Eggless Pina Colada Cake

          Pina Colada Cake, most of us are very familiar with this flavor, if not, it's a cake bursting with tropical flavors of coconut and pineapple, well, this was our challenge, this month, for Eggless Baking, it was suggested by Meena of Chettinad Fiesta. It's basically a sponge cake frosted with pineapple mousse, coconut and mascarpone cheese, the process might look a bit long, but the end result is worth all of it. The original cake recipe here, uses rum, coconut liquor and eggs, I have replaced eggs with condensed milk and orange juice and left out the alcohol. I have made cakes, using condensed milk alone which gives a dense cake and orange juice alone which gives a airy and super spongy cake. For this cake I have used both of them, because I felt that if I used orange juice alone, the cake would be very light and might weigh down with the frosting. Since the frosting has coconut, cheese and fruits, it has to be refrigerated, if you like the drink Pina Colada or cheese frosting or white chocolate, then this cake is for you, because the frosting tasted a little bit like all of the above..

Potato And Bitter Gourd Stir Fry, Urulaikizhangu Pavakkai Vadakkal

          Last month, we had lunch at a Bengali restaurant, though I have tasted Bengali food a couple of times, I cannot talk about the authenticity of a dish. But on that day, I spoke to a girl ( a Bengali student ) sitting at the next table and she told me that she was tasting home style food after a long time, I took that as the verdict. One of the dishes that we ordered that day was a vegetable bajje ( appetizer ), I thought it would be some vegetable, dipped in batter and deep fried. To my surprise, it was a potato and bitter gourd fry, I think both the vegetables were deep fried and then sauteed with some spices. We just loved it, and I wanted to try it at home, I have tried to reproduce it from what I had tasted, I didn't get the recipe, and also I have tried to make it healthy too, try this, even kids wouldn't mind the pavakkai/ karela/ bitter gourd in this..

Zucchini Rice

          Every single day ( at least the weekdays), the first question that pops in my mind, ' what do I pack for lunch today ', invariably it's either rice or rotis. If it's rotis, then the next question, ' what should I make to go with it ', or if it's rice, ' what rice '. I know, many of us go through this, I also think, that I should plan for it, the night before, but that seldom happens and most of the time I make something that occurs to me at that moment. This zucchini rice is also one such dish, simple and delicious one pot meal that can be put together in a very short time..

Ompodi, Sev

          Ompodi/ Sev, this is one of the simplest snacks, in spite of having eaten it so many times, both store bought and homemade, this is the first time I tried making it. I have made other stuff like murukku, pakodas and mixture, but I don't know, for some reason I have never tried making this. The basic ingredient is besan flour/ chickpea flour/ kadalai maavu/ bengal gram flour and the other important ingredient which gives the flavor and also the name is omam/ ajwain seeds. It is very easy to prepare, in fact, it took me under 30 minutes from start to finish ( for the measurements given below ). This can be had as such or used as a garnish or topping on chats..