Rava laddoo

For the past few weeks, the food blogs, magazines and not to mention the food channel is being showered with sweet aroma of baking. Its been a lot of fun to see very interesting and unique breads, cookies and cakes being baked. After moving to states, I have always loved this time of the year. People are so into shopping, cooking and having some quality time with their family.

So, with all this spirit i decided to make an healthier version of oat meal cookies. I found this recipe in the net which had no butter or oil in it. I was little skeptical, but anyway went a head with the recipe. The outcome turned out to be bad, because of no moisture the cookies burned and crumbled. Though they tasted good, I had to discard most of them as they burned.

I didnt want to give up, so started browsing again for an healthier version of the cookie. But i couldn’t find any. So, i thought let me lean on my fellow bloggers for some help. So, my dear readers, can you help me out with an healthier version of oatmeal cookie - with less:sugar, flour and butter. Thanks in advance!

To be on safe side, I decided to lean towards our own Indian sweets. An all time favourite of my husband: Rava Laddoo.

Recipe:

Rava (semolina)- 1 cup
Coconut -1/2 (grated)
Sugar - 1/2 to 3/4th cup (adjust acc to your taste)
Ghee- 1/4th cup or as desired
milk- few teaspoons
Cardamom- 3 (Powdered)
Few cashews and raisins

Procedure:

Using a mixer make fine powder of the sugar.

In a pan put some ghee and fry the rava till light brown and nice aroma comes. Keep it on the side.

In the same pan add few more teaspoons of ghee and fry the freshly grated coconut till it turns pale brown.

Remove the coconut, add a tea spoon of ghee and fry the cashews and raisins till golden brown.

Now mix the rava, coconut, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, ghee, bit of warm milk, cashews and raisins. Try forming a laddoo with your palms. If the mixture is dry, add some more milk. That will work.



NOTE: Sugar and ghee can be adjusted according to your taste. Taste the laddoo for sweetness before making balls. And add accordingly, using powdered sugar makes it easy to incorporate with rava easily.

Rava Kesari with condensed milk

Feels good to finally start blogging after such a long time. I have a pile of pictures waiting to be posted and they have that look on them – saying when we will get to see the world…. Well, though settled in the new place, I am just too lazy to blog. But one thing I should admit… It’s too hard for me to stay away from blogging…So; here I come up with a simple dessert for the Krishnashtami.

In the weekend when we where in the Walmart, I passed by the sugar isle and couldn’t help but to notice the sweet condensed milk. It just brought back my childhood memories. Once in a while my mom used to bring the condensed milk (popularly called as milkmaid) not to make any fancy cakes but just for us take a spoonful and lick every bit of it. The smooth, sweet and creamy texture was just heaven for me.

So, after this small flash back, I thought let me just get it and will eventually figure out what to make… or as usual eat just like that.

Yesterday being Krishnashtami , I dressed up my daughter as chinni krishnudu . She was looking so cute, it felt like krishna has come to my house. To celebrate the festival I made Rava kesari with condensed milk. As a substitute to milk and sugar I added the sweet condensed milk. It came out pretty good and all I can say is the recipe is a keeper.

This is my entry to, an event for Janmashtami hosted by lovely Latha of The ‘yum’ blog.

I am also sending the rava kesari to RCI: Karnataka Cuisine hosted by wonderful and lovely Asha of Foodie’s hope who always encourages her fellow bloggers with her sweet comments.




Ingredients:
(Makes about 10 pieces)

1/2 cup semolina (rava)
1 1/2 cups water
3/4th cup sweet condensed milk (or adjust acc to ur taste)
2 tsp ghee
2 cardamoms pods finely powdered
Little bit of saffron and
A handful of cashews and raisins

In a skillet put half teaspoon of ghee and fry the raisins and cashews till light golden color. Remove and keep it a side.

In the same pan put half teaspoon of ghee and lightly toast the rava in a low heat and keep it a side.

Now take 1 1/2 cups of water and saffron (slightly rub the saffron in your palm, it helps it melt in the water easily) and let them come to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and slowly add the toasted rava and stir continuously for five minutes.

When it starts to thicken, add the condensed milk stirring continuously and making sure the rava doesn’t stick the pan.

Cook for another five minutes. Then finally add one teaspoon of ghee, cashews, raisins and the cardamom powder.

Coat a tray with some ghee and pour the rava kesari in the tray. With the help of little bit of ghee spread the kesari and let it sit for few minutes.

