ELAICHI KESAR PISTA LASSI

A Special Drink For Special Sunday Feel Royal Over The Taste!! A super Duper Quick Combo To Cherish With!!

Old readers of my blog shall remember Rooh Afza Almondy Lassi Which I posted On my 1 month of blogging!! That was the 1st click I had in my blog Which was So attractive, My bro saw and said is it u clicked it? I proudly said Yes It was all a different experience and a start to my photography with a normal vga webcam What a pain it was to get the pics clicked as it showed to naked eyes with lighting problem I faced in my room. 

Luckily now my bro gave our old digi cam to me and I take pleasure to click from Kitchen Rite away!! But I owe my webcam a lot It was my start and I learnt how to adjust and get fine tuned pic of my subject in very little place I can get around my desktop, I learnt some tricks to get it right too
What a hard working girl I am lolz!! But Honestly a Gud pic means alot to the blogger as well as the reader. As for my experience people go ahead with reading only when they like the pic. Photos are Witness towards the taste They might find when they try out any recipe from ur space in future. 

If one is thinking why am I sharing all this, U r right to think, But I cant stop myself!!! Today is my 75th Post In this Blogging World and of course few lovely guest post from friends too. After Being Into blogging Since March 2013 Ive learnt various thing. In which one was Not to hurry!! Its not a race course Its our much loved blog where we share our passion. Here we cannot insist people to read or visit our space and always keep commenting to ur new posts, praising our efforts etc etc It took me time to get adjusted But Now im totally fine with what I do. I love to write out my heart when Im in mood to blog and land up with long long texts :) Thank u all for coping up with me.

Rooh afza lassi was Kind of Blockbuster With the highest hits and comment!! It is a Hit at my home too :)

Coming back to this another hit of Lassi Too simple to be made. and yumm to taste!!!

One Sunday I just started venturing abt lassi and wanted to try this combo. As usual my bro was there around me and seeing what I was doing. Though he is a gud cook himself But U know foodie bro n sis have special bonding 

Enough Of my Bla Bla lets get back to the recipe :D

Ingredients

Yogurt - 1.5 - 2 cups
Milk 2cups
Water 1.5 cups
Sugar According to taste
Cardamon Powder - One Fat pinch or more if needed
Kesar / Saffron 2-3 strands 
If u dont have cardamom powder and kesar seperately Kesri Milk masala will do the job
Pistachio - 2tbsp sliced

Method

- Blend in all the ingredients except Pistachio n flavorings.
- Mix in the flavorings Chill It. Serve when needed.
- If not preparing ahead reduce the quantity of water and Add ice cubes while blending.
- Garnish with Pistachio And serve chilled!!

Notes:

- If u want Very Rich and creamy lassi Dont add water, Just stay with milk. (my drink is a little diluted as we dont like it very creamy form, Since Ive added nuts I wanted to have the consistency of drink and chew not just sip it) Choice is urs.
- I would suggest to prepare it ahead and keep it in fridge at least for half hr for flavors to infuse well.
- If u have kesari milk masala pls go ahead adding it according to ur taste. (I personally prefer adding everest kesri milk masala which do a gud job for me) There shall be no compromise in taste Quality
- If u want to stick with just kesar, then add few more kesar strands to warm milk and allow it to rest. add to curd and blend. 
- Im not giving measurements for sugar. Pls go ahead adjusting according to ur own taste.

Impression:

- Flavorings with chilled Yogurt combined too well
- Adding Pistachio Gave the whole thing a different dimension of taste

My whole family enjoyed the drink throughly. Surely there is no place for judgement and reviews when Such a yummy drink is served after meals 

Do Prepare this simple drink and make ur Day special :)



Sending this to Cooking With White

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Instant Rava Idli In 30 minutes

This was my 1st try and I fell in love with the results :)

My Dad is sick with stomach infection he had outside food few days back, beware dont just eat roadside food until hygiene is taken in account in that place. He is slowly recovering his health ofcourse high fever and loose motions making me all weak. We are busy simultaneously for Ramdhan and our timings have changed. What can be a better light food in sickness other than idlies? Being born in family coming down from North east India We eat more n more of Phulkas. Dosa batter is in the stock but idlies are very rare as Ive mentioned earlier in other post of my Rava idli. This version is very different than other recipe already posted. 

