Nutella Rice Pudding

Nutella is my family favourite... we can never say no to this delicious spread. So I made this delicious rice pudding which gets ready in very less time and tastes yummilicious.

Ingredients:

Whole Milk- 1 Cup

Condensed Milk- 2 tbsp

Fresh Cream- 1 tbsp + little more for topping

Sugar- 2 or 3 tbsp

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 1 tbsp

Nutella- 2 tbsp

Cooked Rice- 1 Cup

Cardamom Powder- 1/4 tsp

Procedure:

Combine everything except rice and cardamom powder and bring to boil. Once a boil comes then add the cooked rice and continue to cook till most of the milk is absorbed and a thick consistency is achieved. Add cardamom powder and mix well then switch off the gas.

Serve with a dollop of fresh cream.

Sending this to Pari's- ONLY Original Recipe event hosted by Nivedita of Nivedita's Kitchen.

Torview's Food Palette Series- Brown event.

Daal Makhani

Daal Makhani is one of my favourite daals. The rich and thick daal is a treat to be eaten with parathas, roti but tastes best with hot steamed white rice. The daal is cooked in simmer for a long time and made with butter and garnished with cream.

Ingredients:

Black Daal( Whole Urad)- 1 Cup

Red Rajma- 1/4 Cup

Onion- 1 Big

Ginger- 2 inch piece

Garlic- 2 or 3 Cloves

Tomatoes- 3 Big

Heeng- 1/4 tsp

Salt- to taste

Mustard Seeds- 1/2 tsp

Cumin Seeds- 1/2 tsp

Spices:

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder- 1/2 tsp

Red Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp

Daal Makhani Masala- 2 tsp ( I use catch brand) or Garam Masala- 1 tsp

Butter - 2tbsp + 1 tbsp for garnishing

Fresh Cream- 1/4 Cup

Coriander leaves- For garnishing

Procedure:

• Soak black daal and rajma together for overnight.
• Wash the daals and add it in pressure cooker along with 5 cups of water, heeng and a tsp of salt.
• Pressure cook in medium high for 2 whistles and then keep the gas in simmer and let the daals cook for further 40- 45 minutes. Once cooked let the cooker cool down and then open the cooker and mash the daals little with the back of ladle.
• Meanwhile grind onions, ginger and garlic together and keep separate.
• Grind the tomatoes also and keep separate.
• In a deep kadhai heat 2 tbsp of butter and add mustard and cumin and let them splutter.
• Once spluttered add the onion paste and saute till the paste turns golden brown.
• Add the tomatoes paste, salt and all the spices and cook till the paste starts leaving oil from side.
• Add the cooked daal and mix everything nicely. Keep the daal for simmering for atleast 1/2 an hour stirring in between.
• Add in remaining 1 tbsp of butter, fresh cream and coriander leaves and switch off the gas.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Sending this daal to hearth and soul blog hop event co hosted by my dear friend kankana.

Also to A.W.E.D started by DK and hosted by Ayeesha of Taste of Pearl City

Chocolate and Coffee Muffins

So continuing with my muffin mania these are the latest ones which I made...I love coffee and my princess loves chocolate, so these muffins perfectly suited both our taste buds. They were absolutely yummy and chocolatey.

Adapted from here

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour- 1 1/2 Cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder- 1/4 Cup ( I used Hershey's)

Sugar- 1 Cup

Instant Coffee Powder- 2 tsp ( I used Bru)

Baking Powder- 2 1/2 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Whole Milk- 1 Cup

Curd- 2 tbsp

Oil- 1/2 Cup ( I used Canola Oil)

Vanilla Extract- 1/2 tsp

Chocolate Chips- 1/2 Cup

Procedure-

• Sift together All purpose flour, Cocoa powder, Sugar, Coffee powder, Baking powder and Salt in a big bowl.
• Separately whisk together Milk, Curd, Oil and Vanilla extract till everything blends well.
• Pour wet ingredients into dry and combine well till everything is mixed. Add in the chocolate chips.
• Pour the mixture in lined muffin tray till top and bake in preheated oven at 190 degrees C for around 20 minutes or till toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
• I got around 12 mini muffins and 4 big muffins.

