Geetha Perima's Strawberry Milkshake Recipe

I suck at two things - taking a decent picture of drinks, and taking pictures with a dark background. So when your (husband's) aunt does these two super well and posts pictures on Facebook, you do what any self-respecting food blogger does - flick the picture, add your watermark, ask her the recipe, and post it on your blog!

Of course, it may be a good idea to ask her first! 

I have posted two recipes of Geetha Perima's before. The Instant Sambar Powder Mix recipe which was the answer to many a mothers' quest for a sambar powder to send their sons/daughters going off to a foreign land. You should check it out, its brilliant!

The other recipe I got from her and tried it myself (instead of shamelessly taking pictures of what she made or worse, flicking it from her FB page) - the amazing Palak Khichdi! 

Now on to her Strawberry Milkshake Recipe. Thanks for the patient answers to all the 11 questions I had on a recipe that uses 3 ingredients, perima. 

To serve 2, you need: 

7-8 fresh strawberries

2 cups whole milk

Sugar to taste

To prepare: blend the strawberries with the milk and sugar until frothy and well incorporated. You can adjust the number of strawberries depending on their size. On an average, you need 3-4 for each cup of milk. 

Garnish with sliced strawberries and serve cold. Yumville!

This strawberry milkshake goes to Pari's Veggie/Fruit a Month, this month featuring Strawberries - an event conceptualized by Mharo Rajasthan.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes Recipe

I know, that's a lot of chocolate discussion on this site over this week but when it comes to chocolate, there's never too much of it. Agreed? There you go!

This is our Sweet Punch challenge for October, so don't be surprised if you see a lot of chocolate lava cakes cropping up on blogs around you.

I baked this decadence over the weekend. It rose beautifully and the crust was cracked and heavenly. Be very careful not to burn your tongue on this. I speak from experience, like I almost always do. Learn from my mistakes, ok?

Since neither TH nor I like very runny centres for our molten chocolate cakes, I increased baking time but made sure that the centre is still gooey and fudgy.



Molten Chocolate Lava Cake
Fills 4 medium-sized ramekins
Recipe source - showmethecurry.com

Ingredients:
Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate – 4 oz (113g)
Butter – 1/2 cup + to grease ramekins
Eggs – 2
Sugar – 1/3 cup (75 g)
All-purpose Flour – 1/4 cup (40g)

How I Made It:
1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate. Once melted and shiny, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully. Set aside to cool.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 mins by electric mixer, 5 mins by hand)
3. Add chocolate-butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.
4. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture until 3/4 way full.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside. I baked for about 13-15 mins.
6. Serve warm with ice-cream, fruits or whipped cream.



Yep, I had to push out some of the centre with my spoon to demo that ;) Now, one thing to remember is, you have to serve this with some fruits, whipped cream, or ice cream to balance out the dense chocolate flavour - its really overpowering. True death by chocolate!

How I Eat Strawberries

When its spring (or summer, what do I know about season changes!) in some parts of the world, the berries start appearing in all the food blogs. Strawberries are the most dominant I suppose, with the fruit being used in all possible ways - in cakes, ice-creams, sorbet, drinks, salads, you name it! Then come the blueberries in muffins and pancakes and fruit tarts and stuff.

For me, the one living in a place where the only season change is when I step out of the air-conditioned train onto the blistering street and vice versa, spring is when I see strawberries in the super market, I guess.

Needless to say, they are expensive. So usually I can only afford one or two boxes until they stop showing up on the shelves. As much as I'd like to use them in various strawberry recipes, here's how they eventually get used up.

A box of as-fresh-as-it-gets-in-Singapore strawberries. Yum.

I take one in my hand. I whisper "you precious baby, so cool (out of the fridge) and so bright! I hope you realise you cost me a bomb".

I take a gentle bite so as not to hurt it. Slightly sour, not really sweet. But I guess this is how strawberries are supposed to taste, right?

Then I place it down, admire it for a few seconds. Sigh a couple of times, even.

Then I put it back where it belongs, with the others, although with a bite.

Then I flip it around. Ah there! Now I can pretend I have an entire box of strawberries still. And that all of them are as good as new, no bites, no nothing. A boxful, just like how I started out.

Is this normal? Ok, don't answer that. Just tell me how you like your strawberries.

Oh and also, if you'd like to join in on my b'day month craziness, do leave a comment on this post and you could end up smelling much nicer.

Finally, the 4th picture goes to SLF - Special Edition - Beauty of Red and White.