Feline Musings

I have been working from home in the first half of the day, and the hubby is travelling over the weekend. I finished my work, caught a wink, and got up in the evening engulfed by the smell of flowers and the slight spring nip in the air.

Suddenly, I felt lonely and lost, and decided to get my act together and do some house-work. I attacked the refrigerator in order to clean it up of left-over veggies and prepare the grocery list. I had attempted this earlier in the morning also, using leftover bread and two boiled potatoes to make bread rolls for lunch.

My inventory of left-over veggies, included half a broccoli, one capsicum and three beetroots on the verge of losing their freshness. Having washed and set them aside, I logged onto the internet to gather some ideas on what I can do with these and came up with two exciting recipes on www.samai.in. I selected Grilled Broccoli and Beetroot Halwa for my experiments. Though I replicated the recipes with ease, I had to tweak some of the measurements in the Halwa and instead of grilling; I baked the Broccoli and also noted the exact baking time. So, here are exclusive pictures of my culinary adventures and the tweaked recipes.

Baked Broccoli

The yellow and the greens of this dish are very pleasing to the eye. It can also be a healthier replacement of the besan pakora and veggies like cauliflower can also be used. 

1.  
   1. 1. 1. Slit the broccoli florets into two and simmer the florets for 4-5 minutes in water to make them tender.
         2. Finely chop an onion and half a capsicum.
         3. Make one teaspoon of garlic-ginger paste.
         4. Take two tablespoons of gram flour, put in coriander powder, chilly powder, mango powder, salt, and mix in the ginger-garlic paste.
         5. Add the chopped onions and capsicum.
         6. Add one teaspoon of lemon juice, and half a cup of water to create a semi-thick mixture.
         7. Marinate the steamed broccoli in this mixture for one-and-half to two hours.
         8. Bake for fifteen minutes at 200 degrees centigrade. Alternatively, it can be grilled for five to ten minutes, till the broccoli stalk acquires a brownish tinge.
         9. Serve with grated cheese.

   Beetroot Halwa (Cooking time 45 minutes)
   It is a culinary delight to make this halwa because of the lovely tints of red that emerge during cooking.

   1. 1. 1. 1. Heat two tablespoons of ghee and add three cups of grated beetroot.
            2. Stir and cook for 5-7 minutes, and then add 1 cup of boiled milk.
            3. Cook on high heat till the milk boils, then simmer and continue stirring.
            4. Put cardamom and cinnamon powder.
            5. Add another half a cup of milk and once again alternatively cook on high and low heat, stirring all the time.
            6. Add chopped walnuts, and cashew nuts.
            7. Mix three-fourth cup sugar and half-cup milk and add to the halwa, and continue to stir.
            8. When the milk has evaporated and the ghee is visible on the sides, the halwa is ready.
            9. Garnish with grated coconut.

   So, my dinner is healthy baked broccoli and I have set aside the halwa to be heated in the microwave for 30 seconds and served to the hubby when he returns.

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