Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Sep 28, 2016 · 15 Comments

Delicious Pumpkin Streusel Muffins made with buttery streusel and pumpkin puree, an ultimate fall favorite breakfast.

As I mentioned earlier I started cooking with pumpkin early this time. This pumpkin streusel muffins was on my to do list for long time. However only I got the time to bake it this weekend. My daughter who is fan of sweet things loved it; however my son who is not keen on trying anything other than his chocolate cake took a bite. I liked these muffins because they are great with cup of coffee in the morning.

Today morning when I woke up around 6.30 A.M I started the computer and it went into updating mode. I did update yesterday night, still it went on updating, and I thought it will be okay and ready within a few minutes. After an hour and half the story was the same, it say restoring the previous windows with blank screen for another hour. I try to switch off the power remove battery nothing happened same story. Finally thought I am going to lose all my pictures which I didn’t backup. Finally it worked after 30 minutes, I feel normal again. Even though I am telling my hubby I am not stressed reality I am stressed to the core. Because almost lost 4 recipe pictures.

Earlier I made pumpkin quinoa muffins, so this time Pumpkin streusel muffins, recipe is inspired from “Little flower” baking book, I modified it as usual to suit my taste buds. I think I was little stingy on adding streusels topping. Yes needs to add 1-2 tablespoon each but I used only ½ tablespoon. Still they are delicious. If you want more go ahead add some more.

Fall baking means the spices, yes I used homemade pumpkin spice homemade pumpkin spice and added extra spices to it, thus this spiced perfectly moist muffin with crispy topping with crunchy Pepitas . You will not stop with one muffin, I can assure that even my daughter asked me to bake it again, and that means it is delicious. You know it is always hard to please a 7 year old. These muffins were soft even after one day.

Why don’t add these delicious pumpkin streusel muffins in your fall baking list. Here comes the recipe

Ingredients to make this delicious Muffin ?

All purpose flour : For both muffin and streusel

Baking soda and baking powder : Leaveners

Pumpkin puree : Always use pumpkin puree not the pumpkin pie filling

Pumpkin spice : It is easy to make homemade pumpkin pie spice

Other spices used in the recipe are : All spice

Ground cloves, ground cinnamon

Sweetner : Used granulated sugar for the muffin and a combo of granulated sugar and brown sugar for the streusel., if you want you can use a combo of brown sugar and granulated sugar can be used in the mufifn too.

Oil : I used vegetable oil, you can use your favorite oil

Water: You don't need any milk just use water this will help the muffin gives extra pumpkin flavor.

Pepitas : This give crunch to the buttery streusel made with butter, flour and sugar.

Butter : which makes this pumpkin streusel muffins.

Instructions to make Muffins ?

First make streusel topping

Then make the batter for the muffin

Pre-heat the oven to 375F and line Muffin tin with liner, if you want you can grease them also. Using liner give extra protection.

Dry ingredients

Flour and spices and sugar.

Sugar

Egg , Oil , pumpkin puree

Mix wet ingredients dry ingreients

Combine everything

Transfer the batter to prepared muffin tins

Top with pepitas

Add streusel on the topp and bake

Slice

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5 from 10 votes

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Here is the delicious pumpkin streusel muffins, an ultimate fall favorite hard to resist.

Prep Time15

Cook Time21

Total Time36

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: #Muffinrecipes, Pumpkin muffins

Servings:

Calories: 403kcal

Ingredients

¾ cup +2 tablespoon 105g all purpose flour I used unbleached
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon all spice
¼ teaspoon pumpkin spice I used homemade
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 large egg
¾ cups 150g granulated sugar
¼ cup canola/vegetable oil
½ cup 135g pumpkin puree
¼ cup 52.5g water
2 tablespoon 27.5g Pepitas for garnish
¼ cup + ½ tablespoon crumb topping *
*For crumb topping
½ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
⅛ teaspoon seas salt
⅓ cup unsalted butter

Instructions

Make crumb topping

In a bowl add all the ingredients for crumb topping and mix with fork or pastry blender until it form pea size lumps
.Do not over mix. Remove and store in refrigerator for 2 weeks or use it immediately.

For making pumpkin streusel muffins

Preheat oven to 375F line muffin tin with 8 liners.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, all spice, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, cloves into a large bowl and set aside.
In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix egg and sugar on low speed until it gets combined well. Scrape the bowl well to prevent settling of sugar.
Then gradually add oil in stream, after that add pumpkin puree and mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.
Then add sifted flour mix and water alternatively. And mix well, if it has dry bits of flour that is fine.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and mix well with rubber spatula,
Fill ⅔rd of prepared muffin mold with batter.
Then top with pepitas and then top with ½ tablespoon of crumb topping.
Bake for 15 minutes and then rotate the pan and bake for another 6 minutes or until the tooth pick comes out clean.
Enjoy with cup of your favorite coffee or tea.

Nutrition

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Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte

Sep 23, 2016 · 16 Comments

Delicious Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte great treat for you.

Cooking with pumpkin usually start in my case only on October. However this year I too started early, maybe I am tempted by all pumpkin and fall related things I see in grocery stores. Yes Halloween stuff has already been put up in every store. I like pumpkin spice a lot and pumpkin spice latte is my favorite. Never tried it at my home, so last weekend I made this pumpkin spice latte.
While growing up India I knew only the original flavor of coffee that is coffee flavor. Never did my mom try to make anything different than the original flavor. Here I can get whatever flavor I wish. Still I like only a few flavors, and this pumpkin spice version is one of them

It is the combination of Espresso and milk and tinted with flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg and clove to create this fall favorite. Enjoy it topped with whipped cream and real pumpkin pie spices. I think homemade version is always best, as I made everything from the scratch I know what is going in it.
This pumpkin spice latte is really easy to make. All you need is milk, pumpkin puree, and homemade pumpkin spice. For me and hubby I didn’t add any sugar. You can add it if you want your favorite sweetener.

Fall means pumpkin and the color changes of leaves; however in Texas you can hardly see any color change and only thing to see are the crazy Halloween ideas by my kiddos. Yes they have already planned the costume ideas on what to wear during Halloween. Then there is Pumpkin spice latte advertisement in TV. So if you are cook who want to make something then it is great idea to try this pumpkin spice latte just like me. I didn’t use any half and half and only used milk and instant espresso powder to make this drink. If you don’t have it in your hand grab about ½ cup of freshly brewed coffee from your coffee machine. I don’t use coffee machine so often the instant coffee comes to my rescue.

Here comes delicious pumpkin spice latte with everything from scratch. Why wait then get start making.

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4.72 from 7 votes

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Delicious homemade pumpkin spice latte great start of fall season.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Pumpkin spice latte

Servings: -2 serving

Calories: 239kcal

Ingredients

For Pumpkin Spice Latte

½ cup 4 ounces brewed coffee (or 1-2 shots of espresso*)
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canned pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon Homemade pumpkin pie spice recipe in the notes
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tablespoon maple syrup or more is depending upon your sweetness. I didn't used it

For topping

¼ cup whipped cream
Dash of pumpkin pie spice

For Homemade pumpkin spice

1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
⅛ teaspoon ground all spice
* If using instant expresso coffee powder you need to use 11/2 teaspoon for ½ cup of water
If using instant coffee powder you need to use 1-2 tablespoon for ½ cup of water

Instructions

Make homemade pumpkin spice by mixing all ingredients together and store it in a air tight container.
In sauce pan heat milk, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice and bring to boil.
Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Using a blender, blend until smooth (or whisk well with a wire whisk).
Pour into mugs, add the hot espresso
and top with whipped cream and a dash of pumpkin pie spice on top.

Nutrition

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No sugar added banana bread

Sep 19, 2016 · 20 Comments

Delicious no sugar added banana bread which is gluten free and diabetic friendly too. You won't miss any sugar in this recipe.

I have been compensated by Glucerna for this post; however, I am sharing my own thoughts. All opinions are my own. Talk with your healthcare provider about a diabetes management plan that’s right for you. #GlucernaChallenge #CollectiveBias

Today I am sharing my No-Sugar Added Banana Bread recipe that is perfect for diabetics. Living with diabetes does not mean you have to sacrifice taste. You can have everything in moderation, and also make ingredient changes to accommodate your body’s needs.

For a month my hubby has included a Glucerna® HungerSmart™ Shakes or Glucerna® Mini Snacks for his afternoon snack. Glucerna® Mini Snacks taste great and are loaded with nutrition! With just 80 calories and 21 essential vitamins and minerals, they contain a blend of low glycemic carbohydrates. Each Glucerna® Mini Snack has 3 grams of protein to help manage hunger. Plus, they feature CARBSTEADY® which is scientifically formulated to help minimize blood sugar spikes*. They also provide a good source of fiber* to help support digestive tract health, and are an excellent source of antioxidant vitamins C and E. Taking this Glucerna® challenge and using these Glucerna® products has really helped better manage my husband’s diet and keep his numbers steady!

My hubby’s morning starts with bowl of oatmeal and dry fruit and nuts. Lunch includes low glycemic index rice, veggies as sides. Dinner is whole wheat bread, vegetable salad with carrot, avocado, lettuce, cherry tomato and kale. He also usually has curried lentils, which provides his protein portion. A small green apple or a pear are his dessert choices. His exercise routine includes walking 5,300 steps every day.

He loves banana bread, it is first dish he wanted me to learn to bake after our marriage. This recipe is adapted from a friend’s wife. At that time he was not diagnosed with diabetes (it developed after a year of marriage). He was so upset about losing his banana bread so I decided to make a healthier version of it. Yes, you can still eat bananas — even if you have diabetes. Bananas are a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamin C, but they do contain carbohydrates. In fact, all fruit has some carbohydrate, so you need to count them in your diabetes meal plan.

So I decided to try making this dessert with various ingredients, and finally perfected this No-Sugar Added Banana Bread. The only sugar in this bread is the natural sugar present in the banana. For this recipe version, I have incorporated almond meal which contains less carbohydrates than other flours. Flax seed meal was also added as it contains zero carbohydrates and is diabetic-friendly.

I wanted banana bread that looks like a real deal, otherwise it won’t pass hubby’s taste test. I used coconut oil, egg and yogurt to make it soft. These are delicious additions which make this gluten-free bread a must-try. This recipe is diabetic friendly; however contact your physician or nutritionist before making any changes in your diet plan*. *As blood glucose responses can vary from person to person. Be aware that you may need to make adjustments to the portion size you eat depending on your how your blood glucose responds to eating bananas or other types of fruit.

Are you ready to make this no sugar added banana bread? Here is what you’ll need:

Mash banana

Roast walnuts

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon in a large bowl then add almond meal .To this mixture, add flax seed meal and mix everything.

In another bowl add coconut oil, then add, egg, yogurt and vanilla.

Add coconut oil mixture into the flour mixture and mix well.

Then, add mashed banana mixture and mix until everything is combined well.

Add crushed walnuts and mix well once again.Transfer the batter to baking pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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5 from 18 votes

No sugar added banana bread

Delicious no sugar added gluten free banana bread which is diabetic friendly too.

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Total Time1 5

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: No sugar added Banana bread

Servings: loaf

Calories: 2069kcal

Ingredients

4 medium overripe bananas, previously frozen and defrosted (fresh)
¼ cup coconut oil or other neutral-flavored oil
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups gluten free all-purpose baking flour
¼ cup almond meal
2 tablespoon flaxseed meal
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoon yogurt I used homemade fat free yogurt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup walnut pieces

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or spray it with a nonstick baking spray and line with parchment paper for extra safety.
Mash bananas in a large bowl.
Roast the walnut in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes and crush them into small pieces and set aside.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon in a large bowl then add almond meal .To this mixture, add flax seed meal and mix everything.
In another bowl add coconut oil, then add, egg, yogurt and vanilla.
Add coconut oil mixture into the flour mixture and mix well.
Then, add mashed banana mixture and mix until everything is combined well.
Add crushed walnuts and mix well once again.
Transfer the batter to baking pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
If you have any leftovers, this banana bread can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days by wrapping them with foil.

Notes

Author: Swatthi (Ambujom Saraswathy)

Nutrition

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*Use under medical supervision. Do consult with your healthcare provider or nutritionist regarding which diet / lifestyle is appropriate for your condition.

*Compared to high glycemic carbohydrates.

Korean steamed eggplant /Gaji Namul

Sep 14, 2016 · 10 Comments

Here is the delicious and simple Korean steamed eggplant/Gaji Namul goes well with a bowl of rice.

I like to cook international cuisine in my kitchen, also a fan of Korean cuisine. Even bought essential spices and sauce for Korean dishes, hubby always tell me that you have pantry full of items that you don’t even know when you bought it.

I wanted to make simple Korean dishes, even though this recipe uses Asian eggplants which are really hard to find in my area.

I can get those from Indian store, but it is a long drive (55 miles each way) and the quality is not always good. So I settled with normal eggplant and made this Korean steamed eggplant /Gaji Namul.

I got connected to the book, because author mentioned that she didn’t started cooking until her college days. I too was not that keen of cooking at that time, only eating was my job.

This recipe is adapted from the book cook Korean by Robin Ha. This cook book is really fun book it is like old comic book style with illustrations and write-ups. I think it has been ages I read comics book yes my favorite were Phantom, Superman etc. Good thing about this book is that every dish comes with step by step illustrations.

The illustrations (about 85 recipes) are adorable and descriptive. I especially love the gorgeous watercolors that mark each new chapter--the paintings somehow make the dishes look more delicious than high-res/styled photographs would.

Cook Korean book consists of Introduction which describes about key ingredients in Korean cooking, Korea’s regions and food and Korean meal guide etc. Then there are 10 chapters, of which first chapter is about kimchi and pickles. It varies from easy kimchi , green onion kimchi, chayote pickle and square cut kimchi gazpacho
Then chapter two includes vegetable side dishes, I tried this Steamed Asian eggplant (Gaji Namul) from this chapter. I would also like to try Bean sprout salad, soy spinach and spicy bokchoy.
Chapter 3 includes Meat and poultry which braised beef in soy sauce with eggs, boiled pork belly and ginseng chicken soup etc.

The chapter 4 is about seafood, there is tangy seaweed salad, which sounds delicious. Also there is pan-fried croaker etc. Soups and stews are in 5th chapter with soya bean sprout soup, kimchi stew, soft tofu soup are few.
Sixth chapter is about porridge, I would like to make sweet pumpkin porridge and seafood mushroom porridge.
Then there Noodles and rice cake comprise the 7th chapter with spicy cold noodles, rice cake soup and sweet potato noodles/Japache.
Chapter 8 is my favorite part any international cuisine snack and street food with recipes of Hotteok, Gimbap ( seaweed rice roll) , kimchi bokkumbap( kimchi fried rice) etc.
Then chapter 9 is about cocktails and Anju. I would like to make Persimmon-Red date punch (Sujeonggwa) and water melon soju and Kimchi pancake (kimchi buchimgae) etc.

Final chapter is about Korean fusion dishes, Black soybean noodles, Korean burger.
If you like to try Korean cooking with some fun, then buy this book. Never thought I can make a simple eggplant side dish that too only by steaming and a sauce. I always cook eggplant with masala and spices. For a change I tried this, it is delicious. So give it a try if you want simple trouble side dish.

Here comes the recipe.

First you need to cut the Eggplant

Then Steam the eggplant

Make a sauce with soy sauce, green onion, ginger and chili flakes

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5 from 5 votes

Steamed Korean Eggplant /Gaji Namul

Here is simple and delicious steamed eggplant/Gaji Namul. Goes well with a bowl of rice.

Prep Time5

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: korean

Keyword: Eggplant recipes, Gaji Namul, Steamed Korean Eggplant

Servings: serving

Calories: 84kcal

Equipment

Steamer Basket

Ingredients

Half of one eggplant or 2 large Asian eggplants
2 green onion white and green parts
1 clove garlic peeled and minced
¼ inch piece fresh ginger minced
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon crushed Chile flakes
Toasted sesame seed for garnish I forgot to add

Instructions

Cut the eggplant into 2 inch long pieces
and place it in a steamer and steam it for about 15 minutes or until it becomes soft.
While eggplant is steaming prepare the sauce with soy sauce, sesame seed oil, green onion, garlic, ginger, sugar and crushed Chile flakes
Once the eggplant is cool enough to touch mix in with sauce and serve.
I served with extra green onions; if you want you can add toasted sesame seeds.

Notes

Author: Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Nutrition

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Holly Basil Green Tea

Sep 9, 2016 · 10 Comments

Here is healthy holly basil green tea made with holly basil, green tea, dried orange peels, ginger and coriander seeds. You can have without sweetner too .

I like to shop at Ross where I can find my food photography props and baking pans. Hubby also comes with me for shopping but in one condition I should finish the shopping within fewer hours. During one of our visits to Ross store and while waiting in line for checkout, we saw a packet of herbal tea. When I checked the ingredients, all the ingredients were in my hand. After coming back from the store, I decide to recreate the Holly basil Green tea with my own ingredients. It is known to reduce the stress, and help to manage the sugar levels.

