Coconut Barfi

I am not a sweet person, but there are a few sweets of which I am very fond of and this is one them. It is a very easy recipe.. so do give it a try :)

Ingredients

Grated coconut (fresh) - 1 Cup

Sugar - 1 Cup

Ghee

Process

1. I usual grate my coconut in a blender, so the texture is fine. Fry a the coconut slightly if you wish and keep it aside.

2. Add the sugar to the same pan and when it starts melting, add the grated coconut and mix well.

3. Take a plate and smear it with little ghee, the sugar and coconut mixture will be placed on it to set.Another option would be to use a aluminium foil and grease it with ghee. It will make things easier.

4. Now when the sugar and coconut have mixed and stop sticking to the pan, pour it in the greased plate and let it set.

5. Once it has set, cut it into pieces and enjoy.

Palak Paneer

There is no story behind why I started cooking this..except that I like it. But I remember what a huge mess my mom and I made when we tried it for the first time. When we put the spinach into the blender and switched it on, the lid flew off and the spinach was all over the kitchen :). Hope no such thing happens to those who try it. This dish is more of  my husband's expertise and he makes it a more elaborate process with more ingredients. The recipe that I gave here is lot simpler with lesser ingredients and the spinach flavor is more prominent in my version.

Ingredients

Palak (Spinach)- 500g

Paneer(Cottage cheese)- 400g

Onion - 1 small

Garlic - 4 big pods

Green chillies

Cumin seeds

Salt

 

Process

1. Cut off the stems of the spinach and wash the leaves.
2. Chop the onions, slit the green chillies and peel the skin of garlic pods
3. Put the spinach, onions, garlic and green chillies in a cooker. Add a cup of water, it does not require lot of water. Add a little salt as well. Cook for 2-3 whistles.
4. Meanwhile cut the paneer and pan fry them. I generally cut into bigger pieces for frying and then cut them into smaller pieces later on.

5. When the spinach cools, drain of the excess water. Remember not to throw the water as it has nutrients can be used in cooking instead of water :).Blend the spinach into smooth paste

6. In a deep pan add little oil and add the cumin seeds when oil is hot.
7. When the cumin seeds start to splutter, add the spinach paste. Remember to cover, because if the paste is too thick, the paste will splatter all over. Add a little bit of the water we saved earlier.

8. Now add more salt if needed and let it boil. Then add the paneer pieces to it and let it cook for 5 mins.

9. There its all done now... enjoy your meal :)

Double Ka Meetha

Its been a while since I have posted in this blog, this is an attempt to keep the blog alive as the fellow blogger is pretty busy these days. This dish is a sweet and considered as special in some parts of Andhra Pradesh especially in Hyderabad and called as 'Double Ka Meetha'....

This is fairly a simple dish if you follow few basics correctly, lets get started....and forgot to mention, if you are calorie conscious, you can skip this... :) others may proceed...

Ingredients:

• Ghee
• White Bread
• Cashew
• Raisins
• Pistachio
• Milk
• Sugar
• Khoa

Procedure:

• Cut bread slices into your favorite shapes/sizes (you can be creative here if you want to), and keep it aside for an hour or so.
• Meanwhile prepare the sugar syrup by heating 2 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar. Keep on boiling till it becomes consistent (around 20-30 mins).
• Heat Ghee at a medium flame.
• Fry the bread pieces in ghee till it gets brown color on both the sides and keep it aside.
• Just dip the bread pieces in the sugar syrup for a min and keep it aside.
• Roast Cashews, raisins and pistachios in ghee and add on top of the bread pieces.
• Take some khoa and make it into tiny pieces (similar to grating). Add this to little amount of milk and start heating it. After getting some consistency, apply this on the bread pieces (don't apply more on each piece).

and you are done...

P.S: For those who are in US, I got Nanak's Khoa from indian store, you can find it at the same place as Paneer. It will be unsweetened so while boiling with Milk add some sugar.