Food for 7 Stages of Life: Cooking with Fruits

Showing posts with label Cooking with Fruits. Show all posts

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Mixed Fruit Raitha

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Thursday, October 15, 2009

Mixed fruit raitha is one dish you will always find in my get together menu. It is relished by everyone irrespective of ages, especially kiddos love it. Kids are usually finicky about eating spicy food, so I normally serve roti/paratha with this raitha. Trust me in no time their plate will be empty. This makes their Mommy's happy and relieved. This is one good reason why I prepare this whenever we have guests at home. Let us now see how to make this easy-peasy mixed fruit raitha.

Ingredients from my pantry

Onion (chopped) - 3 tbsp
Tomatoes (chopped) - 3 tbsp
Green Chillies (cut in to halves) - 2 nos
Apple(peeled,chored, chopped) - 1/2
Grapes (cut in to halves) - 12 nos
Pomegranate - 1/4
Thick Curd or Yogurt - 3/4 - 1 cup (as desired)
Water - 1 tbsp
Few sprigs of Cilantro/Coriander leaves (chopped)
Salt to taste

Cooking Instructions

Add the above ingredients in a bowl and mix it well. Ensure that you don't crush the fruits. Garnish it with cilantro leaves.

Serving Suggestions

Can add 5 tsp of Mango juice (Maaza/Slice).

Add more water if you like it watery.

You can use any vegetables or fruits in any combination. I have also made raitha with carrot(shredded),pineapple, raw mango, cucumber, jalepenos etc.

Serve it with Biriyani, Pulao, Rotis, Parathas

Raitha tastes extremely good when we use apple. Ensure that you peel off the skin.

Remove green chilies before serving it to kids.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Hot n Sweet Pineapple Rice

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Monday, November 24, 2008

My cousin's wedding was celebrated very grandly with an extravagant feast. I had Pineapple Rice for the first time in her wedding. When I tasted it I couldn't really find out what I was eating though the taste was very familiar to me. It was very different but it tasted awesome. I took my uncle's help to find out what was that. He said its Pineapple rice. It all happened an year and half back.

My hubby likes pineapple in any form. I thought I should try this recipe myself and delight him. I didn't know where to start and had no clue about its ingredients. All I remembered was the pineapple flavor. I thought I should give it a shot. My first two attempts didn't impress me much though my hubby liked it :-) So this time I decided that I should get it right. Atlast I succeeded in making a Hot n Sweet Pineapple rice. Though its a different version from what I had, we enjoyed it thoroughly. I hope you too enjoy this...

Ingredients

Pineapple (Cut it in small cubes) - 3/4 cup
Pineapple Juice - 8 tbsp
Medium sized Onion (Sliced) - 1/2
Green chilli - 3 for Spicy / 2 for Medium Spice / 1 for Mild Spice
Turmeric Powder - 1 pinch
Garam Masala - 1/8 tsp [optional]
Cloves - 3
Cinnamon Stick - 1 (small in size)
Cumin seeds - 1/8 tsp
Basmati Rice (90% Cooked) - 1 1/2 cup
Oil - 1 3/4 tbsp
Salt to taste

For Garnishing

Cilantro leaves (chopped) - 1/2 tsp
Badam (Sliced) - 2

Method

Heat oil in a pan/skillet 0n a Medium flame. Add cumin seeds, cloves and cinnamon stick. Fry it for 15-20 seconds.
Add half portion of cut onions and fry it until golden brown.
Add a pinch of turmeric powder.
Add green chillies and pineapple pieces. Fry it for 30-40 seconds. Now add the pineapple juice and mix it well. I prepared the juice at home.
After 30 seconds, add garam masala and salt. Mix it and the sauce is ready.
Now add rice and mix it with the sauce on a low flame ensuring that rice does not stick to the pan. Also take care not to break the rice while mixing. Remove it from flame.

Optional

In another kadai, add 1/4 cup of oil. After 1 minute add the other portion of onion and fry it until golden brown. Add it to the pineapple rice and mix it well. You can keep a part of it for garnishing. Fried onions gives a great flavor to the rice.
Garnish it with cilantro leaves and badam slices.

Tips

Cut pineapple into small cubes ( 2 x 2 cm). Smaller the better as it blends well with the rice.
You can even replace the whole garam masalas with 1/2 tsp each of urad dhal and channa dhal. It gives a different flavor alltogether.
Use home made pineapple juice.

I would like to send this recipe to "Rice Mela" Blog Event hosted by Srivalli of Cooking4AllSeasons.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Banana/Vazhaipazham Dosa

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Tuesday, November 11, 2008

My hubby calls this as Innipu Dosa meaning Sweet Dosa in Tamil. It is one of his favorites after badushas. Mom in law makes it for my hubby with lots of love and affection. Since we got married he has been asking me to prepare this. So atlast I called up my mom in law for the recipe. I wanted to prepare this for dinner and give him a surprise. He returned home when I was still preparing the batter. He easily found out with aroma that I was preparing his favorite innipu dosa. He truly relished my version.

Ingredients

Maida - 1 cup
Banana - 1 (big one)
Jaggery (powdered) - 3/4 cup
Cardamon Powder - 1/4 tsp
Egg - 1 [Optional, I have not used it in this preparation]
Water - 1 3/4 cup
Ghee
Salt - pinch [ I did not add]

Method

Pour water in a kadai and bring it to boil.
Add jaggery and let it dissolve. Boil for 3-4 minutes. (I added jaggery in parts and tasted it to ensure that sweetness is according to our taste. You can add or reduce jaggery as desired.)
In a bowl, mix maida, cardamon powder. Crush the banana and mix it with the flour.
Filter the Jaggery water and pour in to the mix. Usually jaggery contains stones/soil, straining will help to remove them.
Mix it well to the Dosa Batter consistency. There might be small remains of banana. Let it remain, as it gives a great taste when cooked.
Heat the tawa or dosa kal(Tamil). Take a laddle (karandi) full of batter and pour in the center of the tawa. Spread it in a circular motion using the laddle. This will help you to make dosa in the form of circle.
Add few drops of ghee along the sides and spread it all over the dosa. (you can use cooking oil instead)
Leave it for 30-45 seconds minimum so that underneath of dosa cooks well and then flip it. Pay attention while flipping it. Allow it to cook well before you remove it from the tawa.
Serve it hot.

The dosas came out very well and we both enjoyed having it for our dinner. I shall call this one as Banana pan cake :-) The same batter can be used to make sweet paniyarams as well.
I would like to send this to "Satisfy your sweet tooth" Blog event hosted by Sudeshna.