Fruit Salad in Eggless Vanilla Custard

Most custards commonly made contain egg and it's egg that thickens the milk and gives it a smooth consistency. Egg-less custard is a great alternative for those vegetarians who do not consume egg. Instead of eggs, we use cornstarch.

In India, though we do not get commercially available egg alternatives, we are fortunate to get good eggless curtard/pudding mix in varied flavors. I generally stock a packet of flavored custard powder for those uncalled moments of sweet temptations. Making them ahead during late noons and enjoying a bowl of fruit salad with custard and ice cream post our dinner is one of our favorite desserts. It also brings reminiscences of our childhood where fruit salad with custard topped ice creams was one of the common desserts served when we had guest around.

Fruit Salad in Eggless Vanilla Custard

INGREDIENTS

4 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups milk
A pinch of yellow food coloring
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Chopped fruits and nuts
1 tsp butter

DIRECTIONS

Use store bought custard/pudding mix in varied flavors. Prepare the custard as per the directions on the pack. If you don't have one, then here's a handy list of how you can make one at home.

Mix together the cornstarch and sugar. Add 2 cups milk gradually. Cook over medium heat until it thickens. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and the food coloring if preferred. Stir and let cool. Add in loads of chopped fruits of your choice. I used apples, black grapes, strawberries, bananas, mangoes here. You may use varied fruits of your choice.

Heat some butter and fry some cashew nuts, almonds and raisins. Add it to the fruits salad and mix well. Chill and serve. Garnish with reserved fried nuts and chopped fruits.

Though what I have used here is a store bought custard mix in vanilla flavor, the above is a great alternative to store bought custard packets and I use it during those times when I run out of custard mix. It accompanies well with ice-cream, fruit toppings, fruit salads and as a base for pudding.

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Akki hudi payasa / Rice Pudding

At times when I prepare an elaborate meal and need a quick desert to accompany, rice flour kheer /pudding comes to my rescue. It's so quick and takes just about 10 mins to cook. Simple, easy, rich, creamy and delicious!

Here's what we need:

2 cups Milk
1 cup Sugar
50-60 gms Rice flour
A generous pinch of cardamom powder
50 gms Almonds and mixed dry fruits and nuts

Mix rice flour into warm milk and mix until smooth. Stirring continously cook over medium heat until a creamy consistency is achieved. Reduce the heat. Add sugar and stir for few more minutes. Thicken it further by adding more rice flour if desired. If you prefer thinner, add more milk. The pudding thickens further once cooled. Cool it and then add dry fruits like raisins, pistachios, cashews, well chopped almonds, etc. Garnish well with cardamom powder. Refrigerate and serve cold.

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Maavinkai Gojju

Maavinkai gojju is another Havyaka dish prepared often at home. In the past, a lot of our families used to farm with agriculture being the predominant occupation. Although this culture is now diminishing and people mostly prefer to have a salaried jobs, the traditional cuisines still carry on at most homes. So summers would mean farm fresh mangoes. Before the summers would set in, raw mangoes are collected and variety of recipes are made from them. They are used in paanaka, pickles and in form of chutneys. Maavinkai gojju or raw mango chutney is made from raw mangoes instead of tamarind.

Maavinkai Gojju

INGREDIENTS

1/2 raw mango
2 green chillies
1 cup grated fresh coconut
Salt to taste
Water to consistency

For seasoning, we need:

1 tsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Asafeotida / Hing
A sprig of curry leaves

DIRECTIONS

Grind finely the raw mangoes, grated fresh coconut, green chillies and salt. Add water as per required consistency. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, asafeotida and curry leaves. Temper the chutney by heating some oil in a pan. As it heats, add mustard, hing and curry leaves. Allow them to splutter. Add this to the prepared chutney. Serve with dosa, rotis or as side dish with rice.

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Milk Biscuit Cake

Milk Biscuit Cake is so quick and easy, it can be made in minutes. Call it a biscuit cake or as you like, it's a sure treat to your guests. Can be made in minutes and would make someone think that you have spent hours slogging to make!

Now here's what we need:

1 packet of Milk biscuits (I used milk bikis)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup full cream milk
1 tbsp all purpose flour/cornstarch
4 tbsp bitter cocoa powder

50 gms low salt butter (You may use unsalted butter and add a pinch of salt)

Prepare the chocolate roux by mixing sugar, cocoa powder, all purpose flour in half a cup of warm milk. If you dislike using all purpose flour/maida use cornstarch instead. Melt butter and add the above dry mixture and heat on medium-low flame. Add a more milk or cream (to make it richer) to the above if required. Mix and fold in thoroughly to get a smooth velvety mixture. Chocolate roux should be ready once it begins to stick stiffly to the back of the spatula. Remove from the gas and allow to cool.

