Doodhi halwa

I had brought doodhi last week & still had not used it.I also had cream in the freezer- home cream - I remove malai from milk & keep it in a box in the freezer for 9-10 days at a stretch.I thought of making doodhi halwa like gajar halwa.

I googled for the recipe &  was inspired by this recipe at vah re vah !

Ingredients : 1 cup peeled & grated doodhi( bottle gourd ),1/2 cup frozen malai, 1tsp ghee ( optional ),1/2 cup sugar,5-6 almonds -grated or finely chopped.

Method : Clean the doodhi & peel it.Grate the doodhi.Remove the malai from the freezer.Let it attain room temperature.

Take a kadhai & put  on gas.Gas must be on slow burner.Let it warm.Pour the malai on to the kadhai & now put the grated doodhi on to it.Mix both the malai & doodhi nicely.Cook the mix in the kadhai -covering the kadhai with a lid.After 5-6 minutes,uncover the kadhai & mix the contents with spoon.Cover with lid & let it cook again.Repeat this 3-4 times.By this time,doodhi & malai would have mixed nicely & got cooked.Now add sugar.Mix nicely.Cover with lid & let it cook.After 5-6 minutes,uncover the lid  & mix nicely.Repeat once more.By this time ,all water would have evaporated.Add a tsp ghee & mix nicely.It will give a nice aroma to the halwa. Put off the gas.

Serve the halwa garnished with grated almonds or finely chopped almonds.I garnish with almonds as my kid does not like any dry fruits in halwa.Alternately,one can fry dry fruits like chopped almonds,cashews in ghee & add them to the halwa.

Mango Ice cream.

I love ice creams except chocolate ice cream.I amke it apoint to eat an ice cream whenever I go out to the market.I am especially fond of Amul Ice creams.Gelato is a new favourite.

I always felt that ice creams will never turn out the way they are in the Ice cream parlours as the freezers are very important & we do not have access to those types of freezers.Our refrigerators are opened every now & then.This affects the freezing & obviously the ice cream.

I was inspired to try this ice cream by Kavi @(http://myedibles.blogspot.in/2012/06/mango-ice-cream.html & Veg Inspirations who shared the 2 ingredient ice cream recipe @http://www.veginspirations.com/2012/06/simple-2-ingredient-nutella-icecream.html

I would like to clarify that I used all approximate measurements as I was very skeptical of the results.So if you want to try ,please be careful.All measurements are approximate except the jaggery sugar & cream.

Ingredients : 200-225 ml milk,1/2 cup jaggery sugar, Mango pulp of 1 medium sized mango ( I used Kesar ).Happus ,Dussehari or any other sweet variety can be used,1 tbsp cream,any dry fruit for garnishing ( I used almonds ).

Method : I boiled milk for 20-25 minutes.I beat the mango pulp & cream in a mixie along with the sugar.Now added this pulp-cream sugar mix to boiled milk & mixed nicely.Allow it to cool.Now take an airtight container  & put the milk-cream-pulp sugar mixture into it.The mixture must come upto three fourths level in the container & not more.It can be less than that.This is because after cooling ,there will be expansion & there must be room for that.Keep the container in the freezer.

I did this in the night.I took the container from the freezer in the morning.The ice cream had set.I mixed the contents of the container with the spoon  after it had warmed up a little bit as it had been kept out of the freezer.Then I kept it in the freezer again.After every hour ,the container has to be taken out from thr freezer & mixed again & set in the freezer.This prevents to some extent the ice crystals which get formed.I repeated this in & out of the freezer some 5 -6 times.

You may notice from the snap below that my ice cream is not that creamy as it has more water content than it should have.I am posting this  as my first attempt has turned out better than my expectations ! Next time around,I plan to use more cream & boil the milk for a longer time.

I scooped out 3scoops with a ladle & put it into a bowl.I garnished it with chopped almonds.

Tip : Dussehari has a watery pulp.Kesar &Happus  have thicker mango pulp. Hence ,I feel Happus & Kesar are good for mango ice cream.Any other variety of mango can also be used. Jaggery sugar has a brownish almost chocolate colour.My ice cream therefore has a darker colour.Ordinary white sugar can be used.I use jaggery sugar as it is healthier- I believe so as it is not as refined as ordinary white sugar.Jaggery sugar is more sweet than ordinary sugar is my opinion-so I use less than what others may have used.

The milk I used is  low fat milk.The cream I used is malai of the milk which I boiled.I have already started collecting malai in the freezer for my next ice cream !

Veg. Biryani

Ingredients :10 beans ,1-2 carrots,1tbs green peas,1medium sized tomato,1 medium sized onion,1 sprig of curry leaves,1 green mirchi,1' inch ginger,1 cup rice,1/2 tsp haldi,1/4 tsp hing,1/4 cup dahi with cream or only cream of preferably sour dahi,2 tej patta,2 cinnamaon sticks of 1/2 inches,2 cloves,5-6 black pepper ,2 tbsp oil,salt to taste.

Method :Wash the rice & keep aside.Take 2 tbsp oil in a pressure pan & heat it.Put tej patta & cinnamon sticks.Add cloves & pepper.Add hing.After the spices start emitting their aromas,add the carrots & beans which have been cut into 1/2 ' pieces.Add shelled peas.Fry the veggies.Add the rice & fry a little, maybe for a minute.Add turmeric & mix it nicely.

Take onions tomatoes,hari mirch,curry leaves & adrak.Cut them all .Now put all this in amixie & grind them.Now add dahi or cream of dahi to this mixture & again grind.Now pour this mixture on to the rice veggie mixture in the pan.Add salt.Now add 11/2 cups water to the rice.Less water is added as the onion tomato dahi paste contains some water.

Pressure cook for two -three whistles.Put off the gas.Let it cool.Remove whistle after the cooker gets silent.After 10 minutes,remove the whistle.After another ten minutes,remove the lid of the cooker to view & smell the veg biryani .

Tip :I added diced potatoes also with carrots & beans as my kid loves aloos.