Avocado Milkshake

Avocado Milkshake

The avocado is a tree native to Mexico and Central America. It scientifically classified in plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel. Avocado or alligator pear also refers to the fruit, botanically a large berry that contains a single seed.

Avocados are commercially valuable and are cultivated in tropical and Mediterranean climates throughout the world. They have a green-skinned, fleshy body that may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. The fruit is not sweet, but distinctly and subtly flavoured, with smooth texture.

Avocado is  has  several B vitamins and vitamin K, with good content of vitamin C, vitamin E and potassium and also  phytosterols and carotenoids.  About 75% of an avocado's energy comes from fat, most of which is monounsaturated fat as oleic acid. Other predominant fats include palmitic acid and linoleic acid. The saturated fat content amounts to 14% of the total fat.

 As high avocado intake, has in one study shown lower blood cholesterol levels in the tested patients I am trying to add avocado to our diet.

So let us begin with …

How do I choose an avocado?

A ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed.

Want to get to the flesh of the avocado you brought wait …

A cut avocado browns fast, this is called enzymatic browning, exposure to air causes this to prevent this, lime or lemon juice can be added to avocados after peeling.

What can I make with avocado?

Avocado can be used in savoury and sweet preparations.

Generally, avocado is served raw, thought some can be cooked for a short time without becoming bitter. The flesh of some avocados may be rendered inedible by heat; prolonged cooking induces this chemical reaction in all cultivars.

Avocado is popular in vegetarian cuisine as a substitute for meats in sandwiches and salads because of its high fat content.

In Spanish-speaking countries such as Chile, Mexico, or Argentina avocado is used as the base for the Mexican dip known as guacamole, as well as a spread on corn tortillas or toast, served with spices. 

Avocados are also used to make salads, fillings in sandwiches, sushi, on toast, or with chicken or served mixed with white rice, in soups, salads, or on the side of chicken and meat.

Avocados in savoury dishes, often seen as exotic, are a relative novelty in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Brazil, where the traditional preparation is mashed with sugar and lime, and eaten as a dessert or snack.

However the commonest way to serve avocado is in shakes. In different countries avocados milkshakes are topped and sweetened differently. The additions vary from milk, ice cream, flavoured water, chocolate syrup, treacle.

In Ethiopia, avocados are made into juice by mixing them with sugar and milk or water, usually served with Vimto and a slice of lemon. It is also common to serve layered multiple fruit juices in a glass (locally called Spris) made of avocados, mangoes, bananas, guavas, and papayas.  Sounds interesting….

(Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Today I made guacamole saved a medium slice and made a shake out of my avocado. Let meet the shake first.In the past I have made Guasacaca here.

Avocado Milkshake

Avocado Milkshake

Ingredients:

• 2 cup milk, chilled
• 1 slice of avocado
• 5 tblspn sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract

 Method:

• Since I want to make a shake with milk lemon is a no-no.
• To prevent browning of the avocado what I did was added a cup of milk to my slice of avocado and blitzed it.
• Then added all the other cup of milk (so that I could adjust the consistency of the shake), sugar and vanilla essence.
• Serve chilled.

Avocado Milkshake

 Sending this to Srivalli's  Event Kid's Delight hosted by Harini.

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Semolina Bread

Semolina Bread

Today on the last day of the BM #52 I am paired with Mir and I wanted bake a bread. I had my eye on the bread that Mir had set out for us in Taming the Yeast; it was a whole wheat bread. You know me I cannot leave them alone so I tried it. The bread had a mind of its own; it did rise to the occasion.

My discussion with Mir gave me an understanding of the reason.  The whole wheat flour in India has greater protein content  lesser protein content so it does not rise as much as the bread made with the whole wheat flour made in US. The solution is to add vital wheat gluten. 

Since I do not have access to gluten I decided to make this Semolina Bread.

The bread flour was what Kalyani gifted to me.

Family of course loved the bread.

