Orange Carnberry Scones-Eggless

An English scone resembles a cake but is little more firm than a cake. It has a firm crust and is flaky inside. A perfect snack with evening tea, Scones are very similar to the American biscuit. Common ingredients used are flour, sugar, baking powder/soda, milk (or buttermilk or yogurt or heavy cream), and eggs.

I picked up this combination of oranges and cranberries from a food network show. They were using these in preparing biscotti. I thought this would be a great combination for any bread related recipe and experimented with scones.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1 ½ tsp egg replacer
(Mix the egg replacer in 2 tbsp of warm water)
½ -3/4th cup milk (approx.)
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp fresh orange zest
2 tbsp cranberries (dried)

Procedure

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in the egg/egg replacer mixture. Add orange zest, juice and dries cranberries. Gradually add the milk until a thick dough is formed. (It may take more or less than 3/4 cup). Turn out the mixture onto a surface dusted with flour and knead lightly. Roll out the dough to 3/4″ thickness and cut into rounds with a 2″ cookie cutter. Gather the trimmings and lightly knead, roll, and cut them as well. Place the rounds about 1″ apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little milk. Bake in a preheated 450° oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm. To store, cool them down to the room temperature and store them in an air tight container. They would last for a week.

Notes and tips

You can use egg instead of egg replacer. You can also use 2% milk or butter milk instead of whole milk. Add little extra sugar (around 1 tbsp or according to your taste).This recipe makes 12 to 16 scones, depending on the size you make. You can even eat for breakfast. The best part is these scones are eggless. If you are using egg replacer, stir the milk slowly and little at a time to get the desired consistency. Other wise the dough will become runny.

As orange is AFAM for this month, I thought this will make a perfect entry created by Mahi and organized by lovely Sharmi.

I used Eger-G Egg Replacer, I bought it from Whole food market and its also available in local GNC stores. Lakshmi told me about this. Thanks Lakshmi!!!

Anapakaya Palu Posi Kura

Bottle Gourd in cream sauce

Anapakaya or sorakaya which is commonly known as bottle gourd is technically known as calabash, is a vine grown for its fruit, tender young bottle gourd fruits of certain varieties are eaten as a boiled vegetable. The fresh fruit has a light green smooth skin and a white flesh. The fruit are often cooked with lentils, curries and also used in making desert. Bottle gourd is popular summer squashes in India. The best are slightly sweet, tender, and free of bitterness. Gourds are high in fiber and low in fat and cholesterol also contains good amount of Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Zinc, Thiamin, Iron, Magnesium and Manganese. Bottle gourd in India is also known as Lauki and Dudhi.

I use Anapakaya a lot in my house; it is a must to buy vegetable in my weekly veggies shopping. I make sambar, pappu kura (cooked with lentils), curries, pachadi (chutney) and stews with this lovely squash. Anapakya palu kura is a light and creamy curry, mildly spiced with ginger is from Andhra Pradesh most commonly cook by vegetarians. This sweet summer squash goes really well with cream/ milk just melts in mouth. Even though I don’t like this particular dish a lot but it’s my son’s favorite. This dish is really easy to prepare and also a good side dish for quick meals. Both my mom & MIL prepares this curry same way .

Ingredients

1 medium tender Anapakaya
1 ½ -2 tbsp half & half or whole milk
Salt to taste

Peel and cut anapaya into cubes, remove the seeds if needed and keep aside.

For seasoning
1 tsp oil
1 dried whole red chilli (broken)
½ tsp urad dal
½ tsp cumin seeds
Small pinch of hing
½ inch ginger piece (peel & minced)
Few curry leaves

Heat oil in small frying pan add urad dal, red chillies and fry until the urad dal starts to turn light brown. Now add cumin seeds, hing and ginger, allow the cumin seeds to crackle. Add curry leaves and turn of the heat and keep aside.

Procedure

In a heavy bottom shallow pan add anapayaka pieces, salt and cook on low medium heat covered. Anapakaya itself contains lots of moisture so you don’t need to add any extra water. Keep stirring in between. If needed sprinkle some water to avoid burning. It takes 10-15 minutes to cook. Add fried seasoning and cream mix well, cook for 1-2 minutes and turn of the heat.

This goes really well with rice and roties.

Notes and Tips

Do not cook for long after adding cream it will curdle. You can use ghee to fry seasoning instead of oil to add extra flavor. Also you can add onions (chopped) along with seasoning, fry and then add to the cooked squash.

Aloo Paratha

One of the easiest recipes that can be prepared for a breakfast or lunch or dinner is a stuffed paratha. They are very filling and are a hit with my family. Paratha stuffed with Aloo curry is the easiest of stuffed parathas. Chapathi dough stuffed with spiced mashed potates (aloo) and cooked on a hot tawa with butter or ghee with simple daal or homemade curd makes an excellent breakfast, brunch and dinner in my home.

Ingredients

For stuffing/filling
4-5 potatoes
1 tbs. cooking oil
½ tsp cumin seeds
1/4th tsp turmeric powder
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
Handful of coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. Garam Masala
1/2 tsp. amchoor or dry mango powder (optional)
Salt to taste

For dough
2 cups wheat flour
1/4th cup wheat flour for dusting
1 tbs. ghee / butter / oil
Salt to taste
2 tbsp curd/ yogurt
Enough water to make dough
2-3 tsp ghee or butter for frying paratha’s

Procedure

 

Making the filling

Heat oil in a small frying pan and add cumin seeds allow them to crackle and remove from heat. Boil potatoes, cool, peel and mash the potatoes (You can pressure cook or microwave potatoes). Add all the ingredients for stuffing along with the fried seasoning and mix well. The mix should be dry, free of water. Otherwise, it will be difficult to roll out parathas. Keep the stuffing mixture aside.

Making dough
(can be made while potatoes are boiling)
Sieve flour. Add salt, oil or ghee, curd and Add water a little at a time. Knead into medium soft dough. Knead well for 5-6 minutes. This process can be done quickly in a food processor. Cover with a wet cloth and let the dough sit for 20-30 minutes. Knead the dough again

Rolling out parathas (as shown in the picture)

Divide the dough and stuffing into balls of equal portions, now roll one ball at a time in the form of a small puri. Now put a small quantity of above stuffing (potato filling) over it, close it from all sides.Gently pat the stuffed puri in the palms, apply some flour on both sides and roll it gently into a paratha.Now cook on a tava, allow one side to cook when the color changes into light brown color.Turn repeat for other side. Drizzle some butter or ghee on each side and flip. Serve hot.

Notes and Tips

If you are new at making parathas, it is better to have firm dough, which is easier to control while rolling out.

Parathas can be made in advance, cool and stackup cooked parathas on top of each other with a wax paper in between and wrapped in foil and chilled or frozen. They can be de-frosted and re-heated before serving. To re-heat, place 1 paratha on a hot gridle or tawa and cook until it become crisp on both sides.

You can use the similar procedure with uncooked parathas also. Parathas last 2-3 months in freezer and 5-7 days in fridge.