* Ricotta Pound cake.....

  

My  big apologies to  readers  and  followers of my blog for not posting anything  for  long time. But things  at  my personal  end took  front  seat and  kept me overly occupied.I'm just  back  from  my  long India  trip and  coping  with  the jet lag.I planned to  post  this Ricotta  Pound  Cake before  I  left  for  vacation but   Anyone  who  reads  or follows my blog  must  have  known  by  now that I  have a  sweet sweet  tooth. So experimenting  cakes and  various  types  of  sweets are  definitely more frequent than  any  other  experiments in my kitchen. the other day  I was  browsing around and came  across this wonderful  cake in Parita's Blog ,she is amazing baker and  I love to  visit her space. As she vouched for this  ricotta pound cake  I thought I  should  give it a try and the  result was something to  'die  for'  for  a  cake  lover.Me  and  Shaan relished  on this  cake  first time  I made  and I  have  made couple of times  after that  with some modifications every time  and  this is  my favorite  so  far. I always  like to  tweak the recipe  after  first  attempt. The addition of  lemon zest,fresh blueberries and  honey to the recipe made its   even  better. I'm so glad I tried it. So here you go.

This makes a  small 8"  round  cake 
Ingredients:

                                                 
1. Ricotta Cheese                    : 3/4  cup(Ricotta  can be replaced by  fresh home made cheese or  paneer)

2. All purpose  flour                 : 3/4 cup
3. Baking powder                    : 1 1/2 tsp
4. Cornflour/Cornstarch           : 1 tbsp
5. Egg(at room temperature)    : 1
6. Salted butter (melted/softened)            :1/3 cup
7. Raw Sugar                           : 3/4 cup(I used raw  sugar but white granulare  sugar is  just  good)
8. Fresh lemon juice                 : 1 tbsp
9. Freshly crushed cardamon seeds          :1 tsp
10. Rose water                          :2 tbsp
11. Handful of raisins, soaked in water/rum for minimum 2hours, drained
12.Vanilla essence                      : 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Shift  All purpose flour,corn starch and  baking powder together  and keep  them aside.

2. Beat the ricotta cheese  and rose water for 5 minutes  with an  electric  beater.Now time to  pour the 

   melted butter kept at room temperature to the mixture along with raw sugar and  beat  until the  sugar

  dissolves.

3. Add  pure  vanilla extract, egg and  cardamom powder  and  beat  the mixture  for 2 more minutes.

4. Now to the  above mixture incorporate  the  shifted  flour with a  spatula.

5. Once the  flour is  fully mixed add lemon zest, lemon juice,golden raisins, blue berries and  honey.

6. Grease and  flour the  cake baking pan.Pour the  cake  batter then bake it  in a  350 degree 

    Fahrenheit preheated  oven.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or do a poke test until the knife comes  out  clean .

          

 Enjoy this  cake  when warm.This also stays fresh for  2-3  weeks in refrigerator.

     
I would  love to  hear  from you n  Happy Cooking.

* Tipsy Pudding......Truly Mouth watering desert

     'Tipsy Pudding' the  name  sounds really  catchy....when I heard in the  laptop where Shaan (My  husband) is hooked up to all possible news websites. One weekend  he was going through his stuff of world news  and  he stopped by in  one channel where  a show  named 'secret  kitchen- hosted by Bikramjit Ray' comes.This one  is my favorite,,its like my dream job...he  goes  places and  gets to  eat all  specialties and gets the secret recipes too.So this  was  on the  occasion of  Indian Independence day when he  goes to the most prestigious place of  Indian defense system,where they  train  the cadets(the future officers),,he goes to National Defense academy(NDA) and  gets  three very special  recipes from the  chief  who is there for  last 35 years  and  has served some very important people in  the world. I have been there couple of times during  R's  study time (he  is one of the tuff guys trained out  there,he is  my mom's  best friend's son )and I was his  local guardian (LOL,, I'm just  two years  older to him),I don't mind it as  long  as it let me visit this  very well maintained beautiful place.Seeing his Graduation ceremony was a very special occasion, You feel for the nation all the more if you  see the spirit  of these  young charged blood. My dad also works for  Defense, so it was even emotional   to  watch the  show. Now coming to the food  part :-) The  chef of  NDA  spills his secret recipe of tipsy pudding which is served  at NDA on special occasions for special  guests. The moment I saw it,my mouth started watering and I had to try out as soon as  I saw.I  had everything but the Whipping cream, So I  got it  and made when My daring friends(I  said "Daring"  coz, they are brave enough to try  my  experiments time to time) came  over  for a  weekend chit chat. The  9X9 desert vanished  within minutes.it was  indeed a scrumptious desert.It is  simple  and a great make ahead desert.
I have  made  it couple of times  after that and incorporated small little modification  from  the original  recipe that I saw,The lemon zest added to the top whipping cream layer really makes it an exotic dessert.
Give it a try if you  are a dessert person, I know  people  who are  not  very fond of dessert part still  go crazy  for this one.

Serves :8 - 10 people

The show  didn't  tell the proportions , so I had to come up with my  proportions which worked  well for  a 9X9 baking  dish or you  can  have  individual  portions  in  small desert blows for nice  individual deserts.

Ingredients:

1. Plain Pound cake(Chopped to small cubes) : 2 cups(You  can  bake a  ready cake mix in a  cookie sheet 

                                                                        and once they are cool  cube them or  buy  any pound cake 

                                                                        and can cube them)

2. Fresh Seasonal fruits                                   :  2 cups- Chop to very small cubes (Any fruit will do,I have  

                                                                          used 1 Pears,1  golden  kiwi and hand full of  blueberries)

3. Dry fruits                                                    :  1 cup- chopped-I used  Almonds,Cashews,raisins and 

                                                                          apricots.

4. Whipping Cream                                        :  300 ml

5. Sugar                                                         :  5 tb sp

6. Custard powder                                          : 3 tb sp ( I used Brown & Polson Custard Powder   
                                                                        Vanilla  Alternatively  you can use  vanilla  pudding mix )

7. Milk                                                            : 1 cup

8. Pure Vanilla  essence                                   : 1/2 tsp
9. Lemon and orange  Zest                              :  1  tb sp

Procedure:

1.

   First prepare the  custard before you  start to assemble rest of the ingredients for the pudding.This
   custard is not the traditional custard  that is made from  egg and milk mixture
   For  preparing the custard, mix  the  custard powder in 4  tb sp of  milk and add this mixture slowly to the
   boiling milk and  stir for  5 minutes(if you  want you  can add 2 tb sp  of  sugar).it will get thick
   consistency.Take it out of  heat and  let it cool  down and  bring it to  room temperature.
2.

  Beat the whipping cream and 3 tb sp Sugar  until stiff  pick forms ,keep it aside.While beating the
  Whipping  cream be careful  about not to over beat it,because if you  over beat the  butter starts to separate
  which  spoils   the purpose of  whipping cream in the dish.Divide the  whipping cream in two  parts,one 
  part  for  mixing  the  fruit mixture and  second  part  for  the  top layer.

3.

  In a  bowl, Mix cubed pound  cake,Fresh Fruits,dry fruits.pour in the cooled  down  custard. then  mix in
  one part of  whipping cream.Add the vanilla extract to the mixture and mix well.Now the  base  of the desert  is ready.Now  pour  this mix to your serving dish and spread evenly.Here you can use large dishes to make a big pudding or make small individual portions.

4. For top layer  ,add  lemon and  orange zest  to  the whipping cream  and just fold  in,then spread the 
   whipping cream evenly  and  keep in refrigerator  for at least 1 hour. Once  chilled to  your preference
   you  can  directly serve  or  decorate with some  chopped  dry fruits or  fresh seasonal fruits.

Enjoy and  happy  cooking...  :)





* Chenna poda(Cheese cake from Eastern India)

                                                                                                     (Click on the picture to enlarge)
       Chena poda is a delicious cheese cake from Orissa(a province in eastern part of India where cheese deserts are pretty famous and they are simply awesome,there are numerous types of deserts just made from home made cheese).I love this desert a lot,,in my last visit to India I had 250 gm to 500 gm of chena poda almost everyday.Now that's not very healthy,,but I have a sweet sweet tooth and with the company of my husband,,,we give each other good company is  eating kilos of sweets like this.So the other day we  had this BIG  craving for  chena poda and he bought a gallon of 3.25% milk.So I had no way  but to make it.Even though I was tired when the  process was over and   had a bite of this virgin Chena poda,  I forgot all the tiredness..it was yumm,,the caramel that  I poured was  not as good looking but definitely that is a `must`  for a beautiful looking and  tasting crust.Ok,,now without wasting a minute I should  jot down the  process.
So here you go.....

