Get a day off and you would think the whole day is yours and yours only, may be somewhere I had this little teeny weeny bit in my heart saying No no.., everything won't turn out as you want, I always go straight to my conservatory with my cup of tea Mmm..., and the plants I adore trying to save them from this cold winter, a pity I don't have a heater in my conservatory which would have made my plants have a warm surrounding, but poor little darlings have no such luxury, everyday I pray please don't die on me, I talk to each one of them, that's started my day off, checking all the plants, cleaning around picking around the withered leaves do you want to see my conservatory garden you can have a look at it.. here it is ....
I have got a few more this is just a sample.., they are not doing very well now especially my Doddapatre..:(

I had planned to bake a cake and got all the ingredients ready but everything got haywire, Once I started I couldn't stop picking around the kids clothes sorting out their rooms, trying to wake up my daughter asking her to get ready for her driving lessons, the time just flew, I remembered I had to do some shopping it is so cold, days are getting colder and colder walked down to a little town nearby to go to my favourite shop its a health wise shop I get lot of organic goods from there, I couldn't walk back as did a bit more shopping than I intended to and waited for the bus to turn up but incidentally it didn't turn up it was getting late and there was this kind gentleman who dropped us off near our house. Bless him, came home and had to cook something quickly as it was arrival time and they come home hungry.
I had some puy lentils which I had soaked earlier, and some thawed short cut pastry, this was quick one I could muster up right at the time they knock the door !!.
Here is how I stirred this up...

PUY LENTILS AND VEGETABLES HOT PIE
Recipe : own

INGREDIENTS:

Short cut / Puff Pastry Block (use as required )
100 grms Puy Lentils
2 Onions
3 to 4 Garlic
1" Ginger
2 Cups of assorted vegetables
( Carrot, Green, yellow and Red peppers, Potatoes, peas, broccoli)
1 tsp Chilli powder
1/2 tsp Pepper powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1/4 single cream
Salt as required
1/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese
2 tbsp Butter

Cook the Puy Lentils with enough water with little salt in a Pressure cooker.
In a large wok heat 2 tbsp of butter, add chopped ginger, garlic and onions saute them until they sweat and become soft and translucent to this add the  masalas chilli powder, pepper powder, coriander powder, cumin powder then add the cooked puy lentils and chopped vegetables add required amount of salt and close the lid and cook for few more minutes around 10 to 15 minutes until all the veggies get properly cooked to this add single cream and grated cheese mix well and switch off the stove.
Allow it to cool completely,

pour them on to a buttered dish,

take thawed short cut pastry or puff pastry cut them for the three buttered dish press them on to the dish make three slits and brush them with milk, bake them in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes to 40 minutes until you see the pastry nice and golden in colour.

doesn't it look good, for a winter evening a one pot meal.

Sending this off to Bake-a-thon event started by champa, here is entree...

Hi everybody, Hope you are all doing well, Last month I had stepped down in the CCC - that is  Crazy Cooking Challenge as it was something Tina asked everybody to cook which was something to do with Non-veg.  But this month she asked us to do a Cheese Cake, and I really wouldn't wanted to miss it out.  I had completely forgotten all about it, with lots of things going on., when I received mail from Tina I realized I haven't made anything, as I was not at home from past 4 days, and returned yesterday, I made it immediately, everything was done and even photos were done.., only I had to just type and post, which I was not able to do in the morning had to go to work :(.., so here I am a little late but I haven't missed out, hope Tina will forgive me..
This CCC challenge is something different, she asks us to do something from an other blogger who is not too  somebody like a pioneer woman / Martha stewart etc. isn't it interesting concept.., and I do love the challenge.

So, for this month's Challenge Cheese Cake I Chose this recipe from Anuradha's Blog , she as you all know who is behind the famous Muffin Monday and blogs at Bakerstreet.tv, she is a wonderful blogger with loads of dessert recipes, and the lovely Muffins which I love to bake, I used to be part of it..., which was a bit difficult for me as every week I couldn't nudge my kids to finish the muffins with other baking stuff, I keep doing.., so I had to sit back on it.., I have book marked a few too.., Her presentation and beautiful photography is amazing.  If anybody is interested in Muffin Monday, do write to her.  Thanks Anu for this lovely write up of how to bake a perfect Cheese cake 101, check out her blog for a detailed explanation, I again as always just changed them into eggless and still my kids liked it, My daughter who loves cheese cakes said the hint of Lime gave the cheese cake a wonderful touch...
Here is how the recipe goes...

She talks about how to bake a perfect cheese cake - according to her, there are a few things we need to keep in mind while baking a cheese cake so what are they-
1. All the Ingredients should be at room temperature
2. Oven should be preheated
3. Water in the Bain Marie must be warm
4. Using a spring form tin
5. Additional lining of parchment paper so there will be no leakage of the batter and seeping into the Bain Marie

EGGLESS STRAWBERRY LIME CHEESE CAKE
Recipe source : Bakerstreet.tv




INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE CRUST:
1/2 cup digestive biscuits (I used Marie biscuits) ( approx 100 gms but I used around 200 grms*)
2 tbsp Brown sugar
1 tbsp butter ( I used 2 tbsp)
1/4 tsp cinnamon

FILLING:
I have made a few changes - If you would like the original recipe do check the link above

250 gms of Cream Cheese ( I used Philadelphia)
250 gms of Ricotta Cheese
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Apple sauce
1/4 Cup Condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Lime Juice
1 tbsp - zest of one medium Lime
1/2 Cup fresh strawberries

METHOD:
Heat oven to 180 degree / Gas Mark 4, oven rack in the middle, Lightly grease the sides of your pan.
Line the
Combine biscuits, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter to making into crumbs, Press these crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Bake the crust in a preheated oven for 10 minutes until the edges are slightly browned.
Now in a large bowl beat the cream cheeses together until its creamy and free of lumps, then add the sugar and beat until it is smooth.
Now and scraping them from the bowl bringing them together.
Blend Apple sauce and condensed milk until well combined and smooth.
Add this to the cheese batter with vanilla, lime juice and zest of lime, beat all of them just until smooth and well combined.
I sprinkled some chopped strawberries which I had hulled and tossed with 2 tbsp of sugar and a tsp of zest orange, which I had kept aside.
Bake to 40 to 45  minutes or until the cake is set and the center still jiggles, She says you have to turn off the oven and let it sit inside the oven for an hour.
Remove the cheesecake from the oven, leave it to cool to room temperature.
Run a metal spatula around the edge to prevent any cracks, Release the sides of the spring form tin and place cheese cake on a plate.
And Refrigerate it for at least 4 hours but I refrigerated the whole night (she says it can be done too).

USING BAIN MARIE
Cover the tin from outside with a Aluminium foil, before pouring the batter into the tin, Once you pour the batter, then keep this in an other container which is filled not completely with warm water, check out her blog or some videos in google on how it works
So why use Bain Marie - They say that while baking a cheese cake baking this way helps in preventing the cake getting cracks in the center.

NOTES:
After beating the cheese until cream and smoothy, she adds Egg at this stage.
She uses Strawberries in the middle of the cheese cake filling and again pours half the batter on top of it, for this she takes few strawberries hulled and which is already tossed with 2 tbsp of sugar and a zest of orange which was kept aside.
you can run a knife or skewer through the batter giving it a swirl effect.
I had very little strawberries so I skipped this step.

Check out all the cheese cake out here and enjoy......
Thanks Tina and Anuradha for this wonderful journey on cheese cake.....

Quiche is spelled as keesh, which is said originally derived from french meaning a ''Little cake''. but some say that it is something which the German chefs baked 'Kuchen'' meaning a little cake in a shell.

SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS QUICHE?
It is a French Tart consisting of Pastry Crust usually filled with savoury fillings! Like custard, cheese, meat, Seafood or Vegetables.  It is a French dish, but is said that eggs and cream in a pastry is an English Cuisine!
In French Quiche is named descriptively like for example :

Quiche au fromage ( quiche with cheese )

Quiche aux champignons ( quiche with mushrooms)

Quiche with florentine (Spinach) and Provencale (Tomatoes) 

When and How do you serve? 
Quiche is such a versatile recipe can be served anytime of the day,  Serve it hot or warm.  It is a party food, serve along with Roast potatoes and cooked green peas, roasted and sautéed with spices. I usually serve it as breakfast on weekends or when my kids come back from school like a snack!!, Quiche is something made with eggs, dairy and cream cheese combination to a custardy consistency baked in a shell.
Quiche was something I came to know only after coming to UK, I started baking quiches with eggs when I started to learn baking, as my kids and Husband loved it. After I started baking Eggless I started experimenting to substitute eggs in all the recipes I baked.  Savoury bakes are my family favourite and I love to substitute Eggs in every recipe I make. 

Eggless Baking!
When Gayatri  asked us to bake quiches for Eggless Baking Group this month, I was into it completely because I keep baking quiches quite often as my family love it.   I have been trying new ways to substitute eggs to do quiches, tarts and pies which are our favourite savoury baking.  My family likes savoury bakes than sweet bakes, which you might have noticed in my blog.

