Apple Kheer

Apple Kheer

When I was a kid I saw a movie called "khubsurat" featuring Rekha and Rakesh Roshan. That movie was awesome. But one scene was still imprinted in mind. That was a kitchen scene where Dina Pathak was preparing "apple kheer", which was Rekha's favourite in that film.

When I grow up, I tried that recipe. Initially it was failure, with many failure attempts and learning process I made that recipe perfect. On the eve of Diwali I am sharing my recipe of Apple Kheer.

Apple- 3 big

Milk- 750ml

Milkmaid- 3tbsp

Sugar- 4 to 5 tbsp

Paneer- 100gms

Salt to taste

Chopped nuts- 1/2cup

Ghee- 3tbsp

Green cardamom powder- 1tsp

In a deep button sauce pan add milk and reduce the milk up to half. 

Wash and clean apples. Peel and decore the apples. Grate the apples and keep aside. 

 

In a kadai heat 1tbsp of ghee  and add chopped nuts and fry up to brown and bring out to a bowl.

In the same kadai add more ghee and add grated apple and sauté up to dry. Then switch off the gas. 

In the reduced milk add condensed milk and salt and stir. Again add sugar to it. If you want more sweetness you can add more sugar. 

Crumble the paneer with hand and add this crumbled paneer to milk and switch off the gas.  Crumbled paneer thicken the milk. Then keep aside the milk mixture up to room temperature. 

When both fried apple and milk mixture come to temperature, then mix both. Mix it properly without any apple lump. Then add cardamom powder and fried nuts to it and mix. Then keep it in fridge to become chill. Serve the kheer chilled..

Granola

Granola

Granola is a healthy breakfast and snacks option for everyone. It is a mixture of oats, nuts or honey or any other natural sweetener and baked up to crispy. Dry fruits like raisins and dates and confections like chocolate are also sometimes added in granola. It can be served with curd and fresh fruits. Sometimes it can be eaten with milk even. But this can also be part of toppings of any ice cream or smoothie bowl etc. It is a very nutritious food.

This is my recipe of granola. It is easy and healthy and most importantly sugar free. As I don't like the flavour of peanut butter, I have used almond butter here. For nuts I have used almonds and walnuts. It is a complete package for me to start the day.

Here I will give my recipe of almond butter and apple sauce. These are two basic ingredients of my recipe apart from oats.

Recipe of Almond Butter

Room Temperatured Almond- 1Cup

Salt- 1/2tsp

In a blender jar add almonds and grind them. In initially it will be like almond meal (flour). Then grind again. Slowly the ground almond will start sticking to the sides of the jar. Scrap the sides of the jar and bring to the middle and grind again. Now add salt to it and grind again. Slowly it will get that buttery texture. The whole process will take 15mins. While grinding scrap the side frequently. It will help in grinding and also give some rest to the grinder. 

Recipe of Apple Sauce

Apple- 2

Honey- 3tbsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon- 1/2inch piece

Peel and decore apples and chop them randomly. In a sauce pan add chopped apples, water 3 cups, honey, salt and cinnamon stick, then keep it on the gas and cook up to soft. While cooking if water totally evaporates then add more water to it. When done remove the cinnamon stick and grind it till smooth. Your apple sauce is ready.

Recipe of Granola

Oats- 2Cups

 (I have used Kellogg's brand)

Almond Butter- 1/4Cup

Honey- 1/4Cup

Apple Sauce- 1/2Cup

Rice Bran Oil- 2tbsp + oil for greasing the tray

Almond- 1/2Cup

Walnut- 1/4Cup

Raisins- 1/2Cup

In a mixing bowl add oats, almonds, chopped walnuts, and raisins and mix.

In another bowl add Almond butter, honey, apple sauce, 2tbsp of oil and whisk it properly.

Then mix the dry ingredients with wet ingredients and mix. This mixing can be done best with hand.

Grease a baking tray with generous amount of oil. This will help in baking. Then pour this mixture on it and spread evenly. Bake this for 30 mins in 160 degree Celsius or up to crispy.

One can substitute almond butter with any normal butter or low fat butter or pea nut butter. For more sweet sugar or brown sugar can be done. If one wants it to make healthy then more honey can be added. My apple sauce is having sweetness, salt and cinnamon flavour but these can be added separately if unsweetened apple sauce is added.

Bake the granola for more time if you want crispy but for chewy texture, it can be baked for less time.

Can be served with curd and fresh fruits.

Dragon Paneer

Dragon Paneer

Sometimes back we went to have lunch in a restaurant. There we ordered dragon chicken as starter. It was very yumm and tasty. My kids utter the name even after many days have past. They used to ask me to cook that dish for them. I agreed to cook it some day.

Paneer is every kids' favourite. So do my kids'. So thought of combining two favourites of my kids and give them a surprise. Kids loved the combo and my friends also loved it. It is a simple I do Chinese fusion dish with all the ingredients easily available at home.  Very easy and very quick dish. The main highlight of the dish is the crunch of cashew and hint of spice from chilli. So here is the recipe of the dish...

Paneer- 200 GMs

Salt- 1/2tsp

Black pepper powder- 1/2tsp

Soya sauce- 1tsp

Red chilli paste- 1/2tbsp

(You can substitute it with 1/2tbsp Kashmiri mirch powder + 1/2water)

Ginger and garlic paste- 1tbsp

Corn flour- 2tbsp

Maida- 3tbsp

Oil- 2tbsp

Cashew- 1/2cup

Whole Dry red chilli- 3

Onion- 3 medium 

Capsicum- 1small

Ginger and garlic paste- 1 tbsp

Red chilli paste- 1tbsp

Tomato sauce- 2tbsp

Soya sauce-2tbsp

Salt-1/2tsp

Sugar-1tsp

Coriander leaves to garnish 

Cut the paneer in stripes and keep aside.

In a big mixing bowl mix everything except Paneer. Add cut Paneer to the marinade mixture and mix with light hand. If required add 1tbsp of water. Keep this aside for 20mins.

Heat oil for deep frying.

In the meantime clean and slice onions. Clean and cut the capsicum in strips.

After 20 mins deep fry the marinaded paneer in hot oil up to golden in colour. Drain it in a kitchen towel.

Again heat 2tbsp of oil in a pan. Break the red chilli in two and add to the oil and let it crackle.

Then add cashew nuts and fry up to golden in colour.

Then add sliced onions to it and sauté for a min or two. Then add ginger garlic paste and sauté again.

Now add capsicum and salt and sauté. Cook up to bit soft.

Then in a bowl add chilli paste, tomato sauce, soya sauce and sugar and mix well. Now add this mixture to cooked onion and capsicum.

Now add little water to it and cook for some mins. Let the sauce thick a bit.

Then add fried Paneer to it and toss properly. The sauce should coat the paneer pieces well. Now bring out to a serving plate and garnish with coriander leaves.