Avocado custard

Avocado's in India are called Butter Fruit, it comes in a big size as we get the California Avocado here. This custard is very simple and yummy dessert. It was introduced for me by my MIL. I do like the avocado quite a lot and loved this dessert too. Simple ingredients and simple method, it's a quick fix on a surprise guest visit day.

Ingredients:
Avocado 1-2
Sugar 1 -2 tbsp(as per taste)
Cardamom powder 1/4tsp

Method:
First cut the riped Avocado in the middle and remove the seed. Scoop the avocado into a bowl and mash them well. Now add sugar and cardamom powder and beat them well. Now it's ready to be served.

Note: This dessert needs to be made and eaten. You can't make it in advance as Avocado turns brown when left for a while.

Fire Truck Red Velvet Cake

Here is the Fire Truck for my son on his 5th year Birthday. He enjoyed cutting and eating it. Will post the recipe soon.

Low-Fat Strawberry Parfait

Parfait is a simple but very easy dessert good in any season. I love strawberries so this is my favorite low-fat, no guilt dessert.

Courtesy: Giada-De-Laurentiis

Ingredients:

5-6 Strawberry chopped + 2 for decoration
1 cup Yogurt/Greek Yogurt
1 orange zest + juice
2tbsp Sugar
1tsp honey
1tsp chopped nuts
Mint for garnish
Method:
First make Greek yogurt if you don't have a store bought one.To do that, put a paper towel/coffee filter paper on a strainer/small colander with a bowl under it and refrigerate for 1-2hrs.So the water separates from the yogurt and you will get a thick and creamy Greek yogurt.

Then take the chopped strawberries in a non-stick pan with orange zest and juice. Add sugar and honey to it and bring it a boil and cool it. Now lets arrange to parfait. First put a big spoon of Greek yogurt in the bottom of the serving cup and let put 1 spoon of cooled strawberry syrup and then layer it with a spoon of yogurt. You can make any number of layers you want then top it with nuts and garnish with mint.

Note: you can substitute Greek yogurt with whipped cream or one layer Greek yogurt and one layer Whipped cream.

Fruit Spring roll

This is a no cook spring roll, so healthy and tasty. It can be served either as appetizer or as dessert.Its easy to make and it can be a game for the guests to do their spring rolls by themselves. These spring wraps/rolls are easily available in the Asian section of the supermarket. I usually have this in my pantry as they have a very long shelf life. All you do it get the filling ready and soak the roll sheets in water and stuff it. As simple as it sounds. Its yummy and even my son enjoyed it as it was filled with his favorite fruits.

Recipe Coutesy: "Everyday Italian "-Giada de Laurentis from Food Network.

Ingredients:

4 Spring Roll sheets
2-3 Strawberry
1 Mango
1tbsp Honey
Hand full of Rice Noodles
1tsp Chives/dill

Method:

Cook the Rice noodles and drain it and put it in a bowl. Add honey and chopped chives/dill and mix it well and keep aside. Now chop long strips of strawberries and mango . Now soak a sheet of spring roll sheet in warm water and when soft spread it on a kitchen towel and add the noodle mixture and mango and strawberry and roll it once and then the sides and roll again. You can dip it in honey or enjoy just like that.

Instant Jalebi

This is my blog-anniversary Post. Its been a year I started to blog. I started the blog with a dedication to my brother and am celebrating today with a dedication to my son who just loves these. "Jalebi" the word itself is mouth watering. Its one of the tastiest Indian dessert. Its my son's favorite sweet and he can trade his lunch/dinner for this. Its actually very good for Acidity patients, they say "If eaten with a glass of milk every morning then the acidity will be cured". But I am not sure how much it is true. Its high in calories for sure as it fried and dipped in sugar syrup so will add few pounds. But its fine to eat once in a while.

This is a very easy recipe and makes Jalebi's perfect ,crispy and instant every time. Just follow the recipe as it is. I have done this couple of times and would do it whenever my son wants. Its healthy since we'll be using fresh oil and right ingredients. Since its Instant you cannot store it and eat later, it has been eaten warm. So prepare this at the nth moment. You can add any color you want to make look like jalebi's.

Ingredients:

For the jalebi batter
1 cup plain flour (maida)
1 teaspoon Bengal gram flour (besan)
1/2 teaspoon fresh yeast, crumbled
1 tablespoon melted ghee
1 teaspoon sugar
2 to 3 drops of lemon yellow food colouring
For the sugar syrup
2 cups sugar
a few saffron strands
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
Other ingredients
ghee/oil for deep frying


Method:

For the jalebi batter-
Sieve the plain flour and gram flour together. Dissolve the yeast in 1 tablespoon of water. Mix the flour mixture, yeast solution, ghee, sugar and lemon yellow food colouring with 2/3 cup of water to make a thick batter, making sure that no lumps remain. Keep aside for 10 minutes till the yeast ferments.
For the sugar syrup-
Dissolve the sugar in 1 cup of water and simmer for 5 minutes till the syrup is of 1 string consistency. Add the saffron and lemon juice and mix. Remove from the fire and keep aside.

