Mutton Biryani

Recipe#13

Ingredients:

1. Basmati rice - 3 cups
2. Water - 12 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Ghee - 1/2 cup
5. Onion sliced - 1/4 cup
6. Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
7. Raisins - 1/4 cup
8. Mutton Kurma - 1 recipe

Method:

1. Boil water with salt
2. Add washed rice and cook till almost done
3. Switch off the stove and remove the extra water from rice
4. Heat ghee in a pan and fry onion  cashews and raisins and keep aside
5. Layer rice, mutton kurma and above fried items, close it with lid/aluminium foil and bake for 40 minutes at 350F Deg heat.

Mutton Kurma

Recipe#12 Mutton Kurma from Mrs.K.M.Mathews cookbook. A rich tasty Mutton Kurma which is sure to please your family and friends for any occasion.

Ingredients:

1. Mutton, cut into medium size pieces - 1 Kg
2. Hot water - 1 cup
3. Cinnamon - 2 inch piece
4. Cloves - 1 tsp
5. Cardamom - 1 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil - 1/2 cup
8. Onion sliced - 3 medium
9. Ghee/Clarified butter - 1 cup
10. Garlic paste - 2 tbs
11. Ginger paste - 2 tbs
12. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
13. Chilli powder - 1 tsp
14. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
15. Aniseed - 2 tsp
16. Tomatoes, chopped - 2 medium
17. Curd - 1 cup
18. Coriander leaves, chopped - 1 cup
19. Green chilli, slit - 4
20. Cashewnuts - 1/4 cup
21. Coconut shredded - 1/2 cup
22. Lime juice - to taste

Method:

1. Trim the excess fat from mutton pieces and wash well
2. Cook mutton with ingredients from 2 to 6 in a pressure cooker. It took me 3-4 whistles to cook young mutton
3. The stock must be reduced to 1 cup.Remove from heat and keep aside. 
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry onion till golden brown and keep it aside
5. Grind ingredients from 12 to 15
6. Heat ghee in a pan and fry Ginger garlic paste till the raw smell goes
7. Then add ground masala to it and fry for a minute
8. Add tomatoes and cook it till tomatoes can be mashed
9. Add whisked curd, green chillis, fried onion, coriander leaves and mix well
10. Add cooked mutton with the stock
11. Mix well and allow to cook for 10 minutes
12. Grind soaked cashew nuts and coconut to a smooth paste
13. Add it to the curry and mix well.
14. Add lime juice and salt to taste and remove from flame

Note:

• I reduced the amount of ghee to 1/4 cup instead of 1 cup and used the left over oil from fried onion. Still it is a very oily Kurma :) But it tastes yummy

Serve hot with porotta,  chapathis or ghee rice

Spinach cutlet

This is an interesting spinach cutlet with coconut chutney stuffing from Mrs.K.M.Mathews cook book.

Recipe#11

Ingredients:

1. Spinach, chopped - 2 cups
2. Potato, boiled and mashed - 1/2 cup
3. Oil - 2 tbs + for frying
4. Onion, chopped - 1/4 cup
5. Green Chilli, chopped - 1 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Coconut, shredded - 1/2 cup
8. Green chilli - 1
9. Shallot - 1
10. Ginger, chopped - 1/2 tsp
11. Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
12. Besan/Chickpea flour - 3 tbs
13. Bread crumbs - 1 cup

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbs oil in a pan
2. Saute onion and chopped green chilli in it
3. Add spinach and saute it
4. Add mashed potato and salt 
5. Mix it well and keep aside
6. Grind coconut, green chilli, ginger, shallot, tamarind and salt to make coarse mixture
7. Make balls out of spinach-potato mixture
8. Flatten it using your palm
9. Place a tsp of coconut chutney in the center
10. Fold the cutlet from three sides to close the filling completely and form a triangle shape
11. Make a thick batter of besan with water
12. Dip the cutlet in besan batter and then in bread crumbs to get uniform coating
13. Fry it in hot oil, 3-4 minutes on each side.

Serve the cutlet warm!

Khus Khus Payasam / Poppy seeds pudding

Wishing a very Happy Onam to all my readers..
Here goes my special recipe for this Onam... Khus khus payasam.. Give it a try and you are sure to enjoy the outcome!

