Lauki/Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream

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Chocolate ghiya ice cream

I know, I know this sounds weird. But believe me when I say you will never be able to guess the secret ingredient in this chocolate ice cream if I were to make you taste it.

This ghiya/lauki chocolate ice cream is my grandmother’s recipe. She used to make it for us when we were kids. And as kids we never knew she put a vegetable we all would not touch with a ten feet pole. My grandmother was really good with making us eat veggies by disguising them in. For a long time we were unaware that Mummy’s Chocolate Ice cream had ghiya/lauki/bottle gourd in it. I guess one day it slipped from one of the adults and thats when we realized all these years we had been tricked.

Ghiya or lauki or bottle gourd is one of the key components in my grandmom’s chocolate ice cream. I am not sure where she learnt the recipe. Or whether it was something she made up herself. Either case, I loved her chocolate ice cream and summer vacations at my grandparents meant that this chocolate ice cream would be on the menu.

While I have seen my grandmother making this ice cream as an adult, I never got the opportunity to learn the exact measurements. When I first made this recipe, I asked my grand mom for the measurements but she also gave me approximate measurements since that’s how our elders always cooked- with intuition and the need to use up things that are getting bad in the pantry. With a good idea of the recipe, I set about making it. Since the recipe is fairly easy and adjustable to one’s taste, I got pretty good results. My grandmother would use Bournvita and while as a kid I enjoyed the taste, as an adult I thought using cocoa powder gives a better chocolate flavor, and thats what I have shared in the recipe.

You can add roasted almonds, like I did for the Disney video here. You could also pulse some raw cacao nibs, and replace some of the cocoa with it. Since sweetness is a very subjective thing, and what I might find sweet, you might not – adjust cocoa and condensed milk amount accordingly.

Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream

VEGAN ALTERNATIVE

Its a simple easy recipe and with ingredients that should be in your pantry and/or easily available in the market. This recipe is eggless- which is great for people who prefer eggless recipes. I have never tried this with dairy free milk, but it could work. The problem would arise when you have to replace the condensed milk. Since condensed milk is basically milk reduced with sugar- if you increase the amount of milk called for in the recipe and reduce the bottle gourd with sugar and dairy free milk in the first step, the recipe might work and be made vegan. You would also of course have to sub the cream with a dairy free alternative as well.

MAKE THIS ICE CREAM WITHOUT AN ICE CREAM MAKER

Even though I have an ice cream maker, I don’t generally use it for this recipe. Still I get a creamy ice cream texture. The trick is to remove the ice cream every 2-3 hours, or as the edges start freezing and beat it for a minute. I do this 3-4 times before letting it freeze overnight. This helps in avoiding crystallization and yields a creamy texture. Also, the base after cooking and being churned should preferably be refrigerated before freezing. That too helps in the mixture freezing quicker, which gives a creamier and smooth ice cream texture.

HOW TO MAKE SMOOTH, CREAMY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

Fat is the one of the main factors that provides smoothness to ice cream. Using whole milk instead of lower fat percentage milk will lead to a richer and creamier texture.

The more air bubbles there are and the smaller they are, the smoother the ice cream will be. Also smaller ice crystals in the ice cream give a smooth texture. Constant churning while the ice cream is slowly freezing, helps keep the ice crystals moving as they chill. An ice cream maker helps in this process, but using the technique given above you can make smooth, creamy ice cream without an ice cream maker too.

Another thing I have learnt is how you store the ice cream. Make sure you store your ice cream in an airtight container. Covering the top with parchment paper prevents ice crystals from forming. I used to cover with cling film earlier, but sometimes that freezes into the ice cream, making it difficult to remove. By using parchment paper, you avoid that. In case your ice cream crystalizes too much after first serving it, you can always churn it again in your ice cream maker, or thaw it a little and beat it the same way as suggested above, before refreezing it again.

If the ice cream does freeze too hard for scooping, allow it to sit out on the counter for 10 minutes before trying to serve it.

Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream

Lauki/Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream
 
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This creamy chocolate ice cream is made with Lauki or bottle gourd. Enjoy this smooth textured creamy chocolate ice cream recipe that has the goodness of bottle gourd in it. Nobody will be able to guess it has a vegetable in it and your kids will love it.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert, ice cream
Serves: serves 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 large bottle gourd/ghiya, grated (about 2 tightly packed cups of grated ghiya or 3 loosely packed cups)
  • 750 ml milk, preferably full fat
  • 200 ml cream
  • 1 tin (400gms) condensed milk
  • ½-3/4 cup cocoa powder (for a more intense chocolate flavor, add ¾ cup cocoa powder)
  • ¼ cup roasted almonds (optional)
Instructions
  1. Wash, peel the lauki/bottle gourd and grate/shred it. Keep aside.
  2. Heat a thick bottomed pan/kadhai, and add the milk and lauki. Keep stirring and let the milk come to a boil. Reduce heat and continue to cook on medium low. Keep stirring until the most of the milk has evaporated. Scrape the sides too from time to time to get the milk solids back into the milk. It will take about 30-40 minutes.
  3. Add the condensed milk. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
  4. Add the mixture to a blender. Pour in the cream and cocoa powder. For a more intense chocolate flavor use ¾ cup cocoa powder. Note: I have also successfully subbed ½ cup ground raw cacao nibs for the cocoa powder, plus ¼ cup cocoa in this ice cream.
  5. Blend the mixture till you get a smooth consistency.
  6. Transfer to a freezer safe air tight container, and refrigerate the mixture covered for 2 hours. You could freeze it at this point too, but since the mixture is warm, for a creamier texture it is advisable to cool it down slightly before freezing it.
  7. Once cool, place the container in the freezer and allow the mixture to freeze for 2 hours or once you start seeing the edges freezing slightly.
  8. Remove from freezer and beat with a hand mixer to break up ice crystals that are beginning to form.
  9. Cover and place back in the freezer.
  10. Freeze for 2 more hours and then remove from the freezer and beat again with the hand mixer. Repeat this step one more time, before leaving it for an overnight chill. The final beating step is when you can add your add ins like roasted almond. After the final beating, cover the top with parchment paper, and then the air tight lid. Freeze overnight, or until ice cream is firm. Scoop and enjoy!
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Breakfast Hummus Wraps

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Call these breakfast hummus wraps- tacos/ burritos or just wraps but make them. They are easy, quick to make and packed with nutrition. Easy to make ahead, and pack it for breakfast, lunch or have them as a quick no fuss dinner.

Breakfast Hummus wrapsI love breakfast. And I love planning for it. Its so important to have a filling breakfast- sets the pace going for the day. These breakfast hummus wraps are so easy to make, yet they pack so much that you are good to go till lunch.

I feel most recipes are only guide lines, and the possibilities are endless to make them your own. Case in point- these breakfast hummus wraps/burritos. They are so easy to customize, and so many different options to try. You could use scrambled paneer instead of eggs to give it a vegetarian spin. You could add some sautéed mushrooms, black beans or even bacon or sausages. While I find them quick enough to whip up in the morning, but once our busy schedule starts again, you could also make these ahead and freeze them wrapped in parchment paper.

While we have been mainly having a single wrap for our breakfast, these breakfast hummus wraps would make a great lunch or even dinner option. You could use store bought tortilla, or make your own wraps with roti dough like I did.

Store bought hummus is fine, but as the title wrap this is a HUMMUS wrap, so make sure if you are not making your own you get the one you like the most.

Side note: it really is easy to make hummus- only thing is that it does require some prep time- soaking chickpeas, pressure cooking them, peeling the skin off for smooth hummus. You could use canned chickpeas to save time. The other components of a good hummus are tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, cumin and a few cubes of ice. Trust me on this- ice cubes lend a nice creamy texture to the hummus. So does removing the skins, though it is not absolutely necessary if you have a good blender. For the taste, make sure you use the best olive oil, and lots of tahini. I am not big on sesame seeds, but hummus needs tahini and a generous amount does elevate the taste. I realize I don’t have a recipe on the blog yet, because I always add according to the boiled chickpeas I am using, and haven’t yet written the measurements down. Next time will measure so that I can share the recipe with you.

The idea for these breakfast hummus wraps actually came when I had leftover hummus from the pita falafel wraps and a mezze platter I had made. The platter had homemade falafels, homemade pita, homemade hummus among other things. You can find the recipe for the homemade falafels here. The recipe for pita and hummus is pending and have made a note to post about them soon.

