manjulabharathkumar@gmail.com

Milkshakes are always my fav and they are perfect way to start a day . I used to make milkshakes daily for my H with any fruit available , and one of my h fav  is Banana milkshake . Is always love to add some chocolate yumminess to make the milkshake more tempting.This is one filling milkshake your kids will love to drink , instead of giving them plain milk anything flavored will make them more happy isn’t it. Banana chocolate milkshake is our family fav combo which we make them often . Any milkshake when added a scoop of ice cream to it will taste luscious but I haven’t added to keep it simple .

I Love making salads and some times tend to skip lunch and have some rich salad which is itself a whole meal. My recent fav is cold salad using pasta I shared a cold salad version with 1000 island dressing 2 days back which is My H’s fav I also made pasta salad with white sauce dressing. When made this salad first time I was skeptical as I love pasta in white sauce  only hot didn’t think it will taste so yummy and from then I make them often and try add different veggies every time. I Like too eat raw veggies a lot from my childhood so my mom didn’t have a hard time in feeding me with loads of veggies so salad is always my fav . This salad is not for people who are diet conscious, am sure all will be knowing this that some salad are rich in taste and are super filling. Now enough talk 😉  lets move on to the recipe..

Cold Pasta Salad  ( with White Sauce)

Category	Preparation time	Cook Time
Pasta Recipes	15 mins	15 mins

  Ingredients

 

  Shelled pasta – 1 cup

  (I used Shelled Pasta but any pasta kind will do )

  Capsicum – 1/4 cup ( 3 different colors)

  Onion –  2 tbsp ( chopped)

  Spring Onion – 2 tbsp ( chopped)

  Pepper pd as needed

  Salt to taste

  For White sauce

  Milk – 1 1/2 cups

  Butter – 2 tbsp

  Maida – 2 tbsp

  Method

• In a sauce pan boil enough water to cook pasta, add salt in the water.
• Drain the pasta once cooked and run cold water over it .Keep it aside.
• In another sauce pan heat butter and add maida.
• Roast the maida in very low flame till the raw smell goes off.
• Add Milk little by little  constantly stirring the sauce to avoid any lumps.
• Let the sauce thicken a bit , then turn off the flame.
• In a bowl take the cooked pasta, chopped onion, spring onion and capsicum .
• Mix them add well and Mix them to the white sauce.
• Add Salt and pepper pd as need .
•  Enjoy this cold salad any time.

For P I had decided to make dishes from Puerto Rica which is officially called as common wealth of Puerto Rica. Its located in the Caribbean east of Dominican republic. As they had a Spanish invasion before centuries the islands culture and cuisine is highly influenced by them.The language spoken here is Spanish but people even talk English. I would like to mention the style of dance from this country which was very nice to watch the Bomba y plena,while researching about the country I happen to see a bomba style of dance in you tube and I liked the style a lot. Puerto rican cuisine has influence from the European , African  cuisines ad also the ingredients used for preparing a dish are influenced bu United states too. Puerto rican dishes have some flavorful spices and herbs added making the the dish aromatic. If you remember me making blancmange for Haitian cuisine they same pudding is made in puerto rica but obviously the name is different , it is called Tembleque ( coconut pudding). I am glad to know most of the countries share same recipes in different names.

 

 

Sorullitos de Maíz

Recipe Category	Preparation time	Cook Time
Snacks	10 mins	10 mins

  Ingredients 

  Cornmeal – 1 cup

  Water – 2 cups

  Sugar – 3 tbsp

  Butter – 1 tbsp

  Salt – 1/4 tsp

  Oil for frying

  Method

• In a sauce pan put water, sugar, salt and butter.
• Let the water boil, and once it boils simmer the flame.
• Add the corn meal while mixing with a ladle simultaneously.
• Mix them till they combine well and get them cook well.
• After some time it will begin to thicken and cook them them till its very thick.
• Turn off the flame and let it cool till you can handle the dough.
• Divide the dough to equal parts and roll them to a cylindrical or elongated shape like a roll or stick.
• Heat oil in a pan and when it is hot enough slide the shaped sorullitos .
• Fry them till golden brown from all sides.
• Serve them warm with mayo ketchup dip.

Refresco De Tamarindo

Recipe Category	Preparation time	Cook Time
Drinks	5 mins	5 mins

  Ingredients 
Dried tamarind – 1/2 cup ( remove the shell
and seeds)
Water – 3 cups
Sugar as needed
Ice cubes – Few  Method 

• To remove the seeds from the tamarind you can soak them in water for a while and remove the seeds.
• In a blender put the tamarind , water  and sugar.
• Pulse the blender till they combine well.
• Strain the juice using a strainer and serve them chilled with lots of ice cubes.

