Eggless Orange, Chocolate Chips Cinnamon Rolls

Have you ever tried orange cinnamon rolls, if not then this cinnamon rolls will definitely tempt you to bake some. Also needless to say that this cinnamon rolls are highly flavourful,dangerously addictive and eggless. Obviously if you are an ardent fan of cinnamon rolls, am sure you wont keep urself away from these absolutely spongy and delicious cinnamon rolls. Actually i baked these cuties for this month's  Shhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge started by me few months back.Since i messed up with the members, i decided myself to go with two of the members, i have already posted this Lassi with the secret ingredients given by Sanoli of Sanoli's Kitchen. While today's post was with the secret ingredients given by Anu Kollon of Ente Thattukada. Anu gave me orange and cinnamon as my secret ingredients. Initially i want to make some dessert with this two ingredients, however cinnamon pulled me to make some cinnamon rolls.

Elephant Yam Tikkis/Vegan Mutton Patties/ Karunai Kizhangu Cutlet

Elephant yam, is one among the favourite tuber we love at home after the famous potato and sweet potato, obviously whenever we go to Indian store, i'll never forget to grab this yam. Thank god we get super fresh elephant yam nowadays and not  the frozen one. Obviously we have various choice to make delicious dishes out of this tuber. I'll always make chips,mashed spiced yam, else pan fried yam roast, but this time for a change i tried making tikkis with elephant yam which i crossed in a one of my tamil magazine supplement few days back. This tikkis are very easy to make, you doesnt need bread crumbs. A simple spiced and mashed mixture of elephant yam with fried gram powder makes this excellent vegan friendly tikkis.

Barnyard Millet & Sprouted Greengram Pongal/Kuthiraivaali Ven Pongal

Cooking with millets became one of my favourite culinary experiments which i never ever want to give up for any sake.Actually am trying to add various millets which i carried all the way from India whenever i feel like feeding millets instead of rice to everyone at home. I have  tried various dishes with different millets and my small family started loving these healthy dishes. One of my recent trial with Barnyard millet aka Kuthiraivaali or Kuthiravalli is this super healthy,protein packed pongal. Pongal is a south Indian breakfast dish which is prepared simply by cooking both rice and yellow moongdal together, this dish sounds almost like North Indian kichadi eventhough the tempering part of this South Indian pongal goes for nuts and different spices than the usual tempering spices. Usually Pongal can be eaten for breakfast or for dinner, however i'll like to pack them even for lunch whenever i feel lazy to cook.

Purple Cabbage Kootu

Kootu, this vegetable and dal baed gravy makes an excellent side dish if they are  served along with rice. Whenever i cross a new version of kootu, i wont hesitate a second to give a try. During my India trip, i couldnt resist to collect few supplements we get with some weekly tamil magazines. While going through those supplements, i crossed the 30 varieties of kootu, immediately went through the book and got hooked to this purple cabbage kootu, this dish is quite easy to make. A spice mixture is prepared simply to flavor this kootu and this spice powder makes the difference from other kootus we make usually with the famous coconut,cumin and green chillies combination.An excellent dish to enjoy thoroughly with hot piping rice and pan roasted potatoes.

Apple, Chocolate and Lemon Lassi

Lassi,this popular Indian drink is simply prepared with curd, milk with sugar or salt depending upon one's tastebuds. However you can find lassi now with many flavors and the most favourite lassi for most of the Indians is the mango flavored lassi. Yea even i can drink a gallon of mango lassi and i'll never fail to make them whenever mangoes shows their heads in our Indian groceries here.Lassi,this refreshing thirsty quencher can be prepared in a jiffy. I make varieties of lassi, shakes or smoothies whenever the sun god shows his head here, actually having lassi, shakes or smoothies became a part of our daily routine if its too hot here. Its better to stick with healthy drinks than the sugar loaded store bought juices. Not to forget that lassi can be prepared easily at home with simple ingredients, obviously you can even prepare sugarless lassi just with agave syrup,maple syrup or simply with honey.

Balushahi / North Indian Doughnuts/Tikari

Balushahi ressembles as much as like our South Indian popular Badushah aka sugar glazed maida flour doughnuts. Actually Balushahi is a traditional dessert/sweet in North Indian cuisine, Pakistani cuisine, Nepali and Bangladeshi cuisine. Balushahis are simply prepared with maida, clarified butter aka ghee with baking powder, baking soda. When deep fried and dipped in sugar syrup, these balushahis makes an excellent dessert or sweet to share or eaten with other savories or sweets.However i found that there were some differences between the Badushah and this balushahi, yes the dough for Balushahi goes for curd, baking soda,baking powder and ghee with maida while badushah is prepared mostly with dalda or ghee,maida with baking soda. However the shape and method is quite similar apart from the kneading part. Badushah goes for a smooth kneaded dough while balushahi's dough doesnt go for kneading. Baking powder and baking soda helps a lot to give a flaky texture to this Balushahis.

This Balushahis goes for  this month's Indian Cooking Challenge,a monthly event where we cook dishes from various regions of India.For this month's challenge, Srivalli suggested us this popular dangerously addictive Balushahis.I followed Manjula's recipe and prepared these gorgeous Indian doughnuts and enjoyed thoroughly,none cant just stop with one inspite of maida,ghee and sugar.

