Makara sankranti festival is over and you may have left over Ellu Bella which you got from your near and dear ones during distribution to each other.Usually there will be no takers for this after two days of festival. Even I had some left over sesame mixture and tried this Indian Chikki or energy bar from these power packed ingredients.This mixture usually has lots of sesame seed, which is a high iron source, peanuts, coconut bits etc.
Ingredient:
Left over ellu bella mix – as much as you have
Sugar – 3 to 4 spoons (What I took)
Butter – 1 table spoon
Cardamom powder – ¼ teaspoon
Method:
Separate Sugar blocks as well as jaggery chunks from the mixture.
Take one thick bottomed vessel; add all these jaggery and sugar chunks as well as extra sugar with butter.
Heat this by constant stirring, until it becomes caramelized liquid.
Immediately mix in the rest of the sesame mixture and cardamom powder mix nicely to coat caramel liquid uniformly.
Spread this on a clean kitchen counter or butter paper laid baking tray and press this nicely till it is uniformly flat.
You can use either pav bhaji masher or roti belan to press this mix.
Make a mark when it is hot by using sharp knife.
When it is cool, store this in an airtight container.
Soft, melt in a mouth citrusy warm pudding is paired with fresh strawberry sauce. It is a real treat in winter evenings. The basic recipe is from here and I adapted it according to our taste and availability of the ingredients.
Ingredient:
All-purpose flour or Almond flour – ¼ cup
Salt – one pinch
Lemon zest – from one lemon
Eggs -2 (separated)
Butter- 1 tablespoon
Sugar- 2/3 cup
Buttermilk – 2/3 cup
Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons
For Sauce:
Strawberries- 20
Sugar – 2 tablespoon
Method:
Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. i.e. All-purpose flour, salt, lemon zest and mix this nicely by using a dry wire whisk.
Preheat oven at 160° C . Keep cookie tray inside by putting water. So that the water bath will be ready to bake while preheating.
Take 4 pudding moulds and apply some butter or oil and keep aside.
In another bowl, beat egg yolks, buttermilk, lemon juice, sugar. Beat until well mixed.
Add dry ingredient content to this and keep aside.
In another bowl, beat egg whites until you get stiff peaks. It takes almost 2 to 3 minutes of beating.
Combine this with a pudding mixture by folding gently by using a wooden or plastic spatula.
Divide evenly by filling this into 4 pudding moulds.
Bake these filled cups in a hot water bath for 40 minutes or until the top becomes light brown.
After placing the cups, check for the water level in the cookie tray (water bath). If it is less, please fill it with little hot water and close the oven door.
When it is done, remove from the water bath and cool those cups.
Now you can make strawberry sauce or Compote :
Chop all the strawberries, Mix in sugar and keep aside for 5 minutes. Churn half of the content in a mixer jar and keep another half as it is. So that you will have some chunks in your sauce and it looks good as well OR to make the compote, cook all these until syrup become bubbly and cool before serving it.
For serving, invert the pudding on a serving plate and pour some strawberry sauce and enjoy.
Note: To invert the pudding, you can use a small knife at the edge and it will release itself from the sides.
Turmeric is one of the most important spices we use in everyday cooking. It has so many health benefits and is commonly used to heal Cold and cough in infants. When my kids were small and when I started to give them turmeric milk to heal their sour throat, I was really thinking about making homemade turmeric powder as I was very uncomfortable using readymade powder, after hearing about it being adulterated.
So I started growing turmeric at home. Every year, usually at the time of June, fresh turmeric will start sprouting and we should plant them at that time .It will take six months to grow and when it is ready, the plant will start wilting and leaves will become yellowish brown and become dry. This happens during end of December and is then ready to harvest.
This method is what my maternal grandmother used to follow-
Method:
-Take fresh turmeric rhizomes, remove mud, extra roots etc. Wash it several times until it is clean.
-Now slice those rhizomes.
-Take one cooker vessel and put all these sliced pieces and steam cook (without cooker weight) in a cooker or idly steamer for 10 to 15 minutes.
