Tomato Puree |How to make Tomato puree

Recipes April 18, 2020 1 Comment

I bought 2 kgs of beautiful red tomatoes but could not use it all, what did i do then?? Made a delicious puree and stored in my fridge for quick cooking.

What do we need??

Tomatoes: Used around 9-10 medium sized ones.

Sugar: 2 tbsp

Salt: 2 tsp

Apple cider vinegar: 2 tsp

Directions:

Chop off the eye part because it is bitter.

Make a cross cut on the opposite side and put some water and tomatoes in a pressure cooker.

Cook for one whistle and let it cool down

Remove the skin and blend in a mixie.

Sieve it and again blend with some water used in the pressure cooker.

Sieve it again.

Now take this pureed tomatoes in a big pan and put on low flame. A big pan is important as puree splatters out a lot. Add the sugar and salt and cook for 15-20 minutes. Add apple cider vinegar and cook for 15 minutes more. Cook till the puree gets thick so that it coats the back of the spoon. Switch off the flame. Fill it up in a sterilized glass bottle when lukewarm.

Keeps for a month in fridge.

Can be used for making curries, pasta sauce, pizza sauce pizza etc.

Enjoy.

Make jaaman from scratch |Setting curd/Dahi without “jaaman”(starter culture) |What to do when you don’t have curd and want to set some.

Recipes April 10, 2020 1 Comment
Jaman/starter curd

Many times i want to set curd but don’t have the available jaaman or starter culture. If i use packaged curd for starter, the resulting curd is slimy. After I googled what might be the reason, i got to know that the sliminess may be due to the packaged curd, so now in the current lockdown situation when you do not have access to dairy shop curd, this method will help in the desired setting of delicious curd.

Boil a cup of milk, simmer for a minute or two and cool down till it becomes just warm. Test by inserting a clean finger for 10 seconds, it should be warm, not hot not room temp. Pour it into a bowl preferably glass. Put 2 green or red chilies with stem. Cover with a cloth or lid and leave for 10 hours. Do not touch it for at least 10 hours. You will see the milk has set.

This is the jaaman we will use for setting curd. This tastes bad so don’t even think of using it in anything other than to set curd.

For setting curd, follow the same above method, Boil the milk, simmer for a minute or two and cool down till it becomes just warm. Test by inserting a clean finger for 10 seconds, it should be warm, not hot not room temp. Add a tablespoon of the above set jaman in a glass bowl. Pour the lukewarm milk and mix. Cover with a cloth and leave undisturbed for 8-10 hours according to weather (8 hours if it is too hot and upto 10 if weather is pleasant)

You will find some bubble like spaces towards the sides and bottom of the glass bowl indicating the cure is set. Enjoy.

Ingredients:-

For jaaman: Milk 1 cup

Green or red chilies with stem: 2

Direction: Take warm milk in a bowl, add chilies and leave undisturbed for 10 hours.

For curd: Milk: 2-3 cups or as desired

Jaaman: 2-3 tbsp

Directions: Add the jaaman to a bowl, pour lukewarm milk, mix and leave it undisturbed and covered for at least 8 hours.

Dahi/yogurt/curd
Dahi/curd/yogurt

Lockdown Special – one pot pasta pulao

Recipes March 26, 2020 Leave a comment

We are all under lockdown nowadays and What do you do when you should not go out and you are low on resources. Can’t make an elaborate meal right!! I had some tricolour fussilli lying around and some limited veggies, so i made a one pot fussilli pulao🤓🤓

Interested?? Here it goes:

Ingredients:

Fussilli/penne/any pasta: 1 cup

Veggies: corn, capsicums, bottlegourd, any available vegetable.

Onion: 1 big chopped

Garlic ginger paste: 1 tsp

Water: 1-2 cups depending on the type of pasta

Oil: 1 tbsp

Jeera: 1 tsp

Spices: Salt, red chili powder, dhaniya powder according to taste

Directions:

1. Chop up the available veggies, here i took bottle gourd, corn, tomatoes, green chilies, onion(not in pic).


2. In a pressure cooker, heat some oil, put jeera seeds, let it splutter, put the chopped green chilies, onion and saute well. Put ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell goes away.

3. Put the chopped veggies, the spices: Salt, chili powder, dhaniya powder and mix well. Put the unboiled pasta and give it a stir. Add the required water so that the pasta is immersed in it.

4. Pressure cook for atleast 10 minutes. Let the steam settle down and give the pasta a stir.

5. Serve and enjoy, Indian pulao tasting masala pasta 😛

SONG OF NATURE

Reviews March 25, 2020 Leave a comment

https://wp.me/pbeeqO-1F

Beautiful poem by Aaliya Hussain 👌👌👌

Review of activity book by Melissa and Doug| Water wow painting book review

Reviews March 14, 2020 Comments: 3

When there’s a toddler at home who needs to be kept engaged all day, this painting book is a boon. It comes with 4 pages of different scenes and a thick pen like brush with a tube to fill in some water. It is a mess-free way to keep toddlers busy

What the description says: Use the “Magic” pen to color in the picture, and see vibrant colors, details, and patterns appear. Each page of the kids’ activity book features a lively princess-themed artwork to complete and a seek-and-find activity, too. Makes a great travel toy.