Ingredients:

1. Poppy seeds/Khus khus - 3 tbs
2. Basmati/Soon masoori rice - 3 tbs
3. Cashew nuts - 3 tbs + 1 tbs
4. Cardamom - 2
5. Milk - 1.25 ltr
6. Sugar - 1 cup
7. Saffron - 1/4 tsp
8. Ghee - 1 tbs
9. Raisins - 1 tbs

Method:

1. Dry roast poppy seeds, rice and cardamom in medium heat.
2. Before the poppy seeds color change take the mixture off from stove and grind it along with cashew nuts(mixture need not be very fine)
3. In a thick bottomed pan, mix the above mixture and half of the milk
4. Heat the pan and cook the mixture in medium flame
5. When the mixture starts to boil, add rest of the milk and saffron to it
6. Stir the payasm in between so that it doesn't get burned at the bottom and sides
7. As payasam starts to thicken, stir it in every 1-2 minutes
8. When payasam reaches required consistency, switch off the flame and stir it continuously for some time, about 5 minutes
9. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts and then raisins in it and add it to payasam.

Note:

• It took me around 45-50 minutes to cook payasam and reach the thick payasam consisitency
• Never leave payasam unattended

Lemon Semiya Sadam

Recipe#10 in Mrs.K.M.Mathews recipe series..

Ingredients:

1. Vermicelli/Semiya, very thin variety - 3 cups
2. Lime/Lemon juice - 1 tbs
3. Kayam/Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
4. Sugar - 1/4 tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil - 3 tbs
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
9. Dry red chilli, cut - 2
10. Cashew nuts, chopped - 2 tbs
11. Raisins - 1 tbs
12. Green chilli, chopped - 1 tsp
13. Onion, chopped - 1/4 cup
14. Carrot, chopped - 1/4 cup
15. Cabbage chopped - 1/4 cup
16. Butter - 1/2 tsp
17. Coriander leaves, chopped - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Roast semiya in a pan taking care not to change its color to brown
2. Cook semiya in hot water with salt 
3. Drain the semiya and add lime juice, asafoetida, sugar and salt to it and mix it.Take care not to mash the semiya
4. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds
5. Add turmeric powder, dry red chilli, cashew nuts, raisins, onion and green chilli and saute it
6. Add carrot and cabbage and stir fry it
7. Add salt as per your taste
8. Add semiya to the above before the fresh color changes for carrot and cabbage
9. Mix all well and add butter to it
10. Top it with coriander leaves and switch off the flame

Note:

Cooked basmati rice can be used instead of semiya

Tomato chutney

Recipe#9 from Mrs.K.M.Mathews recipe series..
This tomato chutney is made using partially sun dried tomatoes. Once you have the partially sun dried tomatoes it is very easy to make this chutney.It goes really well with Dosa, Idli etc.
This was supposed to be my 6th recipe in the series, but unfortunately the first time i made it,  my tomatoes were dried out too much that it gave tomato crumbs instead of paste when i tried to grind sun dried tomatoes. Since the sun is too harsh here, it took only one day drying to give me the partially dried tomatoes.
So here is the second trial result which satisfied me.

Ingredients:

1. Tomatoes, fleshy, cut into half wedges - 3 big
2. Tamarind - 1/2 tsp
3. Gingelly oil - 1/2 cup
4. Dried red chilli - 3
5. Kayam/Asafoetida- 1 pinch
6. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7. Fenugreek seeds/uluva - 1 pinch
8. Urud dal/Uzhunnu parippu - 2 tsp
9. Dried red chilli - 3
10. Chilli powder - 1 tsp
11. Sugar - 2 pinch
12. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Sun dry the tomatoes for 2 days with salt sprinkled on it. Tomatoes shouldn't be fully dried. There has to be some wet part left in each piece.
2. Grind tomato with tamarind in to paste
3. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds
4. Add ingredients from 7 to 10 and fry them
5. Add tomato paste and cook till oil comes to the top
6. Add salt if needed as tomatoes already have salt in it
7. Add sugar and asafoetida and mix well and switch off the flame.

Note:

• The changes i made when tried the recipe for second time is to reduce the oil to 1/4 cup

Apple Custard Pudding

Recipe#8 from Mrs.K.M.Mathews recipe series.
A delicious dessert which is not too high in calories!

Ingredients :

1. Apple, cut into 1/2 inch cubes - 1/4 kg
2. Water - 1 cup
3. Cinnamon - 6 x 1 inch pieces
4. Lemon juice - 1 tbs
5. Water -  1 cup
6. Sugar - 1 cup
7. Salt - 2 pinches
8. Grated lemon zest - 1/4 tsp
9. Yellow color - 2 drops (optional)
10. Butter - 1 tbs
11. All purpose flour - 4 tbs
12. Milk -  1 cup
13. Lemon juice - 2 tbs

Method:

1. Cook apples in 1 cup water, cinnamon and lemon juice till apples are cooked well.
2. Mash half of the apple in the above
3. Boil 1 cup water, sugar, color and lemon zest and pass it through a fine mesh
4. Heat butter and flour in a pan and mix well in low flame. Take care not to burn  flour (flour color shouldn't change)
5. Once the flour-butter mixture cools, add milk to it and mix well. ( i have used a whisk for mixing) There shouldn't be any lumps. Pass it through fine mesh to remove any lumps formed
6. Add sugar syrup to the apple mixture and bring it to boil
7. Add milk mixture to the boiling apple mixture
8. As the mixture thickens, add lemon juice to it and thicken it again
9. Butter a baking bowl and move the pudding mixture in room temperature to it
10. Preheat oven to 300F Deg
11. In a larger oven pan add water and place the pudding bowl in it
12. Move the pan to oven and bake for 40 minutes

Above pudding can be served warm or cold.

Garnish suggestions given in the book is to use ghee fried bread crouton and bread crumbs on the pudding top or roasted coconut and cherry garnish

I have used raspberry and brown sugar for garnish. The original recipe calls for lime juice instead of lemon juice. And i didn't use food color in the pudding. Next time i will try this pudding with mixed fruits instead of just apple :)

Prawns Pappas

Hers is the Recipe#7 from Mrs.K.M.Mathew recipe series.
Though i love all the fresh veggies and fruits i get here in my new place, i do really miss those fresh seafood here. None of the food/hypermarts have fresh sea food like Pomfret, sardine etc etc... The fish found here in stores are Salmon, Hallibut, Rock fish and some Prawns. So I chose to go with Prawns pappas from the cook book. And luckily i was able to get cocum (kudam puli) from the Indian store here.So after getting prawns and cocum yesterday evening, did a late night prawns pappas cooking. And we liked the Prawns pappas and rice combo as dinner yesterday. Prawns pappas is a dish in which prawns comes with tangy spicy coconut milk gravy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Prawns - 1/2Kg
2. Water - 1 cup
3. Salt to taste
4. Coriander powder - 1 tbs
5. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Shallots/button onion - 4
9. Oil - 1/4 cup
10. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
11. Fenugreek seeds - 1/8 tsp
12. Onion, sliced - 1 cup
13. Ginger, julienned - 1 tsp
14. Garlic, chopped - 12 cloves
15. Green chillies, slit - 3
16. Curry leaves - few , 8-10
17. Cocum, washed and soaked in water - 4
18. Coconut milk thin - 2 cups
19. Coconut milk thick - 1 cup

Method:

1. Shell and devein the prawns 
2. Cook it in water with salt and keep aside. According to the cook book, prawns must be cooked till all water dries up. For me even after prawns were cooked well there was left over water. It could be due to difference in prawns
3. Grind ingredients from 4 to 8 into a paste
4. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds
5. Add ingredients 11 to 16 and fry till onion is golden brown
6. Add masala paste and fry it till it gives masala aroma
7. Add cocum and fry again
8. Add thin coconut milk and bring to simmering hot
9. Add cooked prawns to it and add salt too
10. Cover and cook till gravy thickens
11. Add thick coconut milk and cook for few more minutes and serve hot!

Note:

• It is good to reduce the amount of oil when cooking to 2tbs
• Also i find it is good to reduce coconut milk to 1 cup thin milk and 1/2 cup thick milk

Inji curry/ Ginger curry

Inji curry/ Puli inji is a gingery, tangy, spicy, sweet dish. This is my 7th recipe trial in Mrs.K.M.Mathew recipe series after a failed trial of tomato chutney.. :( The method described for inji curry in the cook book is different and more difficult from how I usually make it. But the hard work is well paid with its outcome.. Inji curry came out really tasty. I have stored it for thiru onam lunch which is approaching later this week, though I am not planning a sadya for this onam..

Ingredients:

1. Ginger - 6 x 1 inch cubes
2. Rice flour - 1 tsp
3. Gingelly oil - 1/2 cup
4. Green chilli - 2
5. Coriander seeds - 1 tbs
6. Dried red chilli - 8
7. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
8. Tamarind - the size of small lime, soaked in a cup of water
9. Jaggery/ Sugar - 1 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Mustard seeds - 1/8 tsp
12. Red chilli - 2
13. Curry leaves - few, about 6-7

Method:

1. Crush the ginger pieces and squeeze out the juice.
2. Mix ginger shreds with a tsp of rice flour
3. Fry it in gingelly oil with green chilli
4. Grind it into a coarse powder and keep aside
5. On low flame roast coriander seeds, red chilli and fenugreek in 2 tsp of gingelly oil
6. Grind the above to a smooth paste
7. Extract juice from tamarind and mix it with ginger mixture, salt and above paste
8. Add salt to taste and bring it to boil
9. Cook it till the gravy thickens in low flame
10. Add sugar or jiggery and cook for few minutes more, about 2-3 minutes
11. Fry the ingredients from 11 to in hot gingelly oil and add it to the gravy

Note:

1. Store it an airtight container once the gravy is completely cool
2. Adjust the amount of sugar or jaggery according to your taste. I have used 2 tbs of jiggery.
3. Adjust the red chilli according to your taste. I have used 8 dry red chilli, but removed the seeds from 4 of them as the chillies I have is very spicy
4. You may use the squeezed out ginger juice to make ginger sarbath

Coconut Rice

Simple yet flavorful coconut rice from Mrs.K.M.Mathews cookbook!

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Coconut milk - 2.5 cups
3. Coconut, shredded - 3 tbs
4. Ghee - 1/8 cup
5. Salt to taste

Note:

• Rice was perfectly cooked once all water was absorbed
• It has a very deep coconut flavor

Method:

1. Soak rice for 15 minutes
2. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan
3. Fry rice till slightly brown
4. Add coconut milk in low flame
5. Bring it to boil in medium flame and reduce to low flame and cook rice till done
6. Add salt to taste and keep in low flame till all water is absorbed
7. Roast grated coconut lightly and sprinkle over hot rice and serve the coconut rice hot

Cabbage thoran

Thoran from Mrs.K.M.Mathews Cook book recipe is very similar to our usual home recipe. The only difference I noticed is chilli powder and cumin seeds. We don't add chilli powder to thoran recipes but the cook book recipe calls for both chilli powder and green chilli.

Cabbage thoran is the most common thoran in sadya. Recipe given in the book is for cheera thoran, but there is a note added in it saying recipe remains the same for cabbage, carrot etc. hence I chose
cabbage thoran.

Ingredients:

1. Cabbage shredded - 3 cups
2. Garlic cloves - 2
3. Coconut, shredded - 1 cup
4. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Green chilli, chopped - 1 tsp
7. Oil - 2 tbs
8. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. Curry leaves - few
10. Dried red chilli. - 2
11. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Grind garlic, coconut, turmeric powder and chilli powder coarsely
2. Heat oil in a pan
3. Splutter the mustard seeds in the oil
4. Add red chillies and curry leaves
5. Put in chopped cabbage and green chilli in it
6. Sprinkle a little water and salt and cook the pan covered
7. When the steam rises, laddle the ground masala into the centre and cover it with cabbage
8. Close the pan and continue to cok till it steams again
9. Open and stir gently till the water is absorbed and serve hot.

Note:

• Spinach, string beans, raw pappaya and carrot can also be used instead of cabbage

Parippu / Kerala style Dal

Ingredients:

1. Husked green bean/ Moong dal - 1 cup
2. Water - 3 cups
3. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
4. Garlic cloves - 4 small
5. Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
6. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Coconut shredded - 1 cup
8. Vegetable oil - 2 tbs
9. Ghee/Clarified butter - 1 tbsp
10. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
11. Shallots,sliced - 2 tsp
12. Curry leaves - few
13. Dry red chilli - 2
14. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Lightly roast moong dal in a thick bottomed pan without  allowing the dal to change its colour.
2. Cook dal in 3 cups of water. (i cooked it in pressure cooker)
3. Grind ingredients from 3 to 7 to a fine paste
4. Mix the paste in a little water  and add add it to the cooked dal
5. Add salt to taste and bring it to boil
6. Once boiled, remove it from fire
7. Heat oil and ghee for tempering
8. Add ingredients from 10 to 13 and fry/splutter it
9. Add the above to the curry

Serve hot with rice and more ghee.

