Gajar Ka Halwa (MW)

Receipe source: Tarla Dalal.com

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1/3 cup milk
6 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp mava (khoya)
2 tbsp ghee
a pinch of cardamom (elaichi) powder
2 tbsp fresh cream

Method

1. Put the ghee in a bowl and microwave on high for about 15 seconds.
2. Add the carrot and stir well. Microwave on high for about 2 minutes.
3. Mix the milk, sugar and khoya and add to the carrot. Microwave on high for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring in-between after every 2 minutes 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
4. Sprinkle the cardmom powder on top, dot with the fresh cream and microwave on high for 30 seconds.
5. Serve hot.

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Author: Maria Jose

Recipe type: Dessert, Cake

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Serves: 7

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour – 1 cup
• Baking Powder – ½ tsp
• Baking Soda – 1 tsp
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 6 tbsp
• Granulated Sugar – ¾ cup
• Vegetable oil – ½ cup ( I used sunflower oil)
• Hot Coffee – ¼ cup (1 tsp of coffee in ¼cup hot water)
• Milk – ¼ cup, room temp
• Yogurt – ¼ cup, room temp
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Chocolate Icing

• Unsalted Butter – 100 gms, room temp
• Cocoa powder – ⅓ cup
• Icing sugar – 2-2.5 cups
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
• Hot water – 2-3 tbsp

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C, 10 mins before baking. Lightly grease the cake tin and line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar. Make a well.
3. Add all the wet ingredients one by one.
4. With an electric mixer, beat the mixture on low speed for 2-3 minutes until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined. Do not over beat it.
5. Pour the batter in the prepared pan. Tap the pan a couple of times so the batter is spread evenly and there are no air bubbles.
6. Bake for about 30 min. Check the cake with tooth pick. Toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come clean when the cake is ready.
7. Once out of the oven, transfer the pan to a wiring rack to cool. After about an hour remove the cake from the pan and let the cake cool completely before icing.
8. For icing – combine the softened butter and cocoa powder with a hand whisk or a wooden spoon. Add a little of hot water and mix well. Add 1 cup of icing sugar and vanilla essence. Mix well. Add a tbsp of hot water, if required, mix and add one more cup of icing sugar. Combine well. Do a taste test and add more sugar if required. Also, add more hot water to suit your required consistency.

Kadai Mushroom

This recipe is from indianfoodforever.com

Ingredients: 
200 gm mushroom
1 capsicum (shimla mirch)
2 onion (pyaj)
4 tomato (tamatar)
1 piece ginger (adrak)
5-6 garlic (lahsun) buds
2 green chilly (hari mirch)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red chilly powder (lal mirch)
1 tsp coriander powder (dhania)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/2 tsp spice blend (garam masala)
4 tbsp clarified butter (ghee) 

Procedure:

• Cut mushrooms into slices.
• Cut capsicum into cubes.
• Finely chop onions and tomatoes.
• Grind ginger, garlic and green chilies.
• Heat ghee in a pan and fry onions in it until it turns pink.
• Then fry ginger paste for a minute.
• Now put tomatoes and fry until ghee separates.
• Put salt, red chilly powder, coriander and turmeric powder.
• Now add mushrooms and simmer after adding 1/4 cup water.
• Cook until mushrooms softens.
• Then cook capsicum in it for 2-3 minutes and remove it from the flame.
• Now sprinkle some spice blend.
• Serve hot.

Coffee Cake

This recipe has been taken from Kichu Khon's blog. Loved it so it is here in my cook book


Need : 2 cups maida / refined flour, a little more than 1/2 cup cooking oil, 1/2 cup milk, 3 teaspoon baking powder, 1&1/2 cup sugar, 1 pinch salt, 6-8 drops of vannila essence, coffee powder as per ur liking ( the granules are better) .

How to : Grind the sugar into a powder first. Mix everything except coffee together. At last add coffee as per ur taste

Just make sure there are no lumps. And the mixture should be of pouring consistency .... so add more milk if you find it turning thick.

Pre heat oven. Bake at 180 degrees C for 35-40 min or till done. Remove from oven only when the cake has cooled.


