Easy Halwa!

Papaya Halwa

Ingredient

• Papaya - 2 cups, 1 whole fruit ( grated or chopped into cubes)
• Sugar - 3-4 tbsp, depending on how sweet your fruit is
• Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
• Nuts(almond , cashew.,etc) - A fist full 
• Ghee - 2-3 tbsp 

Preparation

1. Heat a pan with ghee, on medium flame add the nuts and saute until partially golden brown 
2. Remove the nuts from the pan and keep aside 
3. In the same pan with the remaining ghee add your papaya and start to saute on low flame for 10-12 minutes
4. The fruit will change in color and  release juices as you continue, now mash the fruit with a potato masher (if cubes)
5. Continue to saute for another 10 minutes and you will notice a change in consistency of the fruit mixture
6. Here add sugar if you wish to and continue to cook
7. Finally once the entire mixture comes together and separates from the pan add cardamom powder and your nuts
8. Serve warm and enjoy!

Finger millet and Banana cake

Finger millet and Banana cake

Today was my daughter's 8th month birthday and I wanted to bake something for her which she could actually eat and enjoy herself too. If not a lot at least a couple of bites. She loves her bananas and her daily semi solid food is Ragi(Finger millet). I had eaten a lot of Ragi(Finger millet) biscuits and cookies, but cake!? Well well...here we go....

Ingredients 

• Finger millet (Instant Ragi flour - Huri Hittu) - 3/4 cup
• All purpose flour - 1/4 cup
• Banana - 2 , pureed (1 cup)
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Yogurt - 3-4 tbsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - a pinch

Preparation 

1. Grease your baking tray and preheat the oven at 190 C /375 F
2. In a large mixing bowl sift the finger millet flour and baking powder
3. Add baking powder and cardamom powder to the millet flour mixture and mix well
4. In a separate bowl take the pureed banana mixture and add oil, yogurt and sugar, mix well till the sugar melts
5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well
6. Pour the batter into the greased baking tray and bake for 25-30 minutes

Chutney !

Cabbage Chutney

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

• Cabbage : 2 cups, chopped
• Green chilli : 2-3, slit
• Coconut - 1 cup, freshly grated
• Coriander seeds : 1/3 tsp
• Curry leaves: 1 -2 sprig 
• Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Oil / Ghee - 1 tbsp
• Water - 1/4-1/2 cup

For Seasoning

• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Channa dal - 1tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp 
• Oil/ Ghee - 1 tbsp
• Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp

Preparation:

1. In a pan cook the cabbage for 5-10 minutes in about 1/4 cup of water( you can add more if required) 
2. While the cabbage is cooking add the coriander seeds. Keep the mixture aside. 
3. In a blender, add coconut, cooked cabbage, tamarind pulp, salt and slit green chillies and grind them into a fine paste. 
4. Move this paste from the blender into a bowl and keep aside. 
5. In a pan, heat oil/ ghee for the seasoning and add channa dal, urad dal and mustard seeds, once the mustard seeds splutter add in the curry leaves and the asafoetida
6. The chutney is great with hot rice and ghee, dosa, idli and also rotis

Chutney again!

Bitter Gourd / Karele ki Chutney 

Ingredients : 

• Bitter gourd/ Karela (small) - 2-3
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Red chillies - 2-3
• Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp + 2 tsp
• Jaggery - 1 tbsp + 2 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Coconut - 1/4 cup, freshly grated

For seasoning

• Ghee / Oil - 1-2 tbsp (ghee works best for me)
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Chana dal - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Wash and chop roughly the bitter gourd lengthwise while removing all the seeds.
2. To the chopped bitter gourd add 1 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of salt mix and keep aside for 30 minutes. The bitter gourd would have......... , discard this water
3. With your hands squeeze the juice out of bitter gourd slices (This helps in reducing the bitter taste)
4. Blend together the bitter gourd, coconut, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, tamarind paste, red chillies and jaggery into a coarse paste by adding about 1/4 cup (or less) of water
5. In a pan take ghee for seasoning, add chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida.
6. As the seasoning splutters, add in the bitter gourd paste and mix well
7. Add 2-3 tbsp of water and again mix well. Cook the mixture for 10-15 minutes on medium flame
8. The mixture should now have a nice, smooth semi solid consistency
9. This chutney is great with hot rice and ghee, dosa, idli and even rotis!

