Pumpkin raita.

This is an extremely simple dish with lovely flavours. My mom has taught me this dish.This can be replicated with carrots too. Only the seasoning will be devoid of fenugreek seeds in case of carrot raita.

Ingredients : 150-200 gm red pumpkin washed & roughly chopped ( I keep the skin on if it is clean ) , 1 green chilli ( optional ) , 1/ 2 cup yoghurt, 1red byadgi mirchi broken into bits, 4-6 fenugreek seeds ( methi dana ),  10-15 curry leaves, 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp hing, 1/4 tsp haldi, 2 tsp oil, salt to taste.

Method :Pressure cook the chopped pumpkin pieces with green chilli in pressure cooker.Keep aplate which covers the rice vessel in pressure cooker. Keep the washed & chopped pumpkin pieces in the plate along with the washed green chilli. Pressure cook rice.

After the cooking is over, put off gas. Let the cooker cool.Open the cooker. Pumpkin & green chilli would be cooked.

In a bowl, take the pumpkin & green chilli. Mash with hands or with  spoon or ladle.Add salt.Mix with the mashed pumpkin & green chilli. Keep aside.

Beat the yogurt to form a smooth paste in another bowl.Keep aside.

Prepare the seasoning. Heat oil in a kadhai.Add methi seeds followed by cumin seeds. Add curry leaves & byadgi mirchi pieces. Put off gas.Add hing & haldi to the kadhai.Keep aside

Mix the beaten yoghurt with the mashed pumpkin- green chilli mix. Pour the seasoning over the pumpkin yoghurt mix. Mix seasoning nicely with pumpkin dahi mix .Serve with rotis, rice or pulao or khichdi !

The raita looks so much like a dip ,perhaps like a thick gravy .This dip can work with dal wadas or even crackers.I love the simple flavours of this dip.I am sure you will love it too !

Date oats energy bars or cake ? !

I wanted to use date paste which has been in my freezer.I thought, why not try some energy bars. I googled & liked this recipe of banana oats bars.And yet,I felt, that it became a cake .Rather, I would love to, hear, what you, my readers, think about this recipe ? Is it a cake or an energy bar  ?  You decide & comment.

Ingredients : 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup atta or whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup jaggery sugar, 1/4 cup maida, 1/2 cup date paste ( 1/3  cup tightly dates which have been soaked in water can be pureed & 1/2 cup of this paste can be used),  1/4 cup apple sauce, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, a pinch of salt,1tbsp unpolished white seasame seeds or til,  1/4 cup toasted walnuts ( toasted them in microwave by breaking them into smaller bits & warming them on high power for 1 minutes...repeated this  5-6 times ), 2 tbsp oil , water to adjust batter consistency.

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes.

Mix all dry ingredients ...that is mix atta, oats, maida, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon Mix all these with afork or whisk many times over so that al;l become one. Keep aside.

Mix all wet ingredients  that is date paste, oil & apple sauce.I had to sue mixer to mix all these as date paste is very thick & does not blend easily by spoon or whisk etc.Add jaggery sugar.Jaggery sugar is added to wet mix as it is quite moist & it will make fruit paste like applesauce exude water. All this helps in making batter easily.

Make well in dry mix & put in the wet mix. Mix nicely. Since the wet mix was insufficient to get a batter, I added water ( nearly 1/2 cup ) .Mix all nicely to get a batter.Add the roasted walnut bits into the batter mix nicely.Add 1/2 tbsp seasame seeds.

Take baking vessel & line it on the inside with butter paper. Pour the cake batter into the baking vessel on the butter paper. Sprinkle top of the batter thus et in the baking vessel with the remaining 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds. Bake in oven at 180 degrees for half an hour .Insert atoothpick to check if cake ids done. Otherwise bake for 5-10 minutes more.

As has become my habit, I bake in microwave mode for 10 minutes after the convection baking time is over for any cake or bread recipe. Put off oven.Let it cool./Cool cake outside for more than half an hour. Put it upside down on a plate. Remove the butter paper sticking to the bottom of cake .Cut into desired pieces & distribute to  your loved ones !

The cake or energy bars were delicious. All loved them. I used Quaker brand oats as it is.I did not powder them even a bit.The dater paste remained in lumps n it showed up when slices of the cake or energy bar was cut .That gave it a lovely shaded  texture as well !