Mango Frozen Yogurt (Fro Yo)

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Ever since I started the blog, I wanted to give icecreams a try but was a bit scared of the outcome without a icecream maker. While I was googling I found the concept of froyos(frozen yogurt) sure an healthy alternate to icecreams and instantly wanted to try it. I didnt have a icecream scooper when I made this so that justifies the not so pretty looking scoops :O But still the recipe and pics are my personal favourite.

I made this mango froyo during last mango season so its going to be almost a year I drafted this post :) I wish I had clicked stepwise but couldnt do it. And to justify, it doesnt have major steps just blend, freeze and again blend repeat the process....your froyo is ready.

Trust me the froyo was creamy and yummy which my toddler relished. You can try with any seasonal fruit and enjoy the healthy creamy low fat alternate to icecreams.

Mango Frozen Yogurt - Ingredients

• Hung Curd - 2 cups
• Mangoes - 2 medium sized(roughly comes to 1 cup)
• Powdered Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Fresh lime juice- 1/4 tsp (optional)
• Nuts - 2 tbsp chopped(just for garnish, I used pistachios)

Method:

1. Puree the mangoes, lime juice and 1/2 cup of yogurt in a blender.
2. In a seperate bowl, whisk the remaining yogurt and sugar till sugar dissolves completely
3. Combine the mango mixture with yogurt sugar mixture together and mix well.
4. Cover and refrigerate for atleast 4 hours.Then take it and blend the mixture again until soft.Then refrigerate for 2 hours, then break the crystals and blend it again until soft. The more beating results in a smoothier and creamier froyo.
5. Then freeze again for 30mins and repeat the process. Repeat a couple of times until the froyo becomes creamy and soft.For the last time alone, do not freeze it, just refrigerate it for best creamy results.Garnish with chopped nuts.

I filled up the froyo in the icecube tray (with shapes) which is shown below. When taken from the fridge it looks frozen once it starts melting it is creamy.

My Notes :

• Hang the curd for atleast an hour untill all the excess water drops out. If your hung curd has water then the froyo when frozen it will have crystals and will not be creamy.
• If you freeze, the froyo will set faster. You can also refrigerate its a bit slow process but still no harm in doing that way too.But for the last time setting alone dont put it in freezer just refrigerate it as this will yield creamier froyo.
• Adjust sugar according to the sweetness of the mangoes.
• You can even use strawberries or blueberries as an alternate.
• Lemon juice is added to make it the curd more tangy, you can very well skip it too.

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Oats Savoury Porridge (Vegetable Masala Oats)

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Oats is always included in our daily menu specially for breakfast. So I try different varieties than our usual porridge and one such try was this vegetable masala oats(oats savoury porridge) and this was a hit as hubby loved it. Lets start the week healthy with the oats savoury porridge :)

Oats Savoury Porridge Recipe - Ingredients

• Quick Cooking Oats - 1/2 cup (I used Quaker)
• Vegetables - 1/4 cup (I used carrot and peas)
• Onion - 1 small sized finely chopped
• Turmeric powder - a generous pinch
• Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala powder - 3/4 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
• Water - 1 cup (adjust accordingly)
• Salt - as required

This is not only easy to make but flavourful too with the masalas blended with vegetables and oats. When served hot it tastes soo good and makes you forget its a porridge ;)

Method:

1. In a non stick pan add onions and dry roast it until it shrinks, then add oats and roast it until nice aroma rises.

2. Meanwhile pressure cook the vegetables seperately until soft and slightly mushy(I cooked for 2 whistles).Now add water, cooked vegetables, red chilli, turmeric, garam masala powder and required salt to the oats. Let it cook in medium flame for 3mins until oats becomes soft.Add more water if required.

3.Allow it to boil for a while, then use a laddle/ masher and mash it well(it depends on how you want your veggies to be) Cook for 2more mins until it reaches the porridge consistency. Then add chopped coriander leaves, pepper powder and switch off .

Serve hot with raw onions and coriander leaves garnished and pepper powder sprinkled.

My Notes:

• You can use vegetables of your choice. Also if you like the veggies in pieces just mash it roughly.
• Adjust water according to the oats variety. If you want you can add curd / buttermilk, mix it while serving.
• Adding the vegetables and spice powders even before the oats is cooked helps in blending the flavours well. You can also pressure cook the vegetables, oats together with the spice powders.

