Strawberries and Banana Breakfast Smoothie

My fridge is filled with boxes and boxes of Strawberries. Yes, tis the season to be jolly …again! I’ve raved about my strawberry love many times before so you already know I’m crazy about the little suckers. And I always stock up whenever they come around. Apart from eating them dunked in hot chocolate fudge or enjoying them with the traditional fresh cream I also like to make a mean smoothie out of it. Besides, I just bought a nice Morphy Richards blender this month … so I need to puree and blend! I call this my breakfast smoothie because it gives me the necessary kick to start the day. Yes, I need a kick… I am NOT a morning person. Come to think of it, I’m not a night owl either. I’m a nine-to-fiver! Unfortunately those kinds of jobs are hard to come by and even if they do, it will involve sucking up to someone in a government office! Now that I’m done ranting about the lack of optimal timed employment, I come back to the smoothie. It’s yummy, it’s easy, it’s healthy and it’s in season. It’s a complete breakfast, so you can give your Masala Dosa a break today!

Strawberry Griddle Cakes for a Fancy Breakfast

Yes, I know it’s another recipe with strawberries back to back. But I have so many in my fridge that I need to use them and use them in innovative ways! (lest the co-resident realize my evil plan of ‘waste to wealth’). I have a supermarket weakness. If something looks fresh, is in season and the store has a buy one get one free offer – I’m hooked. Rest assured, I will be carting loads of it back home! Come on now, who doesn’t like a good bargain? Thankfully Strawberries are such accommodating fruit that you can pair them with almost anything and achieve success. Now coming to Griddle cakes. First of all, don’t let the name take you on a wild goose chase. Another name for a frying pan is a griddle and griddle cakes are nothing but pancakes that are just a little firmer. So you can call them Strawberry pancakes if you please… but I much prefer the fancier sounding name. (Fools the co-resident into thinking he’s getting something radical to chew on!) I served the Griddle cakes with some strawberries in wine instead of the routine ‘drizzle the pancake syrup on’. And since that means I’m having wine for breakfast, it automatically becomes a fancy brekkie! (Ok, so I have low expectations…Sue me!)

Strawberry Griddle Cakes with Strawberries steeped in Wine

Prep time: 30 mins + cooling time

Serves: 4

What you need:

125 gms self raising Flour

1 pinch Cinnamon and Salt

½ tsp Baking Powder

30 gms Castor Sugar

1 Egg

1 Lemon, juice of

125 ml Milk

150 gms fresh Strawberries, diced

Salted Butter

For the Strawberries in Wine:

200ml Rose Wine

1 tsp Vanilla essence

50 gms Castor Sugar

200 gms fresh Strawberries, sliced

What to do:

To make the Strawberries in Wine: Heat the wine and sugar in a large pan until the sugar dissolves. Bring the liquid to a boil toss in the strawberries, take off the heat. Add the vanilla essence, cover the pan and set aside for the fruit to steep in the liquid until cool.

To make the griddle cakes: Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Stir in the sugar. Make a well in the center and tip in the egg, milk and lemon juice to make a batter. Add the diced strawberries to the mix. Mix well till small bubbles appear on the surface of the batter.

Heat a non stick frying pan and add a little salted butter. Add spoonfuls of the batter to the pan to make small thick pancakes. Cook on medium heat until bubbles start to appear on the surface of the griddle cakes – about 2 or 3 mins. Flip and continue to cook for another 2-3 mins. Repeat with the rest. Serve warm with the wine steeped strawberries.

Note: If cooking in batches, keep the cooked ones warm in a low oven while you finish the rest.

Strawberry Milkshake and My 100th Post

It’s my 100^th post today. I can’t believe I had enough material to go this far (apparently I do!) Bloggers say that lasting the 2 years is the biggest challenge. You need to be interested in what you blog about and let’s face it, people need to be interested in what you write about. You might say that you give a rat’s ass about what people think…but that’s not true. You need an audience to appreciate art. (Ok, in my case … the art of blabbering!) If nothing else, I have at least 100 failsafe recipes that I can always fall back on! I’ve also come to realize that I care as much,  (if not more) about my pictures that accompany each blog post. So the journey for me has been about taking baby steps to produce pics that I am proud of. (Here’s the link to my first post and picture. (Click Here) No, am not ashamed, it’s a learning curve right?) :P

Talking of learning curves, was I going to put up some insurmountable culinary challenge as my 100^th post? Hell No! Most of the inspiring recipes for me are ones that you look at and decide instantly, “I can make that …tonight or right now”. It’s recipes that look simple and delicious and goad you into thinking that you can create them with a flourish of your hand. So here’s the Strawberry Smoothie recipe. No fuss, all Love!

