GUAVA LIME COOLER RECIPE

     
      Had this Guava lime drink in Salivation restaurant. Me and Vj just love it. It is very different from the usual drinks,yet delicious. Always been puzzled about what the ingredients could be. Because, they named the drink differently. Luckily they had the hint about the recipe in the menu card itself! How cool! Then tried at home to recreate it. Sure this will be in my menu often. It will make our guests say wow and they will never fail to ask you for the recipe!

Ingredients(Makes 4 glasses)

Green guava	2
Lime	1
Lime zest	A pinch
Honey	2 tblsp
Salt	A pinch
Sugar	If needed

 

 

Method

Wash and cube the guava. Place it in blender and add some water. Grind it for a minute. No need to grind for too long. Otherwise you will grind the seeds as well. but make sure you had ground the fruit smooth. Strain the ground guava pulp using a metal strainer, by adding water while straining. Add lime zest and squeeze the lime to the guava juice. Mix salt,honey and sugar(if needed).

                  Place ice cubes in the serving glass and fill it with the guava lime cooler. Enjoy!

Notes

Honey is very very important for the flavour. If you want to test, just taste the juice before and after adding honey, you will know ;)

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Onion rava dosa recipe (With video)

I already have a rava dosa post with two different recipes. But wanted to make it as onion rava dosa and with videos. So I thought of blogging this. Did I tell you I love anything and everything made out of rava/ semolina /sooji ? Be it kesari or upma or kichidi I love like anything. I have been brought up eating different upmas for dinner, delicious, hot wonderful tasting upmas mom makes! Especially I love the rava upma she makes.
Rava dosa is one I learnt making only after I started exploring the blogging world and got hooked to the recipe from Prema’s cookbook. It always comes out perfect and gives me a relief if I run out of dinner ideas for Aj. It is instant version which calls for no soaking time…that's the best part! He is not very fond of rava dosa, but still he is okay with it. He is like Vj. He is not big fan of rava upma, but thank god he likes rava dosa at least! So here is the way I make onion rava dosa. In restaurants I think – ‘I think’ first they sprinkle the onion on the tawa/ dosa pan first and then pour the batter over it, not sure…but I do this way. Both works for me and turns out good. So its your choice.

Onion rava dosa recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 5 mins    |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Semolina/ rava/ soooji - 1/2 cup

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Rice flour - 1/2 cup

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Maida - 1/4 cup

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Ginger, finely chopped - 1 tblsp

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Green chillies - 1, chopped

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Whole black pepper - 2 tsp

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Jeera - 1 tsp, heaped

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Onion - 1, finely chopped

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Coriander leaves,chopped - 1 tblsp

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Curry leaves - 1 sprig, torn

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Salt - As needed

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Sugar - 1/4 tsp(for browning)

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Oil/ghee - as needed

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Method

1. Take all the ingredients except onion in a bowl and mix water with it. Use a egg beater for easy mixing. Keep onions aside. The batter should be very thin of running consistency. Then only your dosa will come thin and lacy.

2. Heat a non stick dosa pan preferably. It should be really hot. Drizzle some oil and pour the watery batter, first to form a outer circle and then fill in the centre. Do not overlay. That is don’t pour over and over,just one layer. immediately top the chopped onions in a sprinkled way. Add a tsp of oil/ ghee over it. Let it cook in medium flame until the dosa browns to a golden colour. It takes some time in medium flame but be patient. If you cook in high flame you may not get the crispy dosa. So cook slowly in medium flame. Do not flip, just fold and serve hot.

Notes

• There are few important things to keep in mind. The batter should be thin and watery enough. And after one or to dosas, the batter tends to get thick, add water and salt (very little) accordingly. Otherwise may not get the lacy holes in the dosa.
• You can also try soaking the batter for 1/2 hour and then make the dosa, after 1/2 hour, sure the consistency of batter would have thickened, so use water to dilute more.
• Proportion to easily remember is equal measures of rice flour and sooji and half the measure of maida.
• Ghee adds a great restaurant touch to the dosa.
• Even coriander leaves, ginger are important ingredients for the flavour. Needless to say pepper and jeera are main one.
• No need to flip the dosa, since we cook slowly the dosa , as well as onion gets cooked.
• Make an serve immediately one by one straight from the stove for great feedbacks from the eater ;)
• As I said earlier, the onion can be sprinkled before pouring the batter, but sometimes-only sometimes, the dosa gets torn easily if we use more onions. Also the onion gets browned sooner than the dosa.
• If your dosa is not giving lacy patterns, then add more water. Make sure the tawa is hot when you are pouring.
• Non stick gives better lacy dosas.

