Tomato pickle

I have learned this recipe from my mom. The whole family loves my mom’s tomato pickle including my parents’ in-law. You don’t need any master skills to prepare this pickle unlike the other pickles. Any beginner can do this. This is my first attempt and did come very well. Biggest advantage of this pickle is, can eat from the next minute of preparation. Secondly you don’t need to wait for the season as we normally do for other pickles. Tomato is available through out 365 days and through out the world.

  Roasted Mustard seeds, Fenugreek seeds, Tomato and tamarind

Ingredients: Tomato – 1 kg
Salt – 2 tbsp
Chilli powder – 3 tsp
Tamarind – Lemon size
Roasted Mustard ground into fine powder – 1 tsp
Roasted Fenugreek seeds ground into powder – 1 tsp

For seasoning:

Garlic cloves – 10
Chana Daal (Bengal gram) – 1 tbsp
Curry leaves – Hand full
Mustard seeds – 1 ½ tsp
Dry Red chilli – 4 -5
Ground nut Oil – ¼ cup

Method:

Wash tomato and pat them dry and make sure they are completely dry. Chop them into big pieces. Heat a sturdy pan and when it is completely dry and hot add tomato pieces and allow them to cook WITHOUT COVERING.

Stir in between and mash the tomatoes. When they become bit mushy add chilli powder, salt, mustard powder and fenugreek powder

Half cooked tomatoes with added spices and tamarind

Stir in between until the moisture gets evaporated completely.

For seasoning:


Heat another deep pan with ½ cup of oil. When it is hot enough, add all the above mentioned ingredients for seasoning one after the other.

Tadka / Seasoning for pickle

Allow it to cool and fold it into the tomato mixture. Pickle must be completely cool before transferring into the bottle.

Pickle ready to use

Note: If there is any moisture whilst cooking, the pickle gets spoiled quickly. So make sure to evaporate all the moisture and gets the pickle consistency.

Who wants this

Casatta ice cream

The word "cassata" literally means "little case" due to its brick shape. Cassata is an ice-cream, shaped like a brick, consisting of different  layers of ice-creams on a sponge cake.

I have chosen ready-made ice-creams layered on home made cake to make a quick dessert. You may choose the ice-cream flavours as per your wish. You can prepare the cassata up to 2 to 3 days in advance and keep it frozen. A classic dessert.

 

Classic Casatta

For the base I have prepared a plain cake in the form of thin layer as shown below

Cake for Casatta

You can choose any number of flavours. I have used 3 flavours. Vanilla, strawberry and mango. You can also use any dry fruit and nuts. As my little one doesn’t like nuts in between the heaven, I have avoided them.

Choose a box and cut the cake into the box size and arrange it at the bottom as first layer. I have chosen my son’s lunch box. You can use the ice cream box itself.

Ice cream beaten into smooth cream

Scoop the ice cream into a bowl and beat just until it becomes creamy (like spreadable butter) and spread it on top of cake as second layer and freeze it for 20 – 30 min.

Remove from the freezer and repeat the above step with different flavour as third layer and freeze it again.

I have added another cake sheet as fourth layer and repeated the above steps.
Cut into wedges and serve chilled, with or without garnishing.

Cool cool Casatta

Tip: Place a cling film as a thin layer inside the box and then arrange the cake and ice cream layers

which makes easy to remove the whole chunk. Bread tin will gives you the perfect shape of cassata.

Masala Pulagam / Moong daal rice

My mother-in-law prepares this recipe every Monday, My husband is not a great fan of this recipe. So I thought of drawing his attention towards this recipe by trying this with some spices which enhances the taste.

Masala Pulagam with Peanut chutney

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice

1 cup Split Green gram / Moong daal with skin

Water – 4 cups
Cumin seeds / Jeera – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 inch
Cloves – 4
Cinnamon – ½ inch
Garlic – 3 – 4 cloves
Curry leaves - Hand full
Salt - 1 tsp or as per your taste
Ghee – 1 tblsp

Method: 
Wash and Soak rice and moong daal in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes.

Soaked Rice and Moong daal (green gram)

Grind garlic, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Take a small deep pan and heat it with 1 tblsp ghee. When it is hot enough add curry leaves, cumin seeds and the ground paste and fry for 1 -2 minutes.

Frying the spicy mixture in ghee (Clarified butter)

Add this mixture to the rice and add about 1 tsp of salt or as per your taste. Stir once and cook the rice until done.

Rice & Moong daal with spicy mixture

Masala Pulagam with peanut chutney

Note: I cook this recipe in rice cooker and use 1:2 ratios of rice/daal and water. But if you use different methods like on stove top or pressure cooker, then the ratios might vary. You can also replace ghee with any vegetable oil.

Carrot Cake

This rich and moist cake, full of grated carrot and toasted nuts, has great flavour. You just can’t stop with one bite. The interesting part is that while those pretty orange flecks of grated carrot give the cake colour and texture, along with sweetness and moisture, its flavour is almost indistinguishable. This is a healthy cake as it is made up of carrots, almonds and dates which are rich in nutrients and also natural sweeteners and require less sugar. Note that you may need to bake the carrot cake a few minutes longer than the plain cake.

