Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts

21.5.16

Summer Salad (Fruits and veggies salad)


Fruits:
Mango: 1 fruit diced
Pomegranate: 1 fruit
Pineapple: 1 fruit diced
Apple: 1 fruit diced
Green Grapes: 1 cup sliced

Veggies:
Carrot: 1 carrot grated
Cabbage: 1 cup grated
Cucumber: 1 peeled and diced
Onion: 1 medium Diced
Tomato: 1 small seeded and diced

Salt: as required
Vinegar: 2 tbsp
Pepper: 2 tsp
Sugar: 1 tsp (optional)

Dump all this in a big mixing bowl and mix properly.
Keep in the refrigerator for half an hour and enjoy this super yummy healthy salad without guilt.























Recipe Courtesy: My aunt, Leelakochamma

18.11.11

Cashewnuts (Roasting to make them edible)

For those of you who has no idea how cashewnut is taken out of the kernel... ;)
The nut is attached to the lower portion of the Cashew apple. The Cashew apple is either yellow, orange or reddish yellow in colour. When the fruit is raw, you can take the nut and eat just like that... its soft and chewy and ofcourse delicious. But when the fruit ripens, the outer kernel of the Cashewnut becomes hard, like the picture below.

At this stage, dont dare to open it and eat it... yes, the liquid in this shell is DANGEROUS!!!! it will cause burns.
 You have to sun dry it for some days and then heat these nuts over an open fire (the dangerous liquid is drained, that way)




This is how it will look at this stage....


When it cools, you can shell it.... :)


18.9.11

Ghee (Clarified Butter)






Clarified butter is known as ghee and it is one of the main ingredient for any speciality Indian dish. As a child, I used to love the aroma when mom used to process the butter into ghee. (I still love it).

Mom's store room will always have 5 to 6 bottles of Ghee that she makes at home and whenever a family member or a dear friend visits us, Mom used to give a bottle when they leave.





Whenever you boil full cream milk, keep it in the refrigerator for 24 hours, before you use it.
 After 24 hours, take the milk out of the fridge and you will see a thick layer of cream on top.
Take it with a spoon and refrigerate it.
Do this everyday till you get a big bowl of fresh cream.


After youve collected a big bowl of fresh cream, take it out from the fridge and let it get to room temperature.
Dump it into a blender and pulse till the butter milk and butter separates.


It will take a while (10-15 minutes)


You can see the butter milk and the butter in the pic below. Either save the butter milk for your curries or you can throw it away.


Now take the butter and either store it in the fridge (to spread on bread or to make ghee at a later stage) or go ahead and make the ghee.



Place the butter in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat.
Keep stirring in intervals. First it will froth


 Then the milk solids separates and your ghee is ready
Turn off the stove and allow it to cool



Strain it into a glass container.


and when it comes to room temperature, it looks like this.... what a beauty!!!!

25.3.11

Smoothie (Orange/Strawberry)

All of a sudden, I became very health conscious and started shopping for fruits like crazy!!! And what do I do with it... I eat it, make fresh juice, make milkshake...and if still there are fruits left...I make smoothies... Something all  4 of us can have any time of the day!!!!

So here, Ive made 2 very simple smoothies- one with orange and the other with Strawberries.


Oranges: 2
Yoghurt: 100 gm cup
Honey: 1 tbsp

Blend juice of the Oranges, Yoghurt and Honey until smooth.
Serve immediately and enjoy!!


Strawberries: 10
Yoghurt: 100 gm cup
Honey: 1 tbsp
Blend all the ingredients until smooth.
 Enjoy delicious Strawberry smoothie without guilt