Pickled carrots

That was a weekend when my refrigerator was empty leaving behind few carrots and was thinking of making something quick and low calorie.. Of course carrot halwa went through my mind but they say it tastes better with orange carrots. Hence thought of pickling it and it hardly took anytime. And it harldy took time to see my jar being emptied too. But would recommend to let it sit for few hours/days for the flavor to get into those carrots. The recipe is as follows

Ingredients
Carrots ( I used the thin ones) - about 1 kg
Water - 1 cup
Vinegar - 1/3 cup ( if you want more sourness you can increase the measurement)
Salt and sugar -as required.
Green chillies, ginger and garlic - optional and as required.
Sugar - a few tspns (optional)

Method
Wash the carrots well and if you are used to peeling carrots, I know few people who wash it thoroughly and not peeling it , its up-to you :) Chopthe carrots into strips, may be one carrot should yield about 6-8 depending on the thickness of the carrots.
Once the carrots are chopped steam in a steamer for about 5-7 minutes, make sure you don't cook it, you just have to make it slightly tender or if you choose to skip this step, please feel free to do so too.
I steamed for 5-7 mins and then dipped those carrots in cold water to avoid further cooking.
Once your carrots are ready, put it in a clean glass jar.
Pour the water and vinegar and add all the other ingredients and please leave it untouched for atleast 12 hours ( preferably)
If you feel you need more sourness you can add more vinegar too
If you have taken more carrots and if you feel you need to add more water and adjust the other ingredients feel free to do so 
You can also add crushed peppercorns, powdered jeera, options are endless. I am for sure going to try this with few other vegetables too.
Try pickling a no fuss carrot pickle and enjoy!! 

Brown beaten rice chocolate squares

Was thinking of making some snack for the kids to take to school  and  that day I dint have anything  to pack for them. No, I usually don't stock store bought snacks and my thought went this way while spreading my dosas :)..it was to temper some chocolate and roast some organic brown beaten rice and add to it and make poha rocks .. :) nice na..

Ok .. I need to confess that I don't have an exact measurement of the ingredients of this recipe, reason b'coz I was in a jiffy and I ran out of time to pick up my cups and spoons.

What you need
 1) A bar of cooking chocolate
 2) Some organic brown beaten rice (poha)

Method
Heat a wok and dry roast the poha till it crisp.
Meanwhile temper the chocolate using a double boiler. 

Tempering is melting finely chopped cooking chocolate using double boiler
Double boiling is cooking using the steam. Finely chop the chocolate in a vessel. Keep it over a bowl of boiling water. Also make sure the steam doesn't enter the chocolate and also the water should boil in the minimum flame possible

Once the chocolate is melted mix the dry roasted poha into it and mix well. Spread the mixture on a butter paper and spread evenly and refrigerate for 7-9 mins. Its advisable not to refrigerate for long time, because the chocolate starts condensing. You can even leave it at room temperature to set and then cut in squares and store in an airtight container

Note: You can deep fry the poha instead of dry roasting.

Buttermilk bread

Had loads of buttermilk when I removed butter from the curd that day, and kept thinking the best way to use it. Ofcourse I use buttermilk for kneading the dough, making traditional Kerala curries, use it for making dhoklas too. But googled further to find a recipe for baking which uses butter milk . And finally a bread recipe which uses buttermilk, what better way than to make use of it than for baking for baking bread :). And voila it came out good too. I am sharing the recipe below

Ingredients

1 cake yeast (2 1/4 tspn)

2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsps. olive oil
4 cups flour ( 2 cups wheat flour + 2 cups all purpose flour)
2 tbsps. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. soda

Method

Soften yeast in small amount of lukewarm buttermilk (about 1/3 cup). Add balance of buttermilk and olive oil. Mix salt, soda, sugar and baking powder together; add to yeast mixture. Beat in 1 cup of flour at a time. Knead on floured board. Place in greased bowl and let it rise, punch down dough. Shape dough into desired shapes; place on baking sheets and baked in preheated 375-degree oven 15 to 20 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy!!

Pumpkin payasam

I need to agree that making a payasam out of pumpkin has not been my idea at all, this was given by a person who sells vegetables. But I did honour him agreeing that I might try this, I tried it and I did inform him about this trial and its success. This is a very healthy sweet made using coconut milk and jaggery. Its not very difficult either. You can also give it a try.
Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Pumpkin - 500 gms
Coconut milk - 2 cups ( not very thick )
Melted jaggery - 3-4 tbspns or according to your taste
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Cashews fried in ghee - as required

Method
Chop pumpkin and steam until it is cooked.
Remove it into a vessel in which we would bring the payasam together.  Mash the pumpkin with the back of a wooden spoon, You might not want to mash it completely, it will be nice to get a bite or two of the pumpkin.
Pour in the coconut milk and the jaggery syrup , add water if required.
Bring it to boil and remove from the flame. Garnish with cardamom powder and fried cashews and serve hot or cold.
Enjoy!!

