Rose Malai

Yes, this is another Rose recipe of mine – I have been meaning to make my own paneer for this very reason for a while now and finally went for it. It turned out well, but with all first time efforts and critically analyzing what I’ve made, I know the couple of things I need to improve on the next time I make this. But I got accolades all around and that is the proof of the pudding or malai in this case J This post also contains the method to make some delicious homemade paneer… here goes- Makes about 24 RoseMalais J

Homemade Paneer

1 gallon of whole milk boiled

4-5 tbsp lemon juice to be dribbled into the boiling milk

See the paneer form and fall apart from the whey

Drain and wrap it in a thin mundu towel or cheese cloth

Once drained make small balls with it in preparation for the malai part

Sugar Syrup

2 cups of water and 1.5 cups of sugar

Bring to boil until the syrup gets stringy

Drop the paneer balls into the hot syrup

Rose Milk

Heat ½ gallon of whole milk and add about ¼ cup of Rose Syrup to it along with ½ cup of additional sugar.

To this add about 1 tsp of powdered cardamom

Combine

Remove the paneer balls from the syrup and set on a serving bowl.

Now pour the rosemilk over this and cover them until the entire lot is soaked in

Cool and eat! Or eat warm if that’s you preference

Thai Red Curry

I have made the Thai Green curry on man occasion and I’ve made the Thai Red Curry too, but just never got around to blogging it.  So, here it is… enjoy with some No Yolk Noodles as shown in a picture below.

Ingredients

All veggies of choice (I used carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, Eggplant, mushrooms, onions, green bell pepper)

3 green chilies

Tofu – i pack extra firm cubed

Asian Spice Mix                                                           

Peanut sauce

Spicy Szechwan Stir Fry sauce

½ tsp of Tamarind pulp (Lakshmi Brand)

1 tsp sesame seeds (white)

1 tbsp Sesame Oil

NO Garlic or Coconut this time - yay (:

Preparation

Cook some egg noodles, drain and keep

In a wok, on high heat, heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil.

Splutter the sesame and add the veggies and cook for a few minutes

Mix all the spices and sauces

In a cup of warm water mix the tamarind pulp and add to the veggies.

Add all of it the veggies. Add the salt and let it simmer.

Remove from flame.

Add to noodles and enjoy a wonderfully healthy meal which also tastes fantastic.

Hot Cross Idlis

Before I post this, I want to acknowledge the wonderful friends who have been sharing a whole bunch of awards with me - Thanks you lovely ladies - Nancy&Vijay, Sangee Vijay Jay, Chitra Krishna, Cinnamon & Chillies, Mina Joshi, Indrani Vardhini - You all have incredibly amazing blogs too and I am happy to be cooking with you ::) IF I have failed to include anyone else who has given me an award, shame on me - please pull me up! It is or sure an oversight since I am not meticulous about posting acknowledgements quickly- But every award I get I revel in, and cherish wholeheartedly.


Sharing it with all the Super blogger friends I look forward to hearing from each day, who make my day with their comments and their own wonderful posts :)

Now for the Hot Cross Idlis


Our blogger friend Priya Ramakrishnan of Elaichii took one look at these and exclaimed  - Oh Hot Cross Buns Idlis and in a second gave me the best name for this dish :) Thanks Priya - you rock!



We had a Food Event at our community - I'd made a 100 idlis, of which 60 got sold- We had our sai Bhajans the next day and I had all these idlis left over. So I made a quick Kothamali-green chili chutney (clinatro chutney) and decided to go about making these :)
Here is another way to polish off left over Idlis :) I made some with molaga podi and some with chutney creating The Indian flag effect, unintentionally!
Adios amigos and Happy Weekend - Plenty cooking with many family visits in the next few weeks - Look for some sweets and savories and some very traditional recipes ....
I am sending this to Akila's Dish starts with H event

Rose Yogurt

This is the first recipe I made with my new Ice-cream maker… I was craving for Rose Milk and when we went to Richmond for a quarterly Indian grocery store stock-up, I got me some Rose syrup. I had some Page Greek Yogurt handy so I decided I will make a Frozen Rose Yogurt, with Indian flavors. So I included cardamom in the recipe and boy did it taste ever so good!

Here are a few must knows about the ice-cream maker – PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ON YOUR MACHINE BEFORE LAUNCHING ON THIS PROCESS! You have to freeze the bucket at least 24hours before you plan to make it. I was gung-ho about making it all my ingredients lined up and then I read the instructions I realized that I had to wait for a day before I could appease my craving L -

Ingredients

2 packs of Page Yogurt (if you are using homemade, drain the whey completely!

