Cracked wheat Payasam

Its my husband's birthday! I am planning on making a black forest cake in the evening.His mom , as a sentiment , prepares milk payasam (kheer) on his birthday ,every year. Since we are away from India, I planned on preparing milk payasam. But instead of using the traditional way of boiling rice or semiya with milk, I found a new recipe which uses cracked wheat. What more , you have got a dessert and a healthy choice too. This recipe is so simple that you would love it and you can prepare it on any day within 15 min.

Cracked Wheat Payasam

Cracked wheat- 1/2 cup
Water - 2 1/2 cups
Milk - 2 cups
Jaggery or Brown sugar-  3/4 cup or more for a sweet tooth
Cardomom - powdered

Optional for topping
Roasted Raisins- 1 spoon
Roasted Cashew nuts- 1 spoon

1. There are two varieties of cracked wheat, i. fine granulated and ii. coarse. Pressure cook the cracked wheat along with 2 cups water for 3 whistles, if its coarse variety. Else 1 whistle is sufficient. Switch off.

2. Wait till the pressure settles.Add the jaggery or sugar to the boiled wheat and blend.

3. Add 2 cups of milk and boil in medium for 5 min. Keep stirring and switch off when its well blended.

4. Add the cardomom powder and toppings and serve.

Serves 4 people.

Carrot Cake

This week end I didn’t have the time to do any baking. With our visit to one of our friends place for his birthday and some of our friends visiting us,the weekend just flew by. I squeezed some time on Monday and tried out this recipe from this book abigail johnson dodge.The cake tasted good as promised. One difference I found was the time it took to bake the cake. The book mentioned that at 15 min the cake would be done. But while I tried it, after 15 min I found the cake was only half done. It took 25- 30 min for the cake to be done.

Carrots add more moisture and flavour to the cake. Be careful not to over bake the cake else the cake may turn out dry.You can try out this cake even without the frosting. If you would like to have a more rich and heavy cake try it with the frosting.

Carrot Cake

For the cake

All purpose flour - 1 1/3 cups

Eggs large-2

Carrot grated-1 cup

Brown sugar-3/4 cup

Veg oil- 1/2 cup

Baking powder- 1 tsp

Baking soda- 1/2 tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

Cranberries sweetened-1/4 cup

Raisins-1/3 cup

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

For frosting

unsalted Butter- 1 cup

Cream cheese - 1 cup

Confectioners sugar- 2 cups

To Make the cake

1. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, flour,baking powder, baking soda,salt,sugar,grated carrot,raisins and cranberries together.

2. In a medium bowl whisk the eggs,oil and vanilla until well blended.

3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until well blended.

4. Grease an 8 inch square pan and spread the batter onto it evenly.

5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees C. Place the pan on the middle rack and bake until a tester come clean when pressed in the middle of the cake. It takes 25- 30 min.

6. Cool the cake completely.

You can enjoy the cake as it is now or try it with some frosting.

To make the frosting

1. In a large bowl combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat it until its foamy.

2. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until well blended and fluffy.

3. Use it when the cake has been cooled completely.

4. Cut the cake crosswise into 2 parts. Place one layer on a flat surface and spread the frosting evenly using a spatula. Place the second layer on top of the frosting. Spread the frosting on top and on sides evenly.

5. Cover and referigrate for atleast 2 hours before you serve.

Marble cake

In continuation with weekend baking series , this week I tried out a recipe from Simple Home Baking- by Carol Pastor.This recipe brought back memories of a cake I used to love when I was in India. In India, we get a brand of cakes called as Milka Wonder cake. The line of cakes were released around the time I was in school. All of us loved it. Though it was the first brand of cakes that were packed with an expiry date, the cake slices were soft and tasty.Usually the cake was a combination of two flavours, chocolate and vanilla or orange and vanilla. The colour contrast attracted all the kids and parents too, to fall in love with them.When I saw the marble cake recipe with two different layers, I had to try it. For the chocolate layer I used cocoa and powdered chocolate chips and cofee powder. All three ingredients add more taste to the layer.

