Indian cooking challenge Archives - My Veg Fare

Gujrati Dal for ICC Challenge

Jayasri Ravi — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:34:00 +0000

Hi, I had this lovely dal few days back, My second daughter was the first to have food, and she said it was 'Thumba chennagide' means it's very nice, I think the combination of dates and tamarind was very good!, I have to tell I was thinking twice to try this out, as my kids are not any more kids they are teenagers who don't get pleased very easily.
I thank Srivalli, for this venture of me, cooking dates in a dal recipe, and want to thank Pratibha and Jigyasa for allowing us to use this recipe from your second book 'Sukam Ayu'.
The dal was quite tasty with different flavours, I had to tweak it a little bit, nothing drastically I had no dried dates so used soft dates, cooked them with Dal so they can be mashed up and my children wouldn't even know !!.
I couldn't get hold of yam so I had to omit it, I used lot of other vegetables such as carrots, beans, Lilva beans, Drumsticks and it was really nice.
I could notice the Fenugreek taste in the Dal, sweetness and tangyness of dates and tamarind, I omitted Jaggery as my hubby seems to find out even a little bit of Jaggery I add!, he did ask me if I had added Jaggery but when I told him what I had done, he said Mmmm.., and said it was quite nice.
so here is the recipe...

GUJARATI DAL

INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Tuvar Dal
2 Drumsticks
1 Medium sized carrot
1/2 cup Lilva Beans
7 to 8 French Beans
A fist full of Ground nuts (Peanuts)
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1 Green chillies
5 Nos soft dates
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Coriander powder
few Coriander leaves

FOR SEASONING:
1 tsp Ghee
1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
4 Nos Red chillies
curry leaves
A pinch of Asafoetida

METHOD
Cook Tuvar dal with turmeric powder and dates ( but in the recipe what valli sent us was you have to use dried dates soak them in warm water and cook them with other vegetables, as I had no dried dates and I did not want my kids to find out what was in it I cooked them together with Tuvar dal and mashed them well) in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles.
chop the Veggies, cook them in a vessel with 2 to 2 and 1/2 cup of water with a ladle in the vessel and close the top with another broader vessel ( say like a besan type of vessel) with a cup of water in it. This helps in cooking the veggies quicker and faster in a medium flame, keep an eye when it is boiling so it doesn't burn underneath with no water :)). Add the masala powder, tamarind and Jaggery and let it also cook when the veggies are half cooked.
Once the veggies are done, add the Dal to them mix together and cook them again for few minutes adjust salt and curry leaves.
Meanwhile in a small wok, heat a tbsp of Ghee and add all the Ingredients under seasoning fry them for 2 minutes, add this to the dal and serve hot with a dollop of ghee and rice or with chapati or pulka.l
Mmm.., very delicious, you too make this healthy recipe and enjoy it.

The post Gujrati Dal for ICC Challenge appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Punjabi Kadi Pakoras for Indian Cooking Challenge

Jayasri Ravi — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:56:00 +0000

Hi friends, Hope you are all doing well, I have been on and off from blogging, as usual, too many things to do and completely busy with life and health seems to play around too, seeping when ever I am not able to cope up with situations, with all this weather too is changing now and then as it pleases.
I did not make to the challenge up until yesterday 10 days of Navaratri I just didn't want to use onion or Garlic, not that I am too superstitious, I just try not to cook anything with onion or Garlic Or I will see to it I won't eat it, So, I decided to leave it until after the festival.
I have already missed two of ICC challenges, One because of the sun and the next one because I did not have the right utensil, this was the easiest, simplest, delicious recipe. Tell me who would not like it, the whole family was all for it, I have made Kadi many times with veggies, but not with pakoras, It is something like I sometimes I put the dal vadai's in Morekozhambu.
Thanks Simran for this delicious recipe and thanks valli for making us to do this, I would not have made this dish at all if not for the challenge, as Pakoras we would have eaten just like that 🙂 right ?.
Coming back to the recipe..
I made this recipe just noting down the Ingredients and the method.

