Couscous Upma

After an indulgent Diwali, its time to shed off those extra calories by eating some healthy food. I am here with a healthy Upma. But before that, I have to announce a product review from CSN Stores. I am sure no one needs an introduction about them. CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from stylish briefcases to cute cookware to chic lighting pieces! So, stay tuned for the review!

Now coming back to the recipe, I had brought a few cook books from India one being 'Healthy Breakfast' Tarla Dalal. There was one recipe whish uses broken bulgar wheat to make this upma. I replaced it with couscous and here is what I made!

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 Cup Couscous.
1 small onion finely chopped.
1 green chill, slit.
Few strands of ginger.
¼ cup green peas.
¼ cup carrots diced.
½ tsp mustard seeds.
3-4 curry leaves.
1 tbsp oil.
Salt to taste.
2 tbsp chopped coriander.
1 tbsp lemon juice.

Process:

Clean and wash the couscous thoroughly. Boil cups of water and add a pinch of salt. Add
the washed couscous to it. Let it come to boil and take it off gas and cover the pan with
a lid. Keep it for 3-4 minutes. Couscous will be cooked and soft, each grain separated.
Drain off any excess water.

In a pan, heat oil. Add the curry leaves, grated ginger, green chilli and mustard seeds.
When they crackle add the chopped onions and sauté for a minute. Add the diced carrots
and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add peas and cooked couscous and give a good stir. Add salt
to taste and lemon juice. Take it off gas and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with
chopped coriander leaves.

Sending this off to Priya Mitharwal's Event- Bookmarked Recipes-Every Tuesday-9th Nov 2010.

Enjoy!

Diwali Wishes and a sweet dish- Kalakand!

Hi Friends,

At the very outset my heartiest belated wishes to you for Diwali! Hope you a had a good time and enjoyed a lot! Actually, I was planning to post this dish on the diwali day but could manage time to do so. Anyways, better late than never! I had made it specially for Diwali. I had referred the recipe from a small booklet of 'Milkmaid'. I have incorporated a few simple changes to the recipe. It tended to be a bit crumbly in the beginning but once properly set it was fine. That's why, you can see that all the pieces of the sweet are not uniform in shapes. But that does not lower the taste. Hope you would like it too..

Before going into the recipe, I would like to say something about this illuminating festival. Diwali is a festival which celebrates the victory of good over evil. As per the Hindus, it is the day when

Lord Rama returned to his kingdom, Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, after putting an end to the demon Ravana of Lanka. In Ayodhya, the people welcomed them by lighting rows of clay lamps. So, it is an occasion in honor of Rama's victory over Ravana; of truth's victory over evil. But, we Jains have a totally different occasion of celebrating this festival. It is the festival of jubilation to commemorate the Moksha attained by our 24^th Tirthankar Lord Mahavira on Amaavashya of Kartika in Pavapuri,India. According to our Holy Scriptures many Gods and Demi-Gods were present on that occasion, illuminating the darkness of Amaavashya. To symbolically keep the light of Lord Mahavira's knowledge alive, ordinary people also illuminated their homes. Hence the name of the festival - Deepawali.

Sweets and Lights are a very important part of this occassion. So, lets see how I made this Kalakand. Kalakand when normally made from milk takes a lot of time. Since I used condensed milk it was considerably quicker!

 Makes 16 peice.
 Ingredients:

1 tin milk maid.

2 cups full fat milk.

2-3 tbsp curd.

1 tsp lime juice.

2 cardamom pods crushed finely.

Few strands of saffron.

Pistachios and almond flakes to garnish.

Process:

Heat a non stick pan. Add milk and boil on a high flame. When it comes to a boil add the curd and take it off thegas for a moment. Give it a good stir. The milk will curdle. Now put it back on heat and add the condensed milk and give it a good stir. Add the lime juice  and stir. It will curdle too. Now add the crushed cardamom pods and saffron threads. At this moment if you want to add a little more sugar to your taste you can. Keep stirring and heating the curdled milk till it dries up. It will take about 25- 30 minutes.

Set it in a lined square tin and garnish it with pistachios and almonds. Let it cool down and then using it pizza cutter cut it into square size. Keep it in refrigerator.

Serve cold!
Sendin g this sweet to PJ's ongoing event- Lets Celebrate-Bengali Sweets,This event is the brain child of Nivedita And also sending it to Mina's Event CMT-Sweets started by Jagruti

Belated Diwali Wishes again! Wish you a very joyous, prosperous year ahead!

Tom-Veg Soup

Finally, I am back from India. Actually, I was around 2 weeks back and now I am 'kind of settled' after my - 'sort of' long holiday break! Also, finally I am back to blogging :-)..Needless to say I had a lovely time back home with family and friends. As it happens after coming back from India, there is a straight 20 degree change in temperature. The mornings and evenings have already started to be really cold here and what I need at these times is a piping hot soup to keep me warm and going! So, yes I am here with a hearty and healthy soup. And obviously, it has my favourite ingredient-'Tomato' and hence the name- Tom-Veg Soup!

Tom-Veg Soup:

A piping hot and filling soup for cold days.

Ingredients:

For 2 people:

2 large tomatoes
¼ cup finely shredded cabbage.
¼ cup grated carrots.
¼ cup chopped spring onions.
2 tbsp green beans chopped.
1 small onion finely chopped.
1 small tomato chopped.
Handful of coriander leaves chopped.
1 bay leaf.
1 tbsp sugar or less.
Salt to taste.
Freshly ground pepper to taste.
1 tsp corn flour.
1 tbsp tomato ketchup.
1 tsp oil.

Process:

Cut the tomatoes into chunks and boil in 1½ cup water and microwave it for 3 minutes on a high. Blend them and strain. Heat oil in a pan and add the bay leaf. Sauté and add the onion. After a minute add the beans and sauté for another minute. Add shredded cabbage and carrot and heat for 2 minutes. Now add the tomato puree and heat for 3-4 minutes. Mix the corn flour in a little water and add to the boiling soup mixture. Give it a good stir. Add tomato ketchup, salt, sugar, pepper, chopped spring onion, chopped tomato and coriander leaves. Give it a boil and then lower the heat. Cover the pan and heat for another 5 minutes.

Serve hot with your choice of bread but I had it by itself.

Happy Blogging! Enjoy!

Plum & Apple Crumble

A very easy and yummy dessert that does not need any elaborate preparation!

Sending this off to Baking from a Book-4 hosted by Sowjanya. This event is the brain child of Champa. Also sending this off to Champa's weekly Bake-Off.

Ingredients:

2-3 Fresh Plums deseeded and cut into wedges.

2 medium fresh apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges.

1 tsp golden syrup.

Splash of water.

1 tbsp caster sugar.

Pinch of cinnamon powder.

For the crumble topping:

1 tbsp butter.

1 tbsp brown sugar.

1 tbsp AP flour.

1 tbsp rolled oats.

Pinch of cinnamon.

Serves 2

Process:

Preheat the oven at 200 C. Line 2 heat proof bowls or ramekins with the plums wedges with the skin down followed by apple wedges. Drizzle golden syrup over it and add a splash of water. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon powder and heat in the oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile for the crumble topping, mix all the ingredients and rub it well till it resembles rough crumbs. Remove the bowls from the oven squeeze them lightly with the back of a spoon. Then cover it with the crumble mixture. Bake it in the oven for 20-22 minutes till the crumb layer is nice golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream or chilled custard.

No pain...Khaman Dhokla

Why 'No pain?' Well, I love Khaman Dhokla and sometimes I have severe cravings for it. So, I always keep a packet of Gits instant Dhokla in my pantry for those crazy cravings. Its not that I am doing a product review or anything. It is just that, I have always been satisfied with the way Gits Dhokla have come out. In fact, I don't know how to go about making Dhokla from scratch. When, I saw Nayna's Event - Flavours of Gujarat, I decided to write about my experience about making instant Khaman Dhokla, so that next time you need it fast you don't have to dig in your recipe book. I am in no way encouraging you to use instant stuff. It is just my experience!

I always remember the dailogue from the movie, 3 Idiots when I think of Gujrati cuisine, I donot remember it exactly but it was like  "dhokla, fafda, handwa, thepla, khakhra, etc.  Something like "Bush ne Iraq pe do dhokla gira diya" as if they were missiles. :D.  Hopefully I will try all these recipes in coming days:

Now coming to Dhokla again- Follow the instructions at the back of the Gits Dhokla pack for the Dhokla and tempering.

What I like to do in addition to that is soaking them in a Sugary-Lemony Syrup. 

For it you will need:

1/2 cup water.

1/4 cup sugar.

Generous pinch of salt.

Juice of 1 small lemon.

Process: 

Mix all the ingredients and let it sit till the sugar dissolves. Chill it in a refrigerator till needed.

Just 5 mins before serving pour the juice over the dhokla and let it sit for 3-5 mins. It should not become very soggy but the juice should be well infused. Serve with green chutney, tamarind chutney or ketchup.

Sending this off to Nayna's Event- Flavour of Gujarat. Enjoy!