Sinful egg less mango cake with cream cheese frosting

Yes unfortunately (or is it fortunate to sin sometimes :P) it is a sinful cake as I had prepared this with all purpose flour/maida and not with whole wheat flour/atta  this time. As the mango season slowly goes out of season, I just decided to make the most of it with this light version of yummy cake! Let's not waste any more time and jump to the recipe! Also please note that this is a pressure cooker recipe.

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30-45 mins
Quantity - approx. 8 servings

Ingredients:
Allpurpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Baking powder - tbsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tbsp
Cardamom/elachi powder - 1/2 tbsp
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
Alphonso mangoes puree - 3 cups (from approx 3 medium sized mangoes)
Vanilla essence - 1tbsp
Mishti Dahi/sweet yoghurt - 1/2 cup
Condensed milk - 3-4 tbsp
Unsalted cooking butter - 1/3 cup

Recipe:
1. Seive together maida, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom powder. Do it twice for better results.
2. In a large bowl, add powdered sugar, mango puree, butter, vanilla essence and  mishti dahi and beat it to form smooth mixture.
3. Now slowly add the maida mixture to this mango mixture and mix it properly to avoid any lumps.
4. Check the consistency of the batter now, it should neither be too runny nor too hard. To test this, just drop a bit from the laddle and the batter should just be of dropping consistency.
5. Place a tawa on the stove over medium flame and place the cooker on top of it with closed lid, without washer and without whistle. Let it get heated for atleast 10 mins.
6. Now apply butter to the cake tin and powder it with maida.
7. Pour the cake batter into it and gently place it inside the cooker and again close the cooker with the lid.
8. Let it bake for around 20-25 mins and keep checking after that. The knife should come out clean when you place it inside the cake and remove. That's when the cake is done.
9. Remove the cake from the cooker and allow it to cool completly before applying any frosting.


Now this is the part where it gets interesting. After all, what's cake without icing :D

Cream cheese frosting recipe:

Ingredients:
Homemade paneer - approx 150 gms (made from 1 ltr full fat milk)
Vanilla essence - 1 tbsp
Mango puree - 1/3 cup
Sugandhi sharbat concentrate - 2 tbsps

Recipe:
1. Combine all the ingredients given under frosting ingredients and blend it into a smooth mixture.
2. Once the cake has cooled down completly, apply the frosting mixture and enjoy

Tips:
1. Alphonso mangoes work best for the cake as the flavor and sweetness are the best in this variety. However if you are using any other mango, please adjust the sugar quantity as per your taste.
2. Mishti dahi is usually available in grocery stores in India, if you cannot get one, just replace it with thick curd and 2 tbsps jaggery/brown sugar/gur.
3. Sugandhi sharbat is something which we get as a concentrate made with roots of sugandhi plant and sugar syrup. This is usually available in juice stores in andhra. If you do not have that available, just replace it with 3 tbsp sugar and you are good.
4. Here I have used homemade paneer for frosting, however you can also get cream cheese directly from the stores.

Puffed Rice Upma

This is a tasty breakfast/evening snack recipe for people who are bored with the usual idly/dosa for breakfast. I learnt this puffed rice/bhel/borugulu/murmure upma from my mil. Here goes the recipe!

Preparation time : 15 mins
Cooking time : 15 mins
Quantity : serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Puffed rice - 200gms
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1.5 tbsp

For tempering:
cooking oil - 3 tbps
mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
jeera/cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
urad dal - 1 tbsp
chana dal - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 5-6 no.s

Vegetables:
Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
Tomato - 1 medium sized chopped
Green chillies - 4, cut length wise
Capsicum - 1 small, chopped finely (optional)
Carrot - 1 small, chopped finely (optional)
Lime juice - from 2 medium sized lemons

For taste maker:
Roasted bengal gram dal - 4 tbsps
Dry coconut/dry copra/desiccated coconut - 4 tbsps grated
Dry red chillies - 2

Recipe:
1. Take the puffed rice in a bowl, pour water till it is immersed. Now take handful of wet puffed rice, squeeze and discard excess amount of water and keep it aside. Repeat this process for the complete puffed rice. Please do not soak the puffed rice as it will become mushy, it has to be taken out immediately after adding water.
2. Add the oil to a tawa and heat it. Once it is hot enough add the mustard seeds followed by jeera, urad dal, chana dal and roast them for a minute.
3. Now add curry leaves and green chillies, roast it for 2-3 mins.
4. Then add onion and after onions become transperent add the remaining chopped vegetables. Fry this mixture for around 5 mins or till the veggies are cooked.
5. Now add turmeric, salt and mix well.
6. Add the puffed rice at this stage and immediately switch off the flame. Mix the puffed rice with the cooked vegetables properly.
7. Add the ingredients mentioned under taste maker to a mixer and grind it to a fine powder. 
8. Add the taste maker powder to puffed rice upma and mix well. At the end add the lime juice to the upma and mix well.

Delicious puffed rice upma is ready! The serving should be a bit more than the regular rava upma as it's not filling with meager quantity. And the best part is, this can be eaten as it is without any other accompaniment like chutneys! Enjoy!

