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Ragi Chocolate Cake

Having lived and worked a decade down south, as a family we all have developed a taste for Ragi. 15 years back Ragi was not so much known in North India but more used in South for their regular eating. Our cook in Bangalore used to make amazing Ragi dosa, kheer and other stuff. Then as we moved to Delhi the kids choices changed and they had also moved to become teenagers.  Chocolate is their favourite choice and so I decided to experiment with Ragi and Whole wheat chocolate cake.  Tried many recipes and came out with this version.

 It turns out yum, initially I did not tell the kids but now they love it so much that they demand it.  No guesses here the mother will be very happy.

This recipe makes about a 500 gm cake and you will need 7-8 inch pan

Ingredients

  1. Ragi Flour- ¾ cup
  2. Whole wheat flour/All-purpose flour – ¾ cup
  3. Coco powder- 2 tbsp (Could be replaced with drinking chocolate/Bournvita)
  4. Oil- 2/3 rd cup ( one could use butter but I prefer oil)
  5. Curd- 1/3rd cup
  6. Milk- ¾ cup
  7. Sugar- 1 cup (you could use normal sugar, brown sugar or jaggery)
  8. Vinegar- ½ tsp
  9. Vanilla essence- 1 tbsp
  10. Baking powder-1 tsp
  11. Baking soda-½ tsp
  12. Salt- 1/8 tsp

Method

  1. Sieve the dry ingredients Ragi, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Please do this step 2-3 times to ensure you incorporate air in the mix.
  2. Mix sugar with dry ingredients
  3. Mix the wet ingredients in different bowl – Oil, Milk, Vinegar, essence and curd. Please whisk the curd before mixing with the other ingredients.
  4. Now slowly pour this in to dry ingredients bowl which has sugar. Mix lightly with hand as you do not want air which has been incorporated in flour should be lost.
  5. Once mixed please pour in greased tin and bake in Pre heated oven for 25-30 min at 180 degree.  Skewer should come out clean once inserted.
  6. Remove from oven and cool.

One could do little chocolate frosting by adding molten chocolate or any other frosting over it . It tastes yum either ways.  I have tried replacing curd with egg but it does not come out that well so would suggest stick to curd for this.

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Oats Granola

Continuing my Trilogy on Oats related recipes thought of sharing this tasty granola. With summer time, it’s great to add to ice-creams, yogurts and or just munch on this healthy stuff. This one is very simple one and you can control the sugar or skip the sugar and make it healthier.

Ingredients

  • Rolled oats – 3 cup.
  • Almonds- ¾ cup chopped almonds.
  • Pumpkin seeds- ½ cup
  • Sunflower seeds- ½ cup
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1/8th tsp cinnamon powder
  • 2 tbsp apple juice
  • 1 tbsp or 15 gm butter
  • 4 Tbsp – honey (you can do 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp maple syrup also)
  • 1/4th cup brown sugar (you can skip and add 1-2 tbsp of honey)
  • 1 cup of dried fruits (cranberry, blueberry, kiwi…)

Method

  1. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients – oats, nuts, seeds, cinnamon, salt .
  2. In small bowl melt butter, add sugar, honey and apple juice
  3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients and spread on baking tray
  4. Bake for 20-25 min at 180 degree in pre heated oven.
  5. While baking please keep stirring the mixture and remove once the golden colour is achieved
  6. After it’s cooled then add dried fruits and store in airtight container
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Crunchy Oats Cookie

Hope everyone is careful during the Unlock-1. Virus is still there and we need to live with precautions and get used to new normal. I have been bit caught up in finishing my work assignments so could not share a recipe for last 10 days.  This time I wanted to share something related to Oats which is  healthy.  These Oats cookies are very simple to make and are an instant hit. You can do lot of variations on the same in terms of flour, addons and flavouring.

