Cinnamon Apple Squares

Whenever I make something with fresh fruits, one can take it for granted that I couldn’t find any other better use for them than turning them in to delicious treats. :)

Hubby and I often become ambitious and buy loads of fruits.  We resolve to eat them and become healthy. But alas! The results are in front of you ;)

Try these mini treats and save your fruits from being dumped in to the waste basket (that is if your story is same as that of ours :)). 

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour/ Maida – 1 Cup

Baking Soda – ¾ tsp.

Salt – Pinch (Can be avoided if using salted butter)

Ground Cinnamon – ¼ tsp.

White Sugar – ½ Cup

Brown Sugar – ½ Cup

Salted Butter – ¼ Cup/ ½ Stick/ 4 tbsp.

Eggs – 1

Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp.

Apple – 1 Cup, finely chopped

Walnuts (optional) – ½ Cup, coarsely ground

For the glaze:

Sugar – 2 tbsp.

Cinnamon powder – 1 tsp.

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F/ 175 degrees C.

2. In a big bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients and keep aside.

3. Melt the butter and add sugar, vanilla extract and egg to the melted mixture and mix well.

4. Add flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix well. At this step add the chopped apple pieces and walnuts.

5. Take a cake pan, grease it with butter and pour in the batter. Sprinkle the glaze mixture of sugar and cinnamon evenly on the batter. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.

6. Take it out. Allow it to cool. Transfer on to a wire rack for it to cool completely or simply place it on a sheet or plate. Cut in to equal sized square pieces.

CON Malai Mutter Paneer

This dish tastes as if it is actually made in malai (butter). However, it CONS you as it has no trace of butter in it. Try out this low calorie (barring the paneer ;)) dish and con all your loved ones. :)

Ingredients:

Onions – 1 cup, diced in to cubes

Cauliflower – 1 cup, diced in to cubes

Green Chilies – 6 to 7, slit vertically

Cumin Seeds – ½ tsp.

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp.

Paneer – 1 cup, diced in to cubes

Green Peas/ Mutter – ¾ cup, frozen or fresh

Red Chili powder – ½ tsp.

Dhanya and Jeera powder – ½ tsp.

Oil – 2 to 3 tbsp.

Sugar – 1 tsp.

Milk – ½ cup

Salt – To taste

Water – 1 to 1 ½ cups

            

Method

1. Take a saucepan, put it on flame and add oil. Once the oil gets heated, add cumin seeds, upon spluttering put green chilies, onion pieces, cauliflower florets and sauté until the rawness goes. Onions should become a little translucent.

2. Turn off the heat. Let the mixture cool.

3. Grind the onion cauliflower mixture into a fine paste.

4. Put the pan on heat, add a little oil and pour in the paste. Add ginger garlic paste and cook until the gravy loses all its water and sticks together. Keep stirring at regular intervals.

5. Once the gravy is ready, add red chili powder, dhanya jeera powder and cook for another 5 minutes.

6. Now add green peas and paneer cubes. Mix well and add water. Let it come to a boil.

7. Add milk, sugar and salt and let it cook until a desired consistency is acquired.

8. Turn off the flame and serve hot with roti/ rice.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Story behind these muffins is the same. Bananas in my house were sitting idle without being put to any use. So I thought, ‘Hmm, let’s make some banana muffins’.

These muffins are an absolute delight. Try them and you won’t be disappointed. :)

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour/ Maida – 1½ cups

White Sugar – ¾ cup

Unsalted Butter – 1/3 cup

Baking Soda – 1 tsp.

Eggs – 1

Ripe Bananas – 2 ½ - 3, mashed

Salt – Pinch (if using salted butter, salt can be avoided)

Vanilla Extract – ½ tsp.

Milk Chocolate Chips – ¼ cup

Hersheys Chocolate Syrup – ¼ cup

Coffee Decoction – 1 tbsp.

Yield – 12 muffins

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix together butter (melted/ at room temp), sugar, eggs and vanilla. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, soda. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Beat together well. Add the mashed bananas (Make sure that the banana is well mashed and gets properly mixed with the batter).

3. Add in the chocolate syrup, coffee decoction and chocolate chips in to the mixture and mix well.

4. Preheat the oven at 375 degrees F/ 190 degrees C.

5. In the meanwhile, Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup ¾ full.

6. Bake the muffins for 25 – 30 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted.

7. Cool the muffins and serve with a hot cuppa coffee. :)

Palak ke Gatte ki Sabzi

 

Gatte ki sabzi was one dish I wanted to try for a very long time. And there was this day when I decided to finally try it out. I thought I’ll try it out with spinach and below is what I made.

Ingredients

For Gatte

Besan/ Chickpea flour – 1 ¼ cup

Rice flour – ¼ cup

Spinach – 1 cup, cleaned and chopped

Curd – 1 tbsp.