Semolina Bread, 

Semolina Bread

Recipe Source: The Schizo Chef

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

Semolina Bread, 

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tblspn instant yeast
• 1 tblspn sugar
• 1 tblspn salt
• 3 ½ – 4 cups bread flour 
• 1 cup semolina
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tblspn milk
• 2 tblspn til/ sesame seeds

Method:

• Dissolve the sugar in the water.
• In a large bowl, combine 1 ½ cups of the flour, salt, yeast and water, with an electric mixer, mix for a few minutes.
• Add semolina, 1 cup of flour and olive oil.
• Mix well and using the dough hook attachment, start to knead the dough.
• Add flour, ½ cup at a time until the dough wraps itself around the dough hook.
• Knead for 5 minutes. Dough will be elastic and slightly sticky.
• Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl.
• Cover with greased plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.
• Leave to rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.
• On a floured board, knead dough for a few minutes, sprinkling a little flour on top as needed.
• You can shape into a rustic round loaf. But I preferred to make it in a loaf. I rolled it in a thick rectangle and rolled it up from the narrow end in the thick roll.
• Sprinkle a greased loaf pan with rava/semolina or corn flour.
• Cover with kitchen towel and leave to rise another 45 minutes, until doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 190°C/375 F.
• Brush the top with milk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
• Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
• Cool and slice.
• I served it with a delicious  mushroom dip. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

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Aehobakjeon (Korean Zucchini Pancakes) with Sesame Dipping Sauce

Aehobakjeon  (Korean Zucchini Pancakes) with Sesame Dipping Sauce

Zucchini !

The moment I say the word my family runs in the other direction. 

Don’t ask me why,must be one of my experiments has put them off. ☺

When I said that I am making pancakes the girls were enthusiastic. In fact even yesterday they kept asking me when I am making pancakes. The trouble is they had holidays and they kept friend hopping so I made them without them around. Much to their irritation.  Maybe next Saturday I will make them for their evening snack.

Where did I get the recipe? From Mir's place, my friend with whom  am paired for BM pairs.

Meanwhile hubby and I enjoyed these pancakes. Even the maid was very happy with the flavour and kept asking me how I made the dosa.

The substitute here is chilli powder in place of gochugaru and the rice wine vinegar I used wine vinegar .

Aehobakjeon  (Korean Zucchini Pancakes) with Sesame Dipping Sauce

Aehobakjeon  (Korean Zucchini Pancakes)

Recipe Source: The Schizo Chef
Yield: 14  pancakes
Ingredients:

• 2 zucchinis,grated 
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tblspn  ginger,grated
• 2 cloves garlic,finely chopped 
• 3/4 -1 tsp gochugaru (Korean red chile powder), according to taste

 Sesame Dipping Sauce

Sesame Dipping Sauce

 Ingredients:

• 2 tblspns soy sauce
• 2 tblspns rice wine vinegar
• 2 1/2 tsps sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tblspn toasted sesame seeds

 Method:

• Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk well.
• In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add salt, ginger, gochugara, flour and water. Beat to make a smooth batter.
• Add zucchini’s and mix to combine.
• Lightly oil a skillet. Place 1/3 cup of batter in the skillet for each pancake.
• Fry until golden brown on both sides.

 What else do we have?

 Well come back tomorrow to see that…

 Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Korean Cauliflower Stir Fry

Korean Cauliflower Stir Fry

Cauliflower!

Hubby loves it kids hate it!

So the solution to my problem is making something new as often as possible. This recipe from Mir's space  was too good to give up on. This week I am paired with Mir of The Schizo Chef  for BM pairs and I am at a loss as to what to make. I am going Southeast Asian this  time .

This was a new taste for us. As we have never eaten anything Korean... sorry we have eaten only Kimchi. That too I suspect is an Indianised version.

I have used in place of rice vinegar red wine vinegar.

Rest of the recipe is followed without any changes.

The best part was when the cauliflower and garlic was cooking hubby came to the kitchen just to see that I do not tweak the recipe.: D

Korean Cauliflower Stir Fry

Recipe Source: The Schizo Chef

Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 tblspns oil (I use rice bran oil)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tblspn water
• 1 tblspn   vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• A pinch of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tblspn toasted sesame seeds

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadhai.
• Add garlic and fry for 1/2 minute.
• Add cauliflower and cook for 2 minutes.
• Meanwhile in a small bowl, whisk together the sesame oil, vinegar, water, salt, soy sauce and sugar.
• Add to skillet and stir to combine.
• Cook on medium high heat for 5-8 minutes.
• Add sesame seeds and stir to combine.

Korean Cauliflower Stir Fry

 What else do we have?

 Well come back tomorrow to see that…

 Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Gattibajje

 Gattibajje

The other day I was to meet Sharmila Rao as I was to pick up some books from her. Actually I think that books is just an excuse, I like to meet her.

We decided to meet at Carasid, a local joint for yummy food. I still have to get over the omellete pav stuffed with cheese and smoked chicken, not to forget the delicious Alsande Xauti Biryani that Sunil packed for us.

See start talking about food and I digress…

I happened to mention to Sharmila that I wanted a traditional fitter recipe, she is a traditional specialist by the way and  she rattled this yummy recipe off. She mentioned that she was going to pack some of these for her kiddo in the hostel.

Was it yum?  Well try and then you will know.

 Gattibajje

 Gattibajje

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups rice flour
• ½ cup maida
• ½ cup butter
• The oil from pickle (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 1 spring curry leaves
• Oil to fry 

Method:

• While this is mixed heat oil in a kadhai/wok.
• Mix the rice flour, maida, butter, curry leaves and oil from the pickle if using. Check the salt use if needed.
• Knead to a soft dough. Use water only if needed.
• Pinch off small bits of dough in the hot oil.
• Fry till light golden.
• Store in a air tight container.

What else do we have?

Well come back on the 24th to see that…

Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Moong Vada/ Fried Moong Vada

Moong Vada/ Fried Moong Vada

While I am on my memories trip let me share with you what my MIL made many times these vadas and they were something she served with sauce. She also made some with rava but I just cannot remember them.

After a long time, in fact one Hindi movie with Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor reminded me of these vadas. I was on a look out to make them, as I said I could not remember how she made them for I was never in the kitchen when we fried stuff as I would start coughing.

She would fry them when I was away and keep some for me in the casserole. It’s been 18 long years since she has left for her heavenly bode but her memories still linger.

Then I found an old e-cookbook which had the recipe. Of course I have made adjustments in the ingredients to suit our taste. Needless to say these were first to disappear.

Moong Vada

Making time: 20 minutes (excluding soaking time)

Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal

 ½ cup coriander finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

3-4 green chillies finely chopped

Oil to deep fry

Method:

Wash and soak dal for 3-4 hours.

Keep 2 tbsp. dal aside, grind the rest, coarsely.

Mix all other ingredients, including whole dal.

Add 2-3 tbsp. hot oil to the mixture.

Heat oil.

Make small balls   drop carefully into the hot oil.

Fry first one side then the other till golden brown.

Serve hot with green chutney, tamarind chutney, or ketchup.

 What else do we have?

 Well come back tomorrow to see that…

 Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

  

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Masala Vada/ Chana Dal Vada/ Chattambade

Masala Vada/ Chana Dal Vada/ Chattambade

Childhood memories are these hot vada and tea and rains! Added to Ajji or Grandmother admonishing us,” enough now! You will get a stomach-ache if you eat any more of these.”  Why she made them as snack when it rained I don’t know...

Else it used to be traditional meal served on the banana leaf when there were too many attractions to concentrate only on these beauties. Either way we hardly ate any...

Coming to Dal or pulses that we eat ...

Dal is a dried pulse (lentil, pea or various types of bean) which has been split.

