Eggless chocolate brownies!

Something sweet and something soft- nothing better than these brownies! They are soft and decadent, rich with the goodness of chocolate! I have been making these brownies for quiet sometime, they always turn out great.

Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup All purpose flour
1/3 cup Cocoa Powder
1 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup melted and cooled Butter
1/2 cup plain Yogurt.
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1/2 cup Chocolate chips.

Method:
Preheat the oven at 350 degree.
Grease a square baking pan with butter or line them with parchment paper to pour the batter.
To prepare the batter, start by sifting all the dry ingredients together, so there are no lumps.
In a mixing bowl, add the melted butter, yogurt, vanilla extract and mix well. To this mixture add the dry mix, and fold them to mix all the ingredients well. I added small quantity of water to thin the batter, you can skip water if it is not too thick.
Finally add the chocolate chips coated with some dry flour to the batter and mix them.
Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake them at 350 degree for 35-40 minutes, do check for done at about 35 minutes by inserting a tooth pick. If the tooth pick comes out clean then the brownies are done.
Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool. Cut them into squares using a serrated knife. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar . They are ready to eat!


Note: Original  recipe from Spice up the Curry.

Maddur Vada

A small town enroute to Mysore is Maddur. When we travel by buses to Mysore, they usually stop at Maddur; Once the bus stops, the vendors crowd the buses selling these savory treats to passengers through the windows, this is my fond memory of the Maddur Vada!!!
There are plenty of local restaurants that carry these authentic tasty snacks. I have tried to replicate this dish. Do try and relish them.

Ingredients:
Fine Sooji/Chiroti Rava : 1 cup.
Rice Flour : 1/2 cup.
Maida/All purpose flour : 1/2 cup.
Red onion : 1large.
Green Chilies : 6-7 finely chopped.
Curry Leaves : Finely chopped.
Oil to fry.
Salt.

Method:
Start by heating oil for deep frying. Simultaneously, in a large mixing bowl, add diced onions, chilies, and curry leaves. To the same bowl add rava, rice flour and maida. Mix the ingredients with required quantity of salt.
To this mixture, add hot oil from the frying pan. This makes the vadas crispy. Oil should be hot enough so it turns frothy when added to the mixture. Slowly mix the ingredients with required quantity of water to make a stiff dough. Take lemon size balls and press them into flat rounds, (do not make them too thin) with a hole in the center for even frying.
Fry them till they turn golden brown in a medium flame.
Drain the excess oil on paper towels and serve them hot or at room temperature, as is or with chutney.
Enjoy!

Honey Cake -Eggless!

Its been a while since I have posted a recipe on my blog! Glad to be back and hope to be posting many more recipes...
Special occasions deserve unusual dishes! It was our anniversary and wanted to make it memorable by baking an eggless cake which I had never tried before. I had just come across a post by a fellow blogger about "honey cake"! It took me back to my childhood days, I remember tasting honey cakes in Bangalore bakeries. I just could not resist trying to recreate this cake. Made slight changes to make it eggless and tweaked with my own measures, it turned out great!! Hope you all try and enjoy it.

Ingredients: for the batter:
Butter : 1/2 cup and 2 tbsp.
Sugar  : 1/2 cup.
Baking powder :1 tsp.
All purpose flour : 1 cup.
Flax powder : 2 tbsp.
Milk : 1/2 cup.
Vanilla extract : few drops.

For the honey syrup:
Sugar : 2 tsp .
Honey : 2-3 tbsp .
Water : 1-2 tsp.

 For topping:
Mixed fruit jam.
Desiccated coconut / dry grated coconut.

Method:
Start by preheating the oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit.
Keep the cake pan greased and ready.

For dry ingredients - Sift the baking powder with the flour, to make sure they are evenly distributed and have no lumps.
Soak the ground flax seeds with little water, leaving it for few minutes.  It forms a gooey mixture, resembling an egg mixture.
Next, beat the butter with sugar, till they are fluffy. Then add the flax mixture followed by vanilla extract.
Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients and mix well, adding required quantity of milk.
The cake batter should be think, which has pouring consistency.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan, and bake for 35- 40 minutes. Check for done, by inserting a tooth pick.
 Next, make the honey syrup by boiling water, sugar, and honey in a sauce pan till the mixture forms a syrup.
Once the cake is done, prick the cake top with tooth pick, so the honey syrup is absorbed well by the cake.
Pour the honey syrup on top of the cake as required making sure it is distributed evenly.
Let it cool down completely.
For the jam topping; warm the jam and sugar with little water/ infact use the same sauce pan to melt the jam to form a smooth spread.
Finally spread the warm jam mixture on the cake and sprinkle desiccated coconut for decoration.
Let the cake sit for  couple of hours before tasting. It gets better as it sits.
Enjoy!!!!

