ಬೂಂದಿ ಲಾಡು/Bhoondi Laddu

Happy navratri to one and all! hope all of you all enjoyed celebrating feasts. It was long since I made laddus so thought of making Bhoondi laddu which I learnt the very first time correctly last year during deepavali. It turned out to be a quite easy at firs try. This is one of the most loved laddus by my kids. The only one thing about this dish is it takes a lot of oil while frying and shaping into laddus when hot .

I am sending this for RCI hosted by viji from Vcuisine, JFI hosted by Vee from PastPresentandMe and Think Spice hosted by Sunita from Sunitas’sWorld. Though I wanted to post for each of these events I couldnot make it this time, finally i came out with bhoondi which goes ideally for all these events.

All you need
Bhoondis
Gram flour - 1.5 cup
rice flour/corn flour - 1 tbsp
Soda Bicarbonate - 1/8 tsp
Bhoondi stirer and fryer you can find it here
Oil for deep frying

Sugar solution
sugar coarse - 1.5 cups
saffron strands - 10-15
cardamom powder/clove - 4 -5
water - 1/2 cup
cashews/raisins/badams  of choice

Method

• Make a thick paste of gram flour + rice/corn flour +soda with water
• The consistency should be thicker than dosa batter but thinner than iddli batter
• Take another vessel add sugar water and saffron let it soak meanwhile you prepare the bhoondis
• Heat oil for deep frying boondis
• Keep the bhoondis stirer at a distance from the hot oil, pour a laddle of besan and stir quickly to the hot oil. Must be done fast
• Fry the bhoodis and strain well 
• Heat the sugar soln while you are just left with the last  2 rounds of bhoondis
• The soln should reach the consistency of strings/1 string
• Remove from heat, add in raisins/cashews/cardamom powder and mix well
• Add the bhoondis and stir well close for just 2 minutes
• Shape them into laddus while still hot.
• This can be stored in airtight jars for  2-3 weeks

Note:If you are unable to shape them and feel very liquid after adding bhoondis keep on low fire for sometime until it comes to the consistency to shape into laddus.
For first time check the consistency of the batter is right for the bhoondis. The bhoondis should come out round must not be elongated nor flat with holes. Add little water if it is soft and thick and make it faster if it falls elongated.

ಬಾಳೆಹಣ್ಣು ದೊಡ್ಡನ/Banana Dosa(Pancake)

This is one of the dosas made at my home. This dosa/pancake has a very soft and spongy texture. One of my favorite dosa with a dollop of ghee tastes delicious. I have used the dark brown liquid jaggery from my native prepared freshly from cane sugar just after Makara Sankranti/Pongal. My Mother in law makes sure to place order just before sankranti. When its fresh it tastes so good like honey. My MIL place even iddilis, dosas, chapaties are had with jaggery and ghee,though we avoid using ghee. Every year I carry back atleast 5 kilos of jaggery from home. This does not contain sodium carbonate which is added in the process to solidify the jaggery. Look at the preparation of jaggery here.

 This goes to my contribution to JFI-Banana hosted by Mandira from Ahaar which is initiated by Indira of Mahanandi and also for RCI hosted by Asha from Foodieshope initiated by Laskshmi from Veggiecuisine.

All you need
parboiled rice/iddli rice - 1 (1 cup - 150ml) cups
raw rice - 1 cup
Ripe bananas - 2
methi seeds - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup(according to taste)
salt as required

Method:

• Soak rice  with methi seeds for 2-3 hrs in water along with methi seeds
• Drain water and grind to a slightly coarse batter like we make for dosas. Batter should feel like very fine rava in it not ground like a paste
• Make a fine paste of bananas
• Mix the banana paste to the ground rice. let it ferment overnight in a warm place
• Next morning add jaggery and salt mix well.
• Make sure the batter is of pouring consistency like pancake/dosa batter.
• Heat a dosa/pancake pan, smear some oil/ghee
• When the pan is hot, spread the pancake in circular direction cook on low flame covered with a enclosed plate so that it covers the dosa and has place for steam to develop.
• Wait for few a minute check whether the dosa has steamed, flip the dosa and slighlty roast the other side
• Serve with a dollop of ghee.