Whenever my hubby talk to my mother-in-law in India she always tell my hubby to take some holly basil leaves to help mange with his sugar levels as he is diabetic. For us people from India, Holly basil (Ocimum Sanctum) is sacred plant, and generally every house has at least one plant (whether it is front or back). We use to pray near the plant every day. So here also I planted holly basil, they grow happy in summer and during winter we need to bring them inside otherwise they die. Once spring starts they come back again.

The health benefits of holy basil, also known as tulsi, are many. It has been recommended for the treatment of bronchitis, malaria, diarrhea, dysentery, skin disease, arthritis, eye diseases, insect bites and so on. The O. sanctum L. has also been suggested to possess anti-infertility, anticancer, ant diabetic, antifungal, antimicrobial, cardio protective, analgesic, antispasmodic and adaptogenic actions. Eugenol (1-hydroxy-2-methoxy-4-allylbenzene), the active constituents present in O. sanctum L. have been found to be largely responsible for the therapeutic potentials read from this scientific study.

This holly basil green tea contains dried orange peels as one of the ingredients for that I made my own orange peels. Orange peel is also loaded with natural histamine suppressing compounds. If you have allergies or are close to someone who does, you understand how the sleepiness associated with some antihistamines.

Then there are coriander seeds, Coriandrum sativum (Botanical Name), which helps to control blood sugar levels, bad cholesterol, aids in digestion and helps regulate the digestive organs, and may help prevent allergies as well as cancer. It also helps to improve tummy troubles of all kinds from indigestion to flatulence to diarrhea read more from here.

This is drinks caffeinated as it has green tea in it as you green tea is rich in antioxidant. Green tea seems to help keep blood sugar stable in people with diabetes. Because catechins lower cholesterol and blood pressure, they can help protect against the damage a high-fat diet.

Then there is ginger rhizome as one of the ingredients. I like zing that ginger gives in everything. It is also has lot of health benefits like boosting immune function. Also helps to reduce indigestion.

The Packet which saw in the store has stevia as one of ingredient but I made without adding it. Both I and hubby don’t find it is needed. You can skip that of or you can add it. I prefer without them.

Here is recipe of delicious holly basil green tea, give it try you will love it.

Gather your ingredients

Boil first ginger and holly baisl and ginger

Then add rest of ingredients

Once boiled strain and enjoy

*All these information are gathered from internet and book. So please consult your doctor or nutritionist before making any diet change.

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5 from 2 votes

Holly Basil Green Tea

Here is healthy tea made with holly basil,green tea, coriander seeds, dried orange peels.

Prep Time5

Cook Time5

Total Time10

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Holly Basil Green Tea,, Tea recipes

Servings: serving

Calories: 12kcal

Ingredients

20-25 2g holly basil tea leaves
1 tablespoon 4g Green tea
½ teaspoondried orange peel
½ teaspoon dried coriander seeds crushed
¾ teaspoon 2g chopped fresh ginger
1 cup/8 oz water

Instructions

In a sauce heat water and add all the ingredients and let it boil once it starts vigorous boiling remove and strain and drink.
If you want you can add your favorite sweetener. I and my hubby likes without adding any sweetener.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Homemade Orange peels

Sep 7, 2016 · 13 Comments

Homemade orange peels you can use it in your tea or as candy or even as air freshener.

Two weeks of school is over and it is the start of the third week. Mornings are crazy when two go to school, same in the evening with their homework, dinner, bath and making them going to bed. I get some time for myself. When my little guy is there is with me sand not at school, it is not that bad. I have made candied orange and citrus peel earlier which I used for making my Christmas fruit cake. I use orange zest too. The idea of making homemade orange peels came when I need to make tea recipe. My tea recipe has orange peels as one of ingredients, and finding them in store is not that easy. So I decided to make it at home.

This orange peel has various benefits, not only can you put it in the tea, you can also make homemade orange bitters. Also you can make orange peel candy if you cut them in thick pieces. I have read that you can use them to soften brown sugar if you put it in hard brown sugar bottle. Also you make it into bath scrub if it orange peels are not completely dried. If you put them in the garbage disposal or in garbage can, you can make the smelly garbage tolerable. It repels insects; and also if you put the dried orange peels in sachet in various places (drawers,cupboards) then it will work as an air freshener.

The oils in orange peels naturally remove stain in metal fixtures; just rub the peel on the fixtures to polish them right up. The white side of the peel can also polish dull-looking wood furniture, thus the simple orange peel has lots of awesome benefits. So the next time when you get orange wait don’t throw away the peels, make, candied orange peels, dry some orange peels to make delicious tea or orange bitters.
Here comes the recipe. I made with peels from 4 oranges. Read more from here

Homemade Orange peels

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours, 5 minutes

Yield: ¼ cup dried peels

Homemade Orange peels

You can make homemade orange peels which you can use it in food or as air freshener or homemade cleaner.

Ingredients

4 navel oranges

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200 F
Wash and peel the orange skin without white like this.

Then cut them into thin strips like this

Dry it 200F oven for 2-3 hours or until the peels gets curled.

Gluten free Mango Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins and Savory Oatmeal Carrot Cookies

Sep 1, 2016 · 9 Comments

As you know school started so when the school bus drops my daughter off in the evening, she is like give me anything I can eat in a second. So I need to make it something for her after school snack. Whereas my son while coming back from his school already down in car, so when he wakes up he also asks me can I get something to eat? So I try to make snacks according to their taste, my daughter likes mango and strawberry so I made this Gluten free Mango strawberry oatmeal muffins. She also likes carrots so I also made these savory oatmeal carrot cookies.

When comes to flour I like Bob’s Red Mill and buy it all the time as I trust them a lot. As you know oats are an incredibly versatile whole grain, as it is rich in dietary fiber and can help reduce the cholesterol. This time I tried making muffins gluten free with gluten free oats and gluten free flour. Gluten Free Oats are sourced gluten free packaged in Bob’s Red Mill’s 100% gluten free facility and tested every step of the way to ensure their gluten free status.

I am not sure about making it vegan so decided to leave that part. For muffins I used both Old fashioned oats and instant oats. Also this recipe is inspired from oat bran muffins from “Little Flower Baking ”. I made lot of changes and also used fresh strawberries, mango and mango puree. If you don’t like taste of mango choose any other stone fruits. Earlier I tried mango muffins which are so delicious. I know mango and strawberry can make great pair. That is why I added in these muffins.

This strawberry mango muffin is so soft and full of fruit flavor. I think we can add oatmeal bran to make hardier, however kids may not like. This one is really soft in every bite, maybe because of addition of fruit puree and addition of yogurt and fresh fruit.

For the savory oatmeal carrot cookies, I used shredded carrot, Parmesan cheese and black pepper and oil. It has brown sugar. While discussing the recipe with my hubby he told me he doesn’t want me to sprinkle any salt, but like it you sprinkle black pepper. I did that. Cookies are crunchy with hint of peppery taste with sweetness in the background and it goes well with a cup of milk or coffee for sure.

Both Gluten free Mango strawberry oatmeal muffins and savory oatmeal cookies are great as after school snacks if you want you can put them in lunch box. My daughter like it with a cup of milk, give it try you will love it.

Do you love oats #BRMOats and like it as oatmeal muffins or cookies then here is Bob’s Red Mill for you to buy various products from Bob's Red Mill.

Why wait give it try this delicious cookies and muffins.

Gluten free Mango Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins and Savory Oatmeal Carrot Cookies

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Yield: 9 Muffins and 12 cookies

Gluten free Mango Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins and Savory Oatmeal Carrot Cookies

Delicious gluten free mango strawberry oatmeal muffins and Savory carrot oatmeal cookies, great as after school snack, you can pack them in lunch box.

Ingredients

For Gluten free Mango Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins

½ cup + 3 tablespoon Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free instant oats
⅓ cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free old fashioned rolled oats
½ cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
¼ cup canola oil
⅔ cup thick mango puree ( which is from 1 ½ cups chopped mango)
½ cup chopped mango
½ cup chopped strawberries
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup brown sugar packed
¼ cup yogurt

For Savory Carrot Oatmeal Cookies

½ cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free old fashioned rolled oats
2 tablespoon warm water
3 tablespoon p extra-virgin olive oil
11/2 lightly packed light brown sugar
½ large egg, beaten
½ cup sifted Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
¼ teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper(extra for sprinkle )
½ cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup grated carrot

Instructions

First peel and

chop mangoes to make puree and ½ cup chopped mango pieces.

Pre-heat oven 375F and line the muffin tin with paper liner.
In a bowl add yogurt and brown sugar and then add instant oats, rolled oats and mix well and set aside.

In another bowl add gluten free all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and set aside.

In a small bowl add oil, egg and vanilla extract and mix well and set aside.

Add flour mixture on the oats mixture and then mix in oil-egg mixture in stream until everything combined well.

Then mix in mango puree and finally fold in half of chopped mango and strawberries.

Fill each muffin mold with ⅔ full and place extra chopped mango and strawberry on the top

Bake 15 minutes rotate the pan and continue to bake 10 more minutes until took picks comes out clean . Let muffins cool for 10 minutes and remove and cool completely in wire rack.

Enjoy

For Savory Carrot Oatmeal cookies

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat.
Place the rolled oats in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the water over them.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, brown sugar, and egg. Pour this mixture over the oats, stir to combine, and set aside.

In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, fine sea salt, baking soda, rosemary, and black pepper. Whisk to combine well and stir in Parmesan.

Gradually sprinkle the flour mixture over the oat mixture, stirring until combined.

Finally fold in carrots and mix well.

Form tablespoon-sized scoops of dough and evenly space on the baking sheet.

Flatten each piece of dough to about ¼-inch thick using hand or bottom of glass.

Sprinkle a pinch of black pepper* on top of each.
Bake for 12 minutes, until the edges are slightly darkened. Transfer to a cooling rack. Serve with soft cheese, or alone eat as snack.

* If you want you can sprinkle Flakey sea salt such as Maldon or fleur de sel instead of black pepper.

Notes

Author: Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Savory cookies recipe inspired from here

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Gluten free Mango Strawberry oatmeal muffins and Savory oatmeal carrot cookies

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

The Spectacular World of Waldorf: A book Review

Aug 30, 2016 · Leave a Comment

I have two kids, a daughter and a son aged 7 and 4 respectively. My daughter has been slow to pick up books and very few books interest her. So it has been very hard for me to find books for her. Once she finds something interesting we would read the book to her and ask her to read some of the words she can recognize and that way I also helps her with her reading skills too. My son is the same way and when he likes a book, he makes me and my husband to keep reading the stories to him. So when I got a chance to review “The Spectacular World of Waldorf” by Beth Ann, Barbara Terry and Vladmir Kirichenco, I jumped at the opportunity. I have read all the four books in this series and they are great books for kids with beautiful and colorful illustrations. The language is very simple and kids friendly. They are great as bed time stories.

In each of the books, Mr. Waldorf, a friendly Labrador either visits the great state of Texas, travels to Russia, travels to mysterious China and also travels to the wild state of Alaska.

In the book “Mr. Waldorf travels to the mysterious China”, the friendly Labrador travels to China, and while visiting the Forbidden City he loses his glasses to a leaf monkey. And to find his glasses he travels to Beijing, the Great Wall of China, Yangtze River and the Himalayas.

In the book “Mr. Waldorf travels to the Huge Russia”, the adventurous Labrador travels to Saint Petersburg and dances with the ballet dancers and then loses his glasses while watching the Opera. And to find his glasses he travels through Russia visiting places such as Lake Baikal, the eastern forests and Moscow.

In the book “Mr. Waldorf travels to the Wild State of Alaska”, the cute dog travels to mountains and glaziers of Alaska and loses his glasses. And thus ends up fishing for Salmon, panning for Gold, meets bald Eagles, Caribou and finally the Eskimos.

In the book “Mr. Waldorf travels to the Great State of Texas”, the wonderful Labrador visits Dallas, and then realizes that his glasses are missing. In his travel through the state of Texas he meets the cowboys herding cattle in the streets, plays football, learns to dance, and also has great food at the River Walk. In Houston he sees the oil rigs and rides a bull in the rodeo.
Overall the books are fun and easy to read for kids, with nice illustrations and lots of information. Buy it for your kids if they are reading enthusiastic as mine. And I know I will end up reading these books again and again to my kids until they are able to read it by themselves.

“I received these 4 books from waldorfpublishing for this review.”

One pot penne pasta with mixed vegetables

Aug 25, 2016 · 18 Comments

Delicious one pot penne pasta with mixed vegetabels loads of zucchini, squash, bell pepper with simple pasta sauce. Excellent way to sneak in vegetables.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #OnePanPronto #CollectiveBias

My kids loves pasta, it is one dish I can make without asking them will you eat. Otherwise I need to get menu approved before I make anything. Yes they are really picky; don’t like certain things, if I force them I end up getting hungry kids, so always make whatever they like. In the end both mom and kids are happy.

Both I and kids were happy to try Barilla’s new Pronto pasta, which is great as you need only one pot to cook everything. So I made this one pot penne pasta with mixed vegetables for the dinner.

I was picky eater too while growing up; my mom had to make only a few dishes which are my favorite.I don’t get bored eating them every day. Now history is repeating, my kids love pasta so I am making it every other day.

My daughter likes colorful bell peppers, yes red, orange, green bell pepper. She like to eat it in her salad, pasta etc. So I try to add them whenever it is possible.

On the other hand, my son is tomato guy. He likes in its all forms, starting from tomato ketchup, pasta sauce etc. So I decided to make this one pot penne pasta with mixed bell peppers and other veggies.

I used Barilla’s Tomato and basil pasta sauce. Since I have summer veggies like Zucchini and Yellow squash in my hand I add that to the pasta.

School has reopened, so I am trying to get back in routine as much as possible. So now I am looking forward to an easy dinner ideas as kids are hungry and tried when they comes back from school.

Best thing with Barilla’s new Pronto pasta is that one-pan pasta meals can be made with no need to wait for water to boil, and no draining required. Also it is available in a variety of versatile cuts, including half-cut spaghetti, penne and rotini.

I bought Barilla’s Tomato basil sauce to go with it. Do you know they are 100% natural and have a variety of authentic Italian flavors that goes perfectly with your family's favorite dishes? You can grab both Pronto Pasta and Sauce from local Wal-Mart’s pasta aisle.

One Pronto pasta box can serve about 6 serving. So make it according your family requirements I made half recipe. You have to adjust the water amount and stove top heat which is given in the side of the box’s instructions. Follow the instructions and cook the pasta.

I cooked the pasta according to instructions, after 2 minutes of cooking I added zucchini and yellow squash as it requires some cooking time. Around 2 minutes to finish cooking the pasta I added rest of veggies and finally added Barilla sauce and finished with grated Parmesan cheese.

It is delicious simple meal, everybody loved it. If your kid loves pasta and you want them to sneak in some veggies into their meals, try this one pot penne pasta with mixed vegetables here is the recipe for you. You will get praise for the dinner or lunch you make it for them.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

One pot penne pasta with mixed vegetables

Delicious one pot penne pasta with lots of veggies. Great one pot meal which kids love a lot.

Prep Time10

Cook Time11

Total Time21

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: #Pasta, Dinnerrecipes, pasta with vegetables

Servings: serving

Calories: 251kcal

Ingredients

6 oz Barilla Pronto Pasta Penne
1 ¾ cup water
½ cup water
½ cup red bell pepper
½ cup green bell pepper
½ cup orange bell pepper
½ of zucchini
½ of Yellow squash
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup Barilla Tomato & Basil sauce
3 -4 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to manufactures instructions,
while cooking after 2 minutes of cooking add zucchini and yellow squash and cook for about 5 minutes
then add red, orange and green bell pepper and cook for another 3 minutes.
Finally add barilla sauce and heat through 1 minute and then grated parmesan cheese.
Enjoy.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

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Protein Rich Chocolate Avocado Hemp Seed Smoothie

Aug 24, 2016 · 8 Comments

My husband is diabetic and is always watching his blood sugar level after each and every meal. So when I make breakfast, lunch and dinner, I always consider protein-rich, low glycemic index foods. His doctor advises him to consume small meals and exercise daily. Diabetes is something I am very familiar with. My mom died of diabetes and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetics when I was pregnant with my daughter. That is why I am happy to chronicle my husband’s journey during the Glucerna® 3 month challenge. We will be focusing on our overall health and nutrition, tracking our numbers and creating healthy habits.

Today, I have this delicious Protein-Rich Chocolate Avocado Hemp Seed Smoothie made with a Glucerna® HungerSmart™ Shake in Rich Chocolate to share with you all. This recipe is suitable for our diabetic diet. Please remember to consult your doctor about what's best for you.

My husband is a medium built guy. He was diagnosed with diabetes more than 10 years ago. Over the last ten years I have learned that food and sleep play major roles in contributing to varying blood sugar numbers. Since he also takes medications for various ailments, his blood sugar level is currently 7.9, but he is trying diligently to bring it down to the 6-7 range.

According to American Diabetes Association, there is no one diet or meal plan that works for everyone with diabetes. The important thing is to follow a meal plan that is tailored to personal preference and lifestyle. This will help to achieve goals for blood glucose, cholesterol triglycerides levels, blood pressure, and weight management.

My husband’s usual breakfast includes oatmeal, dry fruits and lot of protein-rich nuts. Lunch is typically parboiled red rice (again it has less glycemic index), lentils and vegetables. Dinner includes a salad with lettuce, carrot, avocado, colorful bell peppers and olive oil dressing ; paired with a whole wheat flat bread.

In between meals, he enjoys Glucerna® HungerSmart™ Shakes.

Each satisfying Glucerna® HungerSmart™ Shake contains 15 grams of protein to help manage hunger. These shakes also feature CARBSTEADY® which is scientifically formulated to help minimize blood sugar spikes*. To make these shakes even tastier, I like to add some extra nutritious ingredients.

Super foods, like chia seeds, hemp seeds, Goji berries, and creamy avocado are ideal shake additions. I read that Avocado has healthy fats that raise your insulin sensitivity and is thus another of the foods that helps to lower blood sugar. Avocados contain fiber to help slow down blood sugar increases when added to a meal so I incorporate them into his meal routine as much as possible. Hemp seeds contain all 20 amino acids, including the 9 essential amino acids (EAAs) our bodies cannot produce and the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids so they are also a great choice.

You can find Glucerna® HungerSmart™ Shakes and Glucerna® Crispy Delights Bars at your local Walmart store in the diabetic supplies aisle.

During the next 3 months I will be sharing how the addition of Glucerna® products help my husband to maintain his blood sugar levels,

Want to recreate this Protein-Rich Chocolate Avocado Hemp Seed Smoothie? Here is what you’ll need:

Protein Rich Chocolate Avocado Hemp Seed Smoothie

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

Protein Rich Chocolate Avocado Hemp Seed Smoothie

Here is the delicious Protein rich chocolate avocado hemp seed smoothie.

Ingredients

10 Fl oz ( 296 ml ) Glucerna® HungerSmart™ Shake in Rich Chocolate
½ avocado
2 tablespoon hulled hemp seeds
1 teaspoon salted toasted hemp seed for sprinkling

Instructions

In a blender, add avocado, 2 tablespoon hulled hemp seeds, glucerna chocolate shake and blend until creamy and everything combined well.

Transfer to serving glass and toasted hemp seeds and enjoy!

Notes

Author: Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Will you be trying Glucerna® products? Does anyone in your family have diabetes?

Buy Now

*Use under medical supervision. Do consult with your healthcare provider or nutritionist regarding which diet / lifestyle is appropriate for your condition.

**Compared to high glycemic carbohydrates.

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Fresh Peach Lemonade

Aug 22, 2016 · 18 Comments

Delicious summery fresh peach lemonade with great flavors.

Summer vacation is over, and my daughter’s school opening today and tomorrow my son start to going to school. Thinking of those crazy mornings I am already dreading now. I have to manage somehow; also I am not a planning person I make dishes according to whatever comes in handy at that time. Never made a plan, even if I made one it is not going to work for me for sure. So I admire those who make a plan and stick to it. I like to cook everything from the scratch with occasional refrigerator meals. Fresh is always best. That is why I made this Fresh peach lemonade too.

I don’t know when I got hooked to peach lemonade it has been in my do list for long time. You all know my list is growing, don’t know when I would find the time to finish all. May be one at a time, my kids loves lemonade a lot, they like to sample the lemonade at HEB which is one of my favorite grocery store and is close to my house. I have already tried few lemonade recipes, one from my home town Kulukki Sarbath/ ShakenLimeade/Lemonade , Blueberry Lemon-Limeade and Lychee lemonade.

When I looked for peach lemonade I got tons of variations, some using fresh fruit puree other mash it in pitcher with water. However this one recipe stand out differently as it involved cooking of fruit in simple syrup for some time. I liked that part and decided to try it. I made only two serving as not sure my kiddos will like it or not.

First you need to cook the fresh cut peaches until soft; then original recipe asked for mashing the fruit. I don’t like wasting anything so blended it in a blender and used the mixture to mix in with lemon juice and water. This is really refreshing one at the same time tasty too. Give this simple recipe a try if you can get hold of fresh peaches, here I can get fresh Texas peaches, they are naturally sweet ones.

Here comes the recipe.

First cook peach with sugar

Once it is cooked really well then

Blend them into puree with lemon juice , water

Then add some lemon slice and ice and enjoy.

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Fresh Peach Lemonade

Delicious summery fresh peach lemonade great for a hot summer day.

Prep Time20

Total Time20

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Fresh peach lemonade, Lemonade recipes

Servings: servings.

Calories: 76kcal

Equipment

kitchenaid blender

Ingredients

2 ½ cups water divided
1 medium peach chopped
2 tablespoon sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Lemon wedge mint and fresh peach for garnishing

Instructions

In a small saucepan, bring 11/2 cups water, peach and sugar to a boil.
Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes or until peaches are tender. Remove from the heat. Cool and blend well and Strain.
In a large pitcher, combine the peach mixture, lemon juice and remaining water. Add lemon and fresh peach slices and mint. Serve over ice.

Notes

Author: Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswahty)

This recipe adapted from here

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Spinach Onion Naan Flatbread

Aug 19, 2016 · 15 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareWine #CollectiveBias

The following content is intended for readers who are 21 or older.

Every weekend when we go grocery shopping, a few of the shops close by will have wines for tasting. Most of the time we hubby and wife just love to drink wine and will buy it what a certain wine tastes great. We both loves wines however it is not always possible to finish the entire bottle on day 1, so we keep it out for two more days and drink them. By third day some of the wines start to taste like balsamic vinegar, yes fermentation starts. So when I got a chance to learn about stacked wines, I got excited. Now I can get single serve wines to taste that to from Mark West. To pair with wine I made this delicious spinach onion flat bread.

Have you heard about stacked wines, they are fine wine pre-poured into four seamless plastic wine glasses, stacked on top of each other? That is very convenient; you can enjoy a great glass of wine anywhere, anytime. You can take a stack of four to share with friends. It’s a delicious wine that you will love, in a convenient recyclable package that locks in flavor and freshness. This is a great option if you are going on a picnic, tailgating or to a concert or somewhere else where you don’t want to lug around a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and wine glasses. Just peel off the foil seal and enjoy! Each container has its own lid, great for leftovers – stack them back!

Mark West’s Burgundian styled California Pinot Noir, is crafted to be balanced and Versatile. I know the spinach; mozzarella and parmesan flat bread is perfectly paired with Pinot Noir. Actually I was shopping for store-bought flat bread but couldn’t find one of my favorite. So decide to make my own flat bread from the scratch, yes it is Naan bread. However baking Naan need to be little extra careful, as it requires tandoor oven temperature. So decided to make Spinach Onion Naan flatbread, which is really easy, just make the dough then top with fresh spinach, mozzarella, onion and Parmigiano-Reggiano bake it.

When it comes out the oven stick those with fresh cherry tomatoes and more cheese if you want. Trust me the combo of spinach, onion and cheese is just awesome. It is perfect flat bread, and I got request to make it once again. If you are entertaining, tailgating, or any gathering this spinach onion naan flat bread is just awesome. Your guest will love it. You can make the dough ahead and freeze them on the day fill and bake it. One thing makes sure not to forget Mark West’s stacked wine Pinot Noir.

You can also serve these cute strawberry ice-cream jar to finish the party .Yes I used this strawberry ice cream recipe, and used a small mason jar and then made a these cute little labels to tie over each jar and served with fresh strawberries if you want.

So make sure to serve this spinach onion naan flat bread with stacked wine next party.

Please to visit the Entertain And Pair Social Hub to check out more great entertaining ideas!

Check out Mark West Wines and follow Facebook, Twitter, Instagram .

Spinach Onion Naan Flatbread

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 3 hours, 40 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 40 minutes

Yield: Two 9 inch spinach onion naan flat bread.

Spinach Onion Naan Flatbread

Delicious spinach onion naan flatbread made from scratch it pairs well with wine. You can make ahead for any gathering .

Ingredients

2 cup (300g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon (3g) instant yeast
2 teaspoon (10g) sugar
1 teaspoon (5g) fine sea salt
3 tablespoon (62g) plain yougrut
2 tablespoon (23g) ghee+ extra for brushing
¼ cup +1 tablespoon (65g) milk
¼ +2 tablespoon (76g) water
Toppings
⅔ cup chopped spinach
¼ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
½ cup mozzarella cheese
½ cup red onion chopped
8 -10 cherry tomato cut into slices

Instructions

First make the dough with flour, salt, sugar, ghee, water, milk, yogurt and yeast. You can dissolve the yeast in the milk and add to dough if you want.

Dough should be soft not that sticky.

Transfer the dough to double in volume for about 2-3 hours depending upon your kitchen temperature.

Once the dough is doubled divide into two (about 267g each) and spread it into 9 ½ inch circle if you want you can make it rectangle also.

Prick the dough with fork so that it won’t puff up while baking.

Pre heat the oven to 475F/246C.
While oven is pre-heating brush the dough with ghee/ oil. Then top the flat bread with fresh spinach, onion, and mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Bake it for about 10 minutes or until the edges starts brown in color.
Once you take the flat bread out from the oven, immediately place the cherry tomatoes.

You can top with more cheese if you want. Cheese won’t hurt is it?

Notes

Author: Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy)

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Mocha Iced Coffee Popsicles and Pistachio shortbread cookies

Aug 17, 2016 · 13 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FoundMyDelight #CollectiveBias

I am a coffee lover, every morning my day start with a cup of coffee while hubby is a tea drinker. I do like tea but given a choice, I prefer coffee. My mom made the best coffee; I still miss the taste of her coffee. So you can imagine I will be happiest in the person, if I get a chance to taste two delicious iced coffees from International delights. I made Mocha Iced Coffee Popsicles with International coffee delight iced coffee Mocha and pistachio shortbread cookies to go with International Delight Iced Coffee - Caramel Macchiato.

Summer vacation is over; school is going reopen next week. However it is still hot outside and if you are coffee lover then it is hard to resist the taste of coffee popsicle, so decided to make Mocha Iced coffee Popsicles with International coffee delight iced coffee Mocha also covered them with chocolate. Yes chocolate and coffee are perfect friends going together very well. It is so easy to put together. All you need is iced coffee, whipped cream and then chocolate chips to make a chocolate shell. This mocha iced Popsicle sure will bring back childhood memories. Don't need to be kids to enjoy this popsicles.

You can purchase both of the International Delight Iced Coffee’s from your local Wal-Mart; it is now available in the refrigerated tea/juice section. I love to stock up as International coffee delight iced coffee is perfect drink to cool you off this summer without the hassle of going to a coffee shop.

In India we have a habit of drinking coffee or tea with some cookies, or snack. Since I grew up with that habit, I decided to make pistachio shortbread cookies to go with International Delight Iced Coffee - Caramel Macchiato. After having a bite my hubby told me these shortbread cookies are so good you can even market it. It is similar to the pecan sandies available here in the grocery stores. Trust me it is crispy, crumbly, nutty treat go with cup of iced coffee. You can never get enough.

Are you ready to whip up this delicious iced coffee Popsicles and Pistachio shortbread cookies? You will love it, the fun part is that you can drink the iced coffee as such or you can transform it into another delicious treat. Why wait give it a try. What is your favorite iced coffee flavor? And which recipe you try to make with it? Check here International coffee delight iced coffee page to see more recipes.

Coffee Mocha Popsicle and Pistachio shortbread cookies

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 9 hours

Yield: 8-9 mocha iced coffee Popsicles and 16 Pistachio short bread cookies

Coffee Mocha Popsicle and Pistachio shortbread cookies

Here is the delicious mocha ice coffee popsicle dipped in chocolate and a delicious Pistachio short bread cookies to go with your favorite coffee or tea.

Ingredients

For Mocha Coffee pops

2 cup of International Delight iced coffee Mocha
⅓ cup Heavy cream

For Chocolate covering

1 cup /214 g chocolate chips
2 ½ tablespoons coconut oil

Pistachio Short bread cookies

1 ¼ cup/ 164 g all purpose flour
8 cardamom pods
⅔ cups/151 g unsalted butter
1 ¼ tablespoon /16 g ground rice
⅓ cup/46 g icing sugar
2 tablespoon/27 g brown sugar
½ cup/60 g shelled roasted salted pistachio nuts
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ salt (don’t use if you are using roasted salted pistachios)

Instructions

In a bowl add iced coffee and heavy cream and mix well. Pour into Popsicle molds. Add sticks and freeze for overnight.

Next morning take the popsicles out, you'll dip them in the chocolate shell.

To chocolate shell:

Stir chocolate chips and coconut oil together.

Microwave at 30 second intervals until it melted completely.and set aside.

Next morning remove the Popsicle from freezer, and dip them in the chocolate shell. This is tricky part, so make sure to mix the chocolate mixture uniform every time you mix in pops. You have to do it fast as cold Popsicle hit chocolate becomes so hard easily.

Pistachio Short bread cookies

Using mortar and pestle to crush the cardamom pods remove the skins and then crush the seeds into a fine powder.
In a kitchen aid stand mixer bowl add the butter, ground rice, flour, salt , ground cardamom, brown sugar and icing sugar and whisk until the ingredients mix well and dough comes together.

and then add half of chopped pistachio and mix well.

Then immediately transfer the dough onto a cold surface sprinkled with a little flour.
With your hands roll the dough into a log shape 1 ¼ inches to 1 ½ inches /3-4cm in diameter. If you want really large round biscuits then keep the log short in length, however, if you would prefer small or medium sized biscuits then elongate the dough further. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for over an hour.

Add rest of pistachio nuts into the electric mixer and give them a quick wiz so that they are broken up slightly. If you do it for too long they will become too fine!
Place the crushed pistachio nuts on a flat surface and take the cling film off the dough (and place the cling film to one side) and brush the log with the beaten egg. Now roll the dough over the top of the pistachio nuts.

Put the same cling film back on the dough log and place back into the fridge for a further 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325F/162C degrees. Remove the cling film and using a sharp knife cut the dough log into even slices (¼ inch to ⅜ inch/5mm to 1 cm thick) and place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, placing them 2cm apart.

Bake it in the pre-heated oven for about 18 minutes or until they are golden brown in color.
Remove from the oven and allow cooling completely as they will harden as they cool. If you pick them up before they are cool they may well crumble. Once they have cooled store in a sealed jar or container for up to a week.

Notes

Author: Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread Danish

Aug 16, 2016 · 18 Comments

Delicious Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread Danish pastry great for the start of the day or as snack any time of the day.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SpreadTheHeat #CollectiveBias

My favorite breakfast pastry is Danish pastry. When I go out I buy from the bakeries, otherwise I love to make at comfort of my kitchen. You can make good Danish pastries if you have a good batch of fruit spread. My daughter love Smucker’s strawberry jam. So I made this strawberry Jalapeno Fruit spread Danish.

Making homemade pastries are my weakness; always try to make it at home. I have made croissants and pain au chocolat and Plantain Jalousie. This time I got a chance to try Smucker’s Fruit & Honey Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread which is Smucker’s new product, so decided to make this Strawberry Jalapeno fruit spread Danish.

Do you know Puff pastry and Danish pastry are not the same? Puff pastry does not contain egg where as Danish pastry contains eggs. Also Danish pastry is a result of a mistake by a French baker who forgot to add butter in the dough, so did folding it in later to try to cover up his mistake. He ended up with light dough that traveled the globe. Danish is less flaky than the puff pastry but you can fill them with custard, jam fruit spread like Fruit & Honey Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread.

For making this delicious treat first you need to grab Fruit & Honey Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread from your local Wal-Mart. You can find them in Jam and Jelly aisle where you can find other interesting flavors of jam and fruit spread from Smucker’s.

Day before you are planning to make the Strawberry Jalapeno fruit spread Danish you need to make the dough and next morning try to incorporate the butter and finish making Danish pastry dough. Then when you are ready to bake fill the pastries with strawberry jalapeno fruit spread along with or without cream cheese filling. I made few fun shaped Danish pastries, a pin wheel, au violent and square. My kids loved it.

I like the taste Fruit & Honey Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread perfect balance of heat from the jalapeno and sweet strawberries further more it is naturally sweetened with honey. You can feel the kick on every bite.

Making homemade Danish pastries require some work still worth the effort in the end. That is what our mom and grand mom did while we are growing up.

This Danish pastry dough is perfect smooth and flaky, which enhance the sweetness of Fruit spread very nicely. Give it a try your family will love it just like mine.

Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread Danish

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Yield: 8-9 pastries

Strawberry Jalapeno Fruit Spread Danish

Delicious home made danish pastries made with strawberry jalapeno fruit spread.

Ingredients

All-purpose flour, for dusting
½ recipe Danish Dough
Strawberry Jalapeno fruit spread, for filling
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Cream cheese filling

4 ounce cream cheese
2 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoon heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Cream cheese filling

In a bowl add soften cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy cream and vanilla extract

and mix well and set aside, this is your cream cheese filling.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a lightly floured work surface roll out the dough to just over a 13-inch square, a little over ¼ inch thick. Using a ruler and a pizza wheel or pastry cutter, trim the edges of the dough to form a 12-inch rectangle. Then cut the dough into 4-inch squares.

Pin Wheel

Cut squares three-quarters of the way from each corner towards the center.

Fold every other point towards the center and press to seal like this

Fill the center of each pinwheel with 1 teaspoon strawberry jalapeno fruit spread.

Place the pinwheels on the prepared baking sheets. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rest in a warm place until dough is doubled in bulk, about 20-25 minutes.

For the square shaped pastry

Take a square of pastry and fold each point into the middle.

Press lightly to seal., fill , proof and do egg wash, and bake.

Vol-au-Vents

Take a 4 inch square dough,

Fold each square in half diagonally to form a triangle.

With a knife cut a strip ½ in wide long the two short sides.

If the triangle, starting at the folded edge and stopping about ¾ in from the opposite corner.
Unfold the square.

Fold each cut strip to the opposite side to make a diamond shaped pastry with a raised border all around.

Fill the pastry with cream cheese filling and then strawberry jalapeno fruit spread

While the pastries are proofing pre-heat the oven to 375F . Do an egg wash

Pastries are best on the day of bake. If you want you can refrigerate them by individually wrapping them plastic wrap or freeze them for few days.
Enjoy

Notes

Author: Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy)

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Homemade Danish pastry Dough

Aug 15, 2016 · 11 Comments

Home made danish pastry dough simple and easy to make

I don’t think you can find ready made Danish pastry dough just like Puff pastry dough; you need to make your own. I think you can make fake Danish pastry using puff pastry dough, still for original you need to work hard. Yes I mean it, it is really time consuming, but still worth the effort, and here I am posting a simple method to make perfect homemade Danish pastry dough.

This is best Danish pastry dough you can get, so smooth to work with, and at the same produce tasty pastry. Difference between puff pastry and Danish pastry is former one is devoid of egg in the recipe. Eggless friends I don’t know the substitution.

For any pastries you need to make sure to use best quality butter European style Butter. Yes butter is key ingredient in a pastry. First day make the dough and let if ferment for overnight in refrigerator. Yes cold fermentation brings out the flavor.

Then next day incorporate the butter into the dough and then you can make the Danish pastry. If you start incorporating the butter in the morning you can make the dish in the evening that is what I did.

The dough is super soft you can play with it like play dough; I was so happy and finally made delicious Danish pastry with it.

Here comes the homemade dough recipe.

Homemade Danish pastry Dough

Prep Time: 24 hours, 45 minutes

Total Time: 25 hours

Yield: Recipe for 16 pastries dough

Homemade Danish pastry Dough

Here is the perfect homemade danish pastry dough simple and easy you can make your favorite danish pastries at home.

Ingredients

For the dough (détrempe):

5.5 ounces /156g(⅔ cup) milk
1 ounce/29g (2 tablespoons) sugar
1 ½ teaspoons (6 grams) instant yeast
10 ounces/307g (2 cups) all-purpose (AP) flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg

For the butter layer:

8 ounces unsalted Danish or Euro-style butter
2 tablespoons flour

Instructions

Day before baking

In a bowl of Kitchen aid stand mixer, combine all the dough ingredients in a mixer and, using the dough hook,

mix about five minutes until the dough is smooth and uniform (it will be somewhat sticky…this is what you want).
Transfer the dough in to a bowl and let it ferment for half an hour at room temperature, then put it in the fridge for a minimum of two hours, or overnight.

Next day incorporate the butter

Cut the cold butter and two tablespoon flour and spread it into lengthwise into ½-inch-thick slabs. Arrange the pieces on a piece of parchment or waxed paper to form a 5- to 6-inch square. Put the trimmings on top of the square and pound them in lightly with the rolling pin. Refrigerate while you roll out the dough.

Laminate the dough

Unwrap and lay the dough on a lightly floured work surface

. Roll into a 10-½-inch square. Brush excess flour off the dough.

Remove the butter from the refrigerator—it should be pliable but cold. If not, refrigerate a bit longer. Unwrap and place the butter on the dough so that the points of the butter square are centered along the sides of the dough.

Fold one flap of dough over the butter toward you, stretching it slightly so that the point just reaches the center of the butter.

Repeat with the other flaps

. Then press the edges together to completely seal the butter inside the dough. (A complete seal ensures butter won’t escape.)

Lightly flour the top and bottom of the dough. With the rolling pin, firmly press the dough to elongate it slightly and then begin rolling instead of pressing, focusing on lengthening rather than widening the dough and keeping the edges straight.

Roll the dough until it’s 8 by 24 inches. If the ends lose their square shape, gently reshape the corners with your hands. Brush any flour off the dough. Pick up one short end of the dough and fold it back over the dough, leaving one-third of the other end of dough exposed. Brush the flour off and then fold the exposed dough over the folded side. Put the dough on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze for 20 minutes to relax and chill the dough.

Repeat the rolling and folding, this time rolling in the direction of the two open ends until the dough is about 8 by 24 inches. Fold the dough in thirds again, as shown in the photo above, brushing off excess flour and turning under any rounded edges or short ends with exposed or smeared layers. Cover and freeze for another 20 minutes.
Give the dough a third rolling and folding. Put the dough on the baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap, tucking the plastic under all four sides.
You can use the laminated dough on the same day itself or refrigerate overnight for use within 2-3 days. If you are not using next day freeze it (up to 2 months) for future use.
This recipe makes about 16 Danish pastries.

Notes

Recipe is adapted from here

Author : Swathi (Ambujom Saraswathy)

Ulli Vada/ Onion Pakora/ Onion fritters

Aug 9, 2016 · 7 Comments

Delicious and crispy Onion fritters a snack that goes well with your coffee or tea.

My kids are a big fan of Burger King’s onion rings, yes they love it. I cannot get that taste with any other onion rings, even the one which they sell in Sam’s club. I grew up eating this Ulli vada/ onion pakora or onion fritters. Yes it is a wonderful snack that you can get through street vendor in India. My mom never tried to make it at home as it is easily available from street vendors.

But here in US I don’t have choice; I have to make it myself. Yesterday I asked my hubby do you want ulli vada/ onion fritters for your tea. His answer was immediate yes, so tried this one. I have been making it regularly, but never blogged about it. I have baked version of Ulli vada/ onion pakora/ onion fritters in my blog not the fried version. I like to make the ulli vada with red onions rather than any other onions as they are sweeter and when they get fried they are more caramelized and tasty.

While searching in the internet I found out there is Amish Onion fritters which looks more like cake, which I may try next time. However this Ulli Vada/ Onion pakoras / Onion fritters are crispy and imperfect shaped. You can make it gluten free version if you skip Asafetoida from the ingredients. I like to add curry leaves and cilantro. If you don’t have both you can skip both. Try to use peanut oil as it maintains the temperature very well throughout the frying time.

For making this Ulli vada/ onion pakoras you need a red onion, and to get it sliced thinly. Then mixed in with besan/ chickpea flour and rice flour, addition of rice flour ensures the crispiness. My recipe doesn’t add any baking soda. Spices include cumin seeds, turmeric powder and red chili /cayenne pepper powder and Asafetodia. If you want, you can add fennel seeds too. Only important things to remember is add salt last and then add water, make sure to add little by little. You don’t want a soupy one you need chunky dough.

They are best when they come out of oil. Yes warm crispy treat is addictive. Normally eaten as such, but if you want you can use ketchup just like my hubby. Enjoy with your favorite tea or coffee.

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5 from 2 votes

Ulli Vada/ Onion Pakora/ Onion fritters

Delicious crispy snack go with your tea or coffee.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Onion fritters, Pakora, Ulli vada

Servings: serving

Calories: 743kcal

Ingredients

4 cups chopped onion
11/2 cup besan/ chickpea flour
¼ cup rice flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon asafoetida optional, remove it if you want gluten free
2 sprig curry leaves
½ cup water
Peanut oil for frying

Instructions

Peel and chopped the onions as thin as possible (It will cause tears, don’t worry end result is worth it with shedding of tears). Wash and chop curry leaves and coriander leaves finely and set aside.
In a bowl mix besan, rice flour, salt, chili powder, cumin seeds and asafetodia.
To this add chopped onion, curry leaves mixture.
Mix until everything incorporated well and mix once again to combine everything to form dough that you can make balls out of it.
Heat oil in thick bottomed pan at 375F, when oil is hot, Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and with spoon and using other spoon gradually place them into hot oil.
Fry both sides until it is golden brown color.
Remove from the oil and place it into a tissue paper to remove excess oil.
Enjoy with ketchup if you want. I like to eat as such.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

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Yuca/ Cassava/ Tapioca Chips

Aug 3, 2016 · 14 Comments

Are you looking for an alternative for a potato chips here is the delicious Yuca/ Cassava/ Tapioca Chips

Again this is a nostalgic recipe which I have grown up with. Here my kids are fan of Potato chips, but while growing up both me and my sister were fan of Plantain chips and this Yuca/cassava /Tapioca chips. We could not get Potato chips in those days, and I don’t even know where we could have got fresh chips. My dad used to buy us the plantain and Yuca/cassava/tapioca chips, and we always waited patiently at the store to get freshly cooked ones, even he had pre-packed one there. Here is the my version of yuca/cassava/Tapioca chips.

Here is little history behind Yuca /cassava/ Tapioca which is native of Brazil, the land of 2016 Olympics came to South India through Portuguese traders during 17^th Century. The popularization of this crop in Kerala was attributed to the famous king of Travancore State, Sri Visakham Thirunal by introducing popular varieties. Cassava became an important food during famine II during World war (1939-45) when import of rice from Burma (Myanmar) was stopped and which led to food scarcity. Yuca/ Cassava/tapioca were used as substitute to rice (staple) especially by the people of low income strata. Nowadays it is used as side dish by all sections of society.

Since I grew up eating them I used to buy them whenever I see them in grocery store. I have made puzhukku a kind of stew with boiled Yuca/ cassava/Tapioca. Then while shopping at Fiesta which sells lot of Mexican American stuff I saw a packet of Yuca chips. I bought that however it has some flavoring. Yuca chips in my hometown Kerala don’t have any flavoring only it is just salted and some time spiced with chili powder. So I decide to make it at home.

While checking using Google, I found lot of recipes on yuca(cassava) chips some are similar to what I had in my home town but flavored and others are boiled first and then fried as thick pieces. I decide to follow my plantain chips frying style for this yucca too. For the best possible chips, the slices of Yuca (cassava) need to be paper-thin. I recommend using a vegetable slicer or mandolin to keep the slices thin and uniform for adequate frying even less than ⅛^th inches if possible.

Make sure to remove the thick outer covering of Yucca (cassava) check this post. Then wash it in water and slice them into paper thin slices. Dried them in paper towel to prevent the splattering of water while frying, you can salt the chips two ways, first way to just sprinkle the salt while the chips are hot, second method is to add salt water at the end of frying time in the oil, you have to careful with second step as you can get burn from hot oil splattering. To prevent that just close it with a lid when you add salt water.

Here comes the delicious Yuca (cassava chips) you can have them at game night, if you want you can have them with your favorite dip. I don’t like any dip just love to munch them as such.

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5 from 2 votes

Yuca/ Cassava/ Tapioca Chips

Here is delicious Yuca/cassava/tapioca chips you can make it at home. Great alternative for potato chips.

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Total Time35

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Latin American, South Indian

Keyword: #appetizer

Servings: servings

Calories: 745kcal

Ingredients

2 fresh Yuca/cassava roots
4 cups Peanut oil for deep frying
½ teaspoon Salt to taste

Instructions

First slice off about a half-inch from each end of the yuca (cassava) root.
Remove the thick brown bark like skin from the root for this you need knife, peeler won’t work.
Wash the roots with running water.
With a vegetable slicer or mandolin, slice the root into thin rounds (less than ⅛ inch). I used the straight blade you can use crinkle cut blade if you want.
Dry the roots on paper towels. (You do not want them to be wet when you put them in hot oil.)
Fry in hot oil at 370 degrees Fahrenheit until a lightly brown and crisp. Don’t crowd the fryer. Fry in batches if necessary.
Drain the chips on paper towels, sprinkle with salt. If not add salt water at end of the frying time and immediately close the oil with a lid to prevent oil splattering.
You can serve them right away or allow them to cool and store them sealed in airtight container for few days.

Notes

Author : Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Sangrita and book review

Jul 29, 2016 · 5 Comments

Sangarita is the delicious fruity drink with red wine

I make occasional drinks at home as I can’t go out and enjoy the drinks as I don’t like to leave the kids with baby sitters. I think making my own drinks give me creative freedom, only drawback is I need to buy various alcohols to stock at home. And then it remains in my drink cabinets forever. I made this Sangrita adapted from the book Spritz.

Spritz: Italy's Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes written by Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau . It is a cute little book about Spritz a famous drink which was born in Italy. The book has an introduction of about 35 pages which consists history of Spritz and it trails from Turin to Trieste.

Then there is an anatomy of a Spritz, which explains what Spritz is as a low alcohol, pre dinner drink that is effervescent. You can make it simple as well as how complex by adding different ingredients. . There is also a brief overview of flavored syrups, shrubs and fruit liqueurs.

Also there is a chapter about recipes of spritz cocktails you can make at home. Which includes the classic (4 recipes), the modern has about 20 cocktail recipes and cousins includes 19 drink recipes. Finally there are some snack recipes to eat along with your drink like oven roasted olives, saffron almonds and polenta etc.
The recipe section starts with a narrative about the drink and also where it originated or inspired and how to serve and type of garnish is used. The ingredients are listed in the left margin and usually consist of less than five ingredients. The instructions for each drink are brief but effective. Most of the drink recipes included photos are beautiful and fit perfectly.

I have tried Sangrita recipe from the book which is really my kind of drink as it more fruit juices and less alcohol. I would like to try White spritz, Aperol betty,Tinto de verano etc.

If you are a drink lover who want to experiment in your kitchen then this book is for you. I admire the glass used in each cocktail and need to search for them. This book is good for those are new to making cocktails at home as well as seasoned veterans who are interested in increasing their knowledge about the history and modern interpretations of the Spritz.

I made fruity sangrita from this book, which requires red wine, fresh pineapple juice, simple syrup, fresh lime juice and soda water. It is not so sweet but at the same time fruity and delicious. Little bit history that this drink was the favorite of Jinx Falkbenburg who was one of America’s first super model. Also this drink is closely related to Claret lemonade a popular cocktail in nineteenth century.

Here comes the delicious drink you can make it at your home.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Sangrita and book review

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

Sangrita and book review

Delicious not so fruity drink with wine with effervescent. Great for any party.

Ingredients

2 ounces red wine
1 ounce fresh pineapple juice
¾ ounce simple syrup ( made with equal quantities of sugar and water)
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
Soda water

Instructions

Add red wine,

pineapple juice,

simple syrup and

lime juice to a high ball glass over ice.

Top with soda water and add pineapple wedge and lime wheel garnish.
Enjoy.

Notes

Author: Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Butter finger brownie parfaits

Jul 25, 2016 · 19 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #mixinmoments #CollectiveBias

If you are looking for an extravaganza in your little dessert cup, then this Butter finger brownie parfaits will be most perfect treat. Yes who can resist brownies; my kids are ultimate fan of it. It will be triple treat if you mix brownies, sweetened whipped cream and macerated berries like a party in your dessert cup. I used NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Brownies & More chocolate baking mix with Butter finger Baking Bits for making butter finger brownie parfaits.

I buy boxed brownies and cookies mix as my kids love them. For baking chocolate morsels I go with NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE. They are introducing 4 different baking mix 1)NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Brownies & More Chocolate baking mix with Butter finger Baking Bits, 2) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Brownies & More chocolate baking mix with Semi-Sweet chocolate morsels 3) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® cookies & More cookie baking mix with Butter finger Baking Bits and NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® cookies & More cookie baking mix with Semi-Sweet chocolate morsels. There is Ibotta offer is going on you can save money when you buy these baking mix through them.

This new offers create endless possibilities to make various dishes and I am excited to get a chance to review them. What you will do? Excited!! Yes, that is what I did, the baker in me was so happy. I found with this baking mix, I can add my own special touch and mix things up for that added “wow factor”. Also you are not restricted to one dish, with mixes there are so many possibilities. A full cup of morsels or baking bits unlocks all sorts of chocolate baking desserts.

You can make brownies, cookies, truffles, pancakes, cheese cake bars, tiramisu, parfaits etc possibilities are endless. I made Butter finger brownie parfaits, for this you need NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Brownies & More Chocolate baking mix with Butter finger Baking Bits, sweetened whipped cream and macerated berries. I grabbed everything from my favorite local grocery store HEB (close to my house).

First make Butter finger brownies according the manufacturer’s instructions. The box comes with brownie mix and butter finger baking bites. While brownies are baking make sweetened whipped cream and macerated berries as it requires some time. Once everything is made, next is the fun part, assembly; place chopped brownies in dessert cup then add sweetened whipped cream them macerated berries, continue and layer one more time everything. Make sure to keep aside little Butter finger Baking Bits aside for topping.

Trust me these are super simple and quick to make and totally lives up to its name. If you are not in mood to make your own sweetened whipped cream buy a store bought one. Also use your favorite berries, I used strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. Beauty of the recipe is that once you start eating I guarantee you won’t be able to stop. You can indulge immediately or let it chill in the fridge for up to three days before serving.

Make these individual desserts for the ones you love!

Butter finger brownie parfaits

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Cook Time: 11 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes

Yield: 4-5 serving

Butter finger brownie parfaits

These delicious triple treat in a dessert cup, butter finger brownie parfaits great for any party.

Ingredients

For Brownies

1 packet of NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Brownies & More Chocolate baking mix with Butter finger Baking Bits

For Sweetened whipped cream

1 cup whipped cream
2 tablespoon confectioner’ sugar

For Macerated berries

2 cup of mixed berries (I used hulled strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)
2 tablespoon sugar (use more if you want more sweetness)
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Make brownies according to package instructions. Once baked and cooled cut it into ¾ inch pieces and set aside

For sweetened whipped cream,

in a chilled bowl of kitchen aid mixer with chilled whisk add whipped cream and confectioner’s sugar and beat well until it become soft peaks. Set aside refrigerated.

For Macerated berries,

in a bowl add mixed berries, sugar and vanilla extract and set aside for about 1-2 hours at room temperature.

Assembly

Arrange brownies pieces in bottom of dessert cup

then layer with sweetened whipped cream

Then add macerated berries

Repeat the layers with brownies, whipped cream and macerated berries

and finish off with sprinkling Butter finger baking bits.

Enjoy delicious Butter finger brownie parfaits is ready.

Notes

Author: Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Creamy Tomato Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

Jul 22, 2016 · 10 Comments

Delicious creamy tomato and roasted red bell pepper tomato made with coconut milk and lightly spiced . It is great soup.

If you are looking for a simple yet delicous soup then make this creamy tomato and roasted red bell pepper soup is one dish. Yes it is a simple and easy dish which doesn’t requires much preparation.It is made with canned whole plum tomatoes

My kids love tomato in soup form. And lover to have enjoy lunch and dinner with simple rasam (yes it is kind of tomato soup). So I make it very often. I have my own version of rasam which doesn’t have any lentils. I started making them from my days of living in Japan. I was planning to make a tomato soup other than rasam for long time.

Ingredients required for making this delicous tomato and bell pepper soup.

Canned whole plum tomatoes. If you want you can use fresh one then you you need to blanch and remove the skin.

Fire roasted red bell pepper : I used store bought fire roasted red bell pepper .

Coconut milk : you can use any diary free milk.

Basil: That is herb which goes well with tomato

Black pepper: you can just use black pepper alone

Papaprika : you can add cayene pepper if you want extra heat.

Garlic : Garlic adds not only flavor also helps to tummy for digestion.

Cumin : Cumin is warm spice that goes well with tomato and red bell pepper I used cumin seeds, if you are using ground cumin seeds then add it along while heating the soup.

To keep the process easy, I used canned tomatoes, you can use fresh ones if you have it hand. But it requires some extra work like blanching and peeling the skin and if you don’t mind the extra work, go for it. Otherwise just grab a can of tomato and roasted bell pepper and make this easy delicious soup without much fuss.

I don’t like the taste of raw garlic so roasted them in coconut oil with a sprig of basil and cumin seeds, you know tomato and basil are inseparable friends. Then add tomatoes and fire roasted bell pepper then puree them. If you have immersion blender take it out and use it. I don’t own it so used my own trusted blender.

Then spice them with paprika and black pepper. You can increase the creaminess by adding coconut milk. That way you can make it a vegan soup. I know coconut and tomato goes well from the curries that I cook. I used coconut milk from carton; you can use it from a can or even freshly make it.

If you like this recipe try this
Tukish red bell pepper, tomato and yogrut soup
Muhammara roasted red bell pepper dip

My daughter loved this soup, and that means it is delicious. My kids are brutal critics, if they don’t like a dish; they won’t even touch it and would even tell me not to make it any more. So I know this is a delicious, easy tomato soup with my daughter’s stamp of approval.

Oil, garlic, basil and cumin seeds

Plum tomatoes

Fire roasted red bell pepper

In a blender add paparika

After processing bring back to heat and add coconut milk

Finally add black pepper

Enjoy warm soup with your favorite bread.

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5 from 2 votes

Creamy Tomato and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

Delicious creamy tomato red bell pepper soup great as a starter for lunch or dinner. Ready under 10 minutes.

Prep Time5

Cook Time5

Total Time10

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: soup recipes, Tomato and bell pepper soup

Servings: serving

Calories: 138kcal

Ingredients

One 14.5 ounce 411g can of Hunt’s whole plum tomatoes
4 ounce ¼ cup fire roasted red bell pepper
1 cup coconut milk So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk
½ tablespoon coconut oil
1 clove garlic
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 sprig of basil
½ teaspoon Paprika
½ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar optional

Instructions

In a thick bottomed pan add coconut oil and chopped garlic, cumin seeds and sprig of basil and roast them until garlic slightly change the color.
Then add canned tomato and fire roasted red bell pepper, paprika and salt. Puree everything using a blender /immersion blender.
Then bring back to heat and add coconut milk and pepper and let it simmer for while.
Enjoy

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Tribute to a Father

Jul 20, 2016 · 5 Comments

This is post written by my husband who is editor-in-chief of this blog, his dad passed away yesterday. He was very upset and wanted to put his emotion in words. This is in his own words.

Yesterday it was slightly before 4 in the afternoon when I received a call from my wife saying that my dad had passed away a short while ago. He was 84. My dad lived in Mumbai and was suffering from stage 4 COPD. He tried to enjoy everyday using nebulizer and for the last 4 weeks using an oxygen tank to help with his labored breathing. At times when he was worried he would take his notebooks and constantly write “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” to take his mind off his health worries.

I did spend some time with him (ten days) in the second half of June. On an early morning on the 14^th of June I got a call from my sister Renu saying that dad was admitted to the hospital and it would be nice to come to India for a chance to see him. I left the next day. Usually he would ask my mother and sisters not to give the details of his health and worry me. But this time he was very happy to see me and I spent the next ten days by his side. We talked a lot whenever he could, to try to catch up on all the time we had spent away from each other. He talked about my grandfather’s passing over 60 years ago, and his impending death. We talked about my kids and he wrote to them to read in a few years and dated it. He had glorious calligraphic hand writing and I wanted to preserve it for posterity. Which none of his kids got that ability?

My dad grew up in Kerala and came to Mumbai at a very young age. Even as he worked, he put himself through law school (Government Law College, Bombay) to get a LLB and LLM. He wanted to be a lawyer but soon realized he could not lie about anything, or twist words. Thus he spent the next 3 and half decades being a clerk. He spurned promotions so that we could stay in Mumbai. He was a simple man and truth mattered to him the most. His favorite pant was black and the shirt white (and those were the only colors he owned). When I was young I asked him why he had only those colors and he said that then nobody would then know how many pairs he had. He meticulously kept records of the money he had and how much he spent. Even during the last weeks he wanted to know how much money was being spent on his hospitalization and medical bills (my sister Indu would not let him know, even though he constantly asked her).

On the last day when I was coming back to Houston, I said I will talk to you when I see you again, and he said the same. But in that moment we both knew we would not see each other again.

As my four and half year old son says Grandpa gone to Swamy (God); he will be in Heaven and looking over us from there.

Carrot Snack Cake

Jul 15, 2016 · 9 Comments

Delicious carrot snack cake goes well as bite sized treats.

Today I was in a baking spree, made a carrot snack cake and chocolate almond cherry cookies. On some days I love to bake two or three dishes and some days none, I go extremes. I first saw this recipe in a Better homes and gardens magazine at my kid’s pediatrician’s office. I am killing the waiting time of 30-45 minutes reading some old magazines. I have baked carrot cake earlier, but had not made snack cake.

I decided to venture into it now as the recipe sounded really simple and uses no butter but only olive oil. I am not worried about butter or egg in my cake; I know they make delicious cakes. Eggless cakes are not my forte, I don’t like the taste. On the other hand my kids are fan of chocolate and you can tempt them with chocolate cakes, brownies, cookies etc. Without chocolate they don’t even take look so I know I need to make a small cake. So I made 8x8 inch pan snack compared to original recipe.

Hubby you can put him in a TV taste tester group, because he will try only one slice and give his opinion. He told me it is delicious. So I am the only one to finish entire carrot snack cake. So I shared few slices with my neighbor and he liked it. So I got another person to try my baking adventures. That is big win on my side. My kids tried the cream cheese frosting part and were happy with that.

This carrot snack cake is actually carrot cake baked in square pan and served as bite sizes pieces that part I liked it. If you are planning for a party double the recipe, you can even substitute half of the flour with whole wheat flour. I didn’t do that.

Give it try if you looking to serve a party or potluck bite size cakes, it won’t disappoint you.

Carrot Snack Cake

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 1 9x9 inch

Carrot Snack Cake

Delicious carrot snack cake goes well as bite size treats

Ingredients

For carrot cake

2 eggs
½ cup olive oil
¼ +⅛ cup packed brown sugar
½ tablespoon orange zest
¼ cup orange juice
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 ¼ cups shredded carrots (3)
½ cup chopped toasted walnuts

Cream Cheese Icing

4 ounce package cream cheese, softened
11/2 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon orange zest

Instructions

For carrot cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk eggs, oil, brown sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla until combined.

Whisk in flours, baking powder, cinnamon, soda, salt, and nutmeg until combined.

Stir in carrots and walnuts into the mixture.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake about 23 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a wire rack. Spread with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese and butter and powdered sugar;

mix until medium speed until beat on low until combined. Stir in orange zest.

Notes

Author: Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy)

Recipe adapted from here

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Rava pal payasam/ Semolina milk pudding Indian style

Jul 12, 2016 · 17 Comments

Delicious rava pal payasam/semolina milk pudding and easy dessert made with just milk, semolina, sugar and dry fruits and nuts.

If you are looking for an easy and simple desset then try this rava pal paysam/ Semolina milk puddding. Gets ready with in 30 minutes. It has milk, semolina/rava, sugar, and dry fruits.

I never thought of making rava payasam until I saw a YouTube video from Pazhayidom Mohanan Namboothiri. Yes I am a fan of him. Love the way he gives out proportion of recipes in the cookery shows. Most of the people will keep it as secret but he gives exact amount so that you can’t make any mistake. My mom used to make rava kanji yes porridge with semonlina/rava with touch of sugar. But she did not think about payasam or pudding with it.

Semolina, Rava or sooji, is a coarse flour that is made from Durum wheat can vary in color from yellow to white depending on the quality of the wheat. Glycemic index of Semolina is around 44

I have tried traditional recipe of sheera with semolina which is delicious, so I had also tried Mango Rava Kesari. I always thought that semolina pudding is used only in India, but when I read more into it, came to know that Dutch make traditional pudding with semolina with berry sauce (Griesmeelpudding met bessensap). This is thicker version similar to custard where as rava pal payasm/semolina pudding Indian style is liquid one? I need to try that too.

Then there is Greek Halwa recipe made with semolina, which I need to try too. Yes lot of recipes to do in the list. Gradually I will make them. For the time being here is the recipe of rava pal payasam/Semolina milk pudding.

Beauty of this dish is you only need some semolina, sugar, milk, ghee and raisins and cashews. Yes with 5 ingredients you can make this delicious pudding. Yes semolina/rava is cooked in milk and then sugar is added and finally garnished with raisins and cashew nuts.

Next time you are looking out for an easy dessert give this one a try and you will like it. Here comes the recipe.

Heat ghee in pot

Fry dark raisins and cashew nuts, ( Since I have roasted cashewnuts I didn't fried the cashew)

In the same pan add semolina/ Rava and fry it until it is nicely toasted and have nutty aroma

Then add milk and boil for 25 minutes

After 25 minutes cooking milk is reduced in volume

To this add Sugar and cook for 5 minutes.

Finally Add cashewnuts and raisins.

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5 from 10 votes

Rava pal payasam/ Semolina milk pudding Indian style

Here delicious rava pal payasm/ Semolina pudding Indian style.

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Payasam recipes, Rava paal Payasam

Servings: serving

Calories: 485kcal

Ingredients

½ cup 83g Semolina /rava
¾ cup 150g sugar
2 tablespoon ghee
4 cup /1 L milk
2 tablespoon cashews I used roasted cashews
2 tablespoon raisins

Instructions

In a thick bottomed bowl heat 11/2 tablespoon ghee
and add raisins
, if you are not using roasted cashews then you have add that too and roast them until raisins plums up. Set aside.
In the same pan add semolina/rava and roast them until it starts changes color.
To this add milk immediately and start stirring. Make sure not to boil over the milk so you need to continue to stir them.
Cook for about 25 minutes or until semolina/rava cooked well as well as milk is reduced in volume.
To this add sugar and cook for another 3 minutes.
Then finally add rest of the ghee and ghee roasted raisins and cashews.
Enjoy

Nutrition

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Coconut Date Almond Chia Smoothie

Jul 8, 2016 · 12 Comments

Delicious Coconut date almond chia smoothie great to start a day

I am smoothie person who love to throw a few ingredients in blender and make delicious drinks. Yes I make smoothie very often. Nowadays I skip adding any added sugar to smoothie. Yesterday I made this coconut date almond chia smoothie, as I need to finish some bananas. Yes I added bananas also. Result was absolutely scrumptious. You can finish the entire glass in one sitting.

I am a coconut fan; yes love it in all form whether it is coconut oil or coconut milk, maybe because I was born and brought in part of India where coconut is abundant. Without coconut we don’t know to make curries. Also coconut is not used in teaspoon or tablespoon; we used it in cup or even a whole coconut for a single dish.

This recipe is inspired from Sasha Seymour’s Coconut Everyday book. I borrowed this book from the library. It has lot of coconut recipes. I would love try few recipes from this book, and of course with my own twist. I won’t say this is a sugar free smoothie. Yes I added dates. Dates are sweetest fruit with high in natural sugars like glucose, fructose, and sucrose. But eating them in moderation is okay.

For making this smoothie, first grab pitted 3 dates; I used Medjool dates, and then added whole almonds, if you have almond butter use that. I read that eating stuffed dates with almonds and walnuts is healthy snacking idea. Then add coconut milk, water, ½ banana, chia seed and cinnamon. I did not add any ice as I used thawed coconut milk, if you want you can do that. This is absolute vegan treat even you can make ice cream from this one or even a morning oatmeal, options are endless.

This smoothie is thick and rich also taste like almond joy/payasam (Indian sweet pudding). I love it. If you make a date with this smoothie you won’t be disappointed. It is absolutely delicious!

Coconut Date Almond Chia Smoothie

Rating: 51

Prep Time:

Cook Time:

Total Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 serving each

Coconut Date Almond Chia Smoothie

Delicious Coconut date almond chia smoothie without any added sugar.

Ingredients

3 Medjool dates (pitted)
10 almonds
½ banana
1 teaspoon chia seeds
½ cup coconut milk
½ cup water
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Ice (optional)

Instructions

In a blender add all the ingredients and blend it into fine consistency.

I didn’t add any ice as I used thawed coconut milk. If you want you can use ice.
Enjoy.

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Cauliflower tomato masala

Jul 5, 2016 · 5 Comments

Delicious Cauliflower tomato masala with a secret ingredient

Earlier whenever I cook cauliflower, my hubby used to say that don’t make cauliflower as it does not taste good so I will make it. His signature dish is this cauliflower and green pea curry, which he makes it really good. Then I got a recipe from an old Malayalam magazine Girhalakshmi. I make this cauliflower tomato masala nowadays more often.

Also my friend Suja of Kitchencorner try it asked for the recipe as I was talking to her about this dish during a phone conversation. In the magazine this recipe is given along with other Sadya recipes. I don’t think this not a traditional sadya recipe as earlier days nobody uses cauliflower for Sadya. Nowadays due to availability it is used. I remember one of famous chef was talking in a TV program that from 4 traditional payasam (sweet pudding) recipes, we have evolved a lot and now there more than 50 varieties of it.

If you search for a recipe you will get 10000 variation of it, either calling with same name or with even all the names available in the universe. So that when a poor guy searches for recipe they can catch hold of them with name and making him or her to visit the site even though it has not even a tiniest resemblance of original recipe.

I like this recipe because of its simplicity and use of ingredients; here the star veggies are cauliflower and onion. But it doesn’t have any chili powder as such but only green chili and pepper powder then there is secret ingredient which brings out the flavors to new level that is chicken masala powder and touch of coconut milk. May be I can say this is a vegan chicken masala. As cauliflower takes the place of chicken in vegan recipes, yes it delicious. One thing I found out that cauliflower alone doesn’t have any taste but when it joins with others it has delicious taste. This curry goes well with any kind of bread. Give it a try.

Cauliflower tomato masala

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 4 serving

Cauliflower tomato masala

Delicious spicy cauliflower tomato masala made with coconut milk goes well rice or roti

Ingredients

2 ½ cup chopped cauliflower
¾ cup chopped Tomato (about 3)
1 cup chopped onion
1-2 green chili
1 sprig curry leaves
1 inch ginger
1 teaspoon coriander powder
¼ teaspoon pepper powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 ½ teaspoon chicken masala powder
2 clove garlic (minced) if using garlic paste then ½ teaspoon
1 tablespoon + ½ teaspoon coconut oil
¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
¼- ⅓ cup thick coconut milk

Instructions

Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a thick bottomed pan, and then add mustard seeds and which starts popping

add chopped onion. Then add ginger, curry leaves, ginger, green chili and cauliflower florets and then cover and cook well.

Once cauliflower is cooked add turmeric powder, pepper powder, coriander powder, salt and fry for few minutes.

To this add chopped tomato and cook until tomato becomes soft.

Then add chicken masala and minced garlic (you can use garlic paste) cook for 3 minutes.

Then finally add thick coconut milk and switch of the flame.

Finally add rest of coconut oil and enjoy delicious curry goes well with chapathi or rice.

Other cauliflower recipes from this blog

cauliflower peas curry

Cajun spiced roasted cauliflower

Cauliflower Gajar masala/ Cauliflower carrot stirfry

Cauliflower potato peas curry

Banana almond caramel ice cream floats : A summer celebration

Jun 30, 2016 · 10 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. All opinions are my own. #SummerOfFloats

On a hot summer day it is always a delight to have a bowl of ice cream. Both of my kids love ice cream. They also enjoy soda, yes like 7UP® and Sunkist®. I decided to make a treat for them during a hot a day, so I made this Banana Almond Caramel ice cream float with 7UP® as well as an A&W® root beer float. Being good kids means occasional treats are required. Some fizzy ice-cold soda, part huge globs of ice cream, and floats are magical summer desserts.

An ice cream float is a beverage that consists of ice cream in either a soft drink or in a mixture of flavored syrup and carbonated water. Do you know the ice cream float was invented by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia, PA, in 1874 during the sesquicentennial celebration? The story behind ice cream float is that, on a particularly hot day, Mr. Green ran out of cold ice for the flavored drinks he was selling and used vanilla ice cream from a neighboring vendor, thus inventing a new drink. While growing up in India during hot summer days, my dad used to buy juices, ice creams, lemonade, soda etc., however grandma preferred to make something cold for us at home. Summer vacation is always nostalgic and it was happiest of days during childhood.

Since I am making it for the kids I used only ice cream and soda and also used a little whipped cream and fresh cherries. For this ice cream float, grab Archer Farms Banana Almond Caramel ice cream, A&W® root beer and 7UP® soda from your local Target store.

You can also grab some whipped cream and fresh cherries from there too, or make some sweetened whipped cream at home. Make sure to chill the 7UP® soda before making ice cream float.

Similarly, for making root beer floats, in a tall glass add A&W® Root Beer, then add Banana Almond Caramel ice cream topped with whipped cream. You can use vanilla ice cream also if you want. It will be a fun recipe for family gatherings during hot summer days where you can create moments of delight with A&W®.

Are you ready to entertain during the summer holidays with summer floats or looking forward to making fun moments with your kids? Here is cartwheel offer for you to take advantage of.

5% OFF 2L or Mini Cans of A&W®, Sunkist®, 7UP®, Canada Dry®, Dr Pepper®, and more.
Do you know there is a promotion going on in Target stores from 6/26 to 7/30?Buy any two Archer Farms 48 oz ice creams, Get a FREE 2L or 6-pack Mini Cans of A&W®, Sunkist®, 7UP®, Canada Dry® and More
You can make these delicious summer floats too! Here is the recipe.

Banana almond caramel ice cream floats : A summer celebration

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 serving each

Delicious ice cream floats made with ice cream and soda as well as ice cream and root beer.

Ingredients

For Banana Almond Caramel ice cream float with 7UP®

3 scoops banana almond caramel ice cream
7UP® soda
Whipped cream
Fresh cherries (for serving)
!For Root Beer float
3 scoops Banana Almond Caramel ice cream/Vanilla ice cream
A&W® root beer
Whipped cream

Instructions

For Banana Almond Caramel ice cream float with 7UP®

Place ice cream in a chilled tall glass.

Top with Soda

and whipped cream and garnish with fresh cherries.

For Root Beer float

In a tall glass fill with A&W® root beer

Then gradually add 3 scoops of ice cream and finally top with whipped cream.

Enjoy

Seeded semolina bread

Jun 25, 2016 · 9 Comments

Delicious seeded semolina bread made with sourdough, seeded crust give nice crunch on the outside and great as toast

It has been a while I posted a recipe of sourdough bread. I don’t know why, I make it often but got no time to write a post. Yes for me writing a blog post is little bit job. I can’t do it in a single day. It takes few days to get it ready. I made this seeded semolina bread last weekend. Yes it is covered with sesame seeds both black and white I like the crunch it gives while biting.

Earlier I have tried semolina bread which is Pane in cassetta di altmurua from Italy. That is not sourdough bread I used instant yeast to make it. Nowadays I like to bake only bread rich with loads of butter, eggs with instant yeast where as rest of normal breads using sourdough. I like the tanginess and the unique taste which sourdough. I adapted the recipe from my favorite Bread baking book “ Tartine Bread “ by Chad Robertson. His recipe is first one which gave characteristic sourdough taste and structure to my sourdough bread.

Since I don’t have semolina flour in my hand, I grounded some semolina which I have. Semolina bread is everyday bread in Italy. Also you need to watch on the water content of the recipe. You can even substitute all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. I will do that next time. For now I tried with all-purpose flour and semolina which is 30:70 ratios. Also if you want you can use your favorite seeds. I used only black and white sesame seeds since I don’t have poppy seeds in my hand. After baking, toasted seeds give great compliment to nutty semolina.

I found that this bread is also easy to slice as it holds the shapes very well. It tastes great when you lightly toast them with butter and jam. You can also have them dipping in the simple olive oil. If you are fan of sourdough bread likes me then why wait give it a try.

Here is how I made the semolina seeded bread

Semolina flour

Sourdough Starter

Leavean

Leaven with water, flour mix

During first two hours of bulk fermentation, stretch and fold the dough every 30 minutes interval. Then another 3 hours every 1 hour interval. once you finish the bulk fermentation

Black and white sesame seeds

Shaped loaf ready for proof in refrigerator overnight.

Ready for baking

Pre-heat oven to 500F and place a dutch oven along with lid.

When you are ready to bake transfer the dough parchment paper and place it in the hot oven.

Return the loaf to bake and reduce the temperature to 475F and bake for 20 minutes with lid closed.

Then carefully remove the lid and bake for another 20-25 minutes until the crust become brown in color.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Seeded semolina bread

Delicious crispy sourodugh bread with semonlina and coved with seasme seeds, goes well as great toast .

Prep Time12

Cook Time45

Total Time13 45

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Semonlina soudough

Servings: servings

Calories: 174kcal

Ingredients

100 g Leaven
375 g plus 25g Water 80F
350 g Semolina flour I ground the fine semolina in my hand
150 g bread flour
10 g salt
35 g each black and white seasme seeds for coating

Instructions

Night before baking

add 1 tablespoon of mature sourdough starter into 100g water and 100g ( 50/50 flour blend made with whole wheat flour and all purpose flour) place in bowl and set aside for over night. That is your Leaven.
when you are ready to make dough mix 375g water in a bowl and add the leaven and stir to disperse. Add the semolina flour and the bread flour using your hands, mix well so that set aside for autolyse for about 23 to 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes add the salt and rest of warm water to dough and mix well set aside for bulk fermentation.
During first two hours of bulk fermentation, stretch and fold the dough every 30 minutes interval. Then another 3 hours every 1 hour interval. once you finish the bulk fermentation
Then place the dough into a plate with black and sesame seeds
and roll well so that seeds get coated very well. Place it in a banetton and set aside for second fermentation for overnight in refrigerator.

On the day of baking

Pre-heat oven to 500F and place a dutch oven along with lid.
When you are ready to bake transfer the dough parchment paper and place it in the hot oven.
Return the loaf to bake and reduce the temperature to 475F and bake for 20 minutes with lid closed.
Then carefully remove the lid and bake for another 20-25 minutes until the crust become brown in color.
Transfer the loaf to cooling rack and set aside for few hours before cutting them.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Pan roasted spiced Brussels sprouts

Jun 22, 2016 · 7 Comments

Delicious spicy pan roasted Brussels sprouts made with brussels sprouts and touch of spices, goes well with a bowl of rice or any flat bread.

Every time when I shop at Wal-Mart I see these little cute mini vegetables Brussels sprouts. however only last week I bought them from Sam’s club. Hubby warned me it is huge packet will you use; do you know how to cook it? I told him it belong to cabbage family and looks like mini cabbage so I will make it. I when I came back checked for recipes I found lot roasted Brussels sprouts ones, so decide to try this Pan roasted spiced Brussels sprouts.

Health benefits of brussels sprouts?

Brussels sprouts are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, making them a nutritious addition to your diet. They may also come with added health benefits, including the potential to reduce the risk of cancer, decrease inflammation and improve blood sugar control.

It is an adaptation of south Indian style stir-fry/ Mezhukupuratti, because of that I added little add on. If you don’t want you can skip that too. But make sure to use coconut oil, I think the fragrance and taste which coconut oil gives is not in another oil may be I am biased towards coconut oil as I have grown up with eating the goodies cooked in that ones.

The Brussels sprout has long been popular in Brussels, Belgium, and may have originated and gained its name there. Brussels sprouts are buds for cooking and any loose surface leaves are peeled and discarded. Once cut and cleaned, the buds are typically cooked by boiling, steaming, stir frying, grilling, or roasting. To ensure even cooking throughout, buds of a similar size are usually chosen. I like to cut them into 4 pieces so that it cooks uniformly.

I found that if you add little cumin powder, chili powder along with salt and pepper, it will be very tasty. This goes as a excellent side dish with rice, Indian flat bread chapathi or even as salad, they are taste similar to cabbage but stronger and it has own characteristic. Make sure not to overcook them and they tend to taste bitter. I like them with simple spices, you can add balsamic vinegar if you want. I haven’t tried that may be next time I will do that.
Here is easy pan roasted Brussels sprouts recipe.

In a skillet ad oil, urad dal, mustard seeds, red chili.

Onion and curry leaves

Cook until onion translucent.

Then add brussels sprouts.

You can add chili powder, cumin and salt and cook.

For other brussels sprouts recipes you can check here
Spiced parmesan crusted brussels sprouts
Roasted spiced brussels sprouts

Print Recipe

5 from 11 votes

Pan roasted spiced Brussels sprouts

Delicious spicy pan roasted Brussels sprouts with south indian touch.

Prep Time5

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Brussels sprouts recipes, Pan roasted brussels sprouts

Servings: serving

Calories: 224kcal

Ingredients

4 cups Brussels sprouts cut it into 4 pieces
½ of one onion sliced thinly
11/2 tablespoon coconut oil
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 halved red chili
½ tablespoon urad dal spilt black gram
½ teaspoon chili powder use paprika if you can’t handle heat
½ teaspoon cumin powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 sprig of curry leaves
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon fresh pepper

Instructions

Wash and cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Then cut it into 4 pieces.
In a skillet heat coconut oil, then add mustard seeds, urad dal, halved red chilies, curry leaves
and when mustard seeds starts popping add thinly sliced onion and cook for about 5 minutes or until the onion change its color.
Add Brussels sprouts and add turmeric powder and salt and cover it and cook until it is soft and tender.
Make sure to not overcook the Brussels sprouts as they tend to become bitter. Then add chili powder and pepper and mix well and switch of the flame.
Enjoy with a bowl or rice or any flat bread .

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Tropical Pleasure Smoothie

Jun 17, 2016 · 16 Comments

Delicious tropical pleasure smoothie made with tropical fruits like, mango, papaya, pineapple with touch of cinnamon.

Summer has started with a bang, and yes it is getting very hot over here, as new house is on north of Houston we get more rain than rest of Houston. As a result my pomegranate plant which is new little kid in the block has leaves turning yellow and loosing it.

When I checked in the internet found that it is because of lot of moisture as result stopped watering them, let me see whether they will survive or not.

As my daughter’s pediatrician asked her to eat lot of veggies and fruits, she is eating fruits and veggies. I decided to make this delicious smoothie with her favorite fruits.

How to make Tropical Pleasure Smoothie ?

This tropical pleasure smoothie contains mango, pineapple, papaya, orange ginger and lemon.

Beauty of this recipe is that it doesn’t have any added sugar and only the natural sugar from the fruits.

I like to add ginger and lemon to my smoothie and juice, the kick which ginger gives is just awesome.

I was planning to add some coconut water to the smoothie but I couldn’t find a nice coconut, sometimes it is too ripe so that you get taste of coconut oil in it.

You need to get very tender ones. This smoothie is devoid of any my new found seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds and Goji berries. It has just simple tropical pleasure.

Make sure to grab ripe papaya which is more orange in color as it is sweeter, same with mango.

Trust me this smoothie is antioxidant rich (Pineapple, papaya), Vitamin C (lemon) rich and helps digestive health (ginger) and touch of cinnamon and lemon zest as flavoring without any extra sugar.

First add fruits and almond milk

I used unsweetened almond milk to make it creamier you can use your favorite milk.

You don’t need to do a trip to tropics to enjoy this delicious smoothie. You can have it at the comfort of home. Then you can get full feel of the fruit.

Here comes the delicious smoothie with favorite fruits.

Print Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Tropical pleasure smoothie

Delicious smoothie made with tropical fruits like, mango, papaya, pineapple with touch of cinnamon.

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Smoothie recipes, Tropical Pleasure Smoothie

Servings: serving

Calories: 143kcal

Author: Swathi (Ambujom Saraswathy)

Equipment

kitchenaid blender

Ingredients

1 cup mango chopped fresh or frozen
1 cup papaya chopped fresh or frozen
1 cup pineapple chopped fresh or frozen
2 teaspoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 inch ginger
1 cup unsweetened almond milk or your favorite milk if you want
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup Ice cubes

Instructions

In a blender process everything until you get a creamy consistency. Increase amount of ginger, cinnamon, lemon zest if you want. Enjoy immediately.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Mango cardamom muffins

Jun 14, 2016 · 18 Comments

Mango cardamom muffins, delicious, exotic and aromatic goes well for any breakfast or snack ideas. give it a try you will like it

You can call me mango maniac. Yes crazy about mango, every time when I visit the store I will grab some mango whether it is a dollar for one or 33 cents for one. I would like to incorporate mango in bakes nowadays, as I have tried most of mango recipes in traditional Indian cuisine. First thought of making Mango cookies in line with jackfruit cookies, then skipped that idea. Decide to try these mango cardamom muffins.

This recipe is inspired from Little Flower Baking: Christine Moore, Staci Valentine, Cecilia Leung . I like it because they are selling these in their bakeries. If they can make a living with it, then it should be delicious.

There is famous sweet shop in south India doesn’t even have a name or fancy ads, still people stand in queue for about 2 hours to buy the items. So decide to try this muffin.

Actually in the cook book if you are looking for a mango cardamom muffin recipe you won’t find it. But you can find a Peach cardamom muffins, she also mentioned that we can use any stone fruit to make it.

So I settled with mango as my favorite fruit. Again I adjusted little bit, I made only half of the recipe as not sure my kids will like it or not. Also instead 1 ½ eggs I used only 1 egg and skipped the streusel type of crisp topping.

Even after my little modifications, muffins turned out are so delicious. You can’t stop eating with one sure you are going next one.

How to make Mango Muffins

It is simple recipe just mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and mix wet ingredients in a kitchen aid bowl. Then add fresh mango pieces and fold in. Then top with some extra mango. You will love it, here comes the recipe.

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Mango cardamom muffins

Here is delicious Mango cardamom muffins most aromatic to muffins goes as snack or breakfast.

Prep Time5

Cook Time27

Total Time45

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: #Muffinrecipes, Mango muffins, Mango recipes

Servings:

Calories: 240kcal

Ingredients

1 cup 125g all purpose flour
¼ cup 53g granulated sugar
2 tablespoon 28g brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup 60g butter (unsalted melted)
¼ cup sour cream
1 egg
6 no cardamom pods skin removed and seed crushed into fine powder
⅔ cup chopped mango

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F and line muffin tin with 6 liner
In a bowl sift flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
In the bowl of Kitchen aid mixer fitted with whisk attachment combine egg, sour cream, vanilla extract and mix at low speed.
Drizzle melted butter into the mixture while mixer is running low speed until everything combined well.
Add dry ingredients and mix at low speed until it just combined, do not over mix even if there is little dry bits is there that is fine.
Remove bowl from stand mixer and just fold in the ¾ of mango slices using rubber spatula.
Fill each muffin mold with ⅔ full batter. Then top with rest of the mango.
Bake for about 15 minutes and then rotate the pan and continue to bake until tooth pick comes out clean about 7 minutes more.
Enjoy

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Pizza Margherita and Book Review

Jun 7, 2016 · 11 Comments

Delicious and perfect Pizza Margherita at your comfort your home.

I have few wishes in my life with regards to learning about food, and one of those is if I can spend one day with Ken Forkish for making sourdough bread and pizza. I don’t know it is possible or not. But I can get his book and make sourdough bread and pizza in the comfort of home. My kids are Pizza fans just like I and hubby. But I rarely make pizza at home. Finally last week I made this Pizza Margherita at home adapted from book written by my guru Ken Forkish. His books are easy to understand and it is like he is standing in front of you and teaching. So when you get a chance to review Ken Forkish’s new book what you will do? I did a happy dance.
The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home by Ken Forkish is similar to the author's previous masterpiece: Flour Water Salt Yeast.

The book has 7 chapters, First chapter is the Soul of Pizza and he describes about Italy, Naples, Caliazzo, Rome pizza culture, then in United States, New York, Trenton Tomato pies, New Haven and then about family owned pizzerias, run by mom and pops with Italian-American heritage.

Then chapter two is about pizza styles, which includes, Neapolitan pizza, Pizza Romana, Roman Al taglio bakery pizza, American pizza New York style, American pan pizza, strip pizza and American bar pizza.
Chapter 3 is about eight details for great pizza crust, which discuss about hydration, baking temperature, temperature of pizza dough and importance of measuring the ingredients by weight and mixing by hand. Making adjustments based on season or climate and importance of longer secondary fermentation.

Chapter 4 is about the various ingredients and equipment. I after reading about Caputo flours as it am designed for pizza that bakes at 905°F (485°C) I bought that for trying the recipe. Tomato, tomato sauce, cheeses, yeast are described in the ingredient section. Also there pizza steel and pizza stone dough tub, digital probe thermometer are few in the equipment’s section.
Then chapter 5 is about methods starting from mix in the flour to making the pizza each step is explained very well. Chapter 6 is about the pizza dough recipes, Saturday pizza dough, I slept in but I still want pizza dough, Single dough ball dough recipe, 48-72 hour New York pizza dough and over night leavain pizza dough is few among the 13 dough recipes.
The chapter 7 is about pizza recipes, starting with 4 types of tomato sauce recipes and about 10 Italian and Italian –inspired pizza recipes, then New York and New York inspired recipes, and Ken’s artisan pizza classics, then Trifecta flatbread recipes and Vegetables and just because pizza recipes.
I tried Pizza Margherita and Hawaiian pizza from this book, trust me they are delicious better than store bought. Ken's instructions on how to assemble and bake a variety of pizzas and flatbreads are clear and encouraging. I was little anxious about turning my oven up so high (550 °F) or maximum it can handle. However, his method works and yields sublime pizzas. Definitely a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the art of pizza making and dough chemistry. So it you are looking to make best pizza at home, then buy this book. I couldn’t find any cons in the book, one thing I found that there is no recipe of Sicilian pizza or Chicago-style pizza or St. Louis-style pizza.
I tried Pizza Margherita from this book; it is simple easy pizza which has historic importance as Neapolitan pizza maker Raffaele Esposito created the "Pizza Margherita on 11 June 1889, to honor the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy. It is a pizza garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, to represent the national colors of Italy as on the Italian flag.
At first my dough doesn’t want to leave the pizza peel and ended up with not so round shaped pizza. Then second time as Ken’s advice I practiced enough that my pizza were able to leave the pizza peel without any problem. Give it a try you will like it.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Pizza Margherita and Book Review

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 8 hours

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours, 10 minutes

Yield: one 12 inch pizza

Pizza Margherita and Book Review

Delicious and simple Pizza Margherita at the comfort your home.

Ingredients

Pizza dough

350g water (90 to 95F /32 to 35C)
11 g sea salt
2g instant yeast
500g Caputo flour

For pizza

1 dough ball
60 to 80g ( ¼ to ⅓ cup) basic tomato sauce
Extra virgin olive oil
10 to 15 g( scant ¼ cup) Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
80 to 100g ( 3 ½ to 4 ounce) fresh mozzarella cheese
3 to 5 fresh basil leaves
3 tomatoes (optional)

Instructions

In a big bowl add water and salt and mix well.

Then add yeast and mix again

to this add flour and mix well using a hand until everything combined well and shaggy mass. Set aside for 20 minutes

Then after 20 minutes gradually knead it into a fine soft ball then set aside in a lightly greased ball for set aside for 2 hours for first fermentation.

Then divide the dough into 3 regular balls and set aside for 10 minutes. Then it is knead once again and shape them well

and set aside in a lightly floured plate and sprinkle extra flour on the top to prevent them sticking and set aside for 6 hours of fermentation if you want to use it on the same day.

If you want to bake the pizza on next day then after 4 hours of fermentation refrigerate the dough and bring back to room temperature 1 ½ hours before you decide to bake.
When you are ready to make pizza
Preheat the oven to 550F( 290C) for 45 minutes.
To shape pizza place the dough ball in floured work area and coat well with flour

and start to shape it into a 12 inch circle make sure to keep the center thin while the edges are slightly thick.

Place it in the pizza peel dusted with flour to prevent sticking.For insurance you can place it in parchment paper( I did for first few times, then skipped that )

Spread the tomato sauce to the dough leaving ½ inch from the edge.
Then switch off baking option and turn on broiler for 10 minutes before loading the pizza.
When you are ready to load pizza to oven turn off the broiler and set back the oven to 550F( 290C). Let bake the pizza for 3 to 4 minutes until the rim starts to golden in color. Then using a pair of tongs removes the pizza from the oven and ads drizzle olive oil on the top of pizza. Then spring the cheeses and layer basil leaves bake for 30 seconds.

Then turn on broiler option again and cook for another 30 seconds to one minutes.
Remove from the oven and place cherry tomato if you using. Enjoy warm pizza.

Notes

This recipe is adapted from [Ken Forkish's book |http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Pizza-Unlocking-Secrets-World-Class/dp/160774838X|]

Here is New York style thin crust pizza

Porulvilangai Urundai (Porivilangai Urundai) : Sweetened Multi grain balls

Jun 2, 2016 · 6 Comments

Porulvilangai Urundai (Porivilangai Urundai) sweetened multi grain balls traditional sweet from Southern part of India.

Porulvilangai Urundai (Porivilangai Urundai) sweetened multi grain balls traditional sweet made with whole grains , sweetned with jaggery and have crunch from the coconut pieces.

This post is dedicated to my grandma, an awesome cook never said no to me even if I am asking for something special in late evening. She was an amazing woman who had only few years of education, but really strong woman and she was the one behind me to push to get my doctorate degree. When others would tell my mom and dad to get married your daughter, she would stand up for me. Doesn’t worry if my grandchild wants to study let her study? She makes Proulvilangai every year religiously without fail during summer holidays. When I visited her she had already stocked up Porulvilangai Urundai (Porivilangai Urundai) and jackfruit chips for that year.

I didn’t get a chance to learn any cooking from her at that time I was more into enjoying her preparations, than the recipes and cooking. Also my mother never made Porulvilangai as she always would get stocks from my grandma. This is sweet recipe but never fit the description melt in mouth. Yes it can be melt in mouth but first you need to break them into pieces. That is not that easy, and I remember using a coconut or a hammer to break it into pieces to be able to eat. Otherwise you need a very strong teeth.

Coming to the recipe, I didn’t get this recipe right the first time I tried almost 3 years ago. I failed miserably so dropped the idea of making it until now. Last week my friend Kaveri posted Poulvilangai recipe again it was different from my grandma’s measurement. My grandma uses everything in 1:1:1 ratio. Then I watched a YouTube video where chef making it at her home. However sweet in her recipe was off the chart. Yes she uses 2:1 ratio, for every cup of flour 2 cups jaggery. I know I can’t do that. But I got the idea of how to make them using her steps. However other recipes in internet uses different type of lentils whereas my grandma used only moong dal/mung beans in her recipe, but she uses whole wheat and boiled rice. Since I failed the recipe with boiled rice, this time I used raw rice instead of boiled rice.

I didn’t want to waste anything so used only ¾ cup rice, whole wheat and mung beans. And used 1:1 ratio of flour and jaggery, since I don’t have any dried coconut / copra in my hand I fried fresh coconut in the ghee. Normally there will no fat in the recipe. If you can find dried coconut /copra then you can avoid the ghee. Main step in this recipe is to roast the grains individually and grind them separately and mix it later. Then make jaggery syrup with softball consistency. Don’t go overboard on jaggery syrup, you will end up with rock, that can’t be broke even with hammer.

I can tell that this recipe is authentic as I used whole wheat grains instead of using whole wheat flour. This recipe is actually full of nutrients except the jaggery part. I won’t say it is healthy because sugar is sugar whether it is table sugar, jaggery, honey or even dates. So hubby (who is diabetic) tried only little bit, my kids are not fond jaggery, so they also away from trying. Guess what madam got entire batch to taste. Once I made proudly called my dad and told him that I made Porulvilangai just like grandma. Yes I got the taste same as what she makes.

Porulvilangai Urundai(Porivilangai Urundai) are usually made for long trips where food won’t get spoiled soon and also has long shelf life. Here comes the recipe try it if you have nostalgic memories attaches to it. If not just for fun try it, you will like it.

First roast rice,

Then roast Wheat berries

Roasted Moong beans

Roasted and powdered rice, wheat flour and mung beans

Melt the jaggery

Strain the jaggery for impurities

Heat jaggery to soft ball stage.

You may be able to make small ball if you drop little of jaggery into the water.

Heat ghee

Fry coconut pieces

Combine everything including jaggery syrup

Gradually add jaggery syrup to make a dough

Make small ball roll them into the extra powdered wheat, rice and moong bean mix .

Other south indain tradtiional sweet recipes are

Maladu

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Porulvilangai Urundai (Porivilangai Urundai) : Sweetened Multi grain balls

Delicious Porulvilangai Urundai(Porivilangai Urundai) : Sweetened Multigrain balls a traditional recipe from South India.

Prep Time25

Cook Time25

Total Time50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: #birthdaycakemuffins, Indian sweets recipes, Porulvilangai Urundai

Servings:

Calories: 103kcal

Ingredients

¾ cup /149g raw rice
¾ cup /152g whole wheat grains
¾ cup /165g mung beans/moong dal/ pachapayaru
2 ¼ cup/450 jaggery
2 cup water
1 tablespoon
½ cup coconut chips
1 teaspoon ginger powder/chukka podi
6-7 cardamom pods

Instructions

In a skillet dry roast the rice, whole wheat grains, moong dal separately until everything turned brown in color it takes about, 11 minutes to rice and 7 minutes each for whole wheat grains and moong dal in medium flame.
Then add it into blender or food processor and ground them into powder. Make sure to sift them to remove any big particles. Set aside ¼ cup of flour for rolling
Heat jaggery with ½ cup water and melt completely then strain for impurities.
Boil the strained jaggery water until it becomes soft ball stage.
you can check the soft ball stage by adding little bit of boiled jaggery in bowl with cold water.
At first jaggery will dissolve in water like this.
When it reaches the soft ball stage they will remain intact and you will able to make ball with it.
Mix all the flours, powdered cardamom and ginger powder and set aside.
In a small skillet heat ghee and fry the coconut chips until it is brown color.
You can either add this fried coconut chips to jaggery or mix well or you can add to flour and mix well like I did
Then in a small bowl add flour –ginger-cardamom-coconut mixture and add two ladle full about ½ cup of jaggery mixture and mix well try to make balls immediately even though it is warm. If you wait it will become hard and not able to make the balls.
Once you made the balls roll them in ¼ cup flour which you set aside earlier.
Continue to make the balls until your finish entire flour and jaggery you will able to make about 15 balls with this recipe.
Enjoy

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Sweet and Savory Appetizers For Summer

May 31, 2016 · 14 Comments

Sweet and Savory Appetizers for summer made with fresh fruit and veggies and crackers , not only delicious but also great for any gatherings, your guest will love it.

If you are looking for simple and easy appetizers for get together then here is the answer for that. Sweet and Savory Appetizers for summer are made with fresh fruit and veggies and simple toppings. I used Triscuit you can use any cracker of your choice. I made sweet and savory TRISCUIT appetizers. Roasted strawberry cream cheese honey TRISCUIT (Strawberrycreamhoneyscuit) make sweet version where as Beet humus cucumber avocado feta TRISCUIT (Beethummuscucumocadofetascuit) make savory version.

Beauty of this dish is that it has is lot of flavors going on a single dish, for Beet humus cucumber avocado feta TRISCUIT, I used TRISCUIT Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil. Whereas roasted for strawberry cream cheese honey TRISCUIT, I used TRISCUIT Original. Roasting beets and strawberries are only cooking part, rest is only assembly. Make beet hummus using roasted beets. Once you made hummus start layering the TRISCUIT. Use TRISCUIT Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil as base and place a cucumber sliced and then add 1-2 teaspoon of beet hummus in the center then top with avocado slice and sprinkle feta cheese. You are going to love them delicious and addictive.

For making Roasted strawberry cream cheese honey TRISCUIT, take one TRISCUIT Original, then place lightly sweetened cream cheese and top with roasted strawberry then drizzle honey and top with crushed pistachios.

Here is there is another combo you can try with Honeygrapocadoscuit which is made with honey,grapefruit and avocado and TRISCUIT.

There another one is Cotijacornocadoscuit which is made with cojita cheese ,roasted corn,avocado and TRISCUIT.

Who can resist this colorful delicious appetizer? Are you savory or sweet person, just top the Crackers with savory or sweet ingredients, making them the perfect choice for a snack, appetizer or even a meal! If you are hosting a party in your backyard try this treats, your guests will love it.

First roast the beetroot you can check here for details

Cubed roasted beet root with lemon zest

To this add garlic, salt, pepper, tahini, lemon juice , olive oil and process it into fine puree.

Other bites sized treats are

Sweet and savory Wasa crackers

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Sweet and savory appetizers

Delicious Sweet and savory appetizer made with for summer gathering. Little preparation but tasty outcome.

Prep Time5

Total Time30

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Sweet and Savory Appetizers

Servings: -25

Calories: 73kcal

Ingredients

For Beet hummus cucumber avocado feta TRISCUIT

1 roasted beets recipe here
2 cloves garlic
1 can chickpeas
¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoon tahini
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ of lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil
½ cucumber sliced thinly around ¼ inch
½ avocado
¼ cup Feta cheese

For Roasted strawberry cream cheese honey TRISCUIT

4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
2 teaspoon powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
11 roasted strawberries recipe here
Honey for drizzling
¼ cup crushed pistachio

Instructions

For Beet hummus cucumber avocado feta TRISCUIT

Make beet hummus, add roasted beets and lemon zest in a blender or food processor
Then add washed drained canned chickpeas, garlic, salt, pepper, tahini, lemon juice , olive oil .
Process until it is smooth consistency and set aside.

Assembly

First place the TRISCUIT cracked pepper and olive oil
Then place sliced cucumber
Then top with 2 teaspoon of beet hummus
Place sliced avocado on the top of roasted beet hummus
Then sprinkle the feta cheese on the top
Enjoy

For Roasted strawberry cream cheese honey TRISCUIT

First make sweetened cream cheese mixture, in a bowl add soft cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and mix well to combine.
Place a TRISCUIT original on a plate
Add a spoonful of sweetened cream cheese mixture on the top of TRISCUIT
Then place a roasted strawberry on the top.
drizzle honey on the top of strawberry
Then finally sprinkle with some crushed pistachios.
Enjoy

Notes

How to roast strawberries and beets can be found here

Nutrition

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Good Palm oil in food

May 28, 2016 · 2 Comments

This blog post is sponsored by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own.

While growing up in India, my mom used to cook with palm oil for frying goodies. So palm oil has a little history attached to me too. Palm oil in food is used as cooking oil and is extremely tolerant to high temperatures. It is used as industrial frying fat and is also well suited for processing noodles, potato chips, French fries, doughnuts and other snacks.

Do you know about 50% of supermarket goods for sale contain palm oil; from margarine and chocolate, pizza, to donuts and cookies, to even household items like lipstick, shampoo and soap. Also70% of the world’s cosmetics and household detergents contain raw materials derived from palm oil. Globally, 13.47 million tonnes of palm oil is consumed but just 21% of it is certified as being from sustainable sources.

RSPO campaign believes that achieving 100% certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) in Europe is not only a realistic ambition but a vital one too. The production of ‘bad’ palm oil is rapidly destroying virgin rain forests and ecosystems and causing air pollution to rise and putting many species at risk of extinction. If grown sustainably, ‘good’ palm oil can benefit local communities with fair working conditions and help protect valuable species and forests.

There is an exciting news a global campaign is launched which highlights the many consumer goods that contain palm oil and that everyone can make a choice between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ palm oil. So next time when you shop, look out for the RSPO symbol on products, reassurance it only contains RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil. See examples of products with the RSPO symbol here: http://www.rspo.org/trademark/trademark-products-gallery . To find out more about RSPO visit: www.rspo.org/about . That way we can say yes to good palm oil and no to bad palm oil. In the end we want to preserve our nature too so that coming generation can also enjoy its fruits

How to roast strawberries and beets

May 26, 2016 · 2 Comments

How to roast juicy strawberries and beets for delicious dishes Yesterday was marathon cooking day, because after a week of rain and cloudy days, I got a sunny day. Next few days are also cloudy and rainy, that is good for grass and plants which I planted in the backyard and the vegetable garden which also will be happy, but not me. As I need to make few recipes which require roasted strawberries and beets I decide to start roasting them in the morning. In between making pizza dough, I decided to write about how to roast strawberries and beets.
Roasting strawberries will make them brings out the fruit’s natural acidity, making them taste like they’ve been soaked with lemon juice. They are sweet, warm and caramelized and still have some tanginess in background. They are amazing straight out of the oven; they are also good in fridge after storing; only problem is a decrease in color.
For roasting strawberries simply throw them into the oven with little sugar and vanilla extract that is optional, I just added you can skip it if you don’t want.

My hubby eats raw beets; I am okay if it is used in juice. I like them when they get cooked, which increase their natural sweetens. Beets makes really good cake, I tried earlier with grated beets. That is delicious. Here is the recipe. This time I need to make roasted beet hummus. So decide to roast them. I was in doubtful mind whether I need to peel the skin before roasting. After checking few recipes I decide to skip that and roasted whole beets with skin. After roasting the skin of beets comes out in single touch. You don’t need to peel the beets before baking. Also they are knife tender when it comes out of the oven. The beet is now ready for all kind of dishes, just puree them you can make amazing dish.

Next time when you want to try something different try this roasted strawberries and beets. You will like it.

How to roast strawberries and beets

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: 1 beets and 11 strawbeeries

How to roast strawberries and beets

Here is simple way to make roasted strawberries and beets

Ingredients

For roasted strawberries

11 strawberries hulled, washed, cut it into two pieces
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

For roasted beets

1 medium beet
1 teaspoon olive oil

Instructions

For roasted strawberries

Preheat oven to 350F line the baking sheet with parchment paper,
Place the strawberries separately

and sprinkle sugar and vanilla extract

Then mix well and again spread them separately

and place it in the oven for about 30 minutes until it juices starts of comes out and strawberries get roasted well.

For roasted beets

Preheat the oven to 375F.
Wash and dry beets with skin and coat with olive oil and wrap tightly with aluminum foil

Roast them for about 45-50 minutes until them soft to touch and fork tender.
Once roasted let it allow cooling for 10 minutes and just peeling the skin.

Your roasted beets is ready

Antioxidant Rich Goji berry Banana smoothie

May 24, 2016 · 11 Comments

This shop has been compensated by CollectiveBias, Inc. on behalf of its advertiser, ZonePerfect. #SnackandRally #CollectiveBiasAs a busy mom of two little kids, my mornings are always crazy between getting my daughter ready for school and little guy’s morning routine. Same in the evening, and I need some energy boosting. I found that ZonePerfect® Nutritional Bars are perfect snack. I am a smoothie person who likes to make my own smoothie blends. Yes in the beginning I tried various fruit and veggie combo. Now days, I am in the experimental mood and always try to add some new ingredients to make smoothie. I tried flax seeds, chia seeds and hemp seeds so next in my list are antioxidant rich Goji berry. I decided to try a banana smoothie with dried Goji berry .Goji berries has slight bitter taste, that will compensate if you take a ZonePerfect® Nutritional Bars along with it then it is easy treat with the protein you need.

Goji berries have amazing antioxidant properties, and it is a fruit of Chinese Lycium barbarum plant, which is used in Chinese medicine, and is supposed to increase general health. They have also been referred to Chinese wolfberries and Tibetan goji. It helps to protect from UV radiation, improves eye health and also helps to prevent cancer because of rich antioxidant abilities. Read more from here.

Goji berries can be eaten raw or you can soak them in hot water before eating. You can add goji berries to trail mixes, smoothies or as a garnish on cereals, salads or yogurts. Basically, goji berries can be baked, cooked, steamed, and processed in any way after they are washed. I prefer adding in a smoothie.

If you are making this smoothie then it will be good idea to have ZonePerfect® Nutritional Bars on the side. The snack that makes you feels good about yourself. You can grab them from your local Walmart store. There are few varieties of ZonePerfect® Nutritional Bars Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Fudge Graham, and Cinnamon Roll. Choose according to your taste buds.

As I love cinnamon rolls and chocolate peanut butter, I bought that two, both have high quality taste and also are devoid of any High Fructose Corn syrup which is more important to me.

So why wait, grab a blender and add banana, goji berries and almond milk and make delicious smoothie and grab your favorite ZonePerfect® Nutritional Bars, it is rewarding after a stressful day.
Do you want try ZonePerfect® Nutritional Bars. Look for special offer in your local Walmart: Buy 2 boxes of ZonePerfect® and save up to $4.

Antioxidant Rich Goji berry and Banana smoothie

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1

Antioxidant Rich Goji berry and Banana smoothie

Antioxidant rich Goji berry banana smoothie is good for you any time of the day.

Ingredients

1 banana ( Use fresh or frozen)
1 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened if you want use sweetened)
1 tablespoon Goji berries (washed and soaked in hot water for 20 minutes)
1 tablespoon flax seed meal
Ice
Sweetener (Optional, if you want use your favorite one)

Instructions

In a blender add banana,

Goji berries, flax seeds meal and almond mil; cover and blend until creamy

then add ice and blend once again.

Serve immediately. Enjoy.

Mango Strawberry Pops

May 18, 2016 · 10 Comments

Delicious mango and strawberry pops with fresh fruits, perfect treat for kids during this summer. Ice pops are a favorite of my two kids, and whenever I buy strawberry or mango my kids will ask for popsicles. I have tried other popsicles too but they are not that fond of it. They like only two, if it has mango or strawberry they are in. Mostly it is an after school snack for my little girl. She will open the refrigerator door brings the popsicles out and ask me to remove from the mold. My little guy also joins the game. He too wants one. I made this Mango strawberry pops last week as I needed to finish some mango.

When I was young we used to get ice pops which is usually sold by a guy on a bicycle, he used to ring his bell and we kids used to run to his bicycle and he will sell the ice pops. He had only few varieties, one with milk and white one other a colored one. My mom did not like it and would always remind me that it is not hygienic, but when you are a kid and want only sugar treats who cares?

As a mom I am worried about high fructose corn syrup so would always watch the labels while buying. Still some time I can’t help as they want soft drinks. So I decide they are only going to get homemade ice pops. I made strawberry ice pops inspired from the book Paletas by Fany Gerson I changed the step instead of heating the strawberries before blending, I did after pureeing them.

Mango pops recipe is basically mango lassi recipe with cardamom that is why you can see speckles in the mango pops, if you don’t like that skip it. But I think by skipping you are losing an amazing flavor.

When you are making Mango strawberry pops, first add mango mixtures and freeze them for about an hour, then add strawberry puree. That way it won’t get mixed. If you have time you can make different layered ice pops. My kids where so excited so I gone for only simple one. My hubby liked mango pops a lot and then strawberry while kids are vice versa.
Here comes the recipe.

Mango Strawberry Pops

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 7 hours, 15 minutes

Yield: 10

Delicious mango and strawberry pops with fresh fruits. It is colorful and delicious at same time. Kids will love it.

Ingredients

!For Strawberry pops
4 cups fresh strawberries hulled and cut into quarters
½ to ¾ cup sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries and of your sweet tooth
½ cup water
Juice of half lemon

Mango pops

3 mangos
¼ cup milk
¼ cup homemade yogurt
5 cardamom pods
2 teaspoon sugar (optional, if mango is sweet you don’t need to add it)

Mango Strawberry Pops

½ cup Mango puree
⅓ cup strawberry puree

Instructions

Combine the strawberries and sugar in a bowl; until strawberries start to release their juices, it takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

Transfer the sugary strawberries lemon juice, and water into a food processor or blender and puree until it is fine constituency. You can puree them according your taste whether it is smooth, chunky or somewhat chunky, I like it smooth.

Transfer the entire content into a saucepan and place over medium heat. Simmer until it starts bubbles in top, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
Divide the mixture among the molds, snap on the lid insert the sticks and freeze until solid, about 5 hours. You also allow the mixture to freeze to set about 1 ½ to 2 hours and then insert the sticks and freeze completely to 4 – 5hours.

For Mango pops

Peel the mango and add mango and other ingredients into the blender or food processor and puree them until fine consistency

Transfer the mixture to molds and freeze them until it is solid.

For making Mango Strawberry pops.

First fill half of the mold with mango puree and allow to freeze for about 1 -1 ½ hours and then add strawberry mixture and freeze once again until it sets. If you have time you can make layers.
Enjoy

Pazhamanga perukku/ ripe mango chutney

May 14, 2016 · 12 Comments

Delicious sweet and spicy ripe mango chutney goes well rice.

Near my house there is a Wal-Mart open for business yesterday, I haven’t been there yet but definitely will go by this weekend. I like to shop alone in Wal-Mart because with hubby he will always hurry up, I don’t know why; but he doesn’t like to shop at Indian store and the next is Wal-mart. I have some mangoes in hand about 15 which I bought from Sam’s club. Now I am on a spree making mango recipes and I have tried about five recipes with them. First one was Mango banana oatmeal smoothie and second is this Pazhamanga Perukku/ Ripe mango chutney

Third one I tried was to make a mango lather; it was a failure as it turned out very thin. Need to modify that. Then I have tried Mango popsicles and Hand pies. I will blog those recipes soon. This Pazhamanga Perrukku/Ripe mango chutney is very easy to make, you don’t need to cook anything. But final dish taste similar to Mampazha pachadi/ Ripe mango curry. I had a vague memory of this dish that my grandma used to make. However it was never made by my mom, she only made mampazha pulissery and pachadi. I saw this recipe in an old Vanitha magazine; it was in mind for long time but never got a chance to make it. Since now I am in mango mania mood, I decided to try this dish.

I have seen this recipe with raw mango too. Getting raw mango here is not an easy task. This Pazhamanga perrukku/ Ripe mango chutney is marriage between, sweet and spiciness from hot chili in the background of fresh coconut. You need fresh coconut to make this dish; I don’t think desiccated coconut will do the justice here. Also there is no addition of any yogurt in this ripe mango curry. If you are using raw ones you need to add little yogurt.

Just squeeze out everything from ripe mango and then add coconut spice mixture and followed by seasoning in hot oil that is it. Great for rice also served in our home town feast/Sadya. Give it try you will love it for sure.

Pazhamanga perukku/ ripe mango chutney

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 3 serving

Pazhamanga perukku/ ripe mango chutney

Delicious no cook curry made with ripe mango, spicy coconut mixture, goes well with rice.

Ingredients

3 ripe mango (I used Ataulfo mango)
1 tablespoon jaggery
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup freshly grated coconut
4 red chilies
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Curry leaves one sprig
1tablespoon +½ cup water

Instructions

Remove the skin of mangoes and squeeze them to get out all the flesh and juice as much as possible, don't discard the seed, let it be in the mixture and set aside

To this add jaggery (melt jaggery with 1 tablespoon water and strain it for impurities) and salt to mango mixture and mix once again.

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan and add 4 red chilies and roast them and set aside.

Add 2 fried red chilies, grated coconut and ¼ teaspoon mustard seed in a blender grind it into a course paste using ¼ cup water.

Add this ground coconut paste into the mango jaggery mixtures and mix once again.

Heat rest of oil in the pan and add rest of mustard seeds and when it starts popping add curry leaves and halved fried red chilies.

To this add mango-coconut spice mixture and switch of the flame.

Enjoy with a bowl of rice.

Mango banana oatmeal breakfast smoothie

May 11, 2016 · 11 Comments

Delicious naturally sweetened breakfast smoothie with mango and banana and oatmeal. Great smoothie on the go. Breakfast is the most complicated food I make. Usually I stay with a bowl of oatmeal or with two slices of whole wheat bread with touch of peanut butter. When I am in mood I make some smoothie which is special treat for me and I have tried several of them. Nowadays I can get fresh mango in the store and my daughter also like it a lot. So buy them every time. I bought 15 mangos during last week shopping trip and decided to make mango dishes with it. Here is the first one the Mango banana oatmeal breakfast smoothie.

While reading an article in Cooking light, I came to know few tips you need to remember while making a healthy smoothie, first one is to measure everything instead of dumping into the blender, second try with fruit instead of juice. If you want you can add Greek yogurt or coconut milk instead of milk. Add some extra protein in form of nut butters, flax seeds or tofu. I haven’t tried a smoothie recipe with tofu, may be next time I will try. If you are making smoothie with tofu then go for soft one.

For any delicious smoothie you don’t need to add any sugar but use fruits to make it sweeten naturally. Make sure not to drink too much that means you are defeating the purpose of healthy smoothie. To make it feeling full for a long time after having a smoothie add an avocado or oats as they are rich in fiber.
I didn’t add any ice in my smoothies, but if you want you can add only do it at the end otherwise your smoothie will be watery. This smoothie is really easy to put together, you need 1 banana and 2 ataulfo mango, milk, oatmeal and touch of cardamom. And topped it with fresh mango and toasted hemp seeds. This smoothie doesn’t have any added sugar only natural sweetness from mango and banana.

A 1-cup serving of chopped mango has just less than 25 grams of carbohydrates, which means a heaping ½-cup serving has right around 15 grams, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By comparison, you’d get the same amount of carbohydrates from 2 tablespoons of raisins, 1 cup of fresh raspberries, half a large pear or one small banana, orange or apple. So if you are diabetic like my hubby use portion of fruit.

Mango banana oatmeal breakfast smoothie

Rating: 51

Prep Time:

Cook Time:

Total Time: 5 minutes

Serving Size: 2

Mango banana oatmeal breakfast smoothie

Delicious filling naturally sweetened breakfast smoothie.

Ingredients

2 Ataulfo mango peeled and chopped
1 banana
1 cup milk*
¼ teaspoon cardamom( optional)
2 tablespoon old fashioned oats
2 tablespoon of chopped mango for topping
1 tablespoon toasted salted hemp seeds
* you can use your favorite milk if you want diary free

Instructions

In a blender,add peeled and chopped mango, banana,

milk,

oatmeal and cardamom.

Enjoy top the smoothie with mango and toasted salted hemp seeds

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

May 8, 2016 · 7 Comments

Delicious skillet cookies made with double chocolate,with crispy on sides and soft in the center.

When I was sitting bored in my kid’s pediatrician’s office, I flipped some magazine; one was Good Housekeeping and other Martha Stewart Living. While going through the book, I found an interesting recipe this chocolate-chocolate chip skillet cookies. I got hooked and wanted to try it, even though I am not a big fan of Martha and wrote down the recipe in my diary. 3 days later I tried it, it is delicious and as usual I did some of my changes.

I only have 8 inch cast iron pan, even though recipe mentioned for 10 inch pan, I used that. I can’t ask hubby to get another cast iron pan, as he is always asking whether I am using this or not. Secondly I reduced the chocolate chips, so that I can get a feel of the chocolate-chocolate chip skillet cookies. I liked this recipe because this has cocoa powder which I haven’t seen in most of other skillet cookies. Also the addition of brown sugar makes the cookies fudgy as they make baked cooked moist and soft compared to white sugar. My little guy is so excited to help that he started mixing the flour and asking me to take his picture in between.

My girl was ready to eat the cookie dough before baking. It was really hard to hold her back while taking the picture of the cookie.

After seeing baked cookie, my little one give me a class how to bake a chocolate chip cookies, he told me this one is so big. This is not real chocolate chip cookies. Yes this one is deep dish cookies.

This skillet cookie is lightly crispy on the sides and soft on interior, closely related to brownie. Who can resist chocolate that too double chocolate treat. If you are not worried about calories add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the slice while they are warm.

Here comes recipe

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 22 minutes

Total Time: 32 minutes

Yield: One 8 inch

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

Here is delicious chocolate chocolate chip cookies made in single pot.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
. In a large bowl, mix sugar and butter with a wooden spoon.

Stir in egg and vanilla

then flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chips.

Transfer batter to a 8-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet; smooth top.

Bake until just set in center and pulling away from sides, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes; loosen edges. Turn out onto a wire rack. Re invert onto a plate, slice, and serve.

Notes

This recipe is adapted from here

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