Friday, October 10, 2008

Navarathri Festive Food

I did not want to miss the Navaratri Festive Food Event, but deliberately delayed this post until I could make the wheat laddoo at Uma's Essence of Andhra and rava laddoos by Sireesha of Mom's Recipes. And surprise! I ended up making a laddoo with Rava, Wheat, and Rice Flour together on Vijayadashami. I wish to call them Thri-Laddoo (you can pronounce it 3-laddoo in English :D). I also did not use sugar, and substituted it with jaggery.


To make the Thri-Laddoo, you will need:

Rava/ Sooji/ Semolina - 2 cups
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup (I used Puttu Podi)Coconut - grated - 1.5 cups
Milk - 1/2 cup - boiled and cooled (or according to consistency for laddoo)

Jaggery - grated - 1 cup (I grated a big block of jaggery to get 1 cup)
Cashew - 1/2 cup
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 4-5 pods
Ghee - 5-6 tbsp (a little too generous use, being a festival food)

Method:

  • Take a non-stick pan, heat a tbsp of ghee, add the cashews, roast them, add raisins, roast until raisins swell up and turn golden brown, and remove into a small measuring bowl
  • Heat a tbsp of ghee again, add the rava and roast until light brown and crisp, and remove into a mixing bowl
  • In the same pan, add another tbsp of ghee, add the wheat flour and roast until light brown taking care not to burn, and remove into the same mixing bowl as the rava
  • Again, heat another tbsp of ghee, add rice flour and roast until light brown and remove into the mixing bowl
  • Heat a tbsp of ghee again, add the grated coconut and roast until golden brown and remove to a measuring bowl
  • In the mixing bowl add the jaggery while the roasted rava, wheat, and rice flours are still warm and mix well. Leave this mixture to cool down
  • Add roasted coconut, raisins, cashews, and cardamom powder to the cool mixture and mix well. The jaggery would have melted a little leaving the mixture with a binding texture
  • Add milk at this stage and ensure that the consistency is just enough to form round laddoos with your hand
  • Start rolling the laddoos with your palm and leave on slightly warm pan

Offer as Prasad in Pooja, and later serve with your festive meal:-)

Another shot:


Palak Puri

Puris are usually made at my house only for festive occasions, or when my daughter has not had anything of wheat and I start feeling guilty. A loves puris, and apart from wheat bread or wheat dosa, she hardly eats anything made containing wheat, like chapathis/ rotis. She also likes Aloo Parathas, but again (more guitly), those are rare too in my house!

I had bought fresh palak (spinach) and did not want to make the palak paratha or dal palak curry, so decided to try a new combination. The palak puris turned out to be really tasty, and I also made Lauki-Moong Dal (Bottle Gourd in split-dehusked-green gram bean) curry.

To make the puris, you will need:

Wheat flour - 2-3 cups
Spinach/ Palak - 2 cups - chopped
Green chilly - 1
Cumin seeds/ Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Salt - to taste
Water - for mixing dough
Oil - 2 tsp and for deep frying

Method:

  • Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add turmeric, jeera powder to roast, add palak and green chilly, cook covered for 3-5 minutes, and cook uncovered after adding salt until dry and cooked
  • After the palak cools down, grind into smooth paste
  • Take wheat flour in a mixing bowl, add the palak paste, and start kneading after greasing your plams with a little oil or ghee/ butter until the dough is well done and keep aside for 15-20 minutes
  • Heat in a heavy bottomed pan/ kadai
  • Start rolling out small balls of the dough into thin circular puris

  • Add one into the oil and keep adjusting the flame in order that the puris don' get burnt
  • After one side puffs up, turn it over with the ladle and ensure that the other side is also well done
  • Drain the extra oil, and start with the next puri

Moong Dal with Bottlegourd Curry

Things you need:

Bottlegourd - cut into cubes - 1 cup
Moong Dal - 2 cups
Green chilly - 1 - sliced
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera/ Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Methi/ Fenugreek seeds powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

  • Pressure cook moong dal with bottlegourd and green chilly in about 1.5 cups of water for 3-4 whistles
  • Mash the dal well after it cools down, without breaking the cooked bottlegourd pieces
  • In a tadka pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, and while the pan is still hot, add the powders and mix well
  • Add this to the moong dal wih salt and mix well, add water to adjust consistency and bring to boil

Serve with puris (I made normal puris also, just in case A refused to eat the unfamiliar green coloured one).

