Almond - Wheat Cookies

Hi All, today i came up with zero-butter yet healthy/tasty recipe! Try it and enjoy the taste.

Prep Time : 8 mins
Bake Time : 25 mins (or until done)
Count :  22 cookies (based on the size of patty you make)

Here are the ingredients :

Wheat flour   -  1 1/2 cups
Almonds       -  1/2 cup
Sugar           -  3/4  cup  (i used confectioner's sugar)
Cardomom powder -  1/2 tbsp
Oil               -  3/4 cup
You can add dash of baking powder if you want but not necessary.

And here are the quick steps for prep and bake :

--> Blend almonds into coarse powder.
--> Take wheat flour, coarse almond powder, sugar, cardomom powder and toss the entire mixture by adding oil slowly and make it as a dough (dough should have the consistency as we make dough for rotis).
--> Now make into small pattis (and stick in sliced almonds into each patty - optional).

--> Set the oven temperature to 360 degrees F.

--> Meanwhile, place each patty on a wide pan leaving about thumb size gap among cookies.
Tip of the day -  Place Parchment paper OR use re-usable baking sheet inside the pan instead of applying butter/spraying oil (i use re-usable baking sheet).
--> Bake cookies upto 25 mins (less/more according to your oven).
--> Once they are done, take out the tray, let them cool down for few mins.

--> Thats it, yummy/healthy guilt free cookies ready to enjoy.

Pasta Carrot kheer

Sounds interesting? Tastes interesting as well. Wanted to try something new with pasta, hence this yummy dessert. Here are the ingredients :
Pasta                 -  1 cup  [i used elbow pasta]
Carrot               -  1 and half cup  [grated]
Condensed milk -  1 can  [14 oz]
Milk                   -  1 and half cup  [i used  2%  milk]
Cashews & Raisins 
Butter to roast cashews and raisins.

Pasta Carrot Kheer

Recipe Source :  Rasoi blog
I have made some changes to the main recipe. 
Procedure :
--> Cook pasta according to instructions on the pack, strain away water and let cold water run through cooked pasta for couple of minutes and set it aside.
--> In a deep bowl, on a medium flame, add some butter and roast grated carrot until it makes crisp sound while stirring.
--> Add milk and bring it to boil; Add cooked pasta; Add condensed milk, keep stirring and let the kheer cook for couple of more minutes. 
--> Meanwhile, in a separate pan, roast cashews/raisins in 2 tbsp of butter.
--> Add these roasted cashews/raisins to kheer and switch off the flame.

Yummy yummy pasta carrot kheer is ready to serve.

Rainbow Jello Oranges

This colorful munching dessert(lets say ;) ), attracts everyone and mostly kids just love it ;)  Very easy to prepare. Summarizing briefly, the procedure i followed :

--> Prepare jello as per the packet instructions and let it be in a bowl.
--> Cut each orange into 2 halves.
--> Scrape out inside part of oranges. (you can make juice from insiders). Now you get the Orange shells.
--> Arrange these empty shells in a tray that can sit in your refrigerator.
--> Now pour jello liquid (prepared in first step) into each of the cut halves.
 --> Refrigerate jello oranges atleast for 5 hours.
--> Take out jello oranges and cut into desirable size.

Rainbow Jello Oranges

Instead of single color, i used different colors (which means different flavours) :
Color                        Jello Flavour
Blue                          Berry Blue
Green                        Lime
Red                           Strawberry
Yellow                      Peach

Tip : Ice-cream scoop can be used to scrape out the insides of oranges.
You can use as many colors as you want.

Mango Cheese Cake

I have tried Mango cheese cake. Didn't do good part in garnishing - but the cake came out so delicious. Try it and enjoy.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 16 graham cracker squares, crushed (approx. 1 cup of crumbs)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1/3 cup melted unsalted butter

Filling

• 12 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large ripe mango

For Garnish (optional)

• 8 thin mango slices
• 2 strawberries cut into 4 pieces each
• Few mint leaves

Mango Cheese cake. Well, needs colorful garnishing ;) 

Crust Preparation

1. 1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

1. 1. 2. Add graham crackers, sugar and butter to a food processor. Mix well until the mixture looks crumbled; takes approx. 30 seconds.

1. 1. 3. Place graham cracker mix into a 9” pie plate, spread evenly and press down firmly with a spatula.

1. 1. 4.

1. 1. Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes, on the medium rack.

Crust prepared from graham cracker

Filling

1. Prepare mango by peeling and chopping into chunks.
2. Add cut mango pieces, cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch to the food processor. Mix for 20 seconds, until it is smooth in texture. Do not over mix for too long.
3. Pour the mixture over the pie crust and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees F. The surface should look dry and cooked.
4. Let the cheesecake cool down and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

mango pieces, cream cheese, sugar, corn starch - all ready to blend

yet need to be done. can't wait to taste ;)

Indian Challenge : Ariselu

After a very longg time, i'd given a try for my one of the most favourite sweet and the most Challenging Indian recipe...
here, i would like to share with you all, the procedure i followed to make delicious Ariselu. My mother-in-law guided me thru this entire process :)

I have used the following ingredients :
Rice Flour     :    1 cup
Jaggery         :     1/4 cup
Sugar            :     3 tbsp
Sesame seeds :   2 tsp
Ghee            :    3 tbsp
Oil to deep fry
and last but not the least : 2 big spatulas to press them.

and here is the procedure :
--> Soak the rice for 12-15 hrs. Change water twice in the middle.
--> Slice the jaggery and keep it aside.
--> Drain all the water and start blending the rice. Blend the rice and seive the flour;
--> you should get the smooth damp flour; To retain the dampness, just close the flour after seiving each time.
--> Repeat the blending and seiving process, until u get the very smooth texture of all the flour.
--> Now take the jaggery, sugar and pour water until jaggery is exactly immersed.
--> Put it on the stove; Let all the Jaggery start bubbling vigorously;
--> Occassionally check the syrup by placing the syrup in a small bowl containing water. The syrup, when
u place in water and touch it with hand, it shouldn't stick to your fingers and you should be able to make
it as a small ball. that is the right consistency of the syrup required to make ariselu.
--> If you have the baking thermometer, u can remove the syrup at 200 F. (it came out as 200 F for me; not sure about that so, i followed the traditional method...)
--> Now, add the blended flour, sesame seeds, ghee into the jaggery syrup.
--> Stir it completely without any lumps.
--> Now, make the batter into small, smooth dumplings and make them as Pattis.
--> Take a deep pan with oil and let it heat up.
--> Drop each patty slowly into the oil and let it fry until golden brown;
--> Now, take the patty out of the oil and press it slightly harder with another spatula, until it becomes flatter.
Be careful while pressing into the pan itself; If you have roti press, u can use it to press the the fried ariselu.

Thats it!! Now, you are ready to enjoy the taste of delicious and mouth watering ariselu....

Carrot Halwa

this would be all-time favourite. easy to prepare. ofcourse everyone knows... just wanted to share.

       Take 1/4 cup of butter in a pan and fry the cashews and raisins. Take out the roasted cashews and raisins and keep them aside. Now, Fry the 1 cup of grated carrot in the same pan. Pour 3/4th cup of milk and let it cook until it gets thick. Add 1/2 tsp Cardomom powder. Now, add 3/4 th cup of sugar and mix it altogether.
Add the roasted cashews/raisins, mix it altogether one more time and serve it hot...

Corn Flour Halwa

It’s  very easy and tasty. Corn Flour Halwa also has been one of the favourite dish of my husband and my family members.

Ingredients:
1 cup of Corn flour

1½ cup of Sugar or (according to your taste)

½ litre of Full Cream Milk (whole milk)

½ cup of grated Carrot (optional)

6 Sweet Cherries for garnishing (cut 1 cherry into two pieces)

4 tablespoons of Ghee

Method:
Heat Stove in a low flame and Pour Milk in a bowl and boil it.

After milk is boiled add Sugar and stir it well till the sugar dissolves.

If you are using Carrot then add it now and stir.

Take Corn flour in a separate bowl, pour some water and mix it well.

(it should look like Corn flour water)

Now Pour Corn flour water in the above milk bowl.

