Whole Wheat Flour Pineapple cake

Pineapple Cake

Whenever I pass near the cart selling ripe juicy pine apple I cannot but resist of thinking of Pineapple cake. The one we get in market are full of artificial flavor and color which desists me from buying them from bakery. I love my food as far as possible free of chemicals which are harmful and add no value to the food we eat. The cake which I am presenting today is free of artificial flavor and color. It is made in whole wheat flour, chunks of pineapple and juice of pineapple thus is packed with nutrients and fibers. The color may not look as good as you get in bakeries or are sold by many home bakers but the taste is certainly better and it will be guilt free eating as you will know that it is not going to cause any harm to you and your loved ones as it is free of artificial color and flavor.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Baking Time: 40-45 minutes

Servings: makes 750 g. cake (approx.)

Nutritional value: (Approx.)

• Energy 2000 Cal
• Fat: 100gm
• Cholesterol: 775mg
• Sodium: 200mg
• Potassium: 1100mg
• Carbs: 125 gm
• Fibers: 39gm
• Sugar: 100gm
• Protein: 24g
• Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, Iron

Ingredients Required For making Pineapple Cake:

• 150 gm. Whole wheat flour
• 3 Medium size eggs
• 1 Teaspoon baking Powder
• 1/2Teaspoon baking soda
• 100 gm. Butter (I use Nutrelite butter)
• 1 Pinch of Salt (If using white/unsalted butter)
• 150 gm. Castor sugar (I prefer less sweet so use 100 gm. only)
• 200 gm. Diced pieces of Pineapple
• 150-200 ml. Fresh Pineapple pulp

Directions For making Pineapple cake:

• Remove all peel and spiky things from pineapple.
• Cut the pineapple to slices and core the slices.
• Cut the slices to 1cm (Approx.) pieces.

Pieces of Pineapple for Cake

• Keep 200 gm of the pieces away for further use.
• Pulse the remaining slices and the core of pineapple to get thick pulp.
• Mix
• Flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)
• Sieve 3-4 times.
• Separate egg whites from egg yolk.
• Whisk egg white to stiff peaks.

Whisked Egg White

• Cut the chilled butter to small cubes and add sugar to it.
• Whisk till it becomes creamy.
• Add egg yolks one at a time and whisk to get frothy, creamy mixture of butter, sugar and egg yolk.

Creamy mixture ready for Flour and Pineapple

• Add the pieces of pineapple to flour and mix so that all pieces get coated with flour mix.

Pineapple pieces in Flour mixture of Cake

• To the (butter + sugar + egg yolk mixture) add (flour + pineapple mixture) and whisked egg whites alternately and after each addition of flour/egg white mix with very light hands using either wooden spoon/fork or your fingers.
• Add pineapple paste in two instalments. Mix after each addition. Depending upon your batter thickness the pineapple paste requirement may change.
• The last step should be finished fast as the acid of pineapple reacts with baking soda and baking powder.
• The batter should be pourable but not runny or thick which does not get poured.
• Pour the batter in the prepared baking pan.
• Tap two three times to level the surface and remove the trapped air bubbles.
• Bake at 180^oC for about 35-40 minutes, or till the cake is done. Check for the doneness of cake by poking a clean skewer in the cake, if it comes out clean cake is baked.

Baking at 180 C

• Remove the cake from oven and cool it in the rake. Cake is ready.

Pineapple cake

• Cut the cake when it is cooled.

Soft Moist Pineapple cake

Enjoy the fruity, chemical free pineapple cake with tea/coffee.

