Tomato Baath With Peanut Chutney

Tomato Baath, as know is preparing with Semolina, just like Upma with an additional guest that is, Tomato. This dish I tasted for first time in my PostGraduation Days at one of my friends home. It was really too tasty. Later, after my marriage I heard about this dish from my husband. It is very common and a must breakfast served along with peanut chutney for the guest in marriages at my In-laws-side i.e., famous in Nellore and near by areas. About one more thing I was surprised at is, when I started searching for this recipe (expecting some other variations), I found this mostly made with rice. This is another new thing I came to know about tomato baath:-)..Thanks to all other food bloggers, helping a lot in discovering different kind of recipes through out the world. Peanut chutney seen in the picture is the recipe I always do, adopted from Falvours Of Indian Rasoi by Lakshmi. This time I wanted to mention the method for it in my blog with little variations. Here I go with thease two recipes.....

Main Ingredients For Tomato Baath Namely: Green Chillies, Garlic Cloves, Onion, Tomato, Curry Leaves and Semolina Or Upma Ravva

Ingredients For Tomato Baath:
-------------------------------------------

2 cups of Semolina or Ravva (cup here is equalant to rice cooker cup)
1 medium sized tomato (cut into small pieces)
5 to 6 curry leaves
1 small onion or 1/2 of medium sized 1 big onion
4 to5 green chillies (slitted or cut into small pieces)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (aavalu)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jilakara or jeera)
2 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder( pasupu)
5 cups of water (cup here is equalant to rice cooker cup)
salt as per taste (I add 1 1/2 tsp fo salt for two cups of ravva)
oil for cooking (I use 4 to 5 tsp of oil)

Method:
-------------

1. Roast semolina or ravva on low heat in a deep sauce pan till it changes evenly in color to light brown. Here you can also fry with 1tsp of oil or 1 tsp of ghee (which are optional) and keep aside.
   
2. In the same sauce pan heat oil for cooking, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, mashed garlic cloves (or cut into tiny pieces), green chillies and curry leaves in mentioned order, one after the other giving time for spluttering of mustard seeds and cumi seeds. Fry all togeather for 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Now add onions and fry till they become soft and trasparent.( Remember here, for upma and tomato baath, onions should not change there color. They should not be fried for long time. They just need to become soft and transperant).
   
4. Now add tomatoes and 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder. Mix well and cook till tomatoes become soft.
5. Add water and salt. Cover the sauce pan and bring the contents to boil.
6. Once the water starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and start adding semolina or ravva with your left hand taking semolina a handfull every time and use right hand for mixing the ravva in the water simultaneously. This is to avoid forming any lumps. Here you should be very careful. i.e., why I mentioned reduce the heat and add slowly so that you will get time to add complete ravva step by step and could mix well.
7. Mix well after adding complete ravva with other ingredients and allow to cook with covered lid on medium heat for about next 5 to 6minutes or until ravva is cooked well.
8. Serve hot with peanut chutney.

Note: This procedure is same for upma too, except tomato. Other variations for upma, you can add pieces of carrots, small cubes of potatoes before bringing water to boil. Water measurment for upma or tomato baath I always take like this: For one cup of semolina or ravva, I add 2 1/2 cups fo water. thus added 5 cups of water for 2 cups of ravva or semolina.



Ingredients For Peanut Chutney:
-------------------------------------------
1 cup peanuts (roasted and skin removed or can be made with skin too as per your choice, not being any difference in taste)
4 to 5 green chillies
1 tsp channa dal (optional)
1tsp fresh grated coconut (optional)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
small size tamarind (soaked in warm water)
1 tsp jeera or cumin seeds or jilakara
1 small onion
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 stem curry leaves
1 or 2 dry red chillies
salt as per taste
oil for cooking
water as required