Now there  is two parts to the process
First ,The cheese making process.(It is  basis of many more sweets  like rasgulla,rasmalai,chenna jhilly,,,etc.)
Second, The Chenna poda baking.

As I will be posting   the other deserts made up of soft cheese so I will keep the  cheese making process separate here.

For making Cheese:

Ingredients:

1. Milk- 4 Litres(I used 4 L this time  coz I was baking in 9X9 inch dish,,this amount  can  varry as per your
     requirements,if baking in a  smaller dish  you can reduce the amount or increase the  amont,,the  more the
     better)
2. Vinegar --1/4 cup
3. Water -- 1 cup(for  diluting the  vinegar )
4. Ice  cube --2-3 cups
5. cheese cloth (to filter the cheese)

Procedure:

                                                                                                                       (Click on the picture to enlarge)

1. Bring the milk to  boil and let  it boil for  2  minutes.
2. Dilute the vinegar with the 1 cup of water.
3. Pour the  diluted vinegar  over the boiling milk slowly....slowly because  the cheese will be  soft
    this way,,,and  when the milk  cuddles and you can see the  water and solid  separated,,turn off the stove and pour the ice cubes  so that the cuddling process stops immediately.
4. Filter through  cheese cloth which will separate the  solids from the liquid.
5. Hang the cheese for 15 minutes to let the water drain out.
Now the cheese  is ready and  this can be used  for   any purpose you  want.I just eat few spoons  at this time,,this fresh cheese tastes  so  good.

Now we will  proceed to the  Chenna poda making process:

Ingredients  for  Chenna poda:

1. Fresh made cheese - 1.5 lbs(may be you  can  use ricotta cheese,,if you don't want to go through the cheese making process.I personally never tried,but the ricotta making process looks very similar.So if  any one tries this alternative,,I would be  happy to hear how it came out)
2. Semolina - 2  tb sp (soaked in  3 tb sp water)
3. Sugar - 1.5 cups(1  cup of sugar  for the  cheese cake  and  1/2  cup for  caramel  that we will  spread at
                               the bottom of the  baking dish )
4. Cardamom powder -1  tsp
5. Raisin --2-3 tb sp
6. Cashew -- 2-3  tb sp
7. Oil/Ghee -1/2  t sp (for  sauteing the  dry fruits)
8. water -1/2  cup for caramel
9. Aluminium Foil - for  covering the  9X9 inch  baking dish

Procedure  for  chenna  poda :

                                                                                           (Click on the picture to enlarge)
1. Pre heat the  oven at 350 degree celcius.
2. Start  with making the caramel.Pour  1/2  cup  sugar and 1/2  cup water in  a saucepan and  make the 
    caramel(For detail you can  refer the  cream caramel  recipe in my  blog,,,
     http://titilating-tastebuds.blogspot.com/2010/03/caramel-flan-cream-caramel.html)
3.Once the caramel is ready,pour it  on the   baking dish .(just try to cover as  much area you  can  spread
   quickly,because it will  get  hard  very  quickly.it  might not  be  very looking at this  point  of time,but when
   you finish  baking ,, this will impart the  flavour to  die  for)
4. Fry the Cashew and raisin in oil/Ghee  until they just  get a light brown colour.
5. Now in a bowl, mix Fresh cheese,Sugar, Cardamom powder,soaked semolina very well and
    knead  for  5-10 minutes.
6.Spread the cheese  mixture on the  baking tray where you  already  have spread the caramel.Level the
   cheese  and cover the baking dish with  aluminum  foil ,make some slits on the foil with a  knife.

7. Bake it for  30-40 minutes  in 350degrees F.
8. Test the  doneness by pricking a toothpick or knife.
9.Let  it cool for sometime and you can munch on it,,It  is also good when chilled.But i prefer warm so if i take it out of freeze  then  microwave for 10-15 secs and it melts in my mouth.

