Chocolate and Malai Peda for Holi/Five Minute Chocolate and Milk Fudge

Here's wishing all my readers a Very Happy Holi. Have fun, stay safe and healthy. This past weekend we were out on a road trip on a little vacation driving around the state to the usual vacation spots. Took some time off of the early part of spring break as well. By the time we got back yesterday, just in time for Holi, I already had several ideas crawling in my head for what to make for the festival of which - like most festivals - food is an essential element. Holi is all about having fun, painting each others with colors, spending an hour in the shower to get all the paint off you and then having some wonderful food from the kitchen. Coming back from our trip yesterday you would think I would take some time and relax but instead I went right to the kitchen (yes I did stop at the grocery store on the way). Since it was late at night, did some basic prep work and starting this morning  over a few hours put together five dishes. This sweet dish is one of them which in fact was easier of the five. You may find several versions of these Pedas out on the web that use almost similar ingredients. They are all done pretty much the same way with minor differences based on personal preference. I tried to put together the general concept of the dish together with my love for chocolate. A fine dessert to serve with an exquisite meal or a casual candy to have around and to pop in when you please.

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Lemon Crinkle Cookies

If you have been a regular visitor to my blog you must have known by now that I have a clear obsession with chocolate and also most of my baked goodies are either chocolate based or consist of nutella. Every time I think of dessert, I think chocolate. Even when I am online looking for ideas, I type chocolate based search words... even when I am blog hopping, the category I check is chocolate baked goodies. You get the idea.

This time around when I was in the mood to bake some cookies I was again drawn towards making double choco, fudge (God help me :)). But this time I struggled hard and overcame my obsession. It was mainly because of my not-much-of-a-chocolate-fan hubs (how can you!). Baked a lemon cookie instead. I loved the results so much that from now on you will be seeing lots and lots of citrus in my baked goodies lol. These cookies are so fresh, light and flavorful that even a no dessert and only chocolate person like me ate 2 whole cookies (much to my hub's surprise) ha ha!!

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Valentine Treats!

A lot is said about Valentine's day. It means different things to different people, all related in some shape or form to love and caring. Yes, you do not need a day set out to celebrate love but it couldn't hurt to take one day of your lives in a year to make an extra effort to express how you feel, go out of your way to show how much you care. When it comes to love and caring, it is always about the two most favorite people in my life, my little princess and hubs. One of the little ways in which I express myself is cooking something for them, and that 'something' almost always involves chocolate. Here I have put together a list of few of my favorites from some of my recent work - and you will notice most of them involve chocolate! Have a Happy Valentine's Day!
Click on the links below to go to the recipe.

Molten Dark chocolate cake
Nutella filled baked donuts
Best chocolate cake ever
Pink lemonade bars
Rose srikhand
Homemade Ferroro Rocher
Cherry peach cobbler
Choco hotpots


For more treats look here.

Baked Red Velvet Donuts!

My kitchen drawer where I keep my bake ware is almost always in a disarray. All the different shapes and sizes of pans and trays oftentimes do not play very well together when it comes to staying organized. Then to top that I just cannot resist buying a baking pan or tray that I come across and it catches my attention. The donut tray I used for this recipe was another such thing that I had to have when I saw it the other day at the store. It was a Wilton brand pan and this recipe was in fact right on the packaging itself. They make the perfect shaped donuts and whats better is that you can actually eat a few since they are baked and not deep fried. To kick it up another notch, if the donuts are the red velvet kind, what's not to like, after all who doesn't like red velvet cake. These came out really nice and soft and velvety and then with that cream cheese glaze on top, you just go 'yummm'. They are perfect  treat for the upcoming Valentine's day too.
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One Bowl Everyday Chocolate Cake

Yesterday afternoon as I sat on the couch watching TV and waiting for dear hubs to wake up from his catnap so we go shopping, I suddenly started craving for chocolate cake. Nothing too fancy, just something that felt like cake to eat and was not-so-calorie-laden. A simple no-icing chocolaty cake that I can whip up in a jiffy. That is when this was made - a one bowl wonder, fuss free cake with my everyday pantry ingredients. A very basic beginner recipe that you can try your hand at even if you do not consider yourself much of a baker. It is moist, chocolaty with a very nice coffee flavor to it, has less calories when compared to most other chocolate cakes and so it can be your everyday cake.I made this in my new cute mini loaf pans but you can make it in a regular 5 x 9 loaf pan too, just double the recipe. I like it just this way - plain and simple - but you can most certainly dress it up with some whipped cream and berries if you so please. This is a chocolate cake you throw together real quick. It goes with tea and friends coming over on semi-short notice. It also makes for a great breakfast on the go.

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15 Minute Donuts!

What's not to like about fried dough. These are delicious little treats, soft spongy fried dough balls ready in under 15 minutes to feed your sweet tooth instantly when you so desire. Hot out of the fryer, as you hold one between your fingers, you feel the crispy outer shell but you can almost feel the soft spongy insides ready to be devoured. You blow on them a little (yes its okay to blow on your food in private) till they cool down just enough and then chomp away (yes you can close your eyes too).
Isn't it a delightfully scary thought that now there's nothing standing between you and a bowl of hot fresh donuts?!

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Kheer/Indian rice pudding with saffron and nuts

If there is any sweet dish deeply rooted into the Indian culture it is most ubiquitously the 'Kheer'. For those who have not had the pleasure, it is a close cousin to your typical rice pudding just more exotic and flavorful (in my humble opinion). Here are a few facts to highlight the pervasiveness and importance of this dish in Indian culture. Even though the taste might vary when prepared by one person to another due to how much attention has been given to details, unlike most other dishes in the Indian cuisine that vary widely with the region they are being made in, the recipe and ingredients for the Kheer have stood the test of time and geography. Barring of course the additional flavoring or condiments, the taste essentially is unchanged. Here's another fact - traditionally, when a newly wed bride comes home the first time to her in-laws place, guess what is the first dish she is expected to make, yes the Kheer. Any celebration, any traditional function and festival, even for day to day entertaining the kheer finds its way into the menu. The greatness of this recipe is its simplicity. The slow cooking of the milk along with rice creates that delicious thick rich earthy flavor. Guess you have to try it to find out if you haven't already.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

I must have made at least a couple of dozen different kinds of muffins in the last couple of years. Back when I started baking, what started as a 'let me see if I can bake a muffin of my own' has now almost become a chore. Especially so since every afternoon as my hungry kindergartner gets back from school, more often than not, her demand is to have a muffin for a snack. That makes my job to keep it interesting for her by mixing it up. This recipe is another variation that is derived from one of my own previous muffin recipes from here. Needless to say it worked great and also is just in time for fall.

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Baked Pumpkin Donuts!

You probably guessed where I am coming from with this recipe. It is that time of the year again. Fall is here and stores are already filling up with Halloween costumes, candies and other goodies and you simply cannot celebrate fall without the humble pumpkin. Right from scary looking carved pumpkins to the amazing tasting pumpkin pies, the pumpkin is everywhere. Besides the obvious reason of having the pumpkin on US Masala, the other part of the story behind this recipe is that I found this cool donut baking tray at the mall a couple of days ago. I have been on the lookout for it for a while now and I just snatched it up when I saw it laying on the store shelf. I have been itching to use it ever since I laid my hands on it and a pumpkin based baked donuts seemed like just the right thing to make.
To be honest I was a little apprehensive on how the shape and texture would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled the tray out of the oven. The bright pumpkin color gets you first as soon as you look at them, then as you break one apart you feel the soft yet spongy texture and knowing that they were baked and not fried, you just can't resist biting into it. The soft texture with a burst of pumpkin and cinnamon just gets you in the mood for fall and Halloween.

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Nutella Brownie Cheesecake Bites!

