7 Cup Barfi

.                 These days, my mum is spoiling us with lots of yummy food with a added dose of love in it. And we are not complaining at all!! To hell with the calorie count, we are enjoying every bit of it ;)

                 My mum has a mastery in making different types of barfis. To be honest, I try to avoid making barfi as much as I can, because I find making the sugar syrup very tricky. But this recipe from my mum's treasure chest is so simple that within 20 minutes, you have the barfis ready to eat!!

Ingredients and Recipe-

Gram Flour, Ghee(clarified butter),Dessicated Coconut and Milk - 1cup each

Sugar-3 cups

(Use the same cup to measure all the ingredients. The size of the cup can be changed depending on the quantity of barfis you need)

1) Heat the non-stick pan and add all the ingredients.

2) Sauté on medium heat, stirring continuously for 10 minutes.

3) Now the mixture changes its' colour and starts thickening. Simmer the heat and stir for further 3-4minutes.

4)Grease a tray or a thali with some ghee and pour this mixture in it and spread evenly.

5)Cut the barfi shapes (either squares or diamonds) while it's still warm.

6)After 3-4 minutes, 7 cup barfis is ready to serve!!

   Quick, simple and delicious!! Try this recipe and I am sure, it will be a big hit in your family!!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Both my children love baking. So in every school term break, we make it a point to spare a day for baking. Actually, I am not a big fan of baking. I find it quite a hassle in fact to measure each ingredirnt accurately and using all thosr eqipments and clearing it later on. But its one of those things for me you have to do if you are a 'Mum'!!
     This half term, we baked Rainbow cupcakes. My children absolutely enjoyed making them Another funny incident that occurred that day is, I forgot to buy the whipping cream needed for icing . So I sent my son to buy some and he came home with a pack of single cream. While I was wondering how to decorate the cupcakes with the single cream, the clarification that he gave made me laugh. He thought that his calorie conscious Mum would not approve if he buys full fat double cream loaded with calories😀😀
   So eventhough we could not decorate our cupcakes to perfection, we had loads of fun, which is more important, isn't it??
     I have followed the recipe from one of the food magazines and haven't made any changes to the original recipe.

Ingredients & recipe-
For 12 cupcakes
125 gm plain flour
250 gm condensed milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
85 gm butter
1.5 tsp baking powder
Red, yellow,green and blue food colours
For icing-
Whipping cream
Icing sugar
Decorations of your choice like fresh fruits, glazed cherries or hundreds and thousands etc

1)Preheat the oven on 180°,gas mark4
2)Mix all the ingredients for the cakes and beat them well with a hand mixer.
3)Split the batter in 5 different bowls.
4)Add different food colour in each bowl and leave one bowl with the original batter in it. So now we have cske batter in 5 different colours.
5)Line the muffin tray with cup cake cases and pour a spoon each of each coloured batter in it.
6)Bake the cupcakes in the pre-heated ovem for 15-30   minutes.
7)Once they are cooled down completely, decorate them by mixing the whipped cream with icing sugar and toppings of your choice.

Mango Pickles

A reader friend of 'Abhiruchi', Rupali Nemade had requested for the recipes of different types of pickles. So today I am sharing the recipes for. 2 different types of mango pickles.
         Last week, my parents came here to visit us from India. So our house is filled with all the lovely goodies sent by our near and dear ones back home. One of my favourite thing among those  are the raw mangoes from the tree in the backyard of our house in India. The fragrance and sight of these green mangoes literally makes me drool!! So whole last week we are being pampered by my mum with yummy mango items made by her like different types of Pickles,chutneys and Aam Panna!!
     
Mango pickle Type 1-
This is a kind of instant mango pickle which does not need any ripening after preparing it. But make sure not to make it in large quantity as it does not last very long.
Ingredients & Recipe-
Raw Mangoes 3-4
Red chilly powder,salt,cumin powder,mustard powder 1.5 tbsp each
( Quantity of these ingredients can be increased or decreased depending on your taste)
Turmeric 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida 1/2tsp
Oil 2-3 tsp
Mustard seeds and cumin seeds for tempering
1)Wash,dry and chop the raw mangoes as shown in the picture below.
2)Take  the mango pieces in a mixing bowl and add salt,chilly powder,cumin powder,mustard powder  and mix well.
3)Heat oil in a small pan and make a tempering with cumin seeds,mustard seeds,turmeric and asafoetida.
4)Let the oil cool down completely and add it to the mango pieces. Mix well and fill up in a glass jar.

Mango pickle type 2)
Takku-
   Since my childhood, I am quite curious about the funny name 'Takku' given to this pickle. But it is undoubtedly one of my favourite pickles.
Raw mangoes 2
Fenugreek seeds(Methi Dana) 1 tsp
Salt,red chilly powder as per taste
For tempering-
Oil,turmeric,asafoetida,mustard seeds,cumin seeds
1) Sauté Methi seeds in few drops of oil and grind it.
2)Wash,dry and grate the raw mangoes.
3)Add salt and red chilly powder to it.
4)Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds,cumin seeds,asafoetida,turmeric to it and pour it over the grated mango and mix well.

Tip-
Any type of oil can be used for making these pickles. Both these types taste well in sunflower,mustard or olive oil.