Peanut(groundnut) butter

Yummmy! This is one spread you'd love to keep spreading! Peanut butter spread tastes absolutely delicious with bread, salted biscuits or sandwiches, and is good breakfast specially for children. Of course, it is lots of cholesterol, but spreading only a little is sufficient to add great taste to your bread.

Peanut butter spread is easy to make, the only time consuming part being the de-skinning of peanut. You could use some help there, but make sure you don't call on peanut-lovers for help!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup roasted peanuts(groundnuts)
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1 tbs refined groundnut oil(any vegetable oil would also do)

1. Roast peanuts in 'kadai'.
2. Remove the skin from nuts.
3. While still warm, grind nuts in the jar, with salt and sugar, at speed 1 for ten seconds.
4. Mix well with a spatula. Then run mixer at speed 1, adding oil, increase to speed 2 for one full minute and then to speed 3 for 1 minute.
5. Allow to mature for at least 2 hours before use.

Tomatoe rice

Here's a quick and easy recipe that can come in handy if you're busy and need to finish cooking in 10 mins(of course, you must have rice cooked and ready!). You don't need curry to go with this. Chicken fry will go amazingly well with this dish, but, like I said, if you don't have the time, you could just have it with pickle to enhance the taste.

Ingredients:

5 cups cooked rice
2 tbsps ghee
2-4 pieces of red chilli
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsps channa dal
2 tbsps cashew nuts broken
2 tsps urad dal
2 tsps ginger-garlic paste
a stalk of curry leaves
1 onion chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
salt to taste
3- 4 tomatoes finely chopped
1/4 tsp hinge
a pinch of garam masala(optional-too much would spoil the taste)
coriander leaves

Method:

1. Heat ghee, add red chilli pieces, mustard seeds, cumin seeds.
2. When they start to splutter, add channa dal, urad dal and cashew till they turn slightly brown.
3. Add ginger garlic paste and curry leaves to release aroma.
4. Add onion and green chilli and salt.
5. When onion turns transparent, add tomatoes, and cook in medium heat till they are slightly smashed.
6. Add hinge and if needed, garam masala.  
7. Turn off the flame and add cooked rice; garnish with coriander leaves.

Marble cake

Ingredients:

Same as either the 'Chocolate cake' or 'Eggless Chocolate cake', except, use 2 cocoa tbsps instead of 3.

Method:

1. Follow the same method as either the 'Chocolate cake' or 'Eggless Chocolate cake', except, don't add cocoa powder to the batter. Divide the batter into half and stir in 2 tbsps of cocoa powder into one half.

2. Grease a baking tin with butter, and dust it with maida.

3. Alternatively add spoonfuls from each batter.

4. Using a knife, stir in circles, from center outwards, or in any fashion you like, to get the marble effect.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree celcius, for 30 mins or till a knife inserted comes out clean.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Same as in Eggless Chocolate cake(refer previous post), except that you have got to add 2 eggs.

Method:

Same as in Chocolate cake(eggless), except that the eggs must be added after adding sugar to the butter, and beat well.

Chocolate Cake (Eggless)

This is my first cake ever, and the first dish, too, that I baked in my very first oven (which was a gift from my parents on my first-oops!-27th birthday this year), for my very first huby- hahhaa!
My  mother was suprised at my success as she felt that chocolate cakes are hard to rise, but this turned out just perfect. I was surprised myself of the fact that an amateur like me could do it so easily!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
1/2 cup butter (do not use melted butter!)
1/2 cup fine sugar(if sugar is not fine, grind it in electric grinder)
1/2 can(200 ml) condensed milk (if you don't prefer condensed milk, you could add 1 1/2 cup milk and 1 1/2 cup sugar- instead of 1/2 cup sugar-in which case, you don't have to add the 3/4 cups of water)
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup water

Method:

1. Sieve together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda bicarb; keep aside.
2. Cut butter, that has been just taken out of the fridge and kept for 5 minutes, into smaller pies.
3. Mix the butter with sugar in a mixing bowl, using a hand mixer(or electric mixer). Add in the condensed milk, vanilla essence and water, mixing each time an ingredient has been added.
4. To the above mixture, add the sieved flour mixture, little by little, mixing each time.
5. Grease the baking pan with butter and dust it with a little flour till the entire inside of the baking pan is covered with the flour.
6. Pour the cake mixture into the pan(lick the bowl!) and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius(360 degree Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes or till a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.
7. Cool and transfer onto a plate.

Beef Curry

Ingredients:

Boneless beef- 1/2 kg, diced
Potatoes - 2 medium, diced (optional)
Ginger-garlic paste - 2 tsp
Onion - 1 medium/big, chopped
Green chilli- 2, slit lengthwise
Dried red chillies- powdered, 1 teaspoon,
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves- a few
Coriander leaves- a few
Garam masala - 1 tsp
coconut- grated, 3/4 cup
black pepper- whole, 1 tsp
water- 1 cup
Tomatoes- 1 big, chopped thin (not too thin)
salt- to taste


Method:

1. Pressure cook beef with turmeric powder and salt, without water, for 30 minutes.
2. Fry grated coconut with black pepper till brown and crispy(don't over fry)
3. After the coconut cools, grind it well in grinder and keep aside.
4. Heat oil and add ginger- garlic paste and curry leaves; saute till it is medium brown.
5. Add onions, green chilli, saute till onions turn transparent.
6. Add red chilli powder, coriander powder and beef; mix for about 2 mins.
7. Put the above mixture into pressure cooker, add ground coconut from above, add water till level of beef, add garam masala, more salt if required. Add potatoes. Pressure cook upto 2 whistles.
8. Add chopped tomatoes and coriander leaves and close lid for a few minutes.

This curry goes well with any roti preparation as well as rice.