Madatha Kaja

These are the mini version of famous andhra sweet " Madatha Kaja". They are one delicious sweet that will just melt in your mouth.

Ingredients : 

For Kaja 

1/2 Cup Maida  

Pinch of Baking soda

1 Tbs Ghee 

1/2 cup Curd ( Varies while mixing the dough)

Oil to fry

1 Tbs Elachi Powder

3 Tbs of Rice flour

3 Tbs of Ghee for rolling the kaja's

For Sugar Syrup 

1 cup Sugar 

1/2 Cup Water 

1. Mix all the Kaja ingredients except the rice flour and 3 tbs of Ghee. I used curd to mix the flour but not water. If the dough becomes sticky just sprinkle little maida and make a soft dough.

2. Allow the dough to stay for 2 hrs in a bowel covered with wet cloth. 

3. Now take a deep vessel & heat it with water & to that add sugar. 

4. Boil the sugar syrup to string consistency and add elachi to it. 

5. Now divide dough and make 3 equal balls ( the 1/2 cup maida makes 3 balls ). 

6. Now spread the dough like a mat and apply 1 tbs of Ghee and sprinkle some rice flour on the dough like shown in the image.  

7.Now roll them as shown in the figure and cut them in to small pieces. 

8. Deep fry them in the oil till they turn brown. Now add them to the sugar syrup. Leave them in syrup for 15mins & remove them in to a container.

9. You can store them in a container for more than a week.

Rasgulla (Low Fat Version)

There is a first time for everything isn't it. So here is one of those recipes I tried in my kitchen for this Diwali and came out yummy.

Ingredients 

1 litre Milk (Used 2% fat milk)

11/2 cups Sugar

31/2 Cups Water

1 Lemon 

2 Elachi pods 

Walnut to Garnish 

Paneer 

1. Heat milk in a pan.Once it starts boiling add lemon juice to it. 

2. Mix well. Let it be on heat till the milk & water separates.

3. Allow it to cool a bit and drain the milk in to a cloth. ( I used a cotton towel ).

4. Wrap the cloth and keep it under water for few seconds. ( This helps to remove the lemony taste) 

5. Now take a heavy pan and squeeze the cloth with it. Leave it for 1hr to removes the excess water. (I used my mortar to squeeze all the water).

Making of Rasgulla's

1. Take the paneer and kneed it well & make a soft ball out of it. 

2. Now make some small balls with the paneer and keep them aside. 

3. Meanwhile take water & sugar in a pressure cooker and boil it.

4. Now add the paneer balls to the cooker and close it with a lid. Cook it till you listen the first whistle and switch off heat. 

5. Open the cooker lid once the pressure is reduced and you can see the balls floating on top.

Garnish according to your taste. 

 

Vermicelli Payasam (Microwave Version)

It's a very common sweet made in most of the Indian houses as a festive dish.For me it's one quenches my sweet cravings at night. I wonder whether it's just me or any one else also feels the same???

A Simple, Easy & Yummy recipe.

 

Ingredients

1/2 Cup vermicelli 

1 Cup milk

2 Tbs coconut powder

1/2 Cup sugar (Varies according to your taste)

1 Tsp butter 

Few Cashew

1/2 Tsp elachi 

1. Take butter in a glass bowl ( Microwavable ) with cashews and microwave them for 1mins. Repeat it once again with mixing the cashews for 1min. Check if they are nicely done.Remove nuts and keep them aside. 

2. Now in the same bowl take vermicelli and  roast it for 1min. 

3. Now add milk to the bowl and cook vermicelli and cook for 5mins & repeat it again adding Coconut powder till it is done.

4. Mix sugar well.

5. Add nuts and elachi powder to the payasam. 

* Serve hot.

Badusha

Festivals are always filled with Spirituality,fun & tasty food. For the food part I tried making some Badusha & Muruku's for Darsara/Navratri. 

I have to mention that this is one of my hubby's favorite.

Ingredients 

For Badusha

2 Cups maida ( All Purpose flour)

1/2 Tsp baking Soda 

1/2 cup yogurt (Curd)

Salt 

1/2 Cup melted butter/dalda 

Oil (Enough for deep frying )

Sugar Syrup 

2 Cups Sugar 

1 Cup Water 

Elachi 

1. Take a bowl and mix the Badusha ingredients except the oil. Mix it to a nice ball. ( In process of making dough add more curd rather than water.). Allow it to rest for 30mins. 

2. Now place a vessel on stove and add sugar and water to the vessel. Allow the sugar to melt. Now reduce heat and allow the syrup to boil till it comes to a string consistency. Add elachi to it and keep it aside.

3. Take the dough and divide it to small balls. Make a ball and press with your thump in the middle as shown in the above picture. 

4. Heat a pan with oil (for frying the dough). Fry the balls in batches till they turn nice brown color. Remove them and place them on a tissue paper to remove excessive oil.

5. Add the fried balls to sugar syrup and let them soak for 3-4 mins. 

6. Remove them and place them in a container. 

Muruku 

I have already posted the recipe for "  Jantikalu or Muruku ". Sharing a pic for the recipe which I made this year. As I have mentioned I didn't have the muruku maker so used plastic bag to make it. 

 

Ariselu/Arisa | Adhirasam | Kajaya

Ariselu!!! My immediate feeling would be oh that is one hectic job. But they came out so yummy all my pain has vanished once I tasted them.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 1 glass (standard measurement)

Jaggary - 1/2 glass
Coconut grated - 2 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/2 glass
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Oil for deep frying.