Egg Roast

Here is my second recipe in the Mrs.K.M.Mathews recipe series.I have tried out this yesterday for our lunch to go with Chapathi.This is an Egg Roast recipe with perfect blend of spices. It has the sweetness from onion, yet spicy and tangy. 

Ingredients:

1. Egg - 3
2. Red Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
3. Coriander powder - 1.5 tsp
4. Pepper powder - 1 tsp
5. Aniseed - 1/2 tsp
6. Cinnamon - 1 inch
7. Cloves  - 2
8. Cardamom - 1
9. Oil - 3 tbs
10. Onion, sliced - 1 cup
11. Tomato chopped - 1/4 cup
12. Salt to taste
13. Water - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Hard boil  and shell all the eggs
2. Grind to paste ingredients from 2 to 8
3. Heat oil in a pan
4. Fry onions till transparent
5. Add ground paste and give it a toss
6. When the comes out clear on pan sides, add tomatoes and let it cook
7. After tomatoes are blended well, add salt and 1/4 cup water
8. When the gravy reaches required thick consistency, take it off from flame
9. Arrange the egg(cut into halves) in a serving bowl and pour the thick gravy over it

Note:

• The only thing i did differently from the original recipe is to use egg as whole without cutting it into half. I have made slits on the egg instead and added eggs to the gravy during step 8.

Easter Chicken Special

This recipe is adapted from Mrs K.M. Mathews' recipe book. It is a different chicken roast recipe from the usual roast recipes and tastes wonderful.
I didn't make this chicken roast for Easter. :) The name "Easter Chicken Special" is according to the name given by Mrs K.M .Mathews in her book. I didn't want to change the recipe name.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken, cut -1/2 kg
2. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
3. Onion, sliced - 1/2 cup
4. Onion, chopped - 1/4 cup
5. Oil - 3 tbs
6. Tomato, chopped - 1/2 cup
7. Curd - 1/4 cup
8. Sugar - a pinch
9. Coconut milk - 1/4 cup
10. Coconut shredded - 1/4 cup
11. Egg, hard boiled and cut into wedges - 1 optional for garnish
12. Cashew nuts fried - 6-8 optional for garnish
13. Masala Paste: 

• Red chilli powder - 1 tbs
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1/8 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 1/8 tsp
• Garlic chopped - 1/2 tbs
• Ginger chopped - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cloves - 6
• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
• Cardamom - 4

Method:

1. Make a paste of masala paste ingredients 
2. Marinate chicken with masala paste and keep for long (I kept it in fridge overnight)
3. Heat oil in a pan
4. Fry turmeric powder in the oil for 10 seconds
5. Fry both onion in it till they turn translucent. 
6. Remove half the onion from the pan and keep it aside
7. Add tomato to the pan and fry with the onion left in the pan
8. Once tomato is well cooked, add curd and chicken pieces and cook the chicken
9. When the masala start changing to dark colour add coconut milk along with the sautéed onion which was kept aside before 
10. Cook till the gravy thickens
11. Move the chicken masala to another bowl from the cooking pan
12. Pulse the shredded coconut in a blender to get coarse ground coconut powder
13. Roast the coconut in the same pan as that of pan in which chicken was cooked
14. When the coconut is golden brown, add chicken masala to the pan and roast it with coconut. 
15. One the chicken is uniformly coated with coconut and browned enough, then switch off the flame
16. Move chicken to a serving bowl and garnish with egg wedges and fried cashews 

Bread Puttu/Pittu

Bread puttu or pittu (some call it pittu, and others call it puttu) is an easy breakfast item which we used to enjoy during my stay at Trivandrum with my friends.

