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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Sheer khurma

Introduction:

Hello friends. "Happy Eid" or Eid mubarak to all . Celebrating ramzaan without semiyaan sounds like a hole in the pot. Yesterday when I was on the way back from mumbai, I passed through a muslim locality and found people are madly shopping food delicacies for ramzaan right from fruits to vegetable to nuts to dairy to blahblah......And instantly i felt excited for ramzaan. And god's grace, I had a holiday for EID so thought to utilize it. The obvious choice was to make traditional "Sheer khurma", which is not a vermicelli payasam, what most of us think. It is much thicker, rich and creamy then normal vermicelli payasam and i made it today and it was super easy and too awesome.  So here comes another sweet recipe to relish.


Ingredients:

Milk: 1/2 litre (Full cream)
Condensed milk: 200 gms
Sugar: 2-3 tbsp
Vermicelli/Seviyaan: 50 gms (Fine)
Desi Ghee: 2 tbsp
Cardamon/Elaichi powder: 1 tbsp
Dates: 2-3 (chopped)
Grated/Chopped nuts, raisins: for garnishing

Serves: 3-4 persons
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 20-25 mins

Method:

Pour the milk in a heavy bottom pan and put it on medium flame to boil. Stir in between to avoid seperation of cream and milk and sticking of milk at the bottom. When the milk comes to boil, reduce the flame and let the mil to reduce to about 3/4th.
At this stage, Add condensed milk and sugar to it. Mix and stir it and let it simmer for 5-7 mins on low flame till it becomes thick and creamy.
 
Meanwhile in another pan, add ghee and semiyaan and roast them till light brown. add the roasted vermicelli and elaichi powder & dates to the milk mixture and stir it for another 5-7 mins.
 
Put off the flame and let it come to room temperature. Garnish with it chopped nuts and raisins and serve. Enoy the sheer khurma with Eid greetings.
 
Note:
1. Use fine, thin vermicelli for making sheer kurma instead of thick vermicelli.Break those vermicellis into small pieces before roasting them.
 
2. The thickness of sheer khurma is more then that of normal kheer. so let the milk to get thickened.
3. If your khurma becomes too thick/solid during cooling, then add some more milk to it and bring it to desired consistency.
 

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Chocolate Milk Shake

Introduction:-

“Chocolate”........As soon as I listen the name, my all senses are filled with delight. It is always hard to resist the pleasure of a sumptuous piece of chocolate and no doubt, it really requires smartness to deal with ingredient like chocolate for recipes. But personally, It’s one of my hot favourite ingredient and I love to make desserts out of chocolate. It’s always a must have product in my fridge. Chocolate milkshake is also the best use of all the gifted/leftover dairy milk chocolates (my childhood favourite) on B’day and parties.  Here I’m writing a very cool, super delicious and easy to make “Chocolate milkshake”, which is a favourite of my family and friends and even some of them can get up in sleep too, to satiate their taste buds with this creamy milkshake.

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate compound: 30 gms OR
Dairy Milk/ Plain readymade chocolate: 30 gms
Coco powder: 1 tsp
Full cream milk: 1 Glass
Sugar: 2 Tbsp
Vanilla Ice cream: 1 Scoop
Ice Cubes: 3-4

Serves:  1 person
Preparation time: 2 mins
Cooking time: 3-4 mins
 
Method:
Take all the chocolate in a sauce pan. Add 2 -3 Tbsp of milk to it and put it on stove to melt. Keep it stirring with a spoon and within 2 mins chocolate will melt and become soft and smooth to mix.

At this stage, add the melted chocolate to the milk. Mix sugar, cocoa powder, ice cubes and ice cream. With the help of hand blender, blend all the ingredients thoroughly to make smooth, creamy milkshake.

Taste and adjust the consistency and sugar as per your like.

Serve the chilled creamy chocolate milkshake with some melted chocolate sauce, whipped cream, scoop of vanilla ice cream or with choco chips on top.
 
Note:
     
    1. As soon as the chocolate melts, immediately add it to the milk and whisk it. Else the chocolate may solidify and becomes lumpy.
    2. Use plain dark chocolates instead of fruit & nut, almond bites or other flavoured chocolate for best milkshake.
    3. You can vary the quantity of chocolate and ice cream as per your calorie count.
    4. You can also add chocolate ice cream instead of plain vanilla ice cream.
    5. Adding ½ tsp instant coffee powder also makes wonderful milkshake.
    6. You can also add some fruits and relish amazing fruit smoothies like Choco banana shake

 

Monday, July 21, 2014

Rajasthani Pachmel Dal

 
Introduction:-
Pachmel dal is a regular version which is mostly cooked in Rajasthan. This dal is deliciously combined with Batis and forms an exquisite meal. The name ‘Pachmel’ is self explaining that this is a combination of five pulses cooked altogether. I specially made this dal for Batis but because of its nutritious value, I like to cook this dal almost every week and have it  with normal chapatis or rice. Because of the use of five pulses, it gives taste of each pulse in one recipe. It is very healthy, nutritious and a complete meal. I'm posting my quick and easy version to make this dal. So must read for all working girls...:)

Ingredients:

