Ghee Residue Apple-Cinnamon Tea cake:

Ghee residue is a moist, brown coloured, by-product formed after preparing ghee from white butter. It is a rich source of essential fatty acids, anti-oxidants and proteins.

As of now, you will know my love towards this sediment and I usually make it a point to prepare any tea cakes after making fresh homemade ghee. Usually I play with the ingredient and flavours in these cakes. Already I have Egg less Tea cake and Chocolate cake in my blog.

This time, I included cinnamon flavour in my cake by using chopped fresh apple. I have used tasteless mini apples which I took in the market for its attractive size and colour, turned out to be a tasteless apple, after cutting 😉 

Now we will see how to make this,

Ingredients:

Apples – 1 cup (chopped)

Ghee residue  – 2 to 3 table spoons

Sugar – ½ cup

Organic jaggery powder – ½ cup

All purpose flour – 1 cup

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Cinnamon – 1/2 tea spoon

Eggs –  2 (beaten)

Water – 1 cup

Cooking soda – 1 tsp or little less.

Method:

– Wash all the apples and chop it into tiny pieces. No need to remove the peel.

-Grease the baking tray (you can use bread tin as well). Line this with butter paper, keep it ready.

–In another bowl, dry mix All purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cinnamon powder and keep aside.

-Take vessel in which you prepare ghee. There will be 2-3 table spoon ghee residues.

-To this add water, chopped apples, sugar, jaggery and heat it until sugar dissolves. Switch off and cool.

-Add cooking soda and keep aside at least for 20 min.

– After it cools, add beaten eggs and mix nicely.                        

-Now fold in flour mixture, mix gently and pour this batter to a greased and lined baking vessel.                                           

-Bake this in a pre- heated oven for 35 -40 min or until done at 180 C.

-If you want to check its doneness, use tooth pick or knife. Insert this, if it comes out clean, remove the tin, keep it outside.

-After some time, remove butter paper and cool further.                  

-When it reaches room temperature, you can slice it or cut according to your wish and enjoy with cup of coffee or tea.

Note:

-You can use only All-purpose flour or mixture of any flour.

-You can use only sugar, Jaggery or mixture of both.

-If you like it sweeter, please increase the quantity of sweet by adding ¼ cup more of sugar or jaggery.

 

 

Jackfruit kottige:

Halasina hannu is Jack fruit and Kottige is nothing but idly or kadubu,also known as Halasina Hannina kottige Or Gatti in local language. In which mixture is wrapped in pre-wilted banana leaves like pockets and steam cooked. Like bottle gourd kottige, which I have posted earlier, it is not a savoury kind, it is sweetish and bustling with jackfruit flavour which is enhanced even more with the usage of banana leaves wrap.

Jackfruit season is considered as a feast time in our region. Usage starts from tiny raw fruit form to ripened stage. You will find couple of curry recipes in my blog which I have posted earlier as well as Ripe jack fruit Dosa.

Now we will see how to make kottige, in our traditional method.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Jackfruit – 2 cups (cleaned)

Fresh coconut gratings – 1 cup

Grated jaggery – ¼ to ½ cup (according to your taste)

Ghee – 1 table spoon

Salt

Method:

-Wash Dosa rice (white raw rice) and soak for 2 to 3 hours.

-If you are using banana leaves, wilt the leaves on gas flame, wipe with a wet cloth and keep it ready.

-If you are using idli mould, grease the moulds with little ghee and keep aside.

-Chop jack fruit, separate fruit pods, remove outer thin white fibres as well as inner seed and take only yellow fruit part.

-Mix grated coconut and jaggery as well as ghee and keep aside.

-Grind rice into fine paste by adding very little water and salt.

-Now take jack fruit little by little and whip a little to chop roughly by using same mixer jar in which rice batter is ground.

-Take one wide bowl, mix in ground batter, roughly whipped fruit pulp, coconut-jaggery mixture.

