Blueberry Crisp

We wanted to spend Friday evening at home with some comfort food, a good movie 'A perfect equation for relaxed time'.

So I prepared blueberry crunch(got a excellent news from my friend so a reason to celebrate) a perfect dish to show your love towards your loved ones :)

Blueberry gives nice tangy,sweet taste and oats,flour mixture gives nice crunchy texture.

Here it is...

Ingredients-

• 3 cups blueberry (if you are using frozen berries thaw,wash and drain)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
• pinch of salt

For Toppings/Crust

• 1/3 cup +5 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup + 5 tablespoon old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoon blanched almonds or pecans
• 1/2 stick butter at room temperature
• Vanilla ice cream or any other flavor of your choice

Method-

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Toss blueberries,cornstarch,sugar and pinch of salt in a bowl
3. Mix flour,oats,brown sugar,sugar,cinnamon powder and almonds.
4. Add butter and just mash it bit to small chunks and mix to make crumbly mixture.
5. Add berries mixture at bottom of baking dish and spread the oat-flour mixture evenly.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
7. Serve warm with ice cream.

Sugar Cookies for Halloween

BOO...

I remember the episode of Friends (the serial) when Monica was trying to bake cookies like the Phoebe's grandmother used to make;how she figured out the ingredients and prepare loads of batches. Ultimately she discovered that the recipe is ready-made available by a well known brand. But before that she says I won't be the mom who make delicious cookies.

Well I tried my hands on cookies for this halloween and it turned out great and well received.

My daughter can say my mom make some delicious cookies. As she went for trick-o-treating this year I wanted to make something special for her and her friends. I prepared sugar cookies from scratch and decorated with spooky, scary things associated with halloween.

You can prepare this for the coming holiday season and decorate them with holiday specific theme.

Happy Baking!!!

Ingredients-

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour and more for dusting
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For Decoration

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoon water
• food colors of your choice

Method-

1. Combine sugar and shortening into a bowl and beat until well blended.
2. Then add eggs,extract,syrup into sugar-shortening mixture and beat until fluffy.
3. Mix flour,baking powder,baking soda into another bowl and gradually add to creamed mixture.
4. Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and keep in fridge for 1 hour.(If you find dough is still very soft to roll then keep it in the fridge for another 1/2 to 1 hour)
5. Heat oven to 375 F
6. Take out small portion of dough from fridge and keep the rest as it is. Take a sheet of parchment paper and dust it lightly with flour and put the ball of dough and press slightly and cover with another sheet of parchment paper and roll to around 1/4 inch thick.
7. Take a cookie sheet and line with parchment paper and transfer the rolled cookies to the cookie sheet and place 2 inch apart.
8. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until golden brown color.
9. Cool the cookies in cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.

For decoration-

1. combine sugar,extract and gradually add water to form a thick paste and color it with you choice of colors.
2. Put the paste into zipper lock bag and cut the small hole into the bag and decorate.

Potato Salad Sandwich

My husband came home one day and told me how wonderful potato salad he had for lunch. He insisted that I should try this recipe and prepared one for me(Lucky Me :) I just loved it.

We used curry powder in the salad and that made huge difference.Curry powder is a blend of Coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, turmeric powder, cumin seeds, black pepper, bay leaves, celery seeds, nutmeg, cloves, onion, red pepper and ginger.Powder all of these ingredients. It gives nice earthy,spicy taste to your dish.

We were going out for a short road-trip and we remixed the recipe to make it more flavorful and to be a picnic item.It can be a picnic or lunch box or even a ladies party or play date item. Here is the Potato Salad Sandwich....

Ingredients-

• 2 boiled potatoes
• 3 tablespoon finely chopped onion(red onion gives more flavor)
• 1/2 cup halved red or green grapes (Use golden raisins if you don't have grapes)
• one small apple
• 5-6 tablespoon mayonnaise
  
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• salt
• 6 sandwich bread slices
  

Method-

1. Cut the boiled potatoes into small around 1/8 inch size pieces.(Chicken can be used instead of potatoes and you can prepare chicken salad or curry)
2. Put potato pieces,red onion,grapes into a bowl.
3. Cut an apple into small pieces and add mayonnaise,curry powder, salt to a bowl and toss with the other ingredients. (First add 1/2 teaspoon curry powder and taste the mixture as little of it goes long way) (Add another 1 or 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise depending on size of potatoes)
4. Toast the bread slices to a light golden color and let it cool for a minute and the put the salad stuffing on one slice and put second slice on top.
5. Apple and onion gives nice crunch and grapes gives nice juicy bite to this dish.

Tip- For picnic wrap the sandwiches in plastic or parchment paper.

Thalipeeth (Using Wheat Flour)

After eating loads of yummy Diwali faraal/snacks everyone craves for the simple,tasty dish that will change the palate and so did I and nothing better than a thalipeeth and curd.

'Bhajaniche thalipeeth' is very famous and very tasty version. Bhajani is roasted multi-grain flour;to get or to prepare Bhajani in US is little hard. So I preapared thalipeeth with wheat flour and it's tasted almost the same.

Ingredients-

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 6 tablespoon oil + more to oil the pan(as needed)
• 1/2 cup curd
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon besan/ chickpea flour
• 1 teaspoon cumin-coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 3-4 green chilies finely chopped
• 1 medium size onion diced
• 2 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander leaves
• salt as per taste

Method-

1. Heat 6 tablespoon oil in a skillet/pan then add wheat flour and roast it until golden brown color.
2. Put the wheat flour in a bowl and add curd,lemon juice and all the other dry ingredients; adding water slowly knead it to make soft lose dough(consistency should be loose than the roti dough and thick than pakoda dough)
3. Cover and let the dough rest for 20-25 minutes.
4. Then apply some oil on skillet or tava or deep frying pan.
5. Divide the dough into 4-5 equal size portions sized around cricket ball/tennis ball.
6. Apply some water to your hands and then round up the the dough directly into the pan by pressing with your hand.water eases out the process.
7. Make 3-4 holes in the the pressed dough and then put the pan on medium high stove.
8. After 1-2 minutes put some oil into the holes we created and some on sides.
9. Cover the pan with lid and after 3-4 minutes take the lid out and put some more oil and flip on other side and cook for another 2- 3 minutes.
10. Serve hot with some pickle and curd.

Karanji (Fresh Coconut)

Hello, Happy Diwali to all of you.

Diwali the festival of lights;celebrated in Ashwin month of hindu calendar starting with Vasu Baaras(worshiping cow),Dhanatrayodashi, NarakChaturdashi, Laxmi Pujan, Paadawa/Balipratipada, Bhaubij/Yamadwitiya.

We prepare lots of sweets and spicy snacks i.e 'Diwali Faraal' like ladu, chakali, shankarpale, karanji, shev, chiwada. I remember how my mom plan all of these in advance and then she usually started with the one that takes long;I was her assistant (of course for chakali; can't forget the taste of hot chakali)

We used to draw a big rangoli with mom at the entrance of home,building fort with clay and rocks was a fun and of course fireworks was the main attraction.Oh gosh I am missing all of this!!!

Here is the first item of faraal 'Olya Naralachya Karanjya'. You can make this dish with dry coconut also but I love this version.

Ingredients-

• 2 cups maida/all purpose flour
• 1 cup fine rava/semolina
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups freshly grated coconut/Frozen Coconut
• oil for frying + 6 tablespoon
• 10-12 chopped almonds
• 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
• pinch of salt
• Few drops of food colorings(optional)

Method-

1. Mix maida and rava and add pinch of salt.
2. Heat 6 tablespoons of oil in a pan and then add the very hot oil to maida-rava mixture and then mix it well.
3. Add water gradually and knead the dough.To make it extra special divide the dough and add few drops of food colorings and knead to make soft dough.
4. Cover the dough and let it rest for 3-4 hours.
5. Meanwhile in a heavy bottom pan add sugar and grated coconut and put on medium high on stove and stir it frequently.
6. Switch of the stove when the sugar dissolved completely and the stuffing became sticky.
7. Add cardamom powder and almonds to the stuffing.
8. After 3 -4 hours knead the dough again and make lemon size balls of the dough and roll it to make small puri.
9. Place 1 teaspoon stuffing at the center of rolled dough/puri and apply water to the edges of rolled dough and close the edges carefully by pressing the opposite edges to make wedge like shape. Remove the extra dough with help of knief by cutting into perfect wedge shape.(see the photo to get the clear idea)
10. Similarly prepare all karanjis and cover it with damp cloth.
11. Heat oil in deep frying pan and deep fry the karanjis on low flame to light golden color.
12. 20-25 medium size karanjis you can make with this.

