BADAM POORI

This is a very simple and tasty dish which my daughters love. Other than the taste, its crispiness is one thing which makes people love it.  Preparing is also quite simple  and in spite of that  I have not come across this item in any sweet meat stalls. You can try this.

Ingredients:

For the flour:

Maida                                                 1 cup
Chiroti ravae/samolina                       1 tablespoon
Salt                                                     1 pinch
Butter/Refined oil                                1 table spoon
Water                                                   About half a cup
Refined oil                                           2 cups, for frying
Pure ghee                                            1 teaspoon (add to oil while frying)

For the syrup:

Sugar                                                   1 cup
Water                                                    About 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder                              1/4 treaspoon
 
Method:

For the flour:  Mix well maida, chiroti ravae, salt and butter in a bowl.  Add water little by little and knead till you get a consistency which is almost like the flour you knead for pooris.  What I mean is, it should be a bit hard, and not like that you knead for rotis or parathas. Smear with oil or cover with damp cloth and and keep aside for about half an hour.

For the syrup: Take sugar in a shallow container. Add water just to cover the sugar and  bring it to boil. Boil till you get a two or three string consistency. Add cardamom powder and mix.

Next step:

Now, take small balls of the flour and knead into  thin pooris.  It is a good idea to smear the rolling board and the pin with a little oil before rolling so that the flour doesn't get stuck to the board or the pin.  (You can even roll a big poori and cut it to any shape by pressing on it a sharp edged cup or the lid of small box). Take oil in a pan and  deep fry these pooris on a medium heat till golden brown.  Take them out into a plate.

Now start frying the next batch of pooris. In the meanwhile, dip all the already fried pooris in the syrup and take them out one by one with a tongs and arrange separately on a plate so they don't stick to one another.  Leave them to dry. 

Repeat the process till flour gets over.  When dry store in air tight boxes. 

From one cup of flour, you can make about 20-25 badam poories of   about 1-2 inch diameter each.

The badam pooris get a glazed finish and remain crisp for days provided the syrup  is of proper consistency.

CHRISTMAS CAKE

This wonderful cake needs some planning and the ingredients required are also more. The process of baking this is a bit laborious too, but I feel it is really worth the trouble. You know how happy I get watching people enjoy my cake.  This has made me bake more and more.  Anyway, I suggest you do try this out.

You need to take:

Maida/fine whole wheat flour                      1 cup
Baking powder                                            1/4 teaspoon
Sugar   powder                                            3/4 cup
Eggs                                                            2
Butter                                                           2 tablespoons
Vanilla Essence                                           5-6 drops
Dry fruits                                                      1 cup (like cashew, almond, walnut, dates, raisins, glazed                                                                                cherries, tutti frutti)                               
Rum                                                            About 100mls., to soak the dry fruits
Cinnamon powder                                      1/2 teaspoon
Clove powder                                              1/8 teaspoon
Candied orange peel                                   1 teaspoon, very finely cut.               
Instant coffee powder                                   3 level teaspoons
Sugar caramel *                                        (made from about 3 tablespoons of sugar)

                         

In this picture you can see the dry fruits I have taken :

Procedure:

Soak dry fruits and nuts in rum for at least 2 to 3 days.

Soak spices in warm water just before you start preparing the cake batter.

Sieve maida/wheat flour with baking powder.

Now preheat the open for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. 

In the meanwhile get the batter ready. 

Break eggs into a bowl. Add vanilla essence and beat till fluffy using a hand mixer.

Add butter and whisk it well. Then add sugar powder and continue mixing. Add soaked spices, sugar caramel* and coffee and beat well.

Mix in maida/wheat flour.  If you feel that the batter is hard, add some milk to get a dropping consistency. When it is very well mixed, add cut orange peel, dry fruits and nuts. Mix them well with a spoon.

Transfer the whole mixture into a greased baking trey. 

Bake in an oven at 180 degrees C, for about one hour.

Allow it to cool. Loosen the sides of the cake from the baking trey. Reverse the trey,  tap the bottom and transfer the cake on to a plate. Reverse it again on the plate.

Your Christmas cake is ready! 

(* To make sugar caramel: Heat sugar in a pan. It first melts. In a while it starts turning brown and starts foaming. Immediately add water and turn off the stove. The resulting solution is the sugar caramel)

GODHI/WHEAT FLOUR DOSAE

This is one of the simplest dosaes, an idea got from a young friend. This is instant and you can prepare whenever you think of since you have all the ingredients ready on you kitchen shelves for sure.  If you have no patience to roll chapathis, you can spread the batter and make dosaes!  You can include this in your menu for breakfast/evening snack/dinner !

You take:

Wheat flour                                       1 cup
Milk                                                   1 cup
Salt                                                   1/2 teaspoon
Ginger grated                                    1 teaspoon
Green chili                                         1 or 2 finely chopped
onion                                                  1/2 medium, finely chopped
Coriander 
       or                                                1 tablespoon chopped
Kasoori methi                                    1 tablespoon
Tamarind paste thick                         1/2 teaspoon
Cumin                                                1/4 teaspoon
Oil                                                       For roasting

procedure:

Take wheat flour in a bowl and add milk and whisk it till you get a dosae batter consistency. Add salt. Add all other ingredients and mix well. And it is ready to be spread on the tava! Spread one teaspoon oil on the tava, spread the batter and shallow fry on both sides just as you do for other dosaes.  Golden brown, thin, crisp dosae is ready ! You can have it hot with chatni pudi or any chatni, or without any of these.

A Note: You can mix just wheat flour, milk and a pinch of salt and make a plain dosae and have it with honey too.

This quantity will yield 4-5 dosaes.

AKKI PAYASA / KHEER

As many of you might know, this is a very popular dish. Usually it is an important item of a festival menu. Easy to make this,  but may be a bit time consuming. But it doesn't require you be around all the time, provided you have a big and thick bottomed pan to cook it.  It might take about half an hour for the whole process.

Usually they use Basmati rice for this, but I use Jeerige saNNa (Jeera rice), which is very small in size and has the same flavour as Basmati.

Ingredients:

Jeera rice                                                                   1 fistful
Thick milk                                                                   1 1/2 litre
Sugar                                                                          2-3 tablespoons
Saffron                                                                        About 10 strands
Almond slivered and roasted                                      2 tablespoons                             
Pure ghee                                                                   1 teaspoon

Procedure:

Soak saffron in about a tablespoon of hot milk.

Wash rice. Take milk in a large thick bottomed pan (to prevent milk from overflowing while boiling),  When it starts boiling, add rice.  Cook on a slow flame.

During the process, keep scraping out the cream that gets collected around the vessel, and put it back to the contents.  Cook till the contents reduce to 1/3 the volume, stirring in between taking care that it does not get burnt at the bottom. Add sugar. I add very less sugar, i.e about 2 tablespoons. Cook for one more minute. Add ghee. Add in the soaked saffron along with the milk and mix well. Transfer the contents to a bowl. Garnish with almond pieces. If you like you can add cashew nuts and raisins also.

You can make changes as per your convenience. To reduce the cooking time, you pressure cook the rice in milk, and add 1/3 of a tin of condensed milk and boil it. Here you need not add sugar.  Or, after pressure cooking you can add milk powder and boil it. Here you need to add sugar.

And if you want the payasa to be rich and thick, you can add powdered almonds.

I find that the payasa tastes better if cooled and as it gets older :)

Serves 4-6 or more, depending upon whether you serve it with a heavy/light  lunch/dinner !

Why don't you try it out today?

HOLIGE (OBBATTU)

Here comes the Holige, ajji's speciality and her master piece! This is prepared mostly during big festivals, but for ajji the arrival of any guest or demand  by grand children or friends itself is a festival ! And so, in spite of it being a time consuming and  an  elaborate process, how many lakhs of Holiges ajji has rolled so far, I cant guess!

I am not sure whether you really try your hand at this. But assuming  that you  prepare this one fine day (since you also like it a lot), I am posting this recipe.  If you dont have time, you can prepare this in installments too, i.e., prepare the stuffing the previous day and roll the holiges the next day.  You can even  store different quantities of stuffing in different containers in the freezer, and use it many times- whenever you feel like.  If the stuffing is ready, it is just like rolling stuffed parathas.  But this is a bit more delicate since it is extremely thin unlike parathas, and should be handled carefully.  But practice makes you roll them perfectly.  It is quite healthy also since the main ingredient is the togari bele/tur dal.

As you know, ajji makes one of the finest holiges of the world.  She has treated hundreds of friends and relatives with these.   And this Vijayadashami, we were with ajji and thatha in Mysore and there were holiges getting ready for the festival ! I caught the process on my camera.  And we all hogged them too with... yes, with pure home made ghee! The picture above shows it! Some of us had them with just ghee, and others with ghee, hot milk and also Elakki baLe haNNu (the special variety of banana, available in Mysore).  As you know eating holiges with banana is a speciality of thatha's family. Previously they used Rasa baLe,  a very special variety of bananas, but unfortunately it has become very very rare to find them nowadays.

To make holiges you have to have the kaNika (the flour) and the hoorNa(the stuffing).

 And ajji used:

For hoorNa:

Togari beLe/toovar dal                                                     1 cup
Jaggery syrrup                                                                  1 cup (1 string consistency)
Water                                                                                1 cup
Cardomom powder                                                          1/2 teaspoon
Clove powder                                                                   1/4 teaspoon
Jaikai Nut/meg powder                                                     2 pinches
 Jaipatre/Mace powder                                                     1 pinch
Coconut grated                                                                 1/4 cup




Procedure:

Pressure cook dal with water till done.  Cool to room temperature.

Then first run grated coconut in the mixer to a fine powder. (The coconut taken out from the freezer and thawed just till it becomes powdery, gets ground to a fine powder easily). Now add cooked dal, jaggery syrrup and run the mixer.  Transfer the contents into a microwavable bowl and microwave for for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring  in between.  The consistency of the product  should be that of the chappathi flour you knead for making chapathis and so, you have to remove this from the microwave when it is still a little softer than the chapati flour.  On cooling you will get the proper consistency.  Now add all the remaining spices and mix thoroughly with hand. 

