Carrot-Beetroot Juice

I am not overly obsessed about my health or anything but yes, everything in moderation is my mantra….No I don’t shun something completely because of its calorie content ..aww..poor thing..or keep tab on what goes into my stomach…I believe we are what we eat and whenever I am eating something I want to do so with a positive mind frame not like aww..this is bad for me and still eat it.. 

Having said that let me also tell you, I am very picky when it comes to food. Confusing? :(  People have this misconception that since I love cooking, I eat just about anything and everything.  Fact is, I don’t eat something that I don’t understand.. you know..like if the ingredients are not familiar ...also I need to feel good about the whole eating experience….weird? For me feelings plays a major role in every aspect of my life. I use my heart more than my head so much that it has gone on a long vacation and refused to come back..she feels unwanted..hmm..need to do something about it..

Ahem....are you still with me?  What is it that we were talking about…oh yes..living healthy.

I am very responsible towards my body...….and mind...ok..ok..atleast I try.  I do spend some time in gym, meditate, eat home cooked food (that is because I hate eating out...very old fashioned huh?) and drink juice..Hmm.. speaking of juice, here is something that I want to share with you guys, my carrot beetroot juice, awesome..Taste amazing, sweet, ginger-y, frothy and look at the color..great, right?

Very simple all you need, for 2 medium glass,

4 medium size carrots

4 beets

a small piece of ginger

few coriander leaves
Lemon wedges to garnish

Scrape carrots & beets and clean all the above ingredients thoroughly.  Now roll coriander leaves in a bunch and feed into the chute followed by ginger, beets and carrots (preferably in that order) and extract every single drop of juice. You can also add a little bit of lemon juice in there or  spice it up with green chillies. Garnish with a coriander leaf and a lemon wedge.

Easy..healthy..now you are ready to take on the world, Tiger :)

Tomato Mozzarella Flan

I am going Italian today. Got this recipe from a book I borrowed from a friend like an year ago, and is still with me !! I hate it when people borrow books from me and never return.  Grrr......

Nothing complicated.  Familiar ingredients and I somehow know how the final product would taste like when they come together in harmony. So here is the recipe..lets do something different today :)

Ingredients:  (Serves 4)

1 cup All-purpose flour
4 tbsp butter chopped (cold butter ..not room temp.)
1 egg
1 tbsp cold water
salt to taste
5 tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp rosemary leaves
spring onion or regular onion as required

Now the steps:

Preheat oven to 350 deg.F. Grease a tart pan and keep it ready.

In a food processor, add flour and butter. Pulse for a few seconds until it looks like bread crumbs.

In a bowl, beat the egg with cold water and add slowly to flour mixture. Process till the dough comes together.

Transfer to a floored surface and kneed into a smooth dough. Cover with a plastic wrap and chill for 20 min.

In the meantime,  cut the tomatoes. Arrange it on a baking pan, sprinkle salt and drizzle olive oil on top and bake for 15 min. Remove from the oven and keep it aside.

Increase the oven temperature to 415 deg.F.

Take out the dough from the refrigerator, and roll it into a 9" circle on a floored surface.

Wrap the pastry sheet around the roller and slowly transfer  to a tart pan and trim the edges or fold it in.

Dock the bottom of the pastry sheet with a fork so the crust doesn't puff up while baking. Bake for 15-20 min. until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool.

Now arrange the baked tomatoes, mozzarella slice and thinly sliced onion on the crust. Top it with rosemary leaves and season with salt. Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil.

Bake for 10 min. Cool before you slice it. Buon appetito!

Noodles for breakfast!

Noodles for breakfast today!! But not your regular maggi noodles.. This is made differently.  My mother used to make this all the time and this is her original recipe.

This is not made with your regular maggi noodles.  Amma used to get it from a vegetable vendor. Here is what I use, it is vermicelli and I buy mine from a Korean Store.

Ingredients: (serves 6 people)

1 packet vermicilli noodles
2 medium size carrots (cut into very small pieces)
1/2 cup green peas (fresh or else frozen)
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 whole red chillies (broken into pieces)
Few curry leaves
salt to taste
Tomato ketch up (optional)

Method:

Boil water in a sauce pan.  When it starts to boil, add salt.

Now add noodles. Immerse it completely in water with the help of a spoon. Switch off the flame.

When it softens, drain, keep it aside. (Remember not to overcook. It softens really fast, takes only about  30 sec. or so.)

