Eggless Strawberry cake

I am a great fan of DK's space - Chef in You. All her reciepes that I have tried have come out so well. The step by step explanation makes it so easy. When she posted the eggless strawberry cake I tried it out immediately. It was so easy to make and the cake was so moist and fluffy. I did not change the recipe. So please check it out here.

Sending this to one of my favorite event Tried and Tested hosted by Priya and started by Delights of Cooking

Green Rice

This is an easy green rice that I stumbled upon when I was browsing Aayis blog. I think it is pretty ingenious use of spinach in a rice item. I typically cook this rice with just cilantro leaves and some mint. But the addition of Spinach makes this more healthy and also adds little bit more body to the sauce. Made some modifications to suit our taste.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup rice soaked for 30 minutes
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1 onion
- 1 cup mixed vegetable (I just used frozen peas and carrots)
- 4-5 green chilies
- small piece of ginger pealed
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1 tsp garam masala
- salt to taste

Seasoning:
- few cloves
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp jeera
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp oil

Method:
1. Grind spinach, cilantro, ginger, chilies, coconut to a fine paste. Do not add too much water.
2. Now in a huge vessel add oil and all the seasoning ingredients. Once they turn slightly brown add the onions and fry till it becomes soft. Add the ground paste. Fry till you see oil separate from the sides.
3. Add the vegetables and toss them around till the sauce coats all the vegetables. Now add the rice and salt. Give this a good mix.
4. Pour in two cups of water and let it all come to a boil. Reduce the heat and cover it. Cook it until the rice becomes fluffy. This takes around 20 minutes. Check in between to see if it has enough water. If not add some more. Serve it hot with raita or pappad.

An alternate method is to skip coconut and instead add coconut milk. So instead of two cups of water cook it in 1 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water. This makes a richer and creamier rice. Perfect for parties.

Ash Gourd/ White pumpkin kootu.

A few days ago I happened to find white pumpkin in my Asian market. This is a rare occourance in my small town. I got a piece and typically I make a kootu with lots of coconut and channa dhal. I wanted to try something slightly different with this one. I ended up making this gravy and it was a slight variation to my original recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1 small piece white pumpkin cut to bite size pieces
- small piece of tamarind (Soften it in the microwave)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar or jaggary

Fry till they become golden brown
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp jeera seeds
- 3-4 red chilies
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- 1 tsp rice (This thickens the gravy. You can substitute this with rice flour or atta)
- 1/2 cup frozen coconut (Add it after the above whole spices turn slightly brown)

Seasoning:
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- few curry leaves

Method:
1. In a heavy bottom vessel boil your pumpkin in water and salt.
2. Meanwhile grind all the ingredients which you had fried with tamarind to a fine paste. So it is enough if your tamarind is slightly softened.
3. Add this mixture to your boiled pumpkins. Mix in jaggary and cook till the pumpkins become soft and tender to touch.
4. In a seperate pan add oil and the ingredients for seasoning. Once they turn brown add it to the pumpkin.

Serve this with fluffy white rice.

Sending this to Book Marked Recipe hosted by Priya

Corn Soup

We were able to purchase some fresh corn from our store. So I ended up hunting for some fun recipes on the web to make use of the corn. One of the recipes that I really liked was corn soup by Munjulas Kitchen. The part that was great to me was that she did not use any cream in this recipe. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients:
- 3 corn (I used fresh corn)
- 1/2 cabbage shredded
- 2 carrots chopped finely
- 1 small tomato chopped - squeeze out any excess juice
- 1/2 a onion chopped
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1 tsp black pepper (adjust to taste)
- 1 tsp jeera
- 1 tsp oil
- salt to taste.

Method:
1. Remove the husk and steam the corn till they are soft. Use a knife to remove the kernels. Keep a handful aside. Blend the rest to a smooth paste.
2. In a hot pan add oil and jeera. Once the jeera splutters add onion and cook till it becomes slightly brown. Now add the carrots and cabbage and cook they are soft to touch.
3. Traditionally you will strain the corn and get the juice with none of the pulp. Instead of doing that I just added the blended corn to my carrot and cabbage mixture. This will taste more chunkier then your regular soup.
4. Mix your corn starch with 1/4 cup of water and add it to the soup. Add another 2 -3 cups of water, salt and pepper and bring this mixture to a boil.
5. After the soup has thickened to the consistency you prefer add the chopped tomatoes. Let it boil for a minute or two. Turn off the heat and serve this hot.

It makes a great lunch with just some breads to accompany it. Sending this recipe to Bookmark Tuesday and also to Dish Name that Starts With C hosted by Akila of Learning to cook.

Thatkola

This is a very new dish to me. I saw this in a cooking show. Even though it is a tedious process it is worth the effort. It is a tasty and healthy dish.

Ingredients
- 1 cup Boiled rice
- 1/4 cup Moong dhal
- 1/4 cup Shredded coconut
- Salt to taste

 To temper

- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- few curry leaves
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- Red chillie powder to taste
- 1 tbsp Oil

Method

1. Soak rice for 2 hours. Grind the rice with salt in a blender. It should be little thicker than dosa consistency and the mixture has to be coarse.
2. Boil moong dhal separately.
3. Add oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is hot add the batter. Mix it well until it comes together and it should not stick to the pan.This procedure is similar to the way you prepare kozhkattai outer cover.
3. Let it cool down for few minutes. Grease your hands with oil. Take a small lime size dough. Roll it into a cylindrical shape. Check the photo to see how I have rolled the dough.
4. Boil the rolled dough in a idli plate for approximately 10 minutes. The color will change once it has cooked. So check that and adjust the time.
5. Take the boiled dough out and once its cooled, cut it into small pieces.
6. Add oil to a frying pan. Add mustard seeds,cumin seeds. Once it splutters add the boiled dough. Mix it well and then add red chillie powder.
7. After 3-4 minutes add the boiled moong dhal, coconut, curry leaves and mix it well.
8. Turn off the stove.

You can serve this with sambar. We ate it without any side dish and it was very yummy.