Cocoa devil's food cake

Have mentioned in the previous post of mine about my new buy 'Joy of cooking' , I am browsing through the book every day to try out something new :). Have tried a devils cake before but thought of trying this one too. Looked simple with handy ingredients. So here it is

Ingredients and method

Whisk together 
2 cups sifted flour ( I used atta)
1 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt

Whisk in a separate bowl
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter milk or yogurt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tspn vanilla

Beat in a large bowl
1/2 cup of unsalted butter

Gradually add and beat  
1 cup powdered sugar

Beat in one at a time 
2 eggs

On low speed add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with butter milk mixture in 2 parts, beating until smooth. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven, cool in the pan for sometime and then remove to the wire rack to cool
Easy , bake and enjoy! :)

Recipe courtesy : Joy of cooking

Whole wheat chocolate crepes

I am a habitual customer of  an online shopping site, checks on the deals on books every now and then and to my surprise I saw 'Joy of cooking' on an offer of 50 percent. I was happy and without thinking much ordered it through.
And this morning I was thinking of making something special for kidoos and then suddenly remembered about the long forgotten recipe of crepes :) I jumped to check in thro the book and there it is .. I made a sweet crepes which was filled with powdered chocolate. And for sure kidoos loved it. I served it with sliced banana.


Here goes the recipe
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Luke warm water - 1/2 cup
Large eggs - 4 
Butter ( melted) - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tspn

Method
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk well and let stand for 30 minutes.
Pour a ladle full of batter and make thin crepes, flip it over, sprinkle with chocolate powder, roll and serve it 

Recipe courtesy : Joy of cooking

Whole wheat almonds and hazelnut cookies with saffron and cardamom flavor

Easy and tasty recipe of yet another cookie

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup ( powder it )
Almonds -1/2 cup ( I use mamra variety of almonds, powder it)
Hazelnuts - 1/2 cup ( powder it)
Saffron - a pinch
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method
In a large mixing bowl throw in all the ingredients and knead softly and gently, once the dough come together make small balls and place in a baking tray, press slightly with a fork. Preheat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius and place the tray in the top rack of the oven. Bake for 10-11 mins and then grill for 2-3 minutes, now that's how I do and been doing :)
Once done, remove from the oven and slowly place each cookie on the wire rack to let it cool.
Once cooled store in an airtight jar.
Done!!! .. Enjoy!

Walnut and hazelnut wholewheat brownies

Its been sometime that I have not baked cake/brownie, the reason being I am becoming a little averse when it comes to adding the raising agents in the bakes. I am sure a person who loves baking cannot have such expectations but seriously speaking I hold back my selves from it. As it is there are a lot of unwanted things going into ours and ours kids body, so why more , got to wait and see as to how long it goes :)
You would have noticed that I love baking cookies, reason being we can bake cookies with min or no raising agents. But when last week when my son pleaded me to bake something I just couldn't say no to him and I started googling and found this wonderful recipe. I did give some slight  modifications but totally worth it. This recipe is worth saving with or without the changes, as the original recipe says it the best ever brownies..So here it goes

Ingredients

Butter - 185 gms
Cooking chocolate - 185 gms
Whole wheat flour +cocoa powder (3 tbspn)- 1 cup
100 gms - white chocolate bits
Half cup of hazelnuts and walnuts - coarsely chopped.
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn
Eggs- 3 
Sugar - 3/4 cup

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare a wide square pan and keep aside.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler, once melted keep the mixture aside and let it cool.
Sieve the flour and cocoa and keep aside in the sieve.
Break the eggs and add in the sugar (powdered) and beat until soft and fluffy for around 5-7 mins. Add vanilla essence.
Gradually add the cooled chocolate-butter mixture and stir slowly with a spatula, making sure that you don't break the air in the beaten eggs.
Now gradually sift the flour-cocoa mixture into the batter and slowly fold in the batter using a spatula.
Finally add the white chocolate bits and the nuts bits and fold in again.
Now pour the batter in the pan, spread it out evenly and bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
I bet this brownies are yum!!!

