Beetroot Sago Payasam | Easy Festival Recipes & Celebrating 400th Post...

I like beetroots but the worst part that I hate about them is prepping them up. It needs time, plenty of time to slice them and cut them into cubes. And so I mostly go for the grating option. But one thing nice about them is that they don't go bad that easily. And so I buy beetroots, just to stack them up in the far-east corner of my fridge. And then I stack some broccoli on to top of them, not to forget the carrots, beans and cabbage and then I forget them. Its that simple, I forget them literally. I remember them only when I clean my fridge the next week.

This payasam happened because I found a single lonely fellow(beetroot) hiding behind my veggies. He was small, alone and was in need of help. All options striked out, with no vision of what I am gonna do, I simply steam cooked it and thought of making a milkshake but then a kheer sounded more delicious and just right for dessert after the finger-licking chicken biryani that we had had for lunch. Thick, creamy and rich in flavor, this payasam is perfect warm or cold!!!

On that note, I am happy to tell you that this is my 400th post... Really happy that I am here and thanks to all my readers and fellow bloggers for all the support and encouragement that you have given throughout this journey of mine.

Makes - 2 cups; Serves - 2; Cooking time - 20 mins; Prep time - 10 mins ~*What U Need*~ Beetroot puree - 1/4 cup Sago pearls - 1/4 cup Milk - 1 1/2 cups Water - 1/2 cup Sugar - 4 tbsp (adjust per taste) Cardamom powder - a pinch Ghee - 1 tbsp Cashews - 2 tbsp Raisins - few How I Made it: Cook a medium- sized beetroot for 3 whistles and blend to puree. Soak sago in water for 30 mins. Heat water in a saucepan and when boiling add the soaked sago and cook till transparent. Add milk and cook till reduced to 3/4 th. Add the beetroot puree and cook till the raw smell goes off. Add sugar to taste and cook till thick or till it reaches the desired consistency. Meanwhile heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry the cashews and raisins. Add this to the payasam, followed by the cardamom powder and allow to boil for few mins. Remove from flame.

Serve warm or chilled (tastes best when cold)!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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Eggless Beet Chocolate Cake

It's hard, it's really hard when you take a sabbatical from work. And in my world sabbatical means "I-don't-know-how-much-long-this-break-is-going-to-be". I am not blaming this period. It's good, way-to-good, out-of-the-world-good. But at times, I would love to have some me-time. Like sitting alone, huddled in the couch with F.R.I.E.N.D.S or Grey's Anatomy playing non-stop, sipping a cup of piping hot vanilla latte... Do you get me??? And then something to keep me occupied. Other than blogging. Something like an 8 hour work. Meetings, conferences, onsite calls, status updates, stress, pressure and more. Oh how I wish I was back to work...

I thank that I am at least upto blogging. A stress reliever, I would say. When the kid takes his afternoon nap, I would be there in front of my laptop, composing a post or bloghopping with my cup of hot coffee to give me company. And then there is baking. A comforter in fact. I bake when I am happy, I bake when I am down, I bake for birthdays and I bake for my son... And the 22nd of every month is a pretext for me to bake. Its a ritual but that does not mean that I have to bake, I could make sweets too but I bake, just another pretext. Its been a long time since I made a chocolate cake and so I knew immediately what I would bake for the 22nd.

Also the beetroot puree that was sitting in my fridge had to be put into use. I have seen recipes combining chocolate and beetroot in cakes and so was browsing for some easy recipes. And talking about the beetroot puree, that is another story which I will be sharing in another post. I came across this recipe accidentally in one of my facebook food communities and the ease of the recipe got me hooked to it. Its simple, healthy and the result is soft, moist and yummy cake. I used unbleached all purpose flour but to make it all the more healthy use wheat flour just as the recipe tells.

Makes: 9 medium squares or one 8x8 square cake; Baking time: 30 mins; Prep time: 15 mins Adapted from Loovefoodeat ~*What U Need*~ Unbleached All purposse flour - 1 1/4 cup Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup Baking soda - 1 tsp Baking powder - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Unsalted Butter - 1/4 cup, softened Sugar - 1/2 cup Brown sugar - 1/4 cup Buttermilk - 1 cup Beetroot puree - 1/2 cup, boil and puree beetroots How I Made it: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 8x8 inch square pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt. Whisk well. In another bowl, mix butter and sugar and beat till light and fluffy. Next add the pureed beetroots and buttermilk and mix well. Add this to the dry ingredients and fold gently. Pour this into the greased cake pan and bake for 30 mins or till done. Cool completely and slice.

Serve warm with some cold milk!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

Interested!!! Click to read more...

Beetroot Chapathi with Dried Methi Leaves

Whenever I go away from my home for a vacation, I make it a point that I clean all the easily perishable veggies from my fridge or at least handover them to my MIL so that I don't waste anything. So the week when I went to my native, I started cleaning up my fridge starting Monday. There was a fresh batch of curd which turned up as a tall glass of lassi, carrots and radish which made themselves into a refreshing salad, again radishes and 2 small beets. Knew wat I could make out of the radishes but the beets were too small to make a stir fry for 2. So I thought of this healthy and colorful beetroot chapathi.

~*What u need*~

Wheat flour - 2 cups
Beetroot(medium) - 1
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt
Oil - for toasting
Dried Methi Leaves - as needed

How I Made it:

Grate the beetroot and cook the beetroot for 3-4 mins. I kept it in microwave high for 2 mins. Remove and cool it.
Grind the cooled beetroot to a smooth paste along with the cumin seeds, ginger and chilli powder. Add very little water and make a smooth puree out of it.

Sprinkle required amount of salt and oil to the wheat flour and mix well.
Knead the flour to chapathi dough consistency by adding beetroot puree slowly to it. Add water if needed
Cover the dough and allow it to rest for 15-20 minutes.
Make medium size balls out of it. Roll it out once using the rolling pin, take 1 tsp of dried methi leaves, place it in the center of the dough and roll out as usually. Apply more pressure in the region of the methi leaves to press it into the dough. However you will see some leaves coming off during toasting... Thats OK... Repeat with the entire dough.
Toast each chapathi in a hot tawa on both sides till brown spots appear adding little oil.

Serve hot with any curry or raitha. We had it with a simple Radish raitha and Mint Coriander Chat chutney.

Notes:
You can substitute the chilli powder with green chilli.
I had 2 small beetroots which was not sufficient enough to make a stir fry and hence I used both the beets for this recipe and that is why my chapathi looks so bloody red. Try using 1 medium beetroot as suggested and you will get the right color (... I guess)...

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