Carrot cake with dates and almonds

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

Plain Flour – 150 gms
Sugar – 100 gms ground into fine powder.
Spreadable Butter – 150 gms (Room temperature)
Grated carrot - 3/4th cup
Almond flakes - 3 tbsp
Pitted dates chopped - 3 tbsp
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Butter, sugar,grated carrot,plain flour,eggs,pitted dates,Almond flakes

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C/ Gas Mark 4 and place rack in centre of oven. Butter or spray two 7 - 9 inch cake pans or line the bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute with electric mixer or about 4-5 minutes with hand mixer). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored (about 3 - 4 minutes). Add butter bit by bit and then beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. With a large spatula or flat spoon fold in the grated carrots, dates and almond flakes.

Folding the grated carrot,almonds and dates into cake mixture

I have used the below cake pan. Cake tins or pans come in a variety of depths, sizes and shapes for baking the perfect cake. A spring form pan is a cake tin with an expanding sidewall, which is clipped shut during baking and unclipped afterwards to remove the cake. It's also useful for making cheesecakes.

Cake tin greased with butter

Spread the batter between the pans evenly

Bake the cake 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Fully done cake

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack and allow to cool completely

I did not add any cream, as this tastes good enough without any cream.

A rich carrot cake

Strawberry Delights

                                                 Fresh Strawberries picked from the farm

We went for Strawberry picking near Oxford. It was so calm and peaceful and totally away from the busy life. One can pick the fruits and vegetables as per their choice. We found very healthy plants. There were raspberries, gooseberries, black currants, red currants, strawberries, cherries, runner beans, garden peas. Nearby farm is available with all freshly grown vegetables.

We picked few raspberries and ate them fresh. Initially we struggle a bit to choose the right ones. Tried, tested and wasted few and then, mastered the art of picking them. Raspberries are so soft and delicate with lovely ruby colours.

Raspberries

Various stages of Raspberries

 Fully ripen fruits are very sweet and juicy, where as the unripe fruits are bit sour. It is bit difficult to differentiate the ripe and unripe fruits as they differ by very slight colours. One trick I found in picking the very ripe ones is, when you hold your fingers around the fruit and give slow movements, the fruit will come into your hands, where as the unripe fruit doesn’t and literally we need to pull it.

A fully ripened raspberry

Black currants

Aren't they resembling black pearls

Millets Farm House

Fresh vegetables at Millets Farm

 Red Currants

Accidentally we found a nest with little chick. Have a look at this cute chick.

A cute little chick peeping out of the nest

Strawberry plants

Strawberry clusters

A fresh delicate strawberry

There is a big difference between the farm fruits and the superstore ones. Not only the freshness, but also the taste differs a lot. In superstores though the fruit colour tempts, the taste doesn’t. Whereas the farm ones, even the unripe fruit tastes sweet if it matured enough.

Here are some strawberry delights.

Strawberry milk shake:

Select few fully ripe fruits, so that we don’t need to add extra sweetness. Remove the stalks and blend the fruits by adding sugar. Slowly add milk to this and pulse again until the milk blends well. Serve it immediately in a glass and top it up with ice.

Strawberry Milkshake

Strawberry yogurt smoothie

1 Cup yogurt

1 Cup Strawberry puree
2 tsp Honey

Select few fully ripe fruits and make them into puree using blender. In another cup beat the yogurt along with honey into smooth paste and slowly fold the strawberry puree into it and serve it cold. This is not only a healthy recipe but also a best substitute for ice creams.

Strawberry yogurt smoothie

Masala peanuts - 1

This is one of the easy peasy snacks which needs less effort and nil oil. My mom call this as pachi kaaram chenagginjalu as we mix the peanuts with raw spices, still they taste like fried masala peanuts. This is mainly due to the technique used to prepare the recipe. 

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 tblsp

Chili powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/2 - 3/4th tsp

Peanuts - 1 cup

Method:

Soak rice for 30 minutes. Drain it and grind the rice along with salt, chili powder and turmeric into coarse paste using stone mortar. This coarse rice paste gives the extra crunchiness

Grounded Rice with chili powder, salt and turmeric

Roast the peanuts until they are done and while they are still hot, immediately pour them into mortar and mix them well with the masala paste. Now transfer them back into hot pan, separate them and allow them to get dry completely by spreading them on a wide plate. If necessary reheat the pan for a minute or two and dry them completely.

Roasted peanuts mixing along with raw spices

You can preserve them for 2 – 3 weeks in air tight container.

Peanuts with pachi kaaram (Raw spices)

Note: If you don't have mortar or any other grinding tool, just mix the spices with rice floor and 1 or 2 spoons of water

Ksheerannam / Milk Pudding

Ksheerannam

This is a simple recipe with rich taste yet with minimal ingredients. Soaked rice cooked completely in thick milk along with safron gives the rich flavour.

Ingredients:

½ cup pudding rice or any other normal rice

7 cups whole milk

¾ cup sugar

Saffron – I pinch

Method:
1. Clean, wash and drain the rice.

2. Pour the milk into a heavy bottomed pan. Sprinkle in the saffron threads.
3. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon, bring the milk to the boil over moderately high heat.

Boiling Milk with saffron strands

4. Reduce the heat and add the rice and boil gently for 25 – 30 min.

5. Stir constantly with a smooth, sweeping action.

 

6. When the rice becomes creamy and slightly thick, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the sugar, mix well and allow the sweet rice to cool slightly and serve warm. You can also offer this as neivedhyam.

Ksheerannam neivedhyam for Lord Srikrishna