Coconut Chikki

As the winter sets in, we use lot of jaggery at home. So many delicious goodies made of jaggery. With iron and vitamin C, jaggery has qualities to keep the body warm. Mom would encourage us to have lot of ghee and gud during winters. Don't forget the gud, ghee and bajra rotla... It is the ultimate winter food for Gujaratis.

With Makar Sankranti time when we make lots of chikkis and brittles at home, Gud/jaggery is the important ingredient. Filled with nutritional values and benefits, jaggery is a must to use in every home. Every culture has their way of using jaggery... in tea, in chikki, in gujarati dal, puran poli, in masala gud from north and many more.

I was just watching one of Rujuta Diwekar's live video of Facebook where she explains how ghee and gud and important for our body specially during winter, and this recipe is a good example to incorporate these main ingredients in day-to-day life. I love her logical explanations just like what our parents told us and our ancestors did. This chikki can be a wonderful snack or dessert after a meal.

While it is chikki time, and remembering all the chikki flavors from Lanavala, I tried to make coconut chikki. Here is the recipe...simple, easy, and quick.

Ingredients
1 cup finely chopped jaggery
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 tsp. ghee

• In a heavy bottom pan, dry roast coconut for 1-2 minutes. Remove in a plate.
• Heat ghee and finely chopped or powdered jaggery in a pan. Let it melt completely. Check for hard ball consistency. Since I use organic powdered jaggery. Melting gud/jaggery is enough. I do not have to heat it a lot. If you are using very soft jaggery, you will have to stir it slightly longer after melting it to form a hard and crisp chikki.
• Add roasted coconut and stir well to mix.
• Remove in a greased pan and pat chikki tightly with a flat side of a greased bowl.
• Cut into pieces while still warm.
• Cool and remove the pieces from the tray. 
• Store in a container and enjoy!

  Here is step-by-step pictorial recipe:

In a heavy bottom pan, dry roast coconut for 1-2 minutes. Remove in a plate.

Heat ghee and finely chopped or powdered jaggery in a pan. Let it melt completely. Check for hard ball consistency. Since I use organic powdered jaggery. Melting gud is enough. I do not have to heat it a lot. If you are using very soft jaggery, you will have to stir it slightly longer after melting it to form a hard and crisp chikki.

Add roasted coconut and stir well to mix.

Remove in a greased pan and pat chikki tightly with a flat side of a greased bowl.

Cut into pieces while still warm.

Cool and remove the pieces from the tray.

Enjoy!!

Doodhi Halwa

If you follow Shital's kitchen on Facebook, you know that I love gardening and my husband and I spend lots of time in the backyard doing some organic farming. I like to call it #shitalskitchengarden. We are still learning and experimenting with lots of fruits and vegetables. You might have also seen a picture of my greenhouse with a heater which is specially for my tropical plants to be comfortable in winter. But, why am I talking about plants and gardening in winter??? Yes, I am super excited today.

We have been experimenting with growing bottle gourd/doodhi/lauki since past two years now. Last summer we realized that bottle gourds have male and female flowers and for better crop, we sometimes need to hand pollinate it. Before summer, we put seeds in the soil and let the plant grow. It did well but the entire summer passed by in just growing vines with not a single flower. We were really sad. I had planned to make so many recipes with homegrown doodhi. Doodhi vines took support of our huge pomegranate tree and was super happy. It grew like the story 'Jack and the bean stacks'...it would grow higher and higher and almost about 10-12 feet high on the top of the pomegranate tree. Finally in fall, the plant started flowering, but how would we even be able to pollinate it? We were just glad it flowered and left it on nature (bees) to do the job. But we realized his was a good spot to sow seeds, and we should be ahead of the game next season. I like the idea of vines taking support of the tall and strong trees nearby. They look happy and strong too.

Yes, nature did the job and finally today we were able to harvest our first even medium sized bottle gourd. It was firm and looked great. It was hanging almost 12 feet from the ground, and my husband had to use a tall ladder the pluck it. I just enjoyed taking pictures. :) We were brainstorming on which recipe to make? It had to be a special recipe as the produce was very special too. Homegrown, organic, bottle gourd or doodhi harvested in winter!! My husband wanted a sweet... doodhi halwa and yes it would be a perfect offering for God too to thank Him for this produce.