Tips:

• The size of the eggs thus the liquid content provided by them differ thus the amount of pineapple pulp required may change. Always check the consistency of batter before adding all pulp.
• Eggs and butter should be at the same temperature (Approx.), else curdling occurs.
• If ever the butter eggyoly mixture starts curdling then do not worry either keep working with it or add just a spoon of flour and whisk. 
• The baking time varies with the type of oven used. Keep checking for doneness of cake after 30 minutes.
• If you desire to have the cake pieces cut too evenly then dice the pineapple to small pieces. I love chunks of pineapple in cake.
• To get the yellow color and strong flavor you may use one drop of yellow color and 2-3 drops of pineapple flavor any good brand.
• Whole wheat flour can be replaced by refined white flour (Maida/all-purpose flour). The cake comes out softer and lighter. I prefer whole wheat flour as it is more nutritious and has lots of fibers.
• Place a small bowl with chilled water at the bottom rake of oven while baking the cake this will make sure the top crust does not become hard.
• If the cake is not done but the top is becoming darker, just cover it with a tin foil and bake till done.

Suggested Variations:

• Butter can be rerplaced by olive oil to get less fatty and less cholesterol content in cake. For replacement of butter amount to oil always use 100:60 ratio of butter to oil because butter has water content which is lacking in oil.
• If fresh fruit is not available then tinned pineapple can be used. 4-5 pieces can be diced and 5-6 pieces can be made to pulp. Artificial flavor and color is must if using tinned pineapple.
• Whole wheat flour can be replaced by all-purpose flour. If using all-purpose flour then replace the baking soda by baking powder (1+1/2) the cake will certainly will be lighter and less dense but the goodness of fibers and nutrients will be missing from the cake.
• Use 50 gm. less sugar and soak the cake with the sugar syrup of tinned peneapple this will add sweetness with pineapple flavor.

Cauliflower In Coconut sauce/गोभी की सब्जी नारियल के ग्रेवी में(Indian savory)

auliflower in Coconut sauce

Cauliflower is a compound flower. Small florets are attached to one common stalk. The vegetable is eaten before the buds get converted to flowers, thus it can be safely said that cauliflower is collection of large number of undeveloped buds attached to the same main stalk. This vegetable is rich in sulphur, calcium and iron. Due to the presence of sulphur it has typical flavor and taste. White color cauliflower is most common and consumed, though orange, yellow, purple variants also exist.

Cauliflower is cooked in spices, sauces, roasted, baked, boiled and converted to soup. All variations taste as delicious as they can get.

Whichever way we may cook this white beauty, we must never over cook it and make it mushy, because then the taste, flavor and texture is lost.

I love my cauliflower in peanut milk sauce, Hemp seeds sauce and coconut milk sauce. Each of these milks have different flavor and texture and I love them all. Coconut milk is rich in lots of micro nutrients and is very healthy but rich in fats as compared to peanut and hemp seeds milk.

Let us make cauliflower in coconut sauce.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 6 large Servings

Nutritional Facts: (Approx.) for 6 large servings

Calorie 460

Fats 56.2 gm

Sodium 96 mg

Potassium 1038mg

Carbs 15.6 gm

Fibers 4 gm

Sugars 13.8 gm

Protein 11 gm

Calcium 40mg

Iron 5mg

Phosphorous 192 mg

Magnesium 92mg

Ingredients Required To make Cauliflower in Coconut sauce:

• 200 gm Florets of Cauliflower
• 200 ml. Milk of coconut / 1 coconut
• 1 Medium size Potato (Optional)
• 4 Teaspoons Thick Curd (Not too sour)
• 1/2Teaspoon cooking oil (I use olive oil)
• 1 (1/2 + 1/2) Teaspoon Mustard seeds
• 1 (1/2+1/2) Teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 1 Pinch of Asafoetida
• 1 Whole Red Chili
• 3 Stalks of Curry leafs / sweet neem
• 2 Green Chilies
• 4-5 Sprigs of Fresh Coriander
• Salt to taste

How to make coconut Milk:

• Remove the coconut kernel from shell and grate / cut to small pieces.
• Pulse the grated/ pieces of coconut with water (200 ml added in small portions) till it becomes smooth paste.
• Sieve the thick milk of coconut from the paste. Keep the thick milk aside. It should be between 100-150 ml.

