A family who loves Chocolate would go to any extent to have chocolate in different forms…LOlzzz. Trust me, I try to make chocolate in all ways and forms possible. One of the best creations I ever did was making my own chocolate Ice cream which didn’t just make an excellent dessert by itself , but a perfect base for so many different desserts.
Chocolate Milkshake is super easy if you have chocolate Ice cream and want to serve your guests with something fancier, this is your go to dessert drink. My Boys love it as an after school snack or to entertain their friends on a play. Honestly, I have never seen an adult leave even a sip behind when served, so basically, its just a super fab Chocolate shake.
I used my home made chocolate Ice cream, little heavy cream, little sugar and milk. I made sure that the milk and cream were chilled before using. Blending the ingredients together, not only turns them into more liquid but also brings them to room temperature. Therefore, its important that cream and milk are chilled. Blending Ice cream with milk and cream and adding the chocolate syrup makes it more chocolaty and yummy.
I added half of Ferrero Rocher on top to make it look more kid friendly and appealing. You can always add any of your other favorite chocolates as well.
Indians can move out of India, but their love for their country and food never goes away. Most Indians travel to India to meet their country to relive their days and enjoy their respective cities, meet family and friends and to enjoy their favorite foods, most importantly street foods and sweets.
Most friends who travel home always bring back loads of sweets with them, including us. We always get our favorite sweets from India. There are some wonderful sweets that I get from Rajasthan and some awesome delicacies that Mr. Parveez gets from Bangalore/ Bengaluru.
One of the mawa’a sweets that I loved from childhood is the half chocolate and half mawa’a. I still enjoy eating them when I am in India, and not just me, Mr. Parveez and boys enjoy them equally. The only problem we faced is that since the sweet is made from milk solids, we could never carry them with us, since milk products, unless they are sealed pack which isn’t possible from our favorite sweet stores.
Living in another country and not having the privilege of enjoying sweets and other foods as much as we would like to, and that pushes people like me to try and cook our favorite dishes at home.
And, one fine day I tried making our favorite burfi at home and they came out pretty good and almost same as what we get from our favorite stores. The recipe is pretty simple and the steps are also easy to follow. You just have to make sure that you cook on low heat so the khoya is cooked evenly and doesn’t ooze out any oil. The layers can be set by placing the chocolate burfi on the mawa’a burfi by brushing little water to help glue them together.
A very easy recipe and definitely comes out wonderful.
I have kids who happen to love Ice creams, because they are just like me…LOLzzz. I look for ways to make different flavors in Ice creams and milkshakes. A scoop of ice cream in your milkshakes not only makes your milkshakes taste better, but also more slushy and creamier.
Most times when we drink milkshakes at a restaurant, we feel that it never tastes the same at home. The difference comes from the milk and few other ingredients. Simple changes and few tricks make a big difference to the taste and you’d be surprised with how a simple switch can make a huge difference.
Generally, with fruit smoothies or milkshakes, fruits used are frozen. If you are using fresh fruits, try freezing them for 15 minutes before use. If you can’t, then make sure the milk you use should be very cold, keeping your milk in the freezer for 30 minutes should give you great results.
In this milkshake, I threw in a batch of chocolate chip cookies, vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. I even spread some chocolate sauce on the glass for decorating a little more.
My boys love their weekend Breakfast. Their school day breakfast is pretty simple, consisting of boiled eggs or a fruit with milk. But Saturday and Sunday are always special for breakfast and that’s when I make them waffles, Pancakes, Biscuits etc.
Initially, I used to make simple pancakes and with time adding different variations to the Pancakes, I added chocolate chips to the pancake and poured some chocolate syrup on top. The Pancakes come out fabulous and your kids are surely gonna love them.
Banana split is always a special treat for Ice cream lovers. When we talk of Ice cream and children, chocolate flavor is the first thing that comes to our mind.
Mr. Parveez and I loved taking walks to a wonderful Ice cream shop near our first home and that’s when we got the hang of Banana split. Though our life before children, we would get a scoop of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. After our boys joined our Ice cream lovers club, the scoops changed to chocolate only. Usually, the chocolate Ice cream would be finished by my boys, and Mr. Parveez and I would enjoy the Banana…I guess joys of Parenthood…LOLzzz. Now, this was only when we went out for ice creams. At that time, I couldn’t even imagine that I would be making so many varieties of Ice creams myself, some day.
And, then one day I started with my Ice cream experiments. Initially my Ice cream recipes contained egg. Though the Ice creams came out fantastic, but somewhere I felt they weren’t just as good as I desired them to be. Also, the fact that I knew they contained eggs made me feel that I was eating raw egg…LOLzzz. Not just that, I could never decide if I could actually smell the egg or was it just in my mind. So, with all that confusion, I decided my Ice creams had to be egg free. I started experimenting more, and after numerous failures came up with a recipe as good as store bought. I did come down to the conclusion that for that perfect creaminess Gelatin or Agar Agar has to be used in the recipe. I used Halal Gelatin, but if you are using the vegetarian substitute, Agar Agar can be used in same amount as Gelatin.
After that, one day I felt the mom in me felt that my kids weren’t consuming enough fruits and I started coming up with various ideas of making them eat more fruit. This is when I decided that I should serve then Banana split when I give them Ice cream on weekends. And thus, this Ice cream recipe. Enjoy!!!
I have mentioned in my other food stories of how my better half, Mr. Parveez has loads of stories of his different food flavors that he has experienced since childhood.
One of his childhood favorites were Khajas. Khajas are also known as Chirotis down south. Now, let me get this straight, I had never tried khajas before, so when Mr. Parveez told me the story about Khajas, the explanation was, “Its has layers, its fried and its sweet”. According to him the details good enough but imagine getting these details for something you haven’t seen or tasted.
But, when Mr. Parveez demands something, I have to try and do everything to make it for him. Cooking for him, specially what he demands give me immense happiness. I get a kick out of it….LOLzzz.
So, basically I was still clueless as to what he expected and just went ahead with what I understood and the result was a disaster. They were too soft, chewy and absorbed too much oil and were nothing close to what Mr. Parveez desired. But, I can’t give up so easily, therefore there was a second try and this time I made sure I do proper research before a try.
Mr. Parveez always called them “Khajas”. While doing my research, I found that they are widely known as “Chiroti”. Reading various regions making it, I not only understood how to make them, but also got an idea of so many variations in them.
This recipe that I am sharing is fool proof and very easy. Loved by kids and adults. Do try it.
Kulfi is an Indian Ice cream and is favorite to ice cream lovers. My family has always loved eating or ordering kulfis from our favorite kulfi shop. There used to be one particular Kulfi shop that sold the best “marwari kulfi”. That shop is still by the clock tower in Jodhpur and it still sells the most authentic marwari kulfi.
Though in last few years, a lot of new ice cream shops and kulfi places have opened and become popular too. But, for people like me, we still go back to that old shop to get the traditional and delicious kulfi.
Being far away from home, we yearn to have those flavors and no matter which restaurant we go to, the kulfi doesn’t taste the same as what we get back home. I always craved for the creamy texture and nutty flavor which I never found anywhere around.
And then one fine day, I decided to start making my own. Trust me, its one of the best decision I ever took. After this, it was no looking back. I experimented with loads of different flavors and made a huge variety.
I feel there is nothing better than having your kulfi homemade. See, there is nothing that can beat the freshness, the quality of the products that you use plus the shelf time. When you buy them from the market, you have no idea how many times, they have been defrosted and refreeze again and don’t forget all the preservatives added to them.
As much as its hyped with all the recipes given of how to get a perfect kulfi, trust me there is no big deal to it. Its simple and comes out delicious. Just follow the simple steps. It doesn’t require too many ingredients and it would turn out more delicious than your favorite store brand.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
This Halwa was an idea that I had after I made badaam ka halwa, which is pretty popular in India. I felt that Almonds or badaam have been given a lot of importance when it comes to nuts, where as , walnuts are very healthy, but not liked a lot due to their taste. Its easy to see moms feeding their kids badaam ka halwa, when kids refuse eating plain almonds with milk. Indian mothers and their never ending love that always displays in the food and the amount of food that we serve our kids. Its amusing how one bowl of badaam halwa takes place of 7-8 almonds/badaam…LOLzzz.
So, the mother in me wanted to feed walnuts to my boys and thats when the idea hit me. Initially, I planned on working with walnuts only, but then realizing that they might not taste as good by themselves as I would like them to.
Finally, I decided of experimenting walnuts by adding a little cashew to it for that creamy texture and nut sweetness. It did the trick. This is one of best Halwa that I have cooked. The recipe is sure to impress everyone.
