Showing posts with label Blogging Marathon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging Marathon. Show all posts

August 29, 2011

Jowar Laddu

Here is another quick and easy recipe using jowar grains. I remembered the laddu posted by Srivalli and checked it and found it suits my BM theme of cooking with five or less ingredients. Noted the recipe and went to the kitchen straight away and the laddus were ready in 15 minutes.  It makes a very healthy snack for kids and adults alike. There is very little ghee used in the recipe and is sweetened with jaggery.  This fits the bill as a nutritious sweet for your after meal dessert.


Time Taken : 15 minutes
Yields : 11 nos

You need

  • Jowar grains - 1/2 cup
  • Grated jaggery - 1/2 cup
  • Cardamom - a pinch
  • Ghee - 1 tablespoon
  • Cashew - 5 nos, coarsely ground

Method
To prepare this laddu, jowar pops is ground and mixed with jaggery. Ghee is the binding agent.  First the pops are to be made. Heat a pan. When it is hot, add the jowar grains. Keep stirring it. After 2-3 minutes, the grains will start pop. For me, not even half of the grains popped and I stopped roasting further in the fear of  burning the grains.  

Pulse the jowar pops in the mixer grinder. Don't grind it to a fine powder. Add the grated jaggery to it. Pulse it further so that it makes a homogeneous mix. Take the mix to a bowl. Add cashews, cardamom powder and warm ghee to the mix. Mix well.  The mix may look dry but you will be able to make balls out of it. Make lemon sized balls. Press it tight so that it stays together. It is very tasty that its difficult to stop with one.



Check out what my fellow blogging marathoners have cooked for the last day of the marathon.

August 28, 2011

Jowar Idli using jowar grains

Food blogging has introduced me to many new grains/flours which  are not part of  my native Palakkad Iyer cuisine. During my grocery shopping, I tend to pick up new grain/flour to try in my kitchen. Most of the time, I will not have recipe in my mind. I had a big packet of jowar grains which I had picked during one of the shopping trips. I relied on Google to throw some recipe links on jowar grains. Most of the recipes used jowar flour. I decided to try idli starting with my usual idli recipe as the base recipe. I was very apprehensive of the outcome. Jowar is an new grain to me and its gluten free. I thought if the idli attempt do not meet success, there is always dosa to look forward.  After 10 minutes of steaming, I was surprised seeing very soft, off white idlis. 



You need

Jowar grains - 1 cup
Idli rice/parboiled rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Methi seeds - 1/2 tspn

Method
Wash jowar, rice and urad dal separately. Soak jowar, rice and methi seeds together. Soak urad dal separately. I soaked it overnight. Jowar requires more soaking time than rice. Soak two hours more than what  you do for the regular rice for idli. 

Grind dal first till fluffy. Remove and grind jowar, rice and methi till it is ground fine. Mix the grain and dal batter with salt. Leave it to ferment for 5-7 hours, based on the weather in your place. 



Take the idli plates. Smear the depression with sesame oil. Spoon the batter and steam cook in a pressure cooker or idli steamer for 10 minutes. 



Remove the cooked idlis and serve with podi/sambhar or chutney.



I love to eat idlis dunked in a bowl of sambhar.



Check out what my blogging marathon friends have cooked for the day.



August 27, 2011

Rajgira Aloo Tikki

Rajgira flour is generally preferred as a fasting food since it is a non-cereal flour. The flour is prepared from the amaranth seeds. Mostly this flour is made as parathas. Being gluten free, it is suitable for gluten intolerant people.  I tried making tikkis with this flour. Used some mashed potatoes for binding. Very easy to make if you have cooked potatoes in hand.




Yield - 9 nos
Time Taken - 15 minutes

You need
  • Rajgira flour - 1 cup
  • Cooked and mashed potatoes - 1 cup ( I used 2 big potatoes)
  • Ginger,green chilly paste - 1 tspn
  • Seasoning ingredients - Salt, lemon juice, hing and chopped coriander
  • Oil to shallow fry

Method

Take all the ingredients except oil in a bowl. Mix well. No need to add water. The moisture from potatoes will help to bind the mixture.  Pinch off lime sized dough and shape into tikkis.  If you want some crunch, you can roll the tikkis in sesame seeds. This step is optional.

Heat a tawa. Place the tikkis. Drizzle oil on the tikkis. When the bottom gets cooked, flip and cook the other side. Enjoy hot with some ketchup or chutney.



I am sending this tikkis to the Fasting Food event by MomChef at Sizzling Tastebuds.

