Petpujo and Adda

Fruit and Walnut Cups: Dessert made Easy and Healthy

This is a very simple dessert and it would never fail you. Many times, it rescued me from my last minutes dessert disasters. I usually make this dessert when I invite many people over for lunch and have gone overboard with main courses or too tired to make any puddings. Basically when I am too deep into showing off!!!! This light dessert is full of goodness of walnuts, freshness of seasonal fruits and healthy oat biscuits and decadence of whipped cream. So after too much eating, it sort of gives a break to the over eating and fills you up with freshness of fruit and nuts.

I have also tried this one for breakfast and it was an instant hit with kiddos and adults alike. You get to feed oat, walnuts and fresh fruits minus any sugar- without any fuss to any age group. It takes about 30 minutes to make for 10 people. What more do you want?

This is my all time favorite. I hope you like it too! Enjoy making this wonderful dessert by me!

Ingredients (to make for 10 to serve in small dessert glasses)

30-walnuts (3 for each person but you can add more) broken you can use a blender to make dust as well. I made dust of the walnuts

15-oats biscuit (1 and ½ for each person, but you can add more) made into crumbles (I used Mcvities digestives full fat version)

10-strewberry, thinly slices

1-orange, skin off and made in to dices

7/8-any other berry

2-sharron fruit, thinly sliced

Sufficient sweet mango, small diced

1/4-cup orange juice (or any other fruit juice)

Little vanilla extract

20/25-tablespoon fresh whipping cream (homemade or store bought. I used homemade. Ideally 2 table spoon for each glass/person)

Method:

1. Mix the broken/dust walnuts with oats biscuit crumble. Combine well

2. Add little orange juice with the walnut and biscuit mix to make it little moist but not soggy. It should remain loose and crumbly. Keep aside

3. Mix all the mix fruits together

4. Add vanilla with whipping cream or add vanilla in fresh cream and whip until soft peak rises. Do not over do it and make it hard

5. Now the layering for the dessert

6. Take a dessert glass or anything tall ( bowl would do too but for layering something glass like is nicer and easy)

7. First layer : make with walnut and oat biscuit mix

8. Second layer: Top the first layer with one tablespoon of whipped cream and spread the cream around the glass

9. Thirst layer : Top the second layer with fruits

10. Fourth layer: top the third layer with again walnut and biscuit mix

11. Fifth layer : Top the fourth with one tablespoon of whipped cream and spread the cream around the glass

12. Sixth layer: top the fifth layer (of cream) with fruits. Add the fruits nicely as this would be your last layer

13. Chill for 1 hour before serving

14. Serve as dessert or breakfast or even for picnic

Note: Layering is done to make it look beautiful. If you are eating at home on a Friday night while watching a movie, you might want to just put all ingredients together and combine and just enjoy the dessert without the hassle of layering

For regular update from my blog, please visit my face book page pet pujo and adda and click ‘like’. Also, follow me at my blog here . I am featured at Networkedblogs. You can also leave your comments here. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Hope to see you again!

at 23:31

Mutton (Goats Meat)/Lamb and Pomegranate Tagine served with Onion and Pomegranate Relish (Moroccan)

I have been meaning to make this dish ever since I saw the recipe on TV on one of Nigella Lawson’s Christmas food shows. Finally, I made it yesterday…. For the first time. I expected this dish to be different.. do not know how…. but different.

The dish is on the verge of being little sweet. It has dates so the sweetness is explained. However, I did not use as many dates as the original recipe asked for. Yet it is little sweet. The sourness of the pomegranate sorts of make up for it but somehow I am not very keen on sweet- savory dishes. Nevertheless, R really liked it. He thought it was rather unique.

But, I must say the onion and pomegranate relish was to die for. It was exactly what I imagined it to be. Yummy! I loved the look and color of the dish.

I did not follow the recipe to the T and made my own twists. Added bit of chili, used very little dates. I am happy that I keep doing this kind of experiments. If you are the experimentative kind, then you might want to try making this one. It was nice with couscous though.

Ingredients for Lamb Tagine

650gm Mutton or Lamb’s boneless shoulder meat

2-onions thinly sliced

1/2 -teaspoon turmeric

1/2teaspoon cumin powder

1/2-teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/2-teaspoon ginger paste

1/2chili flakes (optional)

1/2-teaspoon ground all spice (optional. I did not use it but my ma would)

Pinch of black pepper (freshly done is best)

4- dates ( use 2 date I would say….)

