Besan Peda

I tried Ramyas Besan peda which turned out soo good! I modified the measurements a bit, didnt add saffrons and thats y the color was light brown and at a quick glance looked to me like badushah - tats one of my fav sweets too :)

Ingredients:

Gram Flour (Besan flour) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/2 tbsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 1
Cashews - as required (optional)

Method:
1.Heat butter, let it melt and roast besan flour in that till it becomes light brown.
2.Add sugar and cardamom powder. Pour milk and keep stirring for 5mins without any lumps.
3.Switch off the flame and allow it to cool for 10mins.
4.Roll them into small pedas, press cashews on top.

When refrigerated it will last upto a day.

Ragi Roti - A healthy breakfast

Lazing around on a sunday morning, the climate being soo cool didnt want to get up from bed at all. And to my surprise the breakfast was my favorite - Ragi roti! I cudnt take a better picture of this roti but dont go by the pic....but believe me it tastes soo gud and filling. Here goes the recipe....This has 2 variations sweet and karam.

Ingredients for karam:
Ragi powder - 1.5 cups
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Onions - 1
Coriander leaves - a handful
Green chillies - 1
Oil

For sweet :
Jaggery - 1 small ball/according to taste
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Coconut - 2 tbsp


Method :
1.Saute the ragi powder in a empty tawa for 5mins, Keep aside
2.Tamper mustard seeds, add onions, coriander leaves and green chillies and fry for few mins. Add it to the ragi powder
3.Add hot boiled water to the above mixture, the consistency should be thick enough to roll them into balls. Roll them into balls and flatten them on a polythene sheet.
4.Put it on a pan, pour little oil along the sides. Turn to other side until it is cooked.Serve hot with coconut chutney.

For sweet :
Boil 1/2 cup of water and add jaggery to it. Stir it until its liquified.
Pour it little by little to the sauted ragi powder,add coconut and cardamom powder. Roll , flatten them and repeat the 4th step mentioned above.

I felt the sweet roti was little harder while the karam was soo soft and crunchy.

And I am sending my Ragi Kozhukatati to JFI- Ragi

Soya Balls Gravy - A creamier version!

Am finally back.........Not that I was busy, but I didnt cook anything blog worthy.And this was the one I tried few weeks back......From the day I've read soya chunks is rich in proteins and all goodnesses abt it, I've started to hunt for recipes and my main search was gravies and here is another version of soya chunks gravy dipped in a creamy sauce...I forgot the link where I got this recipe from...But it was soo yummy with rotis. Hubby was literally licking the bowl and complained that the quantity was too less for him....:)

Ingredients:

Soya chunks 2 cups

Onion 1 big

Tomatoes 2

Ginger garlic paste 1/2 tsp

Butter 1 tsp

Kasoori methi 1 tbsp

Turmeric a pinch

Red chili powder 1/2 tsp

Garam masala 1/2 tsp

Cream 2 tbsp or 1/2 cup milk

Salt

Method:

1. Soak Soya chunks in hot water for 30 minutes, then wash it in cold water 3-4 times each time squeezing the water from the soya to get rid of the smell. Heat oil in a pan. Saute the soya for 2mins and keep it aside.

2. Boil the tomatoes and onion in a cup of water and make a paste of each seperately.

3. Heat butter in a pan and fry onion paste till golden brown for about 10 mins. Then add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 5 mins. Add tomoto paste, mix well and fry for sometime. Now add the masalas and cook/fry till the oil seperates.

4.Add the soya to the gravy and add enough water to get a thick consistency. Add the kasoori methi and bring it to a boil.

5.Remove from heat and add the milk, switch on and cook till gravy becomes thick. Serve hot with phulkas or rotis.

Rava Onion Oothapam & Tomato Chutney

Happy Mothers day to all mothers out there! And I dedicate this post to my mother who had been my all time support so far and yrs to come! Yesterday I made onion rava oothapam and tomato chutney. Both went great together....and here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Rava- 2 cups
• Rice Flour/ Idly,dosa batter - 2.5 tbsp
• Curry leaves- few chopped
• Red chilli pwdr - 2 tsp
• Curd/yogurt- 4 tbsp
• Onion- 1 chopped finely
• Green chillies- 2-3 chopped
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Combine all the above together in a large bowl.Add enough water to make the batter, It should be dosa batter consistency but a lil thicker than that.


