New York Cheese Cake

Ingredients

Everything has to be at room temperature. This is the key to making the perfect cheesecake. You need a lot of patience for this recipe. Here it goes..

You will need

20 graham crackers [Or you can even use digestive biscuits if you don't have graham crackers. In that case just use 10-12]
2 tablespoons of melted butter
500 grams cream cheese. That is roughly 16 oz. ( I used Amul cheese spread due to unavailabilty)
1 and half cup of sugar
3/4th cup of milk
1/4th cup Maida
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Vanilla essence
Extra butter for greasing

You will need a springform pan to bake the cake. It is available in the market. You will also need a hollow tray/vessel which is bigger than this pan, because you need to place your springform pan in this bigger tray while baking. You will also need aluminium foil.

Method

Preheat the oven to 350C/170F.

Grease the springform pan with butter. [Base and sides]. Also cover the pan with aluminium foil so that the top remains open.

Put the graham crackers in a blender and make crums out of them. Add butter and mix well. Now put them on the bottom of the springform pan and press gently so that it forms the crust of your cake.

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese and sugar with a wooden spatula until it is smooth. Be careful not to overmix.Now add the milk and mix again.
Next, add the eggs one by one, and mix gently such that the eggs get incorporated in the mixture.
Now add the sour cream, vanilla essence and maida. Mix gently.

Once you get a uniform mixture, pour it over the crackers in the greased and foiled pan.
Just gently tap it so that it sets and lets out any air bubbles.

Now, in the larger pan, add some warm water such that when the springform pan is kept into it, then the water covers the pan half way through the height.

Add the springform pan into this water.

Place this in the oven and bake for 1 hour.DO NOT CHECK YOUR CAKE BY OPENING THE OVEN AGAIN AND AGAIN.

[manage]

Turn off the oven after an hour, but let the cake remain inside for an extra 4-5 hours so that it does not crack.

Remove the cake after 4-5 hours, and then gently remove the aluminium foil and later release your cheesecake.

Chill it in the refrigerator until serving.

TRUST ME ITS WORTH ALL THE WORK. IT TASTES AMAZING! JUST BE PATIENT!

I must make this clear too. Please place the springform pan with filling in the larger pan first, and then pour the hot water up till it reaches halfway up the springform pan. If you can handle boiling water, then it's even better to pour that into your larger pan


Note:

Cover the pan from outside. A springform pan is actually where the base comes out like a spring. So you cannot cover that from inside, otherwise the mere foundation of cheesecake would be lost. So you need to cover this pan all the way round from outside so that the water does not seep inside the cheesecake mixture when you keep it in a water bath (larger pan with water)

SOUR CREAM

As sour cream is not available in India, this recipe is suggested as a substitute.


Ingredients
200 grams fresh cream
1 to 2 tablespoon thick curds
2 pinches salt

Method
1. Beat the cream until thick.

2. Add the curds and salt and mix well.

Cream Cheese (Home made)

Take amul cream

just take 1 cream packet and put it on flame and when it just starts to bubble, squeeze a lemon into it and then stir constantly till ur wooden spoon comes out coated and then u hang it overnight in a muslin cloth in fridge and next mornin wake up to fresh cream cheese. like i pour it in the cloth and then the cloth keep it in a sieve and the sieve i keep it in a utensil and tht utensil i keep in fridge so all water drips in utensil. Then cream cheese is one inside cloth and water is to be removed in morn and remove the cheese in a bowl and nicely stir and it'll be smooth.Only thing is it wont be salted.

Saute Mushrooms

Ingredients

Mushrooms- I packed (Wiped from cloth dont wash as they get black)
5-6 garlic pieces
Few pieces of ginger
Black pepper-1/4 tsp (or according to taste)
Salt
Coriander( fresh)
Oil

Recipe

Take abt 1 tbsp or less oil in a pan and heat it.

Then add ginger garlic and let it get brown.

Then add mushroom and fry a bit and add black pepper and salt and then cover pan and cook for 5 minutes and

Then sprinkle coriander leaves and serve.

Nigella's brownie (Self Adapted)

Ingredients

375 g soft unsalted butter ( I used salted hence didnt add salt later and i felt butter was too much so even 300 g would be good enough)

375 g best quality dark chocolate ( I used 160 grams dark chocolate and rest good quality milk chocolate- one can make from plain milk chocolate too)
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanila extract
500 g caster sugar ( its generally 21/4 cups but i used 2 cups plain sugar and blended it in mixer and used 2 3/4 cups of caster sugar and so sweetness was perfect)
225 g plain flour (2 cups)
1 teaspoon salt ( i didnt use)
300 g chopped walnuts ( i used 1 cup due to less at home but 2 cups will be amazing)

Directions:

1. 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. 2 Line your approximatley 33 x 23 x 5 1/2cm brownie pan with foil or baking paper. ( i used a 9" springform but usual pan is recommended due to leaks)
3. 3 Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large heavy based saucepan.
4. 4 In a bowl beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.
5. 5 Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.
6. 6 When the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a bit before beating in the eggs and sugar mixture, and then the nuts and flour.
7. 7 Beat to combine and then scrape out of the saucepan into the lined brownie pan.
8. 8 Bake for about 25 minutes ( it usually takes 45 minutes to a hour).
9. 9 When its's ready, the top should be dried to a paler brown speckle, but the middle still dark and dense and gooey.
10. 10 Keep checking the brownies as they cook; remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.
11. 
    
