Diwali Special- Besan Ladoo

I am made this ladoo recently; you know one of those days which fall between Diwali and Dussehra where we just cant have enough of sweets?! Its one of those days....
Its really very easy and will easily make at least 15 ladoos.

Ingredients:
Besan/gram flour: 2 cups
Cashews and raisins: handful
Ghee: 1/2 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Cardamom Powder: a pinch

Method:

• Heat 3/4 cup Ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add besan flour to it. 
• Fry the flour until slightly brown; stir continuously. 
• Remove the flour from flame and let it cool a bit. Now add the sugar and cardamom powder, dry fruits and mix well.
• Shape the ladoos round with the remaining 1/4 cup of ghee.

Festival season- Carrot Halwa

The entire month of Oct is filled with joy, holidays and most importantly sweets! is it not?! So, even at home I am trying to make as many desserts as possible. Usually I dont make these many desserts on any singe month. 

There are soooo many recipes for carrot/gajar halwa. I have tried several of them and here is one of the easiest and quickest. It doesnt take that long to cook because we are not going to be cooking this in milk like the traditional halwa. The other day hubby made chicken biryani and while he was at it, I made this halwa for dessert! Yummy!

Ingredients:
Carrots: grated, 2 cups
Sugar: 1/2 to 3/4 cup (increase this according to taste)
Cashew nuts and raisins: a few
Ghee: 5 tbsp
Cardamom powder: a pinch

Method:

• Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and roast the cashews and raisins a little. keep these aside.
• In the same pan, add the carrots and gently stir for about 5 minutes. 
• Add sugar to the carrots and keep the flame in medium. Stir once in a while.
• Let the carrots cook along with sugar for about 15-20 mins. 
• Stir in the cardamom and check the taste of the halwa. You might want to add more sugar at this point. 
• Once you are happy with the taste and the rawness of the carrots is gone, add the dry fruits. 
• Switch off the flame and serve either hot or cold. I like my halwa hot. 

I am also sending this recipe to Roshans Sunday Special Event. as I have made this on a Sunday evening :)

I am also sending this entry to Anu for her Diwali Festival of lights event.

Dussehra Special- Sandesh (A Bengali Favorite)

Hope you all had a blast during Durga Puja! I sure did have mine. I mean, I couldn't go dandiya and all but still managed to make a few sweets (simple ones) at home.
To be honest, I had never been too good in making Bengali desserts. Somehow even Misthi Dhoi (sweetened yogurt) was a total flop in my kitchen! But Sandesh was a super hit. I cant believe that something which has a simple recipe like this can taste so divine. I am not kidding, of all the Bengali desserts, this one sure takes the cake. 

Please note that the traditional recipe calls to make paneer (un-aged cheese) at home. Since I am 7 months into pregnancy, I hardly have enough energy to stand in the kitchen for a long time, I cheated and used Ricotta cheese in place of home made paneer. There are lots of variations available online to this recipe and this is one of the easiest. No surprises that I chose to make it this way :)

Below measurements would make 15 small sandesh.

Ingredients:
Ricotta Cheese: 1 cup
Sugar: 4 tbsp
Condensed Milk: 3 tbsp
All Purpose flour (maida): 1/4 tsp
 
Garnishing:
Almonds/cashews/Raisins and saffron: a few

Method:
Mix all the ingredients above (with the exception of items under garnishing) well until it becomes a smooth paste. Heat a heavy bottomed pan in medium flame and add the mixture into it. Stir continuously until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. It took me about 10 mins. switch off the stove and let the mixture cool a bit.
When its cool enough, make small balls out of the mixture and flatten them. Actually you can make any shape you want. Garnish with the dry fruits. You dont have to use saffron; I used it on cashews to bring out the color.

Hope you all enjoyed this simple, yet, divine recipe.

Dussehra Special- Coconut Ladoos with condensed milk

Happy Dussehra to everyone!! I hope all of you are having tons and tons of fun during this festiva season.

This is yet another easy to make ladoo recipes. Of course there are several ways to make coconut Ladoos but this one takes the cake when it comes to time part! Yes, this hardly takes 8-10 mins!! Here is the recipe.

Condensed milk: 1 cup
Dessicated coconut: 2 cups (leave a few tbsp aside)

Method:
Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add the coconut. Fry for a minute and add the condensed milk. Stir the mixture until everything is well combined.
remove from the heat and roll the ladoos in round shape when the mixture is cool enough. Now, take the remaining few tbsp of coconut and roll these ladoos in that to give the ladoos a good texture.