1-cup pomegranate juice (packed 100% juice or made from fruit)

Salt to taste

1-tablespoon of oil

Ingredients for Onion and Pomegranate Relish

1-red onions, thinly sliced

1/2-cup pomegranates

1-cup pomegranate juice

½-cup lemon juice

Salt to taste

Method for the relish

1. Soak the onions in lemon and pomegranate juice for 1 hour

2. After an hour drain the onions dry

3. Add pomegranate, and salt

4. Combine and serve with mutton/Lamb Pomegranate Tagine

5. Drink the lemon, salt and pomegranate juice, it is yummy

Method for Mutton (Goats Meat)/Lamb and Pomegranate Tagine

1. Heat oil in a pan

2. Add the onion and fry until soft

3. Add all the spices with onion and fry

4. Add the mutton/lamb and cook for 10mins

5. Add salt and the pomegranate juice, dates to the mutton/lamb

6. Cook on low heat for 1 hour or just pressure cook it

7. Before serving, garnish with onion and pomegranate relish and serve with white rice or couscous

For regular update from my blog, please visit my face book page pet pujo and adda and click ‘like’. Also, follow me at my blog . I am featured at Networkedblogs. You can also leave your comments here. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Hope to see you again!

at 00:01

Sunday Saga: Starting with Potol Posto (Pointed Gourd/Parwal Cooked with Poppy Seed Paste)

Sunday lunch special is not a thing of my house. We always had special food- there was always something new on the menu. We always had elaborated meals. Even now, when we are all away from home, my mother would cook a five-course meal. It always starts with a leafy vegetable and finishes with dal (yes we eat dal at last not at the beginning of a meal). In between there will be a mix vegetable or a vegetable cooked with fish or fish head, sometime some vegetable bhorta ( mash), fish jhol ( gravy), chicken ( idea is to cook for my brother who does not eat fish but of course she cannot just cook for him. So we all eat it) and then the dal to finish. This is like a regular menu for us. Moreover, my mother can never cook same thing within two weeks time. Therefore, there is always a different fish dish and chicken dish on the table. For many household in Bengal, my husband’s for example, Sunday is associated with eating ‘mutton jhol’ (goat meat gravy) and other special dishes. But not in my house. Despite of being very busy, both my parents took interest in food- they would cook ‘special food’ every night and store them as well for later use. Mutton was never something we eat very often due to health reason.

Now of course things are different. I make mutton occasionally when R wants to eat and when I am inviting A and D who love mutton. In addition, I try to cook for 3 to 4 days lunches at one go on Sunday afternoon so that both of us can take food to office. Dinner is mostly cooked fresh as we have salads or soups. Today is Sunday and I am cooking in bulk- to eat today and in the hope that some will last for another 3 to 4 days office lunch (which never really happens).

Today I cooked Potol Posto (Pointed Gourd/Parwal Cooked with Poppy Seed Paste), Shorshe Ilish (Hilsa cooked with mustard paste in Bengali style), capsicum, motorshuti, sweet corn diye paneer ( Paneer cooked with capsicum, peas and sweet corn), Mutton Jhol (goat meat gravy), tomato Chutney (Bengali Tomato Chutney) and musuri r dal ( Red lentil cooked in Bengali style) . I am giving the recipes one by one in separate posts starting with Potol Posto.

For Shorshe Ilish (Hilsa cooked with mustard paste in Bengali style), Click here

For Mutton Jhol (goat meat gravy) click here

For Tomato Chutney (Bengali Tomato Chutney) click here

Potol Posto Ingredients:

10- Potol (pointed gourd), de skinned and cut lengthwise in four sections or maybe two

½- teaspoon of Nigella seed/kalo jeera

1-small onion cut into thin and fine slices

1 -teaspoon Turmeric powder

3-small green chili, cut lengthwise

5-tablespoon poppy seed/Posto

2-tablepoon oil (vegetable or mustard)

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan

2. Marinate the Potol with turmeric and salt and fry them. Keep them aside

3. Make a paste of the Posto and 1 green chili using blender or shil nora

4. Heat more oil in the pan

5. Add kalo jeera and let it fry for a while

6. Add the cut onions and fry them until soft

7. Add the Potol and salt. Fry for 5 mins

8. Add the Posto paste and add green chili

9. Cook until Posto is cooked and water have dried down

10. Serve with hot white/boiled rice

at 23:49

Sunday Saga continues: Mutton Jhol (Goat meat Curry)

Ingredients:

300g mutton shoulder pieces

2-large onions cut into fine slices

4-cloves of garlic, paste

2-inch ginger, paste

1-teaspoon turmeric

1-teaspoon red chili powder

1-teaspoon cumin seed powder

1-teaspoon coriander seed powder

6-small potatoes, cleaned and skinned

1- Bay leaf

4/5-cardemom

2- Inch cinnamon

Salt to taste

2-tablespoon oil

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker

2. Fry the potatoes and keep aside

3. Add turmeric, chili, cumin and coriander with little water and make a paste

4. Heat more oil in the pressure cooker

5. Fry the onion until soft. Add little sugar for color

6. Add ginger and garlic

7. Fry until oil separates

8. Add the spice paste with fried onion, garlic and ginger and fry till oil separates

9. Add mutton and cook

10. Add cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom

11. Cook the mutton and 10 mins

12. Add potatoes and pressure cook until mutton is soft ( I did not count the whistle of the pressure cooker. So please follow your own pressure cooker instruction)

13. Serve with white boiled rice

at 23:27

Sunday Saga Still Continues- Shorshe Ilish (Hilsa Cooked in a Mustard Paste Gravy) --- a quintessentially Bengali Dish!

