Dry Fruit Cake

Planning to bake a crispy, sandy dry fruit cake ? Then here is the recipe for you. It is a sandy cake. Why am I calling it a sandy cake ? Yes on touching it you feel like sand. You can store this cake in a closed container and store safe for 5 - 6 days. Not necessary to store in a fridge. Enjoy this with coffee. Mmm... definitely you will be prasied for your delicious sandy dry fruit cake. By adding orange peel and orange sugar it adds orange flavour to cake. Take a orange and grate the peel using a grater. Eventhough the outer crust seems to be brownish it too tastes good. You can also serve this with cream.

Serves 6 Pieces

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour 150g

Orange Peel Powder 10g (optional)

Margarine 100g

Sugar 100g

Egg 2 Nos

Baking Powder 1 1/2 tsp

Dry fruit 100g

Sultana 25g

Orange juice 4 tbsp

Milk 2 tbsp

Method

Use a 18 cm dia round cake form.

Greese the inner cylindrical side of the form using margarine.

Place a baking sheet above the bottom plate of the form so that batter doesnt stick to it and it is easy to remove from form.

If you dont have baking sheet then just apply margarine to the bottom plate of form.

Sieve all purpose flour and baking powder and keep aside.

This is done to avoid lumps in the flour

The orange peel powder can be got by drying the oramge peel and powdering it using mixer grinder.

If you dont have orange peel powder then just ignore this ingredient.

Add orange peel powder to the flour.

In a plate place the dry fruits and sultana and dust it with a little of flour so that it is not sticky and keep aside.

Preheat oven for 10 min at 150 degree centigrade.

In a bowl add the butter and suagr.

Mix it well using a electric mixer for 5 min.

Now add the eggs one by one to the butter sugar cream and mix well using mixer for about 3 min.

Add the flour to it little by little and mix well using a spatula.

Hereafter use a flat spatula for mixing.

At this stage it is a thick batter.

Add the orange juice & milk and mix well.

Now add the dry fruits to it and mix well.

Pour this batter into greased the from.

Bake it for 1 hour at 150 degree centigrade.

Insert a wooden stick like a tooth picker into the cake.

If it is done then tooth picker comes out clean else bake for some more time.

If the tooth picker comes out wet and the colour of cake is dark then reduce the temperature and bake for some more time.

After it is done allow it to cool for atleast 10 min.

I have baked it for 5 min extra and so it is a little bit more brownish at the top crust.

So after 40 min have a look at the cake for every 5 min.

Pidi Kozhukattai Recipe

Have you ever tasted pidi kozhukattai ? No? Then here is the recipe for you. Kozhukattai are made for Vinayaga Chadurthi with a sweet stuffing but this is a kozhukattai with the hot stuffings. The cocount in it adds extra flavour to it. Surprised to see a different name pidi kozhukattai ? It is because of the way it is shaped. A great advantage of this shape is it can be done easily. It consumes less time. This type of kozhukattai is prepared in many tamil nadu villages. The same procedure can be followed for making "Keppai / Ragi Pidi Kozhukattai ". Only change is replace rice flour with ragi flour. This will be a great recipe for diabetic patients. If you have cholestral problems then avoid coconut. This is a steamed food.

Serves 4 Persons

Ingredients

Rice Flour 2 Cups

Oil 1 tbsp

Musturd Seeds 1 tsp
Bengal Gram 2 tbsp
Finely Chopped Onion 1 No.

Red Chilli 3 Nos.

Curry leaves 20 Nos.
Coconut Scrapped or Finely Chopped 3 Medium Sized Pieces

Water 1 Cup

Salt for Taste

Method

Take rice flour in a bowl and keep aside.

In a kadai or pan pour oil and heat in a medium flame.

Add musturd seeds, chillies, bengal gram , curry leaves and fry till it turns to golden brown colour.

Add onion to it and saute well for 2 min.

Add the coconut and saute for 1 min.

Now add this to the flour.

Add salt and water to it and knead with hands.

If it is too sticky then add little of flour and if it is too tight add little of water.

Now take apart of the dough and make lemon sized ball out of it.

Keep it on the top of your fingers and press so that your finger impressions are made on the dough.

Place it in a idli plate. No need to apply oil on idli plates.

Similarly make kozhukattai with remaining dough.

Steam it in a idli cooker or vessel for 10 min.

Now take a piece of the hot kozhukattai and make it into two pieces.

If it is completely steamed then there is a uniform colour and if it needs to be steamed for some more time then the inner part is lighter colour.

Steam it for 2 more min.

Serve hot.

No need for any side dish.

Bread Upma

Today i had a loaf of bread but the expiry date was tomorrow. Mmm... How can i finish a loaf of bread in a single day.... Then i though of preparing upma out of bread. I wanted bread upma in such a manner that it is spicy and the bread is crispy. To make it crispy i made toast of the breads. It is a "thideer upma" instant upma. You can serve this as evening tiffem or for break fast.

