Diwali special- Wheat Halwa

Hello,

Diwali special wheat halwa.  Its a delicacy and involves a lot of work. You can say laborious work involved in this sweet. But it tastes great and is very healthy too. 

It minimum requires three days hard work to make this sweet. 

Day 1 

Soak half Kg whole wheat in sufficient water for about 8 hours.

Day 2

Drain excess water, keep the  drained water in another bowl. Grind the wheat adding soaked water to a fine paste. Add more water and keep removing the wheat milk using a strainer. Allow the wheat milk to sediment. You will see water becomes clear and the wheat gluten  sediments.  Keep removing only the water and keep adding fresh water unless you get  gluten. 

Day 3

In a heated big pan add ghee, add wheat gluten and cook till wheat milk becomes translucent. Now add sugar and ghee and keep cooking till the ghee separates from the halwa. 

Day 2 

Wheat milk

Day 3 

Wheat gluten cooked in slow flame till translucent

Adding little ghee at a time and keep stirring. You can add sugar at this level.

 Sugar is completely dissolved and you an see the caramelised halwa releasing ghee from the sides.

 Halwa is ready. decorate with roasted almonds.

Ingredients

Whole wheat - 1/2 KG

Sugar - 2 cups

Ghee - 350 grams

Almonds ;- a few thinly slices

Method of Preparation

Soak whole heat for about 8 hours, drain and grind to fine paste, keep extracting the milk out of wheat. Allow the wheat ,milk to sediment, keep throwing the clear water on top and add fresh water.After two three times you will get the thick gluten completely sediments in the bottom of the vessel.

 In a heated pan pour 2 table spoon ghee and add extracted wheat and keep cooking in very slow fire. Once the wheat gluten becomes translucent add sugar and little ghee at a time, keep stirring till you see the ghee separates from the halwa. And the halwa becomes like a glowing jelly. Off the stove Allow the Halwa to take its own time to cool down, Remove the excess ghee when the halwa is warm. You can use it for some other sweets.  Now in another small pan pour a little ghee and roast thinly sliced almonds or cashew nuts. Spread the halwa in a greased plate and cut into desired shape. 

Broccoli mushroom cheesy medley with rice/toasted bread

Broccolii Mushroom cheesy Medley

Broccoli - 1 small
Mushrooms - 100 grams
Cheddar Cheese - 75 grams
Butter - 1 tsp
Pepper - crushed
salt

Method of Preparation

Wipe and clean mushrooms in a clean kitchen wipe/tissue paper. Do not wash the mushrooms as the mushrooms will absorb water and your medley will become soggy. Remove broccoli flowerets and blanch in hot water. Drain excess water. In a heated kadai add butter and saute broccoli and mushrooms till soft. Add cheese, salt and pepper. Make sure you cook in high flame. Off the stove. Serve hot with freshly cooked rice or toasted bread. 

Courtesy : My daughter Arundhathi (This dish is her creation)

Mathan thoran, Seemachakka(Bread fruit) thoran and Seemachakka(Bread fruit) sambhar

Hello,

I know I am not regular now a days. Busy with holidays, kids. Yet thought a few dishes that I made will be new to my readers. 

By the way I am extremely thankful to all the wonderful people who visit by blog on a regular basis. A whooping 1 lakh view for "Google plus" thats awesome folks. Kindly leave a comment which will help me to communicate with my readers.

Will soon post Diwali sweets and savoury, 

Cheers for the weekend. 

Today I am sharing two dry thoran and one sambhar with mathan and Seemachakka / bread fruit.

Mathan thoran ( yellow pumpkin dry curry)

Ingredients

Mathan(Yellow pumpkin) - 250 grms

coconut - 1 tbsp

red chilli - 2

green chilli - 1

mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Method of Preparation

Wash peel and chop mathan into small piece. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard, urad dal and red chilli, Once mustard splutter add mathan and mix well. Add salt and cook till soft. Grate coconut and slit green chilli. Add to mathan curry and serve hot.

