Christmas Recipes

1. Video: Make Eggless Chocolate Cake this Christmas
2. 3 Eggless Cake Recipes
3. Contributors recipe – Easy Maida (Flour) Cake
4. Contributors Recipe – Vanilla Cake
5. Chocolate Lava cake
6. New Year Special: Hot Milk Sponge Cake
7. Make Eggless Biscuit and Chocolate Cake at home (without baking)
8. New Indian Cake Recipes added
9. Video: Coffee Cake (Eggless) for Christmas
10. 4 more Delicious Eggless Cake Recipes

This post is a continuation of the eggless cake recipes collection that I had posted earlier. What better than Christmas to try these delicious cakes – without the eggs. Most of these cakes come from popular Indian chefs and carry an Indian flavor to them.

(Note: Almost all of the cakes requires baking in an oven or a microwave with baking facility)

4 delicious recipes are featured here:

1. Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

2. Eggless Fruit Cake

3. Butter Cake without eggs

4. Eggless Cherry Cake with almonds

1. Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

This soft and yummy sponge cake takes about an hour to make and serves 6 people.

Ingredients:

• 1/2  can of  condensed milk — (200gms)
• 2 3/4  cups   of   plain flour — (250gms)
• 40 grams  cocoa
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  baking soda — (soda bicarb)
• 2 teaspoons  icing sugar
• 1/2 cup  butter melted — (60gms)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 100 ml  milk
• 100 ml Coke or Thums Up

How to make:

• 1. Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa all together 2 to 3 times.  Keep aside.
  2. Pour condensed milk in a bowl.
  3. Add the butter, and beat well till smooth.
  4. Add the flour spoon by spoon, mixing into the condensed milk mixture.
  5. In between, add milk as required if the butter begins to get too stiff. [Stir the mixture in one direction only all the while. This will make the cake lighter].
  6. Once all the flour is used, beat the batter as above till light (5-7 minutes).  Add the coke or Thums Up and mix gently till smooth.
  7. Pour into a greased cake tin.  Do not smooth with a spoon etc.  If the consistency is right this will not be needed.
  8. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees Celsius.
  9. Place the cake tin inside.  Bake at 200 degrees Celsius  for 5-7 minutes and then at 150 degrees Celsius till it is done (35 to 40 minutes).
  10. Poke with a skewer and check.  Cool a little.  Invert on wire rack.  Cool completely before doing icing if any.  Or serve warm with tea.
  11. Makes a six round cake

2. Eggless Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

• Butter /margarine 100gm

• Sugar 150gm

• All purpose flour 200gms

• Fruits – Apple, pineapple, Orange – Chopped to small pieces: 1-2 cups

• Raspberry, cherries, dried grapes, almonds – 300 grams

• Milk 200ml

• Flakes 100grams

How to make:

1. Melt the butter.
2. Place the flour (sieved), in a big bowl add milk and mix well.
3. Add butter and mix thoroughly to an even mixture.
4. Grease oven tray (or pie tray), sized 23 cm.
5. Sprinkle flakes and 50 gms sugar.
6. Pour the mixture evenly in the tray, Press all fruits bits and sprinkle sugar over berries.
7. Now bake it in the pre-heated oven at 225 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes or until the upper part turns to golden yellow colour.

Recipe Courtesy: Vimalas Kitchen

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3. Butter Cake

Ingredients:

• Butter 300 grams

• Sugar 150 grams

• All purpose flour 300 grams

• Corn flour 250 grams

• Baking powder 1 teaspoon

How to make:

1. Turn the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix sugar and butter to a fluffy consistency.
3. Add flour, Corn flour, baking powder and mix well.
4. Get a fine batter.
5. Pour the batter in paper moulds (2/3rds) and bake them for 30 minutes.

Recipe Courtesy: Vimalas Kitchen

4. Eggless Cherry Cake with Almonds

photo credit: tupawk

Ingredients:

• Almonds, cherries – 100 grams each
• Maida – 250 grams
• Castor sugar – 75 grams
• Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
• Condensed milk – 1 tin
• Butter – 125 grams
• Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
• Hot milk – 2 cups
• Almond essence – ½ teaspoon

Method:

1. Sieve Maida, baking powder and soda altogether.
2. Beat butter, sugar well, add essence, milk little by little and continue beating them well.
3. The mixture should soak for sometime.
4. Then add the finely chopped almonds, finely chopped cherries, sieved flour, milk little by little and stir them well to get a cake mixture.
5. Pour it in the greased baking plate and bake it in 180 deg. C.