Heat the ghee/oil in a broad saucepan [about 1" deep]. Fill the Jalebi batter into a piping bag/ketchup bottle with a single hole nozzle or a thick cloth with a small hole in the center which is finished with button-hole stitch. Press out round whirls of the batter into the hot ghee/oil working closely from centre to the outside of the whirl. Deep fry the Jalebis till golden brown and transfer into the warm sugar syrup. Drain immediately and serve hot.
Tips
Do not allow the Jalebi batter to over ferment. Fry the Jalebis immediately once the batter has rested for 10 minutes.

"Recipe from Tarla dala(dot)com"

Apple-Date Swirl Cookies

This is my 50th post and so wanted to do something sweet, so here is a very Delicious cookie I ever had.I found this recipe in a small book by Betty crocker called "Fall Baking". It has some wonderful recipes, which are simple but quite interesting recipes. I have altered some of the ingredients according to my family tastes but have the original recipe here. I felt it was a little sweeter, so u can reduce the sugar content for the cookie. The filling is the best part in this cookies, its very soft, chewy,delicious and perfect for Christmas. Kids love them as its sweet and chewy.

Ingredients:

Filling
1cup Chopped Dates
3/4cup finely chopped peeled apple
1/4cup granulated sugar
1tsp grated orange peel
1/4cup orange juice

Cookies
1/2cup granulated sugar
1/2cup packed brown sugar
1/2cup butter(softened)
1/2tsp vanilla
1 egg(i used applesauce)
12/3cup All purpose flour
1/2tsp Baking soda
1/4tsp salt
1/4tsp cinnamon powder

Method:
In a pan mix filling ingredients, cook over medium heat,keep stirring until it boils and thickens(for about 5 mins).Set aside and cool. In a bowl, beat sugars, butter, vanilla and egg(applesauce) with an electric mixer on medium speed till well blended.Stir in dry ingredients.
Put the dough in between plastic wrap and roll it with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape.[I rolled it a round shape and my cookies were oval shaped]. Remove the top cover and spread the filling over dough.Roll the dough with filling inside, separating the plastic cover.Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 2-3 hrs or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 375*F. Cut the roll into 1/4th inch slices. Bake them for about 8-12 mins.

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup Evaporated milk
1 cup Sugar
2tbsp Condensed Milk/Khova
a pinch of cardamom powder
few saffron(optional)
2tsp each Cahew nut and Raisins
1tsp Ghee(purified butter)

Method:

Put the shredded carrots in a non-stick/hard anodized pan(as it dosent stick to the pan and there is not wastage and no need to add lot of ghee).Add Evaporated milk and let it boil till it thickens. Now add sugar and condensed milk and mix well till it reaches the halwa consistency. Finally fry the cashew nut and raisins in a spoon of ghee and add it to the halwa with cardamom powder and saffron. The Halwa can be served hot or chilled, it can be even served on top of a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Mango Football Cake

This was a cake I made for my Husband on his Birthday.When i was browsing the cake decoration online found some baseball, basketball shaped cakes, So I got an idea to bake a football shaped cake since my hubby is a big fan of Football(US). There is lot of football theme cake pans acvailable in the market but I didnt wanted to buy them for 1 time use. So thought of baking a cake and cutting it to the desired shape, which was much more cost effective.

I had some mango pulp sitting in my refrigerator for quite a while which needed some immediate attention. So I remembered a friend (Chhaya) who had baked this vegan cake at her son's birthday party and I liked it a lot. So I gave it a try and it turned out wonderful. Since I was taking this Wilton cake decoration classes, wanted to do some experiment with my new creation. I was very happy that it turned out great and didn't disappoint me.

I baked the cake in a loaf pan and cut it into football shape with a knife, then used brown color icing to make stars(using Tip 16) all over and with white color(since i made my icing with butter flavor shortening, it is cream in color) icing to make lines(using Tip 3). Since it was a small cake it did not take much time to make stars all over but if its a big cake u can use the 3 star tip available, which makes icing the cake faster.