Note: Take care while over turning it will be slightly sticky. Add correct amount of jaggery adding too much will be difficult to lift the dosa. Subsitute jackfruit for bananas to make variation.Add 1/2 cup of Poha while grinding to make crisper dosas suggested by Sia and Sushma. Make dosas on a non stick pan to avoid sticking suggested by Asha

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.

ವರಲಕ್ಷ್ಮೀ ಹಬ್ಬ/Varalakshmi festival

 This post had to be posted long ago took so long to appear. It was busy month visiting my friends houses in the evenings and sweets and sweets and kara with all the yummy frieds crisp vadas. Basically every other day we ended up with lot of yummy food.

Here comes my lakshmi pooje. Usually it is celebrated on the 2nd friday of shravana. This year I celebrated on the 3rd friday due to time constraint. I had decided to take photos at each step but failed to get everything in time. The previous day I make ready with the cleaning the pooja room and get ready with all the items. My day started at 5 in the morning. By the time I started my son is wide awake thinking his mum is gonna leave him to work asking her to come to bed and pat him with the cosy cosy look …. oh no so i carry him on my waist try to make him sleep he is not happy try various ways this went on until 6.45. Well finally got him to wake up and start with the day with oil bath and sent him for an hour to play now got time. Just rushed and prepared kadale haigreeva, kesari and kadale usuli. Made ready to fry Ammanavra Vade. By then gang is back is back amma i am here. Washed him up sit for the pooja along with him.

Varalakshmi pooja is given in various websites. This custom I follow as given in the book Varakshmi pooje book. Pooja starts with kalsha stapane,ganapati pooje, chanting strotras on lakshmi and finally naivedyam. For naivedyam panchgajaya, panchamruta, kadale maddi/haigreeva, usuli and amman vade is considered auspicious and most liked by lakshmi. The kalasha is decorated stapane made on a bed of rice. This year I failed to buy banana leaves on which the plate of rice is placed.  My son was a playfull and let me continue with the pooja. At last when I bought the items for naivedyam one by one vada and usuli started to dissapear  who else our little krishna Anku was all the while eyeing it and gulped as it was placed  In the evening i had invited my friends around my place and was really tiring day. For the evening I prepared vangibhath, rava iddilis and ginger-coriander chutney, rave kesari bhath and fried vadas so was like a full day work. It so happened i expected guests even before planned I could not take a photo too :0.

Haigreeva/kaddale maddi

All you need
channa dhall - 1 cup
toor dhall - 2 tbsp
jaggery - 1.5 to 2 cups
cashew/almonds/raisins - handfull
cardomom powder - 1 tsp

Method

• Wash channa dhall and toor dhall pressure cook until soft but still in shape
• Mean while in another bowl mix jaggery with 1/4 cup water boil until jaggery dissolves strain to remove any impurities
• Return the jaggery mixture to heat again until slightly sticky mix in dhall mixture and let it simmer until all liquid evaporates
• Fry cashew/almonds/raisins in Ghee until golden brown and add to the dhall mixture
• mix in cardamon powder add a tbsp of ghee and mix.

Ammavara vade( most recommended to try)

This is one of most flavoured urad vada and only vadas made during lakshmi festives with a hole  at my home. my son ate the maximum vadas and in no time I started to feel whether it would be enough for my friends coming over. Luckily it was just nice since some of my friends were not able to make it too This is my entry for RCI hosted by one ofmy favorite blogger Asha from foodieshope!

