Strawberry Lemonade

My son loves strawberry and his favorite fruit is strawberry and color is red,so anything with red is his favorite.Mostly in summer days I give him some fresh fruit juice after he comes back from school.
The theme third week of Blogging Marathon #27 is Seasonal recipes and for the day 1 I made this refreshing lemonade.
Strawberry lemonade is a quick and easy to make which tastes divine and it is a perfect thirst quencher for scorching summer.Here is the recipe for colorful thirst quencher.....

 Basic Information

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Strawberry	7-8nos.
Lemon juice	1tbs
Sugar	2tbs
Water	3cups
Ice cubes	as needed

 

Method

• Chop the strawberry and grind it to a smooth paste along with the sugar.
• Pass it through a strainer and collect the juice.
• To this add the lemon juice and water.
• Serve it with ice cubes.

Enjoy......................................................

• The amount of sugar and the lemon juice can be adjusted to personal preference. 
• Use well ripe strawberries to get a deep color and nice taste.

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Sumber http://www.naliniscooking.com

Zarda -Sweet Saffron Rice - Kashmiri Special / Indian Cooking Challenge -March

For this month of Indian Cooking Challenge- ICC,Srivalli has chosen a traditional sweet rice from Kashmiri Cuisine suggested by Vaishali.
This is a flavorful sweet rice with a mild sweet with the richness of nuts and saffron.The original recipe calls for murabha or tutty fruty.As I ran out of tutty frutty,ddidn't use it but the taste and the flavor was awesome.Here goes the recipe....................

  

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Basmathi rice	2cups
Sugar	1cup
Ghee	3tbs
Almonds/badam	8-10nos.
Pistachios	8-10nos.
Milk	1/4cup
Candied fruits/tutty frutty/murabha	handful
Cinnamon/pattai	2 inch piece
Clove/lavangam	2nos.
Cardamom	2nos.
Yellow food color	2-3 drops
Saffron	4-5 strands

Method

• Soak the basmathi rice in water for 15 minutes,dissolve the sugar in a cup of water and make a sugar syrup,fry the nuts in a tsp of ghee,keep it aside.
• Heat a pan with ghee,add the clove,cinnamon and cardamom.Once it starts smell add the drained rice and fry it for a minute,add a cup of water.Cook it in a medium flame.
• When the water is almost dried add the milk and then food color,cook it covered.Now add the sugar syrup,saffron and half of the fried nuts,cook it till the rice gets cooked and separated.Put off the fire.
• Remove it and garnish with the rest of the nuts and murabha/candied fruits.

Enjoy...........................................................

• Cook the rice in a sow to medium flame to get the rice evenly cooked.
• The amount of sugar given is for a mild seet taste,if you want it make it more sweeter increase the quantity.

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Arisi(Rice) Payasam

Arisi payasam is one such traditional delicacy made for Tamil New Year and Puratassi Saturdays in our households.
This payasam is a delicious one with the richness of coconut milk and the flavor of cardamom and the edible camphor.
The payasam will be slightly the darker in color but jaggery I used is golden so didn't get much of color.Now off to the recipe..............................................

 Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Raw rice/pacharisi	1/4cup
Jaggery(powdered)/vellam/brown sugar	3/4cup
Thick coconut milk	11/4-11/2cups
Coconut(grated)	1tbs
Cashews/mundiri	2tbs
Coconut(finely chopped)	2tsp
Cardamom powder/ellakai	generous pinch
Edible camphor	a mustard size
Ghee/nei	1tsp

Method

• Soak the rice for 30 minutes,drain the water completely and pulse it in a blender coarsely.Dissolve the jaggery in 1/4 cup of water and boil it for couple of minutes or till it dissolves,pass it through a strainer.Fry the cashews and chopped coconut bits in the ghee and keep it aside.
• In a pan boil a cup of water and add the coarsely powdered rice,cook it till its almost done.Now add the jaggery water to the cooked rice,cook it for a boil.
• At this stage add the coconut milk and the grated coconut,let it boil for a minute or two,put off the flame.Finally add the cardamom powder,fried cashews,coconut bits and the edible camphor,mix it well.
• Delicious and creamy arisi payasam is ready.
• Serve it warm.

Enjoy...................................................................................

• The payasam gets thick once it becomes cold so adjust the consistency.
• Don't add the edible camphor more otherwise it will be over powering.
• Add the jaggery syrup after the rice is completely cooked.

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Sumber http://www.naliniscooking.com

Kandarappam

This is yet another traditional Chettinadu sweet snack prepared for special occasions and poojas.In some Chettinadu houses this sweet is made even for Diwali.Here is the recipe................

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Raw rice /pacharisi	1/2cup
Idly rice/pulungal arisi	1/2cup
Urad dhal/ulutham paruppu	2tbs
Channa dhal	11/2tsp
Toor dhal/tuvaram paruppu	1tsp
Moong dhal/paasiparuppu	1tsp
Powdered Jaggery/brown sugar/vellam	3/4-1cup
Coconut(grated)	1/2cup
Cardamom/ellakai	3nos.
Salt	1/4tsp
Oil	as needed to fry

Method 

Soak the rice and dhal for 2 hours,then grind it in blender with caradmom to coarse paste.Now add the grated coconut and powdered jaggery to it and grind it for a minute.Transfer the batter to a bowl and adjust the consistency(should be like dosa batter consistency).Add the salt and mix it well.

Now heat a pan with oil in a medium flame,once the oil is hot pour a small ladle of batter to the oil.
Now slowly pour the oil to the appam with the help of the skimmer to raise.

Once the edges become brown turn it to the other side.Cook it for a minute and remove it,drain it on a kitchen towel.

Serve it warm.

