Microwave Milk Peda / Doodh Peda / Milk Fudge

I made this quick and easy sweet for Diwali. I have seen this peda recipe all over the internet  and it was the first time I made this sweet and I was amazed by its easiness. It can be made in a matter of minutes if you have all the ingredients ready. No sieving, chopping, frying, baking needed! Just mix the ingredients and all you need is microwave for 3 minutes! Yes, you heard it right. Just 3 minutes! And it uses just 3 ingredients!

You cant make a more easier and delicious sweet! Great to make along with kids!

Here is a pictorial video!
http://www.youtube.com/user/DivyaDilSe#p/a/u/0/35M7z20T7aE

Ingredients
Instant Dry Milk Powder - 2 cups
Sweetened Condensed Milk or Milkmaid - one 14 oz can
Butter - 1/2 stick or 4 tablespoons

Instructions

1. Take a microwave safe bowl and melt the butter by microwaving a few seconds. Do not bring it to a boil.
2. To the melted butter, add the dry milk powder, sweetened condensed milk and mix thoroughly. Everything should be mixed completely.
3. Microwave for a total of 3 minutes mixing the ingredients thoroughly after each minute.
4. Dont forget to mix the sweet after each minute!
5. After 3 minutes, take the bowl out of the microwave and allow it to cool enough to handle with your hands. This shoud approximately take around 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Grease a big plate with oil or butter.
7. Also, grease your palms with oil or butter and take a small amount of the mixture and make into a small sized ball. Flatten slightly and arrange them on the greased plate.
8. Decorate as needed. I used some crushed pistachios on top.

Other topping ideas: Cashews, raisins, almonds, chironji seeds, sunflower seeds, coloured sugar etc. 

Diwali Sweets and Snacks!

Here is my dose of Diwali Recipes.. Have a fun and safe Diwali!

SWEETS

Athirasam

Quick an Easy Aval Payasam

Rasmalai

Badam Kheer

Moong Dal Halwa

Gulab Jamun

Rava Laddoo

Carrot Halwa

Pottukadalai Urundai

Rava Paniyaaram

Little Hearts Biscuit

SAVORY SNACKS

Kara Sev

Andhra Murukku

Masala Peanuts

Omapodi / Sev

Ribbon Murukku

Vengaya Bajji / Onion Fritters

Javvarisi / Sabudhana Murukku

Khara Biscuit / Indian Masala Cookies

Egg Puffs

Kara Vadai

Vegetable Cutlets

Enjoy snacking and bursting crackers! Have a Happy Diwali!

Collard Greens Dal

We had just returned from India after a fun vacation and I had to make a hearty, comforting meal for lunch. We were craving for some comfort food after eating the airline food for a whole day.

We had almost nil fresh produce at home and I was glancing at my freezer to find something to cook with for our lunch. I found a pack of chopped collard greens, which I had picked up on sale just before we left on our trip. I have this habit of stocking up on frozen veggies and greens whenever they are on sale and they always come in handy when I run out of fresh produce. I used up fresh tomatoes and green chillies from my little balcony garden and made this dal in minutes. We had the dal with rice, roti and some vadams for our lunch.

Ingredients
Collard greens (fresh or frozen) - 1 cup chopped
Toor dal - 3/4 cup
Tomatoes - 2
Green chillies - 2
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

For the seasoning
Oil - 1 spoon
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dal - 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds/jeera - 1 teaspoon
Dried red chillies - 2

Instructions

1. If using fresh collard greens, wash them and chop them into strips. If using frozen greens, use them as is.
2. In a pressure cooker, combine together washed toor dal, the collard greens, chopped tomatoes, slit green chillies and turmeric powder. Add about 4 cups of water and pressure cook for 4 to 5 whistles.
3. When the pressure gets completely released, open the cooker lid and mash the dal with a potato masher. Add salt to taste and mix well.
4. For the seasoning, heat the oil in a saucepan and add the mustard seeds. Once it starts spluttering, add the urad dal, jeera, asafoetida and dried red chillies.
5. Pour the seasoning over the cooked greens and dal and mix well.
6. Serve hot with rice or roti.

Monthly Mingle - Scintillating Salads Roundup

Hello All,
Am back with the roundup for the event Monthly Mingle - Scintillating Salads. I received several delicious and healthy salads great for every meal. Here comes the roundup!

Olga Arlegan - Lentil Salad

Deepika Anand - Tricolored Pasta Salad

Deepika Anand - Grilled Spring Onions, Radish & Cottage Cheese Salad 

   

Sadhana - Navara Rice Salad

Tandy Sinclair - Cabbage Salad

Lauren Hairston - Technicolor Vegetable Salad

Janet - Lime-Cilantro Quinoa Corn Salad

Janet - Skillet-Toasted Corn, Tomato and Anasazi Bean Salad

Janet - Sea-weed and Greens Salad

Vaishali Sabnani - Zesty Fruit Salad

Krithi - Pasta Salad with Lemon and Peanut Dressing

Chinmayie - Lite and Colorful Pasta Salad

Anu Anand - Spicy Asian Salad

Graziana - Fried Peppers Salad with Mint

Mythreyi - Watermelon Salad

Hope you enjoy all these lovely salads..