Baked bitter gourd crispies

Now this is something I am making very regularly these days for the only bitter gourd lover in my family who is my dear husband. I like to make something simple, consuming less time yet tasty with it. So once I tried baking  and it turned out good and there was no looking back since then. This recipe has turned to be his favorite way of having his bitter gourd. Another good thing about the recipe is once you place the tray in the oven, you can move on to the rest of the cooking you ought to do in the kitchen.

I promise I will click a pic next time I make, yea I make it very often these days and following is the recipe for the same

Ingredients
Bitter gourd - 250gms
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspns
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspns
Salt - as required
Olive oil - to drizzle
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Green chillis- as required

Method
Preheat the oven ( OTG) at 200 degrees.
Wash, slit and remove the seeds of the bitter-gourd and slice it thin.
Throw the cut bitter-gourd in the baking tray and add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and spread it evenly in the tray.
Now place the tray in the middle rack and bake for about 15-20 mins or until you see the gourd shrinks but doesn't get burnt. 
Now  turn the knob to grill mode and grill for another 5-10 mins, making sure that you don't burn the gourd, to be on a safer side you may remove the tray and mix and spread the gourds. Remove the tray once done. Enjoy it hot with rice, or with rotis having a gravy by the side. My dear husband enjoys it with rice as well as roti. So its your take :)

Foxtail milltet rava dosa

It was another working day morning when I dint have anything ready for making breakfast. All I could do was soaking this and that previous night to grind it the next morning, make batter and spread dosas. I was quite positive about the results and yes it was up to my expectations.
I had bought organic foxtail millet rava and made upma with that the other day, it was just good enough so thought of trying dosas with the same. Hence this creation and following is the recipe.

Ingredients
Foxtail millet rava - 1 cup
Urad dal  - 1/2 cup
Med thick brown poha- 1/2 cup

Method
Wash and soak the dal and poha together for 5-6 hours or over night.
Soak the rava separately for 5-6 hours or over night.
After soaking  grind the dal and poha together and rava separately and then mix well.
Add sufficient amount of water to get the consistency of dosa batter. This batter does not need fermentation.
Once the batter is ready, heat the tawa and spread dosas as usual.
Best served with coconut chutney or any side dish of you choice. 
Enjoy!

Instant barley- coconut dosa

By now you all would have noticed that I am experimenting on dosas  and I am loving it. I like few things about dosas, first of all any ingredients can be used, second you just have to take care of the measurement and have a picture of the taste of the dosa in mind, yes it is possible. Third point is dosas are very versatile and can be combined with any side dish and above all my kids just love dosas. So this morning it was barley and coconut dosas.

Ingredients
Barley - 1 cup
Dosa rice ( I used organic) - 1 cup
Grated coconut- 1/2 cup

Method
Soak the barley rice  and dosa rice over night.
Grind the rices together to a smooth batter.
Then grind the fresh coconut and add it to the rice batter.
Add enough water and salt and spread thin dosas.
You don't need to keep the batter for fermentation.
You may not be able to spread this dosa with the ladle so instead add more water, make the batter thin and just pour the ladle full of batter in the tawa and let it spread on its own and cook.
Serve it hot with your choice of accompaniment.
Enjoy!

Finger millet - oats dosa ( Instant raagi-oats dosa)

These days I am not planning the breakfast for the next day, just not happening.  So last night with whatever grocery left in my kitchen I thought of soaking some urad dal and then thought of making raagi - oats dosa for the next day. I experimented and it turned out good and yes I got a pat on my back from my family :)

Ingredients
Urad dal- 1/2 cup
Ragi flour - 1 cup
Oats - 1 cup

Method 
Soak urad dal for 4-5 hours or overnight.
Grind dal and oats separately to a fine paste.
Add the ragi flour in this batter and add more water to make it thin, to the consistency of a normal dosa batter. 
You may keep the batter aside for 10-15 mins for the minimum fermentation that can happen in that time. I did this and the result was good :)
Add salt to the batter and spread dosas as usual
I served this dosa with coconut- shallots- red chilli- tamarind chutney and the verdict was 'yum'
Try and enjoy!

