Carrot Kheer | Gajar Kheer | Carrot Payasam

I love making easy desserts that are extremely delicious. I don't have a big sweet tooth at all and I hardly crave for chocolates, ice-cream and the likes. So if you are looking for a large 8-layered fancy chocolate slathered cake, you wont find it in here :). I have never felt like getting into all that effort for a dessert. But I do live with a person who is the exact opposite. His teeth are all sweet ;). So once in a while I have to make the puddings, cakes, muffins, kheer, cookies etc for S. He has often commented about the lack of dessert posts in my blog [ can you sense the ulterior motive? ;)] and I agree. So I am trying to make atleast a couple of healthy desserts each month.

I think Carrot kheer would be one of my go-to dessert recipe if I had a lot of guests coming in. Not a lot of effort or time involved in making this one, but the end result is super delicious and also makes you feel healthy. Carrot always does. :) So lets get on to learning how to make this kheer.

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Prep Time - 10 min
Cook time - 15 min

Carrot - 4 medium, chopped into medium sized pieces
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup minus 1.5 Tsp
Raisins - 1 Tsp
broken Cashews - 1 Tbsp
Cardamom Powder - 1/4 Tsp
Ghee - 1.5 Tsp

How do you do it

1. Take the carrots and 1 cup milk in pressure cooker and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. Let this cool completely. Blend this milk-carrot using your mixer jar into a smooth paste and keep.

2. Heat ghee in a pan, add cashews and raisins and roast until they brown. Keep aside.

3. In the same pan, add the blended carrot-milk paste and saute for 3-5 minutes. This is just to make sure there is no raw smell. Cool this mixture again.

4. Take the remaining one cup of milk in a thick bottom milk pan and bring to boil. When it starts to boil, add the sugar, cardamom powder and stir. Simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes until the milk thickens and reduces in quantity. Cool completely.

5. Mix the reduced milk and sauteed blended carrot-milk paste and the raisins, nuts together. Fill them up in individual glasses and chill them in refrigerator.

You could add some chopped almonds on top while serving. Enjoy! :)

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Zucchini Lentil Salad

This Zucchini-Spinach-Lentil salad is more of a stir fry than a salad. I prepared it the same way I would do for various kinds of lentil "Sundal", and this dish felt enormously healthy :). When you have been eating outside for quite a while, you feel this need to cleanse your system and eat something that would make you feel extremely healthy, this happened on one such day soon after we moved into our new place and started cooking our own meals once again. I remember my delhi trip about 15 yrs back that lasted 10 days and that was the first time I probably realised I just couldn't eat out all the time, restaurant meals tire you out very soon :). So here is something that would make you feel really good and healthy - Zucchini Lentil salad

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 20 minutes + 5 hrs of soaking time
Cook time - 10 minutes

1/2 cup mixed lentils [ I used moon dal, black eyed beans, cow-peas ]
Zucchini - 1 medium sized, cut into moon shaped pieces
Spinach - 150 gm, chopped roughly
Mustard seeds - 1 Tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 Tsp
Dry Red chilli - 2
Curry leaves - 1 Sprig
Salt - as per need
Turmeric - a pinch
Oil - 1 Tsp

How do you do it

1. Soak the cow-peas and black eyed beans for about 4-5 hrs. Drain and pressure cook them until they are tender to bite. Also boil the moong dal with a pinch  of turmeric until tender but firm. We don't want any of the lentils to get mashed up while frying them

2. Boil Zucchini for about 2-3 minutes in the microwave and keep aside.

3. Heat a kadai with oil. Add the mustard seeds and let them pop. Add the jeera/urad dal and break the red chillies and add them in, let them roast. Add the curry leaves now.

4. Add the zucchini and spinach and saute them well with the tempering, wait for a few minutes for the spinach leaves to wilt.

5. Thrown in all the cooked lentils, required salt and stir it well and cook for a couple of minutes.

6. Take off flame and if you like, add a tsp of lime juice.

Serve this stir fry with any fruit juice of your choice for a healthy and filling dinner.

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Easy Potato Roast/ Potato Vadakkal

                                      Cubed Potatoes roasted to a crisp with Indian spices

Who doesn't love potato vadakkal :) ? This is something I long for at least once a month. Curd rice and Potato roast is such a heavenly combination for lunch and is one of my most favourite dish. And I dint mention how quick this was right?,  in and out of the kadai in 20 minutes :).

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 5 minutes
Cook time - 20 minutes

Potatoes - 4,medium sized
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Mustard - 1 Tsp
Jeera - 1 Tsp
Hing - a generous pinch
Curry Leaves - 2 Sprigs
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Masala/Curry Powder - 1 Tbsp
Salt - as per need

How do you do it

1. Peel and wash the potatoes well. Chop them into medium sized pieces and keep aside soaked in a bowl of water to prevent them from oxidizing.

