Game Over ------மைசூர் பக் - Mysore Pak

The first post for my new year would being with a sweet/Dessert.It just seems y'day was the 2007 and today if i look its the 10 of Jan 2008 .Oh god days run so fast. 2007 went by so quick could not realise it .My brother was in town for few days.Meeting him after so many years was just wonderful.We had really great time . Eating ,Laughing and shopping that was all i was doing when he was around .Now that he is back to school in Texas, i am also back to my routine.I have to wait for few months to see him back. When he was here i made Mysore Pak. He loves them and my husband also.

Raw Materials Required

Besan- 1 Cup

Sugar -2 Cup

Ghee -2 Cup

Water -1/2 Cup

Preparation Style

In a big pot pour 1/2 cup of water and add to sugar to it .Allow it to boil until you reach one string consistency .See to that you keep the sugar syrup boiling for some time. Keep it in medium flame.Then slowly start adding the besan flour to the syrup .When you add the besan see to that your are simmering the gas a bit or else it would be difficult for you to stir .Once the besan is mixed with the sugar syrup then turn the gas on high and start stir it continuously .Start adding the ghee at regular intervals .You have to keep stirring it without leaving hand from the kadai.

Stir until you see to that the ghee starts to separate from the pan .You would see that the color of the besan changes and becomes porous .After the ghee starts to separate pour the Mysore pak into a greased try and spread them out.Dust sugar on top of it and cut it into diamond pieces. Try to cut the shape when it is hot and then take out the pieces when they cool.

Enjoy!!!!

Rava Ladoo

For this weeks ladies meet i was supposed to make dessert.I wanted to make something that i did not make before .I decided to make something simple and tasty and which is less time consuming .I made rava ladoo...So here it goes .Recipes includes few aspects from my mother and few from my mother in law.

Raw Materials Required

Rava -1 Cup
Sugar -1 cup
Cardamom - 5-6
Raisins -10-15
Almond -10-15
Ghee -4 tsp
Milk -1/2 glass


Preparation Style

Roast the rava with ghee until they turn golden brown.Off the gas and allow them to cool for 10-15 mts.Then dry grind the rava and sugar together along with cardamon and almond.It should be half fine grinded.Transfer the entire mixture in the a big plate and spread them .
In a separate kadia fry the raisin's with ghee and pour them to the grinded rava mixture and mix them well .Sprinkle milk on the rava (micro wave the milk for 1 mts) and try to make small ladoos .
I did not add loads of ghee, instead i used milk as a binding agent to make the ladoos .It turned out to be very tasty ..Enjoy

Belated Karthika Deepam .......

I think i would be the only girl who posted the recipe exactly one week late ...Too bad on me ..But sorry friends for the delay from my side in posting my recipes ....I was little bit held up with few household activities ...I hope all my friends have a great karthika deepam.I really enjoyed it .I made quite simple 4 recipes . Adai ,Avial, Nai Appam and Pori Urandai.I really wanted to make a couple of more desserts but did not have time.I started late and had to finish it by sharp 6.So need to hurry ...But everything came out really well and tasty ....So here it goes ....

Avaial and Adai

Avaial

Raw Materials Required

Beans -1/2 cup

Carrot-1/2 cup

Green Peas-1/2 cup

Drumstick-1/2 cup (frozen)

Yam (Frozen)-1/2 cup

Butternut Squash-1/2 cup

Raw Banana-2 nos

Curd -2 Cups (beat the curd well.Do not add too much water )

Curry Leaves -few

Green Chilies-4-5

Coconut -1 1/2 cups

Coconut Oil -3 tsp

Haldi-1/2 tsp

Salt as per desired

Preparation Style

Cut all the vegetable and cook them all in the pressure cooker.On the other side grind coconut, greenchilli together .After the vegetables are cooked transfer them in a big kadai .Add haldi to it ,salt and also curd.Then heat the kadai and add the grinded mixture of coconut and greenchilli.Add coconut oil and allow the vegetable to come to one boil.Off the gas and few curry leaves to it .Serve it hot with adai.

Now comes Adaia...

Raw Materials Required
Rice -1 cup

Toor Dhal-1 cup

Urdh Dhal - 1/2 cup

Channa Dal -1 cup

Red chillies -4-5 nos

Haldi -1/2 tsp

Salt as desired

Preparation Style

Soak all ingredients for about 2-3 hrs before you grind them in mixer.Then make a semi liquid batter.Not too soft and semi grind it.Heat the tava, wipe with an oil dipped cloth, and spread a ladle full of batteron the tava like a dosa.Turn once it cooks .Then after you turn allow it to cook until it its little crispy . Cook till both the sides are golden brown and crispy.Serve it hot with avaial.

Nei Appam




I always made appam and never used to come the right way .Seema had made them once when she invited me over for lunch .It was just great.She gave me this simple recipe and believe me it came out to be awesome.

Raw Materials Required

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Jaggery -1 1.5 cup
Elachi -1 tsp
Coconut Pieces -few handful
Nut pieces (Kaju ,Badam)

Preparation Style

Soak the rice for 1 hour and grind it with jaggery in the grinder.Add water at times to make it a smooth and soft batter.Then after the batter is done add the elchi ,coconut pieces and also nut pieces and mix it well.Add little oil (ghee is a must but because its too fatty i added oil) to the Appam pan (AppaKaral) and after it becomes hot add the batter to it.Once they are cooked it starts to come out of the shape.Then turn it around with the help of the long thin stick.See to that both the sides are golden brown and then remove it from the pan.Serve it hot or cold it taste yummy!!!

Avial Pori

Raw Materials Required

Pori -3 cups
Jaggery -1 cup
Elachi-1 tsp

Take the jaggery and break them to small lumps (pieces), as much as possible, and mixing it with a little quantity of water, heat it till the jaggery is melted and there are no lumps on them.Once all the jaggery is melted then add the Pori,coconut pieces and thoroughly mix them.Add the elachi powder to it and turn off the gas.Allow the mixture to cool a bit , but see to that it is not too cold and should be relatively hot when you touch. Using both hands,take a small amount of pori shape a good quantity of Nel Pori-jaggery-coconut-mix in to balls. Don't let time pass.Dont allow it to rest.Make small balls and serve it .It taste great. If the jaggery hardens, then you will not be able to shape them into balls and will have to distribute as udhiri pori.

Punjabhi Treat -Next 3 in a row

Loads of recipes to try and the list increases day by day .Wow !!!hats off to all my friends for all the excellent recipes which everyone shares .I was feeling very sad and bad that i could not particiapte in few of the events hosted by many friends last month .Just held up with few immigrations stuffs.But now i am back and will keep updating many more recipes .Depressed and frusted with all the immigration , i could not concentrate on the cooking department .Now back on the road with my cooking .

First on the list was my all time love on Gobi Manchurian .Thanks to Seema
Recipe Junction -Gobi Manchurian perfect step by step explanation .It just tasted great and yummy .Really enjoyed the dinner .So here it goes .


Gobi Manchurian

Raw Materials Required

1 Medium Gobi/Cauliflower
1/2 cup Cornflour
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour/Maida
2 tbsp Soy Chili Sauce
2 tbsp Green Chili Sauce
1 tsp hot Red Chili Powder
3 tbsp Tomato sauce
1/2 Capsicum- Sliced
1 Big Onion -Sliced
1 tsp Butter -melted
4 Garlic Cloves- Chopped finely
1 Tbsp Ginger-Garlic-Green chili paste
2 Green chilies - Chopped finely
1/2 inch Ginger- Sliced into thin strips
Oil for deep frying

Preparation Style

Mix cornflour, maida , Garlic-Green chili paste , melted hot butter, salt( as per taste) along with little warm water to make a thick paste.Dip Cauliflower florets into this paste and deep fry them until golden brown and set them aside.Now in a kadai heat little oil and fry onions till transparent.To this add chopped garlic cloves and fry them until transparent.Now add green chilies and ginger and then add in capsicum and fry them for a min.Note that capsicum should still remain crispy. Now add soy sauce, chili sauce, tomato sauce, red chili powder and saute it for a few secs. To this add about 3 tbsp of water and the above fried and cooled gobi bajias.( Tip: Bajias should not be hot here. This is to maintain the crispiness even after added to the sauce mixture).Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.

Next on the list is Methi Matar Malai ..This is also from Seema .She has an excellent collection of recipes .I just made few changes from her .The only one was that i did not add tomato paste to the dish.

Methi Matar Malai

Raw Materials Required

1/2 cup Green peas (boiled)
1/2 cup Cream or malai
1 bunch Methi leaves (chopped)
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
1 pinch Asafoetida
3 tsp Ghee or butter
Salt to taste
Roast and Grind to a paste --> 1 Onion +1 tsp Curds + 1tsp Sugar + 1.5tsp Cashew nuts +1/2tsp red chili powder+1/2 tsp turmeric powder + 1tsp Khuskhus(poppy seeds) + 1/2"piece Ginger + 2 peppercorns + 2 Cloves + 1/4" stick Cinnamon



Preparation Style

Immerse methi in salted hot boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and wash well in colander under running water. Keep aside.In a kadai heat ghee, add cumin seeds and asafoetida.Add paste and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.Add ground spices. Stir, and add peas, methi leaves and malai.Add all other ingredients. Boil for 2-3 minutes or till gravy thickens. If gravy feels too watery sprinkle a dash of flour and stir. If too thick, add a few tsp. of milk.

It tasted great with hot pulka rotis ...Yummy one ..

The next one is the dessert .This time i browsed thru all the recipes in the Internet and then came out with my own version .Of course the ingredients are the same but the method was a bit different.I prepared gajar halwa in a slow cooker .Yeah true .It was excellent .I need not stand under the stove waiting for each and every second for the milk to boil .So here it goes .