Note: quantity of ingredients for sweetness can vary as required. 

Red Chutney.

We have many options for side dishes to go with Idly/ Dosa, especially the chutneys.
Red chutney is very tasty and goes well with Idly. I use it to spread inside the masala dosa too.

This is my version of the chutney, do try.

Ingredients:

Red onion: 1 medium size.
Tomatoes:  2 medium size.
Dry red chili: 6-8 numbers.(use as per taste)
Kashmiri Red chili: 4-5 numbers.
Chana Dhal: 1 tablespoon.
Urd dhal: 1 teaspoon.
Oil: 2-3 tablespoons.
Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon.
Tamarind pulp-1/4 teaspoon.
Mustards seeds: 1 teaspoon.
Curry leaves: Few.
Salt.

Method:
Start by Chopping onion into thin slices and tomatoes into small cubes.
In a heavy pan heat oil, and add chana dhal and urd dhal.
Fry them till they turn slightly golden. Then add onion slices and continue frying till they are translucent.
Add tomatoes and fry till they turn mushy. To this mixture add turmeric and tamarind pulp.
Fry for 1-2 minutes.
Let the mixture cool. Grind the mixture using little water and salt as per taste.
Finally give the tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves in oil.
 Red chutney is ready to serve

Note:
I have not used garlic , you can use garlic too.
Adjust the chili as per taste.
Instead of red onion you can use shallots too.

Mangalore Cucumber Pickle!

Pickles are important condiments of Indian meals. There are a variety of pickles made throughout India and the world.

Making pickles seem to be a difficult task until I learned this recipe from a friend. I tried it, a simple method, with very few ingredients.

 Best of all, we can control the quality of ingredients in it; unlike the store bought pickles which may have preservatives in them. Try it and I am sure you will love it too.

Ingredients:

Mangalore Cucumber-3 small size ones.

Red chili powder-3 table spoon.

Ground black mustard seeds- 2-3 tablespoon.

Salt-As per taste (I used 2-3 table spoon). 

Groundnut/peanut oil- as required.

Method:

Start the process by washing the cucumbers and drying them completely.

Cut the tips of the cucumber, de-seed them and chop them into cubes, leave the skins on.

Add salt, then the chili powder.

Grind the mustard seeds into powder. Add the ground mustard seed powder, followed by oil.

Oil should cover the whole mixture and see them on the sides.

Leave them to marinate for a day or two, but you can start using them after a couple of hours, it gets better as it sits.

Eat with plain rice or with curd rice, it is delicious!

Note:

The quantity of ingredients vary according to taste.

Since it has no preservatives make it in small quantities and use it.

Eggless Pancakes and Waffles!!

It's pancake for one and waffles for the other!!!! Too much work..., or did you think so???
This recipe has a double duty and can be made as pancakes or waffles.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour : 1 cup.
Sugar: 1 tbsp (as per taste)
Cinnamon powder: 1/4 tsp.
Vanilla extract.
Melted Butter: 2 tbsp.
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp.
Orange juice- 1/2 orange.
Whole milk: 1/2 cup / as needed to make up to thick batter consistency.
Apple cider vinegar: 1tbsp.
Salt: a small pinch.

Method:
In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients well.
To this mixture, add melted butter, orange juice, cider vinegar. At last, add milk to adjust the consistency of the batter.( about the consistency of idli batter)
Using  a wisk mix the ingredients into a smooth batter, if there are few lumps do not worry!

To make pancakes:
Heat a non stick pan, spread some butter and pour a ladle of batter into round pancakes, allow them to turn golden brown, flip and cook the other side, pancakes are ready.
Serve them with maple syrup and enjoy.


To make waffles:
Take the same batter and spread it on a waffle maker, in no time you will have golden waffles, which can also be relished with Maple syrup.


NOTE:
Add blue berries/ strawberries to the same batter to make blue berry pancakes/ straw berries
 pancakes.