1cup All purpose flour/Maida
1/4tsp Baking powder
1/8tsp Baking soda
1/4cup Cold calrified ghee/Butter
1/4cup Yogurt (cold)
1cup Sugar
1/3cup Water
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
1tbsp Chopped pistachios
Oil for deepfrying

In a bowl, take the flour,baking soda,baking powder together, add the cold clarified ghee and mix until the mixture turns crumbly.

Slowly add the cold yogurt and mix everything to form a dough, dont knead the dough.

Cover the bowl and keep aside for half an hour.

Meanwhile take the sugar, water in a pan and heat in medium flame, bring it to boil.

Add in the cardamom powder, let it simmer until the syrup turns one thread constitency.

Take the dough knead for few minutes, and divide the dough into 10 equal balls.

Roll the balls and make a deep dent in the center of the balls.

Heat oil for deep frying in medium heat, once the oil is hot enough, drop balushahis one by one, dont overcrowd.

Cook on both sides until they turns golden brown (dont turn the balushahis more than three times).

Remove the fried balushahis and drain the oil with a paper towel.

Now drop the balushahi into the already sugar syrup, let them sit for few seconds, remove them and let it cool completely.

Garnish the balushahis with the pistachios.

Serve.

Eggless Speculoos Ice Cream/No Churn Eggless Speculoos Icecream

During our recent  monthly shopping, i couldnt resist myself to grab a bottle of speculoos spread, these spread makes an excellent breakfast when served along with brioche bread slices. Actually Speculoos is a spiced shortcrust biscuits traditionally baked in Netherlands , Belgium and in Germany during Christmas festival. Speculoos is prepared with handful of spices like cinnamon,nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and white pepper. This spiced speculoos biscuits makes an excellent pair when served with coffee for evening snacks. We love speculoos very much and needless to say this speculoos spread is very much liked as much as like Nutella spread at home. Obviously whenever i see this spread i dont forget to grab it.Speculoos is also known as Biscoff spread.

Potato Roast (No Onion No Garlic)

Potatoes,this incredible vegetables are everyone's favourite at home. Potatoes are versatile and they can be cooked in many different ways, however my kids are ardent fan of this vegetable and they love to have the famous potatoes even everyday. Sometimes if i feel bored or dont have mood to cook the usual onion and garlic loaded potato roast i'll go for a simple,quick and definitely a delicious potato roast just with simple ingredients. Today's potato roast is completely onion and garlic free, yes you can make delicious potato roast without both onions and garlic. This potato roast tastes excellent as side dish especially with rasam and rice. However we love this no onion,no garlic potato roast with rotis too.

Mixed Vegetables Egg Bhurji/Kaaikari Muttai Masala Poriyal

Egg bhurji, everyone's favourite at home, obviously whenever i feel bored of making side dishes, i'll go immediately for egg bhurjis. These Indianized scrambled eggs are really handy and tasty at the same time to serve with anything. My kids love to have egg bhurjis even daily however i'll try to make atleast once a week just with egg whites. But this time to make the usual egg bhruji more interesting, i tried adding couple of vegetables to make them more colourful,healthy and attractive.Yes this technic works awesome and none will say no to this vegetable loaded egg bhurji. A best way to sneak veggies definitely. I went for finely chopped vegetables but if you want to feed your kids with their daily of dose of vegetables without their knowledge just stick with grated vegetables. This way they dont remove or throw the vegetables added in this dish.

Corn Masala Vada/Cholam Masal Vadai

Sweet corns are still available in markets, eventhough its almost the end of corn season here. Since i had a bowl of fresh sweet corn kernels sitting in my fridge after making some fried rice, i want to finish them as soon as possible but while going through one of my cookbook which i bought during my India trip helped me to dish out these crispy beauties. This vada are simple to make, toordal and channadal are used in this crispy beauties, this recipe from the cookbook tempted me to give a try at home. Initially i was bit intrigued by the sweetness of the sweet corn kernels but trust me you will be surprised that the mild sweetness gives a fabulous taste to this crispy vadas. If you want to make a different masala vadas, just try to add some corn kernels and see the difference, personally i felt corn kernels merge very well with the dals and these vadas makes an excellent side dish for sambar or rasam rice.

Tomato Masoor Dal

Masoor dal, i use this dal very rarely in my cooking, but last month when i went to Indian grocery, i picked a packet of these orange colour dal, just to make dishes out of it. Weekend was bit busy here as kids started their school today after two long months summer vacation. Instead of making a non vegetarian dish for our Sunday lunch, i quickly prepared this simple, comforting and delicious dal with tomatoes. This dal can be prepared in a jiffy, yes just put everything together in a pressure cooker, and cook it upto three whistles. Once the steam gets released, just mash the dal, add the sambar powder and temper it. Yes pressure cooking this dal makes the life easier, however if you are making this dal in vessel instead of pressure cooking, better to soak this dal for half an hour in water and proceed. Soaking helps a lot if you are planning to make this dal directly in vessel.Such an easy dal rite, you may also name it as Andhra style pappu.