Eggless Banana bread

I had always wanted to bakes cakes and bread at home. Cakes and muffins I usually do but bread baking will take some more time I guess. I am scared of Mr.Yeast (or is it Ms). Anyways, the point is I tried making some Pizza last time with Active Dry yeast and the dough did rise well and the Pizza was deliciously soft. But it had some peculiar smell. The product had not expired and I still do not know what was the issue. My blogger friends suggested me to use fresh yeast but I have no idea where to look for here.. So bread baking is still a dream for me. I am on baking spree and chance upon every occasion to bake something. It makes the kitchen warm in this harsh winter and also the wonderful aroma of cake makes me happy. I have some good friends who are ready to try out any cake at any point of time :D which is another advantage for me.

I had wanted to try making Banana bread at home and my search took me to Mansi's site. I wanted an eggless one as my friend's mom does not eat eggs. Her recipe was simple, straight forward and I decided to try it out. I bought banana's and waited for them to ripen :D.

I just added some almond bits on top for crunch and did not make any changes to the recipe. The result was too good and my friend's mom loved it. Thanks Mansi for sharing this wonderful recipe with us. I will surely make it again.

Blueberry Muffins

Recently when I went shopping, I found a small batch of fresh blueberries. I had never tasted blueberries nor used them. We enjoyed few of them by itself and I wanted to bake with the rest. After a lot of google search I zeroed on Maria's recipe. The recipe was simple and I was bowled over by the photograph. I did not make any changes to the recipe. I just halved it and got 7 jumbo muffins out of it. The house smelled divine and the outcome was perfect. Thanks Maria for a keeper recipe. I am going to make it often now. Please click here to view Maria's recipe.

Just sink your teeth into it and enjoy the divine taste of soft and moist muffins :)

Capsicum and Potato side dish ~ Quick side dish

I just love capsicum. It lends a complete different flavor to simple dishes. This is one such dish that can be made on a weekday with no much effort, yet a tasty option. Have it with Chapathi or simple rice and dal :) I learnt this from my dear friend S. If you love capsicum then this dish is for you. There is no exact measurements for this dish just play with flavours as you wish :)

Here is what's needed :

2 medium green Capsicums thinly sliced

2 medium Potatoes thinly sliced

1 medium Onions thinly sliced

2 medium Tomatoes roughly chopped

1/4 tsp jeera

1 tbsp ginger garlic finely chopped and crushed

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

Red chilli powder, Garam masala powder and Kitchen king masala to taste

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat oil. Add jeera. When it splutters add onion and fry until done.

2) Add the powders,capsicum and potato. Fry well for 2-3 mins.

3) Add chopped tomato and salt. Mix well, cover and cook till done without adding water.

4) Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Celebrations ~ Milk burfi

Pardon me for my sudden absence from this space...I just got back from my 2 weeks trip to Mangalore. It was all of a sudden and the tickets were surprise gift for me from my hubby dear on my birthday.. My brother Uttam got engaged on 15th nov and I had gone to Bangalore to attend the function. It was really good meeting my friends and relatives.

Aparna who is my very good friend is my blogger friend too.. She and her hubby too made it to the engagement. I also go tot meet my rakhi bro Sandeshanna and Durga vanni.They also came home and we had pretty good time talking about our good old days. You guys really made our evening memorable :)

I also got to meet Suma and her cute little kid Smera... In spite of such short notice I am really happy that we could meet..She is really sweet. Her kid is very friendly and easy to get along..We had a really good time. I am already looking forward to meet her next time. Thanks Aparna and Suma for making my trip memorable.

This trip was pretty pleasant and hectic. First it was bro's engagement. I am really lucky to have such a sweet and cute Vanni (sister-in-law). I was able to make it to temple functions with my Father-in-law and parents ( I really miss going to temple here.. :(). I even got my results of MSc(IT).. I cleared my fourth sem.. and now I am a masters degree holder.. I have been really wanting this for quite sometime..

