Mango Phirni

The other day Kundan came home describing about a divinely dessert, maampazha koozh that one of his colleagues had brought for lunch. The very next day my parents had come home with so many ripen mangoes and so he wanted me to try that recipe. I tried browsing for the recipe with the ‘maampazha koozh’ and related keywords but din’t find anything matching; alternatively I happened to hit this ‘mango phirni’ recipe and tried it. I could not appreciate it much as I was expecting something like a mango mousse but what turned out was something like a mango rabadi. Kundan liked it though and surprisingly even his colleagues seemed to have liked it.

Serves: 5

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Ripe mangoes – 3

2.     Raw rice – ½ cup

3.     Milk maid – ½ a tin or more as per taste.

4.     Milk – 2 cups

5.     Cardamom powder – 1 pinch

6.     Cashew nuts chopped – 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Soak rice in water for few hours and grind it into a smooth paste.

Step 2: Peel, chop and puree the mangoes.

Step 3: Boil milk and add rice paste to it by stirring continuously.

Step 4: Once the milk thickens well, add milkmaid to it and then the mango puree. Stir well until it comes to boil.

Step 5: Turn off heat and add cardamom powder and stir well.

Step 6: Let it cool down and then refrigerate it.

Step 7: Serve garnished with chopped cashew nuts.

Aloo Mattar Subji

The other day I asked Kundan to get some frozen green peas; little did I expect that in the freezer box they would have stored sprouted dried peas, he got it thinking it as fresh green peas. Once he got bottle gourd when I had asked him for radish. He is so familiar with vegetables… ;) I had used these sprouted peas in a simple aloo mattar subji instead of fresh peas.

Serves: 4

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Sprouted peas – 1 ½ cups

2.     Potato – 3

3.     Tomato – 3

4.     Onion – 1

5.     Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp

6.     Butter – 2 tbsp

7.     Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

8.     Red chili powder – 1 ½ tsp

9.     Garam masala – 1 tsp

10.            Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Boil, peel and cube the potatoes, cook the sprouted peas and puree onion & tomatoes and keep aside.

Step 2: Melt butter in a pan, splutter cumin seeds, sauté ginger garlic paste and then the puree in it until the butter starts to separate.

Step 3: Now add chili powder, garam masala and salt to the spice mix and add 1 ½ cups of water.

Step 4: Once it comes to boil, add cooked potatoes and peas and adjust spices and consistency.

Step 5: Cook for another 3-5 minutes and turn off heat.

Step 6: Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with rice or roti.

Jowar Roti

I made rotis from the jowar puttu flour that I had bought ready from store; puttu flour renders extra soft rotis compared to usual jowar flour. In north Karnataka, jowar roti is prepared like the phulkas and are considered as one of their staples. However, I had made ‘adai’ like rotis patted by hands that are thicker and slightly chewy. It is a quick rainy season dinner and Kundan liked it well with butter and jaggery.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Jowar flour – 3 cups

2.     Salt to taste

3.     Oil – 1 tbsp + for greasing

4.     Coriander chopped – One fistful

5.     Green chilies – 2

6.     Onion – 1

7.     Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Take jowar flour in a mixing bowl; add a spoon of oil, salt, asafoetida, chopped onion and coriander and knead well with luke warm water.

Step 2: Rest the dough for 15 minutes.

Step 3: Divide the dough into medium sized portions and roll them into balls.

Step 4: Grease a plastic sheet and grease fingers also with some oil and pat the dough ball over the surface with fingers to get 5mm thickness circle.

Step 5: Heat the tawa, grease with some oil or butter and roast the jowar roti on both the sides until well cooked.

Step 6: Serve with a dollop of butter and jaggery. Any thokku goes well with this roti.