aloo badami!

Ingredients :
To grind : Almonds (Badam): 10 Nos. + Grated coconut : 2 tbl spns
Whole Masala : (1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, 2 Elachis, little cinnamon & qtr tea spn fennel seeds)
Onion : 1 No. 
Green Chillies : 4 Nos. 
Coriander powder : 1 tea spn
Crushed pepper : half tbl spn
Mint leaves : 4 strings
Yogurt : half cup
Potatoes : 2 Nos. 
Peas : 3 tbl spns
Oil & Salt 

Method of preparation : 

Grind Almonds and Coconut into fine paste. Heat oil in a nonstick pan add whole garam masala in a min add finely chopped onions, chopped green chillies, mint leaves and fry a minute now add the ground masala and coriander powder and crushed pepper fry for a minute and add some more water, cubed potatoes, peas and salt. Once the potatoes are almost getting baked add curd.

Dum paneer

Ingredients

Paneer/Cottage Cheese - 200gm
Onion - one big size, chopped
Ginger-garlic-green chili finely chopped - 4 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoon
curd - 1 cup
Tomato - one, finely chopped
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Sugar 
Salt
Dry Red chili - 1 or 2
Bay Leave - 1
Cinnamon stick - 1 inch
Green Cardamom - 1 or 2
Clove - 1 or 2
cashew paste - 1/2 cupGaram masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Kashmiri Red chili - 1/2 teaspoon
Refined oil

Procedure

Cut paneer into square shapes and marinate with curd , chilly powder and salt and keep aside. Fry chopped onions until it becomes brown . Now grind this brown onion and make a coarse to fine paste. If requires  you can add little water while making the paste. Now heat oil in a pan and add dry red chili, bay leave, cinnamon stick, clove & green cardamom one by one. Next add choppedginger-garlic-chili  and followed by chopped onion . Keep on stirring the mixture. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, Kashmiri red chili powder and cumin powder. It's time to add little water. After that add  tomato puree. Cook it for 2 minutes and pour half glass water. Let it boil and subsequently add paneer blocks. Now add garam masala powder and coarse pepper powder.atlast add the marinated paneer and boil. add cashew paste.Switch off the gas and you can also garnish with some fresh coriander leaves. This delicious side dish can be served with roti, naan, paratha or any other Indian Bread.

tomato corn pulav!

Ingredients :

1 cup long grain basmati rice

2 cups water

1 small onion diced

1 clove of garlic

1″ ginger piece

2 ripe tomatoes

1 cup frozen/ fresh corn

1″ cinnamon stick

1 sp red chilly powder

3-4 cloves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds/ jeera

2 tablespoons of oil

Salt to taste

Method:

Into a blender, add the tomatoes make it as a puree.  Puree this mixture without adding water. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.  Add,jeera, spices,  the onions and saute till translucent. Now add chopped garlic,the tomato puree and corn.after 2 mins add all masalas.Wash the rice thoroughly and add it to the pressure cooker. Boil the two cups of water separately or you can just use hot tap water.and add it the cooker. Add salt and cover the cooker.  Turn off the heat on the cooker after 2-3 whistles. 

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, simply cook the rice in your usual way. Use a frying pan to follow the same procedure. Add the cooked rice in the end and mix well.

Serve hot with any raita of your choice.

karthigai deepam!

        Karthikai Deepam is a traditional Hindu festival observed in South India.It falls in the month of Karthikai (mid-November to mid-December) as per Tamil calendar. This occurs on the day when the moon is in conjunction with the constellation Karthigai (Pleiades) and purnimai. This constellation appears as a group of six stars in the firmament in the shape of a pendant from the ear.
          Many legends and lyrical poetry have grown round this star. The six stars are considered in Indian mythology as the six celestial nymphs who reared the six babies in the saravana tank which later were joined together to form the six faced Muruga. He is therefore called Karthikeya, the one brought up by the Karthigai nymphs. Houses and streets are lit up with rows of oil lamps (Deepam) in the evening of the festival day. 

            Temples, houses and streets are lit with rows of oil lamps known as agal vilakku. This festival is grandly celebrated in Thiruvannamalai, located in Tamilnadu. It is celebrated for 10 days and on the 10th day Mahadeepam (a huge lamp) is lit on top of the Annamalai hill which is said to be visible around a radius of 40 km. Devotees from all over the country visit this temple where Lord Shiva has manifested in the form of fire (Arunachalam). This is perhaps the oldest festival in the history of Tamilnadu.

           For this kathigai deepam, We lit clay lamps in and around our house.I prepared maa vilakku for the well being of family members.we keep this lamp by praying god to bless our family with health, wealth and peace. i prepared sweet appam for this festival. 