Whole wheat- puffed rajgira cookies sweetened with jaggery syrup

This is a cookie recipe which is easy, healthy and can be stored for few days and can be sent as snacks for school going kids. Following is the recipe for the same

Ingredients
Rajgira (puffed) - 1/3 cup
Atta - 1 1/3 cup
Butter- 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - 1/2 cup
Hazelnuts - crushed- 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1/8 tspn

Method
Mix everything and knead softly and make a soft dough. Make small balls and place in a greased baking tray.

Preheat the oven for ten minutes at 150 degrees celsius, place the cookie tray in the top rack and bake for around 8-10 minutes, when you feel that the bottom of the cookies are baked slowly shift the mode of the OTG to grill mode and grill for another 5-8 minutes..make sure that the top and bottom should not get dark brown , it should be just golden brown.

Remove the tray from the oven and remove each cookie carefully ( it would be soft ) from the tray using a flat spatula and let cool till it turn crispy and then store in airtight jar.

Enjoy!

Rice- coconut and oats dosa

Rice- coconut and oats dosa

Before getting into the post I confess that I have been not updating my experiments lately and also in this post you will not find any picture. I may click a pic next time when I do this recipe. I made this dosa  this morning and my family loved it, so thought of archiving it before I forget it and promise that I will upload a pic soon.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients 

Dosa rice( I use organic)- 1.5 cups

Grated coconut - 1/2 - 3/4 cup

Oats - 3/4 cup

This is an instant dosa which means you can make the batter and carry on making it too , there is not need of any fermentation.

Method

Soak the rice for couple for hours.

Grind the rice, coconut and oats separately to a fine paste.

Mix everything and add sufficient water to make the batter thin. If you are good at making neer dosa or love it, you may add more water.

Add salt to the batter and keep it ready.

Turn on the tava and spread dosas as usual.

Its healthy, slightly sweet and yum and can be accompanied with any spicy curries, chutnies or even with jam or honey and even ghee and sugar :)

Enjoy!

Oats and cheese cupbread

Oats and cheese cupbread

Those who love baking will relate with the amazing feeling of baking breads, its therapeutic and really boosts our senses. Bread baking is no rocket science, have seen many people hesitating to bake breads when they fail at the first or second attempt. All I would say is keep trying and get there, its not difficult at all. Few pointer which you need to concentrate in bread baking are the rising of the yeast and the rising of the dough. In fact the rising of the dough comes perfect if you have got the yeast working right. You get it right by practice, I will explain in the possible way here too. 

Ingredients 
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Oats - 1 cup
Refined flour/ All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Olive oil - 2 tbspn
Sugar - 2 tbspn
Yeast - 1 1/4 tbspn
Water - 1 cup
Salt - 1 tspn
Cheese cubes and oregano and chilli flakes.

Method

• The crucial step in bread making as I said above is fermentation of the yeast. For this purpose the water should be luke warm which means if the water is more or less warm than required the yeast will not work or ferment. So if u have microwave heat one cup of water in a microwave proof large glass bowl for one minute at high power. On stove top water should be just a little more warm than just being warm. 
• Remove the bowl from the microwave, add sugar and the sprinkle yeast over the water, stir with a fork and leave it aside for 10- 15 mins. You would see a froth in the bowl which is nothing but fermentation of yeast. If you have not got this step right I would recommend to repeat the step until you see a frothy mixture. :)
• Once the yeast has fermented sieve one cup each of flours in small gaps mixing the dough with the hand mixer with dough hook attachments, you can also use your hands. I would recommend hand mixer if you mind messed up fingers :)
• Once the flour has come together add the olive oil and mix it again. Knead the dough thoroughly and leave the dough in the bowl covered for about one hour in a warm place.
• After one hour you would see the dough doubled, that shows your bread dough is right and yeast has worked perfect. Now knock down the air of the dough.
• Now since we are making cubreads :) , divide the dough and place in cupcake moulds and insert a small cheese cube in each cup.
• Now preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius, meantime the dough will rise again.
• Season the dough with oregano and chilli flakes on top and bake for about 20 minutes or until the bread has risen and top browned and we hear a hollow sound when tapped.

Remove the bread from oven and serve hot or warm or as per your choice.
Enjoy!

Whole wheat oats cookies with almonds, sweetened with jaggery

Whole wheat oats cookies with almonds, sweetened with jaggery 

A mother of school going kids often breaks her head for ideas for snacks box for the kids, and these days mothers are more aware to add something healthy. In this recipe instead of using sugar, I used jaggery syrup to sweeten the cookies.