For kaNika:

Wheat flour                                                   1 1/4 cup finely sieved
Maida                                                            1/4 cup
Turmeric powder                                          1 pinch
Refined oil                                                    1 tablespoon
Water                                                             about 1/4 cup

Procedure:

Take all the ingredients except water in a bowl.  Adding water little by little, knead to get a consistency like that of chapati flour.  Smear with 1 teaspoon of oil and leave for some time.  This process of adding 1 teaspoon of oil and kneading again and again should be done 5 or 6 times in a gap of at least 4 or 5 hours.  The flour becomes very very soft and rubbery.

It is important that the consistencies of both kaNika and hoorNa should be almost the same so that after stuffing and while rolling, it doesn't get torn. If you take a lemon sized ball of hoorNa,  it is enough if you take half the size of kaNika.  KaNika is a thin covering on the hoorNa, that is all. 

Now, see the magic of 84 year young hands in action.....stuffing and then rolling !

After rolling, spread about half a teaspoon of oil on the top of it and transfer it on the tava so that the oiled surface touches the tava. Spread half a tea spoon oil on the other side too.

This is how it looks immediately after transferring on to the tava.

Roast on a medium heat till you get light brown colour as you find in the picture.  The stuffing is already cooked, and the covering is very thin and so there is no need to cook it for a longer time or till fully brown.  If you take it out soon, the holige remains very soft.

You can see the holige bloated in this picture.  If it bloats, the holiges are extra soft.  It is okay even if it doesnt bloat.  You can take it out from the tava, once you get such dark marks on them.

Stuffing and rolling should be such that on rolling the stuffing is uniformly spread till along the circumference or else the edges become hard and it is not a nice feeling while eating.  Again, this can be attained with a little bit of practice or if you take interest in the procedure.  

PESARATTU (HESARUKALU DOSAE)

Pesarattu, made of  hesaru kaLu/whole green gram/moong, is a typical Andhra dish.  It is a very nutritious and tasty dish,  and easy to make too. It is quite filling and so is good as a breakfast, evening snack or  dinner. This does not require any other planning except that you need a few hours for the moong to get soaked.

To prepare this, you need:

Hesaru kaLu/whole moong                        1 cup
Rice flour                                                    1 table spoon
Green chilies                                               2
Ginger                                                         1" piece
Coconut grated                                           1/2 cup
Curry leaves                                                5-6
Salt                                                             1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds                                               1 teaspoon
Onion                                                          2 medium (one of them finely chopped)
Coriander leaves                                         2 tablespoons, finely chopped
Oil                                                               1/4 cup


Procedure:

Soak hesarukaLu for three to four hours.  Drain water. Grind it together with ginger, one onion, green chilies, coconut and salt to a coarse paste.   The consistency of the batter is a little thicker than the usual dosae batter. Now mix in chopped onions coriander leaves, rice flour and cumin.  Spread one scoopful on the tawa just as you spread for other dosaes. Make a few holes in the middle. Add a bit of oil into the holes and also around. Fry, reverse and add one more teaspoon of oil and roast the other side also. Adding oil into the holes makes the center part also get cooked well and makes the dish crispy too.

Take it out from the tawa. Serve with any chatni, pickle or chatnipuDi.  If it is hot and spicy, you don't need any other side dish with this.

With this amount of hesarukaLu, you can make 5 or 6 dosaes. 

SAAGU (MIXED VEGETABLE)

Actually this is not only the favourite of mine, but everybody's. As a young girl I used to consume three chapatis in place of usual two, if there was saagu as a dish. Ajji makes wonderful saagu and you know that.


 Nutrition-wise also this is very good since it contains different varieties of  vegetables.


The vegetables that are suitable to prepare saagu are;

Cabbage
String beans
Chow Chow (seeme badane kai)
Peas
Corn
Beetroot
Carrot
Potato
Cauliflower

Cut the vegetable to about 1cm square pieces. There is no rule for the quantity of each vegetable to be taken, but suppose you have cut vegetables to fill a 1 litre container, let there be just one small potato and about 2" square piece of beetroot. This small piece will just give a good colour to the saagu.

Other Ingredients for masala (to be ground into a paste) :

Grated coconut 1 cup
Onion 1 midium, sliced
Roasted gram dal 2 level table spoons
Cinnamon 1" piece
Cumin 1 teaspoon
Ginger 1 inch
Green chilly 1

For seasoning:

Oil 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves 5-6
Haldi 1 pinch
Garlic 2-3 pods finely cut (if you like garlic)
Onion 1 big (finely cut)

You also need salt, one or two cups of water and a teaspoon of sugar

Method:

Cook all the vegetables in a microwave or in a pressure cooker. Take take care that it is not over cooked. In fact except potato, you can just half cook the vegetables such that one should be able to recognise each vegetable in the ready dish. Moreover, I feel it gives a better taste and the vitamins are also well retained thus.

Now keep a kadai on the flame and add oil. When hot, add mustard. When it sputters add curry leaves, cut garlic and onions and fry for one or two minutes. Add haldi, mix well and add the cooked vegetables. Add salt to taste. Mix well and add the ground masala. Add about a cup of water and mix well and bring it to boil. Let it boil for two minutes. It becomes very thick, add half or one cup of water more and bring to boil. Finally add a teaspoon of sugar.

This is a sabji which is a bit liquidy, but there will be no gravy separately. You can make out in the picture. It is a wonderful accompaniment for plain parathas and pooris.

