Fruit Sponge Cake

Fruit Sponge Cake I prepared this cake on my hubby's bday...He liked it a lot.
Fruits like Peaches, lichee and kiwi along with some berrys like strawberry, blueberry, raspberry etc will be usually seen on any fruit sponge cakes. 

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour (or Maida)- 1 and 1/2 cups
2. Eggs - 2
3. Butter - 1/2 cup
4. Sugar - 1 cup
5. Milk - 1/2 cup
6. Baking powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp
7. Vanilla Extract - 2 tsps
8. Oil - 1/2 cup
9. Dry nuts powder - 5 tsps (Optional, I used it for nice taste)

For Decorating: (You can use fruits of your choice. I used these below)
1. Apples - 1 Big
2. Grapes - 10 to 15
3. Pomogranates - 1
4. Oranges - 1

Procedure:
1. In one bowl beat eggs, add vanilla extract to it.
2. In other bowl whisk butter and sugar properly.
3. In another bowl sieve flour, add dry nuts powder and baking powder and sift the flour carefully into bowl of sugar and butter mix and whisk properly. Meanwhile add egg mix and milk to this.
4. If you have an electric whisk then you can add all the above ingredients at a time and can whisk easily.
5. Grease a pan or steel bowl of desired shape square, rectangular or probably a round pan particularly with a flat bottom and grease using oil or butter.
6. Pan of any shape particularly flat bottomed ensures even baking of the cake.
7. After greasing the pan you can apply a parchment paper or wax paper on it and then pour the above cake batter into the pan. Using such paper is optional. But greasing is mandatory.
8. Instead of using paper, it is preffered to sprinkle some flour on the greased tin and pat along sides and bottom and remove the excess flour which oozes out after sticking to the greased pan.

Using Oven:
9. Once you pour in the cake batter into the pan, place it in the oven which is pre-heated to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C) and then bake for about 30 to 40 minutes.
10. Cake is done when you insert a knife or toothpick in the cake and it comes out clean.
11. Take out the pan and allow it to cool for 1 hour approximately. After cooling cut the cake from along the sides of the pan. Then you can refrigerate or cut and serve. Plain vanilla cake is ready to eat.

Using Pressure Cooker:
12. In the absence of oven you can bake the cake in normal pressure cooker as well.
13. For this, pour water upto 1 inch high in a pressure cooker which is of 3 litre and above capacity.
14. Now place a stand in the water and then place our pan with cake batter on this stand.
15. Close the cooker with lid.
16. Do not put whistle.
17. Steam for 30 minutes on a medium flame.
18. After 30 minutes, open lid and allow steam to escape.
19. Now heat without lid for another 5 minutes. Take out and cool the cake at room temperature.

I skipped icing the cake. Its upto your choice. After baking the cake, cut it to 2 horizontal halves, apply a thick coat of icing on one layer and cover it with another layer of the cake. Also apply icing on top and on all sides of the cake and then proceed for garnishing with fruits of your choice.

You can use fruits of your choice and availability.

Procedure For Decorating:
20. First place the cake in a plate or a turn table on which you desire to serve the cake.
21. Slice apple as shown in the pic.
22. Take out the outer skin of orange wedges and keep the fruit within aside.
23. Deseed grapes, extract seeds from pomogranate.
24. Now, Place apple slices carefully on the top and around the sides of cake as shown in pic.
25. Between 2 apple slices on top, place orange pieces, sprinkle some pomogranate seeds and place a grape.
26. Now pour pomogranate seeds around and on top of the cake.
27. Place some grapes on center of the top as in pic. And here's ur fruit sponge cake ready to serve :).

Here comes a great, new and an innovative vegetable carving from my hubby :)

Its named as "ULLI BAALU" means onion bear in telugu....:)

Linking my cake recipe to Bake Fest #28 Event: 

Veg Spring Rolls

Veg Spring Rolls is one of the popular veg starters.  Takes a bit longer time for preparation but tastes amazing :)

Ingredients:

For Spring Roll Sheets:
1. Maida - 1 cup
2. Salt - To taste
3. Water - As needed

For Stuffing:
1. Cabbage - 1 cup
2. Capsicum - 1/2 small
3. Carrot - 1 small
4. Beans - 6 to 8 small
5. Onion -1 Large
5. Tomato - 1 Large
6. Salt - To taste
7. Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsps
8. Oil - For Deep Frying


Also read: Veg Kathi Roll Recipe

Procedure:
1. Cut all the veggies and boil them till soft

2. Heat 2 tsps of oil in a wok and cook boiled veggies along with salt and red chilli powder till the flavours blend in completely

3. In a bowl mix maida, salt and water as needed to a consistency much thinner than dosa batter and make dosas without using oil

4. Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai, place spoonful of prepared stuffing on one dosa, roll it like spring roll and close edges with the dosa batter itself. Stick properly so that the stuffing inside may not ooze out during frying

5. Make all the rolls using dosa batter and prepared stuffing and deep fry in hot oil.It doesn't take much time for frying
6. Now lay the fried rolls on kitchen towel so that excess oil gets drained out
7. Cut the spring rolls in 2 inch size each and serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Pulihora - How to make Puliogare - Puliyodharai Rice Recipe

Pulihora or Puliyodharai is a traditional dish usually prepared on all vrathams and pujas. There are many varieties of pulihora like Tamarind  Pulihora (the one which I am going to show right now), Lemon Pulihora, Mango Pulihora, Vaakkaya Pulihora, Gongura Pulihora, Avacado Pulihora etc. Since it is a tangy flavoured rice dish hence called Pulihora in telugu and this tamarind rice in tamil is called puliyodharai or Puliogare or Pulisadham.

Lets discover how to make this tamarind rice andhra style.

Ingredients for Puliyodharai rice recipe

For cooking Rice:
1. Rice - 4 cups
2. Water - 8 cups

For Pulihora paste:

1.Tamarind - size of 1 big apple
2. Curry Leaves - 2 stems
3. Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
4. Oil - 1 tbsp

For Tadka:
1. Dry Red Chillies - 10 to 12
2. Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
3. Curry Leaves - 2 stems
4. Groundnuts - 1/2 cup
5. Channa Dal - 1/2 cup
6. Salt - To taste
7. Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
8. Oil - 4 tbsps

Procedure - How to make Puliogare

Cook rice and allow it cool

How to Prepare Pulihora paste:

1. Soak tamarind in 1 cup of water for about half an hour and squeeze thick juice from it
2. Don't add much water for soaking else the juice will become thin and watery and is not suitable for making pulihora
3. Heat a kadai, pour thick tamarind juice in it, wash and put 2 stems of curry leaves, add turmeric powder and oil and cook it till all the water from the tamarind juice evaporates and it becomes like a thick paste

4. We can refrigerate pulihora paste and use when ever needed as it stays good for 1 or 2 weeks

Preparing Tadka:

1. Heat oil in a kadai, add all the ingredients in it and fry well

Firstly add pulihora paste to the cooked rice and mix well. Now add Tadka and mix. Pulihora is ready to serve :)

Chick Pea Beans Stir Fry / Sondel

Chick Pea Beans Stir Fry or Sondel. During Varalakshmi vratham, we offer soaked chickpea beans as one of the prasadhams to goddess Varalakshmi. The next day give a spicy touch to them as below and enjoy :)

Ingredients:

1. Chickpea Beans - 1 cup
2. Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
3. Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
4. Curry Leaves - 1 stem
5. Salt - To taste
6. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Red Chilli Powder - 1 n 1/4 tsp
8. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
9. Oil - 2 tsps

Procedure:

1. Soak Chickpea Beans overnight
2. Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard and cumin seeds
3. Once they splutter add curry leaves and fry a bit
4. Add chickpea beans drained out from the soaked water, turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder and toss well
5. Once it gets fried add lemon juice and serve hot :)

Chicken Do Pyaza-Murgh Do Pyaaza-How to make quick and easy chicken recipes

Chicken Do Pyaza is one of the easy chicken dinner recipes and most delicious when compared to other different chicken recipes. Do pyaza means 2 kinds of onions are used in this recipe. First, the regular onions and second, the small onions generally referred as sambar onions. I added Capsicum in addition to give special spicy touch to chicken do pyaza :). In short, Chicken Do Pyaza is a tasty chicken recipe variety cooked along with veggies like tomatoes and capsicum and a ton more of dho dho pyaza.

 Ingredients to make good chicken recipes:

1. Chicken - 500 gms
2. Regular onion - 1 (medium sized, chopped lengthwise)
3. Small Onions - 3 to 4 (diced like squares as in the pic)
4. Tomatoes -2 (medium sized, diced like squares as in the pic)
5. Green chillies - 2 (slit lengthwise)
6. Capsicum - 1 (medium sized, diced like squares as in the pic)
7. Curry Leaves - 7 to 8 leaves
8. Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp(used in marination) + 1 tsp(used in cooking)

9. Salt - To Taste
10. Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsps(used in marination) + 2 tsps(used in cooking)
11. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp(used in marination) + 1/2 tsp(used in cooking)
12. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
13. Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
14. Dry Coconut Powder - 1/4 cup

15. Fresh Curd - 1/4 cup

16. Butter - 1 tsp
17. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
18. Fresh Coriander - 1/4 bunch(used in marination) + 1/4 bunch(used in garnishing)

19. Oil - 2 tbsps
20. Water - 3/4 cup

Whole garam masala:

21. Bay Leaf - 1
22. Cinnamon - 1 inch 
23. Green Cardamom - 1
24. Black Cardamom - 1
25. Cloves - 3 to 4
26. Pepper Corns - 3 to 4
27. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
28. Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
29. Mace - 1
30. Nutmeg Powder - 1/2 tsp

Chicken Do Pyaza Procedure - How to make chicken recipes

1. Clean the chicken thoroughly and cut into medium size pieces.

2. Marinate chicken by applying salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, Ginger Garlic Paste and finely chopped coriander leaves on the pieces of chicken and keep aside

3. Heat oil in a kadai and add whole garam masala

4. Saute for few seconds until nice aroma and flavors of whole garam masala comes out

5. Add regular onion pieces, slit green chillies, curry leaves, Ginger Garlic Paste and saute

6. Also add diced tomatoes, capsicum and saute well. Don't overcook capsicum, it should retain little of its crunchiness

7. When veggies are done, add marinated chicken and cook for sometime until chicken is cooked/fried nicely

8. Now add water and let the chicken to cook completely

9. Meanwhile add salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, Dry Coconut Powder and cook the chicken

10. When chicken is almost done, add curd, diced small onions and cook for few seconds. Onions added at this stage along with previously added capsicum gives nice crunchy taste

11. Switch off the flame, dishout the chicken do pyaza, add a dollop of butter, spoonful of lemon juice and garnish with finely chopped coriander and serve hot 

12. A really delicious  chicken gravy curry for chapati or naan or biryani or rice and it tastes awesome.

Tips - Chicken Do Pyaza:

1. You can use red and yellow capsicums also to make the dish even more colorful. In that case reduce green chillies and red chilli powder according to your taste.

Yummy right! so try this easy recipes of chicken its really one of the good chicken recipes for you candle light dinner.

Tags: Murgh Do Pyaza, Chicken Do Pyaaza, chicken dopiaza, Easy chicken recipes,
Chicken dinner recipes

Bread Toast

Masala Bread Toast is very easy, quick and a tasty breakfast recipe. Bread lovers really love this.

Ingredients:

1. Bread - 4 slices
2. Onion - 1
3. Tomato - 1 
4. Turmeric Powder - pinch
5. Salt - To taste
6. Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Coriander Powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Oil - 2 tsps

 You can add carrot, capsicum 1/2 each, tomato ketchup and some coriander for garnishing if desired.

Procedure:

1. Heat oil, add finely chopped onion and tomato pieces and cook till onion pieces turn translucent and tomato pieces get shrinked

2. Don't overcook, crunchy onion pieces give nice taste to the toast
3. Add turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder and coriander powder and saute for few seconds

4. Switch off and the stuffing is ready :)
5. Now toast the bread slices in a toaster or toast them on a tawa. Using oil for toasting is optional

6. After toasting the slices apply stuffing on the slices and serve hot

  

Serving Suggestions:
1. Can add lemon juice on the slices before serving

Pesarapappu Vadalu | Rubbudu Garelu - How to make Pesarapappu vadalu recipe

Pesarapappu Vadalu or Rubbudu Garelu, Also called Whole moong dal vada and It is best south indian andhra snack recipe. It tastes awesome with chicken or mutton gravy and tastes heavenly.

Ingredients:

1. Moong Dal(Pesara pappu) - 1 glass / 2 cups / 200 gms
2. Green Chillies - 2 Nos
3. Onion - 1 big
4. Curry Leaves - 2 strands
5. Coriander Leaves - fistful
6. Coriander Seeds - 1 tbsp
7. Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
8. Garlic Pods - 4 to 5 Nos
9. Salt - To taste
10. Red Chilli Powder - 1 & 1/2 tsp
11. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
12. Ginger - 1/2 inch piece (optional, if adding then reduce red chilli powder to 1 tsp)

Procedure:

1. Soak moong dal overnight or atleast for 2 hours
2. Remove water after soaking dal for desired time and pat dry the dal

3. Grind some onion pieces, chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and garlic pods coarsely
4. Keep 4 tbsps of soaked dal aside and grind remaining dal along with above paste. This unground dal when added to the ground paste after frying gives nice crunchy taste

5. Grind dal coarsely to a thick paste. Don't grind it to too runny paste. Coarsely ground dal gives much taste than finely ground dal
6. Transfer to a bowl and add curry leaves, coriander leaves, remainig dal, onion pieces, salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and mix well

7. Heat oil in a kadai and make small vadas and drop them in oil
8. Fry in medium flame. You can fry 10-12 vadas at a time

9. Fry both sides until golden and crisp or until the inside gets cooked well
10. Drain vadas on paper towel and enjoy hot.