Chocolate dipped Strawberry

My hubby loves strawberry dipped in chocolates (dark chocolate in particular), that's the only way he would eat strawberry. So I often end up making this for him during the strawberry season. This are quick and easy to make and you can top the chocolate according to your taste. This time I started with the idea that I would decorate them with white chocolate swirls, only to find out that I didn't have any white chocolate left at home. So ended up with this. Looks so holiday like, may be it will be a nice idea as a holiday gift for this year :).

What you need :
Chocolate chips
Fresh strawberry
Tooth picks

for garnishing I used :
butterscotch chips
crushed cashews
white chocolate

How it's made :
Melt the chocolate chips in microwave or double boiler. Insert toothpicks into the strawberry and dip it in th melted chocolate. Swirl the strawberry as you pull it out of the chocolate to remove excess chocolate. garnish with toppings of your choice ( crushed nuts, white chocolate, sweetened coconut flakes etc). Stick it in styrofoam and let it dry.

Well now to my garnishing story, as I said earlier I didnt have white chocolate at home, so thought of using butternut chips for the design. But they didn't melt soon and I didn't have patience to wait for long. So I ended up picking the slightly melted chips and sticking them to the strawberry, I thought they looked pretty. I had one small white chocolate covered cookie, so I melted it and used the white chocolate from it and applied with a tooth pick, not very clean lines :(.
I also dipped some blueberries in the chocolate, I ate most of them by the time I put them in the basket, so only few were left.

Capsicum Rice

On of my friend's mom who is from andra, had got this really tasty capsicum rice to a lunch party. While we were leaving she packed some rice for us to take home. I devoured off every single grain in the box. I wanted to try it but didn't know the recipe and never got a chance to ask her. I tried to figure out the ingredients from the rice she had made and ended up with this version. I like making this with different colored capsicum, but this time I only had green ones at home. 

What you need :

3cups Cooked rice
2 cups capsicums cut lengthwise in thin strips
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon urad daal
2 tablespoon chana daal
Curry leaves – few
Oil – 2tsp
Salt to taste

Masala powder:
1 to 2 Red chillies  (depending on the heat)
1 teaspoon Coriander seeds
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds 
1 teaspoon Urad dal
1″Cinnamon stick
2 tablespoon dry grated coconut

How it's made:
Dry roast all the ingredients listed under the masala powder and grind to a course powder.
In a pan heat oil , add mustard seeds, urad and chana daal. Once they turn slightly brown add curry leaves and capsicum pieces. Cook for a few minutes till the capsicum loses it rawness but still crunchy.(Do not over cook the capsicum). To this add the ground powder, salt and mix well. Serve hot with  raita.

Coconut and Dry Fruits Poli

My Mom makes awesome coconut hobbatu / poli. They are so thin and remain soft for longer period. I never tried making poli so far, always thought it's best to leave it to the expert. Last month my sister went to visit my parents and mom made coconut poli with dates for her. My sister and dad kept mentioning how tasty they were, that made me crave for it. I kept thinking about it but didn't like the idea of making it. I thought it's not 'my cup of tea' to make it. But the urge to eat poli finally got over me and I decided to give it a try. Mine didn't turn out to be as good as my mom's but surely tasted delicious.

I made some changes to the recipe as per my own convenience and availability of ingredients. Here is my version.

How I made it :
For the dough:
2 cups Maida /All purpose flour
2 table spoon fine sooji / semolina
pinch of salt
1/4 cup oil ( I use canola oil)

Filling:
2 cups shredded dry coconut
8 pitted dates
2 tablespoon broken cashew nuts
10 almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar
5 pods of green cardamom
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

How I made it:
Dough- Mix the Maida, sooji and salt with sufficient water  to make a soft dough. Add the oil and knead the dough a little more. Let the dough soak in oil for about 4 hours in a cool place.

Filling- Dry roast separately the nuts and the poppy seeds. Peel and crush the cardamom. Grind the nuts along with coconut and cardamom. In a thick bottomed pan add 1 cup water and brown sugar and boil till the sugar completely dissolves. Add the ground powder and keep stirring until it starts to separate off the pan. It should form a thick dough like consistency, if you overdo it will be hard as a rock and if removed early it will still be runny.Mix the poppy seeds into this mixture and let it cool.

To make the poli- Take a small ball of the dough. Pat it flat with your finger tips to make small circle of about 4 inches on Plastic sheet / parchment paper ( I normally use the packets that we get daals from Indian store for this). Take a smaller size ball of the filling and keep in the center of the flattened dough and cover the filling completely. Since the dough is elastic it will stretch easily. Place inbetween two sheets of plastic/ parchment paper and roll it with the help of a rolling pin as thin as you can. Take care not to pop out the filling too much out of the dough.
Heat a flat pan. Transfer the rolled poli onto the skillet and peel off the plastic quickly. Cook until brown spots appear on both the sides. Serve warm with ghee.

