Eid Celebrations

A rather pretty late wishes... Eid Mubarak everyone!

Things had been a little hectic after Eid. My niece and nephew along with Sis-in-law went to India for a long break!!! 4 months!! Oh.. its so quiet and lonely without them... You don't realize how much someone means to you until you are apart. My mom really misses them, so almost every night she calls me over. After those two kids.. I am considered a kid as well. :)

Anyways, Eid was really great.. so much fun with friends and family. I made sheer-khurma, chicken tikka, dal vadas, jeera puri and some cashews and dried apricots. Here are some pictures and the recipe for sheer-khurma.

Ingredients:

1. Five glasses milk
2. 13-15 tblsp sugar (adjust according to your taste)
3. Three tblsp ghee (clarified butter)
4. Half a cup sev (vermicelli)
5. One cup mixed dried fruit - chopped (almonds, pistachio, and cashews)

Process:

1. Heat ghee in a big vessel. 
2. Add vermicelli - fry it for 4-5 minutes. 
3. Add milk and sugar. 
4. Mix well and let the milk boil. 
5. Add all the nuts and cook slowly on low simmer for 15-20 minutes. 
6. Once done server cold or hot, your preference. 

ENJOY!!!

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Badam Kheer (Almond Pudding) - Ramadan Special

I had read this recipe at someone's blog about a year ago. I am not able to give the full credits because I don't remember where I saw it. However, I will claim that this is not my original recipe and I read it somewhere almost a year ago and wanted to try it but couldn't get around it until now. Gladly, I remembered what I had to use in order to make this delicious kheer.

This is a must try! My Dad loved this so much that he now every now and then asks me to make it. He even praises it in front of his friends so much that all those uncles are now asking me to make some for them as well. This dish is also health and I plan to make it throughout Ramadan to give us energy while we fast. This dish will also make a nice presentation on Eid as well.

Ingredients:

1. Two cups almonds - soaked in warm water overnight
2. Three to five tsp of milk
3. Three cups whole milk
4. Seven tblsp sugar (adjust it according to your taste)
5. A few strands of saffron

Process:

1. Blanch the almonds and make a fine paste using three to five tsp of milk.
2. Heat three cups milk in a wok.
3. Add almond paste and sugar.
4. Mix well and let it cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes, stiring constantly.
5. Let it cool, place it in the serving bowl, and decorate it with strands of saffron.

Sending this recipe to Taste of Pearl City, who is hosting CookEatDelicious-Desserts event and to The Halal Foodie, who is hosting Ramadan Friendly Recipes event.

ENJOY!!!    

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Carrot Kheer

Some people have a really bad sweet tooth craving, while others don't. Me and Dear Hubby fall into the latter category. I used to love sweets but now for some reason I don't really like it that much. The only ones in our family who loves sweet is my Mom, Dad, and Sister in Law. With majority of us not being a fan of sweet dish, in a normal gathering we always skip this. However, when we have a formal gatherings, we can't really do that. In such occasions I try to make something that is not too too sweet yet good enough for our guest. I saw this carrot kheer recipe on Aarthi's Blog and decided to make this healthy sweet dish. It was not only liked by our guests but was also loved by dear hubby!!!

Check out Aarthi's blog for a detailed recipe here. Do try it, I am sure you will fall in love with it. Meanwhile, enjoy these clicks:::::

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Coconut Pudding

This is one of those dishes that I just experimented and came out so good! Dear Hubby loves anything with coconut. Be it a goat curry, ice cream, candy, chutney or any thing that you can think of. I don't know that many dishes which includes coconut, and for me coconut with any meat is not that great of a combo. However, coconut with anything sweet is YES!!! Perfect Combo!!!

I had a can of coconut milk sitting in my pantry for quite a long time now. As I was rearranging my pantry, I took the can out and thought of making something sweet with it, but not too sweet either; and this is what I ended up doing...

Ingredients:

1. One can coconut milk
2. One tblsp china grass (also known as agar-agar)
3. Five tblsp warm water
4. Five tblsp sugar
5. Few strands of saffron

Process:

1. Pour coconut milk in a heavy bottom pan, add sugar, and bring to boil.
2. In a small bowl, mix together china grass and warm water - mix well. 
3. Pour china grass mixture to boiling coconut milk - mix well and turn off the heat. 
4. Add few strands of saffron and mix well. 
5. Pour the milk into small moulds of your choice.
6. Refrigerate for about an hour. The milk will harden. 
7. Take it out of moulds before serving, serve cold.

These came out so good and are perfect as after dinner desserts. 

ENJOY!!!

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Choco Rolls

This recipe is adapted from multi-talented Kurryleaves!! I absolutely love her blog and you will too, when you look at it. The original recipe for Choco Rolls is here. I didn't really changed much but here are my notes:

1. I used 10 Marie Biscuits, to be precise.
2. I should have sieved the instant coffee powder, that would have given me a better result.

ENJOY!!!

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My 100th Post & Happy New Year!

I had never thought that I would reach such a milestone in blogging world. My motivational support and push is each and every one of you who visits my blog, leaves me encouraging comments, “Like” my Facebook page, and last but not least visits me through “Google Image Search”. I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you in helping me reach such a milestone!

Since there are two celebrations in this post – my achievement and New Year 2012, I would like to celebrate it with some mouthwatering chocolate dipped strawberries and delicious chocolate truffles. So, without further ado, here we go:

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

Ingredients:
1. 40-45 fresh strawberries washed and completely dried.
2. Two full size chocolate of your favorite flavor, I used Lindt Milk Chocolate.
3. Four bites of Lindt White Chocolate.

Process:
1. Make sure that the strawberries are completely dried, if it has tiny bits of moisture in it, the chocolate coating will fall off.
2. Melt the milk chocolate in microwave for a minute and half or till it melts.
3. Dip each strawberry, one by one, in the melted chocolate and place it on the foil paper.
4. Once all strawberries are done, place them in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, melt white chocolate and place it in the corner of small zip bag.
6. Take out chocolate dipped strawberries, and sprinkle white chocolate through zip bag.
7. Place the strawberries back in refrigerator till you are ready to serve.

Notes:
• Using dark chocolate will give you a better result. It will stand out. We are all milk chocolate lovers so I had to use this.

Chocolate Truffles:

Ingredients for Truffles:
1. Three tblsp Nutella
2. Half of full sized milk chocolate
3. One tblsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)
4. Two tblsp Honey

Ingredients for coating:
1. Chopped pistachio
2. Unsweetened cocoa powder
3. Confectioners’ sugar
4. 5-6 bites of milk chocolate, melted.

Process:
1. Mix together all the ingredients for truffles in a microwaveable bowl.
2. Microwave the mixture for about a minute and half or till chocolate melts.
3. Remove the bowl from microwave and stir the mixture till smooth.
4. As the mixture cools down it will begin to come away from the bowl easily like soft dough.
5. Place the mixture in refrigerator for at least an hour.
6. Once chilled, remove the mixture and make walnut sized balls; I got 15 out of the mixture.
7. Now, take some truffles, and roll them into cocoa powder.
8. Take some truffles and roll them into confectioners’ sugar.
9. Dip some truffles into melted chocolate, place them on foil paper, and top it will chopped pistachio. Let it sit on the foil paper for 5 minutes, till the excess chocolate drips off. Chill before serving.
10. I placed these truffles in mini muffin cases.

ENJOY!!!

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