INSTANT BADAM MILK USING HOME MADE KESAR BADAM MIX

How about having a glass full of goodness? I would call this badam milk a super drink. Yes, look at those ingredients, all are claimed to be the most nutritious things on this earth! Just mix a spoonful of this powder in a glass of milk and feed your kids, there is nothing better than this. delicious, healthy and vitamin rich drink.

There are lots of brands of badam mix are available in the market. But have you ever taken a look at those ingredients listed on that packets. If not please do read it before buying.It contains very less percentage of almond and a huge numbers of artificial preservatives and flavorings.so next time rather buying a ready mix get some almonds and make your own within minutes.here goes the recipe.it is super simple and easy. Do give a try and enjoy…

  KESAR BADAM MIX

Ingredients

1.     Almonds- 20

2.     Saffron-  a pinch

3.     Cardamom-  1, skin removed

4.     Sugar- 1 or 2 tbsp.

5.     Turmeric powder- a good pinch

Method of preparation

Dry roast the almonds in a pan for a minute. Put all ingredients in a blender and grind in to fine powder. While grinding stop the mixer in between ,scrape it from the sides and pound again to ensure uniform mixing. With this measurement around 3 glasses of badam milk can be made.

Store this in an airtight container and use within one month.

INSTANT BADAM MILK

Ingredients

Milk- 1 glass

2.     Badam mix- 1 heaped spoon

Method of preparation

Boil milk. Add the powder and mix well. Serve warm or chilled. Sugar is not needed as it is already added.

MOTICHOOR LADOO

For all Indians the word ladoo is the synonym of happiness.  ladoo makes its appearance on each and every occasion. This motichoor ladoo is different from normal ladoo in taste, size of the boondhi and also in texture. This ladoo is more soft, moist and tastier. Making ladoo is really simple and easy. Am wondering why i never tried making this before. But there are two things we should be really cautious, one is to get the sugar syrup in one string consistency and other is, the boondhis should not be crispy fried. If these two can be nailed, anyone can make ladoo.Do try this awesome recipe J

Ingredients

1.   Gram flour- 1cup

2.   Sooji rava (semolina)-1 tbsp., ground to powder

3.   Orange food color-2 pinches

4.   Sugar-3/4 cup

5.   Water –as required

6.   Cardamom- 3 or 4, powdered

7.   Nuts-around 10 or 15 nos,chopped

8.   Oil-for frying

Methof of preparation

1.   Take a mixing bowl, mix together gram flour, food color and rava.Make a medium thin batter by adding water little by little. The consistency supposed to be little thinner than dosa batter.

2.   For frying the boondhis we need a perforated ladle or a steel strainer with medium holes. Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan. When the oil is medium hot, take a ladle full of batter. With the other hand keep the perforated ladle above the frying pan, pour the batter through the holes in to the oil. It will fall as small drops. Once it falls into the oil, it will go down and within seconds these would come up. You can see it floating over the oil.At this moment boondis should be taken out from the oil or else it will turn crispy. It should not be crispy. Fry whole batter like this. Keep fried boondhis aside.

3.   Mix sugar and ¼ cup of water. Stir well to dissolve the sugar. Heat this sugar mix until it forms one string consistency.it may take 3 or 4 minutes in medium flame. To check the one string consistency, with a spoon take the sugar syrup and when you pour it from little height it will fall down as thin thread OR you can check with your fingers. Since the syrup is really hot checking with fingers is difficult.

6.   When the sugar syrup has attained one string consistency, pour it over the fried boondhis. Add cardamom powder and chopped nuts in to this. Mix well. If this mix is hot, let it cool.

7.   With the help of a mixie,grind this mix. Just one or two pulse is enough. This is to make the boondhis tiny in size. Do not over grind.

8.   Transfer the above mix in to a vessel. Grease your hands. Shape this mix into lemon sized balls.

Delicious ladoo is ready to be served.