Following is the recipe
Ingredients
Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Oats- 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - 1/2 cup *
Blanched peeled and halved almonds- 1/2 cup
Baking powder - a pinch / 1/8 tspn
Cocoa powder - 2 tbspn

* I melted 1 kg jaggery in I cup of water , strained and used 1/2 cup of this liquid for the recipe. 

Method
As simple as said always take a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients and mix well, it will be a little wet and sticky because of the jaggery syrup. Scoop out small spoons of the dough and place it in a greased baking tray, press it lightly with the back of the fork.
Bake for about 10 mins in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius and grill for another 4-5 mins.
Remove and let it cool in a wire rack and then store in a airtight container.
Enjoy! :)

Jaggery amla ( amla caramelized in jaggery syrup)

Jaggery amla

Been wanting to try some sweet combination with amla when it is in season. Even if it fails I might not regret too much :). This is a wild try of caramelising amla in jaggery syrup, undoubtedly it turned very yummy. But I might as well warn you that you need a little ' more' time to get this done. But anyways I am going to save the recipe for me and for others who would love to try this.

Ingredients 
I kg amla ( steamed and seeds removed)*
2 cups of jaggery syrup**

Method
Mix both the ingredients and stir until it is reduced. You needn't wait until all the liquid evaporates, you can retain a little amount of the reduced liquid which adds on to that sweetness.

* Wash, and steam steam cook the amlas just until it breaks.
** I melted 1 kg jaggery in I cup of water , strained and used 2 cups of this liquid for the recipe. You can retain the remaining liquid for any other recipe/cooking or use it instead of sugar.

Chewy avocado almond cookies

Chewy avocado almond cookies

One of the days that I wanted to experiment making cookies with avocados :) The result has been not bad either.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients 
Mashed avocado - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour- 1/2 cup ( I use organic wheat flour)
Ground almonds- 1/2 cup ( I use mamra variety almonds)
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Baking powder - a pinch
Desiccated coconut 

Method
Take a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients except desiccated coconut, mix well with a fork initially and then with the hands to a smooth dough.
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Slightly butter a baking tray, make small balls of the dough, place it in the baking tray, press it with a fork and then sprinkle some desiccated coconut over it.
Bake the cookies for about 10-15 mins and grill for around 5 mins.
Remove the cookies and let it cool in a wire rack.

Note: these cookies are chewy and not crunchy.

Barley and moongdal dosa

Barley and moong dal dosa

I just realized that its been two months I have posted anything on my blog.  A lot of experiments have happened but never got into clicking or drafting the recipe.
Anyway today I am posting the recipe of barley and moong dal dosa. As I have always said dosa is one of the easiest  way to include many good ingredients in our daily life. The recipe is very simple and is as follows

Ingredients
Barley rice- 1 cup
Moong dal- 1 cup
Salt - as required

Method
Wash and soak barley and moongdal overnight.
Grind well in the mixer in the morning or may be after a couple of hours. The barley has to soak well until softened so that it grinds well.
Add salt to the batter and make dosas as usual.


Variations: You can add  coriander, green chillies ot the batter OR you can add jeera , asoafetida and a pinch of turmeric powder and of course you can add anything to your choice, imagination and liking. I made it simple and served with a spicy tomato pickle. You may also serve with any chutney of your choice, or curry 
This batter needs no fermentation. Easy, healthy and tasty.

Garlic- copra ( dried coconut) chutney

Cooking/experimenting doesn't always happen by a mega plan, most of it is instantaneous, at least for me .. and I love that instant brainstorming, experimenting, cooking, tasting , appreciating and everything relating to it.
So for this chutney, the motivation is a sackful of kopra brought by my mother in law from hometown. She carried it all the way and I thought I need to make the best use of it. Of course she helped me in cleaning it and making it ready for my work .. all thanks to her, God bless her :)

I will go to the recipe and get in detail about it. For this chutney you need
Ingredients
Garlic - 50 gms ( skinned)
Dried coconut- 1/2 kg
Tamarind - 25 gms
Red chillies - 100- 150 gms
Salt - as required

Method
Roast the grated coconut in a dry hot kadai until it turns slightly brown.
Roast garlic, tamarind, chilies also separately in hot kadai without oil.
Mix everything together with required salt and then pound or dry grind them together until the ingredients are well blended. Store in a glass jar
It goes well with dosas, idlis and even with rice ..Enjoy while it lasts!!! :)

Chakka varatti - jackfruit jam in jaggery

                         

Till the moment I started making it, I had no idea that I would make it that day. But probably as they say I was supposed to make it that day. There is a reason for such a belief.

