Melon and grape salad with strawberry custard dressing

Made this yummy yummy salad today for Mother's Day competition in my son's school. This salad was surely a crowd pleaser especially with the kids in the school. Served them in ice cream cones and small sweet biscuits and woooosh it vanished within minutes,. Just a innovative touch to our regular fruit custard. Did not pour the dressing on top coz I served in individual cups and for easy to eat.



You need:
Milk 1litre+1cup
Custard powder 4dessert spoon
Sugar 1/2cup
Condensed milk 1/2 tin+2tbsp
Assorted melons scooped with melon scooper
Black and green grapes
Strawberries chopped. 1cup
Mint leaves
Vanilla cup cakes
Ice cream cones
Sweet biscuits

Preparation:

Boil the milk and add sugar meanwhile mix the custard powder with 1cup milk . When the milk boils reduce heat and pour in the custard mixture and mix well. Stir them continuously till they become thick and glossy.
Cool and refrigerate until set.
The next day blend the set custard with 1/2 tin condensed milk. Now the custard would be smooth like silk. Mix in the strawberries
Prepare all the fruits. Crumble the cake
Just before serving, assemble them in the icecream cone, cake at the bottom, then fill with custard, top with fruits and place a mint, drizzle condensed milk
For the sweet biscuits fill them with custard and place a piece of fruit , drizzle condensed milk
Serve immediately

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Arabian Crown Pizza- Chicken

Making homemade Pizza after a long time. When Priya Suresh posted pizza in the home bakers challenge there was a lot of flavours going in my mind Indian , Italian, etc., After a long dilemma concluded in this pizza combined Arabian Pizza and crown pizza  inspired from Pizza hut and made this delicious pizza.
Being in gulf got access to many Arabic spices and I love the Bahraini masala, such a wonderful masala with a beautiful aroma. Made chicken and meatballs with this masala  and it was truly delicious, the meatballs were soft and succulent , overall enjoyed the pizza! The recipe is quite long but not tough to make, lets get moving...

You need: (makes 1 large pizza)

For the pizza base:

All purpose flour           2cups
Warm Water                1cup
Instant active yeast        7gms/1 sachet
Olive oil                        2tbsp
Sugar                            1 tsp
Salt
Cornmeal                      1tbsp

For the Garlic sauce:

Egg white                    1nos
Garlic                          1 small clove
Oil                               1/4cup
Lemon juice                1/2tbsp
Salt

For the Arabian chicken:

Chicken breast sliced         1/2 cup
Bahraini masala                  1tsp
Olive oil                             1tsp
Salt

For the Arabian meatballs:

Chicken mince               250 gms
Garlic sauce                   1tsp
Tahini                             1tsp
Bahraini masala             1tbsp
Dried parsely                1tsp
Lemon juice                  1tsp
Cornflour                      1tsp
All purpose flour           1tbsp
Salt

Other ingredients:

Butter                                          2tbsp
Dried Parsely                              1tsp
Mozarella cheese shredded           150gms
Olives sliced        
Olive oil to drizzle

Preparation:

Pizza base:
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water, keep aside for 10 minutes
Mix flour, oil, salt and the yeast mixture and knead them to a smooth dough for about 10 min.
Cover them with wet cloth and place them in a warm place for an hour for them to rise.

Garlic Sauce:
Pulse the garlic using the chutney jar, add the white yolks and whisk them at full speed for 2 minutes.
Add oil and whisk them for 2 minutes. Now add the lemon juice and salt and whisk them for 30 seconds

Arabian chicken:
In a hot pan add olive oil chicken, masala, salt and coat the chicken well, cook for 8-10 minutes.

Arabian Meatballs:
Grind all the ingredients except cornflour and all purpose flour to a smooth paste.
mix the flours roll them into balls
Heat oil in a pan and and cook the meat balls for around 7-8 minutes, remove and keep aside

To Assemble:

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C
Roll out the pizza base into a circle of about 14"
Grease the tray with butter and sprinkle cornmeal. Place the rolled base in the tray, Apply butter on top.
Place the meatball around the base giving a decent space between them.
Slit the base in between the meatballs, pull the ends towards the centre making a crown.
Apply sauce evenly in the centre, sprinkle parsley and cheese evenly.
Top them with chicken and olives. Drizzle olive oil over the pizza and bake them for about20-30 minutes.
Hot and yummy pizza is ready to be served enjoy
            

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Little Soldiers / Soft boiled eggs with Asparagus

Being In and Out from the blogger world back with an easy but delicious recipe. Little soldiers! does the name amuse you it is simple soft boiled eggs with crunchy asparagus. Wanted to make this recipe right from the time I saw this in Nigella Lawson's cookery show (long long back!) but never had the oppurtunity to do.

