Valentine's Day Special - Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Make your Valentine's Day even sweeter with this easy recipe!!

Preparation Time: 10 mins       Cooking Time: 5 mins        Servings: 4

Ingredients:
Fresh washed Strawberries with leaves - 1 pound (about 16 - 20 pieces)
Chocolate chopped - 6 ounces (I prefer dark semi sweet chocolate)
Almonds (or any nuts) finely chopped - 10 - 15

Method of Preparation:
1) Take chocolate in a saucepan or any pan and heat it on medium flame until melted
(Alternative Method: Melt the chocolate in a microwave for about 1 minute (or until melted)
2) Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove it from the heat
3) Line a sheet pan (you can use a plate instead of sheet pan) with a wax paper
4) Dip the strawberry upside down into the chocolate (you can insert toothpicks into the tops of the strawberries to hold them easily)
5) Set strawberry in the plate (or in the sheet pan)
6) Repeat the procedure for all the remaining strawberries
7) You can set them in the plate as shown in the picture or you can set them as you like and spread chopped nuts over it

Enjoy the special day with this delicious dessert!!

Gajar Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

Gajar Halwa is a delicious, mouthwatering Punjabi dessert popular all across India. I am here with a low fat, easy to make quick recipe!!

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 25 to 30 mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

Grated Carrots - 4 cups

Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 3 tbsp

Cardamom Powder - 2 tsp

Cashew nuts - 10 to 12 chopped

Almonds - 8 to 10 chopped (optional)

Saffron - Few Strands

Sugar (Brown) - 2 cups

Milk - 1 cup

Mawa/khoya - 1/4 cup

Method of Preparation:

1) Add ghee in a non-stick vessel. When ghee becomes hot add cashew nuts (save some for garnishing), almonds, mawa, grated carrots and cook for about 4 to 5 mins.

2) Add milk and let it cook for 8 to 10 mins.

3) Add sugar and cardamom powder and stir it for few mins

3) Mix Saffron strands in 1 tbsp of milk. Keep it aside till the saffron dissolves in milk. Add the mixture in halwa, mix well and stir it for few mins

Gajar Halwa is ready! Serve it worm of cold (it tastes yummy with vanilla ice-cream on the top!)

Tips:

You can use more or less Ghee, Mawa and sugar as per your taste.

Instead of Brown sugar, you can use regular white sugar

Shrikhand

It is a very popular Indian dessert made of hung yogurt and sugar. 

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins (excluding the time to prepare hung yogurt)

Servings: 6 to 7

Ingredients:
Yogurt - 4 cups (I prefer thick, creamy greek yogurt)

Cashew nuts - 8 to 10 chopped

Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Jaiphal powder (Nutmeg powder)

Almonds - 5 to 6 chopped

Saffron - 8 to 10 Strands soaked in 2 tbsp of milk

Sugar - 2 cups

Method pf Preparation:
1) Take a clean muslin cloth and take the yogurt in it. 
2) Tie the knot and hang it or keep heavy vessel on top of it to apply some pressure so that all the water falls away from the yogurt. Leave it like this for about 1 hour
3) Add this hung yogurt and sugar in a bowl and mix it well
4) Add saffron dissolved milk, cardamom powder, Jaiphal Powder, some chopped cashew nuts and some chopped almonds and mix well
5) Garnish it wish remaining cashew nuts and almonds