Kaju Katli N Orangy-Cashew Cookies

CASHEWY CASHEWY -KAJU KATLIS N ORANGY-KAAJU COOKIES

Kaju Katli is a sweet which is liked by most of us! My full family just loves it. When Pooja posted her easy recipe I had to give it a try, sooner or later--well later I did! Thanks Pooja...this recipe is a true winner. My hubby too liked this home made Katlis a lot.

Ingredients :
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ghee
1 tsp milk
Chandi Varq

Method :
Grease a small thali/plate with ghee and keep aside.
Kajus are soaked in water for half an hour, drained and spread on a paper towel. In dry jar of a grinder, grind together the sugar and cashews. If there is difficulty in grinding, add only 1 tsp (not more) of milk and coarsely grind it. In a kadhai , take 1 tsp ghee, heat it, add this mixture.
Keep stirring on low or medium flame, till it bubbles and leaves sides of pan. (takes only 5-6 minutes). Transfer immediately onto the greased plate. Flatten it with aid of a spatula, spreading the mixture uniformly in the plate.
Allow to cool completely. Place the varq on it. Cut into shape of your choice. Refrigerate.
This will take one day to firm up. It will then look as above..firm to hold, not chewy at all, very very cashewy!!! Just like Katlis from a sweet vendor!!



ORANGY-KAAJU COOKIES

The second recipe is from the best blog Shilpa of AR, whose maximum recipes I have tried and they always, without fail turn out best!
These cookies needed orange zest, for which I used orange soaked in warm water, it was easy job to peel off the orange part of skin only, which I later passed through my food processor to shred into more bits. It was fun while baking them, more fun to watch hubby and kids say hmmm-nice ones while eating it. These have only cashews as I didn't have pecans at the time of baking these. They have a mild orange flavour to it, with cashews to munch on and the rest of it just melting away in the mouth!!!!

(Please use accurate measures to obtain delicious cookies)


Ingredients :
2 cups maida
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbspn orange zest (ie zest of 1 medium sized orange)
1 cup cashew (coarsely ground)
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Method :
Sieve maida,baking powder and salt together. Keep aside. Coarsely grind the cashews, keep aside. With an electric beater, cream the sugar and butter. Keep beating on lowest settings, add egg, orange zest, flour mixture spoon by spoon. Finally add the cashews and mix well.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F(170 deg C for my oven). Make small lime sized balls.
Line the baking sheet with waxed paper/parchment paper. Place these pedhas with good space as they tend to spread triple the size. Bake for 15 minutes or till the sides turn golden brown, remove and cool on a wire rack.
If the middle part looks mushy, it will gradually firm up on cooling.


In a dry airtight jar, store these 30 yummy cookies !
Every time the jar is opened a nice aroma fills the place , reeling your senses!!!!





CELEBRATE THIS MERRY OCCASION WITH KAJU-KATLIS N COOKIES!!






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HAPPY NEW YEAR-WELCOME 2008

RING OUT THE OLD, RING IN THE NEW

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This poem had been in my school text-book which I found while googling. Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote this poem around in 1850 and associates with the New Year Eve very well!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND TO THE BLOGGING COMMUNITY!

Puttu Kadala / Rice-Coconut Tube with Chana Curry

'Puttu-Kadala' is a Famous Keralaite Breakfast item... Puttu is layered coconut rice mixture steamed in a special mould called 'Puttu Mould' and Kadala is Malayalam for Chana-Black one or Kabooli one. The traditional Kadala curry is made out of black chana which is very tasty and nutritious too!

I prepared it from Kabooli / Choley chana as black ones were over...hubby and kids love this Kabooli chana so much so that the moment it is out of pressure cooker all the three have a bowl ready in their hands to eat the plain salted ones!!

I learnt to make this from my mother-in-law who cooks any dish fabulously!

Ingredients for Kadala Curry :
2 cups chickpeas/ chana (Black/Kabooli)
1 small tomato
3/4th cup coconut
5 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt
Tadka Ingredients:
1 tbspn Coconut oil
1 tsp rai/mustard seeds
7-8 pearl onions/cheriulli
2 sprig curry leaves

Method for Kadala curry :

Soak the chana in warm water overnight in large vessel as they swell up a lot. Boil upto 8 whistles in a pressure cooker, using sufficient water in the cooker and double water in the vessel with a tsp of salt. Cooked one doubles up in size as you see in the pic.




Next step is to grind the coconut with half measure water with the coriander and red chilli powder into a fine paste. Add this coconut paste to the boiled chana, add chopped tomato and bring to one boil. Finely chop the cheriulli. In a seasoning pan, heat the coconut oil, pop the mustard seeds, add the curry leaves and lastly add the onions and fry till brown. Add to the boiling curry, adjust salt. Cover the lid for flavours to mingle.



This delicious Kadala curry is ready to be served alongside Puttu.






Ingredients for Puttu :
2 1/2 cups rice flour
1 big coconut scraped
300 ml Lukewarm water
Salt

Method to make Puttu:



Take rice flour in a big vessel or a large plate, add around 1 1/2 tsp salt (or as per your taste) mix well. Add water little by little, using hands, mix it into the flour it should resemble bread crumbs and ensure that all the powder has been uniformly sprinkled with water. Use more water if needed.Keep aside.


(left-right Pic : Rice powder ready, coconut kept ready, puttu maker with the water boiling attachment)


Take the puttu maker, layer the coconut first around 1/2 to 1 cm thick, then 3 cms of rice mixture, then again 1 cm coconut, repeat rice mixture, last layer finish off with coconut upto the brim.

Keep the boiling attachment on gas with 3/4th water till it boils, lower the flame, keep this puttu maker and cover the lid. In ten minutes steam arises from the lid. Allow two minutes and put off the gas. Invert it slowly over a plate and using the long spatula handle slowly push out the puttu on a plate. Repeat the process for next puttu. This measure gives an yield of 6 puttu.










Have your fill with a cuppa !!

Vanilla Choco Chip Muffins / Cupcakes

With lots of baking going on around in blogosphere, I wasn't far away after I controlled drooling!!It called for immediate action after I found this lovely Vanilla Cup cake recipe which I made the moment I finished reading it...It comes from a fast-on-blog Blogger, Deeba, who has a lovely blog full of baked goodies, non-veg and all so beautifully taken pictures! Passionate Baker is what she calls herself and apt title! Thanks Deeba for sharing such a lovely recipe, the muffins simply vanished away!!
I have added Hersheys Semi-Sweet chocolate chips in these so that my two tiny angels have it. But chips or not, they are totally crazy for cakes!! The best part was the paper came clean off without any crumbs of the cake on it-making me believe all the more that its a purrrrfecctttt recipe for muffins!!


Ingredients :
2 cups maida
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup butter at room temp
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cup sugar
150 gms semi-sweet chocolate chips (Hersheys')

Method :
Prepare the muffin trays by lining them or greasing them. Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C.
Sieve the maida,salt and baking powder thrice and keep aside. Cream butter and sugar well, add vanilla and eggs. The settings on lowest speed, mix in flour mix and milk alternately in three lots beating until creamy. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill each muffin cup till 3/4th part is filled.
Bake for 20-25 mins. ( I did mine in 25 minutes each, 6 muffin tray, baking at 170 deg C). Remove and cool immediately on a wire rack. The chips will settle down at the bottom. I got exact 18 regular muffins from the above measure!

Best Tip : If the muffin cup is empty say 5 muffins, 1 free, then place little water in that empty one to ensure even baking!!

Experts decorate their muffins with melted chocolate or pipe decorations!! :)




All the choco chips merrily settled at the bottom of the muffin!










WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY X-MAS!!!!





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Pesarattu/Moong Daal Dosa and RidgeGourd Skin chutney

The morning sunrays are golden yellowish so are these dosas! These are also liked a lot at my place. The origin seems to be from Tamilnaad-Andhra, few Kerailites too prepare this with variation in the ingredients. The one I keep making is adapted from Shilpa's - Aayis Recipes.
This dosa is a winner and here to stay!!

Ingredients :
1 cup split moong daal
1 cup dosa rice
2 medium onions
2 green chillies
2" fresh ginger root
1 tsp jeera
8-9 strands of fresh coriander
Salt

Method :
Wash rice and daal together and soak overnight. In the morning, grind along with chopped ginger ,chillies and coriander leaves. Take the batter in another vessel, mix in the salt, jeera and minced onions. Prepare dosas by cooking on both sides.
I served it along with Gosalya Sheerey Chutney. (as we say in Konkani)



i.e The Ridge Gourd Skin is retained. Cut in small pieces, roasted a bit in a tsp oil. I have used two medium sized Gourd skins. The coconut and jeera are dry roasted for more flavour.









Chutney is made by grinding (use little water) the skin along with coconut(3/4th cup) , jeera(3 tsp) , tamarind(marble sized), jaggery (2 tsp) . This chutney can be eaten along with rice as a side dish too...no tadka involved.


Have a nutritious dosa!!!

Sada Dosa And Jhatpat Uttappa

The most common way to made dosa is below. Some of my friends make with ratio differing, but I find this measure convenient. 1:2 for idli, 1:3 for simple dosa. Here goes the recipe!

Ingredients :
3 cups dosa rice
1 cup urad daal
Salt
Oil

Method :
Soak the daal and rice together for 6-7 hours. Grind to smooth paste. Leave overnight for fermenting. Make dosas using oil, flip and cook on both sides.

Serve with chutney and sambhar.



Now what I do the next day or same day evening is I mince two medium sized onions, chop two tomatoes and one green chilli. This is for a change. I call this Jhatpat uttappa!
I take a bowl of batter and add the onions,tomatoes and green chilli. I spread it just like dosa, flip and cook on both sides.







Serve hot along with chutney!!!!

Bread Dosa

Its cold and these dosas are warming enough as a good breakfast! This golden dosa is made from leftover bread. I had 6 slices on my countertop, not sufficient to feed 4 of us....hence again, Shilpa's bread dosa, (her recipe here) , came to my quick aid...(I have skipped curd, have used water instead!)
These are tasty, as in the sides are crisp and tastes of bread,ginger,spice, and the center is soft and melting!! Such is the dosa effect with change in ingredients basic or main, and we surely get a treat out of them!

Ingredients :
6 slices of bread
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup rava
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt
Water to grind

Tadka/seasoning:
5 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp rai
1 tsp urad daal
1/2 " fresh ginger-chopped fine
1 medium sized onion -chopped fine

Method :
Soak the bread slices in water and squeeze off the excess water. Grind along with water, rice flour, rava and chilli powder. (Shilpa has used one cup curd to grind this to a batter)
Transfer to a vessel, add sufficient water to bring to a dosa consistency, add salt. Season the tadka ingr. in the same order, browning the onions and then add it to the dosa batter.
Make dosas with oil, frying well on both sides.
Eat with chutney of your choice/ honey. Tastes deliciousssly breaddy..(Haa..there is no such word..)




Enjoy hot on a cold day!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrr.....Happy Winter!!