Garjar Halwa

Raw Materials required

1 pound or 6 medium Carrots, scrapped and grated
4 cups Milk, Whole
3/4 cup Sugar
6 tsp Almonds, ground
1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
3 tsp Ghee
4-5 strands of saffron
5 tsp -Cashews and raisins



Preparation Style

Grate the carrot and wash them well in cold water and keep it aside .Then pour the milk in the slow cooker vessel and add carrots to it .Add cardamon powder and saffron strand and almonds to it .Set the slow cooker to 2 hrs .After 2hrs transfer the halwa in a serving bowl .Then in a small kadia add ghee and fry the cashew and raisins and garnish on the halwa .Serve it hot or cold ..it taste great .

This would be my entry for the Regional Cuisine created by Laksmi and this month's host by Richa As Dear As Salt-Punjab Cuisine .

Could anybody guide me on making DAL MAKANI ..

Gulab Jamun Cake

This week is a birthday week at my place.My husband, my brother, mom and dad,all celebrate their birthday this week .So i decided to make a cake for all of them .I read about this type of cake in some magazine but forgot to note down the recipe .But i decided to try this on my own .Trupti was right in guessing .It is gulab jamun cake .Very simple and straight forward cake .......

Raw Materials Required

1 pkt for Gulab Jamun mix
3/4 Cup -Whipping Cream
1 Angel Cake
3 cup - Vanilla Ice Cream

Preparation style

Prepare the gulab jamun as stated in the instruction of the mix.Cut 3 portions of the angle cake vertically.First lay the bottom portion of the cake and make a circle in the middle of the cake and remove the cake pieces from that area.The circle should be thick enough so that the gulab jamuns would fix inside them .Then arrange the gulab jammuns one by one in the center.Then drizzle some of the sugar water on top of them.Then lay the second layer of the cake .One the top of them spread the vanilla ice cream evenly.Then place the gulab jammun on top of the ice cream .Then place the last layer of the cake .Cover the entire cake with the cool whip cream.Drizzle chocolate syrup on top .So her you go Gulab jammun cake is ready ......

Fried Banana

This Dessert is my own version of the dessert that i used to have in the restaurant named "King And I".It is one of the famous Thai Restaurant here at St Louis.The food was excellent and above all the dessert.They served an excellent dessert "Fried Banana".Never had it before.Wondered how fried bananas would taste..Wow!!!too good ...I made some last night ...Very simple and easy to prepare ..I was excellent ...Thought i could share it with all of you ...
So here how it goes ...

Raw Materials Required

2 Riped Banana
1 1/2 -Corn Flour
Salt as per taste
Ice Cream (Store bought - any flour)(i used Pistachio Almond)
Wafer Any Flour (i used strawberry wafer)
Oil for deep frying

Preparation Style

Mix the corn flour and salt together like the Bhaji Mavu.Cut the banana and dip it in the corn mavu and deep fry it in oil .Fry it until it is golden brown .Place it on the plate along with the ice cream .Serve it hot .

Hot banana and Cold Ice cream ...Too good ....Enjoy Maaadiii!!!!!

Maida Halwa

I had to make some sweet within half hour .Enna to make .Lets think ???,.Then i finally got my self to Maida Halwa.For the first time i prepared this dish , the outcome was great and tasted quite well .

Raw Materials Required

2 Cups Maida
4 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Ghee
Some Cashew
Some Cardamom
Little Saffron
Pacaikarpooram

Preparation Style

Take a small bowl and mix the maida well and add little water and take down till you reach a dosa batter.Keep the bowl aside.Then take a small kadai and pour the sugar and little water .Allow the sugar to boil until you reach thick thread consistency ,then pour the maida batter and stir for a while.Add saffron to it.The flour would start to began to harden and then add ghee .Stir until the ghee leaves the flour .Then off the gas and add pachaikarpooram, cardamom powder.Pour the halwa in the bowl and dress it with dry fruits .
Enjoy All

Yellow Pumpkin Payasam

Sounds different or vieried .Sounded me the same way when my friend prepared for me .But believe it is too good .Here how it goes

Raw Materials

2 cups -Milk
1/3 cup -Sugar
1/3 Cup - Yellow pumpkin
2 tsp -Elachi
Few strings of Saffron
2tsp -Condensed Milk
2tsp -Ghee
Few khaju and Kismis


Preparation Style

Pour the milk in a bowl and allow it to boil .After 5 mts put the pumkin and allow it to cook with the milk .It actually cooks very fast.Once the pumkin is cooked and the milk comes to the boil then add sugar and elachi to it .Then add saffron to the milk and also some condensed milk.After few mts of boil ,keep the gas on sim and remove the bowl from the gas.Then in a small kadai pour 2 tsp of ghee and add fee khaju and few kismis and pour it in the payasam .Looks great and taste great.