Quick lunch ideas

Pepper Rasam and Spicy potato fry

Ingredients for Pepper Rasam

1 small tomatoe

Tamarind water (diluted) - 1.5 cups

1 tsp whole black pepper

1 tsp  cumin seeds/jeera

1 tsp turmeric powder

curry leaves

1 tsp ghee 

1 tsp mustard seeds

salt to taste.

Ingredients for spicy potatoe fry

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urid dal - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Chillie powder - 1tsp

Asfoetida - a pinch

Medium sized potatoes - 4

Procedure for pepper rasam

In a pan, add ghee. Add mustard and cumin seeds followed by chopped tomatoes. Saute for a minute. Add turmeric powder, salt, asfoetida and rasam powder. Mix well all the ingredients. Add tamarind extracted water and stir well. Switch off the stove after the raw smell goes off approximately for 5-7 minutes. Do not boil the rasam. Add crushed pepper powder and garnish with young curry leaves. Healthy and easy pepper rasam ready for lunch. 

Spicy crisp potato recipe

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, once it splutters add urid dal. Roast the urid dal. After the urid dal turns brown, add the diced potatoes, turmeric powder, chillie powder and asfoetida. Mix well and the ingredients. Let the stove be in high flame for 2-3 minutes. Add salt and stir well. Cover with lid and let it be cooked in medium flame for 5-7 minutes. Crispy potatoe fry ready to serve with rice and pepper rasam.

Diwali Sweets - Bombay Wheat Halwa

Diwali is around the corner. Usually we celebrate with sweets and savouries. My first diwali sweet recipe on this blog is Wheat Flour Halwa. Wheat flour halwa is a healthy and rich flavoured sweet for all festive seasons. Easy recipe with simple ingredients available at kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup ghee, clarified butter
1.5 cup sugar
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 tablespoon cashew nuts
1 tsp milk for kesar powder
Pistachios (optional)

Preparation

Boil the water and sugar in a pan. Bring the syrup to full boil and mix it well.

In a pan, add ghee or clarifying butter. Once it is warm, add the wheat flour. Stir it continuously with out any lumps. Add a pinch of kesar colour in a tsp of milk and add it to the flour. Powder the sugar in a blender. When the halwa is half cooked, add the powdered sugar and cardamom powder.


Stir the halwa till the ghee separate on sides. Switch off the gas. In a pan, add 1 tbsp of ghee. Roast the whole or broken cashews. Add the roasted cashews to the wheat halwa. Cut into pieces if needed after it is cooled. Mouth watering wheat flour halwa ready to serve!

Sweet dessert - Rabri

Rabri is a rich dessert. It is easy and quick to cook. Almond and pistachio are rich in nutrients and kids love the taste of Rabri. Suitable sweet for all occassions. A lip smacking dessert with rich flavour and taste

Ingredients

Full cream milk - 2.5 cups
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Cardamom - 2 crushed
Almond and pistachio - a fistful
Saffron strands soaked in lukewarm milk.

Procedure

In a thick bottomed pan, add milk. Boil it and reduce the milk to half. In a blender, dry grind the half amount of the almonds and pistachios. When the milk thickens, add the almond and pistachio powder and saffron milk. Rose water can be added. Garnish with almonds and pistachios. Serve hot or chill. This Rabri can be used as a topping for Malpua (my earlier post), icecreams and waffles too..

Soft wheat phulkas

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 1.5 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Curd - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Water to knead the dough

Step by step procedure

Mix all the ingredients together

Knead it to a soft dough

Set the dough aside for 30 minutes

Heat a tawa. Place the phulkas one by one on tawa. Cook till bubbles appear.

Take it from the tava and cook it over a flame with a tong

Soft wheat phulkas ready to serve.

Paruppu urundai kuzhambu

Paruppu urundai kuzhambu (thoor dhal balls sambar)

Ingredients For preparing balls

Bengal gram (kadalai paruppu) - 1/2 cup
Thoor dhal (thuvaram paruppu) - 1/2 cup
Red chilly - 4
Salt
Asafoetida
Gingely oil- 1 tablespoon

Method

Soak bengal gram, thoor dhal and chilly in water for an hour.

Drain the water.

Add salt, asafoetida powder and grind them coarsely.

Keep this ready for preparing balls

Ingredients for Kuzhambu

Bengal gram (kadalai paruppu) - 1 tablespoon
Urid dhal (ulutham paruppu) - 1 tablespoon
Mustard
Asafoetida powder
Kuzhambu podi - 2 tablespoon
Gingely oil - 4 tablespoon
Red chilly - 4
Tamarind (puli) - size of a lemon
Salt

Method

Soak tamarind in hot water. Squeeze the tamarind water (4 times). Add tamarind squeezed water and salt. Add kuzhambu podi.
Allow it to boil for 5 minutes. Make balls from the grinded mixture. Drop the balls one by one slowly. Simmer the stove. Balls will begin to float on boiling. Switch off the stove.

In a pan add gingely oil. Add mustard. Add fenugreek and asfoetia. Add some curry leaves. Add this thalipu to the urundai kuzhambu.

Badam Milkshake

Badam or almond milk shake

INGREDIENTS

Full cream milk - 2 glasses
Almonds/badam - 10
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp full condensed milk(optional), i used homemade condensed milk
saffron strands- mix them with 2 tsp
of milk for few minutes to bring the color out
Cardamom powder

To Make Badam Paste:

Method: - Soak them in water overnight, next day peel the almonds, add the almonds into the blender, add a tbsp of milk and blend into a paste.

Step by step procedure:

Take a sauce pan, add milk and bring it to a boil.

Add blended badam paste and cook for another ten minutes on low flame and keep stirring in between.

Add cardamom powder into it and mix well.Add sugar as per requirement or add condensed milk.

Take the saffron strands infused milk and add into the badam shake.

Put the flame on sim for few minutes.

Switch off the flame.

Chill the badam shake for some time in the refrigerator.

Pour them into the glasses.

Garnish with finely chopped almonds and saffron.

Serve chilled with ice cubes or serve hot without refrigerating.

NOTE

1. If we wish to get more saffron color to the shake, then add few more saffron strands to some milk and rest it aside for some more time, finally add this saffron infused milk to the shake.

Eggless spongy chocolate cake

Eggless chocolate cake

Ingredients

2 tbsp cocoa powder (sifted)
1 1/4 cups plain flour (maida)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup condensed milk
4 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup salt
1/2 tsp melted butter for greasing
plain flour (maida) for dusting

Method

Grease a cake tin or cooker vessel with butter on all the sides. Dust it with plain flour and sift to ensure uniform distribution of the flour. Shake and tap the tin to remove the excess flour and keep aside.

Sieve the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda bi-carb in a deep bowl, mix well and keep aside.

Combine the condensed milk, melted butter, vanilla essence in a deep bowl and mix well.

Add the prepared sieved plain flour-cocoa mixture and approx. 6 tbsp of water and mix gently with help of a spatula.

Pour the prepared cake batter into the greased and dusted tin and spread it evenly.

Sprinkle the salt at the base of a pressure cooker, and place a steel ring stand and a perforated plate over it. Cover it with a lid (with the ring on the lid but without the whistle) and heat on a medium for 5 minutes.

Open the lid of the pressure cooker, place the cake tin on the perforated plate. Cover it with a lid (with the ring on the lid but without the whistle) and steam on a medium for 20 to 22 minutes or till the cake is done.

Allow the steam to escape before opening the lid. Keep aside to cool for 10 minutes.Invert the tin over a plain flour greased plate and tap sharply to unmould the cake or use a knife to loosen the edges of the cake. Yummy spongy chocolate cake is ready to eat

I made toppings with homemade cream and grapes with almond nuts on the cake homemade creamer.

Homemade creamer

Blend the plain butter (2 tbsps), sugar (2 tbsp) and baking soda (1 tsp). You can decorate with nuts, fruits or cream with different flavours.