Method:
-----------

1. Roast peanuts and keep aside to cool. They should be roasted evenly. So maintain low flame through out.
2. Heat 1 tsp of oil, add cumin seeds and fry for few seconds and then add green chillies and onion (cut into big chunks).
3. After onions turn soft, add soaked tamarind from above and keep aside till its temperature comes down to room temperature.
4. Now in a blender, add roasted peanuts, above fried mixture (mentioned in step 3), channa dhal, grated coconut , salt and required water (decide a/c to the thickness of the paste you want).
5. Finally add tempering to the above mixture by heating 2 tsp of oil and adding mustard seeds, 1 to 2 dry red chillies and curry leaves.
6. Serve this chutney with upma or tomato baath. Tastes great for both, especially for tomato baath.
   

Labels: breakfast, chutney, peanut, peanut chutney, semolina, tiffins, tomato, tomato baath, upma

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments

Kheera Kesari is my entry to Jhiva_Diwali Event. I made Boondi Laddoo's For Diwali, but was unable to take any snaps. I was quite dissapointed then. But as Manisha of 'Indian Food Rocks' said as far as we enjoy diwali, nothing much matters. Her words really gave a soothing touch. Thank you Manisha for those nice words. But to remove that little dissapointment, Vee of Past, Present and Me decided to make another round up for diwali event. Thank You Vee. But to say folks, we had really great diwali this year, sharing happiness with couple of friends and lots of lights in our home than any time before.

I thought of this sweet, seeing kheera in the refrigirator. Since it is cold season, we were avoiding eating kheera from long time. But, for my son I cooked this and gave him when it is warm. The taste was very good, good more than I thought of:-) I choose, this name, beacuse kesari (Saffron) gave real good aroma, color and taste to the sweet. And kesari being one of the ingredient, infact played a vital role in this, how can miss the name kesari for this dish. Also friends, do you remember "Kesari Vilaayathi" the villan in the famous, hindi movie called "Ram Lakhan". Can u tell the name of the actor who played Kesari Vilayathi role in the movie?? Lets see the response...Iam waiting??? So here I go....

Ingredients:
------------------
1 medium Cucumber(kheera)
4 tsp Sugar
1 tsp of Khus Khus
1 full tsp of Ghee (I used cow ghee)
1/4 cup of Milk (I used whole milk)
few Kaaju and Baadam
few strands fo Saffron (kesari or zaffron)

Method:
-------------

1. Cut one round from both ends of cucumber and rub those ends with respective cut pieces. This I practice every time, because, it removes the sour taste which cucumber has or atleast I can say reduces to much level.
2. Peel the cucumber skin . Cut into two halves and remove the seeds from it. Now cut them into small pieces and grate them in the food processor or as you do with carrot while preparing carrot halwa.
3. Take a deep sauce pan, heat ghee and fry dry fruits till they are light brown in color and keep them aside.
4. In the same pan, add grated cucumber and fry till all the water is evoparated. If you want you can add little more ghee before started frying cucumber.
5. Now add 4 tsp of sugar , fry by mixing well till sugar is competely dessolved in it.
6. Add milk, khus khus and saffron and cook until the sweet starts leaving the edges of the pan and coming togeather.
7. Finally, remove from heat and serve warm with few more saffron strands soaked in little warm milk from the top.

Note: Since cucumber taste little soar, to remove that soarness do follow the steps I mentioned in the method above also fry it very well. I used only badaam and kaaju here, yo can also add kishmish (dry grapes) in it. One more important note is...the amount of sweet showed in the picture is result of only one cucumber. Since I cooked only for one person I used one ccucumber, if you are using two then double the ingredients accordingly or as per your taste which can always vary and we can make changes. Thank You!!

Labels: cucumber, cucumber sweet, desserts, kesari, kheera, kheera kesari, sweets

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

First picture looks hot and second one looks cool..hmmm..do you feel the same? But both are same..i.e., potatoes in Yougurt Sauce. This simple dish, both to cook as well as in look is adapted by me from the one old cookery book called "Healthy Indian Cooking" By Shehzad Hussain and Manisha Kanani. Remember my another recipe adopted from same book called "Balti Dhal".
Coming to the dish, I will say when ever you have lot of yougurt and some potatoes in store go for this easy making dish, yet, delicious one. This can be one of the best dish among all other dishes served for the guest in your home. All you need to prepare this dish are......

