Jeera rice

I have made jeera rice earlier & it turned out mushy. This time around , I was determined to make a  a better version. I wanted to use the pressure cooker method. I have no patience trying to cook rice in an open pan.I checked a few recipes like Nithya's Nalabagam & Veg recipes of India.

And believe me, my version of jeera rice turned out real good though it can be made better next time.

Ingredients : 3/4 cup rice, 1/2 ts jeera, 2 cloves slightly crushed , 1-2 bay leaves, 1/2-1 inch cinnamon stick, 1tbsp ghee,

Method : In a vessel, heat ghee. Add bay leaves, crushed cloves, cinnamon stick & jeera or cumin. After they all get aromatic, add rice & mix all nicely.Roast for 2-3 minutes. Add salt Add 1 1/4 cup water. Pressure cook upto 2 whistles .Put off gas.After cooker cools, remove lid of pressure cooker. Jeera rice is ready ! This can be served with aloo matar or whole masoor or chhole or rajma or any other side dish of choice.

I think ,i need to add more cumin seeds. Next time around, I must improve on that.

Vegan Banana cake with peanut butter topping .

It was my birthday & I wanted to bake a cake. I had some ripe bananas ( 4 medium or maybe small ) & some leftover gulab jamun syrup. I decided to make a banana cake. I thought about using only baking powder & no baking soda .This was the way to keep colour of the cake non brown. I wanted to do some frosting & googled & got this peanut butter frosting idea.I used just peanut butter without any cream or sugar. I like the peanut butter taste .Moreover, I recycled leftover gulab jamun syrup into the cake recipe. Skipped using sugar other than the left over syrup.

Ingredients  : 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup maida, 4-5 small bananas ( not elaichi bananas ) , 1/2 cup gulab jamun syrup, 1 tbsp of assorted  sun dried  fruits like cranberries & blueberries ( optional )   1 tbsp oil,1-2 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp sugar strand sprinkles( optional ) , 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder,a pinch of salt.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Mix the atta, maida, baking powder, cardamom powder , salt  with a fork or a whisk many times over till all get mixed nicely with one another. This is the dry mix .Keep aside.

Peel & mash the bananas into a pulp.Add oil & the leftover gulab jamun syrup.Mix all nicely. thsi is the wet mix.Keep   aside.

Make a well in the dry mix .Pour the wet mix into the well & start mixing with a whisk.Mix till no lumps remain.Add water drop by drop if the dough is too dry or has lumps in it. The dough must have no lumps. Add in the assorted sun dried berries. Alternatively , chopped walnuts or almonds or raisins can be added as well.

Line the inside of baking vessel with butter paper. Pour the cake dough into the lined baking vessel. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 40-45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. I always bake it in microwave mode for five minutes after this 45 minutes baking just to make sure that no part of cake remains uncooked.

Initially, bake the cake by covering the cake with aluminium foil.Towards the end that is after 29-30 minutes of baking are over, put off oven.Remove the aluminum foil & bake the remaining 15 minutes. This is to prevent burning of cake top .Caketop may get burnt if left uncovered.The last 15 minutes of baking are done by uncovering top to ensure browning of cake .This browning gives a nice crust to the cake.After 45 minutes baking, bake in microwave mode for five minutes to prevent any part of cake from remaining cooked.

Let the cake remain in the oven. After fifteen minutes or more, take out cake & cool it outside for 35 -45 minutes. It must be at room temperature to add the peanut butter topping. Put the cake vessel upside down on to a plate. Remove the butter paper from the bottom. Now put the cake with the bottom side up on the plate.

Start smearing the cake top with peanut butter by a spoon or a butter knife.I spread a thin layer. Then tried to sprinkle some coloured sugar strands in a pattern on the cake. As I tried to sprinkle, the sugar strands , the sugar strands got powdered unevenly.This can be noticed in the snaps of the cake. Satisfied, I cut the cake into desired shapes. This is my first attempt at any topping on cake & I am proud of it !

The cake felt somewhat dry.My neighbour remarked that my cakes were getting better & better at each attempt. That's the best compliment I have received !

To improve, the moistness of cake, it would be advisable to add some more oil maybe half -1 tbsp more.Alternatively, add one more ripe peeled & mashed banana.

Kiwi flavoured rasgullas.

Kiwis are in season. I had got them in my refrigerator too. So , just had an idea. Why not try rasgullas flavored with a kiwi ? And my mom's b'day was approaching too ! I googled for the recipe & drew a blank. I went ahead & made them .Method is similar to strawberry or mango rasgullas which I have posted earlier.

Ingredients : 1/2 litre low fat milk , 1/2 lemon , 1/2 cup sugar, 1 kiwi fruit washed & depeeled.

Method : Puree the kiwi in the mixer .Stain the pulp & keep aside. Please collect the watery liquid as well. Add more water to the pulp & stain it again after mixing pulp & water. Do this two three times.
Keep aside the pulp & the strained liquid separately in two vessels.

Heat  1/2 litre of milk in a vessel on the gas. When the malai starts forming on the milk being heated, add the kiwi pulp.Mix. Put off gas. The milk solids will separate & yet not much. Start squeezing the lemon into the milk .Keep mixing the milk & lemon juice. After a few minutes, all milk solids would have separated giving a clear slightly greenish grey water.Strain the liquid along with the milk solids on to a thin cloth. The water which gets collected can be used for making roti dough. Water can be added to rice while cooking as well.Wash the milk solids which have collected in the cloth 3-4 times to completely remove the smell of lemon .These milk solids form a lump called chenna or soft paneer.Tie the ends of the cloth into tight knot to remove excess water from the chenna. To facilitate this, put some heavy vessel on the cloth knot containing chenna & leave it for half an hour.

Meanwhile, put the pressure pan or any  wide vessel on the gas .Add one cup water to it. Add sugar .Put on the gas on slow mode. Very soon ,all sugar will have dissolved. Put off gas.Add the kiwi pulp strained water to this  syrup in the vessel or pressure pan.

After half an hour, untie the knots of the cloth & remove the chenna lump. It will be slightly green with black dots ( because kiwi pulp has been added ) .Knead this lump for fifteen to twenty minutes with your hands . This is to make the chenna softer & softer. Grease palms with a little ghee & start making small balls of the chenna.I got 12 small chenna balls. Drop these chenna balls into the kiwi water sugar syrup .Pressure cook these chenna balls in sugar syrup till 1 whistle. After the  whistle blows, lower the gas flame to slow. Keep it on slow flame for 8-10 minutes Then put off gas. After the cooker has cooled off ( generally 15-20 minutes ) , remove the whistle. Take off the lid. The kiwi rasgullas are ready !

The black dots seen in the kiwi rasgullas are the black seasame type seeds found in kiwis. They have a crunch too !

My rasgullas were a little hard. Perhaps, in a hurry, I had kneaded chenna just for ten minutes. Nrext time on , I will knead it for more than fifteen minutes so that the rasgullas turn out softer.

Kiwi top cake

I had a kiwi in the refrigerator.It was ripe & firm as well.So decided to google a recipe for kiwi cake.

I saw this recipe for an eggless kiwi cake.I tweaked it a little & made a vegan kiwi top cake.

Ingredients, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup maida, 1 tbsp flaxseed meal , 1/2 cup applesauce, 1/2 cup jaggery  sugar, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, a kiwi , 3-4 tsps white sugar for sprinkling on kiwi slices .

Method : Pre  heat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

.Mix whole wheat flour, maida, baking soda & baking powder nicely many times over .Keep aside.

Make apple sauce by pressure cooking an apple.Peel the apple. Remove the seeds.The apple can be cut into 4 slices or more.  Pressure cook it upto one whistle. Mash the apple pieces by hand or pav bhaji masher or mixer . Keep aside.

Alternatively, simply cut the apple into pieces. Pressure cook to 1 whistle. After it cools, de peel the apple pieces & de seed them.Mash the apples by hand or mixer or pav bhaji masher.

Soak flaxseed meal in 1/ 4 cup warm water for 15 minutes Keep aside.

Mix apple sauce, flaxseed meal soaked in water together. Add brown sugar.Mix all nicely.

Make a well in the dry ingredients mix & pour the wet mix into it. Blend all, such that,
no lumps remain in the cake batter.I had to add 1/4 cup water as the liquid content was less. Even 1 tbsp oil ( optional ) can be added & then some water drop by drop.Batter consistency must be liked idli batter.

Line a baking vessel with butter paper. Pour the cake batter into the baking vessel.Smoothen top of the cake batter with backside of spoon. Arrange kiwi slices on the top of the cake batter.Sprinkle white sugar generously  on the kiwi slices. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

I bake in microwave mode for 5-10 minutes after the aforesaid convection baking of 45 minutes.

Cools the cake for 45 minutes-( 15 minutes in the oven ) & later outside the oven.Turn the baking vessel upside down on to a plate. Remove the butter paper sticking to the bottom & sides of the cake gently.Then turn the cake up. Cut into desired shapes & serve.



My cake turned out good.The texture was good. Sugar was just apt. Kiwi pieces taste tangy & it gives a nice flavour to the sweetness of the cake.

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.