Rak's Kitchen

GUAVA LIME COOLER RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 31 May 2012 03:22:52 PDT

Had this Guava lime drink in Salivation restaurant. Me and Vj just love it. It is very different from the usual drinks,yet delicious. Always been puzzled about what the ingredients could be. Because, they named the drink differently. Luckily they had the hint about the recipe in the menu card itself! How cool! Then tried at home to recreate it. Sure this will be in my menu often. It will make our guests say wow and they will never fail to ask you for the recipe!

Ingredients(Makes 4 glasses)

Green guava	2
Lime	1
Lime zest	A pinch
Honey	2 tblsp
Salt	A pinch
Sugar	If needed

Method

Wash and cube the guava. Place it in blender and add some water. Grind it for a minute. No need to grind for too long. Otherwise you will grind the seeds as well. but make sure you had ground the fruit smooth.
Strain the ground guava pulp using a metal strainer, by adding water while straining. Add lime zest and squeeze the lime to the guava juice. Mix salt,honey and sugar(if needed).

Place ice cubes in the serving glass and fill it with the guava lime cooler. Enjoy!

Notes

Honey is very very important for the flavour. If you want to test, just taste the juice before and after adding honey, you will know ;)

Technorati Tags: guava lime cooler recipe,guava drink,guava juice,summer drinks recipes

ONION RAVA DOSA RECIPE (WITH VIDEO)

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:23:54 PDT

I already have a rava dosa post with two different recipes. But wanted to make it as onion rava dosa and with videos. So I thought of blogging this. Did I tell you I love anything and everything made out of rava/ semolina /sooji ? Be it kesari or upma or kichidi I love like anything. I have been brought up eating different upmas for dinner, delicious, hot wonderful tasting upmas mom makes! Especially I love the rava upma she makes.

Rava dosa is one I learnt making only after I started exploring the blogging world and got hooked to the recipe from Prema’s cookbook. It always comes out perfect and gives me a relief if I run out of dinner ideas for Aj. It is instant version which calls for no soaking time…that's the best part! He is not very fond of rava dosa, but still he is okay with it. He is like Vj. He is not big fan of rava upma, but thank god he likes rava dosa at least! So here is the way I make onion rava dosa. In restaurants I think – ‘I think’ first they sprinkle the onion on the tawa/ dosa pan first and then pour the batter over it, not sure…but I do this way. Both works for me and turns out good. So its your choice.

Ingredients(makes 7-8 dosas)

Semolina/ rava/ soooji	1/2 cup
Rice flour	1/2 cup
Maida	1/4 cup
Ginger, finely chopped	1 tblsp
Green chillies	1, chopped
Whole black pepper	2 tsp
Jeera	1 tsp, heaped
Onion	1, finely chopped
Coriander leaves,chopped	1 tblsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig, torn
Salt	As needed
Sugar	1/4 tsp(for browning)
Oil/ghee	as needed

Method

Take all the ingredients except onion in a bowl and mix water with it. Use a egg beater for easy mixing. Keep onions aside. The batter should be very thin of running consistency. Then only your dosa will come thin and lacy.
Heat a non stick dosa pan preferably. It should be really hot. Drizzle some oil and pour the watery batter, first to form a outer circle and then fill in the centre. Do not overlay. That is don’t pour over and over,just one layer. immediately top the chopped onions in a sprinkled way. Add a tsp of oil/ ghee over it. Let it cook in medium flame until the dosa browns to a golden colour. It takes some time in medium flame but be patient. If you cook in high flame you may not get the crispy dosa. So cook slowly in medium flame. Do not flip, just fold and serve hot.

Serve hot immediately with sambar and chutney the best combo. Hope the video helps the beginners a bit. I took it with my iPad :) Please bear with the shaky and out-of-subject – times in the video :) Making video myself while making the dosa is sure a challenge :) Next time have to bring Vj for help ;)

Here’s the videos of how to make Onion rava dosa :

How to make rava dosa–video 1

Rava dosa–cooked video

Notes

There are few important things to keep in mind. The batter should be thin and watery enough. And after one or to dosas, the batter tends to get thick, add water and salt (very little) accordingly. Otherwise may not get the lacy holes in the dosa.
You can also try soaking the batter for 1/2 hour and then make the dosa, after 1/2 hour, sure the consistency of batter would have thickened, so use water to dilute more.
Proportion to easily remember is equal measures of rice flour and sooji and half the measure of maida.
Ghee adds a great restaurant touch to the dosa.
Even coriander leaves, ginger are important ingredients for the flavour. Needless to say pepper and jeera are main one.
No need to flip the dosa, since we cook slowly the dosa , as well as onion gets cooked.
Make an serve immediately one by one straight from the stove for great feedbacks from the eater ;)
As I said earlier, the onion can be sprinkled before pouring the batter, but sometimes-only sometimes, the dosa gets torn easily if we use more onions. Also the onion gets browned sooner than the dosa.
If your dosa is not giving lacy patterns, then add more water. Make sure the tawa is hot when you are pouring.
Non stick gives better lacy dosas.

Technorati Tags: rava dosa recipe,onion rava dosa recipe,recipe with videos,how to make rava dosa at home,restaurant style,rava dosa video recipe,video recipes,restaurant style rava dosa recipe,rava dosa rak's kitchen

GINGER CARDAMOM TEA RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:35:36 PDT

I make the tea as Ginger cardamom tea always. Very very rarely make the plain tea. My dad being a tea lover, I have seen my mom making tea this way. When it comes to tea, I have some beautiful memories related to it. It is not so very interesting, still, I remember it as they are so sweet to me. When I was studying 4th standard, my dad bought his own land in Salem and it was only across the road to where we were staying in the rented house. So when our own home construction started and after school, me and my brother go and watch the workers doing their work. My mom makes two kettles full of hot tea for the workers by herself and my father distributes to them. They used to tell the tea is awesome and they will be thanking for the ‘homemade’ tea as well. As kids, me and my brother enjoyed those days. The workers were too friendly, that we used to have a good time with them.

(Thanks to Vj for bearing me while I clicked this hot glass of tea. I found this cute ‘Tea glass’ in Daiso and thought it will be perfect for this post…)

Hope I have not bored you all with my old memories… Please don’t mind. I make tea two ways. One is boil the tea leaves in water and then top with little milk. The other way is fully boil tea leaves in milk itself. The tea recipe I am sharing now is the second way. Vijay being coffee lover, I make tea rarely. He doesn't complains when I make tea, but still I know he will like coffee than tea, so never compel myself to make tea. I love tea for sure than coffee, but I have a big problem. If I take tea, I will be sitting like an owl in the night. Yeah, I don’t get sleep! Still some times, very rarely I do make tea and drink. Ok, now on to the recipe!

Ingredients (Single serving)

Fresh milk	1& 1/2 cups
Ginger	crushed -1 tblsp
Elachi/cardamom	2
Tea powder	2 tsp,heaped
Sugar	as needed

Method

Boil milk and add peeled, crushed ginger and crushed cardamom (with skin) and tea powder.
Simmer to low and let it boil for 5-6 minutes or until you get a good colour you want for the tea. Filter using a tea strainer and then add sugar and mix well.

Enjoy the tea hot, its a great tasting and great flavoured tea, ginger gives a mild spiciness and cardamom lifts the flavour. Divinely! :)

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SOYA KEEMA CURRY TOAST RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 21 May 2012 03:31:33 PDT

I just love the soya chunks curry for its flavour and health factors. I can eat it with roti for a filling meal! Aj too loves it with roti but he prefers the other side dishes for it. So once I made this soya keema curry, he wanted toast with it (Inspired from Kailash Parbat soya grill). I made it and gave him and he loved it a lot. Then it became now an easy snack for both of us. We usually make it in sandwich maker. But for the post I made it in tawa. I used whole meal bread. You can use the plain white bread too. You can make this soya keema curry in your free time and make sandwich/toast when your kid comes really hungry back from school. It makes them feel full and its healthy too! You can find this type of soya – soya chura in the MDH brand.

Ingredients

soya chura/granules	1 cup
Onion	1
Tomato	2
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Sambar powder	1 & 1/2 tsp
Green chilli (optional)	1-2
Turmeric	1/8 tsp
Salt	as needed
Coriander leaves,chopped	2 tblsp

To temper

Oil	2 tblsp
Cinnamon	1 inch piece
Cloves	2
Fennel	1 & 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Method

Boil the soya granules with enough water. Drain and wash it. Again boil it with enough water, salt and a tblsp of milk. Milk is to remove the soya smell. You can also pressure cook with water,salt and little milk for one whistle in a small pressure cooker.Drain water and keep aside.
Heat pan with oil and add the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Add onion,green chillies and fry for a minute. Add ginger garlic paste and fry another minute in medium flame. Add tomatoes and salt and fry till mushy. Add the sambar powder, turmeric and mix well.
Add the drained cooked soya granules and mix well.
Cook for 5-8 minutes in medium-low flame or until the masala blends well with the soya and garnish with coriander leaves.Sprinkle water if needed.
Spread this Keema in between your bread and toast both sides until golden in colour.

The smell of the masala is just great! Fennel, GG paste and curry leaves with other masalas makes an awesome combination of flavour! Enjoy with coffee/tea or serve it as an evening snack for kids with any juice.

Notes

If you don’t have ginger garlic paste, grind 5 cloves of garlic with equal amount of ginger with fennel and green chillies. Add this paste after frying onion. Need not temper with the fennel seeds as we are grinding.
Green chillies can be avoided if you are giving to kids. But please do not skip curry leaves as it adds a lot of flavour to this curry.
The knack in cooking this soya is the masala should be more or less equal to the soya we use so that the masala blends + coats the soya well. Make it spicy to enjoy fully!

Technorati Tags: soya keema curry recipe,soya granules recipes,soya chura recipe,soya recipes,meal maker recipes,soya keema toast recipe

STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE RECIPE | MILKSHAKE RECIPES

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:09:27 PDT

After the strawberry lemonade, I made milkshake with the remaining strawberries. I used to be an addict of Newzealnd’s strawberry milkshake when I was staying in Simei. Our HDB building was just next to the Eastpoint mall, when ever we go for shopping weekly groceries there, we never miss to buy that! And now I realize why I put on weight! It will be so rich, sweet and delicious. I love Hagen daz strawberry ice cream equally. That's how I got bored of strawberry flavour. Now after so long I made strawberry milkshake the other day with the left over strawberries and had. I made a low fat version, but you can make it with either vanilla ice cream or a good quality strawberry ice cream to make it even more rich for you kids.

Ingredients

Milk	1 cup
Strawberries	5-7
Ice cream*	1 scoop
Sugar	As needed
Ice cubes	As needed

* Good quality vanilla or strawberry ice cream.I used only vanilla milk powder(bought from coffee bean) to make the shake thick.

Method

Wash the strawberries and slice it roughly and place in a blender along with the other ingredients. Blend well until you get frothy, smooth milkshake.

Your pinky pinky, girly milkshake is ready to enjoy! Garnish with strawberries if desired while you serve.

Notes

If using ice cream use a rich good quality ice cream, it really is a factor for a great tasting milkshake.
I used low fat milk and low fat vanilla milk powder from coffee bean instead of ice cream.
Low fat and the normal milkshake with ice cream have taste wise difference for sure. So its your choice if its taste or calories!

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OATS KOZHUKATTAI | EASY OATS BREAKFAST RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:22:37 PDT

This oats kozhukattai can be made so easily and quickly. I made it just like the aval kozhukattai and it turned out good. I tried this for the first time and will be in the menu here after. Its better than the oats upma. This goes well with any tomato chutney. I was eating rice day and night for past month and badly wanted to cut down the rice and bring some oats and other high fibre food in my diet, so started today with this oats kozhukattai!

Ingredients (makes 8 kozhukattais)

Quick cook oats(quaker)	1 cup
Water	3/4 cup
Grated coconut(optional)	2 tblsp
Salt	As needed

To temper

Coconut oil (or any)	2 tsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Curry leaves	A sprig
Green chillies	3
Asafoetida	2 pinches

Method

Heat a kadai with oil and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Add water and salt to it and bring to boil.
Add the oats and put the flame to low and mix well. Add coconut if desired and mix well. If its too dry you can sprinkle a tblsp of water.
After a minute, the oats get cooked and becomes sticky rather than brittle. So this is the correct stage to put off the flame. Cool down the mixture and grease your hands. Make equal sized balls and make pidi kozhukattai.
Steam cook in greased idly plates for 4-5 minutes. Serve immediately!

       I had it with Onion tomato chutney. I would say it was tasting great with it. Try it out this simple recipe! Its very filling and you will feel full for atleast 4-5 hours!!
      Sending this healthy recipe to the event hosted by Nags for The Balance Mantra.

