Delicious Eggless Mango cake

I was thinking of preparing this since a long time. I really wanted to try out something special with mangoes.
My mom was at my home last week. She had got some mangoes from Goa. Also my hubby got mangoes from the local mega store. There were so many mangoes lying around. So finally I picked up 2 mangoes and went ahead with my experiments.

One thing that  I learnt while baking cake's was, to be very careful with baking powder. In the original recipe it was mentioned to add 2 tsp baking powder. I would advise my readers to use just 1 tsp baking powder. Or else the cake might taste bitter. Somewhere I read that cooking soda can be added instead of baking powder. But still I am not sure, so can't comment much on it.

Final verdict - the cake was delicious.My mom, my hubby and my baby loved it.

Recipe Source: ChefInYou
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 cup mango puree
1/4 cup cooking oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:
Take 2 mangoes and make 1 cup of smooth puree in a blender.
Sift the flour with salt and baking powder.
Add all the other ingredients and mix well till a batter of thick consistency if formed.
Pre-heat the microwave for 5 Min's at 180 C in convection mode.
In the meantime, grease the cake mould/baking tray and pour the batter in it.

Bake for 25 - 30 Min's at 180 C.
You know it's done when a tooth-pick / knife inserted at center comes out clean.
Garnish with powdered sugar.

Sending this to "Celebrate Sweets - Cakes" event organised by Nivedita and Sonia.

Linking this to Bake Fest started by Vardhini.

Chicken 65

My mom was at my home this weekend. She visited my place after an year. She has heard a lot about my cooking skills and my blog and finally she is convinced that her daughter cooks well. But still I have a lot to learn from my dear mom and I will continue learning all this over the phone calls that we have.

My mom never allowed me to cook. Even when she visited me she used to cook for me. I used to get pampered and ask her for whatever dishes I love.

This time I thought of something different. I told my mom to rest and I will take care of my kitchen. Though she did not give me 100% control, I did some things. She loved everything that I made and she said
"from the way you are cooking I can feel that you cook very well". I was on cloud 9 with this comment of her.

She was here for just 4 days and I wanted to cook everything for her. But I did not have so much time. Even on the weekend I had to do some office work due to which I could not spend much time with my mom. I have asked her to visit me again and to stay with me for at least 10 days. I hope she finds time and comes to Bangalore soon.

One of the dishes I made for my mom was Chicken 65. My mom liked my cooking style and off course the dish. This was my first attempt at Chicken 65. The taste was awesome. Check out the recipe below.


Ingredients:
10-15 boneless chicken pieces

For marinating the chicken:
1 green chilly
2 tablespoons coriander leaves
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1/2 lemon juice
1 tsp salt

For the dish:
10-15 fresh curry leaves
5-6 chopped garlic
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 tablespoon maida / all purpose flour
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp tandoori masala
A pinch of red edible food colour
1 finely chopped green chilly
Coriander leaves for garnishing
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

Procedure:
Wash the chicken pieces.
Grind the green chilly and coriander from the marinating ingredients.
Marinate the chicken pieces by applying turmeric powder,ginger-garlic paste and lemon juice.
Apply the green paste and salt. Set aside for 30 Min's to 1 hr for marination.
Preferably keep this in the fridge by covering with an aluminium foil.

Separately mix the corn flour,maida,chilly powder,cumin powder,pepper powder, food colour and tandoori masala. Add a pinch of salt to this. Make a thick paste and apply this to the chicken.

In a frying pan, add oil and deep fry the chicken for 5-10 Min's.
After all the chicken pieces are fried, switch off the gas and remove the excess oil from the pan.

Spread the fried chicken on a tissue paper.

In the same pan, add 1 tablespoon of the same oil in which chicken pieces were fried. Saute the curry leaves, chopped garlic and green chilly for a few seconds.
Add the fried chicken and saute for 1 minute.

Serve hot and enjoy.


This recipe goes to What's On Your Kebab Platter?, an event organised by Khushi of A Girl's Diary.

Dum Aloo

Since today is a Monday, I had to cook something veg. What to cook was another question.
I had some baby potatoes lying in my kitchen store. Was wondering what I could do with this.

My hubby dear likes unique dishes. And when I cook something, he expects the taste to be great. He secretly thanks "Raksha's Kitchen". And I love to cook for him and display it in my kitchen :)

Dum Aloo is a dish that I had learnt from my friend Ramya. She had invited us over to her place for lunch and we cooked this dish together ... me learning it from her. Since then I cook this dish, but very very occasionally. I modified Ramya's recipe a bit. But I owe my thanks to her as she is the brain behind this dish.

Ingredients:
15-20 baby potatoes
2 chopped onions
1 chopped tomato
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
5 pods garlic
1/2 inch ginger
1/2 green chilly
1 tspn turmeric powder
1 tspn chilly powder
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn cumin powder
Salt to taste

Procedure:
Pressure cook the baby potatoes with skin for 4 whistles. Add a pinch of salt to this.
In a pan, add 2 tablespoon and fry onions. Close the pan while frying.
When they turn pinkish, add tomato and fry till tomatoes become mushy.
To this add the garlic pods and 1/2 inch ginger.
Add turmeric powder and chilly powder.
Fry for 10 Min's.
After 10 Min's, switch off the gas and let this cool down.
Grind this to a thick paste after cooling.

