ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ತಿಂಡಿಗಳು/Deepavali snacks

Coming back to blogging after a long break over the deepavali is like just landing after a jet lag. The weekend of deepavali was filled with fun and feast for us celebrating with family and friends it was overall a fun filled events and celebrations for kids.

From clockwise Rava laadu, Chakkali, mixture, kara sev, Shankar pole, karjikai, Suji cookies, dry fruit burfis

I would like to share the recipe for Mixture. Though many have their versions this is my version of masalas i used.
All you need
poha- 1/2 kg
groundnuts - 1/2 cup
split chick peas - 1/2 cup
curry leaves - 1/2 cup
raisins -1/2 cup
chilli powder - as per taste
sugar powder - 1 tbsp
salt - as required
fennel/saunf seeds - 1 tbsp
corainder seeds - 1tbsp
jeera seeds - 1 tbsp
oil for deep frying

Method:

• Deep fry poha using a strainer in a deep frying pan with oil
• deep fry rest of them groundnuts, chick peas, curry leaves
• Deep fry the coriander seeds, jeera seeds and fennel seeds strain and just pound them coarsely it must not be finely powdered
• Mix all the fried ingredients in a large pan adding salt, sugar, chilli powder well.
• Store in air tight jars can be used for 2 weeks or more.

Dry fruit Burfi

All you need

Cashew nuts chopped - 1 cup
Pistachios chopped - 1/4 cup
Almonds chopped - 1/4 cup
Grated desicated coconut - 1/8 cup
Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
raisins - 1/4 cup
jaggery - 1 cups
ghee - 1 tbsp

Method

• Dry roast/bake cashews, almonds, and pistachois until lightly roasted
• Heat a tbsp of ghee add powdered jaggery  with 1 tbsp of water
• Let the jaggery reach a soft ball consistency for syrup
• Check the consistency by adding a drop of jaggery to cold water to form into soft balls
• Once the syrup reaches the consistency add all the dry fruits mix well
• pour it on a plate coated with ghee. Wait for a 5 mintues and cut into desired shapes.

Thanks a lot for all my friends who have left inspiring comments and asking about my well being. I am doing fine due to personal reasons i am not able to blog at present at the same time my laptop is at service. So i will be on short break until laptop is back to work. I will check on all my freinds please bear with me until then. Thanks for all the time wish you all a happy weekend

A Special thanks to Shilpa from Aayisrecipes for the stepwise rava ladoo which turned out fabulous.

ಮಾವಿನಕಾಯಿ ಭೂಥ ಗೊಜ್ಜು/Mango Gojju

Mangoes mangoes , the thought of summer vacation one of the most wanted one to taste the different types of mangoes, the raw from thotapuri to the gojju mavinkayi (wild varieties) used for making gojju, sasve, thambili to the ripe wonderfull malgovas, raspuri, the neelam and not the least alphanso. I remember during our childhood times as my memory draws  with my bunch of friends at my aunts and even at my grandparents place would gather mainly in the afternoons hunt the backyards to strike the mango trees. One of them would be ready with uppu menasu(salt and chilli powder) and one other with some (crushed green chillis with salt and coconut oil) would mainly use for the raw thotapuris. We would just gather one by one all the mangoes and run to the front yards and munch those mangoes…….There are lot of recipes with mangoes which i just cherish. Here i fail to get the Kuchkayi mangoes( the wild huge mangoes) which is boiled and stored in salt bharanis at my native mainly used for making gojjus/currys which has a pulpy texture and the seed wise is quite small.

Mavina kayi Gojju

Mavina kayi gojju

All you need
Raw Mangoes - 2 boiled
jagerry - 1/2 cup( as per taste)
Sandige menasu/ dried yogurt dipped Chillies - 6-8
Chilli powder/green chillies (optional)
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Asafoteida - 1/8 tsp
salt to taste

Method:

• Boil mangoes until soft you can used preserved mangoes in Bharanis

• how do i make discard the mango skin cut into big chunks just use minumum water and boil until soft

• Take a kadai add 2 tsp of Ghee/oil when hot add mustard seeds, asofoetida.

• once the mustard splutters add curry leaves and dried yogurt dipped chillies (green chillies also if using). Fry well

• Add the pulpy mango from the boiled mangoes, if using preserved you need to extract the pulp you can even preserve the skin if you like

• add jaggery and salt boil until the desired consistency is reached.

