January 15, 2019

Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Cake

Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Cake Recipe:

Take 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and sieve it along with 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
Sieve it thrice and keep aside. Add pieces of walnut in it and some raisins.
Now we have to take our all wet ingredients together in a vessel.
Take three ripe bananas in a vessel along with 3/4 cup sugar. Add 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of milk.
Blend all wet ingredients together with the help of blender. Blend it nicely so that everything is mixed properly and we get nice fluffy cake.
Now we have to add our dry ingredients slowly and keep mixing by cut and fold method.
Add dry ingredients half at a time not at one go.
Once our batter is ready. Put our convection on preheating at 180C.
Grease cake tin with slight oil or butter.
Pour the cake batter in cake tin. Tap it thrice so that occupies the space properly.
Once our microwave is preaheated, it gives a beep sound stop the oven and place the cake inside.
Go to convection mode in microwave. Set temperature to 180C and time to 45 minutes and start.
After 45 minutes you can stop the oven and check the cake if it is cooked properly.
Insert a knife or skewer and if cake does stick on it your cake is properly cooked and baked.
Keep cake outside for cooking. After 10-15 minutes when the cake comes to room temperature you can remove it from the tin and cut into pieces and have. Banana walnut cake is ready.

January 5, 2019

Orange Flavored Cookies

Orange flavored Cookies Recipe:
These cookies are extremely delicious. It has goodness of butter with light touch of orange.

We require approx 1/2 tablespoon orange skin (peel) in this recipe to get the slight orange taste. For this we will be grating outer layer skin of the orange as adding inner layer would make the cookies bitter in taste. So we have to do this carefully.
In a large vessel with the help of sieve take 250 grams all purpose flour. Add add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to it with the help of sieve.
Now add refrigerated 200 gms butter to it. We are not using hot butter here.
Add 200 grams icing sugar to it.
Add orange skin (peel) to it and mix everything together with the help of your fingers to avoid lumps.
With the help of very little water knead the dough. We don’t have to use too much water as we are adding icing sugar to it. So use very little water.
Now take some portion of dough and roll it to thick cylindrical shape.
Repeat the process for other dough.
Keep all the cylinder in a plate and put it in refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
Remove it from the refrigerator and with the help of sharp knife cut thin slices of cookies and place in a plate.
Grease tray with some oil or butter.
Place cookies slices on the tray for baking.
Bake it on convection mode in preheated oven for 180°C for 12-15 minutes.
Crisp crunchy orange flavored cookies are ready to be served. Enjoy it with your family and friends in tea time.

December 30, 2018

Gajar Ka Halwa (Indian Carrot Dessert)

Gajar Halwa

Gajar Ka Halwa Recipe:

Gajar halwa is made with carrots, sugar, mava (khoya), cardamon, ghee and cashews.

Wash and peel 1 kg carrots and cut into small pieces.
Now instead of grating carrots. I will be grinding it so I have made small pieces of it.
Once my all carrots are grinded properly, keep it aside in a plate.
Now heat a cooker and add 2-3 tablespoon ghee in it.
Once ghee becomes hot add grinded carrot to it and keep stiring continously.
You will notice carrot will loose moisture and decrease in quantity.
Now add approx 180-200 gms sugar to it. You can add sugar as per your taste. Stir again.
Now add approx 1/2 ltr milk and stir again.
Close the lid and allow it to cook for 4 whistle. Switch off the flame.
Once it comes to room temperature, open the lid and stir.
Switch on the flame and keep stiring till it becomes soft and thick in consistency.
Add cardamon powder, cashews, 50-100 gms khoya and 2 tablespoon ghee and cook for more 4-5 minutes. Adding khoya is optional you can also avoid it. Switch off the flame. Gajar ka halwa is ready to be served.

