Banana Oat Cookies

Another twist to banana bread, these cookies are soft and banana bread like. They are healthy and you can grab them as a quick breakfast or can carry them along with you for a healthy snack.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup milled flax seeds
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 tsp clove powder
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 ripe bananas mashed
• 1/4 cup canola/ vegetable oil

Directions:

• Preheat oven at 400 degree F.
• Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Add mashed bananas and oil and mix well.
• Take spoonfuls of the mixture and drop on a cookie sheet
• Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degree F.
• Cool and enjoy these healthy cookies.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

I had 2 very ripe almost black bananas on my counter. Neither was it tempting to eat those nor I had the heart to trash them. That is when I thought of baking them into banana bread. I looked for lot of recipes and finally made the needed adjustments and came up with the recipe below. It is a perfect solution if you are faced with a dilemma with over ripe bananas.

Banana Bread is almost cake like and you can enjoy it for breakfast or snack any time of the day. I used whole wheat to make it healthier. I have added a little bit of all purpose flour to get a better texture but you can use whole wheat flour completely to make it more healthy. I like it very mildly sweet with lot of banana flavor in it. The recipe goes below.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2- 3 ripe bananas mashed(riper the better)
• 1/3 cup sugar (1/4 cup if you are using 3 bananas)
• 1 stick- 1/2 cup butter softened
• 2 eggs beaten lightly
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

• Combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl sing a fork or whisk.
• In another bowl cream softened butter, add eggs, mashed bananas and sugar and mix well.
• Mix dry and wet ingredients together. Mix it really well so that there are no lumps.
• Fold in chopped walnuts.
• Pour in a greased baking pan. You can use an 8" cake pan, loaf pan or a bundt pan.
• Put it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F. Bake for around 30 minutes till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then turn it over on wire rack. Let it cool completely and enjoy.

French Toast

French Toast is a quick way of having a delicious and filling breakfast. When I used to go to school my mom used to make something similar to it for my mid morning munch break. It was more on the savory side with bread being coated with a spicy egg mixture. I used to enjoy that too. 

French toast is mildly sweet and becomes sweeter when enjoyed with maple syrup or honey. Mostly breakfast for us is a savory affair. But occasionally we enjoy French toast, whole wheat pancakes/ waffles and bajil (a spicy sweet mangalorean snack) on the sweeter side. Let me share with you the recipe for French Toast, our occasional piece of morning sweetness.

Ingredients:

• 8 -1/4" to 1/2"slices of 2-3 day old bread (whole wheat, challah bread)
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• maple syrup to serve

Directions:

• In a bowl, beat eggs and milk till well blended. Do not over beat.
• Add salt and sugar and mix well.
• Dip each bread slice in the bowl for around 20 secs on each side and put it on a hot skillet on stove top.
• You can use butter to fry it on each side but if you use a non stick pan you can omit the butter.
• Fry well till both sides brown up and eggs are set well.
• You can serve French toast with butter, maple syrup or honey according to your preference.
• Enjoy it warm.

Cornflakes Chivda

Cornflakes chivda is a great way for enjoying the corn cereal especially for us Indians, I know many of us can't have cereal because it's bland! It is just like a regular chivda but only makes use of corn flakes giving it a healthier twist, omitting the regular fried corn chips. Chivda is basically a mixture of grain flakes fried or toasted with dry fruits and nuts and spices.

I have not added any salt and sugar to make it healthier. I feel the salt and sugar present already in cornflakes are enough  for the desired taste. Raisins also give a natural sweetness to it. You can make this and stock it in your house for guilt free snacking and can also be served as a quick snack to guests at tea time.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 cups corn flakes
• 2 tbsp canola/ olive oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 4-5 green chillies chopped
• 7-8 curry leaves
• 2 tbsp dalia dal
• 2 tbsp peanuts
• 2 tbsp cashew nuts broken
• 2 tbsp walnuts chopped
• 2 tbsp raisins
• 1 tsp turmeric powder

Directions:

• In a vessel take 2 tbsp oil, add mustard seeds and heat it.
• When mustard seeds crackle, add green chillies and curry leaves. Mix with oil.
• Add dalia dal, peanuts, cashew nuts and walnuts. Mix well and let them get fried on low flame till they get light brown in color.
• Add turmeric powder, mix well and soon add corn flakes and start mixing very lightly.
• Remove from heat and let the mixture cool.
• When it has cooled completely add raisins.
• Store it in an airtight container.
• Enjoy whenever you feel like.

