Homemade ice gola | How to make ice gola

When I was thinking what to post for summer in my blog, some how ice gola came to mind. I have seen ice golas only in ads. But when ever I see, it is toooooo tempting. I have no experience eating ice golas too. I think more prominent in North part of India or may be I have no exposure to this if its available in south India. But when I tried for the first time at home seeing a youtube video, it was too different from the way I thought and it was really a treat for this summer. Even Aj took a sip from the gola and he loved it.

When I tried I thought this is the desi version of granita . Granitas are made with pure fruit juices while these are made with colours and flavors still its our desi style summer treat, we will sure lean towards it. No need to worry about the gola syrup, you need not know gola syrup recipe but you can make this simply with the items we have at home or easily available at market. Like I did. Rose syrup and orange squash is what I used. I have tried the same with Rasna too. See notes to know how to use rasna in this ice gola.

Ice gola is too easy to make at home quickly. All you need is ice cubes. Ice cubes when crushed in mixer, gives less volume so you may need two trays full of ice to get 2 or 3 ice golas. But more than making and eating, capturing it is too too tricky and messy. I have made this quite few times and tried once clicking this three weeks back, but I could not click it properly. Today too what it was in my mind, I could not capture, I was just making sure to give a decent picture and clicked indoor in an AC room . This is a wonderful summer treat for your family and yourself. Do try it.

Ice gola recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Popsicle
Prep Time: 15 mins     |  Cook time: 0 mins     |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Ice cubes – 30

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Any flavoured syrup/ squash – 9 tblsp

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Lemon juice – optional

Method

1. Place few ice cubes at a time – upto half the mixer and crush it well until it resembles fine icy grains. The mixer will get stuck if you over load, so few at a time. Act quickly to finish crushing all the ice cubes.
2. In a metal or plastic tumbler, spoon the ground ice and tap well so that the ice gets packed without any gaps. Once the tumbler is full, insert a popsicle stick or a skewer like me and press around again to make the ice tight and hold the stick.
3. Gently invert the tumbler and pull out of it and pour your desired squash/ syrup over this. You can squirt lemon too if you want. Serve immediately with a tumbler to collect the dripping.

Notes

• You should make this super quick, otherwise the crushed ice will easily melt in this hot summer.
• If using rasna, make a super thick juice with lots of rasna powder (instant mix with sugar) and pour over the ice. Any choice of your flavour.
• The syrup you pour should be thick, otherwise it will easily melt away the crushed ice.
• If you are healthy concious and want to try with fruits, try granita rather than this ice gola.
• Make only 2 or 3 at a time and serve then and there, otherwise you may not be able to handle it.

This is too good to drink the juice alone from the ice and kids too will be exited to have this. I used my rose syrup and orange squash.

Soya chunks manchurian | Soya chunks recipes

Soya chunks/ soya nuggets is a great source of protein and fibre. I liked soya chunks right from the day I tasted it first time. So I always stock soya chunks and make when ever I get a chance to cook for me alone. I mostly make soya chunks curry which is my most favourite as well as easy to make. I sent this soya chunks Manchurian for last month’s Kungumam thozhi step by step series. Now last week I have been posting all summer recipes so thought of giving it a break and post this one. This one is easy to prepare too, no deep frying part. The recipe is partially adapted from Sanjeev Kapoors’ recipe, but altered to my taste.

Soya chunks manchurian recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack/ side dish
Prep Time: 20 mins     |  Cook time: 20 mins     |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Soya chunks – 1/2 cup

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Corn flour (white corn starch) – 2 tblsp

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Capsicum – 1/2

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Onion – 1/2

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Spring onion – 2 sprigs

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Ginger, finely chopped – 1 tblsp

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Garlic, finely chopped – 1 tblsp

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Soya sauce – 1 tblsp

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Chilli sauce – 1 tblsp

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Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

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Black pepper powder – 1tsp

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Lemon juice – 1 tblsp

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Oil – 2 tblsp

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Method

1. Soak soya chunks in hot water with salt for 5 minutes. Then squeeze it, boil it in water with salt until its cooked.

2. Drain water,wash it, squeeze it, keep aside. Alternatively, you can pressure cook with salt for 2 whistles, skipping soaking.  To this, add a tblsp of corn flour, little salt, half the pepper powder, half the chilli powder and marinate.

