Cooking&more

Home made mint chocolate chip kulfi 1 cup fresh mint leaves  1 litre milk (take 2 cups of milk separately) 1 tin milk maid 1 cup sugar approx 1 Tbsp chocolate chips or chocolate bar broken into small bits Heat 2 cups milk to just below boiling point, take off heat and add fresh mint leaves. Keep aside for half an hour. In the meantime, boil the remaining milk in a heavy bottomed, stirring constantly until the milk thickens to the consistency of pancake batter, add the sugar and stir over medium heat till sugar dissolves. Take off heat. Filter the mint infused milk and add to the sweetened milk. Let it come to room temperature and transfer to a freezer safe container. Take it out after about one hour in the freezer and lightly mix with a spoon. Add chocolate chips and place it back in the freezer.  Take it out after 5-6 hours and enjoy refreshing mint kulfi  

My family loves eating baked treats such as cookies, muffins, pizzas and so on. But ever since we have pledged to go gluten free, we have found it difficult to indulge ourselves. The gluten free products that we buy outside, do not taste as good, and sometimes I get skeptical about what goes into them. I was looking for options to make gluten free baked goods at home, so when my friend from USA was visiting us, I asked her to get a packs of Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour for us. I used the flour to make a batch of apples muffins that came out really fluffy and moist, with a yummy apple flavor running through it. I got the recipe from the official site for Bob’s Red Mill, and tweaked it a bit to suit our taste. The kids loved it and the muffins disappeared in no time. I would definitely keep making this recipe again and again. Recipe for gluten free Apple muffins Prep time – 15 min Baking time – 20 min 1 cup gluten free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill All purpose gluten free ...

0.5 cup moong beans (unsoaked) 0.5 cup brown rice 2 carrots peeled and diced 1 sweet corn shelled 1 onion diced Cinnamon 0.5 inch stick Cardomom 2-3 Clove 1-2 Peppercorns 3-4 Coriander seeds 0.5 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds 0.75 teaspoon Fennel seeds 0.5 teaspoon Dry roast all Ingredients for spice mix, let it cool and grind into a powder. Keep aside. In a pressure cooker cook rice, moong beans, carrots and corn together with 4 cups of water. After four whistles take the cooked mixture out and mash it together with the spice mix. Shape into patties and shallow fry on a hot griddle. Place on a burger bun and top with sliced onions, tomatoes, lettuce leaves, and eggless mayyonaise.   

A picture is worth a thousand words they say..so for this post.. I have no   very few words...just a bunch of  pics and instructions. The perfect pictorial! Grate one large Mooli (horse radish) and two medium size carrots in a bowl  chop the leaves of the Radish finely and add them along with some chopped cilantro to the grated mixture  Eyeball the grated mixture and add an approximately equal amount of wheat flour to the bowl  Add salt, ajwain and pepper powder and keep covered for 15 minutes to allow the vegetables to release their moisture and then mix it together to form a dough  Roll out into Chappatis Fry on  a hot tava until brown flecks appear on both sides. serve hot garnished with ghee and accompanied by some mango pickle Get the ingredients wheat flour salt ajwain or oregano seeds pepper powder

My children are absolute fans of tomato ketchup, and I am a bigger fan than them. we love it with everything - French Fries, Toast, Paranthas, dosas, upma, poha. Everything in our home is jazzed up with a bit of tomato ketchup. Normally we buy our ketchup at the store, but I stumbled upon this recipe for tomato ketchup and decided to try it out. I stuck to the recipe mostly, but reduced the amount of red chillies and left out the sodium benzoate as I did not want to add any preservatives  to something I making at home. I do not have a blanket ban on all artificial food as in I do allow my kids to have sweets, candies, sodas, maggi within reason, but if I am taking the trouble of making something from scratch then I want to make something that is healthier for them. Ingredients 2.5 kg Tomatoes 12 cloves garlic 4 dry red chillies deseeded 1/2 cup vinegar 2 inch ginger 1 tbsp salt 6 tbsp sugar Dice tomatoes finely and add them to a heavy bott...

Some mornings are rushed and some are super-rushed! you know those mornings, when you miss hearing the alarm clock ring, and are already an hour behind in your day, and still feel like you need to sleep an hour more, but you drag yourself out of your bed like a zombie and head over into the kitchen to make your son's lunch box because his ride to school is going to be here in 15 minutes??? I am talking about bed-freshen up- head to kitchen mornings, Not the usual tea-yoga-pilates-meditation-kitchen mornings. so what do I do on such mornings? Being the self-proclaimed lazy innovator that I am, I came up with a salad that I can put together in 5 minutes flat. watch the video below for instructions Disclaimer : I cannot guarantee that this salad is original, it did come out of my extremely sleepy mind one rushed and stressful morning, but it's obviously based on scores of salads I have eaten at restaurants until now (sure tastes like one!). Also as great minds think a...

sugar cookies The other day I decided to bake some cookies at home and my two sweet kids walked into the kitchen as I was getting out the flour and decided to join me. What happened next was an impromptu math lesson right there on the kitchen floor with my 9 year old son and me as the teachers and my 4 year old daughter as the student. She learned how to measure and level scoops of flour, got introduced to fractions as she measured 1/2 cup of sugar and got out her  shapes from the toy box to cut out numbers from the dough and reinforced the concept of big and small by baking two swans - 1 big and 1 small. Learning is not restricted to the classrooms or even a schoolroom at home. Learning can happen anywhere and anytime.  Sugar cookies recipe 1 cup all purpose flour 1/8th  teaspoon salt 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup butter Water as needed A pinch of baking soda Combine flour, salt, baking soda and sugar and sieve them three times. Add butter and water ...

Traditional south Indian breakfast in a hundred year old copper pot* This traditional south Indian dish of upma made from broken rice is a perfect breakfast for those sleepy and hurried mornings when you want to get the breakfast on the table quickly without having to spend too much thought on it. It's a tasty, comforting, mildly spicy food. The combination of green chillies and ginger gives the dish it's pep, and the semisoft texture of the cooked grains, makes every mouthful pure bliss especially when topped with a dollop of ghee.  The dish provides a perfect balance of carbs and proteins and is light and satisfying at the same time. The last time my in laws came to visit us, my MIL shared this recipe with me. ho Ingredients 1 tbsp. oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp mustard seeds 3 red chillies slit lengthwise  3 green chillies slit lengthwise 1 sprig curry leaves 0.5 inch piece of ginger grated 6 pepper corns 1 cup rice rava (buy it...

There is a lot of buzz going on nowadays about the harmful effects of gluten on our bodies. Study after study is demonstrating that gluten causes a range of lifestyle health ailments from digestive disorders to diabetes, not to mention a host of brain related problems like brain fogginess, lowered concentration, confusion and impaired memory. Me and my husband have consciously been avoiding gluten in our diets for the past four months now, and have seen noticeable changes in our moods and physical well being. Though we are convinced of the efficacy of following a gluten free diet, it hasn't been easy to pull the children on to the bandwagon especially in India. The kids, like kids anywhere else want bread sandwiches, pizzas, burgers, chocolate cookies and all kinds of gluten laden foods. We bought a few gluten free cookies online, but they were expensive and the taste didn't justify the cost. Also I was a bit apprehensive about all the other ingredients that were adde...

little girl was down with a bad bout of  flu , she is recovering now, but is still out of school. We needed some quiet time activities to engage her without tiring her out. So on to pinterest for some ideas. Came across a couple of ideas to make play doh and decided to give it a try. Must say it came out pretty good. It has a lovely texture and is malleable just like the store bought play doh, and its also 100 percent non toxic. The original recipe called for cream of tartar, I substituted it with baking powder, and instead of food colors, I added turmeric to get the bright yellow color. Home made play doh Recipe source: familyeducation.com (makes 3 large tubs of standard play doh) 1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup salt 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/8 teaspoon turmeric (optional) 1 tablespoon oil 1 cup water (use as required) Put water to boil. Mix all dry ingredients together, make a well in the centre and add oil. Mix it together. Add boiling water slowly as required and ...

Honey and nut cake I was am  an ardent lover and most gluttonous consumer  of gluten in all its myriad forms. Toast for breakfast? Wraps for lunch? Pizza for dinner? Yes, yes, and yes!! Anyday! Not to mention all the cookies, cakes, muffins, samosas, kachoris, veg puffs, etc I consumed between meals. My body was the kind of place where I like to imagine good gluten goes when it dies!! But, having recently read the excellent and most convincing book, grain brain, by author Dr David Perlmutter, where he talks about the harmful effects  of gluten on the human brain, and the benefits of following  a gluten free diet, my husband and me decided to drop gluten from our diet for a month and see if we noticed a perceptible difference  And to be sure we did. Not only did we notice that our thinking was more clearer and we were more alert and less fatigued during the week, but also that we were more calmer and composed. We also found, that on da...

This post is not about food, but rather the lack of it. While, we the privileged few, are inundated with ch oices ranging from what to cook? (will it be healthy paleo Buddha bowl or or a comfortable bowl of warm c reamy pasta) whether to eat out or cook at home? and where to eat out? (will it be Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, Indian or Thai?) , thousands of our fellow humans are struggling from malnutrition and starvation and do not have access to the most basic and fundamental necessity -food. Wars, famines, political unrest and climate change, all have taken their toil on the agricultural  productivity of the world. There is a serious shortage of food across the globe. The hunger map published by the World food programme, shows how rampant the problem is. To download hunger map click here Quoting from the world food programme, " In 2015, 795 million people across the world did not get enough food to lead a normal, active life.  This translates to one in nine of the...

The other day my active seven year old, who is too busy battling zombies and creepers on mine craft and building superstructures with Legos, and whizzing by on his scooter at the speed of light, to even think about food, unless I shove it right under his nose, Actually   actually  came and asked me to make a pizza for him!!! Now that's one request that's not going to be ignored. So I decided. pizza it is !!! And what's more no store bought pizza sauce with unpronounceable ingredients . I am going to make my own authentic Italian mama pizza sauce.  But sadly I do not know any Italian mamas or Nonnas for that matter, I looked up the internet for recipes, and found so many that I really didn't know which one to use, so I went ahead and boldly came up with one of my own. A recipe both simple to prepare (but be warned- it's not fast) and delicious. It's also versatile. You can use it on a pizza or toss it with some pasta, or even in a sandwich or a wrap. You...

Here in Hyderabad shopping for vegetables is a breeze. A genial old man comes with a cart laden with a variety of seasonal vegetables right up to my doorstep. All I have to do is select what I want, specify the quantity and he will weigh it and sell it to me. A nice and easy way to shop for veggies However, the flipside is I often end up buying more than I need, either because the vegetables look so fresh and tempting or because the vegetable seller sweet talks me into buying them. Once bought, I often cook a small batch once, then relegate the rest to the bottom of the crisper, fully intending to cook them after a few days. However I forget all about them, and the next time I come across them, during my weekly pantry cleaning sessions, they are a shrivelled and misshapen mess thats good for nothing but a bowl of soup!! Your  story too? I am guessing yes!! Because no matter, whether we buy food in a supermarket or in a local farmers market we tend to buy more than we need, we...

There was this family tradition we followed since I was a kid, and which me and my husband have continued with our children too and that is to cut a cake and eat it so we eat something sweet to welcome the new year.It has always been our my fond hope and belief that in so doing we are ensuring sweetness and joy for each and every moment for the rest of the new year. Optimistic much?? I guess so!!  Idealistic?? Definitely Surely in all the twenty plus years, of  carrying on this tradition, even I, a self styled incurable romantic and stubborn idealist should have realized that this trick doesn’t work, that you cannot bribe the fates with cake, that every year will bring its share of joys and sorrow, and as thousands of  internet memes going around, and the cynic in me say,  “ A new year is just a change in date and no big deal. Circumstances don’t drastically change because it’s a new year, and the resolutions (making resolutions on new years is so passé) can...

The last time my in laws came to visit, my father in law  gave us  the best gift possible-the gift of health and well being!  He planted this holy basil plant in our yard. Holy basil also known as Tulsi  in Sanskrit, is the most revered plant in India, enjoying an exalted status as the consort of  Lord Vishnu . The plant has been attributed to have various medicinal properties so much so that having a Tulsi plant in your yard is considered akin to having a second medicine chest in your house.  I remember as a child, my mother giving us a herbal decoction with Tulsi leaves and other herbs at a the slightest hint of a cold, and more recently, when my own little girl was down with a bad cough my MIL plucked a few leaves from the Tulsi plant, extracted their juice, mixed it with a bit of honey and gave it to her for soothing relief. Also having a Tulsi in the yard is a bonus beauty booster as it comes in handy to fight dandruff or fix that pesky pimple...

Mung bean pancake (Peserattu) Mung bean or moong dal pancakes known as cheelas in hindi or pesserattu in telugu are an easy and popular dish in India. Many varieties abound, with whole or split mung beans and with or without filling. For our Saturday dinner, I chose to make them with split mung beans because they take the minimum effort and soaking time, and because I am lazy like that and because I would rather just read a novel or watch a movie with DH on a Saturday evening than spend hours in the kitchen preparing dinner  :) To make the pancakes (makes approximately 6 pancakes of 8 inch diameter each) Take  1/4 cup of rice to 1 cup of split mung dal Soak them in enough water to cover  Along with 3 dried red chillies and a shake/pinch of asafotedia powder (also known as hing this powder is easily available in Indian grocery stores. Its totally optional but I would totally recommend it) Soak for two hours-(this is where using split mung ...

Eggplant in cilantro gravy This is one dish that definitely took its time to get into my list of most-loved. I absolutely love it now, I love it for the soft on the inside crispy on the outside texture of the eggplants. I love it for the smooth creamy pungent flavor of the gravy, and most of all I love it for how absolutely insanely easy it is to make when compared to how impressive it looks when served at a party. The very first time I tasted this dish at a friends home, however, I did not quite fall in love with it. In fact, it was an affront to my delicate taste buds, which had hiterto been zealously protected from anything bordering on pungent. But the way it often happens, DH loved it and my dear friend gave me the recipe for it and it became a regular at our dinner table and slowly worked its way into my heart.  And the moral of the story is, if you don't like something the first time, don't give up on it, keep trying it and you may develop a taste for it....