To make the Mango Cake:(I used half the proportion, since it was a small cake)

Ingredients:

2 cups All purpose flour
2 tsp corn starch
2½ tsp baking powder
¾ cup margarine/canola oil
1 cup of sugar
¾ cup of mango puree
1 ½ cup milk

Method:

Preheat the oven for 350* F.Mix all the dry and wet ingredients together with a hand mixer and pour it into the greased tray/loaf pan. Bake for 30-40 mins . Cool it completely for about 30-40 mins and then cut it into desired shape.

Carrot-cinnamon-nut Bread "Happy Thanksgiving"

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Its the holiday season and I am coming across so many new recipes to enjoy this season. So I was in hunt for new kind of bread for our afternoon snack. I found this recipe in Betty Crocker "Fall Baking" book.I liked it as it was simple and wanted to try out something new instead of the banana bread which i usually bake. The main recipe was with ginger instead of cinnamon, my family is not a big fan of ginger especially when its a bite size so I substituted it. It was good but since i made it vegan it felt a little dry and needed some more moisture in it. So I guess we can add a 1/4 cup of water/orange juice to it. I even used wheat flour instead of All purpose flour, so it made the bread a little bitter. I recently came to know that if orange juice is used when baking with wheat flour reduces the bitter flavour, so i shall try it next time. But over all it was good and new way to enjoy Thanks giving.

Ingredients:

2 eggs(i used 1/2 cup applesauce)
1.5 cup brown sugar
1/3cup Oil
1/2cup Milk
1tsp vanilla extract
2cups All-purpose flour(I used wheat flour)
2tsp Baking powder
1tsp ground ginger(i used cinnamon)
1/2tsp salt
1cup shredded carrots(about 2 medium sized)
1/2cup chopped nuts

Method:

Heat the oven to 350*F and grease a loaf pan and keep aside. In a food processor add applesauce, brown sugar until creamy. Now add oil,milk, vanilla essence. Now add Flour,baking powder, cinnamon, salt.Stir in carrots and nuts and pour it into greased loaf pan.Bake for 60 minutes. cool completely for 2 hours and then cut them into slices and enjoy them with butter.

Cup Cakes

In our 3rd class of Wilton Decoration we had a choice of either a 8inch cake or 6-8 cup cakes. I choose to take cup cakes to the class. 3rd class is a relaxing class as we don't learn much in this except few simple decorations like a bear, faces, apple, heart, grapes,swirl flowers. They r very simple but when did on cake looks very decorative and hard. Among all these i loved making clowns which was the simplest and fastest. I felt clown on a cup cake was too big, it looks better on a cake. Since it was just a practice class it was fine, but will try out sometime soon on a cake.

Rainbow Cake

Its been quite a long time that I posted something on my blog that's b'coz I was busy taking a cake Decoration Class. The class demands a little attention as you need to bake a cake and prepare the icing from home. With out regular cooking, house hold work this was an addition, so I couldn't make time for blogging but was trying to check all my friends blog regularly.

Its a great class to take up, if any one interested in cake decoration should definitely try one course. Its usually offered in Hobby lobby, Michael's and Joann stores. This course is of 4 classes and the Course I teaches basics like baking the cake, making the Butter cream icing and using the tips. I enjoyed the class as I got to learn some new things and got to explore with Icing. I have registered for Course II as well which starts in Dec, so till my next course I shall show my cakes in my blog. So expect the next few blogs just on cake decoration.

I shall not go in depth with the course but show u the cake i decorated. I made a store bought cake mix as I had lot of things to do so I didn't wanted to make a cake from scratch. As it was my first cake its not a perfect one but was happy that I could do it so well on my first cake.My confidence level was boosted for sure.

Badam Burfi

Happy Deepavali to all the blogger out there.
Ingredients:
1cup Almonds
1cup Sugar
1tsp Ghee
1/4cup or less Milk

Method:

Soak the Almonds for 30 minutes in warm water and peel the skin.Now blend it with sugar and milk. Now put a spoon of ghee in a nonstick pan and keep it on Medium heat and pour the mixture and keep stirring for about 20 mins or so. Till all the paste leaves the edges and forms like a ball. Now grease a plate with a little ghee and pour the mixture and cool completely and cut it to desired shape.

Note: To know when its ready to pour it on a plate is the burfi starts to get dry.

Dil Kush (Sweet Puff)

If you are from Bangalore or surrounding cities and used to go to the bakery's then u will be very familiar with this name. "Dil Kush" is a Hindi word and means "Happy Heart"or "Which makes the Heart Happy". Its one of the sweet snack available there and we used to eat at least once a week.Its a very dense and heavy snack for an evening.Its filled with lots of dry fruits and tutti-frutti's.

From a very long time i was craving for this recipe and searched the net but couldn't find it.So I tried to make my own and it was quite near to the one's available in the bakery. So I am happy it did not disappoint me. Its easy and can be made on any day for an evening snack.

