Health for life

After a month break Indian cooking challenge is back with some beautiful Rajasthani traditional dishes, most of us may know very well  or atleast heard a bit about this Rajasthani traditional dal baati and churma.PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds suggested this fantastic foods for our this months ICC, honestly i have to say a big thanks to PJ for pulling me to cook up this delicious and traditional food of Rajasthan.

Usually ill prepare my challenge foods before a week,but unfortunately coz of my illness i couldnt able to prepare this wonderful dish earlier, but finally i prepared them today for my lunch as my kids and hubby wont come for lunch. I quickly prepared this authentic food of Rajasthan this morning and had them for lunch, its been a while i havent had this much satisfying lunch.Simply loved this dal baati and churma, eventhough my tastebuds fallen in love with the churma.

Add immediately the onions and cook for few minutes, add immediately the cooked dal and chilly powder.
Bring to boil and cook in simmer for few more minutes,finally add the dry mango powder,give a stir and put off the stove.

As i told earlier, i baked 3 cookies out of 4 cookies suggested by Vijayalakshmi for our this months Home Bakers Challenge, one among the cookies is this peanut butter cookies. Am an ardent fan of peanut butter and my pantry will always a huge bottle of this nutty butter. This peanut butter is quite versatile and tried many dishes out of it, even i tried adding in our Indian eggplant curries, trust me they tastes fantabulous. I baked this peanut butter cookies immediately once Viji announced her choice of cookies and everyone at home just loved munching this super nutty cookies.

Peanut butter cookies with crunchy peanut butter tastes fantastic and obviously they makes a pect pair with a cup of warm milk. Eventhough am not a breakfast person, i dont hesitate a second to munch these baked goodies for my breakfast, yep i just love it that much. Now you may know how much i love these super nutty butter.To add more nuttiness to this delicious scrumptious cookies, you can also some chopped roasted peanuts too.Sending this biscuits to Gurus Giveaway - Kids Special.


Recipe Source : Martha Stewart
1+1/2cups All purpose flour
1tsp Baking powder
1+1/2cup Crunchy peanut butter
1cup Packed light brown sugar
1/2cup Unsalted soften butter
Milk (as per need)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, sugar and butter until they turns smooth.

Sift the flour and baking powder together and keep aside.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and combine,sprinkle milk to turn everything as soft dough.

Pinch off the dough as medium size balls, and roll.

Place it over a baking sheet lined over a baking tray, press the balls with a fork.

Bake the cookies for 15-18minutes until they turns lightly golden.

Cool the cookies on a wire rack and enjoy.

Gulab jamuns are spongy balls,a quite famous North Indian sweets prepared usually with khoya and maida ,later they are fried in oil and soaked in sugar syrup. Usually we South Indians prepare this spongy juicy jamuns with store bought jamun mix, which makes the life easier. But after becoming a food blogger, i crossed many easy breezy preparation of this jamun with household ingredients especially with milk powder or else with homemade khoya. For our this months South VS North India challenge, an event by Divya, two of our group members challenged with two beautiful dishes.

For Southern India team, Pallavi Purani of Cook Eat Burrrp shared gulab jamun for this months challenge while Yasodha of Yasodhas Kitchen challenged Northern India team with Adhirasam. As am a part of Southern team, i have to prepare gulab jamun. When i received the challenge mail,immediately i went through the mail and i found that Pallavi shared an another interesting version of gulab jamun with milkpowder. Since i had all the ingredients in my hand, i prepared immediately this morning and served these super spongy jamuns to everyone after their lunch as dessert. Thanks Pallavi, this gulab jamun recipe is definitely a keeper and my jamuns turned out utlimately super spongy,pect and absolutely delicious.Since i rolled my jamuns as tiny balls, they gets soaked quickly when compared to the medium sized balls, i got almost 40numbers of jamuns with the measurements Pallavi have given.


1cup Milk powder
3tbsp Maida
1+1/2tbsp Rava
3tbsp Cream
4tbsp Melted ghee
1pinch Baking powder
1cup Sugar
1cup Water
1tsp Rose water (optional)
Few pistachio nuts (chopped)
Dessicated coconut flakes (as per need)
Oil or ghee for frying

Sieve together the milkpowder,maida,rava and baking powder in a bowl.

Gradually add the cream and melted ghee and knead everything smoothly to form a dough.

Keep aside the dough covered with a towel for half an hour.

Meanwhile heat the water and sugar together in medium flame,boil it until the sugar gets dissolves and put off the stove. Keep aside and let it cool.

Now make small balls from the prepared dough, roll it well and these balls should have any cracks.

Heat the oil or ghee for deepfrying in medium flame.

Drop gently the rolled balls and fry in medium low flame until they turns golden brown, strain the excess of oil with a paper towel.

Add these fried balls to the already prepared sugar syrup and let them sit for an hour.

Serve gulab jamuns topped with chopped pistachios and dessicated coconut flakes.

Enjoy!

Kachoris, the word itself makes me drool, i have already tried few varieties of kachoris. For this months Indian Cooking Challenge, Srivalli aked us to choose any of the recipe from our earlier challenges. Since most of our challenges were very much related to Indian festivals and many of us didnt had a chance to make some challenges till now, its quite a fabulous opportunity to give a try to the challenges we havent finished yet.

So i choosed to make some muttar ki kachori she shared during our 2010th January challenge, actually i cooked Pyaz ki Kachori for that challenge eventhough i wanted to make some muttar ki kachori since a long. Obviously i used this opportunity to cook some yummy muttar ki kachori two days back for our snacks. They came out extremely yummy,flaky and super crispy, we simply enjoyed these crispy beauties for our snacks with a cup of coffee while its raining outside.



