Kongunadu recipes – Rendez Vous with a Foodie

  

    Kongunadu recipes for Rendez Vous with a foodie . It was the guest post series started by Priya akka of Priya’s Versatile Recipes.

                     

Being from the kongu region , I want to post kongu recipes for this guest post. Hope some of you know about the cuisine. Here is a short introduction…….

  Kongunadu cuisine is the cuisine of the kongu region of the Tamil nadu. Kongu region covers salem , nammakal , erode , Coimbatore , Tiruppur , pollachi and 30 more places of tamilnadu. In olden days , most of the people in the region are farmers doing agriculture as our region is well fertile and well irrigated.

 Nowadays along with farming , other like textile mills , automobile industries , educational institutions and so on…..

 Cuisine of the region usually made with the farming products get from their own land like mostly uses coconut, country vegetables like Ridge gourd, brinjal, bottlegourd, snake gourd, legumes and pulses, poultry, lamb and so on.

 I had posted few of the recipes in my blog. Check here….

  The recipes which I had posted are

    Kachayam

   Pachaipayaru sadham

    Ragi Pakoda

Kachayam – a crunchy sweet snack made with the batter of maida , sugar , banana and cardamom powder , deep fried in oil. This was a signature recipe of kongu cuisine.

Pachaipayaru sadham – a rice preparation made with rice , whole moong dhal / green gram dhal and some spices. It will be a excellent one pot meal , specific to our region.

Ragi pakoda – crispy pakoda made with the batter made of finger millet flour , onion , green chillies , curry leaves and drumstick leaves. Adding drumstick leaves to the pakodas are unique to our region.

Check her space for the full recipes………

Eggless Lemon Chiffon cake – Baking Partner

  For this month’s baking partner , we have choice to choose from the two given cakes . I choose the lemon chiffon cake which was suggested by saraswathi of sara’s kitchen.

  Happy to announce that this month was the anniversary to the baking partner group.

 Chiffon cakes are foam cakes , airy and pillowy texture and combine richness of a butter cake with lightness of a sponge cake , that are leavened primarily with beaten egg whites , just like angel food cake.

Infact they are similar in appearance to angel food cakes and are usually baked in the same type of tube pan. Chiffon cakes , contain both egg yolk and vegetable oil . These two ingredients keep the cake moist , soft and tender and result in a cake that tastes great and keeps well.

 I made this cake as eggless , it was moist and airy too.

 Even refrigerated , the oil in the cake remains soft and makes it much more tender and contains less amount of sugar than angel food cake. Because of the lower fat level than butter cake and less cholestrol and saturated fat , everyone like to have this guilt free cake without any hesitation.

 The chiffon cake was created by Harry Baker , a Los Angeles insurance agent in , 1927. Baker carefully guarded his secret technique for almost two decades, only selling his cake to celebrities and the famous Brown Derby restaurant. The popularity of his cakes grew quickly , and he eventually sold the recipe to General mills in 1947.

Now , Mr . Baker had two big secrets with his chiffon cake recipe. The first is that chiffon cakes use oil instead of butter , which aides in the airy quality of the cake. It is also nice because the cake can be refrigerated without firming up. The second secret of the chiffon cake is to whip the egg whites separately from the yolk and to fold them ever so gently into the batter .Actually , my sister made this cake on my birthday.......... Thank you sis for this delicious cake.......... .

Adapted from The Cake Bible by Rose levy Beranbaum

Requirements :

Maida – 2 ¼ cup

Corn flour – 2 tbs

Sugar – 1 ½ cup + 2 tbs

Baking soda – ½ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Lemon Zest – 1 – 2 tbs

Canola oil – ½ cup

Water @ room temperature – 2/3 cup

Lemon juice – 2 tbs

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Method :

In a bowl , mix the sugar and lemon zest together , until the sugar is grainy and aromatic.

Add in the maida , corn flour , baking soda , salt and mix well.

Make a well in the center and add the canola oil , water , lemon juice and vanilla essence.

Fold in together to form a smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake in the preheated oven @ 220 * C for 20 minutes or till the inserted tooth pick comes out clean.

 Once it is cool , turn upside down and sprinkle icing sugar on top.

Eggless lemon chiffon cake is ready to serve.

Sending to  @ just not cakes

Jam Swirled Muffins

  For this month’s Baking eggless , we has to make this Jam swirled muffins. This was the recipe suggested by priya suresh of Priya’s Versatile Recipes. These jam swirled muffins are absolutely delicious.

 Muffins are a semi sweet cake or quick bread  that is baked in portions appropriate for one person. They are similar to cupcakes  , although they are usually less sweet and lack icing. Savoury version of muffins is also there like corn bread muffins and cheese muffins. There are many varities of muffins which are named according to the fruit , vegetable or nut used.

    

 I n this muffin , fruit jam is used and swirled little to get a pattern. I had used store bought mixed fruit jam in this muffin. The original recipe was made with egg , here I used yogurt instead of egg.

Recipe source : Technicolor Kitchen
Adapted from Dorie's lemon poppy seeds muffins 

Requirements :

Plain flour – 2 cup

Butter – ½ cup

Sugar – 2/3 cup

Baking powder – 2 tsp

Baking soda – ¼ tsp

Yogurt – ¾ cup

Salt – ¼ tsp

Vanilla extract – 2 tsp

Mixed fruit jam – 2/3 cup

Method :

Sift the flour , baking powder , baking soda and salt , thrice together.

In a bowl , whisk together the butter , sugar and yogurt well.

Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

Now , add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently fold in. Otherwise end up in a tough muffin when overmixed.

Add the jam and mix gently to retain the marble effect.

Grease the muffin mould and fill the batter till half of the mould.

Bake in the preheated oven in convection mode at 220 * C for 20 minutes or till the skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let it cool and serve immediately.

Delicious Jam swirled muffins are ready to serve.