Fruitcake

Fruitcakes are my favourite among cakes and my whole purpose of learning to bake is to make fruitcakes and savour them.
I modified my previous cake recipe for banana cake a little and ended up with this delicacy that can be a great tea-time snack.


Ingredients:

1. Maida - 1 cup (125 ml)
2. Oil - 3/4 cup (around 90 ml)
3. Sugar - 1 cup (125 ml or 125 grams)
4. Eggs - 3
5. Pineapple essence - 1 tsp.
6. Baking powder - 1/2 to 3/4 tsp.
7. Tutti Fruiti (Red and green)- 50-75 grams
8. Extra flour and oil for greasing and dusting.

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Grease and dust a cake mould (I used olive oil and maida)
3. Sieve the flour and sift it together with baking powder.
4. Take the tutti fruiti in a small bowl, add a little extra flour and toss it to dust the tutti fruiti completely. This is to make sure that the tutti fruiti pieces don't sink to the bottom of the cake while baking.
5. In a mixie, powder the sugar, then add oil to this powdered sugar in the mixie and cream them together to form a runny paste.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time and quickly whisk each time for a few seconds to make sure he eggs are beaten well.
7. Add the pineapple essence and blend it again.
8. Now add the flour to this mixture little by little and fold in using a ladle. You can blend it in the mixie too, but the air trapped into the batter that way will be less.
9. Add the tutti fruiti to this mixture and fold in gently.
10. Pour this batter into the cake mould and bake for around 35-45 minutes, till a knife inserted comes out clean and the crust is slightly browned. (I baked for 45 minutes)
11. Cool it for around half an hour, cut it into slices and store in a container.

Top view

Bottom view

Cross section

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1. Oats - 1 cup
2. Wheat flour - 1 cup
3. Butter - 100 g.
4. Sugar - 1/2 cup
5. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Melt the butter to room temperature.
2. Sieve the wheat flour and baking soda together.
3. Mix in the wheat flour, oats and sugar into butter and mix to make a crumbly cookie dough (pic 1)
4. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
5. Make small balls out of the cookie dough and flatten them on a baking tray (pic 2). Make sure there is space in between in case the cookies expand while being baked.
6. Bake at 200 degrees C for 25 minutes and cool to room temperature. (pic 3).

pic 1

pic 2

pic 3

Mor Koozhu with Ragi

Mor Koozhu is traditionally a poor man's dinner made by boiling together rice flour and buttermilk with spices. This version is Paatti's innovation in order to consume other grains like Ragi which do not feature in many recipes in Tam-Brahm cuisine. This is a quick recipe and ideal for breakfast or a light snack too.

Ingredients:

1. Ragi flour - 2 tbsp.
2. Curds - 1 cup diluted with 1 cup water (to make buttermilk)
3. Green chilly or red chilly or Mor Milagai(preferable) - 1 broken into 3-4 pieces.
4. Curry leaves - 5-6
5. Oil - 2-3 tsp.
6. Mustard - 1/2 tsp.
7. Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp.
8. Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp.
9. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Dissolve Ragi flour in the buttermilk making sure no lumps are formed. Add asafoetida powder and salt to this and stir.
2. In a kadai, heat oil, season with mustard seeds, urad dal, chilly and curry leaves.
3. Pour in the dissolved ragi and cook on medium flame with constant stirring.
4. Keep stirring till the mixture reaches a glue-like consistency. 
5. Switch off the flame and cool for 5 minutes and the mixture will turn more solid.
6. Serve immediately while it is still warm.

For the original Mor Koozhu recipe, use rice flour instead of Ragi flour.

Ragi flour dissolved in buttermilk

When glue-like consistency is reached.

Corn in a Cup

I do not remember seeing sweet corn ever in my life till a few years ago unless they were found in sweet corn soup in a Chinese restaurant. I was then under the impression that the soup tasted sweet and it contained corn,  hence the name. I didn't know that "sweet corn" existed.
But a few years ago there seemed to be a revolution where sweet corn was getting popularized in India by small stalls which sold "corn in a cup" as an eat-in-between snack. You could find these stalls outside malls, multiplexes, supermarkets, amusement parks etc. In fact the first place where I found it was in Infy campus. Of course these days its found at every street corner, but back then it was available only at places where you come with a mindset of paying more than what the stuff is worth and you can guess why.  The cup used to be "small","medium" or "large". I personally felt they should have been called "extremely small", "very small" and "small". Of course the price for these used to be "expensive", "very expensive" and "extremely expensive".
Soon we started getting corn in different forms - frozen; fresh,but processed with seeds separated; fresh sweet corn packed etc; which made it feasible for us to make "corn in a big cup" at home. Among the various available forms, I suggest you go for the "fresh sweet corn with the cob" version. The seeds are juicier and fresher in this case. You get these in all supermarkets or even on the roadside in some places like Commercial Street or Chat Street.

