Watermelon Dosa ( Watermelon pancakes);GF

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This is one of my favorites to make during the summer as there is plenty of watermelon lying around!! Yes, I had written this post during the end of summer but never got around to posting it!! Well, one is allowed to be nostalgic about the warm days on cold evenings! Also, in certain parts of the world like Australia it is summer ! Anyways, coming back to presents,when it comes to food, I hate wasting food. You surely have noticed that when we cut watermelon, we tend to throw out quite a lot of the red part of then watermelon with the peel/ rind. This recipe uses that part that you discard, the white fleshy part that you tend to throw out with the green peel. I also use the overripe watermelon to make this dosa. It gives it a nice, pretty pink color to the dosa which the kids absolutely love! This dosa is not only super-easy to make, it is a joy to eat! It is soft and fluffy with a hint of sweetness to it. You could pair it with a spicy chutney or eat it with honey/syrup/molasses like my kids do!

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

Rice: 1 1/2 cups
Urad dal: 2 tbsp
Methi( fenugreek seeds): 1/2 tsp
Watermelon rind and pieces : 1 cup
Beaten rice( poha):1/2 cup
Salt to taste.
Water : 3/4 cup for grinding the batter.( you may not use all of it).
Oil : to grease the tawa( skillet).

Method:

Soak rice, urad dal & methi together for 3-4 hours atleast or overnight.

Soak poha( beaten rice) for 10 mins ( just before you begin grinding the batter )and keep aside.

Grind the rice-dal mixture to a fine batter in the blender using watermelon pieces to it instead of water.Add water only as needed if it becomes difficult to grind.Once the rice is ground finely, add the soaked poha and blend it with the rest of the batter in the blender.

The batter should be slightly thick as in fermentation it tends to get a little thin..The batter has a faint pink hue.It is NOT bright pink or red in color!

Allow the batter to ferment overnight ( at least 6-8 hours).

Add salt  to the batter when you are ready to make the dosa.

Heat the skillet to medium hot, take a ladleful of batter and pour it on the skillet ( just like you would do while making pancake).

Cover with a lid, reduce the flame, and cook until you here a sizzling sound. Open the lid and see if you see any wet patches. If not, the dosa is done!

Remove from the skillet and serve hot! This dosa is cooked only on one side. DO NOT FLIP THE DOSA!

You can eat these soft fluffy dosas with wet or dry chutneys of your choice or with honey/ syrup/molasses!

Enjoy! I am taking these to Fiesta Friday as well, in case the Surnalis are all gone!

Cooking made easy:

Make sure that the flame is low while cooking this dosa or else the underside of the dosa will burn.

Once you have removed the dosa from the skillet, you can increase the flame to heat the skillet.Reduce the flame again, once the batter has been poured onto the skillet.

Tip for healthy living:

Not only is watermelon full of water and refreshing during the summer months, it also has several health benefits.It is rich in Vitamins A, B6 and C, lycopene, antioxidants and amino acids. It is also fat-free and low-calorie food. The lycopene in it makes it a heart-healthy and anti-inflammatory food.

Food for thought:

You change your life by changing your heart. Max lucado

Surnali ( Buttermilk pancakes; eggless)

It is interesting that quite a few of our memories are associated with food. When I think of my childhood, I think of my mother's cooking . One of the things that she used to make for breakfast was dosa( pancake and crepes).My mother makes a whole variety of dosas. Interestingly, I am very fond of dosas; all kinds! I could never tire of dosas!! I just love them!!!

One of the dosas my mother would make is Surnali. Surnali is a traditional konkani dosa( pancake), where in the batter is made by the addition of buttermilk and then fermented. The resulting dosa is soft and fluffy like cotton!! It is absolutely the melt-in-the-mouth kinds! Oh, did i forget to mention that it is also sweet. So you don't need to add any additional syrup/molasses or honey. By default Surnali is sweet, the batter is sweetened by the addition of jaggery;  but we do have a non-sweet version called "cheppi Surnali". For cheppi Surnali, you just have to forego the addition of jaggery while grinding the batter. This is very easy to make, but care has to be taken to ensure that the ground batter is thick. The addition of jaggery tends to make the batter a little runny, so this needs to be factored in. Also, the dosa/pancake has a tendency to get burnt easily , again due to the presence of jaggery in the batter. Therefore, more attention is needed while preparing the pancake on the griddle.Traditionally,surnali batter is made with the addition of freshly grated coconut. My mother does not do that. Instead she uses a little urad dal( split matpe bean), which also helps it to become soft and fluffy.

