Dessert Ideas:: Fruit Phirni

I always get stuck when it comes to preparing desserts. Most desserts take ages to prepare! One option is to buy any traditional Indian sweet such as gulab jamun, rasgulla, etc. from any sweet shop. But, that's not fun. So, I have been in the hunt for a dessert that can be prepared in less than an hour. Phirni fits the bill!

Here it goes - my recipe for the dessert - Phirni.

Ingredients::

500 ml milk

200 g white sugar (finely ground)

 half spoon cardamom powder

200 g fragrant Basmati rice
50 g Strawberries or kiwis or peaches or mangoes (or any other fleshy and juicy fruit)

Preparation::
1. Wash the Basmati rice and soak it in lukewarm water for about 10 minutes.
2. While the rice is soaking, put the milk in a deep-bottomed pan, and heat it.
3. Add the sugar and cardamom powder to the milk. Stir the contents, and continue heating on a low flame.
4. Once the 10 minutes are over, drain the water from the Basmati rice. Grind the Basmati rice in a hand blender or mixer-grinder. Do not grind too much - the rice should not be like a paste, it should be grainy.
5. Add the rice to the milk which has been heating on a low flame till now. Stir the contents to mix well. Cover the pan and let the rice cook. It takes about 10-12 minutes for the rice to cook. Do not overcook.
6. Take the pan off the stove.
7. Cut the fruit into 1 inch pieces. You can use any fleshy and juicy fruit such as Strawberries or kiwis or peaches or mangoes. But use only one fruit. Mixed-fruit phirni tastes very bad :(
8. Mix the cut fruit with the contents of the pan.
9. Refrigerate and serve cold. Your Phirni is ready! For a restaurant-y look, garnish with shaved bits of almonds and cashew, and 2-3 strands of saffron. 

It takes about 35-45 min to prepare this Phirni. It's simple and tasty. The flavors are clean and the fruit in the Phirni gives a blast of freshness to the whole dish.

Garhwali Recipe:: Dhapdi (Kafuli)

After aloo gutka, this is the second traditional Garhwali dish that I have managed to master. Like aloo gutka, this is also a simple dish to make. In fact, what I have observed is that most traditional Garhwali dishes are easy to make and do not involve a lengthy list of ingredients. Indeed Garhwali food, like the Garhwali people, is simple and unpretentious.

Anyway, here it goes - my recipe for the traditional Garhwali spinach dish, Dhapdi. Based on my research, I believe that Dhapdi is also called Kafuli in some parts of Garhwal. The following recipe easily prepares for 4 people.

Ingredients::

500 g fresh spinach

100 g besan (chickpea flour) [This can be substituted with 100 g rice flour.]

 half spoon turmeric powder

1 spoon cumin powder

1 spoon coriander powder

2 green chilies cut length-wise

1 large onion - finely chopped

1 large tomato - finely chopped

3 spoonfull oil (preferably mustard oil)

2 spoonfull ginger-garlic paste

2 spoonfull ghee (clarified butter)

1 spoon cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Preparation::
1. Wash the spinach, cut it roughly and boil in a pressure cooker (2 whistles should be enough). If you are not using a pressure cooker, then boil till the spinach is al dente.

2. Drain the water and keep it. 

3. Take the boiled spinach, add the besan and blend this into a fine paste. I use an electric hand blender. You can use the traditional stone mortar-pestle (sheelbatta) also.

4. In an iron kadhai (pan), add the mustard oil.

5. When the oil boils, add the chopped onions and tomatoes, and the ginger-garlic paste.

6. When the onions become brown, add the cumin powder, coriander powder, salt and turmeric powder. Stir for 2-3 minutes under a low flame.

7. Add the spinach and besan paste. Mix well with the contents of the kadhai. Stir for 2-3 minutes under low flame.

8. Now, add the drained water from boiled spinach. Don't add all the water at one go. Add cup by cup till the mixture is of uniform consistency. This process will take about 10-12 minutes.

9. Cover and cook at low flame for about 5 minutes.

10. In a separate ladle (karchee) heat the ghee. When the ghee boils, add the cumin seeds and the chopped green chilles.

11. When the cumin seeds start to darken, add the contents of the ladle into the kadhai.

12. Stir for 10-15 seconds.

13. Take the kadhai off the flame. Your Dhapdi / Kafuli is now ready.

Feel free to garnish with fresh coriander leaves and tomatoes. 

Dhapdi can be eaten with either rice or roti. If you want to eat it with rice, then make it a little runny. I, personally, prefer to have dhapdi with rice. 

If you plan to have it with roti or bread, then make it thick and garnish with raw onions.

So, that's it. All done! Enjoy your dhapdi!

My Quick-fix mixed vegetable recipe

Ok, this is nothing elaborate or spectacular. But this dish will save your life when you have less than 30 minutes to fix a healthy and tasty dinner. Sometimes when I get very late at work, this dish helps make my dinner quick, yet tasty.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup baby corn - sliced

1/2 cup chopped cauliflower

1/2 cup tomato

1/2 cup peas

Preparation:
1. Cut the baby corn in circles (cut perpendicular to its length)
2. Cut the cauliflower and the tomato into 1-2 inch pieces
3. In a pan, add one spoon full of butter and let it melt.
4. Once the butter melts, add the cut baby corn, cauliflower, tomato and the peas. Mix with the butter.
5. Add salt and a sprinkle of black powdered pepper,  and mix well.
6. Cover the pan, and cook in low flame for 10 minutes.
7. That's it. Done!
8. You can eat this either with bread or roti/chapatti.

You can throw in chopped broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, green beans, french beans or mix-and-match your own vegetable mix.

Dessert Ideas: Fried Apple

Today, I feel like eating something sweet. So, I decided to make the southern-style Apple Fry.
While I was in the US, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the food in the southern states of the USA is as spicy and greasy as that of India's! Though I lived in Missouri, I traveled often to Kansas, Louisiana and the other southern states. So, I had ample opportunity to gorge on fried chicken, cole slaw, apple fry and loads of similar southern delicacies.
I was always under the impression that apple is a fruit and hence, it should be eaten raw or atmost as apple jam. I mean that's what we do here in India! So, I was pretty taken aback the first time I came across Apple Fry. Frying a fruit?? Hmmm, interesting... But after I tried it once, I was hooked. And, it has remained my favorite dessert ever since.

Ingredients:
250 gm apples (2-3 apples). Do not use sour apples.
100 gm butter. If you are health-conscious, then use un-salted fat-free butter such as Nutralite.
2 table spoon sugar. You might have to use more sugar if you are using slightly tangy apples. If you are health-conscious, then use jaggery. You can use fat-free sugars such as Sweet N Low as well.

Preparation:
1. Cut each apple into 12-15 slices length-wise. Remove the seeds in the core.
2. Peel each apple slice.
3. In a heavy pan or skillet, heat the butter on a low flame till all the butter melt.
4. Add the apple slices and stir to make sure that each slice is coated with butter.
5. Add the sugar/jaggery and stir to make sure that it is evenly distributed.
6. Cover the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes. Remove cover and stir every 1-2 minutes to make sure that the apple slices do not stick to the pan.
7. Apple Fry is ready! Do not refrigerate.


Apply Fry can be served as dessert by itself. However, it tastes great if you add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with each helping. So, go ahead- pamper your sweet tooth!

Garhwali Recipe: Aloo Gutka (dry potato fry)

Recently, I have taken to cooking seriously. I mean I have always been "cooking", but now, I am getting into experimentation; I am trying out various recipes. I am married to a Garhwali. So, I am trying out a few traditional Garhwali recipes as well.

Garhwali people are very simple and this simplicity reflects in their food as well. There are hardly any jazzed up Garhwali recipes. Most of their dishes are simple and do not involve a lot of ingredients.

One of the simplest yet tastiest traditional Garhwali dishes is Aloo Gutka. It takes less than 15 minutes to make it.

Ingredients:
250 gm potato (4-5 big potatoes)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
4 table spoon vegetable/canola/sunflower cooking oil
2-3 green chillies, each cut length-wise into 2 pieces
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Boil the potatoes.
2. Peel and cut the boiled potatoes into 1 inch cubes
3. In a deep pan, heat the oil on a medium flame till hot
4. Add the salt, turmeric powder and coriander powder and green chillies
5. Immediately after adding the spices, salt and green chillies, add the potatoes
6. Stir to make sure that the potatoes don't stick to the pan
7. Cook for 5-7 minutes
8. Aloo Gutka is now ready!

Aloo Gutka can be served with hot roti/chapatti/Indian flat-bread or puri/loochi or tortilla. It can also be used as sandwich filling.