Easy Rasmalai

Rasmalais were summer treats when I was a kid. You would get them only in select shops and you won’t be lucky enough to buy a cup if you are late. It will be over before noon. Relishing the chilled rasmalais in the scorching heat was a bliss. When I made the mini rasgullas, I thought of making rasmalais at home. But all the recipes I refered, called for a lengthy cooking process. So I invented a shortcut to prepare it in less than 10 mins. And believe me, it tasted better than the conventional made rasmalais. Now to the recipe.

 

 

Ingredients:

Milk – 1.5 cup + 1 tb

Sugar – 3 tbsp

Vanilla custard powder – 1/2 tbsp

Mini Rasgullas – 5 nos

Elaichi powder – a pinch

Method:

Heat the milk in a heavy bottomed pan. Mix the custard powder in 1 tbsp milk without any lump. Now add custard paste & sugar to the boiling milk and mix well. Keep stirring to avoid any lumps and scratch down the sides of the pan. Squeeze the rasgullas to remove the sugar syrup from it and add it to the boiling milk. Keep stirring till the milk thickens. Add the elaichi powder & switch off the stove. Cool it, refrigerate and serve chill!

Note:

You can adjust the liquid consistency of the rasmalai by adding the sugar syrup of the rasgullas to the milk, before refrigeration.

Linking this recipe to Shruti’s ‘Sweet Celebration’ Event :)

 

 

 

Mini Homemade Rasgullas (Made in Pressure cooker)

I was thinking that making rasgullas is a tough process till I found this recipe. You can make rasgullas in a pressure cooker! And it hardly takes some ten minutes to cook!! I tried it immediately and it turned out real delicious.

 

 

Ingredients:

Milk – 1 litre

Curd – ½ cup

Ice cubes – 12 nos

Water -3 cups

Sugar – 2 cups

Elachi powder – a pinch

Nuts – For garnish

 

Method:

Boil the milk well and cool it. Once cooled remove the cream layer formed on the top of the milk. Heat the milk again. Once it is hot, simmer the flame and add the curd gradually. Keep stirring till the whey separates completely. Now switch off the stove. Add the ice cubes and mix well.

Tie the cloth to the sink tap and hang it for an hour without disturbing. After that, take the channa(crumbly paneer) and kneed it for 10-15 mins gently till it forms a smooth dough.
Pour the water in a wide pressure cooker, add the sugar & cardamom powder to it and bring it to a rolling boil. In the meantime, roll the channa into small equal sized balls. I got some 20 balls.

Once the sugar syrup has come to a boil, add the channa balls to it and close the pressure cooker. Cook in a medium flame till one whistle. After that, simmer the flame and cook for another 5 mins and switch off the stove.

Wait till the pressure gets released by itself and open the lid. The rasgullas would have doubled in size. Let it cool, refrigerate, garnish with nuts and serve chilled

Note:

1.Kneading the channa is an important process. It helps to make nice, firm rasgullas.

2. Once the rasgullas are cooked, you can remove them and just cook the syrup for one more whistle and then add the rasgullas if you prefer the syrup to be of  a thicker consistency.

 
Linking this recipe to Shruti’s ‘Sweet Celebration’ Event :)

Homemade Paneer

I like paneer, in any form. The other day, we were having dinner in HB and i ordered chilli paneer. I just fell in love with it on first bite. It was so soft that i wiped off the plate clean in minutes. Vj said they should be making their own paneer as store bought ones wouldn't be this soft. Since am at mom's place now and we get farm fresh milk here i thought of trying my hands with home made paneer & it turned out so good. Here is the method of making your own paneer. 

 

 

 

Ingredients :

Milk - 1 litre

Curd - 1/2 cup

Ice cube - 10 to 12 nos

Method :

 

Boil the milk & let it cool. Once cooled remove the top layer of cream formed. Now boil the milk again till it is hot. Add the curd slowly, while stirring the milk simultaneously. The milk will start curdling. Stir till the whey completely seperates. When the whey is in greenish colour, switch off the stove and add ice cubes. Ice cubes are added to stop further curdling. 

Place a cheese cloth (I used a old cotton sari cloth) over a container and strain the paneer. Tie the cloth and hang it to the sink tap and allow the whey to drip. Leave it undisturbed for two hours.

Flatten it to a round or square shape and place it on a flat plate. Then keep another flat plate over it and keep a weight on it. I kept my 5 kg flour container. Allow it to set for 3 hours minimum. Place it in the fridge for an hour. Take it out, remove the cloth carefully and let the paneer come to room temperature. Now cut into cubes and proceed making your favourite dish.

Easy Soya Curry

Looking at the ingredient list you may think that this curry preparation will stretch for ages, but believe me, this is a very easy recipe. You just have to grind everything and pressure cook it. Sounds easy, isn't it. It comes handy when you run out of stock of veggies and want to do a quick side dish for chapathi / roti. Soya chunks are rich in protein too. So a quick, healthy, tasty and easy curry for you to try :-)

Soya Curry

Ingredients :


Soya chunks - 30 nos
Onion - 3 medium nos
Tomato - 3 medium nos
Garlic - 4 pods
Ginger - 1 small piece
Hing - a pinch
Pepper - 1 spn
Cumin - 1 spn
Coriander - 1 spn
Red chillies - 2 nos
Mustard - 1/4 spn
Curry leaves - few
Turmeric powder - 1/4 spn
Garam Masala - 1/2 spn
oil - 2 tspn
Water - 1 cup
salt - to taste

Method :

Soak the soya chunks in hot water for 15 minutes. Then wash with cold water for 2/3 times.
Squeeze the soyachunks thoroughly and cut into halves.

Fine chop the onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic.

