Neer Urundai / Water Balls

"Neer Urundai" literally means "Water Balls" . These are rice delicacies cooked directly in water. These are made from par boiled rice and are a rich source of vitamin B and protein.
These are very light snack and could be a light breakfast or dinner. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup of par boiled rice (idli rice)
• Pepper corns/Jeera
• 1/2 cup coconut
• Salt

Pre-cooking

• Soak the rice in water for approximately 4 hours

Method

• Grind the rice with water and salt like we do for idli/dosa
• Once the batter is formed, heat a kadai and add it.
• Stir continuously in medium flame until the dough becomes soft.
• You should be able to make balls out of it. That is the consistency.(It is in the same consistency as kozhukatai dough)
• Boil water in a stock pot.
• In the meantime make small balls out of the dough.
• Once the water starts boiling add balls to it in a batch.
• Balls are done when they start floating and change colour.
• Drain the water properly and keep for serving.
• These neer urundais can be eaten directly or season them with cumin/pepper fried in ghee as below:

Serving suggestions

• These taste best when hot.

Tips

• Take little care when making the dough. Do not burn them in the pan.
• While adding the urundais to the water, do not stir it until they are settled down.

Eggless Dates Cake

Thats right..its eggless..yet unimaginable moist and soft-easy and a quickie and a big hit with the crowd. I followed the exact recipe from  Shilpa's Aayi's recipes but reduced little bit of sugar and my baking took less time than the specified.She says that it would catch up a "cake fever" and indeed it did :-)

Ingredients

• 18 pitted dates /date fruit
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2-3/4 cup sugar(I used brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 1 cup of maida/all purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• choice of nuts(optional)

Pre-cooking

• Pre heat oven to 350 degree F

Method

• Heat the milk and dates for a few minutes until the dates become soft
• Grind this with sugar to a fine paste.
• Add oil and mix it well.
• Sieve the flour and baking soda and keep aside.
• Add the flour little by little to the liquid mixture until everything is blended smoothly.
• Add the nuts if needed.
• Pour into the cake pan and bake it in oven for 30 minutes.(Time might vary..so be sure to check it in between)
• Cake is done,when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and tidy.

Serving suggestions

• Serve its as such or frost it with your favorite frosting.

Tips

• The cake will be extra moist, so take care when taking it out from your pan.

Add this goes to Bake off event hosted by Bangalore Baker.