I also celebrated my birthday last month. This was one of my best birthday well planned by my hubby. He invited all my friends and at sharp 12 I cut 2 cakes. One on account of my birthday and second on account of our engagement day. Yes, We got engaged on my birthday :D hubby arranged cakes, chips, coke etc for party and it was really fun to have everyone around in-spite of it being a week day.

Anyways with so many good news it will be unfair if I don't share sweets with you all.. What if it is virtual!! Here is my MIL's famous Milk burfi. It is really simple and if done with patience turns excellent. She gets request from young and old alike to make this sweet and it gets over in no time.. This time I told her that I wanted to learn it from her and also told her that I wanted to post it on my blog . My FIL too helped us with this and made neat pieces of burfi :) We had fun time making this together. My batch from India is already getting empty and all my friends have asked me for recipe... I need to make it again :D

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Milk

3 cups Sugar

1/4 cup Besan/Chickpea flour

1/4 cup Sooji/Semolina

1/4 cup ghee

Cardamom powder to taste (Optional)

Procedure:

1) Fry besan with little ghee until frangrant and colour changes slightly. Cool it completely.

2) Add milk(cold need not be boiled) and mix. Make sure that there are no lumps.

3) Add sooji and sugar and mix well.

4) Keep it on the gas on medium and keep stirring often.

5) The mixture tends to thicken and starts leaving edges. Add cardamom powder if using. There is actually no need to use as this sweet has its own fragrance from ghee and milk. To test if done take a small lump of mixture and cool it. If it hardens then it is done. Takes about 50 mins to 1 hr. Inspite of that if it is not done then add 2 fistful of powdered sugar and mix well. Check again.

6) When done, spread it on a greased plate and level it with a glass whose bottom is smeared with ghee to prevent it from sticking. Cut into desired pieces and store it in jar when completely cooled.

Tried and Tasted ~ Gajar ka halwa

Carrot halwa the famous sweet is one of our fav. I love to have this warm with vanilla ice cream. I love combination of sweets (Yes.. that makes it double pleasure and also double calories..:P ). My pacchi make yummy carrot halwa with the red carrots. I love those carrots but since they are not available here I used the normal carrots. This sweet was not a very common one at our household. I did not know the recipe that my pacchi used but I remember her using milk to make it tastier. When I was browsing through recipes at Manasi's Acook@heart I found this and bookmarked it. Thank you Manasi for the wonderful recipe. Please hop over to her blog to find some more interesting recipes.

A treat!

My hubby celebrated his birthday early this month. In between with Diwali and our vacation I was unable to post it here. I planned a surprise birthday party for him and invited all his friend's home for dinner. Hubby was not aware of my plan and when he was back from office the house was decorated with balloons and ribbons. Friend's helped me out to carry on with the plan perfectly and it was the best birthday party. I baked a blackforest cake from Nita Mehta's book. The icing was melting at rapid speed and I was not sure of it so I rushed to the nearest bakery and got a mocha cake. Hubby had two cakes to be cut.

We had a dinner menu consisting of all my hubby's fav. Green salad, Puri, Chole, Idli, Sambar, Biryani and potato masala. My friend and her mother made Biryani and Potato masala. I need to learn the recipe from aunty. She is a wonderful cook. I was not able to get all the pics. Hence few of them to share with you.

You can find idli recipe here. I used ready made sambar powder to make sambar.

For chhole:

1 cup Chickpeas (soaked overnight and pressure cooked until soft)

2 Onions finely chopped

2 Tomatoes

1 tbsp finely chopped and crushed Ginger & Garlic

1 Bay leaf

1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Chat masala

1/4 tsp Amchoor powder

1-2 tbsp Everest chhole masala powder

1 tbsp or more Red chilli powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

a generous pinch of kasuri methi

1 tbsp Tomato ketchup

1/2 tsp Coriander cumin powder (Optional)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp Oil

Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Pressure cook the chickpeas until soft. Drain and reserve the liquid. Blanch the tomato in hot water. Peel and puree.