Ingredients:
-----------------
12 tiny potatoes halfed ( or 6 normal potaoes cut into samll cubes..this is my variation)
1 1/4cup or 10oz natural low fat yogurt
1 1/4 cups water or 300ml
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1tsp chilli powder
1tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin (instead of ground cumin, I added cumin seeds while cooking directly..this is my variation)
1 tsp cumin seeds( used by author too other than cumin powder..I used only cumin seeds)
1tbsp or 15ml chopped fresh cilantro
2 green chillies, sliced
salt as per taste
1tbsp oil or as desired ( I used very less oil..but In the pictures it looks as it floats since yogurt is the main ingredient and when cooked in oil..oil floats on the surface)

Method:
------------

1. Boil the potatoes in salt water with their skin on until they are just tender, then drain and set aside. ( My variation here is..I pressure cooked potatoes and peeled the skin away and used them to cook. But author suggested to cook them along with skin..its upto your choice)
2. Mix togeather the yougurt, water, turmeric, chilli powder, ground cumin(if using now), ground coriander, sugar(optional but used by author..I did not add sugar) and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a medium heavy based saucepan and fry cumin seeds for 1 min.
4. Reduce the heat, stir in the spicy yogurt mixture and cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat.
5. Add the chopped fresh cilantro or fresh coriander, green chillies and cooked potatoes. Mix all togeather and cook for a further 5 to 7 minutes, stirring from time to time.
6. Serve hot with whole wheat chapathis or regular one or pulkhas...They taste well with chapathis. Not much preferable with rice (a/c to my suggestion)

Note: Potatoes cooked along with skin is always preferable as author suggested, since most of the vitamins are under the skin of vegetables. If you can eat with skin go a head. I never tried yet not knowing wheather my family will adopt them easily or not. But ofcourse one can only know when they give a try ;-) Finally, thanks to the authors for giving us such an easy and wonderful dish for thsi busy life.

Labels: aaloo, alugadda, curries, potato, potato in yougurt, vegetable, vegetable dishes

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

Methi roti is a simple yet healthy dish for breakfast or lunch or dinner. They are not only easy to prepare also will stay fresh for 2 to 3 days (no need to store in refrigerator). They taste great with any 'hot' chutney i.e., spicy. Also goes well with fresh curd. With out any delay here is my recipe for methi roti's also for fresh home made low fat curd, since I got some request from Pavani of Cook's Hideout and Shaheen of Malabar Spice's for detail method post on setting curd.

Ingredients For Methi Roti:
---------------------------------------
2 cups of wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt (or as per taste)
1 1/2 tsp chillipowder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 bunches of fresh fenugreek leaves( preferably small leaves bunch)
oil for cooking (little oil required to make roti's)
water for making dough (preferably warm water)

Method For Making Methi Roti's:
-------------------------------------------

1. Separate fenugreek leaves from the bunches, and wash them well in the cold water.
2. Cut them very small as much as possible.
3. Take flour in a wide and depth mixing bowl. Add salt, fenugreek leaves, chillipowder, turmeric powder and 2 to 3 tsp of oil.
4. Mix well all above ingredients with the flour and make a dough like you make for chapathis with warm water.
5. Set aside for 15 minutes.
6. Heat tawa( or pan for making chapathis). Meanwhile divide dough into equal portions a/c to the size you desire to make a roti ( I made little bigger than the round we make generally for pulka).
7. Take a round and make a flat round like pulka and with little oil cook on tawa, on both the sides well by maintaining medium heat all through. (they should be cooked well, so that they stay fresh for couple of days, if you are making in lots)
8. Repeat with other rounds too. Now have them hot or cold with any chutney or fresh curd. You will enjoy.

