Rava Laddoo

Dish Type: Indian Traditional Dessert

Time required: 45 min

Yield: 30 nos. (approx. )

Ingredients

Sooji Rava                            2 bowl

PC: Sooraj Nair

Ghee                                       ¾ bowl

Cardamom                            4-6 nos.

Vegan sugar                         1 1/4 to 1 1/2 bowl, 
                                                        depending on how sweet you like

Mawa/khoya                        Made out of ½ ltr milk

Desiccated coconut or raw coconut 1/2 bowl

Broken cashews/badam and raisins 1/2 bowl

Milk for rolling

Directions:

Fry sooji rava on low flame adding ghee little by little. Towards the end add coconut, cashew/badam raisins. Continue frying for another 5 min

As you fry rava on the other stove, boil and reduce the milk to make khova ready.

Powder sugar and cardamom and add to rava mix and mix well

Add khova and mix well

Add hot milk and roll the laddoos. Rava Laddoos are ready.

Offer to Sun

Recipe Contributor: Ms. Sreeja M

Red Rice Laddoos

Deepavali is approaching. Should we end up brooding about spending solid hours for cooking? Not really when a Fhataafhat sweet recipe is offered on a platter.100% fat free laddoos. Hahaha …obvious reaction from u n me…right? Nah, not from me till I was served this sweet and recipe shared by my dear friend Ms. Sreeja. Better known as Arima Kuzhachade in Malayalam, this is Sreeja’s favourite childhood recipe to this day! and as Sreeja says, this is a very rare recipe familiar to very few even in her own native. Earthy to taste, healthy to eat with zero oil, zero ghee, packed with protein, calcium, carbohydrate and more. Hey guys, did you know….this can be prepared in a jiffy even as you enjoy dat disturbance from your WiFey! Ha see…now you are tempted to taste this recipe….Please read below

Dish type: Traditional Sweet

Time required: 5 min

Yield: 8 to 10 nos. (cup measure: 100 gms)

Ingredients

Unpolished red rice            1 cup

Jaggery (powdered)            ¾ cup (for medium sweet taste)

Raw coconut                         1/3 cup (grated)

Roasted gram dal                1 tbsp

Directions

Dry fry unpolished red rice in a pan till it is crispy and brown, taking care not to burn. While frying, you can feel a fragrant smell….irresistable! Breathe in and enjoy.

Transfer the roasted red rice to a flat plate. Let it cool. Powder this in mixie as fine as practically possible. Transfer this powder to a vessel. To this, add raw grated coconut and roasted gram dal. Mix them well.

Keep jaggery in a pan with just enough water for it to dissolve. Boil it till it reaches thick honey like consistency. Sieve it if required. Now slowly pour this boiled jaggery to the rice mixture and mix them all together till it reaches a consistency that is fit for rolling them into balls. When cool enough to handle, make balls. Press them well.

Red Rice Laddoos are now ready.

Tete a Tete

These laddoos last for at least a week without refrigeration when stored in an air tight container.

Fried cashewnuts may also be used in place of roasted gram dal if you are not particular about the dish being 0% oil/ghee free
Jaggery is a healthier replacement for sugar
Handpound raw rice / Raw rice can also be used instead of red rice

Recipe contributor: Ms. Sreeja 

Also view:
Gulpaavate (Quick version) Dessert using wheat flour n jaggery
7 cups Barfi - Dessert variety using 7 ingredients
Bun Gulkand Sandwich
Mixed Veg Tikki

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog 

BOONDI LADDOOS

Waving to the dawn of this daintily drizzling day, while Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy, Cream Contributor of
recipes to Mangala’s Potluck wakes up to turn a new leaf in her life…Page 1 - Age 91, may we too enjoy the privilege of partaking in this celebration with…..

A flour that floors you no end, used not just in cuisine but also as facepack for dead cells to disappear and make one’s skin glow.  A mask that can make even a doggedly canine look swiftly shift to a humanly feminine look! Wow you age old glowy tip…Do take a bow!!

