Green Peas Pilaf With Spicy Pouched Eggs & Orange kheer

Wishing all my lovely readers a very very Happy New Year!! I know things with everyone would not be really same, some guds, some bads, some ups, some downs, Things in our life will continue as they were, Yes but with change of calender and dates, brings us a hope that the coming year would fetch us something more good. 

We had a gr8 dinner last nite Alhamdulillah it wasnt for new year eve celebration though, but we had some guests to attend with and so the meal was very satisfying. As the time went there was a waiting!! Waiting of a year shall end!! My friend Ahmed's wife was aboutt to deliver a baby!! Sometimes online world is strange I feel. When ahmed is in Saudia, Me in Chennai and his family in Kadapa there was still a anxious waiting going on from long time by all of us :) But thats what I think is called heart to heart connection!! 

At 12.45am our waiting ended and as the names were being discussed we got the info it is a baby girl!! Oh Alhamdulillah!! New year and new gift to the family. As time passed I was waiting for my bro to get back from work but alas he called up saying he cant get back home heavy traffic for new year celebration, Finally missed my bro and got late to sleep. Well so this is life which goes on, and im sure there r incidents which happening with all of you as well!! Do share in comments if you like on how your new year start was like!!

Getting back to the Recipe Post It is Green Peas Pilaf With Spicy Pouched Eggs and Orange Kheer for today....

This was our meal for sunday lunch and trust me it was so highly satisfying!! Very simple to make...
Simple as in no much of labor can be done with ease just as breeze...... For sure it was loved by all and we ate more than what we usually do.

Green Peas Pilaf

Though I had made this before but with different method!! I was kind of Rice phobic a year back I felt I may not be able to make pilaf and biryani's it may spoil whole lots of ingredients at a stretch. I used to take help from my mom to guide me :) but now she easily asks me to cook even for guests!! Her confidence is slowly increasing to trust me in serving!! And when she is skeptical with my experiments I say oh mom pls trust me, And she replies saying,  I trust u but............ and that but has no words beyond it,  lol, it makes me giggle to myself :)

Ingredients
Basmati Rice - 3 cups
Oil + Ghee 3tbsp each
Garlic Pods - 7-8 large (adjust if small in size)
Green Chillies - 4-5 slit
Cinnamon Stick -1inch
Salt to taste
6 cups water
Fresh peas - 1.5 cups or more as you wish

Method:
- Heat oil and ghee in a kadai or pot which has a gud packing lid.
- Add in Cinnamon stick, chopped garlic pods and green chillies. Saute for 2 mins just till nice aroma comes, dont let it burn.
- Add in 6 cups water, salt and fresh peas allow it to boil. Once boiled add in soaked and drained rice into the boiling water.
- Allow it to boil again and reach this point (look at the pic below)

here we can see that rice has absorbed most of the water as it is getting cooked, At this point mix the rice once again and close the lid,
- Let this cook at dum for 12-15 mins in lowest heat.

It looks like this after 12-15 mins try to mix it without breaking the rice using a spatula or a fork and close the lid again until ready to serve!!

Spicy Poached Egg Curry
This is the most simplest curry you can make for winters!! Yes I can bet that you will love it!! Coz this was my try and everyone at home just loved it!!

This Recipe was taken from my lovely friends, Priya n Tessy's Blog Drooools

Ingredients
Eggs -4
Large tomatoes -2
Onion -1
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1tsp
Yogurt half cup
Coriander powder - 1tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2tsp
Red chili powder - 1tsp
Garam masala powder - 1/4th tsp
Water - 1 cup
Oil - 2tbsp
salt to taste

Method
Blend the tomatoes, ginger, onion and yogurt in a blender.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds. Once they splutter take the pan off the flame and stir in the coriander powder and chili powder. Mix well and then add the blended tomato- yogurt puree. Stir and return the pan back to flame.
On a medium flame, stirring continuously cook until the oil separates from the sides.
Add the water, salt and allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Carefully break the eggs one by one into the pan in such a way that each egg lies away from the other.
Cover and cook on a very low heat for 15-20 minutes. Do not stir in between.
Sprinkle the garam masala on top  and serve garnished with  chopped coriander leaves

Orange Kheer
Now this kheer is little different!! I so much wanted to make something sweet as in kheer, and saw some orange variations kheer. I browsed more to know how the taste and feedback from people. So finally tried out this unique kheer as our dessert for the noon

Ingredients
Milk -1/2 liter
cardamon 1-2 pods
Saffron strands few (optional)
Sugar as needed
1/4th cup condensed milk
Sweet Oranges -3 

Boil milk along with cardamon n saffron strands add sugar once its boiled and reduce the milk to half, add in condensed milk, check for sweetness. add more sugar if u like. once done bring it to room temp. 