3. Keep aside for 15 mins. Cut capsicum length wise, chop onion, spring onion and gather all the required ingredients ready.

4. Heat a non stick pan with a tsp of oil and first toss the marinated  soya chunks until the corn flour turns transparent.

5. Heat the remaining oil and first fry ginger garlic for a minute without changing its colour. Then add onion and white part of spring onion. Fry till transparent.

6. Add capsicum and fry for a minute. Add both sauces, remaining pepper and red chilli powder. Add required salt.

7. Add the tossed soya chunks, mix well. Dissolve corn flour in 1/4 cup water and add it.

8. Squirt the lemon and toss well. Lastly add the green part of spring onion.

Notes

• Do not add corn flour more than mentioned. I have used levelled tblsp of the flour, not heaped. If you add more, then the whole manchurian may get really thick.
• Adding enough salt, spice and tanginess is must. Otherwise manchurian will be bland.
• Use dark soya sauce for good colour.
• Add finely chopped coriander leaves along with spring onion for a unique flavor.
• Soya chunks should be cooked soft in order to absorb all the ingredients we add.

Serve with fried rice or hakka noodles the best. I can have it as such too.

Kiwi lime popsicle recipe | Kiwi recipes

Kiwi is one healthy fruit we get almost all the time in Singapore. First few times when I bought the fruit for trying it out, it was bit sour, I thought that’s the way it would be. But last year I got well ripen fruits and it was really good. I made this popsicle and sent to Kungumam Thozhi, tamil magazine’s supplementary 30 summer recipes. I didn’t took step by step pictures when I made all those popsicles, so I made this again and clicked. I like to make this always coz of the lime flavour in this popsicle and I love the colour of the kiwi fruit .

Kiwi lime popsicle recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Continental  |  Recipe Category: Dessert
Prep Time:10 mins Plus freezing time     |  Cook time: 0 mins      |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Kiwi – 2

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Lime – 1

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Sugar – 3 tblsp

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Lime zest – 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Cut Kiwi into two and slice two circles, that we need later and keep aside. 
2. With a spoon, scoop the pulp of the fruit and collect in the blender.
3. Scrap the lime in a fine grater to collect lime zest. Squeeze in the lime to the scooped fruit.
4. Add sugar and blend well to make a smooth puree. Add the lime zest. 
5. Pour to the popsicle moulds and place the fruit slice on top of it to cover the mould. Insert the popsicle stick through the fruit slice. 
6. Freeze for 6-8 hours or overnight and to unmould, show the popsicle mould under tap water for a minute and gently pull it out.

Notes

• Lime adds a great flavour and goes well with kiwi fruit. so does the lime zest, adds a pleasant sweet flavour.
• If you want, you can add kiwi fruit bits inside the mould as well.

Treat yourself and your family this summer with this super healthy pops as well as tasty ones.

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Bread halwa recipe | Indian sweet recipes

I had a request from a reader to post bread halwa few weeks back. I added it to my ‘To try’ list and as usual forgot about it. Luckily my Bro-in-law got to taste bread halwa in his work place and he also got the recipe. I followed the same recipe and tried this bread halwa for our anniversary yesterday. I was very tensed in the beginning as I got many doubts while trying and till end I was but nervous if it will turn out good or no. Finally I got the halwa consistency and I felt very happy and content and perfect for our anniversary celebration. My next concern was how Vj would like it as I tried something new, but after tasting it he told immediately that he likes it. So thank you Ashok for passing me the recipe and thank you Smitha for sharing the recipe .
Do not under estimate by the looks of this dessert. It tastes very rich, flavorful and delicious! With all easily available ingredients!

Bread halwa recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Dessert
Prep Time:15 mins     |  Cook time: 25 mins     |  serves: 6

Ingredients

Bread – 7 slices

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Ghee – 1/2 cup

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Milk – 2 cups

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Sugar – 1/2 cup + 2 tblsp

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Almond – 8

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Cashew nuts – 10

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Cardamom – 3

Method

1. Cut the bread slices to tiny pieces. Heat kadai or a heavy bottomed pan with ghee. Reserve 2 tblsp of ghee for later use.