2. Spread it into oothapams onto a hot pan, pour little oil along sides.


3. Turn it once it becomes light brown on the ends. Cook both the sides and serve hot. It was crispy at the edges and crunchy inside.

NOTE : We can also have half of onions mixed up in the batter and half of it sprinkled while oothapams are made.

For Tomato Chutney, I followed exactly Priyas recipe. It can go very well with idlis and dosas.

Arachuvitta Sambar

The word sambar brings back the memories of Coimbatore's Annaporna Sambar(a very popular hotel in Coimbatore for its sambar which tastes out of the world) I havent tasted any sambar even close to it. I am not a person who drench the idlis/dosa in sambar but when it comes to Annaporna sambar I m no exception to it....I can even drink a cup of it ;) Am sure residents of CBE wud agree with me...Even now when I go on a days visit to CBE, I make sure to go to the hotel however hectic the schedule may be. They also sell their sambar powders but still we cant get the same taste as theirs. If you ask me to write abt CBE I can go on and on....

I followed Lavi's recipe with my own modifications here and there and this arachuvita sambar was very aromatic & flavourful becos of the spices blend into it. So coming to the archuvita sambar recipe right away:

Ingredients :

• Toor Dal(Tuvaram parupu) - 1 cup
• Tamarind - 1 lemon sized ball
• Shallots - 10
• Tomato - 1
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped

Roast and grind:

• Coriander Seed's / Dhania - 1 tsp
• Chana Dal / Kadala Paruppu - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek / Vendhayam - 1/4 tsp
• Raw Rice / Arisi - 1 tsp
• Dry Red Chilli / Kanja Milagaai - 1
• Grated Coconut / Thuruviya Thengaai - 1 tbsp

To Temper:

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Hing/Perungayam - a pinch
• Curry leaves - few
• Red chillies - 1

Method:

1. Pressure cook toor dal(4-5 whistles) till its cooked and becomes mashy. Heat a pan, fry the above grinding items one by one in the same order.

2. Dry roast the ingredients under 'to roast and grind' one by one until golden brown and grind it to a fine powder. Keep aside.

3. In a kadai, Heat 2 tsp of oil, add mustard leave to tamper, fenugreek, hing, red chillies and few curry leaves.

4. Now add the shallot's, saute them till they are semi-cooked. Add chopped tomato and saute it well. Add the ground powder and add turmeric powder and saute them for a minute, till the raw smell of onion's and masala's goes off.

5. Add the mashed toor dal, Mix well.Add the cup of Tamarind water and mix well, add half cup of water to make the sambhar little watery. Allow it to boil for 5mins.

6.Add salt and chopped corriander leaves. Let the sambhar boil for 2 minutes and switch off.

Carrot Milkshake

Had a 3 days weekend.......I saw couple of movies : Mariyathai and Yaradi Nee Mohini(3rd time ofcourse:)) Mariyathai was a typical Vikraman movie....I wonder each time watching his movies.....How could all characters in his movie alone be sooo gud and kind hearted!? The movie was ok type only but guess this is far better than the violent and action movies coming up these days which is not my kind at all and tats the reason I dont want to watch Ayan! Yaradi Nee mohini was screened in SunTv on Friday for May day.....though the story line is not of logic I still luv the movie for its humour sense and songs! And wat else.....I am waiting for IPL to get over......everywhere this mania strikes, hubby is totally into it and sticks to the channel everytime.

Now coming to the carrot milkshake....Again the laziness in me has popped up, so I didnt enter kitchen for a week or so.....inspite of long weekends and holidays......:( Cudnt stand in the kitchen for more than 10mins its sooo hotttttt....wish I had an A/C there too :) And this one is right from the drafts which I made long back! Carrot milkshake is very creamy and tasty which can be done in a jiffy, here goes the recipe:

Ingredients : (Updated)

2 small fresh carrots grated

1 cup milk

4 badams

2 tsp sugar / as required

Method:

1. Saute the carrot for 5mins until raw smell goes.

2. Blend milk, sauted carrot, sugar,badams in a mixer well until creamy and thick

3. Refrigerate for 30mins and serve chilled!

And this goes to

Mahimas 15minute cooking and

Sangis Fall In Love with Carrots for Season 2