Heat 1 tspn oil in a pan, add the red chillies, coriander seeds, pepper, hing and cumin seeds. Now add onions, ginger, garlic and saute till the onions turn brown. Add tomatoes and saute till slightly mushy. Cool this mixture and grind into a fine paste.

In a pressure cooker heat the rest of the oil and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the curry leaves and fry. Now add the ground paste, turmeric powder, garam masala, salt and saute for few minutes. Now add water and soyachunks, close the cooker and cook for one whistle.

Once the pressure is released, transfer to serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves.

Whole wheat Dates Muffins

               It’s been a long time I baked something. When I was a student, I used to bake cakes in the cooker as I didn’t have an oven then. I would mostly start the process late in the evening and it would take eons to bake a cake in the cooker. So, normally it will be done by midnight. By the time I wake up in the morning dreaming about patterns to cut the cake, half of it would have vanished.  Now with a five month old to manage, I don’t even find time to cook daily essentials, forget about baking. But yesterday the baking bug caught me strong and I wanted to bake something quick & easy before it bites me. So I made these healthy muffins adapted from here. I halved the original recipe & got ten muffins. By the time I finished my work & settled down for a quick click to upload I realized that there was not a single one left. So I made it again today with some changes to the original recipe making it much healthier this time.

 

 

Ingredients :

 

10-15 dates - seedless
1 cup milk

5 Tablespoon jaggery
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

5 tablespoon oil
1 Tbsp Pistachios (chopped)
1 Tbsp melon seeds

 

Method :

 

Chop the dates and soak in hot milk.

Preheat the oven at 220°C.
Once the milk cools down, blend the soaked dates, milk and the jaggery and bring it to a smooth paste.
Shift it to a bowl and add oil to it. Now add the flour gradually and mix it.
Add the chopped pistachios & melonseeds while saving a little for later on.
Arrange the muffin mould, Pour the batter to 2/3^rd of each mould and sprinkle the saved nuts on the top. Bake at 180°C for 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

 

Linking this recipe to Shruti’s ‘Sweet Celebration’ Event :)

Muttai udaitha kuzhambu / Egg drop Gravy

This recipe is lying in my draft for the past 5 months. Too busy I would say or too lazy my mom would say :(.  We were shifting house & was not able to cook anything that sunday. It was 3.00 pm & we decided to have a quick bite in the nearby aapakadai. A famous chef's village food fest was going on there at that time & the menucard was filled with cute food names. When VJ ordered for biryani he was told that it is not a village food & hence not served that day. Then we ordered for aapam & muttai udaitha kuzhambu. After that VJ noticed the server carrying a plate of his fav biryani. When enquired he was answered that the dish name was kari soru (LOL, so much so for the village food fest).

But the muttai udaitha kuzhambu turned out to be too good. The next weekend i searched all my cookbooks & finally settled on this recipe. VJ was so happy he said that mine tasted better than that of the chef :).

Muttai udaitha kuzhambu

Ingredients:

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Urad dhal - 1/2 tbsp

channa dal - 1/2 tbsp
Onion chopped thin -1
Green chilli - 2
Curry leaves - few
Oil - 1 tspn

Egg - 4

salt - to taste

Coriander leaves – for garnishing

To  grind :

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Tomato - 2
Pepper - 1/2 tbsp
Coriander seeds- 1 tbsp
Saunf – 1 tbsp

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch

Ginger - 1/2 inch
Garlic - 2
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves - a few
Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method :

                  Heat oil in a wide kadai and add mustard seeds. Once it splutters add the urad & channa dal & fry till golden brown. Now add the onions & fry till transparent. Just make a slit in the chillies and add them along with the curry leaves.

                Meanwhile grind all the ingredients given under “to grind” into a fine paste. Add the ground masala and salt to the kadai & sauté for 2-3 mins. Add 2 cups of water, cover & cook in medium flame for 5 mins.

               Now open the lid & break the eggs one by one into the gravy (Keep the flame low & pour the eggs slowly). Care should be taken that the eggs don’t mingle with each other. Again close the lid & cook for 5 mins in low flame. Now slowly turn the eggs without breaking & cook for another 5 mins with the lid closed.

Switch off, transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with coriander leaves & serve hot.

Mixed Nuts Chikki

While cleaning the pantry last week  i came across this mixed nuts box and planned to make something sweet. Found this perfect recipe which would satisfy my sweet tooth and also the dieter in me as only nuts and jaggery are used. I  made some small changes to the original recipe from priyaeasyandtastyrecipes and made these yummy chikkis.

Ingredients :

1/2cup Raw peanuts
1/4cup Almonds
1/4cup Cashews
1/4cup Pistachios
1/3cup Sesame seeds
4tbsp melon seeds
1+1/2cups Jaggery
Pinch Salt
1tsp Cardamom powder

Method :Roast the peanuts in a pan and remove the skins and keep aside.In the same pan, dry roast the almonds,cashews,pistachios one by one until you get a nice aroma.

Heat 1/4cup of water in a heavy bottomed vessel, add the jaggery and heat in a medium flame until the jaggery is completely dissolved.Strain the jaggery water with a strainer. This helps to get rid of the mud and other impurities presents in the jaggery.

Now heat the jaggery water in high flame, they will start bubbling vigorously.Keep stirring to avoid burning. Once thick, just put a drop of the jaggery in cold water. If the jaggery can be rolled into a ball then add the nuts, seeds, cardamom powder and salt to the jaggery syrup.Stir well until combined.

Grease a plate,pour this mixture and let it cool completely. Cut into desired shape and store in an airtight container.

Linking this recipe to Shruti’s ‘Sweet Celebration’ Event :)