      

capsicum majjiga pulusu!

Ingredients:
       Finely chopped capsicum - 1 cup
        Gram flour - 1/2 cup
         Rice flour - 1/4 cup
          Curd - 1 cup
         Green chilly - 2
          Red chilly - 2
           Mustard seeds and jeera- 1 top
           Turmeric powder a pinch
            Salt and red chilli powder for taste
            Oil to temper and fry

Method:
1. Mix chopped capsicum, gram flour, rice flour, salt , chilly powder an

d little bit of water and form a dough. Fry them as pakoras and keep aside.

1. 
2. Heat pan , add 2 sp of oil, add mustard seeds, jeera, red chilly, turmeric powder and salt.
3. Make a paste of curd, gram flour and salt. Add this mixture in the pan and add water to boil.
4. add slit green chilly to this to boil.
5. add fried pakoras to this and boil.
6. add curry leaves and coriander leaves .
7. serve it with hot  with rice.

strawberry burfi!

Ingredients:

Grated Strawberries (fresh) - 1/2 Cup

Ghee  1/2 tbsp.

Milkmaid- 100 ml

Sugar If required 

Milk - ½ Cup

Cashew Powder-1 ½ tbsp.

Salt a pinch

Method:

  

Heat Ghee. Add grated strawberries and fry well for 5-6 mins.

Now add the cashew powder and fry again for a min. Then add the condensed milk 

(milkmaid) and milk and fry till the strawberries are cooked completely. Sugar can also be added if required at this stage.

Now add a pinch of salt ( just a few grains) and mix it well. Remove from fire when it becomes a thick mixture.

Apply ghee on a plate and spread the mixture on it evenly.

Leave it to set for some time. When set firmly, cut the burfi into pieces of desired shape. Store it in the refrigerator.

kedara gowri vratham!

       

           Today is deepavali amavasya! kedara gowri vratam is a pooja  to perform on deepavali amavasya!
On the day of kedara vratham , married woman worship kedareshwar(lord shiva). Devotees perform kedareshwara gowri  vratham to get rid of their sorrows and sins to lead the life with happiness and pleasure.
        By observing this vratham a person is trying to purify her mind through meditation and by sticking to some vow she has taken. fasting should be voluntary and should not be unwillingly.
         We prepare 21 adhirasams.We keep nombu thread, 21 bananas, 21 turmeric, 21 betel leaves and nuts,2 coconuts, flowers, sandal wood powder and turmeric powder, kunguman, kathola karugamani, a small piece of jaggery and pooja materials. we keep all these in a plate.

          

paneer kalakand!

Ingredients:

Paneer : 200g

Condensed Milk : 150g

Milk Powder : 2tbsp

Sugar : 2tbsp

cherry  to garnish
Cardamom Powder : 1/4tsp

Ghee : 1tbsp

Method : 

1. Cut the paneer into small cubes. Put them in a mixer/ food processor and powder them.

2. Now add condensed milk, cardamom powder, sugar and milk powder to the powdered 

3. Transfer this to a heavy bottom vessel and stir continuously for 20min on a medium flame. 

4. When the mixture starts to leave the sides and sticks to the spatula, turn off the flame.

5. Let it cool and serve.

Adhirasam(ariselu)!

Ingredients:

Raw rice – 1 kg 

Grated Jaggery – ¾ kg

Water – 2 Tbsp

Oil – To deep fry + 3 Tbsp for flatten the dough

Method:

• Soak the raw rice for at least for 2 hours, and then drain the rice.
• Put the clean cloth in a table and spread the rice completely as shown in the picture, and let it dry for 30 minutes, but careful don’t let them dry completely, there should be moisture.
• Grind it in a dry blender into a medium powder i.e. nor coarse or smooth.
• Sieve it and keep it aside.
• Take the grated jaggery into heavy bottom pan, add 2 Tbsp of water and let it dissolve.
• Stir it continuously till you see the frothy, now a drop the syrup in a bowl of water, if it’s settled down and can make ball of it (One string Consistency), switch off the flame.
• Take a little amount of rice in a wide mixing bowl and add little hot jaggery syrup and stir it with wooden ladle.
• Repeat the step till you finish the all flour not the sugar, the consistency should be like chapathi dough. Don’t add the syrup much than that.
• If you roll into ball of the dough, it should not be sticky.
• Take a little amount of rice in a wide mixing bowl and add little hot jaggery syrup and stir it with wooden ladle.
• Repeat the step till you finish the all flour not the sugar, the consistency should be like chapathi dough. Don’t add the syrup much than that.
• If you roll into ball of the dough, it should not be sticky.
• Heat oil in a pan.
• Take the dough, make equal size small balls.
• Keep ready the oil greased plastic sheet or banana leaf.
• • Keep the ball on the sheet, dip your fingers in oil and flatten by hand into semi thick not too thin or too thick, if you wish make hole on center.
  • Gently put the dough into the hot oil and deep fry it golden brown on both side.