Happy Ugadi

Andariki ma Ugadi Subhakaankshalu!!!Wishing all my blog-buddies a very Happy Ugadi/Gudi Padwa! According to the Hindu Calender, the season Chaitra (spring) begins today marking the beginning of a new year. Hence we celebrate the festival welcoming the new year calling it with various names in various states in India.
With India winning the World Cup (in Cricket after 28 years) and the entire nation being euphoric, I cannot think of a better way to begin the new year. Here is how the festival went in my home. In the plate below are Puran Poli, Ugadi Pachadi, Keerai Vadai and puliyodharai. The recipes are given below.

For me the preparation for today began 3 days ago with cleaning one room at a time :). We (hubby and I) have new cloths to wear and even the weather seems to be getting much better day by day. When we were back home in India, our vaasal, (the front porch) used to be decorated with colorful rangolis/kolams. Mom, sis and I used to get up early and make special big rangolis in front of our home. Now, I make do with flower rangoli.

Ugadi, being the first festival in the Chaitra maasam (season), we make a few delicacies. I am going to write down recipes for a few things mom used to make. I cant believe time has gone by so fast and it is already my turn to make all these delicacies for my family in my home. Perhaps this is what is called cycle-of-life. A little rose bloom adorning our fire place mantle which i used for Puja.

Ugadi Pachadi: The star of the show is something called, Ugadi Pachadi (Ugadi chutney). This chutney contains raw mango, neem tree flowers, jaggery, coconut, red chili powder, tamarind and salt. The entire mixture put together signifies various states-of-mind in our life. The sourness of the raw mango, the sweetness of the jaggery, the hotness of the chili powder, the tangy-ness of the tamarind represent that life is full of unexpected surprises, be it happiness, sadness, tranquility or contentedness. We have to accept our life as is with its sweet/bitter intricacies. The chutney is also believed to relive any small illness.

Ingredients:
Raw mango: 1 small (representing the excitement, tangyness)
Jaggery: 3 tbsp (representing the happiness)
Salt: 1/2 tsp (representing the life itself because its the basic thing)
Chili powder: 1/4 tsp (representing the anger in us)
Neem tree flowers: 1/2 tbsp (representing the tough times or sorrow; if neem flowers are not available, you can substitute this with methi seeds)
Coconut: Freshly chopped, 1 tbsp (optional)
Tamarind paste: 1/2 tbsp pulp (representing mischievous child in us)

Method:
Mix all the above ingredients with a little water. Just add about 3 tbsp. If you want you can add more later.

Yummy! The melody of flavors!

Keerai Vadai: Another common dish we make today is vadai. Now, as most of you know, we have 100's of ways to make tasty vadais. Today, I made keerai vadai (vada with leafy vegetables). I like to fool myself that the leafy veggies would make up for the deep-fried lentil patties. It came quite good actually.
You can practically use any leafy veggie to make this vadai. I used spinach. Below measurements gave me 20 mini vadai's.

Ingredients:
Spinach: 1 cup, chopped.
Channa dal (gram dal): 1/2 cup
Green chili: 1 or 2 according to taste
Toor dal: 2 tbsp (optional)
Urad Dal: 2 tbsp
Ginger: 1 inch, chopped
Hing: 1 pinch
Oil: at least 1 cup to deep fry

Salt: according to taste

Method:

• Mix all the dal's together and pour in water until they are completely immersed and at least 2 inches of water is floating above.
• After 3 hours, strain the water away and keep the dal's dry for another hour. 
• After this additional hour, take 3 tbsp of dal's in a separate bowl and keep aside.
• Now, grind the remaining dal with hing and salt WITH OUT ADDING WATER. 
• When the mixture is grind and is 80% soft, add the 3 tbsp of dal's you kept aside with green chilies and ginger. You dont have to grind this now.
• Now add the chopped spinach to this dal mixture and mix well. 
• Heat oil in a vessel. Make small rounds of the dal mixture and flatten them on your hand. It would help if you grease your hand with oil. 
• Gently drop the vadai (lentil Pattie) into the hot oil. 
• Roast until the vadai is golden brown and remove it from the oil. You can place these on a tissue paper to drain out excess oil. 

Serve hot...enjoy! Try out the other methods of making vadai also HERE.


