AADI PERUKKU PRASADHAM RECIPES & LUNCH RECIPES

Aadi perukku is a festival celebrating in TamilNadu on the auspicious 18th day of the tamil month Aadi to honor ritual river Cauvery and  married women worship her to keep our husband healthy and long life as like as young girls do pray to get good husband for their future. On this day, we tamil people, wash our thali, keep mangal, kunkum and flower. Create Lord ganesha using sand, then keep lemon on the kadola karukamani and then keep our thali on them. Once we finish worship with few prasadhams like Maavilaku, Ellu urundai, kaaparusi, Sweet pongal, and vadai, then we could wear our thali.

MAAVILAKU    ELLU URUNDAI  ULLUNDU VADAI   SWEET PONGAL  KAPPARUSI

INSTANT CHOCOLATE PEDA - NO COOK NO BAKE

Serving size - 6 to 8 pieces

Preparation time - 15 minutes

Hi Friends,

Today's recipe is Instant Chocolate Peda. Hope there is lot of fans for this recipe. I do remember our childhood days, I and my brother use to powder the biscuits, then mix complan or maltova, sugar, either milk or water in a small bowl. Then mix them altogether well and have it as such or keep that in the fridge & had it chill. This is our childhood kitchen experience.

This recipe is more or less same. Kids too can try this recipe. This is a simple and quick dessert or sweet snack. Let us go to the simple recipe,

Ingredients

Marie biscuits - 4
Coco powder - 1 tbsp
Milk powder - 4 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Condensed milk - 2 tbsp
Milk - 1 1/2 tbsp
Ghee - 1/2 tsp
Almond - for garnishing

Method

• Powder the biscuits in a dry blender. 
• Take a bowl, add the biscuit powder, coco powder, milk powder, sugar ans sieve well.
• Then add condensed milk, milk and mix well until it turns into a dough.
• Apply few drops of ghee on your hands, divide the mixture into small balls and make the shapes as you prefer.
• Chocolate Pedas are ready now.

Note

• Don't make the mixture watery. Then you could not make pedas.
• If it went watery,  try to adjust with biscuit powder or milk powder. Please don't add coco powder for adjustments, it will spoil the pedas taste.

PANEER TIKKA KATHI ROLL - SNC - 17

Serving Size - 12

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 30 minutes

SNC is a lovely event started by Divya Pramil from youtoocancook. The theme of this event is to learn recipes between the two zones of India which are North & South. One member from North team challenge the south team friends and one member from south team challenge the North team friends to learn their traditional recipes. 

Kathi roll is a bengali cuisine which originates from the street of Kolkata. Nowadays there are lot of varieties in the kathi roll, inwhich  this month, we got the challenge as Bengali cuisine Paneer tikka kathi roll challenged by Minnie from The Lady 8 Home belongs to North team. The south team member Lakshmi Vimala from Kerela challenged our north team friends with Kerela platter. AS I am the member of south team, I made Paneer tikka kathi roll for this month challenge. If you would like to now more about this event and like to participate in this event, please visit this SNC CHALLEGE

I made this paneer kathi roll with the help of Minnie's recipe only. It came out very yummy and it is a filling and healthy lunch. Lets go to the recipe,

Ingredients

Paneer - 2 cups (cut into 2 cm cubes)

Green bell peppers - 1 cup chopped

Onion - 1 (cut into quarters)

Tomato - 1 (cut into small cubes)

Kasoori methi - 1 tsp 

Cilantro - 1/2 cup (optional)

Oil - 4 tbsp

For marinate the Paneer Pieces

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Chat masala Powder - 1 tsp

Besan flour - 1 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Whipped yogurt - 1/2 cup

Dry roast and Grind

Cinnamon - 1/2 stick

Cloves - 2 

Green cardamom - 2

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Red chilly - 1

For Kuchumber

Carrot - 1/2 (cut lengthwise)

Cucumber - 1 (sliced lengthwise)

Tomato - 1 (cut length wise)

Onion - 1/4 cup (thinly sliced)

Cilantro - for garnishing

Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Salt - as needed

Sugar - just for taste 

Roti 

Wheat flour - 3 cups

Warm Water - 1 3/4 cups

Salt - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

For Stuffing

Spinach / cilantro - 1/2 cup

Method

Paneer Tikka 

• Take paneer cubes in a bowl and add all the ingredients under the marination. Mix well until the paneer gets coated well. 
• Close the bowl with lid and allow it to get marinate for 15 minutes. But I left that for 25 minutes.
• Dry roast all the spices under the heading dry roast and grind. Allow it to get cool, then grind altogether and keep it aside
• Heat oil in a pan, add the ground powder, fry for few seconds. Then add green bell pepper and salute it for less than a minute.
• Add the marinated paneer to the pan and fry until all the spices on the paneer gets cook. To avoid sticking, stir gently.
• Add kasuri methi leaves, onion and tomatoes. Allow them to cook well. Once the onion turns transparent and tomatoes went mushy, switch off the stove.

