My son's first Diwali 2016

My son is 2 yr 5 months now and he is so excited this year to celebrate Diwali festival....Below is snacks and savories made/bought for this year by his Atchi and mama :)
Mi

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He liked chicken biryani this time as it was less spicy and he slept for 3 hrs nicely....LOL

In the evening...Let this Diwali be the beginning of Good over Evil, Happyness over Sadness, Courage over Coward

Crackers....coming soon...

Coconut Aval

This is my mom's recipe. She used to make when we were small during school days. Today she did this to my son who liked it very much.

You need:

Aval
Coconut shredded
Sugar
Ghee

Method:

Dry roast the aval in little ghee until it is crispy. Then immediately add sugar and coconut as per your taste. Add spoonful of ghee and nix well until it all binds well.

That's all...Delicious simple yummy snack is ready.

Mango cheese cake

Hi all,

I tried mango cheese cake receipe today adopted from yummy tummy website.

http://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/2012/04/eggless-mango-cheese-cake-no-bake-no.html

Yummilious it is :) 

Dates - Dry Fruits Laddu

One of the easiest snack receipe for your kids....Very healthy and yummy taste...

You Need:

Dates - 250 gms
Almonds, Cashew, Pista, Walnuts, Raisins - As needed

Method:

Grind the dates which is deseeded in blender. Heat a non stick pan and cook the blended dates. It will come together and form a dough kinda mixture. Once the dates come together, add the chopped nuts and give a stir so that dates and nuts are combined well.

Then apply ghee in your palm and start making laddu's.

Date - Dry fruits laddu is ready to be glubbed down..:)

Glorious Glazes

Are you looking for glaze for your dishes. here you go! Wonderful site which gives you recipes for variety of glazes. 

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Donut-Glazes

If not donuts, Just make the glaze and apply over the pav bun, croissants, or other types of bread and serve. Your kids will love it. 

Variety Rice

A perfect way to celebrate Gokulashtami is having a variety rice with Potatoes roast which is an excellent combination. I prepared Lemon rice, tomato rice, Tamarind rice, Sweet Pongal and curd rice for my first Gokulashtami. 

You find hell lot of recipes for these dishes in Google. So I have just posted with the Pic!

Enjoy!

Food Festive - Dec 2012

Isn't your mouth watering ..:P:P

Recipes Soon!!

Fallooda - An Indian dessert

After with all the spicy non vegan recipes, I'm here with a delicious, yummilicious, finger-licking drink to your taste buds..... Falooda!! As the name sounds different..this one is truly an different dessert/drink:) 

There are lot more versions in falooda...The authentic one calls for use of FALOODA SEV ( which can be prepared at home ( Check Here) and also use of basil seeds. I used vermicelli which we use for making payasam etc.  And also I didn't use basil seeds (Nanari ) as I didn't get it near my place. This is my version, simple and easy. 

You Need: (Serves - 1 no)

Rose Syrup - 6 tsp 

Whole Fat milk - 1 cups

Sugar - As per taste

Cashew nuts/Almonds/Pista - For garnish

Cherries - For garnish

Vermicelli - 4 tsp per serving

Vanilla Ice cream - 1 or 2 small scoops

FALOODA

If using, Soak the basil seeds for 30 min or more. Chop the nuts into mini bytes.

Once the milk is boiled, add the sugar, rose syrup (4 tsp) and mix well. Refrigerate this. Prepare this first in the morning and keep handy so that you can just use instantly when your guests arrive in evening.

Just before serving, take a pan, add water just enough to cover the vermicelli and cook. Strain the water and keep aside. It takes hardly 5 min.

Take the serving glasses, add the 2 tsp of rose syrup, then the boiled vermicelli, then slowly pour the chilled milk over the sides till 3/4 filled. Then top it with vanilla icecream. Garnish with nuts and cherries.

Note:
1. Be careful while pouring milk and ice cream so that you can form a layer.
2. Use of basil seeds is healthy version. After chilled milk, add the basil seeds. Then ice-cream and nuts.
3. The vermicelli should be in separate strands like in payasam. If the vermicelli is cold, it will stick to each other like in upma. So prepare this at last before serving guests. Add directly into glass while it is as separate strands.


The taste of ice-cream with the flavored milk, with healthy basil seeds and bytes of vermicelli along with crunchy nuts makes this dish unique......Mouth Watering isn't..? :)

Bread Malai

My first introduction to this dish was in one of my friend's house in US. Thereafter, I serve this dessert whenever I invite my friends to home. This is also called as Shahi Tukra:)

You Need:

Bread - 6 
Milk - 1 lt
Badam - 15 (soaked overnight, peeled and chopped, Optional)
Sugar - 1 cup or Condensed milk - 1/2 tin
Ghee / Oil - To deep fry
Saffron - 3 to 4 strands ( If using sugar)

Deep fried bread in saffron flavored malai (Pic 1)

Bread Malai using condensed milk

Take the bread pieces, remove the sides (optional) and then cut into triangles.

