Zaiqa

During season, when strawberries are seen flooding the market and are available at reasonable rates, I buy large stocks and freeze a few batches to work with them later on. This way I can enjoy them year long, even when they are not in season.

frozen strawberries in a zip-lock bag

To freeze fresh Strawberries: Wash the strawberries and drain them. Remove the leaves and spread them out on a kitchen towel for 30-45 minutes so that they air dry. Then, spread them on a rimmed baking sheet and freeze them for 2-3 hours. Once frozen, transfer the strawberries to a zip-lock bag and remove as much air as possible from the bags and seal them air tight. Freeze the frozen strawberries in the bags until needed.

Classic Strawberry Jam

Ingredients:

Strawberries – 850 gms (around 1.8 pounds), fresh/frozen
Granulated sugar – 2 cups
Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
Butter – 1 tbsp

Strawberry jam

Method:

Cut off the top stalk part of the frozen/fresh strawberries. In a large glass mixing bowl, add the frozen strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Mix well and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Later, transfer it all to a food processor and pulse just until the strawberries are just chopped. DO NOT MAKE A PUREE. Transfer this to a saucepan, and bring to a boil and high heat, once boiling let cook at medium heat for 30-45 minutes or until a jam consistency is reached. Add butter to reduce the foam. Keep stirring and keep a close eye on it. During the last 15 mins, lower the heat to medium low. Remove from heat once done. Spoon the prepared jam into a sterilized Mason canning jar ( I recommend using 1 cup jars instead of one large jar for the jam) and seal the jar according to instructions. Once it is at room temperature, refrigerate the jar to store.

Note: This is a preservelike spread and not a true preserve and must be refrigerated to avoid spoilage, because it contains a higher proportion of fruit to sugar and retain more fresh fruit flavor.

Luv,
Mona

With Strawberry season at peak here, every farmers market seems to be flooded with these juicy beauties. I brought home a good quantity and have been enjoying them in various ways, and reserved a few to prepare some jam.

Chopped Strawberries and Kiwi

I also had a few kiwi sitting pretty in the refrigerator which I decided to add to the strawberry jam. The end result was a sweet+tart+delightful jam which my family enjoyed.

Strawberry-Kiwi Jam

Ingredients:

Strawberry – 750 gms, stems removed, cored and chopped
Kiwi – 6, peeled and chopped
Sugar – 600 gms
Fresh mint leaves – 8, finely chopped
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp

Strawberry-Kiwi jam on toast – my breakfast

Method:
1. Add sugar to the chopped strawberries and mix well in a mixing bowl. Cover and keep the bowl in the refrigerator overnight for the juices to extract.
2. The next day, pour the contents of the mixing bowl into a stainless steel saucepan and add all the remaining ingredients to it. Mix well and let it cook uncovered at medium high heat for 45-55 mins. Keep stirring and keep a close eye on it. During the last 15 mins, lower the heat to medium low. Remove from heat once done.
3. Spoon the prepared jam into a sterlised canning jar and seal the jar according to instructions. Once it is at room temperature, refrigerate the jar to store.

Note: This is a preservelike spread and not a true preserve and must be refrigerated to avoid spoilage, because it contains a higher proportion of fruit to sugar and retain more fresh fruit flavor.

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Interesting reads on Jams and Jellies

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Good Eats:
Rajeshwari at Raks Kitchen explains the detailed step by step tutorial to prepare Jahangiri jalebi at home. They look yummy!

Luv,
Mona

Today was such day when I was craving for some mood uplifting, indulging dessert. Rich and decadent fool is what I thought of. You can use any fruits such as Cherries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Mango, Plum, Passionfruit, Kiwi etc instead of Strawberries that I have used today.

Strawberry Fool

Strawberry Fool

Ingredients:

Strawberry – 1 lb
Sugar – 1/2 cup
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Chopped Mint leaves – 1 tsp
Light cream – 2 cups
Vanilla powder – 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Wash and slice the strawberries. Reserve a few for garnish. Add the remaining into a blender container. Add mint leaves, sugar and lemon juice and blend until smoothly pureed.
2. Add vanilla to the light cream. Whip the light cream until stiff peaks form.
3. Gently using a rubber spatula, fold in the the pureed strawberry with the cream. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.
4. To serve, spoon the refrigerated cream+strawberry puree mixture into cups and drizzle with the reserved strawberry puree. Garnish with the strawberry slices.

Updated June 15th ’09: I forward Strawberry Fool to Happy Cook for the event – Strawberry Feast, that she is hosting this month on her blog for her love for Strawberries. Hope she enjoys it.

Luv,
Mona

I am so delighted and glad! The good news is that both zaaiqa(dot)net website has been closed down and the my recipe pictures has been removed by the blogger as they both had violated the copyright policy of my blog. I thank all those who helped me out in this cause. Cheers!

A few days back I had brought home some ripe bananas and fresh strawberries, and they were lying in the refrigerator waiting to be turned into something delicious. I thought of preparing a smoothie immediately as I am a huge fan of strawberry lassi/smoothies.

Enjoy this smoothie on a hot summer afternoon. Your kids will also love this drink. Its healthy and nutritious.

Minty Strawberry Banana Smoothie~Lassi

Makes – 5 small glasses

Ingredients:

• Ripe Banana – 1
• Whole Strawberries – 4 cups
• Mint Leaves – 8, large
• Yogurt – 1/2 cup
• Honey – 8 tbsp
• Lemon Juice – 1/2 tbsp
• Ice cubes – 1 cup

Method:

• Halve the banana and strawberries, roughly tear the mint leaves with you hands and add with all the remaining ingredients into a food processor or a blender container. Blend till pureed. Add the few ice cubes and blend again till they are lightly crushed.
• Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately. Do not store to serve at a later day.

For this smoothie, I used the mint from my Mint plant which I planted indoors in container. This goes as an entry to Grow Your Own Event hosted by Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi.

Some of my bloggers friends were kind enough to pass me some awards during the last few weeks. I am honored and feel delighted to recieve them. Now I have two more awards on my shelf to show off 😉

Silvana of UvAromatica has forwarded me the “Brilliant Weblog Prize”.

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere. Here are the rules to follow:

1. When you recieve the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.
3. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).

I furthur pass this award to Indira of Mahanandi, Asha of Aroma, Meeta of Whats For Lunch Honey, Elise’s Simply Recipes, Cinnamon of Cinnamon Trial, Shilpa of Aaayi’s Recipes and Nupur of One Hot Stove.

I also recieved the Inspiration Award from Zainab and Hameeda of Arabic Bites.

This is given to bloggers whose stories and recipes inspire us.Whether it’s to eat healthier, dive back into our past to conjure up something we ate as children, or just make the light bulbs in our brains go on with a new idea for a recipe. The rules of the award are: As recipients of this award, please share with us what inspires you and then pass on the Inspiration Award to 4 other deserving bloggers. Please let them know what the award means and what to do with it

My Mother’s simple and quick cooking, my readers and their comments is what inspires me.

I pass on this award to Kay of One Bite at a time, Priya of 365 Days of Pure Vegetarian, Sunita of Sunita’s World and JZ of Tasty Treats.

And last but not the least, I thank Foodbuzz for sending me the goodies which include Moo cards, an organic Tote bag and a personalised ‘Zaiqa’ site badge. I loved them all a lot.

Luv,
Mona