Spring Onion & Potato Soup

A hot soup on a rainy day!! What else can you ask for? It was a perfect evening to cook some different soup.
It is a combination of potato and green onion.

Ingredients:
1 Large potato- washed, peeled and grated
Spring onion - 1 bunch
Butter - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Lemon extract - 1/2 tbsp

Method:
- Boil two cups of water.
- Heat butter and saute green onion and potato for 2 to 3 mins.
- Add the boiling water to the pan and simmer for 5 - 6 mins.
- Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Eggless Fruit Cake

Festivity is in the air!!

Here is my Christmas Baking for this year. I adapted this from Aayi's Recipe. Thank you!
This is an egg-less cake with some dried fruits and nuts that would make our taste buds want more.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour- 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tbsp
Butter - 4 tsp
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup

Fruits & Nuts - Chopped
Prunes - 1/3 cup
Dates - 1/3 cup
Raisin - 1/3 cup
Cashew - 1/4 cup
Almond - 1/4 cup

Method:
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix them.
- Melt the butter in microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute and add the dried fruits to them.
- When it cools add it to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix them.
- Heat the milk in microwave for about a minute and add it to the mixture.
- This will give a mixture of a sticky consistency.
- Grease the baking pan and transfer the contents to it.
- Bake for 30 min until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Cool it in wire rack, slice and serve!

Merry Christmas & Happy Baking!!

Capsicum Fried rice!!

Here comes a change from the usual mixed rice varieties. I found it from Food & Wine magazine last month. This can be customized to Indian cuisine by adding some green chillies, cloves, bay leaf. But i preferred to retain its Chinese touch with just pepper to spice it up. I dint expect it to come out so well. The aroma was so inviting but its taste way way beyond everything. A must try i would say! It is simple to make and takes very little time.

Ingredients: Makes for two
Rice- 1 cup
3 cloves of Garlic
A small piece of Ginger
Salt- per taste
Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1 medium sized
Capsicum- 1/2 Red, 1/2 green, 1/2 Yellow.
Oil - 2 tsp

Method:
- Cook the rice separately.
- In a pan add oil and fry finely chopped ginger and garlic.
- Fry onion till glassy.
- Dice the capsicum into small pieces.
- Fry capsicum along with rest and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Saute till half cooked and remove from fire.
- Mix the cooked rice and serve hot.

Try it and give me your feedback.
See you next time!! 

Strawberry Shake !!

This is my first experiment with milkshakes. It has been a long wait for strawberry to quench my taste buds. Though it is one among the best in aroma and flavor, it might not impress a new-come by its taste. But after a few bites I fell for its taste too. It is rich in water content and has considerable amount of Potassium. Here is the best way to have strawberry, in the form of milkshake.

Ingredients:
Strawberry - 1 cup
Chilled Milk - 1 1/2 glasses
Sugar - 4 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1tsp

Method:
- Wash the strawberries and add them to mixer along with milk, sugar and the extract.
- Blend them till smooth and serve.

Hostel Rasam:

 This is one of the easiest and just needs two minutes to cook. It might not be right to compare it with rasam in hostel which would be barely a chilli water. But this is definitely an awesome rasam to be done on sluggish days. Amazing taste with a very little input.

Ingredients:

Tomato-1

Garlic – 3 to 4 cloves

Curry leaves – a handful

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Pepper - ½ tsp

Salt – for taste

Red chilli – 2 to 3

Tamarind puree – 1 cup

Procedure:

• Grind tomato, garlic, curry leaves, cumin seeds, pepper, red chilli to a puree.
• In a vessel add tamarind water and keep it in medium fire.
• After two minutes, add the puree and wait till it rises to overflow.
• Switch it off, before it boils. Garnish with corriander leaves if needed.

Mixed Fruit Halwa:

Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 Mango(medium size)
1 Banana(medium size)
1 Apple(medium size)
4 tsp Ghee
3 tsps Milk
6 tsps of sugar
½ tsps cardamom powder
Food colour (optional)

Method:
- Wash the fruits and grind them coarsely in the mixer.
- Micro high it in a vessel for 2 minutes with intermediate stirring.
- In another vessel boil milk and sugar for 4 minutes with intermediate stirring.
- Add the fruit pulp with the sugar mixture and micro it for 6 minutes with intermediate stirring. Add colour if needed.
- Add ghee to it and micro for 3 minutes with intermediate stirring.
- Fry Kaju and badam in ½ tsp ghee in a separate vessel for 1 minute.
- Garnish it on the halwa and serve.

