Eggless Banana and Nuts Cake

Nothing like a slice of freshly baked cake with a cup of tea in the chilly weather.  Banana cake is definitely one of the best and most delicious cake. Bananas really want to be flecked with brown and have a golden hue just as the old jingle says. And when they have gone beyond that stage just a tad -- they are perfect for cake! Yes, this is a really tasty way to deal with all those overly ripe bananas that are begging for use in your kitchen!

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour                1 ¼ cup

Wheat flour                       ¾ cup

Baking soda                       1 ¼ tsp.

Baking powder                   ¼ tsp.

Plain sugar                         1 ½ cup

Mashed Banana                  1 cup

Cooking oil                         ¾ cup

Lime juice                          2 tbsp.

salt                                    A pinch 

Soy milk (OR)Milk             ¾ cup (no added sugar soy milk)

Vanilla essence                  1 tsp.

Butter                               1 tsp

 Nuts

Finely ground almonds      ¾ cup

Chopped walnut                ½ cup

Tutti Fruitty                       ¼ cup  (optional)

 Method;

• Sieve the flours, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.
• In a big bowl, mix the wet ingredients - mashed banana, Oil, vanilla extract, soy milk. And lemon juice. Whisk very nicely to mix all the ingredients very well.
•  Mix the sugar, nuts and make a well in the center. Place the mashed banana mixture in the well. And combine all mixture very well.
• Prepare the Bundt cake pan, by applying butter on the bottom and to the sides.
•  Pour the cake batter. Spread evenly.
• Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 50 minutes or cake is cooked when tested with a skewer.
• Cool for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.
• A moist, tender, nutty delicious egg less banana nut cake is ready.
• This cake really likes a Lemon or Caramel frosting. 

Note:

• The riper the bananas the better the results will be.

Happy New Year 2012

Dear Readers

I Wish in 2012

God gives You...

12 Month of Happiness,

52 Weeks of Fun,

365 Days Success,

8760 Hours Good Health,

52600 Minutes Good Luck,

3153600 Seconds of Joy...and that's all!

Madappalli turns one - 200th post

My Virtual Kitchen turns one today! What a great year it has been. The first post here on the Madappalli was exactly one year ago, December 31^st 2010.  When I started this blog, I had little idea of what I wanted it to be. I didn’t have much experience in professional blogging. The wonderful comments that kept coming by were my biggest inspiration of all!! Now, I’m really happy to have a small community of people who encourage me by commenting regularly and sharing my posts.

Looking after the blog over the year has been a great experience, and after writing about 200 posts and 35,484 page views, I learnt a lot. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, but remember that I always welcome your feedback.

Let me say a BIG THANKS to all my readers who visited, read my posts, commented, sent me emails, joined my network and subscribed to my posts. I want to   say special thanks to my lovely husband Paddy, Anudinam.org and SNDG (Seattle Nalayeera Divya Prabhatha Ghosti), It has been an exciting journey and without your support it won’t be possible. Thank you very much to all for supporting my blog.


I pray that the Lord Krishna will continue to bless this blog!

Aval / Poha / Flattened Rice Vadai

This is simple and delicious snack.

Ingredients:
Aval(Beaten rice/Poha) -               1 cup
Gram flour                                  1 tbsp.

Rice flour                                    1 tbsp.

Corn flour –                                 1 tsp

Grated coconut                            1 tbsp.

Salt                                           to taste

 Finely chopped Green chili            4 no

Hing -                                         a pinch
 finely chopped Coriander leaves    -1 tbsp.
 finely chopped Curry leaves           - a few
Grated Ginger-                              1 tsp.

Oil                                           – For deep frying

Method:

• Wash Aval  and rinse well. Set aside for 10 minutes till it turns soft.
• Add all above ingredients (expect oil) and form a dough.
• Make dough without using water, as Aval is already enough wet. Make soft dough. 
• Divide the dough into 10 parts and make small Vedas with hand of each part.
• Heat the oil in a pan and deep fry vadas, until golden brown and crispy.
• Serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.

Ribbon Pokada

Ribbon Pakoda is a very popular South Indian tea time snack made from gram flour and rice flour. Ribbon Pakoda are an inclusion to all festivals and occasions. My husband loves it a lot, and I am sure you would too… Even though many of us know the recipe, this is my version.

Ingredients:-

Rice flour                                   - 1 cup

Besan flour                                – 3 cup

Urdh dhal powder                       – 3 tbsp.

Unsalted Butter                           – 3 tbsp.

Red chili powder                        – 1 tsp. (according to taste)

Asafetida powder                       – ¼ tsp.

Turmeric Powder                            – ¼ tsp.

Crushed Black pepper                  – ½ tsp.

Salt                                           to taste

Water                                       1 cup

Cooking oil                               for deep frying

Tools:

Sev Press

Slotted Spoon

Paper Towel

Kadai

Method:

• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. The stove heat should be in medium flame.
• Combing all above ingredients expect water and oil. Gradually add water to make it a stiff dough, adding extra water if required.
• Grease the Sev Press with oil. Fill in the dough into the press.
• Press out thin strips of the dough into the hot oil. Only press in enough to cover the oil.
• Fry it till becomes golden brown, strain the excess oil in a paper towel, let it cool.
• Press the remaining batches of the dough in the similar manner.
• Cool the entire ribbon Pakoda and store in an  air tight containers.
• Serve with Tea or coffee.

Potato Varuval – Potato Fry

Potato fry is a simple to make side dish and goes well with sambhar and Saathuamuthu.

Ingredients

Medium Size Potato                    - 8 nos

Chili powder                              – 1 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder                         - 1/4 tsp

Salt                                           – to taste

Seasonings:

 Mustard seeds                              1 tsp

Cumin Seeds                                – ½ tsp

Asafetida powder                          – ¼ tspp

Oil                                               - 4 tsp

Method

• Wash potato and cut them to small cubes.
• Heat 3 tsp oil in a Cast iron pan. Reduce the heat to low and add mustard, when it’s done popped add cumin seeds and asafetida powder.
• Add the potato pieces; add salt, turmeric powder and chili powder. Stir well, cover with lid and cook for few minutes. Open the lid and add 2 tsp of oil and stir fry for 5 minutes in a lower heat.
• Serve hot with Rice.

Potato Fry

Kumbalanga Kuttan(White Pumpkin Curry)

Kumbalanga Curry is a very easy to prepare dish and can be used with steamed rice.

Ingredients:

 Chopped Kumbalanga (White Pumpkin) – 1 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp.

Chili Powder - 1/4 tsp.

Salt - as required

  To Be Grind

Grated Fresh Coconut - 2 tbsp.

Jeera - 1/2 tsp.

Grated Ginger – 1tsp.

Green chilies – 3 no

Seasonings:

 Coconut oil / cooking oil 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp.

Red chilies – 2 no

Asafetida – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves

Method:

•  Cook the Kumbalanga along with a little water, turmeric powder, chili powder and salt.
• Grind Coconut, green chilies, ginger with Jeera and a little water to a fine paste
• Mix the grounded coconut with the cooked Kumbalanga.
• Heat Oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds, curry leaves, Asafetida and dry red chilies.
• Pour the seasonings to the of Kumbalanga mixture
• Serve with Steamed or boiled rice.