And also add 3 spoons of Ghee and stir constantly.

Stir it well till it becomes thick.

Now apply 1 spoon of ghee to a Plate.

Pour this mix in that Plate spreading evenly all over the plate and leave it for 10 mins Now, cut it into diamond shape pieces.

Now garnish the Halwa pieces with sliced Sweet Cherries.

(you can also use Cashews/Almonds and Raisins).

---- by Suneetha

Meeta Moong Rolls

Hi friends, today, my sweet sister suneetha contributed this sweet recipe. Please enjoy
Ingredients:
½ Cup of Moong Dal (Soak in water over night)
1 Cup of Sugar
1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder
1 Cup of  Rice flour
Oil for deep fry

Method:
Blend the soaked Moong Dal in a Mixer.
Pour this batter into 2 Idli Plates and Steam it for 20 min.
Take 1 cup of sugar in a bowl, pour some water, cardamom powder and keep it on
stove till the sugar dissolves.
Now again Blend the above Moong Dal Idlies and sugar syrup.

(note : if the mix looks soft instead of hard, then put the mix in stove for 10min. and

let it become hard.)

Now make batter of  Rice flour :  add water to the rice flour and make it consistent like the dosa batter.

Heat oil in a frying pan/vessel.

Take above Moong Dal mix and make it small dumplings; dip the dumplings in batter and fry

them in Oil.

Enjoy the new taste of laddos :)

Bobbatlu

This is my one of the most favourite sweets. Very Yummy and mouth watering during preparation itself. Enjoy the process and its deliciousness. Here are the sweet ingredients :
Chana Dal           1 cup
Jaggery               1 cup
Maida                 3/4 cup
Oil                      1/4 cup
Cardomom powder   1/2 tsp
Sooji                  1/2 tsp
Rice flour            1/2 tsp

Yummy Procedure :
1. Outer Layer Preparation :
--> First mix Maida, Sooji, Rice flour with small amount of water and make it as hard dough.
--> Now, add Oil to that dough and kneed it well. Let the dough retain for atleast 30 mins or more.
--> This will be your Maida dough.

2. Inner Layer Preparation:
--> Chop the jaggery as thinner slices and set it aside.
--> Take chana dal into a vessel; Pour 1 cup water and let chana dal cook until it gets mashed easily.
--> Drain away all the excess water and let it cool down.
--> Blend chana dal in regular mixer and make it into fine powder.
--> Take a pan and put chopped jaggery and switch on the stove with low flame.
--> Now pour the grinded powder into the pan and sprinkle little amount of water to make the powder little bit wet.
--> Stir in the powdered chana and jaggery until the jaggery gets dissolved and mix well with the powder.
--> Add the cardomom powder and let the mixture cool down completely.
--> Now, make the mixture into lime-size dumplings and set them aside.
--> These will be your chana dumplings.

Boiled and Drained Chana dal : Ready to grind

3. Making Bobbatlu:
--> Now take a big ziploc or a polythene cover and rub it with oil. (just to make sure, the bobbattu doesn't stick to the cover/ziploc).
(a) Take a small dumpling(should be half the size of chana dumpling) from the maida dough and spread it with fingers until it becomes like our palm size.
(b) Now, place a chana dumpling (from step 2) on the middle of spreaded maida dough.
(c) Stretch maida dough a little bit and simultaneously Wrap the chana dumpling with maida dough
(d) Press the wrapped dumpling and make it like thin patti.
(e) Slowly take out the patti and put it on regular tava and toast it both sides as you do with regular rotis/chapathis. You can add oil/ghee/butter while flipping over the bobbattu on tava.

