Cup Cakes~A Blog Hop

Blog hop this time Radhika has paired me with Priya of Now Serving!

If you know not Priya then you are missing deliciously simple recipes conceived out of a Mother’s love to nourish. Do visit her.  She is a multifaceted personality always helping others. She was one of the many who guided me when I started out from anonymous blogger to the present day avatar.

Now choosing from Priya’s place is difficult for I was like a kid in the sweet shop. But my niece had come over with her mom for just 2 days.

Peas and Tofu Pulao

Winter heralds fresh vegetables, cauliflower, carrots, spinach and the freshest of peas.

Pretty and green all in a row!!

We all love peas especially if it means you get to eat them straight from the pods. 

Generally we buy peas just for eating. So the tender ones get eaten and I am left with the others not so tender. This is especially true if Akanksha and her father sit to do the job.

Merry Christmas 

& 

Seasons Greetings!!!

Egg less Apple sauce Chocolate Cake

What is left of the cake

There were 2 things that came into play when I baked this cake.

When my friend Vidya told me there was a sponge cake competition in the local mall.  I was eager to join it for I would meet a lot of other better bakers.

There were apples that were about to say bye bye to this world if not attended too. So I made apple sauce from here.

 The problem was I did not have the Cameo apples as needed and I had just discovered that the apples lying around are gala apples. But I made the sauce anyway using the apples I had and the sauce was delicious. 

The yield was 1 ½ cup.

The cake just out of the oven the night before

Nachni-che-Satv or Ragi Pudding

Staying in Goa from the time I got married 23 years to be exact has exposed me to quite a few wonderful dishes in this cuisine.

There is a preconceived notion that there are no vegetarian dishes in this cuisine. I remember when I was to be married all my neighbours and friends kept on telling me that I will have nothing but “Samudra chawlikai” that is cluster beans from the sea. Of course fish is the staple food here in Goa, but a Goan does “go veg” at least 2 times in a week and on all kinds of festivals, panchmi, chathurtis etc.

Any celebration and you have “mangane” a kind of kheer and of course “Nachni-che-satv”.

Nachini or ragi is a very nutritious. It is good for infants and old and the in-betweens also. Its calcium and iron is easily assimilated by the body. Try this wonderful grain in sweets and savoury food stuff alike.Read more about it here.

Round up of Veggie of the Month-Raw Banana/Plantian

First I would like thank all of you for your wonderful entries for the event that I hosted in the month of November'11!

I am terribly sorry for being so late in posting my round up there are few problems that  ate up all my time. Hopefully I will be a better blogger now.

Frankly I never expected much of a response for the theme. Raw banana in my honest opinion never went beyond chips, and a odd vegetable. But I was wrong there are many different way of cooking this amazing vegetable. These amazing dishes dished out by my friends are mind boggling at least to me for I never would have thought of these. Do have a look.

Micro wave Orange Cake~A Blog Hop

Since my husband & I have our birthdays just 4 days off one another we celebrate together. But this time I wanted to surprise him with a cake on his birthday.

Surprise has to be surprise does it not? So what better than a cake that cooks in the microwave and in 12 minutes when he is at walk, best time his evening walk?

So I baked this cake for him from Mom’s Corner by Rudra my partner for Blog Hop for this fortnight.In case you have not checked her corner till now do so now.Thanks to Radhika who is the brains behind the entire operation! You can join the gang subscriptions to the new version are open till the 15th  Dec.

Egg-less Buttery Cookies~ A Sweet Punch

When Priya posted her egg less buttery almond cookies I could not resist them. I had such a craving for them that I baked them immediately.

 Me and follow recipes? Surprised are you not?

Well there are times when I do follow recipes, but you are correct I did not follow it to the T made a few changes to suit our tastes and my pantry contents. I baked them 3 times now.

Black and White Wednesday Godi Kutid Payasa~ A Blog Hop

Blog Hop one schedule that I thoroughly enjoy.

 Though I am taking care not to tax my fingers a lot this one piece is typed out in bits and pieces and over a long period. Hopefully by the end of the next month my fingers will be better.  Okay enough of this Old Woman cry baby story let’s get down to today’s post.