Option 1:  Deep fry the bread slices in oil (Pic 1) .
Option 2: Alternatively if you are calorie conscious , you can also roast it in little oil/ghee in non stick tawa (Pic 2).

If you follow option 1, it tastes little more crispy than optional 2. But, I stress again, both the method tastes very similar and highly delicious. Guaranteed!

There are two ways to prepare the malai.

Way 1:

Sugar Syrup: Take one cup of sugar and one cup of water. Stir continuously till the sugar is dissolved. Add pinch of cardamom powder for flavor. Stir till it changes to light golden color syrup. Soak the bread pieces one by one in hot sugar syrup for a min and remove. Keep the remaining sugar syrup aside.

Take a non stick pan, add milk, remaining sugar syrup. You can add saffron now. The one litre milk should be reduced to 1/2 litre. Stir continuously till the mixture starts to thicken. This is called malai/rabri.


Soak the roasted bread slices in hot malai mixture and keep it in the refrigerator. Serve chilled. Top it with nuts.

Way 2:

This method is not time-consuming since the addition of condensed milk. Take a non stick pan, add milk, condensed milk. Stir continuously till the mixture starts to thicken. The one litre milk should be reduced to 1/2 litre.  Pour the rabri over the bread pieces and sprinkle almonds. Serve chilled.

Truly a royal dessert. Also called as Double ka meetha,  in the state of Andhra Pradesh.  Its another dessert which is really to die for! 

PS: No drooling over my bread malai :P

Gulab Jamun (Version II)

You Need:

Gulab jamun mix (Any brand)

Water - 2 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Cashew nuts - 5 gms ( coarsely grind it)

Add 1/4 measure of water to 1 measure of MTR mix and knead the mix gently into a dough. The dough should not be two thick or thin consistency. If water is less, it will become hard and if water if more, it will break. Set aside for 5 min. Make small balls and keep the smmal bites of cahew nut in each ball and then futher round it into smooth balls. .Fry in hot oil/ghee over a low flame until golden brown. Soak the gulab jamuns in hot sugar syrup until they completely absorb the syrup and serve. The syrup should be made earlier and kept hot. 

To make sugar syrup, mix 2 cups of sugar with 2 cups of water in a deep pan. Add 3-4 cardamom pods, slightly crushed. Stir constantly with a spoon on medium heat for 10-15 minutes until sugar is all dissolved in water and the syrup turns to slight golden color.

Check out here Version I recipe of Gulab Jamun.

Yummy golden brown balls in flavored sugar syrup with chunk of cashewnut is now ready to be gulped…:)

Rava Kesari

You Need:

Rava - 1 cup

Sugar - As per sweetness

Cashew nuts - For garnish

Raisins - 2 tsp

Milk - 2 cups

Water - 1 cup ( you can also use 3 cups of water or milk)

Ghee - 4 tsp

Yellow food color - pinch

Take a non stick pan, fry the semolina in little ghee until it is lightly browned. Keep aside.

Then fry the raisins and nuts in little more ghee.  Keep aside.

Then bring water and milk to a boil. Add the rava and stir continuously to avoid clumps. Reduce to medium low flame. Stir until the mixture thickens and rava is cooked well. If required, add more water for the rava to cook.

Once the rava is cooked, add the sugar to the rava and it will liquefy the mixture again. To it add 2 tsp of ghee and yellow food color. Cook till the mixture starts to thicken. Switch off the flame. Add the nuts and raisins.

Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled. Either way it tastes splendid. 

Traditional Kesari is ready now. Enjoy this sweet delicacy with a cup of tea:)

Chocolate Rava Kesari

You Need:

Rava - 1 cup

Sugar - As per sweetness

Cashew nuts - For garnish

Raisins - 2 tsp

Milk - 2 cups

Cocoa powder - 2 to 2 1/2 tsp

Water - 1 cup ( you can also use 3 cups of water or milk)

Ghee - 4 tsp

Take a non stick pan, fry the semolina in little ghee until it is very lightly roasted and you get nice aroma of rava. Keep aside.

Then fry the raisins and nuts in little more ghee.  Keep aside.

Then bring water and milk to a boil. Add the rava and stir continuously to avoid clumps. Reduce to medium low flame. Stir until the mixture thickens and rava is cooked well. If required, add water for the rava to cook.

 Mix the 3 tsp of melted ghee and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. 

