Microwave Sukhadi / Gud Papdi

Microwave Sukhadi

Now this recipe is one which I had to put down in my Blog, I already have a regular Sukhadi recipe - so was not sure I should put this one too - but the ease with which this came together and the perfection of the end result - soft & yummy - absolutely delish...had to get the pen & paper out...sorry ...camera & computer...

The main ingredients are the same as original Sukhadi recipe and which can be obtained thru the link above...the method is given below,

Method :

1) Take a microwave bowl and mix in the 1 cup of wheat flour, with the 1/2 cup of ghee thoroughly.
2) Microwave on high for 4 minutes - stopping after 2 and stirring it.
3) Microwave again for 4-5 minutes - stopping now after every minute and stirring it.
4) The aroma of wheat roasting will start coming at this stage - the mixture is still very moist but the color has started to change.
5) At this stage add the 1/2 cup crushed nuts ( almond & walnuts ) along with powdered cardamom. This time I also put in some crushed saffron. Mix.
6) Microwave for 1 minute - take out and stir - now the ghee will be all absorbed and the mixture looks more together. Add the 1/2 cup grated jaggery and mix it - the heat will melt the jaggery.
7) Microwave for 30 seconds and then mix again so that all the jaggery is blended in.

Setting on a Thali

At this stage the Sukhadi is all done - spread it in a greased plate or tray and let it cool down - cut - then cover and keep in the fridge for about 1 hour - this makes it easier to remove the pieces. 

Enjoy !!!

P.S. If you like to have Sukhadi which is not so soft - you could microwave it for a minute or two after after the jaggery.

I have made Besan Ladoo in the microwave this Diwali after many unsuccessful attempts earlier ( have yet to get that down in the blog ) and now this too worked out great - so decided to make a start on posting all these recipes....it was such an easy sweet to make and one which my hubby loves ...so am happy today...
Today is Christmas - not a very apt sweet for the occasion - but anyways ...wishing all a very merry X'mas and Happy New Year !!!

Low fat Chocolate Brownie / Cake / Something in middle...

Ok, So I am doing this after a very long time - by this I mean putting down my recipe....not sure why ....
I am generally rather thrilled when I plan to try out anything new and even more thrilled when the end result ( after all my changes ) comes out successful....

I start off with quite a bit of research on the net....take on a few of the best options (with regards to the recipes & it's ingredients) ....check out the pros & cons...and then generally try out one of them with a few of my own variations....
And if it turns out to be a winner - boy am I thrilled (as mentioned above)...and that's when I love to blab about it to anyone who will give me a ear...( or think of blogging...in case the first is missing). 

And that is the cause of my confusion - why the delay ??? in posting - but anyways now that I am here - let me get on with the recipe, this time it is the brownie that I was into...
Actually this is not my first...I have used the box mix many a time with beautiful results...this was way before I started  on my adventures with baking from scratch...with cakes, muffins etc...

I have also baked a sort of instant brownie - which was supposed to be a single serve...which was not bad ....but this was supposed to be full fledged recipe.

As I said I researched and found quite a few - more true to the concept of brownie than this one...but it all had a huge amount of butter, or oil, and sugar..and then I came upon this one...
The recipe said that it was low fat - that was the main attraction for me...as for the sugar - I had my own twist on that...
The only thing is that in most brownie recipes as opposed to cake the flour and butter proportions 1/2 cup is to 1 cup - whereas this really did not fit that category, hence does not fall into the true brownie category - but does it matter...
It is quite fudgy, chocolaty, yummy, delicious - call it what u want  - brownie, cake or anything in between....but do try it...bake it...enjoy it.....cause it is fantastic......and my secret to reduce the sugar ????...to make it more amazing....Dates !!!!
And a twist to an amazing icing on the brownie - Bournvita !!!! that is a chocolaty drink which we have at our place at all times...

So when my alterations to an already amazing recipe yielded even more amazing results - I had to put it down...
Could I have used the word "amazing" any more...well ....let me see.... :-)....

Date & Walnut Cake (Eggless)

Eggless Date & Walnut Cake

I was so sure that I had already put down this recipe in an earlier post, so decided to run a check on my blog for cakes...to my surprise did not find any entry...What?!?  cannot believe I did not post any cake recipes at all...well that is certainly not the case, so then....duh...guess what? somehow I had not put that down as a label at all, so had to do a more thorough check thru the dessert list and found I did have a chocolate cake down ( one of the many I make regularly )...but no entry for the above date cake - which is an absolutely amazing cake and one of my favourites.
Wondering however did I miss both the label cake in my blog and the post for this date cake...anyway set out to rectify both. 

So here I am, in the process of baking this once more ( this time at a request from hubby )...took some pictures of the final product - sorry do not have any of work in progress cause as I said - did not know that this was not down already in my blog...so anyways the next time maybe I might manage to get that too...

