Cashew Burfi.

Happy Dassara to all my readers! Festive season means, lot of yummy dishes and many get-togethers with family and friends. It is a tradition during Dassara to make prasadam and offer it to God and distribute it to everyone who visits us that day. One such recipe was this Cashew Burfi.
It is a quick n easy dessert which requires very less time, and minimum ingredients.

Ingredients:
Cashew nuts: 1 cup.
Sugar: 1 cup.
Ghee:1-2 spoons.
Saffron threads: 2-4.
Parchment paper.

Method:
Take a cup of cashews, and grind it into a fine powder, take care not to over grind the cashews as it may turn oily and sticky.
In a heavy bottom pan, dissolve sugar and make it into a syrup.(does not have to get any string consistency).
Once the sugar is dissolved, add the cashew powder and mix well.
Allow the mixture to cook and get thick, make sure to keep stirring so it does not burn at the base. Now its time to add the saffron threads.
 After a few minutes the mixture would slowly get thicker and start leaving the sides of the pan. At this point, add ghee and transfer onto the parchment paper. Allow the mixture to cool for few minutes. Cover the mixture completely with parchment and press using a rolling pin to make a thin sheet.
Cut the sheet into desired shape, and decorate it with edible silver foil or cashew bits.
Cashew Burfi is ready to serve.

Crispy, Spicy Nipattu/ Thattai.

Weather and food always go hand in hand, our food habits change as seasons change. After all the cold salads, smoothies and ice creams for the summer months, we are slowly moving to Fall. The days are short followed by long cold nights. I would love to have a crispy Nipattu with a cup of hot coffee for the evening snack....

To make these nipattus, we need:

 

 Ingredients:
Rice flour: 1 cup
Peanut: 1/2 cup (coarsly ground)
Fried Bengal gram: 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Salt
Hot oil: 1 tbsp
Oil to fry
Water as required

Method:
To begin, take 1/2 cup of fried Bengal gram and grind it into a fine powder. In the same mixer add the peanuts and just give a pulse so that the peanuts are ground into a chunky powder.

Heat oil to deep fry.

In a mixing bowl, take 1 cup of rice flour, the ground mixture, chilli powder, salt and mix well.
To this add 1 table spoon of hot oil, mix well with the flour mixture.

Add required quantity of water to make a stiff dough. The dough should not be too hard or watery, it should not stick to the fingers. Once the dough is mixed add more oil to the surface to keep it moist.

Take a sheet of plastic or a banana leaf and grease it well. Take a lemon size ball of dough and spread the dough using the fingers into small discs, make a hole in the centre and carefully drop them into hot oil, deep fry till golden brown on a medim flame.
Crispy nipattus are ready. These nipattus can be stored for a few weeks in an air tight container and enjoyed.

Krishnajayanthi special! Aval laddu.

Advance Happy Krishna jayanthi to all!
This weekend we will be celebrating the birthday of lord Krishna.  Krishna jayanthi is synonym with making a lot of sweet and savory dishes and offering it to Krishna.
 Aval/poha being his favorite, this receipe is even special. Aval laddu is very easy to make and requires few ingredients. 
It can be made in 20 minutes from start to finish. 
Try this laddu and make your celebration even more fun.

Ingredients:
Thick Aval/Poha-3/4 cup.
Roasted Bengal gram-1/4 cup.
Sugar- 1/3 cup.
Cardamom powder-1 pinch.
Cashew- 5(broken into small pieces).
Raisin- 10.
Ghee-1/4 cup( melted).

Method:
Clean the aval by removing any dirt and lightly roast on a low flame for 5 minutes till you smell the aroma of Aval.
Then dry roast the Bengal gram for 2 minutes.
Grind aval, bengal gram into a fine powder separately.
Grind sugar into a fine powder.
Using a spoon of ghee, fry the cashews and raisins.
In a mixing bowl, take ground aval, bengalgram powder, cardamom powder, sugar and fried cashew and raisin( mix well).
Heat ghee and add it to the bowl and make the mixture into round balls.
Aval laddu is ready!

Hot or Cold Paneer Payasam.

During my visit to India, I came across the recipe for Paneer Payasam/ came back home, took my own sweet time and finally got the opportunity to try this recipe. The good thing about this recipe is that, it can be made easily and served hot or cold.

Ingredients:
Whole milk: 1 Litre.
Condensed milk: 1 Cup.
Dry nuts: cashew, pista and badam( chopped).
Paneer grated: 1 cup.
Saffron: few threads.
Cardamom powder.
Ghee: Few TSp to fry.

