Lemon cake with sabja seeds

I read about this cake today in Hindustan Times Cafe in the Lifestyle section. I thought to myself that since I had sabja seeds, why not try this cake.Basil seeds are called sabja in Hindi or Urdu. I love faloodas & for a hot tempered person like me, sabja seeds are a good source to keep me cool.

So, I started making up my mind to replace the ingredients stated in the recipe. The recipe used yoghurt as an egg replacer & it  used maida.I used flaxseed powder soaked in lukewarm water & applesauce made by pressure baking the apples  in cooker as the egg replacers instead of yoghurt or dahi.I replaced maida with whole wheat flour or atta.I would have loved to add 1/4 cup maida in combination with whole wheat flour as such combination gives good texture  .I had run out of maida ..so used whole wheat flour.I used the little bit of Amul butter leftover in the refrigerator . I was sure, the omega 3 fatty acids in flaxseeds would more than make up for any  deficiency of  oil or butter

I converted the ingredients given in recipe  from gms to cups.

Ingredients : 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, 0.5 cups sugar, 1tbsp Amul butter, 1 cup Applesauce(  2 apples which were pressure baked to make applesauce by removing seeds & peeling off skin.), 1 tbsp flax seed powder mixed in 3 tbsp warm water & left for more than 15 minutes to get a gelatinous liquid, 1 tsp baking soda, 2tsp baking powder, lemon juice of 1.5 lemons , 1tsp lemon zest,1 tbsp sabja seeds or basil seeds.

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

Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix whole wheat flour, baking powder & baking soda many times with fork or spoon. Keep aside.

Mix all liquid ingredients with sugar.Mix flaxseed water gelatinous mix with applesauce, lemon juice, butter,lemon zest & sugar. I have observed that mixing sugar with liquid ingredients helps increase moisture content during baking.Keep aside.

Line a baking dish with butter paper & keep aside.

Mix the liquid mix into the dry whole wheat baking powder-soda mixture.Mix such that no lumps remain. This will be the cake batter. Pour the cake batter on to the butter paper lined in the baking dish. I sprinkled the sabja seeds on the top of the cake . And this led to uneven distribution. I should have mixed the sabja seeds in the batter.

Bake the cake in oven at 180 degrees centigrade or till a toothpik inserted into  the cake comes out clean.

To ensure that cake batter has been baked fully, I microwave ( in microwave mode ) the baked cake for 5-10 minutes in my convection cum microwave oven.

Let the cake cool in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove the cake from oven. Let it cool outside the oven  for 25-30 minutes.Take a plate & put the baking dish upside down on to the plate.  Turn the cake upwards now so that the sabja topping is on top. Cut the cake into desirable shapes & serve.

The cake was fluffy though lemon flavour was mild .It had a nice crunch of the sabja seeds topping.

Poha Dosa & roasted gram dal chutni with minimum coconut.

My mom told me about this poha dosa which her brother had made for my parents when they visited him. I googled & came across the poha dosa recipe. Yet ,the googled recipes had urad dal in the ingredients whereas my mom said that the dosa prepared by my maternal uncle was ,sans urad dal. I made the poha dosa sans urad dal.

Ingredients : 1 cup thick poha(  preferably) , 2 cups rice, 1/4 tsp methi seeds , buttermilk for soaking the poha rice mix, salt to taste , oil for greasing tawas for dosa.

Method : Wash poha & rice two three times .Keep aside. Add buttermilk to the washed poha rice mix to soak them.Add 1/4 tsp methi seeds to this mix so that fenugreek seeds are soaked as well.  I soaked them for nearly five hours .

After five hours of soaking , I ground them nicely in the mixer. Even wet grinder can be used for grinding. I thought that I had ground the batter fine .I was wrong as I had added water after 2 hours of soaking as poha had soaked up lots of buttermilk. And this water became excess .I did seperate this excess water from the soaked mix. And did the grinding with the retained buttermilk in the poha rice mix. Yet the poha had not ground properly...this I realised when I spread the batter on tawa .

After making the batter, I kept it over nite to ferment with sourness of buttermilk. Next morning, I made dosas after adding salt to the batter.

The first dosa refused to spread & when I tried, it would tear off. Next dosa onwards , it was good going as tawa had got heated up & I was able to spread dosa batter nicely.