Once rava is cooked well, then only add the sugar to the rava and it will liquefy the mixture again. To it add the cocoa-ghee mix. Cook till the cocoa mix is cooked well and the mixture starts to thicken. Switch off the flame.

Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled. Either way it tastes splendid. 

Different and delicious kesari is now ready.

Serve to your guests and this will be "talk of the day" :)

Navratri Special....

Wishing all my friends, a happy and prosperous dussehra!

Here's some of the delights I made on this auspicious day for my family and neighbors ....Do check the photos now...the recipes will be up soon! I hurry, I forgot to take a pic of Sundal and Susiyum.....check out in last pic...:)

Ciao!

Vanilla flavored Kesari

Spicy Diamond Biscuit 

Gulab Jamun with cashew filling

Chocolate flavored Kesari

Phirni - A Bengali dessert 

2 in 1 Kesari

The platter of delights

Basboosa / Semolina Cake

Basboosa..as the name sounds different, this dessert tastes unique. This is an Egyptian dessert. Also called as semolina cake.

You Need:

Plain sooji  / rava - 1.5 cup

Butter - 1 stick 

Curd - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1 cup

Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp (Optional)

For sugar syrup:

Sugar 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Take a bowl, add butter and sugar, mix well. Add curd and vanilla extract if required. Mix untill combined well. Add the baking powder and rava and mix well untill it has dough like consistency. Let it rest for 30 min. 

Preheat the convection oven to 375F. Grease a baking dish with butter and pour the dough into it. Level it with spatula. Bake for 20 min.

Take out and cut into squares or diamonds or whichever shape you like. Keep one almonds or cashew nut in each piece (Optional)

Now bake for another 12 to 15 min or till the edges are turned brown. Now put it in broil mode till the surface will turn golden brown for 2 to 3 min. 

Mean while prepare the sugar syrup until the sugar dissolves and has syrup consistency. This should not take more than 5-10 min. Add lemon juice - 1tsp to the syrup. Take the hot basboosa from the oven and pour this syrup over it.  If less butter is used or over baked, it may become little hard.

If you can resist from eating, well and good. But it tastes best after 24 hrs.

Fruit Custard

Hats off to the one who founded custard powder! Within minutes, you can make mouth-watering dessert recipes using this ingredient.

You can now delight your loved ones by making fruit custard at your homeself. Very simple dessert recipe which can be made one day before you serve your guests. 

You Need:

Custard powder - 2 tbsp

Milk - 1 lt

Sugar - 1 cup

Take a thick bottomed pan and heat the milk. Once boiled, add the sugar. Meanwhile, take little warm milk and add custard powder to it. Mix well without any lumps. Once the sugar is dissolved, reduce to low flame and slowly add the custard mixture to the milk-sugar mixture. Constantly stir the mixture. This is more important step.

When the mixture starts to thicken, switch off the flame immedietly. Keep it in the fridge till it sets.

Tip: You can check the sweetness before adding the custard. The sweetness will generally reduce little after adding custard mixture. So ensure you add desired qty of sugar.

Once it sets, serve your loved ones along with cut-fruits. You'll be praised the all day:)

French Toast

You Need:


Eggs - 3 nos
Milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup ( +- as per required sweetness)
6-7 slices of bread (Avoid using wheat bread) 
Oil/Butter

French Toast

Mix all the ingredients except bread and beat them well. Heat the oil, in a skillet. Then dip both sides of bread slices in the mixture and shallow fry them over medium heat, till they turn to light golden brown.

Serve warm. French Toasts are good to go at breakfasts. Kids who don't like to drink milk in the mornings, give them this recipe for breakfast. They will love it:)

Kaaja

YOU NEED:


Maida flour-1 cup
Baking powder -1/2 tsp
Rice flour-2 tbsp

Ghee-4 to 5 tbsp
Water-1/2 cup for dough (or little less)
Sugar-1 1/2 cups
Water-1/4cup (for syrup)
Oil - For deep frying

First Trial

Second Trial

Note: During my first trial, due to addition of baking soda, my kaja's went out of shape. My second trial turned out to be very authentic. You need one or more trials to get right dough consistency.

Take maida/flour in a bowl, add ghee, baking powder to the maida/ flour, add sufficient water to make a dough, knead well. The dough should be like puri or chapathi dough. Divide the dough into two balls and roll into big chapathi. Mix rice flour and ghee in to a paste, lightly smear this paste on the chapathi, place another chapathi on top of it like a stack of 2 chappathies. Roll it like a mat and cut them into small pieces lengthwise. Heat oil and deep fry the kajas and drop them directly  into the hot  sugar syrup(one string consistency). Let the kaja absorb the syrup for a while. Remove from the syrup.

Serve Kaaja - Sweet delicacy of Andhra to ur near and dear ones.