Add orange segments out of 3 oranges into the normal temp milk, and chill it, garnish with almonds n pistachios and serve it chill

Make sure oranges used are sweet enough. the oranges which i used were sweet but tanginess was more dominating, so be careful with the fruit u select. 

My Review and  Impression For Orange Kheer: (Should you try it or not??) 
Taste of orange kheer: It was more like a drink than a kheer!!
Though it was unique in taste, it was really different and a great try. 

I highly felt that something was lacking!!
To me kheer is a thick milk dessert which has richness in taste. The milk base was rich but was lacking volume and so the richness got lost without volume in orange kheer, There was no volume in this dessert to be called as kheer. Appeared to be more as a drink and eat kind of a dish!! 

Mom dad and bro all of us had it, We had it as it was a 1st try and was avg to our taste buds. But I think I personally cannot entertain orange kheer until I plan up to give it a basic volume as other kheer recipes with rice, suji or sago 1st. And then add these orange segments and nuts at last!!

Adding rice, suji or sago would make sense if you really want to make this and try out yourself as a kheer!! But As a drink this would be a great thing to try out and please your guests as well

Hope you enjoyed reading my combo recipes :)
Cya until next........... Have a fun filled year ahead :)   bubye!!!

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Aloo Samosa

I had been wanting to make samosas but was never interested!! Until I felt like chalo lets try, Samosa is all mine lolzz

I decided not the make a cone but yes gave a triangular shape just make a round roti cut from half and fold it with filling in center, applying some maida paste to seal the sides to avoid breakout try is simply works the best :)

This is how it all got sealed up ready to be fried!!

Slow deep frying gave a wonderful golden result and crispy as well. Do not hurry patience gives its best result!!

Recipe Source : Samosa From CookingWithSapna 

Followed the same recipe as follows from the blog mentioned above

Ingredients:

For Dough

1 cup All purpose Flour

2 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon carom seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water or as needed

Vegetable oil for frying

For the filling:

4 medium sized potatoes , boiled and crumbled

1/4 cup peas

1/2 teaspoon Ginger , grated

1 tablespoon Raisins

1 tablespoon Cashew nuts

Spices

1 teaspoon red Chilli powder

1 teaspoon Coriander powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon chaat masala

salt to taste

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup coriander leaves , chopped

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:

For Filling:

Heat oil in a wok , add cumin seeds , stir and ginger. Sauté for 1 minute.

Add all spices and salt , and peas , mix well . Remember to keep the heat low at this moment.

Add crumbled potato , raisins and cashew nuts . Mix and cook over medium flame for 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and coriander leaves and set aside.

Filling is ready!!

For outer covering:

Take all purpose flour , salt , oil and carom seeds in a bowl. Add enough water and knead a pliable dough . Divide and shape the dough into 5 . Keep it covered.

With the help of rolling pin , roll one ball into a round disc like Chapati . Take a knife and cut the round through the center.Now fold one semi circle in the shape of a triangle ,sealing along the fold.

Place a heapful of stuffing in the cone and seal the outer edges by applying some water. Repeat the same procedure with rest of balls.

Heat enough oil in a wide pan or wok . Add 2-3 samosas into the oil slowly and deep fry them till golden from both sides.

Drain on paper towel and serve hot with Tamarind chutney and Mint Chutney.

Sending my entry to Cook With Comfort

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Spicy Egg Masala / Muttai Masala

Lazy Days.......  Bright Sunshine But Chilling Weather Wow!! Dont feel like doing anything just sit relax and sleep :P I sound ultra lazy here :D

Well my try for egg masala today was a hit!! Ive never made it before but yes after browsing some recipes I came up with my own twist as usual and got this end result!! comfort food with Rice daal or gets combined too well with chapatis / phulkas too

Lets get with the ingredients and recipe

Ingredients
Boiled Eggs - 4- 5
Make slits in the center of each eggs

For Gravy
Oil - 2tbsp
Mustard seeds, onion seeds and cumin seeds 1/2tsp each
Curry leaves 1 spring
Gringer garlic paste -2tsp
Turmeric powder -1/4th tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2tsp heaped
Coriander powder -2tsp
Garam masala - 1tsp (optional)
Green chilles -3 slit
Onion - 4 medium size roughly chopped
Tomato - 2 roughly chopped
Water - 1/2 cup
salt to taste
coriander leaves to garnish


Method:
- Take oil in a pan add mustard cumin and onion seeds, wait till mustard splutters
- Add in ginger garlic paste fry till the raw smell leaves
- add in green chillies, onion, and curry leaves cook for 2 mins till translucent
- Add turmeric, chilli powder and coriander powder, tomatoes little water and close the lid of the pan
- Let it cook in low flame for 5-10 mins, When u open the lid back it should give nice aroma.
- Next add boiled eggs, and 1/2 cup water again close the lid and cook for 5-10 mins in medium flame
- Add in coriander leaves, and cook for 5 more mins till the masalas coat the egg well.
- Remove it and serve it with anything you desire!!

