Simple and easy Corn halwa

Corn flour - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 11/2 cup

Food color - 1tsp

Elachi - 1 tsp

Ghee  3 tsp

Cashews - 8 nos.

Water - 2 cups

Method

Add all ingredients except cashews and ghee to a microwave safe bowl and mix well without lumps.

Keep in microwave for 9 min in total, taking out and stiring every 3 min.

At this stage you can see that the consistency is getting thicker. Now add cashews fried in ghee.

Keep in microwave again for 6 min, stirring in between at 3min.

Grease a plate with ghee, pour the mixture into it and let it rest for 30 min.

Halwa is ready to slice and eat.

DryFruit/Christmas Cake. (No Alcohol) - Celebration time!

This is my 50th post and I am super excited. Usually I don't write anything other than ingredients and method .  But when I thought of doing something special, decided to do a rich Dry Fruit cake or commonly called as Christmas cake.

You might be thinking why Christmas cake, as there is 2 more months for Christmas! Well, my 50th post is dedicated to my father Mr.M. Padmanabhan whose birthday is on October 21st and his favorite cake.

 Never thought this cake could be made at home this easy.This is super simple and very easy recipe which I learnt it from the recipe section of a newsletter. Few alterations with my touch to it. This cake tastes better the next day. Better to do it well in advance.

Usually this cake is made/brushed with rum for richness and long storage. I did not use rum in the recipe, also for the brushing i used Grape Cranberry juice which was there in my fridge. You could use any juice available or could omit.So here we go..

Ingredients :-

Candied fruits pieces Assorted - 1 1/2 cup ( tutti fruity,apricot or could use almonds, walnuts too)

Raisins - 11/2 cup

Light brown sugar - 1 cup

Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp

All purpose flour - 11/2 cup

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Vanilla ess - 1 tsp

Butter - 1/4 cup

Eggs -2 (room temp)
lukewarm water - 1 cup 

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Method

In a pan add brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon powder, butter, water. Mix everything and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let it cool completely.

Once its cooled down,add the assorted candied fruits. Mix them well.
Preheat the oven to 325 degree F.
 Add 2 beaten eggs, vanilla ess and mix.
Now add the dry ingredients (Flour, baking soda, salt). Mix them well until everything is incorporated well.

Grease a cake tin. I used loaf pan (9*5*3 inch) . Pour the batter in it and bake it for 60 to 65 min, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow it to cool before you flip it from the cake tin.Once removed, cool it in wire rack.

Note :

Could serve the same day but tastes better the next day.Cover it with cheesecloth and store it in cool, dry place.Do not refrigerate.
If you are preparing the cake well in advance and storing for long you, cover the cake with a cheesecloth dipped in any juice (apple/cranberry/orange/grape). Wrap it well with aluminium or plastic cover and keep it in cool dry place. Brush the cake with juice once in 2 days until you consume. This helps the cake to stay moist and also enhances the richness of the cake.

Carrot Payasam

Ingredients

Carrots( roughly chopped in big pieces) - 6

Cashews - 5 to 6

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 4 tablespoon

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Ghee- 2 tbsp

Raisins - 8

Method

In a cooker add the carrots, cashews along with little water and cook it for 2 whistles.Let it cool down.

In a blender or mixer, add the cooked carrots, cashews along with milk and sugar. Blend it until smooth.

Now take a pan add ghee and saute they raisins and keep aside.

Add the blended carrot paste to the pan and bring it to boil.This might take 5 to 8 min. Finally add raisins and cardamom powder.

You could serve this hot or cold. Super yummy and healthy dish.

Note:

If you feel the consistency is too thick , you could add milk while boiling.

  

Semiya Javarisi Payasam

Roasted Semiya/vermicili - 1/2 cup

Javarisi - 3 tablsp

Coconut milk - 1 1/2 cup

Jaggery - 3/4 cup

Cashews and raisins for garnishing

Water 1 cup

Ghee - 3 to 4 tablsp

Method

Add ghee in a pan and roast cashews and raisins.

Now add the roasted vermicili and sago/javarisi. 

Sauté for a min and add one cup water.

Allow it to boil for 5 min or until the semiya and Javarisi is soft.

Meanwhile add jaggery in another pan with little water and boil until the jaggery is dissolved. Turn off the heat and filter the jaggery water and keep.

Add this jaggery water to the semiya. Boil for around 15min. in slow to medium flame.

Turn off the flame and add coconut milk to it.

Mix gently and serve hot or cold.

Note :

If the you don't have roasted semiya, dry roast it before adding.

Spinach Ricotta Lasagne

Tomato Salsa Sauce

Tomatoes - 2 medium size
Chopped onion - 1 small
Garlic cloves - 3 to 4
ginger - 1/2 inch
Green chilies 2 to 3
garam masala powder - 1 tsp
olive oil - 2 tsp
salt as per taste
water 1/2 cup

In a blender/mixer add tomatoes, garlic, green chilies, ginger, garam masala and make puree.
In a cooker add olive oil , chopped onions along with salt and saute well
Add the puree and giving a good mix.
Add 1/2 cup water.
Close the cooker and keep for 3 whistles in medium flame.
Quick tomato salsa is ready.I make it little watery, you can reduce the water quantity as per your choice.Also you could add assorted grated vegetables along with the puree before keeping whistle.

Ricotta & Spinach

Chopped Spinach - 1 bunch
garlic cloves - 2 to 3
ricotta  - 1 cup
pepper powder - 2 tsp
salt as per taste

Add chopped spinach in a bowl. Make sure they are not wet or watery.
Add chopped garlic, pepper powder , salt along with ricotta cheeese.
Mix them together to form a stuffing.

