Rose Milkshake

It's officially Summer in our neck of woods and the temperatures are slowly rising. So this colorful and refreshing Rose milkshake is just perfect for the season. Recipe is from a TV cooking show.

It wasn't until recently that I got to know that my mom likes rose milkshake. We were talking on the phone a few weeks ago and she was telling me about how she used to drink it when she was little. I wish she had told me that while she was in US, I would have made this for her. Next time she visits us, I know what to make for her.

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Piyush (Gujarati Yogurt Drink)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 
Day 16: P for Piyush
Today I have a creamy and delicious dessert perfect for the summer. It is Gujarati version of lassi and is made with Shrikhand. Initially I had a savory dish planned for P, but then I saw this Piyush recipe on Tarla Dalal.com and since I already had Kesar Shrikhand in the fridge, I made it right away. Also with the sweltering summer heat in India, this is a perfect cooling drink.

Piyush is nothing but jazzed up version of shrikhand. It is mixed with more yogurt (or buttermilk) and thinned out with milk, then flavored with spices. This was one of the easiest and one of the yummiest yogurt based desserts I've ever made. Since I was the only having this at home, I thoroughly enjoyed making and drinking this creamy and rich Piyush.

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Rajasthani Mawa Malpua

Malpuas are one of the popular dessert in the North Indian states. There are quite a few different ways of making malpuas. These Rajasthani malpuas have mawa/ khoya in them and that makes them even more rich and delicious.

Malpuas are nothing but pancakes that are dipped in sugar syrup. They taste absolutely amazing when served with the instant rabri and they are sure to be an awesome treat for any sweet lover.

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Swedish Rice Pudding for #Food of the World

We are going to Sweden for this month's edition of #Food of the World event. I have tried and posted quite a few Swedish recipes in the past, but I still have a lot bookmarked to try. Swedish Cinnamon rolls aka kanelbullar are on the top of that list. But I posted this sticky pecan bread today, so didn't want to make something similar again.

After searching for vegetarian Swedish recipes, I finalized this simple and easy to make Rice pudding aka Risgrynsgröt. Being a south Indian, rice based dishes are always welcome and this rice pudding is very similar to our very own paramannam except the Swedish version is spiced with cinnamon whereas the Indian version has cardamom.

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Pumpkin Ice Cream (Eggless Recipe)

I don't want to say it loud but it has been a mild fall so far. Temperatures have been warmer than usual and we are occasionally still sporting our summer sandals and half sleeves. But the daylight hours have started to get shorter and the trees are changing into beautiful shades of red, yellow and gold.

This pumpkin ice cream is perfect for this time of the year. Fall flavors with not so fall weather calls for an dessert like this. I tasted my first pumpkin flavored ice cream on one of my recent farm visit with few of my blog buddies. It was a pumpkin-vanilla soft swirl and I loved it. Also my son randomly asked for pumpkin ice cream recently, so I've been looking for a recipe.

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Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (Eggless Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Cookies & Cream Ice cream

My theme for the final week of this month's blogging marathon is 'Bookmarked Recipes'. Since it is almost the end of summer (sigh -- why does it have to end so soon!!!), I thought it is time to post the ice creams that I made during summer.

First up is 'Cookies & cream ice cream'. I read somewhere that 'Cookies & Cream' flavor is one of the most popular ice cream flavor and I told this little tidbit to my son. From that point on he started pestering me to make it for him (thanks to the summer vacation, he had too much free time on his hands to pester me).

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Mango Almond Smoothie

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Fruits in any form

Dish: Mango-Almond Smoothie

We are starting a brand new week of blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Fruits in any form'. It's for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by Harini. I have 2 extremes at home, my son doesn't want to touch any fruit and my daughter loves most of the fruits. So for this week, I've tried to make dishes that would (hopefully) please both of them.

First up is this delicious and nutritious mango-almond smoothie. With mango season in full swing, I am making sure to keep fresh, juicy mangoes in stock all the time. We eat most of them as is -- peeled and diced.

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Noodley Pudding (Siwayan/ Semya Custard pudding) for Blog Anniversary

Month of May flew by really, really fast. It was quite a busy month jam packed with a lot of fun and food -- celebrated my birthday, Mother's day, met some blog buddies, took a painting class along with couple of friends, planted a raised bed garden and caught up with family and friends. I wish all months are this way -- even though it went fast, a lot of things have happened and most of the time is accounted for unlike some months were absolutely nothing happens in the whole entire month.

Along with the other happy incidents, my blog completed 9 years and entered into it's 10th year of blogging. I don't think I even knew what I was doing or what I wanted to do with the blog 9 years ago when I started it. This space was my way of documenting my recipes, never thought I would last this long. Being a stay at home mom for the last 3 years, the blog has become my main hobby -- it gives me something else to think about other than the mundane everyday chores.

