Our Own Kitchen

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour - 175 gm
• Brown sugar or cane sugar - 175 gm
• Sunflower oil - 170 ml
• Grated Carrot - 175 gm
• eggs - 2
• Baking powder - 3.5 gm
• Cinnamon powder - 2.5 gm
• Tutti frutti - 30gm
• Ginger paste - 2.5 gm
• Baking soda - 2.5 gm
• Vanilla essence - 2.5 ml

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease the baking pan.
• In a large pan, take the oil, sugar and egg, beat it nicely with electric beater. Add vanilla essence and beat once. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon powder. Slowly fold flour mixture to the egg mixture. Finally add carrots and tutti frutti, fold it nicely.
• Pour the cake mixture in the cake tin and bake it for 35 minutes. Use a tooth pick to check when it is done. The cake slightly bounces when you touch in the middle which shows it is well baked.
• Let the cake cool, slice it and enjoy this tasty, spongy and healthy cake. 

Ingredients:

• Button mushroom - 200 gm (12 pieces)
• Big onion - 1(chop it lengthwise)
• Gram flour - 3/4 cup
• Asafoetida/hing - pinch
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Chopped ginger and garlic - 1 tsp
• Chopped coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
• Curry leaves - little, i used curry leaves powder.
• Salt
• Oil for frying

Method:

• Clean all mushrooms and remove the stem.
• In a large bowl, add onion pieces, gram flour, hing, chilli powder, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, curry leaves powder, garam masala, and salt. Mix it nicely. Add water little-by little, the consistency should be thick, i added 1/2 cup of water.
• Heat oil in a wide pan, coat mushroom with the gram flour batter and fry it golden brown.
• Serve it hot.

Note:
We are not stirring in mushroom in the onion-gram flour batter cause mushrooms break easily.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour/ Maida - 1 cup
• Butter - 80 gm (room temperature)
• Natural cane sugar/nattu sakkarai - 1/2 cup or 80 gm
• (if you don't have this sugar, try brown sugar or refined sugar)
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Salt - pinch
• Mixed nuts(cashew, almond, walnut) - 1/2 cup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
• Cream sugar and butter with electric mixer,beat in vanilla and salt.
• Reduce the speed of mixer and gradually add flour, blend it nicely.
• Finally fold in nuts.
• Roll the balls from the dough and flatten it. Place it in the baking plate, one inches apart.
• Bake cookies until it turn light brown, it took 20 minutes in my oven. 
• Transfer it to the rack, cool it and store it.
• These cookies are very crisp and tasty. 

Ingredients:
For making pakodas

• Besan/Gram flour - 1 cup
• Onion - 1 (big)
• Green chilli - 2
• Salt - as required
• Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
• Hing - little
• Water - 1/4 cup or as required

For kadhi

• Besan/ Gram flour - 2 tbsp 
• Curd - 1.5 cup
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - as required
• Onion - 1
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli - 2
• Chopped ginger - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - little
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Pakoda:

• Mix all ingredients given under pakodas except water. Start adding water little-by-little to get the right consistency. The pakoda batter should not be thick as well as watery. 

• Heat oil in a wide pan, drop small balls of batter and fry it golden brown.
• Keep this aside.

Kadhi

• In a pan, mix besan, curd, chilli powder, coriander powder, salt, garam masala and turmeric powder. 

• Beat it nicely, keep this aside.
• Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, slit green chillies, chopped onion, ginger and curry leaves (i used powdered curry leaves).

• Saute this for a minute, then add the curd-besan mix and 1/2 cup water, let it boil for 4 to 5 minutes. When it start thickening, add pakodas and boil kadhi for a minute. Finally garnish with coriander leaves.
• Leave this pakoda kadhi for 10 minutes before serving for nice taste.
• Kadhi taste wonderful with rice.

Ingredients:

• Beetroot (medium size) - 1
• Rava/sooji - 1/2 cup
• Sugar -10 tsp
• Cardamon powder - little
• Cashew - 15
• Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method:

• Grate beetroot and beat it in the juicer with 3/4 cup of water, strain the juice and keep it aside.
• Heat ghee in a pan, when it is hot, roast cashews light brown. Keep cashews aside. 
• In the same pan, slightly roast rava until nice aroma comes out, add 1/4 cup of water and sugar, after a minute add strained juice, stir it continuously. When it start thickening add cardamon powder and  cashews.
• Beetroot kesari is ready. Serve it hot or cold. 

This is a no-bake easy-to-do biscuit cake. My kids love this cake.
Ingredients:

• Marie biscuits - 200 gm
• Butter - 100 gm
• Sugar - 2 tbsp
• Hershey syrup - 45 ml
• Egg - 1

Method:

• Grease a cake pan with melted butter. Take biscuits in a plastic cover and pound it with a rolling pin, break it into small pieces. Take the biscuit pieces in a large pan.

• Heat a pan, add butter, sugar and half of Hershey syrup, continue stirring until butter melts and sugar dissolves, this takes around 5 minutes.

Butter+syrup+sugar before melting

after melting

• Cream egg and other half of Hershey syrup with electric beater, add the butter mixture to the egg mixture and beat it for a minute until everything blends well and form a thick syrup.

creamed egg+syrup

egg mixture + butter mixture = Final syrup

• Pour this syrup over the broken biscuits, mix it nicely so that the syrup coats all the pieces, pour this coated-biscuit in the greased cake pan. Use a spatula and press biscuits nicely so that it is tightly packed. 

• Refrigerate the biscuit cake for 2 hours, cut and serve. 

Note:
If you don't have Hershey syrup, use cocoa powder of about 35 gm.

This is an easy four ingredient snack for kids.
Ingredients:

• Cheddar cheese - 200 gm
• Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup
• All purpose flour - 220 gm
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°c, cream butter and cheese in a electric mixer.
• Mix flour and salt, add little by little flour mixture to butter and cheese, continue beating until the dough becomes soft and pliable.
• Wrap this dough in plastic sheet and refrigerate it for an hour.
• Flatten the refrigerated dough, cut it with pizza cutter into small pieces, use fork and make small holes in each cut piece.

• In a cookie sheet ( i used aluminium foil) line all the pieces and bake it for 10 minutes.
• Store this in an airtight container. (If any crackers left :) )
• In addition to the above ingredients, you can add any spices of your choice like chilli flakes.

Note:
To add degree sign in your blog post, press NumLock, holding Alt, type 0176. Yeah i know, this has nothing to do with this recipe, but definitely useful.

Ingredients:

• Drumstick - 2
• Channa dal - 1/2 cup
• Moong dal - 1/2 cup
• Chopped coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
• Green chilli - 3
• Onion - 1
• Garlic pod - 2 (optional)
• Grated ginger - 1/2 tsp
• Salt as required
• Oil for frying

Method:

• Soak Channa dal and moong dal together for 4 to 5 hours, grind it coarsely, add finely chopped onion, finely chopped green chilli, chopped garlic, ginger, coriander leaves, and salt. Mix everything nicely.
• Don't add water while grinding dals, if you feel the mixture is little watery, refrigerate it for an hour to make it thick.
• Steam drumstick in a idli pan or steamer, remove the flesh(along with the seed), add drumstick flesh to the dal mixture. Vada batter is ready.
• Heat oil in a pan, reduce it to medium, make small patti from the vada batter, drop it in oil and fry it golden brown. Serve hot.