Creamy Strawberry Crepes

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. These creamy strawberry crepes could be an easy to prepare Valentine's day breakfast or dessert. Crepes, which are of French origin, could be made with either sweet fillings or savory fillings. Crepes are made from wheat flour or all purpose flour and it resembles Indian dosa. The filling that I used here consists of strawberry slices, cream cheese, heavy cream, confectioners sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract.
Recipe Courtesy: AllRecipes.com

Pista Burfi (Pistachio Burfi)

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS 2011

The image of pista burfi in my mind is the one with a nice even green color. But today I realized that without the colorant it won't look that green, although it tasted the same. Also, I realized that saffron (kesar) has such a strong flavor that only a few strands are needed for the aroma that you are longing for (I think I added a little too much today)!!! That was a big relief for me after the shock that I had seeing the grocery bill for a small box of saffron :)
Recipe Courtesy: Lakshmi's Taste of Mysore

Vanilla Bean Custard

My husband works in the food industry and he gets occasional treats from suppliers at work. The other day he brought home a bottle of pure vanilla extract and some vanilla beans. I have seen chefs cooking with vanilla beans on Food Network and used to wonder how it would taste like. I couldn't wait to try it out and  found this simple custard recipe on Martha Stewart's website. I could smell the fresh aroma of the beans while cooking and it was fun experience. One vanilla bean could be replaced with two teaspoons of vanilla extract in the recipe.
Recipe Courtesy: Marthastewart.com

Paal Payasam (Rice Kheer / Rice Pudding)

It was my husband's birthday and I made paal payasam over the weekend. Actually birthday was just a pretext to make this delicious dessert. Usually, raw rice with bran (red rice or unakkalari) is used for making the payasam, giving the payasam a light pink color. Traditionally, the payasam is made in an uruli (a flat thick bottomed vessel made of bell metal). In modern kitchen, the payasam could be made in a thick bottom pot or in a pressure cooker. I used my pressure cooker as the thick bottom pot and used a fusion of the two methods.
Recipe Courtesy: Collaborative Curry

Cherupayar Parippu Payasam (Moong Dal Kheer)

WISH YOU A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS ONAM...

A very happy and prosperous onam to all my friends who celebrate onam. We had our onam sadya (feast) on Sunday as today is a work day for me. Payasam is the most important part of traditional Kerala sadya. Traditionally, coconut milk is used for Kerala style parippu payasam. But this time we made this payasam with cow's milk, like the Tamil Nadu and Andhra style moong dal payasam. My inlaws are with us for this onam and my MIL also makes this version of parippu payasam, which is flavored with powdered cumin, dry ginger and cardamom. The color of the payasam varies from dark brown to golden brown based on the color of the jaggery used.
Recipe courtesy: MIL and Sailu's Kitchen