As my dad wanted to eat idly I made up my mind to make instant idlies, Though I had something else in my mind, I landed up making something else, but it turned out what exactly I had assumed a picture frame in my mind. 

I googled up some recipes but all of them had tempering added to the idli, I just wanted to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) lolz :P and I also had an idea to use eno fruit salt, which suddenly went missing, I was little disappointed at 1st then went with the basic method of using soda and it worked out well enough to make me all happy happy!!!!

So sharing my Simple Recipe with you

Time Taken - 30 mins

Yields - 16 idlies

Preparation Time - 2 mins

Fermenting Time - 15- 20 mins

Cooking Time - 8-10 mins
Level - Super Easy

Ingredients:

1 and half cup - Suji/ Rawa/ Semolina

Curd - 1/2 cup or less

Water little

Salt 1 tsp or more

Oil - 1 tsp (optional)

Soda bi carbonate - half of 1/4th tsp or 1 fat pinch

Method

- Wash and rinse Rawa for 3-4 times, so that the dusty starchy particles get removed and gives some whiteness to idly. This is what I learnt from my previous idly version.

- There will be some water remaining add curd to it, salt and soda bicarbonate. The batter should be in flowing consistency. In case its thick, add little water to adjust!!

- Let it rest for 15-20 mins it will be kind of short fermentation.

- After 20 mins set the idlies to steam in well greased mould and steam it for 8- 10 mins.

And Your Done!!! Remove it from mould once little cooled

and enjoy it warm, With side dishes

See the porous soft idly texture from inside :) 

When I tasted myself I couldnt believe It would taste so gud :)Whitness was lacking, idlies turned pale yellow kind. Rawa Idlies wont give much whiter result until urad daal is added along. otherwise Generally Rawa has its own starchy effect which gives a dull finish to any end product of it. At 1st i was tensed about the color but after eating it, what I felt was, why bother abt a pale finish?? when the result is excellent ;)

Only thing went missing for me with this delicious result was Sambar and coconut chutney :)

Impression:

When I 1st remove idly moulds from steamer I was skeptical but when my mom unmoulded and kept in a bowl, I saw it later and just said wow with a surprise. I couldnt resist to taste it and found it super soft in hands to break it with 3 fingers. And taste was more surprising I couldnt believe how I missed trying out these idlies before :) 

My mom 1st said it gives a kind of smell, I asked what? No I just had 1 its tastes good no smell at all, then she tasted and Helped herself with 2 more idlies and enjoyed it too :)

My brother came poked idly with his one finger found it soft enough, nodded his head and went as he is under bathini diet and still 10 more days to go he is eagerly dying to have normal foods lolz.

If you have less time to cook go for these im sure you will never be disappointed :)

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Savory Raita

No No This Isnt a Glass Of Dessert Its just that I wanted to present this Raita Uniquely :) This is particularly Boondi Raita But the reason why i call it as Savory Raita will be discussed below!!!
 I dont know how far Ive achieved presenting this differently but This was something I did for 1st time Throughout my blogging till now

Raita is an indian salad which dosent need any introduction at all. And im sure Majority Indians have a craze for boondi raita

I Gave a Try to This Raita Long Time Back and as usual I had a habit of posting pics in my fb. This was kind of my version coz I personally never went for any boondi raita recipe online, And when I got a Chance I gave a Try myself as an experiment. We used to make normal onion cucumber raita so I dint had a problem on thinking to make it Differently.