GOJJINA PUDI

Usually when people make special gojju, for example, gojjus of kittale sippe, bende kai, pineapple etc., they prepare the masala pudi separately. Otherwise they use just saarina pudi. I don't like to use sarina pudi and many times I am lazy to prepare fresh masala, especially when I have no time or when I am in a hurry. But everyone at home likes gojju. So I thought, why not prepare gojjina pudi also just like we prepare huli pudi, saarina pudi, etc.

Yes, from past few years, there is always a gojjina pudi jar along with all other pudis in my kitchen shelf. This is really very convenient. I don' like to spend much time in the kitchen, but I want tasty things. This attitude has given rise to many innovations.

You take:

coriander seeds 1 cup
Byadagi chillies 3 cups
Oil 1 teaspoon
Gram dal 2 tablespoons
Menthya seeds 1 teaspoon
Cumin 1 tablespoon
Ellu (til) 2 tablespoons
Dry coconut grated 1 cup

Procedure:

Dry roast coriander seeds, gram dal and cumin to a golden brown colour. Roast menthya and Ellu till they start sputtering and take out immediately or else they get burnt very soon.

Dry roast coconut on a slow fire till crisp. You can even just leave it in a hot kadai after turning off the flame. Keep stirring so that it doesnt get burnt in case the kadai is too hot.

Cool it to room temperature and grind the ingredients (except cry coconut) to a coarse powder. Add coconut and grind again.

Store in air tight jar. It is a good idea to store this in a fridge to prevent it from becoming stale since unlike huli pudi, sarina pudi this is rarely used and so may last longer.

HAGALKAI PALYA (BITTERGOURD)

This is a variation of the usual North Indian dish, the stuffed bitter gourd. In case  stuffed  bitter gourd  deep fry this after stuffing it with spices. To avoid deep frying, I tried this method. Turned out quite well

Ingredients:

Hagalkai/bitter gourd                          1/4 kg (cut as shown)
Onion                                                   1  big , slit as shown
Amchur powder                                   2 teaspoons
Salt                                                      1 level teaspoon
Red chilli powder                               1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder                                1 pinch

oil                                                           1 tablespoon

Method:

To quicken the process, take cut bitter gourd in a bowl, add salt, mix well and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing once or twice in between.

Now take oil in a thick pan and heat. Add soumph. When it turns golden brown add cut onions and turmeric. Fry for a minute. Add chily powder, mix and add cut bitter gourd and cook without adding water. Fry till cooked . Add amchur powder and mix well. After about a minute, remove from fire.

This tastes better when eaten the next day! The reason is that the hagalkai pieces will have absorbed salt and amchur and the palya will not be very bitter. If you like it bitter, you can eat the same day.

This is a side dish and tastes very well with plain roti and dal.

HUNISE GOJJU (FOR HUGGI)

So this is the `gojju', a South Indian accompaniment for the Huggi. Shortly I will give you the recipe of the Khichdi and gojju , the North Indian style, which I have adapted to my own style.

You should have sarina pudi ready for this gojju and I am for sure that any South Indian family does have a stock of it ALWAYS. Am I right?




What you need:

Tamarind paste 1/2 cup thick
Jaggery powder 1/2 cup
salt 1 teaspoon
saarina pudi 1 teaspoon (more if you want it spicy)
Oil 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon
Urd and gram dal 1/2 teaspoon each
Ingu 1 pinch
Turmeric powder 1 pinch
curry leaves 5-6

Method:

Mix tarmarind paste, jaggery together and heat till jaggery dissolves. Decant it because there might be sand granules in the jaggery. After decanting add salt and saarina pudi.

Heat oil in a small kadai. Add mustard seeds. When it sputters add gram dal and urd dal. When they turn golden brown, add ingu, turmeric and curry leaves and immediately pour in the other ingredients and boil for one minute. If it is very liquidy, you can stir in a table spoon of rice flour or wheat flour and boil for a minute so that it becomes thick and easy to serve.

This can stay in the fridge for about 15 days. So, now that recipes of Huggi and Gojju are both ready, common have it for dinner ! Let me know how it was!

Note: In this recipe, only the ingredients are more important. The amount of tamarind, jaggery and saaina pudi can be varied according to your taste. That is, you can prepare it according to how much sour, sweetness or spicy you like. This is a dish for which you can dip in your finger, lick and taste :), and change the quantity of the ingredients to get the taste you like.

HUGGI ( KHICHDI KARNATAKA STYLE)

Whenever Ajji makes Huggi, she says it is made usually in Dhanurmasa ! This is the winter season and according to Hindu calender, from December 16th to January 15th is Dhanurmasa. And for those who believe, this is supposed to be an auspicious month and they perform special poojes during this period. The story goes that Indra's wife Shachi made this and offered to God :)

As you know Makara Sankranti time is Harvest season also. Taking this into consideration, and also the body requirements during the winter season, the important ingredients used to make Huggi are rice, moong dal, ghee, black pepper, cumin, etc.

Anyway this is a wonderful, simple and healthy food and having this as a breakfast in an early winter morning, with suitable accompaniments, you just can't stop consuming it.