Messe Platter

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Overnight Chia seed pudding

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Overnight chia seed pudding- a great healthy way to start the day as breakfast or to eat as a mid day snack. Requires only 3 main ingredients and is easily customizable, vegan and gluten free.

vernight chia seed pudding

My daily routine these days is that I wake up anywhere between 6.30-7.30am. Freshen up and then try to get an hour’s worth of exercise in. There are many online resources for home workouts but the ones that I am following are Cure.fit’s classes, Alo moves and MadFit’s youtube channel along with my pinterest board. I would one day like to tune in for Matt’s live zumba classes on zoom but due to the time difference have not been able to. I have also heard great reviews about Fitness Blender from friends, so you can probably check that too. What does your home workout look like, and what sites are you tuned into for your daily routine?

Exercise is followed by the sweeping and mopping of the kitchen and living room area on alternate days. The other days Anubhav vacuums the entire house and I take rest. The entire house is not mopped on a regular basis (although it is vacuumed) and I have made my peace with it. Post cleaning session, either Anubhav or I (depending on whether he has woken up) makes tea and then we watch the news/ catch up on mails/talk to parents.

Then I get down to making breakfast. We have a system where I cook, and Anubhav does the dishes. Sometimes he cooks and also does the dishes 🙂 .

Post breakfast, we have coffee sometimes and then either do some work, or chill watching something on TV. Rest of the day then goes either in cooking, eating or doing the dishes, and so far it has been pretty okay. I have finally gotten back to blogging- trying new recipes, styling and shooting them with no client approval lurking on my head. And I am thankful for that.

Its difficult to turn a blind eye to whats happening across the world though, so when I feel that I am bored or when things might be a little overwhelming I try to remind myself- I am so lucky to treat my problems as “problems”. That these “problems” are the only ones I have at the moment. That in spite of everything, we are still able to eat the food we enjoy eating- there might be some changes but not much- nothing absolutely nothing to crib about there. Yes cleaning the house, cooking meals, and then doing dishes are taking so much time these days and can be tiring but at least we can make ends meet and do so much more.

I do have my reservations using the words lucky or privileged, given that we have put in hard work to be here and the idea is not to undermine any one else’s efforts by calling them lucky or privileged, but I am grateful that whatever we have worked towards has put us in a comfortable position during this lockdown. Of course this year and probably the next we will have to make a lot of lifestyle changes and think about all unnecessary expenses that earlier we never gave a second thought to. We will also have to put a pause on some of our plans – a house of our own, a new car, and even going on those vacations. We never went on our honeymoon thinking we will go for it in March. I think that plan too might not see the light of the day till next year, given travel abroad might be challenging not only financially but due to health concerns. Again, I remind myself that I am lucky to call these as “problems”. And in time this too shall pass.

overnight chia seed pudding

Coming to today’s recipe- I think chia puddings are just so delicious and convenient to make. You mix the chia seed with choice of milk, sweetener and flavorings at night, chop fruits in the morning, layer and serve. They are so easily customizable. Basically you need three ingredients- chia seeds, a sweetener, and choice of milk. You could leave out the sweetener in case you are topping with sweet fruits. Rest everything is optional and just adds to an already great breakfast/dessert option. You can use whatever fruits you have on hand to top. You can opt to add another layer of granola or not. You could choose to use toasted nuts instead.

In this recipe I have used a mix of coconut milk and yogurt. I added yogurt because I wanted to reduce the amount of coconut milk since coconut milk is generally more fat enriched and this was going to be breakfast, but feel free to use only coconut milk or almond milk or even regular cow’s milk. Just keep in mind if making with a more fatty milk, then to limit your serving size as only 1/2 cup of this pudding to make this count as a healthy breakfast, any more and it becomes an indulgent breakfast. You can add cocoa powder and make it a chocolate chia seed pudding- banana, raspberries, walnuts or almonds would make a lovely topping with a chocolate chia seed pudding. You can also add your protein powder to give it an additional nutrition boost.

This overnight chia seed pudding while great as breakfast, can also be a lovely mid day snack or a delicious post meal dessert. And since it is easily customizable to be vegan and gluten free, a perfect option for those with dietary restrictions.

In case you do not have chia seeds, and it is not easily available where you are- you could use basil /sabja seeds as well. I have a mango coconut basil seed pudding recipe lined up which makes a great substitute for chia seed based puddings. Like chia seeds, sabja/basil seeds too have many health benefits to them. Plus, if you are using basil seeds, since they swell up quicker you do not have to do the overnight chill and could just let them soak in the coconut milk for 30 minutes.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the ingredients, will be happy to help. And in case you make this tag me in your creations on instagram, facebook or leave a comment here.

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