Suyan for Saraswathi puja

Suyan is one of my favourite sweets though this is the first time I made them at home. I got the recipe from my mother. There are a couple of things to be taken care of while preparing the batter to get good suyans. The batter should be very smooth and the consistency should be such that one should be able to immerse the stuffing(purnam) in the batter and put them immediately in oil for frying. It should be neither too thin nor too thick. Here is the recipe to make around 15 medium sized suyans.

Ingredients for the batter
Urad Dal(full): 1/4 cup
Raw rice: 1/3 cup
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the stuffing
Shredded Coconut: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp
Jaggery: 1/2 cup(broken into small pieces)

Refined oil for deep frying

Procedure to make the batter
1. Wash both rice and dal and soak them together for atleast 1/2 an hour.
2. Grind the soaked rice and dal into a very smooth batter by adding very little water. (Check while grinding if water is not sufficient. Only then add water.)
3. Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and mix well. Kepp aside.

Procedure to make the stuffing
1. While the dal and rice are soaking, the stuffing can be prepared.
2. Mix coconut and jaggery in a kadai/pan.
3. keep the stove in medium flame and stir until the mixture comes together and the most of the water evaporates. Keep aside.

Procedure to make the suyan
1. Divide the stuffing into 15 parts/balls..
2. Heat oil in a kadai/pan
2. Dip each ball in the batter so that it gets coated on all sides with the batter.
4. Put it immediately in the oil. Do the same for some more balls.(as much as the pan can hold)
5. Fry till the suyan turns golden brown on both the sides.
6. Remove from the pan, drain excess oil and place it in dry bowl.
7. Repeat the same for the rest of the stuffing and batter.

Vegan wheat flour and oat bran muffin

The other day when I had been to Nilgiri's super market I saw oat bran. I remembered joyofbaking's oat bran recipe. So I bought it and made the muffins. I made a vegan version of the muffin and it came out very well. I replaced the egg with 1/4 cup applesauce and milk with soy milk. I did not have molasses, so after some thought process I decided to substitute with lion date syrup. The muffins came out surprisingly well and it tasted too good. As mentioned in the original recipe the oat bran gives a nutty flavour to the muffin which I enhanced by adding some walnuts.

Ingredients to make around 12 medium sized muffins
Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Oat bran: 1 cup
Light brown sugar: 1/3 cup(I used demerra sugar)
Baking powder: 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon: 1/4 tsp
Apple sauce: 1/4 tsp
Unsulphured molasses: 1/4 cup(I used Lion brand date syrup)
Pure vanilla extract: 1 tsp 
Canola oil: 2 tbsp(I used refined oil)
Soy milk: 1 1/4 cup
Walnut: 1/4 cup

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 205 degrees C. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or grease the tin with vegetable oil. 
2. Mix flour, oat bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Whisk together the apple sauce, molasses, vanilla extract, oil and soy milk in another large bowl.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until moistened. Gently stir in the walnuts. (The batter will be thin.) 
5. Fill the muffin cups with a ladle of batter and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the center of the muffin comes out clean. 

These muffins make for a hearty and healthy breakfast.

Vegetable Dumplings

Vegetable dumpling is essentially a chinese dish according to Tarla Dalal's mini series cook book "7 dinner menus". It was a nice variation for us from the usual rotis that we have for dinner. The dumplings are as such easy to make, but rolling out the dough might be time consuming, especially if doing in large quantities..Thankfully, for me my MIL did that job and I stuffed the prepared vegetable in the rolled out dough and pressure cooked it..

The dumplings tasted very nice with the red sauce inspite of not adding asparagus and mushroom in the stuffing mixture which the original recipe called for. I also substitued half of maida with wheat flour. Next time I am planning to subtitute 3/4th of maida with wheat flour and instead of adding soya sauce to the vegetable mixture, I will add masala powder to give it a desi touch. I will completely omit making the black sauce(nobody bothered to have it) and will increase the quantity of red sauce.(It seemed more like chutney to me, it was too good)

Ingredients for the dough to make around 30 medium sized dumplings
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Wheat Flour/Aata: 1 1/2 cups
Water: to make the dough
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the vegetable filling
cabbage: 2 cups(shredded according to the book. But I chopped to very small pieces)
carrot: 1 cup(shredded according to the book. But I chopped to very small pieces)
Onion: 1/2 cup(chooped. Optional, it was not used in the original recipe)
Mushrooms: 1/4 cup(finely chopped, I did not use it)
Asparagus: 1/4 cup(finely chopped, I did not use it)
Ginger: 2 tsp(finely chopped)
Pepper Powder: 3/4 tsp
Soya sauce: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Refined Oil: 2 tbsp(I used olive oil)

Ingredients for the red sauce
Tomato: 1(medium sized)
Garlic cloves: 3
Dry red chillies: 2(broken into pieces)
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the black sauce
Soya Sauce: 1/8 cup(The original recipe called for 1/2 cup, but I reduced the quantity)
Honey: 1 tsp
Vinegar: 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds: 1/2 tsp(roasted)
Salt to taste

Procedure to make the dough
Combine all the ingredients in for the dough and mix well. Consistency should be that of roti dough.