Ubiquitous in a variety of cuisines, be it as farinata in Italy, fritter in Sicily, tortillitas in Spain or Koliva in Greece and back home, in our very own Mahan Bharat, wah wah list is Maha Bruhat!! Bhajji, Bonda, Boondi, Bhujia, Dhokla, Patra, Pakora, Puri, Pancake, Pak (of Mysore fame) or Sev (of street food fame!) Uffh….and now, can you guess which among these is “The Dish of This Day”? Draw your luck right here! 

Dish type: South Indian Dessert

Time required: 2 hours
Yield: 90 nos. (approx. ) 

Ingredients for making Boondi

Besan                                     875 gms (3 ¼ cups – cup measure 250 gms)

Water                                     Just enough to bring besan to Idli batter consistency

Salt                                         1 tsp

Ingredients for making Sugar Syrup

Sugar                                     750 gms (3 cups – cup measure 250 gms)

Water                                     Just enough to cover sugar level in a bowl

Few other Ingredients

Oil                                           250 ml (approx..) for frying each batch of boondi

Pure ghee / Oil                     50 gms for frying rasnins and cashews

Cardamom                            2 or 3 tsps. powdered

Clove                                      5 to 6 nos. powdered

Borneo camphor                  1 no. powdered (also known as edible camphor, pacha karpuram)

Cashewnuts                         100 gms

Raisins                                  50 gms

Directions:

For preparing Sugar Syrup:

Boil sugar in water. Let sugar dissolve and boil for a few minutes till the syrup reaches sticky consistency. Keep it aside.

For preparing Boondis:

Mix besan, water and salt. Beat it or mix by hand and bring it to idli batter consistency. Make sure lumps in besan are removed. Let it stand for about 10 min. (You will fall in love with its goldielooks….so custardish it is!)

Heat oil in a kadai. Using one hand, keep boondi ladle a little above the kadai. Using the other hand, pour batter on to the boondi ladle so that it drops down into the oil in the kadai through the holes in the ladle. Unlike standard frying procedure, here you don’t have to continuously keep stirring while boondis are being fried. Once in a way is fine and enough. Transfer fried boondis either to a colander and later into sugar syrup or directly into sugar syrup. Choice is yours.

Add raisins and cashews (both fried in ghee), cardamom powder, edible camphor powder and clove powder to fried boondis soaked in sugar syrup. Let it stand for a while say, 10 min. Transfer it to a plate, make portions and then form laddoos. Start making rough balls from these portions. Repeat 3 times. At this stage, they will take the form of full round tasty tempting laddoos.

Boondi Laddoos are now ready. Pick them up fast…stock won’t last!!

Tete a Tete:

In the process of making boondis, if you find the holes in the ladle blocked, wash the ladle, wipe them dry and dip it back into the batter.

Clove can either be used whole or in powdered form. If using it in powdered form, better to lightly heat the cloves for easier powdering.

It is important that sugar syrup reaches sticky consistency. No more no less.

If batter is too thin or if ghee is not yet hot, boondi will absorb more ghee. At the same time, don’t overheat the oil lest boondis too will be overfried and turn brown too quick.

It is better to heat just the required amount of oil for every batch of frying rather than heating larger than required quantity at a time.

Take out a ladleful of soaked boondis, powder them in a mixie and add it back to the rest of soaked boondis before froming them into laddoos. This helps in bonding boondis better with each other.

Difference between boondi and laddoo: Can be compared to atom and molecule.

Recipe contributor: Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy, nonagenarian and expert cook.

Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy seated in the heart of this pic is also firmly rooted in the hearts of those around her!

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog  

Few other recipes contributed by Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy:

Heralekaayi Gojju (Citron Lime Sauce)

Pulgura (Huli Soppu) or Greens Chutney

Sambar Powder

Rasam Powder
Hasi Majjige Huli

Menthyada Hittu (Fenugreek Powder)

Bisi Bele Baath

Vangibath Powder

Dantina Soppu Bassaaru
Dil Leaves Sambar (Sabsige Soppina Kootu)

7 Cups Barfi (Type 2)

How about a race (not the rat kind please) to bring a smile on Lord Ganesha’s face?

Wel….come, come Gowris, Shivas and Subbus, join the race. Hey Subbus what are you waiting for? Oh yeah…I know. So sorry Subbus, this time no kadubus ‘coz Lord G has wished for His Selfie with Barfi….hee hee .