I was eager to try out some payasa/payasam/kheer dishes as I had performed the “Vaibhav Laxmi Varat” and the last day I was to invite some friends over and the nevidya was payasa. To add to the pleasure of cooking some sweet, that I love, was the fact that my father had come for his health check up and was given a clean chit. So this was celebration all the way!!J

Cookies that went wrong

I would like to thank all of you when you responded to my pleas here asking for help to save my soulless (SOS) cookies!  

I am seriously thinking about making atleast 2 batches to put into practice all the suggestions.

Any way here is what I made of the hapless cookies finally. Like it?

Make batch of sugarless cookies first.

Shahi Ande

From the time Radhika announced her Mughlai Event I know that there is one cuisine that I have not posted as yet the Mughlai cusine. In fact from the time I have become conscious of the middle age spread I have stopped making Mughlai cusine for the food is rich. But there are exceptions and here is one of them.

Respecting my FIL’s sentiments I generally do not cook eggs. But when he is out of station we eat live and drink eggs.

Help Please- Mayday Mayday

I have baked cookies but in my desire to get out of the kitchen forgotten to add sugar to it.

 Now they are neither sweet nor savoury. I want to make some change so was thing of adding sugar syrup and soaking them. Or making something like gatte ki bhaji .

Cookies are enough for both.

What do you think?

Will this work?

Please help me I do not want to throw them out.

Cauliflower Curry

These days I am not blogging too much or even visiting my friends a lot.

Not because I don’t want to but because  I have to go for an evening walk (Doctors orders) and by the time I come back the kids are on the net and unless there is something urgent I don’t want to chase them away.


Also since I am a “two finger typer”  and I use the same to fingers for the mouse handling  both home and at work the fingers  have started protesting and I have been warned by our programmer that I am heading towards  Carpal Tunnel Syndrome  and to take care, I am scared.  I take breaks and give up computers in the evening.

Water Melon Rind Preserve

Every Sunday hubby and I make a trip to the local market.

It’s become a ritual. But this Sunday he went alone as I had a meeting to attend and he came back with a watermelon which he cut immediately. The red fruit went in the bowl and the white and the green skin in a plate ready to be thrown out.

Sabubana Khichidi Again!!

My younger kiddo carries her breakfast to school everyday.

I don’t know about you but everyday it is a regular feature in my place I make something I make sure she will love and it has just landed on her hate list!  So everyday we have a 15-20 minutes session where I am trying to induce her to carry what is made and she is trying to tell me why she cannot.

Finally my husband has asked her to make a list of thinks that she will like to carry as breakfast and I try to fit our breakfast in the schedule. So right now iddlis and dosas are off the list and we are into poha and sabudana khichidi.

So sabudana or sago has appeared in 2 different recipes.

One is a thalipeth(recipe follows) and another is khichidi.

Khichidi! What different is it from the one that I have already posted here and here or here?

 Today  I have used raw banana or plantain to make the khichidi.

Dates Ladoo ~A Blog Hop & An Award

Variety is the spice of life and Blog Hop adds to it.

As this is where you try out dishes from your partner’s blog to suit your palate the idea is Radhika’s brain child.

How does Blog Hop add to variety? Well I go through my partner’s posts in greater detail so in this sense I am coming to know newer likeminded people. All of us are connected through our love for food and serve a better variety with love.

Raw Banana Paratha

Back to basics is running breads and is being hosted by PJ. And I wanted to send something. What better than a raw banana paratha. I know this is one of my shortest posts but today is the last day and I have left it for the last possible moment.

Ingredients:

3 cups atta

2 tsp jeera/ cumin seeds powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2 tsp red chilli powder(adjust as per taste )

1 tsp  haldi

1 tsp kalonji(optional)

1 raw banana

Coriander

Oil

Salt

Method:

1.     Peel and boil the banana in the cooker for 2 whistles.

2.     Let it cool completely. Now grate it.

3.     Mix all the ingredients using a teaspoon or two of oil with a little water to form a smooth but elastic dough.

4.     Let it rest for atleast half an hour.

5.     Make balls and roll out into parathas. ( I got 16)

6.     Heat a griddle/ tava and fry the parathas on both sides. Use oil if you need generally I use oil for every alternate one.

