Khandvi ~ A tempting Snack from Gujarat! for ICC

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

I am angry with  Srivalli because of the recipe for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge. 

Just kidding, actually I am thankful to her for making me try Khandvi ! again and test my patience and cooking passion. I The recipe I followed is the first one from  Lataji'.

It was 4th time before I tried in the past and all the 3 times it was a super failure. But this time I did it, I took the challenge and was succeeded half. My only mistake was I spread it thick.

But when I saw Lataji's photo, I felt my spread was also good.

The taste was too good to enjoy as an evening snack, or morning breakfast.

Ingredients: are very simple, easily available at home, and very fast snack for unexpected guests. Just be careful when you are spreading the batter.

Gramflour - 1/3 cup

Curds or yogurt - 1/3 cup

Water -  1 cup

Hing a pinch

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Ginger and green chilli paste - 1 tsp or more(if you like it spicy)

Sugar - 1 tsp

For tempering :
Oil- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp

For garnishing:
Fresh coconut - 2 tbsp(grated)
Fresh Coriander - 1 tbsp, cleaned, washed and chopped
Keep the greased thali ready.

Method:

• Mix gramflour, curds, water, salt and ginger chilly paste in a big bowl.
• Mix well and remove lumps. I used bare fingers to remove the lumps.
• Add hing, turmeric powder and sugar and mix well again.

• Take a thick bottomed kadai, make it hot.
• Add the batter, keep on stirring continuously. Cook it till the raw smell goes and it gets cooked. You can see the color change and it starts shining. I kept on stirring for almost 15 minutes and my hands started paining :-) But do not stop.
• Immediately transfer the batter on the greased thali and spread it thin and evenly.
• Cut into thin strips. Wait till cool.

• Roll each strip into small rolls and keep in a serving plate.
• Heat oil in a small vessel. Add mustard seeds and when they splutter add sesame seeds. 
• Remove form the heat.
• Allow it to cool.
• Spread it on the ready Khandvis.
• Garnish with fresh coconut and coriander.

I enjoyed it making and going to try it again very soon.

Keep Smiling,

Marie Biscuit Chocolate balls (Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Chocolates..... Who does not like chocolate?? And home made chocolates??? Yes, we all love anything thats home made and as I say we are magicians in the kitchen to turn simple things into amazing mouthwatering and yummy dishes.

This time, its not me, I have followed the recipe from Sailu. She has made it very simple and tasty. I kept her recipe in my drafts since long time, but never got a chance to make it. But now, when I was checking the recipes, my daughter saw the photos in her blog and was behind me to make it NOW itself. Even I wanted to make something for 2 events. 

And here I am with it. But I did not allow my daughter to eat more as she is down with fever.

The original recipe is here.

Ingredients: (I used)

Marie biscuit - 12

Butter - 1 tbsp(I used 2 Amul cubes)

Cocoa powder - 1 1/2 tbsp

Condensed milk - 90g(A small tin)

Vanilla essence - 1 drop

I love this!!!

Method:

1. Break the biscuits in to pieces and powder them in a mixi. Sieve it to get the fine powder.
2. Beat the butter for a minute.
3. Add all the ingredients to the butter and mix well to make a soft dough.
4. Divide the dough into equal balls and give desired shape.
5. Decorate the choco balls with dessicated coconut or sugar granules or stuff it with some almonds. Or serve it just like that.

Sending these to two events:

One is Jyoti's (The Veggie Hut )

Lets Celebrate Sweets - Chocolate! An Event Announ...
which is started by Me.

another is Srivalli's (Spice your Life )

Announcing Kid's Delight - Chocolate Feast!

Hope all of you will prepare this and make your kids happy.

Keep Smiling,

Fresh Green chana chutney

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

I have already posted the rice recipe with fresh green chana here. Already explained about it in that post.

This time it is the chutney I prepared. My friend gave me the idea to make it and I tried it immediately. It was delicious. 

Are you ready to try it?

Ingredients:

Fresh chana - 1 cup

Garlic - 4 - 6 cloves

Curry leaves few

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds -1/2 tsp

Tamarind - 1/2 tsp

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Water just few drops to make the chutney into paste.

