Banana Paniyaram | Banana Sweet Bonda

It's a pleasure to let you all know that Good Food has crossed 1 lakh hits and I realized it today :). I would like to thank all my blogger friends and readers who drop at my space. I appreciate the feedbacks  from my blogger and non blogger friends through mails and comments after trying out my recipes. I am so happy that you take time to let me know the feedback. Thank you for your kind words about the healthy and simple recipes I share :)

Today's recipe is a common snack in most of our households. Whenever there are overripe bananas, our mothers and grandmothers used to quickly prepare this snack rt. These bondas are always deep fried, but I made them in paniyaram or aebleskiver pan with so much less oil. You can either use all purpose flour or wheat flour. These are really soft, yummy and they are so quick to prepare. Hope you guys try this guilt free version !

Many ask me what is a paniyaram pan whenever I put a paniyaram recipe...So I have put a click in the end, please take a look at it :)

You need...

3/4 cup Wheat flour

1 large ripe Banana

1/4 cup Sugar

1 tsp Cardamom powder

2 tbsp Coconut

1/4 tsp Baking powder

a pinch Salt

Water

To prepare...

Blend the banana, sugar and cardamom powder to form a puree.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, coconut and banana puree.

Add water as required to form a thick batter with dropping consistency.

Heat a paniyaram or aebleskiver pan. Add few drops of oil in each hole.

Pour a small ladle of batter in each hole. Cover and cook for a minute or two until it gets brown.

Flip it and let it cook for another minute or so.

Serve them warm.

Notes:

* You can use all purpose flour or maida instead of wheat flour.

* Adjust sugar depending upon the ripeness of the banana.

* You can also deep fry them.

A Zebra Cake for His birthday :) (Eggless)

It was my husband's birthday yesterday and I made this beautiful cake for him. This is the first time I am trying out a Zebra cake and I am really happy that it turned out  great. Zebra cakes are just like marble cakes, but as the name suggests these cakes have stripes in them. Initially I had thought that its difficult to make these patterns, but they are simple once you try them. Make a simple cake batter, divide the batter into two. Mix cocoa in one batter. You have to keep on adding the vanilla and cocoa batter alternately to the centre of the pan. That's it...you can get these pretty patterns :)

The best part is that its eggless and butterless too. I have adapted my recipe from my friend Julie's Eggless Marble cake and Sum's Eggless Zebra Cake for making this cake. I wanted to take the pictures of making zebra patterns, but alas... I couldn't !! I had planned for a simple frosting also as it was a birthday cake, but my hubby dear was so happy with this striped beautiful cake and he said that frosting isn't necessary, its already so pretty :).  Hope you all will love this beautiful and delicious cake !

You need...

1.5 cups All Purpose Flour

1 cup thick Yoghurt

2 cups powdered Sugar (or 1 cup Sugar)

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Baking soda

1.5 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tbsp Cocoa powder

1/2 cup Oil

a pinch Salt

approx 1/2 cup Milk

To prepare...

Grease a cake pan and keep ready. Sift the flour twice and keep aside. In a medium size bowl, add cocoa powder and about 3 tbsp milk, mix well without lumps and keep aside .

Take the yoghurt in a bowl. Add sugar and salt into the yoghurt, mix until it dissolves. Now add baking powder and soda, mix and leave it for 2-3 minutes. The yoghurt slightly bubbles and becomes frothy. Add oil and vanilla extract and mix gently. 

Now slowly add the flour little by little and fold it over. Do not mix vigorously. The cake batter is ready now and it will be very thick.

Take half of the batter and put into the cocoa mixture bowl. Mix gently and your cocoa cake batter is ready. So you have a vanilla batter and a cocoa batter now.

I found the batter very thick. So I added about 4 tbsp milk to the vanilla batter and 1 tbsp milk to the cocoa batter.( We have already added 3 tbsp milk while making the cocoa paste). The batter should be of medium consistency, not very thick and not very runny. If you put a little batter on a flat surface, it should spread slightly by itself.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Take the cake pan. Put 1 tbsp of vanilla batter at the centre of the pan. The batter will spread slightly.  Now add 1 tbsp of cocoa batter to the centre of the vanilla batter. Add the batter this way alternating the vanilla and cocoa batter until the batters get finished up. Remember that batter will spread itself and do not shake the pan. Keep putting the batter continuously without stopping.