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Sorakaya Palu posina Kura (Bottlegourd curry with milk)

Continuing with my 'Cleaning my fridge' series that I started last week, I am cooking with the bottlegourd/ sorakaya today. My cousin brought her super long bottlegourd from her garden recently, it was longer than my almost 3ft daughter. I wish I took a picture of both of them together because I had to cut into 3 pieces to share with my sister and cousin. Anyway the 3rd of the bottle gourd I had left in the fridge went into this simple to make curry.
My mom used to make this milk based bottle gourd curry quite often, I'm not sure if I really liked it back then. Now I crave for it once in a while, but I rarely make it because of my dairy-hating husband doesn't like the milky taste.

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So I waited and made this dish when he was away on travel. It is super simple to make, slightly sweet and you can definitely make it more spicy and less sweet. It is great to eat with steamed rice or even roti.

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Carrot Poli (Bobbatlu/ Puran Poli with Carrot Halwa Filling)

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Diwal Festival Specials
Dish: Carrot Poli (Bobbatlu/ Puran Poli with Carrot Halwa Filling) 

For today's Diwali special, I have a recipe that I bookmarked ages ago from Harini's blog. These carrot polis have tempted me the minute I saw them, but it took me more than 2 years to make them. But it's better late than never -- right??

My husband is a big carrot halwa fan. My MIL makes the most delicious carrot halwa with fresh khoya and the red gajar that is available during winter in India. I'm just too lazy to take up projects like carrot halwa because a) the expectations are way too high and I don't want to disappoint the eaters b) too lazy to grate the carrot. My sister used to grate the carrots for my mom back home, so that is one job I don't really enjoy doing.

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Karnataka -- Pathir Pheni with Almond milk

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 13
State: Karnataka
Dish: Pathir Pheni with Almond milk

After exploring the states from the North, we are travelling to southwest India today to Karnataka. It was created in 1956 and was originally known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed as Karnataka in 1973. Karnataka shares a border with my home state Andhra Pradesh and the language spoken, Kannada, has some similarities to our language, Telugu. Kannada script is also similar to that of Telugu. So I can probably say that I understand and read about 5% of Kannada.
When I was about 12 years old, my dad took us on a vacation to places in Southern India. We visited some famous touristy places in all 4 southern states. I still remember the beautiful Mysore Brindavan gardens, especially the light show at night. Hampi, Bellur, Halebeedu, Shravanabelogola are some of the places I still remember. My mom still has the pictures from our trip.

Cuisine: Kannadigas (people from Karnataka) make a wide array of snacks, main dishes and desserts. The variety of dishes they make with just rice and flattened rice is mind boggling. Karnataka's cuisine includes both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes that have influences from the neighboring regions and communities. South Karnataka is famous for its typical dishes like Bisi bele bhath, Jolada Rotti, ragi rotti etc., Famous Masala dosa traces its origin to Udupi cuisine. Coastal Karnataka is famous for its tasty seafood specialties and pork curries. Coorg, the hilly district in Kodagu has its unique cuisine that includes spicy meat dishes.
Staple Food: Rice, Ragi, Sorghum etc.,
Specialties: Jolada Rotti, Ragi mudde, Uppittu, Maddur Vada, Dharwad peda, bisibele bhath, Vangi bhath, Kesari bhath, Chiroti, Chitranna, Avalakki, Mandakki.

Today's Dish: During our Kaaja making session, I was chitchatting with my mom and was telling her about the mega marathon and the dishes I had planned to make for each state. For Karnataka, I told her I had planned to make Chiroti, but they sounded so much similar to kaaja that I was planning to change it to something else. My mom said she tasted chirotis long time back at a kannadiga friend's wedding and she said there is no comparison between kaaja & chiroti and both of them belong to different category altogether.

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Mango Custard

Here's a delicious dessert recipe for any occasion. I made it a while back and wanted to share with everyone on the eve of Valentines Day. If you are still looking for something quick and easy to make for Valentines day, then this recipe is for you.

Unlike other Valentines day desserts which are either made of chocolate or strawberry, this is made with mango -- which in my opinion is more exotic than he aforementioned ingredients :-)

Valentines day or not, this is a great dessert that can be made ahead of time. Fruit Custard is quite famous in India and as I was thinking of how make it a little more fancy, I thought why not add some mango puree I had in the fridge. The end result is this creamy mango flavored custard that serves as a great base for assorted fruit. A must try for all mango lovers.

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Caramelized Onion & Zucchini Quiche (with Spelt flour Crust)

To me making a pie crust has always been a daunting task. I've had couple of bad experiences both with homemade and store bought pie crusts in the past which made me avoid making a pie altogether. To be honest I'm not a big fan of pie. Given a chance I would rather enjoy the filling without the crust.

But quiche is a different story. I fell in love with quiche the first time I ate it about 10 years ago. One of my co-workers brought it over for potluck lunch and I probably ate almost the whole pie. I tried to recreate it at home a couple of time, but the pie crust failed me. I finally gave up on it. I never dared to make it even though it was always on the back of my mind.

Finally this weekend I decided it was time for me to try my hand at making the pie crust and quiche. I already had a bookmarked recipe for quiche with spelt flour crust from Culinate. It is not the recipe that made me bookmark the article, it is the way the author gives you confidence in making the pie crust. She makes you feel that anyone can make a pie crust and the detailed instructions really help. 