 Fresh Thick Milk Of Coconut

• Take the remainder solid of coconut and pulse it again with 150 ml. luke warm water to extract whatever milk is left in coconut. This will be the thin milk of coconut. It will be nearing 130-140 ml. keep aside for further use.

Directions for making Cauliflower in Coconut Sauce:

• Cut the florets of cauliflower to long pieces. I prefer them thick and little bulkier.
• Wash the cut florets.
• Take 500 ml. water and 1 teaspoon salt in a big pan and boil it. 
• When the water comes to boil add washed florets in it and cook for 2-3 minutes on low heat or till they change color and become tender to touch.
• Drain water from the cooked cauliflower florets and pour chilled water on them to stop from further cooking with the remainder of heat in them.

El Dente Cauliflower

• Cut potatoes to 1 inch cubes and cook them in salt water like cauliflower. Only while cooking potato pieces make sure they are cooked el dente.
• Drain water and keep aside the blanched florets, discard water.
• Split green chilies and remove the seeds. Keep aside.
• In a wok take 1/2 teaspoon oil and heat.
• Add
• Mustard seeds
• Cumin seeds
• 2 Stalks of Curry leaves and split green chilies.
• Cook for 30 seconds on high/medium heat. The seeds will splutter and a wonderful aroma of spices and curry leafs will emanate.
• Add asafoetida and mix.
• Add cooked potato pieces and mix nicely. Cover and cook for 1-2 minutes on low heat with stirring once or twice.
• Add cauliflower floret pieces and mix.
• Cover and cook on low heat for 1-2 minutes with once or twice stirring. The potaoes should become soft and cooked.
• Add thin coconut milk and cook on high flame with constant stirring till the liquid reduces to half.

Thin Milk Of Coconut added

• Add thick milk of coconut and cook on medium heat with constant stirring for 2 minutes.

Just before Curd To be Added

• If you are using canned coconut milk, then add 100ml. water to the vegetable, cook for a minute and then add coconut milk and cook. This will make sure that the sauce does not become too thick and sticky.
• Beat curd and add to the vegetable and give one boil.

Curd Added 

• Add salt to taste and few chopped coriander leafs. Mix, switch off the heat and cover the wok. Let the flavors mix nicely.

Caouliflower In coconut suace brfore Tempering

• Heat the cooked vegetable and take out the cooked cauliflower in coconut sauce in a serving bowl.
• Prepare the tempering by heating 1/2teaspoon oil in a pan.
• Add Mustard seeds
• Cumin seeds
• 1 Stalk of Curry leaves
• One whole red chili
•  cook 30 seconds.
• The color of chili will darken, mustard will split and the curry leafs will become crisp.
• Pour the tempering over the cooked vegetable and garnish with coriander leafs.

 Cauliflower in Coconut Sauce

Enjoy the yummy Coconutty cauliflower with Roti/Rice or crisp toasted bread.

Tips:

• Omitting potato from ingredients will reduce some caorie and carb/starch contents, instead of omitting potato you can reduce the amount.to half a potato.
• Make sure the cauliflower is cooked el dente while blanching. Otherwise while cooking with coconut sauce it will become mushy.
• To stir while cooking the cauliflower with coconut sauce is very important, as this makes sure that the sauce will not stick to the bottom of the wok and get burnt.
• Using luke warm water while taking out milk from coconut ensure complete extraction of the milk.
• Thinning the canned milk is necessary to make sure that the sauce has the correct texture and consistency.
• Even though it should not happen yet if at any stage you feel that the milk is curdling just add paste of 1 teaspoon of corn flour/ whole wheat flour/rice flour. 
• Curd should not be thin and too sour. It is added to give the subtle acidity to the sauce.

Suggested variations:

• Coconut milk powder can also be used instead of freshly extracted milk/canned milk. Just add warm water to the coconut milk powder mix nicely to get smooth paste and then add water to get the correct consistency for milk. I use 200ml. water for 50 gm coconut milk powder.