The Ant Blog

I have baked this many a times, and it has been a family favorite. A luscious chocolate cake is a great holiday treat. The lovely baking aroma of the rich chocolate cake draws my loved ones into the kitchen and makes it truly special.   Ingredients for Traditional Chocolate Cake Flour- 1 and 1/2 cup Sugar- 1 cup Baking powder- 1 tsp Baking soda- 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence- 2 tsp Sour cream- 2/3 cup Butter- 3/4 cup Cocoa- 1/3 cup Eggs- 2 Transfer the entire contents in a food processor and blitz together. Alternatively, mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then mix them together and mix them until they all blend together.  Pour the contents into a tin (buttered and floured beforehand) and bake for 35-40 mins at 350 deg F or 180 deg C. Check with a knife, if done it will be clean after dipping in the cake. *Pre-heat oven at 350 deg F or 180 deg C before baking. For the icing , I double heated the dark chocolate 175...

My effort over the previous Sunday was very rewarding. It is by far one of the simplest things to make, and yet has the flavor to blow one’s socket! The prawns need to be fresh. I had gone down to the local market and picked up some fresh sea food that day.  To start off, the prawns need to be de-shelled. It is ok to take some extra time, but ensure that these babies are de-veined properly, else they may give you some serious sort of food poisoning. Clean the prawns well. Next, marinate them with  Lemon juice of half a lemon ,Lemon zest of the same, Red chili powder, Salt, Ginger and Garlic paste and keep this aside for half hour.                                 Coconut-crusted Beer dipped Prawns In a mixing bowl, take 1/2 cup Flour, salt,egg, ground peppercorns, baking powder and mix this with a fork. To this pour beer and mix the batter till the consistency is semi-liquid. If...

Inspired by a recipe from a magazine, I tried making this simple yet decadent treat at home. I had first tasted this at a shack in Goa. The cook tastes great with fishes like Mackarel, Surmai, Pomfret, Seer fish etc. Fish Rava/Semolina fried is a must try dish in Goa while you look out at the sea chugging down a mug of beer. I tried to recreate this experience , with a bottle of Brit-brewed beer and some average television :D Fish- 4-5 pieces Lemon juice of 1 lemon Ginger - 1 inch grated Salt- as per palate Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp Red chili powder- 1/2 tsp I mixed these ingredients and marinated the fish pieces for 25 mins. I dabbed  a little bit Red chili powder on both surface of the pieces, so that it takes the hue. (You may not follow this step, if you chose to. This will add an additional hint of heat, which goes with this fish) Take Semolina/ Rava and spread it on the surface of a plate. Place each fish piece on this plate, one at a time, and c...