Event - Holiday Baking (Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies)

Christmas & New year are around the corner & people wait a year long to celebrate this festivals.Baking is the common event happens in every house hold this season filling homes with flavor of goodies. Send in your delicious baking delights & enjoy your holidays. 

Rules to follow:

1. Egg & Eggless cakes are fine.
2. Post it in your blog and link back the recipe to my event.
3. Use of logo is appreciated.
4. Can send in multiple entries.
5. Event starts from 12th of December 2013 & ends on 12th of January 2014.
6. For any queries you can just leave a comment on my facebook page Ammaji Recipes or mail me to Valli.sunil@gmail.com.

Asparagus Fry

Sharing a simple & yet a crunchy side dish which goes along with rice & also just as a snack. 

Ingredients
1/2 Bunch Asparagus
1/2 Tsp. olive oil
1 Tsp. lemon juice
1/2 Tsp. red chili powder / Paprika
1/2 Tsp. minced garlic
Salt 

Heat a pan with oil. Meanwhile clean the asparagus & keep them aside. Once the pan is hot enough add garlic, asparagus to pan along with salt. Saute them & close with lid. 
After exact 2mins. remove the lid or you might over cook the veggie. Sprinkle paprika & stir fry it. Switch off heat & add the lemon juice to pan. Mix it well.

Serve it with rice or as a snack. 

Tamarind Pulp

Tamarind is one of the main ingredients in south indian dishes. From rasam to chutney & curries we use it to bring a tingly tangy taste to the dish. I sharing a pulp that can be made a head of time & can also be stored for 3 months at-least. I have learned this from my mom & it made my life much easier. 
This year has been a very rough ride to me. I had to visit india for around 4months & was arranging all the essentials things for my husband to cook. I made this tamarind pulp of 2 boxes & freezed one, while refrigerated the other. It's still good till date. 

Ingredients
1 Cup Tamarind
2 Cups water
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- Take tamarind in a bowl & deseed it if any.
- Next clean it with runny water to remove sand stuck to it.
- Next in a vessel take tamarind & water. Bring it to boil.
- Cook till the tamarind becomes soft for around 10mins on low heat. 

- Switch off heat & allow it to cool. 
- Once it is cool blend it to a smooth paste. 
- Transfer the pulp to a air tight container & refrigerate it. 
- It will last for at-least 2 months. 
- Freeze it if your vacationing or if you have made excess of it.

Use it as wanted.

Black Chickpeas Sundal

Sundal is a delicious dish which is offered as a prasad in hindu festivals. It can be made of different lentils & tastes delicious.
You might also like:
Moong Dal Sundal
Oats Khara Sundal

Ingredients
1 Cup black channa dal
2 Tbs. coconut 
Salt
Seasoning
1 Tbs. oil
1 Tsp. mustard seeds 
1 Tsp. jeera 
3 broken red chili's 
Few curry leaves 

- Soak channa dal overnight & pressure cook them with salt for 2 whistles. 
- Allow cooker to cool down & transfer dal on to a plate. 
- Heat oil in a pan & to that add mustards, jeera & red chili's. Once the mustard starts jumping add curry leaves.  
- Add channa dal to pan & top it with coconut mixture. Fry them for few minutes like 2mins & switch off heat.

Serve it as a snack or side dish.

Mullangi Pachadi | Radish Chutney | Mullangi Thuvaiyal | Muli Chutney

Radish chutney that I'm sharing is a fusion of Indo Korean dish. I used Ggakdugi Kimchi (Korean Pickled Daikon Radish) as basic recipe & moderated it with indian spices. It tasted nice & felt crunchy in every bite.

Ingredients
2 Cups diced radish
1 Tsp. salt
Spices
1 Tbs. red chili powder
1 Tsp. lemon juice
Pinch of turmeric
salt ( If needed)
Tempering
1 & 1/2 Tsp. oil
1/2 Tsp. mustard
2 Red chili's cut equally
1/2 Tsp. asafoetida / hing

Preparing radish
- In a bowl add radish & salt. Mix them well. Refrigerate them for 1day. This process makes radish softer & removes any bitterness to it.

- As you see in the above picture you can see water oozing out of radish a little. Now drain radishes using a cheese cloth & squeeze the extra water out of them. 
- In bowl take radishes, red chilli powder & turmeric. Mix them well.
- Heat pan with oil & to that add mustards & red chili's. Once the mustards start jumping add hing & switch off heat. 
- Add it to the radish chutney. Now add the lemon juice & mix them. 