There are a lot of recipes for the same on the net... this one was adapted from one of them - have made the original one too but this is more moist and had a more intense date taste, due to increase in the no. of dates used.

I have passed on the date cake recipe to many and all have loved it, including my friend C who visited us the other day - she had come over for lunch and the dessert for that day was a rice & date kheer ( another recipe I really need to get down here ) - nyways this started her off on a discussion on the date cake - and how simple it is to make and how amazing it turns out, and how all her colleagues and friends with who she has shared the cake and recipe loved it....etc...

All this talk on the date cake made hubby long for it too...and hence the request for it ( not that I need a reason to bake it )...

Oh and did I mention that it is egg less - a boon for when I have to take something across for those of my friends and relatives who are vegetarians ( including C ).

Rasam - Saaru ( A South Indian Speciality ) - Tomato & Lentil Soup

Rasam
 

Well this was a certainly a long time in coming...why is it that when we learn new dishes and recipes - some of the old ones fall by the wayside...at least it seems to happen to me. According to T - each of the different places that we have lived in had a totally new set of items on our regular menu...:-) .

I think maybe I do agree with him - cause there is no excuse for me not making one of my and all in our family's favourite dishes ...the absolutely mouth-watering  rasam ....more often. When we were kids - my sister used to love lunch when it was aloo ka subzi, rice, and rasam - the most simple and yummy fare...and when she was down or not too well and wanted to feel pampered Mom had to prepare this ...nothing else would do...we call it saar or saaru...and the recipe has undergone slight changes over the years...

Here's how I made it today...though this is one dish which could do with a lot of different additions or subtractions...and tastes best with plain steamed rice. It can also be had with vadas, in fact when in US whenever we went to a South Indian restaurant - we would start off with vada rasam, then move on to the rest of our meal...they would make it pretty spicy...the version given below is not as much...but that is something that can be upped if required...entirely as per your requirements. This can be had as a soup - a very tasty and spicy tomato & lentil soup.

Mango Panna Cotta

Mango Panna Cotta

Panna Cotta is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk, sugar then mixing it with gelatin and allowing it to cool and set...it is served topped with  fruits, chocolate or chopped nuts...

Had read about this dessert and even checked out quite a few different recipes for the same...had also in my bookmarked list for an amazing looking mango panna cotta, but at that time it was not mango season here in India...and so it remained buried in my to do lists all this while....

Now the hot summer days are upon us...and mango season in full swing...this year's influx of mango has been reasonably good in terms of price and well as taste and quality...so we have all been relishing it.

T had also taken a trip to A'bad and bought back with him the most popular ras kairi, i.e. Kesar ( mango used mainly for it's pulp ). Along with Kesar kairi, his aunt also sent across leichi ( which is a paper thin roti, made in pairs then separated and folded ) - this goes very well with ras ( mango pulp ). A big thank you to G aunty....it was a delicious treat.

Well, we had a few Kesar's left and the most easy option was puri ras, but then T had some friends coming over to meet us, and I thought why not try this new recipe - though generally I am wary to try out new stuff with guests - you never know how it might turn out... right? - and then what do you do?....but then decided that with cream, milk, sugar and mango as it's main ingredients - there was not much that could go wrong...at the most it may not set properly - in that case it would be some form of ras, puddingy...thing...sort of thing...and since the taste is divine we could still eat it...

Rava Idli

Rava Idli

This is one dish which is so amazing, it is quite difficult to explain how such a simple thing can turn out to be an awesome meal....just paired (or is that trioed - if that is a word,should check that out ) with sambhar & chutney of course...

Surprisingly though we are a south Indian family (my folks ) and for us idli, dosas etc.....form quite a staple in our diet, and Mom had tried out quite a few varieties of  dosas - where as in case of the idli - we would stick to the traditional rice & udad dal variety.
In our native place ( S. Karnataka ) they would sometimes add "tadi"  or "kali" - got from the trees grown at home (coconut in our case, some also use the sap from palm tree ) - that was supposed to soften the idli by helping in the fermenting process and amp up the taste factor too...did not have access to that in B'bay so here we would rely on good old heat and keeping the batter overnight...

So nyways coming back to the rava idli, I have had it at restaurants and other friends/ relatives place, so decided to try my hand at making it too,
tried quite a few recipes from the net...and after a few failures and near successes...managed to zero in down on a basic recipe ( from Show me the curry ) with a few modifications taken from other sites.

Have made it many times since....and all who have had it have loved it - so here's the final version...

I have found it easier to make it in two stages - first is the preparation of the rava. I find that roasting rava with the dry ingredients and keeping it ready either much prior to making the dish ( or even the day before ) helps, as it needs to be cooled for the final mix before steaming.
I generally make double the quantity of the roast rava mix - and use half in my idli mix and keep the other half for another day - to be used either for rava upma or rava idli again.

Ingredients:
1) For rava roast:
     Rava - 2 cups
     Oil    - 2 Tblspns
     Chopped Cashews - 1 Tblspn
     Udad dal - 1 tspn
     Chana dal or Dalia - 1 tspn
     Dry Red Chilli  - 1 split in half
     Mustard - 1 tspn
     Pinch of asafoetida

2) For making idli mix:
     Take half of the above rava roast mix.
      Yogurt - 1/2 cup
      Water - 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup
      Green Chilli - 1
      Ginger grated - 1/2 tspn
      Salt - 1/2 tspn
      Eno Fruit salt - 1 tspn
      Grated Fresh Coconut  - 1 Tblspn
      Carrot grated - 1 medium
     


Method:

1) For rava roast :

• Take a non-stick pan, heat the oil, add mustard - wait till it splutters, then add  red chilli split, udad dal, chana dal, cashew, and fry till it changes  color a bit - then add rava and roast till it just start to change  color ( do not allow it to become brown/red ).
• Take out the rava in another dish and allow it to cool completely
• Now divide the rava into 2 portions - store one portion subsequent use - this can be refrigerated or even frozen for longer time.
• One half portion to be used for the second step - i.e making of the idlis, this makes approx 15-16 medium sized idlis...enough for 3-4 people for breakfast/snack...in case of lunch it is sufficient for 2-3 people.

2)    For the idli mix and steaming :

• Take a large mixing bowl - mix the yogurt and 1/2 cup of water thoroughly - add the grated carrot, ginger, coconut, chilli, salt and mix well.
• Then add the half portion of the rava roast mixture which was prepared and cooled earlier.
• Mix the entire batter so that there are no lumps.
• At this stage if the batter appears to be too thick add the remaining 1/4 cup of water bit by bit - the batter should be thicker than dosa batter.
• Keep the mix for about 20 minutes. The rava absorbs the water and the batter becomes a bit thicker - adjust water if required.

• Prepare the idli stand by greasing it with oil or butter.
• Prepare the idli cooker with requisite water and cover and keep on gas for heating.
• Put 1 tspn of Eno in the batter - and mix - it will froth a bit.

• Pour the idli batter into the idli trays and keep it in the idli cooker for steaming for about 15 minutes.

 

Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambhar.

 

Note : The carrot and coconut are optional - but the taste and color and texture that it imparts makes it so special and so out of this world.
You could also add some curry leaves and coriander leaves to the mix in Stage 2.

Enjoy !!!

Eggless Banana Walnut Muffins



Banana muffins

Every post ( recipe ) starts out with a long story (so say my folks)....and  there's one for this too... so here's how this goes.....

It all started with us planning to visit my hubby's cousins - for some reason or the other we have not been able to go over to their place for quite some time...we have met out ( at other's friends, relatives place & functions )....but it is not the same as just visiting them and chilling out - have chai, gupshup and generally relaxing together...

Finally we made plans to go on one Sunday ( yesterday ) as they and we were free...it happened to be Maha Shivratri also ....so while considering what to carry with me....I had to think egg less....

I had bought some bananas a few days back planning my favourite banana muffins - but then that had egg...checked the net out for a few egg less options and noticed that some bloggers used an additional banana  to replace the egg in their recipes....
So that decided it for me...
Went ahead with my favourite recipe ( which is also my first blog - and one of my first few bakes [as an adult ] ) Banana walnut muffins made a few changes to the original as follows....

Bananas 4 instead of 3
Addition of  1 tsp of vanilla essence

I found the mixture a little too dry / thick - so added a couple of spoons of milk, it is possible that the omission of egg reduced the liquid component of the original recipe...in case you find that it is not so in your case you could omit the milk.

The muffins turned out wonderfully soft and moist ( you could not make out that it was made without eggs ) it looked good and got to taste it too later.
So thought that this deserves a post of it's own....

Hubby made a cover for the box of muffins (more as a joke )- it was so artistic, so cute that I had to put it up here...(though with some changes , removed the photo and a bar code which he had put up to make it look like an item on sale)  - this  ofcourse caused our cousins to wonder whether I have started marketing  professionally....the answer to which is....no, nyet, nahi, ijji, non....in all the languages that I know and some... :-)

As for the evening with our cousins - it was really wonderful - we had such a great time - we had tea, with snacks and muffins ( which did taste good )....after tea we chatted, sitting out in their balcony which overlooks  Shivaji Park  (beautiful grounds in Dadar, Mumbai )- there was a gentle breeze blowing thru, sounds of  people playing in the park - traffic on the street below...and us reminiscing about places, people and events...

It was followed by a sumptuous dinner, which included undhiyu, puri, shrikhand, kadhi, rice - the undhiyu ( which is such a complicated dish to prepare ) was perfection itself - we relished the food....and the company...were truly sorry to say bye...

Thank you Be Ru Da ...for the lovely hospitality...we had a great time and hope it was the same for you and that you all enjoy the eggless banana muffins too...till we meet again...