• Keep it in tissue paper and keep changing the tissue paper after it complete wet.
• You can press the adhirasam with flat bowls, but we don’t do that for soft purpose.
• Serve it hot

Thirattipal!

Ingredients

milk - 2 litres     1 cup of sugar 

Method

1. Bring the milk to a boil in medium flame.

2. Reduce the heat at low (out of 10 levels, I keep at 4-5) and reduce the milk for about an hour until it reaches the below stage where in the color changes to a shade of beige.  Stir every 1 min. Go on scraping the solids stuck on the sides as the milk goes on reducing so that they do not burn in due course of time.

3. Mix the sugar and stir it in well.

4. Once it reaches a semi solid structure, where there is hardly any milk but the mixture is still wet, turn off the gas. It will solidify more as time goes by or when you keep it in fridge.

5. Serve it hot .

carrot halwa!

Ingredients:
2 cups                      grated carrots
4 - 6 cups                 whole milk
1/2 cup                     sugar
3 tbs                         ghee/ melted butter
1 tbs                         oil
1/2 tsp                      cardomom powder
1/4 cup                     finely chopped nuts
1/2 cup                     khoa
Method
1.  Heat oil + 1tbs ghee in a pan and fry chopped nuts till crisp, remove it from the pan and keep it aside.

2.  Put scraped carrots in the same pan and fry it in the remaining oil in the pan, for few mins.

3. Add milk to the pan (carrots must be fully covered fully in milk), when milk starts to boil, lower the heat and let it cook till the mixture becomes dry.

4. Add sugar, ghee, nuts and khoa stirring in between each addition. Garnish it with more chopped nuts and serve it warm :) 

Ragi pindi halwa!

Ragi Pindi Halwa

Ingredients:
1.Raagi flour 1 cup
2.Jaggery grated 1 cup
3.Cardamom powder 1 tbsp
4.Ghee 2 tbsp
5.Dry fruits 20 grams
6.Milk 1 cup

Preparation:

1.Take a bowl add milk,raagi flour and mix well without forming any lumps.
2.Take a pan add some ghee and melt it,fry dry fruits and keep aside.
3.In the same pan add raagi flour mixture and mix well till it attains thick consistency.
4.Add jaggery,cardamom powder,ghee and mix well till jaggery melts evenly in raagi mixture.Finally add fried dry fruits and mix it well.Serve hot.

Biscuit Halwa!

Biscuit Halwa

Ingredients

Biscuit - 200 gms( have used Marie biscuits)
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method

Soak biscuits in milk and sugar for 10 - 15 minutes. It will completely dissolve in it, so there is no need to mash or powder.

Heat ghee in a non stick pan and add this mixture and keep stirring until it is thicken enough as halwa. Will not take more than 10 - 15 minutes. Add saffron and if needed a pinch of cardamom powder.

Bread rasmalai!

Ingredients:

Milk: 500 ml
Bread Slices : 4
Sugar: 5 tbsp
Saffron Strands : 4 - 5
Chopped almonds and pistachios : as needed
Ghee: 1 tsp

Method:

1. Heat milk in a heavy bottomed vessel. Bring it to a boil and reduce the flame. 

2. Keep stirring occasionally until it is reduced to about half the quantity.

3. Meanwhile, soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons of warm milk. Crush it well and set aside.

4. Now add the sugar and saffron in boiling milk and mix well. Let it boil for a couple of minutes.

5. Fry the nuts in ghee and add it to the milk and mix well.

6. Switch off the flame and let it cool completely. Refrigerate it for sometime.

7. Cut the bread slice into small round shape with the help of a cookie cutter.

8. Place the bread pieces in a serving bowl and pour the cold milk mixture over it. Let it soak for 5 minutes and serve chilled. 

Basundi!

Ingredients:

• 1 litre Milk
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder
• almonds for garnishing

 Preparation Method:

• Heat the milk to boil in a pan till it gets reduced to half.
• Add sugar and cook for some more time till it gets thickened.
• Now add cardamom powder and put off the flame.
• Allow it to cool. Garnish with chopped dry fruits and nuts.
• Your delicious Basundi Dessert Recipe is now ready
• Serve it chilled