-Mix nicely, spread the wilted banana leaves and pour one spoon and fold it like a sealed pocket. (refer the below pictures)

-Assemble all these packets in a water filled idli steamer or Momo steamer and cook this for half an hour to 40 minutes in medium to slow heat.

-If you are using idli mould, pour required amount of batter and steam cook like an idli.

-Relish this jackfruit idli or kottige with ghee or coconut and ginger chutney.

-We usually steam cook this on the previous night and keep it ready for the next day’s breakfast. In this way, It will be easy in the morning as now you just have to prepare chutney and serve.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Veggie Pickle/Gajar, Gobhi aur shalgam ka achar:

Winter vegetables are very juicy, which can be preserved and enjoyed during the off season as well. In Northern India mainly in Punjab, they preserve these veggies by making pickle. I am very much fond of all kinds of pickles right from our traditional non-oily baby mango pickle to Andhra Avakaya and Punjabi mustard oil soaked root vegetables. No meal is complete without pickle. I usually prefer homemade pickles over store bought one and usually stocks lots of varieties for our regular usage. People who know me will surely agree with this. 😀

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In this Pickle we use seasonal Red carrots, radish, cauliflower and Turnip chunks. Which is mixed with assorted spices, salt, jaggery and mustard oil. It is a classic combination with any kind of Indian flat breads.

How I make-

Ingredients:

Carrot – 250 grams (Red or Baby carrots)

Radish – 250 grams

Turnip – 250 grams

Cauliflower – 250 grams

Salt – ½ cup+ 1 table spoon (as needed)

Mustard oil – 50 ml

Refined cooking oil – 50 ml

Garlic cloves – 10

Yellow mustard – 50 grams

Turmeric – 1 + 1 tea spoon

Kashmiri chilli powder – 20 grams

Normal chilli powder – 20 grams

Vinegar – 50 ml

Jaggery – 75 grams

Method:

  • Wash, cut carrots, Radish, Turnip into long pieces.

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  • Remove small florets from cauliflower. Wash and drain.
  • Boil 4 to 6 cups of water in a big vessel. Add 1 table spoon of salt and 1 tea spoon of turmeric.

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  • Blanch cauliflower, radish, Turnip, carrot pieces separately and drain and cool.
  • Spread these on a clean towel and keep it under the sun for 1 to 2 hours to remove all the water content.

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  • If you are keeping and drying it inside the house, please switch on the fan or keep it for long hours, until it is dry.
  • Now keep everything ready for pickle masala and seasoning.
  • Take one thick kadai, pour oil, when it is hot, add garlic and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Ribbet collage 3

  • Add crushed yellow mustard, fry for one to two minutes.
  • Immediately add turmeric and dry veggies. Mix nicely.
  • Add both the chilli powders, salt and mix nicely.
  • Then add grated jaggery (I have kept the jaggery piece to show) and vinegar.

Ribbet collage 4

  • Cook until all the masalas and liquid absorb and becomes like a mass.
  • Cool the mixture, store this in a clean, dry glass bottle.
  • It will set in a weeks’ time and one can relish after that period.
  • After it sets, I usually prefer storing it in the fridge to prolong its shelf life.

Antinunde /Dry fruit laddu with edible gum:

Antinunde aka dry fruits laddu with edible gum is a super food for everyone, especially new moms or girls in their puberty, especially after their first cycle of menstruation. I came to know about this super food through my close friend’s mom, Chandu aunty.

According to her, if you are using it for a girl, after her first cycle. Traditionally it is a practice that, 5th day onwards girl should consume a little amount of ghee, small piece of copra (which is dried coconut) followed by one dry fruit laddu and a cup of milk for continuous 48 days. It is believed that, all the combined nutrition of dry fruits, edible gum and milk will take care of her and retain the calcium, iron and much needed supplements through the natural form.