Ginger garlic paste – ½ tsp.

Chat Masala – ½ tsp.

Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp.

Chili Powder – ½ tsp.

Dhanya and Jeera Powder – ½ tsp.

Ghee – 1 tsp.

Water – 4 cups

Salt – to taste

 

For the gravy

Tomato – 2 cups, chopped

Curd – ¼ cup

Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp.

Ginger garlic paste – ½ tsp.

Red chili powder – ½ tsp.

Green chilies – 3, slit vertically

Garam masala – ½ tsp.

Chat masala – ½ tsp.

Cilantro/ Coriander Leaves – ¼ cup, chopped

Salt – to taste

Sugar - pinch

 

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients in the gatte section (except water) and make dough.

 

          

 

               

 2. Keep the dough aside for 5 minutes. In the meanwhile, boil 4 cups of water in a saucepan. Once the water comes to a boil put small portions of the dough in to the water.

 

 

3. Put in the whole dough (divided in to small portions) in to the water. In about 2 minutes the small lumps will start floating. Keep the gattes in the water for 5 – 7 minutes.

4. Take out all the gattes and place them on a plate (don’t throw the water).

 

 

5. Take a pan, add oil and once it’s hot add the cumin seeds. Add the green chilies and chopped tomatoes. Sautee for about a minute.

6. Add in the ginger garlic paste, salt, dhanya jeera powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, red chili powder and mix well.

7. After 3 – 4 minutes, add curd and mix well. Pour in ½ the water (in which gattes were boiled) and bring it to a boil.

 

 

8. Add all the gattes in to the gravy and mix well.

9. Pour in rest of the water and let the gravy cook (covered) until a thick creamy consistency is reached.

10. Turn off the flame, garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot with either rice/ roti.

 

Rava Idli

Rava idli is my favorite form of idli. Mom used to make it once in a blue moon and I would be the happiest person then.

Post marriage when I was in the learning stage (well, I still am), rava idli was one thing I really wanted to learn. I made it a few times and it only got better with each passing time. So here I am, posting the recipe of one of my favorite dishes.

Ingredients

Rava – 2 cups

Split chana dal – 1 ½ tsp.

Mustard Seeds – ½ tsp.

Oil – 1 tbsp.

Green Chilies – 1 tbsp., chopped

Grated Carrot – 1 cup

Green Peas – ¼ cup

Curd – 5 tbsp.

Cilantro/ Coriander Leaves – ½ cup, chopped

Eno/ Fruit Salt – ½ tsp.

Salt – to taste

Water – 1 cup

Ghee – for greasing the idli molds

Yield – 15 small idlis

Method

1. Take a pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds and chana dal. Once the mustard seeds start spluttering, add green chilies and rava.

2. Saute for about 5 – 7 minutes (until the rava starts giving out an aroma). Turn off the flame and allow the mixture to cool.

3. In a big bowl, mix grated carrot, peas, curd, cilantro, rava mixture and salt. Add water if required to attain a batter consistency. Let the mixture stand for about 15 – 20 minutes.

4. In the meanwhile, take a pressure cooker, add 4 – 5 cups of water and let it come to a boil.

5. Take the idli molds, grease them with ghee/ oil and pour in scoops of the rava batter. Add eno/ fruit salt to the batter just before putting it in the molds.

6. If you wish to garnish the idlis with cashews, place a cashew on the mold first and then pour the batter. (I forgot and put the cashews on top of the batter ;))

                                                

7. Stack all the molds and lock them. Place them in the pressure cooker with boiling water. Put the lid on and steam cook for 20 minutes.

8. Take the molds out and scoop out the idlis. Serve hot with fresh coconut chutney and sambar.

Bottle Gourd Pudding/ Lauki ka Halwa

Thursdays are days when I generally make some sweet as an offering to God. I usually go by the easiest and quickest sweet dish – Semiya Payasam. However, today I thought of making something else. With fresh bottle gourds sitting in my fridge, Bottle gourd pudding/ Lauki ka Halwa seemed to be perfect.

Putting up this recipe on the blog wasn’t really my plan. But hubby’s comment or rather compliment, made me do it. He said “mmm, it tastes as if a professional has made it.” I was like “WOW, this ought to be out there on the blog..!” And besides with Diwali just around the corner, it made total sense to give my viewers a visual treat (well, I hope it is).

Ingredients

Lauki – 1 Cup, grated

Ghee – 1 tsp.

Milk – 1 Cup

Sugar – 6 to 7 tsp. (Can be adjusted as per taste)

Cardamom Powder – ¼ tsp.

Dry Fruits (Cashews/ Sliced almonds/ Pistachios/ Raisins) – 1 to 2 tbsp.