This Is my 1st try of Raita A year Back :)

Yea though this isnt mixed up but gud for me I was able to click the ingredients that time, Who knew then I would be using it in my blogs?????????? We Never know how certain things from past works for us in future :)

Ingredients
As Show in above Pic :P No im not that lazy i'll type out hehe
Cucumber - 1 large
Onion - 1 large or 2 medium size
Khara Boondi - 1 cup
Salt - little
Sugar 1/2tsp or more
Roasted Cumin Powder - 1/4th tsp
Green Chillies - 2-3
Pepper Powder -
Chaat Masala - Generous amt
Curd- 1 cup or more
Water - 1 or 2 table spoon

Method:
- Cut Cucumber length wise, Remove the middle layer of seeds and chop it to bite able size
- Chop onion and wash it in Water atleast 3-4 time throughly till the raw smell goes. Strain and put it along with onion
- Take Boondi in a bowl, Wash it in water and put along with onion and cucumber.
- In a large bowl Mix in all the ingredients mentioned above Adjust Consistency of curd Accordingly. It shouldnt be very Runny nor very thick.
- Check for seasonings (see notes)
- Your Ready with Yummilicious Raita To be Served With Parathas/ Pulao / Biriyani
- It accommodates well with any spicy main dish.

Notes:
- Washing Onion after chopping is pleasant to eat in raitas, unwashed onions give foul smell through out the dish!!
- Cutting off middle layer of cucumber makes sure we R just left With crunchy part while eating Raita
- Washing Boondi is optional. I do this because I want The seasonings flavor to dominate in raita, as well as extra oil comes out.
- Khara boondi will have its own masalas and flavors of curry leaves If these flavors infuses with seasonings it might give a complete different taste may be multi flavored. I have tried this too and it taste well :)
- Adjust The seasonings according to your taste, I havent given any exact measurements because I keep adjusting the flavorings until I feel Ive reached the perfect taste I require.
- Add little salt or no issues if u dont add too, because chaat masala will have salt consistency, and its a very important ingredient to this Dish
- Make use of fresh curd for better result
- Dont add much pepper just a little will be enough
- I dint had roasted cumin powder, I added normal cumin powder 1/4th tsp and It was just fine :)
- Dont Forget to add Peanuts From Ur Savory It gives a Great Flavor To Raita When Eaten

End Result:
Should be little sweet, Spicy from pepper, Tangy from chaat masala, Crunchy from Cucumber & onion, Last but not the least Spongy too from Boondi. Decent well coating of fresh curd Making It all blend along with each other


Before I end my post Let me tell you why I call it as savory raita Its Simple that khaara boondi is a savory, And once when I wanted to make boondi raita I dint had boondi inspite of making attempts to get it I failed But I dint wanted my plan to just go waste, coz all other things were handy with me and almost ready. I looked at the shelf saw Savory Mixture Jar Kept, I without giving a second though went towards it and added to my raita mixture. That Savory Mixture Was An Awesome Combination too. Having Peanuts in between Raita became Great to munch upon :)

There u go You Got Another variation for this Do try U'll love it :)

Savory Mixture My Dad Always Makes Sure We Have This In Stock At Home To Serve Guest Or Munch At Evening Hours Watching TV :P

I always make this in large Quantity as my family likes to eat it as it is after finishing their meal!! Yea Including me lolz :P Cant have enough of such delicious thing :D


Over All You Might Feel Divine :)



Sending my entry to Cooking With Seeds - Peanuts

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Healthy Cabbage Salad

Salad is mixture of cooked/uncooked mixed veggies, fruits & Dressing. Im new to this salad world!! Though we consume raita Quiet often and Call it as Indian Salad But lets take a look from Google Maharaj what salad originally means and how many of us know this????

Definition:  A dish of raw leafy green vegetables, often tossed with pieces of other raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, cheese, or other ingredients and served with a dressing.

Word History: Salt was and is such an important ingredient in salad dressings that the very word salad is based on the Latin word for "salt."


What I can define Salad as??? A mixture of varieties Which is nutritious!! Filling!! and yess not to forget should also be lipsmacking!!

Alrite I go With my statement and I have not added any cheese or mayonnaise  for the salad dressing. As I said im new to this salad world my previous post on salad was also based on cabbage but it was tempered  so I was rather confused to name it a salad or not!!

