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.

Suma's Cuisine
Cosmopolitan Currymania
Jisha's Kitchen
Taste of Pearl City
Cooking Fundas
Santosh's Kitchen
Ente Pachakasala
US Masala
Taste as you cook
Oriyarasoi - Flavours from a oriya kitchen
My Kitchen
Tasty Appetite
Chitchat@crossroads
Sree's Recipes

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.

Chocolate

   Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the cacao tree. The story of chocolate spans more than 2,000 years and now circles the globe. Here is my version of a delicious, delectable, soothing home made chocolate.

Ingredients

-Milk Powder – 200gms (11/2Cups)—Nestle Dairy Whitener
-Cocoa Powder - 3 tbsps
-Sugar – 1 Cup
-Water – 1/2 Cup
-Unsalted Butter – 1/2 cup

Recipe

1) Take a pan and grease it with butter and keep aside.
2) Mix the milk powder and cocoa powder and sift with a sieve.
3) Heat a pan, add sugar and water and keep stirring till the sugar is dissolved and bubbles appear.
4) Then reduce the flame and keep stirring till you get a one-thread consistency (Syrup when stretched between thumb and index fingers comes like one-thread) or get 110 C with the candy thermometer.
5) To this mix in butter. Stir till the butter melts.
6) Then add the milk powder and cocoa powder mixture.
7) Once all dry ingredients and wet ingredients mix they will look like a smooth chocolate batter. Further cook on low flame for 2 minutes stirring all the while.
8) Then transfer the prepared chocolate to the pan and spread evenly.
9) Allow to cool in room temperature. Then cut into desired shapes.

Tips

1) Sift for more then two times so that we get a fine powder.
2) Once you lower the flame after the bubbles appear keep the stove in low throughout.
3) I left the chocolate to set for more then eight hours.

4) Add few nuts or raisins to make your own fruit and nut chocolate.

Pasta in Alfredo Sauce

Pasta in a tradition white creamy Alfredo sauce with lots of flavor. This is a quick and simple recipe. Hope you will all enjoy.

Ingredients

Pasta - 5 cups

Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Butter - 2 tbsp

Cheddar cheese - 2 cup

Basil leaves - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 1/4 cup

Warm milk -  2 cups

Pepper as per taste

Salt as per taste

Recipe

1) First cook the pasta in a large saucepan according to the package directions. Add olive oil  (this will prevent the pasta from sticking with each other) and salt in boiling water. Drain and keep aside.

2) Melt butter in a large pan, saute garlic for a minute, don't let it brown.

3) Add in flour little by little and stir with a whisk continuously.

4) Then add the milk slowly and keep whisking for about eight minutes continuously.

5) Gradually add cheese, salt, pepper and stir. 6) Once done mix the pasta and sauce gently until the sauce has absorbed into the pasta. Garnish with  Parmesan cheese and parsley. Serve hot.

Amaranth stem sambar

               Amarath (Thotakura in telugu and Mulai kerai in tamil) is a green leafy vegetable widely used in the southern parts of India. Amaranth is a moderately tall, broad-leafed, bushy type of plant that produces a brightly colored flowery head containing a very large number of seeds. Amaranth plants can produce as many as 60,000 seeds.
               After making a curry with the leaf's I made sambar with the left over stems. They are very delicious and simple to make.

Ingredients

Toor dal - 1 cup
Amaranth chopped to 1/2 inch pieces - 2 cups
Onion chopped - 1
Tomato chopped - 1
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size
Cilantro - 2 tbsp
Water as needed

Recipe

1) Pressure cook 1 cup dal with 2 cups of water for 2-3 whistles in a pressure cooker. Once the pressure reduces, smash the dal and keep aside.
2) Heat oil in heavy cooking pan and add the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds. Once they splutter add the curry leaves and onions. Fry the onions for 2-3 minutes and then add the tomatoes and cook till they become mushy.
3) Then add the amaranth stems and cook for about 2 minutes. To this add the remaining spices red chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, sambar powder, salt and mix nicely.
4) Soak tamarind in warm water and take the pulp and add them to the pan.
5) Then add little water and smashed toor dal and cook nicely. Adjust the consistency of the sambar with water. Allow it to come to a boil, you can see bubbles. Then simmer the stove and cook for 5 more minutes.
6) Garnish with coriander leaves and switch off the stove. Once done close with a lid.

Tips

1) Try using the tender part of the stem.
2) You can also use the ready made tamarind pulp found in Asian stores.