Barsati's Garden - Light shades

More snaps from Barsati's garden. This time, flowers of light colours . . .

Peace Rally, Kachhwa

Since the last few years, we at Kachhwa take out a Candlelight procession on Christmas eve. 

Below are some of the snaps taken from the 'Peace March' on Christmas Eve 2014. 

Grapefruit Cake

Kachhwa is very famous for it's grapefruits. Not much cherished by everyone in the campus, it is a major attraction for our family. All of us except Shalom likes it. 

This Christmas season, we stumbled upon a recipe for making Grapefruit flavoured cake. 

Ingredients (for a 9 inch baking pan) - - -

Grapefruit - 1

Zest of 1 grapefruit - about 4 teaspoons

Eggs - 3 nos

Butter - 1 cup

Flour - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Baking powder - 2 teaspoon

Dried grapes - 1/2 cup

Candied grape fruit peel - 1/2 cup

Candied colored papaya (assorted colors) - 1 cup

** If you want to use cooking oil instead of butter, you need half a cup oil instead of the 1 cup of butter and 4 eggs instead of 3 eggs. A 1/4 cup of additional flour will give more firmness to the cake when you use oil. 

Method - 

1. Peel the grapefruit and take the juicy parts of the fruit. Remove as much peel as possible. The rind gives a very sour taste. 

2. Sift the flour, along with baking powder and the candied grape fruit peel, grapes and the tooti fruiti. Sieve the flour to separate the flour coated fruits. 

3. Cream the butter and sugar.

4. To the above batter, add the eggs one after the other and cream. 

5. Add the grapefruit and the zest to this mixture and mix. 

5. Now, incorporate the flour to the batter. 

6. Using a spatula, fold the flour coated fruits into the batter. 

7. Bake at 160 degree celcius for 50-60 minutes or till a tooth pick comes out clean. 

So, chances are that you will be served grapefruit cake if you visit us over the next couple of days.

Wish you all a blessed time during this Christmas. May the New Year see the Almighty bring you the choicest blessings . . .

Barsati's Garden - Shades of Red

Close snaps of flowers in the garden at Kachhwa - - -

Barsati's Garden

We’re so privileged to have a garden in front of our home. Not very much an admirer of flowers, both me and Angel have sort of learnt to appreciate gardening and flowers after seeing Barsati, the gardener at work . . .  

The morning view from our door . . .

The A block, where we stay . . .

The famous Grapefruits of Kachhwa

Another view of the A Block in which our home is . . . 

 Few more snaps . . .

Mr. Barsati,  the gardener with the magic hands . . .