This pie crust is made of Spelt flour (equal quantity of whole wheat flour can be substituted here) and uses a stick of butter and half a stick of cream cheese. The dough is soft and really easy to handle. I had trouble fluting the edges and at one corner I trimmed too much of the excess which resulted in shrunken crust after baking. But that didn't really affect the final taste of the quiche, the crust turned was flaky & buttery.

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Sweet Pea Kheer

Blogging Marathon# 34: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: Desserts with Vegetables
Dish: Sweet Pea Kheer

So for the final day of this week's BM# 34, I decided to make something different for 'Desserts with Vegetables'. I saw this sweet pea kheer on a Telugu cooking show and remember thinking to myself 'why would anyone use sweet peas to make kheer!!!!' But of course when Valli announced the themes, I knew I had to experiment with a vegetable that I have never used in desserts before, so here it is a kheer with sweet peas.

On the cooking show the kheer had a beautiful minty green color, but mine didn't turn out that color. I guess I didn't grind the sweet peas into a smooth enough paste to get that color.

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Firni (Hyderabadi Phirni)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter F
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: F for Firni/ Hyderabadi Phirni/ Firni

My daughter turns 1 today. Past 1 year flew so fast that I can't even believe it's time to celebrate her first birthday today. We are having a party with few of our dear friends and family.

What better way to celebrate my little ones birthday than this rich and creamy firni/ phirni. I saw the recipe for Mango phirni on Etv-Urdu channel and I knew right away that I had to make it for this A-Z series. The cook on tv used rice flour to make firni, but I used ground rice powder and it turned out great. It got thick and creamy as it sat in the refrigerator. An awesome make ahead dessert that is sure to please everyone in a party.

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Chocolate Custard with Custard Powder

Blogging Marathon# 30: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Kid's Delight - Summer Special
Dish: Chocolate Custard with Custard Powder

Day 2 of BM# 30 and my theme for this week is "Summer Specials". This month's Kid's Delight event is being hosted by the talented Chef Mireille @ Global Gourmet. I love her theme because it is crazy hot here and my 5 year old is driving me crazy with his little demands. So I've been looking for some kid friendly recipes to please my picky eater.

Today I made something sweet with one of his favorite ingredients, chocolate. He doesn't eat vanilla in any form and he wouldn't even touch the regular custard. So I added some cocoa to custard and made a chocolate version of it and he loved it. I wish I had thought of it earlier!!

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Banana Nutella Nut Milkshake

I wrote about my son's love for chocolate a lot of times. His mom is obsessed with everything related to cooking and eating and he is obsessed with everything chocolate. The other day when he had to pick between vanilla and strawberry ice creams, he told me very seriously that he doesn't like vanilla. I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud because I wasn't sure if he knew why he didn't like vanilla. My guess is he thinks he shouldn't like vanilla because he loves chocolate :-)

Well anyway, chocolate actually makes him eat bananas, because he eats bananas drizzled with chocolate syrup. Not the best way to eat a fruit, but I'm happy he's at least trying it. I believe in baby steps and I'm sure one day he'll get better at trying and tasting different foods.

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Banana Mini Rounds (Banana Ebelskivers)

Recipe Courtesy: My dear friend Yagna Jyothy

Another yummy kid friendly creation from my friend Jyothy. She calls them Banana mini rounds, a  fun name for kids to get excited to eat. They look similar to appam and they sound simple to make and delicious to eat for both kids and adults alike. 

Here's what Jyothy had to say about the recipe: "The recipe was put together by something my sister said she made for her coffee mornings out of left over bananas- as I was complaining about bananas rotting often in the kitchen."

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Pumpkin Milkshake

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 3/ Day 6
Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Fall Dessert
Dish: Pumpkin Milkshake

It has been a very busy weekend, so this is going to be a short post. Fall brings Halloween, Jack o Lanterns ,  pumpkins and apples. I had actually planned on making a proper fall dessert like apple bread pudding or apple crostata or pumpkin cheesecake. But after meyer lemon cake and coconut ice cream, I thought it is best to make something light and something I don't have to eat out of the refrigerator for too long.

I never bought a whole pumpkin, but I always keep canned pumpkin puree in the pantry. Here's a quick and easy milkshake to enjoy fall.

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Coconut Ice Cream

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 3/ Day 4
Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Summer Dessert
Dish: Coconut Ice Cream

Summer means time for ice creams. Even though some might say (I'm sure my husband will agree) that ice cream can be eaten any time of the year. But at least in summer I don't have to say it's too cold outside to eat an ice cream :-)
I have stopped buying store bought ice creams more than 3 years back, when I bought my ice cream maker.  I make sure that the freezer is always stocked with vanilla and mango ice creams and I keep making new / fancy flavors when I feel like it, may be once every 3-4 months, but more frequently in summer.

I like my ice creams nice and creamy. I don't like icy stuff and since we are pretty good at portion control, I make full fat ice creams, so we can indulge once in a while.

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