Reminiscing grandma & Mung dal and Green peas pancake recipe

My maternal grandmother(whom we grandchildren affectionately called "ammai") passed away last Sunday at the age of 80. She was a very hard working, honest person who has nothing but showered love on her grandchilden.Even at a very ripe age she used to make something special for me to eat when I visited her. Even before few months, I would lie on her lap, she would gently brush my hair and tell some stories from Mahabharatha and like. Her memory power was just amazing that she would remember every small incident of her younger days and would be sharing with me, one of them was when she saw Gandhiji at the age of 7 or 8. We shared a special bond and loved each other's company. She has been a guiding factor to all of us and her passing away is a big loss for us but her blessings would always be with us.

I really don't feel like doing anything other than the regular chores. Anyway, I can't be like this forever and have to come out of it. So thought of posting this recipe which I had drafted to be posted last Monday.

So here it is..

This is one easy, tasty and healthy pancake(or dosa??) that I have come across. Mung dal and green peas makes it a high protein breakfast whose taste is accentuated by the addition of onions, coriander leaves and ginger. My son called it green dosa and he liked it very much. I generally don't add onions for my son(almost 3 years old), thinking it might be spicy for him, but this time I wanted to give it a try. Surprisingly, he ate the dosa without any fuss. Everbody else also liked these pancakes and it tastes best when served hot. We ate the pancakes as it was, but I think ketcup might be a nice accompaniment.I found the recipe here.

Ingredients to make around 10 pancakes
Yellow Mung Dal(spilt): 1 cup
Green Peas(not the dried ones): 1 cup(I used frozen)
Ginger: 1 tsp (skin removed and grated) 
Coriander Leaves: 1 tbsp(chopped) 
Green Chilies: 1 long or 2 medium sized 
Onion: 1/2 cup or 1 medium sized onions(chopped 
Salt to taste
Olive Oil/Vegetable oil for sprinkling on the pancake while cooking

Procedure
1. Soak mung dal in warm water for 30 minutes.
2. After 30 minutes, drain the water and blend dal and green chilly in a mixer until it is ground well(no need to add water now)
3. Add grean peas and grind to an almost smooth paste.
4. Tranfer the batter to a bowl and add ginger, onion and coriander leaves and salt.
5. Add water to the batter to bring it to a spreadable consistency(round /4 to 1/2 cup) and mix well.
6. Heat a griddle/pan in medium flame. Add 1/2 tsp of oil and spread it.
7. Now spread a small ladle ful of the batter on the pan(like dosa) and sprinkle oil in the corner.
8. On medium heat, cook the pancake until side that is toucing the griddle is cooked well.(It would turn golden brown)
9. Flip the pancake so that the other side also gets cooked well.(This side looks greener than the other side)
10. Transfer to a plate and server hot as it is or with tomato ketcup.

Moroccan holiday bread

By each passing week, I am getting more and more confident in baking bread. I baked this moroccan holiday bread last weekend and it came out really good. I actually made it for Monday morning breakfast, but it got over within 1/2 an hour of coming out of oven. I adapted this recipe from Deeba's blog. The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour and 1/4 cup maize/corn meal. I instead added 1 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup maize flour. When I was kneading the flour, it was very sticky, so I added more all purpose flour till the dough came to a kneadable consistency .(around 1/4 to 1/3 cup)I also substituted milk with soy milk. Procedure wise, I changed a bit here and there.

Ingredients to make a loaf of Moroccan Holiday Bread

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All Purpose flour: 1 1/4 cups
Maize/Corn meal: 1/2 cup(I used maize flour)
Active dry yeast: 1 tbsp
Lukewarm water: 100 ml      
Soy milk: 100 ml
Sugar: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds: 2 tbsp(White or both black and white)
Olive oil/Refined oil for oiling the bowl and brushing the bread(optional)

Procedure
1. In a pan, heat soy milk to scalding and allow it to cool.
2. In a separate large bowl, mix together the flours, salt and the seeds.(keep few seeds for topping)
3. In a bowl combine the water, yeast and sugar and allow it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. The yeast will become frothy.(If it doesn't, the yeast isn't active and its not worth proceeding any further.)
4. Once soy milk has cooled, add yeast mixture and soy milk to flour mixture and mix well.(Initially I added 1 cup APP flour, but the dough was very sticky and unmaneagable. So I added around 1/4 
to 1/3 cup APP flour which brought the dough to the right consistency)
5. Transfer the dough to a kneading surface and knead for 5 to 7 minutes and put into a well-oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour or till it doubles in size.
6. After 1 hour, punch down and form a loaf and flatten slightly.
7. Place it on an oiled baking sheet(I lined the baking sheet with with butter paper instead of oiling) and allow to rise for 1/2 hour.
8. Preheat oven to 170 degree C(the original recipe called for 200 degree C)
9. Brush the top of the loaf with water, sprinkle seeds on top, & bake for 25 to 30 minutes until it's golden or a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.( I added water in the baking tray that came with the oven and place the baking sheet with the loaf on it)
10. Remove from oven, brush the top with olive oil and have it warm or once it is cooled down.