Ingredients

  • Butter – 100gm
  • Castor sugar – ½ cup or 100gm
  • Egg yolk – 1 [If you want to skip the egg, add 1 tbsp milk powder]
  • Maida/All-purpose flour – 1 cup [You can do ½ cup Whole wheat and ½ cup All-purpose or complete whole wheat flour]
  • Oats – 1/3 rd cup
  • Baking soda – ½ tsp
  • Walnuts / Chocochip – ¼ th cup or any nuts crushed. *

Method

  1. Sift together flour and baking soda. Add the oats also. Keep aside.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar
  3. Add the egg [or milk powder with 1-2 tsp of milk]
  4. Add flour with oats, nuts or choco chips
  5. Mix all the ingredients in the form of batter
  6. Make shapes or spoon the mixture in baking trays.
  7. Keep in fridge for 15 min or so
  8. Bake in preheated oven at 160 degree for 10-12 min
  9. Cool them on wire rack

Variations in flavour could be adding some custard powder or some nutmeg or chocolate chunks or raisins. It gives very different flavour and texture.

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Oats Moong Dal Tikki

This is a very healthy and high protein recipe and a good way to feed the kids oats. This is lipsmacking snack and has replaced the regular tikki.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup yellow moong lentils/Dal
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1tsp garlic
  • 2 green chilles chopped
  • 1 boiled potato
  • 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
  • 1 tsp spring onion/ or any vegetable like carrot (optional)
  • Dry spices as per taste- garam masala, coriander powder, amchur powder, red chilli powder
  • Salt to taste
  • Little oil for grilling

Method

  1. Soak Dal for about 1 hours
  2. Cook the dal in one cup water in open pan till dal becomes soft. This step is critical that dal needs to be cooked and not watery.
  3. Let it cool and if required you can coarse grind it. I did not grind but mashed with hands.
  4. Oats can be ground or used as it is.
  5. Mix all the ingredients and shape in rounds
  6. Grill them on non stick pan with little or no oil
  7. You can serve with regular sauce, mint chuntey or add curd

Tip- In case you find oats making it dry, please add 1 -2 tbsp of curd.

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Pista Kulfi

As promised last time, here is the post on Pista Kulfi. Truly summer season is here and kulfi and ice-cream are on a roll. 

Ingredients

  • ½ litre milk
  • 7 ½ Tablespoon Sugar
  • 2 tablespoon Cornflour
  • 100 gms mava (you can even use some burfi or home made mava left after making ghee)
  • 1/8th tsp green colour
  • 1/8th tsp pista essence
  • ½ tsp elachi powder or cardamom powder
  • 3 tbsp  chopped pista

Method

  1. Blend Sugar and cornflour in milk and keep on gas stirring continuously
  2. After 3 -4 min switch off the gas , add mawa and let it cool completely
  3. Add essence, colour , elachi powder, pista pieces and blend well with beater
  4. Fill moulds or steel container and let it set in freezer

You can do variation with Badam instead of pista. Just drop the colour and replace pista with badam or use both.

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Mango Kulfi

Summer season is here and one cannot resist making things out of mango. My house hold has been having lot of mango being used like mango rice, mango shake, aam panna …list is endless. When you get amazingly sweet mangoes from your favorite organic Earthy Tales so you try Mango kulfi without any delay.. So here it goes.

Ingredients

  • ½ litre milk (preferably full cream)
  • 1 Tablespoon Cornflour
  • ½ cup Milkmaid
  • ½ cup mango pulp (preferably Alphonso)
  • ¼ tsp vanilla essence
  • Few drops mango emulsion (optional)
  • 1/8 tsp orange colour (optional)

Method

  1. Mix cornflour and milk and put on gas and boil for 2 min or so
  2. Add milkmaid and mango pulp and cook for sometime
  3. Let it cool completely
  4. Add essence, colour beat till frothy
  5. Freeze in small portions otherwise a steel container for 4-5 hours
  6. Serve it with fresh mangoes

In my version and I just added little vanilla essence as my Mangoes were too sweet and flavourful. You could also use ready made pulp instead of mangoes.

Watch out for the next article on Pista kulfi

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Mediterranean dips

My family loves Mediterranean dips and in summer they become more popular as everyone wants to eat light food and also have dips with all kinds of salads, chips and nachos. So here are two varieties – Hummus and Red Pepper Walnut dip for you.

Hummus

Ingredients

  • 1 cup boiled Chickpeas (kabuli channa)
  • 2 tbsp Tahini paste ( or sesame roasted)
  • 6-8 garlic cloves
  • 3-5 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ tsp cumin
  • Large pinch of paprika
  • Salt to taste

Method

  1. In a blender puree the boiled chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini paste, 3 tbsp olive oil, garlic, salt and cumin till smooth paste.
  2. Adjust the seasoning as per taste – like salt, lemon juice or garlic.
  3. Take the paste out in a bowl drizzle olive oil and sprinkle paprika.

You can do variations by adding beetroot or avocado to make other variations of the same.

Hummus

Red pepper and Walnut Dip

Ingredients

  • 1 red capsicum
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  • ½ cup walnuts/pine nuts
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp pomegranate juice or apple jucie
  • ¼ tsp jeera powder
  • ¼ tsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp hung curd
  • Salt
  • Olive oil- 2tsp

Method

  1. Roast a red capsicum on open flame for 6-7 min or till skin is charred.
  2. Cool the same and then remove the black part and seeds after cutting the same. Wash.
  3. Add capsicum and all the ingredients in blender and make a smooth paste.
Red Pepper Walnut Dip

It is very cooling dip and kids also love this with chips and salads.

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Chocolate Brownies

Brownies – the name itself gives so much happiness. It is every chocolate lover’s favourite. Lot of people have been asking for this recipe.  It is very easy to make, you just need to follow the right temperature of ingredients and baking time. You will get the amazing crinkled top.

Ingredients

  • Butter 115 gm- cut in cubes
  • Dark chocolate (preferably compound) 125 gm/1 cup
  • Castor sugar 1 cup
  • 2 eggs- room temperature
  • Flour/All purpose flour/Maida – ¾ cup
  • Cocoa powder – 1 tbsp
  • Vanilla essence -1 tsp

Method

  1. Pre heat the oven at 160 degree.
  2. Take an 8-inch brownie pan. You need to line it with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Cross the paper and it should be hanging out. It needs only to be greased with oil
  3. Melt the chocolate and butter by double boiler method. Chocolate should be grated or cut in small pieces and butter in cube sizes.
  4. Remove from heat and whisk the sugar. By doing this you are lowering the temperature
  5. Add eggs and essence.
  6. Stir in flour and cocoa powder
  7. Bake in Preheated oven for 25 min to 30min at 160 degree. Inserted toothpick to check may have moist crumbs as toothpick will not come out clean due to chocolate
  8. Take out the brownie along with paper/foil and let it cool for 3 to4 hours. Remove the paper and then cut the slices.

Enjoy the brownie.

Tips- Paper should be hanging outside enough so that you can take the brownie out easily from the tin.  Let it cool completely before you remove paper and cut.

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Choco Chip Cookie

Baking cookies has such a great memory for me, the whole house smells yum and the crunch of freshly baked cookie is so different.  Due to my love of baking cookies, I have always made young friends who are ready to barter doing stuff for this cookie.  Not sure of others but baking cookies just brings in happiness in the house. I was doing samples for today and suddenly the heavenly smell pulled everyone to come near the oven and wait for the cookie to be baked. Tea/Milk time become a happy sharing and built memories.

This traditionally originated in USA and is a drop cookie. It is very easy to make. I have tried to make the traditional recipe healthy and tried to give a eggless twist.