Roti

• Mix all the ingredients and keep close it with the lid for half an hour.
• Divide the dough into medium sized balls. Roll them into a small circle, keep few cilantro leaves and close all the edges together for stuffing.
• Then, dust it with flour, roll them into thin rotis. 
• Cook them on both the sides and store them in the aluminium foil.

Kuchumber

• Mix all the ingredients under the heading kuchumber and keep it aside.
• I hate cucumber, so I din't use that one.

Organize all of them together into Kathi Roll

• Place a roti first, keep kuchumber and then paneer tikka as much as you prefer. According to your taste you can fill the roti.
• Wrap it tightly and again roll it with aluminium foil or butter paper. (I prefer foil)
• Serve it for lunch or dinner.

Minnie, thank you very much for this It got a big hit in my home as well as my friend's home too.

I am going to link this to Minnie's place

HOMEMADE HAKKA NOODLES SAUCE - NO COOK

Preparation Time - 10 minutes

Serving Size - 1/3 cup

This is my first try with hakka noodles. I din't see any sauces or spice packet for hakka noodles yet. I surfed many sites and finally I got this recipe for hakka noodle sauce from my co-blogger's space. It came out well and I altered slightly according to my taste buds. Its very yummy and so I want to share this to my readers and friends.

Ingredients

Sri racha Red chilli sauce - 2 tbsp
Tomato ketchup - 1 1/2 to 2  tbsp
Garlic - 5 pods
Ginger - 1/2" grated
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp

Method

• Grind all the ingredients and store it in the air tight box. Keep it in the refrigerator.

Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge - BASUNDHI / BASANTHI - TRADITIONAL GUJARATHI SWEET

Serving size - 5 to 6 persons

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Cooking time - 2 hours

Basundhi is an authentic rich and delicious dessert from Gujarat which is similar to Rabdi. I love this thickened milk dessert to the core. It is very simple to prepare and no way to go wrong. For the first time, I made this yummy cold dessert for my friend Gayathri on her birthday to make her day special.

Now coming to the Shhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge (SCSC) which is started by Priya Suresh akka from Priya's versatile Recipes. This is the first post of this challenge. My Partner for March month is Prathima Shivaraj from Prathu's food. She gave me 2 secret ingredients which are milk and cheese.

 I have to choose any one or both. I have taken milk as my secret ingredient and also I want to start this challenge with sweet. So I made this wonderful creamy dessert as my first post of this SCSC. This is the logo for shhhhh cooking

Let me share this delicious recipe which I got from my grand ma(Ilamathi Paatti). When I was pregnant, She made this favorite dessert specially for me.

Ingredients

Milk - 6 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
saffron - 10 to 12 strands
Almond - 1 tbsp
Pistachio - 2 tbsp
Cashew - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp

Method

• Take milk in a wide mouth and heavy bottomed vessel, allow it to boil.
• Once the milk started to raise up, reduce the flame to low and  stir occasionally.
• In the mean time, chop all the nuts I have mentioned.
• There is a thin layer formed on the top of the milk. You should  remove those layers into a small bowl and keep it aside for future use. Repeat this step until the milk is reduced into 1/2 of its quantity.
• Add all the nuts, cardamom powder and crushed saffron to the reduced 1/2 quantity.
• After 5 minutes, just stir the milk and add the removed layers from the milk which are stored in the small bowl for the future use. 
• Keep on stirring occasionally and scraping the sides until the milk reduced to 1/3 of the quantity.
• Basanthi is ready now. Allow it to get cool and store it in the refrigerator. 
• While serving, garnish it with nuts again and serve chill. It will be more delicious.

NOTE

• Here I used the traditional method to made this delicious sweet. You can also use the combination of milk and condensed milk to prepare quickly.
• But I always love this traditional method. It gives the fabulous taste than the quicker method.
• Please make sure don't allow the milk to get burn in the bottom.
• The flame must be low for the whole process. 

VAZHAI POO / BANANA FLOWER THUVAIYAL

Serving size - 1 small bowl

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - less than 5 minutes

Vazhai poo is one of the healthiest veggie to eat. I usually do usuli, kootu and kola urundai kuzhambu using vazhaipoo. But I heard from my friend that we could also prepare thuvaiyal too. I got this recipe from my friend Gayathri. I love this thuvaiyal to the core. Even my little one likes to eat this thuvaiyal with white rice. I would really thank Gayathri for sharing this wonderful recipe with me.

This is the first time, I tried vazhaipoo thovaiyal. So that I made only little amount but it turns out very yummy.

Ingredients

Vazhaipoo/ Banana flower - 1 cup
Water -1/4 cup
Red chillies - 2
Urad dal -1 tsp
Mustard seeds -1/4 tsp
Hing powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - a bit
Salt - as needed
Oil -1 tsp

Method

• Add one cup of banana flower in the 1/4 cup of water and allow it to cook for few minutes. Once it has done, please keep it beside until it will get cool.
• In the mean time, heat oil in a pan,add mustard seeds,urad dal, hing powder, red chillies one after one. Keep it beside for sometime or until they come to normal room temperature.
• Its the time to take out the blender, add all the roasted ingredients, salt & tamarind and blend it for less than a minute. Finally add chopped vazhaipoo to that mixture and blend it nicely.
• Vazhaipoo thovaiyal is ready and it will goes with rice rice as well as for idli dosa too. 

Note

• Please make sure that the banana flower taste good or bitter. If its bitter, please add urad dal, chillies and salt more.
• While cleaning and cutting banana flower, please add small amount of buttermilk to the water and store the chopped banana flower in that water to avoid blackening.
• You can also slightly fry vazhaipoo/banana flower in the pan with little oil. To avoid using excess of oil, I used to cook that in the boiling water.

MAWA GHUJIYA - SNC -16

Serving size - 10 to 15 pieces

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 1 hour

Mawa Ghujiya is a very popular north Indian sweet during their festive time. But it is also more famous in south India as somas. But the filling is different. I like this sweet very much , but I din't try this yet. Because in our families there is no habit of doing this kind sweets. I used to eat this sweet from my friend's home. I love this to the core. 

This Mawa ghujiya is the 16th challenge of SNC from our north team friend Santhosh Bhangar from Santosh's Kitchen.  Actually SNC is the event run by Divya Pramil from YOU TOO CAN COOK. IF you want to be the part of this event from now, please visit SNC CHALLENGE. 

Lets go to the recipe,

Ingredients

For Filling

Milk solids/ khoya - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Almonds - 6 (grated into flakes)

Sugar - 1/3 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

For Ghujiyas

All Purpose flour - 2 cups

Water - 1 + 2tbsp( I used)

Hot oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Oil - for deep frying

For Sealing

All purpose flour - 1 tsp

Water - 1 1/2 tsp

Method 

For Filling 

• Fry Khoya in a pan until it gets brown color. 
• Add grated coconut, almond flakes, sugar and cardamom powder into the brown khoya and mix well.
• Keep it aside for filling.

For Ghujiyas

• Mix the flour, salt and hot oil and then add water to knead a smooth dough.
• Cover the bowl and keep it for atleast half an hour.
• In the mean time, make a paste for sealing the ghujiyas by mixing flour and water in a small bowl.

MAWA GHUJIYAS

• Make the dough into small balls and make them into thin round using rolling pin.
• Keep enough filling on the center of the round and apply the flour paste on one side of the thin round sheet, then fold it.
• close it strong and press it using fork for more strong.
• Do the remaining dough balls into ghujiyas and keep them under the wet cloth.
• Heat oil in a pan, pls don't over heat because the ghuijays will be in light brown not dark brown.
• Once the oil gets ready, please add 3 or 4 ghujiyas and fry until light brown. Do the rest as the same and store them in the air tight container.

Note

• Actually I made thicker sheets, so it went bit harder not much. 
• It also takes much time to get cook, so it turns dark brown color. Please keep these points in your mind while doing this sweet.
• But this is the first time I tried this kind of sweet, so hope I will be better while making somas. Let me share that experience with you in the future. 

I am going to link this to SNC host of this month from north team Santosh's Kitchen

RAW RED CHILLIES & LEMON CHUTNEY/ PULIPPU KARA CHUTNEY

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Cooking time - 2 minutes

Hi friends, 

I skipped lot of events in the past 2 weeks. I will try to participate in the following events. I made this Kara chutney for viji's SYS-W SERIES. My secret ingredient of this month is RED color veggies, so I have used Red chillies. 

I love this chutney very much. Even when I was pregnant I ate this chutney very often until 4 months. It will be very good with idli, dosa and even with chappathis too.  Will go to the recipe now.

Ingredients

Red chillies - 5 or 6
Lemon - 1/4 or as you need
Water - small amount as needed
Salt - as needed

Seasoning 

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 or 3
Sesame oil - 2 to 3 tsp

Method

• First grind red chillies and salt. Then add little water as needed. Don't make it watery. 
• Make the red chillies powder into smooth paste. Then remove it to the bowl.
• Add fresh lemon juice to the chutney and mix well.
• Heat oil for seasoning, add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add seasoning to the chutney.
• Chutney is ready now.

Note

• This chutney is too spicy, please be sure before you use this chutney.
• It goes well with idly & dosa. If you would like, you could also use this as a thin spread for bread sandwich.
• I actually use to mix curd and sugar with this chutney while eating with dosa or idly. It will help you to reduce the risk of too much spicy. 

SYS-W SERIES SHOW YOUR STYLES TO THE WORLD by Viji

ARACHA KUZHAMBU / COCONUT GRAVY WITH CABBAGE AND PEAS/MOCHAI - EASY & QUICK TANJORE DISTRICT SPECIAL

Serving size - 2

Preparation time - 10 minutes

Cooking time - 20 minutes

Aracha Kuzhambu is one of the best gravy in our region especially Tanjore district. I love to have this from my childhood to now and forever. I learned this recipe from my mom. 

I do remember that my mom got fresh Mochai in the particular season, cooked and feed that until before marriage. Even when I was pregnant, she did the same though she had a heart surgery during that time. She never use spoon for feeding, always use her hand. I love the taste of her hands too. MOM is always special with LOVE,CARE and EVERYTHING right ?

It is a very easy and tasty recipe. You can give a try friends. If you will taste it, then you will be mad of this gravy. It will goes well with rice as well as idli, dosa or any Indian flat bread. Let us go to the recipe.

Ingredients

Cabbage - 1/3 cup
Peas - 2 tbsp (I used frozen )
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp (optional) - I din't use
Water - 3/4 or 1 cup
Salt - as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp

To Grind

 Coconut - 1/3 cup
 Shallot - 1
 Garlic - 1

Toast in the direct fire

  Shallot - 1
  Garlic - 1

To fry slightly

   Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
   Channa dal - 1 tsp
   Green chilly - 1
   Red chillies - 3
   Oil - 1 tsp

Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 4 or 5

Method

• You must toast shallot and garlic in the direct fire.  IF you have only coil on the stove top, you could use the tava for toasting. Sometimes, I toast on the coil too. IT works wells and keep it aside.
• Add all the ingredients under the heading To fry slightly into the pan and fry slightly. Don't fry much, then the taste will get spoil.
• Grind all the ingredients coconut, toasted shallot & garlic and fried ingredients together and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a pan for seasoning, add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and then finally ground paste. Fry for a minute or 2 in a low flame.
• Add water to the pan and allow it to boil until the raw smell goes.
• In the mean while, boil cabbage and peas in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes. Else you can also boil these veggies on the stove top too.
• Finally add the veggies to the gravy and allow it to boil for 5 to 10 minutes or the gravy and veggies get well together.
• Aracha Kuzhambu is ready now. It will go very good with white rice and even to idli, dosa and chappathis. 

Tips

• You must be very careful while frying. That will change the whole gravy's taste.
• Instead of dry coriander seeds, you can use fresh coriander leaves too. It is more tastier than coriander seeds.
• The most speciality in this gravy is toast and un toast shallot and garlic. In tamil, we use to say sutta pondhu sudhatha pondu, sutta vengayam, sudhath vengayam gives special taste to this gravy.
• you can also use either red chillies or green chillies too. Its totally upto your preference.