Procedure to make the filling
1. Heat oil in a kadai/pan and add ginger. Saute less than a minute.
2. Add all the vegetables and saute in medium-low flame so that it becomes soft.(around 5 minutes)
3. Add salt, soy sauce and pepper powder and mix well.
4. Put of the flame and keep aside.

Procedure to make the dumplings
1. Divide the dough into 30 equal portions or more depending upon the size of the dumplings.
2. Roll out each portion into a circle, the size of medium sized puri.
3. Place a tbsp of filling at the centre of the rolled dough.
4. Bring together the edges and pich them with fingertips so that it is sealed properly.
5. Repeat the same with the remaining dough and filling.
6. Steam in a greased steamer for about 10 minutes. I steamed the dumplings by placing them in the idli moulds and keeping the idli mould in the pressure cooker. (Cook in the pressure cooker till steam starts coming out, without putting the "weight" for the lid. It would take around 5 minutes)
7. Open the pressure cooker once the steam completely dies out.
8. Serve hot with red and black sauces.

Procedure to make the red sauce
1. Boil a vessel full of water and put the tomato in it for around 10 minutes. Remove, peel and keep aside.
2. Dry roast the red chillies till they are crisp.
3. Combine tomato, garlic, dry red chillies and salt and blend to a smooth sauce.

Procedure to make the black sauce
Combine all the ingredients in the black sauce and mix well.

Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi special post and Creamy semiya(vermicelli) payasam/kheer recipe

I know this post featuring Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi is a bit too late..But "Better late than never." :-)Lord Krishna and Lord Ganesha's b'days are celebrated as Janmashtami and chaturthi respectively by the Hindus. As with any other festival, one of the main attractions is the preparation of array of sweets and snacks which is offered as Neivedyam to the gods.

Janmashtami fell on a weekday and I was off to work. My MIL and visiting mother prepared the snacks..As they folowed the good old ladle and eye measurement, I do not have the cup measurements for the snacks that they prepared. So just sharing the photos and customs that we follow in celebrating the festival..

Janmashtami aka krishna jayanthi is generally celebrated in the evening as Lord Krishna is believed to be born in the midnight. We do the following things for the puja.

1. Put a kolam/rangoli at the entrance of the house. We make a paste out of rice flour and use it to put the kolam. Draw feet of kutty(small) krishna from the entrance till the puja room as if he is visiting our house.
2. In the puja room, decorate the idol or photo of Lord Krishna with garland and flowers.
3. Arrange the items prepared for Neivedyam in front of the idol. The items that are generally kept as Neivedyam are..
    Uppu Cheedai
    Vella Cheedai
    Murukku or thenkuzhal
    Appam
    Ulundu Vadai
    A small bowl of milk with a tbsp of butter put in it.
    Vella Aval or Aval payasam
These are supposedly kutty krishna's favourites. :-)
Along with these, we also keep the usual beetel leaves, paaku(forgot the English word), fruits and coconut. Light vilakku(diyas) in front of the idol.
Chant some slokas of Lord Vishnu and then finally do the aarthi.(deepa-aaradhanai)
Then ofcourse start eating the prasadams. :-)

Ganesh Chaturthi on the other hand was on a weekend. So I had all the time and energy for preparing the dishes. Ganesh chaturthi is one of the festivals that I lused to look forward to when I was a kid. On the day of the festival me and my father would go to the market in the morning to buy the Ganesha idol made freshly out of clay. Choosing the idol without any defect was a real fun. I mainly used to see if the small munjur(rat) at the bottom is in good shape and if one tusk in the idol is smaller than the other. Then we buy the flowers and other puja items and head back to home. I just used to enjoy this trip. Here are the thing that we do for the puja.

1. Buy the Ganesha Idol. There are some special flowers that we need to buy like erukampoo(a type of fower) and arugampul(a type of grass)
2. Put kolam at the entrance of the home and in the puja room using rice flour mixture. We call this maakolam.
3. Decorate the idol with flowers and also drape a blouse bit(vastram)
4. Arrange the neivedyam items in fron of the idol.
The items that are generally kept as Neivedyam are..
    Uppu Kozhakkatai(modakam)
    kadala paruppu kozhakkatai
    Vella poornam kozhalkkatai
    Payasam
    Ulundu Vadai
Kozhakkatais are Lord Ganesha's favourite.
Along with these, we also keep the usual beetel leaves, paaku(forgot the English word), bananas and coconut. Light vilakku(diyas) in front of the idol.
Chant some slokas of Lord Vishnu and then finally do the aarthi. This step is common for most of the puja.