For Dough:
2cups All purpose flour
1/4cup Ghee
Salt

Mix the flour and salt, gradually add the ghee and turn the the flour as bread crumbs like texture, slowly add the water and make a soft dough, knead well.

Cover and keep aside for atleast half an hour..

We are a group of friends who love baking have joined hands together.

Our motive is to learn and excel in baking, helping each other. One fine day, we were discussing about Baking and its techniques and suddenly we got an idea what if we start a group and bake together, so that we can learn things together.

Thus this group, Home Bakers Challenge was born.

This is how it works, every month one person of the team will suggest a recipe and all the members have to bake the recipe and reveal it on the said date. By doing this we get to learn new techniques and explore the side of baking which otherwise we would not have ventured so. With the support and suggestions from the group members this is possible.

Do you find this interesting?

Do you love baking?

Do you want to learn new techniques? If your answer is yes, then come and join hands with us.

We have created a group in Face book, do join us there, for more information on the group.

Our Facebook Page..

Dhokar dalna is a traditional Bengali lentil cakes curry which is served during pooja or as a part of a meal.This lentils cakes cooked in tomato, coconut milk and cashew raisin paste is a pure Sativk dish, that means this dish doesnt need neither onions nor garlic. This dish is also served during special occasions like weddings to the widows who are not allowed to intake onions and garlic. This dish in my to do list since a long, but somehow i wasnt able to do this dish and taste them.This dhokar dalna is a favourite dish of most of the Bengalis. Dhoka means to cheat in sanskirt and still is a mystery why this dish is named as though. Even Bengalis doesnt know the reason for it. Yea some dishes doesnt need the meaning of their name,wat we all need is the taste of this dish na. Am enjoying rite now this dish with rice as my lunch, trust me its seriously mindblowing,delicious,super flavourful and nutritious on the same time.

Every first of the month, ill be posting a North Indian dish as am a part of the famous South vs North challenge, an event started by Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.

For our this months challenge, Nabanita Das of Esho-Bosho-Aahare challenged the Southern team with this famous Bengalo Dhokar Dalna while Roha of Hyderbadi Cuisine challenged the Northern team with a rich and droolworthy Qubani Ka Meeta,the fmous Hyderbadi apricot dessert. Both challenges are mindblowing and love to make some Qubani ka meeta too soon.


Lentil cakes:
1cup Channadal/Bengal gram
1/2cup Dried green peas/Split peas dal/split yellow peas (since i dont have yellow peas,i used split green peas)
1/2cup Grated coconut
1tsp Ginger paste
1/2tsp Asafoetida powder
1tsp Onion seeds/Nigella seeds
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
1/4tsp Baking soda
2tbsp Oil for cooking the batter
Oil for frying

Soak the channa dal, split greenpeas or split yellow peas (not the toor dal neither fried gram dal) for 4hours.

Now grind the soaked dal as coarse paste with green chillies.

Add the onions seeds,ginger paste,turmeric powder,salt,grated coconut,baking soda to the grounded batter.

Mix well and keep aside.

In a kadai, heat the oil, fry the asafoetida powder, add the batter and stir continuouly in simmer until the batter turns thick and get off from the bottom of the kadai.

Transfer the cooked batter to a greased plate, flatten them and keep aside to cool.

With a knife,cut the cooled batter as any shape as u desire.

Deep fry now this sliced pieces until they turns light brown colour and keep aside.


For curry:
3nos Potatoes (medium & cubed)
1no Tomato (big & chopped)
3nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1tbsp Garam masala powder
1tsp Red chilly powder
1tsp Turmeric powder
1/4cup Cashew+raisin paste
2cup Coconut milk (thick milk)
1/2cup Grated coconut
1tbsp Ginger paste
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
2tsp Cumin seeds
Salt
Oil for cooking

Soak the raisins and cashew in hot water for half an hour, grind as fine paste and keep aside.

Heat 2tbsp oil, add half of the turmeric powder, salt to the cubed potatoes, fry it in the hot oil until they turns crispy,remove from the oil and keep aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a kadai, now add the asafoetida,cuminseeds, bay leaves, fry until they turns brown.

Add the slit opened green chillies,ginger paste and fry for few minutes.

Add now the chopped tomatoes and fry everything until the tomatoes turns mushy.

Now add the red chilly powder,cumin seed powder,garam masala powder,turmeric powder to the cooking tomatoes and cook for few more minutes,until the oil comes out.

Add the grated coconut,coconut milk to them and cook for few minutes.

Finally add the already prepared cashew raisins paste,fried potatoes,cook again everything in simmer until the gravy turns bit thick.

Add water if need to adjust the gravy consistency.

Finally add the fried lentil cakes, sprinkle the garam masala powder on the top,cover and put off the stove.

Serve dhokar dalna with rice topped with few drops of ghee

Notes:
Once the fried lentil cakes are added to the gravy, dont forget to the serve the dish, else the gravy will turns thick.

While frying the lentil cakes, be caul some make break,but dont worry.

After shortbread sandwich cookies and eggless peanut butter cookies, i baked some addictive pinwheel cookies with vanilla and chocolate eggless doughs. These pinwheel cookies are in my to do list since a long and i seriously want to make them atleast during this year, yep you read it correctly these pinwheel cookies are in my to do list since many years.Finally i baked them few days back for our this months Home Bakers Challenge,an another cookie suggested by Viji.

