Dum aloo

I love potatoes.I like the simple aloo fry as a side dish with chapatis.I wanted to try dum aloo.And this weekend, during veggie shopping,I got baby potatoes.I decided that I must try dum aloo .I googled & came across this recipe at Padhu's kitchen.

Ingredients : 9-10 baby potatoes or small potatoes ( mine were not baby potatoes & yet smaller than normal ones ), 1/4 tsp garam masala powder, 1-2 green roughly chopped, 2 medium onions roughly chopped, 2 medium tomatoes roughly chopped, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp jeera, 1-2 tbsp dahi, 1/4 tsp haldi, 1 tbsp oil, salt to taste.

Method : Pressure cook baby potatoes for 2-3 whistles. Keep aside the cooker till it cools down.After the cooker cools, remove the potatoes & peel their skins carefully so as not to break the small potatoes.Prick the potatoes at 4-5 places all over with fork. Keep aside.

Grind the chopped onions, green chillies & ginger to a coarse paste or a fine paste. Keep aside.

Make a paste of tomatoes & keep aside.

In a kadhai, take oil.Add jeera.After they pop up, add the onion-green chilly ginger paste. Fry the paste in oil till the raw onion smell goes away. Add the bay leaf. Fry it. Now add  tomato paste to the kadhai.Mix nicely.Add haldi.Mix. Add salt .Mix .Fry till raw smell of tomatoes goes away. Add the pricked potatoes into the gravy. Add garam masala powder. Add dahi to gravy in case, the garvy is too spicy. Mix. 1/2 cup water to gravy.Let it come to boil on slow flame.Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. The dum aloo is ready to be served with rotis and or rice !

I felt ,that I should have pressure cooked for 1-2 whistles only.And then shallow fried pricked potatoes that will help in potatoes not breaking. in other words, potatoes will stay in shape ...round & plump !


I added dahi .Even chaas can be added.That will help in giving a tangier Add chaas or dahi in samll amounts so as not to make the gravy very thin.

For those who would like to skip onions, please feel free to do so.Add a pureed & boiled medium sized carrot. More masalas can be added to neutralise sweet taste of carrot.

Vegan ( flaxseed meal ) Carrot cake

Carrot cake is an easy recipe & turns out well.Even Saffron Trail, a food blog that I follow on facebook says so.I had tried an eggless carrot cake when I had started baking .And it was my best cake in those early days of baking. My neighbour had remarked that.

Yet,so many days on, I could never repeat that cake.This time on ,I decided that I must bake with carrots. And I wanted to make it vegan.I googled & came across  some recipes.I decided to try one .And as expected, I had some ingredients & so it turned out to be another  version of vegan carrot cake.

Ingredients : 1 cup atta, 1/4 cup maida, 1 cup grated carrot , 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar,2 tbsp flaxseed meal soaked in 6 tbsp warm water, 1 + 1/4  tsp baking powder,1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, few  dried fruits ( assorted blueberries & cranberries ) for topping.

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Mix atta, maida, baking powder & baking soda.Add cinnamon powder .Mix all many times over.Keep aside .This is the dry ingredient mix.

Add oil to the soaked flaxseed meal.Mix nicely.Add brown sugar .Mix nicely. This is the wet ingredient mix.

Make a well in the dry ingredient mix.Pour the wet ingredient mix into it. Fold all nicely so that no lumps remain. Add the grated carrots.Mix again.Add water if needed. No lumps should remain in cake batter.

Line a baking vessel with butter paper. Pour the cake batter in the vessel.Sprinkle  some dried fruits of choice on the cake batter after it sets down in vessel before beginning to bake.Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 40-45 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. If it has some batter sticking to toothpick, bake again for 10 minutes.Better option is microwave for four to five minutes. I usually bakes it completely.Put off  oven.Let the cake cool in oven for 10-15 minutes. Then ,take out the baking vessel with cake & let it cool for 30-35 minutes outside the oven. Put it upside down on a plate.Remove the butter paper. Make the cake straighten up as it has been put upside down on the plate. Cut into desired shapes & serve.

Coconut free kootu.

I had come across a kootu recipe with out coconut some time back.I wanted to try that.I googled & came across this quick kootu. Luckily,I had doodhi ( also called ghia or laukai ) at home. I used it to make this kootu.I have made kootu earlier & that recipe uses coconut.

Ingredients : 1 small & thin doodhi peeled & cut into small  size pieces, 1 small tomato cut into small pieces,1/4 cup toor dal, 1/tbsp split mung dal, 1/2 tsp urad dal, 1/4 tsp jeera, 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 sambhar powder , 1 green chilli, few curry leaves,1/4 tsp hing, 1/4 tsp haldi,1tsp oil,salt to taste.

Method : Wash toor & split mung dal together. Soak for some time ( maximum half an hour ) Soaking is optional.Add cut doohi, haldi & hing.Pressure cook for two whistles.Then cook on slow flame for 5-10 minutes.This is to cook the toor dal nicely.Put off gas.Let it cool.After it cools, try to mash veggies with the pav bhaji masher.

Make a puree of diced tomato.Keep aside.

In a kadhai,take oil.Heat it up.Add mustard seeds, followed by jeera.Add urad dal.They will turn golden brown.After they pop up, add finely chopped green chilli & kadi pattas. Fry for a few seconds. Add the pureed tomato paste .Fry the paste till raw smell  of tomato goes away.Add sambhar powder. Fry for a few seconds. Add the dal veggie mix now.Add salt. Mix nicely. Bring the mix to a boil.Put off gas.

The kootu is thick & flavourful.You will not miss the coconut. Even my husband asked me if coconut was not added , how was it so thick.I think, the secret is the mashed veggies.

Serve kootu with rotis and rice.It goes well with both.

I ground the green chilli & curry leaves in the dry mixer jar to get a coarsely ground mix which I added to the vagar.This was done to add more pungency to the kootu in place of finely chopped green chilly & curry leaves.

Vegan mango cake

I had already made an eggless  mango cake earlier.This time around,I wanted to try a vegan version of the mango cake. I googled & came across this recipe by chefinyou.I did not have all ingredients listed in the recipe.I used whole wheat flour & that's how I made my version of this vegan cake.

Ingredients : 1 cup atta, 1/2 cup maida , 1.5 cups mango puree ( mango pulp from two kesar mangoes ) , 1 tsp baking powder, 1tsp baking soda, 1-2  tbsp brown sugar ,1/4 cup oil, a pinch of salt & 1/4-1/3 cup water ( optional -if needed ).

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Mix atta, maida, baking powder, baking soda & salt nicely man times over with whisk or fork.This is dry mix.Keep aside.

 Mix oil ,mango puree & sugar nicely. This is wet mix.

Pour wet mix into dry mix & make a batter.Please  take care that no lumps remain in batter. I had to add some water ( approximately 1/4 cup to make a lump less batter ) .

Line a baking vessel with butter paper. Pour the batter into the vessel on to the butter paper. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade till cake is done.This can be tested by piercing a fork into the cake .If it comes out clean , cake is done.Otherwise bake for 5-10 minutes more.




I baked in microwave mode for 5 more minutes as I found that the fork had some batter sticking to it.Then Cool it for 10-15 minutes by switching off oven.Then take out cake & cool it outside oven for half an hour & more. The sides of the cake would have parted ways from sides of baking vessel.Put it upside down on to a plate.Remove the butter paper sticking to the bottom of the cake.Turn the cake upside down Cut into desired shapes & serve.

Please  test with fork .If batter is found sticking ,  bake in microwave mode for 5 minutes. That  settles it generally. That bakes it completely.

I begin baking by covering the top of baking vessel in which batter is going to be baked with aluminium foil .This is to prevent burning of the cake top .Just when last 10-15 minutes of baking is left, put off baking by switching off oven.Remove the aluminum foil & resume baking.This will give a nice crust to the cake top.

I found that this cake was dense.The baker at chefinyou has stated the reasons why cake could have come dense & not light towards the end of the recipe of vegan mango cake. It had risen when it was warm & then it settled down.This happened when I had baked it & even when I baked it again in microwave mode for 5 minutes. I was afraid that my cake had failed. And surprise of surprise, it was moist .I was able to cut with a butter knife.I found sweetness wanting .So I  generously sprayed powdered sugar on it before serving it to my neighbours & maids.One of may maids remarked that there was no need of the sprinkled sugar.My husband also ate it like that, without the sugar !

Mavinkayi gojju

I had a small raw mango in my refrigerator. I wanted to try this  gojju with that mango. I decided to make my recipe trying to recollect how my mom makes it.I looked up this gojju recipe on Taste of Mysore 

Ingredients : 1 small raw mango ( my raw mango had turned somewhat ripe & it was yellow on the inside & not so sour ) , 1 tbsp fresh dessicated coconut, 2-3 green chillies finely chopped, 5-6 sprigs of curry leaves ( kadi  pattas ) , 1/4 tsp methi seeds, 1 byadgi chilli broken into 2-3 pieces,1/2 tsp jeera, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp haldi, 1/4 tsp hing, 1 tbsp gur or jaggery, 1tsp rasam powder, 1 tbsp oil,salt to taste.

Method : Roughly chopp the raw mango.Keep it aside.

In the dry grinder jar, grind the green chillies with washed kadi pattas.A coarse green mix will be obtained.Keepa side.

Grind the fresh dessicated coconut & raw mango pieces into a paste .Add little water if it gets too dry.Keep aside.

In a kadhai , take oil & warm it on gas.Add mustard seeds.After they pop up, add methi seeds followed by fenugreek seeds.After they have popped up , put the byadgi mirchi pieces.They get fried in a second or so as the oil is really hot now.Next ,add the green mix of chillies & kadipattas.Fry it for a few seconds. Add haldi & hing. Mix nicely.Now , add the raw mango coconut paste mix. Add the guthli or the mango seed as well as it has some remanent raw mango pulp sticking to it. Fry it all for about 3-4 minutes.Add 1/4-1/2 cup water. Bring it all to boil.Add salt & jaggery.Let it simmer for five minutes. Put off gas.Serve gojju with rice and or rotis.

My kadhai had got too hot & the jeera, mustard & methi seeds had turned black.My parents said the gojju was too sour .I found it to be mildly sour.