Pumpkin Pie - My First Pie

You can look forward for few more-first attempt's here in this winter. Iam very much interested in baking, but could'nt spare time in finding exact recipe. I feel this is one sort of research work. so here i am documenting my first attempt's. Give your verdicts, I really appreciate your suggestions to bake better next time.

You Bloggers across the sea tempt me a lot with your baking ventures. I thought that i could never find baking tray's / tart pan's / muffin tray's all in Chennai. But Arundathi was kind enough to share in her blog about currhim boys in adyar and Nirmala has asked me to visit amma nana, for all the above mentioned pan's and trays. I visited currim bhoys, the shop is filled with lovely dinner sets and glasses, I picked few pans, i would have picked half of the shop, if something called money was with me. This Poor Girl is planning to visit monthly such shops with her monthly savings. Man Proposes - God Disposes (Dont Forget Lavi!!)

Coming to the Pie, I baked it with less tension. I was almost sure that it will turn up pretty good with some blind confidence, and i should say it got baked perfect and tasted so Great too. I did not have any idea of getting heavy cream for whipping cream to add it for pie filling, so ended up in adding full cream. any chennai bloggers reading this, suggest me where can i get heavy cream or is any way to prepare that at home?

How I Prepared Pumpkin Puree - By Stove Top Method?

I prepared Fresh Pumpkin Puree at Home. it was so easy to make, i just removed the flesh from skin with some effort and sauted in skillet with some oil till they turned tender. it took some 5 minutes to saute the pumpkin to tender. i cooled them and grinded the pumpkin's into fine puree. i did'nt sieve it. it got a smooth texture. (I bought 0.695 Kg of pumpkin and pureed it) but i used just half of the puree for two pie's.

Ingredients for Pie Filling:

Pumpkin Puree - 200gms
Full Cream Milk - 5 tbsp's
Egg's - 2
Cloves - 2
Cardamon - 2
Cinnamon - 1' inch stick
Dry Ginger - 1 'inch
Sugar - 1/4 cup

Assembling Pie Filling:

I grinded the Sugar with cloves, cardamon and cinnamon into powder form. I did not grind them finely, you can see black spots in the pie because of that.

Beat the Egg's.

Add the Powdered Sugar to the egg's beated.

Add Dry Ginger powder to the egg's.

add pumpkin Puree to the egg's.

Now add Whipped Cream to the egg's. i added full cream instead.

Ingredients for Pie Crust:

1. All Purpose Flour - 175 gms
2. Butter (in chilled form) - 5 tbsp's
3. salt - a pinch
4. Powdered Sugar - 1/ 4 cup
5. Ice water - few sprinkles (2 tbsp)

Add salt to the flour and add powdered sugar to the flour and mix well.

Now add the Butter and mix well with the flour. Keep adding butter, till the flour becomes like bread crumbs.

Now sprinkle some ice water to the flour and get the flour togeather into a dough. (like our chapathi dough) don't add ice water more than 2 / 3 tbsp's.

Now flatten the dough and cover it with a plastic cover and put the dough in fridge for overnight or 12 hours.

Get ready with your tart pan. Just before 30 mins to bake the pie, remove the dough from the fridge and let it get back to room temperature.

Roll the dough thinly and spread it over the tart pan. trim the exceedings.

after spreading the rolled dough over the tart pan, put the tart pan in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Bake the Crust in Pre-Heated oven for about 10 minutes at 180C.

Now pour the pie filling into the tart pan.

Bake the Pie for about 45 mins at 160C.

Check the pie along the crust, for it got set or not. and bake them furthur. 45 mins will be a correct time.

Cool them for few minutes and serve them warm with cream / Honey.

It tasted so Great. we all loved it. I liked it in chilled form with cream. Do try this easy pumpkin Pie for Thanks Giving and Enjoy.

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Carrot Moong Dal Kosambari ~ Carrot Salad

Me and My dad frequently visit MTR at Bangalore. The first dish they serve is grape juice and next is this carrot kosambari. Eating Raw carrot is very hard for me, this carrot salad made it easy. i love the moong dal in it and lime juice sprayed over the salad makes me crave for one more serving. so here is my favourite MTR Carrot Kosambari.

Ingredients:

Carrots - 4
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup (5 tbsp's)
Shredded Coconut - 3 tbsp's
Corriander Leaves - 3 tbsp's (finely chopped)
Lime Juice - 1 tbsp

For Tadka/Seasoning:

Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Split Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Green Chilli - 2 (finely chopped)
Curry Leaves - 6

Method:

Soak the 1/4 cup Moong Dal in 1 cup of water for about 1 hour.

Peel off the outer skin of the carrots and Grate the carrots & place them in a bowl.

Mix the shredded coconut with the grated carrot in the bowl.

Add Soaked Moong Dal to the Carrot bowl.

Mix well with a spoon.

Heat a small Tadka Pan for Seasoning,
Heat 1 tsp Oil,
add Mustard and let in jump,
add urad dal and let it get roasted,
add finely chopped green chilli's and
add curry leaves.

Now Transfer the seasoning / Tadka to the carrot bowl.

Mix well the contents in the carrot bowl.

Add Lime Juice to the bowl and mix.

Add required salt and Chopped Corriander Leaves to the bowl and mix well.

Serve it Instantly Fresh..

Enjoy & Have a Great Weekend!!

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Sambhar Rice ~ Sambhar Sadham

My Favourite Food is always hearty sambhar sadham and cool thayir sadham / curd rice. Sambhar Rice with appalam or with potato curry is a perfect combination. I always prepare this sambhar rice, when i have guests. The secret of tasty sambhar sadham depends on the vegetables we add. Drumstick(murungai kaai), Eggplant(kathrikkaai), Radish(mullangi), knol khol (nookal) and capsicum (kudai milagaai) are must. Adding shallots / pearl onions ( sambhar / chinna vengayam ) is must. the other trick is, boiling these vegetables in tamarind juice. I use Sakthi Masala Sambhar Powder. You can use your own sambhar powder. Try using Ghee / Butter to have a tasty Sambhar Rice.

Ingredients: (Sambhar Rice for 2 people)

Vegetables:

Drumstick / Murungai - 1
Eggplant / Kathirkaai - 2
Radish / Mullangi - 1
Knol Khol / Nookal - 1/2
Capsicum / Kudai Milagaai - 1/2
Carrot - 1
Beans - 6
Broad Beans /avarakaai - 6
Double Beans - 10 (optional)
Potato / Urulai - 1


Other Ingredients:



Tomato - 1/2
Shallots - 15

Raw Rice - 150 gms ( 2 small tumblers)
Toovar Dal / Tuvaram Paruppu - 40 gms

Tamarind - a lemon size

Sambhar Powder - 3 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Ghee / Clarified Butter - 5 tbsp's
Mustard - 2 tsp's
Split Urad Dal - 2 tsp's
Dry Red Chilli - 4
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1/ 4 tsp
Curry Leaves - 15

Corriander Leaves - 4 tbsp's (chopped)

Method:

First Pressure Cook the Rice and Dal with 4 cups of water. The whistle count is 6.

Wash the vegetables and dice them in cube shapes.

Soak the Tamarind in warm water for about 5 minutes and extract the tamarind juice.

Now Cook the Vegetables in extracted tamarind juice with little salt.
I Microwave them in high for about 8 minutes. ( Don't cook Capsicum, shallots and Tomato)
Cook the double beans in prior and add along with other vegetables.

Heat a Pan / kadaai,
add 2 tbsp's of ghee, let it melt and get heated,
add mustard and let it pop.
add urad dal and fenugreek seeds, fry them till they turn golden colour.
add the dry red chilli.
add the curry leaves
add asafoetida powder / hing.

