Fresh Orange Cake - Path to Nirvana

When you have to plan the entire day for finding that one hour to write a blog post or when you are preparing and making meals interesting for a toddler who runs around the house non-stop or when you are still recuperating from recent illness , who on earth would want to bake a cake and search for a recipe with fresh ingredients! 

So it happened on this Sunday when I had this sudden craving for eating a Cake with some fresh fruit as ingredient. I didn't know of any recipe hence searched the web and found couple of links. So this recipe is just reproducing them with very minor tweaks which suits my style.

Visuals energizes me and makes me invincible :) Just after having a sumptuous lunch on a Sunday afternoon, I got the visuals of fresh fruits which are melted and infused into a pound cake. Smell of it encircling me , each bite levitating me to the world of happiness and instant peace.. Wow ! I thought. Despite the tiredness, I decided to hunt for a recipe and made a cake which is super easy and contains all the goodness of a fruit... Orange Cake.. here you go...

Ingredients

1. Flour - 2 Cup
2. Butter - 1 Cup
3. Powdered Sugar - 1 Cup
4. Baking Soda - 1.5 tsp
5. Salt - a pinch
6. Fresh Orange Juice - 1 Cup
7. Egg -2

How to Make ?

1. Prepare Orange Juice and use the orange peel to make rind. Quantity of rind depends on your liking, remember it will add slight bitterness to the cake, I used 1 tsp of rind.
2. Sift flour and add baking soda and salt.
3. Cream butter
4. Add eggs one by one to the creamed butter.
5. Now add flour parts by parts and in between add juice.
6. Consistency should be dropping .
7. Fold in the rind.
8. Pre-heat oven and grease a cake pan.
9. Pour batter to cake pan and leave 1/3rd portion to allow raising.
10. Bake for 30-40 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

How to attain Nirvana :)

On a rainy evening, prepare a strong tea. Get your favorite tray, place one large chunky piece of cake and piping hot tea. Go to that room with a view or pull a comfy chair near your garden. Smile and slowly sip tea and take a small bite. Enjoy the softness and that mild acidic sweetness and the occasional  punch of bitterness in your mouth. Close your eyes and feel that moment. Dear ones, you have just now attained Nirvana :)

Birthday Bruschetta

( Draft created on birthday which was couple of months back :))

It's my birthday today (yipee yay woohoo) I am as excited as I was during my 2nd or 3rd birthday(earliest I could remember). My first birthday memory is my 2nd birthday's.. I was sitting on top of a big table surrounded with gifts and lot of eatables :) I remember seeing smiling faces and lots of colorful gifts. Thank you parents , you have really made it memorable for me.

The journey of our life is so amazing.. just look at how our birthdays have changed over a period of time.. the way in which it was celebrated.. the kind of gifts.. people.. from parents to friends to partners to spouse to kids to friends to parents :) the kind of surprises ... people calling from far off.. also those people who do not call you also marks a spot in your memory ! (still working on forgetting and forgiving :P)

Life is so happening! Married .. employed.. kids.. friends.. hobbies.. new friends.. new relations.. new hobbies.. career  :P amazing if you think about it! Only thing i don't know is how to sit idle.. I took an off today and did chill out most of the day..  However, for my little dose of sense of achievement I decided to make something.. Here it is Bruschetta. just tweaked it to my liking though :)

Ingredients

1. Baguette Bread - 1
2. Garlic Pod- 2
3. Tomato - 1
4. Dried Thyme - 1 table spoon
5. Olive Oil
6. Oregano - 1 table spoon

How to make ?

1. Slice baguette bread. Make not so thin and not so fat ones. Medium build lol! Refer the pics.
2. Slice garlic into thin pieces
3. Slice tomato into small pices.
4. Pre-heat Oven 200 for ten minutes.
5. Meanwhile, place garlic, tomato on the bread and add dried thyme and pour 1 tbsp of olive oil.
6. Arrange breads in a tray and heat for 5-10 min.
7. Voila ! Simplest of simplest and guilt free Bruschetta is ready!

Note : Add cheese of your liking to make it more yummy !

I enjoyed it with a glass of Chardonnay !