PUNJABI KADI PAKORAS

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Chickpea flour
2 tbsp Rice flour (not in the recipe)
1/4 cup of Roasted Gram flour (not in the recipe)
2 Onions
1 to 1 and 1/2 tbsp of Red chilli powder
1 tsp of Ajwain seeds/carom seeds (not in the recipe)
salt as required
Oil for Frying

FOR THE KADI
3/4th Cup of Besan flour (chickpea flour)
4 Cups of water (extra water if needed)
3 cups of Yogurt
1 and 1/2 tbsp of Chilli powder
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp of Fenugreek seeds
1/2 tbsp of Cumin seeds
1 tsp of Ajwain seeds
1 Medium sized Onion
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Garam Masala powder
1 tsp Amchur powder
salt as required ( say around 1 and 1/2 tbsp)

METHOD:
I changed the recipe a little bit, I wanted the pakoras more crispier and I didn't want them to soften up too much when soaked in the kadi, so I could munch on it :)) wicked isn't it ?, well I thought kids would love it that way.
I usually do not add water to the pakoras as Onions give out water of their own which is usually sufficient to make lovely crispier pakoras.
The White Onions which I get here in UK really gives too much water.
Chop the onions add salt and leave it for few minutes say around 1/2 an hour.
Meanwhile Mix water and Besan flour together without any lumps and yogurt and mix well and start heating in a low flame. Do not forget to keep stirring occasionally, otherwise you might end up having a burnt bottom, as it starts to thicken.
Meanwhile chop the onion, Heat a Kadai/wok with a 1/2 tbsp of oil add Fenugreek seeds, Mustard seeds, (watch out that the fenugreek seeds change colour to golden brown do not allow it to turn black), Cumin seeds, Turmeric powder when a nice aroma comes out add the chopped onions and a few Curry leaves and saute until they become transparent, then here I changed the recipe a bit I added Chilli powder, Amchur powder, Garam Masala and powdered Ajwain powder and sauteed it a little bit, then added this to the Kadi.
Mixed well and allowed to cook for a few more minutes in a low flame.
Meanwhile take a wok pour oil for frying the pakoras,
Check out the oil by holding your palm on top of the wok (of course not too close) you can notice that their is a warmness that shows that oil is getting heated up give it one more minute and drop the batter to make pakoras another method to see if the oil is ready to be used put a drop of the batter into the oil after 10 to 15 minutes and when it pops up to the surface immediately then it is the right time to fry.
As we had already left the onions to marinate with salt, water would have oozed out now add the salt as required, chilli powder and Ajwain powder mix well then add the Chick pea flour, until it becomes a thick batter, then take a spoonful or use your hands and drop it in small portions (say the size of small lime) and fry them until they are golden brown in colour. Drain them out on a kitchen towel.
Put these pakoras into the Kadi which is on the stove in a low flame increase it to a medium flame and now you would have noticed that the kadi is getting thicker and allow it boil for a few more minutes then put off the stove and allow it to soak well.
I made it quite thick because as Simmi was saying that Punjabi Kadi 's are thicker version and the thinner version are the Gujarati Kadi's.
Well, It was a wonderful dish and we all loved it, I had nothing left in my container that night.

Thanks Srivalli of Spicingyourlife and Simran of Bombay Foodie for this wonderful declicious recipe.