Now add the shallots / small onions and fry them till they turn translucent.
add Capsicum and tomato and saute them till they have shrinked a bit.

Now add all the cooked vegetables in tamarind water to the kadaai / pan along with the tamarind water.

Add one cup of water, Turmeric powder and sambhar powder. also add salt to taste. remember salt is already added to vegetables.

Mash the cooked Rice and dal and add to the pan. stir well, to avoid lumps. mix the rice evenly with the vegetables in the pan.

Add 3 tbsp's of ghee and corriander leaves and cover the pan with a lid. slow the flame. and let it rest for 3-4 minutes in slow flame. keep checking and stir in between to avoid burning the rice in the bottom of the pan.

Switch off the flame and keep the lid closed till you serve.

Serve with a dollop of ghee and appalam on side.

This is a great food to pack for picnic. curd rice and potato curry will make a hearty meal togeather.

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The Right Write Taste

Sharing about food, apart from its recipe's and its image's here is exciting me. Like most girls, i started reading cookbooks right from age 12. I mostly read Mallika Badrinath's Book's. Apart from her book's, my grandmom's and her mom's recipe book was very interesting for me to read. I would really admire their handwriting skills and writing the recipe in a clear cut form with exact measurements.

I can approximately estimate, that my grandmom's mom's recipe collection should have been written in early 1970's. Those days were the days, there were no Televisions and no magazines sharing recipes. But my grandmom's have collected various recipes across the states. Rava Upma, was one such, they managed to get the MTR instant Upma Mix alike recipe.I still wonder how they managed to do that. My Grandmom's were living in villiage and thereby no access to xerox machines nearby. sure they should have spend more time on copying others recipe collection wih just Candle Light. Not even they wrote, they have also tried most recipes from their recipe collection. I remember my Grandmom's mom trying variety of pickles.
If you ask me to write down the recipes from my blog to a Notebook, iam sure i cant.

other than this, i really love to read the restaurant food review and watch shows relating to that.
In Tamil, There is a writer called la.sa.ra. His books normally have food combos, which makes us drool, on just reading his recipe told in a different fashion.

One such food combo that i tried from his book was Vendhiya Kuzhambu, Urulai Kizhangu podimaas. the combo was excellent. pairing such combos is one i should note down and try from now on.

These are all the food writings i enjoyed and read. Now iam sending this to Sra'a The Write Taste. Thank You Sra, Now at the end of this post, iam really happy, that i wrote this post. This is one post, that is going to be close to my heart from this blog.

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Cashew Roll / Kaju Roll - Easy Diwali Sweet

Thank You all for appreciating my Kaju Katli. It is really worth trying it out so do try for this diwali. Kid's liked my Kaju katli's a lot. Now coming to the colourfull cashew roll, i made this on the same day i made kaju katli's. its just the roll shape of kaju katli's. since i didn't want to overpower you all with many variety on the same day, i thought of dividing the post seperately for Kaju Roll.

Three Different variety of kaju sweets, with the same basic preparation.

How to Preapare Kaju Roll / Cashew Roll

Prepare your Kaju Katli Dough. Click Here.

Grease your palms and fingers with ghee/butter/oil (for vegan's).

Divide the Kaju katli dough into two parts.

Add Kesari Colour / apple green colour / Red Colour to one portion of the kaju katli dough.

Knead the dough well, to make sure the colour spreads evenly.

Grease your palms again.

Now take a small ball of the plain dough and roll it with your rolling pin or flat it with your palms.

Take a small ball of the colored ball and roll it with your both palms to get a cylindrical shape.

Place the Cylindrical shaped colour dough onto the start of the rolled plain dough.

Gently fold and cover the coloured dough completely.

Tap the Roll with your finger on either side of the roll, to make the roll into a shape.

Roll it gently to make them into a proper roll shape.

Trim the edges of the roll, so that the stuffed colour dough is visible.

Yummy Colourfull Kaju Roll is Ready.

Are you wondering How i got the line of colour on cashew roll, i just didn't fold the roll completely, thereby i got my favourite beautifull orange colour lines on the roll.

Different Ideas to Try:

The dough is so flexible, and we can try many variety in it.

Try 3 layered roll.
Stuff the roll with nuts.
If you know carving, try to make like an apple.
Prepare Kaju Pista Roll in the same way, with kaju dough and pista dough.

If you prepare once, you will get so many ideas.

It just took me two hours, including running behind my son and feeding him. if you have an helping hand and ideas, you can blast them with all colours.

Have a Colourfull Fun Filled Sweet Filled Diwali!!

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Kaju Katli / Cashew Burfi For Diwali

Deepavali is just a week away, i want to try making many sweets, Today I tried Kaju Katli and it turned out excellent. Since i have watched my grand mom making badam halwa, i rightly got the trick on sugar syrup consistency and stirring the halwa on the kadaai. Those tricks helped me today and the burfi turned out pretty perfect.

The String Consistency for Sugar syrup is very important in making these Kaju Katli. The other important fact is, when to switch off the flame. if you overcook, then you will end up in hard katli's. so these two facts are to be learned and followed exactly.

When I said String Consistency, here in the Kaju Katli, you need not wait for single string consistency at all, it should be the previous stage to single string consistency.

Coming to the Recipe..

Ingredients:

(Yields 10 - 14 Kaju Katli's)

Recipe Inspiration : VeganYum Yum

1. Cashews - 30 / 1 cup (125 gms)
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Water - just to the level of sugar immerses ( 4tbsp)
4. Ghee - to Grease your Palms.

Since this was my trial, i just used some 30 cashews. They were Big in size, when i powdered them i got about 1 cup / 6 oz.

- Wash and dry your mixer, without any wet.
- Grind the Cashew to the powder form.

The Ratio between Cashew Powder and Sugar is 2 : 1.


How to Make Sugar Syrup for Kaju Katli?

Take half cup sugar(3 oz.) in a thick bottomed pan, and pour water till it get immersed (say 4 tbsp of water).

Keep checking every half minute..

1. Soon after the sugar water starts to boil, have a little in a spoon and touch it with your fingers. it will be very sticky to your fingers.( pisukku patham)

2. Second stage is, just drop a drop of sugar syrup on a plate, and tilt the plate, sugar syrup will start flowing.

3. Third and required stage for Kaju Katli is

Drop a drop of sugar syrup, on a plate, it should get set and not move, when the plate is tilted.

When the syrup attains the third stage, put the cashew powder to the syrup and keep stirring it to avoid lumps. even break the lumps if any formed.

Keep the flame Low and keep stirring for at least 3-4 minutes.

When you see bubbles coming and blowing off from the cashew burfi and when you take it with a slotted spoon ( Jalli Karandi ), and tilt the spoon, The cashew burfi should start sliding vertically like paper and flat. switch off the flame and remove from the stove. (just takes 3 - 4 minutes in slow flame, dont exceed this time, if you are a beginner)

Let it cool for about 10 to 15 minutes and till your palms could bear the heat for kneading.

Grease some ghee on your palms and knead the cashew burfi dough for about a minute or 2, till they all come out to a big ball shape. (Kaju Dough is ready) - Refer here to make Kaju Roll.

Roll them evenly of thickness 1/4' inch. or just pat them with your fingers like we do for Poli.

Cut them into squares or diamonds and store them in air tight container.

It was just like the ones that we get from Sri Krishna sweets. My hubby dear believed that i got from Krishna sweets. Thats a big success for me!

Try this and fall in Love. Its very easy to try. so do try this for Diwali. I also tried cashew rolls with the same cashew katli dough, will post making of Cashew Roll's in 2 days. Keep Waiting.

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