Orange Yogurt Cake - Oh-so-delicious!!!

A spate of unsatisfactory bakes- that's what happened to me in the past couple of weeks. Like a row of flop movies- Aaw, poor joke here, excuse me:-). A souffle which rose - but not high enough, a genoise which did not seem tall enough to make a birthday cake out of, a chocolate cake which got the perfect ganache drape, but I messed up with the decoration- too big an 'Oops' to make it to the blog. My dessert did not set well enough to slice it, Agar-agar - u let me down:-(. Add the extremely temperamental electricity supply in Namma Bengaluru - would put off the most passionate of bakers I guess. Power supply seems to be so much more consistent in the past few days- Touch-wood!!

Yesterday after a long time, my oven smiled on me again. Whew!! I had seen this Orange Yogurt Cake on Pavani's blog here and had instantly bookmarked it (among scores of many many recipes, don't know when I will ever try them all!!). I love oranges in a BIG way, I don't know how many dozens of them I ate when I was carrying my first one - so much that hubby started worrying about it:-). Oranges in bakes is something I absolutely adore. I had oranges in my fridge and this seemed the perfect recipe to try - low fat, quick and super easy.

It was easily one of the tastiest tea cakes I have baked- super spongy, moist, refreshing and deliciously zesty. Thanks Pavani for sharing this recipe and reminding me of the forgotten Martha Stewart website. This cake is something which is going to be on my favorites list for a long time to come..

Pineapple Halwa - With Low Fat Khoya!

With Low Fat Khoya ready on my kitchen counter, I had to use it to make something ASAP. You don't keep such things waiting for too long right?? Its bad for my peace of mind. I mean, I will keep thinking about it to distraction and behave like a cat on a hot tin roof.  Make something out of it, polish it off - Ah! Peace!!! I usually do not make halwas as they generally need a considerable amount of fat and the ones that use less fat don't usually taste all that great. Honestly, halwas aren't the thing my mind conjures up when I think of dessert. Oh, yeah, am really partial to some desserts. But I made an exception this time and was raring to try out Pineapple Halwa, another Tarla Dalal recipe. Counting the recipes on my blog a few years from now, you can safely bet, a good number of these will be from either Sanjeev Kapoor or Tarla Dalal.

Well, this halwa was on my mind since ages. But, aaa.. hmmm... I have to first hunt for a good pineapple. If I am lucky enough to get one which is sweet and has no bruises( forgive the expression) I would need to take up the great exercise of peeling the thorny skin, ensuring there is not a single tiny black thorn hiding anywhere. If there is any fancy gadget which can help do all this, I am unaware and I would appreciate info on the same:-)).

This halwa, sounded quite unusual to me and the addition of the Low Fat Khoya added to its allure. Read on to know how this low fat sweet treat became a winner in my books.

Low Fat Khoya / Mawa

I have been missing from the blogging scene since almost 2 weeks, no 3 weeks. Whoa!! Has it been so long?? It started with my son's exams, my kids falling sick one after the other and staying at home with me. I know I often sound like Cinderella's step-mom, but having kids at home all day, and sick ones at that can be pretty draining.  And no you don't get any prizes for guessing whose turn it was next to fall sick. I really don't know if I fell sick due to sheer exertion or due to proximity with the cold and fever virus or whatever you call it. Must be the virus something, as Moms are not allowed to fall sick due to exertion, no way!!!! Yeah, I sound wicked again:-)

We also took time to get away on a short vacation to Madikeri, Coorg. I can't belive that just 4 days of being waited upon, can cause such a bad holiday hangover. Next time, I go away on a holiday, along with the freezer, I will also stock up my drafts folder before I leave:-)) Lol!

Wanting to make a low calorie dessert post the holiday binge, I tried making Low Fat Khoya, a Tarla Dalal recipe. It turned out a very good substitute for the regular khoya, a quintessential part of so many Indian sweet preparations. Imagine eating a sweet with a fraction of the calories and fat and with almost the same taste and texture as one made with regular khoya. And real easy to make?? Too good to be true right?? A sure keeper of a recipe, I see myself using this again and again and with less guilt.

Red Pumpkin Soup

Cool breezy evenings, the sky overcast with dark clouds, promising welcome showers. Can there be anything which can compare with the smell of the wet earth?  We scurry indoors, with the kids in tow, and yeah, the laundry on the washing lines too:-)). When it starts pouring, it is so cozy to be indoors with a bowl of piping hot soup and warm garlic bread. The chatter of the kids punctuated by the slurr...ps and 'Yumm..can I have some more??' is such music to the ears of the person who has made the soup. Now, in my case, the soup-maker being me, as always, I can't let Knorr or Maggi take the credit and the satisfaction. Can I;-)??  The soup making season has just about begun, though showers are few and far between in Bangalore. Sigh!! Wish the rain Gods would smile on us more frequently. Seduced by scores of soup pictures floating around the blogosphere and to make the most of the season, I tried Red Pumpkin Soup.

Healthy Whole Wheat,Oats and Sesame Crackers

 

Hot, frothy, filter coffee and crunchy, savory crackers on a rainy day evening. Sounds like bliss right?? Right!!! And if they are low fat, loaded with the goodness of whole wheat and oats, its a dieter's wish as well.

I am always wary of 'low-fat' or 'oil-free' or 'baked, not fried' category of snacks and desserts. Very few of these are truly fat- free or low calorie. They are usually, just relatively lower in fat or calories. So I try not to go overboard with the quantities of the low fat stuff, as the total calorie count would probably be more than the calories I would have consumed if the same snack was a regular, fat-laden snack. We then tend to restrict ourselves to a small quantity.   

Undoubtedly, low fat versions of any snack, most of the times are not on par in taste with the deep-fried versions. Its an acquired taste. And again it depends on how much you can compromise on a wee bit of taste for good health in the long run. Before you think I am turning a dietitian, lemme move on..:-))

I saw these crackers on Sharmilee's blog and instantly craved for them. Don't go by the very ordinary picture above, Sharmilee's crackers look super tempting. You can find the recipe on her blog here. Love her super recipes and drool worthy pics. I made these crackers and they turned out quite tasty. The flavor of garlic and the nuttiness of sesame seeds was a great combo and made the perfect accompaniment to my coffee.

Here comes the recipe

Ingredients :

• Wheat flour (Atta) - 1 cup
• Oats - ½ cup powdered coarsely( I used Quaker)
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Butter - 1 Tbsp (add more if you prefer crispy crackers)
• Sesame seeds - ¼ cup
• Garlic paste - 3 tsp
• Salt per taste
• Baking Powder - ½ tsp
• Water - as required to knead the dough

Method:

1. ln a bowl add the wheat flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Add garlic paste, sesame seeds. Combine well.


2. Add oil. Melt the butter and add at this stage. Add water little by little to form a thick chapathi like dough. Keep aside undisturbed for 30mins.


3. Divide the dough into half. Roll each half thin and cut into squares or sticks. Combine the scrapings and repeat the same with the other half too.


4. Preheat oven to 180C for 10 minutes. Place the squares on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 15-18 minutes or until the crackers are crisp. The baking time depends on the thickness of the squares and the oven settings

Store in a air tight container. It can be stored upto a week.I  strongly recommend adding atl east 1tbsp butter.

Hubby who usually doesn't ask for seconds of the baked variety of snacks actually wanted to know I still had any more of the crackers left. A friend of mine, again not so enthusiastic about low fat versions loved the snack.  I think these will also taste good with ajwain in place of the sesame seeds or hing, green chili -ginger paste. You bet I would be making these again!!


This is also my entry to Champa's weekly Bake Off.

Seriously Low Fat Brownies!!!!

