This is one very simple “recipe” that I prepared a while ago. Rasayana is a popular Kannada sweet dish which usually has coconut milk(sometimes only milk), sugar or jaggery for sweetness and some kind of fruit. I was not aware of this version with  Kitttale haNNu – orange, until I saw it in a Havyaka special article in a book. I loved the simplicity of this sweet dish.
Ingredients: 1 cup orange (peeled and separated) 1 tbl spn(approx) sugar 6-7 saffron strands 1/4 tea spn ground cardamom 1 and 1/2 cups fresh coconut milk 1 tbl spn thin poha (optional) 1/2 tea spn ghee (optional)
Method: Soak poha in coconut milk for few minutes and grind to a smooth paste ( poha is optional, I added it to give a bit of thickness to the dish). Now add all other ingredients, mix and serve cold. (This dish is not cooked).
Preferably, do not use canned coconut milk, it gives a very different taste/smell to the dish. To extract fresh milk from coconut, grind 3/4 cup coconut using 1/2 cup warm water to a coarse paste. Squeeze the paste (with hands or using a clean cloth) to take out the liquid. Save the liquid. Add 1/2 cup more water to the coconut and repeat the process 2-3 times more.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 15mins
V and I are big fans of pizza. When we were in India, I had thought, pizza always had tomato sauce, vegetables(or meat) and cheese. But after coming to US, I learned about many different toppings and different sauces for pizza. While I love these different tastes, V loves Pizza Hut types with tomato sauce and the standard toppings. My latest love is Spin Nepolitan pizza . I became a huge fan of it when we ate there couple of months ago.
Recently, I have been baking pizzas at home very frequently – like once in 15days or a month. I know some readers would talk about all purpose flour/ maida not being healthy etc etc, but I still like to make this version once in a while. We both simply love this. I have tried different toppings and this one is something we really really loved.
For the base , I followed the recipe from here . I used half wheat flour and half all purpose flour.
For the sauce: (adapted from Béchamel sauce and this ) 1 tbl spn butter 1 tbl spn all purpose flour A pinch nutmeg powder(freshly grated/powdered) 1/4 tea spn red chilli flakes 3/4 cup whole milk 1/2 tea spn dried basil Salt Pepper 1 tbl spn parmesan cheese (optional)
Method: Heat butter in a pan. Now add chilli flakes, all purpose flour and whisk continuously(keep on a medium flake to avoid burning). Now slowly add milk whisking all the time. Add nutmeg powder(grate a nutmeg directly into the pan). Add parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, basil and whisk it. Cook till the sauce thickens.
Toppings: Eggplant Рsliced, sprinkled with olive oil, salt pepper and grilled for few minutes Pineapple Olives Sundried tomato Jalape̱o Artichokes 2 tbl spn grated mozzarella cheese(optional)
Assembling: Preheat the oven to 450F for about 10mins. Roll the dough into desired thickness. Sprinkle some olive oil. Spread the sauce, toppings, cheese(optional) and bake it in a preheated oven at 450F for about 12-15mins. Serve immediately.
