Month: August 2017

Vermicelli Pudding or Kheer


Kheer is a term used for milk pudding. In some region of India they call it payasam.

This simple recipe is prepared mainly with Vermicelli and a handful of other ingredients for a lighter dessert. You can also replace vermicelli with rice, sago, tapioca pearls etc. For flavor, cardamom (MUST!), cashews, raisins, almonds etc are used. Sometimes some recipes use condensed milk for a rich flavor. I prefer less sweet dessert with minimal sugar to give mild sweetness and is best suited after having a heavy meal.

The process of slow cooking of milk along with the vermicelli  gives it a thick texture which comes out fabulous in 15-minutes time.

 

Preparation time: 2 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

Milk (pasteurised) – 2 1/2 cups

Wheat Vermicelli plain – 1/2 cup (*see notes)

Vermicelli plain pack | RiceKheer recipe| Delicious Sweet Aroma

Granulated Sugar – 4 tbsp, (less sweet) depending on sweetness

Cardamom – 1, powdered or whole seeds

Cloves – 2 (optional)

pinch of salt

 

Directions

1. Take a deep-bottomed container with milk (if its not boiled then get it to a boil) on medium heat. Add vermicelli, cardamom, cloves if using, sugar and salt.

Vermicelli plain | Kheer or Vermicelli pudding recipe

Kheer Ingredients | Easy | Delicious Sweet Aroma

2. Using a wooden spoon give it an occasional stir so the milk does not stick to the bottom. As it thickens keep stirring. This takes up-to 15 minutes or less. Turn off heat and remove from stove top.

Vermicelli Kheer or pudding | Easy dessert | Delicious Sweet Aroma

If it becomes too thick add more milk at the end depending on how much thick you love to have.

3. Serve hot. You can drink it or have it like a dessert.

Kheer or Vermicelli pudding | Easy dessert in 15-minutes

Once cooled, store it in the fridge covered.

 

Cook’s tip:

Heat it and serve. You can store it for 3 days in the fridge.

 

 

Notes:

*Add nuts of choice such as raisins, cashews etc. They were out of stock so I prepared it without them and still tasted lovely.

*Can also use Rice Vermicelli if this one is not available. I prefer the non-roasted one as I like it white and not brown.

 

More dessert recipes click below 👇:

Caramel Orange Pudding

Layered Jelly & Custard Dessert

 

Stay Healthy! ☺

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Onion Fritters / Onion Bhaji – Vegan

Quick and easy vegan recipe of crispy Onion fritters also known as Onion Bhaji in Indian cuisine, mainly served as a snack or starter before a main course. Its also sometimes named as pakora (fritter) which are deep-fried in a batter of chickpea flour.

I make this quiet often when we want to munch on snacks and this is quick to prepare during weekends. Most of the recipes call for many ingredients for Onion Bhaji and I made it super-quick for minimal prep and time in the kitchen.

Preparation time : 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Onion – 1 medium, thinly sliced

Chickpea flour/ Gram flour / Besan – 1/2 cup / 70 g

Rice flour – 2 tbsp, for crispness

Water – 25 ml if required

Red chili powder – 1 tsp (optional)

Salt – 1/4 tsp

 

Directions

1. Peel and wash onion. Cut into thin slices.

2. Add chickpea flour or besan, rice flour, salt. Mix and coat together using your hands or spoon. It will turn sticky as onions release water while mixing. Do not add water yet until well mixed for half a minute.

Ingredients for Onion Fritter | Vegan Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

Now you can add little water but not too much.

4. Heat oil in a deep-bottomed container of 2-inch. Drop the batter in small amounts as shown.

Frying Onions | Deep-fry | Delicious Sweet Aroma

5. Fry in batches for 2 minutes or until it changes color to light brown. Strain with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper towels.

Frying Onions | Vegan | Delicious Sweet Aroma

Onion Fritters or Baji | Vegan | Delicious Sweet Aroma

Serve hot with tea ☕ or any spicy dip. We have this quiet often in the evenings and by the time I’m done frying with my last batch they are almost over ☺. However, this time I managed to get a picture while my hubby patiently waited.

Onion Fritters or Onion Baji | Vegan Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

A quick picture before crunching into them.

Onion Fritter | Vegan/Vegetarian Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

 

You can pin it for later use. If you have tried it please share your views . I would like to hear your thoughts👇 ✍. Thank you for visiting my post.

