UPSIDE DOWN MIXED FRUIT CAKE
IT WAS ON THE 1st OF JANUARY I WROTE A BLOGPOST & THEN IT IS TODAY!
It may be normal for others but for me, it is not! I enjoy writing a blogpost given I have nothing much to do! Others do it as a hobby, they have their office & a home to handle! I have nothing much to do besides the cooking that is my passion! I do not like much of cleaning the utensils & mopping the floors regular! If the man takes me to the Europe or North America for a change, this unwillingness may not be an issue given the market place & the bus or train station should be a 10-12 minutes of walk! I am absolutely not fond of living in a quiet neighbourhood with houses far apart! Although I am not a mingling type, the noise around has to be there! The neighbourhood cannot feel ghostly. Cristine is more than willing to travel to the west with us but there is a huge amount of levy involved in the process! The most important part is the man wanting to take a leap, at this age it is risky to be adventurous, our child is studying and the parents have set his education as a priority! I am not a practical person, I dream like the main characters in a Yash Chopra movie without thinking of the pros & cons! We stay in one of the world's most secured nation but it is too strict about the foreigners' do's & dont's, and it is an island nation! Had I have been confident about the English language like Sharmila & Tiger Pataudi's younger daughter, my first choice of profession would have been to write & earn from it, the second choice would have been to be a teacher, the third would have been to deliver food to different homes! I insist that one should know about their passions whilst in college and go ahead with their higher studies accordingly! I did not even realise in my 20's that I love literature this much, cooking too!
I PROMISED TO MYSELF I WOULD NOT COOK ANYTHING ON SUNDAY BUT I COULD NOT KEEP MY PROMISE!
The Tagore-Pataudi household's younger daughter may be good in English but she cannot cook at all! The thing is cooking is not considered as a high skill! It hurts and I do not care at all, I would untiringly keep cooking as long as I can! Till date, our mother cannot think of hiring a cook, neither she likes anyone cutting the vegetables! She has no qualms about cooking meals, though my brother & Bidisha asked her to keep a cook! She gets angry when Bhai most of the days would order food from outside without informing her! I have suggested her to cook recipes like chicken or mutton, fish curries of their choice, rajma, chana, kofta, dal, greens stir fry, bhartas instead of too rustic Bengali veggies, she would not listen! I too cannot stop cooking authentic Bengali vegetables, I am happy the man wouldn't say no to the maximum, neither the son! Because the duo do not trouble me much, I would respect their food choices! They have listened to me when I told beef & pork would not enter this home! Only that last month the son told he wants me to cook "beef biryani", when I told that cannot happen, he told he would smear beef on my face! That is a young blood speaking who enjoys making fun of and irritating his mumma! Our son loves his "dimma & thamma", his grandmothers! The man has reached an age wherein he would not get into arguments in all matters! In the son's absence, we sit together on a lonelier Sunday to watch a movie, series with a bowlful of "jhal muri"! I would however call it "chanachur-badam muri" because the two important ingredients, cucumber & coconut slices are missing! I like boiled potatoes in it but it's addition kills the crispiness of the puffed rice!
Yesterday, for dinner I made those "ragi-maida" flatbreads and had with self-made mixed-vegetable pickle & Bengali cabbage sabzi! Though the man does not believe in having millets, he ate; just made a little fun of millets in denial of their benefits! I love millet made roti!
I finally managed a sour jujube pickle sitting far off from Bengal. Off course, I would blog about it! I am thankful to the Rajdhani Stores for getting me the sour variety; the sweet jujube / narkeli kul is easily available in the season!
The sight of a jujube takes me to the maternal grandparent's home in Krishnanagar, Nadia, WestBengal! There had a big Jujube tree in their courtyard that bore both the varieties, the sour & sweet! I do not know about the Botanics involved in it! Our life is like that; a mix of sweet & sour experiences, be careful about the amount of spices you add to it!
WHAT IS THIS UPSIDE DOWN MIXED FRUIT CAKE?
I always give a shoutout about a refined flour cake! When it comes to baking one, I end up with a vegan & gluten-free one! May be I want to serve a slice on each one of your plates; after all it is the celebration time in both sides of the family! I would call this UPSIDE DOWN MIXED FRUIT CAKE a dessert in fact! On tasting it, I felt a scoop of ice-cream atop a slice would have suited the best! I skipped the ice-cream part as I had a bowlful of "sabudana khichdi" too for my first meal on a Monday! I love my carb intakes and cannot change my food pattern & bowls totally! I can get some moderations! After an 18 hours of fasting, I cannot think of having a small bowl of oats porridge, a bowl of fruits and then eagerly wait for a vegetables & chicken soup for the dinner with toasts! I must show off my cooking skills, I must get to live happily which includes eating merrily! I named it a mixed fruit cake because besides the apple, banana & orange play an important role in this vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian cake! I am done with the first meal of the day, it was the Maharashtra style "Shabudana Khichdi" and the cake I am blogging about today! Full of starch or carb, I like the Marathi tiffin and a "Marathi Manus" would do it the best!
INGREDIENTS :
APPLE : 1 BIG SIZED
BANANA : 1 BIG SIZED
ORANGE : 1 BIG SIZED
OATS : 1/2 COFFEE MUG + 2 TBSP
RICE FLOUR : 1/4 COFFEE MUG
CORN FLOUR : 2 TBSP
BAKING POWDER : 1/3 TSP
BAKING SODA : 1/4 TSP
SUGAR : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP [I USED BROWN SUGAR]
OIL : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
ORANGE PEEL : OF ONE ORANGE [PLEASE CHECK IF IT BITTER OR NOT, ALTERNATIVELY USE 1 TSP VANILLA ESSENCE]
I have seen themodernnonna.com website owner to blend the orange peel together with the other ingredients, but the bitter peel varieties would not work!
METHOD :
I took the oats, rice flour, corn flour, baking soda & baking powder in a blender; got a powder of them!
Thereafter, I added the oil, brown sugar, banana, orange segments to the blender and blended to a paste!
At this point, I kept aside the vanilla essence & tasted a bit of the orange peel! It did not feel bitter and I blended together the peel to get a fine paste!
To make the process easier for me, I used an aluminium foiled cake tin!
I did not even peel the apple but we should! Cristine sliced the apple as thin possible, it could be thinner but we are unable to!
I washed the apple slices again & added some brown sugar to them, mixed well! Cristine arranged them at the bottom of the foiled cake tin! She added the batter and levelled it!
Mine is a convection mode microwave oven. I had placed the low wired stool inside and preheated it at 160*C.
I had placed the batter filled cake tin atop the stool and baked the cake at 160*C for 20 minutes!
Every machine's baking time may vary, you have be careful!
I had to use a smaller cake tin, but the cake was moist & tasty, that makes me happy!
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