Tips-

• Don't make the stuffing too wet otherwise will come out while frying.
• If the stuffing is too wet add 1-2 tablespoon sugar and heat it again till sugar gets dissolved.
• Use oil while making dough don't use dalada/vegetable shortening or ghee;It will make dough hard.

Mango Papaya Smoothie

On a weekend I was feeling for brunch(Breakfast+Lunch) as my husband like to have light breakfast on weekdays so thought this will be nice change for him as well as for me. I had a fresh papaya and mango pulp in my refrigerator and an idea clicked...

My husband and daughter just loved it.

Ingredients- (for 1 glass)

• Mango pulp 1/2 cup
• Papaya cubes 1/2 cup
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1-2 cubes of ice
• For Garnish- a wedge of papaya, whipped cream(optional),cashew nuts(optional)

Method-

1. Cut papaya into small cubes and add it to blender with 1/2 cup of mango pulp.
2. Add sugar,ice cubes,vanilla extract and milk.
3. Blend all these together to form a nice smoothie.
4. Garnish it with papaya wedge,whipped cream and cashew nuts.

Tip- To make the smoothy extra special and richer in taste; add one scoop of vanilla ice cream to the blender and blend it with papaya-mango mixture.

Apple Raisin Strudel

Start of fall season starts with apple picking. We went to apple picking on a beautiful warm sunday morning to a local farm.We were excited to go and pick apples,blueberries freshly from trees. We picked lots of apples and blueberries and had brunch at their hill side cafe overlooking fields. That was a total Funday.

Here are some pictures...

After getting back home I realized; in an excitement we got more than enough berries and apples that we can eat for like 2-3 weeks (I froze the berries and can defrost whenever I need;so bit relaxed) so decided to do some experiments and here is the first one.

Ingredients-

• 1 golden delicious apple peeled,cored and cut into small cubes
• 2 tablespoon golden raisins
• 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 sheet of puff pastry
• 2 tablespoon cold butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Method-

1. Soak the raisins into water for 30 minutes.
2. Thaw the frozen puff pastry at room temperature for 20-25 minutes.If you have a square sheet cut it into stripes along the folded mark.
3. Pre heat the oven at 375 ⁰F

4. Peel and cored the apple and cut into small cubes around 1/8 inch size
5. Mix lemon juice with apple cubes to coat it evenly to avoid browning of apples.
6. Cut butter into small cubes.
7. Add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder,raisins,butter,lemon zest and mix well and set aside.
8. Now take the puff pastry stripes and again cut it into half.
9. Take 1 teaspoon of apple mixture and put into the center of pastry sheet and then close the sheet by applying egg wash(totally optional) at edges and press with fork.
10. Apply butter on the strudels.
11. In a small bowl mix 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder and sprinkle it on the buttered strudel
12. Keep the strudels in a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or till it get golden brown
13. Then take out from oven and let it cool completely and then sprinkle powdered sugar or decorate with sugar glaze.

Orange Cupcakes

It's start of holiday season here in United States. Fall has already arrived and leaves are turning into beautiful colors. Halloween is celebrated on 31st October.Day is often associated with orange and black colors and Jac-o'-lantern a carved pumpkin.

Though this day is associated with kids;grown-ups also loves it.Kids go for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood wearing various costumes like spiderman(most favorite one),witches,angles,fairy and what not!!!!

Grown-ups do costume parties,bonfires and watching horror movies(Not on my list for sure).

I am thinking about doing something extra special this year as my daughter is now old enough to go for trick-or-treating wearing a costume she will pick up soon;yes now she started to picking what she want whenever we go for shopping. So I decided to make cupcakes and trying few flavorings and my husband and daughter liked it so far.Here comes the orange cupcakes.

Ingredients-

For cupcakes(makes 8-9 cupcakes)

• 3/4 cups all- purpose flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 8 tablespoon or 1 stick of soft unsalted butter ( at room temperature) or margarine(but personally I don't like it's taste)
• zest of 1 medium size orange
• 3 tablespoon orange juice( freshly squeezed)
• 2 eggs at room temperature

Method-

1. Pre heat the oven at 375⁰F
2. Sift the flour and baking powder
3. Beat the butter till it gets creamy with hand mixer or cake mixer;then add sugar and beat again adding 1 egg at a time.
4. Add orange zest,orange extract, vanilla extract,orange juice and mix well.
5. Now start adding sifted flour gradually; beat the mixture scarping the sides of bowl frequently to avoid unmixed flour patches.
6. Scoop the batter with ice cream scooper(for even size cupcakes) in a muffin pan lined with cupcake liners and bake for 13-15 minutes or till get golden brown. To taste the doneness insert toothpick into center of cupcakes while they are in oven.
7. Take out the cupcakes and cool it completely on wire rack.
8. Decorate with icing.

Katachi Aamati

Indian food is well blend of all flavorings as sweet,sour,spicy,bitter,salty,tangy . Traditionally keliche paan/Banana leaf is used to serve(as a plate) maharashtrian food. Typical maharashtrian plate consists of salt,lemon wedge, koshimbir/raita, chutney, sukki batata bhaaji/ potatoes dry vegetable,aluchi bhaaji/Colocassia leaves vegetable,katachi amati/curry, bhaji/pakoda, papad, plain rice, masale bhatt/ spicy rice, sakhar bhaat/sweet rice,plain dal, puran poli,dessert, mattha/buttermilk and last but not least vida/ meetha paan/ Betel leaf.

This is my attempt to present a maharashtrian thali served on keliche paan.

There is a typical way on how the serving should be made on your plate like on the left side of plate salt,lemon wedge,chutney,pickle,koshimbir,panchamrut, bhaji, papad, kurdai, puranpoli, shrikhand-puri and on right side batata bhaaji,aluchi pattal bhaaji and kheer and in the center plain rice,masale bhaat,sakhar bhaat and in bowls katachi aamati,milk for puran poli.Sides of plates are decorated with rangoli and eveybody sits on paat/ small wooden raised stool. Before starting to eat everyone says a sholka 'Wadani kaval gheta' and believe me it's soul satisfying food; indulging all your senses.

Now lets talk about katachi aamati. It's a spicy soupy dish accompanying plain rice.Drained water from cooked chana dal is called as Kat. Let's get into it...

Ingredients-

• 2 cups kat (refer puranpoli for preparing kat)
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1/2 tablespoon jaggery
• 1/2 tablespoon tamarind paste
• 4-5 curry leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried grated coconut
• 4-5 cloves
• cumin seeds
• 2-3 dried whole red chilies
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• salt
• oil

Method-

1. Take grated coconut and cumin seeds and roast it till coconut become golden color.
2. Take kat in a bowl add red chili powder, curry leaves,cloves,jaggery,tamarind paste,dried chilies.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add pinch of asfodia and turmeric powder then add kat mixed with all spices;then add roasted coconut and cumin seeds and boil it till the jaggery gets dissolved.
4. Serve hot with plain rice.

PuranPoli

Happy Dasara/Dussehra/Vijaydashmi to all.

Puranpoli is a one of traditional Maharashtrian delicacies. Coking skills of a girl(especially newly wed)are always tested by how good is her puranpoli. I still remember the get-togethers we did when I was a kid; we all used gather for festivals at my grandma's place;we played,we fought and we ate what a great meals.My aaji/grandma is a very good cook and everyone calls her Anapurna. She is 80 and still want to preapre meals personally whenever we visit. I always wondered will I be able to make puranpolis like her? Gave it a try;came out pretty good but she is the BOSS!!!!

Here is the puranpoli I prepared for naivedyam on Dasara.

Ingredients-

For Puran/Stuffing

• 1 1/4 cups chana dal
• 1 cup jaggery
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
• Pinch of turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon oil

For Poli/bread/Cover

• 1/4 cup semolina/rava
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup all-pourpose flour/maida
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method-

1. Take semolina/rava and add 1/2 cup water to it; to soak for 30-40 minutes.
2. Take the remaining dry ingredients for poli and add soaked rava along with the water(add water gradually) then add oil to a kneaded dough and once again knead to make soft and loose dough.The dough should be loose and oily to make the dough pliable.Cover the dough and set aside for 1 hour.
3. Take dal and add 3 1/2 cups of water,pinch of turmeric powder and 1 tablespoon oil to it and put it in pressure cooker/rice cooker.It's the quickest way to cook otherwise u can use pot also.
4. Take 5-6 whistles varies with size of cooker. As I don't have puran yantra/machine; I prefer to cook it for more time.Puran yantra is similar to the food mill used for mashed potatoes.
5. Once the dal is cooked drain out the excess water known as 'Kat' from it and save it to make 'Katachi Aamati' a spicy soupy dal.
6. Blend the dal with egg beater or hand blender to get smooth texture.
7. Put the blended dal in pan on stove on medium high and add jaggery,sugar and stir it till it get dissolved completely into dal. Cook this mixture till the spoon can stand straight into it without falling.
8. Then add nutmeg and cardamom powder and mix well. Turn off the stove and stir frequently to avoid burning/sticking at bottom of pan.
9. Make lemon size balls of dough and flatten the dough little with your hand and make a shape of small bowl.Take 2 tablespoons of puran/stuffing and put it into the dough bowl and close the dough.
10. Dust the rolling pin and surface with flour and start rolling out poli/bread spreading the stuffing evenly.
11. Put the tawa/skillet on stove on medium high and roast it on the both sides.
12. Serve hot with sajuk tup/ clarified butter and a bowl of milk.

Happy Navratri - Ude Ga Ambe Ude !!

To all readers a very 'Happy Navratri' - festival of triumph of good over evil.

First Nine days of Ashwin month (Seventh month of Hindu Calendar) is celebrated as Navratri-in honour of Maa Durga. First three days are for worshiping Mahakali Maata, next three days Maa Laxmi and last three days Maa Saraswati.

Tenth day is celebrated as Dasara/Dussehra/Vijaydashmi one of the 3 and 1/2 auspicious days in Hindu Calender. This day also marked as victory of Lord Rama over Raavan. People visit each other and worship Apata Tree and exchange its leaves called 'Sone - Gold'. In Maharashtra, people also ritually cross the border of their village / town. This ceremony is known as 'seemollangha'. Everyone worship their books,notebooks,pens. Various cultural programs are organised in temple like Jaagar,Kirtan,Bhajans and DandiyaRaas/Garba.

My mother and my mother-in-law they both do upawas/fast for nine days. We prepare various sweets for naivedya everyday.

I was talking with my mother to get some ideas about preparing sweets;she told me some awesome dishes that I never tried on my own;there is no harm in telling you I was a guest visitor or should say guest cooker (He he he :))in the kitchen before my marriage.

Then my thought process started;I wanted to try something new and one led to another thing and Ta da !!!

I created a whole new dish.I never saw or ate it before and it tasted good( tried and tested on my husband).

So here I proudly represent - BlueBerry Coconut Delight

[Will tell you story behind blueberries some other day]

Ingredients-

• 2 cups Freshly grated Coconut/Frozen Coconut
• 1 3/4 cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• Cashews/blanched almonds for garnish
• 1 teaspoon ghee/butter

Method-

1. Put coconut and sugar in a heavy bottom pan on low flame.
2. Add blueberries and stir the mixture frequently.
3. Once the sugar gets dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble add lemon juice.
4. Now stir the mixture till it gets thick.
5. Take off from stove and add cardamom powder and mix well.
6. Apply ghee/butter to a dish and pour the mixture into the dish.
7. Level it with spoon and put some cashews/blanched almonds for garnish.
8. Let it dry for sometime and then cut into pieces.

Tip- The color is so amazing and tempting that you can't wait for long so for quick drying keep it in freezer for sometime and then cut.