Pickled carrots

That was a weekend when my refrigerator was empty leaving behind few carrots and was thinking of making something quick and low calorie.. Of course carrot halwa went through my mind but they say it tastes better with orange carrots. Hence thought of pickling it and it hardly took anytime. And it harldy took time to see my jar being emptied too. But would recommend to let it sit for few hours/days for the flavor to get into those carrots. The recipe is as follows

Ingredients
Carrots ( I used the thin ones) - about 1 kg
Water - 1 cup
Vinegar - 1/3 cup ( if you want more sourness you can increase the measurement)
Salt and sugar -as required.
Green chillies, ginger and garlic - optional and as required.
Sugar - a few tspns (optional)

Method
Wash the carrots well and if you are used to peeling carrots, I know few people who wash it thoroughly and not peeling it , its up-to you :) Chopthe carrots into strips, may be one carrot should yield about 6-8 depending on the thickness of the carrots.
Once the carrots are chopped steam in a steamer for about 5-7 minutes, make sure you don't cook it, you just have to make it slightly tender or if you choose to skip this step, please feel free to do so too.
I steamed for 5-7 mins and then dipped those carrots in cold water to avoid further cooking.
Once your carrots are ready, put it in a clean glass jar.
Pour the water and vinegar and add all the other ingredients and please leave it untouched for atleast 12 hours ( preferably)
If you feel you need more sourness you can add more vinegar too
If you have taken more carrots and if you feel you need to add more water and adjust the other ingredients feel free to do so 
You can also add crushed peppercorns, powdered jeera, options are endless. I am for sure going to try this with few other vegetables too.
Try pickling a no fuss carrot pickle and enjoy!! 

Brown beaten rice chocolate squares

Was thinking of making some snack for the kids to take to school  and  that day I dint have anything  to pack for them. No, I usually don't stock store bought snacks and my thought went this way while spreading my dosas :)..it was to temper some chocolate and roast some organic brown beaten rice and add to it and make poha rocks .. :) nice na..

Ok .. I need to confess that I don't have an exact measurement of the ingredients of this recipe, reason b'coz I was in a jiffy and I ran out of time to pick up my cups and spoons.

What you need
 1) A bar of cooking chocolate
 2) Some organic brown beaten rice (poha)

Method
Heat a wok and dry roast the poha till it crisp.
Meanwhile temper the chocolate using a double boiler. 

Tempering is melting finely chopped cooking chocolate using double boiler
Double boiling is cooking using the steam. Finely chop the chocolate in a vessel. Keep it over a bowl of boiling water. Also make sure the steam doesn't enter the chocolate and also the water should boil in the minimum flame possible

Once the chocolate is melted mix the dry roasted poha into it and mix well. Spread the mixture on a butter paper and spread evenly and refrigerate for 7-9 mins. Its advisable not to refrigerate for long time, because the chocolate starts condensing. You can even leave it at room temperature to set and then cut in squares and store in an airtight container

Note: You can deep fry the poha instead of dry roasting.

Buttermilk bread

Had loads of buttermilk when I removed butter from the curd that day, and kept thinking the best way to use it. Ofcourse I use buttermilk for kneading the dough, making traditional Kerala curries, use it for making dhoklas too. But googled further to find a recipe for baking which uses butter milk . And finally a bread recipe which uses buttermilk, what better way than to make use of it than for baking for baking bread :). And voila it came out good too. I am sharing the recipe below

Ingredients

1 cake yeast (2 1/4 tspn)

2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsps. olive oil
4 cups flour ( 2 cups wheat flour + 2 cups all purpose flour)
2 tbsps. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. soda

Method

Soften yeast in small amount of lukewarm buttermilk (about 1/3 cup). Add balance of buttermilk and olive oil. Mix salt, soda, sugar and baking powder together; add to yeast mixture. Beat in 1 cup of flour at a time. Knead on floured board. Place in greased bowl and let it rise, punch down dough. Shape dough into desired shapes; place on baking sheets and baked in preheated 375-degree oven 15 to 20 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy!!

Pumpkin payasam

I need to agree that making a payasam out of pumpkin has not been my idea at all, this was given by a person who sells vegetables. But I did honour him agreeing that I might try this, I tried it and I did inform him about this trial and its success. This is a very healthy sweet made using coconut milk and jaggery. Its not very difficult either. You can also give it a try.
Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Pumpkin - 500 gms
Coconut milk - 2 cups ( not very thick )
Melted jaggery - 3-4 tbspns or according to your taste
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Cashews fried in ghee - as required

Method
Chop pumpkin and steam until it is cooked.
Remove it into a vessel in which we would bring the payasam together.  Mash the pumpkin with the back of a wooden spoon, You might not want to mash it completely, it will be nice to get a bite or two of the pumpkin.
Pour in the coconut milk and the jaggery syrup , add water if required.
Bring it to boil and remove from the flame. Garnish with cardamom powder and fried cashews and serve hot or cold.
Enjoy!!

Broccoli soup

First thing I would say about this soup is it is very easy to make and tasty too, and how I love that vibrant green colour of the soup. And yea this was made for my kid's evening snack and it was garnished with  home made tomato garlic bread croutons, and yea kids enjoyed it.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients
Broccoli head - one
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Ginger - a small piece
Onion - one med size
Milk - 1.5 cups
Salt and pepper
Bread croutons

Method
Wash the broccoli florets in hot water with salt and turmeric powder, throw in a pressure cooker along with coarsely chopped onion, garlic and ginger and also add half cup of water and half cup of milk. Pressure cook for one whistle in high flame and remove from stove. Open the lid of the cooker and blend the ingredients, I used a hand blender for blending. Add the remaining milk, salt and pepper powder.

At this stage if you want your soup slightly thick mix a tspn of corn flour or arrowroot powder in a 1/4 cup of water and add to this and bring it back to flame and let it boil while the soup thickens. (I skipped this step). Alternately you can add cream instead of milk if you want a thicker soup and avoid corn flour.

Serve hot with toasted bread croutons and a dollop of butter.
Enjoy! :)