Serve with rice. It tastes crunchy & spicy. 

Note: 
- Taste if you need little more salt. If needed add it.
- Adding garlic enhances flavor. 
- Refrigerate the leftover & finish it as soon as possible.

Quick Oatmeal with Honey & Dates

Sharing a recipe of simple & easy breakfast to start a day in healthier way. 

Ingredients 
1/2 Cup old fashioned oats 
1/2 Cup milk 
2 Tbs. honey
3 Tbs. finely chopped dates
1 Tbs. chopped almonds 

- In a microwave safe bowl add oats & milk. Microwave it for 2 to 3mins. Check if the oats are cooked or not. If not cook for another 2mins.

- Add honey & dates to the oatmeal & mix them well.

- Top with almonds & enjoy it.

Note:
- Adjust the honey sweetness if you need.

Pedda Usirikaya Pachadi | Pickled Amla | Nellikkai Thuvaiyal

Pickles are the durable than chutneys. The pickle I'm sharing with you today is one of those ones, that can be stored & used refrigerated for months. You can enjoy it the same way or add a little fresh tempering /seasoning before serving for a fresh feel. 
There are many ways of making amla pickle, but this one is the healthier way of making it. 

Ingredients
1 Cup chopped amla
1 Tbs. mustard seeds 
1 Tbs. jeera
1 Tsp. methi seeds 
3 Red chilis 
3 Green chili's ( Adjust acc. to taste) 
Less than 1/2 tsp. of turmeric
1 Tsp. asafoetida / hing
2 Tbs. Oil
1/4 Cup cilantro leaves 
Salt

- Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard, methi & jeera to it. 
- Later add the red chilis to pan. Once the mustard starts jumping add hing & turmeric to pan & switch off heat. 

- Allow the seasoning to cool before you grind. 
- Coarse grind the seasoning & to the blender add green chili's, cilantro & salt. Adjust the taste & the pickle is ready to serve.

Serve with rice & a little ghee.

Onion Pakora / Ullipaya Pakodi / Onion Fritters

Summer is slowing descending & we are feeling chillness in the weather. It's time to welcome fall & to enjoy evenings with hot beverages & snacks.Try this yummy pakoras for your chilled eve's.

2 Servings 
Ingredients
1 Medium onion sliced
1 Cup besan
1&1/2 Tsp. chili powder
1/2 Tsp. jeera powder
1 Tsp. salt ( adjust )
Few curry leaves
6 Tbs. water

- Mix the ingredients other than onion in to a thick smooth paste.

- Mix onions with the batter as shown above. Heat a pan with oil in medium heat. 

- Now take a spoonful of bater & slowly add it to the oil. Cook it thoroughly on both sides till they turn brown as shown above. 

- Remove them on to a tissue & repeat the same with rest of the batter. 
- Serve warm with ketchup or green chutney.

Note: 
- For a crispier snack you can add 1/2 besan & 1/2 rice flour. 
- To check on whether the oil is hot or not you have to drop in a little batter in to oil & it should immediately lift & float on top of the oil as shown above.

Pesarapappu Atlu | Mung Bean Kimchi Pancakes | Moong Dal Pancakes

South Korea, my first international destination to this beautiful country left lots of good memories in my life. Being a vegetarian I never had a chance of experimenting Korean food. But some where in my deep mind I wanted to taste it badly.

Lately I have been exploring on World Wide Web for korean vegan recipes & came across many delightful blogs who are purely vegan & now it’s my chance to experience them.

I chose to make a simple pancake made of mung beans & kimchi. A little intro about Kimchi is that it's a traditional korean side dish made of napa cabbage as main ingredient. 

Kimchi has a fish sauce as one of the ingredients, but I replaced it with a vegan kimchi, which I bought from whole foods store. I served it with a Indian green chutney & it tasted yum. 

I got this delicious recipes from Beyond Kimchi blog & made little changes to it. 
Yields : 10 pancakes 

Ingredients
1/2 Cup moong dal 

2 Tbs. rice 

2 Tbs. scallions / spring onions 

1/2 Cup chopped kimchee (Store bought)

1 Tsp. soy sauce 

1&1/2 Tsp. red chili powder 

Salt for taste

2 Tbs. sesame oil

- Soak moong dal & rice for minimum 8hrs to 24hrs in refrigerator. Grind them coarsely & keep aside. 
- Now to the ground batter add scallions, kimchee, soy sauce, salt & chili powder. Mix them well.

