Recipe : Peach Sheera / Sooji Halwa / Rava Halwa / Sweet Upma / Semolina Pudding - (Vegan option)

Sooji halwa in Mangalore and around is called sheera.

Pineapple sheera / pineapple kesari / kesari bath  is the most common variant of this dish and Hotel Woodlands in Mangalore used to make an excellent version.  However in the recent season, mango sheera has been all over my social media feeds.

Friends and family know my aversion to fruits. The smell of most fruits makes me nauseous.

However, I do enjoy a few types of fruits and I do love a very select few. Preserved peaches are not really fresh fruit, but I Love them.

I found this brand called Brenda’s here in Johannesburg that are organic and low on added sugar that I really love, so I pick up a couple of jars each time.

This time instead of adding sugar to the sheera, I used the sweetness of the raisins and peaches with a little canning liquid.

I'm first going to give you the recipe of regular sheera, that is often served as breakfast or tiffin in Mangalore / Udupi. One of my uncles, loves pairing it with pooris for a more filling start to the day. Our Manglorean version of Poori + Shrikhand I guess.

Mum often gave us this for breakfast before heading off to school

Ingredients :

2 tbsp ghee

2 tbsp raisins - (optional)

1 tbsp broken cashewnuts - (optional)

1 cup fine sooji / Bombay rava / semolina

2 cups milk (or water or a mix of the 2 - the more milk, the richer the taste)

1/2 cup sugar

Method :

Soak raisins in a little water to rehydrate.

Heat your liquid component - milk / water / milk + water to boiling hot.

In a large pan or kadhai, heat the ghee.

Toast the nuts to golden brown if using and remove from the pan.

Roast the soji / rava / semolina on a medium flame until lightly browned.

Now add the raisins if using.

Add the boiling liquid and stir continuously to prevent lumps.

When it smells cooked and starts to come together, add the sugar and mix well.

When it starts to dry, turn off the heat, add cashewnuts and serve hot.

You can also set it on a greased plate and cut shapes when cooled and serve it at room temperature.

Variations & Tips :

You can add 2 pinches of cardamom powder / cinnamon powder / nutmeg powder at the end, for a more fragrant version.

Since the liquid in preserved fruit always seems to get leftover, instead of 2 cups milk + 1/2 cup sugar, I used 1/2 cup canning liquid and 1.5 cup milk.

I think the original recipe would call for about 1 cup sugar, that's way too much for us and I have found that 1/2 cup works well. You may want to adjust the sweetness to your personal preference.

If you are making a fruit version, then remember to account for the sweetness of the fruit.

Fruit Versions - Pineapple kesari / Mango sheera/ Peach sheera ...

For the above quantities, use 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup fruit chopped fine (or even pulped if you want a super smooth version)

If you are using an acidic /sour fruit like pineapple, then the liquid is only water, no milk.

Fruits that are traditionally added are bananas or pineapple, but you can use mangoes, peaches or any other fruit that you have on hand.

The fruit is added AFTER you turn off the gas, as it really doesn't need to cook. It will just be gently warmed in the residual heat of the halwa / sheera.

A Note on Udupi Tiffin Rooms Menus:

Pineapple sheera is called kesari bath - the kesar (saffron) colour often coming from turmeric rather than the more expensive herb.

Kesari bath could also be just a yellow coloured sheera without pineapple - but definitely sweet.

Upma is referred to as khara bath (salty)

So if you see a dish called chow chow bath on the menu, it means one serving of sweet sheera and one serving of salty upma.

Recipe : Mango Fool

There's an abundance of ripe mangoes in my freezer. In the summer, we get boxes of mangoes home and then once they have ripened, I clean and chop them and freeze them in smaller boxes and then defrost them one at a time to last the rest of the year

The husband loves to have them mixed into his morning muesli or cereal and the watery bits I normally blend into milkshakes for him.

However, this time there is so much mango in my freezer, that I'm running out of space for freezing my meat, so I dug up an old but easy recipe for a dinner party that we had the other day. Everyone loved it and its so fast to prepare.