Notes

Adding coconut and using coconut oil supress the boring smell of oats.
Eat it hot and always keep covered until you eat.
Water you use should be less than the quantity of oats. That way the oats wont turn mushy.
You can add some vegetables to add colours and make it more interesting.
If you use the regular oats instead of quick cook, then you should be varying the water quantity accordingly.

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STRAWBERRY LEMONADE RECIPE | SUMMER DRINKS

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:36:15 PDT

My son’s and my favourite flavour a 3 years back was strawberry… But then we both really got bored of the flavour and started running miles if we smell the flavour. Strange but true. So its long time since I bought strawberry or anything that is flavoured with it. Last weeks I saw these fresh strawberries in the shop and it tempted me to buy. I saw few pictures of strawberry lemonade in tastespotting and wanted to try as well. So tried this simple strawberry lemonade at home with half and made strawberry milkshake with the other half, recipe coming soon in recent future…

Ingredients

Fresh strawberries	7-8
Lemon	2,small variety
Sugar	2-3 tblsp
Salt	one generous pinch
Water	5 cups

Method

Cut the strawberries into slices removing the green top and grind it with sugar and little water to a smooth paste.
Use a big metal strainer and strain by adding more water(I used plastic fine filter,but it takes long time. so use the metal strainer with a little bit bigger holes). Squeeze the lemon and mix more water and salt to balance the lemonade.

I used the Indian small variety lemon, if you are using the Meyer lemon, use only one. Place ice cubes in the serving glasses and fill them with the yummy strawberry lemonade! It smells so girly and tastes sweet and yummy!

Notes

Adjust the sugar and water quantity as per the tanginess you want.
You can also try this with frozen strawberries.

Technorati Tags: strawberry lemonade recipe,strawberry juice with lemon,strawberry lemonade,how to make strawberry juice at home

VEN PONGAL | GHEE PONGAL RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:37:43 PDT

Ven pongal is a very easy and comfort food. Mostly in weekend mornings I make it to laze around. In contrast to Vj, Aj won’t even touch this one. I make it only with chutney if I want to make it simple. But brinjal or any sort of gothsu will be great side dish for pongal. Even tiffin sambar will be great accompaniment. But I love it both with sambar and chutney together. Having said pongal is easy job at kitchen, its tricky too to get the right consistency. I have struggled a lot to get it right. Now for only us I make it perfect, but if I need to make for more people, I am not still that confident to make it. Sometimes the pongal becomes so dry or so watery. But I have some trouble shooting ideas now if I run into trouble. Will add as notes in the bottom. A reader asked me to share the recipe and here you go Jaishree…

INgredients

Raw rice	1 cup
Moong dal/pasi paruppu	1/4 cup
Water	4 cups
Salt	as needed
Ginger chopped	1 tblsp
Asafoetida	1 pinch

To temper

Ghee	2 tblsp
Pepper	2 tsp
Jeera	2 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Asafoetida	2 pinches
Cashews	5-6

Method

An optional step is to roast the moong dal for extra flavour. Wash rice and dal together. Heat a small cooker with a tsp of ghee. Fry ginger and asafoetida for few seconds.
Add 4 cups of water,bring to boil. Add the washed rice,dal,salt and pressure cook for 4 whistles in medium flame.Wait until pressure gets released by itself,open & mash.
Season with the items given under to temper table. First add ghee, when hot add pepper and let it start splutter and then switch off the flame. Add cashews and fry till it starts golden and then lastly add jeera. Add curry leaves and asafoetida lastly. Mix in the heat well and then add it to pongal and mix well.

Serve it super hot with gothsu or chutney as an accompaniment. I made gothsu with potato and carrot the other day and ginger chutney.

Notes

If the pongal is watery when you open, then you can try keeping it again in stove and mix well until water evaporates.(only if the rice has got cooked,otherwise you can again give 2 whistles). For the given measurement, the recipe will be perfect, but still saying these for emergency/trouble shooting.
If it is too dry/thick then add some milk to bring it to desired consistency. Again, the rice should have got cooked properly.
Make sure you dont burn jeera while frying, as it changes the whole taste of pongal.
If you want/like pepper flavour, you can add 2 tsps of pepper coarse powder to the pongal lastly while mixing. It gives a great flavour and turns more spicy.
If you want, you can temper first, then add ginger and washed rice, add water and cook too. Not that the tempering has to be done at the end.
You can add turmeric 1/8 tsp for an ‘yellow looking” pongal.
One of my maamis use dalda 50% for making pongal and it tastes great, but its not advisable for health.

Sending this picture I clicked while making pongal for Black and white Wednesday hosted by Siri this time.

Technorati Tags: ven pongal recipe,ghee pongal,how to make ven pongal,khara pongal,pongal recipe

NUTELLA BANANA MILKSHAKE RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:04:13 PDT

Nutella truffles I made for the first time was great and then I became a bit addicted to this nutella. I told myself after I finish the bottle, I should never buy it again to watch my waistline! Somehow the last few tablespoons of nutella only was there in the jar but I wanted to try out the milkshake as suggested by Pavi (Special thanks to her for recipe and photo inspiration :), so with the leftover nutella, I thought of making use of few bananas which were about to get wasted. Made it simple with simple ingredients and had it as breakfast. Yummy! Why not? it’s nutella right ?!

Ingredients

Nutella	2-3 tblsp
Banana	2
Milk	1 cup
Sugar	Only if needed

Method

Place sliced bananas, nutella and chilled milk(sugar if desired) in the blender.Blend until smooth and frothy!

Transfer to the serving glasses and enjoy immediately! Is it not simple enough for a hurry burry morning?

Notes

If you dont have nutella, try it with any chocolate drink mix like bourvita or milo kind.
Always enjoy it chilled.

Technorati Tags: Nutella banana milkshake,milkshake recipes,nutella recipes,mornign breakfast milkshake recipes,kids recipes,kids milkshake recipes

MASALA VADA / MASAL VADAI RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:13:25 PDT

I rarely make masala vada as I was not confident making these. We, in our families make plain paruppu vadai in which we don’t add garlic, mint leaves or even fennel. Just make it in a different way. So when ever I cross any tea shops, the smell of these masal vadais will hook me. I will keep wondering what could be the factor. Once, one of my grandpa bought a masal vadai in Chidambaram. I loved it a lot. I was very young only around 12 or something, still remembering that vadai. It was as big as our palm size and had lots of onion and veggies too like carrot,peas. Superb vadais.

