Poster I Made

Eggless Carrot Cake

After making a cake from the mix and using eggs, I wanted to make a something without eggs and with something that I have at home, without any artificial flavours. With this intension I started my search with Google as usual. There were several versions of the cakes one with dates (I shall try that later though), with carrots, strawberries and so on. I picked up the carrot versions, looked at about 4-5 different reciepes and came up with my own. I tried it a couple of times to get to a recipe that gives a cake that is as soft as any other cake with eggs. And here is the final version that I reached:

Ingrediants: 2 cups All-purpose flour 11/2 cup sugar 1 cup milk 1/2 cup orange juice (or 1 tbspn lemon juice) 3/4 cup oil 1/2 teaspoon orange zest 11/4 cup grated (or finely chopped) carrots 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup of chopped nuts (I used cashewnuts and resins) seeds of 2-3 cardomons (powdered)

Procedure: First prepare sour milk by mixing orange or lemon juice in the cup of milk. The first time I made this cake, I added only leamon juice. But in the later versions I used th orange juice, since I buy an orange to make the orange zest, and in order not to waste it, I make orange juice out of it and added to the milk. If the orange is not sour enough, I added some lemon juice and kept the milk for about five minutes.

I used navel orange for the zest. This type of oranges generally give good amount of zest and rough enough to grate with a small grater. While making the zest make sure you grate only the orange part of the skin. If the white part gets into the zest, the cake does not taste good.

In a mixing boil, I mixed the orange zest and oil, later added the sour milk to it. I mixed it well until the oil mixes with the milk. Later I added the sugar. When I used icing, I added only 11/4 cup and I felt that it would be better to add more sugar. 11/2 cups is fine. You can add more sugar if you would like it sweeter but do not add more than 2 cups or else the cake becomes too sticky.

Slowly, I added the all-pupose flour and the baking powder. Mixed it well without lumps. In fact I used the food-processor so that it would be grinded smoothly. If the batter is too thick, we can add some milk, but one thing is that once the carrots are added, it does not stay so thick if the carrots are juicy. Finally, before baking, add the nuts and carrots and the powdered cardomon. Bake it for an hour at 350F in a pre-heated oven. This cake must be baked longer than the regular cakes because it takes some time for the carrots to cook well.

Apple Pie

A next step in my baking effort.I do not want to boast much about this recipe. I should say this is the result of my efforts in using my favorite search engine "google". I should better change my "five things I cannot live without" column in my profile in orkut to include Google. "Why fear when google is hear...".

Here is the recipe for the crust: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001127perfect_pie_crust.php
And is the recipe for the filling: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHk-3yxVXJVMnHcRV7g4CzOUVsO1JaKST8pyung-EYLNImEqzRDuDDhiF8TeEHbDYvcfXH6Mk3EnSxo_iwLueI75UQDPAReUW5dZDTislL6gOTP_53b3-7uOUIuTHmCIHvGr1K94JsvRc/s1600-h/Picture+008.jpg And thats it my apple pie is done.I simply followed the steps for the crust exactly as it is. And for the filling, I mixed together apples with lemon juice sugar, flour and honey slightly different from the exact filling recipe. Other than that the procedure is the same.

Sweet Potato & Spinach Cutlet

A few weeks back, when I was watching some indian channel, there was a cooking show showing some recipe with Sweet Potato and spinach. It has the shape of a aloo tikiya. I do not exactly remember the recipe and I made something like a cutlet for a sunday snack, (not exactly a cutlet but I named it so) with sweet potato and it tasted very nice. So here is my version of the recipe in the cooking show.

Ingrediants:
Servings: 7-8 Cutlets
One medium sized sweet potato
One small potato
spinach (that makes about 2 table spoons of puree)
1 tbspn of green peas
1 tbspn chopped cilantro
Red Chilli powder- as per taste
Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tspn
Bread Crumbs - one cup
shredded cheese - 2 table spoons
oil - 2-3 tbsps needed for frying
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Boil the sweet potato and the potato. Peel the skin and mash them. 2. Microwave the spinach for a few minutes and grind it to a smooth paste, something like spinach puree. 3. Add the spinach puree, peas, salt, chilli powder, black pepper powder and chopped cilanthro to the mashed potatoes and make a sort of dough. 4.If the dough is watery add a little bread crumbs to make it free from moisture. 5.Make the dough into balls. Press it in the middle, put some cheese inside, close it again so that it is as if the cheese is stuffed inside the cutlet. I used paramesan cheese, however you can use mozerella or goat cheese according to your preference. 6. Now flatten the balls like a cutlet and roll them in bread crumps. If you wish to have a thick crust, add water to a little maida (all purpose flour) , dip the cutlet in it and then roll it in bread crumps. 7. Put 2-3 table spoons of oil in a pan and toast the cutlets until both sides get a golden brown color.

Hmm Yummy!!... You can serve it hot with tomato sauce or coriander chutney. The cheese inside the cutlet melts when the cutlet is toasted and makes the cutlet juicy and tastes awesome.