Strawberry Sheera and Blueberry Sheera

Happy Dassra everyone. I made these today to celebrate the festival. This is the first time I tried both. A friend had recently mentioned having eaten strawberry sheera. So as I was racking my brains deciding what sweet to make for today, this suddenly came back. After doing some research online, I decided to try both kinds since I had a box of both berries.

Here's how I made the Strawberry Sheera:

3/4 cup medium rava/semolina/sooji
1/2 cup ghee/clarified butter
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup strawberry puree
2 tsp sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp cardamon pwd
Few strawberries and nuts to garnish

First, melt the ghee in a large wok. Add the rava and fry on medium low heat for abt 15 mins till fragrant.

In the meanwhile warm the milk up in the microwave. Add to the roasted rava. Puree about 12 medium sized strawberries. If you wish you can strain the puree, but I did not do this and the end product was still smooth, with excellent flavor of the strawberry puree.

Add the strawberry puree when the milk has been absorbed in the rava.

Add the sugar, mix well. My strawberries were not very sweet, hence I added sugar equal to quantity of rava. Rava will loosen at this point. Keeping cooking on medium low heat, it will thicken up again. Add the condensed milk and cardamon pwd. Mix again. Cook, stirring occasionally till the ghee starts leaving the sides of the pan. I wanted to make this sheera into wadis or barfi like pieces, so I cooked additional 10 mins.

Then spread the mix onto a greased thali.

Mark the desired shapes on the spread sheera...

....and garnish with fresh strawberries. Let cool completely, keep in the fridge if weather is warm. When cool/chilled, cut completely and remove each individual piece.

I followed the same procedure for the blueberry sheera, but I did strain the blueberry puree. Also, I did not shape these into wadis/burfis.

Here, my strawberry and blueberry sheera is ready to be distributed to friends.

Brown rice, quinoa, moong pulav

I made this pulav for a potluck at my yoga teacher's place. It was well appreciated, hence thought of posting.

I cooked the brown rice and quinoa together in the pressure cooker for 2 whistles. I sprouted the moong beans for abt 2 days. To make the pulav, I heated little olive oil in a wok, added cumin seeds and fried them for a minute. Then added some chopped onions and fried them for 5 mins. Next went in some chopped tomatoes which I cooked down a bit for abt 5 mins. I added frozen mix vegetables and again cooked it all for 5 mins. Then I added the sprouted moong, grated ginger, garlic paste, cumin pwd, coriander pwd, pav bhaji masala, little garam masala pwd and kitchen king masala pwd. Gave it all a good stir and cooked it covered till the veggies were cooked. Then mixed in the cooked and cooled brown rice and quinoa, salt and sugar. Gently folded it in with the veggies and steamed for a few mins on low heat. That's it. Garnished with some chopped cilantro.

The moong beans give it a good little crunch, in addition to being super healthy.

Dates and Almond Kheer

Made this for Shri Krishna Janmashthami last week. This is a very simple and tasty dessert. The sweetness of the dates makes it unnecessary to add sugar, making it a good alternative for those watching their sugar intake. As I was making it as a "prasad", I did add a little bit of sugar, but it tastes great without any at all too.

Here's how I make it:

12 pitted dates - chop by hand or in a food processor
12 almonds
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp crushed cardamon pwd
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

Soak the chopped dates and almonds in 1/2 cup milk for 2 -3 hours. Then grind together in a mixer to a smooth consistency. Add the remaining milk and gently heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Take off heat and add the cardamon pwd.

Serve hot by itself or with poories.

 I like to have this kheer (pudding) fairly hot, but if you choose you can make it in the consistency of a milk shake and drink it cold too.

Shrikhand - Puri

I made this for a cooking contest at Anandmela, a local cultural event. The theme was to cook 2 traditional dishes from your region of India. So I made this Shrikhand Puri combo which is very popular especially during Diwali, Gudi Padwa, weddings etc. celebrations in Maharashtra.

I have already posted Amrakhand recipe earlier. This shrikhand is similar, but without the mango, with just cardamon and saffron to flavor it. I used one 32oz container of Greek yogurt, hung the yogurt up in the fridge in a cheesecloth overnight to let the whey drip. The next morning, I wrapped the thickened yogurt along with the cheesecloth in layers of kitchen towels and newspapers, and placed a heavy can over it, to further drain off all liquid. After abt 2-3 hrs, I added 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp cardamon pwd and 1 tsp saffron dissolved in 1/4 cup warm milk, to the thickened yogurt (called "chakka" in Marathi). I mixed it all well and while serving topped it off with charoli (I think its a kind of nut).

