Wholemeal Digestive Biscuits

And the baking obsession continues...

My friend Aparna, who has moved far far away to Dubai, came down for a few days in Jaunary and left me with a new obsession, baking biscuits. She taught me basic sugar biscuits. Obviously, following this, my natural curiosity and health obsession took over, causing me to troll the net for a healthier option.

I found a recipe for Wholemeal Digestive Biscuits, choosing the Little Loaf version.

The original recipe can be found here

Wholemeal Digestive Biscuits

Ingredients:
100g oats

100g wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

50g light soft brown sugar

Pinch salt

100g salted butter, softened & cubed

1-2 tbsp milk

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 
• Blitz the oats to a fine powder in a blender then mix in a large bowl with the wholemeal flour, baking powder, brown sugar and salt.
• Add the butter and mix until crumbly. Add the milk and mix to form a smooth dough. 
• Wrap in cling film and pop in fridge to firm up for about 15 minutes.
• Remove your dough from the fridge and roll out to around 3mm thickness. It will be very crumbly so you’ll need to be very careful when rolling. Cut out circles of about 6cm diameter
• Decorate with a pattern of your choice then bake in the middle of your oven for about 15 minutes.
• When lightly golden but not too brown, remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

The biscuits turned out very well, though I will reduce the quantity of butter the next time. The dough was very difficult to roll out and i used much more milk to bring it together than mentioned. Also, best if you remove it only as much required to roll and keep the remaining in the fridge.

The taste was very good though and I will definately be making them again.

Fajeto - Gujju Mango Kadhi

Its the season for Mangoes! I decided to make the famous Gujju Mango Kadhi, the Fajeto. Like in most things food, I tend to consult the expert, Tarla Dalal. Below is her recipe for Fajeto. I followed the recipe almost completely and it turned out to be great!


Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

To Be Mixed Together Into A Smooth Curd-mango Mixture1/4 cup fresh mango pulp
1 cup curds (dahi)
1 tbsp besan (bengal gram flour)
1 tsp ginger-green chilli paste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tbsp jaggery (gur)
salt to taste
2 cups water
Other Ingredients2 sticks cinnamon (dalchini)
2 to 3 cloves (laung / lavang)
1/4 tsp dried ginger (soonth) powder
1 tbsp oil
3/4 tsp mustard (rai / sarson) powder
1/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2 to 3 small round red chillies (boriya mirch)
1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)
6 to 8 curry leaves (kadi patta)

Method

• Combine the cinnamon, cloves and dry ginger powder and pound into a coarse powder using a mortar-pestle (khalbhatta). Keep aside.
• Heat the oil in a deep pan and add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
• When the seeds crackle, add the red chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves and the pounded spices. Sauté on a medium flame for 2 minutes.
• Add the curd-mango mixture, mix well and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
• Serve hot with rotlis or rice.

One Bowl Cake

In the last year, I have fallen into this new obsession with baking. December and January saw me baking non-stop and surprisingly, most of the experiments turned out edible! There is this one cake, which has a very minimum fuss and uses just basic ingredients, but turns out to be yummy! Its Chocolate of course. Its called "One Bowl Cake" but I usually use two bowls to make it.

The original recipe, from allrecipes.com calls for more oil, whereas i usually use butter or a mix of oil and butter for a richer taste. Also, I cut down on the sugar as I don't like my cakes too sweet.

Here's the original recipe

Here's my version;

One Bowl Cake
To be made in 2 nine inch round pans.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, add 1 tbsp vinegar and milk to make a cup and let it stand for 10 minutes)
1/2 cup butter (you can substitute with vegetable oil, or half oil half butter)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water + 1 tsp coffee powder

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two nine inch round pans. If you are going to ice the cake, then 2 pans make it easy, however, like me, if you are too bored to bother with icing most days, just make it in a larger pan. It will be a bigger cake, but who cares!. I have this large round aluminum pan which I use, it is not a cake pan, so I cannot tell you the exact dimensions.

• In a large bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

• In another bowl, add the sugar, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix till sugar melts somewhat. 

• Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. It might take some additional time to completely incorporate the two ingredients, so you can increase mixing time to 3 -4 mins also. Stir in the boiling water and coffee last. The batter will be very thin, don't worry. Pour evenly into the prepared pans. 

• Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. If you are using a single pan, increase time to 40-45 minutes. If the top starts getting very brown, make a tent of aluminum foil over it and continue baking.

• Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Enjoy! This cake works well with most icings. You can do a basic butter-cream or just dust it with powdered sugar and dig in!

Kadai Paneer with Sprouts

Finally found time from my office, home and other commitments to write something for this blog... its been so long and I kept meaning to put up some nice interesting recipe. Actually it's been quite some time since I found time to cook something interesting.

So, in hopes of pleasing my husband's exacting palate (he only likes spicy Indian gravies) and my health obsession (less salt, less masalas, no sugar, less/no oil.....) I surfed the net for some interesting recipe.

I came across this realy unique combination of kadai paneer with bean sprouts... it was like a gift from heaven! The perfect combination to keep both of us happy!

So, here my version of the recipe. You can find the original one at Prema's Blog

Kadai Paneer with Sprouts

Ingredients
Paneer- 250 grams
Capsicum- 2 small
Tomatoes-red and ripe ones- 3 large chopped finely
Onions- 1 large choppe finely
Bean sprouts(mung)- ½ cup
Corriander powder 1 tsp
Chilli powder-1 ½ tsp
Garam masala- ½ tsp
Kasoori methi- 1 tsp
Green chilli-1 chopped finely
Ginger- 2” piece chopped finely
Coriander leaves- 2 tsp chopped finely
Oil - 3 tsp
Cuminseeds- ¼ tsp
Cinnamon- 1” piece
Cloves-4
Cardomom- 1
Bay leaves- 2

Method
Cut the paneer and capsicum lengthwise.
Heat oil in a kadai and add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bay leaves and cumin.
Add onions, green chillies, ginger and bean sprouts and fry for some time. When the onions turn transparent add the tomatoes, salt and chili powder.
Simmer the flame and cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes or till the tomatoes become mushy and well cooked.
At this stage add the coriander and red chili powder and capsicum pieces. Close with a lid and cook for 5 minutes.
Finally add the paneer pieces, kasoori methi and garam masala powder.
Cook for a few more minutes and garnish with coriander leaves .
Serve hot with roti/naan.

The original recipe called for crushing a dried red chilly and 3 tsp of coriander seeds. I omitted that step as it would become too hot and also time consuming. You can add the powder when you add capsicum pieces.

Do let me know how you like this recipe. I will try to post pictures the next time.

Ciao!

Happy Cooking!