Chocolate Vanilla Kalakand

Step by step procedure with clear pictures to explain the procedure to prepare delicious Chocolate Vanilla Kalakand. Basically kalakand is a sweet made with paneer and sweetened condensed milk. Here in my recipe, improvised the basic recipe with the flavour of coco powder and vanilla essence. This milk based dessert has a little bit chewy, soft, and granule texture. And I must mention this, the chewy texture of the sweet goes well with the chocolate and it doubles the taste of the basic kalakand. My recipe is double layered with flavourful vanilla milkcake as the first layer and irresistible chocolate milkcake as second layer and topped with dried nuts. The recipe is very straightforward with minimal ingredients and the procedure is also quite simple.

                        I have partitioned the procedure into three sections. First section explains on how to make our own paneer, second section explains about how to prepare vanilla milkcake and third section says how to prepare chocolate milkcake. Now scroll further see the procedure for Chocolate Vanilla Kalakand in detail.

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Preparation time: 30 min
Cooking time: 40 min
Serves: 20 pieces
Category: Dessert/Sweet
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

Milk - 2 litres

Lemon juice - 5-6 tablespoons, I used 2 medium sized lemon

Sweetened condensed milk - 400 grams

Butter - 2 table spoon

Coco powder - 2 1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 table spoon
Cashew and Almond - broken into peaces, a handful

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Method

Paneer:

Firstly, we will see how to prepare paneer.

• Boil 2 litres of milk, add 5 tablespoon of lemon juice to the boiling milk.
  
• Reduce the heat and boil until the milk curdles.
  
• when it is curdling, remove the milk pot from the hot plate and allow it to cool. If the milk is not curdling add more lemon juice. Remove the milk pot from heat only when it curdles. This entire process might take 20-30 min.
• Place a thin kerchief over a vessel and transfer the curdled content to separate the solidified paneer. Now run it in cold water, which stops paneer from further cooking and allows it to remain soft and also removes the tint of lemon from paneer
• Now squeeze and get rid of the remaining water content.
• Paneer is now ready.
  

Vanilla MilkCake:

• Take a thick bottomed kadai, add half of the paneer extracted, 200 grams of sweetened condensed milk and a tablespoon of butter. Mix well.
  
  
• Now start heating in medium heat/flame, when it starts boiling add a table spoon of vanilla essence. Give a stir.
  
• Now reduce the heat to low and cook for another 15 - 17 min. It should be thickened with some moisture. Careful, as it should not become hard.
  
• Remove it from heat and transfer it to the greased plate. I used butter for greasing.
  

Chocolate MilkCake:

• In a bowl, take the remaining paneer, add 2 1/2 tablespoon of coco powder, 200 grams of sweetened condensed milk and a tablespoon of butter. Mix well with no lumps. I used the same kadai which I used to prepare vanilla portion.
  
  
• Now transfer it to the kadai, place the kadai in the hot plate. Heat should be medium.
  
• When it is boiling add 1/2 spoon vanilla essence. Mix it well.
  
• Stir and cook for another 15 - 17 min. Again the same procedure as vanilla portion. The content should be thickened with some moisture. Again careful, as it should not become hard.
  
• When it is in the perfect consistency, transfer it to the plate and spread it over the vanilla milkcake. Sprinkle the broken nuts and press it gently. Keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours and Cut them into peaces.
  
  

Note:

• I haven't added sugar, as the sweetness from sweetened condensed milk was enough for us. You can taste it and add sugar if you want.
• If you are unable to spread it with spoon, use your hands and spread it evenly. 
• I like the milkcake chewy. If you want to harden it a little bit to get burfy like texture, stir and cook for some more time.
• You can use any dry fruits/nuts of you choice.

Instant Moong Dal Dosa

Step by step procedure to prepare Instant Moong Dal Dosa. This is a very crispy, tasty and easy to prepare dosa recipe. The recipe doesn't require any overnight process as we do to prepare our traditional dosa. I usually prepare for this dosa dinner, but it is suppose to be a filling and healthy breakfast too. And this instant dosa helps me a lot when the weather is too cold to ferment my idli/dosa batter. As I said I prefer this dosa for dinner, but if you want to make it for breakfast, you can prepare the batter and keep it in fridge and use it in the next morning for preparing dosa. For preparing a tasty and instant dosa scroll down and see the procedure.

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Preparation time: 10 min + 4 hours soaking time
Cooking time: 3 min per dosa
Serves: 7-8 dosa
Category: Dosa
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

To Grind

Moong dal/Pasi parrupu - 1 cup/250 grams

Rice flake/Flattened rice/Aval - 2 table spoon

Green chilli - 3 or as per your taste

Ginger - 1 inch

Hing/Asafoetida - 1 generous pinch

Add to dosa batter

Onion - 1 Medium sized finely chopped

Coriander leaves - half cup, loosely packed 

Oil - for making dosa

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Method

• Wash and soak 1 cup of Moong dal and Rice flake for 4 hours.
  
