Avocado Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 Avocado
1 Banana
1 Pear or Apple
1 mug milk (I use soy/almond/hazelnut milk... Normal skimmed milk is fine too)
1/2 inch ginger (optional)
Few mint leaves (optional)

Method:
Mix all ingredients in a blender. I do not remove the skin from Apple or pear. Bring to a nice smooth thick consistency (add a little water if too thick) and serve immediately.

Malpua

This malpua recipe is also from my mom.

Malpua is a mandatory dish in Holi. Believe it or not, we eat it with mutton curry during Holi :)

Ingredients

1. Maida - 2 cups
2. Sooji - 1/2 cup
3. Milk - 1.5 cups
4. Over ripe bananas - 1.5 big or 3 small
5. Sugar - 2.5 cups
6. Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
7. Chopped pistachios for garnish
8. Oil or ghee for frying

Method

For chashni

1. Add 1/3 cup of water to sugar and heat it. Once it starts boiling, let it boil for 2-3 minutes and switch off the gas.

For malpua

1. Soak sooji in milk separately, add just enough milk to cover sooji. Leave it for 1 hour.
2. Then mix the sooji very well with your palms. Add maida and milk and leave it for 3 hours.
3. Blend bananas only in a mixie and then add it to the maida + sooji mixture.
4. Add cardamom power and mix well with a big spoon.
5. Bring oil to medium heat and add 1 big spoon of mixture. Once it rises and is brown on the lower side, flip it over.
6. Once it is brown on both sides, squeeze it between two spoons to remove excess oil.
7. Add the malpua into the chashni, leave it for 2 minutes and then take it out.
8. Garnish with chopped pistachios.

Ragi Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake

I came across this recipe posted by a runner in one of the running magazines in India. Made it for the first time on Christmas Eve and it turned out to be much better than expected.

The cake uses all healthy ingredients  and can be made in vegetarian / vegan way.

Ingredients A:

• 1 cup ragi flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 2 level tea spoons baking powder

Mix the above and sieve all together.

Ingredients B:

• 1-1/4 cup jaggery powder (I used "bhoora" powder)
• 1 cup oil / melted butter
• 1 cup milk / smooth beaten curd / soy milk
• 3 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed (leftover over-ripe will also do just fine)
• 1 level tea spoon vanilla essence (optional, as the chocolate and bananas already lend plenty of flavour)
• 1 cup walnut (lightly crushed)

Mix the above with a wooden spoon stirring in one direction only. You can use a cake blender, if you use one. It should be well blended with no big lumps. The small lumps of jaggery (about the size of a wheat grain) are hard to avoid. But that’s fine. They will dissolve slowly or melt when baking and meld with the cake.

Fold ingredients A into ingredients B. By fold, we mean add the flour a spoonful at a time and gently incorporate it into the wet mixture using the side of your spoon while continuing to stir in one direction only. You will be maneuvering the spoon with your wrist.

When all the flour is incorporated, pour it into a baking mould of around 10 inches in diameter, lined with aluminium foil or butter paper at the base. (This is my no-fail way of ensuring cakes willingly slide out of their pans when done. You don’t need to oil the pan.)

Bake for about 40-45 minutes at 180 C. You know its done when a cake tester (or small knife) inserted into the cake comes out clean. If the tester still has liquid dough on it, let it bake for another 5-10 mins. Due to the mashed bananas, the cake will tend to have a moist texture, so the tester might not come out fully dry like traditional cakes, which is okay.
If using a microwave convection oven, you may need to grill it for about a minute to get the top of the cake fully cooked.

You can eat it hot or cold, separately or with vanilla ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Banana and Chocolate Chip Cake

I have attempted to make this cake couple of times, and the combination of banana and chocolate chip never fails.  Unfortunately never took a picture of how it looks but will upload once I make this one next.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (1/2 cup can be replaced by oat flour)
• 1 cup sugar  (granulated)
• 1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup sour cream; ½ cup of warm milk can also be used
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 or 1 ½ cup chocolate chip

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170 C, and butter a 8-inch round cake pan or loaf pan
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.  
• Mash the bananas and add them into the butter and sugar mix until combined.  Add the eggs, one at a time, until combined.  Add and mix cream or milk and vanilla.
• Add the flour mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips to the wet ingredients, and mix by hand lightly until combined.
• Put the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
• Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a fork.

Yum yum yum :) !!!