Strawberry milk shake

The strawberry season is ending .Yet strawberries are available.I thought ,why not try strawberry milk shake.

Ingredients : 10-12 strawberries,1 glass milk ( I use fat free or toned milk ) , 2 tsp sugar.

Method : Clean & remove the stems of the strawberries.Chop  them roughly.Put them in a blender or mixer.Make a pulp by running the mixer once.Add milk & sugar.Blend nicely by running the mixer for 1-2 minutes. Starwaberry smoothie is ready. This made two glasses.

Refrigerate it & then serve it chilled.Ice cubes can be added to the shake at room temperature to give a cooling effect.

Carrot pumpkin cake

I wanted to try a recipe which used carrots as well as red pumpkin & came across this @ http://veganthyme.blogspot.in/2009/10/vegan-carrot-pumpkin-cake-with-orange.html

I made mine using yoghurt & hence mine is vegetarian.

Ingredients :

Dry :1 cup atta ( I used Pillsburry multigrain ) ,1/8 tsp cinnamon,1/2 tsp baking soda,1/2 tsp baking powder, salt to taste.

Wet :1/2 cup grated carrot,1/2 cup grated pumpkin, 1tbsp flaxseed meal

,1/4 cup yoghurt ( dahi ) ,1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/8 tsp grated ginger,1tbsp oil.

Mix all dry ingredients.Keep aside.

Soak 1 tbsp flaxseed meal in 3 tbsp water for 15 minutes.After 15 minutes,mix all wet ingredients.

Make a well in the dry mix & pour the wet mix into it whisking it nicely so that no lumps remain.If the dough is too thick  & lumps remain ,pl add water or even curds.

Take a microwaveable vessel & line it with butter paper.Pour the cake dough onto the butter paper in the vessel.Bake for 8-10 minutes in microwave.Let it cool.Remove from microwave after 5 minutes.Prick a toothpik or knife.If it comes out clean ,cake is done.If not bake for 1-2 more minutes.Again check .

Let the cake cool outside for 10 minutes.Turn the cake vessel upside down on to a plate.After 4-5 minutes the cake will drop down on plate.Sometimes it may drop down earlier.

Remove the butter paper lining the cake.Cut the cake into desired pieces & serve.

This cake was dense as flax seed meal has been used as egg replacer. Next time,I want to use yoghurt as egg replacer & see the results.

Arbi ke cutlet

I make bread sandwitches on a weekly basis for my kid.The four crusty  sides of the bread are cut by knife & kept in a box in the refrigerator.I use these crusty sides in making cutlets.I generally used boiled & mashed  potatoes for these cutlets.

I thought why not experiment & make the cutlets by using arbi? So here is my recipe.

Ingredients : 1/4 kg arbi,2 bread sides,1/4 tsp haldi,1/4 tsp hing,1-2 hari mirchi,1 few sprigs of kadipatta,1tsp grated ginger, 1tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp flaxseed powder( optional ),  1-2 tbsp oil,salt to taste.

Method : Pressure cook the arbi.After the cooker has cooled,remove the arbi into a plate.Let it cool.Now peel off & mash the arbis into a pulp.Arbis is very sticky.One can apply oil on hands before doing this pulping.Add flax seed powder to this pulp.Mix nicely.Flax seed powder is good fat.Keep aside.

Take the bread sides & tear them into small pieces with hands or knife.Add roughly chopped ginger,hari mirchi & kadipattas to this.Take all this & put it into mixer jar & make it into a fine powder.I do thsi as all mirchi,kadipatta &  ginger are finely mixed with bread .

Mix this bread mixture with arbi pulp,Add haldi ,hing ,lemon juice & salt & mix nicely .Grease palms & take a little of the arbi bread mixture into palms & shape into a flat round circle.repeat with the remaining arbi bread mixture.

Take a tawa & spread some oil on it.Put the flat rounds on the tawa& put on the gas.After five minutes,reverse the flat rounds -the bottoms of the tikkies would have been browned.After another five minutes,take the tikkis of the tawa.

Serve with chutni or sauce.

Chikoo milk shake

I had brought chikoos after a  fairly long period.I wanted my kid to eat the chikoos.She is not someone who will eat chikoos. So,I decided to make a milkshake using chikoos.

Yes,she drank it I am glad that I made it.

Ingredients : 3 chikoos,2 tsp sugar,1 cup milk.

Method : Wash the chikoos. Peel the skin & remove the seeds from the chikoos. Cube the chikoos.Put the cubed chikoos in a blender. Blend them into a paste.Now add the sugar & milk.Blend again.

The sapota milk shake is ready.It is quite thick.It can be served by adding ice cubes or by just chilling it in refrigerator.I served by cooling it for half an hour in the refrigerator.

This made 2 glasses.

Bhindi fry & sambhar

I brought a two litre pack of Fortune Rice bran health oil so that I could take part in this contest by BlogAdda.I was able to make two dishes with just a table spoon of Fortune Rice bran health oil. That is why  it  is  such a low absorb oil !

Take a kadhai & put 1 tbsp Fortune rice bran health  oil.Put on the gas.As the oil warms up,add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds.After they splutter,add half a piece of byadgi mirchi.Add some kadipatta .Put of the gas.The byadgi mirch will have turned colour & the curry leaves would be crunchy.Take out the byadgi mirchi & curry leaves from the kadhai along with some mustard seeds.Keep aside.

Ingredients :

Bhindi fry 

Ingredients : 1/4 kilo bhindi washed dried & finely chopped,1/2 tsp red chilli powder,1/4 tsp hing,1/4 tsp turmeric ,juice of 1 /4 of a lemon,& salt to taste.

Method : Put the bhindi in the  kadhai which has some oil & mustard seeds remaining.Put on the gas.Mix the bhindi nicely so that oil & mustard seeds are nicely mingled with the chopped bhindi.Add haldi & hing.Mix nicely again.Let it cook for five to 10 minutes.Add lemon juice & mix so that it mingles nicely with all bhindi.Let it cook for 5 minutes.

Now add red chilli powder.Mix nicely so that it gets coated on all bhindi pieces.Let it cook for 5 minutes.Add salt .Mix nicely.Cook covered with a lid for five minutes.Put off the gas. Bhindi fry is ready.I use very little chilli powder as my kid loves bhindi fry & she prefers hardly any spices.

White pumpkin sambhar

Ingredients : 1 cup chopped white pumpkin,1 tomato chopped, 1 tbsp tamrind soaked in water,1tbsp sambar powder ( any brand ) ,1/2 tsp hing,1/2 tsp haldi,1/3 cup tur dal,salt to taste.

Method : Pressure cook tur dal with the chopped white white pumpkin pieces.Add haldi & hing to the dal before it is pressure cooked as this gives nice aroma.

Meanwhile in a vessel -take chopped tomatoes & water.Put on the gas.The tomatoes will get mushy in no time.Squeeze the tamarind soaked in water.Put this tamarind water into the vessel which has tomatoes cooking in it.Let the tamarind water get boiling.Squeeze some more tamarind paste from the tamarind & add again.Let the water be boiling.Now add the cooked tur dal with white pumpkin  pieces to the vessel.Add sambhar powder.Add salt to taste.Let it all come to a boil. Put off the gas.Garnish with the mustard-curry leaves- byadgi mirchi seasoning made earlier ( at the beginning of this recipe page ).The sambhar is ready !

Just 1 tbsp oil for 2 dishes is simply awesome.So healthy !

This post is a part of Healthy & Tasty Recipe Contest with Fortune Rice Bran Health Oil &BlogAdda.com 

Eggless carrot orange cake

I wanted to try a cake recipe with carrots & oranges as ingredients as the winter season is going to end soon.I googled & came across this cake recipe @http://vegweb.com/recipes/orange-carrot-cake.I made some changes & got a superbly textured cake -of orange colour.

Ingredients : 1 cup multigrain atta ( I used Pillsburry ),1/2 tsp baking soda,1/2 tsp baking powder, a pinch of salt,1 tbsp orange zest,1/4-1/3 cup orange juice,1/2 cup dahi,3/4 cup carrot,1/4 cup oil,1/3 cup brown sugar.

Method : Grate carrot .Squeeze orange juice in a blender after removing seeds.This si the most tedious step.Next time around,I am going to just clean orange by removing seeds & all skin & cut up & put the orange strands into the cake batter.Better still would be adding Minute maid orange drink in place of orange juice as it contains orange pulp.

Mix oil,dahi,orange zest ( grate  orange peel or finely chop orange peel & use it ) ,grated carrot & orange juice.Add brown  sugar to this liquid mixture.Mix nicely.Keep aside.If regaulr sugar is being used,it can be added to liquid mix or to dry mix of atta, baking soda etc.

Mix all dry ingredients - atta,baking soda,baking powder & salt.Make a well.Into this well pour ,the liquid mix & nicely make a batter so that no lumps remain.Batter  must have drop down consistency.Keep aside.

Take a microwaveable vessel.Line it with butter paper.Pour the cake batter into it.Microwave for 8-10 minutes.Let it cool.Poke a knife to check if cake is done.If knife is clean,cake is done.If not ,bake for 1-2 minutes more.Cool.

Remove cake vessel from microwave .Let it cool for 10 more minutes.Take a plate & put the cake vessel upside down on the plate.After a few minutes,the cake will drop down on plate.

Cut the cake into desired shapes & serve.The cake was moderately sweet -so apt.This is the best cake by me so far- it had a texture which is found in cakes sold in markets !

More sugar can be added if so desired.