Bottle Gourd Kheer

July 23rd, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

Bottle gourd as all of you know has a lot of medicinal qualities and is widely used for Jaundice patients’ diet. We prepare curry, kheer ( without milk ) and also gravy from this vegetable, some of which I have put up before, namely – Muthia, Peel Chutney and Bottle gourd peel curry on this blog. Today I am putting up the Bottle gourd Kheer. One needs very tender Bottle gourd to prepare this kheer. People prepare it in their own way and this is my version of the same.

What you need to have:

1. Grated Bottle gourd – 2 cups

2. Jaggery – As per taste

3. Cardamom powder – 1/2 Teaspoon

4. Resins – A handful (any other dry fruits of your choice)

5. Grated cashews – A handful

6. Maida – 1 Teaspoon

7. Thick milk – 2 cups or more

Fresh Tender Bottle gourd

Grated Bottle gourd

Ingredients of Bottle gourd Kheer

What you do with what you have:

1. Wash, peel and grate the tender Bottle gourd and is as shown in image 2.

2. Cook the grated gourd in the cooker with its juice till smooth for about 10-15 minutes.

Cooked grated Bottle gourd

3. Transfer the cooked gourd to a wide pan, add required quantity of jaggery to it and cook it till all the juice and jaggery is absorbed and it turns thick.

Jaggery being added to cooked Bottle gourd

4. Dissolve maida without lumps in normal water and stir it into the gourd-jaggery mix and cook till it is mixed well and solidified.

Maida liquid being added to the cooked gourd-jaggery mix

5. Store the solidified mix in the refrigerator and serve chilled or warm whenever needed adding milk, cardamom powder and dry fruits of your choice.

Ready to serve Bottle Gourd kheer

How long it takes: 45 minutes

Number of servings: 4-5

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Cantaloupe in Sweet Milk

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

Cantaloupe. Thats Jamhannu/Banaspathri in Kannada and Chibbad in Konkani. It is seasonal like most fruits, grown in cool places and available in plenty in places like Bangalore and Mysore. These days it is available here in Manipal though not of a very good quality. We normally add a little sugar to it and mix it with other fruits like the Banana, Pappaya or Chikoo. We also mix it with coconut milk and jaggery which would be little different in taste yet yummy for sure. People in Bangalore add a few pieces in Panak (Sharbath) during Ramnavami when it is served as prasadam.

What you need to have:

1. Chopped Cantaloop -2 cups

2. Chopped Banana – 1 cup

3. Milk – 1 and 1/2 cup

4. Sugar – As per taste

5. Cardamom powder – 1 Teaspoon

6. Beaten Rice – 2 Tablespoons

Fresh Cantaloop Fruit

Chopped Cantaloop pieces

Ingredients of the dish

What you do with what you have:

1.Wash, peal and chop cantaloop into pieces and keep it aside as shown in image 2. Peal and chop ripe cavendish bananas as well.

2. Run half the quantity of chopped cantaloop in the mixer without adding water so that it gets properly mixed up when done.

3. Transfer the crushed cantaloop from mixer bowl to a serving bowl. Add the left over cantaloop pices and the chopped Banana pieces from step 1 to it. Add milk, sugar and cardamom powder to it. Wash beaten rice in water , squeeze out the water and mix it to the dish.

Serve chilled.

Ready to serve Cantaloop in sweet milk

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Modak (Sankashti Special)

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

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Anybody would be surprised looking at this modak which is totally different from the one which others prepare for either Sankashti or for Ganesh chaturthi. The GSB konkanis prepare this typical modak on these ocassions. Simple and not laborious at all.

What you need to have:

1. Cavendish banana – 1

2. Jaggery(Mollasses) – 4 teaspoons

3. Wheat atta – as much as it holds

4. Milk – 1/8 cup

5. Fresh grated coconut – 4 teaspoons

6. Pure ghee – 2 teaspoons (for the dough)

7. Grated Cashews – 3-4 teaspoons (optional)

8. Pure ghee – 1/2 cup (For frying)

Picture 107

Ingredients of Modak

What you do with what you have:

1. Peal banana and cut it into pieces. Grate coconut, crush jaggery and keep it aside.

2. Transfer all the ingredients from step-1 to a mixy bowl adding 1/8 cup of milk and grind it to a fine consistency. The ground mix is as shown in the image below.

Picture 188

Ground ingredients

3. Mix atta to the above mix from step 2 in such a way to make a smooth dough (Like the chapathi dough) and apply ghee at the end to keep it aside for about 30 minutes. One can even add grated cashews to the dough. Modak dough is as shown in the image below.

Picture 189

Modak dough

4. Mix the dough throughly with your hands. Place a spatula with 1/2 cup pure ghee in it on a low flame. When ghee melts and heated, dip your hands in water and drop small balls of the dough in it.

Picture 153

Modak being cooked

5. Fry it till it turns light brown in colour stiring every now and then.

Picture 152

Modak being fried to light brown

Deep fried modak is as shown in the image below !

Picture 157

Ready to serve Modak

Number of Modaks: 45-50

How long it takes: 45 minutes

Good to know:

1. Cavendish is the best banana for this dish since it is smooth and little juicy. Bananas must be ripe though.

2. People prefer to use the other yellow bananas (putta bale in Kannada) – if you use any other banana other than cavendish it should be over ripe, else modak will turn out very hard.

3. One can even prepare the dough and push it in the referegerator and take it out well 2-3 hours before frying.

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Sesame sweet Roti (Ellu Holige)

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

Picture 334

Ellu is sesame. Ellu is available in few varieties but this ordinary variety I am using here is of immense use to us. We prepare dry chutney powder, sesame wet chutney, Ellu mixture for Sankranthi and Ellu holige, which is what I am putting up today. It is a sweet roti which really tastes unique when compared to the other common holige like the Bele holige. We mix the powdered ellu and jaggery together and wrap it with the chapathi dough and roll it again and fry it on the tawa with a little ghee. This is an Andra delicacy and I borrowed it from one of my friends.

What you need to have:

1. Ordinary sesame(Ellu) – 1 Cup

2. Jaggery(Molasses) – 1 Cup

3. Copra – 2 Tablespoon

4. Cardamom – 4-5

Picture 317

Ingredients of Ellu Holige

What you do with what you have:

1. Wash Sesame in water. Place a broad based bowl on medium flame and dry roast sesame till it sputters stiring continuously.

2. Crush Jaggery and keep it aside. Powder cardamom as well and mix it with roasted sesame. Grate dry copra and roast it on a medium/ low flame till you get a pleasant aroma but doesn’t get burnt and looks as below.

Picture 320

Roasted Sesame and Copra

3. Dry grind the roasted sesame, copra and crushed jaggery in the mixer to a medium coarse consistency like the bread crumbs.

Picture 322

Crushed Sesame, Jaggery , Copra and Cardamom

To roll into roti we need to prepare the outer dough.

What you need to have:

1. Wheat atta – 1/2 cup

2. Maida flour – 1/2 cup

3. Raw cooking oil -3-4 Teaspoon

4. Salt – To taste

5. Water – 1/3 cup

Picture 323

Ingredients of the outer dough

What you do with what you have:

1. Sieve atta and maida together in the siever with salt.

2. Transfer sieved atta to a bowl and add water slowly to make a soft dough. Lastly add oil and knead it and keep it aside for about 30 minutes.

3. Pinch out the required quantity of the dough from the knead dough and roll it into small discs and place 1and1/2 Teaspoon of the the mixture and wrap it well and is as shown in the image below. One can even wrap all the roti once and keep it aside and roll it finaly as shown in the image below.

Picture 325

The dough, pinched out ball, stuffed and the rolled roti

Picture 332

The wrapped rotis

4. Roll each of the wrapped rotis on a thick plastic sheet dusting very lightly in wheat atta to the required thickness.

5. Place a dosa griddle on a medium flame with 1 or 2 teaspoons of ghee on it. When heated place rolled roti on it.

Picture 327

Sesame Roti being roasted

6. Just reverse the roti and it starts blowing up

Picture 328

Roti being roasted on the reverse

7. Just turn over adding a little ghee on the sides. Roast again so that it is properly done.

Picture 329

Roti being roasted

8. Just turn over and it is done. Enjoy roti when cooled tastes great !

Picture 330

Roasted Ellu Holige

Picture 334

A close look at Ellu Holige

On cooling, store it in air tight containers and will remain afresh atleast for a week at room temperature.

