Eggless Cup Cakes to celebrate July 4th

I saw these cupcakes few months back on this blog 'Evolving Tastes'. She has an amazing blog and all her dishes are awesome. I have made these cup cakes several times since then, sometimes using mini muffin cups and sometimes the regular ones. These cup cakes literally take 10 min to assemble and don't really require a mixer or any additional gadget. My 8yr old daughter assembes them with the help of my 3 yr old son and I just put into the mould and put in the oven and bake. Both my kids absolutely adore these cakes and I made them for both their birthday parties this year.

So enjoy the July 4th weekend with these yummy cakes... The recipe is noted here with slight modifications from the original. I skipped the coffee and substituted vegetable oil with butter (I feel it is ok to indulge and use butter with cakes and cookies, but use vegetable oil if you want. It tastes good with vegetable oil...)

Ingredients
Makes 6

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tea spoon baking powder
a big pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk, or a little more if needed
1/4 cup butter (I substituted butter for vegetable oil from the original recipe)
1/2 tea spoon vanilla extract (you can skip this if you don't have it)


How To

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa power, sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, mix together milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined well.
Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4th full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven to cool completely, before digging in...
And if you can't wait, eat it while it is still warm... I love mine hot from the oven. How do you like yours ?

Bean bhaja with rice flour sprinkles

Beans fry with rice flour (chaula bata) is cooked and served often as a side dish in Orissa. It goes well with rice and dalma or even as a side dish with rotis... Back home, a paste of rice and garlic and chillies is made on sila pua (heavy stone used for hand grinding) and added to the beans - the taste is heavenly... Here is my easy short cut version of it...

While this dish is nothing really to write about, I like its simplicity and its flavors. Its healthy, yummy and easy to make and hence worth blogging about. What do you say ?


Ingredients


1 cup of Beans cut into long pieces
2 table spoon rice flour
1 tea spoon garlic powder (you can use mince 2-3 garlic cloves instead too)
1-2 green chillies (optional)
1/4 tea spoon red chili powder
1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
1/2 tea spoon whole cumin
2-3 table spoon oil
Salt to taste

How to


Put oil in a pan and let it get smoking hot. Add the green chilies (if you are using it) and the whole cumin.
Once the cumin sputters, add the beans and salt and turmeric powder and chili powder.
Let it cook for 4-5 min. After the bean is 1/2 done, sprinkle the rice flour and keep stirring. Add 1/2 table spoon of oil if you feel the rice is forming into big balls...
Sprinkle the garlic powder and remove from heat...

Serve hot or warm... The smell of garlic with rice flour is amazing...

Chicken roll

Chicken roll is a favorite snack of Oriyas. Oriyas love to eat non veg - or should I say love food ? When I was in school, once a year, mom would send either chicken roll or mutton roll to school for lunch. That day I would ask her to make 10 of them, so that I could share it with at least 9 other friends! In India, you have to ask the butcher to make the kheema and make sure he gives you the best pieces of the meat. Of course if it is busy day, the butcher refuses to give you kheema... It used to be an ordeal to get this done and was a yearly speciality!

Over here, I make this for Friday night dinners, since it is so easy to make and the kids love it too. Last week, my daughter asked for it be packed for school lunch too! Dejavu!

This goes to Vicky's invite to post for the potluck chicken event ! This is a perfect potluck appetizer. Make the chicken ready from before. Chop the onions, chillies and coriander and keep aside. Warm the tortillas and let everyone assemble it as per their taste!

Ingredients
1 pound of minced chicken
1/2 cup vinegar for marinate
1 table spoon ginger-garlic pase
1/2 tea spoon of coriander powder
1/2 tea spoon of chili powder
1 tea spoon of garam masala
1/2 tea spoon of turmeric powder
2 large onions chopped
Mint or coriander leaves for garnish
Salt to taste
2-3 Table spoon Oil for cooking chicken

Tortillas or maida parathas

How To
Marinate the minced chicken in vinegar, salt, turmeric, chili powder, coriander powder and garam masala overnight. (if you can't, marinate for 1 hr).
Put the pan and add the oil.
Add 3/4th of the cut onions and fry until it turns golden brown. Add the marinated chicken and keep stirring for 10-15 minutes, until the water from the chicken evaporates.
Add an additional salt and garam masala and take it off the oven.

