Celebrating Kichu Khon with Eggless Mango Cake

Warning : Long Post :-)

Two years back, on a whim I made an account on blogspot for my ramblings ... which I still do here . And then suddenly life took me on a whirlwind tour so fast I forgot who my own self was ..... leave alone blog. Then a year later when I came back to it, I decided to turn it into a log of my adventures in the kitchen.

And today Kichu Khon completes a whole year ! :-)

Learning how to cook does not only mean heat a vessel, dunk in stuff and wait for it to cook. After numerous accidents and burnt food, after numerous burns and scalds, after destroying the cooker completely for using it without enough water ... I learnt what this adventure is all about.

I learnt that the oil has to be smoking hot before you let in those potatoes / fish. I learnt that just browning the vegetables in a fry does not mean they are cooked inside too. The water has to boil well before letting in the rice / noodles.

Iodised salt is different from plain salt ... so the amount you are using matters. Not to mention learning how to buy fish / vegetables ... and to knead atta .... the biggest challenge of all.

I had to learn the North Indian way of cooking, the Rajasthani way of cooking and for my nostalgic self the Bengali way of cooking. All the while wishing I had spent a little time everyday in the kitchen back home. But cooks consider kitchens their domain ... so had no luck ( now I consider it luck). :-)

Today I am confident in the kitchen ... can rustle up a snack from almost nothing ... and can serve a dinner for 6 ( that's the max I allow at home ... if more ... we eat out ) successfully.

When I go through my blog, I see how I have grown. And the number of dishes I have dished out amazes me .... and that is only the tip of the iceberg. Not all dishes we cook lands up in our blogs. I wonder if every woman kept a track of the number of dishes / snacks she made in her lifetime ... what would the figure come to?

Anyway ... am ranting now. One year back, with much apprehension I started off with my first post. Today I have a pretty ok kinda blog ... if not a very gorgeous one.

And I want to thank Everybody who has visited Kichu Khon and have cared to leave a line. I thank those who have stuck by me even when I had no comments ... who have encouaged me ... advised me and helped me with your suggestions. I have learnt so much from your blogs.

And for turning into such dear friends ( you know who you are .... I could not have done it without your continious support & love ). :-)
Today I can say I love my virtual world friends as much as I do my real world ones. :-)
My blog gets so many hits .... and am so happy about it. People spend so much time here ... visit so many recipes ... download snaps ... my site has even been ripped once ... (I take it as a compliment though ) .... return to the same recipes. BTW I would like to mention here that my most visited recipe is .... Kundru ki Sabzi !! :-)

I just wish they would leave a line here. It does not take much to say "I liked this" / "I did not like this". I am not about to pout or stomp my foot demanding a comment ... but I still think it is good manners.

Initially I was disheartened .... the number of comments never seemed to increase ... now I know better. So all you fellow bloggers ... don't judge the popularity of your blog by the number of comments it gets. :-)
I made an eggless Mango Cake to celebrate ... ok, ok ... I am still on the lookout for a reason to get rid of those mangoes. I have made this cake earlier with mango juice ( I used Slice ) ... but this time I have added milk.
Need : 

1 cup maida / APF, a little less than 1 cup powdered sugar, a little less than 1/2 cup cooking oil, 
a little cold milk [ ( use enough to make the batter of pouring consistency ... I prefer a batter that keeps on flowing when pouring into the baking dish .... and not fall in huge lumps .... (get the idea? ) ],

2 teaspoon baking powder, 5-6 drops of vannila essence, one meduim sized ripe mango pureed ( I used the Begunfuli / Badam variety ... they are quite fleshy ... if using a smaller variety you can use 2 or 3).


How to : Mix everything together .... you can use a hand blender too.
Add the milk after adding the mango puree. The batter should be thick but of pouring consistency. So adjust the milk accordingly.
Warm oven. Grease a baking dish with a little cooking oil / butter. Pour in the batter and bake at 130 - 160 degrees C.
The cake turned out to be dense, moist and very flavourful. I got two medium sized cakes from the above measurements.

Note : If you are preheating the oven ... check that it does not get too hot. If you have the Warm option .... use it to preheat.
I start the baking at a low temperature first ... it helps in cooking the inside of the cake ... and then increase the temp. to brown it.
Keep checking ( by inserting a wooden knitting needle / knife / chopsticks) and turning off the oven at intervals for proper and even baking and browning.

And if you see that the cake is done yet has not browned well ... keep it in grill mode for around 2 mins ... and then switch off the oven. Do not leave it even for a while when on grill ... it burns very quickly.
Go by your instincts and by what you see. You will get that perfect cake. :-) 


Here's a slice for everybody who has visited Kichu Khon. :-) Enjoy !!

Updated on the 26th: Am sending this cake to Srivalli's Mango Mela! :-)

Mango Pancakes

( Vegetarians can skip the egg and Vegans can use soya milk .... just add a little baking powder to the batter. )

It is the mango season now and so the fruit basket is groaning with mangoes ... and the whole complaint is not from the weight alone .... sometimes over ripe mangoes can cause an overwhelming smell that induces a kind of aversion to it. :-)

Well ... aversion may not be the perfect word ... but when I noticed I have been making my way about in the house avoiding that table with the basket .... I decided to do something about those reeking fruits. I usually use over ripe bananas to make Banana Pancakes. So knew what to do with the mangoes.