One trick to keep puris puffy (even the judges asked me abt it) is to add a pinch of sugar to the dough while kneading it. This keeps the puris puffed for a long time. I made my puris 3 hrs before the cooking contest since my daughter had a dance performance there, but they remained puffed up until eaten.

We had to make 2 traditional dishes for the contest, so the other item I made was Kothimbir wadi. This time I added peanuts instead of cashew nuts, and omitted the ginger and garlic pastes, but other ingredients and procedure is same as posted earlier.I shallow fried them this time.

To round off the traditional theme, I wore my nauvari sari (it is pre-stitched) which I bought from Sadi Ghar near Dadar Stn on my last visit.

I guess the judges liked something about my dishes, since I won a prize!

Paneer Parathas

Paneer Parathas are made by stuffing regular roti dough with a tangy paneer filling. They are good for lunch boxes or picnic lunches.

Here's how I make them:

For the dough - 1 cup wheat flour, pinch of salt, abt 1/3 to 1/2 cup warm water. Mix together to form a soft pliable dough. Coat with a drop of oil and keep covered with a damp cloth for atleast 1/2 hr.

For the paneer stuffing - Grate paneer to get abt 1 cup. I like to stuff my parathas to the brim, you can adjust per your liking. I use store-bought paneer, so my stuffing is quite dry and crumbly. Add 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp amchur pwd, 1/4 tsp chaat masala, 1 tbsp crushed kasuri methi, 1/2 tsp red chile pwd, 1 tsp coriander-cumin pwd. Adjust seasonings per taste. Mix all well and divide into 4 parts.

To proceed - Divide dough into 4 parts. Form each into a round hollow bowl and stuff with the seasoned paneer.

Close the bowls by bringing the dough edges together. Use flour to dust and roll into a circle. Heat on a tawa using a few drops of oil until brown spots form on both sides.

This will make 4 big paneer parathas. Serve with raita, pickles etc. Today we had this with palak raita and carrot pickle.

Bread Upma

Bread Upma is a breakfast dish, quick to make and good way to use up old bread/bagels etc.

Here's how I make it:

Roughly chop the bread pieces. Sprinkle with buttermilk that has been seasoned with salt, red chile pwd and turmeric. For about 5 bread slices, I use 1/2 cup buttermilk. Mix gently. The idea is to slightly moisten the bread pieces and spice them, so do not add too much that the bread is soaking in the buttermilk.

Heat oil in a wide pan and make the tempering by first dropping some mustard seeds. When they stop spluttering add cumin seeds, asafotida, chopped curry leaves, chopped green chiles to taste, broken dry red chiles to taste. Saute a couple of mins. Add chopped onions and fry till they turn light golden brown. Add chopped tomatoes and other veggies as desired. In the above picture, I have only added frozen peas, but potatoes, bell peppers, carrots are also good options. Cook till tomatoes and veggies soften. Add the bread pieces, salt and sugar per taste. Stir gently to coat the bread with the onion/tomato/veggies. Cook uncovered on medium high heat for 5 to 10 mins, gently stirring once in a while.

Serve hot garnished with chopped cilantro. Goes well with a cup of chai.

Mexican Rice

I use store-bought salsa and enchilada sauce for this hence I call it Mexican rice. In the above picture, I have used cooked brown rice and quinoa, you can substitute with cooked white rice. This is a good way to use up leftover rice, salsa and enchilada sauce.

Here's how I make it:

Heat veg. oil in a pan. Fry some chopped onions and green bell peppers in it. Add the salsa and enchilada sauce. Latter can be omitted, in which case increase the amount of salsa used. For 2 cups cooked rice, I use abt 1 cup salsa depending on how chunky or smooth it is and the heat level. Add seasoning to taste - salt, sugar, cumin pwd and paprika. Stir well. Add the cooked rice (see note). Add drained canned black beans and upto 1 tbsp soy sauce. Stir gently to coat rice well. Cover and heat on medium low heat for 5 mins. Adjust seasonings to taste if needed. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro, red bell pepper and even some shredded Mexican cheese blend if desired.

Note - You can use uncooked rice, in which case probably better to go with white rice as it cooks faster. Add water or veg. broth and cook till almost done before proceeding to add the canned beans and soy sauce.

This Mexican rice goes well by itself as a one-pot meal or served along with tortilla soup/quesadilla, enchiladas etc.