Serve hot immediately with sambar and chutney the best combo. Hope the video helps the beginners a bit. I took it with my iPad :) Please bear with the shaky and out-of-subject – times in the video :) Making video myself while making the dosa is sure a challenge :) Next time have to bring Vj for help ;)

Here’s the videos of how to make Onion rava dosa :

How to make rava dosa–video 1

Rava dosa–cooked video

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I make the tea as Ginger cardamom tea always. Very very rarely make the plain tea. My dad being a  tea lover, I have seen my mom making tea this way. When it comes to tea, I have some beautiful memories related to it. It is not so very interesting, still, I remember it as they are so sweet to me. When I was studying 4th standard, my dad bought his own land in Salem and it was only across the road to where we were staying in the rented house. So when our own home construction started and after school, me and my brother go and watch the workers doing their work. My mom makes two kettles full of hot tea for the workers by herself and my father distributes to them. They used to tell the tea is awesome and they will be thanking for the ‘homemade’ tea as well. As kids, me and my brother enjoyed those days. The workers were too friendly, that we used to have a good time with them.

(Thanks to Vj for bearing me while I clicked this hot glass of tea. I found this cute ‘Tea glass’ in Daiso and thought it will be perfect for this post…)
   Hope I have not bored you all with my old memories… Please don’t mind. I make tea two ways. One is boil the tea leaves in water and then top with little milk. The other way is fully boil tea leaves in milk itself. The tea recipe I am sharing now is the second way. Vijay being coffee lover, I make tea rarely. He doesn't complains when I make tea, but still I know he will like coffee than tea, so never compel myself to make tea. I love tea for sure than coffee, but I have a big problem. If I take tea, I will be sitting like an owl in the night. Yeah, I don’t get sleep! Still some times, very rarely I do make tea and drink. Ok, now on to the recipe!

Ginger Cardamom tea recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Drink
Prep Time: 5 mins    |  Cook time: 10 mins    |  Serves: 1

Ingredients

Fresh milk - 1& 1/2 cups

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Ginger - crushed -1 tblsp

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Elachi/cardamom - 2

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Tea powder - 2 tsp,heaped

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Sugar - as needed

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Method

1. Boil milk and add peeled, crushed ginger and crushed cardamom (with skin) and tea powder.
2. Simmer to low and let it boil for 5-6 minutes or until you get a good colour you want for the tea. Filter using a tea strainer and then add sugar and mix well.

Enjoy the tea hot, its a great tasting and great flavoured tea, ginger gives a mild spiciness and cardamom lifts the flavour. Divinely! :)

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SOYA KEEMA CURRY TOAST RECIPE

          I just love the soya chunks curry for its flavour and health factors. I can eat it with roti for a filling meal! Aj too loves it with roti but he prefers the other side dishes for it. So once I made this soya keema curry, he wanted toast with it (Inspired from Kailash Parbat soya grill). I made it and gave him and he loved it a lot. Then it became now an easy snack for both of us. We usually make it in sandwich maker. But for the post I made it in tawa. I used whole meal bread. You can use the plain white bread too. You can make this soya keema curry in your free time and make sandwich/toast when your kid comes really hungry back from school. It makes them feel full and its healthy too! You can find this type of soya – soya chura in the MDH brand.

 

Ingredients

soya chura/granules	1 cup
Onion	1
Tomato	2
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Sambar powder	1 & 1/2 tsp
Green chilli (optional)	1-2
Turmeric	1/8 tsp
Salt	as needed
Coriander leaves,chopped	2 tblsp

To temper

Oil	2 tblsp
Cinnamon	1 inch piece
Cloves	2
Fennel	1 & 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig

 

 

Method

Boil the soya granules with enough water. Drain and wash it. Again boil it with enough water, salt and a tblsp of milk. Milk is to remove the soya smell. You can also pressure cook with water,salt and little milk for one whistle in a small pressure cooker.Drain water and keep aside. Heat pan with oil and add the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Add onion,green chillies and fry for a minute. Add ginger garlic paste and fry another minute in medium flame. Add tomatoes and salt and fry till mushy. Add the sambar powder, turmeric and mix well. Add the drained cooked soya granules and mix well. Cook for 5-8 minutes in medium-low flame or until the masala blends well with the soya and garnish with coriander leaves.Sprinkle water if needed. Spread this Keema in between your bread and toast both sides until golden in colour.

      The smell of the masala is just great! Fennel, GG paste and curry leaves with other masalas makes an awesome combination of flavour! Enjoy with coffee/tea or serve it as an evening snack for kids with any juice.

Notes

If you don’t have ginger garlic paste, grind 5 cloves of garlic with equal amount of ginger with fennel and green chillies. Add this paste after frying onion. Need not temper with the fennel seeds as we are grinding. Green chillies can be avoided if you are giving to kids. But please do not skip curry leaves as it adds a lot of flavour to this curry. The knack in cooking this soya is the masala should be more or less equal to the soya we use so that the masala blends + coats the soya well. Make it spicy to enjoy fully!

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STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE RECIPE | MILKSHAKE RECIPES

         After the strawberry lemonade, I made milkshake with the remaining strawberries. I used to be an addict of Newzealnd’s strawberry milkshake when I was staying in Simei. Our HDB building was just next to the Eastpoint mall, when ever we go for shopping weekly groceries there, we never miss to buy that! And now I realize why I put on weight! It will be so rich, sweet and delicious. I love Hagen daz strawberry ice cream equally. That's how I got bored of strawberry flavour. Now after so long I made strawberry milkshake the other day with the left over strawberries and had.  I made a low fat version, but you can make it with either vanilla ice cream or a good quality strawberry ice cream to make it even more rich for you kids.

 

Ingredients

Milk	1 cup
Strawberries	5-7
Ice cream*	1 scoop
Sugar	As needed
Ice cubes	As needed

* Good quality vanilla or strawberry ice cream.I used only vanilla milk powder(bought from coffee bean) to make the shake thick.

Method

Wash the strawberries and slice it roughly and place in a blender along with the other ingredients. Blend well until you get frothy, smooth milkshake.

    Your pinky pinky, girly milkshake is ready to enjoy! Garnish with strawberries if desired while you serve.

Notes

If using ice cream use a rich good quality ice cream, it really is a factor for a great tasting milkshake. I used low fat milk and low fat vanilla milk powder from coffee bean instead of ice cream. Low fat and the normal milkshake with ice cream have taste wise difference for sure. So its your choice if its taste or calories!

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OATS KOZHUKATTAI | EASY OATS BREAKFAST RECIPE

    This oats kozhukattai can be made so easily and quickly. I made it just like the aval kozhukattai and it turned out good. I tried this for the first time and will be in the menu here after. Its better than the oats upma. This goes well with any tomato chutney. I was eating rice day and night for past month and badly wanted to cut down the rice and bring some oats and other high fibre food in my diet, so started today with this oats kozhukattai!

Oats kozhukattai recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 5 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Makes: 8

Ingredients

Quick cook oats(quaker)	1 cup
Water	3/4 cup
Grated coconut(optional)	2 tblsp
Salt	As needed

To temper

Coconut oil (or any)	2 tsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Curry leaves	A sprig
Green chillies	3
Asafoetida	2 pinches

 

Method

1. Heat a kadai with oil and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Add water and salt to it and bring to boil.
2. Add the oats and put the flame to low and mix well. Add coconut if desired and mix well. If its too dry you can sprinkle a tblsp of water.
3. After a minute, the oats get cooked and becomes sticky rather than brittle. So this is the correct stage to put off the flame. Cool down the mixture and grease your hands. Make equal sized balls and make pidi kozhukattai.

4. Steam cook in greased idly plates for 4-5 minutes. Serve immediately!

Notes

• Adding coconut and using coconut oil supress the boring smell of oats.
• Eat it hot and always keep covered until you eat.
• Water you use should be less than the quantity of oats. That way the oats wont turn mushy.
• You can add some vegetables to add colours and make it more interesting.
• If you use the regular oats instead of quick cook, then you should be varying the water quantity accordingly.

I had it with Onion tomato chutney. I would say it was tasting great with it. Try it out this simple recipe! Its very filling and you will feel full for atleast 4-5 hours!!
 

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STRAWBERRY LEMONADE RECIPE | SUMMER DRINKS

            My son’s and my favourite flavour a 3 years back was  strawberry… But then we both really got bored of the flavour and started running miles if we smell the flavour. Strange but true. So its long time since I bought strawberry or anything that is flavoured with it. Last weeks I saw these fresh strawberries in the shop and it tempted me to buy. I saw few pictures of strawberry lemonade in tastespotting and wanted to try as well. So tried this simple strawberry lemonade at home with half and made strawberry milkshake with the other half, recipe coming soon in recent future…

Strawberry lemonade recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Continental  |  Recipe Category: Juice
Prep Time:10 mins     |  Cook time: 0 mins     |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Fresh strawberries - 8

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Lemon - 2

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Sugar - 3 tblsp

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Salt - one generous pinch

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Water - 5 cups

Method

1. Cut the strawberries into slices removing the green top and grind it with sugar and little water to a smooth paste.
2. Use a big metal strainer and strain by adding more water(I used plastic fine filter,but it takes long time. so use the metal strainer with a little bit bigger holes). Squeeze the lemon and mix more water and salt to balance the lemonade.

Notes

• Adjust the sugar and water quantity as per the tanginess you want.
• You can also try this with frozen strawberries.  

I used the Indian small variety lemon, if you are using the Meyer lemon, use only one. Place ice cubes in the serving glasses and fill them with the yummy strawberry lemonade! It smells so girly and tastes sweet and yummy!

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Ven pongal | Ghee pongal recipe

Ven pongal is a very easy and comfort food. Mostly in weekend mornings I make it to laze around. In contrast to Vj, Aj won’t even touch this one. I make it only with chutney if I want to make it simple. But brinjal or any sort of gothsu will be great side dish for pongal. Even tiffin sambar will be great accompaniment. But I love it both with sambar and chutney together. Having said pongal is easy job at kitchen, its tricky too to get the right consistency. I have struggled a lot to get it right. Now for only us I make it perfect, but if I need to make for more people, I am not still that confident to make it. Sometimes the pongal becomes so dry or so watery. But I have some trouble shooting ideas now if I run into trouble. Will add as notes in the bottom. A reader asked me to share the recipe and here you go Jaishree…

Ven pongal recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 5 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Serves: 4

Ingredients

Raw rice - 1 cup

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Moong dal/pasi paruppu - 1/4 cup

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Water - 4 cups

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Salt - as needed

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Ginger chopped - 1 tblsp

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Asafoetida - 1 pinch

To temper

Ghee - 2 tblsp

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Pepper - 2 tsp

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Jeera - 2 tsp

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Curry leaves - 1 sprig

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Asafoetida - 2 pinches

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Cashews - 6

Method

1. An optional step is to roast the moong dal for extra flavour. Wash rice and dal together. Heat a small cooker with a tsp of ghee. Fry ginger and asafoetida for few seconds.
2. Add 4 cups of water,bring to boil. Add the washed rice,dal,salt and pressure cook for 4 whistles in medium flame.Wait until pressure gets released by itself,open & mash. 
3. Season with the items given under to temper table. First add ghee, when hot add pepper and let it start splutter and then switch off the flame. Add cashews and fry till it starts golden and then lastly add jeera. Add curry leaves and asafoetida lastly. Mix in the heat well and then add it to pongal and mix well.

Notes

• If the pongal is watery when you open, then you can try keeping it again in stove and mix well until water evaporates.(only if the rice has got cooked,otherwise you can again give 2 whistles). For the given measurement, the recipe will be perfect, but still saying these for emergency/trouble shooting.
• If it is too dry/thick then add some milk to bring it to desired consistency. Again, the rice should have got cooked properly.
• Make sure you dont burn jeera while frying, as it changes the whole taste of pongal.
• If you want/like pepper flavour, you can add 2 tsps of pepper coarse powder to the pongal lastly while mixing. It gives a great flavour and turns more spicy.
• If you want, you can temper first, then add ginger and washed rice, add water and cook too. Not that the tempering has to be done at the end.
• You can add turmeric 1/8 tsp for an ‘yellow looking” pongal.
• One of my maamis use dalda 50% for making pongal and it tastes great, but its not advisable for health.

Serve it super hot with gothsu or chutney  as an accompaniment. I made gothsu with potato and carrot the other day and ginger chutney.



Sending this picture I clicked while making pongal for Black and white Wednesday hosted by Siri this time.

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