Lasagna sheets - 9

Cook the lasagna sheets in boiling water with pinch of salt and oil as per cover time instructions.
If you are using bake ready lasagna skip this step.

Method : ( layering )
Preheat oven to 350 degree F
Take a baking pan and coat the bottom the pan with a layer of Tomato salsa sause.
Now place 3 lasagne sheets to cover the base.
Above that layer spinach ricotta stuffing.
Now add Parmesan or mozzarella cheese layer.

Repeat the above method 3 times for different layers.

Top it with cheese.

Cover the top with aluminium foil.
Bake it for 45 min, remove the aluminium foil and bake for 15 min for the top layer to brown.
Remove from oven and serve hot by slicing after 15 min.

Pesto sauce for pasta ( spinach sauce)

Spinach - 1 bunch

Parmesan cheese - 1/4 cup ( could substitute with cream/ milk)

Walnuts - 1/4 cup ( optional )

Whole pepper - 1 tsp

Garlic - 3 to 4

Salt as per taste

Olive oil for seasoning

Pasta of you choice.

Method :-

Add spinach , cheese , walnuts,pepper, garlic ,salt in a blender / food processor and blend them together.

Add oil to pan, could sauté chopped tomatoes at this stage, if you are adding for 2 min before adding the blended mixture.

Now add the blended mixture and sauté it for 2 to 3 min.

Turn off the stove, add cooked pasta as per your choice. Look for the package for cooking instructions as each might differ in cooking time.

Top it with shredded cheese if you wish while serving. Serve while hot.

Note:-

You could increase the pepper quantity if you wish. 

You could directly add the blended mixture to the cooked pasta if you don't want to sauté it. Just add oil and blended spinach mixture to cooked pasta and serve hot.

Easy / Simple Cake decoration Tips/Ideas

The base of the cake is eggless chocalte cake. Recipe link below.

http://goeasyrecipes.blogspot.com/2012/07/eggless-chocolate-cake.html

This cake is topped with buttercream frosting, Lets see how to do it.

Butter - 1/2 stick ( room temp)
Powdered sugar/ Icing sugar - 3 1/2 cups
vanilla ess - 1 tsp
milk - 2 tablsp

Add everything in a mixing bowl and beat them for 10 min until you are able to spread it above cake. I used a electric beater and took 10 min to get the correct consistency.

Decoration 1 :

Spread the buttercream frosting above the cake. Cake shd be completely cooled down before applying frosting.

Using various fruits decorate it with your creativity.

Decoration 2 :

Super simple. Spread the frosting above cake as mentioned before.
Take any chocolate like dairy milk/ fivestar (anything). Using a grater just grate above the frosting. As simple as that.

Quick Easy Blueberry muffins

All purpose flour – 1 ½ cup

Egg – 1

Sugar – ½ cup

Milk – ½ cup

Oil (canola/sunflower) – ¼ cup

Baking powder – 1 tablesp

Vanilla ess – 1 tsp

Frozen/ fresh blueberries – 1 cup

Salt – 1 pinch

Method

Mix all the wet ingredients first like egg, milk, vanilla ess, oil along with sugar.

In a separate bowl, add the dry ingredients together like flour (sieve them), baking powder, salt.

Now add the dry to the wet mixture little by little and mix gently.

Don’t over mix, just until everything is incorporated well.

Finally add the blueberries and give a quick mix. Pour into the muffin tray.

Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Bake it for 12 to 15 min until done( toothpick inserted shd come out clean).

Note:

1.Before adding blueberries dust them with flour( see pic below) and then add to the muffin mix. This helps the muffins not to settle down.

2.If you dont have a muffin tray, take a paper muffin cups and fill the mix and arrange them in cookie tray or normal cake pan and bake.

Broccoli Manchurian

Broccolli chopped finely or grind it in pulse mode in blender/mixer - 2 cups
All purpose flour / Maida - 3 tblsp
Corn flour - 1 tblsp
red chili powder - 2 tsp
salt as per taste
ginger garlic paste  - 1tsp
OIl for frying.

Manchurian tempering

soya sauce
tomato sauce
green chillie -2
onions chopped - 1/3 cup
 garlic finely chopped - 1 tsp
curry leaves - one hand full (optional)

Method

Add the grinded or finely chopped broccoli in a bowl and add all purpose flour / maida , corn flour, red chili powder, ginger garlic paste and salt.
Mix them all together with hand to make a dough. You will not require water as broccoli will ooze out water.
Make small balls out the dough and keep aside.
Keep oil for deep frying , when it is hot enough fry the balls.

Fry until they turn light golden brown.

In another pan add 2 tsp of oil add garlic, slit green chilies, onions , curry leaves , soya sauce, tomato sause, curry leaves one after the other to temper.
Finally add the fried balls to it so that sauces and spices get coated the balls evenly.
Stir them for 2 min and turn off the heat. Serve them while hot.

Instant microwave Rava Idli

Rava  1 cup

Curd 1/2 cup

Thinly chopped carrot and cabbage 1 cup

Pepper powder 1 tablespoon 

Salt to taste

Baking soda 1 tsp

Method

In a big bowl mix everthing together except baking soda.

The batter should not too thick or watery. If required could add water to get correct consistency.

Keep the batter aside for 10 min.

Just before preparing add baking soda, give it a good mix.

Grease a microwave idli plate with oil and start adding the batter to it as we do for regular idli.

Keep it microwave high power for 2 min. Insert toothpick to check if done. If not not done, keep 30 sec more.

Remove from microwave and let it cool for 5 min, then remove the idli sand it's ready to serve.

Note:-

To make it more flavorful you could add tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves to the batter.

You could replace pepper powder with green chilies.

If you don't have mw idli plate, take a microwave safe bowl and fill half the bowl with batter and mw for. 2 min. Picture below shows microwave idle in bowl.