2) Heat oil add Cumin seeds and bay leaf. When they splutter and chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. When Onions turns pinkish add Tomato puree and cook until the raw smell goes off.

3) Add in all the masala powders and stir for a min or two.

4) Add in cooked chana with little water (from boiled chickpeas) and salt. Let it boil. Add a tbsp of tomato ketchup and kasuri methi and give it a quick boil. (I read in some blog that adding tomato ketchup gives it the dhaba taste. From then on I have been using it regularly and everyone has liked the taste of chhole. I am not able to get the blog name. If anyone has an idea please suggest. I would like to give the credit to the blogger) Mash few chickpeas to get a thicker gravy. Taste the gravy and add any seasoning if needed. Let it boil until you get desired consistency.

5) Switch off. garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with Puri accompanied with freshly chopped onion and lemon.

Diwali Special

I am sure everyone must have enjoyed a lot this Diwali. I wanted to make this post right before Diwali but due to some issue with connectivity and lack of time I was unable to do so. Anyways my warm wishes to everyone.

We had a good time this Diwali. Visiting friends, bursting fire crackers everything made it so special.

Thanks to the wonderful bloggers I tried my hand at making Chakkuli's (Murukku), Sev etc. It seemed so simple and tasty that I will not have to look out for store brought one's here after.

From Surpiya's Home spices blog I tried Kashi halwa (Wintermelon/Ash gourd halwa) and Chakkuli. Both were a big hit. Thank you Supriya :). I made Sev using Chakali blog. I have bookmarked a lot of dishes from this site. Do visit the sites for the original recipe. Sorry for the poor picture of halwa as we clicked it at the last moment before leaving for the party :)

A quick fix dinner ~ MW Carrot Pepper Rice

We have no routine or timing for a weekend! We wake up around 7-8. Then look for options for breakfast. Eat at 10 or so. Clean the house a bit. If the weather is good we normally go cycling or go to play badminton. Lunch we eat outside or finish the breakfast leftovers!. Go grocery shopping or watch movie or visit places... It just goes on. It was one such day on Sunday.. We had gone to a nearby place as the weather was pleasant in the evening and then had some grocery shopping to do. After coming home I was not in mood to cook elaborate but neither did I want to eat outside. Was just flipping through Nita Mehta's MW cookbook and got the carrot pepper rice. As it is I love carrot and bell pepper's are my fav too. The recipe was also very simple without wasting time I made it. I really loved the simple flavored rice. We had some leftover curry that we polished off with this rice.

Serves 4

1 cup rice - soaked for 15-20 mins

3 tbsp oil

1 onion sliced

1 capsicum chopped

1 carrot chopped

1 tsp salt (increase as per your taste)

1/2 tsp freshly crushed pepper ( I used 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp soya sauce

Procedure:

1) Mix Oil,onion,carrot and capsicum in a big microwave proof dish and microwave for 3 mins.

2) Add rice, 2 cups water, salt, pepper and soya sauce. Microwave for 13 mins. Stir once in between and add more salt or pepper powder as required. Serve after 5 mins.

It did not take long for me to make this. While the rice was soaking I and hubby did with the chopping and within twenty five mins the dinner was ready to be served.

Patholi ~ steamed rice cakes with jaggery stuffing

Patholi is a sweet dish that is prepared on NagarPanchami, Ganapathi Chowthi etc. This sweet is wrapped in fresh tumeric leaves and steam cooked. Tastes best when served hot with a dollop of homemade ghee.