It take 20-25 mins to prepare this!! If you have never made this before then time to try it out :)

cya bye bye until next :)

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Strawberry Whipped Cream Cake

This is more inspired by Black Forest Cake. Which I wanted to try from long long time!!

Anyhow with me its always a experimental bases. But this time it was mom's birthday and I was so sure im going to bake for her. The idea was to bake a small half kg cake and was looking for recipe which could measure me 1 cup flour and so got a recipe for basic chocolate cake from Hecooksshecooks copying the exact recipe below here. The only changes which came in were for the fillings. and will talk about the alterations in later part

For cake
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)
• 3/4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar (This reacts with the baking soda to make a great texture after the batter cooks. There is no discernible vinegar taste.)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
For filling and frosting
• 3 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons sugar (this is a guess, do it to your tastes)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced (I'd say in fours for an average-sized berry)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of two 8-inch round cakepans. (I used the same pan twice)
In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together. Add oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Divide equally between the cake pans.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool. (A little while after taking the cake out of the oven, I popped it in the freezer for 10 minutes so I could get the cake cool enough to transfer to a wire rack so that I could start cooking the second layer in the same pan.)
When both layers are completely cool, prepare the whipped cream frosting. In a mixing bowl, beat cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. This happens quicker when cream and bowl are chilled.
Place one layer of cake on a plate lined with wax paper. Spread thick layer of whipped cream across the top. Cover with strawberry slices. Put second layer on top, then frost the entire cake. Arrange more strawberries on top for decoration.
Keep chilled so whipped cream doesn't melt.

Alterations I made:
I baked in one tin itself
cake was just soft and perfect as it should have been. The only thing scaring me to get nervous was the reaction of soda and vineger which kept bubbling and bubbling giving lots of air bubbles.  It really made me tensed wondering what will be the result. But no worries thats how it suppose to be I guess!!
It was perfect soft and crumbly
Cake was layered into to and soaked it with strawberry syrup for bottom layer
make a thin chocolate ganache with normal cadbury chocolate and amul fresh cream applied for center filling, placed some strawberries chopped. 
Added the upper layer of cake, again soak with strawberry syrup. and some chocolate ganache 
Kept in fridge for chilling. Mean while whip 1.5cup of whipping cream for frosting with some starwberries and sugar. Keep in freezer for 5-10 mins. 
Apply over the cake and done :) 
Made circular design with fork and stenciled with heart shape motif with cocoa powder!!

This tasted super duper awesome :) I tot I should have applied some cream in center as well for blackforest effect, But this was too yummm :D my hardworks dint fail. Many many thank to Allah for making it happen, specially when I was making this with so much love for my mom I kept praying it should not fail :)
Everyone at home said its so much like store brought bakery cakes similar to black forest wow :D it all made me excited and feel happy that I tried it!!

I also wanted to add almonds for some crunch but panic for some reason and forgot :) next time will take care to make it properly

And yes!! I landed up making 1kg or more cake with this recipe :)

Do try it im sure you'll love it too :)

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Bhappa Doi - Pressure Cook Method

Bappa Doi is a Bengoli Dessert. Bhappa means steamed and Yogurt / Curd is called dahi. Like every other thing with time authentication has changed and people have come up with various methods to cook according to the availability of equipment's and time.

Another remarkable dessert from bengoli cuisine is Mishti Doi. The word mishti is close to my heart for many reasons. My yahoo id has been mishti_churika for yahoo rooms and most of my frnds know me as mishti and they came up with their own name for me as mishi :) And now from Fb Im called as Aara which is my 2nd name officially :D  I will soon make a post about mishti doi which is way too different from bhappa doi. 

Ingredients:
Basic Measurement and method
Hung curd - 1 cup 
Condensed milk - maximum 1 cup
flavorings if any u like

Method
Mix hung curd with condensed milk. Pour it into a steel or aluminium bowl in which you have to set.
Pour 1cup water in 2 liters pressure cooker place the yogurt mixture bowl into the cooker. 
Close the lid and cook this for 15-20 mins in medium flame. Ignore whistles switch of the flame. Let it rest, till the  pressure drops, open the lid, let it come to room temp.
Chill it for 1-2hrs in refrigerator and Serve it cold. 

