Toddy palm/Tadgola/Taal Payesh – Raksha Bandhan/Janmasthami Special

Growing up in a Bengali household, summer months meant a lot of quintessential things – be it mangoes or certain vegetables that became part of our staple diet; but what has always been a conspicuous part of the festivals of summer is the Toddy palm which we bengalis dearly call Taal. My family adores sweet dishes & so I keep making one or the other time to time.For those who doesn’t know about it, I will quote the Wikipedia here on Toddy palm.

  “ Borassus flabellife commonly known as doub palm, palmyra palm, tala palm, toddy palm or wine palm, is native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, including Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia,Indonesia and the Philippines. It is reportedly naturalized in Pakistan, Socotra, and parts of China.”

There are so many recipes on this – be it kheer or payesh (aka payesham) or bora (fritters). Considering there are so many festivals on our way – Rakhi Purnima/Raksha bandhan , Independence day or Krishna Janmasthami..I though why not show you a recipe that I have borrowed from Baby aunty through my beloved Sky & Gulu. Cheers!

Toddy palm/Tadgola/Taal payesh

• Time: “20-40minures”
• Difficulty: “easy”
• Print

Ingredients:

• Toddy palm/Tadgola/Taal – 2 cups
• Nestle Milkmade – 1 cup or to taste + 2 tablespoon (to drizzle on top)
• Khoya/Mawa/milk solid – 75 grams (Keep aside a little for garnish)
• Elaichi/ Green Cardamom powder, ¼ teaspoon
• Fresh coconut, grated, 2 tablespoon

Peanut butter double chocolate bites –Fast, Easy, No bake dessert (Summer Special)

Hello again! It’s so nice to be back with another kid friendly recipe for all you dear readers. I have been away from all the yumminess & blogging for a while now but now that I have got a slight chance at it..here I am with a super summer dessert recipe.

Why is this recipe something you & your kid will love in the season of sun?

Well, good news for you. This is a no-bake recipe which is so apt for the coming summers when gas-top & oven kills. Kills hard!

Secondly, this is a fun do for your kids. This has steps in which you can involve your little ones. No fire, no super hot stuff, minimalistic ingredients list – you can barely find an excuse to keep them away from your kitchen.

The list of ingredients is not very big on the pocket & mostly includes items you already have in your kitchen cupboard.

Ingredients : to make 20-25 small pieces

• Butter (preferably white unsalted cooking butter, but you may use regular ones too) – 4+half dollops/tablespoon
• Digestive biscuits (preferably thick ones) –200g
• Peanut butter (crunchy or creamy) –4 big tablespoon
• Brown sugar /castor sugar – 3-4 big tablespoon (or to taste)
• Dark or milk chocolate – I used about 4 34gms dairy milk for the first coat & some drinking chocolate/chocolate sprinkles as topping. Feel free to either skip or adjust the topping.
• Milk – 3 tablespoon
• Tray/baking tin (preferable square) – to make 20-25 bite size pieces.
• vanilla extract – 1.5 teaspoon
• Aluminum foil of any quality/baking sheet – a little bigger than the tray

You will also need the following –

Homemade crispy Jalebi desi style ~ Independence day special!

My memories fly high!
Ever since I was a little girl, me and my sister Gulu would run to the playground in front of our house every Independence day morning!
Showered, with blotches of baby powder here and there, crisp little frocks and the biggest grin across our face..we ran holding hands with tiny flags clutched tight in our palms till we reached the crowd around the flag hoisting podium. I still remember, uncles of our locality or para would make us stand in line and make us sing the national anthem..we would jump up & down as the hoisting started and clap hard!
As a reward for being good quiet girls with no tantrums, Jalebi were distributed. The sugar syrup off them dripping till our elbow, each gets a piece..no more! pout
But what a bliss it was! A smile that people have when they win a 5 crore lottery.. 🙂

Those days were priceless and are missed badly! So when I was planning an Independence day menu this time, I made it a point to include the good old Jalebis in our morning ritual…just Homemade!
My first trial and they came out better than just fine 😀

Without rambling anymore let’s get started.
Just to make sure its clear from the title above, it has no baking soda or baking powder at all. Or any other fancy artificial ingredients used in shops or by halwais.
They will rise and crisp up just as much.

Easiest Vanilla cake in the world with milk chocolate frosting – Microwave oven and Gas top (No oven) recipe

Happy friendship day to one & all!

I fall in that group which believes everyday should be friendship day..and I am blessed with beautiful friends in my life.
I have this urge to ramble about my friends & name each one of them here…But I will stop myself now!Instead to make this day special for one & all. I made a simple cake with whatever I had in store & fridge, which I admit wasn’t impressive at all. How often do you have one of these days?

Thus I made

The easiest Cake with the easiest frosting in the world
~ Two ways!

One. In a microwave oven.
Two. In a pressure cooker or any let out container.
Here is a sneak peak!

Let’s get started….

Healthy Granola on gas top/Skillet Recipe/Pan/Wok- No Oven/No Sugar/GlutenFree

Have you ever googled some recipe or ingredients and felt disappointment rushing through you?

I just had. This afternoon.
I googled “Granola on gas top skillet”
And there came just about one proper method but even that was unhealthy. With golden syrup and butter and sugary..
Try it for yourself.Google now!

So, I went ahead and gave my own recipe a try. I made two test batches to find out the proper measurements of ingredients.And they both came out great to my taste. This is what it looked like by the end of it all.

Best part – its not just crispy and yummy. Its as fast as a 5 minutes affair, including the preparation.
Here’s my double tested & tasted recipe.

Gajar ka halwa ~ Weekend Treat

Gajar ka halwa

It’s really a quote all by itself. It’s that yummy and oh-so-popular carrot dessert that no one can resist. It’s a classic after all !

It’s something we have had at home on winter evenings..we could get that lovely carrot and ghee smell half an hour before its ready..and annoy our grandmoms or mom with questions of delight. Now, its available at sweet shops too but there’s no better way to have it other than cooking it at home on cheat days. Plus its a super fast recipe 🙂

So, here is my tried and tested( read tasted) recipe for you all.