Homemade Oats Chocolates - Recipe

Hello Everyone

Do you want a healthier version of chocolates that you can relish without feeling guilty? Then I have a quick recipe to make these yummy Oat Chocolates at home in no time..

Ingredients Required:

Oats – 1 ½ Cups
Cocoa Powder – 5 tbsp
Unsalted Butter – 3 tbsp
Sugar – 1 ½ Cups
Milk Powder – 125 gms
Vanilla Extract – 1 tbsp
Water – ½ Cup

Method:
1. Mix sugar in water in a pan, turn on the flame and bring it to boil. Keep the liquid on the low flame until it turns into one string consistency syrup.

2. Turn the flame off. Add butter and vanilla extract to the syrup. Mix until the butter melts and all ingredients in the pan blend nicely.

3. Now start pouring the milk powder and cocoa powder into the syrup while whisking all ingredients in the pan smoothly.

4. When the mixture turns into silky, runny batter without any lumps, add oats and stir to combine.

5. Pour spoonful of mixture onto greased chocolate molds of different shapes and let it cool at room temperature for some time.

6. Lastly, refrigerate the chocolate molds until the chocolates get hardened. And the yummy homemade chocolates are ready to satiate your cravings. These chocolates can be stored in airtight containers for few days.

Tip: you may cover the mold with a cling sheet during refrigeration to avoid the layer of ice being formed on top of chocolates.

Hope you love these delicious delights ;) Do let me know your views in comments below.

Kids Favourite Paav Bhaji Recipe

I'm enjoying the messages that I'm receiving for kids special recipes which I'm posting these days :) Last night, I cooked Paav Bhaji for dinner and here is my version of this kids special recipe that I'm sure they won't be able to resist.

Ingredients:

2 onions (finely chopped) 

1 capsicum  (finely chopped)

4 tomatoes (finely chopped)

2 potatoes (boiled, peeled and mashed )

garlic (finely chopped)

1 tbsp paav bhaji masala

1 tsp red chilli powder

4 tbsp butter

1 tbsp cumin seeds (jeera)

salt to taste

2 rbsp fresh lemon juice

6 paav

water

Method:

Heat butter in a pan and add cumin seeds. 

When the seeds crackle, add chopped onions and garlic. Sauté till light brown while stirring occasionally.

Add chopped capsicum and again sauté for 2 minutes on medium flame. 

Add tomatoes before the onion/capsicum in the pan get tender to retain its crispiness. Cover the pan and cook on low flame for 3 to 4 minutes. 

Sprinkle the dry spices over the cooked vegetables including salt, chilli powder and paav bhaji masala and stir to mix it evenly.

Add mashed potatoes, mix well using potato masher and cook for few minutes. You may add some water if you don't prefer thick consistency of bhaji. Keep aside the cooked bhaji.

Now, heat the flat griddle (tawa). Pour some butter on it, slit a paav into two halves and place over melted butter. Bake the paav from both sides till they turn light brown and crisp. 

Garnish the bhaji with chopped onion (like I mostly do) with a dash of some fresh lemon juice. Serve with hot paav. 

Hope all the kids there would love this tasty dish :) 

Homemade Khatta Meetha Aam Papad - Recipe for Kids

Its the season of King of Fruits..Mangoes. While most people of every age or gender are crazy about mangoes, you will be surprised to know that I rarely eat it. But one mango dish that I love is Aam Papad. The aam papad that I always bought from market in my childhood days is now prepared by me in my kitchen. I always relished its tangy, spicy variant more than sweeter variant. So here is my version of the Chatpata Aam Papad for our little kids.

Ingredients:

3 Ripe Mangoes

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 Green Cardamom (Powdered)

1/2 tsp Black pepper powder

2-3 pinch ginger powder

1/2 tsp Black Salt

1 tbsp Cooking Oil/Ghee

Method:

Peel and slice mangoes.

Make smooth paste of mango pulp in the blender mixed with cardamom powder.

Pour the mango paste in a pan on medium flame and bring it to boil. Now add sugar, pepper powder, black salt, ginger powder in the paste and stir continuously until thickened. Turn the flame off when the paste turns dark yellow in color and more viscose.

Grease a flat steel tray with oil or ghee and spread a think layer of cooked mango paste in it.

