Strawberry Frozen Yogurt ~ Blogging Marathon#5

Its fun to be back to blogging, after a break, as part of the blogging marathon, initiated by Srivalli. When Srivalli announced BM#5, the last group was the one that suited me. And I was not sure If I will be able to post soon after my vacation. Since I enjoyed the previous marathon, which was a first for me, decided to join and chose the Summer Coolers theme. So, starting today, you can see varieties of summer coolers here. I hope I can  bring in variety here.

I had some frozen strawberries. I went for a frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. This dessert was very light and very refreshing. Its a very easy recipe. Just blend all the ingredients and freeze.

You need

Strawberry - 15 nos (I used frozen)
Sugar -1/3 cup
Hung curd - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 1/2 tspn

Method

Hull the strawberries and halve them. Take the halved strawberries and sugar in the blender jar. Pulse to make a fine puree. Add in hung curd and lemon juice. Pulse to blend everything well. Check the sweetness and add more sugar to suit your taste. If the berries are not sweet enough, you might want to add some more sugar.  Transfer to a plastic or steel tiffin box. Freeze till it is set. Take it out and break the crystals using a fork and put it back in the freezer.    Repeat this for 2 more times and finally leave it to set for 3 or 4 hours. Scoop and enjoy. 

The frozen yogurt had set nicely. But, by the time I could arrange and click, it started melting.

This frozen yogurt goes to the Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Vaishali, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers:Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Broccoli and Cheese Soup | Soup Recipes

I have tasted Broccoli and cheese soup only twice so far. The first time I tasted it with much reluctance doubting it to be too cheesy. But it was very tasty and not too cheesy. Since I love broccoli, I enjoyed the tiny pieces of it in the soup. Now I had wanted to recreate the soup very much and was successful in my first attempt. It was a simple process with few easy ingredients and would be

Pav Bhaji

On a lazy weekend, I looked into my fridge hoping to get something to eat.There were few vegetables which really didn't help the cause. As I was gazing through the cupboard, I came across the pavbhaji masala packet that was lying uncared. I got an idea, so rushed to a nearby shop and bought round bread (Pav) and started to prepare Pavbhaji. This is the first time I'm preparing Pavbhaji, so all those experienced chef's over there if there is something missing in my method of preparation, do pitch in :-)

Pav Bhaji as I came to know is a Marathian delicacy. As the name suggests Pav means bread in Marathi and Bhaji means stir fried vegetables. Ok, now coming back to the recipe, as I told earlier, I am going to make this dish with what ever little vegetables I had at home (Beans, Peas, Carrots and Potatoes). So I am unsure of the final outcome. I came to know that there are two more essential ingredients (capsicum and cauliflower) which are absent in my recipe today. I hope still I can manage without these two. So here I present "Pav Bhajji" my Saturday Special.

Ingredients:


Potato - 2 large

Carrot - 1/2 cup, grated
Beans - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Peas - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Tomato - 2 large size, finely chopped
Ginger - 1 teaspoon, minced
Garlic - 1 teaspoon, minced
Pav bhaji masala - 1 and 1/2 tablespoon
Chili powder - 1 teaspoon
Green chili - 1 no
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tablespoon
Coriander leaves - 5 strings, chopped finely
Butter - 1 tablespoon
Pav - 6

Method:

For Bhaji:

1) Wash the Potatoes. Now peel the outer skin of the potatoes and cut them into small pieces.
2) Mix potatoes, carrot, beans and peas together and pressure cook them by adding a cup of water.
3) When all the vegetables are cooked, drain the excess water in a bowl. Now mash the vegetables well.
4) Take wide thick bottom pan and pour oil in it.
5) When oil is hot, add 3/4th of onions and saute them well.
6) After sauteing, when onions turn slightly translucent, add green chili, chopped ginger and garlic.
7) Saute them for 2 minutes.
8) Add tomatoes and saute them until the mixture is mashed completely.
9) Add the mashed vegetable mixture, pav bhaji masala, chili powder, turmeric powder and salt.
10) Now add water. You can use the water which was drained after cooking the vegetables (as said in Step 3).
11) Stir and mash well. when the gravy starts thickening, turn the flame to low to avoid the contents getting burnt. Keep stirring and as it gets thick.
12) Now remove the contents from the flame, garnish it with the coriander leaves and remaining onion.


For Pav:

1) Spread the butter to all the sides of pav and toast them well.
2) Serve this pav with bhaji.

My experiment turned out to be successful and the Pav Bhaji was really tasty and had a good aroma.

Note: You can add cauliflower, capsicum, cabbage and beetroot to the vegetables. You can add lemon to the bhaji after turning the flame off and also with the pav while serving.