I enjoyed these warm with my cup of coffee.

Happy Moment

Dear friends....Johanna Bailey a food columnist from Jerusalem Post featured my dish "Thandai" for World of Mouth- Holi festival. Here's the link in JPOST.

Eggless Cashewnuts and Banana Muffins

Lately my princess has been demanding of more and more muffins....and since she is at home enjoying small school break( that's why I have not been getting enough time to blog hop) I had to honour her demands :) So as soon as I made up my mind to make muffins, my first blog stop was at Anushruti's. She has got such a wonderful blog..I absolutely love all her recipes, photographs and the way she writes. Anushruti has taken egg less baking to a divine level indeed.

I did little modifications to her original recipe by substituting buckwheat flour with APF, but still got amazingly soft and delicious muffins. It didn't take much time also and I had a happy daughter with happy tummy. So lots of thanks to Anushruti for this wonderful recipe.

Ingredients:

APF- 225 gms
Bananas- 4 ripe
Dark Muscavado Sugar- 200 gms
Curd- 125 gms
Cashewnuts- 3/4 Cup (Chopped finely)
Unsalted Butter- 100 gms
Baking Soda- 1 tsp
Baking Powder- 1 1/4 tsp

Procedure:

• Sieve APF, baking soda and baking powder together and keep aside.


• Melt the butter in microwave for 30-40 seconds and keep aside.


• In a mixer grind together the bananas, sugar, curd and melted butter till the mixture is smooth.


• Gently mix together the flour mixture with the banana mixture and chopped cashewnuts until every thing is just combined.


• Fill the mixture 3/4 th in the muffin tray and bake in the pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 25-30 minutes or till done. Mine were done in 27 minutes. I got 12 big muffins.

Sending these gorgeous muffins to Priya and Aipi's Bookmarked event- Every Tuesday.

Gujiya - Sweet Treat for Holi

होली आई , होली आई,

रंग बिरंगी होली आई ,

धूम मचाती होली आई ,
घर घर में खुशियाँ लायी ,
बच्चों की यह टोली आई ,
हाथ में पिचकारी लायी ,
रंग गुलाल उडाती आई ,
होली आई होली आई !!!

This is the poem which we used to read in our books in school. The colourful holi brings lots of happiness in everybody's heart and home. The festival is a delight for the kids who love to play with lots of colours and water. A big bucket of coloured water will be kept ready and no one will be spared. It's a day to take blessings of the elders as well.

And how can we forget all the special treats for holi...poori, malpua, thandai and gujiya. So today I am going to share gujiya recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Crust-

APF- 2 Cups
Salt- A PinchGhee - 2 tbsp (Hot)


For the Filling-

Mawa- 300 gms
Dessicated Coconut - 1/2 Cup
Powdered Sugar- 1 Cup
Semolina- 1 tbsp
Poppy Seeds- 1 tbspCashew Nuts- 1/2 Cup ( Coarsely powder in mixer)
Almonds- 1/2 Cup ( Coarsely powder in mixer)
Cardamom Powder- 1/2 tsp

Milk - 2 tbsp to seal the dough

Oil/ Ghee to fry

Procedure-

• Prepare the dough for outer crust by mixing APF, Salt and Ghee. Knead by adding warm water little by little till the dough is soft and smooth. Set aside by covering the dough for 15 minutes.


• Prepare the filling by roasting mawa, till the raw smell goes and golden brown colour is achieved. Set aside to cool.


• Once the mawa is cooled add the semolina, coconut, powdered sugar, powdered nuts, poppy seeds, cardamom powder. Mix everything nicely.
• Take a small portion of the dough and roll it in a thin round of about 5-6 cms diameter and place the thin puri in the gujiya mould and place about 1-1 1/2 tbsp of the filling in the centre.


• Dip finger in the milk and apply it on the edges of the mould to seal it and close the mould ensuring that there is no filling coming in the sealed edges.


• Make all the gujiyas like wise.


• Heat oil in a deep kadhai/ wok and fry the gujiya's in low to medium heat till the crust turns light golden brown from outside. Take out and drain on an absorbent paper. Once cooled store the gujiya's in air tight container.

Enjoy flaky and sweet gujiya's with your friends and family and wishing everybody "Happy Holi'

Strawberry Lassi

With summers approaching fast we are always looking at so many alternatives to quench our thirst...ranging from lemonades to ice creams to soft drinks. But Lassi happens to be one of my favourites.

When we were kids mom used to give lassi after our lunch..loaded with lots of curd, ice and sugar, and we used to polish off our glasses very soon. I had a box full of strawberries lying in my refrigerator so decided to make lassi with strawberries. Mmmm...it tasted so delicious that my DH is demanding me to make it more often.

Ingredients : (Makes 2 glasses)

Strawberries - 1 Cup ( Cut in pieces)

Curd - 1 Cup ( I used whole milk curd)

Powdered Sugar - 2 tbsp

Honey - 2 tbsp

Water - 1 Glass

Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp

Ice Cubes ( Optional)

Procedure:

In blender puree together the strawberries, sugar and honey. Now add in curd, water, ice cubes, cardamom powder and blend it again nicely.

The thickness of the lassi can be adjusted by adding more or less curd/ water.

Serve chilled.

Update: Sending this to Saffronstreaks Seasonal Indulgence- Series Summer Cooler Event.

Suruttai Poli for Indian Cooking Challenge

This month Srivalli challenged us to make Suruttai Poli which is a traditional Tamil Nadu dish originating from Southern States of Tamil Nadu. I had never heard about nor seen this dish so it was a real challenge to attempt this one. But I am happy that I did attempt this challenge and was able to bring out a delicious outcome out of this.

Thanks to Nithya and her mother for suggesting this dish. Since I was making this for first time I followed the recipe to the T.

Ingredients:

For the Filling -

Chutney Daal/ Pottu Kadlai/ Roasted Gram - 1 Cup

Sugar - 1 Cup

Cashews - 20 -25 broken in very small pieces

Fresh Scrapped Coconut - 1 tbsp

Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Ghee - 1 tsp

Powdered Sugar - little for dusting

For the Appalams-

APF - 1 Cup

Salt - A Pinch

Oil - For Deep Frying

Procedure-

• Mix APF, salt and knead into a stiff dough by adding water little by little. Set aside the dough to rest for half an hour.
• Meanwhile make the filling by grinding roasted gram and sugar together. Heat ghee and fry the chopped cashews, as soon as they turn golden add the grated coconut and immediately turn off the gas.
• Mix all the ingredients of the filling together. Keep aside the prepared filling.
• Take small balls out of the dough and roll them in very thin applam like circles. Spread these in paper and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Heat oil in kadhai and deep fry the applam till its just cooked and is still flexible. The applams should not fluff up like pooris. Immediately take out of the oil and spread the filling inside and roll it tight keeping the seem side facing down.
• The real challenge is spread the filling and roll the polis fast as they will turn crisp and will start breaking once cool.

I dusted the polis with powdered sugar as it was shown in Pavithra's post.

Rainbow Cookies

My family is never tired of cookies. They are always happy to try out any kind of these buttered goodies...and I am always happy to see them smile. The reason I made cookies was to send these to my daughter's class party, the kids had their last day at lower kindergarten class and they will be going to upper kindergarten from next month...that's really a proud day for them..and my daughter insisted on some home made goodies for her friends.

I used shortbread dough for these cookies and added some colour sprinkles to give these rainbow effect. And I had one proud daughter who was so happy to share her mamma made cookies.