That day morning when my doorbell rang, I saw my neighbouring kid standing on my door holding a huge portion of a jack fruit. The aroma which filled my house made my mouth watery, yes I confess. I had to take my kids for their swimming classes, once I was back I patiently ventured out in cleaning and removing the carpels one by one carefully and gently. Once I was finished with my task I realised there is quite a lot of it. Then I thought of cooking it so that it stays for a couple of days. What better way other than making chakka varatti for a Keralite. Without waiting for a second I called my aunt to check the recipe. I noted and ventured out to make it. I have the traditional vessel for this called as 'uruli', was happy to make use of it too :)

You have to be very careful while cooking this as you dare not raise the flame since it makes the syrup splash and might reach your face, as it did for me. So be careful while cooking it and use a ladle which has long handle to stir.

Whatever said and done all the effort is worth when you taste the varatti and your kids eat it and has a glee on their face.

So enjoy cooking and eating this delicacy

Following is the recipe

Jackfruit carpels - 1 kg

Jaggery - 1/2 kg

Ghee - 2-3 tbspn

Cardamom powder and dry ginger powder (optional)

Method

Steam the jack fruit carpels for about 15 - 20 mins, remove from flame, let it cool and then puree it to paste.

While you keep the carpels for steaming take about a cup of water and melt the jaggery and sieve to remove the impurities and keep it aside.

Once your paste is ready, mix the paste and the jaggery syrup and pour into the thick bottom vessel and keep in on the stove.

Keep stirring it; yes keep stirring it until the syrup thickens. Once the syrup starts thickening start adding ghee little by little until the syrup leaves the sides of the pan and starts releasing the ghee. You can stop when it reaches a jam consistency.

Let it cool and transfer to sterilised jars. Enjoy the yummy chakka varatti/jackfruit jam.

Before removing from flame you can add the flavourings. 

Roasted pumpkin soup

This is one of my kids favourite and I keep making it often for their evening snack. It’s very easy to make it and of course tasty too. All you need is an oven and a blender :)

Pumpkin - 500 gms

Onion - one big one 

Olive oil - 2 tbsps.

Milk - 2 cups

Salt and pepper

Fresh cream or cheese bits or grated cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Wash and peel the pumpkin into cubes and arrange in the baking tray. Peel and chop the onions also into cubes and throw in the tray. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the vegs and mix and spread it evenly in the tray.

Now keep the tray in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft when poked with a fork.

Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool for couple of minutes.

Once the vegs are cooled throw it in a blender and pour milk to blend it 

Blend it and then strain.

You can bring back the mixture over the stove to make it hot or warm and then garnish with grated cheese, salt and pepper and serve hot!

You can replace milk with veg stock or chicken stock and serve the soup with sour cream as well !!

Instant Chocolate Fondant

That was a weekend and I wanted to have something like this and also surprise the kids too. Hence made this after lunch. Have to tell you its very easy, quick and tasty tooo.

Following is the recipe

60g (2 oz) butter, plus more for greasing

80g (2 1/2 oz) dark chocolate

2 eggs

60g (2 0z) sugar

40g (1 1/2 oz) flour

Confectioner' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 210ºC (410ºF). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Grease two medium ramekins with butter. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar, then add the flour. Pour the chocolate-butter mixture over the eggs-mixture, whisking constantly.

Divide the mixture into the ramekins and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges have set and a crust has formed on the top of the cakes, and the centers have risen, but are still very jiggly.

Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve immediately.

Peanuts and pista chocolate (chikki? )

These days I do feel a little lazy to do the stories for my blog but nevertheless love to share the recipe for you and for me before I forget it. Anyway the story behind this  to send some small mini  treats in my kids snack box.. a chocolate treat :) Why to be only chocolate, hence stuffed some nuts into it. So following is the method, I wouldn't call it a recipe since this hardly need any measuring.

You need to have 
Cooking chocolate
Pistachios 
Cashewnuts
Pumpkin seeds
You can add the nuts of your choice too, but I primarily used peanuts ( organic peanuts :)   )

Method
All it takes is couple of minutes.
Chop the cooking chocolate evenly and melt it using a double boiler, once the chocolate is melted take it off from the boiler and then add in the nuts and mix well, You need to see a sufficient amount of chocolate floating so that it holds shape. If the nuts are too much it might not hold. . So once everything is mixed well, spread a butter paper and pour  the mixture to it, spread it well and leave it to dry. After a couple of minutes you can cut the slab in the shape of your choice and then gently remove from the butter paper.
Make sure its cooled properly and then store in a clean jar.

Bakarwadi - a spicy deep fried snack

I have eaten bakarwadi of  a famous brand of snack makers of  Pune. Been wanting to try this snack at home since long time and I was delighted to find the recipe in book [Rasachandrika] I bought last week. Tried it last week and it was good!!

Following is the recipe
Ingredients 
Grated onion/very finely chopped = 1 cup
Garlic cloves - 8
Chopped coriander - 1 cup
Garam masala - 1/2 tspn
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 4 - 5
Salt - as required
Jeera - a pinch
Ajwain - a pinch
Red chilli powder - as required ( for spiciness and color) u can omit green chilies
Besan ( gram flour) - 1.5 cup

Method
Make a dough of the gram flour with a little oil, salt and water.
For the filling crush the chopped garlic and chillies with salt and mix all th eother ingredients.
Take a small portion of the dough and roll out.
Sprinkle a little of filling evenly on the chapati, roll it and press slightly with the palm.
Cut it evenly into 2 cm broad pieces and then deep fry in oil
Enjoy with a hot cup of tea/coffee!!!

Instant barley dosa recipe

Barley has been a component of various health foods, but yes a little low profile. People don't even remember this wonder grain until they have a urine infection, ok at least that's what I have observed .When the summer is approaching it is good to include barley in our diet. Barley can be used in various forms but like most of my recipes reflects that I find way to incorporate an ingredient in such a recipe which makes it easier to feed kids, I found a way with barley too. Previously I have made dosa, idlis, and cookies with barley. This time also it is dosa but in a little different form, kind of a neer dosa form.

So let me get into the recipe

Ingredients
Organic dosa rice - 1cup ( ordinary dosa rice with also do)
Barley grains - 1 cup

Method
Soak the rice and barley together for couple of hours or overnight ( 3-5 hours).
Grind it well and add salt and leave it for 10-15 mins and you may add  water to make the batter thin.
Keep the tava or the griddle on the stove and once the tava is hot, pour a ladle full of batter on the hot tava and cover it up. Once done you may or may not flip :) 
Once cooked remove from the dosa from the pan and serve hot with chutney or curry or jam of your choice.


Thanks
Chaithanya

Sweet and spicy tomato carrot jam

This is a great way to celebrate the tomato and red carrot season of the year. All you need is a kg of tomato and half kg of carrots. This jam/preserve can be used for sandwiches, chappathis and even dosas. It has that sweet and spiced tangy taste. I would say the tangy taste is very subtle in this jam. Easy to make and easy to taste.

Following is the recipe for the same
Ingredients 
Tomatoes - 1 kg ( remove the skin and puree - would come up to 4 cups)
Red carrots - 1/2 kg ( peel and finely chopped - would come upto 2 cups)
Sugar - 3 cups
Spices- cloves, cardamon, cinnamon , pepper corns, star anise.


Method
Mix the tomato puree/paste and the finely diced carrots( I used food processor) in a wide thick bottom pan. Sprinkle the sugar and mix well. Keep it on flame and keep stirring it. Be very careful as it releases a lots of water, hence bubbles up a lot. Add in the spices, to your level of taste, and you have the option to omit if you don't like any of all of the spices. But adding spices gives it a distinct taste, flavor and aroma.
Keep stirring until the jam thickens and store in sterilized jar while it is still hot. Close the jar once the content is cooled.

