Millet Kheer / Millet Payasam

Next in the series of Super grains is Millet/Thinnai Payasam.

Super easy and healthy dessert too.

It is vey flavorful and can be made using almond milk or coconut milk also

Ingredients

Millets/ Thinnai - 1 cup

Coconut milk - 1 cup

Jaggery water - 2 cups

Cashews and raisins - for garnish

Ghee - 1 cup

Method

Fry the super grain for a couple of minutes in ghee.

Pour milk or water in it and let is boil till the millet is cooked completely

Let this mixture cool

In the meanwhile, powder jiggery and mix well in limited water

Let it dissolve completely.

Strain the jiggery syrup and pour it on the cooked millet mixture.

Let this boil at a very low flame.

Add almond milk or Coconut milk or normal milk to this mixture

Now , be very careful not to let it boil.

It should cook in low flame, until it reaches a Kheer consistency

In another pan, heat ghee and fry raisins first followed by cashews

Fry them till golden brown and add it to the Kheer

This can be served warm or chilled.

Millet Vegetable Fried Rice

One of the goodies that we had given to some of our blogger buddies from North was a packet of Millets, and Thinnai. The immediate prompt question that came across was for recipes to include these super grains in  day to day cooking. That is when I decided to choose this as my theme for Choose one ingredient and cook three dishes. First dish with millets is a simple flavorful vegetable rice

Ingredients

 

3 cups cooked Millet

      1/4 cup minced Spring Onions

                                     1/4 cup Green Beans 

                                          1/4 cup Carrots 

                                    1 tbsp Garlic, minced 

                            1 tbsp Ginger, peeled and minced 

                                  Pepper and Salt - to taste 

                                            Oil for sauté

  

 

 

 

 Method

 

Cook the millets and keep it separately

In a wok, heat oil and stir in the garlic and ginger pieces

Add salt followed by finely chopped vegetables

When they are sautéed add a dash of soy sauce and mix well

Adjust Pepper and Salt according to your taste

Take it off fire and add the millets

Stir well and garnish with some spring onions

Chennai's Best Kept Secret - On the Rocks.

Yes, this is Chennai s best kept secret as far as at least some people are concerned. On the Rocks is an awesome bar cum resto which is celebrating its 6th Anniversary this month. I had the wonderful opportunity to dine there and have a long chat with Chef Rohit, the brain behind OTR s menu.

The ambience is serene and apt for a quite evening dinner with wine and long chats with your friends or loved ones

Some interesting information about OTR before I start with the menu.

They change the menu every 14 days. Some dishes are added and some removed. They try to maintain a balance of flavors and tastes to cater to every diner.

Any new dish that makes it way to the menu card is tried , tested and then approved to be on the menu. I particularly like the way the flavors are blended in each of their dishes. Kudos to Chef Rohit.

First to be served was yummy soft foacacia bread with a carrot apply pathay. An awesome combo of apple and carrot. The sweet and sour flavors complimented each other so much.

 

Our starters was Baked Cacumber with honey and garlic reduction, Enoki Mushroom, bluecheese  sauce with greens and balsamic paint , semolina gnocchi with wild mushrrom , baby spinach confit garlic and pine nut. The cheese that was served to us was imported from France

Baked Cacumber with honey and garlic reduction

Semolina gnocchi with wild mushroom,baby spinach confit garlic and pine nut

Enoki Mushroom, bluecheese  sauce with greens and balsamic paint

Soup was served in a Soup Torne. This is the first time I have seen it, so was a fascinated. Soup Torne is the way soup is served in France. Both the vegetarian and non vegetarian soups tasted very good. I personally would recommend the asparagus soup. Non Vegetarian soup was Chicken Sitaci Mushroom soup

 

The most interesting wine cellar is located at the back racks of OTR. Oh my what a collection of wines they have. The shelves run to two floors. And they have wines from 3K to 1.4 Lac a bottle.

I personally liked their champagne.

Was totally awed with their wine glass collection

Wine cellar that runs to two floors.

The highlight of the evening was to get to cook meat on a Lava stone from Australia. The concept is cook meat on this stone, which has been heated to 400 degrees in a special oven for 6 hours and served with a variety of sauces that can be used as a dip to eat the meat. The meats that can be cooked varies from chicken , to fish to mutton. You can choose the meat and the sauce on the side. It is an experience on its own and it totally fun.

