Mango cupcakes

 

I made this mango muffins for the Wednesday Breakfast in the office few weeks back.. I initially thought of making this with egg and decided to go for eggless.  I browsed through some recipes and got from Holycow website.  The original recipe has mentioned to add flax seeds powder , but I did not add it,

Ingredients

All purpose Flour – 1 1/2 cup

Baking Powder – 2 tsp

Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp

Salt – 1/4 tsp

Mango Puree – 1 1/2 cup

Brown Sugar – 1 3/4 cup

Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

Almonds – Crushed ( I used silvered ) – handful

Vegetable Oil – 3/4 cup

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 375 °     
2) Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl -  all purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and crushed silvered almonds.
3) In a bowl, mix the oil, sugar, mango puree and vanilla extract.
4) Mix  the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together Do not over mix.
5) With the  ice cream scoop , pour the  the batter into the muffin tray
6) Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out  clean.

Banana Strawberry Almond Bread

 

Its been a while I baked anything..I was browsing through the net for bread recipes and found a recipe from allrecipes.com. I modified the ingredients with what I had in my hand.

Ingredients

Whole Wheat flour – 2 cups

Brown Sugar – 3/4 cups

Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda – 1/2  tsp

Egg – 1

Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp

Bananas –  2 mashed

Strawberries – 5 to 6 (I used the frozen )

Almonds – Silvered ( 1/2 cup ) – I crushed it to tiny pieces.

Milk – 1/4 cup ( I used 1 % organic )

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix Wheat flour , Brown sugar , baking powder , baking soda in bowl . Add almonds and mix well so that it gets coated with flour. Mash the bananas , strawberries in  another bowl. Add Vegetable oil and egg and whisk together. Mix this to flour mixture and blend everything together. Grease the loaf pan and pour the batter.

Bake for 50 mins or until the knife or toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool it completely and Serve.

          

Chow Chow ( Chayote ) Kootu

 

Ingredients

Chayote – 2 1/2  cups

Toor dhal or moong dhal – 1/2  cup

Turmeric –  1/2 tsp

Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp

Coconut grated -  4 tbsp

Red Chilli – 3

Cumin / Jeera – 1 tsp

Salt – as per taste

Seasoning

Oil – 1tsp

Curry leaves – few

Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp

Urad dhal – 1/4 tsp

Chana dhal – 1/4 tsp

Preparation

Peel the skin of chayote and cut into small cubes. Pressure cook chayote , dal with turmeric and salt. In the meantime , grind coconut , red chilli , cumin with little water to a paste. Now add the paste to cooked dhal , chayote and bring it to boil. Add the seasoning to the kootu and serve it hot.

Carrot Halwa

Carrot Halwa – I can say this as Mother’s day special. This was prepared by my husband… I am also happy to share that this is my 25th post..Thanks to all my friends and my fellow bloggers for your motivation / encouragement.
Ingredients
Carrot – 10 – 12 medium size
Sugar -  2 cups
Milk – 2 cups
Cashew -  1/4 cup
Ghee – 3 tbsp
Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
Raisins – handful
Preparation
Peel the skin of carrots and grate them. Pressure cook milk and carrot for 2 whistles. Add 2 cups of sugar to the cooked carrot / milk mixture and cook in a low flame and keep mixing until it becomes thick and milk is fully absorbed. Add cardomom powder and fry Cashew and raisins in ghee and garnish it.
Serve it warm or keep it in refrigerator and serve. It will be even more tastier to have it with a  scoop of vanilla icecream

Chenna Poda ( Indian Cheese Cake)

This month Srivalli announced Chenna Poda ( Indian Cheese cake ) for Indian Cooking Challenge. I could not participate in ICC for quite few months.. As soon as I saw this recipe for this month’s challenge, I wanted to try it immediately and I made this last week..
We have 2 process here to make this delicious sweet.
Cheese making and baking of chenna poda

I followed the recipe from Titilating tastebuds

For Cheese
Milk ( I used  reduced fat milk ) – 1 to 1.5 gallon
Lemon juice -  1 cup
Ice cubes – 2 cups
Cheese cloth or any soft cloth ( like pillow cover )
Preparation
Bring the milk to boil. In the meantime , Squeeze lemons to get juice for about 1 cup. Pour the lemon juice slowly into the boiling milk. You will see that milk cuddles and water gets separated. Now add the ice cubes and turn off the stove.
Adding ice cubes will stop the cuddling process.
Filter the cheese / water through cheese cloth and hang the cheese cloth for 15 – 20 mins so that all water drains out.
The cheese is now ready to be used for baking chenna poda. ( Note , you can use this cheese not only for this recipe but also for other yummy sweets
     
