Karanji & Besan Ladu

These are my mom in laws belated Diwali sweets!! She's a super chef! And she's fully supportive and excited for the Indian Cooking Challenge tasks.

We'll, I've told her to write down the recipes, and I'll put them in the blog then.. may take a while.. :) Meanwhile.. have a look .. 2 ladus and a karanji





-Naina

Masala Mushroom & Vegies

Tried out a simple variation in Masala Mushrooms...



Added a handful of green peas, and 1 medium potato (finely chopped)..
Had to pressure cook it till 4 whistles..
Yummy.. No doubt..

-Naina

P.S.. Notice the latest few pics :) New digi cam :) :)

Mawa

Made Mawa today.. just keep boiling the milk and stir continuously.. till it thickens such that it looks like some mithai from the shop.. looks like a softly kneaded dough..




-Naina

Diwali Celebrations

-Kanchan

Hyderabadi Egg Curry

Here's some lovely egg curry I made.. took this recipe from PrasuKitchen



Ingredients:

1 Onion Sliced (I took 2 onions)
1 Tsp red Chilly Powder
1/2 Tsp Garam Masala Powder
1 Tsp Coriander Powder
1/2 Tsp Cumin Powder
Cilantro Leaves For Garnishing
1 Tsp Yogurt (I took 2-3 tsps)
1 Tsp Kasoori Methi .
Salt-To Taste
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Turmeric-Pinch
Paste:
1 small Onion
1 Inch ginger
Garlic Few pods
1 Tsp Yogurt
1 stick Cinnamon
3 Cardamoms
3 Cloves
1 Tomato
2 Tbsp Cashewnuts

Directions To Prepare:

1) Boil 6 eggs , make slits on each Egg (I took 8 eggs)
2) Add oil in a Pan Add Onions Fry until brown Add Paste and fry until Oil seperates
3) Add Red Chilly Powder,Turmeric,Coriander Powder,cumin Powder
4) Add eggs So that its coated well with the Masala Stuff
5) Add salt ,Garam Masala at the end and Garnish with Cilantro And add Kasoori Methi Which adds great taste to the Curry .

Enjoy
-Naina

Happy Diwali !!

Happy Diwali to everyone..
Well.. this one's going to be a really long post.. Great celebrations, meeting relatives, painting diyas (one of my fav hobbies).. and tons of cooking.. - lots of snacks and sweets!!

To start with..

Some Rangoli I made..


Some Diyas I painted..




Here's all the snacks we made (recipes at the end)


Some Pedha I made..

This one was really simple.. I had 200 gms of sweetened condensed milk with me.. added to it one heaped cup milk powder.. 3/4 cup milk, 3-4 tsps sugar.. some cardamom powder and 1/4 cup butter.. put all of this in a microwaveable deep dish, and microwaved for 5 minutes, stirring after every minute. Allow it to cool and roll into pedhas.. really tasty.. and extremely easy.. Turned out like the malai pedhas you get..If you want firmer pedhas, you can perhaps skip the milk..

My mom in laws Diwali special snacks..

The rectangular ones are 'Cheesy Peas Puff Pastries'
For the stuffing.. Take heat some oil, add jeera, crushed green peas and seasonings of your choice.. like turmeric, red chilli powder, salt, garam masala and lots of chaat masala.. After cooking it, remove it from the gas, and add grated cheese. Keep aside.
For the covering.. Knead a crumbling dough of maida in oil.. Add salt..Knead with enough water to get a dough like for poori.. Now.. the secret to puff pastry.. Roll a large chapati, fold into half.. again fold into half, so you get a 1/4 looking chapati.. While you were folding, stick the chapati with a paste of ghee and cornflour. Now, roll up the 1/4 looking chapati, you'll get a cylinder.. Cut this cylinder into 4-5 pieces. Each piece is to be rolled into a poori, place the stuffing (similar to Karanji) and fold the poori into half.. stick the edges, and cut the edges into desired shape. Then deep fry in oil.. (Hope I've explained properly.. was too busy with Diwali preparations to take pics of the process...)

The other one is 'Tortillas'..
You need black gram dough, but we just used gram dough.. added seasonings.. like salt, chilli powder, and kneaded with some oil and enough water to get a poori type dough.. Roll into a chapati.. stick some coriander leaves and cumin seeds on the chapati and lighty roll it to stick them.. Then, cut into 8 pieces.. (1 lenghtwise cut, 1 horizontal cut, and 2 diagonal cuts.. ) and deep fry in oil..

Hubby made some 'Dahi Boondi' :)



Here are all the recipes for the variety in the snack tray..

Chakli (Bhajni chi)

Its in the centre of the snack tray..

This is Chakli pic taken while frying :)


500 gms Bhajni Chakli atta (got the ready atta.. no need to add salt too..)
600 ml water
Some oil for kneading
Kneed the chakli in around 1/2 cup oil. Then boil the water, and add the hot water to this chakli atta. Keep for 3 hours. Then, cook in boiling oil (at high flame), using a Chakli press. If you lower the flame.. the chakli bursts.. or absorbs too much oil and becomes soggy like jalebi :) (yes.. a handful turned that way..) But most of it turned out really nice, crispy and tasty..

