Tomato Butternut Squash Soup

Hello Sweeties!!! Today I bring to you a warm and earthy soup, packed with goodness of vitamins and essential fibers. I have been making soups for dinner in winters and snow days as they warm up the bones like no magic drink in cold cold frosty months. Soups in summer have lost all their charm. There is something about cold winters and bowls of warm soups with winter vegetables. 

You will need,
1 cup cubes butternut squash
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 onion--diced
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tbspn Italian seasoning
1 tbspn oil
salt to taste
water or stock

In a pressure pan, heat the oil and add garlic and onions, stir till onions are translucent, then add in the butternut squash, add the tomatoes and let it roast till the butternut squash is browned, then add the salt, spices and water and bring a small boil, cover and pressure cook for 2 whistles.

Once cooled, run a stick blender and puree the soup, adjust water to thin it out if needed. Bring it to  a slow simmer  and enjoy the earthy soup with your loved ones. garnish with cream if you like food art.

Pineapple Malpua with Instant Rabri

Hello Sweeties!!! Indian sweets like malpua and rabri are known to take forever to make. It is not everyone's cups of tea  and only expert chefs take pride in making such desserts. 

I am no expert and no chef at that, but my search for good food and never scared to try attitude makes me attempt such desserts. I am a part of so many food groups, a silent reader at most, that they help me when I crave for such foods.

I don't remember where I had seen the instant rabri recipe, but it is a hit with my kids who dislike the malai or cream or milk solids in their mouth. I have some issue with the texture too, so this is good for people like me.

Traditionally malpua is made from flour, fried in clarified butter soaked in sugar syrup, this process not only is time consuming but also not figure friendly. I tweaked the malpuas to make them suit to my needs and weight. I made pineapple pancakes instead and they tasted similar. Diet food is at times compromised; but again if you name it different there is no comparison with the original. 

Different name different avatar and everyone is happy. Innovation is another name for disguise in Ashland.

To make the Pineapple Malpua's;
You will need;
6 discs of ripe pineapple
1/2 cup glutten free baking flour
2 tbspn sooji
1 tbspn sugar
3 cloves powdered
2 Elaichi/green cardamom powdered
Milk to make batter.
Ghee or clarified butter for shallow frying.

In a bowl, take the flour, sugar, clove and cardamom powder, mix well, add milk to make the batter. Dip the pineapple discs and shallow fry using ghee in a cast iron pan. Once cooked cool and keep aside.

To make the Rabri;
You will need; 
1 cup Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup condensed milk
3/4th cup milk
2 tbspn Milk masala
** Cashews/walnuts/pistas,saffron, green cardamom and nutmeg powder

In a bowl, mix the condensed milk, ricotta cheese and regular milk and stir till it is well incorporated. Add the milk masala and stir well. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

To assemble;
In a single serving dish, take 2 tbspn chilled rabri, place the pineapple pancake/malpua on it and pour some more rabri over it. Serve immediately.

My kids liked the hot malpua and chilled rabri combination. This was so easy and done in less than 20 mins of actual preparation time. I am in love with such pleasing desserts.

Guitar cake-- Molded two tone choc bubble wrap Guitar topper

 

Hello Sweeties!!!! Hope you all are enjoying February festivities at your end. By now you all must know that I am constantly searching new ways to make my cakes interesting. I hope to learn something new with each cake I attempt.

I like to learn some new technique some new way of making my cakes whenever I make for some one special. I have a love bond with my cakes and that makes the cakes extra special for me. 

If I don't love the end result, its not fair to expect that the person for whom I make them, will love it. I know in this cake the strings are not clean, straight and look messy, but I made them with gel icing, as I was not sure how the thin strings with fondant would hold up and I was all out of ideas. I searched high and low for black licorice thread, but was not able to find any. So had to do with what I had on hand.

I was not going to use any sort of icing, so needed some thing to make the cake topper look like a guitar, so made this topper with a bubble wrap and melted chocolate. To make it appear authentic I mixed some swirls of dark chocolate in melted white chocolate and stirred it gently just to make it look like wooden specks, It did not turn out as it sounded in my head, but none the less, I loved my attempt.

Cake recipe-- Try my perfectly Chocolate cake

I used the same cutout I made from paper for the chocolate topper and the cake to make it the same size. The orange is all marshmallow fondant leftover from a Disney Dusty planes cake I made for my nephew.  Hope you all enjoy my cake attempts and keep your grace on me.

Sabudana Wada Waffle--Sago Shingada/Waterchestntu Wade/Nuggets Waffles

Hello sweeties!!!! If you have ever tasted Sabudana Wada, a Maharashtrian snack, you will know and agree with me how tempting this deep fried treat can be. But Sabudana or sago or Tapioca is Starch, I am not getting into any debates here how it is made or if it is really vegetarian, but one thing for sure is that it is so so yummy.

 Sabudana Wada is 100% diet buster and stay away from the aroma if you ever ever happen to be closer, as then it is a war to stay away. But if you like me who likes to hog, stare and stalk expert food makers and join all food groups on social networking, your family will be as happy as mine where eating good is considered. The next big thing in low fat eating is Waffle maker and Danish pan.

I am using my waffle maker to make this, but feel free to make it in a danish maker also. I have tried it many time,s but waffle maker wins this battle in my home.

You will need;
2 Cups Soaked Sago--Soak the sago in water for 10 mins and drain all water out and keep covered for good 5-6 hours.
Approx 1 cup Water-chestnut flour-Singada Atta
The proportion will depend on how soggy the sago is, if its less you will require less flour
2 small boiled potato
2 tbspn roasted peanut powder
1 tbspn Cayenne powder 
1 tspn cumin powder
1 tspn Cumin seeds
1 tbspn Chopped Cilantro
1 tsp sugar

1 tbspn Lime Juice
Salt to taste.
Water if needed to knead into  a pliable dough 

In a bowl combine all the ingredients and mix well. Use little water if needed to bind it into a ball. heat the waffle maker and spray it with a non stick spray or use oil whichever you prefer. Close and let it cook. I have a electric waffle maker like a sandwich maker which indicates when the waffle is ready.Enjoy as is or with yougurt/ketchup or traditional coconut chutney.

Mexican Rice Lettuce Wrap--HB We turn Six!!!

Hello Sweeties!!!! Today is a big day for us. We turn 5 today. Wow.. time just flies. 6 years, I am still going on slowly and not so steadily. I so badly wish that I could post like a recipe a day, but growing kids and growing commitment have slowed down my pace with posting. I am still happy to not have totally abandoned my baby who turns 6 today. It was a snowy day when I started this blog and it has kept me warm and fuzzy with your love and wishes.

This is the time when I want to thank all my well wishers, readers, family and friends who have been the spine behind Indulge. Their time, efforts and constant words of encouragement is what is adding fuel to my passion of blogging.

Keeping up with my resolve to eat clean and healthy, we have been regular at Chipotle. The kids eat well and that makes me a happy mom. They don't fancy sour cream, and avocado so half the things that make the burrito interesting are missing from their plates. So to please them and add the spice to the otherwise bland Chipotle, we spiced it up at home.

You will need;
Fresh washed Lettuce leaves
1 cup boiled corn
1/4 cup small diced red pepper
1 cup Black beans
1 tbspn Taco seasoning 
Hot Sauce-as per taste
Store Brought Salsa
2 cups Lime Cilantro rice
* Take warm boiled rice, add 1tbsp butter, salt to taste,  2tbspn chopped cilantro and  juice of 1 lime., mix well and lime cilantro rice is ready.

Mix the boiled corn kernels and the peppers and add in the taco seasoning, salt and hot sauce and keep aside. Empty the can of black beans and drain and wash the liquids, add some salt to it and keep it aside. I add some Taco seasoning to the beans as well.

In a bowl take the corn salad, add in the rice, black beans and the hot sauce, mix well. On a lettuce leaf take some of this rice mixture and fold the leaf to form a bowl and munch on. No plates required to set up, wash and dry. This is PFChang meets Chipotle kind of a dish, makes my kids and tummy equally happy.