Method:
Take milk in a heavy bottom pan and bring it to a boil/ simmer until it reduces in half by stirring in between.
Soak the saffron threads in milk( few spoons).
Once the milk is reduced add the condensed milk, saffron soaked milk and cardamom powder and mix well.
Finally add the grated paneer, and simmer it for few minutes.
At last fry the nuts in ghee and add the fried nuts to the milk mixture.
Serve it hot or chill it in the fridge and serve cold.

Chocolate avocado mousse!

Today, I was watching a cooking show and this recipe caught my attention. This mousse is just simple, elegant, and healthy. I happened to have all the ingredients or the closest ones and tried to make it. It turned out great. Do try.

Ingredients:
Ripe avocados- 2 no.
Chocolate chips-1/2 cup.
Coco powder- tbsp.
Vanilla extract- 1-2 teaspoon.
Almond milk/ regular milk- 4-5 tbsp/ as required.
Honey/ agave- 1/4 cup.
Salt- a small pinch.

Method:
First bring a pot of water to boil and into this pot place another pan with chocolate chips in it, so that the chips melt from the heat of the hot water. Take care not to let any water enter the chocolate. The chocolate chips will melt in few minutes.
Once the chips melt let them cool.
Cut the ripe avocado and remove the inside flesh. Take the avocado, melted chocolate chips, coco powder, honey, vanilla extract and milk into a food processor and process till smooth paste. Add milk as required to get a mousse consistency.
Pour the mousse into a bowl or into individual ramikens and chill them in the fridge for 1 hr and serve them cold.

Note:
I have used honey instead of agave and regular milk instead of almond milk.
But still the taste was good. So do try the other ingredients if you like.

Capsicum Kadi!

Kadi is a traditional Gujarati dish made using curd, hence the name. There is an interesting incident as to how I came up with this dish. Here it goes....

One morning my hubby was busy with his office call, which made me think that he would be leaving for work after a while....that would give me plenty of time to make a traditional side dish for rice. But, it so happened that he told me he would be leaving in next 10 minutes as there was an important meeting in the office! This time was not sufficient to make a traditional sambar, or any other side dish. That is when this recipe came to my rescue!!
    From the above information you must have learnt that this is a quick dish!

Ingredients:
Capsicum / Bell peppers-2 (Green, Red).
Curry leaves-few.
Red chillies- 2 no.
Jeera/Cumin- 1 tbsp.
Besan flour- 2 tbsp.
Curd-1/2 cup.
Chilli powder-1 teaspoon.
Garam masala-1 teaspoon.
Oil- 4 tbsp.
Salt.


Method:
Start off by chopping the bell peppers into bite size pieces.
Take a wok or a heavy bottom pan, and heat the oil.
Add the cumin seeds, red chillies, and curry leaves to the hot oil followed by bell peppers.
Fry the peppers till tender. 
At this point mix the besan flour with curd and make it into a smooth paste.
Add the besan mixture into the pan, if the mixture is thick add enough water. 
Once the mixture  starts to boil, add the chilli powder and garam masala.
Allow the Kadi to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add salt to taste.
 Kadi is ready. 


Note: Serve with Hot Rice and Ghee!

Home made Easy-Cheesy Garlic Bread!

Garlic breads are classic appetizers served in the Italian restaurants and Pizzerias these days!!!!
In this recipe I have tried to recreate the dish and it turned out pretty good!!!
There are a few steps involved, if we have all the ingredients it is easy to make. We can make use of any regular store bought non-sweet bread to make this appetizer.

There are a few steps involved.

Making Garlic butter- Melt butter in a sauce pan, and add chopped garlic to infuse the garlic flavor through out the butter untill the garlic turns light golden brown.

Moving on to the rest of the process:

Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.
Take store bought bread slices, and lay them on a baking sheet.
To the bread  apply the garlic butter liberally, then add the shredded mozzarella cheese to cover the bread completely. 
Then sprinkle the chopped basil leaves all over the bread.
Lastly season  the bread with salt and pepper and bake them in the oven for 10-12 min, till the cheese melts.
Then rise the temperature to broil and continue to bake till the cheese starts to turn golden brown.
Take out the bread from the oven and cool for few minutes.
 Cut them into long strips and serve them warm with some marinara sauce


Oh! By the way here is the list of ingredients:
Slices of bread- 4 slices.
Butter- 3 Tb sp.
Garlic Clove-1.
Mozerella cheese(shredded)- 2 cups.
Basil leaves- 6-8 leaves.
Salt and pepper.