Saturday, May 28, 2011

Carrot Halwa


















One word to say about Carrot Halwa is "Yummy". Well it is one of the yummiest dishes I have prepared. Carrot as such is rich in Vitamin C and good for eyes and Carrot Halwa is good for your taste buds. The bright rich colour of this halwa makes this as a tempting dish that every connoisseur would appreciate. Here I present you the method for preparing simple, tasty and delicious Carrot Halwa.








Ingredients:



Carrot - 2 cups grated

Milk - 1.5 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Butter - 2 tablespoon

Cashew nuts - 10

Raisins - 10

Cardamon - 3 crushed

Ghee - 1 teaspoon



Method:



1) In a heavy bottomed kadai / frying pan, add 2 tablespoon of butter.

2) Once butter melts down, add cashew nuts and raisins.

3) Make sure the flame is in medium level.

4) Fry them till cashews become golden brown and raisins start to blow up.

5) Add grated carrots, cardamon and stir them well. Don't add water.

6) You would notice water content oozing out from the carrots after sometime. Don't worry, continue to stir well.

7) When the water content from the carrot gets evaporated, add milk and stir well.

8) Stir continuously till the milk reduces to half the added quantity.

9) Now taste the carrot and according to the carrot's sweetness , add sugar. It is not necessary to use the whole 1 cup of sugar as mentioned above in the ingredients.

10) Keep stirring the contents well and make sure the kadai doesn't get burnt.

11) When the milk gets absorbed and carrots get the texture of halwa, add ghee to it.

12) Remove from heat and allow it to cool.

13) Serve warm or chill it and serve as it suits your taste.



Note:

You can add cashew, raisins in the final step (step 11) along with the ghee instead of adding it in the beginning. Also you can not add cardamon directly to butter as they have a tendency to burst wide. Use crushed cardamon if you are going to use with hot butter/ghee/oil.

Eggless Mango Souffle

Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that I have been posting summer coolers for the past 5 days. As part of the blogging marathon, I have been making various frozen desserts to suit the Summer Cooler theme. For today, its mango souffle. I adapted this recipe from Nita Mehta's Eggless Desserts. In the original recipe, mango drink (Fruity) in tetra pack is used. I have used fresh mango pulp and also scaled down the ingredients to make two servings.



You need

  • Mango pulp - 1 cup
  • Sugar -1/2 cup
  • Fresh cream - 1/2 cup
  • China grass/Agar agar - 5 gms
  • Hot Water - 1/2 cup

Method
Take a big mango, which is not fibrous.  De-skin and chop into pieces.  Pulse the pieces and add the sugar to it and blend once.  Take the mango pulp and sugar mixture to a bowl and heat it to get a saucy consistency.  Take half cup of  water and add the agar agar to it. Heat on slow fire to dissolve the agar agar. Gradually add the dissolved agar agar to the mango mix. Make sure you add the solution while hot. Else the china grass will start to set.  Leave the mix to cool. 

Take the cream in a bowl and beat till fluffy. Fold in the whipped cream to the mango mix. Beat well till smooth. Transfer to a serving dish or individual serving glasses. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Garnish with chopped mango pieces and serve.


This mango souffle is joining the event- 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:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli










Friday, May 27, 2011

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

Ice creams are available in stores under various brands in numerous flavors. And consumers are really spoilt for choice. And top with, majority of brands comes with attractive offers. So when one has too many options to choose from, why would you go for a home made ice cream. As for me there is some satisfaction when you make your own than buy it straight from the shelf. Not that I don't buy them at all. But when you are making it at home, you are free to play around the flavors and the ingredients that go into it. This chocolate ice cream is a result of one such experiment. I started with the idea of adding cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor. While I took out the ingredients, the chocolate bar inside the fridge caught my attention. That also went in to the ice cream. And finally added the chocolate chips for the extra flavor. There isn't like too  much of chocolate, isn't it.





You need
  • Milk - 1 cup
  • Fresh cream - 1/2 cup
  • Sugar -1/2 cup
  • Chopped chocolate - 1/2 cup
  • Cocoa powder - 1 tblspn
  • Corn flour - 2 tspn
  • Chocolate chips - 2 tblspn

Method


Take the chopped chocolate in a MW safe bowl. MW for 1 to 2 minutes. After a minute, check if it is melted fully. Keep in intervals of 30 seconds. If melting it on stove top, do it using the double boiler method. Add the cream to the melted chocolate. Whisk well to blend chocolate and cream.

Make a paste of the corn flour with few tablespoons of milk. Boil the remaining milk. When the milk starts boiling, add the corn flour paste and cocoa powder. Stir well to prevent lump formation. Finally add sugar. When the sugar is fully dissolved, remove from fire. Add the chocolate+ cream to the milk mixture. Whisk to blend everything well. Cool and transfer to shallow freezable container. Make sure the height of the liquid is not more than 1 1/2 inch in height. This will ensure easier setting of the ice cream. 

Once the ice cream is slushy, break the ice crystal with a spoon or fork. Leave it to set again. Repeat it for 2 more times. When you are leaving  it for the final setting, stir in the chocolate chips.  Ice cream will set in another 3 hours.  The ice cream is enough to serve 3 large servings. 




Note: Once you have the final liquid mixture ready, you can pass it through a fine sieve to filter out the undissolved chocolate particles, if any. Though this is optional, this will give a more finer texture to the ice cream. I skipped this.

I am sending this chocolate ice cream 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:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli