Yesterday was our friend’s birthday . So I made this cake for her. I wanted to make an eggless cake as she is vegetarian. Though she occasionally eats cakes/pastries which has eggs, she prefers vegetarien versions and also, since it is Navaratri, I thought she won’t like it. At first, I thought of making dates cake . But I felt, I have already given overdose of dates cake to all, so thought of coming up with something else.
I personally don’t prefer eggless cakes because they are little more denser than the cakes with eggs. I do not like to use any egg replacements  in the cakes. I used half all purpose flour and half wheat flour. I think that made the cake even more dense. I wasn’t sure this recipe would work, but the cake rose very beautifully. It was a bit denser than my liking, but still tasted great.Â
As usual, I had some grand plans for this cake. But when I finally started decorating it, it came out quite different. When I baked it, the cake slightly sunk in the center. I had to use quite an amount of icing to cover that up. Since I had already used so much icing, I ditched the plans of more decorations with icing and used pineapple pieces to decorate. That gave a nice bite to the cake. I was finally quite satisfied with the look of the cake(I am trying to ignore those unclean edges on the cake).
All my hard work paid off when I saw she was very happy to see the cake. We all enjoyed the cake and had some nice time together :).
Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 cup finely chopped pineapple 3 tea spns baking powder 1/2 cup butter 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 3/4 cup milk 1/4 tea spn salt
Method: Preheat the oven for 300F for about 10mins. Mix together butter and sugar. Add milk and whisk again. Now add flour, cardamom powder, salt and baking powder. Mix and then add pineapple pieces. Mix well. Bake at 300F for abput 40mins or till a knife inserted in the center.
PS: Add 1 tea spn pineapple essence for more pineapple flavour.
I remember that day in Belgaum, my friend and I had been to shopping. We got late and thought of having food in our favorite tiny restaurant. We wanted to try some dish with noodles – according to us, everything with noodles was Chinese dish :). We were a little surprised to see a dish with the name American Chopseuy in the Chinese list because we were confused to why an American dish is in Chinese list. We wanted to give it a try. For those who have never been to such restaurants in India, any non Indian dish is converted to suit Indian palate, so no matter what you order, it will be quite hot, no bland dishes.
Now, coming back to our order, we had to wait for a while to get our Chopseuy served. But when the waiter came with it, we were shocked. We could see everyone around us, including the waiter, were laughing at us. It was a huge pile of crispy noodles, which looked like a bird’s nest, having some kind of sauce on it. No need to say, we could not even finish half of it. From then on we didn’t try it again anytime in restuarants.
That continued till my final year of college. One day, we had been studying something at my friend Ameet’s home. He asked his mom to make this American Chopseuy and he gave the instructions. I still remember the taste of it. It was awesome. Last few months, I pestered him till he gave me the recipe. Since then I have prepared it many times. Â We both love this.Â
I follow Vivnidhi’s method of baking the noodles instead of deep frying it. It needs some baby sitting to see the noodles are equally crisped up, but definitely, it is a healthy version.
I have never seen this dish in any restaurants here so far. So I really don’t know if there is any connection between America and American chopseuy :). So please enlighten me if any of you know more about it.
Ingredients: 1 chunk maggie noodles (I use 1/2 packet soba noodles or hakka noodles) 1/2 cup onion slices 1/4 cup green capsicum 1/4 cup cabbage 1/4 cup carrot 1/2 tea spn garlic paste 1 tea spn ginger paste 3 tbl spns (approx) tomato ketchup 1/2 tea spn soya sauce 1/2 tea spn chilli sauce  or 1 green chilli 1/4 tea spn red chilli powder Oil Salt
Method: Chop all vegetables into thin strips. Boil the noodles in salted water according to packet instructions until cooked. make sure you don’t overcook them. Drain, pour 1 tea spn of oil over it and toss the noodles. This ensures that the noodles don’t stick. Heat oil and deep fry the noodles in batches until  crispy , golden in colour. Remove on a kitchen towel. (Or line them on a baking sheet and bake on on low heat till they crisp).
For the Sauce – Heat oil in a shallow pan and add onions. Saute for 1 minute, add capsicum and cabbage (and carrots, if using). Reserve few shreds of cabbage for garnishing later. Stir  constantly for 5 mins until they seem only 75% cooked. Add garlic, ginger and chilli sauce/chilli. Stir for 30 secs.  Add soya sauce stir, then add tomato sauce. Stir continuously adding water to thin the sauce according to the consistency desired. Bring to boil while stirring constantly.
Serving – Put crisp noodles in to serving bowl/plate and pour in the sauce over it. Garnish with cabbage shreds.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 45mins
PS: I used green beans because I wanted to use out some that I had. Also, since I was not having green capsicum, I used the yellow one.
