RAJMA TOMATO KATORI

Good for your health yet delicious, Something special and a great decorative and lovely looking dish.I created a simple recipe, keeping the fiber and protein content high as compared to the carbs. 

Add color and health to your plate with this Spicy Rajma Tomato Katori.
The halved tomatoes are deseeded by scooping out the pulp and stuffed with a spicy mix of Rajma with select seasonings.

I love spices in my salads and food.This dish is my ultimate favorite.
Eye-catching with an excellent taste.
must try.

INGREDIENTS:

Tomatoes, medium – 4, firm

Rajma / Red Kidney beans – 1 cup, boiled soft

Ginger – 1 tsp, finely chopped

Green chili – 1, chopped fine

Coriander leaves – 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Onions – 2 tbsp, chopped fine

Pomegranate pearls – 2 tbsp to garnish

Lemon Juice of 1/2 small lemon

Oil – 1/2 Tsp

Cumin seeds – 1/4 tsp

Red chili powder – 1/4 tsp

Turmeric – a pinch

Cumin powder, roasted – 1 Tsp

Green coriander chutney – 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preparing the Tomato Shells

1. Halve the tomatoes horizontally. Put them on the chopping board. Take a knife and cut the side adjoining membranes of the tomato to loosen the pulp.
2. Take a spoon and gently scoop the pulp out without making any holes on the walls of the tomatoes.
3. Now take the pointy half of the tomato. Slice the bottom of the tomato, without disturbing its inners, so that it can sit on its bottom without rolling. Refer the picture towards the end.

Preparing the Rajma / Kidney Beans Spicy Chaat

1. Heat 1/2 tsp of oil in the pan. Add cumin seeds, red chili powder, and turmeric powder.
2. Once cumin crackles, add rajma and salt to taste. Mash roughly with the back of the spoon.
3. Cook for 2 minutes and switch off the flame. Add chopped onions, cilantro leaves, ginger and green chili along with lemon juice and Green Coriander chutney. Toss well.

Serving 

1. When ready to serve, make your tomatoes sit on their bottoms on a serving tray.
2. Fill them up with 2 tbsp of Rajma filling. Sprinkle with few pomegranate pearls. Serve immediately.

NOTES:

• Always use very firm tomatoes.
• Always fill the rajma chaat in the tomato bowls, before serving. If you fill it in advance, it might make the tomato soggy.
• Reserve the pulp of the tomatoes and use in curry or sauces later. Don’t waste it.
• If you don’t like the raw tomato taste then you may bake it also in a baking dish for 8-10 minutes till tomatoes are slightly tender, at 180℃.
• You may use crunchy small bell peppers/capsicums instead of tomatoes.

Beauty Tips from Your Kitchen

Natural beauty is appreciated the world over. There are different aspects linked with being beautiful. One such link is people who are blessed with beautiful skin. Most people firmly believe that beauty is skin deep. Yes, literally too!

How healthy, radiant, hydrated and glowing your skin looks, says a lot about your natural beauty. Many people feel that real beauty doesn’t need any makeup or touch-ups to look good. If your skin is healthy, you’re good to go anywhere without any trace of makeup. 

However, the ever-changing weather conditions, high pollution and stressful lives call for the need of an intense skin care regimen. The more you care for your skin, the healthier and radiant it will be. 

Forget spending money on fancy facials and pricey products. Some of the best natural beauty secrets for glowing skin and shiny hair are hiding right in your kitchen.

1. Cloves

A traditional Indian spice that is used nearly in every Indian household, the power of cloves is extremely high and its usage widespread. It is a stimulating spice used vastly in face packs and tonics. Also, people who suffer from severe acne should use cloves in the following manner:

Take 10 ground cloves, 2 tsp fresh mint paste and 1 tsp gram flour. Mix with cold water and apply on the face. Once it is dry, wash off with iced cold water.

