Rasamalai

This is my all time favorite sweet. In fact, I should say its my family sweet.. Everytime we go for any get together we dont even go for a second thought and order this sweet. Everyone likes it. So I have tried it for pajaaka's event.

Cooking time : 45 min
Makes 6-8 balls

Ingredients:
For Malai:
Milk - 1/2 litre (For best results use full cream milk)
Lemon juice - 3 tablespoons
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk powder / plain flour - 1-2 tablespoons
Water - 2 cups

For flavoured Milk:
Milk - 1/2 litre
Sugar - 1/2 cup or as required
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
Saffron - 1/4 tsp (soaked in warm water/milk)
Sliced Nuts for garnishing (Almonds, Cashew, Pistachios, etc)



Method:
For Malai:
1. Take a thick bottomed pan and boil the milk well.
2. Reduce the flame, add lemon juice slowly, stirring the milk continously.
3. As the curdling process begins, continue stirring.
4. When all the milk turns curd and water separates out, immediately add ice cubes to stop the curdling process further(this is an important step to avoid hardening of malai).
5. Use a clean muslin/cotton cloth to extract the solid parts. This is called paneer or cottage cheese.
6. Run cold water thoroughly from outside in order to avoid the lemon's smell in the dish.
7. Drain the water fully and knead it to make a smooth dough. If needed, sprinkle milk powder or plain flour to get a smoother consistency.
8. Make them into small balls and flatten them with your palm and keep them aside.
9. Heat sugar and water in 1:2 ratio and allow it to boil.
10. As it starts boiling, reduce the flame and add the flattened cakes one by one slowly.
11. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes. Once the balls puff up and start floating on the surface indicating it is cooked, you can take them out and keep them aside.

For flavoured milk:
1. Boil milk in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. Stir it continuously until the volume reduces to half and becomes thick.
3. Add sugar, cardamom powder, saffron water/milk and stir well, until sugar dissolves (5-10 minutes).

Put off the flame let it cool for sumtime and add the cheese balls one by one.
Garnish it with nuts and allow it to cool completely.
Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Macaroni Pasta

Ingredients:
Prego Traditional Italian sauce - 5 tsp
Macaroni pasta - 200 gm
Water - 1 litre
Tomato Ketchup - 2 tsp
Capsicum - 1(chopped)
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Boil macaroni in water for 10-12 min.
Drain the water and transfer to a bowl.
Add oil in a skillet and fry the capsicum.
Add Prego sauce and tomato ketchup to the pasta.
Add the Capsicum and mix thoroughly.
Add Salt to taste.
Macaroni Pasta is ready.

Channa masala

My brother always tells me his friend's mom is a great cook, she cooks so many varieties for hs friend and packs for lunch. My bro said tat guy s too proud of his mom n makes others envy for her cooking. So i decided to get her number n talk to her. She was also showing off initially..but I got my job done. She gave me this idea of making gravies in cooker as its time saving , uses less oil and tasty too. From then i follow her recipe for cooking in the mornings. Channa can be replaced by vegetables, paneer, peas / cauliflower. Here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:
To Grind:
Onion - 4
Tomato - 2
Cashewnuts - 5
Fresh Ginger - 2/3 pieces
Fresh Garlic - 5
Cloves(optional) - 2
Cardamom(optional) - 1
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Green chilli - 1
Red Chilli - 1
Kasoori methi(optional,mandatory ingredient for panneer butter masala) - few leaves


Powders:
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp (according to taste)
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Oil - 2 tsp
Channa - 1 cup(Boiled)
Coriander leaves(for garnishing)


Method:
* Grind all the items under To Grind section nicely.
* Heat oil in a pressure pan.
* Add turmeric powder.
* After 2 min, add the mixture, thereby adding the powders except turmeric.
* Add channa to the gravy and close the cooker.
* Let 3 whistles after placing weight.
* Open the pan and garnish with coriander leaves.
* Channa masala is ready.

