Freshly Picked Strawberries and Ice Cream

Nothing can more exciting than picking fresh fruits and veggies directly from the farm. Fruit picking is always fun when u go with your little ones...You will love to see them picking and eating the fruits on their own. We had been to Larriland farms in MD for strawberry picking. We could pick 6 lbs of strawberries.. Those were the best strawberries i ate in recently times, very sweet and red. Its a tedious job for the people who pick....especially on the hot summer day, but those who have the passion for fresh fruits and veggies, its all worth the effort.

6 lbs!!!! what could i do with them? Should I give away some of them to my friend? Will I be able to finish them before they begin to soften? will they go bad before i think of recipes? But, I decided a few dishes and i could finish them off in 2 days.. I am glad that i didnt let them soften.

Here is the recipe for Fresh Strawberry Icecream:

I found this recipe in the recipe booklet of The Cuisinart Classic Frozen Yogurt-Ice cream & Sorbet Maker.

Ingredients:

2 cups Fresh ripe strawberries stemmed and sliced

3 tbsp lemon juice (i didnt add it)

1 cup sugar, divided

1 cup whole milk, well chilled

2 cups heavy cream, well chilled

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. In a small bowl, combine strawberries with lemon juice and 1/2 cup of sugar. Stir gently and allow the strawberries to macerate for 2 hours. Strain berries, reserving the juices. Mash or puree half of the berries.

2.In a medium bowl, combine the milk and remaining sugar and let it dissolve. Stir in heavy cream, reserved juices, vailla and mashed strawberries.

3. Turn your ice cream maker on, pour the mixture into freezer bowl and let it mix until thickened, about 20-25 mins. Five minutes before mixing is complete, add the reserves sliced strawberries and let it mix completely. The ice cream will have a soft and creamy texture. If firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an air tight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours.

My tips:

1. Make sure your freezer bowl is frozen. I keep this bowl in the freezer for a day before preparing ice cream.

2. Always use well chilled milk and cream. I keep the cold milk and cream in the freezer for few minutes before using them in the recipe.

3. I always keep the ice cream in freezer for a day to get the required texture.

You will love this, I bet!!

Although we all enjoy freshly picked fruits and veggies, there are some points to consider before you leave for picking: protecting yourself and your kids from the sun, carrying a bottle of water to drink, carrying a your camera to capture the moments with your kids, Going to the restroom before you leave for picking... huh? Well, its very important as you may or may not find a good loo in the farm :P

Tawa Pulao- Mumbai Street Food

Hi to all the bloggers-old and new. I had been on a long vacation to India for 4 months. Trip was excellent. Mrinal was very happy to meet all our relatives in India. The good thing about this visit was she learnt to talk :). She talks more than me now. She is 2 years and 4 months. We celebrated her 2nd bday in Mumbai. I came back to Baltimore with Mrinal last month. I was not able to keep up with blogging since many days.. infact months....I am glad there are so many new bloggers with wonderful recipes. I missed all the amazing events which took place during my absence.

I wasnt ready with any new recipe. Now here is one without a picture :). I promise i will upload the picture soon.

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice
1 medium sized onion chopped in long thin pieces
1 large tomato chopped
1 small green pepper
1/2 cup green peas
1 small red pepper (optional)
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
2 tbsp pav bhaji masala
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera

Method:
1. Wash basmati rice 3-4 times and keep aside for 15 mins. Cook rice in pressure cooker and spread it on a large plate. Add butter on top of the rice and spread with your finger gently. This helps the grains to separate from each other.

2. In a medium size tawa/ pan, heat oil, add cumin seeds, onions, ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute. Add green and red pepper and saute till they are half cooked. Add tomatoes , green peas and saute.

3. Add pav bhaji masala and red chili powder.Add very little water and cook for a minute. Add salt and mix well.

4. Add cooked rice. Add lemon juice and then mix gently.

5. Garnish tawa pulao with coriander leaves.

Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes

If you are trying cupcakes/ Muffins for the first time, here is the basic and easy recipe. The original recipe called for 2 eggs, I substituted flax seed meal for eggs.

Here is the recipe:

3 cups cake flour sifted
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter or margarine softened
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs (I used 2 Tbsp flax seed meal mixed in 6 tbsp water)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line pan with baking cups.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
6. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating one minute.
7. Pour into prepared cups.
8. Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean.
9. Cool 10 minutes.
10. Turn out onto cooling rack; cool completely.

I got this recipe from wilton.com.

You can see various recipes for cakes, cupcakes, cookies in this website. And here is something which most of us know but never tried them.

Eggless Banana Blueberry Muffins

I have already posted Banana Walnut bread in my previous posts. Here is the another version of it. I followed the recipe from Mighty Foods.

Recipe is as follows:

2 cups white whole-wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup natural cane sugar
2 large organic eggs (I used 1 tbsp Ener-G replacer plus 4 tbsp water mixed thoroughly)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 2 bananas)
1 cup fresh blueberries, toss in a bit of flour to keep them from sinking while baking

Heat oven to 375 and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and 3/4 cup of the walnuts in a bowl and whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl using a mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and egg replacer. Stir in vanilla, yogurt and mashed bananas, then gently mix in dry ingredients; over mixing will result in tough muffins. Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, top with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts, bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Fill cups two-thirds full for regular muffins or to brim for a big-topped version. Spinkle with a bit of sugar here for a nice bit of sweet crusted goodness. Cool for a couple minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Red chilis chutney/Ranjaka

Ranjaka is a hot red chili chutney usually served with bhakri/roti in karnataka. It can also be used as a red chutney for bhel or any other chaat dishes. It is made of fresh red chilies, however dry red chilies can also be used instead of fresh ones.

15 dry red chilies medium hot (Can use extra hot chilies instead)

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp lemon juice

water

Method:

Soak red chilies for 2 hours. Grind them into paste along with other ingredients adding very little water. Store in a air-tight container in refrigerator.

Ambode/Dal vada

I found this recipe here. I have written down my measurements below. I followed the procedure though.

Ingredients:
Chana dal: 1 cup
Green chillies: 1
Dry red chillies: 2
Pepper corns: 1/2 tsp
Jeera: 1tsp
Hing: a pinch
Curry leaves: 7-8 small
Coriander leaves: 1 cup chopped
Grated fresh coconut:1/2 cup
Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp powder
Ginger:1 and 1/2 inch
Salt to taste
Ghee: 2 tbsp
Raw rice flour: 1 tbsp
Oil for frying
Onions: 1 small Finely cut
Garlic: 1 small clove

Method:

Wash and soak the chanadal with hing, peppercorns, jeera, green chilies and red chilies for 1 hr. Crush the cinnamon and cloves separately (this will not get crushed with the other ingredients, if ground together in the mixer).

Drain the soaked chanadal with other ingredients to remove all water and grind coarsely with curry leaves ,ginger,crushed cinnamon and cloves and salt. Transfer to a bowl and mix the grated coconut, rice flour, finely cut coriander leaves and ghee. If using onion and garlic, add the finely cut onions and crushed garlic also. Mix well.

(Ambode mixture)

Make small balls of the ground mixture. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, reduce the heat, but retain the temperature of the oil. Take the prepared balls in your palm and pat lightly with the fingers and slide into the hot oil, one by one. Turn the ambodes once inside the oil, so that both sides get cooked evenly.

Remove from oil, when both sides are cooked, drain and serve the crispy ambodes with pudina chutney or tomato sauce.

The less experienced can pat the ambodes on a plastic sheet and gently slide them into oils, taking care not to splash the oil.

Coconut Almond Cake

Recipe adapted from WWW.indobase.com

Ingredients:
• 1-1/2 cups Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut • 1 cup Unsalted Butter, softened (I used 4/5th cup) • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour • 1 tsp Baking Powder • 1 tsp Vanilla Essence • 1-1/3 cups Sugar • 1 cup Whole Milk • 1/2 tsp Salt • 3 Eggs (I used Ener-G egg re placer: See notes)
How to make Coconut Cake:
• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. • Now grease a 10 by 2 inch round cake pan and line bottom with a round of wax paper or parchment. • Grease paper and dust pan with flour. • Combine flour, baking powder and salt, mix well. • Beat butter with mixer till creamy. • Gradually beat in sugar on medium speed till pale and smooth. • Add vanilla essence to it, keep stirring. • Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, mixture may look curdled at this time. • Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk in 3 batches over low speed. • Raise the speed to medium and beat batter 1-1/2 minutes till soft, now fold in coconut. • Spoon batter into the cake pan and spread uniformly. • Bake cake in the middle of the oven till golden brown for about 45 to 50 minutes at the temp of 175 C. • Cool cake in the pan on a rack for about 1 hour, then invert onto the rack. • Remove paper and invert again onto another rack to cool completely. • Coconut Cake is ready to serve.

Notes: 1. Instead of eggs, I used egg replacer. I followed the instructions on the carton. For 1 egg substitute 1 and 1/2 tsp egg replacer mixed in 2 tbsp water. Mix well before adding to the cake batter. 2. The batter shouldn't be kept waiting for too long after adding the replacer. The effect of the replacer reduces if not baked immediately.

3. I didnt not use mixer or food processor as mentioned in the recipe. I did it manually.

Peanut and Raisins Clusters

I found this recipe in a cookbook called Sinfully Vegan. Its a very simple recipe for the beginners. I made few changes in the recipe. I have written down my version of the recipe.

You will need:
1 cup semisweet chocolate-chopped (I used semisweet chocolate morsels)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts (w/o skin)
1/4 cup raisins

Procedure:

Heat the chocolate in the pan.

After its fully melted, add peanuts and raisins and mix well. Take a spoonful of this mixture and drop it on a greased plate and freeze until hard.





Remove and store in the refrigerator in a airtight container.

Eggless Zebra Cake and Smiling Muffins

I hunted for eggless zebra cake recipes on web, but there were very few of them. I had flax seed powder on hand, so wanted to use that as egg substitute. Since I did not want to use soda or any other substitutes, I decided to take chances. I had no hopes for fluffy and soft cake, since a few cakes before this (using flax seed powder) didnt come out too well.

But surprisingly, this time, zebra cake was amazingly soft. I followed the recipe from Sailusfood. She has used eggs in her recipes. Her cake looks very fluffy. Initially I wasn't sure about my cake, so I made a small cake measuring half of the quantity of whatever she used.

So, here is her recipe (and my measurements):

1/2 cup sugar (See my notes)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil (corn, vegetable or canola)
1 cups maida/all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
2 tbsps dark cocoa powder
2 eggs (I used 2 tbsp flax seed powder mixed in 6 tbsp of water)

I followed the same procedure:

1. Combine eggs(flax seed mixture)and sugar in a bowl till light and creamy. Add milk, oil and vanilla essence and beat till smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, combine maida and baking pwd. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are completely incorporated. Do not overbeat.
3. Divide the batter into two. Add the cocoa pwd to one portion and combine well.
4. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the baking pan. The most important part is assembling the cake batter in a baking pan. Pour 3 heaped tablespoons of plain batter into the middle of the baking pan. Then pour 3 tablespoons of cocoa batter in the center on top of the plain batter. Continue alternating with plain and cocoa batter without pausing for the batter to spread.

5. Bake for 40 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake it should come out clean when ready. Remove from the oven. Run a small thin knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake. Leave aside for 15 mts and invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Turn the cake back over and cool further.

My notes:

1. I felt sweetness of the cake was bit less. So I think instead of 1/2 cup sugar, I should have added 2/3 cup sugar.

I also tried muffins with the same batter. But I couldnt make the decoration properly as on the cake.

Instead of Zebra muffins, I would rather call them as "Smiling muffins" Look how they are smiling at you.

Mango Semolina Cake

My 16 months old daughter, Mrinal, just couldn't stop eating this cake. It is indeed very delicious. It tastes just like Mango Rava kesari. But in the cake form. I found this recipe at redchillies.us. Oh my, I just couldn't take my eyes off the cake. Especially the color of the cake drives me crazy. It looks so tempting. Original recipe is from here.

Ingredients:
1 cup and 1 teaspoon of Rawa/Sooji
1 cup Mango pulp
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking powder
Some ground Elaichi (I used 1 tsp vanilla extract instead)

Method

Mix all the ingredients and bake at 375 degrees for 25/30 minutes. Check with a fork to see if properly baked. Cut and Serve.

Optional:

Arrange cashew nuts on the mixture (before baking) so that it forms a grid for cutting. One cashew should be at the centre of every piece.