Eggless Choco-Coffee Banana Cake..Microwave Method

Hi!

When it comes to cakes, I’m more of an eggless person. I prefer eggless cake anytime. The smell of egg is something I do not like in a cake. I also love the classic combination of chocolate and banana too. This time I’ve added another simple ingredient to this classic combination and that as the title suggests is coffee.

The coffee adds to the dark color of the cake as well as also adds a light flavor and bitterness too. This cake can be made in convection as well as microwave mode. I prefer the microwave way as it’s very quick and this cake as it is does not require any browning which all the regular cakes need, hence, microwave method comes out handy.

This cake is perfect for working women or anyone who wants to bake a good cake in a very short time. It’s a perfect snack to be given to kids. if you want to bake this cake in an oven or in a convection mode. Bake at 180C for 30-35mins.

Eggless Choco-coffee banana cake

Preparation Time:10mins

Cooking Time:10mins

Cooling Time:10-15mins

Serves:6-8

Ingredients

1cup APF
3tbsp cocoa pwd
1tbsp coffee pwd
1-1/3cups yogurt/curds
1-1/2tsp vanilla essence
1/2cup oil
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1banana mashed
3/4cup fine sugar
7-8pieces walnuts

Method

Grease a microwave proof 7” round dish.
Sieve together APF, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.
Beat curds and sugar together.
Add oil and beat gain.
Add banana and vanilla and mix.
Add the coffee powder and mix.
Fold in the APF mix. If required add milk to adjust the consistency (dropping consistency).
Pour the cake batter into the greased dish. Smoothen the top.
Place walnuts evenly and press lightly using the back of the spoon.
Microwave on 100% for 8-10mins.Insert a toothpick after 8mins to check if the cake is done. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. Else, microwave further. The time duration can vary from microwave to microwave based on how good the voltage is.
Cool the cake and serve.


I’m sending this cake to my event ‘Only’ Microwave Cooking hosted here and Nithu’s Healthy Food For Healthy Kids- Preschooler Snacks, guest hosted here.

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Winner of ‘Only’ Mangoes

Hi friends!

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner. I’ve been very busy these days and was just not getting time to do some simple chores and also my internet connection had some major problem, finally when I saw it functioning today, I just hopped to my blogger to write the post.

 

Anyways without further ado, let me declare the winner. The winner is chosen from the 58 Indian entries, posted here. I have again used the random number picker to declare the winner.

 

The winner is no. 46 which is Mango Chutney by Shilpi Bose. Congrats Shilpi, you win the giveaway by Tarla Dalal. Please email me your address in India with a proper landmark, pin code and also your cell number/landline number to cookingoodfood@gmail.com. Please do the needful within two days, else I’ll have to pick another winner.

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Bottle Gourd (Sorakkai) Sambar

          Sambar, is a common dish in most South Indian homes, usually prepared at least 2 or 3 times in a week. It's basically a lentil (usually tuvar dal or split pigeon peas) and vegetable gravy, you can make it with almost any vegetable, or sometimes with more than one vegetable. Usually, we use a sambar powder which is prepared in bulk and stored, but for today's bottle gourd sambar I am using a freshly prepared masala, which makes it more flavorful. It goes well with rice and also with idlis and dosas..

Need To Have

• Bottle Gourd - 2 cups diced
• Tuvar Dal - 1/2 cup
• Tomato - 1 medium chopped
• Tamarind - 1 small lime size
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Urad Dal Or Black Gram - 1 teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - about 10

Grind To Paste

• Chana Dal - 1 teaspoon
• Coriander Seeds - 1 tablespoon
• Dried Red Chillies - 5
• Sesame Seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Grated Coconut - 1 + 1/2 tablespoon

Method
          Pressure cook the tuvar dal with water and the turmeric powder till mushy ( takes the same amount of time as rice), remove, mash slightly and keep. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water, squeeze and take out extract, repeat again with another 1/2 cup of normal water, strain and keep. Roast all the ingredients except coconut given under 'grind to paste', adding sesame seeds at the end, when it starts popping, mix for 1/2 a minute, cool and grind it with the coconut, adding little water. Heat some oil, add the mustard, cumin, fenugreek seeds and the urad dal, when it starts spluttering add the asafoetida, curry leaves and the bottlegourd. Add some water and cook  the bottle gourd for 5 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, tamarind extract and salt, cover and cook till the vegetable becomes soft. Now add the tuvar dal and the ground paste, if needed some more water, give it a boil, add some more curry leaves and remove. Serve it warm over some rice with some pappads or any vegetable curry on the side.
Sending it to Anu's Healthy Kitchen for the "South Indian Cooking" Series event and
                to Nalini's Kitchen for Sangeetha's Show Me Your Hits - Legumes & Lentils event.

