Thursday, December 22, 2016

Best of year 2016

I stubled upon this event by chance while looking for events I could participate in ..
http://www.cooking4allseasons.in/2016/12/announcing-the-best-of-year-2016-event.html

As the post says, we can choose anything or all from -
1. Top 5 or 10 recipes of the year
2. Best dish of the month
3. Best recipe prepared from other blogs
4. Best Meal of the year
5 New things discovered in the year (can include anything related to cooking)
6. Best post or picture for each month or year
7. New blogs discovered
8. Cooking resolutions for the Year 2017!

I would like to share some of these -

2. Best dish of the month is definitely Kiwi Marmalade !
https://ambrotos.blogspot.com/2016/12/kiwi-marmalade-in-instant-pot.html


3. Best recipe prepared from other blogs is Smashed Potatoes
https://ambrotos.blogspot.com/2016/11/smashed-potatoes.html


5 New things discovered in the year (can include anything related to cooking)
This is definitely the Instant pot !!It made life so easy. I even use it sometimes to make tea :-)

https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ

Friday, December 16, 2016

Sugar pumpkin halwa

Ingredients -
sugar pumpkins ๐ŸŽƒ
ghee
sugar

Recipe-
I steamed the whole pumpkin in the instant pot and then cut in half. I removed the seeds and saved some to plant at Bhaiya's home. I then removed the pulp and pulsed on high for a minute in the food processor.
Add ghee, once heated, add the pumpkin pulp and let it cook for a few minutes. Keep stirring in between. Sugar pumpkin has its own natural sweetness so when you add sugar now, keep that in mind ! Stir for sometime after adding sugar and let the halwa thicken. That's it - halwa is ready !

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Kiwi marmalade In the instant pot!



We got kiwis in bulk from Costco and they turned out sour ๐Ÿ˜ก We tried keeping them on the counter for about a week with no change. Then it was time to turn them to a pulp. 

On the left is a pic of the rose mithai that Niket got from his colleague from Iran. I had never tasted these earlier and they were awesome !

Ingredients - 
Kiwis- about 10
Sugar - 1.5 times quantity of kiwi pulp
 
Recipe-  
Chop the kiwis. Most recipes I checked called for peeling which I was too lazy to do. I first steamed them in the instant pot. I added some water to the chopped kiwis and steamed for 3 minutes, Natural release. 
Once the pressure was released, I added the sugar , stirring until disolved. I let this mix be on saute for a while- maybe about 15-20 mins. It turned a dark brown as the sugar caramelised. Switch off and let it cool before keeping in jars. We finished this in about 10 days.

 

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Ghee in the instant pot - made from butter

This was so easy ! Here's my recipe - 
Store bought butter - I used 24 ounces

Recipe-
Turn on instant pot in Saute mode. Add the butter, let it melt and come to aboil. Turn on slow cook mode and set it for 1.5 hours. Once this is done, saute for 10-15 mins. I think I did this longer and my result was a dark brown. Nevertheless it was tasty !
Allow it to cool. Filter through sieve into bottle. This was my yield. I used salted butter hence the filtered brown stuff cannot be eaten directly. I am going to add it to dals and other dishes!

 
 

Friday, December 2, 2016

Grapefruit marmalade- pressure cooker and super quick !

Grapefruit marmalade made in the instant pot :-)
Ingredients -
1 large grapefruit sliced and bigger seeds removed
1 cup water or minimum that's needed for the cooker to come to pressure
double the amount of sugar
(if the grapefruit is 1 cup, you need 2 cups sugar) I used 4

Method-
place the slices and water in pressure cooker. Steam for 10 mins. I used steam function on my instant pot. Let it NR naturally release pressure. Open and give it a good mix. Also savor in your house smelling so good with that citrusy flavor ๐Ÿ˜€
Add double the quantity of sugar. Check taste. Keep in sautรฉ mode for about 10 minutes and do not allow to stick to bottom. Since I didn't remove the pith mine was slightly bitter but still yummy !
There is another way to do this and I couldn't do that beCause my grapefruit was halved already -
if you are using a whole grapefruit, steam it whole in the pressure cooker and discard the water. This will remove the bitterness but will take time to thicken. You can also peel and remove the white pith for sweeter taste. 

Also check orange marmalade recipe here - 
http://ambrotos.blogspot.com/2016/11/orange-marmalade-in-instant-pot.html