Repeat steps (a) to (e) until all your dough and dumplings are finished. Thats it yummy yummy bobbatlu are ready to eat. (You can add ghee before eating. it is fat by itself; so i don't prefer this last step :-) )

Sweet Gavvalu - with Sugar syrup

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour (Maida)                2 cups
Sugar                                               1 and quarter cup
Special gizmo to make gavvalu
salt                                                   just a pinch (explode the flavour of sweet)
Oil                                                   2 tbsp for the flour and more oil sufficient for deep fry

Tool used to make gavvalu

Procedure

1. Take Maida into a big bowl.
2. Add pinch of salt to maida and mix the dry flour to make the salt mix well.
3. Take oil in a microwavable bowl and heat the oil for 30 seconds. (if the microwave has more power reduce the seconds). Please be careful while heating up the oil.
4. Pour the oil into the flour and wait for 3 mins to let it cool down.
5. Now, add water little by little and try to make the flour into hard dough (just the dough as we make for wheat flour rotis).
6. Kneed the dough thoroughly, there should not be any lumps inside the dough; It should be perfectly mixed well otherwise, it will break when you put in the oil.
7. Make very small balls from the dough and keep them aside. It takes some time making into small balls. with practice, you could make it fast.
8. Now take the special gizmo to make the balls as gavvalu. If you don't have that tool, you can use fork or new comb.
9. To make as gavvalu :
10.           Place the tool in a separate bowl and Hold the tool in slanty position.
11.           Place a maida ball at the joint of the tool (check the image to know the joint of the tool)
12.           Push the ball and roll it towards downside.
13.           Release the gavva (into the bowl)once you reach the end of the tool.
14. Repeat the process of making gavvalu with all the remaining balls. just 4 simple steps to make gavva : Place the ball on the tool, push it, roll it downwards, release.
15. First few would be tough, remaining you would feel easy to make. But it takes some time to make balls and gavvalu. You should have some patience for that :-).
16. So, once you are done with making gavvalu, just close the gavvalu bowl with a paper napkin just to avoid them from drying off. (do not close with air tight lid as they become watery and all your effort will be gone).
17. Now, take a clean frying pan and just wipe with dry paper napkin just to make sure there is not even a drop of water in the pan.
18. Now pour oil sufficient for frying gavvalu. depends on your convenience, if you take big pan, you might need more oil, if you take small frying pan, you will need small amount of oil but you have to fry for more turns.
19. I feel comfortable with using bigger frying pans, as it fries up quickly and takes less turns.
20. Switch on the flame and put it in high flame to make the oil heat up fast.
21. Drop a pinch of dough into the oil to check whether the oil is heat up or not. If the oil is heat up, then the small dough ball floats on the oil.
22. Now, your oil is ready to cook. Remember to reduce the flame to medium.
23. Now, slowly drop the gavvalu into the oil. Take a big spatula and stir occassionally.
24. Let the gavvalu cook for 7-10 mins; that is when the gavvalu gets cooked perfectly. If it takes less than that for you, then you need to reduce your flame even more and continue.
25. Place the fried gavvalu into a separate bowl. Place a paper napkin into a separate bowl and place your fried gavvalu into that bowl (paper napkin takes off excess oil).
26. Finish frying up the remaining gavvalu you made; and switch off the flame.
27. Once you are done with frying all the gavvalu, take off the paper napkin you placed in the bowl to absorb excess oil.

Immediately after the sugar syrup is poured and mixed well.

Preparation of Sugar Syrup

1. Take a separate pan and pour sugar into the pan.
2. Add little amount of water just until the sugar gets wet and switch on the flame on different burner and keep in medium high.
3. let the sugar gets dissolved and let it come to bubbling.
4. Now, check the syrup by placing a small drop of syrup into a small bowl and tilt the bowl; the syrup should take some time to move. that is the right consistency you need for the syrup.
5. Switch off the flame.
6. Now, this following procedure should be real quick as the sugar syrup crystalizes fast.
7. pour the syrup into the bowl containing fried gavvalu.
8. Stir all the gavvalu with the sugar syrup and try to make the syrup mix well with all the gavvalu. stir it fast and let the sugar syrup mix well with all the gavvalu.
9. Now place them in a big open vessel and let them dry for atleast 30 mins.
10. Once the sugar gets dry and crystalize, you are ready to place them in air tight containers and can enjoy the taste for atleast 20 days.

sugar got crystalized on gavvalu

Sounded like very big process? Do not worry, just give it a try; once you get used to it, there will not be any difficulty. (ofcourse, you will feel tired until you finish the entire process),but you will get good experience.
Please do post suggestions and comments.

Enjoy the delicious taste of gavvalu :-)