2. Heat oil in a kadai and throw in the hing, mustard, jeera and curry leaves and let them roast.

3. Drain the potatoes and throw them in and mix well with the tempering.

4. Add the turmeric, half the amount of salt and the curry powder. Wrap the potatoes well with these.

5. On medium flame, saute them and close with a kadai. Let them cook for about 15-20 minutes. In between you may sprinkle some water and stir with a ladle to prevent from sticking to a kadai. You could taste the seasoning in between and add more salt, curry powder if needed.

6. Remove from flame once they are crispy and cooked and seasoning is just perfect.

Goes really well when served with rasam or curd rice.

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Zucchini Cauliflower Curry

Zucchini and Cauliflower cooked in a thick tomato-coconut milk spiced curry sauce

I have heard enough about Zucchini for almost a year now. Thanks to our truly global wing [my friends from university] and not to forget whatsapp - food, travel and living is all what we talk about almost everyday :).  Having moved to the west and seeing Zucchini in the super-market instantly reminded me of all the conversation we had about how healthy Zucchini is. So I picked it up immediately not knowing what I would do with them. I just knew that it had to be something very tasty and curry like so we could make it a regular. I browsed around and saw a recipe that had curry powder, coconut milk and tomato puree as the base sauce for this Zucchini Cauliflower dish and I was hooked.

I usually don't choose to try my hand at a new recipe on a work-day morning to pack for lunch. But this recipe seemed so simple and quick that I decided to make it for lunch and it turned out great. Every time i tasted the curry sauce I kept wanting for more and that was a good sign.  This is a great side dish for rotis and am sure it would team up well with rice as well. So on to the recipe :).

If you dont have Zucchini , you could throw in any other vegetable as a sustitute - carrot/peas/capscium/beans, I am sure they would do good as well.

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Moderately spicy
Prep Time - 10 minutes
Cook time - 20 minutes
Recipe Source - Adapted from veggie-belly
 
Zucchini - 1 medium sized, cut into half moon shape
Cauliflower - 4-5 florets cut into bite sized pieces
Tomato puree - made out of 3 fresh tomatoes or one 14.5 oz canned diced tomatoes blended
Coconut milk [thick] - 1/4 cup [canned or fresh - I used canned]
Curry/Masala Powder - 1 Tbsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 Tsp
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped well
Garlic - 3 cloves , minced/grated finely
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig [optional]
Hing/Asafetida - a generous pinch
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

How do you do it

1. Take the cauliflower pieces in a bowl with water and add a pinch of turmeric and salt and microwave for a couple of minutes. Stir well and drain. This step is to remove any worms from cauliflower if any. This kind of cleaning is necessary and very important to remove worms when using cauliflower in any recipe. So do make sure you clean cauliflower well before using.

2. Either you are using fresh or canned diced-tomatoes, puree them using your blender and keep aside.

3.Heat oil in a kadai. Add hing and jeera, and let them roast and give out a nice aroma. Add the chopped onions and saute until they are cooked well.

4. Add in the minced garlic and curry leaves and saute for a minute or two.

5. Add the curry/masala powder and turmeric and saute for a couple of minutes until the raw smell of the powder goes away.

6. Add in the tomato puree now, stir well and cook for a couple of minutes.

7. Add the Zucchini pieces and cauliflower florets, salt and close the kadai with a lid. Cook in medium flame. It will take 10 minutes for the veggies to get cooked.

8. Now reduce the heat and add in the coconut milk. Cook on low flame for a few minutes. Once done remove from flame.

Add chopped coriander leaves to garnish and and serve with rotis/pulkas or rice.

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Garlic Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread which maybe topped with any kind of herbs that you like. Its like a herb flavored bread - an olive oil based one, its cheese-free and also guilt-free ;). I had bookmarked this recipe almost a year back, every-time I would want to do a pizza or any flat-bread, my plans got postponed, something or the other came up. Looks like the time for the focaccia to happen came last weekend.

We had this super delicious garlic-rosemary focaccia with tomato soup for our Sunday lunch. Its a really easy one to make, but its time consuming because it has a resting time of 2 hrs in total. This would definitely be one of my top choices to make when guests visit home and you want them to be super impressed :). You could easily serve this up as an appetizer along with a tasty dip, just get all the prep-work done and before you have your party arriving, push them into the oven for 15 minutes and they would be ready to get into their belly.

Ingredients

 Serves - makes about 10 medium sized slices
 Prep Time - 2.5 hrs
 Bake time - 15 min
Recipe Source - Laura Vitale

All Purpose Flour - 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups
Sugar - 2 Tbsp
Active Dry yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
Warm water - 1 cup
Salt - 2 Tsp dissolved in 2 Tbsp water
Olive oil - 1/4 cup
Garlic cloves - 4
Dry/Fresh Rosemary - 1Tbsp
EV olive oil for drizzling
Salt and pepper for seasoning on top of the flat-bread

How do you do it

1. Take a large bowl and add in the sugar, yeast and warm water. Let it stand for 3-5 minutes until it froths. This means that the yeast has been activated.

