Nuts

Figs and Nuts Gujjia/Sweet Samosa – Sugar free

October 16, 2022 By Asha Shivakumar

Gujjia, aka sweet samosa is such a delicious treat that’s crispy on the outside stuffed with sweet yummy filling. This is a sugar free fig and nuts gujia that is so addictive.

Sweet Samosa is what we call this at home. For as long as I was India, the only version I knew had dried coconut, sooji and nuts. The other with khoya dipped in sugar syrup. Once I ventured into a whole new world, learnt new recipes, I realized there’s so many more delicious fillings that work great for Gujia. Gujjia is a must make dish for Diwali at home. Mom made hundreds a week before Diwali and stored in large steel containers. They were addictive and you could never be satisfied with one.

Although I love the traditional kind my mom makes, I enjoy making a lighter version. There’s nothing healthy or light about deep fried crispy goodness, but hey, If you prefer, air fry it. I’ve done that and it works great too.

Today I share one of my new favorite ways to make gujiya. Filled with cashews and sugar free figs, I think you will love this fig gujiya. The stuffing is made out of cashews and almonds, ground together with figs. It makes for a delicious stuffing that is healthy and no sugar added since the figs add the texture and sweetness….

Pori Urundai/Murmura Nuts Ladoo/Puffed Rice Nuts Ladoo

October 13, 2022 By Asha Shivakumar

Pori Urundai or Murmura Nuts Ladoo is an authentic South Indian snack made during festivals. I call it the energy balls of yester years that grandma made. It’s healthy-ish, full of feel-good ingredients, and irresistibly delicious!

Diwali is around the corner. There’s a new meaning to festivals now versus festivals hundreds of years ago. Festivals in the golden days was a celebration of bringing the whole village together, a ritual of life. They pretty much partied fifteen days a year: simple events that involved simple food. Fast forward to the 2000’s and festivals mean holidays, rest days, and for lack of a better word, “an extension of a weekend”

Life can get repetitious if we don’t appreciate the joy around festivals. After all, making life thrilling is up to you. To be honest, staying away from India, it’s harder to feel festive, as festivity encompasses India as a whole….

Stuffed Meatballs in White Curry aka Christmas Kofta Curry

December 20, 2021 By Asha Shivakumar

Stuffed Meatballs in White Curry aka as Kofta Curry is full bodied and flavorful. Try beef, lamb, chicken or turkey meatballs smothered in this amazingly silky sauce.

As the story of 2021 comes to an end, I see the lessons it brought me.

Surrender: No matter what big plans I make for my life, the plans of the Universe will always trump my own and they will always be better for me.

Daily practice is critical: maintaining my practices in the good times allowed them to show up for me in the tough times. Short and simple habits have been lifesavers.

Resetting myself to neutral through breathwork, reframing the negative narratives by looking for the growth opportunity instead of being stuck in victimhood and blame….

Sweet Paratha stuffed with nuts

August 27, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Sweet Paratha. Flaky buttery paratha stuffed with nuts, spiced with cardamom and saffron is topped with sweet condensed milk. Divine and irresistible. Perfect as a sweet treat, a great snack, and offering during festivals.

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, mom made an array of quick sweet treats for a junk loving household. Although my dad was very health conscious, sweets was his weakness. He would skip a chapathi, but eat that sweet poli, or mom’s classic gulab jamun. Sweets were not a rare appearance like many homes. Mom made her famous sweet dosa, sweet pongal, pal poli, sweet paniyaaram for breakfast, and evening snacks were the classic traditional ones. When special occasions came by, there were the pricey nuts involved and more ghee, of course.

Being a working mom, she never made us feel like she was busy, she made sure to pamper us with the most delicious food and quality family time. I didn’t have to pester her a lot, a request or an order sometimes, and anything we asked was ready in minutes. Although there were so much sweets, she’d balance it out with all the veggies she snuck in into our diets. Smart lady!

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Coconut Cashew Cocoa Bailey’s Strawberry and Cream Panna cotta

February 1, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

An impressively easy dessert, bailey’s strawberry and cream panna cotta will make anyone smile. It’s light and it’s decadent, both at the same time. The crunch from the tart base compliments this smooth panna cotta.

I carry around a list in my brain… a list of things that I’m in love with. Actively in love with, everyday… just walking around in the world.

I’m in love with fresh flowers at home, big and small rings, my not so perfect black cotton dress, girls who carry themselves with ease that I covet, planners, writing small notes of love to family members, the diffuser that has lemon essence in it, sit and day dream.

This is aside from loving the people and pets around me. This love is separate from family and friends. This love sometimes steps to the back of my mind and I’m left feeling a little blaaaaaahhh…. until all the love comes rushing back and I remember that I’m totally in love with my life. I LOVE falling in love with life….

Indian inspired Spicy Carrot Soup with Walnut Crumble & Monday Musings

October 7, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This is super healthy soup that gives you all the fresh, warm fall flavors. The spicy carrot soup is easy on the ingredients and boast big flavors. Loaded with ginger and garlic, lime juice for punch, with some sesame seeds. It is tangy, nutty, very creamy and intensely flavored, Made with few ingredients and 30 minutes, this is an incredible easy and delicious meal any time of the year.

The endless cascade of nutritional information—about localism, vegetarianism, veganism, organic food, the environmental impact of eating meat, poultry, or fish, and more—makes the simple goal of a healthy, sustainable diet seem hopelessly complex.

Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” That’s what the French lawyer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who happened to have a deep love of gastronomy, wrote in 1825. A century later, a diet-hawking American nutritionist named Victor Lindlahr rendered it as: “You are what you eat.” I propose revising it further: Tell me what you eat and I will tell you how you impact the planet.

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Coffee Cashew Shortbread with Coffee Chocolate Cream

December 12, 2017 By Asha Shivakumar

Eating these coffee cashew shortbread/cookies with coffee chocolate cream, is like having a cup of nutty, delicious coffee.

This is definitely one of those addictive cookies that you will love to add to your Christmas baking repertoire, and on your party table! Rich and buttery, with a caramel undertone with the brown sugar, and the cashews in the cookies… it all lends to this completely and utterly delicious cookie. These coffee cashew shortbread/cookies with coffee chocolate cream is a must make….

No-churn Pistachio-Coconut Cardamom Ice Cream with Chocolate

July 13, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

This deliciously easy ice cream is full of flavor and has coconut and pistachios that make it nutty and crunchy. Make this no churn pistachio icecream and you’ll love.

It’s summer here, and it’s monsoon season in India where I am right now. Monsoon in Bangalore is beautiful. The weather is quite perfect, not too cold or chilly. It rains, but not crazily. Being here, travelling around, and trying different foods is an amazing feeling.

There’s a huge selection of food here. From the authentic Karnataka Ragi Roti (finger millet tortilla) to a Belgian waffle flavored with rich Indian spices, everything is easily accessible.

The palette right now is wide. The ice cream flavors are numerous, with wine ice cream, cherry-mango ice cream, and butterscotch pistachio ice cream. Throughout my childhood years, I don’t remember having fruit based ice creams or desserts at all. It wasn’t that popular then. The ice cream that were fruit based were probably artificially flavored, so it was a natural instinct to go for the nutty cardamom or saffron ones, but a no churn pistachio icecream. It’s all so different now.

Although I do like the fruit ones, I still have a strong bond to the ones I grew up with. This is one of them., the no churn pistachio icecream.

Who wouldn’t like a luscious, smooth, sweet nutty ice cream? We Indians have a strong relationship with cardamom. The no churn was a popular method to make ice cream, since regular households didn’t have an ice cream machine then. I stuck to that method with slight changes after seeing Nigella Lawson’s Popular No-Churn Ice Cream.

This is one of our favorite flavors and it works so well together. I made cones using my recipe for Pizzelle.

If you make this no churn pistachio icecream, tag me on social media.

Have a lovely week my friends!!

Asha

5.0 from 3 reviews

Pistachio-Coconut Cardamom Icecream with Chocolate

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

The easiest no churn icecream is perfect for the summer days and these flavors are classic and delicious.

Author: Ash

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

4 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream chilled
1 can condensed milk
⅓ cup coconut cream
½ cup pistachio coarse paste
½ tsp green cardamom powder or powder for 3-4 cardamom pods
Semi sweet melted chocolate
2 tbsp coconut oil
Cones to serve in

Instructions

Clean the whipping bowl and the whisk very well and dry it. You can leave the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes before whipping the cream.
Add the condensed milk, coconut cream and the chilled whipping cream and whip it on low speed, around 3 for 3 minutes so it can slowly whip. Then whip it on medium high for another 5 minutes at high speed until it is almost to a stiff peak stage. Stop the machine and add the pistachio paste and whip it for another 30 seconds to a minute until stiff peak and stop immediately. Pour in a ice cream pan or box and chill overnight.
Melt the chocolate on double broiler, add coconut oil in it and drizzle on the icecream once it is completely chilled.
Enjoy

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Cashew Linzer -Sandwich Cookies

December 15, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Sometimes, you have such a great idea that you think you’ve almost won a lottery with it. A few days ago, I had an idea….

Sitting on my dining table, with a hot cup of coffee in one hand and typing in the other. I typed in ‘snowflake cutters’, and there it was at William-Sonoma website. I added it to the bag, quickly forgetting about it, as I had lots to do that day. After a couple of days, I was watching my favorite Vlog on YouTube, when I saw an ad of those same snowflake cutters staring at me. It’s funny how the advertising agencies can monitor all your Internet activities. And, of course, it’s showing me the thing that I wanted to buy. Weird. I finally went ahead and ordered and waited for it for 4 whole days. They came on a Thursday, so pretty and screaming at me to use them soon. My idea: making Lintzer cookies with the snowflake cutter. The bottom cookie would be a round plain one and the top would be this gorgeous snowflake like cookie dusted with powdered sugar and jam peaking through the tiny little cutouts. They looked perfect in my mind. I didn’t see anything like that on Pinterest or anywhere. They definitely are going to be stunning. Oh well, I thought it would be stunning.

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Balsamic Spiced Mixed Nuts

December 7, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Christmas is just around the corner. It will come by, before we know it and will pass by in a blur. The journey during December is a beautiful one.

Amidst all these you guys, it’s been a tough last 4 weeks for a place very dear to my hubby and a lot of people who belong to Chennai.

I met my husband in Chennai Airport for the first time. A memorable moment that I will never forget. What Chennai and the 6 million people in it won’t forget is, what they saw and experienced in the last few weeks.

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