Can you guess what this is? Yes it is Vanilla Panna Cotta

Hi everyone :) Thanks a lot for participating in this guessing game :) Panna Cotta is one of the easiest dessert anyone can prepare. Its easier to prepare than the Caramel Custard Pudding. Panna Cotta- means "Cooked Cream" . This is a Italian dessert made by cooking cream,and sugar and adding gelatin to it later and refrigerating it to set it. One of the readers commented as " Is that milk pudding,made of gelatin,served with chocolate sauce? " well that's just Panna Cotta, except that it is usually served alongside Fruit sauce made by simmering berries or fruits , for which I did not have the patience.

This is my entry for the "Festa-Italiana" hosted by Marie of Proud Italian Cook and Maryann from Finding La Dolce Vita . This is also my entry for "Sugar High Friday"hosted by Habeas Brulee.

I prepares this dish for V ( poor thing he got a mouth sore after having one of my spicy dishes these days and I felt I owned him something sweet) and I was in mood for a dessert on Saturday midnight :)) , yes you saw that right, I wrote midnight, because I wasn't feeling sleepy at all and as usual I was in front of my computer searching for recipes. I came across this luscious, glossy, smooth and creamy dessert on Internet and decided to see what exactly it is and I was so surprised to see that it was egg less and easy to make:) , I didn't wait, as usual I was in form when I wanted to cook what I wanted :) and thought that V would also would enjoy it on Sunday morning :) I made it and refrigerated overnight and the next day it came out perfect ! Enough I will stop my yapping and post the recipe below :)

Ingredients:

Cream - 2 1/2 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Gelatin - 1 envelope (almost 2 1/2 teaspoons) (I think people who don't prefer gelatin can use Agar, I haven't tried it, so I don't guarantee anything)
Milk - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons


Method:

Combine gelatin and milk and keep it aside for around 5 minutes. On medium heat combine cream and sugar and vanilla. Don't let it come to a rolling boil.
Switch off the heat and add the gelatin mixture to the cream mixture, stir well to combine everything. Without allowing the mixture to cool, strain it. Pour the mixture into individual ramekins or into glass tumblers (the lesser the height, the easier you can unmould the Panna Cotta from the bowl) . I used glass tumblers as I didn't have any ramekins. Wait until the mixture cools and comes to room temperature. Then refrigerate overnight.

The next day, dip the bases of each glass bowl in hot water, then wipe the base clean. keep it on a flat surface and run a knife along the edges of the Panna Cotta so that it can slide off easily when you invert it onto a flat plate. This is how you invert it: Place a flat plate, on top of the tumbler, invert the tumbler slowly, then gently tap the bottom of the tumbler and slowly take it up. The Panna Cotta, unmoulds and comes off like in the picture above or depending upon the mould of your tumbler.

That's it!! Have it along with your favorite fruit sauce or chocolate sauce (Microwave chocolate chips with a little milk in microwave for 30 seconds and just melt it using the spoon to form a liquid.) .
Cudn't resist myself from posting so many pics:)
One last one and its done OK? :-D


Done !! :-D

Palada Pradhaman

Pradhaman is a sweet dish in the form of a thick liquid. It is made with white sugar or jaggery to which milk or coconut milk is added and cooked for a long time. [Courtesy : WikiPedia]
Pradhaman is of various types, Jackfruit Pradhaman (chakka pradhaman), aval Pradhaman, Parippu Pradhaman, Palada Pradhaman (Ada Pradhaman) etc.. But for me , the favorite among them is Palada pradhaman:) I love this lovely Pradhaman to bits:) .

Let me give you a short description A short description about its original preparation from "The Hindu" paper on Internet : "What is Onam (the state festival of Kerala) without the Palada Pradhaman? Like the vibrant Malayali cuisine, there are several payasam varieties, but the royalty is the palada pradhaman. There are no shortcuts to making this fabulous dish. Its preparation time is anything between four and nine hours, depending on the quantity. The rice used is a special reddish variety which is washed, dried, and powdered. A paste made of this powder is spread on banana leaves, which are rolled and tossed into boiling water. Once cooked, the leaves are plunged into cold water, and the cooked rice spread removed, and cut fine. This is the ada. Today, thanks to technology and packaging, the ada is available is a dehydrated version, but is not a patch on the fresh, flavoursome original."