The round ones are corn kix cereal, you can get creative and add your own ingredients

Vegetable Kofta Curry- Baked

Yesterday I wanted to make a special valentine's day dinner for my husband, something which I had never tried before. I also did not want to go for an out and out greasy and unhealthy dish considering that we have recently came back from a vacation loading ourselves. I browsed for recipes and came across one on a site called khanakhazana for vegetable kofta curry. The koftas were fried in that recipe I just baked them instead. I omitted the sugar from the original recipe and YUM it came out very delicious. Right amount of spice, sourness and creaminess.

I had one fiasco though, I prepared the gravy, baked the koftas (that went perfect too) and put the koftas in the gravy and when my husband came in an hour later I just went to heat my curry. To my disappointment the koftas became soft, too soft, in the gravy. Even the lightest touch of spoon disintegrated them and I ended with one thick curry with all the koftas disappearing one by one from the gravy. I saved few koftas to take a decent picture but it is not decent enough.

Veg Kofta curry shouldn't be looking like this....but it was yummy anyways

Got it pretty the second time

Lesson Learnt: Put the koftas in the gravy right before serving, especially if you bake it.

But the recipe is a keeper and I will definitely make it again, probably then I will have a good picture to share.

Ingredients:
For koftas:

• 5-6 potatoes cooked and mashed
• 3 carrots grated fine
• 1 cup green peas cooked
• few sprigs cilantro chopped
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp amchur powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• salt as per taste

For gravy:

• 2 onions finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 3 tomatoes blended into puree
• 1 cup cashew nut powdered
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 cup cream 
• 1 cup yogurt
• few sprigs cilantro chopped
• salt as per taste
• 1-1/2 tbsp oil/ butter

Directions:

For koftas:

• In a vessel, take mashed potatoes, carrots and green peas and mix well.
• Add red chili powder, amchur powder, garam masala, salt, cilantro and mix well.
• Mix together and make small golf ball sized balls.
• Place the balls on a pan covered with aluminium foil sprayed with cooking oil.
• Bake in preheated oven at 375 degree F for 20 minutes. 
• Spray top of the balls with cooking oil and bake for another 10 minutes at 500 degrees F.
• Remove from  oven  and the balls should have golden brown color.
• The koftas are ready, keep aside to cool.

For gravy:

• Take oil in a pot and saute onions till they become soft and translucent
• Add ginger garlic paste and saute well.
• Add tomato puree and let it cook for a minute. Add yogurt and mix well.
• Add cashew nut powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Mix them well.
• Add cream and mix well. Let the gravy simmer.
• If you think the gravy is too thick you can add water as needed. 
• Add salt and mix well. Let it simmer for more 5 minutes. At this stage adjust the spices in the gravy as per your taste. Add cilantro finally.
• Your gravy is ready

Finally, it is very important that you add the koftas in the gravy (you can warm it ) right before serving or you will just end up with one messed up gravy with no koftas.

Enjoy this yummy, simple yet rich dish that you can serve while entertaining.

Handvo- Savory Rice Lentil Cake

I tasted handvo (made by my mother in law) for the first time, after my marriage to my Gujarati husband. Coming from a South Indian household I just knew about dhokla and thepla as gujarati dishes. But now after tasting dishes like handvo, muthia, undhiyu I have fallen in love with them.

I like the fact that handvo is flavorful and a healthy snack. In fact you can have it as a light lunch or breakfast item too due to its goodness of grains, lentil and veggies. I like handvo more than dhoklas because of its spiciness and it's crisp outer crust. Traditionally it is made in deep vessel, hence the name handvo. However I like to bake it in oven.

I followed Tarla Dalal's recipe but tweaked it a bit. Here goes my recipe for handvo-

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice
• 1 cup urad dal
• 1 cup toor dal
• 1/2 cup sour curd
• 1-1/2 cups shredded doodhi/ pumpkin/squash
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
• salt to taste

For tempering:

• mustard seeds
• sesame seeds
• asafoetida
• 4 tbsp oil

Directions:

• Wash and soak rice and lentil with enough water for around 4-5 hours.
• Drain the water and grind into fine paste. Just ensure that you add very little water while grinding and do not add water directly from tap if you are in US. It has been my experience, due to the high chlorine content in tap water fermentation is affected. Use filtered water.
• Add sour curd and allow the mixture to ferment overnight. It won't rise too much like idli batter but you can get the sour smell and see the bubbles.
• Add shredded vegetable, oil, lemon juice, baking soda, chili powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste, sugar and salt. Mix well. Be generous with the masalas and you can tweak proportions as per taste, depending upon your taste buds.
• Pour the mix into a greased cake pan of any shape or size. But see to it that you pour a thin layer of batter not more than 1-1/2 inch into the pan.
• Then take oil in a small vessel, add asafoetida, mustard seeds and sesame seeds. Temper them and pour over the batter in the pan.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degree F for 30 to 35 minutes.
• Sometimes instead of tempering I just add  sesame seeds on the top of the batter and just spray the top with cooking oil after 20 minutes. Then just bake for another 10-15 minutes.
• When done, enjoy your soft on the inside and crisp and brown on the outside handvo.

Note: Alternately you can also make handvo in a nonstick pan on stove top. Just grease pan with oil and pour batter in it. Top it with the tempering and cover and let it cook on medium flame. When you feel the bottom is done just flip it in the pan to let the other side get done. You will see a nice golden brown to black colored crust. I like it black because that means crispier edged handvo.

Whole Wheat Pav (Indian bread rolls)

I can very well relate pav to the city I grew up in. Pav is an accompaniment for lot of street food or fast food in Mumbai. Pav bhaji and vada pav are the two most popular street foods in Mumbai. My husband is a vada pav lover and can rattle the places where you get best vada pavs. While the vada or the bhaji makes or breaks the dishes, they are incomplete without the humble pav.

Pavs are made of all purpose flour or maida as it is called in India. Now that I have to get health into picture in most of my dishes, I tried out whole wheat pav. I did mix in all purpose flour too to get a soft texture. Here goes my recipe for the pav-

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 packet dry active yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp butter melted
• melted butter for brushing pav

Directions:

• In a small bowl take warm water, add sugar to it and mix well so that the sugar dissolves completely.
• Add yeast to the surface of this warm water and let it stand for around 15 minutes.
• The water will be frothy on the top.

• In a separate large bowl, mix together whole wheat, all purpose flour and salt with a dry whisk.
• Add the yeast water to the dry mix and start kneading into a soft pliable dough.
• Add melted butter and knead further.
• Keep this dough in a well greased large bowl loosely covered with cling wrap.
• Keep the bowl near a warm place and let it sit for around 1 hour.
• The dough will double in size.
• Divide the dough into lemon sized balls and roll the balls using your palm till they become smooth.
• Place the balls on a sheet covered with greased aluminium foil, close to each other. 
• Let them sit for around half an hour, loosely covered with cling wrap.
• The balls will have grown in size again.

• Put the sheet in a preheated oven (375 degrees)
• Let it bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and quickly brush it with melted butter all over the top surface.
• Bake it for another 5 minutes.
• Your hot pav is ready, let it sit for 2 minutes and enjoy it warm with bhaji, misal or piping hot vadas.

Pav with misal