Marzipan

Marzipan is a confectionery which is popular in the West. The primary contents are icing sugar, almonds/ cashews. Very simple and very cute.

Preparation time: 15 mins

 Ingredients:

• Cashew nut powder
• Almond essence or Roasted and ground almond powder
• Icing Sugar - 1 cup
• Condensed milk - 1 cup
• Food color (I have used 3 colors)

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix cashew nut powder, icing sugar and almond essence/ almond powder.

• Slowly add condensed milk and make a thick dough.

• Depending on the number of colors you are having, make equal portions of the dough. I have used 3 colors and hence made 3 portions. Add food color to each portion.

• Make shapes of your wish now. Marzipan is ready now. 

You can make fruits, vegetables, animals, lady bug etc. Kids will just love it!

Shahi Tukra / Bread pudding

Shahi Tukra or Shahi Tukda as it is called is a bread pudding. "Shahi" means "royal" and "tukra" or "tukda" means "morsel" or "piece". So it means "Royal morsel". It seems to have originated in Pakistan. Basically it is part of the royal Moghal cuisine or rather Nawabi cuisine. It is very similar to "Double ka meeta" of Hyderabad. It is pretty simple to make and is really delicious. I have read that this sweet is mostly prepared for Eid. I have seen pictures of this sweet since childhood but it took quite a long time to actually prepare it. Must say, I loved it!

Total time taken: 1 hr

Ingredients:

• Bread - 3 slices
• Condensed milk - 1/2 cup (like Milkmaid, Amul Mitai)
• Milk - 1 cup 
• Cornflour - 1 spoon (optional)
• Crushed cardamom pods / Cardamom powder - 1 spoon
• Almonds - 6-7
• Ghee/ Butter
• Sugar - 1 cup 
• Water - 1 cup

Preparation:

• Cut bread slices into long pieces and keep aside.

• Mix cornflour and little bit of milk to make a thick paste and keep aside. If you do not have cornflour you can skip this step. Not a big deal.

• Mix condensed milk and rest of milk and keep aside.

• In a cooking pan, boil this milk-condensed milk mixture to make a thick paste. Also add the cardamom powder. If you have made the cornflour paste, add it now and stir well. Keep this paste aside.

• We need to make sugar syrup now. For this, take a pan and boil 1 cup of water. Once water starts to boil, add sugar and keep stirring. I have used raw brown sugar. Once sugar has completely dissolved, switch off the flame. Sugar syrup is ready.

• Take another pan and heat ghee/ butter. Deep fry the bread pieces in ghee/butter.

• Drop the deep fried bread pieces into the sugar syrup, keep it for 1 min, take out and transfer to a plate. Repeat this for all the bread slices. Do not soak the bread pieces in sugar syrup for too long.

• Top the sugar syrup dipped bread slices with the thick milk-condensed milk mixture prepared earlier. 
• Chop the almonds and decorate. You can also use raisins, pistas to make a beautiful and tasty topping along with chopped almonds.

• Chill the sweet in refrigerator for 10 mins.
• Serve it cold.

The best thing about this sweet is that it is not extremely sweet. The taste is just appropriate. Do not wait for a special occasion, just try it out today.

Khad ki sabzi / Root vegetables curry

I found this interesting recipe in TV presented by Aditya Bal and decided to give it a try. The main ingredients for this sabzi (dry curry) are root vegetables. The ingredients and the steps are so simple but it tastes really good. Important point to be taken care while making this dish is to use a thick iron pan instead of a light weight cooking pan. Not only does it end up tasting better but the overall cooking time will also reduce if you use an iron pan. The dish gels well with both rice as well as rotis/ phulka.

Total time taken: 40 mins

Ingredients:

• Root vegetables
• Potatoes - 2
• Yam
• Carrots - 1 or 2
• Onions - 2
• Green chilies - 3
• Lemon - 1
• Garlic cloves - 7-8
• Coriander seeds - 2 spoons
• Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 2 spoons
• Masala
• Red chilly powder - 1 spoon
• Turmeric powder - 1 spoon
• Asafoetida / Hing - a pinch
• Salt
• Ghee / Butter - 5-6 spoons
• Coriander leaves (to garnish)

Preparation:

• Cut all the root vegetables into big chunks and keep aside.

• Take a heavy iron pan and heat it. Add 5-6 spoons of ghee. Once ghee melts, add cumin seeds, coriander seeds and wait till they crackle.
• Add chopped green chilies, whole garlic cloves and stir well.

• Add asafoetida, turmeric powder, red chilly powder and stir well for 1 min.
• Add the chopped vegetables, salt and stir well for 4-5 mins in high flame.

• Close with a lid and cook for another 20 mins in low flame till the vegetables become soft. Keep stirring the vegetables to avoid them from getting burnt. Switch off when the vegetables are cooked.
• Squeeze lemon juice and mix well.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

The dish is so easy to prepare and it has a very nice aroma because of ghee. Also this is a very good way to include yam in our diet. So try it out and let me know if you liked it.

Pesto Pasta

I always used to think that pastas are very hard to make. Then I had this super tasty Pesto pasta in Goa and I decided to nail this Italian recipe. All thanks to my hubby for getting me the right recipe and I realized it is so easy to make this awesome dish.

Time taken: 30 mins

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti pasta
• Mushrooms - 5-6
• Olive oil
• Garlic cloves - 3
• Pesto sauce
• Basil
• Parmesan cheese
• Walnut
• Cashews
• Almonds
• Pepper seeds
• Salt
• Olive oil - 5-6 spoons

Preparation:

• Soak almonds and cashews in water for 2 hours. After 2 hours, drain out the water.
• Take a big cooking pan and boil water.
• Once water starts to boil, add 1 spoon of salt and 1 spoon olive oil.
• Slowly add the pasta into the pan, close it with a lid and cook in high flame for 10 mins.

