Milk Pak

Ingredients:

1 lit Full Cream Milk

1 cup Full Cream

200 g Sugar

1 Tbsp pistachio (Slivers)

Few strands of saffron

½ Tbsp Lemon juice

Moulds for setting your dessert or a tray

Method:

Boil Milk in a thick bottomed pan over low heat till it is reduced to half of its volume. Lower the heat and add full cream, stir and slowly drizzle lemon juice , keep stirring , soon the milk mixture will start turning into granules, add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves completely . Set the mixture into moulds or a tray let it cool at room temperature. Garnish with pistachio and saffron.

Kheer (Rich Rice Pudding)

Ingredients:

1 lit milk

50 g milk powder

75 gm rice (soaked)

1 Tbsp pistachio (sliced)

1 Tbsp Almond (Halved)

1 Tbsp Cashew (Halved)

a pinch of saffron

4-5 drops of rose essence or ¼ Tbsp Rose water

100 g sugar

¼ cup condensed milk

¼ Tbsp cardamom Powder

Method:

Boil Milk in a thick bottomed pan over low heat till it is reduced to half of its volume. Then add the rice and continue to simmer stirring gently for about twenty minutes, then add milk powder . Sprinkle sugar, condensed milk and dry fruits , cardamom powder , remove from heat and add rose essence or rose water, give it a stir. Serve chilled.

Gajar Halwa Ice Cream

Ingredients:

½ Lit Fresh Cream

250 g Gajar Halwa

½ cup condensed milk

Method:

In a heavy bottomed pan, on low heat, mix cream and condensed Milk. Add Gajar halwa. Stir for a minute, mix well.

Cool this mixture on room temperature , freeze it for an hour. Take it out from the freezer and mix /whisk well with a fork. Repeat this procedure for one more time with an interval of one hour. Finally set the ice-cream in freezer for 4 hours. If you have ice cream churner , you can use it as per instructions given in the manual.

Gajar ka Halwa (Carrot Pudding)

Ingredients:

1 kg carrots (grated)

1 lit milk

100 ml Condensed Milk

50 g crumbled Khoya/Mawa (Reduced dry milk)

100 g sugar

100 g clarified butter

1 tsp. green cardamom powder

8-10 almonds (slivers)

8-10 Cashews (Halved)

20-25 raisins

Method:

Boil milk in a pot. In a skillet melt clarified butter, add grated carrots, sauté for 5 minutes. Now add boiling milk to sautéed carrots. Add sugar and cardamom powder stir for 2-3 minutes. Add almonds, cashew nuts and raisins. Cook the carrots in low heat and keep on stirring constantly until carrots turn tender and most of the liquid has been evaporated. Now add condensed milk and khoya. Just a stir and keep on sim for further 5 minutes , stir one last time . Garnish with dry fruits and serve hot. It takes lot of patience to make this dessert.

Rajma (Kidney Bean Curry)

Ingredients:

250 gm red kidney beans (cleaned & soaked overnight)

7 tbsp clarified butter

200 gm tomato puree (fresh)

200 gm onions (peeled, washed and chopped)

4 black cardamoms

2 bay leaves

4 red chillies (whole)

1 tsp cumin seeds

5 tsp garlic paste

5 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp black cardamom powder

½ tsp black pepper powder

10 gm ginger (scraped, washed and cut into fine juliennes)

2 tbsp coriander leaves (chopped)

salt as per taste

Method:

Take a pan and add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil the kidney beans. Remove scum and cook on low heat. Add whole black cardamom and bay leaves and boil till cooked. Remove black cardamom and bay leaves.

Heat clarified butter in a pan, add whole red chillies and cumin seeds. Stir over medium heat until the seeds begin to crackle. Add onions and fry until they turn light golden. Then add garlic and ginger pastes and fry till onions turn golden brown. Add coriander powder, red chilli powder and salt (all dissolved in % cup water) and stir for about 30 seconds. Add tomato puree and stir-fry till the fat leaves the sides. Now add the red kidney beans and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for about 7 minutes. Now, sprinkle black cardamom and black pepper powders and stir. Remove from heat and adjust seasoning, garnish with ginger juliennes and coriander leaves.

Sambar Powder

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Chana Dal (Bengal Gram)

1/4 cup Coriander Seeds

2 Sprigs Curry Leaves

1 teaspoon Fenugreek Seeds

1 teaspoon Mustard Seeds

2 tablespoons Cumin Seeds

2 teaspoons Black Peppercorns

1 inch pieces of Cinnamon

¼ cup Dry Red Chilies

4 tablespoons grated Dry Coconut

1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

Method:

Dry roast coriander seeds and curry leaves in a pan over low flame until you smell aroma of coriander seeds turn slightly light brown. Transfer them to a plate. Now one by one roast chana dal , mustard seeds, fenugreek ,cumin seeds, black peppercorns and cinnamon, also roast dry red chilies , grated dry coconut. Let the roasted spices and coconut cool at room temperature , then transfer to a grinder jar. Add turmeric powder and grind them in a blender or grinder until slightly coarse texture. Your Sanbar Masala is ready.

