Spiced Pumpkin Bread

 My mother prepares these amazing sweet pumpkin thalipith (paratha). It is labour of love. This thalipith should be cooked over low flame, so for 8-10 thalipiths it can easily take over 1hr.
So today I was just thinking about this delicious thalipeeth and it strike me that I can easily bake some kind of pumpkin bread with this receipe. So I immediately started working on the receipe, and happy to say its a winner. You can try this simple receipe on some winter morning, the cinnamon in the bread will fill your whole house.

Ingredients:

3.5 cups grated pumpkin
2 cups* atta
2 cups grated jaggery
1/4 cup oil
1 heaped tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
Handfull of sultanas

Receipe:

Mix grated pumpkin and jaggery and keep it for 10-15 min. This will help the water ooze out. Add sultanas, salt, oil and cinnamon powder. In the wet mixture add dry ingredient (atta + baking soda). You need to adjust atta quantity such that the final mix is not too wet. Transfer mix in baking tin. Bake for 35-40 min at 180 C in pre-heated oven. Cool over rack and serve immediately.

P.s. If you feel the mixture is too dry then add little bit of milk.

Carrot- Beetroot cake

Ingredients:

1 cup atta/maida

¾ cup curd
¼ cup oil
¾ - 1 cup powdered sugar (you can use granulated sugar also, depending on sweetness from carrots/beets adjust quantity)
About 1 cup grated carrot + beetroot
¼ cup raisins / finely chopped dates

1 tsp kesar-elaichi syrup/vanilla essence

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

Recipe:

Beat together curd and oil to make smooth paste. Add powdered sugar, kesar-elaichi syrup next.Next add dates, grated carrots+ beetroots. In the end add atta mixed with baking soda and powder.Once the batter is ready, shift it to greased pan and cook @ 180C for 20-25 min.

Note: Next time I am planning to use 1.5 cups of atta as I felt the cake was bit extra moist.

Savoury Pancakes

It may look like another kind of dosa, but it is actually savoury pancake. My husband does not like the sweet American pancakes, so at home we do an Indian savoury version of the pancakes. Its very healthy and he hogs them down when he is back from a long run.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 small carrot, grated
3-4 french beans finely chopped
1/2 small onion finely chopped
4-5 spinach leaves finely chopped
milk + water  mixture to prepare the batter
Mix flours (maida+atta+roasted oats grounded+ragi)
Salt to taste
Red chili powder to taste
Black pepper powder to taste

Recipes:
Break both eggs and whisk them for couple of min. Add the vegetables and spices.
Mix the flours, add milk+water mixture as per requirements. Prepare batter with dosa  like consistency. Prepare thin dosa like pancakes. Serve hot with tomato and chili sauce.

Green Egg Curry

Sometimes it so boring to follow a certain receipe. I was so bored of perparing and eating same onion-tomato gravey that I thought of inventing some new gravy type. So I just powdered all the spices I like with some herbs and voila I got a new kind of gravey. Though I am giving receipe here, you can replace the spcies with whatever you like.   

Ingredients:

4 Hard boiled eggs

2 tsp oil

salt to taste

For gravey

2 medium size onion fried

10-15 strands of corriander leaves

1/4 cup tomato puree

1-2 tsp grated coconut

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste (optional)

Spice powder: 1/2 tsp Ajwain + 1/4 star anise + 1/2-1 tsp cumin seeds + 1/2 tsp saunf + 1 small elaichi + pinch of shahjeera + 1/2" of cinnamon grind everything together

Receipe:

It is very simple. Just grind together every element mentioned under "For gravey".

In a kadhai, heat oil. Add the gravey paste and fry till its cooked. Next add water and eggs and boil till gravey thickens.

Serve hot with roti.

Sabudana/Sago Khichadi

Sabudana khichadi is synonymous with marathi food. This khichadi is mainly eaten when people are fasting. It is very easy to prepare but definitely requires planning.

Ingredients:

1 cup sabudana
1/3 cup roasted groundnuts (powdered)
2-3 green chillies
1 large potato boiled (cut in cubes)
1 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 tbsp ghee
salt, sugar to taste

Recipe:

• If you wish to have sabudana khichadi for breakfast, make sure you wash and drain sabudana on previous night. Never soak sabudana in water. Drain water completely.Next morning you'll have nice soft pearls of sabudana.
• To start with khichadi preparation, heat ghee/oil in kadhai. 
• When the oil heats, add cumin seeds and green chili (chopped).
• Next add cubed potatoes and fry for 2-3 min on low heat.
• In meantime, mix groundnut powder, salt and sugar with soaked sabudana.
• Add this mixture in kadhai. If you feel sabudana is dry, add splash of water.
• Cover the kadhai and cook khichadi for 5 min on low heat.
• Serve hot with some grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves garnish.

Note: In my mind sabudana khichadi means food for fasting. So I can never make sabudana khichadi in oil or I can't think about adding karipatta, onions or any such non-fasting food in this khichadi. But you can prepare sabudana khichadi like upma/poha by adding spices and vegetables.