Method to prepare:
I had big pieces of jaggary, so grated and added water just enough to cover them. Cooked on high and remove the scum. Then added the cardamom powder. Once it starts boiling, add the grated coconut. You will see lot of bubbles coming out.

At this stage, add the Rice flour slowly and stir it together well. You will know when the consistency is correct, so till then you got to keep adding the flour, but I used up the entire glass of flour.

The beauty of this dough is, you can store and use whenever you want. If it becomes too hard, just add about 2 tsp of water along with 2 tsp of sugar. Get it to boil, while you keep stirring it. The mix should become soft again. When you handle it, it should come together as a soft dough. Divide it to equal balls.

Heat a kadai with oil to deep fry these. In a greased plastic sheet, pat them down to equal sized discs. Press down the sesame seeds over the top. Once the oil is hot, gently drop these into them. Fry on both sides. Since the sesame seeds are just pressed over the top, they will get into the oil. If you want to avoid this, try adding to the dough.

Once they are golden brown, remove and drain them on a kitchen towel.They will be soft when you remove them, will become crunchy once they are cooled.

The regular ones are normally soft and oily, but these were crunchy and no oil at all!

Note: 
1.Store them in a air tight container & can store them for more them one week.
2.You can replace jaggary with sugar, but jaggary will always taste the better.

Pesarapappu Halwa | Moong Dal Halwa

Ingredients:

Split (Yellow) Moong dhal - 1 cup

Ghee - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs 
Milk - 1/2 cup (Instead of water for the sugar, this gives the khoya added taste)
Few cashews/ raisins roasted in ghee for garnish.

Method to Prepare:
1. Soak 1 cup moong dal overnight. Next morning, grind to a paste.
2. Heat a heavy Kadai, take initially only 1/2 of the ghee and heat it.
3. Add the dhal and stir continuously, not allowing lumps to form. This part is very tricky as the dhal cooks really fast, irrespective of the ghee.
4. Keep the heat at the lowest and keep stirring even after the dhal becomes thick.
5. Add the rest of the ghee intermittently and cook the dhal until aromatic and the ghee starts oozing out.
6. Meanwhile mix the sugar with water/ milk in a pan and bring to a boil. Add this slowly to the cooking dhal.
7. Keep the fir low at all times and break lumps if formed while adding the sugar and water/ milk mix.
8. Cook until the ghee surfaces.
9. Ganish with cashews and raisins

Gulab Jamun

Ingredients
Whole milk - 4 litres

Maida (all purpose flour) - 1/2 kg
Curd (yogurt) - 1 tbsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 litres
Lemon - 1/2

Ghee - 2 cups for deep frying.

Method to Make Khova:

In a wide mouthed heavy bottom pan add the milk and heat it in a medium flame (add a couple of stainless steel spoons into the milk to avoid burning)

Reduce the milk for 3-4 hours till the milk solidifies and becomes thick.
Whip together yogurt and baking soda
To the khova add the flour and yogurt mixture and knead till it forms a pliant dough. (make sure not to add too much flour, just enough flour to make the khova pliant)
Make 3/4 inch diameter balls and set aside

Prepare sugar syrup
In a pan add the sugar and just enough water to cover the sugar. Heat till it comes to a boil.
Squeeze the half of the lemon (this is to avoid sugar crystals). Set aside.
Deep frying the Jamuns
Heat the ghee and deep fry the balls, adding a few at a time till golden brown.
Remove them from oil & drop them right away in to the sugar syrup.Let them sit for a few hours, so that the jamuns can get all the syrup in them.

Note:
Normally ghee is recommended for frying the jamuns, but regular cooking oil can also be used.

Churma Laddu

This is my first time of making this Churma Laddu.They came out very well.

Ingredients

1 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup grated dry coconut
2 Tbs sesame seeds
1/2 cup jaggery, grated
3 Tbs ghee
Butter
poppy seeds
Ghee for deep frying

1. Make a stiff dough of the whole wheat flour using 1/2 cup of water.
2. Divide the dough into equal portions.

3. Now make a nice chapati and cut them in to Biscuits.
5. Heat a pan with Butter and fry Biscuits till they fry well. Remove them from the Oil. Keep them aside.
6. Grind the Biscuits to a nice powder.
7. Add 1 Tbs Butter to the pan and fry coconut and Sesame seeds for few minutes.
8. Add Jaggrey to the Powder mixture and Grind it well. Mix Coconut powder and Seasme to it.
9. Heat a pan With 1 tbs of butter and add the mixture to the pan and mix them well till it becomes thick.

10. Now take little butter to you hand and mixture to form laddu.

11. Sprinkle Poppy seeds on the Laddu.

Thokudu Laddu | Bandaru Laddu | Besan Laddu

Bandaru Laddu or Thokudu Laddu was orginated from a place in Andhra Pradesh "Machilipatnam". Machilipatnam is also called "Bandar". I would be very happy to mention that it was my birth place too. This ladoo is a little different from the besan ladoo, still the ingredients are same. 

Source: Mom

Ingredients

1 Cup besan (Makes around 10 laddu's)

1 Cup sugar

2 Tsp elachi powder

Butter

Cashew for dressing

Oil for deep frying

1. Make besan to a fine paste.

2. Take a Wide pan and heat enough oil to fry the besan balls.

3. I used my grating plate to prepare balls.

4. Fry them till they turn Yellow.

7. Grind it to a nice powder along with sugar and Elachi.

8. Heat a pan with low heat and add the besan mixture to it.

9. Slowly the sugar will become thick to form a laddu.Switch off heat. 

10. Now take little melted butter and make the mixture to nice laddu.

Note: 
The mixture might be very hot so handle with care.