The post Punjabi Kadi Pakoras for Indian Cooking Challenge appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Golgoppas for the Indian Cooking challenge - May 2010

Jayasri Ravi — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:21:00 +0000

Hi everybody, hope you are all doing fine at that end!! :), well, as usual I am the 'Late Kate' here!!, When I was in school we used to have a story on Late kate in our English text book, After a long time I have realized who the late kate is!!, I will not give any saaboobs of why I am late, I am always in a midst of something or the other all the time. Coming back to the recipe.., thanks srivalli for a great challenge, my kids just devoured it!! even H and my friends who visited me today enjoyed it immensely!!, yup! even I loved it !!. I don't have to say no more as you all would have noticed our team out their have already posted the recipe, Oh! yes, this time making Golgoppas was the Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of May.
As you all know (this is for people who do not know!! 🙂 ) India is not only known for its diversity, but for its exotic cuisine from different cultures and traditions but also is famous for its street food, Of course even though parents do not encourage their children eating out side because of the lot of disadvantages it holds, you cannot resist them, can you?, No!!, When we are college goers parents assume that we are more sensible, understand what is right and what is wrong and have immense belief in you and spend the pocket money in a useful way!!, I was, I used to take my carrier but, but, I just couldn't resist eating outside, these days people who sell street food are also consicious and try to keep things more cleaner, only you have to look out for people like that, Here, I would like to remember a chatwala who would stand at the end of the road near my house, his name was veerabhadra, he is a young lad and a very famous one too!!, Once he opens his stall with in an hour he closes it with stock completely gone, today when my kids were eating the golgoppas said I second him!! (well, first impression is always the best impression, I know I cannot beat him, but this one was really good!!). It's been a long time I made any chat, I still have my Bhelpuri in my folder!!, someday I will post it!!..

GOLGOPPAS

INGREDIENTS:

FOR GOLGOPPAS:

1 cup - Semolina

1 tbsp - All purpose flour

A pinch of Baking soda

water

Oil for deep frying

METHOD:

Mix all the ingredients except oil into a smooth stiff pliable dough by adding or sprinkling water little by little. Knead it well, with oiled hands as it is difficult to handle as the dough is stiff, cover it with a muslin cloth or wet cloth so that the dough doesn't dry out, keep it aside for few minutes or until you make the other ingredients ready for filling the golgoppas, so when you deep fry them you can serve it straight from the wok!!.

Knead the dough well with a little bit of oiled hands and pinch out marble sized balls (or 1/2 of marble size) and roll them out into small circles, do it in hand or make a big chappati and cut out small rounds using a cookie cutter or any other means and deep fry them until golden in colour.

(I know some of them are over fried well, that was my daughter frying she said she wants them like that, thank God! she usually gets ideas like making her name, or starting of the letter from her name or some designs etc., I don't know if I was lucky or the Golgoppas!!)

FOR SPICY PANI:

1 1/2 cup Chopped mint leaves

1 tbsp coriander leaves

1/3 cup Tamarind (using 3 to 4 flakes soaked and squeeze out the water nicely)

1'' Ginger

1 tsp Ground cumin

1 1/2tsp Black salt ( I did not use)

salt to taste

METHOD:

Grind all the above said ingredients to a smooth paste, I grinded everything except tamarind first, I always grind the dry ingredients first so they get blended well and then add water when I am making chutneys, I adopted the same method so the chutney is nice and smooth.

FOR RED CHUTNEY

1 cup Tamarind (soak gooseberry sized tamarind in warm water, and extract the Juice)

1/2 cup Jaggery

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp Red chilli powder

1/4 tsp Black pepper powder

1 tsp cumin powder

2 cloves (I crushed them finely in my mortar)

2 cups warm water

salt as required

METHOD

Extract tamarind water (using one or half cup of water mentioned in the recipe) add minced jaggery and allow it dissolve then filter the water as usually you get to see impurities in Jaggery, Once filtered put it back on the stove and add all the other ingredients and allow it to boil for a few minutes so that the raw smell disappears, put it off and it is now ready to use.

PEAS AND POTATOES MASALA

1 cup peas (cooked separately)

2 medium sized Potatoes (cooked separately)

Potato Masala : mash the cooked potatoes, add a pinch of cumin and coriander powder and salt to taste and chopped corainder leaves

Peas Masala: I cooked the peas with mint leaves, drained the water put it into a wok and gave a toss with a pinch of cumin and coriander powder

Set the above veggies separately.

