Pomegranate Ice cream

Valentine's day is for flowers and cakes and ice cream. I prepared Gulabjamun and Turkey biryani as a special treat for hubby. As I have posted the recipes for above earlier, I thought of giving out some healthy as well as a romantic post during this day. How about some sparkling ruby red pomegranates in your ice cream? Here is an ice cream made of pomegranate. Enjoy! Happy Valentine's day!

Pomegranate fruit split open. Always buy pomegranates that weigh heavy.

The pomegranate juice is extracted now.

Pomegranate ice cream before freezing.

Pomegranate ice cream.

Ingredients:

pomegranate - 2 (big)
sugar - 2 tbsp
condensed milk (sweetened 14 oz can) - 1 1/4 can
whipped topping (8 oz pack) - 2
rose essence - 3 drops

Method:

Wash the pomegranate. Slit it and open. Carefully gather the plump seeds in a bowl. Keep a handful of them aside for garnishing. Apply 2 tbsp sugar and squeeze the juice out of it by hand. Don't use mixer or blender, as it will grind the hard seeds also. Remove the seeds. If necessary apply a tsp of sugar to the left over seeds and extract as much juice as possible.
We may need a cup of pomegranate juice.

In a mixing bowl add the condensed milk, rose essence, 3/4 of the juice and fold in the whipped topping. Transfer to a lidded container suitable for freezing.
Add the left over pomegranate juice little by little to give a swirl effect. Keep frozen for nearly 4 hours.
Garnish with some un-squeezed pomegranate before serving.

Pomegranate ice cream is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Makes nearly 15 big scoops.
This ice cream will be very fluffy and easy to handle.

Note:

1 large scoop will be less than 100 K cal.
We can use bottled pomegranate juice also, but I will recommend the freshly squeezed ones only to get the fluffy ice cream.
The hard seeds that we get (after extracting the juice) can be dried and used in cooking.
The hard skin of the pomegranate can be dried and powdered for medicinal purposes.
I formulated this pomegranate ice cream recipe after some iterations.
In USA the season for pomegranates is during October November and December.

Bottlegourd koottu

This is the recipe for a koottu (side dish) I make with bottlegourd. Any watery vegetable like white pumpkin, ridge gourd can also be used.

suraikkai koottu

Ingredients:

Bottlegourd (suraikkai) - 300 gms
channa dhal - 1/2 cup

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 3
cumin - 1 tsp

To temper:

Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig
onion - 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash the channa dhal and cook it with some water.
Peel the skin of the bottle gourd. Chop it into small cubes. Donot discard the seeds. Tender seeds tastes good.
Grind the items given and keep aside.
After the dhal is almost cooked add the chopped bottle gourd and cook covered. As soon as it is cooked add salt and the ground masala.
Heat oil in another wok and let the mustard splutter. Then add the curry leaf, finely chopped onion and let them wilt. Pour this over the cooked curry.
Check for salt and switch off.
Bottle gourd koottu is ready!

Serving suggesetion:

Makes more than 4 or 5 servings.
Serve as side dish with any rice or roti.

Note:

*Normally a small bottle gourd will weigh more than 1/2 kg. But we may get a lot of koottu by this recipe. So cut 3/4 th of the bottlegourd and make the koottu and use the other portion to make pachadi or sambar.
*Fresh Bottle gourd salad or semi cooked one (pachadi) has the property to reduce body fat. I am not sure of this fact, but they believe so in Tamilnadu villages.