Priya's Vegan Recipes

channa chaat(chickpea salad) with sweet date chutney

2010-03-15T14:38:00.000+05:30

I am making sprouts these days for breakfast atleast 4 times a week. First I started out with simple mixing of sprouts, onion, tomatoes, chaat masala, salt and coriander leaves. Then the taste became a bit monotonous, so started looking for some variety. Came across this recipe for sweet chutney in Tarla Dalal's "fun food for kids" cookbook. Adding this chutney to the sprouts gave it a tangy and sweet taste which we just relished.
As we do not like to eat the sprouts uncooked, I generally pressure cook it without adding any water and switch off the stove immediately after one whistle. To make the sprouts, I soak the bean overnight. The next day, I tie them in a cloth for a day or 2. (depending upon the type of bean). Once I get the sprouts, I either use it right away or refrigerate for a later use.

Here are the recipes for channa chat and sweet chutney

Ingredients to make channa chat that servers 4 adults for breakfast 
Channa/chickpeas sprouts: 2 cups(Any other sprout can be used) 
Onion: 2 medium sized, chopped
Tomato: 3 medium size, chopped into small pieces Sweet chutney: 1/2 cup(recipe is below)
Chaat masala: 1 tsp(I did not have this, so I added black salt)
Salt to taste 
Coriander for garnishing

Procedure
1. Mix all the ingredients and serve. For this recipe, I did not add onions, even then it tasted too good. I am just loving this sweet chutney.

Ingredients to make 1/2 cup of sweet chutney
Dates: 1/2 cup(deseeded and chopped)
Tamarind: 1 tbsp
Cumin Powder: 1/2 tsp(Dry roast the cumin seeds and powder)
Chilli powder: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup
Salt to taste

Procedure
1. Heat 1/4 cup water in a pan, add dates and tamarind and cook for 5 minutes.(If it becomes too thick more water can be added)
2. Allow to cool.
3. Blend in a blender and strain.
4. Add chilli powder, cumin seed powder and salt.
5. Mix well and use as required

This is my entry to Healthy Inpsirations Event-Salads event hosted by Usha.

Vegan marble cake with non dairy cream frosting

2010-03-02T00:07:00.001+05:30

This is the best vegan cake I have made so far. Its very moist and soft with the perfect combination of vanilla and chocolate flavours and above all it looks good too. :-) Preparation wise too its very simple, its just a plain vanilla and chocolate cake, but mixing them both gives it a rich, unique taste. I made this cake last weekend and did a non dairy cream frosting. Special thanks to Suma who posted in her blog about the availability of non dairy whipping cream in Fatima Bakery. I got the recipe for Marble cake from here and did not make any changes to it other than decreasing the quantity to half. Also I used 1 3/4 cups of milk for the whole batter and added around 2 to 3 tbsp of extra milk to the chocolate batter. Also to get the marble effect, I followed a slightly different technique that I saw somewhere.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients to make the marble cake
Soy milk: 1 3/4 cups + 3 tbsp for chocolate batter(I used plain unsweetened. The original called for 2 cups)
Apple cider vinegar: 1 tbsp
Granulated sugar: 1 1/3 cups(I felt it was a bit less, but with the cream frosting it was perfect)
Vegatable Oil: 1/2 cup(I used sunflower refined oil)
Vanilla essence: 1/2 tbsp 
All-purpose flour: 2 cups
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Baking powder: 1 tsp 
Salt: 1/2 tsp 
Chocolate extract: 1/2 tbsp(optional) 
Almond extract: 1/2 tsp 
Cocoa powder: 1/4 cup 
Black cocoa powder: 1/6 cup(I did not add this)

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degree C.
2. Grease and flour the cake pan. I lined the bottom of the pan with butter paper.
3. Mix milk and vinegar together and allow to curdle for a couple of minutes. 
4. Whisk the milk mixture, oil, sugar, and vanilla together until well blended.(I did this with an electric blender) 
5. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
6. Add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time to the wet mixture.
7. Stir until everything is just incorporated. Do not overmix. 
8. Split the mixture in half – one for the vanilla part and the other for chocolate.
9. In one half of the mixture mix in the chocolate and almond extracts, followed by sifting in the cocoa powder. 
10. Mix until everything is just blended. 
11. Pour a ladle full of vanilla batter and chocolate batter alternately in a criss cross fashion across the pan. Repeat the same for the rest of the batter.
12. Using a knife, swirl the batter a bit to give a nice marble effect.
13. Bake for around 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy the cake with or without frosting

For the frosting, I whipped a cup of non dairy cream along with some icing sugar, till soft peaks formed. I then kept it in the freezer for some time(around 15 to minutes) till reached the right consistency. Applied it on the cake and topped with some sliced strawberries. After doing all this too, I faced some problem with the consistencey of the cream. I should have removed the cream from the freezer a bit late. I also cut the cake into two layers and frosted. One cup of cream was too much for this cake. The rest of the cream, I used for the delicious strawberry fruit fool which I would post later.
This is my entry to Priya's Hearts For St.Valentine's Day event.

Kichdi(Bengali style) and aloo bhaja

2010-02-20T16:19:00.000+05:30

Khichdi was the only food I used to eat in the hostel mess during my engineering days in West Bengal, Durgapur precisely..Unfortunately they served it only once in a year on Saraswathi puja's day. The combination of kichdi and aloo fry used to be so tasty that I would go and stand near the mess door much before they started serving.

I got the recipe for Kichdi sometime back from one of my Bengali friends at office and prepared it for breakfast. It came out really good and we had it with aloo bhaja. This can be had for both breakfast and lunch. The best part is my son had the kichdi with aloo bhaja without any complaints. Do checkout Venpongal recipe for the South Indian version of this delicious kichdi made of rice and moong dal.
Here is the recipe

Ingredients for the kichdi to serve 4 to 5 adults
Raw Rice: 1 cup
Yellow Moong dal: 1/2 cup
Masoor dal: 1/2 cup
Water: 5 cups
Onion: 2 to 3 medium(cut into small pieces)
Mustard Seeds: 1/2 tsp
Ginger: an inch(skin removed) and grated
Green chily: 1 medium sized
Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder: 1 tsp
Jeera/cumin seeds powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/2 tsp
Mustard oil/Refined Oil: 1 tbsp(I used 1/2 tbsp of each)
Dry roasted jeera/cumin seeds: 1/2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
1. Dry roast moong dal for a minute or 2 and keep aside. Wash rice and keep aside.
2. In a large pan, add oil and fry onion and ginger.( I used the same vessel that I keep inside the cooker)
3. Once it becomes soft, add rice and both the dals and mix well.
4. Add all the four powders and salt and mix well.
5. Keep the flame in medium and stir frequently so that rice does not get stuck at the bottom.(around 5 minutes)
6. Add 5 cups of water and pressure cook till 3 whistles. I like the kichdi to be well cooked, so I generally keep in sim after 3 whistles for 5 minutes and then switch off the stove.
7. Before serving, powder dry roasted jeera(I powdered coarsely with a pestle and mortar) and mix with kichdi.
8. Serve warm with aloo bhaja.

Ingredients to make aloo bhaja/potato wedges
Potato: 4 medium sized(peeled and cut into wedges)
Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp or less
Salt to taste
Vegetable Oil for frying: around 4 tbsp or more if needed

Procedure
1. Heat oil in a wide mouthed pan. Add potato wedges, as much the pan can hold.
2. Fry well on both sides and drain oil in a paper.
3. Follow the same for the rest of the wedges.
4. Add chilli powder and salt and mix well.

Serve with kichdi

Avial/Mixed vegetables in coconut gravy

2010-02-16T13:42:00.001+05:30

Avial, as we all know is a Kerala speciality dish which we Tamilians also make at home. I got this recipe from my sister. She got it from our aunty who is a great cook. I got these delicious kachaudi-dal and Tomato thokku recipes too from her. I am not sure how authentic this recipe is, but it tasted mouth watering delicous. My sister specifically mentioned that adding curd/yogurt to the avial gives it an unique taste. Since I have stopped using dairy prodcuts in cooking, I did not add it. Looks like, tamarind extract would be a good substitute. I did not add both, still it tasted good. I will try adding tamarind extract the next time.

Ingredients for avial to serve 5 adults
Mixed vegetables: 5 cups(white pumpkin is a must, other than that I added carrot, beans, chayote/chow chow and mochai kottai(don't know its English name). Potato, yellow pumpkin, cluster beans(kothavarangai in tamil), sword beans(avarekkai in tamil) etc are few more vegetables that can be added)I think beetroot and mushy vegetables like okra/ladies finger are not preferred)
Coconut Oil: 2 tsp
Grated coconut: 1/2 cup
Tamarind extract: around 1/4 cup(extract from a tsp of tamarind, I haven't tried this yet)
Dried red chilly: 2 to 3 long
Jeera/Cumin seeds: 1 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves: 10 to 15 leaves
Salt to taste

For seasoning
Coconut oil: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 5 to 10 leaves

Procedure
1. Clean the vegetables and cut them into 1 to 1 1/2 inch long wedges.
2. Add coconut oil, turmeric powder and curry leaves to the vegatables and mix well.
3. Pressure cook the vegetables(without adding water to the vegetables). Allow just 1 whistle and switch off the stove. Otherwise cook like how we do for idli without putting the "weight". Basically the vegetables should be overcooked.
4. Gring coconut, red chily and jeera in a mixer to a smooth paste(add water if needed)
5. Transfer the vegetables in a pan/kadai and place in the stove on medium heat. If adding tamarind extract, add it now and allow it to cook for around 5 to 10 minutes till the raw smell of tamarind goes away.
6. Add the coconut paste and salt to the vegetables and mix well. Let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
7. Remove from heat.
8. For the seasoning, in a small pan add 1 tspof coconut oil. Add mustard when the oil is hot.When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this to the avial and mix.
9. Serve with hot rice and papad.

Vegan strawberry cupcakes

2010-02-11T09:36:00.000+05:30

When I made the Bread Pudding with Strawberry Compote, the strawberries were too expensive. Few days back, I was pleasantly surprised to see vendors selling strawberries for half the price I paid before. It was not only cheap, but also of good quality. Later I realised, it was good looking but a bit more tart than the strawberries are supposed to be. Anyway, I adjusted it by adding more sugar.

So here is a recipe for strawberry cupcakes, which not only tastes good but also has a lovely color that makes it a perfect dessert for Valentine's day. The recipe is almost same as this Pineapple cupcake that I adapted from Vaishali's mango cupcake.

Ingredients to make around 12 medium sized cupcakes
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Strawberry puree: 1 1/2 cups(I washed around 12 to 15 strawberries, cut into two pieces and pureed in a mixer.)
Canola oil: 1/3 cup(I used sunflower refined oil)
Granulated sugar: 2/3 cup(I added around 1/2 cup more as the strawberries were a bit tart)
Vanilla extract/essence: 1 tsp

Procedure
1. Pre heat the oven to 170 degree C and place paper liners in the muffin tin or grease the tin with oil. 
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and keep aside.
3. In another large bowl, beat together the puree, oil, sugar and vainlla until well mixed.(I did this with electric mixer)
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until the batter is smooth.(Do not over mix)
5. Pour a ladleful of batter into the muffin tin.
6. Place the tin in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Enjoy with strawberry sauce or chocolate sauce or as it is.

Reminiscing grandma & Mung dal and Green peas pancake recipe

2010-02-07T10:17:00.000+05:30

My maternal grandmother(whom we grandchildren affectionately called "ammai") passed away last Sunday at the age of 80. She was a very hard working, honest person who has nothing but showered love on her grandchilden.Even at a very ripe age she used to make something special for me to eat when I visited her. Even before few months, I would lie on her lap, she would gently brush my hair and tell some stories from Mahabharatha and like. Her memory power was just amazing that she would remember every small incident of her younger days and would be sharing with me, one of them was when she saw Gandhiji at the age of 7 or 8. We shared a special bond and loved each other's company. She has been a guiding factor to all of us and her passing away is a big loss for us but her blessings would always be with us.

I really don't feel like doing anything other than the regular chores. Anyway, I can't be like this forever and have to come out of it. So thought of posting this recipe which I had drafted to be posted last Monday.

So here it is..

This is one easy, tasty and healthy pancake(or dosa??) that I have come across. Mung dal and green peas makes it a high protein breakfast whose taste is accentuated by the addition of onions, coriander leaves and ginger. My son called it green dosa and he liked it very much. I generally don't add onions for my son(almost 3 years old), thinking it might be spicy for him, but this time I wanted to give it a try. Surprisingly, he ate the dosa without any fuss. Everbody else also liked these pancakes and it tastes best when served hot. We ate the pancakes as it was, but I think ketcup might be a nice accompaniment.I found the recipe here.

Ingredients to make around 10 pancakes
Yellow Mung Dal(spilt): 1 cup
Green Peas(not the dried ones): 1 cup(I used frozen)
Ginger: 1 tsp (skin removed and grated) 
Coriander Leaves: 1 tbsp(chopped) 
Green Chilies: 1 long or 2 medium sized 
Onion: 1/2 cup or 1 medium sized onions(chopped 
Salt to taste
Olive Oil/Vegetable oil for sprinkling on the pancake while cooking

Procedure
1. Soak mung dal in warm water for 30 minutes.
2. After 30 minutes, drain the water and blend dal and green chilly in a mixer until it is ground well(no need to add water now)
3. Add grean peas and grind to an almost smooth paste.
4. Tranfer the batter to a bowl and add ginger, onion and coriander leaves and salt.
5. Add water to the batter to bring it to a spreadable consistency(round /4 to 1/2 cup) and mix well.
6. Heat a griddle/pan in medium flame. Add 1/2 tsp of oil and spread it.
7. Now spread a small ladle ful of the batter on the pan(like dosa) and sprinkle oil in the corner.
8. On medium heat, cook the pancake until side that is toucing the griddle is cooked well.(It would turn golden brown)
9. Flip the pancake so that the other side also gets cooked well.(This side looks greener than the other side)
10. Transfer to a plate and server hot as it is or with tomato ketcup.

Vegan brownies

2010-01-28T13:00:00.000+05:30

I made these brownies for my colleagues at work. They liked them very much and one of them who is a chocoholic just loved it....I adapted this recipe from allrecipes and made some changes to the original recipe based on one of the review comments.
Everince I started baking vegan foods, I stopped buying/using dairy products like butter, ghee and cheese. But there are still some non vegan items like dark chocolate, choco chips etc in my pantry which I bought before going vegan. I don't feel like throwing them away, so I use them whenever I get a chance. So in this recipe, I used some choco chips.
Here is the recipe as adapted from allrecipes and one of the review comments

Ingredients to make around 20 pieces
All Purpose flour: 1 cup
Granulated white sugar: 3/4 cup
Cocoa Powder: 6 tbsp
Baking powder: ½ tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Water: ½ cup
Vegetable oil: 2 tbsp(I used sunflower refined oil) 
Unsweetened applesauce: ½ cup 
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
chocolate chips: a handful(Optional)

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. 
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder in a large bowl.
3. Mix in sugar.
4. Pour in water, oil, applesauce and vanilla and mix until well blended.(I did the mixing with hand)
5. If using choco chip, pour half the batter in the greased or parchment lined pan, put in a layer of chocolate chips, and then pour in the rest of the batter, spreading to cover the chips. If not using choco chips, then pour in the batter to the pan.
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
7. Allow it to cool for sometime before cutting into squares.

Ginger Juice/Inji kashaayam

2010-01-24T15:25:00.001+05:30

Ginger/Inji kashaayam is my mother's signature home remedy recipe for enhancing digestion and preventing indigestion. I prefer to call it ginger juice rather than kashaayam as its very tasty with the goodness of ginger, jaggery and lemon. My mother used to serve this juice generally after a heavy meal(ususally restaurant food) to prevent indigestion. I also used to be a ghee lover during my school days. When I felt sick due to over eating of ghee, my mother used to give this and I would be alright within few hours. Or just eating a small piece of ginger with a bit of salt coated on it did wonders for me. Sadhana and Muskaan's Home Remedy event gave me a chance to prepare this juice by myself.(ofcourse got the recipe from my mother) Just then I realised how easy it is to make this kashaayam.
Here is the recipe.

Ingredients to make around 3 cups of inji juice(I gues one person can have around 1/4 cup of juice on single serve. I have 1/2 cup. :-))
Fresh Ginger: 50gms(skin removed, washed and cut into medium sized pieces)
Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Jaggery: 3/4th cup(or less broken into piece)
Juice of one medium sized lemon
Water: around 3 cups

Procedure

1. Soak coriander seeds and cumin seeds in water in a small bowl for half an hour.(add around 1/4 cup water or till the seeds are immersed)
2. After half an hour, drain water(don't throw the water) and grind the soaked seeds along with ginger in a mixer.
3. If needed add more water(drained water can be used for this) and grind until ginger and the seeds are ground well.
4. Strain the juice in a bowl.
5. Add more water(from the measured 3 cups) to the pup that remains in the strainer and strain again.
6. Do the same a couple of times more till the juice is completely removed from the pulp.
7. Add the rest of water(if you want it a bit strong reduce the water to 2 1/2 cups)
8. Add jaggery. After few minutes once the jaggery is dissolved completely, add lemon juice and stir once or twice and serve.

Note: This juice can be given to childern too(5 years and above). If giving only for adults, water and jaggery quantities can be decreased to get stronger juice/kashaayam. It can be refrigerated upto a day.
This is my entry to Sadhana and Muskaan's Home Remedies event.

Moroccan holiday bread

2010-01-19T20:26:00.000+05:30

By each passing week, I am getting more and more confident in baking bread. I baked this moroccan holiday bread last weekend and it came out really good. I actually made it for Monday morning breakfast, but it got over within 1/2 an hour of coming out of oven. I adapted this recipe from Deeba's blog. The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour and 1/4 cup maize/corn meal. I instead added 1 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup maize flour. When I was kneading the flour, it was very sticky, so I added more all purpose flour till the dough came to a kneadable consistency .(around 1/4 to 1/3 cup)I also substituted milk with soy milk. Procedure wise, I changed a bit here and there.

Ingredients to make a loaf of Moroccan Holiday Bread

All Purpose flour: 1 1/4 cups
Maize/Corn meal: 1/2 cup(I used maize flour)
Active dry yeast: 1 tbsp
Lukewarm water: 100 ml
Soy milk: 100 ml
Sugar: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds: 2 tbsp(White or both black and white)
Olive oil/Refined oil for oiling the bowl and brushing the bread(optional)

Procedure
1. In a pan, heat soy milk to scalding and allow it to cool.
2. In a separate large bowl, mix together the flours, salt and the seeds.(keep few seeds for topping)
3. In a bowl combine the water, yeast and sugar and allow it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. The yeast will become frothy.(If it doesn't, the yeast isn't active and its not worth proceeding any further.)
4. Once soy milk has cooled, add yeast mixture and soy milk to flour mixture and mix well.(Initially I added 1 cup APP flour, but the dough was very sticky and unmaneagable. So I added around 1/4 
to 1/3 cup APP flour which brought the dough to the right consistency)
5. Transfer the dough to a kneading surface and knead for 5 to 7 minutes and put into a well-oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour or till it doubles in size.
6. After 1 hour, punch down and form a loaf and flatten slightly.
7. Place it on an oiled baking sheet(I lined the baking sheet with with butter paper instead of oiling) and allow to rise for 1/2 hour.
8. Preheat oven to 170 degree C(the original recipe called for 200 degree C)
9. Brush the top of the loaf with water, sprinkle seeds on top, & bake for 25 to 30 minutes until it's golden or a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.( I added water in the baking tray that came with the oven and place the baking sheet with the loaf on it)
10. Remove from oven, brush the top with olive oil and have it warm or once it is cooled down.

We had it with jam and it tasted too good. It was soft and at the same time a bit crunchy, I think because of the maize flour.
This is my entry to Priya's Cooking with seeds-Sesame Seeds event.

Dairy free Sakkarai/Sweet Pongal

2010-01-15T22:39:00.000+05:30

Sakkarai or sweet pongal is my all time favourite sweet dish. I have always believed that the milk and loads of ghee that goes into the pongal makes it such a divine dish, until I made a dairy free version of it for Pongal/Sankranthi festival. It was tastier and healthier than the ghee loaded version. I have been using a traditional pongal recipe from my grandmother which I made vegan. I was not sure about substituting ghee. (I used to add almost 1/4 cup of ghee for pongal.) Checked out Vaishali's blog and was suprised to see that she overall used just a tsp of oil, that too to fry the dry fruits. I used a tsp of vanaspati for the same.

Talking about Pongal festival, it is basically a harvest festival when we(especially the farmers) thank the sun god for giving a good harvest and to give many more prosperous years. It is a grand affair in villages. For city dwellers, it is basically making pongal and vada, buying sugar cane and turmeric and doing some puja at home.
The pongal recipe here does not use pressure cooker to cook the rice. Instead, rice and moong dal are cooked in a vessel(directly kept under the stove) by adding water and milk. Once it is cooked thoroughly, jaggery is added. Finally it is garnished with cashew and raisins and flavoured with cardomom powder.
Here is the recipe..

Ingredients for pongal to serve 8 adults for dessert
Raw rice: 1 cup(not basmati or atleast I have not tried with Basmati)
Yellow moong dal: 1/4 cup
Water: 2 cups or more
Almond milk: 2 cups(I used homemade, recipe below)
Jaggery: 2 1/2 cups
Vanaspathi/Vegetable Oil: 1 tsp(I used sunflower brand vanaspathi)
Cashew and raisins: 1 or 2 tsps of each
Cardomom powder: 1/ tsp

Procedure
1. Dry roast moong dal for 1 or 2 minutes and keep aside.
2. Wash rice and drain water(it is OK if some water remains)
3. Add rice and dal in a thick bottomed vessel(it is preferred to use thick bottomed narrow mouthed vessel. I used "vengala paanai", which translates to bronze pot)
4. Add 2 cups of water to the rice and keep the vessel in the stove and set the flame to medium.
5. While rice is getting cooked, stir occasionally so that it does not get stuck at the bottom.
6. Once the water is evaporated and the rice comes to semi solid consistency, add 2 cups of almond milk and allow to boil. 
7. Check if rice is cooked after around 15 to 20 minutes. If it is still not cooked and water content is less, add some more water, not more than 1/4 cup at a time.
8. Once rice is completely cooked(it would take around 30 minutes), add jaggery and stir well. 
9. When jaggery is melted, it again comes to a watery consistency.
10. Set the flame to low and allow it to boil for sometime.
11. After around 5 to 10 minutes, pongal would come to a semi solid consistency.
12. Put off the stove at this point.
13. For garnishing, heat vanaspati/oil in a pan. Add raisins. Once it becomes fluffy, add it to pongal. In the remaining vanaspati, add cashew. Once it turns golden brown, transfer it and the left over vanaspati to pongal.
14. Add cardomom powder to pongal and mix well.
15. Serve it warm.

Note
Jaggery should be added only after the rice is cooked completely. When a small quantity of rice is put in a bowl and pressed with the fingers, it should get mashed easily.
When the rice is completely cooked, it should be of semi solid consistency and not watery. Adding jaggery would make the rice a bit watery again. So before adding the jaggery if the rice is watery, heating for more time might not bring it to the right consistency. So, care should be taken not to add excess water when the rice is getting cooked.

Recipe for almond milk
I first made almond milk at home for this Bread pudding recipe.
1. Soak half cup of almonds in 2 cups of water and keep in the fridge overnight.
2. The next day grind the almond in a mixer by adding 1/2 cup water(which was used for soaking) until it is smooth.
3. Add the rest of the water and grind just for few seconds.
4. Strain the blended almond and almond milk is ready.
For pongal, I soaked almonds for just 3 hours. I also did not strain the blended milk.

Do have a look at Vaishali's blog for pressure cooker version of dairy free pongal which is much easier to make than this tradional method.

Vegan chocolate fudge cake with vegan icing

2010-01-12T21:38:00.000+05:30

I have been baking something or the other every weekend, but could not post them, for no specific reason. Looks like sheer laziness. Finally got to post a vegan chocolate fudge cake recipe which I adapted from chefinyou. I made this cake for my husband's B'day. I doubled the quantity of the ingredients as there were 11 of us. It was kind of a family get together and we all had a nice time. And yes, everybody loved the cake. I felt the cake was a bit bitter, but it was good to eat with the icing.