All you need
urad dhall - 1 cup
chiroti rava/semolina - 1.5 to 2 cups
rice flour - 1/4 cup
coconut grated - 1/2 cup
dry chilles - 4-5
coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
jeera seeds - 1 tsp
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
tamarind paste - 1 tsp
jaggery - 1 tbsp
curry leaves - cut finely
ajwain - 1 tbsp

Method:

• soak urad dhall in water for 1 hour
• grind coconut and masala like chillies, coriander,jeera,methi, mustard to a fine powder
• Grind  urad dhall along with the fine powder, tamarind salt and jaggery to a fine paste using minumum water
• Mix rice flour and Rava to the urad dhall paste . i did not measure rava i added as much to make the paste thick like for vadas
• mix ajwain and curry leaves (very important) to the paste
• Deep fry the vadas until golden brown. make sure you make it slightly thick with a hole in the centre else the taste will be raw and will not fry well.

RCI Oriya Cuisine

This cuisine is very new to me and I loved to explore the tastes of their food. I realised the food variety ranges from use of dhall  to vegetables with a very unique combination of spices which enhances the flavours of food. The sweet is mostly made of cheese or milk based which varies from kalakhand to rosgullas..More about oriya cuisine at Wikipedia

I have tried all the recipes from 123Orissa.com with some changes for our taste. This is my contribution to Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI, this month we are celebrating Oriya cuisine hosted by Swapna from Swad of India

Vegetable Biryani/Khichadi

• All you need
  1.5 cup Rice
  3/4 cup Lentils/masoor dhall
  2 Potatoes cubed
  1 cup carrots/beans/peas
  1 cup Peanuts
  1 Tomatoes
  10 Cashewnuts
  1 cup grated coconut
  1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
  4 Red Chillies
  1 cup Onions sliced
  4 pieces of Cinnamon
  4 Cardamoms
  1/2 cup Curd( i skipped)
  Salt & Turmeric Powder

Method:

• Soak Rice for half an hour 
• Grind the grated Coconut with Cumin seeds and chillies.
• The recipe used the extract of the ground paste but i preferred to use the grounded paste as it is
•  Take oil in a kadai  add cinnamon, cardamom fry until fragrant
• Add rice, lentils, peanuts, cashew fry for sometime until all look slightly coated with oil
• Add water along with the ground paste, salt and tomatoes.Let it boil now add the vegetables
• Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Serve hot.

This turned out delicious khichadi and tasted close to our Bisibhelebhath.

Phul Gobi Do Piaji

All you need
1 Cauliflower
cumin powder - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1 cube
 Vinegar
 garam masala - 1 tsp
Tomato - 1
Red chilli powder/green chilli paste - 2 tsp
 Onion - 1
panch phoran - 1 tsp
Salt

Method

• Cut the cauliflower into medium size pieces. marinate with ginger paste, cumin powder and chilli powder/green chilli paste and vinegar for an hour

•  Heat oil in a kadai and the panch puran spices and fry onion .

• Add  the cauliflowers into the pan and cover it with tomato pieces. Add the garam masala and salt for taste

• Cover the lid and lower the flame until cauliflower is cooked fully.

Bhanda kobi Khofta Curry

All you need
Cabbage - 1 cup shreded
onion - 1 sliced
gram flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 2 tsp
corn flour - 2 tsp
baking powder - 1 tsp

gravy
onion - 1 big
tomatoes - 1
ginger paste - 1cube
chilli powder - as per taste
coriander leaves for garnish
garam masala - 1 tsp

Method

• Mix cabbage, onions, salt and chilli powder and coriander leaves. let it stand for 5 mins

• The cabbage mixture will is slightly wet now, add gram flour and corn flour along with baking powder mix it well

• Deep fry the cabbage pakodas in oil and keep aside

• Make a gravy by grinding the half onions, tomatoes and ginger

• Take a kadai with oil fry remaining onions tomatoes along with the ground paste, and chilli powder and salt.

• Add 1 cups of water and let it boil, the tiness of gravy depends on liking once it reaches a gravy consistency do a taste check 

• Add the pakodas and serve hot with rotis/rice

I extremely enjoyed exploring Oriya Cuisine and my family were pleased with the outcome of every dish, Please visit Swapna’s blog for the roundup of the event.

