Sour cherries: going, going...

SOUR CHERRY STRUDEL

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

1 quart fresh sour cherries
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped almonds
8 sheets phyllo dough
1 ounce 70% dark chocolate
Powdered sugar for dusting


INSTRUCTIONS

Remove pits and stems from cherries. Rinse.

Combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch and almond extract in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring intermittently. Set aside to cool.

Place 2 phyllo sheets on cutting board and dry for 15 minutes. Crumble. Mix into cooled filling.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place 6 other sheets of phyllo on a cutting board. Brush one sheet with butter and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining sheets, layering buttered sheets one over the other on cookie sheet.

Spoon cherry filling on stacked sheets vertically, leaving a 3-inch border from the edge. Sprinkle with almonds. Turn top edge and bottom edge of phyllo sheets down to cover filling. Roll phyllo widthwise. Place roll on cookie sheet, seam side down.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until phyllo becomes golden.

Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes.

Melt dark chocolate. Drizzle over strudel. Dust with powdered sugar.

Chakka/Jackfruit Molagushyam and announcing the winner of the giveaway

My neighbor aunty gives me a share of jack fruit every time she cuts one at her home. They have a tree in their backyard. The thought of fresh, sweet jack fruit itself is very salviating, but it is also accompanied by the tiresome process of  separating the arils. But Aunty usually gives me the seeded arils and that leaves me with ready-to-use fruit bulbs. Most of the times, it will be just ripe and firm. Apart from making chakka curry, mostly I end up making this simple molagushyam. Though this doesn't take any ingredients other than salt, chilli powder and ground pepper to spice it up and light garnish of coconut oil and curry leaves, it tastes awesome. This can be prepared in 10 minutes.

 

 

 

You need

 

• Ripe jackfruit arils chopped into bite size - 2 cups
• Red chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
• Ground pepper - 1/4 tspn
• Salt to taste
• Coconut oil - 1 tspn
• Curry leaves - few sprigs

Method

 

Take the chopped jackfruit pieces in a cooking bowl. Add the chilli powder, pepper powder and salt. Add a cup of water to it.  Cook on medium heat till the color of the JF changes to a darker shade of  yellow. Add more water as it cooks. The consistency is saucy. It thickens on cooling. So adjust accordingly. Serve as side dish for rice. It tastes good as a side for puri too. The sweetness of the fruit is balanced by the mild heat from chilli and pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

Now to the winner of the giveaway.  And the random number generated is
 

 
Vaishali is the lucky winner of $50 worth gift certificate sponsored by CSN stores. Vaishali, I have sent you a mail. And to the rest who took time to leave a comment there, sorry and better luck next time.
 
P.S: Thanks to all who appreciated the new look of my blog. The part of the appreciation should go to my dear friend Shoba, who was intrumental in getting this new look. She suggested the color theme and even picked the pictures for the header. She patiently gave feed back in the process of  updation and when she finally said its looking great and I know she means it.

RADISH KURMA

There are so many side dishes are cooked for chappathi. Kurma varieties, curry varieties and dal curries are there to enhance the taste of chapathies. Up course, there are non-veg dishes too. This radish curry is a mouth-watering recipe which goes well with parottas and chappathies. This I have learned recently from my friend. Until that minute, I never believed that radish can be cooked so deliciously as a kurma variety.

முள்ளங்கி குருமா

Ingredients:

Big tomatoes-3
Oil- 3 tbsp
Cinnamon- 1
Cloves-2
Cardamom-2
Finely chopped small onions- 1 cup
Small garlic flakes-15
Chopped coriander- half cup
Medium sized radish-2
Chilli powder- half sp
Coriander powder- half sp
Turmeric powder- half sp
Salt to taste

Grind the following ingredients to a paste:

Shredded coconut- 3 tbsp
Fennel seeds- half sp
Poppy seeds- half sp

Procedure:

Put the tomatoes in full of hot water for some minutes and then remove the outer skins.
Grind the tomatoes in to a paste.
Heat a kadai and pour the oil.
Add the cinnamon, cloves and the cardamom and fry for a few seconds.
Add the sambar onions with the coriander and the garlic flakes.
Fry for a few minutes.
Then cut the radishes in to small cubes and add to the frying mixture.
Fry for a few seconds.
Add the powders with the tomato paste.
Pressure cook this mixture for 1 whistle.
When cooled, again pour the radish gravy in the same pan and add the ground paste with enough salt.
Cook for a few minutes.
The delicious radish curry is ready to serve now!