I made vegan icing using cornstarch, icing sugar, water and cocoa powder. As the consistency was a bit thin, I added more icing sugar and freezed it for around 5 minutes. Then I could frost the cake without much trouble. I am not sure where I got the icing recipe.
Its better to keep ready the required amount of cold water before proceeding with the cake. Otherwise, there are chances of overlooking "cold" water in the recipe and mixing everything, only to see that cold water is needed to make the batter.(which has happened with me before for another recipe)

Ingredients
All purpose flour/Maida: 3 cups
Powdered sugar: 2 cups
Baking soda: 2 tsp 
Salt: 1tsp 
Cocoa powder: 6 tbsp 
Vegetable oil: 2/3 cup (I used sunflower refined oil)
Vinegar: 2 tbsp (I used apple cider vinegar)
Vanilla essence: 2 tsp 
Cold water: 2 cups

Procedure
1. Pre heat oven to 160 degree C.
2. Sift the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. In another large bowl mix the wet ingredients and stir well.( I did this with a hand mixer)
4. Add the flour mixture 4 to 5 tbsp at a time to the wet mixture and combine slowly to form a lump free batter.
5. Pour the mixture into the greased(and dusted) cake pan and bake for around 30 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
6. Cool the cake by leaving it aside for 1 minute or so. Then invert the pan over a rack and tap it gently to unmould the cake.
7. Apply the frosting and enjoy.

Bread pudding with almond milk topped with strawberry compote

2009-12-25T00:15:00.002+05:30

I had a secret mission to make as many strawberry based desserts as possible in December when we get the fruit here. Strawberry cupcakes, muffins, cake, fruit fool, ice creams and what not was there in my mind. I was totally fascinated(read jealous) by the strawberry recipes posted by Western world bloggers during summer. It was not very surprsing that I could not find the fruit even in super markets. I somehow mangaged to get a small box of strawberries paying a fortune. I just got 15 berries for the huge amount I paid of which 5 were stale. I realised that I can't even use it as a topping for dessert.

Disappointed, I was searching for strawberry recipes in Vaishali's blog and came across this bread pudding topped with strawberry compote. That suited me the best. I prepared the almond milk at home for the pudding. The pudding was awesome with the tart, sugary strawberry compote topping and pista seasoning. We liked it cold than warm. This makes for a perfect, cozy dessert.

Here is the recipe as adapted from Vaishali's..

Ingredients for the bread pudding to server 6 adults for dessert
Bread: 8-10 slices.( I used homemade sandwich bread . I cut each slice into 6 medium sized cubes and I did not trim off the edges.)Raisins: 1/2 cup 
Almond milk or soy milk: 2 1/4 cups(The original recipe calls for 3 cups. I used homemade almond milk)
Cinnamon powder: 1 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Sugar: 3/4 cup 
EnerG egg replacer: 6 tsp (I used corn starch)Water: 8 tbsp
Pista: broken into pieces for seasoning(optional)

Procedure
1. Pre heat the oven to 170 degree C.
2. In a smal bowl, mix together corn starch and water until smooth.
3. Whisk together the cinnamon, vanilla, sugar and corn starch. 
4. Then whisk in the almond milk until everything's incorporated.
5. In a greased square baking dish, spread out the bread evenly. Scatter the raisins on top. Now pour the almond milk mixture on top. Soak for about 30 minutes, pressing on the bread with a ladle periodically to ensure the bread gets evenly soaked.(Next time I will soak for only 15 minutes. The bread pieces at the bottom somehow got mashed completely, but that does not change the wonderful taste.)
6. Place the pudding in a water bath (a larger dish filled with about 1 inch of water).I used the tray that came with the oven as water bath.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until puffy and golden on top.
8. Serve warm or cold with strawberry compote.

Ingredients for strawberry compote(I am giving the exact recipe posted by Vaishali. As I had very few berries, I just did eye measurement.)
Strawberries: 1 pound (hulled and then cut into slices)
Sugar: 1/4 -1/2 cup(use more or less depending on the tartness of your strawberries)
Cinnamon: 1 stick

Procedure
1. Place the strawberries, sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until the strawberries break down and express their juices. 
2. Continue cooking on low heat about 10 minutes.

Putting it together
1. Place small portions of bread pudding in single serving bowls.
2. Spread the strawberry compote over the pudding and season with pista.(chocolate sauce could be a nice variation for the topping.)

Enjoy the delicious pudding warm or cold.

Vegan sandwich bread

2009-12-18T23:43:00.000+05:30

This is the healthiest, easiset and the best sandwich recipe I have come across so far. This bread recipe is a keeper for beginners like me. There are 2 things that I learnt from baking this bread. a)Reduce the oven temperature by atleast 30 to 40 degree C if the recipe is from US.(their oven is entirely different from my OTG) b)Do NOT get tempted to slice the bread as soon as it comes out of oven. Leave the bread alone overnight and then take pictures of it gloriously.(though I knew this before, I implemented it this time. :-))
The bread looked hard from outside, but it was very soft from inside.(almost like the store bought wheat bread) I did not shape the bread properly, so the loaf was not uniform. I made this bread specially to make "bread pudding topped with strawberry compote" the recipe for which I will share in the next post. If you want to try out the pudding right away, do checkout Vaishali's blog..thats where I got the recipe.
Here is the recipe for sandwich bread as adapted from here..

Ingredients to make 1 medium sized loaf as adapted from here
Soy milk: 1 cup(I used the plain one)
Margarine or Oil: 1/8 cup(I used sunflower refined oil) 
Sugar: 1/4 cup + 1/8th tsp
Salt: 3/4 tsp
Lukewarm water: 1/8 cup
Active dry yeast: 1 tsp
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/4 cup
Wheat flour/aata: 1 1/2 cup

Procedure
1. In a bowl combine the water, yeast and 1/8th tsp sugar and allow it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. The yeast will become frothy. (If it doesn't, the yeast isn't active and its not worth proceeding any further.)
2. Take oil, 1/4 cup sugar and salt in another bowl and keep aside.
3. In a separate pan, heat soy milk to scalding. 
4. Pour the milk into oil-sugar mixture.
5. After the soy milk mixture has cooled, add the yeast mixture to it. 
6. Then add 1/4 cup APP flour and beat about 200 times. I did this with a big spoon.Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes. 
7. Add 1 cup each of APP flour and wheat flour and beat well(I did this too with the sppon), then begin to mix with your hands.
8. If the dough is very sticky add the rest of the measured flour or enough to produce a consistency of dough that can be turned out onto a floured board.( I used the granite slab in the kitchen to knead the flour)
9. Knead for 5 to 7 minutes, and put into a well-oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour. 
10. After 1 hour, punch down and form a loaf. 
11. Place it on an oiled loaf pan and allow to rise for 1/2 hour. 
12. Preheat the oven to 160 degree C(the original recipe called for 190 degree C)
13. Brush the top of the dough with some oil and place the loaf pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is beginning to brown. (I also inserted a skewer in the centre and checked that it came out clean.)
14. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Enjoy the fresh homemade bread with jam, as a sandwich or as bread pudding which I did.

Vegan pineapple cupcake

2009-12-13T08:06:00.019+05:30

This is one of the tastiest cupcakes I have ever had. Its so soft and flavourful that this is the first time I had a homemade cupcake without any icing or frosting. I adapted this recipe from Vaishali's mango cupcake.

Ingredients to make around 11 medium sized cupcakes
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
Pineapple puree: 1 1/2 cups(I used homemade one. Peeled, cut the pineapple and microwaved for 7 minutes. Allowed it to cool down and then pureed it in a mixer.)
Canola oil: 1/3 cup(I used sunflower refined oil)
Granulated sugar: 2/3 cup
Vanilla extract/essence: 1 tsp

Procedure
1. Pre heat the oven to and 170 degree C and place paper liners in the mmuffin tin or grease the tin with oil. 
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cardomom powder together and keep aside.
3. In another large bowl, beat together the puree, oil, sugar and vainlla until well mixed.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until the batter is smooth.(Do not over mix)
5. Pour a ladleful of batter into the muffin tin.
6. Place the tin in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

The cup cake was so good that it got over within 10 minutes it came out of the oven. I will be trying this recipe with different pureed fruits.

Vegan fruit and nut cake/Christmas cake

2009-12-12T09:09:00.000+05:30

This is kind of a practice cake for me to make few batches of it during Dec last week.My relatives are visitng us during that time and after that I would be visiting my native place. So I would be making atleast 4 loaves then. I planned to make a vegan cake and did not want to mess it up at the last moment. So made this cake to be sure that nothing goes wrong.

I adapted this recipe from three different sources...Jugalbandhi's fruit and nut war cake, Kitchen Mishmash's Fruit cake and JoyOfBaking's Boiled fruit cake. The cake turned out very good and I am going to use this recipe anytime I make fruit and nut cake.

I would also like to thank Vaishali whose writings inspired me to inculcate vegan habits into my diet.

I soaked the fruits and nuts for a week in orange juice. Raisins soaked in orange juice was a bit tart which I did not like, but others in the family just loved the cake as it was.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients to make a small sized loaf(around 12 slices)
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Brown Sugar/Demerra Sugar: 1 1/4 cup(I did not have that much brown sugar, I substiuted it with date syrup.)
Baking Soda: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Water: 1/2 cup(if soaking the nuts in orange juice as you would get around 1/2 cup juice after removing the fruits and nuts. Otherwise use 1 cup water.)
Vegetable Oil or Applesauce: 3 tbsp(I used sunflower refined oil)

Fruits and Nuts (overal it should be 2 1/2 cups, any combination of it can be used)
Cashew: 1/2 cup(broken into pieces)
Badam/Almond: 1/2 cup(broken into pieces)
Raisins: 1/2 cup
Cherry: 1/2 cup(cut into small pieces)
Tutti fruiti: 1/2 cup
Orange juice: around 1 cup(I used freshly squeezed)

Soak the fruits and nuts in orange juice in a jar and refrigerate it for atleast a week. Its better to stir the fruits once daily. Next time I will not be soaking raisins.

Spice mixture
Powdered Caraway seeds/Shahjeera: 1 tsp
Powdered nutmeg: 1/4 tp
Powdered cinnamon: 1/4 tsp 
Powdered cloves: 1/4 tsp
Powdered cardamom: 1/4 tsp

Procedure
1. Pre heat the oven to 170 degree C and grease a cake pan or loaf pan with oil and dust with flour.
2. Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt together.
3. In a saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil the sugar, water, oil, spices, and raisins.( I did not boil raisins as I soaked them in orange juice. Next time I will not do this)
4. Boil for five minutes, remove from heat, and let cool till lukewarm.
5. Transfer the soaked fruits and nuts to a bowl and add vanilla extract and mix well. Keep the left over orange juice aside.
6. Transfer the lukewarm mixture to a large bowl and add the flour mixture 4 to 5 tbsp at a time and mix.
7. If the batter is too thick add the orange juice. Stir in the soaked fruits and nuts.
8. Transfer the batter to the loaf pan and bake for around 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the centre of the cake comes out clean.

The cake tastes best when eaten the next day.(if you have the patience. :-)) Its moist, dense and hard to resist.

Advanced wishes to all you for a fun filled holiday season.

Aapam and onion chutney

2009-12-05T08:36:00.000+05:30

I got this recipe for aapam and onion chutney from my cosister. This is one of the easiest and tastiest breakfast recipes. I well in love with it the first time I had it in my her place. The combination of aapam and chutney was perfect and adding carrot to the chutney was a nice idea.
Here is the recipe.

Ingredients for aapam that serves 5 adults
Raw Rice: 1 1/2 cups
Boiled Rice: 1 1/2 cups
Urad Dal: 1 tbsp(full or split)
Fenugreek seeds: 1 tsp
Baking Soda: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Grated Coconut: 1/4 cup.( I completely omitted this, still the aapam tasted great)

Procedure
1. Wash both the rice and urad dal.
2. Soak the washed rice mixture along with fenugreek seeds in water for around 3 hours. 
3. After 3 hours, drain the water from the soaked rice. Do not throw the water. Store it in a bowl. It can be used while grinding.
4. Grind the rice to a smooth mixture by adding water only when necessary. (I did the grinding in a mixer. If the quantity is more grinder can be used.)
5. Transfer the ground mixture to a bowl and add salt and baking soda and mix well.
6. Leave the mixture alone for atleast 8 to 10 hours.
7. To make the aapam, heat the non stick aapam pan(I did not have one, so I used the normal kadai). 
8. Keep the stove in low to medium heat and a ladleful of batter in the pan and swirl the pan so that the batter gets spread nicely.(I could not do the swirling, so I just spread the batter with the ladle itself.
9. Cover the pan with a lid.
10. Remove the aapam from the pan once it is cooked well.
11. Follow the same procedure for the rest of the batter.

Ingredients for small onion chutney
Small onion/Shallot: 8 to 9 numbers(peeled)
Channa Dal: 1 tbsp
Tamarind: a small piece(around the size of 25 paisa)
Carrot: 1 small piece or a quarter of a medium sized carrot(peeled and cut into medium sized pieces)
Dried Red chily: 1 long(or more as per spice tolerance level :-))
Refined Oil: 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
1. Heat a pan/kadai and add oil.
2. Saute the onion and red chily for 2 minutes.
3. Allow it to cool and and grind the onion and red chily with the other ingredients.
4. Add salt.
5. Season with few mustard seeds.

Enjoy the aapam with onion chutney.
Note: If you are not using a non stick pan, it is better to apply oil in the pan atleast once, just before adding the first ladle of batter. Since I did not use a non stick pan, I did this.

Vegan cashew and walnuts Quick bread

2009-11-29T08:46:00.000+05:30

I actually started out making vegan sandwich bread. Unfortunately yeast wasn't active, so could not proceed any further. I then decided to bake a quick bread and searched in google. I liked Madhuram's vegan cranberry quick bread recipe the best. I made some modifications to the original recipe and the final result was good. I also doubled the quantity.

Ingredients to make 2 small loaves
All Purpose Flour/Maida: 4 cups(I used 2 1/2 cups maida and 1 /2 cups wheat flour)
Granulated Sugar: 3/4 cup
Lion Dates Syrup: 3/4 cup(Instead adding another 3/4 cup sugar, I added this)
Walnuts and Cashew: 1/2 cup (coarsely chopped)
Baking Powder: 4 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Flax Seed Meal: 2 tsp
Warm Water: 1/2 cup
Orange Juice: 1 cup(freshly squeezed is better)
Vegetable Oil: 1/2 cup(I used Sunflower refined oil)
Applesauce: 1/2 cup

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C and grease the loaf pan.
2. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. 
3. Add sugar and nuts to the dry mixture and combine. 
3. Whisk/blend together the flax seed meal and water until white and foamy.I(I whisked for almost 5 minutes, but it did not turn foamy, anyway I used it.)
4. In another large bowl, mix together the flax seed mixture, orange juice, oil, dates syrup and applesauce.
5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. 
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Cool it before serving.

Note: Its better to check if the bread is baked after around 45 minutes. I did not do that and the bread got burnt at the bottom which can be seen in the photos.

Vegan chocolate cupcake

2009-11-21T23:08:00.000+05:30

I made these vegan chocolate cupcakes sometime back. I saw it in Vaishali's blog and chocolate being my favourite flavour, I just had to try it. The cupcakes came out so well that people at home who are not big fans of chocolate cakes too loved them. The only addition I did was to add some walnuts to the cake.
Here is the recipe as adapted from Vaishali's.

Ingredients to make around 15 medium sized cupcakes
Almond milk: 1 cup (I used soy milk)
Vinegar: 1 tsp(I used apple cider vinegar)
Turbinado sugar: 3/4 cup(I used regular granulated sugar)
Canola or other flavorless vegetable oil: 1/3 cup(I used sunflower oil)
Vanilla extract: 2 tsp 
All-purpose flour/Maida: 1 cup
Cocoa powder: 1/3 cup
Baking soda: 3/4 tsp
Baking powder: 1/2 tsp 
A pinch of salt

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degree C.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt and keep aside.
3. In a bowl, mix the soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes until it curdles.
4. Once the milk curdles, add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and beat togeter until it turns frothy.(Around 2 to3 minutes. I used a hand mixer for this)
5. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in two batches, mixing well until the mixture is fairly smooth. Don't overbeat.
6. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Pour the batter into each liner, about 3/4 full. 
7. Bake for around 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
8. Frost the cupcake(optional) and enjoy.

Vegan vanilla cake with icing

2009-10-26T21:41:00.000+05:30

Visit to native place, viral fever after the visit, followed by food allergy and workload at office kept me away from cooking, blogging and checking out other blogger's recipes. Made this vegan cake for my husband's niece's b'day this weekend. I came across lots of low fat vegan recipes. As it was for b'day, I did not want to take a chance. So I adapted the recipe from joyofbaking's vanilla cup cake recipe. I substituted 3 large eggs with 3/4 cup apple sauce, butter with nutralite and dairy milk with soymilk. For the icing too, I used nutralite. The cake was perfectly baked, soft, tasty and loved by all.

Here is the recipe as adapted from joyofbaking

Ingredients for the cake
Vegan butter at room temperature: 1/2 cup(113 gms) (I used nutralite)
Granulated white sugar: 2/3 cup (130 grams) 
Apple sauce: 3/4 cup(I used 1 apple to get 3/4 cup apple sauce)
Vanilla extract/essence: 1 tsp
All purpose flour: 1 1/2 cups(195 grams) 
Baking powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Soy milk: 1/4 cup (60 ml)

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and grease the cake pan with vegan butter and dust with flour.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I used a hand mixer(around 2 minutes) 
3. Add the applesauce and beat well.(around 2 minutes)
4. Beat in the vanilla extract. 
5. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. Alternately add the flour mixture and soy milk to the butter-sugar mixture, in three additions.(I did this mixing with hand) 
7. Pour the batter in the cake pan and shake so that the batter is evenly distributed.(As this recipe is originally for cup cake, the batter was quite thick)
8. Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes or until the a fork inserted at the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Ingredients to make the icing 
Icing sugar: 2 cups (230 grams) 
Vegan butter at room temperature: 1/2 cup (113 grams) Vanilla extract/essence: 1 tsp 
Soy milk: 2 tbsp

Procedure
1. In an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until smooth and well blended. 
2. Add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 
3. Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed.

Once the cake is completely cooled, frost with icing.

Note: To make applesauce, peel the apple, cut into small pieces, put in a microwave safe bowl, add water until the apple is immersed and microwave for around 8 minutes. Allow it to cool. Remove the apple pieces and grind into a smooth mixture. I made the cake the previous day night and refrigerated it. After making the icing mixture, I kept it in the freezer for around 10 minutes for it to thicken. This way, it was easy to apply the icing on the cake.

Suyan for Saraswathi puja

2009-09-27T16:33:00.001+05:30

Suyan is one of my favourite sweets though this is the first time I made them at home. I got the recipe from my mother. There are a couple of things to be taken care of while preparing the batter to get good suyans. The batter should be very smooth and the consistency should be such that one should be able to immerse the stuffing(purnam) in the batter and put them immediately in oil for frying. It should be neither too thin nor too thick. Here is the recipe to make around 15 medium sized suyans.

Ingredients for the batter
Urad Dal(full): 1/4 cup
Raw rice: 1/3 cup
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the stuffing
Shredded Coconut: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
Jaggery: 1/2 cup(broken into small pieces)

Refined oil for deep frying

Procedure to make the batter
1. Wash both rice and dal and soak them together for atleast 1/2 an hour.
2. Grind the soaked rice and dal into a very smooth batter by adding very little water. (Check while grinding if water is not sufficient. Only then add water.)
3. Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and mix well. Kepp aside.

Procedure to make the stuffing
1. While the dal and rice are soaking, the stuffing can be prepared.
2. Mix coconut and jaggery in a kadai/pan.
3. keep the stove in medium flame and stir until the mixture comes together and the most of the water evaporates. Keep aside.

Procedure to make the suyan
1. Divide the stuffing into 15 parts/balls..
2. Heat oil in a kadai/pan
2. Dip each ball in the batter so that it gets coated on all sides with the batter.
4. Put it immediately in the oil. Do the same for some more balls.(as much as the pan can hold)
5. Fry till the suyan turns golden brown on both the sides.
6. Remove from the pan, drain excess oil and place it in dry bowl.
7. Repeat the same for the rest of the stuffing and batter.

Vegan wheat flour and oat bran muffin

2009-09-19T21:43:00.000+05:30

The other day when I had been to Nilgiri's super market I saw oat bran. I remembered joyofbaking's oat bran recipe. So I bought it and made the muffins. I made a vegan version of the muffin and it came out very well. I replaced the egg with 1/4 cup applesauce and milk with soy milk. I did not have molasses, so after some thought process I decided to substitute with lion date syrup. The muffins came out surprisingly well and it tasted too good. As mentioned in the original recipe the oat bran gives a nutty flavour to the muffin which I enhanced by adding some walnuts.

Ingredients to make around 12 medium sized muffins
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Oat bran: 1 cup
Light brown sugar: 1/3 cup(I used demerra sugar)
Baking powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon: 1/4 tsp
Apple sauce: 1/4 tsp
Unsulphured molasses: 1/4 cup(I used Lion brand date syrup)
Pure vanilla extract: 1 tsp 
Canola oil: 2 tbsp(I used refined oil)
Soy milk: 1 1/4 cup
Walnut: 1/4 cup

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 205 degrees C. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or grease the tin with vegetable oil. 
2. Mix flour, oat bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Whisk together the apple sauce, molasses, vanilla extract, oil and soy milk in another large bowl.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until moistened. Gently stir in the walnuts. (The batter will be thin.) 
5. Fill the muffin cups with a ladle of batter and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the center of the muffin comes out clean.

These muffins make for a hearty and healthy breakfast.

Vegetable Dumplings

2009-09-15T07:59:00.000+05:30

Vegetable dumpling is essentially a chinese dish according to Tarla Dalal's mini series cook book "7 dinner menus". It was a nice variation for us from the usual rotis that we have for dinner. The dumplings are as such easy to make, but rolling out the dough might be time consuming, especially if doing in large quantities..Thankfully, for me my MIL did that job and I stuffed the prepared vegetable in the rolled out dough and pressure cooked it..

The dumplings tasted very nice with the red sauce inspite of not adding asparagus and mushroom in the stuffing mixture which the original recipe called for. I also substitued half of maida with wheat flour. Next time I am planning to subtitute 3/4th of maida with wheat flour and instead of adding soya sauce to the vegetable mixture, I will add masala powder to give it a desi touch. I will completely omit making the black sauce(nobody bothered to have it) and will increase the quantity of red sauce.(It seemed more like chutney to me, it was too good)

Ingredients for the dough to make around 30 medium sized dumplings
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Wheat Flour/Aata: 1 1/2 cups
Water: to make the dough
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the vegetable filling
cabbage: 2 cups(shredded according to the book. But I chopped to very small pieces)
carrot: 1 cup(shredded according to the book. But I chopped to very small pieces)
Onion: 1/2 cup(chooped. Optional, it was not used in the original recipe)
Mushrooms: 1/4 cup(finely chopped, I did not use it)
Asparagus: 1/4 cup(finely chopped, I did not use it)
Ginger: 2 tsp(finely chopped)
Pepper Powder: 3/4 tsp
Soya sauce: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Refined Oil: 2 tbsp(I used olive oil)

Ingredients for the red sauce
Tomato: 1(medium sized)
Garlic cloves: 3
Dry red chillies: 2(broken into pieces)
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the black sauce
Soya Sauce: 1/8 cup(The original recipe called for 1/2 cup, but I reduced the quantity)
Honey: 1 tsp
Vinegar: 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds: 1/2 tsp(roasted)
Salt to taste

Procedure to make the dough
Combine all the ingredients in for the dough and mix well. Consistency should be that of roti dough.

Procedure to make the filling
1. Heat oil in a kadai/pan and add ginger. Saute less than a minute.
2. Add all the vegetables and saute in medium-low flame so that it becomes soft.(around 5 minutes)
3. Add salt, soy sauce and pepper powder and mix well.
4. Put of the flame and keep aside.