Because cloves have a stimulating effect on the skin, they make a wonderful skin tonic and astringent for the T-zone area of combination skins as well as oily skin types. You can make a skin tonic at home with the following ingredients:

Take 2 litres of water, 7 cloves, 1 pinch of camphor and a handful of fresh mint leaves. Simmer the solution until it reduces to half and let it cool. Refrigerate. This skin tonic can be used to wipe the skin several times a day and it helps reduce oiliness and refreshes the skin.

2. Almonds

Almonds have an extremely high content of vitamin E and their usage both externally and internally show effective results. 

Almond powder can be mixed with oatmeal and milk and used as a face mask and exfoliator to nourish dry dead looking skin.

 A fine paste of almonds mixed with grated raw potato and applied, as an eye mask will help cure dark circles. You can also use almond oil to massage the eyes to reduce dark circles and a tsp of almond oil added to warm milk helps nourish the body internally. 

I have seen the most beautiful faces who don’t take care of their hands. Make a thick paste of almond powder, fresh cream and sugar granules, lemon juice and massage into the skin until all the sugar granules have melted. Wash hands and pat dry to see fair, soft hands in just 5 minutes!

3. Tomatoes 

Tomatoes are acidic in nature and help to reduce excess oiliness on the skin. 

Take two firm tomato halves and rub on the skin.

 If you suffer from open pores, the regular use of tomato halves rubbed on the skin will help reduce open pores and clean the greasiest of skins. 

Because of the high content of Vitamin C and potassium, they also help reduce blackheads and nourish the skin externally.

4. Mayonnaise

A common salad dressing, it is made from simple everyday ingredients like egg, oil and lemon juice to form a powerful nourishing pack for dry dull skin. 

Smear mayonnaise over your face for 10 minutes and wash off to see smooth soft skin. Mayonnaise makes a fabulous hair nourisher for dry and frizzy hair. 

Massage a sufficient amount all over your scalp and hair and leave on like a hair nourishing pack for 20 minutes. If your hair is frizzy and dry, try this to reveal hair as soft as silk and with a gleam like sunbeams.

5. Milk:

Milk is the best source of calcium and is good for your bones and teeth. But, can milk be useful for Indian skin care? Yes, indeed!

• Cleanses Skin: Milk is a natural cleansing agent. Just mix about 2 teaspoons milk with 1 tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp lemon juice. Apply this on your face, leave for 15 minutes and wash off for clean and clear skin.

• Pack For Glowing Skin: Milk can be used along with ground almonds and olive oil, and applied as a face pack for instantly glowing skin. Prepare a paste by adding milk to about 1 tbsp ground almonds and 1 tsp crushed orange peel. Add about 2 to 3 drops of olive oil to this mixture. Apply this mixture and allow it to dry for about 20 minutes. Wash off and follow with an ice cube rub for awesomely glowing skin.

• Pack For Dry Skin: Milk is a blessing for those with dry skin. A mask prepared by adding milk to 1 mashed banana and honey can be applied to dry skin. Allow the mask to dry completely before washing off. Massage the washed off skin with a little milk to complete the moisturizing process.

• Exfoliates Skin: Milk can also be used as an exfoliating agent to get rid of dead skin cells. Lactic acid present in milk has natural exfoliating properties. Dissolve a pinch of salt in boiling water. Add 3 cups of milk to it, keeping aside the cream. Add about ½ a cup of lukewarm water and allow the mixture to stand for 20 minutes. Apply on your body and scrub off the dead skills with the help of a loofah. You can use this milk scrub twice a week for good results.

Now that you are familiar with some of the best natural ingredients, potter around to create your own beauty regime and see your skin and hair rejuvenate in no time at all!

Paan Shots mouth freshener drink

Made from Betel leaves; these Paan Shots are usually served after dinner or meals in restaurants back in India.A ridiculously easy to make drink that is packed with tons of flavour. Make this for your next party or just like that and serve to your family; I am sure they will absolutely love this.Paan Shots is a refreshing, mouth freshener drink that is inspired from the meetha pan that we Indians usually consume after a heavy meal.

eI must tell you guys it was such a refreshing drink!! I insist and highly recommend you to try this at home; you will absolutely love it.

