Wishing you all

May the year 2008 be a prosperous and fulfilling year to everyone.

Ridge gourd peppercorn chutney / heerekai menusu chutney

This tasty spicy chutney is 100% my husband's creation. Just loved it. The minute I tasted this chutney, I wanted to share it with everyone and got it clicked. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Ridge gourd / Heerekai - long - 6

Oil for seasoning

Red chillies - 4

5 to 6 Peppercorns

Few curry leaves

Urud dal - 1 teaspoon

Asafoetida Powder

Turmeric Powder

Salt as required

Tamarind Concentrate - less than 1/4 teaspoon

(If not using concentrate, use a pinch of tamarind)

Method:

Peel the ridge gourd and chop into small pieces.

Heat oil in a kadai and add urud dal, red chillies, peppercorns, curry leaves and asafoetida powder.

Fry for a minute and add the chopped ridge gourd.

When the content is heated, add the turmeric powder and salt. Let it cook for some more time. Stir occasionally. Do not add water.

When the vegetable is cooked, turn off the heat and wait until it cools down.

Add tamarind and grind the content without adding water, and the chutney is ready. Serve with steaming white rice with a dash of ghee.

If you prefer not to have it too spicy, remove a couple of chillis before grinding.

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cookies

A big thanks to Sailu for sharing her wonderful eggless recipe of the tuity fruity cookies. I tried the cookies . Though mine were not as white as her's, it sure did come out very well. The slight yellow color might be because I used a yellow colored custard powder-vanilla flavor. She had used vanilla extract, but I used cardamom extract. I had to use drops of cold water in the end because the dough was little dry and I could not make balls. The recipe below is based on Sailu's Eggless Tutti-Frutti Cookies.

Ingredients:

2 cups Maida
1 cup Canola oil (refined oil)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup custard powder (I used vanilla flavor)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons Cardamom Extract

Tutti fruity for garnish

Method:

Mix together maida, baking powder, baking soda and custard powder and in a bowl and dry whisk them really well.

Blend the sugar and oil till smooth. Add the flour to the sugar-oil mixture. Add Cardamom extract and mix well to form a dough. If the dough doesn’t become stiff enough to roll out into balls, add a few tbsps of cold milk or water and chill for a few minutes.

Make small balls out the dough. Garnish with tutti fruity, by slightly pressing into the dough. Place on a greased tray and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 10 -12 mts or till done. Once baked, the cookie will feel soft on touch but once cool it will harden. If you over bake beyond the mentioned time limit, you will have a very crunchy cookie.

Cool on a wire rack and store in airtight container.

Click Here for the original recipe.

Thanks Sailu, for sharing this wonderful cookie recipe.

Eggless Butter Cookies

Its holiday season and lots of baking going on around the world. Getting into the mode of preparing cookies, I googled for eggless versions. Looking at the many versions, I noticed that one thing was common. Beating butter with sugar and mixing some flour, the standard way of preparing simple cookies. With this in mind, I came up with a simple recipe, with very few ingredients and named it 'eggless butter cookies'. This can be tried by anyone. There is nothing in the procedure that can go wrong. This is my entry to the 'Eat Chrismas Cookies', a food blogga's event for christmas cookies roundup.

Ingredients:

1 cup Butter (at room temperature)

1 cup Powdered sugar

1 teaspoon Cardamom Extract (just add your favorite extract)

2 cups of All purpose flour (I used maida)

1 teaspoon Baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking soda

Tutty fruity for decorating the cookies (optional)

Method:

Take the softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and whisk using an electirc hand mixer. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the Extract and whisk again.

Take the Flour in another bowl. Add the Baking powder and Baking soda and (dry) whisk well. Incorporate the Flour slowly in the cream while mixing at the same time, until well blended. The cookie dough is ready.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Now, make small balls and place it in an ungreased cookie sheet (use parchment paper) providing atleast 3/4th to 1 inch distance between the balls.

Decorating the cookie is up to you. I pressed each ball with the fork to dent lines. The second time, I tried pressing and placing Tutty fruity in the middle. Bake at 300 degrees for atleast approximately 20 minutes. The cookie is done when it turns lightly brown. Cool them and store in airtight containter. If the cookies are small, the yield is atleast a little more than a couple of dozens.

Instant Lemon Pickle

My friend gave me few lemons when I visited her a couple of weeks back. They were big sized yellow lemons that had a little hard skin. I never realized that they were very juicy until I turned one of them into my favorite pickle. The usual way for preparing lemon pickle is to mix salt to the cut lemons and keep in the sun for 15 days in the jar and shake it daily. I did not have the patience to wait for days (though I admit that it's taste is much more authentic). So, tried out some technique to prepare instant lemon pickle, that's tasty, hot and juicy. Here's how I prepared.

Ingredients:

1 Big sized lemon

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tablespoon

Salt as required

Asafoetida Powder

Roasted and ground fenugreek seeds (metha) less than 1/4 teaspoon

1 tablespoon Oil for seasoning

Mustard Seeds

Method:

Dice the lemon and pressure cook (without adding water) for just few minutes. Set aside (with all the oozed out juice) in a mixing bowl.

When it cools completely, mix in the Salt, Red chilli powder, Asafoetida powder and Fenugreek powder. Mix well.

Heat Oil and spatter the Mustard seeds. Pour this over the pickle and mix well. Instant lemon pickle is ready.

Serve with curd rice. Goes well with rotis or even bread. store in air tight glass container and refrigerate.

Toor Dal Adai

Toor Dal is one versatile lentil that we use in every day cooking, be it sambar, or rasam or even dal fry. In this (Toor Dal Adai) recipe, I have used Toor Dal to make crispy and filling Adai. Adai is a form of dosa and there are several versions of making adais using different lentils. Toor dal Adai is one delicious recipe that I want to share with you all. This is my entry to JFI event: Toor Dal hosted by my friend Linda of 'Out of the Garden'. Thanks Linda for hosting this event. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 3/4 cup

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Fresh Coconut (grated) - 1/2 cup

Green Chillies - 3 to 4

Asafoetida Powder

Curry Leaves

Salt to taste

Method:

Soak Toor Dal and Par Boiled Rice in water for 3 to 4 hours.

Grind the soaked Dal and Rice together. Add Coconut, Green Chillies, Asafoetida Powder and Chopped Curry leaves and Salt while grinding. Grind to a smooth dosa batter adding very very little water.

Use this batter to make nice and crispy thin Dosa or thick Adai. Serve with yogurt or any spicy chutney.

Note: The batter can be used instantly or used after fermenting.

This is my entry to Dosa Mela hosted by Srivalli of Cooking for all seasons.