Broccoli soup

First thing I would say about this soup is it is very easy to make and tasty too, and how I love that vibrant green colour of the soup. And yea this was made for my kid's evening snack and it was garnished with  home made tomato garlic bread croutons, and yea kids enjoyed it.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Broccoli head - one
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Ginger - a small piece
Onion - one med size
Milk - 1.5 cups
Salt and pepper
Bread croutons

Method
Wash the broccoli florets in hot water with salt and turmeric powder, throw in a pressure cooker along with coarsely chopped onion, garlic and ginger and also add half cup of water and half cup of milk. Pressure cook for one whistle in high flame and remove from stove. Open the lid of the cooker and blend the ingredients, I used a hand blender for blending. Add the remaining milk, salt and pepper powder.

At this stage if you want your soup slightly thick mix a tspn of corn flour or arrowroot powder in a 1/4 cup of water and add to this and bring it back to flame and let it boil while the soup thickens. (I skipped this step). Alternately you can add cream instead of milk if you want a thicker soup and avoid corn flour.

Serve hot with toasted bread croutons and a dollop of butter.
Enjoy! :)

Tomato garlic and herb bread

Breads can be incorporated with various flavours and one flavour among them being tomato :) , this bread is easy to make provided you know the importance of yeast and 'rising of the yeast'. Once you have crossed that part successfully bread making is as easy as any other baking, oh yea another thing you need is patience to give the dough to prove, that obviously will happen , again if you know the importance of yeast in the bread, So good luck with bread baking !!. Following is the recipe and yea the recipe calls for all purpose flour and I am always naughty when it comes to flour, have always been substituting with 100 percent wheat flour, be it cakes or cookies or pies or tart. But for breads I do include all purpose flour/maida in a ratio of 40-20 percent at least depending on my gut feeling. I am yet to see success in baking a 100 percent whole wheat bread. Will let you all know once that happens. So, yea here is the recipe 

Ingredients

2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons butter
6 to 6 1/2 cups all−purpose flour ( substitute in the above mentioned ratio)
2 packages (2 tablespoons) dry yeast
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground rosemary
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
1 garlic clove, crushed

Method
Heat tomato juice, sauce and butter to 120 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine 3 cups flour with yeast, sugar, salt, basil, oregano, rosemary, and fennel; add warmed tomato mixture and garlic. Mix with dough hook (or by hand) 3 minutes or 300 strokes,scraping bowl frequently.
Add 3 to 31/2 cups additional flour, until firm enough to handle; turn out onto floured board. Add
enough flour that dough is not sticky; knead until smooth and elastic.
Place dough in a greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch down; let rest 15 minutes. Shape into two loaves; place in greased 9−inch bread pans. Cover loosely; let rise until nearly doubled, about 45 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 30 minutes longer, until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans; cool on a rack.

 Enjoy!!!

Hazelnut cupcakes

Now that's hazelnut cupcakes and it has no hazelnuts in it, but if you wish have a bite of the nuts, please feel free to have it in the batter before baking. I dint have it when I baked these little ones. And this oil have been lying in my refrigerator for sometime, had bought this to make home made nutella.So thought of making use of it before it gets spoilt. But yea it was tasty and the cakes have a very nutty flavor in it. As usual I avoided white flour, used brown sugar instead of white sugar and of course it is  butterless. Following is the recipe for the same

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tspn baking soda
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup hazel nut oil
1/2 cup butter milk
1 egg
1/2 tspn vanilla extract 
1/2 tspn vinegar/lemon juice
zest of one lemon ( optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Place a rack in the center of the oven.  Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  In another medium bowl, whisk together hazelnut oil, buttermilk, egg, vinegar, vanilla extract and lemon zest.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once.  Whisk together until just combined and no lumps remain.  Divide between twelve cupcake cups and bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center of one of the little cakes comes out clean.

let it cool and enjoy!!!

Dates and Banana payasam in coconut milk

This payasam/sweet/dessert is made using all natural sweeteners. Its easy to make , healthy and delicious and my kids relished it as their evening drink, following is the recipe for the same.

1.Pitted dates- 20
   Ripe Kerala banana ( Nendrapazham)- 2
   Water 1/2 cup
2.Grated coconut - 2 cups
   Hot water -1 cup
3.Cardamom powder - a pinch
   Cashew nuts - 2 tspn
   Ghee/clarified butter- 2 tspn

Pressure cook pitted dates and chopped bananas in half cup of water for 2 whistles or until it is cooked.
Remove the milk from the grated coconut using hot water in a blender and keep aside
Mash or blend the cooked dates and banana mixture and add the coconut milk and cook until the milk boils or bubbles.
Remove from flame, add a pinch of cardamom powder and fry cashew nuts in ghee/clarified butter and garnish over the payasam.

Note: Hope you would have noticed that I have not used any sugar or jaggery , all the sweetness comes from the dates, so if you want the payasam more sweet , please feel free to add more dates.

Serve hot or cold and enjoy!

Sannas

I have had sannas from Mangalore during my studies and used to love it and recently had it from a mangalorean restaurant in Bangalore. The taste of sannas made me nostalgic and was searching for its recipe. I found lots of recipes and tried a couple of it. Finally I settled with the taste and recipe of sannas which is the following recipe. And the irony is that the batter which is used for appam can be used for vattayppam and as well for sannas. Basically the ingredients are the same and I use small katoris to make sannas. And also used unpolished rice to make it more healthier. So without beating around the bush, let me straight away get onto the recipe

Ingredients

Idly rice - 1 cup
Unpolished rice - 1 cup
Paper aval ( beaten rice) -1 cup ( soaked for sometime or microwaved for 1-2 mins)
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup ( optional)
Yeast - 1/2 tspn

Note : If you don't want to use yeast at all please use half cup of sugar, else you can eliminate sugar, either of it is necessary and if u add sugar additionally also its fine, it will just enhance the taste and gives a mild sweetness.

Method:
Wash and soak the rice for few hours.
Grind the soaked rice, aval, grated coconut and sugar to a very fine paste.
Mix yeast in few tbspns of water . Add the yeast mixture to the batter and mix well.
Let the batter ferment for few hours. Add salt and mix well and keep for some 10-15 mins before pouring the mixture into molds.
Steam it for 12-15 mins and remove from molds.
Serve hot with you choice of curry.
Enjoy!! :)

Jam with fresh figs using jaggery syrup

Been wanting to try some jam for a long time, but always hesitate for the reason of amount of sugar being used in the same.This time I tried jam with figs and substituted a portion of sugar with jaggery syrup. Nevertheless my family loved it , hence posting and saving this recipe for me and for you for future use.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients 
Figs - 500 gms ( washed thoroughly and halved)
Zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - half cup
Cinnamon stick - 1

Pick a thick bottom flat vessel and add all the ingredients together and mix well. Keep stiring it , once it is half cooked use a potato masher to mash the fruit or use a hand blender to blend it off, I used the latter although few lumps/skins of the fruit will be remaining. Never mind !!! And then put the  cinammon stick and cook further, keep stirring and cook the jam further till it passes the gel test

Do a gel test to check whether the jam is ready  :For a good gel, test a small amount on a very cold saucer: Put the saucer in the freezer for a few minutes, put a little of the fig mixture on it, then return to the freezer for 1 minute. When a good gel stage is reached, the surface of the fruit mixture will wrinkle slightly when pushed with a finger.

Meanwhile sterilize the jar to store jam and store the jam while it is still hot and your healthy home made fig jam is ready!!

Aval payasam with jack fruit flavour

Regret to inform that I have not clicked a picture of this invention, but when the verdict came from my family to be good , I thought I should be saving the recipe for future use and moreover my mother in law kept praising about it and my heart jumped with joy . So following is the recipe for the same and before entering to the recipe we need something called as 'chakkavaratiyathu' for this recipe which is similar to jam made with jack fruit pulp cooked and reduced in jaggery to a thick consistency.

Ingredients
Paper aval ( very thin beaten rice flakes) - 2 cups
Chaka varatiyathu - 3-4 tbsps
Coconut milk - of one full coconut 
Jaggery water - (  jaggery melted in 1 cup water and sieved to remove impurities )
Water - 2 cups
Cardomom powder - a pinch
Nuts - as required
Ghee - 2 tbpsn

Note : the amount of jaggery depends on the sweetness you prefer and sweetness of the chakka varitayathu

Method
Mix beaten  rice flakes, jaggery water, coconut milk and the chakka varatiyathu and  required amount of water in a pan and cook it until the contents are cooked this may not take long since beaten rice cooks very fast, sprinkle the cardamom powder for flavoring. Fry the nuts in ghee and add into the payasam for additional flavor 

Your quick jackfruit aval payasam is ready! 