2. Give it a stir with your spatula and add in 3 cups of flour at first along with 1/4 cup olive oil and the salt-water mix.

3. Mix well with your spatula and then use your hand and knead for 10-15 minutes until it forms a smooth elastic dough. This is the time when you can add the extra 1/2 cup flour little by little to get a non-sticky smooth dough. I needed only a little more than 3 1/4 cups of flour in total, so just add as much needed to get a non sticky dough. Use your kitchen counter surface to press and bring the dough together with the heel of your palm. Below is a picture of the dough before doubling.

4. Put the dough back to the bowl. Add about a tbsp of olive oil and wrap the entire dough with olive oil. Cover with a cling film. Leave it to rest in a warm place for about 1.5 hr until the dough doubles.

5. Meanwhile,  prepare a big rectangular baking sheet pan with some olive oil smeared on its surface. Once the dough doubles, move it to the baking sheet and spread into a rectangle [taking the shape of the pan] with your hand, about 1/2 inch thick. This is very easy and since the dough is so elastic and soft, it will spread easily. It should be of even thickness all over.

6. Cover this sheet with cling film and rest it for 20 minutes. Now lets prepare the garlic spread, grate the garlic into a bowl, add 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, mix well and keep ready. Also Pre-heat oven to 400 deg F at this stage.

7. Remove the cling film and keep aside. Drizzle some olive oil on top and spread evenly. Spread the garlic-olive oil mix on the surface of the flattened dough. Sprinkle rosemary all over along with salt and pepper. Cover again with cling film and rest for 30 minutes. A picture of the flattened dough all ready to go into the oven.

8. After 30 minutes, bake on the bottom rack for 15-17 minutes or until its golden brown. I coundn t resist the temptation and I took a bite of the bread before clicking :)

Serve this really flavorful focaccia with a soup or a dip of your favorite choice.

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Asparagus Coriander Chutney

Heloooo! Yes I am back! :-). So many things have been going on lately that i just haven't been cooking at all and the blog had to be neglected. To cut the long story short, this blog has moved to the West. So thats like a huge affair and I am still running around setting up my home here, and getting all other things done so we can settle down into a routine quickly.

I am in the phase of getting to know my kitchen and its members - my dishwasher, dryer, cooking range, oven, electric pressure cooker- all of them. I am hoping we can hit it off well very soon :). Its been only a couple of days since I have started cooking in my new coil range [ which I absolutely dont like at the moment, why cant people just use gas aargh!] and I had some issues at first, but now I am thinking I have got the hang of it. Almost!

I dont have quick access to an Indian grocery store here and so I had to buy the veggies available in the local market like - asparagus, zucchini, chayote etc which I must admit I never bought in India. I dint see a point in paying the extra money to get these veggies back home. I am better off using the seasonal veggies that is commonly available. So I am going to get into the same system here - get these western-vegetables and do what I enjoy doing most - Indianise them ;).

Asparagus is something I have been wanting to cook with for a while. I have a very vague memory of having an aspargus soup in barbeque nation in Bangalore and that was pretty much it, I never saw asparagus again. Something new for our dinner today - asparagus-coriander chutney which was really delicious and I am sure is going to be a part of our menu often. I have half a pack of asparagus left and I am going to be back with a yummy soup for this winter season. All said and done I am glad to be back here in this space. Hope you guys enjoy this recipe.


Ingredients

Serves - 3
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 10 min
Cook time - 10 min

Asparagus stalks - 10 , stems trimmed, and chopped into small pieces
Coriander - a handful
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped roughly
Tomato - 1 medium sized, chopped roughly
Garlic cloves - 3
Dry Red chilli - 3
Mustard - 1 tsp
Hing - 1/4 Tsp
Urad dal - 1 Tsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 Tsp
Saunf/Fennel - 1 Tsp
Salt - as per need
Oil - 1 Tbsp

To temper

Oil -1 tsp
Mustard - 1 Tsp
Urad Dal -1 Tsp

How do you do it

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add hing,mustard - when it crackles, add jeera and saunf. Let them roast. Once done, add the chopped onions and saute till translucent.

2. After the onions are cooked, add the chopped garlic, saute for 2 minutes. Add tomato pieces, 1/2 the amount of salt required, wait for the tomatoes to becomes soft and mushy - 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the chopped asparagus now and drizzle 2 tbsp of water on top and cover and cook for 5 minutes till they become tender.

4. Add the coriander leaves and red chilli now and saute for a minute. Switch off flame and cool the mixture.

5. Once cooled, grind with 1/4 cup water to a smooth paste. Transfer to bowl, add the remaining salt and mix well.

6. Now to prepare the tempering, heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Add mustard,let it crackle, add urad dal, let it brown. Transfer this to the chutney. Mix well.

Serve with Idli/Dosai or mix this chutney with ghee rice for a very healthy delicious dinner.

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