Eggless Molten Lava Cake

          It's the end of this month and time to reveal the challenge for the Eggless Baking Group and this time it is Eggless Molten Lava Cake. I have seen so many pictures of this delicious cake, so rich and goey and had wanted to try it out for a long time. The cake looks so challenging but in reality it's pretty easy if you used the proper measures of the ingredients. Thanks to the number of queries raised by the members of the group I started a little cautiously, though the basic recipe with egg was from NoobCook, I googled a little more to make sure about the measurements. Finally I decided to use orange juice as the egg replacement and went along with the following recipe. The cake turned out very good and I should warn you here, it's simply too rich and super delicious, so limit your portions..

Tomato Onion Masala

          Whenever my mother has to make a side dish for rotis, in a hurry, she makes this Tomato Onion Masala, a very easy but extremely tasty one. It requires very few ingredients, the regular items found in the kitchen. She does not add peas to it, I added them just because I had fresh peas and also it gives a lovely color to this dish. You can also mix this masala with some cooked rice, tastes very good and serve it with some raitha for a complete meal..

Pori Urundai/Puffed Rice Balls

          We celebrate Karthikai Deepam for three days and one of the festival dishes that we prepare during these days is this Pori Urundai/Puffed Rice Balls. This is a healthy snack of the olden days when all the fancy chocolates were not widely available and made with aval pori (puffed rice flakes) and vellam (jaggery). Everyone has a version, this is the way my mother makes it..

Ajwain Paratha/Indian Flat Bread With Bishop's Weed

           Since it's Karthikai Deepam festival today and more work, thought I'll post a simple recipe. Though simple to make these ajwain parathas are very flavorful and goes very well with any type of gravy or vegetable curry. Ajwain also known as bishop's weed/carom seeds is said to be good for the digestive system and is commonly used in the Indian cuisine. One of the easiest way to include ajwain in the diet is adding them to these parathas, so simple and tasty..

Masoor Dal/Split Red Lentils

          Masoor Dal or Split Red Lentils is one of my favorite dals, it has a nice flavor when cooked. Just with the basic tadka or seasoning this dal tastes great, I would say a beginner's recipe, that nobody can go wrong with. But it tastes really good and is a great combination with both rotis and rice or even have it as a soup..

Peerkangai & Verkadalai Saadam/Ridge Gourd & Peanut Rice

          Peerkangai or Ridge Gourd is widely used in Asian cooking, and in Indian cooking we make a variety of dishes with it, the most common being the kootu and chutney. This vegetable has a unique flavor and a slightly sweetish taste, in fact if it is bitter it's not fit for cooking. I usually make sambar or kootu or chutney with it, for a change I used it in this rice along with some peanuts. It turned out really delicious, the softness of the vegetable and the crunchiness from the peanuts complimented each other, you can try this out even with left over rice..

Cauliflower Capsicum Curry

          Making curries every single day is sometimes really tiring and deciding on the curry to be made is actually the bigger task than making it. There are only so many vegetables, but then by mixing two or more vegetables you can end up making a different curry. I like cauliflower and I always have capsicum in stock, (adding it to any curry or dish gives it a nice flavor) so I mixed them both in this curry, it turned out to be very flavorful and tasty and a nice side dish to rotis..

Rabri

          I had made only two sweets for Diwali, one was the Almond Chocolate Burfi and the other was this rabri. Ever since I tasted this at one of the chat places here in Chennai, I had wanted to try this at home. Rabri is nothing but milk which is boiled and reduced to 1/3 of its volume, I would say, a cousin to the South Indian Basundi. It's a very delicious and rich dessert, not many ingredients, but requires a little patience which  of course pays off at the end..

Potato Fry

          Potato fry, everybody ( well, at least most of us) loves this dish and everybody has their own way of doing it. This is the way my mother makes it, loved by all of her kids and now her grand kids join the list too. Especially on a cold rainy day, I love to have this with some rice and rasam, very comforting. A very simple and flavorful dish, give it a try, you'll love it..

Eggplant With Coconut And Fennel Seeds

          Another curry with eggplants/brinjals/aubergines, well I cook this vegetable quite often, not only because everybody at home likes it but also because it doesn't take much time to slice or chop it. I have used sliced baby eggplants and cooked them with ground coconut and fennel seeds, it tasted very good, a nice side dish to both rotis and rice..

Ash Gourd (Winter Melon) Curry

          Winter Melon or Ash Gourd or White Pumpkin is a vegetable widely used in Indian cooking and that too most commonly in yogurt and coconut based dishes, like moru kuzhambu ( buttermilk gravy). For a change I wanted to try out a curry with it and without the usual curd and coconut. Since this vegetable gives out a lot of water when cooked I had to add a ground paste of cashews and onion to get a thick curry. The end result was very satisfying,  the curry tasted great with rotis, also check out this moru kuzhambu with this vegetable..

Almond Chocolate Burfi (Fudge)

          Happy Diwali ! I had a small break from blogging, not an intended one, but was a little tired from my US trip. Well, now back to routine, I made this burfi two days back and made it two layered with a chocolate layer on the top. This is a very easy one, especially if you have the already peeled and sliced almonds in hand, saves the time of soaking and peeling the almonds and the whole cooking process is under 30 minutes..

Simple Okra Curry

          As I have mentioned many times, okra (lady's finger) is one other family favorite, and whenever I buy it, most of the times it is this simple curry that I make with it. This is a very basic curry that goes well as a side dish to both rotis and rice with some dal..

Cabbage & Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) Curry

          Usually when I make paneer dishes at home, it's mostly palak paneer ( spinach with Indian cottage cheese). This time I didn't have spinach in hand and so I tried this Cabbage & Paneer stir fry, I used homemade paneer but the store bought one also tastes good, I also added some capsicum and kasoori methi ( dried fenugreek leaves) to add a little more flavor to the dish. It turned out to be very delicious and flavorful and a great combination with both rotis and rice..