Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Coconut-Almond-Orange Delish


As you know from the last post that necessity is the mother of invention. Then the need to dispose or disperse must be the father.

Just before leaving on a vacation what do you do with 2 oranges, some milk, a piece of coconut? Thada ~~ it is a new cake. This cake is styled based on a Koli cake called Khandavi but has completely different ingredients. It tastes similar due to the jaggery. Have you heard of that? Jaggery in a cake, you might think I'm crazy. Just try this recipe and tell me what you think about it.

When I served this cake to my Dad in the coconut shell he guffawed as he remembered the saying "Karvanti hatat gheeon phirne" which means to go around begging with a coconut shell as a bowl. Then he muttered aloud "God knows what this blog will make me do next". Picking up the piece between the thumb and the first finger and nibbling at it delicately. "Reminds me of Ayah (his grandma's) taste". "Aha did Ayah have oranges and almonds in her kitchen" I retorted. Alright as long as it tastes good and he enjoys it I'm happy.

So here presenting a recipe with an earthy charm yet can be called a cake.

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup almonds powdered coarsely + 1 handful for sprinkles
1/8 th piece of a dry coconut powdered coarsely
1/8 cup crushed jaggery
3 tablespoons ghee
juice of 1 orange
segments of 1 orange (opened up wedges and separated with a delicate hand)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk

In a large bowl add the orange juice, ghee and jaggery, beat to dissolve it. It take a good 10 mins. Mix in a separate bowl all the dry ingredients, wheat flour, powdered almonds, powdered dry coconut, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients spoon by spoon and fold into the liquid with a spatula till used. Once this is done adjust the consistency with milk. I needed 1 cup of milk this quantity may vary depending on the amount of orange juice you use. The batter should be thick and should fall in folds when dropped. This is the right consistency for cakes to rise well.


Meawhile preheat oven to 180 deg celcius. Pour the batter in a greased 6 inch tin and bake for 25 mins till knife inserted in it comes out clean.



Cool for 5 mins and invert it on to a serving dish. Sprinkle on the top crushed almonds. Cut into wedges and serve in empty coconut shells. For those who are not exactly fans of jaggery can use equal amounts of sugar or as per taste. I tend to make sweets less sweeter than is common here.

Incase you plan to make this Coconut-Almond-Orange Delish for a kids party start collecting coconut shells over a month in advance. They will be thrilled with it while elders might smirk like my Dad.

14 comments:

  1. The cake sounds so delicious that I might actually have to buy some of the ingredients to try it out. btw, I do know of khandvi, and ABSOLUTELY love it - we make it with freshly ground soaked rice though. OK, so now I have 2 things to make on my list. Have a good trip!

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  2. A creative idea to use the ingredients

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  3. looks great... very innovative idea...

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  4. that looks out of this world. we often use jaggery in cakes.

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  5. my good, that should've smelled and tasted heavenly:) I love adding orange zest to my baked goodies:)

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  6. nice recipe...very innovative..

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  7. this is a fantastic recipe....jaggery in cake is a good more healthy option......

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  8. ET as a kid I never liked khandavi but now I do appreciate it. We make it with tandalachi kani- rice meal that normally is a by-product of dehusking rice after the harvest. It lends a beautiful texture. I think the soaked rice version must be adapted for the city am sure it would taste equally divine. Hummm actually I made this for my NE tour but yes I accept your wishes as I am off to a military training camp soon, the same place where are cricketers were packed off to some time ago.

    Divya Vikram yeah when one has no option :).

    I would have guessed that Bee!

    Yeah Mansi orange zest is a real good option for home baking if not using rum for people like me.

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  9. That's an interesting idea....a unique combination of different flavours....

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  10. ABSOLUTELY delicious, my kind of rustic cake Anjali and I ALWAYS prefer to use jaggery in cakes...i was laughing out loud at your line on dad saying " what all will this blog make me do" - still grinning actually! I'm going to try it out soon

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  11. This is my first visit here and this is the first recipe of yours I'm reading. Wow! you indeed are very creative. This cake looks so delicious.

    But one doubt though, back in India in my place they usually tell that it's not good to eat something citric and milk together. It's bad for the stomach. Can you shed some light on this topic? Thank you very much.

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  12. madhuram

    Yeah they do say that becoz milk gets curdled with citric acid. I think this notion is only to keep the aesthetics of milky foods to stay in the given condition.

    Yet it makes it easier to digest.

    Paneer is made by adding an acidic agent either lime juice, curd to milk. This process oppose the notion that milk and citric acid together are bad.

    Here is an interesting read for you. It says milk should be had on its own.

    http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/digestive-physiology-and-food-combining/food-combining-rules.html

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  13. Thanks for the information Anjali. You are right about paneer, I love paneer, but this did not occur to me at all. Here in US for breakfast, they have cereal with milk, followed by orange juice. When I told this to my grandmother, she used to tell me not to do the same, its' bad for the stomach.

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