Ice cream Bhapa Doi

Aahaaram is one of my absolute favourite food blogs. My wonderful friend Aruna is the talented chef behind this vegetarian marvel. I was extremely ecstatic when she offered to do a guest post for me. I look up to her as a senior food writer and sister. She inspires me with every one of her recipes and I am always learning from her.

Thanks Aruna for Aahaaram…We love you!

Over to my dear friend Aruna Panangipally for a sweet ice cold delight…

It my greatest pleasure that I am able to do this super simple yet super delicious guest post for Dimple. Dimple was one of my earliest blogging friends and one with a 1000-watt smile that can light up the whole world. I love Dimple’s recipes because they are infused with same joie de vivre, and are so simple yet so flavourful. 

Dimple always had nothing but kind and encouraging words for me. When I asked her to do a guest post for me, she agreed readily and came up with this delicious Sweet Corn and Spinach Curry‏ and I have only just got around to doing this post for her.

Of the choices I gave her, Dimple chose Bhapa Doi, a dessert that looks deceptively plain but is chockablock of tastes. This Bengali dessert is nothing but Sweet Steamed Yogurt that is oh-so-creamy and just the right kind of sweet; not overpowering yet has a lovely lingering after taste. 

What I love best is the fact that it gets done super fast (though one has to wait for it to chill, sigh!) and is simply super delicious.

Truth be told, I am loathe to share Bhapa Doi with anyone. 🙂

So without much ado, here you go:

Serves: 4 (If you want to share :-))
Cooking Time: 30 Mins
Chilling Time: 4 hours
Ingredients
Sweetened Condensed Milk – 400 gms
Thick Yogurt – 250 ml
Milk – 250 ml
Method
Blend together the condensed milk, yogurt, and milk.
Pour into a steel vessel.
Cover well with a foil or a heavy lid. Anything that will prevent water from entering the vessel.
Steam in a pressure cooker without the weight for 15 minutes. 
Let the cooker cool completely to room temperature.
Chill the Bhapa Doi for 3 to 4 hours.
Enjoy!

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Peppered Cassava

My Dad adores cassava and they both go back a long way. He grew up on this nutritious food in Africa and also prepared it for us here. My brothers and I fell in love with it too. Such a versatile vegetable that has a distinctive flavour and texture yet takes on spices and other accompanying ingredients so well.

So here you have one of my Dad’s amazing cassava recipes…I thoroughly hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Thanks for sharing Dad…Much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

1 packet frozen cassava, steamed until tender (pieces)
1 level tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
Boiling water
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander to garnish

METHOD

Heat the oil and cumin seeds in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Once the seeds start to sizzle, carefully add the cassava into the saucepan

Mix well so that all the cassava is covered in the oil and seeds

Pour over boiling water, ensuring that the cassava is just about covered with water

Sprinkle in the pepper and salt. Reduce to a low heat and cover. Cook for 15 to 25 minutes until the cassava has become even softer and the whole dish looks creamy

Garnish with fresh coriander and get your serving bowls ready. Tastes superb with some natural yoghurt

Borlotti Bean Soup

Tasty, healthy and comforting…What else could you ask for in a soup?….

Shivaay Delights

I was thrilled to have been asked by Shruti @ Cooking With SJ to write my very first guest post recently. SJ and her blog are very much an inspiration to me and I am constantly learning from her. Thank you for asking me honey x

“A warming your cockles” kind of soup I’ve put together in this cold, wet weather we are having here in the UK. A fushion soup of Mexican bold bean and coriander flavours and the wonderful Italian pasta to add even more body to this dish! So easy to prepare and quick to make. An ideal supper with some crusty buttered bread on a frozen February evening!

INGREDIENTS

½ white onion sliced into crescents
175g tin of Borlotti beans drained and rinsed
A few handfuls of tiny pasta shells
400ml vegetable stock
½ tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove crushed
⅓ tsp garlic granules
½…

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Rupa’s Salsa Verde…

Salsa verde is a green salsa, it can be quite chunky but the one that was prepared by my youngest sister in law last Saturday, was something extremely special.  Rupa had called us round for dinner and  Oh my did we enjoy ourselves!  She had prepared grilled vegetable and golden halloumi skewers with a jewelled vegetarian couscous along with the salsa that tantalised our taste buds and made all the the different ingredients on the plate sing!