Finally, after a long time, I am sharing my excitement through this recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups grated doodhi/lauki/bottle gourd/ghiya
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp. fresh cream or malai (optional)
6 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cardamom powder
Slivered almonds and pistachios for garnishing

• Wash, peel, and grate fresh bottle gourd.
• In a heavy bottom pan heat ghee. Add grated doodhi and saute for 3-4 minutes.
• Add milk and fresh cream/malai.
• Mix once and leave it undisturbed simmering till the milk evaporates. Evaporating milk will create some soft mawa in the halwa. Stirring constantly will disturb mawa. Stirring lightly is okay, but do not stir it vigorously. If you do not have malai, add 1/4 cup store bought crumbled mawa to cooking halwa.
• When moisture evaporates, add 6-7 tbsp sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well.
• Cook till the moisture is almost gone....this might take around 10 minutes. 
• Remove in a bowl and garnish with slivered almonds.

Here is step-by-step pictorial recipe:

Bottle gound vines on our pomegranate tree. Finally, first bottle gourd produced.

Wash, peel, and grate fresh bottle gourd.

A good quality, firm, and seedless bottle gourd.

In a heavy bottom pan heat ghee. Add grated doodhi and saute for 3-4 minutes.

Add milk and fresh cream/malai.

Mix once and leave it undisturbed simmering till the milk evaporates. Evaporating milk will create some soft mawa in the halwa. Stirring constantly will disturb mawa. Stirring lightly is okay, but do not stir it vigorously. If you do not have malai, add 1/4 cup store bought crumbled mawa to cooking halwa.

When moisture evaporates, add 6-7 tbsp sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well.

Cook till the moisture is almost gone... this might take around 10 minutes. 

Remove in a bowl and garnish with slivered almonds.

Enjoy!

Mango Ice Cream

As the aroma of fresh waffle cones spread...not just kids but adults too are tempted to enter the place. Yes, it is the ice cream shop or the fancy word is Ice Cream Parlor. :) You get to taste so many colorful delicious flavors before choosing one. WOW what if I just taste and say I don't like any... and that is exactly why ice cream places do not let you taste it or would just have limited tasting policy :) I am always sure I want a Mango flavored, but still it is fun to get a taste test.

Ice cream is not a new concept. I have had my parents telling me about the traditional ice cream churner: a container filled with ice cream mixture is placed and rotated around ice and salt mixture to make creamy frozen mixture called ice cream :) I remember the concept of ice and salt creating freezing mixture...we learned that in school right?? Yes, ice cream making is actually science. :)

I remember every summer vacation mummy would have freezer full of mango ice cream for us. Just mango milkshake which was frozen and delicious. Even if it was a slightly icey...who cared...slushy mango ice cream on hot summer day was all we wanted!

So finally with hot summer days and mango in season, it was time to whip my favorite flavor. Check out my other ice cream recipes.

Ingredients (Serves 8-10)

1 cup milk

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

4-5 mangoes (around 6 cups) (fresh mangoes or frozen mangoes)

• Boil milk. Add sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool slightly. 
• Add whipping cream and stir well. 
• Freeze the mixture in a freeze proof container.
• Peel and chop mangoes.
• When the ice cream mixture is frozen. cut into pieces and churn it in a food processor with chopped mangoes. the mixture should be creamy, fluffy, and slushy. Is the mixture melts. Freeze it and churn it again to get a light ice cream.
• Freeze the mixture.
• Remove from the freezer and let the ice cream rest for few minutes before serving.
• Serve as is or with chopped mangoes.

Here is step-by-step pictorial recipe:

Boil milk. Add sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool slightly. 

Add whipping cream and stir well.

Freeze the mixture in a freeze proof container.

Peel and chop mangoes.

When the ice cream mixture is frozen. cut into pieces and churn it in a food processor with chopped mangoes. the mixture should be creamy, fluffy, and slushy. Is the mixture melts. Freeze it and churn it again to get a light ice cream.

Freeze the mixture.

Remove from the freezer and let the ice cream rest for few minutes before serving.

Serve as is or with chopped mangoes.

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for
Mango Ice Cream!!!

Blackberry Ice Cream

Feeling so excited!! Made ice cream after such a long time!!! We have a blackberry bush which has been growing so fast and fruiting in a rapid manner, faster than we can pick the berries. This is the first year with the plant, and in spite of sharing berries with my neighbors and friends, I still have a lot. And while summer is here, ice cream is just a perfect dessert.

Pinterest is full of recipes with Blackberries. They are so tempting, and feels like I should try lot of desserts, but again just refraining myself from extra calories :) I would surely prefer sharing the berries and plant cuttings with my friends. We are so glad to have an amazing yield of the fresh, sweet berries.

I have always wanted to buy a ice cream machine. I like the traditional Vat style at BBB. To fill the vat with ice and salt (freezing mixture) and the center container with ice cream mixture. As the ice cream container rotates it churns and freezes the ice cream mixture too. I have seen this traditional type in India and would love to own one. But till then I tried food processor icecream recipe by Sue. It looked so yum and easy that I had to try it! Indeed a lovely and easy recipe :)

My husband loves his ice cream in waffle cone and I like it in a waffle cup. I have been trying to pester him to buy me a waffle cone maker. Every time I see it in a store, I want to buy it. But again I think of where to store so many fancy machines and equipment. I still haven't bought one. So the need of the hour was to figure out a recipe without waffle cone maker. I checked few recipes of waffle cone batter of YouTube. They seemed really easy, but they all had eggs in it. Hmmmm...I had to slightly modify the recipe according to ingredients available at home. So here it is... an eggless waffle cup using organic whole wheat flour. I am sure all moms out there will be excited and super happy with me :) These waffle cups turned out amazingly good and crisp...something that kids would love! Homemade waffle cups made on griddle cannot be stored long. They should be made and consumed within 30 minutes or as they will turn slightly soft. If they soften, you could microwave them for 30 seconds and let them cool on a paper towel to turn crisp again. Give this a try for sure.

Ingredients:
To make ice cream (serves 5-8 people)
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups blackberries

• Boil milk and add sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes. 
• Let the milk cool slightly and then mix in whipping cream
• Let the mixture cool.
• Transfer the mixture in a freezer safe glass box. Cover with a tight lid and place in the freezer to freeze.
• Remove the frozen mixture. Cut into pieces. 
• Add blackberries to the food processor. For seedless ice cream: grind blackberries separately first and strain in a strainer to remove seeds. Add the strained puree to the food processor.
• Put frozen pieces in a food processor and grind them to make soft and fluffy ice cream.
• Remove in a freezer safe container. Cover and then freeze ice cream.
• Let ice cream rest out of the freezer for 5-8 minutes before serving.

To make waffle cups (makes 2-3 waffle cups)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. butter
1+1/2 tbsp sugar
2-3 drops vanilla extract 
3 tbsp. whole wheat flour

• Mix all the ingredients well to form and smooth batter.
• Heat non-stick griddle to medium temperature.
• Pour some batter and spread to form a 5-6 inch circle.
• Cook on one side. Flip and cook on the other side.
• Use a flat spatula to press the crepe to cook and brown evenly.
• Remove from the pan and quickly mold to over an upside down glass. 
• Remove in 30 seconds and place on a paper towel to avoid moisture and waffle cup getting soggy and soft.
• Cool and serve with ice cream.

Boil milk and add sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes. 

Let the milk cool slightly and then mix in whipping cream

Let the mixture cool.

Fresh berries from my yard.

Transfer the mixture in a freezer safe glass box. Cover with a tight lid and place in the freezer to freeze.

Remove the frozen mixture. Cut into pieces.

Add blackberries to the food processor. For seedless ice-cream: grind blackberries separately first and strain in a strainer to remove seeds. Add the strained puree to the food processor.

Put frozen pieces in a food processor and grind them to make soft and fluffy ice-cream.

Remove in a freezer safe container. Cover and then freeze ice-cream.

Mix all the ingredients well to form and smooth batter.

Heat non-stick griddle to medium temperature.

Pour some batter and spread to form a 5-6 inch circle.

Cook on one side. Flip and cook on the other side.

Use a flat spatula to press the crepe to cook and brown evenly.

Remove from the pan and quickly mold to over an upside down glass. 

Remove in 30 seconds and place on a paper towel to avoid moisture and waffle cup getting soggy and soft.

Cool the waffle cups and serve with ice cream.

Let the ice-cream rest out of the freezer for 5-8 minutes before serving.

Have a great summer!!