Thank you Foodbuzz!!

I am very happy to share the NEWS that I won this beautiful Juice fountain in foodbuzz weekly raffle. Thank you foodbuzz!! I and my family are very happy to receive this lovely "Breville Compact Juice Fountain", which we never imagined of.



I had received an email that I won the raffle and that I was soon going to get a juice fountain. The very next evening a huge box was at my door as a great surprise. I was so exited to open the box. My husband was not ready to believe that I had got this huge Juicer as a gift. Foodbuzz made it possible!!

I am very happy be a part of foodbuzz which is a beautiful community of foodies around the world. Wonderful recipes to learn and share , restaurant reviews, meeting new foodie friends, visiting their blogs and above all celebrating food are some of the awesome features of foodbuzz.

Some More Diwali Treats:)

Boorelu- A traditional Andhra Delicacy made during festivals.

I wanted to make boorelu ever since I saw it in Sailu's blog. I tried it for this Diwali , Thanks to Sailu for the wonderful masterpiece recipe. It came out very well.

Ingredients:

For batter:
1/2 cup black gram dal/urad dal
1 cup rice salt to taste

For Filling:
1 cup bengal gram dal/channa dal
1 cup sugar or 1 cup grated jaggery
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut
3/4 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp Ghee (clarified butter)
oil for frying

Preparation:

Soak rice and black gram dal for about 4 hours. Drain the water from the black gram dal and rice. Grind into a thick dosa batter like consistency adding very little water. Add little salt and mix well. Set it aside.

Cook bengal gram with just enough water to cover the dal. The dal should be cooked and should hold its shape. Drain any left over water from the dal after its cooked. Add jaggery or sugar to the dal and blend them together till it folds well.In a heavy-bottomed pan add ghee, the dal paste and cook till the extra water from the sugar dries off. Stir continuously as the dal tends to stick to the pan. Turn off heat. Add grated coconut, cardamom powder to the paste and fold. Make small balls as shown in the picture.

Heat oil in a wide heavy bottomed vessel for deep frying the balls. Dip each ball in the batter to coat evenly. Deep fry till golden brown. The shelflife for boorelu is 2-3 days but it disappeared in my house within hours .

Badam /Almond Halwa

This Halwa is one of my own experiments which turned out to be a success.

Ingredients:

1 cup Almonds (Soaked for an hour and peeled)
1/2 cup condensed milk
3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1/3 tsp cardamom powder
pinch of saffron strands for garnish
raisins for garinsh

Preparation:

Grind the soaked and peeled almonds into thick paste adding very little water or milk. In a heavy bottomed pan melt ghee and add this paste.The heat should be in medium. To this add condensed milk and fold.Keep stirring until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.You can see the ghee and the oil coming out of the halwa .The mixture will completely stop sticking to the pan. Add cardamom and transfer the halwa to a ghee coated plate. Garnish with raisins and saffron strands.

This recipe is quite easy and simple to make with very limited ingredients.Once the halwa cools down you can cut them into squares and store it in fridge.

I am contributing this to All That Glitters-Sugar High Friday hosted by my dear friend Susan and created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess.

Chocolate Burfis

This burfi is my mom's trademark . I used to tease her when ever festivals were nearing and she used to shop for Khoya/mawa. Now that she lives away from me, I miss her and try out her recipes:). It is a quite simple recipe and can be made in minutes.

Ingredients:

1 cup Fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup chocolate powder
1/2 cup condensed milk or Khoya or both
3-4 tbsp ghee
1/3 tsp cardamom powder
Nuts for garnish

Preparation:

In a heavy bottomed pan add ghee, grated coconut, condensed milk, khoya and fold well.

If you don't find khoya you can do with condensed milk alone but the burfis will be little soft so you have to set them in fridge. With Khoya, burfis get some good square shape.

Well after stirring the mixture for a while, you can see that they leave the sides of the pan.The mixture should be transfered into a ghee coated plate and spread evenly. After it cools down, cut them into squares, garnish and serve. This also can be stored in fridge.

All this goes to JFI- Festival treats hosted by Srivalli.

I am sending the boorelu to Ruth's Kitchen Experiments .
All these Festive sweets go to Ivy's World food day event. I want to thank God for what ever he has blessed me with.

I am sending all these to Aparna's diverse Kitchen celebrating her Blog Anniversary too.

Nutritious Legume Chaat!!

I came up with this recipe because my two wonderful friends are into this event 'Susan & Sra'. Susan is the brainchild of the lovely event My Legume Love Affair. Sra is hosting it for the month of October. I simply could not resist myself from contributing :)

I combined a few legumes, veggies and spices to make a hot and sweet chaat which was a great combination with our evening tea.

Ingredients :
10 small puris (pani puris)
2-3 tbsp baby lima beans (frozen)
2-3 tbsp Speckled butter beans (frozen)
3-4 tbsp Blackeye peas (frozen)
3-4 tbsp Corn (frozen)
3 tbsp chopped Cucumber
3 tbsp chopped Tomato
3 tbsp chopped onions
Freshly chopped Cilantro
1 tbsp mint- cilantro chutney (home made or store bought)
1 tbsp date- tamarind chutney ( home made or store bought)
(if you don't have these chutneys you can simply use lemon juice and chaat masala)



Preparation:

Mix up all the three beans in a microwave bowl, sprinkle 2-3 tbsp water and heat it up for 25- 30 seconds in the microwave. If you feel that the beans are not soft enough to eat you can cook it for some more time depending on the microwave. Try to keep the shape of the beans.

Mix up all the other ingredients with the beans, fill it into the puris and serve with tea :). It makes a delicious and nutritious evening time snack.