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Links to more eggless cakes and other recipes (other websites)

Indian cake recipes (many recipes don’t have eggs)

Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking (including cakes)

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cookies by Parita

Eggless Fruit and Nut Cake by Diya

Diwali Recipes Series

1. 5 Halva Recipes: Diwali Special
2. Celebrate with Diwali Sweet Recipes
3. Video: Make Gulab Jamoon (Indian Sweet) this Diwali
4. 3 Special Diwali Snacks Recipes

Diwali is here, Yay! More than the crackers, it’s time for a fun get-together with family and friends and lots of Sweets, of course. Starting with Ganesha Chaturthi and Dasara, Diwali ends the Hindu festival season in a grand scale and then sets the atmosphere later for Christmas and New year.

photo credit: phxpma

Deepavali (festival of lights) is when the whole of India and Indian communities abroad, is decked with bright lights, mad-shopping and colors everywhere. Ok, coming to the food part; Deepavali is also the time to gorge on sweets and tons of them!

Here is a collection of 5 types of Halwa (Halva) Recipes. These have been adapted from a Tamil magazine and collated by my sister Harini.

Find links to other Halva and Sweet Recipes for this festival at the end of this article.

Almonds or Badam Halwa

Ingredients

• Milk, Sugar- 1 cup each
• Almonds or Badam- ½ cup
• Ghee- ½ cup

How to make

1. Soak the almonds in water overnight and blanch it.

2. (Blanching is soaking and removing the peels of the almond.

3. Remove the outer skin and grind into smooth paste using milk for grinding.

4. Mix little water to sugar and heat it in a heavy bottomed kadai or oan or vessel till it is dissolved and once when one string consistency is reached.

5. Add badam or almond paste and cook till it becomes thick.

6. When the halwa sticks to bottom, Add ghee little by little and cook till halwa consistency is reached.

• Milk- 2 litre
• Ghee- 1 tablespoon
• Powdered Cashews – 1 tablespoon
• Sugar – 2 ½ cup
• Lemon Salt- ¼ teaspoon

How to make

1. Heat a heavy bottomed pan and boil milk till it reduces to three fourth of its consistency.

2. Add sugar, and lemon salt and cook for another few minutes.

3. Fry cashewnuts in ghee and add to the halwa.

4. Add little more ghee if necessary.

5. When halwa consistency is reached , remove from fire.

Ingredients

• Seedless Dates- 1 cup
• Sugar- 1 cup
• Ghee- 1 cup
• Milk- ½ cup
• Almonds
• cashews – little

Method

1. Soak the dates in hot water, for about 1 hour and grind it along with milk.

2. Heat a heavy bottomed pan, Add Sugar with little water

3. When it reaches one string consistency, add the grinded date paste, cashews, almonds, and saffron.

4. Keep stirring till it becomes little thick.

5. When the halwa sticks to bottom, Add ghee little by little and cook till halwa consistency is reached. 6. Decorate with cashews or almonds.

• Wheat Flour- 1 cup
• Sugar- 1 cup
• Ghee- 1 cup
• Milk- 1 cup
• Cashews- 1 tablespoon
• Almonds- 1  tablespoon
• Cardamom Powder- ½ teaspoon

How to make

1. Heat a heavy bottomed pan, Add half cup ghee and wheat flour.

2. Fry till the raw smell goes.

3. Then add milk to it and keep stirring continuously until it becomes thick.

4. Then add sugar, remaining ghee and keep stirring till it reaches halwa consistency.

5. Then add cashews and almonds and remove from fire.

Ingredients

• Wheat Milk- 1 cup
• Coconut Milk- 1 cup
• Buffalo/Cow Milk- 1 cup
• Sugar- 3 cups
• Cardamom powder- ½ tsp
• Chopped Cashews and almonds – 2 tsp

How to make

1. Heat a pan, Add sugar with little water( 1 cup ). Stir until dissolved.

2. Then now, add all 3 types of milk to it and keep stirring till it reaches halwa consistency

3. Then add cardamom powder, chopped cashews and almonds and remove from fire.

4. When adding the milk in the sugar syrup, It will stick but it melts quickly if you keep stirring.

1. Halwas and Laddoos Recipes from Indian Food Kitchen
2. Indian Sweets Recipes
3. Besan Halvafrom Raji’s Kitchen
4. Godhi (Wheat) Halwa from Chitra Amma’s Kitchen

Diwali Recipes Series

1. 5 Halva Recipes: Diwali Special
2. Celebrate with Diwali Sweet Recipes
3. Video: Make Gulab Jamoon (Indian Sweet) this Diwali
4. 3 Special Diwali Snacks Recipes

Update, October 2009: This year’s Diwali is around the corner and I have posted sweet recipes for Deepavali from previous years.

