Custard Marble Cake (Eggless)

Of late, I have been so crazy of baking this makes me to search for unique recipes from blogger friend's space. I have saved more than 100 blogs which I visit almost everyday, so one of the blog I visit without fail is Priya Ranjit's Cook Like Priya. The other day I saw Priya posted an unique cake baked with whole wheat flour and custard flour, I told myself I'm definitely trying this recipe no matter what as I had all the ingredients needed for this cake in my pantry. Thank you so much Priya for sharing such a wonderful cake with us.

This is a special cake and would be loved by people who are health concious and looking for a light and fluffy cake. Let's look at how to make this cake;

Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour/atta

1/4 cup of all purpose flour

3/4 cup of custard powder

2 tbsp of cocoa powder

1 and 1/4 tsp of baking soda

1 and 1/2 cup of milk

3 tbsp of vegetable oil

1 tsp of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of sugar

Sift baking soda, whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and custard powder and set aside.

In a mixing bowl add sugar, oil, vanilla extract, milk and mix until the sugar is almost dissolved. Slowly add in the dry ingredients little by little until it forms a smooth batter. Now take out 1/4 part of the batter and mix the cocoa powder to it ( I have mixed cocoa powder with little milk).

I have used a loaf pan to make this cake, you can use any cake pan of your choice. Butter the sides of the loaf pan and pour all the original batter to this pan, then pour the chocolate batter in the middle of the original batter and make swirl with a chopstick or knife to form the marble effect to the cake.

Bake the cake in pre-heated oven (pre-heat for 10 minutes) for 150 to 180 degrees depending on your oven's requirement for 35- 40 minutes. The most important part of baking this cake is that you have to leave the cake for minimum 2 hours or overnight to have soft and fluffy cake.

Unmould the cake and cut into slices and our Custard Marble Cake is ready to be served. Do try and I'm sure that you will love it!

Moist Banana Cake

I have been planning to bake banana cake for a long time but buying it has been very tough as I didn't get the exact type I was looking for. Two days back, I managed to buy some and immediately planned to bake my favourite cake. The most important thing to get a perfect cake is the mashing of banana to a very fine and smooth paste then let it oxidize for at least 30 minutes to get wonderful cake after baking the cake. Mine didn't turn out as expected as I didn't have the patience to wait for it to oxidize perfectly but the cake was so yummy and finished in two days.

Now let's look at how to bake this yummy yummy cake;

Ingredients:

1 cup of mashed bananas (I have added 2 cups)

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 and 1/2 cup of plain flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of milk

3/4 cup of soft brown sugar

3 large eggs 

A pinch of salt

Sift plain flour, baking soda and baking powder, keep aside.

Beat brown sugar, salt, vegetable oil and eggs until fluffy then add vanilla extract. Now alternately add the dry ingredients with milk. Finally add mashed bananas and fold in to the cake batter.

Pour the batter into a buttered cake pan and bake for 35-45 minutes at 150-180 degrees or until the cake is well baked. 

Let the baked cake cool for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving it. Now our Moist Banana Cake is ready to be served. I prefer eating the cake chilled, do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Spicy Chicken Sambal

After one week of being fully vegetarian for Thaipusam my husband have requested me to cook Spicy Chicken Sambal for lunch. I have prepared this dish to go with rasam and plain rice, it tasted awesome. Let's see how to make this dish;

Ingredients:

4pcs of chicken whole leg (cut into small pieces)

3 large onions( cut into thick slices)

25 pcs of dried chilli

1 tbsp of chilli sauce

1 tsp of brown sugar

1/2 tsp of white vinegar

4 tbsp of meat curry powder

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Marinate the chicken pieces with salt and meat curry powder, add a little water and keep it aside. Then fry the chicken until chicken is 3/4th cooked, place the fried chicken on kitchen towel to blot the excess oil.

Boil dried chilli for 10 minutes until its soft and drain the water, then blend with little water to form a smooth paste.

Heat oil and fry onions until translucent, now pour in the chilli paste with some water and let it boil until the raw smell of the chilli gone. Then add fried chicken, chilli sauce, brown sugar, white vinegar and salt to taste, let the sambal simmer and thicken.