Couscous with steamed vegetables

 This is specially for weigh watchers and is very very simple to make, assemble and fill your tummy for a quick dinner .. Here goes the recipe for the same

Ingredients
Couscous - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - as required
A mix of vegs like carrot, mushroom , baby corn  or any of your choice in number and variety
For seasoning 
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbspn
Pepper powder - a pinch or as required
Fresh thyme - 2 - 3 tspns
Juice of one lime

Method
Boil the water, switch off the stove and add in the couscous and  a teaspoon of olive oil  and close it with lid for 10 mins.  Open and with a fork to check whether the couscous have absorbed all the water and become soft and fluffy  Add in the vegetables to this and also do the seasoning , mix well and enjoy!!

Hazelnut cookies coated with tempered chocolate

A post after a while :) and yes it is a cookie... This is one thing which is very easy with cookies is that its easy to make and you can finish of your work when you enjoy it in less time. And what better way to spend time with your kids when you bake along them. Had lots of hazelnut in my pantry bought for making home made Nutella, so thought of trying cookies with the same. Here goes a recipe for it

Ingredients
Hazelnut - 1/2 cup (powdered)
Almonds - 1/4 cup (powdered)
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Sugar ( powdered) - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Milk - if required

Method
Assemble all the ingredients in a mixing bowl except milk and gently mix together until it comes together. Make sure it doesn't come stiff or hard. If you feel so add  milk tsp by tsp to make the dough soft. Knead it softly . Make balls , flatten it and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius

If you check my other post of cookies, you will now how I bake my cookies :)

Once cookies are baked, let it cool in a wore rack .
Meanwhile temper dark chocolate and coat it over cookies and sprinkle sprinkles of your choice.

Steel cut oats with spicy butter milk

My recent discovery is about steel cut oats, yes a very good friend mentioned about this to me, she has been sourcing from abroad but now since everything is very much available in India, I could procure it easily with no difficulties.

Personally speaking I dont prefer the bland nature of oats and hence I resort making dosas/pancakes/crepes with it with different combinations otherwise a porridge using milk and sugar. Once can always substitute sugar with natural sweeteners like fresh fruits or dry fruits but when I planned on using this oats I had loads of buttermilk in my kitchen, hence tried this way. Recipe follows

Ingredients

Steel cut oats - 1/2 cup

Water- 1 1/2 cup

Buttermilk - 2 cups

Cucumber - 2 

Carrots - 2 

Bird eye chillies - 3- 5 

Basil leaves

Salt and pepper

Method

Place the water in a sauce pan and let it boil and add the oats into the boiling water. Keep stirring and cook the oats for around 5-7 minutes and remove from fire. Pour in the buttermilk , chop in the carrots and cucumber and slightly mashed or well mashed chillies and also tear in the basil leaves into it . Add salt and pepper to your taste. If you wish you may avoid pepper and its done!

And I vouch its tasty for your tongue and easy on your tummy 

Enjoy!

Fresh fig cookies

As I mentioned in some other posts, living n Bangalore we get exposed to many varieties of  fruits and vegetables and I always get tempted to pick it up , taste, explore and one such baby is this fresh fig cookies and the result was not bad either ..Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Fresh figs puree- 1/2 cup ( remove the skin and blend)
Whole wheat flour - 1 and half cup
Butter - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 3 tbspns
Baking powder - 1/3 tspn
while chocolate chips ( optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 150 degrees
Mix the flour, butter, fig puree, sugar, baking powder  into a soft dough. Sprinkle the while chocolate chips if you have ( this is just for the extra USP with kids ) and then is is easy . Make small balls and place it in the greased tray and press slightly with a fork and bake in the top rack of the oven for 8-10 minutes or until you feel the bottom is browned and them change the mode of the oven to grill mode and grill for another few minutes till the top turns brown. Remove the tray from the oven and remove the cookies from the tray and let it to cool in the tray. The cookies should become hard and crisp when cooled. Enjoy!

Raagi idiyappam/Finger millet idiyappam

Most of the south indians makes this dish called as idiyappam or nool puttu or stringhopper. This is generally made of fine roasted rice flour, but this time I tried with raagi flour only to make it more nutritious and assure you that it was tasty too.. I made coconut milk sweetened with jaggery and flavoured with cardamom powder to go along with it but would honestly suggest you to make some spicy veg or non veg side dishes to go with it, may be something like a veg stew or any masala curry.

Following is the recipe for the same

Ingredients

Fine rice flour- 1 cup ( roasted)

Raagi flour - 1 1/2  cup ( roasted)

Hot water - as required

Method

Put the rice flour and raagi flour in a big bowl or big flat plate adding salt and two teaspoons of oil. Pour around two cups of hot water, mix it with a spoon, fork or a whisk. Let it rest for a while and then knead it softly adding more water ( now the water can be warm) until you get a soft not so watery dough. Use the idiyappam presser and press the dough through the nozzle to a greased plate. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough and then steam for about 8-10 minutes.

Serve it hot with your favourite side dish!!

Banana butterscotch cake

 

It was such a day when I had loads of over riped bananas in my fruit bowl and scratched my head as to how to use it off. being a weekend thought of baking a quick banana muffins with it , but dint have the patience to even arrange the muffin moulds and whole of the experiment resulted with a cake in the shape of a foccacia bread :) . Anyway it tasted lovely and so all was fair!!

Here goes the recipe which is quite simple and I did the mixing in my food processor bowl , so it was all the more easy, nevertheless the texture of the cake was good

            

                         

                               

  

Ingredients

Eggs  - 2

Mashed bananas - 1 cup

Raisins - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 tbspns

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup

Refined oil - 1/4 cup

Baking powder - 1 tspn

Baking soda - a pinch

Butter scotch - a handful

Method 

Mix everything in a food processor or in a large bowl whisk it up and pour the batter in a pan . Top it with a handful of butterscotch and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for about 20 - 25 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean

The butter scotch gives a very nice crunchy crust for the cake !

Multigrain choco- chip cookies

Its been long I have blogged and its even more longer that I have baked some cookies, I was seriously thinking of substituting sugar with something healthier and just the other day I made some jaggery syrup at home. So when I saw my freshly collected home made butter and this jaggery syrup I thought of going a step high in making some crunchy cookies and hence the resultant product. Fine will take you to the recipe too !

Ingredients

Ragi flour - 1/3 cup

Barley flour - 1/2 cup

Powdered coconut- 1/2 cup

Butter - 1/3 cup

Jaggery syrup- 1/3 cup

Sesame seeds - 2-3 tspn

Choco chips - a handful

Baking powder - a pinch

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl except the choco chips into a soft dough , add the choco chips in the final stage of mixing 

Scoop small quantities of the dough and place in a greased baking tray .

Place the tray in the top rack of the oven and bake in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes and then grill for another few minutes until the top and bottm of the cookie is slightly browned. 

Remove the cookies to a wire rack and let it cool!

Store in an airtight container and enjoy the cookies with your tea

Totally guilt free cookies !! 

Vendakka pulissery (ladies finger in buttermilk gravy)

Lychee cake with butterscotch

Ok now I know you got a hint that I try to make cake out of anything, and tell you all the truth I have realised that the world and the nature is so versalite that it does listen to us if we respect them. Ok so here where have I given the respect to the lychees to turn it into cakes .. I will tell you how :)

Being a mother I wish my kids eats all the good things specially seasonal fruits and being a south Indian have never tasted lychees before, and being privileged  to live in a big city  u get variety of seasonal fruits available across the country. And since my kids take only selective fruits my crazy mind worked in a cakey way :) and the result is a lychee cake. Though the cake was sold at home I would frankly tell you that the cake dint have much flavour of lychee, since lychee itself has a very subtle taste. Anyway still if you want to know the recipe here it goes

Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup ( powdered)
Butter - 1/4 cup
Lychee puree - 2/3 cup
Eggs - 2 no.s
Baking powder - 1 tspn
Butter scotch - a handful (optional)

Method
Sift the flour with the baking powder and keep aside
Beat the eggs till fluffy and then add the sugar and beat again
Add the flour mixture to the egg sugar mixture little by little by adding lychee puree in between and make sure the wet and dry ingredients are well incorporated . Make sure you dont over mix the batter and finally throw in some butterscotch into the batter.
Pour the batter into mould and bake at a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted come out clean. Let the cake sit outside for about 5 minutes and then turm to a wire rack and slice when it cools down.
Done .. Bake and enjoy!

Avocado rava kheer

No, I am not growing avocados in the  backyard ( I live in a flat ), nor I have any estate of avocados anywhere :) , I just love this fruit and its versatility and above all it is so nutritious and is very rich in anti oxidants that you find it hard to avoid this fruit.. I wanted to incorporate this fruit in my diet few years ago , but always got it wrong and now I have almost learnt to get the good ones. Those who have never tried this fruit even till now will tel you it is otherwise called as butter fruit since its texture and taste is like butter.. so soft, smooth and silky.

For this evening I tried kheer with it .. Ok now dont get into thinking that I cooked avocados in milk .. Nah! I did something which a kid can do , in fact these days kids can do much better! I made rava  or sooji or semolina kheer and added avocados into it and mixed well. Its quick , easy and simple and not to forget healthy. So here goes the recipe..

Ingredients

Medium rava - 4 tbspn

Milk 2 cups

Sugar candy ( kalkandam) - a handful

Avocado - 1

Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method

Mix the rava and one and half cups of milk and cook till the rava thickens, it takes less than 10 minutes. Remove from flame and then scoop in the avocado pulp to the kheer. Add in the remaining half cup of milk and stir well till the pulp gets well incorporated in the kheer. You can also use a hand blender for this!

Add a pinch of cardamom powder and serve !

Avacado cake with blue berries

Have been venturing out with avocados for sometime now, and this time its cake since I also had some fresh blue berries with me and wanted to try it out too in cakes. 

Following is the recipe

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup

Eggs - 2 no.s

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Baking powder - 1 tspn

Butter - 2 tbspn

Milk - 1/2 cup

Avocado - 1 ( remove the pulp and mash and keep aside)

Blue berries - a handful

Chocochips - a handful

Method

Sift the flour with baking powder and keep aside

Melt the butter in milk and mix the avocados and keep aside

Take a big mixing bowl and break in two eggs and beat till fluffy and then add in the powdered sugar and beat again. Now slowly add in the flour mixture and avocado- butter- milk mixture alternatively and fold in the egg mixture, starting and ending with flour. Throw in the blue berries at this stage and also throw in the choco chips.

Bake in a loaf tin in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Bake and enjoy :)!

Spicy avacodos smoothie with toasted oats

This is also another invention in necessity of having a pack of 200 gms curd lying in my fridge. Thought of doing some smoothie but wanted to include in the dinner and also wanted to make it slightly filling and not loaded too. So following is the recipe of the new creation

Ingredients

Avocados - 1 med size

Curd- 200 mls

Green chillies - 2-3 

Mint leaves - few

Dried figs- 4-5 

Oats - 1 cup

Salt and pepper

Chilli powder - a pinch

Method

Preheat the oven to toast mode at around 200 degrees Celsius.Spread the oats in a baking tray mixing it with little chilli powder and salt and toast for around 2-3 mnutes or until toasted. Alternatively you can toast on a gas top in a pan.

Blend the curd and avocados  until smooth  along with the chillies, mint leaves and figs.

Take out a clean tall glass and put half the cup of toasted oats and then pour in half a portion of the avocado curd mixture. You can mix the layers and enjoy it or as you wish.

Enjoy ! :)

Simple vanilla sponge cake with fresh cream frosting

Have baked loads of cakes and among that loads of vanilla sponge cake, but was never as happy as I have done this cake. Some how the cake was soft and spongy than many other recipes I tried. I used whole wheat too. I got this recipe from here and I just replaced the flour with whole wheat flour and no other changes.May be you can reduce sugar to your taste.
The recipient of this cake a 3 yrs old little angel who wanted a 'blue butterfly' and when I had all the ingredients I agreed on giving it a shot.. and by God's grace it was not bad either, according to the reviews :)
I did think about how to bring about the shape of the butterfly, thought of many sized and shaped pans and finally decided to do in a rectangular pan and carve the shape out. Hmm.. may be I could do it a lot better next time :) Anyway here is the recipe for the same

Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter (lightly salted)
2 cups  flour  (I used whole wheat flour )
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


1. Beat eggs in large mixing bowl with paddle attachment for 4 minutes or  use an electric egg beater.
2. Add sugar, and continue beating for another 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and stir on low until just combined.
 3. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  Add to eggs and sugar on low speed until just combined.
4. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter on low heat just until butter is melted and wait for it to be cool. Add to batter, beat just until combined.
5. Pour into two greased and floured 8" round cake pans.
6. Bake at 325 until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand in pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire cooling racks and cool completely.