Marble Cake

All purpose flour- 2 cups

Baking powder- 1 tsp

Milk-1/3 cup

Eggs -2 (large)

Veg oil-1/2 cup

Granulated white sugar-1 cup

Unsweetened cocoa powder-1/3 cup

Chocolate chips coarsely powdered-1/4 cup

Coffee powder-1 tsp

Vanilla Extract-1 tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

We are going to prepare 2 layers of batter for the cake.

Vanilla layer

1. In a bowl, whisk the veg oil and sugar together.
2. Add the eggs one by one and whisk them until they are light and fluffy.
3. With the above mixture,sift flour,baking powder and salt. Add the milk and mix them using a spatula until they are well blended.
4. Transfer half of the batter to a second bowl.In the first half add the vailla extract and blend with the spatula gently.

Chocolate layer

1. Take the second bowl of batter and add the coocoa, coffee powder and powdered chocolate chips and blend using a spatula.

Preparing the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees C.
2. Grease a medium loaf pan. Pour half of vanilla layer batter into the pan and spread evenly.
3. Pour in the chocolate layer batter over the vanilla layer.
4. Pour the remaining vanilla layer batter over the chocolate layer.
5. Using a knfe, gently swirl in so that the vanilla and chocolate are mixed. Do not swirl a lot.
6. Bake the cake for 50- 60 min. Remove when the toothpick tester inserted comes clean.

Cool for 30 min.
Serve slices of marble cake.

Classic Crumble cake

This is the first recipe I have tried from The weekend Baker- by Abigail Johnson Dodge, and so by, my weekend baking has started.

I fell in love with this cake, just by looking at the photo in the book. Looking at the photo that I have taken, I know that I have not done justice to the cake. Anyways , If you try it and have a bite of the crumble topping and the soft layer of cake beaneath it , you'l just know what Im talking about. The crumble topping has a butter scotch flavour to it because of the brown sugar that we use. I have used butter for the topping , but not for the cake. I felt that the topping needed to be rich and heavy.

Classic Crumble Cake

For the Crumble Topping

Butter - 1 stick or 120 gms

Brown sugar- 1/2 cup

Granulated white sugar-3/4 cup

All purpose flour - 1.5 cup

Cinnamon- 1 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

For the Cake

All Purpose flour- 2 cups

Milk-3/4 cup

Oil-1/2 cup

Egg-2 large

Baking powder-1 tsp

Vanilla extract-1tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

To make the Crumble Topping
1. In a sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Slide the pan from heat and add the granulated white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Stir with a spatula , until no lumps are formed.
3. Add the flour and mix well until its well blended.
Set aside to cool for 5 to 10 min.

To Make the cake
1. In a large bowl combine, the dry ingredients together. Mix the flour, granulated sugar,salt and baking powder together.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs oil and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and gently blend with a spatula.
4. In a greased 8" square pan, place a wax paper or parchment sheet and then spread the cake batter evenly.
5. Break the crumble topping mixture(see above) into medium lumps and spread them evenly over the cake batter.
6. Prehaeat the oven to 350degree C.
7. Place the pan on the medium rack and bake it for 40 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve at room temperature.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container. See more about storage.

Weekend baking

All of us get caught up with life and its busy routine everyday. I am no exception. Once I come back from office, I am just too lazy to try out anything in kitchen. I would be happy if tea and snacks were ready when i come home, and i really dont mind if some one had prepared my dinner. :)

I have to just dream about that, coz I know that's not going to happen. Since weekdays are busy, I have set weekends for baking and trying out new recipes.On our visit to the library, my hubby picked me some books on baking from the library.



The Weekend Baker- written by Abigail Johnson Dodge and Simple Home Baking -written by Carol pastor

Both the books have recipes for cakes, muffins and other sweet delights. The weekend baker book is elaborate and the book gives 3 sections; Express baking, Baking in stages, Productions- baking for parties etc. Something that I personally miss in this book is pictures. Not all recipes have a photo,I would have loved to try more of the recipes if I knew what the output was going to look like.

The second book, Simple Home baking, is a slim book with few recipes, but all recipes have a detailed approach and not to miss, each recipe has a photo.

So, in the coming posts im planning to try out the recipes in my way, cutting down butter and replacing some of the ingradients with some of my flavour. Lets see how it comes out.

Egg n Cheese

For people out there looking for a quick and healthy breakfast, Egg n Cheese is the answer. Its creamy taste leaves you filling and wanting more for coming days.

This recipe was something that I picked from the Chinese eat out below our office. My hubby loved this, and so I went there and treated myself to one. I was surprised to see that it was a very simple recipe, yet the result was yummy. This recipe calls for freshly ground black pepper which adds a nice aroma to the egg and cheese combination. Moreover, for people looking for healthy breakfast you get 50 % of protein you need for a day from egg and loads of calcium from cheese. Recent studies have shown that calcium helps in decreasing weight, so weight- watchers, here is a breakfast for you.



Egg n Cheese


Egg -1

Cheese single slice-1

Bread slices-2

Fresh ground black pepper- ½ tsp

Salt to taste


1. Toast the bread (Homemade white bread)slices to medium or dark based on your preference.
2. In a bowl, whisk an egg and microwave it for 60 seconds.
3. Sprinkle pepper and salt on the egg, and place the cheese slice on it.
4. Using a fork, scrape the egg from the sides of the bowl and place it on the bread slice. Place the other bread slice on top and complete the sandwich.


Cut it diagonally and serve; if you’re planning to take it later wrap it up and take along.

Halloween Potluck luncheon

Halloween is here !We have planned a Halloween potluck luncheon in our office, the entrees where to be catered and the rest is to be brought in by employees. That leaves mainly the appetizers and dessert. I have decided to make a dessert. At first I thought of making curried egg puffs, an appetizer. But then the puffs have to be fresh, and cannot be refrigerated. I don’t have the time in the morning, when I am just too busy getting ready to office, preparing breakfast and lunch. So the next best option was to prepare a chocolate cake, which I can prepare the previous day evening and refrigerate. It seemed like I have come upon a good idea. As I was speaking to my friend, she told Halloween potluck lunch has been arranged in her office too. She told me she was going to make gulab jamuns. Now I started thinking, gulab jamuns are easy to make, very tasty and also it is an Indian dessert, so my colleagues who have not tasted a jamun can enjoy it.




Finally I settled on making Gulab jamuns. For those who are wondering what it is, gulab jamun is a popular Indian dessert. It is made with dough of milk solids and put in sugar syrup flavored with cardamom and rose water.


You can make the gulab jamun recipe from scratch or you can make use of ready made packs available. In India, gulab jamuns are made mostly with ready made mix, the most popular brands are MTR and Gits. Using a ready made mix is not something to be ashamed of, it’s easy to use and when you have less time you can opt for this way.


After having made my decision to prepare gulab jamuns for the Halloween potluck lunch, I thought it would be a good idea to test the Gits gulab jamun mix, this weekend.




Gulab Jamun

Gits Gulab jamun mix- 1 pack or Mixture of 1/2 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup Milk Powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda

Milk- ¼ cup

Sugar-2 cups

Water – 1 ½ cup

Vegetable oil-2 cups

Cardomom powder-1/2 tsp

Rose water-1 tsp


1. In a bowl add the gulab jamun mix and just enough milk to form a hard dough.

2. Make small balls using the dough. Make sure that there are no cracks in the balls. Apply ghee on your hands and roll the ball. If you find cracks even after that, then take drops of milk in your palm and then roll the dough ball in it.That should do the trick.

