Sugar 'n' Spice

Chewy Banana Oatmeal Cookies

2012-03-09T11:17:00.001-08:00

Oats as we know is very very healthy and makes a perfect breakfast. But the problem with me is that I do not like to eat oats the traditional way, with milk and sugar! But I like oats in any other form. So I want to make sure that my daily quota of oats is taken. This is one healthy breakfast or tea time cookie! Be sure to try it.

Makes - 4 dozens
Ingredients Required:
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 Cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 Cups
Quick cooking Oats - 2 Cups
Cinnamon Powder - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Butter - 3 tblspn
Ripe Banana - 1

Milk - few tsp, if required.

How to make?
Mix all the dry ingredients together and sieve well.

Mix the room temperature butter with the other ingredients and crumble.
Mash the banana, and add to the dry mixture. Mix well, till there are no lumps of banana and all the dough is well incorporated. It should be a tough dough. If it is to dry then sprinkle some cold milk and mix well.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a non-greased cookie tray, make small balls between your palms, place it on the cookie tray and gently flatten them.
Leave 2 inch space between the cookies as they will expand on baking.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes and remove from oven when they are light brown in color.
Cool for few minutes on the tray and then place the cookies on a wire rack and cool completely.
Store in air tight container.

Notes:

If you want chewy cookies, remove from oven after 10 minutes of baking.

If you want crispy cookies, bake for additional few minutes but take care not to burn the cookies.

Sending this to the following:

Healthy diet event baked goodies and also check out Priya's Page

Cakes, Cookies and Desserts

Bake Fest

Savory Onion Crackers

2012-02-28T13:38:00.000-08:00

Makes - 45 - 50 crackers

Ingredients Required:

All Purpose Flour - 3/4 Cup

Wheat Flour - 1/4 Cup

Oats - 1/4 Cup

Rice Flour - 1/4 Cup

Salt as required

Sugar - 1 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped finely

Milk - 1/4 cup

Butter - 1tbsp

Water as required

How to make?

Mix all the flours and oats together with turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder, salt, sugar, baking soda and baking powder.

Mix in the chopped onions.

Add the butter and crumble the mixture.

Add milk and slowly knead into a dough. Add water if required. It should be in the consistency of a chappathi dough.

Set aside for few minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 equal balls.

Roll them out, using flour for dusting if required.

Cut them into squares, and prick each square with a fork.

Arrange them on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F and then flip sides and bake for another 5 minutes. Make sure that the crackers are golden in color and crispy before removing them from the oven.

Happy Munching :)

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Carrot - Potato Soup

2012-02-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

Ingredients Required:
Carrot - 2 large, peeled and chopped into chunks
Potato - 1 large, peeled and chopped into chunks
Onion - 1/2, roughly chopped
Vegetable Broth - 1 Cup (How to make Vegetable Broth?)
Milk - 1/4 cup
Pepper - as needed
Salt - as needed
Cilantro - to garnish
Oil - 1 tblsp

How to make?
Steam the potato and carrot till soft.
Saute the onion in oil till translucent.
Now add the potato, carrot, onion and blend in a blender till it becomes a thick paste.
Transfer the paste back to the pan and add salt and pepper as needed.
Add the vegetable broth and milk and bring to a boil.
Garnish with pepper and chopped cilantro and serve hot.

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How to make Vegetable Broth?

2012-02-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

It is so easy to make vegetable broth at home. You make about a gallon and store it in the fridge for a long time. Or even pour it out into your ice cube tray and freeze it. You do not need any special ingredients for making this, just the scraps or what you trash everyday from all the vegetables. So just save all the peels, left overs of vegetables for a week and you would have enough to make a lot of vegetable broth!

Ingredients Required:

Cloves - 4

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Bay leaves - 2

Celery Stick - 1

Onion - 1 (with the peel)

Garlic - 1 (with the peel)

Carrot - 1 (with the peel)

Cauliflower - few florets, and the stem

Beans - 4

Coriander leaves with stem - handful

You can use any vegetable, the stem of the vegetable, peel of the vegetable.

How to make?

Take a large cooking pot, fill water till 3/4th. Add the cloves, cumin seeds, bay leaves and bring it to a boil.

Add all the vegetables one by one.

Close the pot, and cook on medium - low heat for 2 - 3 hours.

Drain the water into another bowl. Allow to cool fully.

Pour in clean glass bottle and refrigerate.

Ragda Patties

2012-02-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

This is a popular street food and a Chaat in Mumbai is popular all over India. I wanted to try this for a long time, and then we went to a local Chaat Shop near our place and had this. Wow it was heavenly and I just had to make it at home. I tried this the following week and it was one hearty meal. Even though it falls under the chaat catagory, it makes a good dinner and surely fills your tummy :)

Serves 2

Ingredients Required:

For the Patties:

Potato - 2, peeled, boiled and mashed

Chaat masala - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Ginger - garlic paste - 1 tsp

Chopped cilantro - 1 tsp

Salt - as needed

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Corn Flour - 2 tsp

For the Ragda:

Onion - 1/2, finely chopped

Tomato - 1, finely chopped

Cilantro - few springs

White Peas - 3/4 cup

Green Chilli - 2

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Chaat Masala - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Oil

For the Green Chutney:

Cilantro - few springs

Green chilli - 1

Ginger - 1/2 tsp

Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

Salt

For the Sweet Chaat Chutney:

Tamrind - Lemon Sized

Dates - 4, pitted

Jaggery - 1/4 cup

Chaat Masala Powder - 2 tblspn

For the Toppings:

Chopped Onion

Chopped Tomato

Sev

Chopped Cilantro

Chaat Masala

How to make?

Ragda:

Soak the peas overnight and cook them in a pressure cooker for 3 - 4 whistles till fully cooked.

Heat some oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds and the ginger garlic paste.

Add the onions and saute for few minutes till they turn golden brown.

Add the tomatoes, green chilli and all the masala powder and salt.

Add a little water and allow the tomato to cook for few minutes.

Add the cooked peas and close the pan.

Allow to cook for few more minutes, add fresh cilantro and then set aside.

The consistency should be a little to the watery side, so if it starts to thicken up, add the cooked peas water from the cooker (if any) or add water.

Green Chutney:

Add all the ingredients in a blender.

Blend and set aside.

Sweet Chaat Chutney:

Microwave the tamrind with 3/4 cup of water for two minutes.

Puree the tamrind and extract the water.

Blend the pitted dates along with the tamrind water in a blender.

Heat this mixture on low flame.

Add the jaggery and allow to dissolve.

Add the chaat masala powder and salt.

Boil this mixture on medium heat for 20 minutes till the mixture thickens to a saucy consistency.

Patties:

To the mashed potato, add all the other ingredients and mix well with hand.

Divide into 4 parts.

Place a portion between your palms and gently press them so it forms a patty - like shape.

Do this for all the portions. Set aside.

Just before serving, heat few tblspn of oil in a flat pan, place the patties over the oil and fry till golden brown on both the sides.

Arrange:

In a plate, place two patties, scoop some hot ragda over the patties.

Add some chopped onion, chopped tomato, cilanto.

Add Green Chutney, Sweet Chutney.

Add Sev.

Serve hot and enjoy!

Note:
You can make the green chutney and the sweet chutney and store them in a bottle for few months.

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Potato Mania

Cake Truffles

2012-02-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

First of all wish you all a very Happy Valentine's Day! Hope all of you had an awesome day with your loved one :)

So I have been thinking on what to make on this day and finally set my mind to this lovely cake truffles!

This is my first attempt on truffles and it sure was delicious.

It is very easy to make but just needs some setting time.

I made 3 kinds of cake - vanilla, chocolate and red velvet with two types of chocolate covering - chocolate and white chocolate. You can end up doing a lot of different truffles with this!

Ingredients Required:

For the cake:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 2/3 cup

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Curd - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1/2 cup

Oil - 1/4 cup

Cocoa / Drinking Chocolate - 3 tbl.spn

Red Food Color - 1 tsp

Half and Half / Heavy Cream - 6 tblspn

Melting Chocolate Chips - 1/2 cup

Melting White Chocolate Chips - 1/2 cup

How to make?

Take a large mixing bowl and add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder. Mix well. Add in the wet ingredients - oil, milk and curd. Mix well and divide into 3 equal portions.

In one part, add the cocoa powder, mix well and set aside.

In the next part, add the red food color, mix well and set aside.

Leave the last portion as it is.

In a cup cake tray, fill in the cup cakes with cake batter. So you would get around 2 or 3 cup cakes of each.

Bake at 350 C for 10 - 15 minutes till fully bakes. Insert a fork in the cup cake and when it comes out clean.

Cool the cup cakes completely.

Crumble the cakes one flavor at a time, add in 2 tblspn cream or the half and half for each flavor, till the cakes are moist and crumbly consistency.

Roll out bite-sized balls of the cakes, place them on a tray and refrigerate overnight.

Take the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, microwave them for 1 minute in 20 second intervals until fully melted.

Do the same for the white chocolate and set aside.

Dip the cake balls in the melted chocolate and place them in a wax paper. Now the color combinations is totally up to you. You have 3 cakes and 2 chocolates so let the creativity begin!

Cool them in room temperature. It usually hardens within an hour.

If you want you can even decorate the truffles with the remaining chocolates. Just take a fork or a skewer, dip it in the chocolate and run it over the truffles allowing it to drip.

Cool them for an hour and surprise your valentine!

Note:
For a easier process, you can use a store bought cake mix instead of making it from scratch.

Keerai Vada

2012-02-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

Ingredients Required:
Spinach - 2 cups (washed and finely chopped)
Whole Urad Dhal - 1 1/2 cup
Channa Dhal - 1/4 Cup + 2 tbsp
Split Urad Dhal - 2 tbsp
Red Chillies - 2
Green Chillies - 2
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - few, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

How to make?
Soak the urad dhal and channa dhal (1/4 cup) together for 2 hours. Soak the split urad dhal and channa dhal (2 tbsp) seperatley for an hour.
Grind the soaked dhal, red chilli, green chilli into a coarse paste adding minimum water as required.
In a mixing bowl, add the paste, spinach, cumin seeds, salt, curry leaves, soaked split urad dhal and Channa dhal and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
Take small balls of the batter, gently pat between palms and gently drop them in the oil.
Fry till golden brown on both sides.

Do the same for the rest of the batter.
Place on paper towels to absorb the extra oil.

Serve hot with ketchup or chutney of your choice!

Kara Adai/Adai

2012-02-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

Adai is just like Dosa but has more lenthils, so more nutritious. And another good thing about Adai is that it does not need time to ferment, so you can use the batter as soon as you grind it.

I made this for dinner along with Aviyal and it tasted awesome!

Ingredients Required:

Rice - 1.5 cups

Channa Dhal - 3/4 Cup

Toor Dhal - 1/4 Cup

Salt - to taste

Whole Urad Dhal - 1/4 Cup

Red Chilli - 10

Oil

How to make?

Soak the dhals with the rice for 2 - 3 hours in water.

Grind to a coarse batter along with red chilli, salt and adding very little water.

The batter should be thick like the idly batter and coarse.

Take a pan, heat on medium heat, drizzle a drop of oil and spread on the pan.

Pour a ladle of the batter on the pan and spread like dosa.

Drizzle oil around the adai.

Heat on medium, after 2 minutes, flip the adai and allow to cook for few seconds.

Serve hot with Aviyal/ Chutney/ Molaga Podi/ Sambhar.

The traditional combo for the adai is Aviyal but it tastes good with any combo!

Notes:

Batter does not need to ferment, can be used as soon as it is ground.

The Adai was crispy, if you want a softer adai reduce the quantity of rice. For more crispier adai add more rice.

How to make Aviyal?

How to make Sambhar?

How to make Chutney?

Bagara Baingan (Eggplant in Peanut - Coconut Gravy)

2012-01-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

This is an authentic Andhra Cuisine, where the roasted eggplant is cooked in peanut coconut gravy. I just tried this for dinner and had it along with roti and it was delicious. I read that this goes well with biriyani but am yet to try that! Actually the original recipe called for deep frying the brinjal in oil but I did not want to do that so I roasted them in oven instead and it tasted just the same.

Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients Required:

Baby Brinjal - 8 - 10

Onion - 1, finely chopped

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Ginger - 1tsp

Garlic - 5 cloves

Bay leaves - 2

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon - 1

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Tamrind - gooseberry size

Coconut dry/fresh - 3 tblspn

Oil

To dry roast and grind:

Peanuts - 4 tblspn

Sesame - 2 tblspn

How to make?