For day 5  its letter E , We have already completed 5 days can’t believe. Today am doing E for Ecaudor or generally called as republic of equator. This country also includes Galapagos island . Before moving on to the recipe I would love to state about the country and its culture. Eucador is along the northwestern coast of South America and its neighbor in the south and east is Peru. People here speak spanish as there was a spanish colonial empire ruling the country before they got Independence, they  have this spanish style colonial cities designed. Ecuador is meant to be the presidential republic.People eat both meat and veggies  but the main protein is consumed from meat. Ecuadorean cuisine is incomplete with Pata cones or the green plantains. Variety of recipe right from empandas to banana chips are made with them.

Some of the Ecuadorean dishes are typical in various region of the country for eg Plantains, beans , fish  are very popular all over the country. The typical meal  will have two dishes  a soup and a rice platter. As I told before plantains are used here very often even the starch vegetables are also consumed often like potato, yucca.. They have 3 course meal followed starting with soup , a side dish and rice with protein, then comes the dessert  and coffee.For dinner they have some thing lighter like a coffee or herbal tea.

Now coming to today’s recipe I made two very popular dishes from the country which has both mountain and other part  cuisine followed here. I adapted the recipe for Guaguas de pan from here. Guaguas de pan are traditional Ecuadoran sweet bread shaped like swaddled Babies  which are prepared for the celebration of all souls Day or Dia de los difuntos. A festival is celebrated on nov 2nd throughout the country which to remember the deceased. For this festival people visit the memorial parks to honor the departed , the communities there have a massive gathering and people bring their fav foods to share with each other. Even people visit the cemeteries on this day which an old tradition in the country.So A typical food made for the day is Guagas de pan which is accompanied with Colada Morada which is again a traditional drink prepared with black corn flour  and fruits.My second dish is Llapingachos which is nothing but a simple potato cake topped with peanut butter sauce, Trust me we loved both the dish a lot while daughter was very much impressed with the guages de pan she almost had it for 15 mins admiring them 😉 and the Potato cakes were tremendous to taste. we enjoyed the Ecuadorean meal a lot. Llapingachos are stuffed with cheese and the patties can also be made with yucca or cassava too. Lets move on to the recipe…

Guaguas de Pan 

Recipe Category	Preparation time	Cook time
Breads	3 hrs	20 mins

 

  Ingredients

 

  All purpose Flour – 2 cup

  Instant Yeast – 1 1/4 tsp

  Warm Water 2 tbsp

  Sugar – 2 tbsp

  Salt – 1/4 tsp

  Vanilla extract – few drops

  Cinnamon- 1/4 tsp ( optional)

  Butter – 1/4  cup

  Milk – 1/2 cup

  Nutella – 2 tbsp

  Egg replacer – 1 1/2 tsp  1 tbsp water to dilute

  Icing for decorating  ( assorted colors)

  For Syrup

  Sugar – 1/2 cup

  Water to immerse the sugar

  Method 

• Take the warm water and sprinkle yeast on them, keep it aside for  5 mins till they are bubbly .
• In a pan heat the milk till it boils , turn off the heat and add butter .
• Mix them till the butter melts off. Let it cool a bit.
• In a bowl  put flour, salt, sugar vanilla extract, egg replacer dilute,  in water,cinnamon if needed and mix them well.
• Add the butter and milk mixture to the flour and make a smooth elastic dough and warm water if needed .
• Leave it cover to double the volume and rise for about 1-2 hrs.
• After it doubles the volume punch the dough and divide it to 10 balls , In which 5 balls should be larger for the body of babies and 5 balls should be smaller for the face.
• Take a large ball and flat  it with rolling pin to a  square or rectangle shape.
• Spread nutella in the the flattened dough leaving the corners .
• Roll them to a cylindrical shape and pinch of the open ends.
• Take a small ball of dough and roll them to a ball.
• To stick the head to the body part just brush little water and stick it the cylindrical dough to the small round dough you have made.
• Roll the both together and make a shape like a  swaddled  baby.
• Keep it on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.
• Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.
• Brush the shaped breads with Milk and leave them to rise for 45 mins.
• After they  rise brush with milk again and bake them in a preheated oven at 350 C.
• Bake till you see lightly browned crust. It would take about 20 mins.
• Till the time its baking prepare a sugar syrup. Add sugar and water in a sauce pan and let to boil till  all the sugar dissolves.
• After the bread is done , brush each bread with sugar syrup and cool them on a rack.
• Decorate the swaddled Babies as you wish with a cookie icing .

