Gulab Jamun

For this recipe I must thank my friend Gayathri. We have been to functions at a common friend's house and Gayathri always brought her Gulabs - My son esp, declared them "THE BEST" he'd ever tasted - Haldiram ji - go fly a kite! So this recipe had to make it on my blog.  Went exactly per her directions and they turned out really good - This was another challenge - Know now why I stayed away from making sweets - but with the right recipe, it seems like huge achievement - so I say YAY!
This is a from the scratch recipe - So please follow all steps correctly

Ingredients
For the Jamun:

1 cup of Maida (I used all purpose flour)

1 ½ cup of carnation milk powder

¼ teaspoon of baking soda

Low fat / regular heavy cream ( I used regular)

For the Syrup

3 cups of sugar

3 cups of water

¼ teaspoon kesar powder

½ teaspoon of ground cardamom

Crsico vegetable oil to fry (a first for me)

Preparing the Jamuns

Sift the maida and the milk powder and the baking soda - The milk powder can be knotty - break them down as much as possible and discard the rest
Put mixture in a food processor/ blender and knead slowly adding the heavy cream until you get pizza dough/ chappati atta consistency

Keep closed for 45 minutes

Make large marble sized balls (see picture below) and keep ready
Get the oil going in a shallow pan - not out regular deep frying pan! Pour just enough oil you think will cover the jamun balls.
Next, mix the water and sugar and let it boil until it starts getting slightly sticky - On a gas stove, this takes about 4-5 minutes only -
Start frying the jamuns - if they have been rolled to perfect rounds, chances are they will favor one side and not want to be turned around - which is when you have to gently turn and hold them down so both sides get cooked. When they are a dark golden brown (see pic below) remove, drain and drop hot into the syrup all it to soak.
Secret tip for the syrup:
Take a little before the required consistency because as it cools it tends to thicken
Secret Tip for the Jamun:
Keep the heat at medium-low so it will allow the jamuns to cook from the inside to the outside - Or else the outside will brown while the inside remains uncooked.
Keep a paper-toweled colander to drop the fried jamuns into for a minute to drain the excess oil before dropping them into the syrup.

Happy Jamuning :-)

Baked Shoestring Sweet Potato

Guilt free fries
 You cannot ask for a simpler recipe than this one- seriously!
Except the cutting part - But that's what sweet husbands are for, right ?

Ingredients
shoe string cut sweet potatoes about 5 or 6 small sized ones
curry powder
olive oil

Preparation
Set oven to 425 degrees
In a mixing bowl mix the sweet potatoes with curry powder and dribble olive oil sparingly over it
Spread in a single layer on a flat baking pan
cook for about 10 minutes
Remove from over, turn them around with a spatula
Put back in the over and let the other side cook for another 10 minutes

Serve hot with ketchup :-)

Variation Two: For those who cannot find curry powder, you can substitute with crushed pepper and maybe some finely ground coriander seeds.

Mysore Pak

This was one of my biggest challenges, but the end result, I'm told, is well worth the effort

Another traditional Venkatam Deepavali item (to my sister-in-law, Alli, this is a pidicha item :-)))

Get ready to give those arms a good exercise :-)

Ingredients
2 cup of besan/kadalamavu/gram flour

2 cups of sugar

2 cups slightly warm ghee

1/2 a cup of water

Preparation:

Get a short-rimmed pan greased and ready
Sift the flour to remove all knots

pour the ghee slowly and mix in to the flour to make a flowing paste 

In a heavy bottomed pan, mix the sugar and water and heat on medium high flame. 

When the sugar has dissolved in the water and is is starting to boil, pour in the batter slowly, stirring continuously- This is where the arms get their exercise :-)

So keep stirring until the pahu comes off the sides without sticking.... this takes a while, so be patient and put the arms to work, the better to enjoy the end result 

You will see the thickening -

NOTE:  If the bottom starts browning, then you have kept it on the flame for too long

Remove and pour on to the greased pan 

In a minute, while it is still hot, start cutting into the desired squares/ diamond shapes

Let it remain on the pan for until it cools

Then remove the slices and arrange on a plate

Happy Mysore -Paaking :-)

Ribbon Poondu karachev

Poondu Karachev for Deepavali is a family tradition which I never want to give up, considering how well-loved it is - Never fails to hit the home run :-) I just used a different disc, for a change.