Note: I like methi rotis' to have them just like that with out any chutney or pickle:-)) They taste great even next couple of days too.


Before giving you detail method for setting curd at home, I would like to say some simple points to remember. I use, 1% reduced fat organic milk for setting curd, which taste little less sweeter than 2% reduced fat milk. As we all knew whole milk taste great as per the taste is concerned. So its upto your choice to choose any kind of milk, irrespective of that, the method is same for all. Here I go...

Method For Setting Curd:
---------------------------------

1. Heat milk in a container till they boils well. i.e., once they boil and are raised till up of the container, reduce the heat and stir milk with a spoon and allow to boil again for few more minutes.
2. See that they don'nt change color from white to some what pinkish. Also see that the base does'nt burn. So select clean container, preferably always use the same one for setting curd. ( I use always the same container for setting curd to avoid any bad smell or breaking of milk while boiling, which can happen if containers are not cleaned well once in a while).
3. Now remove from heat, and allow it to cool down for a while. This is first important step to remember for setting curd. Milk should me so warm that you should be able to put your fingure in the milk. If you remove it immmedietly i.e., unable to put your fingure any longer that means milk should cool down to further less temperature.
4. In winter, milk can be little more warmmer than usual one.
   
5. Second step is, take 1/4th tsp of left over curd or little less than that also is ok. Mix in the milk ready to set for curd, by taking little milk in the same teaspoon and mix that curd with milk using your finger and later mix in the container with rest of the milk very well.
   
6. Now close the container i.e., airtight and keep in the warm place preferably oven. Set oven to warm setting and keep this container in it, for overnight or atleast upto 6 to 8 hrs by checking after 6 hrs once in a while. This is to avoid tangy taste. (''pullaga antaru kada telugulo adi'')
7. Remove from oven and refregerate immmedietly if not using then for fresh and chilled curd to have later.
   
8. The fresh home made curd is ready:-))

Note: In summer you may not need an oven. But in cold regions, you may need always. In India, we never need any ovens to set curd. But here I always use oven to set curd to avoid any accidents...You know accidents can occur any time;-)) I hope this post on setting curd is helpful to many of you. Thease are results of my trial 'n' error methods when I came to United States:-))

Labels: breakfast, curd, fenugreek leaves, home made yogurt, methi, methi roti, perugu, yogurt

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

A glass of Strawberry Juice with Fresh Strawberries

Labels: accompaniments, strawberry, strawberry drink

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tomato Rice with Fresh Home Made Low Fat Curd

1. Boil rice in rice cooker with 4 cups of water for 2 cups of raw rice with a 1/4 tsp of ghee which is optional.
2. Meanwhile, cut tomatoes into thin slices, and get ready with other ingredients mentioned above.
3. Take a big and more depth pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, capsicum( if using green chillis), spring oinions(if using onions), peas one after the other by giving as usual time for frying.
4. Capsicum pieces should be little crispy. Now add ginger and garlic pulp respectively and fry for one to two minutes.
5. Add turmeric powder and mix well. Now add tomatoes and mix with all other ingredients.
6. Sprinkle salt from above on tomatoes, close the lid and allow to cook on medium heat for 2 to 3 miunutes.
7. Now mix salt with tomatoes and chilli powder. Mix well and add water now. Allow to cook all the vegetables well for 5 minutes ot until they all become soft.
8. Finally, add cooked rice into this and cilantro and stir for 2 to 3 minutes with open lid. After that close the lid and sim for another 3 to 4 minutes. See that the base of the content or rice is not burnt. Also all the water should be evaporated.
9. Remove from heat and serve this hot tomato rice with chilled curd.

Note: Usually, rice is cooked along with all other vegetables, but I follow this method by cooking rice separately and adding to the other ingredient. Some how we started liking this one, so I follow this method..you can follow either of them.