Puliyodharai: The next one on menu today is Puliyodharai (Tamarind Rice). You can find the recipe HERE in my blog. Ever been to Tirumala, Perumaal Kovil (It is referred to as Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam) in Andhra Pradesh? The best tasting Puliyodharai comes from that temple. As the devotees chant, "Govindaa Gooovindaaa", the gurukkul gives us handful of yummy and unique tasting Puliyodharai. Though the one I made isn't as great as that is, its much closer than I had ever made.This will suffice for 3 cups of un-cooked rice :)

Puran Poli: Who would like warm, sweet and soft Puran Poli today? I cannot stop at one. Though this takes some time, practice and patience, the end result is awesome. Puran poli is referred to as Bhakshalu in Telugu, Holige in Kannada. Polis are made with flour stuffed with lentils and jaggery mixture, rolled out and pan fried in clarified butter. Below measurements gave me 8 medium sized polis.

Even as I say the word Poli my mouth is watering. My mom used to make it sooo good that I can almost taste what she made all those years ago. She used to make it thin, sweet and so devilishly delicious. As is the norm, we used to send/get polis from neighbors and friends as well but my mom's were the best! Probably every child feels this way about his/her mom's cooking.
Here is my attempt. Start this 2 hours before you make the poli.

Ingredients for filling (Called Purnam in Telugu):
Channa Dal: 1 cup
Jaggery: 1 cup, powdered (you can increase this 1.5 cups also)
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp

Ingredients for the bread:
All Purpose Flour (maida): 1 cup
Water: 1/2 cup
Ghee (clarified butter): 6 tbsp

Method:

• Knead the dough with water and 2 tbsp of ghee until it is soft. Cover this with a moist cloth and set aside for 2 hours.
• Mean while, pressure cook the channa dal with 3 cups of water. You dont have to over cook it. 1 whistle or 20 mins in medium flame would give you just cooked dal. 
• Spread this dal on a tissue paper/plate so that all the moisture is absorbed, maybe for 1 hour.
• WITH OUT ADDING WATER, grind the cooked and cooled channa dal with jaggery. Its a bit difficult to blend it fine, but its doable. Please do not add water because we want the consistency to be thick. To this mixture add the cardamom powder. If by any chance the mixture becomes watery, cook on low flame for 7-10 mins and the mixture would thicken. 

• Now, take the dough and add the remaining ghee and beat the dough very well. yeah baby! beat it! When you stretch the dough, it should stretch with out breaking like chapati dough. 
• Spread a foil or a banana leaf and grease it with ghee.
•  Take some dough (small lime size) and roll out like you roll out the roti/chapati.
• Now, take another lime size of dal & jaggery mixture and place it in the middle of the rolled out bread.

• Now, cover the dal mixture with the bread from all sides and seal with your fingers.
• Gently pat down the ball with your fingers, trying not to let the dal mixture flow out. If it does, do not worry. Make this as thin as a chapati. 

• Heat a tava/pan/griddle and add some ghee. Slowly lift the foil containing the poli and invert it on the griddle. 
• Turn the poli around once in a while until it turns golden brown. Dont shy away from applying generous amount of ghee. 
• When the poli is completely cooked (you will start smelling it) and is in golden color, remove from the pan and transfer to a plate. 

Enjoy!

I hope ALL of you have a fantastic new year ahead!

Dessert with Dates

I really wanted to thank the lady who has invented this wonderful dessert dish. I have seen this recipe in one of the dessert-round-ups but I am unable to pin point which one it is. Its been a while. Thanks dear unknown blogger!
Its fairly simple to make this dessert and it practically takes only 10 minutes!

Ingredients:
Dates: Seedless 20 (de-seed if you cant find seedless dates)
Cashews: 5, broken
Raisins: 10
Pecans or Almonds: a few, broken
Clarified butter/Ghee: 2 tbsp
Coconut: Dry or fresh, grated, about 1/4 cup (I used dry coconut)

Method:
Mash the dates with a wooden spatula.
Heat ghee in a small pan and roast cashews, raisins, pecans for a few minutes or until the dry fruits turn golden brown.
Add the above to the mashed dates and mix. Make small balls out of the mixture and roll in to the grated coconut.

Award Time!
Dear Santosh, thanks a ton for passing on the award to me. I am extremely happy that you think my blog deserves this award. Thanks a lot.

Here are a few things about me:
1. I love reading books and I am either reading or cooking as a hobby.
2. I am very easy going.
3. I hate hypocritical people.
4. I love red wine.

5. I hate driving

I am passing on this award to:
1. Gaouri Guha
2. Kurinji
3. LR
4. Sanctified spaces
5. Aipi

And to all my blogging friends.

Rava Kesari

Thanks Suja! I made Rava Kesari your way 2 days ago as nayvedyam. More often than not I make kesari with milk. But with milk, the problem is that, it gets very heavy after eating very little. So this time, I used water instead, as per Suja's recipe. It came out well. The only variations I used are the less quantity of sugar. Also I did not get a chance to keep this in a platter and cut it. So I just kept it as nayvedyam directly in a small bowl in my pooja shelf. 

