Nungu Smoothie / Ice Apple Smoothie #Summercooler

   For this month's Shhhh secretly cooking the theme was smoothie . I was paired with Annam Senthilkumar . She gave me fig and milk. I searched in the shops and the shopkeeper says it comes in a week. This happened throughout this month. 

   I was confident that I will get fig and make the smoothie. The month ended and May started. Today May 1st , Annam messaged me why I haven't posted the smoothie and asked whether I got fig or not. I replied her , I didn't get fig. She gave me another ingredient as Nungu / Ice apple.

  I immediately asked my mom to buy Nungu and made this quick smoothie.

Requirements : 

Nungu / Ice apple - 2 no

Boiled and cooled milk - 1/2 cup

Brown sugar / Nattu Sakkarai - 1 tbs






Method : 

Remove the white skin on the top of the flesh of Nungu and chop into small pieces.

Add the Nungu pieces , Brown sugar and milk to a blender and blend till smooth.

Referigerate for ten minutes and serve.


                     

Serve by sprinkling chopped Ice apple on top.


Note : 

Cane sugar can be used . As i used brown sugar , the taste will be different and it gives a brownish colour to smoothie.

Flavouring agents like rose milk , cardamom , saffron can be used.

Snalthy #Snack Made Healthy – Product Review

   Snalthy is a Coimbatore based online store selling healthy snacks. It was a company started by three friends and uses organic produce to make the snacks.

  I received a box containing 12 different snacks . The snacks are packed for single serving. They claim that they use organic products and no chemicals were used. Each pack has the ingredients used , nutritive value , manufactured date and expairy date were printed.

Almond Cookies

 The cookies were crunchy with the flavor and was bite sized.

Mixed Seed Rusk

 Rusk were crispy and were bite sized.

Crispy Mexican Chips

These chips were spicy and are baked.

Cocoa Almond Cookie

 The cookies were crunchy with the taste of cocoa.

Caramel Toffee

The carmel toffee were delicious and was made with jaggery.

Spinach Crackers

 Green coloured crackers with the taste of spinach and the goodness of kambu flour.

Sesame Raisins Bar

Raisins bar was made by shaping raisins into oval with the sesame coating on the top.

Crispy Methi Crackers

 Diamond shaped crackers with the fenugreek leaves flavor.

Garlic Bread Stix

 Crispy  bread sticks with the garlic flavor.

Orange Banana Sticks

Sticks has both orange and banana flavor , but orange flavor was dominating than banana flavor.

Salted Baked Potato Chips

Baked potato chips made with grounded potato and

Salted Apple Sticks

Baked sticks made with the grounded apple.

  They claim that they won’t use refined / Bleached Flour ( Maida ) ,white sugar , Hydrogenated fat ( Vanaspati ) , Baking powder , Baking soda  , Emulsifiers , Artificial colours , Artificial colours , Artificial flavors etc.

 Now , they are delivering all over India for free .

To order visit snalthy .

Nellikai Sadham / Indian Gooseberry Rice / Amla Rice – Lunchbox special #RecipeRedux

    The theme for April 2016 

     Limpin’ Along for Lunch

Ever get in a lunch rut? Need new ideas for packing your kids’ or your own lunch? Are packable noontime options dwindling? Surely you’ve met the ‘What shall I pack for lunch?” question head-on with creative ideas. Please share your healthy lunch recipe - so we can swap it into our own rotation.

     Any rice preparation will be the choice for our lunchboxes. Be it a onepot rice or a plain rice with sided like curry , stirfry and yogurt.

 We south indians prefer rice over any other meal. This rice is a simple fried rice with the addition of Indian Gooseberry to add the taste and flavour to the rice. I want to post this rice preparation as it was simple and quick fix lunch recipe.

Nellikai as the gooseberry is known in Tamil is the wonder fruit and ancient fruit known. In the Tamil Literature it was described as the Gooseberry will gives long life and a King gave this wonder fruit to Avvaiyar , a great Tamil Poet.

 This fruit is rich in Vitamin C and has anti-aging property. As we have the Indian Gooseberry Tree / Arinellikai in our garden , this rice is common during the fruit bearing season.

  This rice is tasty and can be prepared in a jiffy if you have cooked rice in hand. This will be excellent dish for lunchboxes and during travel. As the summer has started in India , many will plan for a short trip , most of them carry packed lunch.