RED SHALLOT CHUTNEY / INDIAN STYLE RED SHALLOT SPICY SPREAD / CHINNA VENGAYA CHUTNEY

Serving Size - 2

Preparation time - 10 minutes

Cooking time - 5 minutes

Red shallot chutney is the most common chutney in south India. It goes well with idli, dosa or even as spread for bread sandwich or to chapathi rolls.

 I specially made this chutney for sending this recipe to my friend Viji's - Show your styles to the world SYS-W SERIES MARCH 2014. WE have to choose a number between 1 to 6 before 5th of every month,  on the 5th of every month she revealed the secret ingredients behind the each numbers. According to that, my son picked number 4. The secret ingredient behind the number 4 is Red. So that I made this red shallot chutney to link it up :)

Ingredients

Red shallots peeled - 1 small bowl

Red chillies - 2 or 3

Tamarind - little amount

oil - 1 tsp

Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Urad dal - 1/8 tsp

Curry leaves - 4 or 5

Oil - 1 tsp

Method

• Heat oil in a pan, add shallots and fry until slightly transparent. 
• Add red chillies and tamarind at the final stage, fry for few seconds. 
• Allow them to get cool for grinding.
• Grind all the ingredients with salt and make a paste. Keep it in the bowl
• Heat oil for seasoning, add curry leaves, mustard seeds and urad dal in the same order as I told.
• Add the seasoning to the shallot chutney.
• IF you want that to use as sauce for any dish, please avoid seasoning.

Tips

• We can also use Red onions instead of Red shallots.
• Be sure, don't burn or make it brown color while frying shallots or onions.

I am going to link this chutney to

SYS-W SERIES SHOW YOUR STYLES TO THE WORLD by Viji

MALAI KOFTA - SNC CHALLENGE 15

Serving Size - 2

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 40 minutes

Today's post is long awaited challenged recipe from my draft lists, its none other than Malai Kofta which is challenged by Napur of UK RASOI who is the north team member of SNC. SNC event is run by Divya Pramil from youtoocancook and theme of the challenge is to exchange their regional recipes between the north and south teams . If you want to know more details about this SNC event, please go to the following link. SouthVSNorth Challenge. As I am from south team of SNC, I have to use the following logo

Malai Kofta is a very popular north Indian side dish. So I don't want to give more intro about it.It is a fried cottage cheese balls in the spiced thick creamy gravy. It will go with any Indian flat bread or rice varieties. I made this challenge on the first week of feb. But due to my laziness I din't post this recipe until before the last day of the challenge. I should link this recipe today unless I won't link it up. So that I am writing this post today. 

I would like to say another one thing, actually we don't like malai kofta but after we tried Napur's malai kofta, we really love to have this with indian flat breads. Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful recipe Napur. 

Let us go to the recipe... I din't change anythi0ng from Napur's recipe. I followed her in each and every steps.

Ingredients

For Koftas

Paneer - 100 gms

Boiled peeled grated potato - 2

Red chillipowder - 1/4 tsp

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Milk powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - as needed

oil - as required for deep or shallow fry.

For the Gravy

Onion - 1/2 no. (I used US red onion)

Ginger - 1/2 piece grated

Garlic cloves - 3 roughly sliced

Tomatoes - 2 (Prepare fresh tomato puree)

Cashew paste - 1/4 cup

Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp

Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Water - 2 cups

Fresh cream - 3/4 cup (or full cream milk - 1 cup)

Kasuri methi - 1 tsp ( I din't used)

Salt - as needed

Whole Spices

Bay Leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 1 inch

Black cardamom - 1

Green cardamom - 2 or 3

Mace - a pinch

Cloves - 2

For Garnish

Cilantro - 1/2 cup

Cream - 2 tbsp

Grated paneer - 1 tbsp

Method

For Kofta

• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients under the kofta heading. Make 8 to 10 heart-shaped koftas gently and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a large pan for deep frying koftas. Take corn flour in a plate to coat the koftas before deep frying.
• After coating corn flour on the koftas, deep fry all the koftas, drain its oil and keep it aside.

NOTE : Instead of deep fry, you can also do shallow fry the koftas and keep it aside.You could see the difference in the below picture.