Making this Paan Shots is no rocket science.

All you want is to get the flavour of meetha paan in a drink.

Basically all you need is a good quality mixer. I am using my Nutri-bullet just to crush the ice cubes or else our regular mixer will also do.

If you are in India, you can easily get this meetha paan masala from any street paan-wala or what we call “tapri” in Mumbaiya language..

But if you are not based in India; then you can find the small meetha paan in Indian stores that I am using in this recipe.

Anyways getting back to today’s Paan Shots flavours – its basically like drinking your meetha pan. The refreshing and soothing Paan leaves flavours when combined with sweet and aromatic gulkand and everyone’s favourite vanilla ice-cream can never go wrong. These flavours just gel so well that you will make this for your every party.

Paan Shots is a refreshing mouth freshner drink that is made using Paan (Betel leaves) and Gulkand. Usually served after meals or dinner

Ingredients

• 4 nos Fresh Betel leaves
• 1 no Meetha Paan Masala (Refer notes)
• 2 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 2 tsp Dessicated coconut
• 3 tbsp Gulkand
• 3 scoops Vanilla Ice-Cream
• 2-3 nos ice cubes
• 1/4 cup Water
• 2 tsp Sugar (optional)
• a drop of Green Food Colouring (optional)

Instructions

1. Tear apart the paan leaves using your hand and add to a mixer.
2. In the same mixer jar, add all the other ingredients except for water. Pulse together for few seconds.
3. Add water and food colour if using and blend until smooth. Do a taste test to see if you need sugar as gulkand already has some sugar in it. I added about 2 tsp of sugar and blended it again.
4. Pass it through a sieve and collect the smooth refreshing paan drink

To Serve

1. Take some black salt in a plate. Rim the edges of the shot glass with lemon wedge and directly invert it onto the salt to coat the rim.
2. Pour the paan drink into the shot glasses and enjoy.

Notes:
1. If you are unable to find meetha paan masala then just use 2 Meetha paan packets that you get in Indian stores; like the one I am using in the video.
2. Start by adding just 1/4 cup of water. Because more the diluted the drink will be; the lesser the flavour of the Paan Shots.
3. You can also use Milk instead of water here.
4. Refrigerate this Paan Shot until ready to serve and serve after dinner and enjoy it with your friends and family.                                                                                                                                                                                          

chai makes everything the best.

My Morning Cup of Tea: 

The first thing I do in the morning is put on the kettle and make myself some masalewali chai. I am not much of a coffee drinker mostly because I get too hyper although I love the taste of it and I will treat myself to a frothy latte once in awhile. The tea gives me just enough caffeine to get my day going and its especially tasty on a rainy day. :) My morning tea is really the only ritual I follow. With each sip, my spirit and soul are calmed. It might be the only moment of the day when I’m not multi-tasking.

There is nothing more comforting than hands wrapped around a cup of 'chai'.

Summer or winter, spring or autumn, the one thing that remains constant in my daily routine, is waking up to a cup of tea. It is my way to kick-start the day, as it is for millions of Indians in the country and around the world. And as much as I love my green tea at work, it really is good ol' chai,  Come monsoon, and chai becomes something of a necessity. Chai and pakodas while watching the raindrops fall pitter patter, could anything be more poetic?

Ingredients:

1.5  cup of Water  

1 cup of Milk 

1.5 tsp of Black tea

1 tsp of Ginger (grated) 

5-6 Tulsi leaves 

Method:

1. In a pan, boil the water and milk together. Add the freshly grated ginger.

2. When it starts boiling (and not before that), add the tea leaves.

3. Boil on low heat for around 2 minutes. Add tulsi and stir.

4. Continue boiling on low heat till the colour starts changing and the consistency becomes a little less watery (another 2-3 minutes).