2. Add the bread pieces and roast it golden in low or medium flame, taking care not to turn the pieces dark in colour. It should be golden in colour, so make sure the heat is low and you turn the pieces of bread every now and then. You can toss it too.

3. Mean while, boil milk with sugar. Add it to the roasted bread.

4. Bring to boil and put the flame to low. Let it cook for few minutes and mash it as it gets cooked soft.

5. Grind almond, cashew and cardamom first to a powder. Then add little water to make it as a paste.

6. Add this paste to the cooked bread and the reserved 2 tblsp ghee. Keep mixing mashing it well until oil oozes out. If you want, you can fry few cashew and badam in ghee and add to the halwa.

Notes

• I didn’t remove the sides of the bread, and I had no problem with that too.
• Until step 6 it will look very gooey, but dont worry, once you add the cashew badam paste and ghee, it will turn to halwa consistency.
• 2 cups of milk is roughly half a litre of milk.
• I used milk bread for this recipe.
• Do not experiment with ghee quantity as it may turn sticky.

We had it always warm. You can refrigerate and reheat when ever needed. This should keep good  3 days in fridge.

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Rose milk recipe - With homemade rose syrup

From the time I remember, the one and only drink I love to have is Rose milk . I cannot explain how much I like it. Now a days in restaurants, we get a lot of drink options. But in my childhood, I had only this option in restaurants. But even mom make this now and then at home and we both love it a lot. Those days, no fridge too at home, so mom used to buy ice cubes from shop near by in summer and we used to make this and Rasna. There used to be too much excitement for these drinks those days. Now a days, we stock all possible drinks at home but nothing is tasting that same, its purely because we get it so often. After coming here, I used to buy Haldiram’s rose syrup every year. We get few other south Indian brands that sell nanaari sarbath syrup too, but not consistently. This year I didn’t buy any syrup, suddenly today thought why not try rose syrup instead. I had pink colour and essence in stock, so it was easy for me to prepare the syrup. So for this summer, this is enough for me as no one else will drink this at home. I hope this will be useful for this summer for you too.
My parents bought and gave fresh baby pink panneer rose this year, I made rose water with it for washing my face. Every time I wash my face with it, that smell tempting me to drink rose milk. Finally today I made and had !! You can make this rose milk popsicle I posted last year too with this syrup.

Rose milk recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Drink
Prep Time:5 mins     |  Cook time: 12 mins     |  Makes: 2 cups Syrup

Ingredients

Sugar – 2 cups

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Water – 1 & 1/2 cup

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Pink food colour – 3/4 tsp

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Rose essence – 3/4 tsp to 1 tsp

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Milk for making rose milk as needed

Method

1. In a heavy bottomed vessel, add sugar, water and heat it. Stir it well to dissolve the sugar.
2. Bring it to boil. Let it boil for 4 mins in medium flame. Add food colour towards last minute.
3. Let the syrup become thick. If you test between your forefinger and thumb, a small string should form and break – sticky consistency. Not one string consistency.
4. Switch off the flame and add rose essence.
5. Cool down completely and pour to bottle, to store in the fridge. To prepare rose milk with this syrup, place 5-6 icecubes in a tumbler.
6. Add 1 cup boiled cooled milk and 3 tblsp of the prepared rose syrup. Mix well and serve immediately.

Notes

• I added 1 tsp of essence and it was good for me, use good quality rose essence.
• Rose water is totally different from rose essence. If using rose water, you may need to add more.
• This syrup should stay good for a month in fridge.
• This sugar syrup must be enough for preparing 10 tumblers of rose milk.
• Don’t use low fat milk, use full cream milk for perfect taste.
• You should boil and cool the milk for best taste.
• Always serve chilled.

Rose milk tastes great only when had cold, so add ice cubes and chilled milk. Perfect for this super hot summer.

Technorati Tags: Rose milk recipe,rose milk,how to make rosemilk at home,how to make rose syrup