Banana Huggi Recipe | Banana Pongal : Unique pongal recipe

Wishing all of you a very happy Makara Sankranti | Pongal | Lohri.

 

 Did I mention before that we are moving again? Hold on.., this time we are moving to another house near by and not to another Country. I have made good friends here at my apartment and am definitely gonna miss them. Banana pongal is one of the recipes that I learnt from my friend here. I am planning to get as many recipes possible from her and try before I move. Keep watching this space, there's more coming :)

The color of the pongal will be anywhere from light brown to very dark brown depending on the type of jaggery used. However, the color does not alter the taste of the pongal in any ways.

Other pongal recipes 

Oats Pongal

Khara Pongal

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 40 mins
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
Raw rice: 1/2 cup, refer notes
Water: 1 cup,
Banana: 1 medium sized, refer notes

Jaggery | Brown sugar: 1/2 cup, refer notes
Water: 1/4 cup, more or less
Ghee | Clarified butter: 3 tbsp + 2 tsp
Grated coconut: 1 tbsp, fresh or frozen
Cardamom powder: a pinch
Cashew nuts: 1/2 tsp
Chopped almonds: 1/2 tsp
Raisins: 1/2 tsp

Method:
Wash the rice thoroughly and let it soak for 30 mins.
Add the water to it. Pressure cook the rice for 4-5 whistles.Allow the cooker to cool for 10 mins.
Meantime, add water to the roughly pound jaggery and heat it on a medium heat.

When the jaggery is dissolved in water, strain the jaggery water. (Refer notes below)
Put the water back in the same sauce pan and bring it to a boil.
Mash the cooked rice.
When water starts boiling, add the cooked rice to it and mix well. Add 2 tbsp of ghee and allow the rice to cook again for 3-5 mins on low-medium heat.

Finely chop the banana and add the chopped banana to the rice mixture along with a tbsp of ghee.

Mix well and cook again for couple of mins.
Mash the bananas along with the rice and add the cardamom powder, grated coconut. Cook for 3-5 mins.

Meantime, heat about 2 tsp of ghee in a small sauce pan. When ghee is hot, throw in the chopped cashews and almonds.

When nuts turn golden brown, turn off the heat and add raisins. When raisins plump up, pour the nuts over the cooked pongal.

Mix well and serve it hot.

Notes:

• Raw rice is preferred for the pongal. But, if you do not have it, you could make is using ponni or sona masoori rice (or any small grain rice). I suggest adding a little more water to the sona masoori rice as they dont turn soft or mushy easily. (My rice did end up grainy as you can see in the pictures. I did not have raw rice).
• When the rice is still hot, mash the rice so that the huggi/pongal becomes mushy. 
• A well ripened banana is what we need for this huggi. Do not use the green ones.
• Our family prefers huggi to be sweeter. You could reduce the amount of jaggery to a little more than 1/4 cup (for the quantity mentioned above).
• Jaggery has lot of impurities. Hence, it is advised to strain the jaggery water before making anything using jaggery.

Eggless condensed milk cake | Eggless sponge cake

PS: I am a beginner in frosting the cake, so please bear with me until I perfect the art.

It's raining cakes & cupcakes at my home. I baked 2 large cakes and about 45 cupcakes for my son's and hubby's birthday. Both their birthdays are in the same week. It was a baking fiesta for me at home.

I normally use the yogurt/curd recipe to make the eggless vanilla sponge cake, but this time thought of making it rich using condensed milk and butter. I prefer this over the yogurt one. I have made it many number of times and it is always a hit at home :)

This is a basic sponge cake. You could frost it however you want or have it as is. I have tweaked the recipe a little as I did not have orange juice at home.

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Baking Time: 35-45 mins
Recipe Source: My Diverse Kitchen

Ingredients: This cake yields about 16 pieces (I made it in 9" round tin)
Dry ingredients:
AP flour/Maida: 2.5 cups
Baking Powder: 2 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Salt: A pinch

Wet ingredients:
Sweetened Condensed milk: 14 ounce can or about 400gms
Butter: 3/4 cup or 1 & 1/2 sticks
Water: 1 cup
Vinegar: 1 tbsp
Vanilla Extract: 2 tsp

Method: 
Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.
Grease the baking tray using a non stick baking spray.
Sieve all the ingredients mentioned under the dry ingredients section.
Melt the butter.

To the melted butter, add the condensed milk, water, vinegar and vanilla extract.

Mix gently and keep them aside.
Scoop the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl & mix them gently. Make a well in the center of the flour.

Pour the mixed liquid over the flour & mix. Use a whisk or a spatula to mix them. Do not whisk. Just mix them gently.

Once both the ingredients are mixed well, pour the batter to the greased baking tray. Little lumps here and there is okay.

Tap the tray and bake the cake for about 35-45 mins. Mine got done in about 42 mins.
Remove the cake from the oven & allow to cool for 10-15 mins on a cooling rack.