As mentioned in the article, nowadays, anyone can prepare this delicacy as we get the dehydrated "ada's" in the Indian stores. I made this recently and I never added any cream, just milk, cardomom, nutmeg and sugar and it was heavenly. Both of us finished it within few minutes of making it. Yumm I still remember the taste of the ada along with the sweetened milk. Mmm can't wait to make it again one of these days:) . Thanks to Priya , I came to know about the availability of Ada in Indian stores as I found the same type of Ada packet in her blog. I also followed her method of cooking Payasam in Pressure Cooker. But it can be cooked in any other vessel, the only thing is , it will take 1 to 2 hours of cooking. Pressure cooking fastens this process.

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Ada : 1/2 cup
Milk : 3 1/2 cups
Sugar : 1/2 cup or as per your taste
Cardomom powder: 1/4 teaspoon
Nutmeg : a pinch (optional)
Saffron (optional) strands : 2 or 3 strands



How its made:

Soak ada in boiling water for around 5-10 munites or until it is softened a bit but not lost its shape. In the pressure cooker , add milk, ada, and sugar. Pressure cook with the whistle for one whistle. Switch off fire, let the cooker stand like this for some time until all the pressure is released. Then open the cooker and on medium heat, start stirring the mixture, add cardomom powder and nutmeg powder and continue stirring. Stir for 5 -10 minutes or until the mixture starts to thicken.

Remove from fire and add the saffron strands and let it sit for around 5 minutes. Serve it hot or cold , I love it :)

This is my entry for Novel Food: Spring 2008 Edition hosted by Lisa of Champaign Taste and Simona of Briciole .

Shrimp Pickle

These days I was craving for Prawns. There isn't a place in Framingham I haven't searched for Prawns. Do any of you know where to get some nearby Framingham if not in Framingham? I had to satisfy with shrimps available here. I made shrimp pickle yesterday and it came out good.

I was inspired from RP's blog though I have made quiet a few changes in the ingredients. The sad thing about making shrimp or any other shellfish pickle at my place is that V cannot eat it as he is allergic to shell fish. But when he has his Beef chili, what would a not-red meat eater like me savor on? So to get even I went ahead with making this shrimp pickle. V did not even come near it, so I didn't have to worry about sharing it (hehehe I am just kidding, I was actually sad because he refused to even touch it :-(
Anyways, here is the recipe:

Whole Shrimp : 1 cup
Garlic : 6 cloves minced to thin small pieces.
For marination: Red Chilli powder and Freshly cracked pepper, salt, lemon extract : as required to marinate the shrimp. I didn't note down the measurements for these
Oil: for deep frying the marinated cooked shrimp

Powdered mustard seeds and fenugreek (methi) seeds together : 2 teaspoons
Chilly powder: as per your taste
Lemon extract : as per your taste
Asafoetida (hing) : a pinch
Oil: 1/4Th cup
Salt: to taste
How I made it:

Clean and devein the shrimp (I used the frozen shrimp, which had instructions to put the shrimps in hot boiling water until the shrimp thaws, before cleaning and deveining it). You can find the steps on this website for cleaning and deveining the shrimp. Add all the marinade on the shrimp and cook it without water on a pan on low flame. This is to make sure all the water is left from the shrimp. It just takes around 3 minutes for a cup of shrimp. Deep fry the shrimp in oil and keep them aside. Take 1/4Th cup of the oil in which the shrimp was deep fried into a pan under medium heat, add the garlic, saute it , add the fenugreek-mustard powder, chilly powder. Add mustard seeds. Wait until the mustard seeds splutter, and then lower the fire. Then add a pinch of asafoetida and saute until the raw smell of everything in the pan is gone, else the pickle will taste differently. Then add salt and the fried shrimp, mix it well, add the lemon extract (the original recipe called for vinegar, so I used lemon extract). Mix increasing the fire a little. After a minute, switch off the fire and transfer it to a dry glass bottle. Keep it open until the pickle is cooled. Cover it after it is cooled. I kept it refrigerated until I had it with my lunch, dinner, breakfast :-D Yes you have it as a side dish for breakfast,lunch, dinner :)