Achchu murukku

This is my favorite snack and festival treat.My hubby loves sweet treats and so I made this for him.Hope you enjoy this.

Ingredients:

• Rice Four-1 cup
• All purpose flour -3/4
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Oil-for frying
• Sesame seeds-1 tsp
• Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp optional

Preparation:

• Mix the above ingredients except oil in a bowl.
• Add water little by little and keep mixing the batter until it becomes smooth .
• Make sure that it is not too thick or too runny.
• Heat oil in a pan and keep the murukku mold dipped in the oil.
• The oil needs to be hot enough but not smoky to turn the murukku brown at once.
• Once the oil is hot and the mold is also hot, dip the mold into the batter.
• Make sure that the mold is not dipped fully but three quarters.
• When the mold is dipped, it should make a hissing noise.
• The mold needs to be hot for the batter to stick to the mold.
• Then dip the mold into the oil and the oil will bubble around the mold.
• When the murukku is half done,start shaking the mold gently and the murruku will drop my itself or use a knife or skewer to loosen it from the mold.
• It might take some two or three murukkus to start understanding the exact way that works better for you.So don't panic at the first time.
• Take the murruku out of the oil when golden brown.
• The murukku will harden once it cools.
• Store in a tight container.

Nei appam

Nei appam is a favourite of Lord Krishna and makes a good Janmashtami recipe.I made this last week for janmashtami pooja.

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 1 cup (soaked for 1 hr)
• Banana - 1
• Jaggery - 1 cup
• Coconut (optional)- 1/2 cup grated
• Ghee(clarified butter)
• Cardamom - 2

Preparation:

• Drain the rice and add banana, jaggery & cardamom to it.
• Grind the above with little water to make a batter (dosa consistency).
• Mix coconut to it and keep aside for 1 hr.
• In the paniyara maker, add 1 spoon of ghee to each section.
• Make sure the heat is in low-medium.
• Now fill three quarters of each section with the batter.
• Once the ghee starts to bubble,flip it using a skewer.
• Wait for a minute and remove.

Walnut Custard Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• Walnuts (toasted and rough chopped) - 1 cup (divided)
• Custard powder - 3 tbsps
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Instant coffee - 2 tsps(add to 1/2 cup boiling water and divide into two halves)
• Egg - 2
• Salt - 1 pinch
• Oil - 4 or 5 tbsps
• Milk (warm) - 4 tsps
• Brown sugar - 3 tsps

Preparation:

• In a bowl,sieve the flour and baking powder.
• Add salt to it.
• Blend oil,eggs,milk,coffee(1 part) and sugar.
• Add to the flour little by little and mix without forming lumps.
• Add custard powder to it.
• Add 1 part of walnuts to it and mix thoroughly .
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Just apply little oil to the baking pan and dust with all purpose flour.
• Now pour the mixture into it.
• Mix leftover coffee,walnuts and brown sugar and pour over the it in random fashion.
• Bake for 25 -30 minutes .
• Allow to cool (it will be a little sticky at some places inside because of the custard) and then cut into pieces and store in a tight container.
• Serve with tea/coffee.

Plain Rice kolukattai (no-filling)

Ingredients:

• Rice Flour -2 cups
  
• Mustard - 1 tbsp
  
• Curry Leaves - 10
  
• Urad Dal - 1 tbsp
  
• Cumin seeds- 1tbsp
  
• Red chili crushed - 4
  
• Salt 
  
• Oil to season
  
• Water - very hot

Preparation:

• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard,urad,cumin,chillies and curry leaves.
  
• Add it to the flour and add salt to it.
  
• Add the boiling water little by little into it and start stirring with wooden spoon.
  
• Make sure not to add excess water .
  
• The mixture needs to be soft.
  
• If you have kolukattai achchu (press) use it to stuff the mixture into it or make shapes(which ever appeals to you).
  
• Steam the kolukattai in idli or any steamer.
  
• Serve with chutney.
  
• Makes a great snack,enjoy!
  

Rava ladoo

Ingredients:

• Rava (Sooji or semolina) - 1 கப்
• Sugar 3/4 cup
• Ghee - 1/ 4 cup
• Milk - 2 tbsp
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
• Raisins - 1 tbsp
• Cashew nuts - 5

Preparation:

• Roast the rava in a thick pan until the aroma starts to come out and gold color.
• Make sure it doesnt turn brown.
• Fry the cashew and rasins with ghee in a pan.
• Add roasted rava,sugar,cardamom powder,ghee,and milk and make a small balls out of it.
• You can either press the rasin and cashew at last on it or you can mix them to the mixture itself before forming balls.
• Make sure not to disturb them until hard otherwise there are chances of breaking them.
• Makes a nice snack and festival item.