7.     Serve with curds, tomato chutney.

Sending to Back to Basics

And veggie /fruit of the month

Archana

Raw Banana/Plantain Palya

Amma used to make this veggie for us out of raw bananas.

 I do not remember what all went on it all I remember is eating this delicious raw banana cubes with curd rice.

In my attempt to recreate this magic I tried making big cubes out of my raw bananas .  There were about 2 cups of cubes.

Raw Banana/Plantain Curry

This month I have two events running both close to my heart.
Back to roots where you can repost your own recipe with new pictures and send it to me and the other is Priya’s Veggie/Fruit of the month-Raw Bananas hosted by me.

Raw Bananas or plantains as they are called are high in starch content. So they can replace potatoes in most cases. Get the hint?

Coffee Chocolate Pudding~A Sweet Punch

Sweet Punch for November was CoffeeChocolate Pudding!!

All my favourites in one Yummmmmmmmmm! 

You bet I have baked this pudding twice already. The pudding needs to be served with ice-cream  but both the times we have not had it with ice cream as one of the girls seem to be having a cold. 

Coconut Barfi/Khobri Vadi/Khobre Cha Vadaya

F or Diwali I made my patent Khobri Vadi or Kobre chay vadya.

Made no change in the original recipe just added the lone carrot grated.  Next time will try more.

I loved the taste.

Sending it to my event Back to Roots.

Archana

Black and White Wednesday and Vada Pav~~ A Blog Hop #8

For Today's Blog Hop, a fantastic way to make new friends, which happens to be Radhika's brain child  I was paired with Rinku Naveen ,of Rinku’s Kitchen. Do visit her for delicious dishes especially recipes from Kerala. I have bookmarked quite a few from this wonderful Blog.

After Diwali and the sweets that we (read I) had eaten I wanted to make something savoury but something deep fried in continuation with the festive season.  Deep frying in my place is some kind of a rarity because being asthmatic I suffer a lot after frying.

 What better than Vada Pav. Filling and delicious street food made home and as kiddo said Indian Burger an explanation she gave her friend and exactly as Rinku has described.

Hosting Veggie/Fruit A Month – Raw Banana Event

I am pretty exited this happens to be the best month of the year for not only the weather is pleasant it also features my new nephew who will be us joining soon! He is going to be the youngest one in our family! Hurry up kiddo your Atya wants to see you too!!

All great people are born in November present company included!! J

So on this special occasion we have, that is Priya of  Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes  and I have decided to run a new show. You may have read the previews on Priya’s Blog here. Do check it out in case you have not for the new stars.

Hmm come to the point, Archana do not ramble in your old age!

So... we are featuring a new star Dhanta dan !!(That’s the drum roll)

Presenting

 This month for Veggie/Fruit a Month event

The STAR ingredient is

RAW BANANA or PLANTAIN   

Dhanta dan!!(That’s the drum roll again)

Bananas though an integral part of diet now many are unaware they can be eaten raw. 

Incidentally Alexander the Great was instrumental in bringing bananas to the west. Check this out here.

Did you know? bananas had in the past had seeds in them (info source my grandpa. He had seen then and apparently the bananas were full of seeds). There are people who do eat the skin of the fruit also. That's right they eat them unpeeled.

 

Description (thanks Wikipedia)

Saba bananas (Musa acuminata × balbisiana(ABB) cv. 'Saba')

Plantains tend to be firmer and lower in sugar content than "dessert" bananas. Bananas are almost always eaten raw, while plantains tend to be cooked or otherwise processed, and are used either when green or unripe (and therefore starchy) or overripe (and therefore sweet). An average plantain has about 220 calories and is a good source of potassium and dietary fiber.^[6] Plantains are a staple food in the tropical regions of the world, treated in much the same way as potatoes and with a similar neutral flavour and texture when the unripe fruit is cooked by steaming, boiling or frying.  

 Here are the nutritional Values

 Now you have to cook using Raw Banana or Plantain. What is it a fruit or a vegetable?

There are few rules of this event:

• You can use Plantain or Raw Banana,  in any way you want fry, roast, cook  But, the only thing is that Plantain or Raw Banana has to be the STAR of the recipe. Get Creative !!
•  It can be any course of the meal (appetizer/main course/side dish/dessert/beverage or breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack)
•   Recipe has to be strict vegetarian (eggs are allowed ONLY in baking). This is simply to re-enforce the fact that we can eat veggies without any meat and also for all our vegetarian friends, who do not eat meat.
•  You HAVE to make new recipes and old archived posts are not allowed. This is just so that we try and make new fresh recipes :)
• Please send in your entries before end of November 30^th  2011.
• If you are a blogger, you can simply send your Name and URL of your recipe at themadscientistskitchen AT gmail DOT com with the subject of "Veggie/Fruit A Month – RAW BANANA or PLANTAIN".
•  Non bloggers can email me your name, recipe and picture at themadscientistskitchen AT gmail DOT com with the subject of "Veggie/Fruit A Month –  RAW BANANA or PLANTAIN  ”. Link your post to this event. Use of the logo is appreciated.

•        I nterested in hosting it for any of the future months?Please feel free to email Priya here.

So,    what are you waiting for. Put on you culinary caps and start cooking a storm. O yes please do pass the word around!!  Happy Cooking!!Archana

Reposting For Event~~ Strawberry Custard/Mousse

Strawberry Custard/ Mousse

Coconut Semolina Cake~ Goan Bath

 To all Goans I am someone who is weird.

 At least most of my friends consider me strange as I don't use Naal or coconut, as it is known in Konkani, as much as they do. For most (read all) of their curries coconut is a must, be it fish curry or tonak.  They talk is 1 coconut or two and not having coconut at home is something equivalent to not having salt at home.

 Most Goan dishes sweets like Bebinca, Dodol are well known and are made of Coconut milk. Bath or Batkh as it sometimes pronounced is a delicious dish not too well known is made out of coconut and rava.

Fruit Chaat

Today is the last day of Blogging Marathon.  I am sorry that it has come to an end.  I thought that my family will start complaining about the salad or soup that I was dishing out daily luckily even the little one has not. I would have been happier if she had tried the different salads and soups but that’s her I did not want to force her as she might give up on them totally.

Today’s salad is Fruit chaat I must confess that only my hubby and I ate it as it was rejected by both my daughter’s for various reasons.

Milkmaid Chocolate Barfi

For Diwali I made Milkmaid ChocolateBarfi!

Anything with chocolate & I am the best mom that the world has so I set about making this one.

 I also spoke to my SIL asking her why we have not made in ages.  Even she was at a loss but she encouraged me remake as I confessed that I had not made anything for Diwali and everything was store brought.

Back to Roots~~ Butter Idli

F or quite some time I have wanted to make this special idli Butter Idli that my MIL used to make.

 It’s tricky as there is no urid daal in it and the consistency has to be absolutely correct.  I have already failed 3 times now.

So here is the recipe that I have already posted.

Sutikai Kosambri or Kakdi chi Koshimbir

Today I have chosen to write about my daughter’s favourite salad known in Kannada as “Sutikai Kosambri” or in Marathi as “Kakdi chi Koshimbir”!

Packed with nutrients of cucumber, peanuts and/or coconut and curds it is one of the easiest and the tastiest salad to put together plus you can eat it with chapatti or rice.

Palak Salad 2

I was to post a soup recipe today but there is a small hitch I have not made it as yet. I cannot decide if I want to make Lung Fung Soup or Hot and Sour as I want a Chinese soup.

Given a choice Hubby will say Sweet Corn, Elder one something exotic which though a challenge is not what I want to make and younger one Tomato Soup. So I am feeling like Atlas right now.

So folks bear with me and try this salad. It’s again, oh no as kids said, palak/spinach   and potatoes but a Tarla Dalal one! Put an end to the girls’ protests too! J

Well I put up with the garlic too just because it was Tarla Dalal recipe! Made a few changes which I have marked. also I have omitted the milk powder as I don't like the smell of it you can use it if you want about 2 tblspn. 

Tossed Salad with Sweet Lime

Stuck with some chopped cabbage that I needed to finish off and with something new that daughter demanded I came up with this simple but very tasty salad.

I have never before used sweet lime in my salad but after this once I will never stop using it in my salads.

Happy Diwali!!

One of my friends sent me this as Diwali Wishes! I love it So I am sharing it with you all.