Kerala Style Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:
1. Cucumber- 1 medium sized
2. Coconut grated - 1/2 cup
3. Mustard seeds - 1 and 1/2 teaspoon
4. Green chilli - 1
5. Dried red chilli - 1
6. Curry leaves - few
7. Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup
8. Oil - 1 teaspoon
9. Salt to taste

Method:
1, Wash the cucumber, peel the skin off and cut into small pieces. Transfer cucumber in a mixing bowl.

2. Grind coconut and green chilly into a fine paste. Roughly crush 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds. Add the coconut paste, crushed mustard, yogurt and salt to cucumber and mix thoroughly.

3. For seasoning, heat oil in a pan and splutter 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds. Add dried red chilly and curry leaves. Transfer this seasoning to salad and serve as a side dish for rice and curry.

I made this recipe as part of the "Shh Cooking Secretly" event. This is an event started by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipe and now being taken forward by Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni.  At the beginning of the month a theme is chosen by one of the participants and all the participants are grouped in pairs. The participants will exchange 2 secret ingredients with their partners who are suppose to prepare a dish that matches the theme of that month. 

This month's theme is "Summer Salads" and it was chosen by Kalyani Sri of "Sizzling Tastebuds". 

My partner for this month is Renu Agarwal Dongre and she shared cucumber and salt as my secret ingredients and I shared her watermelon rind  and salt as her ingredients. She made "Raw Watermelon rind and Avocado Salad". Do visit her blog "Cook With Renu" to check for amazing collection of dishes. I have bookmarked couple of recipes from her blog to try in future: "Whole Wheat Methi Matri" and "Baked Falafel".

Homemade Ice cream - No Sugar | No Condensed Milk | No Cornflour

Homemade ice cream served in store bought cone

This homemade ice cream is made without added sugar, condensed milk, cream or cornflour. It can enjoyed guilt free. 

Ingredients:

1.  Banana(Chiquita) - 3
2. Dates - 10 count
3. Almonds - 25 count
4. Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Method: 

1. Make thin slices of banana and freeze for at least 4 hours.
2. Soak almonds and dates in water for 1/2 hour.
3. Take a blender and add soaked almonds, dates and 2 tablespoon of water and grind to a fine paste.
4. Add frozen banana slices and vanilla essence and blend till they form a smooth paste. 
5. Add the mixture in a freezer safe box(preferably glass) and freeze for at least 8 hours. 

Serve this ice cream in a bowl or store bought cones.

Spicy Braised Tofu

Ingredients:

1. Tofu Firm - 16 oz /1 lb/ 450 gm 
2. Onion chopped - 1/2 cup
3. Garlic minced - 3 no.
4. Sesame oil - 1 tsp
5. Vegetable oil/Olive oil - 2 tbsp
6. Toasted sesame seeds - 1 tsp
7. Spring onion - 3 roots

For the sauce:

1. Soy sauce - 2 tsp

2. Sugar - 1 tsp

3. Salt - 1/2 tsp

4. Chili flakes - 1 tsp

5. Water - 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Drain the water from tofu package and cut tofu into small pieces. 
2. Add 2 tbsp of vegetable/Olive oil in a pan and place tofu pieces in a single layer. Fry one side for 7-8 minutes. Turn them over and again fry till both sides turn golden brown. Remove tofu from the pan and set aside. 
3. In the same pan, add chopped onion and minced garlic. Saute till onions turn slightly brown.
4. Mix all the ingredients listed in the sauce section in a bowl.
5. Add the sauce mixture to the sauteed onion. 
6. Transfer the tofu back to the pan and mix gently. Keep the flame on high.
7. When the sauce thickens, turn off the heat and add a teaspoon of sesame oil, chopped spring onion and toasted sesame seeds.

Serve as a side dish for steamed rice.