Then after I started cooking only made few times,but the paruppu vadai veriosn. I asked one of my friend about the flavourful perfect masala vada recipe. She said, pudina(mint leaves) and crushed garlic and fennel does the magic. So tried few times that way and loved the flavour! So today I made it to blog the recipe. Vj doesn't like fennel so I reserved some batter for him without fennel :)

Ingredients

Channa dal/kadalai paruppu	1 cup
Rice flour/sooji/rava	1 tblsp
Onion	1
green chillies	5
Fennel/ soambu	1 tsp
Coriander and mint leaves,chopped	each 2 tblsp
Salt	as needed
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Ginger	1 inch piece
Garlic	5-6 cloves

Method

Soak channa dal for 3-4 hours. First grind ginger, garlic, chillies and fennel coarsely.
Then drain channa dal completely and add it in two batches and grind coarsely. Not too smooth not very coarse too. Refer picture. One or two channa dal can be whole.
Mix finely chopped onion, coriander and mint, salt, rice flour/sooji and curry leaves.
Keep a bowl with water and wet both hands. Make equal sized balls first for uniform sized vadas. Heat oil in kadai meanwhile. Shape each ball to flat patties of medium thickness.
Deep fry in hot oil until golden in colour,flipping once in between. Always cook in medium flame to ensure even cooking and golden colour. When you drop oil, heat should be high. Simmer after you drop all vadas and cook in medium flame until done. Drain in paper towel.

Serve hot with tea/coffee and spicy mint or coconut chutney as side dish for vada …

Notes

If we dont soak for enough time, vada may turn hard and too crisp.
Rice flour or sooji is to make crisp. Its optional too.
You can also replace ginger and garlic with Ginger garlic paste.
Grinding ginger and garlic coarsely adds a kind of flavour.
You can even add a 3/4 tsp of garam masala.
If you dont like garlic you can omit and add asafoetida 1/4 tsp.
No need to add water while grinding.
Red chillies can be replaced for green chillies.

Technorati Tags: masala vada recipe,masala vadai recipe,masal vadai,paruppu vadai,how to make masala vada,masala vada with mint leaves,fennel

ORANGE JUICE WITH LEMON | SIMPLE SUMMER DRINKS

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:00:53 PDT

To take orange juice plain, I love to add lemon in it and make it as a punch. This combination of orange + lemon punch, I had in Indian wok restaurant last month when we went for dinner there. Its named as Ganga Jamuna. Ganga jamuna drink is desi punch recipe which is available in most of the fruit juice shops and restaurants and I have to say the mixture of fruits vary from one to another. In saravana bhavan ganga Jamuna is mixture of two variety of oranges I think. Like wise there is no basic rules for this and it definitely has a punch in it! Now a days I add lemon juice in all the juices like pineapple,nannari etc.. and will share one by one here.

INGREDIENTS (serves 2)

Orange	3
Lemon	1
Sugar	1 tblsp
Salt	A small pinch

Method

No such big method here, just squeeze the juice from orange(I like it with pulp, if you want you can strain) and squeeze juice from lemon and mix sugar,salt.Add little water if needed.

Place required ice cubes in the serving glasses and fill the glass with the juice and quench your thirst!

Notes

Always your juice turns bitter? that means you are squeezing too hard that the bitterness from the peel gets into the juice. Be gentle while squeezing and dont try to get too much from the fruit ;)
Still bitter? After cutting into two halves, give a quick wash in water and then squeeze.
There is no such rules for the mixing, you can even add soda water and enjoy the fizz!

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RAW MANGO RICE | MANGO RECIPES

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:36:00 PDT

It would have been few years since I made Mango rice. Since mango season has started, I thought I should make it. And bought a couple of raw mangoes when I went to little Indian market with Jeyashri. Today I made and had it for lunch at last! This one is very simple recipe and its an easy lunch box idea as well. Just had it with mom’s home made vadams. Just the grating part. Otherwise, within 10 minutes the rice is ready! I had the recipe in a recipe book by Ramani Chandran called “Rani samayal.”

Ingredients

Raw mango	1
Turmeric	1/8 tsp
Salt	As needed
Rice	1 cup (un cooked)

To temper

Sesame oil	2 tblsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Urad dal	2 tsp
Channa dal	2 tsp
Peanuts	1 tblsp
Asafoetida	1/8 tsp
Red Chillies	5
Green Chillies	5
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Method

Cook rice with 2 cups water for 3-4 whistles, cool down and separate the grains. Peel the mango and grate it finely. Heat pan with oil and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order.
Add turmeric powder,grated mango and mix.
Fry for 2 minutes in medium flame. Lastly add salt and mix well.
Mix with the cooled rice and serve with papad.

The rice is so flavourful and goes well with any papad/ vadaams or simple poriyals !

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HONEYDEW MELON JUICE/ SMOOTHIE | SIMPLE SUMMER DRINKS

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:02:18 PDT

Summer is here and we have to keep our body cool from inside too… Honeydew melon is one of my favourite and Vj’s Favourite too… Mostly I would prefer to eat the fruit, but Vj loves to have in juice form. My MIL makes Kirini palam juice just by cutting the fruit and scooping out the pulp using a ladle itself. I do the same for this if its a super ripe fruit or if its a bit firm, then I cut into small pieces and peel off the skin and grind with ice to make smoothie. I am not sure if honeydew melon and the kirini pazham we get in Chennai are the same. Do share if you know!

Its so simple but tastes and smells great and cools your body as well.

Ingredients (For 2 glasses)

Honeydew melon	1/2
Sugar or honey	1 tblsp
Ice cubes(optional)	As needed

Method

Peel the skin along with the thick part of the fruit, remove the seeds in the middle and chop roughly. Transfer the fruit with sugar and ice cube to a blender. Blend until smooth.

The smoothie is supposed to be thick.So no need to add water. Its very perfect for breakfast, so filling and comforting!

Technorati Tags: honeydew melon smoothie,summer drinks recipes,summer drinks,honeydew melon juice

DAHI VADA RECIPE | DAHI BHALLA

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:36:58 PDT

I have tasted South Indian version of this – Thayir vadai. But not this version. Wanted to try Dahi vada for long time, but you know, making both chutneys never coincide and sometimes even curd will be my concern. But this time every thing clicked and I made, had this Dahi vada also known as Dahi Bhalla. Being a chat lover, sure enjoyed each and every bite! Sure the South Indian version and this one has lot of difference taste wise and look wise… Both are yumm and love both. I never like my curd to be tangy. I love it fresh and good. But many like it tangy. Its your choice of taste, what ever you like!