For Gravy

•  Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan, add all the whole spices until the fragrance comes out. 
• Add ginger and garlic pieces and fry for half a minute. Then add onions and fry until it turns transparent. Switch off the stove and allow it to cool.
• Once it gets cool, transfer it to the blender and pulse it to the coarse paste. 
• Add little oil and ground onion paste to the pan, then switch on the stove.
• Now add the tomato puree too in the same pan and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the rest of the spices - turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and mix well.
• Cook this mixture for 10 minutes on covered for 10 minutes and uncovered for 8 minutes or until the oil leaves its side.
• Now, reduce the flame to medium, add cashew paste and water to the mixture and allow it to gets thicker. It will take 10 to 15 minutes approximately.
• Finally turns the flame to low, add the cream or milk to the mixture. While adding the cream or milk, stirring the gravy and add gradually.  NOTE : Cream or milk must be in room temperature to avoid curdle.
• Again turns the flame to medium or less than medium and allow it to cook for 5 minutes. If you would like, you could add little sugar to gets rich taste with mild sweetness and crushed dry methi leaves and cook for a minutes. Switch of the flame.
• Gravy is ready now.

For Assembling and garnishing

• Heat the gravy slightly before serving. Arrange koftas in the serving dish. 
• Pour the gravy gently on the koftas and garnish it with chopped cilantro, grated paneer and cream of your choice.
• Malai Kofta is ready now and serves with any flavored rice or white rice or with any indian flat bread.
• I served this malai kofta with peas pulao.

 I once again thank Napur for sharing this wonderful recipe. I love this dish to the core, Napur. Thank you Divya pramil. 

MAANGAI THOKKU / MANGO PICKLE

Serving size - 3/4 cup

Preparation time - 15 minutes

Cooking time - 20 minutes

               Today's post is Mango Thokku which is one of my all time favorite thokku. I love raw mangoes as well as mango fruit. I bought raw mongoes most of the time, but before cooking I use to finish it off as such  :) LOL... But this time I strictly keep my mouth tight and asked my mom how to make Mango Thokku. She taught me this recipe through phone yesterday. I made this recipe immediately it turns out yummy. Butt will come only for 2 days I believe.

               I do remember the days before my marriage. IF summer comes, my mom and chithies have lot of works like making vathal, vadam, thokkus etc. As we are in the town side, we will get lot of mangoes from all the nearby villages where our relatives are there. Oh my god, I am missing all these fun. Here its very hard to find mangoes as like as our Indian mangoes. Anyhow, at least we are getting mangoes right. We should feel happy for it. 

Let us go to the easy and tasty Mango thokku recipe....

Ingredients

Fresh Shredded Raw Mango - 1 cup
Jaggery - 2 tsp (optional) See Tips
Gingelly Oil - 2 to 3 tbsp

Dry Roast & To Grind

Byadagi red chillies - 4 (optional) see Tips
Red chillies - 2 or 3
Fenugreek seeds - 20 seeds
Hing powder - 1/4 tsp or less

Seasoning 

Gingelly oil - 1 or 1 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Method

• Wash the mango and tap it with clean cloth or paper towel.
• Peel its outer green skin to trash. Grate the inner fleshy skin until the seed seems clean. Discard the seed.
• Dry roast fenugreek seeds first and keep it aside. Then dry roast the red chillies. Allow them to cool completely and grind the dry roast ingredients with hing powder into nice powder.
• Heat oil in a sauce pan, add turmeric powder and shredded mangoes. Then add salt and fry for 2 or 3 minutes and close the lid. 
• Mangoes should get half cook. Then add the ground powder to the mangoes and fry for few minutes.
• Then,If you need, you can add less than or 1/8 cup of water to mangoes to get cook.
• Once mangoes are cooked well, open the lid, add jaggery, mix and fry until the oil leaves its sides. Switch off the flame and keep it in the stove which is off or aside.
• Heat the oil in the small pan for seasoning, once its heated, add mustard seeds and wait until the seeds are splutter.
• Allow the pickle and seasoning completely cool and add the seasoning to the pickle.
• Mango thokku is ready now. Keep it in the clean and dry air tight container. It will comes for a long time if you keep it in the refrigerator. 
• It will goes with curd rice or any rice varieties you prefer, Parathas or chapattis too.

Tips

• Gingelly oil gives more taste to pickles, if you want you can use any cooking oil.
• Don't add fenugreek seeds much, then it will give bitter taste.
• While roasting, be careful. It should not burn otherwise it will spoil the whole pickle.
• Jaggery will give you additional taste. I used Byadagi red chilli for rich red color. Instead you could add our normal red chillies too.
• Be sure the container must be clean, otherwise it won't come for long time. It will get spoil soon.
• Use the clean spoon while serving, to keep for long standing.
• If you are doubted that it is going to get spoil, take the pickle out. Heat oil in a pan, once it is heated, add pickle to it and fry for sometime. After it gets cool, keep it in the air tight container.

