Maida Burfi/ Maida Cake

Ingredients
Maida / All purpose flour -1/2cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup (adjust to sweet, up to 1 cup)
Ghee - 1/4cup
Food color - few drops
Tutty fruity - 1/8 cup (optional)
Elaichi -2

Method
Heat the ghee and roast the maida. You will get nice aroma and the color of the flour should not change it.
Add a cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of water and start heating.
Once the sugar syrup reaches one string consistency, remove it from stove. Immediately add the roasted maida, food color, tutty fruity and elaichi powder and start mixing.
Keep on mixing it(off the stove), until the flour+sugar syrup reaches halwa consistency.
It will be like liquid, but when cooling it slowly becomes a nonsticky halwa.
By then pour it on a greased plate and level it with a greased spatula.

 Here I have added 3 drops of green food color and red color tutty fruity. Once it cools down completely, remove it from the plate and cut it into desired shape.

This is the recipe from Rak's kitchen. I just followed her recipe. You can check here for step by step pictures and a video.  I felt the sweetness was little more for our palate. Next time  I will reduce it to 3/4 cup. :) 

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Diwali Sweets & Snacks 2015

 Hope everyone had a nice Diwali. Here are the sweets and snacks I prepared this year.

 Maida cake/burfi

 Dry gulaab jamoon

Murukku

Mixture

Click on the names to get the recipes..Will post the sweet recipes soon. 

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Ellu Kozhukkattai / Sesame Seeds Dumplings

Ingredients

For the outer cover

Idiyappam flour/ Rice flour - 11/2 cups

Salt - a pinch

Coconut oil-1teaspoon

Water- 3/4 cup to 1 cup

For Stuffing

Ellu/Sesame seeds-2tablespoons

Desiccated coconut- 2tablespoons

Elaichi-1

Jaggery/Vellam (powdered)-3tablespoons

Method

Boil the water with a pinch of salt. When it comes to a rolling boil, add a teaspoon of coconut oil.

Immediately pour the water in the rice flour/idiyappam flour. Mix well with a spoon, close it with wet cloth and let it cool.

Meanwhile lets prepare the stuffing.

Powder the elacihi and keep it aside.

Clean and dry roast the sesame seeds until they crackle down. (be careful, don't burn it! :))

Take jaggery in a pan, add very little water..heat it on low flame. Once the jaggery melts, strain it and add the coconut and sesame seeds.

Continue cooking on low heat until the stuffing becomes thick. Add the powdered cardamom, remove it from stove and let it cool.
Take the cooled/warm rice dough, knead it nicely for a few minutes.(If needed apply little ghee on your palms) Make golf ball size balls and flatten them.
Keep a tablespoon of prepared stuffing and close it carefully.

You can just seal the edges like this or make some fancy patterns with your fingers as i did in the later pictures. :)

Heat water in the steamer/idlipot. Once the water is hot and steaming, arrange the prepared kozhukkattai, steam them as we do for idli.

 It took about 6-8 minutes for me to cook. The kozukkattai becomes shiny when done.

 Offer them to Lord Ganesha and serve them warm to your family.

Soft & Sweet nutty kozhukkattai 

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Whole wheat Banana-Walnut Crepes/ Vazhaipazha Dosai

Ingredients
Banana(long variety)-1
Aata/Whole wheat flour-1cup
Elaichi-1
Walnut-1/4cup
Sugar - 6tablespoons (adjust to taste..some bananas may be on the sweeter side)
Water-1 cup + a tablespoon
Oil

Method
Mash the banana, powder the elaichi, chop the walnuts coarsely.
Add the wheat flour, sugar, powdered elaichi and mashed banana in a wide bowl.
Add water slowly and mix it without lumps. The consistency should be little thicker than the dosa batter consistency.

Heat a griddle on medium heat,once its hot, pour a big ladle of batter and spread it lightly.

Sprinkle  the chopped walnut pieces on top.
Sprinkle oil around and top of the dosa. Let it cook for sometime and flip it over.

Press it gently with the spatula for even browning on the other side.
Remove from the pan.

Delicious evening snack or morning breakfast is ready.

Note
As its on the sweeter side we could not have it for breakfast. Its a perfect evening snack. If you want to make it for breakfast, reduce the quantity of the sugar and give it a try.

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Sweet Kohukkattai/ Inippu Kozhukkattai/ Vella Kozhukkattai

Ingredients

Boiled Rice - 2 cups (~1/2kg)

Jaggery/Vellam - 1/2cup to 3/4cup

Elaichi-2

Desiccated coconut -2tablespoons

Fresh Coconut(chopped into small pieces ) - 3tablespoons

Canola oil - 2tablespoons

Salt-a pinch

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 2-3 hours. 

Grind it coarsely with little water and the desiccated coconut.

Take the jaggery in a wide pan, cover it with water(add water just to cover the jaggaery, not a lot) and put the stove on low heat.

 Once the jaggery is melted, strain it and add it to the pan again. Add a pinch of salt and add the batter.

 Mix it well and keep stirring..

 The batter will start thickening, add the coconut pieces and powdered elaichi. Stir it well. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and mix it well.

Then the batter will becomes non-sticky. Remove it from the stove and let it cool a bit.

Meanwhile heat water in the idli pot/steaming pot. Take small amount of dough, press it with your palms. Arrange them in the steaming plate, steam it for 5-7 minutes.