Sambar (Lentils with Vegetables)

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups pigeon peas (arhar/tuvar dal)

500 gm shallots, peeled and kept whole

5-6 green chillies, slit

1 tbsp tamarind pulp extract

1 sprig coriander leaves (chopped)

Spice paste:

1 coconut grated

3-4 tbsp sambar powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

a large pinch of asafoetida salt to taste

Tempering:

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp husked black beans (urad dal)

2 dry red chillies, torn into pieces

2 stalks curry leaves

Salt to taste

Method:

Place coconut for the coconut-spice paste in a frying pan over low heat, and dry-roast, stirring constantly, till it turns brown. Cool and grind to a fine paste with 1 cup of water. Mix in spice powders and salt.

Wash dal and place in a pan with onions, green chillies and 2 cups water. Cook over high heat about 25 minutes. Mash when cooked and blend with the spice paste. Add the tamarind extract, bring to boil, add salt to taste remove from heat immediately and sprinkle coriander leaves. Add some biling water if you feel the consistency is too thick.

You can add veggies of your choice (I used drumsticks. chopped tomatoes, diced pumpkin, beans) while sambar is cooked. But make sure you saute all the veggies in oil and add pinch of salt before adding to the sambar

Mix Veg Uttapam ( Rice-Lentil Pan Cake)

Ingredients:

1 cup urad dal ( Black Lentil husked)

4 cups idli rice ( or any Broken rice)

1tbsp fenugreek seeds

Pinch of salt

1 cup chopped vegetables of your choice (Cabbage, Cauliflower, onion, capsicum, carrots etc,)

2 Green chilli chopped

2 Tbsp. chopped coriander

Cooking oil or clarified butter for frying uttapams

Method for preparing batter:

Soak fenugreek seeds, urad dal and idli rice separately in lots of water for minimum 4 hrs. Soaked black lentil should be washed thoroughly.

Grinding:

Grind the soaked fenugreek seeds, grind black lentil (urad dal) by adding water little by little. This lets the dal to fluff up well. The dal should fluffy and fill the mixer grinder. Transfer the dal mixture in a bowl. Keep aside, And last it is the turn of idli rice, grind the soaked and drained idli rice for about 30 minutes till the rice is smooth, add enough water while grinding. Transfer the batter to the lentil and fenugreek mixture and mix well. Take a bigger bowl which has enough space for the batter to expand while fermenting. Ferment the batter for overnight . Add the salt after fermentation.. Once fermented the batter should have increased in volume. mix the batter well.

Preparing Uttapam:

Heat griddle (Tawa) and coat with little oil , on low to medium heat, pour the one big spoonful of batter and spread it to a desired shape and size, but don’t spread too much. When the batter is still not done on the top, add the mix vegetables , chillies and coriander. Gently press with spatula , drizzle some oil on top and flip the uttapam carefully. Cook till your veggies get nice golden brown to dark brown colour. Serve straight from the griddle to plate with sambar and coconut chutney.

Rava Dosa (Semolina Dosa)

Ingredients:

½ Cup semolina

½ cup rice flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

1 green chili chopped

1 onion chopped

½ Tbsp.r oasted cumin seeds

½ Tbsp. black pepper powder

Salt to taste

Oil for cooking

Water to make batter (as required)

Method:

Take all the above ingredients in a bowl except water and oil. Mix well , now add 2 cups of water , whisk till you get smooth batter (No lumps). The secret of good dosa lies on the consistency of the dosa batter. Not too thick ,not too thin .

Cover and let the dosa batter rest for 30-15 minutes.

Prepare your griddle on low to medium heat, just before poring your dosa batter , make sure you keep whisking. A ladle full of batter on griddle, cook on low to medium heat. When the top side looks translucent , drezzile little oil or melted clarified butter , flip and repeat the process. You must know that rava dosa take longer time to cook than normal dosa. Make sure your base is golden brown.

Remove from griddle and serve hot with coconut chutney and Sambar.

Tomato chutney

Ingredients:

2 large ripped tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp urad dal

2 tbsp  coconut oil

1 tsp chana dal

3 kashmiri dried red chilli

¼ tsp turmeric powder / haldi

½ tsp sugar

salt to taste

For Tempering :

2 tsp oil

½ tsp mustard seeds / rai

½ tsp urad dal

pinch of hing /asafoetida

few curry leaves

Method:

In a large pan, heat oil., add urad dal, chana dal, and red chilli, saute on medium flame till dal turns golden brown. Add chopped tomatoes and continue to sauté till the water from the tomatoes evaporates. Now add turmeric powder, sugar and salt, mix well. Let the mixture cool completely and then transfer to a blender. Blend to a smooth paste (without adding water).keep aside.

For Tempering:

Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds, urad dal, hing and curry leaves. Allow to splutter. Then pour the tempering over the tomato chutney.