Showing posts with label Indian sweets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian sweets. Show all posts

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Food Revolution Ambassador Monthly Challenge: February 2015

Good Bye February. You promised to be short and sweet and you were. Crazy too. But I am not complaining. I like this kind of a crazy. Infact crazy is my new normal. Before I say hi to March tomorrow morning a look back at the February monthly challenges.

If you are new here: At the beginning of each month the challenges are announced. These challenges are for inspiring the entire Food Revolution team and to make deeper connections with everyone (fellow food ambassadors, friends and family, anyone who wants to be a part of this challenge too), share our stories , whether we failed or conquered and more. The idea is to complete as many challenges as one can (Read about the October , November , December and January challenges).


For February:

Challenge 1: Cook for loved ones this Valentine’s day. Do you have a special recipe you cook for your loved ones? Whether it’s your kids, partner or a close friend, we want to see what dishes you make to win the hearts of your nearest and dearest. Find some sweet inspiration here. 

One doesn't really need a reason or a day to celebrate love. It needs to celebrated, acknowledged and respected each day of the year. But when the year gives you the 14th of February to tell those special people in your life that you love them , you should. For very often we love them but we don't tell them and sometimes it gets too late. Someone very wise (Read:Pooh) when asked, How do you spell LOVE? answered "You don't spell it, you FEEL it", he said. 


What is your LOVE LANGUAGE? Mine undoubtedly is FOOD. Nothing says I LOVE YOU louder than a rose kulfi and that is what I made for my loved ones this Valentines and hey rose does represent love.

Challenge 2: Embrace wonky veg! Jamie has been on a mission to cut food waste and get wonky veg back into our shopping basket. This month, we want you to embrace all leftover, wonky veg out there and try to reduce your food waste. Find out more here. 

A weird looking squash, a deformed potato, crooked carrots...you get the idea. Did you know that as much 20-40% of produce gets wasted because it doesn't look perfect. Hard to believe but true. Such a huge waste of fresh produce just because they don't look the way we have been used to seeing them in the supermarkets. Round, glossy, clean, perfect lines. 

But who is to decide what is perfect? As far as I remember WE WERE BORN TO BE REAL AND NOT PERFECT. A quote that holds true for both people and produce. 



I came across this wonky sweet potato at the local organic store. Sad and forgotten because no one was picking it up. I decided to give it a home and it was unlike most sweet potatoes I had worked with before. A gorgeous purple from the outside with "curves" and black and sticky from inside. After I baked it with some olive oil, rosemary and some grated cheese it tasted like a cross between a sweet potato and banana chips. A texture we loved.

So let the new mantra be I AM NOT WEIRD I AM LIMITED ADDITION. Lets pledge to pick up that "imperfect" vegetable/ fruit and give it a "perfect" recipe ; one that promises to make our taste buds sing.  

Challenge 3: Start planning your FRD! If you haven’t already, now is the time to start thinking about what you’ll get up to on Food Rev day. Sign up for the day and get your friends and followers to do the same at www.foodrevolutionday.com. Maybe you’re hosting a potluck dinner with your friends? Or perhaps you’re going into your local school to get cooking with kids. Whatever you’re planning, we want to know how you’ll be getting involved on the day! 


With the big day just a little more than two months away I am really excited. The month was spent thinking, planning, making contacts with people who "care" about what goes into the bodies of our little ones and want to give children the life skill called cooking.



So since there are so many wonderful people and opportunities out there instead of a Food Revolution Day it is going to be a Food Revolution Week. We are planning to celebrate food education through the entire week and the plans are just about taking shape. 

We already have a school on board who have shown great enthusiasm for bringing about a Food Revolution amongst their little ones (They even have a cooking club!).  We are going to sit down March end and make this happen together. More children will join us in making the Squash it sandwich at Galeries Lafayette’s Gourmet wing. The Culinary Director there strongly believes in cooking from scratch and is as excited as us about the Food Revolution Day. Also on the big day will be an event for Jamie’s Juniors; where else but at Jamie’s Italian!  The team at Jamie’s and I are looking forward to be working on it together.


Hopefully before the the end of the next month you will hear about more collaborations and I will have more specifics to share. 

To food revolution and to putting our heads and hearts into this, together. 

Also if you haven't signed up till now, do it here. There is something that I have planned for all you lovely readers for the big day as well and I promise you it will be a lot of fun. Invite your friends and family to sign up as well :)

EXTRA CHALLENGE We want to follow you! If you have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest account that we don’t know about, let us know so we can see all your amazing work and share it with others! 

Find me here : 

   


Get ready to welcome the third month of the year. Happy March everyone!

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Chocolate Nariyal Laddoos For Diwali (Chocolate coconut truffles)

Diwali is just round the corner. Twinkling diyas, homemade mithais, strings of marigolds, fragrant incense sticks, rangolis and torans. It is such a magical time of the year; one that we wait for all year long. 

Planning the décor, deciding the menu, handcrafting gifts, observing family traditions some that our parents made and we love to observe and some that we are creating for Sara each year.
But what I love most about this festival of lights is putting together handmade edible gifts for family and friends and for all the people who help us get through each day. The guy who comes over to help me with the cleaning each week, our security guard who makes sure we sleep well each night, the laundry guy who never forgets to say hi to Sara when he comes home to drop our clothes. Diwali is only Diwali when you share your happiness with everyone around you and sometimes it is so easy to forget that amidst all the bling.
A box of besan barfi (chickpea fudge) one year, moongphali and til gajak (peanut and sesame brittle) the next and gulkund (Rosepetal) chocolates the year after.
Sara has been observing this tradition for the last couple of years (just like I saw my mum doing the same all these years) but it is only now she is understanding & more importantly experiencing the joy of thanking people who she values for being there and I am happy to help her make them a part of her big day.
That big smile when she slips in a box of homemade truffles into a friend’s hand and wishes her a Happy Diwali or that hug from her teacher when she gives her a handmade Diwali card or that awww from masi when she paints her a terracotta diya is what makes Diwali truly special. No store bought gift can ever match up to handmade love and this is one tradition that I’d like my little girl to take away from us.

This year she is making Diwali cards and these chocolate truffles for all the people who matter to her (I have been helping her make a card for everyone ever since she turned two and it has a become a ritual of sorts).
Just like the previous year the cards won’t be perfect; probably she will get tired after making a few and will ask me to help her, she will “sign” her name in her “royal” handwriting and later feel shy giving them. The truffles won’t be all round, there will be chocolatey mess in the kitchen, some will land in her mouth before we end up packing them, some will land on the floor and I will be spending a better part of the day cleaning but what a wonderful day it will be.

We will both acknowledge all the kind and loving people in our lives, we will talk about why and how much we appreciate and value them and how our lives will be incomplete without them and how giving a piece of our heart in the shape of a truffle will make them grin ear to ear.


Do you have any family traditions that you observe or any traditions that you would like to create this year? Are handcrafted presents one of those? I would love to hear about it.

Chocolate nariyal laddoos (Chocolate coconut truffles (Makes 20 balls)

Ingredients
  • Two 100 grams bars of dark chocolate (we used 70%, if you’d like take a 50 % or even milk chocolate)
  • 4 tbsp of cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp of soft butter
  • 1 cup of desiccated coconut
  • Cocoa powder and desiccated coconut to roll (drinking chocolate/ sesame seeds also work )

Instructions:
  1. In a large bowl, break the chocolate into small pieces with your hand.
  2. Micro it on low for about 2 minutes. Checking and stirring every thirty seconds.
  3. Add the cream, vanilla and butter and stir. You will now have a glossy chocolate mix.
  4. Add the desiccated coconut and stir.
  5. Shape them into tiny balls on a tray lined with foil or parchment.
  6. Roll some of them into drinking chocolate and some in desiccated coconut
  7. Put them into mini cupcake cases/boxes.
  8. Gift them to your friends and get ready for lots of tight hugs.
Wishing all you awesome people a sparkling and a "green" Diwali.

Before I end this post, I wanted to share that a couple of us have gotten together for a Diwali Festival of sorts on our blogs. One post a day to inspire you to make Diwali cards, decorations, read Diwali books, try out Diwali recipes and make Diwali goodies with your little ones (Yes, that would be me:))

Hope to see you guys drop by everyone's blogs and share the love.

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission. Just ask!


Come join a set of fabulous bloggers sharing their Diwali moments , easy Crafts, DIY ideas, Recipes and book recommendations with you .

Starting from today till Diwali and beyond, each one of us will be writing a post related to Diwali.
Participating blogs

So sit back, relax and check out all the fabulous Diwali Dhamaka posts from the participating blogs in the linky.
Link in your Diwali posts here
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