‘by the window’ strawberry shake

pink strawberry evenings

 

Long walks and window shopping.

Narrow lanes. And clatter of evening traffic.

Vendors’ shout. Riot of street colours.

And there sat these these glamourous strawberries beckoning to be turned to something smooth and sexy.

And this afternoon while experimenting with the camera, depth of field..focus, defocus, colour enhancements, I craved for an instant strawberry shake/ smoothie to be sipped at ease sitting by the window.

Easy peasy recipe follows:

Take couple of medium sized strawberries – 10 to 12 units

Vanilla and strawberry essence : 2 drops each

Sugar: 1 tbsp (to cut through the sourness of the naughty strawberries)

Cold milk : 1 big glass

Condensed milk: 2 tbsp

Apple and banana: half an apple and half a banana. Cut into 4 to 5 tiny pieces each.

Blender.

Mix them all and give a nice foamy blend. Taste to test the sweetness you want and relish with a loved one or if alone just indulge in memories of loved ones and beautiful thoughts!

 

 

instant crispy crumbly bread snack

crispy crumbly bread snack

When you want to create something delectable in a jiffy, yet satisfy that craving for something snacky and spicy here is a solution.

For this Dry Bread Upma Dish

Take four to five white bread slices

Tear them into medium-sized square pieces with hand

Heat a pan. Add 2 tsp butter and 1/2 tsp oil. Once hot temper with 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds. Wait till they crackle. Add curry leaves,and a cup of sliced onions. Saute till soft.

Add 2-3 split long green chillies and stir for few seconds.

Now add the pieces of bread and stir dry till slightly brown or crispy. Add turmeric powder , 1/2 tsp sugar, salt to taste, and some black pepper.

Stir and add finely chopped fresh coriander leaves and some red chilly powder to garnish. Don;t forget to squeeze in juice of half a lemon for the tangy sweet flavour.

Awesome when paired with ginger tea and a view of sunset!

Participated in the interactive forum Fiesta Friday hosted at http://thenovicegardener.wordpress.com/

Sewai Kheer/ Vermicelli dessert – a rich noodly milky delight

Sweet vermicelli kheer or dessert

A lil birdie visited me today. I saw her and thought to myself, she must be hungry… And so was I… Well she flew away, but the thought remained…

The TV telecasted sweet savories and the mind played tunes of some sweet and bitter memories…while calls poured in since it was a so-called special day…

While I sat back relaxed…not in the mind though, I decided to whip up  a sweet vermicelli/sewai kheer.

Rice Kheer is a popular dish on special occasions, but many like the sewai version better because its less heavy and tastes beautiful and sometimes like sweet soupy noodly goodly delight…

As Wikipedia aptly informs…”Vermicelli is a traditional type of pasta round in section similar to spaghetti.…The dish in the original language are variously known as seviyan in Urdu and Hindi, shemai in Bengali, sev in Gujarati, shavige in Kannada, sevalu or semiya in Telugu, and semiya in Tamil and Malayalam. The noodles are used in a number of dishes including a variation of kheer, a sweet dessert similar to rice pudding. Vermicelli are also used in many parts of India to make a popular dish called upma. ”

Sometimes, you don’t want a full fancy meal but want to revive old memories…you want replicate the original with right proportions..and nothing fusiony, experimental.. because somethings are good the good’ol original way!

For this recipe for two servings..

–>You need One litre of full cream good quality milk. Since milk is the main ingredient here. So no comprise!

–>Half a fist of sewai/vermicilli or a ratio of 2:6 (6 being milk)

–>Sugar: one fourth quantity of the milk or 2 to 3 tbsps of sugarfree sweetners for the calorie conscious.. sigh!

–>Milkmaid or condensed milk

–> Cashews, raisins, almonds

–>Cardamom powder if you like the taste of cardamom

–>Saffron (Optional..add if you want to add that shaahi/royal touch)

• Let the milk boil in a deep thick bottomed pot on low flame till reduced. Try reducing it to half by continuously supervising that the milk doesn’t get stuck to the bottom of the pan. You can ensure that by stirring it in between, and keeping a ladle in the milk.

• Take  another pan and roast the broken vermicelli in half tsp of ghee/clarified butter.
• Use a roasted vermicelli packet in which case you need to roast these for 2 to 3 minutes only otherwise till lightly pink or golden brown.

• Keep the vermicilli aside and roast the nuts in the same pan in ghee and switch off flame once they are just about roasted. Keep an eye to avoid burning of these nutty nuts.
• Meanwhile once the milk starts reducing add the sugar and milkmaid.

• After stirring and having reduced the milk to desired level,  add the vermicelli evenly.  (Actually since we are using condensed milk, you might avoid reducing it all the way to half, reducing it just a little to get a thicker texture is enough)

• Stir to avoid lumps from forming.
• Add the raisins so that they swell up and cuddle up with the lovely ingredients that have already created a storm in the pot with a lovely aroma.

• After another 10 to 12  minutes add the roasted nuts and if you like few roasted grated almonds.
• Sprinkle little pinch of cardamom powder.
• Add the few saffron strands.
• Switch off the flame.
• Let it stand for couple of minutes. Serve slightly warm in your favourite bowl and I say two spoons for a sweet, memorable experience with your loved one.

Might be good to keep in mind:

–> Vermicelli  have a tendency to thicken up in milk so its better to take lesser quantity compared to the milk and have it warm.
–>Roasting the nuts before adding to the kheer helps get a rich aroma, although personally I like the kheer without any nuts or raisins somehow
–>The things with such sweet /dessert is that the proportion is very important and the method helps make or break the dish.
–>Sometimes lot of people do not reduce the milk for this kind of dessert, but reducing it gives the rich gooey creamy taste and texture of milk that makes the cooking worth it. Just make sure that the quantity of vermicelli is much much lesser to the milk.

–>Once you add the vermicelli the texture starts thickening. So its good to keep an eye.

–>If you in trouble reducing the milk and to not burn it at the bottom consider using a thick bottomed kadhai and you are safe!

–> Try the chilled version with kulfi and some chopped cadbury chocolates for another heavenly experience

–>Adding the raisins while cooking helps them swell up which many love to eat that way only

  

Participated in the interactive forum Fiesta Friday hosted at http://thenovicegardener.wordpress.com/

morning instant and random breakfast tips

Mornings are when they say you must feed your poor stomach that has fasted the entire night!

 

Mornings ought to bring a sense of calm which is pretty difficult to find/achieve/try for often…Stress engulfs one and all these days. Newspapers and magazines are filled with articles of leading a destressful life… sigh..Well with mornings one of the best way to start your day is a glass of water…no matter how busy, rushed or stressed or lazy you feel..

 

For a light yet not so light breakfast..few things that caught my attention are:

Bread that are healthy like this new 9 grain bread slices available these days.

Have it with a healthy spread of peanut butter for that dose of instant energy (Personally I prefer cheese or plain salted butter) You could try it with some delicious fruit jam as well..

A cuppa coffee of tea/chai whatever makes you feel chirpy..

Roasted cashews..yummy!

Breakfast and more…

 

 

Bread Upma and chai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick bread upma is a good choice as well.

To make a plate of bread upma.

Crumble into tiny pieces 6 to 7 slices of bread (or brown bread). Add 1 tsp oil and dollop of butter in a pan, add jeera (cumin seeds), and mustard seeds. On spluttering add chopped green chillies and curry leaves. Throw in thinly sliced onions..

Now add the bread pieces with sprinkle of turmeric powder, red chilly powder, 1 tsp sugar and half tsp lemon squeezed juice. Sprikle salt evenly and throw in lot of fresh coriander leaves. You could try sprinkling bit of pavbhaji masala as well. Spicy, hot accompaniment with tea in the morning is ready for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, fruits are wonderful in the morning. If you can manage add in fruits to your daily diet. When I dont like having them I sprinkle black pepper, and salt to pieces of apples, pineapple, pear, mangoes etc and have them..

 

Work can start a bit later…Ideas can start flowing a bit after the mind has settled as well..

Serene nature and urban landscapes… fusion of new age peace mantra?