Rava Laddoos for Indian Cooking Challenge

Srivalli of Cooking4AllSeasons announced Indian Cooking Challenge where every month tried and tasted indian traditional recipe would be chosen and all the participants need to make the dish and post it on the same day, isnt it fun? I am very much excited about this monthly challenge, it would be my first ever food challenge and i am looking forward to learn many new dishes! This months theme is Rava Ladoo. Rava Ladoo is one of the most loved indian sweet, very easy to prepare and is loved by all age groups. We usually prepare Sheera with Rava/Semolina which has consistency of more like a pudding or halwa. I have followed Srivalli's recipe which you can see here. The only change i made was to add little kesar or saffron, whats an indian sweet without kesar? Even little bit of kesar gives wonderful aroma and taste which makes you crave more! The recipe yielded 10 laddoos of medium size. Sugar was little more for my taste, next time i'll only use little more than half. Thanks Srivalli for this wonderful challenge!

Ingredients: 1 cup Rava/Semolina/Cream of Wheat 1 cup sugar 25 ml ghee 25 ml milk 1/2 tsp cardamon powder 10 cashews 10 golden raisins 25 gm fresh grated coconut or desicated coconut few saffron strands (optional) Procedure:

• Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a pan, when its hot fry the raisins and cashews. Once the raisins balloon up remove and keep them aside. Now roast the coconut in the same pan, when done remove and keep aside.
• Add the remaining ghee and roast Rava till its well roasted and aroma starts coming out.
• In a bowl, take all the roasted rava, nuts, coconut and add the cardamom powder. Then add the sugar. Mix well.
• Soak the saffron strands in the warm milk for about 5 mins.
• Then slowly add the warm milk into the bowl of rava mixture. Check if you are able to make balls. When you find that milk added is enough to get you round ladoos, transfer it back to the pan and cook in sim for 2 mins. Mix well and then cover it and let it rest for 2 mins. Then immediately make balls or laddoos.

Baked Methi Corn Cutlets

Staying away from family has its own advantages, when I visit home I am pampered like anything, my mom makes may favorite dishes, I can watch disney channel without interruption(which my brother hates!) and sleep till mid day. On my last visit home, i went to see my aunt and by mistake i mentioned we dont get fresh methi leaves in swiss and immediately she packed a big box of dried methi leaves for me to take back. My aunt sun dries the fresh methi (fenugreek) leaves and stores them. Dried methi leaves stay good for months and you just need to soak them in water for 10 mins before using and they are ready to be used. I am sure everyone knows the health benefits of methi so i wont repeat the same and bore you guys. I always try to find new ways to incorporate methi in my diet. On of my favorite is methi theplas which is very much gujju's trademark. Another dish I am fond of is Aloo Methi which i'll be posting soon.

I made these cutlets in my effort to use up the sweet corn kennels which i had in my fridge. Initially i thought of making cheese sweet corn balls which i posted here but then the idea of all that unwanted calories made me feel guilty! Cutlets were second in my list and by adding methi they were super healthy and delicious and not to forget guilt free as they were baked!!

These Baked Methi Corn Cutlets are off to Madhuram's Low Fat Eggless Baking event and to CFK:Leafy Vegetables guest hosted by Pavani, mastermind of Sharmi. The first pic is off to Click:Stacks event by Jugalbandi.

Ingredients: 1 cup boiled mashed potatoes 1/2 cup fresh/dried fenugreek(methi) leaves finely chopped 2 tbsp fine bread crumbs 1/2 cup sweet corn roughly grinded 2 green chillies finely chopped 1 tsp fresh lime juice 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp chaat masala Salt to taste 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander Bread crumbs to roll the cutlets in
Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
• Mix all the above ingredients together nicely. Make sure you dont make it extremely mushy.
• Make small round balls and press them in middle to make flat round cutlets.
• Roll these cutlets in bread crumbs.
• Line the baking tray with foil paper.
• Grease the foil paper using little oil.
• Bake the cutlets for 15 mins on one side, flip and bake for another 15 mins until light brown on both the sides.
• Serve hot with sauce or coriander chutney. You can also use these cutlets in between the burger buns.

Strawberry Sorbet

Last weekend I visited a Strawberry farm where I picked some really fresh and BIG strawberries. It was such a great experience, the owner of the farm allows you to eat as many strawberries as you want and you can also buy fresh strawberries picked by yourself on a very reasonable rate. I got so excited i bought almost 2 kilos of them. I am planning to visit the farm again for some more strawberries and fresh raspberries :) Sorbet are one of my favorites and perfect for summers. With so many strawberries how could i not make one? Its the most simple and delicious desserts of all and not to forget so very refreshing!! I prefer to make sorbets using fresh and juicy fruits, berries go well, even pineapple, mangoes and peaches go extremely well. Personally we loved the strawberry sorbet, it tasted yummy and i just loved the color! Looking at it only made me feel all happy and cheerful.

Strawberry sorbet is making its way to Strawberry Feast hosted by Happy Cook and to Ben's Home Made # 5 Ice Creams.

Ingredients: 1 kg fresh strawberris chopped 3/4 cup sugar 1 tbsp fresh lime juice 1/2 cup water (optional only if required) Yeah thats it just 3 ingredients to get this fresh and refreshing sorbet!!! Look at the color, isnt it gorgeous?

Procedure:

• Mix the sugar and strawberries and keep aside for minimum 4 to 5 hours, until the berries have released water and become mushy.
• Blend together the strawberry and sugar until smooth. Add in little water if required. I did not add in any water as the juices released from strawberries were enough.
• Pass this through a sieve to remove the seeds and to get a smooth sorbet. If you like crunchy you can skip this step.
• Now add in the lime juice and mix well.
• Freez the sorbet in a broad flat vessel or you can even make lollies out of this.
• Remove from the freezer and refrigerate for 15 to 20 mins before serving, this will help the sorbet to become soft and you can easily scoop the sorbet.
• Scoop sorbet in glasses and serve chilled. You can drizzle little chocolate sauce if you like or garnish with colorful sprinkles.