These chocolate and vanilla pinwheel cookies are quite popular among the pinwheel cookies and i know this cookies are quite buttery,addictive also it my kids favourite. I can bake this recipe for days in row and the cookies will disappear definitely super fast. If you make a huge quantity of this cookie dough, the nice thing is that you doesnt need to bake them all at once, you can store this cookie dough in freezer for a long and you can bake it anytime whenever you crave for some.An excellent evening snack to munch with a cup of warm milk or coffee.Sending this cookies to Gurus Giveaway - Kids Special.



Recipe Source: Heritage Cook
1+1/2cups All purpose flour
1/2tsp Baking powder
1/4tsp Salt
1/2cup Unsalted softened butter
3/4cup Sugar
3tbsp Milk (as per need)
1tsp Vanilla
1tbsp Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4cup Semi sweet chocolate (melted)

Sift the all purpose flour,baking powder and salt,keep aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until they turns smooth and light.

Add in the vanilla extract and 3tbsp of milk, add the flour mixture slowly and knead everything as smooth dough.

Remove half of dough and keep aside.

Now add the cocao and melted chocolate to half of the dough and blend it well.

Roll the doughs as thick discs and cover it with plastic cling film and keep in fridge for an hour.

Roll out both doughs as 12inch square between 2pieces of parchement paper.

Remove the top sheet of parchement paper from both vanilla and chocolate rolled square and filp the chocolate dough over the vanilla dough.

Roll over the top with a rolling pin to make the doughs adhere.

Roll up tightly the dough as a big log.

Trim the sides and caully slice the logo into 1/4inch thick cookies.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Transfer the unbaked pinwheel cookies to a baking sheet lined over a baking tray and bake for 10-12minutes.

Cool it on wire rack and enjoy.

Khakhras are crispy flat Indian bread quite famous in Gujarat, actually i came to know about this roti once i entered this wonderful blogsphere. To be honest without any knowledge about this crispy bread i have already prepared them when i was kid. Yep when i cooked my first chappathi, it turned out super crispy rotis as i overcooked it. Unfortunately i dont know about this Khakhras else i would have managed myself saying that i prepared the Gujarati famous bread when my mom scolded me for my overcooked almost burned rotis.These Khakhras can be prepared with variety of spices,greens and simply just with wheat flour.

Obivously i choosed simple,quick,easy breezy wheat khakhras. Vaishali of Ribbons to Pastas shared her friends recipe for this months Indian Cooking Challenge. Thanks Valli and Vaishali, we had our khakhras with spicy Andhra gongura pickle  prepared by my aunt who lives in Hyderabad. Both together tastes simply awesome, just loved this crispy khakhras with gongure pickle.


1cup Wheat flour
Salt
4tbsp Oil
Rice flour for dusting
Ghee (per need)

Take the wheat flour,salt and oil in a bowl,gradually add the water and knead as a soft dough.Keep aside for half an hour.

Heat a tawa in low flame while rolling your rotis.

Dust a medium sized ball of dough with rice flour and roll it as thin possible with a rolling pin.

Now cook the rotis one by one to the warm tawa and gently brush them with ghee.

Stack them one over an another and let them cool completely.

Heat again the tawa, gently place a roti with a towel press it from the sides to the centre,cook them slowly until they turns crisp.

Repeat the same process with the remaining rotis.

Once the khakhras gets cool completely,store them in air tight box and enjoy.

For some personnal reason, i couldnt able to participate in our last months Indian cooking Challenge, but this time i dont want to miss this and todays post is my 39th post for Indian cooking challenge.Do you know what is the main motto of this challenge??, this challenge is a monthly challenge where the members of this group cooks different dishes from different regions of India.Been born and brought up in South India, its truly an immense chance for me to try and taste the foods cooked in other parts of India. Todays post is from Gujarat region and this recipe is called as Dapka Kadhi, gujaratis makes different kadhis and its quite a staple food for them. Kadhis sounds almost like the younger sister of our South Indian Mor Kuzhambu which is basically prepared with sour curd and a spice paste. But Kadhi is quite easier and simple to prepare when compared to our mor kuzhambu.

Srivalli challenged this dapka kadhi for this months Indian Cooking Challenge and this dish is suggested by Vaishali.Thanks to both, seriously i loved this fingerlicking nutritious kadhi and relished it with a bowl of rice. With simple ingredients and quick cooking process, this kadhi makes a wonderful pair even with rotis.If you are planning to make kadhis, ill definitely suggest you to give a try to this quick dapka kadhi.I followed the original as per letter but i couldnt resist to add some turmeric powder, coz for me kadhis looks mild yellow in colour.Sending to  Rafeedas Mission Explore Foods: Lentils event by Sheelu and Pallavi.


Recipe Source: Tarla Dalal
For Dapkas:
1cup Yellow moongdal
1tbsp Oil
1tsp Ginger-green chilly paste
1/2tsp Sugar
A pinch Baking soda
Salt

For Kadhi:
2cups Curd
3tbsp Gram flour
1tsp Ginger-chilly paste
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Few curry leaves
1tbsp Sugar
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
2nos Dry red chillies
Few coriander leaves (chopped)
Ghee for tempering

Soak the yellow moongdal in water for 2hours.

Drain the water completely and grind it as smooth paste, transfer the paste to a bowl and add the ginger-chilly paste,sugar,baking soda,salt,oil and mix well.

Combine the curd,gram flour and add 2cup of water,whisk well to avoid the lumps.

Add the ginger-chilly paste,turmeric powder,sugar and salt,mix well and cook in medium flame.