Note 
Do not add the tamarind and tomatoes along with the vegetable, give it at least 5 minutes to cook on its own, otherwise the vegetable does not become soft even after you cook a long time.

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Ragi Semiya Upma (Finger Millet)

          Ragi or Finger Millet is known for its nutritional values, it has a reasonable amount of fiber, protein and is a good source of calcium. It's widely used in Indian food, India being the major producer of ragi. The most common dish made with this is a porridge and also ragi rotis. Now, you get this ready made ragi noodles (semiya), available in Indian grocery stores, which can be used in a number of ways. You can make both sweet and savory dishes with it. Today's dish is a spicy version, it makes up for a good breakfast or as a nice light dinner..

Need To Have

• Ragi Semiya - 2 packets (200 gms each)
• Onions - 3 medium chopped
• Tomatoes - 2 medium chopped
• Capsicum - 1 medium chopped
• Garlic - 3 cloves chopped
• Peanuts - 1/4 cup
• Urad Or Black Gram Dal - 2 teaspoon
• Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 10 to 15
• Chopped Coriander - to garnish

Method
          Add the ragi noodles to cold water, keep it immersed for 2 minutes. Then remove it from the water and steam it for 5 minutes. Separate it with a fork, let it cool and keep it covered. Now, heat some oil, add the urad dal, followed by the peanuts, keep roasting for a few minutes, till the peanuts is well roasted, then add the mustard seeds. When it starts spluttering, add the curry leaves, garlic, saute for a minute, add the chopped onions. Keep sauteing till it turns pink, then add the capsicum, saute again for about 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes and the salt, keep mixing for another 2 minutes. Now mix in the steamed ragi, mix well, garnish with some chopped coriander and serve it warm with a pickle and curd on the side.

Note
Do not leave the ragi noodles ( semiya) in cold water for more than 2 minutes, if it gets completely soaked, then you'll end up with a ball of ragi, not noodles. 
Also don't overcook the tomatoes and make it mushy, then again you'll end up with a gooey mixture.
You can also add chopped green chillies or replace the capsicum with jalapenos for a more spicier version.

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Phulkas (Rotis)

          Phulkas or rotis or Indian puffed bread is a simple, day to day dish in many Indian households. Thought I should have a post of it in my blog for many reasons, one being that, it's a dish that I mention in most of my posts, as it goes with all the curries. I had had a tough time making them in my early days of marriage, but now I can say that, I can make very decent soft phulkas. It's actually pretty simple once you learn the technique, all depends on the texture of the dough, how you roll it out and the rest is easy..

Need To Have

• Whole Wheat Flour - 2 cups
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon or less
• Water

Method
          Mix the salt with the flour and then add the water little by little, mix to make a dough that is not too tough or very sticky. If it is very hard then you won't get soft rotis, again if it is very sticky, then you'll need more flour to roll it out and it'll make the rotis harder. Roll it out into thin discs, using as little dry flour as possible. Next is what I call the 1-2-3 steps. Heat a flat pan or skillet, place one disc on it, cook for less than a minute, till one or two light spots appear at the bottom, this is the first step, then flip it over and cook on the other side till nice brown spots appear, this is the second step. Now, for the third step, traditionally they do it directly on the flame, but this works only for people with gas stoves. For the others you can use the same flat pan that you we used in the first steps, or there are these special phulka pans ( you can see that in the picture) which can be used. Whatever we use, we do it the same way, place the less spotted side on the pan or on the flame, it'll fluff up nicely within seconds, if using the flat pan we need to press the rotis gently with a tissue or cloth. Remove and serve it warm as such or smearing some ghee with any side dish of your choice.

Note
Even if you have a gas stove, it'll take some time for you to get used making them directly on the flame, we can still do it with the special phulka pan or the regular skillet for the last step. 
You'll get about 10 rotis for the amount of flour given.

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Hi All!