Ingredients:

1. Bread slices, white or brown - 5
2. Oil - 1 tbs
3. Onion chopped -  1 cup
4. Green chilli - 1
5. Ginger, minced - 1/2 tsp
6. Garlic, minced - 1/2 tsp
7. Egg - 2
8. Tomato chopped - 3/4 cup
9. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
10. Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
11. Chicken masala powder - 1 tsp
12. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Crumble the bread slices using your fingers. It need not be very fine or uniform.
2. Heat oil in a pan
3. Add onion, ginger, garlic and green chilli and fry till onion is translucent
4. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and chicken masala and mix well
5. Add chopped tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes are cooked well
6. Add salt to taste
7. Make a well in the pan centre by moving the onion mixture to the sides
8. Add eggs in the middle and stir the egg to make the egg scrambled
9. Once egg is half cooked, mix well with the onion mixture
10. Once the egg mixture is almost dry switch off the flame
11. In a puttu maker, make layers of bread crumbs and egg mixture, starting and ending with egg mixture.
12. Cook puttu in steam for 5 minutes

Steaming puttu is ready to be served

• Note:
• Above recipe yields 3 small puttu.(chiratta or bowl shaped small puttu)

Pancake

Ingredients:

1. Flour - 1 cup
2. Sugar -  2 tbs
3. Baking powder -  1 tsp
4. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
5. Lemon zest - 1/2 tsp
6. Vanilla extract - 1/2tsp
7. Egg - 1
8. Milk - 3/4 cup
9. Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp optional
10. Raisins - 2 tbs optional
11. Pecans, chopped - 2 tbs optional
12. Salt  - a pinch
13. Butter - 5 tsp

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Make a well at the centre and add egg and 1/2 cup of milk and mix well using a spoon
3. If batter is too thick, add rest of the milk
4. Heat a flat non stick pan
5. Spoon the batter to it ( batter should be thick enough to hold a small circle pancake shape)
6. Put a tsp of butter to the pan and flip the pancake when bottom side is done. It takes about 1 minute.
7. Take the pancake from the pan, when the other side of pancake is also cooked

Serve the pan cake warm with honey or maple syrup!

Note:

• The above recipe yields around 5 pancakes.

Spicy Carrot Cake

This carrot cake is so tasty and so much similar to the fruit and nut cake.

Ingredients:

1. Flour - 2 cups
2. Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp
3. Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp
4. Baking soda - 1 tsp
5. Salt - a pinch
6. Very finely shredded carrot - 2 cups
7. Brown sugar - 1 cup
8. Canola oil - 3/4 cup
9. Greek yogurt/ sour cream -1/4 cup
10. Egg - 3
11. Vanilla extract - 1 tbs
12. Raisins- 1/2 cup
13. Walnuts, chopped - 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F Degree
2. Prepare a 9 inch cake pan with oil spray and flour or parchment paper.
3. Mix all ingredients from 1 to 5 ingredients in a bowl and keep aside
4. Using a beater, mix brown sugar, oil and yogurt well
5. Add eggs one by one, mixing in between each addition
6. Add Vanilla extract and mix it
7. Mix flour mixture in the wet mixture using a spatula until just mixed.(don't over mix)
8. Fold in very finely shredded carrots, walnuts and raisins in the mixture
9. Spoon the cake batter to the prepared cake tin
10. Bake for 35-40 minute or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean (Don't over bake)
11. Cool the cake on a wire rack.

This cake can be served as it is or with the frosting of your choice. I have used store bought cream cheese frosting which goes very well with carrot cake.

Lemony Orzo Pasta Salad

Looking for a delicious healthy pasta which can be made in less than 30 minutes?? You don't need to search further. Here it is.

Ingredients:

1. Orzo pasta - 1 cup
2. Water - 4 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Oil - 1 tbs
5. Lemon juice - 2 tbs
6. Dijon mustard paste - 1 tsp
7. Olive oil - 2tbs
8. Green chilli, chopped - 1/2 tsp
9. Green onion sticks, chopped -  1 cup
10. Garlic, minced  - 1 tsp
11. Cherry tomatoes, halved - 10
12. Coriander leaves/ basil leaves , chopped - 2 tbs

Note:

• You may use basmati rice or other pasta instead of Orzo pasta if it is not available
• Please don't substitute normal tomatoes instead of sweet cherry tomatoes

Method:

1. Boil 4 cups of water with salt
2. Add pasta to boiling water and cook it till pasta is soft, around 10-15 minutes or according to the instruction on pasta pack
3. Place the pasta under cool running water and keep the pasta aside
4. Mix all other ingredients except herbs and tomatoes and mix well to make salad dressing.
5. Add tomatoes, pasta and herbs to the dressing and mix it and keep chilled

Serve it chilled or in room temperature.