Hurrah it's Maggi Maggi day

No, you got it wrong. I am not going to dispense gyaan about how to make Maggi. As is evident on the back of the cover it's a simple three step process. What I am doing with this post is showing off. Yes. I finally got Maggi noodles looking exactly like the advertisement and not like Shavige Payasa gone wrong. So Yay to me!!

Here's the evidence

Vegetable Burger with a Vegetable Cutlet

I get the feeling that my blog is getting to be all about simple foods. Take the vegetable burger for example. The main reason for wanting to make one was the feeling of home-made plus the fact that I dont happen to get vegetable burgers in many McD or BK outlets. I experimented and found a rather simple way of making a veggie burger. Make a cutlet and place it between burger buns and voila! Try it if you would want to do the same

What you need to make Vegetable Burger

For the cutlet

• Maida (All purpose Flour) - 1 cup
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Carrot - 1/4 cup
• Beans - 1/4 cup
• Potato - 1/2 cup
• Sweet Corn - 1/4 cup
• Onion - 1 cup
• Coriander - 4 strands
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Garlic - 5 pods
• Red chilli powder - 4 tsps
• Salt

For the burger

• Burger buns (sliced in half)
• Butter / Cheese
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Lettuce

Preparation to make Vegetable Burger

• Cook the potato with the peel in either pressure cooker or by boiling in water. Once cooked peel the skin and mash the potatoes
• Cook the carrot, beans, peas and sweet corn either pressure cooker or by boiling in water. Allow it to cool.
• Cut the onions into small pieces.
• Chop the coriander finely.
• Grind the ginger and garlic to a fine paste
• Slice the tomatoes and cucumbers into round slices.

Method to make Vegetable Burger

• Heat some oil in a pan and add onions to it and fry till golden. Add the mashed potatoes to it and mix. Add the ginger garlic paste and cook all together for a minute. Remove from flame.
• Allow it to cool and then add the rest of the cooked vegetables and coriander to this and mix.
• Now add the flour, red chilli powder and salt to it to get the mixture to a dry texture.
• Make balls of this mixture and keep.
• Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, flatten the ball in hand in shape of a cutlet and place it on the pan to shallow fry.
• Shallow fry it on both sides.
• Once it turns a little browner and crisp its done.
• Butter the insides of the burger bun halves or place a cheese slice.
• Place two slices each of the cucumber and tomatoes and some lettuce.
• Place the burger on top of it and close with the other half of the bun.
• Burger is ready!

Bhelpuri

This is the quintessential time pass snack in India these days. Anytime one goes out and gets the urge for a quick bite one doesnt walk into a swank restaurant but rushes to the nearest road side Chaat vendor with a drooling request for "One plate bhel".

Its the simplest and fastest snack to make for that perfect tea time mazaa. Here's how you can make it at home :

What you need to make Bhelpuri

• Puri (Puffed rice/Murmura)
• Carrots
• Onions
• Potato
• Tomato
• Coriander
• Lemon/ Lemon juice
• Salt
• Red chilli powder
• Cucumber (optional)
• Sev
• Chaat masala (optional) - 1/4 tsp per plate

• For the spicy chutney
  Green Chillies - 6
  Garlic - 8 pods
  Ginger - 2 inch piece
  
• For the sweet chutney
  Tamarind - one small ball
  Jaggery - 2 inch cube

The beauty of this snack is that the quantity of vegetables you put into each plate is really upto one's taste. The amount of puri (puffed rice) that is put in is equivalent to the vegetables.

Preparation for making Bhelpuri

• Grate the carrots and keep in a bowl
• Cut onions into very small pieces and keep in a bowl
• Cut tomatoes into very small pieces and keep in a bowl
• Cut potatoes into half and cook them (along with skins) by using either the pressure cooker or boiling them in water.
• Once potatoes are cooked, allow it to cool a little and then remove the skins. Then mash the potatoes and keep them in a bowl
• Chop the coriander finely and keep
• Sweet Chutney - Grind tamarind and jaggery together with some water
• Spicy Chutney - Grind the green chillies, some coriander, ginger and garlic to a fine paste along with some water

Method to make Bhelpuri

• Making a bhel is very easy. All you have to do is mix the ingredients.
• In a large bowl take all the cut and grated vegetables and salt. Mix well.
• Now add the Puri and chaat masala (if needed) and mix well.
• Add a little lime juice, spicy chutney and sweet chutney and mix.
• Serve with coriander, a pinch or red chilli powder and sev for garnishing

My fundas

• Adding cucumber pieces adds a dash of freshness to the ensemble.
• Some people also garnish it with grated coconut.
• One could also add some small puris (or nipattus) crushed to the bhel to make it extra tasty
• Pomogranate seeds also adds a lot of flavour
• Substitute lemon juice for raw mango pieces during the season and it tastes yummier

Simple Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

Yesterday I tried out the queen of all baking - A Cake. I call it a queen because there is something majestic, sweet, luscious and curvy about it ;). And you put on some dressing and it oozes oomph!

P.S:- I need your help :- Anyone who knows how to make simple yet delicious ICING to decorate the cake, PLEASE TEACH ME HOW

What you need to make an Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

• Plain flour (Maida) - 1 cup
• Condensed milk (Nestle or Milkmaid tin) - 4/5ths of a cup
• Cocoa - 1/4 cup
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp
• Baking Powder - 1 tsp
• Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
• Butter - 1/4 cup
• Milk - 2/5ths of a cup
• Soda - 2/5ths of a cup (You could use Coke/Pepsi if doing a chocolate sponge cake)
• Vanilla essence (optional) - 1 tsp (I do not use this)

Preparation for making Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

• Mix together all the dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them well in a dry bowl. You could sieve them before mixing to get rid of lumps if any.
• Keep the butter outside the fridge for some time till it softens.
• Preheat the oven to 570 deg Farenheit (300 deg Celcius).

Preheating usually requires 15 minutes. (I don't have a beeper which goes beep when the oven reaches that temperature so I had to google and figure out for how long I need to keep it for the oven to get pre heated. Thought it would help others like me.)

Method to make Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

• Put the condensed milk into a large bowl. To this add the butter. Beat the mixture well till the butter blends with the condensed milk. This will need some patience since there should be no lumps and it should be a smooth paste.
• To this add the dry ingredients mixture spoon by spoon. Stir it into the condensed milk mixture constantly.
• As and when the mixture becomes too tight add some milk to ease it.

Point to be noted - Stir in one direction only. This will make the cake light and fluffy with a lot of air in it.

• Beat the entire mixture for a good five minutes.
• Now add the soda into this mixture and mix well lightly.
• Pour into the greased baking tin. Just jiggle the tin around for the mixture to evenly spread around. Do not use spoon or knife to even it out.
• Place tin inside oven and bake at 350 deg Farenheit (200 deg celcius) for 7 minutes.
• Then reduce the temperature of oven to 300 deg Farenheit (150 deg Celcius) and allow it to bake for around 40 minutes.
• Do check in once in a while to see if the cake is fluffing up.
• You can also be sure its baked when, if you stick a skewer or knife edge into the cake it comes out clean and no cake stuff sticks to it.

My fundas

• It is important to cool the cake on both the top and bottom sides. For the air to reach all over evenly you could cool the cake on a wire rack or any stand which has holes in it.