Procedure to make the dumplings
1. Divide the dough into 30 equal portions or more depending upon the size of the dumplings.
2. Roll out each portion into a circle, the size of medium sized puri.
3. Place a tbsp of filling at the centre of the rolled dough.
4. Bring together the edges and pich them with fingertips so that it is sealed properly.
5. Repeat the same with the remaining dough and filling.
6. Steam in a greased steamer for about 10 minutes. I steamed the dumplings by placing them in the idli moulds and keeping the idli mould in the pressure cooker. (Cook in the pressure cooker till steam starts coming out, without putting the "weight" for the lid. It would take around 5 minutes)
7. Open the pressure cooker once the steam completely dies out.
8. Serve hot with red and black sauces.

Procedure to make the red sauce
1. Boil a vessel full of water and put the tomato in it for around 10 minutes. Remove, peel and keep aside.
2. Dry roast the red chillies till they are crisp.
3. Combine tomato, garlic, dry red chillies and salt and blend to a smooth sauce.

Procedure to make the black sauce
Combine all the ingredients in the black sauce and mix well.

Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi special post and Creamy semiya(vermicelli) payasam/kheer recipe

2009-09-06T15:40:00.022+05:30

I know this post featuring Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi is a bit too late..But "Better late than never." :-)Lord Krishna and Lord Ganesha's b'days are celebrated as Janmashtami and chaturthi respectively by the Hindus. As with any other festival, one of the main attractions is the preparation of array of sweets and snacks which is offered as Neivedyam to the gods.

Janmashtami fell on a weekday and I was off to work. My MIL and visiting mother prepared the snacks..As they folowed the good old ladle and eye measurement, I do not have the cup measurements for the snacks that they prepared. So just sharing the photos and customs that we follow in celebrating the festival..

Janmashtami aka krishna jayanthi is generally celebrated in the evening as Lord Krishna is believed to be born in the midnight. We do the following things for the puja.

1. Put a kolam/rangoli at the entrance of the house. We make a paste out of rice flour and use it to put the kolam. Draw feet of kutty(small) krishna from the entrance till the puja room as if he is visiting our house.
2. In the puja room, decorate the idol or photo of Lord Krishna with garland and flowers.
3. Arrange the items prepared for Neivedyam in front of the idol. The items that are generally kept as Neivedyam are..
    Uppu Cheedai
    Vella Cheedai
    Murukku or thenkuzhal
    Appam
    Ulundu Vadai
    A small bowl of milk with a tbsp of butter put in it.
    Vella Aval or Aval payasam
These are supposedly kutty krishna's favourites. :-)
Along with these, we also keep the usual beetel leaves, paaku(forgot the English word), fruits and coconut. Light vilakku(diyas) in front of the idol.
Chant some slokas of Lord Vishnu and then finally do the aarthi.(deepa-aaradhanai)
Then ofcourse start eating the prasadams. :-)

Ganesh Chaturthi on the other hand was on a weekend. So I had all the time and energy for preparing the dishes. Ganesh chaturthi is one of the festivals that I lused to look forward to when I was a kid. On the day of the festival me and my father would go to the market in the morning to buy the Ganesha idol made freshly out of clay. Choosing the idol without any defect was a real fun. I mainly used to see if the small munjur(rat) at the bottom is in good shape and if one tusk in the idol is smaller than the other. Then we buy the flowers and other puja items and head back to home. I just used to enjoy this trip. Here are the thing that we do for the puja.

1. Buy the Ganesha Idol. There are some special flowers that we need to buy like erukampoo(a type of fower) and arugampul(a type of grass)
2. Put kolam at the entrance of the home and in the puja room using rice flour mixture. We call this maakolam.
3. Decorate the idol with flowers and also drape a blouse bit(vastram)
4. Arrange the neivedyam items in fron of the idol.
The items that are generally kept as Neivedyam are..
    Uppu Kozhakkatai(modakam)
    kadala paruppu kozhakkatai
    Vella poornam kozhalkkatai
    Payasam
    Ulundu Vadai
Kozhakkatais are Lord Ganesha's favourite.
Along with these, we also keep the usual beetel leaves, paaku(forgot the English word), bananas and coconut. Light vilakku(diyas) in front of the idol.
Chant some slokas of Lord Vishnu and then finally do the aarthi. This step is common for most of the puja.

I actually wanted to share the recipe for all the items. But as I missed the paper in which I noted down the measurements, just giving the recipe for semiya payasam. I got the recipe for the payasam from my cousin in Bombay. I have made semiya payasam so many times, but I have never ever got such a creamy and rich payasam before. Special thanks to her for sharing this recipe.

Ingredients to serve 4 adults

Semiya/Vermicelli: 1/2 cup
Milk: 2 cups
Condensed milk: 1/2 tin(200 gms)
Ghee: 1 tbsp
Cashew and raisins to garnish
Cardomom powder/Elaichi: 1/6 tsp

Procedure

1. Add ghee in a kdai/pan. Add the cashew and raisins. Once the cashew turns slightly brown and the raisins puuf up, simmer and remove them from the pan.
2. Add the semiya(if not already roasted) in the same pan and roast for a few minutes until it turns slightly brown.(around 3 minutes)
3. Boil the milk.
4. Pour the milk in the semiya pan and cook the semiya in low to medium flame stirring occasionally.
5. The semiya would absorb the milk and get cooked.(around 10 to 15 minutes)
6. Check if the semiya is cooked by pressing a few of them with the finger. If it gets mashed easily then it is cooked. While cooking if it becomes too thick add some more milk.
7. Once the semiya is cooked add the condensed milk and mix well. (Since it is made as Neivedyam, we can't taste now. Otherwise taste the payasam. If more sweet is required, add some more condensed milk.)
8. Garnish with cashew and raisins.
9. Serve hot or cold. While serving if it is too thick, add some more milk.

Semiya payasam cannot get richer and creamier than this.

And finally this is my entry to Purva's Festive Food event. She was kind enough to let me send in the entry one day late. Thanks Purva for that. I just loved this event and did not want to miss it.

Choco rava kesari and a dedication

2009-09-04T21:34:00.015+05:30

My mother is celebrating her 60th B'day today. I thought of dedicating this post to her. My mother has inspired us(me and my sis) in more than one way. She(read as she and father) gave us the best education that we could get by putting us in the best school in my city.(Madurai) For a middle class family it was definitely an expensive affair then. She always gave the highest priority to studies. She used to work in the state government and managed both work and family very elegantly. She was well respected at the office and at home front too she managed to do everything a "stay at home" mom would do for her kids. In a nutshell she is the BEST and a guiding factor in whatever we do..

Here is something I wrote for a competition held at my company last year end during parent's day. I was selected for a memento for this effort :-), but unfortunately it was never given as almost during the sametime the company faced a crisis due to some shocking revelation by the then chairman regarding the financial condition of the company..

Just giving the last two lines of the original writeup to make the post short. :-)

Trinkets you bought, they are no more. Love you showered, they are memories. But the lessons you taught. That's us! Thank you mom and dad.

Here is also a choco kesari recipe that I made especially for my mom. My parents are off to a pilgrimage trip for a couple of days as my mother wished to visit few famous temples during her b'day. She feels, her faith in "amman" is what keeps her going. And I don't have any reason to not believe it. :-)

Once again Happy B'day to dear amma and wishing many many more happy returns of this day.

Coming to the recipe, I shall not take credit for the idea of using cocoa powder in kesari for I saw it in almostturkish blog, long time ago..It tasted really good with a nice chocolaty flavour.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Ordinary Suji/Rava/Semolina: 1/4 cup
Water: 3/4 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder: 1 1/2 tbsp
Ghee: 4 tbsp
Cashew: a few for garnishing

Procedure

1. In a small bowl, add the cocoa powder and little water(2 to 3 tbsp) and mix well to form a liquid mixture. Keep aside.
1. Add a tbsp of ghee in a pan/kadai and add suji and cashew.
2. Roast on a low flame till suji turns golden brown. The cashew also would have got roasted nicely by this time.(My grandmom suggested me this method of adding cashew and suji together. This way even if we are not able to make out if suji is roasted or not, looking at the color of roasted cashew we can remove suji from heat.)
3. Tranfer the suji to a bowl.
4. In the same pan, add water and allow it to boil.
5. Once hot, add the roasted suji and mix. Keep on low to medium flame.
6. It would absorb the water immediately and would become semi solid. Do not add more water eventhough one might get tempted to do so..
7. Add the cocoa powder mixture and sugar and mix well.
8. Now the mixture would again become watery. Add ghee and mix on low to medium flame.
9. Put off the flame once the mixture again reaches semi solid state.
10. Allow it to cool a bit so that it thickens.

Note: Feel free to increase or reduce the quantity of sugar as per preferences. The cocoa powder can be omitted to make an authentic south indian kesari. The amount of water mentioned is for ordinary suji. It might vary for other types of suji though I have not tried.

Cream and brownie in a glass

2009-08-27T21:24:00.004+05:30

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu.

This is one of the easiest yet tastiest brownie recipes. Too good.

Ingredients for the brownie

Maida/All purpose flour: 1 cup
Cocoa powder: 1/4 cup(I used Cadbury's brand)
Powdered sugar: 3/4 cup
Baking Soda: 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Fresh thick yogurt/curd: 6 tbsp
Milk: 5 tbsp
Melted butter: 5 tbsp
Walnut: 1/4 cup(chopped)
Vanilla Essence: 1/2 tsp

Ingredients for the cream

Fresh Cream: 2 cups(chilled. I used Amul Fresh Cream)
Powdered Sugar: 4 tbsp
Vanilla Essence: 1/4 tsp
Canned Peach halves: 8(I did not use this)
Cherry for garnish

Procedure to make the brownie

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degree C
2.Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside
3.Mix all the wet ingredients.
4.Fold in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients without over mixing.
5. Pour the batter in a greased baking tray and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out almost clean.
6.Cut small pieces once cooled and keep aside.

Procedure for the cream

1.Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and doubles in volume.(Mine was thick enough and that shows in the photo too.)
2.Fold in the sugar and vanilla essence.
3.Fill the cream in a piping bag and keep aside.

Putting it together

1.Pipe out some cream in a tall glass(I did not use a piping bag. I used a spoon to put the cream in the glass)
2.Place a few brownie square and top with a peach half.
3.Repeat step 1 an 2 again and garnish with a cherry.
Serve chilled or as it is.

Yogurt based Carrot-mayonnaise salad and Garlic Toasts

2009-08-27T20:58:00.005+05:30

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu.

Yogurt based Carrot-mayonnaise salad

Ingredients to serve 4 adults

Thick Yogurt/Curd: 2 cups
Carrot: 2(medium size, grated)
Eggless Mayonaisse: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl just before serving.

Garlic Toasts

This is actually celery-garlic toast in the book. As I don't get celery here, I just made with garlic. Nevertheless, it tasted nice.

Ingredients

Bread slice: 10
Garlic: 3 to 4 cloves(chopped) or around 1 tsp chopped
Butter: 1/8 cup(at room temperature)
Salt to taste
Grated cheese to top the bread while toasting(optional)

Procedure

1. Grind the garlic and butter in mixer. Grinding was bit of a challenge for me as the quantity was very less without the celery.
2. Add salt to the ground mixture and mix.
3. Apply the ground paste on the bread slices. Add grated cheese if desired.
4. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes or till the toasts are evenly browned.
5. Cut into halves and serve.

Pasta and vegetable casserole

2009-08-27T20:40:00.005+05:30

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu.

This pasta is a combination of vegetables and cheese sauce, baked with cheese topping. It was one of the best pastas that I have made. Instead of cutting and toasting the onions and tomatoes as per the book, I chopped the vegetables into very small pieces in the food processor and sauted them with some olive oil.

Ingredients to serve 4 adults

Cooked pasta: 2 cups(I used fusilli)
Tomatoes: 2 cups(chopped)
Onion: 1/2 cup(chopped)
Capsicum: 3/4 cup(I used red and yellow, cubed)
Garlic: 2 tbsp(chopped)
Oilve oil: 3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Grated cheese: 4 tbsp(used while baking. I used britannia cheesiza)

Ingredients for the cheese sauce

Maida/All purpsose flour: 1 tbsp
Milk: 1 1/2 cup
Grated cheese: 4 tbsp(I used britannia cheddar)
Butter: 2 tbsp(at room temperature)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Procedure to make the cheese sauce

1.Melt butter in a pan, add flour and saute on a low flame for ½ a minute or till you get the aroma of the cooked flour.
2.Add the milk gradually while stirring so that no lumps form. Bring to a boil, by increasing the flame, but constantly stirring.
3.Add cheese, salt, pepper and mix well and heat till the sauce thickens.(around 10 to 15 minutes. It is OK if it is semi solid. When cooling down, it solidifies to a thick sauce)

Procedure for preparing the vegetables

1.In a pan/kadai, add olive oil.
2.Add the onion and garlic and saute.Then add the tomatoes and saute.
3.Once it is cooked, add the capsicum and saute for some more time.
4.Add salt and mix well. Put off the stove and keep aside.

Putting everything together

1.pre heat the oven to 200 degree C
2.Spread a layer of vegetables in a baking dish.
3.Tp with the cooked pasta.
4.Cover with the cheese sauce and top with the grated cheese.
5.Bake for 10 minutes or till the cheese is browned and serve hot.

Verdict: This was the best of all preparations for the dinner menu. Only negative point is that it is too in high in calories. May be the next time, I will reduce the amount of cheese used.

Two in a bowl soup

2009-08-27T20:19:00.005+05:30

This dish was made as part of “No Fuss American” menu. Please see here for the other dishes as part of this menu. It consists of two soups in a bowl. I did not make the brocolli soup as I did not get it here. But I have given the recipe for both the soups.

Ingredients for the potato soup

Potato: 1 cup(peeled and cubed)
Garlic: 1 tsp(chopped)
Onion: 1 cup(chopped)
Dry red chilli flakes: 1/2 tsp
Milk: 1 1/2 cup
Warm Water: 1 1/2 cups
Refined Oil: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the brocolli soup

Brocolli florets: 2 cups
Onion: 1/2 medium sized, chopped
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 tbsp
Water: 2 cups
Butter: 2 tbsp
Salt and powdered pepper to taste

Procedure to make the potato soup

1.Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic and onion and saute for a few minutes.(around 2  to 3 minutes)
2.Add the potatoes and saute for a few minutes.(around 3 minutes)
3.Add water and salt and simmer till the potatoes are cooked(around 15 minutes. The flame can be increased to medium once in a while)
4.Cool the potato mixture and blend into a smooth puree in a mixer by adding the milk.
5.Add the chilly flakes and keep aside.

Procedure to make the brocolli soup

1.Heat butter in a pan, add the onion and saute for a few minutes.
Add the brocolli and stir for 4 to 5 minutes.
2.Sprinkle the flour over the brocolli and continue stirring for another 2 minutes.
3.Add water stirring continuously.
4.Simmer till the brocolli is tender and add salt and pepper.
5.Cool slightly and blend to a smooth puree in a mixer.

Putting two soups in a single bowl

1.Before serving re heat both the soups separately.
2.Carefully pour the soups on opposite sides of the bowl, so that both the soups have a line of differentiation.
3.Repeat with 3 other bowls and serve hot

Note: Both the soups should be thick so that they do not mix easily.

Verdict: I made only the potato soup. My husband tasted it. He said, “Its nice, but it does not taste like soup.” That says it all. But he did take a second helping. I being a very cautious eater did not even taste it.

"No fuss American" Dinner Menu

2009-08-27T20:10:00.006+05:30

I bought "Seven Dinner Menus" mini series book by Tarla Dalal sometime back. The book has dinner menus from Delhi, Mexico, Middle East, Italy, China, Thailand and America. I liked Middle East the most which had very nice recipes for hummus with sesame lavash, labneh, sesame tabouleh, falafel and baklava. l was reluctant to make pita after one failed attempt. I finally decided to make the "No fuss American" dinner menu. It included Two in a Bowl Soup, Crunchy Salad, Pasta and Vegetable Casserole, Celery garlic toasts and cream and brownie in a glass. I really don't know if all these dishes come under american food, it looked more like Italian to me. To be loyal to the book, I am naming the menu “No fuss American”. I made these dishes a month back.

I was forced to make the “2 in a bowl” soup to just “1 in bowl” soup as I did not get broccoli here. I omitted the crunchy salad completely as we are not used to eating raw spinach, lettuce etc. So I replaced it with our all time favorite yogurt based carrot-mayonnaise salad. The celery garlic toast had just the garlic as celery was not available. “Cream and Brownie in a glass” did not have the peach layer as this fruit is unheard of here. In spite of making these changes, all the dishes tasted really good. I should accept that it was very hight in fat content with lots of cheese, milk et al.

This post would become pretty long if I provide all the recipes here. So I thought of sharing each recipe in a post. I have provided the link to each recipe in this post..This is also my entry to Raji of Raks Kitchen's Cooking For Guests event.

"No Fuss American" Dinner Menu

Two in a bowl soup
Yogurt based Carrot-mayonnaise salad
Pasta and Vegetable casserole
Garlic toasts
Cream and brownie in a glass

Banana and Walnut breakfast pancake

2009-08-23T17:32:00.011+05:30

This is one of the easiest, tastiest and healthiest breakfasts that I have made. These pancakes are perfect as evening snacks too. Its also an easy way of sneaking in the banana for kids/adults(like me :-) ) who run away even hearing the word banana. I found this recipe in Tarla Dalal's "Cooking for Kids" mini series. The original recipe called for adding a tbsp of butter to the batter which I omitted. Also, while making the pancakes, I used very minimal ghee(2 to 3 drops per pancake) instead of a tsp of butter per pancake..

Ingredients to make around 6 pancakes

All Purpose flour/Maida: 1 cup
Mashed Ripe banana: 1/2 cup(I got 1/2 cup mashed banana from 3 small sized bananas)
Walnut: 1/4 cup(chopped)
Warm Milk: 3/4 cup
Castor Sugar: 4 tbsp
Vanilla Essence: 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder: 3/4 tsp
Ghee or butter to cook the pancakes

Procedure

1. Combine all the ingredients except ghee/butter in a bowl. Mix well to make a smooth batter, making sure that no lumps remain.
2. Heat a non-stick pan, spread 3 to 4 tbsp (or 3/4th of ladle) of batter to make a thick pancake.
3. Cook the pancake over medium heat using a little ghee to cook both sides until golden brown.
4. Repeat the same for the rest of the batter.
5. Serve hot with honey or jam.

This is my entry to Suchitra's WYF-Breakfast event at Simple Indian Food.

Malay style Noodles

2009-08-23T15:49:00.006+05:30

Friday night 8:30 PM-Dinner Time

Me to husband: I prepared the noodles specially for you after coming back from work. So you feed Rishi(son) tonight.
Husband: Don't tell me you prepared it for me. You made it for your Noodles event..
Me: Its not Noodles event. Its "Its a Vegan World-Malaysian" event.

I ended up feeding the son. To my relief, he relished the noodles and ate in just 5 minutes.

I saw the noodles recipe in MalaysianRecipes website..I modified the recipe to make it less spicy and vegan. It came out very nice, different from the usual soy sauce-vinegar stuff. Spinach and green peas makes it healthy too.

Ingredients

Noodles: 200 gms(I used Hakka Noodles)
Olive Oil: 2 tbsp(Refined oil is also OK)
Garlic: 1 tsp(finely chopped)
Tomato Ketchup: 2 tbsp
Tomato Puree: 1 tbsp
Green Peas: 1/3 cup(cooked)
Spinach/Palak: 1 cup(cleaned, chopped into small pieces)
Pepper Powder: 1/2 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup(or more if needed)
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Cook noodles as per package instruction and keep aside.
2. Add oil in a big pan/kadai and saute garlic.
3. Stir in soinach and cook for 1 minute.
4. Mix in cooked noodles, ketcup and puree until coated.(2 minutes)
5. Add water to keep the mixture moist.
6. Add salt and pepper powder and mix.
7. Continue to cook stirring continuously for 5 minutes.
8. Add the peas and mix until combined.
9. Remove from heat and serve hot with tomato ketchup.

This is my entry to Vaishali's IAVW-Malaysian event.

On a different note, here is a picture of few things I bought during our recent trip to Srirangapatna.

Eggless Apple Raisin muffins

2009-08-19T14:40:00.009+05:30

Why do some women put on weight after marriage? Put on some more after child birth? Why did I fall into that category of women???

Why can't I exercise regularly? Why can't I stop indulging on fatty food?

The first 3 "why"s are beyond my control, but the last 2... definitely I can do something about it..

As a first step, I have decided to bake cake/muffin or any such bakery product only after I reduce a kg of weight in next 2 weeks. I have my own method of working out and dieting(not starving) which I charted out by doing some research in the internet a few years back..It has always worked for me..Let me see how I fair this time..

Till my next baking adventure, here is a muffin recipe which I adapted from Madhuram's. As with any other fruit based muffin, I had this one too with chocolate cream. The rest of them liked it as it was. It tasted better the next day.

Igredients to make 12 medium sized muffins

All Purpose Flour/Maida: 2 cups
Baking soda:1 tsp
Walnuts: 1/4 cup(Chopped)
Water : 1/4 cup(or a bit more if the batter is too thick)
Brown Sugar : 1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar: 1/4 cup
Raisins : 1/2 cup
Apple : 1 cup(peeled and grated)
Butter : 1/4 cup(at room temperature)
Cinnamon: 1/8th tsp
Nutmeg a pinch

Procedure

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degree C.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and walnuts in a bowl.
3. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a pan and bring to boil.
4. Remove from heat and cool completely.
5. Add the flour mixture to the cooled mixture and mix until combined. (Do not over mix. It would result in hard muffins)
6. Place the muffin liners in a muffin tin and fill with the batter. If liners are not available, directly fill the muffin tins to almost full.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Cool and serve.

It makes for a healthy and easy breakfast.

Kulfi-Sharing a recipe and an award passed by Sadhana & muskaan

2009-08-10T22:09:00.009+05:30

we get one of the best kulfis in a small shop off MG road. When we go to that part of the city(which is very rare), we make it a point to relish those kulfis that come in different flavours..kesar-badam, kesar-pista, pista-badam and so on..I guess kulfi is a north indian dessert though it is avialbe in south too. Some years back, I remember people in my native place referring to it as "gulfi". However one calls it, it tastes divine....just divine..So, when I saw the recipe for kulfi at Sadhana and muskaan's, I had to bookmark it.

Along with sharing the award that they passed on, I thought it would be apt to make something from their blog and post it too as a way of thanking them for both sharing the award as well as such wonderful, healthy vegetarian recipes..

I remembered that the recipe uses evaporated milk which the duo had suggested can be prepared at home by reducing the milk to half the quantity. Plus it uses some nuts and cardomom all of which I had. So, I was mentally prepared to make them this weekend. Switched on the PC to go through the recipe and alas..the first 2 ingredients are cream and condensed milk both of which I did not have..It was raining and there was no way I could go and buy them..Then I realised that the kulfis taste much like the paal payasam(reduced milk kheer) sans the rice. So I went ahead and prepared the kulfi with just the reduced milk. I was very confident that it would taste good, for that matter anything with milk and sugar tastes good..

The kulfis came out well as expected. I made two different flavours..kesar-badam and cashew, adding cardomom in both..It was liked by everybody at home. The only problem was, it was melting away too very fast which is very unusual of the kulfis..May be the culprit was the errant electricity because of which the kulfis did not freeze properly..

For the original recipe please have a look at kulfi at a2zvegetariancuisine

Ingredients

Milk: 1 1/2 litres
Sugar: 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup
Nuts: 1/4 cup(I used cashew and badam/almond)
Saffron/Kesar: 4 to 5 strands
Cardomom/Elaichi: 5 to 6 powdered

Procedure

1. Soak saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk and keep aside.
2. Bring milk to boil and then simmer.
3. Add sugar to the milk and allow it to boil. Keep a vigil on the milk if increasing the flame as it might overflow. Keeping a ladle in the milk pan avoids overflowing in medium flame. But its better to keep checking.
4. Let the milk reduce to 500 ml. (it took almost 1 1/2 hours)
5. Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
6. Once the milk is cooled down, divide the milk into half.
7. Add the soaked saffron, badam and half the cardomom powder in one half and mix to combine.
8. Add the cashew and rest of the cardomom powder in the other half and mix.
9. Pour the mixture in kulfi moulds if availble or in small cups with lid.
10. Freeze over night.
11. Remove the mould from the refrigerator before serving, immerse in slighlty hot water for 10 seconds for the mould to loosen.(Immerse for more time if the mould is too hard..If over immersed, it might melt.)
12. Release the kulfis from the mould by inverting them into serving plates and garnish with nuts.

