Simple Tropical Smoothie

It's been 10 days since I own Vitamix. Since then every single day I am experimenting different kind of smoothies in my diet.

Weather in bay area is just reminding me spring, eventhough it is bad to see no rain and feels hot during winter time but can't help it. Hopefully we see some rain soon. Meanwhile I was enjoying the weather with outside activities and having these tropical smoothies.

Today's recipe is one of those yummy smoothies which I made during last week. (approved by a 4 year old :)

Ingredients

1 mango cut into cubes or frozen ( I used fresh mango and kept it in freezer for 3 hours)
2 cuties peeled or substitute with 1 orange
1/2 cup almond milk(you can substitute with water)
1 guava unseeded cut into chunks
8 strawberries (preferred frozen. if not use few ice cubes)

To avoid Ice cubes I did freeze fruits. If you are in hurry just add fresh fruits and add few ice cubes.


In a vitamix add water or milk first then add all the fruits blend for 30 to 45 seconds till you get smooth consistency. (Use tamper to blend all fruits evenly)

Yummy healthy smoothie is ready to enjoy.

My friend's daughter who is 4 years old visited me over the weekend enjoyed this smoothie. In her words "Aunty this is the best smoothie".  If you have a powerful blender try this yummy smoothie. I am sure your kids will enjoy.

Brown Rice pudding with home made coconut Milk

Wish you all Happy Pongal/Makara Sankranthi!!  (Little late in posting. Excuse me for being late)

Like every year this year also we celebrated Pongal with yummy dishes. Today's post is one of those yummy recipes using my new kitchen gadget(Vitamix).

Over the weekend I dared to buy one more gadget (Vitamix) to my kitchen. It is the most expensive kitchen gadget I ever bought. Hopefully it is worth the money. I am impressed with its quality and speed. Let's see how much I will utilize.

For now I utilized this gadget to make smoothies and tried to make coconut milk. I am just super impressed with coconut milk in just 1 mt.  I used to make coconut milk using my indian blender which used to take more than 10 mts to blend and preparation time of cutting coconut into small pieces to take more than 15 mts. Total time approximately 30 mts.
Using vitamix I didn't have to cut coconut into small pieces.  I just used big pieces of coconut and still blended into smooth milk. Total time less than 5 mts.

Coming to today's recipe, very simple and yet delicious.



Hurry My vitamix:



Ingredients:

1/2 cup brownrice
1/2 cup moong dal (split green gram lentil) (if you do not want to use lentil add 1/2 cup rice)
3 cups of fresh coconut milk/ milk (You can substitute with any milk)
3/4 cup sugar or jaggery (I used organic sugar)
1/4tsp cardamom powder
roasted nuts and raisins (optional)


Coconut milk:

1 medium sized coconut (remove the coconut meat and cut into chunks).

In a blender add coconut and water till all the coconut immersed in water. blend into smooth milk and strain the fibers using strainer or cheese cloth. What left is yummy coconut milk.

Procedure/Process:

In a rice cooker add washed rice and dal and add 3 cups of coconut milk. Cook for 5 whisltes.  If you are using electric rice cooker use the rice setting and cook till rice is cooked.
Once cooker is cooled add cooked rice in heavy bottomed vessel. Check the consisteny of the rice.
If it is too thick add water/milk , sugar and cardamom powder and let it cook on low heat for 5 to 6 mts. Once rice cooked in sugar give a taste test on sweetness and adjust as per your taste.
Remove from heat and garnish with roasted nuts and raisins.  (You can dry roast nuts or roast using 1 tsp of ghee.) I love nuts in my pudding so I added a lot :)

Consistency : it should not be too thick nor too thin. It should be creamy (This is my preference. if you like more thinner version add more milk or water)

Yummy pudding is ready to be served. You can either serve hot or chilled.

Alu Gobi (Sautéed Cauliflower and Potatoes)

Today's post is a quick dinner curry for any weeknight. Alu Gobi is a simple stir fry of potatoes and cauliflower sautéed in spices.  Everyone(who cook Indian food) does alu gobi in their own way using different spices. Today's recipe is my way of doing Alu Gobi.

It goes well with any kind of flat bread or rice

Ingredients

1 medium sized cauliflower cut into florets
2 potatoes cut into cubes
1tbsp of green peas (Optional)

Spice Ingredients:

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste (Fresh one is better use 2 garlic cloves and small fresh ginger piece crush and make a paste using stone mortar and pestle(1/4th inch thick of the size of 1 garlic clove))
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp to 1tsp red chili powder (As per your spice level increase or decrease)
1/4tsp turmeric powder
Salt as per your taste

Tempering
3 to 4 tbsp oil for sauté
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4tsp mustard seeds
4 curry leaves (optional)
Pinch of hing/asafoetida

Garnish:
1/2 tsp Chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Procedure

In a thick bottomed skillet/ cast iron skillet add oil. Once oil is hot add tempering ingredients. Once mustard seeds start splattering add ginger garlic paste and sauté for 1 mt.  Now add cubed potatoes and let it cook for 4 to 5 mts till they are cooked a little.
Note: I don't add both veggies at the same time since Cauliflower takes less time to cook. When I first made "Alu Gobi" I used to add both veggies at the same time and I always used to end up in mushy curry since cauliflower used to become mushy by the time potatoes are cooked. Learned from my mom that I should semi cook potatoes first then add cauliflower to get nice sauté veggies.

After potatoes semi cooked add cauliflower florets and all the spices and mix well. Cover it with lid and let it cook on medium heat. Periodically check and mix to cook veggies evenly with all the spices.
If veggies are sticking to the skillet then add few more drops of oil or few drops of water to cook. This curry will give nice texture if it is cooked in cast iron or nonstick pan.  Once veggies are cooked adjust spices and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with roti or rice. 

Mediterranean Cuisine for a get together party - Falafel recipe

Wishing you all Healthy and Happy New Year!!

Over the weekend, I invited few of my friends for a first get together party of the year.  Most of our get together parties somehow end up in Indian cuisine. This year all our friends decided to have different cuisine food for all our get together parties to explore our cooking skills.  For the first get together party of the year we started with Mediterranean cuisine.