These poli's remain fresh and soft for atleast a week.

Vegetable Stuffed Rice Fritters

I was back from work early and hungry. Checked my refrigerator out and had some rice leftover and very little subzi from previous day. Pulled it out and remembered this recipe that I had come across in Sanjeev Kapoor's website few months back.  So quickly made this, to curb my hunger till dinner was cooked. I modified it according to the ingredients I had on hand.

What I used:

1 cup cooked rice

Cauliflower, potatoes and peas subzi

2 tablespoon Onions finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon Pepper powder

1/2 teaspoon jeera powder

cilantro leaves finely chopped

Bread crumbs

salt to taste

Oil to fry

How I made it :

Mash the rice in a bowl and add onions, pepper and jeera powder, cilantro and salt and mix well.  Wet you palms with water. Take a portion of the rice dough and flatten in your palm, place the vegetable in the center and roll back the rice dough over the vegetables, shape it and roll it in bread crumbs. Deep fry in oil and serve hot with tomato ketchup.

If the rice is less add some mashed bread to it to increase the quantity.

chocolate cups with berries

Why eat chocolate off a bowl, when you can eat a chocolate bowl !!!.

Who doesn't love chocolates, each one loves it for different reasons and yes, chocolate is scientifically proven to be beneficial for health. Science!!, lets keep it out of our delightful chocolate cups and check how it's made. This is my trial version of the cups, not so perfect as I expected.

What You need:
semi sweet chocolate bar / chips
mixed berries ( raspberries, blue berries, strawberries)
whipped cream
cup cake liners


How it's made:
Line cupcake tray with cupcake liner. Melt chocolate in microwave. Using a pastry brush coat the inside of the cupcake liner with chocolate. Refrigerate the tray for 10 min, apply another layer of chocolate and let it set in the refrigerator for 10  min or until use.
For serving the chocolate cups, keep the cups outside for few minutes to thaw, this makes removing the liner easy. Fill in the mixed berries, top it with whip cream and serve.

Chocolaty Note :
- You can use any container of your liking to make the mold for chocolate cups (small cups, shot glasses, cookie molds etc).
- you can use any chocolate or combination of white n dark to give a artistic look
- Make in large quantities and store in the refrigerator ahead of time for a nice quick dessert or for  large parties.
- you can go creative with your fillings from ice-creams, cold custard. peanut butter or fruits. After all its a cup, what you want to eat in it depends on you.

Potato Fry -1

I love potatoes in any form except for mashed potatoes.( I may change my mind when I eat a good mashed potato dish). I often make potato fry at home. Its easy and quick. we make a lot of variety at home and all that differs majorly is the way we cut and and the seasoning. I will try to post all variations whenever I make it. For this version, the potatoes are cut in about 1/2 inch cubes. I used kolumbu powder which is a Tamilnadu version of spice mix generally used for most of the gravies. I got this from my mom-inlaw, you can alternatively use chilly and daniya powder.

 

What you need:

3 Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

2 teaspoon Jeera ( cumin)

1 teaspoon saunf (fennel seeds)

1 teaspoon- Kolumbu powder

salt to taste

1 tablespoon oil

How its made:

Heat oil in a  pan. Add the cumin and fennel seeds. Once it splutters, add the cubed potatoes and fry it. When the potatoes are slightly cooked, add salt and the kolumbu powder. Mix it with the potatoes, sprinkle little water, cover and cook till done.

Simple isn't it ?

Strawberry Parfait

This sunday the weather was unusually warm for spring. But the warm weather tempted me to work in our garden. After 2 hours of work I was tired and hungry. Ready to eat something, but wasn't in mood for my regular breakfast. Wanted something cool, so made this yummy strawberry parfait. Its simple, delicious and best of all nutritious.

 

 

What You need:

Fresh Strawberries - cut to desired size

Yougurt/ icecream of you choice

cereals / granola 

honey

Whipped cream for topping

How it's made:

Slice strawberries and place them in a bowl. Stir in a bit of honey, making the strawberry filling as sweet as you like and set it aside.
Place a spoonful of strawberry mixture into the bottom of a tall glass. On top of that layer with cereals or granola.  Add a big spoonful of your favorite yogurt or if preferred, a scoop of vanilla ice cream,. Add more strawberries, cereals and more ice cream or yogurt, continuing the layers until you fill the glass. Add a dollop of whip cream to the top of the strawberry parfait, garnish with strawberry and enjoy.