Jowar Laddu

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

Time Taken : 15 minutes
Yields : 11 nos

You need

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

Method

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

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

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

Golpapdi - Wheat flour sweetened with jaggery

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

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

You need


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

Method

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

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

Theratti Pal - Made easy in Microwave

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

You need

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

Method

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

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

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

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for Day 2

Modakam with sweetened jackfruit filling / Chakka Pooranam Kozhakkattai

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

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

You need

For the filling

1. Ripe jack fruit bulbs - 10 nos
2. Powdered jaggery - 1/2 cup
3. Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

 For the outer cover

1. Rice flour - 1 cup
2. Salt - a pinch, oil - 1 tspn, water - 1 cup

Method

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

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

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

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

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

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

Godhumai halwa/ Thirunelveli Halwa

For the month of July, the Indian Cooking Challenge is visiting the halwa town of South India - Thirunelveli.  The Thirunelveli halwa is very soft, loaded with ghee, which will slide down your tongue, so effortlessly, that will leave you asking for more.  The halwa is truly irresistible that you will forget all the calories loaded in each spoon fulls that you consume.

Srivalli gave various recipes from fellow bloggers to try from. I chose to do from Latakka. For me, Thirunelveli halwa is always the scoop able type and not in the form of pieces.  It took  a solid one hour to get the glossy, soft halwa. The effort was worth it.

You need


Whole wheat grains - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups ( I used 2 1/2 cups)
Water - 3 cup +1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
Cashew- 10 nos
Food Color - a pinch

Method


Preparing the wheat milk

Wash and soak the wheat grains in enough water for around 20 hours or a day. Grind the wheat in a mixer grinder or wet grinder. Strain the ground wheat to extract the milk.  If you are grinding in the mixer, add some water and grind again to extract the milk. You can repeat this once more if you feel there is some milk left. I ground in the wet grinder. So it was ground to almost fine paste. So got all the milk at once. 

Leave the milk to stand for a minimum of 5 hours. Drain the water which floats on top of the milk so that you are left with the thick milk which gets collected at the bottom. I got 1 cup of  milk.

Making the halwa

Add 3 cups of water to the 1 cup of milk. Take a heavy bottom vessel or kadai. Take 3 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water. Bring the syrup to one string consistency. Add a pinch of color to the syrup. Then add the diluted milk to the sugar syrup. Mix well. From this stage, its non stop stirring for 45 minutes. Another pair of 

helping hands will be good too.  When the mixture thickens, you can start adding the ghee at intervals.

When the ghee is added, it will float initially. Later, it will be absorbed. 

As it gets cooked, it will turn glossy and thick. It will not stick to the bottom of the pan. When you tilt the vessel, the halwa would come together and slide easily.  Add the cardamom powder and roasted cashews to it.

 Scoop and enjoy hot halwa. On cooling the halwa will turn thick but will be soft. 

I added 2 1/2 cups of sugar. It was sweet enough for us. If you want it it be really sweet, I will suggest adding 3 cups. I am sure if my Dad tasted it, he would have told its not sweet enough.  If you want to make into pieces, transfer the halwa to a greased plate. Smooth the top and leave it to cool and slice it. I added very little color to make it look close to the Thirunelveli halwa, which has a brown color. 

Rava Besan Laddu

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

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

You need

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

Method

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

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

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

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

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

You will get around 18 laddus depending on the size.

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

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

Gulpoli ~ Sesame Seeds and Jaggery stuffed flatbread

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

You need

For the dough

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

For the filling

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

Method

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

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

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

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

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

 

Mango Sheera

Mango season is going to end, soon. So I keep buying them often to make the most when it is available. Apart from eating the fruit as it is, I had lot more to be used up. And I decided to make a mango flavored sheera. There is no second thoughts when it comes to making sweet. It is always welcome at home.  Its very easy to make and tastes delicious with the flavor of mango. 

You need

• Roasted rava/semolina - 1 cup
• Milk - 1 cup
• Water-1/2 cup
• Fresh mango pulp - 1 cup
• Sugar -1 cup
• Ghee - 2 tblspn
• Cardamom powder -1/2 tspn
• Cashewnuts,raisins - 1 tblspn

Method
Select a medium sized mango which doesn't have fibre. De-skin and cut the mango into cubes. Pulse in the mixer and make a fine puree.  You can use tinned pulp too. In that case adjust the sugar accordingly.

