Apples,Almonds and Cardamom Shake.

We get quite a few Apples in our veggie box each week. None of us are big fan of eating apples, so once a week to finish of those apples off, I make milk shakes with it.
Today, I happened to have a few soaked Almonds(Badami), so added them along with the Apples. Almonds gives very rich, sweet and delicious taste to the milk shake.
Along with Apples and Almonds I added few Cardamom seeds, it compliments almonds and apples very much with its aromatic flavor and sweet taste. 

So here is a delicious and nutritious recipe with Apples.

Ingredients I have used :

• Apples - 4
• Cold Milk - 1 cup (Boiled and cooled)
• Sugar - 4 tsp ( add more for more sweetness)
• Almonds -  about 2 tbsp ( soaked and skin removed, this is optional)
• Cardamom (Elakki)- Seeds lightly crushed from 2 pods

1. Wash, peel the skin and remove seeds and chop apples to big bite size pieces.
2. If using Almonds(soaked), peels the skin as well.
3. Remove the outer skin, take the seed out of Cardamom and crush them lightly.
4. Take all the ingredients mentioned above, add milk and sugar.
5. Blend till smooth in a mixer/blender. Add more milk or water to make to desired consistency.Adjust sugar level.

 Enjoy !

* I keep Apples and milk  in Fridge for few hours before making shakes to make it cold.

For even more colder shake, use crushed ice cubes or ice-cream.

Off this goes to Priya's Event, Cooking with Seeds -Cardamom Seeds.

Coffee,Chocolate & Chili

Coffee, chocolate and chili, three of my favorite flavors in any dish or drink. I like anything and everything coffee, just the aroma of coffee makes me awake and alive. In my opinion, chocolate is the best food ever discovered, like them anytime. Chilies, fresh or in powdered form love them all, this has to be one of the food groups I cannot live without. I like them in both savory and sweet dishes. So today I made some hot chocolate with Coffee flavor and little touch of Chili (powder).

Winter is in full swing here, temperature is already below zero degrees. We spend most of our time indoors,cold weather makes us crave something warm and spicy, especially during evening. So this was a perfect drink for the cold evening.

Recipe for hot chocolate (Below measurement is for one cup, increase the quantity as required)

• Milk - 1 cup (I have used 2% milk)
• Sugar - 2 tsp (add more or less according to taste)
• Chocolate - 1 tbsp (Dark and semi-sweet mixed together)
• Coffee - 2tbsp ( brewed/decoction coffee)
• Chili powder - one small pinch ( I used cayenne powder)

1. Heat milk in a pot.
2. Crush chocolates(corsley chop) so it dissolves easily when added to milk.
3. When milk comes to boil, add crushed chocolates, mix well.
4. Now add coffee, sugar and pinch of chili powder.
5. Mix everything until chocolates completely dissolves and combine well with milk. Switch off.
6. Pour Hot chocolate into a cup and enjoy.

For Kids version :Follow the same method as mentioned above, just skip coffee and chili powder. Mix in milk, sugar and semi-sweet chocolates together. Use whole milk and little more sugar than given measurement. One can also substitute chili powder with cinnamon powder for nice flavor.

Have a good weekend !

Spiced up Cantalope Juice.

Eversince I saw Trupthi's post on WBB-Spice it up event I can't stop m self. I am trying to spice up the dishes or drinks which I never made before. Experiments are going on in my kitchen and this one really turned out well for me.

Whenever I get Cantalope from store, if its sweet and juicy we will eat half of the fruit as such or eat it with little salt and pepper. With the ther half I make juice or shake(using sugar and milk) . This is the first time I tried making cantolpe juice with black pepper and ginger. Tasted very well with spicy from black pepper and sweetness from honey and fruit.

Here is how I made it .

• Cantalope(peeled and cubed) - about 2 cups (for 2 glasses)
• Ginger - 1" peice
• Black peppercorns - about 10
• Lime or Lemon juice-1 tbsp
• Honey- 2 tbsp or more.
• Salt - 2 pinch (it enhances the taste).

1. Take the above ingredients in a blender and blend it to smooth consistency (no water required).
2. After blending I strained (using medium holed strainer), to remove if there are any big lumps.
3. Adjust the taste at this point and one can add water to desired consitancy.
4. Tastes good room temperature or chilled. We had this with simple bread toast .

Enjoy !

Badam Milk

Badam/ Badami / Almonds have very high protein content of all nuts. These are also good source of calcium. Once in a while when we want to drink something different from Coffee or tea, this is very refreshing and nutritious drink to have. Tastes absolutely delicious either hot or cold.
In my home town there is a chaat center which makes the best badam milk that I have ever tasted. Along with Almonds they also use pistachio nuts. Cold badam milk with hot & spicy chaats is a super combination. I have used badam powder that we get in store to make badam milk before, but using whole almonds and making it fresh is the best way to taste almonds.



So here is how I made

Almonds whole about 15(soaked for about 6 hrs or boiled in water for 30 mins)

Along with almonds Pistachios can also be added.

Sugar 3 tsp

Saffron strands few (soaked in milk)

Cardamom seeds of 1 pod (crushed)

Milk 3 cup



Method:

• Peel the skin of almonds. Using motor and pestle or grinder,grind almonds into a smooth paste. Add milk or water little by little to make it to a smooth paste.
• Mean while bring milk to a boil then add almond paste, saffron strands soaked in milk, sugar and cardamom powder.
• Simmer it down for about 5 min.
• Now its ready. Enjoy it when its hot or chill it for few hours and have it.

Over the weekend I had made badam milk and Onion Pakoras to go with it.