A quick Coconut Burfi or Laddu

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Old is gold! Books, food, wine are the best when they are old.

I have a good collection of cookery books since many years. Some were purchased, I borrowed few from my aunt, few were the Xerox copy of original ones, and the most favourite ones are the gifted books. This reminds of my marriage. When my relatives came to know that I am Getting married to a Sindhi guy, though they were little upset, but they gifted me a Sindhi cookery book when I went to meet them first time after the marriage. That too, two of them gifted the book by same author. So sweet of them, I am always grateful to them. I learnt most of the Sindhi dishes from those books as we never had internet to refer .

And another best gift was from my brother, which is a collection of five books by Sanjeev Kapoor.

But today's recipe is from a book which I borrowed from my aunt.  She took it after her marriage. It's first edition was published in the year 1971. It has a huge collection of all the recipes

When I remembered the event of cooking from the books, I played a game.  I closed my eyes and picked up a book. This one came in my hand. Then blindly I opened a page thinking that whatever recipe I get in that page I will make that one. And I got this Burfi recipe. Though I was little disappointed, I thought let me not cheat. And then when I checked my blog, some how this recipe was never posted.

This is my most favorite sweet since childhood with lot of sweet memories. I will share some other day as the post will be too long.

Coming to the recipe,

Ingredients:

Grated fresh coconut : 1 1/2 cup

Sugar : 3/4 cup

Milk : 1/4 cup

Cashew nuts and almonds : 1/4 cup, cut in to small pieces

Cardamom powder from 1 pod

Cashew nut powdered: 2 tbsp

Dash of salt(this is my addition)

Ghee : 1tsp+1tsp

Method :

Mix grated coconut, salt and sugar in a bowl and keep it aside for 15min .

Take a thick bottomed kadai(I have used wonder chef kadai)

Heat 1 tsl ghee and roast the cashew and almond pieces. Transfer it to a plate.

In the same kadai, add the coconut sugar mix and milk. Mix well and cook on a medium flame for 5-8 minutes, stirring it in between.

Now lower the flame, add cashew powder, cardamom powder and ghee. Mix well and keep on stirring. When it starts leaving the edges,  add fried nuts, higher the flame for half a minute (if you want the Burfi to be brown). Now cook on a slow flame for half a minute. Transfer it to a greased plate, cut into squares. Take little from it and make small balls. I love to eat these round ones than squares.

A quick dish to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Hope you all enjoyed my post and the recipe. I would be happy if you ever try this recipe and share your experience with me.

Keep smiling, 

Fresh Coconut and Jaggery Kheer(ಕೊಬ್ಬರಿ ಗಿಣ್ಣ)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Jaggery is the best substitute for sugar. Jaggery is rich in many nutrients. Jaggery should be eaten everyday in any form. Or add it in the rasam, sambhar, vegetable preparation. 

Here is the dessert which is very tasty and should be eaten hot or warm. Rice chapati is the best combination with it.

This is not very regular  sweet in my house because of the coconut used in it. Coconut is not good for me and my daughter. Even though I like it, I avoid making it.

Here is the recipe, 

Ingredients :

Fresh coconut - 1 cup

Jaggery (powdered or crushed) -  same as the coconut milk

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Hot water  - 1 cup

Salt - half a pinch

Nut meg powder - a pinch

Method:

• Grate the fresh coconut and Grind into a fine paste. 
• Add 1 cup of hot water and keep it aside for 10 minutes.
• Squeeze the coconut water and keep it ready.
• The coconut milk and the jaggery should be of the same quantity.
• Keep the coconut milk to boil
• Once it starts boiling, reduce the flame and add the jaggery. 
• Mix well, keep on stirring till you get the nice jaggery brown color. (It may take 15 minutes)
• Add the cardamom powder and Nutmeg powder. Mix well.
• Boil some more time(for few more minutes). 
• You can see the milk has become thick and nice aroma will start coming.
• Off the fire. Add half a pinch of salt. Mix well.
• Serve hot.
• Either drink it or have it with rice flour stuffed chapatis or puris.

Garnish with grated fresh coconut(optional)

Its watery dessert. You can enjoy the way you drink your tea :-)

I enjoy each sip with a spoon.

Love this hot Kheer during winter.

Sending this to two events;

Priya's(Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal) ongoing event  

Celebrate Sweets - Warm Desserts

(event started by  Me ) 

and

Akila's Event: Dish Name Starts with F

Garlic Rice,Curd Rice and Chutney Rice(Leftover delicacies)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Left over rice can be used to make many yummy dishes Most of the time I make more rice in the night to prepare some thing from it, the next day.

My preparation depends on the texture of the rice.

