Qubani Ka Meetha (Stewed Apricot Dessert) SNC Challenge For The Month Of May2013

Qubani Ka Meetha. Though I'm from south india but never heard of this sweet before. One more thing just want to add I don't like apricot at all. When i saw my email this was the challenge for this month, for some time i thought i will skip this month challenge. But my hubby told me without trying how can you give up and it was a real challenge for me to cook this sweet. I asked my hubby will you eat this if i cook and he replied "You are asking me will i eat sweet". Then suddenly i realize OMG, he can eat sweet in any form and i should not be worrying so much to cook this... Belive me my whole flat was smelling of this sweet only while cooking and i did not like the smell, but my hubby was really enjoying. I serve with vanilla ice cream and it turn out to be the hit in my family. It was tasting so good even i was tempted to have one bite.... All thanks to Roha from Hyderabadi Cuisine for hosting this month challenge and give me opportunity to try out some thing new and yummy..

 

 

This is the wonderful thing in SNC group, where you get to try every month new new varieties. Thank you Divya Pramil for stating this group and making every one proud to be a part of this group.

 

 

 

Ingredients
½ Cup Dried Apricots
3 tbsp Sugar- As per taste
2 Crushed Green Cardamom( Elaichi)
1 tsp Lemon juice.

 

 

For Garnishing
Apricot kernels
Slice of roasted and blanched Almonds and Pistachios
½ Cup vanilla ice Cream.

 

 

Cooking Method
In a deep bowl wash and add dried Apricots cover with water and soak overnight.
Once the apricots is moist and swollen, remove apricots with a slotted spoon and then drain the apricots from the soaking liquid water aside.(The soaking syrup is used for preparing the meetha)
Then de-seed and keep aside.
Do not throw away the Apricot seed/pit crack the seed remove the (Apricot Kernels) for garnishing
In a non-stick saucepan at a medium heat, Add soaking liquid and plump apricots.
Allow to boil for 10- 15 minutes.

Add sugar and stir until it has completely dissolves. At a low heat add few drops of lemon juice to prevent caramelisation , add the crush cardamom.
Stir often to prevent burning, if required, sprinkle little water or milk to prevent from burning.
Meanwhile crack the seed with a nutcracker to extract the nuts and blanch nuts in boiling water for 1 minute and remove the skin and keep aside.
Then mash apricots with spoon occasionally, Do not cook on a high heat, stir occasionally until apricots are soft and pulpy and mushy if needed add water or milk. Remove from the heat when it reaches the desired thick consistency or into thick Compote.
Allow Qubani to cool.
Garnish with apricot kernels, Almonds and Pistachios and with ice cream.
Serve warm or cool and Enjoy..

 

Bread Pudding!!!

Bread Pudding.. Like every sunday, today also i woke up at 10am and made ginger tea. Then i woke my husband, with the tea and news paper... Before reading main news paper, i always read the Times Life first in Sunday edition. I was just reading and looking all those glossy pictures of beautiful homes. Then suddenly i saw a coloum about Terrance Lewis, Choreographer. It talked about his childhood days and his favorite cuisine etc. During his childhood days his mom use to bake bread pudding on every Sundays lunch, and this is his favorite pudding and he loves to eat every time.

 

 

The picture was looking so appealing and it tempted me to bake it right away... I have never baked a bread pudding before and this recipe was very simple and easy. With no preparation i baked this bread pudding as i had all the ingredients at home and that made my job easy and filled me with lot of joy after seeing the result.. Simple to bake and delicious to eat... Here goes the recipe.

 

 

Serves-3

Preparation Time-5 to 10 minutes

Baking Time-40 minutes

Ingredient's
4 slice of bread
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2tsp vanilla essence
1/2tsp cinnamon powder
3tbsp sugar
2tbsp raisins
1tbsp butter.