I had little less maida so i added fine semolina (about 1/2 cup) and two big spoons of whole wheat flour and also I used sugar granules and it still  turned out yummy! Enjoy

vegetable Pie

This has been taken from tarladalal.com




Preparation Time: 30 mins.
Cooking Time: 30 mins.
Serves 8. 
Showing ingredients for 3 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup mixed boiled vegetables
1/4 cup cooked macaroni
1/8 cup rice (chawal)
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pineapple slices
1 1/8 cups White Sauce (For Baking)
1/2 tsp chilli sauce
43 gms Shortcrust Pastry
1 1/8 tbsp tomato ketchup
1/3 tbsp milk
salt and black pepper (kalimirch) powder to taste

Method

1. Mix the vegetables, macaroni, rice, pineapple, white sauce, chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, salt and pepper.
2. Grease a baking dish and pour the mixture in it.
3. Roll out the shortcrust pastry dough to fit the baking dish.
4. Cover the vegetables with the pastry. Make slits on top and sprinkle the milk over the pastry.
5. Bake in hot oven at 450°F for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
6. Serve hot.

RECIPE SOURCE : Delights Of Vegetarian Cooking

Banana Walnut Cake

IngredientsAll Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Granular Sugar - 3/4 cup
Ripe Banana - 1 1/4 cup, pureed (1 cup is good enough, I used extra quarter as that was left over and I didn't want to throw it)
Butter - 1/2 cup (You can use regular cooking oil here as well)
Fresh Curd/Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Fresh Milk - 1/4 cup
Walnut - 1/4 cup, chopped (I felt like I could have added more, so be the judge and add as much as you want)
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch

Preparation

• Chop walnut and puree Bananas
• Beat sugar with yogurt until fluffy
• Add banana puree and mix well
• Add milk and beat well
• In a separate bowl mix flour with baking soda & powder
• Now, add flour mixture little by little in the banana mixture and combine everything well
• Add butter/oil and mix well until it blends with the mixture
• At the end just fold in walnuts
• Pour the mixture in a greased tin (I used a square one) and bake at 400 degree F or 200-205  degree C for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.

Serving

We ate almost half of it, just like that, right after it cooled down with nothing else. But, feel free to use anything you like to top it with, some powdered sugar or ice-cream or any other frosting.

Eggless Molten Lava Cake

This recipe is borrowed from Tarla Dalal.com




Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 5 mins
Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

1 tbsp plain flour (maida)
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp milk
a pinch salt
a pinch baking soda
a pinch baking powder
2 tsp melted butter
a chunk of cooking chocolate

Method

1. Combine the flour, sugar and cocoa powder and sieve well.
2. Add the salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix well.
3. Add the butter and mix well.
4. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix well to get a smooth batter.
5. Pour half of it into a microwave safe bowl and push the chunk of chocolate right into the center of the batter.
6. Top it with the remaining batter, taking care that the chocolate doesn’t protrude out of the batter.
7. Microwave on HIGH for 1-2 minutes or till cooked.
8. Keep aside for a minute, unmould and serve plain or with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Fenugreek Peas Curry

This recipe is by Bhagshree

Ingredients

2 cups chopped fenugreek (methi)
4 cups chopped onions
4 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup tomato puree
2 tsp garlic (lehsun) paste
2 cups parboiled green peas
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 cup curds (dahi)
3 tbsp cream
2 tsp tomato sauce

For The Garnish
4 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)

Method
Boil the methi and onions together and grind into paste. Keep aside.
Heat the ghee in pan, add the tomato puree and garlic paste and cook for 5-7 minutes on a slow flame.
Add the methi-onion paste, green peas and little water and bring to boil.
Add the salt, sugar, chilli powder, garam masala and curds, mix well and cook for 2 minutes on a medium flame.
Add the cream and tomato sauce and simmer for 5-8 minutes.
Serve hot garnish with coriander.