Note: As I had mentioned earlier,the kulfis melted very fast and that shows in the picture. :-) Melted or frozen, it tasted awesome. As I did not have pistachios, I did not use it. Otherwise, I guess, its one of the integral parts of the kulfi along with cardomom.

Thank You Sadhana and muskaan for both the award and the recipe. Both are a treasure. :-)

I would like to pass on the award to

Supriya, Lubna, Raks: Their food photographs are among the best.
Hari Chandana: She is a very young talented blogger and an artist too
Aparna: I have the most number of bookmarked recipes from her blog.

I know all these wonderful people would have recieved many awards in the past, but I too would like to share my maiden award with them..

Pudina Rice

2009-08-04T20:05:00.004+05:30

When I was having a casual talk with my sister the other day, she said she prepared pudina rice for dinner using left over pudina chutney. The blogger instinct in me got the recipe from her immediately. I have always been impressed with my sister's presence of mind and agility in the kitchen. She finds and adopts new ways of easy cooking, but without compromising on the taste and flavour of the dish. Pudina rice is yet another easy and flavourful recipe from her. I don't mean to say that no one else has ever made pudina rice before..But I just loved her version of the recipe. Even if you don't have left over pudina chutney, you can try this recipe from scratch which I did. :-) Its worth it.

Ingredients to serve two adults

Cooked basmati rice that can serve 2 people(ordinary rice can also be used)
Pudina leaves: 2 cups(cleaned)
Onion: 2 medium size chopped
Dried Red chilli: 3
Channa dal: 1 tsp
Urad dal: 2 tsp
Coconut: 1 tbsp(grated)
Salt to taste
Refined oil: 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Cool the cooked rice by sreading it in a wide bowl.
1. In a pan/kadai, add 1/2 tbsp oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add channa dal, urad dal, coconut and red chily. Saute till the channa dal turn slightly brown and tranfer it a bowl.
2. In the same pan, add 1/2 tbsp oil and saute the pudina leaves. It will shrink and come to less than a handful.(around 2 to 3 minutes). Transfer to another bowl.
3. In the same pan add 1 tbsp oil and saute the onion until it is soft.(3 to 4 minutes)
4. Grind the dal mixture and pudina leaves by adding some water if needed..The consistency should be semi solid. It is OK if the ground mixture is a bit coarse.
5. Saute the ground mixture and onion in a pan for 2 minutes, add salt and mix well.
6. Once the rice is cooled down, add the pudina mixture and mix well but gently so that the rice does not break much.
7. Serve with onion raita. I generally add a tbsp of eggless mayonnaise to the raita. It make the raita tastier and creamier.

Note: My sister toldme to add 5 red chilys. Since we do not like it very spicy, or rather can't tolerate spicy food, I reduced the quantity to 3.

Fruit bun

2009-08-02T19:00:00.007+05:30

Its been a long time since I baked bread. I bought a food processor recently which has a dough attachement. So thought of inagurating it to make these fruit buns. The buns were soft and delicious. I adapted this recipe from joyofbaking substituting egg with, well.. nothing.. :-)

Ingredients to make around 12 buns

All purpose flour: 3 1/2 cup(455 gms)
Milk: 3/4 cup (180 ml)
Active dry yeast: 2 tsp
Granulated white sugar: 1 tsp
Light brown sugar: 1/4 cup (55 gms)
Cinnamon(powdered): 1 tsp
Cloves(powdered): 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg(powdered): 1/4 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter at room temperature: 1/4 cup(56 gms)
Candied fruit/tutty fruit: 1/2 cup (85 gms)
Raisins: 1/4 cup (25 gms)

Procedure

1. Heat milk until lukewarm. Add yeast and 1 tsp sugar and stir to combine. Set aside for about 10 minutes or until the yeast is activated and is foamy.
2. Meanwhile, combine flour, brown sugar, spices, and salt in a bowl.
3. Once the yeast is foamy, add to the flour mixture and mix to combine.
4. Gradually add the butter, mixing until the butter is incorporated and the dough comes together.
5. With the dough attachment of the food processor, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes) or knead with hands for about 10 to 12 minutes.
6. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and, by hand, gradually knead in the candied and dried fruit. 
7. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning the dough once, so the top is lightly greased. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and place in a warm spot to rise until it has doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours).
8. When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, and divide into 12 equal pieces.
9. Form each piece into a small round ball and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and place in a warm spot until almost doubled in size (about 30 - 60 minutes).
10. Preheat oven to 205 degrees C. Brush the tops of the buns with butter.
11. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the buns are nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Have it as it is or by applying butter.

Khaman Dhokla for Indian Cooking challenge

2009-07-26T15:27:00.013+05:30

I am very happy and excited to participate in the first edition of Indian Cooking Challenge..Srivalli, whose brain child it is, has challenged us with Khaman Dhokla. I have been thinking for ages to make dhoklas..Finally, Indian cooking challenge has paved the way for us to enjoy the homemade dhoklas. The recipe being an authentic one did not fail me anywhere and the result was a moist, colorful, delicious dhokla. I followed the recipe as it is. Providing Srivalli's recipe here for my future reference. :-)

Ingredients for the dhokla batter

Bengal Gram flour / Besan: 250 gms (1 & 1/2 cup)
Curd: 1/2 cup (not very sour)
Water: 1/2 cup
Cooking Soda: 1/2 tsp

Ingredients for seasoning to be mixed to the batter (to be added just before cooking)

Refined Oil: 1 tbsp
Turmeric a pinch
Green Chili paste: 1 - 2 long (as per taste)
Sugar: 1 tsp
Citric acid: quarter tsp
Eno: 1 packet (green colour fruit lime) + sprinkle or dust few bits on the plate

Ingredients for tempering

Sesame seeds: 1/2 tsp
Mustard Seeds: 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves: 10 to 15 leaves(I chopped them to small pieces)
Grated coconut: I completely forgot to add this. :-)
Coriander leaves
3 tsp water + 1 tsp Oil to be topped on dhoklas

Procedure to make the Dhokla

1. Mix 1/2 cup curds with 1/2 water.
2. To this add the besan and mix well to get a lump less batter, the consistency should be of idli batter, more of dropping not pouring consistency.
3. Slowly add more water if needed else, add the soda and mix. Keep it aside to rise for 1 hour.
4. If using pressure cooker, add around 1 cup of water in the cooker and allow it to boil.
5. When the water starts boiling leaving out bubbles, add citric acid, salt, sugar, chili paste and turmeric powder to the batter and mix.
6. Add the eno to the batter and mix gently. You can see bubbles coming out.
7. Immediately pour the batter to the vessel and keep inside the cooker.(I greased the vessel with oil instead of sprinkling eno powder before pouring the batter). The batter should be filled to only 1/2 as it will rise up. Close the vessel with a lid. Do not use the whistle.
8. When the steam starts coming out of the outelt of the cooker lid, simmer and do not disturb for almost 5 to 7 minutes.
9. Remove the lid and proof it using toothpick or knife. If the knife comes out clean and does not have any batter sticking, then its done. Cover back and let it remain on flame for 1 min and switch off the gas and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
10. In a bowl, mix 3 tsp of water along with a tsp of oil.
11. Remove the dhokla pan from the cooker, pour the water and oil mix over the dhokla.
12. Remove the dhokla from the pan and make pieces.
13. For seasoning, heat a pan with oil, add curry leaves, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies. When mustard starts popping, remove and pour over the dhokla.

Ingredients for Green chutney

Green chili: 4-5 no
Coconut: 4- 5 pieces
Coriander leaves - bunch
Few mint leaves: around 10 leaves
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Lemon: 1 big
Salt to taste

Procedure to make green chutney

1. Take all the ingredients except coriander in a food processor. Grind to a smooth paste.
2. Then add the coriander and again grind. Remove to a bowl, add the remaining lime and serve with Dhoklas.

To see how the rest of the IC challengers have faired, do have a look atIndian cooking Challenge.

Ratatouille Lasagna

2009-07-26T13:36:00.011+05:30

I first tasted lasagna at a restaurant called Little Italy in Bangalore, that specializes in Italian vegetarian cuisine. One interesting fact about the restaurant is, all the dishes are listed with their Italian names in the menu card with a description of each item in English. Until and unless one knows italian, they would have a tough time ordering food. So there is an ID for each dish. Its enough if we provide the ID number to the waiter and the ordered dish would reach us. Three years back when we went to the restaurant, I only knew pizza and pasta that were Italian food. So my husband took charge of ordering the food. All the items that we ordered including the lasagna tasted too good. The dishes were heaven in disguise..The cost!!!!that tells why we haven't gone there again...

When I had the lasagna at Little Italy, I wouldn't have even imagined that one day I would be making my own. But here I am with my own vegetarian Ratatouille lasagna as adapted from the mini series cookbook by Tarla Dalal called "Pizza and Pasta".

It look solid 3 1/2 hours to make the lasagna, though the cookbook said 30 minutes preparation time and 10 minutes cooking time. I knew it is not humanly to make the lasagna from scratch in 40 minutes. Still went ahead and started at 7 in the evening and the lasagna was ready at 10:30 in the night. It was worth all the wait and effort..It was just fabulous and my husband too endorsed my opinion. :-)

I made few changes to the ratatouille based on preference and availability.. Ratatouille it seems is a french dish and the cookbook used brinjal(egg plant) and celery leaves to make a traditional Ratatouille.. Since I don't like brinjal, I substituted it with spinach and did not use celery leaves as I don't even know if we get it here. I don't know after these main substitutions, I can still call it a Ratatouille.., but it just tasted fantastic. The lasagna with creamy white sauce and aromatic Ratatouille with mixed herbs was just heavenly.

Here is the recipe for Ratatouille lasagna as adapted from Pizzas and Pasta by Tarla Dalal. Since I had very less time to prepare the lasagna, I first made the dough for the lasagna sheets and rested it for 20 minutes..When the dough was resting I made Ratatouille. I also prepared the white sauce. It took a bit more than 1 hour to prepare the Ratatouille and sauce. So the dough ended up resting for that much time..Next I rolled the dough and prepared the sheets. Finally did the layering and baked the lasagna..

Ingredients to make lasagna sheets

All purpose flour/Maida: 3/4 cup
Spinach Puree: 2 tbsp(I pureed in an electric mixer)
Olive oil or Refined Oil: 3 tbsp(I used olive oil)
Salt: 1/4 tsp
To cook the pasta: 1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp salt(I used olive oil)

Ingredients to make white sauce

Milk: 1 cup
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 tbsp
Grated cheese: 2 tbsp(I used cheddar)
Butter: 2 tbsp
Salt and coarsely powdered pepper to taste

Ingredients to make Ratatouille

Chopped Onions: 1/2 cup
Chopped garlic: 2 tbsp
Finely Chopped Spinach/Palak: 2 cups
Chopped tomato: 3/4 cup
Dried mixed herbs: 1/2 tsp
Tomato puree: 2 tbsp(optional)
Tomato ketchup: 1 tbsp
Olive Oil or Refined Oil: 2 tbsp
Salt and coarsely powdered pepper to taste

Some cheese is needed to sprinkle on the layered lasagna before baking. I used Britannia Cheeza for this.

Procedure to make lasagna sheets

1. Combine all the ingredients in lasagna sheets in a bowl and knead to a very firm dough. Add water only if necessary. I kneaded for 15 minutes and did not add water at all.
2. Rest the dough under a damp cloth for 15 minutes.( I rested it for almost an hour)
3. Divide it into 3 equal parts and roll out each portion as thinly as possible.  The size of the sheet depends on the size of the baking dish. I had a square baking dish. So after rolling the dough, I cut it with a pizza cutter to get 3 square sheets.
4. Add water in  a wide pan(that can hold the lasagna sheets) and add salt and oil. Once it starts boiling, cook each sheet of lasagna for 2 minutes, one after the other.
5. Drain and transfer the lasagna sheets in a pan of cold water.
6. Drain again and keep aside.

Procedure to make white sauce

1. In a pan, heat butter if it is hard. Once it melts, add flour and saute for a minute.
2. Slowly pour in the milk, whisking it continuously so that no lumps form.
3. Add the grated cheese, salt and pepper and mix well.
4. Remove from the fire and keep aside. It will thicken to form a creamy white sauce.

Procedure to make spinach Ratatouille

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add onion and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
2. Add spinach and salt. Just sprinkle very little water. Let the spinach cook for sometime. (around 10 minutes)
3. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and mixed herbs and mix well. Let it cook for another 5 minutes in medium flame. Just see to it that it does not get stuck at the bottom of the pan.
4. Once the mixture looses most of the water content(it need not be dried completely), add ketchup, salt,pepper and mix again.
5. Put off the flame and keep aside.

Putting it together

1. Pre heat the oven to 200 degree C.
2. Place one sheet of lasagna on a greased baking dish.
3. Top with half the Ratatouille and then spoon some white sauce.(around 4 tbsp)
4. Place the second sheet of lasagna and top it with the remaining Ratatouille and spoon some white sauce.(around 4 tbsp)
5. Place the third sheet of lasagna and top it with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle some grated cheese.
6. Bake for around 30 minutes or until the cheese starts browning..(Mine took almost 40 minutes)
7. Allow it to cool a bit. 
8. Should I even say what to do next???Attack!!!!

Note: The ingredients and procedure are that of my adapted version. When I cooked the lasagna sheets, one of them tore at the side. I used that in the middle layer. I actually got 4 lasagna sheets, 3 the size of the baking tray and one a bit smaller. I got that one extra by making dough out of the left overs from the 3 lasagna sheets after cutting them into squares I kept that extra sheet in the bottom most layer while setting the lasagna...After removing the sheets from the cold water, I just kept them in 3 plates to drain..When I set the layers, the sheets were not completely dried, but as our appetite was increasing with every passing second, I just went ahead and used the half dried sheets for setting the layers..But the overall result was just too good..

Dahi(yogurt/curd) Vada-A South Indian Snack

2009-07-18T14:24:00.010+05:30

I got the recipe for dahi vada from my dear cousin who stays in Mumbai. She gave the procedure for setting the vada in the dahi assuming that I know how to make the vadas..We prepare the vadas for almost all of the south indian festivals and functions that we celebrate. Usually my MIL does the soaking and grinding and I fry the vadas..So going with the tradition, this time around too my MIL prepared the batter and I did the frying and setting the vadas in Dahi..I have heard that the softer the vadas, the more it "drinks" oil. We got to know from various sources how to make soft vadas that drinks less oil. The secret is to refrigerate the batter for 2 hours before making the vadas..It really works..Going to the recipe..

Ingredients

Urad Dal(full, deskinned): 2 cups
Green Chily: 2 + 1
Curry Leaves: around 10 leaves + 5 leaves
Ginger: 1/2 inch + 1/2 inch(deskinned)
Refined Oil for deep frying the vada
Yogurt/Curd: 4 cups
Chilly powder: 2 pinch
Chaat powder for sprinkling over the dahi vada(optional)
Boondhi for garnish(optional)
Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Salt to taste

Procedure to make the vada batter to get around 15 medium sized vadas

1. Soak the urad dal atleast for 1/2 an hour.
2. After 1/2 an hour clean the dal with water(procedure is same as cleaning rice)
3. Drain excess water.
4. Keep 2 tbsp of soaked urad dal aside.
5. Grind the rest of the urad dal in a grinder without adding water.
6. When the dal is ground to around 50 %, add salt, around 10 curry leaves, 2 green chillys, 1/2 inch ginger and keep grinding.
7. After sometime when the batter becomes very thick, sprinkle very little water and keep grinding. Follow this every now and then until you get a smooth batter. The whole process took around 40 minutes in my grinder.
8. Take out the batter from the grinder, add the 2 tbsp of urad dal.
9. Chop the rest of the green chilly, curry leaves and ginger into very small pieces and add to the batter and mix well.
10. Refrigerate the batter for around 2 hours.

Procedure to make the vada

1. Add the required amount of oil for deep frying, in a kadai/pan and keep in medium flame.
2. Take out the batter from the fridge.
3. Take a small plastic cover(I used cleaned nandini milk cover), sprinkle some water over it and wipe it off. This is done to prevent the batter from sticking to the cover.
4. Take a medium sized ball of batter, put it on the cover with some force so that the batter flattens when falling on the plastic cover. If it does not flatten, press it with the fingers. Make a hole at the centre with the index finger.
5. Take the flattened batter carefully.(Keep the cover in a tilted position, take out the batter with the thumb from the side, tilt the cover more, simulataneously taking out the batter from the side until the whole of the batter is in the palm. The bottom side of the batter in the plastic cover would now be the top side in your palm.)
6. Another easy method is to take the batter in hand, flatten with the thumb, make a hole in the centre and put in the oil.
7. Once the oil is hot, add the flattened batter in the oil.(I added 4 at a time. It mainly depends upon the size of the kadai.)
8. Half way through, flip the vada so that it gets fried evenly on both the sides. Frying vadas in high flame might not cook the inside of the vadas properly. When the vadas turn golden brown in color and when the oil bubbles almost dies out, it is ready to be removed from the oil.
9. Take out from the oil(if needed remove excess oil) and put in the prepared dahi.(procedure below). Do the same for the rest of the batter.

Procedure to make the dahi

1. When the oil is heating, blend curd without adding water. (We do this using "matthu", a wooden stick with a round spiked bottom)
2. Pour the blended curd in a wide mouthed bowl.
3. Add chilly powder and salt and mix well.

Procedure to set the vada in dahi

1. As and when the vadas are fried, put them in the prepared dahi.
2. Once all the vadas are put, refrigerate the dahi vada.

Procedure to serve the dahi vada

1. Just before serving, take out the dahi vada from the fridge.
2. Place 2 to 3 vadas in individual small bowls. Add 2 tbsp of thick curd, sprinkle chat masala powder and salt, add the boondhi and finally garnish with coriander.
3. Serve immediately.

Note: Chopped onion can be added to the batter to get softer vadas. A little (1 or 2 tbsp) rice flour can be added to the batter to get crispier vadas. I guess, if grinder is not there, batter can be prepared using mixer, but the vadas might not be that soft.

This is my entry to EC's WYF-Fried Snacks event. Raks had posted the recipe for vada few days back with very good photos including step by step procedure.

Mango frozen yogurt

2009-07-18T13:03:00.010+05:30

Who would not want to try the blueberry frozen yogurt after seeing it in RC's blog? There are only 3 ingredients and its so easy to put everything together and the result is such a good looking dessert..As I don't get blueberries here, I used ripe mangoes. I had to make slight modification to the recipe, which involved some extra work. We don't get greek yogurt here and I thought using homemade yogurt as it is would not yield good result.(There is lot of water content in it) So I hung the yogurt overnight and the next day I got a nice creamy yogurt devoid of water content perfect to use in the recipe. Here is the recipe as adapted from Supriya's.

Ingredients to serve 5

Homemade Yogurt/curd: 4 cups(to get one cup creamy yogurt after hanging overnight)
Pureed Ripe Mango: 1 cup(I used neelam variety, got 1 cup puree from 3 small sized mangoes)
Sugar: 1/2 cup(can be adjusted according to the tartness of both the mango and the curd)
Chopped cashew and badam for garnish(optional)

Procedure

1. Pour the curd in a muslin cloth placed on top of a wide bowl. (I used a cotton cloth)
2. Bring together the cloth and tie with a rope.
3. Hang the cloth and place a bowl below it to collect the water dripping.(Water is collected just to keep the place clean. It has to be thrown away. :-))
4. I hung it overnight on a steel knob connected to the water purifier. I did not find any better place. I would have preferred to hang the cloth in the refrigerator, but could not do it.)
5. The next day, add the cut mangoes and sugar in a mixer and puree it. Taste it. Add more sugar if needed.
6. In a bowl, mix the puree and the hung curd. (I did this using a hand blender.)
7. Place in a wide bowl and freeze it for 2 to 3 hours or till it hardens.(Mine took almost 3 hours)
8.Take it out, mix with a flat ladle to break the hardened mixture. Again place it in the freezer. I filled small jelly moulds with the mixture and froze it.
9. Remove from the freezer, 5 minutes before serving so that it loosens a bit. Scoop out and garnish with chopped almonds and cashew.

Gorgeous frozen dessert is ready to be relished. It tasted more like frozen mango flavoured shrikand.. :-)

Note: If using thick store bought yogurt, hanging it is not needed. For homemade yogurt, it is better to hang it atleast for 4 hours if not overnight. As I hung the curd overnight at room temperature, it was a bit sour. After blending the puree and yogurt, it can be tasted to check for the sourness. If it is very sour, more powdered sugar can be added and mixed.

Eggless whole wheat banana muffins

2009-07-18T10:53:00.007+05:30

I have been postponing to make banana based muffins for a long time for the simple reason that I don't like bananas. I thought its high time that I overcome this feeling. So I baked these healthy muffins following Stephanie's recipe and replacing eggs with apple sauce along with a couple of changes to the original recipe.. I actually need not have used apple sauce as banana itself is supposed to be an egg substitute.. I could have just increased the quantity of banana. As there was one apple lying in the fridge for so many days unattended, I used it in the recipe by converting it into an apple sauce.The muffins tasted better than I expected. In fact, it tasted very nice and the texture was very soft too with walnuts here and there while chewing....There was no raw wheat smell this time. The taste was a bit cinnamony as I added it a bit more in an attempt to remove raw wheat flour smell. Overall the muffins came out very good and it made for a healthy, filling breakfast..The breaking news is, my son too ate one whole muffin..Its kind of a record.. :-)

Ingredients to make 15 medium sized muffins

Whole Wheat flour: 2 cups(I used ashirvad aata)
Mashed Ripe Banana: 1 cup(Original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups.)
Baking Powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Ground Cinnamon: 1/4 tsp(I added a bit more than 1/4th tsp)
Apple sauce: 1/2 cup(peel, deseed and chop the apples, microwave it for 8 minutes by adding some water, cool it and mash it in a mixer.)
Golden Syrup: 1/2 cup(Original recipe calls for maple syrup and I didn't have it.)
Brown Sugar/Demerra Powder: 1/2 cup(I powdered it in a mixer)
Milk: 1/3 cup(I used Nandini brand)
Refined Oil: 1/4 cup(I used Sunflower brand, original recipe calls for canola oil)
Vanilla Essence: 1 tsp
Almond Essence: 1 tsp(optional)
Chopped Walnuts: 1/4 cup(Original recipe calls for 3/4th cup)

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degree C.
2. In a big bowl, mix all the dry ingredients except for sugar and sieve once.
3. In another bowl, combine the mashed bananas, apple sauce, golden syrup, brown sugar, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and fold lightly until the mixture is thick. I did this with the plastic spoon that comes with mixer. After folding, some wheat flour was lying without getting mixed, so I added 2 tbsp of milk and combined.(Do not over mix, otherwise it will result in a hard muffin)
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. I filled the batter in muffin liners almost till the top.
6. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Allow it to cool and serve either as it is or by frosting with whipped cream. I had mine with dark chocolate frosting that was left after using it in the eggless whole wheat cake.

Verdict: Everything about this muffin was good. I think, it would have enhanced the flavour if I had added maple syrup instead of golden syrup. Overall a must try recipe.

Note: I pureed one big apple which gave more than 1/2 cup of apple sauce. I guess, just 1/2 an apple is enough to get 1/2 cup apple sauce. It would be better to add 1 1/2 cups of mashed banana(as per the original recipe) instead of just 1 cup. Also, I think any variety of banana is OK as long as it is fully ripened. For the apple sauce, if microwave is not there, the chopped apple can be cooked in gas stove, until the apple becomes soft.

This is my second entry to Madhuram's Whole grain(Eggless) baking event.

Vegan Scones

2009-07-13T20:53:00.007+05:30

When I asked Vaishali of Holy Cow if Scottish dishes are allowed for IAVW-British event, I really did not have any particular dish in mind. But coincidently I made vegan scones which are Scottish in origin. I had been planning to bake the scones since I saw them in so many blogs. This weekend I could and we liked them very much. Especially I loved it with the jam topping. We had them for breakfast before leaving for Innovative Film City for a weekend getaway.

