Kesar peda / Saffron milk fudge

Cooking sometimes takes me to a different world, there are days I hate to be in kitchen and there are few where I could perform elaborate cooking standing hours together performing minute fine tasks required. Yesterday was one such day where I achieved fineness and swiftness. As it was a working day, I wanted to quickly get something done which would please everyone's palette.

                                               

Ragi chocolate cake

My daughter had been requesting since yesterday that today I am not supposed to do anything in the morning as she is supposed to do for a reason. I kept pestering her asking the reason even though I had an idea as what were her plans to amaze me for mother's day. She made an amazing breakfast in the morning and gave me a handmade card and a bouquet of flowers. It was great to eat a morning cheese toast made by her. Best part was she made her toast first, had that😉 and then with her toast energy she prepared for both of us. Small cute things bring loads of happiness. So I thought to amaze her with her favourite chocolate cake.

Rasmalai

Anything or everything out of Indian cottage cheese is my all time favorite. One of my favorites among Indian desserts is this soft and spongy melt in mouth delicacy called Rasmalai.

It wasn't an easy task as it was my first try for rasmalai. Rasgulla, sibling of rasmalai 😉 I had prepared earlier, that too I have had some flops in one or two tries. Anything that needs chena which is prepared by breaking the milk is considered to be luxurious as to prepare them in good number we must be spending few liters of milk. And to be very honest patience is something that we need to have as well. I would say we learn the art of patience in the process of rasmalai making. But it is worth the effort. Eventually it is a home made delicious dessert that is the end product you get.
I had tried it around 2 months back when we had guests over a weekend. That day it turned out so

Mango Ice Cream

Whatever the season is, love for ice cream is something which never dies. Spring has shown its colors in our city and the onset of spring means, here there would be days which are really warm like summer alternating between some moderate temperature days and some cold days. But 2-3 weeks back we had such an awesome temperature. After season of chilling cold winters, it was a pleasure to luxuriate in the warm Sun outside and bask in a cone of one's favorite flavored ice cream.

I was like they definitely have good amount of loaded sugars and artificial colors or flavors in them, why not try one of our favorite flavors at home and guess what, it is mango ice cream. Yes, you read it right, I added no sugar, no colors! Bingo yet it turned out yum.

Holige/ Havyaka style sakkare holige/Kadalebele holige

Any big function at native (ooru) is not without this holige complete. My kiddo calls it sweet chapathi, though now she knows the name 'holige'. It is famous throughout India. In different states it is made in their authentic way, named puranpoli in the north, obbattu or holige in Karnataka. I love this Dakshinakannada way of sakkarekadalebeleholige. I could just make 8. In native they get prepared in '3 digit number' say 200 or 300 for moderate functions. Today my husband ate them and told well from next time we can skip calling our adigebhatru(cook)😉 for functions, as this has turned out to be very close to what they prepare a day ahead of function at native. 

Banana Apple Whole Wheat Flour Cake with Coconut Sugar

Holiday is at times exhausting but well kids are kids, they tend to feel bored often unless they are engaged in some summer camp or so. I did want to spend some quality time with my kid this summer, so took a few days off just to be with her chattering around. But then I never knew that it turns out hard, as at times we run out of the different types games we could play together, I kept planning one after other and finally yesterday it was cake baking, our agenda for the day, and we baked a delicious moist bundt cake and that too egg less 😊!

Now when it comes to cooking or baking, off late I try out something that is healthy. The coconut sugar that I

Dry fruits and nuts spiced cake

Winters are at least for me very depressive. The day for me begins with darkness, sun out for a while and darkness again by the time you reach back home. It is the season when I succumb to cold and cough and that circulates within the family. I am just waiting for spring. Baking a spiced cake was in my mind for a long time, and Christmas here gave me a valid occasion to bake one. I was out in search of small gifts for my kid, when I accidentally noticed a bundt baking pan.
Yes, I say accidentally because Mr. S was like if you go shopping you will pick up many things that are not really required on a daily basis. Yes, baking happens very rare at my place, so he was right at that point. I still managed to get the bundt cake pan home and just couldn't resist baking. The very next day on 25th December, I and my kid baked an aromatic egg less cake filled with dry fruits, nuts and spices. That way I could get her eat some dry fruits and nuts. I followed the recipe from show me the curry website, I did alter the measurements according to my choice based on the availability of ingredients.

Cardamom flavored condensed milk muffins

Baking cakes or muffins is something I hardly do. But I had an unopened pack of condensed milk, my willingness to use that and the sight of the muffin pan lying by the side, tempted me to to try some baking. Cardamom is one of the spices I love. I am so generous with adding them in Indian milk tea. My tea is always a little more milky, more edge on sweetness too. That is the way I like my tea.
Now for these muffins I used no fancy ingredients, just the normal ones available in pantry did my job. My daughter too was interested in seeing how they come out, hence we spent solid one hour in the afternoon baking them. The aroma that filled in the kitchen was overwhelming. That is the best part of baking for me. Here we go.

Paneer Ladoo

Paneer ladoo is something all kids and even elders would love to have. Melt in mouth kind delicacy it is. My kiddo's kindergarten here had informed us that if there is any festival that we celebrate in India with pomp and fervor, it would be great if I could just pen down the importance of the festival and pass that to them so that they could let other kids know the importance of these festivals.
I too was excited to pen down few words about the festival and pass on some homemade paneer ladoos for all the kids. It is an easy delicacy which could be prepared within 30 mins if you have paneer (cottage cheese) ready. I prepared fresh cottage cheese at home and then prepared the ladoos.
Here goes the recipe.

Ananas Sheera / Pineapple Kesari / Pineapple Sheera / Pinapple Rawa Kesari

Pineapple Sheera/Ananas Kesari used to be the dessert that used to be served in our community especially during functions. I still remember the days of my childhood when I used to decide whether to attend or not a function based on the menu that was up for the day there. It is usually common to have in many big functions like marriages or bramhopadesham a breakfast menu with idli sambar and pineapple kesari. I used to love this pineapple kesari so much that I would never miss a function that had ananas/pineapple kesari in menu. It is considered to be a rich sweet, with the involvement of saffron or kesari in it along with loads of sugar, ghee and the flavor of cardamom and chunks of pineapple fruit along with loads of ghee fried cashew nuts and raisins. So here I share how I prepared this pineapple sheera.

Halittu Payasa

A payasa/kheer/payasam made mainly in Dakshina Kannada in Havyaka families during special occasions is Halittu payasa. It is a favourite payasa at my place. At times I feel it matches alot to the ada payasam prepared in Kerala. But Ada is prepared by sun drying and later used in payasam where as here sun drying is not involved. I feel the Havyakas, most prominent in Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka and Northern Kerala prepare this payasa/payasam/kheer. It is made out of thick rice noodles that is added to thin syrup of jaggery and coconut milk and cooked and further thick coconut milk is added along with crushed cardamom. It is devoured after offering to God. Vishu is a festival that falls in the second week of April which marks the transit of Sun to the first Zodiac sign (i.e. Aries) and it is believed that farmers start their agricultural activities after Vishu. On the day of Vishu, it is believed that day has equal number of daylight hours and darkness. With no delay let us move to this specific halittu payasa recipe.

Kaju Pista Roll/Cashewnuts Pistachios Fudge/Rolls

Shreeya has today celebrated her 3rd B'day. As usual I left to my class early morning and was sad that I was unable to wish her in the morning before leaving as she did not wake up by the time I left to school. As soon as I returned was surprised to see that both father and daughter had gone out without letting me know where they were going, quite unusual and later got to know that as it was her B'day they went out shopping, both selected and purchased dresses and what not. I was willing to join them but by then they were done with shopping. Suddenly Mr. S called back and told me if I wish I could go and join them both for a Pizza party at Pizza Hut. Why not? I just could not resist and reached the place they were. We had great fun eating Pizza, Garlic Bread with Cheese and so on.
After reaching home I was like I should prepare something for my cutie pie and decided to prepare a rich sweet with cashew nuts and pistachios which she loved. She was the happiest eating them, and not only she even Mr. S too was gulping one after another. Here I share the way I prepared them.

Sago Payasam/Sabakki Payasa/Javvarisi Payasam/Sabudana Kheer

It had been almost 2 weeks that I didn't touch my blog, rather I couldn't. Recently got a ganglion removed from wrist of my right hand and was advised not to do any work that caused stress to my hand, well being not used to cooking, only with left hand, was away from kitchen for a while but still I don't think I would be as frequent as I used to be before. But I would make it sure that whenever I do blog I would definitely visit all my blogger friends. I was really missing being here for some time now. This was a payasam/kheer I did some 2 weeks back, but couldn't blog. Now that I can type using both my hands, I decided to sit with this for the day. Here I share Sago Payasam recipe

Pink Heart Cake

I decided to bake a cake in my oven, sad that I use it for baking a cake rarely. I thought it would be great if I bake a Heart shaped cake as Valentines Day, day meant to celebrate LOVE is around the corner! I don't feel that it is the only day to express love but somehow it has become a trend to express your love on this day to your beloved. Well, I was in an idea to bake a red velvet cake, but I din't get access to good color here. I was in a mood to bake and when I have decided none could stop me. I got a small heart shaped cake tin recently, just because there are no takers for cake at my house. Even I'm not a great fan but my kiddo loves it, she loved this cake alot. As the cake baked, she was running all around jumping in joy that she is going to eat a cake. I didn't do any frosting, rather went ahead with icing just to give a glaze using custard and a dollop of cream. Without much ado let me jump to the recipe.

Broken Wheat Payasam/Dalia Kheer/Godi Kadi Payasa

Yesterday was Ratha Sapthami, believed to be a day when Sun God is worshipped. It is of great significance for South Indians especially Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Broken wheat payasam/dalia kheer/ godi kadi payasa could be prepared as 'Naivedhyam', offering to Sun God. Here I share today the recipe for the same. I often prepare it but never got a chance to share with step by step pics, hence lately I did that and sharing my recipe with you all.

Beetroot Halwa/Beet Sweet Pudding

Beetroot(Rote Bete as known in German) is a veggie which I love for its color. I lately wanted to try beetroot halwa, which I had once prepared before my marriage. Me and my brother were at home and mom had gone out for some shopping. We decided to prepare carrot halwa/pudding before she comes, but we had no idea that carrots were not there in the pantry. We saw some beetroots lying, I decided to prepare a halwa out of it and tried the same way as I prepare carrot halwa, to my wonder, it turned out fantabulous and we enjoyed to the core. We had fun preparing it. This is my second attempt after that, never got a chance to prepare till date after that. My daughter enjoyed it lots.This was a treat for my Deutsch class friends the other day when we had a party to end our last day of the first level of the course. They all enjoyed it lots. Wiki says "Beetroot is an excellent source of folate and a good source of manganese, and contains betaines which may function to reduce the concentration of homocysteine, a homolog of the naturally occurring amino acid cysteine.The red colour compound betanin obtained from beetroot is often used in industries as red food colorant".

Eggless Churros/Mexican Fritters with Chocolate Sauce

It was the first time I heard Churros and was like 'What is that? Is that something edible?' and my google machine answered, they are the Mexican fritters, not sure about the origin though, Wikipedia says " It is often also known as spanish doughnut and that it's origin is unclear and it was brought to Europe by the Portuguese" but whatever it is I was exposed to this through SFC, heartful thanks for bringing this as a challenge and helping me learn a very new dessert unknown till date. It involves usage of eggs traditionally, but me being a person who abstain the usage of Eggs even, I decided to go for an eggless version and I went through lots of sites in Internet and finally decided my own measurements and prepared this Churros. It is often enjoyed with a dip of chocolate. Though not a great chocolate fan, I did prepare just to know how it tastes when eaten with sauce, but my verdict is it tastes much better without the sauce even. Here comes the simple recipe.

Til Ke laddu/ Ellina Unde

Makara Sankranti is marked with the preparation of Ellu Bella/ Til Gud meaning a mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery. The traditional sweet prepared on this eve is Til ke laddu/Ellina unde which is very easy and also it could be prepared with minimum ingredients. Scientifically, Til Gud meaning sesame and jaggery offer warmth during winter. On the day of Sankranti in India people prefer to eat these and in many states kite flying is common with entire family on the roof top whole day flying kites, eating Til ke laddu, Chikki, Sugarcane and so on. Though the weather doesn't let us fly kites here definitely we cannot miss eating Til ke laddu or Ellina Unde. As the challenge offered in SFC this month was Til ke laddu under Indian Sweet, I couldn't stop myself from trying my hands on them. Here goes the simple recipe.

Banoffee Pie

I happened to just scroll the list of desserts in my space here. I believe like me there are many who crave very much for sweets and own a sweet tooth. I never tried Banoffee Pie till date and as a part of challenge in SFC this month we had Banoffee Pie under fusion dessert. And this is the first time that I prepared it and I enjoyed alot, best part is that my kiddo gulped a bowl full leaving me only a teaspoon to taste. It tasted wonderful. I believe this is the easiest dessert if all things are readily available. Caramel or Dulce de leche is prepared from condensed milk. We do get caramel readily but my search in supermarkets here went in vain and finally had to retort to condensed milk to prepare the caramel. Usually Banoffee Pie is topped with chocolate shavings but my dislike to that made me top them with dryfruits,nuts. Here goes the simple recipe.

Chum Chum

A speciality from the region of  Eastern India is Chum Chum. It is made similar to rasgulla except for the toppings done. Also the shape usually is oblong or tear shaped. I tried following my Rasgulla method, except for the toppings done and also slight variation in the amount of sugar used unlike rasgulla. Rasgulla is served with syrup and this chum chum is served without syrup so preferably the chum chum needs to be more sweeter when compared to rasgulla as there is no sugar syrup to accompany while serving, so I just varied the amount of sugar being used and rest is the same. For better understanding with pictorials I explain below the steps to prepare Chum Chum. This recipe is the challenge for the current month in SFC.