I know the picture is not so good will upload a good view when I prepare it next time.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry sheets
1 cup Dry coconut
1 cup Tutti-Fruity, dry fruits(Raisin,cashew nut)
pinch cardamom powder
1tsp melted butter

Method:

Preheat the oven at 400* F. Now thaw the puff pastry sheet for 30 Min's,mix tutti-fruity, dry fruits and cardamom powder. Roll the pastry sheet to a round shape about 6inch diameter. Make 2 such round pastry sheet. Now add the mixture and apply butter and close it with the other pastry sheet and fold it tight and apply butter allover on the top and bake for about 7 Min's or until it turns golden brown. Then cut it into 4 parts and serve. Don't keep it for too long as the mixture inside makes the bottom soggy.

Gasagase Payasa (Poppy seeds Milkshake)

Gasagase Payasa/Kheer is one of the traditional drink in Indian cooking especially South India.It made in different method one of the method which my mother makes is here.My MIL dry raost's the poppy seeds and then grind them.So it can be made in 2 ways.Poppy seeds is the main ingredient used to make this Payasa/kheer. Poppy seeds are used mainly as Opium so drink this at night or when you are relaxing at home as you may doze away.

Its a simple and easy to make drink.So make them on weekend and relax.

Ingredients:

2tsp Poppy seeds
1tsp Rice
15-20 Almonds
1tbsp Fresh coconut
1tbsp Jaggery
1 cup Milk
1pinch Cardamom powder
2-3 strings Saffron(optional)
Almond slices for garnishing

Method:

Soak Poppy seeds, almonds,rice for about an hour add coconut and grind it to a fine paste.Now in a pan take 1 cup milk,jaggery and the paste and get to a boil in a low flame. Once the Payasa/kheer thickens switch off the flame and garnish with almonds and serve warm or chill it in the refrigerator and serve a cool drink.

Note: Boil the payasa in low flame as the bottom burns fast.

Sorekai Halwa

Sorekai means Dhoodhi or Bottle gourd, is a vegetable used for many purpose. Its one of the tastiest halwa's next to Carrot. I never thought it would taste so good as the vegetable is pale and dosent have much of its own taste. By adding some flovors and sweet it turns out to be really good.

Ingredients:

1 Big Sorekai(Skin peeled and grated)
1cup sugar
1 cup Milk
a pinch of cardamom
Green food color(optional)
1tsp Ghee
1tsp Cashew nuts broken
1tsp Raisins
Few strings Saffron(optional)

Method:

First squeze all the water in the Sorekai and keep aside.In a pan add this sorekai and a little milk and boil it till the vegetable is cooked well.Now add sugar, food color(i didnt add it) and keep stirring till it reaches the halwa consistency.Fry the cashewnuts and raisins in ghee and add it to the halwa with few strings of Saffron and serve warm or chill.

[Note: If you like the halwa to be rich and oily can add more ghee but if you do it in a non-stick pan extra ghee is not at all required.]

Kuchida Kadubu (Steamed Sweet Dumplings)

Kuchida Kadubu is a steamed sweet dumplings which is a delicious and a very traditional sweet made during festivals. Its a little time consuming but really worth it when you taste it.This is a healthier alternative to the fried ones.

Ingredients:
1cup RiceFlour
11/2 cup Water
a pinch of salt

For stuffing-
1cup Fresh grated coconut
3/4cup Jaggery
1tsp Cardamom powder
1tsp Roasted kuskus

Method:
First boil 1cup water and switch off the flame and add the Rice flour and mix really well and close it with a lid and keep aside.Now take a pan add jaggery and few drop of water and make syrup, add coconut and mix well and add cardamom powder and roasted kuskus.

Once both have cooled down, take a dime size rice dough and roll it to 4' diameter and put a spoon of stuffing and fold it to the shape of kadbu and make the rest of it and place it on idli plate and steam it for 4-5 mins and serve once it cooled. Enjoy it for 1-2 days.

Chikki(Peanut Caramel Candy)

Chikki is a candy very well known in India. In my childhood we used to eat a lot and frankly speaking one of the favorite snack of my Husband.Its so yummy that you can't resist by eating just one. Its one of the easiest candies i have tried. My mom is a wonderful cook and i learnt it from her. There are several different varieties of chikki in addition to the most common groundnut chikki. Each chikki is named depending upon the ingredients used. Usually, ingredients such as puffed/roasted Bengal gram, sesame, puffed rice, beaten rice, and coconut are used.