I traced the pan in a paper and tried a shape of the butter fly onto it and then cut out the shape and cut the cake accordingly. Be careful while carving the cake and I would advice you to refrigerate the cake for a while so that it becomes easier for carving

For the decoration I used 'Tropolite' cream and whipped it up adding colour until light, fluffy and stiff. Use an icing nozzle to pipe in the cream over the cake. You can use all you creative juices to have the best decorated butterfly :)

Bake and enjoy!!!

Simplest cake with no butter

Have a major cake in agenda, reason being my son's b'day and on my shopping to procure some stuffs , I found this beautiful butterfly silicon mould. I cudnt stop myselves from buying it , I know many would agree with me in that aspect of 'shopping' :)

Ok anyway that same afternoon my daughter was quite restless missing her brother who started with full day school and hence we both decided to bake a cake which is really really simple. I have heard this recipe before and just last week my friend also told about it and so thought of giving it a try and also to try out my new mould :)

Following is the recipe

Eggs - 3 no.s ( I took country eggs)

Flour- 1/2 cup ( whole wheat )

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Vanilla essence - 1/4 tspn

Milk - 2 tbpsn

Choco chips

Method

Beat eggs with an egg beater till fluffy and double or even the triple its quantity. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and whisk again and also add the vanilla essence. Fold in the flour and and also add the milk. Finally throw in the choco chips ( this is only for the sake of being fancy :) ) and pour in the mould and bake at 170 degrees celsius in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

 

Remove from oven and let it cool.. Serve !

Pretty easy na.. and no butter or oil too...

Bake and enjoy!!!

Pasta in white sauce with leeks, mushrooms and capsicums

Weekend breakfast demanded by my 3 yrs old daughter : ) Recipe as follows

For white sauce
Butter - 60 gms
Flour- 50 gms
Hot milk - 600 mls

For pasta
Uncooked pasta- 2 cups
Whey - 1 cup (have saved the whey after removing paneer from milk)
Water - 1 cup
Capsicum (bell peppers) - one red one
Mushrooms - 1/2 cup chopped
Leeks - 7-8 no.s
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Olive oil - 2-4 tbspn

For seasoning 
Oregano
Pepper
Salt
Chilli flakes
Grated cheese

Method

Heat up the butter in a shallow pan, add the flour whisking thoroughly and then pour in the hot milk little by little whisking continuously so that no lumps are formed.  You white sauce is ready and keep aside

Cook pasta in pressure cooker for one whistle adding whey and water ( Disclaimer : my new method :) )


Heat up the pan, pour in 2-4 tbspn of olive oil. Add in finely chopped leeks and saute till the leeks wilt off, throw in the chopped mushrooms and capsicums, saute for 2-3 minutes and then add in the cooked pasta. Pour in half cup of white sauce and season with oregano, chilli flakes, pepper and salt. Grate in cheese as required and serve hot!

Tomato Jam

I guess tomato season is on, streets are filled with tomato carts and fresh cute little tomatoes are quite inviting. I once tried tomato pickle so this time decided to try something sweet.. so why not jam. But dint want to pour in all those huge amount of sugar into it. So I decided to use sugar candies. I Kerala sugar candies ( kalkandam ) are generally used in the food of babies instead of sugar or else jaggery is used. Kalkandam is usually white in colour, but we also fine yellow coloured sugar candies in some grocery stores, mainly those stores which sells ayurvedic raw materials and other stuffs. It is costly compared to the white ones because of its medicinal values. I made this jam using a mixture of the above said white and yellow sugar candies. The recipe is as follows

Ingredients

Tomato pulp - 2 cups ( I took almost 10 medium ones)

Yellow sugar candy - 1 cup

White sugar candy - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/3 cup

Lemon juice - 1 tspn

Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method

Wash the sugar candies in fresh water and then add 1/3 cup of water and melt the candies. Strain in a towel or fine sieve to remove the impurities in the candies. Add this to the tomato puree, add in the lemon juice and cardomom powder too. Stir occasionally in med flame till the contents thickens. Remove from flame when the contents reduce to a jam consistency.  Pour into a sterile jars while the jam is still hot, close the lid tight and refrigerate for longer shelf life.

Note : You are free to replace the sugar candies with white sugar.

Done! :)

Mango tender coconut drink

Summers and mangoes are made for each other, mangoes lasts till the summers last! and this time I tried this king of fruit with king of drinks.. nothing but a simple tender coconut. Like I have said in many other places I am very poor at naming my creations, I combined these two nice fruits with curd/yogurt. I dunno whether this should be a smoothie, juice or something else. But I just named it as a drink not complicating it much :)  Garnished with sliced almonds over the chilled drink was quite a relaxing drink in this summer.

So following is the recipe

Mango pulp - 1 cup

Tender coconut water and pulp- of 1 tendercoconut

Yogurt- 3/4 cup - 1 cup

Method

Blend /Mix the three ingredients well and serve it at room temperature or cooled, garnished with almond slivers

Now say cheese and relish this drink. Sugar is very much optional.. I chose not to use sugar.

Multigrain uthappam

Ok, Like most of the days I had not prepared or thought about the next day's breakfast and then just before hitting the bed, I just soaked few pulses and beans and ground the next day and made uthappams. I  was a little scared on the thought that ingredients might be a little risky. But surprisingly it was good and now have come to a conclusions that anything can be made to a dosa :D. So without much boasting recipe follows...

Ingredients

Rajma beans- 1/4 cup

Soya beans- 1/4 cup

Whole masoor dal ( black lentils) - 1/4 cup

Broken corn kernels - 1/4 cup

Urad dal - 1/4 cup

Ragi flour - 2 cups

For the topping

Finely chopped one med sized onion

FInely chopped one med sized tomato

FInely chopped coriander leaves

Green chillies - 2-3 finely chopped

Salt 

Method

Soak all the ingredients except the ragi flour overnight or for 4-5 hours. Grind it to a fine batter  and then add in the ragi flour into the batter and grind along for another couple of minutes. Add salt and little turmeric powder. This batter doesn't need fermentation. 

Spread a laddle of batter and spread over the hot tava and when it is half cooked spread the toppings and flip over the dosa.

Remove from the tava once cooked.

I served with spicy curry leaves chutney

Topping can be varied as per your choice.

Guacamole

I got good avocados again, and guess I am getting a hang of it in choosing the right ones. This time I chose to make guacamole, since it is very easy to make too.

Moslty gucamole is made my mashing the avocodos by fork or other manual means and then chop the onion, tomatoes, squeeze the lime etc etc. But I have a habit of trying easier means to most of the recipes. Hence, as always I have used my food processor to make this dip. It wasn't bad either. Probably some of you might shudder by this idea but the rest may try it :)

Ingredients

Med sized ripe avocados - 2 no.s

Med sized onion - 1 

Tomato - 1 ( remove the seeds )

Chillies- 2 

Coriander leaves - a few

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

Lime - 1

Salt and pepper

Method

Throw in all the ingredients in a food processor and blend for around less than a minute. Remove from the blender to a serving dish and serve with tortilla chips. I made flour tortillas at home and had it with the freshly made guacamole

Tips

When buying avocados check for the medium size ones totally green in colour and with no black spots, it should look fresh and smooth

Let it stay for 3-4 days and check its tenderness once a day and dont wait to use it until it turns black or is more tender. You use it just when you feel it is slightly tender. I am sure you will get it right because we just cannot miss this healthy fruit.

The guacamole tastes better when served chilled too.

Cheers!!

Easy mango tart

Whats is the fun not trying anything new in the mango season, tho strangely me not being a big mango fan :). I wanted to try something really simple and dint want to add too many  ingredients to the  recipe and alter the natural taste of the mangoes as such. And such thoughts gave birth to this recipe.

I would like to precaution you with a few stuffs of my experiment

 > This is not a baked tart

 > This required skills of pressing and tapping hard.. literally hard upside down :)

Ingredients

For the tart base

Marie biscuits - 136 gms ( just to specify that I used that big pack)

Butter - 2 tbspn

For the filling

Mango pulp - 1 cup

China grass -10 gms

Lime juice - 1 tbpsn

Sugar - 2 tbpsn ( more if you want it more sweet )

Cherries - for garnish

For the base :

Process the biscuits in a processor and add in the butter, mix them well so that it comes together. Take the tart moulds and throw in the mixture into it and press it well through all the sides of the tart mould. Repeat the same process for the rest of the mixture.  


Refrigerate the moulds for around 30 minutes.

For the filling

Melt the china grass /agar- agar as per packet instructions 

Mix the rest of the ingredients and simmer in the flame for about 5-7 minutes

Mix in the cooled agar agar mixture into it 

Meanwhile remove the tart moulds from the refrigerator and tap out the base, as I told you this is not easy, but just be confident and tap it on to a plate and turn it upright to a plate. Repeat the same for the rest of it. I was 90 percent successful :)

Once you turn out the moulds fill the mixture into the moulds and garnish with the cherries.

Refrigerate again for few hours until the mixture sets.

Easy no bake tart is ready!