Reduce the temperature of the oven to 350F. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean. Once baked, leave it in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Remove gently from the pan and cool the cake completely.

Enjoy the beautiful cake :)

Have one more look before you go :) isn't it pretty ? 

Poha Paniyaram | Healthy Poha Vada

Poha paniyaram is a yummy snack which you can make super quick. The whole credit for this recipe goes to my dear hubby :) He gave me the recipe idea and suggested me to try in paniyaram pan which actually made these paniyarams or vadas very healthy and delicious. I have made these a few times now. For the regular paniyarams, you need the idli / dosa batter which takes a long process to make. But this can be prepared in a jiffy and when you are not quite sure of what snack to prepare quickly.  Serve them hot and I hope you all will love these...so please do try them !!

You need...

11/4 cup thick Poha

1/4 cup finely chopped Onion

1" pc Ginger finely chopped

3-4 Green chillies chopped

3-4 Curry Leaves chopped

2 tbsp grated Carrot (optional)

2 tbsp Coconut (optional)

1/4 cup Yoghurt

a few Coriander leaves finely chopped

Salt

To prepare...

Soak poha in water, maybe a little more than 1/2 cup water, for about 5 minutes. The poha should be completely wet. After 5 minutes, mash the poha with your hands thoroughly and mix well. 

Add rest of the ingredients and combine well. If necessary add a little water to help in mixing. You should get a dough like consistency and you should be able to make smooth balls out of it. So care should be taken not to add too much water.  Now make medium size balls out of it and keep aside.

Heat a paniyaram pan. Add few drops of oil in each hole. Place each poha ball in each hole. Cover and cook for 2 minutes until the bottom gets brown. Now slowly flip it and let it get brown. You can slowly rotate the poha ball so that sides also get slightly browned.

Poha paniyaram or vadas are ready. Serve hot with chutney or pickle or even sambhar.

Notes:
* You can deep fry them if you desire
* You can also do the tempering, saute the veggies slightly and then add with poha.

Aebleskiver or Danish Pancakes (with Nutella filling )

Aebleskiver are Danish pancakes which are small ball shaped. The batter for making the aebleskiver is similar to the American pancake batter, but they are prepared in a special pan called aebleskiver pan which is very similar to our south Indian paniyaram pan.  Hence these Danish pancakes are like small spheres rather than the usual round pancakes. The word Aebleskiver is a Danish word which means apple slice. So these pancakes are usually made with apple slices as filling inside.

I have referred the recipe here to make these traditional Danish pancake balls. I have used my paniyaram pan and I have used Nutella as filling. You can use fruits such as apple, banana or even jam, peanut butter etc can also be used as filling. They can be made as plain without any filling and can be served with some jam, maple syrup etc. These taste delicious with or without filling and sure kids would love them. My son love these cute pancake balls a lot, even the big kid..i mean my hubby is also a big fan of this yummy munchies, so I make them often :) :)

You need...

1 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida

2 tsp Baking powder

3 tbsp Sugar

1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon (optional)

1/4 tsp Salt

1 egg

3/4 cup Milk

2 tbsp Oil or Butter

Nutella

To prepare...

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl. 

Beat an egg and whisk with milk and oil. Add this to the flour mixture and mix well to form a batter, not too thick and not too thin.

Heat the aebleskiver or paniyaram pan. You can brush the holes slightly with butter. I have used cooking spray instead, sprayed a little oil over the holes. 

Now pour the batter to fill up half of each hole. Then quickly put less than a tsp of Nutella over the batter in each hole and finally put very little batter in each hole to cover the Nutella filling. You need to be quick as well as patient here. The batter might rise upto the top of the hole soon. So you need to add Nutella and batter to cover as soon as possible. 

Cover and cook for a minute until bottom gets browned. Then slowly flip to the other side and let it get brown. Your danish pancake balls are ready now. Serve hot.

Notes:
* You can use any kind of filling such as apple slices, banana slices, jam, peanut butter etc.
* They taste best when served hot.

Paneer Pasta in desi style !!

Paneer and Pasta sounds a unique and interesting combo rt? I was doubtful about how our very own Indian Paneer n Italian Pasta would taste together in this fusion recipe. It turned out very flavourful and delicious. I made this pasta in fully desi style. The whole garam masala and the kasoori methi makes it simply superb and flavourful. No store bought sauce is used, instead I have used fresh tomatoes here to make a basic simple sauce.  I have used only the paneer or cottage cheese here, but if you want you can add some cheese at the end. We all enjoyed this " ekdam desi style pasta " :)

You need...

1.5 cups Pasta

1 cup grated Paneer

1 Onion finely chopped

3-4 medium size Tomatoes

2 Garlic cloves finely chopped

Whole Masala: 1" pc Cinnamon, 2 Cloves, 1 Star Anise, 1 Cardamom pod

1 tsp Chilli powder

1 tsp Coriander powder

2 tsp Oil

Kasoori methi

Salt

Pepper

To prepare...

Cook pasta according to packet directions and keep aside. Blend the tomatoes to a puree and keep it ready.

Heat oil in a pan. Add everything mentioned as Whole Masala, saute for a minute until fragrant. Add the garlic and fry till light brown. Now add onion and saute until it changes light brown. 

Add the tomato puree and bring to a boil. Now add chilli powder, coriander powder and salt. Cook for a few minutes until sauce becomes slightly thick.

Add the pasta and paneer now. Combine everything well. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Now finally crush the kasoori methi between palms and add to the pasta. Mix everything well and your Paneer Pasta is ready. Serve hot.

Notes:

* You can add other vegetables like carrot, bell pepper etc.
* You can add some cheese, red chilli flakes in the end if you desire.

Masala Dosa Paniyaram | Potato Bonda in a new way :)

The name of the dish sounds funny rt ? Dosa and paniyaram...how is both possible in a single dish ? This is not any complicated dish guys, masala dosa is in the form of paniyaram. To make it more clear, the potato masala is dipped in idli/dosa batter and cooked in paniyaram/aebleskiver pan...now this sounds fine and simple rt ? :) These bite sized dosa balls / bonda might be a kid pleaser and they will definitely find it interesting and new. I always add carrots while making masala for masala dosa, so I have used it here as well. These are extremely healthy as they are not deep fried and cooked in few drops of oil. This is a great way of utilizing the left over batter or the masala.

I am back to my lil space after a short break. I would like to thank my dear friends Sangeetha (Spicy Treats), Kaveri (Palakkad Chamayal) , also my hubby and a few of my other friends who inspired me to come back to this blog :). So I hope to peek into this space whenever I find time !! I was really happy when Sangeetha, Julie and Roshni tried my Eggless Mango cake. Thanx a lot guys for trying, posting it in a new version and also stopping by and giving me a feedback and I am glad that you liked it.  Now let's move on to the recipe...

You need...

1 cup Idli/Dosa batter

For Potato masala :

3 medium size Potatoes cubed

2 small Carrots cubed

1 Onion diced

1" pc Ginger finely chopped

2-3 Green chillies chopped

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

3-4 Curry leaves chopped

1 tsp Oil

Salt

To prepare...

Cook potatoes, onion and carrots with turmeric powder in a pressure cooker with adequate water. Heat oil in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves, ginger and green chillies. Saute for a minute.  Now add the cooked potatoes-onion-carrots, then salt and combine everything well. Mash the whole mixture, mix well and keep this aside to cool. Once cooled, make small size balls out of it.

Add required salt to the batter. Heat the paniyaram pan. Add few drops of oil in each hole. Dip each potato ball into the dosa batter and place in each hole. Cover with a lid and wait for a minute or two. When the bottom gets light brown, slowly flip it over. Cook until other side gets brown.

Serve hot with any chutney or sambar or enjoy them plain !

Notes:

* You can add urad dal if you wish while tempering. 

* You can skip carrots which is perfectly fine.

* I have cooked onions along with potato. You can chop them fine and saute until transparent after tempering. 

* The batter shouldn't be very watery or too thick, should be enough to make a coating.