Enjoy.....................................................

• Here I used the brown sugar and if you feel the jaggery has impurities make a thich syrup and drain it.Add it to the batter.
• If you want more sweet the amount of jaggery can be increased to 1 cup as I used the brown sugar,added 1 cup.
• Flip the appam once the edges get crisp and brown,after flipping don't cook it for a long time.Remove it in a minute.
• The oil should be in medium flame to get a nice color and even cooking. 
• Use a flat base pan to fry this appam and fry one appam at a time to get a nice shape.

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Sumber http://www.naliniscooking.com

Passipayaru Kulambu/Mung beans in Tamarind Sauce

The theme for the second week of blogging marathon #27 is traditional dishes and today recipe is a healthy kulambhu with mung beans.
This is a Chettinadu delicacy which goes very well with rice,idly and spongy dosas,the speciality of the kulambhu is slightly watery,unlike other varieties.Now off to the recipe.......  

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Mung beans/paasipayaru	1/2cup
Shallots/chinna vengayam	1/2cup(roughly chopped)
Tomato(chopped)	2nos.
Garlic/poondu	1/4cup(sliced)
Chilly powder/milagai podi	11/2tsp
Coriander powder/dhania podi	1tsp
Turmeric powder	1/8tsp
Tamarind/puli	big gooseberry size
Coconut (grated)	3tbs
Salt	to taste
Oil	as needed

For the tempering

Ingredient	Quantity
Mustard seeds/kadugu	1/2tsp
Fennel seeds/sombhu	1/2tsp
Garlic(crushed)	2-3 cloves
Curry leaves/karivepillai	1sprig

Method 

• Grind the coconut to a fine paste,soak the tamarind in water and take the extract.Add 1 cup of water and dilute it and set it aside.
• Dry roast the mung beans in a pan till a nice aroma comes out and the color changes slightly.Pressure cook it for a whistle.
• In a pan add the tamarind water,shallota,garlic,chilly powder,coriander powder,turmeric powder and salt,boil it for 5 minutes or till the raw smell disappears.
• Now add the cooked mung beans and cook it for one boil,then add the coconut paste and cook it for couple of minutes.
• In another heat up the oil,crackle the mustard seeds and fennel theh add the crushed garlic and curry leaves.Add it to the kulambhu and put off the fire.
• Kulambhu is ready.

Serve it with rice along with papad and poriyal.

Enjoy....................................................................

• This kulambu tastes good with shallots and instead of mung bean,red chori can be used.
• The kulambu is slightly watery so it is called as paasipayaru thanni kulambu and instead of coconut paste,coconut milk can be used.

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Malai Jamun

Today is the last day for the theme occasion in Blogging Marathon#27 and wanted to finish the theme with a dessert.
Malai Jamun is a tempting and delicious sweet in which the regular soft and spongy jamuns are soaked in a creamy,thick flavored milk.
This recipe I adapted from here and slightly tweaked it to my convenience and taste.I made couple of times with the store bought gulab jamun mix and my kiddo loved it a lot.But this time tried it with khoya which was lying in my freezer since 3 weeks.Her is the recipe..........................

Ingredients

For the Jamun

Ingredient	Quantity
Unsweetned khoya/mawa	1cup
All purpose flour	1/4cup
Baking soda	a pinch
Ghee	2tsp
Milk	to knead
Sugar	1/3cup
Cardamom powder	a pinch
Water	3/4cup
Oil	as needed to fry

For the Malai/Rabdi

Ingredient	Quantity
Whole Milk	21/2cups
Sugar	1/4cup
Badam milk powder	2tbs
Pistachios(finely chopped)	for garnishing

Method

•  In a heavy bottom pan add the milk and simmer it till it reduces 1/3rd,then add the sugar.Let it boil for 5 minutes.
• Now mix the badam milk powder in a2tbs of milk and add it to the milk.Put off the fire and keep it aside.
• In a pan dissolve the sugar in water and heat,make a thick sugar syrup.No need of any string consistency,keep it aside.
• In a bowl take the khoya,all purpose flour,baking powder and ghee,mix it well.Now add milk little by little and make a soft dough.
• Pinch a small gooseberry size ball and roll into a smooth ball without giving too much of pressure.
• Heat the pan with oil in a medium flame and drop 6-7 and rotate the pan so that all sides of the ball gets cooked evenly.
• Once it is cooked to golden brown color drain it  from the oil and drop it in the  sugar syrup.
• After 10 minutes take the jamuns from the sugar syrup carefully add add it to the milk  mixture and garnish it with chopped pistachios.
• Refrigerate for 2-3 hours and serve it chilled.

Enjoy.............................................................

• Instead of simmering the milk 11/2 cups of evaporated milk and 1/2 cup of condensed milk can be used.
• Instead of badam milk powder finely chopped nuts and saffron can be used.
• The amount of sugar given for the rabdi can be increased if you are not using condensed milk or badam milk powder.

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Sumber http://www.naliniscooking.com

Announcing Home Bakers Challenge

We are a group of friends who love baking have joined hands together. Our motive is to learn and excel in baking, helping each other. One fine day, we were discussing about Baking and its techniques and suddenly we got an idea what if we start a group and bake together, so that we can learn things together. Thus this group, Home Bakers Challenge was born. This is how it works, every month one person of the team will suggest a recipe and all the members have to bake the recipe and reveal it on the said date. By doing this we get to learn new techniques and explore the side of baking which otherwise we would not have ventured so. With the support and suggestions from the group members this is possible. Do you find this interesting? Do you love baking? Do you want to learn new techniques? If your answer is yes, then come and join hands with us.

We have created a group in Facebook, do join us there, for more information on the group.

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