It is also extremely popular in Brazil, where it is known as pé-de-moleque. Chikki is also made with either sugar, brown sugar or jaggery.My Son has loves this too.Its a safe candy to give kids as we know what exactly is inside this.

Ingredients:

1 cup Peanut

3/4 cup Sugar

Method:

First roast the peanuts till it gives a nice aroma and little brown in color.Now peel the skin and crush it break it into small pieces in a blender(for just couple of seconds)and keep aside.Now put the Sugar in a pan(preferably Non-stick) and keep it to a medium flame and keep stirring till the sugar turns into brown(caramel color) and liquid.Turn off the heat and pour the crushed peanuts and mix it well.Put the mixture on a plate and pat it flat to the desired thickness.Cut it into desired shape and cool it well. Break it into pieces once its completely cool.Chikki's are ready to be eaten.Store in an airtight container for weeks.

I am sending this post to "JFI:Peanuts " event organized by Pavani. Thanks to Paritha for letting me know about this event.

[Note: If you like bigger chunks of peanuts no need to crush just peel the skin and make into half pieces.That will also be good.Once the sugar turns into syrup switch off the flame, this is very important otherwise the caramel consistency changes]

Mango Kulfi

Summer time is always fun to enjoy some cool ice-cream in the hot weather.Kulfi's are my all time favourite, especially home made tastes wonderful and healthy.Here in Texas it is really hot from past couple of days and we are running a record highs in 103*F(which is almost 40*C).So to keep our body cool its good to have some cold ice cream. Here i have a very simple recipe and takes very less time.Thanks to my friend Chhaya Bhat who gave me this recipe. Bread is used to bind the ingredients and give the kulfi the consistency needed.

Ingredients:

1 can evaporated milk
1 can condensed milk
4 slices of slight toasted white bread(sides removed)
1 small box of cool whip
1 cup Mango pulp
a pinch of Cardamom powder
few strings Saffron(optional)
1 tsp Pistachio crushed(for decoration)
Method:
Put evaporated milk, condensed milk , toasted white bread, cardamom powder, saffron and Mango pulp in a blender and blend this thoroughly well and then add cool whip and blend it again not for too long ...just until the cool whip is mixed well. Freeze for about 5 - 6 hours and kulfi should be ready :).

[Note: Don't use more Mango pulp if you don't get the color you need , it will change the taste of the kulfi.]

Dhoodh Peda

This Dhoodh peda is so simple and delicious that you can't wait to eat. Its simple because its made in microwave and it just takes couple of minutes and mess free too.This recipe i got it from my good friend Arathi's Blog.Thanks Arathi for such an easy dessert. I haven't made any changes to the recipe.


Note: Don't let the Peda cool too much otherwise it will be too hard to make the shape.You can use cookie cutter to make desired shape.

Chocolate Hazelnut Pie

There are couple of recipes i have tried last couple of weeks and haven't been able to put them on this blog.This week I had some time so I am blogging each dish for the day.Pie is something I am not so fond of but this particular pie made be do it, as it is a no bake pie and ingredients in this is simple and fat free too.So who on Earth would not like to have a fat free pie?no one i guess.I saw this recipe on Food network, a show I like a lot..."Semi-home made cooking by Sandra lee".She made a peanut butter pie, but we're not that fan of Peanut butter when compared to Chocolae Hazelnut..Best part is the hazelnut with chocolate combination its Heaven.I love chocolate in any form but hazelnut and chocolate combination is wonderful. The chocolate-hazelnut spread available is very famous in Europe as its like peanut-butter spread for them.This time when i visited my brother in Europe I picked one "Nutrella" brand Chocolate Hazelnut spread.Now a days we're so much hooked up for this that we no more use jam/jelly's for bread toast.

This pie is like an ice-cream cake, need to be cut an eaten fast once its out of the freezer.In summer time its the best dessert you can serve.Kids love it as its filled with chocolate.It demanded more chocolate topping(according to the recipe) but i skipped it.It really tastes yummy and i recommend to everyone who is a chocolate fan.

Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Chocolate Hazelnut spread
1 Chocolate Pie base
8oz Fat free cream cheese
8oz Fat free cool Whip
1tsp Vanilla extract
1tbsp Chocolate syrup(I skipped this)



Method:

Take Powdered sugar and chocolate-hazelnut spread in a bowl and mix it well , then add vanilla and cream cheese and mix it with a hand blender for few minutes.Add the whipping cream and mix it lightly with a spoon.Pour this mixture on the pie base and refrigerate for 30 minutes.Spray chocolate syrup(which i did not use) on top and cover it with an aluminium foil and freeze it for 2-3 hours or till it is set and serve.

[Note:I freezed it over night so it was completely set.]