Wish you a very happy Deepavali!

Diwali has just started in India and it’s raining crackers and lights all over the sky. It’s time again to strengthen relationships and create new bonds of friendship.

What better way than to share sweets among loved ones? Here are a few sweets you can prepare today and enjoy over this festive weekend..

Recipes featured here are Cashew Burfi, Rava Laddoo, Shankarpare and Suji Halwa. You can also look for more sweet recipe links at the end of this post.

Kesar and Kaju Burfi (Saffron-Cashew Nut Burfi)

Ingredients:

• 500 gms Kaju (Cashew Nuts)
• 300 gms Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Kesar(Saffron)
• a small strip of edible silver foil

Method:

Soak the cashewnuts in water for three hours. Then, drain the water and grind the nuts to a fine powder. In a pan, mix sugar and cashewnuts and roast on low heat, stirring continuously.

Put in the saffron color in it and coninue stirring for a while. Roast till done. On the rolling board, place a butter paper and pour the mixture on it.

Now place another butter paper sandwiching the mixture between the two papers. Roll this using a rolling pin. Remove the butter paper from top and place the silver foil (edible), and cut it into triangular burfi pieces.

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Rava Laddoo (Semolina/Sooji Laddoo)

Ingredients:

• Rava (Sooji or Semolina) – 1 cup powdered
• Chutney Dhal (fried gram) – 1 cup (powdered)
• Ghee (clarified butter) – 1/2 cup
• Cardamom – 5 (powdered)
• Cashew Nuts – 10 to 15, boken into small pieces
• Kishmish – 10
• Chilled Milk – 1 bowl

Method:

Heat ghee in a kadai and fry kishmish and cashewnuts to a golden colour. Keep this aside. Add 1 more tablesoon of ghee and fry the powdered rava until it turns light gold in colour.

Heat 1 cup of sugar, adding 1/2 cup of water in the same kadai. Bring to one string conistency. Add powdered rava, cashew bits, kishmish and powdered caradamom. Mix it well and quickly.

Remove from the fire immediately. Use the rava sugar mixture, make small balls and dip it into the chilled milk and make small laddus. (chutney dal can also be substituted for rava).

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Shakkarpare (Shankarpale / Shankarpali / Shankarpare)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup maida (plain flour)
• 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon saunf
• Ghee / Oil for deep frying

Method:

Mix the ingredients with a little water and knead it into a soft dough. Divide the dough into equal parts and roll out into thick chapathis, Cut with a cookie cutter or a knife into small diamond shapes (about 2 inches on each side).

Lift the cut diamond pieces with a spatula and keep it aside in a dry cloth for about an hour. Deep fry in hot ghee or oil over a slow flame till it becomes light golden brown. Drain well and keep it aside till it cools. Store it in clean and dry containers.

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Sooji da Halwa (Rava or Semolina Halwa)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 1-1/2 Cup whole milk
• 1 Cup sooji (Semolina or Rava)
• 1-1/2 Cup water
• 1 tsp Cardamom
• 2 tbsp Raisin
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• 2 tbsp Cashew nuts

Method:

In a skillet, heat ghee. Mix Cardamom and heat it for few seconds in a medium heat. Pour Semolina into the cardamon-ghee mixture and stir-fry for few minutes.

Add sugar and half of both cashew and raisin and continue to heat for few more minutes in low-medium heat. Add milk and water; stir well and heat until you are sure of the desired consistency.

Now, garnish with remaining cashew nuts and raisin. Serve hot or cold, as you desired.

More Sweets and Desserts for this Diwali and other festive occasions:

1. All posts for indian sweet recipes from this blog are here
2. Watch these videos to make Diwali Desserts like Gulab Jamun, Jalebi, Halwa and more from this blog
3. From the Indian Food Kitchen main site, look for traditional sweets, occasional sweets, Burfis, Halwas and more sweet treats (Links will open in a new window)

Photo credits: Danburg, GopalaKrishnaKarthik, dhyanji, vkn

Please note: This video is from Youtube.com and I’m not the person featured in the video. I’ve just added the video here to spread the word about Indian cooking. The length of the video is about six and a half minutes; depending on your internet connection, the loading time might vary.

