EGGLESS FRUIT AND NUT CAKE

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Last year I made Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake with mashed potatoes and condensed milk as replacement for eggs. This year I wanted to try a simplified and easy version of fruit cake for Christmas.

Recipe inspired from here with some modifications.

Ingredients:

Chopped Fruits*	1 cup
Chopped Nuts *	1 cup
All Purpose Flour	1.75 cups
Sugar	1 cup
Butter	1/2 cup
Baking soda	1 tsp
Salt	1/4 tsp
Orange zest	1 tsp
Orange Juice	1/2 cup
Water	1.5 cups
Vanilla extract	1 tsp
Cinnamon powder	1/4 tsp
Nutmeg powder	1/2 tsp
Cardomom	4 pods
Cloves	4

* Chopped Fruits: Mix of raisins, apricot, dates, cranberry,prune (Atleast 3)
* Chopped Nuts: Cashews, Almonds,Walnut

CHOW CHOW PEEL THUVAYAL

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Whenever my MIL makes chow chow kootu, she uses the peel to make thuvayal. It tastes just like the regular chow chow thuvayal. I used to mix with rice and take for my lunch box too!

Ingredients:

Chow chow	Peeled skin of 1 chayote
Urad dhal	3 tablespoons
Salt	1/4 tsp
Tamarind	a small gooseberry size
Red chilli	2 or 3
Water	1/2 cup
Oil	1 tsp
Hing	a generous pinch

Procedure:
1) Wash the chayote thoroughly in water and peel the skin using vegetable peeler

2) Chop the skin into small bits
3) Heat 1/2 tsp of oil in a pan and add urad dhal and red chillies
4) Fry in a medium flame until golden brown

5) Add the tamarind and asafoetida and fry for less than a minute and switch off the flame
6) Transfer this to another plate to cool
7) In the same pan add 1/2 tsp of oil and fry the chow chow peel
8) Fry in low flame for a couple of minutes.

9)Allow both the fried dhal and chow chow peel to cool
10)Grind the mixture first without adding water.
11) Add salt and add water little by little and grind to a smooth paste
12) Serve with hot rice or as an accompaniment to curd rice.

Notes:
Along with the peel, cubed chayote can also be used. Increase the other quantities accordingly
Instead of tamarind, tamarind paste can also be used. Add 1/4 spoon while grinding

VEGETABLE PUFFS

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I have lot of memories associated with Vegetable Puffs. My dad used to get this for me every Friday from Iyengar bakery at Tambaram.I like both the sweet and savoury version. It is also common in all college canteens and office cafeteria. Whenever I skip my breakfast, first thing I will do is to get a veg puffs from the cafetaria( Please don't follow this. It is not healthy to skip breakfast and have this first thing the morning!).

Nowadays I make this puffs often using ready made pepperidge puff pastry sheet. It will be usually available in the frozen section. 

Ingredients

Puff Pastry sheet	1 pack
Potato	5 small sized
Onion	1 small
Ginger paste	1 tsp
Carrot chopped	2 medium sized
Coriander powder	1 tsp
Chilli powder	1 tsp
Garam masala powder	1/4 tsp
Frozen peas	1/4 cup
Cumin seeds	1/2 tsp
Salt	to taste
Oil	2 tsp
Lemon juice/Amchoor powder	1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves (Chopped)	2 tablespoon

1. Thaw the puff pastry sheet for 45 minutes
2. Dab some all purpose flour in the board and roll the sheets to required thickness

3. Cut the sheets into 12 equal parts (There will be 2 sheets in a pack. Cut each into 6 pieces)
4. Cook the potatoes in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
5. Cool the potatoes and peel
6. Mash the potatoes well and keep it aside
7. Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Once it start spluttering add onions

8. Fry the onions until translucent.
9. Add carrots and fry until well cooked

10. Add the frozen peas as well.Add the chilli powder, coriander powder and masala powder.
11.Now add the mash potatoes and mix well
12. Finally add the lemon juice/amchoor powder and chopped coriander leaves

13. Divide this filling into 12 equal parts

14. Stuff the filling in the puff pastry sheet and fold it into half

15. Press the sides with the fork and seal it
16. Bake this in a preheated oven of 400F to 20 to 25 minutes in the center rack

17. Have an eye on it. Remove from the oven once it starts turning golden brown