Hema's recipe: "Boondi ladoo"

Ingredients:

1) Gram flour - 1 cup
2) Sugar - 1.5 cups
3) Water - 1 cup
4) Cloves - 3 nos.
5) Cashews - a few
6) Oil to deep fry

Acessories:

skillet/strainer that has small holes.

Method:

1)Put the water, cloves and the sugar in pan and bring it to a boil and comes to a single thread consistency. This is the sugar syrup.

2)In a bowl, mix gram flour with water to make a smooth batter slightly thicker than dosa batter.

3)Heat oil in a kadai. Hold the skillet/strainer in one hand and the batter on the other hand.

4)Pour some of this batter onto the skillet so that the batter falls through the holes into the oil like small peppercorns.

5)Fry them till they are light golden colour.

6) Take the boondi out in a paper towel to remove excess oil and in a minute or two put them in the warm sugar syrup and mix gently.

7) Repeat the same process for the remaining batter and soak the boondi in the sugar syrup.

8)Let it be there for 10 mins so that it gets soaked well.

9)Now drain excess sugar syrup.

10)Please see that the boondi is warm and and do not let them cool.

11)Add the cashews fried in ghee to this boondi.

12)Now make small balls with ur palms from these boondi.

13)AS you finish a ladoo, put it on a plate one by one. As it cools, it will get firm.

14)Ladoos are ready to serve.

15)Store the ladoos in an air-tight container.

Hema's recipe: "Mullu thenkuzhal/Mullu murukku"

Ingredients:

1) Rice flour - 2 cups
2) Moong dal - 1 cup
3) Channa dal - 1 cup
4) Asafoetida - a pinch
5) Jeera - a few
6)Butter - 2 tbsp
7) Salt - as required


Acessories:

1) Mullu thenkuzhal press
2) Mould


Method:

1)Dry roast the moong dal and channa dal in a kadai.

2)Take them in a plate and let it cool.

3)Now add them to a blender and grind it to a fine powder.

4)Now sieve this to a very fine powder once.

5)Take this very fine powder 1 cup and rice flour 2 cups in a bowl.

6)To this add 2 spoons butter, asafoetida, jeera and salt and mix them well.

7)Meanwhile, heat oil in a kadai to deep fry.

8)After a minute or two, when the oil is just heating add 1 spoonful of this hot oil in that
that flour and mix them well once again.

9)Take a small portion from this flour separately in a bowl and make a soft dough.

10)Now when the oil is hot enough, put this dough in the "mullu thenkuzhal" mould and press it firmly in a circular motion into the oil.

11)Fry them in the low flame till crisp & golden brown. Ensure medium-low heat.

12)Take it out in an oil strainer to remove excess oil and let it cool.

13)Repeat the same process with the remaining flour mixture.

14)Store it in an air tight container.


Tips & cautions for a perfect & crispy murukku:

1)Instead of adding direct gram flour, if u follow this method the murukku will be crisp & soft.
2)The dough should not be neither very soft nor very hard.
3)The hot oil is added to make the murukku very taste & crisp.
4)After making each murukku, try to make the dough i.e. mixing the flour with water as this avoids turning murukku brown.

Hema's recipe: Chakka Pradhaman/jackfruit payasam

Chakka pradhaman is a traditional keralite recipe. It is usually done by keralites on Vishu.

The main highlight of this recipe is jaggery and coconut milk. It tastes so delicious and the aroma from these 3 ingredients i.e. jackfruit, jaggery and coconut milk is just great.

I learnt this recipe from my mother-in-law. Coming from a kerala origin, she does it so well that I grabbed it from her.


INGREDIENTS:

1) Jackfruit pieces - 10
2) Jaggery - 1/2 cup (add according to the jackfruit paste)
3) Coconut milk - 1/4 cup
4) Cardamom powder - 1 tbsp
5) Cashews - a few
6) Raisins - a few
7) Ghee - 1 tbsp

METHOD:

1) Take the Jackfruit pieces, cut each of them into small pieces and grind them into a fine paste.

2) In a thick bottomed vessel, add required amount of water and when it comes to a boil, put the grated jaggery and let it melt.

3) Now add the grounded jackfruit paste and let it cook till the raw smell goes off.

4) When it starts to bubble, add the coconut milk.

5) Cook for couple of minutes and switch off the flame.

6) Meanwhile, heat the pan with 1 tbsp ghee and fry cashews and raisins & keep it aside.

7) Add cardamom powder, cashews and raisins.

8) Serve hot.

Madhu's Recipe: Molten lava cake

Ingredients:

1. Butter 1 stick

2. Eggs 2

3. sugar 1/4 cup

4. Dark chocolate (70% cocoa) 100 gms

5. Plain flour 1/4 cup

6 Butter for grasing the ramkins.

Method:

1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter. Double boiler is just a pan with simmering water, on its top holds another vessel, in which the chocolate and butter would melt gradually from the steam. the vessel on top should not touch the water that is simmering.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat Eggs and Sugar until light and fluffy

3. Once chocolate is melted, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully.

4. Add chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.

5. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture about 3/4 way full.