STUFFED CHICKEN BUNS

Nowadays I am not very fond of cooking. So does the blogging. But I can never stay away from baking.I love sitting in front of the oven while the baking is going on and the sight of rising cakes,or buns gives me intense happiness. I have made this bun on a lazy dinner. Once I have tried this long before but was not happy with the outcome. But this time both the stuffing and bun texture turned out awesome. So I clicked the pics and couldn’t stop myself from sharing this wonderful recipe. I would say it is a must try for all bakery food lovers like me. I tried making it as healthy as possible. I have made Around 12 buns and one good sized cater pillar bread with this measurement. The bun was super soft and melts in mouth kind of texture. For the filling I have used both chicken and vegetables. The filling can be modified according to your imaginations. Here goes the recipe…

Ingredients for the bun

1.    All purpose flour/ Maida- 4 cups

2.    Dry yeast- 1 n ½ tbsp

3.    Warm milk- as required to knead the dough ( I didn’t measure)

4.    Sugar-1/4 cup

5.    Salt-1tsp

6.    Oil-1/4 cup

7.    Curd-2 or 3 tbsp

8.    Egg- 1 lightly beaten ,for brushing the bun

9.    Sesame seeds-white or black for sprinkling over the top

For the filling

1.    Chicken – around 150 gms

2.    Green beans-10 nos,chopped

3.    Carrot-1 medium sized,grated

4.    Cabbage -1 cup,chopped

5.    Onion- 2 medium sized,chopped

6.    Ginger garlic paste-1 n ½ tbsp

7.    Chilly podwer-1/2 tsbp

8.    Coriander powder-1/2 tbsp

9.    Garam masala powder -1 tsp

10    Salt to taste

11    Oil-1 bor 2tbsp

12.   Water-1/4 cup

Method of preparation

1.    Mix yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar in ¼ cup of lukewarm water and keep it aside for 10 minutes for proofing. This is the most important step .If your yeast fails to proof then your bread or bun will become as hard as stone. So make sure the yeast mixture has well risen.

2.    Take the flour in a deep and big bowl. Add curd and salt into this and gently mix. Mix the risen yeast,oil.sugar, warm milk in another bowl.(keep some milk aside as iam not sure of the quantity of the milk needed to knead the dough.)Add this into the flour and knead into soft and smooth dough. Add more milk if required. The dough has to  be kneaded for at least eight minutes. Keep the kneaded dough covered in a warm place for 3 or 4 hours to rise and doubles the volume.

3.    For the filling- Cook chicken by adding ¼ cup of water, salt and little turmeric powder. Once chicken has cooked remove the pieces from the stock. Cook the chopped vegetables in the same chicken stock. (this gives some extra flavor for the filling).chop the cooked chicken and keep it aside.

4.    Heat oil in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste and onion and sauté until onion turns soft. Add the spice powders and sauté until the raw smell goes. Now add the cooked chicken and vegetable Add salt if required and mix everything well. Switch off the flame .Now the filling is ready.

5.    Lets get back to the dough. Punch the risen dough to release the air. Divide the dough into medium sized balls slightly bigger than that of chappathi balls. Flatten the balls into thick discs and shape it into cups. Keep a big spoon full of filling into this and punch the edges to shape them into buns. Grease a baking tray ,place buns with few centimeters gap as it will rise while baking. After shaping all the buns preheat the oven At 250◦c for 10 minutes. By this time the buns will have a second rise. Brush the top of the buns with beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds and bake at 180◦c for 15 minutes or until it is cooked and turned slightly brown.

KOTHU CHAPPATHI

Chappathi is a staple food in all Indian kitchens. Finding a good side dish for chappathi is bit difficult for many. This kothu chappathi spares you from making side dish and also saves time. Moreover, the best way to utilize leftover chappathis. Just like Kothu porotta, cooked chappathi is shredded into small pieces and then sauted with some masalas .I got this recipe from a T.V show .I tried it with little variations .It turned out delicious and we all loved it.

Ingredients

1.    Chappathi-6,nos

2.    Onion-1 medium,chopped

3.    Eggs- 2 or 3 nos

4.    Ginger-1 small piece, chopped

5.    Green chilly-2nos,chopped

6.    Garlic-7pods,chopped

7.    Coriander powder-1tsp ,heaped

8.    Chilly powder-1/4 tsp

9.    Garam masala-3/4 tsp

10.  Pepper powder-1/2 tsp

11.   Tomato-1 medium ,chopped

12.  Oil-1tbsp

13.     Salt

Method of preparation

1.    Cut chappathi into small pieces. ( Using a kitchen scissors will make this job much easier).Keep it aside.

2.    Heat oil in a pan, sauté ginger, garlic and green chilly for a minute. Add in all the powders except pepper powder. Stir for few seconds. Add chopped tomatoes and cook until it turns soft.

3.     Meantime, take a big bowl. Crack open eggs into this and beat lightly. Add pepper powder, chopped onion and salt. Add chopped chappathi into this .Mix well so that all the chappathi pieces can coat well with the egg mix.

4.    Add this chappathi pieces into the prepared masala.Mix well with the masala.

5.    Close the pan .Cook in low flame for few minutes or until the eggs is cooked. Mix again and stir continuously for few more minutes. Enjoy as such or with onion raitha..

MASALA SEMIYA (VERMICELLI)

This is one regular thing in my kitchen .I always being lazy to do a post on this recipe for no reason :).Everyone’s favorite Maggi noodles has been banned and lot of controversies is going on. I guess this is the right time to do a post on this recipe as this Masala Semiya resembles Maggi in appearance and taste as well. Hope this one can be a boon to all desperate magi lovers like me.

Semiya , these cute strings are my utmost favorite. I love to have it any form sweet or savory. While I was kid, it was  my duty to break long strings of semiya for making payasam.But now things are easy as broken roasted semiya is available everywhere. I make sure to buy a packet of semiya on every grocery purchase. Whenever I feel like to binge on something I make this masala semiya.When I made this last time, I was struggling to get my plate from my little Kannan.Yes he also loves it. It was fun watching him gobble up those strings. Whenever he is reluctant to take baby foods, I make this to feed him. This recipe is simple and can be made in a jiffy. This is a basic recipe. Chicken or vegetables can be added to make it more nutritious and flavorful.

Ingredients

1.      Roasted semiya-200gm

2.      Onion-1 small, chopped

3.      Ginger – ½ inch piece, chopped

4.      Garlic-5 pods, chopped

5.      Tomato-1 medium, chopped

6.      Whole spices-1 or 2 cardamoms,2cloves,1 small stick of cinnamon

7.      Coriander powder-1 tsp

8.      Chilly powder-1/2tsp

9.      Garam masala-3/4tsp

10.  Salt

11.  Oil-1tbsp

12.  Water- for 1 cup of semiya around 1 cup of water to be  required. It may vary depends on the type or brand of semiya.So add water accordingly.

Method of preparation

1.      Heat oil in a pan. Add whole spices .when the aroma comes add ginger and garlic. Sauté for a minute.Add onions and saute until onion turns soft. Add in all powders and stir for a minute. Add chopped tomatoes and a tbsp of water .Cook until it turns mushy.

2.      Add salt and required quantity of water. Let it boil. Add semiya in. Mix well. Reduce the flame. Cover and cook until water dries up and semiya is cooked through. Stir in between to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Switch off the flame .Separate  the strings and  give a nice mix  again using a fork and serve hot.

WHOLE WHEAT CARROT MUFFINS

Here I have used the same recipe of my carrot cake with very few variations. I made this ‘n ‘number of times. This has become our family favorite. When I prepared this last time, I thought to make it healthier by substituting Maida with Wheat flour and I converted it as muffins. I did not have any clue how the texture would be as the cake with wheat flour tend to become little dense. But to my surprise, it was as soft as the one with all purpose flour. More over it tastes more delicious. Over to the recipe…

Ingredients

1.      Carrot grated -1 n 1/2 cup

2.      Whole wheat flour or atta-1 cup

3.      Egg-2 nos

4.      Sugar-1 cup

5.      Baking powder-1tsp

6.      Salt-less than ¼ tsp

7.      Refined oil-1/2cup

8.      Vanilla essence-1 tsp

9.      Cinnamon powder- 1tsp (optional)

Method of preparation

1.      Preheat the oven to 150degree.

2.      Line  a  muffin tray with paper liners or just grease the tray.

3.      Combine flour, baking powder and salt together. Keep it aside.

4.      Beat egg till frothy. Add sugar in and beat again. Add oil,  grated carrot and vanilla essence. Give a gentle stir. Now add the combined flour mix. Fold in gently using a spatula or a spoon.

5.      Fill only 3/4 th of each liner. Bake at 150 ◦ for 20 -25 minutes or till the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

6.      Transfer it into a cooling rack. Let it cool completely.

With this measurement I got around 9 medium sized muffins.

 

thats my little one trying to take the  cakes while i was picturing it :)