December 19, 2018

Ras Kadam (Kheer Kadam) Recipe

Ras Kadam

Ras kadam
Ras kadam is very delicious sweet made with rasgullas. It is Bengali sweet also called as kheer kadam. Kadam is variety of one flower. Lord Krishna use to love spending time on this tree. Let’s take a look at how to make ras kadam.
For rasgullas we need chena. Boil 1 litre milk. Once it starts boiling reduce the flame and add lemon juice to it and keep stiring.
As soon as you get chena, you can switch off the flame.
Drain off the water from chena with the help of cloth.
Wash the chena with cold water and squeeze all water from the chena.
Once chena comes to the room temperature and is easy enough to handle, rub it with the help of your palm. Add saffron dissolved in milk and knead a soft dough. I am adding saffron to get the yellow colour. People usually use yellow color. To avoid color I am using saffron.

Take small portion of chena and make small balls.

Now we have to prepare sugar syrup for the ras kadam.

Take two cups of sugar in 4 1/2 cups of water and boil it.
Once the sugar syrup starts boiling add the rasgullas one by one it it. Flame should be high.
After adding all the rasgullas cover the lid and cook it for 20-25 minutes.
You can check it in between and stir it.
After 25 minutes switch off the flame.
By the time kheer kadam is cooling down, knead 250 grams mava (khoya) in a plate.
We have to place rasgulla in khoya. And shape it round.
For outer coating take some dry coconut powder in a plate.
Take rasgullas one by one and roll it on the coconut powder such that it is properly coated from all the sides.
Ras kadam (kheer kadam) should have three layers. Inner layer is of rasgulla then outer layer is of khoya that is mava and the third layer is of coconut coating. You will love ras kadam so try at home and let me know how it was.

December 9, 2018

Cookie Recipe

Cookie Recipe:

We require 1 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, 1/4 cup gram flour and 2-4 tablespoon semolina.
Take all these dry ingredients one by one in large container by seiving it to avoid lumps in cookies.
Also sieve and add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
In another vessel take 1 cup melted butter and add 1/2 cup sugar powder. Beat and mix butter and sugar together continously such that sugar gets dissolved and mixture becomes light.
Now add the mixed dry ingredients in it and mix properly.
Add some finely chopped pistachios not it and 1/2 teaspoon cardamon powder. Mix everything together and take small portion of mixture and shape round balls and keep in a plate.
Now we will keep this in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Now we have to preheat our microwave oven at 150°C. It will take 10-15 minutes depends on your oven. Once it is preheated it gives beep sound.
Stop the oven, remove the refrigerated cookies and place it on baking tray. Tray should be greased with ghee or butter.
Open the oven and carefully place the tray inside as the oven will be heated.
After placing the cookies inside Go on convection mode and bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes on 150°C.
You can stop the oven in between and check the cookies and adjust the time according.
Just make sure you do it carefully as the oven will be hot.
Enjoy your cookies.

December 8, 2018

Veg Sandwich

Veg Sandwich

Sandwich Recipe:

Remove skin of 1 large size corn, wash and roast it directly on fire flame from all the sides.
Once it cools down a bit you can remove corn kernels with the help of knife.
Peel 2 cucumber, wash and finely chop it.
Wash 2 tomatoes and finely chop it.
Now in a vessel take chopped cucumber, tomatoes and roasted corn kernels.
Add little salt and mix. Don’t add to much salt as we are going to add mayonnaise to it and it already has salt in it so we have to adjust salt accordingly.
Now add mayonnaise to it (aprox 70 gms) and mix. I am using veg mayonnaise, you can use veg or non veg mayonnaise as per your choice.
Mix everything together.
Now take 2 slices of bread. Place the salad mixture on one bread and put other slice of bread on top of it.
With the help of knife you can also cut it into 2 triangular proportion.
Simillarly make other sandwiches.
You can have it in your tea time or whenever you are hungry and have less time to prepare or cook something.

