Handuvo Or Vegetable Cake

Ingredients

• For batter
• Raw Rice - 2 cups
• Channa dhal - 1 cup
• Yogurt - 1 1/4 cups
• Vegetables
• Shredded Ash Guard or Bottle Guard - 2 cups
• Chopped methi Leaves - 1 cup
• Onion And Shredded Carrot (Optional) - 1/2 cup each
• Chopped coriander leaves (Optional) - 1 cup
• Green Chili Paste - 3 tspn
• Ginger Paste - 2 tspn
• Eno(fruit salt) or Baking Soda - 1 tspn
• For Seasoning
• Oil - 4 tbspn
• White Sesame Seeds - 2 tbspn
• Dry Red chillies - 4
• Hing - 1/2 tspn

health tip

This is a balanced food with protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals.

Handuvo Or Vegetable Cake

method

Handuvo is a Gujarati dish made with shredded vegetables, rice and channa dal. This can be compared with adai from Tamil Nadu. Just like adai, you can also use a combination of toor dal and channa dal in this recipe. The handuvo batter can be made into a uttappam or baked as a cake. In India, Handuvo is prepared on a coal stove with coals placed on top and bottom of the vessel for even crust formation on both ends. If using oven, you may use the broil setting at the end of cooking to achieve the same effect.

1. Wash and soak the rice and dal for four hours.
2. Grind it into a coarse paste with little water.
3. Mix the yogurt and salt to the ground paste. Let it ferment overnight. It won't rise to the top as idli batter. Just letting it sit in a warm place is enough.
4. Next day add all the ingredients listed as vegetables including baking soda or eno.
5. In another pan season the oil with the listed seasonings.
   
   Be wary of adding water while grinding. The batter should not be thin. Adding shredded veggies will make the batter even more thinner. The final product should be at the consistency of cake batter. If lot of water stands at the top after adding veggies, remove some of it with a spoon.
   
6. Mix a tablespoon of the seasoned oil to the prepared batter.
   Handuvo flour can be prepared for future use by grinding dry rice and dal and store it in powder form.
   
7. Grease a baking pan with oil and fill up 3/4 of the pan with the mix. Spread the remaining seasoned oil evenly on the top(Optional- You can sprinkle some more sesame seeds at this time to give the cake a textured look). Bake it at 375 degrees for 40 minutes and turn the oven to broil for 5 minutes. Depending on the oven and altitude baking time may vary. Check it from time to time by inserting a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, the Handuvo is done. Then you just need to let the crust form by turning the oven to broil.
   

Banana Walnut Cake

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour - 1 cup
• Walnuts, chopped - 1/2 cup
• Banana, skin peeled, and ripe fruit mashed smoothly - 1
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Vegetable oil - 4 tablespoon
• Baking powder and orange extract - 1 tspn each
• Milk if needed-1/4 cup

health tip

Banana is packed with lot of minerals especially potassium which lowers blood pressure. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 which is good for heart.

banana walnut cake

method

This cake was due for a very long time. Every time I try to make this cake I will run out of one or more ingredients. Most of the time the missing ingredient would be banana without which I would not do any justice to this recipe. After a very long time, I got hold of all the necessary ingredients & successfully baked this low fat delicious banana cake.

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure the baking powder is well blended with other ingredients. In another bowl add the vegetable oil, orange extract & peeled banana & mash the banana finely using potato masher or by hand.
2. Mix the wet ingredients along with the dry ones. If the dough looks stiff add 1/4 cup of milk.
3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan.
4. Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees & bake the cake mixture for about 30 - 45 minutes. Check if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick on it to see if it comes out clean. If the toothpick comes out clean the cake is done. If not, you will have to bake for few more minutes. Once the cake is done, take it out of the oven & let it cool in a cooling rack.
   

   This cake can also be made into muffins. You will need to fill 3/4th of the muffin cups & bake them. It is a wholesome breakfast filled with fruits & nuts.

   
   

Pav for Pav Bhaji

Ingredients
All purpose flour or Maida - 7 cups
Dry yeast - 7 grams or 1 package
Warm water - 3 1/2 cups
Sugar - 2 tspn
Salt - 1 3/4 tspn
Butter - 7 tspn
Milk - 3 tspn

Instructions:
Dissolve the dry yeast in warm water along with sugar & leave it in a warm place for 10 minutes. The water should be lukewarm & not too hot. Hot water will kill the yeast. Sugar is needed to make the yeast active. After 10 minutes the yeast mixture will look frothy.

Now add the salt & flour. Mix them together & knead them well for 10 minutes. Kneading helps the gluten to form. Gluten is a protein which gives the dough its elasticity & it helps to hold the air while baking. The dough may be sticky, but don't bother about it. The extra moisture helps to get softer bread.  Finally mix the melted butter & finish the kneading.

Transfer the dough to a bowl & cover it with a lid. Let it sit for an hour or till the dough doubles in size. After the dough doubles in size take it out & punch it down to release the air. Spread some butter in a cookie sheet & dust it with some flour. Make the dough into equal sized balls. The dough may be too sticky to make a ball. Take a glob of dough & roll it over some dry flour as you do for chappathi. Do not knead it with the flour. Arrange the balls in the cookie sheet such as the sides of the balls touches each other.

Cover it with a wet towel or plastic sheet & leave for another hour. After an hour the balls will be doubled in size. Now brush some milk over the balls. Preheat the oven to 375 degree & bake the bread for about 20 to 30 minutes. After 20 minutes take it out from oven & insert a tooth pick into it. If  the dough sticks to the toothpick, put it back in the oven for some more time. If the toothpick comes out clean then the bread is ready to take out of the oven.

Enjoy the bread with subji or the vegetables. Bhaji recipe is available here.

Sugar cookie

Ingredients
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Baking powder -1/4 tspn
Crisco shortening - 1 stick or cup
Salt - a pinch
Desired essence - little bit

Method
Mix together all the ingredients except the shortening. Microwave the shortening to warmth and make a dough with the mixed ingredients by adding the shortening little by little. The dough should hold everything together. It doesn't have to be soggy. Discard the excess shortening. Roll the dough to 1 inch thickness and make shapes with cookie cutter. Arrange the cookies 1 inch apart in a cookie sheet. Preheat the oven at 325 degrees and bake for 6-7 minutes.  Insert a toothpick and see if it comes out clean. If the dough  doesn't stick to the toothpick,  its the right time to take the cookies from the oven.Cookies might be soft when taken out of the oven. When it cools off it will get hard. Store it in an airtight container.