Made them during last weekend along with some toasts, sausages, hash browns and waffles. It was simply delicious.The combination of gooey eggs and crunchy asparagus was mind blowing. This was the first time I cooked Asparagus n it was tasty, next time will make many dishes out of it. Now lets move ahead to the recipe

You need:

Eggs                       4nos
Asparagus               8nos
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In boiling water add little salt and cook the asparagus in it for about 5 min. Drain them and dunk them in cold water to retain its colour.
Boil water  in another pan when it is rolling boil add the eggs in it and cook them for exactly 4 minutes.
Remove from water.

Place the cooked eggs in individual egg holders, using a serrated knife slice the top of the egg sprinlke with salt and pepper n Serve with Asparagus.
Dunk the asparagus in the gooey egg and enjoy!!

Note:
If you dont have Asparagus then cut bread into slices , toast them and enjoy with eggs

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Homemade ghee

Even when I write this post I can feel the aroma of homemade ghee and the speciality of this ghee is it is made from the famous Uthukuli butter. When we went for vacation my hubby bought a kilo of butter directly from Uthukuli.
 The ghee made from this butter is very aromatic and has a nice golden yellow color rather than the butter available in Khadi craft store which gives a white colored ghee.
Ghee made from fresh butter is more aromatic than made from readily available butters.
 Making ghee at home is not a hard job at all all you need is butter preferably fresh, rock salt, drumstick leaves or curry leaves and buttermilk. After the ghee is made the residue in the vessel can be mixed with rice and eat or dip the dosai in the residue and eat, forget about the calories for that day !! So yummy. Now lets move ahead in making aromatic Uthukuli ghee

You need:

Fresh butter                500gms
Rock salt                     1 tsp
Drumstick leaves (or)
Curry leaves                1/2 cup
Buttermilk                   1/4 cup

Preparation:

Wash the butter with water to remove any impurities , if you are using store bought butter skip this step
Wash the leaves and soak them in buttermilk

Put the butter in a big thick bottomed Kadai. Keep the flame in medium heat
The butter will start to melt at first the butter will start to froth,

Within 15-20 minutes the froth will subside and you will be able to see a clear liquid and when the liquid turns golden color and you can see the bottom of the pan clearly
Now add salt and buttermilk mixture,

 the ghee will start to frizz out that is why you need a big vessel
When the ghee settles you can smell the beautiful aroma of freshly made ghee.

Remove from the stove and strain them in a metal strainer into a clean container.

Now the ghee will be in liquid state

 after 10-12 hours the ghee will solidify and you will get beautiful grainy and aromatic ghee.

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Squid vada / kanava meen vadai

Have you ever tried vadas with squid? If not then give a try you will not be disappointed. It's super yummy and when you fry them the aroma of seafood just fills the air. This is my mother's recipe. This is her creation. She gets great ideas n also innovative ones to.
   You can make them for parties as starters, make Manchurian or make kofta gravy just let your imagination run wild make biryani's. Make an extra batch n freeze them you can use them later

You need:

 Squid. 250gms
 Coconut. 3 tbsp(grated)
  Dalia dal. 2 tbsp
 Ginger& garlic paste 1tbsp
 Curry leaves. 5-6 nos
  Coriander leaves. 3-4 sprig
 Green chilly. 1-2 nos
 Onion. 1/2 nos
 Egg. as required
Turmeric powder. 1/2 tsp
 Salt as required
 Oil to fry

 Preparation:
 Clean the squid and cut into pieces.
 Put all the ingredients other than egg and oil in the grinder jar and grind.
 Add required amount of beaten egg just to bind them
 Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes
Make them into small balls if you want them as kofta or flatten them as cutlets
 Heat oil and shallow fry them on both sides Now tasty vadas are ready to eat

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