Mishti Doi

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 litre

Yogurt - 1 tbsp

Seedless Dates - 7 or 8

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Method :

• Boil Dates with little water. Cool and grind it in a mixer.

• Boil Milk in a deep heavy bottomed pan on low flame stirring continuously till it reduces to half.

• Add Sugar and stir to dissolve it. Remove it from flame.

• Transfer the milk to another pan and let it become Luke warm. Add Date puree which we have prepared on step 1 and mix well.

• Now add Yogurt and mix well.

• You can pour this mixture into individual earthenware pot to enhance taste. But i don't have an earthenware pot right now. So, i pour it in an ordinary vessel.

• Keep it in a warm place and take care not to shake till it set. It will take around 6 hours to set. Then you can refrigerate it. Serve chilled.

Vegetable Cutlet

Ingredients:

Carrot - 1 ( finely chopped )


Beetroot - 1 ( Peeled and finely chopped )


Beans - 3 or 4 ( finely chopped )


Potato - 2


Onion - 1 ( finely chopped )


Peas - 1/4 cup


Bread - 1 slice


Ginger garlic paste - 1/4 tsp


Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup


Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 tsp


Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp


Coriander leaves - 1tbsp ( chopped )


All purpose flour or Corn Flour - 2 tsp


Oil - for frying

Method:

1. Pressure cook the vegetables with little salt and water until soft.
2. Peel the skin of potatoes, mash it and add it to other vegetables.
3. Add Bread slice pieces, Ginger garlic paste, Red chilli powder, Garam Masala Powder, Coriander leaves and salt. Mix well.
4. Make equal sized round balls and slightly press it between your palms. Keep aside. You can also make it in a different shape like heart or oval as the kids love to eat in different shapes.
5. In a bowl mix corn flour or maida with little water to form a thick paste. 
6. Dip each cutlets in this flour paste such that both sides are coated well.
7. Then coat both sides with bread crumbs. Repeat this for the remaining cutlets.
8. You can deep fry or toast the cutlets till crispy. You can deep fry these cutlets if you are making in bulk as it will save time.
9. Serve the cutlets hot with tomato sauce.

Jhangri recipe

Ingredients:

Urad dal - 1 cup

Orange food colour - 2 or 3 pinch

Sugar - 2 cups

Rice flour - 1 tbsp

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - for frying

Method:

• Soak Urad dal for 2 hours. 
• Drain excess water and grind dal to a fine thick batter. ( Do not add excess water while grinding. The batter should be thick ).
• Dissolve food colour in 1 tsp water.
• Transfer the grinded dal to a bowl along with rice flour and food colour. Make it to a fine smooth paste.
• Add sugar and 1/2 cup water in a heavy bottomed vessel and make sugar syrup. When it comes to one string consistency switch off the flame, add cardamom powder and stir.
• In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil. 
• To make Jhangris you can use ordinary zip lock bag with a small hole in the middle or the pastry bag.
• I used only zip lock bag to make this. Pipe Jhangris by starting off with two close circles and pipe small rings around those circles.
• If the oil pan is wide, you can make 4 or 5 jhangris at a time. Turn both sides and cook jhangris well.

• Remove the excess oil from fried jhangris and add to the hot sugar syrup immedietely.
• Let the Jhangris soak in sugar syrup for 4 or 5 min. Then tranfer it to a plate.
• Continue the same procedure with rest of the batter.
• Do not make the batter to rest for a long time since it will become sour. 
• Enjoy hot and delicious jhangris.

Iyengar Akkaravadisal - sakkarai pongal recipe

Akkaravadisal

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 3/4 cup

Moong dal - 1/4 cup

Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup

Ghee - 1/4 - 1/2 cup

Broken Cashews and raisins - as per required

Saffron strands - 3 or 4

Milk - 1 litre + 1tbsp

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Edible camphor - 1 pinch

Method:

• Fry Cashews and raisins with 2 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Remove and keep aside.

• On that pan itself roast Raw rice and Moong dal till nice aroma comes. Rinse once and keep aside.

• Soak Saffron strands in 1 tbsp warm milk and set aside.

• Soak Jaggery in ( 1/2 cup or enough to cover ) hot water. Set aside.

• Add 1 liter milk with roasted rice and moong dal in a deep vessel and pressure cook for 5 whistles in medium flame.

• Once pressure cooker eases, take the container out and mash it completely.