• After soaking it for 4 hours, strain the water and transfer it to a blender. Add Green chilli, Ginger, Hing and Salt.
  
• Add water and blend it to make a smooth paste.
  
• In a pan, add a spoon of oil and fry the finely chopped onion until the raw smell goes off. This step is optional, you can also add onion directly to the batter. 
  
• Now add the fried/raw onion into batter. Add the chopped coriander and a table spoon of jeera.
  
• Prepare batter in dosa consistency. Check for salt. Set the batter for at least 30-40 min before preparing dosa. 
  
• Prepare dosa in your normal procedure. Serve hot Moong Dal Dosa with any chutney or sambar.
  

Note:

• You can add onion raw or fried and it is totally your choice, as few may not like raw onion.
• If you are preparing for breakfast, I suggest, you can prepare the batter in the previous night and keep the batter in the fridge. In the morning you can add onion and coriander and set it for 30-40 min before preparing dosa.

Mango Halwa

Step by step procedure to prepare Mango Halwa. Here you can see very clear procedure, easy steps and very minimal ingredients to prepare a sweet recipe, Mango Halwa. No artificial essence used but just mango fresh juice.

                  Mango Halwa is really a mouth-watering dessert. When I prepared it first time, it was a super hit. Very soft, smooth, chewy and it carries the original taste and colour of mango and it just tempting. Though it is time consuming, you will end up feeling satisfied of serving a home made dessert to your family and to yourself. Now we will see the detailed procedure to prepare Mango Halwa.     

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Preparation time: 10 min
Cooking time: 1 hr
Serves: 35 pieces
Category: Dessert/Sweet
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

Mango juice fresh - 1 1/4 cup

All purpose flour/Maidha - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 1/4 cup
Powdered cardamom - 1 spoon
Cashew - 15 pieces, broken
Almond/Badam - 15 pieces, broken
Ghee - 1/4 cup + 4 table spoon

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Method

• I blended 2 mangoes and it yielded 1 1/4 cup of mango juice.
• Take a bowl, add mango juice and add 1/2 cup of maidha/all purpose flour to it. Mix it nicely with no lumps of maidha.
  
• Now take a thick bottomed kadai, add 1/4 cup of ghee. When it becomes hot add the mixture of mango juice and maidha.
  
  
• Mix it nicely, when it starts boiling add 1 1/4 cup of sugar and mix it well.
  
  
• Allow it to cook and stir it every 2-3 min. Add ghee in between. I added 4 table spoon of ghee. Cook in medium heat.
  
• Now you need a real patience, as it may take 40-45 min roughly to get the right halwa consistency.  Again continue cooking in medium heat. When the halwa starts leaving the pan i.e. when halwa no longer sticks to the kadai - add powdered cardamom, broken cashews and almonds.
  
  
• Continue stirring for 10 min in medium heat. Now the halwa will leave the sides of the pan and sticks to laddle. When you trying to stir the halwa it should come out forming like a ball -  without sticking to edge of the pan. The entire process of cooking might take roughly 1 hour.
  
• Keep a serving plate ready greased with ghee. Transfer the halwa to the greased plate and spread it evenly. Leave it for an hour in the plate. When it cools down, cut them into pieces.
  
  
• Enjoy the artificial colour free but the real taste of mango, in the home made Mango Halwa.
  

Note:

• I used 1 1/4 cup of sugar. Adjust the sugar as per your taste.
• You can use any dry fruit/nuts to garnish your halwa.
• A tip, lightly grease the laddle with ghee while spreading the halwa on serving plate. It helps avoiding sticking of halwa to the laddle and gives a smooth spreading.

Vegetable Pasta

Step by step procedure to prepare Vegetable Pasta. No Onion No Garlic Pasta recipe. Basically pasta is a very popular and staple food from Italian Cuisine. Here we are going to prepare Italian pasta with our Indian spices and with a bowl of mixed vegetables of our choice. Pasta is now becoming a favourite and popular food among kids, so we can make this up healthy by adding veggies to it. Vegetable Pasta would be the best choice for evening snacks and also for a nice and simple dinner. The procedure is very simple - cook the pasta, cook the vegetable with spices and toss the pasta in the vegetable mixture. Now we will see how to prepare Vegetable Pasta in detail.

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Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 20 min
Serves: 1
Category: Pasta
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

Pasta - 100 grams, any pasta of your choice. I used penne Durum wheat pasta.

