Besan Halwa

Every evening I keep wondering what snack to make for my boys before they go to play. I was looking around for something new, and I came across Besan Halwa. It was something I have not tried before and it looked very easy to make to. And the best part is that my boys loved it.

Ingredients:

1 cup Besan (Bengal gram flour)

3/4 cup Ghee
1 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Water (approximately)

Method:
1.Heat water and milk in a pan. Stir in cardamom powder. Set aside.

2.Heat ghee in a shallow frying pan. Add besan and roast in the ghee for 10 minutes, or until it smells nutty and fragrant.
3.Add the sugar and stir. Pour in the milk mixture gradually. Keep stirring to avoid lumps. Add water as needed. Cook the mixture for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring frequently till the halwa pulls away from the sides of the pan.
4.Serve hot, or spread the mixture into a rimmed plate and allow to cool. Cut into squares and serve.

Rawa Idli

Yesterday I was wondering snack to give my 3 year old boy before he goes cycling, so I decided to go through a few blogs to get ideas. I found Rawa Idli in Suma's Cusine. I had heard of it, but never tasted it. It looked very simple to make, and the best part of it was that I had all the ingredients. Only thing I did not add from the recipe was the cashewnuts because my boy does not like them. The whole thing did not look as wonderful as hers did, but my son and my husband loved it.  Here I have posted the recipe without the cashew nuts and the chillies. It is the same as Suma's. Thanks Suma. 

Ingredients:

Rawa: 1 cup

Curd: 1/2 cup

Water: 1/2 cup

Onion: 1 medium chopped

Carrot: 1 big grated

Ginger: 1 tsp grated

Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp

Channa dal: 1 tsp

Urad dal: 1 tsp

Curry Leaves: a few

Oil: a bit

Salt: as per  taste

Method:

1) Heat oil. Add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add channa and urad dal and fry till they turn brown. Then add the curry leaves,  ginger,  carrot and the onion. Fry for some time.

2) Add the rawa to this and let it roast for sometime.

3) Transfer the contents in a bowl and let it cool.

4) Add the curd, water and salt, and mix well. There should be no lumps. It should be of the same consistency as normal idli batter.

5) Grease the idli tray with oil. Spoon the mixture into this and 

steam on medium heat for 10-15 minutes. 

Sabudana Khichidi

Happy New Year!!I am back after a very long time. This time I will make sure there are more posts on my blog than before. I will start with Sabudana(tapioca) Khichidi. I am not very fond of sabudana, but most of my family members love it. This was the first time I made it.
Ingredients:

Sabudana: 1 cupPotatoes (90% boiled): 1 medium

Roasted peanuts (without the skin) 1/4 cup

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Green chillies 2

Curry leaves: 1 sprig

Sugar: 1 tsp

Coconut (grated): 2 tbsp

Lemon juice 1 tbsp (1/2 lemon)

Oil: 2 tbsp

Salt: as per taste

Corriander Leaves for garnidhing
Method:

1) Wash one cup of sabudana in water. Soak sabudana in water for 30 to 45 mins and then drain the water and spread it on a plate to dry for around 8 hours.

2) Grind the roasted peanuts into small peices. The powder should not be too fine.

3) Cut the boiled potatoes into small cubes.

4) Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, when it starts popping, add the cumin seeds, green chillies and curry leaves.

5) Add the potatoes, salt, sugar and fry well.

6) Add the sabudana, mix well, cover the it and cook on low flame for approximately 5 mins.

7) Now add the peanut powder and the coconut. Cook for 1min.

8) Squeeze the lemon and sprinkle corriander leaves(optional)
IMPORTANT: Do not sprinkle water at any given time.

Happy Diwali

I want to wish all my blogger friends and their families a very Happy Diwali & a Prosperous New Year. I never make sweets. Actually to mention, never thought of it, so this time I decided to throw myself in sweet making. I searched blogs on the net and finally settled on Mysore Pak, Kaju Katli and Nimki which I had made and posted earlier. I would like to thank "My Diverse Kitchen" and "Art of Cooking" which helped me to make these.

Nimki, an award and thanks

I remember when I was a kid, my mom used to make nimki for my sister and me for snacks and we loved it. My sister loved it more when they were put in sugar syrup to make it sweet. Since we loved it so much, I thought that my boy would also like it, and I thought correct. He loved it. He was playing with two girls who are eight, and his dadda and among the four of them (one adult and three kids), they finished it. Yay!! It was very difficult for me to save some for a picture.

When I started making it I realized that this needed maida (refined flour) and had to be deep fried. Now I got paranoid with the combination of maida and deep frying which are both not very good for health, so I substituted maida with atta (whole wheat flour). Also I used less oil for frying. Thought it might be different, but it was very much like what I ate as a kid.

Ingredients:

Atta (Whole wheat flour): 125 gms

Ghee (clarified butter): 1 tbsp

Salt: 1tbsp

Kalo jeere(kalaunji/nigella seeds): 2 tbsp

Water: as required

Oil: for frying

Method:

1) Mix the ghee, atta and salt together.

2) Add the kalo jerre and water, and knead into a dough just like we do while making roti.

3) Divide the dough into balls.

4) Flatten the balls and then roll them out in circles, dusting with flour when required.

5) With a knife, cut criss cross strips on the rolled out dough. They should be diamond shaped. I know mine are not good shapes, but that is the idea.

6) Heat oil in a kadai and fry.

7) Drain on kitchen paper.

8) If kept in an air tight container, it can last for up to 2 weeks.

I also wanted to thank Dibs for the Blogging Friends Forever award. She is the second person to do so, and I thank her with all my heart. I will always cherish it Dibs. I have already passed it on to 5 people earlier.

I received a lot of wonderful comments for my last post. I want to thank everyone for the kind words. This really encourages me to do better.