Ready, steady, 1.2..3…4….5…..6……go for this miniathon that’s sweetly different…just 7 laps long! Chase those cups… all same size, 7 of them. 1 of besan, 2 of sugar, 3 of ….. Oomph! Off you zoomed to the finish line in no time!! Tip yourself to a delicious dessert you duly deserve!

A dessert that tempts you to devour, yet sweet signals sent from its bits simply say “Taste me… just a bite and I shall see you savour me bits by bit by wee bit”. 7 ingredients coming together to submerge in a syrup prepared “with no strings (I mean consistencies) attached” and lo! watch those diamonds emerge flat on a plate, glittering. Oh my….I see you scaling up to seventh heaven already!  

Dish Type:  South Indian Dessert

Time:  10 min(preparation) + 30 min (cooking) + 60 min (cooling)

Yield:  16 pcs (approx.)

Ingredients – Option 1

Besan / Gram flour          1 cup

*Chiroti Rava                  1 cup (Semolina fine quality)

Sugar                              2 cups

Ghee                               1 cup

Milk                                1 cup

Raw Coconut                  1 cup (grated)

Cardamom                      2 pcs.

*Cashewnuts                   few nos. cut to fine pieces (for adding aroma) 

Directions

Keep all the ingredients ready in cups, all of same size.

Start by preparing sugar syrup. For this add sugar to milk and boil till sugar melts. Keep stirring frequently. Else milk can “break”. While this is boiling….

Dry fry chiroti rava in a kadai. Keep it aside. Fry besan along with ½ cup ghee. Make sure besan does not turn brown. When you smell the scent of the fried flour, add raw, fresh grated coconut, dry fried rava and continue frying for about 5 min. Add rest of the ghee left in the cup. Keep stirring for 5 more min. By now sugar syrup will be ready. Add this to the kadai and mix the contents well. Ensure no lumps are formed at any point of time. Continue stirring till ghee oozes out and starts flowing on the sides of the kadai. Keep mixing….oh can’t mix any more? Well, that’s a good sign to transfer contents from pan to plate! Before you do it, keep a clean, flat plate or tray ready. Grease it by smearing ghee uniformly all over including the sides.

Pour the contents in the kadai on to the greased plate. Spread the mixture evenly on the plate. Slowly and gently flatten and smoothen the top surface with a spatula. After a minute or two, using a sharp knife, mark lines to divide them. Mark either diagonally into diamonds or straight to from squares or rectangles. When it is warm, run the knife deep over the marked lines to slit them to pieces. Let it stand uncovered till it reaches room temperature (takes about an hour). Remove the pieces carefully and stack them on a plate. 7 cups barfi is now ready. Serve them rightaway.

Store them in an air tight container. Store in fridge if it is used next day or later.

Tete a tete

Chiroti rava (fine quality semolina) is optional. If you don’t use, then use2 cups of besan.

Wheat flour and/ or refined flour may also be used in addition to besan. In that case proportion will be ½ cup besan and ½ cup flour

While stirring, every time make sure spatula reaches right down to the bottom of the kadai and all round the sides for uniform frying.

Texture of the mixture is perfect when it appears smooth and shiny sans any bubbles.

Cashewnuts can be powdered and added towards the end while frying.

Cup of any size can be used. Make sure the same cup is used for measure. No. of pieces vary accordingly. I used cup size that holds 100 gms and treated my family to atleast 16 diamonds!

Shelf life if stored in fridge is around 5 days.

Also view:
Gulipaavate (Quick version)
Banana Fritters (Yeridevu / Suttevu)
Red Rice Laddoos
Mixed Veg Tikki
Bun Gulkand Sandwich

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog  

Gulpavate - Quick Version

On this auspicious occasion of Gowri – Ganesha festival, Mangala’s Potluck begins with the offering of a “Prasadam” recipe.

Come Mangala Gowri Vratha (every Tuesday of Shraavana Maasa), Amma would rush to the kitchen just before start of our puja and return in no time, with a plateful of brown balls moulded, cup shaped, space created in the centre to hold oil and bathi (wick) all set for Mangalaarathi.