• The gojju should be sweet sour and spicy totally lip smacking for mango lovers. Enjoy with hot rice

 Mavina Hannu Sasve

All You need 

wild Ripe Mangoes or ripe mango which is slightly sour - 1
mustard - 2 tsp
coconut grated - 1/4 cup
green chillies - 2
dry red chillies - 2 broken
yogurt - 1 tbsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
salt and jaggery as required

Method:

• Make a paste of coconut, green chillies and 1 tsp mustard

• Squeeze out the pulp of the mango and discard the skin

• Add the coconut paste, salt and jaggery if required to the mango pulp mix well

• Add the 2 tbsp of yogurt and stir well

• Prepare the tadka with mustard, asofoteida, dry chillies and curry leaves. Serve with rice

RCI_Karnataka with ತೆಳೆವು/Neer dose, ಮನೊಹರ/manohara and maddur vade

My origin is from north kanara or uttara kannada with RCI for karnataka thought of sharing some glimpses of this part of karnataka.  Though I spent most of my childhood and education near Bangalore my moms native sagar(my moms place), sirsi where my Doddamma, my In-laws stay and mathikoppa near Ekkeri, vardahalli where my another aunt stays are very close to my heart and would love to visit during our summer vacation. The main cultivation wise near my native they grow paddy, betelnut, coconut, cashew nut. I think not many have tasted the fruit of cashew. So every year my aunts family who have their own plantation are busy in the process of picking betelnuts drying them and selling them eventually during the season. I am not much aware of the technics but me my sis and cousins would stroll round the village to have fun plucking the fresh fruits, veges and of course used to drink lots of tender coconut water. Only wish I had the pictures so that I could post them along. If we happen to peek in their lifestyle is so different and really very amazing though they have to go along quite a tough path. They all are so healthy even at this age cross my fingers but the fact is the nature and type of living makes a lot of difference.

The chief language of the district is Kannada, with minorities of Konkani, Marathi, and Tulu speakers. The population is predominantly Hindu, comprising of many communities like Havyaka, Nadavas, Gowda Saraswat brahmins, Vokkaligas, Sherugars, Namdharis and Vanis.

The Havyakas are united by their unique language. They speak a dialect of Kannada known as Havyaka Kannada. It is similar to mainstream Kannada but draws more words from ancient Kannada. However, most mainstream Kannada speakers find it difficult to understand Havyaka Kannada. The Havyaka dialect is supposed to be quite old. Its origins, like many other things in India, are shrouded in mystery. Notably certain Havigannada(Havyaka Kannada) speakers , more so in Uttara kannada, use neutral gender in place of feminine gender while addressing females. But Havyaks in certain part of Karnataka, like Kundapur, Thirthahalli, Kodagu do not speak Havigannada.

One of the most ancient Madukeshwara temple in Banavasi. If any friends/guests would visit the first one which my Dodappa would ask lets take them to Banavasi.The annual December cultural festival, Kadambothsav, is a huge gathering, organized by the state government, and featuring folk dancers, drama troupes, classical musicians, art exhibitions, while drawing together performers, artists, and writers from all of south IndiaBanavasi has long been a cultural centre, especially the Yakshagana art form. Today local artisans craft and sell the classical folk art Yakshagana masks here. Read more about Banavasi here

source:Wikipedia

JOG Falls

If you happen to go karanataka don’t miss the jog falls which is located near Sagar in Shimoga dist. This year the falls were breathtaking. These are  some of the photos sent by my friend. The best time would be in mansoon to visit these falls.River Sharavati falls  from the height of around 253 mts  and splits itself into four major falls called as Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer. Whenever i visited it would be dry never had been able to visit at the right time. Trekking up and down is really fun i made it only once during summer.

 

Coming to the dishes

Morning breakfast normally we are lovers of dosa, like uddina dose(urad dhall dosa thick ones), Bele dose(thin dhall dosa), Banana dosa(balehannu doddana), halasina hannu(jackfruit) dose, mogekai dose(cucumber dosa even made sweet and plain), Neer dosa(tellevu), uppitu/upuma, avallaki/poha various kinds. Plain iddilis are quite rare. We have sweet kadabu, chappe(plain) kadabu different kinds of steamed dumplings, rotis(phulkas)of wheat, jowar and rice, chapatis and thalipeetu of jowar, rice, wheat, ragi or mixed too.

