Happy Ganesh Chaturthi and Modak

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

WISHING EVERY ONE A VERY HAPPY GANESH CHATURTHI

(The above Ganesha pen stand is given in my younger daughter's school for the festival)

Usually we make Kadabu on this day. But as I used to make Modaks in UAE, I thought of making only modaks this time. 21 modaks are offered to Lord Ganesha with other sweets.

This recipe is for 21 modaks.

For dough:

All purpose flour (APF) - 1/4 cup

Wheat flour - 3/4 cup

Salt a pinch

Oil - 1 tbsp

Knead with little water to make a soft dough. Keep it aside.

To fry 

Oil

For stuffing,

Fresh coconut, grated - 1 cup

Jaggery, powdered - 1 cup 

Dalia powder - 2 tbsp(kadale parapu or puthani)

Cardamom  powder - 1 tsp

Salt a pinch

Mix everything under stuffing, in a M/W safe bowl and cook on HIGH for 1 minute. No M/W, no problem, keep the mixture on heat for a minute in a vessel. 

Divide the stuffing into equal 21 balls.

Same way,

Divide the dough into small and equal 21 balls.

Take one dough ball in your palm and stuff it with coconut and jaggery mix. Give the desired shape(usually its round with folded lines on the top, but you can give kadabu shape also, you can see in the above photo). Repeat with remaining dough and the stuff. 

Keep oil to heat. Fry these modaks in batches till golden color.

Offer with other sweets to Lord Ganesha.

Keep Smiling,

Grilled garlic and green lady finger

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Okra, bhindi, lady finger or bendekai, is not everyone's favorite. But there are ways to make those people love this beautiful  vegetable. This grilled okra is one of those. Avery simple recipe but tastes yummy.

I have ON-OFF passion for this vegetable. There are months where I do not bring it home for others also and there are months where I bring every time and try new recipes with these. And now a days, I bring it often because its my daughter's favorite vegetable. But she likes it only if its cut into small size. So when I prepared these I only had to finish it, And she warned me to make it again but with small sized bhindi.

The size depends on your choice : I love to have it like this only.

Lady finger - 500 gm

Oil - 4 tsp

Lime juice - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Gram flour - 1 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Make a fine paste of :

Green chillies - 8 to 10

Garlic - 15 flakes

Fresh Coriander - handful

Wash, pat dry and trim the ends. Slit from the center keeping the ends intact.

Mix the fine paste, slat, gram flour, lime juice and sugar in a bowl.

Stuff the okra with this paste.

Brush the drip tray with 2 tsp of oil.

Arrange the okras on a tray. 

Brush with remaining oil.

Grill on 240 degree C for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve hot with chapati or serve it as a starter.

If you do not have oven,

You can directly shallow fry on tawa till they get crispy.

Sending it to

Priya's BSI-OKRA, where as BSI stands for Blogger Segret Ingredient and is started by Biz.

And 

Kiran's  Veggie/Fruit A Month - OKRA started by Priya .

Keep Smiling,

Mixed Fruit Curry for "COOK AND CLICK -4"

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Next recipe for the event   "Cook and Click" . This is for SEPTEMBER 11th to SEPTEMBER 20th. Cook  Click here also for the details Event Announcement - "COOK AND CLICK" :

I took it from "BAY BOOKS COOKERY COLLECTION"

THE QUANTITY GIVEN IN THE BOOK IS FOR 6 PERSONS. 

YOU CAN REDUCE THE QUANTITY ACCORDING TO YOUR NEED.

I have changed only one ingredient from the original recipe as I do not get this here at my place. If you are getting it, you can use the same:

Crystallized ginger - 4 to 5 pieces

(I do not get it here, so I will use the normal ginger) - 1" piece - peeled and cut

Hot water

Onions - 2, chopped

Butter - 60 gm

Crushed coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Curry Powder - 1 tbsp

Plain flour - 1 tbsp

Veg stock or chicken stock - 2 cups

Lime juice - 2 tsp

Black pepper - 2 tsp, freshly ground

Grate coconut - 3 cups

Chopped mixed fruits - 4 to 5 cups(Melons, peaches, plums, grapes, bananas, apples, pears or any other fruits available)

Fresh cream - 2 tbsp

1 If using crystallized ginger :

Cover ginger with hot water for a few minutes to remove sugar, drain, pat day and chop.