Servings: 4 ( 10-12 pancakes).

Ingredients:

White Rice: 1 1/2 cup
Urad dal (split Matpe bean):1 tbsp ( Can use 1/4 cup freshly grated coconut instead of urad dal).
Buttermilk/ yogurt: 1 cup( for grinding the batter, may need less)
Methi seeds: 1 tsp
Poha( beaten rice): 3/4 cup
Water: 1 cup, to soak the poha
Jaggery: 1 cup(skip if making cheppi Surnali)
Turmeric powder: a pinch.
Salt: as per taste.

Method:

Soak white rice, urad dal and methi seeds for at least 2-3 hours.
Soak the poha( beaten rice) in  one cup water for 10 mins, then squeeze, remove and keep aside.
Grind it  using the yogurt/buttermilk to a fine batter. Add the soaked poha , jaggery and grind again. Now add the turmeric powder and blend well. Make sure that the batter is on the thicker side and not runny.

Let it ferment for at least 5-6 hours if the weather is warm; may take 8 hours in cold weather.

Just before making the pancakes, add  salt as needed and mix well.

Heat the griddle/ skillet, grease it using oil/ghee/butter. Add a ladleful of batter. Do not spread the batter too much.

Reduce the flame to low, cover and cook until you hear a faint hissing sound. If there are no wet spots on the dosa, it is done. Remove from the griddle. This dosa IS NOT TO BE FLIPPED. It is cooked only on one side.

Serve hot with a dollop of butter. You do not need to add any additional syrup or honey.

If it is cheppi surnali (the non-sweet version), serve it with some chutney!

Yummy! I am salivating as I am writing this! I am bringing this to Fiesta Friday! Margy & Juju are the co-hosts this week!

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

The key to making a nice soft and fluffy Surnali is the consistency of the batter and the amount of fermentation. The batter has to be on the thicker side and has to be well fermented. Well fermented means that it has to rise a little but not turn sour.

Also, this dosa has a tendency to caramalise and burn easily on the bottom while the dosa is still uncooked. Hence it is essential to lower the flame as soon as the batter is put on the griddle and cook it on low flame until the dosa is cooked.

Tip for healthy living:

Probiotics are essential for the healthy functioning of the gut. Yogurt and other fermented foods are rich in probiotics and therefore beneficial to the gut. Try to include at least one serving of probiotic rich food in your everyday diet.

Food for thought:

Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship. Omar N. Bradley

Ragi Phanna Polo ( Instant seasoned finger millet crepes) Vegan, GF, NF; Meatless Monday

I love Ragi( finger millet) for many reasons. Ragi is not only a gluten free grain hence a great alternative for regular flour, it is also a food that has been traditionally a part of our cuisine for time immemorial! It is nothing new to us, hence it is not a fad! Raagi also has immense health benefits.

It is my go-to when I don't have ground dosa ( pancake/crepe) batter ready. I then either make Ragi Neer Dosa or this Phanna polo which is traditionally made using maida( all purpose flour). One day when I was about to make Neer dosa using Ragi, I said to myself: why not try making Phanna polo? I tried it and it came amazingly tasty! Everybody just loved it!! Here is the easy recipe:

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

Raagi ( finger millet) flour: 1 cup
Oil: 1 tsp +for greasing the skillet/griddle( I use coconut oil). You could use any cooking oil.
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Jeera ( cumin seeds): 1/4 tsp( optional)
Freshly grated coconut: 1 tbsp
Water: 3 cups+ 2 cups
Salt: as per taste

Method:

Mix Ragi/finger millet flour with 3 cups water. Keep aside for 15 mins.

After 15 mins, discard the top water and the dark  Raagi husk until you reach the lighter sediment. Now add 2 more cups of water & salt and blend it for 30 seconds, using a hand blender or using a regular blender. Blending ensures that you get a nice homogenous batter. The batter should be thin and free-flowing.Add freshly grated coconut and stir well( Do not grind the coconut).

