Maddur Vada

Its Eid holidays here and each day we look forward to have some good tea time snack.  I made them yesterday as this is in my to do list for sometime.  No need to soak the dals, a kind of instant vada which you can make it very easily with few ingredients you have in you kitchen.

Ingredients

Onions : 1 cup finely chopped

Green chilli  crushed : 5 nos.
Curry leaves : 2 sprigs finely chopped
Coriander leaves: 3 sprigs chopped
All purpose flour : ¼  cup
Semolina : 1 cup
Rice flour: ¾ cup
salt as required
Hot oil : 3 tbsp
Hing – a big pinch
Cumin crushed – 1 tsp
Peanut (fried and broken )  - 3 tbsp
Coconut grated – 2 tbsp
Water  as much as needed

Oil for deep frying

Sago & Kiwi Payasam

After a big break I am back here again. How are  you all doing? 

Recently I received a complimentary box of Gold kiwi fruits from Zespri.  I have tried the green ones from Zespri they are so fresh and yummy. This time it was a box of gold Kiwi, they were so firm from out but very sweet, fresh  and yummy, I have never had a gold kiwi earlier and this was the first time I got to taste this delicious fruit. I loved it more than the green one.

Zespri Kiwifruit contain so many vitamins and minerals, they’re truly bursting with natural goodness. The powerful combination of vitamins C and E, potassium, folate, and dietary fibre, gives Zespri Kiwifruit one of the highest nutrient density and adequacy scores compared to other common fruit.  I had made this  payasam with kiwi pulp, it was so delicious.

Ingreditents

Sago  - ½ cup

Milk  full cream – 2 cups

Sugar ½ cup

Cashew & Raisins – 8 each

Cardamom – 2 nos

Ghee – 1 tsp just to fry the raisins and cashew

Water – 2 or 2 ½ cups (as much as you need)

Zespri gold Kiwi  pulp – 1 cup

Zespri gold kiwi chopped – 2 nos for garnish

  

Lemon Glow Chiffon Cake

Guess what the Baking Partners Challenge is one year old since this group has started. Congratulations to the entire team members to reach this wonderful milestone. Special thanks to Swathi  for starting this group. Each time I learn something very different from the variety of challenges in this group and I am so happy that I am part of this too.

Chiffon cakes are foam cakes, airy and pillowy in texture and combine richness of a butter cake with lightness of a sponge cake.

  

Coming to the cake, this  does require some mind blowing steps which were fun to do, but it is not a hard recipe. If followed correctly, the cake could be made within couple of hours.

This recipe was suggested by Saraswathi of Sara’s kitchen and she adapted this recipe from the book The Cake Bible written by Rose Levy Beranbaum. 

Chiffon cakes are foam cakes that have a soft and spongy texture. This cake is very similar in appearance to angel food cake and is usually baked in the same type of tube pan. Chiffon cakes, unlike angel food cakes, contain both egg yolks and vegetable oil. These two ingredients keep the cake moist, soft and tender that tastes great and keeps well.  

Even when refrigerated this cake remains soft. The reason being that this cake contains oil instead of butter which remains soft even in the refrigerator unlike butter which hardens when refrigerated. . Because of the lower fat level than butter cake and less cholesterol and saturated fat, this could very well be the guilt free cake that you could indulge in. 

        
The chiffon cake was created by Harry Baker, a Los Angeles insurance agent, in 1927.  Baker carefully guarded his secret technique for almost two decades, only selling his cakes to celebrities and the famous Brown Derby restaurant. The popularity of his cakes grew quickly, and he eventually sold the recipe to General Mills in 1947. 

Now, Mr. Baker had two big secrets with his chiffon cake recipe. The first is that chiffon cakes use oil instead of butter, which aides in the airy quality of the cake. It is also nice because the cake can be refrigerated without firming up. The second secret of the chiffon cake is to whip the egg whites separately from the yolks and to fold them ever so gently into the batter.  If done correctly, the results are divine. If not, you can end up with an oozy-gooey mess in your pans.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the third Home Baker's Challenge started by Priya Suresh and hosted by Viji.

This month challenge was to bake  cookies and we were give four recipes, I loved the peanut butter cookes and have tried making. Loved the nutty, crunchy  & a flavorful cookie.

Falafel

One of the  famous fritters  made from chickpeas or feva beans across the Middle  East, it is either had like any other fritters as appetizer wrapped in a pita bread as sandwich. 

We at home love to have this hot,  so crunchy and yummy they are, you can use hummus as a dip to have this.

Tricolor Popsicles (Kiwi, Orange & Strawberry)

Popsicles who does not like it, perfect for the summer days, its been so hot these days here anything chilled like fresh  juices, smoothies, ice-creams or popsicles is big treat.

I had some fresh Zespri  kiwi, strawberries & oranges and  I wanted to make this. Try it everyone love to have this. At my place my daughter loved the strawberry part so much but my hubby loved the Zespri kiwi part and he insisted me to make purely  kiwi popsicles  and insisted me not to strain and remove the seeds as he loved it  so much in it.

Makes 4 ice sticks

Time taken : 4 – 5 hours

Ingredients

2 fresh Zespri kiwi fruit

½ cup fresh strawberries
Sugar, to taste
Juice of 1 big lime

Carrot & Coconut Salad

Very simple yet another perfect healthy and refreshing salad, adding some fresh coconut.

Serves: 4 pax

Time taken : 10 minutes

Ingredients

Fresh carrots – 250gms

Desiccated fresh coconut  - 2 tbsp

Shredded onion fine – 25gm

Lemon juice – 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves finely chopped – 2 sprigs

Fine chopped green chilli– 1 no.

Salt to taste

Method

Peel and grate the carrots

Dunk all the ingredients into a bowl, except the salt.

Give it a good mix and keep in the fridge

Just  before serving add the salt.

 Latha

Eggless Date Cake

Ingredients

Seedless dates – 18 nos.     *                     

Sugar  - ¾ cup

All purpose flour – 1 cup

Milk  - ¾ cup

Oil – ½ cup (I used sunflower oil)

Baking soda – 1 tsp 

* I soaked the dates in 1/4 cup milk for about 1 hour

Chocolate Marble Cake - Eggless & Butterless Version

This is the second Home Baker's Challenge started by  Priya Suresh hosted by by Sangee Vijay

This month challenge was to bake  with mango and chocolate, I wanted to try it with eggless and butterless.  The cake was so soft and moist, seriously  I love the cakes to be with butter as the taste is so much different from the butterless cakes.

Makes 9' loaf cake

Ingredients

All Purpose flour   -  2 cups

Baking powder      - 1 ½ tsp

Baking Soda    ½  tsp

Salt     ¼  tsp

Sugar      ¾  cup

Cocoa Powder    ¼ cup ( mix with 2 tbsp warm water)

Oil      5 tbsp

Vanilla      1 tsp

Mango Pulp     1 cup ( i used store bought mango pulp)

Milk        ¼  cup

Buttermilk     ¼  cup

Kiwi Sarsaparilla Slush

Kiwi  is one fruit that we all love  at home, last week I received a complimentary box of kiwi fruits from Zespri .  Since its summer here I thought of trying this kiwi slush, its  such a thirst quencher to beat the heat, especially as you sip the drink you get the tiny chunks of the kiwi in your mouth,  its so refreshing and we at home loved it.  I have made this drink with Nannari, click here to read more about this as I have explained it in my earlier post more about this.

Zespri Kiwifruit contain so many vitamins and minerals, they’re truly bursting with natural goodness. The powerful combination of vitamins C and E, potassium, folate, and dietary fibre, gives Zespri Kiwifruit one of the highest nutrient density and adequacy scores compared to other common fruit. If you are keen in seeing how the farmers are growing this amazing fruit have look at this video http://goo.gl/6IsQy 

Kathrikai or Brinjal Puli

Just need some steamed rice with some papad to enjoy this tangy and spicy curry. Adding of baby brinjal makes it yummy.  Just slit the brinjal like a flower and put them in whole to this dish. You can make this with ladies finger too. This is one of my mom’s signature dish, she makes it too good and I dont think any of us can make it so well like her. 

