Benne Biscuit

If you’re living in Bangalore or around, I’m sure you’d be very much aware of this famous ‘Benne biscuit’ from Iyengar’s bakery. Benne biscuit actually means ‘Butter cookies’, but strangely, the recipe does not contain any butter at all! It is so called, since it is as smooth and melting as butter.

This was one of the cookies mom used to bake the most! (Yep, unlike me, she used to be a regular baker; of late she had stopped, and with this she’s again back into baking, thankfully!). Our holidays start and she’d bake a couple of varieties of cookies and this used to be one of them most often; whenever some cousin of mine would be traveling, she’ll immediately bake a batch or two of these and deliver it to their home, which they’d carry with them and then after a couple of days call up mom to say it was good and got over! Some kids come home, these benne biscuits are ready; For Navaratri, these are ‘bombe bagana’ for one day! It used to be that famous at home back then. And it used to be the simplest thing to ever bake.
Unfortunately, though I used to make them at mom’s place before wedding, when I tried to make them myself they had turned out to be kindof disaster! I say kindof because my FIL still liked it and ate them, though I was not a bit satisfied with it. May be because of the proportions, I guessed. This time, I again made mom do it with her old, recently repaired oven, and observed the proportions carefully. She skeptically made them since she had not baked for a few years, but well, they came out awesome! And both of us were glad!BTW, the only mistake I could figure out I had done was that I had added more oil, and mom used considerably lesser. So that made the difference I guess.
Here’s how to make them....

Benne Biscuit

Preparation time : 15 min Cooking time : 15 - 20 min Makes : ~20 Ingredients: Maida - 2 cups (All purpose Flour) Cooking oil - ¾ - 1 cup Castor Sugar - 1 ½ cups (finely powdered sugar) Cooking soda - ½ tsp (or Baking powder - ¾ tsp) Salt - a small pinch Method: • Grease a baking tray with a little butter and keep aside till the dough is ready • In a bowl mix flour, soda and salt well • Mix in castor sugar evenly • Add the oil little by little, ensuring the mixture is just crumbly and not into binding consistency • Make small balls of marble size, of the dough with the help of your palms and smoothen it • Place these on the greased tray, leaving enough space for expansion • Place the tray in the preheated oven and bake at 190ºC for 15-18 minutes. Check after about 12 minutes and adjust the time, not to over bake or under bake. • Let it stand in the oven for 10-15 minutes before serving hot and melting cookies • Allow it to cool completely and then store away the rest in a tight container Tips n Tricks: • Do not use too much oil to make the dough smooth. Let it be crumbly and you can still easily shape it with palm • Do not forget to preheat the oven Variations: • Using butter gives a crisp texture, whereas using only coil gives smooth and melting cookies. • Using vanaspathi /dalda give the exact taste as in Bakery, but since it is not so healthy, we prefer to replace it with oil

I'm finally sending an entry to Champa's Bake-off event...

Rice-gruel Soup

I generally cook rice in a pressure cooker. Sometimes, when cooking for some special dishes, I cook soaked rice in a vessel and drain off the water. I feel bad to simply drain off the water, as it’ll be rich in starch....

So made this soup instantly out of the gruel. It was tasty and almost like veg-corn soup. Folks at home did enjoy it. And Dee clicked these beautiful clicks for me :)

Here’s how I made it....

Rice gruel soup

Preparation time : 10 min Cooking time : 5 min Serves : 5-6 Ingredients: Rice gruel / akki ganji / water drained from cooking rice - 4 cups Chopped vegetables - 1 Tbsp (beans, carrot, spring onion, corn kernels, etc) Butter - 1 tsp Black pepper - 1 tsp Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste Water - Acc to consistency Fresh cream - 1 Tbsp or Milk - ½ cup (optional) Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing Method: • Heat butter in a pan and add the veggies • Sauté till they are slightly done • Add the rice gruel and bring to a gentle boil • Add milk, salt and pepper powder • Adjust consistency by adding a little water. Let it boil for a couple of minutes more • Put off the heat and add fresh cream (optional) and stir well • Serve hot, garnished with some chopped coriander leaves Tips n Tricks: • If the soup turns out to be too thin, mix some cornflour in milk and add it and boil it for some time Variations: • Skip the milk and add a spoon of lemon juice

Quick Tondekai Palya/ Ivy gourd instant subzi

Aren’t there days when there are vegetables in the fridge waiting to get cooked, and even you feel like eating a vegetable based meal, but do not have the time to pick, clean, chop, cook etc, etc? Well, especially if you’re working and having a long and hectic week, then this is a common scenario. And those little vegetables, though tasty take a longer time with chopping. And if you’re not making anything worthy, then the guilt starts pricking too!

Vegetable like tindora take a great deal of time since it takes a lot of time to chop them into fine pieces as they like at home; and the hands get sticky too while chopping this vegetable, which makes the preparation part clumsy. Mom recently told me this simple recipe with ivy gourd / tindora / tondekai, that requires no chopping into fine pieces. It’s a very quick preparation to, unlike the usual palya... That made it my instant choice to prepare with the ivy gourd lying in the fridge....

Quick Tondekai Palya

Preparation time : 5 min Cooking time : 10 min Serves : 4 Ingredients: Ivy gourd - ~250 gms Coconut - 2 Tbsp, grated Dry red chilies - 5-6, depending on taste Curry leaves - 2 sprigs Cooking oil - 1 Tbsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Asafetida - a pinch, powdered Turmeric - a pinch Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste Method: • Wash and chop ivy gourd into halves • Meanwhile, coarsely grind coconut, red chilies and asafetida without adding any water • Add the ivy gourd and pulse the mixie for a couple of times. Ensure that the mixture is coarse and not ground smooth • In a thick bottomed pan, heat oil, add mustard, allow to splutter • Add curry leaves and turmeric • Add the ground mixture and salt and mix well • Sauté well for about 5-6 minutes till the raw smell is gone • Serve it with rice or as a side dish for chapathis/rotis Tips n Tricks: • Ensure that the mixture is coarse and not ground smooth Variations: • The same can be made with green chilies too