We had it with jam and it tasted too good. It was soft and at the same time a bit crunchy, I think because of the maize flour.
This is my entry to Priya's Cooking with seeds-Sesame Seeds event.

Vegan pineapple cupcake

This is one of the tastiest cupcakes I have ever had. Its so soft and flavourful that this is the first time I had a homemade cupcake without any icing or frosting. I adapted this recipe from Vaishali's mango cupcake.

Ingredients to make around 11 medium sized cupcakes
All purpose flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
Pineapple puree: 1 1/2 cups(I used homemade one. Peeled, cut the pineapple and microwaved for 7 minutes. Allowed it to cool down and then pureed it in a mixer.)
Canola oil: 1/3 cup(I used sunflower refined oil)
Granulated sugar: 2/3 cup
Vanilla extract/essence: 1 tsp

Procedure
1. Pre heat the oven to and 170 degree C and place paper liners in the mmuffin tin or grease the tin with oil. 
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cardomom powder together and keep aside.
3. In another large bowl, beat together the puree, oil, sugar and vainlla until well mixed.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until the batter is smooth.(Do not over mix)
5. Pour a ladleful of batter into the muffin tin.
6. Place the tin in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

The cup cake was so good that it got over within 10 minutes it came out of the oven. I will be trying this recipe with different pureed fruits.

Aapam and onion chutney

I got this recipe for aapam and onion chutney from my cosister. This is one of the easiest and tastiest breakfast recipes. I well in love with it the first time I had it in my her place. The combination of aapam and chutney was perfect and adding carrot to the chutney was a nice idea.
Here is the recipe.

Ingredients for aapam that serves 5 adults
Raw Rice: 1 1/2 cups
Boiled Rice: 1 1/2 cups
Urad Dal: 1 tbsp(full or split)
Fenugreek seeds: 1 tsp
Baking Soda: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Grated Coconut: 1/4 cup.( I completely omitted this, still the aapam tasted great) 

Procedure
1. Wash both the rice and urad dal.
2. Soak the washed rice mixture along with fenugreek seeds in water for around 3 hours. 
3. After 3 hours, drain the water from the soaked rice. Do not throw the water. Store it in a bowl. It can be used while grinding.
4. Grind the rice to a smooth mixture by adding water only when necessary. (I did the grinding in a mixer. If the quantity is more grinder can be used.)
5. Transfer the ground mixture to a bowl and add salt and baking soda and mix well.
6. Leave the mixture alone for atleast 8 to 10 hours.
7. To make the aapam, heat the non stick aapam pan(I did not have one, so I used the normal kadai). 
8. Keep the stove in low to medium heat and a ladleful of batter in the pan and swirl the pan so that the batter gets spread nicely.(I could not do the swirling, so I just spread the batter with the ladle itself.
9. Cover the pan with a lid.
10. Remove the aapam from the pan once it is cooked well.
11. Follow the same procedure for the rest of the batter.

Ingredients for small onion chutney
Small onion/Shallot: 8 to 9 numbers(peeled)
Channa Dal: 1 tbsp
Tamarind: a small piece(around the size of 25 paisa)
Carrot: 1 small piece or a quarter of a medium sized carrot(peeled and cut into medium sized pieces)
Dried Red chily: 1 long(or more as per spice tolerance level :-))
Refined Oil: 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
1. Heat a pan/kadai and add oil.
2. Saute the onion and red chily for 2 minutes.
3. Allow it to cool and and grind the onion and red chily with the other ingredients.
4. Add salt.
5. Season with few mustard seeds.

Enjoy the aapam with onion chutney.
Note: If you are not using a non stick pan, it is better to apply oil in the pan atleast once, just before adding the first ladle of batter. Since I did not use a non stick pan, I did this.

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.

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.

Khaman Dhokla for Indian Cooking challenge

I am very happy and excited to participate in the first edition of Indian Cooking Challenge..Srivalli, whose brain child it is, has challenged us with Khaman Dhokla. I have been thinking for ages to make dhoklas..Finally, Indian cooking challenge has paved the way for us to enjoy the homemade dhoklas. The recipe being an authentic one did not fail me anywhere and the result was a moist, colorful, delicious dhokla. I followed the recipe as it is. Providing Srivalli's recipe here for my future reference. :-)

Ingredients for the dhokla batter

Bengal Gram flour / Besan: 250 gms (1 & 1/2 cup)
Curd: 1/2 cup (not very sour)
Water: 1/2 cup
Cooking Soda: 1/2 tsp

Ingredients for seasoning to be mixed to the batter (to be added just before cooking)