The consistency was very smooth and the colour so very vibrant.  I just deeply regret not taking a picture to show you all, I was too busy eating away! Sorry!
I have however, found a picture that shows the type of consistency of the salsa we had.  The colour here, is more a lime green but the colour you will achieve with this particular recipe will be slightly darker due to the mint. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

Thanks to R & V for a wonderful evening and for this lovely recipe!

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch parsley, chopped leaves only
1 bunch basil, chopped leaves
1 bunch mint, chopped leaves
2 tbsp capers drained
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tsp dijon mustard
Olive oil as required
Sea Salt & Ground fresh pepper to taste

METHOD

Simply blitz all the above ingredients together in a food processor, grinder or Nutribullet if you have one

Pour into a bowl and leave in the fridge until your ready to serve

Picture courtesy of https://fortheloveofyum.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/img_5766.jpg

The Chocolate French Cake…

Yesterday we went to my sister in law Sushila’s house and she had made a lovely Thai curry with rice for lunch and an immensely sumptuous chocolate cake for dessert! As I walked into the kitchen, initially I thought I saw a chocolate sponge cake but how wrong could I have been!

When the time came to have dessert, I was profoundly surprised that the chocolate sponge was indeed the most moist, rich , sweet and velvety textured almost chocolate mousse like cake. It was partnered with some sweetened fresh whipped cream. Just in having a spoonful of this cake…I was in absolute heaven.

I just had to have the recipe for myself and for all of you too…don’t say I never think of you all 😉

Thanks so much Sushila…We had a wonderful time and the cake you made will stay with us forever!!!

Thanks M…For taking the great pictures!

So here it is The French Chocolate Cake…by Martha Day

INGREDIENTS

150g caster sugar
275g plain chocolate chopped
175g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 tsp vanilla essence
5 eggs separated
40g plain flour sifted
Pinch of salt
Icing sugar for dusting

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 160°c. Grease a 24cm springform cake tin, sprinkle with a little sugar and tap out the excess

Place the chocolate, butter and sugar in a saucepan, cook over a low heat until melted. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla essence and leave to cool slightly

Beat the egg yolks, one at a time, into the chocolate mixture, then stir in the flour

Beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form. Beat one third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the rest

Pour into the the tin. Bake the cake for 35 to 45 minutes, until well risen and the top springs back when touched lightly. Transfer to a cooling rack. Remove the sides of the tin. Once cool, remove the tin base, dust with icing sugar, slice and serve with soft whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Black Eyed Beans & Aubergine Curry

My Mum can’t get enough of aubergines and I was so happy to see her inventive side come about again when I recently stumbled upon this particular curry in the fridge at our family home. Juicy aubergine full of flavour and the earthiness of the black eyed beans really does make this a fantastic combination.

I told my Mum, that I wanted to learn this curry immediately, so we set off and made it together! The result was delicious! Thanks Mum, I’m always learning from you!

Have a gorgeous day friends, much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

1 tin black eyed beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium aubergine
1 white onion chopped finely
1 large tomato diced
1 small green chilli finely chopped
1 tsp ginger puree
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
Salt to to taste
Pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin powder
Chopped coriander to garnish

METHOD

In a large saucepan, heat the oil on a medium heat with the mustard, cumin seeds and asafoetida. Once they start to pop add the onion, garlic and ginger. Sauté for a couple of minutes

Throw in the aubergine with the rest of the seasoning, combine well. Pour in half a cup of water and stir

Simmer gently for 7 minutes or until the aubergine has softened. Stir in the tomato puree along with the chopped tomatoes and black eyed beans

Simmer for a further 10 minutes on a low heat. Garnish with some fresh coriander. Serve with hot chapatis or naan bread

Corn & Mozzarella Poppers With Italian Herbs

Since starting my foodie group on Facebook, SHARING FOOD WITH SHIVAAY DELIGHTS. I have met sooo many lovely people. We have all formed a foodie friend community and today I present you with a guest recipe from a very talented and innovative cook and friend Suchit Save

Yesterday he put these poppers up online and had us all drooling!!! So I thought it wasn’t fair, if I didn’t share this superb creativity with all WordPress friends.
Suchit is always coming up with funky food recipes and thinks about flavours and components that go so well together. I feel he is always thinking about food as are we, so he is in great company. I’m trying to convince him to come and join us on the food blogging scene. I know he will have a lot to offer and everyone will take to his genuine down to earth personality and gorgeous food recipes!

