Eggless Peanut - Coconut cookies

Since Valentine's Day is nearing, I decided to warm up my oven for making goodies. There are a lot of cookies baking these days in blogging world. I was drooling on all the yummy cookies which participated in JZ's event. I have not been much successful in baking cookies. If you see my past posts, you would realize that I have posted just one cookie recipe which is Nankhatai. When I bake cookies, it always expands/burns/too crispy. However, I did not feel like totally giving up on baking cookies as the pictures in other blogs have always tempted me. I decided to try one of the Eggless cookie from Prav's blog. I did not have Almonds, hence I used Peanuts. The taste and texture came out good. I was glad that I could finally make a proper cookie.



Source: Pravs's Coconut-Almond Cookie

Ingredients:
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• 1 cup Maida/All Purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Peanuts (I used the roasted unsalted Peanuts)
• 1/2 cup Butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup grated Coconut

How to make:
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1. Preheat oven to 350 F/170 C
2. Crush Peanuts to a coarse texture. Tip: Put Peanuts in a Zip-lock bag and crush them coarsely by using a rolling pin.
3. Mix Butter and Sugar until it is well combined
4. Add Peanuts, grated Coconut, and All Purpose flour to the Butter and Sugar mixture
5. Chill the dough for 15 minutes or make sure the dough is in a cool place and nowhere near the oven as the butter in the dough would start melting and cause the cookie to spread before you shape them and bake.
6. Make small balls out of the dough and flatten them a little. Press a half Peanut into each cookie. Again while making the balls, do not keep them between your palms for long time, as cookie dough needs to be cool when they go in the oven.
7. Arrange these balls with one long finger space between each cookie , on a parchment paper on a cookie sheet/tray
8. Bake them in the preheated oven for 12-13 minutes or until the bottom of the cookie becomes light brown.
9. Transfer the tray to a cool place for the cookies to cool. The cookies would not be done immediately out of the oven. But they harden and become crunchy when cooled.

Proud to display my cookie jar on my kitchen shelf ;)

Hope you enjoy these cookies the same way I did :)

Similar recipes from other blogs:

Divya's Almond Coconut cookies
Madhuram's Eggless Butter Pecan Cookies
Renuka's Eggless chocolate cookies/biscuits


Friends , my dear friend Varsha Vipin of Will-O'-the-Wisp passed me this lovely Butterfly award :) Thank you so much Varsha !

I am passing it on to these dear friends in blogging world:

Cham of Spice Club
Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner
Teena of Kaipunyam.com

Pasta - Potato Salad

We had recently been to one of our favourite restaurants in Framingham, Ruby Tuesday. Both of us love the salad bar in Ruby Tuesday. That alone is enough to fill your stomach halfway before your main course arrives. You can have unlimited amount of salad from the salad bar and hence I always make sure to make frequent trips towards the salad bar :) . I love the pine nuts, and the pasta salad, and potato salad.

Salads have been my favourite since my childhood, I used to love having raw cabbage leaf, carrot, tomato, onion and green chilli combo along with curd. Also I was the only one in my house who used to love having raw sprouted green moong. My mother was happy as well as quiet amused and surprised to see me hogging those sprouted green moong which she used to sometimes purposely make just for me :) After few years she used to make a simple salad with sprouted green moong, minced onion, tomatoes, green chilli, coriander and bit of salt and lemon juice. I loved it.


Coming to Potato salad, I don't remember where I first had it, but I remember where I first saw it. It was in my office cafeteria in India. I am proud to say that our office cafeteria was one of the best. They had a very good menu. I had seen egg salad, potato salad, pancakes, everything for the first time over there. I was not so fond of Mayo that time . I didn't like it that time. Things change when you come to US though :) . I was determined to make this at home as I had tasted this in several restaurants (especially Ruby Tuesday) and had become a great fan. I wanted to keep it light and towards the healthier side. Hence this is what I did:

Ingredients:

Pasta (whole wheat variety)- 2 cups of pasta cooked according to package instructions. I used the Rottini variety.

Potatoes (I used the red skin variety) : 2 medium sized, boiled until just done so that it doesn't lose shape while slicing into medium segments.

Frozen spinach : 1 cup, which is to be thawed before using

Frozen green peas (optional): 1/2 cup, thawed before using

Canned Tuna in water (optional) : 1 can

Minced Garlic: 2 tablespoons

Low-fat seasoned Mayonnaise: Refer my post for the recipe

Soy Sauce - 1 teaspoon or as per your taste

Seasoning:

Dry Basil Leaves
Oregano powder
Minced Coriander leaves
Lots of freshly cracked pepper





Method:

In a deep bottom vessel on medium high heat, add thawed spinach, canned tuna (along with the water), and garlic. Saute them on medium-low fire until everything is cooked. There is no need to add any oil for sauteing the above spinach and tuna mixture as the water from the tuna helps the cooking process. [as far as the Tuna goes, Chunk light tuna in water is one of the lightest canned variety fish]

Season the already sliced potatoes with a little pinch of salt and lots of freshly cracked pepper, dry basil leaves, and a little oregano. Add these seasoned potato, pasta and mix well until everything is well combined. Switch off the fire and transfer to a serving dish. Add the Mayonnaise combine well again. Add a generous amount of seasoning ( I add lots of cracked pepper as there is no other source of heat in this salad and I like my salad a little spicy. Freshly cracked pepper gives a whole lot of flavour to this salad. ) Serve it immediately or refrigerate it and serve cold along with low-calorie saltines/crackers and some vegetable sticks.

Low-fat seasoned Mayonnaise

As I wrote in my previous post, I am trying to follow a low-fat cooking diet. I have this book I got recently from library called Low-Fat Cooking for good health by Gloria Rose which I follow for some of her low-fat recipes. One such recipe I made from the book was Low-Fat Mayonnaise, which is referred to as "Our" Mayonnaise in this book :) Its really easy and I used it as a dressing in other recipes. Here is the recipe which I modified by omitting certain ingredients and adding different herbs and seasoning.



This recipe calls for refrigerating overnight, hence this is a make ahead recipe.

Ingredients:

---------------

4 tablespoons low-fat Cottage Cheese
1 egg white (preferably use fresh eggs)
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Bit of coriander leaves
Dry Basil powder (optional)



Method:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender/food processor and process until smooth, and creamy.
2. Transfer contents to a glass bowl and refrigerate overnight.
3. Can be used as a salad dressing or as a dip.
Lasts for 2-3 days.

luv
Roopa