Chocolate dipped Kiwi

I have always had this kiwi dipped in chocolate fountain in any party or occasion (obviously where they have put up chocolate fountain and kiwi as one of the pop). But had never thought would try it at home until my cousin Rushit mailed me a picture from of chocolate kiwi pops and persuaded me to try it out.

It looked tempting and luckily also had kiwi available at home. Thought of trying it out and within next 20 minutes Choc Dip Kiwi was ready.

Trust me it is very simple and quick to make. Tempt your guests by serving this yummy dessert at home.

What goes in it:

Kiwi- 2 nos

Chocolate Slab- 1 horizontal bar of the slab (I used Morde dark compound)

Milk-1/2 tbl spn

For support:

Small forks- 8

How did I make it:

Peel off the kiwi and slice them.

[Foodies’ Note: Cut thick slices so that you get tempting blend of chocolate and kiwi and also fork can hold the thick slices properly.]

Carefully insert tip of the fork to one of the edge of kiwi. Though I did break 1-2 slices of kiwi while inserting fork. Keep them aside.

Then melt the chocolate slab. For this take a deep cooking pot with water in it. Let the water boil. Put the chocolate slab in a small cooking pot. And place that pot in the deep cooking pot. Keep on stirring the slab and let the chocolate melt. As it melts, sprinkle very little milk in it. Stir it well so that you get thick chocolate.

Or you can also melt the chocolate in a microwave. I don’t have one so I used two cooking pot and stove.

Apply this chocolate evenly on the kiwi slice. Make sure you apply the thick chocolate so that it drips less comparatively. Mind it your kitchen platform will get little messy. 

Before refrigeration 

Put in a tray and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Out of refrigerator after 20 minutes as I didnot have the patience to wait any longer

Take out the tray. Serve and enjoy yummy choc dip kiwi...

Vegetable Toast Sandwich

Sandwiches are best for picnics, snack time, for kid’s party or simply for get-to-gethers.  There is variety of sandwiches to choose from, plain vegetable sandwich to cheese sandwich to masala toast. Well I choose vegetable toast sandwich not for any occasion but simply for dinner. This is one of my favourite recipe on menu.

It tastes delicious with combination of vegetable and cheese plus obviously easy to make.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Making time: 25 minutes (to make stuffing and toast sandwich)

Makes: 6

What goes in it:

Potato, boiled & diced- 2 big sized

Carrot, boiled & diced- 1 medium sized

Peas, boiled- ½ cup

Onions, vertically sliced- 2 big sized

Capsicum, vertically sliced- 1 big sized

Cabbage, sliced- 1 cup

Ginger, finely chopped- ½ tbl spn

Garlic, finely chopped- ½ tbl spn

Green chillies, finely chopped- 1 tbl spn

Lemon juice- 1 tbl spn

Garam Masala- ¼ tbl spn

Oil- 1 ½ tbl spn

Asafoetida (Hing)- ¼ tbl spn

Salt- as per your taste

Cheese, shredded- 1 cup

Pepper powder- ½ cup

Coriander leaves, chopped- ½ cup

Butter- to apply on bread

Bread- 12 slices

How did I make it:

Cut al the required vegetables. Finely chop ginger, garlic and green chillies in chopper and make a paste.

Boil diced potatoes and carrots and peas together in a pressure cooker or in a cooking pot. Don’t make them to mushy. Once they are boiled, drain off the water and keep aside.

Now in a kadai, prepare oil for tempering. Heat the oil. As it heats up, put hing in it. Then add ginger-garlic-chilli paste and sauté it properly for about a minute. Then add onions, capsicum & cabbage to it. Also add salt, garam masala and lemon juice to it. Mix them all well. Cook it keepind the lid closed for about 5-7 minutes. Cook them till they are partially boiled/ cooked. Just make sure they don’t taste raw.

[Foodies Note: Onions, cabbage & capsicum when sautéed raw in oil with garam masala and salt gives a different flavour to sandwich as compared to normal masala toast.]

After they are cooked, add boiled veggie’s to it. Season generously till all the ingredients are mixed properly. Switch off the stove and keep aside.

Take bread slices and apply butter on one side of the bread slice. Evenly spread the prepared vegetable stuffing on it. 

Top it off with shredded cheese. 

Sprinkle a pinch of pepper powder and chopped coriander leaves on it.

Place the other bread slice on it and press gently.

[Foodies’ Note: Combination of cheese, pepper and coriander will work wonders for your toast.]

Toast it in a sandwich toaster till it is done. Until both the sides are turn golden brown.

 Ready to be served.

Serve it hot or pack it cold for picnics. Have it with mint chutney or green chutney or tomato ketchup.

Mom-made Potions for Monsoon

Monsoons are liked by almost all of us. Walk in light showers, playing football in muddy playground, getting drenched in rains & scolding’s of mummy, sailing of paper boats in logged streets, holiday in school because very heavy rainfall are few of the snapshots that fill my mind when I think of monsoon.  But with all this fun also has its side effects... Monsoon comes in season with its own maladies. Cough, cold and fever being the basic ones.

There are number of home remedies which can help us keep these maladies at bay. My mom usually makes turmeric milk and herbal drink at home during monsoon everyday to immune us against monsoon flu.

It will take less than 10 minutes to keep you safe from common monsoon infection. So try them and keep enjoying rains...

1. Turmeric Milk

What goes in it:

Milk- 1 glass

Turmeric- ¼ tbl spn

How did Mom make it:

Simply boil milk and turmeric powder in a heavy bottomed vessel for about 10 minutes. After it is boiled, filter it and pour in a glass. Drink while it is warm.

As we know Turmeric has very good antiseptic quality and apart from that it protects our body from seasonal changes.

2.       Herbal Drink (Kada)

What goes in it:

Adulsa Leaves- 3-4 leaves

Tulsi (Basil) Leaves- 5-7 leaves

Cinnamon bark (Tej)- 2-3 small pieces

Cloves (Laung)-3-4 nos

Pepper (Mari)- 3-4 nos

Turmeric powder- ¼ tbl spn

Water- 1 glass

Tulsi Leaves

Adulsa Leaves

How did Mom make it:

In a pan take water and add all the ingredients. Boil it for about 5-7 minutes. 

After it is boiled, filter it and pour it in a glass.  Drink it while it is warm.

[Foodies’ Note: don’t overdo this drink as then it may be harmful. Drink half a glass only.]

Can you see the vapours... 

This really helps when you have cold and cough. Especially when you drink it hot in rainy season, you will feel fresh. But mind it, taste is a bit sour. 

This potions are prepared at my home, I am sure your mom must be making something else so do share... 

Besan Ladoo

Besan ladoo is a saviour when you suddenly decide to make home based sweet for guests. Today my mother had the same thought. I learnt it today and cooked with momie’s helping hand. We had a couple of guest coming at home today so sweet toh banta hai!!! With short notice of time, mom and I had to choose from rava ladoo or besan ladoo. We went with latter one.

It takes about 30 minutes to cook besan ladoo. Sweet and smooth besan ladoo just melts as you put it in your mouth. Sounds delicious... Let’s get to the recipe.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Makes: 25-30 ladoos (the size you shape into)

What goes in it:

Rava

Besan flour (Bengal gram) - 1 ½ cup

Rava (Semolina) - ½ cup

Milk- ¼ cup

Ghee- 1 cup

Sugar, powdered- 1 cup

Elaichi powder (Cardamom)- ½ tbl spn

How did I make it:

Take a kadai, put besan and ghee in it. Keep on stirring both on low flame till it gets reddish tone. This will take about 5-7 minutes. Make sure the mixture is loose.

Besan & Ghee

As you start stirring

As you keep stirring

Pinkish colour to besan

Add rava to it, this gives a nice texture to the ladoo. As you will add rava, it will swell up and gradually level down as you keep on stirring continuously on low flame. Roast it till you get light pinkish colour. This will again take 5-7 minutes of your time.

Take it off the stove and add milk to it. Mix it well stirring it continuously to avoid lumps. Also add eliachi powder to it. Once the mixture is mixed well, let it cool.

Then add powdered sugar to it and mix well.

Shape into round balls/ladoo with the help of hand. And the ladoo are ready to be served consuming little of your time & effort.

Serve this delicious light coarsed ladoo to your guests... 

Cucumber Salad with peanuts

The other day I was at my uncle’s place. On the table laid a cooking book- The Samsung Book of Microwave Cooking by Rohini Singh. I was just browsing through the book were this recipe in salad section caught my eyes. I found it interesting and had to try it soon, salads being my favourite. After making it, it surprised me as it not only added flavours to my regular salad but it is very simple to make which took less than 15 minutes.

Bored of eating regular green salad, try this recipe for sure. Such an interesting blend of flavours !!!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Making time: 7 minutes

Serves: 4

What goes in it:

Cucumber, diced- 2 medium sized

Lemon juice- of ½ lemon or as per your taste

Peanuts- 2 tbl spn

Sesame seeds (Til) - 1 tbl spn

Oil- 1 tbl spn

Mustard seeds- ¼ tbl spn

Asafoetida (Hing)- ¼ tbl spn

Green chillies, finely chopped- ¼  tbl spn

Coriander leaves, chopped- ½ cup

How did I make it:

Peel the skin of cucumber. Cut cucumber into cubes.

Add lemon juice to it and set aside the bowl.

Take a small pan and roast peanuts till they turn little brown. Put roasted peanuts in cucumber bowl.

In the same pan, roast sesame seeds till they turn light brown. Be careful as the seeds will pop outside. Add this sesame seeds the bowl.

Now out little oil in the same pan. Heat it and sauté mustard seeds. Let them pop properly and add hing and chopped chillies to it. Take it off the stove and add to the bowl. Put salt to the mixture and mix them all well.

Roasting peanuts and sesame seeds wil take about 2 minutes each. And tempering will also take about 2 minutes. 

Garnish with coriander leaves.

In about 10 minutes, the cucumber salad is ready to be served.

Stuffed Potato (Mexican style)

Stuffed Mexican Potato- a very tempting and delicious dish when served hot.

I learnt this recipe from my sister in law Shruti. I became fan of this dish from the day one. Easy to prepare and ingredients easily available which is what makes stuffed potatoes my favourite and don’t forget to add on the yummy baked taste of potato and cheese with Mexican flavours.

So here’s how I made my Sunday, cooking my favourite dish...  Try it and it will be your favourite too...

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 12 potatoes

What goes in it:

Potato, boiled- 6 small sized

Tomato, finely chopped- 1 small sized

Onion, finely chopped- 1 small sized

Garlic- ½ tbl spn

Oregano- ¼ tbl spn

Chilly Flakes- ¼ tbl spn

Mixed Herbs- ¼ tbl spn

Salt- to taste

Oil- 1 tbl spn

Butter- 2 tbl spn

Cheese, grated- ½ cup

Coriander, chopped- ½ cup

How did I make it:

Wash and peel the skin of potatoes. Cut them into halves lengthwise so that you can make proper scooped potatoes.

[Foodies Note:  Take small and medium sized round potatoes so that it can be scooped meticulously.]

Boil them in water with a pinch of salt in it. Don’t make them too mushy. After it is boiled drain off the water and scoop the potato with the help of a spoon. Keep them aside.

Scooped Potato

While potatoes are being boiled and let cooled prepare for stuffing. Finely chop tomatoes, onions and coriander leaves.

In a small kadai take little oil and sauté garlic till it turns brown. Add onions and potato to it and sauté for about 1-2 minutes. Now put in oregano, chilly flakes, mixed herbs and little salt. Add chopped coriander leaves to it and mix them all well. Let it cook for about 2 minutes. The kitchen will be filled with tasty aromatic flavours.

[Foodies Note: Add little salt as you are going to use cheese and butter which have salty taste.]

Ready Stuffing

Keep it aside and start preparing for roasting potatoes. Take a pan and switch off the stove. Apply butter to halved potatoes. And roast both the sides of potato on it on low flame till they become golden brown.

Roast first side

Turn them and roast second side

Lay them on a plate

Stuff the scooped potatoes with the prepared filling. .

Top is off with the grated cheese

Bake the stuffed potatoes in the pan on low flame. 

Close the lid. Bake till you can see tempting melted cheese. This will take about 5 minutes.

Serve this Mexican style stuffed potatoes hot to your family/ friends/ guests and have fun with mouthful of stuffed potato.