Slit the brinjal into a plus sign at the bottom, keeping the stem on.

Spray coat with oil and roast in the oven at 350 F for 30 minutes.

Dry roast the sesame and the peanuts. Grind along with coconut and water into a coarse paste.

Heat some oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds, and mustard seeds. Allow to splutter.

Add the bay leaf, cloves and cinnamon. Fry for few seconds.

Add the chopped onion, garlic and ginger. Saute till golden brown.

Add all the masala powders and 1/2 cup water. Mix well.

Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.

Add the ground paste and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

If required close the pan, as the gravy splutters out.

Add the tamrind extract and salt.

To this, add the roasted brinjals and mix gently.

Close the pan and cook for 1 hour so the gravy cooks and the flavor blends in.

Stir in between so the gravy does not get burnt.

If the gravy is still watery, cook with the pan half open for few minutes so the excess water gets absorbed. If the gravy is too thick then you can add more water to your required consistency.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot!

Sending this to Dish It Out and also check out Vardhini's Page!

Aviyal

2012-01-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

Aviyal is usually made on festive days, mixture of all the vegetables in a curd and coconut gravy.

It is very healthy and tasty as well!

Serves - 4

Ingredients Required:

Vegetables:

Taro Root/Colocassia/Seppankizhangu - 5

White Pumpkin - 1/2 cup, diced

Yellow Pumpkin - 1/2 cup, diced

Carrot - 1

Beans - 10

Potato - 1

Brinjal - 3

Coconut Oil - 2 tblspn

Curd - 1 cup

Shredded Coconut - 1/2 cup

Green Chilli - 4

Salt

For Seasoning:

Coconut Oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves - 10

Hing

How to make?

Dice all the vegetables lengthwise (around 2 inches).

Immerse the potato and brinjal in water to avoid turning brown.

Take a big pan, boil 1 cup water along with salt.

Add the vegetables in the order that takes more time to cook.

Add the beans, carrot, close the pan and cook for a minute.

Add the potato, taro root.

Add the pumpkin, brinjal.

Close the vessel and cook till the vegetables are cooked, but make sure that they do not mash and hold their shape.

If any water is remaining in the water, drain the excess water. Set the cooked vegetables aside.

Grind the coconut, green chilli and add the paste. Mix well.

Drizzle the coconut oil on top of the vegetables and mix well.

Heat some oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, allow to splutter and add the curry leaves.

Add this tempering to the aviyal.

Beat one cup of curd and add this to the aviyal. Mix gently not to mash the vegetables.

Serve with rice, Adai or tastes delicious even when taken alone!

Note:

I have given the vegetables that I have used, but you can use almost any of the traditional vegetables that holds shape like - Drumstick, Vaazhakai, Squash etc.

Do not heat the Aviyal after adding curd as the curds will separate.

Sending this to Flavors of Tamil Nadu

Vegetable Chickpeas Cous Cous

2012-01-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is one of our favorite dinner meal and I make it atleast once in two weeks. Its healthy and easy to make :) And it tastes great with hummus!

Serves 2:

Ingredients Required:

Cous Cous - 1 Cup

Onion - 1/2, sliced lengthwise

Carrot - 1, peeled and sliced lengthwise

Green Capsicum - 1/2, sliced lengthwise

Red Capsicum - 1/2, sliced lengthwise

Yellow Capsicum - 1/2, sliced lengthwise

Orange Capsicum - 1/2, sliced lengthwise

Potato - 1, peeled and sliced lengthwise

Garlic Powder - 1 tsp

Black Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Olive oil

Chickpeas - 1/2 Cup

How to make?

Soak the chickpeas for 8 hours, pressure cook and set aside.

Cook the cous cous as mentioned in the packet and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan, and add the onions. Saute till golden in color.

Add all the other vegetables and saute till half cooked.

Add the salt, garlic powder and pepper powder.

Fluff the cous cous with a fork and slowly add it to the pan.

Add the cooked chickpeas to the pan

Gently mix the cous cous and chickpeas with the vegetables.

Close the pan and allow the flavor to blend in on low heat for 5 minutes.

Serve hot with Hummus!

Sending it to the below events

Also check out Sanjeeta’s page here.

Sending this recipe to the Cooking with Seeds - Chickpeas. Also check out Priya's Page!