This helps the rava kesari to thicken. Then cut into pieces, offer to the chinni Krishna as neivedyam and serve your loved once.

Mixed nuts & dates laddu

My sister in-law made this laddu for me. She said that this laddu is good to eat after delivery.Especially helps with back pain, which you often suffer after the delivery.I do believe that many of our health problems can be cured with proper food habits. And add to that it has nuts and dates, what’s not to like about. This laddu can also be given to the kids as a evening snack. I am sure they will love it.

Last week my mom made this laddu again, cos i liked it so much. So, this is how we make it….

Ingredients:

• Chopped dry dates- 1cup
• lightly Toasted almonds- 1/4th cup
• lightly Toasted cashew- 1/4th cup
• lightly Toasted Dry coconut- 3 tbsps
• lightly Toasted poppy seeds(gasalu)- 2 tbsps
• Golden raisins- 1/4th cup
• Cardamom- 6
• Grated jaggery- 2 to 3 tbsps(adjust according to your taste)

Procedure:

First grind the poppy seeds in a mixer. Transfer it to a large mixing bowl.
Now grind cashews, almonds, coconut,cardamom and jaggery to a fine powder. Remove this mixture and grind the dates to fine powder. Now transfer the rest of the ingredients that were ground and grind it again.

Heat few teaspoons of ghee, add raisins and fry till golden brown. Mix this to the above ingredients and try making a laddoo. If needed add more ghee to this mixture till you can mold it in the form of laddoo.

Note: Its important to grind the poppy seeds seperately, because it takes more time to grind.
And also cutting the dates to small pieces helps it to grind fast.

Recipe: Suma vadeena

Bobbatlu (Puran poli, Obbatu)

Bobbatlu (Andhra), Obbatu (Karnataka) or Puran poli (Maharashtra), whatever the name is, this is one divine sweet which no one can resist. It is very popular during festivals and weddings or as a matter of fact at any kind of functions.

I always felt (even now I feel the same) that it needs a bit of tack tick and patience to make this sweet.The key point is to make sure the purnam filling doesn’t come out of the dough when we are rolling it.

In Andhra and Maharashtra bobbatlu are made with Chanadal, but in Karnataka it is made with Toor dal. I am not sure if everyone in Karnataka makes it that way, but my husband’s family does it with toor dal. For me taste wise, I don’t see much difference. But Venkatesh likes it with toor dal. So, I make mine with that.

Well that’s enough talking, let’s get cooking…

Ingredients you need:

Makes about 18 med sized bobbatlu.

For Purnam (Toor dal filling):

• Toor dal (Kandi pappu)/chana dal (pacchi chanaga pappu)- 1 1/2 cups
• Jaggery- 1 1/2 cups
• Fresh grated coconut- 1/2 cup (I used frozen coconut, just thawed it in the microwave)
• Cardamom- 3

Cook the Toor dal, till its soft but still holding its shape. (See the picture above). It’s important not to over cook the dal. Drain all the water (make sure there is absolutely no water in the dal) and let the dal cool down for few minutes.

Now transfer the dal to a food processor with the grated jaggery, coconut and cardamom powder. Pulse or grind the whole mixture till smooth. Taste it, if you feel you need more sweet add little more jaggery to it. The purnam mixture is ready.

In case the purnam becomes too soft, that you cannot make round balls out of it- transfer the purnam to a pan and cook on stove in very low medium heat for about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove and let it sit for few minutes, the purnam tends to get dry and firm. Whenever my purnam becomes soft, I transfer my mixture to a microwaveable bowl and cook in the microwave for about 5 minutes with out lid. This makes the purnam dry and easy to roll as round balls.

Maida Dough:

• All purpose flour (Maida)- 2cups
• Oil- 4 tsps
• 2 pinches of salt

Mix all the above ingredients with some water. The consistency of the dough should be little bit softer than chapathi dough. When you pull the dough, it should stretch easily. Cover the dough and leave it for an hour or two.

Make round balls of the purnam and keep a side.

Now take the maida dough which has been resting for atleast an hour.

How much of dough needed for the purnam?
I take dough which is about 1/3rd the size of my purnam ball. The whole idea is that the dough should be less than the purnam.

Now take an aluminium foil, (I used a plastic banana leaf) put some oil/ghee on it. Take the maida dough spread it little bit, then put the purnam ball and close it as shown in the picture.
Now at this point you can roll it like a chapathi using a rolling pin or you can just use your hand (Dip some oil in your hands while rolling the bobbatu) and spread it slowly.

