Bake Fest is Back on The Pumpkin Farm

Hurray! Bake Fest returms to The Pumpkin Farm after almost half a year. Baking is my passion these days and I am so much into it that I constantly look out for recipes that fit the bill of my family's taste buds and my hectic schedule.
For the unaware lot, Bake Fest is the most successful baking foods events kick started by  Vardhini at her lovely space Cooks Joy. An avid baker herself, she has a treasure of baked recipes already and yet looking for more....


What better way than inviting all of you to come and tell us about what you have been baking around?

Patti Samosa / wonton wrappers

I never tried patti samosa at home with the ready bought patti's or wonton wrappers available in the frozen section. I remember my mother making them a while back. My reservations on using them was purely for the fear of getting hooked on to something that is so easy and delicious.

This sunday however I decided to give in and picked a batch of frozen patti's. Ideas floating in my mind ranged from wontons, tortilla chips , salads, baked mini spring rolls or baked samosas. Eventually I decided to use them for what they were meant to be....

The filling in patti samosa is obviously not the same as regular punjabi samosa. I made both the stuffings but this time I will give you the patti samosa filling recipe.

Pizza in microwave with ready-made sauce

Rarely I pick up ready to eat stuff and especially toppings or sauces..I simply love to make it myself at home. Yet I picked this ready to eat pizza sauce topping off the shelf to check whether I have got it right and also to know whether we have finally started getting better pizza/pasta sauces in India.

Kiwi Upside down cake smothered in Mango Sauce

It has been a while since I baked a cake that was simple and basic. I love experimenting with the fillings, flavors, toppings, icings. This time I felt like making an upside down cake using fresh fruit. I had two options tart kiwi and sweet mango. After a bit of thought processing I ended up using both fruits.


I used ready made cake batter which is rare for me since a while but I had to use up the packet DH picked recently from supermarket. I was pretty happy with the results.

CFK Cabbage Roundup

Cabbage can be used to make so many wonderful dishes is something I have only recently realized. If you are regular here you may notice that there are not many dishes that use cabbage. So when I got the opportunity to host this event I was really excited to see what would be in store.

Harini from Tamalapaku has provided us with this amazing pickle recipe that uses cabbage as the key ingredient. She also suffered with an overactive nose early on which was the reason she stopped making this delicacy for a while. Fortunately for us she started making this all over again and has happily shared her mother's recipe with us. 

The picture tells the story of this Cabbage Pickle

Nirmala from Nirmala's Kitchen has kept in mind weight watcher's goals while whipping up this super healthy, tasty and simple recipe for us. This is her 100th post and we are indeed lucky to see that post coming during this event.

Check this great salad recipe here...

Pranati from 4m Pranati's Kitchen is a self declared die hard foodie. She has created as many as 3 dishes for using cabbage.

Pranati's first dish is the delicious and easy recipe of Cabbage Dosa. This can be a great breakfast option and easy too.

 Pranati heard about a dish and quickly figured out the recipe for this next breakfast option - Bread uthapam. This uses cabbage very intelligently and she can vouch for the taste. Must try , dont you think so?

And finally Pranati has shared and interesting twist to your regular onion pakoda. A very clever add - grated cabbage. I can very well imagine the crunch this has added to the dish. Check the recipe for Onion Cabbage Pakoda 

Follow foodie has created this beautiful cabbage recipe. The picture is so appealing I can eat the rice out of the picture and still be happy. What a delight to watch....especially if you are a rice lover...

Check the recipe for Cabbage Rice here...

To end the series...we get this wonderful recipe of Korean Kimchee from Archana from the The Mad Scientists Kitchen. Her camera is dysfunctional at the moment which is unfortunate for us . Nevertheless the simplicity of her recipe of Kimchee will surely make you want to give it a shot.

 Kalyani , thanks for giving me this opportunity to host and find these wonderful recipes. I am handing over the baton until next time to Anusha

Bread Pakoda

Monsoon is about sinful indulgence and sincerely think the junk goodies prosper the most during this season.
When it is raining heavily - the typical mumbai style rain you should do this...quickly make some deep fried goodies, serve along with a spicy chutney and pack yourself in a bundle with the plate by the window. It is simply amazing.

Methi muthia/ Fenugreek sweet, bitter fritters

If you are hunting monsoon special recipes to snack during the evenings, the methi muthiya is worth offering a place in the series. Popularly only made at my home during winters to go in the undhiyu. Post marriage I learnt many varieties of muthia from MIL. Recently, grand-MIL showed me her version and I was floored by the taste, texture and recipe. This had to be shared with you all.


You can easily replace fenugreek with bottle gourd or cabbage. 

Sabudana Wada/ Tapioca pearls fritters

I have practically stopped deep frying foods ever since I have cracked some amazing recipes in the oven like the Onion Rings, Manchurian etc. But I have decided to relax the rule of avoiding deep fried foods a bit during the monsoons. Also, when would my son learn about these goodies. Enough of the reasons and straight to the recipe for the day – sabudana wada. There are quite a few eateries in Mumbai which specialize in these wadas – the most famous of all is Aswad , Dadar. Though I enjoy it there and many other places, I like it the most when my mother makes it. Her version is not the best to meet the standards of purists who would say, the sabudana has to be fluffy but not sticky, wada needs to be round and crispy from outside but when broken up the pearls should simply scatter apart. Hers is sticky and stretchy, all pearls are well bound by the mashed potato in it yet it taste's the most delicious. She makes a special chutney to go along with it which is curd based. I will post that recipe some other day.

For now try this version.

Bakharwadi - Maharashtrian spicy cocunut coriander pinwheel

Long before I tasted the now popular Chitale's bakharwadi( it is indeed ba-khar and not bha-kar) the only taste associated with this snack was spicy, crunchy garlicky flavored deep fried goodie.
My maternal side family is fairly large. My late maternal grandmother was a top notch cook. The techniques used by her back then were almost 100 years old traditional tricks.  One of her specialty was bakharwadi. She used to make up to 5 Kgs of it during diwali. While other aunts were busy with the rest of the goodies under her watchful gaze there were a couple of things that she never let others to make. I still remember her waking up much before dawn to prepare the stuffing, finishing the chores and then sitting in the corner of large kitchen with her rolling pin and making those diamond shaped pinwheels.
I tried to re-create it in my kitchen with my age material. Ofcourse I was not attempting to match the taste but wanted to keep alive the memories.

Ingredients
for stuffing
1 cup desiccated coconut(you can used dried grated coconut) * Many use regular sev as filling too
1 cup fresh coriander leaves (no stems) finely chopped
1 tspn powdered sugar
2 tspn red chilli powder
2 tbsp crushed garlic
1/2 tspn sesame seeds
1/2 tsp poppy seeds(optional)
1 tspn coriander cumin seeds powder
1 tspn garam masala
salt to taste
for dough
1 cup All Purpose Flour/ Maida
1/4 cup Chickpea flour/ besan
salt to taste
1 tbsp Oil
water as needed


Oil for deep frying
Method
1) Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing in a bowl and set aside
2) Make a stiff dough using the flours and oil. The dough should be like puri (even drier)
3) Set the dough aside for 15 min or so
4) Heat enough oil in a wok and let it become smoking hot.
5) Reduce the flame to low and let it stand
6) Use a medium size ball of the dough and roll out a thin bread (as thin as possible)
7) Spread the stuffing on it evenly
8) Start rolling ,ensuring that you pat it evenly in each roll to release any trapped air bubbles.
9) Seal the open ends carefully.
10) Cut small rolls and set aside.
11) Deep fry them on low-medium flame until they are crunchy. Do not remove them immediately, the color changes to dark red for the stuffing (due to the coconut and coriander)
12) Remove and let it drain.