This post is my entry to the Festive Food Event: Navaratri hosted by LG of Taste of Mysore

30 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds delicious..The thri laddoo..

Usha said...

Loved the idea of thri laddoo,looks delicious :-)

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

those look just perfect..they remind me of tirupathi ladoos..

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

why don't u send this to lore's original recipe event?

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Palak Pooris, nice and the laddoo remind me of my grandma...

Uma said...

wow, wow, what a display of delicious festive dishes Shreya! Each one is a master piece. Looks so delicious. I see my name in there, thanks! Your tri flour laddus look marvellous with the sugar shining on top. Looks like you had a great dasara celebration.

Vidhya said...

everything looks delicious.

Unknown said...

lovely dishes..everythng is mouthwatering..nice recipe for ladoos..

Unknown said...

yum yum yum what a spread mouth watering yaar

Indian Khana said...

Ladoo looking mouth watering Shreya...gud idea of using all the flours....you are rocking these days. I too have palak puri in my blog...and I got the same texture as urs ;)....the thali is perfect looking...lovely entry for the event and thanks a lot for that :)...Have a gud weekend

Unknown said...

Really excellant... nice entry... sounds deliicous...

Adam said...

Wow you've been quite the busy person there Shreya! All of the food looks great, but I especially like my 3-Laddoo :) Cashews, raisins, and coconut... mmm sweet :)

Anonymous said...

What a perfect meal : three delicious dishes, and all look lovely

Sum Raj said...

loved the idea of thri laddo...perfect

Suganya said...

This is a very nice recipe. Looks so good. Spinach poori sounds so cool.

raaji said...

vow shreya the prasad came out too good .....puri also looks so fluffy and airy.....

Sunshinemom said...

Delicious entries - the puffed puri makes me want to grab!!

Uma said...

Have something for ya! Check it out here:

http://teluguruchi.blogspot.com/2008/10/moong-dal-kichidi.html

Unknown said...

thats a long post yaar but delicious recipes..this week in my list is ur thri ladoo..Good one yaar

Andhra Flavors said...

Love both the recipes, especially the sweet one.

Laavanya said...

Palak puris and laddoos - yummy post.

TBC said...

What a treat! Perfect looking poori and laddoos.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Mmm... these sound so delicious. I can imagine the nutty, chewy texture and wonderful fragrance of spices. Just lovely.

Purva Desai said...

Ur new invention of Three Ladoos sounds really delicious....and they look really mouth watering..palak poori also looks inviting
Thank you for the lovely entry

Nazarina A said...

Delicious noshes Girl!!! My Dad says that Indian food is the best....I tend to agree especially when I see yours!

Nidhi said...

I like Palak Puris. Lovely idea of mixing the 3 flours together for the laddoos.

bee said...

3 laddoo is a great idea for using itsy bitsy quantities of assorted flours. they look wonderful.

Deepthi Shankar said...

wow i loved the idea of palak poori must be soo delicious .. hope u had a good festive season

Shreya said...

Divya, Usha, Ramya V, Vidhya, Sowmya, Rekha, Priti, Sripriya, Adam, Simran, Ramya B, Suma, Sukanya, Raji, Harini, Ramya, AF, Laavanya, TBC, Susan, Purva, Nazarina, Nidhi, Bee, Deesha, thank you all for the loveky comments!:-)

Mahima - Thanks so much. I was not sure this would be considered an original recipe, but surely next time won't miss the event.

Uma - Thanks a lot, and for the award too:-) Will pick it up soon

Vaishali said...

Gosh, this is some feast. And that poori...delicious and gorgeous.