Rava Ladoo....!!!

Here I am posting a very easy but tasty rava laddoo. I know most of us are fond of eating sweets but we have many reasons to say NO to it! If your reason is too lazy to make one at home, then this is just for you. The easiest of all laddoos! Rava Laddoo!

Ingredients:
Semolina (Rava)                 1 cup
Powdered Sugar                  ¾ cup
Grated Coconut                   ½ cup
Milk (Warm)                       ¼ cup(or as per you need to make balls)
Ghee                                    2 tbsp
Cardamom powder              ¼ tsp
Cashews & Raising             as per you like 

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a pan and roast cashes until golden brown. Keep aside.
2. Now in the same pan roast coconut for a couple of mins. Make sure they doesn’t turn brown. Add this into the roasted cashews.
3. Now roast the rava until the raw smell goes off. Approx 5 mins.
4. In a large bowl, add rava, roasted cashews, raisins, roasted coconut, powdered sugar, cardamom powder and mix well. Add in milk little by little until u feel u can make a ball out of it.
5. Make small lemon sized balls and keep for 10 mins for drying. Enjoy you laddoos :) :)
6. If your kitchen is not too warm, you can store this for about 3 days in room temperature or for 5 days in ref.

Palak Paneer...!!!

This is a yummy veggie recipe... This is basically a combination of spinach, tomato and paneer with some Indian spices... :)
Lets start with the recipe..

Ingredients:

Spinach(Palak)	300 gm
Green chilly	3
Water	3 cups (for blanching spinach)
Onion	2
Garlic	5 cloves
Ginger	a small pc
Tomato	1
Cumin seeds	½ tsp
Turmeric powder	¼ tsp
Red Chilly powder	½ tsp
Asafoetida/ hing powder	a pinch
Garam Masala	½ tsp
Bay leaf	1
Kasuri Methi	1 tsp
Paneer / cottage cheese	300 gm
Whipping cream	2 tbsp.
Butter	2 tbsp.

  Salt

Method:

1. Clean the spinach thoroughly under running water.
2. In a vessel boil 3 cups of water. Off the flame and add spinach into this.
3. Keep it for around 2-3 mins. Drain excess water.
4. Pour cold water over the spinach to cool it down before grinding it.
5. In a blender add spinach and green chillies and blend into a smooth paste.
6. In a pan heat butter and add bay leaf and chopped onions and sauté until golden brown.
7. Now add chopped ginger and garlic and sauté until the raw smell goes off.
8. Add chopped tomato and sauté until they are soft.
9. Into this add turmeric powder, red chilly powder and hing powder and sauté for a min.
10. Now add the spinach paste into this along with 1/2 cup of water, add salt and cook until the raw smell of spinach goes off.
11. Once the curry have reached the desired consistency add the cubed paneer pieces (I sauted it in butter).
12. Add the whipped cream and kasoori methi above the curry. Off the flame and serve hot with chappattis or nan :) :)

Ras Malai..!

Ras Malai is one of my favorite Indian dessert. I always used to order this and kulfi if I happen to visit and Indian restaurant. These yummy rasagulas in the rabri are just heavenly. This recipe is not an easy peasy one. This doest take some time and does require patience. Well no pain no gain isn’t it ;) So I normally prepare this whenever we call our family or friends for lunch or for occasions like Eid. I haven’t tried any other methods of making paneer as I have been totally satisfied with the method that I use. 

Makes : 20 pieces

Ingredients:
For Paneer:
Milk                      2 ltr
Vinegar                    2 tbsp diluted n ½ cup water
Ice Water                3 cups or more

For Rasagulas
Sugar                        1 cup
Water                        6 cups (plus as reduces)
Cardamom powder   1 tsp or as per taste

Rabri:
Milk                          1.5 ltr
Almond slices           5-6 

Cardamom powder   As per taste

Saffron                      2 pinch
Sugar                       1 cups (or more or less as per taste)

Method:
For Paneer

1. Boil the milk in a big vessel.
2. When this starts to boil, reduce the flame and add vinegar diluted in water.
3. The milk will start to curdle. Now switch of the flame and add 3 cups of ice water. This is a tip to get soft paneer.
4. In the sink, place a colander, on top of it layer a muslin cloth and pour the whole paneer on it. The water will drain and paneer will stay in the cloth. Open the tap and run some more water on top of it. 
5. Now close the muslin cloth with paneer inside it and press out the excess water. I normally hang it on my pipe for until I prepare Rabri. 

Rabri

1. While the paneer is hung, let’s prepare the rabri.
2. Boil 2 liters on milk in a bottom thick vessel.
3. Add sugar, cardamom powder and saffron
4. Boil this until it reduces to half the quantity.
5. Keep aside.