If it is hard and grains apart, I make garlic rice

If its soft I go for curd rice.

And if its very soft and mushy, I use it for making Thalipeeth.

Giving here recipe for garlic rice, curd rice and chutney rice.

Garlic Rice:

This is my favorite rice when I want to have a spicy food. 

Left over rice - 1 cup

Onion - 1 small, finely chopped

Curry leaves - few

Garlic - 8 to 10 small cloves( 4 to 6 if taking big one)

Chilly powder - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds -1 tsp

Salt taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Fresh coriander - 1 tbsp, chopped to garnish

Heat oil in a kadai. When hot, add mustard seeds and wait till splutter. Add cumin seeds, curry leaves, onion and fry for few seconds.  Add crushed garlic and fry till brown. Add chilly powder, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well. Add the rice, mix well. Add sugar and fresh coriander. Cook for a minute. Cover and keep for few minutes for rice to get the garlic flavor. 

Enjoy hot garlic rice.

Single serve

Curd Rice:

When the rice becomes watery or soft, it best to make curd rice. What will soothe you in summer? A bowl of curd rice kept in the fridge for sometime before you eat it.

Left over cooked rice : 1cup

Curds or fresh yogurt - 1/2 cup

Milk -2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – few

Red dry chilli -3 broken

Urad dal – 1 tbsp

Sugar – 1 tsp

Fresh coriander – 1 tbsp, chopped to garnish

 Mix the rice, curds, milk, salt and sugar in a serving bowl and keep it aside.

In a kadai, heat oil, add mustard seeds. Wait till splutter. Add urad dal and fry till golden color. Add red dry chilly and curry leaves. Fry for another minute. Add this to the rice. Mix well. Garnish with fresh coriander. Keep in the refrigerator before you serve.

COCONUT CHUTNEY RICE :

I am not a chutney person. But my family loves chutney. My husband likes to have the coconut chutney even with Poha!

Coconut chutney is always there in my house. But as I do not like, I use it in many recipes. I use it to make masala for the gravy. I use it to make masala majjige. 

But my favorite is rice. This coconut rice tastes very good. Try it and you will agree with me.

Leftover cooked rice - 1 cup

Oil - 1 tsp

Ready coconut chutney(you can say ' leftover chutney') - 3 to 4 tbsp

For my normal chutney recipe, click this.

Salt to taste(less, as there is salt in the chutney already)

Now, other ingredients will depend on what is there in your chutney. 

As my chutney has all the ingredients, I do not put anything.

Heat oil in kadai. Add the chutney. Fry for few minutes, till it changes its color. Add the rice. Mix well and saute for few minutes or till you get coconut aroma. Its aroma will remind you of the rice which is served in Brahmin or  Udupi marriages or temples.

These three rice plates(bowls!!) are going to 

PJ's ongoing event,

Scrumptious Delights From Leftovers - An Event Announcement

Keep Smiling,

Idly, Sambhar and Chutney

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi all,

When I started my blog, I thought of starting with basic and simple foods. But some how I went on postponing it. 

Thanks to Mahimaa for organizing a event of basic recipes that made me to post idly, sambhar and chutney.

They say that South Indians never leave their home without having at least one idly for breakfast! But, now a days it has reached all over the world. And most of the people all around the world loves this food because of many reasons. Easy to make with readily available atta in the shops and ready to make products and if you have time you can prepare the batter at home easily. Because of its health benefits as it is steamed food, very good for the stomach. Especially when one is on travelling idly is the best food to eat, taking care not to eat the sambhar or chutney! It is Doctor's delight, best diet  food to advise for patients.

These idly s are kid's favorite. You can add vegetables into it to make it healthier. My younger daughter calls it "adalilil"

I think (failed) introduction to the food is sufficient as it is the most popular breakfast.

Here the measurement is to prepare for 3 to 4 people.

First recipe is for Idly,

Normally the Idly s are prepared with Raw rice, Urad dal and Methi seeds or prepared with Urad dal and Idly rawa.

You will get 14 varieties of idly s  in EC's Simple Indian Food- An Easy Cooking Blog.

Here I am giving the recipe for Idly is prepared with Urad dal and Idly rawa. Idly rawa is available in shops. Its easy to make as there is no need to soak the rice and grind it with Urad dal. 

Urad dal - 1 cup

Idly rawa - 2 1/2 cup

Methi seeds - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Soak the urad dal and methi seeds in water for 4 to 6 hours. The water should be more than double of dal.

(After some time, urad dal increase in size and the water will be less.)

Wash the idly rawa with good water and put it in a vessel in which you want to keep the batter to ferment. 

