Instant Carrot Halwa

Deepavali wishes to all !!!


Try this instant pressure cooker carrot halwa to make deepavali a bit more sweeter.

Ingredients

• 1/2kg carrots grated
• 1 cup full cream milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoon ghee
• 1/4 cup condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• Almonds, pistachios 

Add grated carrots, milk and sugar in a pressure cooker. Cook this in low flame for 20minutes. Once the pressure subsides open the cooker and add 2 tablespoon ghee. Simmer this for another 10 min until the carrot halwa becomes dry. Pour 1/4 cup condensed milk to this dry mixture and let this cook for another 5 minutes to get a rich halwa consistency. Switch off the flame and add cardamom powder. Garnish with nuts . Serve either hot or cold.

Banoffee Pie

           

A famous, classy British dessert which can be made with 3 basic ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 10 to 12 digestive biscuits
• 2 medium ripe bananas
• 100gm butter
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• Cocoa powder or chocolate curls for garnish

This dessert starts with a good quality dulce de leche or toffee. For making that either a pressure cooker or a pot can be used. For the pressure cooker method,fill 3/4th of the cooker with water. Immerse the condensed milk can completely in that. Cook this in low flame for about 35 minutes under pressure. Be careful while doing this and please note the water level and low  flame. Don't open the lid until the pressure subsides. Let this sit for 1 hr or until it becomes room temperature. If you are using a pot just boil the condensed milk can in an open pot for 2hrs. After that take the can from water and open it. A rich dulce de leche will be ready.

                  Crush the digestive biscuits coarsely and add softened butter to this. Mix well. Take a pie dish and layer this mixture tightly and refrigerate this for 15minutes. Spread the dulce de leche smoothly on top of this. Peel and slice banana. Add lime juice to this to prevent it from discoloration. Arrange the banana slices on top of the biscuit layer. 3rd and the final layer is whipped cream, which you can either pipe or just spread with a spatula. Serve chilled with cocoa powder or chocolate curls.

                  

Tawa Naan

Naanbread is the most sought-after main that you order whenever we dine out.This naan recipe is so simple and can be made from the basic ingredients in your kitchen. They are super soft, fluffy and bursting with flavour.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour (maida)
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 3/4cup yoghurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1teaspoon salt
• 1tablespoon sugar
• 3tablespoon refined oil
• 1tablespoon butter
• 1teaspoon garlic crushed(optional)
• Sesame seeds for garnish

Add 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 teaspoon yeast to lukewarm milk. Mix well and let this sit for 5 to 10 minutes until it's frothy. Once the yeast is proofed ,add this to the flour mixture along with oil, yoghurt and knead well till a soft dough is formed. Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rest for 1 hour. After 1 hour the dough will double in size and it's ready to be rolled. Divide the dough to small lemon sized balls and roll into small flatbreads. Around 15 naans can be made from this recipe. Heat the tawa and cook the naan evenly on both sides. The naans will puff up while cooking. Brush hotnaans with garlic butter and garnish with sesame seeds. Serve hot with any curry of your choice.

Do Note

To make garlic butter, heat 1teaspoon crushed garlic along with butter for 30 sec in microwave.

Ging-O-Lime Concentrate

A refreshing and natural fruit cordial ideal for hot weather. Orange gives a splash of colour and flavour to this old fashioned drink.

Ingredients

• 1 cup lemon juice
• Juice of 2 oranges
• 2 to 3 tablespoon ginger juice
• 3 cups sugar

In a pan add 3cups sugar and 1.5 cups water. Bring this to boil and switch off the flame. Let this cool to room temperature. Add the juices to the sugar syrup and mix well. The amount of ginger juice in this recipe can be adjusted according to your taste preference.I recommend 3 tablespoons for a strong flavour and 1 to 2 for a mild flavour. Transfer this to a glass bottle. Since no preservatives are added in this, it is ideal to keep this in refrigerator. Serve chilled!

Fish Cutlet

During this Holy month people break fast with their favourite snacks and sweets. This cutlets/croquettes are inevitable part of the iftar menu in many households.

Tiramisu Ice cream

Brownies

Celebrate  Valentine's day with this fudgy, cakey brownies with a ganache topping. A blissful indulgence to enjoy with your loved ones.

Happy Valentine's Day 😍😍😍

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup coco powder
• 200gm unsalted butter
• 11/2 cup sugar
• 11/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups cashew nuts chopped
• 3/4teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Ganache

• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup whipping cream

Beat sugar, egg and room temperature butter till it becomes airy and creamy. Mix the dry ingredients well and add this to the the butter mixture. This will be thick batter and dont overmix . Finally add chopped nuts and vanilla essence. Bake at 180 C for 30 min. For ganache, boil the whipping  cream in a pan and switch off the flame.Add chocolate chips to this. Let this sit for 5 minutes and then mix well. Once the brownie and ganache is cooled down well , spread the ganache on top of the brownie and garnish with some chopped nuts.

Healthy Oats Cookies

Health is wealth. So why not have a cookie without compromising neither your health nor your wealth.A nutritious and delicious chewy cookie recipe to curb your sudden sugar cravings .

Ingredients

• 11/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup nuts 
• 1/4 cup dried cranberry(optional)
• 1 ripe banana
• 2 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Mix all the ingredients together. Scoop one tablespoon each dough to a baking tray. Bake at 180 C for 12 to 15 minutes. The texture of this cookie is bit chewy in the middle and crunchy outside. Around 15 cookies can be made from this dough. 

Fish Molee

Kerala's own fish molee does not need any special introduction. A quintessential dish straight from Kerala's culinary repertoire which can satiate your senses.

Aval Vilayichathu

Christmas is just around the corner. All over the world people are busy planning their vacations, get togethers, shopping and the list goes on. It's a special time to be grateful and get ready to welcome a new year ahead. Cake comes to our mind first when we think of Christmas. Somehow to be different or to rather save a snack before getting extinct i made this flattened rice flakes with coconut and jaggery known as "aval vilayichatu" which was served in every homes during festive times. But  nowadays this has been replaced by cookies, pies and tarts. So lets bring back our age old healthy snacks which was prepared by our grandmoms and make this Christmas a bit nostalgic!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Ingredients

• 300gms flattened rice
• 250 gms jaggery melted in 3/4 cup water
• 2 cup coconut grated
• 5 to 6 cardamom pods crushed
• Raisins, channa dal, seasame seeds, nuts for tempering
• 1 tablespoon ghee

Dry roast the coconut till it becomes light brown colour. To this add melted strained jaggery. Let this simmer for a minute. Lower the flame and add flattened rice. Mix well. Switch off the flame. In a small pan roast channadal and nuts in ghee . Add raisins and seasame seeds and pour this on to the flattened rice. Thinly sliced coconut can also be added to this. Add cardamom powder and mix everything well. Serve with ripe bananas. This will stay upto 2 weeks if stored in an air tight container.

Dosa Podi

Being a South Indian, Dosa and Idli is a staple food in our family. I can literally eat dosa for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Somedays when I'm too lazy to make chutney or sambhar, this podi makes life pretty much easy. This is a simple version of dosapodi with very few ingredients roasted and ground to a coarse powder which is mixed with coconut oil. There is a special way in which we were supposed to serve podi. A small well is made with this podi into which the oil is poured and mixed. Still I love to eat podi this way with dosa or idli.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Urad dal
• 3 to 4 cloves of garlic 
• 3 teaspoon Kashmiri Chilly Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon asafoetida powder
• 1/2 teaspoon whole pepper
• Handfull of curry leaves and 1 teaspoon salt

Dry roast all ingredients except the chilly powder together for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the chilly powder and grind this mixture coarsely. Serve with coconut oil for dosa or idli.

Milk Powder Ras Malai

A very Happy Deepavali to all.

It's a time to rejoice, celebrate, have fun , cook and eat. But we always like to do something hassle free when it comes to making sweets. Just like this rasmalai recipe which is made easy and quick with very basic ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk powder
• 1 egg 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon maida (all purpose flour)
• 2 tablespoon melted ghee
• 1/ 2 cup condensed milk 
• 3 cup milk 
• 5 to 6 cardamon pods crushed
• A pinch of saffron 
• Nuts chopped 
• Yellow colour (optional)

In a heavy bottom pan mix condensed milk and milk . Bring this to boil. Lower the flame and let this simmer. In a bowl add milkpowder, maida, baking powder and mix this well. To this add 1 beaten egg plus 1 tablespoon ghee. This will be a sticky dough. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon ghee to this dough and knead well. Make small disc shaped pedas. Roughly around 20 pedas can be made from this. Now gently drop each of these to simmering milk. Cook in low flame for about 10 to 15 minutes until they double up in size. Before switching off the flame add soaked saffron, cardamom powder, nuts and food colour. Serve hot or cold to your family and friends.

Malai Kofta

A rich creamy tangy spiced tomato curry with soft kofta's served with hot ghee rice. Navratri wishes to all my readers and do try this recipe to celebrate special occasions with your near and dear ones.

Kappa Biriyani

 

 

A traditional Kottayam style way of preparing kappa (tapioca) with meat and bones. Made a slight change in the recipe by adding chicken instead of beef.

Hot milk cup cakes

Live, Love, Laugh, Sing  and eat cupcakes . I m back here with a delicious  cupcake recipe which can be made easily from very less ingredients. The hot milk used in this recipe gives the cupcake's a soft fluffy texture.

 

L2 DoubleTree, Hilton Doha

 

Last Thursday, me and my fellow blogger Manju (www.scoopoflove.com) got an opportunity to dine in L2 restaurant by Double tree Hilton, Doha. When we arrived by 7 pm, their marketing executive Diana was waiting for us at the entrance of the restaurant. We were welcomed by a classy chic interior with minimalistic furniture styled in a contemporary theme. The bright shiny mirror ceiling was really catchy.

 

 

 

Comfortably seated in a relaxing ambience, we decided to try their dinner buffet. The spread was balanced and a perfect assortment of essential entrees for an international buffet. There was a small cheese counter, salads, soups, bread, pasta, kebab, seafood and some Asian dishes. Few dishes stood out in their spread was, juicy lamb kebab, seafood thermidor and fruit shooters, presented in a unique bulb shaped container.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was quite impressed with their desserts which was a cheerful mix of arabic and western treats. We got a chance to sample their cheesecake suggested by Diana as the best in town.

 

 

Indeed it was, creamy light and decadent. Diana briefed us regarding their promos and future plans. As the famous quote says simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, this restaurant stood out for their simple menu which comes for a very reasonable rate. Definitely one of those hidden gems in Downtown Doha for a quiet meal.

 

     

 

Buffet prices:

 

Breakfast: QAR110 per person (QAR70 from 8AM-10AM)

Lunch: QAR 90 per person (QAR60 for mini business lunch (starter & main course or main course & dessert)

Dinner: QAR85 per person (QAR65 from 6PM-7PM)

 

A la carte menu is available for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

Drinks included:

Lunch: water, coffee and tea.

Dinner: only water

 

Discounts:

30% for airliners, hoteliers, bankers and teachers available only for the full buffet menu.

 

Children:

Until 6 yrs old: free

6-12: half price

 

Black Forest Cake

This is a featured cake in almost all pastry shops. Rich dark chocolate curls tangled in cream with glazed cherries. Here is the recipe for a black forest cake which even a beginner can try.

Christmas Stollen bread

Christmas calls for something special, so why not try a German fruit bread loaded with all the goodness of macerated fruits with a kick of spices. Stollen is a rich fruit bread which is normally baked during Christmas time. Traditionally stollen bread has a marzipan(optional) filling.

Fish Masala

 

 

 

 

Christmas is just around the corner and its time once again for feasts, fun and get-togethers. Check out this fish masala recipe which can be served with bread, piping hot rice or chappathi.

 

Spiced Carrot Pineapple Cake

A moist aromatic cake made with carrot and pineapple. There' s a slight spicy flavor which brings out the character in this cake. Cream cheese whipped cream frosting balances the sweet, tarty and salty flavors of this cake.