-Remove this and dry under the sun for 2 to 3 days or until it is crisp. Usually it takes 2 to 3 days.
-When it is crisp, take small mixer jar and powder it.
– Sieve this and collect fine powder and repeat this process until all the dried slices are powdered.
Radish pods are available only in winter and after coming to Bangalore, I tasted this almost ten years back and initially I felt it was very pungent and not for me kind of a flavour. But the foodie in me couldn’t keep quiet and I kept on trying it every season and now it is our favourite too.
I don’t promise that you will like it on your first bite. But when you start getting accustomed to it, you’ll start to like it. Radish pods are known as Mungre in Punjabi language and it is the staple food of Punjab. They usually pair it with potato and make a dry curry and which goes very well with whole wheat roti.
I love Radish pods for their distinct taste. If you pair it with potato, that is it. Pure bliss with hot phulka!!!!
Ingredients:
Potato – 4 to 5
Radish pods – ¼ kg
Mustard oil- 2 table spoon
Refined oil – 1 table spoon
Cumin – 1 teaspoon
Hing – ¼ teaspoon
Salt
Sugar – ½ tsp
Turmeric – ½ teaspoon
Red chilli powder – 1 to 2 teaspoon
Amchur powder – ½ teaspoon
Garam masala powder – ½ teaspoon
Method:
Wash potatoes and dice it. Don’t peel the outer skin.
Boil one cup of water with little salt and Par boil these potato pieces .Potato should cook but pieces should be firm.
Drain water and keep aside.
Wash radish pods and chop this according to your taste. I prefer around 1 inch pieces.
Take one tawa; put both the oils, when it is hot add cumin and hing.
Drop chopped radish pods; add all the powders like turmeric, red chilli powder, Garam masala, Amchur powder, salt and sugar.
Mix nicely, add in par boiled and drained potatoes and mix and keep it covered and cook for a while.
Sprinkle 2 teaspoon of water and mix it and keep it covered until all the masalas are absorbed and coated in really well.
Switch off the gas and enjoy with phulka or any roti’s.
Makki Ki roti/Makki di roti is the staple food of Punjab and tastes really good when we pair this with Sarson Ka Saag. Usually Makki Ka roti is made by using maize flour and patted by hand. It is slightly thick and firm in texture. We like our roti to be soft and puffy like regular phulka.
That is the reason I do this by adding whole wheat flour and roll like a regular roti. So, my version is light and soft but has Makki Ka flavour.
Ingredient:
Maize flour – 2 cups
Water – 2 cup
Whole wheat flour – to bind
Salt
Ghee – 1 tsp
Method:
-Boil water, put salt, ghee and maize flour and mix by using one spoon.
-Mixture will be sticky so adjust this by adding the required amount of whole wheat flour to make firm dough.
-Keep it covered and keeps aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
– Roll out roti’s like a regular Chapati.
-Keep Dosa tawa on fire, when it is hot, cook both the sides of this roti, and hold the roti over the gas flame.
-when it fluffs, remove and keep it on the plate.
-Apply some ghee or butter and serve. Enjoy this roti with Sarson Ka Saagor any other side dish of your choice.
Come January, my veggie vendor will bring mustard greens and Bathua greens. In Kannada, we call Bathua as chakotha and mustard as sasive soppu .Last week I got a bunch from him and I prepared this curry. I love to include seasonal veggies in my cooking and it is a yearly ritual to make Saag at least once in winter.
How I make –
Sarson / Mustard greens – 2 bunches
Bathua / chakotha leaves – 2 bunches
Palak/spinach – 2 bunches
Onion – 1
Green chillies – 4
Garlic – 10
Ginger- 1 inch
Maize flour – 1 table spoon
Cumin – ½ teaspoon
Turmeric – ½ teaspoon
Hing- ¼ teaspoon
Butter – 1 table spoon
Salt
Method:
Clean all the greens remove stalks and discard.
Wash and chop the leaves into fine strips and cook this in a vessel by putting half cup of water, little salt, sugar for 10 to 15 minutes.