Once the mixture starts boiling, make small balls from the moongdal aka dapka batter and drop them gently to the boiling kadhi.

Cook in simmer until the dapkas starts floating on the top.

Heat the ghee for tempering, let splutters the mustard seeds,add the cumin seeds, dry red chillies,curry leaves and fry until they turns brown.

Add this tempering immediately to the dapka kadhi, finally add the chopped coriander leaves and put off the stove.

Serve hot with rice,rotis.

Notes:
While adding the dapkas, first add one dapka to check whether the batter consistency is correct, if the dapka doesnt float the batter is too thin.

Add some gramfloour to the dapka batter and try again.

Else you can make small balls from dapka batter and cook them in microwave oven for few seconds and then add it to the kadhi.

When i opened my mail today i was surprised to see a Rajasthani Thali for this months South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil,seriously i was very happy to make some Rajasthani foods for todays lunch. Every first of the month, ill be posting a North Indian dish as am a part of the famous South vs North challenge. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.

For our this months challenge, Manjula Bharath of Desi Fiesta challenged the southern team with her Rajasthani Thali while Sowmya of Nivedhanams challenged the Northern team with a fingerlicking delicious Vendhaya Keerai Paruppu Urundai Mor Kuzhambu.

As per Wiki, Rajasthani cooking was influenced by both the war-like lifestyles of its habitants and the availability of ingredients in this arid region. Food that could last for several days and could be eaten without heating was perred by them. Their food cooked in pure ghee is famous for its mouth- watering aroma. Rajasthans tastiest curries are based on the use of pulses or gram flour. Dry fruits, spices and yogurt are used in many delicacies. Rajasthan can also boast of a vast array of savouries and sun-dried snacks. Be it dal baati and churma or missi roti , one always ends up licking his fingers.

Coming to todays Rajasthani thali, Manjula shared 10 dishes, i prepared 9 dishes out of 10 and left one coz of the sun dried moongdal wadis, yep i dont get these sun dried wadis here and the weather is too nasty to make some at home itself.Thank god, i picked yesterday goond aka edible gum, also prepared the dal with yellow split moong dal instead of the green split moong dal as Manjula suggested, apart from it i followed the original recipes as Manjula shared and we had a Rajasthani feast today.I prepared boondis, bajra flour and yellow corn flour at home itself, eventhough i get them easily in Indian groceries.Since the motto of this event is to releve the challenge every first of the month, sometime we dont know about the ingredients we must need for the challenge. Obviously i dont hesitate a second to make few ingredients we might need for the challenges at home itself.

Here are the recipes i made for our todays lunch:
1)Baati
2)Dal
3)Bajiri Ki Roti - Millet Flour Flat Bread
4)Makkai Ki Roti - Corn Flour Flat Bread
5)Panchmel Ki Sabzi - Five Vegetables Dry Curry
6)Gatte Ki Kadhi - Gramflour dumpling in Yogurt gravy
7)Matta/Boondi Chaas - Chilled yogurt drink with boondis
8)Goondi Ki ladoo - Wheat flour and edible gum balls
9)Kesar Malai lassi - Saffron Creamy lassi





 Baati:
1+1/2cup Wheat flour
Salt
3tbsp Ghee

Mix the wheat flour, salt and ghee, make a stiff dough (add water if need).

Divide the dough as equal balls,roll it.

Preheat the oven to 375F, bake the batter for 15-20minutes until they turns brown on the surface.

Take the baked baatis out and dip it in pure ghee if you are health nut like me, just brush them with ghee while baking.

Enjoy with Dal.

Moong dal:
1/2cup Dal (yellow moongdal/split green moong dal)
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Red chilly powder
1tsp Ginger garlic paste
1/4tsp Garam masala
2/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1/4tsp Turmeric
Salt

Pressure cook the moongdal.

Heat the oil,let crack the cumin seeds; add the asafoetida powder, red chilly powder, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder and cook for few minutes.

Add the cooked dal with enough water,bring it to boil.

Finally add the garam masala and let it cook in low flame for few more minutes. Sending this moongdal to my own event CWS-Yellow moongdal hosted by Manju.


Gatte Ki Kadhi:
For Gattas:
3/4cup Gram flour
1tsp Chilly powder
2pinch Carom seeds
1tbsp Curd
2tbsp Oil
Salt

For Kadhi:
2cups Beaten curd
1tbsp Gram flour
Few curry leaves
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Chilly powder
2tbsp Oil
Salt
Chopped coriander leaves

Combine all the ingredients given for gattas and knead as a firm dough by adding enough water.

Divide them as 7-8equal balls and shape them as rolls, boil enough water in a pan, add the rolled gattas and cook for 8minutes.

Drain the water and keep aside the gattas.

Combine the beaten curd, gram flour,curry leaves with a cup of water, whisk well and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan, let splutters the mustard seeds,cumin seeds, asafoetida, once the seeds cracks add the turmeric powder, chilly powder and saute for few minutes.

Add now the curd mixture, again a cup of water ,salt and bring it to boil.

Keep stirring and cook until the kadhi starts thicken slightly, finally add the already prepared ghattas,bring it to boil,put off the stove.

Add the chopped coriander leaves for garnishing.


Bajiri Ki Roti:
1cup Bajra /Millet flour
Salt
Water
Ghee as per need

Take the flour,salt in a bowl,make a well in the center, pour slowly small amount of water and start kneading the millet flour, add water if needed to bring the flour together.

Make a smooth dough, dont add water else ur dough will turn sticky, take more attention while adding the water to the millet flour.