ASSEMBLING THE GOLGOPPAS:

Take a Golgoppa, make a hole in the middle add potato and peas, chopped onions, green and red chutney as you desire and just gulp the whole puri in your mouth and enjoy!!

If you want you can have grated carrot and sev on top of it, I made Jeera pani and dipped the Golgoppa in it and the whole family enjoyed it.

Do make them and you too enjoy it..... good day, c u soon..., take care.....

The post Golgoppas for the Indian Cooking challenge - May 2010 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Sago Murukku for Indian cooking Challenge

Jayasri Ravi — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:21:00 +0000

When srivalli announced to make these murukkus for Indian cooking challenge , something in my mind came flooding into my memory lane, even though this murukkus were made for the Indian cooking challenge, Sorry valli, do not mistake me, I want to dedicate these to those two innocent souls, whom never thought something might happen like this someday in their lives.

SAGO MURUKKU (SABAKKI SEVAI)

It is long back, I was just then married, My Dad and BNK uncle have been friends from when they were small kids, Such a lovely family they are, none of them knew about what high decibles are except for their TV in the house which of course can be controlled by the remote, such soft spoken and lovely people they are, uncle and aunty and their two children. Their son who is an opthomologist is a brilliant doctor and well known, I will not go into details, Few days after my marriage, I went to see them, I had not attended their marrige and I had not seen their pretty 1 + year old grand daughter. DIL was perfectly blending with the family, very talented girl she was, she had done so many creative things, very artistic she was, when we visited them, she served us with some sweets which I do not remember, tea and Sabakki sevai (Sago Murukku)!!!, surprise, surprise!!, right...., It was so tasty she told me she made it, the proud MIL was showing of her DIL's talents, I still remember those scenes. Absolutely perfect and was so tasty, as always my passion for cookong is always on alert, immediately I asked for the recipe, she gave it to me and I came home and promtly wrote it in my most treasured book-2, you can see the picture of it here.....

After few months my Dad one day called me and said both Mother and the cute little darling who was just 2+ had passed away!!, I was so shocked, If you have ever been to Bangalore, and been to 9th Block Jayanagar, where the Anjaneya temple is.. that main road, The three were travelling in their bike, a lorry had come behind and hit the vehicle, he was thrown on to the foot path, but monther and child fell on the road, and the lorry just went on them and they died on spot. That was the most tragic thing that I had ever heard, when I went to console them, I had no words, nothing came out of my mouth, I was dumb, I just did not have the strength to say anything to them.., I cried with them silently, it took him a long time to come back out of it, just 7 years back he got married and now has a lovely kid, he never wanted to marry at all, he kept saying you get married I will take care of your kids, It took him almost 10 to 12 years to come out of that shock, and start his normal life again..., The sago murukku what she called it as sabakki sevai, after so many years is atlast was made, These murukku are in loving memory of her, they were quite nice, but the first is always the best, those sevai were the tastiest !!
Here is the recipe for these murukkus....

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups - Rice flour
1/2 cup - Besan flour
1/2 cup Sago
1/2 cup Fried Gram flour
salt to taste
50 gms (half of half cup) - Curds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 ladle hot oil (I used 1/4 cup Dalda)

METHOD:
First of all you have to soak the sago either the night before or at least 3 to 4 hours in the curds, so they become quite soft and can be mashed up nicely.
Next mix all the other ingredients together with either the hot oil or Dalda (as I did, nicely rub the Dalda in a plate until it froths up with a little salt) and then add the soaked sago mix well everything together, with little by little water make it into a dough and with the help of a murukku maker which has only one star, make murukkus in the hot oil fry them until they are golden in colour.

Now you must be wondering my murukku are like muchorais, well, I have two murukku makers both of them are wronglythread and I had nobody to help me open it!! one was stuck with Thenzgol maker and the other with muchorai maker, so I thought this was better and Thenzgol and I made small muchorai shaped murukkus, they were quite soft and nice.

