Sunday, July 29, 2018

7 COLORED RAINBOW CAKE ON MY DAUGHTER'S 7TH BIRTHDAY

My daughter loves surprises. She wanted surprise cakes on her birthdays which I bake and decorate for her. So I decided to make her seventh birthday special by making a seven colored rainbow cake. This was in October 2016. Just 6 days back we moved to a new apartment in a new place. So most of my kitchen gadgets didn't reach me yet. I prepared this only with hand whisk and so the cake was dense. But still she was very much happy for the special treat.

We need 7 layers but I had only two 20 cm cake pans. So I prepared batter four times and baked the cake. For two layers we need these ingredients below.

Ingredients for two layers:
Egg - 1
Butter at room temperature - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Flour - 1 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp

Food colors:
Red, Orange, Yellow, purple, green, blue. For indigo I mixed blue and purple.

Other than these we need buttercream to decorate the cake.

Preparation:
Beat together sugar and butter. Add egg and beat until fluffy. Mix baking powder and flour and sieve together once. Now add this dry mixture to the egg mixture. Now add vanilla essence and milk. This batter will be thick. But it bakes to a softy spongy layer, Mine is not fluffy this time as i just whisked using wire whisk. The egg mixture must be fluffy, so that cake turns good.

Now divide the batter into two and add food colors. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Repeat for other colours too. I baked cupcakes using the extra portion of batter after the seven layers.

Prepare buttercream and divide into eight. Mix in the food colors to get rainbow colors.
Leave one bigger portion without adding colors.

Arrange the layers one by one by placing same coloured buttercream in between. Finally coat with white buttercream and decorate.

I created rain bow design and a garden with rainbow colored flowers. Add sprinkles and wait to surprise the birthday girl.




Monday, July 23, 2018

MASHED TAPIOCA WITH COCONUT MASALA

There are many types of mashed tapioca mash. This is the method which my mother used to prepare. I love this the most. I tried to prepare the same many times and never got the real taste. This time my mother came to visit us and she prepared  this. 

Ingredients:
Tapioca - 1 big sized 
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds to season
Curry leaves  - 1 sprig
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to tatse
Ginger - about 2 mm slice
Green chili - 1
Tamarind - 1 small piece
Water  - 3/4 cup


Preparation:
Cut Tapioca into pieces and boil in water with a pinch of salt. Grind all the other ingredients with salt to taste to a coarse paste.

Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and add the masala. Add water and mix with masala. When the masala mix comes to boil add boiled tapioca and mash with a spoon.

When the mixture slighty thickens but still little semi gravy consistency turn the heat off and set aside. This thickens after some time.

Serve hot with fish curry or meat curry. Or simply with thick coconut thuvayal.

Thursday, July 19, 2018

SWEET POTATO CARROT SOUP FOR 6 MONTHS OLD

Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes - 1 small piece
Carrot - 1 medium sized


Preparation:
Peel and slice sweet potato and carrot. Boil in a pot in water until done.



When cooked well, cool and grind in a mixer grinder jar to a smooth paste. 



Add cooked water to thin the soup to a soupy consistency. If more water needed add some boiled and cooled plain water.

Serve warm.

Note: Sweet potatoes give a creamy texture and taste. So no need to add potatoes.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

BABY MASH AT SIX MONTHS - DIFFERENT MASH IDEAS

At 6 months we could introduce only a few food items. But the baby asks for new taste everytime. So we need to blend few food together to get a new taste.

1. Potatoes and carrots
Potatoes and carrots go well together. Puree together or just keep both purees aside and feed alternatively.

2. Potatoes and apples
Potatoes and apples together tastes very yummy. Follow the same method as given above.

3. Carrots and apples
Carrots and apples too go well together. Puree together and it tastes very nice.

4. Banana with apples or sweet potatoes
Banana tastes alone better than together. But if you would like to mix then it goes nice with apples and sweet potatoes.

5.Avocados with any fruit or vegetable
Avocados tastes better alone very nicely but goes better with any fruit or vegetable.

6.Rice cereal with carrots or sweet potatoes
Prepare rice porridge and then mix with carrot or sweet potato mash. This tastes very nice.

7.Sweet potatoes with every food
Sweet potatoes tastes yummy alone. But it goes better with any of the other mash.

Try these and your baby will love every meal time.

BABY'S FIRST MASH HOW TO COOK AND MASH

We must cook baby food very carefully. Vegetable or fruit to be cooked must be cooked well. Also in the beginning food must be thin enough for the baby to swallow easily. There are three methods to cook baby food.

