Easy 3 ingredient dessert

My kids school restarted after a long long summer break.....and that means I am totally free for a few hours in a day. I like to take long long walks, try out new recipes, photograph stuff and best of all meet other "free" moms for a "kid-free" meet .... :) I may be exaggerating, but a "mom's time out"......without her kids is so relaxing. You do not even have to go out.....just get together at some place, have "chai" and chit-chat. I love these sessions and I am lucky to have found wonderful women to share this with in all the places, I have lived in.

Usually, morning after the kids leave for school works best and me and my friends decided to meet for a potluck brunch. It was an impromptu decision and yet all of them came up with lovely dishes.

For me, cooking something suddenly for anyone other than my kids is bit daunting ... all I make for breakfast is cold cereal, oatmeal or eggs. To cook something out of the blue, requires me to look at fridge 100 times and search google 500 times ..... :D and then I am inspired to cook!! So with all this search...the actual time for cooking is very less.... well, this recipe requires very less time to cook and is delicious.

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry -- 1 sheet
• Strawberries -- 7
• Nutella -- 6 tsps (or more)
• Powdered sugar -- 1 tsp (optional)
• Cocoa powder -- 1 tsp (optional)
• milk -- 1 tbsp (optional)

Recipe:

• Thaw the puff pastry sheet on the kitchen counter for about 40 minutes.
• Unroll, it on a flat surface and cut into squares or rectangles.
• Pre heat the oven and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• Put all the puff pastry squares on the sheet with about 1/2 inch space between each.

• Brush the top of the pastry with milk.

• Bake for 15 mins at 400 degrees F(about 200 degrees C )
• Take them out and let it cool on the baking tray.

• Chop the strawberries.

• Spread about half teaspoon (or more) nutella on the baked pastry square.

• Top it with chopped strawberries.

• Drizzle cocoa powder or powdered sugar on top with the help of a sieve.

Quantity:

• One sheet makes 12 pieces (1 inch by 2 inch)

Notes:

• You can use any fruit available, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi, mango, banana or any combination of mixed fruit.
• You can make a big fruit tart instead of individual pieces.
• You can sprinkle cinnamon with sugar instead of cocoa.
•  All pictures taken with my phone, as I made this along with the kids lunches and the morning rush of getting them ready.

Gobhi-matar subji (cauliflower and peas curry)

Oh how I used to dislike the gobhi-matar subji ..... until about 2-3 months ago...!! It was my first get-together with my new gal-pals in the US... a girl made this gobhi-matar curry and I loved it..... !! It looked exactly the way, I made it.....but it tasted so better than mine and I wondered how did she make it! She kindly shared the recipe and I m so glad to be sharing it with you.... I got a friend and a new "regular" in my lunch recipe list. Thanks, Ana!!

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower -- about 300-350 grams (I used about half of a medium sized cauliflower)
• tomatoes -- 2 
  
• green peas -- 1/2 cup
• red onion -- about half
• garlic -- 3 cloves
• ginger  -- 1 inch piece
• green chilies -- 2
• mustard seeds -- 1 tsp
• asafoetida -- 1/4 tsp
• curry leaves -- 4-5
• turmeric powder  -- 1/2 tsp
• coriander powder -- 1 tsp
• salt -- about 1 tsp 
• canola or vegetable oil -- 1 tbsp
• coriander leaves -- a handful bunch
• water -- 1 to 1 1/2 cup
• and the last secret ingredient -- Rasam Powder -- about 1 and 1/2 tsp

Recipe:

• Cut the cauliflower to half. Remove the green stalks and break to florets. Clean and wash well in running water. Keep it aside.
• Grate the ginger and garlic and make paste. Slit the green chilies and remove the seeds if needed. Chop the coriander leaves. 
• Chop the onions and tomatoes and grind to a fine paste/puree with a blender. Keep it aside.

• Heat a tbsp or two of oil. Add mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add asafoetida and slit green chilies.

• Add the onion paste. Keep the heat medium and keep stirring till the liquid is evaporated and the paste is darkened and shiny(about 5-7 minutes)

• Add the tomato puree and keep stirring for about 10 minutes.

• Add the ginger-garlic paste and the curry leaves, while continuously stirring.

• Once the "masala" starts coming together (looks like it's getting dry), add the powdered spices -- turmeric powder, coriander powder, rasam powder and salt.

• Stir for 1-2 minutes on medium heat after adding the dry spice powders.

• Add the cauliflower florets and the green peas and saute them in the "tomato onion masala" for 2-3 minutes.

• I cooked this curry in a pressure pan. So at this point, I added about 1 cup of water to the curry, covered the pressure pan with lid and let it cook for 1-2 whistles.

• You can cover the lid, if cooking in a regular skillet or pot after adding water and let it cook for another 7-8 minutes till the cauliflower is done.

• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve hot as a side to chapatis or rice.

Quantity:

• 4-5 servings with accompaniments like rice/chapati, etc

Notes:

• I used only 1/2 of the cauliflower and got a gravy (liquid based) curry.
• If u want the subji to be dry, you can use about 400 gms of cauliflower and cook the subji with less water.

• You can add garam masala or goda masala or any of your favorite homemade mixed spice powder.... that will make it different flavored. I particularly loved the flavor and combination of peas and cauliflower with the rasam masala :)