Month: November 2020

Almond Vanilla cake :

November 29, 2020

Hey, Anushree here! This is my second guest post on my mom’s blog ( My first one was a red velvet cake, if you haven’t checked that out, click right here).

So, it is my parents as well as my mom’s Blog anniversary today, and since my sister and I are home, and the world has come to a pause (pretty much), I thought it would be a good idea to make something for their special day. My mom doesn’t like chocolate much and loves milder flavours. My dad pretty much loves all desserts, so I decided to make a healthy, and yummy almond and vanilla cake, with a glaze instead of frosting as we aren’t too fond of the cream icing. So, while frosting, instead of new age cream cheese, I have opted for an original Ermine icing, which is also known as boiled milk frosting. Here, instead of All-purpose flour, I have used a mixture of  Almond flour, oats flour, and whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

Almond flour/ meal – ½ cup

Whole wheat flour – ½ cup

Oats flour – ½ cup

Sugar -¾ cup 

Baking powder -1/2 tsp

Baking soda- ½ tsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Butter – 2 tablespoons

Curd – ½ cup

Egg – 1

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

For the Glaze:

Milk – 1 cup

Almond flour – 5 tablespoons

Arrowroot powder – 1 tablespoon

Butter – 50 grams

Sugar – ½ cup

Vanilla – 1 tsp

Slivered Almonds – As needed

Method:

To Bake the cake:

-Preheat oven for 180° C . Line the baking tray and keep it ready.

-Measure every ingredient and keep it ready. Melt butter and keep aside.

-Take one glass bowl, beat egg, then sugar, melted butter, curd, vanilla beat everything until it is well mixed and keep aside.

-Now take one more bowl, put all the dry ingredients, all the three flours, salt and baking soda, baking powder. Sieve a couple of times or dry whisk and keep it ready.

–Pour the previously prepared wet mixture to dry ingredients and fold the batter by using any spatula.

-Pour the batter in the lined baking tray and keep this for baking for 40 -50  minutes or until done.

-Before removing, check with a knife by inserting, in the baked cake. It should come out clean.

-Cool the cake completely before doing the frosting part.

Method for Frosting:

-Take milk, Almond flour, and Arrowroot powder in a saucepan. Boil the mixture until it is cooks and becomes creamy.

-Switch off the flame, add in butter, sugar, and vanilla, mix well. Cool the mixture and keep it in the fridge to cool further making it thicker. ( I have not kept it in the fridge)

-Now, slice the cake, make a 2-equal slice, Apply the frosting on the first layer and cover it with the second slice.

-Now pour the frosting on the top, we like the sauce texture and left it like that.

-Decorate the cake with slivered almonds and serve and enjoy with the family <3

Cheenikayi thirulina dosey/ Pumpkin Core dosa:

November 26, 2020

Delicious dosa by using nutritionally rich , pulpy pumpkin cores which we usually tend to throw away. Whenever we use pumpkin in larger quantities such as pumpkin puree  , Sambar , kalasu etc, the inner core would be more in quantity and it is an awesome way to utilise in dosa batter. In this way, it can be utilised and turned into a healthy breakfast option.

Let us see how I make this super soft, porous dosa.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Methi seeds – 1 tablespoon

Inner soft core – ¼ cup to ½ cup ( quantity may vary according to the availability)

Salt

Method:

-Wash , soak dosa rice, urad dal, methi in water for 2 to 3 hours.

-Clean the pumpkin core, remove seeds, and keep it ready.

-Grind soaked rice and pumpkin core by adding sufficient salt into smooth paste.

-Ferment overnight or 8 – 10 hours. Next day prepare soft Dosas .

-If you like crisp roasted one, spread as thin as possible on heated iron griddle.

-Serve with coconut chutney or any other curry.

Instant Masala Rolled Oats in Kettle :

November 22, 2020

If you are living in a hostel, PG or with limited access to the main kitchen, it is an awesome idea to keep some ready mixes with one small kettle, as an alternate choice to mess food.

Here, I have used Rolled oats with south Indian masala to give homely Sambar taste, as well as Rolled oats to give chewy texture, alternate to rice. Rice needs little longer time to cook, when compared to Rolled oats. when you have an instant mix ready, it is really quick, easy, filling, fibre rich and delicious choice of meal. 

Ready mix can be stored at room temperature up to a month.

Cooking time – 5 minutes and standing time :5 minutes.

How I made:

Rolled oats – 1 cup

Ghee/ oil – 1 tablespoon

Mustard – 1tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Chana dal -1 tsp

Cashew pieces – 1 tablespoon

Curry leaves – 1 spring (chopped)

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Sambar powder – 1 tsp (as needed)

Tamarind powder – ½ tsp (as needed)

Salt

Jaggery – 1 tsp (as needed)

Method:

-Take one tawa, heat ghee or oil, splutter mustard, fry urad dal, chana dal, fry until it starts to change colour.

-Add cashew pieces, fry for a while. Next, add chopped curry leaves toss until crispy.