Egg less Pineapple Cake recipe video

photo credit: Pinot & Dita (Photo not of actual recipe)

With just three main ingredients in mango, condensed milk and sugar, this icecream surely looks like a good one to start your cooking career with

Mango Icecream

Ingredients

• Mango pulp – 1 can
• Sugar – 1 or  2 cups(depends on personal choice)
• Condensed milk(unsweetened) – 2 cans

How to make:

1. Empty the mango pulp in to a big bowl.
2. Add sugar and condensed milk and beat with a electric mixer for 15 minutes or stir by hand well.
3. Transfer the contents into freezer safe container and freeze the mango icecream.
4. It is ready to eat after 3-4 hrs. Enjoy!!

Some more ice cream and mango links:

Kesar Mango Icecream

Banana Ice cream (video)

Mango recipes collection

Delicious mango Shrikarni

Five Minute Mango Ice cream (Link to another website)

Another interesting feature about the site is that you get HTML code of any recipe and embed / insert it into your site or blog and it shows up automatically (like Youtube.com videos).

You can check out one of the recipes that I have inserted from Open source food – Egg-less Plum Cake, since eggless cakes are popular in this blog. It is a German cake variety, but you can  experiment with it and see how it turns out. Check out the presentation below.

Text Recipe for Eggless Plum Cake:

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dry yeast
• 1 tbs. warm water
• 3 cups self rising flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 & 1/2 tbs. baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 & 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk
• 6 tbs. melted vegan margarine
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 8 plums, cut quarters
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

How to make / Method:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set aside.
2. Combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Stir in soy milk, 5 tbs. melted vegan margarine, vanilla and yeast.
4. Pour dough into a rectangle about 1/2″ thick on a oiled cookie sheet.
5. Cover dough with the plum wedges (set them slightly “standing up”) .
6. Brush plums with remaining tbs. of melted vegan margarine.
7. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cardamom.
8. Sprinkle over top of cake.
9. Bake at 375~ 30 to 40 min, or until center tests done.

Note: The batter should be somewhere between a stiff liquid and a dough you can roll with a rolling pin.

This recipe is owned by Netwalker and the original recipe can be found here

Links:

3 Eggless Cake Recipes

Indian Cake Recipes

Christmas Recipes

1. Video: Make Eggless Chocolate Cake this Christmas
2. 3 Eggless Cake Recipes
3. Contributors recipe – Easy Maida (Flour) Cake
4. Contributors Recipe – Vanilla Cake
5. Chocolate Lava cake
6. New Year Special: Hot Milk Sponge Cake
7. Make Eggless Biscuit and Chocolate Cake at home (without baking)
8. New Indian Cake Recipes added
9. Video: Coffee Cake (Eggless) for Christmas
10. 4 more Delicious Eggless Cake Recipes

Christmas and New Year are two great occasions to enjoy cakes of a million different varieties if you want to bake some yummy cakes, then you can go over to Indian Food Kitchen main website where a collection of Indian cake recipes have been added.

Preview of what you can find:

Cakes and cake-making are not a regular part of Indian cooking, perhaps because they have not been as popular as Indian sweets and other desserts………………………………….
…………………………Cakes in India are often found in bakeries and in special occasions such as birthdays, festivals such as Christmas etc.

Some of the recipes you can try:

Plum cake for Christmas

Pineapple upside-down cake

Swiss Rolls

Go check out all Indian cake recipes…

Update: Download these Kozhukattai recipes as a PDF file (Right click on the link and click “save target as..” in your browser. You will need Adobe PDF reader to view this file. Print or read at your convenience and try these recipes.

Oh I promised something sweet right? Ganesha Chaturthi (Vinayaka Chaturthi) festival is round the corner and it’s time for delicious Kozhukattai’s again.

Kozhakattai is a sweet rice dumpling dish prepared on special occasions in South India and on Ganesha festival it is a must on the menu.

Also known as Kadubu in Karnataka ; there are other variations to Kozhukattai – Modak in North Indian states and Modagam in Tamil Nadu. Modak is round-shaped while the delicious Kozhukattai is in the shape of a snail

Tradition has it that Ganesha’s favorite food was the Modak and therefore these sweets along with other dishes are offered to Him during the festival.

Like all children (and children at heart), Sweets during any festival are the fastest eaten and I confess that my home, I’m the first to finish off the Kozhukattais.

Whether you’re a fan of Indian sweets or want to make the perfect Kozhukattais, there are 5 recipes below. Included is the sweet version with coconut and sesame fillings, a vegetable version and a Payasam (Kheer). All varieties of Kozhukattais usually have a central filling (sweet or spicy). The sweet filling is called Puranam in Tamil.