Make maida parathas or normal wheat parathas if you want. If you are serving in a potluck, use warm tortillas.

Put the chicken on the paratha, add chopped fresh onions, mint leaves (substitute with coriander leaves if you don't have mint) and green chillies (if you like it spicy). Roll and eat fresh!

Easy to make and kid friendly!

Amba Panna with a twist

Before you dismiss this as yet another amba panna, this comes with a story. I was meeting my friend B after 10 years and Mom and I started talking about our days together in Delhi. She used to be my college mate who also happened to live close by to our house and used come over for my Mom's company and good food over the weekend. One day she had a near heat stroke and was sick for a few days. My Mom took care of her and used to make her drink this and glucose water and other water based drinks to keep her hydrated and nurse her back to health. When Mom mentioned this drink and this story before she came I thought of making it again. Most of the work on this was done by my Mom. I served it chilled and enjoyed it too!

And this bubbly drink goes over to Srivalli who is celebrating mangoes in a big way with a Mango Mela.

Ingredients

1 large unripe mangoes
4 table spoon of sugar (add more if you want it sweet)
1 tea spoon black salt or kala namak.
1 tea spoon cumin seeds, dry-roasted
1 tea spoon of black pepper, dry-roasted
Soda

How To

Cook mangoes in a pressure cooker until 1 whistle.
Allow the pressure cooker to cool.
Take the cooled mangoes out of water and peel the skins off and collect the pulp and juice in a bowl
Place this pulp, with salt and sugar, in a blender and puree.
Fill in bottles and put in refrigerator for few hours so that it is nicely chilled.
Dry roast the cumin seeds and black pepper for 2 minutes on a pan and then coarsely grind.
To serve, add 1/2 cup pulp and 1/2 cup soda, add the coarse ground cumin seeds and black pepper and serve immediately before the soda fizzles out.

The Twist in this drink was the soda. Once you add the soda, the taste changes completely. The original version done at home or in Delhi didnt have any soda of course. In fact my Mom didn't like it with the soda at all, while my friend and her husband loved it.

So add soda only if you like the taste of soda... By the time I took the photos, I had run out of soda, so the pictures don't show the soda, else it looks cool too... Enjoy the amba panna and the summer....

Happy Raja with Poda Pitha

Raja is a 3 day celebration in Orissa that starts on the first day of 'Asara' month. It welcomes the rains to Orissa and usually marks the start of the agriculture season. It is a special occasion for young girls. Girls get to wear new dresses and are usually not allowed to do any house work at home. It is the festival for girls to play on the swings and enjoy good food and spend time with friends and family. The usual high-light of this festival is 'Poda Pitha', which basically means baked cake. In the days before ovens in Oriya households, moms would put the pitha in earthen vessel on top of the dying wooden embers in the night and the dish would be baked nicely by the next day morning. This poda pitha is usually served with chicken curry or mansa tarkari.

I made 2 kinds of poda pitha and will share it here with you. Both are really easy to make. The sweet one is more common.

Savoury Poda Pitha

Ingredients
1 cup of Urad Dal
1 cup of Rice

1/4 cup of cabbage cut into thin slices
1 small onion sliced into thin slices
1 small tomato cut into small pieces
a bunch of coriander leaves
Salt to taste
4-5 tablespoon of oil

How to

Soak and grind the urad dal and rice for few hours. Grind the urad dal and rice coarsely and leave aside for few hours or overnight. (If you do not have enough time for it to ferment, add 1/2 tea spoon of baking powder and leave aside for an hour).
Add the chopped vegetables and salt and mix well.
Take a baking tray, line with aluminium foil. Spray oil on the foil generously, including the sides.
Bake in a preheated over for 1 hour at 350 F.
After 1 hour, peak into the oven and you should see the sides nicely browned. If not bake for another 15-20 more minutes.
Take the cake out of the oven, flip it over and cook again for 1 hour on the other side.
Once done, both sides should look nice and golden....

