Happy New Year with a Chocolate Cake (Egg-less)

Ingredients:
Plain flour - 1 1/2 cups
Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp.
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp.
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp.
Salt - 1/4 tsp.
Water - 1 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp.
Melted butter - 6 tbsp.


A small attempt of frosting and decorating simply embellished with stawberries


Method:
Preheat the oven at 180°C. Grease and dust the round cake pan.
Sieve the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt together in a bowl.
Add water, butter and vanilla. Mix well.
Pour the mixture in the cake pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the tester comes out clean (original recipe goes for 25 minutes).
Cool slightly and loosen the sides with a knife, then invert on a rack.
Cool completely. Decorate as required and enjoy.
RB

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Fenugreek Leaves/Vendhaya Keerai Sambar

Ingredients:
Arhar/Toor dal/Split pigeon peas - 1/2 to 3/4 cup
Onions - 2 (chopped)
Tomatoes - 2 (chopped)
Fenugreek leaves - 3 cups
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
Salt (to taste)
Oil
Tamarind water - 1/2 cup
Dry red chillies - 2
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
Asafoetida - 2 pinches
My mom's sambar powder - 2 tsp. (or as per taste)

Method:
Soak dal for 30 minutes. Pressure cook the dal with turmeric powder.
Heat oil in a deep sauce pan and add the onion pieces. Saute till they are translucent.
Add the tomato pieces and saute till they are soft.
Reduce the heat and add the sambar powder and mix.
Now pour the dal and if required add a little water.
Add salt to taste.
Bring the dal to a rolling boil. Now add the fenugreek leaves and let it cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Add the tamarind water and cook till the raw smell fades away.
Meanwhile in a small pan add oil, mustard seeds, and dry red chillies. When the mustard seeds crackle, add the asafoetida powder and saute. Now add this tempering to the sambar. Cook for another 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and enjoy with hot steaming rice.

Sent off to "Only-Greens" event hosted by Sara and started by Pari.

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Oats Orange Kesari

Ingredients:
Oats (quick cooking) - 1 cup
Orange juice (fresh) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp. (or as per taste)
Water - 1/2 cup
Orange essence - a drop
Orange/kesari color - 2 pinches
Cashewnuts - few
Ghee - 2.5 tsp.
Cardamom powder - 2 pinches

Method:
Heat 1 tsp. of ghee in a small pan and fry the cashews till golden colour. Keep aside.
Heat 1 tsp. of ghee and add the oats and saute till a nice aroma wafts out of the pan (3 to 4 minutes).
Add orange juice and mix well. Meanwhile in another small deep sauce pan, add water and sugar. Dissolve the sugar and orange colour and heat it.
Add this water to the oats and cook. When it becomes thick, add orange essence, cardmom powder, cashews along with ghee and mix. Also, add 1/2 tsp. of ghee and mix. When the oats leaves the side of pan, remove from heat and enjoy immediately.

Note:
The orange juice should be sweet and not sour. Add sugar according to taste. You can also skip the orange juice and continue preparing with water as plain oats kesari and increase the amount of sugar.

Sent off to "CWF-Oats" hosted by Priya and started by Kiran.

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Banana Milkshake

Ingredients:
Ripe Bananas - 2
Oats - 1/3 cup
Milk
Vanilla extract- few drops
Sugar (as per taste)

Method:
Boil the milk and pour required milk in the oats. Cover and keep aside to cool.
Allow the remaining milk to cool.
Peel and chop the bananas. Blend them. Add required milk, few drops of vanilla extract, oats and sugar. Blend well. Pour in glasses and enjoy the healthy milk shake.

Sent off to "Veggie/Fruit a Month - Banana" event hosted by aipi and started by Priya.

Today's weather in the morning (8:00 am).

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Chocolate Muffins (My 500th Post)

I'm very excited to announce that my blog has reached the 500th post. Also, two of my recipes got selected in Chacko's 'Best 30 Recipes of 2010' list. To celebrate the occasions, I'm sharing chocolate muffins today.

Dry Ingredients:
APF/Maida - 1 cup
Cocoa powder (Cadbury's) - 1 tbsp.
Granulated sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp.
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp.
Cooking Chocolate  - 1 cup

Wet Ingredients:
Milk - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp.
Oil - 3 tbsp.

Method:
Sift APF, baking powder and baking soda. In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
In another bowl combine all wet ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix. Don't overbeat.
Pour in muffin cups and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tester comes out clean.
Enjoy warm.

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Paruppu Thuvaiyal

This is my mom's recipe which she usually grinds with an ammi.

Ingredients:
Toor Dal/Arhar dal/Split pigeon pea - 1 small cup
Red chillies (dry) - 4
Garlic - 3 cloves (big)
Salt (to taste)
Tamarind - 1 tsp.

Method:
Dry roast the dal till golden color. Add 1/2 tsp. of oil in the pan and fry the chillies till crisp.
In a blender grind toor dal, red chilli, tamarind and salt by adding water little by little. During the mid-way, add the garlic and grind them. The thuvaiyal should be thick.
Enjoy with kanji or rasam rice.

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