Falooda Shake

This requires lot of preparation in advance. But for the final taste, I bet its worth it! No time wasting, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 tbsp tukmaria seeds (you can get it in any Indian grocery store)
A handful of falooda sev (basically corn starch noodles)
Rooh Afza
1 lt homogenized milk
Falooda Kulfi
2 tbsp sugar
1 lt water to boil the falooda sev

Soak Tukmaria seeds in water for 3-4 hours. Refrigerate it. Boil falooda sev with water  until they are soft. Drain remaining water.  Put the sev in Ice-water in refrigerator for few hours.
Mix sugar in milk and boil milk. Let it remain on medium heat until it becomes half of its original quantity. Keep stirring occasionally. It will take about an hour. Refrigerate this milk for few hours.
Make kulfi as per my falooda kulfi instructions. When you have to prepare shake, do the following:
Take a fancy glass. Put 1 tbsp Rooh-afza. Add 1/3rd of milk. Add some falooda sev and some soaked tukmaria seeds.  Now add 2 tbsp kulfi. Serve chilled.

Tandoori Paneer Pizza

Tandoori paneer pizza is Indianized pizza. Its pizza with spices and is very famous in India. This time I tried Tandoori paneer pizza. You need to make pizza as per my Pizza recipe . Just substitute the toppings with the following:

1/2 lb paneer cut in cubes
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp tandoori masala
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste

Marinate paneer cubes in the mixture of yogurt, tandoori masala, garam masala and salt for 5-6 hours and use this as pizza topping. You can also add onion or bell peppers if you like.

BTW, this pizza is little undone. Nitin took it out of oven little early and took photo. I put it in oven for 5 more minutes and it was over before I could click one more pic!

Oreo Milk Shake

This is the favorite shake of my brother-in-law. When he came to visit us in Kingston, I made it for him every day. This year he was health conscious so I made only occasionally! This delicious treat is full of fat calories but heavenly yummy!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup milk
2 scoops vanilla Ice-cream
1 tsp vanilla syrup
1/2 tsp coffee powder (Nescafe)
4 Oreo cookies
Whipped cream

In a grinder, grind everything except whipped cream and then top it up with whipped cream. Simple!

Thai red curry

I tried thai red curry the other day. I would have wished to make the red curry paste from the scratch but it requires so many ingredients which I have not even heard of. So I had to use the readymade red curry paste. However, the final result was delicious and we had it with Thai Jasmine rice.
 This is what you need to make red curry paste.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb medium hard tofu
1/2 cup roughly chopped onion and bell pepper  and mushrooms
1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp minced garlic
2 green chilli chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp red curry paste
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
salt to taste
1/3 cup roasted crushed peanuts

Cut tofu in pieces and shallow fry it. In the remaining oil fry garlic and add chilli. Add bell pepper and onion. After few minutes add coconut milk, fish sauce and salt. Put red curry paste and add tofu. Cook for 10 minutes on medium flame. Once cooked add roasted peanuts. This is optional but gives good texture. Serve it hot.

Thai time : Basil Tofu

I miss Thai99 in Charlottesville. My favorite recipe there was Pad Krapao with Tofu Thai hot. I loved the aroma of Basil. I could never get that taste here in Kingston. But this recipe is pretty close and more important, yummy!!!!

Ingrdients:
1/2 pound medium hard Tofu
1 cup chopped bell pepper and onion
1 small bunch of basil leaves
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced green chilli
salt to taste
1/4 tbsp crushed red chilli pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Cut tofu in pieces and shallow fry it. In the remaining oil, fry onion and green chilli. When garlic turns golden brown, add onion and bell peppers. Put fish sauce,
sugar and salt. Add Tofu and let it cook for few more minutes.

I made thai jasmine rice along with this and it tasted great.

Samosa Chat

I still remember those TIFR days when we used to go to Navy Nagar sweet shop and order Samosa chat. That chat plate for Rs. 10 used to be the most delicious thing. It was the awesome combination of great friends and this great chat which makes me so nostalgic. In Canada we cannot simply go to a halwai and have samosa chat so I decided to give it a try. I must say it turned out to be great.
This is what you need for this awesome dish (I am giving recipe for one person). Most of the recipes for ingredients are already in my blog and I am giving the link here:
Ingredients:
Two Samosas
2 tbsp plain yogurt
4 tbsp canned Garbanzo beans (if you wish you can heat it and add a pinch of salt)
2 tbsp tamarind chutney
1 tsp Dhaniya chutney
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of red pepper powder
1/2 tsp chat masala
A pinch of cumin seeds roasted and crushed
4-5 Garvi Gujarat 3-in-1 puris

In a plate take two samosas and press gently to break it. Put garbanzo beans and yogurt. Put tamarind chutney and dhaniya chutney on top of it. Spread pinch of salt, red pepper and roasted and crushed cumin seeds. Spread chat masala. Take 4-5 Garvi gujarat puris and crush it and put on top. The delicious chat is ready.

Yogurt Pie

This is one of the very very easy dessert and you can actually do different experiments by using different flavors of yogurt and  various flavors of Jello. I used strawberry flavor for both.
All you need is:
Readymade Graham cracker pie crust
1/2 L cool whip
300 g yogurt Strawberry flavor (any flavor)
Jello small strawberry flavor (the one which makes 4 servings)
1 cup water

Boil 1cup water and add Jello powder. Stir until Jello is properly mixed. Take a big bowl. Add cool whip, Jello and yogurt and mix them well. Pour the mixture on Graham cracker ready pie crust and put it in a refrigerator to set. Serve chilled. It will be ready to serve in 2 hours.

Quick Quesadilla

 Another idea for quick lunch: Quesadilla.

All you need is:
Tortilla
Some veggies chopped (such as tomato, onion, bell pepper, mushroom etc.)
Shredded cheese
Pinch of salt (optional)
Pinch of red chilli powder (optional)
Pinch of taco seasoning  (optional)
1 tbsp oil

Saute veggies in 1 tbsp oil. If you want more flavour and spices, add salt, chilli pepper, and taco seasoning. Take a tortilla. Spread a thin layer of cheese. Add some veggies and spread another layer of cheese. Fold the tortilla in half. Shallow fry it on a tava while pressing with a spatula.
Serve hot.

Bread Pizza

Bread Pizza is becoming very popular in India these days. Today I tried it and it was awesome. More  important is that it was so quick to make that it can serve for a great lunch any day. And needless to say, Nitin loved it.

Here is a recipe for it:

Ingredients:
4-5 bread slices
2 tbsp pizza sauce
one chopped onion
1/2 chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup mushroom chopped
1 tomato chopped
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
1 tbsp oil
4 tbsp tex mex shredded cheese (or any shredded cheese)

Set oven at 425 degrees temperature.
Heat oil in a pan. Fry onion, bell pepper, mushroom and tomato. Add salt and sugar. Fry till all the water is evaporated. Take a slice of bread. Spread 1/2 tbsp pizza sauce. Add 1.5-2 tbsp veggies. Top it up with 1 tbsp cheese. Bake it in the oven for 5 minutes or on tava. The bread pizza is ready.