Aamkhand ~ Mango Yogurt

I wanted to make srikhand for long now and one fine day I endup with trying aamkhand since I have fresh mango pulp in hand.  It's a easy and simple dessert with delicious taste.  
 
Here is some interesting facts about Mango ~ Mango is rich in a variety of phytochemicals[11]  and nutrients. The fruit pulp is high in prebiotic dietary fiber, vitamin C, polyphenols  and provitamin A carotenoids.

Mango contains essential vitamins and dietary minerals. The antioxidant vitamins A, C and E comprise 25%, 76% and 9% of the Dietary

Mango peel contains pigments that may have antioxidant  properties, including carotenoids, such as the provitamin A compound, beta-carotene, lutein and alpha-carotene, polyphenols such as quercetin, kaempferol, gallic acid, caffeic acid, catechins, tannins, and the unique mango xanthone, mangiferin,  any of which may counteract free radicals in various disease processes as revealed in preliminary research. Phytochemical and nutrient content appears to vary across mango species.  Up to 25 different carotenoids have been isolated from mango pulp, the densest of which was beta-carotene, which accounts for the yellow-orange pigmentation of most mango species. Peel and leaves also have significant polyphenol content, including xanthones, mangiferin and gallic acid.

Source:  Wiki for more info on mango click here

Ingredients:

Curd/Yogurt - 1 &1/2 cup 
Mango Pulp - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp [to taste]
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Almond & Pista - 2 tbsp chopped

Method:

1. In a muslin or cheese cloth transfer the curd and hang it to discard all excess water for 4-5 hours, I did for 30mins as my curd normally is very thick.

2. Beat mango pulp along with sugar and cardamom powder (sugar depends on your taste bud and also on the mango sweetness)

3. Mix well hung curd with mango pulp.

4. Add choppped nuts and chill for 2-3 hours.

5. Garnish with chopped nuts before serving. 

It's very simple and yummy dish and this goes to Nithu's  Sizzling Summar Contest what a better way than to enjoy summar with yogurt and mango :-)

And to Yasmeen's Health Nut Challenge 7 : Tropical Temptations 

Enjoy your day....

Pepper Kuzhambu ~ Pepper in Tamarind Gravy from Ratatouille

I like pepper kuzhambu very much but never made, but I always wanted to try it.  One day I was just browsing my reader and saw the recipe (Milagu Kuzhambu) in Chitra blog it was simple, I tried it found it was yummy.  I did few changes in the recipe like adding ginger and saute the cumin pepper masala, here pepper kuzhambu my way.  Thanks Chitra for sharing the recipe :)

This recipe goes to Priya's event Healing Foods-Onion, a event started by Siri.  To Padma's Cooking with Seeds-Pepper, started by Priya


Ingredients:

Cumin Seeds - 1tbsp
Black Pepper Corns - 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek/Methi Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Peal Onion - 6 pieces [ 1/4 Cup chopped]
Tomato - 1 medium [ 1/2 Cup chopped]
Garlic - 2 tbs [chopped ]
Ginger - 1/2 tps [optional]
Curry leaves - 4-5 leaves
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - 1 small lemon size
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Water

Method:

1. Roast cumin seeds followed by pepper corns in a pan, allow it to cool and grind it to course powder.

2. Soak tamarind in 1 cup water for 15-20mins, extract the tamarind water/juice and keep aside.

3. Chop ginger, garlic, onion and tomato keep aside.

4. In a pan heat oil add mustard seeds and allow it to crack, add fenugreek seeds & curry leaves and saute for 30sec.

5. Add chopped ginger, garlic and saute for a min.  Add chopped onion and saute until onion turns light brown.

6. Add chopped tomato and saute for 2mins in medium heat or until it get mash.

7. Add powder turmeric, cumin & pepper masala and saute for 2-3 mins.

8. Add tamarind extract and salt and cook for 7-8 mins in medium flame.

I think mine should have been cooked more to get thick kuzhambu as I liked that way.  This is a simple and yummy recipe and sure for me try again. (on the side is yellow pumpkin curry, I shall post later)

Enjoy your day...

Bagara Baigan~ Eggplant Curry from Edible Garden

I had eggplant/brinjal/baigan with me for more than 3 weeks now lying in the fridge giving up the hope on me.   The problem was the eggplants were it was neither big enough for me to make baigan bharta or small to make bagara baigan, they were in bigger than medium size.  

I wanted to make bagara baigan for very long time now but never tried it so far due to the complicated recipe.  One Saturday I saw Nags FB status that she is making something with eggplant, I went and checked her site and found the Hyderabad style bagara baigan which was looking simple enough for me to give a try and I’m glad that I did. 

It tasted yummy with the scope of improvement (perhaps next time add all the ingredients ;)).  Never mind that I didn’t had coconut and  use large eggplant ;)  So here the recipe my way.  Thank U  Nags for sharing the recipe :)

This goes to Nupur’s BB4: What’s Lurking in your kitchen?  and to Cinnamon Girl Side Dish Showdown


Ingredients:

Eggplant /Bringal - 4 medium size or  6 small size
Sesame Seeds - 2 tbsp
Peanuts - 2 tbsp
Onion - 1 large
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Redchili Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - one small lemon size
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Water - 2 cups

Method:

1. In a pan roast sesame seeds until golden brown, followed by peanuts and set aside.

2. Once cool grind sesame and peanuts to fine paste using little water. [Add coconut if using]

3. Soak the tamarind in water for 15 mins and extract the pulp in approximate using 1 cup water.

4. Wash, chop onion.  Wash and slit the eggplant/brinjal (more of making a plus (+) sign) and keep aside.

5. In a pan heat oil and saute/fry the eggplant until golden brown or eggplant becomes soft, keep aside.

6. In a same pan add chopped onion, ginger garlic paste  and fry until golden brown (add little more oil if required).

7. Add grounded paste and fry for 2-3 mins or until the rawness disappear.

8.  Add all the spices powder, salt and fry for 2 mins.  Now add the tamarind extract and mix well, cook for 5 mins with lid on.  Add 1/2 cup of water and cook for 5-7 minutes or until gravy become thick.

I made channa daal, broccoli stir fry along too to enjoy the sat’day meal :)

Enjoy your day ...

Festive Food ~ His Cooking Event Roundup Part I

So here comes the much awaited roundup, much awaited cause I post the event and start getting message like all waiting for the roundup ;).  Well I did a little survey in FB before announcing the event and it was much encouraging....

But after the event announcement there's was little to no entry and it made me think perhaps this is not what it suppose to be, but I kept my patience with my blog friends holding hands and the entry start coming from last week of May.  I guess it's the thing with most of us wait for the last day of event ;)...

Anyways I received entries but the best part of all the ladies appreciation, thanks for all your mails n messages it really means a lot.  I'm glad that it did bring one or another little joy to everyone.  And some of post read up were so funny you have to check out all the post. 


All of you please convey my THANKS to your husband, Sons, Daughter and a BIG Sorry too.  Sorry is for all the trouble they have to go through cause of this event as many of us bugged our husband to cook! They must be really pissed with me ...thinking why the heck there has to be event like this ;) so do convey the message ladies.


Ahh I know you all want to see the roundup so here presenting work of art ~ By Men for Women ..LOL


The first entry came from dear Aparna or as we call her Aps from Aps Kitchen, her blog is no new to HIS cooking as she has posted  many of her hubby recipes, and this time she sent us a storm of entries

Batate Bhaji & Chapathi a simple yet delicious potato sabji with chapathi

Lovely Corns
 

And Mushroom Peas Pulav

Next comes Srihari of Binge on Veg entry of Superman's Chole Masala.  Interesting name rite :)...the recipe is interesting and the post..and so sweet of Hari to type the recipe too...now that's what we call love isn't it? And look at the cute picture

I hardly expected pickle to make the way through our event but it did through Dershana's of The Footloose Chef  Instant mango pickle which made by her husband, now that interesting. 

Here comes another 2 entries from Aps of Aps Kitchen, since her hubby cooks once a week ..lucky gal :)

Prawn Corn Pulav

And Corn Pulav

Sowmya of Creative Saga enjoyed Puri urulaikazhanga/potato curry with puri  made by her hubby which she says is one of the best. 

