Watermelon Burfi

This is an Indian sweet that I've made for over 30 years. A few years back I saw them decorated as watermelon slices and have since adapted that design in my own way. Feel free to color and shape the burfi from this recipe into any design. The recipe given here makes about 60 mini watermelon slice burfi pieces.
Ingredients:

• 15 oz part skim ricotta cheese
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup dry milk
• 1/2 tsp grinded cardamon seeds
• whole cardamon seeds
• green food coloring
• red food coloring

Directions:

Place two paper towels on a dish and empty the ricotta cheese on top of them. This will help absorb the extra water. While waiting, blend the dry milk in a blender to break up the larger chunks of and create a finer powder. 

Put the ricotta cheese in a nonstick pot on the stove top. Add 1 stick of butter to the pot. Turn on the stove to med heat and stir the ingredients to break up the butter. Continue stirring for about 10 minutes. 

Ricotta cheese and butter being stirred.

Then add 1 cup of sugar to the pot. Continue to stir for about 7 more minutes. Be careful of splashing at this stage. Constantly stirring will avoid burning or drying out the bottom portion in the pot. Next add 1.2 tsp of grinded cardamon seeds. Continue stirring for about another 3 minutes. You'll note that the ingredients should be thickening at this point. Add 3/4 cup dry milk to the pot and stir for another 4 minutes. Then reduce the heat to med-low. The ingredients should be forming a batter. 

Forming the batter.

Turn the heat off and divide the batter in half. Transfer the second half into another nonstick pot. Add roughly 4 drops of red color to one half and stir it in. Do the same with green color in the other half.
Remove the batters from the pots.

Red and green batters ready to be shaped.

Lightly lather your hands in butter to prevent sticking when working with the batter. Roll spheres of the red batter that are about 1.5 inches in diameter. This recipe should make roughly 15 balls. Spread out the balls on a dish and place them in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Red spheres ready to be frozen for 10 mins.

Divide the green batter into an equal number of pieces (roughly 15). Once again, lather your hands in butter to prevent sticking. With each piece, create a flat disk that will be wrapped around the cool red spheres and cover them evenly and completely. Place the spheres in the fridge for at least 2 hours to harden. 

Cover the red spheres with our green disks.

Spheres after being refrigerated for a few hours.

Cut the spheres into quarters to create 4 slices per sphere. Then decorate each piece with the cardamon seeds to make them look like mini watermelon slices. Enjoy!

Finished!

Bhindi Masala

This is my favorite vegetable recipe. When I was younger, my mom used to make it specially for me when I frowned at the other vegetable options for dinner. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did in my childhood! This recipe should be enough for 2 people.
Ingredients:

• about 30 whole okra
• cooking oil spray
• 2 tbsp corn oil
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/8 tsp hing powder
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp dhanajiru
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper (extra for more spiciness) 
• 3/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp corn meal
• 2 tbsp grinded unsalted peanut powder

Directions:

Wash the okra and wipe them dry with a paper towel. Dice them into 1/2 inch round slices and disregard the ends of each piece. Lightly spray the chopped okra with cooking oil in a microwavable dish. Cover the dish with a microwave top and warm up for 2 minutes. Then shake the container around to flip the okra pieces and rewarm again for 2 minutes. 

Okra pieces after warming.

Place a pot on high heat on the stove. Add the 2 tbsp of corn oil and the mustard seeds. Wait until the mustard seeds begin to pop. Then turn the heat down to med-hi. While waiting, peel and crush 2 cloves of garlic with a garlic presser and keep it read on the side.

Add the hing powder and garlic to the pot. Stir the ingredients until the garlic is slightly golden in color. Continue stirring while adding the okra to the pot. Then add the dhanajiru, turmeric powder and red pepper. Feel free to add extra red pepper powder to make the shaak more spicy. Next add the salt and lime juice. The salt may need to be adjusted to taste. Add the corn meal powder and grinded peanuts. Make sure the peanuts are unsalted. They can be grinded in a blender prior to starting. The best kind to use is the ones from Patel Brothers.

Okra after adding the spices.

Place the lid on the pot and reduce the heat to low. Keep it on the stove for about 5 minutes before removing. It's now ready to eat!

Finished okra!