These recipes from my mother, have been tested and adapted from the Tamil magazine ‘Aval Vigadan’ and a book from South Indian professional cook, Mrs Mallika Badrinath; my thanks to them as well.

Share your recipes for Ganesha Chathurti using this form in the main site or leave your feedback.

Kozhukattai (Sweet) / Kadubu / Modak

For the rice covering:

• Rice flour – 1 cup
• Water – 1 1/4 cup
• For the coconut filling:
• Freshly grated coconut – 1 cup
• Grated white jaggery – 1 cup
• Cardamom powder – a little
• Roasted Gram Powder – 1 tablespoon

How to make / Method

Preparing the coconut filling / Puranam:

2. Grate white portion of fresh coconut.
3. Put the grated coconut in a mixer and run it with a dry grinding blade for fine & even grinding.
4. Mix grated jaggery to this and heat it in a pan, stirring regularly till the jaggery melts completely.
5. When the mixture becomes thick, add roasted Dhal Powder and cardamom powder.
6. Remove from the fire and allow it to cool before using it in the Kozhukattai.

Preparing rice covering:

2. Heat water in a heavy Kadai with salt and oil
3. When it starts to boil, reduce the flame and pour the rice flour in the center in a heap.
4. Insert a ladle (spoon) and close the Kadai with a lid leaving a little gap where you have placed the ladle.
5. Cook in reduced flame for about 10 minutes
6. Switch off the stove and then quickly stir the dough taking care to avoid forming lumps.
7. Allow the dough the become lukewarm.
8. Knead the dough well using a little water for help (Sprinkle on the dough if necessary)
9. Apply oil to your hands and take out a small amount of dough in your hands (amount just less than that of Pooris)
10. Make lemon sized balls out of the dough.
11. Using your thumb and forefingers, flatten the edges first and gradually shape it like a cup while carefully turning and pressing with equal pressure on all sides.
12. Keep a little coconut filling inside and fold it to seal well, pressing down to form a plait-like design.
13. Arrange a few of these on a greased Idli plate and steam them in a pressure cooker or Idli vessel for 7 to 10 minutes.
14. Serve hot with other dishes on Ganesha Chaturthi or enjoy it seperately

Note:

For making modak (modagam), instead of the shaped described in step 10, make it into a rounded shape and then style the edges like a plait.

Sesame (Till Seeds) Kozhukattai

Ingredients

• White Sesame Seeds – 1 cup
• Grated Jaggery – 1 cup
• Cardamom powder – a little

Method

2. Dry roast the sesame seeds until it puffs up and turns golden. Roast about 1/4 cup at a time
3. Pound the seeds well until it is mashed and forms a powder.
4. Add jaggery and pound together with the sesame seeds till it is properly mixed.
5. Add a little cardamom powder at the end.
6. Use this a filling with the Kozhukattais prepared with rice flour

Note:

Use the same ingredients and method for making the rice covering given in the Kozhukattai) recipe above

Rice and Sugar Kozhakattai

Note:

Prepare the rice flour dough (covering) as given in the Sweet Kozhakattai recipe.

Ingredients

• Grated Coconut – 1 cup
• Sugar – 1/2 cup
• Cardamom Powder – a little

How to make / Method

2. Mix rice flour, coconut (grated), sugar and cardamom. Sprinkle some water and make a smooth dough
3. Make small balls from this dough and make a shape like that of a modak (modagam). Using your fingers press in the center till a circular shape is formed. Shape the edges like a plait
4. Arrange these in a greased plate (Idli plate) and steam in a pressure cooker or Idli vessel for 7 to 10 minutes
5. Serve hot

(Photo: Kozhakattai and Sweet Pooranam filling seen above)

Vegetable Kozhakattai

Ingredients:

• Potatoes – 4
• Carrot – 1
• Beetroot – 1
• Cabbage – 50 grams
• Beans – 50 grams
• Cauliflower – 1 small
• Ginger – 1 piece
• Onions – 2
• Green Chillies – 8 small
• Lemon – a small one
• Oil – 1 tablespoon
• Mustard seeds – 1 tea spoon
• Urad Dhal – 1 teaspoon
• Salt – to taste
• Curry Leaves – a few
• Coriander leaves – a small bunch

How to make / Method:

2. Wash all the vegetables
3. Chop them into small pieces
4. Steam all the vegetables
5. Heat oil in a pan. Put mustard seeds, Urad dhal, Green chillies, ginger, onions, coriander leaves and fry for a little while.
6. Then add the steamed vegetables, salt & fry them for 5 minutes.
7. Add lemon juice and mix well. The vegetable filling is now ready.
8. Make rice flour Kozhukattais like the one given in the Sweet Kozhukattai recipe
9. Keep a little vegetable filling inside and fold it to seal well.
10. Arrange on a greased plate and cook in a steam pressure cooker for about 7 to 10 minutes
11. Serve hot.

