Potato Crispy Cake with Cocoa Filling

Yield: 14 – 16 cakes

My original idea was to make a Potato Cake. But during the process, the required sponginess was not obtained. So I altered the recipe into a crispy one.
The cocoa filling adds an extra flavour to the potato cake.

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Ingredients:

Potato (boiled) – 5
(Approximately 1 cup, when mashed)
All purpose Flour / Maida – ½ cup
Sugar – ¾ cup
Egg – 2
Vanilla essence – ½ tsp
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Chocolate bar – 1
(Approximately 50 gms)
Salt – ¼ tsp

Cocoa Filling:

Icing sugar – 2 tbsp
Cocoa powder - ½ tbsp
Fresh cream – 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Grind the potatoes into a fine paste.
Sift the flour and baking powder.
Beat the eggs till it becomes little fluffy.
In a bowl, mix the potato paste, flour, sugar and eggs without any lumps.
Break the chocolate bar into small pieces (chips).
Add vanilla essence & chocolate chips to the cake mixture and mix well.
Grease the baking pan with butter or oil & dust with flour.
Pour the mixture and bake for 30 minutes at 180° C (356 F).
Let it cool for sometime and cut the cake into small rectangular pieces.
Broil them for 20 minutes at 180° C.
(As I have a mini oven, I broiled each side separately for 15 minutes.)
Mix icing sugar, cocoa & fresh cream and keep stirring in a low flame till it becomes a thick paste.
Spread the cocoa paste on one piece and press it with the other one. Likewise do for all the pieces.
Bake them for 3 minutes at the same temperature.
Serve for a dessert after lunch or dinner.



Note:

I actually added 7 potatoes and it came out as a pancake (like maida dosa). So I reduced the number of potatoes to 5 in this recipe.

Soya Chunks Biscuits with Tangy sauce & Sesame seeds

(Soya Nuggets or Meal Maker Biscuits)

Yield: 25 biscuits

I tried this biscuit for an evening snack, inspired by the Dhokla recipe (Steamed Besan sour cake). It turned out soft and crunchy, a perfect healthy snack.



Ingredients:

Soya chunks (mashed) – 1 ½ cup
Rice flour – ½ cup
Maize flour – ¼ cup
Soy bean flour – ¼ cup
Chickpea flour / Gram flour / Besan – ¼ cup
Green chilly paste – ½ tsp
Red chilly powder – ¼ tsp
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – 1 ½ tsp
Baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) – a pinch
Cumin / Jeera powder – ½ tsp
Oil – 1tbsp
Sesame seeds – 1 tsp
Water – 2 cups

For tangy sauce:

Corn Flour – 1 tsp
Tamarind juice – 2 tbsp
Orange or Red colour – 5 drops
Water – ½ cup

Preparation:

Heat some water in a vessel. When the water boils, switch off the flame.
Put the soya chunks and close the lid. After 10 minutes, rinse the chunks in cold water and squeeze out the water.
Grind the chunks for a minute.
Take this paste in a bowl and add all the ingredients from the rice flour to jeera powder and mix well.
Add 1 tbsp of oil and make thick dough. Sprinkle water if necessary.
Place the dough in a greased bread / cake pan and bake for 15 minutes at 200° C (392 F).
Take out and cut into slices.
For the sauce, mix corn flour with water and tamarind juice.
Add colour and heat the mixture in a low flame till it becomes thick like a sauce.
Spread this sauce on top of each slice.
Arrange them in a tray and bake for another 15 minutes at the same temperature.
Sprinkle some seasoned sesame seeds.
Serve warm with hot tea.

Note:

You can add different kinds of flour as per your wish.
The green chilly paste can be avoided & replaced by the red chilly powder itself.

Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

(Dhal Balls in thick Onion Gravy)

Yield: For 4 persons

This is a popular dish of Tamil Nadu.
Whenever we make this urundai kozhambu, we also make some vadai from the same batter. This recipe goes well with rice.
It gets this name from the round shape of the dhal batter, which is cooked in thick gravy.
‘Paruppu’ means ‘Dhal’, ‘Urundai’ means ‘Round’ and ‘Kuzhambu’ means ‘Sambar without dhal’.



Ingredients:

For Urundai / Balls: (Yield: 14 – 16 balls)

Split Pigeon Pea / Tuvar Dhal – 250 gms
Dry red chilly – 3 to 4
Salt - ½ tsp
Onion – 2

For kuzhambu / Gravy:

Tamarind / Imli juice – ½ cup
Onion – 250 gms
Tomato - 1
Red chilly powder – ½ tsp or ¾ tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt – 1 to 1 ½ tsp
Water - 3 cup

Seasoning:

Mustard seed – 1 tsp
Black lentil / Urad dhal – 1 tsp
Asafoetida / Hing - a pinch
Dry red chilly - 2
Curry leaves – few
Oil – 2 tbsp

Preparation:

Soak the tuvar dhal for 1 hour.
Wash and grind the dhal with chillies and salt to a coarse thick batter. Add little water if necessary.
Mix the chopped onion and make small lemon size balls out of the batter. (It will increase in size while cooking). Keep them aside.
Heat oil in a kadai and add the seasonings.
Then add the finely chopped onions and fry till they become transparent.
Add the tomato and fry a little.
Now add the chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and salt.
Add the tamarind juice with 3 cups of water. Let it boil for 5 minutes.
Now drop the balls one by one. Do not stir.
Keep the flame low. When the balls are partially cooked, they will float on the top.
Leave it for 8 to 10 minutes for the gravy to become slightly thick.
By now, the balls will be completely cooked.
Dish out and garnish with coriander leaves.



Note:

While dropping the balls into the gravy, if it breaks, add 1 – 2 tsp of rice flour.
Do not add more rice flour as the balls will become hard.
Use more onions to make the kozhambu tastier.