Carrot - 1 Medium sized finely chopped or grated

Beans - 8-10 nos finely chopped

Cabbage - a small peace finely chopped

Capsicum - 1/2 portion finely chopped

Broccoli - 4-5 floret
Butter/Oil - 1 table spoon

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Garam masala powder - 1/2 spoon

Black Pepper crushed- 1 to 1 1/2 spoon

Coriander Powder - 1/2 spoon

Chat masala - a pinch

Salt - As per your taste

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Method

• Cook pasta as per the procedure given in the pack and set it aside.
• Thoroughly clean the vegetables and chop them.
  
• Take a kadai, add a table spoon of butter/oil. I used butter. When it is hot add the vegetables and stir it. 
  
• Add a pinch of turmeric powder and cook the vegetables for atleast 15-17 min. Sprinkle little water in between to avoid the burn.
  
• When the vegetables are almost cooked, add 1/2 spoon garam masala powder, black pepper, 1/2 spoon coriander powder, a pinch of chat masala and salt.
  
• Give a stir and cook for a minute. Now add the cooked pasta, stir and cook for another 3-4 min.
  
• Vegetable Pasta is ready to serve. Have it plain or with tomato sauce.
  

Note:

• You can use any vegetable of your choice. You can also include peas/corn for additional taste.
• While cooking pasta add a drop of oil in the water, so that the pasta will not stick to each otther.
• Run the pasta in cold water immediately after cooking, otherwise the pasta will badly stick to each other.
• You can use butter or olive oil for cooking. I used butter.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Step by step procedure to prepare Vegetable Fried Rice with photos explaining each step clearly. There are so many ways to prepare fried rice like Chinese style, Schezwan fried rice and etc.. In most of the recipes we are compelled to use soy sauce, vinegar, schezwan sauce and so on. Like my earlier posts, in Vegetable Fried Rice also I have not used vinegar or soy sauce, but just a table spoon of tomato sauce alone. This particular fried rice will have a unique taste and nice aroma of spring onion combined with flavourful mint leaves and coriander leaves. The procedure is very simple with very less ingredients but with loads of vegetables. This fried rice is my husband's favourite and he likes to have it with chips and sauce. I have prepared the recipe many times and it never failed me from getting appreciations. The fried rice goes well as a comforting weekend lunch and even for a delicious dinner. Now again, we are preparing our fried rice at home, which makes it more healthy and more tasty. As I always say "Home made is always Best". So try this veg fried rice recipe and kindly post your comments. Your comments and feedback are very important for me to keep going with my food blog and with my passion.

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Preparation time: 30 min
Cooking time: 40 min
Serves: 2
Category: Variety rice
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

Basmathi rice - 1 cup

Spring onion - 3 springs finely chopped(Keep the white and green part separately)

Carrot - 1 finely chopped

Beans - 8-10 finely chopped

Capsicum - 1/2 of a capsicum, finely chopped

Cabbage - 1/4 portion of a big cabbage, finely chopped

Corn - a handful

Green Peas - a handful

Tomato sauce - 1 table spoon

Pepper - 1 table spoon

Butter - a table spoon

Salt - As per your taste

To Grind

Spring onion - 1 spring

Coriander leaves -  a handful

Mint leaves - a handful

Green chilli - 3

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Method

• Cook the basmathi rice in your regular procedure and let it cool down.
• Wash all the vegetables thoroughly and chop them finely. As I have mentioned earlier, keep the white and green part of spring onion separately.
  
  
• Blend all the ingredients mentioned in To Grind section. Add water, enough to blend them nicely to make a smooth paste.
  
  
• Take a kadai or thick bottomed vessel, add a table spoon of butter. when butter is melted add white part of spring onion and fry it for a min.
  
• Then add the blended paste, fry it until the raw smell goes off.
  
• Now add the chopped vegetables. Mix it well and close the kadai with a lid and cook it for 15-20 min. Stir the vegetables often. You can sprinkle water if it does looks like burning from bottom of the kadai. Do not add lot of water just sprinkle it.
  
• When the vegetables are almost cooked add green part of the spring onion and stir it for a minute.
  
• Add salt, tomato sauce and pepper. Give a stir and cook for another 2-3 min. 
  
  
• Now add the cooked rice and mix the rice well with the cooked vegetables.
  
  
• Remove it from hot plate and now the Vegetable Fried Rice is ready to serve.
  
• Eat Vegetable Fried Rice hot and enjoy your meal. 

Notes:

• Use any vegetable of your choice.
• You can use fresh or frozen peas and corn. I used fresh.
• You can also replace butter with a table spoon of ghee or oil. But butter is my choice. You can also try using olive oil.
• I have not added garlic in my recipe. If you wish to add, mince 1 pod garlic and add it to the melted butter.