of ‘fancy’ ingredients. I slowly have started overcoming this by making them (corn syrup, mascarpone, etc) at home as much as possible. This time I conquered Balsamic Vinegar in the best option (cheap & readily available). I increased the quantity of fresh strawberries as they will reduce on roasting. So I took 2 Cups fresh strawberries which gave me about 1 Cup roasted strawberries.
Eggless Roasted Strawberry Pound Cake
The ricotta cheese was different than our usual paneer, I believe due to the addition of cream – it was creamy in texture & taste. It sure is a perfect substitution for silken tofu.
The roasted strawberry was an out of this world experience. I am going to make them quite often & going to use varied fruits. The color, the smell, the taste was just awesome.
Eggless Roasted Strawberry Pound Cake
The cake rose well & my kitchen filled with wonderful smell of roasted strawberries & baking. Though upon removing from the cake, it did sink little in the center, I’m not sure why. The cake smelled heavenly & delicious. The crumbs tasted absolutely wonderful. I strongly recommend serving the cake with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. V sulked for not being able to gorge on either the roasted strawberries or the cake. 🙂
Eggless Roasted Strawberry Pound Cake
I would have loved to use some port here to roast strawberries, but my friend is a complete teetotaler & saatvic to the core. 🙂 She is an Ayurvedic Doctor, practicing with an Ayurvedic Retreat near Pune. She became my role model for practicing Yoga during both my pregnancies. She stood by me in my times of need, she became a friend to me in this still ‘alien’ city and have even fought on my behalf with others. Lately we had a small misunderstanding and I’m glad we overcame our egos and made up. I would hate to loose a special friend like her. Thank you for being my friend, Dr. Roli. This cake is for you. Guys I did not send or dedicate this virtually, I personally delivered it to her on the D-day!
1 Cup – Roasted Strawberries (2 Cups fresh Strawberries would give you 1 Cup)
Method –
Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Grease & line a 8 X 6 X 2 loaf pan.
In a small bowl, blend cheese & yogurt well. Add milk & vanilla, mix well.
Sift together, flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat sugar & butter till light & fluffy, this will take about 5 minutes. To this add liquid ingredients in 3 batches, beat well after each addition.
Now add dry ingredients and blend well.
Add in the roasted strawberries. You can lightly dust them in flour to avoid sinking to the bottom of the pan. Fold them very gently into the batter to avoid further breakdown.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 – 50 mins or till toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack for 10 mins, then de-mold on a wire rack and cool completely before serving.
Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Grease & line a rimmed baking sheet.
Hull & slice the strawberries into half or quarter depending on size.
In a small bowl, mix olive oil, salt & honey together.
Place strawberries in a large bowl. Pour the above mixture on it. Toss gently till all the berries are covered.
Spread coated berries in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 40 – 45 minutes. Keep checking the berries in between as each may vary. It helps to slightly move around the berries a bit for even roasting. Remove from oven before the juices start burning.
Remove the berries & juices from the sheet while still warm and place them in a bowl. Add balsamic vinegar & toss. Set aside and allow it to cool.
Cake Flour – Place 2 Tbsps of corn flour in a cup, fill the remaining cup with APF – yields 1 cup Cake flour
Ricotta Cheese – I quartered the recipe as I didn’t want to end up with so much ricotta cheese on hand since I regularly make paneer. Makes 1 Cup of Cheese.
Warm on moderately high heat, till the mixture starts to foam & bubbly. Do not allow to boil.
Remove the pan from heat. Add vinegar & stir gently for 30 secs.
The mixture will curdle almost immediately.
Add salt & stir for another 30 secs.
Cover the pan with wet towel. Allow to stand at room temp for 2 hours.
Line a large colander with several layers of cheesecloth or muslin, allowing several inches of overhang.
Place the colander on a large bowl. Pour the curdled mixture over the colander.
Let the water drain. After few minutes, gather the corners of the cheesecloth & tie it with a rubber-band. Allow to stand in colander for another 30 minutes. Gently squeeze the cheesecloth to drain the whey.
Open the cheesecloth – use ricotta cheese. I use whey as stock for my soups or gravy.
3rd Aug & First Blog Hop Wednesday!!! Blog Hop Wednesdays is a brainchild of Radhika of Tickling Palates and I am delighted to be a part of it. She came up with this wonderful group so that we take time for other blogs around us and give the recipes due notice & consideration. She divided all willing girls/ ladies into groups & then within groups partners were made. So for this Wednesday, I go through my partners blog – choose & re-create a recipe from her blog & post it on 3rd Aug & she does the same for my blog. Next week the partners are shuffled so that we get to explore as many blogs, recipes as possible . I think it is wonderful way of appreciating & acknowledging tremendous efforts gone into making each recipe/ photo/ post.
For the first Blog Hop my partner assigned is Archana of The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen. She resides in Goa and have some very interesting local delights posted on her blog. I was very confused while choosing recipes – there was so much I wanted to try! What I loved most about her blog was the simplicity with which she creates her recipes – no fancy ingredients, no hi-fi equipments. Just basics and you are done.
Keeping with the essence of her blog (as I perceived it) I chose a simple recipe with even simpler ingredients – Cauliflower Rava Fry. I also chose this recipe as both V & I love cauliflower & experimenting with it. It is also one of the veggies which tastes very good with crunchy flavors.
As Archana very nicely pointed out to me that we both are ‘confusing’ & ‘mad’ in our kitchens, I decided to create this recipe with my touch – I added curd & lemon juice to the marinade & grilled it instead of shallow frying it.
Marinated & Grilled Cauliflower
Marinated & Grilled Cauliflower Roasted in Semolina –
Clean & break the cauliflower into florets of your size. Medium should be good as it will allow uniform grilling.
In a bowl, mix together all spices, curd & lemon juice. Add florets & mix them using a spoon or hand so that they are evenly covered with marinade. Cover with a lid & allow to marinate for few hours. I left it overnight. If you are leaving it longer then keeping it in fridge would save it from going bad.
When you are ready to grill, add semolina and mix well. Spread the cauliflower in a baking tray or rotisserie, spread evenly & pour the marinate on top.
Brush with oil lightly & grill on high stand/rack for 20-25 mins until done. In between turn the florets around so that they can be grilled from all sides.
Serve hot with chutney. We had it as snack with drinks.
For me it has become a keeper recipe. I loved the crunchy & healthy taste of cauliflower. It is perfect as a snack or a finger food for a child. Thank you Archana for allowing me to visit your space and giving me this wonderful recipe. Hop on to her blog for some more simply amazing recipes.
Sending this Grilled & Marinated Cauliflower to Fast Food not Fat Food guest hosted by Vardhini of Zesty Palette. This event was originally started by Priya of Now Serving, in today’s fast life, health takes a back seat. It is upto us to consciously make all efforts to eat & serve healthy. Marinated & grilled cauliflower is health personified – negligible use of oil, crunchy cauliflower & spices combined with almost no efforts or prep make it fast but not fat food.
My next partner for Blog Hop is Monika of Sinamon Tales & I can’t wait to visit her blog & have fun. Catch other Blog-Hoppers here to see what they have been doing for their blog hops. If you wish to join contact Radhika of Tickling Palates. Happy Hopping!!
Lemon in Ginger 