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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

WHEAT SEVAI OR WHOLE WHEAT ANGEL HAIR PASTA PAYASAM

Dear friends, thank you very much for all the support and well wishes during my absence. Things have been busy at the personal front lately that I had hardly any time to post anything in my blog, even from my drafts. Now I have a lot of catching up to do with all your posts :)

Coming on to the recipe, I made this payasam today for Krishna Jayanthi. I found a packet of whole wheat sevai at my nearby Indian grocery and the ingredients consisted of 98% whole wheat, which a perfect choice for a low-carb dessert…..ideal for those who miss out all the sweet indulgences during the festival season. The same payasam can also be made with whole wheat angel hair pasta, and also transformed into a low-fat and sugar-free version with fat-free milk or half and half and Splenda.

INGREDIENTS:
1. Wheat sevai or whole wheat angel hair pasta, ½ small packet. This comes to a cup when broken into small pieces.
2. Milk, 1 to 1-1/2 cups. (Low fat or fat-free milk also works perfect for this).
3. Any sweetener of choice, ½ cup or more depending upon preferred sweetness.
4. Cardamom powder, ½ teaspoon.
5. Ghee or butter, 1-2 tablespoons.
6. Raisins, 2 tablespoons.
7. Cashews, 2 tablespoons.
8. Coconut milk ¼ cup.

PREPARATION:
Grind the coconut with ½ cup of water to a smooth paste. Dry roast the sevai until it changes to a light reddish color and let it cool. In the same pot, add the ghee and let it melt. Roast the cashews and raisins until the nuts turn golden brown and the raisins plump up. Add the milk, coconut milk, ¼ cup of water, cardamom powder, and sweetener and let it come to a boil. Add the sevai or noodles mix everything well and cook until the sevai is cooked. This can be served hot or cold.

Please check out my sugar-free rice and moong dhal payasam here.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

SANDRA’S CILANTRO LIME DIPPING SAUCE or SALAD DRESSING

I created this to dip my
Crispy Halibut Taquitos in,
and found it is wonderful
as a salad dressing,
and for dipping vegetables as well...

Yields: (2-1/4 cups)

Prep: 5 Mins.

1 (1 oz. pkg.) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup green salsa

Sriracha (hot sauce), to taste

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl, and add Sriracha sauce, to taste. Place, covered, in refrigerator to thicken and for flavors to meld for 2 hours. Use as a dip with your favorite appetizers and vegetables, or as a dressing for salads. ~ Enjoy!

Serve this dipping sauce with:
Sandras Crispy Halibut Taquitos

Saturday, February 22, 2014

NIRAMISH OR PRASHADI MANGSHO MUTTON CURRY WITHOUT ONION AND GARLIC

The name of the dish is bit deceptive, it actually means, meat cooked without onion and garlic. When an animal is sacrificed in front of Goddess Kali or Durga, or in the name of any deity, it becomes Prasad and therefore onion and garlic cant be used. Nowadays animal sacrifice is not seen any more in most of the places. But in many parts of the Himalayas it continues, particularly during Navaratra .

The other famous meat dishes without onion and garlic are traditional Kashmiri dishes.
THE RECIPE

There are many variations to this kind of dishes. Here I am giving a particular one which I had learnt long long back and havent cooked in recent past. A friend of mine has been asking for the recipe. I wanted to cook it once more before giving her the recipe. I just wanted to ensure, that it tasted the same as what she ate decades back. This particular recipe has a strong note of ginger and cardamom and no other strong spice is used. One can also use roasted cumin powder or garam masala , Hing, Fennel etc in other variations.

INGREDIENTS
Mutton ( goat or lamb) with bones 500 grams.
Potato 2 medium peeled and cut to 4 pieces each. ( This is for Bong friends, others may not use. Potato gives a very good body to the curry.)
ginger 75 grams
turmeric 1 tsp
Curd 2 tbsp
Coriander powder 4 level tsp
Sugar 2 heap tsp ( This is for taste and not for sweetening. Normally onion imparts the desired sweetness in most other dishes)
Green chili 4 ( hot generally).
Green Cardamom 13 ( yes 13 not 1 or 3)
Bay leaf 1
black pepper 8 ( optional)
Mustrad oil 2 tsp ( for marination, optional, for mustard oil user.)
Ghee 3 tbsp ( clarified butter)
Salt to taste.
PROCESS
Marinate the mutton in turmeric and mustard oil ( raw) for 15 minutes
Grind cardamoms along with the peel and keep 1/2 tsp aside.
Chop ginger and green chili and grind to a fine paste. Add Curd, coriander powder, cardamom powder and whisk to a smooth mix.
Mix the paste with the meat and leave for 1 hr.
In a thick bottom pan or pressure cooker , heat the ghee and give seasoning of 1 bay leaf and black pepper.
Add the potato and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add the marinated mutton, salt and sugar, heat with stirring, for 3-4 minutes. ( Dont fry )
Add 2 cups of water. It will be of thin consistency and bit runny. .
Pressure cook, after 1st whistle, for 8-10 minutes for lamb and 10 -12 minutes for goat meat.
Cool down the cooker, open and mix the 1/2 tsp cardamom powder and cover.
Eat with Hot rice.

NOTE: You can make a Paneer dish by using brown fried paneer pieces.