Rasagulas

1. Boil 6 cups of water with 1 cup of sugar and 2 tsp cardamom powder.
2. Open the muslin cloth and kneed the paneer well. 
3. Make small balls out of it and flatten a little.
4. The size can be small as this will puff up when we boil it in water.
5. Take a little deep plate and pour some of the boiled water to it. (this is for transferring the cooked rasagulas) 
6. Keep the boiling water on high flame and add these flattened balls slowly to it.
7. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. 
8. Remove the cooked rasagulas and add them to the water that we took out of the boiling syrup. 
9. Keep for 10 minutes. Now squeeze this in with your palm slowly to drain the water out. DON’T press it hard. A slight squeeze should do.
10. Now transfer these to the rabdi. Garnish with some more saffron and sliced pistachios. 
11. Cool this is fridge overnight and enjoy the best home made ras malai 

Zucchini Lasagna (Keto Recipe)

I have been doing this Keto Diet for the past one month. Keto Diet is also known as Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet. I haven’t seen a great difference in my weight yet although people around me are saying that I look like I have lost weight which indeed is nice to hear ;) The diet includes all the high fat food such as full fat dairy, red meat, poultry and excludes fruits except for berries. I did have a lot of difficulties in my body once I started this. Let me tell you this one month wasn’t the happiest  but now that my body is used to this eating style, I have felt much better. The heart burn problems and bloating issues has totally gone from my body. Anyway, the reason for me explaining this to you is to introduce you all to this absolutely delicious lasagne made of zucchini. This is a keto recipe. Since I dint have marinara sauce, I made one myself. 

Ingredients:

Ground beef or mutton                       1 kg

Tomato paste                                      2 small pack

Zucchini                                              3

Garlic                                                  4 cloves

Basil (dried)                                        2 tsp

Parsley (dried)                                    2 tsp

Mozerella (shredded)                         as required

Parmesan (grated)                              2-3 tbsp

Olive oil

Method:

1. Slice the zucchinis lengthwise into thin slices (it will look like sheets). I used a peeler to do this. 
2. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, heat 2 tbsp. olive oil.
4. Add chopped garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Add the minced meat and cook for 5 minutes.
6. Now add tomato paste, basil and parsley and cook for another 5 minutes and switch off the flame.
7. In a greased baking pan, layer the zucchini sheets. On top of it pour some meat mixture.
8. On top of that add mozzarella and parmesan.
9. Continue this until you have layered all zucchini and the top most layer must only be off mozzarella and parmesan.
10. Bake this for 30 minutes. Serve hot with some freshly chopped basil or parsley. 

Balaleet (An Arabic Breakfast)

Here is another personal favorite of mine. I never knew about this yummy Arabic breakfast until one of my classmate brought this while I was doing my diploma. I loved it the very first time I tasted it. I made this one day casually for breakfast and my hubby absolutely loved it. It’s a very easy recipe. 

Ingredients:
Thick and short Vermicelli               1 cup
Sugar                                               ½ cup
Cardamom powder                            as per taste
Butter                                                2 tbsp
Saffron                                              2 pinches
Rose water                                        2 tbsp
Eggs                                                  2 
Salt                                                    as per taste
Pepper powder                                   as per taste
Oil                                                     2 tbsp

Method:

1. In a pan add 2 tbsp butter and roast the vermicelli until golden brown.

2. Now in another pan boil some water enough to boil the vermicelli.

3. When the water started to boil, add vermicelli and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Now drain the water for vermicelli.

5. In a pan add 2 more tbsp. of butter, Add cardamom powder, sugar, saffron and rose water. If required, add little water. Once the sugar is totally dissolved switch off the heat. (the sugar might crystalize at first but will loosen later. We need a loose consistency)

6. Now pour this over the cooked vermicelli and cover and keep on low heat for 2 minutes.

7. Now we need to make an omelet to go on top of this.

8. Beat two eggs with salt and little pepper.

9. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and add the egg and fry. 

10. Place this omelet on top of the vermicelli while serving.

11.   Instead of omelet, scrambled eggs can also be made. Enjoy tasty yummy balaleet. 

Chicken Korma..!

Ingredients:

Chicken                                        1 kg

Onion                                           2 big

Ginger and garlic paste                1 tbsp                                             

Yogurt                                          2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder                         ½ tsp

Chilli powder                               2 tsp

Cashews                                       a handful (soaked)

Cardamom                                   5-6

Cloves                                          5

Cinnamon                                    1 pc

Bay leaf                                       1

Butter/ cooking oil

Coriander or mint leaves

Method:

1.  Marinate the chicken with yogurt, chilli powder and turmeric   powder.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf   and cardamom.

3.  Now add chopped onions and saute until light brown.

4.  Add the marinated chicken and ginger garlic paste and saute  for few minutes.

5.  Add enough water and close and cook until chicken is fully done.

6.  Grind the soaked cashew into paste and add to the cooked chicken.

7.  Keep on low flame for 5 minutes and switch off the flame.

8.  Garnish with some chopped coriander or mint leaves.

9. Enjoy the easy chicken korma with mushroom pulao or jeera rice (recipe in my blog) 😊