Your jam is ready!!!!

Hazelnut butter

I  bought hazelnuts and hazelnut oil to make home made nutella (I dont buy Nutella), I did hazelnut cupcakes too with hazelnut oil and this time I tried hazelnut butter. You can avoid hazelnut oil or use any non flavour oil to make this butter. It super easy too, hardly take 10 mins and a very healthy butter is ready as a spread!

Ingredients
Hazelnuts - 100 gms
Hazel nut oil - 1 - 2 tspn

Honey - as required

Vanilla pod - half of  pod

Method
Take a thick bottom pan and dry roast the nuts for sometime, just enough to heat it and then put it in a mixie jar or a blender or a food processor. Pulse it until it starts releasing oil. Scrape in the vanilla pod and also add the oil. Finally add honey as a sweetener. If you want exclusive hazelnut butter stop with oil , don't add vanilla or honey :). If you add cocoa or scraped chocolate nd replace honey with sugar you get nutella.

And yea 'keep refrigerated'
So try and enjoy!!

Whole wheat garlic and cumin bread

Started baking this bread with a combination of white flour and whole wheat flour but I ended up baking it with only whole wheat flour and it doesn't look bad either .. right? Of course it was a little crumbly but yea tasty too and of-course healthy!!

Ingredients
4-6 cloves garlic 
1 package rapid−rise yeast ( 2 1/4 tspn)
1/4 cup luke warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 to 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup milk

Method
Add yeast and the granulated sugar to the luke warm water and wait for the yeast to froth up.
Heat milk and mix olive oil.
Now mix the yeast mixture with the milk - olive oil mixture and keep in a big bowl. Also grate the garlic and throw in the cumin powder in the bowl, not to forget the salt.
Using a hand dough mixer add in the flour while the mixer is still running, keep adding the flour until the dough forms a ball. Place the dough in a bowl and keep in a warm place and wait until it rise.
Knead back the dough, make small balls and place in a baking tray. Keep it covered for a second rising. 
Once the dough has risen again , brush the dough with milk and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until its brown on top and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.

Bake and enjoy!

Jowar roti - easy method

Jowar is a millet and jowar roti is a staple food in many places in India. My Marathi neighbour had once shown me how to make jowar roti the traditional way, but failed miserably whenever I tried it. Finally I found a way to make jowar rotis, not the traditional way but I do fetch good rotis by this process, Glad to share and save the recipe :)

Ingredients
Jowar flour - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Salt - 1 tspn
Oil - 1 tspn

Method
Take a flat pan and pour water and keep on the stove. Let the water boil properly, sieve in the jowar flour to the boiling water. Cook the flour in the water till all the water is absorbed by the flour. Remove from flame and knead the dough as much as possible while the dough is still hot/warm. The more you need the better the rotis. 
For the next step, i.e to knead the dough its highly recommended to have a chapatti presser/tortilla presser, else it is very difficult to roll the dough way you roll out chapatti dough.

So keep the chapatti presser ready by spreading plastic sheets in between ( so that you can easily remove the rotis ). Take a small portion the dough, make a small round ball and keep it in the presser between the plastic sheets and press it. Lift the lid of the presser, remove the roti and cook on a medium hot tava , flipping in between and also showing it directly to the flame , so that it puffs up. Repeat the process to get nice fluffy and soft jowar rotis.

Enjoy with some spicy curry !

Broccoli - mushroom - walnuts sandwich

A very simple and easy filling to make for  quick sandwich and can I say it is tasty too:) yes it was !!

Ingredients for the filling
Mushrooms- 200 gms
Broccoli - 200 gms
Garlic- 3-4 pods
Green chili - 1-2 
Salt and pepper 
Walnuts- coarsely crushed - a handful
One cheese cube

Method
Coarsely chop mushroom and broccoli and cook in high flame with grated garlic and green chilli and season with salt and pepper

Assembling the sandwich
Put on the sandwich maker and wait for the iron be hot. Place a slice of bread and then spread the filling generously. Sprinkle some grated cheese and also throw in some crushed walnuts. Cover it with another slice of  bread and close the lid of the sandwich maker. Grill it and serve it hot with tomato sauce and green chili sauce.
Enjoy!

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