Refined Oil: 1 tbsp
Turmeric a pinch
Green Chili paste: 1 - 2 long (as per taste)
Sugar: 1 tsp
Citric acid: quarter tsp
Eno: 1 packet (green colour fruit lime) + sprinkle or dust few bits on the plate

Ingredients for tempering

Sesame seeds: 1/2 tsp
Mustard Seeds: 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves: 10 to 15 leaves(I chopped them to small pieces)
Grated coconut: I completely forgot to add this. :-)
Coriander leaves
3 tsp water + 1 tsp Oil to be topped on dhoklas

Procedure to make the Dhokla

1. Mix 1/2 cup curds with 1/2 water.
2. To this add the besan and mix well to get a lump less batter, the consistency should be of idli batter, more of dropping not pouring consistency.
3. Slowly add more water if needed else, add the soda and mix. Keep it aside to rise for 1 hour.
4. If using pressure cooker, add around 1 cup of water in the cooker and allow it to boil.
5. When the water starts boiling leaving out bubbles, add citric acid, salt, sugar, chili paste and turmeric powder to the batter and mix.
6. Add the eno to the batter and mix gently. You can see bubbles coming out.
7. Immediately pour the batter to the vessel and keep inside the cooker.(I greased the vessel with oil instead of sprinkling eno powder before pouring the batter). The batter should be filled to only 1/2 as it will rise up. Close the vessel with a lid. Do not use the whistle.
8. When the steam starts coming out of the outelt of the cooker lid, simmer and do not disturb for almost 5 to 7 minutes.
9. Remove the lid and proof it using toothpick or knife. If the knife comes out clean and does not have any batter sticking, then its done. Cover back and let it remain on flame for 1 min and switch off the gas and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
10. In a bowl, mix 3 tsp of water along with a tsp of oil.
11. Remove the dhokla pan from the cooker, pour the water and oil mix over the dhokla.
12. Remove the dhokla from the pan and make pieces.
13. For seasoning, heat a pan with oil, add curry leaves, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies. When mustard starts popping, remove and pour over the dhokla.

Ingredients for Green chutney

Green chili: 4-5 no
Coconut: 4- 5 pieces
Coriander leaves - bunch
Few mint leaves: around 10 leaves
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Lemon: 1 big
Salt to taste

Procedure to make green chutney

1. Take all the ingredients except coriander in a food processor. Grind to a smooth paste.
2. Then add the coriander and again grind. Remove to a bowl, add the remaining lime and serve with Dhoklas.

To see how the rest of the IC challengers have faired, do have a look atIndian cooking Challenge.

Dahi(yogurt/curd) Vada-A South Indian Snack

I got the recipe for dahi vada from my dear cousin who stays in Mumbai. She gave the procedure for setting the vada in the dahi assuming that I know how to make the vadas..We prepare the vadas for almost all of the south indian festivals and functions that we celebrate. Usually my MIL does the soaking and grinding and I fry the vadas..So going with the tradition, this time around too my MIL prepared the batter and I did the frying and setting the vadas in Dahi..I have heard that the softer the vadas, the more it "drinks" oil. We got to know from various sources how to make soft vadas that drinks less oil. The secret is to refrigerate the batter for 2 hours before making the vadas..It really works..Going to the recipe..

Ingredients

Urad Dal(full, deskinned): 2 cups
Green Chily: 2 + 1
Curry Leaves: around 10 leaves + 5 leaves
Ginger: 1/2 inch + 1/2 inch(deskinned)
Refined Oil for deep frying the vada
Yogurt/Curd: 4 cups
Chilly powder: 2 pinch
Chaat powder for sprinkling over the dahi vada(optional)
Boondhi for garnish(optional)
Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Salt to taste

Procedure to make the vada batter to get around 15 medium sized vadas

1. Soak the urad dal atleast for 1/2 an hour.
2. After 1/2 an hour clean the dal with water(procedure is same as cleaning rice)
3. Drain excess water.
4. Keep 2 tbsp of soaked urad dal aside.
5. Grind the rest of the urad dal in a grinder without adding water.
6. When the dal is ground to around 50 %, add salt, around 10 curry leaves, 2 green chillys, 1/2 inch ginger and keep grinding.
7. After sometime when the batter becomes very thick, sprinkle very little water and keep grinding. Follow this every now and then until you get a smooth batter. The whole process took around 40 minutes in my grinder.
8. Take out the batter from the grinder, add the 2 tbsp of urad dal.
9. Chop the rest of the green chilly, curry leaves and ginger into very small pieces and add to the batter and mix well.
10. Refrigerate the batter for around 2 hours.

Procedure to make the vada

1. Add the required amount of oil for deep frying, in a kadai/pan and keep in medium flame.
2. Take out the batter from the fridge.
3. Take a small plastic cover(I used cleaned nandini milk cover), sprinkle some water over it and wipe it off. This is done to prevent the batter from sticking to the cover.
4. Take a medium sized ball of batter, put it on the cover with some force so that the batter flattens when falling on the plastic cover. If it does not flatten, press it with the fingers. Make a hole at the centre with the index finger.
5. Take the flattened batter carefully.(Keep the cover in a tilted position, take out the batter with the thumb from the side, tilt the cover more, simulataneously taking out the batter from the side until the whole of the batter is in the palm. The bottom side of the batter in the plastic cover would now be the top side in your palm.)
6. Another easy method is to take the batter in hand, flatten with the thumb, make a hole in the centre and put in the oil.
7. Once the oil is hot, add the flattened batter in the oil.(I added 4 at a time. It mainly depends upon the size of the kadai.)
8. Half way through, flip the vada so that it gets fried evenly on both the sides. Frying vadas in high flame might not cook the inside of the vadas properly. When the vadas turn golden brown in color and when the oil bubbles almost dies out, it is ready to be removed from the oil.
9. Take out from the oil(if needed remove excess oil) and put in the prepared dahi.(procedure below). Do the same for the rest of the batter.

Procedure to make the dahi

1. When the oil is heating, blend curd without adding water. (We do this using "matthu", a wooden stick with a round spiked bottom)
2. Pour the blended curd in a wide mouthed bowl.
3. Add chilly powder and salt and mix well.

Procedure to set the vada in dahi

1. As and when the vadas are fried, put them in the prepared dahi.
2. Once all the vadas are put, refrigerate the dahi vada.

Procedure to serve the dahi vada

1. Just before serving, take out the dahi vada from the fridge.
2. Place 2 to 3 vadas in individual small bowls. Add 2 tbsp of thick curd, sprinkle chat masala powder and salt, add the boondhi and finally garnish with coriander.
3. Serve immediately.

Note: Chopped onion can be added to the batter to get softer vadas. A little (1 or 2 tbsp) rice flour can be added to the batter to get crispier vadas. I guess, if grinder is not there, batter can be prepared using mixer, but the vadas might not be that soft.

This is my entry to EC's WYF-Fried Snacks event. Raks had posted the recipe for vada few days back with very good photos including step by step procedure.

Peanut and Jaggery balls(Kadalai urundai)

Some 15 years back if someone had asked in my neighbourhood "Do you know Priya?", the immediate answer would have been "Oh!that girl who just lives on ghee and kadalai mittai(peanut squares)". They would have also added with a sigh "She just troubles her mother by falling sick frequently". How can one fall sick by eating ghee and kadalai mittai.? Well, I used to get giddiness atleast once in a fortnight due to overeating of the above mentioned items..

Nothing can match the taste of the peanut squares that I used to get for 25 paise a piece in the near by potti kadai(small shop)..It was hard, but not so hard to cause a tooth ache, it was sticky but not too sticky that you got to do all sorts of mouth exercise to remove it..

And the ghee....I used to sneak into the kitchen when ever possible and eat 2 spoonfuls when nobody is around..And my most preferred combination was bournvita powder, ghee and sugar...Just awesome....

When I was staying in the hostel during college days, my grandmother used to make kadali urundais and pack it for the hostel..Though it did not tatse like the store bought ones, it was equally tasty in its own right...After college days, I pretty much lost connection with kadali mittai/urundais..When I saw JFI-Peanuts, I had a chance to recollect those bygone days...Now, at 30, I really don't have a desire to eat the kadalai mittais.(though I am tempted to try the bournvita-ghee-sugar combination) But just to relive those memories, I got the recipe from my grandmother and made the kadali urundais at home for the first time with guidance from mother-in-law.

Ingredients

Shelled Peanuts: 1 1/4 cup
Jaggery/Gud: 1 cup(broken into small pieces)
Cardomom powder: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup

Procedure

1. Roast the peanuts in a pan/kadai in low/medium flame for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. To check if it is done, remove 4 to 5 peanuts and rub with the fingers. If the skin comes out easily, its done. Also just eat one or two peanuts to see if it is roasted.
3. Once roasted, remove the skin from the peanuts. This is the most time consuming job. We did it by taking a handful and rubbing with the fingers. Then separated out the peanuts from the removed skin. (During this process the peanuts might split. But that is OK.)
4. In a kadai add jaggery, cardomom powder and water. Keep in medium flame and melt the jaggery. The consistency of the melted jaggery is the most important thing. If it is thin, we can't make balls, if it is to thick, the ball would be very hard. The correct consistency is when you drop a few drops of melted jaggey in a small bowl of water, it should immediately form a small ball. If you take out the ball and throw in the bowl, it should make a sound while hitting the bowl. (This process of melting the jaggery takes around 10 to 15 minutes)
5. Once the jaggery reaches the correct consistency, put off the flame and pour it over the peanuts. Mix with a flat ladle immediately. Make small lemon sized balls as soon as you are able to touch the mixture without feeling very hot.(within 2 minutes of mixing)
6. Allow the peanut balls to cool and store in an air tight container.