Watermelon Mousse

Watermelons are one of the favorite fruits, here it is available all through the year. We are fortunate in Singapore we get to find all the different varieties of fruits from all over the world. We love all the different kind of melons available and we rarely blend it into juice or any desserts. I am still wondering how to select sweet melons which we are still naive at. Most of the times we buy melons its ends up semi sweet or at times tasteless then find its way to the blender to blend it for a juice. Luckily for Bee who is hosting the AFAM Watermelon this time when my h bought the melon was super sweet. Honestly i had half mind to use it blend it to any recipe. I just used one quarter of the melon the remaining we relished the fresh fruits, but was extremely satisfied with the end result. This is my contribution to this month’s AFAM for watermelon hosted by Bee which is initiated by Maheswari

All you need
Water melon puree - 1 cup
lemon juice - 1 tbsp
sugar - 1/2 cup
heavy cream - 4 tbsp
Agar Agar - 2 tsp ( gelatine can be substituted)

Method:

• Puree water melon removing the seeds
• Add the agar agar and boil the puree
• Turn off fire, add lemon juice and sugar allow it to dissolve
• Refrigerate it stirring now and then until it is thick to stick to the back of a spoon
• whip the cream and fold in to the watermelon
• pour into moulds and refrigerate for half an hour or until done

RCI for Punjabi Cuisine

Punjabi cuisine is the most well known cuisine not only in India but around the world too. Punjabi food who doesn’t love them? Well I have never been to punjab but the i love the parathas curries and flavoured rice. Punjabis are great lovers of wheat, they hardly cook plain rice for regular meals. Their  rice is flavored with cumin/or a varied number of spices. To have a quick tour of the cuisine of Punjab visit Richa’s As Dear as Salt who is hosting Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI  for Punjabi Cuisine.

Handi Vegetable Biryani

All you need:
for the paste:
quartered - onions 1
ginger - 2 inch
garlic pods - 5

To make Rice:
Basmati Rice - 1.5 cups
whole garam masala
bay leaves - 2
cinamon - 1 large cut into medium pieces
black pepper - 1 tsp
cloves - 6-8

others:
chilli powder - 3 tsp
tumeric powder -1 tsp
garam masala powder- 2 tsp(punjabi everest)
yogurt/2 tbsp
tomatoes - 1
mixed vegetables(carrot/beans/cauliflower/peas)

to fry
cashews - 8
onions sliced thinely - 1
capsicum sliced - 1

Method:

• Make a paste of onion, ginger and garlic.
• Soak rice for half an hour. Cook rice in salted water and whole garam masala until grainy. keep aside let it cool.
• Take oil in a kadai, fry cashews to gloden brown drain keep aside.
• Fry onions until crisp drain and keep aside. Fry capsicums until soft.
• Half boil vege like beans/carrot/potato in  microwave for 2 mins, preserve the stock for gravy.
• Take a wok to make the curry, heat 2 tbsp ghee/oil
• Fry the paste until raw smell dissappears, add the masala powders and tomatoes cook until tomatoes are done
• Add mixed veges, salt Bring to boil add curds. stir well until oil seperates out.
• Take a oven proof casserole grease oil or butter
• Add the cooked1/4 of the cooked rice. Spread half of the curry. Add again 1/4 of rice spread the half of onions, cashews capsicums, coriander leaves. Again repeat with rest of the rice
• Seal the caserole and bake it for 15 mins at 230 c.
• Serve hot rice with any accompanied raita.

Recipe source: Bawarchi.com

Mushroom Mattar Makani (source: Tarla Dalal cook book)

All you need
Mushrooms - 2 cups(i used button mushrooms)
Boiled peas - 1/2 cup

For paste
onions - 1 sliced
tomatoes - 1 cut into chunks
garlic pods - 4
ginger - 2 tsp
cashews - 4 cut into pieces
Boil all the above and grind into paste

Others
jeera/cumin seeds - 1 tsp
kasuri methi - 2 tsp
garam masala - 1 tsp (punjabi Everest)
chilli powder - 2 tsp
Cream - 1 tbsp
coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

• Take oil/ghee in a kadai add cumin seeds when hot.
• Add the masala paste once the cumin seeds are light brown color
• Simmer for few minutes until oil seperates
• Add all the masala powders, salt and cream
• Add mushrooms and peas and bring to boil. Garnish with coriander leaves
• Serve hot with parathas.

