Homemade Condensed Milk

Celebrations are on it's way, so let's get ready with the festive recipes! First thing first, make condensed milk and get yourself well equipped, as many Indian sweets get their amazing mood lifting taste from it! Condensed Milk is really easy to make at home, although it needs a little time and effort, but it is worth doing so. Why?? Well,

1. It costs lesser.
2. You can adjust the amount of sugar or butter according to your preference.
3. Canned condensed may contain added synthetic stabilizers to increase the shelf-life, you can avoid them!
4. Lastly and importanly, it is really satisfying!!

You can use condensed milk in almost any dessert to get an amazing taste and texture! Even a generous layer of condensed milk on a toast is a dessert for me :) !! So get ready and let's cook the natural way!!

Dates-Mint Chutney

Finally a little relief from chilly weather here. Well whatever be the season or weather is, enjoying food must go on. And what a great way to make your food interesting than enhancing it's taste with chutneys or dips. They make any flat boring dish very perky and fun. This chutney has all the flavours in it - sweet, spicy, salty and sour.  Hmm interesting huh? Dates with mint is a great combo. This versatile chutney can go well with any kind of food, be it snacks, with meals, vegetarian dishes, meats or so on. So take out those dates lying in your kitchen somewhere, make this chutney and always cook the natural way!!

Spicy Dried-Fig Jam

When it comes to desserts, I don't think too much but only the portion-size. A small piece of sinful dessert means heaven to me. But then there are some healthy desserts too. They serve the purpose without making us being thoughtful about the portion-size. Well, this is not a dessert recipe , but this sugar-free jam can be used in many desserts, I mean healthy desserts!! Dried Figs are one of the best dried fruits that one can eat. These sweet chewy dried fruit with crunchy seeds are a very delicious contributor to your health and wellness. They are a very good source of fibre, minerals (like potassium, calcium, zinc and magnesium), vitamins (like A,E and K) and antioxidants. This jam can be a healthy sugar-substitute. I eat them in breakfast as in these banana sandwiches below, trust me I don't miss the peanut butter at all :) Just spread the jam on the bread slice, place sliced bananas, top  with another slice of bread and just grill, voila!! your breakfast is ready in a jiffy!!

The spicy kick of cinnamon and pepper, the tanginess of lemon make this jam interesting and fun!! I have added sugar, just for my kiddo, but you can skip adding it. So buy some dried figs and try this jam and make your desserts healthier. And never forget to cook the natural way!!

Pomegranate-Apple Relish

Fruits are delicious on their own, they don't need a recipe but still we foodies can't resist the temptation to create something out of them. And sometimes it does work, like in this recipe. This relish is not only delicious but also healthy. The pomegranate syrup has a very dominating flavour here. I added a little sugar as I find pomegranate juice's taste a little odd. But If you don't have any problem with that, you can skip the sugar altogether. You can also cook this relish but I like it this way better. The mushy-juicy apples, the tanginess of orange-lemon juice and the juicy bites of pomegranate makes this relish a delish!! How about serving this relish to your guests this festive time or giving this away to them in a beautiful jar or something! So try this healthy tasty relish and cook the natural way!!

Chimichurri Sauce

If you love fresh herb sauces or chutneys, then this is the sauce you must give a try to and I am sure if you try it once, you will make again. First of all,  I just love it's name "chimichurri" --say it, one more time-- it's fun, isn't it?....lol!!! Chimichurri, a green pesto- like sauce using parsley, coriander (cilantro), garlic with other ingredients, is originally from Argentina. Once I had a good amount of parsley and before it went bad, I looked for a way to use it, and then I came across this recipe. I love that fact that this sauce can be used in many ways.
Some of the popular uses are-
1. as a dip
2. as a marinade
3. as a sauce (popularly with grilled steaks but perfect with fish, chicken)

Now some of other way I use it, are-
1. Toss a tablespoon with stir fried veggies (not while cooking but as a final touch)
2. as a salad dressing.
3. as a sauce in sandwiches and burgers
4. a little drizzle on soups or gazpachos
5. with pasta too

There must be more, do share if you know. Well, I have used banana pepper as I find it perfect, not too hot and not too blunt. But if you like it spicy hot, use your desired chilli. Also I have added water to it, just to make it lighter, but you can use same amount of oil instead. With oil the sauce can be stored a little longer. Now just go and try this versatile sauce and cook the natural way!!!!

Capsicum Pesto Pasta (Vegan)

I love capsicums aka bell peppers (You know it), I love tomatoes, I love pasta and so I love this pasta recipe!!! This recipe has a light vegetable base sauce and a good break from buttery and cheesy pasta. It is totally VEGAN. Even a great way to add capsicum in you kid's diet. Trust me I tried it on a picky eater and it really worked. I know when my dear friend read this, she will surely be giggling....haha!! Well, I tried this recipe with cashewnuts first, but somehow it was not satisfactory (it was too creamy for this recipe). Later I used peanuts and voilà....it was soo good!! I found the exact combination I was looking for! It is always better to create healthy pasta sauce rather than using store-bought same old sauces. So try this pasta recipe and always cook the natural way!! Hope you like it!!!!

