Simple Carrot / Doodi halwa using Milk Powder (shortcut method)

well...this is a continuation of the previous post on "The Tiranga Dessert ". The recipe of the carrot-badam halwa used as topping in there is shared here. Apart from the usual means of making halwa as chuncks to be cut into pieces , i have made them as balls and presented in mini cupcake lines, and of course, as topper, as in the previous.

 

 

Usually, it takes long long time to cook halwas, if doing with milk, but came across this simple short-cut trick in making them using milk powder, and trust me, we get this done in no time. It's really easy.

 

 

I have followed the same recipe for both carrot and doodi halwa.

 

 

 

You need :

Carrot/bottle gourd : 4/2 grated (about 2cups)

I have used red carrtos in here, as they give a more darker lovely colour

Dry non-fat milk powder: 1/2 cup

Sugar: 1/4 cup/to taste(definitely not more than this)

Crushed badam(pistatios): 1/2 cup 

Ghee(clarified butter): 3 tbsp

Sweetened condensed milk : 1/4 tin

Cardamom Powder: 1/2 tsp or to taste

Cashew nuts : to decorate

How to:

Melt ghee in a pan.

Add in the grated carrots/doodi and cook for 6-7 mins on medium heat, uncovered.

Halfway through, add in the sweetened condensed milk.

Carrot/doodi must be soft by now, if not cook for another couple of minutes.

Now add dry milk powder , cardamom and sugar. Be careful with the sugar, as the condensed milk is already very sweet.

Cook for 3-4 mins or until halwa oozes oil from sides and has thickened. Switch off the stove.

Add the crushed badam powder to the halwa and mix well.



You can either serve it as such as a topper for a dessert, or along with ice-cream as a side ...

or...

 

 

make as ball, roll again the badam (or any powdered nuts of your choice)

top with a cashew half, and serve in mini papaer cups



 

Individual mini servings of halwa balls !!!



Tiranga Dessert - Simple Milk Pudding

A very Happy Independence Day to all my dear Indian brothers and sisters.

 

Sharing a very simple recipe for the most simplest dessert - The Milk Pudding.

 

In saffron - white - green , is

* carrot - badam halwa (which will come as a separate post)

* white milk pudding

* and the green ? well... read on. ;)

 

 

 

You need :

Milk (full fat) - 1litre

Condensed Milk - 1/4 tin

Sugar - 1/2 cup
 Water - 1 1/2 cups
 China grass (agar agar)  - 10 gm
Cardamom - 3 Nos. crushed

Soak china grass  in water for 10 to 20 minutes.

In a sauce pan, boil milk, condensed milk and sugar.(adjust the sugar - more /less than given above, according to taste, as condensed milk is already very sweet)

In another sauce pan, add soaked china grass with 1 to 1 1/2 cups water and stir well so that they melt.

Sieve the melted china grass into the boiled milk.

Add cardamom powder and stir well.

Divide the mix into two, and into one of the portions add a bit of green food colour !, for the base green layer. Simple yeah ??

 

The question that i got the most when this was served,was..Sona , what is this green layer ?

 

You could be like..well...its a blend of pistas..and..avacadoes..and ..get in all the green stuff you can come up with..except..the fact that its just a drop of green food colour to the white !



 

Scoop a spoonful of the green milk pudding first into the serving bowls..and after slightly cooled, in goes the white milk pudding.

To top, the saffron layer...i made some red carrot halwa mixed with ground pistacios. (recipe following soon)

 

Saffron - White - Green Dessert for the Day !!!
Chill in the refrigerator till serving time.

Recipe source - Cooking at Mayflower by Beena.

LoR - 06 Egg paniyaram

Left over Remake - 06

 

 

Tired of the regular Dosa's and Idli's ? This is indeed a quick and interesting makeover for the last spoonfuls of the dosa batter, and sure kids will like it.

 

You need :

Dosa batter - 1 1/2 cups

Eggs - 2 large/3 small

Shallots - 5/6, cut small

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Green chillie (optional, I have used pepper powder in here)

Salt - again, to taste, as the dosa batter already has salt in it.

 

To make:

Break an egg into a bowl.  

 

 

Well, this was a small sized one...

 

 

"Pick HIM'?? sorry deary...I need both of you!

 

Beat all the 3 eggs, add the cut shallots, pepper powder, turmeric powder (for a more deeper yellow colour) and salt (only if required).
Mix and to this, add the dosa batter. Mix again.
Heat the paniyaram pan with few drops of oil in each hole.
Can substitute oil with butter or ghee if for kids (the skinny type)

Scoop in the dosa-egg batter into each hole to about 3/4 th full.

 

Turn over till cooked on both sides.

 

 

Soft, tasty and healthy paniyarams best served hot with tomato ketchup or any chutney of your choice.

 

 Click here to go to the previous post  in the Left over remake series - LoR - 05

 

Original Recipe source : from here

 

 



Rainbow Popcorns

A very colouful treat to to all my dearest co-bloggers on this Friendship Day -

 

Assorted Fruit Flavoured Rainbow popcorns

 

 

You need:
8 cups popped popcorn
Butter ( half a stick)
3 tbs light corn syrup (honey is a good substitute)
1/2 cup sugar
1 3.5oz box jello, any flavor (not the sugar free kind)

How to do:

Place butter and light corn syrup/honey in a sauce pan on medium heat. Stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello and stir to combine.

Increase heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat so it just simmers. Continue simmering for 5 minutes.

 

After the sugar mixture simmers for 5 minutes, immediately pour over popcorn in bowl. Be careful, it’s super hot!! Mix right away and keep stirring so everything gets well coated. This will take some trial and error to get the right consistency. If the mix is too thick and cooled, it will not coat the popcorns properly and fully. But, the mix  shouldn't be too thin either.

 

(click here for recipe source and step-by-step pictures of the making. I have used the same quantity of ingredients .Sorry I couldn't get some clicks myself, as you really need to get moving fast)

 

Line a baking pan/tray with parchment paper and spread out evenly.

 

Lime flavoured Jello used here and it gives a lovely pista green colour

 
Pop in the oven (pre-heated to 150 deg C) and bake for about 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool to room temp. 

uisng cherry flavour. This was the most liked....both in appearance, and taste.

Break into pieces and enjoy! 

 

The flovours used -

 Cherry (pink), Lime (green), Lemon (yellow), Apple (redish ones). You can either use them separate, but to raise the"attractive" coeficient, i would recommend you mix all of them together.

 

You can certainly eat this un-baked as well and it’s just soft and gooey, but definitely bake it if you’re going to pack it up for giving, or serve it as party food so it will be light and crunchy.



Cooled and packed in zip-lock pouches for a food sale and they were done just in about half an hours time. Along in here in the above picture, are other two varieties as well - Caramel popcorns with mini marshmallows and to the left, are Savoury spicy flavoured popcorns with roasted corn kernels.  Their recipes follows shortly. Till then..have a great time ahead...

 

Awards # New 3 in 1 FB page # hugs

Big hai to my dear co-bloggers !
Was literally away from blogsphere for about 2 weeks or so....and am I not really glad to have received 2 awards during that time.

The VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

 

by pretty-patty Pooja of "Being Beautiful and Pretty" blog. A place worth visiting where she writes about home remedies , product reviews, makeup tricks , latest fashion trends ..... anything and everything....and....

 

 

the AWESOME BLOG CONTENT AWARD

 

by Aara of Sweets & Spices.  Knowing her was a very pleasant surprise. Writing to her that I was her latest follower, especially after going through her perfectly white instant rava idli's , the reply what I got was of someone who was a "silent follower" of my blog, ever since she started blogging!!! That was indeed surprising.

 

 

Of course, i agree there will be many people out there, who wouldn't want to be shown out as followers, and its one's own personal approach, i truly acknowledge that. But with me, I am more than happy to know it if you like my space....atleast, it will take me to your space as well.

 

So, for Pooja and Aara,

 

 

 Thanks  a bunch, both of you !

 

 Also in here, officially, introducing to you, my new facebook page -

 

THE PICK'Y BANK.

 

The links to my 2 blogs and the rest are all now in one space under 3 different albums :

(food blog links)

 (non-food blog links)

 

(musical notes and pictures)

 

Thanks to all who pulled in their suggestions and ideas - really really appreciate it. For you all as well....

 

 

oh well  ...i'll RESTART !!! ;)

 

Back to the award..the rules...

 

The Versatile Blogger Award

 

1) If you are nominated, then you are awarded the Versatile Blogger Award

     (received with thanks)

2) Thank the person who gave you this award (done, with a hug)

3) Include the link of their blog (done)

4) Nominate 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award (below)

5) Finally, tell the person who nomiated you (done) & things about yourself.

 (about myself,well... I have written quite a bit on my previous Leibester Award post. It's in here)

The ABC Award

 

The rules are simple:

1) Add the ABC logo to your new blog post (done)

2) Write one word or a phrase about yourself that begins with A, B, C, etc.

        (  Well for me, i take "b" for being " blessed" )

3) Nominate some blogs (below)

4) Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know. (definitely !)

 

My nominees for the Awards are:

 

1. Remya Elizabeth of Remya's Baking & Cooking

2. Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth

3. Amelia of Amelia's Dessert

4. Asha of Food, Fashion, Party

5. Chitra of Indulge

6. Meena Kumar of Elephants and the Coconut Trees

7. Nawal of Love from Kitchen

8. Sonali of Sonali's Kitchen

9. Tinku of Daily Chores

10. Priya of the Humpty Dumpty Kitchen

11. Manju of Manju's Eating Delights

12. Akila of Learning-to-cook

13. Vidya of Akshaypatre Recipes

14. Shibi of Flavz Corner

15. Shella of Kitchen Art

 

And, the 15 of you receive not one, but both these Awards ! PLUS...PLUS....a virtual hug too !!..

ooh..think my PC, rooter and the net connection got hanged trying to passover the "HUGie - buggie" .

 

Think this would be the only way out to reach it to you ;)

and I , get a "like" on my fb page in return ?? ( not a bad deal, yeah??)

 

Will be back soon with some "sweet" recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



ADVICE PLEASE ....

Hey friends...

think i need some advice from you.
You (most/some) of you are definitely aware that i have 2 other pages other than this, in the "pic" series.

quick picks - where you are now - which is on cooking and recipes exclusive.
pick quicks - right next door , (opposite of Quick Picks) ..yaani..anything other than recipes.
and the other one is in facebook -
note'y pic's -  which features some childhood musica"notes", written "notes" and pictures. (now you get what's in this name ;)

 

And...what i have been thinking the last few days...
what if i merge all these three together into one?) Planning to do that in the facebook page..so that it gives links to both the blogs as well...along with the notes and pictures and music already in there)

What would you suggest ? But, in that case, will I have to change my fb page name to something else ...coz, the current one "note'y pic's"  will not seem to get well with the contents to the page if i do.

Now..dont tell me to name it "sambar" or "avial picks" coz, it will be all the  "picks" at one place... :p

confused..should i really merge it together ?..as i was not much keen on having a facebook page for my cook blog...and if i eventually do..then, the name of that page.

Any help ?? advice..dearst co-bloggers ??

Crab sticks and Pineapple - salad variations and some very honest doubts

We had a Salad Competition organised by the Ladies Forum of our College Allumini some time back and my entry was Crab Stick and Grilled Pineapple variations.

 

 

The times that you feel like doing something...but again, get no idea what . (same as in the previous post on Rose'y Chicken Puffs) So, the best option is to roam around the Super market, browsing all that is on the racks, believing something will click. It was during one of the "market browsings" that i happen to see this  pack of "crab sticks" in the freezer section. That did sound interesting, coz I had never bought it before .So, that was it, crab sticks with something...for the competition.

 

an innocent doubt..don't you agree ??

 

 

Crab sticks (imitation crab meat, seafood sticks) are a form of kamaboko, a processed seafood made of finely pulverized white fish flesh (surimi), shaped and cured to resemble leg meat of snow crab or Japanese spider crab.


 

Recommendations on the packing is to have it as such, (after defrosting, that is). But, to the Indian taste buds, it definitely will be bland. So, I gave a slight fry to these sticks in 2 table spoons of olive oil and dashed some pepper and dried herbs atop (optional), for  a flavour. Do not be too rough , and do not fry it for more than a minute or two, else they shread into fine strips.

 

Now, that the super market browsing is done, next is the online browsing..on what to do with these. and finally...decided to pair it with pineapple.

 

Option 1 :
Individual serve portions of flavoured crab sticks with grilled pineapple . These could go as an appetizer as well.

hummm... next.
 

*Cut the pinepple into thin strips almost to the same length as the crab sticks.
*Make a sause mix - sweet chille sauce + barbaque sauce + pepper powder + salt
* Brush the sauce mix on these cut pineapple strips and grill till done. Not too dry, they should still be juicy.

Arrange in small wine glass with some salad greens around to keep it in place, with of course, the additional low cal benefits of thyself.



Option 2: Mixed mayonnaise salad
Pineapple (plain, not grilled)
Bell peppers - green, yellow, red, orange
(Cut the above into small pieces)
Crab sticks (flavoured, as above), cut and shredded

Mix everything with low fat garlic mayonnaise (or any flavoured variety of your choice), sprinkled with some pepper powder and salt to taste.

I used Bell Pepper cups for presenting the mayonnaise salad. Cut the peppers (one colour each) into half, fill it with the salad, topped  with few cut pieces of the peppers  in the centre. Red cuts over the salad in the red pepper bowl..so so. 

The platter now awaits the judges.

 



A very justifiable answer, by little Ms. Pussy...and my salad variation platter did win a prize in the competition. ;)

So until next ..you all have a great time !!!