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.