What I have done is, instead of using my hands or a rolling pin; I put one more banana leaf on top of the purnam and slowly pressed it down till it formed like a chapathi. I think this is definitely a much easier way of rolling.

Now on pan, put some oil/ghee and cook the bobbatlu on a very low heat.

Right before serving apply some more Ghee to it and enjoy the bobbatlu with your loved once.

Recipe: Inlaws

Chana dal /Chanaga bedala Payasam

Recently I have been craving to eat sweet; I was really not in the mood to eat a cookie or a cake. I just craved for something home made and something my mom used to make for us as kids. So, I decided to make chana dal payasam (we call it chanaga bedala payasam), one of my favorites. It can be enjoyed either hot or cold. The payasam is a combination of chana dal, sabudan cooked with milk in jaggery syrup. The thickness for the payasam comes from the cashew and coconut paste. A very simple but ultimate satisfying dessert.

There were few reasons I wanted to make this sweet -
It’s been almost four months I started blogging,
To satisfy my sweet tooth I was craving for and
Offering as naivedyam for the god.

Recipe:

Chana dal (pachi chanaga pappu) - 1 cup
Sago (sabudan, sabiyamu) - 1/4th cup
Jaggery- 1cup
Milk- 3 ½ cups
Water- 3 cups
Cardamom -2 (crushed)

To Grind:
Whole Cashews – 7
Grated fresh coconut – 2 to 3 tbsps (I used frozen coconut, I just put it in the microwave for 30 seconds for it to become soft)

For tempering:
Ghee- 2 tsps
Few cashews and raisins.

Cook chana dal with one cup of water in the pressure cooker. Make sure the dal still holds its shape, so its very important not to over cook it.

In a small vessel put the sabudan with one cup of water and cook in low heat for about seven minutes or until the sabudan is cooked through. Keep it on side.

In a mixer grind the cashew and coconut with half cup of milk.

In a small pan add the ghee and fry the cashew and raisins till golden brown.

Now take a vessel, add one cup of water with the jaggery and boil till the jaggery melts. Then add the cooked sabudan, mix and add the cashew-coconut paste with 3 cups of milk. Cook all these in medium heat for about ten minutes.

At this point add the cooked chana dal (with the water) and boil the whole thing in low heat for another ten minutes. At the end add the cardamom powder and fried cashew and raisins.

Let it sit for few minutes, offer as naivedyam to the god and enjoy this payasam with your loved once.

Please note that the payasam gets thicker after it’s cooked for couple of hours.

Recipe: amma

Sunnundalu (Urad dal laddoo)~ Baby shower

Sunnundalu is a very classic Andhra sweet. I am not sure if people from other states actually do it. When I told some of my friends about this sweet, they were not aware of it. Sunnundalu are made of urad dal (yup! its urad dal). Urad dal, sugar and ghee are the only three ingredients you need to make this sweet.

From my childhood, this sweet has always been my favorite. It’s been a while I ate these. Not just this particular sweet, in general I haven’t been eating sweets that much for quite sometime now. That’s the reason I haven’t blogged too many sweets.

When i was a kid, my mom used to make these often. Kids and also the pregnant women are often given this sweet. I guess the reason is it has dal (which gives protein) and ghee which has the fat content is good for the growth of the fetus and the growing kids.

We have a baby shower this weekend and I wanted to make some sweet which symbolizes the baby shower. Generally in Andhra, especially in Nellore we make either salibindi (made of rice flour and sugar) or sunnundalu for baby shower (Srimantham in telugu). I have no idea how to make the first one, so went with the later one. And to tell you the truth, this being one of my favorites I actually felt like eating sunnundalu. So it was indeed a perfect timing to make some.

Urad dal, ghee and sugar

Recipe:

(makes about 17 med laddoos)

• Urad dal – 2 cups
• Sugar – 1 ¼ cup
• Ghee – ¾ th cup
• Cardamom-2 (optional)

Roast the urad dal in a low heat till golden brown. Stir continuously, it takes about 20 minutes. (My hand did hurt because of the continuous stirring, but was worth it). Let cool of completely.

Mean while, melt the ghee and let this cool also.

Now take the roasted urad dal and grind it to a smooth powder using a mixer or a food processor. (First I used the mixer, some how it wasn’t doing the job. So, I switched to the food processor). Make sure it’s nice and smooth. It’s very important that the mixture is smooth and super fine. Keep it a side.