November 11, 2018

Rasmalai Recipe

Rasmalai

How To Make Rasmalai:

We need 1 and 1/2 litre of milk for this recipe.
For masala doodh boil 1/2 litre milk and reduce the flame to low.
Now add sugar in the milk as per your taste and keep stiring for 5 minutes.
Add some saffron strands in the milk and mix.
Add chopped pistachios in the milk and some cardamon powder.
Let the milk boil for some time. You will notice color of the milk has changed to light yellow because of the kesar and it has got nice flavour of cardamon and pistachios.
Switch off the flame and let the masala doodh cool down to room temperature.
For chena boil another 1 litre milk and once milk starts boiling, lower the flame and add lemon juice to it. To get soft chena your milk temperature should be low and you have to add less amount of lemon juice. As more sourness can make your chena hard. You can also add lemon juice once milk cools down little.
Once you add lemon juice, milk will start curdling and you will get chena of it.
Now switch off the flame and drain the water from chena using cotton cloth.
Squeeze all excess water from chena and wash chena with cold water to remove lemon flavor.
Again squeeze excess water from chena.
We have to prepare sugar syrup for chena malais. Take 2 cups of sugar in 4 cups of water and allow it to boil.
Till the time sugar syrup is boiling, we have to make chena balls for rasmalai.
After removing water from chena we have to take it in a large plate and rub it with our palm continously to make it soft. It will require approx 10 minutes to knead it and make it soft.
Divide chena into equal proportions. Take one one proportion, shape it round and slightly press. Keep aside in a plate.
Simillarly make all rasgullas of chena and keep aside in plate.
Our syrup might have started boiling so put slightly pressed chena rasgullas to the sugar syrup one by one.
Also remove some amount of sugar syrup in large bowl and allow it cool on room temperature.
Cover the lid and let rest of the sugar syrup cook for 12-15 minutes on high flame.
You can remove the lid to check rasgullas and flip the chena rasgullas in syrup in between.
After 12-15 minutes, switch off the flame.
In another large plate take some cold water.
Remove rasgullas one by one along with chasni and keep in the cooled chasni (sugar syrup) kept outside in a bowl. Place this bowl in the plate with cold water. This is to to bring the temperature suddenly down and stop the cooking process immediately. This will make your rasmalais soft.
Now once your rasmalais have cooled down you can squeeze excess chasni by slightly pressing the rasgullas and put it into masala doodh.
Remove excess chasni from other rasgullas too and put them into masala doodh one by one.
Cover and keep it in refrigerator and serve it chilled. Rasmalais are ready, enjoy with your family and friends.

October 23, 2018

Kathal Kofta Curry

Kathal Kofta Curry Recipe:

For Koftas:
Boil 1/2 kg raw jackfruit (Kathal) and keep aside.
By the time boiled jackfruit is getting cooled, grind ginger, green chillies and garlic together to a paste.
Now mash the jackfruit and add half amount of grinded ginger, chilly garlic paste to it, keep rest half amount of ginger garlic chilly paste for the curry. Add little salt, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon garam masala and mix everything together.
Take some amount of mashed kathal mixture and shape koftas of it. Keep shaped koftas aside in a plate.
Now take a bowl and add 6-7 tablespoon of gram flour (besan) in it. With the help of some water batter besan batter for coating koftas. Batter consistency should not be too thin nor too thick.
Now we have to heat oil for frying koftas. We will be using less oil for frying koftas.
Once our oil is hot enough, we have to take shaped koftas one by one, dip in the besan batter such that it coats kofta properly and then put in the oil for frying one by one.
While putting koftas in the oil you can reduce the flame of oil and increase the flame to medium once you have placed all the koftas in the oil.
Fry all koftas and keep aside.

