Source: Tarla dalal

Ingredients:

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Bottle gourd/Lauki(grated) --> 1 cup

Skim Milk --> 3/4 cup

Bottle gourd juice -->1/4 cup

Sugar --> 4 to 5 Tbsp (as per taste)

Milk powder --> 10 Tbsp

Ghee(clarified butter) --> 1 Tbsp

Cardamom powder -->1/2 tsp

Cinnamon powder --> a pinch

Poppy seeds --> 1 tsp

Almonds(slivered) --> to garnish

Method:

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1. Squeeze out the excess water from the grated bottle gourd and keep aside.
2. Take another bowl and add sugar,milk powder,milk,juice of the grated bottle gourd,cinnamon powder,poppy seeds and cardamom powder.
3. Take another microwave oven safe bowl and add ghee and the grated bottle gourd and mix well.Now microwave this mixture on high for 3 mins stirring once after 2 mins.
4. Now add the milk mixture to the grated bottle gourd mix and microwave it on high for 5 mins stirring once every 2 and 1/2 mins.
5. Your pipping hot bottle gourd kheer is ready,garnish with slivered almonds and serve cold or rather chilled.

Notes:

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• Fill the microwave safe bowl only with 1/4 of its height to avoid spilling over.
• Can use full fat milk for a creamier kheer.
• The original recipe calls for 1 cup milk but i reduced it to 3/4 cup to accomodate the squeezed out juice to make it more healthy.

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Come APRIL i am reminded of 2 things - summer vacations & mangoes (the king of fruits) and of late an addition to this is my hubby's birthday which falls in the month of april.I am no longer in school so no more summer vacations but mangoes - they are always there!!I am a mango connoisseur. So my love for mangoes never never fades.

Even in terms of nutrition Mangoes has a lot of health benefits.It contains a stomach-soothing enzyme -so very good for your tummy. It also contains plenty of fiber, vitamins A and C, and potassium. One mango has about a hundred calories with no cholesterol and half of the necessary daily fiber.

I love to eat this fruit as it is but sometimes you need a change in the form you have them.

Now that happened to me - i felt like having Mango ice cream and the search started...


I googled a lot in search of some good mango ice cream recipes, and zeroed on to mango ice cream recipe of Spicy Chilly b'coz it was egg free and guilt free - i mean no cream used in the recipe . I followed the recipe with slight modification -

• I pureed the pulp from mangoes instead of using the canned ones.
• I did not add the fresh cream as the ice cream mix was already thick enough, and I did not find any ice formation.
• Used milk powder.

I got to eat this eggless ice cream with less guilt as it was minus the whipping cream which most recipes call for.And i must say i relished it.Thank you Bharathy very much for this yummy recipe. This is a keeper for sure.
Ingredients:
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Mango puree-->1 cup
Water-->1 cup
Milk powder-->6 tbsp
Corn flour-->1 tbsp
Sugar-->3/4 cup
Milk-->1/3 cup
Method:
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1)Mix the milk powder & water.See to it no lumps are formed.
2)Pour this into a heavy bottom pan & reduce the quantity till the whole mixture thickens i.e., reduce to a quater of the original quantity.
3)Dissolve the sugar and simmer for a few more minutes on low flame. The consistency should be like that of condensed milk.
4)Now in another container dissolve the cornflour with cold milk thorougly.See to it no lumps are formed.
5)Now add this cornflour milk mixture to the boiling -milk powder sugar mixture and keep stirring all the time to avoid lumps.
6)Simmer again till you reach a thicker consistency.Remove this from stove top & allow it to cool
completely.
7)Now mix in the mango puree to the cooled mixture and pulse this mixture using the blender.
8)Transfer this mixture to a container with lid & refrigerate it.
9)When it is half frozen -remove this mixture and whip it in the blender.Now pour back this mixture into the same container and re freeze it till it hardens.
10)Once done --Scoop them & ENJOY!!


This goes to Yasmeen's   Health Nut Challenge 6 - I Scream For Ice Cream! 

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This is a traditional coastal karnataka recipe called phanasaachey dhonas(in konkani)but i would like to call them as cake as my mom referred to them as cake. My mom makes this kind of cake with the same recipe using bottle gourd/cucumber(it is called Taushaulli).She always served this as evening tea time snack. Remembering about this cake made me very nostalgic.Those childhood days...those carefree days....wish i could relive them......

Now, coming back to the dish- it is a healthy dish i must say because you just steam them. I have seen some people using just a tablespoon of sugar/jaggery & not making it overly sweet. Typically this cake is not overly sweet as the flavour of jackfruit or cucumber or bottle gourd should be stronger when tasted. But i love this with lots of jaggery or sugar added as i am sweet toothed & also the canned jackfruit which i used was not sweet enough.

The shelf life of this is it can be stored in the refrigerator for several days & tastes even more better with each passing day.So Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

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• Ripe Jackfruit pods-->1 cup(roughly 8 pieces)
• Rava/Semolina/sooji/cream of wheat-->1 cup
• Grated Coconut-->1/2 to 1 cup
• Jaggery/Sugar--> 1/2 to 3/4 cup
• Cashews(chopped)-->7
• Cardamoms(powdered)-->4
• Salt-1/4 tsp
• Ghee

Method:

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1)Roast semolina in one teaspoons of ghee over moderate heat till a nice aroma emits. Keep stirring continuously, see to it that it does not burn & turn brown.

2)Grind the jackfruit pods along with grated coconut,cardamom into a paste.

3)Now combine together the ground paste with roasted semolina,jaggery, chopped cashews and salt.

4)Let this mixture rest for 15 minutes to 1/2 an hour.At this stage the semolina will expand and will absorb the water from the mixture.The consistency should be like idli batter.

5)Grease the cooker/steamer container and pour the mixture and steam this in the cooker/steamer for 10-20 minutes without the whistle/weight.

6)Allow it to cool.Now you should be able to cut it into rectangular pieces.

7)Serve this hot or cold with ghee/honey.

Notes:

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• Here i made use of canned ripe jackfruit,traditionally we use fresh ripe jackfruit.
• If you donot possess a cooker take a wide deep bottomed vessel,pour about an inch of water.Now keep a small vessel at the bottom submerged in the water and on top of this place the container with the semolina mixture.Now see to it that the water level should touch the base of the container with the mixture.Now close the wide deep bottomed vessel and steam cook the mixture for 10-20 minutes.
• You can also prepare this using idli stand, by pouring the mixture into the mold and steaming like idlis so we can refer them as jackfruit idli's.
  
  

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