Caramelised Cucumber Cake

Twist of taste coastal curries is a very famous show hosted on Fox Traveller. From the name of the show, we can understand that it is more or less related with coastal cuisines of India. Vikas Khanna, the well known New York based Michelin starred chef and restaurateur is hosting the show.During his adventurous expedition, he meets home cooks, chefs, farmers, fishermen, bakers, merchants, restaurateurs and chocolatiers as they share with him their food, traditions and the story of their journeys. Inspired by all the delicious, timeless food and the riveting stories of people, Vikas returns to his kitchen, to pay the dish his tribute by giving it his own fascinating signature twist.

The following recipe, of a cucumber cake was received from a lady in Ratnagiri. She had prepared the same, using equal quantities of all the below ingredients. What fascinated me was her method of baking the cake without oven. Sand is put on top of a pan (made of iron) and once it becomes very hot, the vessel which contains the batter is put on top of it and is covered

Recipe

Ingredients

For cake

1 cup semolina

½ cup almonds

2 or 3 large cucumbers

1 cup thick yogurt (whisked)

½ cup jaggery (grated)

¾ cup milk

½ cup clarified butter (ghee), plus extra for greasing cake tin

½tsp baking soda, plus ½tsp for dusting cake tin

½tsp baking powder

For caramel

1 cup sugar

Method

For cake, heat a frying pan over medium low heat and dry-roast semolina for 5 to 7 minutes till light. Remove from flame and keep aside. In a fresh frying pan, dry- roast almonds over low flame till fragrant and very slightly coloured. Remove from heat, cool and chop roughly. Preheat oven to 140°C. Peel and grate cucumbers. In a large mixing bowl, combine chopped roasted almonds with semolina, yogurt, jaggery, milk, clarified butter, baking soda and baking powder. Stir to dissolve jaggery. Mix in grated cucumber and allow batter to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, lightly grease a cake tin and dust with baking soda. Pour batter into prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, till cake is golden on the surface and toothpick inserted in the centre comes clean. For caramel, heat sugar in a heavy pan over low heat till it dissolves and cooks to a golden caramel. Remove from heat and carefully stir in cream. When cream caramel is glossy and thick, remove pan from flame. Remove cake from oven and demould onto a cooling rack.

To create your first image blog post, click here and select 'Add & Edit Posts' > All Posts > This is the title of your first image post. Great looking images make your blog posts more visually compelling for your audience, and encourage readers to keep coming back.

#dessert