3. In a deep frying pan heat oil. Fry the dough balls until they are brown on all sides. To make sure all sides are brown , hold the handle of the pan and give a nudge, so that the balls roll over.

4. Once the balls are browned over on all sides, take the fried balls and transfer them to the warm sugar syrup(see below)

Sugar syrup
In a pan, add the sugar and water and let it boil for 5 to 10 min. Let it boil until the sugar dissolves in water.Make sure the syrup doesnt caramelize.Add cardomom powder and rose water to the syrup for a nice flavour.


Makes 20 gulab jamuns; served warm after 45 min.

Homemade White Bread

Bread always comes in handy, when I am lazy to cook an elaborate Indian Breakfast. And more over, I am a person who likes to eat a very light breakfast; I hate the idea of dozing in the morning’s at office. I decided to bake bread every weekend, so that I could use it for breakfast during weekdays.



Homemade breads are more filling and fresh, and they have a good smell. Not to say, you can always be proud while you eat it.

Homemade Bread

All purpose flour – 3 to 4 cups
Yeast – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Honey – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Warm water – ¾ cup
Milk – ¾ cup

1. Take ¾ cup of warm water (not lukewarm but little hotter) add sugar into it and stir. Then add the yeast and leave it for 5 to 10 min until the yeast rises and foams up. Sugar acts as a food for the yeast, so add the sugar first then the yeast. This step is very important because if your yeast doesn’t rise up your bread doesn’t too. If your yeast is not rising even after 10 minutes, that may mean your yeast has gone stale, replace it with a fresh one.


2. In a large bowl, add the salt, honey and milk and stir in with the foamed yeast, so that they are blended well.
3. Add 3 cups of flour and mix and knead it to form smooth dough if the dough is a little bit sticky, you can add the a 1/4 cup of remaining flour slowly and mix until the dough is smooth.
4. Grease a large bowl with vegetable oil and place the dough in it. Place a wrap, and cover it with a wet towel and set it aside for 1 hour.

5. After an hour, we see that that the dough has raised nearly three times its size. So, it’s always important that the dough is placed in a very large bowl.

6. Take the dough and press it flat on a surface using your hand (see the picture below)and knead it for about 2 min. Then roll it and place it in a medium loaf pan. Place a wrap, and cover it with a wet towel and set it aside for 30 min.



7. The dough has risen in size again and is now is now ready for baking.



8. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 25- 30min After 25 min you can check in, by tapping on the dough. It should give a hollow sound. That means it’s done. If the sound is not hollow, place the dough in again and check after 5 min.
9. Remove from the oven and let it cool.

Serves one medium loaf; but the recipe can be doubled as well.

All about 'ShutUpandEat'

I have always liked cooking... At a young age, although my mom didn’t allow me near the stove, while she was cooking, I figured the basics and learnt a lot by questioning and found the ratio of spices, mix and match of recipes and much more. I never got a chance to do real time cooking until I got married.

I was working in Bangalore, India and if you have visited Bangalore you would know about the crazy traffic and how many hours it takes to reach your home. So, I never got the time to do elaborate cooking. When I moved to Calgary, Canada to join my husband, I was at home for nearly 4 months. God! Did it drive me mad…? I had been working for nearly six years without a break, and so sitting at home bored me. I turned my attention to my long forgotten dream… real cooking.

That’s when I started experimenting and tweaking the recipes that I would find, to my taste and tried it on a test environment… my Hubby, Rajan.:) I didn’t want all the recipes to be forgotten, I wanted to put them in a place where I can see them later for reference and also let other people test them and give in their comments.

So, I decided to write a blog and was searching for a title. It so happened, that day my hubby was driving me mad by giving advice on how my recipes should be… And as I was searching for a title I came across the name of a restaurant “Shut up and eat”, O Boy! Now do I need to say why they would have chosen that name?

That’s how “Shut up and Eat“ came into existence, and soon I have so many recipes to try my hands on.