Take one mixer jar and put sliced onion, crushed ginger; chopped chillies and garlic, dry grind all this into rough paste.
When greens are cool, grind this as well. Don’t make smooth paste. Whip only once or twice, you will get required consistency.
I usually use earthen vessel to cook traditional items. If you have one, you can use it otherwise use normal kadai.
Take vessel, put butter, when it is hot add cumin and hing. Then onion and chilli paste. Fry for a while. Add turmeric and salt. Salt will help to ooze out water from the onion and will retain moisture while frying.
When it is light brown, add maize flour and fry for 2 minutes.
Add one cup of water and mix onion and maize flour mixture. This will look like a paste now.
Add Ground greens and boil, If you feel water is needed you can add water and cook until you get the right consistency, and when it is done , mixture becomes like a mass and surface becomes little glossy.
Serve this with Makki Ki Roti or Phulka with little butter.
It is a vegetarian dish well known in Chinese and Buddhist Cuisine.We love Buddha’s delight at our favourite restaurant Chung wah. Their version has lemon grass flavour in the gravy, and we especially like this flavour. I wanted to try their version of veggie Buddha’s delight at home from so long. Finally I did try it this week for our dinner.
So I thought of making lemongrass infused water for preparing it and proceeded. I used the available veggies in my pantry. You can use them according to your choice. You can add couple of tofu pieces as well.
-Boil water with lemon grass bits until water becomes little yellowish and lemongrass is cooked.
-Sieve this water and discard lemon grass. This is our lemon grass water which is used for gravy. Keep it aside.
– Chop spring onion, ginger and garlic. Slit green chilli.
– Chop mushroom, carrot.
-Chop capsicum, onion, zucchini into I inch chunks.
– Tear lettuce by using hand and keep aside.
-Take one tawa, put either butter /olive oil .When it is hot, add ginger, garlic and green chilli and fry for a while.
– Add onion, fry for 2 minutes. Next you can add capsicum, carrot zucchini and mushroom. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes and sprinkle little salt and red chilli flakes.
– Next you can add corn flour and fry in this mixture for 1 minute and add lemon grass water.
-when it starts boiling add vinegar. When it becomes little thick and shiny add torn lettuce and garnish with chopped spring onion.
-Enjoy this either with fried rice, noodles or simple steamed rice. It is very filling, nutritionally very rich and taste wise – Pure bliss!!!!
In last post we didchana and ivy gourd dry curryand I promised you to post the Rasam which utilizes the drained water of cooked chana or chick pea. This is very nutritious and tasty too.
What we need-
Ingredient:
Drained water of cooked chickpea – whatever you get.
Cooked tor dal – 1/4 cup
Green chillies -2
Salt
Jaggery – 1/2 tsp
Hing – ¼ tsp
Seasoning:
Coconut oil – 1 tbl sp
Mustard – 1tsp
Red chilli – 1
Curry leaves – 1 spring
Crushed garlic – 6
Method:
-Drain water from the cooked chana or chick pea while making any curries.
-Boil this drained water by adding 1 cup of water, cooked toor dal, salt (if needed) ,jaggery, hing, green chillies.
-Cook until green chillies are cooked and flavour is released to water.
-Add seasoning by heating coconut oil. When it is hot, add mustard. When it splutters add red chilli, curry leaves, crushed garlic.
-Fry till garlics are brown and add this seasoning to Rasam.
Enjoy this Rasam with hot rice and any side dishes, likechickpea dry curryand papad.
My daughter wanted to bake gingerbread man cookies for this Christmas and she was asking for the recipe of the same. I finally gave her a recipe with the ingredients which were available in our pantry.Now I will handover this post to my daughter, who is 15 year old 🙂
Hi all, I am Vinushree. I really wanted some gingerbread cookies this year, and we made this unique version of gingerbread man cookies- but as women. I just wanted to bring out women empowerment. Just kidding, we didn’t have the cookie cutter for a man ;). This was very fun to make and an easy process. Please enjoy.
Ingredient:
All-purpose flour – 3 ½ cup
Cinnamon powder – 1 ½ tsp
Ginger powder – 1 ½ tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Baking soda- ¾ tsp
Egg -1
Jaggery syrup – ½ cup
Light brown sugar – ½ cup
Cooking Butter – ¾ cup
For Icing:
Cooking chocolate – 4 squares
Nutella – 2 tbl sp
Icing sugar – ½ cup
Vanilla essence – ½ tsp
Milk – 2 tbl sp.
Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients by using wire whisk, like flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda and keep aside.
Beat butter and sugar by using stand mixer. When it is done, add in egg, jaggery syrup and beat nicely.
Add dry ingredient and make dough into 3 parts and keep this in a fridge by wrapping in a cling film cover or in a zip lock separately.
Keep this for one hour and remove one of the dough parts from the fridge and keep this outside for 5 minutes.
At the same time, pre heat the oven at 170 degree C and line a cookie tray with butter paper.
Now roll the dough by using Chapati roller, by dusting some flour into ¼ inch thickness and by using cookie cutter and bake this for 12 to 14 minutes.
After it cools down, make the icing.
Take one microwave safe glass bowl, put icing sugar, chocolate, Nutella, milk and vanilla. Microwave for 1 minute and mix nicely. If it is melted and perfectly blends, start dipping those cookies into it and decorate with any sprinkles. Otherwise heat chocolate mixture for some more time and proceed.
Dry them in air for one to two hours, and then store them in an airtight container.
The day before yesterday, my daughter V asked, ‘Amma, everywhere I can feel the Christmassy atmosphere, why haven’t you made anything? Please make a plum cake.”
Immediately, daughter A said, “No need to do that grrrrrrrrrrr, It has raisins; I don’t like raisins in any baked goodies. Make Red velvet instead of plum cake.”
Finally, mamma came up with this win-win cake for both –
This cake has no booze or fruit juice, or raisins.
Ingredients:
Dry fruits to soak – 1/2 to 1 cup (dried cranberries, tutti-frutti)
For the Caramel:
Light brown sugar – ½ cup
Water – ¾ cup
Butter – 1 tsp
For the Cake:
All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cups ( you can take whole wheat flour + all-purpose flour as well)
Baking powder – ¾ tsp
Baking soda – ¾ tsp
Dry ginger powder – ¼ tsp
Cinnamon powder – ¼ tsp
Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp
Pinch of salt
Eggs – 2
Light brown sugar – ¾ cup
Melted Butter – ¾ cup
Fresh Orange rind – 1 to 2 tsp (grated)
Caramel – ½ cup
Dry Nuts – 1/4 cup (cashew and almonds)
Method:
-Make caramel in a thick-bottomed vessel. Heat sugar and butter until it melts; lower the heat, add water, mix nicely, boil, and add the dry fruits.
-Here, I took dried cranberries and tutti-frutti. Soak the dry fruits for 2 hrs.
-When you are ready to bake the cake, drain these soaked fruits, separate the caramel and fruits and keep them aside. This caramel can be used while mixing cake batter.
-The next step is the preparation of the cake batter –
-First, we will mix all the dry ingredients, from flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, and salt, in one bowl and dry mix using a wire whisk.
-Drop all the dry fruits like soaked and drained dry fruits, chopped cashews and almonds
-Once again, mix the flour nicely and keep it aside. This is the dry ingredient mixture.
-The next step is- to preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
-Line the cake tin in which you want to bake. I have used a bread tin over here.
-Next, we should make a wet ingredient mixture. Break the eggs, beat them properly, and mix in butter, caramel, sugar, and grated Orange rind. Beat all these together until the sugar dissolves.
-Take one wooden spatula, fold it in the dry mixture, and make a uniform batter of wet and dry ingredients with a very light hand. Don’t overmix this.
-Now pour this ready batter into the lined cake tin, sprinkle some cashew and almond chunks, and bake this for 40 to 45 minutes or until done at 180* C. Enjoy this fruit cake this festive season!!!