Milk Kozhukattai Payasam

Note

: prepare the rice flour dough as given in the sweet Kozhukattai recipe. Do not make the shape like that for Sweet Kozhukattai.

Ingredients

• Milk – 1/2 literSugar – 1 1/ cup
• Cardamom powder – a little
• Fried Cashewnuts – 10
• Ghee – 4 teaspoon

How to make / Method

2. Make small balls with the rice flour dough, steam it in a greased plated for 7 to 10 minutes (if you haven’t already done so).
3. Bring the milk to a boil and add sugar to it
4. When the sugar dissolves completely, add steamed Kozhukattai balls and caradamom powder.
5. Add fried cashewnut pieces
6. Serve hot with lunch

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Update: Download these Kozhukattai recipes as a PDF file (Right click on the link and click “save target as..” in your browser. You will need Adobe PDF reader to view this file. Print or read at your convenience and try these recipes.

5 more recipes for Ganesha Chaturthi and other festivals

History and tradition of Ganesha festival

Try these recipes for this Ganesha festival or any other forthcoming festival and impress everyone with your special cooking skills

Share your recipes for Ganesha Chaturthi using this form in the main site or leave your feedback.

This one has to be one of the quickest and easiest indian sweet recipes (considering how difficult they are to make).

Like most of the time in my house, whenever a new recipe is tried out, I’m usually the first person to experiment the taste. Later depending on whether I have survived the taste experiment , the dish is then given to others.

This one was prepared in the evening after a local Kannada Channel (Suvarna TV) broadcast it. They called it Banana Peda, but I chose to name it Banana Peda-Burfi as the texture is between a soft peda and a hard Burfi.

The sweet sticks in your mouth and as it cools, it becomes harder. So it is advisable that it is eaten as soon as it is made.

This dessert goes well as an evening snack along with some Goli Baje and some tea. I’m sure everyone in your family will enjoy this.

Banana Peda-Burfi

Ingredients:

• Ripe Bananas – Yellow ones with black spots variety, but into small squares – 4
• Ghee (clarified butter) – 2 tablespoons
• Sugar – 1/4 tablespoon
• Cashewnuts- 3 to 4

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a pan.
2. Put Bananas (cut into small squares) into the ghee and add the sugar to it.
3. In a medium flame, keep stirring continuously till it forms a halva-like consistency (more about sugar-consistency here)
4. After a few minutes this will thicken. Form round balls or shape like a small vada.
5. Decorate the Peda with Cashewnuts on top.
6. Serve as an evening snack with tea.

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A small collection of Banana Desserts at our main website

Banana Halva recipe from Sukh-Dukh.com

Banana Walnut Cake from Mahanandi (blog)

Some of the ways of keeping yourself cool is by drinking lots of water, fruit juices, or head to the nearest ice-cream shop! What if you could make ice cream at home without taking the trouble of going to the shop?

Mango season has also arrived and this might be a good chance to treat yourself. Don’t blame me if I sound like a Salesman ; the heat is getting to me and I’m searching for anything cool and this might be a good start.Well, Jayashree Sundar from the US, shares a cool recipe for Quick Kesar and Mango Ice-Cream.

This delicious photo by – Suzie

Quick Kesar Mango Ice Cream

Ingredients

• Sweetened mango pulp : 1 tin / 2 cups
• sweetened condensed milk : 1 tin (14 oz) / 2 cups
• Cool whip : 32 0z / 2.5 cups
• Kesar or Saffron : a pinch
• Green cardamom powder : a pinch

Method

1. Blend (whip up) all the ingredients together using an electric whipper (the ones we use to mix cake batter or whip eggs will do nicely!)
2. Sometimes blending it by hand using an egg beater will also do, but it takes a long time.
3. Make sure all the ingredients are very uniformly mixed.
4. You will now have a well aerated, smooth and creamy mix.
5. Freeze it. In about 6 hours, it will be ready to serve.

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If you have an exciting recipe to share with the world, please feel free to send me your contribution through this form.