Foxtail Millet / Thinai Sarkarai Pongal / Thinai Sweet Pongal

Sarkarai pongal is a traditional rice dish sweetened by jaggery with lots of ghee. I made this sweet pongal with thinai (foxtail millet) and a reduced amount of ghee. This is yummier than the traditional rice pongal. I have started making this with different millets, as this offers a different kind of nutrition. Thus healthier too! You can make this as dessert for your next party or make it on the Pongal festival (Indian Thanksgiving).

Ingredients:

Foxtail millet - 1 cup

Split moong dhal - 1/4 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup, grated

Cardamom - 2, crushed

Ghee - 6 tbsp

Cashews - 2 tbsp

Raisins - 2 tbsp

Water - 3 and 3/4 cups

Method:

Wash rice and split moong dhal. Add water, cover, and cook on a medium flame for about 20 min in a heavy bottom pan. By this time, both the millet and legume would have cooked down nicely to a slightly mushy texture which is perfect for pongal. Add the grated jaggery and cardamom. (if you know that it doesn't have any impurities). Continue stirring and cooking until all the jaggery is dissolved. Add 2 tbsp of ghee or melted butter and continue simmering for another 3 - 4 minutes. Make sure it doesn't get burnt at the bottom. Switch off the flame. 

In another small pan, heat remaining ghee. Add the cashews and raisins and fry till golden. Add it to the sweet pongal, mix, and serve.

Tips:

1. This dish can be made with any millet or a mixture of them. I will post pictures of different millet sweet pongal soon.

2. To remove impurities from jaggery:  Boil jaggery with a little amount of water till it dissolves. Filter and discard the impurities. This jaggery water can be added to the recipe.

3. If you are not conscious about calories, feel free to add another 4 tbsp of ghee. You will have a taste of heaven.

Vanilla Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Published: November 2014, Updated: December, 2021

These soft and chewy cookies are addictive and amazing that is always loved in our home! The flavors of this cookie will make anyone love it! That's the perfect combination of chocolate, orange, and vanilla! These are eggless cookies. These cookies are perfect for any occasion. They are great for a snack, birthday party, cookie exchange, or great holiday edible gift.

This is an updated post. I updated with new photographs for more reader satisfaction. 

I have used Taylor and Colledge Vanilla Bean Paste and Dixie Crystals Sugar. The fine quality sugar makes creaming butter and sugar easy while adding perfect color and chewyness to the cookie. The T&C Vanilla Bean Paste adds amazing taste to the cookie. This paste goes a little extra mile in enhancing flavor. If you can't find in your region, substitute with any vanilla you have.

Almost every one of us play the Candy Crush game. It's such a cool game! Many times the game says delicious, divine..... To understand the divine flavor one must taste food with the perfect combination. There is one combination that is always "DIVINE" - Orange and Chocolate. Yes, it is! they pair so well and many times I have indulged in dark chocolates with orange. It's awesome delicious!  

The cookies made with orange and chocolate chips are always a super hit in my home. When you bake this one, you can feel the aroma of vanilla and orange dancing in your home! Guess what happens whenever I bake these cookies..........kids will be very happy when they enter the home sniffing, grabbing handfuls (ofcourse after washing hands!) and happily munching them with milk (perfect combination for a cookie)! What else could be the perfect snack for the children!

While baking cookies with chocolate chips, add a couple of chocolate chips on top after scooping to baking sheet for that melty bakery finish style cookies. This tip make all your cookies with bakery style finish. Here are some pointers for a baking this cookie:

1. I used to add a couple more tbsp of butter, but this reduced version equally tastes good. If you want, feel free to add 2 to 4 more tbsp of butter. With four tablespoons extra butter, this will a heaven! Trust me on this!

2. As I said, this is a soft-baked cookie. For a crunchy one, bake for 1 or 2 min. more.

3. Use a microplane grater to get the rind alone from the orange. Use Navel oranges. The cookie is a little yellowish because of the addition of orange rind.

4. For a milk-free version, feel free to use orange juice in place of milk. I have made using orange juice and is delicious too.

5. A cookie scoop helps to get the same sized dough very easily. If you don't have one, measuring spoon is more than enough.

6. If you want to add more chocolates, increase it by 4 more tbsp. You can add either dark or milk chocolates or a mixture of both too.

7. The flour type may differ from country to country, add one or two tablespoon milk if needed to make the cookie dough.

This blog has delicious eggless cookie recipes perfect for any occasion! Here are the links to some.

Santa Hat Red Velvet Mini Cookie Cups

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Pistachio Rose cookies 

Coconut Cookies

Nutella Cookies 

Jam Pinwheel Cookie 

Eggless Triple Peppermint Cookie

Double Chocolate Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies

I am linking this to Bakeathon 2021, The Fourth Annual Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange, and The Great Cookie Exchange!

Ingredients:

Makes about 36

Maida / All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Grated orange rind - 3 tsp

Butter - 100g or 7 tbsp

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Vanilla  - 2 tsp

Dark chocolate chips - 2 tbsp

White chocolate chips - 1/2 cup

Flaxseed powder - 2 tbsp

Milk - 1/4 cup

Method:

In a cup, add milk to flax seed powder and set aside for 5 min. to make the flaxed egg. 

Sieve maida, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix in a bowl and keep aside. 

In another bowl, add butter, sugar, orange rind, flaxed egg, and vanilla bean paste/vanilla till fluffy.  

Start adding the flour to the butter mixture couple of tbsp at a time and beat well. 

When all the flour has been mixed well and the chocolate chips and fold. (Reserve a couple of tablespoons of chocolatechips for topping or add extra chips).

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper/silicone (cleaning is easy) and scoop out approximately 1 tbsp of the cookie dough 2 in. apart. Slightly flatten them. Add a couple of chocolate chips on top.

They will spread while baking but not too much. Bake for 12 min or till the edges are starting to get firmer. Cool on a wire rack. 

Store in a dry container (whatever is left out). 

Weekend Brunch and Recipe for Bagalabath or Yougurt / Curd Rice

A relaxing, flavorful comfort food in the weekend boosts all your energy for the week ahead. I always enjoy cooking a special menu for the weekend rather than eating out - not that I never eat outside but the thought of a tasty homemade meal is much comforting than going to a restaurant. This weekend I made different variety rice and this kind of meal is always a hit whether you have a get-together or not.

I made Baby Aloo Pulao, Tomato Rice (satvik version with no onions), Karuvepillai Rice (curry leaf rice), and Bagalabath or yogurt rice (link for the pulao and curry leaf rice is given). I made karamani parupusili (a traditional Iyengar veggie recipe made with veggie and toor dhal), fried some homemade vadams (fryums), and pickle. Carrot almond kheer - a perfect dessert for the perfect meal. It was a wonderful and delicious meal - the apt way to describe is DIVINE!

Here I have the recipe for yogurt rice. It is very simple to make and you can never go wrong making yogurt rice. It has all the goodness of yogurt and hence it is good for health too. A very simple way - just add fresh yogurt to rice (adding salt is optional) mix and there you go. I have a lot of memories having this wonderful rice with lots of fresh ripe mangoes (for many people this is a childhood lunch box favorite). Yogurt rice with mangoes is a perfect combo. Even now it is my favorite one (and also to many). Summer months are always enjoyed with fresh ripe mangoes and fresh mango pickles and yogurt rice. Though raisins, pomegranates, grated cucumbers, and carrots are also equally flavorful, the best way I like it with fresh ripe mangoes or with grated unripe mangoes. Also, you cannot deny the divine combination of this rice with spicy mango, lemon or chilli pickles, or mormilagai (pickled and dried green chillis deep-fried). Coming back to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Water - 3 cups

Yogurt - 2 and 1/2 cups

Milk - 3/4 cup

Salt
Cilantro - 1 or 2 tbsp (for garnish)

Seasoning:

Oil - 1 or 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Split urad dhal - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 or 2 sprigs

Green chillies - 1 or 2, chopped

Method:

Wash and cook the rice with 3 cups of water.

Mash the cooked rice a little. Heat oil in a pan, add the seasoning ingredients one by one after the mustard seeds splutter. Add the seasoning, salt, yogurt, and milk.

Mix thoroughly without any lumps. Garnish with cilantro.

You can add or top the rice ripe or unripe mangoes, pomegranates, raisins, grated cucumber or carrot. This quantity alone serves 4 to 6 people and if you have a few other dishes too, can feed about 8 persons.

Tips:

1. If you don't wish to mash, then the texture of the yogurt rice would be grainy.

2. Adding 1/2 cup of cream enhances the taste and will a sure hit for parties, for regular days I prefer adding milk to cut down the calories from cream.

3. Adding fruits like pomegranates or mangoes is very tasty and healthy too.

4. Some people may not like to add mustard seeds in this rice. This is the traditional way if you don't like it just skip it.

Eggless cake recipe for Halloween!

I made these cupcakes for Halloween and this is one of my eggless cake recipes. I actually thought of filling the light green color inside the chocolate cake but when I was making the cake I changed my mind and made something similar to two-layered and some with a marbled effect. The buttercream frosting was perfect and the kids had loads of fun. It is actually fun when they squeeze the frosting as it naturally comes in all different shapes and is perfect for Halloween. This is a yogurt-based eggless cake and a very tasty one. I always use apple cider vinegar with my eggless cakes which gives a very good soft texture. Try these and you'll never believe these are eggless!

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour / Maida - 1 and 1/2 cups

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Baking powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tbsp

Yogurt - 1 cup

Apple cider vinegar - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1/2 cup

If you want a colored cake, any food color of your choice.

Cookies or jelly candies for decoration.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Sieve all-purpose flour, salt, and keep aside. In another bowl beat the sugar and yogurt till it is creamy. To this add the baking powder and baking soda. Immediately the mixture will be frothy. Let it be like that 2 or 3 minutes and then add the oil. Mix well and pour on to the flour. Beat well, add the vanilla essence and apple cider vinegar. Mix well. If you want to add color or chocolate powder add now and mix. Pour on to cupcake liners in a cupcake pan and bake for 17 - 18 min. or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. I used green and orange colored buttercream for frosting. Pipe the orange buttercream onto any cookie - "RIP or BOO or any words of your choice". Frost the cake with a star tip, the green-colored buttercream, and insert the cookie onto the cake. Alternatively, squeeze out a little buttercream, keep one or a few jelly candies and make it look like a bug. That's all a simple Halloween cupcake is ready. 

Tips:

I divided the cake batter into two portions - 1/3 and 2/3rds. To the one-third, I added green coloring and to the two-thirds, added unsweetened cocoa powder. You can add your choice of colors. If you are making chocolate cake add 4 - 6 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder (according to your taste).

If you are baking in an 8 or 9 in. round pan or a 9x9 square pan, the baking time would be approximately 30 min. Check with the toothpick. 

You can make and decorate this cake following the recipe for any occasion.