You liked or disliked.or a have a suggestion ...feel free to write back to me...

                                                                                                                         (Click on the picture to enlarge)

*Caramel Flan / Cream caramel

Call it Cream Caramel,Flan,pudding or anything,,it is one awesome desert just right amount of sweet (not too much not too less).This desert has different versions in different parts of world. Cream Caramel to the french, Flan to those in Spanish speaking countries and Leche flan in Philippines.I never tasted this desert until one potluck at my office from my co-worker with Philippine origin, thanks Gia for introducing me to this heavenly desert.When I say heavenly,I really mean it from bottom of my heart.So I tried this on Valentine's Day 2010.Until then,my only experience with them was salivating over them on foodie magazines and google images.To me, it always looked one of those desserts that were tricky and fiddly to make. I was always curious as to how the caramel didn’t stick to the moulds and how they managed to keep their shape after you popped them out. To my utter surprise both caramel and custard were very easy to make.I was nervous about removing them from the moulds.But after a mini hot water bath of 15 seconds,they easily inverted into the serving plate to swim in the pool of sticky caramel syrup.

So here is the recipe of this wonderful desert which I'm sure is simple enough for any one to make.

Ingredients for caramel:

1. Water -- 1/2 cup
   
2. Granular sugar --1 cup

Procedure for caramel:

1. Before you start making caramel, keep your baking dishes ready and set them aside.
2. Caramel is the most sensitive thing to do in the entire procedure,if you miss by few seconds the syrup becomes bitter. So watch out when you make the syrup.
3. Add 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a sauce pan and let it shimmer(watch carefully) until it just gets the amber colouring.
   
4. Take it out of heat and pour to cover the bottom of the baking dish with caramel.Remember the carammalization happens even the pan is off stove hence don't delay pouring.

Ingredients for Flan :
The following amount will be just enough to fill a small oval baking dish and three small tart moulds.

1. Egg Yolks - 5
   
2. Whole Egg -2
3. Evaporated milk - 1 can (370 ml)
4. Sweetened Condensed milk - 1 can (250 ml)
5. Vanilla essence - 1 tb sp

Procedure for Flan :

1. Pre heat the oven.
   
2. In a bowl pour 2 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla essence and just give it a blend.I used electric hand blender. Be careful not to over beat, since we don't want a lots of air Incorporated in the egg mixture, just let the ingredients mix well with each other.
3. This was the easy thing :) now pour the egg mixture in the baking dishes which were previously coated with caramel.
4. And the next step is to bake the flan,we have to keep the baking dishes in a shallow pan with 1 inch deep hot water so that the flan doesn't bake hard and also gets the right texture.
5. Cover the pan with aluminium foil and make some slits on it for the steam to escape.
   

Flan in glass bake ware :

Flan in Aluminium moulds :

1. Bake it 250 degrees for half an hour.But you might need to check on them ,start after 15 minutes, peek into the foil (be very careful) and look in after 5 minutes.You shake the pan little bit and there should be no wimpling on the top,it should be settled but definitely not hard.
2. After they come out of the oven we need to refrigerate them. It is a must at least for 3-4 hours.
3. Take them out of the refrigerator, slide a knife around the edges to loosen the flan from the surface of the moulds and put it upside down in your serving platter. And you will be surprised to see the melted caramel on top of your flan making the sauce for your heavenly desert.

Note in the below pictures, how porous is the flan baked in aluminium moulds where as the flan baked in glass bake-ware has smooth outer surface.However the inside will be same in both cases.So doesn't matter if you bake in glass or aluminium mould.Just go ahead with whatever available at that moment.

Flan from Glass Bake-ware

Flan from Aluminium mould

Try this awesome desert and I would be more than happy to hear how it came out.Enjoy.... :)

* NewYork style Cheese cake

This Cheese cake is pretty famous and this one is one of the basic basic cheesecakes.I got the recipe from a book which I borrowed from Library and made few modifications. The modification that I made to the original recipe was to add 1 part ricotta cheese to two parts cream cheese. I thank the lady on the subway who gave me this tip when she saw me carrying two ready made graham cracker pie crust and as always got into talking about food and recipes :) She told 'my family always mixes 1part ricotta cheese with cream cheese and it comes out wonderful' and I truly agreed with her this statement when I tried on my own cheese cake. I made this cheese cake on valentine day. We always celebrate Valentines day with our friends and I thought of making this cheese cake. Try this wonderful cheese cake with few careful tips and it will be well appreciated.

So here goes the recipe :

Ingredients for the crust:

1. Graham cracker powder - 2 cups (You can buy the graham cracker and ground them too.This time I bough the ground Graham cracker from Superstore)
2. Unsalted butter(Melted) -1/4 cup

Ingredients for the cake batter:

1. Cream cheese - 500 gm(I used Philadelphia brand cream cheese-2 bricks)

2. Ricotta Cheese - 250 Gms

3. All purpose flour - 2 tb sp

4. Eggs - 4 whole eggs and 1 yolk

5. Sugar -1 cup

6.Vanilla essence - 1 tb spoon

7. Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange - 1-2 Tb spoon(below is the picture how I get the citrus fruit zest)

Ingredients for garnishing :

You can use virtually any fruit.

I used Raspberries,but you can go for strawberries,kiwi or cherry filling.Endless options here.

Procedure for Crust:

1. Mix the ground graham crackers with melted butter well and press to the bottom of the cheese cake frame.For baking a cheese cake you either need a spring form pan or a frame that is available in market by the name cheese cake mould.Basically it is a frame where the cake can be lifted top side up words after .In case of a pound cake we usually flip the cake p side down for taking it out of the mould which won't work well for cheese cakes,,for the obvious reason.

2. After pressing the graham cracker mixture to the bottom of the frame freeze it for 30 minutes.You can just keep it in freeze and start working on the cake batter by the time your base sets in freeze your batter will be ready.

Procedure for cake batter:

1. Before you start the process bring your ingredients to room temp.If the cream cheese in frozen then just microwave for 15 secs and that should work.

2. pre heat the oven at 350 degrees.

3. In a bowl add the cream cheese bricks , ricotta cheese and sugar and beat well for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add the all purpose flour,orange zest, lemon zest and egg yolk to the cheese mixture and blend for 30

seconds.

5. Then pour in the three whole eggs to the mixture and blend well for about 1 minute and now add in the vanilla flavour and blend for about 3 more minutes or until you get a smooth batter as shown in the picture.

6. Now take out the crust from freeze and pour in the batter in to the cake frame and smoothing the top a little bit.

7. Bake for about 10 minutes at 250 degree C .Reduce the heat to 100 degree C until the top is golden brown and the centre is almost set .This may take around 40-50 minutes.

8.Let it cool at least for 2 hours in the pan.Run the spatula around the cake frame, so that it will come out of the frame easily when it cools down completely.

9.Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.

10.Garnish with some raspberries or strawberries or which ever fruits you like...and voila,,,there is your newyork style cheese cake.

*Jalebi(deep fried spiral shaped desert deeped in syrup )

Jalebis are one of festive sweets in India.In northern part of India it is served in breakfast also, but rest of India it is a desert.My husband loves this a lot,Today while talking with my in-laws,,jalebi topic came so i though of posting this recipe.It is easy but little tricky.Traditionally they ferment the dough over-night,but here I use yeast for doing the same thing but save some time.It can se served hot or cold.
Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:

Batter:
1/2 cup All Purpose flour

1 tsp besan (gram flour)

1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp sugar
About 1/3 cup of lukewarm water (as needed)

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Pinch of cardamom powder

Few strands of saffron(optional)

1 teaspoon of lemon juice(to control the cristalization)

Oil for frying

Squeeze bottle



Prparation:

batter:



1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in luke warm water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.

2. Mix the al purpose flour,gram flour(besan),oil.

3. Pour the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and make a smooth paste.

4. Let the batter sit for 1 hour.Don't let it over ferment.


Syrup:



1. Boil the water and sugar together 10 minutes.

2. Add cadamom and safron to the water and switch off the flame.



Jalebi making procedure:

1. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.Test the oil putting a drop of batter.if it floats immediately then the oil is ready for fryingJalebis.

2. Pour the batter in a squeeze bottle as shown in the picture.You can replace the zip lock with a hole in it.But I always use the squeeze bottle.