Vegetarian Lasagna

Exotic Vegetable and Tofu Lasagna

Serves -2 

Ingredients

Vegetables - 2 cups (Bell peppers, broccoli, black olives, zucchini)  
Lasagna sheets - 6 small sheets  (Whole wheat recipe)
Olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp
Tomatoes - 2
Onion - 2 (small - finely chopped)
Tomato puree - 100ml
Basil - Fist full
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Cheddar cheese - 1/3 cup, grated ( Parmesan/ Ricotta would add more flavour)
Mozzarella cheese - 3/4 cup, grated
Tofu - 100 g, diced
Salt to taste
Mixed herbs seasoning - 1 1/2 tsp

The sauce

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven at 350F/180C 
2. In a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil , toss all your vegetables and tofu with about 1/2 tsp of salt on medium flame for a couple of minutes until half done and keep aside
3. In a blender add garlic cloves, chopped tomatoes and salt and blend for just about 30 seconds to leave you with a little puree and a few chunks of tomato
4. In a separate pan, take 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and saute the onions to this add your blended mixture and cook. Once done add to this the mixed herbs and some salt (You could add your sauce to your vegetables or make separate layers)
5. In boiling water, cook your lasagna sheets. Fresh sheets cook in less than 4 minutes in boiling water
6. In your chosen pan, pour spoonful of your sauce and spread
7. On the sauce, layer your sheet, sprinkle cheddar cheese, vegetables and then your sauce. Repeat this with as many layers you want. End with a layer of the sheet and cover it with the sauce and a mix of the cheddar and mozzarella
8. Cover with an aluminium foil (well oiled, to avoid the cheese sticking) and bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese has melted. You can take off the aluminium sheet for the last 10 minutes to help the cheese brown. Once done let it stand for 10-15 minutes and then cut into pieces and serve

Lasagna Sheets

Whole wheat lasagna sheets!

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour- 2 cups
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Yogurt - 1/2 cup (Eggs - 02)
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Water, as needed

Preparation

• In a bowl mix the flour and salt
• Add yogurt in the flour mixture by making a well in the centre and mix well (If using eggs, in a separate bowl whisk your eggs with the olive oil and then  add to the flour by making a well in your flour)
• Knead the dough well till it is soft and fluffy for about 5-10 minutes and cover with a kitchen towel and keep aside for 15-20 minutes
• Now take small portions of the dough with a lot of dry flour on a clean surface and roll it with a rolling pin as thin as possible (close to the thickness of an uncooked papad) and cut into your desired shape

• Repeat this process until you have as many lasagna sheets as you want
• You can precook your lasagna sheets in boiling water for about a few minutes and freeze them in your refrigerator after placing a parchment paper in between the sheets (Fresh sheets will take just about 4 minutes to cook in boiling water)

Eggless cookies!

Eggless Whole Wheat Oat and Chocolate chip Cookies

Ingredients

• Rolled oats (Quick cooking) - 1 1/2 cups
• Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup
• Wheat bran - 1/3 cup
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
• Sea salt - 1/3 tsp
• Unsalted butter/ margarine (softened) - 1/2 cup
• Sugar (preferably brown sugar) - 1 cup
• Yogurt - 3 tbsp
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Chocolate chips - 1 1/4 cup

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F
2. Mill the oats in a food processor (I used the rolled oats as is, as it gives a nice rich, crunchy texture to the cookies)
3. In a medium sized bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (the oats, wheat flour, bran, baking powder, soda and salt) and set aside
4. In a relatively larger bowl, cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar and then the yogurt and the vanilla extract one at a time, beating for a couple of minutes after each addition
5. Add the dry mixture to this and mix well to create the dough. Add in the chocolate chips and stir to combine well
6. Make dough balls (each with 2 tbsp of the dough - this makes quite large cookies, adjust the amount of dough depending on the size you want)
7. Grease a baking tray. Place 6-8 dough balls on the baking tray and flatten so that each one is not more than 0.5 cm thick (a rough measure). Make sure to leave sufficient space between them since each dough ball needs space to rise and expand as it bakes
8. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 14-18 minutes (based on how chewy vs. crispy you want them)
9. Voila, the cookies are ready! These cookies are great to munch as is of course, but they are also great with vanilla ice cream or in an "Oreo" shake.

Chutney! ;)

Radish Chutney

Ingredients
Radish grated - 1 Cup
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Chana dal (Bengal gram split and skinned) - 2 tsp
Urad dal (Black gram Split)- 2 tsp
Tamarind paste - 1 tsp
Dried Red chillies - 2-3 (for more spice you could add 4-5)
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric - a fat pinch
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

For Seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Chana dal - 1/4 tsp
Urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 Sprig
Oil - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Preparation

In a pan, heat 1/2 tsp of oil and add coriander seeds, urad dal, chana dal and fenugreek seeds. Saute until they turn golden brown and keep the contents aside on a separate plate.

Continue in the same pan, fry the red chillys for a couple of minutes and again keep aside on a separate plate.

Next add 1/2 tsp of oil and add the grated radish with turmeric powder. Saute on low flame for about 5-8 minutes till the raw fragrance of the radish disappears. ( If needed sprinkle a little water and saute for a few more minutes).

Grind the roasted coriander seeds mixture with the red chillies. Add 2 tbsp of water and salt, grind until you get a coarse paste. (Careful we do not want a smooth paste)

Mix this paste with the grated radish. (you could also grind your radish along, if you wish to)

Seasoning - Take a pan and add 1tsp of oil. Add channa dal, urad dal and mustard seeds and allow them to splutter then add curry leaves and asafoetida. Pour the seasoning into the chutney and mix well.