Let us get to the recipe...
This recipe was adapted from Martha stewart using her pie - dough recipe.. here it is how I have changed the  original recipe.  I have substituted Eggs and whole meal flour and added extra veggies in it..

This will be a very long post bear with me....EGGLESS WHOLE MEAL SPINACH, MUSHROOM CHEDDAR QUICHE

BASIC PIE DOUGH
Adapted minimally from Martha stewart
Makes 9 inch crust

INGREDIENTS:
1  and 1/4 Cup Whole meal flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
100 grms ( nearly 1/2 cup ) butter
6 tbsp ( nearly 1/2 cup around 100ml ) Cup cold water

METHOD:
Mix the flours, sugar and salt well together.
Chop the cold butter into pieces, mix them in a food processor, as I do not have one I used my spatula ( a hard one ) and mixed them as much as possible, you can even use your hands and flour resembles like crumbles to this dough start adding cold water I started of with 1/4 cup and then started adding tbsp of cold water until the flour became a dough!.  Do not handle the dough too much.
Place this dough in a plastic wrap and chill it again in your fridge for at least an hour, so the butter firms  up again. ( you can even keep it overnight )
After an hour or so, take it out, I used a cling film, I  first spread it on my table top then placed this firmed up dough  on top of it placed an other cling film covering it, so I won't be touching the dough, and rolled it thin as I needed an 9 inch crust, I had to take them out of the cling film as it was not big enough and rolled them again a bit more from the middle rolling it around for an even base.  Or you can lightly flour the surface and roll out the crust, as I did not want to add more flour I made it this way.

Butter the tart case thoroughly, Sprinkle some corn meal on the base. Lift the dough carefully and place it on the tart case and press them completely and trim of the edges if any.
Prick the base with a fork this makes the dough not puffing up then place a baking sheet and put some baking beans ( or Rice ) on top of them, then put it back into the fridge for an other half an hour to firm the butter again or until you make the filling.
Blind Bake this case in a oven at 190 degrees/ Gas Mark 6 for 20 minutes you can see the crust turning gold at the edges.
Remove it from the oven and place it on a wire rack,
I learnt a trick from a book that if you add hot oil ( olive or any oil ) on the base of the pie crust immediately after taking it out of the oven the  crust will not become soggy and firms up.., I can't remember which book, anyway I added 2 tbsp of hot oil on to the crust immediately after taking it out of the oven after removing the baking beans, then put it back again in the oven reducing the temperature to 180 degrees/ Gas mark 4 for a further 5 minutes ( you can even skip this and just add the filling and bake your quiche )
Check out this website for some cool ideas on how to bake a perfect pie crust with lot of variations

SPINACH AND MUSHROOM WITH CHEDDAR FILLING

INGREDIENTS:
250 grams Spinach
150 grms Mushrooms
2 Onions
2 garlic pods
1 tsp of Pepper powder
1/2 tbsp Italian dried herbs
1 and 1/2 tsp of Salt
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Creme fraiche
1 tbsp Chia seeds ( + 3 tbsp of Hot water )
1/2 Cup Milk
1 tbsp Arrow root powder

METHOD:
First step Soak Chia seeds in hot water for few minutes.

Next chop onions and  garlic.  Heat  2 tsp of oil add all the chopped ingredients and saute them.  Meanwhile wash and dry out the spinach with the help of a kitchen towel spreading the washed spinach on a towel, then chop them and chop Mushrooms too.., Once the onions become translucent add spinach and mushroom and saute them on a medium to high heat until they wilt away then sprinkle pepper powder, salt and Italian dried herbs mix well, and saute them. As veggies sometimes release water try to Sauté until it evaporates, actually it doesn't completely evaporate so not to bother.  Once done you can add 1/4 Cup bread crumbs, so it will absorb all the water. Take it out and allow it cool.

Meanwhile mix milk and arrow root powder and put it in a pan and cook it until it starts thickening, remove immediately when it is almost semi thick like a  sauce.
In a blender take  chia seeds, creme fraiche , and the above said sauce, blend them all well together, until it becomes like a thick creamy sauce.
Add this creamy sauce to the cooked spinach mix well, pour this onto the pre baked crust, add grated cheese on top of it and put it back in the oven and bake the quiche for a further 30 to 40 minutes until the quiche has a golden top.
Take out the quiche when done, leave it on a wire rack to cool down a bit then cut them out and serve them warm to enjoy with some salad leaves, Roast potatoes with ketchup or what ever you like.

Little Tips:
Take out the quiche when the middle is still soft this makes the quiche looks creamy custardy texture.
Check out Gayatri's Baking Eggless group round - up in her blog for a variety of baking eggless Quiches!