Eggless Vanilla Cake

Ingredients needed 

All purpose flour/Maida - 1 1/2 cup
Thick curd - 1 cup
Sugar -3/4 cup  (1 cup if you want it very sweet)
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Oil - 1/2 cup (any flavourless oil)
Vanilla essence -11/2 tsp

Preparation

Seive maida 3 times and keep it aside.

Pre heat the oven for 10 minutes.

Grease and flour the baking tray and keep it ready.(I used an 8 inch square baking tray).

Method

Mix sugar with curd until sugar dissolves.

Now add baking powder and baking soda to the above and mix well. Leave it for 5 minutes.You will see bubbles appearing. Now add oil, vanilla essence and mix well.

Then add maida little by little and combine well with the wet ingredients.Mix well until creamy.

Pour the mixture in the greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes (180 degree C )  or until a toothprick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Wait for the cake to cool completely before removing it from the pan, then cut it and enjoy!

Butter icing 
Recipe adapted from joyofbaking

Ingredients needed 

Butter - 1/2 cup
Icing sugar - 2 cups
Vanilla essence -1 tsp
Any food color of your choice

Method

Sieve icing sugar.In a bowl, cream together butter and vanilla essence.Then add icing sugar, little at a time and beat well. Keep it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

Cut the top and the sides of the cake evenly.

Spread the butter icing on the top of the cake evenly with a spatula and pipe design of your choice.

To get the desired spreading consistency,you can add little milk if needed.

If you want pipe some designs and want it thicker,add more sugar.

I am a beginner in cake decorations but just wanted to share with you how I did this simple butter icing.

Note - Cool the cake for at least 2 hours before frosting..

Pressure Cooker Vanilla Cake Recipe

Ingredients needed

All purpose flour (maida):  1 1/2 cup
Sugar (powdered) :1 cup
Egg :2
Butter : 1/2 cup (125 grams)
Baking powder : 1 1/2 tsp
Salt : 1/4 tsp
Vanilla essence : 1/2 tsp
Milk : 1/2 cup

Preparation

I used the aluminum cooker vessel for baking this cake. Grease the vessel with butter and dust flour. Keep it aside.

Sieve maida, baking powder and salt together twice.

Important point to be noted- Bring everything to room temperature.


Method

Cream butter and sugar well .Use an electric beater or an wooden ladle but beat well untill light and fluffy.

Add eggs and beat again.

Add milk, vanilla essence and beat for a few more minutes.

Fold in flour until well incorporated.

Pour the prepared batter in the prepared cooker vessel.

How to bake cake in Pressure cooker

Fill the cooker with sand till 1 1/2 inches and place the plate you get along with the cooker on top of it. (picture -1)

Preheat the cooker for 5 minutes on high flame with the sand.
(We are following the same principle as in the oven but here the sand is heated and the cake gets cooked in the heat produced by the sand.)

Now, keep the flame in low and place the vessel with the cake batter carefully inside the cooker.

Close the cooker, watch TV or relax as it will take 4o minutes to 1 hours for the cake to be done.

Check it after 40 minutes by inserting a wooden toothpick in the center of the cake, if it comes out clean, your cake is done, otherwise cook for some more time. (Mine took 1 hour)

Important points to be noted while baking cake in pressure cooker

• Do not use the rubber gasket.

• Do not use the weight. (weight valves)

• Do not pour water inside the cooker as we are not steaming the cake.

• It is preferable to use old cooker. Do not heat empty cooker without the sand as your cooker will get damaged.

Small Fish fry ( South Indian Recipe )

Ingredients

Any small fish variety : 8-10 nos

Turmeric : 1/2 tsp

Red Chili : 2 tsp

Corriander : 4 tsp

Ginger garlic paste : 2 tsp

Jeera powder : 1 tsp

Salt: to taste

Oil : to pan fry

Method:

Clean the fishes with cold water along with lime and salt, pat dry and place on a plate.

Take all the spice powders along with salt and add the ginger garlic paste and form a thick paste, if required you can add few drops of lime juice. 

Apply on the fish and leave it in refrigerator overnight for spices to blend. 

The next day take the fish out and bring it to room temperature (30-40 mins) and then heat pan with oil and place the fish and let it cook on each side for 5 minutes such that the fish is fully cooked. 

Do not disturb or keep flipping sides.

Serve hot with rice and curry.

Note:

- Patting dry the fish is very important if it is soggy the spices will not sit on the fish. 

- Make sure you don't add water to form the spice paste, if required use few drops of lime/lemon juice

- Once you decide to fry fish make sure you bring it to room temperature before frying it, else the fish will remain raw and undercooked.

- Do not keep flipping sides of the fish while its cooking, this will only result in under cooked fish and also tend to break. The heat should be in medium-low and not high else the fish will get burnt quickly.

- Marinating the fish overnight is very important for ultimate taste

Easy method to cook Masala Fish fry

Ingredients

To grind

Onion : 1
Ginger garlic paste:  1 tsp
Cinnamon:  small stick
Cloves:  3 to 4
Coriander seeds:  1 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Black pepper corns : 1/2 tsp
Fennel Seeds : 1/4 tsp

To marinate

Fish (King fish / Vanjaram Meen) : 4 to 5 pieces
Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder : 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice : 1 tsp
Salt : as per taste

Oil for frying

Method:

1. Take the ingredients under To grind.

2. Grind them to a smooth paste and keep it ready.

3. Wash the fish with salt.

4. Add the ingredients under To marinate and add the lemon juice.

 

5. Marinate for at least 30 min.

6. Now add the ground paste.

 7. Coat them well thoroughly over the fish.

 8. Using fork or tooth stick make hole in the fish, so that the masala can enter the flesh of the fish.

 9. Now marinate for another 30 min.

10. In a Pan, add oil and when hot add the fish pieces and start frying on both the sides.

11. When they turn brown colour and fried nicesly, repeat the process of frying with other fishes and serve hot.

Easy method to prepare Bisibelabath

Bisibelabath is a very popular dish in Karnataka. The name Bisi bele bhaath is a phrase, which literally means "Hot Lentil Rice", as in Kannada, Bisi means hot, bele means Lentils and bhaath means a dish made of rice

Ingredients needed

   Raw Rice: 1 cup
   Tur dal: 1/2 cup
   Tamarind: small lemon sized ball
   Oil: 1 tbsp
   Ghee:  5 tsp

   Pearl onions: 15
   Beans:  4-5
   Carrot:  2
   Potato: 1
   Peas:  fistful
   Tomato:  1
   Capsicum:  1

   Bisi Bela Bath Masala (fry and dry grind)

   Oil:  1 tsp
   Kopra/Dry coconut powder: 1/2 cup
   Coriander seeds:  1 tbsp
   Red chillies: 6-7
   Bengal gram/Channa Dal:  2 tsp
   Urad dal:  1 tsp
   Fenugreek:  1/2 tsp
   Cinnamon:  1 inch piece
   Cloves:  2
   Cardamom: 1
   Khus khus: 1 tsp

   For the seasoning

   Mustard: 1 tsp
   Fenugreek :   1/4 tsp
   Curry leaves:  little
   Asafoetida/hing:  1/4 tsp

Preparation 

Heat a tsp of oil, roast the ingredients under Bisi Bela Bath Masala, adding coconut at the end. Roast everything until it becomes slightly brown in colour and dry grind it. You can prepare this a few days before if you are using kopra as it will not get spoiled. Store it in an airtight container.

Pressure cook rice with 4 ½ cups of water for 4 whistles.

Pressure cook dal with a cup of water and keep aside. Mash it well. I usually soak dal for 15 -20 minutes in hot water as it takes less time for cooking.

Cut pearl onions into 2-3 pieces. Cut beans and carrot lengthwise. Peel and chop potatoes into cubes. Cut capsicum into small pieces.

Soak tamarind in a cup of hot water for 15 minutes. Extract its juice and discard the pulp.

Method 

Heat a tbsp of oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, hing and curry leaves. Saute for a seconds and add chopped onions.

Sauté onions until it becomes transparent. Then add all the vegetables (except capsicum) and sauté for a few more seconds. Sprinkle water and cook for 4-5 minutes.

Now add tamarind extract, needed salt and the bisi bela bath masala powder. Let it boil well until the raw flavour goes. By the time the vegetables will also get cooked well.

Add cooked dal, cooked rice, 4-5 tsp of ghee and mix well.

Heat a tsp of ghee and sauté capsicum until slightly cooked. It should be crunchy.

Garnish Bisibelabath with capsicums, coriander leaves and serve hot with chips or papads or onion raita.