Gajar Halwa Truffles

Had enough of the same cakes and cookies  for Christmas, try something new and easy and loved by everyone. 

Make the way you make gajar ka halwa, once its cool down, make small balls and dip them in  melted dark chocolate and voila, you have carrot halwa truffles. 

You can make halwa as    Vegan - Pressure cook - Gajar Halwa (Carrot Porridge) or Carrot Halwa Roulade, final result will be awesome as it is.

Once its done, dip them in and cool it in freezer for 30 minutes and then enjoy.

Ingredients for melting chocolate

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 cup chocolate wafers or chocolate chips ( I used milk chocolate, you can what ever you like)

Method

Make small balls of cold carrot halwa. 

Using the double boiler, add butter and chocolate chips in bowl, when its melted, with the help of fork, dip one ball in chocolate and coat from all sides and take it out on parchment paper.

Finish will all and then put the balls in freezer for 30 minutes.

Take it out and enjoy.

Soy Chap Hyderabadi Biryani

I am a big biryani lover and just love different ways  to make and different ingredients to make my biryani. I already have posted Soy chap Dum Biryani, but this is little different than dum. This biryani is very flavorful , spicy and lip smacking good. I keep my soy chap can in the pantry and leftover chap will go in freezer for later use. I am not making chap at home since you will never get that texture from home made. 

This recipes serves two and I used 3 sticks of soy chap. You can always adjust the quantities as per your taste and quantity. Biryani has just two steps, make rice separately  and make masala separately and then cook it in layers and done. If you have time, you can give dum too  otherwise perfectly layered one is fine to eat it. I had it with Raita and papad. 

Ingredients : 

3 soy chap stick in brine from can

2 cups basmati rice

2 big onion finely sliced

1/2 cup tomato puree

1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste

2 green chilies slit

whole spices - cinnamon stick , cloves, black and green cardamom, star anise, bay leaves

2 tbsp. biryani masala

1 tbsp. turmeric powder

1 tbsp. cumin coriander powder

1/2 tbsp. red chili powder

2 tbsp. Kashmiri red chili powder - its not spicy but for the great flavor

1/2 cup coriander and mint leaves chipped

Salt as per taste

3 tbsp. ghee

1 tbsp. oil for frying chap

Method : 

In big pot bring water to boil. Add salt, whole spices and add soaked and washed rice in it. Cook till the rice is done 85-90%, I personally like 80% since it will get more flavor in it while cooking with masala.

When rice is done, drain the extra water and keep it aside. I like to take out whole spices too since my kids don't like to eat those masala by mistakes and any ways, you got all the flavor in rice so you don't need it now. 

Now let's prepare masala, 

First take the sticks out of the chap, cut it from middle and make 3 inches long pieces.

Heat the oil and fry those pieces till its golden brown in color. 

Keep it aside. 

In the same pan, now add ghee and fry the onions till its golden brown. Take it out 2-3 tbsp. of onion to garnish on the top.

Now in the leftover onions, add ginger garlic paste and chilies and cook till its raw smell goes away. 

Add the tomatoes and cook till its cooked perfectly and masala is dry. 

then add all powder masala and salt and  mix it. Add fried chap pieces and water just to coat the masala. 

Cook for 2 minutes. 

Add cooked rice on top of the masala, then chopped coriander and mint leaves and leftover fried onions on top. 

Sprinkle biryani masala on top and my secret yellow curd mix and  cook it on low flame with cover for 10 minutes. 

Remove from heat and keep it aside for 10 minutes. DONT TOUCH THE HOT RICE, you don't want to break it. have patience. 

Once its little cool down, mixed gently to serve it and enjoy it with raita, dal, papad or as it is. 

Easy 3 ingredients Strawberry Mousse

I am always looking for easy dessert recipes since I like to eat and not wait. This is easy, delicious and good for any party where you have to feed lot of people. You don't have to bake this mousse so its perfect for hot summer days. Just need strawberries, whipped cream and sugar and done. First make puree of strawberries with some sugar, add half the puree in whipped cream and half on the cup and chill it and enjoy it. I made this on Valentine's day for our dessert. And it was a hit, kids loved it since now a days strawberries are in full season, kids love to eat it with Nutella anyways so I just added in whipped cream and its done.



Ingredients : 

16 Strawberries
Sugar as per taste
1 tub of whipped cream 8 oz.
Extra strawberries for toppings

Method : 

Take 14 strawberries and washed them and cut the top green part and put it in blender with sugar in it.

Make a fine puree.





Remove half a cup of puree and leave it aside.

You can use bowls or tall glass, I used bowls.

Mix whipped cream and puree nicely.




Divide that leftover 1/2 cup leftover puree in your serving bowl.

and then top it off with whipped cream mixture.

Chill it for 2 hours and before serving cut the fresh strawberries and put it on top and enjoy.

I have made 8 bowls of mousse from this recipe.

Easy Crepe Batter

I had this thought that Crepe is very serious and hard cooking and not a chance in the world I can make it. When my kids used to tell me that one of our babysitter used to make crepe for their breakfast, I was thinking did I had those ingredients in the house? Since I nerve looked up the ingredients for the crepe, I was being hard on myself and thinking kids had fun with her and I suck since I can not fulfill their desire to have crepes for breakfast. So one day I look it up and I was what that's it? I can do it since I know how to make dosa, this is nothing. So Just whip the ingredients in a blender, heat up the pan and had the ladle full of batter in it and voila in less than 30 seconds, the first crepe is out and the joy on my daughter's face is worth it since then she makes a point to have crepe once a day in weekdays. It's not that hard and anybody can do it. I just make this in the morning for breakfast so just spread Nutella and peanut butter but if you want to make it fancy for dessert, have some strawberry cream and sprinkle some powder sugar and make it nice. I don't have time to do all this in the morning so just sharing it basic recipe and leaving fancy ideas for you all.  This recipe is perfect for 6 crepes with one spoonful of batter.



Ingredients : 

1 cup Whole Milk
1 Large Egg
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp Salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Method : 

Take all the ingredients in a blender and blend it for 30 seconds. Leave it for 5 minutes.

Heat a nonstick pan and put it on slow to medium flame, you don't want your pan very hot otherwise it will burn very quickly, so slow is the key.

Add one full ladle batter in the pan, and tilt the surface of the pan so it spread evenly on the pan.

Cook the crepe on the first side until it easily released when you run a spatula around all of the edges. Loosen the entire crepe with the spatula before attempting to flip.

Flip the crepe and you can use the spatula to smooth it incase it wrinkled while flipping. Continue to cook on the second side until golden brown spots from.

This will be done in less than 30 seconds so you don't have to move anywhere, just stand in front of it.

Once its done, put it on a cooling rack for a minute and then apply Nutella or peanut butter or anything you like. 

Repeat for the rest of the batter and if you have leftovers you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge and when you want it just heat it up in the toaster oven or pan and enjoy it again.