I took the method of Lata , as I was short of time, I powdered the Sago coarsely in a mixe and soaked them in the curds for 3 hours and followed the same method.
It is important to soak the sagos well, otherwise they might start to splutter and would be a disaster.
I had no problem it came out well..
I would like to thank srivalli for giving me an opportunity to do this without her knowledge.

The post Sago Murukku for Indian cooking Challenge appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Kasta Kachori FOR ICC CHALLENGE

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:44:00 +0000

Kachori was first eaten in college days, That was when I was crazy about North Indian delicasies, That was when I got obssessed with Pulavs until now!!!, Chats, Tandooris, rotis, pulkas, koftas.... God!!, that is going to be a big list, Let me stop, When Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons asked us to make Kachoris I was quite amazed, because I had a recipe with me from my recipe book, which I wanted to try out!!, but then it is still going to be their some more time I think !! as I tried these kachoris and was quite a hit, I should say the moong dal wasn't a big hit, but the peas one was a great hit, and I just made only so much which you can see in the plate, but the other lot I made was moongdal ones!!, I must say kudos to Medha and her aunty who gave this wonderful recipe.., we all loved it thanks to both of you dears..

KASTA KACHORI WITH SWEET CHUTNEY

DOUGH FOR THE KACHORIS:

INGREDIENTS:

2 and 1/2 cups All purpose Flour/Maida
1/4 Cup Ghee
1/2 tsp Salt
water fro kneading

METHOD:

Mix Maida, ghee and sallt together into a crumble then add water slowly and knead into a dough to a soft dough and leave it to rest for 1/2 to 1 hour, covered with a wet cloth, don't make the dough dry.

TO MAKE THE KACHORIS:

There were 3 options, I made two out of them, but I will give the recipe for all the three...

MOONGDAL KACHORIS

1/2 Cup Moong dal
1 tsp Cumin
A Pinch of Asafoetida
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Amchur powderaste
1 tsp Ginger paste
salt to taste
1 tsp Green chilli paste
2 tsp cuury leaves
1/2 tsp Red chilli powder

METHOD

Wash and soak dal for an 1 hour, then drain all the water I even dried it with a kitchen towel, then grind it into a coarse powder (Idli thari), Take oil in a wok, once it is hot add cumin seeds, when they splutter, add the chopped curry leaves then the moong dal mix well, and fry until it dries out and turns slightly bownish, add all the other spices mix well, and leave it for some time so the masala gets well absorbed and the aroma spreads around the kitchen.

MUTTER KI KACHORI (PEAS KACHORI) FROM TARALA DALAL

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups Green peas
1 tsp Green chillies
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp Nigella seeds
2 tsp Fennel seeds
2 Bay leaves
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
4 tsp Coriander chopped
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

METHOD

Grind Green peas, chillies and ginger into a smooth paste without adding water, then In a wok heat oil add nigella seeds, fennel seeds, bay leaves and the ground mixture mix all the ingredients until well cooked, and dry. Discard the bay leaves and now the filling is ready

PYAAZ KI KACHORI

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups of onion chopped
2 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp Nigella seeds
2 Bay leaves
1 and 1/2 tsp Green chillies
2 tbsp Bengal Gram flour
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp Garam Masala powder
3 tsp Coriander leaves chopped
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

METHOD

Take a wok, heat oil, add nigella seeds, Fennel seeds and green chilllies and add the chopped onions and saute until they are transluscent, then add all the ingredients and saute until a nice aroma comes out and dry it .

Just remember keep all the filling ingredients quite dry otherwise it might ooze out!!