Oats and Egg - Ode to Friendship

Sometimes you may like to listen to the music that is flowing from outside rather than the one being played at your home... At home you play your favorites never knowing if you can even develop other favorites too.. That's when some one plays a music , someone unknown... some new school of music... words unclear at times... not sure of when it is going to end.. Then just be in the moment, enjoy that and gradually develop a taste... hehe Sunday morning.. and absolutely no plans for the day.. enjoying solitude and thinking crazy stuff like this! Well, this is also me!

Phew! Thanks for going through the drama for the below recipe of one of the world's(or planet's ? :P) simplest yet healthiest breakfast :) Also, my personal favorite! Oats and Egg Ta da!

Dedicated to all my friends!

Ingredients

1. Quaker Oats - 8 tablespoon
2. Water
3. Date Syrup - 2 tablespoon
4. Walnut/Almonds and the like - Fistful
5. Egg - 1

How to Make?

Oats

1. Heat a non-stick pan
2. Add oats and toss . Do not get it brown, just until the smell of it emanates :)
3. Gradually add water until oats are soaked.
4. Toss until water is evaporated.
5. Get the oats out into a bowl.
6. With so much love break walnuts into two and add to the Oats, place almonds artistically :)
7. Now, the favorite part pour Date syrup to the oats.Pour it gently yet making funny shapes until it looks lip-smacking!

Egg

1. Boil 1 cup of water.
2. Once water is boiling, add Egg gently.
3. Keep it simmering for 10 min.
4. Cool it down to 1 min.
5. Crack open and aww.. perfect smooth white egg is found!

Highly Recommended : Listen to Meghan Trainor and twist and turn to the beats!

How to Eat?

Scoop a spoon full of oats with date syrup and crunchy nuts. Feel the soft and silky oats, crunch into the oats, relish the natural sweetness of date. Imagine all the health benefits. Imagine healthy hair, strong nails, supple skin, bright eyes and the use of all that :P

After one spoon of the oats, bite into the boiled egg. Say thanks to all the good protein and the good cholesterol!

Drink a glass of water and after you finish , thank me for the recipe! Flowers , Dark Chocolates and admiration accepted!

Easy Moist Chocolate Cake

Greetings All!

Now it is time for me to publish couple of recipes from archive.  Today I am sharing the recipe of a Cake made for Mr G for his b'day. I am a big fan of b'days, anniversaries, valentine's day and many such 'days' after all life is for celebration and why should one miss any such chances right ? :)

So here is the story of Mr G's b'day. I wanted to give him a good surprise and was yearning to hear some compliments from him :)) It was sadly a working day , so started sourcing for some easy recipes on internet. Made a cake quickly during lunch break ( I was working from home then!) and continued my work. When he reached home also, I continued my work and then went on to cater to my little toddler's needs and other chores ;) However, this tiny moist cake with chocolate sauce dripping all over did invite Mr G's attention with its beautiful aroma! So there goes another surprise from wifey to him and we all relished that cake .

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour/ maida – 1 and 1/4 cup
2. Unsweetened cocoa powder – 1/2 cup
3. Sugar – 1  cup
4. Baking powder – 1 tsp
5. Baking Soda – 1 tsp
6. Eggs – 2
7. Oil – 1/3 cup
8. Salt – 3/4 tsp
9. Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
10. Milk – 3/4 cup

Chocolate sauce and straw berries for garnishing.

How to Make?

1. Sift together the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

2. Now add in the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla extract.  Beat them well until the batter is well-combined.

3. Grease a pan with butter and dust with flour. 

4. Pre-heat oven for 10 Minutes.

5. Pour cake batter evenly on the pan.

6. Bake for 25 Minutes.

 Enjoy with a chocolate sauce :)

Nei Choru - Ghee Rice

Happy New Year to all of you! It has been such a long time since I posted any recipe here. Well, it comes with a reason - hectic life :) However, it doesn't mean that I was starving myself and the family or was not making anything delicious all the while. I just had a highly demanding work schedule, attention seeking infant and hardly any time for even a relaxed bath :D

I know we had many holidays and celebrations like Onam, Diwali, Xmas and finally New Year. I literally ended up preparing a lot of food for Xmas and New Year as on Onam an Diwali I had a sick baby at home.

Here is a recipe for Ghee rice flavoured with whole spices which will go well for any celebration!

Ingredients

1. Basmati Rice - 3 Cup
2. Whole Spices -
1. Cardamom - 3
2. Clove - 5
3. Star Anise -3
4. Bay Leaf - 2
5. Cinnamon - 3 small size stick
3. Cashew - 1/4 Cup
4. Onion - 1/2 Cup
5. Raisin - 1/4 Cup
6. Ghee - 3 Tbsp
7. Cooking Oil - 1 Tbsp
8. Salt to taste.

How to Make?

1. Soak Basmati Rice in water for 15 minutes and drain and keep.
2. Heat Ghee in a hard bottomed vessel(I used pressure cooker) an add cashews till it is slightly brown and then add raisins and saute till it is done.
3. Keep the cashews an raisins on a tissue paper to drain the excess ghee.
4. Now fry the thinly sliced onions in oil, till they are brown and place on a tissue paper.
5. Heat ghee and saute whole spices and continue till you get the aroma from them.
6. Now add the rice to this and mix well and add water and salt. I used 4.5 Cups of water and cooked in pressure cooker.
7. Once done, poke with a fork to release the vapour and make the rice fluffy.

Serve this hot with any of your favourite curries. Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Cake with Sesame topping

My dad loves banana. Whenever he announces his visit to my home, we purchase bananas and keep it ready for his joy :) I have also acquired the habit of munching on bananas, if hungry between main meals. Here is a cake with banana and chocolate.

Enjoy the goodness of banana when you bite into the soft pieces through the layers of chocolate :)



Ingredients

1. All purpose flour - 2 Cups
   
2. Baking Powder - 1 tsp
3. Salt -  a pinch
4. Butter - 1 Cup
5. Sugar -  1 Cup 
6. Cocoa Powder - 1 Tbsp
7. Eggs - 2
8. Milk - 1/4 Cup
9. Banana - Sliced into small pieces - 1 Cup

How to Make?

1. Sift flour, baking powder ans salt and keep aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C and grease and flour dust a cake pan.
4. To this add eggs and then cocoa powder one by one and mix well.
5. Add half of sliced banana and mix.
6. Now, add flour part by part and alternate milk and rest of banana.
7. Fold in well.
8. Pour cake mix to pan and sprinkle sesame seeds on the top.
9. Bake for 30 Min or till a tooth pick inserted comes well.

Enjoy. You can store it in air tight container and use up to two days.

Vanilla Pound Cake

So here is a recipe which I wanted to post for so long. I was browsing through various sources for cooking inspiration and chanced upon this wonderful cake. I had eaten it many times before and the visualization of this cake rising slowly , spreading the aromas in my house started haunting me. However, being a busy working mother I could not spare some time for this cake. Days after days, nights after nights the thoughts of this cake simply kept simmering in my mind. It was then I decided that if opportunities does it come and knock your door, go create the opportunity. So one fine afternoon, I walked past all the other things in my life, my work, laundry, hungry husband, mobile, face book, laptop and marched to the kitchen for a time with my Vanilla pound cake. Miss 'I' happily played away and didn't bother to disturb her mom.

Recipe is easy and taste is guaranteed . It is simple yet delicious and a perfect company for a tea.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour-1 and 1\2 cups
2. Baking soda-1\4 tsp
3. Salt-1\4 tsp
4. Butter-3\4 cup
5. Eggs-2
6. Sugar-1 cup
7. Vanilla extract-1 and 1\2 tsp
8. Yogurt-1\2 cup

How to Make?

1. Whisk all purpose flour, salt and baking soda and keep aside.
2. Grease and flour a cake pan
3. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree C
4. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add Vanilla extract.
5. To this add eggs one by one.
6. Now add flour part by part and fold well.
7. Add yogurt in between and then rest of the flour and fold well.
8. Bake for 30-35 min or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Marble Cake

Here is another recipe on cake and yeah I am still amused at my OTG's magic powers in baking cake while I am busy at my laptop or playing with my tiny tot :) I have been baking eggless cakes for sometime and they are usually moist cakes and not as fluffy as cakes with egg. My mom was visiting us and she demanded a fluffy cake. I had made her a coffee cake, apple upside down cake and all were eggless. So here is the recipe for Marble cake which made my Mom a happy person( I only know how picky she is when it comes to food).

To you Amma :)


Ingredients

1. All Purpose Flour - 2 Cup
   
2. Baking Powder - 1.5 tsp
3. Salt - a small pinch
4. Butter - 1 Cup
5. Sugar - 1 Cup
6. Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
7. Milk - 1/4 Cup
8. Egg - 2 
9. Cocoa Powder - 1 Tbsp

How to Make?

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and keep aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. To butter and sugar, add eggs one by one and then vanilla essence and combine well.
4. Now to the wet mixture from above step add flour parts by parts and combine. Mix gently and also add milk in between.
5. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
6. Divide the mix into two. To one, add cocoa powder.
7. Grease a cake pan and pour the mix without cocoa.
8. Now, add the cocoa mix.
9. With a knife, make zigzag marks in the cake mix.
10. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted come out clean.

Enjoy with a hot cuppa :)

Kozhukatta - Ganesh Chathurthi Special

Long weekends! who wouldn't just love it ? I was looking forward to it, so that I can spend more time with my 7 month old, who would otherwise spends her time at a daycare while her busy parents are at work. The reason for this long weekend was Ganesh Chathurthi, to be frank I familiarized with this festival only in the recent years. Back home in Kerala, I never used to celebrate this. However, my husband who is a Tamilian, fondly remembers this festival being celebrated at his home. The first two days of this weekend had gone and we were busy shopping , spending time with miss I,  ordering out most of the times and simply relaxing! That's when I thought I should celebrate this Ganesh Chathurthi , just like Mr G had done it years back, helping him to relive the good old times :) I asked him, what he wished and pat came the reply Kozhukattai :) So that's the story! Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead.

Ingredients

1. Jaggery - Shredded - 1.5 Cup
   
2. Coconut - Grated - 1,5 Cup
3. Rice Powder - 2 Cup
4. Ghee - 1 Tbp
5. Water - as needed

How to Make?

For Filling

1. Heat ghee in a pan.
2. Add Jaggery to this and saute for 1 min.
3. Now, add coconut, mix well.
4. Continue to saute till lumps are formed. Then switch off the flame and let it cool down.
5. Make small balls out of this mixture. These balls are the fillings of the kozhukatta.

For the covering

1. Boil water in a bowl and let it cool down to a bit above room temperature.
2. Take a little of this water and add flour to this. The amount of water can be gradually increased, if you think it is needed to knead the flour.
3. Mix well, so that a slightly sticky flour is formed. You will not able to see any water present at this stage.
4. Make small balls out of this, then flatten a bit.
5. Place the filling inside this and cover the filling.
6. Cook it in a steamer for 10-12 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Wheat Cake with Dates and Walnut

How to please a health conscious parent ? To be precise, one who hates Maida, sugar , butter and still wants to eat a cake :) Yeah, that is my mother! She and my dad were visiting us and were a great help in taking care of my daughter who was ill while I was at work. That's when I stumbled upon this recipe @ veg recipes of India. Here is it for all healthy snackers!

Ingredients

1. Dates - Finely chopped - 1 Cup
2. Walnut - Finely chopped - 1/2 Cup
3. Milk - 1 Cup
4. Instant Coffee - 2 tsp
5. Wheat Flour - 2 Cup
6. Baking Powder - 1 tsp
7. Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
8. Salt - a pinch
9. Sugar - 1 Cup
10. Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
11. Oil - 1/2 Cup
12. Water - 1 Cup

How to Make?

1. Add instant coffee to the milk and dissolve the coffee powder completely.
   
2. To this add chopped dates and keep it for 15 minutes.
3. Now , sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt . this ensures that the mixture is uniform
4. To the flour add milk with dates, vanilla essence, walnut, oil and water and mix to a uniform consistency.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree C. Meanwhile grease a cake pan with butter and dust it with some flour.
6. Pour the cake mixture to the pan and bake for 45 minutes.
7. The cake will rise and the sides will turn brown when it is ready. Once done, I usually switch off the oven and let the cake cool down inside the oven itself. Later will take it out to cool off completely.

The cake is not too sweet and this made my mom happy, though she was a bit shocked when I told that 1 cup sugar is added. Well, it is too hard to please her 100% . But, we enjoyed the cake with tea and I also packed some slices for my parents :)

Chocolate Cake - No Butter , No Eggs

Dear All, yesterday was my wedding anniversary. This year is so special as little 'I' is with us and we are finally a family, rather than 2 bachelors staying together wed-locked :P  However, the fate is such that me and my darling hubby will be always separated during our anniversaries. From the very first wedding anniversary on wards, we are either in different cities, one travelling for work or some other situation. Once we were in 2 different continents also ! The trend is still the same, but looks like little 'I' has done some magic. My husband was on a business travel and was not with me during day, however was back home y'day around midnight and boy it was a sweet reunion :) (blush blush)

So here I am sharing the recipe of the cake that I baked for him , a total indulgence in chocolate :)

Ingredients

1. Water -1 cup
2. Oil - 1/2 cup
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp
5. White Vinegar - 1 tbsp
6. All purpose flour - 1.2 Cup
7. Baking Soda - 1 tsp
8. Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Cocoa Powder - 3 Tbsp
10. Salt - 1/2 tsp
11. Choco Chips - 2 Tbsp

How to Make?

1. Mix water, oil, sugar, vanilla essence and white vinegar. Mix till sugar is completely melted.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Sieve this 2 times.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
4. Add the flour slowly into the wet mix in step #1, whisk to one direction till all lumps are removed and a uniform consistency is achieved.
5. Fold in choco chips.
6. Grease the mold with butter  and pour in the mix. Bake for 10 minutes.

Source : Sharmis passion

Note: For decoration I used icing , choco chips , silver sugar balls and fancy vermicilli.

Tutti Frutti Cake

What will you do when you lose your voice temporarily ? Well, I got so depressed, because when I talk I don't get tired , I get more excited and energized :) However, my voice box decided not to work and it has been 3 days!!! Mr. G is happy as the noise level of our home has come down and Miss I is wondering , why her mom is unusually silent while bathing her.

So I decided to do a lot more activities at home and work, so that it can utilize the resting energy :) I was so craving for a tutti frutti cake and decided that, this is the right time to bake one. We didn't have enough time to purchase baking molds and I was wondering , whether to go for any alternate baking methods. That's when Mr G decided to surprise me with some cake molds and muffin cups :) It was really a surprise, I could never guess when he took longer time to get back from grocery purchase nor when he mentioned he is driving while a worried me called him. So here is for all of you , the tutti frutti cake recipe with lots of love and yes Mr G did help me in the making.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour - 2 Cups
   
2. Powdered Sugar - 1 Cup
3. Milk - 3/4 Cup
4. Butter -2 Tbsp
5. Baking Powder - 2 Tbsp
6. Baking Soda - 1 Tbsp
7. Eggs - 2
8. Vanilla Essence - 3 tsp
9. Tutti Frutti
10. Sliced Cashew nuts

How to Make?

1. Sieve the flour twice, and add baking powder and baking soda to it and keep aside.
2. Add a tbsp of flour to tutti frutti and keep aside.
3. Mix sugar with butter and it forms a crumbled form.
4. Pre-heat Oven to 180 degree celcius.
5. To the sugar butter mixture add eggs one by one and keep mixing. Then add vanilla essence and milk. Keep mixing till a smooth consistency is achieved. 
6. Now, add the flour mixture to this and whisk till uniform consistency.
7. Add in tutti frutti to this.
8. Take a cake pan, place a parchment paper on it or you can  smear some butter and dust some flour on the pan.
9. Pour in the cake mixture to 3/4 capacity. 
10. Place chopped cashew nuts on top. Bake for 45 minutes!

Once out of the oven, let the cake cool down completely. Enjoy!

Note : You can use flax-seed powder instead of eggs. For 1 egg use 1 Tbsp flax-seed powder with 3 Tbsp water. Before adding strain this mixture. Try out this healthy option. I did :)

Kerala Egg Roast

Today is Indian Independence Day. This day not only mark a sense of pride of being an Indian in me, but also happiness in achieving a greater milestone at my kitchen :) Yeah I am going organic, embracing independence from pesticides ! Here is my first recipe with all ingredients except salt as organic. The recipe is of Kerala Egg Roast, the key identities of this recipe is in the thick gravy and generous use of onions. This suits mostly Appams or Chappathis. However, my combination here is with Ragi puttu.

Ingredients

1. Boiled Egg - 2
2. Onion - 1 Large - Thinly sliced.
3. Tomato - 2 Medium - Finely Chopped
4. Ginger - Crushed - 2 tsp
5. Garlic - Crushed - 1 tsp
6. Green Chilly - 2 - Cut lengthwise
7. Cumin - 1 tsp
8. Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp
9. Black Pepper Powder - 1  tsp
10. Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
11. Cloves - 2
12. Curry Leaves 
13. Mustard Seeds
14. Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp
15. Coriander Leaves - Finely Chopped
16. Salt to taste
17. Dried Red Chilly - 2

How to Make?

1. Heat oil in a Kadai and add mustard seeds.
2. When mustard seeds starts to crackle, add dried red chilly and curry leaves and saute.
   
3. Now add onions and saute till it becomes transparent.
4. Add, cumin, cloves and continue sauting for a few seconds.
5. Now add ginger, garlic and green chilly. Saute till the raw smell goes away.
6. Then , add turmeric, red chilly and black pepper powder and continue sauting till raw smell goes away.
7. Finally add tomatoes and saute, till it turns mushy and add enough water to cook all these , eggs and salt and close the Kadai. Let this simmer for about 3 minutes.
8. After, the ingredients in Kadai is well cooked and gravy thickens a bit, add coriander.

Hope you enjoy this dish and let's pledge towards supporting organic produce cooking. Also, let's all have a kitchen garden with at least one common ingredient used in cooking. I am going for coriander. What's yours?

Simple Indian Cookies

It has been close to an year since I revamped this site. Today, after 50+ recipes I am not only feeling elated about this hobby , but also graduated towards next realm of cooking which is baking :) My thoughtful hubby has presented me with an OTG and here is the result of first trial :)

I really wanted to make a tutti frutti cake and had all the ingredients for it. However, I didn't have the mold and thought that I will wait for that. 

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour - 1 Cup
2. Sugar - 1/2 Cup - Powder this.
3. Butter - 150 g - Melt it.
4. Cardamom - Crushed - 1 tsp
5. Chopped almonds for garnishing.

How to Make ?

1. Mix all the ingredients from #1 till #4.
2. Knead well and make small balls out of it. With the quantity mentioned above, I could make 12 .
3. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees for 10 minutes. While this is being done, you can do the following tasks.
4. Prepare baking tray, by placing a cookie sheet or aluminium foil. I used Al foil and smeared butter on it.
5. Flatten the balls a bit and make criss-cross marks on it.
6. Place chopped almonds on top of each.
7. Place all the balls on the baking trayand toast for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Close to 20 minutes, the delicious aroma of butter and cardamom filled our home. Then came out my first batch of cookies. It was crunchy and tasty and would recommend this as a first trial for all new OTG owners :)

 

Eenthapazha Payasam - Dates Pudding

Today is my birthday :) Yeah , and I feel very excited just like how I was on my 10th or 20th birthday. Decades don't matter you know ;) However, as being a birthday girl who used to expect treats/ special food, I have become one who would like to cook and feed the loved ones on my birthday.

Though my birthday is still on and my husband's gift is still awaited, I decided to make this payasam as a joyful culmination to the lunch I have prepared for the family.Also, I am feeling extremely happy to blog today , an activity which is an absolute de-stressor ! Here is the recipe for Date payasam, which can be served for 2 people.

Ingredients

1. Dates - De-seeded and finely chopped - 1 cup
2. Milk - 1 Cup
3. Condensed Milk - 1 Tbsp
4. Crushed Cardamom - 1 tsp
5. For garnishing  - ghee, cashew nuts and dry raisins.

How to Make?

1. Take a pan and add dates into it.  Pour water , only to cover the dates. Cook till the dates have become soft. Use a spoon to mash it well.
2. Now add milk and let it boil. Then, simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add condensed milk and mix everything well.
4. Now, add crushed cardamom and mix well. Payasam is ready
5. For garnishing, heat ghee in a pan and saute cashew nuts and dry raisins. Pour this over the prepared paysam.

Note : If paysam is thicker than you want it, add more boiled milk and mix well.

Enjoy this rich dessert :)

Steamed Banana Cake

It is raining quite a bit in B'lore these days, so shouldn't I be preparing fried snacks and enjoying the weather? Nah! so old fashioned :P I decided to make hot yummy cake which is mildly sweet and relish it with a hot cup of tea!

Mildly sweet , hmm banana cake ? That's it! This is how my thought process worked and it resulted into a lovely evening with my husband. We enjoyed the cake very much, and here is the recipe:)

Ingredients

1. Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup
2. Butter - 1/2 cup
3. Vanilla Essence -1 tsp
4. Salt - 1/2 tsp
   
5. Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
6. Baking Powder- 3/4 tsp
7. Egg- 1
8. Mashed Banana - I used 3 bananas, small size
9. All purpose flour - 1 cup

How to Make ?

1. Mix ingredients #1 till #6 well. Brown sugar should get dissolved well.
2. Add egg and banana and continue to mix.
3. To this add sifted flour and keep mixing uniformly.
4. Smear butter in the bowl , where this cake mixture has to go .
5. Pour cake mixture onto the bowl.
6. To cook , I used pressure cooker without a whistle and cooked for 40 minutes. Keep a plate inside the pressure cooker and add water till its level and place, the bowl on top of the plate. 

Bread rolled in Semolina and fried

A Vision, yes that was it! I had these visions of something coated with semolina and deep fried. I was drooling over this thought, however my new status as a mother to a 6 month old darling and hectic work hardly did help to achieve this. 

However, while browsing  through my favourite group Chef at Large @ FB, saw a  post on bread coated with semiya and fried. This reinforced my craving and here I am posting my successful experiment.  Paulo Coehlo is no lesser than a visionary when he quoted, “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”  :)

So what is it that I wanted to coat with semolina ? I had made Shahi ka Tukda sometime back and the edges of bread were sliced away for that. So what's better than using some left overs ?

Ingredients

1. Bread - Edges of 4 slices
2. Besan / Gram flour - 1cup
3. Green Chilly - 2 , finely sliced
4. Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp
5. salt to taste
6. Turmeric - half tsp
7. Asafetida powder - a pinch
8. Oil for frying
9. Semolina - enough to coat

How to Make?

1. Mix ingredients from #2 till #7 well, without adding water.

2. Now, slowly pour in water and keep mixing. Consistency of this batter should not be very watery , but pouring.

3. Add bread onto this and mix well. You can roll it into long rectangular shapes or small balls.

4. Coat with semolina.

5. Heat oil in a pan and fry.

Give a surprise to your family members and enjoy with a hot tea !!!

Ulli Vada - Deep Fried Onion Balls

Ulli Vada  is one of my favorite tea time snacks. Tasted this for the first time when my Mother had purchased it at a bus stop shop in Thiruvananthapuram. There were around 5 vadas covered in the day's newspaper which was totally drenched in oil! However, the delicious smell of vadas spread into the entire house and we fell for it happily! Another incident related to Ulli Vada is like this. My dad who knows my love for these, had purchased some and came to pick me up from my aunt's house. I noticed a cover hanging in his scooter and the aroma pointed to Ulli Vada with no space leaving for a second guess! I happily got into his scooter and drooled on the thought of chewing on the soft onion and crunchy crust. But, my dad had other plans. He stopped by a friend's house who was also my school mate's dad. We spend some time chatting and catching up and started back to our home. I was in a hurry to get back to attack those vadas. We got back and I declared to my brother that dad has got something for special us . My dad broke into a laughter, quite inappropriate for that time (you would agree soon). We didn't understand what's going on and he said " I forgot it at my friend's place!" You can imagine how we might have felt then! The next day my  friend told that , they all liked the Ulli Vada so much and wanted to thank us for that token of love!

Even today when I talk to dad about my love for Ulli Vada, I remind him about this incident and we both will broke into a laughter. Good Old times ! So for the sake of those times, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Besan/Gram Flour - 1 Cup
2. Rice Flour - 1/2 Cup
3. Onion - 3 (Finely Sliced)
4. Ginger - 1 Tbsp(Finely Cut) - Optional
5. Green Chilly - 2 (Finely Cut)
6. Asafoetida Powder - 1 pinch
7. Fennel Seeds - 1 Tbsp.
8. Turmeric Powder - 1 Tsp
9. Red Chilly Powder - 1 Tsp
10. A bunch of curry leaves
11. Salt to Taste
12. Oil for frying

How to Make?

1. Mix Ingredients 1 - 11 along with water. The consistency should be such that , we could make balls out of it. I first mixed the flour with salt, then powders, then chilly, ginger and onion  . Mix well so that all the ingredients have spread out evenly.
2. Now make small balls out of it.
3. Heat Oil in a Kadai/wok and drop these balls one by one, when oil begins to boil.
4.  Now, simmer and cook each side till it turns golden brown.

I enjoyed this with a hot tea with the company of my parents. 

Steamed Chocolate Cake (Egg-less)

I really wanted to make a cake yes, not bake a cake! As I am not yet a proud owner of an OTG!!! I don't own an OTG and not a DSLR. I wanted to learn all techniques , before I can graduate to next level ( a conscious decision to curb the demands of my consumerist mind ;))

So,I started looking at alternatives of making a cake. I found methods like pressure cooking and steaming. Found that pressure cooker method to be not so safe , so dropped it! Thank God, I could find lot of blogs on steam cooking predominately by people from China. That's when I remembered , How I sued to love the steam cooked food from China Town, while I was in Atlanta,US. So I decided to go with steam cooking ! Here is the recipe, which has been referred from multiple sites.

Ingredients

1. Curd - 1 Cup
2. Sugar - 3/4 Cup
3. Baking Soda - 1 Tsp
4. Baking Powder - 1.5 Tsp
5. Maida - 1.5 Cup
6. Cocoa Powder - 3 Tbsp
7. Oil - 1/2 Cup
8. Vanilla Essence - 1 Tsp
   

How to Make?

1. Beat Sugar and Curd well. There should not be any lumps left and sugar should get completely melt.
2. Add Baking Soda and Baking Powder. Set aside for 5- 10 minutes. Bubbles will be formed by this time.
3. Now add Vanilla and Oil and mix well.
4. Sieve Maida and cocoa powder and add it to the mix. Mix all the ingredients well.
5. Select a utensil, where you are planning to pour the mix. We will have to close this while cooking. You can use an aluminum foil. I used a steel tiffin box which had a lid. Smear butter on all sides of this utensil.
6. Now we need to steam it. I used an Idli Maker. I kept one Idli tray and kept a utensil with the mix on top of it. So that no water will come in contact with the utensil. Water level was kept just below the tray.
7. Switch on the flame and keep this at medium flame for close to 35 minutes. 

Notes: I used an Induction Stove and in between checked the status of the cake. By around 20 minutes, found that the center of the cake is still liquidy and decided to cook for another 15 minutes. The quantity of sugar can be increased as per your taste. With the proportions mentioned here, you will get a medium level sweetness only.

Hope you can all successfully make this cake. Let me know about your experience.

Dhokla

For the last couple of days I have been toying the idea of venturing into the area of food beyond Kerala :) So decided to make an easy(seemingly) non-Kerala dish - Dhokla. I have had this many times at my office cafe and it was an instant addiction. You may find authentic Dhokla recipes at many places in web, however this is like a journal of my first trial :)

Ingredients

1. Besan/Gram flour - 200 g approx
2. Curd - 4 Tbsp
3. Water - half cup
4. Green Chilly - 4 (Paste)
5. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
6. Salt to Taste
7. Sugar - 1 Tbsp
8. Turmeric Powder - half Tbsp
9. Oil - 1 Tbsp
10. Eno Fruit Salt - 1 tsp
    

Seasoning

1. Oil - 1 Tbsp
2. Mustard Seeds
3. Curry Leaves
4. Coriander

How to Make?

1. Mix Curd and Water and beat it to a smooth consistency
2. Now add, Besan to this and continue to beat.
3. Let this sit for an hour
4. Now add, turmeric, lemon juice, salt, sugar and green chilly paste.
5. Take the utensil where you are planning to pour the mixture and smear it with oil.
6. Now add Eno to the batter mix and as soon as bubble form, transfer immediately to the utensil.
7. Place this utensil into a pressure cooker, then close it and simmer for 20 minutes. Do not put whistle.
8. Switch off the cooker once done and then allow it to come to room temperature.
9. Let's season it now, for that heat oil and splutter mustard seeds and add curry leaves.
10. Pour seasoning to the Dhokla.
11. Then, add finely chopped fresh coriander leaves.
12. Cut this into desired shapes.

Enjoy with Mint Chutney!