Wheat Cocoa Balls

Yield: 12 – 14 balls

This recipe is from an old Newspaper (The Hindu) collection dated around the 90's.
Actual recipe is Chocolate Burfi. The amount of ghee used is the same amount as that of the flour minus 2 tsp. I don’t like to use much ghee; I reduced it and modified them into Cocoa Balls.
It’s a very simple and tasty sweet dish.

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour - 1 cup (100 gms)
Powdered Sugar - 2 1/2 cup
Cocoa Powder - 1 heaped tsp
Fresh thick Curd - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp plus extra for greasing

Preparation:

Dry roast the flour in a pan till the colour changes a little and you get the wheat aroma.
Mix together all the ingredients, without any lumps.
Grease a bowl or a baking pan. Pour the mixture.
Bake at high temperature for 15 minutes. Stir twice in between.
Remove & let it cool for 1/2 an hour.
Make small round balls and the sweet is ready to savour.

Note:

The temperature and time may vary in different ovens (I baked at 250 C).
If not using an oven, mix all the ingredients in a pan over a medium flame & keep stirring till the mixture thickens & does not stick to the sides. Extra ghee maybe required for this method.
This can also be made into burfi by pouring the mixture in a greased plate; let it cool & cut into pieces.

Mango Pudding

Hi,

It’s been a long time since I last posted. I am happy to be back.
I recently tried Mango Pudding, not once but twice.
It turned out very well.
Lets go to the recipes...

Mango Pudding No.1 :

Yield: For 2 persons

Ingredients:

Milk – 200 ml
Sugar – 2 tbsp
All Purpose Flour / Maida – 2 tbsp
Salt – a pinch
Baking soda – ¼ tsp
Mango – 1 (made into thick pulp)
Honey – 1 tbsp
Soya powder (Vanilla flavour) – 3 tsp (mixed with cold milk)
Almonds (shredded) for decorating.

Preparation:

Mix together salt, baking soda and the flour.
Add sufficient amount of cold milk to make a fine paste and keep aside.
Pour the milk into a pan over a medium flame, add sugar & bring it to boil.
Now lower the flame and mix the flour paste thoroughly into the milk.
Stir continuously without any lumps.
Add the mango pulp and honey. Stir.
Later add the soya powder paste.
By now, the pudding thickens.
Switch off the flame.

You can either serve it hot or refrigerate for 15 mins & serve them cool.
You can also add fresh fruits & nuts, if you are refrigerating it.

This gives us the Mango Pudding No.1 - No baking, No steaming - only boiling.

Note:

I steamed some of the mixture for about 40 minutes, but it didn't turn out well.
On the aspects of taste, it was good, but a little runny, not in good shape.
So i would suggest not to steam or bake, just chill and eat.

i tried the same recipe again with some variations.
Instead of honey, i added more sugar and added extra flour.
Instead of soya powder, I actually used vanilla essence.

So the renewed Mango Pudding goes as:

Mango Pudding No.2:

Yield: For 2 persons

Ingredients:

Milk – 200 ml
Sugar – 50 gms
All Purpose Flour / Maida – 50 gms
Salt – a pinch
Baking soda – ¼ tsp
Mango – 100 gms (made into thick pulp & measured)
Vanilla essence – 4 to 5 drops

Preparation:

Mix together salt, baking soda and the flour.
Add sufficient amount of cold milk to make a fine paste and keep aside.
Pour the milk into a pan over a medium flame and keep on stirring for some time.
It starts to change colour & begins to thicken.(Not too thick)
At this stage, add the maida paste, stir continuously without any lumps.
Immediately add the sugar & keep on stirring.
Later add the mango pulp and vanilla essence.
Stir for a minute & switch off the flame.

As i said before, you can refrigerate this & serve with fresh fruits & nuts.
Now for a Steamed Pudding, transfer this into a vessel & steam in a pressure cooker (without weight) over a medium flame for 30 to 40 minutes.
Now the pudding is ready to serve.

Note:

After steaming for 40 minutes, i let it cool for sometime, & baked it for another 10 minutes at 180 C. The photos above show the baked one. It was awesome. Also too sweet…maybe because of the sweetness of the Mango.
It would be better if the amount of sugar is reduced a little.
If you have a liking for sweetness, go ahead with the same amount.

Hope this recipe will be a good start after a long time.

Enjoy & Happy Blogging!!!

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.

.

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.