¾ cup of sugar

2 tbsp Rose Syrup

½ tsp ground cardamom powder

Some rainbow sprinkles, just for fun 

Prepare per instructions on the ice-cream maker

A yummy treat to kick start your summer or even a wonderful idea for your Mem. Day party J

would like to send this as an entry to 4 sizzling summer events 

Jay's  Relishing Ice cream Event

Radhika's Fun & Sun Event

Dil Se Divya's Show me your Summer Cooler event

Olive Houmous

I am following up on my pita post with a totally yummy Olive Houmous!

In the picture - Mother's Day Daisies From My Daughter :)

A funny tale behind this wonderfully delicious dish -  So last year, some of my family decided to go to an island resort in Greece – While I did read some about Greece and the food options for vegetarians, I was well aware that meat was the mainstay for Greeks. But the romantic notions of fresh Greek Salad and Houmous and yogurt were very uplifting. Then we get there and this resort was kinda isolated – a 45 minute boat ride to the biggest island/tourist resort, Hydra. Not a soul there knew what the heck we were asking for when we tried to order Houmous – Not a soul knew the heck how to talk in English either – There I was playing a game of Pictionary, drawing with all my might and gesticulating verily to make them understand until one other customer at the café said, Ah whomoosh! In rapid Greek, he explained to them what I was talking about and I could tell light bulbs were coming on brightly and their broad smiles made me realize what a dummy I was asking for a Lebanese/Turkish dish in Greece and expecting them to understand!

While we never got to eat houmous, we did eat a lot of unbelievably thick and sluggish yogurt, which seemed to me made purely of fat, like the fresh churned butter (vennai) that we do have on Gokulashtami in India.

I have mentioned to you Bobbi’s humus which is sold on occasion in Sam’s club and how crazy we are for it. Sabra is a brand that sells a really yummy humus too although they are getting more commercial.

So when I made the pita, I went all out and made Olive humus (houmous) too.

So here my friends, is a happy companion to the pita.

I will like to compare this combo to a chappati/chutney combo or dosai/thogayal combo.

Ingredients

3 cans garbanzo beans

1 can of black olives, pitted

2 tbps of tahini sauce

8-10 cloves of garlic

6-10 red chilies

1 tbsp black pepper

2 tbsp Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation

Grind the contents together in a fine paste

Pour into a serving container

Dribble the oil over it

Add a spring of your favorite herb for decoration (I used basil)

Serve with Pitas

BIG TIP: SERVED CHILLED FOR BEST TASTE
Sending this to my own event which is being guest hosted by Priya of Bon Appetit

Hot Pita Pockets

I am making my first forays in to this cuisine with Pita Pockets.
A Middle Eastern bread Pita has gained immense popularity in many countries and can be compared to the kulchas or naans, the Indian breads. I have always been a huge fan of Middle Eastern foods (their vegetarian foods, more accurately) and this was only reinforced by the fact that my dear Doc Oz is from Turkey and he says the middle-eastern cuisine is one of the healthiest, by far, being rich in protein and Omegas and over all very less in fat.
But, as seasoned cook, we are aware that we can make any cuisine healthy or not by the ingredients we use. For instance, I followed a pita recipe verbatim and got excellent results. For this I had to use all-purpose flour as opposed to my usual multi-grain or whole-wheat- I tried whole wheat and I tell you I did not get the same result. This is a very easy recipe with 5 ingredients only. It is awesome when the results are good – and I was thanking the person who submitted this recipe to About.com!
But for my readers sake,I give not only an ingredient list but also a step-by-step pictorial so that you no it is coming out the way it is supposed to. Here we go!

Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups of water
1 pack of rapid rise yeast
1tsp sugar
1 tsp of salt

Preparation
First get ½ cup of warm water and add the packet of yeast with the spoon of sugar and stir in well so that it is completely dissolved. Set aside for 15-20 minutes until the yeast is frothing
In a big basin, add the flour and salt and mix them well
Make a hole at the center to pour the yeast
Add 1 more cup of warm water and knead like Billy-o (10-15 minutes) or until your wrists and biceps are begging for mercy 
Gently oil the ball of dough and wrap and keep for 3-6 hours
The dough will double in size and get very porous.
(I find that it also smells like beer: )!
Take lemon sized balls and roll out
Make like you would chappatis or tortillas.
Once done, wait a minute or two before cutting and trying to peek into the pocket!
Let out a triumphant “yay” when you see the wonderfully, bready pocket, waiting for its Fill of Houmous and falafel – for a yummy falafel recipe check out my falafel post here.

First the Yeast

The Flour

The dough just prepared

The dough after 4 hours

Rolled and on the tawa

One last peek

Papaya Casserole

Blogger ate up my Mango curry and all your last recipes too! Bummer!!!!And I got so many wonderful comments - that you all :) It was wonderfully encouraging to read all those beautiful words :)

This is a recipe that came along as I started cooking and let me tell you instincts mostly lead you in the right directions – This ended up being a gourmet dinner idea J You may ask, how can this be a curry in a hurry to which I say esp. to people in India, you got maids to chop your veggies and wash your dishes, so this should be a cinch for you. To those in other parts of the world where help is non-existent unless another family member pitches in, you can either have your hubby chop the veggies or buy veggies pre-cut at the stores. Over the years, I have realized that nothing is such a ‘big deal’ at the risk of sound extremely clichéd and American! You just get used to doing your own thing and for someone like me who gets waited upon hand and foot when I visit my sibs in India, this is the toughest part of living abroad – each time i come back, I become my own chottu or Lakhsmi or bayi! But I find the satisfaction of doing it myself far more satisfying that dealing with the frustrations of having to explain to someone else how to do things and watch over them when I want to take really snatch it from them and do it myself!

Bad scene – from the time I wrote this to now, my daughter fell on the soccer field and has a whopping sprain on her ankle – took her to the doc and the most bizarre disappearance of my car keys (a big thick bunch with home key, club keys), all gone- vanished into thin air!!!!!

Here I am in a panic stricken state with a girl on crutches, searching high and low for my keys – have not found them yet, but rescue came in the form of Patishri who brought his spare keys to the van- Don’t you just hate it when things go badly!!! But getting back to my daughter, her accident was most untimely since she has her 8^th grade dance tomorrow L She is home with her feet up, icing her ankles.

Anyway, I am sure you will enjoy this casserole almost as much as I enjoyed making it and I tried to do a good pictorial for you too. Enjoy friends!

Ingredients

Half a ripe papaya (big sized) chopped in biggish cubes

½ head of broccoli chopped into medium sized florets

1 yellow bell pepper chopped and diced

2 yellow squashes peeled and diced

1 16qt cottage cheese dubba

1 big red potato sliced into thin rounds

Bruschetta spice mix (or any Italian seasoning mix)

Please determine cheese based on pictures below

6-8 sliced of toast

½ cup of grated cheese

1 tbsp of oil

3-5 green chilies

Preparation

Cook the veggies (except the potatoes) in ½ tsp of oil along with the chilies

Add the spice half way along (cook for about 5 minutes) or until tender but not soggy soft

Salt after turning flame off

In a flat pan, add oil and cook the potatoes adding the same spice mix

Keep oven ready at 400

Toast your bread pieces in a toaster

Now in a lasagna type rectangular pan, arrange a layer of toast pieces (about 4-5)

Add the veggies over the bread and layer with cheese

Now crumble the rest of the toast pieces over this.

Add the cottage cheese in an orderly fashion over this

Now place the potato rounds over that

Add your grated cheese

Bake for 30 minutes

Cut like you would a lasagna and serve hot! You are going to LOVE this.. Do dry and let me know. That will be the best compliment (:

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Kalyani, Priya Mahadevan, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Priya Suresh, Veena,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Shylaja, Srivalli
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Priya Yallapantula
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast:Aarthi, Vaishali

Mango Coconut Curry

This is the simplest yet curry I’ve made – As you may see, i am getting a lot of fruits into my  cooking  and Mango is the King of the season reigning supreme, as I have noticed in many blogs now have very interesting mango creations.

I have many exciting recipes I need to share with you – so many recipes, so little time!!!

I made this curry with homemade pita which cannot wait to blog and homemade hummus which again, I cannot wait to blog…

This is curry in a hurry week and I will focus on this alone today -A divinely tasty curry made in less than 20 min.

Ingredients

2 tbsp coriander seeds

2 green chilies

2 red chilies

½ cup grated coconut

½ tsp of cumin

½ tsp turmeric powder

1tbsp oil

2 cups of water

2-3 mangoes sliced long and thin

salt

Preparation

Heat the oil in a sauce pan.

Roast the coconut and other ingredients (except the mangoes)

Blend to a fine paste with about 1 cup of water

In the mean time, put the chopped mangoes in the pan and add another cup of water and allow it to cook

Add the coconut paste and salt to the mangoes and allow them to cook together for a few minutes

When it has bubbled for 2-3 minutes, switch off

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice or chappatis

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me
Day 3 of blogging marathon.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Kalyani, Priya Mahadevan, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Priya Suresh, Veena,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Shylaja, Srivalli
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Priya Yallapantula
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast:Aarthi, Vaishali