The link to original recipe is here in Suja's blog. Click on her name and you will find the original recipe there.

This is how my pooja shelf is looking like right now, during the festival season. Nothing fancy but just did what I could. Like it?

Pumpkin Pie

Thanks Giving is primarily a harvest festival celebrated mainly in United States and Canada. Its a bank holiday for us on this occasion, 11Oct2010.
This is fairly close to Pongal/snakranti in India. Traditionally it is that time of the year to give thanks and celebrate in general. Turkey is cooked and friends and family gather on this special holiday. Pumpkin Pie is also a traditional dessert which is baked on this day. I made some this morning. It came out really good. Here is the recipe. Its one of the basic recipes for pumpkin pie.

Ingredients:
Pie crust: 9 inches, store-bought
Pumpkin pulp: 1 3/4 cup

Cinnamon: 1 tsp (finely ground)
Nutmeg: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Crushed ginger: 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Eggs: 2
Evaporated Milk: 3/4 cup (175 ml)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 425 F.

• In a big bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, ginger. To this, add the beaten eggs and evaporated milk.
• To the above mixture add the pumpkin pulp and mix well for 1 minute. Do not over-mix.
• Fill in the mixture in the crust and bake in preheated (425 F) oven for 15 minutes.
• Reduce the temperature to 350 F and bake for another 40 minutes. That's all! 
•  

Note:
1. Traditionally brown sugar is used to bake a pumpkin pie. But I somehow like mine with white sugar.
2. If you are using brown sugar, bake only for 30 minutes in the last step I mentioned instead of 40 minutes.
3. Insert a tooth pick in the center of the pie; if it comes out clean, the pie is ready.
4. Don't over bake it. The above timings I used are perfect for my measurements.
5. Remember, like in any other baking stuff, 1 cup is 1 cup. Level the cup; don't heap it.

Vermicelli Payasam

Payasam is my mom's standard 'nayvedyam' for most of the festivals (and now mine). Since it has dry fruits and whole milk in it, it gives energy to keep us going for a while. This is also a famous dessert for most of Indian Dinner parties. Most ladies already know this recipe, but posting this nevertheless for my own satisfaction of posting my mom's favorite dessert.

Ingredients:
Vermicelli: 1 cup (you will find this in any Indian grocery store)
Sabudana (Tapioca Pearls): 1/4 cup
Whole Milk: 2 cups
Water: 1 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Dry fruits: 1/4 cup (I used raisins, cashew nuts, shredded almonds and unsalted pecans to make 1/4 cup)
Ghee (Clarified butter): 1 tbsp
Cardamom Powder: 1/2 tsp

Method:

• Heat 1/2 tbsp of ghee in a wide bottom pan. Roast vermicelli until golden brown and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add the remaining ghee and roast all the dry fruits together until aromatic and keep aside. 
• Take another bowl (enough to hold 4 cups of liquid) and add the sabudana with a cup of water. Keep stirring.
• When the sabudana is 3/4 cooked, add vermicelli and another half cup of water. 
• When Vermicelli is half cooked, add milk and sugar. Cook until milk boils once. By then vermicelli and sabudana would have been completely cooked.
• Check for sugar and add the cardamom powder and the dry fruits. Serve warm. 

This goes great with Vada.

Simple platter of fruit...

That's all it is, simple platter of kiwi and raspberries transformed into bite-sized dessert with the help of toothpicks! Who would resist fruit now? Its all in the presentation eh?

(Click of the picture to view the original size).

Sakkarai Pongal-Sweet Pongal

I have seen many people interchanging the words, Naivedyam and Prasdam. Before I post the traditional recipes for Naivedyam, I would like to tell the difference between the two briefly. What we make and submit to God is Naivedyam; Naivedyam is something which has not been tasted (in other words, adulterated) before giving to God. After we give to God, when we take it, it becomes Prasadam.

For every special occasion, sweet pongal (Paramannam in Telugu) is a must in our home. It’s fairly easy and since it’s filled with dry fruits, ghee and rice, it gives us lots of energy. Also it is believed that God’s love this Naivedyam. Another Naivedyam which is also a must is Pulihodarai (Tamarind rice). I will give recipes for both for now its only for sweet pongal.
Both the recipes are fairly common in Tamil Nadu/ Andhra.

