Dates Kheer

A healthy and delicious kheer with dates. To make a sugar free dessert, you can actually do with out adding sugar too, not to forget the natural sugar in the dates. I have added sugar since I made it when I had guests at home. This is a very easy recipe. Its almost like a dates milkshake transformed into a kheer. And it sure makes a rich dessert. No soaking required if using soft dates.

Ingredients
Dates deseeded - 100 gms/20 nos
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder -1 tspn
Ghee 1 tblspn
few cashew nuts to garnish

Method
Soak the dates in a cup of hot milk (from the 1 lite) for an hour. Grind to fine paste. If you would like to bite into tiny pieces of dates, you can make a coarse paste. Boil the remaining milk. When it comes to boil, simmer for few minutes in low flame. Stir in the ground dates and simmer till it
blends well. Add sugar and continue cooking till the sugar is well dissolved and kheer thickens. Add cardamom powder and remove from fire. Roast the cashew nuts in ghee and sprinkle on the kheer. You can also roast some finely chopped dates in ghee and add as garnish in addition to nuts. Serve warm or chilled.

I am sending the bowl of kheer to Srivalli's Mithai Mela.

Carrot & Mango Milkshake

This recipe is adapted from Sharmi's blog. I added mango pieces to make the shake even more delicious.

Ingredients:
Grated Carrots-3
Ripe Mango(peeled and chopped)-1/4 cup(can add more)
Milk-3 cups
Sugar-2 tbsp
Almonds-12(optional)

Method:
Saute carrots for about 8 minutes. Add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk while sauteing to prevent the carrots from sticking to the pan.
Let it cool.
Blend it with sugar, almonds, 1/2 cup milk and chopped mango to a smooth paste.
Add rest of the milk and stir. Serve chilled.

Rush in your entries to my 15 minute cooking event on or before 20th of May!

News from Salt Part 5, from Alix Blair, Guest Blogger

Hello Blog: this will be short. We're in the final week. The six day count down. All work is due, in it's finality, next Wednesday at 5pm.
Next Thursday is our show of student work, Friday's the "graduation".
I am and will be more so, a zombie-- which is so painfully when it's the most beautiful sunshine summer weather outside.
I will emerge like some mole creature once all this radio work is fully-edited and bounced to an mp3 and done.

May in Maine for those who get to go outside