2015 in review

Though I was not so very active most of the time in 2015, stats look definitely good. Thanks everyone. Wish you all a very happy and a prosperous New Year 2016!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 79,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Paal Payasam/Kheer

Tags

Desserts, easy kheer, easy paal payasam, Indian Desserts, Kheer, Milk Desserts, Paal Payasam, payasam, Rice Kheer

I have been MIA for quiet sometime again. December is going to be a very tight scheduled month. Having a baby has changed everything possible. My DD has turned 6 months old today. Just a few days back we started giving her some solids. As of now she likes avocado.

I was thinking of making a cake. But my hubby said, why don’t you make some payasam, so that she can also have a bit of it. So yes cake plan got cancelled and here is the simple paal payasam/kheer. Did she like it, to my surprise nope, she didn’t 🙂

Ingredients:

Milk : 1 litre/4 cups (full cream)

Basmathi Rice : 2 tables spoons

Ghee : 2 table spoons

Saffron strands : Few

Sugar : 1/4 cup (adjust according to your taste)

Method:

• In a small pan, take a teaspoon of ghee and roast it for a minute.
• Once cool, just give it a pulse in mixie for the rice to break into half.
• In a pressure cooker, grease with ghee.
• Add milk, broken basmathi rice. You can crush the saffron strands and add along.
• Cook it for a whistle. Stop and let it cool.
• Once the pressure is relieved, open and cook in low flame.
• Once the rice gets cooked, add sugar.
• Cook in low flame for around 30 to 40 mins.
• Milk gets thicker. Once it comes to thick consistency,stop and serve.

You can always use jaggery instead of sugar.

Full cream milk gives the best taste.

You can use heavy bottomed pan instead of pressure cooker.

Add some cardamom powder to enrich taste, I didn’t want to make it strong as I am giving my LO.

Add a pinch of salt to enrich taste.

Cranberry thokku

Tags

Cranberry Indian Recipe, Cranberry Indian style pickle, Cranberry Indian Style recipe, Cranberry Thokku, easy thokku recipe

I wanted to make this thokku last year itself but missed it. Cranberries are easily found during Thanksgiving season. When I went to Walmart before Thanksgiving this year, I got a pack of cranberries for $1.68. Last year this time I was pregnant and had urinary infection, which is very common during pregnancy. Cranberry helps a lot in reducing UTI. I used to make juice with apple. But it was too bitter and I gave up fresh cranberries lol. So I used to make dry fruits bar/energy bar with dried cranberries. This year again I got so tempted by seeing the price. Finally made this thokku. It is way better than juice, so you can try it ☺

This is not my own recipe, adapted from here. I have never found these beauties in India.

Ingredients:

Cranberries: 2 cups
Turmeric powder: 1/4 teaspoon
Red chili powder: 2 teaspoon (adjust according to your taste)
Salt : 1 teaspoon
Oil: 2 tablespoons
Tamarind juice: 2 tablespoons

Method:

• Wash cranberries and set aside.
• Heat oil in a large pan. When hot add the cranberries. It would start popping, just be careful.
• When they bubble up and get cooked. Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt and give it a nice mix.
• After 2 to 3 mins, add tamarind juice and mix well.
• Let it cook and oil gets separated on the edges of the pan.
• Now stop and cool. Store in a mason jar in refrigerator for 2 weeks.

It goes well with idli, dosa, chappathi and with rice.

Optionally you can make tadka with little oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida, curry leaves. I didn’t want to add more oil, so didn’t do this step.