Andhra instant pickle base

Here I have given the base for most of the instant andhra pickles. More or less only the vegetable used in making pickle varies and the pickle base recipe remains constant. This recipe tastes good for the following veggies:
yellow cucumber (peeled, deseeded)
roasted brinjal
raw mango (skip the tamarind)
coconut
Roasted Mint/pudina
Roasted Palak etc
Yet to try with capsicum and ridge gourd!

Preparation Time - 15 mins
Cooking Time - 5 mins
Quantity - serves 3-4

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds - 2 tbsps
Methi seeds - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Green chillies - 2
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Hing - a pinch
Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size, soaked in water for at least 10 mins
Cooking oil - 2 tbsps
Garlic pods - 3-4 no.s
Salt - to taste
vegetable of choice -1 cup chopped

Recipe:
1. Soak tamarind in required amount of water in a bowl and keep aside
2. Heat the oil in a kadai.
3. Once the oil is hot enough, add mustard seeds. when they start spluttering, add coriander seeds, methi seeds and dry red chillies. Roast them for 2 mins on low flame.
4. Now add green chillies and roast for another 2 mins.
5. Now add turmeric and hing and switch of the flame.
6. Let this mixture cool down and then transfer it into a mixer. Grind it coarsely.
7. Now add garlic pods, coriander leaves, soaked tamarind (discard water) and salt to the mixer. Grind all the ingredients into a coarse mixture, sprinkling very little water as required.
8. Your andhra pickle base is ready.
9. To this, add the vegetable and grind to a coarse paste.

Indulge yourself in the spice of the pickle with some rice, ghee and papad! 

Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cake - Gourmet version

This is another version of the chocolate cake which is very rich in flavor, texture, taste and what not? So this is called the gourmet version! But again this is an 'eggless cake - made in cooker' recipe.

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time : 60 mins
Quantity : 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

Walnuts - 1/2 cup chopped
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp
Maida - 1 tbsp

Dry Ingredients:
Atta/Whole wheat flour - 2.5 cups
Powdered Sugar - 2.5-3 cups
Baking soda - 2 tbsps
Baking powder - 3/4 tbsp
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1.5 cups
Salt - 1.5 tbsp

Wet Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate - 85 gms
Ripe banana : 3/4 cup mashed
Beaten curd/yogurt - 1.5 cups
Odourless cooking oil - 1 cup (or) Unsalted butter - 1 cup
Hot brewed coffee (decoction) - 1.5 cups (made from around 5-6 tbsps of filter coffee powder)
Vanilla essence - 1 tbsp

Recipe:
1. Combine all the items under dry ingredients and sieve them together for two times in one large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, chop the dark chocolate into pieces and add the hot coffee decoction to it. Mix well till it melts and forms a thick mixture.
3. To this, add mashed banana, curd, oil, vanilla essence and mix well.
4. Add this wet mixture to the dry ingredients mix, add chopped walnuts and raisins and mix well. Now the cake mix is ready.
5. Take an aluminium vessel, apply butter inside and powder it with maida.
6. Pour the cake mix into it.
7. Place a tawa on medium flame and place the pressure cooker on top of it. Please make sure the cooker is without water, whistle and washer. Close the lid of the cooker and let it heat for atleast 10 mins.
8. Now place the aluminium vessel with cake mix inside the cooker and close the cooker lid.
9. Let the cake bake for about 45-60 mins on medium flame. But please keep checking once in every 20 mins to see if the cake is done. To check if the cake is baked, place a knife inside the cake and pull it out and it should come out without any moist cake mix on it.

Note:
1. The cooker method I have given is the same one that I followed at home. If you have an alternate or better way of preparing the cake in cooker, please feel free.
2. Let the tawa that is placed under the cooker be an unused/old one as you cannot use it again for making things like dosa, only phulkas can be made on such tawas later on.
3. The substitute for tawa is using sand inside the cooker, but I have not yet used it personally.

Andhra kadhi/Majjiga pulusu

Kadhi is a popular dish in India, made with yogurt/curd/buttermilk and its flavour differs from one region to the other. If you like the andhra food then you should definitely try and taste the andhra kadhi.

Preparation time - 20 mins
Cooking time - 20 mins
Quantity - serves 6

Ingredients:

Beaten yogurt/Beaten curd/Thick buttermilk - 3 cups
water 1 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Hing/asafetida - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1.5 tbsps

Vegetables:
Ripe tomatoes - 2
bottle gourd - 1/2 cup (washed, peeled and cut into one inch pieces)
ash gourd - 1/2 cup (washed, peeled, de-seeded and cut into one inch pieces)
yellow cucumber - 1/2  cup (washed, peeled, de-seeded and cut into one inch pieces)
ladies finger/bhindi - 1/2 cup (washed and cut into 2 inch pieces)

For masala paste:
chana dal - 1/4 cup
dry red chillies - 2
green chillies - 2
ginger - 2 inch piece
dry coconut/dry copra/desiccated coconut/fresh coconut - 4 tbsps grated
coriander seeds/dhaniya seeds - 2 tbsps

