Tavsali / Goan Style Cucumber Cake

Tavsali is a healthy, egg less, low fat (or fat free if ghee is omitted) Goan Style Cucumber Cake.
I love the beautiful green specks of grated cucumber (skin n all)distributed all over the light brown colored cake.
Tavsali is prepared using cucumber/kakdi that are called "taushe" in konkani.

I remember my mom had made this cake for me when she had come to the US to help me during my first pregnancy.

My grandma and mom used to prepare this cake without any oven. A tava or thick bottomed skillet was kept on a stove, then the cake pan was kept over the skillet. Next a lid was kept on the cake pan and the lid was covered with a layer of hot coals. Thus creating an oven kind of condition for the cake to "bake".

This cake can be prepared in 2 ways either using rava/semolina or using goan rice powder, each gives a different taste and texture to the end result.

Goan rice is called "ukade tandol" or rosematta rice in US & Canada. The rice is dry roasted then ground to a fine powder and used instead of rava.

The tavsali made using the ukade tandol powder tastes better then the rava one but still both are equally delicious.

This is a simple egg less cake not overly sweet with dominant flavours of cucumber, coconut, cumin and peanuts.

No, it is not a typo, indeed jeera/ cumin seeds are used to make this sweet. In fact many Goan konkani sweets are flavoured with jeera powder like tavsali, poss, and some varieties of kheers.

Ingredients

2 cups grated cucumber/kakdi,

1 and 1/2 cups grated jaggery or brown sugar,

1 and 1/4 cup rava/suji/cream of wheat/semolina,

1 cup grated coconut,

2 tsp jeera /cumin seeds (unroasted and ground to a fine powder),

4 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts,

2 tbsp chopped raisins,

1/2 tsp cardamom powder/ elaichi,

2 tbsp sesame seeds,

pinch of salt.

Method.

• Roast rava (dry or in 1 tsp butter/ghee) and cool.
• Mix all the rest of the ingredients and pour the batter in a 8 x 8inch baking pan.
• Preheat oven to 350 F and bake the cake in the oven for 30 minutes till cooked through.(prick a toothpick in the cake and check to see if it comes out clean).
• Broil the cake for 5 minutes so that the top also gets a nice golden color.
• Take out of the oven cool, cut and serve.

Note.

I sometimes add 2 tbsp oats flour and 2 tbsp flax seed meal to the batter for additional nutrition.

Usually this cake is prepared the previous night and the flavors allowed to blend well and it is served for breakfast the next day.

This cake can be refrigerated for up to a week. To serve just reheat in the microwave for a minute or 2 and enjoy warm cucumber cake.

Add almonds & cashew nuts if desired.

Rajma Tikki / Red Kidney Beans Cutlet

Rajma tikki is one easy scrumptious snack to make as long as u have some cooked beans on hand. I usually make these for after school snack for my son, specially on cold winter days.
Nothing like a protein loaded, warm tikki/cutlet dunked in ketchup or chutney.

Ingredients

1 cup cooked rajma,

2 bread slices,

1 tbsp ginger, minced,

1 tbsp garlic, minced,

1 tsp amchur powder,

1/2 tsp turmeric powder/haldi,

1 tsp garam masala,

3 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander leaves,

salt to taste.

Method.

• In a food processor add bread slices and make bread crumbs, add rajma and pulse a few more times, than add the rest of the ingredients and pulse again.
• Take out in a bowl.
• Make small balls and flatten slightly to make discs or long strips.
• Shallow fry in a hot skillet using little oil on medium heat.

Note.

Add minced green chilly for a more spicy tasting cutlet.

Happy Mother's Day !!

Happy Mother's day to all mom's out there.

I am a mom of two lovely kids, so being a mother myself, now I understand all the things my mother did for me.
I am truly grateful and thankful to my mom for everything she did for me n more.
Mother's Day is a very emotional day for me coz 4 years ago I lost my Ma (just 2 days before mother's day). An even after 4 years I have still not been able to accept my loss.
So every year when Mother's Day is round the corner, I feel very happy seeing the excitement in my kids eyes for their mom(me), but at the same time I feel very sad that my mom is not around for me to show her how much I care about her.
Every time my kids surround me and hug me, I just feel that wish I could do one thing and that is to give my mom a nice big hug too..........just to show her how much I love and appreciate her.

I miss my mom everyday specially living in a foreign country on the other side of the world away from my homeland. But I miss her the most on Mother's Day.
One thing is surely true though that no one can replace a mom's love and affection.

So, Ma, wherever you are and if you are seeing me then, I just want to say "Thank you for everything"

Cornmeal Idli(Gluten Free) / Steamed Cornmeal Circles.

Again these cornmeal idlis were born out of necessity to make quick idlis without using rava/semolina.

As semolina/rava idlis are quick to make but they are made of wheat(my daughter is allergic to wheat), so to eliminate wheat from the recipe I replaced the semolina/rava with fine cornmeal but otherwise just followed the rava idli recipe.

There, I created a new quick recipe to cater to my daughters need for gluten free and my crunch for time.

I liked the beautiful natural yellow hue of these idlis, without any addition of turmeric powder/haldi powder.

These Idlis can be enjoyed by all and is not limited to just for people with gluten allergy only.

Sabudana Vada/Appe (Gluten Free, Fat Free) / Tapioca Puffs.

In this part of the world, we are still getting our share of snow :-(
I wanted to make something hot n crunchy for my son for after school snack, but was not at all inclined towards a deep fried snack.

Had just made a batch of boiled potatoes, so what better way to use boiled potatoes for snack other then make tikkis or sabudana vadas, I opted for the latter :-)

I made sabudana vada but in an Appe pan/ Aeblevisker pan. They turned out pretty good, crispy on the outside and soft n mushy on the inside.

My Appe pan is non stick so I made them without a drop of oil, they are totally fat free :-)

Enjoy these guilt free vadas !!

Ingredients

3/4 cup sago,(washed and soaked in water enough to cover the sago for 1 hour then drain any water, I used mini sago pearls called as sago seeds, the size of mustard seeds),

3/4 cup potatoes, boiled and mashed,

2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts,

3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves,

1 green chilly minced,

2 tsp lemon juice,

1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera,

Method.

• Mix all the ingredients.
• Heat Appe pan(pan has many indents/depression similar to muffin pan) on medium heat.
• Make small balls of the dough and put in each indent of the appe pan.
• Let cook for 3 minutes then turn, so that it cooks on the other side.
• The other side will cook quicker, so cook may be 2 minutes on the other side.
• I got 18 Appe Sabudana Vadas from the quantity of ingredients mentioned above.
• Enjoy with whipped sweet yogurt, chutney or ketchup.

Note.

Can add a few drops of oil while cooking.

If you prefer a darker shade of browning for the vadas, cook a few minutes more on each side, but take care that they do not burn. I prefer mine just golden brown.

They were perfect snacks for my kids.