 

 

 

Baking Method
Pre-heat the oven to 175c.
Slice bread into small pieces (any shape you want) and place them into baking dish (I have used rectangular baking dish). Drizzle melted butter and some raisins over them.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly press down with a fork until the slices are completely covered and soaked in the egg mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.
Serve Hot or Warm.

Rainbow Cupcake!!!

Rainbow Cupcake.. My hubby wanted me to bake this rainbow cupcake from so many days and i use to always tell him will bake some other time. I was thinking that making rainbow cupcake is very long process and it will take more time because of that only never baked... Last night we were watching late night movie and didn't sleep till 3am. Then sushil felt very hungry and told me to cook something, but i didn't want to cook anything, after having a very long discussion what to cook, then suddenly i told him lets bake Rainbow Cupcake now. He gave me a smile and told, at this time you want to bake? and my answer was yes!! If not now then it will be never. Some how i made him to help me and stand next to me so that i don't feel scared. Then i finished baking this cupcake at 4:15 am and gave him to eat 1 cupcake and then we slept. In the morning i clicked the pictures.... You know what, early morning cupcake were so tasty and delicious:)

 

 

 

Ingredient's

1/2+1/6 cups all-purpose flour
1tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1egg, room temperature
Edible food color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue)

 

 

For Butter Cream Frosting
1/4cup butter, room temperature
1cup icing sugar
2tsp milk
1tsp heavy cream.

 

 

Baking Method
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 9 cup muffin pans with paper baking cups.
Stir together the flour, baking powder, in a large bowl, set it aside.
Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the egg and blend for another 1minute. Then add the flour mixture and milk, mixing until just incorporated.
Divide the cake batter into five separate bowls. Add a few drops of food coloring into one bowl of batter and stir; add more food coloring, if necessary, to reach the desired shade. Repeat with the remaining colors and bowls of batter.
Using a different spoon for each color batter, spoon a small spoonful of each color into the cupcake liners, until 1/2 to 3/4 full. Do not mix the batter once it is in the cupcake liner. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes.

 

 

Method For Butter Cream Frosting
In a mixing bowl add butter and beat till fluffy and slowly add sugar and beat for 1minute. Then add cream, milk and food color (of your choice). mix together to combine well for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

 

 

Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake!!!!

Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes. This is my first colorful frosting on vanilla cupcakes, i had never tried food color with my frosting. This time one of my cupcake buyer requested me to make some colorful frosting for cupcakes. Actually i don't like colors for my food, but what to do you have listen to them. After thinking for a very longtime i decided to chose my 2 favorite colors(edible food colours- chemical free) and kept the design very simple, so that they look pretty and colorful too.... I think when you add color they look very pretty and I have fallen in love with these cupcake frosting, from now on i will play with more color...

 

 Ingredient's
1/2+1/6 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
1/3cup sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1egg.

 

 

 

 For Vanilla Butter Cream
1/4cup butter
1cup icing sugar
2tsp cream
1tsp vanilla essence
pinch of food color of your choice.

 

Baking Method
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake tin with liners and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, vanilla and baking powder, set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and cream together until you get a smooth mixture. Add the dry ingredients and with the speed on low mix together and slowly add the milk and just mix everything to combine. DO NOT OVERMIX! Make sure you give everything a good stir with a spatula from the bottom to incorporate any bit that wasn't mixed.
Scoop the batter into your lined cupcake tin, make sure it's only filled ¾ of the way up because they will rise. Bake for 20 minutes and let cool for about 45 minutes before frosting. 

 

To Make Butter Cream
In a mixing bowl add butter and beat till fluffy and slowly add sugar and beat for 1minute. Then add vanilla, cream and food color. mix together to combine well for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

 

 

Paal Kolukattai.. Rice Dumpling In Sweet Coconut Sauce

Everyone is aware of this wonderful event running by Divya Pramil of You too can cook Indian Food . If not please click the link here to join. I'm very happy and excited to participate in this challenge. I would like to thanks to Divya Pramil  for giving me a chance to be a part of this wonderful SNG group.

Paal Kolukatti... This name was very different and the recipe is very new to me, though i'm from south India , but i have never heard of this recipe. When i came to know this is the challenge for the month February, i was very excited to cook this and serve it to my family. They all just love it very much. Thanks to Sasi from the Tamil Kitchen for giving this wonderful challenge and delicious recipe to learn..

Ingredient's.

2 cups Rice flour

1 big sized Coconut

1 cup Sugar

1/4 tsp Cardamom powder (optional)

Salt 1/2tsp.

Cooking Method.

Shred the coconut and extract the coconut milk. Take one glass of the first thick milk and keep aside.Then extract the rest as thin.

Take the flour in a wide bowl and add required salt for the flour and use enough water to make a soft dough.(Don’t make it hard else it will be hard to roll to kollukattai . If you made it sticky you can cover it with a cotton cloth to observe excess water.)

Spread a cotton towel. Apply oil on your palm and take a small amount of dough in your hands and roll them in to kolukattais (as shown in the picture). Roll the rest as same and as small as possible in desired size, if you roll it in to big size then it may taste bland when cooked in coconut milk.

Allow the rice balls to dry in the room temperature, it will take 2 hrs ( Don’t let them dry under the fan or in sunlight as it will make the rice balls harder and will not cook easily. Just keep in room temperature for few hours)

Transfer the rice balls in to a plate. Set everything ready to make pal kolukattai.

Take a kadai and pour the thin coconut milk and allow it to boil.

Keep in medium flame and add half of the rice balls and don’t disturb them for 2 mins and slowly use a laddle.

Now add the rest of the rice balls and let it boil for another 2 mins and stir it with a laddle. 

Allow them to boil in medium flame for 7-8 mins (untill the rice balls get cooked , stir in between to avoid sticking).

Now add the sugar and a pinch of salt and allow to boil .

The sugar will dissolve and the consistency will become thin , allow to boil for another 8 mins untill you get a thick consistency, Stir in between to avoid burning .

Now pour in the thick coconut milk and give it a stir and switch of the flame.

Serve cold or warm.. I prefer warm..

Sheer Khurma. (Sevai And Milk Sweet)

Sheer Khurma. This is one of the very famous sweet dish in every muslim family's. I still remember when ever any festival comes my elder sis use to cook sevai first and then other things, and that is the first dish we all use to eat in the breakfast. I always use to fight with my sis why do you serve sweet first, as you know i don't like sweet and her reply use to be start the day with sweet so that your day is good as sweet. I have already one post of sheer khurma, that is the thick version. To make it little different from the usual one, I have added more milk and khova so that it can been serve as a cold sevai drink...

Ingredient's

1/2 thin sevai 

1/2ltr milk 

5tbsp sugar 

2tbsp khova 

1 cardamom, 1 clove

3tbsp ghee 

4 to 5 tbsp dry fruits (almond, cashew, Rinsin)

Cooking Method

In broad pan, add ghee, when the ghee is hot, add cardamom, clove and 2tbsp of dry fruits. fry them to the lite golden brown.

Add khova and fry till the khova is melted, then add milk, mix it and bring to boil 

When the milk is boiling, add sugar, low the flame and add sevai, allow them to cook for 2 to 3mintues, keep stirring in between. 

Take sevai of the stove, and add left over dry fruits and cover the lid. allow them to cool it down. 

Sreve Warm or Cold.

Bengali Rasgulla..

Rasgulla it is popular throughout India and other parts of South Asia. The dish is made from ball shaped dumplings of chhena (an Indian cottage cheese), cooked in light sugar syrup. This is done until the syrup permeates the dumplings. This was the first attempt and i was quite happy with the result.

Ingredients:

4 cups milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 1/2 cups water

1tsp arrowroot flour

Pressure cooker.

Method for Paneer/Chhena

Mix lemon juice in half cup of hot water and keep aside.

Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.

As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.

Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with muslin cloth.

Wrap the curd in a muslin cloth, and rince under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.

To check if enough water is out of the paneer, take a little piece of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.

Once the paneer is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until the paneer is almost rolls into smooth soft dough.

Knead the paneer and arrowroot flour by dragging the palm of your hand hard on the paneer. Keep scooping it back to togather and knead more. If the paneer is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of water. Your palm will be little greasy.

Method For Rasgulla 

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.

To make the balls apply some pressure at the first and then release when forming the balls.

Mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker on medium high heat and bring to a boil.

Add the paneer balls and close the pressure cooker. After the pressure cooker starts steaming, turn the heat to medium and cook for about seven minutes.

Make sure the pressure cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished Rasgullas, as they will expand to about double in the volume while cooking in the syrup.

Close the heat and wait a few minutes before you opening the pressure cooker. Pour cold water over the pressure cooker before opening.

Rasgullas should be little spongy. Serve the Rasgullas chilled.

Bundt Cake .. In My Style!!! (Eid Special)

Bundt Cake, this was my dream to bake this cake from a long long time but never had confidence. Last week i was just going through few blogs, from there i got this recipe and i got the confidence to give it a try. I have changed few ingredients and the measurement to this bundt cake original recipe, and it was the best cake i have ever made. Though this was my first attempt to bake this bundt cake, believe me i was shocked by the results. Thanks to the people who made this bundt cake and also gave me the confidence to bake this very difficult cake.. Here is the recipe for you all...

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 large lemon and lemon zest

4 large eggs.

For Glaze on top 

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons water.

Baking Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cake. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, eggs, lemon juice and zest. Whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk in dry ingredients just until combined (do not overmix). Pour the batter in to the prepared bundt cake pan and smooth top.

Bake until a tester inserted in cake comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes, invert onto rack to cool completely.

Make the Glaze. Whisk together confectioners' sugar and enough water to form a thick yet pourable glaze. Set rack with cake over a piece of wax paper (for easy cleanup) drizzle cake with glaze, and allow the glaze to set before serving. Cut into pices and serve with some whipped cream or as it is.

Orange Muffin's..

Muffin is an American English name for a type of quick bread that is baked in small portions. Many forms are somewhat like small cakes or cupcakes in shape, although they usually are not as sweet as cupcakes and generally lack frosting. They may be filled with sweet fillings, such as chocolate, orange, toffee, lemons, or blueberries. I have tried with orange and the muffin has come out very tasty and beautiful...

Ingredients

3 eggs

1 large orange pulp 

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

Baking Method

Preheat oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C).

Grease muffin tins (paper muffin bake cups are recommended) or 12-15 medium cups.

In a bowl mix flour and baking powder together and keep it aside

In a different bowl beat the butter with sugar till fluffy, then add eggs, beat for 1minute. Now add vanilla and milk. beat for another 1 minute. Then fold in the flour mixture and orange pulp mix it nicely.

Then pour the mixture into a grease muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees, until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 minutes for XL muffins, about 20 minutes for medium size muffins. The Orange Muffins may be served hot or at room temperature.

Choco Banana Muffins..

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 large banana

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1tsp sesame seeds (for sprinkling on top)

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup (150 g) butter (room temperature)

Baking Method

Preheat oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C).

Grease muffin tins (paper muffin bake cups are recommended) or 12-15 medium cups.

In a bowl mix flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together and keep it aside

In a different bowl beat the butter with sugar till fluffy, then add eggs and banana. beat for 1minute. Now add vanilla and milk. beat for another 1 minute. Then fold in the flour mixture and mix it nicely.

Then pour the mixture into a grease muffin tins and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Bake at 350 degrees, until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 minutes for XL muffins, about 20 minutes for medium size muffins. The Chocolate Muffins may be served hot or at room temperature.