Banana chocolate coffee cake with Butter Icing - Akshara’s second month completion cake

         

    This is Akshara’s second month completion cake. For this month I chose to bake a cake starting with letter ‘B’. So I decided on making a cake with banana with the flavors from chocolate and coffee with butter icing. Happy second month completion Akshara J JJJ JJJ JJJ J JJJ 
   It must be posted on August 25th.

 I followed the recipe of Starbuck’s Banana chocolate cake.

   As this cake is eggless adding mashed banana gives soft and fluffiness to the cake. I used the banana from our farm.

 Check the first month cake – Apple Pistachios cake with brown sugar Icing.

Ingredients:

Banana – 3 no’s

All purpose flour – 3 cup

Corn flour – 3 tbs

Baking powder – 1 tbs

Lemon juice – 3- 5 drops

Sugar – 2 cup

Melted butter – 5 tbs

Chocolate chip – 1 cup

Cocoa powder – 1 tbs

Instant Coffee powder – 1 tbs

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Fresh Curd – ¾ cup

For Icing :

 Butter – 4 – 5 tbs

Icing sugar – 1 cup

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Sliced kiwi – 3

Chocolate chips

Method :

  Mash the banana well.

Shift the flour, coffee powder, cocoa powder and baking powder together, twice.

To the mashed banana add the sugar, curd and mix well.

Add in the vanilla essence, chocolate chips and melted butter, mix well.

Now add flour little by little and mix in same direction.

Add the lemon drops and mix once.

Grease the mould and pour the batter.

 I used star shaped mould.

Bake in the preheated oven @ 200* C for 30 minutes or till the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool down.

 In the mean time, mix the icing sugar with the butter and mix well.

Add in the essence and mix well.

Keep in refrigerator to condense.

When the cake is cool down, keep the cake in half an hour in the refrigerator before icing.

I applied the icing on the top , placed the sliced kiwi on the center along with chocolate chips.

 I refrigerated again and take out 15 minutes before cake cutting. My mom cuts the cake for Akshara.

 The cake was so delicious and fluffy with the chocolate and coffee flavor.


 @ easy and simple foods 

Indianised Curried Panner Pasta - Indian Twist to Italian pasta

      A twist to the Italian pasta with the Indian cottage cheese and flavorful masala. Panner - Indian cottage cheese  with pasta to suit the Indian taste buds .
             These days I became so lazy in editing pics and writing a post. This recipe was made in July itself . I can cook so many recipes at a go , but writing up a post seems a huge task to me............

      As we Indians like spicy foods rather than bland dishes, I want to try my hands on this Italian favorite dish to make it to a Indian.

    I added panner to make it richer and tastier dish. Panner is the milk based product which is rich in calcium.

 This recipe will be a sure hit to kids. Even elders will like to have this flavorful and delicious curried panner pasta.

                       

Requirements :

Uncooked Pasta - 200g

Panner / Indian Cottage Cheese – 150 g

Capsicum – ¼ cup

Carrot  - ¼ cup

Butter / olive oil – 1 tsp

Onion - 1

To marinate :

Curd / Yogurt – ¼ cup

Chillipowder – ½ tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Salt to taste

Method :

Cut the panner into cubes of desired size.

Mix all the ingredients under to marinate in a bowl, add  the panner cubes and let it be for 15 minutes.

In the mean time…

Bring the water to boil. Add in the salt and oil.

When the water boils well, add the pasta and stir once. Cook for 5-6 minutes.

Strain under running cold water.

Cooked Pasta is ready to use.

Chop the onion ,capsicum and carrot into juvenile.

Melt the butter in a pan , add in the onion and sauté till it turns translucent.

Add the chopped carrot , capsicum and sauté for two minutes.

Add the marinated paneer along with the marinade and cook in slow flame for 2 minutes.

Add salt to taste if needed.

Now , add in the cooked pasta and toss for few minutes.

Indianised curried panner pasta is ready to serve.

Note :
  Tofu can be used instead of indian cottage cheese.

Akshaya patra - Feed every child

         

                                               

     The basic life needs for every human being were Food , clothing and shelter. Even without clothing and shelter humans can manage to survive , but without food , it is not possible , at least has to drink water to survive.

  

Today's children are Tomorrow's  citizens. 

          To produce citizens with great potential educating every child is a must; hunger distracts the child from concentrating on studies. As the school going age is the child’s growth period, every child must take essential nutrients and food with carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Without proper nutritious food, the child will become malnourished and die.

                                                   

          Many families were not able to afford for a meal to their children , so they send their children to work causing – child labour. Many hunger deaths has been reported in India and many African countries.

Every religion emphasis on donating food to the needed people. 

Annadanam Samam Danam Trilokeshu Na Vidhathe

    These are the verses from the Vedas, meaning Annadanam is supreme and incomparable to any charity.

     Annam – food / Rice , Dhanam – offering / giving

   Food is the basic requirement for all humans. Thus according to Vedas, the one who does annadanam to devotees, attains heaven (Punya Loka) in this Universe (Brahmanda) itself. In this whole universe, the creation and its progression depends on food. Hence giving food to the devotees is more than attaining heaven.

          Offering food to needed people will satisfy the hunger of the needy as well as the one who offers adds a good deed to his karma.

          If food was provided free of cost along with education , parents will send their children to schools . Then came the Mid day meal program.

          Out of all the states in India , Tamil nadu was the first state to emphasis the mid day meal program.

        

      The roots of the programme can be traced back to the Pre-Independence era, when a Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced in 1925 in Madras Corporation by the British administration. A Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced in the Union Territory of Puducherry by the French administration in 1930.

    Initiatives by State government to children, with their launch of a Mid Day Meal Programme in primary schools in the 1962–63 school year. Thiru K. Kamaraj, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, introduced it first in Chennai and later extended it to all districts of Tamil Nadu.

          Till date every government and government aided schools are providing meals in the afternoon to the children

          We must emphasis to our children from childhood to donate a share of their meal to their classmates who were not able to afford for food. Parents can also send a extra lunchbox with their children.

          In our family , we used to donate food to a children's  orphanage  on every occasions like birthday and marriage anniversaries. I donated my first month salary to a orphange for the children food as well as for buying notebooks and pens.

      Feeding every child for stomach ( food ) and to Ear ( Literacy / education ) will enlighten their life as well as the country's development.

  This post is for Blogadda - Feed every Child - Akshaya Patra . 

·         I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

Apple Pistachio Cake with Brown sugar Icing – Akshara’s First Month completion

           My sister and Co- author of this blog anuvarshini delivered a cute angel on June 25^{th, 2014}. We named her as Akshara. This post has to be posted on July 25 th , i was posting late because of my studies......... 



     Today was her naming cermony and first food feeding ( Giving Rice ) in Guruvayur.   So this will a perfect day to post the cake for her .

    
    This was the cake which I made for her first month completion. Even though little angel didn't taste the cake. We want to keep it as a memory as she will see this post in future…………..

  
    I selected this cake as the first letter of it ‘A’ and her name are same.

 I choose to use pistachio in this cake to give it a vibrant rich look. The icing was a simple butter icing with brown sugar , which gives light brown color to the icing along with the chopped pistachios it looked nice…………

Ingredients:

 All purpose flour – 2 cups

Corn flour – 2 tbs

Apple – 3

Pistachios – ½ cup

Butter – ¼ cup

Milk – ¼ cup
Vegetable Oil - 4 tbs

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Sugar ( powdered ) – 1 ½ cup

Lemon juice – 2 – 3 drops

Butterscotch Essence – 1 tsp

For Icing :

Butter – ½ cup

Brown Sugar / Nattu Sakkarai – 1 cup

Butterscotch Essence – ¼ tsp (optional)

Chopped pistachios

Method:

 Sift the flour along with the baking powder for thrice.

Grate the apples; I grated without removing the skin.

Mix the butter and sugar together until it was fluffy.

Add in the milk and mix well.
Then add the vegetable oil and mix well.

To this add the grated apple, chopped pistachios and mix once.

Add the flour in three parts and mix in the same direction.

Now , add the lemon juice and essence , mix once.

Grease the baking tray and pour the batter in till half the mould. I used round mould.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 30 – 40 minutes @ 200* C .

Insert a toothpick , inside the cake , if it comes out clean , the cake is baked well.

Let it cool and refrigerate before icing.

For icing mix , the butter and brown sugar together.

 I didn’t add any essence as the flavor from brown sugar was so aromatic.

 Keep the icing in the fridge for 10 minutes.

 Apply the icing on top of the cake; give a impression of uneven surface.

Sprinkle the chopped pistachios on the top.

Apple pistachios cake with brown sugar icing is ready.
My mom  cut the cake for Akshara...........

Kudal Thengaipaal kulambu

                       
  Moharam wishes to all the Readers.......
   This is another type of kulambu with the goat’s intestine. This kulambu goes well with plain rice, It can also be serves with idli and dosa.

This kulambu was different from what i had already shared. In this tomato is added which gives a tangy flavor to the kulambu.

 This Kulambu is made by adding coconut milk which gives a unique taste to it.

I don’t know what to write more about this kulambu , you will find when you taste this. Enough of all these blah blah , Lets move on to the recipe…………

Requirements :

Goats Intestine and stomach – 1 large cup / 300 g

Onion – 1 large

Tomato – 3

Curry leaves – a sprig 
Homemade Curry powder /

Mutton masala             – 1 ½  tbs

Salt to taste

Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbs

Oil – 1 tbs

Thick coconut milk – ½ cup

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

Method :

Wash the  chopped pieces of intestine and stomach in the water.

Add about two cups of water along with , half a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste , turmeric powder and half a spoon of salt . Cook for 15 – 20 minutes.

Heat oil in another pan , add the mustard seeds and let it splutter.

Now , add the chopped onion and sauté well.

When the onion becomes translucent, add in the chopped tomato and sauté well.

After 5 minutes , add the cooked intestine and mix well.

Add in the curry powder and required salt. Let it boil for few minutes.

Now , add the coconut milk and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Take off from flame and serve.
 

Serve hot with plain rice.

Kudal Thengaipaal kulambu is ready to serve.