Vellarikka Masala Bhath, Cucumber Masala Rice

          It has been a busy weekend, didn't have time to post or visit other blogs. Today also, I am posting very late, well, coming to the dish, Vellarikka Masala Bhath, I had noted the recipe long time back, did it a couple of times, then I thought, I lost the paper that I had noted it down. After so many years, recently, while checking some old notebooks, I came across this piece of paper. This is a very simple recipe, but the rice is so flavorful from the masala and the cucumber, it's not very spicy and it goes very well with tomato raitha or even with some plain curd/ yoghurt..

Homemade Candied Orange Peels

          For last month's Eggless Baking Challenge we had to do Norwegian Christmas Bread and I needed candied orange peels. I couldn't find them in the nearby stores, so finally made my own at home. Though it takes more than an hour to make this, the method is actually pretty simple. At the end, I had more than 2 cups of candied orange peels, it can be refrigerated and used in various breads and cakes..

Paruppu Dosai, Lentil Crepes

          Dosas, this is one tiffin that we have at least 2 or 3 times in the week, either for breakfast or dinner. Apart from the regular dosa made from a fermented rice and urad dal batter, we can make so many varieties, using other flours and lentils. Paruppu Dosai is made using rice and tuvar dal/ split pigeon peas, again the batter need not be fermented and you can make dosas with just the plain batter, or add some grated vegetables or chopped greens to it and make the dosas more healthier. I have added some chopped greens ( arai keerai ) to the batter, the dosas turned out really good, thin and crispy, you can serve it with any chutney of your choice..

Mango Stuffed Akki ( Rice ) Roti

          Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes has started this new event called ' Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge '. There's a facebook group and every month we're paired with a fellow blogger in the group. Each of the member has to suggest 2 ingredients to the other, and we have to cook something using both or one of the ingredients. Only the pairs know the secret ingredients and the rest of the group comes to know about it only on the revealing date. We had posted our dishes couple of days back, and had fun, guessing other's secret ingredients. For this month's challenge I was paired with Nayana Pikle of Nayana's Kitchen Kreations, and she had suggested mangos and rice flour. As we are still in the beginning of the mango season, I couldn't get really good ripe mangos. But last week, I picked up one, though it was not very sweet, it served the purpose. I made a filling with it and made stuffed rice rotis, thus using both the ingredients. They tasted really good, best when eaten warm and on the same day. If refrigerated, as is the case of rice flour, it tends to harden. The method was very simple and I should thank Nayana for choosing such beautiful ingredients..

Gulab Jamun From Khoya, Kova

          Happy Tamil New Year And Happy Vishu ! Traditionally, today we make a full course meal, with sambar, rasam, poriyal, varuval, kootu, appalam, vadai and payasam for lunch, but since it's not a holiday for both my husband and daughter, I didn't feel like cooking such an elaborate lunch for myself. But still, I wanted to do something sweet, I had bought some khoya for another dish, had some left in the refrigerator and I wanted to do something with it. So instead of doing the regular payasam I made some gulab jamuns using the khoya. This is the first time, I am doing gulab jamuns from khoya and after checking out many recipes, I finally followed  the recipe of Harichandana of Indian Cuisine. The gulab jamuns turned out really very soft and delicious, the only changes that I might make next time is, add another 1/2 tablespoon of flour and make slightly stiffer dough. Since the final dough was very soft, the jamuns seem to absorb some oil while deep frying, of course I drained the excess oil, but I thought, the next time I'll make the dough a little firmer. But other than that, the jamuns were awesome, soft to the core ( literally, with no hard centers ), and very easy to do too..

Mochai Kurma, Field Beans ( Avarekalu ) Kurma

          Fresh Mochai/Field Beans/ Avarekalu is in season from December to March, and in India, especially in Bangalore, you can find loads of them. Though I have used it only in sambar, poriyals and kurmas, here in Bangalore, people make so many varieties with it, starting from upmas, pilafs and even dosas. I had bought some, shelled, cleaned and frozen them, after using them in curries I had a little left, and I finally finished it off in this kurma. I did the entire cooking in the pressure pan, very simple to make and it goes very well with rotis and dosas..

Eggless Julekake, Norwegian Christmas Bread

          This time I am very late in posting for the monthly Eggless Challenge, but at least, I am happy that at least I was able to make it finally. Julekake/ Norwegian Christmas Bread was our challenge for this month and was suggested by Priya Srinivasan of Enveetu Kitchen. It's a delicious bread dotted with lots of raisins and candied citron, as it was difficult for me to find citron here, I have used candied orange peel. I didn't get candied orange peels in the nearby stores, so finally made my own. The bread turned out really good, the texture, excellent and the flavor from the candied orange peels was simply superb and it tasted awesome when toasted with a little butter, we all loved it..

Mint And Potato Rice, Pudina Urulai Kizhangu Saadam

          Whenever I bought mint leaves, most of the time it ended in a thogayal/ chutney, my family loves it. It's been a long time that I have made a rice with it, so this time, decided to make it. I also had some boiled potato in the refrigerator, so used that also in the rice. This rice tasted extremely good, with lots of flavor and is perfect for lunch boxes, serve it with some raitha for a complete meal..

Eggless Dulce De Leche Cake

          Well, after making dulce de leche at home, I wanted to use it either in a cake or ice cream, and decided on the cake, as I didn't have any fresh cream in hand, the main ingredient for the ice cream. I decided to use curd/ yogurt and lemon juice in the place of eggs and used oil instead of butter, to keep down the calories. The cake came out well, it had a rich flavor, was moist but a little dense, might be, the next time I'll stick to orange juice as egg replacement instead of yogurt and milk, especially for this cake, that would make the cake much lighter I think..

Spinach Raitha, Keerai Thayir Pachadi

          Coming back after a ten days trip and settling down back is a real pain, especially in India, the whole house is covered with dust, with loads of laundry to do and to top all that, the hot weather makes things even worse. You don't feel like cooking and eating heavy stuff, tend to lean more towards to lighter foods especially something cold and healthy at the same time, like this Spinach Raitha. It's so simple to make, you can use either fresh or frozen spinach and it can be served cold or at room temperature, a perfect accompaniment to any meal..

Microwave Dulce De Leche

          Dulce De Leche, I love this flavor in ice creams, very rich and delicious and for a long time now, I had wanted to make it at home. Traditionally, it's made by cooking milk and sugar for a long time, but the short cut method is using condensed milk. There are a number of ways of preparing dulce de leche from condensed milk, the pressure cooker method, stove-top method, regular oven and the microwave oven. I didn't want to try the pressure cooker method, where we have to cook the can, immersed completely in water with a small hole on the lid, I was a little scared of the can bursting. Of all the above methods, I found the one using the microwave, to be much easier. After cooling, dulce de leche can be refrigerated and used in making ice creams, cakes, as a frosting on cakes and of course you can't resist yourself from having it as such too..