• Grind all the ingredients mentioned for pesto sauce in a mixer grinder. Make a very fine paste.

• Once the pasta has cooked well, transfer it to a vessel and drain out the hot water and fill normal/ cold water. This will stop the pasta from getting cooked further.

• Keep the cooking pan back to medium flame and add 2 spoons of olive oil.
• Toss the chopped mushrooms and 3 garlic cloves and saute for 3 mins.

• Add the pesto sauce and stir till the pesto sauce turns dark green. This will take 2-3 mins.

• Drain out water from pasta and transfer it to the cooking pan. Mix well, close with a lid and cook for 2-3 mins.

• Pesto pasta is ready now!

You can make pesto sauce and store it in refrigerator so that you can make this quick and yummy pasta anytime.

Perum payaru theeyal / Black-eyed pea curry

Theeyal is a popular spicy Kerala dish which can be made in different forms. Here is the recipe of theeyal made of perum payaru (black eyed peas). Theeyal can also be made of pearl onions (Ulli theeyal), chick peas/ chana (Kadala theeyal). The steps are the same to make all forms of theeyal. You need to replace blakc eyed peas with chick peas or pearl onions to get Kadala theeyal and Ulli theeyal respectively. This dish involves a lot of ingredients and many steps and hence can be a bit tedious to prepare, but all the effort put in will be worth it.

Preparation and cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• Perum payaru / Black eyed peas / Lobhiya - 1 cup
• Grated coconut - 1 cup
• Pearl onions - 6-7
• Garlic cloves - 2
• Red  chilies - 4
• Coriander seeds / Methi seeds / Malli - 3 spoons
• Pepper seeds - 1/2 spoon
• Curry leaves
• Tamarind
• Salt
• Edible oil

Preparation:

• Soak perum payaru/ black-eyed peas overnight in water. The pulses would have become soft and sized by morning.

• In a pressure cooker, cook the peas in water and take 3 whistles. Let it remain closed till the steam goes off completely. This could take 10-15 mins.
• Take a deep cooking pan, heat it and pour a spoon of edible oil.
• Transfer coriander seeds, pearl onions, pepper seeds, garlic cloves, grated coconut, curry leaves and saute well in high flame.
• Once the mixture becomes dark brown switch off the flame. Let the mixture cool down. This can take 5 mins.

• To a  mixer grinder, transfer this sauteed mixture, tamarind and salt.
• Grind it with water to make a very fine paste.
• In the cooking pan, transfer the cooked peas (from pressure cooker) and cook in high flame.

• Now transfer the finely ground paste and mix well.
• Add more salt if required.

• Close the pan with a lid and let it cook in high flame for 5-10 mins depending on how much water is there. Switch off when the curry becomes thick. 
• Transfer to a serving bowl.
• For seasoning, take a small frying pan, heat edible oil and toss mustard seeds and curry leaves.
• Add the seasoning to the curry.

Yes this dish will definitely test your patience. But again its worth all the wait. Theeyal is taken with rice in Kerala but it will also blend well with dosa or roti. When taken with rice, the best partner would be Vellarikka kichadi (cucumber kichadi). Kichadi has a very light taste which will compliment the spicy theeyal. 

For Vellarikka kichadi (cucumber kichadi), visit -> 

http://she-simple-healthy-elegant.blogspot.in/2013/12/cucumber-kichadi-vellarikka-kichadi.html

Rice, theeyal and kichadi will make a great weekend lunch. So try it today! I must admit that this combo is one of my favorite meal.

Aviyal

Aviyal is part of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu cuisine. It is made of a mixture of vegetables and the special twist given by curd (yoghurt). It is very popular for it's light tangy taste and is taken with rice. The best partner for aviyal is sambar.

I love aviyal made by my mom and grand-mom. So let me share the recipe here.

Preparation and cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• Vegetables:
• Plantain -1 
• Drumstick - 1
• Cucumber - 1/2
• Carrot - 1
• Brinjal - 1
• Pearl onions - 6
• Grated coconut - 1/2
• Green chilies - 3
• Cumin seeds / Jeera - 2 spoons
• Tamarind
• Curd/ Yoghurt - 3 spoons
• Turmeric powder
• Salt 
• Edible oil (preferably coconut oil)

Preparation:

• Soak tamarind in one cup of water and keep aside.
• Chop all the vegetables into long pieces, in equal length.

• Take a deep cooking pan and transfer all the chopped vegetables. 
• Cook the chopped vegetables in tamarind juice (soaked tamarind water) and salt.

• Close with a lid and cook in low flame for 15 mins. 
• In a mixture grinder, coarsely grind grated coconut, turmeric powder, cumin seeds, pearl onions, green chilies and keep aside. Be careful to not grind it finely. It has to be coarse.

• In 15 mins the vegetables should become soft. 

• Add the ground mixture now. Add more salt if required. Mix well.

• Close with a lid and cook in low flame for 5 mins and then switch off.

• Wait for 5 mins so that the dish cools down.
• Add curd/ yoghurt and mix well.
• Seasoning: In a frying pan, heat 2 spoons of edible oil and toss mustard seeds and curry leaves.

• Add the seasoning to the cooked dish.
• Aviyal is ready now!

Try this yummy dish this weekend with rice and sambar. For yummy sambar ->

http://she-simple-healthy-elegant.blogspot.in/2013/12/delicious-sambar.html