Thalipeeth- Maharashtrian Delight

 This is a Maharashtrian dish which is made by mixing 4 kind of flours. This dish is slightly spiced multi grain, which looks like paratha but is made in a different method. There are so many variations in making this thalipeeth. This is highly nutritious and very healthy and can be eaten by all.

I got introduced to this dish from my friend who helps me a lot in cooking these kind of dishes. I have introduced her to you in my older posts. She gave me the mix of thalipeeth and I made it the way she explained me to do. The result was an excellent and yummy breakfast for us. Did I say that I was making this for the first time. Once you try this and I’m sure you are gonna love this.

Ingredients:

1. Bengal Gram Flour / Besan- ¼ cup
2. Rice flour- ¼ cup
3. Wheat flour- ¼ cup
4. Millet flour / Jowar / Ragi- ¼ cup
5. Coriander Powder- 1tsp
6. Red chiily Powder- 1tsp
7. Salt- As per taste
8. Turmeric Powder- ½ tsp
9. Onions (chopped)- 1no
10. Green Chillies (chopped)- 2nos
11. Coriander leaves (chopped)- ½ cup
12. Curd- 1tbsp
13. Water- for mixing
14. Oil- for cooking

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients (except oil)  together with water to make a soft pliable dough.
2. The dough will be sticky. Divide this into 5-6 equal small balls and keep it aside.
3. Traditionally it is made with hands, by patting a small ball of dough with both hands in the form of parathas and cook it with oil on a pan.
4. Easy method is to oil two plastic bags and place a small ball of dough in between the two bags and use the tip of your hands to pat the dough into a flat shape.
5. I used the first method and it was too tiring as I made this for the first time.. :)
6. Heat and grease a nonstick pan and gently turn the plastic sheet upside down and ease of the thalipeeth on to the pan.
7. Cook on both side till golden brown and crisp, using little oil.
8. Repeat the process till all the dough balls are finished.
9. Serve it with a dollop of butter and curd / pickle.

Vazhachund thoran / Banana Flower / blossom With grated Coconut

Here is a nutritious side dish for rice, which is very tasty and healthy.
Every part of the banana plant is useful in one or the other way. The stem,fruit and flower are used in many different ways in cooking. The banana leaf is used for serving meals.

The banana flower or blossom is also called as vazha chundu, vazha khumb and so on in malayalam.  In Kerala each and every house contains atleast one or two banana plants in the backyard. I love to have the honey that comes from the flower threads of banana flower.  My mom used to make this thoran along with vanpayar /  black eyed beans and also only with banana flower.

After chopping the flower, rub your hands with coconut oil and mix well to remove the loopy, sticky fibers which can be annoying while consuming the dish. Another way of removing these sticky fiber is to put the chopped flower into a bowl of water and then stir in circles with spoon (best if the spoon is wooden). You can see the fiber sticking to the spoon. Do this for a few mins and then you are ready to go with the cooking process.

Ingredients:

1. Banana flower / Vazhachund- 1no
2. Coconut- ½ cup
3. Shallots- 2nos
4. Green chillies- 3nos
5. Oil- 1tbsp
6. mustard seeds- 1tsp
7. Turmeric powder- 1tsp
8. salt- as per taste
9. Curry Leaves- few

Method:

1. Remove all the purple coloured outer skin of the banana flower, till you get only the yellow tender part inside.
2. Finely chop the yellow tender part and add 1tbsp of coconut oil to this and rub with both hands to remove the sticky fibers and keep it aside.
3. Grind together coconut (grated), shallots, green chillies till coarse.
4. Heat oil in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the coarsely groun coconut mixture and saute it for a min.
5. Add the finely chopped banana flower, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well and cover it with a lid and cook it on slow flame till all the water gets evaporated.
6. Serve hot with rice.

I am sending this to Kerala Kitchen, Healing food- banana hosted by Krithi and Siri and also to My Mother’s Kitchen hosted by Kalyani.

Banana Coconutty Almond Cake … to my Dad

              Happy Father’s Day to all the sweet Dads in the world
I love you so  much dear Dad (I call him Bapachi). You are the sweetest and the most dearest Dad in the world to me. I think as kids all of us (daughters) will be so attached to our Dads, like making him play with us, to tell stories,  watching TV and so on... Actually I am like that :-) always behind my dad when he comes back from office. He will be so tired then too he will fulfil all my wishes. When my Mom used to scold me I will run to my dad and he saves me. Now I can see myself in my little one who is always behind her Papa.

Dad stood by me in each and every decision in my life.I remember as a kid who ever asked me who will I  marry? I used to say that I want to marry my Dad as he will be always with me. :)

Now I am far away from them, and today I thought of making some kind of sweet. My father likes sweets a lot, but being a diabetic, he cannot eat much of sweets. So when I am there with them, I used to make his favorite sugar free or sugarless dishes. Here I made a banana coconutty almond cake with a touch of kerala, by adding coconut oil. This I saw in a blog which I don't remember (sorry about that. I searched so much but couldn’t get that website.), but noted down the ingredients in notepad. I am making this for the second time and it came out well. This is an easy preparation and will be loved by all. This is for you Dad.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour / Maida- 1 ½ cups
Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp
Cinnamon powder- ½ tsp
Baking soda- 1 ¼ tsp
Bananas- 2nos
Egg- 1no
Coconut oil- ¼ cup (we can also use vegetable oil )
Coconut (grated)- ½ cup
Sugar- ¾ cup
Salt- a pinch
Almonds (chopped)- a handful (we can use walnuts instead of almonds)
Method:
Mash well the bananas in a food processor and keep it aside.
Sift all purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder and salt 2 to 3 times and keep it aside.
In a bowl whisk egg, sugar well till it forms fluffy and light yellow in colour.
In the above fold mashed bananas and grated coconut and mix well. In this add the coconut oil and baking soda and mix till well into the batter.
Finally add the dry mixture of all purpose flour and chopped almonds and mix well and keep it aside.
Grease the baking tin with little oil and maida and pour the cake mixture in to the tin.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and bake  for 50 - 60 minutes or until the skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
When it is done take it out from the oven and rest it on wire rack and decorate with icing sugar and coloured vermicelli.

I am sending this to Kerala Kitchen hosted by Magpie and also to Healing Foods- Banana hosted by Krithi and Siri.

My Birthday with Lychee and Ginger Pannacotta

Pannacotta means “Cooked Cream”. This is an Italian dessert. This is so silky smooth and soft. These are perfect for parties. They can be made a day in advance and kept refrigerated until they are ready to serve. This is made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatine and letting it cool until set. This is served with berries,  nuts and so on.

I saw this in a book called  “Vanitha pachakam”. The recipe was for plain pannacotta, but I just added lychee and grated ginger for some extra taste and they tasted perfect. I made this on my birthday which was on Saturday, 11th of June. Cakes have become common since they are made even without any occassion nowadays :-)

My birthday started with wishes from my dear and near ones, a surprise cake waiting for me in the kitchen (my Husband arranged that) followed by a sumptous lunch the next day. In all, I really enjoyed a lot. In the meanwhile I also made this dessert for the first time and it tasted lovely. Now this will be on my regular menu for special occasions.

The surprise cake at mid night

Ingredients:

1. Milk- 1cup
2. Amul Cream- 1cup
3. Sugar- ½ cup
4. Gelatin- 3tsp
5. Ice Water-2tsp
6. Lychee- 4 to 5 (pureed)nos
7. Ginger (grated)- 11tsp
8. Vanilla Essence- 2tsp

Method:

1. Take gelatin in a bowl and sprinkle water over that and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Mix milk, cream, ginger and sugar in sauce pan and heat it on low flame. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Melt the gelatin in microwave oven for 10 to 12 seconds. Stir well.
4. Add this melted gelatin into the milk - cream mixture and stir until dissolved. Add the pureed lychees and leave the cream mixture to cool.
5. Pour this in glass bowls, chill them until firm for about 2 to 3 hours. I have kept it over night.

At the time of  serving

1. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each pannacotta and unmold each on a serving plate and garnish as desired.
2. You can also demold by dipping the bowls in hot water for ½ minute. The dessert will easily come out on serving plate.

At the time of serving I didn’t had anything which I mentioned before for garnishing. So I used jam. I poured little warm water in 1tbsp of jam and mixed it well. Poured this over the pannacotta and decorated with some lychees.

Aloo Bonda / Crispy Fried Potato Fritters

Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged and processed foods and items made from fresh ingredients at home. Snacks are often classified as junk food, which is true with many snack with attractive taste and colour, but packed with a lot of unhealthy ingredients. Nowadays more healthy and low calorie snacks are available in the market and many of us are preferring those.

Homemade snacks are those which no one can resist. Today's post is about an evening snack which is rich in proteins and nutrients and also in calories.. :) This was made for my daughter. As soon as she gets up from her afternoon nap she wants something to eat and I made this one day and she liked this a lot. This is so simple and easy to make. This bonda is fried and crisp outside and soft inside. This is very famous in Indian cuisine. In North this is called as batata vada.

In this recipe, the potatoes are boiled, mashed and cooked with onions and spices, coated with a batter made with besan / gram flour and deep fried. We can make this in kuzhi paniyaram / unniappam pan then the shape will be perfectly round and also it require less oil, but I didn't have that pan so I just deep fried it in oil. This can also be made with tapioca, minced meat and so on..

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes (boiled and mashed)- 2nos
2. Onions (chopped)- 1no
3. Green chillies (chopped)- 3nos
4. Ginger and garlic paste- 1tbsp
5. Turmeric powder- 1tsp
6. Garam masala powder- 1tsp
7. Cumin powder- 1 tsp
8. Lemon juice- 1tbsp
9. Salt- as per taste
10. Oil- 1tbsp

For the batter:

1. Oil- for deep frying
2. Besan / gram flour- 1cup
3. Baking powder- 1tsp
4. Rice flour- 1tbsp
5. Salt- as per taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add onions, green chillies when they turn golden brown add the ginger garlic paste and saute well.
2. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder garam masala powder and salt and mix well.
3. At this stage add the mashed potatoes and lemon juice and saute them well. Turn of the heat.
4. Allow them to cool and make small balls with hands.
5. Add all the ingredients for the batter in a bowl. Make thick batter by adding few tbsp of water. The batter should be not too thin and not too thick.
6. Heat oil in a kadai, dip the balls in the batter and deep fry them.
7. Serve hot with chutneys like green chutney, date and tamarind chutney or simply with tomato sauce.

The inside stuffing

Spicy Prawns Masala / Chemmeen Masala

Prawns is loved by all who eats non vegetarian food. Any type of dish made with prawns will be mouth watering.
This is a simple and delicious prawn masala recipe which is spicy and rich masala laden gravy. This is an easy to make, dry preparation of prawns that doubles as an excellent snack as well as a side dish with the main course. In this the prawns are cooked in onion - tomato and mixed well with the spice powders. You can make this more spicy depending upon your taste level.

Ingredients:

1. Prawns- ½kg cleaned and drained
2. Onions(sliced)- 2nos
3. Tomatoes(finely chopped)- 2nos  
4. Chilli powder- 2tsp
5. Curry leaves- few
6. Coriander powder- 1tsp
7. Pepper powder- ½ tsp
8. Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
9. Garlic (chopped)- 7cloves
10. Salt- as per taste
11. Oil- 2tbsp

Method:

1. Marinate the prawns with turmeric powder and salt and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Saute the onions till they turn transparent and add the curry leaves.
3. Add garlic and saute well.
4. Add the tomatoes and all the powders. Mix well till all the water has evaporated.
5. At this stage add the prawns. Mix well. Close the pan with a lid for a few minutes.
6. After some time remove the lid and saute over low flame till becomes dry.
7. Serve it with rice, chapathis and so on.

I am sending this to Kerala Kitchen hosted by Magpie.