Mango Kulfi

I am a big ice cream fan. My mother used to make the most delicious ice cream at home that we’d dig into very religiously after dinner. Someday I’ll blog about that. Even now, we almost always have ice cream in the freezer, but I barely eat it. I feel very bad when I sometimes have to throw some of it away to make space for other more precious stuff. But Gurgaon has these ice cream cycles of all companies just about everywhere. So, when I feel the urge, all I have to do is step outside our apartment complex and choose from Mother Dairy, Kwality Walls, Vadilal and Cream Bell. With all this choice, I end up eating the same Orange Ice Candy.

When I was little, we didn’t have as much choice. Some trips to the Adyar Bakery House on Sardar Patel Road would result in a treat with Joy Ice Creams. Dinners at Woodlands Hotel on Edward Elliots Road would always end with a slab of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream. The occasional buffets that we were treated to at the Taj Coromandel or Connemara would mean that we’d stand almost perennially in front of the ice cream counter.


Then there’s the Indian ice cream that I was introduced to soon after my eldest cousin’s wedding: Kulfi. She’d been married almost 25 years when S and I tied the knot. When we visited “her” house at Antop Hill, the summer after her wedding, we ended our dinner by calling the kulfiwala. I was hooked from the first bite. And then I’d started demanding it almost every night for the month that we stayed in Bombay. Year after year. Until Amma started making the stuff at home.


There was a time when Nestle’s Milkmaid was much sought after. I remember a time when they either gave away free recipe booklets or kulfi moulds. We still have two of their signature blue plastic kulfi moulds and a much used worn out recipe booklet. My dear friend A gifted me the Milkmaid Gold Collection of desserts a few years ago and I have since forgotten about the booklet. I am sure it is still among my parents’ books. This booklet taught Amma how to make the kulfi that filled our freezer almost all year long.

I wanted to make kulfi and didn’t have any moulds. I don’t like eating kulfi in Delhi/Gurgaon because they add kewra to it. I can’t stand the taste of it. Some places add a wee bit of rose essence. Some add both. I figured the easiest way to eat the kind of kulfi I wanted was to make it at home. So, I bought moulds in Madras. (I am like that only!) I also froze several packets of milk before I left for Madras just so I could make kulfi when I got back. That’s called planning.

Banganapalli mangoes have retreated from the markets and we now have Dusehri and Langda. I’d brought back some Banganapalli from Madras and after eating those I didn’t really enjoy these other varieties. But I bought them and had to do something with them. So I decided to make Mango Kulfi. It is so much simpler than I thought and we took some over to dinner at a friend’s place that night. It was all gone in minutes. My first attempt at kulfi making was a great success and I’m so thrilled with the results. I’m sending this over to Meeta for her Monthly Mingle.


1 litre Milk
1 tbsp Flour
1 ½ cups Mango Pulp
1 tin Sweetened Condensed Milk (I used Milkmaid)


Heat the milk, condensed milk and flour together and bring to a boil. Do this over a low flame and stir continuously as the condensed milk has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the vessel and get burnt. Cool completely. Mix the mango pulp into the milk mixture. Fill the kulfi moulds with this mixture and freeze until set. When set, dip the moulds in warm water, unscrew and hold over a plate. The kulfi slides out effortlessly.


I ensure that I place the moulds directly on the freezer floor and not on top of something else. (Amma did this before we had a frost free kitchen. I’m not even sure this is necessary anymore, but I still do it.)


I plan to try this out with other fruit pulp and I promise to share my results with all of you!

Baked Herb Croutons

As a child, one of the main reasons I looked forward to soup was the croutons that went into them. Amma would have to ration out the croutons because otherwise, we’d probably not touch the soup.


Even today, when I travel by train, I buy myself a cup of hot tomato soup. And eagerly wait for the vendor to put those 3 croutons into the cup. The soup is nothing but hot pepper water, but the croutons make me believe that it really is tomato soup!

I baked “herbie” bread and then converted it into croutons that I can store. These are great as a snack as well. Plus there is no need to ration these out anymore.

2 cups Flour
1 cup Atta
1 tbsp Mixed Herbs
1 tsp Chilli Flakes
1 cup Water
1 tsp Yeast
1 1/2 tbsp Oil
3/4 tsp Salt

Take a huge mixing bowl and place the oil, salt in it. Add water and mix until the salt dissolves. Add the yeast and mix well. Add the flours along with the herbs and chilli flakes and knead into a dough. Place the dough in a greased vessel and cover it with a damp muslin cloth. Allow to rise until double in size (roughly 45-50 minutes).

Knead the dough for a minute and shape into a loaf. Fit this into a greased loaf tin. Allow to rise for another hour or 90 minutes.

Bake at 375 F for about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and then cut into slices.

Cut the slices into small cubes and bake in a hot oven (450F) for 15 minutes. The cubes will be nice and crisp by now. Store them in an airtight container and use in your salads or soups.

Vengaya Vathal Kuzhambu

Menthi Kuzhambu featured at least once a week on Amma’s menu. I think it still does. But the vegetables that went into it were pretty standard: brinjal, lady’s finger or yam. Many of my Iyer friends would speak very highly of the vathal kuzhambu made with chinna vengayam (shallots/sambar onions). I had never gotten a chance to taste this dish and so ventured out to make it on my own. I have, since, sung praises for this version so much that Amma has started making this now. I make this whenever I can lay my hands on shallots here. My other favourite way to consume these would be this.


Ingredients:

1 cup Shallots

1 tbsp Vathal (Sundaikkai, Cluster Beans or Manathakkali - optional)

1-2 Red Chillies

1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Asafoetida

1 tbsp Toor Dal

2 tbsp Tamarind Paste

1 tsp Oil

7-8 Curry Leaves

1 tbsp Sambar Powder

Salt to taste

Heat oil in a vessel and add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, toor dal, vathal and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves and the chillies. Add the shallots and fry for a minute. Add the sambar powder and fry for another minute. Add the tamarind paste, salt and a cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the onions are cooked.

Much as this is great with rice and yelai paruppu or paruppu podi, the highlight of my meal when I make this is the grand finale. A generous helping of tayir saadam with this vatha kuzhambu on the side is the perfect way to end any meal.

How Green was my Salad?

Warning: This picture definitely doesn't do justice to this fantastic salad.

OK, so you've all heard me talk about how my pictures are all so bad that they never do justice. But these pictures have been languishing in my drafts and I have to post them now. But when I make this again, I promise to take a better picture and upload that instead of this one!

At the start of this year, we were only eating salads for lunch. I still have loads of salad recipes sitting in my drafts and I hope that from August onwards, I'll have new recipes to talk about. This salad caught the attention of several people who'd tasted it. It was one of my first colour coordinated salads. It started off accidentally, but when I found that 5 ingredients that I'd picked up to make the salad were green, I decided to hunt for more green stuff to put in.

1 Cucumber, sliced and quartered

1 Green Capsicum, sliced

1/2 cup Green Chickpeas

1/2 cup Sprouted Moong

2-3 leaves Iceberg Lettuce

1/3 cup Broccoli florets, steamed

1 bunch Spring Onions, chopped

1 tbsp Lime Juice (optional)

For the dressing (chutney)

1 cup Coriander Leaves

1/2 cup Mint Leaves

2 pods Garlic

1" piece Ginger

1 Green Chilli

Salt to taste

Grind together all the ingredients for the chutney. Toss the chutney with the salad. Add some lime juice if you like. Dig in! It is as simple as that!

Methi Pulao

Rice has come to be my comfort food. When I have to cook for myself, that is. Maggi still wins, but there could be times when it does not fit nicely into my scheme of things. When I crave something that is not everything that Maggi is. Maybe that’s a sign of growing up. Or maybe it is a sign that I’m out of Maggi. I don’t know.

