LETZ COOK/CRAFT/MAKE

I had some leftover mango pulp and decided to make mango icecream. I dont have an icecream maker but this method always gives creamy delicious icecream. A friend of mine gave me an easy kulfi recipe and I made a few changes to it and made this icecream. I will post the kulfi recipe soon Ingredients: Condensed milk - 1 cup Whipping cream - 1 cup Mango pulp - 1 cup (can be increased or decreased) Method: Beat all the ingredients for 5 min till they mix well. I used swad ready made mango pulp but I am sure fresh mango pulp will taste much better. Freeze for atleast 3 hrs and serve. It tastes out of the world.

This year I had a few friends staying with me and a few friends who came for dinner. So the day was filled with good food, good company and lots of joy and happiness. I made mysore pak , rawa ladoo , ras malai , thattai , kara sev and dinner was bisibele bath , masala vada , curd rice, potato podi fry , cabbage poriyal and appalam. Some pictures from the day.

No festival is complete without some crunchies. So decided to make thattai and kara sev. Thattai Ingredients: Rice flour - 500gm Grated coconut - 1 cup (I use the frozen shredded coconut) Urad dal powder - 1/2 cup (dry roast ural dal and powder in spice grinder) Red chilli powder - 2 tsp (can be increased or reduced as per taste) Bengal gram dal - 4 tsp Ghee - 2 tsp Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp Sesame seeds - 3 tsp Salt - as needed Oil for deep frying Method: Soak bengal gram dal in enough water for one hour. Mix all the ingredients except the oil for frying with enough water and make a dough. This should almost have the same consistency as chapathi dough. Take a small ball of this dough and pat it on a plastic sheet of paper (ziplock is fine) or if your making smaller thattai's, you can just pat in in your palm and deep fry these in hot oil. Keep turning until it turns golden brown and is fully cooked and crisp. Note: After cooling these if you notice that they are not crisp enough you ca...

Second on my diwali list was mysore pak. Ive attempted to make this thrice (this being my third attempt) and succeeded only now. It came out well, was soft and tasted exactly like the Krishna sweets mysore pak. The only difference this time was I added ghee very slowly and kept stirring it continuously so that the ghee mixes evenly. It actually took me about 25-30 min of continues stirring (yes I dint do much after that as my hands were hurting). Also note the first time I asked someone about this sweet they said its too complicated and difficult to make. With practice and patience (read attempting many times) it can be mastered. This is my entry to this month's JFI - Diwali treats hosted by Vee of Past, Present and Me . Ingredients: Bengal gram flour - 1cup Sugar - 1cup Water - 1/2 cup Ghee - 1.5 cups Method: Heat sugar and water in a heavy bottomed vessel (a normal sauce pan is good enough) till one-string consistency is reached. This is not a complicated term, all you have to d...

Last weekend was spent mostly on cleaning as I have a few friends staying with me for a few days for diwali. Sunday afternoon I found sometime to start making my diwali treats. First on the list was rawa ladoo. The only sweet I would make for Christmas back home was rawa ladoo and that too only the making balls part, out of the already made rawa mixture. My aunt always made the right mixture and she was the one who taught me how to make these. Ingredients: Fine Rawa - 1.5 cups Sugar (powdered) - 1.5 cups Ghee (melted) - 1/2 cup (can be increased upto 3/4 cup) Cashews (chopped finely) - 2 tbsp Raisins (chopped in half) - 2 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Method: Dry roast rawa in a pan till the raw smell disappears. Be careful to not let it turn brown. Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a seperate pan and fry cashews and raisins till they turn golden brown. Add this to the rawa mixture. Finally add the ground sugar to the mixture and mix well. Since I used fine rawa I did not grind it else both rawa ...

This is very easy to make especially if you have frozen shredded coconut. It tastes best with fresh coconut though. Ingredients: Coconut scrapings - 1 cup Channa dalia - 1/4 cup (also called pottu kadalai in tamil) Red chillies - 2 (can be subtituted with green chillies) Salt - as needed For seasoning: Oil - 1 tsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Red chilly - 1 Method: Grind coconut, channa dalia, red chillies and salt. Heat oil in a small pan and add the seasoning ingredients. Once the mustard starts to splutter add to the ground coconut mixture and serve with dosa or idli or vada.

I love dosa's in any form be it rice dosa, wheat dosa or rawa dosa. This weekend I was craving for dosa and decided to make rawa dosa as it does not take a lot of time. Ingredients: Rawa (fine) - 2 cups Rice flour - 1/2 cup Maida - 1/4 cup Butter milk - 1 cup Salt - as needed Onions (chopped finely) - 1 Green chillies (chopped finely) - 2 Coriander leaves (chopped finely) - 2 tbsp Mustard seeds - tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Jeera - 1 tsp Oil - as needed to make dosa's the batter Method: Mix rawa, rice flour, maida, salt with buttermilk and add enough water to make a paste in the same consistency as dosa batter. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, split urad dal and jeera. Once the mustard starts to splutter add chopped onions and green chillies. Fry till the onions turn translucent and then remove from heat and let it cool. Once this has cooled add it to the batter along with the chopped coriander leaves and let it rest for 15-30min. Heat a dosa tawa (flat griddle) and mak...

Since the E-coli scare ive stopped buying spinach. When I looked into my pantry I found a can of collard greens that I had bought a while ago. So decided to make spinach dal with it. Also I like beetroots a lot but grating them usually messes my counter and my hands turn red too. So I dont buy it often but since its very healthy I decided to make it along with the dal. Spinach dal Ingredients: Spinach(chopped) - 1.5 cups Thur dal - 1 cup Green chillies(slit) - 2 Onion(chopped) - 1 Tomato(chopped) - 1 Tamraind extract - 2 tbsp (optional) Sambhar powder - 1 tbsp Turmeric - a pinch Chilli powder - 1 tsp Salt - as needed Oil - 2 tbsp For seasoning: Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Red chillies - 1 tsp Asoefetida (hing) - a pinch Method: Heat oil in a pressure pan and add chopped onions and green chillies. Once the onions turn translucent add chopped tomatoes and wait till it starts to turn mushy. Then add spinach, thur dal, sambar powder, turmeric, chilli powder, tamarind extra...

Chicken is always a safe bet as you can never go wrong cooking it most of the times. If I am short of time I always make chicken as it cooks fast and tastes awesome. Ingredients: Chicken (cut into small pieces) - 1/2 lb Onions(thinly sliced) - 2 Tomato(chopped) - 1 (optional) Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp Saunf - 1 tsp Oil - 2 tbsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig Salt - as needed Pepper - as needed To Powder: Red chillies - 3 Pepper corns - 1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp Saunf (fenugreek seeds) - 1 tsp Cloves - 4 Cinnamon - 1/2 stick Method: Dry roast all the to powder ingredients and grind. Heat oil in a pan and add saunf seeds, curry leaves and cut onions. Fry till the onions turn brown and add tomato and ginger garlic-paste. Once the tomatoes are cooked add the ground powder, chicken and half a cup of water. Cook on low heat till gravy reaches desired consistency. Add salt and pepper as needed and remove from flame and serve with both rice or roti.

Since Oct16 is world bread day I decided to post a recipe of my favorite Indian bread. The reason its my favorite is I always thought that it was too difficult to make but once I learnt the right way Ive been making it often. Batura Ingredients: Maida flour (All purpose flour) - 2 cups Wheat flour - 1/2 cup Salt - 1 tsp Curd - 3 tbsp Oil - for deep frying Method: Mix all the ingredients with enough water to make a soft dough. Wrap the dough in a moist cloth and let stand for anywhere between 3 - 4 hrs. The dough should have raised by then. Roll out big puris and deep fry till golden and serve with channa masala. Note: While rolling out the puri dust with litte wheat flour so that it does not stick to the rolling pin. Channa masala: Ingredients: White channa dal (garbanzo beans) - 2 cups (i use the canned variety) Potato (boiled and cubed) - 1 (optional) Onions (minced in a food processor) - 2 Tomatoes (minced in a food processor) - 3 Jeera - 1 tsp Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp Chilli po...

Most weekend evenings I try to make some light snack. I had some leftover idlis this weekend and hence decided to make masala idli snack. This tastes good as is or can be served with chutney or even just tomato ketchup. Ingredients: Idli (chopped into 1 inch cubes) - 10 Curry leaves - a sprig Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Idli podi (powder) - 2 tbsp (can be increased for more spiciness) Salt - as needed Oil - 2 tbsp (can be substituted with ghee for additional flavor) Coriander - for garnishing Method: Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, split urad dal and curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds start spluttering add idli cubes, idli podi and salt and fry till the idli cubes turn golden brown. Remove from heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve. Note: Idli podi can be substituted with a tbsp of chilli powder and a pinch of turmeric.

This dish is a great recipe for potlucks and also tastes good with any kind of rice dish. Spiciness can be increased as needed. Ingredients: Potato (boiled and chopped into cubes) - 5 Onions (thinly sliced) - 2 Salt - as needed Oil - 4 tbsp To Powder: Channal dal - 2 tbsp Thur dal - 2 tbsp Red chillies - 4 Dhania (coriander seeds) - 2 tbsp Methi (fenugreek seeds) - 1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds) - 2 tbsp Method: Dry roast the "to powder" ingredients and grind into a coarse powder. Heat oil in a pan and add sliced onions. Once the onions turn golden brown add the ground powder, salt and chopped potato cubes. Fry in low heat till the potato turns color and absorbs the masala. Serve with rice and sambar.

Kesari is a very easy dish that can be prepared quickly. Kesari can also be made with fruits just to add extra flavor. I chose pineapple, as its tanginess contradicts the sweetness of the kesari. Sometimes I also make this with mango pulp. This will be my dish for JFI-ghee event. Ingredients: Fine rawa - 1 cup Sugar - 1.25 cup water - 1.25 cup crushed pineapple - 1/2 cup pineapple syrup (from tin) - 1 cup ghee - 2 tbsp lemon yellow color - little cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp cashews & raisins - to taste Method: Heat one table spoom ghee in a deep frying pan. Fry cashews, raisins and remove from ghee. Remove it and keep it aside. Fry rawa in that ghee itself for one minute till it turns color and the raw smell goes. Remove from the pan and keep seperately. Heat water, pineapple syrup, sugar together in that pan. Add color and when sugar is dissolved completely and it starts boiling add fried rawa. Keep stirring constantly till it forms a thick mass. Add the remaining ghee and crushed p...