Seemachakka thoran (bread fruit dry curry)

Bread fruit/seemachakka  - 250 grms

coconut - 1 tbsp

red chilli - 2

green chilli - 1

mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Water - 1/2 cup

Wash peel and chop seemachakka into small piece. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard, urad dal and red chilli, Once mustard splutter add seemachakka and mix well. Add salt and half cup of watecook till soft. Grate coconut and slit green chilli. Add to seemachakka curry and serve hot.

Seemachakka sambhar (bread fruit sambhar)

Seemachakka  sambar

Ingredients

seemachakka - one cup cut into cubes
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
salt as required

For the masala

Tuvar dal - 2 tbsp
channa dal - 1 tbsp
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
red chilly - 3
badigye chilly - 3 
curry leaves - a few
hing - a small piece
coconut - 1/4 cup
Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp(cook and extract pulp)

Tuvar dal - 1/4 cup (wash, soak and cook in pressure cooker till soft) (optional)
ghee - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves a few

Method of Preparation

Dry roast the masala add coconut and roast till golden brown. Grind to a coarse paste by adding little water. 

Wash and soak tuvar dal in water. Pressure cook for two whistles. 

Wash peel and cut seemachakka into small cubes.Add little hot water in kalchatti and cook the seemachakka till soft, add turmeric,  salt. Add tamarind pulp. Add coconut paste and cooked tuvar dal, add one or two glasses of water allow the sambar to boil. In a small pan pour oil add mustard, fenugreek seed, allow mustard to splutter, add one red chilly hing and curry leaves. Pour it in the prepared sambar. 

Sweet kozhakattai/Urad kozhakattai

Hello,

Last week we have celebrated vinayaka chathurthi. Let me share with you two different varities of kozhakattai/modak. One sweet another salty. You can make this as an evening snack for children and yes your family will love it too. The simple dish takes lot of preparation. You can prepare the pooranam previous day but make sure you roll it into small ladoos and keep it. As once the poornam sets its difficult to roll!! But during festivl days we make it fresh as the kozhakattai is offered as a naivedyam/offering  to God Vinayakar/Ganesha . Making the kazhakattai need little expertise. 

Sweet Kozhakattai/Modak

Ingredients

For Tengai pooranam

Grated coconut - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
cardamom - 2 nos.

Method of Preparation

Heat a pan and add one table spoon of water and add grated jaggery. Allow the jaggery to dissolve, strain using a steel strainer to remove dust particles/stones form jaggery. Pour the melted jaggery back to the pan allow it to boil, Now add grated coconut and cardamom. Mix well make a soft pooranam. You will notice the pooranam is no more sticking to the pan and forms into a ball leaving the edges, and releasing oil from the freshly grated coconut. Off the stove. Bring the pooranam to room temperature. Using your hands make small balls of pooranam. Keep aside.

For outer cover

Rice - 1 cup

Method of Prparation

Soak rice for about 3 to 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste adding enough water.In a heated kadai pour two tbsp sunflower oil/coconut oil pour the rice batter and stir till its turns into a soft dough. Cool it down to room temperature. Use your hands and knead it into a very soft dough without lumps.

Now finally to make sweet kozhakattai. Keep sunflower oil in a small bowl and grease your palm with oil and make a lemon sized kozhakattai ball and press it in the moddle to make it like a small disk.. Try to make it thin and in the middle place one thengai pooranam ball. Close the kozhakattai gently by pressing the mavu around pooranam. Make sure the poornam is completely covered. Now shape it like modak. If you wish you can use the modak shaper available in the market.It gives a beautiful shape to your modak.

Use iddly vessal, arrange modak in it. Stem the modak in iddly vessal for about 10  minutes.  Open the modak and place in on a clean banana leaf. You can offer it as a naivedyam for lord Ganesha and serve hot or cold.

For urad kozhakattai (salty)

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Whole urad dal - 1/2 cup
salt as required
grated coconut - 2 tbsp
green chilly - 2
ginger - a samll piece
curry leaves - a few

for tadka

mustard - 1/2 tsp
urad dal - 1/2 tsp
red chilly - 1 broken

Method of Preparation

Soak rice for about 3 to 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste adding enough water and salt.In a heated kadai pour two tbsp sunflower oil/coconut oil pour the rice batter and stir till its turns into a soft dough. cool it down to room temperature. Use your hands and knead it to a very soft dough without lumps. 

Soak urad dal for about 45 minutes, drain excess water and grind to a coarse paste by adding green chilly, ginger and curry leaves. Keep kadai and heat it. Pour oil and add mustrad seeds, allow it to crackle, now add urad dal and broken red chilly. Gently fry urad dal till it turns into golden brown add coarsely grinded urad dal paste, coconut and salt. Mix it and cook in low fire for about 3 to 4 minutes. Off the stove, cool the urad pooranam. Make small balls out of it. 

Take a big lemon sized rice mavu flatten it in your hand. Fill the urad pooranam,close it completely.  Make it into small purse shape. Stick the edges steam it same like sweet kozhakattai. Offer to God Ganesha and serve as Prasadam. 

Moong dal cake

Hello,

Let us celebrate friendship day with a healthy,tasty and nutritious sweet made with moong dal. 

Happy Friendship Day to all my readers.

Moong dal cake

Ingredients

Moongdal - 1 1/2 cup

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup

cardamom pod - a few

Method of Preparation

In a heated pan add moong dal, a teaspoonful ghee and dry roast till golden brown. allow the dal to reach room temperature. In a mixer add moong dal and sugar make a fine powder out of it. add a few cardamom pods to it. Powder further till you get absolutely fine powder. Put the powder into the pan and keep very low flame. Mix it gently by adding ghee. Now transfer into greased plate  Flatten it with a laddle. Cut into desired shape garnish with broken cashew nuts. If you add less ghee you can roll into soft melt in your mouth maladdu! 

Aloo fry

Hello,

Yet another kids favorite. Aloo fries with indian flavour! My kids are very fond of it. These potatoes are much heavier and longer than the ordinary pototes that we use. 

Ingredients

Potato - 3 long and large

crushed pepper/kashmiri red chilly powder - 1 tsp

salt as required

Oil required for shallow fry

Method of Preparation

Wash peel and cut pototo into long thin stripes. wash and cook in water for about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain the water. In a flat frying pan pour sunflower oil and shallow fry potato by arranging them well so that each piece gets cooked and roast in medium flame. Remove from the frying pan and place it on a kitchen absorbant towel allow the excess oil to drain from the fried aloo. Arrange in the serving plate gently sprinkle crushed pepper/red chilly powder and salt. Mix gently and serve with sauce. 

Bisi bisi vegetable Upma

Hello,

Let me share with you the worlds best breakfast. 

You thouhgt its very easy to make Upma wait, till I explain to you the process!! Its need lot of effort and technique to make tasty yummy upma.  Over the years I have mastered the art of making tasty Upma.

Ingredients

Semolina/sooji rawa -  1 1/2 cup

Vegetables 

Onion - 1

carrot - 1

beans - a few

ginger - a big piece

green chilly - 2

curry leaves - a few

sunflower oil - 1 tbsp

ghee - 2tbsp

coconut oil - 1 tsp

mustard seed - 1 tsp

broken urad dal - 1/2 tsp

channa dal - 1 tsp

hing powder - 1/2 tsp

salt - as required

Method of Preparation

*In a heated pan roast semolin/sooji rawa by adding a spoonful of oil till golden yellow. You will get the roasted aroma when its ready. Make sure you keep the flame low so that it will not burn the rawa. Remove it on a plate.

Wait till I explain to you the level of difficulty.

* cut all the vegetables into small pieces. Cut a few curry leaves. 

* Boil 3 to 4 cups of water in a vessel.

Pour oil in the same pan in which you fried the rawa. When hot add mustard, urad dal and channa dal. When mustard spluter add chopped vegetables fry till they are just cooked, add fried rawa, salt and hing powder and saute more. Once well mixed start adding boiled water 2 cups at first, reduce the flame allow the rawa to cook. After sometime add one more cup of boiled water, reduce the flame. Let the rawa cook till soft and tender like soft flowerets. Add curry leaves. If necessary add more water and cook further. But make sure you add just a little water at a time. Once done pour coconut oil on top and serve hot with pickle and curd/sambhar. 

Read how Upma won the best breakfast award!!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/Up-Up-Upma-Indian-chef-wins-100000-prize-in-New-York/articleshow/8881462.cms