Happy Ugadi

Mango Cake-Eggless

My brother told me not to post this on the site by looking at the color and look of this cake, but don't go by the looks, this infact was much tastier than it looks. I tried for eggless cakes and I found this Mango version. The original recipe asked for real Mangoes but I didn't have any, so I used Mango Pulp instead.

1 cup diced fresh mango/mango pulp
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup skim milk powder
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup crushed pista
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Sift together the wheat flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.Add crushed Pista.
3. Put mango, water, sugar, milk powder, yogurt, and oil in a blender. Blend until smooth.
4. Pour the mango puree into flour mixture and mix well.
5. Put the whole mixture in a baking pan and bake until done (about 20-30 mins).

Pour some mango pulp and add some dry fruits on the top for decoration.

Note: I felt that the cake was lesssweeter, so you can increase the quantity of sugar or put some extra mango pulp in the plate and eat.

Baked Masala Puri

I had a craving this morning to eat Savali, a kind of masala puri that my mom makes using Maida and other ingredients. When she listed the ingredients that goes into making Savali, I didn't have some at home, but I didn't give up and made this Masala puri instead. And I was so determined not to deep fry anything today that I ended up baking this. It satisfied my craving and gave me some sense of satisfaction of eating healthy.

1 cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp coarsely powdered cumin seeds
½ tsp coarsely powdered peppercorn
¼ tsp turmeric powder (optional)
2 tsp oil
¼ tsp salt

1. First add salt to the flour and mix well.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and knead.
3. Make puris into small and thin shape and prick with a fork.
4. Bake in an oven at 350F for 12 mins or until done.

Serve with any dip of your choice. I served it with a simple everday style dip.

Onion-Tomato Dip

Cut onion and tomato into small pieces. Add little chilli powder, salt, chat masala, lemon juice and garnish with coriander.

Strawberry Milkshake

It is one of the easiest recipes on my blog I guess.

Add Strawberries in blender and make pulp. To this add required amount of sugar, milk and little bit of cardammon. Add few scoops of Vanilla ice cream and serve cold.

Though I added 2 scoops of ice cream for 3 glasses of shake, it was very light on the stomach. We wanted more :-)

Strawberry Shrikhand

I got a big bag of strawberries from farmer's market and didn't realise that they were turning bad. And then I decided to make whatever I can from Strawberries, like Shrikhand and a Shake. I still have some left, let's see what other things I can make from them. Was thinking of making Pancakes this morning but somehow didn't find much time as I had prepare something for lunch at the same time.

Recipe is exactly the same as the regular shrikhand except you will add strawberry pulp to yogurt. This is the first time I tasted Shrikhand with Strawberry and the taste was tangy.

2 cups of non-yogurt
5 fresh strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp honey
1/2 cardammon powder
few crushed dry fruits for garnish

1. Hang yogurt in a muslin cloth for 3-4 hours or until the liquid drains out.
2. Make pulp from strawberries.
3. Whisk together yogurt, strawberries, sugar, honey and cardammon.
4. Garnish with crushed dry fruits.

Serve cold with puris.

Special News w Bandaru Laddu

Wishing all my friends and readers, a Happy and Joyous New Year!!


Along with this, I have some special news to announce and that is ..

We are expecting a baby in May (our first one)!! And we are so thrilled to bring this news to you. We have sent number of cards to all our well wishers and friends about this on this New Year and seeing their responses made our day terrific.

On this occasion, I bring you a dessert, which most of us cherish. I think it should be called Besan Laddu instead of Bandaru Laddu, but I got this recipe from a TV channel, E-Tv and the chef named it as Bandaru Laddu. The procedure for Bandaru Laddu is elaborate and demands a lot of time and attention, but this can be done in less than 30 mins. So, this is not an authentic Bandaru Laddu recipe instead a twisted one. The taste was close to Bandaru Laddu though.

2 cups Besan/Gram Flour
3T ghee
1 cup sugar
1t cardammon powder
1/2 cup milk

1. Heat ghee and fry Besan until golden brown.
2. Add sugar, cardammon powder and mix.
3. Add 1/2 cup warm milk and mix.
4. The whole mixture leaves the sides of the pan and the whole mixture becomes a ball.
5. Mix for a minute or two and remove.
6. Make laddus and let them cool down.

To decorate, garnish with dry fruits of your choice.