Heat 1 tsp oil in a skillet, add mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, turn off the flame and add curry leaves.
Add this to the Ragi batter and stir well.

Heat the griddle/ skillet on medium -high heat.Grease the skillet/ griddle liberally with coconut oil. When the griddle is hot, take a ladleful/cupful  of batter and pour it from out to in.

 This batter cannot be spread. It needs to be poured and the skillet tilted to uniformly spread the batter.

The batter hisses and spreads like a lace on the griddle.

 It cooks very quickly. When cooked, fold it,remove and keep it in a hot box ( something like a tortilla box).

Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.I have served it with ambuli gojju( green mango dip).

I am sure you will love it! I am bringing this to Simple Supper Tuesday # 91!

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

The trick to making good dosas and the dosas not sticking to your skillet/griddle is by ensuring that the skillet is greased well. Also, the temperature of the griddle has to be maintained hot throughout.

Tip for healthy living:

Apart from being gluten free, whole grain cereal,finger millet has several other health benefits . It has a higher protein and mineral content compared to all other cereals. It contains important amino acids that are not found in other cereals. It has the highest calcium  an potassium content in comparison with other cereals. It is also a great source of iron! It is also rich in B vitamins and dietary fiber. It also has a low-glycemic index making it an ideal food for diabetics.

Food for thought:

Yesterday is a cancelled check. Today is cash on the line, tomorrow is a promissory note. Hank Stram

Number cake

My son had his birthday this week. He had a decently big party a few days earlier. But there was no way I was not having a cake cutting for him on the actual day of his birthday. I therefore decided to make a 3-D number cake for him. My neighbor's son's birthday was a day after my son's birthday. He turned six. I decided to make a surprise number cake for him too. So there I was wanting to make two cakes. But was I about to bake two cakes??? No way!! I was going to bake one cake and make 2 cakes out of it! I always wanted to try out the zebra cake! I decided to make a zebra cake in a 13x 9 pan with the flavors of vanilla and chocolate. I then carved out the numbers out of it.The cakes were going to be small. I did a number 3 for my son and a number 6 for my neighbor.I got the ideas for the 3-D number cakes from here.

 I used a 8-inch cake board for each one of them. I even managed to get a few slices for us to eat! I like mine without the icing.

Being that it was a week-day, I did not have too much time on my hands. I decided to use store-bought frosting. Being that the store-bought frosting is thin, and I didn't have too much time to harden the frosting in the fridge, it was a slightly messy affair. How do I fix it?? I decided to decorate the cake with M& Ms to take away the attention from the messy frosting job! Well it was a success. I iced my son's cake with vanilla frosting and since my neighbor's was the next day, I mixed the rest of the frosting with some cocoa powder and iced his # 6, left it in the freezer and next day decorated it with M& Ms! That's why his cake was not melting!!

Overall, my son was happy and my neighbor's son was pleasantly surprised! All that ends well!

Servings: 4-6 per cake

Ingredients:

Flour: 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Butter: 1 cup
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Eggs: 3 large
Milk :1/4 cup
Cocoa powder: 2 tbsp
Vanilla frosting: 1 1/2 cup
Chocolate frosting: 1 1/2 cup 
M & Ms: 1 big packet

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.

Grease the bottom only of a 13x 9 pan and keep aside.

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt and keep aside.

Add 2 tbsp cocoa powder to 1/4 cup milk at room temperature. Mix well and keep aside.

Using an electric beater, cream sugar and butter until smooth. Add eggs one by one and beat well.Add vanilla and mix well. Now add in the dry ingredients little at a time, mixing well in between. Be careful not to overmix!

Divide the batter equally into two bowls. To one bowl add the cocoa powder and milk mixture. Mix well.

Now in the center of the pan pour 2 tbsp of chocolate mixed batter. On the center of this one pour 2 tbsp of vanilla cake mix .

Now do the same with the chocolate mixture again. Keep repeating this process until all the batter has been used up!

Place the pan on the center rack of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.

Take the cake out of the oven and let it sit in the pan for 30 mins before taking it out.

I placed a wooden cutting board on top of it and inverted the pan. Let the cake cool down completely before attempting to carve out the numbers.

Since I had to make both the number three and the number six, I needed 3 circles. I used the lid of the Pillsbury frosting to  carve out 3 round pieces of the cake.

