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!