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

Less-sweet Dates Kesari

Ingredients:

1 cup of slightly roasted semolina
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 tbsp of ghee
2 tbsp of chopped dates
2 tbsp of broken cashew nuts
1 tbsp of yellow raisins
2 drops of yellow coloring
1/2 cup of sugar
A pinch of salt
1 cup of water

Fry cashew nuts and raisins in ghee and keep aside.

In another pan, boil water once boiled add in coconut milk, yellow coloring, sugar, salt and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Do not boil once coconut milk is added, now slowly add in the roasted semolina mix well. 

Add in chopped dates, cashew nuts and raisins incorporate well with the semolina, add in 1 tbsp of ghee before serving the kesari to give a good shine.

Now our Less-sweet Dates Kesari is ready to be served, do try and let me know how was it!

Biskut Suji/ Semolina Cookies

It has been a very tiring day, baking cookies for Diwali can be very tiring especially if you do it in big quantity all by yourself but that's the fun part of it. Would be nicer if the whole family can participate in baking but my husband and my brother are too busy with work and couldn't help me baking. My brother helps me to get the ingredients from bakery suppliers near his work place.

Okay now let's get back to today's cookies, this is a very popular cookies among many of us in Malaysia especially my husband. I took this recipe from Kak Ita's blog Masam Manis, it tastes so good and you will definitely stick to this recipe if you are making it again. You have to follow the exact ingredients used for this cookies to get the taste but for vegetarians you can substitute buttermilk for egg.

Ingredients:

A)

150 g of ghee

100 g of butter

100 g of castor sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 egg yolk ( I used whole egg)

B)

100 g cornflakes (ground fine)

100 g corn flour 

50 g of semolina

C)

280 g all purpose flour

Garnishing:

Icing Sugar

Whisk all the ingredients listed in A

You don't have to beat until fluffy just have to mix it well

Add in ingredients B and C one by one and mix well

Knead well the ingredients and mix coloring if you like, I have used 

a few drops of red coloring on one part and original for another

To get a standard size I have weighed the dough to 7g per ball, you can 

even flatten the dough and cut using preferred design

Arrange the semolina balls in baking tray and bake at 170 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the balls and your oven requirements, mine call for 150 degree for 10 minutes

Roll the baked cookies in icing sugar and place in small paper cups for better presentation

Our Semolina cookies are ready to be served now

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

I'm sending this post to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Delights 2012

Brown Sugar Kesari

This is the last dish I made for Navrathri, Brown Sugar Kesari. I always prefer to use soft brown sugar for cooking as it gives better taste compared to white sugar. Brown sugar is less sweet compared to white sugar meaning 1 cup of white sugar is equal to 2 cups of brown sugar, that's how I would compare the sweetness of both these sugar. So I usually use only half cup or 1 cup of brown sugar to substitute for white sugar to bring down the sweetness.

Okay now let's go to the recipe now;

Ingredients:

1 cup of sooji/ semolina
10 pcs cashewnuts
10 pcs yellow raisin
1/2 cup of coconut milk (thick)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
Few drops of yellow coloring
1 cup of water
2 tbsp of ghee

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of ghee and fry cashews and raisin then add water and let it boil, then add brown sugar and salt. Turn flame to low and pour in coconut milk and let it simmer for about 2 minutes don't let it over boil as it will give oily taste.

Now add in  yellow coloring and sooji slowly, constantly stirring  to avoid clumping. Mix everything well, finally add in balance ghee and mix well. Place Kesari mixture in any mould or tray then cut into desired shapes and serve.

Now our Brown Sugar Kesari is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how was it.

Do join my event Halloween Recipes 2012

Thalicha Sweet Upma

I'm missing mom and her cooking a lot. today I thought of making my mom's style upma for breakfast. She maked two different type of upma, one is Thalicha Upma for my dad and Sweet Upma for us the kids. Yea Kids! So I have combined both and make Thalicha Sweet Upma, very easy to make I have just added sugar to the normal Thalicha Upma.

Now let us look at the recipe;

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of sooji/ semolina

2 dried red chili (cut half)

1 sprig curry leaves

1 tsp of mustard seeds

A pinch of salt

2 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of ghee

1 cup water

In a pan, heat ghee and add mustard seeds to splutter, then add curry leaves, dried red chili. Now add water and let it boil, once water boils add sugar and salt.

Finally add sooji and stir well, sooji will absorb the water and thickens. Mix everything well and turn off the flame and upma is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how was it!