Ingredients to make around 20 scones

All purpose flour: 2 cups
Castor Sugar/Granulated white sugar: 2 tbsp
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Vegan butter: 5 tbsp cold (I used Nutralite)
Soy milk: 1/2 cup
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Jam for topping(I used mixed fruit jam)
Vegan buttercream for topping(optional)

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degree C.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Add butter and rub so that the mixture resembles bread crumbs.(I did this with hand)
4. Make a well in the centre and add the milk and mix to form a soft dough.(Mix lightly without giving much pressure,otherwise the scones will be very hard)
5. Make lemon sized balls of the dough and flatten.
6. Place in a baking tray covered with parchment paper and bake for around 15 minutes or until the top of the scone turns slightly brown.
7. Top the scones with jam and vegan buttercream(I just mixed a tbsp of nutralite with 2 tbsp of icing sugar).

Have it as a breakfast accompanied with some fruit juice or as an evening snack with a hot cup of tea.

This is my entry to IAVW-British hosted by Vaishali.

Peanut and Jaggery balls(Kadalai urundai)

2009-07-13T11:53:00.011+05:30

Some 15 years back if someone had asked in my neighbourhood "Do you know Priya?", the immediate answer would have been "Oh!that girl who just lives on ghee and kadalai mittai(peanut squares)". They would have also added with a sigh "She just troubles her mother by falling sick frequently". How can one fall sick by eating ghee and kadalai mittai.? Well, I used to get giddiness atleast once in a fortnight due to overeating of the above mentioned items..

Nothing can match the taste of the peanut squares that I used to get for 25 paise a piece in the near by potti kadai(small shop)..It was hard, but not so hard to cause a tooth ache, it was sticky but not too sticky that you got to do all sorts of mouth exercise to remove it..

And the ghee....I used to sneak into the kitchen when ever possible and eat 2 spoonfuls when nobody is around..And my most preferred combination was bournvita powder, ghee and sugar...Just awesome....

When I was staying in the hostel during college days, my grandmother used to make kadali urundais and pack it for the hostel..Though it did not tatse like the store bought ones, it was equally tasty in its own right...After college days, I pretty much lost connection with kadali mittai/urundais..When I saw JFI-Peanuts, I had a chance to recollect those bygone days...Now, at 30, I really don't have a desire to eat the kadalai mittais.(though I am tempted to try the bournvita-ghee-sugar combination) But just to relive those memories, I got the recipe from my grandmother and made the kadali urundais at home for the first time with guidance from mother-in-law.

Ingredients

Shelled Peanuts: 1 1/4 cup
Jaggery/Gud: 1 cup(broken into small pieces)
Cardomom powder: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup

Procedure

1. Roast the peanuts in a pan/kadai in low/medium flame for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. To check if it is done, remove 4 to 5 peanuts and rub with the fingers. If the skin comes out easily, its done. Also just eat one or two peanuts to see if it is roasted.
3. Once roasted, remove the skin from the peanuts. This is the most time consuming job. We did it by taking a handful and rubbing with the fingers. Then separated out the peanuts from the removed skin. (During this process the peanuts might split. But that is OK.)
4. In a kadai add jaggery, cardomom powder and water. Keep in medium flame and melt the jaggery. The consistency of the melted jaggery is the most important thing. If it is thin, we can't make balls, if it is to thick, the ball would be very hard. The correct consistency is when you drop a few drops of melted jaggey in a small bowl of water, it should immediately form a small ball. If you take out the ball and throw in the bowl, it should make a sound while hitting the bowl. (This process of melting the jaggery takes around 10 to 15 minutes)
5. Once the jaggery reaches the correct consistency, put off the flame and pour it over the peanuts. Mix with a flat ladle immediately. Make small lemon sized balls as soon as you are able to touch the mixture without feeling very hot.(within 2 minutes of mixing)
6. Allow the peanut balls to cool and store in an air tight container.

Note: The consistency of jaggery is very important and its better to get the help of elders at home if doing for the first time, like I did. You are blessed if you get readymade roasted peanuts with skin removed. Then 70% of the time is saved.

This is my entry to JFI-Peanuts hosted by Pavani, originally started by Indira of Mahanandi.

Eggless whole wheat flour vanilla cake with dark chocolate frosting

2009-07-10T20:08:00.009+05:30

Here is a small poem (if I may say so) as an introduction to this post that has the recipe for eggless whole wheat cake which is also my entry to Whole grain(Eggless)baking event hosted by the very talented Madhuram of egglesscooking.


Wheat flour I use only in dosa and roti,
So whole grain baking event made me jittery.

Whole grain I know is healthy,
Hence switched on the PC
And hunted for some recipe.
Saw a cake that looked spongy.

Baked the cake with some panic,
But the result made me euphoric.

Thanks to the event hostess Madhuram,
I got to bake a cake that was so yum.

Without any further harassment to the readers, here is the recipe as adapted from Recipes4US though I decided to bake the cake after seeing the picture in Sunita's blog.

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour: 1 1/2 cup(I used ashirvad aata)
Castor Sugar: 1 1/4 cup
Baking Powder: 2 tsp
Sunflower oil: 6 tbsp
Warm Water: 1 cup
Vanilla Extract: 1 tsp

Procedure

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degree C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the castor sugar.
3. Add oil, water and vanilla extract and mix well until the mixture is smooth.(I did this with hand for a few seconds)
4. Bake in a greased and parchment paper lined cake pan for 20 to 25 minutes or till the edges begin to brown slightly, and the centre of the cake is springy to the touch.
5. Remove from the oven and take out the parchement paper carefully.

I got 2 cakes. I cut each cake into 2 halves and applied chocolate frosting and layered the cake and applied the frosting all over the cake.

Dark chocolate and whipped cream frosting(adapted from joyofbaking)

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate: around 150 gms(chopped)
Heavy cream: 3/4 cup
Unsalted Butter: 1 tbsp(at room temperature)

Procedure

1. Place the dark chocolate in a bowl and keep aside.
2. Heat cream and butter in a sauce pan over medium heat and bring just to boil.
3. Pour the boiling cream immediately over the chocolate and a;;ow it to stand for few minutes.
4. Stir the mixture until smooth.
5. Let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
6. Beat the mixture until creamy and smooth.
7. If the mixture is a bit loose, freeze it for few minutes so that it comes to applying consistency.
8. Apply on the cake.

Eggless wheat flour cake with dark chocolate frosting is ready.

Verdict: This is the first time I tried wheat flour baking. I should say the cake tasted good. But definitely not as good as its maida counterpart. Also since it does not use butter, the rich taste was missing. But the chocolate frosting helped the cake to taste better. I might not like to eat the cake without the frosting mainly because I got the raw smell of whole wheat in the baked cake. I really appreciate if somebody could suggest a way so that the baked cake does not have the raw wheat flour smell. Surprisingly, the raw smell had reduced a bit the next day when I tasted.(after refrigerating overnight) I would definitely bake whole wheat cake again as it is healthy and taste wise its not that bad..I think I would start liking it once I get used to the wheat flour taste.

Note: The cake was not spongy like Sunita's. I think I baked for a little longer time. If castor sugar is not there, ordinary granulated sugar can be used by reducing the quantity to 3/4 cup.

This is my entry to Whole Grain(Eggless) Baking event hosted by Madhuram.

Rice flour and tamarind upma(Puli Upma)-A family favourite

2009-07-05T19:27:00.007+05:30

We wanted to munch something while watching the wimbledon finals in the evening. Did not feel like making any deep fried item. Last week my mother had given me the recipe for rice flour and tamarind upma(puli upma), a family favourite since my childhood. I made it the first time and it came out really well. My husband liked it very much and it got over even before the match started. :-)

Ingredients to serve 2 adults

Rice flour: 1 cup
Tamarind juice: a little more than 1/4th cup
Mor molagai(chily soaked in curd and sun dried): 2 to 3
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Channa dal: 1 tbsp
Urad dal(split): 1 tbsp
Asofoetida: a pinch
Refined Oil: around 4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. In a bowl mix rice flour, tamarind juice, asofoetida and salt. The mixture should be free of lumps and consistency should be semi soild.
2. In a pan add 4 tbsp oil. Once it is hot, add mustard seeds. When it splutters add urad dal. channa dal and the chillys.
3. Once the dals turn light brown, keep the flame in medium and add the flour mixture and keep stirring.(If not stirred, the mixture gets stuck at the bottom)
4. The Mixture would come togehter like a ball.
5. At this stage pat the mixture with a flat ladle, holding it vertically. Keep doing this till the mixture dries up and separates out and becomes like upma.(around 10 minutes)
6. Remove from heat and serve.

Note: I did not use a non stick pan. If using non stick pan, I think too much of stirring is not needed. If not using mor molagais, ordinary red chilly can be used, but the quantity can be reduced to half. The finished upma can be served by sprinkling some sugar on top.

Baked wheat crackers

2009-07-05T13:22:00.006+05:30

The other day, I was asking my mother to suggest some snacks recipe for my 2 year old son that can be stored for a week or so. She suggested me the good old wheat biscuits(crackers is a term I got aquainted with from the food blogging world.)Wheat biscbuits are nothing but deep fried wheat crackers..After the success of Nippatu, I decided to bake the wheat biscuits instead of deep frying them..Son liked the biscuits, atleast he ate them without spitting.

Ingredients to make around 100 bite sized crackers

Whole wheat flour/Aata: 1 cup
Sesame seeds: 2 tsp
Red chilly powder: a pinch(can be increased)
Butter: 3 tbsp(melted)
Refined Oil: 1/4th cup(or a little less)
Water at room temperature: around 3 to 4 tbsp or just needed to make the dough
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients except water in a bowl to get a crumbly dough.
2. Add water a little at a time to the above mixture to make a soft dough.(like roti dough)
3. Cover the bowl with a lid and set aside for 30 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and make balls out of them.
5. Pre heat the oven to 150 degree C.
6. Roll each ball as much as possible using a rolling pin and cut bite sized diamonds.(I did this using pizza cutter)
7. Bake in a baking tray covered with parchement paper for 5 to 10 minutes or until the crackers turn light brown.  I flipped the crackers half way through in the oven for even baking.

Cripsy baked snack time wheat crackers are ready.

Note: If pizza cutter is not available, big diamonds are squares can be made using knife. I divided the dough into 4 equal parts because my baking tray could hold only around 25 cut dough at a time which was equal to one ball. The baked crackers were crispy but did not have a melt in mouth texture. I think cold butter would help in attaining that kind of a texture. Will try the next time. But my son liked it as it was.

Eggless orange flavoured candied fruits quick bread

2009-07-04T20:48:00.005+05:30

As part of my weekly baking expedition, I made a quick bread following the recipe in joyofbaking. I made a few changes to the original recipe..I first reduced the quantity to half and then replaced half the quantity of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour(as I had only 1 cup all purpose flour left after making Nippatu), added candied fruits and walnuts only(as i did not have cranberrys), also added only orange essence instead of vanilla essence(as I ran out of stock) and last but not the least I omitted egg. Inspite of all these changes the bread tasted very nice..As it uses only 2 tbsp butter and also uses whole wheat flour, it makes for a healthy breakfast too..

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

All purpose flour: 1 cup
Whole wheat flour/Aata: 1 cup
Granulated white sugar: 1/2 cup
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Orange Essence: 1 tsp
Butter: 2 tbsp(melted and cooled)
Milk: 3/4th cup(more if needed)
Candied fruits/tuity fruity: 1/2 cup(I used green, orange, yellow and red color ones)
Walnuts: 1/8th cup(chopped)
Salt: 1/2 tsp

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
2. Sift the flours together.
3. In a bowl mix the sifted flours, sugar, salt and baking powder.
4. In another bowl whisk together the butter, milk and orange essence.(I used an electric blender for this)
5. Then add the flour mixture 3 to 4 tbsp at a time to the wet ingredients and mix.(I did this with hand)
6. During this step, if the batter becomes very thick, more milk can be added. The batter should be of semi solid consistency sticking to the hand.
7. Fold in the candied fruits and chopped walnuts.
8. Pour the batter in a greased loaf tin and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or a fork inserted at the centre of the tin comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely.
10. Make slices, apply butter(optional) and serve.

Note: I think its better to leave the loaf pan in the oven(after switching off) for another 5 minuts even if the fork inserted comes out clean. Thoguh mine was mostly done, there were some sticky unbaked parts..So nect time I would keep the pan in the oven itself for 5 minutes after putting it of.

Nippatu(Baked onion crackers)

2009-07-04T16:32:00.006+05:30

I came across these crispy nippattus in RC's blog. Looking at the comments posted for this recipe, I too decided to bake these delicious crispies..Needless to say it came out very well...I also made another batch of nippatus(I don't know if I can call it that way without the onions and green chilly) without adding onion, coriander leaves and green chilly and instead adding just cashew nuts and a pinch of red chilli powder so that my 2 year old son can also have a less spicy version of the nippatus..But unfortunately, it did not come out well. Texture was OK but it tasted very bitter. I guess its because of the baking soda, may be I should have reduced to less than 1/2 tsp..Will try some other time..But the original version was too good with a crispy and melt in the mouth texture.

I just followed the recipe in RCs blog but reducing the quantity to half.

Ingredients to make around 20 medium sized nippatus

Maida/All purpose flour: 1 cup
Onion: 1 small size(finely chopped)
Green chilly: 1 long(cut into circular fine pieces)
Baking Soda: 1/2 tsp
White Sesame seeds: 2 tsp
Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste(arond 1/2 tsp)
Refined Oil: 1/6th cup
Water: Just needed to make the dough(around 2 to 3 tbsp)

Procedure

1. Add all the dry ingredients, onion and green chily in a bowl and mix.
2. Add oil and mix well.
3. Add butter and mix well. Dough wouldn't have formed at this stage..It would be still in crumbles.
4. Add water a little at a time just enough to make the dough(the consistency can be like that of roti/puri dough)
5. Close the bowl with a lid and set aside for 30 minutes.
6. Pre heat the oven to 160 degree C.
7. Make small rounds of the dough and flatten it on a smooth surface..(I flattened using my fingers by pressing the dough on the stone in which I make roti. Granite slab can also be used for this purpose.)
8. Place the flattened dough on a baking tray covered with parchment paper.(I used a butter paper that we get here)
9. Poke holes on the flattened dough.(I did it with the sharp edge of a pair of scissors)
9. Bake until the nippatus turn slightly brown.(It took just 10 minutes in my oven)
10. Cool and store in an air tight container.

Note: I flipped the nippatus half way through in the oven for even baking on both sides. For the less spicy version, I just added a few chopped cashew nuts(around 10) and a pinch of red chilli powder and completely avoided using onion, coriander leaves and green chilly. But as I mentioned earlier, it was bitter, mostly because of the baking soda.

Rava/Semolina idli(Steamed semolina and yogurt mixture)

2009-06-20T16:27:00.011+05:30

I can say without doubt that rava idli is one of the healthiest, easiest and tastiest breakfasts suitable for all ages. I have been making rava idlis using the readymade MTR rava idli mixture. I was lucky enough to get the recipe from one of my colleagues to prepare the batter without using the readymade mixture. It just involves seasoning and mixing the seasoned mixture with yogurt and steam them in idli maker. It is as simple as that.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients to make 20 rava idlis

Rava/Semolina: 2 cups(around 270 gms)
Carrot: grated: 1 cup(around 90 gms)
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: around 10 leaves
Coriander leaves: a few
Green chilly: 1 medium size cut into small pieces
yogurt/curd: 3 to 4 cups(around 600 to 800 gms)
Refined Oil: 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Tomato: 1, cut into very thin rounds for garnishing(optional)
Cashew: around 15 piece fried in ghee(optional)

Procedure

1. In a pan/kadai, add the oil. Once it is hot, add the mustard. When it splutters, add green chilly, curry leaves and coriander leaves.
2. Saute for few seconds. Then add rava and stir in low/medium flame until it turns light brown in color.
3. Add carrot, cashew and salt and mix well. Remove from heat.
4. Place the mixture in a big bowl and add the curd/yogurt and mix well.
5. The mixture should be semi solid in consistency. Leave the mixture for 30 minutes.
6. The mixture would have thickened a bit by now. So add some water or curd to make it to a pourable consistency.
7. Pour the batter into idli maker, keep tomato piece on top and steam for 5 to 7 minutes in a pressure cooker.(without putting the weight)
8. Remove from the cooker after 10 minutes and serve with coconut chutney.(coconut chutney can be prepared by grinding 4 to 5 tbsp of grated coconut, 2 tbsp of roasted channa dal(pori kadalai), 1 green chilly and a small piece of tamarind in a mixer. Then season the ground chutney with mustard useeds and urad dal and add salt to taste.

Healthy rava idli and tasty chutney is ready.

Note: I generally don't make it very spicy. So, the green chilly can be increased accordingly.

I am sending this to Show me your breakfast event hosted by Divya Vikram and EFM Theme -Breakfast Series hosted by Srilekha of Srishkitchen.

Update:My friend who gave this recipe took time to visit the blog. Seeing that the rava idli was a bit hard, she said that cooking soda(less than 1/4th tsp) can be added to make softer. So next time I might do that, though I liked it as it is.

Spinach(palak) and carrot rice

2009-06-20T15:28:00.009+05:30

I have been thinking of making spinach and carrot rice eversince I saw the recipe in Tarla Dalal's mini series cookbook titled Fun food for children. The only reason I kept on postponing was, I was not sure if my 2 year old son would eat it or not. Finally I got to make it this weekend. Surprsingly, my son ate it and we all too liked it very much. According to Tarla Dalal, its a easy, healthy, colorful and tasty dish and I too second it.

I did not use onions and garlic(mentioned in the original recipe) as I was not sure if my son would like it(we have not introduced him to onions and garlic as yet), also I am not a big fan of onion.:-) Son had the rice as it is, we had with onion raita(onion pieces mixed with seaosoned yogurt)

Ingredients to serve four adults

Cooked rice: 4 cups or 670 gms(I used Basmati rice)
Palak/Spinach: 3 1/2 cups or 200gms(chopped into small pieces)
Carrot: 1 1/2 cups or 170 gms(grated)
Cumin seeds: 1 tbsp
Pepper powder: 1/2 tsp
Onion: 2 sliced(I did not use it)
Garlic: 2 large cloves(I did not use it)
Seasoning cube(vegetarian): 1(I did not use it)
Butter: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Heat butter in a pan/kadai and add the cumin seeds.
2. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add the carrots and spinach and saute for another 2 minutes.
4. Add the cooked rice, seasoning cube, pepper powder, salt and 1/4 cup and mix well.(I did not add water)
5. Cook on low flame for 5 to 7 minutes till the moisture evaporates.(as I did not add water, I removed from heat after mixing well)

Healthy spinach and carrot rice is ready.

Note: I did not add onions as I have not yet introduced onions to my son. I think for older kids, onions and garlic can be added and it would definitely improve the taste of the dish. It is also mentioned in the book that 1/2 cup of uncooked rice makes approximately 2 cups of cooked rice.

I am sending this to Cooking for kids-Leafy greens guest hosted by Pavani, event originally started by Sharmi and EFM Theme -Breakfast Series hosted by Srilekha of Srishkitchen.

Plums Crumble

2009-06-18T21:40:00.006+05:30

Food blogs introduced me to fruit crumbles. I wouldn't have known about thier existence, if it were not for those wonderful food blogs that I visit. When I bought plums yesterday, only crumble came to my mind. I agree, plums can be eaten as it is, but these days, anything I buy, the first thing that comes to my mind is, "can I make something different using this"..May be that is the side effect of blogging and blog hopping...

I saw the definiton for crumble in wiki which says, its stewed fruits with a cripsy topping usually made of flour, sugar and butter. I made a fruit crumble using the plums.(though I did not stew the plums) The crumble tasted very nice though the tartness of the plums was prominent. The dark red color of the baked fruit was very striking.(though I have not captured well in the pictures. :-) )

Ingredients for the fruit mixture to serve 4 adults

Plums: 170 gms after removing the seed or around 10 to 12 numbers(de-seeded and cut into medium sized pieces)
Brown sugar: 2 tbsp(can be varied based on the tartness of the fruit)
Cinnamon: a pinch(optional)
Nut meg: a pinch(optional)

Ingredients for the topping

All purpose flour: 1 cup(130 gms)
Granulated white sugar: 2 tbsp
Butter: 100 gms which is little less than half a cup (cold and cut into small pieces)
Salt: less than 1/8th of a tsp

Procedure

1. Mix all the ingredients in the fruit mixture(plums, brown sugar, cinnamon and nut meg) in a bowl and keep aside for 15 minutes.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar
3. Add butter to the flour mixture and mix such that it is crumbly.(I ran a stand mixer for 3 to 4 seconds to get a crumbly dough)Do not make a soft dough, otherwise it will not be that cripsy after baking.
4. In a baking tray, first spread the fruit mixture evenly.(I used a pie tin)
5. Then spread the topping over the fruit mixture.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at 160 degree C or until the topping turns light brown in color.

Note: As I used a pie tin to bake the crumble, I first spread some dough in the corners of the tin to avoid leakage of fruit mixture. The plums had very strong tartness due to which the crumble was very sour. So, I will not try a plum crumble again(unless the plums are sweet), but will try with other fruits like apple.Next time I might try topping the fruit with crushed biscuits and oats to make it low fat..

Mango fruit fool

2009-06-17T19:43:00.008+05:30

I had the mangoes and Srivalli's mango mela event..I also had the heavy whipping which I bought in IBCA(Institute for baking and cake art,Bangalore) after searching in almost half a dozen supermarkets...In one of the super markets, when I asked for the heavy cream, the sales girl gave me a shaving cream!!!!!Its that difficult to get the heavy cream here...

I just used the cream once when I made eggless chocolate pudding. I was so happy to see the stiff peaks forming while whipping the cream...I wanted to use the cream again, this time with mangoes..I googled and was surprised to find that there are indeed recipes using pureed fruits and whipped cream and are called fruit fools. I saw many recipes for strawberry fruit fool. I came up with my own version of mango fruit fool.

The recipe goes like this..

Ingredients to make two pudding cups of fruit fool.

Ripe mango: 1(around 350 gms) to make around 200 gms of puree.
Granulated white sugar: 2 tbsp each for the puree and cream.(add more sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit)
Heavy whipping cream: 150 gms
Few peeled and cut mango pieces for garnishing(optional)

Procedure to make the mango puree

1. Peel the mango, take the pulp from the seed and mash it in a mixer by adding 2 tbsp of sugar.
2. Once it is pureed nicely, place it in a bowl.

Procedure to make the cream

1. Whip the cream and 2 tbsp of sugar in low and medium speeds using a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.(it took around 3 to 4 minutes)

Procedure to make the fruit fool

1. Fold in the mango puree with the whipped cream gently leaving some white streaks of the cream.
2. Tranfer to pudding cups and garnish with cut mango pieces if needed.

Delicious mango fruit fool is ready..

Instead of making fruit fool with all the puree, I tried setting layers of mango puree and the fruit fool in a glass.

I did the following for that.

1. Took half the mango puree(100 gms) in a separate bowl.
2. Whipped only 80 gms of cream and made the fruit fool with the remaining 100 gms of puree by following the method provided above.
3. In a glass, first added some puree and cut mango pieces.
4. On top of it added some fruit fool, then added again the puree and mango pieces and then the fruit fool.
5. Garnished with some cut mango pieces and a cherry.

It tasted fantastic and makes for a great dessert after a feast.

I am sending this recipe to Srivalli's Mango mela event.

Short bread cookies with mixed fruit jam topping

2009-06-10T20:32:00.009+05:30

Short bread cookies are very easy to make in terms of the number of ingredients used, expertise required to make the dough etc, but when it comes to actually baking the cookies, it is really a time consuming job. You need to first refrigerate the dough for an hour, then flatten the dough, cut the cookies and again refrigerate for 15 minutes, then bake them. If the quantity of dough is less, the cookies can be done in one go. But if you are making in bulk, cutting bite sized cookies and baking them in batches.... its not a very pleasant experience. But if you are making the cookies for your near and dear ones to give away as gifts, then there is nothing joyful than making these wonderful, little, soft and crispy shortbread cookies...

