Bature

 

During our post-graduation days in Lucknow, we used to frequent “Mirchu’s shop” on the way to college to have chole bature for breakfast (and on some days ‘bun makhan’). Whenever I make bature at home, it is always compared to ‘Mirchu’s bature’. And I am glad that over the years I have gained expertise that my husband compliments ‘Your batures are better than Mirchu’s’.

Ingredients

4 cups of refined flour

¾ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

1 ½ tbsps sugar powder

1 ½ cups curd beaten

Water as needed

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Beat the curd with salt and powdered sugar.

-          Sieve the refined flour with baking soda.

-          Pour the curd into the refined flour and start kneading. Slowly add water if needed.

-          Take care the dough is stiff, it is going loosen as we keep it to ferment.

-          After kneading nicely, keep in a large enough vessel that will give space for the dough to rise, and cover it with a plastic wrap or wet cloth.

-          Leave it overnight for fermentation, it will become almost double.

-          Heat oil for frying. Divide the dough into 12 balls.

-          Press each ball with pressure between the palms and flatten them lightly

-          Roll each ball and deep fry.

-          Serve with chole, finely cut onions and lemon.

Delicious Banana Bakes

 

This is a quick and easy to make delicious accompaniment for evening tea.

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

1 tbsp baking powder

2 cups refined flour

A pinch of salt

Instruction

-          Mash bananas with a fork or spork until smooth.

-          Add the baking powder and mix well

-          Slowly add the refined flour and salt  blend in.  

       Gently knead over a floured surface.

 

-          Divide into six portions 

        Roll each portion gently between the palms to make balls. Keep over a baking paper.

-          Bake at 175 degrees for 20 minutes, turn them upside down and bake for another ten minutes until golden brown.

-          Cool over a wire rack and serve with tea.

Vanilla Cookies

 

These are easy to bake delicious cookies and kids love them.

Ingredients

3 cups refined flour for 35 cookies

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup solidified ghee (it should not be melted)

1 ½ cups sugar

1 Egg

 1 tsp vanilla essence

Instruction

-          Preheat oven to 190 degrees

-          Sieve refined flour, baking powder and baking soda

-          Beat sugar and ghee until smooth

-          Beat in egg and vanilla essence

-          Gradually add spoonfuls of flour mixture and blend well

-          Roll dough into gooseberry sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto oiled aluminium foil or ungreased  baking sheets.

-          Bake in the preheated oven for about ten minutes until the edges turn golden

-           Cool slightly, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

 

 

Sago (Sabudana) Idli

 

On this year Onam (15-9-2024) I welcomed Mahabali with a new breakfast item, so soft and with a nice mild aroma. There is no grinding involved here, as we do for normal idlis.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups idli rava/ rice rava for 12 idlis

¾ cup sago

2 cups curd

1 ½ cups water

Salt to taste

¼ tsp baking soda

Instruction

-          Take the idli rava and sago in a vessel and wash in water once. Beat the curd and mix in with this.

-          Slowly add the water to make a thick batter, cover and leave for fermentation overnight, or for 6- 8 hours

-          Just before steaming, add the salt and baking soda, add some more water if needed to get the correct consistency of idli batter. Mix gently.

-          Grease the idli mould and add the batter. Steam for 12 minutes.

-          Allow it to cool a little before removing for the mould.

-          Serve with sambar/chutney.

-          I had some left over batter, which I made into appe/phad on the next day for evening tea, after adding cut onions and green chilli. They tasted awesome!

Bread Butter Jam Pudding

A British lady came from South Africa to learn Reiki from me and stayed with us for ten days. Apart from Reiki training, we used to have fun too, cooking meals together was part of that. This is a dish that she made for us, I just love it! We became friends, and are still in touch after so many years.

Ingredients

6 slices of bread

Butter to apply on one side of the bread slices

Jam to apply on one side of the bread slices

1 ½ cups of milk

2 eggs

2 tbsps sugar

¾ tsp vanilla essence

Instruction

-          Pre heat oven to 180degrees

-          Apply butter on one side of all bread slices

-          Now apply jam over the buttered surface.

-          Grease a baking dish and arrange the bread slices, surface with butter and jam facing up.

-          Beat the eggs till fluffy, add the milk, sugar, and vanilla essence and beat again.

-          Pour it over the arranged bread slices and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees. 