If you are using after delivery, for a new mom as a postpartum supplement, method will be slightly different and here we should take care of the new born baby’s health as well. In this case, lady should consume, 1 spoon of postpartum lehya (which is a mixture of so many ayurvedic natural medicines) followed with little ghee, piece of dry coconut, one laddu and a glass of milk from 11th day onwards until 3rd month. Initial 1 ½ months content of the sesame should be more (for example 1 cup) other than this one should use ½ tsp of ajwain as well and after 2nd half one should decrease the quantity of sesame to half and quantity of the dried dates and edible gum should be more to pass on the supplements to the baby as well.

Other than these two instances, one can enjoy these delicious laddu at any given point of time with a whole lot of goodness. I will show you how I prepare this for a regular use –

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Ingredients:

Dates – 300 grams

Almonds – 100 grams

Cashew – 50 grams

Raisins – 50 grams

Fig – 50 grams (optional)

Melon seeds – 50 grams (optional)

Flax seeds – 25 grams (optional)

Desiccated coconut – 50 grams

Edible gum – 40 to 50 grams

Jaggery – 100 grams

Saffron – 10 strings

Nutmeg – 1 pinch (grated)

Cloves – 4

Ghee – 2 to 3 table spoons

Method:

-Chop dates and dry grind this in a small jar of the mixer grinder.

-Chop almonds and cashews 

-Dry roast saffron then coconut powder for 3-4 minutes, till you get a nice aroma.

-Dry roast flax seed.

-Heat one teaspoon of ghee and fry one by one, cloves, almond, cashew, melon seed and raisins.

-Put one more teaspoon of ghee to same tawa, fry those edible gum crystals, until it pops up and becomes fluffy.

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-Make powder of this by using mixer jar and keep aside.

-Lastly, fry those chopped or churned dates and add all these items together in a bowl and keep aside.

-Now take jaggery in a small vessel and take ½ a cup of water, boil and sieve this to remove any impurities.

-Put this sieved liquid in a thick tawa, in which we have fried all those dry fruits.

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-Boil this until it reaches one thread consistency. Switch off the gas.

-Mix in all those fried items, nutmeg powder, saffron and mix nicely.

-Rub your hand with little ghee and start to make laddu’s. 

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-Eat one laddu a day and enjoy.

Note:

  • Ratio of dry fruits and jaggery is 600 Grams:150 grams. If Fig is added, you can reduce a little.
  • I normally use normal dates, traditionally they use dried dates.
  • Instead of dry coconut (copra) I have used desiccated coconut.
  • One can use palm jaggery while making it for a new mom or use palm jaggery half and regular jaggery half.
  • My kids don’t like either poppy seeds or sesame seeds, instead I have added Melon seeds and flax seeds.
  • I normally add sugar candy crystals to enhance the crunchiness.

Seasoned Neer Dosa / Thellavu Oggarane:

Neer Dosa batter usually finished off as a fresh batter. We traditionally don’t keep Neer Dosa batter to ferment. We finish off all the batter by preparing dosas and keep. My family likes the seasoned sweet version of this at evenings as after school or office snack. That is the reason why I make it a point to soak more rice and prepare more dosas in the morning and keep them. Now we will see how I make this-

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Ingredients;

Left over dosas – 8

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Dried Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Salt – ¼ tea spoon

Coconut – ½ cup (grated)

Jaggery – grated (as needed)

Method:

-Break Neer Dosa into pieces by using hand.

Ribbet collage 1

-Prepare mixture of grated jaggery and coconut and keep aside.

-Heat one tawa, add oil, splutter mustard, fry urad dal, red chilli and add curry leaves.

Ribbet collage 2

-Add pieces of Dosa, sprinkle salt and add coconut jaggery mixture.

-Heat until it all mixes and then switch off the gas and serve as a snack.

Genasale/Steamed rice cake with coconut jaggery filling:

Genasale is coconut and jaggery filled steamed kadubu or steamed rice cake, usually folded and steam cooked in banana leaves. Banana leaf gives beautiful aroma and a good taste to this Genasale. Genasale is prepared using few basic ingredients but the end result is mouth watering, everyone’s favourite dish. 

In my ancestral home, Navaratri/Dasara is celebrated by worshiping Goddess Durga. This Genasale is the main offering to the Goddess during night puja. I still vividly remember waiting for this Genasale prasadam to be served, while having a scrumptious traditional dinner. Now let us learn how to prepare this Genasale or kayi kadubu (kayi = coconut).

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Ingredients:

Dosa rice /white rice – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1 cup

Grated Jaggery –  ½ cup (to taste).

Ghee/ Clarified butter – 4 tsp.

Salt to taste

Banana leaves

Method:

-Wash Dosa rice and soak it for 2 to 3 hours.

 Grind soaked rice in to a fine paste with minimal water and salt.

Batter should be a little thick but of spreadable consistency.

Add 2 tea spoon of ghee and mix nicely, keep aside.

Now prepare filling by mixing coconut, jaggery, and little ghee and mix everything nicely. keep it aside.

Now take banana leaf, hold this on a gas flame (for wilting), then clean it with a wet cloth.

-Now take one spoon of rice batter, apply on banana leaf like a thin Dosa. 

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  Take one spoon of jaggery mixture and Spread it over the thin Dosa and fold the banana leaf like a pocket. 

  Steam cook for 30 min.

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Serve this Genasale with dollop of Ghee and Enjoy.

Arrowroot Halwa:

Traditionally we call this Arrowroot halbayi. Which is easy to digest and considered as a very light food during fasting or illness. This should be consumed fresh and the shelf life of any halbayi is only 24 hours.

Arrowroot powder is extracted from the arrowroot plant, which is milky white in colour and powdery like corn starch. It has high nutritional content and is a very good substitute for bleached corn starch as a thickening agent in cooking. It is odourless and works well too.

Arrowroot powder’s “Easy to digest” quality is qualified to make infant food as well as to treat diarrhoea. It is usually consumed in a porridge form in our region. Usually, 1 tablespoon of powder is mixed with little water (according to the consistency) and cooked until it is shiny and glossy. Then with preferred seasonings like salt or jaggery.

Although it is a starch, it contains no gluten, so works well in gluten-free baking or cooking as well.

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Ingredients:

Use a small tumbler to measure arrowroot, milk and jaggery or sugar.

Arrowroot powder – 1 cup 

Coconut milk or milk – 1 cup

Jaggery or sugar – 1 cup (grated)

Ghee – 2 tablespoons

Water – 2 cups

Cashew bits – 2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder – 1 teaspoon

Method:

– Mix arrowroot powder in water and keep aside for one hour.

– After an hour, pour the top/soaked water. Add 2 cups of water, mix nicely and sieve this solution to remove any impurities.

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– Make jaggery syrup by adding little water, boil and sieve the solution to remove any impurities.

– Grease one steel plate with little ghee and keep it aside. Roast cashew bits with a drop of ghee and keep aside.

– Mix sieved mixture, coconut milk, jaggery syrup in one thick Kadai and heat the mixture by stirring continuously on low fire.

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– Add ghee in-between, when it is half done add cardamom powder, cashew and stir once.

– When the mixture leaves the sides of the vessel and becomes one mass and non-sticky, pour the mixture to a greased plate.

– Take one flat spoon/ladle, apply some ghee to the back of the ladle and press the mixture to give a uniformly smooth texture and even thickness.

– When it cools down a little, mark and cut this into the desired shape and serve.

– Please note, this halwa/ halbayi stands good only for one day. If you want to enjoy this dish over more days, you should store this in a refrigerator and reheat it before serving.

 

Patholi / Sweet rice dumpling, steamed in turmeric leaves:

Patholi is an offering which we make on the day of “Nagara Panchami”, or the snake festival in our house hold. Monsoon is the season in which we get lot of greens in abundance.     Maybe that is the reason this dish is made in turmeric leaves.

Patholi is coconut and jaggery filled steamed kadubu or steamed rice cake, usually folded and steam cooked in turmeric leaves. Turmeric leaf gives beautiful aroma and good taste and this pleasantly aromatic dish is favoured by everyone in our family.

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Ingredients:

Dosa rice /white rice – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1 ½ cup

Grated Jaggery – ½ cup (to taste).

Ghee/ Clarified butter – 4 tsp.

Salt to taste

Turmeric leaves – 8 to 10

Method:

– Wash rice and soak it for 2 to 3 hours.

– Wash turmeric leaves and keep it aside.

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– Grind this soaked rice in to smooth paste by adding ½ cup of coconut, water and salt and little jaggery.

– Now keep thick bottomed kadai, pour this ground batter and add some water to make thin consistency. Now add 2 tsp of ghee and start heating this mixture by continuous stirring. When it becomes little thick and forms a mass, switch off the gas and keep it aside to cool to handle it further.

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– In the meantime, make sweet coconut-jaggery mixture. In thick bottomed vessel add jaggery and ½ cup of water and heat. If you find some impurities in jaggery syrup, sieve this liquid and heat further and add fresh grated coconut and cook until it is sticky and forms mass. Add remaining ghee to this and mix. Now stuffing is ready.

– Method to make Patholi:

– Take little water in a bowl to dip your hand in between, while applying rice batter over turmeric leaf.

– Now take lemon sized rice batter ball, apply as thin as possible by using your hand by dipping your hand in bowl of water in between.

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– After applying ,spread coconut –jaggery mixture to half of every leaf in which batter is spread (please refer pictures)

– Now fold this in to half and keep this in a idly steamer and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done.

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– Serve with ghee.

Kadle Bele –Gerubeeja Payasa / Chana dal and Cashew Kheer:

Happy Yugadi! Yugadi is celebrated as the beginning of a new year in India (but through different names). In Bangalore, we start this festival by eating neem and jaggery. Neem denotes the bitterness we face in life, and the jaggery represents all the sweet things of life. By eating the neem and jaggery together, it is a symbol of promising ourselves to face the bitterness and sweetness of life with confidence.           

In Mangalore, we celebrate this festival by savouring a kadle Bele (Bengal gram or chanadal) and gerubeeja (raw cashew) Payasa. It is a delicious dessert which is made more delightful because of the cashew nuts which are present in every spoonful.

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We will see the procedure –

Ingredients:

Chana dal/Split Bengal gram – 1 cup

Whole raw Cashew – 1 cup

Coconut milk – 1 tetra pack

Jaggery – 1 ½ block (used Organic jaggery blocks)

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp.

Salt – ½ tsp.

Method:

-At first we have to remove outer cover of the young cashew. Take one bowl, put all those young and raw cashew kernels into it, pour boiling water and keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes by closing the lid.

-When outer cover of the kernels swells, remove the outer cover and keep aside.

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-Wash chana dal and cook this in a cooker by putting sufficient water for two whistles.

-Cook dal till it is perfectly cooked. Dal should be well cooked and easily crushed. Doneness is very important, after adding jaggery, dal becomes little stiff and firm.

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– When its pressure relieves add cashew kernels and cook. After one whistle, switch off the gas and cool this.

-Now add salt and jaggery and boil till you get a nice aroma and till the raw smell of jaggery disappears.

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 – When it is done, add one tetra pack of coconut milk and give one boil. That is it. Garnish with powdered cardamom and enjoy.              

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        Note: –

          If you don’t have access to raw cashew kernels, you can use regular cashew and you can cook this with Chana dal for 3 whistles and proceed by adding jaggery.

           If you are using fresh coconut for extracting milk, take grated coconut (from one coconut), add one cup of water and grind, and extract milk. (This is a thick extract and should be added at the end)

          Once again add little water and grind, to take out thin milk and you can add this while boiling jaggery.

          If you are using regular jaggery, at first self-boil this with little water, make a liquid and sieve this before adding to the kheer, to remove impurities.

 

Chikki from ellu bella/ Energy bar from left over sesame mixture:

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.

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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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.pic 5
  • When it is cool, store this in an airtight container.