HOMEMADE EGG FREE SOFT SPONGY ORANGE CAKE

Preparation Time -  15 minutes

Baking Time - 20 minutes

Hi Friends,

As I told in my earliers posts, I am very slow in blogging due to lot of diversions. I made this wonderful spongy yummy cake as VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL, but I couldn't post this on that special day. I din't participate in the LOVE 2 BAKE event which falls on every monday.

I am just pushing me to write this recipe for linking this recipe to 2 of the important events. One is LOVE2BAKE by spicy treats and the other

is SYS-W SERIES SHOW YOUR STYLES TO THE WORLD which is run by my lovely blogger friend Viji from Viruthu unna vanga. This is my first entry in SYS-W SERIES. So Viji asked me to pick my choice of secrete ingredient . I picked Orange Fruit and I made this eggless orange soft cake. Another one special thing in this recipe is, I grab the recipe to make this tasty cake from Viji's space. I really thank her to share this wonderful recipe on her space. I am proud that I got lot of appreciation from my friends. IT really made me so happy. I thanked viji immediately through email, but I want to thank her in my space. SO that I mentioned.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH DEAR !

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Soften unsalted butter - 3/4 stick
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Condensed milk - 7 oz
Orange zest - 1 tsp
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
ENO Fruit salt - 1/2 tsp (Fresh packet for best result)

Method

• Grease the cake pan with butter and dust it with flour to get a smooth bottom, of the cake.
• Sieve the all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda well and keep it aside.
• Bake the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Add soften butter and condensed milk in a large bowl to beat well until it comes smooth and creamy. I used electric blender, you could also use hand whisk too. 
• Add orange zest and orange juice to the creamy mixture. To get a fluffy texture, add ENO fruit salt to the mixture and mix well. (zzzzz - sizzling sound is coming while adding the salt)
• Add flour to the mixture and mix gently with flat spatula until it comes smooth and mixed well.
• Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.
• Once the cake is done, allow it to cool completely. Check whether the cake is done or not by inserting the tooth pick. IF it comes clean, cake has done else it comes with sticky the cake has to be in the oven for few more minutes.
• Now,the yummy spongy soft orange cake is ready. Icing is optional. we all had it as such. 

Tips

• Please remove the cake from the oven once it has done. Otherwise it goes hard.
• Don't use the already opened ENO fruit salt packet.
• Check the oven temperature with your manual, because the oven to oven lot of variations. SO take care of temperatures for getting best result.

I am sending this to Love2Bake event 

SYS-W SERIES SHOW YOUR STYLES TO THE WORLD by Viji

LEFT OVER TOMATO GRAVY AND RICE TURNS INTO - CRUNCHY CAULIFLOWER RICE / GOBI RICE - WITH NO MASALA

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Soaking time - 15 minutes

Cooking time - less than 10 minutes

Cauliflower is very good for health, especially heart disease and cancer. It has lots of fiber and vitamin C. The born story of this recipe, I have two left over items, rice and tomato gravy. I want to finish it off. So I planned to prepare this delicious cauliflower rice. Because my kid loves rice with any tomato flavored gravies, so that I had mixed them and turns out yummy. I was very happy while my little picky eater enjoyed it. Let us go to the recipe.

Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup
Tomato gravy - 1/4 bowl
Cauliflower - sliced - 1 small bowl
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2 to 3 tsp

Method

                                      

• Wash and sliced the cauliflower. Add cauliflower, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt in a bowl and mix well. Keep it aside for 15 minutes.

• Heat oil in a pan and fry these marinated cauliflower slightly. Don't over cook. Cauliflowers must have the cruchy taste. So half cook with sprinkle of water. Just close the lid for 2 or 3 minutes. Not more than that.
• Once the cauliflower is done with its crunchiness, remove it from the heat.
• Take a bowl, add rice, tomato gravy ( I used the left over gravy which I made for poori) and mix well gently without smash the rice. Then add the crunchy cauliflower into the mixed gravy rice and mix gently.
• Left over rice and gravy turns into yummy crunchy cauliflower rice with no masala. Serve it with raita or as such or as you wish.

I am sending this to cutchi kitchen's LeftoverMakeover giveaway