In a kadai or thick bottomed vessel, take mango pulp, milk, water and sugar. Boil the mixture till the sugar is fully dissolved. Add the roasted rava and mix well. Cook on low heat. When the mixture starts to thicken, add 2 tablespoon of ghee. Continue to cook till all the liquid dries up and the mixture is moist. Switch of the heat. 

In a seasoning ladle, add a teaspoon of ghee. Roast cashew and raisins. Add it to the sheera. Finally add cardamom powder. Mix well.  Serve warm.

Sheera in Microwave

Sheera is a popular sweet in Maharashtra. This is similar to the Kesari of South India. The ingredients are similar but the proportion  is different. Sheera is less in calories when compared to Kesari. Since the amount of sugar used is less, its not cloyingly sweet and can be had anytime of the day. I tried making it in microwave and it got done in less than 10 minutes.

You need

• Rava/semolina - 1 cup
• Milk - 1 cup
• Water-1 cup
• Sugar -1 cup
• Ghee - 2 tblspn
• Cardamom powder -1/2 tspn
• Cashewnuts,raisins - 1 tblspn

 Method

Take a tablespoon of  ghee in a bowl. MW for 30 seconds. Add cashew and raisins. MW for another 30 seconds. Remove the fried cashews and raisins. Add rava. Microwave for a minute. You can smell the aroma of roasted rava. I slightly roast and store the rava. If not, it might take another half a minute or so.

Measure out milk, water and sugar in another bowl. Microwave for 6 minutes. Stir in between so that the sugar is dissolved. It should be heated till the liquid starts bubbling. It took 6 minutes at 100% power in mine. Add the roasted rava to the liquid. Mix well. MW for 3 minutes. The liquid would have dried by now. It should be moist. Don't cook till it is dry since it will turn more dry on standing. Add cardamom powder, a tablespoon of ghee and garnish with roasted cashewnuts and raisins.

Sending this to Microwave Easy Cooking event hosted by Lata Akka , an event initiated by Srivalli.

Suruttai Poli for Indian Cooking Challenge

The challenge for the month of February was Suruttai Poli,  the recipe given by Nithya's mom. Srivalli also gave the recipe link at Pavithra's who has blogged the same sometime back. The recipe is a simple one. The only challenge is to fry the pooris soft and roll them before they turn crisp. I made with 1 cup of flour. So it was easy. When it is to made in large quantities, it will be better if you have another person to tag along. So while one rolls the pooris, the other can fry and fold it. Else it will be very time consuming. I went through Pavithra's recipe and noted the tips given by her. It was very helpful. Also I went by her measurements for the filling, which was enough for the polis I made. Even if you have some left over filling powder, you can simply eat it as it is or add some warm ghee over and roll it into ladoos.

I like to finish the whole work in one batch. So I prepared the  dough and left it to rest for half an hour. Meanwhile, did the filling. And I could finish the whole process in less than an hour.

  

You need

 

For filling -

• Roasted gram/Pottukadalai/ - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Cashews,broken into bits - 1 tblspn
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
• Fresh grated coconut - 1 tblspn
• Ghee - 2 tsp

 

For Papad/Poori

• Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
• Salt - a pinch
• Oil - for frying
• Water to prepare the dough
• Extra maida for dusting

Method for filling:

 

Powder the roasted gram and sugar together. Heat 2 teaspoons of ghee in a pan. Roast the cashews bits and coconut till it starts to brown. Remove from fire. Add the powdered mix and stir to mix well. Transfer to a bowl. Filling is ready.

 

 

 

Making pooris and the final assembly
Take all purpose flour and salt in a bowl. Prepare the dough by adding water in parts. The consistency is that of the chapathi dough. Leave it aside for half an hour.

 

Divide the dough into 12 balls. Roll each ball into thin pooris. Make sure it is not thick, else will puff up like a normal poori. These pooris should not puff and small bubble like puffs here and there is fine.

 

Roll all the pooris and leave it on a paper to dry.

Heat oil in a kadai. When the oil is hot, adjust the heat to medium. Start with the pooris rolled first. Gently slide the poori into the hot oil. don't press it using the spatula, since it will puff up. Also ladle oil over the poori from the sides. Don't flip the poori. Frying each poori should take only few seconds. Drain and leave it on a plate. Quickly spread a heaped tablespoon of the filling on to the poori and start rolling from one end.

The poori will be very soft at this stage. By the time you roll, you can feel it getting crisp. On cooling, it will turn crisp.  The polis were very tasty and it got over with in a day.

 

 

Strawberry Coconut Fudge/Burfi with fresh strawberries

Today, being Valentine's Day, I have been seeing loads of recipes to suit the celebration mood. Personally, I am not the kind who looks forward to this day. Its like any other day for me. I have been looking for strawberry recipes to make best use of the seasonal availability.  Of late, I was baking a lot of cakes/cupcakes.   I wanted to make some Indian sweet for a change. Two days back, I asked my husband which traditional sweet he would want me to make. Husband's option was Coconut burfi. So I thought why not try adding some strawberry puree to my usual burfi. I wasn't sure if the sweet will set or not. I thought even if it doesn't hold shape, it will have a consistency of a halwa and can be eaten with a spoon. I went ahead and tried in smaller measurements, so that if it doesn't come out well, the wastage will be minimal. Probably, this is one of the few times, a recipe made in my kitchen makes it to the blog in the shortest time.

You need

• Fresh, grated coconut - 1/2 cup, packed
• Strawberry puree - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup + 2 tblspn
• Ghee - 2 tspn
• Water - 1/2 cup

Method

Take 6-8 strawberries and make a puree of it. No need to strain the puree. Make sure there is no pieces in it. Heat a kadai with sugar and half cup of water. Keep stirring till the sugar is fully dissolved. Let the syrup boil to one string consistency. Stir in the strawberry puree. Let it simmer for 3 minutes or so. By then the syrup will bubble. Add the grated coconut. Keep stirring. When it starts thickening, add a teaspoon of ghee. Continue stirring for another 10 minutes. When it starts bubbling from all sides, add the remaining ghee and cook for a minute or two. Transfer to a greased plate and level it using a greased katori with a flat base. It takes little more time to set than a regular coconut burfi.

The fruit flavored burfi was very tasty. Its difficult to stop with one. And adding the fruit puree gives a new flavor to the burfi and doesn't even remind you of the traditional coconut burfi. Its a completely new taste. I am glad I tried this.

Paruppu Boli With Chana dal and Sugar filling

During my childhood days, I knew only Uppittu. Back then, this made it appearance very few times in a year.  Being in a joint family, each one had access to a limited supply of these delicacy. Later, attending weddings in Chennai, introduced Boli/Poli to me. Needless to say, was hooked to those soft bolis. I started pestering amma to learn. Amma learnt it from my aunt in Chennai and thus I could enjoy them at home too. And blogging has introduced me to umpteen varieties of bolis. Post marriage, I came to know that this is a masterpiece of my MIL and I am sharing her recipe here and I have been following the same. Earlier I had posted a boli with a different filling. Here its the traditional version.

You need

For the filling

• Chana dal/Kadala paruppu - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn
• Ghee - 1 tblspn

For the dough

• Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cup
• Butter/Oil - 1 tblspn
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Water to knead

•  Oil or ghee to roast the boli
•  Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup (Optional)

Method

 Mix maida, butter and turmeric in a bowl. Make sure the butter coats all the flour and this will ensure soft boli. Add water little by little and knead to get a soft dough. The dough should be firm too. Leave the dough for atleast an hour .

Pressure cook chana dal with enough water till it is soft. Drain and mash the dal. Grind the dal along with the ,sugar in a mixer grinder to get a soft paste. There should not be any granules of dal, since it will make it difficult while rolling later.

Heat a kadai. Add a teaspoon of ghee. Tip in the ground dal paste. Keep stirring till it turns dry and it should be soft too. Don't cook long, that it turns hard and lumpy.

Pinch a lemon sized dough. Roll it to 2 inch size. Keep a tablespoon of the filling. Fold the edges and cover the filling. Keep the filled edges facing down and dust it with the flour and roll like a chappathi.

Heat a tawa. When it is medium hot, place the rolled boli and cook both sides till you can see brown specs. Drizzle little oil or ghee along the edges while cooking. Remove from tawa and sprinkle little powdered sugar and fold. Enjoy munching the sweet and soft bolis. It has a shelf life of 3 days.