Caramelized Jackfruit Cake

Jackfruit season is the time I want to do something new with this amazing fruit. Last year I made Panache Dhonas, this year I tried caramelized jackfruit cake. Sent some of it to a friend, who is a great cook herself, and she said, “It was so delicious. I give you 200 % marks.” Coming from her, it was a great complement to me. Here is the recipe, in case you want to make it and enjoy! I was having many things to do on the day I baked it, so couldn’t take too many photographs. You can watch the steps from this video for the caramelizing part, I adopted the core recipe from HERE. 

Ingredients

½ cup sugar to make the caramel syrup

¼ cup water to make the caramel syrup

½ cup sugar

1 cup wheat flour

2 tbsps semolina (this is optional, you can replace it with wheat flour)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

2 eggs

½ cup oil

¾ tsp vanilla essence

1/3 tsp dried ginger powder(this I add to every jackfruit preparation as it doesn’t cause any stomach upset in prone people)

10  deseeded bulbs of jackfruit

1 tbsp cashews

1 tbsp raisins

Instruction

-          Keep ½ cup sugar in a thick bottomed pan on low/medium flame and let it liquefy, stirring in between. When it is totally liquefied, slowly and carefully add the ¼ cup water (be careful, it will splatter). Make the flame low and keep stirring till the caramelized portion dissolves completely. Keep aside for it to cool. Caramelized sugar gives a wonderful color to the cake.

-          Grind the jackfruit pulps into a paste

-          Sieve together the wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the dried ginger powder and semolina. 

-          Beat the eggs, add vanilla essence, sugar and the oil in sequence, mix well.

-          Mix in the caramelized syrup, jackfruit pulp, and finally add the flour in spoonfuls, mixing in thoroughly.

-          Mix a little dry flour with cashews and raisins, fold this in gently into the batter.

-          Grease a baking vessel, pour in the batter. 

-          Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

-          Cool and cut into pieces.

 

-           

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Banana Coconut Cake

Two ripe bananas were eyeing me from the dining table. I moved to the kitchen and the grated dried coconut (copra filings) looked at me longingly. Yes, I got the message – time to bring them together in a cake. So that’s what I did. And it turned out to be such a delicious one, with the divine aroma of nutmeg and cardamom! The lightness it was imparting, was it because of the added butter milk? No idea.

Ingredients

-       ½ cup wheat flour

-       ¾  cup refined flour (maida)

-        ½  tablespoon baking soda

-       A pinch of salt

-       ¼  tsp nutmeg powder

-       ¼ tsp cardamom powder

-       ¾ cup  sugar

-       ¼ cup ghee

-       1 egg

-       2 ripe bananas, mashed

-       ¼ cup grated dry coconut (you can omit this item too)

-       ½ cup buttermilk

Instruction

-Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease and flour the baking dish, or just line with baking paper, which I do.

- Sieve the flours, baking soda, and salt together, add the nutmeg and cardamom powder and keep aside.

- Mix together sugar and ghee in a large bowl till it becomes fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.

- Mix in mashed bananas and grated coconut.

- Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, mixing well after each addition.

- Pour batter into the prepared dish.

- Bake in the preheated oven until cake springs back when gently pressed, or a tooth pick inserted deep comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack or towel. Slice when cool and serve with tea/coffee. Be ready to get complements J

Jackfruit Cake (Panache Dhonas)

I am always on the lookout for ripe jackfruit preparations and this year I came across jackfruit cake or Panache dhonas, which is a traditional dish of Goa. I got the recipe from the net  and baked it. It was so delicious, my husband went gaga over it!

 

Ingredients:

2 cups deseeded jackfruit bulbs made into pulp

1 cup semolina

1 cup grated coconut

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup jaggery

½ tsp dried ginger powder

½  tsp cardamon powder

10 chopped cashewnuts

10 raisins

1 ½ tbsps melted ghee

Procedure:

 

-           Roast the semolina till it is light brown or it gives out a nice aroma. Keep aside and let it cool for about 20 minutes.

-          Remove the jackfruit seeds and grind the bulbs.

-           Mix all the other ingredients and put them into an oiled flat baking dish.

-          Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees. If a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, it is done.

-        Let it cool bit, then invert onto a plate. Heat the ghee and pour over it. Cut into pieces and serve. 

Carrot Cake

This is my family’s favourite cake and to whomever I have served this, theirs too.

Ingredients

 2 cups refined flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups sugar

1 ½ cups oil

2 cups grated carrot

4 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla essence

Cashews and kismis mixed with a little dry refined flour

Instruction

-          Sieve the refined flour and baking powder together and keep aside.

-          Take oil and sugar in a deep pan and beat them together for about 5 minutes.

-          Add eggs one by one and beat and mix it in well.

-          Gradually mix in grated carrot, two tablespoons at a time.

-          Now mix in the flour, baking powder mix, adding two tablespoons at a time.

-          Stir in the vanilla essence, and fold in the cashews kismis refined flour mix.

-          Take a baking vessel (keep in mind the cake will rise double its initial height during baking), oil it or line with baking paper and pour in the cake batter.

-          Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. A tooth pick inserted deep into the center of the cake should come out clean to confirm it is fully baked.

-          Let it cool completely before cutting into pieces. On the second day it becomes moist and tastes better. 

Rusk

My husband loves to have rusk with his morning tea sometimes. I wanted to bake rusk at home and did it. It had eggs as ingredient and he complained of slight smell of egg. I tried a second time without egg, but it also didn’t come up to his expectations. This was my third attempt and he was totally satisfied with the outcome.

Ingredients

2 cups refined flour (maida)

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

½ cup ghee

½ cup powdered sugar

1 cup condensed milk

1 cup milk

Instruction

·         Sieve the maida, baking powder and baking soda twice and keep aside.

·         Melt the ghee, add the powdered sugar and beat well.

·         Pour in the condensed milk and beat it again.

·         Add 1 tbsp of maida and mix well. Add a little of milk and beat again. Keep repeating this till all ingredients are mixed in.

·         Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

·         Take a rectangular baking box, grease and sprinkle dry maida in it. Pour the batter into it and bake for 25 minutes.

·         Reduce the temperature to 160 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes. Insert a tooth pick into the center and the cake is done if it comes out clean. Otherwise bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.

·          Take it out and allow it to cool. Make slices and put inside the oven and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes (no preheating now).

Sweet potato buns

Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant known to give orange vegetables and fruits their vibrant color, which is converted to vitamin A in the body. Consuming foods rich in beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer, offer protection against asthma and heart disease and delay aging and body degeneration.

Increasing consumption of plant foods like sweet potatoes decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and overall mortality while promoting a healthy complexion, increased energy, and overall lower weight.

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes - 1 cup (cooked, peeled and mashed)

Refined flour     - 3 ½ cups

Warm water     - ½ cup

Dry Yeast         - 1 level tsp

Egg      -1

Ghee    - 3 tbsps

Honey  - 3 tsps

Salt      - 1 tsp

Sesame seeds   - 1 ½ tbsps

Method:

-         Take ½ cup refined flour in a large bowl.

-         Mix the yeast in ½ cup lukewarm water and pour over the refined flour. Gently stir, cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.

-         Add 1 cup of the cooled mashed sweet potato into the yeast mix.

-         Add the egg, ghee, honey, salt and three cups of flour.

-         Knead into soft dough. If it turns out too sticky, add a little more flour and knead, so that the dough pulls away from the sides.

-         Shape into a smooth ball, put it into the bowl and drizzle with oil. Rub the oil nicely all over the surface.

-         Cover the bowl with cling film and keep in a warm area till it doubles( 2 hours)

-         Turn the dough on a flat surface sprinkled with some dry flour, press it down into a square about ¾ inch thick.

-         Cut into 16 equal squares (for small sized buns). Shape each piece into a ball, gently flatten and place them over an oiled aluminum foil. Cover with a wet cloth and let it double in size(45 minutes)

-         Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

-         Whisk one egg and 1 tsp water, brush the balls and put sesame seeds over them (On the buns seen here, I just applied water and stuck sesame seeds.)

-         Bake for about 15 minutes, till they brown.

Scones

A scone is a single-serving cake or quick bread. They are usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and are baked on sheet pans. They are often lightly sweetened and are occasionally glazed.

They are a part of the English high tea.

‎ Ingredients:

Wheat flour or maida   - 250 gm (for 12 scones)

Baking powder - 1½ tsps

Salt a pinch, but not needed if you are using salted butter

Butter   - 20 gm, cut into small pieces

Powdered sugar (optional)        - 2 tsps

Milk     - 75 ml

Water   - 50 ml

Extra milk for brushing

Method:

-         Preheat the oven to 220 degrees

-         Sieve the flour with baking powder

-         Rub the butter into the flour

-         Blend in milk and water and lightly knead

-         Spread it out to 2 cm thickness

-         Cut into small rounds

-         Arrange them on a lightly greased tray and brush their tops with the extra milk

-         Bake at 220 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Scones need to be baked at a very high temperature - the hottest part of your oven will give the best results.

-         To test whether they are done, tap the center of scones firmly with fingertips, they should sound hollow and look evenly browned.

-         Turn the scones onto a wire rack to cool. They remain crispy like this

-          If you want scones to be soft, wrap them immediately in a clean towel.

-         Serve them with jam and cream.