For Chenna Poda
Ingredients
1) Cheese – 1 to 1.5  lb
2) Sugar – 1.5 cup ( 1 cup for cheese cake and 1/2 cup for Caramel )
3) Sooji or Rava – 2 tbsp. ( Soak this in water )
4)Cashews – 2 tbsp
5) Raisins – 2 tbsp..
6) cardamom powder – 1 tsp
7) water – for caramel preparation – 1/2 cup
8) Ghee / oil – little for frying cashews/raisins
Preparation
Caramel preparation – Pour 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar and boil it until the sugar syrup thickens and becomes light brown ( amber color ) .. Immediately pour it to the baking dish ( do not delay to pour or the syrup will be crystallized )
Preheat the oven to 350° F . Now mix the Cheese , soaked sooji and sugar in the bowl along with cardamom , fried cashews / raisins . Knead it well for 5 – 10 mins. Spread the mixture on top of caramel in the baking dish and ;level it.
Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and make some cuts on the top of foil. Bake it for 35 – 45 mins. After 45 mins , insert the toothpick or knife to see it comes out clean. Remove the baking dish and cool it.
If you prefer to have it cold , keep it in refrigerator or microwave for few secs and serve warm..

Quinoa Upma

Ingredients

 ^{Quinoa – 1 cup}

 ^{Water – 2 cups}

 ^{Onions – 1 medium}

 ^{Any vegetables ( Carrot , beans , peas , Green, Red , yellow  bell peppers ) – 3/4  cup}

 ^{Walnuts – handful}

 ^{Green chillies -  1- 2}

 ^{Oil – 1 tbsp for seasoning}

 ^{Mustard – 1tsp}

 ^{Urad dhal – 1tsp}

 ^{Chana dhal; – 1tsp}

 ^{Lemon juice –  2 – 3 tsp ( depends on how tangy you want )}

 ^{Salt – to taste}

Preparation

Take quinoa and water in a pressure cooker and cook for  3 whistles along with little salt.  In a pan , heat the oil and add mustard. Once it splutters , add urad and chana dhal.  Add green chiilies and onions. Saute the onions till translucent. Add walnuts and fry for few mins. Add the vegetables and  salt and allow it to cook ( Add little water ). Once the vegetables are cooked completely and add the quinoa. Mix it thoroughly for few mins. Remove it from heat and add the lemon juice and serve it.




Sending this to Healthy Morsels hosted by Ayeesha from Taste of pearl city   and Serve it series hosted by Krithi / Denny

Upma Kozukkattai

 

Ingredients

Rice – 1 1/2 cup ( Sona Masoori ) 

Toor Dhal – 1 1/2 tbsp..

Whole Pepper – 1 tbsp..

Jeera – 1 tbsp..

Salt – based on taste

Water – 2 1/2  to 3 cups

Seasoning

Mustard – 1 tsp..

Chana Dhal – 1tsp

Urad dhal – 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Asafoetida- a pinch

Red Chillies -  3 to 4 ( based on how spicy you want )

Oil –  1 –2 tbsp.

Method

1) Soak the Rice in water for 10 – 15 mins . Then drain the water completely and let the rice dry for sometime .

2) Grind the rice in the mixer until it become coarse ( like rava )

3) Add pepper , Jeera and Toor dhal and grind it once ( it should also be coarse and not too fine powder )

4) In the kadai , Add little oil and do the seasoning with the above ingredients mentioned.

5) Add  2 1/2 – 3 cups water along with the required , Asafoetida and let it boil.

6) Then Add the Rice , pepper , toor dhal , jeera mixture and mix it well. Allow it to cook for sometime.

7) Once it becomes thick like a dough , remove it from heat and let it cool sometime

8) Apply oil in the hand and make small balls.

9) Steam the Kozukkattai balls in the idly vessel for 10 –15 mins.

10) Serve with Chutney ( usually coconut , I made peanut chutney last time )