Gova Pitta Undo/ Wheat Flour laddoo

Wheat Flour Laddu is very easy and simple traditional konkan/maharastrian recipe. It needs only few ingredients but finally when laddu is ready its very tasty. This laddu is very nutritional and it is especially made during Krishna Janmastami, Chaturti and also specially made for ladies who are expecting. I made this laddu during Krishna Janmastami. This recipe can be made very quickly, but needs some exact measurement of Ghee and sugar along wheat flour, which helps in making of round laddu's. Some do add milk, but it comes as halwa consistency. I haven't added liquid content. It is purely made using ghee. Make one when you find free, I am sure you will love it!!!

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour- 1 Cup

Sugar - 1 cup

5 Cardamom pods

Ghee- 50 gm

2 tbsp cashew pieces (You can also ass raisens/badam/pista pieces)

Powdering of sugar:

This is best way I feel.

Grind the sugar along the cardamom pods to fine powder.

Method:

• Take a wide kadai, add 25 gm of ghee, when it melts add the cashew pieces. Fry till cashew is slight brown. See that you keep the flame medium throughout the process

•  Add the wheat flour and roast on low heat until it turns golden brown in color and aromatic.

• Here you can see the wheat flour has changed the color. Add the powdered sugar and combine the roasted flour, powdered sugar well just for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

• When warm and easy enough to handle, divide the mixture into parts and roll them into balls.
• If the mixture is little dry to make balls, add some ghee (I have added remaining 25 gms of melted ghee).
• Leave to cool so that they firm up.

Padmashree Raikar

@ gHara javaN

Kashi Halwa/ Kumbala kai halwa

Ingredients:

Winter melon- 3 cups
Sugar - 2 cups [as per taste]
cardamon - 1/2 tsp
powder
edible food color- a pinch dissolved in water
saffron -[optional]
ghee -3 tsp
Cashew nuts-1 tsp
raisins -1 tsp

Method:

• Peal up the wintermelon ,remove all the seeds and grate it and keep aside.
• Take a heavy bottom pan,add 1 tsp of ghee, add the grated wintermelon to it and saute till it almost becomed dry.
• Mean while roast the dry fruits in little ghee
• Now add the sugar and saffron and keep stirring till all the liquid evaporates and comes out as a single mass.The add cardammon powder and 2 tsp of ghee.roasted dry fruits and stir properly.
• Remove from the fire and serve hot or after cooling.

Ananas Sheera/ Pineapple Sheera

A fruity delight that is low in calories yet very tasty. Fresh pineapple puree perks up the flavour, however you need to cook it with sugar to get the real flavour.

Ingredients:
1 cup Semolina / Suji / Rava
1 cup Sugar
3/4th cup Pure Ghee
1 cup pineapple puree (I have course ground the pineapple)
Powder of 2 cardamom pods
Pinch of salt
1 cup water
Pinch of saffron (Choice, I have avoided the artificial coloring here)

Method:

• Heat the pan and add ghee when hot.
• After ghee melts, add Suji and cook it until light brown color. The kitchen will be filled with the aroma of baking Suji/Rava.
• Now, add pineapple puree and stir it for couple of minutes till they blend well and cook in that mixture. This allows the pineapple and Suji to exchange their tastes (Using Fresh Pineapple will always yield better taste and results)
• Add 1 cup sugar, pinch of salt and powdered cardamom and stir until sugar melts.
• Add 1 cup water and stir for a minute and cover it with lid and simmer.
• Remove the lid after all the water has been absorbed by the Suji. Stir the Sheera to make the Suji grains looks fluffier for a minute and turn off the heat.

Gajar Ka Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

Gajar Ka Halwa is a very simple and quick make recipe. If you have more carrots lying in fridge, try making halwa and enjoy with your family :) Gajar Halwa is delicious when warm or cold.