Yellow Moong dal: ¼ cup
Green Moong dal: 3 tbsp
Arhar dal: ¼ cup
Chana dal: ¼ cup
Urad dal (split washed): ¼ cup
Tomatoes: 3 medium
Onions: 1
Garlic: 6-7 cloves
Ginger garlic paste: 2 tsp
Green chilli: 2 tsp (chopped)
Kasoori methi: 1 tsp
Salt: as per taste or 2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1.5 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Corriander powder: 1 tsp
Garam masala powder: 0.5 tsp
Asefoetida: ½ tsp
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Whole red chilli: 2
Amchur powder: 1.5 tsp
Ghee: 2 tsp
Oil : 1 tsp
Green coriander: for garnishing (finely chopped)

Serves: 2-3 person

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 15-20 mins

Method:

Wash all dals together and strain. Soak the dals in water for 15 mins. Meanwhile chop the tomatoes, onion and garlic finely. In a pressure cooker, add tomatoes, green chilli, ginger garlic paste and the strained and soaked dals. Add 3.5 to 4 cups of water. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, kasoori methi and garam masala. Mix them with laddle and cover. Pressure cooks the dal on medium flame for 3-4 whistles.

Put off the flame and let the pressure release by itself.

In another pan, Heat oil and ghee. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida, cumin seeds, garlic and whole red chillies. Add chopped onions and sauté for 2-3 mins. Do not over cook the spice on high flame else they will get burnt.

Open the pressure cooker and check the dal. Mesh it with the back of laddle so that all the contents are mixed up. Add the hot tadka to the dal and mix it up. Add amchur powder. Finally garnish the dal with chopped coriander and serve hot with Batis.


Note:

  1. You may vary the number of pulses in case of unavailability or taste. Adjust the proportions accordingly.
  2. You may add double tadka to dal for more beautiful look. Like you sauté onion and garlic first and then add to the dal. Later you fry the rest of the tadka ingredients and pour in dal at time of serving.
  3. Curry leaves may also be added for more fragrant tadka.
  4. Take care while frying spices for tadka. Red chillies get cooked immediately. So put on low flame.
  5. Adding tomatoes and spice powder at the time of pressure cooking the dal makes dal more delicious and it looks exactly like hotel or restaurant. This I have learnt from my experience and I always make any dal by this method only. It saves cooking time also.
  6. You can adjust the consistency of dal as you like. Always add hot boiled water to the cooked dal to make it thin. This preserves the taste of dal.

 

Rajasthani Bati

Introduction:

It’s more then a year since I am away from my lovely blog. Actually I was busy with exploring the new city, new work, new hobbies and new people . So was not getting enough time to come back on my blog. Well now, as I’m well settled with my new workplace, The colours of the vibrant city has started leaving its tints on me & my personality & of course on  my food habits….Well Mumbai is always a ‘yeah’. Just loving it.

So As I’m back, I’m again in a full mood to revive my blog and bring back those tasty days to my this virtual home. So here comes the comeback recipe, the very popular, traditional, delicious Rajasthani Dal-Bati. Since I’m from jaipur, Dal-Bati is always a favourite food in my house and prepared on almost every special occasion but till now I have never tried my hands to prepare bati as my mother usually do that…but This time I gave it a second thought and tried my hands on and yipeeeeeeeeee. It came out absolutely yum and I felt the appetite for it again on the very next day…Well I almost ate my mom’s head on phone for getting the recipe and every bit of details..hahaha.. So Here comes the recipe and the special Dal recipe is given in my next post otherwise the post will be quite long.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour: 2 cups (sieved)


Milk: 1 cup
Milk cream (Malai): 1 tsp
Desi Ghee: 2 tsp + 1 cup (for dough + for dipping)
Salt: 2 tsp or as required
Carom seeds: 1 tsp
Water: for kneading (lukewarm)

Serves: 2 persons

Preparation time: 10-15 mins

Cooking time: 20-30 mins

 
Method:

For preparing the dough, Take wheat flour in a bowl. Add carom seeds, ghee, salt and malai to it. Mix the ingredients and rub the flour between your palms to smooth the contents.
 
Now add milk and start kneading the flour. Add some water and knead it. The dough should not be too tight or too runny. It should feel soft when pressed between palms. Rub some Desi Ghee on the kneaded dough and cover it and keep aside for 5-10 mins.

Meanwhile put the gas oven on flame. The oven should be kept hot while putting in the Bati to roast. So keep the flame on medium and heat the oven for 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into 5-6 equal sized balls. Make them in shape of ladoo and press slightly between your palms.

Place the balls in the heated gas oven keeping sufficient space among balls. And put the flame on low. Cover and let them cook for one side for 10 mins.

After 10 mins, flip the half roasted Batis and let them cook for another 10 mins from the other side.

After 10 mins, check the batis. They will be having light brown shade and some black spots randomly. If you feel the batis are not done yet, then you may cook them for some more time.

Heat 1 cup of ghee in a sauce pan. Dip the hot roasted batis in the Ghee and press them with help of a laddle. This ensures that the ghee enters inside the batis.

Serve the ghee coated Batis with the special Rajasthani Pachmel Dal, Kadhi, Gatte ki sabzi and Green Chilli pickle.


Note:

  1. If you are in a habit of extracting ghee from the milk cream, then the left over mawa of milk cream can be added to the dough instead of milk. I tried this and the Batis came out amazing.
  2. You may boil the batis first before roasting them to make ‘Bafla Bati’.
  3. You may even fry the Batis instead of roasting them but this will be more heavy as on diet part.
  4. Why not try different kind of stuffing inside the batis to make it more healthy and delicious like Veggie, paneer, soya nuggets etc.