1COMMENTS

5. Strain and serve hot.

kadhi wala doodh

kadhi wala doodh is a famous north Indian dessert or drink. It is simply milk with lot of dry fruits and some spices, cooked till reduced to almost half. So, in a way, it’s flavoured condensed milk. Generally, it’s served hot in earthen pots, but during summer, you can consume it chilled as well and it is always lip smacking, whether hot and chilled.

The beauty of this dessert is that there is no need for a particular recipe. You can use any type or amount of dry fruit and spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, saffron, cloves etc. Since my kids do not like too many spices, so I have used saffron and cardamom only. For sweetness, I used sugar for my kids.

Here is how I make ‘kadhi wala doodh’. You improvise it according to your taste and likings.

Ingredients

Milk	1 litre
Saffron	few strands
Cardamom powder	½ teaspoon
Dry fruits (pistachio, almonds, cashew, dates)	½ cup
Sugar/ non calorie sweetener	1-2 tablespoons/ 2 tablets

Method:

1. Blanch almonds and chop them finally. Similarly chop rest of the dry fruits also.
2. Put the milk in a heavy bottomed pan and keep it on fire.
3. Let it boil and then reduce the flame.
4. Let it simmer for 7-8 minutes on low flame.
5. A thin layer of malai will appear on the top. Just push this aside. In this way keep on moving the malai layer that is formed, to the side. This malai makes the milk very tasty.
6. Put saffron, cardamom powder and all the chopped dry fruit to the milk.
7. Continue simmering it, now with constant stirring as the milk, that has got thickened, may burn at the bottom if not stirred.
8. Add sugar or non calorie sweetener and remove from flame.
9. Serve hot or chilled topped with malai and pistachio.

This is where dessert meets milk, a quintessential Indian favourite . It’s simple, it’s bursting with goodness and flavour AND a big hit always. It’s quite similar to a thandai,

easy to glow from homemade scrubs

Tired of that dull looking skin in spite of trying your best? Missing the glow your face once dazzled with? Well, it’s time you stop looking for temporary solutions and scrape off the root cause of all the gloominess…literally! Your beautiful charms and fresh radiance are trapped below a stubborn layer of dead and dried skin cells. Until you cast off this unwanted layer, your skin will not relive its supple charms. Wondering how you can do that? Well, the answer is exfoliation with a homemade face scrub!

Scrubbing the skin gently not only scrapes off the dead skin but also pulls out the settled impurities, blackheads and even tanning. Wait now, don’t rush to the supermarket yet! We say chuck those over-the-counter scrubs that come loaded with chemicals/allergens and go natural. Here is our collection of best homemade face scrubs for a glowing skin. You will be surprised to see just how magical your kitchen can be.

Note: Do not exfoliate if your skin has active acne as exfoliation can pop them up. Also, do not exfoliate with a face scrub if you have skin conditions like burns or blisters.

Coconut oil, lemon juice & baking soda

Combine 3 Tbsp. of softened (not melted) coconut oil with 1 tsp. of fresh lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. of baking soda. Apply to face with clean hands and leave on for one minute before gently washing off with a warm cloth.

Honey, apple cider vinegar & sea salt

Combine 3 Tbsp. of raw honey with 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar and 1 Tbsp. of sea salt (not iodized salt). Apply to face with clean hands and leave on for one minute before gently washing off with a warm cloth.

Rice Flour Yogurt Scrub

Mix rice flour with plain fat free yogurt and scrub your face gently in upward circular movements.

Orange peel yogurt facial scrub

Orange peel powder is readily available in the market which you can buy and use. If you cannot get orange peel powder, you can dry orange peels in the sun, powder it finely and store it in an air tight container. Take a tbsp of orange peel powder, mix it with a tsp of plain fat free yogurt and make a paste. Add water if needed to adjust the consistency. Use it as a face scrub.

Almond scrub

Almond flour with a tbsp of milk makes a good scrub. Alternatively you can soak 5-6 almonds for 4-5 hours, remove the skin and grind it to a fine paste with milk. After scrubbing for 5-6 minutes, leave it on the face to dry, then rinse off with warm water. Persons with oily skin can replace milk with rose water.