Masale Bhaat and bhopli mirchi chi peeth perun bhaaji/Capsicum with cabbage and shallot fry

 RCI Maharastra, food of maharastra has bought back childhood memories though we spent hardly 2 years of our stay in Pune. I loved the climate the place for its simplicity and homely neighbours. The food loved for hot sabudana vadas, chats bhel puri, various kinds of wadis, polis . I can still remember the unique taste of bhel puri was hot and spicy but the flavors were excellent. The ganesh Utsav is a big bang for the 10 days rejoicing playing music and dance with the local community gathering was loads of fun from installing the madal to decorating, distributing sweets to the last day immersing the Ganesh idol in the near by river .  

Here I tried two simple dishes which were unique in taste. I loved the taste of both the dishes. My pressure pan never gave good result as my baingan were mushy. When I make vangi bhath with Baingan i usally cook rice seperately. Next time i will opt for cooking seperately with my old way . The brinjals i used were thai brinjals which take longer time to cook than the purple ones.

                                                     Masale Bhaat                                                        

All you need:
gherkins - 1 cup
peas - 1 cup
Brinjals - 1 cup
goda masala - 2 tsp ( thanks Tee)

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
rice - 1.5 cups sokaed for half an hour
curry leaves - 1 sprig
whole garam masala
cinamon sticks - 2
cardamom - 2
cloves - 4
bay leaves - 2

Dry roast
1/2 cup coconut,
dry chillies - 4-5

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadai/pressure pan add whole garam masala fry until masala are plump add curry leaves
• Fry gherkins for a few minutes add peas and brinjals fry for a few minutes
• Add rice and fry for another 2 minutes. Add boiled water 1.5 times rice. Let it boil add the goda masala and roasted masala
• Add sugar and salt simmer until rice is cooked.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and fried cashews

Capsicum Cabbage with shallot fry

 

All you need
1 cup capsicums
1 cup cabbage
1 cup Shallots
1cup chick pea flour / gram flour (besan)
1 tbsp peanuts powdered coarsely
4 tsp chilli powder,
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt,
sugar (optional) to taste
cilantro/coriander leaves
1/2 tsp asafoetida
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp oil

Method:

• Wash the peppers,cabagge, shallots. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.
• Chop peppers and cabbage 1/2 inch square pieces.
• Dry roast gram flour until aromatic 
• In a bowl, combine gram flour, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric, salt and sugar. Do not add water.
• Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida and the remaining turmeric powder.
• Add peppers, capsicums, shallots and fry till they are half tender.
• Add gram flour and mix well until all the pieces are well coated with the flour. Fry for sometime over medium heat.
•  Keep tossing the bhaaji until crisp and golden. Toss in peanut powder and fry for a minute.

Garnish with cilantro/coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati.

The bhajji was delicious, the flavour of gram flour was not strong but was crisp and nice combo to the bhajji.

Recipesource: mumbai-masala.com

These are my contribution for Nupur from OnehotStoves RCI for maharastra  and Sangeeta from Ghar ka khana’s  JFI Brinjal

ಮೈಸೂರ್ ಪಾಕ್/Mysore Pak

Sunday we had a great time with our cousins family. My cousin makes wonderful ever tasty divine Mysore paks I have tasted at anyones home. I wanted to make sure this time we had ample time to learn this big pak…Me and My H got to work busy preparing for lunch and awaiting the arrival of our cousin . All planned well…. at 1 hr to lunch time my H got a call from his office he had to go … oh no I thought. I was very dissappointed to see him go but no choice, fortunately the vege pulav was ready I packed it for him and started working on the other chores. I tried feeding my little son with some sambhar rice, but he was so excited that his favorite uncle and aunt with kids coming over he refused to eat well. i let him go and started to prepare the last item puris and finally fried a few they were here. My cousin lent her helping hand as ever to fry the rest of them. We all had a jolly time, kids had lunch with no fuss and me and my cousin chatted over lunch…..Kids were making big hungama, After lunch i checked on my son wheather he was sleepy to make him sleep for a while so that we had nice free time to make the mysore pak but he was so playfull refused to come over. We decided let him play he will not distrub us. Nidhi and Rajath were busy playing chess, while Anku and Shreyas (7) were playing with the tricycle and small gadi. I finally started to get ready with the ingredients as my cousin Sitakka directed.