Was making pancakes for a filling breakfast before leaving for Bombay early in the weekend .... so just picked up a couple of mangoes and dunked them into the batter. And what lovely flavourful pancakes they turned out to be !

I usually do not like to blend or juice mangoes .... love to eat them as they are ... the burst of juices and the texture in the mouth sends me back to childhood days. And for the batter too I hand mashed them ... loved the little lumps of fibre in a biteful. :-)



Need : Roughly mashed fresh mango pulp, a little sugar, maida / APF, milk, egg(s), a little vanilla essence ( only if you are using eggs ) , a little butter / cooking oil.

How to : Make a batter of pouring consistency from the maida, milk, eggs, sugar.
Add sugar and the vanilla essence. Stir in the mango pulp.

Heat a non stick pan / girdle / tawa. Smear a little butter / cooking oil and pour a ladleful of the batter.
Spread it into a round shape. Wait for a while for it to brown on one side .... you can cover it if you want to .... but keep the heat low.

Remove cover , flip it over and cook the other side too.
The pancakes got a glorious yellow colour too! See ?

Serve with fresh mango pieces. You can spread a little honey or any other syrup of your choice on it if you wish to.

Enjoy!! :-)
Am sending this to dear Srivalli who is celebrating 2 years of blogging .... for her Mithai Mela .
Updated on the 26th : I am sending this Srivalli 's Mango Mela too. :-)
An update :
Our ugly little Quasimodo often pays us a visit. Hasn't s/he turned out to be beautiful? :-)

Eggless Banana Cake

I have always envied expert bakers. And after I started blogging ... and realised baking is not my forte ... I envy them even more. But then there are expert bakers who are great human beings ... who do not hesitate to encourage others. And among them is one who I admire much when it comes to baking ... Sunshinemom of TONGUETICKLERS.

So when I thought of baking something other than my usual cake, I thought of picking up something from her blog. Of course, this time it was easy deciding on .... considering the two wee little bananas sitting on my table ... already forsaken for their dark colour.

So I chose to bake her Banana Nut Loaf ... only I will call mine a cake .... for the simple reason that it does not look like a loaf ... and it definitely does not look like anything that she had baked so perfectly.
And also it is sans the nuts.

She was sweet enough to reply to my numerous queries ... and also added advice and tips too. On her tip that "the darker the bananas, the flavourful the cake" ... I let the bananas sit for one more day. I followed her recipe .... except a mistake from my part .... like the adding of cooking oil mistakenly.

The cake turned out to be greatly flavourful and perfect to taste. It did rise a lot ... but fell flat later ... which I will attribute to the heaviness of the bananas ... which I had hand mashed. Of course Sunshinemom assured me that banana cakes/breads tend to be dense.

The recipe for this cake is here.


Thanks a whole bunch Sunshinemom !! :-)


On an update --- Our little Quasimodo ( well ... it has to have a name ) is growing up fast.

I won't be able click any more snaps as it can see now ... the eyes have opened ... and gets very flustered at our presence.

So many people have left nice words for it ... I wish I could pass them on ... and advise for me ... that has left me a little worried ... to be honest , I'll be glad to see the back of it 'soon as possible.

Till then am leaving it alone. :-)

Pineapple Cake

Another successful experiment ! :-)

I had some pineapple stowed away in the freezer a fortnight back and completely forgot all about it. When I finally took a look at it, it was stone frozen. I was in the process of making my Coffee Cake .... the one I make very frequently. So decided it will be a Pineapple cake instead.

The recipe is here.
I just ran the frozen pineapple in the mixer so that it got just crushed. The small irregular pieces in every bite made it taste even more awesome!

Since the amount of Pineapple was very less ( I had around 1 cupful of crushed Pineapple ), I halved the proportions of everything needed for the cake. And added less than the usual amount of milk ... as the Pineapple would release moisture.

This turned out to be the softest cake I have ever baked ... it almost melted in the mouth. :-) 

Enjoyed a slice with my evening cuppa of my favourite Darjeeling tea. :-) 

Cakes & Rose Cookies .... Merry Christmas !

Studying in a Catholic school has, amongst a lot of other things, instilled this love for X'mas in me. Of course, the day has always been celebrated as an excuse for a feast at home too.
But what I still remember about school is doing up our chapel with the Nativity scene .... the wonderful smell of baking wafting from the Convent where the sisters stayed ... and if ever we went there on an errand (it was out of bounds for students except boarders), we would definitely get a piece of cake / pie/ some goodies .... visiting school for Mass in the chilling hilly area cold.... the setting of long winter holidays ...
So many memories. :-)



At home Ma would set about making an awesome lunch ... chicken, slightly sweet fried rice, her famous Russian salad, .... so many things .... not to mention a cake.



Then Mamata Mashi would come for lunch ... and bring with her Rose Cookies ( we used to call them Rose Cakes). This lady was our saviour whenever we felt like having Rose cookies. Nobody else made them. We just had to mention once .... and in a couple of days a huge box would reach us. :-)


I had bought a mould once I started started cooking on my own .... pined for these cookies. But these are such tricky things .... could never make them properly.

This time I followed Aparna's tips and measurements ... am so glad I found her blog ... and treaded this dangerous route. Made a decent few ...

..... before the batter / oil temperature / the mould started acting up.

So made these small pancakes out of the rest of the batter.



Merry Christmas all !!
Here's asking Santa for some peace and happiness for this world. :-)