Ingredients

6-pieces of Ilish / Hilsa

3-green chili, slit length wise

2-teaspoon mustard seed (I used black) or use 2 –teaspoon mustard seed powder (read instruction of soaking on the pack before using)

1-teaspoon turmeric powder

1-teaspoon red chili powder (I used Kashmiri chili, as I do not eat hot. So use as per your taste)

½-teaspoon of kalo jeera/Nigella seed

Salt to taste

3-tablespoon mustard oil (if you do not have, then use any oil really)

Method:

1. Add 1 green chili and salt with the mustard seeds and make a paste ( do not make paste without the chili and salt, otherwise it might turn bitter) and keep side

2. Marinate the fish with turmeric, chili and salt

3. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish and keep aside

4. Heat more oil and add kalo jeera and let it fry

5. Add the mustard seed paste, salt ( if needed) red chili and fry until oil separate

6. Add the fried fish and fry little more, combining the paste with the fish

7. Add little water and cook until fish is cooked and oil have separated from gravy

8. Add green chili and sprinkle some mustard oil over the cooked fish

9. Serve with white boiled rice

at 23:21

Sunday Saga Yet Continues: Last but not the least THE Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

5-ripe and sweet tomatoes cut into small pieces

½-teaspoon panch phoron

1-green chili

½-teaspoon grated/paste ginger

¼-teaspoon turmeric powder

5-tablespoon sugar (or as per taste of sweetness)

Pinch of Bhaja masala (dry roasted masala dust. See my spice section for details)

Salt to taste

1-tablespoon oil

Method:

1. Heat oil

2. Add panch phoron and green chili and fry until spatters

3. Add the cut tomatoes

4. Add turmeric, ginger and salt

5. Cook until tomatoes have become almost mash

6. Add sugar and cook until melted and gravy thickened

7. Take out in a bowl and Sprinkle the bhaja masala before serving

For regular update from my blog, please visit my face book page pet pujo and adda and click ‘like’. Also, follow me at my blog. I am featured at Networkedblogs. You can also leave your comments here. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Hope to see you again!

at 02:00

Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas, Squash (or pumpkin) & Apricot

Pumpkin and Apricot with chicken?!!!!.....Yes! yes.! You are reading and seeing right.

Do not judge and shy away from making this wonderful one pot dish due to it ingredients. Let me assure you- it is a wonderful dish with lovely mixture of sweetness of the pumpkin and Apricot along with tanginess from lemon, which goes delightfully with chicken. Serve this with bread, couscous, or even rice and this will be a star. Today and always.

Traditionally Tagine is a North African Berber dish. The dish is named after the earthen pot in which it is cooked. I cooked the Moroccan version of the Tagine, which is slow cooked in a earthen pot called Tagine. I did not slow cook for hours neither I used the Tagine. However, I cooked for around 30/50mins to reduce the gravy and until the pumpkin and chicken became tender. Nevertheless, you can slow cook the dish and then serve in a colorful Tagine

Ingredients:

6- piece chicken thigh (fatless and skin less)

2-onions, roughly chopped

2-garlic cloves, chopped

300g pumpkin or squash, cut into large chunks

1-teaspoon of ground cumin

1-teaspoon of ground coriander

½-teaspoon of ginger paste

1-large cinnamon stick

1-teaspoon of honey

1/2-teaspoon red chili fleck

Pinch of black pepper crushed

Large pinch of saffron, soaked in 1 tablespoon of boiling water

Juice of 1/2 lemon

200g chickpeas

5/6-dried apricot

Small bunch of coriander

Salt to taste

2- Tablespoon oil

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large casserole

2. Season the chicken and brown them and keep aside

3. Add the garlic the same oil and fry until you can smell garlic

4. Add onions in the same oil and fry them until soft

5. Add the pumpkin/squash and cook for 5 mins

6. Add rest of the spices and cook for another 5 mins

7. Now add saffron, honey and lemon juice

8. Pour water and add chickpeas

9. Add the browned chicken

10. Add apricot and salt to taste

11. Cook for one hour or until squash/pumpkin and chicken is tender, the gravy thick

12. Stir through the coriander and serve with rice, bread or couscous

For regular update from my blog, please visit my face book page Pet Pujo and Adda and click ‘like’. Also, follow me at my blog. I am featured at Networked Blog. You can also leave your comments here. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Hope to see you again!