Pazham Aval

Ingredients:

• Aval - 2 cups
• Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Banana - 1
• Coconut -grated-1/4 cup
• Cardamom - 1
• Nuts - any (optional)

Preparation:

• In a pan heat jaggery with very little water and form a syrup.
• Add powdered cardamom to it.
• Add coconut to it and mix well.
• Turn off the heat and allow it to cool a little but it should be warm.
• Take aval in a bowl and add the above syrup to it and add little mashed banana to it and mix well.
• Serve with sliced banana and top with nuts if desired.
• This dish is nutritious.

Bread Pakoda

Ingredients:

• Bread-6 slices (brown sides peeled)
• Potato-2 small
• Onion-1 medium
• Coriander leaves - hand full
• Cumin seeds-1 tsp
• Salt
• Oil for frying
• Gram flour - 2 tbsp (optional)

Preparation:

• Boil the potatoes ,peel and mash them.
• Add the diced onion ,cumin,salt,coriander leaves to it and mix well.
• Dip your palms into water and lightly wet the bread (I have used whole wheat bread for health reasons) with your palms so that it becomes a little soft but not too soft.
• Now stuff small amount of the potato mix into the bread ,close the bread from all sides and roll it into a ball.
• Deep fry in hot oil.
• One more way to make it a little desi would be to dip it into gram flour mixed with water and little salt and fry it.
• Serve hot with ketchup.
• It makes a good evening snack and kids love it.

Rasgulla

Ingredients:

• Milk - 4 1/2 cups
• Lemon juice -2 tbsp
• Water - 4 1/2 cups
• Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

Preparation:

• Bring milk to boil and add the lemon juice diluted with 1 tbsp water into it little by little stirring continuously.
• Wait for the cheese to separate from the milk.
• Drain it through the muslin cloth and show it under cold water to remove the taste of lemon juice from it .
• Then bundle it up and squeeze the water out it until no water is left in it.
• In the meanwhile,add the water and sugar in a pressure cooker and boil it uncovered.
• To check if the cheese is just right, rub a little on the palm and form a ball out of it.
• It comes out perfect,then the cheese is in right consistency.
• Split it into equal parts of small balls (they double in size after cooked).
• Make sure you press it hard while rolling it so that it doesn't break while cooking.
• Add these balls to the cooker and close it with the lid and add weight .
• Wait for the pressure to form and then allow it to cook on medium flame for 7-8 mins and turn off.
• Once the pressure is released, transform it to a container (take care not to break it).
• Refrigerate and serve cold.
• Add a little shaved pistachios on it. Enjoy !!!

Chocolate cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Preparation:

• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
• Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
• Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
• Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
• Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks.
• Cool completely.
• Frost with CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe given above).
• Serve with whipped cream ,wafers and vanilla ice cream.

Onion Rings

Ingredients:

• Large Yellow Onion -1
• Pancake mix - 3 tbsps (i.e) all purpose flour+baking soda+ soy flour (optional)
• Corn Flour -2 tbsps
• Red chilli powder - 2 tsps
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 cup for frying

Preparation:

• Cut the onions such that the layers in the onion form a concentric circular shape.
• Now pull out each rings from the sliced onion.
• Make a paste out of the pancake mix,corn flour,red chilli powder,salt and a little water to form a slightly thick batter.
• Heat oil in a deep pan .
• Dip the onion rings into the batter and fry them until golden brown and crisp.
• Serve hot with ketchup.

Boondhi Laddu

Ingredients:

• Besan (gram flour) - 1 cup
• Sugar - 2 cups
• Water -1 cups
• Oil for frying - 1 1/2 cups
• Rice flour - 2 tsps
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
• Food colors - yellow, red,green (optional)
• Cashews broken -3 tsps
• Raisin - 2 tsps

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix besan, rice flour,baking powder and add water little by little to make a thick batter.
• Divide it into 3 portions and add the three colors to one portion each.
• If you don't like color, skip step 2.
• Now heat oil in a deep pan .
• Pour the batter little by little through the vessel or broad spoon with holes and remove them before they turn brown.
• Collect all the boondhi by using the batter with three colors.
• In the meanwhile, heat water and sugar to form a syrup of just before thread like consistency.
• Now add powdered cardamom and turn of the heat.
• Add the boondhi to it and mix well.
• Now heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews and raisins in it and add to the mixture once done.
• Mix all the ingredients well.
• Allow the mix to cool a little but must be warm so that you can make small balls out of it.
• Otherwise the bondhi will not stick to each other properly.
• Serve with murukku,thattai and enjoy!!

Murukku

It is Diwali time and time to celebrate with lamps,sweets and savouries.This Diwali I made Thattai ,cookies,kadalai mittai and Ladoo.Today I made murukku.This is one of my favourite snack.Thought of sharing this...

Ingredients:

• Rice flour - 2 cups
• Black gram (urad) flour-3/4 cups
• Gram flour (kadalai mavu)- 1 tbsp - optional
• Butter - 3 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 2 tsps
• Cumin seeds - 2 tsps
• Salt
• Chilli powder - 3 tsps
• Ajwain seeds - 1 tsp
• Oil for frying

Preparation:

• Dry roast the urad flour in a pan.(if you don't have urad flour,dry roast urad dal and grind it to a fine powder)
• Now cool it and add to a bowl.
• Add all the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix.
• Soften the butter and add to the bowl and mix.
• Add water little by little and fold the flour to make it soft.
• Heat oil in a fry pan.
• Take the murukku maker, fill it with the dough and pipe out the patterns(i have used the star pattern), forming circles on a greased plate or plastic sheet.
• Transfer the murukku from the plate to the hot oil.
• Fry until light golden brown color.
• Remove the murukku from oil and place on a paper towel to drain the surplus oil.
• Allow them to cool and store them in a tight container.

Chocolate chip cookie

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Hersheys Chocolate chips (or broken chocolate chips)
• Butter(unsalted) - 1 stick (8 tbsp)
• Eggs - 2
• Baking powder-1 tbs
• Salt - 2 pinches
• White sugar - 3/4 cups
• Brown sugar - 3/4 cups
• Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
• Almonds - 10

Preparation:

• In a blender, add almond and give chop on low.
• Add the butter and beat it.
• Then add both the sugars and blend it .
• Add the eggs one by one slowly and keep blending.
• Finally add the vanilla extract, and keep blending for 2 mins so that the mixture becomes soft and fluffy.
• Now in a bowl shift the flour and baking powder .
• Add the salt to it and mix well.
• Now add the blender mix to it and mix well until no air bubbles in it.
• At last add the chocolate chips to it.
• Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer for 30 mins.
• Preheat the oven to 350 C .
• Make small bowls out of the cookie mix and flatten it and place on cookie sheet and bake them for 12-15 mins.
• Store in a airtight container.
• Serve it with milk.

Vanilla Teatime Cake

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour -1 cup
• Butter (softened) - 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks)
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Warm Milk - 4 tsp
• Eggs - 2
• Baking powder - 1tsp

Preparation:

• Sieve the flour along with the baking powder into a bowl.
• In a blender,blend the softened butter and sugar.
• Then add the eggs one by one,blending in between.
• Add the vanilla extract.
• Mix then until they become fluffy.
• Add the mixture to the flour little by little and mix.
• Add the warm milk to it and mix well until the air bubbles go.
• Preheat the oven to 350 C .
• Coat the pan with butter and then dust some flour on it and remove the excess.
• Pour the mixture into it.
• Heat it in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
• Turn off ,cool it and cut it into pieces.
• This is very soft for a day or two but then eventually becomes like bread in consistency.
• You could serve it during tea time or during breakfast with milk and maple syrup on it.

Egg puffs

Ingredients:

• Pastry sheet
• Eggs -2
• Onion -1 large
• Oil - 2 tsps
• Salt
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder -2 tsps
• Ginger paste 1 tsp
• Green chillies chopped-3
• Chilli powder 2 tsps
• Curry leaves-4-5

Preparation:

• Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds,curry leaves and green chillies.
• Add ginger paste and onion to it and saute for 2-3 mins.
• Add chilli powder,coriander powder,salt to it and mix well and turn of heat.
• Let it cool
• In the mean while boil the eggs and cut into halves lengthwise.
• Roll out the pastry sheets on a flour dusted surface and cut them into 3" by 5 " pieces.
• Now spread some onion fry on one half of each pastry piece and place one piece of egg with yellow side down in each.
• Fold the other end of the sheet and paste the edges with water and press with fork.
• The stuffing should be entirely closed inside the pastry pieces.
• Now heat the oven to 300 F
• Place the puffs on cookie tray and bake until the puff turns gold color and becomes fluffy.
• Serve hot with ketchup.

