Lassi is a great thirst quencher in hot summer days. Even though the summer is coming to an end, ( have you noticed there are fall and winter stuff everywhere!!) after the kids come back from playing, they love to get their hands on any kind of cold juice. I usually keep OJ. When they would want something else, I let them pick their fruits and make them a juice.
This Angoori Lassi is a twist to the regular lassi. Made out of angoor or grapes, the lassi takes the color of grapes used. Here I have used black seedless grapes, which gives a nice purple shade to the Lassi. If you use green ones, it gives a beautiful pale green color. Prep Time: 5 min | Makes : 2 tall glasses
Ingredients: Seedless Grapes - 1/2 Cup Non-flavored unsweetened Yogurt - 1 Cup Cold water/ Ice - 1 Cup Honey/ Sugar - 1 tsp. Salt - a pinch Cumin/ Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp.
Method of Preparation: ~ Blend all the above ingredients and serve it chilled.
Happy Raksha Bandhan everyone! This is a festival to celebrate the love between brother and sisters. A festival where all the sisters tie a beautiful Rakhi to their brothers and get blessings and gifts from them. "Raksha" means Protect and "Bandhan" means Bond, that is the Bond of Protection. One of the sweet tradition in India where brother vows to protect his sister no matter what. And sister ties the sacred Rakhi to protect her brother from any harm.
This festival we decided to this mocha chocolate chip banana muffins. My son loves mocha flavors and chocolate chips, well what's not to like about them. Banana was riped and was calling for some attention before they turned black. So here is what we did. Hope you all had a beautiful celebrations with your loved ones..
Prep Time: 15 min | Baking time : 25 to 30 min | Makes : 15 to 18 muffins
Method of Preparation: ~ Preheat the oven to 350 deg. Farenheit. ~ Soak flaxseed meal in 1 tbsp. of water and keep it aside ~ Dissolve instant coffee granules into 1 tbsp. of warm water and keep it aside. ~ In a medium bowl sieve flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. ~ Take a large mixing bowl and mash the ripe bananas in it. ~ Using a hand blender, blend in butter, oil, sugar, soaked flaxseed meal (or egg), soaked coffee and vanilla extract. ~ Now add the dry ingredients to this wet ingredients and mix gently until the flour is blended well. ~ Add chocolate chips and fold in gently with a wooden spoon. ~ Line the muffin pan and spoon the mixture into them. ~ Bake for 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean in the middle. ~ Cool them all on wire racks and enjoy with a hot cup of coffee.
Chaas is a yogurt based drink which is popular all over India. Each region in India prepare their buttermilk in different ways. Each differ from other in a minute way. Our household we make "Phanna Taak" which is very similar to Chaas. I will post that some other day. Chaas is something I like to make this way since it's super simple and quick.
It's common in India to have buttermilk especially during summer time. It instantly cools your body (and mind I would say). Many household it's common to serve this as drink when someone comes home on hot summer day. This summer in India I had more than my share of buttermilk. I am not the one who ends meal with yogurt with rice (like most of them do at my MIL's and Mom's place). I somehow cannot have yogurt in that manner. I do like to drink this thinned version of yogurt or just plain yogurt with some sugar. I do like seasoned yogurt rice. So there you go. :o) Now here is recipe for Chaas my way. This style is more popular in northern part of India. Prep Time: 5 min | Serves : 4 Cups
Ingredients: Yogurt - 1 Cup Water - 3 Cups (or more if you like it thinner consistency) Cumin (Jeera) seeds - 1 tsp. / Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp. Green Chili - 1 small Ginger - Small 1/2 inch piec Asafetida (Hing) Powder - 1 pinch Salt - 1/2 tsp. or to taste Coriander/ Cilantro leaves - handful + 1 tbsp. for garnishing Method of Preparation: ~ Add everything, except cilantro leaves for garnishing, into a blender. Run blender on low for few minutes until everything is blended. ~ Serve garnished with Cilantro.
After almost three months in India, I have gotten so many recipes to share. One of my favorite is this crab sukka. In konkani we call it "Kurle". While visiting mom she was whipping out her delicacies one after the other. This is one of her dishes that I love. Crab was really fresh that day, so dad bought it home. Once Aayi started preparing the curry it was smelling great in the whole house. I was so hungry smelling the dish that I took some quick pictures and sat down to gobble it.
This typical Konkani dish is made in different versions. Sukka or dry version is what I have presented here. You can make more finer paste of coconut paste and use more water and turn it into curry. Now to the recipe. Prep Time: 20 min | Cooking Time : 20 min | Serves : 6 Recipe Source : My Aayi Ingredients: Fresh Crab - 2 lb. / 1 Kg Onion - 1 medium for frying Onion - 1/4 cup for blending Oil - 2 tsp. Tomato/ green mango - 1 cup * Turmeric - 1/2 tsp. Chili Powder - 2 tsp. Garam masala - 1/2 tsp. Coconut - 1 cup Coriander powder - 1 tsp. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp. Red chilies - 3 Garlic - 5 to 6 Salt to taste
Method of Preparation: ~ Clean crabs thoroughly with water. Remove hard shell top part and discard. Break the claw or Dongo. This will be used in the sukka. Rinse it all again and keep it aside. ~ In a heavy bottom vessel, add cooking oil and onion. Fry till onion becomes translucent. ~ Add the cleaned crab and tomato. Cook until nice kurle aroma starts to come (about 5 minutes) ~ Then add turmeric, chili powder and Garam masala powder. Mix them all well. ~ Meanwhile, make dry coarse paste of Coconut, Coriander powder, Mustard seeds, Red chili, Onion, and garlic. ~ Once crab is almost cooked (smells divine) add prepared coconut paste. ~ Add little salt (careful since the shell seafood have salt mostly), mix them all nicely. Crab is ready to be served. Note: You can use Tamarind paste instead of tomato. Use about a tbsp. of fresh tamarind extract. I have been trying to reduce the usage of tamarind, since it's known to cause severe acidity.