3. When oil is ready squeeze the batter on hot oil making a spiral shape of 2-3 inch diameter.

4. When the Jalebis are brown on both sides then take it out of oil and deep in syrup for few seconds and serve hot.

Tips: If you like crispy jalebis then add 1 tbsp rice flour to the batter

*Gajar ka Halwa(carrot pudding-indian mouth watering desert)

Now it is that time of the year when kids enjoys the treats and 'trick or treat' is a buzz word:) and you can see costumes and black and orange colour all over.Frankly I'm not a big fan of Halloween.But I have been busy decorating for Halloween today at office,,teamwork also means something and it is some fun time at work too.My husband has a potluck in his office ,so though of making some Halloween colour food for his potluck and 'gajar ka halwa' looked just perfect for it.This awesome desert is definitely makes one of the top rated deserts amongst Indians. So here comes the recipe......

Ingredients:

1.Shredded carrots(4 cups-use the manual shredder)
2.milk(3 cups)
3.sugar(1 cup or as per your taste)
4.Khoya(dry whole milk)
4.dry fruits(3/4 cup,I used cashew,pistachio,raisins,almonds)
5.Ghee/ clarified butter(3 tbsp)
6.cardamom powder (1/2 tsp)

preparation:

1.Pressure cook carrot and milk for 1 whistle.
2.In a non-stick pan, heat 2 tb sp ghee and fry the dry fruits till light brown make sure to add the raisin in the end so that tehy don't get burnt.
3 Then add the cooked carrot and milk mixture from the cooker to the pan and saute till the milk completely evaporates
4.Add khoya and cook for another 5 minutes in medium flame.
5.Add remaining 1 tb sp ghee and fold it in .
6.sprinkle the cardamom powder and turn the heat off.
You can serve it hot or cold.
I prefer chilled.
Tips: I pressure cook the carrot because it makes the cooking process faster and the mixture smoother.

*No Bake Mango Pie

Diwali is one festival very close to my heart.It reminds me of my childhood when our family used to sit together in kitchen and make sweets for guests who used to visit us and bring sweets and different savoury.So every year my moms staple for Diwali was gulab jamuns,gujia,home made mixture,suji laddu.More than anything I used to enjoy the Diwali eve,because of the family togetherness.When I go back in time they always seem so special.I really miss Diwali away from my family.Still Diwali keeps a special position in my heart and always will remain so.Well,they are now memories,,,,,sweet memories..
So here comes the new recipes and my first recipe for my blog-Mango pie.The fact that it doesn't have to be baked made it simple make ahead desert and you have time for other dishes on any party day.
This was my first experience of making this desert.I had this desert in one of the party at my friend Divya's place and liked it a lot and got the recipe almost 2 years now :) The reason for delay ,,well it called for sour cream and it is not a staple in my kitchen.So the purchase of sour cream took me two years.So on Diwali party I made this mango pie but was very doubtful if anyone will like it or not.So I didn't serve it on the table.But one friend was not having rasmalai,so i asked her with hesitation if she would like to try some mango pie.And then took it out of the freeze and sliced and it was over within minutes.The wives made sure their husbands had a piece and that's the reason why it was over.And it is worth a try,,,,the fact that it is mango there is a very little chance that you can go wrong with it.
Ingredients:
2 cups Mango puree(I used store bought)
2 sachet unflavoured gelatin(I used Knox gelatin)
1 cup hot water
1 pie crust(I used graham cracker crust-the stored bought,you can make your own by crushing
graham crackers and mixing with butter too)
200 gm of SOUR CREAM :)
2 tb sp cream cheese(I used Philadelphia brand)
3-4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 t sp strawberry flavour jello(optional red colour just gives it a spark )
3-4 tb sp hot water for strawberry jello

Preparation:
1.Mix 2 sachet of unflavoured gelatin in 1 cup of hot water.let it dissolve completely
2.In a blender pour mango pulp,sour cream,cream cheese,sugar,vanilla essence and blend well until the desired consistency is reached.
3. Fold in the mango mixture in gelatin water mixture and keep it in freeze.
4.After 30 minutes prepare the strawberry jello with 3-4 tb sp hot water.
5.Take the pie out of freeze and pour the strawberry jello water on top to make some design.
and keep it back in freeze it will take 4-6 hours to set completely.
So it is a good idea to make it a day ahead of the time you are planning to have it.