Eggless Banana Bread

Banana Bread is quick and easy bread that can also be served as a cake.  This can be served for breakfast or as a snack. This tastes best when served warm or on room temperature. No toppings or accompaniments are necessary.  This is very soft and moist bread. Slice the bread just before serving as unsliced bread lasts longer. Store unsliced bread wrapped in plastic. This bread can be done in an hour.

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour – ¾ cup
Whole Wheat Flour – ¾ cup
Baking Soda – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – ½ cup
Ripe Bananas – 3 large
Applesauce – ¼ cup or 3 table spoons milk and 1 table spoon oil
Butter (Melted) – 4 tablespoons
Vanilla Extract – ¼ teaspoon
Chocolate Chips – 1 table spoon (optional)
Chopped Walnuts – ¼ cup (optional)
Tutti Frutti – ¼ cup

Method
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C
Mix all the dry ingredients (both flours, baking soda, salt and sugar) together in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, mash the bananas well.
Stir the butter or margarine, vanilla extract and applesauce into the bananas.
Add the banana mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
Mix gently by hand, just enough to form a thick, clumpy batter. If the mixture seems too dry, add more mashed banana or applesauce to adjust the consistency.
Fold in chocolate chips and/or walnuts, if using.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until the bread is a deep golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.


Sending this to my own Guest Host event - Eggless Bakes and Treats, Surabhi's page, CWF - Whole Wheat Flour, Kiran's page, CEDD - Bananas, Raven's Page, Bake Fest #13, Vardhini's page, Let's cook - Potluck, Healthy Baking, Indrani's page, Know your Flour, Jagruti's page, Christmas Food Fair, Siri’s Anniversary Event

Cream of Tomato Soup (தக்காளி சூப்)

Think about soup and first that comes to many people’s mind is tomato soup. It tastes heavenly when served hot and the croutons add lot of taste and texture to the soup. Using a hand blender made the blending so easy, but a regular blender would do just fine. Please remember to not add all the liquid while grinding as it can make it frothy and the color will be orange. I used the canned tomatoes that worked like a charm as it is riper than the tomatoes we get in the supermarket and their skin is already peeled off making the process much easier. If you cannot find the tomato paste, add ½ cup of the juice from the can. It will be little less in flavor but not huge.

Ingredients
Tomato (canned) – 1 can (28 oz.)
Brown Sugar – 1 ½ table spoon (regular sugar does not work well)
Onion (minced fine) – ¼ cup (You can also use Shallots)
Butter – 4 table spoons
Tomato Paste – 1 table spoon
Cloves – 2
Cinnamon Stick – 1
Bay Leaf – 1
All-Purpose Flour – 2 table spoons
Stock – 1 ¾ cup
Cream – ½ cup
Salt – 1 tea spoon
Chili Powder / Cayenne Pepper – ¼ tea spoon

Method
Strain the tomatoes and keep the water aside.
Cover a baking sheet with foil (this step is a must or else it will be very difficult to get the tomatoes out of there).
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F on convention mode (450 F if using baking mode).
Cut open the tomatoes and remove as many seeds as possible.
Line the deseeded tomatoes in a rimmed baking sheet with cut side down.
Sprinkle brown sugar on the tomatoes and roast them in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow it cool.
Once cooled, remove them from the baking sheet and set aside.
Melt butter in a pan until foaming and add the onions and sauté them well.
Add the cloves, cinnamon stick and bay leaf and sauté for 30 seconds.
Add the tomato paste and mix well and reduce the heat and cook until they are all tender.
Add salt and chili and 2 table spoons of flour and mix well to ensure no lumps and cook for 30 seconds
Add vegetable stock or more tomato juice from can and whisk well to ensure that there are no lumps.
Add 3 cups more of the tomato juice from the can and whisk well to combine and bring it to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.
Pick and remove the cloves, cinnamon stick and bay leaf and discard
Now strain the solids and blend them with about 1/3 of the liquid until smooth
Put the mixture and the remaining liquid back in the pan, add cream and serve hot with croutons on top!!

Sending this to Siri’s Anniversary Event

Pooshanikkai Mor Kootu

How much ever we eat outside, the best food we enjoy when we are sick or back from a long journey or when we have eaten many times outside is homemade simple food. These simple foods taste just out of the world and are never boring.. This kootu is one such recipe.. Simple, homey, comforting and so much healthy.

Ingredients
Pooshanikkai / White Pumpkin – 3 cups (cubed 1 inch big)
Green chili – 8
Turmeric – A pinch
Salt – 1 ¼ tea spoons
Oil – ½ tea spoon
Cumin Seeds – 1 ½ tea spoons
Curd – 1 cup
Rice – 1 tea spoon
Asafetida – ¼ tea spoon
Curry Leaves – 10
Mustard Seeds – ½ tea spoon
Ulutham Parupu / Urad Dal – 1 tea spoon
Red Chili – 1
Coconut - 1/4 cup

Method
Soak rice for 30 minutes..
Grind coconut, cumin, green chili, rice (soaked) to a paste
Boil the pooshanikkai with turmeric in microwave for 5 minutes. Add very little water.
Mix curd with the grinded mixture, boiled pumpkin and add salt and asafetida well and bring this to a boil
Heat a small pan and add oil and when hot add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackle, add the ulutham parupu and when the parupu turn golden, add curry leaves and red chili and sauté for 10 seconds and add it to the kootu
Now the pooshanikkai mor kootu is ready to be served..

Sending this to Serve it - original recipes, Simple and in Season, EP - Asafetida and Fennel Seeds, Julie's page, Dish Name starts with P, SIC#3, Anu's page, Herbs on Saturday, Serve it, Denny's page, Siri’s Anniversary Event, CWS - Urad Dal, Priya's page,



 

Eggless Blueberry Scone

Blueberry Scone is a popular American pastry. It tastes best when served warm. The key point in the process of making the scone is that all the ingredients must be freezing cold. Using frozen butter gives a flaky texture and a great mouth feel. I did not use sour cream in the recipe, instead used Hung Curd. Click here for home made Hung Curd recipe. This will make 8 big scones.