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.

Plain Hoppers / Appam / Aappam

(Bowl shaped Rice Pancake)

Yield: For 4 persons

The Aappam is a common breakfast dish in South India.
It is referred to as 'Hopper' in English, 'Appam' in Malayalam & 'Aappam' in Tamil.
There are many varieties of Aappam and also several ways of preparation. This is one simple method to make Plain Aappam.




Ingredients:

Rice Flour – 500 gm
Salt – 1 tsp
Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) – ¼ tsp
Water – as required
Oil - as required

Preparation:

Keep aside ¼ cup of rice flour.
Add water to the remaining flour to make a dosa batter.
Mix the ¼ cup of flour with 1 ½ cup (approximate value) of water without lumps.
Keep this on a low flame and stir continuously till it is cooked like a porridge or 'kanji'(in Tamil).
Mix the cooked batter and salt to the dosa batter. Keep it overnight.
Next day, add baking soda & little more water and make the batter thinner than a normal dosa batter.
Place a thick bottom kadai (deep frying pan or karahi) in low flame.
When the kadai gets heated, brush some oil and pour 1 ½ ladleful of batter in the centre.
Quickly swirl the kadai so that the batter spreads on all sides.
Note that the appam should be thin on the outer sides & thick in the middle.
Pour 1 tsp of oil over the sides. Close the lid.
Wait for 1 - 2 minutes, the sides of the Aappam must be slightly brown by now.
Take out the Aappam and serve with Egg Stew or simply with coconut milk.

Note:

The Aappam should be cooked in a low flame.
There is no need to flip the Aappam as it is cooked in a closed kadai.

Egg Stew

Yield: For 4 persons

The Egg Stew is mainly prepared in Kerala and is a great side dish for Appam.
Stew is the combination of food ingredients cooked in a liquid and made into a gravy.
Here the vegetables mainly potatoes are cooked in coconut milk & later the boiled eggs are added.
This recipe is contributed by my friend Ruth.



Ingredients:

Egg – 6
Onion – 1
Tomato – 2
Potato - 2
Green Peas - 1 cup
Green chilly - 3
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - ½ tsp (optional)
Coriander leaves - few
salt - 1 tsp or to taste
Oil - 1 ½ tsp
Coconut milk - thin milk - 1 ½ cup, thick milk - 1 cup

Seasoning:

Clove - 2
Cinnamon - 1
Bay leaf - 1
Curry leaves - few

Preparation:

Finely chop the onions and tomatoes.
Slice the green chillies vertically in the middle.
Cut the potatoes into small pieces.
Boil the eggs, remove the shells & keep them as whole.
Soak the peas in salted hot water for 5 - 10 minutes. (This will retain it's natural colour)
Heat oil in a pan and add the seasonings.
Later add onion, ginger garlic paste & green chillies and sauté.
Now add garam masala powder and tomatoes.
Cook a little. Then add peas and potatoes.
Now add the thin coconut milk and salt.
Keep the flame low. Let the potatoes cook completely.
When the gravy starts to thicken, slightly increase the flame.
Add the boiled eggs and the thick coconut milk.
When the stew comes to a boil, switch off the flame.
Add the pepper powder & garnish with coriander leaves.

Note:

Preparation of thick & thin coconut milk:

Grate the coconut. Grind it with atleast ½ cup of water.
Then squeeze this through a seive to get the Thick milk.
Grind the same residue again, this time with more water.
Squeeze it out to get the Thin milk.
We used 1 big coconut to get the 2 ½ cup of milk.

Beetroot Dry Fry / Beetroot Poriyal

Yield: For 4 persons



Ingredients:

Beetroot (shredded) – 500gms
Onion - 2
Green chilly - 3
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt – ¾ tsp
Coconut (grated) – 1 cup or to taste

Seasoning:

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Black lentils / Urad dhal – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – few
Oil – 1 ½ tsp



Preparation:

Heat oil in a pan and put in the mustard seeds.
When it pops up, add urad dhal and curry leaves.
Then add onion & green chillies.
Sauté till transparent.
Now add the shredded beetroot, turmeric and salt .Mix well.
Sprinkle some water and cover the lid.
Lower the flame & cook for 10 minutes.
Mix the grated coconut.
Garnish with coriander leaves.

Vegetable Biryani / Vegetable Pulav / Brinji Sadham

Yield: For 5 persons

Brinji sadham is a common Tamil name for vegetable pulav.
'Brinji' refers to Brinji Elai which means Bay leaf & 'Sadham' means Rice.



Ingredients:

Basmati Rice – 500 gms (2 ½ cup)
Onion (Thinly sliced) – 3
Tomato (Finely chopped) – 6
Potato (small) – 1
Vegetables (chopped) – 1 ½ to 2 cup
(Carrot, Beans, Cauliflower, Green Peas)
Soya nuggets / chunks – ½ cup
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Mint leaves – ½ cup
Coriander leaves – ½ cup
Water – 4 cup
Clarified butter / Ghee – 1 tbsp
Oil – 1 tbsp
Red chilly powder – 2 ½ tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Biryani masala powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 3 tsp or to taste

Dry Masala:

Bay leaf – 2
Cinnamon (small stick) – 2
Cardamom – 3
Clove – 4

Preparation:

Soak the rice for half an hour.
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.
Keep the soya chunks aside.
Heat ghee and oil in a pressure cooker and fry all the dry masalas.
Add ginger garlic paste and fry till it is slightly brown in colour.
Now add the onions and sauté.
Stir fry the vegetables and the soya chunks.
Later add the tomatoes with mint and coriander leaves.
Fry for 2 minutes.
Then add chilly powder, turmeric powder, biryani masala powder and salt.
Add the rinsed rice and fry till the rice is coated with the masala.
Pour water and mix well.
Pressure cook for 2 whistles.
Garnish with paneer crumbs or coriander leaves & cashew nuts.
Serve with Onion Raita.



Note:

Potato and soya chunks are optional.
Use water as per the quality and quantity of the rice.