Rasmalai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very authentic Indian dessert and it is just as good as the one you get in a restaurant.

For the Rasmalai

• Milk : 2.5 litres (I used 2% milk)
• Lemon Juice: 4 tbsp
• Semolina: 1 tsp 
• sugar powdeed along with cardamom 2 tsp

For the Milk mixture

• Sugar: 1 cup
• Milk : 500 ml
• Evoporated milk- 1 can (380 ml.)
• Cardamom flavoured sugar- 1/4 tsp
• Corn flour- 1 tbsp

For cooking the rasmalai
       . 1cup sugar
       .3cups water

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Method

For Rasmalai

 

Boil milk  in a wide pan. When the milk comes to a boil, add 4 tbsp. of lemon or lime juice. After a few minutes the milk will curdle and seperate from the whey.

•  Place a piece of muslin cloth over the strainer.
• Pour milk over the cloth and strain.
• Hold the ends of the muslin cloth and squeeze out all the water from the curdled milk.   Remove as much water as possible. Place a heavy object over the cloth. This will help remove the excess water. Then wait for 5 minutes.
• Now place the curdled milk on a flat surface.
• Knead  this to  a soft dough. Add semolina  and  the cardamom flavoured sugar and  knead it well  until it feels like a smooth soft dough. 
• Now roll this into small marble sized balls and press it with your thumb lightly.  Keep this aside. Make sure to cover it so that it doesn't dries out.

For MILK SUGAR Syrup

Heat milk and evaporated milk along with sugar, cardamom flavoured sugar and bring it to a boil. In a small bowl mix 1/2 cup cold milk and corn flour and add this to the boiling milk. Now the milk will thicken a little bit. Remove from heat and keep it aside.

 

For The Sugar Syrup

Add sugar and water in a pressure cooker and bring water to a  boil on high heat. Drop the rasmalais one by one and close the pressure cooker lid and place the weight. After you hear the first whistle, reduce the heat to medium and wait for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Release the preasure fully and then open the cookerlid . You can now see the rasmalais have doubled in size. Squeeze out a little bit of  the liquid from the rasmalai and drop it in the cardamom flavoured milk. Chill and serve cold.

  Notes : Drop 8 to 10 balls at a time. This way the rasmalai will have more room to cook .You can use the same sugar syrup and repeat the process  again. This recipe makes about 20 to 25 rasmalais.

To make cardamom flavoured sugar, take 1/4 cup sugar and 8 pods cardamom in a coffee grinder and grind it to fine powder. Save it in an airtight container.

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Ven Pongal

This is one of my all time favourite breakfast recipes. It should be eaten steaming hot with extra ghee drizzled on top.

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons raw cashewnuts
1 cup (5 0z) long-grained rice
1/2 cup (3 0z) green gram dal (split mung dal)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 1/2 cups  water
4 tablespoons ghee
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida powder
a piece of fresh ginger(1 inch long), finely chopped
a few curry leaves
salt to taste

Method
   Place cumin seeds and black peppercorn in a mortar and pestle and crush them coarsely . Then Split the cashews in half. Finely chop the ginger and keep it aside.
   Wash both the rice and green gram dal well. Mix together and place in a heavy bottom saucepan. Add ground turmeric and 4 1/2 cups water and bring them to a boil. Continue to boil for 15 minutes.  Add salt to taste. Reduce the heat and cover pan. Simmer for 30-45 minutes until soft. Once cooked, set aside. Do not drain.
   Next, heat ghee in a heavy frying pan .  Add  broken cahews, crushed cumin seed,  peppercorn , asafoetida powder, finely chopped ginger and few curry leaves. Saute for 1 minute. Add this to the rice dal mixture. Mix well.
   Serve hot with coconut chutney or Spicy  Sambar.

Fish Curry

Ingredients

1 lb cleaned Fish (I used shiner fish, similar to Kudhippu meen)
2 tbsp. coconut oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
few springs curry leaves
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp. coriander powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tamarind water (take 1 tbsp. tamarind and mix it in half cup water)
1 cup thick coconut milk (I mixed 4 tbsp. Maggi coconut milk powder in 1 cup water)


Method

Heat 2 tbsp. coconut oil. Add fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Now add  chopped onions  and when the onions are browned, add chopped tomatoes. Once the tomatoes are soft, add coriander powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder and  cook for a minute. Add tamarind water, let it boil. Add cleaned fish to the gravy and 1/2 cup water. Add salt and stir it gently. Cover and cook  for few more minutes. Finally add the coconut milk and reduce the flame to medium heat, cover and cook for another 15 minutes. Serve this delicious fish curry with rice or Roti.
 

Vegetable Kothu Barotta

This is a very popular road side dish in Tamilnadu. "Kothu" means  "minced". The leftover barotta is minced and then cooked with egg and  leftover meat or vegetable kurma. I'm posting here the video of both my version and the fast food version. This is a very simple, easy and delicious dish you don't want to miss.


