Custard Apple Icecream & Milk Shake

I have never been a fussy eater when it comes to fruits. Till date I have never disliked any fruit. Touch wood!! :) May be its because I have a sweet tooth ;)

Its custard apple season now and I'm enjoying every bit of it :) Had it as it is, made milk shake and now comes my custard apple ice cream :)

Only few fruits like mango, guava, orange and custard apple give out a distinct aroma and keep reminding of its presence. And when that smell and flavor is captured in an ice cream, it really feels magical :)

I adapted this recipe from here during a random googling session and made changes according to my taste buds :)

The use of Marie biscuits as thickening agent is just an amazing thought and I totally loved the taste. Everyone at home enjoyed it a lot as well :)

Ingredients:

Custard apple (Seetha Pazham) - 5
Milk - 1 cup
Marie biscuit - 4
Whipping cream - 1/2 cup
Sugar - for taste

Method:

Wash and open the custard apple.

Scoop out the flesh with seeds and put them in the mixer jar along with 1/4 cup of milk. Pulse for a few times. The flesh would separate from the seeds. Pass it through a sieve with big holes or pick out the seeds manually. You would get a thick pulp of custard apple.

Pour the pulp in the mixer jar along with the remaining milk, sugar and whipping cream. Break the marie biscuit into small pieces and add it to the mixer too. Now blend until smooth paste.

Collect it in a freezer proof box and allow it to chill in the freezer for 4 hours.

Remove it from freezer and whip the mixture again in your mixer for few minutes and put it back in the freezer for one hour. Repeat the process for two more times in one hour interval each time.

Place scoops of custard apple ice cream in the serving bowl and drizzle with some honey and chocolate chips :)

Super delicious custard apple ice cream is ready :)

This quantity would make 5 scoops of ice cream.

Tips:

The quantity of sugar added depends on the sweetness of the fruit. So taste test it before adding sugar.

Whipping the ice cream in blender for three times is mandatory to get creamy and soft ice cream.

Top the ice cream with nuts for a extra richness.

Custard Apple Milk Shake:

Ingredients:

Custard apple - 1
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - for taste
Honey for topping

Method:

Extract custard apple pulp as said in the above procedure.

Blend it along with milk and sugar.

Top it with honey and serve chill.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Musiri / Dry Pongal

During the days when we get back from long trips or tours, we would always prefer to have harmless and simple home food. For example, feeding on something like milagu rasam and potato curry would feel like a five star lunch menu :) It happens because nothing on earth is equalant to home made food. Delicious to taste and easy to digest.

One such simple recipe to make in a giffy and that sooth our tummy is this musiri or dry pongal. Not sure how it got its name. May be it was famous in the place called 'Musiri' down south :)

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Moong dhall - 1/3 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 4
Curry leaves - few
Coconut scrapped - 1 tblsp
Salt - for taste
Water - 3 cups

Method:

Dry roast the rice and moong dhall separately and collect it in a large bowl.

Take 2 tsps of oil in a pan and temper with mustard, cumin seeds, red chillies and curry leaves.
Add this to the rice and moong dhall mixture along with salt and scrapped coconut. Now pour in 3 cups of water and steam cook like rice. Approximately 3 whistles.

Allow it to come to room temperature and then stir once before serving.

Serve with banana chips or pickle of your choice.

Delicious musiri or dry pongal is ready :)

Enjoy eating :)

Written by: Nithya
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Friendshipday Special - Vanilla Cookies

Wish all my readers and friends a very very Happy Friendship Day :)

Friendship day memories are the most sweetest among the treasured memories of school and college days.

I still remember, the day before friendship day would be a busy one for me. Shopping friendship bands for the dear ones, hand crafting special bands for the close buddies and cutting out simple satin ribbon bands for the not so favorite friends :P The pleasure and the smile from the friends for this gesture would be priceless. Though friendship is not something that has to be celebrated for just one day, it still matters, because we just need a day to express it all.

School life were the days when I used to feel so proud while returning home with wrist full of friendship bands :) Why not?!! I had such a huge list of friends who bothered to let me know how they feel about me :)

Now days have changed or say we have grown up a little that we just make calls to wish friends and try to meet up for a coffee. More polished and matured way of celebration isn't it?! :)

This year I wanted to celebrate it with you all too since your support has motivated me to blog so much :)

Fortunately my hits have crossed a big number 4,00,000 today and it would be apt to celebrate the day with pomp and joy with all my blog viewers :)

Here is my simple vanilla cookies dressed up like you and me holding hands :) Thank you so much for your support :) I dedicate this post to you all :)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour(maida) - 100 gms
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Cooking soda - 1/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter - 50 gms
Powdered sugar - 50 gms
Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch

Method:

Sieve all purpose flour, baking powder and cooking soda together and keep it aside.

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in vanilla essence, salt and mix well.

Add the flour and soda mixture and mix with hands into a soft dough. Wrap it with cling film and refrigerate for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Remove the dough from refrigerator. Sprinkle some All purpose flour on your working surface and roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle.