Features & details

  • Toys and Games
  • NO-MESS ACTIVITY BOOK: The Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow! Safari Reusable Water-Reveal Activity Pad features reusable pages that come to life when wet.
  • 4 REUSABLE WHITE PAGES: Use the pen to fill in each activity and see hidden colors and pictures appear with every stroke! Then simply let the page dry to erase the pictures and fill it in again and again.
  • REFILLABLE CHUNKY SIZED WATER PEN: This Melissa & Doug alphabet activity book comes with a chunky-sized water pen that allows easy filling and is designed for smaller hands to easily grasp. The compact, spiral-bound format is great for travel.
  • GREAT GIFT FOR AGES 3 TO 7:This toy is a delightful and educational gift for kids . Add a Melissa & Doug toys to round out the hands-on and screen-free play experience.
  • “THE GOLD STANDARD IN CHILDHOOD PLAY”: For more than 30 years, Melissa & Doug has created beautifully designed imagination- and creativity-sparking products that NBC News called “the gold standard in early childhood play.”
  • 100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE: We design every toy to the highest quality standards, and to nurture minds and hearts. If your child is not inspired, give us a call and we’ll make it right. Our phone number is on every product!

As soon as the baby finishes coloring all the 4 pages, the first page becomes dry and is ready to color again, Zo loves this activity book.

I got 2 different books, one is animal themed and one has fairies.

Sometimes she will just take a wet wipe and rub it on the page and the colours come alive. The pages have find-the-objects kind of games too.

Very nice to gift also.

Price: starts from 350

Available on amazon and flipkart.

Pros:

Very good for engaging kids during traveling

Mess free activity

So many options of scenes and themes to choose

Very good book to gift

Cons:

Younger toddlers like zo don’t have a proper grip or technique so they put a lot of pressure which makes the brush tip flat after sometime making it difficult to colour.

Can’t put the brush with water filled in it in the storage space provided as on getting wet the adhesive of the storage compartment comes out.

The brush tip has become bad after sometime.

Links for Amazon and Flipkart

Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/Melissa-Doug-Water-Coloring-Animals/dp/B009B7F6DO

Flipkart:

http://dl.flipkart.com/dl/melissa-doug-water-wow-alphabet/p/itmf4gzs6e3tdhzx?pid=ACKF4GKHTGR2BWAQ&cmpid=product.share.pp

Stuffed Aubergine| Bharwan baigan/brinjal

Recipes February 27, 2020 Comments: 5
Bharwan baingan

This is a quick side dish, can be served with dal rice or parathas. The stuffing is mainly coriander and tomato based.

Baigan or aubergine is a total love-it or hate-it vegetable. Either you are a fan or you completely avoid it. I love it and hubby hates it so i make this dish just for myself.

Aubergines are an excellent source of dietary fibre. They are also a good source of vitamins B1 and B6 and potassium. In addition it is high in the minerals copper, magnesium and manganese. Aubergines are rich in antioxidants, specifically nasunin found in aubergine skin – which gives it its purple colour.

Ingredients:

Baingan/Aubergine: 4-5 small ones

Coriander leaves/hara dhania: 1 cup chopped

Tomato: 1 big red or 2-3 small ones, chopped finely

Spices: 1tsp red chili powder, 2tsp dhaniya powder, 1/4th tsp turmeric powder

Garlic cloves: 7-8 chopped finely

Oil: 1tsp to add in the stuffing, 2tbsp to cook the stuffed baingan.

Directions:

Add chopped tomatoes, Garlic and coriander leaves together with salt, red chili powder, dhania powder and a tsp oil and make a stuffing.

Clean the aubergine and remove the thorns and end part of stem if present.

Make 2 cross slits. Stuff the aubergines.

Take a wok, heat some oil, put cumin seeds and let crackle, put some hing.

Add the aubergines, first place vertically, and cover with a lid on sim ie minimum flame. Let it cook for 5 minutes, add a tbsp of water so that masala does not burn. Put the remaining stuffing masala on the aubergines. Mix the masala and aubergines and let it cook horizontally now. Cover with a lid, keep checking for doneness after 10 minutes. Mix, flip the aubergines. Let cook properly.

Serve and enjoy.

How to make roasted salted cashews|Crispy salted cashews

Recipes, Snacks February 20, 2020

We all love salted cashews and i made it sure to buy those tiny beautiful tins in the plane whenever we traveled. I tried making it in the microwave with some butter and salt but the result was not that satisfying and then one day my friend Kanchan told me how she makes it.

I am so so thankful to her for this procedure. I make one batch almost every week now and the best thing!!, my toddler loves it too. I halve the cashews and give it to her, else it can be a choking hazard.

What do we need??

Salt: 500gms (yes, you read that right !!!)

Cashews: 200gms

Sea salt (according to taste, optional)

Method:

Heat the half kg salt in a wok / kadai and add cashews to it. Put the flame on low and Keep stirring very carefully as the heated up salt can be very dangerous. After 5-8 minutes, the cashews will start turning slight pink. At this point you can take a big strainer and separate the cashews from the salt. Sprinkle ground sea salt while still hot. Let it cool down and munch on it. Tastes heavenly.

Note: The salt used here can be used multiple times and later can be used for baking cooker cakes.

Enjoy!! Do let me know if you tried this method.

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