Gulab Jamun - With Milk Powder

Today is a very special day and I will talk about it later. This post is also very special as the South Vs North Challenge I participate every month has completed a year. This challenge was started by Divya of You Too Can Cook and it is very interesting. The whole group is divided into North and South Teams. Every month north team member challenges the south team with an authentic north Indian recipe whereas a south team member challenges the North team with an authentic South Indian recipe. For the completion of a year this month members were asked to do a challenge which they missed out and I had three or four in my list. I missed last month's challenge but the other three were there before I joined the group. I chose Gulab Jamunas I haven't got this version right before. Last time I tried making jamuns with milk powder and it was an utter flop. So I always stay away from milk powder jamun recipe. This time I neede to do it right and I went through the posts of all the bloggers who took part in that challenge. All of them have got good results. So with fingers crossed, I tried them yesterday. Though little on the harder side, they tasted absolutely delicious and my hubby after returning from work devoured them. He even asked me why I made them so tasty that he couldn't stop eating. The recipe is from Pallavi of Though Shalt Cook.

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Eggless Pinacolada Cake

Pina Colada is the official beverage of Puerto Rico since 1978 according to WIKI. It is a drink made with pine apple juice and cream of coconut. There are so many variations of this drink and there are also so many cake and cupcake recipes based on this drink. I didn't know about the ingredients in Pina Colada until Meena suggested the Pinacolada cake for the monthly Baking Eggless challenge for this month. The recipe she suggested was in Polish and I translated it using Google Translate. The rewcipe had so many ingredients including cream of coconut which is not available at Madurai. So I googled Pina Colada cake and came upon so many variations. So I made my own version incorporating both pineapple and coconut which resulted in this rich cake. To my surprise this cake was liked by all the adult members of my family and kids didn't like it very much. Though Sruti ate a whole slice, she didn't come for a second serving. 

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Rice Sevai Upma

Can you believe that I am cooking with rice sevai for the first time? Rice sevai is readily available in market and all you need to do is boil it, strain it and prepare any dish you want with it. You can make lemon sevai, puli sevai, upma and so on. You can substitute vermicelli with this rice sevai in so many dishes. Today I made a simple breakfast using this rice sevai and believe me it is so easy and was completed within 30 minutes. The only point in making this rice sevai is that you need to boil it perfectly. If you over cook they will turn mushy and I think it will not be that great. It tastes just like idiyappam but it is slightly thicker. I used the MTR brand rice sevai for this upma. I served this upma with Rajasthani Malai Mirch (recipe later) and it was absolutely delicious...

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Paneer Burfi

How many of you have started your Diwali preparations? I started it yesterday with this delicious burfi. This is a cross between kalakand and milk burfi. I prepared paneer with 4 lts of milk yesterday with a plan to make kalakand. But after preparing kalakand so many times, I just wanted to make something different.

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Raj Kachori

It has been nearly a week since I last posted here. My daughter was on her vacation and I was feeling so lazy to do any cooking, clicking or posting. For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, which was supposed to be posted on 15th, I am posting it a week later. But it is better late than never. Srivalli  chose the famous Rajasthani Raj Kachori for this month on Vaishali's suggestion. Before marriage, I used to make Raj Kachori frequently. Even my brother's friends would come home with family and we used to relish it a lot. But after marriage, it was a shock that PK was not a great fan of chaats ( I am talking about 9 years earlier, but now he is a great fan of the chaats I prepare at home). He hated pani puris and the only chaat he used to eat was the masala puri from a nearby vendor but it never tasted like masala puri. I was so sad that I even stopped eating chaat. But when I started blogging, the chaat fan in me came to life and I started preparing varieties at home. I was not worried that PK will not eat but atleast I could eat. The scene changed drastically and PK became a great fan of my home made chaats. And when Valli announce this month's ICC, I remembered the good old days. But what I used to prepare was a little different from Vaishali's recipe. As Vaishali is the queen of chaats in our group, I just followed her recipe without altering. Will be posting my version later. The chaat turned out delicious and we devoured it happily. Sruti even tasted it but with out any chutneys. I made it according to her wish. She chose the fillings and topping. Kids today know how to get mama to the job...

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Diwali Special Sweets and Snacks

Here is a compilation of some of the sweets and savouries you could make for this Diwali. Have a happy time going through all the dishes....
Click on the name of the dishes for the complete recipe and instructions...

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Eggless Butterless Pumpkin Bread

As I told you before, the blogs are full of pumpkin recipes for the Halloween. And in Baking Partners group challenges, it is a pumpkin recipe this month. Swathi had given two pumpin recipes as per Tamy's suggestions, one is this quick bread and the other an yeasted bread. As I wanted a quick recipe as I was pressed for time, I opted this. When first I started blogging, I used to be skeptical in using oil in cake and bread recipes. I thought only butter could give the required texture. But I was wrong. Oil makes the bread very moist and soft and the moistness is retained for 3 days without drying it out. And there will not be the taste of oil. I have done some recipes using oil and each and every recipe has turned out awesome. And making the cake is also easy as it doesn't require a lot of beating. So when I saw this recipe, I was very much pleased. And it turned out absolutely soft, moist and delicious. This cake was supposed to be vegan. But I didn't have an ingredient to veganize this bread. The recipe asked for pure maple syrup which is not available at my place. So I substituted it with honey so my bread turned out to be a non vegan bread. So if you want to try out the perfect vegan pumpkin bread, then use maple syrup instead of honey. The cake is very spicy with lots of spices added to it. Add or leave according to your wish. 

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