I made these shortbread cookies to be given to my parents, sister, uncle, aunty and above all my grandmother when I will be visting them this weekend.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients to make around 80 bite sized cookies

Unsalted Butter: 227 gms
All purpose flour/Maida: 260 gms
Icing sugar: 65 gms
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Mixed fruit jam for topping the cookie: 2 tbsp (optional)

Procedure

1. Mix flour and salt in a bowl and keep aside.
2. Cream the butter until it is smooth.
3. Add sugar to the butter and beat until smooth. Add vanilla essence and beat.(I did step 1 and 2 using electric blender)
4. Add the flour mixture to sugar and butter mixture and mix just until soft dough is formed.(I did this with hand.) First it will stick to the hand. Slowly and softly bring the dough together.
5. Flatten the dough slightly with hands and place in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.(I placed the dough in a plastic cover and refrigerated for the first 55 minutes and freezed it the last five minutes)
6. Keep ready a baking sheet lined with parchement paper.(I use butter paper)
7. Lightly flour the surface where dough will be rolled. Also lightly flour the cookie cutters.
8. Flatten the dough using a rolling pin or hand.(I did with hand. I took only 1/4th of the dough from the refrigerator as I could bake only around 20 cookies at a time due to the size of my oven)
9. Cut the dough using cookie cutter. Place very little quantity of jam on top of each cookie. Place in the baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.(Thickness of the cookie can be decided by ones one judgement)
10. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes in a preheated oven.
11. Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the dough.

Enjoy the cookies with your dear ones.

Note:
1. For parts measurement, for 1 part of sugar, add 2 parts of butter and 3 parts flour.
2. If cookie cutter is not available, the dough can be made into small balls, flattened using the palm and baked.
3. Its not necessary to wait till the cookies are completelty baked. It can be removed from the oven when the top part of the cookie is still a bit soft. It will harden with its own heat.
4. Using jam is completely optional.

Power packed baked cereal

2009-06-09T19:44:00.007+05:30

I bought a mini series book on "fun food for kids" by Tarla Dalal some time back. This is the first ever cook book that I have bought. I misplaced the book somewhere within a week of buying it. Last weekend I found the book and was reading through the recipes. With Madhuram's low fat(Eggless) baking event round the corner, I thought of making the power packed cereal, provided in the book. Also I had all the ingredients available.

Overall the cereal tasted good. Its mentioned in the book that this cereal makes a high carbohydrate breakfast for kids.But I might not have the cereal as a breakfast, but would prefer eating as a snack. The cereal is quite healthy too as it uses very less oil and the cereals and nuts are baked in an oven to get a crispy texture.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients

Rolled Oats: 150 gms(I had Quaker brand Oats and I think it was not rolled oats)
Corn flakes: 25 gms(I used Kellogs brand, the original flavour)
Brown Sugar/Demerra sugar: 70 gms
Nuts: 50 gms(a mixture of chopped walnut, cashew and almond)
Sesame seeds: 1 tbsp(I used white ones)
Salt: 1/4th tsp
Water: 50 ml
Vegetable Oil: 3 tbsp(I used 2 tbsp refined oil)
Vanilla Essence: 1/2 tsp
Raisins: 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Mix oats, corn flake, sesame seeds, corn flakes, brown sugar and nuts in a bowl.
2. Mix oil, water, vanilla essence and salt in a separate bowl and whick together.(I did it with a spoon)
3. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Spread the mixture in a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 degree C for 20 to 30 minutes or until it turns crisp and golden brown.(Stir occasionally when the mixture is in the oven, otherwise it might get burnt.)
5. Add raisins and store in an air-tight container.

It can be served with milk and fruits.

Note: I added some milk and sugar to the baked cereal and had. It tasted yummy.

This is my entry to Madhuram's Low fat(Eggless) baking event.

Eggless chocolate pudding

2009-06-07T14:21:00.011+05:30

I had been thinking of making an eggless chocolate pudding for a long time. This weekend I fulfilled my cravings for this pudding. I got so many recipes for eggless chocolate pudding in the net. I took the best from each of the recipes and came up with my own. Few websites I browsed are recipezaar, informationsindia, tammys etc. The pudding tasted very nice. As Stephanie had mentioned we had it with softly whipped cream topping. It was just delicious.

Ingredients to serve 2 adults

Milk: 150 ml
Heavy cream: 30 gms
Granulated white sugar: 35 gms
Cocoa powder: 8 gms
Corn flour/Corn starch: 10 gms
Salted/Unsalted Butter: 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1/2 tsp
Salt: a pinch

Procedure

1. Mix sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Add little milk(around 5 tbsp) to the mixture and mix well to form a smooth paste.
3. In a sauce pan, pour the rest of the milk and cream and bring to a boil. Switch off the stove.
4. Pour the paste mixture into the sauce pan and mix well.
5. Keep the sauce pan in a stove under medium heat. Stir constantly(otherwise it might form lumps) till the mixture becomes thick(pudding consistency).
6. Remove from heat.
7. Add butter and vanilla extract and mix well.
8. Pour into bowls.
9. It can be had warm or refrigerated.

For garnishing, a tbsp of heavy cream can be whipped until it forms soft peaks and put over the pudding.

Delicious eggless chocolate pudding is ready.

Note:Special care needs to be taken when the pudding is in the stove, otherwise it might form lumps. So it is better to keep stirring slowly till it reaches the pudding consistency.

Eggless chocolate chip vanilla muffins

2009-06-06T13:22:00.011+05:30

I have tried so many of Stephanie's recipes(substituting eggs wherever required), few I have posted in my blog, few I have not...Not even a single recipe has failed so far. The measurements are just perfect and it is so nice of her to give both cup and gms measurements which is one of the the main reasons why I always go back to her website for baking recipes..

Yes, I can just post the photos of the item that I bake and provide the link to her recipe and stop there. But I wouldn't want to do that for 2 reasons..Firstly, I make some alterations to the recipe(based on availablity of ingredients and preferences) which I would like to document.Secondly, if for some reason the site becomes unavailable to me (which I hope would never happen), then how would I ever bake all those wonderful cakes, cookies, muffins....

So here is the recipe for chocolate chips muffins that I adapted from joyofbaking. After getting stuck in the infamous banglaore-BG road traffic jam 2 kms from home in a bus, covering the 2 kms by walk on a road with knee deep rain water for almost 500 metres, with one of the sandals torn half way, covering the rest of the distance with a bare foot sometimes over slippery heaps of mud and huge stones, I still had the enthusiasm to bake this choco chip muffin after coming back home. One can imagine how much I am inspired by the wonderful website called the joyofbaking.

The muffins did not let me down. It was softer and moister than I expected with a nice combination of vanilla and chocolate flavour. It was a soothing end to my ordeal with the rain- flooded bg road.

Ingredients to make around 15 muffins

Unsalted butter: 113 gms(melted and cooled)
Curd/Yogurt: 150 gms
Milk: 240 ml
Vanilla extract: 1 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour/Maida: 260 gms
Granulated white sugar: 135 gms
Baking powder: 1 tbsp
Salt: 1/4th tsp (1/2 tsp in original recipe)
Chocolate chips: 100 gms (Original recipe calls for 175 gms)

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 190 degree C
2. Grease the muffin tin or place the paper liners.(I did the latter)
3. In a bowl, whish together the curd, milk and vanilla extract.(I used a hand blender for this)
4. In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.
5. Fold in the wet ingredients and butter into the dry ingredients.(I did this with hand)
6. Stir onyl until the ingredients are combined well.
7. Fill each muffin cup with the batter upto 3/4th of the cup.
8. Place the tin in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted at the centre of the cup comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and allow it to cool.

Vanilla flavoured muffins with gooey chocolate chips just tastes delicious.

Note: I deviated from the procedure twice by mistake. Firstly, I mixed the butter also with curd, milk and vanilla extract. Secondly, I folded in the chocolate chips after mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ones.But overall, the muffin looked and tasted great.

According to the original post,Over mixing of the batter would result in tough muffins.For even heating, fill the emtpy muffin cups with some water.

Almond shortbread

2009-06-02T20:41:00.008+05:30

I had almost decided to take a break from blogging as I could not cope up with office, home, kid and blogging.

But that is not to happen. A couple of days back my close friend from college called me(may after 2 years or so) to say that she just discovered my blog and gave a word or two of appreciation about my posts. She also instantly became a follower of my blog. I got the much needed motivation from her at the right time and here I am to post my recipe for almond short bread which I baked last weekend. (Eventhough I don't blog frequently, I have not given up my weekend baking expeditions.)

As usual I adapted this recipe from Stephanie's joyofbaking.

The baked shortbread was crumbly in texture like a cookie, and it tasted perfect, neither too sweet nor too salty.

The definition for shortbread can be found in wikipedia.

Here is the recipe to make 8 shortbread wedges.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter: 113 gms (at room temperature )
Granulated white sugar: 50 gms
Vanilla extract: 1/2 tsp
All-purpose flour/Maida: 85 gms
Almond flour (meal): 30 gms(I did not have this, so I added a tbsp of almond essence)
Rice flour or corn flour: 25 gms(I used rice flour)
Salt: 1/8th tsp
Flaked almonds for decorating the top of the shortbread

As I did not have almond meal, I increased the quantity of all purpose flour and rice flour each by 10 gms.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C
2. Grease an 8 inch (20 cm) tart pan with a removable bottom.(I think mine is a bit bigger than the size mentioned here. But still I used that.)
3. Cream butter and sugar until smooth (about 2 minutes, I used an electric blender)
4. Beat in the vanilla extract.I added almond essence also at this stage.
5. In another bowl mix together the flours and salt. Add this mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and beat just until incorporated.
6. Press the shortbread dough evenly into the tart pan.(I used a spatula for this)
8. Using a sharp knife, make shallow lines on the dough starting from centre to get 8or 12 wedges.
9. Gently press the flaked almonds.(I just placed whole almonds at the centre of each wedge)
10. Place in preheated oven and bake until it is browned(medium brown color)about 40-45 minutes.
11. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool.
12. Cut along the already made lines to get the shortbread wedges.

Note: I generally set the oven such that the lower coil is heated during pre-heating and both upper and lower coils are heated when I keep the batter/dough inside the oven. Otherwise, the heating is not even and the baked dish gets burnt at the bottom.

Carrot Poli-A sweet dish

2009-05-17T16:06:00.007+05:30

I came across the recipe for carrot poli when I was browsing the net for carrot recipes that I have not tried before. Yes, I was trying to find a nice carrot recipe to participate in Sanghi's FIL-Carrot event. I liked the recipe for carrot poli, firstly because it was a sweet dish and secondly I have never made this before.

The polis came out well. I did it in a very small quantity as I was trying this recipe for the first time.

I would like to dedicate this recipe to the event hostess Sanghi as I wouldn't have searched for a carrot recipe in the net and come across this delicious recipe for carrot polis, had it not been for her event. I guess the whole credit for this carrot recipe as well as the dedication goes to Sanghi. The website where I found the original recipe has a very good collection of vegetarian recipes.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients to make around 6 polis

Carrot: 70 gms(grated)
Sugar: 75 gms
Water: 100 ml
Maida/all purpose flour: 100 gms
Ghee: 2 tsp
Saffron: 2 to 3
Cardamom powder: powder of one cardomom
Salt a pinch

Procedure for the stuffing

1. Cook the carrot with water, till all the water dries up.
2. When cool, grind into a puree in a blender, without adding any water.
3. Add sugar and cook in a pan, till the mixture becomes dry.
4. Add one tsp of ghee, saffron and cardamom.
5. Cook till the mixture becomes thick.
6. Remove and keep aside to cool and harden.

For the dough

1. Mix maida, one tsp of ghee and salt into a firm dough.

To make the carrot poli

1. Take a small ball of dough and with a greased palm, spread it thinly on a greased plastic sheet. (I used milk cover)
2. Place 1/2 teaspoon of carrot filling in the centre.
3. Cover with the dough and pat again into a round circle.
4. Shallow fry till golden on both sides with a little ghee.
Offer hot.

This is my entry to Sanghi's FIL-Carrot event

Akki(Rice) Roti

2009-05-03T12:35:00.007+05:30

Akki(Rice) roti is a famous karnataka breakfast dish. I have had these rotis in restaurants in Bangalore and also have tasted a homemade roti few years ago when my colleague brought it for lunch. I have tried making these rotis a couple of times. Though it was eatable, I could not get the perfect rotis.

Today I felt like eating these rotis. I browsed a couple of food blogs and liked the recipe in padmaskitchen. I followed her recipe and the akki rotis came out good, definitely better than before. I did not have the batter as thin as she had. I think because of that my rotis were a bit hard. Next time, I will have to try with proper consistency. Also, flattening the batter in a room temperature pan is a good information and I think that really made the difference. We had the rotis with coconut-dalia(pori kadalai) chutney. Its a very filling and tasty breakfast and definitely different from the dosas and idlis we generally have.

Here is the recipe as adapted from Padmaskitchen. She has given detailed pictures too.

Ingredients to make 10 to 12 rotis

Rice flour: 600 gms 
Onion: 1 cut into small pieces(150 gms)
carrot: 1 grated(50 gms )
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp 
Coriander leaves: chopped
Green chillies: 2 long(cut into small circular pieces)
Yogurt/curd: 150 gms
Water: 250 ml or as required to bring the batter to the correct consistency
Refined Oil: For making the rotis
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Mix rice flour, carrot, onion, salt, cumin seeds and coriander leaves.(I did not use coriander leaves this time as I did not have it.)
2. Add yogurt to the above mixture and mix well.
3. Add water little by little to bring the batter to the correct consistency.(In Padma's words, the batter should be of uttappam batter's consistency and not that of dosa's)
4. In a room temperature pan, add little oil(less than 1/4th tsp) and spread well.
5. Take the batter in hand and put at the centre of the pan.
6. Flatten the batter with the fingers.(If the batter sticks, little oil can be applied to the fingers. Thats what I did)
7. Spread some oil(less than 1/4th tsp) on top of the batter too.
8. Keep the pan in a stove. Turn around the roti once the bottom side is cooked well. (It will take around 2 to 4 minutes for the roti to get cooked well. The cooked roti will be light brown in color.)
9. For the next roti, run the bottom side of the pan in cold tap water, so that the temperature is reduced and repeat the same procedure.

Tasty and filling akki roti is ready. It tastes best when eaten hot with coconut chutney.

Granola Bars

2009-04-26T15:53:00.008+05:30

I bought this wonderful mini series book "Fun food for children" by Tarla Dalal. I wanted to try something from the book today that is simple to make and for which I have the ingredients at hand. I decided on granola bars as I had some corn flakes lying for more than 6 months, I guess. The granola bars came out very well. Because of some mistakes that I did, there were some small hiccups with the taste. But for those mistakes, it would have been a perfect munchy snack.

Here is the recipe for the granola bars

The book has given the measurements in cup, but since I prefer to measure in gms with my kitchen scale, I first took the ingredietns in a cup(I am yet to check if the cup I have is a standard one) that I have and weighed them in my kitchen scale.

Ingredients to make around 15 pieces

Crushed Cornflakes: 50 gms(I used Kellogs brand and I crushed the corn flakes with fingers)
Quick Rolled Oats: 70 gms(I used Quakers brand Oats)
Dry fruits: around 15 pieces of cashew, 10 pieces of walnuts(can use almonds and pistachios too)
Dried grapes: 1 tbsp
Sugar: 300 gms
Melon seeds: 2 tbsp(I did not use this as I did not have)
Refined oil to grease

Procedure
1. Lightly roast oats, nuts and melon seeds and keep aside to cool.(I roasted all of them together as I mixed them, by mistake, before roasting. Next time I wil roast individually)
2. When cooled, mix together the corn flakes, taosted oats, melon seeds, nuts and dried grapes.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, add sugar and melt it over gentle heat, stirring continuously till the sugar is light brown in color. This is called caramelization. 
4. Remove from heat, add rest of the ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour this mixture onto a greased marble or stone surface.
6. Using a greased rolling pin, roll out the mixture to form a square.( Even if you are not able to make a square, its OK. The mixture has to be rolled to get the desired thickness for the bars when cut)
7. While it is warm, cut out rectangle bars.

Munchy granola bar is ready.

Note

1. I used the refined oil that was already used for frying papad. Hence the granola bars had a very strong smell of the reused oil. This is a nice lesson learnt for me. I will never reuse the already used oil for greasing. My mother's suggestion is to use ghee instead of oil for greasing which I will follow the next time.
2. I think I heated the sugar a bit more because of which the bars where a bit hard to bite. Correct consitency of the sugar syrup is very important, I guess.

The original recipe was just perfect. If I had not done these two mistakes, the granola bars would have come out really good. I will definitely make these bars again.

Pongal-Sambar: A South Indian breakfast

2009-04-26T09:44:00.018+05:30

Pongal and sambar has been a favourite at our home since my childhood. My mother makes a kind of sambar that equals hotel sambar(that we get in our native city) in taste. The best part of this sambar is that it does not require any seasoning and it is oil free..Can you believe it!!!Yet it just tastes great and truly mouth watering.

Yes, we need to add around 3 tbsps of ghee and oil to make the pongal. But considering the fact that the pongal that is made with the above said quantity of oil and ghee serves 7 adults, I think its OK.

So here is the recipe for one of the most famous South Indian breakfasts.

Ingredients for pongal that serves 7 adults

Rice: 450 gms
Moong dal: 150 gms
Water: 1/2 cup more water for every cup of rice that we use generally to cook rice.
Pepper: 1 1/2 tbsp
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Refined Oil: 3 tbsp
Ghee: 3 tbsp
Cashew: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Coarsely grind pepper and cumin together.
2. Wash rice and moong dal and pressure cook. Allow 4 whistles.
3. Fry cashew in a tbsp of ghee.
4. After frying cashew, in the remaining ghee, fry cumin and pepper powder.(just for 30 seconds)If ghee is not enough to grind the powder, add some more.
5. Remove rice from pressure cooker.
6. Add oil, remaining ghee, salt, fried powder and cashew to the cooked rice and mix well.

"Breakfasty" Pongal is ready

Note: As per cup measurements, for 1 cup of rice, 1/4th cup of moong dal has to be taken.

Ingredients for sambar

Tuvar Dal: 150 gms
Mixed vegetables: 250 gms(can use onion, carrots, pumpkin, tomato, brinjal etc)
Tamarind: 10 gms
Sambar powder: 1/2 tsp(I use MTR sambar powder)
Masala powder: 1/4th tsp(I use MTR masala powder)
Besan/gram flour: 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Cook the vegetables and tuvar dal(I generally pressure cook by putting vegetables in one vessel and tuvar dal in the other one and allowing 2 whistles)
2. Soak tamarind in hot water. Once it is bit cooled, extract juice from tamarind.
3. In a pan/kadai, add the cooked vegetables.(If there is water left in the vegetables after cooking, add that too in the pan.)
4. Add tamarind juice, salt and sambar powder and allow it to boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes off.(around 10 to 15 minutes)
5. Mash boiled tuvar dal with the back of a ladle. If it is very thick add some water.
6. Pour the tuvar dal mixture in the pan and allow it to boil.(around 5 minutes) The sambar can be of thin consistency at this point of time.
7. In a small bowl, mix besan with a tablespoon of sambar and pour back into the pan.
8. Mix well and allow to boil for 2 minutes.
9. Add garam masala, mix well and put off the stove.

Oil free tasty sambar is ready.

Note: This sambar is generally eaten with pongal, idli or vada. To eat with rice, generally this sambar is made.

Thai coconut pancake

2009-04-23T13:55:00.008+05:30

I was browsing the net for vegetarian thai recipes (which I can turn Vegan) to participate in IAVW-Thai event. I found many . I could not try them as most of the tempting recipes called for some regional herbs and vegetables which we don't get here. I did not want to experiment with the ingredients that I have. I stuck to this coconut pancake recipe. As it was a sweet recipe, I knew however the pancake comes out, it would be liked by us sweet lovers..I replaced the eggs in the original recipe with flaxseed meal and added a bit more sugar. I also could not use glutinous rice flour and pandan essence as I did not have them. I also do not know what a glutinous rice flour is.

The pancake tasted great. According to thai.about.com from where I adapted this recipe, these pancakes are like those that they get in thailand night markets.

Ingredients

Coconut milk: 200 ml(I used store bought coconut milk)
Rice flour: 100 gms
Sugar: 6 tbsp(I used granulated sugar so that it can easily dissolve in coconut milk)
Salt: 1/8th tsp
Flax seed meal: 1 tbsp
Water: 3 tbsp
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Refined Oil for frying
Food color: optional(I used orange, yello and green and plain with vanilla flavour)

Procedure

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Whisk flaxseed meal in water in another bowl.
3. Add coconut milk to the whisked flax seed meal and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients to this mixture and mix well to combine.
5. Add food color if desired.
6. Heat pan/tava, add 1/2 tsp oil and spread it. Once the tava is hot, add a laddle of pancake batter.(Need not spread it)
7. Add some more oil over the edges of the pan cake.(1/2 tsp)
8. Once it is fried, turn the pancake so that the top portion is fried well.
9. Once the pan cake is fried well, remove from tava.
10. If desired, garnish with shredded, fried coconut.(I did not do this)

The pancakes were very soft and tasty. I got around 8 pancakes and they got over in 2 minutes.:-)

I am sending this recipe to IAVW-Thai event guest hosted by Priya of Akshayapatram originally started by Vaishali of Holycow.

Eggless chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting

2009-04-21T18:47:00.006+05:30

I was googling this Sunday to get a good, moist eggless chocolate cake recipe that does not use condensed milk. I did not find anything interseting. I went to joyofbaking site to get a chocolate cake recipe and replace the eggs in the recipe with any of the usual substitutes. To my surprise and happiness, I came across a chocolate cake recipe which originally did not use eggs. What more can I ask for..

I baked the cake as per Stephanie's instructions, but with a slight modification with respect to the bowl in which I mixed the ingredients. Instead of mixing the ingredients in the cake pan itself as suggested by her, I did the mixing in a different bowl and then poured the batter in a greased cake pan. I was a bit scared that if I don't grease the pan, the baked cake might get stuck at the bottom.

The cake was real moist and chocolaty. I did the frosting too following her recipe for whipped cream frosting.

This cake is a must try for all eggless bakers..

Ingredients for the cake

All purpose flour: 195 gms
Granulated sugar: 200 gms
Unsalted Butter: 75 gms(melted)
Cocoa powder: 25 gms(I used Weikfield brand)
Warm water: 240 ml
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Baking Soda: 1 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Vinegar or lemon juice: 1 tbsp(I used vinegar)
Salt: less than a fourth tsp

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree C
2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Add butter, water, vinegar, lemon juice and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients
4. Mix well all the ingredients until blended. (I used my hand to do the mixing)
5. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Ingredients for whipped cream frosting

Heavy whipping cream: 236 ml
Vanilla extract: 1/2 tsp
Granulated sugar: 1 tbsp (14 grams)

Procedure

1. In a large bowl add whipping cream, vanilla extract and sugar and stir to combine.
2. Refrigerate the mix for 30 minutes.
3. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.
4. Apply the frosting on the cake.

Note: The original recipe clearly mentions to use unsweetened cocoa pwder and not Dutch processed cocoa. But here, as far as I have seen, we do not get different varieties of cocoa powder. I just used Weikfield brand's cocoa powder.

I tasted the cake immediatley after I baked. It was too bitter to eat. I tried after 2 hours, the top part of the cake which had broken a bit. That too tasted bitter. I was very much worried. The next day,when I had a piece from the cake, it just tasted like a perfect chocolate cake. There was no bitterness at all. I really do not know why it tasted bitter the previous day.

This recipe is adapted from joyofbaking.

Akkaravadisal- a delectable sweet with rice, sugar and milk

2009-04-21T08:29:00.009+05:30

This is one of my favourite sweets and it is one of my grand mother's specialities. I noted down the recipe in my diary long back. I generally make this on special occasions. This is one of my grnadmother's recipes that I would never want to loose and hence blogging it.

This is how my grandmother makes akkaravadisal...

Ingredients that serves 2 spoonfulls for 5 adults

Rice: 70 gms
Sugar: 200 gms
Milk: 200 ml(boiled)
Water: 100 ml
Ghee: 4 1/2 tbsp
Cashew: few pieces(around 10)
Dried grapes: around 10
Orange color: a pinch

Procedure

1. Pressure cook rice by adding milk and water.Allow 4 whistles.
2. In the meantime, fry cashew and dried grapes in 1 tbsp ghee one after the other.
3. Once the rice is cooked, mash it with the back of a laddle.
4. In a pan/kadai, add sugar, cooked rice, color and 3 tbsp ghee and keep in medium flame.
5. Keep stirring slowly, until akkaravadisal starts leaving the sides of the pan.(around 6 to 7 minutes)
6. Add the remaining 1/2 tbsp ghee and mix well. Put off the stove.
7. Garnish with fried cashew and dried grapes.

Delicious akkaravadisal is ready.

Note: My grandmother gave the measurements in terms of ratio which I have converted into gms. In terms of ratio, for 1 measure of rice, we would need 2 1/2 measures of milk, 2 measures of water and 3 measures of sugar.

Stirring is done only to avoid burning/sticking at the bottom. So it need not be done very hard.

I am sending this recipe to Mithai Mela event hosted by Srivalli.

kachaudi dal

2009-04-20T20:51:00.011+05:30

One good thing about the food events is that you get to know about the ingredients that you have never heard before and try to make something with it. If the recipe comes out good, its a double bonus. One such event is Think Spice and the ingredient that is new to me is kalonji. As usual I called my aunty in Calcutta. Without any thinking, she stared giving me the recipe for this very aromatic kachaudi that uses kalonji. I then came to know that she just got this recipe from one of her friends and planning to make them. For people who are not very familiar with the word kachaudi, its kind of a stuffed puri.

When I was making these Kachaudis(and tasting or rather testing it, side by side) I got a nice taste of kalonji. That is when I realised how many times I have eaten this spice put in kachaudis that I used to relish in the Durgapur railway station during my college days.. My mother and husband who have had these kachaudis before in Durgapur and Benaras respectively certified that the kachaudis I made were very authentic. I was elated and thanked my aunty for giving this great recipe which also brought back the memories of my college days.

I also made an aloo-channa dal side dish for the kachaudi.

Recipe for both the items follow.

Kachaudi (around 16 puri sized kachaudis)

Ingredients for the stuffing

Urad dal: 250 gms(split or full, anything is OK. I used full eventhough my aunty told me to use the split ones as I did not have them)
kalonji: 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the dough

All purpose flour/Maida: 300 gms
Wheat flour/Aata: 100 gms(Aata can be completely omitted and 400 gms of maida can also be used)
Water to make the dough
Salt to taste

Refined oil for frying the kachaudis

Procedure

1. Soak urad dal in water for half an hour.
2. Make the kachaudi dough and keep aside.(Procedure is same as how we make puri dough)
3. Drain water from urad dal and grind it in a mixer. Add very little water while grinding. It need not be very smooth, it can be a bit coarse. The consitency should be solid and should be able to hold the mixture in hand.
4. Pressure cook the ground dal by making medium sized flat balls and keeping them in idli container. (Even if idli container is not there, the balls can be placed in an wide mouthed vessel and pressure cooked.) Do not put the weight when the steam starts coming. Put off the stove after 5 minutes.
5. In the meantime, add refined oil in a kadai/pan and keep in medium flame.
6. Remove the cooked dal from cooker once the steam is completely released.(10 to 15 minutes after putting off the stove)
7. Place the cooked urad dal balls in a bowl.
8. Add kalonji and salt to taste.
9. Break the balls by mashing them with hand and mix well so that kalonji and salt are spread evenly.

To make the kacaudis

10. Make small balls.(The size of the ball depends on the size you want the kachaudis to be)
11. Make a bit bigger sized balls than the urad dal stuffing, with the dough.
12. Roll the dough to a small circle.
13. Place the urad dal stuffing at the centre, close it by bringing the rolled dough from all sides and ending at the top.
14. Roll once again to desired sized circle.
15. Once the oil is hot, put the rolled kachaudi in the oil.
16. Fry both sides until light brown. (The kacahudi puffs up like puri when you drop it in the oil)

Aromatic kachaudi is ready.

Dal

Ingredients(that serves 5 to 6 people)

Potato: 450 gms (boil, peel and cut into cubes)
channa dal/Bengal gram: 100 gms (cooked. I generally pressure cook)
green chily: 2 medium size
Cumin seeds: 1 tbsp
Saunf(perunjeeragam in tamil): 1 tbsp
Ginger: a small piece(peeled)
Garlic: 4 to 5 cloves
Tej pattha: 2 to 3 leaves
Refined Oil: 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Grind green chilly, cumin seeds, saunf, ginger and garlic to a smooth paste.
2. In a pan/kadai, add oil. Once it is hot, add tez pattha. Simmer and add the ground mixture.
3. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the boiled potatoes and stir well.
4. Add the cooked channa dal and salt.
5. If it is too thick, add some water. The consistency of the dal should be thin. Put of the stove after 5 to 7 minutes.

Serve hot kachaudis with dal. The kachaudis are very filling and it makes for a good breakfast.

This recipe for Kachaudi is my entry to Think Spice-Think Kalonji event hosted by ammalu's kitchen.

Dry fruits lassi

2009-04-15T19:41:00.009+05:30

I have never heard of dry fruits lassi though ordinary sweet lassi is one of my favourites. May be its famous in North India. Today in my office cafetaria I ordered this lassi in the Amul counter and I just loved it. I reproduced the lassi at home as soon as I came back from office. The lassi tasted great.

Sweet, cold lassi with crunchy and chewy dry fruits with a mild rose essence flavour makes it a perfect drink.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients to make one glass of dry fruits lassi

Curd: 1 glass
Sugar as per taste (I added 4 tsp)
Dry fruits: around 1tbsp (I added cashew broken into small pieces, dried grapes and red tutti fruity. Altogether was 1 tbsp)
Rose essence: 2 drops mixed in a tablespoon of water

Procedure

1. Blend curd without adding water. Dissolve sugar in curd and refrigerate.
While serving,
1. Pour rose essence solution in a glass.
2. Add the refrigerated curd.
3. Top it with dry fruits.

Refreshing dry fruit lassi is ready.Serve it cold.

Note: I added a bit more(around 5 to 6 drops) rose essence. Hence the lassi had a strong rose essence flavour. I will add only 2 drops, the next time I make it. Came to know through Sanghi of RD for summer event hosted by AnuSriram of Chandrabhagha , for which I am sending this recipe.

Puri masala

2009-04-10T14:20:00.012+05:30

I guess potato is an universal favourite liked by almost everybody and I am no exception to it.My mother has been making this aloo masala side dish for puri, since our childhood. We just used to relish it every time she prepared it. Only this recipe came to my mind when I saw EC's event.

So, here is the recipe for the super easy and tasty puri masala.

Ingredients that serves 4 adults

Potato: 500 gm(boiled, peeled and cut into medium sized cubes.)
Onion: 250 gms(chopped)
Water: 1 cup or as required
Turmeric: a pinch
Besan: 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Garam masala powder: Less than 1/4th tsp
Coriander leaves for garnishing

For seasoning

Mustard: Less than 1/2 tsp
Channa dal: 1 tbsp
Refined Oil: 3 tbsp
Green chily: 2 long pieces

Procedure

1. In a pan/kadai, add oil. Once it is hot, add mustard. When the mustard splutters, add channa dal and gree chily and stir.
2. Once the channa dal turn slightly brown, add the chopped onion and saute.
3. Keep in medium flame. Allow the onion to cook well in the oil. Stir occasionally.(around 5 minutes)
4. Add water until the onion is immersed and stir well.Let the onion get cooked well.(around 10 minutes.)
5. Add the boiled potatoes and stir well.
6. In a separate bowl, mix besan with water until lumps are removed.
7. Add this to potato onion mixture in the kadai and stir well.
8. Let it be in the stove for around 5 to minutes or until the raw smell of besan goes off.
9. Add garam masala powder and mix well.
10. Garnish with coriander leaves.

This masala can be eaten with puri. This is my entry to EC's WYF: Side dish event.

Eggless chocolate brownie using yogurt

2009-04-09T20:02:00.013+05:30

I made eggless chocolate brownies last weekend using yogurt as egg replacer. It did not come out well for various reasons. I forgot to add oil as mentioned in the recipe, added very less cocoa powder. I also did not follow the measurements correctly. The end results proved that my experiments were too bold for the recipe to come out well.

I again made the brownies today by following Stephanie's(joy of baking) recipe for chocolate brownies by replacing egg with yogurt. The brownies looked and tasted awesome. I can confidently send this recipe to Madhuram's egg replacer event-yogurt.

I have already made apple pie and chocolate cookies following Stephanie's recipes and both of them came out well. Her measurements are accurate and procedure covers every minute detail. Only if her recipes were eggless!!!!

The recipe used 2 eggs which I replaced with 1/2 cup(around 130 gms) yogurt

Here is the recipe for eggless chocolate brownies as adapted from Stephanie's chocolate brownies.

Ingredients

Unsweetened chocolate: 120 gms(coarsely chopped) I used dark chocolate
Unsalted butter: 113 gms(cut into pieces)
Granulated sugar: 200 gms
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp(I did not use this as I did not have it)
Yogurt: 130 gms(This is the replacer for 2 eggs used in the original recipe)
All purpose flour: 95 gms
Baking powder: 1/4 tsp(Original recipe did not use baking powder)
Salt: 1/4 tsp(I added less than 1/4th tsp)

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 160 degree C.
2. Mix flour, salt and baking powder.
3. Melt chocolate and butter by double boiler method.(Put butter and choclate in a stainless steel bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water.)
4. Once butter and chocolate melts, remove from heat and add sugar and mix well.
5. Add vanilla extract(if using) and whisk well.
6. Next add yogurt and whisk well.(I used a electric mixer for this)
7. Add flour mixture and mix well.(I mixed with hand).
8. Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake for around 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.(Mine came out clean but still the brownies tasted good.)

Note: I think I added a bit more yogurt(around 170 gms), so the batter was a bit watery. I would add a bit less(around 130 gms) yogurt next time. The brownies tasted really great.I should say, yogurt did a good job as an egg substitute..The picture might not be very appealing as I cut pieces and took snaps when the brownie was still hot.

I am sending this to Madhuram's egg replacer event-Yogurt.

Rava(semolina) pongal

2009-04-07T21:57:00.006+05:30

I had been to my native place during ugadi long weekend. I was asking my grandmother for some recipes. She not only gave this recipe for rava pongal but also prepared it for me. I guess this is the height of affection that one can show considering her old age.

I made the pongal for today's breakfast. I am also dedicating this pongal to my ever lovable grandmother whom we affectionately call "ammai".

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients that serves 5 adults

Semolina/Suji(ravai in Tamil): 250 gms
Water: 900 ml (basically for one cup of suji, 3 cups of water is required)
Moong dal(split): 100 gms
Cashew: 10 to 15 pieces
Ghee: 4 to 5 tbsp
Pepper and Cumin seeds: (in the ratio of 3:1. ie: for three tbsps of pepper, take 1 tbsp of cumin seeds and grind them coarsely together)For this recipe 1 to 1-1/2tbsp corsely ground pepper-cumin powder is required.
Salt to taste
Curry leaves

Procedure

1. Pressure cook moong dal by adding the required water.
2. In a pan/kadai add 2 tbsp ghee and add suji. Fry till golden brown(stir every now and then)
3. In the meanwhile, boil water in a bowl.
4. Once the suji is golden brown, add the boiling water and keep stirring. Add salt.
5. Once the water is absorbed(it will be in a semi-solid state) add the cooked moong dal and mix well. Add a tbsp of ghee.(optional)
6. Remove from heat.
7. In a small kadai add a tbsp of ghee. Once it is hot, add the cashew and fry till golden brown.
8. Put the fried cashew in the pongal.
9. In the same small kadai, add some more ghee(1 tbsp), add the pepper-cumin powder and curry leaves. Just fry for few seconds and add this also to the pongal.
10. Mix the pongal well.

Tasty rava pongal is ready.It can be had with coconut chutney or as it is.

Note: The left over pepper-cumin powder can be used for rasam.

Panakam(spicy jaggery water)

2009-04-06T21:49:00.014+05:30

We make panakam on Ram Navami day. Lord Rama's b'day is celebrated as Ram Navami during the month of April(panguni in Tamil) on punar poosam nakshatra on the ninth day after amavasya(ammavasai). In South, panakam, neer more and cucumber salad with moong dal(kosmalli) are prepared and offered to god as neivedyam.

The dry ginger powder added to it gives it a nice spicy touch. Its also very easy to make.

I just love this drink.My mother made this on Ram Navami day this friday which I am documenting here.

Ingredients

Jaggery: 200gms
Water: 600 litres
Dry ginger powder(chukku podi in Tamil): 1 tbsp
Elaichi: 10 (crushed)
Juice of half lemon

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl. Stir for sometime so that the jaggery dissolves in water.
2. Serve once the jaggery completely dissolves.

It can be refrigerated and had cold.

Raw Mango pachadi(Raw mango in jaggery)

2009-04-05T16:02:00.011+05:30

This is one of the items prepared during special occasions like marriage or any other traditional function and during some festivals like Tamil New Year.

This being a traditional dish, it goes without saying that my mother prepares the pachadi superbly well in an authentic way that has the right amount of sourness from the raw mango and sweetness from the jaggery.

I just can't stop myself from documenting this recipe as this is my husband's favourite dish and he does not need an occasion to have this. So, my mother prepared the pachadi today.

Ingredients

Raw mango: 1 mango or 300 gms(cut into big flat pieces as shown in the picture. Peeling the skin is optional. My mother does not peel the skin)
Jaggery(vellam in Tamil): 300 gms(break jaggery into small pieces.
Green chily: 2 long
Turmeric: a pinch
Red chily: 1 long
Ghee: 1 tsp
Mustard: for seasoning
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Pressure cook mango by adding some water(till the mango pieces are immersed half) and turmeric.
2. In a pan/kadai, add ghee. Once it is hot, add mustard. When the mustard splutters add red chily.
3. Add jaggery and little water(around 3 to 4 tbsp).
4. Keep in low flame.
5. Stir until the jaggery dissolves.(around 5 to 10 minutes).
6. Add the cooked mango and salt. Boil for around 10 minutes or until the consistency becomes somewhat thick. Remove from heat.

Mouthwatering mango pachadi is ready.

Note: We add Neem flower(veppampoo in Tamil) to this pachadi to get a little bitter taste when we prepare it for the Tamil New Year. This pachadi which has sweet, bitter and sour tastes depicts life that also has bitter and sweet moments.

Sabu dana (javvarisi) cutlet

2009-03-31T20:16:00.010+05:30

I came to know about MBP-Snacks and Savouries event hosted by Ashwini while browsing Madhuram's blog. I particularly liked this event as all you need to do is find a nice snacks recipe from a blog and prepare it. As the recipe is tried and tasted, you need not worry about the outcome. Its is also a kind of showing the food blogger whose recipe we choose, how much we love their blog. I searched the food blogs that I know of and zeroed in on Arundhati's sabu dana cutlet. There were so many other nice snacks recipes, but I liked Arundhati's the best as it was very easy to make and not deep fried consdering the fact that lot of snack items are deep fried.

I followed the recipe as it is. I only changed the measurements a bit. Eversince I bought a small, very useful kitchen scale, I measure all the ingredients in grams using the scale. Everybody liked it very much, especially my mother said of all the recipes that I made till now looking at the internet, this is the best. All credit goes to Arundhati for sharing this tasty and healthy recipe.

I have eaten deep fried sabu dana vada in a maharashtrian fast food centre here. They serve the vada with sweet curd. But Arundhati's sabu dana cutlet scores as it is shallow fried with very minimal oil. I had the cutlet with sweet curd. Others had it with bread and tomato sauce. However we ate, the taste was awesome.

The original recipe by Arundhati can be found here.

Ingredients to make around 30 cutlets

Sabu dana(javvarisi in tamil): 300gms(soaked overnight or for 8 hours)
Potato: 450 gms(boiled, peeled and mashed)
Bread crumbs: 100 gms
Ground nut: 150 gms(I ground it coarsely in a mixer. As Arundhati has mentioned, badam or cashew can also be used.)
Green chily: 2 long(cut into small pieces. Can use more chilys according to one's spice level.)
Salt to taste.
Refined oil: to shallow fry the cutlets.
Coriander leaves: chopped(I did not use it as I did not have it)

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients except oil.
2. Make lemon sized balls.
3. Flatten each ball with palm.
4. Heat non stick pan/tava.
5. Place few pieces of flattened cutlets on the tava.
6. Add 1 tbsp or less oil touching all the cutlets.
7. Keep in medium flame.
8. Once one side is fried well, turn the cutlets and add some oil.(1 tsp)
9. Allow it to fry.
10. Remove from pan.
11. Serve hot.

Note: The cutlets that I made were not at all spicy. I purposely added less chily as I thought my 2 years old son would eat it. Since we also do not eat very spicy stuff, it was OK for us. Next time I might add some masala powder to make it a bit more fragrant.

This is my entry to Ashwini's MBP-Snacks and Savouries event originally started by Coffee.

Hot, sweet and sour Tomato thokku

2009-03-23T09:01:00.016+05:30

My aunty made this extremely versatile and delicious tomato thokku when she visited me a year ago. I decided to make this thokku when I saw the FIL-Tomato event hosted by Sanghi.

Luckily I had a lot of tomatoes too. I called my aunty immediately, got the recipe and prepared the thokku. It came out very tasty. It was perfect..Hot, sweet and sour. It is so versatile that it can be eaten with bread, roti or even rice.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Tomato: 600gms
Red chily: 10 long
Fenugreek seeds: 10 seeds
Vegetable Oil: 4 tbsp
Gingely oil: 2 tbsp
mustard seeds: 1/4 tsp

Procedure

1. Soak red chily, fenugreek seeds and asofoetida in water(pour water till the chily immerses.) for 10 minutes.
2. Cut tomatoes into big pieces.
3. In a mixer, grind the soaked items. Once the chillies are ground well, add the tomatoes and grind tomatoes are pureed.(If there are one or two tomato lumps, its OK.It will get cooked in the pan later.
4. In a sauce pan/kadai, add vegetable oil. When it is hot add mustard. Once it splutters pur the tomato puree and mix well.
5. Keep in medium flame and cover with a lid. (Don't forget to close with a lid. Otherwise, it will splutter all over the wall.)
6. Open the lid and stir once in a while.
7. Let it be in the stove for around 25 minutes or till it comes to thokku consistency.(water in tomato puree should evaporated completely and the puree should start leaving the sides of the pan)
8. Now add the gingelly oil and jaggery and mix well.
9. Remove from stove.
10. Allow it to cool. Store in an air tight container.It can be stored for 2 weeks if kept in fridge.

It can be eaten with bread, rice or roti.

Note:I have added jaggery because we like the thokku to be sweet. If one does not want it to be sweet, jaggery need not be added.. Also based on one's spice level, red chilly can be increased or decreased. Mine is not very spicy.

This is a recipe which my aunty made with a lot of love for us. I made this dish with the same love for my family and also sending it to Sanghi's FIL-Tomato event.

Sambar-Tamil Nadu style

2009-03-21T15:00:00.023+05:30

I feel like chronicling anything that my mother prepares. It has a unique taste and aroma that is unparralleled. (I guess, everybody feels the same about their mother's cooking)

Today, I am going to post two of the very basic lunch items of any South Indian(especially tamil nadu) home, namely sambar and rasam. When I make these items, I forget the proportions sometimes. So I am documenting the recipe here so that I can turn back to it anytime I want.

This sambar is to be eaten with rice. My mother also makes a different variety of sambar(exactly like the hotel sambar) to be eaten with idli/dosa/pongal. I will post the recipe for this sambar, next time she makes it.

Generally we put atleast one vegetable in sambar. There are different versions of sambar, where a lot many vegetables are used instead of just one or instead of sambar powder, a paste made of coconut, red chilly and gram dal is used. The recipe I am posting here is a very basic version.

Ingredients that serves 4 adults

Tamarind: lemon size ball(around 10 gms)
Tuvar Dal: 150 gms
Sambar powder: 1 1/2 tsp(I use MTR sambar powder)
Vegetable: I used white pumpkin this time. Other vegetables that can be used are ladies finger, brinjal, carrot, raddish, yellow pumpkin and the list goes on.(See Note below)
Salt: to taste

Seasoning

Vegetable Oil or Ginelly oil: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds: 10 seeds
Curry leaves: 10 leaves
Tomato: 1 medium size
Green chily: 1 long

Procedure

1. Put tamarind in a bowl and add hot water to it till the tamarind immerses.Allow it to soak in water for sometime.(till you start preparing the sambar)
2. In the meantime, pressure cook dal by adding around 400 litres of water. (Allow 2 whistles)
3. When the dal is cooked, extract juice from tamarind(150 to 200 gms) and keep aside.
4. In a pan/kadai, add oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, tomato, green chily and curry leaves.
5. Saute for a minute and pour tamarind juice.
6. Add sambar powder and salt. Stir so that everthing is mixed together. Allow it to boil. Once it is boiled, simmer and keep in the stove for 10 minutes.
7. Add the cooked dal and stir. If the sambar is very thick, some water can be added. Heat in high flame for 2 minutes and put off the stove.

Delicious sambar is ready.

Note: I added pumkin along with the dal for cooking. But vegetables that gets mushy when pressure cooked can be directly put along with the seasoning ingredients and sauted. They will get cooked in tamarind water.

Rasam recipe would follow soon.

Vegetable mayo french roll sandwich

2009-03-20T19:29:00.020+05:30

I once again made Arundhati's french roll and as usual, it came out flawless. This time I made vegetable mayaonnaise salad adapted from here and sandwiched it between the french roll. The result was a very delicious vegetable mayo sandwich. It was not only delicious but also very filling. With just two french roll sandwiches for each, we were full.

I have already given the recipe for french roll here.

Here goes the recipe for vegetable mayo salad.

Ingredients to fill 8 french rolls.

Vegetables: 1 cup (Carrot, cucumber, capsicum and tomato cut into small cubes.)
Coriander Leaves: 1 tbsp (chopped)
Pepper powder: as per taste
Salt to taste
Eggless Mayonnaise: 3 tbsp (vary the quantity if needed to bring the salad to almost spreadable consistency)

Procedure

Mix all the above ingredients together.

To make the sandwich

1. Cut the french roll into two halves.
2. Apply mayonnaise salad on one side of the roll and keep the the other half on top of it.

This is a very good breakfast recipe. Instead of frech roll ordinary bread can also be used.

Brinjal Rice/Vangi bhath

2009-03-20T18:39:00.015+05:30

This is one of my mother's authentic recipes for variety rice, liked by everybody who tastes it.

I would definitely not classify this recipe as a very healthy one as she uses a lot of oil. When I protest against her for using so much of oil, she reverts back saying "If you don't eat such stuff at this age, when will you?". I know its not a very good argument, but I generally give up as I too want to savour her delicious food. Once she goes back to her native, she will also follow a strict diet plan as both my parents have high BP and she is diabetic too..I too go back to my usual sambar, rasam, vegetable curry routine devoid of coconut or ghee with just 1/2 tsp of oil going into the items in the name of seasoning. Food can't become healthier than this...

So, I have decided to relish whatever she makes for these 2 months that she is going to be here in Bangalore..

Here is the recipe for brinjal rice loved by everybody at home..

Ingredients that serves 4

Brinjal: 8 pieces cut into small cubes
Gingely oil: 6 tbsp
Turmeric: a pinch

For grinding

grated Coconut: 4 tbsp
Sunflower oil: 1 tbsp
Bengal gram/channa dal: 2 tbsp
Urad dal split: 1 tbsp
Tuvar Dal: 1 tbsp
Red chily: 5 long pieces or according to your spice tolerance level.
Tamarind: small lemon size ball(around 10 gms)
Asofoetida: a pinch

Procedure

1. Add sunflower oil in a sauce pan. Once it is hot add all the grinding ingredients except for tamarind and fry until the dal becomes light brown in color. Allow it cool(10 minutes)
2. Grind the above roasted ingredients, tamarind and salt in a mixer until the chillies are ground well.(Add water if needed and the final mixture should be coarse)
3. Add gingelly oil in a pan. Add bengal gram and stir.Once the gram turns slightly brown add the cut brinjal and turmeric and stir once.
4. Keep in medium flame, close the pan with a lid. Stir occasionally so that the brinjal does not get burnt.It might take around 15to 20 minutes for the brinjal to cook completely. You can test by putting one piece of brinjal in a plate and pressing it with your finger. If it easily crushes, its cooked.
5. Add ground powder to the vegatable and mix well. Stir for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove from heat.
6. Mix this well with cooked rice. If the salt is less, add some more at this stage. 7. If its very spicy, add some ghee and mix well.

Spicy and tasty brinjal rice is ready.