Cooking food is all about experimenting with new ingredients and flavors. I’m decently good at mix matching flavors and ingredients. Most of the times the experiments are quite successful and rarely disastrous. A few days back the kids came back after playing soccer and were very hungry. The younger one demanded to make something very interesting and new. 

 

My mom always says that a good cook is a one who is able to cook good and tasty food from the ingredients available. So though my little grey cells were not of much help that day I still did not give up.I quickly rummaged through my fridge and pantry. My fridge was completely out of veggies and had two corn cobs staring at me. In the pantry, I knew I had a few ready to use pastes which were to be finished fast before expiry, amongst that was also the Thai Curry Paste.

I thought of making something using the two. I quickly removed the corn using my corn peeler and crushed it in the mixer.I must say that the corn peeler is one tool which I simply love. I added the Thai curry paste to the corn and tasted the mix, it tasted good so decided to make patty of the mix. I needed a binding agent, so used the potato flakes. I have started loving these flakes, they are so useful when one is  in a hurry. I gradually added the flakes and adjusted the consistency.

The Tikkis turned out tasty and  I kept 2pieces for S to taste. He liked it so much and was  disappointed that I left only two pieces for him to sample. Since the mix of the tikki turned out tasty, I thought of posting it so clicked the pics in a hurry with two children hovering over me with hunger. So, pls do not assess my pics critically.

Thai Corn Tikki

Serves:4

Preparation Time:10-15mins

Cooking Time:15mins

 

Ingredients

2 American corn, grated

2tsp Thai green curry paste

1-1/2cups potato flakes

1tsp red chili flakes

salt to taste

oil for shallow frying

Method

Remove the sweet corn from the cob and grind it coarsely.

To the corn, add the green curry paste and red chili flakes.

Add potato flakes gradually, these will absorb the moisture present in the corn. If required add a little water.

Take ping pong ball size mixture and wet the palm. Flatten it and shape it to like a tikki on the palm.

Smoothen the edges and shallow fry on both the sides till golden in colour.

Remove on a kitchen towel and serve hot with tomato sauce.

These tikkis are perfect finger foods for the kids. They are healthy and tasty too. If required one can omit the addition of chili flakes. I have added it solely because my kids love spice and corn has a sweet taste, the chili flakes balances that.

Sending it to Healthy Foods For Healthy Children- Preschooler snacks guest hosted here and originally the brainchild of Nithu.

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Spinach Blintzes

          I have seen these blintzes only in the frozen section of the grocery store, they have both the sweet and savory versions of it, I had tried the potato blintzes once, long time back and then totally forgot about them. I had stuffed pancakes in my mind when I started making this but finally ended up with these blintzes. They turned out to be extremely delicious, try it for a relaxed weekend breakfast or brunch or also as an evening snack for kids..

Need To Have
For The Outer Layer

• All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup
• Whole Wheat Flour - 1/2 cup
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

For The Filling

• Chopped Spinach - 1 cup
• Onions - 2 chopped
• Potato - 1 medium
• Chilly Flakes - 1/2 teaspoon
• Feta Cheese - 2 oz

Method 
          Mix all the ingredients given for the outer layer with water to form a thin batter, leave it in the fridge  for an hour. Coming to the filling, boil, peel and mash the potato. Then heat some oil, add the onions, saute till they turn pink, then add the spinach and the chilly flakes, cover and cook the spinach for 5 minutes. Add the mashed potatoes, mix well, finally add the feta cheese. This is the same filling that I used for the spinach feta cheese puffs, in fact I made these blintzes from the leftover filling. Now take out the batter from the fridge, heat an omlette pan, pour a small ladle of the batter, swirl the pan to spread it, cook on both sides till light brown spots appear, remove and keep. Now take one crepe, place a little filling on one end, fold the two sides of the crepe slightly, then roll from the end where you have placed the filling. Now grease a pan with a little oil, place these rolls and cook them on all sides till the light brown spots become a little darker. Remove and serve it warm with some tomato sauce.
Sending it to Cooks' Joy for Valli's Kid's Delight - Evening Snacks/Tiffin event.

Note
Refrigerating the batter for an hour before making the crepes, gives non sticky crepes, so don't skip this step.
Also place the filling on the side that you cooked first, so that the side that you cooked second will be the one that shows out after rolling, this is the side that looks good.

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