Heat the griddle in a medium flame. Divide the dough into equal balls, dust the balls with the millet flour and roll them gently as medium circle.

Transfer the rolled roti to the hot griddle, once you see the tiny bubbles on the surface of the rotis, flip it and drizzle ghee on the surface,spread well over the roti.

Flip the roti again and drizzle again the ghee and spread it over the roti.

Cook on both sides until the roti turns slightly crispy.

Makkai Ki Roti:
1cup Maize/Corn flour (yellow corn)
Salt
1+1/2cup Warm water
Ghee (for rotis)

Combine all the ingredients to form a smooth dough.

Cover and let it side for 10minutes, divide the dough as equal balls. Flatten them by using the fingers and palm.

Dust it with enough flour and press it between two plastic sheets as flat roti.

Heat a tawa, transfer it to the tawa,cook on both side until they get cooked.


Panchmel Ki Sabzi:
4cups Cluster beans,long beans,capsicum,cucumber,french beans (chopped)
1no Tomato
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1tsp Chilly powder
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tbsp Coriander powder
Oil
Salt

Heat the oil in a pan, let splutters the mustard seeds,cumin seeds.

Add the clusterbeans, long beans,capscium,cucumber, french beans,salt and tomato, cook the veggies covered until they are half done.

Add the turmeric,chilly powder,coriander and cumin powder,mix well and cook until veggies gets well cooked and coated with spice powders.

Dont overcook the veggies and serve with rotis.


Matta/Boondi Chaas
1cup Yogurt
2cup Water
1/4cup Boondi
1/2tsp Cumin powder
Salt
A pinch Red chilly powder

Take all the ingredients including boondhi and blend till smooth.

Finally add more boondis to the chaas and serve chilled.


Goond Ki Ladoo:
1+1/2cup Wheat flour
3tbsp Edible gum/goond
1/2cup Powdered sugar
1/4tsp Cardamom powder
2tbsp Ghee for frying edible gum
3tbsp Ghee for roasting wheat flour

Heat the ghee in a pan, add the wheat flour, roast it in slow flame until the flour turns golden brown,allow it to cool

Heat the ghee, fry the ediblegum until they gets puffs and transfer it to a paper towel.

Now add the fried edible gum,roasted wheat flour,cardamom powder, powdered sugar and mix well.

Make medium sized ladoos from the mixture, if its hard to make balls, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of melted ghee and make balls.


1cup Milk
1/2cup Whipping cream
Sugar
A pinch Salt
1/2cup Water
1/2tsp Saffron strands (soaked in warm milk)

Take the milk,whipping cream,salt,sugar as per need, water, soaked saffron milk and blend together until they turns smooht.

Pour it in a glass.

Serve chilled.

Enjoy the Rajasthani Thali!!!

First day of every month, i know most of us will check our mails just to know wat we guys have to cook for a fantabulous SNC challenge. I was super thrilled to check my mails this morning and i was surprised to see two beautiful dishes, for the Southern team Kirti challenged us with a droolworthy and irresistible channadal halwa while Swasthi challenged the opposite Northern team with flavourful Hyderabadi dum briyani.

I can talk for hours about this beautiful event started by Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.

I have tasted this channadal halwa long back at one of my friends potluck party and i still remember the taste of this smooth and droolworthy halwa. Am damn sure you cant stop urself just with few spoons of this halwa. Thanks Kriti, we just love it and am just enjoying this halwa loaded with beautiful flavours.Sending to my own event Cooking with Seeds-Dals.

Khandvi is a simple,quick and fantastic snacks from Gujarat, i really love this snacks and i have already tried them at home for an another challenge.Khandvi goes for easy ingredients and you can prepare this snacks in a jiffy if you have all the ingredients in your hands. Just mix, the gram flour with curd and salt,sugar,cook in simmer until they gets well cooked and turn as thick mass, spread it over a greased surface,cut as strips and roll it, later temper it with some spices,your khandvi the famous Gujarati snacks is ready to enjoy. Heard that this khandvis have their important place in a Gujarathi thali and its a must.

If you are following my blog, you will definitely know about the wonderful South vs North challenge, an event started by Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.Very interesting event na, obviously even we are born and brought up in India, seriously we have loads of interesting foods to learn and taste. This event will definitely pull us to discover many interesting dishes been eaten quite usually in other parts of our country. So every first of the month, ill be always thrilled to check my mails  and this morning, i was surprised to see two more beautiful dishes challenged by two members of this event, for the Southern team Hetal Acharya of Gujarati Zaika challenged us with this fabulous khandvis,while Shama challenged the Northern team with my favourite karupatti aapam.Thanks Hetal for challenging the southern team with this delicious khandvis, i loved it very much.


1cup Gram flour
1/2cup Sour curd
1+1/2cup Water
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Sugar
Salt

For tempering:
1tbsp Oil
1tsp Mustard seeds
1tsp Sesame seeds
1tsp Asafoetida powder
10nos Curryleaves
1no Green chilly
1no Dry kashmiri red chilli
2tbsp Grated coconut
2tbsp Coriander (chopped)

Mix together the gram flour,curd,turmeric powder,sugar,salt and whisk together to make a smooth batter and without any lump.

Transfer this mixture to a non stick pan and cook in medium heat , stir continously.

Cook for 10minutes or until the batter turns thick, meanwhile grease a baking sheet or a plate and keep aside.

Spread a spoon of this mixture to the greased sheet,wait for few seconds and try to roll it, if you are able to roll,remove the cooking mixture from the heat.