After 15 mins, run the knife on the edges of the cake & flip the baking pan over the cooling rack.
Tap the bottom of the pan gently and remove the baking pan. The cake will slide off easily.

Allow the cake to cool for a minimum of 1 hour before slicing them.
To frost the cake, you need to cool the cake for couple of hours.

I frosted the cake with the left over chocolate butter cream icing and sprinkled some powdered sugar. I decorated it with some chocolate chips and the cake is ready.

Notes: 

• Baking time of the cake depends on the kind of baking pan/tray used. If you use dark colored pan like the one shown above, the baking time will be more. If using a aluminium foil or thin aluminium tray, the baking time will be less. So, keep a close eye on the cake after 25-30 mins. 
• To check if the cake is baked or not, insert a toothpick to the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done.
• You could use Nestle's Milkmaid to make this cake. 
• I will give the chocolate frosting recipe in my coming posts. Stay tuned!

Quick Gulab Jamun | Ricotta cheese gulab jamun | Diwali Sweets

A quick gulab jamun recipe using milk powder & ricotta cheese....

Gulab Jamun is a classic & a  traditional Indian sweet/dessert. It is deep fried milk balls soaked in rose essence sugar syrup. The mawa or thickened milk (similar to ricotta cheese) is deep fried in ghee (clarified butter) & dipped in the sugar syrup. If you have mawa (or khova) with you, making the gulab jamun is a breeze. As it is not easy to get mawa here, I always make the gulab jamuns using the milk powder. This time around, I thought of adding ricotta cheese as I had them in my pantry. They were yummy & hence sharing the recipe with you guys.

Why don't you guys give it a try during this Diwali? I'm sure it will be a hit.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Resting time: About an hour

Ingredients: (Makes about 30-35 jamun)
For the cheese balls/milk balls/jamun:
Ricotta cheese: 1/4 cup
Mawa powder or Milk powder: 1 cup (refer notes)
AP flour/Maida: 1/4 cup
Baking powder: 1/4 tsp
Ghee: 1 tsp
Water: As needed

About 2 cups of oil for deep frying the jamuns

For the sugar syrup:
Sugar: 1.5 cups
Water: 1.5 cups
Rose essence: few drops
Cardamom powder: a pinch
Lemon juice: 1/4 tsp

Method:
Add all the ingredients mentioned under the cheese ball section (except water) in a bowl & give it a mix.
Slowly add a tbsp of water at a time to make a soft and non sticky dough. You will not need more than 3-4 tbsp of water. Never knead the dough.

Keep the dough covered for about 15 mins.
Meantime, prepare the sugar syrup. Add the water & sugar in a sauce pan. Add the lemon juice, rose essence, cardamom powder to the water. Heat on a low-medium heat. Keep stirring to ensure the sugar is dissolved completely.

Increase the heat to medium & boil it for 12-15 mins until you get a sticky consistency syrup(1/2 thread consistency).
Remove the syrup from the heat.

Heat the oil in a medium wok.
Make marble sized balls of the dough. Make the balls smooth, else the dough balls will crack while they are getting fried. I got about 28 dough balls.

Add a small pinch of dough to the oil. If the dough settles in the bottom for few seconds only & then rises up, the oil is at right temperature. Oil should not be hot, when we fry these dough balls. They need to get cooked evenly. Add the dough balls to the oil & fry them on low-medium heat for about 5-7 mins. Do not touch the dough balls. Instead keep moving the oil to ensure even cooking & coloring of the balls.

Once they are golden brown, drain the fried balls on a paper towel & repeat the above procedure with the remaining dough balls.

Add the warm deep fried balls to the sugar syrup & cover it with the lid.
Rest it for a minimum of 30 mins. Allow the deep fried balls to soak the sugar syrup.
Serve it warm, cold or hot.

Notes: 

• I always use the mava powder or the milk powder available at the Indian stores. You could easily find the mava powder at the Indian stores anywhere. 
• It is important to shape the dough balls smooth & without any cracks. If there are cracks, then the gulab jamuns will disintegrate in the sugar syrup. 
• You could smear a drop of ghee to you palm for shaping the dough balls. 
• I'm repeating again. Do not deep fry the dough balls on high heat & also in very hot oil. The dough balls get browned quickly & is uncooked in the center. They become very hard & the deep fried dough balls will not absorb the sugar syrup. 
• You should never knead the gulab jamun dough. You need to mix it gently & make a dough. 
• Traditionally gulab jamuns are deep fried in ghee (clarified butter). If you wish, you could deep fry in ghee too. 
• I have added water to make the dough. You could replace water with milk. I have made them with milk before. Both taste equally good. 
• You could replace baking powder with baking soda too. If you are adding baking soda, add less than 1/4th tsp (may be about 1/8th tsp). Do not add too much baking powder or soda. If soda is more, the dough balls will disintegrate in oil. I have made that mistake once & all the efforts went waste.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