It can be served with tomato raita. (cut tomato into small pieces and add some yogurt and salt to it.Season it with mustard and a red chilli)

This is my entry to Colors of Taste - Powders: Flavored Rice by Smitha of Kadumanga

Mother's south indian style dal

2009-03-18T19:40:00.011+05:30

This is another of my mother's speciality. This is not a typical North Indian dal. She uses some south indian ingredients which gives it a unique taste and aroma.

It is one of the must try recipes and its also very easy to make.


Ingredients 

Moong dal: 200 gms(split green gram which will be yellow in color after removing the skin)
Water: around 350 litres(or how much ever is needed to cook the dal in the pressure cooker)
Tomato: 4 medium size, cut into four pieces
Green chily: 2 long cut into two pieces
Grated coconut: 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Turmeric: a pinch

For seasoning

Ghee: 1 tbsp
Mustard: 1/4 tsp
Urad Dal: 1/4 tsp

Procedure

1. Pressure cook dal and tomato.(Add a pich of turmeric too.) Allow 2 whistles.
2. Grind green chily, coconut and cumin in a mixer, to a smooth paste.
3. Remove cooked dal from cooker and pour it in a sauce pan and keep on a stove. 4. Add the ground mixture and stir so that it mixes well with the dal.
5. Keep on medium flame for few minutes. (5 minutes)
6. Remove from stove.

For seasoning

1. In a small pan, add 2 tbsp of ghee.
2. Once it is hot, add mustard. When it splutters add urad dal.
3. Add this to the dal and mix well.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

Mouthwatering dal is ready..

Vegetable Noodles and carrot salad with yogurt

2009-03-09T13:32:00.050+05:30

I just want to give a brief about how the combination of noodles and carrot salad came about. Sometime back, while I was browsing the net, I came across this blog called almostturkish. It has lot of authentic turkish recipes. I was particularly impressed with the turkish vegetarian recipes. One among them was this carrot salad with yogurt. It was similar to Indian carrot , though the original recipe called for dill. Though I did not have it, I still went ahead and prepared as usage of mayonisse in the original recipe was very tempting. It was awesome and I think the thick curd and mayonisse gave it the rich creamy texture. Also I prepared noodles on that day. Somebody at home tried eating noodles with the salad and just loved the combination. Everybody followed, and now I always prepare this salad along with vegetable noodles. I think this is one of the best

Vegetable Noodles

Ingredients to serve 5 adults

Hakka Noodles: 1 packet (500 gms)
Green capsicum(green bell pepper): 1 (cut into long thin slices)Cabbage: 3 tbsp(measure after cutting into long thin slices)Carrot: 2 (cut into long thin slices)
Spring onion: 3 tbsp(Measure after cutting into small pieces)Green chily: 2 (long, slit vertically)
Refined Oil: 3 tbsp
Soya sauce: 1 tbsp(add a bit more if needed)Vinegar: 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Boil noodles as per package instruction and keep aside.
2. In a pan, add oil. Once it is hot add chillies and the other vegetables except spring onion. 
3. Stir the vegetables for some time, simmer slightly and close the pan with a lid. Check every now and then if the vegetables are almost cooked. (around 10 minutes) 
4. Add the spring onions, soya sauce, vinegar and salt and mix well. 
5. Remove from the stove. 
6. Mix the boiled noodles with the vegetables in a wide mouthed pan.

Vegetable noodles is ready.

Carrot salad with yogurt/carrot raita

Ingredients

Yogurt/Curd: 100 gms(I used Britannia brand. I don't use homemade curd when I make this salad as it is not as creamy as shop bought curd)
Carrot: 1 (big, grated)
Eggless Mayonaisse: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl just before serving.

Delicious carrot salad with yogurt and mayonnaise is ready and it tastes great with the vegetable noodles.

"Strawberry jelly and cream" sandwiched eggless vanilla cake

2009-03-08T17:34:00.078+05:30

I decided to participate in FIC-Pink event guest hosted by Priya (announced by Harini of Tongue Ticklers) as soon as I saw it. Pink being my favourite color, I did not want to miss this event. As soon as I saw pink as the color for the FIC event, only rose milk came to my mind. It was my co-sister who suggested using strawberries for the recipe.. The idea of combining jelly, cake and cream was given by her and I am obviously awe struck at her culinary skills.

So here is the recipe for Strawberry jelly and cream sandwiched eggless vanilla cake. The SJACS eggless vanilla cake consists of three individual recipes.

1. Strawberry jelly
2. Eggless vanilla cake
3. Strawberry cream(icing)seet

Strawberry Jelly

Ingredients

Strawberry Jelly mix: 1 packet or 100 gms(I used Weikfield brand)Powdered Sugar: 3 tbsp(Optional)

Procedure

1. Follow the instructions in the package to set the jelly.
2. Refrigerate the set jelly.

Note:

1. I did not add powdered sugar this time. But I will definitely add the next time as the sweetness was not sufficient for us.
2. I added some jelly mix to set in the glass in which I was going to make the sandwich. (A little less than 1/4th the glass)

Eggless Vanilla Cake

I have made this cake number of times and every time I get the same great texture and taste. To make this cake, I just followed Bharti’s recipe. This is one of the cake recipes that's a treasure.

Ingredients

All purpose flour/maida: 2 cups(260 gms)
Usalted butter: 5 tbsp at room temperature(ariubd 65 gms)
Sweetened condensed milk: 1 tin(400 gms)
Butter milk: around 1/2 cup(around 120 gms)(Butter milk quantity can be varied a bit based on the consistency of the cake batter)
Baking powder:  1 tsp
Baking Soda: 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence: 2 tsp

Procedure

1. Pre heat oven to 150 degree C.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly.
3. Cream the butter and condensed milk using an electric hand mixer until soft. (I generally mix/beat with an egg beater. I recently bought a electric hand mixer, hence used that.)
4. Add butter milk and vanilla essence and beat again for few seconds.
5. Add the dry ingredients 3 tbsp at a time to the wet mixture and mix well in one direction. (Need not beat. I generally do this with hand)
6. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan and bake for around 30 to 35 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.

Note:

I made some cup cakes too using muffin tin which was very useful for making the sandwich cake. See more on it in Putting Everything Together Section.

Strawberry Cream

Ingredients

Unsalted Butter: 3 tbsp(butter should be at room temperature)Icing sugar: 10 tbsp
Strawberry Essence: 2 tbsp
Milk: 1 tbsp(Optional)

Procedure

1. Beat butter, strawberry essence/puree/powder and icing sugar using a hand mixer or egg beater.
2. If the mixture is very thick, add a little milk to bring it to a spreadable consistency.

Note:

I did not have Strawberry Essence. So I saved some powder(2 tbsp) from Strawberry Jelly mix and used it in the cream instead of essence.
Since I wanted to pour the cream over the cake, I made it a bit thin by adding more milk.

Putting everything together

I used a juice glass to make the sandwich cake.

1. If the jelly is already set in the glass, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, cut a small piece of jelly using a cookie cutter and put in the glass.
2. Cut 2 pieces of cake using a cookie cutter and place one piece on top of the jelly in the glass. Instead of cutting the big cake, I cut the cup cake using the cookie cutter as that was easier. Also I did not want to disturb the big cake
3. Pour some cream on top of the cake and place the other piece too. Again pour some cream. Decorate with some cherries.

I did this sandwich especially for the event. So the last step(Putting everything together) can be modified according to one's one creativity. I thought the jelly would also be in light pink in color, but it was dark pink or rather red. But the cream is still pink in color and I am sending this recipe to Priya’s FIC-Pink event

Microwave fried masala papad

2009-03-03T21:07:00.004+05:30

Blogging has kind of become an addiction. My visiting parents are complaining that I don’t spend enough time with them and the kid. To prove their point, I started blog hoping as soon as I came from office and came across MEC: Savoury Snacks event hosted by Priya of easyntastyrecipes. I totally admire her enthusiasm and energy to host two events in the same month. As soon as I saw the theme, masala papad came to my mind. The papad can be fried in microwave oven and the toppings are just sliced onions and tomataoes and some masala powder to spice it up. More importantly, it can be prepared in a wink of eye and I can treat my parents with this tasty and easy snack without even they realizing that I spent time in kitchen. I just made one papad especially for the event.

Ingredients

Lijjat papad:  1 piece
Onion:  1 small
Tomato:  1 small
Salt to taste
Chat masala powder to sprinkle on the papad
Coriander leaves finely chopped to sprinkle on the papad
Lemon juice to sprinkle on the papad

Procedure

1. Slice onion and tomoto into thin pieces, add chat masala powder and salt and mix well.
2. Fry the papad in microwave oven for 1 minute or until it is fried completely.
3. Remove from oven and spread onion and tomato mixture on the papad.
4. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice.

Easy and tasty microwave masala papad is ready and its on the way to MEC:Savoury Snacks event hosted by Priya of easyntastyrecipes

Eggless fruit and nut cake/Plum cake

2009-03-02T21:16:00.006+05:30

I tried making a Christmas cake last December when I had just developed interest in baking (I know, wanting to bake this cake is asking for too much for a beginner) and I did not have an OTG. Got a recipe from the net and off I set to bake this cake in a cooker!!! I just followed the recipe as it is….and to everybody’s horror, the cake was completely burnt, the vessel had become black beyond recognition. I was very upset as I had put lots and lots of fruits and nuts into the cake. I had decided that I would never bake a cake ever again.. But as it turned out, I baked a cake the very next week. :-)

So, baking a fruit and nut cake was always behind my mind though I did not dare to try it once again..Yesterday, as my son had gone out with his grand parents, I was pretty much free. The baker in me raised her head again..and to keep her calm, I asked my husband if I can bake a fruit and nut cake..(I was pretty sure that he would say no..) But to my surprise, he gave a big YES.. I immediately sat in front of the PC and started searching for the recipe.

That’s when I came across Shilpa’s eggless fruit and nut cake in Aayi’s recipe. I had all the ingredients that the recipe called for except for orange juice. This is were Madhuram’s egg substitutes come handy.. I assumed that orange juice is used just to give softness to this cake.(as the recipe did not call for soaking the fruits in orange juice) So instead of orange juice, I used apple sauce as I had a lonely apple in my refrigerator. I also added as many different types of nuts and dried fruits that I had.

The cake was very delicious and my husband just loved it.. He is a big fan of fruit and nut cake and he was really waiting restlessly for the cake to be baked. And once he tasted, he said SUPERB. This is the first time, I felt so satisfied after baking a cake…All credit goes to shilpa for coming up with such a great eggless

I am posting this recipe for my reference with the modifications that I made. Please click here for the original recipe.

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida: 1 cup(125 gms)
Powdered Sugar: 1/2 cup(100gms) + 1/4 cup(50gms)
Butter: 7 tbl spn(100gms)
Spice powder: 1/8th tsp cinnamon powder, 1/8th tsp nutmeg powder, 3elaichis powdered Apple sauce: 3/4th cup(Peel the apple, cut into small pieces, put it in a bowl of water and boil in the microwave oven for 10 minutes. Once it is cool, grind it in a mixer into a smooth paste)
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Baking powder: 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Kissan Jam(mixed fruit): 1 tbsp
Salt: ¼ tsp
Dry fruits and nuts: I used a mixture of cashew, raisins, dates, cherries, tutti fruiti(red, yellow and green colors), walnuts and almonds. (peel the skin from almonds before chopping, by heating the almonds in a bowl of water in microwave for 2 minutes. Otherwise, almonds can be soaked in water for an hour and then can be peeled)

I just saw to it that all the fruits and nuts together weighed 300 gms.

Procedure

1. Mix all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Pre heat oven to 150 degrees C for 10 minutes.
3. Melt butter and mix the chopped fruits and nuts with it.
4. Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tbsp water in a thick bottomed pan till it becomes dark brown in color . This process is called caramelization (If you burn this, the cake become bitter, so be careful).
5. Add the caramelized sugar to the fruits and mix well. When I did this, the mixture formed some hard lumps due to the caramelized sugar. But there is no need to panic and can go to the next step.
6. When it is cooled a bit, add the spices, jam, vanilla extract and apple sauce and mix well.
7. Add the dry ingredients, 2 tbsp at a time to the fruits mixture and combine well. 8. Pour the batter in a greased baking dish and bake for 25 to 30 minutes..

Allow it to cool for sometime before gorging on it. :-)

Vegan creamy soy milk pasta

2009-02-28T15:01:00.003+05:30

I made soymilk pasta today for breakfast. I learnt this recipe from my neighbour. Once I tasted this creamy pasta at her home, I just loved it and got the recipe from her immediately. Till then I used to make pasta, the Indian way, with onion, tomato and garam masala. The pasta is so easy to make and it does not require butter or cheese, hence its very healthy too.. I generally make the pasta using milk, but this time, since this recipe is my entry to Vaishali’s It’s a Vegan World-Italian event, I replaced milk with soy milk. The soy milk pasta was equally creamy and tasty.

Ingredients

Pasta: 2 cups (I used MTR macaroni pasta)
Vegetables: 1 cup (mixture of green, red and yellow capsicum and carrot very thinly sliced)
Pepper powder: ¼ tsp(optional)
Soy milk: 1 ½ cups
Corn flour: 1 ½
tbsp Oil: 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Pasta seasoning

Procedure

1. Boil pasta as per instructions in the package and keep aside.
2. In a bowl, add soy milk and corn flour and mix well so that there are no lumps.
3. In a sauce pan/kadai, add 2 tsp oil.
4. Once it is hot, add the vegetables and sauté till the vegetables become soft.
5. Add salt and pepper powder and mix well.
6. Pour soy milk into the pan and stir until it mixes well with the vegetables and becomes creamy. (Less than a minute)
7. Add the boiled pasta and mix well. Put off the stove.
8. Sprinkle pasta seasoning on the pasta while serving. If pasta seasoning is not there, add chilly flakes and oregano.

Pasta tastes the best when served hot.

This goes to Vaishali’s It’s a Vegan World-Italian Event.

Eggless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting

2009-02-22T12:44:00.009+05:30

I am a regular visitor to Madhuram’s eggless co oking site. I saw her Egg replacement event-Vinegar and was really excited about it..I am very new to blogging(though I have been reading other food blogs for quite sometime) and have never participated in any event..Seeing her event, I felt, what else could be a better debut than to participate in one of my favourite food.

At this point I would like to say that, I have baked eggless cake using vinegar and oil a couple of times(by seeing some recipes in the net) and both the times, it was a disaster..It did not taste good at all.Also I have failed attempts of baking eggless chocolate cake as the end product turned out to be very bitter..I came to know that cocoa powder is the culprit..So I bought a different brand recently...Seeing Madhuram’s event I thought I can bake a chocolate cake using vinegar as a substitue but without including oil..To everybody’s surprise and relief, the chocolate cake this time turned out really great..I made chocolate ganache frosting following another of my favourite blogger's(passionateaboutbaking) recipe. As I said in my previous post, my parents have come to visit me. They tasted the cake and they liked it very much.. Nobody could say that vinegar was added.Even I could not feel the taste.(may be none of us really know how vinegar tastes. :-) )

Ingredients 


All purpose flour Maida: 200gms
Sweetened condensed milk: 1 tin(400 gms)(I used Nestle milkmaid)
Unsalted Butter: 100 gms
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Vinegar: 1 tbsp
Cocoa powder: 3 tbsp
Milk: 4 tbsp(if required)

Procedure

1. Mix all the dry ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl cream the butter. Add milkmaid and beat well until it is soft.(I use a hand beater for this)
3. Add vinegar and mix well.
4. Now add the mixed dry ingredients 4 tablespoons at a time and mix well in one direction.
5. If the batter is very thick add some milk.(I added around 4 tablespoons of milk)
6. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.
7. Pour the cake batter in a greased cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Chocolate ganache frosting



Though I followed Deeba's recipe for the frosting, I am documenting the same below by making some changes not because I wanted to make but because I was forced to make those changes as I did not have those/get those ingredients.

Ingredients

Fresh Cream: 200ml(I used Amul Fresh Cream, but the original recipe called for heavy cream
Chocolate: 90 gms(The original recipe called for 100 gms, I think and it was dark chocolate
cocoa powder: 1 tbsp(I added this)
Icing sugar: 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. In a bowl mix fresh cream, chocolate and icing sugar and boil it until the chocolate melts.
2. Remove from heat and add the cocoa powder and mix well.If it is too thin melt some more chocolate and add.If it is too thick add some more fresh cream.
3. Refrigerate so that it thickens.(I generally keep in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes till the consistencey is right for spreading.)

Applying the frosting

1. Allow the cake to cool completely and cut the cake horizontaly into two halves.
2. Apply ganache on the lower part and keep the other cake piece on top of it.
3. Now apply the ganache all over the cake and refrigerate the cake so that the ganache thickens.(I generally keep in the freezer for 10 minutes)This step is optional.

Though I am not good at writing on cakes, I tried it out with, the result of which can be seen on the cake.

Eggless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting is ready.

This is my entry to Madhuram's Egg substitue event-Vinegar.

Microwave fried appalam kozhambu

2009-02-21T14:54:00.006+05:30

Appalam kozhambu along with so many other recipes is my mom’s speciality. Everybody in our family loves it so much.The main attraction of the recipe is the deep fried appalams that is put in the kozhambu when it is boiling.The texture and taste of those appalams soaked in kozhambu is absolutely wonderful.

Today when my mother said she is going to make appalam kozhambu, I thought why not fry the appalam in microwave instead of oil…(everybody is becoming health conscious these days and I don’t want to be left out..) I know this would work because off late, I had been frying appalams in microwave to be eaten with rasam rice..The idea of frying appalams in microwave was passed on to me by mother who inturn got the idea from her uncle.The uncle even went to the extent of persuading my mom to buy a microwave oven because we can fry appalams using it.. But, my mother laughed the idea away… So, going to the recipe, here is the list of ingredients and the procedure to make this delicious kozhambu.

Ingredients that serves 4 adults


Appalam/papad: 5 of medium size.(This is not the lijjat pappad.This is the urad dal appalam that we get in south India.The brand I use is ambika.I have not tried this recipe with lijjat pappad.)
Tamarind: small lemon size ball
Refined oil: 3 tbsp
Sambar powder(I use MTR): 2 tsps full
Salt to taste
Jaggery(gud): ½ tsp

For sesoning


Mustard: ¼ tsp
Bengal gram/channa dal: 1 tsp
red chillies : 4
a pinch of asofoetida
A pinch of turmeric
curry leaves

Procedure


1. Fry the appalams in the microwave just for 1 minute. As many appalams as the tray holds can be kept in the oven at a time.
2. Take the juice of tamrind.
3. Heat oil in a kadai/pan and add mustard.
4. Then it splutters add the other seasoning ingredients one by one.
5. Then add tamarind juice, sambar powder and salt.
6. When it starts boiling, break each appalam into one or 2 pieces and put in the kozhambu.
7. Simmer and let it boil for 15 minutes.
8. Finally add the jaggery and put of the stove.

Delicious kozhambu can be eaten with rice and a sabji.

Aloo tikki Pav/French roll

2009-02-21T12:48:00.009+05:30

I made this Pav a while ago following the recipe provided by Arundhati and it came out so well, I desperately wanted to make it once again. But I did not make any side dish to be eaten with Pav at that time and we just applied the left over cake icing on the pav and ate.

My parents have come and so I made this Pav once again..Though the left over icing is still there(:-)) I wanted to make something else as side dish.. Thought of making bhaaji, but I did not have the required ingredients..Then thought of making the vada that is given with pav, but that is deep fried and did not want to make that too.

Suddenly an idea stuck, why not make aloo tikkis that can be sandwiched between the pav and eaten…Generally if I make something new, I search the food blogs for recipe..But for these aloo tikkis that I wanted to make I did not search the net and thought of making it on my own because I had very minimal ingredients and I would not be able to do justice to the original recipe even if I made.

So here goes the recipe for Pav and aloo tikki

Pav

Original recipe from Arundhati’s blog.

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida: 600 gms(this time I used equal quantities of wheat flour and maida. Initially I used only 500 gms. But it was very sticky, hence I added some more till the dough became workable which was another 100 gms.) Dry active yeast: 1 tbsp Sugar : 2 tbsp Water: 350 litres (some more to sprinkle on the dough if it is too dry.) Refined Oil: 2 tbsp Procedure

1. In lukewarm water add yeast and sugar.In 15 minutes, there will be a layer of yeast froth formed.If this does not happen, the yeast isn’t active and the dough might not rise.) 2. Then add the yeast water to half the quantity of flour and mix well.(I generally make the batter using hands only, ie: don’t use spatuala or ladle) 3. Now add the remaining flour little by little and keep mixing. Water might not be sufficient and some water can be sprinkled to bring the dough together.I also added 1tbsp of oil during this stage. This is when I added the extra 100 gms of flour making the overall quantity to 600 gms. 4. Bring the dough to a kneading surface(it’s the granite slab in the kitchen for me) and knead for 15 minutes.(I knead for 15 minutes, but the original recipe called for kneading around 10 minutes) 5. Apply another tbsp of oil all over the dough and cover it with a thin cotton cloth and allow it to raise for 1 hour and until the dough doubles in size. 6. Deflate the dough gently and make around 12 balls of equal size and place the balls in the baking tray. See to it that they don’t touch each other Cover the tray with a thin cotton cloth and allow the dough to rise for another 45 minutes. 7. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C. 8. Place baking tray in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. 9. Apply butter on top of the pav as soon as it is removed from the oven.

Aloo tikki

Ingredients

Potatoes:  3 large, boiled and mashed, to make 12 tikkis, equal to the number of pavs
Red chillie powder:  a little less than ¼ tsp. We generally don’t eat spicy stuff.According to individual taste more can be added.
Chat masala powder:  a little less than ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Masala powder:  a little less than ¼ tsp
Rusk:  around 10 pieces nicely ground
Sooji:  1 tbsp Refined oil to shallow fry the aloo tikkis

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients except rusk with the mashed potatoes.
2. Make 12 balls of equal size.
3. Flatten each ball with the palm and smother both sides of the ball in the rusk powder and shallow fry in a hot tava by applying some oil.

To make aloo tikki pav

1. Cut the pav into two halves.
2. Keep one tikki on one side of the pav.
3. Put some sauce on top of the tikki.(Can add onion, tomato, chutney etc too) and keep the other half on top of it.

Delicious aloo tikki pav is ready. This recipe could be a good choice for small b'day parties.

Note: Though my family members liked the wheat taste in the pav, I prefer the original maida pav.

Paneer Burji

2009-02-07T13:39:00.008+05:30

Paneer burji is my husband's favourite side dish for roti. I make this almost once in a week to be packed for lunch. According to my husband and many others, anything made with onions and tomatoes is a relish to eat.

Here goes the recipe which serves 3 adults

Ingredients 

Paneer: 200 gms grated
Refined Oil: 2 tbsp
Onion: 3 medium size chopped
Tomato: 2 big ones chopped
Green Chillies: 2
salt to taste
Turmeric: a pinch
Jeera(cumin seeds): 1 tsp
Sauf: 1 tsp
Masala powder(I use MTR garam masala powder): 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves




Procedure

1. Pour 2 tbsp of oil in a kadai and once the oil is hot, put cumin seeds and saunf.
2. Add green chillies and turmeric.
3. Then add the chopped onion and saute till it becomes soft.
4. Add tomato and saute for some more time till the water in tomatoes is almost evaporated.
5. Add coriander leaves and salt and masala powder.
6. Simmer and add the grated paneer.
7. Just stir once or twice and remove from the gas.

Paneer burji is ready. It can be served with rotis.

Why this blog

2009-02-07T13:20:00.005+05:30

My son turned one last year and I wanted to make the celebration really special..That was when I started searching the internet to get some ideas for the party regarding decorations, food etc, came to know of the greatest thing(I might be exaggerating a little here) happening in the internet world - food blogging. I was totally amazed by the amount of enthusiastic people who are blogging their recipes with photos and most of the times with a complete step by step procedure..

My son's b'day party was a memorable one thanks to the endless tips available in the net...Though the party was over, I could not resist myself from browsing the food blogs and there was one food blog that totally made me venture into baking and that is none other than madhuram's egglesscooking..

This blog is a collection of eggless cooking and baking recipes that I have collected from my mother, grandmother, sister, mother-in-law, fellow food bloggers and so many others, which I have tried out with success.

I also hope it would be useful for anybody who loves cooking.