Roasted Capsicum and Tomato Sauce

I love capsicums (bell pepper), I can eat them sauteed or baked or cooked or roasted or even raw! By now you must have known I use capsicums a lot in my cooking. Be it salads, pastas or sides, capsicums are always my first choice. High on vitamin C and vitamin A, rich in antioxidant properties, low in fats and of course the tangy peppery taste, you have many reasons to eat them. Now about this sauce, I tried this sauce twice, one as a pasta sauce, and secondly as a dip with a cottage cheese recipe. it was appreciated both ways :).  So I thought why not to share it with all! It has almonds, sun-dried tomatoes(which gives this sauce a nice tangy flavour) and herbs too. Homemade food is always best-fresh, good to taste and healthy! So try this versatile sauce and cook the natural way!! Hope you like it!!

Sun-dried Tomatoes at home

Fresh tomatoes have no equals and so does their sun-dried version. Sun-dried tomatoes have a very intense flavour which is a bit tangy, tarty and slightly salty, that tastes very interesting. And the best part is that, even after the drying process, they do not lose any nutritional value of tomatoes. They go very well with pasta dishes, dips or chutneys, vegetables and meats. Although, you can use any variety of tomato, but I would recommend plum or roma tomatoes as they taste better, and also traditionally they were used. Drying tomatoes at home is so easy that you will forget about store-bought sun-dried tomatoes. So keep preservatives at bay and cook the natural way!!!

Strawberry-Apricot Relish

My love for jams made me try this recipe, though its a relish and can be taken in many ways, but I love to have it on a crisp toast (with some fresh cream). This relish is a fresh, healthy and tasty way to satisfy your sweet taste buds and can be a good Christmas gift option for your family and friends! Apricots and strawberries are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and dietary fibres and this relish is good way to add them in your diet. If you don't like apricots (huh?...really!! :P), you can use dates, figs, sultanas or raisins, in fact just play with any juicy berries or fruit, with any chewy dried fruit. This relish is easy to prepare and so divine! If you are gifting it to somebody, do specify the best before time (see step-6 below). Hope you like it!!!!

Spicy Plum Sauce

Plums are a juicy, sweet and tart taste power food. They are an excellent source of antioxidants and have a good amount of vitamins and minerals. I like having them raw but using them in recipes, is a good experience. They have a very unique tarty, sweet and sour taste which brings a new touch to your recipes. Well, this sauce recipe is quite easy and very spicy and I always use it as a sandwich spread with any filling at hand. Last week, I tried these salami sandwiches using this sauce. They were very tasty.

Everybody loves peanut butter and a good combo of peanut butter and plums gives this sauce a nice creamy texture and a nutty taste. Nothing is as good as homemade peanut butter, which is so easy to make (soon I'll post it). So the freshness of plums, goodness of peanut butter and the spiciness of chillies makes this sauce a worth try. Hope you will like it!!! Get the recipe here!!

Homemade Coconut Milk

Hey there!!! I am here after a 2 weeks, been very busy and had a great time with family! Anyways, here is an easy homemade ingredient " the coconut milk". I love this magical ingredient  -why magical??- it changes the texture and the taste of any dish to put it into. It's coconutty taste makes any dish richer and it has health benefits too. And it is a good substitute for a dairy-free diet. With a little effort, you can extract coconut milk very easily at home. Here's how I did it!!!

Oats White sauce

White Sauce is a simple but an important sauce for many recipes. It is basically made of butter, flour and milk. While cooking dinner last night, I tried replacing refined flour to oats, and the result was quite satisfying and healthy too. From now on I will stick to this "healthy version of White sauce". So try using this sauce in pasta dishes, lasagne, veg or non veg dishes or use it the same way you use the regular white sauce. Hope you like it!!! Get the recipe here!!

Dry Mint Leaves

......and no dehydrator either!! Well, there is nothing like fresh mint leaves but sometimes some recipes call for dried ones, and they stay for long too. Dried mint leaves also taste great, so sprinkle them on soups, veggies, chicken, meat etc.....ok so how I did it..... without sunlight .....without dehydrator....well well well  I dried them in refrigerator!!!!......seriously I dried them in refrigerator!......just click here

Homemade cottage cheese (Paneer)

Cottage cheese (paneer) is a protein-power food and a good source of calcium, vitamins and fats. It has relatively less calories than other types of cheese and is very versatile. I almost always use homemade cottage cheese as it is ridiculously easy to make at home. I'm gonna tell you three ways to make it and two methods , one quick method and another not so quick method :). click here

Home-grown vegetables

 

This is my first post in this blog and as this blog is all about natural cooking, I want (rather insist) people to add magic to their food with home-grown vegetables.Nothing is more rewarding than growing your own vegetables. This blissful experience is not as hard as it seems to be, only a little time and care gives your food an unmatchable fresh taste. From growing herbs in pots to having a kitchen garden, growing vegetables is not limited to space. You can grow vegetables no matter how much space you have. It has been 2-3 years that we are growing our veggies at home. we have a kitchen garden, a terrace garden and we haven't left our pots either :). The joy of cooking with garden fresh veggies is really a bliss indeed! Learn through net , read books about it, get ideas from others and just get into it!