Banana Kheer/Payasam

Banana is a healthy fruit ,easily avilable and very cheap indeed.This fruit which is available through out the year and we need not wait for the season.

You Need:

Ripe Banana's - 2-3 nos
Milk - 2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (Powdered)
or
Sugar - 1/4 cup ( As per sweetness)
Nuts (Cashews, Badam, Raisin) - 1/4 cup
Butter/Ghee - 1tsp

Mash the riped banana's with hand so as to form a nice paste. Take a pan add 2 tsp of butter and then add the banana paste to it and fry till it turns slighty brown. Next add either jaggery/sugar to it and keep mixing properly when all the jaggery/sugar is properly mixed well. Then add milk and water to it and simmer it to cook for 5 mins. 

You can add cardammom powder if you need  flavour.  Add the butter roasted nuts to it and mix properly and bring to boil and allow it to enhance the flavour by increasing the heat and cooking for another 4 mins. Depending upon the required consistency, add milk.

Hardly take 15 min to prepare this dessert. Serve hot or chilled. Kids will love it. 

Baklava - A Middle Eastern dessert

You need:

•Phyllo pastry : 1 pack ( You can find this at most of the grocery stores in the frozen section in foreign countries. Alternatively you can use puff pastry sheets...it should taste similar.)
 •Sugar : 1/2 cup
 •Almonds flakes : 2 cups
 •Baklawa Fillings : 2 cups (Make it at home)
 •Butter : 2 sticks or  2 cups
 •Sugar syrup : 1 cup (At home)

Baklawa Filling:
 •Cream : 2 cup
 •Custard powder: 1/2 cup
 •Hazelnut Meal: 1 cup (or) Almonds flakes: 1 cup
 •Eggs: 2
 •Sugar: 1/2 cup

Sugar syrup:
 •Sugar: 3.5 cups
 •Water: 2 cups
 •Lime juice: 1/2 tbsp

Baklavaaa.....

Filling Mixture

Before it goes into oven

                        

After pouring sugar syrup

1.Bring the phyllo pastry sheets into room temperature. I read somewhere about trying the same recipe with puff pastry which we get in India. But, you wont get as the original recipe. I havn't tried. Keep checking desserts column, will try and upload soon.

2.For baklawa filling mix all the ingredients together, blend it well
and keep them aside

3.Now unwrap and roll out the dough and cover the phillo pastry sheets
( If you want you may cover them with a damp cloth to keep the sheets
from drying out)

4.Butter a 12×16 inch baking pan and layer with phillo sheets, spread
the butter in the phillo sheet by using a pastry brush or some cloth
dipped in butter

5.Sprinkle some almonds on it and place another phillo sheet and do
repeat this for three more times

6.Now pour the filling and layer with  phyllo sheet and almonds flakes
as before.

7.Finally  pour the remaining butter on top of the phillo sheets  .

8.cut them into diamonds , if the knife stick with sheets dip the
knife in hot water then it’ll be easy for cutting

9.Preheat the convection oven for 350 F and bake the above tray for 45 minutes to
50 minutes or until it becomes golden brown on top. (watch them
carefully at the last 5 to 10 minutes otherwise it will burn quickly)

In between that prepare the sugar syrup,

10.Boil 2 cups of water in  a sauce pan when its come to full boil add
the sugar and let them boil for about 20 to 25 minutes. After that
remove the syrup from heat and squeeze the lime and mix it well


11.Now after the baklawa done at the oven remove it from there let it
cool for few minutes and pour the prepared hot sugar syrup from one
side of the tray and let it run on to other side.

12.And garnish them with pistachios.Let it sit for 15-30 mins before
serving them.

A must-have dessert before you die!! Trust me, You can't just have one! My husband made this dessert for me on valentine's day.

Highly addictive... Highly calories...Highly delicious..

Caramel Custard

You Need:

Eggs - 3 nos
Milk - 2 1/2 cups or 500 ml
Sugar- 1 1/2 cups for making custard
Sugar - 1/2 cup for making caramel
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Beat the eggs well and mix it with milk. Add sugar 2 1/2 cups and vanilla essence, mix well and keep aside. To prepare caramel, take a thick bottomed pan, add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water. Once sugar dissolved, don't stir it. Wait till turned into light golden brown colour. Remove immediately from flame. Immediately pour it in the bowl.The caramel tends to get solid. Make sure the caramel fills the entire bowl surface. Pour the custard mixture into the bowl. Keep the bowl inside the pressure cooker and cook till the knife inserted gently comes out smooth.

Remove from the flame and cool it. Once cooled completely, turn upside down the bowl and transfer it to the plate. The caramel runs over the custard.

Hats off to the founder of this dish....Most delicious...finger licking dessert...Serve chilled.