-Now add Rolled oats fry for 2 to 3 minutes in low fire. Add turmeric, sambar powder, tamarind powder, salt, jaggery and mix everything until oats absorbs all the masalas.

-Switch off the gas, cool the mixture and keep it in an airtight container. Stays good for more than one month.

How to Cook:

-Take required amount of oats.

If Masala oats – 1 cup

Water – 1 ¼ cup

Boil water in  a kettle, add oats, cook without the lid, until water absorbs, now close the lid, and leave it for 5 minutes. It is such a simple and delicious choice.

 

Overripe Banana Dosa/ Bale hannina dosey :

November 18, 2020

After the festivals or any poojas, over ripe Bananas are everyone’s headache. When skin of the banana turns black, no one prefers to eat. If you have abundant supply of homegrown bananas, it is a constant headache and we normally make Banana Halwa or Banana preserve if it is in large quantities. If it is very less, I normally prefer Dosas ,Mangalore Buns or plantain upside down cake.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 3cups

Methi seeds – 2 tablespoons

Overripe Ripe bananas – 6 – 7

Salt

Eno fruit salt – 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

-Wash Rice along with methi seeds. Soak for 3 to 4 hours and grind into smooth batter by adding chopped banana, salt.

-Keep the consistency as well as ferment like normal dosa batter. It takes anywhere between 8 to 12 hours according to the outside temperature.

-Next day, if you want extra soft dosas, add Eno fruit salt, mix nicely and proceed.

Otherwise, mix the fermented batter and make dosas in hot iron griddle by spreading a tsp of ghee or coconut oil before flipping upside down.

-Serve with your choice of chutney.

 

Rice Nippattu:

November 11, 2020

In our Native, Nippattu is nothing but savoury Rice crackers. We normally buy our favourite Rice Nippat from “Popular sweet mart”,  from my native town, Putter.

Maybe around 5 -6  years ago, while conversing, my husband asked me to replicate this particular item at home. I was thrilled to hear this and sat down with a couple of Nippattu, pen and paper. I noted down the ingredients one by one after tasting it bit by bit.

Then comes the trial session. At first, I used roasted urad dal powder and rice flour and used a roti presser for pressing. It turned out a little thick and hard.

After a couple of trials with different proportions, addition, and deletion of a couple of ingredients. I succeeded in replicating our favourite snack and it was published long ago in Readoo at that time. Finally, during this Deepavali, I did manage to publish in my own space 😀 

Now we will see how it is made –

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 2 cups

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Chana dal – 2 tbl sp

Butter – 1tbl sp.

Green chillies – 4

Red chillies – 2

Cumin – 1 ½ tbl sp

Black sesame seed – 1 tbl sp.

Curry leaves – 6 strings

Asafoetida /hing – ½ tsp

Salt

Oil- for frying

Method:

-Soak chana dal in water for 2 hours.

-Cook urad dal with one cup of water for two to three whistles in cooker. Mash it by hand or whisker.

-Now add butter, soaked-drained chana dal, jeera, sesame seeds, hing, salt, chopped green chillies, red chillies, and curry leaves.

-Mix nicely and add rice flour. If needed, sprinkle some water while mixing.

-Make firm dough and keep aside for 5 minutes.

-Take small amount of dough and make roundels.

-Pat these into flat thin discs on greased wax paper or butter paper or any thick plastic sheet.        

-Now keep Coconut or any preferred oil for deep frying. When oil is hot, add patted flat discs and deep fry until it is golden brown.

-Enjoy with evening tea!

 

Menthe Idli /Fenugreek sweet idli:

November 8, 2020

We Indians do not need any introduction for methi. Methi seeds are an integral part of our day to day cooking and has an important role in our cooking, even though it is used in a minuscule portion.

Fenugreek or Methi is a power packed, nutritionally rich and produces heat in our body. Hence, the usage of methi is recommended in winter months to keep our body warm and disease free. Traditionally methi has been used as a seed as well as greens. It plays a main part in post-partum/ after delivery diet of Indian ladies. It is believed that it helps in breast milk production.

Today, I am going to share our age old, traditional recipe, which I used to relish during my childhood.

It is a semi sweet idli and tastes really good with methi flavour and is usually served with coconut – ginger chutney, to give it a bit of a kick.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Methi – 1 fistful ( approx. 2 tablespoons)

Jaggery –  2 / 2 block  ( according to the taste)

Poha – ½ cup

turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp (optional)

Method:

-Soak methi and rice separately for 4 hrs , after washing it properly.

-Grind methi into a fine paste, by adding sufficient water.

-Add soaked rice into it, add salt, jaggery and grind, until rice turns into small grainy texture. Like a small rava consistency.

-After grinding, remove the batter, it should be a little watery. Now add turmeric, poha into the batter, mix properly, leave overnight or until it ferments. It takes a little longer in cold regions.

-Next day, mix nicely, make idlies in an idli mould, like a regular idli.

-Serve with coconut – ginger chutney.

Chutney in brief: Fresh coconut, roasted red chillies, fresh ginger, little tamarind, and salt.