Spread batter on heated tawa. And let it cook .After the edges of the dosa rise up a little indicating that the downside has cooked, spread a tsp of oilon the dosa. Then, flip it over & cook on the other side. Cook more dosas this way. These dosas cannot be made thinner, I believe. You can try & even I will ask my mom on her return & update this blog post.The dosas are tasty & filling.

Serve poha dosas with chutni of your choice.

I made this chutni which I read about on Chitra's food book.

Chutni Ingredients : 1/2 cup roasted gram dal, 2 tbsp fresh coconut, 2-3 green chillies, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1/2 tsp sugar ( optional ), 1 tsp lemon juice, salt taste, 1/2 tbsp oil, 1/4 tsp hing powder, few curry leaves, 1 byadgi mirchi broken into pieces, 1 /2 tsp urad dal, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds.

Method : Add coconut, roasted gram dal, roughly chopped green chillies , grated ginger, lemon juice, salt, sugar & water to the chutni jar attachment of mixer & grind to a fine paste. Keep aside.

 In a kadahi , heat oil. Add mustard seeds.After they pop up, add urad dal .After urad dal turn golden brown, add curry leaves & byadgi mirchi pieces. Put off gas. Fry the mirchi & curry leaves. Add hing powder to kadahi & mix nicely.Pour this seasoning over the chutni made & kept aside. Mix the seasoning into the chutni nicely & serve with dosas.

I did not add extra water to the chutni as suggested in Chitra's food book. I made it thick. I added lemon juice instead of tamarind & ginger in place of garlic. And this dosa chutni combo was relished by my family as also my maid to whom I served 1 dosa as a sample.

Oats dhokla.

There were some left over Quaker brand of oats. I needed to use them as  I hate wasting anything. I had tried oats dosas & they were not so great .So , I decided to try oats dhokla.

I googled & came across this oats dhokla recipe .I liked this version. I wanted to add some leftover besan or chana dal atta which was lying since a month in the referegerator.I googled again & got this quaker oats dhokla recipe which uses besan.

My version of oats dhokla uses besan, sooji or rava  & oats.

Ingredients : 1/2 cup curd, 1 cup oats powder, 1/2 cup rava, 1/4 cup besan, 1 green chilli finely chopped, 1 tsp grated ginger, a few curry leaves, 1 packet Eno fruit salt, 2tbsp + 1 tsp oil, 1 tsp mustard,1/4 tsp turmeric,  1/4 tsp  hing powder, 1/2 tsp unpolished white til or sesame,salt to taste.

Method : Dry roast the oats for 1-2 minutes. After they cool down, powder them.

In a bowl, add rava, besan & powdered oats, salt, 1 tbsp oil, 1 finely chopped green chilli, grated ginger & dahi. Mix all nicely. Add water to get a thick batter. It must have drop down consistency like idli batter.Keep aside for at least 1 hour. I kept it for nearly two hours as in the quaker oats dhokla , the soaking time for batter is written as 1 hour. In the other oats dhokla recipe , soaking time is less than half an hour. I wanted to be sure that the rava , besan & oats have soaked up really well & so soaked for a longer time.

After two hours, put on the steamer or cooker with water to steam. Grease a plate with oil. Keep aside. Mix Eno salt of a packet with 1-2  tbsp water . It will start bubbling up. Mix this bubbling Eno water mixture to the dhokla batter & pour it immediately into the greased plate. Keep the greased plate on atsnd in the midst of steaming water in cooker. Close the cooker lid ( without whistle ) & steam for 10-15 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the tadka, heat 1 tbsp oil. Add mustard seeds. When they pop up, add sesame seeds,  curry leaves. Put off gas. Add hing powder & haldi to the tadka. Mix tadka nicely. Pour it over the dhokla cake & spread the tadka all over the dhokla  cake.

Cut the dhokla cake into desired shapes & serve with chutni or as it is.

I was too hasty in cutting the dhokla & so the edges cut out roughly as can be seen from the snap. Yet, it was fluffy & tasty !!!!

I have added haldi to tadka. Haldi is optional. If you like more chillies or more ginger, that can be adjusted as per taste or choice. It goes without saying that any brand of oats can be used.