Dal goes by various names called bele in Kannada and pappu, paripu or paruppu in Telugu and Tamil, daal in Marathi. Dal is a ready source of proteins for a balanced diet containing little or no meat.

To make the dal usually the outer hull is usually stripped off; dal that has not been hulled is described as chilka (skin), e.g. chilka urad dal, mung dal chilka.

The variety of dal we have are numerous we have chana dal, urid dal, toor dal, moong dal, masoor dal to name a few common ones…   

Masala Vada/ Chana Dal Vada/ Chattambade

Making time: 20 minutes (excluding soaking time)

Makes: 15 vadas (approx.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow gram (chana) dal
•  ½ cup coriander finely chopped
• 1 spring curry leaves
• 3-4 green chillies finely chopped
• Oil to deep fry

Method:

• Wash and soak dal for 3-4 hours.
• Keep 2 tbsp. dal aside, grind the rest, coarsely.
• Mix all other ingredients, including whole dal.
• Add 2-3 tbsp. hot oil to the mixture.
• Heat oil;
• Make small balls and flatten to with moist palm.
• Let carefully into the hot oil.
• Fry first one side then the other till golden brown.
• Serve hot with green chutney, tamarind chutney, or ketchup.

Masala Vada/ Chana Dal Vada/ Chattambade

What else do we have?

Well come back tomorrow to see that…

Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

  

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Fruity Popsicles

Fruity Popsicles  

So I have taken you through all my failures of making an ice cream that will be acceptable after the Chocolate and Coffee Ice Cream I made yesterday.

I was desperate to make a simple ice cream that met the expectations.

That was no problem as I had bookmarked some ice creams made by others, but time …
I need it by tomorrow.  

So I used Rajani’s recipe which she had copied from Vaishali !!!!

Fruity Popsicles  

Recipe Source: My Kitchen Trails and Ribbons and Pasta

Ingredients:

• Sprite /lemonade, as needed 
• Fruits of your choice, chopped (I used kiwi, peach)

Method:

• Slice the fruits. Fill the ice pop mould with the sliced fruits.
• You can add as many or as little fruits as you want. The more fruits you have in, the more packed it is and the better it looks. I was short on fruits, so I put only 3 pieces in each.
• Fill the mould with the liquid of your choice. Any see-through liquid is fine. 
• Freeze overnight. 
• Enjoy!

Fruity Popsicles  

What else do we have?

Well come back on the 17th  to see that…

Meanwhile today you can check my other friends

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Chocolate And Coffee Ice Cream

Ice cream is a frozen food eaten as a snack or dessert.

 Ice creams are usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Generally commercial ice creams are sweetened with sucrose, corn syrup, cane sugar, beet sugar, and/or other sweeteners and flavoured and coloured they also have added stabilizers.  The mixture is stirred to incorporate air spaces and cooled below the freezing point of water to prevent detectable ice crystals from forming. The result is a smooth, semi-solid foam that is solid at very low temperatures (<35 °F / 2 °C). It becomes more malleable as its temperature increases.

Historically China had a frozen mixture of milk and rice around 200 BC. Apparently they knew about freezing mixtures of salt and ice.

In the Middle East the Arabs used an ancient type of ice house, a yakhchal, in Yazd, Iran. The major ingredient in the production of ice cream was milk and sweetened it with sugar rather than fruit juices. It was flavoured with rosewater, dried fruits and nuts.

 In the Persian Empire, people would pour grape-juice concentrate over snow, in a bowl, and eat this as a treat.  They used snow saved in the cool-keeping underground chambers known as "yakhchal", or taken from snowfall that remained at the top of mountains by the summer capital Ecbatana. In 400 BC, the Persians went further and invented a special chilled food, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during summers. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavours.

The Roman Emperor Nero (37–68 AD) had ice brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings to create chilled delicacies.

Closer home in the sixteenth century, the Mughal emperors used relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi, where it was used in fruit sorbets.

