Idly Manjurian

Hello friends…  I know all of you wished me good luck for what I was looking for.  And Yes that happened. It was regarding a job opportunity. The long awaited one… Fortunately, I got through it and now I am at Portland, Oregon. 

I am happy that I am back to my career again. But I am now far away from AJ L Hopefully I ll be back with him very soon…

Now that I ll be a bit busy with my work and so I am not sure how frequent  I can visit all your wonderful posts. Also since we do not have much of cooking here, I am not sure how much I can try out your recipes. Fortunately, I have a few posts in my drafts and I shall keep updating my blog during weekends. I ll definitely try my level best to visit each and every post of all my friends too..

Now coming to the post for today – Idly manjurian. This is always a wonderful item with left  over idlys. I usually prepare a few more idlys for breakfast and prepare this for the evening tea. We love idlys in this form much more than for breakfast..

Ingredients:

            Idly                                 --   6 – 8 nos
            Onion                             --   1 small /  ½ of a medium one
            Ginger Garlic Paste  --   1 tsp
            Capsicum                     --   ½ of a medium one
            Tomato Sauce           --   2 tsp
            Soya sauce                  --   1 tsp
            Chilly Sauce                --   1 tsp
            Coriander leaves      --   ½ cup chopped
            Oil                                   --   2 tsp / for deep frying
            Salt                                --   as required

Preparation of Idly Manjurian:

              Cut the  idly into bite size pieces. Preferably keep the idly in the fridge before preparation. I usually use left over idlys. Deep fry the idly pieces. To avoid too much oil, I did grill it in the oven.

    

              Thinly slice the onions and chop the capsicum into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Add salt and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped capsicum and let it fry well.

   

               Now add the fried idly pieces. Add the sauces and let the masala and the sauces coat the idly pieces well. Add the chopped coriander leaves and mix well. Turn off fire.

               Serve hot with tea or even well suited as a lunch box item.

Lemon Cake

The yummy and flavorful cake… I did not have an idea how this would be until I made this. Me being someone who does not prefer tanginess, the only motivation was that I could click beautiful pics decorating lemon pieces. Does that sound weird??? But I was the one who completed almost three-fourth of the cake :)

Now it is not the Spider Solitare that keeps me away from blogging. It is something else. I am waiting for something and the tension – not really tensed, but just the thoughts about it, does not even allow me to log onto blogger, browse through FB & orkut. The only thing I do on my system is refresh my mails. Hope I get the results very soon. Friends…You know the next.. Please wish me good luck.

Now coming back to lemon cake. I had seen few beautiful clicks from my fellow bloggers and wanted to try this out. All my hope was on AJ who has a great love for all sour tastes and I was sure that I am not going to have more that a piece to taste. But things were not as expected, I really loved the sweetness of honey and sourness of lemon and especially the nice aroma of the cake. And poor AJ couldn’t accept the idea of sourness in a cake which was supposed to be sweet. Still he managed to have it with tea for a couple of days (Secret – I did not prepare anything else, so his hunger would accept anything).

Here it goes…

Ingredients:

            All purpose Flour     --   1 ½ cups
            Baking Powder          --   ¼ tsp
            Baking Soda                --   ¼ tsp
           Granulated Sugar      --   1 cup
           Honey                             --   4 tbsp
           Unsalted Butter          --   4 tbsp
           Medium Eggs               --   3
           Grated Lemon zest    --   1 tbsp
           Fresh Lemon juice     --   5 tbsp
           Yogurt                            --   4 tbsp
           Milk                                  --   2 tbsp
           Water                              --   1 tbsp
           Vanilla essence          --   ½ tsp
            Salt                                 --   ½ tsp
Preparation of the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease one 8x4 inch loaf pan.
Sift together the flour, baking powder,salt and baking soda in a bowl. Keep aside
Cream the butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar and honey in a bowl until light and fluffy. Now, add the eggs, one at a time, and then the lemon zest.
   
In another bowl, combine 2 tbsp of lemon juice, yogurt,milk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour.
Pour the batter into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.
    
Combine ¼ cup granulated sugar with the remaining 3 TBSP lemon juice and 1 Tbsp water in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves and makes a syrup. When the cake is done, let it cool for 10 minutes, then invert them onto a rack set over a tray. Prick the cake all over with a skewer and spoon the lemon syrup over the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely.Serve.

You can decorate as per your wish.