Kara Boondhi

This is a simple and immensely addictive snack made in many parts of India, but perhaps called by different names. In Tamil kara means spicy and boondhi means drops.  The kids had gone out for a swim. My hubby had just finished off a rather distasteful packet of something from the indian store, the kind that is excessively spicy and doughy and not much else - I decided to launch on the boondhi trail - after all, how hard can it be- In my mind, it seemed a cinch, since I had bought the boondhi ladle the last time I was in India.
I took my inspiration from the video from Vahrevah - he explained it quite nicely and it was easy to figure out what I should look for - And the bottom line is consistency - that's really all it boils down to when you consider how, oily or soft, or elongated they could get -if the consistency is incorrect - so what you are looking for is a thick flowing consistency that drops slowly from the ladle - You take a ladle to the ladle and assist the drops
The second point to not is don't over crowd the pan - there should be exactly one layer of boondhis per time else you get yourself and the boondhis into a sticky, clumpy mess.

Here is my recipe with a few changes that helped me make the best boondhi

2 cups of besan (or what you amount you choose)
1 tsp of baking soda
1.5  cups of water (divided)
2tsp of salt

kara podi (to mix in after the boondhi) I used homemade molagapodi, some roasted cashews and curry leaves.

Preparation of batter

Sift the besan to get rid of knots
add the salt and the baking soda
mix them in nicely with a whist
Add 1/2 cup of water first and and make a thick paste
Then slowly add the rest of the water in small installments, checking for thick flowing consistency

Note: Too much water will not make round drops and will absorb too much water. Too thick a batter will not allow the batter to drop into the oil -

Trial and error is OK! It took me at least two tries to know when to stop the dripping to avoid clumping. I had to add more batter because I had gotten it a little too thin for starters. I guarantee you that by the 3rd or 4th round, you'll have nailed it :)

Heat oil on a medium flame
Get the boondhi ladle positioned above the centre of the frying pan.
Now I will let my pictures speak for themselves.

The boondhi ladle

My watery atta

bad bad bad!!

Not so great -too much water and too much batter in one go!

Really good right :)

That's my wrist flying around with a ladle stirring the ladle :)

Check out these beauties :)

I had added to much batter

My best batches :)

You can see how I kept improving until it really did get perfect - I think adding the baking soda gave it the air to puff up nice and round.

Lavender Blueberries Muffins

This was a second treat I made in anticipation of my Zumba miss - Another no show,  I guess she had her reasons and her commitment to me did not figure at all in her list of priorities but the disappointment nor the slight irritation at being stood for the 4th time cannot be trivialized. However, my wonderful family was as always quite welcoming of this treat.
But they filled up the room with the most pleasing aromas and I was happy for a chance to use my lavender buds.
 I got the general idea for the recipe from a website called Wiki - I like the fact they'd used small amounts of oil as opposed to butter, because this gave me the option of using olive oil.


Here is the recipe


Ingredients as given in the Wiki but with some key modifications

• ¾ cup Sugar
• 3 cups unbleached Whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp.baking powder
• ½ tsp.salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 ¼ cups milk
• 1 tbsp. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. Finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tsp. dried cooking lavender buds (1 tbsp. Fresh)
• 3 large eggs beaten
• 2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For Lavender Sugar

1tsp of lavender buds

3 tbsp of sugar

grind in a coffee grinder together and set aside for sprinkling on top of the muffin, if desired.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Combine first four dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the lemon juice with milk and let stand for 5 mins. Add the rest of the wet ingredients including the lemon zest, lavender and blueberries to the milk and lemon juice mixture. Gradually stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until all dry ingredients are moistened. Bake 25–30 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan.


Serve warn with tea!

Cashew-Pistachio Coated Sweet Potato-Paneer Sandwiches

Ahhhh! I know the name is a mouthful!! sorry about that :(
This recipe came about by sheer chance - We've made a habit now of having steamed sweet potato dinners - they are the best kind of carbs to eat and are touted to be the healthiest veggie. We LOVE it, luckily and I have been trying to get my little one to like it too - but she is too smart for just steamed, so my sweet hubby, who I have mentioned on several occasions is a fabulous cook too. He decided to cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch rounds and roast them with the smallest amount of olive oil - He added a dash of curry powder and some salt and it tasted outtsight - I had made some paneer for her and after she'd eaten most of it, she said enough - I popped the sweet potato and the paneer in my mouth - Oh boy was the combo deadly! I decided I had to make that for the rest of us - and that's exactly what I did - In my zeal, I made more than I should've - so the next day, I improvised some more - added some spinach, lima beans all leftovers from the previous day- added a dash of sambar powder and that made for another excellent self-contained meal - I will blog it next - So please try it and let me know how you like this combo -

Prep time 30 making time 30
This includes steaming the sweet potatoes and coating them in the cashew pistachio,masala.

4-6 steamed sweet potatoes
a fistful of cashews and pistachios
2tbsp curry ma powder
salt and pepper
3 roasted red chilies

Preparation
Grind all these into a coarse-fine powder
Cut the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch circles
Put them in the powder mic and press and roll the sides and flip over and press down again to fully coat them
In a shallow pan, spray some olive oil spray and roast until both sides are a happy golden crisp - Some of mine got a bit darker, but they were remarkably tasty even so.
In the same pan, roast the paneer - you have cut these into 1/2 inch cubes as well - once they are a nice brown, remove from pan - I added some salt and curry powder -

Serve hot.

Peppa Paneer Frankie Wrap

This dish I am dedicating to my nephew in Chennai - In my week at Chennai not too long ago, there were at least 2 or 3 nights when this young man wanted these Frankie Wraps from a kiosk - apparently a hot joint for these ever so popular short eat. I think these also go by the name of kaati rolls. I have never dared to try one from that vendor - needed a well-adjusted tummy for that, but I tried my own version, a lot healthier one, of course. You can literally make this in under 10 minutes, providing of course you have the ingredients handy - but the beauty is you can make these with just about anything you have around the house - but the one think you do need is a rumali roti or a big tortilla wrap. I particularly like red, yellow and orange peppers for this recipe since they lend a fantastic fresh flavor to the wrap -
Since the wrap itself is caloric, I avoid using any more fat than I have to so I use my olive oil spray.

Ingredients - for up to 4 wraps
1/2 each of Red, Yellow and Orange peppers
1 medium sized onionPaneer but long about 1 cup
1-2 green chilies slit fine and thin
1tsp of sesame seeds
1tbsp humus - this can be subbed by mayonnaise or any other spread of your choice - but bear in mind, hummus is your healthiest and in my opinion tastiest bet
1tsp olive oil (optional as an alternative to olive oil spray)
1tsp sambar powder
2tbsp Szechuan stir fry sauce - spicy
4 large tortillas (250 cals each) Lighter version most welcome

Preparation
Cut all the veggies and the paneer lengthwise
lightly spray them with olive oil spray and sprinkle the sambar podi (powder) over them
In a non stick pan, roast them on high heat
Add the stir-fry sauce over it and allow it to simmer for a minute or two.

I just toasted the tortilla over the flame like a phukla
Add the stuffing and roll - put it on a wide pan tawa and allow it to gets those delectable toasted spots.
Stick a toothpick to keep it from unravelling.
Serve by itself or with a hot ketchup

And that's a wrap for the weekend folks adios until the next post and HAPPPPPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL YOU GORGEOUS MOMS OUT TEHRE _ LOVE YOU!

Papineberry Juice

This is an adaptation of a recipe that was presented in the Dr. Oz Show last week which gives a great kickstart to the day. It contains all the goodness of papaya, pineapple, blueberries, kiwi, flaxseed meal, a dash of ginger powder and a little sage to make it aromatic, this drink will have you hit the ground running.

Ingredients
1 cup papaya
1 cup pineapple
1/2 cup blueberries
1kiwi
2tbsp flaxseed meal
3leaves of sage
2tsp of ginger powder
1tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup of ice cubes
1cup of water

Grind them into a flowing shake and drink up and let me know what you think :)

Plum Kuchen - Celebrating Friendship

 So... this recipe has been in my files for almost a year - when I first met my beautiful Argentinian friend, Fla, who I do love dearly - She and I work together on other stuff and hit it off from day one - Although we are both a bit feisty- she more than me - something clicks and I've enjoyed having her in my life - She brings with her a familiar warmth and affection - very typical of Indians - where we are not afraid to feel or show that we feel - she shares the same wonderfully close relationship with her family and children that most of us Indians tend to with ours and there was not a moment when we felt any awkwardness in the relationship -
She was supposed to be a guest on my blog and share with me some Italian/ Argentinian recipes - She is of Italian origin. But we've had a deadlock about the interview part - I did what I have done with my other interviewees - sent her questions to answer about herself - She does not type these out and send it to me, instead, in this day and age of technology, wants me to physically take notes and paraphrase for her - Now for people who blog, you know how much work even putting out a recipe with pictures is - I held my ground that her answers would b typed by her and sent to me and I would post verbatim - The deadlock continues, but I gave her the heads up about posting some of the recipes she made for me - The first of the recipes that I absolutely LOVED was this plum cake - for Kuchen is nothing but "cake" in German.
Today was to be a special occasion - You see, I have 3 Anitas in my life who have enriched it a lot - My "french" friend whom I've known for almost 10 years now, who is as I write, hanging in Melbourne (so jealous), - She also introduced me to Fla whose cake I blog today; my fabulous baker friend Anita Gupta who has been a guest on my blog whose website, Maliha Creations is a sight for sore eyes.  And the third Anita, a UVA grad (soon to be) who teaches Zumba at the university - My Tuesday and Thursday nights were my most anticipated because she as my daughter rightly wrote, set the floor on fire and gave us all the most fabulous workouts - She may think I'm way over the top in my adoration of her, but she is truly an inspiration and I do love her a whole lot!
This last one was the one who was to come over today and the cake was made in her honor - But being a busy student trying to wrap up her undergrad program, she had to bail out of coming today - I am saddened by the thought that she will no longer be teaching here :( - c'est la vie - all good things do come to an end, mostly...no? But I must make the cake again for when she comes over -

I also want to celebrate all the beautiful friends I have made since writing this blog - so many great women out there - I celebrate you today as well -

But my thoughts go back to Fla who is away in Arizona, to attend her son's graduation - So I am dedicating her cake to that special event in her life - And a friendly word to her - Get back soon, woman- we have work to do!  As for Zumba Anita, a fresh cake in your honor is being planned :)

Ingredients

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1tsp baking powder

1 lb of red plums

Fresh lemon juice to squeeze over the cake before baking

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350

Butter a 9 inch pan (I used pyrex)

Cream butter and sugar

Add eggs 1 at a time

Then the flour with the baking powder

Mix until it s a creamy batter (don’t over mix)

Spread batter into the pan - NOTE - This batter is quite thick and will spread sort of thin in the pan

Cut the plums into halves or quarters depending on the size

Place them over the batter in rows

Sprinkle with 2 tbsp of sugar and add the lemon juice

Bake for 30 minutes on a regular oven not convection

Using pyrex glass can speed up the process

Do the toothpick check 

Enjoy mes amies, until the next post

This is off to BAKE FEST, Event hosted by me, started by Vardhini

Linking this to Divya's Showcase your dessert event