Wheat Appam / Laced Wheat Pancakes

Hope you all enjoyed and had a wonderful holiday time. We too had an amazing time and enjoyed the very long weekend !! I had posted the recipe of  Appam  few days ago and I always make these by grinding rice. I wanted to try with wheat flour from a long time and when I saw it in a couple of blogs, it gave me the inspiration. So yesterday I made these for dinner and prepared similar to how I made the rice appams. These are simple to make with no soaking and no grinding when compared to the rice appams. The wheat appams were super soft , much softer than the rice appams and tasted excellent. I served the appams with vegetable stew. My son too enjoyed these which is my greatest appreciation :) 

What you need?

1.5 cup Wheat flour

1 to 1 1/4 cup thick Coconut milk

1.5 tsp active dry Yeast

1 tbsp Sugar

Salt

Water

How to prepare?

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup luke warm water. Leave it for 5-10 minutes so that it becomes frothy.

Combine wheat flour, coconut milk and salt. Add water as required to make a very thin batter. Make sure there are no lumps. Finally add the yeast solution. Mix well and allow to ferment in a warm place for 6-8 hours. 

Heat the appam pan or a small non stick pan.  Adjust the salt and sugar in the batter if necessary just before preparing. Pour in a ladle of the batter. Swirl around the pan so as to spread the batter. Cover and cook for few minutes until sides and bottom get browned.

Serve hot with some stew or egg curry.

Sending this to Chirstmas Delicacy event by Julie at Erivum Puliyum

Eggless Carrot Cake and Merry Christmas !!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas!! I guess most of you might be busy baking, cooking, visiting friends or family and shopping for the festive time rt. We don't celebrate Christmas as such. As a kid, I used to cherish the 10 days X'mas school vacation the most :). We used to buy and enjoy a plum cake from the famous bakery then , thats pretty much all Christmas was about for me !! 

Today's recipe is yet another eggless bake, a very healthy one too. I love the carrots in baked goods and the cake came out so soft n moist. This cake is very flavourful too and the house will be filled with the lovely cinnamon flavour of the cake while it gets baked. Hope you all will try this out.

What you need?

1 cup Wheat flour

1 cup grated Carrot

1/2 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1.5 tsp Cinnamon powder

A pinch Salt

1/2 cup Yoghurt

1/2 cup Oil

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla essence

2 tbsp sweetened Cranberries

How to prepare?

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a cake pan and keep aside.

Sieve together flour, baking powder, soda , cinnamon and salt. Add grated carrots and cranberries to this. Mix well.

Whisk yoghurt, sugar, oil and vanilla essence together.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients. If you feel the batter is too dry, add 1-2 tbsp of milk..

Pour this in the pan. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean.

Cool completely and cut into slices. 

Notes:

* You can add any nuts or raisins.

* The sweetness was perfect for us. If you like it very sweet, add more sugar.
* If you don't like cinnamon flavour, reduce it.
* You can use all purpose flour instead of wheat flour. Texture of the cake is slightly different when wheat flour is used, but there is no much difference in taste :)

Sending this to following events:


Chirstmas Delicacy by Julie at Erivum Puliyum




Bake Fest hosted by Sangee Vijay at Spicy Treats, initiated by Vardhini.

Baked Goodies at Tickling Palates

ABC Series: Cakes for Christmas event at Ramya's Recipe

Wishing all of you a great holiday time !!

Eggless Banana Muffins with Filling / Stuffed Banana Muffins

I have already posted Eggless Oats Banana Muffins few days back. This time I thought of making similar muffins, but with some filling inside to make it more interesting. These muffins might look like the regular ones, but you will be surprised when you bite something sweet inside the muffins. Sweet surprises are always good rt :). The filling can be of your choice and options are endless...chocolate chips, nuts, dates, raisins etc. Kids would be delighted if they find some of their favourites as filling. They are so easy to make and they turned out delicious. I have used only wheat flour to make the muffins, I skipped Oats this time. I have used some dates, tutti fruity and sweetened coconut to make the filling. I told my son that you will get a surprise while eating the muffins, so he was eager to eat them and was truly surprised to see his favourites inside !!

What you need?

For Muffins:

1 cup Wheat flour

1/4 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Baking soda

a pinch Salt

2 large Bananas

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/4 cup Yoghurt

2 tbsp Oil

For Filling:

5-6 Dates finely chopped

2 tbsp Tutti Fruity

1-2 tbsp sweetened Coconut

a pinch Cardamom powder

How to prepare?