Ingredients:

1. Fresh Sweet Corn - 2 cobs
2. Seasoning as per requirement.

Procedure:

1. Boil the sweet corn in a cooker (with enough water to submerge) it for 3-4 whistles. Break the corn cob into two if it doesn't fit into the cooker.
2. After cooling it to room temperature, remove the seeds from the cob. This is much easier than it sounds, actually. You just need to use a blunt knife as a wedge between the vertical rows of corn seeds as shown in pic 1. The seeds will come off easily with a little pressure. 
3. The seeds will look as shown in pic 2. Season it as follows according to your favorite flavor.

Seasoning:

1. Classic Salted: In a kadai, mildly heat a tsp of butter ( just enough for it to melt). Add 2 tbsp of corn seeds. Add salt as per taste. stir well and serve.
2. Lemon Pepper: To the classic version, add half a tsp. of pepper and a dash of lemon juice. Stir well and serve.
3. Masala: To the classic version, add chilli powder/sambhar powder/pav bhaji masala and a dash of lemon. Stir well and serve.
4. Chat: To the classic version, add chat masala powder and a dash of lemon. Stir well and serve.
5. Italian: In the classic version, along with butter add a tsp. of cheese spread and add Italian seasoning ( Oregano+ Chilli flakes leftover from a pizza delivery will also do). Stir well and serve.
6. Chinese: Crush 1/4 inch of ginger, 2 pods of garlic, 1/2 tsp. soya sauce and 1/2 tsp. vinegar. Add this paste to the classic version. Stir well and serve.
7. Pudina: Grind 2 green chillies and around 10-15 mint leaves. Add one tsp. of this paste and a dash of lemon to the classic version. Stir well and serve.

pic 1

pic 2

Yield from one sweet corn

Apple Fritters (Bajji)

I wouln't say this is the tastiest snack I have ever made, but if you have bought apples and they turn out to be sour and you don't feel like eating it as fruit, this is a good alternative.
This is paatti's recipe and she suggested it when I was bugging her for some idea for a snack this evening.

Ingredients:

1. Apple - 1
2. Besan - 1 cup
3. Rice flour - 1/2 cup
4. Cooking soda - a pinch
5. Asafoetida powder- a pinch
6. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp. or as per taste
7. Salt - as per taste
8. Oil - for frying ( around 5-6 tbsp)

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients except the apple and oil in a bowl, add water and mix to make a thick homogeneous batter ( pic 1). The batter must be thicker than idli batter. When u take it in a spoon and pour it, it should drop down in blobs and not smoothly like dosa batter. Cooking soda is optional. Paatti's tip: If you do not want to use cooking soda, you can add a tbsp. of dosa batter instead for the fermented effect.
2. Core the apple and cut it into semi circular discs (pic 2).
3. Heat oil in a kadai.
4. Dip the apple slices in the batter so that they are coated with a thin layer of batter all over and fry it in the oil on a medium flame. You can add 5-6 such pieces at a time ( pic 3).
5. Turn over and fry evenly till they turn golden brown.
6. Remove the fritters using a strainer, and place on a paper napkin to remove the excess oil ( pic 4).
7. Serve with imli chutney.

Experimental variation:
Try adding a pinch of cinnamon powder instead of asafoetida powder in the batter.

pic 1

pic 2

pic 3

pic 4

Grilled Potatoes

This is some experiment which turned out fine. Planning to improvise on top of this next time. I'm just penning it down so that I don't forget it the basic recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized, peeled and cut into 1/2 cm thick slices.
2. Clilli powder - 1 tsp
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Green chillies - 2
5. Dhania powder - 1 tsp.
6. Jeera powder - 1 tsp.
7. Garlic - 5-6 pods
8. Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
9. Salt - 1 tsp.
10. Oil - 1 - 2 tsp. (optional)

Procedure:

1. Grind together chilli powder, turmeric powder, green chillies, dhania powder, jeera powder, garlic, ginger and salt with very little water to make a slightly runny paste.
2. Spread the marinade liberally over the potato slices on both sides and microwave cook them for 3-4 minutes. The potatoes would be more than half-cooked by now. Also, the marinade would have dried and coated the potatoes very well.
3. Glaze the slices with very little oil (optional) and grill them in the oven for around 5 minutes.
4. Serve with a cheese dip.

Butter Cookies

I really don't remember when I learnt this recipe and from whom.All I remember is that I eagerly tried this out as soon as we bought an OTG and it was a big hit.

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour or Maida - 2 cups
2. Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
3. Melted butter ( or soft butter at room temperature) -  2 cups
4. Powdered Cardamom seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Sift the flour with sugar powder and baking soda in a bowl through a sieve.
2. Add Cardamom powder to melted butter and pour this slowly into the flour and gently mix. Add enough butter to make a soft dough. The dough will not be elastic, instead it will be slightly coarse and slippery.
3. Roll out small balls of around 2 cm diameter and flatten them like patties. Let the patties be around 1 cm thick. You may wish to use a cutter to shape them. Arrange 5-6 of them in a baking tray. Place them slightly far apart as the cookies will increase a little in size while baking.
4. Preheat the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees C.