in kitchen 17

Chocolate Cake

Use whole wheat flour (not maida) -

Take 2 teacups of flour,
Mix it with 5 spoons of cocoa powder and 1 spoon baking powder and keep aside.
Take a hard anodized cookware and heat it. Remove from the stove in a minute.
Drop a 100gm butter into the cookware and immediately add one cup of sugar and stir.
Add 5 eggs to the mixture of butter and sugar and stir.
Add 4 drops of vanilla essence.

Slowly add the flour mix to the butter mix.

Take a baking pan, smear it with ghee and lace it with butter paper (parchment paper). The butter paper should be bigger than the pan.
Pour the cake mix in it and cook.*

Optional:
1) You can add coffee powder, about 4 gms, to the flour mix;
2) You can add nuts (walnuts taste best with coffee);
3) You can add pieces of chocolate or coffee flavoured biscuits (not cream-biscuits)

*Cooking depends on the kind of oven or stove you are using. For cooking instructions it is best to follow the oven's user manual.

in kitchen 16

 Indian (a new type of) French Toast:

Heat a non-stick frying pan with ghee
Sprinkle salt and chopped onions on it
Crack two eggs and drop their contents straight on the ghee
Take two (or three) slices of bread, tear into pieces and drop on the fluid egg
Immediately cover with the lid of the frying pan
In a minute, turn off the gas. Wait for two minutes.

Shift the half cooked toast onto a plate
Heat the frying pan with ghee again
Shift the toast upside down onto the ghee
Cover with the lid and in a minute turn off the gas.
Wait two minutes before opening the lid and your sizzling new "Indian French Toast" is ready !!

In kitchen 15

Moong Khichdi

An easy way to cook one quick nutritious meal:

Take 1 cup rice and 1 cup moong dal (yellow) in a bowl.

Wash it and pour 1 cup water. Keep aside.

In a pressure cooker, add 1 spoon ghee, salt to taste, half spoon cumin (jeera), 2 spoons soya mini nuggets(optional), heat and stir. Use the big burner.

Add 1 cup water as soon as the ghee is heated.

Add the rice-dal-water mix.

Add a pinch of (packaged) pulao/biryani masala powder (not garam masala) and half spoon of sugar.

Pour 3 cups water into this. Stir and close the lid.

After 2 whistles, turn off the burner.

The exact proportion of rice:dal:water is 1:1:5.

This is suitable for kids, single parents or bachelors. In place of cumin, pieces of onion can also be added. If the masala is hot and spicy, no need to add sugar.

In kitchen 14

Sambhar Dal: for those who already know the basics of cooking it.

Toor dal and a few vegetables.

I usually use the MTR Sambhar masala. It also has cooking instructions.

Some vegetables, such as drumsticks make the sambhar taste excellent, but these are not easily available. Use Okra or ‘bhindi’ instead. The effect is almost the same.

Sweet pumpkin pieces, carrot and brinjals also taste very good in a sanbhar dal.

Boil chunks of vegetables with some salt.

Boil toor dal with sambhar masala.

Heat oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Add boiled dal and vegetables and pressure cook.

At the end, add melted sugarcane jaggery mixed with tamarind paste. In place of jaggery you can also use enough sugar.

NOTE: You don’t always need to cook dosa or idlis to go with sambhar dal. Just have steamed rice. Sambhar and rice make a nutritious quick lunch at home.

in kitchen 13

Pumpkin.
Sounds so unappetizing !
I always buy the sweet ripe pumpkin.

Cut a kilo of pumpkin into big chunks.
Heat a little oil in an open cookware that has a matching lid. Mustard oil is preferable.
Add a few mustard seeds. They start sputtering. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to taste.
Add all the chunks of pumpkin, stir well and cover it with the lid.
Turn the gas to sim. Use the bigger burner.
After 2 mins, stir again and cover again.
After another 2 mins. add a tablespoon of sugar and stir and cover again.
After another 2 mins. use a fork or a knife to check if the pumpkin has softened.

You can decide whether to eat the chunks as in shape or turn the whole thing into a pulp. The tastes will differ.

I like it in the form of a pulp. For this, you will have to stir vigorously for half a minute.
It tastes sweet and tangy, almost like a sauce. Children love it more. It is rich in iron and vitamin A.
Any other method of cooking sweet pumpkin is likely to deprive you of its nutrients.

in kitchen 12

One of our taste buds senses bitter.
If you want your child to appreciate the bitter taste, start early. it is only grown ups who dislike it.

Buy dark green bitter gourds. The light ones are better.
Take one bitter gourd and cut it into thin rings.
Wash the rings and remove the hard seeds. If the seeds are white and soft, there is no need to remove them.
Smear them with just a little salt and turmeric.
Heat oil in an open cookware that has a matching lid.
Drop the rings in the heated oil, stir and then close the lid.
In 3 mins. the bitter gourd will get cooked.
Remove the lid and use a sieve to take out the rings on a plate.
Although it is not a traditional 'deep fry' technique, much oil is required. The sieve is required. The left over oil can be used the next time to fry bitter gourd.

If you give it to a one-year-old child without a fuss or any signs of dislike or apologies for the bitterness in the taste of the food that you have offered, they will not dislike it. A child will eat it like any other food. Make sure that the salt is mild.

in kitchen 11

Ladyfingers or okras have a taste of their own.

Chop the ladyfingers so that each piece resembles a cube.
Heat refined oil in an open cookware or kadhai.
Add salt according to the quantity of the ladyfingers.
Add the entire amount of chopped ladyfingers. It is better to cook 1kg and not less than 1/2kg.
Stir until all the chopped pieces are smeared with the salted oil. Add oil if necessary.
Cover the cookware with its matching lid.
Cook it on the small burner at low flame for 10 mins.
Open the lid and stir gently. Do not worry if a little bit is stuck at the bottom. Or use a non-stick cookware.
When you feel that the sliminess of the ladyfingers is gone, cover the cookware as before.
Turn the gas off.
After waiting for 2 mins. stir again. All that was stuck to the vessel comes off loose.
Serve with chapattis or rice with daal.

NOTE:
1) The same recipe with a greater amount of oil is called 'deep-fried ladyfingers' in Bengal. The ladyfingers are lifted off the oil-well with a sieve (like chops or french fries).

2) A spoonful of sugar can be added at the end, after the gas is turned off. It makes children like it more.
3) It is better not to add turmeric (usually people do) as it turns the ladyfingers black.