Coming back to This Recipe I Kept thinking alot!! I had cabbage as my base and what else to be added hmmmmmm after lots of thinking finally got an outline to what I wanted to make

Here It goes!!!

Cabbage Roughly chopped - 1/2 of large cabbage ( put in boiling water and let it rest there for 1 or 2 mins you feel it getting tender, strain the water)
Apple- 1/2 to 1 chopped roughly
Sweet corn 1/4th cup (boiled)
Cucumber 1 large de seeded and chopped roughly
Salt - According to taste
Sugar - 1/4th tsp aprox
Pepper Powder - As per desired
Fresh Thick Curd - 1/4th cup

Take a large Mixing Bowl. Add in all ingredients and give a gud mix, Check For Taste
You should know your taste much better :) Isnt it??? Adjust Salt, Sugar, pepper accordingly. If anywhere you feel you should add more curd go ahead. But make sure Dont make It like a Raita :P We just need a good coating around the veggies and fruit to give it extra taste from dressing, Which can evenly distribute The Seasonings!!!


Here My Colorful Salad Plate Is Ready!!!  What about yours????

Impression:
Crunchy, Munchy, Fruity, Sweet Salty Peppery. All ingredients accommodated well with each other.

Felt Satisfied :D It was liked by all

Feel Free To Give Me Suggestions In Comment Box :) Would love to try more!!!

Sending my entry to My Bowl Of salad

Made With Love Mondays

Heart And Soul Blog Hop

 Healthy Salads Event Hosted by Priya

Healthy Diet - Diabetic Friendly Recipes

Corn Mania - A food Event

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Almondy Rooh afza Lassi

My Bloggy Baby Is One Month Old Today!!!
Before a year I dint knew what r blogs, as I would come across something interesting I would immediately subscribe for their email updates. Happily was following every blogs updates happy to try them out as well. When I started Studying blogs and their nature how it works, I found so many bloggers for food blogs alone???? surprising bloggers posting and re posting recipes it was all strange to me. Many A time I tot of having my own blog but dropped my plan seeing so many other blogs existing with no reviews from audience, Wat a sad moment for bloggers when they take pain to post something and there is no comments for appreciation left. I would take pleasure to comment on such blogs but at same time it would discourage me from owning my own blog.

Until one fine morning I came across Nabanita Das's blog Esho-Bosho-Aahare and read some encouraging articles there. She is such a kind soul to reply my comments via mail and make me understand how blogs work. She also encouraged me start a new blog as well. Which I started without even thinking for a moment. Though the reason was different for this move but after entering the blogging world all other things looks secondary. What is more important now is Im enjoying myself and also participating in events. After knowing everything abt this bloggy world the only thing came to my mind was!! What the hell I was doing past 5years??? 5yrs coz thats when I started social networking lolz. Thank you Nabanita for showing me the door of this world its more than an eye opener for me.

Past is past lets talk about present. And the Present is Im suppose to share my post here :)
Its so hot mom makes sure to bring fruits from market and ask me to make juice. If not juice Moor/ Buttermilk. But Sunday needs to be a little special. So I had set Curd a day ahead. I was fully in plan to make lassi for Sunday. Little bit confused regarding the flavorings. Previously made Kesar Elaichi Lassi which turned out great!!! I dint had kesar elaichi combo then so I shifted my plans to Rooh afzah. Still I wasnt sure how it might turn out, Did some googling and was ok to make a start. So here It goes

Ingredients

Curd - 1.5 - 2 cups
Milk - 2 cups
Water - 1.5 to 2 cups
Sugar - 2 table spoon +/-  according to your taste
Rooh Afzah - 2 tablespoon
Roasted Almonds - 2 tablespoon roughly chopped

Method:

- Blend In Curd, Milk, Water and Sugar I used my tall juicer. Adjust the consistency by adding more milk or water if you find it very thick or sourness is more.
- Remove in a Big Bowl Add in Rooh Afza and mix check for sugar, sourness add more ingredients which suits your taste best.
- Refrigerate The drink and serve chill
- Mix in almonds before serving (see notes)

