Another sweet entry. It was an awesome dessert. So, without writing much lets directly go to the recipe. You would need -
Ingredients -
1) 2 cups doodhi/bottle gourd grated.
2) 2 cups milk boiled
3) 3 tbspn ghee
4) 1/2 cup sugar
5) roasted cashews for garnishing
Method -
1) Heat ghee in a hard bottomed pan and add the grated doodhi in it. Stir it until it changes its colour and become soft.
2) Now, add the boiled milk and keep stirring continuously till the milk is evaporated.
3) Add sugar at this point and mix well. After adding sugar it will leave some water. Keep stirring till the water evaporates.
4) Garnish with cashew nuts.
Refrigerate and serve cool. It can be refrigerated and kept for almost a week.
I had bought a box of baby spinach from Costco. The spinach leaves were nice fresh dark green and tasty. As the quantity you get in Costco is always in wholesale, I was worried that the spinach would not last long. But surprisingly it did and it was fresh for almost around 2 and a half weeks. I made Palak Parathas, Aloo Palak, Spinach Raita, Corn Palak, and Spinach Rice and all the dishes were awesome. The spinach had its original natural taste and I loved it and now I have decided to bring Spinach only from Costco. If anybody of you have not tried it, go ahead.
Here is what you need for Spinach Rice -
Ingredients -
1) 1 cup rice washed and drained
2) 1 cup spinach
2) 2-3 green chillies
3) 2-3 garlic cloves
4) 1/2 onion chopped finely
5) 1 medium tomato chopped finely
6) 1 bay leaf
7) 2-3 cloves and black pepperons each
8) 1 tspn garam masala powder
9) Salt to taste and Oil
Method -
1) First, blend the spinach, green chillies and garlic to a smooth paste adding very little water if required.
2) Heat some oil in a vessel and add the bay leaf, cloves and black pepperons and saute for few seconds.
3) Add onions and fry till light brown. Then add the tomatoes and saute till they are mushy.
4) Now add the Palak paste. Mix well and add garam masala. Saute till the oil leaves and add the rice.
5) Mix well and add 2 cups of water. Add salt and bring it to boil till the rice is completely cooked.
Spinach Rice is ready!!! Serve hot with some raita.
This counts as a perfect dessert after a tasty lunch/dinner. And specially when the food is non-vegetarian or anything spicy this one's the best. Well, i tried it for the first time and i was actually worried and was praying that this should not be a disaster. But finally, it was just as perfect as my mom used to make it and we both loved it. So, here is what you need -
Ingredients -
1) 6 tbspn sugar divided
2) 1 egg
3) 1 bread slice
4) 1 cup milk
5) dryfruits for garnishing
Method -
1) Blend the egg, bread slice, milk and 3 tbspn sugar together and keep aside.
2) Take the remaining sugar in a pan and caramelize it. Remember this is the very important step. Keep stirring the sugar continuously and make sure it does not turn black. Pour the caramelized sugar in a vessel in which you want to set the pudding.
3) Pour the blended mixture over it and garnish it with dryfruits.
3) Keep this vessel in a pressure cooker and steam it for 20-25 minutes.
4) Remove and refrigerate. Serve cool.
Here is another sweet entry from me. My husband bought these larger dates packet from Indian Stores and i was wondering what can be made out of that. Cakes came to my mind and I tried out this simple recipe and it was great. And its eggless too. So, its very easy. Just mix together the ingredients and bake your cake. Here is what you need -
Ingredients -
1) 25 seedless dates approx
2) 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour (Maida)
3) Sweetened Condensed Milk (a can of 14 oz)
4) 1 stick unsalted butter
5) 1 tspn Baking Soda
6) 1 1/2 tspn Baking Powder
7) 1/2 cup mixed dryfruits of your choice(walnuts, almonds, cashews raisins)
Method -
1) Soak the dates in warm water for around half an hour.
2) Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl.
3) Melt the butter stick in microwave for 20 secs and add to the bowl. Also add the can of sweetened condensed milk.
4) Blend the dates with 4-5 tbspn water and add this puree to the bowl.
5) Lastly add in the dryfruits and mix well.
6) Preheat the oven at 350 degrees farenheit.
7) Grease a baking bowl with the baking spray and pour in this mixture in it.
8) Bake it for about 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
You can substitute the dates with any other fruit. I think strawberry would also work better or pineapple. Enjoy!!!
The heat is on and you all must be craving for some cool beverages. This cool and spicy mattha is one of them. This is also served in Indian marriages.
To make mattha, take 1 cup of yogurt, beat well and add water to it to form buttermilk. To this, add the blended mixture of green chillies, cumin seeds and ginger. Add little salt and garnish with cilantro. Chill for a couple of hours before serving. Try it out and i am sure this chilled Mattha would definitely soothe you from this scorching heat.
This simple, easy and a quick sandwich is everyone's favourite snack but do you guys know that these sandwiches are sold on the streets of Mumbai and is tremendously appreciated and pleased by the crowd. So, here is what you need -
Ingredients -
1) Bread slices
2) Sliced vegetables (Boiled potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions)
3) Butter
4) Black Pepper and
5) Green chutney
Method -
1) Create the sandwich by first applying a layer of butter followed by the green chutney on 2 bread slices.
2) Then simply spread the diced vegetables and sprinkle black pepper on 1 slice and cover it with the other slice.
Sandwich is ready!!! You can have your choice of mixed vegetables. Grated cauliflower with carrots and cheese would also make a good combination. So, Enjoy!!!
To make the green chutney just blend together a bunch of fresh cilantro, 8-10 mint leaves, 2-3 green chillies, 1 tspn cumin seeds with a little water. Add salt and lemon to taste and this superfast chutney is ready.
Spicy Potatoes or Masaledar Aloo, this recipe was created by a fluke. I was going to make the staple boiled potatoes sabzi and suddenly thought of trying something different. And yes, this was a big hit. I boiled the potatoes and cut them in large cubes. I opened up my spice box and mixed all the dry spice powders I had to the potatoes and there it was..A tempting appetizer!! Here is what you need -
Ingredients -
1) 3-4 large potatoes boiled
2) Spices
3) mustard seeds, asafoetida and turmeric powder for seasoning
4) 2-3 dry red chiliies
5) 1-2 green chillies finely chopped
6) 4-5 curry leaves
7) Lime juice and a bunch of coriander chopped finely
8) Oil for frying
Method -
1) Cut the potatoes in large cubes and let it cool down completely.
2) Now, open up your spice box and add as much dry spice powders you want to the potatoes. I added red chilli powder, cumin-coriander powder, amchur powder, chat masala, garam masala, sambar powder and Pav Bhaji Masala and lastly salt. Go a little easy on salt as all these powders contain some amount of salt in it.
3) Now heat some oil in a skillet and add the mustard seeds. Once they crackle add the asafoetida and turmeric powder, curry leaves, dry red chillies and green chillies. Saute and add the potatoes.
4) Mix well. Cover the lid and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the lime juice and cilantro and mix well. Spicy Potatoes are ready.
I served them with hot chapatis. You can even prick a toothpick in the aloos and it would work as a great appetizer too.
Another sweet entry. It was an awesome dessert. So, without writing much lets directly go to the recipe. You would need - 
