Kaddu Ki Kheer

Eid-ul-Fitr Celebrations after the month of Ramadhan

Eid Mubarak Everyone!

Alhamdulillah its been a wonderful Eid, May Allah accept all our Duas and make us better Muslims inshallah.

I prepared Kaddu ki Kheer on the second day of the celebrations of the Eid-ul-Fitr, after coming back from work. Its a pity that its not a public holiday on the religious festivals. I think, especially in a multi-cultural place like Canada, this should definitely be given a thought.

Kaddu Ki Kheer – Bottle Gourd Milk Pudding

Kheer is one the most delicious, simple and quick pudding or dessert to prepare. I usually use rice, bottle-gourd, sago, potato and sweet-potato to prepare different varieties of Kheer. The basic steps remain the same, boiling milk with sugar, cardamom, nuts and saffron for flavor. 

Kaddu Ki Kheer – Bottle Gourd Milk Pudding

Ingredients:

• Bottle Gourd/Kaddu – small sized, 400 gms (approx)
• Full fat or Low fat Milk - 2 1/2 cups
• Chopped Pistachios – 1 tbsp
• Sliced Almonds – 1 tbsp
• Chopped Walnuts – 1 tbsp
• Chopped Raisins – 1 tbsp
• Milk Powder – 1/4 cup
• Sugar – 55 gms
• Ground Cardamom seeds – a pinch
• Saffron strands/Zafraan – a pinch

Method:

• Wash, peel and remove the seeds from the bottle gourd, reserve only the flesh. Shred it either in a food processor or using a grater.
• Pour 2 cups milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer heat and let it cook uncovered for 10 mins. Keep an eye on it, so that it does not boil away.
• Dissolve the milk powder in the remaining 1/2 cup milk. Pour this into the saucepan. Also add the shredded bottle gourd, ground cardamom seeds, sugar and chopped nuts.
• Let it cook for 10 more minutes on simmer. As the milk cooks it begins to turn light yellow in colour, and gets more richer and cremier. Once done, remove from heat and serve warm or cold.

(Note: To make it more rich for a special occasion and for an indulgence, you can even use Condensed milk and Khoa in the recipe)

Luv,
Mona

Turai Gosht

Turai (in Urdu) or Ridged Gourd (in English) is my and my family’s all time favorite vegetable. We all love this humble vegetable a lot. It is mostly an Indian vegetable, so not very easily found here, but when I happen to spot some in the market, I quickly buy a few. This curry/Salan, about which I am going to write today, is a classic Turai preperation in my house which we usually love to have along with some warm rotis for lunch or dinner. For a vegetarian version, you can simply omit the meat and cook the Turai for a comforting vegetarian meal.

Turai are dark green or green in colour with hard ridges running from its head to its bottom. They are available in various sizes. I describe the taste of Turai slightly sweetish and a little bland, hence it easily absorbs the flavors of the other ingredients it is cooked along. When you buy them, look for younger ridged gourds, as if you end up buying the mature ones, they are usually fibrous and not edible. Inside its flesh is full of water, so you need not add more water while you cook Turai.

Turai or Ridge Gourd                     Chopped Turai

To prepare it, you need to peel the gourd with a vegetable peeler, wash and pat dry it with paper towels, slice them lengthways into two, and chop them up into semi-circular discs of a thickness of around a centimeter each. The gourd being quite bland in taste, absorb the sweetish flavor of the onions, and the tangy taste of tomatoes. You will love this simple Indian curry.

Turai Gosht – Ridged Gourd in Lamb meat and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• Ridged Gourd/Turai – 4, young and fresh, peeled, rinced and chopped
• Canola Oil – 2 tbsp 
• Finely sliced Yellow Onion – 400 gms
• Lamb meat – 300 gms, cut into bite size pieces
• Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
• Canned tomato paste – 2 tbsp
• Fresh Ripe Red Tomato – 1, chopped
• Red Chilli powder -  2 tsp
• Salt – to taste

Turai Gosht – Ridged Gourd in Lamb meat and Tomato Sauce

Method:

• In a pressure cooker at medium heat, pour oil and as soon as it gets warm, add the onion, meat, turmeric and salt. Let it cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup water and pressure cook it till the meat is tender.
• Later, open the lid of the cooker and add the chopped ridged gourd/turai, tomato paste, chopped fresh tomato and red chilli powder. Half cover with the lid and let it cook on medium for 10 minutes. Keep stirring it occasionally. Close the heat once the ridged gourd is well-cooked. Serve warm.

Suggested Accomapniments: Serve along with some warm Rotis, or along with Basmati Chawal/Khushka or Plain Rice and Khatti Dal for a simple and delicious meal.

Luv,
Mona

Kaddu Ke Chilke Ka Saalan

This is one the dish I love a lot, and have so many memories associated with it. When I would hear that my Lovely Mom has prepared Kaddu Ke Chilke Ka Salan for the meal tonight, I used to look forward for the meal so earnestly.

Two Bottle Gourds 

Bottle Gourd is a very humble vegetable. Not many people like it, and it is not a favorite of many people. But it is quite nutritious, delicious, healthy, and perfect for weight watchers! Its delicate nutty flavor provides a great taste to dishes. This particular recipe uses the peels of bottle gourd and it is one no-fuss yummy curry which you will all love.

 

Kaddu Ke Chilke Ka Saalan – Bottle Gourd Peels with Lentils Curry

Tip : While I the peel the bottle gourd, I take care not to peel it too thin if I plan to prepare this curry out of the Peels. I peel them about half a centimetre thick (about 5 millimeters). This is because a little bit of the flesh (magz) along with the peel gives a great taste to this curry. Usually I prepare this curry with Split Bengal Gram/Chana Dal but you can prepare it even along with Yellow Split Peas/Toor Dal. It truns out equally delicious.

Kaddu Ke Chilke Ka Saalan – Bottle Gourd Peels with Lentils Curry

Ingredients:

• Bottle Gourd Peels/Kaddu Ke Chilke – 400 gms, cut into small bite size strips
• Yellow Split Peas/Toor Dal or Split Bengal Gram/Chana Dal – 1/2 cup
• Tomato paste/Pasta Sauce - 2 tbsp or Fresh diced Tomato – 1 small
• Red Chilli Powder – 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt – 2 tsp or to taste
• Canola Oil/Sunflower Oil – 1 tsp
• Fried Yellow Onions paste - 1 cup

Method:

• Soak the dal in two cups water overnight(optional). Drain and Cook the dal in two cups water till they are soft but still can hold their shape well. Drain and reserve.
• In an another saucepan, put the cut Bottle gourd peel strips with around 3 cups water and a pinch of salt and let it boil once, then simmer it with closed lid until the peels are tender. This can take about 30 minutes. Or you can simply pressure cook for a little while.
• Later add your favorite pasta sauce or tomato paste or fresh diced tomatoes, red chilli powder, salt, oil and fried onions to it. Give a good stir.
• Gently add the cooked Dal and mix it well. Cover the lid and let it cook for 3-5 minutes. Keep checking it in between if it is sticking to the bottom of the pan. You can add a little water if it becomes too dry. Serve it hot.

Suggested Accompaniments:It tastes heavenly along with a warm Roti or a Paratha. I usually devour upon it just plain along with nothing!

Luv,
Mona

Qush-Rang Kaddu ka Saalan and some Panicky Situations..

I will never forget what I went through on April 30, 2008, those moments of acute angst!

It was one of the most dreadful days I had ever faced. Like everyday when I had logged into my wordpress account (I was posting an entry to Click-Au Naturel!) I noticed there were so many error messages saying that my ‘wp-posts’ and ‘wp-categories’ table has somehow suddenly crashed and they were all nothing but Greek and Latin to me. That gave me moments of panic and fearfulness, I was not able to post anything, my ‘entire blog’ had crashed and I had no idea how I would rectify the mess. It was all horrible. I quickly mailed some of my contacts including couple of bloggers and the company which hosts my blog and WordPress for help. Everyone was with me supporting me and asked me to have faith. I had given up my hopes and thought I had lost it all, my blog, which I had built with deep and ardent affection.. all my love..

My hubby too was upset for me and he tried to help me by every possible way. At around evening, he opened my blog on a browser window and voila! my blog was all alive, and everything was working. When I saw that, my happiness knew no bounds and I was so happy, thrilled and relieved. I was all in tears and very gratuful to those who quickly worked on my blog. I pray and hope that no blogger has to face this ever in their life!

Right now I am so much more in love with my blog. I have put in so much effort to build up this website, which sort of defines me and is a medium to express my love for cooking with the world I live in. This is when I was thinking of the precautionary methods we all bloggers should be ready with every moment for situations like these and I found some very informative posts here, here and here. I request all the bloggers to always maintain a backup of their entire blog, a database backup and a backup of their actual blog on a very rugular basis, may that be daily, weekly, or monthly or after every new post they publish.

Anyways, Life is back to normal again, and I thank my God immensely. I had been to the grocery mart a few days back and saw these very beautiful looking Bottle Gourds and I quickly bought them home. I had not ever before seen such cute little brightly colored bottle gourds in my life. I was sending these to the Click – Au Natural Event yesterday when it all happened!

Two Kaddu or Bottle Gourds 

I was in the mood of experimenting in my kitchen and I searched my refrigerator for ingredients. I found some Halal Chicken Sausages, Frozen peas ..  and I quicky came up with this idea and it was one brightly colored and appealingly delicious curry. We had it along with Roti.

Khush-Rang Kaddu Ka Saalan – Bright Colored Bottle Gourd Curry 

Ingredients:

• Bottle Gourd – 1, approx 400 gms, peeled and cut into quarters
• Chicken Sausages – 4
• Frozen peas – 2 cups
• Canola Oil – 2 tbsp
• Dried or Fresh Curry leaves – 4-5
• Ginger – 1 inch, finely chopped
• Yellow Onion – 1, large, sliced thin
• Salt – 1 1/2 tsp
• Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
• Turmeric – 1/3 tsp

Khush-Rang Kaddu Ka Saalan – Bright Colored Bottle Gourd Curry 

Method:

• Pour oil into a saucepan at medium high heat and as soon as it warms up, throw in the sliced onion, as they begin to brown up, add the chopped garlic and chopped chicken sausage and curry leaves and stir fry it for a minute more.
• Add the quartered bottle gourd, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric and pour in some water and cover the lid. Let it cook until the bottle gourd is tender (You can add more water if needed, but do not add too much water, the curry should be pretty dry when done).
• Open the lid and add the frozen peas and let it cook for 5 minutes more. Taste and check it if the spices are adequate for your taste and add more if needed. Remove it from heat and Serve it warm.

Suggested Accompaniments: You can have these with any kind Rotis for a filling meal and a cup of flavored yoghurt.

I’m glad I got my entire blog back and am very very thankful to my hosting company who worked on retrieving my blog and bringing it back to life and in action again! I’m thrilled!! 

Luv,
Mona

Kaddu ka Meetha

I am not much of a ’Mithai‘ person, I do not like Sweets/Mithai’s. Just yesterday I had to attend a party and those guys gifted me some Laddu’s and the one to have them are everyone besides me in this house !

I usually prefer sweets/desserts that are light, with not too much sugar, infact only a hint of sugar in it. My hubby bought some Bottle gourds, and i thought of preparing this Meetha/Sweet dish out of it, for my family. Its quite dry Meetha, and can be varied according to your tastes. This is my sisters version of Kaddu Ka Meetha. Bottle gourd is a simple and humble vegetable which is not much loved my many people. An hence they do not try it, or have it quite often. This unattractive vegetable is low in saturated fats and is hence good for weight loss. Try it out.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:-

• Bottle gourd/Kaddu – 1, medium sized, approx 500 gms, peeled and grated
• Milk – 1 cup
• Khoa – 2 tbsp
• Green Cardamom – 3
• Butter – 1 1/2 tbsp
• Sugar – 1 1/2 cup
• Almonds – thinly sliced

 

Kaddu Ka Meetha - Bottle Gourd Sweet Dish

Method:-

• In a heavy bottom sauce pan on medium heat, put the grated bottle guard and add water so that the water stays 1 cm above the level of the grated bottle guard and cook it stirring occasionally till almost dry.
• At this point add milk and let it cook again for 7 minutes.
• When the milk in the pan has almost dried, add khoa, and keep mashing the mixture slightly stirring continously with hardwood spoons preferably.
• Remove the seeds from two green cardamoms and grind them into a fine powder.
• Add cardamom powder, the whole cardamom and butter. Stir well.
• Now add sugar keep stirring it. You can add more or less sugar as your wish. Let it cook again until the oil seperates.
• Pour it out into a bowl and garnish with thinly sliced almonds.