Method:

Dry roast the chana for a minute. 

Add all the ingredients and grind into a coarse paste. The chutney is ready to serve. 

I loved it with Jowar rotti for dinner and with dosa for breakfast.


Sending it to 

Simona's  Annuncio: legumi che passione! (numero 31) 
(which is started by  Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. MLLA, the popular, legume-centered event)

Keep Smiling,

What's there in shape??

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Aren't we all magicians in the kitchen? I always feel like that. We prepare food in minutes! We create new dishes. We do some magic to prepare tasty food with the ingredients we have in the kitchen shelf. We are always ready for unexpected guests.

Am I going out of the track? Sometimes  I love to go!

I love to be in the kitchen and create some magic, which many times I fail because I am not so creative and do not have patience. 

Many times I prepare the same food with different methods or recipes. 

And same way, I love these rolls. 

Here I feel exactly  like I am a magician. Give me any shape from the dough, I roll the chapatis into exact round shape(with little care) or the exact triangle shape! I am making these since child hood. 

Try these folds to make chapatis. I feel, each method, the chapati tastes different.

Keep Smiling,

Remixed and Reposted recipes for the event

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

When I was checking my recipe list, I got many sweet recipes, which are sugarless. This made my work easy to post the recipes for the event. I wanted to try new recipes, but could not because of my poor time management.

Here I am reposting the recipes.

First one is,

Steamed Sweet Dumplings(ಕುಚ್ಚಿದ ಕಡಬು)

Second one is,

Sesame seeds poli(ಎಳ್ಳಿನ ಹೋಳಿಗೆ)

Third one is,

Biscuit Poli for Holi

Sending these to

Sara's ongoing event 

Celebrate Sweets - Sugarless Event Announcement !!... 

which is started by me.

Keep Smiling, 

Carrot and Dates Halwa.

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

WISHING EVERY ONE A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.... MAY GOD BRING ONLY THE BEST THINGS IN THIS YEAR.

This is my first post in this year 2011.Two nights party and hectic schedule kept me away from blogging. Today I am here with a sweet to start my year so that, the whole year I will keep blogging on sweet things. I am following my fellow bloggers who started the year with halwa.  I am here with carrot and dates halwa which I prepared for dinner tonight. It was delicious. 

My DH got 2 boxes of mini(90g) condensed milk tins and kept for me as I love to use it in my desserts instead of sugar. 

I will be waiting for the chance to use these mini tins which I love to eat just like that if I do not have time to make sweet but desire to have a bite.

Here are the ingredients:
Carrot - 2 big, cleaned, grated
Condensed milk - 1 tin(90g)
Dates - 6(Soaked in 1/4 cup warm milk for 15 to 20 min)
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Sliced or grated almonds - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Method:

• Take 2 tbsp of grated carrot and add it to the dates. 
• Grind this into paste.
• Transfer this into a M/W safe bowl.
• Add the remaining carrot. Mix well and cook on HIGH for 3 minutes to remove the raw smell of the carrot.
• Take the bowl out, add the condensed milk and cardamom powder. Cook on HIGH for 3 more minutes.
• Remove, add the sliced or grated almonds and ghee. Mix well and cook on HIGH till the mixture becomes thick(as it looks in the photo). It may take 3 to 5 minutes as per the M/W settings.
• Serve it hot with cold ice cream ball or refrigerate it before serving to enjoy the chilled halwa.

Sara's ongoing event 

Celebrate Sweets - Sugarless Event Announcement !!... 

which is started by me.

AND 

Srivalli's 

365 Days of Microwave Cooking!

Keep Smiling,

Maadli or Maaldi(Powdered Chapati and Jaggery)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

A very different sweet to make and the taste is very good. Basically it is a North Karnataka dish. I am not sure if it is prepared in some other states and with different name.

I do not know the origin of the name of this sweet. Sorry, I can not explain the word Maadli or Maaldi. 

It is usually prepared during marriages. It can be prepared and stored for a month and it will be handy for a family to share the sweet for the occasion. 

Do I need to say I love it.... :-))))))

There is actually a very traditional way to make it.(I have striked the traditional way because it takes long time and not possible in metro cities or abroad where you do not get flour mills for making flour.)

I will explain both the ways.

Traditional way:

Wheat - 1/2 kilo

Chana dal - 1/4 cup

Clean the wheat and chana dal. Mix it and take it to the flour mill. Make it little coarse flour(not very fine).

Modern way:

Wheat flour - 1/2 kilo

Gram flour - 1/8 cup

Knead the flour with very little water and 1 tsp of salt.. Keep it for some time.

Make thick and big chapatis and roast them with  out oil.

Let the chapatis be cool.

Put them in a big mortal and pestle( traditional and very big one, made with stone or iron). Crush the chapatis into coarse powder.

Modern way:

Cut the chapatis in to small pieces. 

Grind in a dry grinder till coarse powder.

Take

Crushed or powdered Jaggery - 1/2 kilo or according the the sweetness of jaggery

Cardamom powder - 1 tbsp

Nutmeg powder - 1 tsp

Grated dry coconut - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1 tsp

Daliya split - 1/2 cup

Mix all the above ingredients with powdered chapati.

Eat with lot of ghee and hot milk. 

You can it it dry too.

Store in a airtight jar for a month. This quantity is enough for 10 to 12 people.
Sending this sweet to two events.

Sara's ongoing event 

Celebrate Sweets - Sugarless Event Announcement !!... 

which is started by me.

and

Sujana's

"Celebrating Regional Cuisine"

Keep Smiling,

Best of 2010

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Its always good to keep a track of our past. You can learn not to repeat the mistakes. You will know how to improve yourself. Sometimes you will feel proud with your work. Sometimes, it makes you laugh. Many times your past brings lot of memories, good and bad.

But this post is only for my cooking skills and my experiences in the kitchen. Its about my best recipe, my worst experiment  food...

I want to thank Valli for hosting this event as it allows us to look back in to the last year happenings and the best part is here we are the Judge for our work.

Here comes my list:

First I would like to judge my best 5 recipes of the year.

Ohh, its really difficult to judge myself. I have selected the best 5 recipes from my (All) BEST recipes:

1. A queen of blood meets rice and white milk!! accid...Feb 03
2. Complan Pedha and Horlicks (or Boost) Pedha in Mic...  Aug 23
3. Biscuit Poli for Holi  March 5
4. Tomato Rasam Cubes July 22
5. Tawa Fried Paneer Tikka Aug 4

First time tried in my kitchen:

My first bake - Chocolate Cookies Aug 5: Yes!! I started baking at last. It was my dream to start baking and I did it.

Carrot and Orange Halwa  June 21 : It was the first time, I took risk to do something which I never did before.

Pineapple Chutney in M/W Sept 16: It was just delicious and I was happy to get the taste what I had guessed it before making it.

Tomato Rasam Cubes July 22 : This is my baby, which proved that I have a creativity in me.

Biscuit Poli for Holi  March 5 : This again is my experiment, which made my kids to enjoy the traditional food in a new way.

Apple Rasam! March 15: I never thought I will cook this some day.

Two best meals of the year:

Full meals ready(ಊಟ ತಯಾರಿದೆ) Feb 22

Brown rice,green veg curry and brinjal fry! Feb 14

Recipes with different names: Some times I become poetic and get some funny or different names for my recipe. Below are the recipes with some funny names:(But the taste is not funny..)

C.C? K.P? S.C OR C.C again!? What's there in A nam...Feb 04
Dal roti khao, Prabhu ke gun gaao!!!
They all met in a kitty party!!! to unite into one...

 Best dish(es) of the year

Tomato Rasam Cubes : This dish was selected for "Best 30 recipes of the year 2010" :-)

Tri Colored Chapatis and Tomato Chutney! June 24

Falafel Sandwich (Indianised) : This got second prize in a blog for sandwich contest :-)

One more best thing happened in this year was, I wrote two stories! I always knew I can do it as I have already written many poems, but never thought of finishing a story. This year, it happened. 

The boy who never listened!: I tell this story to my daughter to keep her away from dangerous things.

Urad Dal Vada, Repentance :This is the first story I wrote and I sat in the night till 3 to finish and I did not feel tired at all! :-)

Now, coming to my favorite one: Preparing food from other blogs. I really enjoy a lot to follow the recipe from other blogs as it brings us close. I got many food remakes, and each recipe was followed to the max. accuracy. But I am giving only few links here:

Rice flour Poori and Chilli Gojju(Food Remake)

THIRATTUPAAL(Milk and Jaggery sweet) (Food remake)...

From Priyas Kitchen to My Kitchen(for T&T)

Microwave Chocolate Cake and the saga continues!!!...

Magic of Sindhi Rasoi(Food Remake)

and the list continues.., 

In my blog click "Food remake" and you will get all the recipes tried from other blogs.

 Coming to the best clicks of the year : I am not a professional photographer, neither I have a good camera. Reasons apart, I love to click the photos of my recipes and these are my favorite ones:

• 
  

There were some failures too, I hosted 2 events which were flop.

There were hits, where I hosted many events with lot of entries. 

I think I should stop here or else I will write of the whole blog in one post :-)

As per me, I never believe in making resolutions on new year. But I remember about last year that I would wish to learn baking this year and I did it.

Click  Best of year 2009 for the  best of last year 2009.

This time I am thinking of trying Continental, International food. Wish me luck. 

I will be here with more experiments in 2011.

Sending this to 

 Valli's Best of Year 2010 event. 

Keep Smiling,

I am tagged :-)

 Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

 Hi All,

Its nice to be tagged. I am thankful to Preethi of Preethi's Culinary for Tagging me and giving me a chance to think few things about me and answer the questions which really made me to think before I answer those.

Here are the questions and my answers:

1. Are you a vegetarian, or have you thought about being one?

I am an Omnivores :-) :-), I love to have non veg but once in a while. My favorite food is Vegetarian and raw food makes me more hungry.

2. Who inspired you to cook or bake?
During childhood, cooking was my necessity. Now, there are many people who really inspires me to try cooking new food. My daughter, my blogging friends, great chefs from all over the world are few among them.

3. How do you celebrate Christmas?...or a favorite holiday of your choice?

I would love to celebrate a festival with my family and still waiting for my all alone favorite holiday..

4. Do you prefer to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and/or family, or prefer to ring in the New Year quietly, and privately, at home?

I love to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends or family, basically, I can not stay alone at home on that evening. I feel lost and I feel lonely if I am alone that eve.

5. If someone were to ask you to bring dessert to a party, what would you bring? Store bought, or homemade, and if you were to make homemade, what would you make?

I would love to make home made dessert and that will be a cake(new passion). Otherwise, gulab jamoon are the best.

6. How will you celebrate your next birthday?

I really do not know and don't want to plan it now only.

7. Do you have a New Year's resolution-and will you be sticking to it?

I do not believe in New Year's resolution. I make resolutions according to my necessity and If I do, I stick to it.

8. Do you time your breakfast,lunch & dinner or eat when you are hungry ?

I maintain regular time for breakfast and dinner. Lunch time varies.

9. What inspired you to write a food blog ?

Ohh, there are many reasons which inspired me to write a food blog. First was, I wanted to prove myself as a good writer and a good cook. Second is, I love to meet or make new friends of my interest. Third is, it really makes me happy.

10. You try a new recipe and it does not turn out good,what will you do ?

I immediately try it in a week or two. If I get success, it will be in my regular menu or if its a disaster, I will try it again after a month or two. But I try till I get that recipe right.

11. Name three ingredients you consciously avoid or eliminate even when the recipe calls for it ?

Ajinomoto, more oil and more masala

12. Name three things you have to use in most recipes ?

Salt, ginger and vegetables :-)

13. How important is eating meals together as a family to you?

 I really enjoy having food with my family and its very very important for me to have meals together.

I have answered very honestly and enjoyed doing the same. 

I'm happy to tag these questions to:

 Smitha 

 Mina Joshi

 Priya 

 veena krishnakumar

 Aruna Manikandan

 Srivalli 

and

niveditha

Please continue the tagging by passing it to your friends.

Keep Smiling,