This meat is served with two sauces of our choice, mashed potatoes and assortment of veggies

Vegetarian Main course was Tortilla wrapped kidney bean pico de gallo , tortilla crush, sour cream , tomato salsa and pickled greens

Crème Brulee and English Pudding was served as dessert. A dash of lit rum on crème brulee was a visual treat indeed. and the taste was too good.

English Pudding was the BEST I have ever had. So soft and spongy .

As a person who is crockery crazy, every piece of crockery in which the food was served deserves a mention, be it the main course or the soup or the dessert. Their crockery was EXQUISITE and ADMIRABLE.

Towards the end of your meal, you will be served a chocolate shot which is flavored with coconut or cinnamon or mint. You will have to figure out the flavor. We were served coconut flavored one. And it was quite nice.

On the Rocks Anniversary celebrations are on till 31st March. So visit and experience the spectacular menu that Chef Rohit and his team has put together. They are open only for Dinner.



Spiralli Pasta in my ever favorite Arabiatta Sauce

Earlier, before I started exploring the world of spices and sauces, days ago when I never knew that a yummy Italian dish could be created in our very own kitchen.

I would always always order this when I had a chance. After I knew how easy it was to make it at home, its always a different order at Italian Restaurants.

This is the most easiest sauces to make pasta in.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/8 cup red wine
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups peeled and diced tomatoes ( after being blanched)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Method

Blanch tomatoes in hot water.

Remove them and make them into a coarse paste

Heat oil in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat.

Saute onion and garlic in oil for 5 minutes.

Stir in wine, sugar, basil, red pepper, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, black pepper and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer uncovered about 15 minutes.

Pour over cooked pasta and throw in some black olives.

Garnish with grated cheese to add to flavor.

Somasi with Tutty Frutty Filling

I had planned to make something and landed making this. But still am happy of the dish, as my friends daughter ate two of them straight after this shoot.

This is a very traditional somasi with a different filling. Instead of the usual coconut and sugar filling I put in a spoon of multi colored tutty frutty. It tasted a little less sweet and had to bite into the small pieces of filling.

Ingredients

Maida - 1 cup

Oil for deep frying

Tutty Frutty - 1/2 cup

Method

Make a dough using Maida and water.

It should be in the consistency of a chapatti dough

In a cup take the multi color tutty frutty

Roll out small rounds from the dough , fill it with the tutty frutty

And close it in a semi circle shape

Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry the filled somasi

I personally loved the taste, though I thought only one to eat.

Chikki Custard Jamun - An easy dessert to light up your dinner table.

When the year began, I really really wanted to put up my to do list for the year and wanted to work them out. I am happy that some are shaping up well. One of them is blogging. I am happy doing this second post for Blogging Marathon #50 - Colorful dishes for kids.

My second creation is a different one. Cant imagine this dish was conceptualized in my dreams and executed in reality. for my fellow bloggers dearies... They loved it and the innovation that went into it. Made it with simple ingredients but made it sound fancy !!

Evil Na !!

Ingredients

Jamun - 5 pieces

Chikki - 1 cup ( broken into small pieces )

Vanilla Custard - 2 cups ( I used Brown and Poisson)

Method

Prepare the custard as per the instructions on the pack and cool it in the refrigerator

Crush the chikki ( peanut candy ) and layer it on the bottom of the glass in which you are gonna serve the dessert

Spoon some custard over it and place a jamun in the center

Now spoon some more custard around the jamun

Garnish with chopped chikki and serve chilled

Strawberry Mousse : Colorful dessert for the kids and for the kid in you

Ok, so we are at the epic 50th Month of Blogging Marathon. And here is where I am going to resume my blogging after a brief hibernation. I was a part of the celebrations for 50th month blogging marathon. and boy it did inspire me to be very regular at blogging, to plan my posts and so on. I had planned two other dishes for this week, Colorful dishes for Kids. But when I saw these pictures, Could not let them go without putting them on my blog asap. Thank you Karan for the lovely pictures.

To me food has to be colorful and appealing to the eyes as much as it to the stomach. This is a simple and easy strawberry mousse that I made during our meet, which is a feast to the eyes as well as to the tummy.

Ingredients

Strawberry - 2 cups

Fresh Cream - 2 cups ( whipped )

Sugar - 1 tbsp.

Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Mint Leaves - for garnish

Method

Puree strawberry with a little sugar and lemon juice

Spoon half of the puree into small glasses and let it cool in the refrigerator

Mix the other half of strawberry puree with fresh whipped cream and spoon it over the puree

Garnish with a slice of strawberry and mint leaf.

Serve chilled.

It sure was a hit amongst my group.