Time taken  : 30 minutes

Serves : for 4 pax

Ingredients

Small brinjal - 300gms 

Onion – 2 tbsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Tamrind – a small  ball size or up to your taste *

Tomato – 1 small

Mustard – ½ tsp

Cumin  - ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – 3 sprigs

Green chillies – 2 nos slit

Garlic – crushed 2 cloves

Onion – 1 small finely chopped

Channa Dal – 1 tsp

*soak in ¼ cup of water to extract the pulp

Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake (Eggless & No Bake) for my Blog 1st Anniversary

I can’t believe it’s a year since I have been blogging. On this wonderful day of my blog anniversary I would like to thank all my fellow bloggers, followers, friends  and each one of you who has taken time to visit my space and encourage me to reach this milestone. Thank you  for all your kind support you have given  me and I hope to continue to get more.

 

I made my own mascarpone   at home to make this delicious desserts, infact I have made this several times and  my daughter loves it so much.  This time I thought of setting them in  a nice glasses rather than a  8” round shape. Its so simple and easy to make too.

 

I have topped  with chocolate  ganache, you can do the way you like.

New York Style Cheese & pepperoni Pizza with Homemade Sauce

This time at the Baking Partners Challenge 10 Swathi had given us 3 recipes for the New York Style Pizza and sauce. Thank you for this wonderful challenge.

I used half the proportion of the crust ingredients and made one cheese pizza and another one was pepperoni, onion & olives. Both the pizzas were extremely good.

Pizza Sauce from here

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 medium cloves garlic, grated  (about 2 teaspoons)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

pinch red pepper flakes

kosher salt (I used regular salt)

2 six inch springs fresh basil with leaves attached

1 medium onion chopped fine

Yield 4-3 makes enough for 2 – 4 ½ inch pies depending on how much sauce you like

Method:

Process tomatoes and their juice through food mill, pulse in food processor until pureed, or puree with hand blender. Puree should not be completely smooth, but should have no chunks larger than 1/16 of an inch. Set tomatoes aside.

Combine butter and oil in medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until butter is melted.

Add olive oil, onion chopped, garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, and large pinch salt and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil sprigs, halves, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to lowest setting (bubbles should barely be breaking the surface), and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by 1/2, about 1 hour. Season  to taste with salt. Allow to cool and store in covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Vegetable Super Supreme Pizza With Tomato Sauce for 1st Home Bakers Challenge

This is the first Home Baker's Challenge started by Priya Suresh and hosted by  Divya Prakash.

This month challenge is Pizza.  We were given  4 different pizzas - One pizza with pizza sauce, One without pizza sauce, then a pizza with pesto and the fourth is pizza with Indian touch, Naanizza. I chose the first one and made super supreme vegetable pizza with thick crust and a cheese pizza with thin crust.

The pizza was much better than the store bought ones as the vegetables and all the ingredients used were so fresh and for sure the outcome was too good. 

I have used onions, olives, capsicum and loads of cheese to your liking.

Thank you Priya  & Divya for this wonderful challenge. Since my daughter could not enjoy this pizza just waiting for her to come so that I can make this one more time for her.

Eggless Pineapple Cream Cake

Today is a special day as I celebrate my birthday.  I wanted to make eggless cake and thought of making this lovely soft and delicious eggless pineapple cake.

This recipe was adapted from here.  The outcome of the came was too good. In between the  layer I had added generous amount cream and  pineapple chunks and it was delicious and yummy.  We at home loved it so much.

Crispy Honey Chicken

Chinese and a big smile in the face of all the household members, this weekend I had made  vegetable fried rice & hakka noodles to go with this chicken strips.

I am posting a very simple yet a very delicious chicken strips loved by young and the old. I never add ajinomoto to my Chinese cooking, its upto you if you want you can add.

Cooking time : 1 hr 30minutes

Serves : 5 pax

Ingredients

Chicken breasts washed and cleaned – 300 gms (keep in fridge so that its firm)

Corn flour – ½ cup

Batter

Egg – 1 no.

Oil – 1 tbsp

Corn Flour – 1 tbsp

Salt – ½ tsp

White pepper – ½ tsp or to your taste

Ajinomoto – ¼ tsp (Optional)

Sauce for the chicken coating

Red chilli broken – 4 nos.

Tomato ketchup – 4 tbsp

Honey – 3 tbsp

Salt to your taste

Cornf lour dissolved  in ¼ cup of water – 1 tbsp

Sesame seeds – 2 tsp *

Spring onion – green part for garnish

*you can toast  on tawa lightly and then add to the chicken