Happy Ganesh Chathurthi

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

Chole Mur Mure Sev Chat and Gud Appam

I have been unable to blog the past few days, and missed wishing my dear blogger friends a very Happy Independence Day as well as Happy Raksha Bandhan. Hope everyone had lots of fun and food, and celebrated the occasions at home with friends and family.

I have never celebrated Rakhi, and I am glad to have learnt so much about the festival and how it is celebrated through the first FF event: Rakhi – Thread of Love. I prepared Chole Mur Mure Sev Chat (as I would like to call it) when my brother visited on Thursday, and this is how it looked up-close:

To prepare the Chole Mur Mure Sev Chat in the picture, you will need:

White chickpeas/ garbanzo bean - cooked soft - 2 cups
Mur Mure / puffed rice - 1 cup
Sev- 1 cup
Onions - chopped - 1 cup
Tomatoes - chopped - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - chopped - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Red Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Tomato Chilly Sauce - 1tbsp (optional)
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt -to taste

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan, add 1/4 cup of chopped onions, saute until light brown, add the boiled chickpeas and the powders along with salt to taste and mix well
• Add water, and keep on low heat until gravy becomes very thick
• Take a serving plate and serve the chickpeas masala on it and spread to form a base
• Add the Mur Mure and Sev on top (preferably with hand)
• Top it with chopped onions, tomatoes, and coriander leaves
• Lastly, sprinkle pepper (and salt, if you wish) on the entire dish

Notes:

• If you have Chat Masala, you can use that in the dish. I did not have it at home, and normally do not use it.
• If you have leftover chole, or white chana masala nothing like it.
• Squeeze a wedge of lemon on top, or mix lemon juice with chopped onions and tomatoes before adding. It tastes even better, but I did not add it as we were having it for tea (with milk).

Another click, top view:

Serve with hot Elaichi/ Cardamom Tea

You may also be interested in: Bread Aloo Sev Chat

Now, let me get to the sweet dish. This is traditionally called Kalathappam, but my version is a variation, and I'd rather not call it by that name, for fear of ridicule from the 'purists,' and more importantly, it has never turned out as good or tasted as good as my mother's! I will call this Gud Appam, for more reasons that I will explain later. First, a look at the dish:

You will need:

Rice - washed and soaked for atleast 4 hours - 1 cup
Cooked Rice - 1/4 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (adjust for sweetness)
Coconut - grated- 1/4 cup (optional, a variation)
Ghee - 2 tsp
Cardamom pods - pounded - 3
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - a pinch

Method:

• Grind the soaked rice, cooked rice, grated coconut into a batter of dosa batter consistency
• Melt the jaggery in as little water as possible, bring to boil, and strain into the rice batter while it is still hot
• Add the baking soda to the batter and mix well, and leave for 15-20 minutes
• Heat a pressure cooker on low flame, and grease the bottom and sides with ghee
• While the pan is hot, pour the batter and cover the lid without the whistle
• Leave to cook on low flame for 10-15 minutes, and check if batter has risen and cooked evenly (insert knife, it should come clean)
• Let it cool, and with a greased flat ladle take the appam and lay on a clean dry muslin cloth/cake paper?/ aluminium foil

Notes:

• You can try adding roasted nuts or roasted coconut pieces in the batter. The badam/almond you see on top is one that I added for the picture.
• Normally, caramelized onions are used in the recipe
• The batter is similar to Appam batter (without yeast and fermentation process), and jaggery is also added, which is why I like to call this Gud Appam

The picture below is a version I had made earlier, with the caramelized onions, which did not turn out as good, and was not cooked evenly:-(

Serve with hot tea

Both these dishes, without further ado, go to the first Festive Food Event: Rakhi- Thread of Love.

Pal Payasam, and Tagged Again!

I decided today that I would celebrate a month of blogging with Pal Payasam (Milk Porridge?). I generally avoid preparation of sweets at home (my standard special-occasion sweet or dessert is semiya/ vermicelli payasam), and this seemed to be the tastier alternative, though time-consuming!

To make the Pal Payasam in the picture, you will need:

Rice - 2 cups
Milk - 5-6 cups
Ghee - 3 tbsp (I love cow ghee, especially in sweets! If you are health conscious, use less ghee, or a healthier alternative - I wouldn't know what, though :-( )

If you pre-cook the rice, and use the cooked rice in the payasam you will require less milk. However, the taste and flavour of the payasam is best if you use only milk to cook the rice. The 1:2 ratio of rice:water will not work here. The type of rice depends on you - boiled or raw rice, brown or white or basmati rice, etc. I have not tried it with all varieties either, so I cannot comment. I suppose (and hope) you could make this with all varieties too! But, make sure you have enough milk to cook the rice in it, as rice varieties differ in time taken to cook.

Cashew - 1/4 cup
Raisins - 1/4 cup
Cloves - 1 tbsp
Cardamom pods - 1 tbsp - crushed
Sugar - 1 cup (OR to taste, I do not like too much sweet and try to restrict the use of sugar!)

Method:

• Heat ghee on low flame in a pan and roast the raisins and cashews and cardamom and cloves, and keep aside
• Wash the rice really well, soak in warm water for 30 minutes
• Boil milk in a heavy bottomed pan, and when it begins to boil, add the rice and stir well
• Keep on low flame and leave to cook uncovered with every-5-minute-check-and-stir process until the rice is cooked and soft (just grab a spoon, dig a few grains of rice out and chew)
• Add sugar and the ghee with the roasted mixture, and keep stirring slowly for about 5 minutes on low flame
• Remove and keep aside to cool, half-covered

Serve warm, or chill and serve later, depending on your choice of hot or cold dessert

Tagged Again

Rekha of Rekha's Kitchen has tagged me. Thank you, Rekha! I have already done this, you can read through my answers.

Curd Rice with Cherries

Curd had not been a favourite with me since childhood, and I usually like to make buttermilk and all the buttermilk curries, or just drink buttermilk with added sugar. However, R loves curd, and has to end the mid-day meal whenever he's at home with curd rice. He also enjoys it more with a fruit, preferably a banana, mango, pomegranates, papaya, or sweet melon.

If very little rice is leftover, I usually make curd rice (it is best made fresh), as that is enough to serve one person. This time around, I did not have any fruits other than oranges and cherries at home, and decided to serve the curd rice with cherries, as in the picture.


Die-hard fans of curd rice may not like this quick-fix and un-authentic recipe for curd rice, but please bear with me. This is just last-minute improvisation.

Things you will need:

Rice - 1 cup
Curd - fresh and not sour - 3/4 cup
Milk - boiled, lukewarm - 1/4 cup
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Hing (Asafoetida) - 1/4 tsp
Pepper - 1/4 tsp
Green chilly - 1
Coriander leaves - chopped - 2-3 tsp (optional)
Ginger paste - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt - to taste

This is the way I made the curd rice:

• Mix the curd in the rice very well with salt, add milk and stir and keep aside (This can be done a few hours, 2-3 hrs, before serving time)
• Heat oil in pan, temper mustard seeds, green chilly, ginger, curry leaves, and asafoetida
• Mix well with the rice, and add pepper
• Garnish with coriander leaves

Serve with cherries (or any fruit)