In Europe Italian duchess Catherine de' Medici is credited with introducing ice cream into Europe in the 16th century.

Whatever the history we will all agree that ice creams make the blistering heat bearable and the lady of the house will agree that it keeps her out of the kitchen and the heat for some time.

Anyway if you are interested try reading Wikipedia that is where I have copied all this from.

For today I have tried making this Icecream from the Tupperware Booklet. Needless to say it was yum and all the ice creams that I tried after this one got compared with this one.

All of them were declared flop. 

So much that one I threw out and the other was made in a smoothie. After it was over hubby tells me why that was delicious. Anyway I have no pictures of it.

Chocolate And Coffee Ice Cream

Recipe Source: Tupperware

Ingredients:

• 1 tropical twin whipping cream
• ½ tropical twin condensed milk
• 2 tblspn un-sweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tblspn instant coffee mixed with hot water

Method:

• Whisk whipping cream until you get soft peaks and set aside.
• Whip condensed milk, coffee and cocoa powder till well blended.
• Fold gently the whipped cream and condensed milk.
• Pour on aluminium containers overnight.
• Serve topped with nuts or grated chocolate.( Mine had customers before the scoop was out so I did not add anything).

  

What else do we have?

Well come back tomorrow to see that…

Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Cashew Nut and Almond Kulfi/Qulfi/Khulfi

Cashew Nut and Almond Kulfi/Qulfi/Khulfi 

Today let have some Kulfi or Qulfi or Khulfi.

So what is Kulfi?

I will like to think of Kulfi as extremely popular frozen dairy dessert, the traditional Indian Subcontinent ice cream. 

Unlike the Western ice cream a Kulfi is never whipped so it is denser and creamier. In fact the creamier the better it takes a longer time to melt.

A Kulfi comes in the traditional flavours of cream (malai), rose, mango, cardamom (elaichi), saffron (kesar or zafran), and pistachio. There are newer additions like apple, strawberry etc.

Kulfi is likely to have originated in the Mughal Empire, which ruled India in the 16th to 18th centuries. It was prepared in royal kitchens using ice brought in from the Himalayas. This is documented in the Ain-i-Akbari, a detailed record of the Mughal emperor Akbar's administration. Small wonder then that it is popular throughout places such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), and the Middle East.

Here I have tried to follow the traditional method of making a Kulfi but used condensed milk to speed up the thickening.

The lengthy process of heating the milk and sugar give the Kulfi a distinctive flavour.  

Had it not been the fact that it’s very hot this year and I am running out of the kitchen at the smallest possible pretext I would have made this Kulfi once again, just for pictures in the Kulfi mould. Well maybe next year…this time I am content with my matkas.

Cashew Nut and Almond Kulfi

Cashew Nut and Almond Kulfi/Qulfi/Khulfi 

Makes 8 medium kulfis

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of high fat milk, with cream
• ½ cup cream
• 2 tblspn sugar (if needed)
• ½ tin condensed milk
• 3 tblspn corn flour
• 10 almonds, coarsely chopped
• 15 cashew nuts, coarsely chopped
• A few strands of saffron

Method:

• Mix the corn flour in ½ cup of milk and set aside.
• Boil the remaining milk with the sugar.
• Simmer stirring constantly using a slotted spoon till the milk is reduced to half.
• Add the milkmaid and the cream, saffron. Stir and boil for a minute or two.
• Now add the corn flour mixture and bring to boil till the mixture thickens.
• Remove from the flame and let it cool completely.
• Run in the whipper section of the mixer or use the hand mixer with the beaters. Whip well. (Not necessary but I find this way the cream is well distributed).
• In the last round add the almonds and the cashew nuts.
• Transfer to kulfi moulds cover and freeze vertically.
• Once firm the kulfi can be served.
• To serve the kulfi dip the moulds in water then run a knife around the edges. Transfer to a plate.
• Serve.

What else do we have?

Well come back tomorrow to see that…

Meanwhile today you can check my other friends 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!