Notes:

-No Rock Hard Rules to be followed while making this, Be Easy To your taste
-After adding everything lassi was still little bit of sour which got corrected when I served along with Ice cubes.
-Since almonds R not blanched and peeled adding almonds from bfr itself might leave the skin after getting soaked up. The skin of almonds might float on top making it overall disaster.
- If you dont want to use roasted almonds then simply blanch the almonds and slice them up still will taste crunchy munchy
- If you want More Pinker Version add more and more of rooh afza till you reach the right pitch. But here again you will need to adjust the sugar by reducing it. Coz adding more milk or curd (white) would only make the hue light pink and not dark.

It yielded 4 tall glasses of lassi for my family. Adding ice cubes floating on top gave a majestic look to the whole thing.

Impression:

Yummy Almond Rooh afza Lassi. With Perfect blend to beat the summer heat.
And Crunchy Almonds complimenting the whole subject :)
Every Sip Was Just Wonderful :)


Im in a platform to explore more n more things from expert bloggers here :)






sending this entry to ---

Celebrate summer & Jagruthi

Cooking With Seeds "Almonds" Event , Show Your Best , Healthy Food for Healthy Kids - Event Announcement, Event Announcement : Foodabulous Fest – Celebrate April Series & Simply Tadka , Soul Food Show, Event Announcement - Gain Popularity, Tangy Minds, Bon Vivant #14 - Spring Surprises, Summer Special, FR Event- Bookmarked Recipe & Hearth and Soul Blog Hop , Favorite Recipe Event: Drinks,,, Only Chilled Or Frozen,,,, 

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Perfect Curd - Home Set

I just love dairy products from my childhood, Of course milk is the base for all and I let go milk, Having milk in various forms salt, sweet sour, solid forms anything I dont mind, Im a Happy Girl who likes to consume milk even after grown up big :D Point to be noted!! Many who know me call me a little girl still lolzz for sure all our elders treat us that way :)

Call it curd or call it yogurt its all one, but just a little difference on how each one likes to call it. To share with all of you setting curd I feel is an art which all of us should learn. Lolz too old a dialogue to say but trust me once you start setting curd at home, its difficult to like the store brought curd. Though store bought curd have its own thickness etc etc stays fresh long without being sour, but what if I tell u, you can set curd same as store brought? Yes you got me right for every word I spoke here. I have better reasoning to explain here how and why :) I just thought of taking little pain for this simple recipe and explain it in detail :D Its more Like 2 marks Answers asked for 10 marks and students dont know how to elaborate lolzz

Seriously this is Home Set Curd :)

Ingredients:
1/2 liter milk (full cream/skimmed)
2 tsp starter curd (always use fresh ones, which is not sour)

Method:

Boil the milk and let it become lukewarm.
Mean While keep the curd starter in a tea strainer hanging in a small bowl, so that all the whey/water from the starter curd drips down into the bowl.
Thick starter curd is set. make sure it is in normal room temp.

In a bigger bowl, take starter curd and whisk

Whisk Whisk Whisk Till you break down all the solid particles into soft cream as shown above :)

Into this pour the warm milk and whisk it again. Make sure milk is almost in dropping temp, other wise you might land up curdling milk :) (experienced it thinking milk is warm enough, but it had to be cooled more)

After whisking milk into starter curd you might find bubbles of air on top dosent mind makes no difference.
(Please check notes how to get rid from air bubbles and make it look like store brought one)

Transfer This into a clean plastic container or steel tiffin or a bowl, anything which suits you. I transfer it into plastic containers usually. But to show curd can be set in any vessel I kept the curd to set in same container in which I had whisked!!!

Now Partially close this vessel with a lid so that dust dont enter, and keep it to rest for 6-7 hrs in a place where no one can disturb it, somewhere u keep and forget!! yet u can see when you walk around :)

After 7 hrs just try to shake a little, if it gets shaken from center you need to give some more time for resting. If its well set it will not move/ leave its sides neither will the center shake. Sometimes we keep it over night when we set curd in the night and keep it back in the fridge in the morning when we wake up (We here is Me & Mom)

Once set close the lid and store in fridge use it when ever desired. Once we start scooping out the curd we can find after sometime water/ whey start releasing. That will not disturb the curd consistency, Its just the nature of the curd. I dont like to waste this water at times, I use up the whole thing.