Ingredients (makes 15 vadas)

Urad dal/ulundhu (white,whole)	1/2 cup
Curd	1/2 cup – 3/4 cup
Milk	3/4 cup
Green chutney	2 tsp
Sweet chutney	2 tbslp
Coriander leaves,chopped	1 tblsp
Red chilli powder	1/2 tsp
Chat masala	1/2 tsp
Salt	As needed
Ginger	1 small piece
Green chilli	1 - 2
Sev	For garnishing

Method

Soak urad dal for 3-4 hours,after washing in water. Grind it with ginger,green chilli using only very little water. Grind until smooth and fluffy. Mix with salt only at the time you are going to deep fry. Wet your hands and make small lemon sized balls.
Deep fry in hot oil in medium flame until golden colour in all sides. Flip in between for even cooking. Drain in paper towels.
Heat milk until its hot,no need to boil it, and then take it in a broad bowl, add little bit of salt and fried vadas to the milk and let it get soaked. say 20 minutes or so.Turn over carefully in between. Beat curd until smooth.
If you feel milk is more, drain it and mix required amount to the curd to make it runny(still thick) consistency and add the curd to the soaked vadas and mix well. Add required salt and let it set for 1/2 hour.

At the time of serving, arrange in plate, sprinkle green chutney, red chutney, coriander leaves, red chilli powder, chaat masala and lastly sprinkle some sev if you want! And enjoy these sinfully delicious dahi bhallas/ vadas! I usually love more of Sweet chutney in this…

Notes

I use milk because, I love my dahi vada not to be so sour, if you want you can also do this in water. If using water, squeeze the excess water.
In case the vada batter is sticky or watery, add a tblsp of rice flour and try refrigerating the batter for an hour.
Always cook vadas in medium flame to ensure cooking in the middle.
Add vadas to hot/warm milk or water to get soaked quickly.
Sev garnishing is optional, you can also use boondi for garnish!
We also make mini balls like this same way and make raita with it.

Technorati Tags: dahi puri recipe,dahi poori recipe,dahi bhalla,dahi bhalla recipe,how to make north indian dahi vada

VEPPAM POO RASAM | NEEM FLOWER RASAM RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:27:17 PDT

   Neem flower rasam / Veppam poo rasam is one which I used to hate. Mom always insists to add some bitter taste in diet at least once in a week or month. But never followed her words…;) She every time collects neem flower from our backyard(tree) and preserves and pass to me. But I keep it in Chennai itself and come. This time when I saw the neem flowers given by her in Chennai, I felt bad and Vj too asked me to take it and try some thing with it. So I took and came to SG. I took the recipe for rasam from her and it sounded damn easy! I decided the very instant to try this out.
    Actually we make it specially for Thamizh new year. We make mango pachadi, neem rasam compulsorily as its meant to include all the tastes-sweet and tangy taste from mango pachadi, salt and bitterness from this neem rasam, on the very first day of Tamil new year, so that we can be prepared for all the situations in our life throughout the year. So I thought of making and posting here. This year we have no celebrations as my paati passed away. The moment I made this rasam, the whole house was filled with aroma, and I was so tempted to eat rice with the rasam immediately. It tastes and smells great! And above all its good for health. I do have a thogayal recipe with neem flower, will post that soon as well :)

Ingredients

Neem flower (veppam poo)	1 tblsp
Tamarind	Gooseberry sized
Salt	As needed
Sugar	1/2 tsp
Turmeric	1/8 tsp

To Temper

Ghee	1 tsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Red chillies	4-5
Urad dal	1 tsp
Toor dal	1 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Asafoetida	3 pinches

Roasted Neem flower

Method

Extract tamarind juice, keep aside. Heat a pan and roast the neem flower until u can smell a nice aroma and turns deep red.Keep aside. Add ghee in the pan and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table. Add the tamarind extract,salt and turmeric.
Bring to boil. Switch off the stove and add the roasted neem flower and mix well.

When I finished making the rasam, the whole house was filled with aroma! I could not resist the smell of the rasam…! A healthy rasam is ready!

Notes

Roast the neem flower carefully in medium flame until nice aroma rises.
Do not boil after adding the neem flower.
Stays good for 2 days even, if kept refrigerated!

Technorati Tags: veppam poo rasam recipe,neem flower rasam,வேப்பம பூ ரசம்,neem flower,how to make veppam poo rasam,tamil new year recipes,tamizh new year recipes

BADAM HALWA | SWEETS RECIPES

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:40:31 PDT

I rarely tasted or touched badam before marriage. Post marriage, MIL used to make a cashew badam burfi, which I too have made quite a few times and can confidentially make it. The recipe for the same I will share in recent future. But Badam Halwa is so new to me and heard only a couple of years back and when I told Vj, he said he love it a lot. But never thought of attempting at home. Mom some times makes burfi and end up in halwa… Have tasted that. But this time when we went to Chennai, someone bought badam halwa when they visited us. Vj enjoyed it. So thought, why not try it out at home. Last friday was our 9th wedding anniversary and I thought its the right time to treat him with badam halwa. Just quickly referred few sites to get an idea about the recipe and tried my own. Its not at all complicated. How can so much sugar and so much ghee recipe go wrong ? ;)

It turned out perfect and the taste was awesome. Do try for special occasions and you too will agree with me!

Ingredients

Badam	1/2 cup heaped
Sugar	1/2 cup heaped
Ghee (clarified butter)	1/4 cup
Condensed milk (optional)	3 tblsp
Saffron or yellow food colour	1 pinch
Elachi	1, powdered

Method

Soak badam for 3-4 hours in enough water. Peel the skin and grind it with 1/4 cup milk or water to a really smooth paste.
Take a heavy bottom pan or non stick pan(preferably deep pan to avoid splattering). Add sugar and 1/2 cup water and bring to boil and wait until the sugar dissolves. Simmer the stove to medium.Add the ground paste and mix well to avoid lumps.
Add condensed milk,saffron soaked in luke-warm milk or food colour and elachi. Keep stirring for 4 minutes.
Add a tsp ghee in regular intervals and keep stirring until the halwa starts leaving the pan. After that very soon say 3 minutes, you will see whitish bubbles start appearing at the bottom where you stir. This is the right stage and pour in a greased plate to let it cool down.

After cooling, the halwa will be non sticky, and you can store in a container and refrigerate. Will be good for 4-5 days. You can also pack as single servings in butter papers we get in few sweet stalls. Also you can keep as such in a container and spoon required halwa. Heavenly sweet!