Neer dose/Thellevu

All you need

par boiled  Rice - 1 cup
raw rice - 1 cup
fresh grated coconut - 1 cup

Method:

• Soak rice the previous night in water

• Next morning grind the rice and coconut to a fine paste

• The mixture should be thin like butter milk like we do for rava dose

• Heat the tava wait until it is hot

• Pour the batter like for rava dosa, the batter will spread itself and make sure to pour other sides just like rava dosa

• Once it has cooked just remove and serve immediately. Do not over turn the dosa

• The texture will be thin and spongy. Serve hot along with spicy chutney

Beluli chutney

All you need: 2 pods of garlic, 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp urad dhall, 2 -dry chillies, 1/2 cup grated coconut, tamarind and salt as per taste.

Method: fry garlic, jeera, urad dhall chillies in 1 tsp of oil. Grind with all the other ingrediants. No tadka is required.

Avallaki Manohara

This sweet is normally made with fried boondi too. I just loved this sweet very first time i had at my mothe in laws place and was totally flat at it. But as i queried my mother in law she told we could as well make with poha. So this was a great way for me to skip the making of boondis.So here i go

 

All you need
Thick poha - 1 cup
jaggery - 1 cup
grated coconut - 1/4 cup
seseme seeds - 1 big tbsp

Method:

• Deep fry Avallaki(poha) in oil keep aside

• Dry roast seseme seeds until fragrant

• In a saucepan take jaggery add 2-3 tbsp water, grated coconut and let it boil until 2 thread consistency

• now turn off fire, add fried poha mix well add the seseme seeds and give a nice stir taking care not to break the poha

• Wait for 15 minute to cool it will seperate out like sweet boondis but a little crispy. This can be stored for a week.

• At my native they prepare with the natural jaggery ( neer bella/joni bella) color will be dark brown will write about this in my next post

Maddur vade

This has been blogged at various bloggers but I could not resist so I had make some maduravada vade maddur vade

All you need
Maida - 1/4 cup
Chiroti Rava/ fine semolina - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
curry leaves - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 5-6
onions - 2 big
salt to taste

Method:

• cut chillies, onions. coriander leaves, curry leaves finely

• Mix all the three flours well with salt

• heat 1 tbsp of oil and add to the flour

• Add the chillies, onions, coriander leaves and curry leaves to the flour

• Add water and mix until to get a dough of consistency for vadas

• Pat on your palm or a plastic/waxed paper to a round circle and deep fry vadas in oil serve hot.

note: This is dough can be made a little stiff like for puris. Roll them to small puris, deep fry and can be stored like crunchy snack. Goes very well along with hot tea/coffee.

This goes for RCI Karnataka hosted by our dear blogger Asha from Foodieshope which is orginated from Lakshmi of VeggeCuisine

Thanks Sandeepa, Bharathi  and Tee for the inspiring awards.

ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮಾಸದ ಶುಭ ಆರಂಭ/Shravana ……starts with holige

The month of Shravana is considered the most auspisicious month of the Hindu calendar. The star shravana is said to rule the sky. This month becomes a busy for ladies especially on tuesdays and fridays who call  married ladies for sumangali pooje or Arisina kunkum. As kids we would enjoy going along with our mom to visit other houses eating the sweets and sundals/kadale vogarne. So every tuesday and fridays we would have sweet dishes and vadas of different kinds. Every day is Shravana is considered auspicious for different dieties. Newly married ladies are advised to perform gowri pooje on tuesdays during shravana.

 

Naga-panchami is the first festival falls on the 5th day of sharavana which is worshipped in honour of snakes or nagas. To know more about nag-panchami check out here.

The Below is from here
Each day in the month of Shravana has a special significance .
Monday: is the day of Lord Shiva worship. 
Tuesday: Gauri is worshipped in every home, by women for the good health of their family. Additionally ladies perform kumkum pooja too
Wednesday: are dedicated to Vithala, a form of Vishnu or Krishna. 
Thursday: are also days for worshipping Buddh and Guru.
Friday: every home worships Lakshmi and Tulsi, also perform sumangali pooje.
Saturday: are for Saturn (Shani). It is also known as Shravan Saturdays, with the object of object of obtaining wealth. These days are known as Sampat Sanivara (wealth Saturdays). i remember in shravan the temples would be full of yell deepa( black seseme tied in black cloth deepa offered to Shani God to obtain peace and harmony)
Sundays: are meant worshipping the Sun god. Sun worship was general in the Vedic period and even now it is so. Especially in Shravan, every Sunday the Sun is worshipped without fail. 

