Recipe world

Christmas is already round the corner. Joy of the festival is visible everywhere in the form of lights, decorations and of course, shopping! We just roamed everywhere and did enough shopping. Actually speaking, we won't celebrate Christmas in our home. But we are very much fond of Christmas Fruit Cake / Plum Cake. So, all the preparations are done to prepare the Fruit Cake! Candied Peel is one of the key ingredients for Christmas Fruit Cake. Peel of citrus fruits such as orange, lemon are taken out in order to make the candied peel. Fruit peel will be chopped, boiled, drained and then cooked in sugar syrup to make it delicious. Candied peel and candied fruits are easily available in the market especially during the Christmas time, but I always prefer making them at home.  Here is the easy recipe of making Candied orange peel. Thanks to Suma of Cakes And More for this wonderful recipe!  Preparation time: 1 1/4 hour Cooling time: 1 hour Yield: 30 - 32 pieces o...

Dry Fruits Ladoo is a very common sweet which is found in most of the sweet stalls in Karnataka. These ladoos are made of all healthy ingredients like almonds, cashews, poppy seeds, raisins, dates, etc. and taste divine! These yummy ladoos are good for people of all ages. At home, we all love munching dry fruits and nuts. But what happens normally is, one day we tend to eat more of them and the next day, we forget to eat them. If Dry Fruit Ladoos are there at home, we won't forget to eat them daily! Thats the reason I keep making these ladoos at home regularly.  Here is my version of Dry Fruit Ladoo.. Preparation time: 40 minutes Yield: 30 ladoos (depending on the size) Difficulty level: Medium Ingredients: Dates (De-seeded and roughly chopped) - 2 cups (1 cup= Chopped almonds - 1/2 cup Broken cashews - 1/2 cup Raisins - 1/2 cup Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup Poppy seeds - 1/4 cup Ghee / Clarified butter - 4 tbsp Method: Heat a heavy bottom...

'Baklava' is a Turkish delicacy, which was introduced to me few months back. I had heard of this sweet dish before, but never got a chance to taste it. One of my friends had brought Baklava while visiting us sometime back. We liked its unique taste and crispy texture. After tasting this heavenly sweet, I just googled for Baklava recipe. The recipe called for walnut as one of the main ingredient. I didn't had walnuts in my pantry and hence, I have replaced it with almonds. Baklava tasted perfect just the same as the store bought ones. I have adopted this recipe from  allrecipes.com   with slight modifications. Try this recipe and let me know your feedback.. Preparation time: 35 minutes Baking time: 50 - 55 minutes Yield: 40 pieces (depending on the size) Difficulty level: Difficult Ingredients: Filo pastry sheets - 375 gm Butter - 250 gm Sugar - 1 cup (1 cup = 200 gm) Almonds - 2 cups (see tips) Sugar powder - 4 tbsp Water - 1 cup Peel of half lime Cl...

Being born and brought up in a village environment, we rarely used to eat the bakery food. All we knew was only Bread those days! We didn't had an oven, so there was no chance to eat any baked food at home. When I started going to college, I came to know about more varieties of bakery food and got addicted to them. Veg Puffs are one of my favourite bakery food. Making the pastry sheets at home is bit tedious task. These days, puff pastry sheets are available in super markets, so making the Puffs at home is not that difficult. Here is my version of Veg Puffs! Preparation time: 30 minutes Baking time: 25 minutes Difficulty level: Medium Yield: 6 Veg Puffs Ingredients: Eggplant - 1 (small sized) Potato - 1 (medium sized) Capsicum - 1 halve Beans - 4 to 5 Green peas - 1/2 cup (*see Tips) Onion - 1 large Salt - to taste Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or according to taste Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp Oil - 3 tbsp (plus...

Dosa is one of the most common breakfast item in South India. South Indian people are good at making varieties of dosas. In rural places like my native, they prepare dosas using different vegetables which are available locally. Colocasia Stems Dosa or Kesuvina Dantina Dose is one such dosas which will be prepared mainly after the rainy season has started when plenty of colocasia plants are grown in the backyard. Colocasia Dosa is the main dish for Gangashtami festival, which will be celebrated at my native place. Here in Australia, sometimes we will get colocasia plants in the farmers markets. When we buy them, I would love to prepare my native style dishes using them. One of them is Colocasia Stems Dosa or Kesuvina Dantina Dose. Do try this sweet dosa and enjoy eating them with butter! Time required: 15 minutes Soaking/fermentation time: 4 - 5 hours Difficulty level: Medium Yield: 10 - 11 dosas Ingredients: Rice - 3 cups (1 cup = 110 gm) Colocasia Stems chopp...