Notes

While grinding the almonds, after the few seconds of grinding, make sure you wipe off the sides and lids of the mixer to ensure even grinding.
Add more water while grinding if its needed. I had given only approximate measure.
Adding condensed milk is purely optional. It enhances the taste, but it takes a while more than usual if you add. but only a little, tastes great!
Adding ghee is very important for halwas. If you are concerned about the ghee, please do not make :) Definitely there will be texture wise/ taste wise compensation if you reduce ghee.
If your halwa is sticky, then you need to add more ghee and keep stirring for a while again.
The consistency will be perfect if you do the whole process in medium flame.
After cooling down completely, the texture gets thickened a bit. So be patient till it cools down. If you find it still sticky, then you can always stir again in the pan and add more ghee to get the right consistency!

Technorati Tags: Badam halwa,badam halwa recipe,sweets recipes,receipes of sweets,badam,recipes of desserts,dessert recipes,how to make badam halwa at home,sweet stall style badam halwa recipe

SWEET CORN SUNDAL RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:13:07 PDT

This is also one of the recipe I clicked when I was in my home at Chennai. My MIL’s special. She made it and I just clicked it. I helped only in removing the kernels from the cob. You can try this for evening snack. Its so easy to make and healthy snack for the evening.

Ingredients

Sweet corn	1
Onion	1
Carrot	1
Coconut grated	1/2 cup
Salt	As needed
Coriander leaves	1 sprig

To temper

Oil	2 tsp
Mustard	3/4 tsp
urad dal	1 tsp
Dry red chilli	2
Asafoetida	2 pinches
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Cooking Corn :

Microwave corn without removing the husk (green skin) for 3-4 minutes in high. Turn once in between to ensure even cooking. Let it cool and remove the kernels. You can cook by stove top method, your way too.

Method

Chop onions,carrots finely.Heat a kadai/pan and temper with the items given under “To temper” table. Add onion, fry till transparent and then add the carrot and fry for a minute. Add the cooked corn kernels, required salt. Stir well.
Let it be in low flame for 2-3 minutes and stir in between. Lastly add the grated coconut and mix well for 1/2 minute.

You can garnish with coriander leaves and 3/4 tsp of coconut oil for extra flavour!

Technorati Tags: sweet corn sundal recipe,sweet corn recipe,sweet corn recipes,corn recipe,corn recipes,navarathri recipes,navratri sundal recipes,sundal recipes

RAW JACKFRUIT CURRY (UNRIPE/TENDER JACKFRUIT)

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:15:51 PDT

    Raw Jackfruit(unripe,young) is edible? I never knew that until my MIL cooked once after marriage. I loved it the very first time when she made curry with it. I don’t know any recipes with raw jackfruit other than this, but love it a lot. The texture is so different and I love it. The cleaning process is bit messy and tedious. But everything is worth to have this curry. My MIL made this curry when I was there in Chennai last week and I clicked to post this recipe here. We call the raw jackfruit in tamil as ‘pala mouse’ . We got it fresh from the tree from Karaikudi Mami’s house.They also picked a sweetest ripe jackfruit and it was as sweet as honey! We made curry with half of this raw jackfruit and kootu with the other half. The unripe jackfruit should be young and tender to make a delicious dish. We do get this cleaned and cut in Singapore. But sure, nothing can beat the backyard garden picked fresh one.
   The recipe is similar to my raw banana curry, only a little bit different.

Ingredients

Raw jackfruit(young,small,tender)	1/2
Onion	1
Turmeric	1/4 tsp
Salt	As needed

To grind

Coconut	3 tblsp
Coriander seeds	1 & 1/2 tbslp
Pepper	1 tsp
Jeera	1 tsp
Red chilli	2
Garlic	2

To temper

Oil	2 tblsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Method

Before touching the raw jackfruit, spread 2-3 news papers, grease both your hands with generous sesame oil or use gloves. Grease the knife too with oil. This is because when we cut the veggie, it will leave a ‘milk like’ thing which is so sticky. And it leaves stains as well. So prevent the floor, your dress and everything from it. Half the veggie like this.
Then cut one of the half into big pieces and remove the thorny green skin part as shown. Remove the centre stalk too(thick part) and chop into small pieces.
Keep ready, a bowl of water with buttermilk to immerse the chopped veggie. You can also use the drained water we washed the rice (kahzhani). Boil water with salt an turmeric and cook the finely chopped veggie until soft. Will take roughly 15 minutes.
Mean while,grind the ingredients under to grind table with little bit of water,to a fine paste.
Drain the water and keep aside. Heat kadai with oil an temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table. Add onions and fry till transparent. Mix the ground paste with the cooked raw jackfruit along with salt.
Add it to the kadai and fry well. Keep in medium flame to ensure the curry gets roasted evenly and mix now and then. This may take some time. Say 15 minutes.

Transfer to the serving bowl and serve as accompaniment for sambar/rasam/more kuzhambu. Do try this different veggie, you would love it!

Notes

Grease your hands frequently while you are cleaning/cutting the veggie.
Choose small, young and tender raw jackfruit. It tastes great. Bigger ones take long time to cook.
You can add more oil at the end when you are roasting to make it turn golden.
Add a tsp of coconut oil at the end to get a great flavor!

Technorati Tags: raw jackfruit curry,raw jack fruit Indian recipes,raw jack fruit recipes,raw jackfruit,unripe jackfruit recipes,palakai,kathal ki subji,kathal ki subzi recipe,recipe of kathal ki sabzi

EGGLESS DATE CAKE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:05:49 PDT

I tried this eggless date cake from the back of the dates pack I bought. The recipe was very simple with no sugar in it. I like mild sweet cakes/breads. This tastes more like that. So loved it. I was first afraid of how it is going to turn out as it is the recipe just from the back of the pack, but it turned out good. But they had given the name as dates rolls. I baked it in bunt pan, they had mentioned to bake in bread loaf pan. If you are sweet toothed, then this may not be your kind of cake, but still you can try adding sugar or pouring some sauces like caramel / butterscotch or chocolate sauce or even you can try spreading nutella after baking and try eating this cake, you will sure love it!

Ingredients

Pitted dates*	1/2 cup
Milk	1/2 cup + 2 tblsp
Butter	3 tblsp
Mixed spice powder	1/4 tsp
Cinnamon powder	1/4 tsp
Baking soda (Bi carbonate of soda)	1 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tsp
Maida/ All purpose flour	1 & 1/4 cup
Water	1/2 cup

* Deseeded dates

Method

Preheat oven to 190^oC. Deseed the dates, heat milk in a pan with butter and roughly chopped dates.
Cook in medium flame until the dates become mushy and mixture becomes like a thick paste. Meanwhile, mix Maia, baking soda, cinnamon power, mixed spice power in a bowl. Add the cooked dates and water and mix well. Add lemon juice lastly and mix well, do not over mix.
Pour into a greased pan, leaving space to rise, dusted with flour and bake for 35-40 minutes in the oven or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool down for 15 minutes and invert over a wire rack and cool down. You can have it with any sweet sauces like butterscotch or caramel, if you want. You can also sprinkle powdered sugar over it.

Notes

Baking time differs from oven to oven. So better keep an eye after 30 minutes.
After baking, keep the pan over wet cloth. This makes the cake come out clean without tearing or sticking to the pan.
If you are sweet toothed, you can add 1/4 cup sugar for this cake.
You can replace lemon juice with vinegar.
You can add chopped nuts 1/4 cup. walnuts is the best combo!
I will soon update the pan size.

Technorati Tags: date cake,eggless date cake recipe,eggless dates cake recipe,dates cake

VEGETABLE HAKKA NOODLES RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:54:24 PDT

I used to think making hakka noodles is complicated until I tried fried rice ,which I make often now a days. So hakka noodles also now a days become usual dish at our home. I love the smoky flavour we get when we toss the vegetable. I feel the wok they use in the restaurants also play a significant roll in the flavour of hakka noodles. Its so simple to make and kids would love this. Only thing is we have to cook the noodles properly to remove the wax coating which is not good for our health. I used Ching’s hakka noodles to prepare this and its good too. You can use any plain noodles for making this.

VEGETABLE HAKKA NOODLES (serves 2)

Ingredients

Plain noodles	1 & 1/2 cup
Finely cut cabbage	3/4 cup
Carrot	1
Capsicum	1/2
Spring onion	3 sprigs
Pepper	1/2 tsp
Tomato chilli sauce	1 & 1/2 tsp
Salt	As needed
Oil	2 tblsp

Method

Cook noodles as per the instructions given in the pack or boil 3-4 cups of water and cook noodles for 3-4 minutes. Make sure its not over cooked. Drain water and wash it to remove the excess starch and add 1 tsp oil and mix well to avoid sticking.
Cut veggies into fine thin strips,chop the spring onion finely(green part) and chop the white part separately. Heat a pan with oil and fry white part of the spring onion.
Add the veggies one by one frying each for half minute. Add the sauces, salt and pepper. Give a quick stir.
Add the drained noodles and mix well. Add the chopped spring onion and stir well.

Serve hot with any Manchurian or as such with sauce.

Notes

Use oil generously. You can use any cooking oil or olive oil the best.
Fry always in high flame. If you can, try tossing the veggies in such a way that it catches fire. This gives the smoky flavour as in restaurants. Oil should be more to do this.
You can also add white pepper or ajinomoto in this. Ajinomoto is not advisable for health though.

Technorati Tags: hakka noodles,vegetable noodles,vegetable hakka noodels recipe,noodles recipes,kids noodles recipe

JEERA RICE | EASY LUNCH BOX IDEAS

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:24:35 PDT

Jeera rice is not a complicated recipe to blog about, still , as I am busy and tied up with some works, thought of posting this simple rice. I make jeera pulao too, but jeera rice is nothing but rice tempered with jeera. We can make it exotic by topping with deep fried sliced onions. It is best for lunch boxes with a dal and a subzi. I am really sorry, some how missed the step wise pictures, though there were only two, I will very soon update it surely.

Ingredients

Basmati rice	1 cup
Shah jeera	1 tblsp
Ghee	2 tblsp
Sliced onion (optional)	1
Oil	For deep frying onion
Salt	As needed
Water	1 & 1/2 cup

Method

Soak rice for 1/2 hour and in a small pressure cooker/pressure pan, heat ghee and add the shah jeera, take care not to burn and fry for few seconds. Add the rice drained and fry for two minutes. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water and bring to boil, add salt and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles in medium flame.

Top with deep fried onions if you want to make it special or serve hot with any dal,papad and a subzi.

Notes

Soaking rice for long time ensures you giving soft cooked rice. So soak as much longer as possible.
Using shah jeera is recommended than the ordinary jeera.

Dal and subji/subzi to go with this rice

Technorati Tags: Jeera rice recipe,jeera rice,shah jeera,how to make jeera rice

KARA KUZHAMBU / KULAMBU (WITH BRINJAL & DRUMSTICK)

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:32:00 PDT

If you ask which is the best combo of vegetables for making kara kuzhambu means I would say its brinjal and drumstick. Both the veggies goes well with even sambar and same applies for kara kuzhambu too. I make this basic kuzhambu and make with other veggies like ladies finger and even Parupurundai kuzhambu. I love it a lot and this tastes great with rice,sesame oil/ ghee or even tastes good with dosa. I make usually the no-coconut kuzhambu like this, but make this occasionally when I have coconut in stock.

Ingredients

Brinjal	4 - 6
Drumstick	2
Tamarind	Big variety gooseberry size
Onion	1
Tomato	2
Garlic	8-10 flakes
Sambar powder(refer sidebar)	1 tblsp,heaped
Pepper powder(optional)	1/4 tsp
Turmeric	1/4 tsp
Jaggery	1/4 tsp
Salt	As needed

To temper

Gingely oil/cooking oil	3 tblsp
Fenugreek seeds	1/4 tsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Toor dal	1 tsp
Jeera	2 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig

To grind

Coconut grated	1/2 cup
Onion	1

Method

Chop 1 onion roughly and other onion and tomato finely. Peel the garlic. Extract the tamarind juice. Heat kadai with oil and temper with the items given under ‘to temper’ table in order. Add garlic and onion and fry till transparent. Add tomatoes and fry till soft.
Add the tamarind extract and enough water,salt, turmeric, sambar powder. Add drumstick cut into desired size. Let it boil for 4 minutes. Then add brinjal and bring to boil. Grind coconut and another onion smoothly with little water and add it to the kuzhambu.
Let it boil until the brinjal gets cooked and the kuzhambu gets thick. Add pepper powder and jaggery and transfer to the serving bowl.

Serve with rice and any curry, kootu or poriyal. I had with vazhakkai curry.

Notes

Brinjal gets cooked easily, so add it later after drumstick gets cooked almost 3/4th.
You can add any vegetable of your choice. Even any one of drumstick or brinjal alone.
If you dont have sambar powder, you can try with red chilli powder too. But use 2 tsp only and add 1 tsp dhaniya powder.