Sending it to,                           
                                                   
                                          Nivedita's Microwave Easy Cooking- Friuts
                                                                         and 
                                                           Srivalli MEC Event

Apple Sheera:

                       Apple is an amazing nutritive fruit to us from nature. It is a not so favourite one for kids, even some grownups. It has the following Health benefits- prevents dementia, decreases cholesterol level, decreases cancer risk, prevents overweight. Here is a sweet to include apple which will be delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare.


Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
1 cup sooji
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Ghee
1 ½ cup Water+milk
1 Apple
1tbsp Raisins & Kaju

Method:
- In a vessel, put sugar, water/milk mixture, micro high 6 minutes, stirring in between.
- In another vessel, put 2 tsp ghee, micro high for 1 minute, add sooji, micro high for 2 minutes, stirring in between.
- Add the above sooji to milk mixture, add apple(ground), mix well, micro high for 2 minutes, stirring in between.
- Add the remaining ghee, micro high for 1 mintue, remove and keep closed for 10 minutes.
- Garnish with raisins and kaju.

Sending it to,                           
                                                   
                                              Nivedita's Microwave Easy Cooking- Friuts
                                                                         and 
                                                             Srivalli MEC Event

Beetroot Vadai :

                         This recipe is very special one from my M-I-L. This has been my hubby’s favorite one. Beetroot vadai is the best way to include beetroot in children’s diet who won’t eat it.

Ingredients: For 4
Beetroot-150gms
Toor dhal -100gms
Bengal gram- 100gms
Salt – to taste
Red chilli -3
Onion- 100 gms
Curry leaves - handfull
Oil- to fry

Procedure:
- Soak the Bengal gram and toor dhal for about 2 hours.
- Peel the skin and grate the beetroot.
- Grind the soaked dhals, grated beetroot, salt, red chilli and curry leaves to a light coarse texture.
- Add chopped onions to the mixture.
- Heat the oil in frying pan.
- Make small balls,  flatten it and fry it for a crispy snack.






Sending it to,
                       
                          
                             Priya's Healing Foods - Beetroot Event Guest Hosting
                                      (linking it to  Siri's Healing foods home page)

                                                                               
                                                                              
                                                                              AND 
                                

Akila's 

Dish Name Starts with: B

Tomato Dosa with Corriander Chutney:

Thanks to my friends who gave me the idea of tomato dosa. It is a quick recipe which will be ready to eat within 2 hours from the initial preparation or even shorter.
Dosa can be done by two methods,
1. With soaked rice
2. By using fermented dough

Ingredients: For two
Rice- 1 cup(250 ml)
Tomato- 2 or 3
Onion- half
Coriander leaves- 1 bunch
Green Chilli-1
Ginger- small clove
Tamarind- small pinch
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Salt- for taste
Oil

Procedure:
Dosa: Soak the rice for about an hour and grind it with salt to make dough. Or if you have a fermented dough, it can be used instead of rice.
Boil tomatoes and peel its skin.
Grind tomatoes to make a puree and mix it with rice dough.
Heat the pan and make dosa.

Chutney:

Wash the leaves and grind it with onion, Chilli, ginger, salt and cumin seeds.

This combination is one of the best I have ever tasted. Do try this and pass on your comments.
Thanks for reading,… :)

Mutter Paneer:

Ingredients: For 2 Persons

• Paneer- 8 ounce
• Fresh Peas- ½ lb.
• Large onion-1
• Large Tomato-3/4
• Bay Leaf- 1
• Cloves- 2 nos.
• Ginger-garlic paste- ½ tsp.
• Coriander powder- ½ tsp.
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp.
• Chilli Powder- ½ tsp. (depending upon spice needed)
• Turmeric powder- A pinch
• Oil – 2 tsp.
• Butter- A small cube
• Salt- To taste
• Milk- A Small cup
• Cashew- Handful
• Coriander leaves- To garnish

Procedure:
- Fry paneer cubes in butter till it becomes light brown and keep it aside in a napkin to remove excess butter.
- Soak cashew in water for half an hour and grind it into paste.
- Grind onion into paste and keep it aside.
- Grind tomato into paste and keep it aside.
- Add oil in tava, fry bay leaves & cloves,
- Add onion paste and fry till it turns a little brown.
- Add tomato paste and fry till the raw smell goes.
- Add ginger-garlic paste, coriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and fry for about three min.
- Add milk and let it boil for two min.
- Now add peas and let it boil for two min.
- Add paneer and cashew paste, stir well for a couple of minutes.
- Remove from fire, garnish with coriander leaves and serve.