Kitchen-Kollections

Sankrathi Shubakankshalu

Today is special day for all south indians as its sankranthi or pongal festival. Its actually called makara sankranthi..on this day, sun enters makara i.e. capricorn sign – 10th sign of the zodiac. This is the day when ladies of the house makes lot of tasty dishes! One of them is minapa garelu. Here is the recipe…

Ingredients

1 cup Urad dal
2 Green chillies
1 big Onioin finely chopped
1 tbsp small pieces of ginger
Salt – According to taste
Jeera
Oil

Method

• Soak Urad dal in water for about four hours.

• Drain the water completely and grind the dal adding some salt (Dont use water while grinding).

• Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, ginger pieces and jeera to the dough. You can add a little chilli powder too. Then make the dough into the the shape of vada. You can do this on a ziplock bag easily.

• Deep fry till golden brown. Serve hot with coconut chutney.

ENJOY!!!!!

 We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.

Hii..all..Happy Deepawali to all!! Its time for sweets..sweets sweets. Deepawali is a time when one can gorge on sweets happily And also its been quite a while since i have made any sweets..Jalebi is one thing which i always wanted to make..but never tried it. Whenever I think of Jalebi..i remember that dhara ad..that little boy says the word “Jalebi” so cutely…I think more people got interested in eating jalebi more than buying that oil brand!!!

Frankly speaking i dont know whats it called in english…i only know jalebi flour circles?? it would be funny to describe it in english..anyhow..here is how i prepared my first ever jalebi….

Ingredients

1cup plain flour (maida)
1/4th cup gram flour (besan)
1 cup sugar
few drops yellow colour
2 tbsp. milk
Oil for deep frying
a plastic easy squeeze bottle

Method

• Sieve 1/2 cup maida and besan together. Make a batter using warm water.
• Keep aside for 24 hours. Add remaining maida and food colour and more warm water if required.
• The batter should fall easily when poured – Not too thick not too thin, keep it aside.
• Make syrup of the sugar and water. Boil it well. Make one string syrup. 
• Fill the bottle with batter.
• Heat oil well in a shallow frying pan and form jalebis in the form of concentric circles about 2 inches on the outside.
• Fry till crisp, drop into hot syrup. Drain with a perforated spoon, serve hot.

Note : I used a bottle for preparing jalebis…you can use a ziplock bag too. Just cut the corner of the bag. The hole should be about the thickness of a knitting needle.

Happy Vinayaka chavithi to all!! Its my favourite festival of my favourite God ~ Ganesha! Enjoy! Here is the recipe for Pala vundrallu or modal in milk.

Pala Vundrallu or Modak in milk

1 cup milk (boil it for 10 min and let it cool off)
1 cup rice flour
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup jaggery
1/2 cup coconut
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp ghee

Method

• Boil 2 cups of water in a deep pan and add rice flour slowly while stirring continously. Make sure no lumps are formed. Mix it for 3 minutes on low flame and keep it aside to cool off.
• Add 1 tsp of ghee and knead it well and make small 1″ balls.
• Take another pan and add 1/2 cup of water and let it boil.
• Add jaggery and make a fine syrup with string like consistency.
• Add shredded coconut and mix it well. Add cardamom powder also.
• Place the rice flour balls one by one in the syrup and mix it well so that each one is coated well.
• Now slowly add the warm milk and mix it.  Be very careful, because if you add hot milk into the jaggery, milk will start to curdle.

Happy Varalakshmi Vratam to everyone! 

Online audio for the pooja is here Varalakshmi Vratam vidhanam and kadha.

For text – click here varalakshmi vratam

Shravanam started this year from August 2 and today is sravana shukravaram. This is mainly for married ladies. Some of the naivedyam recipes that you can make today 

• Garelu
• Semiya Payasam
• Rava kesari
• Boorelu
• Pulihora
• Boabbatlu/Puran poli
• Rava laddoo
• Chakkara pongali

I never thought I would actually make sunnundalu…because i used to think its a lengthy process…frankly speaking the last time when I ate it was at my grandmother’s house. If you disregard the ghee content in the sweet, this sweet will instantly melt in your mouth and you would like to eat just one more!!!! Welcome to the world of laddus!

Ingredients

1 cup urad dal
1 cup fine sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 cup ghee

Method

• Dry roast the urad dal on low heat until golden brown, toasty. Stir often while doing it.
• Powder the urad dal until very fine in the grinder. Add the sugar also. By doing this, sugar and urad dal blend well.
• Add cardamom powder and mix well.
• Add ghee slowly in installments and mix the flour, sugar mixture while doing it until it the ghee is absorbed so that you can make balls with it.

Make round balls of the laddu and savor as dessert!