No Recipe in this one

hey... I just wanted to say that I made and sold 3-4 batches of muffins & about 30 vegetable puffs!! I made the pastry sheets too!! And am mighty pleased with myself!!!

Where? How?, you ask.. well there was a food festival organized in the community where we live. So, I asked my husband - "What do you think I should make?" and he says "Vegetable Puffs, of course!!" Then we went hunting for puff pastry sheets in Bangalore, and didn't find them.

I've been thinking of making the pastry sheets for a while, but the process is lengthy., and I couldn't make the time. And now I did!! (rather had to, since I'd already committed to making the puffs!!!)

Made a batch with wheat flour & butter substitute - this didn't get all flaky on baking. Stuck that in the freezer & made another batch with all-purpose flour & unsalted butter - these were melt-in-the-mouth good!!! Yay!!!

I made 4 kinds of muffins - chocolate chip, banana nut, oatmeal raisin & rum & raisin - yes, with real rum!!

Recipe? Hmm now that is what I am so irritated about - I haven't had the time to post the recipes yet!!!

Beetroot Halwa

Had been to Mysore over the weekend. Had a scrumptious lunch at the Metropole. One of the items on the dessert table was beetroot halwa. It was the star of the show. All of us loved it. So, soon after we were back home, I made it. Here's the recipe -

Ingredients

Beetroot - grated 2 cups (got 2 cups from 1/2 kg)

Sugar - 1 cup

Water - 1/3 cup

Milk - 4 tbsps

Ghee - 4 tbsps

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Preparation

Wash, dry, peel skin & finely grate beetroot

Measure sugar & water into a pan

Heat till the sugar completely dissolves, add a few tsps of water if required

In a separate non-stick pan (kadai) heat 3 tbsps ghee

Add beetroot & saute for about a minute

Pour in the sugar / water mix

Sprinkle the cardamom powder

Stir occasionally, adding ghee as needed

You know the halwa is ready when it leaves the sides of the pan forming a ball. Don't wait till it gets very solid. This halwa sets well & solidifies as it cools.

Microwave Therettipal & an Award!!!

Am back after a long hiatus. Well, for those of you wondering where I disappeared to - I was in the midst of moving back to Bangalore. It is good to be back. Took some time to settle into our new house and all the other nitty-gritties involved with moving countries. Will be posting about that soon on my other blog.

So, this morning the milk got spoilt (curdled) while boiling, so I decided to make a version of therettipal with it. Don't know if it can even be called therettipal - but that's what I call it!! And, so I make it, and then I log in to my blog to post & what do I see - an award!! Yay!!! Got the first award!! Its time to celebrate...

Anisheetu of My Kitchen gave me this award long long long back - jan 2009 if u must know! Thank you Anisheetu!

With no further blah blah, here's the recipe.

Ingredients

Curdled milk - 1 ltr

Curd - 1 tbsp

Sugar - 2/3 cup (I used Splenda)

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Cardamom powder - a dash

Preparation

Add curd to the (hot) curdled milk. Stir & let it stand for 5-10 minutes

Drain whey from the milk. Let it stand for about 10 minutes. You should get about 1 cup of solid milk from this.

In a microwave-safe bowl place drained milk, sugar (or splenda) & ghee

Stir well and make sure there are no lumps

Set microwave power to high & cook for 3 minutes

Stir to break lumps & cook for 3 more minutes. You know the dish is ready when it is crumbly.

Cook for another 2 minutes, to get a nice burnt brown color.

Sprinkle some elaichi powder & serve

Microwave ovens vary, so what took me about 8-10 minutes might take a little more or a lot lesser in your microwave. Take care not to over-cook the dish. It might appear runny / not fully done. However, if you let it stand for a few minutes, it quickly hardens. I didn't realize that and ended up getting crunchy therettipal!!