Note: The consistency of jaggery is very important and its better to get the help of elders at home if doing for the first time, like I did. You are blessed if you get readymade roasted peanuts with skin removed. Then 70% of the time is saved.

This is my entry to JFI-Peanuts hosted by Pavani, originally started by Indira of Mahanandi.

Rice flour and tamarind upma(Puli Upma)-A family favourite

We wanted to munch something while watching the wimbledon finals in the evening. Did not feel like making any deep fried item. Last week my mother had given me the recipe for rice flour and tamarind upma(puli upma), a family favourite since my childhood. I made it the first time and it came out really well. My husband liked it very much and it got over even before the match started. :-)

Ingredients to serve 2 adults

Rice flour: 1 cup
Tamarind juice: a little more than 1/4th cup
Mor molagai(chily soaked in curd and sun dried): 2 to 3
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Channa dal: 1 tbsp
Urad dal(split): 1 tbsp
Asofoetida: a pinch
Refined Oil: around 4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. In a bowl mix rice flour, tamarind juice, asofoetida and salt. The mixture should be free of lumps and consistency should be semi soild.
2. In a pan add 4 tbsp oil. Once it is hot, add mustard seeds. When it splutters add urad dal. channa dal and the chillys.
3. Once the dals turn light brown, keep the flame in medium and add the flour mixture and keep stirring.(If not stirred, the mixture gets stuck at the bottom)
4. The Mixture would come togehter like a ball.
5. At this stage pat the mixture with a flat ladle, holding it vertically. Keep doing this till the mixture dries up and separates out and becomes like upma.(around 10 minutes)
6. Remove from heat and serve.

Note: I did not use a non stick pan. If using non stick pan, I think too much of stirring is not needed. If not using mor molagais, ordinary red chilly can be used, but the quantity can be reduced to half. The finished upma can be served by sprinkling some sugar on top.

Baked wheat crackers

The other day, I was asking my mother to suggest some snacks recipe for my 2 year old son that can be stored for a week or so. She suggested me the good old wheat biscuits(crackers is a term I got aquainted with from the food blogging world.)Wheat biscbuits are nothing but deep fried wheat crackers..After the success of Nippatu, I decided to bake the wheat biscuits instead of deep frying them..Son liked the biscuits, atleast he ate them without spitting.

Ingredients to make around 100 bite sized crackers

Whole wheat flour/Aata: 1 cup
Sesame seeds: 2 tsp
Red chilly powder: a pinch(can be increased)
Butter: 3 tbsp(melted)
Refined Oil: 1/4th cup(or a little less)
Water at room temperature: around 3 to 4 tbsp or just needed to make the dough
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients except water in a bowl to get a crumbly dough.
2. Add water a little at a time to the above mixture to make a soft dough.(like roti dough)
3. Cover the bowl with a lid and set aside for 30 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and make balls out of them.
5. Pre heat the oven to 150 degree C.
6. Roll each ball as much as possible using a rolling pin and cut bite sized diamonds.(I did this using pizza cutter)
7. Bake in a baking tray covered with parchement paper for 5 to 10 minutes or until the crackers turn light brown.  I flipped the crackers half way through in the oven for even baking.

Cripsy baked snack time wheat crackers are ready.

Note: If pizza cutter is not available, big diamonds are squares can be made using knife. I divided the dough into 4 equal parts because my baking tray could hold only around 25 cut dough at a time which was equal to one ball. The baked crackers were crispy but did not have a melt in mouth texture. I think cold butter would help in attaining that kind of a texture. Will try the next time. But my son liked it as it was.

Nippatu(Baked onion crackers)

I came across these crispy nippattus in RC's blog. Looking at the comments posted for this recipe, I too decided to bake these delicious crispies..Needless to say it came out very well...I also made another batch of nippatus(I don't know if I can call it that way without the onions and green chilly) without adding onion, coriander leaves and green chilly and instead adding just cashew nuts and a pinch of red chilli powder so that my 2 year old son can also have a less spicy version of the nippatus..But unfortunately, it did not come out well. Texture was OK but it tasted very bitter. I guess its because of the baking soda, may be I should have reduced to less than 1/2 tsp..Will try some other time..But the original version was too good with a crispy and melt in the mouth texture.

I just followed the recipe in RCs blog but reducing the quantity to half.