Thattai

Ingredients:

• Rice-4 cups
• Urad dal-1 cup
• Butter
• Bengal gram- 1/2 cup
• Garlic-2 cloves minced
• Red chillies(crushed) -2 tsp
• Chilli powder-1 1/2 tsp
• Salt
• Sesame seeds-1/2 tsp
• Asafoetida
• Oil

Preparation:

• Wash,clean and dry the rice well.
• Fry the urad dal in a pan .
• Powder both the rice and urad dal.
• Soak the gram in water for 1 hr.
• Make a dough out of rice flour, urad dal flour, soaked gram, asafoetida powder, crushed chillies, minced garlic,chilli powder, sesame seeds, salt and butter with very little water.
• Take small amount of dough and press it flat and round.
• Fry them in hot oil .
• Store it in air-tight container.

Sweet potato doughnut

I went to a friend's house for a get-together and found this recipe interesting.I took the preparation details from her and tried it in my own style with some additions.My family liked it a lot.Hope you like it too.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour-2 1/2 cups


• Sweet potato (cooked and mashed)-1 cup


• Egg-1


• Baking soda-1 tsp


• Salt-1/4 tsp


• Sugar-1 tbsp


• Sour cream-1 tbsp


• Milk-1 tbsp


• Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp

For the syrup:

• Maple syrup -2 tsp


• Sugar-1 tbsp


• Milk-3 tbsp

Preparation:

• Mix the sweet potato,all purpose flour,sugar,egg,salt,baking powder,sour cream ,milk and Cinnamon in a bowl.Make sure not to form lumps in the dough.


• Knead it until soft.


• Roll the dough on a clean sheet with some flour sprinkled.


• Make sure not to roll it thin.


• Cut them in the round shape and make a whole in the center(just like a regular doughnut)


• Fry them in hot oil.


• Make a syrup with sugar,milk,maple syrup and dip the doughnuts in the syrup and serve.

Aloo chat

Ingredients:

• Potato-3
• Garlic paste 1/4 tsp
• Green chilli paste -1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp
• Amchoor powder-1/2 tsp
• Chat masala-1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice-3/4 tsp
• Cumin powder-3/4 tsp
• Oil
• Salt

Preparation:

• Cut potato into cubes and boil until cooked but make sure it doesn't get overcooked.
• Take oil in a pan ,heat it ,add cumin seeds to it and add green chilli paste , garlic paste
• Saute for 2 mins.
• Now add Cumin powder and saute.
• Add the boiled potatoes,chat masala, amchoor powder and lemon juice to it and mix them well for 3 mins.
• Add salt and take it off the heat.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Optional: substitute lemon juice with curd or tamarind chutney .

Gobi manchurian

Ingredients

• 1 cauliflower
• 1 small bunch spring onoin finely chopped
• 2 tsp. ginger finely chopped
• 1 tsp. garlic finely chopped
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 3 tbsp. cornflour
• 1/4 tsp. red chilli powder
• 2 red chillies, dry
• 3 tbsp. oil
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tbsp. milk

Preparation:

Gobi Manchurian gravy:

• Break the cauliflower into big floretts.
• Boil the florettes for 3-4 minutes in water with tbsp of milk added.
• Dry the floretts.
• Make thin batter out of rice flour and 2 tbsp corn flour, adding 1/4 tsp. each of ginger and garlic and red chilli powder and add salt .
• Dip the florettes in the batter one by one and deep fry in hot oil. Keep aside.
• Heat oil in a pan and add remaining ginger, garlic and crushed red chilli and fry for a minute.
• Add the salt and spring onions.
• Fry for a minute.
• Add 1 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil.
• Add 1 tbsp. cornflour to 1/4 cup water and dissolve well.
• Boil till the gravy becomes transparent.
• Add florettes and soya sauce.
• Boil for two more minutes and remove.
• Serve hot with noodles or fried rice.

Dry Manchurian:

• Omit the gravy in the above recipe.
• Make florettes as above and instead of adding water as above, add fried florettes, spring onions and soya sauce at this stage.
• Sprinkle 1 tsp. cornflour on the florettes and stirfry for 2 minutes and serve.