Now our Spicy Chicken Sambal is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Pepper Aloo Gobi/ Potato Cauliflower Fry

Ingredients:

 250 g of cauliflower (cut into small florets)

1 large potato (cubed)

1 sprig of curry leaves

1 green chilli (slit)

1/2 tsp mustard seed

1 tsp of chilli powder

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1/2 tbsp of coarse black pepper

Salt to taste

Oil

Boil potato and cauliflower until both are half cooked, drain and keep aside.

In a pan, heat oil and add mustard seed once it crackle and curry leaves, green chilli and the boiled vegetables. Fry everything for a couple of minutes, then add chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt fry for another minute.

Finally add black pepper, incorporate well with the vegetables. Now our Pepper Aloo Gobi Fry is ready to be served. 

Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Brinjal and Carrot Sambar

Ingredients:

1 cup of masoor dal/red lentils

1 tbsp of meat curry powder

1 brinjal (chopped)

1/2 carrot (chopped)

5 garlic pods

1 tsp of gingely oil

1/2 tsp of hing

Salt to taste

Water

Tempering:

3 pcs red dried chilli

2 tsp of mixed tempering spices

1 sprig of curry leaves

1 tomato (cut into wedges)

5 shallots (chopped)

2 tbsp of oil

Soak masoor dal in hot water for about 10 minutes and clean until the water runs clear, then pressure cook the dal with gingelly oil, hing, garlic, 3 cups of water and salt until the dal is completely cooked and mashed. It takes about 3 to 4 whistle in a pressure cooker.

Now add brinjal, carrot and curry powder to the dal and cook for 5 more minutes. Finally temper the sambar with the tempering agent and pour it to the sambar. Close the lid of the cooker to trap the aroma inside until ready to serve.

Now our Brinjal and Carrot Sambar is ready to be served, do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Potato and Soy-Made Chicken Masala (Vegetarian)

Ingredients:

2 potatoes (cut into small pieces)
100 g of soy-made chicken
1/4 cup of frozen mix vegetables
1 large onion (sliced)
1 tomato (chopped)
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 green chilli (slit)
1 tsp cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Water

In a pan, heat oil and fry soy made chicken until its slightly browned and keep aside.

In the same pan, fry onion, cumin seed, curry leaves and green chilli then fry for a couple of minutes. Now add tomato and fry until it turns mushy, add potatoes, salt and turmeric powder with some water let the potato turn soft. 

Now add fried soy-made chicken and frozen mix vegetables to the above mixture, then add coriander powder and let the gravy simmer and thickens. Our Potato and Soy-Made Chicken Masala is ready to be served with chapati or poori.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Leftover Idli Stir Fried

It is very difficult to throw away leftovers especially when you know the worth of food, so to avoid wasting f I usually prepare very small portion every time I cook. But when it comes to my favourite Idli, I don't mind storing it in fridge for up to two days. Now coming back to today's recipe, I have learnt this from my mom but made some changes by adding sausages to it, mom only add eggs during non-vege days. This is my husband's favourite especially if he wants to eat something simple and quick.

Now let us see how to prepare this quick and yummy dish;

Ingredients;

4 Idlis (cut into small pieces)

2 large eggs beaten

3 sausages (sliced)

1 large onion sliced

2 tbsp of dried shrimp

2 tsp od meat curry powder

3pcs bird eye chilli (sliced)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp of oil

In a pan, heat oil and fry onion then add dried shrimp and sausage fry. Pour the beaten eggs on one side and scramble it not fully cooked, now add chilli stir for a minute then add the idlis. Mix everything evenly then you can add meat curry powder and salt, mix thoroughly so that the salt can be absorbed into idli pieces. Now our Idli Stir Fry is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how was it!

Soy-made Chicken Sambal (Vegetarian)

Another week for Thaipusam celebration, I'm sure many of our Hindu friends have started fasting and being vegetarian for this much awaited festival. Cooking vegetarian dishes on these days can be boring if you don't try different varieties of dishes, in Malaysia soy made products are easily available especially in super markets and grocery shops. Last Sunday, I went to shop for these items and grabbed a few packs of soy chicken, fish and tofu to cook for the whole week.

