Onion Pakoras

A very basic recipe for some fried Pakoras. I gravitate to baking these but an occasionally it's good to have the original fried version too.

Ingredients:
Onions - 2 big
Green Chilis - 2
Peanuts - a Handful
cilantro - a handful
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Red Chili - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Gram Flour/Besan - 1/2 cup

Oil to Deep Fry
Slice the Onion into long thin strips and chop the chilis and cilantro. Mix all the ingredients except Gram Flour. The onions will start releasing some water. Add the Gram Flour little by little. There should be barely enough to coat and the onions should be the star. There should not be clumps of Flour. This will ensure that the Pakoras are crispy and not soggy after they cool a bit.

Heat a frying pan with oil on medium high. Once the oil is hot enough, use your hand or spoon to slowly distribute the mixture into the oil. Do not add in clumps but just randomly distribute into the oil. Fry until golden and remove onto a paper towel to absorb any extra oil.

Serve hot with sauce of your choice.

Walnut and Carrot Cake - Valentine's special

This was a last minute attempt to make something for Valentine's day for the dear hubby. Boy am I glad I did :) He surprised me with some lovely roses and I managed to make my cake pretty with some flowers from the Backyard.

Using a Bundt cake pan gives the cake a much needed face lift and it ended up looking very pretty, perfect for a Valentine.

I adapted the recipe from this link:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/super-moist-carrot-cake-with-cream/

All-purpose flour - 3/4 cup

Whole wheat flour - 3/4 cup

Granulated sugar - 1 cup

Baking soda - 2 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Ground cinnamon - 2 tsp

Canola oil - 1/4 cup

Vanilla - 1 tsp

Grated carrots - 2 cups

Mashed soft Bananas - 2
Chopped Walnuts - 1/4 cup

Glaze:
Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1 to 2 Tbsp
Walnuts - 5 or 6

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the 1st 6 ingredients from Flour to Cinnamon.
Combine all the wet ingredients from oil to mashed bananas. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir well. Add the chopped Walnuts and stir.

Grease a bundt pan or any normal cake pan and add the batter. Bake for about 45 min until a tooth pick comes out clean without any batter sticking to it. Remove and cool.

In a small bowl, mix the Milk and powdered sugar into a thick glaze and drizzle on the cooled cake.
Top with walnuts.