Healthy Spinach Roti

This is a very healthy version of roti which can be served both as a breakfast or for dinner. The best method to feed some healthy leafy vegetables to those who really dont like them. Even enough amount of spinach will be present in each roti,you wont even feel that something is incorporated inside a normal roti except for in its appearance. The green veggies delivers a bunch of vitamins and minerals. The healthy way of eating leafy vegetable also by just toasting both the sides without completely cooking and loosing their essential nutrients. Actually you can add whatever leaves you like or a combination of all together like Watercress/Methi, Collards, Dill, Cilantro(Coriander leaves) or any combination of green leafy veggies like mint, green onion leaves etc. Hence it becomes a package of Nutrients and delight to the soul.


Ingredients:
1. Any Leafy Vegetable
I used Spinach, very finely chopped- 1 cup
2. Wheat Atta Flour- 2 cups
3. Salt- 1/2 tsp
4. Oil- 1 tsp
5. Water to make dough

Preparation Method:
1. Mix leaves and wheat flour in a wide open bowl and mix well.
2. Now add salt and toss well.
3. Make a pit in the middle and pour in water little-by-little and knead the dough with hands well into a big soft ball.
4. pour in the oil and knead well with hands and coat it well with oil and keep aside for 10-15 minutes. You can cover it with a damp cloth if you will be using it later than 15 minutes.
5. Make small balls out of the dough and roll each of them it into equal very thin flat rounds just like roti and keep aside.

6. Heat a griddle/thava and toast both the sides into soft-crisp leafy rotis.
7. Serve warm with any vegetable gravy.
I totally forgot to take some snaps of the end product as I was a little eager to know the taste, but both of us ended up in finishing off the rotis. ;)

Chilli Mushrooms

This is a very easy method of chilly mushroom making,takes only 10-15 minutes as the chinese cooking is very fast cooking and also as we are using mushrooms, the cooking will be done very soon. A very good recipe for bachelors.;) A very good starter for vegetarians and very tempting when well garnished and presented.So best for a party as it is a very low time consuming dish as well.

Ingredients:
1. White Button Mushrooms- 10
2. Finely chopped Onion – 1/2
3. Grated Ginger – 1 tsp
4. Grated Garlic – 1 tsp
5. Finely chopped Green Chillies – 3
6. Capsicum thinly diced – 2 tbsp (optional)
7. Soy Sauce – 2 tbsp
8. Pepper Powder – 1 tsp
9. Spring Onion greens chopped-1/4 cup
10. Vegetable oil – 3 tsp
11. Green chilly Sauce- 1 1/2 tbsp
12. Celery,finely chopped-3 tbsp
13. Salt – to taste

Preparation Method:
1. In a pan, heat oil and saute onion,ginger,garlic and green chillies.
2. When onion is half done add the soy and chilly sauces,celery and half the spring onion.
3. Add the washed and cleaned whole mushrooms and saute well.
4. Close and cook for 5 minutes, till mushrooms gets soft/cooked. Do not cook the mushrooms too much, it will become very soft and its crispiness and the original taste will be lost.
5. Finally add the pepper powder and saute twice. Close the lid and switch off the flame.
6. Serve warm with tooth picks inserted into each mushrooms and a spoon for its onion masala. Garnish with some spring onions on top and a rose flower.(Purely Optional)
7. This is not a gravy version, this is served as starter with some coating onion masala. To make it into gravy, mix some(1 tsp) cornflour in some(1/4 cup) water and add into this,Simmer for 2 minutes.Stir well, while it attains a thick gravy consistency, switch off the flame and serve warm with rotis,fried rice or parotta.
This is a sure hit for parties, I had served it many times and the recipe was shared. Bachelors are happy for this recipe, very easy, healthy and filling.