Besan Ladoo is one among those famous sweets which are prepared during special occasions in India. In my home, we three are huge fans of these delicious sweet balls. Being made of besan flour along with generous amount of ghee, sugar, dry fruit and nuts, its good for health too. Below is the recipe of Besan Ladoo, try them and enjoy with your loved ones! Preparation time: 40 minutes Yield: 8 Ladoos Difficulty level: Medium Ingredients: Besan flour / Gram flour - 2 cups (1 cup= 125 gm) Sugar - 1 cup Ghee / clarified butter - 3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp Cardamom / Elachi powder - 1 tsp (See Tips) Raisins - 15 Broken cashews - 2 tbsp Method: Combine besan flour and ghee in a heavy bottom pan and keep stirring it on low flame till nice aroma comes. When the flour is toasted half - way, add raisins and broken cashews and continue toasting. Otherwise, you can toast them separately with few drops of ghee and mix with the flour after its toasted. Take the sugar and make a...

Its the summer season in India now. We were on a vacation to India last month. Since the mango season has started, we enjoyed eating varieties of mangoes there. In my home, everyday we were having one or the other dish prepared from mango for the lunch.  Ripened mangoes are also good for preparing few types of curries like Neer Gojju, Sasive, etc. We get a wild mango variety called 'Sasive Maavu' at our place which has a sweet and sour taste. It is good for preparing curries like Saasive and Neer Gojju. I am sharing the recipe of Mango Neergojju with you all today. Try this simple and tasty curry before the mango season ends! Preparation time: 20 minutes Serves - 4 Difficulty level: Medium Ingredients: Saasive mango / wild mangoes - 5 to 6 Liquid jaggery (Joni bella) - 7 tbsp or to taste Salt - 1 1/4 tsp or to taste Water - 2 cups For tempering: Oil - 3 tsp, Dry red chilli- 1, Urid dal - 1 tsp, Mustard seeds - 1 1/4 tsp, Asafoetida / Hing - a pinch...

Amla or Indian Gooseberry is well known in Ayurveda because of its medicinal values. It is told that eating one Gooseberry daily is good for our health. Gooseberry is commonly used in varieties of pickles, murabba, squash, chyavan prash, chutney, tambli, etc. Gooseberry is good for keeping the hair and skin healthy. For all the stomach related problems, gooseberry is a good remedy. During our school days, we used to pick fresh gooseberries when its the season and were dipping them in water with added salt and crushed hot chillies. They taste very good and we enjoyed eating them daily. One of my friends was asking me couple of months back to share the recipe of Gooseberry Pickle. I prepared the pickle and clicked the picks to share, but didn't get time to share! Now, after coming back from my India trip, I am sharing the recipe of Gooseberry Pickle with you all. Do try this pickle when you get gooseberries next time and share your feedback! Preparation time: 35 - 40 minutes...

Its the peak summer here..hot days makes us feel tired all the time. Drinking plenty of water and other cool drinks will give some kind of relief. Since its too hot outside, we prefer having more of juice and milkshakes these days instead of tea and coffee. These home made cool drinks are good for our health more than tea and coffee! My daughter is a big fan of strawberries these days. Whenever we insist her to have some fruits, she demands for strawberries! So whenever I have more strawberries in the fridge, I will preserve some in the freezer for her emergency needs! And sometimes, those fruits will be used to prepare delicious milkshakes just like this! Preparation time: 10 minutes Servings: 2 Difficulty level: Easy Ingredients: Strawberries (fresh / frozen) - 250 gm Cold milk - 300 ml Sugar - 2 to 3 tbsp or to taste Ice cream - 2 tbsp Method: Clean the strawberries and chop them roughly. Combine sugar and chopped strawberries in a mixie or blende...

