Little known to this dessert, I was introduced to my first Panna Cotta a month ago on an official luncheon meet from my company at Radha Homtel. There was something really intriguing about this dessert, as the light mild sweetness against the rich creaminess melted through my tongue. The creaminess was definitely on a high as it had a mousse like silken feel to it. From the array of desserts, it was this delicately flavored Panna Cotta that caught my sheer attention. Panna cotta is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. (Ref: Wikipedia)

Not willing to delude myself from the original, but to recreate a healthy and equally delicate flavorsome dessert was my idea of my Panna Cotta for this Sunday. Instead of the heavy cream Panna cotta, I made a nice yogurt one which was not just satisfying, but also light on our tummies.

Simple and easy, this dessert requires few ingredients to bring out a great sweet treat which can steal attention of any gathering away!

Yogurt Panna Cotta

INGREDIENTS

100 ml hung yogurt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
40 g powdered sugar
1 tsp gelatin / agar-agar
1 tbsp hot water

DIRECTIONS

Prepare yogurt a day before. Or you may use store bought yogurt too. Hang the yogurt in a muslin cloth to collect all the watery portion of it in a vessel placed underneath. Let the liquid separate as much as possible from the curd. Place this in a fridge overnight for the water to drain out. The next morning you will have thick yogurt ready for use. This is commonly referred to as Quark in European region, or German in specific.

Dissolve 1 tsp gelatin or agar-agar in some hot water till it dissolves well. Set aside to cool a little.

Meanwhile, mix the yogurt, the vanilla extract and sugar in a bowl. Whip the yogurt till it is creamy and smooth. Add in the agar-agar and mix really well till it is all a homogeneous mixture. Transfer to serving bowls and refrigerate for the Panna Cotta to set. Let it set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

I served my Panna Cotta in a Martini glass and topped it with some chocolate shavings and a chocolate cigar for the aesthetic look. Fruits can also be a good combination for this yogurt base.

Making this dessert from a store-bought yogurt is way quicker than home-made one as it reduces a lot of time in removing the water from curd. Ensure that the store-bought yogurt is set and really thick. That gives the best result.

Simple and creamy, yet a healthy dessert to treat your family and friends.

Happy Birthday my dear bloggy... ! Veg Bowl! turned a year old this month. Time is fleeting. With what began a personal diary of few recipes went into public later last year. I am touching my 85th post with this one and it feels really nice.

Ever since the inception of my blog, Veg Bowl! has gone through several changes. It's close to a year since this blog was initiated and I have been constantly striving to improve it. The blog has been through constant amendments from its look to food, photography, matter, presentation and much more.

For the ones who have been in constant touch with my blog would know how much the site has transformed. It is getting to a good shape considering what it was earlier. Themes and backgrounds have been changed a couple of times. I had to change the previous ones as I thought they were a little too loud for my taste. I preferred simple looking blog with easy to navigate links, keeping it to the bare minimum, least to confuse the readers.

Though I have changed it to a considerably simple and elegant one now, I was not thoroughly happy with it earlier. I am still working around with options, positioning widgets, playing around with css codes, all trying to bring best out of it. I am finally done with the herculean task of completing the format as I had visioned it. Widgets have been changed, added, positioned, new tabs included, font, text, hovers and photos have been customized. It's been a very tedious task, having spent hours over this to transform to it's new look. With a complete make-over, I am now feeling satisfied with how it has come out. A few tit-bits are yet to be taken care, but that will happen over time.

As my bloggy baby turns a year old, I wanted to have a simple sweet dessert to celebrate her birthday. A rustic, simple Indian dessert which carries the Bengali elegance. Rosogolla, which is most commonly known as Rasgulla, is essentially a Bengali sweet made from paneer or Indian cottage cheese.

Coming to making these at home, in my opinion I am more better off taking pleasure in the store bought ones. A little tedious at task, you need to be really careful while making these. I had a disaster in my first attempt. They tore apart floating like clouds in sweet water, so they never reached this space. With the second one though, I was extremely careful to follow the instructions as is. Being successful at it, I was glad the way they turned out to be.

