Carrot Pachadi

Here is another recipe that I always make when I make a sadya. Pachadi is one of  Aishwarya's favorite  sadya dishes. It is also very easy to make, which is another reason I love it.
Ingredients:
Carrots – 2
Yogurt – 3/4 cup
Oil – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Shallots- 1 to 2
Ginger- 1/4 tsp chopped
Green chilies – 2
Curry leaves – few
Method :
Clean the carrots and shred them. Add salt, ginger, and finely sliced shallots, mix well with your hands.
Whisk yogurt and add the shredded carrot mix. Mix well and check for salt. If it’s thick, add some more yogurt. In a pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds, add green chilies and curry leaves, and give it a stir and remove from heat. Add it to the carrot yogurt mixture and mix well.

Olan

Vishu is almost here and I thought of sharing an Olan recipe. Olan is one of the easiest sadya dishes. I have made this the way  we make it in Thrissur. Do try and let me know
Ingredients:
Kumbalanga(Ash Gourd)-2 cups(small pieces)
Thick Coconut Milk-1 cup
Thin coconut milk-1 cup
Green chilli-2
Ginger sliced-1tbs
Curry leaves-2 sprig
Salt – to taste
Coconut Oil -1 tbsp
Method:
Cook Ash gourd in half a cup of water and half a cup coconut milk(thin coconut milk) along with green chilli,ginger,a few curry leaves and a salt. By 10 minutes it would be done cooking,add the thick milk and when the milk is heated through add coconut oil and remaining curry leaves.

Cheesecake brownies

I had been so busy with things that I had no time to sit and write a blog post for a long time. But today being my blog anniversary I felt the need to update it and to thank my readers for keeping visiting the site even when I had been MIA. This dessert was a treat Aishwarya made for her Mom and Dad who couldn't decide on a single dessert. She asked us our choice of dessert she would like to make for us and I said I wanted a cheese cake and Jai wanted a brownie. So our sweet little girl as she didn't want to disappoint either one of us found this and made this. It is sweet and wonderful as our little darling!
Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Blogaversary Sugar 'N Spice!
And once again a big THANKS to all my wonderful readers!

 Cheese cake part:

Ingredients

1 packages (8oz) cream cheese (I recommend Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
Method:
Beat all filling ingredients together until well mixed and set aside.

Brownie part:

Ingredients

1 box of Ghirardelli brownie mix
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1 egg

Method:
Mix ingredients until well blended. Pour into a 9"x13" greased pan.

After you have poured the brownie batter into your greased pan, start adding spoonfuls of the cream cheese layer to about 6 points spread out on the brownie layer. Then use a knife or spoon and drag it length-wise across the pan at about four points. Next, go cross-wise in the pan about 4 times. You should start seeing the marbled pattern of brownie and cream cheese combining. Do this a few more times. Repeat till you finish all the cream cheese.

Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly dry (keeping in mind that the cream cheese layer may stick a little more to the toothpick than batter).

Enjoy!

Wheat Halwa

Wishing all my friends a Happy Diwali. Here is a delicious wheat halwa to sweeten your day! 

Recipe source:Rakskitchen
Ingredients:
Whole wheat (Wheat berries) - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 & 1/2 cup
Cashew nut - 8
Ghee - 3/4 cup
Cardamom- few

Method
Wash and soak the wheat berries overnight(or 8 hrs). Drain the water, grind it with 1/2 cup water till smooth. Strain it using a large metal strainer. Grind the remaining unground with another 1/2 cup water. Strain through a metal strainer.
Keep the collected milk from the ground wheat aside for 30 minutes undisturbed. Drain the excess water. Heat  a heavy bottom nonstick pan, add 1 tbsp of ghee and fry broken cashew nuts until golden brown and  set aside. Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp of water to it. Continue heating in medium flame, keep stirring. Sugar will melt, and  turn golden. At this point you should put the flame to low. Make sure you stir all the time when the sugar syrup turns golden in color. Then add 1 cup water (it may splutter at this point so be careful). Stir well so that the caramelized sugar gets dissolved, it will take a few minutes.
Now add the remaining sugar and mix until it dissolves. Continue boiling until you get one string consistency.  Be careful not to miss the consistency, make sure you do it in medium flame otherwise you will get burfi instead of halwa. Add the drained wheat milk.
Keep mixing as you are pouring. The color will change as the milk gets cooked.
Now start adding ghee little by little, say one tbsp at a time and mix until the ghee gets mixed with the halwa  It will absorb (incorporate the ghee)  as you mix and stir for a minute and repeat the process.
At one stage, the ghee will not be absorbed anymore, it will remain as such. All this process should be done in medium heat stirring all the while.  When the whole halwa sticks to your laddle you are stirring with and rotates freely,  add  cashew nuts. Do not switch off now.The texture will be too soft like porridge. Keep stirring until you see whitish spots appear in the halwa. The whole halwa will start turning slightly pale and the ghee will start to ooze out. Mix in the cardamom powder.
Spread the halwa over a greased plate and let it cool down. Optionally you can cut it into pieces or spoon it as such to serving bowls.