Note: I used just cashews and almonds

Serves 2

Method

1. While grating the bottle gourd, make sure you remove all the seeds.

Note: Don’t worry about the water it retains.

2. Take a saucepan and heat the ghee. Put in the grated bottle gourd and sauté for about 5 minutes.

3. Now add sugar and milk. Keep stirring the mixture until it loses all the water and starts sticking together.

4. In the meanwhile, roast the dry fruits (broken in to halves) by placing them in the microwave for 45 – 50 seconds.

5. Add these nuts and cardamom powder in to the lauki mixture.

6. Mix well and serve hot.

7. Alternatively, after the pudding cools down completely, place it in the fridge on a flat plate for about and hour or two (till it sets) and cut it in to square pieces. That gives you lauki ki barfi.

Taro Root Fry/ Arbi Fry

Arbi fry is one of my favorites. I generally shallow fry them/ sautee. But every time I felt something was missing. So this particular time I decided to deep fry them and bingo! It turned out to be very very delicious.

The recipe is adapted from “vahrehvah.com”.

Ingredients

Taro Roots/ Arbi – 3 cups, boiled and cut in to round pieces

Curry Leaves – 12 to 15 leaves

Green Chilies – 6 to 7, slit vertically

Red Chili Powder – 1 tsp.

Oil – enough for deep frying

Salt – to taste

Serves 3 - 4

Method

1. Heat enough oil for deep frying in a sauce pan.

2. Put in the taro root/ arbi pieces in to the oil (in batches) and fry until they become golden brown in color.

3. After all the pieces are done, deep fry the curry leaves and green chilies.

4. Place the fried taro roots in a big container. Sprinkle salt and red chili powder on them and also put in the fried curry leaves and green chilies.

5. Toss the pieces for a few seconds (until all the ingredients mix well) and serve hot with Sambar/ Rasam and rice.

Chickpea Flour Coated Eggplant/ Brinjal Sautee

My husband doesn't prefer brinjal/ eggplant, whereas on the other hand, I LOVE eggplant. On one of the trips to shop veggies, I made sure I bought brinjals. And there I was with beautiful fresh brinjals. I wanted to make something different out of them and it kept me thinking. Finally I came up with the following recipe. My husband loves it and so does my mom. :)

Ingredients

Brinjals – 4 medium sized/ 2 cups, diced in to cubes

Besan/ Gram Flour – 3 tbsp.

Chili powder – ½ tsp.

Dahnya and Jeera powder – ½ tsp.

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp.

Salt – to taste

Oil – 3 tbsp.

Method

1. Take a bowl and mix all the ingredients (oil – 1 tbsp.). Brinjal pieces should be properly coated with all the masalas.

2. Keep aside for about 10 – 15 minutes.

3. Take a wok, add 2 tbsp. of oil. Once it gets heated add the brinjal - masala mixture and cook covered until the pieces are done.

4. Enjoy this easy to prepare dish with rice and rasam/ sambar.

Marble Cake

We had a few friends coming over for dinner and I thought I’d bake a cake for dessert. First thing that came to my mind was ‘Brownies’. But then somehow I was reminded of Marble cake and how I never tried it. Besides, ‘Navratri’ was going on and I didn’t want to use any eggs. So I looked up a few recipes and stuck to the following one (adapted from ‘Sharmis Passions’).

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour/ Maida – 1 ¼ cups

Milk Powder – 3 tbsp.

Unsalted Butter – ½ cup/ 1 stick

Baking Soda – ¾ tsp.

Sugar – 1 cup

Milk – 1 cup

Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp.

Cocoa Powder – 2 tbsp.

Hot Water – 2 tbsp.

Salt – A pinch (if using unsalted butter)

Yield – 26 – 28 medium sized pieces

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix together butter (melted/ at room temp), sugar and beat until the mixture becomes fluffy and creamy.

2. Add in milk, milk powder and vanilla essence and mix the ingredients properly.

                                       

3. In another bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda.

4. Mix in dry ingredients with wet ingredients and beat until the mixture becomes nice creamy and smooth.

5. Take a small portion of the batter (about 1/4^th) and mix it with cocoa powder and hot powder in a separate bowl.

6. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F/ 175 degrees C.

7. In the meanwhile, take a cake pan and grease it with butter and dust it with flour.

8. Pour in the creamy batter on to the cake pan. Now pour in the chocolate batter in small portions (circular spots) over the creamy batter.

9. With the help of a fork, mix in both the batters slightly. The pattern should look like that of ripples’.

10. Place the cake pan in to the oven and bake for about 20 – 22 minutes or until a toothpick pricked in comes out clean.

11. Let the cake cool down completely and cut it in to desired shape and number of pieces.