Eggless Chocolate wheat cake

I wanted to bake the plum cake and so bought all ingredients but it was my 11 year old ( will be 12 next month) who insisted on baking a chocolate cake and so he baked a delicious birthday cake.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour ------ 1cup
Amul milk cream/ you can collect at home) ----- 1 cup
powdered sugar -------------- 1 cup
chocolate powder ----------- 1 table spoon
baking powder -------------- 1 tea spoon.

Method:

Sieve wheat flour and baking powder.
In a deep dish add cream, chocolate powder and powdered sugar and blend well.
Fold in the sieved wheat flour in the chocolate cream mixture and blend well.

Pour the mixture in a baking tray greased with butter and bake for 15 minutes(varies from oven to oven).

Instead of chocolate powder you can use 2 tablespoons of chocolate sauce.

sankar peda (thukkuda)

Fried spicy snack ideal for tea time/travel.



Ingredients:
Wheat flour -------- 2 cups
Dry red chilli powder/ground pepper ----- 2 teaspoons (you can add more if you want it spicier)
Salt----------------- 2 tea spoons
Cooking medium (oil) for frying

Method:
Add chilli powder and salt to wheat flour and bind them to a pliable consistency( like chapatti dough).
Take a golf ball sized blob of dough and roll them flatly with a rolling pin like chappati.
Now take a knife or a cutter( specially available in shops) and cut them into square or diamond shapes.
Fry the pieces in pre heated oil till they turn golden brown.





Recipe courtesy and done by my mother-in-law

Thiruvadhirai kali & ezhu thaan kootu

Kali is a mixture of rice and dal boiled with jaggery.Ezhu thaan kootu is a tangy spicy sauce made with a medley of 7 native indian vegetables. This is a complete whole some meal done as neivedhyam( offering to God) on Arudra Darisanam day/ Thiruvadhirai - a tamil festival dedicated to the dancing god - Nataraja.

Thiruvadirai Kali
Ingredients:
Rice ------------ 1 cup
Moong dal ----- ¼ cup
Coconut gratings: 4 tablespoons
Cardomam powder: 1 spoon
Jaggery : 1 ¼ cup

Ghee and cashew nuts for garnishing

Method:

Dry roast raw rice in a kadai till it turns light brown. Grind it coarsely like Rava.
Dry roast moong dal till it turns light brown and mix it with rice rava.
Make a jaggery syrup by adding the jaggery to 2 cups of boiling water. As it boils, add cardomam powder, grated coconut and roasted rice and dal. Mix them and pressure cook to 4 whistles.
When done garnish with cashew nuts roasted in ghee.



Ezhu than kootu:

This is made of 7 Vegetables generally native vegetables like yam, colocassia, potato, sweet-potato, raw plaintain, broad beans, garden beans, cluster beans. We can add carrot, French beans, peas ,capsicum and other vegetables of our choice also.

Mixed vegetables cut into 1” strips --- 3 cups
Tamarind --- lemon sized
Boiled and mashed toor dal --- 1 cup
Salt , turmeric and asafoetida for seasoning

Spices to dry roast and grind:
Red chillies --- 6 nos
Channa dal --- 2 spoons
Coriander seeds --- 2 spoons
Cumin ------- ½ spoon
Coconut gratings ---- ¼ cup

Boil the vegetables along with salt and turmeric. To this add the tamarind extract and boil till the raw smell of tamarind fades.

Now add the ground masala and boiled tuvar dal one after another.

When done,sprinkle with asafoetida powder , garnish with spluttered mustard and curry leaf.

Eggless Carrot cake

I found this recipe in the sugar free natura recipe booklet. My 14 year old daughter baked this cake with certain variations and my help.

Ingredients:
Carrots grated : 1/2 cup
apples grated : 1/2 cup
orange juice : 1/3 cup (I used tropicana)
sugar free sugar: 1 1/3 cup ( i used natura)
refined flour(maida) :1 1/2 cups
Baking powder : 3/4 teaspoon
Soda Bicarbonate: 3/4 teaspoon
cinnamon powder : 1 teaspoon
oil- 4 tablespoons


Method:
Grate apple and carrots in a bowl.
Add orange juice, diet sugar  and mix well.

Sieve refined flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate together and then add somecinnamon powder. Fold the flour gently with the orange juice mixture. Finally  add oil and mix.





Put the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for twenty- five minutes or till done( It varies from oven to oven).
When cooled, cut into slices and serve.

Pidi kozhakkatai

This is a traditional steamed tiffin item made with coarsely ground rice and dal.

Ingredients:

Rice ----- 1 cup
Toordal---- 2 table spoons
Red chillies – 5 nos
Coconut gratings----- 3 table spoons
2 cups of water

For seasoning:

Mustard --- 1 teaspoon
Channadal --- 1 tea spoon
Curry leaf – 1 sprig
Oil for seasoning

Method: Grind rice, toor dal and redchillies coarsely (like rava)and keep aside.

Add two table spoons of oil in a preheated wok.

Add mustard. After the splutter, add channa dal. When channa dal turns golden brown, add curry leaf.

Now add 2 cups of water along with salt and a pinch of asafoetida.

When the water starts boiling, add the coarsely ground rava (rice,toordal and red chilli) and coconut gratings. Let it bind like a upma. Let it rest for sometime.




When slightly cool, take a fistful of upma and mould them into oval shaped dumplings with your fists (fists is pidi in tamil and hence the name pidi kozhakattai).

Steam them in a steamer or idli moulds.







Tastes good when served hot with coconut chutney/ it can be eaten plain.