Dry Mango Pickle

Mango!! ..name itself makes my mouth water. I like raw mangoes and used to eat a lot when I was young. Now that I am in US, don't get much to eat them. So when I went to India this time...mom made this dry mango...by cutting raw mango pieces mixed them with rock salt and dried them for days in sun and packed this for me. I found this very hard to eat so thought of making this pickle recipe, which turned out to be good tasting one.

Ingredients:

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2 cups Dried mango pieces ( can substitute with dry mango powder too)

1 Whole Garlic Pod

1 Sprig Curry leaves

1 tbsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Asafoetida powder

3 tbsp Oil

1/2 cup Tomato Puree/Sauce

2 tbsp Red Chili powder

1/2 tsp Paprika Powder

1/4 tsp Fenugreek powder

1/2 Turmeric powder

Salt to taste (if needed. as the dry mango has salt to it)

Method:

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1. Take the dried mango pieces and roughly run it for a minute in a chopper so that the big pieces break to a crumbly like texture. keep it aside.

2. Peel the garlic and cut into slices.

3. In a non-stick kadai/pan add oil, when the oil is medium hot add mustard seeds, when the splutter add asafoetida, curry leaves and garlic. fry them for a minute.

4. Add tomato puree, turmeric powder, fenugreek powder, chili powder and paprika powder mix well. Cover and cook until the oil is seen.

5. Now add the mango pieces and mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.

6. You can eat this as a pickle served with curd rice. I did serve this with chicken biriyani and raita. 

COCONUT MASALA CHUTNEY

There are so many varieties in coconut chutneys. This one is very different chutney using onion and tomato for the tempering.

தேங்காய் மசாலா சட்னி

Ingredients:

Shredded Cococnut-1
Tamarind- a small gooseberry size
Green chillies-6
Gram dal- 3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Finely chopped small onions- half cup
Finely chopped tomato- one cup
Finely chopped coriander leaves- 2 tbsp
Fennel seeds- half sp
Gingelly oil- 3 tbsp

Procedure:

Grind the coconut with the green chillies, tamarind and gram dal with enough salt to a coarse paste.
Heat a pan and pour the oil.
Add the fennel seeds and when they splutter add the onion and fry well.
Add the tomatoes with the coriander leaves.
Fry them until the tomatoes become soft ands the oil floats on top.
Pour this on the coconut chutney and mix well.
Tasty coconut chutney is ready for the break fast now!

Eggless Dates Banana Cake

During my initial baking days, I tried a banana cake using a recipe from a blog. The cake came out well in terms of texture and taste. But the flavor of banana was so overpowering that I could hardly finish a slice. Things have changed now. I have tried pairing banana with dates or chocolate powder to mask it flavor. In this cake, I have pureed the dates and added it to the batter. I used only 1/3 cup of brown sugar. The cake is mildly sweet. I did frost the cake so that took care of the lack of sweetness. In case you are not frosting and would like your cake to be sweet, increase the sugar to 1/2 cup.

You need

• Wheat flour/Atta- 1 cup
• All purpose flour/maida- 1/2 cup
• Deseeded dates - 15 to 20 nos 
• Mashed banana- 1/2 cup
• Brown sugar - 1/3 cup
• Curd - 1/3 cup
• Oil - 1/3 cup
• Baking powder -1 tspn
• Baking soda- 1 tspn

Method

Sieve together wheat flour, maida, baking soda and baking powder.

Soak seeded and chopped dates in half cup of warm water for an hour or till it turns soft. Alternatively you can microwave the dates in water for 2 minutes and it turns soft. No soaking required. Grind the dates to a smooth paste. Add in  mashed banana, curd, oil and sugar to the mixer jar. Pulse to blend.

Transfer the wet mix to a bowl. Fold the dry ingredients to the wet mix, with mixing after each addition. Pour the batter to a greased and dusted tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 30 minutes.


For icing

Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Corn flour - 2 tspn
Butter -1 tblspn.

Whisk all the ingredients till smooth and light. Cool the cake. Spread the icing on the cake. If you find it difficult to spread the frosting, add few drops of milk  to make it easier to spread. To the remaining icing, I added a teaspoon of cocoa powder and did a swirl on top of each piece.