Cover the tray with a thin muslin cloth or net and keep it under the sun to dry. Depending on the heat of sunlight, the time to get the aam papad ready may vary. (it may even let it dry inside the room in night)

Peel off the dried aam papad from tray using sharp tip of a knife and cut into shape you like.

The spicy, tangy homemade aam papad is ready to enjoy with kids without worries of hygiene ;)

P.S. You may use any type of mangoes and can adjust the quantity of sugar and salt as per your taste or according to the original sweetness of mangoes. The aam papad can last for a month or so if stored in an air tight container and refrigerated. 

Stuffed Achari Bhindi- Easy Recipe

Hello

Let me begin my day with yet another session of  'everyday cooking'. Today I cooked Stuffed Bhindi which is my family's favourite sabzi. I don't cook it with onion/tomato curry and prefer it dry and without gravy. The rich flavoured stuffed bhindi gets a tangy twist with an addition of aam ke achar ka masala. It tastes heavenly in every bite and enhances the taste of every platter.

Ingredients:

250 gms bhindi
1 tsp Red chilli powder
2 tsp Coriander powder
2 tsp Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2-3 tbsp leftover spicy mixure from mango pickle
2-3 tbsp Mustard oil for shallow frying

Method:

Wash and pat dry the bhindi. 

Cut the top and tail of each piece and make a slit length wise in each bhindi and keep aside.

Mix the dry spices including red chilli powder, corriander powder, turmeric powder in a bowl.

Add the pickle mixture to dry spices. If there is no oil left in pickle mixture, do add half a tsp of mustard oil for proper binding of spices within bhindi.

Stuff each bhindi with prepared stuffing.

Heat 2 tbsp mustard oil in a wide bottomed frying pan over medium flame and carefully spread bhindi in the pan.

Now reduce flame and cook bhindi covered on low flame. Stir occasionally in between 2-3 times until bhindi turns tender and dark green.

Turn off the flame and serve hot with roti, parantha or poori.

Suggestions:

Never add water while cooking bhindi otherwise it will turn sticky.

No need to add other spices in stuffing because they are already added in mango pickle mixture.

Choose small and soft bhindi for faster cooking and better taste because mature bhindi with hard seeds becomes tough n stringy and does affect the taste.

Try to spread bhindi in the pan in a single layer for even cooking. 

Do share your variations to the recipe, if you cook it too. I would love to try..

Masala Baby Corn Recipe : Kids Special

Vacations are not always meant for lying on the couch carelessly, specially when kids are around and asking for something 'DIFFERENT' to eat after every two hours ;) So is happening at my home these days and it is making me think of tasty yet healthy options for kids. Today I cooked simple baby corn recipe which can enjoyed as a snack or with main meals.  

Ingredients:

12-15 baby corns
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
½ cup finely chopped onion 

½ tomato puree
1 tsp soya sauce
3-4 tbsp corn flour
3-4 tsp olive oil 

½ tsp red chilli powder

salt to taste

pepper powder to taste 

½ tsp sugar

water 

Methood:

• Wash and rinse dry the baby corns. Cut the baby corn into halves if they are bigger in size. 
• Make a smooth batter by mixing the cornflour, salt and a few pinches of red chilli powder with water.
• Heat the oil in a flat frying pan. 
• Coat each piece of baby corn with cornflour by dipping it properly in the batter.
• Shallow fry the baby corns nicely by flipping every piece so that all its sides turn golden brown.
• Keep the fried baby corns aside on a paper napkin.

• Now heat about 2 tbsp olive oil in another pan and saute chopped onions and ginger-garlic paste till the onions become translucent. 
• Pour the tomato puree now and let it cook on medium flame for 4-5 minutes.
• Sprinkle soya sauce, pepper powder, salt and sugar to the masala and stir well. 
• Finally add fried baby corns in this mixture, mix well and let it cook for a minute or two so that corns absorb the flavour.

• Serve the masala baby corn either as a starter or it it will go well even with fried rice / hakka noodles/ biryani etc. since the dish is not completely dry.

Suggestions:

• You may add capsicum / bell pepper to the recipe for the indo chinese version of this recipe and saute it with onions.
• A few drops of vinegar would make the dish tangier.
• You may sprinkle some chilli flakes and oregano for seasoning on this final preparation. 

Do you also love babycorns? I would love to know your variation to the recipe :)