Ingredients to make around 20 medium sized nippatus

Maida/All purpose flour: 1 cup
Onion: 1 small size(finely chopped)
Green chilly: 1 long(cut into circular fine pieces)
Baking Soda: 1/2 tsp
White Sesame seeds: 2 tsp
Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste(arond 1/2 tsp)
Refined Oil: 1/6th cup
Water: Just needed to make the dough(around 2 to 3 tbsp)

Procedure

1. Add all the dry ingredients, onion and green chily in a bowl and mix.
2. Add oil and mix well.
3. Add butter and mix well. Dough wouldn't have formed at this stage..It would be still in crumbles.
4. Add water a little at a time just enough to make the dough(the consistency can be like that of roti/puri dough)
5. Close the bowl with a lid and set aside for 30 minutes.
6. Pre heat the oven to 160 degree C.
7. Make small rounds of the dough and flatten it on a smooth surface..(I flattened using my fingers by pressing the dough on the stone in which I make roti. Granite slab can also be used for this purpose.)
8. Place the flattened dough on a baking tray covered with parchment paper.(I used a butter paper that we get here)
9. Poke holes on the flattened dough.(I did it with the sharp edge of a pair of scissors)
9. Bake until the nippatus turn slightly brown.(It took just 10 minutes in my oven)
10. Cool and store in an air tight container.

Note: I flipped the nippatus half way through in the oven for even baking on both sides. For the less spicy version, I just added a few chopped cashew nuts(around 10) and a pinch of red chilli powder and completely avoided using onion, coriander leaves and green chilly. But as I mentioned earlier, it was bitter, mostly because of the baking soda.

Short bread cookies with mixed fruit jam topping

Short bread cookies are very easy to make in terms of the number of ingredients used, expertise required to make the dough etc, but when it comes to actually baking the cookies, it is really a time consuming job. You need to first refrigerate the dough for an hour, then flatten the dough, cut the cookies and again refrigerate for 15 minutes, then bake them. If the quantity of dough is less, the cookies can be done in one go. But if you are making in bulk, cutting bite sized cookies and baking them in batches.... its not a very pleasant experience. But if you are making the cookies for your near and dear ones to give away as gifts, then there is nothing joyful than making these wonderful, little, soft and crispy shortbread cookies...

I made these shortbread cookies to be given to my parents, sister, uncle, aunty and above all my grandmother when I will be visting them this weekend.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients to make around 80 bite sized cookies

Unsalted Butter: 227 gms
All purpose flour/Maida: 260 gms
Icing sugar: 65 gms
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Mixed fruit jam for topping the cookie: 2 tbsp (optional)

Procedure

1. Mix flour and salt in a bowl and keep aside.
2. Cream the butter until it is smooth.
3. Add sugar to the butter and beat until smooth. Add vanilla essence and beat.(I did step 1 and 2 using electric blender)
4. Add the flour mixture to sugar and butter mixture and mix just until soft dough is formed.(I did this with hand.) First it will stick to the hand. Slowly and softly bring the dough together.
5. Flatten the dough slightly with hands and place in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.(I placed the dough in a plastic cover and refrigerated for the first 55 minutes and freezed it the last five minutes)
6. Keep ready a baking sheet lined with parchement paper.(I use butter paper)
7. Lightly flour the surface where dough will be rolled. Also lightly flour the cookie cutters.
8. Flatten the dough using a rolling pin or hand.(I did with hand. I took only 1/4th of the dough from the refrigerator as I could bake only around 20 cookies at a time due to the size of my oven)
9. Cut the dough using cookie cutter. Place very little quantity of jam on top of each cookie. Place in the baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.(Thickness of the cookie can be decided by ones one judgement)
10. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes in a preheated oven.
11. Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the dough.

Enjoy the cookies with your dear ones.

Note:
1. For parts measurement, for 1 part of sugar, add 2 parts of butter and 3 parts flour.
2. If cookie cutter is not available, the dough can be made into small balls, flattened using the palm and baked.
3. Its not necessary to wait till the cookies are completelty baked. It can be removed from the oven when the top part of the cookie is still a bit soft. It will harden with its own heat.
4. Using jam is completely optional.

Granola Bars

I bought this wonderful mini series book "Fun food for children" by Tarla Dalal. I wanted to try something from the book today that is simple to make and for which I have the ingredients at hand. I decided on granola bars as I had some corn flakes lying for more than 6 months, I guess. The granola bars came out very well. Because of some mistakes that I did, there were some small hiccups with the taste. But for those mistakes, it would have been a perfect munchy snack.

Here is the recipe for the granola bars

The book has given the measurements in cup, but since I prefer to measure in gms with my kitchen scale, I first took the ingredietns in a cup(I am yet to check if the cup I have is a standard one) that I have and weighed them in my kitchen scale.

Ingredients to make around 15 pieces

Crushed Cornflakes: 50 gms(I used Kellogs brand and I crushed the corn flakes with fingers)
Quick Rolled Oats: 70 gms(I used Quakers brand Oats)
Dry fruits: around 15 pieces of cashew, 10 pieces of walnuts(can use almonds and pistachios too)
Dried grapes: 1 tbsp
Sugar: 300 gms
Melon seeds: 2 tbsp(I did not use this as I did not have)
Refined oil to grease

Procedure
1. Lightly roast oats, nuts and melon seeds and keep aside to cool.(I roasted all of them together as I mixed them, by mistake, before roasting. Next time I wil roast individually)
2. When cooled, mix together the corn flakes, taosted oats, melon seeds, nuts and dried grapes.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, add sugar and melt it over gentle heat, stirring continuously till the sugar is light brown in color. This is called caramelization. 
4. Remove from heat, add rest of the ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour this mixture onto a greased marble or stone surface.
6. Using a greased rolling pin, roll out the mixture to form a square.( Even if you are not able to make a square, its OK. The mixture has to be rolled to get the desired thickness for the bars when cut)
7. While it is warm, cut out rectangle bars.