  I had used the small type gooseberry in this rice , big Indian gooseberry can be used.

Requirements :

Indian gooseberry – ½ cup (Grated )

Cooked plain rice – 2 cup

Oil – 1 tbs

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Onion – 1 small

Green chilli – 2

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Salt  - ½ tsp

Curry leaves a sprig

Method :

          Take a handful of gooseberries wash and pat dry.   Use a grater to grate the flesh  and discard the seeds .

 If you like sour taste can include more gooseberries.

Peel and chop the onion. Chop the green chillies.

Heat oil in a pan , add the mustard seeds and let it crackle .

Add the chopped onion and green chillies , sauté till the onion turns translucent .

Add in the curry leaves and grated gooseberries, mix well.

Add the turmeric powder , salt and sauté for 2 minutes.

Now , add the rice and give it a quick stir  / toss on medium flame .

Let the rice to heat up for 2 minutes.

Take flame and serve along with any pickle of your choice.

Gooseberry rice is ready to serve.

An InLinkz Link-up

Grape Popsicle / Thraitchai Kuchi Ice

  Thraitchai is the tamil name for grapes.  Kuchi Ice as we call in tamil for popsicle , is common during summer in India. You can see many popsicle vendors selling in the streets .During my school days , Ice creams were not so popular and don't have so many varities as now. Most prefer this popsicles or icecream on a cone , that we call as cone Ice.

  I had tasted Rose Ice ,  Paal Ice and Mango Ice , other than that I didn’t had any flavor. Now , I like cone Ice and homemade popsicles.

  This grape popsicle I made last year(2015  May). I used the seedless black grapes , which my dad bought from Dindugul during his travel.

   This is a simple popsicle with only three ingredient and it was a few minutes to make this popsicles , though it takes overnight to condense.

Requirements :

3 cup fresh seedless black grapes

2tbs sugar or more

Method :

Soak the grapes without stem in a large bowl of water with ½ tsp of salt. Let it be for half an hour. Then wash the grapes twice in running tap water .

Puree the grapes along with the sugar in a blender until smooth.

If you want to strain the juice , use a strainer . I didn’t strain , I used the pulp for this popsicle.

As I don’t have popsicle mould at that time , I filled the juice in the silver cups. Paper cups can be used.

 Cover the cups with the aluminum foil and insert the popsicle stick till the half of the cup.

Keep the prepared cups in the freezer compartment and let it to condense overnight.

Enjoy the  grape popsicle.

Mini Jangiri – Diwali special 2014 #IniyaTamilPuthandu

   Happy Tamil Newyear  Iniya Tamil Puthandu .............
   These jangiris I made for 2014 diwali , couldn't post at that time. As this is the new year , I want to start the year with sweet........

    This mini jangiri will be suitable for kids , as they love to eat these cuties. Check my other  jalebi and jangiri recipes.

 Diwali the festival of lights will be celebrated with home made sweets in our family. We won’t buy sweets. Homemade sweets are good for our health.

 Jangiri / jalebi as we call in Tamil nadu is a important sweet for diwali.

   I planned to make mini jangiri for 2014 diwali as it was akshara’s first diwali 2014…….

 For the cute angel cute  jangiris……….

Requirements :

Whole Urad dhal – 2 cup

Raw Rice / Pacharisi – 2 tbs

Orange food color – a pinch

Oil for frying

Sugar syrup :

Sugar – 4 cup

Water – 3 cup

Orange food color – a pinch

Rose essence – few drops

Cardamon Powder – ½ tsp

Method :

Soak urad dhal and rice for 30 minutes.

Drain and grind with little water to a smooth batter.

Make sugar syrup by combining sugar and water.

Bring to boil and keep stirring till sugar mixes well.

When the syrup reaches one string consistency , add the cardamon powder , food color and rose essence.

Keep the flame in low flame , let the syrup simmer.

Heat oil in a pan.

Fill the piping bag with round nosil /  funnel cake maker / the thick cloth with a hole in center.

Shape mini jangiris in the pan , cook in low flame.

When cooked , add to the sugar syrup and soak for 2 – 3 minutes .

Take out and arrange in plate.

Sprinkle the almond flakes on top.

Mini jangiris are ready to serve.