Pour immediately the mixture to the greased surface and with the back of a spoon,spread it thinly.

Allow it to dry for 5 minutes.Cut it as strips,roll each strip into spirals.

Meanwhile heat the oil for tempering, add the mustard seeds,sesame seeds, once the seeds starts crackling, add the asafoetida,curryleaves, chopped green chilly,dry red chilly and fry until they get fried.

Sprinkle the tempered spices over the khandvi rolls and garnish with coriander and coconut.

Enjoy with a cup of tea.

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After making pizza, for this months Home Bakers Challenge we landing towards a sweet bake aka marble cake with the king of fruits The Majestic Mango. This months host Sangee Vijay challenged the members of this wonderful baking group to bake two versions of mango chocolate marble cake,one is with eggs and butter and the another one is as eggless and butterless version. Without any hesitation, i baked mine as eggless and butterless version. I used store bought kesar mango pulp instead of fresh mango pulp for making this mini marble cake, i have already baked twice this mango chocolate marble cake and everytime this marble cake was a big hit among my kids since this cake have both our favourite ingredients mango and chocolates in it. Thanks to Sangee for this incredible challenge and we loved it.

Also from today onwards, am running my second week of blogging marathon with a beautiful theme called cooking with colours,obviously my next two days posts will be very colourful and definitely delicious. As this marble cake sounds pect for this weeks of blogging marathon, am posting this spongy,super moist and very catchy marble cake today. As i told earlier, if you love mango and chocolate in your bakes, this marble cake is for you, needless to say that since this cake is eggless and butterless you can have two more pieces of this cake without an guilt. Bake this marble cake and am sure you will love it. Honestly mango and chocolate makes a wonderful pair in cakes. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.


2cups All purpose flour
1+1/2tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Baking soda
1/4tsp Salt
3/4cup Sugar
1/4cup Cocoa powder (mix with 2tbsp of warm water)
5tbsp Oil
1tsp Vanilla extract
1cup Mango pulp
1/4cup Milk
1/4cup Yogurt

Preheat the oven to 350F, grease your mould and line it with baking paper if needed.

In a mixing bowl, take the sugar, oil, mix it.

Now add the mango pulp,milk,yogurt,vanilla and whisk well.

Meanwhile in an another bowl combine the flour,baking soda,baking powder, salt and mix well,keep aside.

Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well until everything combine well.

Transfer half of the mango batter to a bowl.

Now take the cocoa powder, warm water in a bowl,mix it and make a thick chocolate syrup.

Add this to another half mango paste, mix it to make chocolate cake batter.

Now pour the mango and cocoa batter alternatively to the already prepared pan, make a swirl with a tooth pick.

Bake it in middle rack for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Notes:
You can use fresh homemade mango pulp for making this cake.

You can also add chocolate chips or nuts to make this cake more delicious.

You can make zebra pattern, a simple swirl cake with this cake batter.

After pizza and a marvellous marble cake, our this months Home Bakers Challenge landing towards to the cookies world. This months host Vijayalakshmi of Virunthu Unna Vanga suggested a humble bunch of cookies, seriously her choice of cookies were just amazing. Definitely all the members of this group would have enjoyed thoroughly this months challenge as much as the two earlier challenges. I baked 3 cookies out the 4 cookies Viji suggested for this months challenge, yep each and every selection of cookies viji suggested were stunning and pulled us to make them as much as we can.

Coming to this shortbread sandwich cookies, i baked them just before few days. These shortbread cookies are amazing. I baked a super buttery shortbread cookies which sandwiched them later with some strawberry jam. These cookies looks exactly like the famous Linzer cookie eventhough linzer cookies have nuts and cinnamon in it. Butter in this shortbread dough give a wonderful flavour and trust me these cookies are dangerously addictive. You cant stop just with one cookie and am sure these cookies are big hit among the kids.Sending this beauties to Gurus Giveaway - Kids Special.


Recipe Source: Mom it forward
3+1/2cups Flour
1/4tsp Salt
1+1/2cup Unsalted butter (room temperature)
1cup Sugar
1tsp Vanilla essence
Strawberry jam (as per need)
Confectioners sugar (as per need for dusting)

In a bowl, beat together the butter,sugar until they turns smooth.

Add the vanill and mix it.

Meanwhile in an another mixing bowl,sift the flour,salt. Add gradually to the butter-sugar mixture and combine well to make a soft dough.

Dump onto a surface dusted with flour,shape it as flat disc,wrap it in plastic and let them sit in fridge for 30minutes to an hour.

Roll the dough as 1/4inch thick in floured surface and cut it with a cookie cutter as plain or fluted cookies.

Count the rounds and divide them in half.

With a small bottle lid, cut a hole from the each round.

Now transfer the cookie rounds to the baking sheet lined over a baking tray with enough space in between;

Arrange them again in fridge for 15minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Now bake the chilled cookies for 15-20minutes until the edges turns lightly brown.

Allow them to cool completely.

Now dust the top of the baked cut-out cookies with confectioners sugar,spread the jam on the flat side of the cookie.

Assemble the cookies as sandwich and store them in a air tightened box and enjoy.

Litti Chokha is a traditional snack and a main course dish often eaten in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand region of India. But this the first time am trying my hands in making this fantastic dish. This dish is simply awesome and highly filling that you can have it for breakfast, lunch and for dinner. Actually Litti sounds almost like Rajasthani Baati but Litti is completely different dish in terms of taste,texture and prearation,its goes for stuffing with roasted gram flour with few spices.The stuffing makes the difference and the stuffing of the Litti is called Pitthi. Litti is served along with grilleded eggplants or mashed potatoes called Chokha.Chokha is a kind of accompaniment to enjoy thoroughly with Littis, today chokha is with just potatoes, eventhough some peoples may add both eggplants and potatoes in their chokha.

