Falooda.....

I love Falooda. I spoke with my mom the other day and she told me that she just had a Falooda for dessert after her Dinner....and I was so jealous of her. After been in the US for 3 years now I never had a falooda for that long and craved for it so bad. I tried looking for it and none of the NYC Indian Restaurants offered it on their menu.

I craved more for 2 weeks and then decided to make it myself. I loked online for the recipe and they all were so different. Never realised that the same dessert is made in a different way in different countries. I mixed match all recipe's to make the one we commonly get in Mumbai and it came out perfect. Hence, decided to share the receipe with all of you....

Ingredients -

• Milk ( I prefer Soy Whole Milk) - 1 cup
• Sugar ( as per preference, as I don't like my dessert too sweet) - 2 tablespoon
• Tukmaria seeds - 2 tablespoon
• Falooda Vermicelli - Hand full - it is transparent with vibrant yellow color
• Water - 400ml ( 2 portion of 200ml each)
• Plain Vanilla Ice Cream - 2 scoops
• Rose syrup - 4 tablespoon
• Finely chopped fruit - I prefer apple, mango and banana.
• Small jelly cubes - You can make it fresh or get it from the store. I prefer making it fresh.
• Tall serving glasses

Let us start -

• Take 200 ml water in a small cooking pot and bring it to boil. Add the Falooda vermicelli and cook it for 2-4 min. Strain the vermicelli out and keep it aside.
• Take rest 200ml water add sugar, tukmaria seeds and 1 spoon of rose syrup and boil it till the sugar gets dissolved. Save it in a container and let it cool down in the fridge.
• Now take 2 tall glasses and add 1 teaspoon of the rose syrup in each.
• Then add the vermicelli and then the chopped fruits.
• Then pour milk till it reaches little below half the glass.
• Add 3-4 tablespoon of the sugar syrup that we made in point 2.
• Then add jelly....I prefer a lot of this.
• And finally add a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream and the left over sugar syrup.
• Place strawberry or cherries on each glass for presentation.

Enjoy this awesome dessert and let me know how it was. I hope you all like it.....

Vermicelli Pudding/Porridge - Also called as Kheer

Ingredient -
Heavy Cream Milk
Condensed Milk (Sweetened)
Vermicelli (Thin and Roasted)
Dry Fruits(Chopped) I preffer Pistachio, Almonds and Cashews.
Saffron (Kesar) for those who dont know what it is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron
Cardamom Cloves (2)

Lets begin with -

Take a small cooking pot and heat it on a stove.

Add the heavy milk, use a full carton or half as you need. Let it boil for 5-10mins.

Add vermicelli and split the cardamom to show the grain within then add it to the milk and boil again for 10-12 mins.

Then add the condensed milk, half a tin for a full carton of milk. So use your cooking brain here.....the more you ass the more sweet it gets....hence....

Stir it well and once it comes to a boil add the chopped nuts and saffron (a pinch or two). Saffron will give it a yellow rich color and an intense flavour so don't add too much...

Check to see if the vermicelli is cooked and then put off the stove and pour the Kheer in a container/bowl and place it in the freezer for 1 hour immediately.

The intense cooling makes it thicker and stops the cooking process within the kheer and hence avoids the vermicelli to turn mushy.

Now its done and you can serve it cold...it tastes much better that way......you can garnish it with dry fruits, flower petals (sply rose) or Saffron......and you will love it....but its too many calories too.....

Grilled Lobster with Corn and Asparagus.....

Ingredients -
Lobster tails - 1lb (4 tails)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Chopped Parsley
Salt to taste
Corn
Butter
Asparagus
Garlic (Chopped and Paste)


Lobster -

Thaw the lobster tails and take the flesh out and marinate it with extra vigin olive oil and parsley. Aplly the oil generously and marinate the tails for 1 hour.

Then pre heat the micorwave at 450C and place the tails on a grilling plate in the oven and let them cook for 15 mins.

Take a pan and add 2 spoon of butter and 1/2 a spoon of galic and salt to taste. Once the butter heats up ass some water and let it simmer.

Take the tails out of the oven and using a brush apply the butter-garlic sauce on it evenly and place the tails on the Broil below the oven for 10 mins.

After 10 mins get them out and they ready to serve with just butter or the same left over garlic butter.

Check this video also, you can learn a lot from it too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msDAgokhPJA


Corn -

Clean the corn head and apply butter and sprinkle salt for taster. Wrap them up in foil paper and place in the oven with the lobster tails for 15 mins and them take the foil off and place them in the broil with the tails as shown in the pic above. Serve them hot as they are nice and juicy soft.


Asparagus -

Wash the asparagus and take sole olive oil and parsley in the pan. Add the asparagus, finely chopped garlic and salt to taste. Stir fry them till you get a little burnt skin and they are good to serve.

I like all my stuff to be nicely cooked.....hence i usually get it all done....try out....you will like it...

Tadaa daa..........and i am hungry !!

KASHMIRI DUM ALOO RECIPE

Ingredients for Dum Aloo:

900gms Aloo (Potatoes)
33/4th cups water
Salt To Taste
Olive oil for deep-frying (as it is good for your health)
1 cup ghee (optional)
1 large onion (finely chopped or puree, make seperate puree for the onion and tomato, dont puree them together)
4 tbsp tomato puree
140 ml curd (as per taste, I prefer a small amount)
4 tbsp hot water
1 green pepper (seeds removed and sliced, as I have Kidney Stones and those seeds are not supposed to be good for me)
1tsp garam masala powder
Coriander leaves (finely chopped for garnishing)

Spices
4 cloves
4 bay leaves
6 black peppercorns
1 brown cardamom
1piece cinnamon stick

Paste
1 large onion (chopped)
12 flakes garlic
2 tbsp ginger
6black peppercorns
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 dry red chilies
1 tsp turmeric powder
A pinch of ground mace
A pinch of ground nutmeg

How to make kashmiri dum aloo:

• Scrape the aloo (potatoes) (i prefer them to be scraped), prick all over with a fork and soak in the water with little salt for 1-2 hours.
• Dry the potatoes on a cloth/paper napkin and heat the olive oil.
• Deep fry the potatoes until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
• Heat the measured oil (ghee) in a pan and fry onions with all the spices until golden.
• Grind the paste ingredients to a smooth paste and stir into the onions.
• Cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree, curd and salt.
• Add the aloo (potatoes) and hot water and stir over a low heat for 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle the dum aloo with pepper and garam masala and cook for few minutes and garnish it with loads of finely chopped coriander leaves. and its ready to serve !!

I usually prefer my food spicy and hot and this is quick incase if you have all things together. You can take something off if you don't have all the ingredients (e.g. mace and nutmeg).

Please share your feedback on this.

Thank you !!