 Ingredients :
1 kg ripe mangoes (any variety that you like)
1 tin milkmaid condensed milk
3 cardamom pods
Sliced nuts for garnish (optional)

Method:

Remove the cover of the cardamom pods and coarsely pound the seeds in a mortar and pestle.
Skin the mangoes and separate the flesh.
Puree the mango flesh in a blender until smooth
Add the condensed milk and the powdered cardamom seeds and blend till well mixed.
The condensed milk and the mango are normally sweet enough to not require any additional sugar, but taste and check.
Chill until ready to be served.
Garnish with sliced nuts. I used almonds.

It keeps well in the fridge for over a week.

Kim's Leftover Tip :
The cardamom seed covers can be added to your tea leaves / powder for flavour.

Leftover Mango Fool can be blended with milk for a milkshake.

You can even wash out the blender with milk for a great milkshake.

Recipe : Ayurvedic Dates Kheer

This is another lovely recipe from Jigyasa & Pratibha's "Sukham Ayu - Cooking at Home with Ayurvedic Insights"


Its made without any sugar or jaggery and is naturally sweetened by the dates. If it isn't sweet enough for you, you can add some jaggery or rock sugar to maintain its Ayurvedic nature.

The book, gives details on why Dates are good for you and which constitutions it works best for. If you are interested in eating right for your body, depending on its constitution, you SHOULD pick up a copy of this Cookbook.

Ingredients:
15-20 pitted dates, washed and chopped fine (dried, not fresh)
4 cups cow's milk (for Ayurvedic Reasons, you can use any milk of your choice)
8-10 strands of saffron
1 tsp wheat flour
pinch of nutmeg powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp cow's ghee

Method:
Bring the milk to a boil and allow it to simmer

Take 1 tsp warm milk into a bowl and rub the saffron in it to release its flavours and the milk turns orange. Keep aside.

In a thick bottomed pan, heat ghee, add the dates and saute for 2 minutes on a low flame.
Sprinkle wheat flour over the dates and saute for another minute.

Slowly add the milk, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Cook on low flame for 7-8 minutes. If you want it sweeter, add some powdered rock sugar. (Jaggery does sometimes curdle hot milk, so if adding jaggery, add strained jaggery syrup after cooling the kheer)

Stir the prepared saffron into the kheer, with nutmeg and cardamom powders. Switch off the flame.

Enjoy a small helping at the end of your meal as a digestive.

Recipe: Watermelon Juice

This is my number one favourite drink in the summers, the only other drink that comes close is chilled tender coconut water (bonda neeru). It is a little troublesome to prep, but the end product is soooo worth it.

The reason, my recipe is troublesome is because I de-seed the watermelon completely before juicing it.You can blend it with the seeds and then strain the juice, mum swears this is healthier as the seeds have some healing properties, but I gleefully substitute taste for extra-healthy. I find the seeds impart a bitter taste and little bits of seeds still manage to find their way through a strainer.

I chop and deseed the entire watermelon and keep it in the fridge. Then each time we want some juice, I just whip it up in the blender.

I do not normally need to add any water or sugar to the juice, but it depends on the melons that you use. You can add chilled water or ice if you like. Since I keep the chunks in the fridge, it doesn't require additional chilling. Its ready to drink as soon as it is blended.

Normally, between the 2 of us we finish off a complete watermelon within 3 days either by juicing it or eating the cleaned chunks for breakfast/dessert.

Variations:
Dress the cleaned watermelon chunks with condensed milk or whipped cream for a fancy looking dessert.

When making watermelon juice, you can add
-freshly grated ginger
-mint leaves
- a squeeze of lime/lemon juice
for a twist in the flavour
 (In the picture above, I have used a little ginger as you can see)

This juice goes very well as a mixer with vodka or white rum.

Recipe: Mango Lassi (Smoothie)

This is one of the fastest things to whip up in the kitchen when you want a cool soothing, healthy drink after coming in from the sun.

While smoothies / lassis can be made out of any fruit. As a rule, avoid the citrus ones. Think of firmer fruits - bananas, apples and the like. In general, fruits that are used in milkshakes, can be safely used to make smoothies/lassis.

Any variety of ripe mango can be used for this recipe. Given the sweetness of mangoes, there is no need for any additional sugar.

Keep the mangoes in the fridge until ready to use, so the drink can be extra cold. I normally cut up the mangoes and leave them in the fridge, so I can shake up a glass as soon as the husband arrives home.

Pop half a glass of mango pieces (you can even use packaged mango juice or mango pulp, but that wouldn't be half as healthy as fresh mango), and half a glass of dahi/yoghurt into a blender.

 Blend till well done. If you want it extra chilled, add a few ice cubes and blend again.

Pour into a glass and drink while cold.

This lassi is slightly pale because it was made for someone who has to watch his sugar intake, so I decreased the amount of mangoes I would normally use.

Variations:
You can add a 1/2 tsp of coconut or a few seeds (not pods) of cardamom while blending for a twist in the taste.

Instead of dahi/yoghurt, substitute milk for a mango milkshake.

Recipe: Strawberry Yoghurt Ice Cream

I'd bought some Mahabaleshwar strawberries the other day from GNB and they were lying in the fridge as husband wasn't feeling enticed enough to eat them. Then I saw Sanjana's Food Charm Giveaway Contest aka KO Rasoi’s ‘Wear Your Food’ competition which propelled me to create something with the strawberries (one of the charms on that bracelet).

Because of his current (temporary) diet restrictions, he has been trying really hard to avoid desserts, so I thought about creating a sweet suprise with strawberries that would be low on added sugar, zero refined flour and minimal cream/butter/fat.

Strawberry Yoghurt Ice Cream seemed the perfect answer to fit all 3.

An online search revealed that David Lebovitz's Recipe was the most adapted, so it seemed like a good starting point.

This was my first attempt at making ice cream, so I improvised a lot as I went along. So, not all the ingredients are visible in my first picture :)

Ingredients:
1/2 a kilo of strawberries cleaned and sliced (it doesn't matter if you feel like eating some as you go along, go ahead)
I saw recipes that called for cooking the strawberries before mashing them, but decided against using this extra step. I think it gave a fresher taste to the ice cream.
400gm jar of Nestle/Amul Dahi (yoghurt) - this is standard size
a few sliced pistachios
some honey
2-3 tsp sugar
2 tsp vodka (optional)

Preparation:
Slice the strawberries and toss them with the vodka and sugar.

(I almost added Absolut Peppar, in my hurry - wonder how that would have tasted?)
I would have avoided the sugar completely but the mass opinion seemed to be, that adding sugar to the berries made the end product redder. Something to do with oxidation I guess. But next time, I will use Stevia/Sugar Free, but only if the strawberries aren't sweet enough.
Hang the curd/yoghurt in a muslin cloth and let the whey drain out.
I did this both simultaneously and left them for 2 hours, occassionally tossing the strawberries.
At the end of 2 hours, the strawberries had reddenned from their previous pinkish tinge as seen below.

Puree the strawberries.
I used the hand held mixer for the whole process. But given the amount of liquid these strawberries manage to emanate, I may just pulverise them in a liquidiser next time, to save myself the splashing.
The liquid was a really deep red.

As I mentioned earlier, these weren't the freshest strawberries, so I ran the liquid through a sieve to take off the skins that hadn't completely disintegrated. You can see in the picture below, that I had a lot of stuff that needed to be taken out although I might have got a finer end product and less wastage, if I used the liquidiser.

If your strawberries are fresh you may not need this step.
If you hate the feel of seeds in your ice cream, then you will want to sieve the liquid through a slightly finer wire mesh.

Since I had already sieved the strawberry juices into another bowl, I decided to start with the hung curd and slowly add the juice to prevent major splashing.

As you can see, the hung curd is really thick, almost like cottage cheese. The more whey you remove from the yoghurt, the creamier will be the end product.
If your strawberries aren't too tart, you may like to add a squeeze of lemon juice to the mix.
Gradually add the strawberry juice and beat lightly till you have a creamy mixture, darkish pink in color.

If you have an icecream maker, this would be the time to use it.

I don't have an ice cream maker (yet) so I had to do the - take out of freezer every 30mins and whip again to break up icicles routine.
You can use an immerision blender, or old fashioned elbow grease and a whisk for this.
Since the water had been drained out of the yoghurt, I just did this twice. The second time I saw that there weren't too many icicles.
So at this stage (when no more whipping was in order) I added the sliced pistachios and gently folded them in
Then I added some honey and folded it in.
(This inspiration came from some honey in an ice cream I ate recently and I loved the texture of the frozen honey, plus this adds a bit of sweetness. Unfortunately, the honey I had, may not have been of very good quality because I saw it release a little water when I next took it out of the freezer. It did taste fab though)
The pistachios will powder if you whip them and you want the honey to remain in streaks, not blended into the ice cream.
You can even add some bits of fruit at this stage if you want a fresher feel in the ice cream.