Munchy granola bar is ready.

Note

1. I used the refined oil that was already used for frying papad. Hence the granola bars had a very strong smell of the reused oil. This is a nice lesson learnt for me. I will never reuse the already used oil for greasing. My mother's suggestion is to use ghee instead of oil for greasing which I will follow the next time.
2. I think I heated the sugar a bit more because of which the bars where a bit hard to bite. Correct consitency of the sugar syrup is very important, I guess.

The original recipe was just perfect. If I had not done these two mistakes, the granola bars would have come out really good. I will definitely make these bars again.

Sabu dana (javvarisi) cutlet

I came to know about MBP-Snacks and Savouries event hosted by Ashwini while browsing Madhuram's blog. I particularly liked this event as all you need to do is find a nice snacks recipe from a blog and prepare it. As the recipe is tried and tasted, you need not worry about the outcome. Its is also a kind of showing the food blogger whose recipe we choose, how much we love their blog. I searched the food blogs that I know of and zeroed in on Arundhati's sabu dana cutlet. There were so many other nice snacks recipes, but I liked Arundhati's the best as it was very easy to make and not deep fried consdering the fact that lot of snack items are deep fried.

I followed the recipe as it is. I only changed the measurements a bit. Eversince I bought a small, very useful kitchen scale, I measure all the ingredients in grams using the scale. Everybody liked it very much, especially my mother said of all the recipes that I made till now looking at the internet, this is the best. All credit goes to Arundhati for sharing this tasty and healthy recipe.

I have eaten deep fried sabu dana vada in a maharashtrian fast food centre here. They serve the vada with sweet curd. But Arundhati's sabu dana cutlet scores as it is shallow fried with very minimal oil. I had the cutlet with sweet curd. Others had it with bread and tomato sauce. However we ate, the taste was awesome.

The original recipe by Arundhati can be found here.

Ingredients to make around 30 cutlets

Sabu dana(javvarisi in tamil): 300gms(soaked overnight or for 8 hours)
Potato: 450 gms(boiled, peeled and mashed)
Bread crumbs: 100 gms
Ground nut: 150 gms(I ground it coarsely in a mixer. As Arundhati has mentioned, badam or cashew can also be used.)
Green chily: 2 long(cut into small pieces. Can use more chilys according to one's spice level.)
Salt to taste.
Refined oil: to shallow fry the cutlets.
Coriander leaves: chopped(I did not use it as I did not have it)

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients except oil.
2. Make lemon sized balls.
3. Flatten each ball with palm.
4. Heat non stick pan/tava.
5. Place few pieces of flattened cutlets on the tava.
6. Add 1 tbsp or less oil touching all the cutlets.
7. Keep in medium flame.
8. Once one side is fried well, turn the cutlets and add some oil.(1 tsp)
9. Allow it to fry.
10. Remove from pan.
11. Serve hot.

Note: The cutlets that I made were not at all spicy. I purposely added less chily as I thought my 2 years old son would eat it. Since we also do not eat very spicy stuff, it was OK for us. Next time I might add some masala powder to make it a bit more fragrant.

This is my entry to Ashwini's MBP-Snacks and Savouries event originally started by Coffee.

Vegetable mayo french roll sandwich

I once again made Arundhati's french roll and as usual, it came out flawless. This time I made vegetable mayaonnaise salad adapted from here and sandwiched it between the french roll. The result was a very delicious vegetable mayo sandwich. It was not only delicious but also very filling. With just two french roll sandwiches for each, we were full.

I have already given the recipe for french roll here.

Here goes the recipe for vegetable mayo salad.

Ingredients to fill 8 french rolls.

Vegetables: 1 cup (Carrot, cucumber, capsicum and tomato cut into small cubes.)
Coriander Leaves: 1 tbsp (chopped)
Pepper powder: as per taste
Salt to taste
Eggless Mayonnaise: 3 tbsp (vary the quantity if needed to bring the salad to almost spreadable consistency)

Procedure

Mix all the above ingredients together.

To make the sandwich

1. Cut the french roll into two halves.
2. Apply mayonnaise salad on one side of the roll and keep the the other half on top of it.

This is a very good breakfast recipe. Instead of frech roll ordinary bread can also be used.

