Sending this couscous recipe to

1. Priya’s AFAM-Bell Peppers. AFAM originally started by Maheswari.

2. Lavi’s IAVW-Moroccan. It’s a Vegan World originally started by Vaishali.

SunshineMom’s Recipes for the rest of us – Starters event. The event originally started by Ramki of One Page Cookbooks.

First I would like to thank all my blogging buddies for flooding my inbox with recipes using EnerG egg replacer powder. You all know that my husband only does the round up right! I have to give him the content and he will take care of the presentation part. Since he is extremely busy with his office work, he can work on this only on Sunday. So wait until Monday to see what wonders you can create with egg replacer powder.

This month’s egg substitute is vinegar. I read in a couple of books that 1 tablespoon of vinegar along with 1 teaspoon of baking soda can be substituted for 1 egg. Both white distilled vinegar and apple cider vinegar can be used. This combination works best in cakes, cupcakes and quick breads. I also read in few forums that 2 tablespoons of lemon juice can be used in place of the 1 tablespoon vinegar. So for this event you could use either, but I have to mention here that I have not tried the lemon juice substitution.

Also I see a lot of baking recipes with vinegar, especially in various vegan books, websites and forums. You can try those recipes also. That is, you could either take a recipe which has eggs and substitute it with vinegar or try recipes which already has vinegar in it and is eggless too.

Now for the rules of the event:

Check here for recipes using vinegar as egg substitute.

Next to cauliflower and broccoli, tofu is my husband’s favorite. Actually he would eat anything vegetarian if it’s healthy. For me the criteria is, it has to taste good. So I experiment with tofu to satisfy both our needs. So far our favorite is tofu paratha. I drain the tofu well, grate it, add some Indian spices and divide the mixture into small balls. Then proceed to prepare the parathas as usual, using the tofu stuffing.

The Tofu Mango Pudding did not get his vote. The truth is he is not a “dessert” person. My son, my mother and myself loved it so much.

Recently I was going through Mallika Badrinath’s cookbook and found a recipe for paneer tikkis. Again paneer is my most favorite and his least favorite. He doesn’t eat it because of the fat content and calorific value. I wish I have the self control like him, I would be 30 pounds lighter! I remembered having a packet of extra firm tofu in my fridge, so decided to used it instead of paneer and changed the seasonings to suit our taste.

I had 4 very ripe bananas at home.  Usually I make carrot cake with it, but this time I wanted to try something new.  Then only I remembered watching an episode of Good Eats in Food TV, where Alton Brown prepared banana ice cream without eggs.  So immediately went to the site to get the recipe.  Interestingly I had all the ingredients at hand.  But the only thing was the bananas had to be frozen overnight and thawed, before making the ice cream.  I have wanted to try this for a long time now, so did not have the patience to do it the next day and also the bananas were very ripe.  So proceeded to make the ice cream and it did come out very well.  Maybe I’ll try the freezing method next time.  So check here for the original recipe. 

Ingredients:
Bananas – 4
Lemon Juice – little (may be a teaspoon)
Light corn syrup – 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
Heavy cream – 1 cup

 Procedure:
1.  Peel the bananas and place it in a blender.

2.  Blend it alongwith the lemon juice. 

3.  Add corn syrup and vanilla essence and blend it once again.

 4.  Add the cream and blend it until smooth.

5.  Transfer the mixture to a container and chill it in the refrigerator until it reaches 40 degrees.  (I forgot this step)

If you don’t have an ice cream maker:  (check here for detailed instructions)
6.  Even before starting the process of making the ice cream, put a stainless steel container or any other freezer safe container in the freezer until the ice cream mixture is ready. 

 7.  Once the mixture is ready transfer it to the freezed container and close it with a lid.

8.  After 45 minutes, open the door and check it.  As it starts to freeze near the edges beat it up either using a spatula, whisk or stick blender to break any frozen sections.  Return to freezer.

9.  Keep checking it periodically and stirring while it freezes until the ice cream is frozen.  It will take 2-3 hours to be ready.  

10.  I started making the ice cream very late in the evening, so I was able to do the above process only twice.  I had to put the ice cream in the freezer overnight.  The next day evening when I checked the ice cream had frozen rock hard and I was not able to scoop it.  So I transferred the container from the freezer to the refrigerator.  After about 45 minutes I was able to get the perfect scoop of delicious homemade ice cream.

First scoop of homemade ice cream.

I also added some chocolate chips to the ice cream mixture.   The ice cream was so DELICIOUS!!!

If you have an ice cream maker:
1.  Chill mixture in refrigerator until it reaches 40 degrees.
2.  Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to manufacture’s instructions.
3.  Place mixture in an airtight container and freeze it for 3 to 6 hours before serving.

Update:  A small note to both banana lovers and haters, try this ice cream with just one banana first.  The original recipe calls for 6 bananas, but I have  used only 4 bananas, even then the flavor of banana is overpowering.  The ice cream got mixed reviews.  But the happy news is my toddler liked it very much. 

JZ of Tasty Treats has passed me the “Blogging with a Purpose” award. Thank you very much JZ.

I would like to pass this to
Vaishali
Libby
Zlamushka

I’m sending this to Mike’s “You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Frozen Desserts!” event.

I had a lot of mint at home and wanted to use it in a different way other than preparing chutney and pulav.  Earlier I have made parathas too, grinding pudina, coriander and green chillies.  So I wanted to try something new and came up with this idea of mixing it with the potato stuffing for the aloo paratha.  The result was amazing.  Not only did it taste good but the fragrance of the mint took it to another level.

Ingredients for the Paratha Dough:
All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 1 cup
Whole Wheat Flour – 1/2 cup
Salt – as per taste
Oil – 2 teaspoons

Ingredients for the stuffing:
Oil – 1 teaspoon
Mint (Pudina) leaves – 1 cup, coarsely chopped
Potatoes, medium size – 3, boiled and mashed
Garam Masala Powder -  as per taste
Salt – as per taste
Juice of half a lemon

Procedure:
1.  Combine the ingredients to prepare the dough.  Add enough water to form a ball of dough, knead a couple of times and keep it covered for an hour.

2.  To prepare the stuffing, add the teaspoon of oil in a frying pan and let it heat for a minute.  Now add the mint leaves and sautee it for a while until it is wilted.  Remove the pan from the stove and keep it aside.

3.  Now to the mashed potato add the mint leaves, the remaining ingredients for the stuffing and combine together thoroughly.

4.  Divide the paratha dough into lemon size balls and the stuffing into smaller size balls.  I got 5 balls of dough for the above measurement.

5.  Now roll each ball of dough into a small circle and place one ball of the stuffing and cover it with the dough and roll it back again.

6.  Meanwhile pre heat the griddle (tava) and once the tava is hot, cook the parathas on both the sides, by adding little oil.

7.  Enjoy it with yogurt and/or your favorite pickle.

My Notes:
1.  I usually use only whole wheat flour for preparing parathas.  Recently I saw this combination of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, in a magazine.  So I wanted to try it. 

2.  I grind coriander and green chilles and mix it with the the mashed potato to prepare potato paratha.  This time I changed that too.   The combination of mint, garam masala and the lemon juice was heavenly. 

This is my entry to Srivalli’s Roti Mela.

Hetal of Isha’s Kitchen has passed me the Good Chat Blog Award.  Thank you very much Hetal.  Earlier she had also tagged me for a meme, 10 things I hate.  I’m tagging my dear friend Dee for the same. 

If you like my Finger Millet Sweet Dumplings, please vote for me here.