Grind it into fine paste. Mix it properly with rawa and salt. Keep it to ferment in a warm place for at least 8 hours. During cold weather, the batter takes more time to ferment. Check the batter after 8 hours. If it is not doubled in size, keep it for some more time. (usually I do not keep it more, as no patience to wait for more time. :-) ) 

Mix it properly and keep it ready. 

  

Keep water till one inch height in a cooker or if you have Idly cooker. Keep it on heat. Till it starts boiling, apply oil and pour the batter in to all the plates. Keep it in the cooker without weight on the top. Steam it for 10 minutes on high flame and 5 minutes of low flame. Allow it to cool. Idly s are ready to serve. 

Coming to the next recipe i.e  chutney,

Easy and fast to prepare if you have Mixer or grinder.

Fresh coconut - 1 cup, grated or cut into pieces

Green chilly - 2

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind paste - 1 tsp

or lime juice - 1 tsp

Ginger - very small piece, chopped

Sugar - 1 tsp

Fresh dalia - 2 tbsp(optional)

Salt to taste

Curry Leaves - few

Water to help in grinding in to fine paste.

Add everything in a grinder and make into fine or coarse paste(as you like). My mom likes the coarse chutney as she loves to feel the coconut in the mouth. But for me, I like it fine paste!! 

For tempering,

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Hing - pinch

Heat oil in a small kadai, add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Remove it from heat. After a minute add hing. Allow it to cool and add it to the chutney.

The last recipe is  Sambhar,

Preparing sambhar is totally your choice. As there are 1000 ways to cook delicious sambhar. Here I am giving a simple sambhar or you can say instant sambhar! without any vegetables. In future, hope fully I will try to post the veg. sambhar that goes well with Idly.

Toor dal - 1 cup (You can use other dal also, put Toor dal is the best for this type of sambhar)

Hing - pinch

Onion - 1 small, chopped into long slices

Tomato - 2 big, chopped

Curry leaves - few

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Jeera or cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp

Ready sambhar masala - 2 tbsp ( I use MTR SAMBHAR POWDER)

(If not available do not worry, I will give the masala recipe)

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp or 1 1/2 as per your taste

Jaggery - 1 tbsp

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Tamarind paste - 1 tsp

Water to make required consistency

Wash and soak the toor dal for 15 to 30 minutes. Cook it with hing. It should be fully cooked. keep it aside.

To prepare the sambhar :

Heat oil in kadai, add mustard and cumin seeds. when mustard seeds splutter add onion and curry leaves. Cook for a minute. Then goes tomato and tamarind paste, cook it till tomato starts leaving oil. Now add MTR POWDER, red chilly powder, salt, jaggery and turmeric powder. Mix it and allow it to cook for few seconds. Add cooked dal, mix it with the masala, close the lid and cook for 2 minutes. Open the lid add water. Again boil it for 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning and cook for some more time. Sambhar is ready.

Now, if you do not have ready sambhar masala, 

This is my mother's way :

Fry 

 few pieces of fresh or dry coconut, 

1 tsp jeera, 

1 tbsp dry coriander seeds

1 Dry red chilly 

!/2 tsp methi seeds. 

grind these ingredients into a fine paste.

And the same procedure follows only to add the homemade powder instead of MTR powder.

(Sorry for not taking the separate photo of sambhar!)

I want to send this to  "Cooking Basics Event" held by Mahimaa of  Indian Vegetarian Kitchen.

But not sure about its getting entrance to the event as there is already a post for Idly and chutney. No worry, if it is not accepted.  I will post something else for the event.

Keep Smiling,

A queen of blood meets rice and white milk!! accidentally!!!

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Are you thinking that I have started writing novel on ghosts and devils!! I always find this subject very funny and scary movies makes me laugh.( Do not tell me to watch "The Exorcist" or something like that!!!)

Yesterday, I was in a fix to fix a lunch box for my daughter. As you all know she loves to take rice, I have to plan variety of rice for a week and keep it ready in menu .

So, I checked the fridge for vegetables. I did not find anything, as I bring vegetables only in the afternoon of every Tuesday.

I checked the onion basket, thinking that I will make onion rice and send her. Then I saw these red queens sitting and talking to onions! First I hesitated to use these for rice, as I felt may be Rajul will not like the raw smell of beetroot. Then I thought of giving it a try as she likes boiled beet.

I will give you the recipe before I will tell the result!!

Here they come in line:

Rice - 1 cup or 200 gm

Beet - 1 big or 2 medium

Jeera or cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 big, cut into slices

Ginger & Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Whole garam masala - 1 tbsp crushed.

(1 cardamom, 2 cloves, few shajeera, a small piece of cinammon)

Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp or more if cooking for elders

Tomato - 1 medium, chopped

Then comes the sweet heart of this rice, do not skip this!

Fresh coconut - either grated or small cut pieces to make coarse milk

(I am not getting proper word here, so let me explain you, take few small pieces or grated coconut, put little water and put in a blender to get coconut milk with coarse coconut. I mean, no need to make it full milk. I hope you got me!!!)

Salt to taste

Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure to make:

Wash the rice and keep it to dry.

Wash, peel and grate the beets.

Heat oil in a cooker. Add jeera and onion. Fry till brown. Add ginger garlic paste and garam masala. Fry for a minute and add the beet and tomato. Its time to keep on frying the beet till it becomes dry or looks dry. Like this I thought the raw smell will go! and to check whether the smell vanished or not,  read full story.

Now add salt and chilly powder with coconut milk. Fry for half a minute.

Add the rice immediately and fry for a minute so that the red masala will get mix with the rice. 

Here is the place where the queen of blood meets the rice and white milk. So the suspense is over.

Add hot water till the rice is covered. 

Cover the lid and give 2 whistles.

The red beet rice is ready to eat!

Yes! There was no raw smell of beet anywhere! Actually no one will make out that it is prepared with beet.

This was my real invention in a hurry!!! 

Why I am calling these beet as queen of bloods?? All of us know that beet is the house of  highest contain of iron, and regenerates the red blood shells. And doctors suggests to have it more if you want increase your hemoglobin. So what will be the best way to give this to kids, without making them cry! or running and shouting behind them?

The result was, the full day,my daughter was on this rice it self. And in the school her friends took half of the rice from the box. Seeing the color of the rice, even her teacher asked her what is it made of???

Do I need more appreciation?

YES! I want the sweet comments from all my friends here. 

Sending this to silpa of Anita' s Kitchen  APS- Rice Event.

AND

Sending it again to

Priya's Healing Foods - Beetroot Event Guest Hosting
( Linking it to Siri's Healing foods home page)

Keep Smiling,

Sweet Coconut Rice

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

As I have told before also, I llllllovve sweets! 

When ever I go to my aunt's house(Father's sister), every time I get something new to eat!!Last month, when I went to her house, she gave me this sweet! As usual,  it was very delicious. Even though it was not new to me, but I had it after long time. She makes very tasty and variety of food. 

This sweet is very common in South canara, and I think even in Maharashtra, they call it as Naaral bhaath.

I wanted to try this sweet, and Today I got the time to make. I called her, and asked her in the phone about the recipe.(  usually, we both share the recipes). I noted down the ingredients and prepared in the evening. 

         Here it is in front of you all, with my little creative decoration.

It is very easy recipe, if you have some unexpected guests and you want to serve them some sweet!! As the ghee is must in this, I thought of sending this to Sanghi 's  FIL - Ghee for this season and Spicy delights!!.

Coming to the recipe,

Rice(any variety which stays firm after cooking,) - 1 bowl (cooked)

Sugar - 3/4th bowl

Fresh coconut - 1 bowl(grated)

Ghee - 3/4th bowl

Cashew nuts and raisins - 6 each cut into pieces

Salt - a pinch

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Heat 1 tbsp ghee in thick bottomed pan. Fry the nuts and keep aside. In the same pan, add coconut. Fry for a minute. Add sugar. Mix well and let it cook till the sugar is dissolved with coconut. Add half of the ghee.Do not let it boil. Once, both are mixed properly, add the cooked rice immediately. You should be  always with the dish, stirring it always on medium flame. Now add some more ghee, salt and cardamom powder. Cook it only for one minute. Remove it from the fire. Add fried nuts. Mix it nicely and transfer in to serving bowl. If you delay, then it will become hard.

The sweet coconut rice is ready to serve.

The sweet is going to take part in 

Sanghi 's  FIL - Ghee for this season and Spicy delights!!.

AND

Festive rice event by  Torview

Keep smiling,

Instant coconut halwa

Tried and tasted by Nivedita
Hi all,

As I told before, I am always ready for sweet. After meals, I must have some sweet. So this one is the quickest sweet I can make and I love to sit and eat very slowly, enjoying each bite. Here is the recipe,
Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup
Jaggery crushed or powdered - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp(optional, but defintely gives unique taste)
Mix altogether nicely, and keep in microwave oven for 1 minute. Take it out, mix again and keep in oven again for two more minutes.
Coconut halwa is ready to eat.

I am sending this one to Mahima's(http://spicesetc.blogspot.com/) event ,
http://spicesetc.blogspot.com/2009/04/15-minute-cooking-spieces-etc.html

This sweet is going to PJ's Let's Go Nuts! - Event Announcement (for the month of July 09) which is the brain child of Aqua.

Keep smiling,