Makai Palak

Another recipe of Methi Mutter Malai  from Veena's Kitchen


Ingredients:
Spinach/Palak ( 1 bowl)
Corn (1 cup, boiled)
Tomatoes (2, chopped)
Green chillies (2, split)
Onion (1 cup, chopped)
Milk (1 cup)
Coriander powder (1 tsp)
Cummin seeds (1/2 tsp)
Cumin seeds powder (1/2 tsp)
Red chilly powder( 1/2 tsp)
Asafoetida powder (1/3 tsp)
Salt as per taste


Method:
Heat oil(2 tbsp) in a heavy bottom pan, add green chillies and spinach, and cook.
Cool the spinach and make it a paste. Keep it aside.
Heat oil(2 tbsp) in the same pan, add onion and saute till golden brown.
Add tomatoes and cook it. Add coriander powder and cook till the aroma of coriander spreads.
Cool the mixture and make it a paste and keep it aside.
In the same pan, add oil (1 tbsp) and heat. Add cumin seeds, turmeric powder, asafoetida powder, red chilly powder, onion & tomato paste and saute well.
Add 1/2 cup water and bring it to boil. Add boiled corn into it and mix well and cook it for 1 min.
Add the spinach paste and mix again.
Add cumin seeds powder, salt and mix well. Add milk and shimmer the gravy for 10 minutes.

Corn Spinach

Ingredients

For the spinach paste (Makes ¾ cup approx.)

1 1/2 cups chopped spinach (palak)
3 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
3/4 tsp sugar
3/4 cup chopped corriander (dhania)
3 green chilies
37 1/2 mm. (1") piece of ginger (adrak)

Other ingredients

3/4 cup roughly chopped onions
3 tomatoes
1/3 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
3 tsp coriander-cumin seeds (dhania-jeera) powder
1/3 tsp garam masala
3/4 cup low fat milk
1 1/2 tbsp oil
salt to taste



Method
For the spinach paste

In a vessel mix spinach, kasuri methi, sugar and ¼ cup water and bring to a boil while cooking on a high flame. Remove from the fire and cool.
Grind the cooked spinach with the remaining ingredients to a paste. Keep aside.
How to proceed

Boil a vesselful of water and add the tomatoes to it.
Remove after a few minutes, peel and blend to a smooth purée. Keep aside.
Blend the onions to a smooth paste.
Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the onion paste and sauté till light brown in colour. Sprinkle a little water to avoid burning of the paste.
Add tomato purée and mix well. Add turmeric powder, coriander-cumin seed powder and garam masala and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or till the oil separates.
Add the corn, the prepared spinach paste and salt and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the milk, mix well and serve hot.

Methi Matar Malai

This recipe is courtesy Ms Annu

Ingredients

• 4 3/4 cups chopped fenugreek (methi)
• 7 tbsp oil
• 1 1/4 cups chopped onions
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lehsun) paste
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 3/4 cups green peas
• 2 tsp dried mango powder (amchur)
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon (dalchini) powder
• salt to taste
• 1 1/4 cups cream
• For The Garnish4 3/4 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)         

Method

Blanch the methi leaves in the boiling water and refresh with the cold running water. Strain the excess water and keep aside.
Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions and saute till they are translucent.
Add the methi leaves and ginger-garlic paste and sauté for 2 minutes on a medium flame.
Add the chilli powder, green peas, dry mango powder, cinnamon powder, salt and 1/4 cup water, mix well and cook for 5 minutes on a slow flame.
Add the cream, mix well and cook for 2 minutes on a medium flame.
Serve hot garnished with coriander.

Vegetable Cutlets

This recipe is by Ms Neeta Maheshwari from Khana Khazana.com

Ingredients

• 250 gms Boiled Potatoes 
• 2 Green Chilies 
• 1/2 cup Shelled Peas 
• 1 Carrot ( grated) 
• 2 tsp Fresh Pomegranate (shelled) 
• 1 Boiled Beetroot ( grated) 
• 1 tsp Coriander leaves (chopped) 
• 1 pinch Garam Masala Powder 
• 2 tsp Onion (finely chopped) 
• 1/4 tsp Red Chilly Powder 
• Oil for frying 
• 4 Bread Slices 
• Salt to taste 
• 1 tbsp Sooji 
• Chat Masala to taste

Directions

1. Peel and mash the potatoes along with the bread slices and keep aside. 
2. Grind the peas along with the ginger and green chillies. 
3. Mix ground peas , grated carrot & beet root , and shelled  Pomegranate, chopped onions with mashed potatoes. 
4. Add all masala such as salt, chaat powder, red chilli powder, garam masala in above mixture. 
5. Divide the mixture into equal parts and shape them into cutlets. 
6. Cover the cutlets with Suji powder. 
7. Deep fry in the heated oil in a pan./ kadahi. 
8. Serve with green chutney and tomato sauce.