Lauki Peas Tikki

Today is the last day of the blogging marathon. For the last, the participating bloggers are paired and has to choose from the paired blog. I had to choose from Suma's Veggie Platter. Suma has posted quite a few recipes using Lauki and her Lauki-Oats tikki interested me. I tweaked the recipe to suit the ingredients available with me. Now I have another interesting recipe to include lauki. Thanks Suma. Here is how I made it.

You need

• Grated bottle gourd/lauki - 1 cup
• Sprouted white peas - 1 cup
• Aval/poha - 1 cup
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• salt to taste
• Saunf - 1 tspn
• Kitchen king masala - 1/4 tspn

Method
Cook the sprouted  peas in MW for 7 minutes. The peas will be cooked and will not be soft to touch. Pulse it coarsely in the mixer. Toast the aval/poha for few minutes till  you see few flakes starts browning. Powder it coarsely like rava/sooji and not too fine.

Squeeze the grated bottle gourd and collect the juice in a bowl.  Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  The dough will be very soft. If it is not moist enough, add few drops of the juice. I pinched off a small ball from the dough and while shaping into tikkis, I brushed little water to moisten it and proceeded. 

Heat a dosa tawa and shallow fry the tikkis. Drizzle oil around the tikkis and cook both sides till they are brown.

The tikkis were spicy on its own. It had a crisp exterior and soft interior. The coarse peas gave the feel of paruppu vada. This makes a good, guilt free snack to go with a cup of hot tea/coffee.

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the blogging marathon.
'

Lauki Kootu -Bottle Gourd and Chana dal in spiced coconut paste

Today is the 6th day of the blogging marathon. I made a simple kootu using bottle gourd/lauki.  Its a simple recipe and with pressure cooking, it gets done relatively easier.

You need

• Bottle gourd, chopped into bite size - 2 cups
• Chana dal - 1/4 cup
• Turmeric - a pinch
• salt to taste

To grind

• Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
• Red chilly - 1 no
• Cumin - 1/2 tspn

To temper

• Oil - 1 tspn
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Urad dal - 1/2 tspn

• Curry leaves - 1 stalk.

Method.

Cook chana dal, chopped bottle gourd and turmeric with just enough water to cover the ingredients. The chana dal should be cooked soft and not mushy. Drain the excess water after cooking.

Take a kadai. Add the ingredients for tempering. When the mustard seeds crackle, add the cooked lauki and chana dal. Add salt and let it cook for 5 minutes or so. 

Grind coconut, red chilly and cumin to paste with out adding water. Add the ground paste to the cooked lauki and dal. Mix well and let it cook so that the excess water dries up.  Finally add the curry leaves and remove from fire. This goes very well with sambhar or morkootan.

Don't miss out the treats dished out by my fellow marathoners.

Lauki Kheer - Sorakkai Payasam

Blogging marathon is pushing my limits. The recipes I post as part this edition of marathon is prepared the day it is posted except the first recipe.  And today I decided to make kheer using bottle gourd and planned it for dessert post dinner. One or the other things came by and it was time for dinner. I cook all three meals separately. Most of the days I start my cooking for dinner around 8:00 and it will be ready on the table by 8:30 p.m, our dinner time. I started the kheer post dinner and it got done in 20 minutes. 

You need

Grated bottle gourd - 1 cup, tightly packed

Milk - half litre

Ghee - 1 tblspn + 2 tspn

Sugar - 1/3 cup (increase to 1/2 cup if you want it very sweet)

Cashew & Raisins - 1 tblspn

Method

Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a kadai or thick bottomed vessel. Add the grated bottle gourd. Saute till the raw smell disappears. Add the milk and continue to cook till the bottle gourd absorbs the flavor of milk.  Add sugar. Let it dissolve and let it simmer for few minutes till it thickens to the desired consistency.

Heat 2 teaspoon of ghee in another kadai. Add cashews to it. When cashews start browning, add raisins. Add the roasted cashews and raisins to the kheer. Serve warm or cold as desired. Since the weather is cold here, we had it warm. 