Check out what my blogging marathon buddies have cooked for the day

August 26, 2011

Golpapdi - Wheat flour sweetened with jaggery

A quick look at my recipe index or the labels, will tell you my love for sweets. I have a special affinity to jaggery based sweets. I feel jaggery based sweets are generally healthy compared to the sugar ones. Jaggery is rich source of iron and sweets with this, doesn't call for loads of fat. Golpapdi is one sweet that caught my attention for the simple ingredients and the easier method of preparation. I have tried it few times and not once the jaggery melted from the heat of the flour mix. And every time, I will put the pan back to stove and melt it and then proceed further. The result was still good though it may not come close to the actual golpapdi.

Cut back to January and news paper carried articles on Makarashankaranthi festival and various delicious treats specially made for the festive season. In one of such articles, I read about a variety of jaggery which is soft and suits for til/ellu ladoo. It then dawned on me that such kind of jaggery is required to make golpapdi too.  I found that the jaggery block which I had purchased then was the soft kind. I had casually picked it from the grocery shop and did not find any difference. Then I tried again and finally met success. I followed Tarla Dalal's recipe. 



You need


Whole wheat flour/Atta - 1 cup
Grated Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 4 tbspn
Poppy seeds - 1 tspn
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn

Method
Heat the ghee in  a pan/kadai. Add the wheat flour to the melted ghee. Keep stirring till the wheat flour turns into a brown color and the aroma of roasted wheat flour in ghee will fill your entire kitchen. Make sure, you don't burn the flour. Remove the pan from fire. The rest of the steps doesn't require any more cooking. Quickly add the grated jaggery and cardamom powder to the roasted wheat flour mix. Keep stirring.The jaggery will melt and it will comes to semi solid mass. Transfer the mix to a greased plate, sprinkled with poppy seeds.  Press and spread the mix evenly with a flat based cup/katori. Mark squares while warm. When cool, store in air tight container.



Please check what my blogging marathon buddies have cooked for the day.


August 25, 2011

Bittergourd/Parikkai Chips using Microwave ~ Crisp & Low Fat

When there are so many varieties of chips to choose from, why would any one think of chips out of bitter gourd. The name itself might bring unpleasant taste to many. I first tasted these chips when my co-sister got this from A1 chips, Coimbatore. It was very tasty that the bitterness could easily given a pass. I do make sun dried bitter gourd to use in vatha kuzhambu or deep fry them as occasional sides.  But its chips avatar really bowled me over. 
I have been thinking of trying it in microwave in the same way as masala peanuts is done. Every time I buy the bitter gourds, I remind myself that I should try with at least one. The theme of blogging marathon gave the final nudge and I made it yesterday. It came out very crisp and it was all done in 12 minutes.




You need
Bitter gourd, medium sized - 3 nos
Rice flour - 3 tspn
Red chilly powder - 1/4 tspn
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tspn

Method


Wash and slice the bitter gourd into thin circles. Remove the seeds. If you find removing the seeds after slicing a bit tedious, you can cut the gourd into two halves, vertically. Remove the seeds and slice. Spread it on a newspaper for an hour or so. So it will dry out by then.



In a bowl, take rice flour, red chilli powder, salt and oil. Mix well. Add the sliced bitter gourd to the flour mix. Sprinkle few drops of water so that the masala coats all the pieces well.



Arrange the bitter gourd pieces on a microwave safe plate, in a single layer. Microwave high for 4 minutes. Take the plate out and flip the pieces. Microwave for 5 minutes. Check if it is crisp. Else MW in steps of 1 minute. After 10 minutes, you can drizzle few drops of oil and cook further.  It took 12 minutes for me. The time may vary according to the quantity and thickness of the slice. Store in an airtight container. It stays crisp for a long time.

Enjoy with your cup of tea/coffee or as a side for curd rice.







Variations
1) You can use sambhar powder or any other spicy podi
2) Add sesame seeds for crunch
3)Increase the amount of rice flour to get a batter fried effect


I am taking this to the MEC-Potluck hosted by Srivalli.

Do check out what my blogging marathon buddies have cooked for the day.


August 24, 2011

Theratti Pal - Made easy in Microwave

Theratti pal is a traditional sweet which is prepared with two ingredients - milk and sugar. The milk is boiled over low flame till it is reduced to a curdled mixture and is sweetened with sugar. Its an integral part of bhakshanam for any ritual in a Brahmin household, especially marriage. In the olden days, it was considered an exotic sweet and a tiffin box of this home made theratti pal will be invariably given to the daughter by the mother when she goes back to her in-laws home after her first visit to her maternal home post marriage. I guess the sweet is held in such high esteem, because of the patience and effort involved.  Now, what I am posting here is an instant version, which gets done in 5 minutes, in a microwave oven. 



You need

  • Milkmaid - 1 tin (400 gm)
  • Curd - 2 tspn
  • Ghee - 1 tspn
Method

Take all the ingredients in a  microwave safe bowl. Make sure you take a big bowl else it might spill over while cooking. I used 1.5 litre bowl and it almost reached the brim . Microwave high for 5 minutes. After every two minutes, give it a stir. This will ensure it doesn't spill over. At this stage, you may find some liquid. 



But after a standing time of 3 minutes, it will set well. Scoop and enjoy the delicious sweet.




I am taking this to the MEC-Potluck hosted by Srivalli.

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for Day 2

August 23, 2011

Modakam with sweetened jackfruit filling / Chakka Pooranam Kozhakkattai

Its time for another edition of Blogging Marathon, which is the brain child of Srivalli. The theme I have chosen for this week is cooking with five or less ingredients. I thought this will be interesting to showcase recipes with few ingredients, yet very tasty.  Hope you all enjoy this series along with me.

During Vishu, I managed to get a small piece of jack fruit to keep for the Vishu Kani. For the same price, I could get two big fruits at Palakkad. Before buying, husband confirmed if he should buy for that price. And since it was for the kani, I did not want to compromise. Once I cleaned, all I could get was around 10 fruit bulbs from it. I asked my husband's suggestion as to what should I make with that. He gave a simple and easy one - just eat it as it is. I had toyed with various options of making a chakka curry or payasam or ela adai. The images of ela adai made me salivate and I decided its ela adai. I set out to make the filling and then I realized that I don't have the elai/banana leaf at home. And its not easily available near my home. Its then this kozhakkattai/modakam idea clicked and I set out to make it.  I got around 8 nos with the filling I had and was happy with the result. I did not measure any ingredients, just added on the go. So what I give is an approximate measurement. 



You need
For the filling

  1. Ripe jack fruit bulbs - 10 nos
  2. Powdered jaggery - 1/2 cup
  3. Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
 For the outer cover
  1. Rice flour - 1 cup
  2. Salt - a pinch, oil - 1 tspn, water - 1 cup


Method
Chop the jack fruit into bite sized pieces. Take jaggery with a tablespoon of water in a kadai. When the jaggery melts completely, add the jack fruit pieces and grated coconut. The moisture from the fruit and coconut will make the mixture more watery. Continue cooking till the mixture comes together. Don't cook too long that it becomes hard. It should be soft and moist. 

In another kadai, take 1 cup of water with a teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt. Bring it to boil. Slowly add the rice flour and mix well. Cook till the mixture becomes dry and is well cooked. Remove it to a plate and leave to cool. Knead the dough to make it smooth. 

Pinch a lemon sized ball from the dough and flatten it to a small disc. Keep a tablespoon of the filling in the center.



Gather the edges of the dough and  seal it at the top. 



 Prepare modaks the same with the rest of the dough and filling. Steam them for 10 minutes in a pressure cooker or a steamer.  You can check if it is done from its appearance. It must have turned to a pale white with a shiny appearance. Enjoy while it is warm.



Do drop in at the Blogging Marathon page, to check out what my friends have cooked for the day.

July 29, 2011

Kokum Juice

Today is the last day of the BM#7 edition. As part of the Maharashtrian cuisine for the series, I thought of finishing the series with the kokum juice. I have heard of kokum juice before but never had a chance to taste. I tasted it after we moved to Pune. The taste of kokum is hard to define. It doesn't go well with everyone.  I liked to it. My husband is a juice person and can have juice any time. For him, juices are not just  thirst quenchers for summer.  During summer, I bought a packet of kokum and tried making the juice at home. I have seen many recipes for this and found it very easy to make. From then on, its made more often at home. Do check out this post at Aayis Recipes to see the pictures of kokum tree and fresh fruits. 


Now on to the recipe
You need
  • Dried kokum rinds - 10 nos
  • Sugar - 3 tblspn
  • Water - 3 cups
  • Salt - a pinch
  • Cumin powder -1/4 tsp ( optional). I don't add.




Method
Soak the kokum rinds in lukewarm water for half an hour. Crush the kokum lightly and filter to remove the kokum rinds. The water would have turned to a lovely pink. Stir in sugar and salt. Stir till the sugar is dissolved well. Chill and serve. 



Here is the picture of Maharashtrian Thali, which we had in a hotel during our Kolhapur trip.



Do check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked.

July 28, 2011

Rava Besan Laddu

Today, I'm back with another sweet for the regional special theme for the Blogging Marathon and my choice is Maharashtra cuisine. If yesterday's Gulpoli was a makarasankaranthi special, this rava-besan laddo is a Diwali treat. I have made rava ladoo and besan ladoo. The combo sounded interesting. I followed the recipe from Chakali. I liked the recipe for it used less amount of ghee since the sugar syrup is added.  

One reader who had tried the recipe from Chakali had commented that the dough was very sticky and runny that it could not be shaped into balls. So while adding the syrup, I reserved around 3 tablespoons of syrup, thinking I will add later if required. After the resting time for the dough, I felt the reserved syrup can be used up too. It was perfect. Please note that you use the same cup to measure all the ingredients. I used the measuring cup.  



You need

  • Rava/Semolina - 1 cup (Use the fine variety)
  • Besan/Chickpea flour - 1/2 cup
  • Ghee - 3 tblspn
  • Sugar -1 cup
  • Water -1/2 cup
  • Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
  • Cashew nuts - 1 tblspn

Method


Dry roast rava till it is pink. Keep stirring as you roast else it will get burnt and also will not get roasted evenly.  Transfer the roasted rava to a plate. Add besan and roast it. When the raw smell disappears, slowly add 2 tablespoon of melted ghee and mix well. At this stage, the mix will be runny. Keep sauteing till the mix starts to brown and you can smell the heavenly aroma of roasted besan. Add the besan-ghee mix to the roasted rava. 

Add a tablespoon of ghee to the kadai. When hot, add cashew nuts. Remove when it is brown and add to the rava-besan mixture. Add cardamom powder and mix well.

Heat a kadai with sugar and water. Keep stirring so that the sugar dissolves fully. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, it will start frothing. After this stage, cook for a minute or two. The syrup would have turned sticky to one string consistency. Check by dropping some syrup using the ladle. You can see the drops falling stretching to form a string. Remove it from the fire. The syrup consistency is very important. If it is paste this stage, it will be difficult to make ladoos since it will turn crumbly.

Add the syrup to the rava-besan mixture. Mix with a spatula as you add. Cover and leave it for 20 minutes.




By this time, the rava would have absorbed most of the moisture and the mixture will be almost dry. It will be moist enough to shape into laddus. 



You will get around 18 laddus depending on the size.


I'm sending these plate of laddus to Indian Mithai Mela hosted by Mom Chef.

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day.

July 27, 2011

Gulpoli ~ Sesame Seeds and Jaggery stuffed flatbread

Gulpoli as the name suggests is the poli/flatbread with jaggery filling. Gulpoli is generally made for the Makarashankaranthi festival. On googling I found many recipes for gulpoli. The outer dough was same is all the recipes. There was difference in the ingredient list in the filling. Some recipe adds coconut and the ratio of sesame seeds and poppy seeds differ. I bookmarked the recipe from Arti's corner. While going through the recipe, I felt the quantity of jaggery seemed more and then I reasoned myself that since no coconut/dal is used in the filling, quantity of jaggery must be making it up. I doubled the recipe and went ahead. Instead of going for 3 cups of jaggery I used little more than 2 cups. Rolling the flatbread with the stuffing was very easy. No sticking/tearing. I could roll without using much flour for dusting. The trouble started when I started roasting it on the tawa. After few seconds, when the poli warmed up, the jaggery started oozing out and there was a pool of jaggery syrup on my tawa. I knew my doubt regarding the jaggery quantity proved correct. I guess, Arti must have halved the orginal recipe and forgot to scale down the jaggery measurement. Removed the tawa and brought out another one. I worked on the filling. I divided the filling into two. To one part, I added some roasted besan and powdered sesame and poppy seeds. Then after 2 attempts of trial and error, got the filling right.  I searched again to check on other recipe and found a very helpful video. I will make again with the remaining filling.  If only the filling proportion was right, I could have finished rolling and roasting   the polis in flat 20 minutes. I am sure next time, it will be easy for me.



You need
For the dough
  • Whole wheat flour/Atta - 1 cup
  • All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
  • Oil - 4 tblspn
  • Luke warm water - Less than 1 cup
  • Salt - a pinch 
  • Ghee for roasting.


For the filling
  • Jaggery, grated - 1 cup
  • Besan   - 1/4 cup, heaped
  • Sesame seeds - 4 tblspn
  • Poppy seeds - 1 tblspn
  • Cardamom powder - 2 tspn
  • Nutmeg powder - 2 tspn
  • Cashewnuts - 10 nos

Method
Take the  both the flours and mix well. Heat oil in a tadka/seasoning pan. Pour the hot oil on to the flour. Mix well so that the oil coats the entire flour.  Add water in parts to make a soft dough. Cover the dough with wet cloth or bowl and rest it for 2 hours.