Classic Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:
1. Hard-cooked/Boiled Eggs,peeled and cut lengthwise: 4
2. Mayonnaise or Salad Dressing: 2 tbsp
3. Salt, to taste
4. Black pepper powder: 1/4 tsp
5. Milk- 3 tbsp
6. Garlic Powder- 1/2 tsp
7. Tomato peel/Skin of tomato and Coriander leaves for garnish (purely optional)

1. Completely cook the egg for 12-15 minutes in boiling water.
2. Wash in cold water and peel off the outer shell and cut the cooked egg length-wise into equal halves.
3. Pop out the egg yolk/yellow portion of the egg carefully without tearing the egg white portion. Just pull the yolk using a spoon or a sharp knife into a bowl.
4. Mash them all into fine powder.
5. Mix in all the ingredients except ingredient:6.Make a fine tooth paste form out of it.
6. Milk can be added more to make the mix a little loose.
7. Take the egg whites one by one and fill in the the mixed paste into it just to fill the hole inside the cooked egg white. Do not overfill it. If you have piping bags and the flower/star decorating tips/nozzles which are attached to the bags, very easy to pipe into the spots.
8. Now peel off the skin from a tomato and just cut a small strip out of it. Keep it over the mixture in the egg white. Clean off the egg white with a soft paper-towel to wipe off any filling mixture over.
9. Cut a small strip of the coriander leaf and keep on the other end of the mixture inside and decorate as shown in the figure. The red and green colors on it makes the dish more attractive and tempting along with its own pale yellow color.

10. Paprika powder can also be used to decorate to just sprinkle on over the eggs.
11. Serve as a starter for lunch or dinner, a very good attractive and innovative idea for a party.

Pacha Maanga Chammanthi/Raw-Green Mango Chutney

Ingredients:
1. Green Mango slices with skin on- 1/2 cup
2. Fresh grated coconut- 1/2 cup
3. Thinly chopped Green chillies- 2-3 according to the hotness
4. Sliced shallots- 6
5. Salt to taste

Preparation Method:
1. Grind all the ingredients in a blender/mixie for 4-5 minutes to a smooth paste.
2. Serve as a side dish with other curries with rice.

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake

A long post after a very long time.

In my one and a half years of cooking,I had never tried baking a cake.It was really rocket science for me. Once I tried with an instant packet, I was surprised to see the amount of oil i had to add for that preparation, almost 3/4 cup if I remember. I did not follow the steps instead I added some oil as per my wish may be around 2 tbsp. After baking was over, when I tried the cake, it was rock hard,it was on my hubby's birthday..I was so sad..All I can do was just throw it away into the dust bin. After almost 9-10 months I did not even turned my head to find a cake recipe, my heart was so felt for that cake. But a month before, I just wanted to try out a cake as one of my friend who uses the same oven as mine got successful in making and baking cake in her first attempt itself. So I was rejuvenated for a new cake baking experiment which would have turned to my last if I ever failed in that attempt. Finally I searched through many blogs to find out a perfect vanilla cake, my favorite and caught my attention by a sponge vanilla cake with butter in it. I wanted to try them but never any with oil, as i failed with the first one. Since I had already bought the measuring cups and spoons, I was a bit confident this time with a lots of anxiety and tension deep in my mind. I totally forgot the blog I found this recipe,It was an Indian blog with cae making in our style.


I gave a try and I was very much skeptical about the outcome. I kept on repeating my unconfident words to my husband, he gave some supporting words and told me to try out anyway, what ever the output might be. I was also worried about the quantity of flour, butter and other ingredients I would spoil for my experiment. Finally I decided to try them at any cost.I made the dough as per the steps in that blog, the cake was puffing up evenly ..a wonderful feeling in my heart and I was calling my husband after each stages to show how the dough was and the way it was puffing up inside the oven and I switched off the oven and took out the cake and showed it to him again, kept them to cool for 10-15 minutes, I was in a hurry to cut thema and try. This part I gave to my husband, The cake was still a little warm.He was asking why so much hurry, he doesn't know how fast my heart was pumping to know the result, a miniature form of the feeling that we have while we search for our number in the site to know the 10th grade and Entrance Exam results. He cut the cake and had a bite, by the time of cutting itself I was half relieved to see the softness of the cake. He tried and was very happy that it was soft and yummy, he told it just melted in his mouth. Hah, I was totally motally relieved to hear those words..I was jumping with joy...."santhosham kondenikkiriakn vayye...njanippam valloduthum valinju kerum" . For the last one and a half years,I never tried to do them except for the instant cake making trial. Now finally, I have achieved something..or more than that.


