This is the time again for Daring baker’s challenge. This month’s host is that lovely blogger, because of whom I joined this group. Yes, it is Meeta along with Tony . I won’t be lieing if I say, only because it was Meeta’s month, I took up this challenge. Now, some of you may wonder what that is supposed to mean – as I mentioned in my last post, due to so many things that have come up on in our lives, that need more attention, I would not be able to make time, so I have decided to leave this group for now.
I made these Éclairs very early this month, as soon as Meeta revealed the challenge. After I read it a couple of times, I was sure we would love this chocolatey heaven. Since I had not even seen these before, I was not sure how they were supposed to taste. So I googled and found this video .
Everything went fine, the pastry was fine (or so I think). I was happy with the way it was going. But my happiness was short lived when I totally messed up chocolate pastry cream. It was watery and I had no idea what was wrong. Anyway, I thought of using it as it is because of shortage of time. I was thinking to make it again but could not manage.
Verdict – we both simply loved these Éclairs. We both are not chocoholics, but we both could not stop eating these. I think this was the easiest and the quickest daring baker’s challenge so far. Thanks a lot Meeta and Ben for picking this recipe. I am going to make these again as soon as things at my end come to normal again.
Here is a pictorial
I used few fresh strawberries along with chocolate pastry cream as stuffing. The berries tasted great with chocolate. I topped them with few chopped cashews.
Wish you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.
Bottlegourd is called gardudde in Konkani. According to Ayurveda, this vegetable has many medicinal values. It is supposed to be very good for digestion. Yoga guru Shri Ramdev keeps talking about the importance of this vegetable in many of his shows. Many people take juice of this vegetable daily. This is even given to diabetic and jaundice patients.
We use bottle gourd in both spicy dishes and sweet dishes. Since today is the auspicious day of Ganesh chaturthi, I thought of posting this delicious sweetdish. I normally make burfis(gardudde khadi ) from this which is loved by all at home. But occasionally we make this paays .
Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped bottle gourd 1 cup milk or coconut milk 1 tbl spn cashews(optional) 1 tbl spn raisins(dry grapes) 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder 1 tea spn rice flour 1-2 tbl spns jaggery
Method: Cook bottle gourd pieces in water along with cashews. In a bowl mix rice flour with about 1/4 cup of water. When the bottle gourd pieces are done, add the flour mixture and cook. Now add the jaggery, cook till it is dissolved and well mixed. Pour in milk (or coconut milk). Cook for a min. Take off heat and add cardamom powder.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 15mins
PS: rice flour is mainly added to give thickness to the sweet dish. It can be avoided.