Ingredients

  • Butter- 120 gm (softened not melted)
  • Castor sugar- ¼ cup
  • Brown Sugar- ½ cup
  • 1 ¼ cup flour – ( you can use full all purpose flour or 50% whole wheat and 50% flour or 1 cup whole wheat and ¼ cup all-purpose flour)
  • Baking Soda- ½ tsp
  • Egg – 1  (for eggless 3 tbsp Milk powder + 3 tbsp Milk)
  • Chcoco chip – 1 cup ( or any chocolate chunks)
  • Vanilla essence- ½ tsp

Method

  1. Mix flour and Soda together and keep aside
  2. Beat Sugar and Butter together till it becomes creamy
  3. Add egg  or Milk powder and milk. Pl be careful do not over add the milk as batter will become watery
  4. Beat the same and add essence
  5. Now add the flour + soda. Beat slightly and try and get the mixture together with hand like a dough. Add choco- chips and save some for some for decoration.
  6. Take a tbsp and drop cookie on a baking tray with parchment paper.  Cookies should be away atleast 3-4 inches as they will tend to become three times the size after baking
  7. You can slightly press the drop by adding some additional choco chip on top
  8. Put the tray in fridge to set for at least half an hour
  9. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degree for 15 min or so. The test is cookie should move freely in the oven.
  10. Please note cookie will continue baking once u take out the tray. So after 5 min remove from tray and put on wire rack to cool. Incase u find your cookie under cooked unlike a cake it can go back to the oven again.

Variations – Apart from Choco-chip you can add chocolate chunks or any kind of additions like nuts.  To give it a vanilla cookie flavour you can add 1 tbsp custard powder and skip chocolate.

Tip : If butter is melted cookies will not get height but will be flattened.  Do not skip the fridge part before baking the cookies otherwise you will have unshaped cookies.

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Kali Masoor Kebabs

Thanks for the overwhelming response for the last post on Banana Cake. I know the lockdown is making the cook come alive in us. Will try and post things which are readily available at this time.

We all need to have very high protein diet so here is recipe of Kali Masoor ( Black Lentils ) Kabab. This recipe I learnt from my Aunt who is pure vegetarian and religious person. She used to tease us that this is non veg of veg people and you will forget the Lucknow famous Galauti Kabab.  My family esp my sister in law loves this and in any family potluck parties I usually get to make this. So here goes the recipe of bua-nani’s kababs as fondly called in our house.

Ingredients

  • Channa dal ½ cup. (Yellow Lentils)
  • Kali masoor- ½ cup ( Black lentils)
  • Fresh ginger grated- 2tbsp
  • Fresh Garlic- 10 pods
  • Dry spices
    • 1-mota elachi, 2 laung, 1 stick dalchini, 1-green elachi, 1 tej patta, 1 star flower, one dry red chilli
    • salt and turmeric
  •  Fresh coriander + Dry coriander powder- 2tsp
  • Amchoor Powder (Dry Mango Powder)- 1 tsp
  • Garam Masala – 1tsp
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 2 green chillies chopped
  • Kasthuri methi
  • Cornflour /Besan- only if it becomes watery or 1-2 slices of bread
  • For Garnishing- Lemon juice, Chat masala and few onion rings

Method

  1. Soak both Dal/Lentils together for one hour
  2. Pressure cook the soaked Dal with Dry spices and ginger and garlic and water just upto the level of dal in cooker and not more. It needs 1 whistle and 10-12 min on slow flame.
  3. Once the pressure is released please check the water level if it is fine then mash the mixture after it is cooled.
  4. If it is watery then just add little bread or 1 tbsp of cornflour or you can roast on gas to remove excess water if any
  5. Add Fresh coriander, onion, chillies or kasthuri methi , garam masala, coriander powder and shape the Kababs as per your liking
  6. Shallow fry them on Tawa, Serve them hot with sprinkled chatmasala, lemon juice, and onion slices and Green chutney.

Do try this and tell me . You could do variation by adding a little different dals or Rajma with Channa dal.