Pav Bhaji for iftar...

You all might be knowing that holy month of Ramadan has started and so is fasting. There are so many things that I love about this month, I love getting up early mornings for sehri, fasting the whole day and breaking the fast in evenings with our favorite snacks or else calling our friends and family for iftar party and most importantly reciting the quran. 

This is the month where we will learn to be more self disciplined, self controlled, sacrifice and giving zakat to the poor and needy.

On the first day of fasting I prepared our favorite dish. I know this will be very heavy for an empty stomach to have, but since I cannot resist any chat dishes, I thought of making this on the first day for iftar. This is my first attempt in making pav bhaji and was successful and tasted just like what we get from stalls outside.

I made the pav bhaji masala powder and added that to the bhaji and it was perfect. I thought of making the pav, but time didn’t permit me so ended up with store bought pav. This is a perfect tea time snack and will be loved by all.The bhaji is very healthy and nutritious, as we use all kinds of vegetables in it. I love the butter smell in both the pav as well as in the bhaji. 

We can also add capsicum and cauliflower. As my husband doesn’t like some of the veggies, I didn’t add. Later on serve it with lots of coriander leaves and chopped onions.
Once the veggies are boiled and mashed, your yummy pav bhaji is ready within minutes.

Ingredients:
Pav bhaji masala powder:

1. Coriander powder- 2 tbsp
2. Cumin powder- 1 tbsp
3. Cloves- 2 nos
4. Cinnamon stick- 1 small stick
5. Cardamom- 2nos
6. Black peppercorns- 1 tbsp
7. Red chilli powder- 2tsp
8. Turmeric powder- ½ tbsp

Method:

• Dry roast all the ingredients and grind it to a fine powder. Keep it aside.

Ingredients for bhaji:

1. Potatoes (boiled and mashed)- 2nos
2. Onions (chopped)- 2 nos
3. Ginger and garlic paste- 1tbsp
4. Carrots (cubed)- 2nos
5. Beans (chopped)- 10nos
6. Green chillies (chopped)- 2nos
7. Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
8. Red chilli powder- 1 tsp
9. Pav bhaji masala- 2tbsp
10. Tomatoes (chopped)- 2 nos
11. Salt- as per taste
12. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
13. Butter (at room temp)- 1tbsp
14. Oil- 2tbsp
15. Coriander leaves- 1 bunch
16. Pav bread (toasted with butter)- 4-5 nos

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions. Fry till translucent. In this add the ginger and garlic paste and green chillies.
2. Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and the prepared pav bhaji masala. Mix well.
3. Add the boiled and mashed vegetables along with chopped tomatoes and keep it on high flame for 5 min.
4. Then lower the flame and cook for about 10- 15 min, till all the gravy is thickened.
5. Once the gravy is thickened add the salt and switch off the flame. At last add the lemon juice and butter and mix well.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve this along with chopped onions and butter roasted pav on a lovely evening.

I am sending this to Joy from fasting to feasting and also to Hyderabad ramadan food festival.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Dora frosting and sprinkles

Whenever I go for any parties / get togethers, there are these cute little things sitting in a beautiful palette, from which I cannot take my eyes off and they will be smiling at me and asking me to “pick- me- up”. These cute little cupcakes are so easy to make and are so moist and fluffy.

Cupcakes were not my cup of tea till my kid started liking them like heaven. From then on  I try to make different varieties of cupcakes for her.

A standard cupcake uses the same basic ingredients like the butter, eggs, sugar and so on. Some will be having different flavors or some kind of additional nuts or raisins are added to it. Because the cupcake are smaller than the normal cakes, they bake very fast. Once they are cooled enough they can be topped with frosting or any other decorating sprinkles. Here I have used the icing frosting and dora waffles of which my daughter is a big fan.

Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour / Maida- 1 ½ cups
2. Baking powder- 1 tsp
3. salt- a pinch
4. Butter- ¼ cup
5. Egg- 1no
6. Sugar- ½ cup
7. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
8. Milk- ½ cup

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy. Add egg and beat well.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this little by little in the egg mixture along with milk.
4. Add the vanilla essence and mix well. Pour this in the greased paper cups and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

For the icing sugar frosting:

• Mix ½ cup of icing sugar with little milk and ½ tsp vanilla essence to a smooth paste and apply over the cupcakes.
• I have decorated with edible dora stickers, as my little one is a big dora fan..:)

Coffee Cookies- Coffeelicious..

Mmmmmm..... I simply love the smell of freshly baked goodies, just as I love baking since the aroma of the baked items will linger around and also the taste of the freshly baked goodies is something exceptional which we cannot get anywhere in the market.

Most preferably I like to bake cookies as the buttery taste and the “melt-in-mouth” cookies are very simple and easy to make without much effort and they taste heavenly. And that too if the cookies are made of coffee then nothing can beat those. On a very tiring day, these are a special energy boosters that we all love to have it with a cup of hot tea. But we should take care that the coffee shouldn’t exceed the limit as it will taste bitter.

It happened to me, when I baked the first batch I added exact amount of coffee powder the recipe was demanding and it turned out to be bitter and then for the second batch as I reduced the amount of coffee, it was amazingly delicious.

This is a really tasty treat in which instant coffee, flour, butter, sugar are used and these cookies are sprinkled with sugar or designed with fork to make it look more attractive. So here is the yummy treat which you all should just try out... :-)

Ingredients:
Adapted from treat and trick:

1. Maida / All purpose flour- 1 cup
2. Baking powder- 1 tbsp
3. Sugar- ¼ cup
4. Butter- 6 tbsps
5. Coffee- ½ tbsp
6. Hot Water- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Mix coffee with hot water in a bowl and keep it aside.
2. Mix powdered sugar with butter using hand mixie or using a spoon. Add this to the maida and baking powder mixture and mix well.
3. Add coffee mixture to the above maida and mix till it forms a dough.
4. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Meanwhile make small balls out of the dough and press it on your palm and bake it for about 20 minutes.
5. Crispy, crunchy, soft and smooth cookies are ready.
6. If you want you can press some sugar crystals or press fork on top of the cookie dough.

My little one kept her bangle when I was taking snaps