Sweet Pongal:
Quantity serves 4.
Raw Rice (avoid Basmati): 1 cup
Moong Dal: ¼ cup
Cashew nuts: 1/8 cup
Raisins: 1/8 cup
Ghee: 5 tbsp
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
Powdered Jaggery: ¼-1/2 cup
Milk: 3 cups

Method:
• Heat a pot and add a tbsp of ghee. When hot, roast the dry fruits and keep aside. In the same pot, add the moong dal and fry for a few minutes until you get the fragrance.
• To the same moong dal, add the raw rice and 3 cups of milk and 3 cups of water. (Rice to liquid consistency should be 1:6).
• You can either pressure cook this or cook it in a pot (like I did) until rice is over cooked (it will by the time all the liquid is gone).
• While the rice is being cooked, take a small pot and melt the jaggery in a cup of water. Bring this to a boil. If you see any dust particles, filter them out.
• When the rice is completely cooked and there is no more water in the pot, add the jaggery water. Simmer and let it be on the stove for another 5-8 minutes.
• Now add the remaining ghee, cardamom powder and dry fruits.

The famous naivedyam is ready! Remember that the rice thickens a bit after you remove from heat. Some people also add grated coconut to this.

You name it

Most of us love to have something sweet to eat post dinner isn't it? But for a few us its an absolute must to have sweet after dinner. My hubby is one of them. If he doesn't find anything in the fridge he comes over to me and asks sweetly, "veetle yedavadu sweet iruka?" (have got any sweet at home), in a tone capable of melting a rock. So I usually make sure there is something.

But, the other day I didn't have anything to make at home other than a few cherries. So I dipped them in vanilla frosting and chilled it for 1 hour. It tasted divine after that. Simple and it took me less than 5 minutes to make this. (excluding the chilling time, you will need 1 hour for the frosting to get hard around the cherry).

I was inspired by Godiva's famous strawberries dipped in chocolate.

I haven't thought of a name for this one. I could come up with, cochees (cold cherries). Would anyone like to name it?

Baklava

Baklava is one of the sweets which deserves to be categorized under, "sinful delights". This sure is for someone who needs a lift of spirits! Its fairly easy to make and your family and friends will be pleasantly surprised that you actually managed to make Baklava at home!

Baklava is originally from Turkey and is pronounced as "Baak-lava" or "Baak-leva". But its most popular as being referred to as Baaklava.

Ingredients:
Phyllo dough (look for it in the frozen food section in the grocery store. thaw it for 30 mins)
Clarified butter (or unsalted butter)- 1/2 cup
shredded walnuts - 1 cup
Shredded almonds-1/4 cup
finely grounded Cinnamon- 1 tsp

Sugar syrup ingredients:
Sugar-3/4 cup
Honey-1/4 cup
vanilla extract-1 tsp

Method:
1. Mix walnuts, almonds and cinnamon and keep aside.

2. Take a 9"/13" baking tray and grease it with butter on bottom and sides.
3. Open the phyllo dough and cut the sheets in such a way that it fits the tray (usually if you cut into half that should fit 9/13 tray).

4. Keep one half aside and store the rest of the dough in the freezer.
5. Take 2 sheets of dough and grease it with butter. (make sure that you work your way around super quick because phyllo gets dried real fast. If you think you cannot do faster then cover the rest of the dough with wet cloth)
6. Place these two sheets in the baking tray. Repeat this process until you finish 8 sheets.
7. Then sprinkle 3 table spoons of nuts (from step 1).

8. Then place 2 more greased sheets of phyllo followed by nuts. Repeat until you finish the nuts.
9. The top layer of phyllo should be at least 6 layers.

10. At this point, preheat the oven to 350 F or 180 C.
11. Gently cut the dough with a very sharp knife all the way till you hit the bottom(any shape you like). (this is difficult, so cut the dough very carefully, I usually choose square or diamond).

12. When the oven is ready bake it for 30 mins. After 30 mins take it out and see if the top layer has turned light golden brown. If not, then bake for another 10 mins. make sure you keep an eye on this after 30 mins because phyllo gets burnt fast.

Sugar syrup:
while Baklava is baking, boil water and sugar until sugar completely dissolves. Then add honey and simmer for 20 mins. 3 mins before you turn the gas off, add Vanilla extract. The consistency would be slightly thick (something like gulab jamoon syrup).

Finally when Baklava has turned golden color, remove it from the oven and pour the sugar syrup all over it immediately. Yes, drench it completely and evenly. You will hear that 'chhhhhsssss' sound....but that's fine. That's it! You will need to let it cool down at least for 2 hours before you serve it because its going to be really hot and also the syrup needs to be absorbed. Leave it uncovered while its cooling down. When it cools down, gently take the pieces out.

I gave so many steps so that it is easier to understand. Its really not difficult. try it and let me know how it came!