I wanted to make a complete tutorial of this but was unable to do it. But next time I make it will surely update this post. I had brought some turmeric leaves from my uncle's garden during my recent trip to India. While hubby was on vacation we could not prepare it hence I got these leaves with me and made it. If you do not get turmeric leaves you can even make it with Banana leaves.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Idli rice (Any rice will do. I use idli rice as this is the only one available. At home we use sona masuri) soaked for 4-6 hrs

2 tbsp grated coconut

salt to taste

P.S: Some add a small amount of jaggery about a tbsp or two to the outer batter. It tastes better. I avoided as I wanted to use the leftover batter if any for dosa.

Filling:

1 cup grated coconut

1/2 - 3/4 cup jaggery

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1 fistful Poha roasted lightly and powdered

Procedure:

1) Grind soaked rice, grated coconut and salt with little water to smooth paste. Keep the consistency of the batter thick.

2) Heat 2 tbsp of water and add jaggery. When jaggery has melted and the syrup is slightly thicker add cardamom powder and switch it off. When it has cooled slightly mix the grated coconut and poha powder. Poha powder is optional. I used it as it acts as a binding agent. [Even

Laayi pitto can be used instead of poha]

How to assemble it:

1) Clean and pat dry all the leaves and trim its edges. (Do not discard them. It can be used to make cheppi kheeri..Coming up soon!)

2) With a spoon spread the prepared batter evenly leaving the edges.

3) Take a tbsp of filling and spread it lengthwise along the center.

4) Fold the leaf along the center. Repeat it with the remaining batter. Cook the patholi in a steamer for about 15 mins. When they are done the leaves change the colour and kitchen is filled with wonderful aroma of turmeric leaves.

Remove the leaf and serve the steamed patholi with a some ghee.

Note:If the outer batter remains then you can simply make Panpolo out of it. The inner filling also called the choornu can be served along with panpolo. It is one of the famous combi breakfast in our hometown.

Tried and Tasted ~ Simple Vanilla Tea Cake

With lot of minor hiccups I had kept my baby steps in baking. After taking help from most of the wonderful bloggers I was finally able to bake a neat cake. All the while I was making a big mistake with the size of the cake tin. Now that has been resolved and I am looking forward to bake more.

I had few of hubby's friends coming over for tea. Along with Tea and some hot pakoda I decided to serve some simple cake. When I was looking for a small and simple cake I reached Divya's blog. Her Vanilla cake attracted me. I had all the ingredients at hand so went about with it. It came out really good and everyone loved it. Than you Divya for sharing your tried and tested recipe :)

Aps has been really sweet and is showering me with awards constantly. Thank you Aps for making my day.

Requirements:

I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it.

I must list 10 honest things about myselfI must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog.

I must select at least 7 other worthy bloggers & list their links

I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also.

Ten honest things about me:

1) I am very emotional and family means the world to me. I cannot bear the fact that someone hates me.

2) I love chocolates and Ice creams. If not for the calories I would have had them for breakfast,Lunch and dinner!

3) I love travelling a lot.

4) I am a chatter box. As a kid every aunt in my neighborhood knew me! And Aps my dad used to also say the same thing that I could talk to street lamp too!!

5) I love to shop veggies from fresh market. The sight of fresh and green veggies makes me buy them. I often buy them without having any particular dish or item in mind.

6) I hate milk and its products like Curds, Butter, Ghee. I can eat Paneer but not over a certain limit. I prefer sweets made with coconut milk than with milk. I drink milk only if it is flavoured.

7) I love to listen to music and read books. I prefer slow classic melodies with good lyrics than heavy metal music. I prefer reading books to watching TV.

8) I easily mingle with people but I also enjoy spending time alone.

9) I am particular about cleanliness. I cannot cook without washing my hands n number of items. I do not like my kitchen messed up and my dress dirty.

10) The best way to lift up my mood is to either talk to my mom/ hubby / my friends or take a walk or play with kids. I enjoy playing with kids than participating in a gossip.

Well, that's about me girls now I am tagging few of my friends for the same:

1) Parita

2) Suma

3) Happy Cook

4) Divya

5) Archana Pritish

6) Curry Leaf

7) Raaga