Microwave fried masala papad

Blogging has kind of become an addiction. My visiting parents are complaining that I don’t spend enough time with them and the kid. To prove their point, I started blog hoping as soon as I came from office and came across MEC: Savoury Snacks event hosted by Priya of easyntastyrecipes. I totally admire her enthusiasm and energy to host two events in the same month. As soon as I saw the theme, masala papad came to my mind. The papad can be fried in microwave oven and the toppings are just sliced onions and tomataoes and some masala powder to spice it up. More importantly, it can be prepared in a wink of eye and I can treat my parents with this tasty and easy snack without even they realizing that I spent time in kitchen. I just made one papad especially for the event.

Ingredients

Lijjat papad:  1 piece
Onion:  1 small
Tomato:  1 small
Salt to taste
Chat masala powder to sprinkle on the papad
Coriander leaves finely chopped to sprinkle on the papad
Lemon juice to sprinkle on the papad

Procedure

1. Slice onion and tomoto into thin pieces, add chat masala powder and salt and mix well.
2. Fry the papad in microwave oven for 1 minute or until it is fried completely.
3. Remove from oven and spread onion and tomato mixture on the papad.
4. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice.

Easy and tasty microwave masala papad is ready and its on the way to MEC:Savoury Snacks event hosted by Priya of easyntastyrecipes

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Aloo tikki Pav/French roll

I made this Pav a while ago following the recipe provided by Arundhati and it came out so well, I desperately wanted to make it once again. But I did not make any side dish to be eaten with Pav at that time and we just applied the left over cake icing on the pav and ate.

My parents have come and so I made this Pav once again..Though the left over icing is still there(:-)) I wanted to make something else as side dish.. Thought of making bhaaji, but I did not have the required ingredients..Then thought of making the vada that is given with pav, but that is deep fried and did not want to make that too.

Suddenly an idea stuck, why not make aloo tikkis that can be sandwiched between the pav and eaten…Generally if I make something new, I search the food blogs for recipe..But for these aloo tikkis that I wanted to make I did not search the net and thought of making it on my own because I had very minimal ingredients and I would not be able to do justice to the original recipe even if I made.

So here goes the recipe for Pav and aloo tikki

Pav

Original recipe from Arundhati’s blog.

Ingredients

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All purpose flour/Maida: 600 gms(this time I used equal quantities of wheat flour and maida. Initially I used only 500 gms. But it was very sticky, hence I added some more till the dough became workable which was another 100 gms.) Dry active yeast: 1 tbsp Sugar : 2 tbsp Water: 350 litres (some more to sprinkle on the dough if it is too dry.) Refined Oil: 2 tbsp Procedure

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1. In lukewarm water add yeast and sugar.In 15 minutes, there will be a layer of yeast froth formed.If this does not happen, the yeast isn’t active and the dough might not rise.) 2. Then add the yeast water to half the quantity of flour and mix well.(I generally make the batter using hands only, ie: don’t use spatuala or ladle) 3. Now add the remaining flour little by little and keep mixing. Water might not be sufficient and some water can be sprinkled to bring the dough together.I also added 1tbsp of oil during this stage. This is when I added the extra 100 gms of flour making the overall quantity to 600 gms. 4. Bring the dough to a kneading surface(it’s the granite slab in the kitchen for me) and knead for 15 minutes.(I knead for 15 minutes, but the original recipe called for kneading around 10 minutes) 5. Apply another tbsp of oil all over the dough and cover it with a thin cotton cloth and allow it to raise for 1 hour and until the dough doubles in size. 6. Deflate the dough gently and make around 12 balls of equal size and place the balls in the baking tray. See to it that they don’t touch each other Cover the tray with a thin cotton cloth and allow the dough to rise for another 45 minutes. 7. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C. 8. Place baking tray in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. 9. Apply butter on top of the pav as soon as it is removed from the oven.

Aloo tikki

Ingredients

Potatoes:  3 large, boiled and mashed, to make 12 tikkis, equal to the number of pavs
Red chillie powder:  a little less than ¼ tsp. We generally don’t eat spicy stuff.According to individual taste more can be added.
Chat masala powder:  a little less than ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Masala powder:  a little less than ¼ tsp
Rusk:  around 10 pieces nicely ground
Sooji:  1 tbsp Refined oil to shallow fry the aloo tikkis

Procedure

1. Mix all the above ingredients except rusk with the mashed potatoes.
2. Make 12 balls of equal size.
3. Flatten each ball with the palm and smother both sides of the ball in the rusk powder and shallow fry in a hot tava by applying some oil.

To make aloo tikki pav

1. Cut the pav into two halves.
2. Keep one tikki on one side of the pav.
3. Put some sauce on top of the tikki.(Can add onion, tomato, chutney etc too) and keep the other half on top of it.

Delicious aloo tikki pav is ready. This recipe could be a good choice for small b'day parties.

Note: Though my family members liked the wheat taste in the pav, I prefer the original maida pav.