• Now, mix jaggery well, breaking down any pieces left with the help of spoon. Filter it for any impurities.

• Boil this syrup till nice aroma comes ( around 5 minutes ). Remove from heat. Add Cardamom powder and edible camphor and mix well.

• Add this jaggery syrup to the mashed rice and dal mixture. 

• Add soaked saffron, roasted cashews and raisins and mix well.

• This mixture tends to thicken after some times, so add some warm milk while serving.

Carrot cake or Muffins

Ingredients:

Carrot (grated) - 2 cups

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 1/4 cup

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Ripe Banana ( Medium ) - 2

Strawberry ( Wash and chop in to pieces ) - 8

Cooking Oil - 2/3 rd cup

Raisins - 1/2 cup

Nuts ( finely chopped ) - 1 cup

Coconut flakes - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Seedless Dates ( chopped in to small pieces ) - 1/2 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Grease the Muffin tray.

• Sieve All purpose flour with baking soda twice or thrice.

• Peel, mash and beat Bananas until fluffy. Add oil, cardamom and sugar and mix well.

• In a large bowl mix together dates, coconut flakes, nuts, raisins, strawberry and carrot with All purpose flour and baking soda mixture.

• Fold wet ingredients to dry ingredients mixing thoroughly but not hard.

• Add some milk in-order to combine the flour if it is tight. The batter should be in thick pouring consistency.

• Pour this batter to the greased Muffin tray or cake pan. Bake till toothpick inserted on the center comes out clean. 

• Cool the tray completely before turning upside down.

Soya Chunks Kofta

Ingredients: 

Soya chunks - 1 cup

Potato - 2 ( Boiled, Peeled and crushed )

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp

Fennel seeds  - 1/4 tsp

Salt - as per required

Onion -1 

Tomato - 2 

Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp

Chilli powder - as per required

Oil - 1 1/2 tsp

Fresh cream - 1/2 cup

Kasturi methi - 1 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Coriander leaves - few

Method: 

• Cut Onion and Tomato finely. Puree the tomatoes.
• Soak Soya chunks in salt water for 10 min and drain excess water and keep aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, add fennel seeds, ginger garlic paste, onion, potato and tomato puree. Cook for a few min.
• Add Garam masala powder, salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, tomato sauce and kasturi methi.
• Add soya chunks and water. Cover and cook for 5 min in medium flame.
• Add Fresh cream and stir in low flame for a few min.
• Adjust salt and garnish with coriander leaves.

 

Vegetable Avial

Ingredients:

Carrot ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 1 Medium

Beans ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 6

Potato ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 1

Drumstick ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 1 Medium

Broad beans ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 4

Raw banana ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 1

White pumpkin ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 200 grams

Yam - Boiled and Peeled ( Cut in to 2 inch pieces ) - 100 grams

Green Peas - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Coconut scrapped - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 4 or as per taste

Rice flour - 1 1/2 tsp

Salt -  as per taste

Coconut oil - 1 1/2 tbsp

Curd - 1 1/2 cup

Method:

• Boil 2 cups of water in a deep pan. Add turmeric powder and curry leaves and let it boil for a few minutes.
• Add Carrot, Beans, Broad Beans, Drumstick, Potato and Raw banana pieces. Add Salt. Stir, cover and cook till the vegetables are soft.
• Add White Pumpkin, Yam and Green Peas. Cover and cook again for 5 min.
• Grind Coconut, Green Chillies, Cumin seeds and Rice flour and make a paste with little water.
• Add this ground paste to 1 1/2 cup curd and mix well.
• Add this curd mixture to the vegetables. Stir and make the flame low for a few minutes.
• Adjust salt as per taste. Drizzle Coconut oil and serve hot.

Seven Cup cake

Ingredients:

Gram Flour ( Besan ) - 1 1/4 cup

Ghee - 1 cup + 2 tsp 

Sugar - 2 1/2 cups

Milk - 1 cup

Coconut ( scrapped ) - 1 1/4 cup

Cashews - 10

Method:

• Take 2 tsp ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and fry cashews till golden brown. Keep it aside.

• Add Gram flour, Ghee, Sugar, Milk and Coconut on the same pan. Cook on medium flame stirring continuously.

• As it begins to leave the side of the pan or when it comes along with your spatula while stirring, turn off the flame and pour it to the greased plate.

• Decorate with cashews. Make slices when it is hot and cool it completely.

Eggless Marble Cake

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour ( Maida ) - 1 1/4 cup

Milk Powder - 4 tbsp

Sugar ( Powdered ) - 1 cup

Salt - 1 pinch

Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Milk - 1 cup

Cocoa powder - 1 1/2 tbsp

Butter ( at room temperature ) - 1/2 cup

Hot Water - 2 tbsp

Method: 

• Sieve All purpose flour along with salt twice or thrice and keep it aside.
• In a bowl, take butter, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla essence. Mix till it becomes smooth.
• Add milk , sugar and All Purpose flour. Make the batter to a thick pouring consistency.
• Take cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Add hot water and mix it without any lumps. Add quarter of the cake batter to this cocoa mixture and mix well.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. 
• Pour half of the cake batter in a greased pan. Then pour half of the cocoa batter above the cake batter. Slightly make marble like patterns using a fork. Don't over do.
• Again pour the remaining cake batter and cocoa batter as earlier and make marble patterns again.
• Bake the cake in 170 deg C for 40 - 45 min or until the tooth pick comes out clean when inserted at the center.
• Cool the cake completely and invert it. Cut slices and enjoy the marble cake.

My slices were little big, so i cut it down further in to half. 

Notes: 

• You can also add orange zest for further taste. 
• You can also pour vanilla batter 3 times and cocoa batter 3 times to make a 3 layered swirls. Its purely your creativity. 
• The taste will be like vanilla cake. So, kids love this cake alot. 
• I did this in the bread loaf, but if you want you can do this in cake pan itself.

Mysore Pak Recipe

Ingredients:

Besan - 1 cup

Ghee - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Water - 1/4 cup

Method:

• Add a teaspoon of ghee on a heavy bottomed pan and roast besan flour till nice aroma comes out ( approximately 4 min ).

• Sieve it once to ensure there were no lumps on the flour.

• Now mix this sieved besan flour with 3/4 th cup of ghee and mix well. Set it aside for 10 to 15 min.

• Meanwhile grease a plate with little ghee and set aside.

• In order to make sugar syrup, take a pan, add sugar and water and mix well. In medium flame bring it to boil and check for one string consistency.

• Now add besan ghee mixture to the sugar syrup and keep stirring continously.

• Keep the flame low and add the remaining ghee in intervals to avoid drying and sticking.

• At the stage when it doesn't stick to the pan and comes like a ball when you stir, switch off the stove and pour it to the greased plate.

• It will spread automatically by itself. Cut in to squares/diamonds as per your wish.

• If you pour the mixture in a big plate, the slices will be thin and if you take small plate then the slices will be thick like we buy from sweet shops. So, take it accordingly.

Notes:

Be sure and be careful when you check for one string consistency and the final mysore pak consistency. 

Rava Kesari recipe

Ingredients:

Rava - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 3 cups

Cardomom powder - 1 tsp

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 8 cut in to pieces

Raisins - 10

Food colour ( Orange ) - 1 pinch

Method:

• In a vessel boil 3 cups of water.

• In a heavy bottomed pan, heat 1 tbsp ghee and roast cashew nuts and raisins. Remove and keep aside.

• In the same pan, add another tbsp of ghee and roast rava till it becomes golden brown. After roasted,  add the boiling water which we got from step 1 little by little. Take care no lumps are formed.

• Keep the flame low and keep stirring till it cooks well.

• After it cooks well, add sugar and mix well.

• Take 1 pinch of food colour in a cup and add 2 tsp of milk. Mix well and pour it in the rava mixture.

• Mix well till it doesn't stick on to the vessel. If needed add some ghee. ( when it comes with the spatula when you stir with out sticking, turn off the flame ).

• Add cardamom powder and cashews and raisins to it.

• Rava kesari is now ready to serve.

Note:

Add sugar only after rava cooks well. Later it'll not cook.

Onion Raita

Ingredients:

Onion - 2 

Ginger - 1 tsp finely chopped or grated

Green Chilly - 1 medium, finely chopped

Salt - as per required

Curd - 1 cup

Coriander leaves - few

Method:

• Finely chop the onion in to small pieces.

• Peel the outer skin of ginger and grate it or you can chop it in to pieces.

• Add onion, green chilly, salt and ginger in 1 cup of curd. Mix well.

• Dress it with few coriander leaves. 

• Cool it in the refrigerator for few hours and serve.

Vermicelli kheer

Ingredients:

Vermicelli - 75 grams

Milk - 1 liter

Sugar - 1/2 cup or as per required

Cardomom powder - 1/2 tsp

Cashew nuts - 8 or 10

Raisins - 10 

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan heat 1 tbsp ghee and roast vermicelli till brown. Remove and keep aside.
2. In the same pan add 1 tbsp ghee and fry nuts and raisins separately. Remove and keep aside.
3. Boil milk in the same pan in very low flame for a few minutes. Then add the roasted vermicelli to it and cook till it becomes soft. Keep stirring to prevent it from getting burnt.
4. Add sugar and mix till it dissolves.
5. Add cardomom powder and nuts and raisins to it.
6. Now the vermicelli payasam or kheer is ready to serve hot. If desired you can serve it chill by keeping it in refrigerator for 1 or 2 hours.

Note:

If the payasam or kheer becomes thick after few hours, you can add milk to reach your desired consistency.

Makkan Peda Recipe

Ingredients:

Gulab Jamun Mix - 200 gms

Sugar - 1 kg

Milk- less than 1/4 th of Gulab jamun mix

Dried Nuts - 1 cup ( cashews, dry grapes, pista, pumpkin seeds etc.,)

Cooking Soda- 1 pinch

Cardomom powder - 1 tsp

Food Colour ( optional ) - 1 pinch

Oil - to fry

Cinnamomum Camphora - 1 pinch

Method:

• Mix Gulab Jamun mix with soda and milk and knead gently to make a soft dough with out sticking and rest it for 5 to 10 min.

• Prepare the dried nuts mixture by cutting it in to smaller pieces and keep aside.

• Make the dough in to soft round balls on your palm and make a small hole and fill it with nuts mixture, close the hole and slightly flatten a bit.

• Now heat oil in a pan and fry the prepared balls 2 or 3 at a time. Do not overheat oil, otherwise it will brown quickly but the innerpart of the ball might not cook.

• Turn sides slowly for even cooking on both sides. Cooking time for each piece should be 7 to 8 min.

• In another pan add sugar and equal amount of water, bring it to boil to make the sugar syrup.

• Once the syrup thickens after boiling, add cardomom powder, food colour, Pacchai karpooram and mix well. Take it out from the flame and keep aside.

• When the peda pieces are cooked, drain the oil and drop it in the sugar syrup. At that time sugar syrup should be hot.

• Set it aside for 15 to 20 min to soak it completely and dress it with nuts on top.

• Mouth watering Makkan peda is now ready to eat.

Note:

• When the peda Soaks in syrup, it expands its size. So, prepare enough sugar syrup.

Sundal recipe - Green gram

Ingredients:

Green Gram - 1/4 kg

Salt - as per required

Coconut ( shredded ) - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Ghee - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:

• Soak Green gram for at-least 5 hours. Drain the water and keep aside.

• Take a heavy bottomed pan. Add ghee and mustard seeds. When it splutters add green gram. Mix well. Add half a cup of water and cook well along with required salt and turmeric powder.

• After it cooks well and coconut.

• Sundal is ready to serve now.

Gooseberry with Honey

Ingredients:

Gooseberries - 10


Honey - 1/2 kg

Method:

• Wash Gooseberries and pat it dry.

• Using a sharp knife make a cross on the top of each gooseberry. ( You can also cut the gooseberries in to four pieces and remove the seed with the knife. But it is somewhat difficult. So, i did with the full gooseberry without slicing ).

• Take a clean and steriled glass bottle. Place all gooseberries in the bottle and pour honey until you cover all gooseberries.

• Close the mouth of the bottle with a muslin cloth.

• Keep this bottle in the sunlight for an hour daily for 15 days before using it.

Homemade Custard apple Icecream

Ingredients:

Custard Apple - 3

Sugar - as per required

Milk - 1 cup

Whipping cream - 1/4 cup

Marie biscuits - 3

Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp

Custard apple Ice cream

Method:

• Wash and open custard apple.

• Scoop out the flesh with seeds and put it in the mixer grinder jar along with 1/4 cup of milk. Pulse it for a few times. Now seeds will separate from flesh automatically. Manually remove the seeds from the jar. Now you got the thick pulp of custard apple.

• Add the remaining milk, sugar, vanilla essence, whipping cream and pieces of Marie biscuit. Now grind it to a fine paste.

• Transfer this paste to a freezer proof box and freeze it for 4 hours.

• Remove it from the freezer and blend it again in the mixer for few minutes. Then transfer it to the freezer proof box and allow it chill again for one hour. Repeat this process for 3 more times in 45 min interval.

• Scoop out the custard apple ice cream in a serving bowl and enjoy.

Orange Custard Milkshake

Ingredients:

Orange - 1

Custard apple - 1

Sugar - as per required

Milk - 1 cup

Method:

• Peel the outer covering of the Orange and separate the pieces. Remove the seeds and white covering of each of the orange piece and take only the pulp. Keep it aside.

• Wash and open the custard apple. Scoop out the flesh with seeds in a mixer grinder jar along with 1/2 cup of milk and pulse it for few times. The flesh will separate from seeds. Pick out the seeds manually. Now you got the thick pulp of custard apple.

• Blend it again with the remaining milk, sugar and Orange pulp which we got from the 1st step.

• Serve it chill with the topping of honey or a scoop of ice cream.

Custard Apple Milkshake

Ingredients:

Custard apple - 1
Sugar - as per required
Cold Milk - 1 cup

Method:

• Wash and open the custard apple.

• Scoop the flesh with seeds of custard apple in a mixer grinder jar with 1/2 cup of milk. Pulse for a few times. The flesh will separate from seeds. Take out the seeds manually. Now you got the thick pulp of custard apple.

• Blend it in the mixer jar again with the remaining milk and sugar.

• You can top it with honey or a scoop of ice cream.

• Custard apple Milkshake is now ready to drink. Serve chill.

Gooseberry salted pickle

Ingredients:

Gooseberry - 1/2 kg
Salt - as per required
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilly powder ( optional ) - as per required


Method:

• Wash gooseberries and cook it immersed with enough water
• Add turmeric powder and salt as per required.
• If needed you can add chilly powder too.
• Once gooseberry cooks it'll automatically separates in to 4 parts. At that time turn off the stove.
• Your gooseberry pickle is now ready. Keep it in an airtight container with water and use this within a week. No need to refrigerate this.

Gooseberry Rasam

I came across in an article about the advantages of gooseberries. It says, " Gooseberry is very rich in Vitamin C. Gooseberries enhances food absorption, balances stomach acid, fortifies the liver, nourishes the brain and mental functioning, supports the heart, strengthens the lungs, regulates elimination, enhances fertility, helps the urinary system, is good for the skin, promotes healthier hair, acts as a body coolant, flushes out toxins, increases vitality, strengthens the eyes, improves muscle tone and it acts as an antioxidant. Gooseberries reduces blood sugar in diabetic patient. It strengthens heart muscles. It improves body resistance ". 

So, I thought of making some recipe with this every day. Everybody knows about Gooseberry pickle. So, need to prepare something else which is interesting and tastier with this ... Yes, Gooseberry rasam .... I did this and it was very nice and got more compliments...

Ingredients:

Gooseberries - 2

Tomato - 1 chopped

Coriander leaves - few

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - as per required

Ginger - peeled and chopped in to pieces - 1/2 tsp

Green Chilly - 1 small

Ghee - 1 tsp

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Method : 

• Wash gooseberries and cook it with enough water. Add salt, turmeric powder and make it boil in low flame. Once gooseberries cooks, it separates itself in to 4 parts.

• Now deseed it and mash it using potato masher. 

• Add chopped tomatoes, chopped ginger, green chilli and enough water. Make it to boil again for 5 min. 

• Add ghee in a pan. Sputter mustard and cumin seeds. Add this to the rasam that we have prepared.

• Add coriander leaves, Asafoetida and pepper powder to it. Now healthy tasty Gooseberry rasam is ready to eat with plain rice.

Note:

You can also add fried garlic if you like the taste.

How to make simple icing for cakes

Ingredients:

Butter ( at room temperature ) - 1 cup
Salt - 1 pinch
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Icing Sugar - 2 cups
Milk - as per required

Method for Icing:

• Take 1 cup of butter, pinch of salt, Vanilla essence and Icing Sugar in a bowl. Mix it well till all the ingredients combines together. Adjust the consistency by adding 1 tsp - 4 or 5 tsp of milk according to your creativity. 
• If you want to write something on the cake then the icing should be thick. So you have to add less milk. If you want to pour this over the cake, then the mixture should be slightly runny. 
• If you are trying icing for the first time then try adding milk drop by drop. Otherwise it will be too runny. If it becomes runny do not get upset, refrigerate for half or one hour and then try.
• You can pour the icing over cakes and then if you want you can write in different colour. For that you can add a pinch of food colour to the icing mixture that we have prepared. 
• Pour this mixture in a zip lock plastic bag and tie the upper portion of the bag. Cut the end of the cone slightly using scissor and now you can write your own wordings on cake.

Homemade Chocolate

Ingredients:

Milk Powder - 1 cup
Cocoa Powder - 1 tsp
Maida - 1 / 2 tsp
Salt - 1 pinch
Butter - 1 / 2 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1 / 2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Nuts - as per required


Method :

• Sift Milk powder, Cocoa powder, Maida, Salt, Powdered sugar twice or thrice and keep it aside.
• Heat butter in a pan till it melts completely.
• Now add this melted butter to the Milk powder mixture that we got in step 1.
• Mix well till it combines well. If needed you can add extra butter.
• Add Vanilla essence and nuts.
• Make it to boil in the double boiler ( Keep a pan with water and make it to boil. On the above of this boiling water keep the chocolate mixture for 3 - 4 min and stir it ).
• Pour this mixture in a greased plate and refrigerate for 2 hours

Note :

You can add icing sugar instead of ordinary sugar to enhance the taste. 

Kottu Rasam

Ingredients:

Tamarind - Medium Lemon sized
Salt - as per taste
Red Chillies - 3 or 4
Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida Powder - 1 pinch
Ghee - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Tomato - 1 medium sized ( Sliced in to pieces )
Water - 1 cup

Coriander Leaves - few

Method:

• Soak tamarind in water and extract the juice.
• To the tamarind extract add salt, sliced tomato pieces, Asafoetida, Broken red chilies, water and bring to boil in medium flame.
• Once it starts boiling turn off the stove.
• Add ghee in a pan. Sputter mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Add this to rasam that we have prepared.
• Add Coriander leaves for taste.
• Kottu rasam is now ready to serve with plain rice.

Eggless Fruit Cake

Ingredients:


All Purpose flour - 1 cup
Salt- 1 pinch
Sugar- 1 tbsp
Condensed Milk - 1 tin ( 400 ml )
Baking Powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
Too-ti fruity- 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp for decorating
Butter - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup



Method:

1. Take butter in room temperature. Beat Butter, baking powder, baking soda till it becomes soft and creamy.
2. Add Sugar, Condensed Milk, All Purpose Flour and Salt. Mix till it combines well with the above mixture.
3. Add Too-ti fruity and mix well.
4. Adjust the consistency by adding milk. The batter should be in idly batter consistency.
5. Pour the batter in a greased pan and tap it to even it. Bake it at 180 degree Celsius.
6. Do the tooth pick test to check the doneness.
7. Cool it completely before slicing or icing.

Egg less Fruit Cake

Fruit salad

Fruit Salad Ingredients:

Apple ( Peeled ) - 1 medium sized
Banana ( ripe ) - 1 medium sized
Grapes - 10 -15
Mango ( ripe) - 1 medium sized
Pomegranate seeds - 1/2 cup
Orange ( Peeled ) - 1 medium
Chikku ( Sapota ) - 1 medium sized
Custard Powder - 2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Sugar - as per taste
Strawberry - few
Cashews - 8 or 9
Milk - 1/2 litre

Vegetable Soup

Soups are known for their health benefits.Often children wont prefer to take vegetables directly but soups are the easiest and best way to provide them with nutrients given by vegetables. We can see many ready made soups available in the departmental stores where we have to just add water and boil it for a few minutes. But i always prefer to prepare it homemade.

The total preparation time takes only 30 min including the cooking time. Just we have to cook all vegetables, make it to fine paste and boil by adding water,sugar,salt and pepper powder. 


Ingredients:

Carrot ( chopped ) - 1
Beans ( chopped ) - 1/4 cup
Potato - 1 
Peas - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1
Tomato - 250 gms
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Coriander Leaves - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Pepper Powder- as per taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
Crisp Bread pieces - few



Method:

• Wash all vegetables and cut them in to medium sized pieces except Peas. 
• Take a pan and add ghee to it. Now add ginger garlic paste. Fry for few minutes till raw smell goes.
• Now add all the chopped vegetables, coriander leaves and peas. Pressure cook it with enough water or until all the vegetables immerse fully in water.
• Cook this in the pressure cooker until you hear 4-5 whistles.
• Once the cooker eases bring it to cool completely.
• Drain water and preserve it for further.
• Transfer the cooked vegetables to a mixer grinder and add the drained water which we got from the last step and grind it to a fine paste.
• Pour the paste and add remaining drained water and boil it for a few min. Add Sugar, Salt, Pepper Powder as required.
• You can add Crisp Bread Pieces on top of the Soup while serving.

Eggless Chocolate Cake Recipe

Eggless chocolate cake :

I did some modifications to the vanilla cake recipe which i posted earlier, to make this chocolate cake. Because my son didn't like the flavor of vanilla, he likes to eat chocolaty.

Ingredients:

Cocoa Powder- 2 tsp
Condensed milk - 400 ml
Sugar - 1 tbs
Salt - 1 pinch
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
All Purpose flour - 1 1/4 cup
Milk ( at room temperature ) - 1/4 cup

Method :

Sift all purpose flour twice and keep aside. Take butter at room temperature in a bowl. Add condensed milk, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and mix it till it becomes smooth. Add cocoa powder and all purpose flour and mix well. Now add milk little by little and make the batter in thick pouring consistency. Pour the batter in the greased pan and tap it to even it out. Bake it  at 180C till the bottom had started to brown. Or you can insert a sharp knife in to the cake, if it comes without any dough clinging, it is ready. Normally it'll take 40 - 45 min. Transfer the pan to the cooling rack and cool it completely and then slice it. Your egg-less chocolate cake is now ready. Kids like this chocolaty cake very much...

Notes:

Don't forget to take the quantity of sugar in lesser amount because already we are using condensed milk for this recipe. 

How to Cook Rice in a Pressure Cooker

A Friend of mine asked me how to cook rice in a pressure cooker, as he doesn't know and new to the kitchen. So, i thought of blogging how to make rice in a pressure cooker as it will also be helpful for many other bachelors and for the future great cooks. 

We need Cooking Rice and water to make this. I'm specifying here cooking rice because someone likes Raw rice and others Boiled rice. We can take anything but we have to measure it before washing. I'm doing only with Raw rice here.

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 2 cups

Water - 6 cups

Method:

• Wash rice twice.Rinse and drain it completely.
• Pour 2 cups of water in the pressure cooker and set the vessel with rice above it.
• Pour 4 cups of water on it.
• Close the lid of the pressure cooker ( with rubber gasket ) till it locks perfect.
• Keep the Pressure cooker on the gas stove and wait till you see steam releasing from the lid vent. The time it takes for the steam is depending upon the quantity of rice cooking and the heat set on the gas stove. You can set the heat as medium.
• Once steam comes out from the vent, place metallic valve ( also called weight ) on top of the vent and press firmly.
• Once you hear the cooker whistles thrice, switch off the stove and wait for 10-15 min.
• Remove the weight, open the lid and enjoy your rice.

Notes:

• When you cook rice in the pressure cooker, the bottom of the cooker gets slightly blackish because of  the heat it is getting. So, you can add a  pinch of citric acid after you pour water on the cooker.
•  You can also use few drops of lemon juice instead of citric acid.

Poricha Kootu Recipe

Poricha Kootu

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
Sambar Onion ( peeled ) - 250 gm
Tomato - 1 chopped
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 1 or 2


For Grinding:

Coconut grated - 2 tbsp
Black Pepper - 1/4 tsp
Cumin - 1/4 tsp
Green Chilli - 1 medium

Method:

1. Cook Moong dhal partially by adding water, turmeric powder and salt. 

2. Heat a pan with oil or ghee, add onion and fry till it becomes golden brown.

3. Add this fried onions to the cooked moong dhal , add chopped tomato and cook again for five min.

4. Grind Coconut, Black pepper, Cumin and Green chilli and add this paste to moong dhal mixture.

5. Heat pan with little ghee. Splutter mustard, add urad dhal, asafoetida, red chillies and curry leaves and fry till it becomes golden brown and pour it on top of Poricha Kootu. 

6. Garnish with curry leaves. You can even taste this as a side dish for chapathi.

Aloo Paratha

Aloo paratha is a famous breakfast recipe and it is simple too. Instead of taking just chapathi, this paratha is good for health as we are adding vegetables to it.

ALOO PARATHA

Ingredients:

Potato ( Cooked, peeled and mashed ) - 4
Green Chilli - 2
Coriander Leaves - chopped
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 4 tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Wheat flour - 2 cups  + some flour for sprinkling

Method:

1. Add wheat flour, salt and little oil  and mix well. Add water little at a time and knead well till you get soft dough. Cover and let it breathe for 20-30 min.

2. Take Cooked, peeled and mashed potato, chopped green chillies, garam masala, little oil and salt - mix well and keep aside.

3. Spilit the dough and stuff in to smaller balls.

4. Roll one ball of dough to small circle and keep the stuff in to it. Now close it from all sides. Pat it on your palm and sprinkle dough on both sides.

5. Now, roll paratha as you do for making chapathi.

6. Put it on the tava and cook paratha by adding oil on both sides.

Homemade Pizza Recipe

We all love Pizza especially kids love that. Even my son like pizza very much. I was really afraid whether it is good for health?How they are doing in shops, we dont know? I asked myself why cannot i prepare Pizza at home and give him? Reflection of that, the recipe came here... It would be better if i prepare even the Pizza base, but right now i'm doing only with readymade one. After i do definitely i'll post it.

Ingredients:

Readymade Pizza base - 1
Butter - 1 tbsp
Onion ( chopped ) - 1
Carrot ( chopped ) - 1 
Capsicum ( chopped ) - 1 ( small )
Carom seeds ( Omum ) - 1/4 tsp
Tomato - 2
Tomato sauce - 2 tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp
Grated cheese - 1/4 cup
Cooking Oil - 2 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/4 tsp

Method: 

1. Spread butter to the top of the Pizza base fully and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a pan, add onion and fry it for a few min till it looks transparent. Add Gingergarlic paste and fry for another two min on low flame.

3. Add Capsicum and Carrot and cook for 5 min. Add salt as per taste. Do not cook the vegetables fully, it should be partially cooked.

4. Now grind tomatoes and add this tomato paste to the mixture.

5. Add Omum and mix well till tomato paste mixes well with vegetables.

6. Add chilli powder, pepper powder and tomato sauce and cook for 4 - 5 min. 

7. Spread this vegetable mixture to the top of the pizza base which we have prepared earlier.

8. Sprinkle grated cheese to it. 

9. Preheat the Oven and cook it for 4-5 min until the cheese melts and spread all over the pizza base.

10. Serve with Tomato sauce.

Homemade Pizza

Notes:

* In shops they will add some color to to pizza to enhance the richness but i avoided it.

Oatmeal Cookies

Eggless Oatmeal Cookies:

It is very easy to prepare eggless oatmeal cookies and it is healthy too. You can eat this not only for the evening snacks but for the breakfast too. It will take only 15 to 20 min to prepare this. I used quick oats  to make this recipe. 


Instead of doing cookies using butter, the taste will be delicious only when you add ghee. So, i preferred to use ghee for this recipe. 


Not only kids, everybody like this healthy cookies alot and definitely you will get the appreciation.(Not only appreciation, you will get the satisfaction that you're giving them a healthy food).


Ingredients:

1 cup - maida ( all purpose flour )
1 cup - Oats ( quick oats )
1/2 cup - Sugar ( Powdered)
1 pinch - salt
1/2 tsp - baking powder
1/4 tsp - baking soda
3/4 cup - ghee
1 tsp - vanilla essence
1/2 tsp - cardomom powder


Directions:


Sift maida, powdered sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda twice or thrice. Add oats and mix well. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add ghee to the maida mixture and combine gently. The dough will be slightly sticky but not watery. At the time when you can roll the dough with your palms, stop mixing the dough. Pinch equal portions of the dough and roll it between your palms without any cracks. Line the balls on the parchment paper with atleast 2″ space between them and bake it for ten minutes at 180 degrees. Take out the tray and do the tooth pick test. If it comes without any dough clinging its ready. Cool it on the sheet itself for 5 min then transfer it to the cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container.




Notes:
If  the dough is so dry you can add extra ghee to make the dough soft and when it is so runny you can add extra oats.