COOKING

Method 1: Pressure cook


I prefer this method as nutrients are retained more than any other method. First peel the vegetable or fruit. Just place the vegetable or fruit inside a steel tiffin box. Close and pressure cook as usual. Time depends on the vegetable and the size of chunks.



















Here I gave pictures of apple and potatoes.


Method 2: Steam cook


We can chop or slice the vegetable and steam until it's just done. Don't forget to peel the skin.

Here I steamed sweet potatoes.

Method 3: Boil in water


We can cook the vegetable or fruit in enough water until just done. First peel the skin and then cook. Here I gave pictures of cooking carrots in water.


MASHING


To mash the food we can follow two methods.

Method 1: Grind in a blender

Grind to a smooth paste in a mixer jar. If necessary to thin then add boiled and cooled water or the water used to cook (if cooked by third method. Otherwise pressure cooked or steamed means don't use the same water).

Method 2: Press through a sieve

Pass the food through a fine sieve by pressing using a spoon. I prefer to mash potatoes using this method only after baby is already used to the method 1. Because in this method the mash will not be soft. If necessary to thin then add boiled and cooled water or the water used to cook (if cooked by third method. Otherwise pressure cooked or steamed means don't use the same water).

Saturday, July 14, 2018

IDLY

After so many posts just now I noticed that I haven't posted idly recipe yet. I searched link for idly recipe to provide in baby food recipe. Do I decided to post the recipe while I grind batter the next time. So it's here.
Ingredients:
Idly rice - 4 cups (or 2 cups of parboiled rice and 2 cups of raw rice)
Urid dal or dehusked black gram - 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Preparation:

Wash and soak rice seperately. If parboiled rice and raw rice are used then soak both rice together. Wash and soak urid dal and fenugreek seeds together. Let it soak for about 2 to 4 hours.




Grind urid and fenugreek seeds in a grinder until it is buttery smooth. Don't add lots of water. Add little by little to get smooth and fluffy batter.
Take from the grinder and keep in a big vessel.

Now grind rice. Don't grind very smoothly but not much coarsely like seashore sand texture.


Mix this batter with urid batter and add salt. Mix well. The consistency must be like little thicker and pouring consistency. Be careful not to add more water like freely flowing.
Allow to ferment for about 8-10 hours. In cold weather it takes a long time.  Keep in warm place. If you live in a cold weather then keep it near heater or inside oven or above the refrigerator. This will speed up the process. 

After about 10 hours batter has fermented and raised.

Now steam idlies using idly plates. 
If you apply oil on the plates and then pour the batter then idly comes out easily but idly dries soon. Simply pour batter and steam. Then while removing from plates pour very little cold water to the edges of idly and turn the plate upside down and pour little cold water over. Then idly comes out easily. I prefer this method. Or use a white cloth. Cut a white cloth to the size of the idly plate and keep over the plate and pour the batter. In this method too, pour little cold water below the idly over the cloth. Then idly won't stick to the cloth.
In the below pictures left plate is simply without applying oil and right plate is with oil. So it's clear that there is no much difference. I like to have without oil taste. 



Or if you don't have idly plates steam in a plate. Just apply few drops of oil in a plate and half fill the plate and steam for 10-15 minutes.



Serve with sambhar and/or chutney. Tastes best with sambhar, coconut chutney, mint chutney, tomato mint chutney or tomato chutney. 

Thursday, July 12, 2018

PACHARISI MAAVURUNDAI

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 2 cups
Grated palm jaggery/karuppatty - 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups ( if more sweetness needed then you can add more)
Grated coconut - 2 cups or less
Dry ginger powder - 2 tsp
Cardamom - 4-6 pods
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Preparation:
Soak rice in water for at least 2 hours. Then drain the water and allow to dry in shade for about 30 minutes. No water should be present but still damp. Then grind in a mixer.


Powder cardamom and cumin seeds. Mix all ingredients together.

Take flour mixture in hands and hold tight to hold shape using palm and fingers of one hand.




This is a healthy snack given to girls after puberty.

Monday, July 9, 2018

KOLLU / HORSE GRAM THUVAIYAL

Ingredients:
Horse gram / kollu - 1/2 cup
Roasted coconut - 2 tbsp
Red chili - 4 or more according to taste
Tamarind - 2 cm piece
Salt to taste
Garlic - 1 
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp


Preparation:
Dry roast horse gram and chili in medium heat until a nice aroma is released. Then add roasted coconut, mix well and remove from flame.

Grind with the other ingredients and serve. Add water to grind to a coarse chutney.
Serve with rice porridge, rice varieties, idly or dosa.