Happy Salad Munching..

Monthly Mingle - Scintillating Salads

This is a Monthly Mingle and I invite you all to take part in this mingle by sending in your salad entries. Yes! The theme for this mingle is Scintillating Salads!

Salads are versatile and makes a great start to any meal - incorporating all the goodness and freshness from the freshest ingredients available on the planet. Salads can be served as any part of the meal - appetizer salads, side salads, main course salads, dessert salads etc.

Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes including vegetable salads; salads of legumes, grains, pasta; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, seafood; and fruit salads. Green salads include leaf lettuce and leafy vegetables with a sauce and dressing. Other salads are based on pasta, noodles or gelatin. Most salads are traditionally served cold, although some, such as south German potato salad, are served warm.

With umpteen number of options and varieties of salads available, adorn your thinking hats and blog about your favorite salad and send it to the mingle this month!

Here are a few guidelines for the event:

1. Create a dish that fits the "Scintillating Salads" theme.
2. Post about it in your blog from now until September 30, 2011 (entries must be in English)
3. Your creation should be prepared for the current Monthly Mingle theme and shared with a maximum of 2 other blog events.
4. Please provide a link to this post and the official Monthly Mingle page.
5. Once you have posted the dish, please send the following details to divyablogs[AT]gmail.com on or before September 30, 2011.

Now, go start tossing your favorite salads!! Here are some salad ideas!

Red Chard Kootu

I have always seen red chard and swiss chard in the grocery stores and farmers markets, but they looked huge to me and I have been always reluctant to pick them up. After knowing that the chard family is a storehouse of essential vitamins and minerals I had to buy them.

I made an Indian style kootu with the greens. Kootu is generally made with vegetables, coconut and cooked dhal and served along with rice. I decided to make a similar dish with the red chard. I was surprised that it tasted very much like the arai keerai we get in Tamil Nadu. This has become a regular in my household and I serve it with rice and papads.

Ingredients
Red Chard(can be substituted with swiss chard or any type of greens) - 3 cups
Toor Dal (split pigeon peas) - 3/4 cup
Turmeric Powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To grind
Cumin seeds - 2 teaspoons
Urad dhal - 2 teaspoons
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Red Chillies - 3

Seasoning
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida/Hing - 1 pinch
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Red chilly - 1

Instructions

1. Wash the red chard leaves thoroughly and chop them roughly along with the red stem.
2. Cook the toor dal with about 2.5 cups of water and turmeric powder until soft. I pressure cooked the dal to make the process quicker.
3. In a saucepan, dry roast the two teaspoons of urad dhal until it turns fragrant and brown. Then grind it into a smooth paste along with the other ingredients - grated coconut, cumin seeds and red chillies adding a little water. 
4. In a heavy bottomed pan, cook the chopped red chard along with the stem in a few tablespoons of water. Once it starts wilting, add the cooked dhal and the ground paste and mix everything together. Season with salt.
5. In a saucepan, do the tempering by adding oil, mustard seeds, urad dhal, asafoetida, curry leaves and red chilly one by one. Once everything starts spluttering, switch off the stove. 
6. Pour the seasoning to the cooked chard and dhal and mix well.

Serve along with steamed rice and papads.

Perfect Pound Cake

Pound cakes are really simple to make and perfect for any occasion! Great along with evening teas; more exotic when served along with a cream cheese or simple lemon frosting; a perfect accompaniment with some strawberry syrup, and amazing with some ice-cream by the side and served as an elegant dessert! However you may serve this cake, this cake sure tastes delicious.

I was unable to bake this cake for last month's sweet punch, but I knew i had to make it sometime after hearing so many good reviews from everyone. I made this one evening and I was surprised when it tasted very much like the cakes we get in the bakeries in my native place.

This pound cake turned out to be moist, fluffy and perfect! It is a foolproof recipe and great for first time bakers! Measure the ingredients, whisk them together and pop it into the oven and delicious pound cake is ready in minutes!

Ingredients
Recipe Source: The Cake Bible
Milk - 3 tablespoons
Eggs - 3 large
Vanilla extract - 1 1/2 teaspoon
Sifted cake flour - 1 1/2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
Unsalted butter - 13 tablespoons, softened (184 grams)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Butter an 8 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pan, or any six cup loaf or fluted tube pan. Lightly whisk together milk, eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl.
2. Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix on low speed for 30 seconds, until blended. Add the butter and half the egg mixture, and mix until dry ingredients are moistened. on medium speed, beat for a minute. This will aerate and develop the cake's structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds between each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again.
4. Pour the prepared batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the surface with a spatula. bake for 55-65 minutes (35-45 minutes if baking in a fluted tube pan), until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a greased wire rack. if using a loaf pan, flip the cake over so the top is up.

For making Cake Flour at home : Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tablespoons from it. Replace the 2 tablespoon flour with corn flour and sift together 2 to 3 times. Cake flour is ready to use.