Thursday, May 17, 2007

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Classic Salsa

Here's Daniel's awesome salsa......



Ingredients
One 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
One jalapeno chilly
One onion
Two pods garlic
½ cup chopped cilantro
salt to taste
lime juice

Method
Peel and cut onion in half. Cut jalapeno in half and deseed. Peel garlic pods. Add all three to a small saucepan with water. Boil and cook until onion layers fall apart and jalapeno is soft. Drain in a colander and add to a blender. Add canned tomatoes, cilantro, salt and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro on top with warm Tostito chips.
This makes as much as shown in the picture which is a lot. It stores well too.

Here's that coconut cake recipe I promised

Okay after an eventless day at work, I'm back at my comp giving you that promised coconut cake recipe. With this I'm also including a recipe for some authentic salsa. You're probably thinking,"Salsa!! Who needs a recipe for salsa?". Well you're wrong. My friend Daniel showed me how to make real mexican salsa and his recipe is amazing served with warm tostitos. Try it and you'll never go back to your old salsa recipe. Enjoy!
Oh tonight i'm baking a zuchhini bread, its different from my traditional recipe, its a bit spicier with more nutmeg and cinnamon. The reason i'm making this is coz Nitin (my husband) and I went to the farmers market on Saturday and now I have way more zucchini than i can ever use. You know this recipe is great for getting your kids to eat those much needed veges. If it works out the way I would like it to, i'll post the recipe in the days to come.
Also coming up in the next couple of days will be Nitin and Naina's wine selections. So if you would like to try some of our favourite wines keep a look out for that.
Here it goes.......

Coconut Cake

Ingredients
Cake
One package butter recipe golden cake mix (Duncan Hines)
3 large eggs
1/3 cup sweetened coconut cream
½ cup ( one stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup water
1 Tblsp dark rum
1 cup pineapple juice (optional)
Frosting
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sweetened cream of coconut 

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 10-ounce package sweetened flaked coconut (about 3 cups)

Method
For cake: Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans ( I buy foil cake pans from the store). Combine first six cake ingredients in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat mixture on low speed until smooth. Increase speed to medium and beat 4 minutes. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Punch holes in warm cake and add pineapple juice. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Cut around cakes to loosen; turn out onto racks. Cool completely.


For frosting:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and cream of coconut in large bowl until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla.
Now to set it up.....
Line platter sides with parchment paper. Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread layer with 3/4 cup frosting (make this layer thick if you want a nice layered look). Sprinkle with 3/4 cup flaked coconut and crushed pineapple (optional). Top with second cake layer, flat side down. If needed add toothpicks to hold the two layers in place. Cover top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Press remaining flaked coconut over top and sides of cake. Slide out parchment paper. The sides of the cake server will be clean and neat. Chill cake until frosting is firm, at least 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover loosely and keep chilled until 1 hour before serving.)

My husband's birthday cake



This is an amazingly delicious and moist cake with a cream cheese icing. When you cut it, it shows off two really nice layers filled with coconut and pineapple. I'll post the recipe later, I'm tired now.