Pineapple Chutney - quick or exotic, your choice!

Aaah sunshine! It brings so many fresh fruits and aromatic herbs that even my creatively challenged head works over time to try new things. I love pineapple... its has perfect mix of sweet and tangy and its a hit with my kids... they can gobble up half pineapple in no time! Have you ever tried pineapple on pizza..... yummmm!  Its tastes so different when its roasted. Now my mouth is watering.. I should stop before I slobber all over the blog : -)

Chutney is my favorite condiment... I have to have some kind in my plate...sweet or savory. There are many that I absolutely love but today it's pineapple's turn.

Quick pineapple chutney is really quick...seriously! One fine summer day, my mother-in-law quickly made the chutney. Just like that! So here I share with you her yummilicious chutney.  And pineapple-mint chutney is my exotic experiment. It's adapted from this recipe from food network

Mmmmmm.. Pancakes using fruit puree!

Hello folks. It is said necessity is the mother of invention. In this case it holds true. I had some apple-blueberry fruit puree left from my son's infant days. It was still good, so the wheels in my brain started churning.... how can I use this and not waste it. Well ....we have apple pancakes and we have blueberry pancakes. Let me combine them and viola! I can use my fruit puree and we'll have mmm...mmm...goodness!

Pancake recipe is the basic one that I got from the Good Old Fashioned Pancake with a slight variation. It serves about 8 people. I generally halve the batter and store it in the fridge for next day breakfast.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt ( 1 tsp salt was too much for my liking! )
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/2 cups milk ( To make my batter thinner.. I like my pancakes not so thick )
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tub of apple/blueberry fruit puree (You can make your own fruit puree at home. One tub is 3.5 oz.  Use 2 tubs if you planning on using all the batter same morning )

1/2 apple grated ( 1 whole apple if using all batter )


Get Cooking

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and keep aside. Beat egg and add milk in a separate bowl. Add melted butter to this and whisk quickly to prevent butter from solidifying again. I used milk and egg straight out of fridge...what to do I never remember to keep them out ahead of time. 

Add milk-egg mixture to flour and mix gently. Halve the batter and add fruit puree and grated apple for extra texture. Fold gently until everything mixed. 

Yes the apple started browning because I was busy trying to get a perfect shot! 

Save the other half of batter in fridge for your next day. Maybe for banana pancake as someone requested them today.

Heat a lightly buttered griddle or frying pan over medium/ medium low heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. I was using a non stick griddle, so I didn't use butter after the first time. No oil/butter.... hows that for healthy start f the day?

Brown on both sides.

Stack your pancakes as you make them or serve it right away.  Can you see the steam rising from the hot and happening stack of yummy goodness?

Here's your plate.. enjoy it with a dollop of butter, drizzle of maple syrup... or whatever you fancy.

Note:

1.  Its important to maintain the heat because pancake needs to cook thoroughly because of the added grated apple. Brown on high heat and you'll have uncooked center or around fruit bits.
2. You can use almost any fruit puree- apple, mashed banana, mango. I have even added finely chopped strawberries one time. There are endless possibilities. 

Participating in an event for a very first time.....  *all smiles*

You can find the information about it here Breakfast Club Event  in Krithi’s Kitchen! and here Breakfast Club #10: The Theme is …

Leak Proof Jug!!!!

I'll start with the summary.. It doesn't leak no matter how you hold it! Its a great LocknLock Jug.

After my friend convinced me about the jug (she has 2 qt size), I got this one for myself. Its about 6 cups, perfect for making just enough summer drinks daily for my young kids. The very first time I made Tang, I inverted it to check if it leaked at all..and believe me it didnt.. not even a drop (you can see in the picture)!!! The spout cover stays in place until you open it. Its a perfect jug for households that have young kids or klumsy klutz like me. This jug is going to see a lot of action in my household!!!

Rasho-goolaas (Rasgullas) !!

This has to be my very first post. The whole blog idea started when my nephew got to know I could make his favorite sweet - rasgulla and I promised my sister that I would blog it for her to see. Now its time I fulfill this promise. So here it is for my all my babies who absolutely love this soft and spongy yummy sweet.

The technique I use here to make rasgullas comes from Mriganayani's website.  Who would have thought pressure cooking rasgulla makes the whole process so easy?



Ingredients:
1 cup fresh paneer ( recipe to follow )
6 cups water
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp Rose water for flavoring (optional)

Mix sugar and water in pressure cooker and put it on heat to get to a rolling boil. Meanwhile put paneer in food processor and pulse until it forms a ball. Pulse few more times after that, it becomes like a thick paste.

Scrape it out of the jar and gather it.

 

Take small amount of paste and roll it around to form a ball without any cracks. It will be little bit sticky.

From one cup paneer I generally get about 25-28 small rasgullas or 15-16 big ones. Take your pick!

Once sugar-water mix is boiling, drop the rasgullas and close the pressure cooker. Turn down the heat to medium. On my electric stove, it takes about 10 minutes for the first whistle. Take it off the heat immediately. After 5-7 minutes, release the steam and open the pressure cooker. There garama garam rasgualla ready!!

Transfer to bowl and add rose water if desired. Rasgullas taste best when chilled!! Enjoy!

 Using the same process, I had also made rasmalai patties. I flattened the round balls to make patties.

Hello world!

Starting my much awaited project. I am no cook but looking at all yummy goodies, I get inspired to try them out. And it also comes from my husband and kids who love to eat good food. So I put my efforts in making food taste good.  This will my online journal of my culinary escapades, as I like to call them.