Roast sesame seeds and poppy seeds separately.   Roast besan in a tablespoon of ghee. Grind sesame seeds, Poppy seeds and cashew in the mixer grinder. Add the ground mixture, roasted besan, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder to the jaggery mix. Mix well. Make sure there are no tiny pieces of jaggery. 

Divide the dough and filling into 10 portions each. Take a ball of dough. Roll it into a small circle. Place the filling on the roti and cover with the edges. Seal and roll into a roti of medium thickness. The dough is very elastic and the filling non-sticky. So rolling is very easy and not a messy affair at all. 



Heat a tawa. Smear some ghee and roast the polis on both side, till brown spots appear. The poli will be crisp and tastes awesome when hot. It is equally good even when it comes to room temperature. 



Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day.


 

July 26, 2011

Capsicum Zunka

Zunka is a besan dominated side dish. I understand this can be prepared with out any vegetable ie. besan fried along with spices. Capcisum, methi and cabbage are the common veggies used in the preparation. I learnt this dish from my husband's periamma/aunt. I don't remember if she told any particular name to this. She had visited us and I had planned methi dal to serve with rotis. Periamma is a great cook and she enjoys preparing for the visisting relatives or friends. Knowing my interest in learning new recipes, she taught me this. She  mentioned capsicum can be used in place of methi.  Later when I started blogging, I got to know that it is a popular marathi dish and is called Zunka. And saw few recipes where cabbage is cooked the same way. 

Besan is the main ingredient and the flavor is enhanced with the addition of red chilli powder, cumin and the veggie added. Its a quite an easy dish and gets done very quickly. Here is I how I make it.



You need
  • Capsicum - 2 nos, big
  • Besan/Kadalamavu - 1/2 cup
  • Oil - 2 tblspn
  • Cumin - 1 tspn
  • Turmeric - 1/4 tspn
  • Red chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
  • Hing - 1/4 tspn
  • Salt to taste
Method

Wash and dice the capsicum into cubes. Take besan in a bowl. Add turmeric,red chilli powder, hing and 1/4 tspn of salt. Mix well. Keep it aside.

Heat a kadai with 2 tablespoon of oil. When hot, add cumin. When the seeds starts browning, add the chopped capsicum. Add salt, just enough for the capsicum. We have added some salt to the besan mix. Saute till it is half cooked.  Add the besan mix in parts. After each addition, keep stirring so that the besan gets cooked and not turn lumpy. After the last addition, continue to saute for 5 minutes. Make sure the besan doesn't get burnt. Remove and serve as a side dish for roti.




Check out the blogging marathon page to know what my friends have cooked for the day.


July 25, 2011

Moogachi Usal~ Sprouted Moong Dish

Usal is a Maharstrian dish where sprouted beans such as moong or matki is used. It is generally a thick gravy cooked with onion, tomato and other spices. Matki is the popular bean used in this. I didnot have matki so decided to go for moong. Usal is a thick gravy almost like a stir fry. The addition of goda masala gives a new dimension to this dish. I referred the recipes here and here and came up on this. I always cook moong sprouts as gravy with some ground masala. I liked this quick dish which can be served as a side with rice and a gravy too.  If you have sprouts, on hand, this gets done pretty quickly.


You need

Sprouted moong - 2 cups
Onion - 1 no, chopped
Tomato - 1 no, chopped
Goda masala -  1 tspn ( I used store bought)
Coriander powder - 1 tspn
Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tspn
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt to taste

To temper
Oil - 2 tspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Cumin - 1/2 tspn
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Hing - few shakes



Method
 Pressure cook sprouted moong for 1 whistle. Just sprinkle water enough to moisten the sprouts. Else microwave for 5 minutes. Or you can add some water later while cooking the gravy and cook for few more minutes. 

Heat a tawa with 2 tspn of oil. Add mustard seeds. When it pops, add cumin , curry leaves and hing. Add chopped onions. Saute till the onion turns pink. Add chopped tomato. Add cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric , red chilly powder and goda masala. When the tomatoes are cooked, add the cooked sprouts. Add salt. Mix gently and cook for 5 minutes for the flavors to blend. Garnish with coriander. You can serve with a wedge of lime and sliced onions.

Goda masala gives the curry the distinct flavor. Goda masala is the maharashtrian aromatic spice powder.




Do check here to know what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day