 

For related recipes of fritters and Ingredients click below:

Goli Baje Recipe

Spicy Banana Pepper Fritters 🌶

Jackfruit Fritters

Banana Fritters 🍌

 

 

 

Stay Healthy!

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Flower Crab – Curry (Mangalorean Recipe)

I have been wanting to make these crabs for so long but always had something else planned for the weekend. I have never cooked crabs nor had the slightest idea what should be done if the crab is alive, neither did my husband. I told my husband: “My job is to cook the crab yours is to kill it” (fair enough right? 😜). So, on Sunday we finally managed to wake up a bit early with excitement to get fresh crabs from the wet market near us. Hoping they were still available at the market we happily found them at one of the stalls I intended to buy from. I was expecting the crabs to be alive but they were slightly cold when touched, mostly frozen when transported from the port I believe, tied with rubber bands not moving. Husband: “My job is done!” with a grin. We let the person at the stall pick the crabs for us as he was better at picking the fresh ones, 4 huge crabs for 22$.

The process of cleaning crabs takes less than 15 mins for 4 crabs. Prepare a curry paste and let the crabs cook in the spice paste for 20 minutes. You must definitely give it a try by referring to pictures below 👏. Happy cooking!

IMG_8198

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

Flower crabs 🦀 – 1.5 kg, 4 large size

Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Curry paste:

Grated coconut – 150 g / 1 1/2 cup

Red dry Kashmir chili – 6, medium long

Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp

Garlic cloves – 3

Cumin / Jeera seeds – 3/4 tsp

Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp

Black peppercorns – 8 

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp

Medium Onion – 1/2, roughly chopped

Tamarind – tennis ball size, soaked in water 

IMG_8203

 

Directions

>> How to clean Flower Crabs? It’s easy!

 

1. Turn the crab upside down. Lift the flap and discard.

IMG_8207

2. Grab the bottom end in one hand and the upper end in the other. Lift the upper end of the shell and discard. Use a spoon to scoop out the soft roe (mostly in brown) out of them.

IMG_8209

3. Remove the gills (spongy brown stuff) on both sides of the crab. I didn’t know those were gills until after I cooked them and realized they were inedible.

Gills_IMG_8198

4. Using kitchen scissors ✂ cut the walking legs (with hair) and discard.

Crab legs

5. Remove the entire claw of each crab (to make space in the cooking pot).

IMG_8211

6. In the end give it a through rinse to remove all the inedible stuff. If your container doesn’t hold the crab body, cut them into halves.

The crab is all ready to be cooked now.

 

1. Prepare the curry paste by adding all the ingredients in a blender. Grind to a smooth paste with water.

2. Heat oil in a wide deep-bottomed container. Add the curry paste and 1.5 cups of water for consistency along with 1 tsp of salt.

IMG_8218

3. Add the crabs to coat with the paste enough to stick to the crabs. Cover and cook on medium-high heat for 20 minutes.

IMG_8219

 

In 20 minutes they are done! It reminded me of mom making this for us when we were kids.

IMG_8224

We served them in separate plates with a bowl of rice 🍚. Used our hands and teeth (or crab Cracker) to bite and suck the juices. They tasted delicious and flavorful 😋😍. When they are hot juices ooz out as you break them apart and the flesh can easily be sucked out.

IMG_8229

 

Even if you have never tried cooking crabs. This is still the BEST recipe for a beginner. I hope you enjoyed reading though the fun process of how to clean and cook a crab in this post.

 

Cook’s tip:

*For left over crabs store it in an airtight container in the freezer. Since seafood tends to go bad soon it’s best not to store it in the fridge.

 

Stay Healthy!

 

 

 

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Coconut Shrimp Fry

It’s been far too long since I’ve deep-fried food and had a crazy craving for some seafood. Shrimp fry with a lovely twist of coconut and breadcrumb mix was a great treat.

Coconut Shrimp Fry 🍤 has a delicious coating of sweetness and light crunch. Although I had fresh grated coconut I wanted to try out the dry desiccated coconut 🥥. It’s available in most supermarkets especially when fresh coconut is not available locally.

For the two of us it was a good amount of shrimps as a side. I prefer buying fresh shrimps than the pre-packed peeled ones as I am always not too sure how fresh they are.

Preparation time: 15 minutes(excluding marination & peeling)

Cooking time: 20 minutes

 

Ingredients

Shrimps medium large – 500 g (with shell), peeled with tail intact

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Marinade

Coconut milk – 250 ml

Red chili powder – 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves – 3 stems, finely chopped

Oregano – 1 tsp

Salt – 1/2 tsp

 

Coating

All-purpose flour – 1 cup or as needed

Egg whites – 4 small, lightly whisked

Desiccated coconut (dry) – 3/4 cup

Breadcrumbs – 3/4 cup

 

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix the coconut milk, chili powder, oregano, salt, coriander leaves. Add the shrimps soaked in the mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

After an hour, discard the marinade.

marination for shrimp fry with coconut milk and spices

2. Place flour in one plate, egg-whites in another with a pinch of salt and in the third place the coconut and breadcrumb mixture (equal portions of both).

Coat the shrimps first in flour, remove excess flour. Dip it in egg white and then coat it with coconut-breadcrumb mixture.

Shrimp coating for deep-frying

3. In a large deep-frying pot, pour enough oil at a depth of 2 inches. Heat at a temperature by testing the oil.

Fry in batches, add coated prawns to hot oil turn side in 2 mins and fry until it changes color or cooked through. Do not overload the pot while frying.

Deep-Fried coconut shrimp recipe | Hungry?! That's what I made!

Serve with any sauce of your choice. We had it with a quick dip of yellow mustard sauce.

Coconut Shrimp Fry Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

Coconut Shrimp Fry

 

 

More recipes on Seafood hover on the recipe and click below:

Garlic Shrimp Fry

Prawn Fried Rice Recipe

Squid with Coconut Milk

 

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If you like my page I am looking forward to hear your views on my recipes ✍ 😇. Wishing you a lovely weekend🌞. Stay Healthy!

 

 

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Sweet Pulav – Rice Recipe

Pulao or Pulav is a delicately flavored rice that is lightly toasted in Ghee and then cooked in spices such as cloves, cinnamon etc. There are different variations of making a pulav in Indian Cuisine with assorted veggies.

Sweet Pulav is mainly served during occasions in Mangalore. The main flavor of this dish is the gorgeous golden brown onions with the addition of raisins and cashew nuts which adds a pleasing crunch and flavor. Mangalorean weddings often have this served with beetroot+raisin or date chutney for a traditional taste.

 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

Basmati rice – 1 cup

Salt – 1/2 tsp

Caster Sugar – 3 tbsp

Ghee/olive oil – as required (see directions)

Onions – 1 large, thinly diced

Raisins – 1/4 cup, soaked in 1/2 cup  warm water (15 mins)

Cashews – 1/4 cup, slit at the center

Water – double the quantity of rice

 

Directions

Soak the raisins in warm water for 10-15 mins. Drain and dry with a kitchen towel.

1. Frying Cashews, Raisins and Onions separately and setting aside in one plate.

Toss the cashews in 1 tbsp ghee and fry on high heat in a frying pan until its lightly toasted. Set it aside.

Cashew-nut | Toasted

Toss in raisins in the same pan with ghee, they will have plumped up. Set aside.

Raisin | Toasted for Pulao Recipe

Toss the onions in the same pan, add 1 more 1 tbsp of ghee and stir-fry on medium-high heat. Keeping eyes on them, they must turn dark golden brown and not black or burnt. This might take a while. Also, avoid tossing them too much.

The Onion | Fried for Rice Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

 

2. In the same frying pan add the rice and toast it lightly with 2 tbsp ghee or oil. Transfer to a large pot.

Toasting Basmati RIce | Rice Recipe

3. Add cinnamon, cloves, salt and sugar. Pour 2 cups of water. It must be at-least 1 inch above the rice level. Cook on medium heat and bring to a boil. Keeping an eye, cover and cook until the rice is tender.

Basmati Rice | Aromatic | Delicious Sweet Aroma

4. Garnish with the fried onions, raisins and cashews.

Garnish food | Rice Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

Serve hot with any curry dish.

Sweet Pulao Recipe | Mangalorean Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

 

Sweet Rice Recipe / Sweet pulao Recipe | Delicious Sweet Aroma

 

 

Cooks tip:

*To obtain a caramelized texture of onions add enough ghee or oil. Wider the space faster is the frying process for larger portions. Keep stirring every minute for even browning.

 

Thank you for your likes and comments. For related rice recipe please click the recipe below. I have a few rice recipes which I prepare occasionally at home that saves a lot of time. When I have taken pictures of them will be sure to post it here and share.

Do not forget to check my Facebook page for more pictures and updates >> https://www.facebook.com/delicioussweetaroma/

 

 

Stay Healthy! 🙂

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