As for me I do enjoy celebrating these festivals and even my neightbourhood friends make me active in involving in these celebrations. But wholly i celebrate the festives with great pleasure when it is on weekend else I  atleast make sure the kids know the importance of the day and why is it celebrated. I myself was not aware of many festivals until I got married when i explored to find out more about them. Living far from your own culture sure makes us more to explore the roots of our culture.

This year Shravan Maasa started for me with a sweet dish Holige though usually I make of Channa dhall this year I made of Coconut.

All you need
for Dough
Plain flour - 1 cup
wheat flour - 1/4 cup
oil - 1/2 cup
pinch of tumeric(optional)
salt to taste

Hoorna- filling

grated coconut - 1 cup
jaggery - 1cup
rice flour - 1/4 cup
cardamom - 1/2 tsp
poppy seeds (optional)

 

Method

• Make the dough mixing all the ingredients to form a smooth dough just like for parathas and let it soak for 2 hrs or more
• make a fine paste of grated coconut and keep aside
• Boil jaggery with around 2 tbsp until it dissolves, strain the soln and heat again until it is slightly sticky
• now add the grated coconut and rice flour stiring continuously at times the qnantity may not hold well add more rice flour/coconut if it is too watery
• Stir until it forms a mass add cardamom stir and let it cool
• Check the dough take a small amount of it and spread on covering your palm using a little oil it is easily spreads without breakage then the dough is right
• Make small balls out of the hoorna and keep aside
• Spread the dough well covering your left palm keep a small lemon sized ball and cover the dough
• Take either a alluminium foil/waxed paper  to roll the holige
• If the dough the hoorna are well done you can make very thin holiges this goes with practise
• Heat on a non stick tava and fry until golden brown
• Allow to cool and refrigerate and use for 1 week.

The slide is showing the very first holige as you try the next few will be very thin and crisp.the outer covering as you roll must be like a transparent film. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right for the first time trial and error are part of learning phase.  I did not have time to take the rest of the snaps of hoorna and dough which have been provided in various sites do check them out at Shilpa’s version here.

Sweet and lovely Manisha from Indian Food Rocks has awarded me this The Power of Schmooze award. I am very greatfull to her and really not sure whether i deserve it . Thanks Manisha it has given me an additional boost with hectic routine.

The Power of Schmooze Award is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

I would like to pass this on to

Bharathy
Vanamala
Suma
Cute Sia from SpiceCorner my passionate inspirer thinks that i rock and given me this Rocking Blogger Award. . Thanks dear for the rocking award.

I would like to pass on to all the rocking bloggers
Lakshmi
Grihini
Priyanka
Athika
Seec
I would like to add a thanks note to all my family, friends, the wonderfull blogger buddies whose coment always means an inspiration an award itself when i first started to blog, visitors who leave a note once a while and also the ghost readers who some might not feel free to comment and some who would not want to comment who have less idea of what a comment would mean to us bloggers too who have made me go along with blogging so long. Thanks a lot it means a lot to me to continue…..

Thanks a lot for all my friends who kept a note and messages enquiring about my well being. Last week i was down with infection along with the work load I might be on and off with blogging from this month. I will try to visit your blogs when I find some time. Do continue visiting and blogging

Badam Katli/Almond Burfi

You all know what the all the dry fruits are stored in my refrigerator. Now I am out of space so which is one gonna to be out of it. I chose to empty half my pack of almonds so I get some space. This is the most loved sweet by my kids either with Badam or Cashew. But take care prepare this only if you have enough time yes stirring now and then takes atleast minimum of 45 mins to an hour. There are different ways like mixing flour will yield a faster burfi but the taste is not the same. Follow the same procedure for Cashew burfi substitute cashews for Badam.

All you need

Badam 1 cup
Sugar - 1.5 cups or more
milk - 1/4 cup
cardamom powder (optional)

Method:

• Soak Badam in hot water and peel the skin.
• Grind Badam with a little milk to a smooth paste use minimumof liquid to blend.
• Take a big aluminium foil spread it on your kitchen top, brush some ghee or butter evenly keep aside
• Now take a kadai better to use a non stick kadai, add the badam paste and sugar and stir on medium heat.
• You can add a tsp of ghee if desired to avoid sticking to the pan
• Keep stirring now and then until everything forms a soft lump and leaves the edges of the kadai.
• Mix cardamom powder(optional)
• Immediately pour the soft lump on the aluminium foil and roll with the rolling pin( greased with oil/butter) to the desired burfi thickness
• Pat silver foil papers on the burfi if you like to.
• Leave for 2 mins cut into desired shapes until it solidifies a little.

note: The mixture must be heated only in low to medium heat else the burfi will turn brown. Use as little ghee as possible to retain the badam flavour.