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded carrots
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
6 chopped roasted cashew nuts and 1 tbsp od chopped Almonds (To garnish)
[When almonds are soaked over night , they are easy to be chopped longitudinally, you can chop few and keep in fridge and use whenever needed]
 

Method:

• Roast the cashew nuts, almonds in a little of ghee and set aside for the garnish.
• Boil the milk on medium-high heat in a non-stick pan until it is reduced to about to 1 cup. Stir often to ensure the milk does not burn in the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
• Melt the butter in a frying pan on medium heat.
• Add the shredded carrots and stir-fry for about 8 minutes.
• Carrots should be tender and slightly changed in color.
• Add the milk and cook until the milk dries. This will take about 8-10 minutes.
• Next add the sugar, and cardamom powder and stir-fry for another three to four minutes until the halwa starts to leave the side of frying pan.
• Garnish with cashew nuts & Almonds. (You can also add Raisins)
• Serve hot or warm or have it as toppings with Ice cream.

Tips:
Gajar Halwa can be refrigerated for up to one week and kept in the freezer for up to two months. When ready to serve just warm.

Shahi Gulab Jamun

Shahi Gulab jamun is slightly different from the usual Gulab Jamuns. This gulab junum mixture contains richly milk powder along powdered cashunut and badam. The dry nuts can also be kept inside while making the gulab jamun balls.
I made this Shahi Gulab Jamun for my brothers Birthday :P All the 25 jamuns got empty with few minutes ;)
You can follow the same steps as in making of ordinary gulab jamun and fill in center with dry nut and raisens.
Check my previous making of Gulab Jamun for reference.

Jalebi

Jalebi is a hot favorite on any special occasion be it a birthday, wedding or festival. I made the Jalebi for the first time and was happy to see they were crispy, sweet and mouth watering. It is a very easy recipe which can be made during festival occasions. Making of Jalebi made me feel that nothing is impossible if everything is well planned ;)

For Sugar syrup
Sugar 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Lemon juice 1 tsp
Rose essence/elachi powder (Optional)

Syrup:
Boil the sugar and water together. Add the lemon juice and pinch of elachi and close the heat.

Ingredients:
Maida/All purpose flour 1 cup
Corn Flour 2 tblsp
2 tbsp bengal gram powder
Thick Curd 3/4 cup(approximately)
Baking soda 1/2 tbsp
Ghee 2 tblsp
Yellow food colour     1/2 pinch
Oil + ghee for deep frying

Method:

• Mix the flour, besan (gram flour), corn flour, food color, & ghee together.
• Add the yogurt and mix well, making sure that there are no lumps and the batter is smooth.Consistency should be like vada batter.
• Keep it in a warm place for 12 hours/overnight or until it ferments well.Next day mix well with a ladle. It should be a sticky thick batter of dropping consistency..

• In a flat bottomed pan, heat oil+ ghee.
• To check if the oil is ready, put ont drop of batter in the oil, the batter should sizzle and come up without changing in color right away.
• Transfer the batter into a clean ketchup bottle/ketchup dispenser, you can also use piping bag if you have it.
• Squeeze the Jalebi batter out in the hot oil in a pretzel shape to about 2 inches in diameter.
• Fry the Jalebis until golden-brown on both sides.

• Transfer into the warm syrup.
• Let jalebi soak in the hot syrup for a few seconds and take out.
• Serve hot

Rasgulla (Cheese balls in sugar syrup)

The very popular Bengali sweet. Rasgulla is an Indian sweet dish which is very easy to make and of course very tasty. It is soft, juicy & spongy sweet made from milk.  It is usually made with Paneer (Cheese).

Ingredients:
Milk - 1 1/2 liter
Lemon juice- 2  no's

Method:

• Boil whole milk in a vessel on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
•  When the milk starts to boil, add lemon juice.After the milk starts to curdle. 

• Turn off the flame and pour them into a cheese cloth.
• Wash four or five times in cold water to rinse out all the lemon juice from curdled milk.
• Squeeze gently the cloth to drain out the whey. Set it aside after almost water is left from the cheese. The cheese should be dry.