Ingredients:

APF- 2 Cups

Corn Flour - 1/2 Cup

Butter - 1 Cup (Room Temperature)

Castor Sugar - 3/4 Cup ( Since I was making for kids I used 3/4th cup but 1/2 cup will do)

Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp

Rainbow Sugar Sprinkles - 3 tbsp

Procedure:

• Beat the butter in a bowl with electric beater for about a minute and then add sugar and beat in medium speed for around 3-4 minutes till it turns creamy.
• Add in vanilla essence and beat again till just mixed.
• Add APF , Corn flour and Rainbow Sprinkles. Mix everything together and bring the mixture to form a ball of dough.
• Keep the dough wrapped in cling film to chill in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
• Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
• Take out the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 3-4 mm in thickness.
• Cut the desire shapes with a cookie cutter and bake them in an ungreased baking tray in the pre heated oven for about 13- 15 minutes or till its very slightly golden around the edges.
• The cookies will be soft and crumbly as soon as they come out of the oven but they will harden once they cool.
• Cool them on a wired rack completely before storing them in air tight container.

Sending these cookies to Champa's bake off.

Thandai

Holi is approaching fast and I just wish to be a kid and want to go back to the place where I spent my childhood with friends playing with colours and water...and sometimes mud and paint too. Hiding behind the houses and running between the narrow lanes..all the memories are coming as a flashback and I just wish to be a kid. It's such a nostalgic feeling and I am really missing all the festivities associated with this festival.

My mom standing for hours in the kitchen and making sweet treats like gujiya and we kids standing and waiting for her to drain gujiya's from hot oil and running away taking 1 or 2 of them with us. Papa wearing his Kurta and waiting for guests with hands full of red and green gulals ( colours).

One of most important drink prepared for Holi is 'Thandai'. Thandai is a very rejuvenating and refreshing drink. And in Madhya Pradesh it is usually mixed with bhaang and is served as an alternative to alcohol. But in our house thandai was made without bhang and this is the family recipe passed on by my mother which I am sharing today. The thandai mix is a blend of very aromatic spices and dried rose petals.

I usually make this mix and store it to be used whenever required.

Ingredients:

For the thandai masala-

Dried Red Rose Petals- 1 1/2 cup

Fennel- 3tbsp

Melon Seeds- 3 tbsp

Cardamom Pods- 10

Cumin-1 tsp

Coriander Seeds- 1 tsp

Whole Black Pepper- 1 tbsp

Mix all the above ingredients and store in an air tight container. When required mix the ingredients well and grind as much required to a powder and use.

For making thandai- ( Serves 2)

Ground Thandai Masala- 2 tbsp

Full Cream Milk- 1 1/2 Glass

Water- 1/2 Glass

Almonds- 10

Poppy Seeds- 1tsp

Sugar- 3 to 4 tbsp ( Or as per ur taste buds)

Procedure-

Soak the almonds in hot water for some time and remove their skin. Again soak these almonds and poppy seeds together in little water for 2-3 hrs. Grind both of these to a fine paste using some water and keep aside. In a blender pour the milk, water, thandai masala and the paste of almonds and poppy along with sugar. Pulse the blender 3-4 times. Using a fine mesh filter the milk and keep the strained milk in the refrigerator for chilling. Serve cool and refreshing thandai chilled in glasses.

A.W.E.D started by DK and hosted by Ayeesha of Taste of Pearl City

Sending this to Priya and Aipi's Bookmarked Event- Every Tuesday

Holi Aayi Re event by Show and Tell

Update: Also sending this to Gayathri's very first event 'Walking Through The Memory Lane'

Update: Sending this to Saffronstreaks Seasonal Indulgence- Series Summer Cooler Event.

Buttered Soft Pretzels

Gimme some gimme some...hot hot pretzels..that was what my daughter N was saying when she saw me making these. From quite some time I was thinking of making pretzels and was browsing around for some easy and good recipe for soft pretzels. Most of the recipes I came to know required the pretzels to be boiled first before baking...but I was not enthusiastic about the idea of seeing my kneading and shaping labour go to waste if they happen to break open in water...then I saw this recipe here and was happy to go further to make them.

