Red Pumpkin Pal kootu..

Ingredients:

Red pumpkin - 500 gm

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Red chillies - 1

Curry leaves

Milk- 50 ml

Jeera - 2 ts

Bengal gram dhal - 25gm

Broken Moong dhal - 25 gm

turmeric powder - 1ts

Mustard seeds - 2ts

urad dhal - 2ts

Oil - 2ts

Salt

Method :

Peel the skin of the pumpkin and chopped it into thin pieces.Pressure cook the pumpkin with moong dhal and bengal gram dhal , turmeric powder by adding little water to it. Grind the coconut, jeera, red chillies and 1ts of raw rice. (Rice is to thicken the gravy).

Mix the mixture with the cooked pumpkin.Add salt and 1 ts sugar.Cook it for a minute.Now add milk and keep it in the flame for some seconds.Season the mustard seeds and urad dhal in the oil.Pour it on the kootu.Add curry leaves.Serve with rice/ chappathi.

Thattai..

Ingredients: Rice flour - 2 cups urad dal - 2ts Grated coconut - 1ts Chilli powder - 1 1/2 ts Butter - 3ts curry leaves Asafoetida salt Oil to fry Method: Wash and clean the rice well. Let it out to dry and once it has dried completely, powder it nicely. Fry the urad dal orange and powder it and keep it aside. Let the gram soak in water for one hour. Take the rice flour, urad dal flour, soaked gram, grated coconut, asafetida powder, salt, butter and mix well. Heat oil in a vessel. Test how hot it is by dropping a pinch of dough into it - if it sinks, the oil hasn't become hot enough. If the dough springs to the top with bubbles all around it, then the oil is just ready. Take a small sized ball of the dough and flatten it and make it into a circular shape. Drop it gently into the hot oil and fry golden brown. Keep flipping the sides till the thattai is done .

Then kuzhal...

Ingredients: Rice flour - 2 cups urud flour - 1 ts (fry urud dal in a pan and grind) Butter - 2 ts Jeera - 1ts Asafoetida - 2 pinches Salt Oil Method: Mix all ingredients together with little water until it mixed well. Heat oil , Squeeze the dough through a murukku mould (utensil with a hole) into the oil. Deep-fry the Murukku, till crisp and golden brown. Drain the oil and spread the murukku on a tissue paper and remove the excess oil in it. When it cools, this light and crispy snack can be stored in an airtight container.

Jelly N Apple Custard...

Wish U a Happy & Prosperous New year Ingredients: Jelly crystals - 200 gms Custard powder - 100 gms Sugar - 300 gm Milk -500ml Apple pieces - 1 cup Method for custard: Take a small cup of milk , mix 3tsp of custard powder with that. Boil remaining milk and add the custard , add sugar and stir continuously ,until the mixture is thickened.Refrigerate. For jelly : Boil 500ml of water. Add the jelly crystals and stir it until it get dislove in it. Set the jelly in the ice cream mould.Setting can be taken place both at room temprature or in the frige Mix jelly and the custard mixture with the apple pieces according to your taste. Serve with a cake.

Cashewnut Burfi..

Ingredients: 2 cups cashewnuts (soaked in water for 2 hours) 1 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup whole milk 1 tbsp. ghee 1/2 tsp. cardamom powder Method: Drain the cashewnuts and blend them to a fine paste. Use as little milk as possible when blending just enough to be able to grind. In a heavy saucepan add the blended cashewnuts and sugar and cook on slow fire, stirring continuously till a soft lump is formed. Add ghee and cardamom powder and mix well as a soft dough.Take a flat tray, lay the butter paper and grease it, pour the dough ,make a thin (an inch)layer out of it and cut it into diamond shape.

Eggless sponge cake..!

Ingredients: 1/2 tin condensed milk (200gms) 2 3/4 cups maida (280gms) 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda (soda bicarb) 2 tsp icing sugar 1/2 cup butter melted (60gms) 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 100 ml milk 100 ml soda water Method: Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, all together 2 to 3 times. Keep aside. Pour condensed milk in a bowl. Add the butter, and beat well till smooth. Add the flour spoon by spoon, mixing into the condensed milk mixture. In between, add milk as required if the butter begins to get too stiff. [Stir the mixture in one direction only all the while. This will incorporate more air and make the cake lighter]. Once all the flour is used up, beat the batter as above till light (5-7 minutes). Add the soda and mix gently till smooth. Pour into a greased cake tin. Do not smooth with a spoon etc. If the consistency is right this will not be needed. Pre-heat over to 300o c. Place tin inside. Bake at 200o c for 5-7 minutes and 150o c till done. (35 to 40 minutes). Poke with a skewer and check. Cool a little. Invert on wire rack. Cool completely before doing icing.Mix( butter(2)+Sugar(2)+Chocolate powder(1)) well.Pour this mixture into the icing nozzle and design the cake according to your taste.You can use variety of colours too.

Pizza

Ingredients : Makes 2 pizzas (Serves 4)Pizza Base 200g strong white flour (plain flour will do, if you don't have bread flour) 100g semolina (strong flour / plain flour will do, if you don't have semolina) 1 heaped teaspoon of salt 300ml warm water7g (1 sachet) dried yeast 1 teaspoon sugarPizza Topping Ingredients : 1 tin tomatoes (or you could use fresh tomato sauce) 1 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed handful of fresh basil leaves, torn into shreds2 red onions, peeled, chopped in half & sliced 200g cheese, cut into slices (e.g. mozarella, Cheddar, blue cheese) Method: Pizza Base : Mix the yeast and sugar with some of the water in a cup. Set to one side and leave for 5 minutes until the mixture starts to froth. (This activates the yeast and checks it's still working). Put the flour, semolina and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the frothy yeast mixture and most of the water. Mix until it forms a rough dough, adding a little more water, if needed. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for 1/2 hour. Warm the oven to 230 deg C and put the pizza stone / baking tray in to pre-heat. Topping: Heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry the garlic gently until it starts to brown. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 15 minutes. Add the basil, then liquidise. When you're almost ready to make the pizza, divide the dough into 2.Roll the dough out thinly, to the size of a pizza stone or large baking tray for each pizza. Place the rolled out dough onto the pre-heated pizza stone or baking tray. Divide the tomato sauce between the two pizzas and cover most of the base with the sauce. Sprinkle the onions, cheese, olives and pine nuts over the pizzas. If using, crack the egg over the middle of the pizza. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until the cheese has browned. Note: Insted of cheddar cheese, people who are in diet can use cottage cheese.Vegetables like bell pepper, carrot, beans can be used for toppings. Fry these vegetables in a pan with some little olive oil and add little ajinomoto, so that the vegetables can get cooked within short time. Now,you can add soya sauce(2tsp),vinegar (2tsp) and tomato sauce (3 tsp).You can even use the pizza base which is also available in the shop. Spread the vegetable mixture on the pizza base and put in the pre heated oven (160C) for 5 minutes.you can also use tava in the cooking range to prepare the pizza.