Now add the sugar and grind it to a fine powder. Now return the urad dal mixture to the food processor and grind again. This helps the sugar and the urad dal mixture to incorporate well. At this point you can also add some crushed cardamom.

Remove this mixture to a skillet; little by little add the melted ghee till you get a consistency where you can mold them in the form of laddoo.

Recipe: amma

Happy Sankranthi

Sankranthi Subhakanshalu!

photo courtesy:
123greetings

Sankranti (Telugu: సంక్రాంతి ), is a festival that signifies the beginning of the harvest season for the farmers of India.It is also called ‘Makara Sankranthi’, it is celebrated primarily in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka & Maharashtra. (above article taken from wikipidea, more info click here….

In Andhra pradesh, my home state we call it “pedda panduga” which means the big festival. It is generally a three day festival, which starts on Jan 13th and goes up to Jan 15th (Sankranthi is one of the few festivals which come on the same day every year). Each day has its own significance.

• The first day being the bhogi panduga
• Second day Sankranthi and
• The third day is Kanuma.

I have a lot of child hood memories associated with this festival. We usually spent this festival at my grand mother’s place in Nellore.

On Bhogi, we use to wake up as early as 4 am in the morning and lightup bhogimantlu (bon fire). Items like old broom sticks, woods and paper are thrown in to the fire. It signifies the destruction of the evil and departure of the poverty. Later we clean the courtyards and sprinkle it with water and cowdung and draw beautiful muggulu (also called rangoli). Then the muggulu are decorated with mariglod flowers on fresh round cow dung balls. Then everyone takes bath and wear new clothes.

Sankranthi, the main day of this three day celebration starts with Lakshmi pooja(Goddess of wealth). Sweet Pongal (made of rice, lentils and Jaggery) is offered as naivedyam (offering) to the god. The cattle, especially cow is also offered prayers.

Other entertaining sights during Sankranthi are Gangireddu (decorated oxen) which are taken from one house to other, they are often see nodding their head, accompanied by their owner who sings songs. People offer them rice and clothes. We also have bommala kolluvu which displays various dolls and toys.

Food plays a very important part in this festival. In Andhra we make ariselu( made of rice and Jaggery), kajjikayalu, jantikalu, puliharam(tamarind rice), garelu, boorelu, laddu and sweet pongal.

Women and kids go to relative’s house and neighboring houses for tambulam (which consists of tamalapakulu, coconut and flowers)

Kanuma, is a festival for farmers. The farmers decorate their cattle and offer prayers. This is a very happy occasion for the farmers because they sell their produce and get money. People visit temples and family gatherings happen.

Cinema is a very popular media in our Andhra, a lot of movies are released during this period. In the evening people go to watch the movies.

There are so many other memories which are related to this festival, like- hari dasu, banthi poolu, chamanthi poolu(flowers), gobbimmalu, muggulu, gummadi kaayalu, and all the sweets which I mentioned earlier. No wonder we call it pedda pandugaa in our Andhra Pradesh. It truly is, though I miss all of this here in U.S, just to think about it makes me so happy.

Wishing each and every one a Very Happy Sankranthi!

On this Special occasion, I would like to share this simple yet divine and delicious sweet with everyone- Sweet Pongal( we call it chekara pongal, chekara means sugar. Though we make it with jaggery we call it chekara pongal, i dont know why). This is the first recipe i will be blogging this year. And i am very happy to start with a sweet like this.

Sweet Pongal Recipe:

• Rice- 1 cup
• Yellow moong dal (pesala pappu)- 1/2 cup
• Jaggery- 1 1/4th cup
• Milk- 4 cups
• Water- 2 cups
• Cardamom – 3 ( grind using a mortar)
• Few Cashews and raisins and
• Ghee

Lightly toast the yellow moong dal, now mix it with rice add the milk and pressure cook.(Make sure the rice and moong dal is just cooked through, but not very mushy).

Now take a big skillet, add two cups of water and jaggery powder. Let the jaggery melt and water come to a boil. Once that’s done, add the cooked rice and dal mixture. Mix it well and cook for about five minutes.

In a different skillet heat 3 tsps of ghee, add cashews and raisins and fry till light golden brown.

Once the pongal comes together add the cardamom powder and the fried cashews and raisins and turn off the stove.

Offer the sweet pongal to the God as naivedyam( offering) and enjoy this simple yet delicious sweet as prasadam with your loved once.

Recipe: amma
Note: I prefer my pongal with just enough sweetness to it, if you prefer it much sweeter add some more jaggery.