2. Sauté onions in butter until tender.

3. Stir in ginger coriander seeds, curry powder and flour.

4. Cook gently for minutes.

5. Gradually add stock, stirring rapidly.

Bring to boil, add lemon juice and season to taste.

Simmer for 30 minutes.

Stir in coconut, fruits and cream.

(there is no salt mentioned in the book, but I feel we should add little salt as per taste)

I hope at least this time I will get few clicks. This is very interesting curry!

Send the following details before SEPTEMBER 20THto nivedita.mt@gmail.com with subject "COOK AND CLICK- 4" :

your name, 

blog name, 

url of the link  and 

the photo attached.

Non bloggers can send the details to my mail.
NO need to retype the recipe. Just link back this one in your post. 
Please share your experience about this dish.

If you already got this recipe in your archive, share the experience.

Any suggestions, new ideas are welcome. 
(If you have any special recipe which you want cook with others here, you can send it to me. I will add it in the event with your details, whenever possible)

Keep Smiling,

Eggless Chocolate Cake (Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

I pinched myself for many times!! Is it a dream or real!Is it me who did this! 

Wait, Wait! I am not writing any suspense story. 

I baked an egg less cake and it came out real! It was spongy, it was moist, it was sweet, it was just perfect except the top crust. That was my mistake as I baked it on High temperature than mentioned.

After I brought OTG, I am not getting full time to concentrate on baking. But today I made it a point to bake a cake. But I am restricted to use Egg because of Shravana Month. So my hunting started to browse for egg less cake. As usual I landed into Sailu's world. You search anything related to food. There are few blogs where you will be directed and Sailu's  Sailu’s Kitchen is among one of those.

Ohh, she got many egg less baking recipes with her. As all of you know about my daughter's love for chocolate, I chose THIS one.

And I followed her recipe 99%, my 1% mistake was I baked it on 180degree C whereas she had mentioned to bake it on 150 degree C.

So the top crust was cracked. 

And best thing what I did was, I took little batter and put it in cup cake mold to bake. Check the click to see my wonderful baby cakes!!

My camera has some ego problem it seems! It never gives me proper flash or light when I need it. Its become difficult for me to take good photos. I don't want to buy new one now. I have to carry on with my this old friend only. I could not take nice photos of my big cake. (Please do not compare my click with her's when you visit her blog!)

I cut the top crust and took the photo. The taste was tooooo good and I never thought I can bake a cake like this.

Thanks Sailu for such a wonderful and easy recipe. I have also given the recipe with little extra tips.

Coming to the recipe:

Butter - 1/2 cup(at room temperature)

or 

Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup

Brown sugar - 2 tbsp(if you do not have, use normal sugar and let me know, I think it should not make much difference)

Water - 2/3 cup

Sweetened Condensed milk - 1 tin(400gm), I used Nestle

Maida or APF - 1 3/4 cup

Cocoa Powder - 1/4 cup

Baking Soda - 3/4 tsp(Use new one, the cake will not come out good if Baking soda and powder are old)

Baking Powder - 1 3/4 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Vanilla Essence - 2 tsp

1. Grease and dust an 8" baking pan of desired shape
2. Preheat over to 150degree C.
3. Sieve APF, baking powder, Baking soda, cocoa powder and salt at least 3 times and keep aside.(It helps the flour to get mixed properly and get aerated. 
4. Mix the sugar, butter, condensed milk and water with blender or beater.
5. Add the Vanilla essence and flour slowly in batches to this to get the batter of ribbon consistency.
6. Bake in preheated over for 40-45 minutes of till you get clean toothpick out of the cake when you insert it.
7. PLEASE FOLLOW THE RECIPE TO GET GOOD RESULT.
8. DO NOT OVER BEAT THE BATTER.
9. DO NOT KEEP THE BATTER OUTSIDE FOR LONG TIME ONCE IT IS READY.IT SHOULD GO DIRECTLY INTO THE PAN AND THEN INTO THE OVEN.