The pretzels were really soft and tasted so good. I made salty pretzels..but shhhh I cheated too and made 2 of them with cinnamon and brown sugar coating...and needless to say they tasted divine. Next time I want to be more generous and am going to dip them in chocolate.

Ingredients:

For the Dough-

APF- 2 1/2 Cups

Instant Yeast- 2 1/4 tsp

Sugar- 1 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Warm Water- 1 Cup

For Topping-

Warm Water- 1/2 Cup

Baking Soda- 2 tbsp

Melted Butter- 3 tbsp

Coarse Sea Salt for Sprinkling

Procedure-

• Since I don't have bread machine I used muscle power to knead the dough...for that all the ingredients of the dough needs to be combined and kneaded into a soft and smooth dough. I worked with my dough for about 15 minutes.
• Keep the dough for resting covered with a cling film in a buttered bowl for about 45 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to a greased work surface and divide it in 8 portions. Allow the dough to rest again for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile combine 1/2 cup of warm water and baking soda and mix it well and keep the solution in a shallow bowl or plate.
• Take each dough and roll it into a thin long rope of about 28 inches in length.
• Shape each rope into a pretzel by making a U shape and then overlaying the ends of rope on one another and then press the ends into bottom of U shape. I have illustrated the method here-

• Meanwhile pre heat the oven to 250 degrees C.
• Dip each pretzel in soda water so that it is covered from both sides and then place them on buttered baking sheets.
• Sprinkle sea salt on the pretzels and bake them in the oven for 8-10 minutes or till they are golden brown in colour.
• Remove pretzels from the oven and brush all the melted butter evenly on each of them.

The pretzels tasted best when warm but they can be re heated in microwave as well and be enjoyed.

Sending this to Champa's Bake Off and Torviewtoronto's Food Palette Series- Brown event.

Tri Colour Pasta in Spinach Sauce

Pasta happens to be my kiddo's favourite and she likes to eat this in pizza hut here, when I saw this recipe in one of tv shows I decided to make this. She was happy to eat this in lunch and I was happy to see her eat spinach..which she is otherwise not fond of eating.

Ingredients:

Bow Shaped Tri Colour Pasta- 1 Cup

Onion- 1 Big ( Chopped Finely)

Garlic- 3 Cloves( Chopped Finely)

Spinach- 1 Bunch

Milk- 1/2 Cup

White Pepper Powder- 1/4 tsp

Mixed Italian Seasoning- 1/4 tsp

Salt- As required

Cheese- 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp for garnishing

Olive Oil- 1 tbsp

For White Sauce-

Butter- 2 tbsp

APF- 2 tbsp

Milk- 300 ml

Procedure:

• Boil water in a saucepan along with little salt and olive oil and add the pasta. Cook till done. Strain the pasta . I cooked the pasta softer since I was making this for my kid.
• Blanch the spinach leaves in hot water and then drain it, immediately put the blanched spinach in cold water to avoid discolouration. Then chop the spinach and keep aside.
• Make white sauce by heating butter and then add all purpose flour and stir for a minute then add milk little by little and keep whisking to avoid lumps from being formed. Boil the sauce till thick consistency is reached. Add white pepper powder and little salt.
• In another pan heat butter and add chopped onions and garlic, saute till translucent. Add the chopped spinach and cook for a while then add 1/2 cup of milk and cook for sometime.
• Add white sauce, salt, 1 tbsp of cheese and italian seasoning. Stir and bring everything together. If the sauce is very thick then little water can be added.
• Add the cooked pasta and incorporate everything together. Switch off the gas and garnish with other tablespoon of cheese.

Sending this delicious pasta to-

Priya and Aipi's Bookmarked Event- Every Tuesday event

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop Volume 37 at Girlichef

Presto Pasta Nights at Ruth's Blog

Srivalli's Kid's Delight- Restaurant Recreation hosted by Champa of Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen