Daily Archives: March 26, 2016

Fruit stick

Preparation time : 20 minutes
Cooking time : nil
Serves : 8 members

Description

Discovering Simple, clever tricks that help to add more glamour to entertain and host people for a feast at home with truly scrumptious ideas is always a crab from my side. This beautiful fruit stick line up is one such idea I took from an image from the world wide net. Ever since then, I never place plates of chopped fruits for dessert instead it’s all skewered alternatively with contrasting colour combination of the fruits of the season. The big difference of presentation is what helps in high lighting a dish to another level. I always try to leave the fruits as it is to enhance crunch and nutrition where health freaks get to treat on these guilt free jewels. The only work to be done is the skewering part. This is so handy as it can be done ahead and placed in the refrigerator to chill until the time of serving. This is perfect for a hot sultry summer day snack, a great side for a potluck or picnic too. This simple fruit stick sure does make all my guests feel special, excited and fulfilled. Follow the same and make all your loved ones feel the same too..

Ingredients and things needed

Ingredients	Quantity
Fruits of the season	to choice
Here I have used pineapple chunks , green + black grapes and strawberries	2 cups mixed
Long tooth picks	10

Method

Skewer the fruits alternatively in contrasting colours into the tooth pick.
Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Notes

Avoid using banana and apples as they tend to turn brown.
Always use colourful fruits to add more glamour.

Kokum bonkers

Preparation time : 10 minutes + soaking of basil seeds for one hour
Cooking time : 10 minutes
Serves : more than ten helpings

Description

Summer is back with the sun shining bright with us getting dehydrated often. So I made up my mind to make a mock tail. I check my refrigerator and find nothing at all. Take a walk into my pantry and find basil seeds.. I dig further to see a packet of Kokum. The bulb moment happened when I saw the Kokum which reminded me of having a rasam sort of a drink in goa made with Kokum and coconut milk. Not wanting a heavy drink, I omitted the coconut milk and went ahead with what I thought would pair well with Kokum. I was expecting a pale pink colour drink but it was a pitch dark brown colour instead. The final result was a pungent, flavourful drink that was tangy, sour, sweet and salty in one shot. I took it as a surprise treat to my fellow Zumba class mates. Every one enjoyed their glass of this cooler going on to say they feel so energetic and cool. I made sure to google and see the health benefits of Kokum and that’s when I got to know it’s a cooling agent and has so many other healing benefits too. A new recipe tried and learnt with awesome results and a bonus of knowing more about an ingredient. Now isn’t that a wow factor for a day well spent.

Ingredients to boil and grind

Ingredients	Quantity
Kokum	1/4 cup
Green chillies	2 chopped
Water	1 litter
Salt	1/2 teaspoon
Cumin powder	1 teaspoon
Black salt	1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida	1/4 teaspoon
Mint stem	5
Sugar	to taste

Method

Mix all the above ingredients together and boil for ten minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Strain and grind the Kokomo and other ingredients together adding little of the strained water to a smooth paste.
Mix the paste to the reserved boiled water and mix well.
pour this mix into clean bottles and store in the refrigerator for further use as a crush when needed. Keeps well for two weeks.

Other ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Mint leaves	2 tablespoons chopped
Coriander leaves	2 tablespoons chopped
Sugar powder	1 cup
Whole coriander crushed	2 tablespoons coarsely
Red chilli flakes	2 tablespoons
Chat masala powder	1 teaspoon
Basil seeds ( sabja seeds )	3 tablespoons soaked in water for one hour.

How to proceed

Place two tall clean glasses in the refrigerator.
Mix chopped mint leaves, coriander leaves, powdered sugar, coarsely crushed whole coriander seeds and red chilli flakes together in a flat tray.
Fill a flat shallow tray with 1 1/2 cups of water and keep aside.
Remove the tall glass from the refrigerator. Dip the top mouth of the glass into the flat shallow tray with water, wetting the rim of the glass all around.
Remove the glass in a inverted way and press over the sugar mix tray, making sure the sugar mix forms a border on the rim of the glass. Do the same with the other tall glass as well.
Add chilled water, sugar, chat masala powder, the remaining mint – coriander – sugar mix used to rim the glasses and salt to taste to 1 cup of Kokum juice. Taste and adjust sweetness.
Care fully pour in equal amounts of the Kokum juice into the two tall glasses making sure the sugar border does not get disturbed using a funnel 3/4 way full.
Top with 2 tablespoons of soaked basil seeds and serve chilled.

Flaxseed gun powder

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 5-8 minutes
Serves : more than ten helpings

Description

Two of my parental aunt’s ( eldest two ) come visiting for a days stay to my parents place. As always it’s non stop gossiping and exchanging update’s with in themselves with happenings of near and far relatives and friends . When dad is out of the house, my aunt’s automatically get into the kitchen and start to do some thing or the other to show case their culinary skills. Well now you all might know from where I get this craziness of loving to cook and entertain comes from . This flex seed gun powder was a recipe that my first aunt zohra ( Pappathi her pet name ) made that day. So easy to make, healthy, spicy and aromatic. The comfortable warmth of this beloved classic is matched by the accents of different spices that go into it to get a magical instant gun powder. I sure rely a lot on my aunts to steal smart ways to improve my kitchen skills. A sprinkle of this over your dosa, idli or kuli paniyaram’s will boost the flavour and delight you to eat more. So that’s what my parents and aunt’s did too.. Talking, eating and enjoying with this gun powder soaking up ways creating memories to be cherished latter.

Ingredients	Quantity
rice ( pacha arisi )	2 cup
Asafoetida	1 teaspoon
Curry leaves	one hand full
Garlic	1 pod peeled
Cumin	1/4 cup
Black pepper corns	1/4 cup
Dry red chillies	15
Urad dal	1 cup
Horse gram ( kollu - kaanam )	1 cup
Bengal gram dal	1 cup
Salt	to taste
Flax seed	1 cup

Method

Dry roast all the ingredients separately until a nice aroma arises. Cool completely.
In a food processor powder the roasted ingredients together to a semi coarse powder with out adding water.
Taste and adjust seasoning. Store in an air tight clean bottle in room temperature.
Mix 3 teaspoons of idli powder with 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil or coconut oil and have with idli or dosa.

Carrot kheer

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 25 minutes
Serves : 8 members

Description

This dessert was the winning dish for the dessert category of sauté, fry n bake’s second anniversary recipe swap that took place in Coimbatore. This dish and recipe was shared by hamidha Shabeer who has been a follower of sauté, fry n bake from its initial days. The encouragement and love from such people is what keeps me going on till date. I remember the judge wanted to know what sara paruppu is known as in English or Hindi. All of us including me were clueless. This dessert is so easy to make, flavourful and has a lovely colour to it. Kids will sure enjoy not knowing a vegetable is added. What genius ideas we home chefs come up with.It’s a shame on me that it took me so long to share a winning dish. A big fat sorry from my side for that. This recipe has been with me ideal for more than a year.. So let’s all make it for the lost time and get ready to slurp it away.

Recipe source : hamidha shabeer

Ingredients	Quantity
Carrots	2 cups cut into cubes
Milk	4 cups
Sugar	4 cups
Cashew nuts	10 numbers
Almonds	10 numbers
Saffron	1/4 teaspoon soaked in 1/4 cup warm milk
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon
Nuts	of choice to garnish ( almonds , cashew nuts , pistachio , cucumber seeds , chironji seeds - saara paruppu in Tamil )
Ghee	1 tablespoon

Method

Cook the carrots with 1 1/2 cups of water to tender. Cool completely.
Blanch the almonds, peel and grind with the cashew nuts and boiled carrots to a smooth paste.
Mix the ground nuts and carrot paste with the milk and boil over medium flame making sure not to burn the bottom by stirring occasionally for five minutes until slightly thick.
Reduce heat and add sugar little by little. Cook until sugar dissolves and kheer has reached the desired consistency.
Top with soaked saffron and cardamom powder. Mix well, taste and adjust. Remove from heat.
Heat ghee and fry nuts of choice to a light golden colour. Pour into the kheer, mix well and serve warm or chilled.