Its been a hectic summer with kids at home and having a busy time at work too. I had in fact looked forward to more free time for cooking, baking and blogging as I would have not homework and school assignments to deal with. Boy!! How wrong I was!! All I have been talking about to anybody and everybody who cares to listen is how much I am looking forward to the school reopening. My days would then start early, but would be so much more sane:-)) The joys of being a work from- home-Mom!!

I have been cooking and baking as always but have not really been able to sit down and post them as often as I like to. I have put in a few hurried posts, pics taken in a hurry before the food in question gets polished off by kids. This is one of the recipes from Sanjeev kapoor I have tried form the same book, "Simply Stylish Entertaining at Home'. The name of the recipe actually is "Very Low Fat Brownies' and I was so tempted to try this out as it is really, seriously low fat and super quick and easy to put together.

I made this on the spur of the moment when I had to go to my parents place. The picture was taken in a hurry(isn't that obvious??) before they went into the box. The brownies were tasty and loved by all. A fab treat for the sweet tooth sans the sinful calories, particularly so when teamed with low fat ice cream or low fat chocolate sauce. The recipe for the sauce soon follows...

Chickpea & Black Eyed Bean Salad

A foodie on a diet!! Isn't that a tough, tough life??  Yeah, yeah,  I know I am exaggerating:-)) But it isn't easy either when you have food on your mind but not on your plate. Naw, am not starving, far from it - eating small meals and snacks all day. Healthy snacks of course. I am on the look out for the health bhi, taste bhi recipes, now more than ever. At the cost of repeating myself, like a lot of us, good, tasty food is very important to me  If I am on a diet, then it had better be low calorie tasty grub. Like this Chickpea and Black Eyed Bean Salad.

This Sanjeev Kapoor recipe was in my recipe diary since ages, but I had not made it as I was just plain lazy to take the trouble of cooking the beans separately. Its sometimes so strange that some ridiculously simple things like having 3 or 4 variety of beans at the same time in your pantry just takes ages to happen!!! Well, at last, I got the beans, soaked them and cooked them separately. Well,  it was 4 beans actually, but the third bean, the kidney beans, refused to cook well in spite of repeated attempts. I gave up!!! I forgot to get the green gram:-(. It became a Two Bean Salad instead of the original Four Bean Salad.

Again, there are no rules for making salads. Add or skip ingredients and vary the proportions of the same according to your taste and preference. A chilled salad is such a pleasure in summers, more so if its protein laden, low in fat, can be made ahead and stored. Indulge in this tongue tickling, chaat like preparation without any guilt whatsoever.

Broken Wheat Bisi Bele Bhat

One of South India's most loved dishes in its healthiest form!! Bisi Bele Bhat (BBB for ease)is usually made with rice and lentils, mostly Toor Dal, vegetables and spices. BBB can also be made with thick beaten rice flakes and Moong Dal- this one is reserved for the no-rice day, Ekadashi. Of late, my mother and sister both have been making the BBB with broken wheat and moong dal and it tastes just great. Replacing rice with broken wheat makes it a low GI meal making this delicious dish your dietitian's delight. You can whip up this dish in a hurry on a weekday morning taking the 'shortcut' method,using your sambhar powder or ready-made Bisi Bele Bhat powder. Or opt to make the masala from scratch on the day you make the dish or a day before.

There are of course a number of variations to making the BBB. North Karnataka Folks generally make this masala powder and store it like rasam or sambar powder.  Folks in Bangalore and around the area specially  make this powder fresh on the day the dish is made. Try serving a 'ready masala mix / Sambar powder' BBB to a hard core Bangalorean and see the reaction:-))

Psst.. a secret.. though I can spend hours baking or making desserts, snacks etc, I don't really love to spend time making rasam or sambar powders. Yeah, Mom and Mom-in-law are my lifelines for these quintessential masalas. I prefer to use home made sambar powder or MTR  Bisi Bele Bhat powder to make this scrumptious dish. Serve this spicy dish with potato chips or papad and raitha and there won't be anybody who will not over eat!!!