Ingredients:
2 cups minced  malabar barotta
1 cup chopped cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
3/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
4 slit green chillies
few sprigs of curry leaves
1tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup finley chopped coriander leaves
3 eggs
3/4 cup kurma
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp fennel powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tbsp ghee
salt to taste
4 tbsp oil


Method:

  Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok. Add curry leaves and onion and fry lightly.
  Then add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies and fry for another minute. Now add chopped tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes are soft. Then add  chilli pwd, coriander pwd, fennel pwd and turmeric and mix them well.
  Beat eggs well with half of the kurma. Now move the onion masalas to the side of the pan and pour the egg mixture to the middle of the wok, wait for a minute to let the egg cook and then scramble the egg and mix the onion masalas and cook everything well.
  Now  move this to one side of the wok and heat 1 tbsp oil and add the cabbage and carrots and cook for a minute.
 Then mix everything well and  add the remaining kurma and cook for few minutes.
 Finally add the minced barotta, coriander leaves and ghee and check for salt. Make sure you add salt towards the end, since the kurma and barotta already have salt in them.
 Serve hot.

Mushroom 65

                         This is a  restaurant style mushroom 65, which is super delicious and simple to make.


1st group ingredients:
2 cups Mushrooms
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/4 tsp salt
a pinch of sugar
2 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
a pinch of red food colour or tandoori masala
1 egg +1 tbsp water or 4 tbsp water if you omit the egg
oil for deep frying

2nd group ingredients:
2 tbsp finely chopped garlic
4 small green chillies slit lengthwise
few sprigs curry leaves
2 tbsp thick yogurt
1tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of red food colour
4 tbsp oil

Method:
Clean mushrooms and cut them into quarters; add salt, sugar and black pepper and mix it well. Now add the egg and water, corn flour, all purpose flour, food colour/tandoori masala:  mix them well. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry this. Drain it in a paper towel and set it aside.

In  another kadai heat oil, add the garlic and let it brown.Then add the curry leaves and green chillies, and saute them for a minute. Add coriander powder, chilli powder, food colour, salt, sugar and cook  for a few minutes on low heat. Now add the yogurt and cook on medium high flame. When the yogurt starts to bubble add the fried mushrooms and cook for another two minutes. Let the masala coat the mushrooms well. Turn off the heat and sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves and serve it hot.

Prawns cooked with spring onion

I usually use spring onions as a  garnish in Chinese cooking. I bought a whole pack of spring onions from Costco and didn't know what to do with them. When I was talking to my niece the other day, she gave me her mother-in-law's mouthwatering recipe for this prawn dish. This is a very simple, quick and easy dish. Thanks Shabnum, for sharing this recipe.

Ingredients:
250 gm prawns or shrimps
8 to 9 spring onions (green and white seperately chopped)
1 tsp ginger and garlic paste
2 small tomatoes
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
sugar a pinch(optional)
4 tbsp oil


Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add the white part of the spring onions and saute well. Add ginger and garlic paste; when it is slightly brown, add the chopped tomatoes. When the tomatoes are soft, add the chilli powder, turmeric, salt and sugar and mix it well. Now add the prawns and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the green part of the spring onions. Do not add water. Let this cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. Simmer it for another 5 minutes. Enjoy this delectable dish which goes very well with white rice and rasam.

Creamy Gobi Masala

If you really want to impress your guests with your cooking, you should  definitely try this one out. Simply delicious...

1st group of ingredients:

2 cups-cauliflower( cut them into small florets)
1 tbsp- finely chopped garlic
1 tsp- chopped green chilli
1 tsp- red chilli paste
1 tsp-kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1 tsp- finely chopped curry leaves
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 tbsp finely chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp -khoa or mawa (you can find it in Indian stores)
1 tsp- red chilli powder
2 tsp- coriander powder
1/2 tsp- jeera powder
1/4 tsp- ground black pepper
 1/4 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp oil
salt to taste

2nd group of ingredients:

1/2 cup- chopped onion
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 inch- cinnamon stick
2 cloves
2 cardamom
5 whole cashew nuts
2 tbsp oil

For garnish:

3 tbsp cream
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves


Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add the second group of ingredients except cashew and cook them till the onion is slightly brown. Cool and grind them along with the cashew to a smooth paste. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Add garlic and cook till it is slightly brown. Now add the green chili, red chilli paste, kasoori methi, curry leaves, onion and tomatoes and saute well. Add the  crumbled khoa along with the chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, ground black pepper, cumin powder and salt to taste. Then add the cauliflower and mix it well. Now add the onion paste along with 1/2 cup of water and cook it for a couple of minutes, and then add 1/2 cup milk and allow it boil till the gravy thickens a little bit. Turn the heat off and add the cream, butter, chopped coriander leaves  and serve it with pulav or roti. Enjoy.