Kitchen-Kollections

Snow is here finally….its really chilly out here in michigan. Snow fell quite early this year…generally snow comes in by nov end..i guess this year snow will be more worse than the previous yr..hmm..anyhow..i am tired of drinking coffee and tea..its never enough for me!! usually i drink only tea but yesterday..for the first time..i made coffee with instant coffee powder..it came out well..but somehow my head was spinning…I made rice flakes kheer today….i make poha upma usually..or chidwa..but for the first time..made kheer..its quite simple to make..here is the recipe…try it out!! Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup rice flakes (poha)
3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
10 raisins
10-12 strands of saffron
5 pistachios crushed coarsely
1/2 tsp. cardamom powder

Method

• Wash the rice flakes with water andDrain the water.
• Bring to boil the milk and add rice flakes.
• Cook till the kheer is semi-solid (or preferred consistency is reached).
• Add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves and add nuts. Serve hot.

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.

My dear mother had this amazing idea of mixing oats and rava to make delicious laddus. This is best sweet that diabetes patients would love to eat to ease their sugar cravings. Rolled oats are full of nutrients,fibre and protein.

According to WHO, oat protein is nearly equivalent in quality to soy protein.

This is my entry to JFI- Oct 08 – Whole grains event

This is one simple recipe to make and its a great chance to make people with diabetes smile!

Ingredients

1 cup rava or semolina
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup sugar or equal sugar or sugarless sugar
Almonds and pista nuts powder
dry kismis
3 tbs cold soy milk or skim milk
1 tsp cardamom powder

Method

• Roast rava and oats seperately.
• Grind them along with sugar.
• Add 3 tbs milk and mix it well..and make round laddus. You can add kismis too.

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!

Halwa ~~ A dessert made from various kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains and lentils. The ingredients in Halwa are grated finely and fried in ghee and sugar. Nuts and milk may also be added. Halwas have the consistency of a very thick pudding.

This is the technical definition of halwa but the whole experience of eating this dish away from homeland is totally different. Although I ate this halwa in quite a number of restaurants but somehow I felt that they did not get the taste right. Frankly speaking, I did not know that by adding condensed milk, the taste will come out this amazing!!! I thought the ingredients would be only milk sugar and carrots..thats it. With condensed milk..the taste comes out real good.

Try this recipe and let me know how was it!!

This is my entry to Paajaka sweet series is carrot halwa. This dish was specially made for my DH birthday!

Ingredients

4 cups grated carrot
1 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 cup cashewnuts
1/4 cup badam
2 cloves
2 tbs ghee

Method

• Wash and peel carrots and then grate them finely.

• Take a deep skillet and add two tbs ghee. Add cloves,cashewnuts and badam. Add grated carrot. Keep stirring till it cooked properly. It will take at least 15 minutes to do this on medium heat. Do not cover the skillet with any lid.

• Add condensed milk and mix it well. Add the cardamom powder. Keep stirring for five minutes more.

• Add sugar slowly and keep mixing for 10 more minutes.Halwa is ready to eat. You can top it with dry coconut powder.