Gadbad Ice cream is a famous dessert of Karnataka. As I read in Wiki, its the signature dish of a ice cream parlour based at Mangalore. Me and my Hubby both are big fans of Gadbad Ice cream. Every time we visit our native place Sirsi, we will visit the ice cream parlour at least 2 - 3 times just to enjoy Gadbad Ice cream! Layers of chopped fruits, ice cream jelly, dry fruits and nuts make this ice cream delicious and rich in taste. I love to prepare Gadbad Ice cream at home when I have ripened mangoes in my pantry. Try this delicious ice cream and let me know your feedback! Preparation time: 30 - 35 minutes Refrigeration time: 1 hour Servings: 2 Difficulty level: Medium Ingredients: Ripened mango - 1 Apple - half slice Banana - 1 Sugar - 2 tbsp Raisins - 3 tbsp Broken cashews - 4 to 5 tbsp Cherries (for decoration) - 2 Tutti frutti (optional) - 2 to 3 tbsp Ice cream - as required Method: Chop apple, mango and banana finely. Combine them in a mixing bowl. Ad...

Different kinds of leafy vegetables are part of our healthy diet. They are good source of various nutrients and taste delicious as well. One among those leaves is Amaranth Leaves. We buy it often from the vegetable market. Amaranth leaves are a good source of calcium, iron and vitamins. They are good for preparing stir fry, sambar, hashi, saasive and other side dishes. Below is the recipe of Amaranth Leaves Stir Fry / Harive Soppina Palya.. Preparation Time: 20 - 25 minutes Serves: 2 Difficulty level: Medium Ingredients: Amaranth leaves / Harive soppu - 1 bunch Dry red chillies - 2 or 3 (adjust according to taste) Urad dal - 1 tsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Asafoetida / Hing - a pinch Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp Cooking oil - 3 tbsp Grated coconut - 1/2 cup Salt to taste Amchur powder - for taste Jaggery / sugar - 1/4 tsp or according to taste (see Tips) Onion (optional) - 1 Method: Wash the amaranth leaves in clean water thoroughly. Chop them finely. I...

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ   Makara Sankranti is one of the famous festivals which is celebrated by Hindus. January is the month when different agricultural crops are ready for harvest. Makara Sankranti is known as the festival of harvests. In different parts of India, this festival is celebrated with different names like Pongal, Bogi Pallu, etc. At my native, we prepare 'Sankranti Kalu', tiny balls of sugar syrup which will have sesame seeds inside. Being kids, we were enjoying eating them during those days. All the people in the household along with friends and relatives enjoy eating them with other festive specials. This festival will end up with a sweet note - 'Eat sweet and talk sweetly'! Most of the people prefer buying Sankranti Kalu from the shops since preparing them at home is a hectic job. At my moms place, they usually prepare Sankranti Kalu at least in small quantity for offering to the God. Me too prepared it at home this time for my Kiddo :) Preparat...

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ Chips are perfect snacks for tea time! Varieties of chips can be prepared using different vegetables. At my native place, people prepare chips using vegetables like raw banana (plantain) chips, raw jack fruit chips , bread fruit chips, sweet potato chips , etc. Raw banana (plantain)s are available in all the seasons and hence, one can prepare Raw Banana Chips anytime. There are different varieties of bananas, the one known as 'Nendra Baale' is one among them, which is perfect for preparing chips. Both me and my hubby like varieties of chips prepared at our native place. Since it has been a while we visited native, sometimes we miss the native style food here. Whenever I find raw banana (cooking banana)s in Indian stores, I remember those crunchy and tasty chips prepared at my native. One fine day, I prepared chips using those cooking bananas which were there in the pantry. I came out nice and after adding my mom's style masala powder , it tasted the same ...

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ   Palak Paneer, is a famous side dish from North Indian cuisine. Paneer cubes are dipped in Spinach gravy with added spices, which tastes delicious with Chapathi, Roti and Poori.  Palak plants are easy to grow even in your balcony. One of my friends have gone for vacation last month and she had left her plants at my place. She gave me her spinach plants and shared a nice tip. Don't take out the whole plant when it is ready for plucking. Take out only the grown up leaves and leave the plant to grow again. This works nicely and the leaves are again ready for plucking within 3 weeks! I had planted some spinach plants in our backyard when we were in Adelaide, but I didn't knew about this. Hope this tip will be useful for you as well! And, wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!  Below is the recipe of Palak Paneer: Time required: 30 minutes Servings: 3 Difficulty level: Medium Ingredients: Spinach leaves - 1 big bunch To...