Daiquiri Cocktail

Friends it’s summer, time for another cocktail recipe. Lets head straight towards the recipe.

Ingredients:

120ml Dark rum

60ml Fresh Lemon juice

60ml Simple Syrup

• Simple Syrup is nothing but 1part Sugar: 1part Water boil it nicely, your simple syrup is ready. Cool it and store in fridge for future use. 

Garnish:

Lemon wedge ring

Glass:

Martini Glass / Wine Glass

This recipe yields 2 serving only.

To prepare the drink:

• Add all the above-mentioned ingredients into the shaker. Fill it with ice cubes and shake well. 

• Strain into a glass and garnish with lemon wedge ring.

NOTE:

• Simple syrup used should be cold or it will spoil the cocktail. Its best to be made in advance and stored in fridge.
• You can always double the quantity per glass to be served.

Dates Pickle

This is my favourite pickle since I came to Dubai. Whichever keralite restaurant we went here they served dates pickle along with biryani and raita.  I used to order biryani just to have this pickle, since then I wanted to try this recipe at home.

This is my third batch of dates pickle in the last two month. Whomever we gave for tasting wanted to grab the bottle and run away :-). Do give a try for this recipe.

Ingredients:

250 gms Deseeded Dates

4 nos. Green chillies finely minced

1” Ginger finely chopped or grated

4 nos. Garlic cloves chopped

2 tblpsn Granulated Sugar

1 ½ tspn Red Chilly powder

3/4^th Cup White vinegar

¼ tspn Asafoetida / Hing

1/4tspn Turmeric Powder

1cup Boiled water

For Seasoning:

1cup Seasme oil / any vegetable oil ( I have used sesame oil)

¼ tspn Mustard seeds

Few sprigs of curry leaves

Salt to taste

Method:

   1. Cut the dates into 4 pieces.

   2. Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds. Once the seeds start to splutter add asafoetida, curry leaves, minced green chillies, crushed ginger garlic and sauté it for few mintues.

  3. Add all spices powder like turmeric and red chilly powder, mix it nicely and add salt, vinegar and water. Stir it nicely let it come to boil.

  4. Once the mixture comes to a nice boil add dates, sugar and mix it well.

  5. Remove it form the flame and mix it very nicely.

  6. Cool and store the pickle in airtight glass jar.

NOTE:

If u want the pickle to be more liquidy add ½ cup boiled water. Do not add the normal water to the pickle.

This pickle can be kept outside for a week. Though never had a chance to keep more than that, as it would finish within a week or two of its preparation. You can always store it in a fridge to be on a safer side.

Always use dry spoons while taking out pickle from the jar.

Multi Grained Methi Thepla

Thepla is nothing but a flatbread made from fresh fenugreek leaves, whole-wheat flour and gram flour. It’s a Gujarati snack, which can be munched anytime of the day starting from breakfast to dinner. Today I have tried to make a healthy version of thepla by kneading the dough with multigrain flour.

Ingredients:

A small bunch of fresh Methi / Fenugreek leaves

1 ½ cup of multi grain flour (It can be substituted with wheat flour) **Extra flour for dusting while rolling the theplas

1/3 cup Besan

1 tbspn Red chilli powder

1 tspn Turmeric powder

½ tspn Ginger garlic

1 or 2 Green chillies paste (U can always add green chillies as per your taste buds)

1 pinch Hing / asafoetida

1 tspn Corriander powder

1 tspn Jeera / Cumin powder

Salt as per tatse

Water required for kneading

Oil/ Butter/ Ghee for roasting theplas ( As required. Can be omitted too)

Method:

1.    Wash the Methi leaves nicely in water and chop finely.

2.    Take a kneading bowl add the chopped methi leaves and add all the spices and herbs.

3.    Add all the flour to the leaves. Sprinkle salt as per the taste and knead the dough with the help of water to soft smooth dough.

4.    Cover the dough and let it rest for 10 – 15 mins.

5.    Make even size balls of the dough

6.    Take one dough ball and press it in between the palms to flatten it a bit and coat it nicely with wheat flour.

7.    Place it on a roti making board and roll with the help of rolling pin into round shape. (If possible ;-) )

8.    Heat the tawa/ griddle. Place the rolled out thepla on the tawa.

9.    When bubbles start to appears underneath the surface of thepla, flip it over and apply oil/butter/ ghee as per your choice and cook for few seconds.

10.  Flip it again and apply ghee and let it cook for few mins. Keep pressing the thepla lightly with the help of spatula till nice golden brown spots appear on both the sides of the thepla.

11.   Transfer it to the plate and continue the process with the rest of the dough balls.

12.   Serve them hot with yoghurt or any pickle of your choice.

13.   It tastes good with tomato chutney.

NOTE:

• You will need max half or less, cup of water to knead dough.

• We can also use curd instead of water for kneading the dough. It will make the dough nice and soft.

• This theplas can be made with various leafy vegetables.

• They are can also be served best while travelling or in kids tiffin box who don’t like to eat the leafy vegetables.