Serve warm with Chicken curry. The pitha is crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside.



Sweet Poda Pitha

Ingredients


1/2 cup of Urad Dal
1/2 cup of Rice
1/2 cup of fresh home made paneer
1/2 cup of fresh shredded coconut
4 table spoon of sugar (this is not as sweet as a typical sweet dish)
handful of raisins
2 tablespoon of ghee
1 freshly ground cardamom


How to

Soak and grind the urad dal and rice for few hours. Grind the urad dal and rice coarsely and leave aside for few hours or overnight. (If you do not have enough time for it to ferment, add 1/2 tea spoon of baking powder and leave aside for an hour).
Mix the paneer, coconut, sugar and ghee well.
Add the raisins and ground cardamom powder and mix again.

Take a baking tray, line with aluminium foil. Spray oil on the foil generously, including the sides.
Bake in a preheated over for 45 minutes at 350 F.
After 45 minutes, peak into the oven and you should see the sides nicely browned. If not bake for another 15-20 more minutes.
Take the cake out of the oven, flip it over and cook again for 1/2 hour on the other side.
Once done, both sides should look nice and golden....

I had my sweet poda pitha as breakfast today with some grapes. Hope you will try this sweet dish and enjoy the monsoons....

Tomato Khatta (with Khajur)

Tomato Khatta is a favorite temple side dish from Orissa. On festival days and in temple prasads, it is a consistent side dish. It has a nice balance of sweetness and sourness to it. Its a quick and easy dish and goes very well with Dalma - another staple of Oriya cooking.

The 1st time I made Tomato Khatta for my Oriya potluck party, it was big disaster. But one of the experts in our group (S bhauja), gave me some tips and since then it turns out really good. I follow her steps to the T (ok - not exactly since I don't add the coconut). Once you add coconut, the dish looks very colorful too....


Ingredients

4 large tomato cut into small pieces
10 -12 seedless dates
handful of raisins (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
handful of curry leaves
1/2 inch ginger thinly sliced
2 green chilies
1 tablespoon of panch phutana
1 table spoon Jeera and fried Methi powder
handful of Fresh coconut (optional)
1 table spoon of oil
salt to taste

How to

Heat oil in a pan. Add panch phutana.
When they start to crack add ginger, curry leaves and green chilies.
Add chopped tomatoes, dates and salt. Saute for few minutes until water from the tomatoes dries up.
Add sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens in consistency. Finally add raisins and jeera and methi powder.
Add fresh coconut and remove from fire. (I didn't add it)

This tastes better the next day.

Chuda bhaja

During summer, we used to have morning school. We used to have school start at 7 AM and I used to live 45 min away. There was no way I could finish breakfast and be ready by 6:15 AM. So my Mom used to make a big packet (like the attached picture) of Chuda Bhaja and send me off on the rickshaw . I used to happily chat and chomp on it until I reached school and shared the rest with friends! Those were the days!

Since my Mom is here with me these days, I get treated to Chuda Bhaja, my favorite breakfast, on Sundays.

This goes to to "Show me your breakfast" Event by Divya of Dil se and this also goes to "EFM Theme - Breakfast Series" @ Srish Kitchen.

Ingredients
Chuda – 1 cup
handful of peanuts
1 small potato chopped into small pieces
1 small Onion chopped into small pieces
2-3 green chili chopped into small pieces
few curry leaves
1 inch ginger chopped into small pieces

2 table spoon of Oil

Salt to taste

How To

Heat a pan and fry the chuda without oil for a few minutes. Add salt to the chuda.
Take the chuda out of the pan and keep aside.
In the same pan dry roast the peanuts until they are cooked (about 5-7 min on low fire). Take out the peanuts and keep aside.
In the pan, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add green chili and curry leaves and fry for a minute
Add the potatoes and fry for few minutes.
Add the onions and fry till transparent. Add the cut ginger and roasted peanuts.
Add the fried chuda and mix everything well.
Serve hot.

Tip
This chuda bhaja has to be eaten within an hr or so , else it gets soggy. If you want to keep for a longer time like a week or so, skip the potatoes and onions. It still tastes great!

It tastes good with thin Chuda (or Poha) .