Indian Cooking Challenge : Vennai Puttu

It's the Indian Cooking Challenge time. This month's challenge was truly a challenging one for me... It isnt easy to make Indian sweets perfectly and this month I had to make a Tamilian sweet... PHEW.. tufff...  But I wanna thank Srivalli for this month's choice as it pushed my out of my comfort zone and surprisingly I managed it well :))


This month's recipe is VENNAI PUTTU .. contributed my one of fav bloggers... Priya... It is her grandmom's recipe..  traditional and healthy..


We would need
Rice - 1/2 cup
Grated Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Chana Dal - 2 Tablespoons
Cardamom Powder - a pinch
Fresh Coconut Pieces - 1 tbsp (I used grated coconut)
Ghee - 1 tsp
Ghee for greasing.


Preparation
1. Soak Rice for 3 hours. Then, grind the soaked rice with 1/2 cup water into a paste.
2. Pressure cook Chana Dal till soft (3-4 whistles approx)
3. Prepare Jaggery Syrup by boiling 3/4 cup water and grated Jaggery together.


Cooking

In a heavy bottom pan, boil 2 cups of water. Add the rice paste to boiling water and stir and stir and stir... till the paste mixes well with the water and cooks well. (this may take around 15 minutes.. please DO NOT stop stirring)

Next, add the Jaggery syrup, cooked Chana Dal & Cardamom powder to the rice and stir well.

Keep stirring till the mixture thickens and gets off the from the vessel. Remove from fire and finally add Ghee & grated Coconut. Transfer the mixture to a greased bowl/ tray and let it cool.

We could slice it and serve or just take a spoon and enjoy it :))

Indian Cooking Challenge: Thekua (Indian Biscuit)

Indian Cooking Challenge: A great initiative by Srivalli of  Spice your life. Every month all members prepare a traditional Indian dish from different states and post it sharing their experience while exploring the recipe. Though I joined in last month but owing to my travelling I couldn't participate.. But here is my experience with this month's recipe.


This month's challenge recipe was Thekua, an Indian Biscuit from the state of Bihar, commonly called Khajur.. I remember hogging on to it while I was a kid, never imagining that in future I would ever be making it myself.


Thekua is a tea-time snack made of wheat flour & jaggery/sugar.. they could be either deep fried or baked.. can be stored for upto a month in an airtight container. Since it was my first attempt with biscuits, I decided to stick to smaller portions:


Whole Meal Flour (Or Wheat Flour) - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 Tablespoons - powdered
Dry Coconut - 3 Tablespoons
Cardamom Powder - a pinch (I used freshly grounded powder from cardamom seeds)
Sooji - 3 Tablespoons
Ghee  - 3-4 Tablespoons (for kneading)
Water
Ghee - for frying


Mix the flour, dry coconut, sooji, cardamom powder & powdered sugar in a bowl. Add ghee and rub the mixture with your fingers till it gets becomes crumbly (texture like bread crumbs)

Slowly sprinkle little water to make a stiff dough. The dough needs to be very stiff enough (like a big lump)

Leave it for 10 mins. Then take small portions of it and shape them round (like cookies) with greasy hands. I did not have a cookie cutter or an impression mould so I used my hands :) 

Heat ghee in a pan and fry the cookies.  The oil should be moderately hot so that the cookie is cooked well from inside too. Fry till golden brown & crisp. I wanted to try baking as well thus, I baked half the biscuits. Preheat the oven at 350 F and line cookies in a greased tin. 5 mins of baking and cookies were ready :) 

Goes perfect with tea :)

 

A big thanks to my frend Leena for helping me with the recipe.

Pleased to link this recipe to Anu's Cooking with Spices - Cardamom

Diwali Special - Coconut Ladoos

May this festival of light bring brightness & lots of happiness in each one's life... Happy Diwali :))

It's the time of celebration and enjoyment for most of the Indians.. and celebration calls for sweets...Sharing the quick and easy (easiest actually) recipe for COCONUT LADOOS... and delicious too...

Ingredients
Condensed Milk - 1/2 of a can [enough for 15-20 ladoos]
Coconut (scrapped) - 1.5
Cardamom seeds (powdered)  - 1/2 teaspoon
Almonds - handful

Cooking
1. Scrap 2 fresh coconuts. Further grind the coconut shreds in a grinder/ mixie so as to have a thin course powder.

2. In a heavy bottom pan, heat 1/2 a can of condensed milk till it starts to boil. Add the scrapped coconut and keep stirring continously. (the mixture should be very tight  - you can adjust the amount of coconut depending on the consistency of the final mixture)

3. Once the mixture gets a thick consistency, add powdered cardamom and mix well.

4. Remove from flame and let it cool. As the mixture cools down a bit, make ladoos with your hand and garnish each one with an almond. (the mixture should be warm else giving it a round shape would be tuff)

Coconut Ladoos are ready to serve :)

This recipe is linked to Priya's Veggie/Fruit a Month - Coconut event. It's Culinary Vibe's first ever participation in an event.. and am excited :))

PS - there are people like me, who are scared of taking a small lump of the warm mixture in the hand - so u need a friend like i do to shape the ladoos .. thus, dedicating this post to Leena .. my cutest friend..tuff to manage widout honestly .. (not just while making ladoos ;) )



Thanx sweety...