M/w masala peanuts

I like watching cinema in my home with all eating stuff arround me. I usually darkend my room with curtains, increase the volume, set my couch comfortably with my munching snacks. Masala peanuts with popcorn is my fav munching snacks. From childhood till now, I am still addicted to this masala peanut.

Amma prepare this on stove top & I make this using microwave. Its optional to add fried garlic pods & curry leaves at the end. We just love this :)

Ingredients :

1. Raw peanuts - 1 handful
2. Besan - 1 tbsp
3. Salt & chilli powder to taste
4. Oil - a few drops
5. Garam masala (Optional)

Directions to cook :

• Drop raw peanuts in a bowl of water. Strain them thoroughly.


• Mix all the dry ingredients together.


• Now add few drops of oil to the strained peanut & mix the dry ingredients. Combine them properly. (The dry ingredients gets coated in the peanut)


• Microwave high for 4-5 mins on a micro safe plate, stir after 2 mins.


• Standing time 5 mins

Serve & enjoy !!!

Sambhar

sambhar is the comfort & simple dish that can be cooked with the homemade sambhar powder & with all the vegetables available seasonally. Vegetables (one or a combination of two or more) typically & frequently used to make sambhar are ladies’ finger, drumsticks, eggplant, pumpkin, ash gourd, shallots, carrots & many. The taste of the Sambhar would vary with the vegetables used to make it while the preparation remains the same.

I believe most of the bloggers vote for the homemade powders than the store bought ones.To prepare them at home is ofcourse an extra task for most of you but definitely hygienic, more aromatic, un adulterated and has a longer shelf life. Idlis or dosas are never quite complete without the Sambhar.

Ingredients :

1. 1/2 cup toor dal
2. 1 cup vegetables (your option)
3. 1 medium sized onion
4. 1 riped tomato
5. Curry leaves - 1 tbsp
6. Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Turmeric juice - 1 tbsp
8. Sambar powder - 2 tsp
9. Coconut powder - 1 tbsp ( I use dessicated coconut)
10. Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
11. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
12. Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
13. Vadagam - 1 tsp
14. Corrainder leaves
15. Salt to taste
16. Oil - 1 tbsp
17. Ghee - 1 tsp

Method :

• Cook the toor dal in cooker.Heat oil in the heavy bottomed pan, add fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, urad dal & vadagam and saute for 2 min.


• Add the chopped onions & curry leaves and brown lightly.


• Add the tomatoe, vegetables & tamarind extract and fry till vegetables are 3/4th cooked.


• Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder,sambar powder to the sambhar. Allow this to boil for 5 minutes.


• Add the dal, coconut & salt to taste. cook for another 5 min.


• Finally add a tsp of ghee & remove from the heat.

Garnish with corriander leaves.

Note :
For drumstick sambar, Combine both toor dal & drumstick together in the cooker & cook.

Caribbean pumpkin soup

It doesn't have to be Halloween to enjoy Pumpkin Soup. It also goes well for other holidays such as Thanksgiving and just any time you want a good hardy soup; such as a cold evening by the fireplace. There are a lot of variations of Pumpkin Soup. This one focuses on having a nice flavoured & popular pumpkin soup straight from Caribbean.

Ingredients:

• 5 tbsp butter
• 2 Large onion peeled and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic peeled and minced
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp curry powder
• 2 Lbs. fresh pumpkin or winter squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
• 1 Potato peeled and cubed
• 2 Carrots peeled and sliced
• 1 Pint vegetable stock
• ½ Pint heavy cream

Cooking Method :

• Saute the onions and garlic until onions are translucent.


• Add the spices and cook for a minute.


• Add pumpkin, potatoes and carrots along with the stock, then simmer until the vegetables are soft.


• Puree with a stick blender, then add the cream and serve.

Garnish with mined parsley.

Milk Peda

When it comes to enjoying Indian sweets, I find Milk Pedas absolutely irresistible. Peda is a cookie shaped North Indian sweet made from khoya (a milk product). Pedas can be made in different shapes, sizes and flavors. Very easy to make both tradionally or in microwave. My version is on stove top....

Ingredients :

1. Milk powder - 1½ Cup
2. Heavy whipping cream - ½ cup
3. Regular milk - ½ cup
4. Confectioner's Sugar - 1½ Cups
5. Cardamom seeds ground - 1 tsp
6. Crushed Pistachio nuts & almonds - 2 tbsp

Method :

• In a heavy bottom pan mix ingredients 1 through 5.


• Heat it on a near boil 180º F. Cook for about 20 minutes to 30 minutes. Continuously stir to prevent scorching. It should look like a ball of dough consistency.


• Let it cool off so you can handle it. Now make about 1" diameter balls. Press down into patty shapes.


• Sprinkle pistachios and almonds. Press down. Let the dish cool and store in the refrigerator.

Enjoy !!!

French style baked tomatoes

France is meant for his beauty & food. One such wonderful dish is "Tomatoes a la Provencale" which means baked tomatoes in breadcrumbs & garlic. One of the fav starter for pravin, to whom I m dedicating this tooo:)

He likes this, especially when garnished with melted cheese on top. It taste awesome, with cheese & herbs in the softened tomatoes.

This serve as a different starter & its quite easy to prepare with ingredients in hand. Yeah! we can add some more spices (optional) like chilly powder & garam masala to bring the Indian touch. This would be a great treat for vegetarians.

To make it rich, can serve with cheese (bake it for further 3 min (till cheese melts)). It taste YUM !!!!

Ingredients :

1. 6 firm ripe fleshy tomatoes (about 2 lb)
2. 1/4 cup olive oil
3. 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
4. 2 tbsp minced fresh basil leaves
5. 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
6. 1 clove garlic, mashed
7. 3 tbsp minced shallots
8. Salt and pepper
9. Pinch of thyme

Directions to cook :

• Preheat your oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Remove the stems of the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in two half. Squeeze out seeds and juice. Add salt and pepper.


• Blend the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl. Fill each of the tomatoes with the mixture. Sprinkle the tomatoes with olive oil.


• In a baking dish arrange the tomatoes not too close from each other.


• Bake the tomatoes in the oven at 400º (200ºC) for 15 minutes max.

Serve as a starter or as a side dish.

Jackfruit smoothie

I was wanting a lychee but couldn’t find any tins of lychees in my pantry. Instead, there was a tin of jack fruit, and I decided to conjure up a smoothie with that instead. The results were quite pleasant.

If you haven’t had jack fruit smoothie before, I guess the taste could be described as a cross between mango and papaya. Jack fruit smoothie is not as strong or sweet in flavour as those, but does have a refreshing taste and beautiful fragrance.

Ingredients :

1. 2 scoops of ice (up to the level of about 3 cups in the blender jug)
2. 4 pieces of tinned jack fruit
3. 60ml Absolute vanilla yoghurt
4. 60 ml of syrup from the tin
5. 45 ml passionfruit syrup
6. Juice of half a lemon

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!