On finishing the puja, she made sure to give this as “prasadam” to all. Hmmm, this was one bait, for sure, we never minded the wait!

Dish type: Traditional Sweet

Time required: 10 min

Yield: 12 nos.

Ingredients

Wheat flour              125 gms

Sooji Rava               100 gms (sooji rava/chiroti rava/semolina)

Jaggery                     225 gms

Raw coconut            125 gms (or 1/2 coconut medium size)

Ghee                        1 tbsp

Directions

Keep jaggery in a vessel with just enough water for it to dissolve.

Meanwhile, saute wheat flour and sooji rava in a dash of ghee, separately, in a pan till you get a pleasant smell – a sure sign that something delicious is on its way. Keep them aside. Into the same hot pan, put freshly grated raw coconut and saute for a short while. No need to switch on the stove. Heat in the pan is enough to warm coconut.

Boil jaggery water in a kadai till it melts completely. Sieve if required.

Transfer coconut from the pan into the kadai. Let it boil for a while.

Now add fried wheat flour and rava into the kadai. Mix them and saute till they blend well. Switch off the stove.

Add a tsp of ghee. Make round balls while still hot or warm enough for you to handle. Keep them on a plate. Let it cool.

Gulpavate prasadam is now ready.

Tete a Tete

Dry grated coconut may also be used in place of raw coconut

Gulpaavate recipe tried by Sri Nagesh Sidhanti

Cardamom and nutmeg may be added to get higher taste (Yes, I fully agree with you Sri Nagesh Sidhanti). Not included here in this "quick" version

Few types of jaggery: Palmyra jaggery, Date palm jaggery, sugarcane jaggery

Jaggery of any type is better for health than refined sugar
Gulipaavate can also be served as snack

The longer version of Gulpavate will be posted later.

Recipe contributor: My sweet big sis Shyla H Rao on behalf of our dear mother, Late Smt. Indira Jagannatha Rao (Kaveri)
Gulpavate is also known as Wheat Thambittu

Also view in this blog:
Red Rice Laddoos
7 Cups Barfi
Banana Fritters / Yeridevu
Bun Gulkand Sandwich

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog 

Banana fritters / Yeridevu / Suttevu

Yeridevu/ Yeriyevu / Suttevu / Muluka / Mulka / Baalehannina modaka….saaka hesarugalu. So many names right for how many dishes, guess? Just ONE.

Fritter them not…they are fritters made using banana + flour + jaggery + raw coconut. A famous traditional North Karnataka quick n easy dessert dish packaged with a crunchy, crispy cover and a soft n sweet inner. This is one of a series of Uttara Kannada recipes that Smt. Mankali, a septuagenarian lady and an expert cook, so sweetly agreed to share with me.

Buck up buddies…Here’s a sweet that greets us with a bonus ingredient…BANANA! Benefits of banana are aplenty. Banana provides us with potassium, a mineral electrolyte that is not naturally produced by the body. Hence consuming potassium rich foods is essential. It helps in regulating important body functions like blood pressure, water balance, bowel movements, reduced risk of stroke and many more.

Come, let’s pep up to prepare Yeridevu. 

Dish type: Traditional North Karnataka Sweet

Time required: 15 min

Yield: 12 to 15 nos. approx.

Ingredients

Rice flour                  1 cup

Salt                             A pinch

For grinding

Jaggery                     ½ cup (powdered)

Raw coconut             ½ cup (or 1/2 coconut medium size)

Banana (ripe)           ½ cup (chopped)

Directions

Grind ingredients mentioned above without water. Mix this with rice flour and a pinch of salt. Consistency must be thick and dense, not liquidy (similar to uddina vada) A tip to check this….put a blob of batter into a bowl of water. Does it float and not dissolve? Yes…you can proceed.

Heat oil in a kadai. Not too hot and not too high a flame because fritters will get fried very fast turning dark brown / black and remains uncooked inside.

Scoop out a small lemon sized ball and slide it slowly into the oil. Let it deep fry. Fry not more than 3 or 4 balls at a time. Allow the balls to solidify and then turn them over lest they break.When done, transfer them to a plate with paper tissues placed over them to remove excess oil.

Yeridevu is now ready. 

Tete a Tete

To check if the oil is heated enough, drop a blob of batter into the hot oil. If the batter rises up, then oil is ready to be used for frying.

Yeridevu is a delicious brand dish of the Havyaka community.

Recipe contributed by Smt. Mankali, a septuagenarian lady, an expert cook, native of Idagunji taluk, mother of Shri Ganesh Bhat

Other recipes contributed by Smt. Mankali
Beetroot Gojju (Sauce)
Brahmi leaves Yogurt Sauce (Ondelaga Thambuli)
Cucumber Dosa
Spicy Yogurt with Coleus (Doddapatre Thambuli)

Pic on the left is Idagunji Ganesha sculpture, one of scores of pieces sculpted by Shri Ganesh Bhat.

Other dessert recipes in this blog:
Gulpaavate (Quick Version) Dessert variety using wheat flour and jaggery
7 Cups Barfi
Red Rice Laddoos

JALEBI

Chapaathi chup chup jalebi jhum jhum kene mosaranna uppinakaayi….doesn’t this ring a bell…of those tiny totty montessory musings? For a moment, let’s pause at the second item in the menu….hmmm…jhummmm isn’t it? Why waste time humming and rim jhimming.. when our mouths are already watering …Ready, get set, let’s Jjhumpstart to JALEBIing those spirally, syrupy frybees

Dish type: Traditional Sweet

Time required: 30 min

Yield: 10 to 12 nos.

Ingredients

For grinding:

Urad dal                   1 handful

For frying:

Pure ghee                 2 cups

For sugar syrup:

Sugar                        1 cup (for medium sweet taste)

Water                       1.5 cups

Rose essential oil       2 to 3 drops (can be added to syrup when syrup is ready)

Saffron pods             Few strands (approx. ¼ tsp)

Directions

Soak urad dal in water overnight. Drain out the water completely and grind it to a smooth batter (vada consistency) with absolutely no water. Water that’s still left out in urad is sufficient, because more the water, more the ghee that gets sucked in by jalebi.

Boil water in a vessel along with sugar and rosewater till syrup reaches sticky (and not string) consistency. Keep the flame low.

Method of frying: 

Heat small quantity of ghee (quantity just enough to fry 1 or 2 jalebis at a time) in a kadai on medium flame till hot, but not too hot (no fumes should emanate from ghee since it is carcinogenous) Make a small hole at the bottom of a 3” x 4” plastic cover. Transfer urad dal batter into this cover. Holding the filled cover, squeeze the batter slowly in circular pattern into the ghee. Getting decent shaped circles is difficult initially. For a start, it’s better to concentrate on taste and consistency. Fry till done.

Let urad batter fill the cover. You will be holding only at the top.

Dip this into the warm sugar syrup. Let it soak for a minute. Then turn over so that the other side is also soaked in the syrup. Let it soak for another 1 minute. Total soaking time must be about 2 to 3 min approx. This also depends on softness of jalebi after frying and thickness of syrup. More they are soaked, darker will be the colour. Avoid jalebis from breaking.  Remove them from the syrup. Transfer to a plate.

Jalebis are now ready.

Tete a Tete

Whole white urad dal tastes better than whole black urad dal.

While grinding soaked urad dal, add a tsp of curd or milk. This helps to get smooth consistency.

If the batter becomes thin, add a spoon or two of maida (all purpose flour)

If sugar syrup is of string consistency, then jalebis will not be soft.

No need to ferment the batter. Jalebis taste sour if batter is fermented. Choice is yours! Also fermenting the batter makes it thinner.

It is better not to keep the batter in fridge for your convenience of doing jalebis later.

Rosewater (1 tsp) can also be used instead of Rose essential oil.

Instead of using saffron pods you can also grind separately ¼ of a small size Beetroot (peeled and grated) and 2 nos. Carrot (medium size, peeled and grated), extract the juice and add to boiling sugar syrup.

Avoid reusing fried ghee.

Recipe contributor: My dear friend Ms. Sreeja M

Recipes viewed here are a part of  "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog