Foodie Workz

A very simple and common preparation enhanced by these lovely blue berries giving the dish a nice color and flavor... 1/2 cup rawa 1/2 cup sugar little less than 1/2 cup blueberries few broken cashewnuts for garnish 1/8th tsp of elaichi powder 1/4 cup of ghee Roast the rawa in about 2 tsp of ghee till you get the aroma.  In the meanwhile, heat up about 2 cups of water in the microwave.  Slowly add this hot water to the rawa keeping the flame at low.  Turn up the heat and cook the rawa nicely without any lumps.  Once this is done, add the sugar, elaichi powder and half of the ghee.  Let this cook until the sugar is melted completely.  Again, microwave the blueberries quickly to soften them and add this to the rawa cooking in the sugar.  Add the rest of the ghee and cook until it comes together and does not remain sticky to the touch.  Garnish with some cashews roasted in ghee...

How about a tasty treat which is relatively guilt free compared to the ones which need lot of  fat and sugar?  This is my second attempt at this,  having made it earlier for my daughter's girl scout event.... Dates 30 nos Milk about 1/2 cup a couple of generous pinches of cardamom powder sugar abt 2 tblsps ghee(not melted) in semi solid state 5 tsp sliced almonds 1/4 cup toasted pista coarsely ground for garnish almond slices for garnish Cook the dates and milk in the pressure cooker.   Once it cools off, remove and grind into a paste. To begin with add a spoon of ghee into the pan and start cooking the paste.  After few minutes of stirring, add the sugar and some  more ghee. Slowly the mixture will begin to change color and also thicken a bit.  At this stage, you can add the coarsely ground roasted almonds and also the cardamom powder.   The mixture is done, once it comes together like a ball and is not sticky to the to...

Many a times I have used the pumpkin that is available in the Indian grocery store to make soups, gravy dishes,  sambars and even in mixed vegetable curry .  But recently, I picked up this huge butternut squash from a local grocery to prepare soup for a potluck get together.  The appearance of the inside and the texture of the squash looked very similar to the pumpkin that is available in the Indian store.  To get things clarified, I went on the net to see if they both were the same but found out that they were obviously not the same but the names are frequently used interchangeably and they can be easily substituted in recipes.     Butternut Squash also known as butternut pumpkin in Australia is a type of winter squash and has a sweet nutty taste similar to that of pumpkin especially the sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin.  It is a good source of fibre and Vitamin C apart from being an excellent source of Vitamin A and Vitamin E .  I made this pa...

With Diwali around the corner,  preparations must be going on for making some sweets and savories.   My first attempt is the Besan Ladoo.   This is a traditional and a very popular dish in Indian households during Diwali time.  Besan burfi or Mysore Pakku as it is known in the South is what I have tried in the past.  As I wanted to go easy on the ghee I decided to try out the ladoo for the first time.  Not only for that but I have also oflate become hooked on these type of ladoos which I never even used to taste in my childhood days. I followed a couple of recipes one being Manjulas Kitchen and the other being Tarla Dalal.   I like the former as you get to visually see the making process.  I also refer Vahrehwah.com for sweets and desserts.  I started off following Manjula's recipe without the rawa.  As my flour started cooking, mine was no way near the consistency of hers so switched to Tarla Dalals and just used my d...

As I was left with some beets after making the pulao, I wanted to try something different.  The result was these lovely Beet root polis. Filling  1 medium size beet root peeled and processed 1/4 cup of slivered almond powdered or almond meal 1/4 cup of brown sugar(can add little more if needed) 1 cup of milk(used low fat) 1/4 tsp elaichi powder ghee Outer covering 1/2 cup wheat flour 1/4 cup all purpose flour pinch of salt 1 table spoon oil for kneading Combine all these ingredients to form a soft pliable dough and set it aside for an hour. In the meanwhile, chop the beet root into rough pieces and process in a food processor.  Transfer this to a vessel along with the ground almonds and a cup of milk and pressure cook for 10 minutes.  Once you are ready to open, take this to a pan and cook on the stove top till all the mixture is absorbed completely and add some brown sugar and about a couple of spoons of ghee.   Turn off the st...

My dear friends, it has been a crazy time here at my end as I am getting ready to go on a long summer vacation. Between, all the shopping and packing, I decided I am not going to worry too much about posting any recipes....all this has not given me much time to sit down and draft the recipes and take any clicks. Moreover, I got this Ipad as a delayed mother's day gift....Soon I discovered that I was unable to scroll down all the recipe posts of the blogs that I follow and was also unable to scroll the post content while I am editing or creating a new post in my inbox....there was no delete key only backspace:-(  I could not upload a picture and the browser did not support the compose mode. This lovely gift was not helping me and I had to resort to my old laptop which was not becoming available to me, thanks to my daughters who claim control of it. With all these hiccups around me, I just got tired of blogging recently. I do have a couple of recent drafts without pictures and ...

