Tri colour halwa

 

Doraemon's Dora cakes

My daughter loves Doraemon cartoon. As Doraemon loves Dora cake, she too loves Dora cakes as well. So here is Doraemon's favorite Dora cake!

INGREDIENTS

8 SERVINGS

All purpose flour   2 cups
Milk                  1 3⁄4 cups
Caster sugar        3⁄4 cup
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Egg 1 number
Dairy milk or any chocolate   1




PREPARATION STEPS

1 Mix in egg vanilla essence caster sugar and milk in one bowl.
2 Sieve all purpose flour in another bowl. ( in case using maida, please add 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of baking soda to it. )
3 Slowly add in this mixture to the egg mixture and mix well till there is no lump formation.
4 In a hot tava or a pan, pour 1/4rth of a scooped spoon or a ladle of the mixture. The ideal size of a Dora cake is inner palm size.
5 Once bubble starts to form, its time to flip. Be careful while doing so.
6 Cook for around a minute. Move it to a plate.
7 Continue doing this till all the mixture is over.
8 Boil water in a vessel and place another vessel over it to cream the chocolate.
9 Spread the chocolate cream on a pancake and place the other over it. Do the same for the rest and refrigerate for the chocolate to solidify.
10
Serve half cur or as a whole! Yummy Dora Cakes ready! Don't forget to share it with Doraemon!
Kids would love this.

Gajar Halwa

Ingredients:

Indian red carrots: 1 kg
Sugar 1 to 2 bowls
Khova/mava: 100g
Elaichi: 6 to 7
Ghee: 4 to 5 tblspoons

Preperation:
Grate carrots to thin shreds. in a deep vessel, preferably a large pressure cooker as you need lots of room to stir, pour in ghee and stir fry the grated carrots till the raw smell of the carrots are gone. Then add in crushed khova and sugar with crushed elaichi seeds. Mix in very well till it reaches its thick consistency. It will take around half an hour for the halwa to reach its desired consistency. You can garnish it with sliced almonds and pistachios if desired. Serve hot. 

Thari unda or sooji laddoo

This is a very traditional Kerala sweet. I call it healthy too as this ladoo doesn't have a single drop of ghee or oil. BUt at the same time, to relish this yum dessert, the person making need to handle very hot mixtures with bare hands. I rarely make this sweet despite my family loving it as i cant bear the heat part. Anyways, it make take several tries for the exact texture and taste but with the measurements precisely mentioned, the number of tries would surely reduce. 

Ingredients

Rava /thari or sooji: 2 cups

Scrapped coconut: 1 cup

Sugar: 1 cup

water: 3 tablespoon

Preparation:

Roast the rava till it has the texture of sand. keep aside. In a deep vessel, pour in sugar and water when it starts to bubble add coconut. Stir for a minute add roasted rava. Mix well for around a minute or so.

Next is the tricky part. Place a bowl of iced water to immerse your hand. while balling the laddoos. With the help of a ladle take a ball of the mixture and place it on your palm that has been chilled immersed in the iced water. ball it immediately and place it on a plate. Make sure not to burn your hand. Its important to do this while the mixture is very hot else the sugar solidifies and balling of the mixture wont happen. After the laddoos or balls are made which might be soft while making hardens as time passes by and serving immediately after preparation would be best suited. 

N.B-> for flavoring,  powdered cardamom or 2 drops of vanilla essence can be added with the sugar. 

Smoothie punch

During the summers, I rather look for something to drink than eat. So while fishing the internet for some good recipes, I came through this tempting Italian smoothie.

The fruits I used in this recipe had a very strong sour taste to it but the final smoothie, was absolutely yummy, especially the vanilla twist.

You can very much substitute the fruits used in here with any fruits you have at home irrespective of it being a sweet or sour dominant fruit, but yes, if you are using a sweet fruit make sure to reduce the sugar quantity.

Ingredients:

Strawberry: 7 to8 in numbers Slit in the middle

Mango: 2 (peeled and diced.)

Orange: 2 deseeded

Sugar: 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence: 1 drop

Preparation:

Mix the strawberries, mangoes and oranges with vanilla essence and sugar in a bowl and keep aside for 2 hours. DO NOT ADD WATER. Make a smooth paste of the mixture and refrigerate it before serving. If the smoothie tastes too sweet, add a little water to it. But the best would be to alter the sugar amount initially than adding water.

Besan ladoo in a healthier avatar.

Besan ladoo is a typical North Indian Desert. It is easy to make and rich in flavours. The main ingredient of a Besan Ladoo is 'chick Pea flour'. Even though, it is listed as one among the favourite deserts of Indians, I wouldn't possibly tag it as healthy. The reason is the amount of Ghee (clarified butter) used in a typical Besan Ladoo.

So, I thought about making this recipe a bit more healthy. And VIOLA! It was better than the original. This version of the Besan Ladoo i made was much less oily, it didn't make me feel bloated, and the dusty texture was excellent! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Besan (chick pea flour) : 1 cup

Ghee( clarified butter) : to the max 5 t-spoons

Sugar : 1/2 cup

Powdered cardamom: 1/4rth tsp (optional)

Preparation:

Sieve the besan to separate small lumps from the rest of the powder. Heat a pan and roast (without any kind of oil or ghee) the besan till it turn medium brown. Please make sure the flame is low and you have to keep stirring, as the powder has a chance of getting burnt quickly. Besides the colour, a perfectly roasted besan powder emits a cooked and a pleasant smell indicating its done. When done, keep aside for cooling and then sieve again to make sure you get the fine besan powder at the end. Meanwhile powder the sugar with the cardamom powder. When done mix the roasted fine besan and the powder sugar. with you hand mix well.

Now is the tricky part. Keep adding the ghee t-spoon wise till you can make small balls of this dry mixture. you need to press hard with your hand to make the balls so make sure to keep trying every moment you mix a t-spoon of ghee. Make small balls of the mixture and your besan ladoo is done.. but if the ladoo is glossy means that the proportion of ghee used is more than needed.

It took me 3 tries to reach the perfection. But all for good!YUM!

Biscuit delights

 Ingredients:

Marie biscuits: 12

Powder sugar: 2 bowl

green colour: 3 to 4 drops

Vanilla essece: 1 t-spoon

Scraped Coconut: 1 small bowl

Milk: as required

Banana smoothie: 1/4th cup

Sugar balls: for decor

Red colour: for decor

Preparation:

Powder the Marie biscuits in a mixer grinder. Mix 1 cup sugar, essence and colour to the powdered Marie biscuts. Pour in milk, little by little to form a smooth dough. Meanwhile, in another bowl mix coconut with the banana smoothie ( add yellow colour if required). Make small boats off the dough. pour the banana smoothie in the small provisions. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Decorate with red colour and sprinkle sugar balls and there!

banana dates surprise

Ingredients:
Dates: 12 numbers seedless
Milk: 500ml
Bananas: 2
Sugar: 1/4 th cup
Strawberry sauce: 2 tablespoons
Almonds: for decor
Yellow colour: 1/4th pinch

Preparation:
Make a smooth paste of the dates. Please note to not soak the dates prior to making paste because this will take away the crunchiness of the dates. after making the date paste, it can be noted that some dates are still there as lumps and these act as little surprises in the smoothie. Use milk to make the paste. Make a paste of bananas too in the blender, separately. While making banana paste with milk, add sugar and colour.

In a glass pour in the date smoothie first and then the banana smoothie. Then pour a tsp of strawberry syrup. With a small rod, pierce the side to get the texture. Pour another tsp of strawberry syrup on top and decorate with almonds.

PS_> if there is no syrup, it is fine. you can use other syrups too as black current, other berries etc.

Momos / Dumplings

Ingredients:

(for the dumplings)
Maida(plain flour): 1 cup
Salt : to taste

(Filling)
PS-> the filling can be of your choice. A typical Chinese filling like the one i mentioned in "Spring Dosa". But if this is the first time you are trying make the filling as simple as possible. I made a sweet momos here.
Sugar: 1/4th cup
Coconut: 1/4th cup
Cardamom: 2 crushed( optional for flavouring)
Can also opt 1 or 2 drops of vanilla essence instead.

Decoration:
Red colour

Preparation:

Make a smooth dough of the flour and salt. Keep aside for 15 minutes. Mix coconut and sugar, if other filling, make it ready. Please make sure the filling is cooked and are ready to eat.Roll small balls of the dough with a rolling pin into small chappathis. place a little of the filling in the middle and start making pleats of the sides as done in a sari. When the other end is met, slightly press in the middle to form a pouch. Make the steamer ready. If don't have a steamer. Place a huge vessel with water and in it a small vessel without water. Dip the "mouth of the momos in red colour and place for steaming.. Let it be for 15 minutes and your momos are ready to be served.

Cherry / Banana custard with biscuit base pudding

Ingredients:

Milk: 500g

Marie biscuits: 5 to 6

Sugar: 3 heaped table spoons

Custard powder: 4 heaped tsp
Jam: decoration purpose

Cherry: 100g (sweetened) or

Robust bananas: 2 big

Preperation:

pour in 100 ml of milk in a glass and boil the rest of the milk with 2 heaped table spoons of sugar. In the 100 ml of milk mix in the custard powder and pour into the boiled milk which is simmering in low flame. Keep stirring till the mixture become hard paste form. Meanwhile chop cherries or bananas. In a pan, heat a tablespoon of water, add 1 heaped table spoon of sugar and chopped cherries or bananas, which ever be. Sauté for around a minute. Add this to the custard. In the mould, place biscuits at the base. make sure to fill the small gaps by breaking the biscuits. pour the custard and refrigerate till done. It would take a minimum of an hour

Decorate with jam and then serve.

Fruit bowl

Ingredients:

Any set of sweet fruits: 1 each.

Here I used

Mangoes:1

Apple:1

Sugar:1/2 cup

Water:1/2 cup

Cardamom: 1

Preparation:

Cut the fruits into cubes and put in a bowl. Heat 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring it to boil and make sure to reduce the sugar solution to 2 tars. To know this consistency, touch the solution with your pointing finger and touch your thumb with it at a high speed if you see 2 line forming between then it is 2 tars. It takes ample time for this to attain and quite narrow from getting burnt so be very careful. When done, pour it on the fruits and refrigerate it for at least 3 to 4 hours. serve chilled.

Biscuit rolls

Ingredients:

Marie biscuits: 12

Powder sugar: 2 bowl

Colour: optional: 3 to 4 drops

Vanilla essece: 1 t-spoon

Scraped Coconut: 1 small bowl

Milk: as required

Preparation:

Powder the Marie biscuits in a mixer grinder. Mix 1 cup sugar, essence and colour to the powdered Marie biscuts. Pour in milk, little by little to form a smooth dough. Meanwhile, in another bowl mix coconut with the rest of the sugar, if required you can add cardamom seeds or kesar to enhance the taste. With a rolling pin roll the dough into a not-so-thin sheet. Spread the coconut sugar mixture and roll the sheet. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. but the roll to get you beautiful biscuit rolls.

Egg pudding

Ingredients
eggs:3
milk:1 cup
milkmaid:1 tin
Vannila essence:1 cap

Preperation:
In a blender mix in all the ingredients.Meanwhile, In the mold you wish to have the pudiing made, put in 2 tblspoons sugar and place the container directly on flames. til a golden colour is attained, make sure dark brown colour is NOT made as then it will become bitter ( in the above picture, it darkened and had become bitter). Then keep it aside for say 5 to 10 minutes. It hardenes. Pour the egg mixture on to this hardened sugar. In a huge vessel, pour water, and let it boil. Put a base in it too. Place this mixture on the stand, reduce the flame to sim and let ti cook for say 30 minutes or so. Then remove the pudding and upturn it onto a plate.... you perfect egg pudding is done!

Simple preassure cooked cake

Ingredients:

Maida: 150g
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Unsalted Butter: 75g
Egg: 1
Milk: as req.
Castor sugar( powdered sugar): 150g
Vanilla essence: 1 cap

Icing

120g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Food coloring (optional)

Fodent( clay like formation)

Castor sugar:300g
unsalted Butter: as req.
Colour ( optional)


Preparation:

In a bowl, sieve maida, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the castor sugar. Mix well, add butter and egg and vanilla essence. mix it very well. Add req. amount of milk, so tat the backer seems to be in a form that it lazily drips from the spoon. When this consistency is attained, mix the bacter thoroughly for at least 1/2 an hour continuously. When done and if you wish your cake to be of a different colour add them or if you wish it to be multicoloured divide the backter in the number of colours you want to mix. Add different colours to each bowl, mix and keep aside. In a pressure cooker, put a base( vessel base) in it. and heat the cooker on high for 10 min, without lid. By the time. take your cake mould and butter it and then dust it with mida. Our in the colour you wish to have at the bottom and then pour the different couloured backetrs one by one. When done, Place this inside the pressure cooker on the base. Reduce the flame to sim. Remove the gaskit and the whistle of the pressure cooker and close the lid. Let it be for 45 minutes. In the middle you may have a burning smell but it will eventually go. Also please note never to keep on removing the lid to have a peek as this will make the cake to fall or flatten from the middle. When done, off the flame and let it be for 10 more minutes. Then take the cake and poke a knife into it, if it come out clean overturn the cake and refrigerate it to make it ready for icing.

Icing:

Sieve icing sugar to break lumps. In a separate bowl, cream butter till soft. Add icing sugar, a little at a time, beating continuously. Add vanilla and continue beating until icing is creamy and fluffy.Color as you wish.

Fodent:

In a bowl take the castor sugar.If you powder the sugar at home make sure it has become a dust form. This is a must. Then add a little colour, butter and mix it. keep adding butter till you can form a boll of it like a dough. Make sure not a drop of water falls in this. Your done here.

Decorating the cake:

Now after refrigerating the cake for say 30 min to 1 hour, the cake is perfectly ready for icing. Take a knife and place you cake on such a surface that all sides are accessible, like on the upside down bottom of a vessel etc. Then take the icing and spread evenly on the cake. this may take a while. then when done. take the fodent make your desired shapes as you make in a clay. place it and refrigerate the whole cake for say 15 min to 30 minutes and your cake is ready to be presented.

Instant bread cake

Ingredients

Bread: 4 breads
Egg: 3
Jaggery (or Sugar) : 10g (4 tblsp)
Ghee: 1 tsp
Jam: for decoration

Preperation

Scrap jaggery. Mash it with hand so as to make a paste; if sugar, take a tblsp of water and dissolve the sugar in it. Slice bread in triangles... and in the sugar/jaggery mixture break 3 eggs and mix it with hand. Heat a nonstick pan.. sprinkle ghee on to it. Dip each triangulat bread to the mixture and put on the nonstick tawa.. spare a minute for each side to cook. Serve with jam for decor.

Srikhand

Ingredients

Youghut: 400ml
Sugar(powdered):1/2 cup
Badam milk powder: 2 pinch

Preperation

Take a vessel, place a cloth over the vessel. Push it in the hollow part so that the youghut can be put in it. Por in the youghut into the cloth and carefully hang the cloth making sure the youghut doesn't spil... Let the exess water in the youghut drip off for say 2 hours. After which... Place the tight hung youghut/curd in a vessel.add in sugar and badam milk powder( you can substitute this with cardomom powder, kesar and crushed nuts). Mix well. Refrigerate. And serve. I used 1/th pinch yellow colour for appearence.

Banana cake (preassure cooked)

Ingredients

Maida/Baking flour: 1.5 cup
Baking powder: 1.5 tsp
Ripe Banana(Robust): 2 big
Sugar: 6 tblsp
Egg:1
Milk:1/4 +1/4 cup
Butter: 100g
(white butter or unsalted butter prefered)
Banana essence: 1 tsp
Yellow colour: a pinch or 2 to 3 drops

Preperation:
Seive maida and baking powder so that it mixes evenly. Add in butter and mix thoroughly in a vessel. In another vessel, mash in banana and mix it with powdered sugar ( run sugar in mixer to powder it). In a 3rd vessel, break an egg into it and beat it till foam starts to form and then add 1/4th cup of milk and mix it well. When done, mix all the above 3 mixtures to form a smooth bacter. if it isn't smooth enough add the rest of the milk(1/4th cup). Add the essence and colour.Then mix this bacter for say 1/2 an hour continuosly, this is because the more you mix, the fluffy the cake will become. When done, Heat your preassure cooker without lid on high flame for 10 minutes. Meanwhile take in your cake mold. Grease it with buter/oil and then dust it with some flour, this is so that the cake doesn't stick to the mold. Then, add the backer to the cake mold. Place a base in the preassure cooker vessel so that the mold doesn't come in direct contact with the vessel bottom; and place the mold over the base in the vessel. Reduce the flame to minimum. remove the preassure cokker gasket and whistle and place the lid. Let it be for 45 minutes. Then let it cool. Take out the cake decorate it and serve!