You may wonder why am posting this Litti Chokha today, coz Nupur of Uk Rasoi challenged the Southern team of  South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil with this fantastic combo while i challenged Northern team with popular Mangalorean snack Goli Baje. Honestly i always want to make some Litti at home but somehow i kept myself away from this incredible dish coz of the sattu, but Nupur helped us by giving the tips to prepare sattu at home and for me sattu sounds exactly like a dry roasted gram flour, then i pinged Nupur regarding sattu, she said to go with roasted gram flour. Thanks Nupur for giving me this much liberty to go for a simple roasted gram flour than the traditional one. However ill be making Sattu at home coz am planning to make kachori with this sattu. Coming to this Litti Chokha, am gonna have this Litti Chokha for my dinner tonite and trust me the flavour of ghee coated Litti and delicious Chokha makes me hungry already. Atleast once,you guys have to make this oven cooked Litti eventhough the traditional one is boiled and shallowfried later.Loved this challenge and learned an another beautiful traditional dish today through this challenge.Sending to my own event Cooking with seeds-Wheat guest hosted by Priya.


Litti:
2cups Wheat flour
1/2tsp Ajwain/carom seeds
2tbsp Ghee
1/4tsp Baking soda
Salt
1cup Warm water
2tbsp Ghee (for serving)

Stuffing/Pitthi:
1/2cup Sattu
1/2tsp Grated ginger
1/4cup Coriander leaves (chopped)
2nos Green chillies
1/2tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Ajwain (carom seeds)
1tbsp Mustard oil
1tbsp Pickle (i used mango pickle)
Salt

Chokha:
3nos Potatoes (boiled & peeled)
5nos Garlic cloves
1no Onion (chopped finely)
1no Tomato (big)
1no Green chilly (chopped)
1/2tbsp Grated ginger
1tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)
Salt
1tsp Mustard Oil

Sattu: You can replace the sattu by roasting half a cup of gram flour in a pan in simmer for few minutes until the raw smell goes on.



For making Litti: Sieve the flour, add all the ingredients except the ghee and knead everything as a stiff and soft dough.

Keep aside for half an hour.

For Stuffing: Take the roasted gram flour, add in the grated ginger, green chillies,coriander leaves,ajwain seeds,mustard oil, mango pickle and salt.

Mix everything well and keep aside.

Divide the dough into 4-5 medium sized balls, with a rolling pin roll it as a medium sized disc, place a tablespoon of stuffing, wrap the dough and seal well the edges.

If there is extra dough pinch it and flatten the dough as a round flat disc.

Continue the same process with the remaining dough.

Preheat the oven to 420 F, place the balls over a baking sheet lined over a baking tray and bake for 30minutes, flip the balls in between twice.


For making Chokha:
Mash the potatoes and keep aside. Roast the garlic and tomato in a preheated oven for 20-25minutes.

Allow them to cool peel the skins and mash them with a spoon.

Add the chopped green chillies, grated ginger,coriander leaves, chopped onions, salt, mustard oil,give a mix and transfer it to a serving bowl.

While serving:
Drop the hot Litti in melted ghee, serve with chokha.
You can break the litti in the centre,pour some ghee and enjoy with chokha.


Notes:
You can prepare Sattu with bengal gram, but its bit time consuming, if you sattu from Indian stores its definitely makes your life easier.

If you want to make Sattu, please er Nupurs Litti chokha.

I opted for dry roasted gram flour and its really very simple and easy.

You can shallow fry the littis if you dont want to bake.

Dont hesitate to enjoy littis with ghee, you will definitely love eating sattu and ghee together with chokha, i loved it.

For this months Indian Cooking Challenge, Srivalli challenged us with a  Gods own country aka Keralas plantain halwa. Initially i was waiting something savoury for this months challenge. But finally am very happy to try my hands in making this delicious plantain halwa.Jayashree shared her moms recipe of this pazham varatti. This halwa ressembles quite like a jam but tastewise they were very much like halwa.

Since i dont get Kerala variety of plantains here, i got some overripen plantains from nearby African store, to try this halwa.Finally i got two plantains and prepared this halwa last weekend.Trust me, you guys should give a try to this halwa,they were fantabulous,super tasty. This halwa is my Hs recent favourite, actually he is pestering me when am gonna make this halwa again. A big thanks to Valli and Jay for suggesting this wonderful halwa, we just loved it.

Before making the halwa,peel two plantains and cut them as rounds, pressure cook it for 3hisses.Once the steam gets released,let it gets cool completely. Grind the cooked plantains as smooth paste. Measure this pulp to make a cup of plantain pulp.Now you can proceed to prepare this delicious halwa.


1cup Cooked plantain pulp
1+1/2cup Sugar
3tbsp Ghee

Transfer the cooked plantain pulp to a heavy bottomed pan, add the sugar and cook everything in medium flame.

Add the ghee little by little while cooking, once the mixture gets thickens and the halwa gets off from the vessel.

Transfer the halwa to a bowl.

Enjoy when they were still warm,we loved it when they were still warm.

Notes:
In case if you dont have plantains, you can prepare the same halwa with normal bananas.

If you are using bananas,just peel and grind them directly in a mixer and prepare the halwa directly,no need to cook the bananas as we do for the plantains.