Healthy, Delicious Granola by Mallika

 Here ends your wait for Mallika's post, here comes healthy, delicious home-made wholesome Granola, which looks super delicious and tempting enough to grab off the monitor!!! Over to Mallika..

'Thank you Suma for providing me this opportunity to write on your blog and contribute a recipe for the same. Firstly, let me introduce you to myself. I am Mallika (I use MD to address myself on blogs). Other than being a full time working IT professional, you'll find me meddling around in the kitchen, cooking, reading, photographing, blogging, etc. I scuffle through my professional work life and personal passions by squeezing in time for cooking, juggling in a bit of baking, a little photography, blogging and loads of eating! ;)

I love the art of cooking and have been involved with it for many years now. It has helped me in many ways. Being a creative and adventurous person myself, cooking has rightly been an art involving both ventures of creativity and adventure. It's a great stress buster and I enjoy it thoroughly as it allows me to explore my boundaries beyond any limits. The happiness you get just by the satisified looks of people relishing what you've cooked is immensely encouraging. And it was out of sheer passion for cooking, that I unfolded my blog Veg Bowl! 

Allow me to share this healthy breakfast recipe for Granola. This Granola is loaded with nuts and we love it that way. The honey roasted oats and nuts bring out some good flavors while the nuts add a great deal of crunchiness to this recipe. 

Microwave Low Fat Masala Peanuts

One of my fondest childhood memories is of my father taking us all to a nearby canteen to buy us Masala Peanuts. Those were the crispy, spicy, gram flour coated deep fried ones. We used to enjoy eating them out of small paper cones. 

I was delighted to find this recipe for the masala peanuts in Tarla Dalal's Microwave Cooking book. These taste so good and you can make a cupful of these with just one tablespoon of oil. Isn't that great! It takes time and effort to make these, but hey you get this lovely snack with relatively so few calories and fat(from oil) to go with your evening coffee. Makes approximately one cup.

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, unskinned
1/2 cup gram flour
2 teaspoons chilli powder
A pinch of Ajwain seeds( you could use fennel seeds or hing here)
1 tablespoon oil
2-3 tablespoons water
Salt to taste

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the water and oil. Be careful not to add more water. Avoid eyeballing measures for this recipe. I have tried eye-balling and the results were not so good. Ensure the batter coats the peanuts evenly.

Drop the peanuts one by one or in clusters of 2-3 peanuts max on wax paper. These would need to be arranged in a circle near the outer edge of the paper, no circles within the outer circle, no peanuts in the middle. (I know I may be sounding ambiguous,hope you get what I mean to say)  You could also drop on the peanuts on the microwave plate, but using wax paper is quicker and less mess later to clean up. Microwave on HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from the wax paper, cool and store in an air tight container. Enjoy with your coffee!!

Please Note: As goes with a lot of microwave recipes, even a few seconds extra can cause the peanuts to harden too much or burn.

Do not reuse the same wax paper more than twice as it may burn.

Instant Oats Uttappa(Savoury Oats Pancakes)

 Oats :-((( ! I used to use them halfheartedly for the very rare porridge and some other stuff I don't even recall now. Only after I started blogging, I saw so many oats recipes and a mind boggling variety of them at that!! Cookies, pancakes, chutney pudi...Boy! After reading Madhuri's Instant Oats Idli recipe, the humble oats made an entry into my grocery list gain! Earlier, my box of oats would last for months and then the half-used stuff would unceremoniously be tossed out into the trash can. This time however, I have used my box of oats and got the next one too after making this really easy and healthy Oats Uttappa. Madhuri of course has this one in her repertoire of breakfast dishes. Thanks for getting oats back on our plates!

This Oats Uttappa is  really very easy and quick, and really very delicious. You could eat it with chutney or even with just pickle and curd. My family loved this and I am thinking of mixing the dry ingredients and stocking the mix in my fridge to make this even more easy and quick. Now, why did MTR not think of this?:-))

Easy Dhokla Chaat

I bet if you can show me somebody who does not love tongue-tickling chaats. My mouth waters at the thought of chaat and can have it anytime of the day, any day. And  I particularly love the 'dahi' varieties with cool curd topped on the chaat during summers. And its bliss to drown it all with a cold  badam-milk... Yumm!! Its just the thought of all those excessive calories and fat which goes into these delicious snacks that stops me from running to the nearest chaat center and binging on it.