The first dish for this week will be Soy-made Chicken Sambal, it may look spicy but actually it was more to a milder version of sambal compared to the usual ones I cook. now let's look at how I made this mouth-watering dish;

Ingredients:

250 g of soy-made chicken

1 large onion sliced (optional)

1/4 cup of canned green peas

2 tbsp of chilli powder (mix with water to make into paste)

1 tsp of chilli sauce

1 tsp of soft brown sugar

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Water

In a pan, heat oil and fry the soy chicken and keep aside. In the same pan, reduce some oil and add in sliced onion fry until translucent then add chilli paste. Fry until the raw smell of the paste is gone then add some water and fried soy made chicken, let it boil. 

When its boiled and oil separates add in chilli sauce, soft brown sugar and salt to taste let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Now the gravy will thicken, adjust the seasoning and finally add the canned green peas and cook for 2 minutes. Our Soy-made Chicken Sambal is ready to be served. 

Do try and let me know how was it!

Guest Post by Priya Ranjit: Savory Semolina Cake

Sharing is caring when it comes to blogging, sharing recipes and tips with fellow bloggers. I made a lot of friends ever since I started blogging, next to be the star of my guest post will be Priya Ranjit of Cook Like Priya her pictures show how tasty the dishes would be. Its true when people say pictures tell a thousand story, for those who have not visited Priya please don't waste anymore time rush to her space. Coming to her recipe today, the moment she sent me the picture I have decided that I would be making this soon, drool-worthy dish isn't it?

Now let us see what she have prepared for us and drool with me;

I am so happy and excited to do my 3'rd guest post for Suman Arthy who writes Sumanarthy's Kitchen. When Suman asked me to do a guest post I simply jumped to the idea, although the post was supposed to be for the end of 2012 I took my own sweet time to send my recipe, thanks to Suman for understanding and also sharing her blog for my recipe today.

I came to know Suman through her blog and I was really trilled to see lots of non-veg recipes which I would drool over ;-). I was actually surprised when she asked me for a guest post so I did this savory snack cake just for you Suman. Hope u like it

This Savory Semolina Cake is simple to put together with lots of vegetables and no butter or egg. The vibrant color comes from the spices used which can be adjusted according to taste. Topping of sesame seeds gives a great crunch. The cake remains moist for long, you can also warm it in a microwave before serving. I would recommend having it in the evening with a cup of coffee. This snack cake is great and healthy compared to most deep fried/ sugary cakes or cookies. 

Recipe Source ~ Anjum Anand cook book

Serves ~ 8 pieces and serves 3-4

Prep time ~ 10 mins

Bake time ~ 35-40 mins

Ingredients (read notes before baking)

1 cup semolina/Farina/Sooji

1 cup chopped vegetables, carrots, beans/ peas

1 heaped teaspoon grated ginger

½ - 1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/4 – ½ teaspoon turmeric

1 green chilli chopped

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

¾ cup thick yogurt

½ - ¾ cup water

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon soda bicarbonate

1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

Salt -to taste

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 200 C and line a 1 kg loaf tin with parchment paper and grease well with oil
• In a medium sized bowl - mix together sooji, cut vegetables, salt, green chilli, turmeric, red chilli powder and grated ginger.
• Add curd and mix well with a wooden spoon, slowly add water and keep stirring. Make sure that the mixture is not too dry-thick or to runny
• Keep aside and in a skillet add oil and once hot add the mustard seeds once they splutter add the cumin/jeera once they start to change color take off the flame and slowly add this to the semolina mixture
• Mix well and now include the sodium bi carbonate and mix well.
• Pour in the prepared tin and top with sesame seeds. Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes. 
• As with any cake, insert a tooth pick/skewer in the center of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean and the edges are crisp, the cake is ready. Let it cool in the tin, and then serve along with any sweet pickle and tea.

Cooks Wisdom

- I used ordinary roasted rawa/ sooji, fine variety is also fine

- You can add your favorite vegetables like carrots, beans, peas and so on

- Topping with sesame seeds does gives a good crunch and flavor

- Adjust spices according to your taste

- Use thick yogurt curd, since we are not using oil make sure that the curd is nice and thick this gives
   moisture to the cake

- While adding the tempering take care as it would be really hot so use a wooden spatula

Guest Post by Divya Pramil: Milk Burfi

2013 is the year full of wonderful celebration one after another, I'm extending my Christmas and New Year celebration with another guest post from a dearest friend Divya Pramil. I'm very sure she does not need further introduction as many of you would have visited her space You Too Can Cook  at least once. If you ask me why do I love her space, there are many things to compliment first of all her photography skills then would be her wonderful anyone can try recipes with detailed step by step pictorials and when you visit her blog you feel so welcomed. I wouldn't want to waste blabbering any more and would like to welcome Divya Pramil to share her recipe. Thank you so much Divya for sharing such a yummy recipe with us...