Murukku pieces (Top right of snack tray)
We'll.. this one's simply from here.. Just that changed the shape, and made finger like pieces..

Mathri (Bottom right of snack tray)
You need to knead maida.. with enough ghee to have a crumbling mixture.. Then add enough water to knead a tight dough (similar to poori dough). To the maida.. add a spice of your choice and salt.. We put black pepper powder this time.. but have also tried out with jeera, kasuri methi.. in the previous years..Then, roll into small thick pooris, make 3-4 holes in each poori with a fork / toothpick..and deep fry in oil on medium heat.

Twisty crispy (Sweet - Bottom of snack tray & Chatpata - Red colored thing top left of snack tray)
This dough is exactly the same as for mathri.. But no spice or salt added at all.. Then, roll out the dough into a normal poori. Using a knife, made vertical parallel cuts on the poori, leaving the edges uncut.. Then roll up the poori, twist a bit and press the ends. It looks like a twisted up Diwali Kandil.
I was inspired by this recipe at Cooking 4 all seasons
Then I deep fried these in oil at medium heat. We'd made 2 doughs.. one normal, and to the other part, we added red food color. The red fried ones, I sprinkled generously with chaat masala, and the normal ones, I rolled in sugar powder.. really yummy and very easy!

Sweet Chakli (Bottom left of snack tray)
This one's made by my mom in law..
Same dough like the mathri.. but to the maida.. she added a little food color (yellow) and sugar powder.. as per the desired sweetness (we like it mild).. Then, used the same rolling technique as for the puff pastry thing.. Then deep fried in ghee.. Due to the stick and rolling, you get the layers thing..

Nachni Shankarpali (The blackish cubes at the top of the snack tray)

I saw this on a cookery show on television.. Take like 2/3rds nachni atta, and 1/3rds maida, and sugar powder to taste.. add enough ghee to make a crumbling mixture.. Add cardamom powder and knead with enough water to made a poori type dough. Then roll out into a large roti, thickness of 1/4 cm. Cut into cubes and deep fry in ghee on medium heat. It generally fluffs up llike pooris.. and is very nice and crispy.. biscuit like crunchiness.. Mine didnt turn out so well.. cos I used less ghee while kneading the dough.. Edible and tasty though.. just a bit hard..but good for a first timer I hope :)

All these go to Priya's Diwali 2009 contest & Purva's Dawaat

-Naina

After very long...

Its the festive season and have been really busy, cleaning and cooking!! Diwali's here!
End September, went to Igatpuri for a short holiday.. very nice.. back.. and it was Karwa Chauth.. then Diwali..
Have just made several delicacies for Diwali, will post them immediately after Diwali..
Here's what I did for Karwa Chauth..
It's my fav festival so far.. I just love keeping the fast for my husband.. no food.. no water.. To sacrifice something so basic to our existence is such a wonderful and pure feeling..

Here's the prayer arrangement..



Made several delicacies, managed to cook most of it with my mom in law's help..Forgot to take a pic of the 'Baayna' (all the food together.. offered to mom in law).. hence all separate pics..

Here's 'Sev Barfi'.. Its a typically Sindhi sweet..



You need:
400 ml milk
250 gms mawa or sweeetened condensed milk
200 gms sugar / or 6 tsps if you are using sweetened condensed milk
250 gms unsalted sev
Some chopped almonds and pistas (to garnish)
Some cardamom powder

Melt the mawa and bring to boil. Else bring the sweetened condensed milk to boil. Add to it the milk, sugar and cook for 5 mins. Then add the cardamom powder and sev and cook until it leaves the sides of the vessel and turns into a thick lump. Transfer to a greased plate and let it cook. Garnish with chopped dry fruits.. Its yumm.. disappears very quickly!

Here's some 'Atte ka Halwa'



Well.. its mostly made by judgement.. and no measurements.. Take some flour in a pan.. and dry roasted untill light brown. Then add ghee and roast it till it gets a nice dark brown color.. The quantity of ghee should be such that the you can bind the mixture into a ladoo..
While roasting the flour.. take some water in a vessel, add to it jaggery to taste.. and bring to boil. Add this sweetened water and some cardamom powder to the flour mixture, and cook for a minute or untill it looks perfect! If you love jaggery flavour.. this one's for you!

Then made some simple 'Aloo ki Sabzi'



This one's just got a tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped green chillies, turmeric powder. Add to it boiled chopped potatoes, salt and garnish with coriander leaves..

Next was 'Paneer Mirchi Tamatar'.. my mil's and my combined innovation..



Gave a tempering of 2 cloves, added to it 2-3 tbsp of red chilli paste, paste of 2 large tomatoes and some ginger.. cooked it oil seperated.. Then added some 2-3 tbsp of cashew paste, cooked... Added some turmeric powder, coriander powder.. added water and boiled.. finally chopped paneer paneer pieces (400 gms) ..And a lovely paneer dish (without onion and garlic) is ready!

And... mom in law made all the puri's and some dahi wada..

And..to pass my time during the day.. I applied some Mehendi on my hand.. (I'm a left handed.. hence the other hand :) )


Enjoy!
-Naina