I tried making a relatively low fat and healthier version the 'Dhokla Chaat'. This one is really quick and easy if you have Mint Chutney stored in your fridge. Honestly, I have never made an attempt to make the sweet chutney at home, as I hardly use a few teaspoons of the stuff at a time.  I have used  ready-made Fun Foods Khatti-Meethi Imli chutney, which I find is real good VFM:-)

Surely there are no hard and fast rules for making a chaat.  Most things you fancy can go into the dish, in varying proportions, reasonably of course! Forgive me for not specifying the exact quantities of ingredients except the dhokla mix I used here as I just kept taking and putting the stuff from their bottles as and when my family kept coming in. So please go by your taste when you make this.

Mint and Cilantro Chutney

 The popular, evergreen Indian chutney, literally!! Can we imagine our dhoklas, samosas, sandwiches and a score other snacks without this spicy chutney! Undoubtedly, there are plenty of versions of the Green Chutney. I tried this recipe from Tarla Dalal and have stuck with it ever since. I like this version for the simple reason that it results in the same taste consistently. The recipe specifies the quantity of mint and coriander in cup measures. The quantity of coriander is half that of the mint. I personally find the cup measure so much more reliable as compared to the bunch  measures.

I like to make this chutney and freeze it in small portions. Comes in so handy to make that sandwich for a snack or breakfast when I have nothing but bread in the fridge. Here comes the recipe.

Nutty Vanilla Popcorn

Do you know anybody who can resist popcorn?? Neither do I!! And few people can resist the irresistible, delicious smell of vanilla and butter cooking together. Be it in a cake or pancake or pudding or with popcorn.  Hmmm...Just opening my bottle of vanilla is enough to make me switch on my oven and start baking a cake. Of course I don't do that (much as I would love to)as my family is er.. a lil alarmed seeing the way I am obsessing with food in the recent past.

And with my son's final exams going on, I keep reminding myself to get a grip on my urges to cook, cook and cook even more. Boy! Am I looking forward to summer vacations just for the reason that I can cook and bake to my heart's content without having to worry about homework and assessments. Just for a week more, it will have to be quick and easy recipes to keep me and my kids happy. Like this easy and delicious Nutty Vanilla Popcorn.

Pineapple, Corn and Roasted Bell Peppers Salad

 “To remember a successful salad is generally to remember a successful dinner; at all events, the perfect dinner necessarily includes the perfect salad.”.

Well, for me, the ubiquitous salad is no doubt an important part of a successful dinner, but also makes a great anytime snack. Specially, for those mid morning or late evening hunger pangs. Chilled make-ahead salads, particularly, make eating them more of a pleasure during summer. Toss the salad at leisure and have it when you are hungry and pressed for time. Aaah!! Isn't it great to just open your fridge and pull out the salad bowl and eat it in the midst of work?? If made with fresh veggies and a low fat dressing, you can eat this to your heart's content.One such quick, simple and colorful salad with the goodness of the veggies...

Cold Coffee With Ice Cream

 Chocolate, men, coffee - some things are better rich.  ~Author Unknown.

I can bet my last piece of chocolate cake if most of the Indian population is not craving for a cool drink at this moment:-)) Its getting hotter by the day and for a coffee lover like me, nothing better to beat the heat than a tall glass of cold coffee.  Caffeine in any form is most welcome and if its Cold Coffee with a scoop of ice cream, its achieves the status of a dessert.  And, now I can't really resist this... At the cost of sounding immodest, I prefer my creamy home-made cold coffee to the ice-diluted ones in the fancy coffee shops. And since its low-fat, makes it all the more of a delight.  This low fat version compensates a tiny little bit for adding the scoop of ice cream, making me feel less guilty:-))

Easy Choco-Mocha Pancake Trifle

Cooking something special at home is a challenge for the occasional cook who does not stock up on  'special' ingredients. Or when you are not likely to be using these ingredients on a regular basis. With microwaves and OTGs not being part of every average Indian home, its more of a challenge. And power cuts are a fact of life here.

Cake, whipped cream, ganache are some of the things which come to my mind the moment I think of dessert. Today however, I wanted to try something which does not require a cake for the base, nor whipped cream. I wanted to make something that would be easy for a novice, yet pleasing to the palate. Nothing that would need a lot of practice or skill. Nothing  fancy really, just a sweet and tasty ending to a meal. And of course, something which can be put together at leisure and refrigerated to be consumed later.

This post is for my colleagues at office, who would like to try their hand at making a simple dessert. This is a dessert with layers of moist egg less chocolate pancake in between layers of coffee custard, with some  nuts thrown in between. Hope you try this out and surprise your hubbies on Valentine's Day with  Easy Choco-Mocha Pancake Trifle.

Easy Cucumber and Eggplant Sandwich

'You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients '- Julia Child.

Good food, according to me, is one of the bare necessities of life. Slight exaggeration I agree :-). But hey,  foodie or not, we all crave for good, decent, home cooked food. For those of us who do not rejoice in slaving in the kitchen or spending too much time in preparing a meal, quick and easy recipes are so useful to have on hand. My younger sister, who is a doctor by profession, would enjoy a good meal anytime as long as she does not need to slog over it (or prepare it for that matter:-)).  Ditto with a lot of busy people I know.

For the love of  food and promoting the idea and joy of cooking, I would like to dedicate this section to my sisters, both busy professionals(but having foodie hubbies and kids) and to my teen aged nieces Divya and Deepti who are budding foodies. Hope you find the recipes useful and handy. Wish you a delightful and satisfying journey on the road to creating  simple gastronomic delights.  Lemme end my small speech and lets move on to the recipe I would like to share with you today.

French Toast With An Orange Twist

I keep trying to find ways and means to satiate my sweet tooth sans the calories. I came across this recipe in Good Housekeeping some time back and it has been on my list of healthy, low fat, lip smacking sweet treats ever since. This citrussy indulgence is also a complete balanced meal in itself as it has the best quality egg protein and the goodness of whole wheat fiber in it. Add the abundance of vitamins from the oranges and you will please the fitness fanatic too. This is great as breakfast or as an after school snack or even dessert!!!  If there ever was a quick, guilt free way to have an anytime sweet treat for both kids and adults, this is one. Try out for your self and you will know...

 Ingredients:
4 Slices whole wheat bread
3 eggs, whites only
3 teaspoons powdered sugar (add more if desired)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (add more for a more intense orange flavor)
1 teaspoon fresh orange juice.
2 tablespoons finely chopped orange segments
1 tablespoon low fat fresh hung curd or low fat set curd
2 teaspoons vegetable oil.
2 teaspoons honey (optional)
1 teaspoon low fat butter

Procedure: Trim the crust from the bread slices. Slice diagonally into 2 parts. Keep aside. Take the egg whites in a shallow bowl; add 2 tea spoons sugar, orange rind and orange juice. Whisk lightly, mix well.

Mix the orange segments and 1 teaspoon sugar into the hung curd. Apply half teaspoon  hung curd on one diagonal slice of bread and sandwich with another diagonal slice of bread. Repeat with the rest of the bread. Soak these sandwiched slices in the egg white mixture for a few seconds. Take care not to soak too much as the bread will become soggy and tear.

Heat a non stick skillet and grease lightly with oil. Shallow fry the French toast on medium heat till golden brown. Brush very lightly with butter. Drizzle honey on top. Serve hot.

This recipe is also my entry to Srivalli's Kid's Delight - Wholesome Breakfast event.
This also goes to Archana's Breakfast -30