Use your cookie cutters to cut out shapes.

Place the cut out cookies on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes. Watching closely so that they don’t get too brown. 13 minutes did it perfectly in my convection oven.

Let the cookies cool on wire rack for a while. Initially the cookies might feel a little soft and crumbly to touch but it will harden as it cools down.

Store in air tight containers.

Light, crumbly and melt in the mouth vanilla cookies is ready to eat :)

This quantity would make around 15-20 cookies depending on the size that you make.

For icing:

Ingredients:

Icing sugar
Water
Food colors

Method:

Take some icing sugar in a cup and just add few drops of water to it and mix well until it is smooth. It should be in flowing consistency which is thick enough to pipe. Divide this into portions and mix in food colors to it.

Fill them in plastic cones and pipe them on your cookies as you like. Allow this to dry for an hour on wire rack.

The icing would harden up and give a beautiful look to your cookies :)

Tips:

I dint have the ginger bread man cookie cutter to cut this out. But never mind, I simply drew the figure on a paper and cut it out cleanly. Kept it on the rolled dough and cut out the outline using a knife. It is definitely a little tedious, but worth in times of emergency :)

You can simply sprinkle some sugar on top of the cookies, press it a little and bake them to make sugar cookies.

Mix in some powdered food color to the granulated sugar and sprinkle to give it a colorful look.

You can pack individual cookies in plastic covers and gift them to your friends ;)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Guava Spritzer

The smell of guavas are irresistibly sweet and I can easily sniff its presence even if it is meters away from me ;)

I simply love the fruit, but then I'm pretty specific of its ripeness. I enjoy them much more when they are absolutely yellow, well ripen and soft to bite :)

Its an enjoyable fruit as it is, but imagine making a stunning drink with it for the evening thirst and having it with some chit chat on the side!! Isn't it tempting enough?! :)

Can you notice the small bubbles flying on top of the aerated drink? ;)

Found this recipe on Tarladala using pink guavas and immediately got inspired to make it at home :)

And of course my version of Spritzer doesn't have wine :)

Ingredients:

Guava fruit - 2
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Sugar - for taste S
Soda

Method:

Chop guava roughly. Peel and chop ginger.

Grind guava pieces and ginger pieces by adding just a little water. Pass through a sieve to remove the seeds cleanly. Add sugar and lemon juice to it and mix thoroughly.

Sterilize a bottle and collect the guava syrup in it.

Pour 1/2 of the serving glass with this guava syrup and top it with chilled soda. Stir well and serve immediately.

You can preserve the guava syrup upto a week in the refrigerator.

Enjoy the chill guava spritzer :)

Tips:

Use pink guava for a beautiful pink spritzer.

Replace sugar with honey.

Remember to choose ripe fruits for making this.

Written by: Nithya
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Chocolate Truffles

I would have claimed a million times so far. Yup! I am a Chocoholic and would go crazy for anything chocolatey. When it is so, wouldn't soft and melt in the mouth kind of rich chocolate truffles satisfy my craving!! All smiles :) :) I can hear a big "YES" from all my chocoholic readers who can read my mind as well :P

I had some cream and chocolate in my pantry and a deep craving for truffles. What more??!! Made them in a jiffy, but the refrigeration time was killing. Had to wait for a while before I could lick my fingers ;)

Here it is for you all to enjoy visually and a perfect teaser for chocoholics :P

Ingredients:

Cooking chocolate(bittersweet / dark) - 200 gms
Heavy whipping cream - 75 gms
Unsalted butter - 2 tblsp
Cocoa powder - for dusting
Caster sugar - for dusting
Pistachios
Chocolate vermicelli

Method:

Coarsely chop the chocolate and set aside.

Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan, stirring to blend. When bubbles start to form along the edges of the pan, remove from heat.

Pour it over the chopped chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate melts and blends well with the cream and butter.

Collect the chocolate into a shallow bowl. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. This would take a minimum of two hours.

Using a tablespoon or a melon baller scoop out enough chocolate to make balls of desired size.
Roll the balls in cocoa powder and place the balls on a butter paper. Refrigerate until serving.

Its best when served at room temperature for a soft and melt in the mouth truffle.

The above said measurements would be sufficient to make 10 truffles.

Enjoying eating :)

Note:

The chocolate will be sticky. So dust your hands with cocoa powder and roll the balls quickly.

If the consistency of the chocolate truffle is a little runny, add finely crushed biscuit powder to the chocolate and mix well before making balls.

Tips:

You can use 100gms of Semi sweet chocolate and 100 gms of bitter sweet chocolate as well.

Add few drops of vanilla essence for extra flavoring.

You can also add a tsp of instant coffee powder and 1 tbsp of coffee liqueur for a difference.

Adding few drops of orange emulsion or essence can give you a delicious orange chocolate truffle.

You can roll the truffle balls in icing sugar, finely chopped pistachios and chocolate vermicelli too.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.