Eggless Oats-Cocoa Cookies

Recipe source - Sailu's kitchen

I followed Sailu's recipe to the T. No modifications made. I had to bake few minutes more than what she had mentioned.



Ingredients


Quick cooking oats - 1 1/4 cup
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Maida - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 1/2 tblspn
Baking powder - 3/4 tspn
A big pinch of baking soda
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn


Method

Sieve maida, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.

Blend powdered sugar and oil, till smooth. Fold in the sieved ingredients into the sugar-oil mixture. Add vanilla essence, oats and knead to a soft dough. If you are not able to bring together, add little milk. I did not require milk. In case of adding milk, chill the dough for 5 minutes before you proceed.

Pinch off small balls from the dough and flatten them. Arrange on a greased baking tray and bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

Crisp and melt in the mouth cookies are ready. I had sent some cookies for my friend's son. She called me to say they all liked it very much and will be happy to receive some, during my next bake. This is a keeper recipe for sure.

Lime Rasam

LIME RASAM
When eating the same rasam prepared with tamarind daily becomes boring, and the tongue craves for variety, we usually switch over to tomatoes or lime or even mango or pineapple to add the sour taste to rasam. Lime rasam can be had has a clear thin soup just before meals, or served like any other rasam with white rice.
Ingredients:
Lime – 1 big
Green gram dal – ¼ cup
Green chillies (slit) – 2
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Curry leaves – a few
Coriander leaves – a few
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Salt – 1 tsp
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Tomato - 1
Method:
1. Pressure cook green gram dal in 1 ½ cups of water and turmeric powder.
2. Add salt, asafoetida, curry leaves to the watery cooked dal and boil for 2 minutes.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and boil for one more minute.
4. Add two glasses of water and decrease heat.
5. Coarsely powder pepper and cumin seeds and add it to the rasam.
6. Squeeze out the juice of one lime into the rasam
7. Add chopped fresh coriander leaves. (fewMint leaves will lend it refreshing flavour)
8. Wait until the rasam foams and remember to remove from flame before it boils.
9. Heat ghee and add mustard seeds. When it splutters add it to the rasam.
10. Keep the rasam covered so that the flavour is intact.
TIP: Any rasam should never be boiled as it spoils the flavours. Rasam will foam, and slowly rise to the top of the vessel, similar to milk, when it reaches boiling point. The flame should be switched off immediately, and the vessel covered with a lid to seal in the flavours.
Enjoy the hot rasam in a tall glass as you watch the monsoon rain lashing out.

duck tour; brick work (cont.); leo

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day! We enjoyed the long weekend with friends and Project Rowhouse took a break.

Have you guys heard of the Duck Tours? It's your typical city tour - cheesy tour guide, families, amphibious vehicle, superfluous photography, wait... what's that you say? Amphibious vehicle? That's right people. The 'bus' turns into a boat and rolls right into the harbor. We took the tour last weekend and I'd recommend it. We learned some interesting things about the city and you can get some great views of our 'hood from the harbor. I must warn you - just after they force you to pose for a picture in front of the bus'boat, they hand out kazoo'ish duck quackers to each passenger. Everyone uses them, often. Loudly. You'll do it too.

This is the end of our street from the water;


and some construction going on nearby (as seen in the previous post).


As far as the house goes - we feel good about the pace right now and have been surprisingly productive during the work week. We've moved onto the next step in the brick exposing process and I love it. Muriatic Acid:

The box is so dramatic. Lots of things are poison.

This stuff is pretty amazing for giving the brick a finishing 'scrub'. It is acid and safety precautions must be taken. Wear the proper gear, have ventilation, keep baking soda around for neutralization (for spillage and overspray), etc. I'm going to give credit to Baltimore Rowhouse (a fellow renovation blog) for describing the muriatic acid process in detail. More info here. Check out the results:

We love the way it's looking. Even though the process is taking a while, each step is quite rewarding.

Any thoughts on that wood board going up the wall? There is quite a bit of damage behind it. There will also be a column nearby where the contractor will be removing the wall. Our thoughts are that we will finish them both in similar style.

Closeup - so fresh and so clean:


We also have a new addition to the home. Meet Leonardo D'Shrimpleton, aka Leo:


Part miniature dachsund, part miniature poodle; his eyes are bright blue and he's relatively tiny... sort of an impulse, but we really like him!