Ragi Utthappam

How about Ragi uthappam and spicy onion chutney.. Drooling???? Me...yes ofcourse.. can resist the taste of uthappams and spiciy onion chutneys.. 

Have made these uthappams using the left over batter of ragi appam (please check the recipe for the same in breakfast/ Kerala breakfast corner).

Ragi Appam

One more experimentation from my rasoi. 

Ingredients:

Ragi seeds - 3 cup
Raw rice/dosa rice -2 cups
Urad dhal - 1/2 cup
Sugar -5 tspn (add while grinding the rice)

Soak rice + ragi and urad dhaal separate for almost 5 hrs.

Grind them to a smooth batter . While grinding add a handful of poha too to get smooth appams. 

In a small katori add some warm water and 1 tspn of sugar and mix well. Add a pinch of yeast to this ..wait till yeast dissolve completely. Add this to the grinded batter and mix well with up/down strokes. Leave it to ferment .once the batter is raised add salt and make appams in normal way.

Serve with the curry of your choice. 

This is an anytime- easy to make carrot cake with the ingredients available at home.. Once again I tried this with my own recipe

Ingedients :

Carrot -2 robust ones grated to small
All purpose flour -1 & 1/2 cup
Sugar powdered - 1 cup
Baking powder -1/2 tspn

Orange red Food colour - less than a pinch
Vanila essence - 1/2 tspn

Eggs -3 nos
Curd (set one) 1/4 cup
Milk -1 cup
Butter  50 gms
oil - 2 tspn

Seive together flour, baking powder and food colour. Leave it undisturbed

Beat powdered sugar and butter to thick foamy layer. Add only egg yolks now and beat. after it is foamy add egg whites. Beat to a foamy mix. Add the essence and mix well. Add milk and beat again.Now fold in the dry powders carefully without lumps. Finally mix the grated carrot and fold in (do not beat now).Finally add 2 tspn of oil on top of the batter and mix. grease a butter paper with some more oil and pour the batter on top of it on a baking mould. garnish with raisins/nuts as prefered

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes

Idli podi (powder)

It is rightly said that there is no best cook in this world other than our mom. The love and magical taste of her hand made delicacies remains always our favourite no matter at what age we are.. Sharing with you here my mom's recipe for home made idli powder..yummmmmmmm I cant explain the taste of this when she makes.. I have tried here the same recipe but I always feel that her's is the best..

Ingredients :

Raw rice (any raw rice..can use even the idli/dosa rice too) -1 cup
Urad dhaal -1/2 cup
Chana dhaal -1/2 cup
Curry leaves - a big bunch
Dried Red chillies - a hand ful (can reduce the qty if u dont want to make it spicy)
Pepper corns -2 tspns
Asafoetida  (hing) - 1/4 block if it is a solid one  and 1 -2 tspn if it is powdered
Jeera seeds - 3 tspb
Salt -as required

Dry roast all the ingredients separately. Add some oil while roasting hing and curry leaves for better smell to the idli powder. Adjust the flame as per the qty of ingredients and please take care not to charr the ingredients while roasting. Allow all the ingredients to cool and powder it into fine mix in a mixer. 


Mix the idli powder with oil (any cooking oil) while serving.

Ragi Dosa

Ragi is a good source of protein and calcium.. Ragi is a health meal ideal for growing kids and diabetic patients.  Its surely a change from the normal dosa as u need not add on extra calories by the intake of more carbohydrates. 

It tasted yumm and surely is a good and healthy dish to be tried out. 

Recipe: 
Urad dhaal -1 cup
Ragi grains -2 cup
Rice - 2 cups
A handful of green gram and chana dhaal also I added
Methi seeds -2 tspn

Soak dhaal and ragi + others together for 4 hrs
Grind to a thick batter. Once fermented it will become loose. Make dosa as usual. Enjoy with onion-chilli chutney.

Rich chocolate coffee cake with chocolate pudding on top.

This cake tastes exactly like the store bought plum cake without adding plum and rum :)

Once again I tried using my own recipe. and here is how I made this
Ingredients:

Maida -1 & 1/2 cup
Sugar powdered- 1 & 1/2 cup
Chocolate powder - 3/4 cup ( I have used the drinking chocolate for this)

Coffee powder - 4 tspn ( If it is an instant coffee powder u can add as such or if it is otherwise you have to powder it in a mixer and add)
baking powder- a pinch
Baking soda - a pinch


Egg -2 nos
Curd -1 cup (set curd or strain the normal one for sometime to remove the water)
Butter - 100 gms
Cheese grated -100 gm
Oil - 4 tspn + for smearing the  mould
Chocolate essence -1 tspn
Tuti fruiti /kismis and almond bits - 2tpns each (optional) .Mix it with the sieved powders

Method Sieve together Maida, and baking powder and baking soda (2 times), also sieve chocolate powder and coffee powder. After sieving do not disturb the powder.

In a thick vessel mix thoroughly powdered sugar and buter, beat and make fluffy. Add grated cheese too and beat well.  Break the egg and seperate the egg white in another small vessel and add the egg yolk to the beaten mixture of sugar and butter. Beat again very well till foamy. Not add the curd and beat again. Add the egg white towards the end and beat. Add chocolate essence. now fold in the sieved powder ingredients . do not beat.just fold in. Finally add 4tbsp of oil to give a glossy look. If the batter is too thick u can add 1/2 cup of milk too.

Preheat oven at 200 deg and pour the batter on to a mould smeared with oil. Bake for 40 minutes or till the skewer cums clean.

Decorate with chocolate pudding as done in the picture.

Soya Chunks Manchurian

There was nothing left to cook special on our Special Women's Day except few Soya chunks.Was thinking how can I make this chunks delicious..

But I Never thought Soya chunks wud turn out to be so good in Manchurian. It was very easy to make and we Really enjoyed this dish with fried rice and I want all of you to try and surprise your family.

Ingredients"

Soya Chunks - Cooked and washed several times in clean water till the yellow colour of the water changes to clear. - 200 gms

Onion -2 big cut into cubes
Capsicum -1 big cut into cubes
Garlic -2 pods chopped
Ginger -1 inch size sliced thin
Spring Onion - 1/2 cup

Soya sauce-2 tspn
Green Chilli sauce- 1 tspn
Tomato sauce -1 & 1/2 tspn
Black pepper -1 & 1/2 tspn

Corn flour -1/2 cup mixed with water.

Salt and oil as required
Sugar a pinch

Heat oil in a kadai , Saute the garlic and ginger till raw smell is gone, Saute cubed onion. Add the sauces one by one. Add soya chunks and saute till dry. Sprinkle some salt and saute again till dry. [ If you want you can fry the chunks with some batter of corn flour+ maida+ food clour -a pinch+ ginger garlic paste + salt. But I avoided that ]

Once the dish is dry add the cornflour+ water mix and allow it to boil. Add pepper nw (once it starts boiling) and sugar. Remove from fire once the gravy is of desired consistency and garnish with spring onions.

Enjoy with fried rice/roti