Hello dear friends am so glad to do this guest post for Arthy. This is my 7th guest post and am glad to share this with her space. Thanks for the opportunity Arthy. It is my pleasure to do a guest post for you. Thanks for inviting me and honoring me as your guest.

Coming to the recipe, this milk burfi is a very easy and quick recipe, prepared with just maida (all purpose flour) and milk powder. It tastes really good and the most notable thing is it can be prepared in just few minutes, also I have used very little ghee or butter to make these delectable burfis. Nuts nor any kind of rich ingredients aren't needed, but still these burfis taste excellent and rich. I love adding some chocolate strains to these burfis to make it look delectable, but its upto your choice, you can use any kind of cake or cookie sprinkles or nuts or just leave plain. You can add more ghee or butter and make it more smooth and richer but its according to your wish. Take care to follow the steps carefully to avoid any mishaps. The first time I tried these I burnt my milk powder mixture, I just got diverted and was indulging in some other work and it all worsened in just few seconds, so do this only when you are not going to get diverted. But it is the easiest and quickest way to prepare burfis, also you will love its flavor so much. This was one among the edible Christmas gifts I made for my neighbors. You can make this for your loved ones or for surprise guests. Am sure they'll love it.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 20 burfis 

Total Preparation Time - 10 minutes

1. Milk powder - 70 grams 
2. Maida / All purpose flour - 30 grams 
3. Cardamom powder - 1/4 spoon 
4. Butter / Ghee - 2 spoons 
5. Milk - 4 to 5 spoons 
6. Cake sprinkles (Optional) 

PREPARATION METHOD

• Place a pan on flame, add maida and cardamom powder to it and slightly roast on low flame for a minute or until you get a nice aroma (color change not needed). Set aside until it cools. 
• Mix this roasted maida (see that it is not hot), and milk powder and sieve set aside. Do not keep the milk powder outside for a long time, it will solidify soon. Milk powder has sugar in it, but in case the milk powder is not sugary you can add some powdered sugar to it. 
• Place a pan on flame and add butter / ghee to it, as soon as it melts add the mixture and stir well. Do not keep idle, the mixture will get burnt in just few seconds. 

After a few minutes add 2 spoons of milk and stir well. It will form clumps as shown in the pic. 

Remove from flame, transfer to a plate and mix well into a single dough after it slightly cools down. Sprinkle the remaining milk and knead well so that it softens well. You must be able to make a ball of it. 

Now roll the dough using a rolling pin into 1 inch thickness, sprinkle some chocolate strains or any sprinklers of your choice (optional) and roll again then, cut shapes using a cookie cutter. or just roll into balls. 

Serve!!

TIP 1: You can avoid cardamom powder it will taste like milk sweet without its flavor. 

TIP 2: Add more ghee or butter if you wish. It changes the texture and makes the burfis more smoother. But is turns even more calorific. 

TIP 3: Keep stirring to avoid the milk powder mixture from getting burnt. It takes just few minutes to get cooked. 

Quick, delicious burfis are now ready!! Serve or gift pack them to your loved ones!! 

Spinach Curry/ Kirai Curry

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of toor dal

14 cup of moong dal

A bunch of spinach (cleaned)

1/4 cup of coconut milk

1 brinjal (cut into small pieces)

1 tsp mustard seed

2 dried red chilli

5 bird eye chilli

1 onion (sliced)

3 garlic pods

Salt to taste

Oil for tempering

Wash and soak toor dal and moong dal for at least 30 minutes. Then pressure cook dal, garlic, bird eye chilli until soft.

Next add in spinach and let it soften, now add the sliced onion, brinjal, salt and mix well until cooked. Let all this boil until brinjal soften then add coconut milk let it simmer for a few minutes and turn off the flame.

Finally temper the curry with dried chilli and mustard seed and pour over the curry. Cover the pan and let the flavour trapped in the cooker until ready to eat.

Now our Spinach Curry is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how was it!

Potato Roast

Ingredients:

2 potatoes (cubed)

1 large onion (sliced)

1 sprig of curry leaves

1 tsp cumin seed

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp of chilli powder

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1/2 tsp of cumin powder

1/2 tsp of fennel powder

A pinch of hing/asafoetida

Salt to taste 

2 tbsp oil to fry

Boil the cubed potatoes until its soft and firm, drain and keep aside.

In a pan, heat oil add in cumin seed, curry leaves and onion for a couple of minutes. Add in boiled potatoes, hing, cumin powder, fennel powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt. Mix all the ingredients well if needed add another tbsp of oil.

Stir constantly until the masala is well cooked and it coats the potato pieces. Now our Potato Roast is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Simple Fried Flat Noodle

Simple and easy to prepare meal would be what every woman prefer making especially when she's busy and do not have much time. Okay to go to that list I have prepared this Stir fried Flat Noodle, I have added chives, tofu and chicken pieces to this dish. Now let us see how to make this;

Ingredients:

1 pack of flat noodles (fresh ones)

3 pcs of white tofu (cubed)

2 pcs chicken breast (cubed)

5 cloves of garlic (diced)

2 tbsp of chilli sauce

2 tbsp of chilli paste

1 tbsp of light soy sauce (depending on individual preference)

A bunch of chives (cut into 1 inch length)

Heat oil in a a wok

Fry diced garlic once lightly browned add cubed tofu and fry for a couple of minutes

Then add cubed chicken pieces and fry until almost cooked

Add in the chilli paste and chilli sauce to the chicken and tofu, mix evenly

Add in chives and stir together with the other ingredients

Now add the flat noodles and mix well, add in the light soy sauce

Now our Simple Fried Flat Noodles is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Chicken Kofta Kurma

Cooking is always have been a passion for me, especially when my husband loves my cooking and gets very happy when I take the effort to cook varieties of food for him to try. Being some one who always travel all around the globe, he have tasted lots of food and remembers it when I cook for him. Blogging have been an advantage for anyone who love to cook and try on new recipes, I get this recipes from my fellow blogger sisters who share the same passion.

Many of us definitely know Priya from Priya's Versatile Recipes where she have even done a guest post for me Vegan Christmas Fruit Cake. I have known Priya for few months now and I was digging some chicken recipes in her archive and found this recipe, as you all know I really admire her cooking and photography skills trying her recipe was exciting. I love Chicken Kofta Kurma as it was so creamy and thick not forgetting you would ask for more once you taste it.

Now let's look at how to cook this wonderful, lip-smacking dish;

Ingredients:

For Chicken Balls:
3 Chicken breast pieces (I used 250g of minced chicken)
1 Onion (big & chopped)
1tsp Garam masala powder
1 Green chilly (chopped)
1tbsp Corn flour
Salt

For Kurma:
1 onion (chopped)
2 tomatoes (chopped)
2 green chillies (slit opened)
1tbsp ginger garlic paste
1cup yogurt
5 cashewnuts
1tbsp coriander powder
1/2tsp red chilly powder
1tsp cumin powder
2 tbsp grated coconut
1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise
Chopped coriander leaves
Chopped mint leaves
Salt
Oil

In a bowl mix all the ingredients for chicken balls and make medium sized balls and keep aside.

Blend coconut, cashew nuts and yogurt to a fine paste without adding any water and keep aside.

Heat 3 tbsp of oil, fry cinnamon stick, star anise, onion, green chilli and tomato until aromatic. 

Then add ginger garlic paste and salt cook until all the ingredients are soft

Now add coriander powder, chilli powder and cumin powder and stir for a few seconds.Then add all the blended ingredients to the veggies and cook until the raw smell is gone approximately 5 minutes. 

Then add the prepared chicken balls to the gravy and cover to cook for another 5 minutes without stirring, this is to ensure that the chicken balls cook without breaking loose.

Once the chicken balls are cooked, simmer the gravy in low heat until it thickens and oil is 

separated from the gravy, this shows that the gravy is done and ready to be served

Now our Chicken Kofta Kurma is ready to be served, garnish with coriander and mint leaves

Do try and let me know how it turned out!