Custard Fruit Salad

Fruit custard is one of the easiest dessert. It is loaded with the goodness of milk and fruits and is yummy. This is a good way to include fruits in your diet. Even a beginner in cooking can prepare this dish easily. It's hard to get this wrong :)

Ingredients:

 Milk - 1/2 liter
Vanilla flavored custard Powder - 3 heaped tablespoon
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Mixed fruits chopped - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Mix 3 tbsp custard powder with 5 tbsp of warm milk to make a smooth paste with any lumps. The custard paste is now ready. Custard powder is available in various flavors. I have used Vanilla flavored custard powder in this dish. You can used any flavor of your choice instead.

Boil the milk and add sugar to it. If you have a sweet tooth, you can increase the amount of sugar.

Now add the custard paste to milk and keep stirring continuously on low flame till the mixture thickens.
It is important to keep the flame low and stir continuously. Otherwise the mixture may burn.

Switch off the flame once the mixture thickens and let it cool to room temperature. When it cools, refrigerate it. The mixture will become more thick as it cools.

Cut the fruits of your choice. You can use any seasonal fruits for this dish. Mango, Banana, Dates, Grapes, Pomegranate, Pineapple, Strawberry, Apple, Musk Melon etc. are some of the options. You can also add dry fruits like Cashew, Raisins, Walnuts, Badam, Pistachios etc.

Arrange the fruits in a bowl and pour the refrigerated custard mixture over it.

Serve chilled. Enjoy !!!

Garlicky shallow fried potato fingers

This dish brings me back memories of childhood. My maternal aunt used to prepare this and we used to call this as 'Potato finger chips'. But i think the name 'Potato finger chips' doesn't justify this dish.  This is basically Potatoes seasoned with crushed garlic and spices and then shallow fried on medium flame with little oil till the potato sticks become crispy. This is a quick and easy dish having a strong flavor of garlic. It goes well as a side-dish with rice.

Ingredients:

Medium sized Potatoes - 4
Garlic cloves - 10 to 12
Red chilly powder - 3 tsp
Salt to taste
Semolina - 2 tbsp
Oil for shallow frying.

Procedure:

Wash the potatoes well and peel the outer skin. Cut the Potatoes lengthwise into sticks. Do not wash potatoes or soak in water after you cut them. Basically the cut potato sticks should be dry for this dish. Crush garlic cloves and mix it with potato sticks. Add red chilly powder, salt, semolina and mix well.

Heat a frying pan. Grease the pan by adding little oil. When the tawa becomes hot, add the potatoes and shallow fry them on medium flame by covering the lid of the tawa. Switch off the flame when potatoes are cooked completely and become crispy.

Crispy and garlicky shallow fried potatoes ready to serve! Enjoy them as a side-dish with rice.

Vegetable Vermicelli Upma

 Vegetable vermicelli upma is an easy to prepare dish and a healthy breakfast. There are many variations of
 preparing Vermicelli Upma and this is one of them. The addition of veggies make this upma healthier. This
 is generally made for breakfast. It can also be had as a evening snack.

 There are different types of vermicelli available. I have used rice vermicelli in this dish. You can also use
 wheat vermicelli or Ragi(Finger-millet) vermicelli instead.

  Ingredients:

 Vermicelli - 1 cup
 Boiled water - 2 cups
 Onion - 1 Medium
 Tomato - 1 small
 Green chilly - 2
 Spring onion Flowers - Few
 Spring Onion - Few
 Button Mushrooms - 7
 Coriander leaves - Little
 Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
 Mustard - 1 tsp
 Curry leaves - Few
 Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
 Salt to taste
 Sugar - 1/2 tsp
 Oil - 4 tbsp

Procedure:

Heat a Kadai . Pour 2 tbsp oil and fry the vermicelli till it becomes golden brown. Keep stirring so that it is    fried evenly.  Meanwhile in a separate vessel boil 2 cups of water (This will be used later to cook the vermicelli). Keep the vermicelli aside once it is fried.

Now heat a Kadai and add 2 tbsp oil. Add mustard to Oil. When mustard splutters, add urad dal, curry leaves, green chillies. Fry them well. Now add Onions and fry till they become transparent. Then add the remaining veggies and cook them well by adding little salt. Add little turmeric to the cooked veggies.

Once vegetables are cooked, add fried vermicelli to it.

Mix them well  and fry for a minute. Keep stirring continuously.

Now add boiled water to this and cover the lid of the kadai. Let the vermicelli cook with the vegetables on medium flame.

Wait till the vermicelli is cooked well and all the water is absorbed. Add little Sugar (This is optional) and mix well.

Vegetable vermicelli upma is ready to serve. You can also add little lemon juice to this to get lemony flavor.