Kanna (in Konkani) - Moong dal payasam

Indian Sweet made with lentils, coconut milk and jaggery.










Method:

• Dry roast moong dal - 1/2 cup.
• Add water and Cook/pressure cook till done.
• Add grated jaggery 1 cup more or less and bring to boil.
• Add coconut milk 2 cups (thin milk) and lastly some cardamom powder. Serve cold.

Click for more ...

Paan Ice-cream

Had something interesting in India on my visit last year - paan ice-cream !! Loved it so much that we attempted to recreate a version using fresh betel leaves and vanilla ice-cream …....






Ingredients:
Betel leaves, Vanilla ice-cream, tutti frutti, Paan masala concentrate, Gulkand

Method:

• Add vanilla ice-cream, concentrated meetha paan, Paan (betel leaves) cut into ribbons, tutti frutti, and gulkand to a steel bowl (pref. a chilled steel bowl). Mix/fold everything using 2 large spoons – salad serves work fine. If you like a softer texture, you could serve immediately or put the bowl back in the freezer for 10 mins before serving. Serve garnished with some more paan shreds and tutti frutti.
• Instead of concentrated paan mix, one could use supari, clove powder, shredded dry coconut and all the other ingredients that you like in paan.

If you try any other variations, please share.

Click for more ...

Chia Pudding

Chia Pudding - super easy and healthy chia seeds, milk and fruits breakfast for a busy day... Milk alternatives – almond milk, soya milk,etc. Sweeteners – honey, maple syrup, chocolate sauce, sugar.






Ingredients:

(Per person)
2 tbsp. chia seeds
1 cup milk
1 peach
honey to taste


Method:

• Mix chia seeds and milk and store in refrigerator overnight.
• In the morning, add peach cubes to a serving glass/bowl, top with chia pudding and drizzle some honey
• Alternately, you could add all the required ingredients to individual serving bowls or mason jars at night and simply enjoy a delicious breakfast on the go....

Berry Pudding with oats & Maple syrup : 2 tbsp chia, 2 tbsp oats, 1 cup milk, ½ cup Greek yogurt– per person. Mix well and add to individual serving glasses/bowls. Top with strawberries, blue berries and maple syrup. Cover and refrigerate overnight and serve in the morning.

Click for more ...

Orange Marmalade Caramel Custard

Bored of the normal Caramel Custard? Try this variation....




Use orange marmalade in the caramel and follow the normal caramel custard recipe.

Ingredients:
Milk - 2 cups
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1/4 cup (or less depending on the sweetness of the marmalade)
Orange Marmalade - 2 tbsp (Optional)
Vanilla - 1/4 tsp or Nutmeg powder pinch

Sugar - 3 tbsp (to caramelize)
Orange Marmalade - 2 tbsp

Method:

• Add sugar to eggs and beat. Add vanilla/nutmeg to milk and stir well. If you choose to add Orange marmalade in the custard, add it to the milk now and stir. Add beaten eggs/sugar to the milk. Keep aside.
• Heat 3 tbsp sugar in a separate pan with a tbsp of water over low heat till sugar starts to dissolve. Add orange marmalade and stir well. Increase heat and allow sugar to caramalize. Immediately pour into the custard moulds and swirl to coat bottom and halfway up sides. Cool the moulds.
• Pour milk and eggs mixture into moulds.
• Cover each mould with aluminium foil.
• Steam custard for 30 to 45 mins or till done. Once cool, move to the refregerator for another 4-5 hours.
• When ready to serve, take each mould and remove the foil. Put a plate on teh mould and turn upside down. Tap lightly and remove the mould slowly. Serve immediately.

I also added 2 tbsp yogurt to the milk. Skip yogurt and orange marmalade from the milk mixture if you prefer a smooth texture. You may use condensed milk instead of milk or condensed sweetned milk as well. Adjust sugar accordingly.

Click for more ...

Banana & Walnut Cake

Tea bread/cake made with bananas, walnuts, oats and raisins.








Ingredients:
All purpose flour (maida) - 1 cup
Oats - 1 cup
ground ginger - 4 tbsp
cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
all spice powder - 1/4 tsp
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
baking soda - 1 tsp
sugar 1/2 cup (add more if you like the cake to be more sweet)
sunflower/canola/vegetable oil - 4 tbsp
eggs - 2
orange juice - 8 tbsp
ripe bananas - 3
raisins - 1 cup


Method:

• Add orange juice to oats. Mix well.
• Add eggs,ginger, raisins, oil and mashed bananas and set aside for 20 mins.
• Mix rest of the ingredients and pass then through a wire sieve.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix well.
• Preheat oven to 350 degs.
• Lightly grease and line a 7x 11 inch baking pan and pour the mixture into the pan. Bake for 30 to 45 mins or until the center springs back when pressed. Alternately you can use muffin tin and make cup cakes.

Click for more ...

Cranberry Chutney

Eat with bread/rotis or as a sauce with meat.





Ingredients:
Fresh Cranberries - 4 cups
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp
Black Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Dry Red chilies - 2-3
Meethi seeds - 1/8 tsp (Optional)
Salt - pinch

Sugar - 1/2 cup
Jaggery, grated - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
1 cup water
Juice of an orange
Zest of 1 orange

4-5 Apricots, chopped (dry or fresh)
Raisins - 1/2 cup

8 black peppercorns, freshly ground
2 allspice berries (or pinch of clove/cinnamon powder)
White ginger - grated, 1 tsp

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin, meethi seeds and red chilies.


• Add cranberries and a cup of water. Cook covered on medium heat. Once the berries burst, add Apricots and Raisins


• Add salt, sugar, jaggery, orange zest/rind and orange juice. Cook the sauce thickens.


• Turn heat off and add ginger, pepper powder and allspice powder.


• Allow to cool and store.

Notes:

• The sauce thickens as it cools down so cook a little shy of the desired consistency.


• As you cook the cranberries, you will get the chutney consistency first - more liquid. If you cook further, you get a sauce. If you continue to evaporate the liquids, you will get the jam consistency.


• You can always store this in jam form. Scoop out the jam and add water/orange juice. Mix well and microwave for 30 secs to a minute to make sauce/chutney

Click for more ...

Sweet potato muffins

The goan sweet "Kanga Nevri" was an inspiration for this recipe.








To make "Kanga Nevri", sweet potatoes are boiled and mashed. Small portions of the mashed sweet potato are spread out to make a round shape. A filling made from fresh grated coconut and jaggery is spread on half the round. The other half of the mashed potato round is folded over and the edges are pressed down gently so that the filling does not spill out. These half moon shaped sweet potatoes stuffed with coconut and jaggery are then shallow fried till they brown on the outside and are served hot with a dash of pure ghee.

Making these individually and frying them is a lengthy process. So I tried to mix all the ingredients and bake instead.

Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes – 3, boiled with a pinch of salt and mashed
Dry grated coconut – ¼ cup
Grated jaggery – ¼ cup
Pinch salt
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped finely
¼ cup wheat flour
1 ripe banana, mashed (Optional)
Pure ghee (Clarified butter) – 2 tsps

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients together.
• Pre-heat oven to 350 degs.
• Spray muffin tray and line with paper cups.
• Pour muffin mix and bake for 25 to 30 mins.
  

Notes:
Keep leftovers in the refrigerator on the second day. Makes about 8 muffins.
You could add oats and other nuts as well.
Mix all the ingredients in a blender, add a cup of milk and make pancakes instead of baking muffins.

Click for more ...

Wheat Dosas

Can be served with any savory sides like potato sabji or alu gobi or sweet sides like banana halwa as you see in the picture. I have also included the alternate recipe for making Banana dosas.
















Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Water - 1/2 cup
Oil - to grease the pan

Method:

• Add flour, milk, salt and water to a bowl.
• Mix well and add more milk if required to make it dosa batter consistency.
• Heat a pan and add a little oil.
• Mix batter well and pour a ladle full on the pan. Lift the pan and tilt to spread the batter all over to make a round dosa.
• Keep for about half a minute on medium head and use a spatula to lift the dosa on all sides. Turn and cook on the other side. Serve hot.

Note: - You can soak some oats for 20 mins and add to the dosa batter.

Banana Halwa & Dosas:
Stack 2-3 dosas and top it with banana halwa. Sprinkle with some dry coconut powder.

To make banana halwa, heat a pan and add 2 tbsp oil and 1 tsp of pure ghee. Add 2 cloves and 1 cardamom. Add 2 bananas chopped into disks. Turn for a few and add 1 to 2 tsp sugar. Add a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp water. Allow to cook for 1 minute.

Banana Dosas:
Mix Wheat flour, milk, salt, sugar, water, cinnamon or cardamom and bananas in a blender. Add coconut powder (optional). Make dosas with the batter and serve hot.

Click for more ...

Cucumber Cake

A variation of the traditional Goan cucumber cake - "Tavsali"




Ingredients:
Grated Cucumber - 1 cup
Grated sugarcane jaggery (Panela/unrefined sugar) - 1 cup
Oats - 1/2 cup
Broken wheat/Bulgar wheat - 1/2 cup
Almonds 6-8 - coarsely chopped
Sunflower oil - 2 tbsp
Ghee (Indian clarified butter)- 1 tsp (Optional)

Method:

• In a pan add ghee and sunflower oil.
• Add wheat and roast till crisp and toasty (2-3 mins)
• Turn the heat off and add a cup of hot water to the roasted wheat. Allow to rest for 10 mins.
• Add the rest of the ingredients to the wheat and cook till all the water evaporates and the ingredients are well combined.
• Spray a cake pan with some oil and add the cake mix.
• Bake on 350 Degs for 20 mins or till brown on outside.

Click for more ...

Pedha

This recipe is inspired by the pedhas I had at Meera's place. I have also included her recipe below. Thanks Meera for sharing your recipe.



MY RECIPE:
I used to love the perfect top shaped pedhas my grandmother made by boiling and evaporating milk for hours. I have tried to reproduce the same flavour using store bought ingredients that help make these padhas in less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 can (14 oz/396 g)
Milk Powder - 1 Packet (3.2 oz/90.7 g) - I used Nestle Carnation Instant Nonfat Dry Milk fortified with vitamins A & D
Khova/Khoya - 1 block 350g , grated
Butter - 1 stick (Only if the khoya does not have butter already)
Desi Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp
(Optional) Almond powder - 2 tbsp or 6-7 Saffron strands dissolved 1/4 cup in warm milk
About half a cup milk - if needed to soften the mix to make it easy to roll the pedhas.

Khoya is available in Indian grocery stores. It takes about 2 liters of milk to make 350 g of khoya. The milk is reduced till it is very dry and shaped in blocks. Most store bought khoya would have butter in it. If the block you buy does not have butter, use a stick of unsalted butter.

Method:
Phase 1 - Stove top

• In a pot, melt butter. Skip this step if Khoya has butter.
• Add grated khoya and stir on low heat till khoya starts to soften.
• Add condensed milk, milk powder, almond powder and ghee.
• Stir for about a minute and ensure that all the ingredients mix well.
  

Phase 2 - Microwave

• Transfer the mix into a microwave safe dish and heat in the microwave for about a minute.
• Remove & stir. Let cool for a couple of minutes & heat again in microwave for about a minute. Repeat this step 2-3 times till you get the desired consistency.
• Add cardamom and stir. Heat in the microwave for half a minute. Allow to cool till it reaches a temperature where you can work with it.
• Take a marble size portion and roll into desired pedha shape.

Notes/Tips:

• Adjust the cooking time in microwave depending on the type of pedhas you need. If you like soft pedhas, cook less. It you cook the mix for a longer time, you will get harder pedhas but they last longer.
• If the mix is too dry the pedhas will crack when rolling.
• The mix will turn hard as it cools. After rolling half of the mix into pedhas, if the mix turns too dry, reheat for 20 seconds in the microwave. If it is still very dry, sprinkle some milk, mix well and heat in the microwave for half a minute to a minute.
• Reheat the soft pedhas for 10 to 15 secs in the microwave before serving.
• Instead of rolling into pedhas, you can spread the mix on a tray lined with parchment paper and cut into diamond shapes to make burfee.
• Add more saffron and cook less to make soft Keshar pedha. Or add cashew powder and make cashew burfee Or add cocoa powder to make chocolate pedhas/burfee.

MEERA's RECIPE:

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups milk powder
1 can Sweetened condensed milk
1 stick unsalted butter
Almonds/pistachios
Vanilla essence

Method:

• Heat butter in microwave in a covered microwave safe dish for about a minute.
• Stir in condensed milk , cover & heat again in the microwave for another minute.
• Stir in milk powder and move the dish back to the microwave for another minute.
• Remove & stir. Let cool for 2-3 min & heat again in microwave for about a minute. Repeat this step multiple times till you get the desired brown color.
• Add almonds/pistachios & essence, mix well and cool the mixture little bit.
• Take a marble size portion and roll into desired pedha shape.
  
  
  

Click for more ...