Ingredients:

Rice 3/4 cup (washed)
Moong dal 1/4 cup (roasted to a golden yellow colour)
(you can 1/2 cup rice and 1/2 cup dal also)
Water 4 cups
Salt 1 level teaspoon
Ghee/oil 2 teaspoons
Jeerige 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves a few
Ginger 1/2 inch grated or finely chopped
Black pepper 6-8
Clove 4-5
Dry coconut cut into size of peas-1 table spoon; you can take grated also.
(cut pieces give a special effect while eating)
Cashew nuts 10-12 cut into halves
Masala (if you want it spicy take just half a chilli, finely cut,
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper powder, 1/4 teaspoon of clove
powder)


Method:

Put ghee in a small pressure cooker. When it is just hot, add jeerige and fry till brown. Now add pepper and clove and fry for half a minute. Add curry leaves and immediately add cashew nuts and fry till golden brown and then add dry coconut pieces and fry till golden brown. Add masalas and immediately add only 3 cups of water. Add rice, dal and salt and pressure cook till done. When the pressure is released, take out the lid and add one more cup of water and boil again. Huggi should have a bit liquidy consistency and if you like you can half a cup more of water. Serve/eat hot. Not just that ! But with a heaped table spoon of butter (!!!!!!) if you want to enjoy life, and sugar powder and/or hunise gojju !!!! I will give you the recipe of hunise gojju in my next post.

Now a days they serve this in hotels with coconut chutney/raita, which I don't relish. Anyway, prepare this, enjoy and let me know how it was!

GUAVA JELLY

Given a choice, Anu mausi would practically live on guava jelly ! :) She loves it thaaaaat much. As you know, we spread it on bread just as we spread jam, but Anu mausi loves to eat it like halwa :)

The speciality of any jelly is that it is transparent, it can take the shape of the container, it is not sticky and so can be cut with neat edges.

Way back in 1976, I attended a workshop on food preservation conducted by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in our campus in Bhopal. ( I have a certificate and I could start a manufacturing unit, but I didn't:) ) Of all other products like jam, marmalade, squash, pickles, etc. that I learnt there, guava jelly became the most favourite of all at home because of its flavour and also appearance. It is so nice to see and taste a transparent jelly with a rich flavour of guava. So I have made it a point to prepare jelly every year during the guava season. But nowadays guavas have become very rare. But two days back, I couldn't believe myself when I heard a man selling `Allahabad' on a Thela in front of our house! (Allahabad is known for very good quality guava, but here any type of guava, whether it is small, hard, seedy, rotten...... is referred to as Allahabad :), but not as guava). So, now though they were not of very good quality, they met the other requirements.... almost the same size and just right stage of ripeness (yellow but firm) to make jelly. So I immediately bought about 40 of them in the noon and by late evening jelly was ready.

Jelly gets its beautiful consistency because of the high pectin content in the guavas. It is a very easy, but a time consuming process, needs a little patience, but it is really worth all the trouble. And it is really surprising that it is not at all available in the shops. No jam companies make them. Don't know why. So if you really want to prepare,

here is what you need to make the jelly:

Ingredients:

Guavas 1 Kg -yellow in colour-just ripe and firm but not soft(cut into 1/2cm slices
as shown in the picture)
Sugar 1 Kg
Water 1 litre
Citric acid 5 gms. ( 1 heaped teaspoon)

Procedure:















Take a thick and wide bottomed vessel and arrange the guava slices in it and add one liter water so that all the slices are fully immersed in water. Boil for about 45 minutes on a low flame. Never stir it. We have to get a pure pectin extract to get a transparent jelly. If you stir it, small particles or pulp of guava get mixed up and jelly won't turn transparent.(left over pulp can be used to make toffee or burfi).

Now, strain this through a thin cloth. Add sugar, citric acid and boil. Filter this after the sugar is dissolved. Boil till it reaches 222 F or 105.5C.
















If you don't have a thermometer, you can test the end point through what is known as a sheet test. This is done by taking the product in a flat spoon. When you hold the spoon horizontally, instead of falling as drops, the contents form a sheet as shown in the picture.














It means that the process is complete. Switch off the flame and transfer immediately to the jars.

How to store:

Keep ready two or three washed and dried glass jars and keep them in a trey of water so that about an inch of the bottle is immersed in water. Keep a spoon in the jar. The jelly is still in liquid form and pour it immediately after taking out from the fire. Keeping the jars in water and keeping spoons inside the jars prevents jars from breaking due to expansion from heat. Fill till the neck of the bottles. Half cover with lids till it attains room temperature. Then close the lids fully. From 1 kg fruits you will get about two standard half kg jam bottles of jelly.

Some other info: Usually I get a golden yellow coloured jelly. But this time it is dark, like Pears soap! This might be because, the quantity was more and the vessel was small and hence the evaporation became slow and the contents were on the stove for a longer duration.

There is a test for the quantity of pectin that is in the extract. You take two teaspoons of pectin extract and add one teaspoon of spirit and shake. A white precipitate is formed. Pour into an empty glass. It may fall as 1 lump or 2 lumps or many lumps depending upon the quantity of pectin in the extract. Accordingly you have to use 1kg, 3/4 kg and a little less than 3/4 kg of sugar for 1 kg of fruit.

