Lemon Polenta Cupcake

Belated Christmas wishes to all of youJ

Guess all of you had a fantastic Christmas with lots of good food with your family and friends

We celebrated Xmas at our friends place with some amazing food and had a great time!

After gorging on all creamy, chocolaty cakes and cookies..I made this simple Cornmeal Cupcake today..

A simple, guilty free treat to munch on..

Lemon Polenta Cupcake

Ingredients

60 gms Polenta

20 gms All purpose Flour

½ tspn Baking Powder

2 tbspn Oil

2 ½ tbspn Yogurt

2 tbspn Lemon Juice

½- 1 tspn Lemon Zest

1 egg

60 gms Caster Sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 170 Degrees.

Beat together the egg and Caster Sugar until light in color

Mix together the Oil, Lemon Juice, Yogurt and Zest .

Pour this to the egg mix and beat well.

Stir together the dry ingredients. 

Add to the wet ingredients and mix well.The batter will be very runny.

Pour to the cup cake mould and bake for 20 minutes

Eggless Pear Pancake

 Vegetables and Fruits are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, pumpkin pie, Blueberry pancakes…

..And the newest additional to the list..Pear Pancakes

Eggless Pear Pancake

Ingredients

½ Cup Whole wheat pastry flour

½ Cup All purpose flour

1 Large Pear- Grated

1 1/2 tspn Baking powder

1 tbspn Sugar

Pinch of salt.

¾-1 Cup Soy Milk or regular Low Fat Milk

 Directions

Mix together the dry ingredients.

Add in about 3/4 Cup milk and gently stir.

Add the grated pear and mix well.

If the batter is too thick, add in more milk to make the right consistency.

Heat a griddle, pour a ladle full of batter and cook until bubbles  appear.

Flip and cook the other side.

Njoy with your fav maple syrup

Dates and Sesame go-go balls

Looking for a guilt free dessert? Then you have landed in right spaceJ

I badly needed to empty the bottle in which I had put the sesame seeds as I needed that cute little bottle to fill in the Plum Chutney

And out of the necessity of the sesame bottle, I invented this simple recipe!!

I wanted to make the traditional ellu undai/laddus…But after a quick chat with Mom, it seemed like a tedious process.

Also a huge luck factor is involved as we have to get the Sugar syrup to exact right consistency else you will really really mess up !

Thatz when I saw the box of Juicy dates laying in table…Now that would make an excellent binder!! And rest is history recipe 

Dates and Sesame go-go balls

Ingredients

100 gms White Sesame seeds

10 Mejdool Dates

1-2 tbspn Brown Sugar/Maple Syrup or Honey

Directions

Dry roast the sesame seeds on low flame for 3-5 minutes until its lightly browned and fragrant

In a food processor, process the Sesame seeds ,dates and a spoonful of sugar/syrup

Mix well until all come together. If the mix is too crumbly ,add in a little more honey/syrup

Shape to balls and refrigerate for a while so that the balls will hold the shape and does not crumble.

Off this go to Cooking with Whole foods event hosted by Reva and Kiran

And Jingle all the Way hosted by Kavi

Bitter Gourd Pickle / Pavakka Achar

Scratching your head thinking what to do with that king of bitterness starring at you from your refrigerator?

Try this amazing pickle and  trust me you will love it!!

Let me warn you it is really really spicy !! You better stick to just a small spoon of the pickleJ

When I made it the other day and served for dinner, my husband thought this was the usual bittergourd fry and he had an ample portion and happily gobbled it..

…..ooph ooph..Ayyoo…some weird noises followed by he running and gulping down a bottle of hundred plus J

..Anyways after the initial trauma..we did njoy it..as pickle!

Bitter Gourd Pickle /Pavakka Achar

Recipe Courtesy: Taste of Kerala show. You can watch the video here

Ingredients

2 Bitter gourd chopped finely

1 tspn salt

½ tspn Turmeric powder

3 tbspn Chili powder

1 tspn Fenugreek powder

Curry leaves 10 nos

2 Dried Red Chilies

½ tspn Mustard seeds

1 tbspn Sesame Oil

 Directions

Add the salt and turmeric powder to the bitter gourd and mix well. Set aside for 10 minutes

After 10 min, spread the mix over a kitchen towel and rest it for another 5 minutes

Heat the oil in a wok and ad the mustards seed, curry leaves and red chilies. Sauté until it sizzle up

Now add the bitter gourds and stir well. Lower the flame, cover and cook for 5 minutes

Now add the chili powder and the Fenugreek powder and mix well

[You can dry roast the Fenugreek seeds and powder in a blender]

Increase the flame and sauté it until all moisture is gone.

Mind you.. it is really spicy and goes soo well with Curd riceJ

Hot and Spicy Biscuits/Khara Biscuits/Masala Biscuits

These hot and spicy masala Biscuits are perfect snack to munch on during a rainy day!

I made it few weeks back when I had few friends over and all of them loved itJ

Hot and Spicy Biscuits/Khara Biscuits/Masala Biscuits

Ingredients

1 Cup flour

2 tbspn Rice flour

¼ Cup Butter

2 Green Chilies

½ Inch piece of Ginger

1 tspn Pepper corns

1 ½ tspn Cumin

Curry leaves/Fresh Herbs of your choice

1-2 tbspn White sesame seeds

1/2 tbspn Sugar

½ tspn Salt

3-4 tbspn Milk or water

Optional : 1 tspn Garam Masala Powder

Directions

Dry roast the Cumin and Sesame seeds separately. Grind together the Chilies, Ginger, Cumin and pepper corns to a coarse mix

Mix together the All purpose flour and rice flour.Rub the butter to the flour mix until it resembles bread crumbs

Add the ground spice mix, finely chopped curry leaves, sesame seeds, masala powder ,salt and sugar to the flour mix

Add one tablespoon milk at a time and knead to form a soft dough.

Take a small portion of dough and roll it to 1/4 inch thick and cut out with cookie cutter into desired shapes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 Degrees for 15-20 min.

You can switch on the oven fan for 1-2 minutes towards the end of the baking to get a more crunchy biscuits

Off this goes to The Bake Fest Event hosted By Sangee from Spicy treats and Vardhini from Zeste Palette