July 24, 2012

Tomato-Carrot Chutney

I first had this chutney at one of my cousin sister's dinner. It was so yummy that i could not resist myself from not making it. This chutney goes very well with Dosa, Idli, Pessarettu or any other snack items and can be used as a good substitute for Ketchup. So the recipe is:

Tomato-Carrot Chutney


Yield: 1 small bowl

Ingredients:
2 ripe Tomatoes (if the tomatoes are very small you can make it 3)
7-8 baby carrots or 1 medium sized carrot
1.5 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of Asafoetida( Hing)
2-3 fresh curry leaves
2-3 whole red chillies
1/4th tsp turmeric powder (optional- can use if you want the color to be slightly yellowish)
Salt as per taste

.      =n bbbb
1) Puree tomatoes and carrot in a blender.
2) Heat a small pan and add oil to it. As the oil becomes hot, add mustard seeds to it. Once the mustard seeds starts cracking, add asafoetida,, curry leaves and whole red chillies.
3) When the curry leaves and red chillies starts changing the color, add the tomato-carrot puree. Add  turmeric powder and salt.
4) Stir and keep it on the low-medium flame for 15-20 minutes until the puree takes the consistency of a chutney.
5) Remove the pan from the stove and transfer the chutney to a bowl and relish.


July 23, 2012

Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake

Today i tried making Blueberry Coffee cake. I love baking cakes as much as i love eating them :-). So, whenever i get into a mood for baking i just go for it. I had a box of fresh blueberries lying in my refrigerator which i bought from the farmers market on Saturday. So i wanted to make something fesh, tasty and sweet. And to my surprise, it came out just AWESOME! Here's the recipe for it:

Eggless Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:
DRY
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Maida (All-purpose Flour)
3/4 tspn Baking Powder
1/4 tspn Baking Soda
1/8 tspn Salt
1/2 cup Sugar

WET
1/2 cup Whole milk
1/2 tblspn White Vinegar
1/4 cup Yoghurt
2 tblspn Melted Butter
1 tspn Vanilla Extract
1 cup fresh Blueberries
Cinnamon Powder to sprinkle on the top

The steps to make this delicious cake are:
Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 6" or an 8" baking pan with oil or butter.
a) Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep it aside.
b) In a different bowl mix milk, vinegar, yoghurt and the melted butter.
c) Once mixed properly, add all the dry ingredients slowly and blend well.
e) Add the vanilla extract and mix again. Then slowly fold in the blueberries to the batter. Do not over-mix.
f) Tranfer the batter to the greased pan and sprinkle cinnamon powder on top of the batter.
g) Trensfer it to the preheated oven and bake it for 25-30 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
h) Cool the pan and tranfer the cake to a wire rack and let it cool completely. Cut it into pieces and enjoy.

NOTES:
  • You can easily substitue the flour with whole wheat pastry flour if you like the rustic flavour. I love cooking and eating healthy so at time i have tried the whole cake with WW Pastry flour too. 
  • You can use frozen blueberries as well, but make sure that you dont over mix blueberries as the color will start bleeding.
  • You can easily substitute White vinegar with Apple cider vinegar.
  • You can even top it with almonds as it goes very well with blueberries.