Now this recipe earned me some serious bragging rights. The best comment I got was from hubs when he tried it and after pillaging through five or six of them said "they are so good they ought to have a name by themselves" and "a perfect fusion of the Indian mithai and the brownie". I didn't care much for the names he went on to suggest (shhh..) but I was definitely flattered.
I tried them after and these little bites definitely have something to be said about them. While the first bite starts to tell your taste buds that you just bit into a moist and chocolaty brownie, the smooth texture of the cream cheese swirls quickly convinces them into believing it is indeed no ordinary brownie but a whole other dish unto itself.
If all the above makes you think this will be one tricky recipe, you are in for a surprise. This recipe is really easy to put together and a very forgiving one at that. And yes any baking with chocolate does deserve a dash of Nutella, goes without saying.

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Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Yes I know, you have baked a cookie before or atleast had one. But if you haven't held one of these in your hands, you don't know what I am talking about. They say you taste food with your eyes first and these cookies are a definite treat to the eyes. When hubs picked one of these up, he turned it around a couple of times, gave it a good look and went "hmm... they look like lace", and I hadn't told him what they were named. I just smiled "they do, don't they?". They are not all about looks either. They are addictive and I am talking like potato chip addictive. You just cannot stop at one. When you bite into it you wonder how it is so thin and crispy yet manages to be delightfully chewy at the same time... and yes absolute fun to make too.

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Pink Lemonade Bar

ay for me! This is something I have wanted to try for a while now. Ever since the advent of spring this year and with red ripe strawberries showing up everywhere, pictures of various strawberry based recipes including some perfect gorgeous strawberry lemonade bars all over the web. After extensive research on the internet bookmarking a lot of recipes and cooking them through in my head (or 'soft-cooking' as I like to call it), I eventually came up with my very own version of these beauties. I like to call them Pink Lemonade bars. Love the reddish purple-pink color. They are really easy too. During the soft-cooking process in my head however, they seemed a lot tricky - getting the right texture, tartness, sweetness and then cutting them into the perfect squares. They are in fact a breeze to make, gorgeous to look at and taste amazing! Hubs described it perfectly when he said it tasted like an exotic and complex sweet dish, tart and fruity balanced just right with sweet and creamy with the crust adding a playful texture. Delightful!

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Dark Chocolate Caramel Nutella Twix Bar

realize the nutella freak in me has been going crazy with these nutella based desserts/recipes lately and believe me I was totally and deliberately trying not to post anything remotely related to the yummy goodness. Then I saw this saw this recipe and I knew I had to give in. For the longest time I thought those chocolate bars were only possible by specialized machines in the factories and needed time and work to make but was pleasantly surprised with this recipe. It is so easy and equally delectable. The same great chocolate bar taste with the added touch of nutella and sea salt to give it a gourmet feel is now all homemade. This one's a winner!

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Nutella filled baked donut Muffins

Featured on: The Kitchn, Huffington Post, Parenting.com, DDG Daily

ow many times have you picked up a donut and set it down? Did I touch a nerve there? If I did, then read-on. I don't claim these to be the healthiest things around but they are perfect when you have a serious craving for those fried beauties. You get the same donut taste without all the frying. Being smaller they also give you portion control, be cautioned though that you will be tempted to pick up a few. These are delicious little treats, baked scrummy soft fluffy doughnut muffins coated with cinnamon sugar and filled with Nutella, how can you argue with that! Hot out of the oven, you blow on them till they cool down just enough and then chomp away... yes you can close your eyes too when you eat, it adds to the pleasure. We shamelessly finished the batch and don't even have any regrets.

They are very quick and ridiculously easy to put together. They also make for a great breakfast muffin and your kids will just love them.

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Imarti

ave you ever wondered what the royalty of yesteryears ate. Especially in India where the land has seen its fair share of kings and queens of over the last couple of thousand years. If you think what they ate had to be rich, tricky to make, used expensive ingredients and extremely delicious, you are absolutely right.
The Imarti is one such sweet dish. It originated as a dessert for the royals in the ornate state of Rajasthan. Legend has it that this delectable sweet dish was created as a gift by the Rajput kings for the Moghuls during the Moghul invasion of India over four hundred years ago. The dish is now ever popular all over the country although in some parts of the country it is known as Jangri. It is almost as popular as its even more popular cousin the Jalebi. So much so that every sweet shop around the corner of every street that makes jalebi will most certainly also have imarti.
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US Masala turns One! Celebrating with Nutella Donuts and a Giveaway

inally the day is here. US Masala is One today. Since the day I started my blog an year ago I have wondered if I would be able to nurture it so it stands the test of time. One year is not too long but it sure does give me immense confidence to go on.
I like to think of my work as a child that I have seen be born, grow up and mature - through different templates, colors, picture sizes, fonts, gadgets - all within the past three hundred and sixty five days. Besides the obvious benefit of keeping me busy, giving me a chance to experiment and learn new recipes, US Masala has given me the unmistakable opportunity of knowing a large number of wonderful people throughout the world - yes all of you my readers. I am totally and completely amazed at the response US Masala gets from its readers. You make me feel all warm and fuzzy with all your encouragement, so a big Thank You to you all. My stats tell me how immensely loved my site is. It is very humbling and makes me more passionate about what I love doing.
It would not be unreasonable to say that food blogging has changed my life in ways I never imagined. It has taught me is to follow my passion and to admire and enjoy the simple things in life - a food-photo that comes out well, an experiment that succeeds, a thoughtful comment left on a post. The creativity, thinking, writing, history, everything. To all my readers - Thank you for being a part of my life and letting me and US Masala be a tiny part of yours. Love you all!

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Zafrani Zarda Pulao with POM!

t gives me great pleasure to let you know that a scout team from POM Wonderful apparently liked my work that I publish through this blog of mine and contacted me the other day. They offered to send me a case of their wonderful juice. The best part, there was no catch. All I had to do was what I already love to do, come up with some recipes; and with a great product like POM it was not too difficult a task.

You guys most likely know about POM. Yes, the deep purple-pink juice in the cute double spherical looking bottle that you can find in the juice aisle of practically every grocery store.

As I sat down searching through my brain for ideas, my first instinct was a spiced juice blend, or ice-cream or the like. I wanted to go with something more original and exotic so I set those ideas aside and stuck to my roots. Hence came the idea of using a POM reduction in an exotic rice. When I asked hubby for his feedback after he had this rice for dinner, he summed it up aptly as a 'Dish fit for Royalty'.

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Crêpe with Strawberry compote and Pistachios

hen hubby introduced me to crêpes a couple of years ago, he called them the 'American Dosa'! These were the times when it had only been a short few weeks after I had arrived to the US after getting married and hubby was getting me acquainted with the local cuisine. There was this crêpe place near work that made the most amazing savory mushroom crêpes, he claimed. I totally loved them too. The sauteed mushrooms in a thick creamy gravy wrapped in a crispy yet soft crêpe. We went there several times. This was what seems like an age ago. Since then the place closed down and the exotic taste of the mushroom crêpe became a distant memory. Until one evening recently we drove down to a mall that is kinda far but we've always wanted to go there. We spotted a crêpe store in one of those food courts. This rekindled the memories of all the sweet and savory goodness of this great French dish.  We enjoyed all different kinds and now that I was a food blogger, I decided to make it for myself :)

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Rasgulla

The holi month of 'saawan' usually falls during the month of August. This month is considered auspicious and many people offer prayers and observe fasts to worship Lord Shiva. As do I. I observe fasts on the Mondays of the month and visit the local temple. During my fasts I avoid certain ingredients like salt, onions, garlic, grains. The diet typically consists of sweets and fruits. I have done this since my early school days but after getting married, my husband offered to join me so now we both observe fast together (that is so sweet of him *blush*)... the only problem... while I don't have a sweet tooth and pretty much eat fruit during my fasts, he loves sweets... and sweet stuff usually contains flour (which is grain) Had made gajar halwa, singhade ka halwa and sabudana kheer several times .
Saawan this year started a couple of weeks back, so in my search to make him a sweet which can be consumed during fasts, I found this great recipe in my bookmarks to make the evergreen and popular indian sweet 'rasgulla'. I had bookmarked it some time back from Manjula's site. She has a great recipe which is well explained, easy to follow and the result was fabulous. The only change I made was adding a little cardamom powder in the syrup as I think it makes sweets taste a little better.
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