Dig in and eat until you think you have had enough 

Sending this to-
Magic Mingle – APF and Coriander Leaves.
Gayathri’s Walking Through a Memory Lane,  hosted at my space here

Tapioca pearls papad/Sabudana papad - Sundried

This summer has been fruitful for my appetite to make new things. I made a couple of pickles, a few new preserves, slushes and then to top it all my sundried goodies. I do not recollect my mother making any papad on her own while growing up. She always had the stocks supplied from my granny and other aunts who ensured that their daughter living in the busy city was never deprived of the goodness.
Besides the granny and aunts, I also have some fond memories of my cousins who loved to spend their time making variety of papad during our summer vacation. Each year there was the same stock plus something new. Things are still the same with most of them who are now married off and probably enjoying their summers with their new families. When I thought of making one of the many papad at home, I also planned to call up all of them to catch up in general as I went about making them....
while I am at stage 1 with papad they have graduated to making varieties that not the choicest chefs in world would think of....soya sauce flavored rice papad, tomato basil papad, mixed flour papad...so much for your little brain to cultivate. You know now, where I have set my eyes for next summer...dont you?

Sundried Stuffed Green chillies/ Dahyatlya mirchya

The most handy stuff for me especially for a day I run out of steam to cook a meal. The simplest menu to save me has been a pot of steamed rice, tempered with deep fried stuffed green chilly and served with a bowl of curd. Until now I never really bothered to make the stuffed chillies. It was only when I thought of making a list of favorite sundried products that it occurred of trying to make stuffed green chillies at home. 
Mom took care of stuffing my brain with the details as I went about passing on the stuff in fresh green chillies.
I have a chronic issue with handling green chillies. It burns my hands for atleast a couple of days after I am done with it. I applied loads of oil this time and then handled the ingredients. I am sorry for not capturing step by step pictures. I managed to dry the chillies in about 4-5 days with about 4-5 hours daily.

Sun Dried Mixed Lentil chunks/ Sandage

This morning started unusually different....I decided to go for a rainy drive in the woods....hmm, i got the same reaction as yours from dear husband...where are the woods and what is there to watch out for in the concrete jungle. I insisted , so we took off quietly when the world was lazying around on a sunday morning. 
What an amazing experience it was.....we went to the nearest tip of the city that is yet to be a part of the greater administration. We stood by the hills and watched the rain trickle off the stony edges. Blissful! Life is all about stealing moments.
Coming back to this week's theme for BM, I opted for Sundried products and though I have a million things running across my head I deliberately picked items that are easily provided to me by my mother. I may not push myself out of my comfort zones ever again.


Sandage(saa-and-gay) are basically maharashtrian variety of the popular wadi, mongodi, vadagam. These are very tasty and are combined with staples like Brinjals, onions, dals or dried fish. They taste great when combined with some spicy maharashtrian masalas - kolhapuri kanda lasun etc. I will soon post a recipe of the veggie .

Biscuit Bhakri, no bake biscuit

This is a yummy tea time snack that my MIL makes often for us. This is so easy and delicious cannot have enough of it myself. This is basically part of the gujarathi cuisine. A word of caution though unlike the other bhakris which are healthy and fat free these are full of ghee.
But it is good for kids any day.

Sevaiyya Upma/ Vermicelli Upma

Vermicelli Kheer is more popularly made at our place as compared to the savory counterpart. Off late though I make upma often. Although this is known by different names across states this is what we call it here. Quick and easy and simply tasty It is better alternative to our regular noodles.

Brown bread garlic toast

Garlic bread is an all time favorite for most members in the family. The flavoring has to be perfect though not too garlicky yet it needs to have just garlic for taste. Let me not complicate things. 
Garlic is very good to treat cough and cold for little kids. If you are having a tough time getting them to eat garlic try this new age snack which has been popularized by the pizzerias.
I often use brown bread to make it healthier.

MEC May 2012 Roundup

Microwave based cooking is still evolving in India. While this is the state there are so many who are not shying to try out various dishes using the equipment.


Have a look at some of the dishes you would have not thought of otherwise using microwave.


Srivalli has made this delicious Brownie using Marie Biscuits ! Can you believe it? No one can tell what went in to make this beautiful brownie and that too in 5 minutes. To top it all this is eggless. What more reasons do you need to try it out...
Eggless Biscuit Brownie

Chhota Bheem in Dholakpur Cake

It was a long standing dream for me to create a cake that had creative elements on it. I am a huge fan of all the TV shows where they illustrate those wonderful cake creations done using sugar paste etc. I was sure about one thing though that whenever I made that kind of cake, I would try to use more cake, less fondant and whether the cake looks pretty or not it should taste fabulous.
Well, it did taste good and about how it turned out, have a look