For my son's birthday yesterday, I baked 5 dozen cupcakes, 1 9*13 cake, and 1 9 inch round cake. I was skeptical if I could do it alone, but gave it a shot & every one loved it. It was a huge success. I made about 30 vanilla cupcakes & 30 chocolate cupcakes. For the vanilla cupcakes, I followed this recipe. Some of you might have seen these cupcakes on my facebook already :)

This is one super easy cupcake recipe. It doesn't call for eggs, butter, milk or yogurt. I doubled the recipe to get about 33 cupcakes. Since the frosting is not vegan, I will talk about the frosting & the decorating part in the next post ;)

Here is my version of the angry birds cupcakes :) I am very happy since, it is my first trial with cupcake decoration!

PS: You have very few days left to participate in the giveaway. Do participate & win.

1. Cast iron griddle
2. Tarla Dalal Cookbook.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Baking Time: 20 mins
Baking Temperature: 350F/180C
Recipe Source: Showmethecurry
Makes: About 15-16 cupcakes

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
AP flour/ Maida : 1.5 cups
Unsweetened cocoa powder: 1/4 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Salt: A pinch
Baking soda: 1 tsp

Wet ingredients:
Hot water: 1 cup
Vinegar: 1 tbsp
Instant coffee powder: 2 tsp
Oil: 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp (I used olive oil)
Vanilla Extract: 2 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven.
Line the cupcake tray with the cupcake liners.

Sift the all purpose flour, cocoa powder.

Mix in  the sugar, salt & baking soda to the sifted flour.
Scoop it onto a bowl.

Add the vinegar, instant coffee powder. vanilla extract, and oil to the hot water & whisk.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients & fold.

Add about 1.5 tbsp to 2 tbsp of batter onto each cupcake mould & bake it in the preheated oven for about 20 mins.
Keep an eye on the oven as each oven is different & baking time varies drastically from oven to oven. My cupcakes were done in 18 mins.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven. Let it cool in the tray for about 5 mins, before placing it on the wire rack.

Once the cupcakes are completely cool, frost them :)

Notes:
All the measurements mentioned above are leveled (for the dry ingredients).
How to check if the cupcakes are baked: A skewer inserted onto the center of the cupcake should come out clean.

Sajjige | Cream of wheat pudding | Sheera

Sun is playing hide & seek from the last couple of months. In fact, I hardly saw him in this period. To add to it, the days are extremely short. All these things add to "not so good quality pictures". I have 20+ recipes along with the pictures waiting in the draft. Since, I am not happy with the pictures I am waiting to make them again, retake the pictures & then share the recipe.

Sajjige is a very simple & quick pudding. Sajjige along with the mashed banana is served as a prasadam/neivedyam/bhog/offering on Satyanarayan Pooja. The recipe calls for just four ingredients...., milk, sugar, ghee (loads of) & cream of wheat. But, you could add other ingredients for flavoring & garnishing the main dish :)

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 10-15 mins

Ingredients:

• Cream of wheat/Fine Rawa/Chiroti Rawa: 1 cup
• Milk: 3 cups (I use 2% milk)
• Sugar: 3/4th cup*
• Ghee/Clarified Butter: 1/3 cup, divided use
• Saffron: a pinch
• Cardamom powder: a big pinch

For the garnish:

• Ghee: 1 tbsp
• Cashew nuts: 1 tbsp
• Raisins: 1 tbsp

Method:
Heat 1/4th cup of ghee in a broad pan. When ghee is hot, pour in the cream of wheat.
Keeping the heat in medium, saute the cream of wheat for 6-8 mins. Keep stirring the cream of wheat to ensure even roasting of the rawa.

Meantime, start heating the milk.
Once the aroma of the roasted rava fills the kitchen, pour the hot milk over the roasted cream of wheat. Mix well.

Throw in the saffron strands & let the cream of wheat cook on a low-medium heat.

In 3-5 mins, the cream of wheat will absorb all the milk & starts leaving the edges of the pan (see pic below).
During this stage, pour in the sugar and the cardamom powder.

Mix well. The cooked rava will loosen up because of the sugar. Keep mixing. Ensure no lumps are formed while mixing.

Add in the remaining ghee & continue mixing for a couple of more minutes. The mixture will thicken, ooze out ghee & starts leaving the edges of the pan.

Remove the pudding from the heat.
Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in ghee. Add the fried nuts to the cooked pudding.

Mix well & serve hot!

Notes:

• If your family prefers sweeter sajjige, increase the sugar to 1 cup. I add one cup of sugar when I cook only for my family. When I have guests at home, I add 3/4 cup sugar as most people prefer it that way!
• Any variety of milk could be used to make this pudding.
• Do not be stingy in adding ghee. More the better!!