From the day I heard about “ JFI for Strawberry “, I am thinking about it. It was so difficult for me to participate in this event, mainly because strawberry is not very famous in Karnataka. We can find it in one or two shops in Bangalore and we never bought them there. After coming to US, I bought strawberries every time I saw them in any shop. They are so beautiful, I feel they are the most beautiful fruits in the world. I always loved the strawberry flavour in ice creams, milk shakes etc. I had even baked strawberry cake a few days back, but I wanted my entry to be something ‘Konkani’. That was the biggest challenge!!!. How to fit the strawberries in Konkani food???
Then I read the Strawberry Shrikhand in Ashwini’s blog today morning. I wished I could cook something like that. I mentioned it to my hubby (he knows what are the food blog events going on, mostly because I pester him to give me some ideas, without any hopes of getting a good idea from him). First time in the history, instead of giving some stapled answers like “Cook something delicious thing with strawberry”, he said, “why don’t you make Strawberry paank??”. (We usually make a dish called as ‘ambe/ananas pank’, its mango or Pineapple cooked in sugar syrup, which is served with dosas, chapathis etc. It can be preserved for months. Today morning we had ambe(mango) pank(syrup) with dosa for breakfast).
I just laughed at him. I said “don’t give me such ideas, paank from strawberry??? people will laugh at me. Its just impossible”. But he was very sure it will work out. He said, “atleast try it. Use 2-3 strawberries, if you don’t like, don’t post”.
Well…I thought about it for around half an hour. Then I felt, ‘Let me try it. Then I can atleast blame him saying, what a horrible idea it was’ and I prepared it. And…. It came out just superb!!!.
Now on, I have decided not to ignore his ideas :).
Ingredients: Strawberry(Cut into bite size pieces) 1 cup Sugar 1 cup Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn
Method: Mix strawberry pieces and sugar in a non stick pan and cook.
Keep mixing once in a while to avoid burning. Cook for around 10-15min on a low flame. (To check whether it is done or not, put a drop of syrup on a plate. The drop should not spread. If you cook beyond that, the syrup becomes very hard after cooling).
Add cardamom powder, cool it to room temperature. Store it in an airtight container and refrigerate. It remains good for months. Serve with dosa or chapathi or bread. PS: Traditional version of this recipe requires the syrup to be in liquid state(unlike jam which is in semi-liquid state).
Preparation time : 20min
I thought of this recipe while searching for a suitable entry for JFI for Strawberries . I had baked this cake a few days back also, with different kinds of fruit. But this time, I used only Strawberries. The original version does not include any dry fruits, but I used cashews to give the crunchy taste to the cake.
I am a big fan of moist cakes. Since this is soaked with juice, it gets the amazing taste and the fruits make the crunchy. I should say this is the most delicious ‘moist cake’ I have ever baked :). Try it once and you will fall in love with it.
Ingredients: All purpose flour or Maida 1 and 1/2 cup Eggs 4 Baking powder 1 and 1/2 tea spn Sugar 3/4 cup Oil 3/4 cup Vanilla essence(or extract) 2 tea spns Orange juice 3/4 cup Fresh cream(chilled) 1 cup Sugar 4 tbl spns Fresh fruits(Strawberries, grapes, kiwi, oranges etc) 1 cup Dry fruits (Walnuts, cashew nuts) 2 tbl spns
Method: Seive flour and baking powder and keep aside. Beat sugar and eggs till the volume is nearly 4 times. Add 1 tea spn essence/extract and mix. Add oil gradually, beating the mixture all the time. Add the flour, one table spoon at a time, beating very slowly. Pour the mixture in an oven proof baking dish. Bake it in preheated oven at 350F for 35-40min (or till a knife/skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean). Cut the fruits into very small pieces. Cool the cake for 5-10mins. Remove it from the baking dish. Cut the cake into two halves and soak both the pieces with orange juice. Beat the cream with sugar and 1 tea spn of vanilla essence till soft peaks are formed. Chill.
Keep the bottom piece on a serving plate, spread the cream over it. Spread the fruits over the cream. Spread the cream on the second piece and invert it carefully on the fruits on the first piece. Press well. Now, decorate the cake with remaining cream and fruits. Chill the cake and serve.
Makes 8 slices Preparation time : 1 Hr
Updated on Aug 20-2007: Another way of decorating this cake can be seen here .