I will be hosting guest recipes here more often to encourage those awesome cooks out there, that don’t blog, to blog! and post their recipes! As we are missing out on all this delicious food at the moment…I’m working on it 😉

A very BIG Thank you to Suchit for allowing me to showcase his food and here’s to much more! Have a wonderful day, full of food, love and laughter. Much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

1 cup boiled corn (Add salt, pepper a little butter and a stock cube for that added flavor)
1 cup boiled and mashed potatoes
Mozzarella Cheese (cubed as per your wish! I kept them a tad bit bigger as I want more cheese to filling ratio)
2 tsp Mixed Italian Herbs (Only Oregano and Chili flakes work best as well)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp garlic powder+ 1 tsp olive oil/1 tsp finely chopped garlic slowly cooked with a tsp of olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

METHOD

Combine all the above ingredients (except the mozzarella) and set aside. Now, take a tablespoon of the mixture and insert a mozzarella cube in the centre so that it is completely encased with the potato and corn mixture. Repeat till the filling is all used up.

Now here’s the fun part: Take 3 bowls…

Bowl 1: Maida + Salt + Paprika
Bowl 2: Egg (lightly beaten) with a little salt OR buttermilk (for vegetarians)
Bowl 3: Breadcrumbs

Dip the poppers in bowl 1 (shake off excess flour)
Then in bowl 2 (let the excess egg drip away) and finally into bowl 3 the breadcrumbs
Repeat for all poppers

Store poppers in the freezer for at least 15 mins before deep frying them to a golden brown!

Enjoy piping hot with any dip of your choice!

Thought For Thursday…

This quote really spoke to me yesterday when I came across it online.  We do think about the generations that came before us but I haven’t done so in this way.

We are all made of love, nurtured, fed, looked after and so the cycle of love and life keeps turning!

Such a beautiful and heartwarming thought ♡

Have a peaceful and love filled day!
Much love D x

Thankful Thursday

Yesterday evening I was greeted by a wonderful tweet from “Daddy’s Grounded.com” Husbands who must not be stopped!

I clicked on the link to find my husband’s praises being sung.  As you all know he loves cooking too and is my pillar of support!  He has contributed some gorgeous guest recipes that have been liked even more than mine!  I think he should start a blog of his own as he is always interested on how many likes and views he gets! 😉

I am so thankful for him and it is even more satisfying to see how appreciated he is in the blogging world.  Being titled as “Shivaay Delights’ Husband” made me giggle but also filled my heart with pride.
So here I take time out to say THANK YOU to my Husband! For everything he does!  My passion for Shivaay Delights is enforced by his love of food and him supporting me on this amazing journey!  Love you!

Be thankful today for all those you love and tell them!  It’s always nice to hear! Much love D x

The fresh baby leaf spinach penne featured above…

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Fresh Baby Leaf Spinach & Garlic Penne

Yesterday I had a really busy day! It was go go go! It was also very warm here in the UK so I didn’t really fancy anything too heavy to eat! We had some fresh baby spinach leaves in the fridge to be used and my husband decided to take control in the kitchen. Yay! dinner was going to be made for me! Wooo hooo! Whilst I carried to clean up after the kids….

I was treated to an aromatic and extremely tasty penne pasta salad with bright green spinach and glorious garlic running through it. Enough garlic to compliment the spinach and chilli flakes to lift the oil dressing. One pasta recipe I know I will be wanting again and again…Thanks H, lots of love xx

INGREDIENTS

1 packet of baby leaf spinach
3~4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt to taste
Dried red chilli flakes optional
Pre cooked fresh penne upon instruction

METHOD

Gently heat the garlic with the olive oil, mix and combine the oregano so that it infuses into the oil

Stir in the penne, making sure all the pasta is covered in oil. Season with salt, mix.
Tear in our roughly slice the fresh baby spinach leaves

Turn off the heat, sprinkle in the red chilli flakes and the spinach will wilt a little as you toss the pasta

Serve up with some grated parmesan or in my case some grated mature cheddar to add a sharpness to the dish