Rasgulla

To make Cottage Cheese/Chenna

1/2 lt milk
1 tsp lemon juice

Heat the milk till it comes to a boiling stage. Add the lemon juice till the whey separates away from curd. Give 5 minutes standing time to let the curd separate well. Hang the curd in a muslin cloth to let the whey drain away. Holding the ends of the muslin cloth, squeeze the water away to form coagulated mass.

With the heel of your hand, mash the paneer/cottage cheese/chenna repeatedly to make it dough like. This task is not easy as the cheese needs to be really well knead. It has to be mashed well repeatedly. I used mixie and it came out very fine. Gather it together and knead again like dough. Add 1/2 tsp Baking powder for a better rise. Allow to rest 15 min. Meanwhile prepare the sugar syrup.

To prepare the syrup

1 cup sugar
2 cups water
Strands of saffron
Few pistachios and cardamom powder for garnish

The ratio is of 2 cups water to 1 cup sugar. Add 1/2 cup sugar to water to start with. Bring it to a boil. Pinch the cheese balls to make 1/2" diameter balls each. Carefully drop the balls in boiling syrup. The balls will swell in about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove them once they puff up.

Add the remaining one cup of sugar and heat till all the sugar is dissolved. Add rose water if you have. They impart great flavors. Let it cool and then add the rasgullas to the sugar syrup again. Garnish with shaved Pistachio & nuts. Chill in fridge for an hour or more. They are best served cold or at room temperature.

A few tips which can help you a long way in making great tasting (and looking too ;)) rasgullas can be taken from here. These Rasgullas have fragrance from cardamom, pistachios and saffron. Saffron imparts a nice mild flavor, but can be skipped if you don't have any. These are sure to be loved by all.

Like every other Indian home, Phulkas or rotis are staple even at my home, especially since my in-laws hail from North India. It's so basic that without it, the meal seems incomplete. Back home, amma makes phulkas almost everyday for breakfast with either a dry or gravy subzi. As kids, she would pack the same meal for our lunch box as they were not just healthy, but also mess free and easy to handle. This is similar to bread, but more healthier as it uses wheat flour. These unleavened Indian breads are dry and healthy as they are fairly oil free, made of just flour and water. I know it's too basic to probably share the recipe for rotis and phulkas, but I thought it would still be good idea to share the recipe and steps for those beginners and bachelors who get goosebumps just by the thought of making it!

For the ones wondering what's the difference between rotis and phulkas, here's the answer. Ingredients are basically the same for both. Phulkas are thin disks of rolled and flattened dough, which are par-cooked on a heated tava/griddle and then on an open flame to puff well, while Rotis are cooked only on heated griddle on both the sides, generally using a cloth to pat the par cooked dough gently to let the steam build up between the two thin layers, resulting it to puff up. I am sharing the steps for both roti and phulka here.

Phulkas/Roti

INGREDIENTS

2.5 cups wheat flour
1 cup water
A little wheat flour for dusting
Salt (if you prefer)
1 tsp ghee/clarified butter (if you prefer)

DIRECTIONS

For every 2.5 cups wheat flour add 1 cup water. Salt can be added or avoided as per your preference. It doesn't really make much difference as the curry served with it compensates the requirement. Knead well to make a dough. While kneading, if the dough is too sticky, add more dough. Leave it covered with a damp cotton cloth for about 30 minutes. Rotis are traditionally made in a cast iron skillet which is oiled.

In a large plate take some wheat flour for dusting the dough while rolling it out. Using the rolling pin, take a large lemon sized dough and roll it out in a circle of about 6 inches. Dust the dough if it sticks to the rolling pin. Once rolled out, place it on the hot iron skillet. Turn it over the moment you see small bubbles forming. Wait another 30 secs to a minute till the other side is partially cooked. Now turn it over again. Using a padded cotton cloth, press on the rotis to cook well. You should see that the roti will now rise, similar to a balloon with hot air :). Remove from the skillet. Brush the roti with ghee for enhanced taste.

To make phulkas, the steps remain almost the same. When the rolled dough is transferred to the tava/skillet, wait till the moment when you see small bubbles forming on the top. Turn it over the moment you see small bubbles forming. Wait another 30 secs to a minute till the other side is partially cooked. Now remove the par-cooked roti from tava and roast it directly over the flame till it puffs up well. Cook both the sides by flipping over. Be brisk and careful not to burn or char them. Remove and serve hot with curry.

A note of thanks to Madhuri of Cook-Curry Nook for conferring upon me this award. Madhuri from Cook-Curry Nook is a fellow blogger from Bangalore and has an amazing variety of dishes churning from her blog almost everyday.

Veg Bowl! is getting close to completing a year and getting a status of this sort from fellow bloggers is remarkable. Thanks for all your support, feedback and appreciations guys, without which it can never succeed.

Today's post is going to be simple, short and sweet ;) On a Monday, as I am gearing up for the week, I am going through Monday blues with piles of work load and stress at work. Honestly, I am not in a mood to post much here, except for a good recipe to keep your week going good. Hopefully, healthy too with these Whole Wheat Sugar cookies.

I baked a batch of these earlier today and they turned out really good. With a cup of my morning milk, I munched on these to satisfy my sweet cravings. These are effortlessly made simple vanilla flavored cookies. I am not sure if I should say these are cookies or biscuits? Since I like them very crisp, just like what a biscuit would be, I should rather call them biscuits!

I made 2 batches of these. One with plain white granulated sugar and another with brown sugar. Also, using of whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour was to make it more healthier. Just being experimental at it. The plain white sugar came out the best. The brown sugar wasn't bad too and had a slightly lower tones of sweetness. Give it a try.

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
1/4 cup veg oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Sift together whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and keep it aside. Cream together the oil and sugar. It will not turn as light and fluffy as butter. Introduce the vanilla extract to it.

Add the flour mixture gradually until the flour is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth and uniform. Wrap up dough and refrigerate for 2 hours if you are using butter instead of oil (can be skipped as no butter is involved). Remove when you are ready to bake the cookies.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease the cookie tray. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and dust with more flour. Gently roll out the dough using a dusted rolling pin to 1/8" thickness.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place on sheets about an inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden brown. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. Once cookies are cooled, you may dust them with icing sugar or serve as is.

Sometime simple flavors can really give out the best, just like these cookies. I love that mild flavor emitting from vanilla. You may opt to leave them and keep them even simpler. Try lemon zest instead, would work great with citrus flavors.

I like the flecks of granulated sugar on these cookies. They look really nice, like that on Bourbon biscuits. These are light on sweetness and the hints of vanilla flavor is the binge take-away on these. If you need a company with a cup of tea or coffee or simple plain milk, then these can be your best bet.

Since my previous posts on cookies and success with egg-less ones, I have been splurging with more and more of them in my little kitchen. A lots more awaits in future to come. After having tried the healthy Granola bars for breakfast, I hadn't experimented much with the good old oats for long now. So it was time for these Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies.

Rolled oats have been very popular with people on diet, given that oatmeal is well known to lower the cholesterol levels, thus control cardiovascular diseases to an extent. It has high content of carbohydrates, is a good source of protein and fiber which encourages slow digestion and stabilizes blood-glucose levels. Considering so many health benefits, it's a good idea to consume a cup of it a day. Raisins too have a good nutritional properties. They have antioxidant properties and being high in calories, but not fats, raisins are very good source of energy. I have seen my mom, aunts and grandma soak few raisins in water overnight and consume them the following morning. It is said to boost blood generation process.

Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies has been traditional and quite popular in America. I have used Quaker oats, which are the regular rolled oats used for porridge or breakfast muesli. If you find difficulty in fetching brown sugar, use jaggery or honey instead. The flavor would change a little, but it's still fine that way.

Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Quaker Oats (uncooked)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup butter/margarine, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp flax-meal
3 tsp water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Mix flax-meal with water and allow it to stand for about 30 mins to an hour. It will result in an egg-like gooey mix.

Whisk the butter/margarine and both the sugars in a bowl till they are frothy and creamy. Add in flax-meal water and vanilla and beat them well.

In another bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add this to the above wet mixture. Next add the raisins and fold all together till they come together to a rough dough. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto baking tray and bake at 180 deg C for 15 mins or till they brown. Bake them longer if you prefer crispy cookies.

I love oats in this form. They are my best bet! Not being too sweet, they suit my taste way too well. I relished about 4-5 cookies in one go! They were damn good. A big batch of these freshly baked goodies disappeared in no time.

A few crispy edges, a few chewy middles, this bake filled with the goodness of healthy oats and raisins made up a good pair for my breakfast tea and the sunny noon snack. Truly a vegan treat!

I have always wondered why there is battle of minds when it comes to bread-making. Is it really such an anxious or a tedious art? Till I started taking baking seriously, I never thought of baking breads at home really. I had always visualized breads were meant to be made in bakeries with massive oven chambers, not something commonly known to be baked at home, till recently, when I saw a couple of good television cookery shows which showed how simple bread making can be. Not something that one should detest giving a try. Worth an attempt.

Even in the recent past, I have had good results making Foccacia or be it the Deep pan pizza, both using bread base. From these, I learn that the art of bread making is far simpler than baking cakes, cookies or muffins! Puzzled? Baked goods require exact measurements, restricting much scope to play around with ingredients and measurements of your choice. However, recipes involving making dough can be flippant with not so exact measurements required. They can be altered and ingredients adjusted to taste. Just a little time consuming, but with practically most commonly feasible ingredients in any kitchen home, one can bring out a healthy meal, which does always pose a temptation.

Apart from Indian breads, like Roti, Naan, Kulchas, which are fairly simple and faster, Western breads need ample time for proofing, a process where the yeast needs to rise to form ample air pockets in the bread. The dough is made in advance, which has active yeast added that assist in the process of rising. So plan ahead. Warmth is another essential factor for good proofing. It's similar to making yogurt from milk where the yeast plays a dominant role.

So for someone who is used to making Indian breads like rotis or parathas, making yeast breads at home will be a breeze. I have attempted this bread solely with Whole wheat flour instead of the all purpose flour along with honey and sesame combination.

Honey Sesame Whole Wheat Breakfast Buns

INGREDIENTS

25 g active dry yeast
50 ml warm milk/ water
1 tsp sugar
200 g whole wheat flour
50 ml warm water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp oil

Topping:

1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

Dissolve dry yeast in warm water with sugar. Leave for 5-10 mins to dissolve and become frothy.

Next mix the wheat flour with salt to taste. Add in the yeast, water and oil till a soft pliable dough is formed. Cover with a warm towel or cling film and leave it to rest for 4-5 hours or overnight in a warm place.

Next morning, the dough should have risen and doubled in size after about 5 hours of proofing. Punch it down. Roughly divide into round fist-sized dough. Grease and dust the bread tin or a roasting tray with some oil and flour. Transfer the dough gently to the baking dish. Allow to rest there for about an hour for the dough to rise again. I push the tray into a warm oven (not hot, else they will not rise, but bake!) After an hour, they will rise again. Brush the tops of the dough buns with honey and sprinkle some sesame seeds.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Bake the bread for 50 mins to an hour till the top looks crusty and brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the rack for sometime. Slice them as preferred. I sliced them horizontally in the center and spread a good amount of Nutella. They were great to go with the morning tea.

The rolls are good as is as they have a mild sweetness from honey. You can substitute the honey with sugar if you don't like the honey taste. Sesame seeds can be avoided if you prefer. The bread itself is not sweet, so it's the honey topped wheat crust that imparts a sweet and mild flavor to it. End result is a mild honey flavored, nutty sesame, healthy wheat breakfast buns. Way to go for a healthy start!

