Microwave Carrot Halwa

Happy Navrathri to all readers!!Hope you are enjoying with your family and friends,indulging in sundal:-)

I made this super easy carrot halwa in microwave for the first day of navrathri and it contains less fat than the original stove top version.I adapted this recipe from Tarla dalal's carrot halwa(stove top recipe)

Ingredients:

Grated carrot - 1 1/2 cups

Milk powder - 4 TB Sp

Sugar - 4 Tbsp

Ghee - 2 Tbsp

Cardamom powder - 1tsp

Cashew nut for garnishing

Method:

Mix carrot and ghee and microwave for 8 minutes by covering with a lid.

Grated carrots will become soft and cooked.

Add the milk powder,sugar ,stir and microwave for 5 minutes.

At the last minute of the cooking time add the cardamom powder and mix.

At the end of 5 minutes it would have attained a halwa consistency.

Garnish with cashewnuts.

Pin It

Microwave Mysore Pak

Iam back to blogging after a long break!!

Today is my younger one's 3rd birthday.So I made this mysorepak in a microwave.The whole process takes 8 minutes!!Easy isn't it??

When you crave for mysore pak and you dont feel like going through the whole laborius process of standing in front of the stove with a ladle,you can try this.

Ingredients:

Besan/chickpea flour - 1 cup

Melted ghee - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 1  1/2  cup


Method:


Grease a plate with ghee.

Mix melted ghee and besan without any lumps.

In a microwave safe bowl(large enough so that the mixture does not overflow during the process),heat the sugar and water and microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Stir and then microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Now add the ghee-besan mixture,mix thoroughly and then microwave for 4 minutes.

Stir for every minute,as it tends to overflow.

At the end of 4 minutes,when you look at the vessel,pores would be formed all over.That is exactly the required consistency.

You will get the timing right after you give 1 or 2 tries.It depends on the microwave too.

Even I felt i should've reduced 40 second during my last minute .I got a little bit hard texture.


Transfer into the plate and after 2 minutes cut into desired shape.

Pin It

Rava and Coconut Burfi

Ive tried similar kind of burfi only with coconut.It will be slightly soft and chewy.

This recipe is my chithi's recipe handed over to her by her MIL.It uses a combination of sooji/rava and coconut.The sooji gives a little hard texture  to the burfi.

Ingredients:

Sooji / Rava - 1 cup

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 3/4 cup or 2 cups if you want it to be sweeter

Ghee - 2 tablespoon

Powdered Cardamom - 2tsp

Method :

Grease a plate.

Slightly roast grated coconut and rava separately till i tbecomes slightly golden

In a thick bottomed vessel add the sugar and  just enough water to cover the sugar.

Heat the mixture on high until it starts boiling.Reduce the heat and allow it to cook till you get one string consistency.

Now add the coconut and rava and keep on stirring for every 2 minutes on medium heat.

Once when the mixture starts leaving the pan,add the cardamom powder  and 2 tablespoon of ghee.

Transfer the contents into the greased plate,level it with a flat bottomed cup and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

Cut into desired shapes

Pin It

Hershey's best brownies

Ive tried 3 or 4 brownie recipes so far and this one will surely be in my recipe binder.It uses simple and very few ingredients and so easy to make.

Recipe courtesy : Hershey's

I didn't make the frosting.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Cocoa Powder -  1/3 cup

Unsalted Butter melted - 1/2 cup

Sugar -  1 cup can be reduced to 3/4 cup

Vanilla essence -2tsp

Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Eggs -2

Chopped Walnuts - 1/2 cup


Method:

Preheat oven to 350degF. Grease a 9 inch square pan.

Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour,  
cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nuts, if desired. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Cut into squares.

Yield - 16 brownies

Pin It

Homemade Paneer

Ive never made paneer before at home fearing how it will turn out.But when I made my paneer at home I realised how easy it was and Iam never gonna go back to store bought paneer.These paneer cubes were made from low fat milk.

Ingredients:

Low fat/2 % milk - 6 cups

Lemon juice - 4 tablespoon

Utensils needed:

Colander lined with cheese cloth

Pan filled with water used as weight.


Method:

Heat milk in a thick bottomed vessel on a medium-high flame.Keep stirring intermittently to keep it burning in the bottom.

When milk starts to boil,add 2 tablespoon of lemon juice to the milk and switch of the flame.Stir it.Then add another 2 tablespoon of lemon juice and stir.By this time the milk will start to curdle.If it hasn't,you can add 1 or more tablespoon of lemon juice.

The milk solids will start to separate and you will get a clear yellowish/greenish liquid which is called the whey.

Milk solids separated from the whey

Pour the contents into the cheesecloth lined colander.Rinse it with cold water to get rid of lemon smell.

Gather the ends of the cheese cloth and make it as a bundle and squeeze to remove extra water.


Tie it and hang it for about 30 minutes and allow it to drain.

Bundle tied for the water to drain

Now wrap the paneer and fold the cheesecloth on all the four ends like a square making sure the ends does not crumble.Place weight over for about 1 hour.I used a pan filled with water.

Then refrigerate the block for about 2 hours.It will become firm.Cut into cubes .Use immediately or store the cubes and use the next day.

Pin It