Spiced Apple Juice

Where would we be without apples? This crisp, rosy fruit, believe it or not, is a member of the rose family. They are sweet and juicy when eaten fresh, thirst quenching beverage when pressed and has mouthwatering flavors when preserved. 

They are one of the original health foods. We have all grown up hearing the old phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. When not eaten out of hand, fresh apples make a delectable addition to any cold breakfast cereal. Apples have marked affinity towards certain spices that enhance its natural flavor. We have learned to associate spiced apple with winter holidays.

This is my own version of spiced apple juice. Let’s see how it’s made.

Ingredients:

Red apples	2
Canned apple juice	1 Cup
Mint leaves	¼ Cup + some for garnish
Fresh Ginger Juice	1 tsp.
Cinnamon Powder	½ tbsp.
Crushed ice	Optional
Salt	½ tsp.
Lemon juice	½ tbsp.
Lemon slices	For garnish

Method:
In a blender or juicer, put diced apples along with ginger, mint leaves, canned apple juice and blend them all. Make up your own juice consistency (how much thick or thin) .Then add cinnamon powder, mint leaves, salt and mix well. In a tall glass, add crushed ice (optional), this prepared spiced apple juice and top your glass with the canned juice if desired. Garnish with lemon slices and mint leaves. Enjoy!

Chocolate Tiramisu

Tiramisu is a famous Italian dessert. The word tiramisu in Italian means “lift me up”. I got acquainted to this dessert 6 years ago by one of our friend who bought this dessert from Maggiano’s Little Italy.  All I remember was the bitterness of coffee and the sweetness of cheese were playing on my palate as it passed through my throat. It tasted so perfect with the balance of sweetness and coffee flavor. Every single time I check out the dessert menu I feel like ordering Tiramisu, but by the time I am done with a soup and main course, I hardly have any space left for dessert.

As a result, I thought to myself why not try making egg less and nonalcoholic Tiramisu in a small glass. So, I came up with my own version of tiramisu which does not exactly taste as an Italian restaurant quality but definitely screeches ‘Lift me up’ that you will want to make it again and again.

I made it for our close friend recently, and they really liked it.

 Let us see how it is made:

Ingredients:

Lady fingers biscuit (available in Indian stores in the US)	4
Water	1 Cup
Instant coffee powder	1 Tbsp.
Heavy whipping cream	1 Cup + ¼ Cup
Hershey Chocolate syrup	1 ½   Cup
Powdered sugar	1 Tbsp.+ ½ Tbsp.
Cooking chocolate bar grated	For Garnish
Raspberries/strawberries and blueberries	For Garnish

Method:

Keep an empty bowl (the bowl that will be used to make whipped cream) in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. This reduces the time of whipping the cream. 

Meanwhile, break the lady fingers into small pieces. Layer the bottom of the dessert glass with crushed lady fingers biscuit.

 Heat the water in a microwaveable cup for about a minute. Take it out and dissolve the instant coffee powder. Pour 1/4^th cup coffee in each dessert glass so that all biscuits are drenched in coffee. Set aside.

Take out the chilled bowl; add Hershey chocolate syrup, powdered sugar and 1 cup heavy whipping cream. Beat all the ingredients until you get stiff yet soft peaks. Make sure not to over beat it, or else you will get butter. Pour ¼ Cup of beaten whipped cream into each dessert glass. Level it out with a spoon.

Now take another bowl and beat 1/4^th cup of heavy cream with 1/2 tbsp. of powdered sugar until it gets fluffy. Now add 1 tbsp. heavy cream in each dessert glass. 

Add fresh fruits on top. 

Take the chocolate bar and grate over the dessert glass covering the surface as light or heavy as desired. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Ragda Patties

Today, I came up with one of the tasty treats from the family of Indian Street foods. Ragda Patties are fried potato patties topped with a tasty peas curry, and garnished with tangy chutneys. It’s a snack that is a meal by itself. Piping hot and layered with several flavors, it’s one of my cold-weather favorite dishes. 

Ragda comes from the word “churned” reflecting the way you vigorously stir the curry to blend the flavor. Patties mean potato patties. This Ragda is perfect to have with Rotis or Phulkas as well. But you could go one step further and transform this wonderful dish to Ragda Patties.

In the patty-curry combination, one can make a spicy patty and serve it with a less spicy curry or the other way round. Or one can make both the components spicy to make it a really fiery dish. I usually make the patties less spicy and the curry spicy. This is a dish to make, if you have a bunch of eaters with differing tolerance for spice. Kids devour these little patties.

Let’s see how it is made.

Ingredients:

For Patties

Medium sized potato( boiled & mashed)	3
Oil	2-3 Tbsp.
Bread crumbs	½ Cup
Turmeric powder	1 tsp.
Garam masala	¼ tsp.
Ginger paste	1 tsp.
Coriander powder	½  tsp.
Cumin powder	½  tsp.
Chaat masala	¼ tsp.
Salt	To taste

For Ragda

Whole dried yellow peas( white vatana)	1 Cup
Small sized finely chopped Onion	1 Cup
Ginger paste	1 tsp.
Finely chopped Tomato	2
Red chilli Powder	1 tsp.
Green chili finely chopped	1
Turmeric powder	½ tsp.
Garam masala	½ tsp.
Salt	To taste

For Garnish

Cilantro chutney

Tamarind & Dates chutney

Minced onion

Minced Cilantro

                               

Method:

Soak the peas overnight. Cook them in pressure cooker with some salt, turmeric powder and cooking soda until it is fully cooked.

To make the ragda, heat oil and sauté onion for a few minutes until it becomes translucent.

 Add ginger paste and sauté for a minute.
Next - add all the dry spices, i.e., red chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Saute for couple of minutes until the raw smell of the spices goes away.
  Then, add green chili and chopped tomato and cook for couple of minutes on medium flame.

. Next – add salt and the cooked peas with 2 cups of water. Adjust the consistency to your liking. Bring it to a boil.

Finally garnish with cilantro. Set ragda aside.

To make patties, mix all the ingredients under Patties except oil. Take a small portion in your hands and form patties from that. Heat 2 tbsp. of oil and fry these patties until it becomes golden brown on both sides.

To assemble, place 4 patties on a plate. Top with a ladleful of peas curry. Then garnish with tamarind chutney, cilantro chutney, minced onion and cilantro. If desired, you could also add sev.

  

Eggless Brownie

Valentine’s Day is like a day of desserts, decoration, candy and chocolates. It is a day to be celebrated with someone who you love, be it your significant half, your parents, your children or your friends. Expensive chocolates and romantic dinner screams a little luxurious. And there’s nothing wrong with a little luxury in life.

Last night my husband and I went for dinner sans kids. It was an amazing experience celebrating our 6 years of being together + 3 years of being parents -we felt so lucky. Valentine’s Day has a special meaning for each one of us. And for us, celebrating means having desserts since we both a huge sweet tooth. So, I made eggless brownies, which my family including both my sons enjoyed a lot.

This recipe is based on multiple recipes that I found on the internet.

This recipe is for gooey, chewy, and chocolaty brownies. If you are a chocolate lover, you will definitely like it.

Ingredients

Sugar	½ Cup
Mashed bananas	½ Cup
All-purpose flour	12 Tbsps.
Hot water	2 Tbsp.
Salt	A pinch
Butter	3 Tbsps.
Semi-sweet chocolate chips	1 ½ Cup
Vanilla Extract	1 Tsp.
Baking soda	¼ Tsp.
Baking Powder	1 Tsp.

Method:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a microwaveable bowl, add chocolate chips and butter

.Melt the contents in the microwave and set it aside.

In a different bowl, add sugar, mashed bananas, hot water, vanilla extract and the chocolate mixture. Whisk the mixture well. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until it is combined well. Don’t over mix. Pour the mixture on a greased baking pan.

Shake the baking pan gently just to avoid air bubbles and even the surface.

Bake the brownies for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with few crumbs. Leave the brownies to cool in the baking pan, let it cool at room temperature .Don’t touch the surface of brownies.

When it cools, refrigerate it for an hour before cutting it.

Carrot Halwa

Mmmmm…How I wished for a second spoon...second spoon of warm, yummy and ghee-ey Carrot Halwa. This was a typical scene at my school back in India when my mom used to pack me Carrot Halwa on certain occasions.

 I used to quickly close my lunch box before my teacher came. I used to be upset, as to why teachers show up so punctually for their classes. If only my friend and I could sneak in before the assembly dispersed, I would have succeeded in getting my second spoon of Halwa. While my other classmates were busy unloading their books from their bags, I used to consider myself invisible and load spoon after spoon of Carrot Halwa. OMG I couldn’t get rid of that Halwa for the whole first hour of Monday morning.

 I laughed to myself about those school moments, and decided to make my mom’s recipe of this Carrot Halwa.

Ingredients:

Grated Carrot	1 Cup
Milk	½ Cup
Sugar	½ Cup
Clarified Butter (Ghee)	3 Tbsp.
Cardamom Powder	1 Tsp.
Cashew Nuts, Raisins	5  to 6

Method:

Wash and trim both end of carrots.Scrape the outer skin using a peeler.Grate the carrots using a grater.i used my food processor.

 Heat 2 Tbsp. of ghee in a non-stick pan. Fry the cashews and raisins until they become golden brown.

Remove the contents and keep it aside. To the same pan, add grated carrots and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Then add milk and bring to a boil. Once the milk starts boiling, reduce the flame to medium and stir continuously until the milk is evaporated.

Add sugar and mix well.

Once the sugar has completely dissolved, add the cardamom powder, fried cashew nuts, raisins, 1 Tbsp. of ghee, and cook until it leaves the sides of the pan.

Serve this delicious halwa either warm or cold.

Checkerboard Cookies

Aren’t these so much fun? My husband loves playing chess so much that I had to break out few of the chess pieces into the picture. I wanted to make something special and something different for my husband. After I made these cookies, he looked at me thinking “how did you do that?” These cookies perfectly fit the description to the fullest extent.

Ever since I saw this recipe, I always wanted to try it out. It was so much fun to follow the various steps and see those neat little checkerboards appear at the end. And they taste so good too!

Recipe inspired from http://www.rotinrice.com/

Ingredients:

Vanilla Dough

Unsalted Butter	½  stick
Vanilla extract	1 tsp.
All-purpose flour	5/8th of a  Cup
Powdered sugar	¼ Cup

Chocolate Dough

Unsalted Butter	1 stick
All-purpose flour	5/8th  of a Cup
Powdered Sugar	¼  Cup
Cocoa powder	1 Tbsp.

Method:

For Vanilla dough:

Take butter (room temperature) in a big mixing bowl. Add sugar and cream them together until well blended. Add vanilla extract and blend them with spoon. Gradually mix in the flour. Knead dough to bring it together. Place the vanilla dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

For chocolate dough:

Take butter (room temperature) in a big mixing bowl. Add sugar and cream them together until well blended. Add cocoa powder and blend them with spoon. Gradually mix in the flour. Knead dough to bring it together. Place the cocoa powder in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Prepare 4 sheets of parchment or wax paper. Draw 3.5*3.5 inch square in the middle of 2 of 4 sheets. When both types of dough are chilled remove it from the refrigerator.

Place a sheet of parchment paper with down side of square facing down on your working surface. Unwrap the vanilla dough in the middle of the square .Place another sheet on the top (without drawing).Roll out the dough to the outline of the square. To minimize the wastage, Use a flat knife or a spatula to push the dough into the square. If necessary, trim the dough.

 Remove the top sheet and cut the dough into three slabs of equal width. Do the same process for chocolate dough.

Place the three slabs of dough alternating vanilla and chocolate dough one on top of the other. Gently press them together. Cut each slab lengthwise into 3 equal strips.

 Rearrange the strips of dough to create 2 slabs forming 9 small rectangles crosswise.

Wrap each slab with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit .Remove the dough from refrigerator. Unwrap the dough and slice each log into ¼ inch thickness slices crosswise.

Place onto a non – stick baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes per batch.

Remove and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy them