Cranberrry Jam

"Wishing all my dear blogger friends a very Happy and Prosperous New Year"

          

             Yes, it's been a long time, sorry friends was caught up with my daily chores. Now that I am back will try to be more regular. This is the most delicious and easiest recipe for cranberry jam or preserves you’ll ever encounter. This recipe is  easy that you’ll be able to rave, about how delicious this is. Trust me after you try this jam, you will never ever buy canned again. 

Ingredients 

Water – 1 cup

White Sugar - 1 cup

Fresh Cranberries - 1 (12 ounce) package

Orange, peeled and pureed - 1

Apple peeled, cored and diced - 1

Pear peeled, cored and diced - 1

Dried mixed fruit chopped - 1

Pecans chopped – 1 cup (optional)

Salt – ½ tsp

Cinnamon ground – 1 tsp

    Nutmeg ground – ½ tsp

Recipe

1. In a medium saucepan, boil water and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Reduce the heat to simmer, and stir in cranberries, pureed orange, apple, pear, dried fruit, pecans, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst.
3. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature. Homemade cranberry jam is wonderful on toast or a sandwich too. 

  

Tips

   1.  Remember to keep the heat low to prevent the jam from burning. 

   2. The jam will keep for a couple months but, once open, keep it in the      fridge  and use fairly quickly.

   

 

Diwali Sweets

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Bread Bonda

    Bread Bonda is a South Indian crispy snacks and comes in two major varieties sweet and spicy. These are perfect on a dull day with a hot chai. These are bread balls filled with potato curry and fried to golden brown.

Ingredients

Potato boiled and smashed - 4

Finely chopped green chilli - 2

Salt as per taste

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urud dal - 1 tsp

Onions chopped - 2

Lemon - 1/2

Oil for deep frying

Bread - 12

Curry leaves - 1 spring

Corriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Ginger finely chopped - 1/2 piece

Hing - 1 pinch

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Recipe

1) Heat 1 tsp oil in pan and add mustard seeds. 

2) Once they splutter add in urud dal, curry leaves, hing, onions, turmeric, ginger and green chilli's respectively. Saute them till the onion turns into a nice golden brown color.

3) Then add the smashed potatoes, salt and coriander leaves. Mix nicely adding the juice of half the lemon. Keep aside to cool and make them into round balls of the size of a lemon.

4) Heat oil in a deep bottomed vessel. 

5) Cut the bread through the brown corners then tap the bread with little water. Then place round balls of the potato and cover nicely. 

6) Deep fry to golden brown and enjoy with any spicy chutney.

Tips

1) Pressure cook the potatoes for two whistles or micro-oven them for 12 minutes.

Awards

Hi Friends, I am very happy as I have received Triple Awards and am going to share it with 14 of my wonderful friends.
This award is given by Souju. She has a wonderful blog with delicious recipes, easy and beautiful homemade crafts and pooja's. Visit her here http://soujishome.blogspot.com/

I would also like to share these awards with my friends, please accept and pass it to 14 of your friends.

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Rava (Semonila, Suji) Laddu

      Rava ladoo is a wonderful delectable dessert most commonly made in South India on occasions. Preparing these delicious treats is very simple but every ingredient should be cooked on a very low flame with lot's of patience to get the right rava ladoo.

Ingredients

Rava (Semonila, Suji) – 1 Cup

Powdered sugar – 1 Cup 
Grated fresh coconut - 1 Cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Edible camphor (Pachha Karpuram) OPTIONAL – Small Piece ( found in Indian grocery stores)
Raisins – 10
Cashew nuts / Almonds - 7
Ghee melted – 1/4 cup
Warm milk as needed
Salt - 1 pinch

Recipe

1) In a pan heat 2 tsp of ghee fry the cashew nuts and raisins individually and keep them aside (Take care the cashew nuts do not change color and remove the raisins from the pan as soon as they balloon).
2) Heat a pan and fry the Rava in very low flame by stirring occasionally. It took me 7-8 minutes. When you taste it should not be raw. Keep aside.
3) In the same pan fry the grated coconut for a minute by occasionally stirring. Take care they should not turn brown in color. Keep aside.
4) In a bowl add the rava, grated coconut, cardamon powder, powdered edible camphor, salt and powdered sugar and mix nicely with your hand or a spatula.
5) Heat the ghee in micro-oven for 30-40 seconds and add them to the rava mixture and mix nicely with a spatula.
6) Once they are not very hot and easy to handle with your hands try to take a lemon size portion adding very little milk and make round shapes out of it.Add very little amount of milk and mix. Add milk in small quantities only as and when required. If you add the milk all at one go, the mixture would become soggy and you can’t make ladoos.
7) Allow the ladoos to set for at least 2 hours. Once done store in air tight containers and enjoy.

Tips

1) Do not add to much milk or skimp on the ghee as the ladoos will become too hard.
2) These rava ladoos are good for a week, if you want to keep them for long do not add the coconuts and use water instead of milk. ( Adding water makes the ladoos a little harder).

Radish Subzi / Radish Curry

    Radish is not one of my favorite, as a child. I reluctantly prepared this curry when I heard the recipe from a friend and to my surprise found it to be perfect and scrumptious. A very big Thanks to her in initiating me to incorporate this healthy vegetable in our menu. This turned to be a great accompaniment for rice. This is how I made it.

Ingredients
 

Radish chopped to small pieces - 3 cups
Oil - 1 tbsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Urud dal - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustart seeds - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Onions chopped finely - 1/2
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Red chili powder - 2 tsp
Ginger and garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
 

Recipe

1) Heat oil in a pan, splutter chana dal, urud dal, cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Once done add the asoefoetida.
2) Now add the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes.
3) Add in the ginger garlic paste and mix thoroughly.
3) Then add the cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder and mix nicely for about a minute.
4) Then add the chopped radish and salt and cook nicely for about 10-15 minutes by mixing occasionally.
5) Garnish with coriander leaves.

Tips

1) You can also micro-oven or steam cook the radish for 7- 8 minutes, if you are short of time. Follow the same recipe above but once you add the radish cook nicely for 2-3 minutes only, till all the spices mix.

Wheat Vellaiappam / Wheat pancake

   Appam is a very popular dish in Kerala, a southern state in India. Kerala known as 'God's Own Country' is probably one of the greenest places you will ever see. 

   Usually the authentic appam's are made with rice but getting a little conscious about health, I tried the ones made with wheat after seeing them in a television show, this has also turned out to be an equally favorite dish now. So here goes the delicious appam recipe with the healthy variation.

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 3 cups
yeast - 1/2 tsp
sugar - 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp
salt - 1 tsp + 2 tsp
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Egg - 1

Recipe

1) Take a large bowl and add 3 cups wheat flour, 1/2 tsp yeast, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp salt. Add enough water to make them a thick batter and mix nicely.
2) Close the bowl and keep aside for 8 hours undisturbed.

3) After 8 hours the batter should have considerably increased in volume because of the yeast.
4) Crack one egg in a bowl and beat with a fork or whisk it until blended. 

( See video for whisking egg )

5) Make coconut milk by prying the coconut from its husk with a sharp knife, then peel off any remaining brown bits of skin that adhere to the coconut.Place the coconut flesh and coconut water in a food processor, adding little hot water.Blend until the coconut and water forms a smooth slurry. Strain over a bowl and press the mixture through the strainer. Repeat the straining process till you have got all the milk. ( See video for making coconut milk )

6) Add one cup coconut milk, one whisked egg, 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tsp salt and mix the batter nicely. They should be in an idli batter consistency.

7) Heat a flat pan or girdle. Sprinkle a little oil with a spoon.
7) Add 1/2 cup batter in the center of the pan and spread into a thick round, which is 4 - 5 inches in diameter.
8) Add a little oil on the top and sides. Let cook for a few seconds till the bottom has a few brown spots
9) Turn to the other side with a spatula. Cook for a minute. Add a few drops of oil. Serve with vegetable stew or any spicy Indian curry.

Tips

1) You can also use ready-made coconut milk cans.