Eggless Pav Buns

 

Previously, I have already shared a healthy version of pav buns. Today, I am going to show you how I made a soft and fluffy pav buns using maida. I went through a lot of recipes, got to know some tips and implemented on my pav buns. A sticky dough is the main factor in making soft pav buns. Once it is rised well, you can add more flour and knead again.

Please note the measurements and you will never go wrong in making this

Ingredients

• All purpose flour / Maida- 3 cups + more for kneading
• Milk powder - 2 tblspn
• Luke warm water - 1 + 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 2 tblspn
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Unsalted Butter - 3 tblspn (melted)
• Little more butter for greasing

Method

• In a bowl, combine together, luke warm water, yeast and sugar. Mix well and keep it aside for about 5 to 10 minutes. It should froth by then. If not, you must re-start the process again. Make sure your yeast is active. This step is very important. If this goes wrong, the entire process will be an utter failure.
• In another big bowl, combine flour, milk powder and salt. Mix well. Add the melted butter. Mix well until everything is combined.
• Pour the yeast mixture to the flour. Knead it for 15 minutes. It will be very sticky. That is how it should be. Keep scraping your fingers and keep kneading for 15 minutes.
• Form it like a huge mass. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl. Smear some butter on the dough. Cover with a luke warm wet cloth and rest in a warm place for at least one hour.
• The dough would have tripled in size by now.
• Sprinkle some plain flour and start kneading again. Basically, punch out the air bubbles. The dough need not be sticky now. You can sprinkle around 2 tblspn of flour and knead it in this stage. Also, make sure the dough is soft and not too hard.
• Divide the dough in to 9 to 12 lemon sized portion. Roll it like a ball. Make sure there are no cracks. It should be smooth enough.
• Greasing your baking tray with some butter and arrange these on them. Be sure that there are some gap between each ball.
• Cover again with a damp cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. Each ball would have increased in size.
• Pre-heat the oven @220 deg C
• Brush some melted butter on each balls.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until you see the top portion of each bun becomes golden brown in colour.
• Remove from the oven. Again, brush some melted butter immediately.

• Allow it to cool and use per your preference.
• Nothing can beat the smell of a freshly baked pav.. isn't it???? 
• Made pav bhaji out of these...

Eggless Dry Fruits and Nuts Cake

As I am a passionate baker, I bake at least once a week. But until now, I have never baked a simple vanilla sponge cake. I was trying to bake a perfect vanilla sponge cake, which has no eggs and no butter. Finally, I made it. I saw many recipes for the same, mixed and matched almost all recipes, used my baking tips and at last my vanilla sponge cake with dry fruits and nuts was accomplished.
My sincere thanks to my co-sister, who gave me an awesome idea for baking a sponge cake. For the first time, I used that technique on my cakes and it turned out super soft!!
The tip was like this;
Mix 1 tblspn of flax seeds powder and 3 tblspn of hot water (neither warm nor boiling. Just hot). Mix well and refrigerate for sometime. Then, add it to the batter.

Another tip of mine is, adding Apple Cider Vinegar for all my eggless cakes, which does all the magic.

Here goes the Recipe

Ingredients

• All purpose flour/ maida - 1 + 1/2 cup
• Baking powder - 1 + 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Curd - 1 cup, well beaten
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 tblspn
• Flax seeds powder - 1 tblspn
• Hot water - 3 tblspn
• Chopped dry fruits and nuts - 1/2 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tblspn
• Flour - 1 tblspn, to coat the dry fruits and nuts
• Salt - a pinch
• Cashews - few 

Method

• In a bowl, mix flax seeds powder and hot water. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Chop dry fruits and nuts. Coat them with 1 tblspn flour, so that it will not sink to the bottom while baking.
• Pre-heat the oven @200 deg C. Grease your cake tin or loaf pan with oil. Dust some flour all around, pat it so that it coats all the sides. Tap off the excess flour
• Dry Ingredients:Sieve together maida, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sieve it at least twice.
• Wet Ingredients: In another vessel, beat the curd and sugar, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Now add oil, vanilla essence, flax seeds slurry and apple cider vinegar. Mix everything well.
• To the wet ingredients, add half of the flour mixture, fold in gently.
• Now add the remaining half, fold in gently. Use spatula to mix it.
• Now add the chopped dry fruits and nuts and again, fold in gently.
• Transfer this batter to a greased cake tin or loaf pan. Sprinkle some cashew nuts or any nuts of your choice.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven @200 deg C for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and run your knife around the edges to loosen it. 
• Remove from the pan after 15 minutes.

