Bread Halwa Recipe
Cooking Time: 30 mts
Cuisine: South Indian
Serves 6-7 persons
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Ingredients:
3/4 cup – 1 cup ghee (clarified butter)
1 loaf bread
6-8 cardamoms (elachi)
2 tbsps almonds (badam)
2 tbsps cashewnuts
1 lt milk (low fat)
1 ¼ cup sugar (increase or decrease as per your taste)
1 Tear the bread into bit sized pieces. Heat three fourth cup of ghee in a cooking vessel and add the bread pieces and fry them till they turn a golden brown.
2 Grind elachi, almonds and cashewnuts (leave a few toasted almonds and cashewnuts aside for garnish) to a fine paste.
3 Meanwhile boil the milk, add sugar and keep stirring it till it blends into the milk. Add the fried bread pieces and the remaining ghee to this mixture.
4 Let it simmer till the bread pieces turn soft and cook in the milk mixture. Combine the nuts paste. Garnish with the toasted almonds and cashewnuts.
4 Serve warm or refrigerate until chilled and serve. It tastes good both warm and cold.

Soya Chunks Vegetable Pulao Recipe
Recipe source: Own experiment
Prep & Cooking: 45 mts, soaking of rice: 15 mts
Serves 6 persons
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Ingredients:
3 cups basmati rice – washed and soaked in water for 15 mts
1 cup dried soya chunks – washed and boiled in water till soft
2-3 tbsp ghee
1 tsp shah jeera
2 bay leaves
2 big onions finely sliced
1 tbsp grated ginger
3-4 green chillies slit length wise
1 cup chopped mixed vegetables like beans, green peas, carrots or potatoes
½ tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
3-4 tbsps of fresh mint leaves (pudina)
3 cups of freshly extracted coconut milk
2 ½ cups water
2-3 tbsps lemon juice
fresh coriander leaves for garnish
3-4 bread slices (cubed and lightly fried in ghee) – optional
8-10 cashewnuts (lightly roasted in ghee till golden brown)
For Masala Powder (lightly dry roast in a pan and grind to a fine pwd)
2 green cardamoms
4 cloves
2” cinnamom stick
3-4 pepper corns
1/4 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1-2 dry red chillis
1 Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add shah jeera and bay leaves and stir for a few seconds till the jeera splutters. Add the sliced onions, grated ginger and green chillis. Saute the onions till they turn pink.
2 Add the mixed vegetables and on medium heat, let them cook. Add salt and keep covered for 4-5 mts.
3 Add turmeric pwd, masala pwd and combine well. Stir fry for a minute.
4 Add the cooked soya chunks and keep covered for 2 mts. Add the mint leaves and combine.
5 Add the coconut milk, let it come to a boil, reduce heat and add the water. Bring to a boil again.
6 Add the drained basmati rice and mix well. Add salt, if required, at this stage. Reduce heat to medium and let it cook covered with lid.
7 Finally, once the rice and vegetables are cooked, add the lemon juice, fried bread cubes, fried cashewnuts and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
8 Serve with raita, mixed vegetable curry or chicken curry.


Note:
The above spices measurements can be categorised as medium spice. You can increase the use of green chillis, cloves, pepper and dry red chillis, if you want a spicer pulao. I have used less spice to suit my toddler’s palate. If you dont have a coconut on hand, replace the coconut milk with water, but the flavor of pulao will differ.