I do not follow this, but I use sugar on an approximate basis. If you market it, then better follow all these. You can also get an instrument called `gelmeter' which of course, I haven't even seen :))

HULI PUDI

All these recipes of puDis are my mother's and I have been following this ever since I started cooking. Many people say they don't like cinnamon in huLi puDi. But those who say so also have enjoyed my huLi a lot. Actually it does give a special flavour to the dish.

Many people do not add dry coconut to the masala saying that the coconut has a tendency to get stale  fast and hence the huLi puDi doesn't last long. But the fact is that the dry coconut should be really dry. It should not have any moisture content in it. That is why we have to roast it in a pan, or microwave for one to two minutes till it becomes crisp. We have to take care that it doesn't get over roasted. So, here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Coriander seeds                            1 cup
Red chilies                                    3 cups (Byadagi) 2 cups (if Guntur)
Oil for roasting                             2 teaspoons
Gram dal                                       2 tablespoons
Cinnamon                                     10 gms
Cloves                                           2
Menthya/Methi seeds                   1 teaspoon
Dry coconut, grated                      1 cup (grated)

Procedure:

Dry roast gram dal till golden brown along with cinnamon and clove and keep aside.

Dry roast coriander seeds and menthya seeds separately till golden brown.

Put oil in kadai and roast red chillies till they sound dry and light.

Roast grated dry coconut taking care that it doesn't get burnt, as it has tendency to get over roasted with even a little excess heat.

Run all the ingredients except dry coconut in a mixture, to a fine powder. Then add dry coconut and run the mixer again.

Store the powder in air tight jar.

SAARINA PUDI

This recipe is actually for the Karnataka style saaru . Very easy to make.

Ingredients:

Coriander seeds 1 cup
Red chillies 3 cups (Byadagi variety)
Black pepper 2 teaspoons
Jeera 4 teaspoons
Menthya (Fenugreek ) 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds 2 teaspoons
Oil 2 teaspoons
Ingu 1/2 teaspoon (This I think is my own)
Curry leaves about 20(dried)

Procedure:

Dry roast separately on a low flame coriander seeds and menthya to a golden brown colour. Roast black pepper and also mustard seeds separately till they start sputtering. Transfer all to a bowl.

Add oil and fry red chillies till they sound dry and light.

Allow all the ingredients to cool to a room temperature. Grind to a fine powder along with ingu and curry leaves. Some times I roast curry leaves in half a teaspoon of pure ghee, crush with hands and mix it with the powder. This I do specially if I have to send it to you, Poo, since good flavoured curry leaves are not available where you live.

Store in air tight jar. Will remain good for more than 2 to 3 months.

BHATH PUDI

Though this is a masala used to make mixed vegetable bhath, can also be used for sabzis which go with rotis or chapatis also. Poo recently announced that it is an amazing masala powder, just when the stock on my kitchen shelf was over and I was about to prepare it. So I decided to post this recipe first and then the recipes for all the main `puDis' one by one. (Don't worry Shru and Poo, I will supply this to you as long as I can) ;)

One good thing about this masala is that you can prepare the bhath very frequently without the fear of getting bored with the same taste. That is because, different combinations of vegetables give you different flavours for the bhath. So with the same masala, you can make bhath with different flavours!!

The recipe for mixed vegetable bhath, I will post later. So here is just how you make this masala.

Ingredients:

Gram dal 1/2 cup
Urd dal 1/2 cup
Coriander seeds 1 tablespoon
cinnamon sticks about 10 gms
Red chillies 5-6 if it is Byadagi vereity, less if Guntur variety (cut into 1"pieces)
Cloves 4-5
Cardamom 5 -6 grains
Dry coconut grated, 1/2 cup
Oil 2 teaspoons.

Procedure:

Dry roast in a thick kadai and on a low flame gram dal along with cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Transfer to a bowl. Similarly roast urd dal, coriander seeds till golden brown and add to the bowl.

Now add oil to the kadai and roast red chillies, also on a low flame till you get a feel through the sound that it is dry and light. Transfer to the same bowl.

Roast dry coconut powder taking care that it does not get burnt, for it has a tendency to get burnt even with little excess of heat. Transfer this to a separate bowl.

Allow all to cool to a room temperature. Except dry coconut run all the other ingredients in a mixer to a coarse powder. Add coconut and run it again.

Store in an airtight container. This will stay good for about two to three months.

HUNISE HANNU AVALAKKI

This is a very tasty dish and Poorvi's one of the most favourites! Very simple and easy to make too. Inspite of this I don't prepare it often. I dont know why!

Recently I remembered this suddenly on Krishna Janmashtami day, since avalakki is supposed to be Krishna's favourite. So I did prepare it.


To make this you need:

Ingredients:

Avalakki/Poha 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Tamarind paste 1/2 teaspoon (thick paste)
Salt 1 level teaspoon
Jaggary powder 2 teaspoons
Sarina pudi 1 teaspoon
Ingu 2 pinches
Oil 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves 8-10
Raw coconut 1/2 cup (grated)
Peanuts 2 tablespoons (roasted)

Procedure:

Run avalakki in a grinder for one or two seconds to a coarse powder. Doesn't matter if a few of the grains are not ground at all.