Technorati Tags: kara kuzhambu,kara kulambu,kara kuzhambu recipe,kaara kuzhambu,brinjal drumstick kara kulambu,kuzhambu with coconut,how to make kara kulambu

CRISPY BITTER GOURD/ KARELA FRIES (PAVAKKAI VARUVAL)

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:30:40 PDT

I never liked pavakkai / bitter gourd / karela. When my mom used to make pavakkai pitlai or sambar when I was a kid, I used to cry while eating… yes! Its compulsory to eat veggies and we had no choice to say NO to any vegetables cooked. I hate that much. She even does pavakkai varuval, never liked it though. But Vj loves pavakkai , but only this deep fried, crispy pavakkai. So I tried making this few times. I used to think, pavakkai should be having bitterness and used to wash so much times and soak in butter milk or water with lemon juice or tamarind extract and try making this crispy fries. But never got perfect crisp fries. But Vj used to say that the key is to slice thinly and evenly. But I never had a hope to get it perfect. Last week he bought bitter gourd and he himself sliced and showed me. I dint do any so called processes to remove the bitterness. Just made it simply and the result is…
Crisp,evenly fried,very very mild bitterness that is a plus for the fries. I was so happy and wanted to record this recipe here. One of my reader also requested to post Karela recipes, so I thought I should try and post here. So today I did to share with you all and keep this recipe recorded here!

Ingredients

Bitter gourd/ pavakkai	5-6
Rice flour	3 tblsp
corn flour	1 tblsp
Sambar powder/red chilli powder	1 & 1/2 tsp
Turmeric	1/4 tsp
Salt	As needed
Water	1 tblsp(approx.)
Oil	To deep fry

Method

Wash and remove both the tapering ends of the bitter gourd. Slice as thin as possible, mainly all should be even in thickness,so that it gets cooked perfect.
Mix rice,corn flours, turmeric, sambar powder,salt with the sliced bitter gourds. Sprinkle water and mix evenly. Do not add more.
Heat oil in kadai and when it is hot, add the karelas in sprinkled way. Make sure none of them are stuck to each other. Cook in medium flame until the bubbles and sounds ceases. It should be golden in colour and light in weight. Drain in paper towel.

Serve as accompaniment for rice or enjoy as such as chips! You can store it in airtight container and use for 2-3 days.

Notes

It was not at all bitter in-spite of the fact that I dint do anything special to remove the bitterness! May be deep frying method wont have much bitterness. Instead, when I tried to so something to remove the bitterness, they were not that crisp!
Frying in medium flame is must to get cooked evenly and crisp without getting dark in colour.
Add water only a little to just make the rice flour hold over the bitter gourd.
Remove any big hard seeds if any in the bitter gourd after slicing. If its tender then no need to worry.

Technorati Tags: bitter gourd fries,crispy bitter gourd fries,pavakkai varuval,karela chips,crispy pavakkai chips,karela recipes,bitter gourd recipe,how to make pavakkai chips at home,homemade pavakkai chips

MACARONI AND CHEESE (STOVE TOP RECIPE)

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:26:04 PDT

I have already a cheesy pasta recipe which can be made in a jiffy. This one is also similar but found this recipe interesting. And always wanted to try a proper mac n cheese. I should sure try in oven too, but this one is a short cut method without any fancy items. My husband never liked the pasta sauce with tomato and likes this way, cheesy and juicy! I am sure kids would love to have this for evening snack or dinner. Macaroni and cheese is a classic recipe for pasta and cheese lovers!

Ingredients (serves 2)

Elbow macaroni	1/2 cup
Milk	3/4 cup
Grated cheddar cheese	1/2 cup
Butter	1 & 1/2 tblsp
Any Cheese spread (optional)	2 tbslp
All purpose flour	1 tblsp
Pepper powder	1/4 tsp
Crushed red chilli (paprika)	1/2 tsp
Dry mustard powder	1/4 tsp
Salt	As needed

Method

Boil 3 cups of water and cook macaroni until soft along with required salt. No need to wash the pasta. Just drain it and keep aside.
Mix all purpose flour, pepper, mustard and paprika in a bowl. Heat a heavy bottomed pan with butter in low flame.
When butter melts, add the mixed all purpose flour and mix with a whisk.
Add milk gradually with mixing with the whisk and mix to form a smooth sauce. As it gets heated, the sauce becomes thicker. Do this only in medium or low flame.
When its about to boil, add the cheese and mix well until the cheese melts in low – medium flame. Do not let the sauce boil.
When the sauce is ready, pour it over the cooked pasta and mix well.

Macaroni and cheese is ready ! Serve immediately, hot!

Notes

Do not let the milk boil at any time, or cook in high flame as it may lead to curdled sauce!
Eat hot!
You can try with any kind of pasta too!
If you dont have mustard powder, just crush some mustard seeds(big variety) you have and use it.

Technorati Tags: Macaroni and cheese recipe,man n cheese recipe,mac n cheese stove top method,how to make macaroni and cheese on stove top,kids pasta recipes,kids recipes,kids snacks

MASALA MILK RECIPE

noreply@blogger.com (Raks) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:04:18 PST

Masala milk recipe has various versions. I never made on my own, but always wanted to try it out at home. I never used to like the masala pal they give in marriages. But now some how my taste changed and wanted to try it out. It is believed to give a good sleep, the recipe source is here. But I liked to add ‘panag karkandu’ palm sugar crystals in place of sugar and also added a pinch of pepper powder. Also skipped nuts like pistachios,almonds or cashews for garnishing. The milk is very flavourful and delicious!

Ingredients

Milk	2 cups
Almonds	6 to 8
Saffron	A pinch
Sugar or palm sugar crystals	2 tblsp
Elachi	2
Cloves	2
Cinnamon	2 small pieces
Pepper powder(optional)	2 pinches

Method

Soak safforn in luke warm milk and almonds in hot water for 15 minutes.
Peel the skin of almonds and grind it to smoothly with little water.
Boil milk with cloves,elachi, cinnamon, then add the ground almond.
Add the soaked saffron milk and simmer for 5-6 minutes. Lastly add palm sugar crystals and pepper and give it a boil.

If you want you can discard the whole masalas before you add almonds by straining the milk. Enjoy the milk warm !

Notes

Choose good quality saffron and make sure you add not more than a pinch,adding more will spoil the taste.
You can add chopped nuts if you like it.
Some times palm sugar crystals has impurities. You can strain it by dissolving it in hot water.
This is my own version, so there may be some differences from authentic recipe!

Technorati Tags: Masala milk recipe,masala pal,how to make masala milk at home,how to make kesar milk,palm sugar crystals,panag karkandu