Do check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking for BM#6

Lauki Whole Moong Curry

Today, I decided to make a gravy with bottle gourd. As I wrote before, I have been including bottle gourd in gravies as substitute veggie. For the first time, I cooked with kokum. I liked the subtle tanginess of kokum. I was hesistant to add more kokum since I did not have much idea about the sourness level of this.

You need

• Bottle gourd/Lauki/Sorakkai - cubed, around 1 cup
• Cooked whole moong - 1 cup
• Kokum rind - 1 whole
• Coriander powder - 2 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1 tspn
• Salt to taste
• tumeric - 1/4 tspn
• Hing 1/4 tspn
• Tomato - 1 no, grated

Tempering

• Oil - 1 tspn
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Urad dal - 1/2 tspn
• Red chilli - 2nos, broken into two

• Curry leaves
• Coriander leaves

Method

Pressure cook whole moong till it is cooked and not too mushy. Peel, de-seed the bottle gourd. Cut the gourd into bite sized cubes. Take the chopped gourd in a vessel. Add two cups of water. Add turmeric, salt, red chilly powder, coriander powder and kokum. When the veggie is cooked, add the cooked whole moong.  Grate a tomato and add to the cooking gravy. I added tomato to give a body to the gravy.Simmer for few minutes. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Heat oil in a seasoning ladle and add the tempering ingredients. When the mustard seeds crackle and urad dal starts browning, tip it to the gravy. 

The gravy is not very thick. If you want it to make it slightly thicker, add a teaspoon of rice flour to half cup of water and mix well. Add this to the gravy when it starts simmering.  I did not add this. The gravy was not too thin like rasam. 

Check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking today.

Doodhi Muthia ~ Steamed Savoury Snack

Today is the third day of the blogging marathon. Today it is a snack made using bottle gourd. Muthia is a savory snack which is steam cooked with ingredients that are healthy. I have adapted the recipe from Tarla Dalal. I halved the recipe and  have made few changes since I did not have them in my pantry. The healthy savoury snack makes a perfect accompaniment with hot tea especially on rainy day.

You need

• Grated bottle gourd - 1 cup
• Onion - 1, grated ( A small one will do)
• Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup
• Semolina - 1/2 cup (I used rice rava)
• Besan - 1/4 cup
• Green chilly, ginger paste - 1 tblspn
• Turmeric powder, Garam masala, cumin seeds, fennel seeds - 1/4 tspn, each
• Juice of  1 1/2  lemon (I used amchoor powder)
• Chopped coriander - 2 tblspn
• Baking soda - 1/4 tspn
• Hing - 1/4 tspn

To temper

• Oil - 2 tblspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Sesame seeds - 1 tspn
• Hing - 1/4 tspn

Method.

Grate bottle gourd and onion into a bowl. Squeeze and extract the juice from the grated bottle gourd. Add the rest of the ingredients to the grated bottle gourd and onion.  Knead it into a soft dough and use the squeezed water if required. I did not use it.  

Oil your hands and divide the dough into two. Shape the dough into two logs and place in a greased bowl. Steam cook in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.  

The logs slightly expand on steaming. when cool, slice it into 1/2 inch slices. 

Heat a shallow kadai with oil. Add mustard seeds, sesame seeds and hing. When the seeds crackle, add the sliced muthias and toss well and cook for 2-3 minutes. 

Serve with a chutney of your choice of tomato ketchup. 

Check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking.

Doodhi Thepla

Thepla is  spiced paratha from the state of Gujarat. Curd is used in the preparation of the dough. Adding curd makes the parathas soft. This is also a good travel food too. The popular thepla is methi. Another one is Doodhi. And it satisfies my theme for the blogging marathon. 

Recipe adapted from Tarla Dalal
Yields - Around 12 nos, depending on the size


You need

• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Grated Lauki/BottleGourd - 1/2 cup
• Curd - 1/4 cup
• Salt -1/4 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
• Turmeric - a big pinch
• Oil to cook the theplas

Method

Mix all the ingredients, except oil in a bowl. Make a soft dough by adding very little water. You will need not more than a tablespoon of water to make the dough. Curd and the juice from lauki is almost enough.  Rest the dough for 15 minutes. Pinch lemon sized dough and roll like paratha.

Heat tawa and cook the parathas, both sides till you find brown spots. Smear little oil while you flip the thepla.   The theplas remain soft even on cooling. I served with a simple aloo-gobi curry. 

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day.

Low Fat Lauki Kofta Curry

I am part of the Blogging Marathon#6, organised by Srivalli.  I chose to blog recipes staring a main ingredient for 7 days. My choice is Bottle Gourd/Sorakkai/Lauki. Lauki is one vegetable, which was not used in my day-to-day cooking. During my hostel days, when this veggie was served, I never tasted it. And we were not allowed to waste any food, that is served on our plate. My room-mate was more than happy to take the lauki curry from my plate. She used to tell so much about the health benefits of lauki and somehow I could not bring myself to like this vegetable.  After moving to Pune, ash gourd/elavan was rarely found with the vegetable vendors in my area. And ash gourd is one of the inevitable veggie when it comes to Palakkad Iyer cuisine. So I started buying lauki to be used in place of elavan for molagootal, avial, morkootan- to name few dishes. So with the blogging marathon, I will try some new recipes where lauki is not used as replacement. 

You need

For Kofta

• Grated lauki - 1 cup
• Besan/Kadalamavu - 2 tspn heaped
• Rice flour - 1 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Salt
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn
• Amchoor powder -  a big pinch
• Oil - 1 tblspn

For Gravy

• Onion - 2 nos, chopped
• Ginger- 1 "
• Red chilly - 2 nos
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Khus Khus/Poppu seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Tomato - 1, grated
• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Cumin - 1 tspn
• Curd - 2 tblspn, whipped.
• Kitchen King Masala - 1 tspn

Method

Mix all the ingredients under kofta in a bowl except oil. I did not squeeze the grated lauki to remove some juice. Divide the lauki mix into 12 balls. If you find it difficult to shape, can add some more besan.  Take the shaped balls on a greased thali and steam cook in pressure cooker for 10 minutes. Remove and cool the koftas. Take a broad based kadai and add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, place the steamed koftas. Shallow fry till the koftas turn golden brown. Remove the fried koftas. 

In the same kadai, add chopped onion and red chilly. When the onions turn translucent, remove. Grind the onion, red chilly, khus khus, ginger to a coarse paste.  Heat oil in the kadai. Add cumin seeds and when it crackles, add the ground paste. Add coriander powder, salt and grated tomato. Add half cup of water. Let it simmer and turn chick. Stir in the whipped curd and kitchen king masala. Boil for 2 minutes. 

Add koftas just before you serve. Heat the gravy and drop the koftas and serve hot.

Do check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking at the blogging marathon page.

Khara Biscuits ~Indian Cooking Challenge

Indian Cooking Challengers are into baking for the May Challenge. Srivalli chose Khara biscuits and gave us Champa's recipe. The recipe is very simple with easily available ingredients.  It makes a great snack to go with tea. The recipe is a versatile one that you can add any spice of your choice and come out with various flavors. 

You need

• Maida/All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
• Butter - 1/3 cup softened 
• Sugar - 4 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Green Chillies - 6, finely chopped
• Curry leaves - 2 tblspn, chopped fine
• Curd -  3 tblspn

Method

Measure flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk well. Cream butter and sugar in another bowl.  Add 2 tblspn of curd to it and beat well. Add the flour mix to it and incorporate into the cream mixture. Just bring together the dough and don't knead it. Add chopped chillies and curry leaves.  If you feel the dough is too crumbly, add little more curd. The dough need not be wet, but you should be able to roll it. 

Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 C for 25 minutes. These cookies doesn't brown on top.  The bottom will be golden brown. You can bake it for few more minutes to get crisp cookies. The cookies when removed will be soft to touch and they firm up on cooling. 

Note: You can add crushed pepper for the heat in place of chillies. Mint/coriander leaves can be used.
The baking time may vary depending up on your dough and oven.

Eggless Banana, Date and Walnut Loaf

My baking escapades scores  more in number than the sweets I have been making. I don't miss celebrating any festival and all our festivals are associated with some kind of sweet. And it gets done as part of it. So I go for baking to satisfy the sweet cravings. During our Palakkad trip, we had various sweets and savories. That's another reason which pushed me to bake, yesterday. I had a bottle of  dates syrup and wanted to use in baking. I googled for a date loaf and found  a suitable recipe at JoyOfBaking. I tweaked the original recipe a lot that my recipe may look entirely different from the original one. Anyways, I started with that recipe as the base and modified to suit the ingredients at hand and to make it egg less. Hence this Banana, Date and walnut loaf. 

I replaced the nutmeg with cardamom to give an Indian flavor. Believe me the combo of banana, date and cardamom was outstanding. The aroma while it was baking filled the entire house. I couldn't wait to cool and slice. Before I was done with the slicing, I polished off two slices. It was so tempting that I was afraid I might finish off the whole loaf  before my husband is back from office. My loaf tin is small, so I halved the original recipe. I felt the date syrup and banana would have been enough for the sweetness. The 1/4 cup of sugar did make it more sweet but not the cloyingly sweet kind.  I liked it.  But if you intend to serve along your evening tea/coffee, you may omit the sugar altogether or reduce it. In case you are using the dates, then the amount of sugar is required.

You need


Whole wheat flour -1 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tspn
Baking powder - 1/2 tspn
Salt - a pinch
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn
Walnuts - 1/4 cup, toasted and chopped
Banana - 1, small
Date syrup - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup

Method

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder and salt. Add the toasted and chopped walnuts. In a blender jar, take chopped  bananas, sugar, and oil. Blend to make a homogeneous paste. Fold in the flour mixture into the wet mix. Stir to mix it completely. Transfer to a greased and dusted loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 55 minutes or till  tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

 

Sambharam /Spiced Buttermilk - Ultimate Thirst Quencher and Summer Cooler

Sambharam/Morum Vellam is buttermilk thinned with water spiced with curry leaves, limes leaves, hing, chilly and salt. In the olden days when fridge was not part of the kitchen, buttermilk was stored in the china pot/bharani. This will ensure that the buttermilk doesn't turn sour faster. Buttermilk and curd are different. Buttermilk is obtained after churning the curd and the butter is removed. Buttermilk is healthier than curd, with the butter removed. Buttermilk has many healing properties and Ayurveda always recommends the use buttermilk . You can read here to know more.

During the summer months, most homes in Kerala, will prepare the sambharam in large quantities and will be offered to any guests who drop in. In some homes, you can find an earthen pot filled with sambharam in their courtyard. Any passerby can partake the sambharam. In Kerala, summer is the period which the annual temple festivals (pooram/vela)  is celebrated. The celebrations will be through the day and participation of people will be in huge numbers, despite the scorching heat. And you can definitely find at least  one outlet where sambharam will be distributed free to the people. 

A glass of sambharam will instantly quench the thirst and can give a run for the money to any of the bottled drinks, available in the market. A sambharam need not be chilled. The inherent cooling effect of buttermilk is enough to cool your body. The chilled bottled drinks may cool your senses while drinking it, it may not cool the body. The buttermilk cools the senses and the body too.

Each house has their way of making this sambharam and there is no standard recipe for this. You can just go by your taste and availability of ingredients.

You need

• Buttermilk -1 cup
• Water - 3 cups
• Green chilly - 2 nos, slit
• Curry leaves - few sprigs
• Lime leaves/Narakathila - 2 nos
• Hing - few shakes
• Salt to taste

Method

Take all the ingredients in a bowl. Crush the leaves and chilly between your fingers. This will release the flavors into the buttermilk. Enjoy the spicy, flavorful buttermilk. You can't stop with one glass. 

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

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

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

Aam Ka Panna - Perfect Summer Drink

The summer vacation, during my school days, was always with my maternal grand parents. Those were the days without TV. All the day we used to play various games. While playing, we used to snack on cut raw mangoes sprinkled with salt and red chilli powder.  We used to smear the mangoes pieces with a paste mixed from red chilli powder, salt and coconut oil.   My mouth is watering as I type these.  The sour taste of the raw mangoes were balanced by the chilli and salt and coconut oil to reduce the heat of the chilli. Do try it once to know what I am talking about.

Now coming to the recipe of the post, its a drink made from the raw mangoes, perfect cooler to beat the summer heat.  The mangoes are cooked and the pulp is mixed with sugar and other spices to create a harmony of various flavors. The mangoes can be cooked with the skin on and later the skin has to be removed to extract the pulp. I find cooking the mangoes after removing the skin easier. You can choose either method according to your convenience.

You need

Large sized mangoes - 2 nos
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Roasted and powdered cumin - 2 tspn
Crushed pepper - 1/2tspn
Black salt - 1/2tspn


Method

Peel the skin of the mangoes and chop into big pieces. Take the chopped mangoes and the seeds in a pressure cooker. Add water enough to cover the mango pieces. Pressure cook for two whistles.  Meanwhile take half cup of sugar and 2 cups of water in a bowl and bring it to boil, till the sugar is dissolved fully. Leave it to cool. Open the pressure cooker and transfer the cooked mango pieces in a blender jar and pulse to get fine puree. Add the mango pulp to the sugar syrup. Stir in the cumin powder, crushed pepper and black salt. Stir well.  The concentrate is ready. The panna concentrate needs to be refrigerated else it will ferment faster.  Since no other preservative is added, this will have a maximum shelf life of one week, on refrigeration.

To serve, take one part of the concentrate, and mix in 3 parts of chilled water and stir well. Serve with a garnish of mint.

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

Pineapple Yogurt Fool

Fruit fool is a British dessert which is a mixture of pureed fruit, whipped cream and sugar. In this recipe, whipped cream is replaced by hung curd for a low calorie dessert. This recipe is from Sanjeev Kapoor's Chill Out, which is a collection of summer treats. Thanks Veena for the book, which she had sent along with the Arusuvai secret ingredient. 

This dessert gets done faster since there is no freezing and other steps as in ice cream/sorbet. Its very creamy and makes a quick and light dessert. Hung curd can be replaced with thick yogurt too if you don't have time to prepare the hung curd.

You need

• Fresh Pineapple Slices - 10 nos
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Hung curd - 3/4 cup
• Cinnamon - 2 nos of  1" stick

Method

Combine chopped pineapple, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Microwave for 6 minutes till the pineapple turns soft. You can cook it on stove top too, on medium heat. It will take more time.

Remove the pineapple pieces  from the syrup. Blend it to a puree in a mixer grinder. Add the hung curd. Pulse to blend thoroughly. Chill and serve.

While serving the you can drizzle the left over syrup topped with  finely chopped pineapple cubes. There is not much syrup left and it can be added to milkshakes or fruit salads for a subtle pineapple flavor. This yogurt fool is similar to our own shrikand.

This goes 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

Mango Ginger Sorbet

Mangoes are in season. To some extent, the presence of mangoes makes the summer bearable.  During my childhood days, ripe mangoes were eaten as it is. Those days, all that I knew was mangoes were either cooked in a gravy or eaten. At home, no one bothered to make milkshake or juice out of it. We enjoyed eating one full mango on our own.  As we grew up, milkshakes, jams and concentrates followed. And after I started blogging, I got many more ideas to use mangoes in. Also got to know more about different kind of frozen desserts till then it meant only ice creams. Sorbet is one of them.

Sorbet is a frozen dessert made from sweetened water flavored with fruit (typically juice or puree), wine, and/or liquer. (Source: Wikipedia) 

Recipe  source: Tarla Dalal. 
You need

• Mango puree - 2 cups
• Water - 1 cup
• Sugar - 4 tbspn
• Grated ginger - 1 tspn
• Lemon juice - 1 tspn (Optional)
• Lemon rind of one lemon (I used candied orange peel)

Method

Boil sugar and water for about 5 minutes to get a thin syrup. Remove from heat. Add grated ginger and lemon rind. I used candied orange peel. When the syrup cools, add in mango puree. Whisk to blend well. Transfer to a shallow container and freeze. Once it is slushy, break the ice crystals with a fork and freeze again to set.  To soften the sorbet, before serving, move the container from the freezer to the refrigerator. 

I had second thoughts if I should strain the sugar syrup to filter the grated ginger. I was doubtful how it will be if we bite into the pieces. Anyways I decided to go ahead. The grated ginger was not felt while eating the sorbet. The ginger and citric flavors compliments the sorbet very well. 

Scoop and enjoy the light and delicious sorbet, subtly flavored with ginger and orange.

                        

I am sending this sorbet 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

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt ~ Blogging Marathon#5

Its fun to be back to blogging, after a break, as part of the blogging marathon, initiated by Srivalli. When Srivalli announced BM#5, the last group was the one that suited me. And I was not sure If I will be able to post soon after my vacation. Since I enjoyed the previous marathon, which was a first for me, decided to join and chose the Summer Coolers theme. So, starting today, you can see varieties of summer coolers here. I hope I can  bring in variety here.

I had some frozen strawberries. I went for a frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. This dessert was very light and very refreshing. Its a very easy recipe. Just blend all the ingredients and freeze.

You need

Strawberry - 15 nos (I used frozen)
Sugar -1/3 cup
Hung curd - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 1/2 tspn

Method

Hull the strawberries and halve them. Take the halved strawberries and sugar in the blender jar. Pulse to make a fine puree. Add in hung curd and lemon juice. Pulse to blend everything well. Check the sweetness and add more sugar to suit your taste. If the berries are not sweet enough, you might want to add some more sugar.  Transfer to a plastic or steel tiffin box. Freeze till it is set. Take it out and break the crystals using a fork and put it back in the freezer.    Repeat this for 2 more times and finally leave it to set for 3 or 4 hours. Scoop and enjoy. 

The frozen yogurt had set nicely. But, by the time I could arrange and click, it started melting.

This frozen yogurt goes 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: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Vaishali, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers:Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Chakkakuru Podimas/Jackfruit Seeds Stir Fry

Come summer, the most abundant fruits are mango and jack fruit. In Kerala, almost all houses used to have atleast one tree each of these.  Mango and jack fruit will invariable make an appearance in any of the gravy or side dish for the lunch, during the summer months.  There is a saying in Malayalam “Aaru maasam chakkayum maangayum, Aaru maasam anganeyum inganeyum ".   This means Keralites can live with mangoes and jackfruits for 6 months and for the rest of the year with this and that. This tells the importance of both mango and jack fruit. This may not hold true for the present day. And in the olden days, they never got bored of the daily dose of these two. Jack fruit which is just matured and beginning to ripe is generally prepared into a molagushyam or chakka curry. 

You can find more dishes based on jack fruit here

Now coming to the recipe of the post, its with the jack fruit seeds. I love roasted  seeds especially the ones roasted in the traditional chulah. These seed are usually paired with other veggies in gravies or stir fries. I generally add one or two to mezhukuparatti or molagootal. Once in a while I make this podimas.

The seeds are washed and dried for a day. Drying them helps to remove the skin easily. I use a pestle to smash the seeds lightly so that the skin comes out with minimal effort. You could also cook with the seeds on and can be peeled later. And you could chop into cubes. But I haven't tried this way.

You need

• Jack fruit seeds - 20 nos
• Salt to taste
• Turmeric a pinch
• Red chilly powder -1/2 tspn

For Seasoning

• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Urad dal - 1 tspn
• Red chilly - 1 no
• Curry leaves - few

Method

De-skin the seeds. Pressure cook with enough water to cover them. Add a pinch of turmeric and cook for 3 whistles. When the pressure is released fully, drain the water and keep the seeds aside.

Heat a wok/kadai with oil. When the oil heats up, add mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add urad dal, red chilly split into two and the curry leaves. When the dal start browning, add the cooked jack fruit seeds. Mix in salt  and red chilly powder. Cover and cook till it the spices blend in. I love this when it is seasoned in a iron kadai and let it cook over slow heat. The bottom part will turn crisp.I can just eat this podimas as a snack by itself.