Simple Carrot Kheer

                   A simple Carrot Kheer, colourful, delicious and very simple to make. Can be improvised upon and served as a porridge too by adding in some rolled oats, dry fruits, and so on...

CARROT KHEER

Ingredients :

Finely grated carrot (or roughly minced in a mixer) - 1 cup
Milk - 1 and 1/2 cups
Condensed Milk - 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/ tsp
Roasted cashews (in ghee/clarified butter)- a few

Method :

1. Add the milk to a thick-bottomed saucepan along with the grated carrot. Cook on a low-medium flame, stirring gently and occasionally.

2. Once carrot is cooked, stir in the condensed milk and let simmer for 7-10 minutes more.

3. Remove from the flame, and add in the roasted cashews and cardamom powder. Serve hot or cold.

Quick Fix Pasta in White Sauce

A quick fix Pasta in White Sauce with ingredients mostly available at home...became an instant hit with my niece and nephew!!! As a plus I used up the leftover Broccoli-peas curry from the morning as well!


                                                       PASTA IN WHITE SAUCE

Ingredients : 

Boiled pasta (Penne or Farfalle works best) - 2 cups
Cold Milk - 1 1/2 cups
Cheese slices - 2
Maida - 2 tbsps
Whole wheat flour - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Olive oil / Butter - 1 tbsp
Garlic powder - 1 tsp
Crushed Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Oregano / Mixed herbs (I used the small packs that usually get left-over each time one orders pizza!!)
Chilli flakes (optional)
Spicy tomato sauce for the garnish

Method : 

1. Heat oil / butter in a pan. Add in the vegetables as desired. For this recipe I used leftover Broccoli-Peas curry from the morning, so I added them along with the pasta, since they didnt need extra cooking!

2. In a bowl, whisk together milk, Maida + Wheat flour and salt leaving no lumps. Pour the milk mixture into the pan stirring all the while.

3. When it starts to thicken add the garlic powder and let simmer. Don't forget to keep stirring. Check for salt and add the pepper powder as well.

4. Drop in the 2 cheese slices and keep stirring till the cheese melts and mixes well with the milk. Let simmer for 2 minutes. Add the chili flakes if you need it extra spicy.

5. Now add in the boiled pasta and stir. [I added the leftover curry at this point.] Cover and let simmer for about 2 - 3 minutes. Stir in between and let cook for a minute more so the sauce coats the pasta well.
Tip : If pasta has cooled down and sticking together, drop it for a split second in hot water and take out immediately, This will shock the pasta and make it easier to mix in with the sauce.

6. Finally sprinkle the oregano and stir once. Remove and serve hot with lightly toasted brown bread.
Optional to half-cook this on flame and bake it with more cheese and tomato sauce(till cheese melts and forms golden brown spots) on top as I have done.
This is the basic sauce. One can also add in chopped and blanched spinach, capsicum, zucchini and so on for the vegetable touch.

Eggless Brownies

An Eggless brownie recipe that's best served with Vanilla ice cream....yummm
Typically brownies use dark chocolate, but the Morde brand of compound dark chocolate was a bit too...um..dark for my taste. So I've used milk chocolate as well to balance the bitterness.

                       EGGLESS BROWNIE

Ingredients :

Refined flour (Maida) - 1 cup
Softened butter - 1/2 cup
Chopped Dark Chocolate - 1 1/2 cups
Chopped Milk Chocolate - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Castor sugar - 1/4 cup
Beaten curds - 1/4 cup
Salt - a pinch
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Chopped walnuts - 2 tbsps

Method :

1. Melt dark and milk chocolate over a double boiler.  Pre-heat oven @ 180 deg C

2. Sift together flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a bowl.

3. In another bowl,  cream castor sugar and butter till sugar is well dissolved.

4. Add melted chocolate and mix lightly.  Add the curds, vanilla essence walnuts and mix again. Now gradually fold in the flours and make a smooth batter.

5. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for 10 - 15 minutes...check if done by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean.
If you want it a bit soft, take it out a little earlier.
Remove and let cool slightly.  Before serving,  warm a slice of brownie,  place it on the serving dish. Add a dollop of ice cream and slurp away :-)

Quick Rice Kheer

Pressed for time, and thinking of a nice kheer to prepare? Here's one of my mother's favourite quick fix kheer recipe....

                                                              QUICK RICE KHEER

Ingredients :

Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Mashed ripe banana - 1
Elaichi (Cardamom) powder - 1/2 tsp
Gud (Jaggery) - 1 cup
Shredded coconut or readymade coconut milk powder - 1/4 cup (optional)
Water - 1/2 cup
Chopped Dry fruits - optional

Method :

1. Mash the rice well in a saucepan. Chop the bananas, keep aside.

2. Add 1/2 cup water to the rice along with the jaggery. Cook on a low flame and allow the jaggery to melt. Keep stirring to prevent lumps.

3. When the jaggery is well mixed with the rice and the mixture thickens a bit, add the banana pieces and shredded coconut. Mix well and let cook for just a minute more.

4. Remove from the flame, add cardamom powder and add milk as required, i.e depending on how thick you like your kheer. Garnish with desired dry fruits.

Serve warm or cold.

Apple Pudding

Let's start on a sweet note........

Who doesn't like an apple pudding (well maybe some don't, but let's not go there!!!) The combination of apples cooked in brown sugar with a dash of cinnamon is simply sinful. Add to that, soft custard and yumm...Without much ado, let's delve into the recipe!!

APPLE - CUSTARD PUDDING

Ingredients :

Apples - 3
Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup