Eggless Dates and Walnut Cake

Eggless Dates and Walnut Cake is easy, quick and healthy dessert with richness of dates and crunch of walnuts. Condensed milk replaces sugar which gives a extra punch and flavor to the cake.

Ingredients :

• All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups
• Dates - approx 20 nos. 
• Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 tin (395 g)
• Unsalted Butter - 1 stick (100 g)
• Walnuts - 1/4 cup chopped
• Baking Soda - 1 1/2 tsp
• Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Method :

• Soak dates in warm water for 30 mins or till it softens. Grind to a smooth paste using as little water as possible.
• Bring the butter to room temperature or microwave it for 15-20 secs till it soft.
• Spray/ Grease a baking pan and keep it ready.
• Take a bowl. Sift all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda to avoid any lumps. Mix it well.
• To the dry ingredients add dates paste, softened butter, condensed milk and mix well till all the ingredients gets combined.
• Add in walnuts and mix well.
• Pour the batter into greased baking tray. Optionally sprinkle some chopped walnuts over.
• Baking in Oven : Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F) for 40 minutes in the center of the oven.
• Baking in Microwave : Divide the mixture into two portions or take in two baking tray. Microwave it on full power for 5-7 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Time depends on the power of the microwave. So set the time for 4 mins, check and set for 1 minutes or more.
• Once done take the cake out and allow it to stand fr 5 minutes or till it cools down before taking out from the pan. 
• Loosen the edges and flip the cake onto a plate/cooling rack.
• Serve warm or cold.

Omelette Gravy

Omelette Gravy is made my adding omelette pieces in onion-tomato gravy. It can be served as a accompaniment for dosa or chapathi and as a side dish along with steamed rice, sambar/ rasam and curd rice.

Ingredients :

• Masala Omelette - 2
• Onion - 2 medium
• Tomato - 2 medium
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
• Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
• Mustard - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Chili Powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
• Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 3 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method :

• Prepare omelettes as mentioned in the recipe Masala Omelette or prepare with salt and pepper.
• In a pan heat oil. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
• Add in chopped onions and saute till translucent.
• Add ginger-garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes away.
• Add in chopped tomatoes and saute till thy are mushy.
• Meanwhile slice each omelette into 4 pieces.
• Add turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder,salt and saute till oil oozes out. Add little water to prevent gravy from sticking to the pan. Add water as per your desired consistency.
• Check for salt and spiciness. Then add pepper powder, give a stir and add in omelette slices. Mix well and cook for 2 mins.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Masala Omelette

Masala Omelette is one of the easy and healthy breakfast or any meal of the day. Omelette is a dish made with beaten eggs with your favorite spices and veggies.

Ingredients :

• Eggs - 4
• Onion - 1 small
• Tomato - 1 small
• Capsicum - 1/2 small
• Green chili - 1 or 2
• Coriander leaves chopped - 1 tbsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying

Method :

• In a bowl break the eggs. Beat them with a fork.

• Add finely chopped onion, tomato, capsicum, green chili and coriander leaves. Mix them well.

• Add the spice powders, salt and mix thoroughly so that spices don't make a lump. 

• Heat a non stick pan/tawa on medium flame. When hot drizzle with oil and pour 1/3rd of the mixture and spread it lightly with a spoon. When its cooked on one side, flip over and cook on other side.

• Serve it for breakfast with bread or as a side dish with steamed rice and sambar/ rasam/ curd.

Bombay Potato Sagu

Bombay Sagu is a semi-liquid version of potato palya. It is the most common dish served in all restaurants along with Poori, Rava Idli, Set/ Kal dosa and Chapathi. 

Serves 4-5 person

Ingredients :

• Potato - 4 medium sized
• Onion - 3 medium sized
• Tomato - 2 medium sized
• Mustard - 1/2 tsp
• Chana Dal - 1 tbsp
• Urad Dal - 1 tsp
• Green Chili - 3
• Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Besan / Gram Flour - 1 tbsp
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste 
• Coriander for garnishing

Method :

• Wash and pressure cook potatoes until mushy for 3-4 whistles. Let it cool down. Peel the skin, mash/chop them and keep it aside.
• In a pan/kadai heat oil. Add in mustard seeds. When it pops, add in chana dal, urad dal and fry till golden brown.
• Add in sliced/chopped onions, slit green chilies, curry leaves and saute till onions are translucent. 

• Add in turmeric powder and saute. Add chopped tomatoes and saute until they are soft. 

• Meanwhile in a bowl take besan, add water and mix such that there are no lumps.
• Add in mashed potatoes and salt and give a stir. 

• Now add besan paste and required amount of water. Cook it on medium flame stirring in intervals.

• When it comes to a boil. Switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Bombay potato sagu is ready to be served as a side dish for Rava Idli, Set/ Kal Dosa, Poori and Chapathi.

Dal Fry

Dal fry - name says it all, it needs no description as it is a popular and common dish prepared throughout India with their own variations. It is made with toor dal or combination of toor dal, chana dal. moong dal, masoor dal. It goes well with any of Indian breads, steamed rice and jeera rice. 

Ingredients :

• Toor Dal - 1 cup
• Water - 2 cups
• Mustard - 1/2 tsp
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Onion - 2 medium sized
• Tomato - 2 medium sized
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Ginger - 1/2 inch
• Green chili - 2
• Red chili - 2
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Hing/ Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Red chili powder - 1 tsp
• Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp
• Oil/ Ghee - 3 tbsp
• Coriander leaves for garnishing
• Salt to taste

Method :

• Wash 1 cup toor dal and pressure cook with 2 cups of water for 3-4 whistles or till dal is cooked well. Cooking time depends on type of dal used.
• In a kadai/pan heat oil/ghee. Add mustard and let them splutter. Then add jeera and fry.
• Add in finely chopped onions and fry till translucent. Then add crushed ginger and garlic. Fry till raw smell goes away.
• Add slit green chilies,red chilies, curry leaves and stir.
• Add turmeric powder, chili powder, hing and fry for some seconds. Don't burn the spices. 
• Add finely chopped tomatoes and saute till they are soft.
• Now add cooked dal. You can smash them before adding. Add water for desired consistency and salt to taste.
• Stir well and let it come to boil on medium flame so that all the spices get incorporated together.
• Check for salt, spices, consistency and adjust. Do not make it watery. Let it be medium thick consistency.
• Lastly crush kasuri methi on the palms of your hand and add to the dal. Mix well and simmer for 2 mins and switch off the flame. 
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with roti/ jeera rice/ steamed rice and ghee.

Serving Suggestion : Here I have reduced amount of chili powder while adding it to the dal. I have separately heated 1 tbsp oil, added in chili powder and just gave a stir. Poured it over the dal while serving.

Carrot Halwa

Carrot Halwa, one of the most popular and evergreen Indian dessert. It is a rich dessert made with fresh carrots, whole milk and sugar or condensed milk, generous amount of ghee and dry fruits.
In this recipe I have used small quantity of milk and more of condensed milk which is a quick and easy method than the traditional method using milk and sugar.

Ingredients :

• Carrots - 6 (approx. 5 cups tightly packed grated carrots)
• Ghee - 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Nestle Sweetened Condensed milk - 1/2 tin (200 gms)
• Dry fruits chopped (cashewnut, almonds, pista) - 1/2 cup approx
• Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Method :

• Peel, wash and grate the carrots.
• In a non-stick pan heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry chopped dry fruits separately. Strain it to a bowl and keep aside.
• In the same pan heat remaining ghee. Add in the grated carrots and saute them. Color of the carrots would change.
• Keep on stirring them until they turn tender. Now add 1/4 cup milk at a time and let the carrots cook on medium flame. 
• Once the milk is evaporated and carrot is almost cooked, pour in condensed milk and stir.
• The mixture would become watery. Stir in intervals and let it cook till it dries up.
• Add cardamom powder and roasted dry fruits. Stir once and serve hot or warm. It goes well with vanilla ice-cream. You can store them in air tight container and refrigerate for a week. Warm it up in microwave oven and enjoy this mouth watering dessert.

Cheese Onion Sandwich

Ingredients :

• Bread Slices - 4
• Cheese Slice(Low Fat) - 2
• Green Chutney - 2 tsp
• Onion - 1 medium
• Tomato - 1 small
• Mayonnaise as required
• Sandwich Spread as required (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Pepper Powder as required
• Butter to spread

Method :

• Spread butter on one side of the bread. Turn around and spread 1 tsp of green chutney.

• Place 1 slice of cheese. You can even spread grated cheese. 

• Place few slices of onion and tomato. 

• Sprinkle salt and pepper and spread some mayonnaise. And spread some sandwich spread on other slice( If sandwich spread not in handy, you can either spread tomato ketchup or green chutney).

• Place the slice on other. Spread butter on top and toast it on tawa or grill it in sandwich maker till crispy and golden brown on both sides. Repeat the process with other bread slices too. Slice the sandwich and serve it hot with mayonnaise or tomato ketchup.

Obbattu / Puran Poli

A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to all my readers. Here is a recipe of mouth-watering dessert, Obbattu specially prepared on Ugadi which marks first day of the new year according to Hindu calendar. It is also known as holige, bobbatu or puran poli. It is even prepared on festivals like Varamahalakshmi Vrata, Diwali, Dussehra and in other specail events.
Obbattu is prepared with lentils, jaggery/sugar, coconut as stuffing with maida and fine rava for outer cover. Lentils used differ from regions i.e, Toor Dal, Chana Dal or combination. It is served with ghee, milk or coconut milk.
Most of my friends far from India and their parents find it difficult to prepare and miss this delicious yummy dessert. So here is a recipe of Obbattu/ Puran poli in just 3 steps. Follow these 3 simple steps & measurements below and you will be an expert.

Ingredients :

For stuffing :

• Toor Dal - 250 gms/ 1 cup
• Jaggery - 250 gms/ 1 cup
• Coconut (grated/)  - 1/4 cup
• Eliachi powder - 1 tsp

For Dough :

• Maida - 1 1/2 cup
• Fine Rava - 1/2 cup
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Oil

Method :

Step 1 (To Make the dough):

• In a wide bowl take sieved maida, fine rava, turmeric. Mix them together and knead into a soft dough with water. Dough shouldn't be firm, let it be light and soft. When you pull out the dough, it should stretch without breaking. 
• Add enough oil and knead it well again. Smear the dough with oil, cover and let it aside for minimum 4-5 hours for soft Obbattu. Longer it is soaked, better the result. And even be liberal in adding oil.

Step 2 (For Making stuffing):

• In a thick bottomed pan take washed toor dal. U can soak toor dal for half an hour for faster cooking or even add a tsp of oil while cooking. 
• Add required amount of water, about 3 to 4 cups of water. Cook till dal is just tender. Dont over cook it till mushy.
• Drain the excess water. You can do it using strainer. Or cover the pan with a plate and drain the water by tilting it. This water is used to make holige saru/rasam.

• To the cooked dal add crushed/grated jaggery and let it cook. 

• As the jaggery melts, mix becomes little watery. Don't panic. Let it cook for sometime and it thickens. Keep stirring it on low flame, else it would stick to the bottom. 

• Once it starts to thicken add grated fresh coconut. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Switch off the flame and let it cool down.

• Grind this mixture to a fine paste in batches and transfer it to a container. You can make obbattu once the dough is ready or even store both filling and dough in refrigerator for upto a week and prepare obbattu whenever you want.

Step 3 (Preparing Obbatu) :

• Make lemon sized balls out of the filling. And half the lemon sized balls from the dough.
• Heat a tawa on medium flame.
• Place a butter paper or any cleaned plastic sheet on a flat surface. Grease it with oil and even coat your fingers with oil.
• Place one ball of dough on the greased sheet. 

• Spread it with your fingers to the size of poori. Now keep one ball of filling at the center of the dough.

• Cover the filling from all sides with the dough. And slightly press the edges together to avoid breaking.

• Reverse the dough and spread it into a medium thin obbatu. 

• Carefully take obbatu on your hand and place it on the tawa, if using normal plastic sheet. Or you can directly place it on the tawa from the butter paper and remove the sheet.
• Cook both the sides on medium flame for a min each side or till golden brown spots appear. If its dry, you can spread oil or ghee while frying.
• Repeat the same with remaining dough and filling. Hot and yummy Obbatu/ Puran poli is ready to be served with ghee/ milk. Let it cool down before stacking or storing them.

Idli/ Dosa Batter

Idli or Dosa is a traditional and staple breakfast dish of South India. Served with varieties of chutneys and sambar.
To prepare idli/ dosa batter, a proper proportion of rice and urad dal is soaked separately for 6-8 hours. Fenugreek seeds are soaked along with rice for additional flavour. After soaking, rice and dal are separately grounded to a fine paste and then combined with salt to taste. The batter is left to ferment overnight or atleast 8 hours till the batter almost doubles in volume. Now the batter is ready to make soft idlis or crispy dosas.
Here is the step-by-step process of preparing the batter. Using this batter you can prepare idli, varities of dosa such as Plain Dosa, Masala Dosa, Uttapam, Set/ Kal Dosa, Onion Dosa.

Ingredients :

• Idli Rice/ Parboiled Rice - 2 3/4 cup
• Short-grained Raw Rice - 1/4 cup
• Skinless Urad dal - 1 cup
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1 tsp
• Cooked Rice/ Flattened Rice - Handful
• Salt to taste
• Water as required

Method :

• In a bowl take idli rice, raw rice and fenugreek seeds. In another bowl take urad dal. Wash them thoroughly and fill with water and keep it aside for 6-8 hours.

• If using flattened rice, wash them and soak it in water. In a grinder jar take soaked and drained urad dal. Add  required amount of water and grind to a fine paste. Transfer it to a wide bowl. 

• Now take soaked and drained rice in grinder jar. Take Rice in two batches as quantity is more. Add water little by little and grind to a fine paste. When almost done, add half of cooked rice or soaked flattened rice and grind till smooth. Transfer it to bowl which has urad dal paste. Repeat for another batch of rice.

• Add salt to taste and required amount of water to adjust to dropping consistency. Mix well. Cover and set it aside undisturbed in warm place overnight or for 8 hours to ferment. 

• After 8 hours, batter would have doubled in volume. 

• Give a light stir with a ladle. Now the batter is ready to use to make idli/dosa. Extra batter can be stored in a air tight container and left in the fridge for 5-6 days and used when required. For beginners, soon I would b posting steps to prepare idli and varieties of dosa. 

Elephant Yam/ Suvarnagadde/ Suran Fry

This is a yummy recipe which goes well as a side dish for any of sambar or dals. Its a simple recipe which can be prepared with less ingredient and in short time.

Ingredients :

• Yam - 1/4 kg 
• Masala Powder - 1 tbsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Method :

• Remove the skin of yam and slice them and put them in a pan. Cover it with water  and let it come to boil. Add 1 tbsp of tamarind pulp or a small piece of tamarind. And let it cook for 10-15 mins till yam is cooked. Drain and set aside.

• In a bowl take masala powder, turmeric powder, salt and 1 tbsp tamarind pulp(optional, if you want more tangy flavour). Add water and make a thick paste.

• To this take yam pieces and coat them all well with the masala. You can directly fry them or store it in fridge. Heat oil in pan. Place yam pieces separately and fry on both sides till golden brown.

• Drain them on a plate. Yam fry is ready to be served with steamed rice and sambar/ dal or curd rice.

Tips : 

• Make sure your hand and knife are dry before cutting yam as it would cause itchiness in your hands. Wash your hands well after cutting yam. 
• Tamarind is a must ingredient in any of yam dishes as it would avoid itchiness in throat.
• Masala Powder is nothing but equal amount of chili powder and coriander powder.