Using a fork make holes into the baby potatoes.
In the same pan, add 2 tablespoon oil. Add the ginger-garlic paste.
Add the coriander and cumin powder and mix well.
To this add the baby potatoes and fry well.
After 5 mins, add the gravy and mix properly.
Add salt to taste.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Baked Baby Potatoes

Baked potatoes is something I wanted to try. This was a pure experiment, which was highly successful. I actually just wanted to see if I can bake potatoes. So I tried things like marinating them in a combination of simple spices and then baking them to perfection. This experiment was an easy one and did not require much efforts. Just that I had to adjust the baking time in the end to extra 10 Min's :) You might need to do this if you are doing an experiment for the fist time like this.

You can try to semi-boil the potatoes and then bake them. That also would be another experiment. You can also sprinkle some lemon juice before serving them. That would enhance the taste.

Be sure to prick holes in the baby potatoes before baking, else something disastrous might happen! ;) 

Ingredients:
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp amchur / dry mango powder
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
5-6 baby potatoes
1 tsp salt

Procedure:
Peel the baby potatoes and keep aside.
Mix all the powders.
To this add the ginger-garlic paste.
Mix everything, add 1 tsp water if required.

Using a fork make holes into the potatoes on all sides.
Apply the paste and marinate the potatoes for 30 Min's.

Using a brush, apply oil to the marinated potatoes.
Bake the potatoes for 35-40 Min's in convection mode at 180c.

Serve hot.

This goes to Whip up something new! Challenge by Gnoe and Joanna.

This recipe goes to What's On Your Kebab Platter?, an event organised by Khushi of A Girl's Diary.

Egg Burjee / Indian Style Scrambled Egg

This weekend was a very hectic one. We had to travel to Goa and return back to Bangalore. I could not enjoy much in Goa as an All Goa Bandh was declared on Monday the 6th June 2011.
But I enjoyed the rains and had a good time with my family.

We thought of returning back to Bangalore by bus as we could not get train tickets. Though, we travelled back by a Volvo bus, we were damn tired. I could neither sit properly nor could sleep properly. Just that I had to spend 12-13 hrs in the bus. For time pass in the bus, we saw the Bollywood movie - 3 Idiot's. This was the 2nd time I saw the movie and still I feel I should watch it again.

As soon as we reached Bangalore we rushed to office. Evening when we returned home, I could not even walk. I just slept off in the couch. My hubby had to attend a meeting till 10.00 PM. Soon after his meeting he woke me up and asked whether he should get something from the nearby hotel. I told him that we wouldn't get anything at this time and I really didn't want to eat Maggi !

He immediately suggested that I prepare his favorite Egg Burjee. Egg Burjee means scrambled egg. He helped me prepare chapatis and I cooked the Egg Burjee. We had a wonderful dinner at the end of the tiring day.

Ingredients:
3 Egg's
2 onion's
1 big tomato
5-6 garlic flakes
1 green chilly
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilly powder
coriander leaves for garnishing
salt to taste

Procedure:
Chop the onions and tomato fine.
Finely chop the garlic and green chilly.
Keep all these separate.

In a pan, fry onions on a medium flame in 2 tablespoon's oil.
Keep the pan covered.
After the onion's turn pinkish add tomato and stir well and cover the pan for 5 Min's.
Add the chopped garlic and chopped green chilly, stir well.
Now add turmeric powder and chilly powder and stir well.
add salt to taste. I normally add 1 tsp.
To this add the egg's and mix properly.
Let the egg's get a little thicker.You will notice that the egg's stick to the pan.
When this happens, still mix well till the egg's dry up completely.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with phulka's or chapati's.

Fruit Punch

Fruit punch is something I love. Whenever we go to any restaurants I always go through the menu card and order fruit punch first. This time I thought I should give it a try and tried it with just mango and strawberry crush.

When my hubby tasted this, he almost screamed with joy "fruit punch!!!". He once spent Rs. 1300/- for a glass of fruit punch at Marriott's in Goa. But I missed my brother when we had this home-made fruit punch. He also loves fruit punch. I promised him that I will make this for him when I visit his home in Goa.

I would like to tell you to try this fruit punch and enjoy the taste. Though this is done with only 2 types of fruit's, the taste was heavenly. You can also add orange and pineapple pieces.

Ingredients:
1 Mango
1/2 cup Strawberry crush
1 1/2 cup Milk
1 tablespoon sugar

Procedure:
Cut the mango into pieces.
Blend all the ingredients together.
Garnish with jelly and mango pieces.
Relish the taste.

Sending this to 'Only' - Coolers and Mocktails event organised by Nayna and Pari.