How long it takes: 1 hour

Number of holiges: 15

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Hurikadle Panchakajaya ( Janmashtami special )

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

Picture 067

Hurikadle is the Dalia dal/Roasted Bengalgram dal. Also known by putani dali in konkani and pottu kalle in tamil. We use it almost all fried mixtures, in coconut chutney for extra flavour and is the main ingredient in the Masala dosa’s popular red garlic chutney. We also prepare Panchakajaya for Krishna janmashtami and Ganesh chathurthi. I put up 2 varieties of panchakajayas on this blog earlier. (See Bengal Gram Panchakajaya and Tulsi Pooja Panchakajaya ). However, this is a good prasadam for those who are just starting off and are looking something simple. Bengalgram dal panchakajaya and Hurikadale panchakajaya both are prasad items for Ganesh chathurthi at our place!!!!!!

What you need to have:

1. Hurikadle/Dalia dal – 1 cup

2. Sugar – 3/4 cup

3. Grated Copra – 2-3 tablespoons

4. Cardamom – 6-8

5. Sesame seeds (black) – 2 Teaspoons

Picture 062

Ingredients of Hurikadle Panchakajaya

What you do with what you have:

1. Clean hurikadle to see if there is any dirt and keep aside. Grate dry copra and also peal cardamom.

2. Place a broad based bowl on medium flame and warm up dal to get rid of the raw smell for about 5-10 minutes stiring continuously. Add pealed cardamom to it. (Make sure you don’t burn it – ensure that the dal does not change shade)

Picture 064

Hurikadle Dal being warmed up

3. Warm up sugar as well on the medium flame till it is crystalized a little and crispy. (make sure it never liquifies) Just transfer sugar to another bowl and just stir grated copra in the same warm bowl.

Picture 065

Sugar being warmed up

4. Wash, black sesame seeds and dry roast them in a broad based vessel on a medium flame till it sputters. Warmed up Dalia dal, sugar and dry roasted sesame seeds is as shown in the image below.

Picture 066 Warmed up Dalia dal, sugar and Black sesame seeds

5. On cooling, dry grind dalia dal, sugar, cardamom in the mixer/blender one after the other . Transfer all the ground powder in a bowl . Add grated copra, roasted sesame seeds, and finally a dollop of pure ghee to it and Hurikadle panchakajaya is ready now. Offer it to the almighty.

Picture 067

Ready to serve Hurikadle Panchakajaya

How long it takes: 30 minutes

Number of servings: 10-15 people as prasadam

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Janmashtami Laddoos

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

Picture 060

Some of the commonly prepared items for Janmashtami include Nevri, Kai holige, Athrasa and chakli. But we are in the habbit of preparing only one variety of ladoo and one or two variety of Panchkajaya. I have already put up 3 varieties of panchakajjaya on this blog. This ladoo I am putting up today is of a special variety and also a little laborius (yeah, 3 hours !). It is prepared with Bengalgram dal, cashews, sesame seeds and Puffed paddy powder which is called Aralu pudi in kannada and Laye Pitti in konkani.

What you need to have:

1. Bengalgram Dal – 1 cup

2. White sesame seeds(ordinary) – 1/2 cup

3. Cashew pieces – 1 cup

4. Cardamom – 25-30

5. Chikki Jaggery(Antu bella) – 2 and 1/4 cups

6. Puffed paddy powder(aralu pudi) – 3 cups

7. Pure ghee – 1/2 cup(in all approximately)

Picture 033

Ingredients of Ladoo

Picture 039

Ingredients of Janmashtmi ladoos

What you do with what you have:

1. Place a broad based skillet on medium flame and dry roast Bengalgram dal till you get a pleasant aroma stirring continuously.(Make sure that you do not burn it.)

Picture 034

Bengalgram Dal being dry roasted

2. Wash and dry roast sesame seeds in a skillet on medium flame till it sputters stirring continuously.

Picture 036

Sesame seeds being dry roasted

3. Both dal and sesame seeds will look as below on being dry roasted.

Picture 037

Dry roasted dal and sesame seeds

4. Place a skillet with 3-4 teaspoons of pure ghee in it. On melting put in cashew pieces in it.

Picture 041

Cashew pieces ready to be roasted in pure ghee

5. Put in all the cashew pieces and roast it in pure ghee till they turn light brown and crispy.

Picture 042

Cashews on roasting

6. Powder roasted Bengalgram dal in the mixer to a fine consistency. Peal and powder cardamom as well and keep it aside.

Picture 045

Bengalgram dal powder, cardamom powder and roasted cashews

7. Mix dal powder, roasted cashews and sesame seeds, cardamom powder and puffed paddy powder in a bowl (which is the ladoo mix) and keep it ready to mix it in Jaggery syrup to tie the ladoos. Just keep a little dal powder aside to dust a few of the ladoos

Picture 047

The Ladoo mix

Ingredients of Jaggery syrup:

1. Chikki Jaggery – 2 and 1/4 cup

2. Pure ghee – 4-5 Tablespoons

Picture 048

Skillet with pure ghee on the flame

8. Place a skillet with 4-5 Tablespoons of pure ghee in it. On melting add jaggery to it.

Picture 049

Jaggery being added to melted ghee

9. When jaggery melts in pure ghee just simmer the gas and check for the string. Drop a little of the syrup in water and when it crystalizes. You will know if it is done when you pick it up and pull it it should stretch. This process takes around 10 minutes on the flame adjusting frequently. It should be the 2 string consistency.

Picture 051

Jaggery syrup

10. When done, switch off the flame. Pour the ladoo mix from step 7 into the jaggery syrup and mix well.

Picture 052

Ladoo mix in jaggery syrup

11. When mixed well it would be as shown in the image below.

Picture 053

The Ladoo mix

12. Tie ladoos of required size and dust it in the roasted dal powder as shown in the image below. This is done so that they do not get stuck to one another and also for extra flavour. While tieing ladoos apply ghee to your palm and tie ladoos to help keep your palm cool. Of course it can be tied on cooling as well since chikki jaggery is used.

Picture 057

Ready to serve Ladoos

Ladoos can be tied and can be shaped in a different way for looks. To offer it to kids we just shape it in a different way ! Store it in dry containers and will remain afresh for 2 months if fresh & pure ghee is used for frying etc.

Picture 060

Ready to serve Ladoos

How long it takes: 3 hours

Number of Laddoos: 60 of the above size

Note: I just bought puffed paddy from the super market , warmed it up on the flame for a while and on cooling powdered it in the mixer. One can even dry it in the sun. Since it is rainy season now, i warmed it up else i would also dry in the sun. The powder available in the market contains lot of impurities which in turn spoils the taste of laddoos.

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Pineapple pudding

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

Picture 076

Pineapple is one of the fruits available only during the summer since it is grown locally here in a place namely Moodbidri. These Pineapple grown here are so huge in size that they vary from 5-6 kg by weight as well. More over this variety is very sweet and juicy. During the season we can even prepare juice adding preservatives to store for the whole year rather than buying it in the super markets . W e also prepare Murabba , Pineapple sasam, Gojju etc., Today i would like to put up Pineapple Pudding which is served for most of the functions nowadays with a scoup of Ice cream as well!!

What you need to have:

1. Chopped Pineapple – 3 cups

2. Sujee(thin) – 1 cup

3. Pure ghee – 1/2 cup

4. Sugar – 1 cup

5. Water – 1 and 1/2 cup

6. Saffron – A few strings

7. Dry fruits – As required

Picture 069

Ingredients of Pineapple Pudding

What you do with what you have:

1. Wash, peal and chop Pineapple into small pieces and keep it aside.

2. Place a skillet on medium flame with 2-3 Teaspoons of ghee in it and fry dry fruits till done.

Picture 073

Dry fruits being fried in pure ghee

3. Add remaining ghee and fry sujee in it on medium flame till you get a pleasant aroma. Make sure that you donot burn it.

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Sujee being fried in pure ghee

4. Place a bowl with the required quantity of water and sugar and cook chopped pineapple in it till smooth. On switching off the flame add saffron strings to it.

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Pineapple being cooked in sugar syrup

5. When cooked it would look as below.

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Cooked Pineapple in sugar syrup

6. On sujee being fried in ghee mix cooked pineapple from step-5 to it and cook it till done. Decorate it with extra dry fruits and is as shown in the image below. Serve with a scoop of icecream of one’s choice if required!!!!

Picture 076

Ready to serve Pineapple pudding

How long it takes: 45 minutes

Number of servings: 3-4 people

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Sweet Rice Noodles (Derived from Rice Shevige)

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

26 2 2009 055

I had promised to put various forms in which one can have rice shevige. Here is one of them. In Konkani we call this Kalayil (Mixed) Gud (Sweet) Shevayi (Noodles) ! One you have the shevige prepared this should barely take 10 minutes.