Prepare warm chocolate milk by mixing a tsp of sugar and cocoa powder to 1/2 cup of milk. Dip each milk biscuit in Warm chocolate milk and place them on an aluminum foil side by side depending on the size of the cake you want. Spread the roux evenly leaving about an inch of space in the edges. Place another layer of chocolate milk dipped biscuits on the roux and press down gently. Spread another layer of choco roux followed by biscuits and roux again. Make the height of cake not more than 5-6 biscuits as it will not stand well beyond that. Pour the remaining roux on top of the cake and dress them with chocolate chips / grated chocolates as desired.

Cover with an aluminum foil and refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Remove from the fridge and cut across the biscuits to get beautiful milk biscuit cake slices.

If you want crispier biscuit cakes, then use Marie biscuits instead of milk biscuits. Cut diagonally and you will get beautifully textured cake.

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Fusilli Delight!

Pasta doesn't require any introduction :) All know that it roots to Italian cooking. However, there are different shapes and names of pasta, although they are all basically made of same ingredients. My previous post spoke of sheet pasta while this one, Fusilli belongs to the spiral types. Fusilli Delight!

Fusilli Delight!

INGREDIENTS

1 pack Fusilli pasta cooked as per instructions on the pack
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp of red chilly powder/paprika
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
Few basil or cilantro/coriander leaves

DIRECTIONS

Pasta should be cooked in boiling water to an extent where it is just about to be cooked. If it is over cooked, the pasta would lose it's shaped and become too mushy. Remove it immediately, drain and wash through cold water so that the cooking is stopped. Drain, add a tsp of oil and keep it aside.

Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan. Fry the chopped onions till transparent and is about to brown. Add tomatoes at this stage. Fry for 2 minutes and then add the pasta. Season with salt and red chilly powder. I like this one slightly spicy. Garnish with basil or cilantro leaves.

Do no add water. Tomatoes and onions cooked in oil and seasoned with red chilli powder/paprika is what renders flavors to this dish. This will be done in minutes. Simple, easy and quick! Fusilli delight is ready to be served hot

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Mushroom Capsicum Lasagna

Not many know my fetish obsession for Italian food. Even fewer know that I actually love to cook Italian food! Lasagna is a perfect meal for a heart that loves pasta. Perfectly Italian! And what a better way to treat yourself if it's a home-made lasagna pasta! For a pasta lover like me, I had been waiting to try my hands at preparing this delight for long.

Videojug.com is one of the websites that has great videos, step-by-step procedures and clear explanation of how to go about stuffs. It covers cuisines all over the world. I could never imagine of making pasta at home without a pasta-maker had I not come across this video online on Videojug.com to make pasta at home. I want to thank videojug for sharing the recipe in an easy way. I followed it the way they showed and it came out wonderful. Fresh pasta - all made at home! I opted using oil instead of eggs. I think you should definitely watch the video. It's brilliant!

It's not very easy to get a lasagna sheet here in India. Few big malls do have it I suppose. But since the demand is quite low, they usually stocks old products which are about to expire. After all the futile efforts of looking for good lasagna sheets, I decided to make the lasagna sheets at home. It was not as difficult as I expected it would be. The sheets came out perfectly well, so did the sauce and my veggies. The outcome was good and beyond my expectations! My only complaint, I wish I had an oven that could heat to higher temperatures. It seems to take ages for the cheese to brown :( Infact, I ran out of patience and removed it before it could brown well. Anyways, it came out so rich, creamy and cheesy that my husband insisted that I should serve this when we have guests over the weekend.

I have made Lasagna a couple of times. The sauce and fillings can vary. Freshly prepared tomato sauce with mixed herbs, readily available pasta sauce, white sauce, etc can be used in combination. Use as varied veggies like aubergines/brinjals, colored peppers, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, baby corn, cauliflower, etc. I opted for a simple one with a combo of mushroom and capsicum as it goes best with white sauce. My favorite however is Spinach Lasagna where cooked spinach and cream are added between layers of Lasagna along with these veggies.

Mushroom Capsicum Lasagna

To make the Lasagna, prepare the following:

Lasagna Sheets
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup water
4 tbsp
Oil
Salt to taste

Make a mound on the counter with the flour and create a well in the center. Add the salt and oil. Start pouring in the water slowly, mixing with your fingers between each addition. Add enough water to bring the flour together in a ball. Begin to knead the dough using more dough until it is smooth. At this point the dough should be a stiff dough (slightly more stiffer than). Wrap in plastic and let sit 20 minutes before rolling.

To roll, take a 6 inch ball of dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Begin to roll into a flat disc. Roll from front to back, turning the dough clockwise about 1/4 turn after every few rolls of the pin. Once the dough is stretched and is thin enough for your hand to be seen through, it's done. Cut into rectangles depending on the size of you baking sheets. Cut into rectangular slices of 8x12 cms each. I cut mine to a single 12" x 12" sheet as that was the size of my baking dish. Commercially available lasagna sheets are smaller rectangular stripes.

Bechamel Sauce

2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 ltr milk
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup grated Cheddar/Parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over a low heat and stir in the flour and saute until the mixture darkens slightly (about 1/2 min). Gradually pour in the warm milk, stirring continuously until the sauce is smooth and begins to thicken. Reduce the heat and stir until it boils. Stir constantly as it tends to settle and burn at the bottom if unattended even for a minute. Heat until the sauce thickens to a thick-custard consistency (about 5 mins). Season with salt and pepper. Mix in grated cheddar/Parmesan cheese.

Prepare the veggies

1 cup capsicum
1 cup mushroom

Saute a cup of capsicum and mushroom on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Assembling the Lasagna

In an oven-proof dish start layering with lasagna sheets, followed by a layer of vegetable mixture, followed by white sauce, some lasagna sheets again, another layer of veggies, followed by the cheese sauce, then another layer of lasagna sheets followed by the remaining veggies and then the remaining cheese sauce. Top with grated cheddar and Parmesan cheese. Bake in oven at 180 C for about 30 mins or till the top cheesy layer browns.

You may wonder why I have used raw pasta sheets instead of the cooked ones. If the pasta is pre-cooked and baked, the lasagna may turn out quite wet and soggy. But if the raw pasta sheet is used, it absorbs some moisture from the veggies and sauce and cooks while being baked. The resulting pasta will retain it's shape and make it easier to cut. Otherwise home-made pasta sheet requires less than 3-4 mins to be cooked in boiling water. The best method to serve lasagna is to cool it for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven. Once the top layer is cool, it makes it easier to cut them into pieces without creating a mess. Serve hot with salads or as is. A treat to the taste buds! Loved every bit of it.... so cheesy... cheesy... creamy!

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Eggless Chocolate Cake

I freak out on cocoa... love chocolates and fancy cooking them. I am just a beginner, but am thoroughly enjoying my baking experience. I am fortunate that I haven't been through a baking disaster that most of them go through :) Lucky I must say :)

Chocolate cake is my take for the day. This is a basic one and to make it more chocolatey, I topped it with a good chocolate frosting. This basic cake can be used for many other choco-delicacies. You can serve this as is, with ice-creams, make black forest cake out of it, give a vanilla frosting, etc. Here's how I go about it...

Eggless Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ cups Maida or All purpose flour
1 cup Castor sugar or finely powdered sugar
3/4 cup Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking power
1/4 cup Milk powder
A pinch of salt
1 cup Milk
75 gm Unsalted butter or 5 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp White vinegar
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

DIRECTIONS

Sieve and mix all the dry ingredients together (first six in the list). To this, add milk, butter, vinegar and vanilla essence. Butter/Oil is added in a higher quantity and this substitutes the egg in the egg-less cake. Beat the mixture to blend the ingredients thoroughly. Bake in a greased cake tin at 350-375 degrees till done.

Frosting for the cake can be made in different methods and is purely up to your personal preference. Leave it unfrosted if you like.

Melt 25gm butter. Mix in 2 tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp powdered sugar and a little milk. Whip well till it forms peaks. Adjust the ingredients to achieve the desired thickness.

Melt 25 gm butter. Mix 1/4 cup milk powder, 1tbsp maida, 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 1/4 cup sugar with 1/2 cup milk. Boil well till the mixture thickens.

Mix unsweetened dark chocolate with powdered sugar and milk cream. Blend well.

Mix a bar of melted dairy milk cocoa chocolate with little butter. Add milk cream and a tbsp of cocoa to the same.

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Aloo Paratha

Don't be surprised if you see so many paratha recipes on my site. My husband loves all kinds of parathas, be it aloo parathas, methi parathas, gobi paratha, ajwain paratha, mooli paratha, dal paratha (missi roti), the list just goes on... :)

Aloo paratha is one of the most loved parathas amongst all :) It's so commonly made in all homes that it's savored as a good streetfood as well. It tastes great and is loved by all. The base for any paratha is generally wheat dough used for making Roti, the recipe for which is available on my site. Here's what we need for the filling.

Aloo Paratha

INGREDIENTS

2-3 large potatoes, boiled and skin peeled
1 large onion, finely chopped
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 pod grated ginger
Few sprigs of coriander leaves
1 tsp of cumin/jeera seeds
1 tsp of cumin/jeera powder
Salt to taste
Oil / Ghee / Butter

DIRECTIONS

Mash the potatoes well. I use a grater for the same purpose as I donot get lumps then. Add chopped onions, grated ginger, cumin seeds, cumin powder salt, finely chopped green chillies and salt. Roll to lemon sized balls and keep them aside for filling.

Roll a lemon sized dough to a 6' circle. Smear and spread a little oil at the centre. Keep the potato filling at the centre of that circle leaving enough space at the sides so that the filling can be evenly covered and rolled. Bring the sides of the dough together to cover the filling completely. Roll it to a 1/4 inch thick bread making sure that the filling doesn't come off.

Heat an oiled iron griddle, transfer the paratha to the hot surface allowing it to cook partially on one side. Turn, allowing the other side to cook partially. Now oil the upper surface of paratha facing to you. Turn and allow the paratha to cook. Oil the other surface, turn, cook the other side as well. The parathas are done once they have black spots and look cooked. Drop a blob of butter and serve hot with curd and pickle.

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Methi Paratha

When I wake up every morning, after a cup of hot tea, the next thing that hits my mind is what needs to be cooked for every meal. Sometimes it takes a lot of my time and energy just to think what different I can cook for breakfast/ lunch/ dinner. At times, I have the wheat dough left over from the previous night's dough, it's a good idea to make parathas. Variety of parathas are often made at my home as my better half is quite fond of them. These are often made at my in-laws place and I learnt them all from them. This parathas are for those times when we run out of fresh stocks in our kitchen. Opt for the bunch of dried leaves, they work quick and easy. Today it's turn for Methi Parathas in a different style!

Here's what we need:

1 bunch kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt
lemon sized wheat dough (refer Roti recipe to prepare the dough)
Oil/ghee/butter

Roll the dough to a 6' circle. Smear and spread a little oil at the centre. Sprinkle little salt and chilli powder with 1 tsp of kasoori methi and keep it at the centre of that circle. Now, fold the dough to quarters and roll it to flat triangular breads. Heat an oiled iron griddle, transfer the paratha to the hot surface allowing it to cook partially on one side. Turn, allowing the other side to cook partially. Now oil the upper surface of paratha facing to you. Turn and allow the paratha to cook. Oil the other surface, turn, cook the other side as well. The parathas are done once they have black spots and look cooked. Serve hot with curd and pickle.

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Onion Chutney / Eerulli Gojju

Last night, I made a typical Kannada household dish, Nucchinunde with Onion chutney (Eerulli Gojju) accompanied by Majjige Huli. It came out excellent. Gojjus have always been a part of our everday cooking. I have always relished onion chutney to an extent that I can eat them as it is! Fried onion gives a kind of unique sweetness to any recipe when added. Although I detest the smell and taste of raw onions I am equally affectionate when it comes to the cooked form. This one is so quick and easy.

Onion Chutney / Eerulli Gojju

INGREDIENTS

2-3 large onions roughly chopped
1 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Bengal gram / channa dal
1 tsp urad dal / split black gram
6-7 Dried Red Chillies
A sprig of curry leaves
Tamarind, quarter the lemon size
1 tsp mustard seeds
Salt as per taste

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil and add Bengal gram, split black gram, dry red chillies and chopped onions. Fry for few minutes till the raw smell of onion is lost. Cool and grind this to a fine paste along with tamarind. Add salt. Temper with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Ready to be served with rice, idli, dosa, nucchinunde, akki roti, etc.

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Pumpkin / Kumbalakayi Palya

This is a simple and easy to prepare dish. It is best eaten when freshly prepared and hot. Pumpkin has it's own native sweetness and this curry is a blend of sweet and spice with a tang. Green chillies are used instead of red ones as they give the perfect spice to this dish. It is a good accompaniment with rice and chapatis.

Pumpkin / Kumbalakayi Palya

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Pumpkin
1 big Onion chopped
1 tsp Mustard
2 green chillies
A pinch of turmeric
A sprig of curry leaves
1 tbsp Fresh grated coconut
A hint of lime juice (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Scrape the outer layer and cut pumpkin into small bite size peices. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped onions and green chillies. Fry for few minutes till onions are transclucent and are about to turn red. Add pumpkins, salt and a pinch of turmeric, cover and cook on medium heat until pumpkins are just tender. Turn off the flame once the pumpkin is tender and garnish with fresh coconut. Add a hint of lime juice... this is purely optional, but it does add to the flavour. Serve hot with rice or rotis.

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