Siri of Siri's Corner had her hubby's famous Peppers with Besan Stuffing on a lazy weekend...ahh isn't this is what we all want? :-)

 
Quick snack Rolls is a surprise recipe for Richa of RICHAS KITCHEN since this is her hubby venture. ..how cute :).  This looks way delicious.

Next up is Shifa from sugnspice entry Poha and Kheer and guess what her hubby never cook before.  Shifa suggested some inspiration from my blog, he selected Poha and did this wonderful dish..isn't that sweet?

And how about some Masala Tea? Shifa says her hubby makes best masala tea and thus the tea making it way to our event :)

Next up is Jaya Wagle from Desi Soccer Mom's Fenugreek Spinach Risotto. Well there's nothing for me write here but you have to read her post to know how good she writes..

Here comes a experimental Stuffed Rolling Dosa from Jay's Tasty Appetite and Jay says dosa is their family favorite & this is new version of dosa for me :)

Semiya/Vermicelli Upma Anyone? Raks from Raks Kitchen manage to get her hubby made something for the event and this yummy upma is the result along with semiya kesari. Isn't that sweet? Getting more than expected :)

 

Sonia from Seven Spice had a wonderful meal of Vegetables with Tofu & Spinach made by her hubby.  This recipe is from Curry Bible by Mridula Bajlikar a book he borrowed from his boss. Well I think we all must direct our husband to her post now to get from ideas ;) 

And here comes Indian Khana entry i.e. mine ;)  He must have been in real good mood to prepare Poha and Tea for breakfast and then to wake me up ..what you guys say? :)

Thank U all for your entries again, will for the part II :)


Have a nice week end ....

Onion Pepper Samosa ~ Baked

For the first time I bought pastry sheets, I got mini one's as trial version.  I was thinking what to do with them and got the idea of making samosa, I used onion to send the entry for Priya's event Healing Foods-Onion, a event started by Siri. 

Since I had bell pepper I decide used that too and added whatever I thought will make the samosa good ;).  I had difficultly with shaping samosa in the beginning but I got the hang of it after a while, so if you are trying to first time don't worry just try, perhaps next time I will take step wise pics for better understanding :-). 

The samosa tasted great, and am sure trying again.

Serving ~ 12 pieces

Ingredients:

Pastry sheets - 12 (I used mini)
Onion - 1 medium size
Bell Pepper - 1/2 [ I used yellow color]
Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp
Chili flakes - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp [optional]
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tsp

Method:


1. In a pan heat oil, add chopped onion and fry for a min.

2. Add chopped bell pepper and saute until onion turns high brown.

3. Add kasuri methi, chili flakes, cumin, turmeric powder and salt, cook for 2 mins and keep aside. 

4. Thaw the pastry sheets as packet instructions.  Mine was to thaw for 40mins.

5. Take one sheet and fill 1tsp of onion pepper masala and give any shape as desire, follow the same for rest.  I tried for samosa and spring roll shapes and after a while figure it out how to roll them ;)...

6. Preheat the oven in 200C and bake samosa for 10mins in 200C or until golden brown. Turn over all the samosa pieces to other side and bake for another 10mins in 200C,  keep a eye on the oven as all the oven are different.

  
Let it cool for a while and enjoy.  It doesn't required any sauce or chutney.  We just enjoyed it as it is, the kasuri methi gives a wonderful taste.

I tried few mini rolls, used the pastry sheets, fill 1/4 tsp of tutty fruity and bake both sides for 10mins each, it was yummy too. But the samosa were the winners :)

Enjoy your day...

Tomato Toast

Thank U all for warm wishes on blog anniversary it's feel so good.

Meanwhile today I'm posting something which I try in few different ways with all new things.  This time I tried with using tomato pulp and it tasted good. 

Ingredients:

Bread - 4 slice
Chopped Tomato - 4 tbsp
Garlic - 1 tsp [chopped]
Chili flakes - 1/4 tsp
Herbs - 1/2 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp
Oil/butter - 1 tbsp
Cheese - 2 tbsp [optional]

Method:

1. In a bowl mix oil, chopped garlic, chaat masala and chopped tomato (removed tomato seeds) or tomato pulp. I used Italian herbs and tomato pulp from blanch tomato that I did for pasta sauce.

2. Apply the spread in bread.  Sprinkle chili flakes, herbs and cheese.

3. Bake in 200C for 8-10 mins.

Enjoy the toast hot/warm it's taste good. 

And this toast goes to Priya's Global Kadai-Indianized French Toast event created by Cilantro and to Chaitra's Bread Mania Event


Enjoy your day....

Broken Wheat Halwa with Jaggery & 2nd Blog Anniversary

Hope everyone having good weekend, today is 2nd Anniversary of this blog.  I'm surprised that I completed two years of blogging (ignore the long breaks I took please ;) ) wow I never thought the sudden fit of blogging will last for this long.  But neither the less it did lasted and hopefully will last for a long time too. 

Let me Thank All my blogger friends for being the main reason for me to continue, people whom spend their time commenting and of course the silent readers .  Thanks to blogging I have few wonderful friends now.  So a BIG THANKS to everyone visiting this space and to others whom motivate me.

Let's end my speech here and go the today's recipe.  What a celebration without a sweet rite?  So here comes Broken Wheat Halwa, I did blog the recipe (here) before which was prepared by my sis's MIL but in this recipe I used jaggery syrup.

Serving ~ 4 people

Ingredients:

Broken/Craked Wheat - 1 Cup
Ghee/Classified butter - 2 tbs [as required]
Cardamom Powder - 1tsp
Dry Nuts - 2 tbs chopped [I used cashew, raisins, almond]

For Jaggery Syrup:

Jaggery - 3/4 Cup [ according to taste]
Water - 3 cups

Method:

1. To make jaggery syrup/chasni, in a heavy bottom pan add jaggery, water and dissolve the jaggery completely in slow flame.  Do stir in intervals and bring to boil.  Let it boil for 5 mins in slow flame, and strain the syrup to remove any dirt from jaggery, it takes 10-15 mins in slow flame. 

2. Meanwhile, in a separate pan heat ghee roast cashew and keep aside.  In a same pan add broken wheat and roast in medium-slow flame for 4-5mins or until wheat colour turns to golden brown and nice aroma start coming.

3.  Now add the jaggery syrup slowly while stirring the mixture.  Mix everything nicely, cover the pan with lid and cook in slow flame for 5-8mins or until the water evaporated completely.  Do stir in intervals.

4.  The wheat has to cook properly, if required add more water.  Add nuts, cardamom powder mix well and cook for 2 minutes. 

Off the flame and let it rest for 5 mins.  One can add 2-3 tbs of ghee now for a more delicious version.

This goes to Nivedita's Celebrate Sweets~Halwa Event.

Enjoy your weekend....

Tehri ~ Vegetable Biryani

As I mention in my  Potato fry and Raitha post hubby made the Tehri, so here am posting the recipe of Tehri and this goes to my  Festive Food: His Cooking Event.  The recipe is very simple and any vegetable can be used.  He used whatever we had in hand that day. 

Serving ~ 2-3 persons

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Carrot - 1
Beans - 5-6
Corn - 2 tbs [optional]Onion - 1
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tps [optional]
Salt - to taste
Coriander leaves - 1tbs chopped [ optional]
Oil - 2 tbs
Water - 1 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Slice onion, chop beans and carrot, wash rice & keep aside.

2. In a pressure cooker heat oil, add cumin seeds add cumin seed allow to splutter. Add sliced onion and cook until golden brown. 

3. Add carrot, stir and fry for a min.  Now add the beans, stir and fry for a min.

4.  Add corn, all the powder masala and stir well.  Stir for 2-3 mins or until masala is cooked in medium heat.

5. Add salt, rice & mix everything.  Fry for 3-4 mins in medium heat.

6. Add water, stir well, check for salt and close the pressure cooker & cook for 2 whistles.

7.  Wait for pressure to release.  Open the cooker, stir gently and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Enjoy the Tehri with any raitha.

Also going to the event is Palak Saag and Peas Fried Rice made by him

Enjoy your day.....