Month: April 2017

Plantain Upside down Cake:

April 24, 2017

This is my trial in egg less as well as butter less baking. Here I have used raw flax seed gel as a replace for an egg as well as fat and it worked out just fantastic.

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Ingredients:

Finger millet flour/Ragi – 1 cup

Whole wheat flour –½ cup

Sugar – ¾ cup

Mashed banana – 1 cup

Flax gel – ½ cup

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Cooking soda – ¾ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder – one pinch.

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Curd – 1/3 cup to ¼ cup (according to requirement)

For Caramelized base:(Optional)

Brown sugar – ½ cup

Butter – 2 table spoon (chilled)

Banana roundels – As needed.

Method:

How to make flax gel: Take 2 tsp of flax seed, make powder. Put this powder in thick bottomed small pan, add one cup of water and boil until it is thick, slimy and reduced to almost half.

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-Now make banana slices (half inch thick), keep it ready.

– Take one baking tin in which you want to bake this cake. Brush some oil at the base. Spread brown sugar uniformly and take butter, make small cubes and place it here and there.

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-Place this in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 6 to 8 minutes until the sugar has melted. Remove from the oven, mix this liquid nicely and place banana roundels in regular intervals and keep aside.

– Now Take all dry ingredients like flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder and sieve together couple of times or mix using dry wire whisk.

– Now take another bowl, beat all the wet ingredients like, flax gel, vanilla, sugar, mashed banana

-. When it becomes frothy, fold in the dry ingredient mixture. If you feel this batter is too thick, then adjust the consistency by adding curds.

– Pour this ready batter to the cake tin in which you placed banana slices.

-Bake this in a pre-heated ready oven at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or until done. If you insert knife, it should come out clean.

-Remove once it is done. When it is cool, de-mold and serve.

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NOTE:- Here I took caramel which was stuck on the base of the baking dish, put it in a microwave cup, re heated it and poured as a sauce to give saucy texture. (You can see that in the picture)

-If you want to make this as a vegan,avoid caramelized base.

 

Thondekayi Ele Geru beeja Palya / Ivy gourd with Tender Cashew stir fry:

April 12, 2017

Vishu is one of the important festivals of Kerala and our coastal region. It comes in April and usually on 14th.Traditional rituals are followed to bring in prosperity and we (lady of the house) will assemble Vishu-kani at Pooja room. It comprises all the fresh crops, vegetables, rice, gold, money, flower and pot full of water and one mirror. On the festival day morning, after taking bath, family members will see this “Kani” and seek the blessings of the god and from the elders. Usually at this time of the year, fresh cashew crop starts and cashew is one of the main crops of our region. Only for this festival we pluck fresh raw green cashew and prepare either payasam or kheer with chana dal or cashew and ivy gourd dry curry. This particular side dish is a must in almost all the festivities and weddings. Which is a speciality of Mangalore region.

This side dish has no other masala’s other than green chilli and coconut flavour.

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Ingredients-

Ivy gourd – 500 gms

Tender cashew – 100 kernels

Green chillies – 3 to 4 (slit)

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Red chillies -2

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 2springs

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Salt

Jaggery – ¼ tsp.

Method:

-At first we have to remove outer cover of the young cashew. Take one bowl, put all those young and raw cashew kernels into it, pour boiling water and keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes by closing the lid.

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-When outer cover of the kernels swells, remove the outer cover and keep aside.

-Chop ivy gourd after washing it thoroughly. Make 4 lengthwise pieces of each gourd.

-Now take one thick bottomed kadai or clay pot, heat oil for the seasoning. Put mustard, when it splutters add urad dal, red chillies.

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-When urad dal becomes red, add curry leaves and slit green chillies and fry a little.

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-Next, add chopped ivy gourd and cashew kernels, turmeric, salt, jaggery and fry until it wilts a little.

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-Now add one cup of water and close the lid and cook this in a low fire until it is done.

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-Lastly add grated coconut and mix and cook until it is done.

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Note:

– One pack of Young cashew, that we get in the market has 100 kernels. In Bangalore, I get these from the Mangalore Store (all Mangalore stores will have it when it’s the season)

-If you are using regular cashew, cook the cashew first by putting water and salt in cooker for 2 whistles, drain the water and then proceed as above method.

RAW JACKFRUIT DOSA:

April 7, 2017

Raw jackfruit Dosa is known as “Halasina kayi dose”. It is a traditional recipe of Mangalore. Usually Jack season is always a feast in our coastal area. We have so many dishes of jack from its raw form to ripe. This particular recipe is one among them and it is freshly prepared and served with Honey or coconut- ginger chutney. No fermentation is required. This particular Dosa is very crispy as well as paper thin. Jack used in this is freshly plucked, before ripening and in a raw form.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Raw jack – 1 big bowl

Salt

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice in sufficient water for 3 to 4 hours.

– Chop raw jack, which should be really fresh and should not be ripe. Remove bulbs and separate outer cover and inner seed. Chop these bulbs into tiny pieces, so that grinding will be easy in mixer grinder.

– Now take soaked rice, chopped bulbs, put little water and grind this in to a smooth paste by adding sufficient salt.

– If you want to use this batter for next day morning, please refrigerate the same and use next day.

-make paper thin Dosa’s by using hot iron griddle. No need to ferment this batter. Use ghee while roasting this Dosa.

-When it is little brown and roasted, flip this and cook on the other side.

-serve this with honey or with ginger chutney.

Note:

For ginger chutney: Fry red chillies with little oil and grind this with coconut, salt, little tamarind and piece of ginger.

 

Homemade Maaza / Mango Juice:

April 4, 2017

Hi all. Today I bring to you Homemade Maaza !

Everyone knows what maaza is, but now you can also make it at home without any artificial flavors or preservatives and it tastes exactly the same!

My kids love this very refreshing bottled drink.So, I tried it at home and I make it a point to prepare it every year in Mango season 🙂

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Ingredients:

Ripe mangoes –    5

Raw (thothapuri) mango – 1 ½

Sugar – almost 2 ½ cup (according to taste)

Salt – ½ tsp.

Method : –

-Wash Ripe mangos and raw mangoes remove outer skin and chop it. Quantity should be 2:1 (ripe mango will be more and raw mango will be less).

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-Now take these chopped Mango pieces in the cooker, add around 2 cups of sugar, little water (up to mango pieces)

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-Cook this for two whistles, switch off the gas, when pressure releases, open the lid and cool the mixture.

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-When it becomes a little cool, blend this mixture by using hand blender or mixer grinder.

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-Now add required amount of water (check thickness while adding ) till you get required amount of thickness like store bought maaza .

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  • After achieving required thickness, add salt, check for sweetness, if u feel u need some more sugar, add and mix nicely.
  • After all the adjustment ,take one vessel and sieve this mixture and discard the fiber part.

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  • Collect this smooth juice in a clean bottle and keep this for cooling in a fridge. Serve and enjoy this juice after cooling.

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  • I got 3 liters of juice with the quantities I specified.