Here is my recipe from taste buds/brain recollection of my mom's incredible karachev

Ingredients
2:1 proportion of gram flour and rice flour (Kadalamavu/Besan: Rice flour)
1 whole pod of garlic
10-12 dried red chillies (this is adjustable according to your taste)
1 tablespoon of  warm ghee
Approx 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water
Murruku press with 2 slit disc to get the ribbon shape
Oil to fry

Preparation

Sift the flours so that they are fine and knot free
Add the salt to the dry flours and mix well
Add the wamed ghee and knead in
Grind into fine flowing paste the garlic and red chillies with 1 cup of water
Slowly add the garlic paste and mix in simultaneously into the mix until you get s smooth batter - (see picture below for texture and consistency)

Prepare the press
Grease the press on the inside container of the press and and the outside of the presser that you push down. Take a rounded lump of the batter and drop it into the press, put the presser on top and keep ready

Set up for frying
Fill 2/3 of a deep pan with sunflower or corn oil
Allow it to heat up in medium high heat
Drop a small piece of the batter in to test if the oil is ready - the piece should pop up with a bubbling sizzle around it
Now press the batter moving your wrist around the oil to make circular nest like pattern
Turn it over gingerly
Wait for it to turn light golden brown
Remove from heat and place in a paper-toweled colander to let the water drain

Break them up as they get cooler and store in a seal tight container

Pepper Karachev (Milagu Karachev) Deepavali Special

Celebrating Deepavali so far from home is no fun. But we got to make the best of the situation and I want to give my kiddos a small fraction of the fun and enjoyment of this most celebrated festival. So I say to myself, quite whining about stuff and get your act together. My mind went over the sweet and savory treats my mom used to make and I launched on the first of the 3 treats I've plan for this Deepavali and that be - pepper Karachev. I tried to get the flavor of the karachev the even my 2 yr-old so adores from Grand Sweets and Snacks -
Making it by myself somehow feels more satisfying than just buying from the store - there's my silver lining :-)

Very simple recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups of gram flour or kadalmavu
1 cup of rice flour
15-20 kernels of pepper
2 red chillies
5 table spoons of melted butter
oil to fry
1 cup of water

NOTE: you will need a Karachev Press
Preparation

Sift both the flours in a sieve.
Coarsely grind the pepper and add to the dry flour and mix in
Finely grind the red chillies and do the same
Add the desired amount of salt
Melt the butter and slowly to the flour, kneading it in as you go
Add one cup of warm water, slowly kneading as you did with the butter - the consistency is creamy smooth - be careful not make it too watery.

Frying:

Fill a frying pan 2/3 with oil.
Wait for it to get good and hot
Butter both parts of the press and drop a handful of the batter in it and squeeze in oil, rotating arms in making spaghetti nest like formation - picture will explain this better!
Wait until it turns golden brown remove and place in a paper-towel lined container.
break it up after it cools down

Finger-licking good

My husband suggested the title - much more friendly than the one I came up with - not too much of a guess! Here's another smart title for this one - A hitchhiker's nightmare -
This is a cookie recipe that i got from another blog I follow and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to try it - But I made a few modifications to the recipe to make it - er... more healthy?? But it's Halloween and we could do a lot worse with the candies....I had so much fun doing this with my daughter. Thank you Mriganayani for the cool, yet, macabre idea :-)

We made some fingers and a few toes...

Ingredients:

2-3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup of cane sugar - tunbinado
1 cup of softened unsalted butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon each of almond and vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
about 25 almonds halved

Preparation

Whip the softened butter, egg, baking soda and extracts together
Slowly add the flour to it and make into almost pizza dough consistency
Set in the fridge for half an hour
Remove and roll out thin like bread sticks
With a fork press in 2 places
Press almond half, pointy half as fingernail tip into the tip of each rolled stick

Preparing the almonds
In a bowl boil some water and raw almonds for about 3 -4 minutes and peal off skin when cooled.

Baking instructions
Set oven at 325 degrees and bake for 15 minutes

Secret tip: Be sure to roll them out thinner than a normal finger because they thicken as they bake, which accounts for the stubbies in our batch .... but they are fingers after all and come in all sizes and shapes!
For more fun: Add some jam at the tips of your fingers to give it the congealed blood look (heeeeehaaaawwww)


Happy Halloween! Not too late to try it!

Beetroot Rasam / soup

There are rasams and there are rasams, many of which will find their way to my blog, but today, it's all about the beet! To my white friends, rasam or even ras means juice or extract of a veggie or fruit. So this would be the equivalent of soup. To me, beets always only reminded me of the mouth-watering cutlets served by the India Coffee House in Pondicherry.

Again making time is under 15 minutes - truly! This is another one of my can recipes. I'd heard of this for the first time, when my sister called to tell me of my mom's passing - she explained that her last proper meal consisted of beetroot rasam, a recipe she'd actually called a dear family friend to get and make with her very own hands!!!

I've yet to get that recipe, but in the meantime, I could not resist trying it on my own. This the second shot at it and I must say, it has been a huge hit with my family - The seal of approval was strong enough for me to put out my version of this incredible rasam.

Ingredients:

1 can of  round cut or shoestring beets
3/4 can of Hunt's diced tomatoes
Note: Both should be plain with no added flavors
1/4 cup of coconut powder or grated coconut
2 teaspoons of rasam powder easily available at all Indian stores

For Sauteeing splutter
in 1 teaspoon of butter
1 spoon of cumin seeds
1/2 spoon of mustard seeds

Garnish with finely chopped coriander

I want some feedback after you try this recipe out - Results will vary depending on what Rasam powder you are using - IF I am not getting supplies from The Grand Sweeets and Snacks of Chennai or from Bhanuma, I make my own powders for all my needs.