Home made dessert: Kalakand (Indian Milk cake)

I am one of those home-cooks, who usually have no time left for making dessert when inviting guests over. So, I often serve store-bought dessert, and the reason is lack of time and/or energy. Since my cooking schedule and sanity ( a very important requirement for cooking anything decent) revolve around the whims and moods of a 2-year old, I realized nap-time or TV time ( a 30-minute window approximately) is what I would have to make any kind of dessert.

When we had plans to have some friends over for dinner last night, I saw this as an opportunity to fulfill my dessert-making wish. This time, I thought: "How about setting a smart goal (read easy) that I can achieve?" We picked up the following ingredients during our regular weekly grocery at Whole Foods:

Ricotta cheese - 2 boxes  (15 oz each)
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can
Sugar - to taste
Pistachios - 0.5 cup (roughly crushed/chopped)
Ghee/unsalted butter (to grease dish)
Green cardamom powder (2tsp) or (grind 8-10 whole green cardamoms and throw the husk away)

On the way back from the grocery, my toddler napped in the car. Leaving her to nap there on the driveway, under the vigilant eyes of my husband, I quickly headed to the kitchen and mixed the ricotta cheese with condensed milk in  deep microwaveable dish. Then I microwaved this mixture on high for 5 minutes. After this, added the sugar for the desired level of sweetness and microwaved for another 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Point to remember: food tastes sweeter when cooler, so add the sugar accordingly. When the mixture was more like a soft dough, I added the cardamom powder and spread it in a pre-greased deep dish.  If you are greasing with butter instead of ghee, I would recommend melting and browning the butter a bit. The pistachios were sprinkled on top and the dish was put in the refrigerator to cool!

The toddler woke up just in time and it was time for the daily routine again... lunch, mess, clean, TV, play, nap... In 2-3 hours, the dessert was ready. I cut it into pieces and had some QAed by hubby dear :-) My rare home-made dessert was ready to be served and the 15-20 minutes of preparation time was worth the smile on our friends' face!

Potato, zucchini and cheese tikki (patty)

Last weekend I had to make a mid-morning snack for my 2-year old. As usual, the opportunistic mom in me started thinking about incorporating vegetables in some form. I opened the refrigerator and found a zucchini.

I have had zucchini-cheese fritters at restaurants before and while I loved the taste, my only complaint was that they absorb a lot of oil. I decided to introduce some Indian flavors and how I fare as per my 2-year old judge.

Ingredients:

Mashed potato mix – 1 cup
Zucchini – 1 (grated)
Red onions – chopped (one-fourth of a large one)
Cilantro – 2tbsp (chopped)
Swiss flavored snack cheese – 1 triangle
Salt and paprika to taste
Water as needed
Oil

I started by grating the zucchini – this had to be done to ensure it mixed well in the dough. The grating also gave a nice uniform light green color to the patties. To this I added the mashed potato mix, chopped onions and cilantro, roughly chopped cheese chunks, salt, paprika and just about enough water to make little round and flattened patties. Then each one was shallow fried in heated canola oil.

As a kid, I always looked at the way food was presented to me before deciding whether I should eat it. Any edible jungle on my plate would not end up in my stomach. So, naturally I cannot blame my daughter if she wants to see and choose what she is eating. Being a mom has also taught me that a toddler is actually a little person with likes and dislikes -- give them well presented appetizing food and they will gobble it up if it tastes good and they are hungry. Yes, this is quite unlike us adults, who can eat even if we are not hungry ☺

So, I decorated a plate with some fresh lettuce leaves and served the snack on them. It was fun seeing dad and daughter enjoy the tikkies together. I sneaked a few in as well ;)

Cooking Together: Saffron rice & Taco-spiced Tilapia

Ladies, tell me – how exciting is it when you arrive home and see your better half preparing dinner?! This was my experience last week. On arriving home, I found my husband preparing some tilapia fillets for dinner. I was ecstatic! When I asked him what he was making – he said he was going to pan-sear the fish with Taco spices. I thought – “interesting…. this is going on my blog”. ☺

As a way of showing appreciation, I decided to make some Saffron rice to go with the fish and some sautéed bell peppers which would be ready by the time the fish was done.