METHOD TO MAKE THE KACHORIS

Make small balls, and make it into small rounds just like you make for Kozhukottais, or shall I say like small pooris, do it with your hand or with a rolling pin, If you use your finger tips it is much better keep turning it around your fingers like small bowl shape then fill in the filling any of your choice and seal the tips pinch of if it is excess, and oiling your palm press them or flatten them carefully that the filling doesn't come out, make them and fry them in batches, till golden in colour.

and serve it with anything of your choice, sauce, ketchup, Sweet chutney, green chutney.

Hope you all would make this and enjoy like we all did making it..., check on this link step by step preparation by valli and others from the other ICC bloggers

The post Kasta Kachori FOR ICC CHALLENGE appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Moong Dal Halwa for Indian Cooking Challenge

Jayasri Ravi — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:43:00 +0000

To all my dear friends and readers a very happy Makara Sankranthi, I wanted to post with my Chakkarai Pongal ( Sweet Pongal), but as always I am very late with everything, thank God!, I am at least posting this Indian Cooking Challenge recipe on time !!, This recipe of course is for Inidan Cooking Challenge, this time challenged by Srivalli of our spicing your life, who has challenged all the members to make this Halwa, which has been passed down to Simran of foodiezone by her mom!!, That's the best part of the challenge, some dishes which are handed down by elders, which are always more tasty and have lot of tips , which gives the best result.

MOONGDAL HALWA

Srivalli had posted 2 recipes, I tried only one recipe which is used with Khoya, I am posting that recipe here.

INGREDIENTS:
Split Moong dal (Green gram dal) - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4th cup
clarified butter - 1/2 cup
Khoya - 1/2 cup
cashew nuts and raisins for garnishing

Soaking time: 3 to 4 hours
preparation: 15 min
cooking time : 30 -45 minutes

METHOD
Lightly roast the 1 cup Moon dal, wash, soak and be ground to fine paste adding very little water. Take a thick bottom pan, heat 1/2 cup Ghee and fry Moong dal paste till it turns brownish and realease the ghee, Add Sugar and Khoya.
Stir fry until both the sugar and knoya are well absorbed turn off the heat, then mix in cashewnuts and raisins.

My Verdict: I tweaked the recipe little bit I wanted to make it the above said way as I love khoya, but I had no Khoya, and I had only 3/4th cup Moong dal as I had only so much left, because of snow I was not able to go to Asian shops, So, I used 3/4th cup of Moong dal, 3/4 th cup sugar, and 340gms Sweetened Evaporated Milk, and other Ingredients as suggested, I fried Moong Dal as said in the recipe and soaked it for around 2hrs, usually they become soft very soon within 2 hrs, then grinded it softly without any water, but added little bit of evaporated milk to make it into a soft consistency then poured the remaining milk and ground dal mixed well and started stir frying until it starts thickening then added the sugar until they were well absorbed, and stir fry it until it turned into halwa consistency and garnished with cashewnuts and raisins, with a pinch of cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.
We all enjoyed it very much, thank you valli and Simran for the recipes.

The post Moong Dal Halwa for Indian Cooking Challenge appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Chigodilu for the Indian-Cooking-challenge

Jayasri Ravi — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:28:00 +0000

Chigodilu for the Indian cooking challenge for the month of November

Hi all, Christmas and New year comming soon, everybody is so busy, me too!!, It's been almost a month I posted anything, and I was so happy, that I made such good friends through blogging, few of them enquiring what happened to me, thanks to all of you, I think I will get going now.., I missed doing my daring bakers challenge too, I miss it, but, I am going to do it soon enough and post it in my blog, I have not been able to visit everybody's blog, peeping now and then, I might have missed so many lovely dishes posted by you all, but I will look into them soon, Well, thank God!, I couldn't miss Indian Cooking Challenge, started by Srivalli and November month's challenge was making chigodilu , Valli is giving us new things to do in cooking and making us put on little weight!!, and making my children and friends enjoying all that I make, and me trying my best not to eat!!, Oh! everything becomes so difficult when I see the savouries my mouth starts watering, and this one just looked like kodubale's from karnataka state, which is my favourite, I thought I should try this out, and the process which I often do for my Ubbu rottis and other dishes I make from the basic flour made this way, but, I never new that this can fried in oil and made as a snack!!, thanks for the challenge valli, and also sorry for posting this so late, as usual, I wanted to post this in the morning, I couldn't make it, my daughter fell sick yesterday night, I had to go to work, after that, I really thought she must have caught the flu, she is alright now, thank to God!, the school closes tomorrow, with the tempratures dropping down here, children won't listen if you tell them cover your head and go out!! and end up with blocked nose and head becoming heavy and what nots, So, I made mologu rasam today, I am really tired, sometimes I wonder why did I ever venture into this!, sorry let me go back to the recipe..

CHEGODILU

Srivalli had given two recipes, I decided to try both of them the one white in colour is the one where in rice flour and maida is used, the one with little bubbles in it are made with moong dal, it was slightly darker in colour because of the dal. well, both of them tasted very well. I have written both the recipes the method is quite the same.

Ingredients:

1 cup - Rice floour

1 cup - water

2 tbsp - Split moong dal

1 tsp - Cumin Seeds

1 tsp - Sesame seeds

1 tsp - Chilli powder

1 tbsp - Ghee or Oil

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Make the dough:

Soak the moong dal in water for 1/2 to 1 hour, in a deep pan boil water, then add salt, ghee and moong dal. bring to boil, simmer and slowly add rice flour using a wooden ladle mix flour with water and mix it well and close the lid and leave it for some time, turn off the heat immediately.
I added cumin seeds, chilli powder also into the water when it was boiling and then continued the process as said above, add added sesame seeds only in the end. if it is a little sticky you can use rice flour just dip your hand and take it out and make the rounds or apply oil to your hand and make the rounds and deep fry in batches, as moong dal is added it gives a golden red colour.

II Recipe: Ingredients:

3/4 cup - Rice flour
1/4 cup - Maida (All purpose flour)
2 tbsp - Ghee
1/4 tsp - Ajwain
1/4 tsp - Red chilli powder
a pinch turmeric powder
salt to taste
2 tbsp - Oil or Ghee
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Method is just the same as above, here also I added everything to the water and mixed the flours in the water and kneaded them into a soft dough and carried on with the same procedures to make the chigodilus, nice and crispy.

The post Chigodilu for the Indian-Cooking-challenge appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Gulab (less) Jamoons Or Khova Jamoons

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:21:00 +0000

Hi, all at last my Jamoons made it into the blog!!, It all started as you all know that srivalli of cooking4allseasons started this Indian cooking challenge and this month's challenge was making jamoons from scratch, that is we had to make it from Khova, I took this recipe from the yum blog by two people Latha and Lakshmi, this was the first time I visited their blog, and they have wonderful recipes!!, just check their blog for some more delicious dishes!!, valli had three recipes the other two were Indo of Daily musings and Alka of Sindhi Rasoi, check out their blogs too, I have decided I will try their versions next time when I make jamoons again.
I thought of writing this in the end but let me write it now as you would have all gone through all the ICC bloggers who have already posted the jamoon recipe.
My verdict: Just follow what the yum blog says very carefully otherwise you would end up as I did the first time, I just read through the recipe and with over confident, let the khova, for a few minutes say around 20 to 25 minutes and then started making the jamoons and LO!!!, they just started disappearing slowly in the oil and I felt like crying and somehow I finished all the dough and put it in the sugar syrup they stared dissolving and I was left with small marble sized jamoons with large mass of them too!!, well, this I did 2 weeks back and decided to post it on the deadline that was the end of last month, but when valli changed the posting date, I was so happy that I could try one more time, and did it yesterday and here I am with lovely gulab jamoons, carefully read the recipe properly followed the instructions and completed the challenge, that was quite a challenge here are lovely jamoons.
That is daughter's bowl who has a very sweet tooth, she initiated that she would take the photos and eat them as well, (The last time the disaster jamoons were well taken by both dad and daughter who finished off even it did not had a jamoon shape!!) Thanks to them.

