Avocado egg rolls

I had these rolls for the first time in 'Cheesecake Factory' and have become a huge fan of them since....I tried  recreating them at home and they turned out to be good :) Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

• Avocados - 4
• Store bought egg roll wraps / spring roll wraps
• Green chillis - 2-3(depends on your taste) minced
• Onion - 1/2 an onion-finely chopped
• Cilantro - a few sprigs finely chopped
• Sun dried tomatoes - 2-3 wedges diced
• Salt - to taste
• Pepper - to taste
• Oil - for deep frying

Directions:

• Dice the avocados and place the diced avocados in a mixing bowl.
• To this,add the diced tomatoes, minced chillis,chopped onions,cilantro,salt and pepper and mix well. Mash the avocado with the back of a spoon,but make sure that it still remains a little chunky.
• Place a tablespoon full of this mixture in the center of the wrap & fold it into the shape of a spring roll. You can find the directions on the cover of the wraps itself. :)
• Heat oil in a pan and once the oil is hot, drop in the rolls and fry till they turn golden brown.
• Serve hot with a sweet and sour cilantro+cashew sauce.

Ingredients for the cilantro+cashew dipping sauce:

• Cilantro - 1.5 cups
• Cashew - 1/2 cup
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Tamarind pulp - 1 tsp
• Balsamic vinaigrette - 2 tbsp ( this has the vinegar,olive oil and the herbs,so I did not have to add the ingredients separately.  :P)
• Garlic - 1 pod 
• Salt - to taste

Directions:

• Grind all the ingredients together into a coarse paste and voila you have your dipping sauce ready!

Banana Walnut Muffins

Hello peeps,

Its been quite some time since I've posted something on my blog...have been busy with loads of stuff..Anyways,now that I'm back with my favorite pass time(cooking!!),I started off with baking again.

 I bought some bananas during the weekend,with the idea of eating 1 every day,diligently...well...you can say that the plan dint quite work out. Today,I noticed that they were on the verge of becoming over ripe..so...that was when the idea of banana walnut muffins struck me!

Ok,enough talk...lets start baking!!!


Ingredients: 

• 3-4 ripe bananas
• 1 cup chopped/broken walnuts
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Salt - a pinch
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Salt - a pinch

Directions:

• In a bowl,mash the bananas and to this,add the egg,melted butter,sugar,salt, coffee,vanilla extract & make sure all the ingredients are incorporated well into the mashed bananas. Once done,stir in the chopped walnuts.
• Next,add the flour(I've sifted the flour & the baking soda together) & mix well to ensure that there are no lumps in the batter.
• Line the muffin tray with liners & pour the batter in,till it fills up to 3/4 of the muffin cup.
• Place the tray in a preheated oven at 350 F and bake for 25-30 mins,or till the toothpick comes out clean once it is inserted into the center of the muffin.

Kaju Burfi

Hello peeps,


Festival time is here!! Time to indulge in some rich,delicious treats...so let's start off with one of my fav sweets...kaju burfi(also known as kaju katli/katri)..I couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered that this is one of the easiest recipes ever...check it out:


Ingredients :

•  2 cups cashew nuts
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• a pinch of saffron - optional

Directions:

• Grind the cashew nuts into a coarse powder.
• In a heavy bottomed pan,add the sugar+ water & boil it for 10 minutes on medium heat (the syrup should get a string consistency). {you can add saffron to the syrup-optional}
• In another pan (preferably a non stick one),dry roast the cashew powder for less than a minute.Do not roast the powder too much,coz this will make the burfi oily.
• Now,add the hot syrup to the roasted cashew powder & mix well to avoid any lumps. Keep stirring to prevent the mixture from burning at the bottom of the pan.
• Once the mixture starts leaving the edges of the pan & it becomes a little firm (not too much,the burfi will harden once it cools down,so make sure that u can still pour the mixture onto a plate,but at the same time,it is not too runny),pour the mixture onto a greased plate.
• Let the mixture cool down a bit & then cut it into diamond shaped burfis. Store them in an airtight container.
• If you have an edible silver foil,you can decorate the burfi with it.