For tempering:
cooking oil - 1tbsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
cumin seeds/jeera - 1/2 tbsp
urad dal - 1/2 tbsp
dry red chilli - 1
curry leaves - 5-6 no.s

For garnishing:
Few coriander leaves

Recipe:
1. To prepare the masala paste, soak all the ingredients given under masala paste except for coconut for about 30 mins
2. Boil the vegetables given under vegetables section adding turmeric and salt. Except for tomatoes you can add/skip other vegetables based on the availability. If you are using a cooker just boil them for one whistle otherwise they will become mushy.
3. Now add the soaked ingredients from step 1 to a mixer, add grated coconut and grind it to a smooth paste adding little bit of water.
4. Switch on the flame, place a wok and add the masala paste, boiled veggies and beaten curd  to it. Add salt and mix properly.
5. To this add 1 cup of water and bring it to boil. The flame has to be on low all the while as we are using curd in the preparation.
6. Once the kadhi begins to boil, this is when we will add the tempering.
7. In another kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and once it is hot, add the mustard seeds, once they start to splutter, add jeera, urad dal, dry red chilli, hing and curry leaves.
8. Pour this tempering over kadhi and switch of the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Andhra Kadhi tastes good with rice, toor dal (plain toor dal cooked with some turmeric and salt) and ghee.

Instant Mango pickle

Now, here I should thank my friends, Saraswathi, Pavithra and Pooja for making me set an alarm for my 'so called' cooking blog and wake it up! So I made this pickle last saturday for our get-to lunch and everyone seems to like it and here goes the motivation for posting the recipe of the same.

Easiness lies only in preparing the pickle but no compromise in taste :) Come season of mangoes and nobody should miss out on this yummy tasty pickle. And if you are a pickle fan then your favorite might as well be this mango pickle :)...not boasting but such is the flavor of this seasonal vegetable and u gotta agree with me, wont you?

This pickle tastes best when hand pounded rather than a mixer. I am giving the recipe for the pound, you can follow the same order of steps mentioned in the recipe though you are using a mixer.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 5 mins

Quantity: makes about 1.5 cups

Ingredients:

For pickle:

Raw Mango - 1 medium sized (thotapuri or any normal variety raw mango)

Garlic pods - 3-4 no.s

Coriander/dhaniya seeds - 1 tbsp

Fenugreek/Methi seeds - 1/2 tbsp

Salt - 1 tbsps

Red chilli powder - 1-2 tbsps (based on your spice levels) 

For tempering:

Cooking oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp

Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/2 tbsp

Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp

Dry red chillies - 2

Asafetida/hing - a pinch

Curry leaves - 5-6 no.s

Recipe:

1. Heat a tawa and dry roast dhaniya and methi seeds on low flame till they turn little brown and release the aroma.

2. Wash and cut the raw mango into small pieces without removing the skin.

3. First add the roasted dhaniya and methi seeds and pound it to a fine powder

4. Then add the garlic pods and cut mango pieces and pound it coarsely. Do not pound the mango pieces like a paste (same goes with the mixer). The pickle tastes good when you get very small mango pieces left behind in the pickle. It adds that crunchy taste to it.

5. Add salt and red chilli powder as you are pounding it.

6. Take the mixture into a bowl.

7. Heat a tawa with a tbsp of oil. When oil is hot enough, first add mustard seeds.

8. When they start spluttering, add jeera and urad dal. Then add red chillies, a pinch of hing and curry leaves.

9. Pour this tempering over the pickle. Serve this pickle with hot rice and some generous amout of ghee :). Also tastes very good with curd rice.

Besan Jowar Laddoo

This is an easy-to-make laddoo recipe and is a nutritional snack, especially for kids. If you want to hog on yummy laddoos without much effort in making then you got to hurry up and follow the recipe :)

Preparation time - 20 mins
Cooking time - 10-15 mins
Quantity - makes 15 laddoos approx.

Ingredients:
Besan/sanaga pindi - 1 cup
Jowar flour/Jonna pindi - 1 cup
Almonds/Badam - 10-12
grated Jaggery/bellam turumu - 2 cups 
Cardamom powder/Elachi powder - 1/2 tablespoon
Ghee - 4-5 tablespoons

Laddoo Recipe:
1. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a tawa and roast besan on low flame for 2-3 minutes approx. till you get a nice aroma and it slightly changes colour. Transfer it to a bowl.
2. Now heat 1 tbsp of ghee in the same tawa and roast jowar flour on low flame for 2-3 minutes approx. till you get a nice aroma and it slightly changes colour. Transfer it to the roasted besan bowl.
3. Dry roast almonds on low flame for 2-3 minutes approx. till they slightly change colour. Let it cool and grind it coarsely in a blender. Add it to the besan-jowar mix.
4. Now add the grated jaggery, roasted besan, roasted jowar flour, almonds, cardamom powder and mix together. 
5. Add the remaining ghee, divide the mixture into equal portions and make round balls with the help of your palms.

Yummy laddoos are ready to eat!