Eggless Cake - Using Psyllium husk

Hello All,

Here's the recipe for an eggless chocolate cake using Sat Isabgol (psyllium husk) as a replacement for eggs........[recipe adjusted from Riddhi Jhankharia's process]. Since I always avoid using butter and maida for my cooking, I've altered the recipe (got it right after failing a few times!) to incorporate whole grain atta and normal cooking oil......

Ingredients


100 g Whole grain Atta (I've used Ashirwad Multi-grain atta)

1 tsp Baking Powder (Urban Platter gluten free)

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

~ 80 g powdered sugar

1.5 tsp Psyllium husk (isabgol)  (soaked in around 30 ml water)

3 tablespoon Amul Fresh cream (~ 40 g)

65 g hot Milk (steaming hot milk)

30 g Cooking oil (I've used Fortune Sun Lite sunflower oil)

11 g Cocoa Powder (I've used Hershey's unsweetened cocoa)

1 tsp Vanilla essence

And for the process, here's the video:

Happy Baking!

PS: If you want to replace anything in the recipe, you'll need to try it out. I used what I had at hand.....

Banana Walnut Cake

Banana Walnut Cake Recipe

No Baking Soda, No White Sugar, No Maida (APF), No Butter

Hello All,

Here is a recipe for (as healthy as it gets) banana walnut cake I tried just today and it works perfectly. For eggless cakes, I don't exactly know recipe because I don't make eggless cakes much.

Step 1: Grease an 8" tin (I've used a square tin but you can use any shape, just make sure the batter doesn't fill more than 3/4th of the tin). I like to line my tin with butter paper (it is lined, the butter paper becomes almost transparent after I apply oil on it) because that releases the cake without any hassles.

Things you'll need: 

6 medium sized eggs (you can make the cake with 4 eggs also, but I like to use 6, it makes for a fluffier cake), 100 g chopped walnuts, 2 medium sized bananas (to be mashed by hand), 200 g brown sugar (I've used pr-organic brown sugar), 225 g multi-grain flour (I use multigrain, you can use whole wheat also), 2.5 tsps of baking powder (I've Weikfield), 150 g refined oil (I've used sunflower oil), 2.5 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp vanilla essence, 

Step 2: You will need two separate bowls for making the batter. I recommend a deep mixing bowl because that minimizes splatter while you prepare the batter. They're available on Amazon at a pretty reasonable price. Break the eggs in the smaller bowl (you can see 6 here as one egg fell from my hand and its yolk had to be rescued asap). Pick out the yolks and add them to a separate (bigger bowl).

Step 3: Add 150 g of oil (I prefer to deal with weights because volumes are hard to measure precisely) to the yolks. Add 2 tsps of vanilla essence.

Step 4: Whisk the egg whites (in the small bowl) till stiff peaks form.

Step 5: Add about half of the brown sugar to the whisked egg whites and whisk again till a creamy meringue forms. The sugar should completely dissolve (it takes about 10-12 minutes).

Step 6: This is how firm the meringue becomes :)

Step 7: Whisk the egg yolks, remaining sugar, oil and vanilla essence till a uniform mixture results and add the baking soda - flour mix to it in small lots (around 2 tbsps at a time). The batter will start to thicken. 

Step 8: To thin the batter down, add hot (but not boiling) milk, around 50 ml at a time.

Step 9: Now, add the meringue to the batter and FOLD IT IN (do not use the blender as that fluffs the batter up a bit too much). Add half the meringue at first, fold it in till all of it mixes in and then, add the other half. Repeat the folding  in till a smooth batter results.

Step 10: Fold in the mashed bananas into the batter.

Step 11: Pour the batter into the tin and sprinkle the chopped walnuts from top. Bake at 200 degrees for first 20 (out of a total 50) minutes and then, at 180 degrees. Check for complete baking with a skewer AFTER 45 minutes or so. Do not open the oven in first 20 minutes at all.

Cake is ready :)

Cake upside down :)

Basic cake recipe

Hello All,

This is a very basic cake recipe (Eggless will be later) that I follow, to make plain sponges. This has been optimized for my oven and my tastes. Please feel free to fiddle about a bit to find your sweet spot :)

Ingredients: 

2 large eggs
110 g powdered sugar (I'll work on the brown sugar next), separated into two lots, roughly divided equally
120 g multi-grain flour 
80 ml cooking oil
1 tsp pineapple essence (or replace with 50 g pureed pineapple)
100 ml milk
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Chocolate chips (optional)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Baking temperature: 200 deg. C for first 10 minutes
180 deg. C afterwards
8" baking tin
Butter paper (cut to the dimension of the base of the tin)
Oil for greasing
Aluminium foil (for covering and avoiding burning of the top crust)

Images of the steps.......

1. Two eggs, yolks and whites separated

2. Whip the egg whites till soft peaks form 

3. Add half of the powdered sugar and beat till stiff peaks form

4. Add the remaining sugar to the egg yolks

5. Add the cooking oil and 1 tsp of pineapple essence (replace it with whichever flavour essence you wish to use)

6. And 1 tsp of cinnamon powder (yet again, I was making a pineapple cinnamon cake, hence the pineapple essence and cinnamon powder)

7. Beat it all well and add half of the milk (it'll be too stiff a mixture otherwise). Add the flour (in small lots and beat)

8. Add the remaining milk and baking powder and soda.

9. Mix everything well till sugar grains are no longer visible

10. Add the beaten egg whites (meringue) in small portions and fold in. Do not beat with a blender

11. Once homogenous, pour into a pre-greased 9" baking tin

12. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top

13. Bake for 10 minutes at 200 deg. C. Then, reduce the temperature to 180 deg. C and cover loosely with alminium foil. Bake till a skewer comes out clean from the centre......Let cool outside the oven. Once cooled, take out from the tin and it's ready to serve

14. Softness:

Restokitch Holi Special Indo-Western Fusion Food Fest

Hello All,

I am back, this time, with a contest entry for the Restokitch Indo-Western Fusion Food Fest entry.