Chose well ripen plantains for making this halwa, else your halwa wont get this dark brown colour.

Ghevar, an incredible Rajasthani delicacy served during Teej festival, a fasting festival for Hindu women,i have already heard about this high caloric sweets. But never had chance to tasted or prepared them at home.Coming to this months SNC challenge, an event Divya of You Too Ccan Cook, both Southern group members and Northern group members got their mail yesterday with their respective challenges.As am a part of Southern group, i have to make this famous Rajasthani ghevar for this months challenge. This challenge was suggested by Manjula Bharath of Desi Fiesta from Northern team,while Southern team challenged them with Vadacurry by Ramya krishnamurthy of LemonKurry, vadacurry is one of my favourite and seriously i felt like making them too.

When i went through Manjulas recipe, i thought this ghevar will be quite tricky. But for my surprise, this sweet is quite easy to make eventhough this incredible sweet goes for frying ghevar,sugar syrup and rabdi. The cooking process may sounds long but its truly worth to try this fantastic sweets.Ghevar goes for maida,sugar,ghee,saffrons,cardamom powder,few nuts,milk and condensed milk. If you have everything at home, this ghevar gets ready very much easily. Batter consistency plays an important role for making ghevar, batter should be thin without any lumps.

Honestly i have fallen in love with this fabulous sweet, even served with rabdi this ghevar have a mild crispy texture and we loved it very much. My lil one just relished this sweet delight and asked me again to make me some.But only disadvantage of this dish is its truly very highly caloric as the maida batter is fried in ghee or oil and served with hot sugar syrup, finally with highly sweetened rabdi. Once a while, we can enjoy this ghevar. Fried ghevar can stay for more than 15days in air tightened box. Thanks to Manjula for sharing this traditional sweet with us, we seriously loved it.


For Batter:
1+1/2cups Maida
2tbsp Ghee
Few saffron strands
1/4cup Milk (room temperature)
Warm Water (for making thin batter)
Oil for frying

Sugar Syrup:
1+1/2cup Sugar
1cup Water

Kesari Rabdi:
3cups Whole milk
1cup Sweetened condensed milk
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
Crushed pistachios,almonds
1tsp Saffron strands

Whip both milk and ghee together for few minutes.  

Add the maida and mix well, gradually add the water and mix it well to get a thin batter consistency.

Heat enough oil in a round,deep,flat bottomed vessel in high flame.Once the oil is hot, take the batter in a ladle and pour in the middle of the vessel in a thin stream from 1 foot height.

Once you pour the batter, the hot oil will start bubbling. After pouring a whole ladle of batter, stop of few seconds and start pouring small ladle of batter.

I went for two small ladle full of batter to make mine.Make a space in the center of the frying ghevar with a skewer once the batter gets settled.

Let the ghevar gets fried on medium flame until they turns golden brown.

Take the ghevar out of the oil caully with a skewer and keep over a paper towel to remove the excess of oil.

Make a one string consistency sugar syrup with the sugar and water and keep aside.

Meanwhile in an another vessel, boil the milk and cook in low flame until the milk gets reduced to half of the quantity,now add the saffron strands, cardamom powder and curshed nuts,mix it well.

Add finally the condensed milk and bring it to boil again and remove from the stove once the milk turns thick,keep aside.

While serving, spoon the sugar syrup over the crispy ghevar and tilt the plate to remove the sugar syrup. Top it with the rabdi and nuts and serve it immediately.

Anything from freezer makes everyone happy when the weather is super hot outside, as i told earlier we are running behind chilled fresh juices, icecreams coz of the super hot weather and am trying to avoid to buy from stores, nothing can beat the homemades na. Today is the 1st day of the month and obviously ill posting my first recipe of the month for the famous South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil. After making an elaborated Rajasthani Thali challenged by Manjula, i was quite excited also anxious to know about this months challenge for the Southern team, coz anything can happen in this SN Challenge. Thank god, this months challenge was the famous Kesar pista kulfi, a very apt chilled dessert for us to enjoy while the North team have to prepare the most famous dal kheer aka pasiparuppu payasam challenged by Divya Pramil.

Once i went through the Kesar Pista Kulfi recipe challenged by Shruti of Shruthi Rasoi, i started immediately making this incredible nutty kulfi for our afternoons dessert. Thanks Shruti,am just relishing the kulfi dear and loving it, its was so creamy,highly nutty with a superb saffron flavour. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team. If you want to be a part of this challenge, dont forget to join us, just send a mail to the Divya and get ready to face the challenge every month.Sending to Srivallis Summer Special Mela.



1litre Milk
1/2cup Condensed milk
1/4cup Sugar
1tbsp Cornflour
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
1/4cup Chopped pistachios
1/4tsp Saffron strands
1/4tsp Rose water

Make a thin paste with cornflour and enough milk,keep aside.

Bring boil the milk, condensed milk, sugar in a heavy bottomed pan.

Boil the milk and keep scraping the cream from the sides of the pan, this helps to give a thick texture to the mixture.

Keep boiling on low flame until the milk reduces to three fourth of the quantity.

Now add the cornflour paste and keep stirring to avoid the lumps.

The mixture will turns thick,now add the chopped pistachios,cardamom powder, give and put off the stove.

Finally add the rose water, give a stir.

Let the mixture cools, pour this kulfi mixture to the kulfi mould and keep in freezer for atleast 2-3hours.

Remove from freezer,insert a stick and freeze again.

Once the kulfi is completely set, just pass the mould under the tap water for a second,pull the kulfi from the mould.

Serve immediately and enjoy!!!