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? :-)

Doi Morich Chicken / Chicken in Yoghurt & Black Pepper Sauce

( Vegetarians can use Paneer or Cauliflower for this dish. Just add a little water too along with the other ingredients .... as these do not release much water by themselves to cook in.
Vegans can make this with coconut milk. )


This is a real quick dish that I came up with when I was in no mood to go through the process of grinding onions and other stuff for the usual chicken curry.

I had some curd and made the whole dish with it. And no oil too. The little droplets shimmering in the snap are actually whatever fat the curd and the chicken had.

This turned out to be very flavourful (don't go by the snaps :-)) and was made in minutes.

You can increase or decrease the amount of Black Pepper according to your tolerance level.
I love spicy stuff ... so dunked in a good amount.

Another thing .... when this is cooking, you might find the aroma of garlic a little overwhelming ... and you might be tempted to add some garam masala powder or any other stuff to get rid of the smell.

But don't .... after the whole thing gets cooked ... the smell will disappear. All you will get is the lovely aroma of the cooked curd and the black pepper.


Need : Chicken ( or paneer or cauliflower ( a little bigger than medium ) pieces, curd, coarsely crushed black pepper, crushed garlic, salt and sugar to taste.

How to : Mix everything together and let it sit for some time in the fridge ( I left it for about an hour while I finished a chore).

Dunk in everything in a kadhai / wok ... preferably non stick .... and cover and set on slow heat.
Simmer till done.

If you are making with paneer / cauliflower, do check for water at times ... add some if needed.
You can make it slightly dryish too ... tastes even more better.

Enjoy with hot plain rice / rotis !