A Spoonful of Thought

Ingredients for eggless chocolate cake: 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (180 grams) ¼ cup cocoa powder  1 tsp Baking soda  ½ tsp Salt 1 cup sugar  1 cup milk or water 1/3 cup oil or 80 ml melted butter 1 tbsp Lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar) 1 tbsp Vanilla extract/essence Preparation for eggless chocolate cake: Preheat the oven to 170 C for at least 15 mins.  Grease a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan & drizzle some flour on it. or Line with a parchment paper. Set aside. Mix plain flour, cocoa,salt and baking soda. Sieve the mix at least twice to aerate the flour . Add sugar and mix it well. I use fine sugar. If you are using coarse one then you can also dissolve it in 1 cup water (called for the recipe) and pour it in the next step. Recipe for eggless chocolate cake: Take a cake mixture in a bowl.Make a well in the center. Pour water or  milk,oil or melted butter, vanilla and lemon juice or vinegar. Gently begin to mix well. Do not over mix. Pour it to the cake pan. Knock

Ingredients: 500 ml full fat milk 1/2 cup of sugar(1/2 tin of condensed milk) a pinch of nutmeg/jaiphal powder 1/4 tsp of elachi/cardamom powder a pinch of saffron/kesar Recipe: Take a heavy bottom pan and pour the milk into the same. Keep the milk for boiling on medium flame. Soak the saffron in hot milk in a separate cup for later use. Boil the milk for 5-7 minutes, stirring the same continuously to avoid the burning of milk from bottom. Keep scraping the cream from the sides and add the same to the milk to give grainy effect to basundi. Add sugar/condensed milk to the boiling milk. keep stirring the mixture.  Continue to boil the mixture till u get a desired consistency. This will take about 8-10 mins. Basundi should be little thick with running consistency. If you want it to be more thicker u can continue to simmer the mixture for some more time. Add the saffron mixture, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder to milk mixture. Simmer for a minute more and switch off the

Dum Aloo or Alu Dum belongs to, specifically, Kashmiri cuisine. The potatoes, usually smaller ones, are first deep fried, then cooked slowly at low flame in a gravy with spices.Dum Aloo is a popular recipe cooked throughout India. Kashmiri Dum Aloo Ingredients: Dum aloo [par boiled and if big in size cut to halves] 1/2 cup whisked curd 1/4 tsp freshly crushed cloves [4-5] 1/2 tsp freshly crushed cardamons [2 big & 3-4 small] 1 tsp freshly crushed saunf 1/2 tsp haldi 1/2 tsp jeera powder 1/2 tsp shahi jeera seeds 2 tbsp kashmiri red chilli powder 2 tsp tikhalal red chilli powder 1/2 tsp dalchini powder 1/4 tsp garam masala 1/2 tbsp ginger powder/sonth powder 1 tsp coriander powder 2 tsp amchur powder a pinch hing 1 tbsp sugar chopped coriander leaves [optional] Salt to taste Oil & Water Recipe: Wash the potatoes very well. Par boil the potatoes. Then prick them with a fork. If the potatoes are small, you don't need to halve them.   Heat oil in a kadai. Deep fry the p

Vada Pav is a popular vegetarian fast food dish native to the Indian state of Maharashtra.  The compound word batata vada refers in Marathi to a vada (fritter) made out of batata, the latter referring to a potato. Pav refers to unsweetened bread or bun. Vada pav is typically served with a variant of chutney (sauce) which is commonly known as sweet chutney and garlic chutney. Ingredients: 5 Medium Boiled Potatoes 4-5 chopped garlic flakes 3 chopped green chillies 2 inch grated ginger 1 tsp hing few curry leaves 3/4 cup of Besan 1/2 tsp haldi/turmeric powder 1/2 tsp baking soda Salt to taste Oil for frying 6 pieces of Mumbai Ladi Pav Serve with Sweet chutney and Garlic chutney and Tomato Sauce Recipe: 1. Peel and smash the potatoes and keep aside. 2. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, let it crackle. Once done add hing, curry leaves and saute for few minutes. 3. Later add green chillies, ginger and garlic and saute well. 4. Then add the smashed potatoes, add haldi and salt. Mix

We have eaten variety of kebabs both veg and non-veg. But kebabs made from Curd..sounds strange?? These tangy kebabs that are a Mughlai specialty taste as unusual as they sound. Paneer is used to balance the tanginess of the curd. Ingredients: 1 litre curd 100 gms of grated paneer 2 cheese cubes grated one medium onion 30 gms ginger  2-3 small chopped green chillies freshly chopped coriander leaves 1 tsp white pepper powder 1 tsp garam masala 1 tsp cardamom powder 1 tsp freshly roasted jeera/cumin powder 1 &1/2 tbsp besan salt to taste bread crumbs corn flour to dust oil to grill or fry Recipe: 1. Hung the curd overnight. Once done remove it in a bowl. 2. Saute the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies in minimum oil till it sweats. 3. Add this to the curd bowl along with grated paneer, grated cheese, chopped coriander leaves, roasted jeera powder, pepper powder, garam masala powder, cardamom powder and besan. 4. Divide the mixture into small equal portions and roughly shape each

This is traditionally sold on the streets of gujarati towns. It is another version of vada pav made with a sweet and spicy potato mixture which is filled into a small burger bun and then topped with onion, pomegranate, fresh garlic chutney and sev. Instead of pomegranate, you can use black or green grapes cut into small pieces. Ingredients: For Dabeli Stuffing: 1 cup boiled and mashed potatoes 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) a pinch of asafoetida (hing) 2 tsp dabeli masala[used ready dabeli masala] 2 tbsp khajur imli ki chutney chopped coriander leaves pomegranate seeds 2 tbsp oil salt and sugar to taste For Serving: 6 Mumbai Ladi Pavs 1 onion , chopped 1/2 cup roasted peanuts 1/2 cup chopped coriander (dhania) 1/2 cup nylon sev 1/2 cup fresh pomegranate (anar) 2 tsp fresh garlic chutney 6 tbsp khajur imli ki chutney Recipe: Boil 1 cup of peeled potatoes, smash the same and keep aside.  Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the asafoetida, dabeli masala,

The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes, which has caused some confusion. The fruit is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects. Tomato in the form of a sweet dish,  turned out to be very delicious. This halwa is very simple to make and very easily finished. :) Ingredients: 400 gms tomatoes or 3 cups tomato puree 75 gms or 6 tbsp ghee or butter 200 gms corn flour 400 gms sugar 2 tbsp each dry roasted almonds, cashews, pista 5 gms cardamon/elachi powder 2 drops red color 2 cup water Recipe: Wash the tomatoes, remove the eye and make an incision on the lower side. Boil water and blanch the tomatoes for 2-3 minutes. - See more at: http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/recipe/Tomato-Halwa.html#sthash.jxBiHqw4.dpuf Wash the tomatoes, remove the eye and make an incision on the lower side. Boil water and blanch th

Today I am sharing you one of the recipe from my native, Udupi-Mangalore. It is called simply Spicy Chana Dal Vada. Soaked split chickpeas or Bengal gram is ground to rough paste with few spices and deep fried to get golden brown fritters.  Recipe for making Spicy Chana Dal Vada is quite simple and straightforward. The ingredients used are very few, easily available one and cooking technique is as simple as it can get. When we say Vada everyone thinks of something deep fried, full of oil, unhealthy snack. But now with my Philips Air fryer the definition of Vada has changed to a healthy oil free snack. Ingredients: Chana dal soaked overnight Grated ginger 1 tsp Chopped green chillies 2-3 nos Chopped Medium Onions 2 nos Red chilli powder Amchur powder Corn/Maida flour 1 tbsp Foil paper used as base for frying in fryer. Recipe: 1. Soak chana dal overnight n thn grind the dal w/o water roughly.  2. Remove this dal in a bowl.add 1 tsp ginger, 2-3 green chillies, 2 medium onions finely cho

This Halwa is one dessert which is seen brushing shoulders with all the brownies, tarts, tiramisu , truffles and the likes on the modern parties or north Indian wedding menus. A traditional recipe which has survived the test of time well.  It is definitely higher on calories but if you eat sensibly it makes an enjoyable dessert, and if you cook it sensibly. All said about this, i finally got a chance to try my hands on it for the first time during this Ganesh festival. Everyone in my family and my friends loved it. Here goes the simple and easy recipe for the same: Ingredients: 1 cup - Yellow moong dal, soaked and ground to a coarse paste  1 cup - Ghee 1 tbsp - Gram flour (besan) 1 1/2 cups - Milk  Saffron (kesar) a pinch Roasted cashews for garnishing 1 cup - Sugar  1 cup - Milkmaid Green cardamom powder a pinch Almonds & cashews cut into slivers 10-12 Recipe: 1. Heat ghee in a non-stick pan. Add gram flour and saute till it changes color.  2. Add moong dal, lower heat and mix