 Soft and delicious kozhukkattai are ready to serve.

 Serve hot / warm.

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Shrikhand

Ingredients
Greek yogurt (or) Strained Yogurt - 1 cup (see notes)
Powdered Sugar-1/4cup
Elaichi-1
Few drops of food color (purely optional, see notes)

Method
Gather all the ingredients. Powder the elaichi and keep it ready.

Take the curd and beat it with a hand whisk.

Whisk the yogurt just until creamy..Don't beat too much.

Add the powdered sugar/ icing sugar and mix it.

Add in the cardamom powder, food color and give a stir.

Transfer it to another bowl and refrigerate overnight or 5-6 hours.

Creamy n yummy shrikhand is ready.

Enjoy !

Notes

Adding food color is purely optional. You can add a few strands of saffron soaked in a tablespoon of warm milk. 

To strain the yogurt, pour the yogurt in a cheese cloth / cotton cloth, tie it as a bundle, keep it in a strainer placed on a bowl. keep this in fridge for around 8 hours. All the water would have been strained n you get nice n thick yogurt. This tastes way better than the greek yogurt. The Greek yogurt had some water content too, which I didn't know initially. 

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Kalkandu Pongal / Sugar Candy pongal

Ingredients

Raw rice -1/2cup

Moong dal - 2 tablespoons

Kalkandu/Sugar candy - 1/4cup

Sugar -1/4 cup 

(Adding sugar is optional, you can make it only with kalkandu, in that case add 1/2 cup of sugar candy or adjust to your taste.)

Elaichi-2

Cashews and raisins - handful 

Milk-1/4cup 

Ghee - 3 tablespoons

Method

1.Wash and soak the rice for half an hour.

Dry roast the moong dal until it emanates a nice aroma. 

Combine the rice and roasted dal in a pressure cooker. Add 2 cups of water and cook for 3 whistles.

Open the cooker after the pressure has gone, add the milk and mash the pongal. 

2 & 3. Add the kalkandu and sugar, and put the cooker back on the stove. 

4. Keep the heat low and stir the pongal adding 2 tablespoons of ghee in 2 intervals.

5. Fry the cashews and raisins in the remaining tablespoon of ghee.

6. Add the roasted cashew-raisin and powdered elaichi to the pongal and mix everything nicely.

Kalkandu Pongal / Sugar Candy Pongal is ready. Enjoy warm or cold. 

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Wholegrain Bread Pudding with Condensed milk

Ingredients

Wholegrain Bread - 4 slices

Condensed milk-1/4cup

Eggs-2

Butter-1tablespoon

Milk-1/2cup

Sugar-1tablespoon

Raisins-one fist full

Cinnamon powder -1/4 teaspoon (or) Vanilla essence-1/2teaspoon 

Method

Cut the bread into bite size pieces and keep it ready.

Take the condensed milk and butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat it for a minute, whisk it well and let it cool.

To that, add 2 eggs, sugar and 1/2cup milk, cinnamon powder (or) vanilla essence and beat everything well.

Add the chopped bread, raisins  fold them gently into the milk.

Pour the bread mixture into a greased baking pan. 

Bake it for about 35-40 minutes in a 350F pre heated oven.

Take the pan and let it cool for an hour. Loosen the edge of the pudding, slice it into desired shape and serve with ice cream or whipped cream or as such. 

As Hubby dear didn't know I am gonna cut the pudding, he mixed the pudding gently before an hour. :) ;) We all enjoyed the delicious pudding!

 Yup..thats Geno, waiting for his share after the photo shoot! :D

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Edible Gum Laddoo/ Dink ke laddu

Typing this recipe after a reasonable gap! Days and nights are flying just like that with my lil Angel. Squeezed a few minutes and spending it in my blog! :) 

Coming to today's recipe, this is a very healthy, nutritious and delicious laddoo. This is generally given to nursing mothers, and of course any one can enjoy this delicious sweet which keeps the body warm. If you are taking more laddu's its advisable to have them with a glass of milk. 

I Have heard of these edible gum laddoo's recently but I haven't even seen the gum! One of my North Indian friend made the laddoo's for the first time and I tried my hands on this time. Browsed the internet and tweaked little bit according to my convenience, finding some shortcuts! Hope this recipe will be useful to the readers, especially the new mom's.

Ingredients

Edible gum-2tablespoons

Aata/Wheat flour-11/4cup

Sugar-1/2cup

Dry Fruits&nuts-3/4 cup to 1 cup [ Dates, raisins, walnuts, almonds]

Ghee-1/2cup

Method

Heat a tablespoon of ghee and fry the gum, keep it aside.

Chop the dates and keep it ready.

Fry the dry fruits and nuts[I didn't fry the dates] and let them cool down.

Take the fried gum, dry fruits and nuts in a blender and grind them coarsely.

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of ghee, and roast the data/wheat flour for a few minutes, until you get a nice aroma.

Take the roasted flour in a microwave safe dish, mix the sugar.

Add the remaining ghee, mix it.

Add the chopped nuts, give it a quick mix.

Microwave it for 4 minutes, give a minute standing time, take it out and mix it.
Again microwave the laddoo mixture for a couple of minutes, give 2 minutes standing time and let the mixture cool down a bit and make laddoos.
Tasty and healthy  laddoos are ready. They keep well at room temperature for a week or 10 days, I bet they will be over before that! :) 

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