Wonderful cake is ready to serve. If you are lucky to get the ingredients to decorate the cake you can do it. I do not get whipped cream here, and I still have to learn to make it at home. Till then enjoy my cake without makeup!

Sending this to,

Priya's  Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday Event.

And  the  Bake Off event by  Champa of Versatile Kitchen
And this is going to
EFM - Cakes and Bakes Series! hosted by  Sri of  Me and My Kitchen .

Keep Smiling,

Sev Ladoo (ಸೇವಿನ ಉಂಡಿ)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

Naga Panchami is over. And I am late in posting my ladoo recipes. Sorry for that. But got little busy with other things also. But I am happy that I have many recipes for Ladoo to post which you are going to enjoy this whole month. Once in a week I will post one recipe for different ladoos.

My first Ladoo recipe is Sev Ladoo. This is usually done in Naga panchami. But I do remember those tiny Sev ladoos(smaller than a small lemon) we used to get in shops. One ladoo's cost was only  5 Paise!!!! 

In the house we make bigger size. These ladoos are my brother's favorite. 

Here is the recipe for Sev Ladoo.

The Sev is readily available in the market in sweet shops. But you should use salt less and plain Sev for that.

The sizes also vary. We usually prefer the thicker one. You can use the thinner one and smaller also.

Plain Sev - 250gm

For Jaggery syrup : 

Jaggery - same as Sev(Measure the sev in a cup, and take the same amount of jaggery)

Salt  - a pinch

Water -1/4 cup or less

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Other ingredients:

Dalia powder - 1/4 cup

Dry coconut - 1/4 cup, grated

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Take Sev in a big and wide plate. 

Add  dry coconut, cardamom powder and dalia powder to it. Mix it well and keep it ready.

To make Jaggery syrup is little tricky. You may not succeed the first time! I am making it since childhood and closing my eyes I can tell the correct consistency of syrup(hehe, boasting!!)

Practice makes you not perfect but brings you near perfection. 

So, don't worry as you will also get after trying 2-3 times, but if you know the trick before only, then I am happy.

Grate or powder the jaggery and transfer into a thick bottomed kadai or small cooker(which I used). Add  half of 1/4 cup water and keep it to boil with salt.

Till it boils and reached the above stage as in photo, keep one saucer or steel plate with little water ready.

(Look closely the saucer in the right click, you can see a tiny syrup ball)

Now take few drops of this syrup and put in the water. Wait for few SECONDS. Then touch the syrup in the water and check. If the syrup binds together to become a tiny ball, then the syrup is ready. Add ghee and remove it.

Now you should be quick:

Put this syrup to the Sev plate. Spread it slowly so that the Sev gets the syrup evenly. 

Now take a small quantity and make balls by mildly pressing with both the palms to give proper ball shape and bind the Sev properly.

Repeat with other Sev. This will make around 20 ladoos.

Keep it to cool for sometime. Store it in a jar or box.

Sending this to 

Nithu's event Event Announcement :Celebrate Sweets - Ladoo 

which is started by Me.

Keep Smiling,

Spicy baby potatoes with sesame seeds(Food remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

When I browse My Diverse Kitchen. I get fascinated with her baking ideas and recipes. She got wonderful collections. But I am still a baby when it comes to baking. May be in another one year or two, I will reach the stage where I can bake without thinking. I have bookmarked her blog itself for baking :-)

But, for now, I am trying only simpler recipes but these are the food I never tried. Here is one of those tasty recipes, which we all enjoyed.

Click Spiced Baby Potatoes with Sesame Seeds for the recipe.

Sending this to 

Srivalli's Announcing Tried & Tasted Event!

Linking it  back to Aparna's post and T&T event and Lakshmi's post. 

Keep Smiling,