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.

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.

Date- Tamarind chutney

Eating bhelpuri is my weakpoint. And I don't get chance to indulge in eating bhelpuri in Bangalore because its not so good here. That is when I miss Mumbai so much. When my mother had come down to Bangalore once, she had kept stock of dat-tamarind sweet and sour chutney and mint-corriander-chilli hot chutney. So everyday we could eat homemade bhel.
This chutney is simple to make, its delicious and healthy too. All you need to do is take 2 parts of dates (without seeds, chopped), 1 part tamarind pulp (thick), some jaggery if you want sweetner chutney. Grind these ingredients with roasted jeera+ red chilli powder and salt per taste and you have a tasty chutney ready to use. This chutney easily stays for 2 weeks in fridge. 

Simply Fry: Pumpkin flower Bhajji

On my first visit to Rourkela, first time in my life I saw pumpkin flower. It is very delicate flower and can't be transportaed over long distances. I think that's the reason I had not seen this flower in Mumbai. Its used for bhajji,subzi etc.

Ingredients:

- 10-15 pumpkin flowers (kakharu phool) cut off stem and remove pollen from flower
- 1/2cup besan+ 1/2cup rice flour (or 1 cup besan)
- 1tbls ajwain or cummin seeds
- 1tbls kasoori methi
- 1tbls chilli powder
- 1tbls turmeric powder
- 1/2tbls eno
- salt to taste
- 1tbs oil
- 1/3-1/2 cup water
- oil to fy

1. Mix all dry ingredients well. Add little water at a time to make thick consistency batter.
2. Fry oil in kadhai for fry. Once its hot add pumpkin flower in batter and fry one by one. This bhajji is prepared and fryed similar to potato bhajji.
3. Serve hot and eat with tomato ketchup or any chutney