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Baby Corn Fry (Baby Corn Golden Fry)

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I havent tried many recipes with baby corn except the manchurian. I tried to cut down oil so toasted and it was still tasty and crispy. This time when I got a pack I made sure to try different varieties with it. So more baby corn recipes to follow soon.

Baby Corn Golden Fry Recipe - Ingredients

• Baby Corn - 10 to 12 chopped
• Corn flour - 1 tbsp
• Rice flour - 2 tbsp
• Cooking soda - 1/4 tsp (optional)
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
• Curd - 1.5 tbsp
• Water - as required for the batter
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - to toast

Method:

1.Cut baby corn into 2inch pieces then cut it vertically like I have done.(Else you can even cut them into small circles).Boil water and add baby corn with salt to get cooked. Cook until baby corn turns slightly soft(You can even skip this step if you are planning to deep fry). In a mixing bowl add rice flour, corn flour, curd, garam masala, red chilli powder, ginger garlic paste, salt , soda and mix well.

2.Sprinkle little water(if required) to form a slightly running paste. Add cooked baby corn and marinate for 30mins. Set aside.

3.In a dosa pan, add oil and the marinated baby corn pieces and roast it till golden brown. You can also deep fry them in oil. Serve hot with raw onions and tomato sauce.

It will take some time to toast. Turn over to toast it evenly on all sides. Smear little oil if required.

My Notes:

• Deep frying will be more crispier but to cut down oil, I toasted it.
• The babycorns I bought were quite big so I chopped them to bite sized pieces. If you have smaller ones you can just cut into halves and proceed.
• If you want to deep fry you can even marinate raw baby corns no need to boil and cook it.

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Vanilla Pound Cake Recipe

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I had already posted it in Divyas space as a guest post, now posting it here too. This cake was a instant hit and hubby loved it so much. Since the pieces were bite sized mittu too enjoyed it.

This is one of the nofail baking recipes so thought to share with you all. I got the recipe of basic vanilla sponge cake from my cousin long back and tried it here. I modified the same recipe a bit to get this pound cake. The cake has a slight crusty top and the very soft inside, sure one of the best cakes I've baked so far.

Vanilla Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• Maida - 100 gms
• Butter - 100 gms (at room temperature)
• Granulated Sugar - 100 gms
• Eggs - 2
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Milk - 2 tbsp (optional)
• Salt - 1/8 tsp (optional)

Method:

1. Sieve maida and baking powder twice for even distribution. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat the eggs until fluffy.

2. Then add milk to eggs, then add this to the butter sugar mixture and mix well. Add vanilla essence, salt and give a quick stir. Then add maida baking powder mixture in batches.


3.The batter should resemble like the one shown below(very creamy batter). Preheat the oven at 176 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease the pan with butter and sprinkle little maida over it. Then tap to remove the excess. Now pour the batter into the pan and bake the cake at 176 deg C for 35-40mins or until the top turns golden brown.

You can insert a tooth pick and check, if it comes out clean then your cake is ready. Keep aside for 10mins then invert. Cool down completely then cut into slices and enjoy.

This is the first time I used my bundt pan though I got it 2months back. I was thrilled to see the cake beautifully unmould from the cake pan. This time I just greased with butter and maida, didnt use butter paper.

My Notes :

• I read in an article that for easy unmoulding : Once the cake pan is taken from the oven, place the pan over a wet cloth for 10mins then invert , the cake comes out clean.
• I added milk just to make the batter little runny as mine was very thick. You can just skip it too. Adding salt always lifts up the sweetness more.

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Ven Pongal Recipe (Khara Pongal / Ghee Pongal)

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Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) or Ghee Pongal is one of the regular breakfast in south indian households. I am not a big fan of pongal but when served hot with ghee I cant say no to it :)

This is the best option to be served for guests. Once the rice and moong dhal is cooked making pongal can be done even 10mins before serving. Best served with coconut chutney or even coriander chutney and sambar.

Ven Pongal Recipe - Ingredients

• Raw Rice - 1 cup
• Split Moong Dhal - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
• Water - 4 cups
• Salt - to taste
• Ghee - 1.5 tbsp

To Temper:

• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Ginger - 1/2 tbsp chopped finely
• Curry leaves - few
• Hing(Perungayam) - 1/4 tsp
• Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Dry roast moong dhal until slightly browned, set aside with raw rice. You can soak rice and dhal for 30mins(optional, I didnt do). Pressure cook rice and moong dhal with 4 cups of water for 3-4 whistles until mushy.

2.Meanwhile you can get ready with the tempering ingredients. First add little ghee and fry the cashews, set aside. In the same kadai add oil and the ingredients under 'to temper' and fry for 2mins.

3. Add hing and salt, give a quick stir. Once the pressure releases, open and add the tempered items, cashews to the cooked pongal. Mix well, add ghee finally.

Serve hot with chutney of your choice and sambar. I had clicked pongal twice before this but was not satisfied and finally this was ok to go :)

My Notes:

• Soaking dhal and raw rice helps in cooking faster and even .
• Amma always roasts the moong dhal as it gives a nice flavour to the pongal
• Adjust water according to the rice variety.

Technorati Tags: ven pongal, ven pongal recipe, pongal recipe, ghee pongal, how to make ven pongal, khara pongal, ven pongal sambar, how to make ghee pongal

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Podalangai Podimas (Snake Gourd Stir Fry)

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I can eat podalangai podimas even as such, love it so much. I am not fond of the kootu or poriyal we make with it, but like this podimas so wanted to quickly jot down the recipe here. Have a nice weekend, will catch you all on Monday.

Podalangai Podimas Recipe - Ingredients

• Podalangai (Snake Gourd) - 1 cup chopped
• Channa Dhal - 2 tbsp
• Big Onion - 1 chopped finely
• Grated Coconut - 1.5 tbsp
• Cashews - 5 broken into small pieces
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 2 tsp

To Temper:

• Bay leaf - a small piece
• Cinnamon - 1/4 inch piece
• Cloves - 3
• Garlic - 5 chopped finely
• Green Chillies - 2 chopped finely

Method:

1. Soak channa dal in water for an hour, keep aside. Clean snake gourd and chop it roughly. Then grind the veggie with channa dhal coarsely.I used my chopper to grind, dont make it to a paste, it should be in bits and pieces. If you use mixie, then use the blend option and run once for a second thats enough. It may let out water so squeeze it and keep aside.

2.Roast cashews in little oil until golden brown, set aside. In a non stick pan heat remaining oil and add the items under 'to temper' then add onions and saute till golden brown. Then add the veggie with channa dhal. Add required salt and give a quick stir.

3.Keep sauteing and take care not to burn it. No need to add water, saute until it turns to a slightly brown shade. At this stage add roasted cashews and coconut, mix well and saute till coconut turns slightly browned.Switch off.

My Notes:

• Adjust coconut as per your liking.You can add in more.
• Take care not to burn the veggie , it should be sauted well till it becomes golden brown.
• Adding cashews is optional but enhances the flavour.

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Baking Essentials (Baking Basics for Beginners) - Part 1

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I have been thinking to post this since long as I had been queried by friends and readers about the baking tins I use, where I get the ingredients, and my oven(which I will work on a seperate post). These are the common queries I get these days, so thought this post might be helpful as I know the hassles I went through personally while shopping for baking items and the situation was even more worse when I moved to CBE. Most of times the shopkeepers starred at me as if I was speaking in my own language ;)

I have tried my best to compile most items I've used in my baking, if you find anything missing, please drop a comment, will edit to add :)

The first and foremost essential item is the measuring cups and spoons. I use it for baking and even for everyday cooking most of the times. Though these may not be accurate for the gram measures, I have been using it since I started baking. If you are at Chennai try these at Santosh Super stores or any departmental stores(You will get the red ones). I got mine from Nilgiris here in Coimbatore. When I searched for these measuring cups I understood many shops had it even without realising the name of it so help yourself in the shops instead of asking them.

I also have a cup which has different measures for maida, sugar, rice flour etc in gms(the orange tumbler kind shown in the pic) - So these are the ones I am using / will be using till I find a proper kitchen scale. My cup and spoon measures are :

• 1 cup = 250 ml
• 1/2 cup = 125 ml
• 1/3 cup = 80 ml
• 1/4 cup = 60 ml
• 1 tbsp = 15 ml
• 1/2 tbsp = 7.5 ml
• 1 tsp = 5 ml
• 1/2 tsp = 2.5 ml

The next thing you will need will be a mixing bowl which is wide and easy to mix - I use a normal mixing basin which I use for cooking(am still searching for a proper mixing bowl esp for baking). Next is the whisk which you need for mixing cake batter.

Utensils & Others:

• Mixing bowl - Use a wide and deeper bowl
• Spatula and Whisk - I got in Nilgiris, you can find it in any supermarket
• Measuring cups and Spoons - Dept stores
• Baking/ Cookie tray - It came with my oven itself essential for cookies and pizzas
• Wire rack - This also came with my oven itself
• Baking Tins - To start with you can get a Bread loaf and a Round / Square tin
• Muffin pans
• Ramekins (the ones you see here holding nuts , chocochips etc) - Additional , you may require them for any puddings or lava cake. I got mine from Currimboys and Poppad Jammal
• Cookie Cutters - I havent had luck getting many shapes. If you dont get any fancy ones just use a small lid to cut into circles.
• Aluminium foil - Needed only for pizzas or for any grilling, you can get the roll in any dept store. You can use butter paper as an alternate as we get it in any stationary shop.

You can check out the standard pan sizes in joyofbaking

What I have is a bread loaf pan 9'' X 3'' which I have used in my bakes:

• Tutti Frutti Cake
• Walnut Butterscotch Loaf Cake
• Eggless Mango Loaf Cake
• Eggless Marble Cake

A cookie tray is a must for baking cookies, mine came with my OTG itself. I make bread pizza in this and the veg pizza using the collecting tray. Other than that, I have a round and a floral tin(nonstickware) which is the only nonstick baking tin I have. I havent used silicon wares but have heard good reviews from many of our blogger friends. I personally like the aluminium baking tins than the nonstick ones.

Cakes that I baked in floral and round pan:

• Eggless Moist Chocolate Cake
• Eggless Choco Coffee Cake
• Eggless Sponge Cake

For almost all cookies posted here I used the same tray

• Fruit Cookies
• Snow Ball Cookies
• Masala Biscuits
• Veg Pizza from scratch

Muffins pans, you can again opt for siliconware or even nonstick. But I feel we use muffin liners most of the times so sticking is not a problem at all. Individual silicion muffin moulds are also available in the markets. Mine is aluminium as you can see it here.

• Choco Chips Cupcakes
• Banana Muffins
• Chocolate Muffins

I use the square pan - 6'' X 6'' for all my mini bakes. Its a small one.

• Eggless Custard powder cake
• Oats Brownies
• Dates Cake

Coming to the bundt pan...I searched for almost a year but coudnt find a right one. As most of them I saw were oversized, finally found this at Nilgiris.

I got all my baking pans from Santosh Super Stores(Annanagar, Chennai) except for the floral nonstickware and the bundt which I got from Nilgiris. I must admit not all Nilgiris branch has baking tins, try out in the main branch at your city.

I dont have many cookiecutters only 2-3 most of the times I use the round lid. I have got many things out of curiosity but sparsely use them(got them froma wholesale bakery retailer). Few among them are the icing cone and nozzles, which I havent used much. Even my tart pans are waiting for almost 2 yrs for me to experiment.

Baking Ingredients Needed (What to get and Where) :

• Maida (All Purpose Flour) - I use Nilgiris brand
• Granulated Sugar - Its again Nilgiris brand
• Icing Sugar - Bakers
• Demerera sugar - Bluebird
• Baking powder - Bakers
• Baking soda - Weikfield / Bakers
• Vanilla Essence(Black one) - Tiger brand from Nilgiris
• Coco Powder - Its cadbury
• Gelatin and China Grass - Bakers
• Condensed Milk - Amul / Nestle
• Yeast - Bakers or Bluebird
• Custard powder - Pillsbury
• Chocolate chips - From nuts & spices or nilgiris
• Butterscotch chips - From nuts & spices
• Cooking Chocolate - Marco / Morde from Nuts & Spices
• Mozzarella cheese - Amul
• Cheddar cheese - It can be either Amul or Britannia.
• Whip Cream powder - Bluebird
• Yogurt - Nilgiris / Amul
• Fresh Cream - Amul
• Butter - Its always homemade butter sometimes I use Nutralite
• Cooking Oil - Saffola
• Olive Oil - Extra virgin olive oil the brand I am using now is Figaro
• Milk - Its Aavin green if its full cream milk or blue which is low fat
• Dry Fruits and Nuts - I get it from a local dryfruits store

Self rising flour : I have seen it in Nuts and Spices but havent used it as I find normal All purpose flour itself working fine.

All the nuts and dry fruits I prefer getting it in dryfruits shop where its good. I always stock up walnuts and badam. Tutti frutti I get only when there is need. Other than that dates is always found in my pantry as I love them to eat it as such :)

Disclamer : The products mentioned here are not meant for advertisement. This is not a paid or any kind of promotion for any product or shop. These are the products I use and shops I visit as per my preference which I have shared here to help others who find it difficult to shop for baking items.

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