This is a traditional dish in Tamilian households usually prepared on festive occasions. 1 measure of rice 1 measure of grated coconut 2 measures of jaggery crushed into little pieces water milk some cashew nuts roasted in ghee pinch of cardamom powder Soak the rice in water for half hour.  Drain the water and rinse it.  Take some fresh water(about 3 to 4 times the measure of rice) and begin by grinding the coconut for half a minute.  Add the washed rice and grind it so that the rice is of a very coarse texture.  Make sure not to over grind.  Take this mixture to a pan and begin cooking on the stove top, stirring the mixture constantly.  Once the rice is thoroughly cooked, add the jaggery.  As soon as the jaggery dissolves, add the milk(about 4 measures), saffron and the roasted cashew nuts....the payasam is ready to be served. You can increase or decrease the quantity of jaggery and milk according to your taste. You can also use suga...

1/4 cup Broken Barley 1 small carrot 11/2 cup milk(I used fat free) 3 table spoons sugar 3 cashews extra milk to cook barley and carrots few strands of saffron 1/8 tea spoon of crushed cardamom few cashew nuts and raisins for garnish The first step is to process the barley to a coarse rawa consistency. Please refer to my Instant Barley and Rawa Idli recipe . Next, the barley and the carrots have to be cooked. Take water and milk together equal to a cup in a vessel and add the barley rawa. You can use full measure of milk if you want. Chop the carrots into slices and take them in a vessel with milk just enough to cover them. Add the 3 cashews. Cook both of them together for about 10 minutes on low heat after a whistle or upto 2 to 3 whistles. In the meanwhile, boil the milk thoroughly in the microwave. Once the pressure is released, take the carrots with the milk and grind into a smooth paste. You can add more milk if you want while grinding. Bring it to the stove top and cook ...

1 cup pecans                                                        1/2 cup oats 3/4 cup sugar few cardamom pods a spoon of ghee 1/4 cup milk Process the pecans making sure that it does not get lumpy. Roast the oats in a spoon of ghee until it turns golden brown in color. Powder this with the sugar and cardamom. In the meanwhile, begin to toast the processed pecans on the stove top. Slowly you will begin to see that the nuts are letting out oil and kind of coming together. Roast this until you get the smell of the pecans making sure it does not get burnt. Transfer this and the oats mixture to a bowl. Have a quarter cup of milk heated up and ready. It is not required to boil the milk. Use the needed amo...

one measure of rawa / sooji two to three measure of water depending on the variety one measure of sugar one third measure of ghee(I used about 1/4 th measure) two measures of strawberry chopped into fine pieces roasted cashew nuts for decoration cardamom powder Roast the rawa with few spoons of ghee until a nice aroma comes. Boil the water in the microwave and slowly add this to the rawa stirring it. Cook the rawa until all the water is absorbed. In the meanwhile, cook the strawberries with very little water in the microwave. Add this to the rawa , the sugar and the ghee and cook until the sugar is melted and begins to form a soft dough like consistency. Sprinkle some cardamom powder and the roasted cashew nuts. I am sending this recipe to Nivedita's Celebrate Sweets - Warm Desserts guest hosted by Priya Mitharwal . I looked into my pantry to only find Fada (fine) which I had bought it last week instead of the regular rawa . Hence, I decided to use this to make the above ke...

One measure of Oats Flour One measure of Almond powder Sugar according to taste Cardamom Powder Roasted cashews and raisins for garnish Cook the oats and almond flour together in the cooker with water and milk combined in the ratio desired. The total liquid to powder ratio can be 3:1. Once cooked and while it is still hot, remove any lumps if any. Bring it the stove top and add the required amount of sugar and let it come to a boil at medium heat remembering to stir the mixture. Add some well boiled milk or evaporated milk and let it again come to a boil. Turn off the stove and add cardamom and the roasted cashew and raisins for garnish.

One measure Oats Flour One measure Milk One measure Almond meal or powder One measure ghee Two measure Sugar I used a standard 1/2 cup measure for the above recipe. For the one measure of Almond powder, I used half almonds and half finely shredded coconut. Combine all the ingredients in a pan and make sure there are no lumps in the mixture. Start cooking at medium high heat. Keep stirring the mixture to ensure that it does not get burnt at the bottom. The mixture is ready once it all comes together leaving the sides of the pan. Have a greased plate ready to pour the mixture. For the quantity I tried it took about 12-15 mts. Once it is ready, quickly transfer the dough to the greased plate. Let it cool slightly before you cut into desired shape. This was sent to "CWF-Oats" event hosted by Priya of easyntastyrecipes@blogspot.com