Labels: capsicum, green bell pepper, rice, spring onions, tomato, tomato rice

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yummy!!! I just wanted to try this or I can say I decided to give a try when I saw this cake recipe in Shilpa's blog Aayi's Recipes. You can find step by step procedure here. Though I also taken photos step by step, Iam not posting it because complete credit goes to her. Thank you shilpa for sharing such an easy and very tasty cake recipe. Every body at my home and one of my friends also loved this cake a lot:-)) Those who did not give a try yet..do give!!..Trust me friends its real tasty. My friend and my family members could not believe that it was made with sooji( ravva). I gave my touch to this cake by decorating it with vanilla and chocolate Betty Crocker's frosting cream also I used 2 long bananas instead of three which is in actual recipe. Next time Iam going to try with three bananas. Still the result was tooo yummy!!


Steps For Icing or Decoration:
-----------------------------------------
I was quite much inspired by the cake preparation and respective designs on the cake from Archana's blog. Do check , different cakes in her blog...you will just love them all. Not much like her, since I have some idea of preparing cakes which I did some in my childhood and learned from my mother. To name few of them..Pineapple cake, Chocolate cake, Vanilla cake..etc. Now since this generation is in weight reducing race (in which Iam one among them:-) we are avoiding lot of sweets and cakes. But they become exceptional on festivals or birthdays:-)) Iam Happy!!! So away from weight reducing race for some time, I did this cake ......

1. I used Heavy Dark Chocolate frosting to cover the whole cake except base. Since it is very heavy I did not use for writting up or designing on the cake.
2. For that designing and writting up, I used The Lightest & Fluffiest Whipped Vanilla Frosting.
3. To give a lovely touch to the heart on the cake , I used a small piece of straw berry(You can see in the above pic)
4. Finally, to give some colors, I used some colorful candiles (Irrespective of any age group, which you can do a/c to the occassion and age group)
5. Once the cake is cut, that final small piece was very delicious to eat

Note: Do any icing or decoration on the cake only after it cools down to the room temperature. I did after half-an-hour. And I, my family members and my friends could enjoy the cake for next 3 days. It was yummy all over:-)) Enjoy cakes in this beautiful festive mood..coming days are thanks giving and christmas celebrations...In advance Happy Thanks Giving and Merry Christmas to all my readers and friends.Enjoy!!

Labels: banana, banana cake, cake, dessert, ravva, semolina, sooji, sooji banana cake

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

Soya Granules Curry with Whole Wheat Chapathis

1. Wash and soak granules in warm water for 1/2 hr
2. Menawhile, cut tomatoes into thin slices or make puree and keep aside
3. Cut onions into thin slices
4. Take a wide pan, heat oil and add onions and fry till light brown in color
5. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for 1 min
6. Add turmeric powder and fry for few seconds, add soya granules by squeezing all water from it into the pan and mix well.
7. Fry for 2 minutes. Add all other masalas including salt and mix well (if needed very little water ) and allow to cook with closed lid on medium heat for 5 minutes.
8. Now add tomatoes and mix well. Again allow to cook for 5 more minutes or untill tomatoes are cooked completely. (Here if you are adding tomato puree, then add it after 5th step.
9. Finally add cilantro and lime juice and mix well and sim for 2 minutes.
10. Remove from heat and serve with hot chapathis or plain rice.

Labels: curries, curry, kheema, minced soya, soya, soya granuels, vegetable, vegetable dishes, vegetarian kheema

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

Balti Dhal with Boiled Egg Fry in Curry Leaves Paste

Dal with fried eggs taken along with hot plain boiled rice makes wonderful lunch or dinner especially in cold wheather. Balti dhal, I have made previously two to three times but never thought of blogging it. This balti dhal dish I have learned from a cook book called "Healthy Indian Cooking" by "Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani". This book contains authentic dishes with less fat. Thanks to the authors for sharing wonderful dishes ..all Vegetable,Non-Vegetable dishes, Soups, Snaks and Salads. Though not exactly, I cooked dal with little variations suiatble to regular dal taste. The result was amazing.

