Sesame-Coconut Laddu (kobbari- nuvvulu laddu) - Diwali Special

Actually I was planning to make burfis and landed up innovating this delicious laddus!! I never thought it would turn out so yum:) Ingredients 1 cup freshly grated coconut 1 cup white sesame seeds 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 tsp crushed cardamom powder 2 tsp Dry fruits 1 tsp ghee Preparation In a pan heat ghee and roast the dry fruits (cashew nuts, almonds, raisins)till golden and set aside. In the same pan add sugar and water to make sugar syrup of one strand consistency. Simultaneously heat another pan and roast sesame seeds on low heat till slightly brown. When the sesame seeds cool down grind it into powder. To the sugar syrup add grated coconut and cardamom powder. When they both blend well turn off the heat. Add the sesame seed powder and dry fruits to the mixture and fold well. Make laddus, garnish with rosted sesame seeds and serve:). Tips- If you feel the mixture is too dry and is not sticking together add 2 tbsp ghee to it. This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.

Paneer Jalebi- Diwali Special and the guessing game!

I saw this recipe on a TV show and ever since wanted to try it.

Ingredients

1 cup finely grated paneer
2 tsp milk
4 tbsp Maida flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp rose water
dash of baking powder
dash of saffron strands
1 tsp cardamom powder

Preparation

Heat a pan, add sugar and water to make syrup of single strand consistency. To this syrup add cardamom powder, saffron strands for natural colour of Jalebis, and rose water.
Keep stirring and cooking. Check to see if the desirable consistency is achieved. Cover with lid so that the sugar syrup does not crystalizes. It should stay warm too.
Use fresh and soft paneer for making these jalebis. I made paneer at home for my convenience. Mix finely grated paneer with maida. Slightly grind the mixture to fine paste/powder in a mixer. Remove the mixture to a bowl. Add baking powder to this dry mixture and mix well. Add milk and make a soft dough. With your hands roll a small amount of dough into thin strands on a clean surface as shown in the picture. It should be thinner than the strand shown in the picture else it takes long time to cook and becomes hard too. Twist them into shapes as shown and deep fry in oil till golden. Remove from oil and drop them in the sugar syrup. After Jalebi soakes for 10 minutes in the syrup, Drain the excess syrup and serve them after they cool down.



Since I was making these for the first time I was not very confident. My Son's tasted them and said they did not taste like the shop jalebis but was good:) Phew!!! I was really happy to hear that!!!
This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.






Veggie Kebabs with french fries is the right guess:) Thanks friends for the interesting answers. I was happy to read Chicken too:)

Can you Guess???!!!!

Potato cheese balls

Ingredients

1 cup boiled and mashed potato
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp chat masala
2-3 tbsp grated carrot
2 tsp corn flour
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
2 tsp finely chopped ginger
salt to taste

For the filling
1/2 cup grated paneer
1 tsp red chilli powder
a dash of salt

oil for deep frying

Preparation
In a bowl mix all the ingredients excluding the filling ingredients. In another bowl mix all the filling ingredients gently.
Take a small amount of the potato mixture in your hands and make a small cup shape, fill in a small amount of paneer mixture inside and completely seal with the potato. Similar to how you fill aloo in the dough for aloo paratha.
Deep fry in oil till golden and serve warm. You can even use these as koftas in gravy.


My kids were very impatient and while clicking they started picking up from the plate. You can see the empty space in the picture:)



This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.

Kesari Puran poli (Sooji halwa obbattu) - Navratri Special

I wish all Neivedyam visitors a very happy Dusshera/Navratri

These pretty little birds were sitting right out of my window without realising that they were being clicked.




Puran poli is made by stuffing sooji halwa which gives a very nice taste and texture and is great for neivedyam during festive season.



Sooji Halwa recipe Here. I added little turmeric (natural colour) to the halwa to get the yellow colour.



Ingredients

For Poli
2 cups maida (all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp salt
water for making dough
2 tsp oil

Preparation

Mix maida, salt and water to make a soft dough. Take a clean plastic sheet and apply oil to it as well as your hands. Make roti size balls from the dough and stuff small amount of halwa inside the dough. Gently press the stuffed dough with your hands on the plastic sheet and flatten it as much as possible. Use oil to your hands to make it flat. It takes a beautiful roti shape as shown in picture. If flattening with hand is difficult use rolling pin.
Fry it on the tava with oil as we do for parathas.
Delicious Sooji halwa pooran poli is ready!



This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.

Pesara vada ( Green gram vada)- Navratri Special

Ingredients

1 cup Whole green gram (soaked overnite)
2 tbsp urad dal (soaked)
1 onion ( finely chopped)(skip if using for neivedyam)
2-3 green chillies(chopped finely)
1 tsp ginger (chopped)
5 curry leaves (chopped)
1 tbsp Coriander leaves (finely chopped)
salt to taste
Oil for Deep frying

Preparation

Grind green gram and urad dal into thick paste with very little water. To this batter add all the given ingredients and mix well. Skip onions if you want to use it for pooja.
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry to make healthy and filling vadas.

This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.

Besan Burfis- Navratri special

Ingredients

1 cup Besan (gram flour)
1 cup sugar
1 cup fresh grated coconut
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp cardamom powder
2 tsp raisins and cashew nuts
2-3 tbsp ghee

Preparation

In a pan heat 1 tsp ghee and saute raisin, cashew nuts and grated coconut slightly. Remove from heat and set aside. In the same pan add 2 tbsp ghee and roast besan on low heat till the aroma raises. This would take about 5-10 minutes. To this add milk and sugar, stir well so that no lumps are formed. Keep Stirring so that the mixture blends well. Add the coconut-dryfruits mixture, cardamom powder and remaining ghee. You will see that the mixture starts to leave the pan and a halwa like consistency is formed. Remove from heat and place the mixture on a greased plate. Spread it uniformly on the plate and let it cool. Cut them into small squares and serve.



This goes to CFK- Festive food hosted by Suma.

White Pumpkin Halwa- Navratri Special

I bought this beautiful work of art from Kolkata. Maa Durga is placed for Pooja on these 9 days of Navratri.



Ingredients

1 cup grated white pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup khoya (mawa)
Dry fruite to garnish
1 tsp cardamom powder
2-3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

Preparation

In a pan heat 1 tsp ghee and saute cashew nuts and raisins till golden, remove and set aside. In the same pan add the remaining ghee and saute the grated pumpkin on medium heat till the raw smell of the pumpkin leaves. Add cardamom powder, sugar and khoya to the pumpkin. Cook till the ingredients combine well and the moisture dries up.
Add dryfruits and remove from heat. Serve warm.




Sending this to CFK- Festive Foods hosted by Suma. Please send your lovely festive entries to this event.

Chekkalu ( Rice Crackers) Navratri special

Chekkalu ( in telugu) and thatti (in Tamil)is a great snack weather its festive season or not. They are usually made with channa dal but I tried them with moong dal and it tasted great too.

Ingredients

2 tbsp split yellow moong dal(soaked in water for 1/2 hour)
2 tsp green chilli paste
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste(optional)
2 sprigs of roughly torn curry leaves
2 tsp butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt to taste
1 cup warm water

Preparation

In a pan bring a cup of water to boil. Turn off heat, add rice flour, salt, cumin, chillipaste, ginger-garlic paste, butter, curry leaves, soaked and drained moong dal and kned into soft dough. Cover wit lid and set aside for 10 minutes.
In a pan heat oil for deep frying. Take a small lemon sized ball of the dough, place it on an oiled plastic sheet or banana leaf and using your fingers shape it into a flat 2″ circle. Use a fork to make small dents all over the chekkalu so that they don’t puff up when deep frying.(I forgot to do some of them in hurry)
Gently take the flattened piece and deep fry in oil. On medium heat deep fry till golden colour.
Moong Dal chekkalu are ready to go with chai:)

I am sending these to CFK- Festive food-sweet and savory version hosted by Suma.