This pulao never fails to impress. Thanks to its wonderful aroma, it is, no doubt, a hit at dinner parties. But I like it more because it is as comforting as it is smashing. Perfect for that simple weekend lunch, with some raita on the side. I made some plain cauliflower stir fry as a side.



1 cup Basmati Rice, washed and drained
1 cup Fenugreek Leaves, chopped
2 Onions, sliced finely
1 tsp Oil
½ tsp Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Asafoetida
1 tsp Chilli Paste
1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
Salt to taste


Heat the oil in a pressure pan. Add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the asafoetida and the onions. Fry for a few minutes. Add the chopped fenugreek along with the chilli and ginger-garlic pastes and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add salt and 2 cups of boiling hot water. Pressure cook on a low flame for 1 whistle.

Fluff with a fork when done and serve.

Puli Saadam (Tiger Rice)

Hostel. The word usually opens the floodgates. Memories come rushing in. Before I know it I’m transported to a time when the day of the week determined what we’d see on our plate. I remember our arguments at the dinner table. Initially on a Wednesday night, we’d instinctively know it was Fried Rice. At a later stage, even though the food was on our plate, we would look at it and say, “Today is Thursday, so this has to be Tiger Rice ya!” On the whole, I don’t know why I cribbed so much. The food was never great, but it was always decent. Except the idlis. Someday I will blog about the different types of idlis that my hostel mess dished out. Every Tuesday morning.

Today’s post is dedicated to the Tiger Rice of Kaveri Hostel. The dish has the colours of a tiger and puli = tamarind, but puli also = tiger. I don’t call it Puliyodarai. To me, Puliyodarai is a very different genus and species. This will always be my Puli Saadam. No puli kaachal or instant mixes, just a dish as simple as lemon rice… well almost. Puliyodarai that Amma or Paati make will have a separate dedicated post some day.

1 cup Rice, measured raw and then cooked
1 tbsp Gingelly (Til/Sesame) Oil
¼ tsp Mustard Seeds
¼ tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves
½ tsp Urad Dal
½ tsp Chana Dal
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
¼ cup Peanuts
2 tbsp Tamarind Paste
3-4 Red Chillies
Salt to taste


Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds and asafetida. When the mustard splutters, add the red chillies, curry leaves and peanuts. Fry for a couple of minutes. Add the turmeric powder and the tamarind paste. Add about ½ a cup of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Add salt and when the mixture thickens to about half the original volume, stir in the rice and take off the flame immediately. Serve with some appalams or crisps. My favourite way to eat this is with some avial on the side. This recipe is good for two people as a main course or for four to six people if there are other dishes on the menu.

I was in a very playful mood the day I made this. I microwaved some javvarisi vadaam (sago crisps) and then scooped up some rice in each. I still like to find ways to make food interesting enough to eat and despite my age, I tend to play with my food a lot.


Also known as Pulihora, this is festival food in Andhra Pradesh and I’m sending this off to Vani at Batasari for the RCI: Andhra Festival Foods event.

Palak Kadhi

I always say that "Necessity is the mother of invention". I was going through some cookbooks to see what to make for dinner and came across a recipe for palak kofta kadhi. I didn't want to deep fry anything. I had a lot of curd and a lot of spinach, but was feeling terribly lazy. Instead of making koftas, I decided to add the spinach directly to the kadhi. I loved the end result.

1 cup Spinach, boiled and chopped

For the Kadhi:

1 1/4 cups Curd/Yogurt
3 tbsp Gram Flour
2/3 cup Water
1 tsp Ginger Paste
1 tsp Garlic Paste
1 1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder

To make the kadhi, whisk the curds with the gram flour and water. Add all the spices and salt and mix well. Bring this mixture to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Add the cooked spinach to this and boil for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with rice.

This is a great way to use up any leftover curd and the entire dish comes together in just a few minutes. I cook the spinach in the microwave and it is cooked by the time the kadhi comes to a boil. This recipe is a lifesaver on busy weeknights and is off to Siri for her Frozen Yogurt event.