Tag Archives: vegetariankhana

Fruit Shrikhand (Fruit Yogurt)

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Fruit Shrikhand

Shrikhand is an Indian dessert made with hung yogurt, sugar, dry fruits, and cardamom powder. This is a fruity version of the traditional homemade Shrikhand. This is one of the desserts we had as kids (there were no pastries or doughnuts). We mostly had homemade desserts like these which we would help our grandmother prepare for us. My oldest memory of making Shrikhand is helping my grandmother whisk the yogurt as a 7-8 year old and waiting for her to divide it for us in bowls so that we can take our share and relish it in the summer heat.

Hung yogurt is basically the creamy thick yogurt you get when you drain out all the water from yogurt. You can use a muslin or cheese cloth and hand the yogurt on your kitchen tap or any other clean place for 4-6 hours. Since I wanted a very thick and creamy yogurt for this recipe, I left it over night. You can also use the Greek yogurt.

Fruit Yogurt

You can add any fruit of your choice. For me berries work the best and so does Mango. You can decide to leave the seeds or fruit bits in the Shrikhand or just pass the fruit puree through a fine sieve for a rich creamy shrikhand. Remember to chill it for 4-5 hours before serving. You can serve it with fresh fruits and drizzle it with the remaining fruit puree or make it a mini pickup dessert by piping it in mini tart shells. I made chocolate tart shells and piped the shrikhand using icing tips. However you serve it, this summer dessert is sure to please your taste buds with tangy fruits and health yogurt.

Fruit Shrikhand

Ingredients

Serves 5-6

  • 1 ½ cup Hung Yogurt*
  • Icing sugar to taste

Fruit puree

  • ½ cup strawberries
  • ½ cup blueberries
  • ½ cup mango pulp
  • Icing sugar to taste

Recipe

For the Strawberry Puree

Wash and chop the strawberries. Put them in a nonstick pan. Add a table spoon of sugar. You can add or reduce the quantity of sugar based on the natural sweetness of the fruit. Mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes. Once the strawberries are soft, mash them using the back of a spoon or spatula. Make sure to scrape the edges while cooking. Cook for 1-2 minutes or till the puree comes to boil. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Pass this through a fine sieve for a smooth and shiny fruit puree or just leave it as it is if you like bits of fruit in your Shrikhand.

For the Blueberry Puree

Follow the same procedure as the strawberry puree. Make sure to pass this puree through sieve or you will have the fruit peels in your Shrikhand.

For Mango Puree

Depending on the thickness of the mango juice, you can just pass it through a sieve and use it or if it is too runny cook it for few minutes to make it thicker and then use it. As with other fruits, add sugar based on the natural sweetness of the fruit.

For Shrikhand

Whip the yogurt using a whisk or an electric mixer until it is smooth and creamy (approximately 2-3 minutes should be good). Divide the yogurt in three bowls. Add the fruit puree of your choice to each bowl. Add 2 table spoon of puree at a time and whisk well. Add more or less puree depending on taste and consistency requirements. I used approximate 2-3 tbsp of puree for half cup of hung yogurt.  Add icing sugar as per taste. Mix well and chill for at least 4 hours before serving. You can serve it with fresh fruits, fresh cream, or a drizzle of fruit puree on top. You can even fill the Shrikhand in plain tarts or chocolate tarts.

*To make hung yogurt, put fresh yogurt in a muslin or cheese cloth, tie the ends and hang it to your kitchen tap over night. Once all the water I drained out, transfer the thick yogurt to a bowl and chill.

Ras No Fajeto (Mango Kadhi)

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Ras No Fajeto

Fajeto or ras to fajeto as it is addressed is a mango flavored Gujarati kadhi. Yogurt whisked with mango pulp and gram flour is tempered with spices like cinnamon, ginger powder, cloves etc and served with hot puris. Mango season in Gujarati homes means mangoes for lunch breakfast and dinner and may be in between for snacks too. When I first heard of this dish, I was very skeptical ( I hate sweet flavors in main course, especially with rice) but the taste won me over. Mango kadhi might not sound appetizing if you are not a mango lover but if you like Gujarati food, this dish is worth a try.

The richer the aroma of mangoes, the flavorful fajeto you will have. Ratnagiri or alphonso are the best choices for this kadhi.if you want to add more flavor you can replace the water in buttermilk with the water from mangoes (from peels and stone). You can adjust the sugar in this dish depending on the sweetness of mango pulp and as per taste. You can even replace sugar with jaggery. For the pulp, I would recommend a thick and strained pulp.

The dry spices especially ginger powder (saunth) complements the mango flavor very well. Try not leaving that out if you are short of ingredients. You can use oil instead of ghee for the tempering. Some people roast and powder the cinnamon, cloves, and dry ginger, but I like the taste with whole spices (I can take them out once I have the desired flavor).

While fajeto can be eaten with rice too, I love it with hot puris.

Mango Kadhi

Ingredients

Serves 2

  • 5 cup butter milk (1/2cup yogurt+1 cup water)
  • 1/2 tbsb gram flour (besan) besan
  • 1/4 cup mango pulp
  • 2-3 pinches turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • Salt to taste

For Tempering

  • 1 tbsp ghee
  • ¼ tsp mustard and cumin seeds
  • 1 dry red chilli
  • 1 green chilli
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 piece of cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp dry ginger powder (saunth)
  • 8-10 curry leaves
  • 1 inch piece of ginger grated

Recipe

Combine the ingredients for fajeta in a bowl and whisk well. Make sure there are no lumps. Keep aside.

Heat ghee in a kadhai or thick bottomed pan. Add cumin and mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle, add the curry leaves, dry red chilli, green chilli, cloves, cinnamon, ginger powder, and grated ginger. Sauté for 5-10 seconds. Add the yogurt mix and continue stirring till the mixture comes to a boil. You can do this on high flame too. Once the fajeta comes to boil, reduce the flame and cook it for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with puri or rice.

Aalu Toast

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Aalu Toast

Aalu toast is a fantastic lip smacking street food you can eat only in Hyderabad or so I thought until a friend from Jaipur shared this similar recipe. Aalu toast originally is triangle shaped bread topped with potato mix, deep fried and then served as a chat with various chutneys and lots of sev. This one is more of a bite sized DIY chat version. There is no match for the aalu toast you can get at couple of places in Hyderabad but this comes closest if you want to make it at home. Thank you Kshamta for reminding me of this delicious street food 🙂

You can use any bread you like. White, wholewheat, or multi-grain. I tried white and multigrain breads and both tasted fine. To make the chat healthier you can even toast the bread instead of frying it. The idea is to have a crisp and crunchy base. How you do is totally up to you. The fried one tastes better of course.

aalu toast

This is one of the best DIY snacks. You can prepare the chutneys, potato mash, and bread n advance and just let the guests decide on how sweet or spicy they want their chat. Since the chutneys and potato can make the bread soggy, this chat is best enjoyed immediately after it is topped with potato and chutneys.

Aalu Toast

Ingredients

  • 3 slices of bread
  • 1 potato boiled and mashed
  • ½ tsp chilli powder
  • ½ tsp chat masala
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
  • 2-3 tbsp thick yogurt
  • 2-3 tbsp mint chutney
  • 2-3 tbsp sweet chutney
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup thin sev
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil to fry the bread

Recipe

Cut the bread into bite sized pieces in desired shapes. I used cookie cutters to cut the bread into bite sized circles and squares.

Heat oil in a deep pan/kadhai and fry the bread till it is crisp and brown. Drain in on paper towel to remove excess oil. Keep aside. You can even toast the bread in oven if you want to make it healthier.

To the potato mash, add red chilli powder, cumin powder, and chat masala. Mix well and check for salt. Add salt if required.

Just before serving, put approximately 1 tsp potato masala on a piece of bread; top it with mint chutney, sweet chutney, yogurt, onions, and sev. Serve immediately.

Vegetable Kurma

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Vegetable Kurma

Vegetable Kurma is a very popular south Indian curry. Assorted vegetables are cooked in gravy made with coconut, tomato, onions, and spices. This versatile curry can be served with poori as breakfast, with paratha or rice as lunch/dinner.  I don’t know if the place still exists, but there used to be a small south Indian restaurant called Rau’s near my dad’s shop; I have tasted one of the best kurmas there apart from in my mom’s kitchen ofcourse. There are different variations of this curry. This recipe is my mom’s version of the kurma.

The spices for kurma gravy differ from region to region. I like the flavor of poppy seeds in this curry but unfortunately, poppy seeds are not available in Singapore. Another change you can make is to replace fresh coconut with thick coconut milk to make the gravy creamier. If you want thicker gravy, reduce the amount of water from 2/3 cups to ½ cup. I keep the gravy little runny as I like to eat this curry with plain rice too.

I don’t know the reason but most of the restaurants have the veggies cut in diamond shape for kurma. I usually avoid cauliflower in this curry but if you like cauliflower, do add it. It adds to the flavor of the curry. Some restaurants add mushrooms too. I stick to the veggies I like.

Vegetable Kurma tastes best with hot puris and rava dosa. You can also have it with plain rice, biryani, parathas, or naan.

Vegetable Kurma

Ingredients

Serves 3-4

  • 1 carrot diced
  • 5-6 green beans chopped
  • 1 potato cubed
  • ¼ cup green peas
  • ¼ cup cauliflower florets
  • ¼ cup thick yogurt
  • 8-10 curry leaves
  • 2/3 cup water
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tp garam masala
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste

For Gravy (To be ground to fine paste)

  • 1 tomato
  • 1 onion
  • 2 green chillies
  • 2 red chillies
  • 5-6 cardamoms
  • 3-4 cloves
  • 1 small piece ginger
  • 2-3 pieces (appx 2 tbsp) coconut
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 inch piece of ginger
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
  • 2 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus) (optional)

Recipe

Grind all the ingredients for gravy to a smooth paste. If required, you can even pass the paste through a sieve to get a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add curry leaves. Once the leaves pop, add the gravy paste and cook for 2-3 minutes or till the fat separates. Keep mixing every few seconds. Add the turmeric, garam masala, vegetables, salt, and water. Mix well. Close the lid and cook for 2 whistles. Once the pressure is released, open the cooker and let the curry cool down for few minutes. Add the thick yogurt and mix well. Serve hot with puri or rice.

Nutella Truffles

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Nutella Truffles

I am a big hazelnut fan and for me Nutella is THE best hazelnut spreads. It adds the delicious nutty taste to any dessert. I have made cake icing, milkshakes, chocolate mousse and many more desserts with Nutella. Nutella truffle is one of the quickest recipes I know. This is a real quick recipe with very few ingredients.

I have tried using various biscuits as a base for these truffles but Marie works the best for me. You can try using digestive biscuits too but they don’t bind too well. Marie biscuits are easier to crush and bind. You can crush them using a rolling pin. I used a blender to make it quicker and easier.

You can coat these truffles with anything you like; toasted nuts, icing sugar, cocoa powder, sprinkles, melted chocolate. I like the toasted nuts and coconut coating for my truffles. Only tough thing in the recipe is to wait for the truffles to set. If you can resist that, you have amazingly quick and delicious truffles ready in minutes.

Ingredients

Makes 14-16 Truffles

  • 12 Marie biscuits
  • 7-8 tbsp Nutella

For Coating

You can use any of these or all of these or any other coating of your choice.

  • ¼ cup roasted and coarsely ground almonds
  • 7-8 tbsp dry desiccated coconut
  • 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder

Recipe

Put the biscuits in a zip lock bag and crush them using a rolling pin. Or simply put them in a blender and crush them finely. Put the crushed biscuits in a bowl. Add one tbsp Nutella at a time and make a moldable mix. Make small balls and roll them lightly in the coating of your choice.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours. The truffles are ready to eat.

Tamarind Rice (Khatte Chawal)

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Mom’s indeed are the best cooks in the world. Not because they cook gourmet food but they make normal food taste like gourmet food and that too in minutes. Khatte chawal (this is what my family calls it), known as pulihora/puliodare/puliyogare in south India is tamarind flavored rice with a tempering of nuts, lentils, and spices. This tangy rice is a common prasad at most of the south Indian temples.

This is not an authentic pulihora recipe but this is one of the best I have eaten apart from the ones at temples of course.

The taste and color of this dish depends a lot on the quality of tamarind. To get the best results, clean and soak the tamarind in water for 2-3 hours. It will be easier to get the pulp out. You can also add cashewnuts, urad dal, and grated coconut too. My favorites in this dish are the fresh curry leaves, asafoetida, and just a hint of jaggery.

My mom prepares the tamarind mix in advance and then it is just a matter of minutes to turn plain white rice to tangy and yummy south Indian delicacy. You can store the tamarind mix in fridge for up to a month.

This is a great travel food too. It tastes equally good when it is cold. Try to mix the rice couple of hours in advance before eating.

Ingredients

Serves 2

  • 2 cups cooked plain rice
  • 3-4 tbsp oil
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds
  • ½ tsp asafoetida (heeng)
  • 3-4 green chillies slit
  • 4-5 dry red chillies broken
  • 15-20 curry leaves
  • 1 tbsp chana dal
  • 2 tbsp groundnuts
  • ¼ cup tamarind
  • ½ tsp red chilli powder
  • ½ tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp jaggery
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

Soak tamarind in ½ cup water for 1-2 hours. Mash the tamarind thoroughly using fingers and pass this paste through a sieve. Keep aside. This recipe requires a thick pulp so add as less water as possible.

Heat oil in a non stick pan or a kadhai. Add mustard seeds. Once the seeds pop, add curry leaves, green chillies, dry red chillies. Let them cook for around a minute. Add the chana dal, ground nuts, and asafoetida. Sauté and cook for 1-2 minutes till the dal and ground nuts are lightly browned. Be careful not the burn the dal and the nuts or they will taste bitter. Add the tamarind pulp, salt, red chilli powder, and turmeric powder. Mix well and let this cook on low flame till the oil floats on top (around 6-8 minutes). Keep mixing in between. Let it cool down a little.

Mix few spoons of the tamarind mix at a time in plain rice. You can add more or less mix in the rice based on your taste. If you like the rice sour add more mix. You can store the left over tamarind mix in fridge for upto a month.

 

 

 

Toast Cups

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Toast Cups

Toast cups or mini quiches as they look like are a quick way to upgrade a simple toasted sandwich to look like a gourmet snack . It is a very easy dish to make. Bread is rolled, cut, and baked into cups, filled with different savory filling, topped with cheese, and baked into delicious hot snacks.

You can practically fill the toast cups with any filling you like. I like this Mexican filling with corn, capsicum, and paneer. The Mexican taco spice mix or the chili spice mix adds a new flavor and spice to the filling. It also makes it quick to cook.

You can choose to cut the edges of the bread if you like. Rolling the bread will make it easier to cut it and fit in the muffin mould. To add flavor to your toast cups, you can brush the cups with olive oil mixed with dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme etc. You can use any cheese you like to top the toast cups. If you want to prepare the dish in advance, you can prepare the filling and toast the cups lightly. Assemble and bake the cups just before serving. This snack tastes best when it is hot.

Ingredients

  • 12 slices of bread with the edges cut
  • ½ cup boiled/steamed sweet corn
  • ¼ cup mixed bell peppers chopped
  • ¼ cup paneer chopped
  • ¼ cup onion finely chopped
  • 35 gms Taco seasoning/any Mexican seasoning
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • 2-3 tbsp water
  • Cheese to taste ( used cheddar cheese)
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the bell peppers, paneer, and sweet corn. Mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the taco seasoning and 2 tbsp water and mix well. Taste and add salt if required. Cook for 3-4 minutes mixing in between. Transfer to a bowl and keep aside.

For the toast cups, roll a bread slice using a rolling pin. Cut a circle using a cookie cutter or a sharp edged bowl. Divide the circle into two. Adjust the semi circles in a muffin tray to make a cup. Follow the same procedure for rest of the bread slices.  Spray the toast cups with olive oil. Pre-heat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius and bake the cups for 10-12 minutes.

Take the tray out of the oven. Add a table spoon of filling in each cup. Top it with grated cheese and bake for 8-10 minutes till the cheese melts. Serve hot.

Rainbow Cupcakes

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Rainbow Cupcakes

Cupcakes are my favorites when it comes to baking so when Hannah (my wonderful neighbor) offered me some cake flour and icing a day before Christmas, I already knew how I am going to use it. Unlike other parts of the world, Christmas is not cold and nice in Singapore. To add to my complain about bad weather, this year it was a super wet Christmas with the rain refusing to stop whole day. I wanted to add color to the cupcakes to make us feel happy and colorful in this gloomy weather.

I decided to make simple vanilla cupcakes with as many colors as I can to make them look even more prettier. You can also use sour Indian curd instead of the milk and vinegar mix. But this one needs less whisking than mixing the oil and curd.

You can add as many colors as you like and you can even layer different colors, give a marble effect or try any other creative ideas instead of baking single colored cupcakes. Make sure not to over fill the liners.

Rainbow cupcakes

After looking at these colorful cupcakes, icing was really not on my mind but thanks to Hannah again, I had a super delicious chocolate icing. Whipped cream, or cooked flour icing is ideal with these cupcakes. To add a festive touch, I tried icing couple of them with white icing and tried making Christmas trees with the icing too. These cupcakes can be enjoyed for up to 3 days when you store them in refrigerator. Remember to warm them up for not more than 10 seconds before eating.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 24 mini cupcakes

  • 240 gms cake flour (you can use all purpose flour too but this helps to make the cake soft, and spongy)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 120 gms sugar
  • ½ cup oil
  • 5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • Different gel colors ( I used blue, orange, pink, yellow, green, purple, and red)

Recipe

Mix the milk and vinegar in a bowl big enough to add the wet ingredients and keep aside for couple of minutes (1-2 minutes is enough). Combine cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and sift it 1-2 times so that the ingredients get mixed properly. Put the sifted flour in a deep bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.

Add the oil and vanilla extract to the milk and vinegar mix and whisk well (atleast 2-3 minutes) till all the ingredients are mixed well. Add this liquid to the dry ingredients. You can make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid ingredients and mix it using a whisk. Do not over mix this batter. Just mix it enough so that there are no lumps.

Divide the batter into 7 bowls. Add few drops of color to each bowl and mix gently till the color is incorporated into the batter completely.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line the cupcake mould with cupcake liners and fill each mould with different color batter. Do not fill the liners more than 2/3rd with the batter. Bake the cupcakes for 15-18 minutes. The cupcakes are done when you put a toothpick in the center of the cupcake and the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes completely and ice with the desired icing. I have used chocolate butter cream icing. The cooked flour frosting goes very well these cupcakes.

Ker Sangri

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Ker Sangri

Ker sangri is one of the most popular dishes from Rajasthan.  Ker sangri are dried berries and beans which are found in abundance in the desert. They do not look edible at first look but you have to taste this curry to know why it is so popular in Rajasthani cuisine. It is a part of almost every Rajasthani wedding menu. There are different ways to prepare this curry. This is the recipe which is cooked at my place.

You need to soak ker sangri overnight. Some people soak this in buttermilk too but plain water works fine. It swells to more than double in size. Make sure to wash it well under running water to get rid of any impurities.

If you do not have dry mango powder, you can use tamarind water to add the sourness. This curry is ideal for travelling too as it stays good for 2-3 days without refrigeration. This curry tastes best with puri, missi roti, paratha, and rotis.

Ker Sangri

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

  • ½ cup ker sangri
  • 8-10 cashewnuts broken
  • 10 raisins
  • 2 dates chopped
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • ¼ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
  • ¼ tsp mustard seeds (rai)
  • 2 dry red chillies broken
  • ¼ tsp asafetida (heeng)
  • 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 2 tsp coriander powder
  • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp dry mango powder (amchur)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • Salt as per taste

Recipe

Soak ker sangri in water over night. Wash it well under running water.  Bring 4-5 cups of water to boil and add the ker sangri, cashews, dates, and raisins. Let them boil for 8-10 mins or until they are tender. Drain the water.

Heat oil in a deep pan or kadhai. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida, and dried red chilli. Once the seeds pop, add the boiled ker sangri, cashews, and raisins, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, sugar, and dry mango powder and ¼ cup water. Mix well. Cook for 10-12 mins till the oil floats on top. Serve with puri, roti or parathas.

 

Tzatziki (Healthy Greek Dip)

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Tzatziki

One of the reasons I love winters more is the barbecues.  A nice chilly weather, traditional coal barbecue grill, and family and friends are a perfect definition of happy family time for me. I can sit and cook all night.

My most favorite part of barbecues is the different dips and sauces. I like to keep them healthier and don’t want to lose the taste at the same time. This Greek dip is one of the healthiest dip I know. This can be enjoyed with kebabs, grills, burgers, falafels, chips, vegetables etc.

Greek yogurt is one of the healthiest things to eat. If the quality is right, you will not even realize the absence of cream, cream cheese, or any other fatty stuff. I get the Greek yogurt available in store and hang it for further 2-3 hours to get any remaining water out. you can use the yogurt set at home too. The idea is to get all the water out of the yogurt to get a creamy and thick yogurt. Once it is whipped well, it is as creamy as mayonnaise, or fresh cream.

Cucumber with its cooling properties is a perfect choice for this dip. Make sure to de-seed the cucumber and chop it as finely as you can. Dill is cucumber’s best friend when it comes to salads or dips. If you can add fresh dill, that’s the best. I like this dip with nachos, slivered carrots and bell peppers. This can be stored in fridge for 2-3 days. I made this for the Halloween party recently and it was loved by everyone.

Tzatziki

Ingredients

Makes 3 cups

  • 2 cup hung yogurt/Greek yogurt
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 ½ tbsp vinegar
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ½ tsp white pepper
  • 1 cucumber peeled, de-seeded, and diced finely
  • 1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped finely

Recipe

I used around  800-900 gms of Greek yogurt  and hanged it in a muslin cloth for around 3 hours to get 2 cups of hung yogurt.

Combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix until well combined. Using a whisk, blend the yogurt well. Add the olive oil mixture to the yogurt mixture and mix well. Add the cucumber and dill and mix well. Chill for at least 2-3 hours before serving. Serve with vegetable crudités, chips, or nachos.