GULAB (LESS) JAMOONS

Ingredients:

Khova -1 and 1/2 cups
Maida - 1 cup
Sugar- 1 cups (If you want excess cup that is floating jamoons increase by a cup)
Water - 1 cup (increase if you're increasing sugar
Cooking Soda - 1 pinches
Cardamon - 3 pods
Rose water - 1 tbsp
Saffron leaves - a few
Oil - 1 cup ( for deep frying)

METHOD:

Combine sugar and water in a flat bottomed broad pan and simmer on a low heat until sugar dissolves.
Add cardamom powder and saffron leaves and remove from fire.
Knead khova, maida and soda and quickly shape into balls
Heat oil on a medium flame. Fry the jamuns till golden brown over a low to medium flame, keeping oil temperature uniform. Oil should not smoke.
Drain the jamuns and soak in the warm sugar syrup.
Serve the jamuns after half an hour.

Tips:

You will achieve correct consistency for Jamoons syrup when 1 cup of sugar dissolves 1 cup water over low heat.
Only when the syrup is ready, mix the Jamoon dough. Since the dough has soda, if its kept aside the Jamoons will disperse while frying and will not hold well.
Right temperature of oil of utmost importance to get soft Jamoons.
Never refrigerate Jamoons. Jamoons when refrigerated will shrink and become hard. Jamoons will stay fresh for 4 days when stored in air tight containers.
If you like you can add two drops of rose essence to the syrup to make it Gulab Jamoon

The post Gulab (less) Jamoons Or Khova Jamoons appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Khaman Dhokla

Jayasri Ravi — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Hi, this is the recipe for the Indian cooking challenge, which is hosted by srivalli of spicyingyourlife I had such a wonderful time preparing this today morning and except for the rising time it was so quick to make with no fuss, and the end product was absolutely gorgeous, and all my friends out their you must try this recipe.

My daughter enjoyed it thoroughly only thing was I had to make a sweet chutney for her !!, Valli thanks so much for the recipe you selected and it just turned so fluffy and soft. Here goes the recipe.....

KHAMAN DHOKLA

For Batter

Bengal Gram Flour 250 gms ( 1 & 1/2 cup)

Curd 1/2 cup (not very sour)

Water 1/2 cup

Cooking Soda 1/2 tsp

Seasoning

to be mixed to the batter which is to be added just before cooking

Oil 1 tbsp

Turmeric a pinch

Green chilli paste 1-2 tsp

Sugar 1tsp heap

Citric acid 1/4 tsp ( if not use Lemon Juice)

salt to taste

Eno 1 packet (5 gms- 1 tsp) for tempering (Green colour Fruit Lime)

For Tempering

Sesame Seeds

mustard seeds

cumin seeds

coriander leaves

Grated coconut

METHOD

Mix all the ingredients under the batter heading without any lumps like an Idli batter it should be in dropping consistency, Not too thick not too thin, Add soda and Keep it aside for an hour.

to rise.

Once the batter is raised to the batter add Citric acid (I added Lemon Juice) oil, salt, sugar, chilli paste (which i omitted) & turmeric powder which should be done right before pouring it to the plate

Now mix Eno to the batter

Dust or Sprinkle Eno to the plate, Then immediately pour the batter to the plate.

And allow it to steam in the pressure cooker just like Idlis for 5 to 7 minutes. Leave it for few minutes, Remove the lid check with a tooth pick if it is cooked, so it comes out clean,

In a bowl mix 3 tsp of water and a tsp of oil mix well, and pour it over the dhokla. Then in a wok heat a tbsp of oil and temper it with all the ingredients in the tempering list and pour it over the dhokla Now you cut it into cubes or however you choose and serve it with Green chutney or sweet chutney

The post Khaman Dhokla appeared first on My Veg Fare.