• Cut and serve once it is cooled down completely. 

Creamy Paneer and Baby Corn Masala

I was over excited when I saw some bottled baby corns in a super market. I have never seen anyone selling this delicious vegetable where I am staying right now. Thanks to my best friend "Hamsi" for suggesting this store. I have never dealt with this vegetable before. First time made Chilli Baby Corn in Hamsi's house a few days ago. I love the taste of this yummy vegetable and this is another stuff which I am going to experiment with in next few days.!!! And ya, my sweetheart also loves it. So, I thought of preparing a gravy for my masala flaky parathas. I googled a lot of recipes, combined many recipes and ended up with "my own version" of this dish.
This gravy is very rich, creamy and delicious. In short, my first experiment with this vegetable was a great hit at my place.

So, here I am posting the recipe of the same.

Ingredients

To grind

• Onion - 1, roughly chopped
• Tomato - 1 , roughly chopped
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Garlic - 3 cloves (If too small, take 4 or 5)
• Green chillies - 3 or 4 (according to your spice preference)

To Soak and Grind

• Cashews - 8 or 9
• Almonds - 8 or 9 (De-skinned )
• Melon seeds - 1 tblspn
• Warm milk - 1/2 cup

Other Ingredients

• Oil/ butter - 1 tblspn
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Onions - 1, finely chopped
• Salt - to taste
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Yoghurt - 1/4 cup
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Kitchen king masala - 1 tsp
• Dried fenugreek leaves/ kasuri methi - 1 tsp, crushed
• Cream - 1 tblspn
• Coriander leaves- to garnish

Method

To Grind

Grind all the ingredients under "To Grind" heading in the ingredients list in to a fine paste. Add little water if necessary. Make sure the mixture is not too watery. Keep aside

To Soak and Grind

• Take some warm milk in a bowl and combine cashews, almonds and melon seeds. Let it soak for 15 to 20 minutes. Then grind in to a smooth paste. Keep aside

How to Proceed

• Heat 1 tsp of oil/ butter in a pan. Shallow fry the paneer cubes until it becomes golden brown from all the sides. Remove from the pan. In the same pan, add 1 mre tsp of oil/ butter and shallow fry the baby corn until it is golden brown here and there. This step is completely optional.

• In a bowl, combine well beaten yogurt, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder and kitchen king masala powder. Mix well and keep it aside. Let it sit for 20 minutes

• Heat the remaining oil/ butter in a pan and add cumin seeds. When it starts changing the color, add onions. Saute till it becomes transparent. Add salt and sugar.

• Now add the onion, tomato paste, 1/4 cup water. Mix well.

• Cover the lid and cook for 15 minutes. Keep stirring every 5 or 6 minutes. It will become dry and the raw smell of the onion and tomato will vanish away. Make sure to keep the heat in medium.

• Now add the yogurt mixture and some water. Let it come to one boil.

 

 

• Now add the cashew, almond and melon seeds paste

• Add the crushed kasuri methi

• Add the fried paneer and baby corns. Give it a stir. Cover the lid and let it cook for 20 minutes in a medium-low flame. Keep stirring in between to avoid burning at the bottom. Let the paneer and baby corn absorb all the flavors from the gravy.

 

• Open the lid and check whether the baby corn has cooked well. If not, cover the lid again and cook for some more time. If it is done, check the consistency of the gravy and add the cream.
• Cover the lid again. Cook for a minute and turn off the heat.
• Let it sit for 5 minutes before transfering in to the serving dish.
• Now, serve garnished with coriander leaves and some cream(optional).
• It goes well with chapathi/naan/roti/phulka or even with any mild pulaos.

 

Notes

• To de-skin the almonds, soak them in hot water for 20 minutes. Try to peel off the skin. you can easily de-skin them

Fried Buns

I got so inspired to prepare this bun when my hubby was talking about the one we get in theater. So, I thought of giving him a surprise when he returns from the office. We used to have this with chocolate stuffing in India. This time thought of giving it a twist and ended up with this carrot, beetroot and dry fruits stuffing.
Thanks to Yummytummyaarthi.com for giving me the idea.
You can stuff anything as per your preference.

My hubby was over excited like a child when he saw me frying this for him. And of course, he enjoyed it. He asked me to prepare this more often and with the chocolate filling the next time. I am going to try my hands on that too.