Here is my successful story and recipe. Thanks a lot to the blogger for sharing this wonderful spongy cake. We just finished them in 5 days.I think it can stand for almost one week maximum, since it has lots of butter, do not keep for more than that.
I do not prefer the dishes with all purpose flour everyday. Its best to eat the least of them the best possible you can do. So while I go wild over the dishes with this flour like cake, biscuits, naan or pizza,its best to balance the negative effect with other better ingredients like going for all organic other ingredients.Here I have used no eggs in this recipe and used all organic ingredients like organic butter, 2% fat reduced organic milk etc: So a trial to make it still healthy in some other way.I did the mixing without an electric beater/mixer or a whisker for the dough. I just mixed with a big sized fork and whisked the dough properly and evenly with my hand. So you can try without any special utensils for this recipe.Its better to use the vanilla essence from India rather than the one we get here in the US, because the essence we get here totally changes the taste as the essence available here is much concentrated and has some alcohol content in it which makes the product a bit bitter. Thats why I and most of us do not enjoy the cakes available here. Here I am sharing the recipe You can sure follow these steps and come out with a wonderful cake even if you are an amateur or first time cake baker.

Ingredients:
1. All Purpose flour/Maida- 2 Cups
2. Sweetened Condensed Milk/MilkMaid- 1 tin
3. Butter - 1 Cup which is egual two bars from a packet
4. Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
5. Baking Powder- 1 tsp
6. Vanilla essence- 1 /2 tsp
7. Milk- 1/2 cup

Preparation Method:
1. Keep butter outside from refrigerator to room temperature for an hour and melt.
2. Seive baking soda, maida and baking powder 3 times through a sieve and keep aside.

3. Now thoroughly (atleast 20 strokes) mix together butter and milk-maid using a fork in a random motion. I used a wide open pan so that the whisking can be done even and fast. If you have an electric beater or a whisker, they can be used which makes the work easy.

4. Add finally vanilla essence and mix in 10 strokes with the fork.
5. Add the flour mixture little by little say 1/2 a cup and add milk also little by little and mix thoroughly using the same fork to a semi-thick paste consistency.

6. Grease the cake baking dish of your choice with some non-stick butter spray or just brush that with some melted butter and pour the mixture into it. My batter was kinda thick paste, I had to literally scoop the dough in a spoon and fill the dish for baking, it was not at all watery or running which makes to pour the dough into the dish. But the my dough was totally different it was very similar to a bit thicker Tooth Paste.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit and keep the dish inside after 6 minutes.

8. Bake for 30 minutes, switch off the oven and keep the cake inside for 3-5 minutes.

9. Check whether the cake is done or not using a tooth pick or skewer pricked inside the cake comes out clean. if some gooey dough sticks onto the tooth pick,its still not done have to bake till done. But if the cake is made with the same amount of ingredients as mentioned it will be done in 30-35 minutes as per my experiments.

10. Cut them into equal slices and serve. This really does not require any frosting to enjoy them. Its very spongy and a little buttery. Tastes best the next day of baking. This can be sliced and preserved in an air-tight container for almost one week. Variations can be done by adding dried fruits and nuts like tooty-frooty inside the dough or just on top. I think the use of butter instead of oil makes them spongy and belongs to the category of butter-sponge cake.
Try them, Enjoy and let me know your feedback.