Place green peas and carrot in a bowl, add little water and microwave for 3 min. till carrot is nicely cooked.

In a pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds. When seeds starts to splutter, add red chillies and curry leaves.

Now add cooked carrot and green peas. Add little bit of salt. (We have already salted the noodles so just a pinch would suffice.)

You can also add little bit of tomato ketch up at this stage. Stir.

Now add the noodles. Mix it carefully with a fork and separate the strands. Switch off the flame.

Your noodle breakfast is now ready! Rise & shine :)

Sharkara Ari Payasam - Rice pudding made with jaggery & coconut

Payasam, as we call it in Southern part of India is a dessert item.  It is called kheer in North India. Payasam is made during special occasions like Onam & Vishu which are major South Indian festivals or else on birthdays and weddings.  Traditionally it is made in an uruli, a  vessel made of brass metal.

Here is an image of uruli.

There are different kinds of payasam like Ari Payasam made with rice, semiya payasam which is  made with vermicilli, pal (milk) payasam  and these days people even make vegetable payasam.

Today I am going to make Ari (rice) Payasam and this is how I made it.

Ingredients:

1 cup pachari (raw white rice)
350 gm black jaggery
2 bananas
2 cups grated coconut
2 cups whole milk (optional)
1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)
1 tbsp cashew nuts
1 tbsp raisins
1/4 cup coconut slices
1/2 cup pure ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cardamom powder

Soak rice in water for atleast 30 min.

Drain, combine milk and rice in a saucepan and cook in low flame. Remember not to over cook the rice. White rice cooks really fast, so keep an eye. You can also cook rice with water instead of milk.

Microwave jaggery with little bit of water for 1 min. take it out and break it down with a fork and microwave for another one min. repeat it till it  dissolves completely, then strain to remove all the impurities and keep it aside.

Now for the coconut milk, put a cheese cloth over a bowl and keep it aside. Grind the coconut with 1/4 cup hot water (use more water if you want thin milk).  Pour it over to the cheese cloth and squeeze out the milk. Keep it aside.

In a heavy bottom vessel, add ghee.  When it melts, add sliced banana and cook for 3 min in low flame.

Keep stirring. Now add rice and jaggery syrup. Keep stirring.

When it starts to simmer, add heavy cream, coconut milk and cardamom powder. Simmer in low flame for 2 min. Turn off the flame. Transfer to a serving dish.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry cashew nuts, coconut slices and raisins till nuts change color and raisins plump up.

. Pour it over the payasam. Serve hot or cold.

Lemon Cake

I am craving for lemon flavored something today..but no..not lemonade..sometime back I made lemon butter cookies and loved the lemon flavor in it..Don't want to go back to cookies today..how about a Lemon Cake..not a bad idea..

But do I have all the ingredients..hmm..what a bummer..no lemons..yes I know..I am one of those weird people who don't keep lemons in their refrigerator..ran to the store to get some and to my delight found some really gorgeous  farmer's market type fresh lemons..feeling victorious and with that wonderful feeling lets get started ....

Ingredients: (for an 8" cake)

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 stick  butter (room temp./unsalted)

2 eggs (room temp.)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 tbsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp butter milk

3 tbsp lemon juice

pinch salt

For lemon syrup,

3 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 deg.F and keep an 8"  loaf pan ready by greasing and flouring so the cake doesn't stick to the bottom...or else use a parchment paper ....makes cleaning easy.

In a bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. I did it in an electric mixer..saves you lot of time. Please remember to use room temperature butter or else you will have a hard time mixing the butter and sugar.  Now add one egg and mix thoroughly and add the next egg and lemon zest and mix.

Now for the dry ingredients, in a bowl sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. 

In another bowl, mix together butter milk, vanilla and lemon juice.

Now add dry ingredients (that is flour mix) and butter milk mixture to the egg mixture alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Transfer to the pan, level and bake for 45 min.

Now for the lemon syrup, in a saucepan add lemon juice and sugar and simmer over low heat till all the sugar dissolves.

When the cake is ready, transfer it to a cooling rack, allow to cool. Then spoon the lemon syrup over the cake and cool before you dig into it...

I made it in the night as it tastes better the next day..

You can also do a glaze to make it look decadent..since the cake is sweet enough for me I did not bother to do the glaze.

Have it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or else with whipped cream and strawberry sauce..