All you need:
Gram flour sieved: 1 Cup
Sugar: 2 cups ( i used fine sugar)
Ghee : 1.5 cups (liquid)
Corn oil: 1 cup (use Veecorn or Golden drop)
water : 1 cup (1/2 the measure of Sugar)
Greased plate with Ghee
Greased knife
Sugar(coarse better for sprinkling on the sweet)

Method:
An hour before Starting soak the sugar in water and keep aside so that the sugar dissolves
Seive gram flour and fry the Gram Flour in a kadai( aluminium is better) somehow my non stick tends to stick the flour until raw smell disappears
Liquidify ghee and measure the ghee and oil using the same measuring glass as for gramflour
Pour the ghee-oil to a copper bottom vessel and keep the flame on low heat to keep it warm(i heard a cry and triffle, checked on our sons, my son was angry for some reason. telling ni hoggu, ni beda and sitting in one corner. actually i shd have taken a snap of that too :0. Called him, he refused ……ow ow askedn my dad to try his luck… we continued….
Check if sugar has dissolved completely if not on low flame heat the sugar-water until the sugar dissolves
Add the gram flour and mix well to avoid any lumps ( Again another squeak now what was that, he agreed to have some milk but wanted amma’s lap oh dear what to do….? again pacify him agreed to sit with his grandpa and drink milk.) Meanwhile Sitakka was stiring ….
Once the gram flour is blended well keep on stiring on medium flame adding the hot gheeoil side by side ( the oil-ghee must be warm to check the warmth, when you add it to the gramflour paste you must be able to see bubble formation)
Continue stirring and adding, now the paste has reached a foaming stage.
Continue….reaches to a pulpy stage looks like mango pulps
continue and carefull…. oil start to leave and float, continue until lightly browned ( you might feel the ghee getting into your tummy feeling uneasy of the fat not to worry half the oil-ghee is left out after the formation of the sweet)
Cooking this on a Aluminium kadai will give a a soft lump while the oil leaves, while as in non stick we did not get that state but was more like the mass was spread like you can look at the slide.
Pour to a greased plate along with the ghee. sprinkle sugar granules. allow to sit for 5 mins
Cut into desired shapes. Let it cool fully now pour the remaing Ghee out.
After cooling you can see different layered in the sweet which is slightly browish inside with soft crust.
Enjoy the divine mysore paks……..

 

I am sending this for the Trupti’s Event Spring Fling 2007
Thanks Sittakka for the delicious sweet.Note: The color of the pak may differ from the different variety of flours available. Some flours might not give the right texture. The flour i used was Rajadhani. As we fried the flour S did state the flavour is not so good as fresh flour and when mixing the flour was little lumpy also but we still continued and we did not find any difference in taste though the color was on the little darker side.

Sweets- MBP

The ever changing weather in Singapore. Again this weekend is a wet weather, take  a look at the view from my house

This is my chilli plant growing hapily at the window sill

Halwas has a special place in our home. We all are lovers of halwas carrot, beets, kashi halwa.  When Suma from Veggie platter blogged her halwa recipe i had bookmarked it to be tried. My mother in law makes burfis the same way but never knew it could taste excellent as halwa, suma made me realise it was just excellent. Thanks Suma for the wonderfull recipe.

Basically i followed Sumas recipe. I used 2 big milk Gourds which yielded basically 7 bowls of grated gourd. i used 2 cups of sugar. You can find the recipe here.