Chocolate Maple Bread

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1 cup low-fat sour cream, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1¼ cups maple syrup
• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, and coat 9- x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Cream butter 30 seconds to 1 minute in bowl with electric mixer. Beat in sour cream until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time until well combined. Beat in maple syrup.

3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into large bowl. Add dry mixture to wet mixture, and mix until just combined.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan.

All Green Salad With Citrus

Ingridents

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  

For Salad 

• Kosher salt
• 2 bunches asparagus (about 1 1/2 pounds), ends trimmed and cut on a diagonal into 1-inch pieces
• 1 romaine heart, roughly chopped
• 1 English hothouse cucumber, trimmed, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
• 1 ripe avocado, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 15 basil leaves, torn
• 1/3 cup torn fresh dill fronds
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the vinaigrette:
Whisk shallot, vinegar, lemon zest, lemon juice, orange juice, and honey in a medium bowl until combined. Add oil in a steady stream, whisking constantly, until combined. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.

For the salad:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; prepare a large bowl of ice water and a rimmed baking sheet lined with paper towels. Add asparagus to the boiling water and cook until crisp tender, 1-2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider and immediately plunge into the ice water until chilled, then use slotted spoon to transfer asparagus to baking sheet to drain.

In a large bowl, combine romaine, cucumber, avocado, basil, dill, and blanched asparagus. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing, season with salt and pepper, and toss gently to combine. Serve salad with remaining dressing on the side.

Fruits & Nuts Bundt Cake

Ingredients

·                     Flour: 1 and 3/4 cup

·                     Eggs: 4

·                     Sugar: 1 and 1/2 cup

·                     Unsalted butter: 1 stick

·                     Milk: 1/4 cup

·                     Vanilla essence: 1/2 tsp

·                     Imitation rum flavor: 1 tsp

·                     Dry fruits and nuts of your choice

·                     Baking powder: 1 tsp

·                     Salt: 1 tsp

·                     Extra butter to grease

·                     Extra flour to dust

Recipe

1. Pre-heat oven at 350 F. Grease the cake pan, dust with flour, keep aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand blender. I used unsalted butter. If you are using the salted variety, then do not add extra salt.

3. Add eggs one by one to the creamed butter-sugar mix. After adding each egg, mix with hand blender. Add vanilla essence and imitation rum flavor, mix.

4. Sift flour, salt and baking powder.

5. Add 1/3 of the flour-mix and gently fold in to the batter. Add half of the milk, mix with a spatula. Repeat till you are done with all the flour and milk.

6. Chop the nuts and dry fruits. I added almond, pistachio, walnut, cherry and cranberry. Fold the chopped dry fruits and nuts to the batter.

7. Pour batter into the prepared pan, bake on the middle rack for 35 min. Check with a toothpick, cool down and enjoy with your family and friends.

Rajbhog

Ingredients

For the cottage cheese dough:

·                     Milk: 1 gallon / 1.89 lt

·                     Lime juice: of a whole large lime

·                     Sugar: 1 tbsp

·                     Semolina/ Sooji: 1 tbsp

·                     Flour: 1 tbsp

·                     Saffron: a pinch soaked in 1 tsp milk

For the stuffing:

·                     Milk powder(unsweetened) or mawa: 1/4 cup

·                     Saffron: a pinch soaked in 1 tbsp

·                     Green cardamom powder: 1/4 tsp

·                     Pistachio (blanched and chopped): 1 tsp

For sugar syrup:

·                     Sugar: 2 cups

·                     Water: 5 cups (divided)

·                     Green cardamom: 6-7

·                     Saffron: few strands

·                     Rose water: 1-2 tbsp

Recipe

1. Boil milk in a heavy bottom pan, keep stirring so the milk does not scorch to the bottom. As the milk rolls to boil gradually add lime juice till the milk curdles. Line a colander with cheese cloth, strain the curdled milk. Tie up the cheese cloth containing the solid curdled milk, wash under cold running water. Hang the cheese cloth to drain excess water.

2. After no more water drops from the cheese cloth bag, transfer the cottage cheese to a flat tray or plate. Add sugar (1 tbsp), semolina, flour and saffron to the cottage cheese and mix very well.

3. Mix all the ingredients very well.  Knead the dough with heel of your palm for 4-5 min, to make a smooth dough.

4. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Cover the dough with a wet kitchen towel.

5. Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing.

6. Divide the stuffing into 12 small balls.

7. Stuff the cheese balls with the stuffing.

8. Make smooth round balls. Cover the cheese balls with a wet kitchen towel. Boil sugar(2 cups) and water(4 cups) for the sugar syrup, in a large deep container. Keep the other extra cup of water warm. Add green cardamom, saffron to the syrup, let the syrup boil. As the syrup rolls to boil add the cheese balls carefully. Reduce heat, cover the container and cook the cheese balls. Keep as eye so the syrup does not spill. Cook the cheese balls for 40-45 min. In between add ladle full of warm water(the extra one cup) to keep the consistency of the syrup right. Make sure you are using a large enough container to accommodate all the cheese balls and as the cheese balls are cooked they will swell up to double their size.

9. After 40-45 min, switch off heat, remove pan from heat and let the Rajbhog cool down for at least 5-6 hrs. I prefer to serve them after 24 hrs, so they can soak the syrup well. Serve hot or cold.

