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!