I will make a quick draft of the recipe now.


 

Ingredients

For the stuffing

• Carrot - 2, grated
• Beetroot - 1 grated
• Onion - 1, chopped finely
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tblspn
• Green chillies- 2, finely chopped
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Caswes - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Almonds - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Raisins - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tblspn, chopped finely
• Oil - 2 tsp

For the Dough

• Maida/ All purpose flour - 2 cups
• Yeast - 1.5 tsp
• Warm milk - 3/4 cup
• Warm water - as needed to knead the dough
• Salt -  1 tsp
• Sugar - 2 tblspn

Other ingredients

• Bread crumbs - 1 cup
• Corn flour mixed in water - 1 cup
• Oil for deep frying

Method

For the stuffing

• Heat oil in a pan and crackle cumin seeds.
• Add onions, ginger garlic paste, cashews, almonds, raisins and green chillies and saute until onions are translucent.
• Now add the grated carrot and beetroot. Keep stirring until it is cooked. Sprinkle some water and keep it closed if it is burning.
• Now add salt, sugar, turmeric powder, garam masala, coriander powder and cumin powder. Keep stirring for a minute and then turn off the heat. Add some coriander leaves and mix again. Your sutuffing is now ready.

For the dough

• Take maida in a bowl and add salt. Whisk well until both a re combined.
• In another bowl combine sugar and milk. Mix well. Now add the yeast mixture.
• Allow it to sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Pour this mixture in to the flour and add enough warm water to make a soft dough. Knead really well
• Apply some oil over the dough. Cover and let it rest for an hour or so. Make sure you keep this dough in a warm place to allow it to rise

• It would have doubled in volume by this time.

 

How to Proceed?

• Knead the dough and punch out the air pockets. Take a small lemon sized portion of the dough. Roll it between your fists. Apply some flour if its sticky.

• Flatten it and place some stuffing on it

 

• Bring all the edges together inorder to seal it.
• Repeat the same for all and keep it aside

• Keep your bread crumbs ready

• Keep your cornflour mixture ready

• Dip 1 ball in cornflour mixture 

• Roll it in the bread crumbs until all the sides are well coated

• Repeat the same for all

• Heat the oil for deep frying and fry these buns.

• You can see the buns will increase in its size while frying. Fry until it becomes golden brown from all the sides.

• Drain any excess oil in the kitchen towl. Serve it hot.

 



 

Ragi Mudde

Ragi Mudde is a dumpling made using ragi flour/ finger millet flour, which is a famous dish in Karnata and Andrapradesh. In earlier days, this is consumed more by farmers, as a breakfast, so that it will keep them strong and will prevent hunger for long time. But now, the trend has changed. It is consumed by one and all. It is one best and healthy way to begin your day. The benefits of finger millet are many. It is consumed by all age groups. It helps to keep the bones strong and maintain the iron levels.

It is usually consumed along with any lentil based curry of your choice. Once you make this, it stays in refrigerator up to 6 or 7 days. You just have to heat it and serve. The traditional way of preparing this dish is only using ragi. But today, some people add even 1 tsp of rice flour, to get a smooth texture and to avoid any lumps formed while mixing the ragi dough. 

Here, I am showing you the step by step procedure of making the ragi mudde. Hope it helps

Ingredients

• Ragi/ Finger Millet - 1 cup
• Water - 1 +3/4 cup
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Rice flour - 1 tsp

Method

• Take a heavy bottomed vessel and add water, salt, 1 tsp ragi flour and rice flour. Mix well and bring this to boil.

 

 

• When it comes to rolling boil, turn the heat to medium and add the ragi flour. Do not mix it. 

• Let it boil until the water starts covering the dry ragi flour.

• Once it starts covering the ragi flour, remove from heat and start mixing. Mix it until no lumps remains. It will start getting dry. Mix vigorously. Scrape out the sides.

• When you are sure that there are no lumps, close and rest it for 5 minutes.
• Tranfer the ragi mixture to a greased plate.

• Grease your hands with oil/ ghee. Take a lemon sized portion and start rolling to get a ball shaped ragi dumpling. 

• Repeat the same for all.

• Your ragi mudde is now ready.

• Serve it immediately or serve with in a week. Do not forget to heat it before serving.
• Enjoy with any lentil based curry of your choice.

 

• We had with hot brinjal sambar..
• Enjoy!!!