Serve garnished with pistachios/honey/mint sprigs/strawberries.

Its slightly melted, because it took me awhile to get the picture, but if you look on the right half, you get an idea of the texture.

This recipe gave me roughly 1/2 a liter of ice cream. Will definitely double quantities next time. With the amount of time and effort needed, might as well make a big batch
This is an ideal way to use up leftover fruit (semi pulpy - berries, mangoes, kiwi), especially in the summers. And with the temperature here touching 40C, it is a very welcome treat any time of the day.

Equipment that may be of help:
 

Fresh Juices

There are a wide variety of fruits available in the market at any given time.

You can prepare fresh juices by pureeing the flesh of these fruits, adding sugar to taste and diluting with water or milk.

Remember :
Citrus fruits don’t go very well with milk.
Apples taste better with milk.
Watermelon goes with water and milk.
Bananas go better with milk.
Dry fruits go great with milk. Garnish with sliced nuts for a fancy drink

Recipe : Watermelon Cocktail

Cut watermelon into small cubes and deseed.

Sprinkle some lemon juice and sugar on top.

Add a few shredded mint leaves.

Cover and chill.

Serve in cocktail glasses as is or after pureeing the mix.

Garnish with a sprig of mint.

It can even be blended with crushed ice for Watermelon Granitas.

Hit the drink or cocktail pieces with a dash of Vodka for a fancy appetiser/cocktail

Recipe : Amar al Din- Apricot juice

Get pressed Apricot sheets from the grocery store (they are normally sold in yellow cellophane paper in Egypt and are widely available during Ramadan, but you can find them in small quantities throughout the year) Texture and look is very similar to the Indian Aamsaat - but this isn't as sour.

The same recipe can be used for making juice from Aamsaat too.

Cut the Apricot sheets into thin strips and cover with cold water. Soak them until the strips dissolve.

Strain away the solid pieces and sweeten the juice to taste.

Bottle and refrigerate.

Dilute with chilled water when you want to drink it.

Recipe : Tamarind Juice

Very refreshing in the summers.

Clean 1/4 kg of tamarind, cover it with water (about 1.5 liters) and boil for 5 minutes. Then let it soak in that water for at least 6 hours.

Strain the liquid of any solid pieces. Add 2 cups of sugar.

Bottle & refrigerate.
Dilute with chilled water when you want to drink it.

Recipe : Fresh Orange Juice

Squeeze 2 oranges and strain the juice. Add sugar to taste. Cool in the refrigerator before serving. If you want to drink it really fresh – store the oranges in the refrigerator before squeezing.

Recipe : Fresh Lime Juice/Lemonade

Squeeze the juice of 5-8 lemons (depending on size) into a pitcher. Discard the seeds. Add sugar and salt to taste. Fill with water. This can be kept chilling in the fridge and consumed over a 24 hour period.

Recipe : Mulberry Cobbler

A recipe given to me by a friend. Very simple and easy to make, with no eggs. So pure vegetarian. Plus a lot of the sweetness comes form the fruit that you use and you can decide to cut down on the sugar if you prefer.

Mix together
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
till smooth and no lumps.
(the recipe did not call for it, but I added a pinch of baking powder and a bit of vanilla essence)

Melt a bit of butter (about half a stick) to coat the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan and then some.

Pour the flour batter over the butter. Pour fruit over the flour mixture. Do not stir.

Bake at 350 for about an hour.

Any fruit with its juice can be used for eg:
a can of peaches
blackberries, blueberries or nectarines.
Any bakeable fruit - fresh or tinned.

If you are using fresh fruit, depending on the sweetness of the fruit, you may want to toss it in some powdered sugar.

I used mulberries that were a bit tart, so I did sprinkle powdered sugar over the fruit before adding them to the flour mixture.


I apologise that the pictures haven't come out too well. husband has taken the cameras on his trip and I had to take these with the camera phone which doesn't have the best resolution or flash.

Serve hot cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (so as not to overpower the flavour of the fruit)