DIY


In an attempt to make food from scratch on several occasions, I had experienced many flaws and success.   So I decided to create a new page to share these with you.  Here you will find some recipes those are prepared from scratch and yielded passable results.  I am sure it will come handy for you.  I will be updating this page with more recipes as it goes. 

Caramelized Onion Paste



Ingredients:
4 - onions sliced
1 tbsp. - oil
1 tsp. - salt

Directions:
  • Heat the oil in a cast iron pan or non-stick pan.  Add the onions and salt and sauté on low to medium heat.  Stir in between every 5 - 6 minutes till the onion becomes light golden brown color.  Turn off the burner.  Let it cool.
  • Puree the onions in a blender or food processor till it turns into a thick smooth paste.
  • Transfer to a freezer safe container, preferably a wide glass container like pyrex.  Freeze it for 2 to 3 hrs. Take it out and score using a serrated knife.  If the paste is not fully frozen., put it back into the freezer for another hour.  Cut them into pieces and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
  • You can add them into the curries while you are sauting other ingredients.  I always keep a batch in my freezer, so that I can throw into curries when needed.






Home Made Butter And Ghee





I remember my grandma used to whip the buttermilk manually to get the butter and the homemade ghee was used in dessert like halwa and kheers (payasams).  They sure were the yummy treats.  Even though the old fashioned way of preparing food tastes good which involves intense labor, we don't need to shy away from trying these using the new kitchen gadgets we have now.  The fresh homemade butter and ghee tastes better than the store bought ones for sure.  My kids couldn't stop scooping out the homemade butter when I made it.  So trust me, its really worth a try.  I highly recommend using a stand mixer for this process.

Butter wrapped with plastic wrap to squeeze out the water.






Ingredients
4 cups - cold whipping cream/heavy cream
1/4 cup - cold light sour cream
salt - optional, if you want salted butter

Directions
  • In a chilled bowl of the stand mixer, mix the sour cream, whipping cream and salt( if using).  Use the whipping paddle.
  • Change the setting to whip and run it for 5 - 6 minutes. You will notice the cream starts to curdle and butter will be separating.  After couple more minutes, the butter will start to come together and form a big ball. 
  • The left over liquid is the buttermilk.  Drain the liquid using a fine mesh strainer and save it for another use.
  • Take a bowl of cold water and drop the ball of butter that is in the stainer into the water to wash off any buttermilk.  Strain it again and let it stand for 15 minutes.
  • Transfer the butter ball into a plastic wrap and twist at the top to cover it, just like a giant hershey kisses.  Now squeeze the wrapped ball, excess moisture will ooze out through the top of the plastic wrapped butter ball. Drain the excess moisture like this for few times till no more water oozes out.  Store the butter refrigerated.
Ghee /melted butter

To make ghee
  • Take a heavy bottom sauce pan, drop the ball of butter into the pan and cook the butter till it starts to boil on medium heat.  You will notice white froth during the process of boiling.  It will subside.  Give few more minutes of boiling to remove any moisture.  White froth will start to appear again, now slightly lower the flame and let it boil till you see a golden yellow clear liquid. 
  • Turn off the heat and remove any brown solids at the bottom of the ghee using a clean fine mesh strainer.
  • Transfer to a sterilized bottle and you can store the ghee outside at room temperature.  The ghee will harden to solid in cold countries.

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