I am sending these healthy breakfast buns to Rachel of Tangerine's Kitchen as she is hosting an event titled 'Bread Baking Day'.

A nice big bar of bitter-sweet dark chocolate has been catching my dire attention for a while to be used. Never takes me too long for me to decide on how to use when it comes to chocolates ;) Often, it's consumed as is. Biting into a bar of bittersweet chocolate is quite therapeutic for me. Or do I call it an addiction???

I am so immorally self-indulgent in chocolate mesmerism that my husband recently got a nice catchy magnetic sticker that read, "Chocolates can make your clothes shrink!". It was meant for me to cut down on my on-going affair with chocolates and desserts. Poor guy deals with it all the time. Probably he's fed so liberally with my sweet tit-bits that he's now fed up being the experimental guinea pig!

The magnetic sticker is now stuck on the door of our refrigerator for my undue attention. So every time I walk towards or even pass by the fridge, I am supposed to take a conscious effort to understand it's implications on my waist-line. But that least catches my eye! That's me I say! It probably did for a day or two when I would hear voice from my back telling me it's time I should resist. Now it barely gets a glance, forget the second look!

These truffles are not just for chocolate addicts, they have a subtle hint of coffee flavors emitting from coffee liquor. We both don't consume liquor. Surprised! Strangely, I don't hesitate to buy them if it requires for any recipe! These were purchased to recreate my Tiramisu again. Instead, they have been rapidly poured and pampered on several desserts which I have been stirring up unendingly in my kitchen these days. I have lot more recipes to come forward which use coffee liquor. I am hoping they stay for least a helping of Tiramisu!

Chocolate and coffee combo flavors blend and compliment each other well. These are simple treats which can be whipped in minutes. They require no-bake and are great as take-aways for picnics, parties or even pot-lucks. It requires preparing the chocolate ganache, then chilling, rolling and the final coating.

Chocolate Truffles (With Coffee Liquor)

INGREDIENTS

125g bittersweet dark chocolate
30 ml single cream
10 ml coffee liquor

Coat:

About 40g unsweetened cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS

Chop the dark chocolates into small pieces. Melt it in a pan on a double boiler with hot water. Allow the chocolate to melt gracefully. Avoid overheating the chocolate as it loses it luster. Let it come to a stage where it just begins to melt. Now add coffee liquor to the chocolate.

Meanwhile, heat the cream over medium heat until the cream just comes to a boil. Add the molten chocolate to the cream and stir well till well combined. Now transfer this mixture to the refrigerator to chill for few hours. The mass should solidify on chilling.

Sometimes, the ganache may be soft and semi-solid in state. Mine did, probably because I used single fat cream instead of double fat one. In that case, rolling into balls may become quite a challenging task. You may add a little ground digestive biscuits for crunch and denser texture which will help in easy rolling. Adding almond or pistachio powder would also ease binding and add to nutty flavors.

Decorating is optional, but if done will surely give a wow factor to your creations. Roll these truffles well in unsweetened cocoa powder. Coat them completely. Serve.

You can play a around a lot with ingredients. While the ganache remains the base of this recipe, add in complimenting flavors to enhance it's rich base. Mocha, orange, mint, rum, apple vodka flavors or even chopped nuts can do justice to these. Even the coats can be of your choice. Glaze them with molten dark chocolate or get whacky with white chocolate coats for these tots.

I'll be coming out with more chocolate recipes, so keep watching this space for more to come.

I had a can of Amul condensed milk which had been lying in the fridge for few days. It was an open can which just needed to be finished. I was wondering how I could experiment with the little left over sweetened condensed milk. I knew I had many options of using it in halwa or probably ice-cream or may be a kheer. But I had other intentions for these.

I have been eying at some Dulce de Leche recipes for some time now. I like David Lebovitz's website where he not only masters the art of cooking, but brilliant photography. The photos are so good and tempting that I would lick them off from my monitor screen!!!

David, in his recipe says that the first time he had Dulce de Leche he began spooning it directly from the jar into his mouth and before he knew it, he had made it almost all the way through the jar. I too am in the same state whenever I open a can of sweetened condensed milk. I see myself indulging way too much directly from the can. This sweet temptation is just not too resisting. So I can imagine what Dulce de Leches can do to someone when offered!

I made these a few days ago. Before making them, I did a little research on how to go about achieving good results. Most common method was to set the can in a tub of water and bake in oven for 2-3 hrs. Well, that was too much of an effort for me. Not my types, as I have the least patience to carry out such tedious cooking tasks. Another great option was to use a pressure cooker with some water at the bottom of the cooker. Then place the tin in water and cook on pressure. This seemed easier. Since I had a little left over condensed milk, I went ahead with the third option, that's directly heating it on a thick bottomed pan. They were sticky and perfectly toffee like.

However, I find them way too sweet for my little dentures. So I added some crushed milk biscuits into these, shaped them to bite sized biscuits and chilled them for a while. Believe me, they were great. Fantastic!

There is a striking similarity between these with our very own Indian sweets. After all, a lot of our Indian milk sweets and burfis are made from boiling and reducing the milk which forms Khova and is later used in burfis, gulab jamuns, etc. Western countries use Dulce de leches in preparations like cakes, cookies, ice cream, creme caramel, banofee pies, etc. It is also a popular spread on bread toast.

Dulce de Leche

INGREDIENTS

100 g of sweetened condensed milk
1 thick bottomed pan
A wooden spoon to stir

DIRECTIONS

Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a thick bottomed pan. Heat up the pan with the condensed milk till the mixture begins to bubble through. Do this process on a medium low flame with continuous stirring as it's easily susceptible to burning, if left unattended. It took about 10-12 minutes for the milk to turn into toffee.

Once the Dulce de Leche is lightly browned and looks caramelized, turn off the flame and allow to cool. Dulce de Leche will thicken further when allowed to cool. Store in the refrigerator if you are not ready to use immediately. Warm if required before serving.

I would be making these again in future, but probably using the pressure cooker method. The next time, it would be the entire can. Is a Banofee pie waiting? Possible!

Since my purpose of making Dulce de Leche was just experimental, I headed towards experimenting a little more. I made and savored these little bites with my evening cup of tea. These are real quick No Bake Bites which we enjoyed.

No Bake Bites

INGREDIENTS

A packet of milk biscuits
A spoon-full of Dulce de Leche
A few chopped nuts

DIRECTIONS

In a freezer bag, throw a few milk biscuits and nuts. Beat them with a rolling pin. Transfer to a bowl and add the Dulce de Leche to it. The toffee texture is good for it to bind. Bring them all together and shape them as desired. The sole reason I used Dulce de Leche was because I found them way too sweet. This way, the intensity of sweetness was far reduced. Perfect for my taste.

I had a neighbor aunt drop into my home the same evening and she too savored these wholeheartedly. She said it was so good that she would love to re-create the same for her grand-daughter. Now, wasn't that sweet? And of course, she did come back to me for the recipe.

Yippie! Veg Bowl has been awarded! I am extremely delighted to have received this award from Suma of Cakes and More!!! Thanks a ton Suma! This is also my first award for this blog, so there is sheer happiness receiving it!

Suma from Cakes and More!!! churns out amazing cakes and bakes and that intrudes me to go back to her blog again and again for more to come. With her blog being a little more than a month old, she has whipped a number of cakes (as much has 20 odd in a month!), a cake for a day I say! With a sweet tooth myself and love for cakes and it's likes, her blog is quite an inspiration. Do take time out to peek into her blog.

As I receive this award, I would also like to share this award with Asha of FoodiesHope. Asha has a great collection of traditional Konkani & Mangalorean cuisines, contemporary food and several other delicacies with her blog updated from time to time. Well deserved! Please accept this award. Congratulations!!!