Our Own Kitchen

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour/ maida - 2 cups
• Sugar - 2 tbsp
• Salt - pinch
• Tutty-fruity - 1/4 cup
• Butter - 4 tsp
• Active dry yeast - 11/2 tsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Water - 1/2 cup

Method:

• Cooking bun is really easy, don't worry about the shape if you are trying for the first time.
• Heat water, it should be lukewarm, preferably 95 degrees Fahrenheit to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, as this temperature is very important for yeast fermentation. Now add yeast to the warm water and set it aside for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, mix flour and sugar in a large bowl, make a dent in the middle of the flour and add salt and the fermented yeast water.
• Knead the dough, add milk little by little to the dough while kneading, dough might become little sticky, no problem! move the dough to the working space and knead it well, this gives nice elasticity.
• Place the dough in a bowl dusted with little flour and cover it with muslin cloth and let it rest for an hour.
• Dough would have increased in size, remove the dough and knead little to remove all the air, flatten the dough, smear butter all over and sprinkle tutty-fruity, fold and knead the dough again.
• Shape the dough into a log shape, cut it into small pieces, shape it into smooth balls, and place all the balls in the greased baking pan. Keep this aside for another one hour.
• Now you can see that the balls are little risen and full, bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 12 to 15 minutes until the top of the bun becomes little golden brown.
• Immediately after removing the bun from the oven, brush the top with butter to soften the crust.
• Let it cool and enjoy your sweet bun.

Millets are very healthy and easily digestible. Its very good to include millets in our daily foods. There are many varieties of millet available, i have tried idli/dosa with samai(little millet), kudiraivali(barnyard) and varagu(kodo). 



Ingredients:

• Samai rice - 4 cups
• Urad dal - 1 cup
• Left over rice/cooked rice - 1/4 cup or poha - 3 tsp

Method:

• Soak rice and dal separately in water for 4 to 5 hours. 
• Grind dal first followed by rice. Add cooked rice while grinding samai. 
• If you are using poha, soak it along with samai.
• Let it ferment for 8 hours or overnight.
• Add salt to the fermented batter

Idli

• Grease idli plates and pour ladleful of batter in each hole of the plates.
• Steam it for 10 minutes. Serve hot with chutney and sambar.

Dosa

• Heat dosa pan and grease it, skip the grease part for non-stick pans.
• Pour ladleful of batter on the pan and spread it in circle. Flip and cook on both sides.
• Serve it hot with chutney or sambar.

Notes:
You can even try mixed millets, for example 1 cup samai, 2 cups varugu and 1 cup kudiraivali.

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower - 1 head
• Egg - 1
• Cheese - 200 gm
• Oregano mix - 2 tsp
• Chilli flakes - 1 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - pinch

Method:

• Cut cauliflower into florets and drop it in a big bowl of hot water. Let it rest for 2 minutes and then remove it.
• Coarse ground the florets, its better if you use food processor. Don't smash the florets completely.
• Microwave the ground cauliflower for 10 minutes and then squeeze excess water from the cauliflower. You can do this by hanging the cauliflower in the clean kitchen towel for 5 minutes.
• Transfer cauliflower to a large bowl and add egg, 100 gm grated cheese, oregano, chilli flakes, pepper, and salt. Mix everything nicely for 5 minutes so that everything blends well.
• Transfer cauliflower mix to the baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminium foil, flatten it into rectangular shape of about 1/4 inches. 
• Bake it for 20 to 25 minutes at 180 degree Celsius in a preheated oven. Take it out and spread the remaining cheese, bake for 5 more minutes and cut it into breadsticks.
• Serve breadsticks with sauce. This is the delicious alternative to the regular flour breadsticks.

Ingredients:

• Soya chunks - 1 cup
• Salt as required
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Olive oil - 3 tsp

Methods:

• Boil 2 cups of water with salt and add soya chunks to it, reduce heat to low. Soya chunks doubles its size.
• Remove soya chunks from water and run cold water over it for 2 minutes. Squeeze light and drain water from chunks.
• In a wide bowl, add chilli powder, cumin seeds and olive oil, mix it nicely, add the chunks and give a nice stir so that everything is coated well.
• Preheat oven, line a baking tray with aluminum foil or parchment paper, scatter chunks over it. Bake it high for 10 to 15 minutes.
• This is a tasty snack and very easy to make.
• You can even add chilli flakes, oregano mix or any other spices of your choice.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Unsalted Butter (room temperature) - 80 gm
• Powdered sugar - 1/3 cup
• Tutti frutti - 1/2 cup
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
• Elachi powder - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Method:

• With electric beater, beat sugar and butter till it becomes soft and glossy.
• Now add cinnamon powder, elachi powder and vanilla extract, beat it once.
• Slowly, add flour to the butter mixture and blend everything well.
• Finally fold tutti frutti to the cookie dough.
• Don't knead the dough, just shape it like a log and wrap it with cling film.

• Refrigerate the log-shaped cookie dough for an hour.
• Cut the log into half inches slices. 

• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
• Arrange the cookies in the baking tray with one inch apart as the cookie expands little bit.

• Bake it for 15 minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes after baking, store it in the airtight container.
• This taste best with coffee, enjoy your evening.

This is very easy to prepare and kids will definitely love it.

Ingredients:

• Carrots (peeled and chopped) - 1 cup
• Butter cubes of 1 cm - 10
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Brown sugar - 1 tsp
• Salt - pinch
• Lemon - 1 tsp
• Chopped Parsley - 1/4 cup
• Olive oil - 2 tsp

Method:

• In a pan, heat olive oil, toss carrots for 2 minutes then add rest of the ingredients except parsley. 
• Cover the pan and cook over low heat for about 20 - 25 minutes until water evaporates and carrot is cooked tender. 
• Finally stir in parsley and serve hot.
• This is quick, easy and very tasty.

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.