A few recipes

I did two things over the weekend -

One, tried my hand at baking a healthy cake ; made maple walnut and I was glad it turned out yum; glad because i had followed my instincts for the measurement and was a little apprehensive!

Secondly, I had the most awesome crepe at AppleSeed. I will definitely recommend the spinach crepe there.

So here is my Healthy Maple Walnut cake recipe.

Ingredients -

* 1 and half cup all purpose flour

* 1 cup buttermilk

* 2 Tbsp butter melted

* 2 eggs

* 1/3 cup light brown sugar

* 1/4 cup maple syrup

* 1 tsp vanilla essence

* 1/4 cup broken walnut

* 1 tsp baking powder

Procedure -

Beat eggs, butter milk, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla essence. Wisk it with all purpose flour and bking powder. Plop in the walnuts. Bake in a greased vessel for about 50 minutes at 350F. Makes a great companion for strawberry icecream.

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Before I forget, Wish everyone a happy Ugadi! And today was ugadi potluck at work and we had an assortment of rice varieties ( Mango rice, Pulihora, Lemon rice, curd rice, pudina rice) I was the contributor of pudina rice (mint rice) and this is one recipe I have never gone wrong with (touch wood) and here you go; Thats how I make it!  :)

Ingredients -

To grind -

* Generous fistful bunch of mint stalk with leaves

* cup of grated coconut

* 1 inch cube of ginger

* 3 large garlic pods

* 7 to 10 green chillies ( according to spice level tolerance)

Spices -

4 cardamom pods

2 cloves

1 star anise

bay leaves

One 3 inch cinnamon stick

3 cups Basmati Rice

Beat the above mentioned ingredients under 'To grind' in a food processor until it is a smooth paste. Add as little water as possible. It should not be smooth like chutney, but slightly granulated to touch.

In a large pan, add about 2 tsps of ghee. Add the 'Spices'. Once they sizzle, add the ground paste. Keep it on a low flame, so that the pudina paste doesnot darken, but cooks evenly. 

While the paste is getting done, get the 3 cups of rice cooked. I usually soak the rice for about an hour. Then allow sufficient water to boil in a heavy bottom vessel. To the boiling water I pop in broken cardamom, 1 cm long cinnamon stick and sufficient salt. Once the water boils, I add the rice and let it cook for about 15 minutes or until it is separate grained but well cooked. Drain the rice.

Now slowly mix the rice with the pudina paste. Garnish with brown fried onions cut long and cashews.

Enjoy! Happy cooking everyone!