For Kofta Curry:
Finely chop 2 1/2 onion and 1 tomato.
Heat 2 tablespoon oil and add 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds.
Once cumin seeds start cracking add curry leaves.
Now add finely chopped onions and fry till onion becomes soft and translucent.
Now add ginger garlic green chilly paste and fry for few more minutes till rawness of ginger garlic goes away.
Now add chopped tomatoe and cook for more 1 minute till it becomes soft.
Add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder, 1/2 teaspoon red chilly powder and salt to taste. Stir for 1 minute.
Now add 1/2 glass water and give it stir and allow it to boil. You can adjust the water as per your requirement as water reduces after putting koftas in it.
Once curry starts boiling add fried koftas in it and reduce the flame to low so that koftas doesn’t break.
Put some fresh chopped coriander leaves and let it cook for 5-7 minutes on low flame.
Switch off the flame after 5-7 minutes and serve kofta with steamed rice or chapaties.

October 17, 2018

Bhapa Doi (Steamed Yogurt) – Bengali Recipe

Bhapa Doi

Bengali desserts are well known their taste across India. today I will be sharing one such popular dessert of Bengal called bhapa doi. Bhapa doi is made with condensed milk, milk and curd. I am using condensed milk and yogurt here in the recipe. Yogurt should not be watery. You can use hung yogurt for the recipe which has no water. Bhapa doi is one form of mishti doi. In this recipe yogurt (curd) is steamed or baked. Misti doi is made by reducing the milk and adding jaggery and curd to it. It is allowed to ferment whole night where as bhapa doi is made by steaming yogurt mixed with condensed milk. You can add cardamon flavor to it. People also use fruits like mango, pomegranate, dates in it. You can also use dry fruits in bhapa doi (baked yogurt). You will get very good texture in bhapa doi. This dessert is well known for its taste.

Bhapa Doi Recipe –

For condensed milk Boil 500 ml milk. Once it starts boiling add some sugar and keep stiring in between.
Reduce the milk to almost half quantity. Color of milk changes. Condensed milk is ready.
Now in a vessel take 200 gms curd and add made condensed milk to it. Mix it properly with help of spoon.
Add cardamon powder and mix it again.
Now we need sugar caramel. Take 6-7 tablespoon sugar with half tablespoon water and heat it. Keep stiring continously till you get nice golden color.
Add this sugar caramel to the yogurt (curd) condensed milk mixture and mix it properly again.
Now pour the entire mixture to steel tiffin box and close the tiffin.
This dahi will be steamed in steamer for 25-30 minutes.
Place the tiffin box in steamer and steam it for 25-30 minutes.
Switch off the flame after 25-30 minutes.
Once it cools down completely remove tiffin from steamer. Be careful as the tiffin box might be hot. Once tiffin box cools down then open the lid and invert the box in plate.
Bhapa doi is ready to be served. You can garnish it with pistachios.

Steamed Yogurt

October 15, 2018

Sondesh (Sandesh) – Bengali Dessert Recipe

Sondesh (Bengali Dessert)

Sondesh also called as sandesh is very popular Bengali dessert made from fresh chena. Sandesh is made in different variations. Here I am sharing simple traditional recipe.

Sondesh (Sandesh) Recipe:

Boil 1 litre milk. Once milk starts boiling, reduce the flame and add curd water to the boiling milk so that it starts turning into chena. You can also use lemon juice instead of curd water.
As soon milk turns into chena completely switch off the flame as too much cooking can turn chena hard and chewy.
Drain water completely from chena with the help of cloth.
Once water is completely drained out from chena and chena is hot enough to handle, knead it with your palm vertically to form a soft dough. Do it carefully as chena might be hot. Sprinkle some sugar powder and again keep kneading from downwards to upwards vertically with your palm such that chena becomes fluffy and soft.
Add 2 tablespoon saffron milk and again rub it with your palm.
Take small portion of kneaded chena and roll it into round shape.
Slightly press in centre with your thumb. Add pistachios in centre.
Simillarly repeat process and make all sondesh also.
Enjoy sandesh (sondesh) with your family and friends.

Note – As sandesh is dessert made from fresh chena it can’t be kept for next day too long. Chances are it might get spoiled so better to consume at right time. Also too much chena can upset your tummy so better have it in limits.

Sandesh Dessert