"Happy Vinayaka Chavithi" - Date Apricot Coconut Oats Laddu N Savory Idli Kudumulu (Oats and Yellow Corn Meal)

I completely forgot about Vinayaka Chavithi today, but managed to come home soon and made these two recipes as soon as possible. I was first feeling guilty that I forgot, but after making these two recipes came out so good and keeping the healthy ingredients in mind, made me so happy.

Well I will have to admit that nothing was traditional but tried to recreate the idea, that for doing pooja we must have at least a sweet and a savory dish. Both these recipes are a pure accident that turned out to be good I should say, because I just thought of making both the sweet and the savory recipes using oats. Thanks god I came up with these instant ideas which saved lot of my time, as it was very quick, easy and healthy.

"Happy Vinayaka Chavithi" to all of you, hope you have a wonderful auspicious family time.

Date Apricot Coconut Oats Laddu

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Ingredients:
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2 cups oats (I used quarker quick cooking oats)
10 pitted Dates
10 Aparicots
1 tbsp Ghee
2 cups Milk
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
1/2 sweetened Coconut flakes

Method:
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1. In a blender powder coarsely powder the quaker quick cooking oats.
2. In a pan add little (1/2 cup) water and add dates and apricots and boil it, until all the water is absorbed, cooking the dry fruits for about 10 mins. Allow it to cool.

3. In a mixer add the date and the apricots along with the milk and blend to a smooth paste.

4. Now mix the powdered oats to the date mix in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it for about 5 mins.

5. Meanwhile in a pan add the sweetened coconut flakes and dry roast it until it turns slight brown. Allow it to cool and crush it little with hands.

6. Now the oats and date mix would have cooled a bit, scoop out a spoon full and roll it to a ball shape with hands and roll it over again in the sweetened coconut and place the ladoos in a serving plate, repeat this step to make more ladoos.

Savory Idli Kudumulu: Oats and Yello Corn Meal

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1 1/2 cups cracked/broken Oats

2 1/2 cups Yellow Corn Meal

2 cups Yogurt

2 cups Water

2 tbsp Eno (fruit salt)

1 Onion chopped

2 Carrots chopped

1/2 Green Peas

1/4 inch Ginger

2 Green Chilies

1 Sprig Curry Leaves

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tsp Oil

Salt as needed

Method:

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1. In a large mixing bowl add yellow corn meal, oats, yogurt, water and eno and mix all together with a whisk and allow it to sit for about 5-7 mins.

2. In a chopped add ginger, chili, curry leaves and carrots and chop it finely.

3. In a pan add oil and when it's hot enough add the mustard seeds, when they start to sputter add the onions and saute it until transparent.

4. Now add the green peas, and the chopped carrots, ginger, green chili and curry leaves and add enough salt and saute it for about 4-5 mins. Allow it to cool a bit.

5. Now add these sauted vegetables to the corn meal and oats mixture and mix well.

6. Meanwhile grease the idli plates, and spoon the batter into the idli plates and steam it for about 15 mins or until done.

7. Now open the idli cooker and allow the idlis to cool a bit.

8. Now with a spoon scoop out half of a idli and place it in middle of ur hands and hold it pressing it a bit so that it looks like the shape of "kudumulu/kozhukattai" and place it in a serving plate, repeat these steps to make as many as you want.

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Blueberry Muffins

After tasting the soft, spongy Egg less Blueberry Boy Bait, I wanted to try the same with egg. If the egg less version itself very soft, I couldn't imagine the egg version. This is the main reason behind my interest in baking blueberry cake another time.

I followed all the steps from Blueberry boy bait except there is a slight change in ingredients list just to incorporate egg. Also, this time, I baked as muffins instead of round/square cake. Surprisingly, I have got golden crispy crust without any sugar topping which I did for Blueberry Boy-Bait. The final outcome was simply delicious.

Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Makes: 6 nos

Ingredients:
All purpose flour / Maida / Plain flour - 1 cup + 1 tablespoon
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Butter - 1/4 cup, at room temperature
Granulated Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1 no, at room temperature
Vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon
Milk - 1/4 cup
Blueberries - 3/4 cup

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 350F/176C. Line the muffin/cupcake tray with paper/baking cups. Toss the blueberries with the tablespoon of flour and keep aside. This helps the blueberries to avoid sinking.
2) Mix all the dry ingredients and keep aside.
3) In another bowl, add together the butter and sugar. Beat well using hand whisk until the mixture becomes creamy.

4) Add egg and vanilla extract. Beat again.

5) Now add the 1/3 of dry ingredients mixture to the creamy egg mixture. Mix well.

6) Add half of milk now. Mix again.

7) Now add half of the left dry ingredients. Mix again and add remaining milk. Mix Again.
8) Add the left dry ingredients and mix again. You need to start and end with dry ingredients and in between add milk. (flour-milk-flour-milk-flour) Follow this order.

9) Finally add blueberries and gently fold it. Final dough will be thick.
10) Pour a tablespoon or two into the prepared muffin tray.
11) Bake it for 30 minutes or till the tooth pin inserted into it comes out clean.

12) Transfer to the wire rack and cool completely.

Babycorn Satay with Peanut Sauce - Guest Post by Prathima of Prat's Corner

Prathima from Prats Corner is this month's guest host in my kitchen. Prats and I are real "virtual" friends. Though it may sound oxymoronic, it is a true statement. We got to know each other through the blogging world and Facebook and became good friends. Emails and chats kept us connected. I love her elegant blogspace and unique dishes. My favorite is the authentic Davanagare Benne Dosa. I