Now take water in a bowl. Add salt, tamarind paste, ingu, jaggery, sarina pudi and mix till salt and jaggery dissolve. Add ground avalakki and mix well. Leave it for about half an hour, while stirring the contents with a spoon once or twice in between so that the grains are separate.

Keep a kadai on flame. Add oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. When they sputter, add curry leaves and add the contents of the bowl. Keep stirring till the contents are mixed uniformly. Now add grated coconut and roasted peanuts and mix well.

The dish is now ready to eat. It will not be hot, but just warm since there is no need to cook it. If you want to have it hot, microwave for a few seconds.

It may not stay for more than one day even if you refrigerate it because of raw coconut. So you have to consume it soon.

BREAD ROLLS ! THE MOST RELISHED !!!!!

 As you know, this is one dish in the world, which can never be disliked by any one. Those who are on a diet also cannot resist and end up eating 3 or 4 pieces, though just one piece itself is quite filling. But I wonder why this is an unheard of dish. What I mean to say is, I have never come across anybody mentioning that they ate bread rolls in some restaurant.

Here goes the recipe!

Ingredients:

Bread slices                           8

Water                                     1 bowl (for dipping the bread slices}

For the stuffing:

Potatoes                                4 medium

Onion                                    2 medium

Salt                                        1 teaspoon

Red chili powder                  1/2 tsp or more

Amchur powder                    1 teaspoon

coriander leaves                    3-4 tbsp finely cut

Procedure:

Boil potatoes and mash. Chop onions finely. Add salt, red chili powder, amchur powder and chopped coriander leaves. Mix well. Take a fistful of this stuffing and  roll them as shown in the picture.

Now dip a slice of bread in water and take out immediately. Squeeze well between palms. Place the stuffing on the slice and cover it fully with the soaked bread. Roll it as shown in the picture. Follow the same procedure for all the slices. (Some people remove the edges of the bread so that the fried roll looks smooth. But I dont take them out since I dont want to waste them)

Deep fry in oil to a brown colour. Serve/eat hot with tomato sauce and/or pudina chatni. I can say this serves 4, but it can serve just two ;) 

This is to be eaten immediately when the bread covering is still crispy.

Making bread rolls is a bit long and messy process, but all the trouble is worth. In case you are expecting guests and you want to treat them with bread rolls, you can make the rolls with stuffing the previous day and store in the fridge. You can fry them after the guests arrive.

Enjoy!

WALNUT DATES CAKE

Basically there is not much difference in the proportions of the main ingredients we use for any variety of cakes. This is what I feel. When you add different items like dry fruits and nuts, there is another small step to follow. For example, for this cake, I microwave the dates for just 10 seconds to make it soft. I soak crushed walnuts in two teaspoons of milk, mixing it often, again to make them soft. By doing this, you can cut the cake into neat slices, or else the hard nuts come in the way and crumble the cake. That is why while baking Christmas cakes or fruit cakes, all kinds of nuts and dry fruits are soaked in rum for two days. (Rum gives the cake the special flavor).

So, here is what you need for this cake.

Ingredients:

Maida 1 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup (here I add 3/4 cups instead of 2/3, because, the dates also give sweetness)

Butter 3/4 cup

Eggs 2

Essence (I use pineapple)-1/2 teaspoon

Baking powder 1/4 teaspoon

Walnuts about 100 gm or 1/2 cup- crushed to small pieces, softened with milk

Dates Cut to small pieces, eg. size of a peanut, microwaved for 10 seconds


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180 F

Sieve maida with baking powder. Powder the sugar.

Break eggs into a bowl and add the essence. Beat well with a hand mixer. Add butter and beat well. Add sugar, mixing it continuously with the mixer. Add maida, mix well. In the end add walnuts and dates and mix lightly till they are equally distributed in the batter.

Pour into greased tray and bake for about 50 minutes. (I love to sprinkle sliced almonds on the top. This is actually optional)

In spite of soaking in milk, you get crisp pieces of walnuts while eating and it is.............. just delicious! Let me see who will try this first........... :)

ALU METHI PULAV

This is quite a simple dish. Long back Anu mausi had prepared something like this. I do not remember how exactly she made it, but on that basis, I tried this and it turned out very tasty.







So, here are the

Ingredients:

Rice (jeera rice or plain) 1 cup; here I have used unpolished red rice... healthy rice :)
Alu 1 medium
Kasoori methi 1/4 cup or
Fresh chopped menthya soppu 2 cups
Potato 1 medium
Onion 1 big
Grated coconut 1/2 cup
garlic 2-3 pods
Ginger 1/2 " piece
Green chillies 1 or 2
Cinnamon 1/2" pieces 3 or 4
Clove 8 pieces
Black pepper 4 or 5
Cashew nut a few pieces
Tamarind paste (thick) 1/2 teaspoon
Water 3 cups
Refined oil and/ghee 2 tablespoons
Salt about 1 1/2 teaspoons

Procedure:

Wash rice and drain water and leave it for half an hour.

Soak kasoori methi in hot water for about 15 minutes.

Cut potato into 1/2" cubes

Grind together coconut, onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies, black pepper, one piece of cinnamon, and 4 pieces of clove into a rough paste.

Fry cashew nut pieces in ghee to a golden brown colour.

Heat oil in a pressure pan. Add remaining cinnamon and cloves and fry for half a minute. Add the ground paste and fry till raw smell goes. Add potato and fry for one minute. Add soaked kasoori methi or menthya soppu and fry for one minute. Add rice and fry for one minute. Add water (you can also include the water in which you had soaked kasoori methi ). Add salt and tamarind paste. Pressure cook till you get 3 whistles. When done, transfer to a bowl and garnish with fried cashew nuts. Serve hot with raitha.

PANEER SABZI

Dear Shru and Poo,
It is a long time since I posted a recipe. You know that I was busy with so many other things. Just as I was planning to post others from my list, Nanda told me that she has tried most of my recipes which turned out well and that she was waiting for more recipes from me. That made me act soon.

So here it is -one of the easiest and tastiest dishes, which goes well with rotis. All you need to buy is paneer. All other ingredients are mostly available at home. You can buy and store paneer in the freezer for quite some time and it becomes handy in emergency- that is, when you have no time to buy vegetables or when guests arrive unexpectedly or in short notice. So, try this.

Ingredients:

Paneer 200gms (one block cut into 1/2" cubes
Oil or butter 1 tablespoon
Onions 3 (medium sized)
Garlic 3-4 pods
Ginger 1" piece
Tomato 2 medium sized
Tomato puree 3-4 table spoons
Jeera 1 teaspoon
Dhania powder 1/2 teaspoon
Haldi 1 pinch
Red chilli powder /2 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Garam masala 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander leaves 2 tablespoons chopped

Procedure:

Grind together onion, garlic, ginger and tomato into a paste. Let it not be very smooth.
Put oil or butter in a kadai and heat it. Add cumin seeds After it turns brown, add dhania, haldi and mirch and immediately add the ground paste. Fry till raw smell is gone. Add tomato puree and fry for about one minute. Add about 1 cup of water and saslt and bring to boil. Add paneer cubes (many people fry them, but I dont), and boil for 3-4 minutes. Add garam masala and coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rotis. This quantity serves four.
(There are different varieties of paneer masala where poppy seeds, cashew nuts are used. But I make this in a simple way)

BABY CORNS IN TOMATO SAUCE

Hi Shru and Pooh

It is a long time since I sent you a recipe. Had got very busy with so many things as you know.

I had brought home some baby corns and some how didnt feel like making sabzi for rotis. So I thought I would make something else with that. It turned out very tasty. So here it is for you to try!

Ingredients:

100 gms baby corn (about 10 pieces)
garlic 2 big pods or 4 small pods
ginger 1/2 "
green chillies 2
oil 2-3 tablespoons
salt, about 1/4 teaspoon
tomato sauce about 4 tablespoons

Procedure:
Take out the covering layers of the baby corn. Add 2 tablespoons of oil in a thick kadai or nonstick kadai and heat. Add baby corns and roast for about 3-4 minutes till golden brown. Keep then aside.
Add one teaspoon oil to the kadai, add finely cut garlic, ginger and green chillies one by one and fry for a few seconds. Add tomato sauce and bring it to boil. Add salt. Add roasted baby corn and mix well. Remove from fire. Serve hot. (Eat it hot! All recipes say serve hot, does it mean that you should not eat?) :)

Of course this masala is the same as that we use for making manchooris. The difference is, here we dont make pakodas out of the corn as we do in manchoori. No deep frying is involved. Still the corns remain crisp.

This can be used as a starter also or as an evening snack while it is raining or when it is cold outside.

Try this with Alu also. Let me know how it tasted.
love
amma

HOOKOSU (PHOOL GOBI) PARATHA

Dear S and P,

You need a bit of time and patience to make this hookosu paratha. But definitely it is not difficult. If you keep the main stuffing material ready whenever you have time, and store it in the fridge, you can prepare it whenever you feel like. If you feel it is time consuming, you can distribute the procedure over different timings, if you like. You can store the ready stuffing for about a week in the normal compartment of the fridge.

After you buy cauliflower, separate the florets, soak them in luke warm salt water for about a hour to remove insects if any and then wash again with ordinary water. Drain the water and allow them to dry on a clean cloth. See that there are no water drops sticking to the florets, because it is important that the stuffing is dry or else it is difficult to roll the parathas.


Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour
Enough water to knead
4-5 big florets (to get one cup of gratings)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red chilly powder
1 teaspoon garam malala
1/2 teaspoon amchur powder
1 bunch coriander leaves cut into fine pieces
Oil to roast the parathas.

Procedure:

Knead the flour with enough water, to get a dough that is suitable for plain parathas. Grate the florets, taking care that there are no big pieces which may obstruct smooth rolling process. Add salt, chilly powder and coriander leaves and mix well.

Now, take a ball of the dough, the same size you take for plain parathas. Divide it into two balls of equal size. Knead both balls round, again of equal size. Take about 1/5 the quantity of the stuffing and spread it on one of the rolls. Cover it carefully with the other roll to fit properly and then press softly with hand. Roll it again softly taking care that the stuffing does not peep out.

Roast this on a hot tava adding about half teaspoon oil on both sides.

It is best served hot with tomato sauce, green chilly pickles and/or thick curds.

You can make about 5 parathas with this ingredient.