INGREDIENTS:

Taco-spiced tilapia
Tilapia filet – 2
Taco spice – half packet
Bread crumbs
Olive oil
Garlic cloves crushed (fresh)
Non-stick spray

Saffron rice
Basmati rice – 1 cup
Water – 2.5 cups
Turmeric – a pinch
Slivered Almonds – 2 tbsp
Saffron – 6-7 strands
Butter/Indian ghee – 1tsp
Salt & sugar to taste
Bay leaf – 1

My husband made a paste of the taco-spice, bread crumbs, freshly crushed garlic and olive oil. He heated a non-stick pan and sprayed non-stick cooking spray on it. Using a silicone basting brush, he basted the spice baste on one side of the fish filet and placed it on the pan, spice side down for about 5 minutes. Then he basted the other side with the spices. I tossed on some green bell peppers on the side of the pan. After searing one side of the fish, he flipped the filet and seared it for another 5 minutes. When the fish started to flake, he plated them.

For the saffron rice, I added all the ingredients together and placed it in a microwaveable glass bowl covered with a paper plate. Then I microwaved the saffron rice for approximately 20 minutes (covered), checking after 10-15 minutes to ensure there was enough water.

It was fun cooking together that evening and we had a simple yet very delicious meal for the family ready in less than half an hour.

Fried Chilli Chicken

Readers of my blog will have noticed that I missed posting anything last week. My apologies … I had a sick child at home. Even though cooking itself was a challenge, writing was a bigger one. Now that I have become a parent, I am amazed at how children can have a total control over your life. Your moods, mental health and physical well-being all start revolving around how your little one is doing. I wonder – is it because of those innocent curious eyes which look at you once and melt your heart or is it their helplessness and total dependence on you?

Apart from being sick, my daughter had also become anorexic for a week. The situation had gotten so much out of control that we were persuading her to eat chocolates, M&Ms, chips, french fries and popcorns. As long as she ate ‘something’, we didn’t care if it was junk food anymore. I look back and I laugh at our desperation now. How those little beings can manipulate parents’ food beliefs and principles in a matter of minutes!

I noticed that she preferred only spicy food. Because fried dishes were not a taboo any more at home for this week, I decided to experiment with an Indian dish and the American technique of cooking wings.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken thighs – 1lb (cubed)
Garlic, ginger, green chillies (pureed) – 2tbsp
Pancake mix , breadcrumbs & water for batter
1 egg
Canola oil
Salt & black pepper & paprika
Soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, hot sauce, tomato ketchup – to taste
Green onions & green chillies – chopped

The first step was to marinade the cubed chicken pieces in the garlic-ginger-chillies puree along with salt, 1tsp vinegar, 1tbsp soy sauce. The marinade was left at room temperature for 30 minutes. When I got up from babysitting to make the batter, I realized our pantry was out of flour. So, I had to improvise with pancake batter mix & breadcrumbs.

Pancake batter mix was actually not a bad choice for the batter. It had everything I needed – flour, eggs, salt, baking powder. However, it also had sugar which I did not need in my batter. So, I added black pepper & parika to the pancake powder, bread crumbs , 1 egg and water. After dipping the chicken pieces in the batter, I shallow fried them and soaked out the excess oil with a paper towel.

Contrary to the usual Indian chilli chicken, which is cooked in a gravy, I decided to use the same technique used in making American spicy wings. The fried chicken pieces were tossed in a bowl to which I had added soy sauce, hot sauce (chilli sauce), balsamic vinegar, ketchup, chopped green onions and chopped green chillies.

The outcome of this endeavor was quite a tasty one. However, it broke my spirits when the guest of honor for that evening’s dinner did not even look at it – forget tasting it. Her parents gobbled up platefuls after a long tiring day. The only solace was the she did eat it eventually – only a staler left over version from the fridge 2 days later!