Seasonal fruit parfait

Sangeeta Khanna's food blog banaras ka khana  introduced me to the fact that just milk & rajgir ladoos can make a wonderful cereal .And to a lazy  person like me ,this was too yummy .I loved the flavour ! Moreover,rajgir ladoos have no oil and or ghee.Rajgir danas bound by jaggery ! Then through her blog post on healthfooddesivideshi,I learnt to add fruits & dahi to rajgir  laddoos to make morning breakfast cereal !

And here is my recipe...actually it is Sangeeta Khanna's recipe just tweaked a little, by me  !

Ingredients : 2 Rajgir laddoos,1 orange desseded & peeled & cut ,3-4  strawberries cut, 1 chikoo deeseeded ,peeled &  cut & 1 apple deeseded & cut , & peeled,1 banana peeled & cut into thin slices, 3-4 tbsp dahi or milk  ,1 tbsp crumbled cookie or crumbled cake ( optional ) .this quantity is enough for 1 person.

Method : Take a glass tumbler ( so that one can look at the parfait & start oogling at it ) .Drop 2 rajgir laddoos inside it.Add the seasonal fruits like bananas,apple,oranges,strawberries even black & green grapes,etal In fact any seasonal fruit can be added .Moreover,in any quantity.Add yoghurt ( I prefer yoghurt....alternatively milk can be added or maybe a mix of both  ) ..... on top of the fruit mix.Now add crumbled cookies or cake.Let it stand for 10 -15 minutes.

Now take a spoon & try to mix all the ingredients reaching upto the bottom.And just eat it spoon by spoon ! It is just heavenly !

Instead of cookie or cake ,dry fruit can be added for the crunch like almonds,cashews,walnuts.etc.Even kismis can be added for extra sweetness.Though the jaggery in the laddoos will impart the needed sweetness !

Rasgullas

I simply love rasgullas ! Recently I learnt that rasgullas are full of protein ! Hence ,I am elated.Moreover ,the rasgulla syrup is less dense in sugar than that of gulabjamuns ! So many positive points ! No oil is used in making rasgullas ! So fat free,low sugar & protein rich !

I searched for recipes & came across two which I combined & made rasgullas.The two recipes I picked up are rasgulla recipe at LiteBite   & Divya's rasgulla recipe These  recipes are so easy that my love for rasgullas has multiplied many times over !

Ingredients : 1/2 litre low fat milk ( I get Amul Taaza Milky Milk with 3 % fat minimum & S.N.F.8.5% minimum ),1/2 cup sugar,2 -3 tbsp dahi,1/2 tsp cardamom powder( optional ), 1 tsp ghee to grease palms to make rasgulla loddoos.

Method :Open the milk packet & pour the milk into the container.Boil the milk.After it has boiled,slow the burner to sim or slow.Now add 2-3 tbsp dahi & keep stirring the milk.Milk will start curdling.Let it continue.Keep stirring & simmering the milk on the gas for 10 minutes.Switch off the gas.By this time ,the clear water ( whey ) of the milk & milk solids would have seperated.

Collect the milk solids onto a thin & large  cotton cloth piece.Collect all the milk solids on to the cloth.Then tie up the loose ends of the cloth into a knot tightly.This is to squeeze out all the remaining water from the milk solids. Hang the cloth from a hook .Better on the cloth knot,put some vessel which has weight so that it helps in squeezing out water.Rub some ice on the part of the cloth which contains the milk solids.Keep rubbing ice for 5 minutes.Keep aside the milk solids in the cloth knot for half an hour.

After half an hour,remove the milk solids which would have formed a mass of white colour from the cloth.This is cottage cheese or channa. Knead this mass nicely for about ten minutes till no lumps remain.It will become very soft after kneading for 10 minutes.Apply a little ghee to the palms & make small balls out of the channa. Repeat the process to make more balls till all channa gets over.Keep aside.

In a vessel take 1/2 cup sugar.Add 1 cup water .Boil till, all sugar dissolves. Cardammom powder can be added while it is boiling.Put off the gas.

Drop the channa balls into the sugar syrup.Take a pressure cooker & put the vessel containing channa balls in sugar syrup in the cooker.Pressure cook till 1 whistle.Then lower the gas & cook for 5 minutes on slow .Put off the gas.I released the pressure after this step by slowly lifting the whistle .Then after the cooker's whistle almost went away,I removed the whistle.

Then remove the lid of pressure cooker.Take out the vessel containing rasgullas & keep it in a bigger vessel containing some water to cool off.

After an hour or so ,one can relish the rasgullas !

Next time on ,I am just going to let the cooker cool on its own, without releasing the pressure by lifting up the whistle.It is so much effort ! Maybe ,rasgullas will become more juicy ,then !

Carrot Tomato soup

I add carrots to many dishes- upma,vermicelli upma,pav bhaji,bread pizza,etal.I add carrots to gravies of chhole,rajma & other lentils as I feel carrots blend nicely with tomatoes.Moreover ,my daughter would eat carrots smuggled into the dishes which otherwise she would not.

Ingredients : 2 medium sized tomatoes,1 medium onion( optional ) ,1 small carrot,1/2 tsp pepper powder,1/2 inch grated ginger ,fresh coriander-a few sprigs, salt to taste.

Method : Chop tomatoes,onion & carrot into big chunks.Pressure cook them all.After the pressure cooked veggies cool to room temperature,blend all of them in a mixer or blender.

Take the blended paste or liquid into a thick bottomed vessel.Add water to make it thin -of soup consistency. Add grated ginger.Boil the liquid.Add salt & pepper powder.Mix properly.Take off the vessel from gas.

Serve in bowls -garnished with fresh coriander which has been cleaned,washed & chopped.

Mango peach salsa with a twist.

I came across this easy salsa @ http://anjali-cooklog.blogspot.in/2012/05/desi-chatpata-mango-salsa.html

As I had some peaches & mangoes at home,I decided to make my own version of  salsa inspired by the desi salsa of Anjali.

Ingredients : 1 small ripe mango ( I had Neelam mango -any sweet mango can be used ),1 peach,1 tomato ,2-3 spring onion bulbs ( since I had them -I used them -ordinary onions can also be used ),1/4 tsp pepper powder,1/4tsp jeera powder, 1 tbsp thin sev ( used to garnish bhel puri,sev puri etc ),salt  to taste.

Method :Peel the mango & peach.For peach ,put the peach in lukewarm water & let it remain in water for 10 minutes.This will help in peeling peach.

Cut the mango ,peach,tomato & onions into 1/2 inch pieces.Mix all the cut veggies.Sprinkle pepper & jeera powder.Add salt to taste & mix all together.Now garnish with sev & serve.

It tasted awesome ! I added lots of sev after I had taken this snap & devoured it ! I did not have any chips or papad handy to accompany the salsa.Hence, added sev generously & gobbled it up !

Tips : One can add boiled potatoes,boiled mung or chana as well.One can add cucumbers, radishes,carrots also.One can add red chilli powder or chilli flakes ,oregano etc.It was tangy enough for me -the peach being on the sour side.Mango provided the sweetness,pepper provided pungent flavours.Even lemon juice  can be added to make it more  tangy.Honey can be added for extra sweetness.The options are unlimited !

This is very healthy & full of fibre.What more can I ask for ? !