Mix well all the ingredients under For Filling  and keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners or grease it.

Combine wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and keep aside.

Grind bananas, yoghurt, sugar and vanilla extract in a blender to a smooth paste.

Combine flour mixture and banana mixture well. Add oil to this. Do not over mix.

Pour the batter to 1/2 of each liner. Add a little filling at the centre and gently press it down. Now put a little more batter to cover the filling only till 3/4th of the liner.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in one of the muffins comes out clean.

Cool for few minutes before serving.

Makes about 6-7 muffins.

Notes:

* You can make filling of your choice.

* You can use chocolate chips, nuts, dry fruits as filling.

* You can substitute wheat flour with oats or all purpose flour.

Sending this to following events:


Chirstmas Delicacy by Julie at Erivum Puliyum




Bake Fest hosted by Sangee Vijay at Spicy Treats, initiated by Vardhini.




Baked Goodies at Tickling Palates




ABC Series: Cakes for Christmas event at Ramya's Recipe




and to Bake with your heart  at A Girl's Diary.

Appam / Laced Rice Pancakes

Soft fluffy appams with crispy laces are one of my favourite breakfasts. These are laced rice pancakes usually made in an appam chatti. I don't have an appam chatti, so I make it in a small non stick pan. I started preparing appams myself after my wedding and I have made these so often from then. These appams are always a hit with my family and friends. I always prefer grinding the rice for making appams rather than using any appam podi or rice flour. This is another recipe sitting in my drafts for quite some time and finally today I am sharing with you all. The best combos I love are the appam-vegetable stew and appam- egg curry. 

What you need?

1.5 cup Idli rice

3/4 - 1 cup thick Coconut Milk

1/2 cup cooked Rice

1.5 tsp active dry Yeast

1 tbsp Sugar

Salt

How to prepare?

Soak the rice overnight or for 6-7 hours.

Grind the rice, coconut milk and cooked rice in a blender to make a batter. Add water if necessary and the batter should have consistency thinner than the dosa batter.

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup luke warm water. Leave it for 5-10 minutes so that it becomes frothy.

Add the yeast solution and salt to the batter. Mix well and allow to ferment for 6-8 hours or leave it overnight at a warm place.

Heat the appam chatti or a small non stick pan. Pour a ladle of the batter into the pan and swirl around the pan.

Cover and cook until the bottom part gets nicely browned.

Serve hot with any stew or egg curry.

Notes:
* You can also add coconut instead of coconut milk.

Sending this to Chirstmas Delicacy event by Julie at Erivum Puliyum

I would like to thank Teena at Teenz Yummy Delights to share the Fabulous blog award. This is truly a special award for me.



I would like to pass this to few of my friends who sure has a fabulous blog and I always feel amazed by their recipes and presentation.
Uma @ My Kitchen Experiments, Tina @ Kaipunyam, Sangee @ Spicy Treats,
Anisha @ Flavours, Nalini @ Nalinis Kitchen, Sharmilee @ Sharmis passions,
Vineetha @ Ruchi, Priya @ Priya's Easy n Tasty Recipes

Paneer Paratha

Who doesn't love to enjoy hot hot parathas ? I don't think anyone can resist the delicious parathas, be it aloo, gobi or paneer..which are the popular ones !! This is the first time I am preparing Paneer parathas, though I have made aloo parathas a few times. Whenever I used to make the parathas, I was scared as they sometimes tear off when rolled out with the filling inside. But now I feel pretty ok with this. If you seal properly the dough balls after filling is kept and roll out gently after that, then there shouldn't be much problems. Yesterday I made these parathas for dinner and they came out delicious. 

What you need?

For the dough:

1.5 cup Wheat flour

2 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

Water for kneading

For the filling:

1.5 cup grated Paneer

3/4 tsp Chilli powder

1/2 tsp Garam masala

1/2 tsp Coriander powder

1/4 tsp Chaat masala

1-2 tbsp Yoghurt (to keep the filling moist)

few Coriander leaves finely chopped

Salt

How to prepare?

Combine flour, salt, oil to form a dough by adding required water. Knead the dough, cover it with a wet cloth and keep aside for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Combine well all the ingredients listed under For the filling.

Pinch out  lemon size balls out of the dough. Flatten each ball and roll it a little. Keep 2-3 tbsp of filling at the centre. Gather all the edges together and carefully seal it forming a ball again. Now roll this out very gently to a medium size paratha. 

Heat a tava on a medium flame. Place the paratha on the tava and apply a little oil/ghee. Flip it over and apply a little oil/ ghee again. Cook on both sides until brown spots appear. Serve hot with yoghurt and pickle.

Notes:

* You can add green chillies instead of red chilli powder.

* You can also add finely chopped onions, ginger, lime juice, cumin powder to the filling.

Have a great weekend my friends !!

Sending this to LGSS- Stuffed Parathas event hosted by Vardhini, an event by Vatsala.

Hot Mocha recipe and My first Guest post - Tandoori Soya :)

I am so glad to share a great news with you all. My recipe Tandoori Soya is featured in Cooking Varieties, a wonderful space by Ms.Wan. She is a very dear blogger friend of mine and she has great passion for cooking. She always amazes us by her informative and beautiful posts. She always encourages her blogger friends and she has featured so many guest posts, thereby giving us a chance to enjoy the world wide cuisine. I would like to thank Ms.Wan for giving me this great opportunity. It's a real honour for me and I have no words to express it. This is my first guest post ever, so I am just thrilled :). Please view the guest post here.

Today's recipe is a simple drink Mocha, perfect for cold days. We always love to drink something hot after we come home from chill weather outside rt. This drink is for coffee lovers, with the addition of chocolate in it. Hope you will love it.

What you need?

For a single serving:

3/4 cup Milk
1 tsp Coffee powder (I used Nescafe)
1 tsp Cocoa powder (I used Hersheys)
2-3 tsp Sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 cup Water


How to prepare?

Warm the water. Mix cocoa and vanilla extract in it.

Boil the milk. Make coffee using milk, sugar and coffee powder.

Now mix cocoa and coffee together.

Enjoy the Hot Mocha !!

Notes:
* You can adjust coffee powder, cocoa powder and sugar according to your taste.
* You can top it with some whipping cream.

Tandoori Soya and Paneer Pizza

Making an indian style pizza was in my to-try recipe list from long time. Hence I thought of making a Tandoori style pizza this weekend. I prepare Tandoori Soya and this was the inspiration for this pizza recipe. I thought of using soya chunks and paneer as toppings, so I followed exactly my Tandoori Soya recipe to do the marination. I marinated the soya and paneer, also I couldn't miss onions and bellpeppers which are my favourite pizza toppings. Though the whole process looks lengthy, its actually simple if you plan and prepare. I must say I did everything with good patience and was a little anxious about the result. But the final outcome was just great. The pizza tasted excellent and I am glad I tried this. This is the best pizza I have ever made :) This pizza is sure worth a try and I am sure you will love it.

What you need?

For Pizza Base:

1.5 cup Wheat flour

2 tsp active dry Yeast

1.5 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

1-2 tbsp Olive oil

4 tbsp Milk

Water

For Toppings:

1/2 cup cubed Paneer

1/4 cup Soya chunks ( I have used Nutrela mini soya chunks)

1/2 of a Bell Pepper diced

1/2 of an Onion diced

3-4 tbsp Pizza sauce

Cheese

Pepper/Red Chilli Flakes

For Marination:

4 tbsp Yoghurt

1/2 tsp Red chilly powder

1/2 tsp Coriander Powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Pepper powder

1/2 tsp Garam masala

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste

1 tsp Lime juice

Salt

How to prepare?

Dissolve yeast and sugar into 1/4 cup warm water. Leave this aside for 5-10 minutes so that it would become frothy.

Mix wheat flour and salt well. Add the yeast mixture and milk to this. Combine well and form a dough by adding water as required. Finally add the oil and knead well. Keep this dough in a vessel covered with a wet cloth and leave it in a warm place. Let the dough rest for about 1 hour or until the dough increases to double the volume.

Boil about 1.5 cup of water in a pan. Add soya chunks and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Remove from stove, close it with a lid and let it remain so for 10-15 minutes. Then drain the water, allow the chunks to cool. Once cooled, gently squeeze out the water and keep aside.

Beat the yoghurt well and mix all the ingredients under For Marination to the yoghurt to form a smooth paste. Put the soya chunks and paneer in a bowl. Add the paste to this and combine well. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

When the dough has doubled, take the dough and punch it to remove the air. Knead again a few times. Roll it using a rolling pin to a flat round base. Fold a little inside along the circumference. Prick with a fork at few places on the base and apply a little oil on the base.

Line a baking tray or a pizza pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease it. Transfer the base onto the pan.

This step is optional: Preheat the oven to 300F. Bake the base for 5-6 minutes. This step is to ensure that base is evenly cooked.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Apply sauce over the base. Spread a little cheese and then place the onions and bellpepper.

Now spread the mainated paneer soya mixture over this.

Finally add the cheese to cover the toppings.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until base turns slight brown and cheese is melted.

Wait for a few minutes before cutting the pizza.

Sprinkle pepper or red chilli flakes if you desire. Enjoy the wonderful and yummy pizza.

Sending this to following events:

Bake Fest hosted by Sangee Vijay at Spicy Treats, initiated by Vardhini.

and to Bake with your heart at A Girl's Diary.

Dhokla

My husband has been asking me to prepare Dhoklas for quite sometime. Dhoklas are a popular Gujarati snack and one of his favourites . I was forgetting his request and when he started to complain, finally I thought of making them yesterday :)  I have never made them and I have tasted it just once or twice, so I didn't have much idea about them. So I searched for an easy recipe and I liked the one at Rak's Kitchen. Her simple recipe and explanations inspired me to prepare the Dhoklas. The original recipe uses Eno fruit salt and it was mentioned that baking soda can be used instead. Since I didn't have the Eno fruit salt, I used the soda. I surprised my husband yesterday with these when he came from office. They came out soft, fluffy and delicious, ofcourse my husband enjoyed them :).

View the original recipe at Rak's Kitchen here.

What you need?

1 cup Gram flour/Besan

1/2 cup Yoghurt

1" piece Ginger

2-3 Green chillies

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Lemon juice

1/2 tsp Baking soda

A pinch Turmeric powder

2 tbsp shredded Coconut

few Coriander leaves

1/2 cup Water

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

How to prepare?

Grind  green chillies and ginger by using about 1/4 cup water to a smooth paste. Mix besan, ground paste, yoghurt, lemon juice, sugar, salt and rest of the water. It should be a smooth batter.

Grease a bowl with oil on all sides. Pour a little water in the pressure cooker and heat it. When the water is about to boil, add the baking soda to the batter and mix well. Pour it into the greased bowl. Close this bowl with a lid and place carefully inside the pressure cooker. Close the cooker and steam without keeping the weight on the top.

Steam for about 10-15 minutes. Insert a knife to see if it comes out clean. Remove the bowl from cooker and allow it to cool for 5-10 minutes. Carefully invert to a plate and cut into shapes as you desire.

Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds. Add asafoetida and mix. Spread this tempering on the cut pieces. Garnish with coconut and coriander leaves. Serve with Mint chutney or Coriander chutney.

Notes:

* You can use 1.5 tsp  Eno fruit salt instead of soda.

* Do not use more water than mentioned.

* The chutney should be very spicy to enjoy with the Dhokla.

Sambar Sadam / Sambar Rice

Sambar sadam is another one pot meal which can be made so quick. I usually make this when I don't have much time to spare for cooking in kitchen. This dish saves me the time of making sambar and rice separately..lazy me rt ? :) You can make this in a pressure cooker in no time. It's a healthy one pot meal with the combo of  rice, dal and veggies. This is a perfect lunch menu and this is my version. I served it with a simple Beetroot raita. This can be served with any vegetable stir fry or poriyal, a raita or even with plain yoghurt. Try out this delicious rice !! 

What you need?

1 cup Rice

1/2 cup Toor dal

1 Onion small, chopped

1 cup chopped Vegetables of your choice

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1.5 tbsp Sambar powder

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/4 cup Tamarind water

2 dried Red Chilly

4-5 Curry Leaves

2 tsp Oil

few Coriander leaves

4 cups Water

Salt

How to prepare?

Soak the dal in water for half an hour ( I usually do this step)

Heat oil in a pressure cooker.  Splutter mustard seeds. Saute curry leaves, dried red chilly and onions until the onions turn pink.  Now add turmeric powder, sambar powder and asafoetida on a low flame, saute until raw smell goes. Add tamarind water to this and mix well. 

On a medium flame, add chopped vegetables and saute for a couple of minutes. Add dal, saute for a minute and then the rice and combine everything well. Pour in the water. Add salt and finally the coriander leaves. Mix everything well. 

Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Allow the pressure to release completely. Serve hot with any vegetable stir fry/poriyal,   raita or plain yoghurt.

I served it with a Beetroot raita. Check out the recipe here.

Notes:

* I use 1:3 ratio for rice and water. Use your rice to water ratio and add 1 extra cup of water. 

* Add vegetables of your choice.

* Adjust the quantity of sambar powder, tamarind water depending on how you make sambar.

Savoury Kozhukattai with Kadalaparippu/Chana Dal filling

Wishing all of you a great week ahead !! I had some leftover cooked chana dal and thought of making a snack out of it. So I decided to make some kozhukattais or steamed rice dumplings with chana dal filling. I wanted to prepare the sweet version, but I realized that one of the main ingredient, jaggery wasn't there. So I made the savoury kozhukattais which came out really delicious. These make a perfect snack and tastes best when served warm. I have posted another quick version of Savoury Kozhukattais with no filling, which could be made as a breakfast too. The kozhukattais can be made using wheat flour as well. Please view those recipes here: Sweet and Spicy Wheat Kozhukattai,  Wheat Kozhukattai (Jaggery version)

What you need?

1 cup Rice flour

1 cup cooked Chana Dal (should be firm and not mushy)

1/2 cup Coconut

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

3-4 Curry Leaves chopped

2-3 Green chillies chopped

A pinch Asafoetida

1 1/4 cup Water

Salt

Oil

How to prepare?

Pulse the cooked chana dal  few times in a blender so as to get a coarse paste.

Heat oil in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves, green chillies and asafoetida. Saute for a minute and add this tempering to the chana dal mixture. Add salt, coconut to this and combine everything well. Now the filling is ready.

Boil water in a pan. Add a little salt and few drops of oil to the boiling water. Mix well and reduce the flame. Add the rice flour and keep on stirring until it forms a thick dough. Remove from flame and keep aside. 

When its warm enough to handle, knead the dough by greasing your hands with oil. Now make small lemon size balls out of it. Make flat circles with it using hand.Grease your hands in between so that flour won't be sticky. Keep some filling inside and make shapes as you desire.

Steam them in an idly cooker for about 10 minutes.

Serve warm.

Eggless Oats Banana Muffins

Fresh homemade muffins are just perfect as a light and healthy snack or even as breakfast. The Eggless Oats Banana muffins recipe is an experimental one and I am very happy that these came out just great. It feels so nice when the outcome of your own recipe turns out good rt. The best part was my son had 2 muffins in one go, I couldn't just believe it. It's such a difficult task to get a thumbs up from him whenever I prepare something new, so I was very happy yesterday when he had the muffins. This is a very healthy recipe which is eggless, uses very less oil and if bananas are overripe, maybe you can skip the sugar as well. You can add nuts, raisins or chocolate chips also. I added few chocolate chips in a couple of muffins as toppings for my son.

What you need?

Dry Ingredients:

3/4 cup Oats ( I have used Quaker old fashioned oats) 

1/4 cup Wheat flour

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Baking soda

1/4 cup Sugar

A pinch Salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 ripe large Bananas

1/4 cup Yoghurt

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tbsp Oil

few Chocolate chips or Nuts (optional)

How to prepare?

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the muffin pan or place muffin liners in the muffin pan. Keep this aside.

Powder the oats in a blender. Combine powdered oats, wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Blend the bananas, yoghurt, sugar and vanilla extract together. Mix oil in this.

Now mix the wet and dry ingredients. But remember not to over mix it.

Pour the batter to about 3/4th of each liner. Add chocolate chips or nuts as toppings.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of one of the muffins comes out clean.

Allow to cool for few minutes. Serve warm.

Makes about 6 muffins.

Notes:

* You can add nuts, raisins or chocolate chips in the batter or just as topping.

Sending this to following events:

Bake Fest hosted by Sangee Vijay at Spicy Treats, initiated by Vardhini.



Chirstmas Delicacy by Julie at Erivum Puliyum




Baked Goodies at Tickling Palates




ABC Series: Cakes for Christmas event at Ramya's Recipe



and to Bake with your heart  at A Girl's Diary.