Christmas n Cakes!

Wish you all A Merry Christmas,
May the Joys of the season
Fill your heart with goodwill and cheer.
May the chimes of Christmas glory
Add up more shine and spread
Smiles across the miles,
To-day & In the New Year.

Merry to all of u out there...bet everyone of you are enjoying your Christmas.After Dum Aloo there where other recipes that I had to post..but thought I'll set this post aside for the cake orders that I did for this Christmas.My sons were really enjoying their winter holidays with cakes.The Christmas father on top of our tree was a  small paper  craft of my son...(It was a cut and paste activity in a Children's magazine).

  

The cake above was iced with special choco chunk icing and the cake was yellow butter cake.All models on the cake were edible and made from sugar craft.

The above cake was  for a person who had a craze for cars.This cake had strawberry filled icing in the center and the cake was yellow butter cake.The outer part of the cake was coated with choco chunk icing.Both my boys were quite excited with the car..and both wanted to be photographed with the cake...:D

The funniest part was the idea that my younger one gave me.."Amma..we'll give the cake to the uncle and then lets go to his house to cut the cake...then I can play with the car topper :).."

Hmm..not a bad idea Right? :D

Wishing you all an advanced Happy New Year!

Kashmiri Dum Aloo for ICC!

Dum Aloo has been one of my favs for a long time and this month when Srivalli and Lataji chose it as this months challenge..I was quite looking forth  to it.Tandoori Naans was my combi with this curry.I have been posting quite late on my blog these days...with my younger one starting on play school...sorry Srivalli for the late post! :)
Reading through this post I'm sure your eyes stop at a snap with scenic snap..u c those white storks..i know i haven't quite zoomed them(the view was the back part of my house).The reason for the white storks lurking next to the dum aalo ...he he..while I was clickin  the curry ..I couldnt help my self from shooting these white beauties..
Ok..guess I have done enough of blabbering ..now off to the Dum Aloo

Baby potatoes  1 Kg
Cumin seeds, - 1 tsp, roasted gently and ground into a powder
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Kashmiri red chillies - 3-4 nos  roasted and powdered
Fresh yoghurt - 2 1/2 cups (must not be sour)
Ginger powder - 1 tsp
Fennel/aniseed powder - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard oil - 4 tbsps
Cloves roasted and powdered - 6
A pinch of asafetida
Vegetable/ canola/ sunflower cooking oil to deep fry potatoes
Salt to taste
A cup of firm dough made from flour and water

• Wash the potatoes well and poke them all over with a fork. Soak them in water for 20 mintues adding a teaspoon of salt to it.

• Heat a pan with oil and  deep fry the potatoes till golden in colour. Drain them on a kitchen towel  .

• Make a paste of curds/yogurt, chili powder, ginger, cardamom and fennel powders. Then add the potatoes well with this paste and keep it aside.

• Heat the mustard oil in another pan, add the clove powder and asafoetida and mix well. 

• Then add a half cup of hot water and salt to taste and bring to a boil.

• To this mix, add in the potato-yoghurt mix, stir thoroughly and cover.

• To do the dum, seal the edges of the pan's cover with the dough to ensure no steam can escape. Put on the stove, cook on a low flame for 10-15 minutes.

• Turn off the flame, remove the cover and add the cumin and garam masala powders, and cover again quickly. Leave for 5 minutes.

Serve hot with Chapatis or Naan