Gulab Jamun

Ingredients: 

Khoya - 1 cup
Maida - 2.5 tbsp
Cooking Soda - 1/8 tsp
Pistachios - 1 tsp chopped just for garnish
Oil - as needed to deep fry

For the sugar syrup:

Sugar - 1 and 1/4 cups
Water - 1 and 1/4 cups
Saffron - 4 strands
Rose Essence - 2 drops
Cardamom powder - a tiny pinch(optional)

Reciepe:

1. Take khoya in a bowl, mash it well.If you have refrigerated it, bring it to room temperature first then proceed.Add maida , cooking soda and mix well.

2. Add water little by little and gather together to form a dough, it will be slightly sticky.No need to knead it just gather them together to form a dough.Pinch a small ball and roll smoothly. Dont apply pressure while rolling and also dont roll them tight...the balls should be smooth.While you shape the balls, you can make the sugar syrup in parallel.It will grow in size so make small sized balls.

3.To make the sugar syrup : Take sugar, water and saffron in a bowl mix well.Then heat it up and let it boil for atleast 10-12mins in medium flame.It may take some time so meanwhile you can continue making the jamun balls.Stir the syrup in between.Add cardamom powder.When the sugar syrup starts turning sticky switch off.

4.Heat oil in a kadai not smoking hot, just hot enough to fry, - When oil is hot, keep in medium low flame drop few jamuns(may be 3-4) at a time, Roll the jamuns with a ladle when its getting cooked in the oil for even cooking and coloring.Fry in low flame till dark golden brown.

5.Drain in tissue and immediately add it to warm sugar syrup.Finally add rose essence.Cover and let it rest for 2 hrs for the jamuns to absorb the sugar syrup well.

Special Notes:

The dough should be very smooth and don't knead it as it will make the jamuns hard.

If the jamuns are perfectly cooked inside and soft then it will absorb the syrup well and grow in size.Make sure you soak them in sugar syrup as soon as you drain them in tissue paper.

The syrup should be warm while you add the jamuns, so plan and make the sugar syrup ready.

Also the dough should not be too tight which will again make the jamuns hard.

The balls should not have cracks, if it has cracks then the jamun will open out out while frying in oil so make sure to roll smoothly.If the dough seems to be dry sprinkle little water and mix it.Keep the dough covered to avoid drying.

Regulate heat as it might get to low/ high in between so keep checking and adjust accordingly.

Add water little by little as it takes very less water as the moisture content in the khoya helps in binding and to form a dough.

I recommend adding rose essence, it gives great flavour to the jamuns.

You can skip saffron and add cardamom powder, its purely your preference.But dont miss to add rose essence.

Make sure you roll the balls smoothly at the same time not too tight. Dont apply pressure while rolling else the center part will not get cooked and will be hard while eating.While rolling if there is a crack then the jamuns will break and open out while frying in oil.

Give atleast 2-3 hrs resting time for the jamuns to absorb the sugar syrup well.

Make sure you keep in low flame while cooking the jamuns as it may get burnt easily.If the oil is too hot, then the jamuns may turn brown faster but it may not have cooked inside especially the center part.

Make sure you have oil just enough for the jamuns to immerse fully. 

Oil temperature should be just right for the jamuns to cook perfectly, else it will break or will not get cooked inside

Rabri

Ingredients:

• 10 cups milk
• 4 tblsp sugar or as needed
• 4 green cardamom seeds
• 4 drops of kewra essence
• A pinch of green cardamom powder
• A pinch of pistachio powder
  

Receipe:

   Bring the milk to boil in a deep heavy pan.

  Add the sugar and cardamom seeds and leave to simmer over a low heat for 2 hours until the milk is reduced to one quarter.

   Remove from the heat and add the kewra esscence.

   Sprinkle with the cardamom and pistachio powders and serve hot or cold with faluda.

Fruit Pulao

Ingredients:

 

·         2 Cups Basmati Rice, cooked

·         2 Tablespoons Cashewnut

·         2 Tablespoons Almond

·         1 Tablespoon Raisin

·         2 Tablespoons Dried Apricot, diced

·         1/4 Cup Apple, diced

·         1/4 Cup Pineapple, chunk

·         1/4 Cup Cherries, diced

·         2 Tablespoons Ghee

·         2 Green Chilies, finely chopped

·         2 Bay Leaves

·         1 stick Cinnamon (Taj/Dalchini)

·         4 to 5 Cloves (Laving)

·         2 to 3 Green Cardamom (Elaichi)

·         Few Strands of Saffron (Kesar)

·         1 Tablespoon warm Milk

·         1 Teaspoon Sugar

·         Salt to Taste

 

Method:

1.      In a small bowl, add warm milk and saffron, mix well until the saffron dissolves. Keep aside.

2.      Heat deep nonstick pan over medium heat, add ghee.

3.      Add bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms and green chilies, stir fry for a minute.

4.      Add almonds, raisins and cashewnuts, mix well and saute until the nuts turn golden brown in color.

5.      Add apricot, apple, pineapple and cherries, mix well and stir fry for 2 minutes.

6.      Add cooked rice, sugar and salt, mix gently.

7.      Cook over a slow flame for about 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

8.      Remove from flame, add saffron-milk mixture, mix gently.

9.      Enjoy Fruit Pulao with raita, yogurt or curry