- Heat pan with oil & add the batter as shown. You can make 3pancakes at a time depending on the pan width.

- Close it with a lid allowing it to cook completely. Now reverse the pancakes & cook them crisp on both sides.

- Once they are done crisp & cooked both sides remove them & repeat the same with other batch. 

- Serve them warm with a sauce or chutney. I served it with cilantro chutney. 

Note: 
- The recipe I followed asked to refrigerate the soaked dal & rice.
- You can replace kimchee with other veggies like onion, ginger, corn & etc. 

Nan Khatai - Indian Eggless Cookies

Nan Khatai, the Indian eggless cookie is a perfect treat for any occasion. I saw this recipe going around in many blogs & was just waiting for the perfect moment to make them. 

This is one of those recipes, which requires very few ingredients & can just get a perfect cookie. There are many variations for this recipe that I have come across & I tried the simple one as a beginner. 

Yields : 8 Nan Khatai's 

Ingredients

½ Cup All-purpose flour

1/4 Cup ghee/butter

¼ Cup powdered sugar (Adjust Acc.)

½ Tsp. cardmon powder

Crushed pista & almonds for garnish

- Preheat oven @ 200 degrees. Layer your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Take all the ingredients other than garnishing ones. Mix them well to a round dough.

- As shown above make little balls as shown above. They make 8 to 9 balls.
- Pat the ball into a flat round & roll it in pistachio & almond mixture & place it on the baking sheet.
- Repeat same with rest of the balls. 

- Bake them @ 200 degrees for 20 mins.
- Remove them from oven & allow them to cool for 10mins on wire rack before you serve. 

Serve with tea, coffee & milk.

Note: 
- Add another 2 Tbs.butter if needed.
- Garnish the cookies as you wish.
- Don't over bake them for more then the time needed. They become hard on the outside. ( Own experience) 
- Once you have rolled the dough check if you need to do any sugar adjustments. 

Nimmakaya Pulihora | Lemon Rice

Lemon Rice is a most comforting & easy dish. I love to have this rice at any time of the day. Making this dish is easy & tastes very delicious too. I love this dish very much when my mom makes it. She is a good cook & I love observing her while she cooks. The simplest changes she makes to the dish do bring a lot of difference in the flavors. My mom makes this lemon rice for dinner on weekdays. She generally uses a little more of seasoning than I used here. It tastes heaven. So sharing my comfort food recipe with you all here.

Prep Time:10mins 

Cook Time:1hr {Includes cooking rice & cooling it off}

Serves:2-3people

Ingredients 

2Cups uncooked rice /4Cups cooked rice 

4Cups water

Few curry leaves 

2Tbs oil

Juice of 2 lemons

Salt 

For Seasoning

2Tbs mustard seeds

2Tbs chana dal 

2Tbs urad dal 

1/4Cup peanuts

6Red chili's cut into half

3Green chili's slit into half

1Tbs grated ginger

2Tsp turmeric

2Tsp hing

1/4 Cup oil 

Cilantro for garnish

Directions 

- To cook rice add in rice, oil, curry leaves & water to the cooking bowl. Cook rice accordingly & cool it before making lemon rice.

- Heat pan with oil. To that add channa dal, urad dal & peanuts. 
- Allow them to fry till channa dal changes a little color. 
- Add mustard seeds, ginger, green & red chili’s to pan. Once the mustard starts jumping add hing & turmeric to pan & switch off heat. 

- Take a wide pan or plate. Add cooked rice & seasoning to it. 
- Next add lemon juice & salt little by little according to your taste. 
- Sprinkle coriander & mix it well. Taste the rice & adjust taste if needed. 
- Allow rice to sit for 30mins before you serve.  
- Serve it with your favorite chutney & enjoy.

Note
- Cook rice according to your convenience. Electric cooker is my to go everyday & cooked rice according to it's instructions
- Using basmati rice will give a nice texture to the dish. I don't feel using basmati for south indian dish. Don't feel authentic.
- Allow the seasoning to cool before you touch it or there is a chance you might burn your hand. 
- Every lemon is different  & some have too much of juice. So add little by little as said above to avoid too much tanginess to the recipe.

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