Serves 2 Persons

Ingredients

Bread Slices 10 Nos
Butter for Toast (optional)
Vegetable or Sunflower Oil 1 tbsp
Musturd Seeds 1/2 tsp

Fennel Seeds ( Sombu ) 1/2 tsp

Bengal Gram 1 tbsp

Cashewnut 5 Nos (optional) or Groundnuts

Curry Leaves 10 leaves
Green Chillies 2 Nos
Finely Chopped Onion 1 No
Dhania Powder 1/2 tsp

Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp

Pepper powder 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp
Salt for Taste
Finely Chopped Tomato 1 No
Tomato Puree 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves
Water 3 tbsp

Method

Make toast out of bread with or without butter.
Cut the crust of bread pieces and then make each of single bread pieces to 9 -16 pieces (depending on the size of bread).
Keep it aside.
In a kadai or pan pour oil in medium high flame and add ingredients 4 -9.
Add finely chopped onions and fry till it turns to golden brown colour.
Add the remaining ingredients one by one and make a thick sauce out of it by sauting.
When it is a thick gravy add the bread pieces and mix well and fry for 3 min.
Delicious and tasty bread upma is ready.

Medu Vadai / Vada

None of the Tamil Nadu festivals are complete without medu vadai. It is the favourite of Lord Hanuman. With the basic vadas a lot of other recipes can be prepared like curd vada , sambhar vada and rasam vada by just soaking it in curd, sambhar or rasam respecively for 1 hour when the vada is warm. For vada mala use urud dal, fenugreek seeds, salt, pepper powder and water only.

Makes 9 - 10 Vadas

Ingredients

Whole Urud Dal 1/2 cup
Fenugreek Seeds 1/2 tsp
Onion Finely Chopped 1 No
Green Chillies Fined Chopped 3 Nos
Pepper Seeds 20 Nos
Curry Leaves 20 Nos
Salt 3/4 tsp
Coriander Leaves
Rice Flour 3-4 tbsp (if required)
Luke Warm Water 4 tbsp
Oil for Deep Fry

Method

Soak the urud dal and fenugreek seeds in sufficient water for 1 hour.
Dont soak it for long time as it absorbs more oil.
Grind the urud dal and fenugreek seeds to fine paste with a little of water.
If possible dont add water.
Add onion, chillies, pepper, curry leaves, coriander leaves and salt to it and mix well.
If it is sticky add the necessary rice flour to it.
Make doughnut shapes out of the dough.
Apply a little of oil in a plastic sheet and make the doughnut shaped vadas placing it on a flat durface.
Deep fry the vadas till it turns to golden brown colour.

Make similar ones till all the dough is done.

Homemade Pizza

Homemade Pizza.... Mmm do you think it is very difficult to make Pizza at home ? Then the answer is absolutely No. When i want to go out the entire fore noon but still want to have food at home then the first thing i remember is Pizza. It takes one to one and half hour for the flour to raise. So before leaving i make the dough and allow it to raise. As soon as i am back i start preparing the topping after switching on the oven. Baking it in a conventional oven makes it more tasty than in a microwave oven. The topping can be varied according to your convinience. The imagination is endless. You can prepare a varity of pizzas using the same procedure for base. You can add variety of cheese like mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta cheese to it. Here i have used only mozzarella cheese.

Serves 2 Persons

Ingredients

For Pizza Base

All Purpose Flour 1 Cup
Salt 1/2 tsp
Sugar 1 tsp
Dry Yeast 1 tsp
Lukewarm Water 1/2 Cup
Oilve Oil 1 tsp

For Topping
Tomato Chilli Sauce 3 tbsp
Garlic 2 cloves
Mozorella Cheese 200 g(i have used both grated cheese and circularly cut cheese)
Baby corn 3 Nos
Green Peas 20 Nos
Bell Pepper 1/2 No
Onion 1/2 No
Olive 2 Nos
Olive Oil 1 tbsp

Method

Preparation of Base
Take flour in a bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients to it.
Add water carefully to form poori like dough.
Knead well for 5 min.
Cover it with a kitchen cloth and place it in a warm and undisturbed place.
Let it rise to double the size.
It takes nearly 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat conventional oven for 10 min.
Set it to 200 degree centigrade.
Now with the raised flour make flat round pizza base just like a chapati of nearly 25 cm diameter.

Preparation of topping
Chop garlic to small pieces.
Chop onion, bell pepper to square shapes.
Slit baby corn to form 2 pieces out of each one.
Spread the tomato chilli sauce through out the dough upper layer.
Spread half of the cheese on the pizza.
Add garlic, onion, bell pepper, green peas, olive on the top of pizza.
Add the remaining cheese on the pizza.
Add oilve oil.
Bake it for 10 -12 minutes. If you have pizza stone you can use it for better results.
In between have a look on it as heating varies from one oven to the other.
When the upper cheese layer is golden brown remove it from oven.
Serve hot with ketchup and chilli flakes.