Strawberry Ice Cream

"...once you start, this ice-cream making thing become addictive" from Nigella Lawson.

I think it's absolutely true as I'm getting addictive in making ice cream. Once you master the method of making custard, making ice cream is just easy-peasy. Again, this recipe extracted from the book "Forever Summer". This is a very refreshing ice cream with very rich strawberry flavor. It's so good to have a big scoop especially living in this hot and humid land.

Recipe extracted from "Forever Summer"

1. Hull and rougly chop the strawberries, put them into a bowl and sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and leave them to steep and infuse with flavour.
2. Pour the milk and cream into a heavy-based saucepan, and add the vanilla pod, split down the middle lengthways. Bring the pan nearly to the boil and then take it off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes. (I used vanilla extract. So, I added it into the custard at the end.)
3. In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and the sugar until thick and pale yellow. Take the vanilla pod out of the milk and cream and pour, whisking the while, the warm liquid over the yolks. Put the cleaned-out pan back on the heat with the cream, milk, egg and sugar mixture an stir the custard until it thickens, then take it off the heat and pour it into a bowl to cool.
4. Puree the strawberries in a processor, and when the custard is cool fold in the lemon juice and strawberry puree.
5. Freeze the ice cream in an ice-cream maker then put it into an ice cream container at least 20 minute before serving. (I used kitchen Aid Ice cream bowl for 20 minutes of whisking)

Methi Matar Malai

For the first time in my life, I had this dish in one of the Indian restaurants in Thailand a couple of months back. My husband and I always prefer Indian food wherever we travel. Fortunately we found an Indian restaurant near the hotel where we stayed. Initially we were a bit skeptical about that restaurant because we both were the only customers for them :-) for that night I believe. We ordered my all time favorite paneer butter masala, nans and rice. The manager suggested that methi matar malai was their speciality. So we ordered that as well. When the food came, we started to dig in. I loved both paneer butter masala and methi matar malai. It was way too good! I have not had such delicious food even in India. Apparently the chefs who cook there(in Thailand hotel) are from Taj Hotel(India). Food was a little expensive though. But it was worth every penny!

I was happy when Sujatha posted her Methi Malai Matar recipe. I made it today and totally loved it. I can't stop thinking about our trip to Thailand and the restaurant where we had this methi malai matar. It goes very well with nans/rotis. It is rich, creamy and delicious! Give it a try girls, you will go ga- ga over it :) I made a few additions to her recipe.

Sending this to Mansi's Vegetarian Thanksgiving-Recipe Carnival Event.
My version:

Ingredients:
Onion chopped-1 cup
Ginger chopped-1/2 tsp
Garlic chopped-1 pod
Jeera-1/2 tsp
Salt
Frozen Peas-3/4 cup
Methi leaves-1 cup
Kasuri methi crushed(optional)-a few strands
Green chilli-1
Oil-1 tbsp
Curd-1 tbsp
Half and Half(cream/malai)-1/2 cup or less depending on the consistency you want

Spice powders(quantity can be adjusted according to your taste buds):
Garam masala-1/2 tsp
Kitchen king masala(my gravies are never complete without this wonderful powder)-1/2 tsp
Chilli powder-1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Coriander powder-1/2 tsp

Method:
Heat oil. Tamper jeera. Fry onions, ginger, garlic, green chilli till onions turn golden brown. Sprinkle salt. Add fresh methi leaves. Fry for a couple of minutes till it shrinks. Add frozen peas, spice powders, curd and fry for a minute. Add Half and half. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add little water to desired consistency. Simmer for 2-3 mintues. Garnish with kasuri methi. Serve with nans or roti.

vote

Have you voted yet? We stood in line this morning - only took about 30 minutes. I actually sort of loved the wait. It's a perfect opportunity to look around and see the faces in your community. Everyone standing with incredibly purposeful, proud, focused expressions. Despite the walkable, friendly neighborhood that we love - the crowd surprised me, in a really good way.

I also want to point out the fact that I am 28 years old and this will be the first election I've voted in where my choice for President will likely win. Realizing this unfortunate tidbit, I began to wonder just how many people are in these shoes. Is my math right? Not a single (devoted) donkey out there who is less than 29 has voted a President into office?

At the risk of nurturing the notion of division in our country - I'm really glad it looks like there will be change.