Cabbage-Peas Pulao

Ingredients:
Basmathi Rice/Long grain rice - 1 Cup(Boiled)(Rice:Water - 1:11/2, when rice soaked for half an hour, otherwise ,1:2)
Cabbage - Half, finely chopped
Onion - 2 (finely chopped)
Peas - 1 cup(Boiled)
Green chilli - 2(sliced across vertically)
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1"
Cardamom - 2
Cashewnuts - 7/8
Coriander - few leaves
Ghee - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat ghee in a kadai.
2. Add cloves, cardamom, cinnamon & green chilli and saute for 2 min.
3. Add onions and saute till golden brown.
4. Add chopped cabbage and sprinkle some water, and add salt to taste.
5. Saute till the cabbage is soft and add bolied peas to the mixture.
6. Add this mixture to the boiled basmathi rice.
7. Heat little ghee , fry the cashews till golden brown and add to the rice.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves.
9. Cabbage peas pulao is ready.
10. Serve hot with some gravies like channa masala / vegetable kuruma.(Believe me, it tastes like star restaurant's dish)


Sending this to EC's Mixed Rice Varieties event

Stuffed Bhindi

Vendakai/Okra is my favourite vegetable. My mom says it is very good for brain and eventually prepares it during my maths exams. Actually,it's high in vitamin B6, fiber, calcium, and folic acid, which helps prevent neural tube defects in developing fetuses. I love it in all forms. So I chose this for spicy andhra's RCI-Rajasthan.
Ingredients:
Ladies Finger/Bhindi/Vendakai/Okra - 1/2 kg
Bengal Gram Flour - 1 cup
Oil (for blending and frying)
Jeera/cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Powders:
Chilli powder - 4 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin powder - 2 tsp
Amhcur(dry mango) powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Wash the ladies fingers and wipe them thoroughly.
Cut them into pieces of 3 inches with a vertical slit in each piece.
Mix all the powders, add 2 tsp oil, salt and mix well.
Stuff this masala into the ladies fingers.
Heat 4 tsp of oil, add jeera/cumin seeds and let it splutter.
Add the stuffed bhindi and stir fry for ten minutes adding 2/3 tsp of oil in between.
Fry in medium heat till thery are crisp.
Serve hot.

Main Course - Vegan Mexican Rice

When I hear of mexican food, I can only think of one of my favorite eateries, "The New Yorker".. we get almost all kinds of food - indian, mexican, italian, chinese.. I have had enchiladas there which is a popular mexican snack.. I wanted to make something for the main course to put it easier. Sometime back in the newspaper "The Hindu" , i read how to make mexican rice, salad, enchiladas...etc.. So, dusted my rack, found those bits which i had collected and tried the mexican rice .. It came out very nicely.. It was not typically tasting of pulao or biriyani.. Let me share the recipe here.. Try it and share its taste.. What inspired me to try out this recipe.. Ofcourse, our culinary bazaar event.

Ingredients:
Basmathi/long grain rice - 1 Cup(Boiled)
Onion - 3(chopped)
Tomato - 2(chopped)
Capsicum - 1(chopped)
Carrot - 2(grated)
Minced Garlic - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1/4 tsp
Soya sauce - 1/4 tsp
Rajma/Kidney bean - 1 Cup(Boiled with salt)
Oil - 3 tsp

Powders
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste


Method:
1. Heat oil in a kadai.
2. Add minced garlic, fry for 2 minutes, then add onions.
3. Add tomatoes once the onions turn golden colour.
4. Add the powders, carrots, capsicum and boiled rajma along with little water (preferably the beans-cooked water), vinegar and soya sauce.
5. Saute for 10 minutes till the gravy thickens.
6. Mix the gravy thoroughly with rice without breaking it.
7. Voila, Mexican rice.

Oats Halwa - Healthy snack for sweet lovers

I use the microwave to make papads, reheating, masala groundnuts, vegetables, cakes n cookies. For this Microwave Food event, i decided to do something different. I am very much fond of Oats as it does a great deal for weight management and thats the reason it became my breakfast item. I love trying out dishes in oats. And my choice is Oats halwa for this event. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
Oats - 3/4 Cup(When powdered, becomes one cup)
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Water - 1 Cup
Almonds - 4
Cashew nuts - 4
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method:
Finely Powder the oats.
Powder the sugar and mix it with water till it dissolves and keep aside.
Roast the oats in a microwave safe bowl/glass bowl at microwave high for 2 minutes.
Add the sugar syrup and micro wave high for 3 minutes, stirring once in between.
Check whether it has turned into halwa-like consistency.
Heat Ghee and add almonds n cashews for 1 min.
Add the nuts to the Halwa.
Oats Halwa is ready.