Peanut Chutney

Ingredients:

Red Peanuts                                      -1/2 cup
Roasted bengal gram (chana dal)         -2 tblspoon
Urad dal                                                  -1 tspoon (Split & washed black gram)
Green chillies/Red chillies                       -2
Salt                                                      -As required
Oil                                                            -1/2 tspoon
Water                                                       -As required

To temper the chutney:

Oil                                                        -1 tspoon
Mustard seeds                                    -1/4 tspoon
Asafetida                                               -1 pinch
Curry leaves                                       -5-6 roughly torn

Method:

Heat 1/2 tspoon oil in a pan and tip peanuts in it.
Roast the peanuts in medium flame. in a minute or 2 peanuts will start to crackle.
Now add chana dal and Urad dal into it and roast them until they get brown. Do not burn them.

Now cool down the dal and peanut mix.
Take a small chutney jar or blender jar and tip dal and peanut mix in it.
Now add green/red chillies, salt in the blender.

Pour some water to it and grind it to smooth consistency. Make it to thick consistency not runny.
Now heat 1 tspoon of oil in a tadka pan and add mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafetida into it. Once mustard seeds start to splutter add this tempering to peanut chutney.
Chutney is ready and can be served with idli, Dosa, Vada, Uttapam or Pakoras.

Fresh Coriander Chutney

Ingredients:

Fresh Coriander Stems                          -1/2 cup
Fresh Coriander Leaves                        -1/2 cup
Fresh Green Chillies                             -10
Citric Acid/Nimbu ke phool                 -1/2 tspoon
Cane Sugar                                            -2 tblspoon
Salt                                                        -1 tblspoon


Method:

Wash and chop the coriander stems, coriander leaves and green chilies.
Put these chopped greens, cane sugar, salt and citric acid in a grinder.
If you have chutney grinder, you do not need to add water.
If it's a regular grinder use a tablespoon of water while grinding it to paste.
Grind everything untill smooth paste and everything is mixed.
Take out the chutney in a bowl and serve with your snacks.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (Eggless)

Makes – 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients :

Plain Flour                 – 1 Cup
Cornstarch                 – 2 Tblspoon
Baking Powder          – 1/2 tspoon
Salt                             – 1/4 tspoon
Cocoa powder            – 2 Tblspoon
Unsalted Butter          – 1/4 cup (room temperature)
Sugar                          – 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract            – 1/2 tspoon
Butter Milk                 – 3/4 Cup (Runny consistency)
Red Color                   – as required
lemon Juice                – 1 tspoon
Baking Soda               – 1/2 tspoon

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

Unsalted Butter             – 1 tblspoon (room temperature)
Lemon Extract              – 1/2 tspoon (Optional)
Cream Cheese               – 1/2 cup (room temperature)
Confectioners sugar      – 1 Cup
Yellow Colour                 - as required (Optional)


Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F, Ready your muffin tray. Line the tray with paper liners.
Sift Plain flour, baking powder, Cocoa powder and salt into a big bowl and mix with a whisk till mixed very well together. keep it aside.
Take another deep mixing bowl add butter, sugar and vanilla mix it till very smooth and creamy.
Now Add in the flour mix and buttermilk alternating in three parts mixing well everytime. This alternate should end with flour mix.
Add in the red color and mix well. keep it aside.
Now mix baking soda, lemon juice together add this will starts to be foamy.
Now add this foamy mixture to the cake batter. Mix gently to get this air build in the batter.
Pour the batter into the cupcake liners and fill them 3/4 leaving some space for cupcakes to rise.
Bake these for 20 to 25 mins or until the toothpick test comes out clean.
While the cakes are baking , we can prepare the frosting for them.
Take a deep mixing bowl add butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, Lemon extract and Yellow Colour.
Beat everything with hand beater or mixer to Cream all these together till thick and smooth.
Transfer the frosting to a piping bag if you want to pipe the frosting.
Check your cupcakes after 20 minutes, sometimes the temperature differs depending of brand and make of your oven.
Once the cupcakes are done rest them to cool down completely before frosting them
Now pipe the frosting onto cupcakes with choice of nozzle. I used star nozzle.
My kids loved eating them hope you family will Love them too.

Methi Mathri

Ingredients:

Plain Flour/Maida          - 1 cup
Semolina/Sooji               - 1/2 cup
Vegetable Oil                 - 2 tblspoon for moyen
Kasuri Methi                  - 2 tblspoon
Black Pepper Powder     - 1/4 tsp
Ajwain/Carom Seeds      - 1 tspoon
Salt to taste                      - to taste
Oil                                    - enough for deep frying

Method:

In a deep bowl, tip maida, sooji, salt, black pepper powder, ajwain, kasuri methi and 2 tblspoon oil.
Check the moyen in the flour by making fist (Mutthi) with flour if it holds the shape, moyen is right else add 1 more tblspoon in the flour.
With the help of water start to knead it and make it a firm but smooth dough.
Now roll out the dough into a big round sheet.

keep the thickness of the sheet to 1/2 inch.
Now prick the whole sheet with a fork making fork marks all over the rolled sheet.
Now cut out the desired shape with the cooking cutters or cut the sheet with a knife in small diamond shape or square shapes. Please refer the pictures for the shapes.

Heat the enough oil in a Kadahi to fry the Mathris. Put mathris in the oil , make sure not to over crowd the karahi, give mathris some space to puff up.

Checkout the pictures to see the size difference before and after frying Mathris.

Once all the mathris are fried, cool them down before storing in an air-tight container.
We serve Mathris with different condiments at tea-time but they can be enjoyed any time with anything.

Tofu & Veg Rice

Ingredients:

Basmati rice               -2 cup cooked
Tofu                           -1/2 cup cut into chunks
Mix Vegetables         -1/2 Cup Boiled (Mix bell peppers, sweetcorn, green peas)
Green chilli paste      -1 tspoon
Ginger paste              -1 tspoon
Garlic Paste               -1 tspoon
Onions                       -1 medium cut in julienne
Ghee/oil                     -1 tblspoon
Water                         -1 1/2 cup
Fresh Coriander         -1 tblspoon chopped
Cumin Seeds              -1/4 tspoon
Asafetida                    -1 pinch
Turmeric powder       -1/2 tspoon
Coriander powder      -1/2 tspoon
Garam Masala           -1/2 tspoon
Amchoor Powder      -1/2 tspoon
Salt                            -to taste

Method:

Heat the oil into a heavy bottom pan and shallow fry the Tofu chunks.
Once they are golden brown from each side take them out on a paper towel lined plate.
Now temper the remaining oil with cumin seeds and asafetida.
Add onion, green chilli paste, ginger and garlic paste and fry till transparent.
Keep frying until the raw smell goes away, but make sure not to burn it.
Add ground spices, turmeric, coriander, amchoor, garam masala, salt and give it a good mix.
Now add the vegetables and tofu in the pan and give it a good mix and let it cook for 2 minutes and cover the pan by lid.
Now open the lid and tip the rice in the pan. Mix it very well with vegetables and tofu.
cook the rice for 5 minutes. Now sprinkle some fresh coriander and mix again.
Serve the rice as a breakfast or as a side dish in your dinner and lunch parties.
My kids love eating tofu so i make these rice for them in after school snack.