It looks like this after pressure cooking!! Firm like a cake!!

You may or may not cover the surface of the bowl bfr cooking, will not make any difference. I did not cover the surface of the bowl bfr cooking!! 

To make bhappa doi in oven
Same can be made in oven!! Pour some hot water in the baking dish so that it rises about 3/4th of an inch on the sides of the ramekins. Bake in the middle rack in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack and chill for an hour at least.


I did not had enough yogurt. I used half cup of hung yogurt + 1/4th cup chenna (added because I had from torn milk so used up in this) 2tbsp milk + some saffron strands + condensed milk enough to make it sweet. Like mild sweet personally!!

How I got golden upper surface???
I had caramlized sugar in the bowl allowed to cool. It hardens at cooling, then poured the yogurt mixture in the bowl and followed the above cooking process. This was to give the uppar surface a nice golden look. So its optional, you may ignore if u dont want to

Note:
- Yogurt should not be sour, It should be fresh!!
- Much the yogurt is strained to make hung curd better the result.
- You may make use of greek yogurt too.
- Some people also add 1cup milk with 1cup hung yogurt and condensed milk. But this may be followed if you find  yogurt is very sour this will be to balance the taste. There will not be any compromise in result
- You can use any kind of flavoring. I used saffron strands which gave a wonderful flavor to the dessert.
- You may be creative and serve any kind of sauces for topping as you please
- Usage of condensed milk is a must it brings in great taste to the dessert. you may adjust the sweetness according to your taste by adding more or less condensed milk
- Addition of tuti fruity, nuts, raisins etc can be done as per your choice.

Impression 
It was consumed the same day and loved by everyone at home. Mom bro and dad really appreciated the difference it gave. There was one slice left which I had today and found a lot of difference in flavor compared to what we had yesterday.
It tasted much better the today and the flavor was well infused overnight kept in fridge. Also the dessert tasted much better. 

Though it gave best result to be eaten in same day, If you are patients enough to keep it over night and serve next day then pls do it :D 
For best flavorful result to get infused nicely I will suggest to make this before one day of serving. But this will be optional depending upon your choice and conditions :)

If any quire pls feel free to ask me in comment section and also tick notify me option below in comment section to know the answers if any :)

Until next cya bye bye :)

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Make Caramel Flan in 20mins - Pressure Cook Method

I can vouch this as the simplest method to satisfy your crave for a flan in 2hrs. Save Gas, Save Electricity should be the tagline for this recipe. The only reason is when we make flan using pot top method in gas or steam bath method in oven it takes around 45-50 mins. OMG its a long time but we need to invest our resources because it is egg mixture and even a little bit of undone would taste you eggy. We need a firm dessert not loose and wobbly so here is the trick :)

A Perfect flan is one which gives perfect sweetness, gets cut into shapes too well and holds the shape after cutting it for longer time even when it is kept in fridge

It should come out as whole when turned upside down for serving

Less air bubbles showing inside when a cut is made, so the finishing from inside should be smooth. Then it gives a perfect creamy effect to this dessert

Ingredients used:

Whole Milk - 300ml (use only boiled warm or room temp milk)

Eggs - 2 large or 3 medium

Condensed milk - 2tbsp

Sugar Syrup - 2-3 tbsp (can use vanilla essence, cocoa powder, coffee powder etc etc your wish)

Sugar if needed I did not add because I wanted less sweet

To make the flan more creamier you can add fresh cream ( I dont add ever, this itself gives me a gr8 taste )

For caramelizing sugar needed 4tsp 

Mix all the above ingredients whisk it well and also strain it to break the air bubbles formed. (this helps in making smooth end finish. Keep it aside till you are ready to start.

Take a Container or bowl of aluminium or steel. which can hold the above mixture as well as fit inside the pressure cooker.

Add 4tsp sugar and burn the sugar inside the bowl to caramelize it. Just till it looks golden brown. Put this hot bowl into normal water. This will help caramel sugar to become hard instantly. (if not doing this then wait till the caramel harden on its own will take few mins)

Take a pressure cooker and pour in 1- 1.5cups of water.

Pour in the milk mixture into the container. Place this inside the cooker, close the lid and switch on the flame

Let it be over high flame for 1st whistle. After that lower the flame low medium heat and cook for 10-15 mins more. 

Allow the pressure to drop, open the cooker you may find the flan wobbly. Allow the flan to sit there for an hour till it comes to room temp. Chill it well before serving

Loosen the sides by a sharp knife and turn the flan upside down into a plate. Cut into slices and serve it cold!!

Hope to guys try this method and enjoy :D

Any doubts welcome to ask in comment section 

cya until next

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