 

 Llapingachos ( Potato Cakes with Peanut Sauce)

 

Recipe Category	Preparation time	Cook time
Lunch/ Snacks	15 mins	15 mins

  Ingredients 

  Potatoes – 2 no ( medium)

  Cloves – 2-3 no ( chopped)

  Scallions – 2 tbsp( chopped)

  Turmeric pd / Yellow food color- 1/4 tsp

  Onion – 1 no ( medium)

  Tomato – 1 no (medium)

  Milk – 3/4 cup

  Peanut butter -1/2 cup

  Mozzarella cheese – 1/4 cup

  Olive oil/ annetto Oil – 2 tbsp

  Pepper Pd to taste

  Salt to taste

  Cumin pd – 1/4 tsp

 

  Method 

• First Make the peanut sauce. Take pan heat oil add cloves and saute them.
• Add 1 tbsp scallions and saute them, then add Onion and saute them till translucent.
• add tomatoes and cook them till mushy.
• Add pepper pd, salt ( very little), cumin pd and mix them well.
• Simmer the flame completely and add milk. Be careful the milk should not curdle.
• Once the milk heats up a little , switch off the flame and add the peanut butter,
• Mix them till it melts completely.
• Cover and keep them warm.

• Boil the potatoes and mash them well without any lumps with a fork or grate them.
• Add turmeric/yellow color, salt, pepper pd  , 2 tbsp chopped onions and mix well.
• Mix the potato well til they are soft.
• Divide them to equal portion .
• Take a part of potato and make a disc , in this stage if you want you can fill little mozzarella cheese and roll the potato to a ball.
• Then again shape them to form a disc. do the same for the rest of the potato potions.
• Place the shaped discs on a plate and cover it with a cling wrap.
• Refrigerate for 30 mins – 1 hr , so that the disc gets little firm.
• After they are firm, drizzle some oil and place the potato cake on them.
• Cook them till they are light brown.flip them and cook them the same way.

• Serve them Hot with peanut sauce topped  with some chopped onion, and spring onion greens.

Ganesh Chauth still has lots of time But I wanted to feed my blog with some festive recipes and so I made a delicious Maharashtrian Kheer to begin with. This months SNC challenge theme is Halwa/ Kheer and I Instantly decided to prepare a kheer Bcoz simply I was carving for a healthy kheer. I always make Chawal  kheer Pudi some times in the weekend  and we love that combo a lot , I have been having this from my child hood and this will never bore me.. When I was doing thali’s few months back I thought of doing this kheer as a part of the sweet in the thali But I some how missed to soak the whole wheat, Yes you here it right this was the first time I tried a whole wheat berry kheer, I have tried a kheer with the ready made crackled  wheat many times But was the first time I tried with whole wheat berry and it tasted yummy . It is no doubt a very healthy option for those who love rice kheer but are avoiding rice in their diet.

Gavachi Kheer / Whole wheat Kheer is a traditional maharastrian prasad generally made for ganesh chathurthi and offered to ganesh ji. This is super creamy and yummy kheer like any other kheer but so much of health benefits, perfect for growing kids. I am hosting this months Snc Challenge  and this will be our last challenge post . Its very heart touching as this was the first event I had joined when I was new to blogging and divya received me with great love , I learned lots of new recipes from south team .This all is coming to an end and will miss SNC a lot. Every month I used to wait for the challenge post and I loved doing this event a lot. You might have noticed even though I was absent blogging frequently I never use to miss SNC bcoz its too close to my heart. Any ways to end up the challenge with a sweet note I prepared this healthy kheer and hope every one in the south team will like it.

Ingredients

Wheat – 1/4 cup
Rice – 2 tbsp ( soaked in water for 15 minutes)
Jaggery- 1/4 cup ( adjust to your taste)
Milk – 3 cups
Cardamom – A pinch or so
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts- 2-3 Nos
Raisins – few

Method 

• Clean and wash whole wheat three to four times and soak it for 9-10 hours or Over night.
• Drain and grind them to a coarse paste. If you want you can leave 1 tbsp of the soaked wheat whole without  grinding and add to the kheer later.
• Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed sauce pan add cashews and raisins, roast them slightly.
• Add the ground wheat mixture ( + the whole wheat if you have saved some from the soaked one) and cook it for few minutes in low heat till it leaves out a  aroma.
• Add  soaked rice and milk, stir the mixture continuously.

• This kheer will thicken as it cools down if you feel it needs more milk you can add more.
• Cook the kheer stiring occasionally till the wheat and rice is well done ( cooked).
• Turn of the heat and mix in the grated jaggery.
• Mix them well till the jaggery melts , the heat of the kheer is enough to melt the jaggery. If you add jaggery when the stove is on some times it might curdle the kheer.
• Serve them warm if you like but it tastes best when served cold. This kheer thickens when it is cold.

Tips 

• In a pressure cooker add oil add panch poron, ginger garlic paste and red chillies.
• Add onion and saute them till translucent.
• Then add brinjal, potato and drumstick.. Saute them.
• Add the toor dal, turmeric pd, salt and water as needed.
• Pressure cook them for 2-3 whistles.
• Once the pressure subsides open the lid and add ghee on top as needed .
• Serve them Hot with rice

• Boil water in a vessel and add salt to it.
• Add the wheat flour slowly  to the boiling water and mix when a wooden spoon well.
• After it is hard to mix , transfer it to a bowl.
• Let them cool a bit but don’t cool it completely.
• When it is still warm , knead the dough till its smooth.
• Divide the dough into equal parts and roll them like we do for chapathi.
• Heat a tawa and cook the rolled chapathi both the sides till they are done.
• Press it and puff it up a bit.
• Serve the roti hot with any curry.

• Grease and Roast Brinjal on medium flame till the skin shrinks and are roasted completely.
• Cool them and peel of the skin. Mash the pulpy brinjal in a bowl.
• Add onion, salt, green chillies, oil, coriander leaves.
• Serve the Hot.

• Fry the potatoes in little oil for 4-5 mins and keep it aside.
• Soak poppy seed for 10 -15 mins in water.Then grind it with green chillies to a smooth paste.
• In a pan heat oil add panch poron , after they crackle add chopped onion and saute them till translucent.
• Add ginger garlic paste and saute.
• Now add tomato and saute them till they are mushy.
• Add turmeric pd , red chilli pd, salt and fried potato.Mix them well.
• Add the poppy seed paste and saute them for a while.
• Then add water to make gravy and let them simmer in medium flame till the gravy become semi dry.
• Serve them hot with rice.

• Wash and soak rice  for 1 hour  then drain the water completely.
• In a pressure cooker heat ghee  add cashews, raisins, cardamon, cinnamon, bay leaf  and saute.
• Then add rice , sugar, turmeric pd and mix them well.
• Add 1 1/2 cup of water or more and cook the rice for 2-3 whistles as needed to cook the rice but not make it mushy.
• Flavorful sweet kanika is ready to serve.

Phala Rasgulla

Lemon juice – 3-4 tbsp

Sugar -1/4 cup  ( To caramelize)

Sugar – 1 cup

Water 3  cups

Method 

• In sauce pan bring the milk to boil , add lemon juice and let the milk curdle.
• Turn off the flame and transfer it to a cheese cloth lined over a strainer.
• Squeeze out the excess water from the cheese cloth and transfer the paneer to a plate.
• Knead the paneer well till it is smooth.
• Divide them to equal parts and roll them to smooth balls.
• In a pan put 1/4 cup sugar and heat it low flame , do not disturb it till you see caramel color all over  mean while in another sauce heat sugar and water.
• Let the sugar dissolve it boils , transfer the caramel immediately to the sugar syrup.
• Be quick while making caramel prepare the sugar  water solution prior and then start making caramel if you want.
• Mix the caramel in sugar water well in medium flame , let it dissolve and boil.
• When the sugar syrup starts boiling slide in the rasgulla balls in them.
• Cover and cook them for 15 – 20 Mins.
• The rasgulla will fluff in size.
• Once they are done cover and let them cool little bit .

Pana 

Recipe Source – Oriya Food

Ingredients 1/4  cup Paneer
1/4 cup apple ( chopped)
1/4 cup Mango ( chopped)
1/4 cup Banana ( chopped)
2 tbsp Honey
1/4 cup Yogurt
A pinch Cardamom
6-5 Nos Cashews ( optional)
1 tbsp Coconut ( grated) ( optional)

Method 

• In a blend yogurt, paneer, apple, banana,mango,Honey,cardamom, cashews, coconut.
• With 1/4 cup water blend them to a smooth mixture.
• Serve this chilled garnished with crushed cashews and coconut.

 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 39

Linking to WTML event Hosted my The big sweet tooth and Gayathri’s  cook spot ..

• Mix ghee, wheat flour, carom seeds and add water little by little.
• Mix and knead a stiff dough.
• In a vessel heat enough water with turmeric pd to cook the bafla in them.
• Drop the bafla one by one in to the boiling water.
• When baflas starts floating remove them from the water and place them on a cloth or kitchen towel
• Allow the baflas to dry then preheat the oven at 200C for 10 mins.
• Bake the baflas till they are golden brown.In between turn over the bafla so that they cook evenly both the sides.
• Serve them hot with ghee and dal.

• Pressure cook all dals together for 3-4 whistles.
• After the pressure subsides remove the lid and mash them well.
• Heat oil in a pan , add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and let them splutter.
• Add asafoetida, Red chilli pd , turmeric pd and coriander pd mix well add a little water.
• The add mashed dals and salt .
• Make them thin by adding water and let the boil for a while.
• Add lemon juice at the end and garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve them hot with bafla.

• In a blender crush the sweet corn well.
• Heat ghee in a pan add cumin seeds , let them splutter then add asafoetida, green chillies , ginger and saute.
• Now add the crushed corn and saute them in low flame till it leave out the ghee.
• After roasting add Milk slowly to the mixture and Mix them constanly.
• When its thickens add salt , sugar , red chilli pd , turmeric pd and mix them well.
• Again cook them for 5 more mins , add lemon juice and mix them well.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve them hot.

• In a blender crush the corn and keep the a side.
• Heat oil in a pan add cumin seeds , mustard seeds and let them splutter.
• Add green chillies and saute them.
• Then add the crushed corn and saute them in low flame for 5-8 mins.
• Add red chilli pd , turmeric pd,garam masala, coriander pd and mix them well.
• Add salt , sugar, water and Mix them well.
• Stir them constantly and cook them well.
• Once the gravy thickens turn off the flame and garnish them with coriander leaves.

• First wash poha in running water for few minutes.
• Keep it in a colander and drain them.
• In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds and  let them splutter.
• Add curry leaves , peanuts , Asafoetida,green chillies and saute.
• Then add onion and saute them till they turn translucent.
• Now add sugar, turmeric pd and salt and mix well.
• Now mix the drained poha, stir them well .
• Serve this poha hot garnished with some sev and coriander leaves.

• In a pan heat oil add cinnamon, clove and cardamom .
• Add onions , ginger garlic paste and saute them till onions turn translucent.
• Then add green chillies and saute them.
• Add carrot and saute the for a while.
• Now add peas, salt and mix the well.
• Now you can either cook the rice in stove top or transfer this veggie mixture to rice cooker and cook them with 1 1/2 cups of water. Mess Makes Food has a list of best rice cookers here.
• Serve the hot.

• Put milk pd and cream in a pan and mix them well till they form one mass.
• Cool them and then blend them in a blender add milk if the mixture is dry.
• In a bowl mix maida with little amount of water , prepare a lump free paste.
• Add this paste to the milk pd mixture and pulse them.
• Add some water to make the consistency thin ( do not make it too thin like watery ).Keep them aside for an hour in a warm place.
• After an hor mix the batter.
• For sugar syrup mix 1 cup of water and sugar and boil them till you attain one string consistency.
• Add saffron to the syrupand stir well.
• Transfer the batter to a zip lock / a piping bag, make a small hole at the bottom.
• Hold the cone from top and press down giving it a round swirls.
• In a kadai heat oil and press the batter in round swirls and fry them till golden brown from both sides.
• Once fried dip the jalebis in the sugar syrup and let them stay for 10 Mins.
• Then drain the jalebis and enjoy them warm with poha its goes very well.

• Boil potatoes, peel and grate them.
• In a bowl take drt coconut add cashew, raisins, green chillies ,salt , lemon juice and mix them well.
• Add red chilli,  turmeric ,salt and mix them well.
• Divide the potato mixture to equal parts and fill a small portion of coconut filling to the potato.
• Roll them once again, heat oil in a kadai and fry them.I used a kuzhupaniyaram pan to fry them, to avoid excess oil usage.

• In heavy bottomed pan heat milk and boil them.
• Reduce the milk to 1 cup , turn of the flame and chill the milk in refrigerator over night.
• Next day add sugar , Crushed nuts , saffron soaked in milk to the reduced milk.
• Again refrigerate them for 4 Hours then enjoy this chillied Milk shikanji .

Linking Bhopali carrot and peas pulao to this new event whose brain child Priya suresh aks.. My ingredient for this month was suggested My patner Nalini suresh of Nalini’s Kitchen  -Its cardamom .. Do visit her blog to know more about this event ..Shhhh cooking secretly