Rose & Banana Smoothie

Smoothie is a quick breakfast for many of us.  Its so filling and at the same time delicious too.  I love to experiment with fruits, so I keep making smoothies and fruit punches.  This is the one I recently tried and loved the taste to the core.  
I have a bottle of concentrated rose squash (rooh afza) and except drinking it with milk, I love to use it in different ways.  I recently posted a rose milk pudding made with the same squash and it came out so good.

This rose and banana smoothie is so refreshing with dominant rose flavour.  Addition of banana and curd makes it healthy too.  Its a no fuss recipe so you can make it fresh.  Kids going to love this smoothie.  You can serve it as a party drink too.  
So try it and let me know how it turned out for you.  Happy Cooking :)

Makes  - 1 serving
Time    -  5 min

Ingredients :

Frozen banana*	1
Concentrated rose squash (I used rooh afza)	2 tbsp
Thick curd	5-6 tbsp
Milk	2 tbsp
Cashew (roughly chopped)	6

Method:

• Take all the ingredients in a blender and process for 30 seconds or till the mixture is smooth.
• Serve immediately.

Notes:

1. Make sure your curd is not sour.
2. Use thick curd.
3. For best results, make this smoothie fresh.
4. You can substitute frozen banana with fresh banana and 2 ice cubes (for above quantity).
5. For a healthier version use low fat curd and low fat milk.

*For frozen banana - keep the whole banana in the freezer for a day and use.

Raspberry Jelly Yoghurt Parfait

Hi friends.  Today I have come up with a new recipe that is so easy yet yummy.  Its a nice dessert to serve in the parties too.  

Last week I was thinking to make some parfait but was just bored with the usual ingredients.  I thought of a lot of different things and finally experimented with Jelly.  I had a pack of Raspberry jelly waiting to be used so I used it for making this parfait.  Here I used half of the 80 gms packet of the jelly.  In place of cream cheese I used hung curd to make it a little healthy.  For the base, I used chocolate cream cookies but you can use any cookies of your choice.  Finally, I topped this dessert with some sprinkles, choco vermicelli and glaced cherries. I place this dessert to chill in the fridge overnight and in the morning when I tasted it, it was simply heaven.  Everything came out together very well and gave a very nice creamy and crunchy taste with raspberry flavour.  Its a melt in mouth dessert and a must try. V liked it very much.  Even my LO liked it a lot. Its a sure shot recipe.  So what are you waiting for guys? Try it out.  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

Curd / Yoghurt	500 ml
Sugar (powdered)	3 tbsp
Raspberry jelly	40 gms
Chocolate cream cookies	5
Vanilla essence	5-6 drops

Method:

For the hung curd - 

• Take a bowl and put a strainer over it.  On the strainer, put a muslin cloth or clean kitchen cloth and pour the curd over it. Keep the bowl in the fridge for 2-3 hours.  (Sometimes, I take a bowl and place a big tea strainer over it then I pour the curd directly on the strainer and place the bowl in the fridge. You can try any method.)  The curd will come out good in either way.
• After 3-4 hours, take out the bowl and shift the thick curd in a bowl from the muslin cloth.  Hung curd is ready.

Hung curd

• Take the hung curd and add powdered sugar and vanilla essence in it.  Beat well with the help of a whisk.

hung curd mixed with powdered sugar and vanilla. So creamy.

For the jelly -

• Boil 100 ml water in a non stick pan. Remove from the flame and immediately add the jelly granules in it.  Mix well till the granules melts completely.  Then add 20 ml of cold water, mix again and pour the mixture in moulds and place in the fridge for 3-4 hours.  Jelly is ready.  Coarsely mash the jelly and set aside.

Cookies base-

• Take the cookies of your choice.  I used chocolate cream cookies.  Place the cookies in a plastic bag and coarsely powder with the help of a pastry roller.  Shift it to a bowl and set aside.

I used these chocolate cream cookies

Steps to combine the parfait-

• Take two serving glasses.  First of all, place a layer of crushed cookies in the bottom of the glass. Now, top it up with a layer of mashed jelly, then put a layer of hung curd.  Repeat the process once again.  Place glazed cherry on the top and sprinkle some choco vermicelli and sprinkles.  
• Cover with cling film and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
• Serve chilled.

Notes:

1. You can use any cookies of your choice.
2. Do not leave hung curd outside for draining.  It may get sour.  Always put it inside the refrigerator.
3. You can use any kind of jelly but it should be of a strong flavour.
4. Always use the instructions on the pack for making the jelly.
5. Chill the parfait before serving.
6. You can garnish it with tutty fruitty or grated chocolate or even brown sugar.  

Sweet Corn Idli

Hi friends. As you know, through my previous post of Sweet Corn Kheer that I love sweet corns. Today also I am gonna post a new dish with sweet corns. 

I had just two sweet corns left and I wanted to make something with it for lunch that too something which my baby could also have with us so decided to try this innovative dish called sweet corn idli.  At first I was apprehensive about the taste as sweet corns give a bit sweetness to any dish but when I tasted the idli, it was super soft and taste was just so good. We all liked it very much including my LO :) I accompanied it with Sambar and it turned out to be a perfect lunch. These idlis are delicious at the same time very healthy as it has no oil and I have added oats flour in it. These soft and spongy idlis will just melt in your mouth provided you dont forget to add fruit salt in the batter :D  Generally I do not like idlis much but these sweet corn idlis has just stolen my heart and I ate up more than usual.  I strongly recommend you to try it atleast once.  So here is the recipe for you to try.  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

Fresh sweet corns	2 medium
Semolina / Suji/ Rava	1 cup
Curd	1 cup+ 1 tbsp
Oats flour	¼ cup
Ginger (grated)	1/2 cup
Salt
Oil	1 tbsp
Curry leaves	5-6
Mustard seeds	½ tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Eno fruit salt	1 tsp

Method:

• Take the sweet corns and wash them well. Grate them and get the pulp. (I got exact 1 cup of pulp).  Keep it aside.
• In a mixing bowl, add semolina and curd.  Mix well. Add oats flour and mix.  Add sweet corn pulp and mix again.  Let it rest for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, add salt and grated ginger in the mixture. Stir well.
• For tempering, take a tadka pan and heat oil in it.  Add mustard seeds and urad dal and let it fry till dal changes the color to brown.  Add curry leaves and let it fry for 5 seconds,  Tadka is ready.  Pour it to the prepared idli batter and give a nice stir. Keep it aside for another 10 minutes.
• Take  the idli cooker/rice cooker / pressure cooker and put 3 cups of water in it.  Let it boil.  Till that time, take the idli stand and grease the moulds. 
• Take the idli batter and add in eno fruit salt and mix (do not over mix).   Fill the greased idli moulds with this batter and put it inside the cooker.  Keep the flame on high and let it cook for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, check if the idlis are prepared.  
• Remove the stand from the cooker and let it cool down for 5 minutes.  Remove the idlis from the moulds with the help of a greased knife or dinner knife.
• Arrange them in the plate and serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Note:

1. If you do not have the fresh sweet corns you can take frozen ones and grind them with the help of a blender and make a one cup pulp with it.
2. If you wish you can add green chilly and red chilli powder to the batter.
3. If using pressure cooker, do not put the whistle on it while cooking the idlis in it.
4. Do not forget to add eno fruit salt else your idlis would become dense and hard.
5. If you do not have eno fruit salt you can replace it with same quantity of baking soda though I have not tried with the baking soda.