A little background :
Initially when we tried setting curd it will all turn liquid and runny. but sourness remained that of curd. I was small then and also would frequently get disappointed. I saw my nani (mom's mom) set curd in huge vessel which was sitting there thick and awesome. since then I wanted to learn from her but never got a chance though, until I came across a Food Page in FB.

When I followed the steps I was not sure how it would turn, coz mom always told me to cool down the milk to room temp 1st then add starter. But when I saw the result I was so happy Running around showing everyone at home lolzzz. Of course why not???? its been something I was trying to achieve the result from my childhood. Since Then mom asks me to set curd. But still I do make mistakes :)

Masters of arts cannot make mistake and name it as a creative new art :)

Disasters and Reasoning's:

- Warm milk from top and hot from bottom, so make sure milk is warm to dropping temp otherwise it might tend to curdle if ur not sure abt warm milk after boiling, then let the temp of milk drop fully, and lightly heat the milk vessel  for 1/2 min the warmness which milk will get will be enough to make a start

- Use just 2 tsp - 3 tsp of starter curd. After letting the water drip from strainer. you might be left with only 1 and half tsp thick starter.

- Using thick starter is important as it will give thick consistency to the curd setting. while runny curd used as starter will give runny consistency.

- I never asked mom why keep lid partially open no idea though, she wont have reasoning's for my questions :P I never tried packing up the whole thing and let it to set, If anyone does that let me know how it turns

- Whisking is important as it breaks the solid particles from thick starter, Whisking is also important after adding milk because it allows a gud blend of starter and milk together. If u dont have egg hand whisk use a fork that will work fine. mixer might curdle the whole thing.

- Do not add lots of starter curd thinking It might set more thick. I happen to do this mistake recently and was unaware what goes wrong. When we add more starter curd the particles of curd instead of blending with milk start floating on top resulting a thick curd from top but there will be water formation from below. So the whole thing will be like Earth Land floating on top and Sea Water beneath lolz :P

This pic of the post was taken when I 1st set the curd which got the perfection :) This pic was taken 2 year back in 2011, I was always clicking pics to post in my Fb to show my frnds :) 1st pic also shows porus texture on top due to air bubbles formation during whisking!!

This pic is I tried making Boondi Raita for 1st time with the set curd. I never knew both these clicks would be helpful for my blogging in later years. :)
I wanted to post the last pic along Just to show the thickness of the curd, Its just stiff enough and not runny.


Any Doubts Or If I Had Missed Any Points Do Feel Free To Ask In Comments Section, OMG IF U REALIZED IM SMILING THROUGHOUT THE POST AND YES EVEN NOW. Is such a pleasure to share something like this :)

Open Ur Mouth Taste It AaaaannnnnN!!


Notes:
- Using Full Cream milk or Skimmed milk is your choice, Result will depend acordingly
- The amount of curd im shown in pic for whipping as starter is suitable for 2-3 liters of milk ( did for sake of showing here)
- To get rid of air bubbles I usually strain it in tea strainer or even steel strainer this makes ensure of even distribution of starter throughout, If any particles of starter is left in strainer dont be hesistant to add it back to milk.
- After straining atleast once use a spoon to stir, breaking any more left out air bubbles and then shift to a container pouring slowly, pouring it from a certain height will again form air bubbles.
- Sour Starter may Give Sour Curd even if lil sour makes a difference so always use fresh starter
- Keeps gud for 5-6 days in fridge with cooling temp!!

Plssss plsss plsss!! somebody give me full marks for writing such a big history with just 2 Ingredients HaHaHa!!


This Post might Look Big But To Do is Just 4-5 steps away!!!






Sending My Entry To Story Telling with Food!

Celebrate summer & Jagruthi

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