Whole Wheat Bread - Eggless

A very healthy and a simple bake.  Eggless  and  you can use any cooking oil and make this.

Makes two 9x5 loaves

Time taken: approx. 4 hrs in all

Ingredients

1 cup  warm  water
¼  cup  honey
2 tbsp  oil
2  ¾  cups  all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 ¾  cups  whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup  milk
1 tbsp salt

 Method

Pour the water into the bowl  and sprinkle the yeast over top. Let this stand for a few minutes until the yeast has dissolved. Stir in the milk, honey, and oil.

Add two cups of all-purpose flour and the salt, and stir to combine the ingredients. Add the rest of the all-purpose and whole wheat flours. Stir to form a loose dough. Rest the dough for  20 minutes.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes,  add extra flour a tablespoon at a time until it is no longer sticky. The dough should be  kneaded  smooth and springs back when poked.

Make the dough into a ball and turn it in the bowl to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm spot  to rise (approx  1 or 2 hours) depending on the level of heat in your  work area. This dough won't double quite  unlike the  other recipes, but the dough should look visibly puffed.

Sprinkle a little flour on the counter and turn the dough out on top. Divide the dough in two and shape each half into a loose ball. Let the balls rest for 10 minutes.

Grease two loaf pans, shape each ball of dough into a loaf. Let the loaves rise a second time  for 30-40 minutes.

Heat the oven to 425°F

Before putting this in the oven slash the tops of the loaves with a serrated knife. Turn down the heat to 375°F and bake for 30-35 minutes. 

Finished loaves will be golden-brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove the loaves from the pans and let them cool completely before slicing.

Latha

Boneless Smoky Chicken

Recently  I saw on a TV show a chef doing this  smoky effect using a charcoal for a dish he had made.   I used the typical  Kerala masala for the chicken and gave the  smoky effect. We 

at home loved it and it’s a wonderful starter. Needs very few simple ingredients and very easy to make.

If you have charcoal fine otherwise don’t worry, just use the shell of a coconut and give the smoky effect.  I  broke a piece of the coconut shell and burnt it well on the flame and put it in a small steel container and put some butter and topped it with cloves and put it into the cooked chicken  and I closed the lid to get the smoky effect.

Baadusha

This is one sweet I love to have it most of the time although I am not fond of sweets but this one is exceptional. I have been wanting to make this for some time and  made this some time back and could not post it here until now.

I  have  followed the recipe from here and have look at the video  Master chef Sanjeev Kapoor shows here how to make the dough and  fry the baadusha as well, this will give you a good idea to make this  sweet, as it was very helpful to me. Thanks to Radhika and  Chef S Kapoor.

Prep Time: 30 Mins 
Cook Time: 20 Mins 
Makes: 10

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour – 300 gms
• Vanaspati – 100 gms
• Fresh curd – 1 ½ tsp
• Baking soda – a nice big pinch
• Water – ¼  cup (approx.)

For Sugar syrup

• Sugar – 1 cup
• Water – ¼  cup
• Cardamom powder – ¼  tsp
• Lemon juice – 1 tsp

Mixture

A  lovely tea time snack. Lots of work in it as you need to have tremendous patience to do this small petty things to get the final result of this mixture. I love this  home made mixtures especially this is how my mom makes it.

During festivals its my dads duty to sit and make the ribbon pakodas and the sev.  Mom will make the batter and give as poor thing she will be engrossed with the other preprations for the festivals.  So wonderful it used to be that even today I feel so happy thinking of my childhood days and the time we have spent doing all such things together.

My part of the job  was to make small pieces of the sev and pakodas.  My dad was an expert for the final touches for the mixture as he would mix all the ingredients so well  by tossing it without touching hands. Miss my dad terribly.

 
Ingredients : 

Rice flour -  ½  cup
Besan  - 2 cups                                                          

Red  chilli powder – 1  tbsp
Poha thick variety & white colour– ¼ cup                      
Peanuts with skin – ¼  cup
Fried  Channa Dal -  ¼  cup
Curry leaves : 6 sprigs
Oil  for frying
Salt to taste
Hing – a pinch                                                                                
Water *                                                                                           
Garlic – 2  nos  (Optional) I normally add

* as much as needed to make the batter

Flax Seed Chutney Powder

This is the best way to have flax seeds, I love the nutty flavor and  relish having with steamed rice.  I need not talk much on the benefits of flax seeds. Having a small  spoon of this daily is so good for health.

I have NOT added coconut  and peanuts here, if you want you can add, this is optional.  This chutney powder you can leave it outside for one week. Also its good to grind in small quantity. Its advised not to use  the ground flax seeds for a longer period.  If you are adding coconut please after a day or two please put it into  refigerator.

Ingredients:

Flax seed – ½  cup

Sesame Seeds – 3 tbsp

Garlic Pods  - 6 cloves

Tamarind – a very small ball

Dry red chilli - 10 nos.

Salt - to taste

Hing – ¼ tsp

Channa Dal – ¼ cup

Urud Dal – 3 tbsp

Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Egg Masala

Onion  medium size  - sliced thin 2 nos 
Eggs – 4 nos. 

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Green chilli – 2 nos.

Turmeric – a pinch

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder as per your taste

Curry & coriander leaves  - 2 sprigs each

Tomato – 1 big size

Oil – 2 tbsp

Garam  masala – a pinch

Banana Pudding - eggless

Hope you all had a gr8 Valentine celebration, I had made this dessert last evening and could not post it early.

I have made a very simple and delicious dessert with banana (nendra pazaham), topped with chopped mango pieces. Soon we will see lots of mangoes in the market. I love them.

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serves : 4 small shot glasses

Ingredients

Banana  – 1  Nendra pazam well riped

Sugar – 2 tbsp or  to your level of sweet

Milk – ¼ cup

Agar Agar – 1 tbsp

Water – 3 tbsp

Some whipped cream and Mango  chopped for garnish

Mixed Vegetable Pulao

Time taken : 45 minutes

Serves : 2 pax

Ingredients

Basmati rice – 1 cup

Mixed vegetable chopped (carrots, peas, cauliflower, beans)

Coriander leaves – ¼ cup

Coconut grated – 1 tbsp

Green chilies – 4 nos.

Ginger – 1 small piece

Tomato – small 1 no

Garlic – 4 cloves

Salt according to taste

Lime juice – 1 tbsp

Turmeric – a pinch

Onion – 1 medium sliced

Whole garam masala – 1 pc of  cloves, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf)

Oil  or Ghee -  2 tbsp

Water  - 2 cups

Masala

Grind to a coarse coconut, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves and green chillies and keep aside

Broccoli Soup

 

Its winter here and perfect to enjoy some warm soups to beat the cold.   On going through my blog index I found I have not added any soups and thought of adding few soups in the coming days here.

Normally I like to have the soup  without  adding much of butter or cream.  Its purely optional upto you if you want you can make it more creamy by adding more milk/cream. I like to always retain  the beautiful green and hence I add a dash of milk only. I like the nice garlic smell in this soup, hence I have garnished it with well fried garlic.

Dil Pasand/ Dilkush/ Coconut muffin

We  loved eating this Dil Pasand or Coconut Muffin from  Iyengar bakery, Bangalore.  We had  a bakery very close to my place and weekend it used to be a practice  that we would like to have this for tea. After moving to Dubai we only get to enjoy this during our annual vacation.

I have been  looking for this recipe for sometime but everyone had used the puff pastry sheet and I was not keen on making this with that. Recently I came across this  site. Julie had made this  exactly the way I was looking for.   Thank you Julie for this wonderful recipe, we at home enjoyed this for tea. Truly it was lovely and now we can make this  at home itself. My hubby loved this so much and says bake one more time as this has been his all time favorite. 

I have exactly used half the ingredients  for one small dilkush and I have not used the cashew.

Makes : 2 stuffed breads

Ingredients

All purpose flour 4cups
Active dry yeast 1 tbsp full or 4tsp
Warm milk 1 cup
oil 2tbsp
water 2 tbsp
eggs 2 beaten (reserve one egg white for glaze)
salt
sugar ¾  cup

For filling

coconut 1 ½  cup shredded (I used the sweetened coconut flakes)
tutty fruity 5 oz
sugar 2-3tbsp
cardamom powder 1 tsp
Cashew – few (optional)

Green Peas Kachori With Spicy Dum Aloo (Koraishutir Kochuri R Aloor Dam) - SNC Challenge # 5

 

Its so wonderful to be a part of the 'South Vs North Challenge’ family. SNC is the brain-child of Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. This month for the 'South Vs North Challenge', the North team Sanoli has challenged the South team with GREEN PEAS KACHORI WITH SPICY DUM ALOO .

This wonderful delicacy is a Bengali dish and is made with green peas kachori and dum aloo. I have made and ofcourse had dum aloo several times. However, loved the flavour and the beautiful look of the green peas stuffed into the kachori and then accompanied with the baby potatoes, it was awesome and loved it so much.

 We at home enjoyed this Bengali dish so much. Thank you Sanoli for this wonderful recipe.

I am part of the South team

Raw Banana or Vazhaka and Onion Pakodas

Its been a rainy today here, gloomy and so chill and a lovely day and  that too it’s a weekend.

Wanted some nice snack to munch with the tea and  I made these two types  (raw banana bajji and killi pakoda with onion slices) for the evening tea. With a cup of tea sitting by the balcony  we enjoyed  the evening to the most J.

Time: 30 minutes

Serves : 3 pax

Ingredients

Raw Banana Bajji

Raw Banana – 1 no (Sliced in thin pieces lengthy) **

Gram flour – ½  cup

Rice Flour – 1 tbsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

A pinch of  asafetida

A pinch baking soda

Idli batter – 1 tbps (Optional) *

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

*This makes the bajji/pakoda very light and crispy. Avoid you  

  don’t want. But I always add it.

**Cut the slices very thin and drop this into turmeric and salt water, so that the banana remain fresh and wont turn dark.

Gajar Ka Halwa or Carrot Halwa

After a  lovely short  break  its time to get back to my blogging with this wonderful  sweet loved by many.   Hope all is well with you guys. I missed  you all and could not stop visiting my space but with a very short time always.

This sweet is also prepared with condensed milk or even using khoya. I somehow like to make it this way and that too using  Delhi carrots  as its so juicy and perfect for this sweet. A very simple and easy to make dish  rich with nuts and tastes great. You can increase or decrease the level of sugar to your taste.

Total time taken : 1 hour

Serves – 6

Ingredients

Delhi Carrots - 500 gms

Sugar - 300 gm

Full cream milk - 2 cups

Cardamom  powder - ¼ tsp

Ghee or vegetable oil  - 2 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 12 nos.

Almonds – 6 nos.