Mango coconut Jelly

Today was a tiring day with spring cleaning the bed rooms.  It had been quite sometime that I had cleaned the rooms imagine moving the furniture all around to remove the dust that is stuck very easily underneath. Pulling the vaccum cleaner from one end to the other, trying to make all the joints touch ough.. no i still have to bent out to clean all the remaining which i just can’t reach with my vaccum. Usually Gana helps with the vaccum and i do the rest of the cleaning, but today he had to meet my daughters school teacher., so ended up i doing al the cleaning. I dunno how you guys manage with cleaning the carpets in cold countries. oh only if we had a magic wand to clean all the dust choo mantar… So half the morning i am done, just check my fridge to cook for lunch. Lunch was a comfort dish with tave, tambli, soppina palya and badnekai/brinjal bajji will post this recipe sometime. After lunch I had to keep up my promise with my daughter to bake pizza….evening was a pizza session unlinke i wanted to make some chat. Finally comes the dessert, I had half mango puree left after cooking AFAM so thought of trying jelly which my kids love.

All you need: water - 600 ml, saffron threads - 10, coconut milk thick - 100 ml, sugar - 180 gms, whipping cream - 100 ml, ice cream vanilla or mango - 4 tbsp, agar agar - 1 packet, mango fruits cut into small pieces.

Method: Heat sugar, agar agar and water according to instructions. Let it cool for 10-15 mins. mix ice cream, whipping cream well  in a seperate bowl until no lumps. The agar- agar mixture should be warm. Mix in all the other ingredients one by one mixing well. Pour into moulds and serve chilled. Enjoy the delicious jellys. It makes atleast around 15 pieces.

Note: The quantity of liquid may vary according to instruction of the agar agar packet. I used 12 gm packet which is meant for 1 litre. Mine was little less than 1 litre so i guess you can add any one of the ingredient more to obtain more less firmer jelly.

ಕರ್ಜುರ ರೋಲ್ಸ್/CoconutDates(Tumr Bel Nargine)

This is very simple dessert and one of the popular snacks with a hot cup of tea from Saudi Arabia.  It is one of the common desserts. Dates are sugary yet not very sweet. I had two boxes of Dates lying in the fridge for almost more than a month. This dessert just came as a good choice for a tasty dessert. The taste of the Dates with coconut was fabulous.

This is my entry for Meeta’s Monthly Mingle inspired by Sia and Asha thanks to both of them

 All you need

Pitted Dates - 1 cup

whole Almonds peeled and Blanched - 10-15

cardamom powder - 1tsp

Butter/ghee - 1 tbsp

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

• Heat butter and fry dates until soft and coated with butter with a glazy look

• Add cardamom powder  mix and let it cool

• Deep Fry in oil /roast Almonds in oven until light brown

• Mix and mash the date mixture roughly

• Take a lemon size ball/enough to stuff an almond, stuff the almond and cover the date dough

• Roll the date roll in grated coconut and serve with a hot cup of tea with some spicy chips

ಕಾಯಿ ಮುದ್ದೆ/Coconut Iddli

This is one of breakfast series prepared in our hometown which has very nice coconut flavour. The ingrediants used are simple but the flavour of coconut with the rice makes it a very tasty cake. My 2 yr old just loves it calls it undde(laddu). Kids can just pop it up without any curry.

 All you need

paraboiled Rice - 2 cups

water - 31/4 cups

fresh white grated coconut - 3/4 cup

salt to taste

• Wash rice and dry rice on a clean cloth

• Make rava out of rice using a blender

• Boil water with salt

• When water start to boil add the rice rava to it string continuously

• Remove from fire once the rice has reached a consistency when you can form into balls

• Add grated coconut and to it and mix well

• Make rice balls using your hands, use water to wet your hand to withstand the heat

• Steam in iddli cooker for 10-15 mins

• This can be served with spicy spinach curry/onion chutney.

• We like it with onion chutney.