I actually wanted to share the recipe for all the items. But as I missed the paper in which I noted down the measurements, just giving the recipe for semiya payasam. I got the recipe for the payasam from my cousin in Bombay. I have made semiya payasam so many times, but I have never ever got such a creamy and rich payasam before. Special thanks to her for sharing this recipe.

Ingredients to serve 4 adults

Semiya/Vermicelli: 1/2 cup
Milk: 2 cups
Condensed milk: 1/2 tin(200 gms)
Ghee: 1 tbsp
Cashew and raisins to garnish
Cardomom powder/Elaichi: 1/6 tsp

Procedure

1. Add ghee in a kdai/pan. Add the cashew and raisins. Once the cashew turns slightly brown and the raisins puuf up, simmer and remove them from the pan.
2. Add the semiya(if not already roasted) in the same pan and roast for a few minutes until it turns slightly brown.(around 3 minutes)
3. Boil the milk.
4. Pour the milk in the semiya pan and cook the semiya in low to medium flame stirring occasionally.
5. The semiya would absorb the milk and get cooked.(around 10 to 15 minutes)
6. Check if the semiya is cooked by pressing a few of them with the finger. If it gets mashed easily then it is cooked. While cooking if it becomes too thick add some more milk.
7. Once the semiya is cooked add the condensed milk and mix well. (Since it is made as Neivedyam, we can't taste now. Otherwise taste the payasam. If more sweet is required, add some more condensed milk.)
8. Garnish with cashew and raisins.
9. Serve hot or cold. While serving if it is too thick, add some more milk.

Semiya payasam cannot get richer and creamier than this.

And finally this is my entry to Purva's Festive Food event. She was kind enough to let me send in the entry one day late. Thanks Purva for that. I just loved this event and did not want to miss it.

Choco rava kesari and a dedication

My mother is celebrating her 60th B'day today. I thought of dedicating this post to her. My mother has inspired us(me and my sis) in more than one way. She(read as she and father) gave us the best education that we could get by putting us in the best school in my city.(Madurai) For a middle class family it was definitely an expensive affair then. She always gave the highest priority to studies. She used to work in the state government and managed both work and family very elegantly. She was well respected at the office and at home front too she managed to do everything a "stay at home" mom would do for her kids. In a nutshell she is the BEST and a guiding factor in whatever we do..

Here is something I wrote for a competition held at my company last year end during parent's day. I was selected for a memento for this effort :-), but unfortunately it was never given as almost during the sametime the company faced a crisis due to some shocking revelation by the then chairman regarding the financial condition of the company..

Just giving the last two lines of the original writeup to make the post short. :-)

Trinkets you bought, they are no more. Love you showered, they are memories. But the lessons you taught. That's us! Thank you mom and dad.

Here is also a choco kesari recipe that I made especially for my mom. My parents are off to a pilgrimage trip for a couple of days as my mother wished to visit few famous temples during her b'day. She feels, her faith in "amman" is what keeps her going. And I don't have any reason to not believe it. :-)

Once again Happy B'day to dear amma and wishing many many more happy returns of this day.

Coming to the recipe, I shall not take credit for the idea of using cocoa powder in kesari for I saw it in almostturkish blog, long time ago..It tasted really good with a nice chocolaty flavour.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Ordinary Suji/Rava/Semolina: 1/4 cup
Water: 3/4 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder: 1 1/2 tbsp
Ghee: 4 tbsp
Cashew: a few for garnishing

Procedure

1. In a small bowl, add the cocoa powder and little water(2 to 3 tbsp) and mix well to form a liquid mixture. Keep aside.
1. Add a tbsp of ghee in a pan/kadai and add suji and cashew.
2. Roast on a low flame till suji turns golden brown. The cashew also would have got roasted nicely by this time.(My grandmom suggested me this method of adding cashew and suji together. This way even if we are not able to make out if suji is roasted or not, looking at the color of roasted cashew we can remove suji from heat.)
3. Tranfer the suji to a bowl.
4. In the same pan, add water and allow it to boil.
5. Once hot, add the roasted suji and mix. Keep on low to medium flame.
6. It would absorb the water immediately and would become semi solid. Do not add more water eventhough one might get tempted to do so..
7. Add the cocoa powder mixture and sugar and mix well.
8. Now the mixture would again become watery. Add ghee and mix on low to medium flame.
9. Put off the flame once the mixture again reaches semi solid state.
10. Allow it to cool a bit so that it thickens.

Note: Feel free to increase or reduce the quantity of sugar as per preferences. The cocoa powder can be omitted to make an authentic south indian kesari. The amount of water mentioned is for ordinary suji. It might vary for other types of suji though I have not tried.