12. Note: my brownie took long to cook and i did mistake to leave overnight in oven and so was hard by morning. But it was perfect in gooeyness. So cook it maximum for an hour and take it off, cool it and leave in fridge overnight so it cooks perfectly.

Aloo Nutrela

Ingredients:-

Nutrela/ Soya Nuggets- 1/2 cup (or more if you like)

Potato- 1 large or 2 medium sized (Peeled and chopped)

Matter-1/2 cup

Oil:- 1 big tbsp

Cumin seeds:-1/2tsp

Mustard seeds:- 1/2 tsp

Onion- 1 small (chopped)

Ginger- 1 tbsp (Chopped)

Garlic-1 tbsp (chopped)

Tomato:- 1 and 1/2 (chopped)

Salt as per taste- 1 tsp

Turmeric:- 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder:- 1/2 tsp

Garam masla:- 1/2 tsp

Coriander for garnishing

Water as per requirement

Procedure:-

1) Take water in small bowl & boil it.

2) Soak the Nutrela in the hot water for 5-7 minutes along with pinch of salt.

3) Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add cumin & mustard seeds, Allow it to splutter.

4) Add ginger & garlic and fry for 1 minute.

5) Add onions with pinch of saltand saute until golden brown in color

6) Add tomatoes , turmeric, red chilli powder, garam masala & salt , mix well..

7) Cook until tomatoes are tender and the masala leaves oil and raw taste goes off.

8) Squeeze out the water from soaked nutrela by pressing it between your hands very lightly.

10) Add mattar and potatoes in the tomato mixture and mix well and fry nicely and then add nutrela and fry nicely so that masala covers it.

11) Add enough water just to cover the potatoes & Nutrela and then let it boil.

12) Close the lid of the cooker and then let it give 2-3 whistles.

13) Switch off the gas, let it sit for 5 more minutes.

14) Garnish it with coriander & serve hot with rice.

Enjoy:)

Vada Pao (Batata Vada)

Ingredients

4 Boiled Potatoes

1 tbsp. Oil for tempering

1/2 spn. Mustard seeds

4 Green chilies chopped ( +/ - according to individual taste)

A few curry leaves, torn to pieces

1/2 spn. Turmeric

3-4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 inch piece Ginger grated

Salt to taste

1-2 spns. finely chopped Cilantro

For Covering : (No measures here, I use approximates)

Besan / Chickpea flour- 1 cup almost

Red chilly powder- 1/4 tsp

Salt (only so much that the covering does not taste bland)

Pinch baking soda (optional)- 1 tsp

Saunf- 1 tsp

Water to make a batter

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:-

1. Mash the boiled potatoes.In a kadhai, heat 1 tbsp. oil, add mustard seeds,after they sputter, add green chilies and curry leaves, ginger-garlic, turmeric. Saute a while. Add mashed potatoes, salt. Add chopped cilantro.

2 To make the batter for covering, mix all ingredients listed above. Mix well to ensure that there are no lumps. Careful with the water, the batter mustn't be too runny nor too thick.

3.Heat oil in a kadhai. Make balls of the potato vege. Make like tikki / kebab by beating so they dont open up. Dip the ball in the batter and deep fry in oil till it turns a nice golden brown. Drain on a tissue.

Serve hot with garlic chutney, fries green chilly and Pav.

I served these with green chutney -Grind together 1 bunch Cilantro, 5 Green chilies, 1/2 inch Ginger, 1 small clove Garlic, Salt to taste , juice of 1/2 lime

And Sweet n Sour Tamarind Chutney : (I used approximately) Lime sized ball of Tamarind soaked in hot water for about 15-20 mins., Jaggery twice the amount of Tamarind , 1/4 tsp. red chilli powder, Salt to taste, 1/4 tsp. cumin powder

Squeeze out the tamarind pulp, discard solids. Heat a saucepan, add all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Boil the mixture for about 10 mins. till it thickens to the desired consistency. Cool and serve with wada-pav.

Typically Wada Pav is served with dry Garlic / Lasun Chutney. put chutney on either side of pav and then but vada in it and eat.