I then used a small bottle cap to carve out the center of the round cake to make a donut.

For the number three, I cut out 1/4 the of the circle from one donut and 1/3 rd from the other. I now put the two pieces together on the cake board to make number 3.

For number six, I cut 1.5 inch wide and 6 inch long rectangle from the leftover cake. I attached it to the side of the donut to make number 6.

I then frosted the number 3 with vanilla buttercream frosting and number 6 with chocolate frosting.

I put them in the fridge for 2-3 hours to firm up.

My kids then helped me decorate it with lots of M & Ms!!

The number cakes were ready!

Do try it. It is lots of fun! I am bringing this to  Simple Supper Tuesday at hun whats for dinner.

Cooking made easy:

You could use store-bought plain round cake and carve out the numbers from that.

You could use store-bought frosting to do a crumb coating and then stick the M & Ms to make it pretty!

Tip for healthy living:

Serve and eat desserts in very small portion. That ways you would have satisfied your sweet tooth without abusing your body.

Food for thought:

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Edith Wharton

Train Cake; Shawn the train

This week was special as it was my baby's birthday! He turned 3!! He is no longer a baby!:( Since he now understands the concept of the birthday song, I wanted to make it special for him. He actually had 3 celebrations at three different times!I made three different types of cakes for each one of them. He had a party a few days earlier for which I made this train cake. He had a celebration at school for which I made mini-cupcakes without icing on them as the school won't allow anything sugary!! That's good, right?? I am all for promoting healthy eating and healthy living.He also had cake cutting at home on the evening of his birthday, for which I made a small number cake for him. He had a ball at all three celebrations!!

Coming back to this train cake, I have never made a 3-D object cake apart from the  Princess cake and the Tinkerbell cake that is! I felt a little more adventurous and decided to make a cake of something that he likes. It was only fair that I go to as much trouble for him as I did with the Princess cake for his sister! Now I could not decide whether to make a car cake, a fire truck or a train???Those are all his favorite toys! I decided to ask him. His prompt response was "Shawn"! Shawn is an educational train created by coilbook. My son just loves watching Shawn!! He could watch Shawn all day long! While most children would want Thomas, my son wanted Shawn! This was reiterated by his sister. I looked up online for ideas. There were plenty of Thomas cakes out there, but no Shawn!!:( I then looked up general train cake ideas, and improvised from there. The one that helped me the most is the Betty Crocker site that had this train cake.

Courtesy: Coilbook

For convenience, I used boxed cake mixes instead of making the cake batter from scratch. I didn't want to figure out everything for fear that something may go wrong! Since I had no idea how big the cake was going to be, i didn't have any cake board ready before hand. In my mind, I knew how the cake was going to look. I knew there would be a train track, there would be an engine car and a few cars. I didn't know how many cars I would be making as I didn't know how much of the cake loaf would be needed for the engine! I made the face of the engine using a tomato paste can. That was an adventure by itself! Once I had the engine figured out,I had enough of the loaf left to make 4 cars. But I needed the cake board first! Since the cake was long and heavy, the board too had to be big and sturdy!  I made the base for the cake by wrapping up a wire rack with aluminum foil! As per the size of my cake board, I decided to make only 3 train cars as that was all that would fit on the cake board. The end result was good. My baby identifying the train by crying out "Shawn" , "Shawn" when I placed the train on the table and him ( the naughty one) not touching it or messing it up  was testimony for my work!! He wouldn't even let me cut it to serve the guests!!!

I am going to share this cake with my wonderful friends at Fiesta Friday!This week there are two new co-hosts: Michelle@Giraffes Can Bake, whose easy recipes are an inspiration for even a novice baker like me to bake; and MB @ Bourbon and Brown Sugar, whose recipes I love.

Servings: 12-16 people

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake mix: 1 box
Yellow cake mix: 1 box
Eggs: 6 large 
Oil:1/2 cup+ 1/2 cup
Water: 1 cup + 1 cup
Vanilla Buttercream frosting: 3 cups.
Chocolate buttercream frosting: 3-4 cups.
Ready-to-roll fondant: 2 colors ( I used red and green).
Oreo cookies: 13 nos
Pretzel sticks: 1 cup
M & Ms: 2 small packets
Chocolate animal crackers: 1 cup
Mott's fruit bites: 2 packets
Reese's peanut butter cups: 2 nos
Malt balls: 2 nos

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease two 9x5 loaf pans and a 6 oz tomato paste can with its outer paper covering removed and the can greased.

Prepare the chocolate cake batter as per the instructions on the box. Pour a little batter into the prepared can until 2/3 rds full and the rest into one of the loaf pans.

Prepare the yellow cake batter a per the instructions on the box. Pour the batter into the other loaf pan.

Place the loaf pans on the center rack of the oven and bake or 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.

Place the tomato cake also on the center rack towards the last 10 mins of the loaf cake time. It takes around  10 mins to bake the cake in it.Again, test for doneness using the toothpick .I kept checking several times to make sure that it does not get burnt as I was not sure how much time it would take.

When done, take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool down in the pan for 10 mins before taking the cake out.

Then, take the cake out and let it cool down on the cooling rack until completely cooled.

With a serrated knife or a cake leveler, take the domes off the cakes and level the cakes. Make sure to take the dome off the cylinder cake too that was baked in the can.

Making the engine car:

Cut 2/3 rds the length of the chocolate loaf cake half way through it's thickness. Keep that piece aside.
Place the cylindrical cake on the cut portion of the loaf cake as shown in the picture. Use some icing to keep them together like glue. Take a piece of the dome and glue it to the back of the loaf cake to make the roof of the engine car.

Frost the engine cake using chocolate butter cream frosting. Keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

The other train cars:

Cut the yellow loaf cake into three equal parts.

Frost it with vanilla buttercream. I did one with chocolate buttercream.

Now place the cars in the fridge too for 2-3 hours.

Assembling the train and the track:

In the mean time get the cake board ready. You could either cover a piece of wood or sturdy cardboard with foil. I didn't have either so I used my cooling rack! I covered it with foil and kept ready.

I then added red and blue gel colors to my remaining chocolate frosting and changed it to blackish grey color. I filled a piping bag and attached Wilton Tip# 5 and piped out the train track over the cake board.

I then rolled out red fondant and covered both the engine and one car with it.

I rolled out the green fondant and covered the other two cars with it.

I attached open face Oreo cookie to the front of the engine to make the face. Using Witon Tip # 3 I piped out the face of Shawn, made the roof and windows of the engine car and the sidings of the other cars.

Everything on the cake was edible. I attached all the parts to the train using icing as glue.

I placed Oreo cookies for the wheels of the train, Reese's peanut butter cups for the smoke stack, malt balls for the headlights.

I used pretzel sticks to make the car sidings.

I made one car animal car using chocolate animal crackers, one car colorful rock car using peanut M & Ms and the last  car was the fruit car filled with Mott's fruit bites. Using fondant, I made number 3 and stuck it to the back of the last car.

I rolled out some fondant to make the lawn and royal icing flowers to provide some accent. I piped "Happy 3rd Birthday Amogh" with the remaining greyish black icing.

 Voila! Shawn was ready to chug down the track!

I am truly happy that I did it! I think I came pretty close to the original Shawn!

It was not as hard as I thought it would be. Of course, it would have been nicer if I could have had more time to make it in a leisurely fashion!! I could also have done a neater job!

Do try it if you get a chance!

Enjoy!

Cooking make easy:

In a pinch, you could use store bought frosting for crumb coating the cake like I did. I used a combination of store-bought and home-made. I had home-made buttercream frosting while I used the store-bought chocolate frosting as I didn't have enough time to make it.

If you are using it to frost the cake entirely make sure you whip it well adding a teaspoon of cornstarch and icing sugar alternately until you get the required medium consistency. This can be checked by inserting the spatula into the middle of the frosting. If the spatula stays upright, then the frosting is of the right consistency. If it falls to one side, then the frosting is too thin! 

The best cake for shaping is the pound cake as it is more sturdy.You could also just bring a store-bought pound cake and then shape it! 

Tip for healthy living:

Being that it is for kids, I have made everything on the cake edible and tried to make it as healthy as possible . That is why I didn't layer the cars and fill it with icing. I also filled the cars with healthy fare like animal crackers an fruit bites! Avoid giving little children too much sugar. It apparently makes them hyperactive.

Food for thought:

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king. Mark Van Doren