6. Place ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside.
7. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Madhu's recipe: Paneer tikka masala

Ingredients:

1.Paneer 200 gms Cut into cubes

2.Onion 1

3.Tomatoes 4 or 5 (pureed)

4. Chilli powder 1tspn, Coriander powder 2 tspn, Turmeric a pinch

5. Salt to taste

6. ginger garlic paste

For Paneer tikka:

1.Take the above mentioned 200 gms of paneer, to it add 1 tspn chilli powder, 1 tspn coriander powder, Salt to taste , 1/2 tspn garam masala powder and mix well.

2.Marinate for 30 min. After that, Shallow fry these paneer till they turn light brown in colour. And soak it in warm water for 5 min. This will soften the paneer.

Method:

1. In a pan heat oil, then add finely chopped onions, saute well. Then add ginger & garlic paste. Fry for few seconds.

2. Now add tomato puree, and all the above mentioned powders (as in step 4). Mix well, cover and cook for 10 min till raw smell disappears.

3.Now add the above fried paneer to this and let it cook for 3 or 5 more minutes.

4. Finally garnish with coriander leaves and serve it with roti/parathas/ any kind of pulao rice.

Madhu's recipe: Vaazhaipoo Vadai

Ingredients:

1.Gram dal/chana dal (kadalai paruppu) 1 cup

2. Banana flower/ Vaazhai poo (1/2 or 2/3 rd cup)

3. Onion 1

4. Green chillies 3

5. Fennel seeds 1 tspn

6. Hing a pinch

7. Salt to taste

8.Oil for deep frying

9. Coriander leaves

10. Curry leaves

Method:

1. Soak chana dal for atleast 1 hour. Then grind together chana dal and green chillies coarsley. Add very little water. Consistency should be like a solid coarse dough. Pictured above.

2. Now to the above grinded stuff add chopped onions, vaazhai poo, pinch of hing, salt, chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves. Mix well. I chopped and steamed the vaazhaipoo for 5 min. Its optional.

3.Now take a pan, heat oil, once its hot, take lemon size piece of the above Vadai mixture and make patty shapes/Vadai shape and fry it in oil until golden brown.

4. Place the fried vadais in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Serve hot as a snack along with Tea.

Hema's recipe: Eggless Carrot Cake and frosting -- 5Oth POST

I wanted to try out frosting the cake. So when I was searching the net, I came across this recipe in showmethecurry.

This carrot cake is very easy and simple and no one would tell that it is eggless.

So I tried out this cake along with frosting on my husband's birthday. He was so surprised to see the cake and we enjoyed the cake so much that not even a piece was left by that evening.

And one of my neighbour Mrs.Helen, helped me out in decorating the cake. Thank you helen.

This happens to be my 50th post. Celebrating it with a sweet cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!

INGREDIENTS:

BOWL 1:

1) All purpose flour - 2 cups
2) Baking soda - 1 tbsp
3) Baking powder - 1 tbsp
4) Cinnamon powder - 1 tbsp(optional)

BOWL 2:

1) Yoghurt - 1 cup
2) Sugar - 1 cup
3) Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
4) Vanilla essence - 1 tbsp
5) Flax seeds - 2 tbsp

OTHER INGREDIENTS:

1) Grated Carrots - 2 cups
2) Chopped walnuts - 1/2 cup
3) Melted butter - 1/4 cup


FOR FROSTING:

1) Whipped frosting cream - 12 0z(I used betty crocker frosting cream)


METHOD:

1)Mix 2 tbsp flax seeds in 6 tbsp of water and allow it to sit for 10 mins.
This flax seeds is an egg substitute. After 10 mins this becomes like a gluey like thing.

2)Take a bowl and mix bowl 1 ingredients.

3)In the same way, take another large bowl and mix bowl 2 ingredients. Mix well until the sugar dissolves.

4)Add the flax seeds mixture to it and mix well.

5)Now add the bowl 1 ingredients to the bowl 2 and mix well to form a smooth batter.

6)Add in grated carrots, chopped walnuts and melted butter and mix them well.

7)Preheat the oven to 350 F.

8)Grease the baking tray and pour in the batter and bake for about 30 mins.

9)After 30 mins, insert a knife/fork to the cake and it should come out clean. This means the cake is ready.

10)Remove them and let them cool completely.

11)Run a knife around the edges of the cake to loosen and place a flat plate over the tray and turn it over to transfer the cake on to the plate.

12)If you are not doing frosting, you can have the cake immediately.

13)But if you are going to do frosting, allow them to cool completely.


FROSTING:

1)Take the whipped frosting cream and fill them in a ziplock cover.
2)Make a small hole at one end down and press them on the cake.
3)Using a butter spreader, spread them over the cake and see that the sides of the cake are also covered.
4)Now decorate the cake as you desire and enjoy it as we did.