And my entry is: Cheese stuffed lauki capsicum kofta (served with with mac and cheese and garlic toast))

Bottle gourd isn't a vegetable which is a favourite among most people. It often gets ostracized as the 'squishy' vegetable that tastes of nothing! So, I took it upon myself to make something yummy with it and a cheese stuffed melt-in-mouth kofta sounded just about right for the job! ;)

Compulsory ingredients:

1. Maida (4 tbsp)
2. Onions (1 medium sized)
3. Garlic (6-7 cloves)
4. Eggs (2)

Additional ingredients:

1. Besan (chick pea flour) - 200 g
2. Lauki (bottle gourd) - 400 g
3. Capsicum - 1 small size

Optional ingredients:

1. Mozzarella cheese
2. Mushrooms
3. Macaroni
4. Pizza seasoning (for mac and cheese)
5. Butter
6. Milk
7. Bread (additionally, for serving garlic toast on the side)
8. Oil (for sauteing vegetables)
9. Green chillies
10. Salt
11. Atta (3 tbsp)

For the koftas:

In a small pan, heat 3-4 tbsp of oil and add finely chopped garlic to it. Once it starts browning, add onions and saute till onion is golden brown. Set aside. In a bowl, grate lauki and squeeze out the additional water. Grate half the capsicum and add it to the lauki. To this bowl, add 2 eggs, maida, besan, salt, finely chopped green chillies and the sauteed onion-garlic. Add a little water, if necessary (I didn't need to, this was a sticky paste) to bring it to a sticky consistency.

Cut mozzarella block into 2 x 2 x 2 cm cubes and keep ready.

In an appam tawa (you can do it in a skillet too, but i prefer my appam tawa), add oil to the sections and add about half teaspoon of the kofta mix. Once half cooked, press the mozzarella block into it.

Once a bit cooked, add another half spoon on top to make a 'sandwich' of mozzarella in the kofta. Fry them till they are cooked on both sides and remove to put on tissue.

I love to make mac and cheese to go with anything, so here goes my mac and cheese.......

In a non-stick pan (I prefer these are burnt and stuck food isn't a problem here), add about 50 gm  of butter. Once it melts, add the 3 tbsp atta (you can use maida too, but I prefer atta) and stir till no lumps remain. Add 1 litre of milk and 100 g grated mozzarella to the atta and stir very fast. This will make sure there are no lumps. Add the remaining vegetables (onions, capsicum, sauteed lightly) to this and add boiled and strained macaroni. 

FOr the cheesy garlic toast, I've taken two bread slices and sandwiched a thin mozzarella slice with some finely chopped garlic and a little pizza seasoning. Roast on a non-stick tawa (or grill/bake) and it's ready to accompany your yummy cheese-stuffed koftas.......

Steamed spinach besan (chickpea flour) sabji

Hello All,

Welcome to the blog, and apologies for disappearing yet again. I made this sabji long long ago but got around to posting the recipe only today (ah! the perils of entrepreneurship)!

This is a simple and tasty (and elegantly sneaky!) way to get a lot of spinach into anyone who claims they don't like it. Here we go!

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bundle
Besan (chickpea flour) ~ 4 tbsp
Onions - 3
Garlic paste (optional) - 1 tbsp
Green chilli - 1
Salt - to taste
Oil - 6 tbsp
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds and asafoetida (for tadka/sauteing)
Groundnuts - optional

Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a shallow vessel (I prefer non-stick cookware)

Chop the chilli coarsely

Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and asafoetida

Add garlic paste (or chopped garlic, if you prefer that) and the chilli to the oil. Roast for a short while

Add the spinach, salt and turmeric

Cook until the spinach is soft and dark green in colour

Add it to the mixer and grind it fine

This is how it will look (note: it reduces in size a lot but use a big jar to accommodate the besan you'll be adding later).

Add about 100 g besan, water and grind to a smooth paste (it should be the consistency of molten chocolate, not too runny, not too thick).

Now, chop the onions coarsely and divide roughly into two equal portions

Add oil and once hot, add asafoetida, cumin seeds and onions

While the onions get brown, grease a flat vessel (I prefer the back of my plate as it's convenient later on)

Add the spinach besan paste to the sauteed onions

Stir vigorously and continuously to avoid formation of lumps.

Once it becomes a sticky ball in the centre of the vessel (and that's why, I prefer non-stick cookware), put it on the greased plate and spread out flat. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Once it has cooled down, cut into finger size pieces using a blunt butter knife.

Add some oil to a shallow vessel 

And saute the onions 

Add groundnuts and roast until groundnuts are dark brown

Add the steamed spinach-besan chunks and roast till the edges of the chunks get sligthly brown

YUMMY spinach-besan sabji is ready.

Approximate cooking time 40 mins