• Process the cheese gently. Slightly knead the mixture and divide the mixture into equal parts and roll each part into a ball, taking care that there are no cracks on the surface. Place the cheese balls on a plate.

Making of sugar syrup:
Sugar - 1 1/2cups
Water - 3cups
1 tbsp cardamon powder

• Pour 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Add sugar, cardamon powder and bring to a boil on medium heat.
• When the sugar comes to a boil, gently drop the cheese balls to the sugar syrup. Close the cooker (I use a medium cooker, as the cheese balls tend to swell when done, see that you keep enough of space within).

• Cook on medium heat throughout. After the first whistle, wait for 5-6 minutes and turn off the stove.

• Open the cooker after the pressure has come down. You can see that the cheese balls have doubled to their size and look soft, spongy. Cool before transferring them to a container and refrigerate. Serve cold.

Tips
1. Make sure you do not over cook the rasgullas, they might break apart.
2. For syrup you can use rose essence or cardamom powder or Saffron. ( I used cardamon)
3. Make sure u cook only by batches of 12 to 15 depending on the size of your pressure cooker, because the cheese balls double in volume when cooked. And do not use the same syrup for the second batch.

Kaye Holige [Coconut Roti]

Kaye Holige for Janmastami
Kayi Obbattu/Coconut Holige/Coconut Puran Poli

Holige = Obbattu = Holiga = Poli = Bobbattlu = Sweet coconut Roti A sweet delicacy from  South India, mostly done on festive occasions and weddings. It is known as Kayi Holige in Karnataka. It is a very easy recipe. And you can try making it in home.

Making of the Dough:
Chiroti Rava - 5 tbsp
1 cup Maida
salt - half a pinch
water
oil

Make a dough with the above ingredients. Kneed well, make even size balls and keep aside.
(Do not make it hard like chappati mix,make sure the mix is little stretching and soft).

Ingredients of the sweet stuffing:
Fresh Grated Coconut – 2 cups
Chopped Jaggery – 3/4 cup (as per taste)
Cardamom powder – 1 tbsp
Poppy seeds – 2 teaspoons
ghee – 2  Tablepoons

Method:

• Take a vessel, add 2 tbsp ghee and melt the jaggery.
• Now add the grated coconut, cardamom powder and mix well.
• Add the poppy seeds and stir well for 2-3 mins under medium flame.
• When done, cool the mixture and keep aside.

Making holige:

• Take a dough ball , flatten it with fingers around the edge
• Place about a lime sized ball of stuffing at the center of the dough circle. Bring the edges of the dough from all sides to cover the stuffing completely. Now the stuffing should be well inside the dough casing.
• Now gently roll the dough using rolling pin make 6 inch circle.
• Heat the skillet on medium high. ( I used an iron skillet).
• Note: An iron skillet works best. To check if the skillet is hot enough, sprinkle a couple of drops of water on it. If the water sizzles right away, the skillet is ready.
• Grease the skillet with ghee and place the holige over the skillet.
• After a few seconds you will see the holige change color and puff in different places. Dab ghee little while flipping the holige's.
• Flip again and press with the spatula making sure the holige is golden-brown on both sides.
• Now the holige is ready, go for the next one in same way.

Besan Laddu

Happy Janmastami to all 

This is a very easy recipe,you can make it within 10 mins. While making Besan laddu, you can also add soji into it. But I have not added Soji. A proportion of 3:1 of Besan and Soji can be used.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup besan (Bengal gram flour)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup ghee
1/2 tbsp cardamom (elaichi) powder
2 tbsp Powdered badam (Almonds)
Cashew for decoration

Method:

• Melt the ghee in a kadhai, add the gram flour and cook over a low flame stirring continuously till it is golden brown in colour.
• Add the cardamom powder and mix well.
• Remove from the fire and pour onto a plate (thali). Cool completely. I directly added the sugar power and mixed the content well; as you can see in the picture.
• Mix well together the gram flour mixture and sugar.
• Divide into equal portions and shape into laddus. Decorate with Cashew nut or even raisens can be used.

Janmastami Naivedyam