Rice Kheer - 250th Post!

Indian Vegetarian Kitchen is all about simple, quick and easy recipes. So here's an easy dessert that can be prepared for any occasion. This is my 250th post! It's been 5 years since I started this blog. I still have the same enthusiasm and passion to post new recipes as I had when I started this blog. Keep visiting my blog and enjoy my recipes. Thank you all for your support and compliments!!

Rice Kheer

Ingredients:
4 cups Milk
1/3 cup Rice
Water 1.5 cups
1/4 tsp Saffron
3 fresh Cardamom crushed
Sugar as needed

Method:
Cook rice in 1.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker until very soft and mushy.
Boil milk in another pan.
Add cooked rice, saffron, cardamom and stir well.
Simmer for 10 minutes.
Add sugar and mix well.
Serve hot or cold.

Note: You may adjust the consistency of kheer by adding or reducing the quantity of milk.

Check out some of my older posts in case you missed them!

                     

                                 

Eggless Chocolate Lamingtons

A lamington is a sponge cake of Australian origin in the shape of a cuboid, coated in a layer of traditionally chocolate icing then desiccated coconut. For this Month's Baking Eggless Challenge, Gayathri challenged us to bake an Eggless Version of these Delicious Lamingtions from David Lebovitz's Blog.

For the Sponge Cake, i used yogurt as the egg replacement and got a Spongy, fluffy cake. This coated with Home-made chocolate sauce and Dessicated Coconut, the aroma was mesmerizing!!!! Each and every bite was a delight. 

Ingredients

1 -1/2 Cups All-purpose flour/Maida

3/4 Cup Powdered Sugar

1-1/4 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Baking soda

Salt a pinch

1 Cup Thick curd

1/2 Cup Cooking oil

2 tsp Vanilla extract

Chocolate Sauce

100gm Dark Chocolate, i used Lindt 85% cocoa

100 gm Milk Chocolate. I used Cardbury's Diary Milk, hazelnuts

50gm or half a stick of butter 

3 tbsp of Cocoa

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 Cup Milk

2 Cups of Dessicated Coconut

Method

For Sponge Cake

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Grease a Loaf pan with oil or cooking spray and set aside. i used a 10" Square pan.
• In a bowl, mix the curd and sugar till the sugar dissolves completely. Add baking powder and baking soda into the curd mixture. Mix well and set aside for 2-3 minutes. The curd will turn frothy and start rising.
• Sieve the flour thrice and set aside. Add the oil and vanilla essence to the curd mixture. Stir gently.
• Fold in the flour. Dont stir vigorously.
• Pour the batter into the readied Pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.
• Lower the temperature to 160C and bake for another 30 minutes or unitl toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Chocolate Sauce

• Heat a big pan with water.In another large bowl, take butter and the chocolates. Place the bowl over the water pan.
• The Butter and chocolates will start melting, keep stirring. 
• Add cocoa to this and stir well. Once it forms a smooth mixture. take it off the stove.

• Add Sugar and milk and whisk until smooth and creamy.

The Lamingtons

• Cut the Cake into 12-15 pieces. Slice each piece horizontally to two pieces.
• Sandwich each Slice with generous Chocolate Sauce, or in other words Apply Generous amount of chocolate sauce on each slice and close with another slice. Repeat this with all the cake slices.

• Once done, Dip Each Slice into the Chocolate Sauce and Roll it on Dessicated Coconut. Repeat this with all the chocolate sandwiched slices.
• Refrigerate for 1 or two hours  and Serve. 

• I Made small Balls out of last few slices of the cake and dipped them in Chocolate sauce and rolled in Dessicated Coconut.My Kiddo loved those Balls very much.

Udupi Krishna's Favourites For Krishna Janmaashtami - Laddige - Puffed Rice Ball

 UDUPI KRISHNA'S FAVOURITES FOR 


KRISHNA JANMAASHTAMI


 LADDIGE 


 The divine taste and flavour of Prasaadams of the age old temples in India have remained constant through out many centuries. In all these years the ancient methods of cooking the prasaadams for the presiding  deities have been strictly adhered to. The secret formulas of the ingredients used, and the methods used for preparing the prasaadams set by the ancestors eons ago have been safely guarded even to this day. It is not an exaggeration to say that the ancient temples of India are repositories for a number of traditional Indian recipes.


 My daughter's family came back with a bag of Sampoorna prasaadam from Udupi recently. The taste of the prasaadams of Udupi Krishna was something out of the world.The names of the sweets which were printed on the cover stirred my curiosity to learn more about them. I found this link where in all the prasaadams offered to Udupi Krishna are listed in detail.


 Laddige is one of Udupi Krishna's favourite Prasaadams. 





 INGREDIENTS 





Puffed rice obtained by popping paddy/
Or Battada Harulu in Kannada - 4 cups / 2 glasses 
Round jaggery - 1 ball 
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch 


METHOD 

1. Clean the puffed rice and coarsely grind in the mixer for only a few seconds. 

2. Take out the puffed rice pearls in a greased bowl or plate.




3. Crush and dissolve jaggery in 1 glass of warm water. 
4. Filter the jaggery water and boil it up to one thread consistency in a sauce pan. 





 5.When the syrup becomes sticky and starts foaming add cardamom powder and pour it all over the puffed rice pearls.



6. Mix well using a spatula. 
7. Grease your fingers, scoop out a ladle of the sweetened puffed rice and make it into a big ball.Use up the entire sweetened puffed rice pearls to make more Laddiges.





 Offer the golden balls studded with small white pearls to Sri Krishna on Janmaashtami and savour the prasaadam.
 I could make four Laddiges with the quantity of ingredients given above and they looked like mini laddiges in comparison with the huge Laddige Prasaadam from Udupi.