The another dish is Boiled eggs fry in curry leaves paste. This dish is from my mothers cook book. I love this as side dish along with dhal or biryani or sambar or just like that. It has got curry leaves paste taste which is good to health with eggs. Do give a try ..it is very easy to make and much tasty to eat:-))

Ingredients For Balti Dhal:
----------------------------------
1/2 cup toor dhal
1 medium bunch spring onions roughly chopped
1/2 capsicum (or green pepper) seeded and sliced thinely
1tsp garlic pulp
1tsp ginger pulp
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt (or a/c to taste)
1 stem curry leaves (which are absent in author's version)
1/2 tsp Coriander powder (which is absent in author's recipe)
2 small tomatoes(sliced into thin long pieces) or (a/c to author 6-8 cherry tomatoes)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds or (a/c to author onions seeds. I used mustard since I was lack of onion seeds)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (or a/c author fresh 1 cup fenugreek leaves)
small lemon sized tamarind(soaked in warm water) or (a/c author 1 tbsp lemon juice)
fresh coriander leaves to cook in and garnish
oil for cooking (a/c to author 2tbsp oil)

Method:
-------------

1. Cook the dhal in a suacepan of boiling water until soft and mushy. Drain and set aside.
2. Take the tamarind juice out of soaked one and keep aside.
3. Heat the oil with oinion seeds or mustard seeds till they splutter.
   
4. Add spring oinions and curry leaves and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add cooked dhal and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Now add turmeric, salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, ginger and garlic pulp respectively, mix and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Then add cut tomatoes or cherry tomatoes as it is and cut capsicum into the dhal. Mix well and cover the pan with lid and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. See that tomatoes become soft if using cherry tomatoes or if using regular one's see that they are not over cooked and mashed up. They taste best with dish when they are just soft and as it is.
8. Finally add tamarind juice or lemon juice and mix well and allow to cook for 2 more minutes if using tamarind juice.
9. garnish with some cut spring oinions and fresh coriander leaves on top( also can add some coriander leaves while cooking, which I did.

Egg Fry In Curry Leaves Paste
--------------------------------------------
Ingredients For Egg Fry:

4 eggs
1 packet of curry leaves available in indian store or 5 to 6 curry leaves stems
salt a/c to taste
ground pepper a/c to taste
1 garlic (shredded finely) optional
2 to 3 tsp of oil for frying

Method:

1. Boil eggs and remove shell , pork them with knife or tooth pick all over the eggs and keep aside.( this is done to let the paste go inside the egg)
   
2. Wash curry leaves separated from stem and grind to fine paste or as much as possible.
3. Heat oil in a deep sauce pan. Add curry leaves paste and fry till all water evaporates.
4. Now add salt , pepper and shredded garlic (I did not use garlic here). Mix well with paste and fry for few seconds.
5. Now add eggs , mix well and fry till the color of eggs changes to light brown. Not necessarly the color should be even all through the egg.
6. Serve hot with boiled plain rice or with any dhal of your choice.

Note: A small tip for good boiled eggs. Boil eggs for long time and to remove the shell with out any damage to the egg, after they are boiled, keep them in cold water or under cold running water for some time. And before removing the shell again wash it under cold water. Now the shell will come very easily with out any damage to the egg.

Labels: balti dhal, capsicum, dal, dhal, egg, egg dishes, egg fry, lentils, pappu, spring onions

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

This dish when I gave a try and was having it as Arjuna said really I remembered marriage events of not only mine , but all of them where I have eaten this dish., though I don'nt remember exactly place, name and who's marriage it was.....;-) Friends do try this one its very tasty..though it does'nt look exactly as Arjuna's photo...I hope the taste was same:-) The recipe for this is here. In my dish bendakaaya looks more than pakodi unlike Arjuna's and also pakodi became little soft which actually taste good when they are crispy..so add them at the end of cooking to the bendaakaya and just fry for few seconds as they are already deep fried pakodi's.

Carrot Kheer

This thick creamy kheer was really tempting and was handy..that is the reason I tried it too soon, but with little variations in ingrendients and method..though not much.

Ingredients:

2 long carrots

2 to 3 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup water

2 tsp ghee

2 cardamom (make powder)

2 to 3 saffron sticks (for color and aroma)

few badaam and kaaju (dry fruits..can take any of your choice)

Method:

1. Peel the carrot skin and wash them and grate them to very fine, best recommended is in food processor( If food processor is not there, can use hand grater too)
2. In a deep skillet, add two tea spoons ghee and heat it. Then add grated carrots and fry till raw smell dissappears.
3. Add sugar to that and fry for 1 to 2 min.
4. Mean while make paste or tiny granules of dry fruits.
5. Now add this paste and fry for 1 or 2 more minutes.
6. Finally, add milk and water mentioned in the ingredients to this mix and allow to boil.
7. Once it starts boiling add cardamom powder to it and allow to boil for 2 to 3 minutes.
8. Remove from heat, allow to cool it to the room temperature.
9. Now blend this total mixture in the blender for 1 to 2 minutes..so that it becomes more thicky and creamy. Add saffron to the kheer.
10. The thick, creamy and flavored carrot kheer is ready to serve.

Note: Serve this warm or cold, I liked it both the ways!!

Actual version of this Carrot Kheer is here. Mandira..thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful recipe and also to the Arjuna. Though I made thease two dishes at different times..I think they go very well when served one after the other. I prefer hot first then sweet later..you can alter anyways:-)) Enjoy thease wonderful recipes. I will try to blog the other recipes of my fellow bloggers in the future when ever I give a try.

Labels: bendakaaya kura, bendakaaya vepudu, bendi, bendi fry, carrot kheer, carrots, desserts, kheer, sweets

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

Sweet Made with Whole Wheat Bread and Banana

Wish You A Very Very Happy Dassera!! to all my readers and to my fellow blogger friends. I wish a very good and peaceful life to all of us. After a week Iam back with a sweet dish, made for this festival. Also this is my entry for Jihva for Ghee and Butter for this month october declared by Cooking Medley. Iam bit late to post this as far as jihva for october month. Since, today is the festival Iam able to blog today.I hope she will accept this entry. Thank you!!!

1. Mash banana and keep aside.
   
2. Make small pieces of bread slices and fry them till brown in color in 2 tsp of ghee in a wide non stick pan. Make sure they are not burned. Keep them a side.
   
3. In the same pan add 1/2 cup of sugar to the 3 cups of milk and water as mentioned in the ingredients.
4. Allow milk to boil. Once it starts boiling, add mashed banana and mix well. Allow to cook for few minutes.
5. Now add bread pieces to it and allow to boil. Since bread absorbs milk fast, overflowing of milk from the container can be avoided soon by just keeping it open till the bread absorbs the milk.
6. After that, cover the pan and allow to cook on medium heat.
7. Meanwhile, prepare for garnishing the dish. Heat 1 or 2 tsp of ghee in a small different container, and fry all the nuts and rasins till they turn light brown in color and keep them aside.
8. It took 25 minutes for me to cook this dish. Cook till the halwa separates from the container. Just before removing from the heat add all fried nuts and raisins along with ghee into this halwa and mix well.
9. In between cooking time, do mix the halwa frequently to avoid any burning.

Sweet Made with Whole Wheat Bread and Banana and Curd Rice with pepper Tempering

Note: Serve this dish warm in cold wheather or cook when you are watching an intresting movie and want to have this halwa. Hope you will all like as I did very much:-))

Labels: banana, banana halwa, bread, bread banana halwa, bread halwa, dessert, desserts, halwa, sweets, vcc

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments