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.