P.S. Thanks for stopping by…

Strawberry Smoothie

Prep time: 10 mins

Serves: 2

What you need:

200 gms fresh Strawberries

400 ml of Milk, cold

2 scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream

2 Tbsp of Sugar

What to do:

Take the green tops off the strawberries (he he he!), Wash them under running water. Toss them in a blender with the Sugar and whir around for 3 mins till you get a lovely red puree. Now Add the ice cream in and blend for 1 min. Finish by adding the milk in and run the blender for 2 more mins till you get a nice and frothy mix. Check for sweetness. (you can add more sugar if you want at this point – what are you like carzy??)

Pour into a tall glass and enjoy making a milk mustache!

I love this pic below... Something about it makes me feel like I'm floating on a cloud :)

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

A conversation about Wimbledon led me to bake these. I know the natural train of thought will be tennis and the Wimbledon cup and how the hell is it related to cupcakes? But let me lead you to it…famously….slowly …delectably. Now Wimbledon is synonymous with tennis but what it’s also famous for is the tradition of eating strawberries and whipped cream by the spectators. Every year about 27,000 kilos of strawberries are eaten during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, together with 7,000 litres of cream. Phew! I salivate every time I think about it!! My all time favorite dessert is Strawberries and Cream. There – I’ve said it and it’s official now. So next time I claim something else is my favorite dessert you know I’m lying! I always know when its strawberry season in Bangalore. Am I some kind of seasonal food specialist? – Hell no! I just walk over to Corner House and when they start selling their Strawberries and Whipped Cream, the season has officially begun! And man do I tank up on them like there’s no tomorrow! So this recipe is inspired by Wimbledon and Corner House in January and a gnawing urge to stuff my face with more of the good stuff!

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

Prep time: 20 mins

Baking time: 25 mins

Makes: 8-12

What you need:

75g unsalted Butter, softened

¾ cup or 150 gms Castor Sugar

1 large Egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

¾ cup plain Flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1/3 cup or 85 ml Milk

1/2 cup Strawberry puree

1/4 cup Strawberries (coarsely chopped to fold into the batter)

For the frosting:

1 cup fresh Heavy Cream whipped with 3 Tbsp Castor Sugar

2 Strawberries, sliced (to decorate)

What to do:

For the Cupcakes: Sift the cake flour with baking powder and set aside. Combine the strawberry puree and milk together, set aside. In another bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy for 3-4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the egg along with the vanilla essence with the mixer on low speed for a minute. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and puree mixture and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until combined after each addition. Fold in the chopped strawberries gently.

Line a muffin tray with paper liners/ muffin cups. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups so that each is about two-thirds full. Bake in a preheated oven of 170°C, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cupcakes are golden brown or till a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-26 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Next, remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

For the frosting: Once the cupcakes are completely cool, frost them with the whipped cream (beaten  with the sugar) and decorate with a slice of strawberry. Are you in Wimbledon yet?

Strawberry Fool

What’s red and sweet and juicy with a little green mop top? Strawberries! They are finally in season and I’m thrilled! I love strawberries – the colour, the taste, the cutesy look! Absolutely beautiful, these fruit are rich in antioxidants and Vitamin C. If you have a cold, get yourself a big glass of strawberry juice and you can kiss the cold goodbye. Really! (Ok, It works for me all the time, maybe I subconsciously want to add one more reason to love the lil buggers!) So, if you want to get on my good side, give me a bowl of strawberries and cream! Yes, I’m a fool for strawberries …sigh!

Strawberry Fool

Prep time: 30 mins

Serves: 6

What you need:

350 gms Strawberries

1 tsp lemon juice

300 ml Double Cream

175 gms/ 1 cup Castor Sugar

What to do:

Put the strawberries into a small pan with 3 Tbsp of water and cook over a low heat until soft. Remove from heat, add the sugar according to taste and stir until dissolved. Leave to cool, then blend or sieve to make a puree. Set aside and cool. Add the lemon juice and stir well. Whip the double cream until it is fairly stiff and using a metal spoon, carefully fold it into the strawberry puree, losing as little volume as possible. Turn the mixture into six serving bowls/ dessert glasses and leave to set. Decorate it with strawberry slices. Leave in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

P.S. Fools are a very good way of using up a lot of seasonal fruit. Especially if it is soft as it needs to be pulped up and combined with cream. Other fruits that work well include raspberries, blackcurrants, mangoes and peaches.