What you need to have:

1. Rice Noodles just powdered – 2 cups

2. Fresh grated coconut – 1/2 cup

3. Jagery crushed – As per taste

4. Cardamom – 3-4

4. Pure ghee – 2 teaspoon

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Ingredients of sweet Rice noodles

What you do with what you have:

1. Just powder a few noodles and keep it aside. Grate coconut, crush required quantity of Jaggery/Molasses and powder cardamom.

2. Mix all of them together with 2 teaspoons of pure ghee. Squeeze it in such a way that it turns out to be a little damp, so that it will be easy to mix the powdered noodles.

3. To this, add the powdered noodles from step 1 and serve it as a variety.

26 2 2009 055

Ready to serve sweet Rice Noodles

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Jackfruit Payasam (Gharayi)

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

PICT0026Now is the season of Jackfruit and we prepare a few items like the jack papad, Mulik, chips, pudding, idli, dosas etc., Today I would like to put up Jackfruit pudding – something that can be relished both warm and chilled.

What you need to have:

1. Jackfruit sheaths chopped – 1 cup

2. Coconut milk (thick) – 1 cup

3. Raw rice – 1/6 cup

4. Jaggery/Mollasses – 1/2 cup

5. Cardamom – 4-5

6. Cashews – A few

7. Water in all – 1 Litre

PICT0042 Jackfruit

PICT0045 Ingredients of Jackfruit pudding

What you do with what you have:

1. Chop jack sheaths into small pieces, chop Jaggery/Mollasses and keep it aside. Chop cashews as well into small pieces.

2. Soak rice in water for about an hour. After an hour grind soaked rice and pealed cardamom in mixer to a medium fine consistency adding suficient quantity of water.

3. Place a broad based bowl with 2 glasses of water in it on medium flame. When it boils add chopped jaggery to it and let it be on the flame till it dissolves in it.

4. At this stage add chopped jack sheaths to it and allow it to cook. Add chopped cashews as well to it.

Picture 071 Cooked Jackfruit sheaths cooked in Jaggery syrup

5. When done, add ground rice from step 2 and about 2-3 glasses of water to it and keep stiring continuously till it thickens. If needed add some more water to it. In all use 1 litre water for the dish. Lastly add coconut milk to it and stir well and bring it to boil.

Ready to serve Gharayi is as shown in the image below.

PICT0026 Ready to serve Jackfruit pudding (Gharayi)

Good to remember:

1. These days people use wheat sujee instead of rice to ease the recipe. Tastewise adding ground rice would be better.

2. The thing is always keep stiring the dish after adding ground rice mixture to avoid the dish from getting burnt and turning tasteless.

How long it takes: 1 hour

Number of servings: 5-6 people

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Sabudana Payasam (Sweet Pudding)

March 31st, 2010 by User | No Comments | Filed in Indian Food

picture-242

Sabudana as you know has versatile uses. We prepare sweet pudding in combination with split greengram dal, Bengalgram dal, Vermicelli and also with Basumathi rice. This pudding is very popular even to this day for most of the functions. It is easy to prepare and tastes great !

What you need to have:

1. Sabudana (Sagu) – 1 Cup

2. Basumati rice – 1 Cup

3. Sugar – 1 and 1/2 Cup

4. Milk – 4 Cup

5. Cashews – 1/2 Cup

6. Kishmish – 1/2 Cup

7. Saffron strands – A few

8. Cardamom – 4-5

9. Pure ghee – 2-3 Teaspoon

picture-093 Ingredients of sweet Sabudana pudding

What you do with what you have:

1. Place a broad based bowl on medium flame and add 1 teaspoons ghee in it. On melting add Sabudana to it and keep frying for about 5 minutes till it properly warms up. Transfer it to another bowl.

2. In the same bowl add one more spoon of ghee and fry Basumati rice and keep frying till it is also warmed up.

picture-098 Warmed up Sabudana & Basumati rice

3. Transfer both sabudana and Basumati rice, cashews to pressure cooker. Add 6 glasses of water and cook as usual till done.

picture-099 Cooked Basumati rice & Sabudana mix

4. On being cooked and the pressure being released , just transfer it to a broad based vessel and add required quantity of sugar and kishmish to it and put it on medium flame stirring continuously bring it to boil.

5. Dissolve saffron strands in a little warm milk and add it to the dish. Peal and powder cardamom and add it too. Lastly add desired quantity of milk and bring it to boil on a low flame stirring continuously, else it will get burnt.

You are done. I typically have some of it warm. Rest of it I serve chilled the next morning with milk and sugar.

picture-242 Ready to serve Sabudana sweet pudding

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