Homemade Mango Jam

         This simple recipe assures that you will be giving healthy food to your kids without any preservatives and they would relish it as much as the elderly in the home.. My family loves the taste as much as I do.. Relish this in the mango season. It can be stored in the refrigerator for upto two months.. Later you can go for other seasonal fruits or apple. 

           I have already posted apple jam recipe in the link below...

https://mykitchenfantasies.blogspot.com/2012/06/homemade-apple-jam.html?m=1

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 large ripe

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Peel and chop the mango.. Grind it in a blender till it is a fine puree. If the mango puree is around one cup, you will need around 3/4 cup of sugar. Adjust the sugar consistency depending on the sweetness of the mango.

Take the puree and sugar together in a pan. Heat the pan and cook the mixture on medium flame until the sugar dissolves and starts forming syrup. It takes around 5 minutes to cook. 

Keep stirring till the jam starts to thicken and forms paste. Add salt and mix well. 

Switch off the flame and allow it to cool down. Store it in an airtight container and refrigerate it.

Enjoy it with bread or chapathi... Kids will love it...

Enjoy cooking!!!

Tomato Rice

     A quick one pot recipe and very useful for lunch box. Kids love this too as it's not very spicy and mild in flavours ..

Ingredients:

Rice - 1.5 cup

Tomato - 3 med size

Onion - 1 med size

Green peas - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 2 cloves

Ginger - 1" piece

Curry leaves - 8 to 10 leaves

Coriander (chopped) - 1 tbsp

Mint leaves (chopped) - 1 tbsp

Fresh grated coconut - 1 tbsp

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon - 1" piece

Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and keep the rice aside. Chop tomatoes and onions. 

Grind garlic, ginger, coriander, mint, coconut, cloves and cinnamon together with little water.

Heat oil in a small pressure cooker. Add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add curry leaves, turmeric and chilli powder. Now add chopped tomatoes and onion and fry till onions are translucent.

Add the ground paste, Jeera powder, garam masala. Mix well and cook for two minutes. Now add peas and mix well. 

Add the washed rice. Mix everything together after adding salt. Add 2.5 cups of water. Once again mix everything together. Close the lid and pressure cook for three whistles.

Serve hot with some papad and raitha...

Enjoy cooking!!!

Mango Lassi

          Fresh summer drink that is very popular in India. It has high nutritional values as it is filled with vitamins and protein.

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 large

Curd - 2 cups

Milk - 1/2 cup (optional)

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Salt - a pinch

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Ice cubes

Method:

Chop the mango into small pieces. Keep two to three tsp mango pieces aside for garnishing. Add the rest of the mango, curd, milk, sugar, salt and cardamom powder and make a smooth paste in the blender. Milk is optional or you can just add water. 

Add ice cubes and blend again to the lassi consistency...

Garnish with mango pieces and enjoy chilled in this hot summer..

Enjoy Cooking !!! 

Spaghetti

      Spaghetti is one of the wholesome meal that we can depend on when we are bored of the same rice and roti dishes.. Its quick to make and is stomach filling..

    We can add wide varieties of veggies to it and make it more relishing and healthy.. I have made here a simple and quick version of spaghetti without many vegetables. This can be customised according to your taste..

Ingredients:

Spaghetti pasta (cooked) - 2 bowls

Onion - 2 medium size

Tomato - 2 medium size

Garlic - 5 to 6 cloves

Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Italian mixed herbs - 1 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Tomato sauce - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

To measure the required quantity of spaghetti for a single person meal, just pass the spaghetti though the hole in the pasta ladle. The hole is actually a measurement of spaghetti required for one person. If you don't have the ladle just take the enough quantity of pasta that u can pass through when u make a hole between your thumb a fore finger ( simpler one isn't it :) )

Heat water in a pan. Add one tsp of oil and little salt to it. Once it start to boil, add the spaghetti and cook for around 10 - 12 mins or till it's just cooked enough and breaks when you pinch it.

Once cooked, drain the water and soak the spaghetti in cold water. 

Now heat a pan and add the rest of the oil to it. You can either chop the veggies or just grind them together. I grind them so that they take less time to cook. 

Once the oil is hot add the ground tomato, onion and garlic paste to it. Shallow fry till the paste becomes more red.. now add chilli powder, pepper powder and mixed herbs to it.

Mix well. If you wish to add more vegetables, you can add them and fry for a while before adding ground paste. 

Add sugar and required salt to it. Now add the cooked spaghetti and mix well. Add tomato sauce to it and mix.  Cook for another two minutes on low flame till all the flavours come together..

Serve hot. You can also garnish it with little parmesan cheese if you would like to.

Enjoy cooking !!  

Kodubale

 Kodubale is one of the most authentic recipes of Karnataka.. 'Kodu' means horn and 'bale' means bangle.. As these resemble bangles made out of horn they might have derived their name. It's a very popular fried snack which can be best enjoyed with your evening tea.

Ingredients

¼ cup – Semolina  (Chiroti Rava)

¼ cup – All-purpose flour (Maida)

1 1/2 Cups  - Rice Flour

1/2 cup– Grated Fresh Coconut

3-4 tbsp – Oil

2 tsp – Ajwain

1 tsp – Asafeotida (Hing)

8-10 – Dry Red Chillies

2-3 Cups – Oil to deep fry

Salt to taste

Method:

Heat maida and semolina in a pan for two minutes. Do not roast completely. Take the heated mixture in a large bowl. 

Add rice flour, salt, ajwain, asafoetida to it and mix well. Grind redchillies and coconut to a fine paste with little water and add to the mixture. Mix everything well. 

Heat little oil in a pan and add that to the mix. The oil needs to be very hot so that it creates a sizzling sound when added. 

Mix everything well and add little water and knead it into a dough. 

Take little dough in hand and form it into shape of kodubale. 

Heat oil in a pan for frying. Deep fry all the kodubale in medium to low flame until they turn crispy.

Enjoy them with your evening tea.

Enjoy cooking   !!