Kuzhi Appams(sweet)

I got an appam pan recently to prepare these Kuzhi Appams or Paniyarams(so called in Tamil Nadu). Very simple to make for a sudden snack special. It can be prepared as a sweet or as a spicy snack where they use the left out dosa batter. Either way they taste so good. In kerala they call this as Unni Appam which has some slight variations in preparation. They use coconut oil. For the kuzhi appams you can use ghee/any oil which you prefer. Here I used Canola Oil which is the regular oil I use since it does not contain saturated fat.Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Rice Flour - 1/2 cup
Maida/all purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 to 1 cup(according to the sweet level you need)
Ghee - 1 tsp
Cardomom powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - a pinch(optional)
1 Ripe Banana(optional) - mashed
Oil for frying

Preparation:

• Mix sufficient water with jaggery, heat in a pan until all the jaggery melts.
• Filter this and keep aside.
• Now in a bowl mix everything along with filtered jaggery except oil.
• Add some water if you need. Mix everything smootlhly without any lumps. It should be a dosa batter consistency.
• Heat an appam pan. Once hot enough, fill 1/4 of each kuzhi(hole) with the oil/ghee.
• Fill the remaining 3/4 with the batter as shown below.

• Allow it to cook under medium heat for 3-4 mins.
• Turn them to cook on other side using a fork.

• Once they are brown on both sides, drain them on paper towels.

Server hot and enjoy your evening snack.

Rasgullas(Bengali Sweet)

Wanted to make some home made rasgullas?? You can make this in 1/2 hr. This home made recipe should yield about 10-15 rasgullas.

Ingredients:

Milk - 4 cups
(i used 2% only)
Sugar - 1 cup(or add a little more acc. to your taste)
Water - 3.5 cups
Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Preparation:
First we need to prepare paneer:
Steps:

• Boil the milk in a high flame for few mins until it raises to the top
• Meanwhile mix the lemon juice in 1 tsp water and dilute it.
• When the milk highly boils and comes to the top, turn the heat to medium and add the diluted lemon juice little by little. Keep stirring
• You can see the milk getting separated.
• Now switch off the flame. Take a big vessel and place a clean cloth over it. Add the boiled mixture on this cloth.(careful..its hot)
• Add some cold water over the mixture for ease and squeeze all the water from the cloth by using your hands.
• Now the paneer formed is found inside the cloth. Try to knead the paneer well and try making small balls, if you can then your paneer is ready and perfect.

My paneer looked like:

For making Rasgullas:

• Knead the paneer again well and make some 12 medium sized balls out of it and keep aside
• In a pressure cooker, add the water and sugar. Heat until all the sugar melts.
• Now drop the paneer balls slowly one by one to sugar syrup
• Close and steam for 5-6 mins in a medium flame.
• Once done, switch off and slowly transfer the rasgullas in a wide vessel. Once warm refrigerate for half hr. Then what else.??? have a bite!!!:)

Yummy rasgullas are now ready... wasn't this simpler???? :)

Baadam(Almond) Halwa

Was longing to make this halwa, after seeing this recipe in chef in you. The way of preparing the blanched almonds was more easier for me after seeing her recipe. My hubby just loved the taste. I served it warm one evening..! You can also serve it cold during summer :))

For 3/4 cup of almonds I used 3/4 cup milk, 4 spoons sugar, 1 spoon ghee. Atlast added cardomom powder for flavor.

Sending to Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday event - by Priya and Aipi.

Coconut Sugar Poli(Bogi special)

First of all Happy Bogi to everyone. Bogi festival is the first day of pongal which we celebrate where people clean up their homes from top to bottom and throw away unwanted goods... this festival is also related to farmers to cultivate land with prosperity. For all of us, Bogi always reminds us of the start of the festive season that is pongal.. A must do recipe for the bogi is the POLI. We have a large variieties of polis but I have just made a simpler one here.here it goes.

Ingredients:

(for 6 small polis)

All purpose flour (maida)- 1 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 spoon
salt - a pinch
Grated/dessicated coconut - 3/4cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardomom powder - 1 spoon
Cashew nuts(chopped to small pieces) - 5-6
Water - as needed
Ghee - as needed

Preparation:

• Mix maida, turmeric, salt in a bowl. Adding little by little luke warm water, make a soft dough. Let this rest for half an hr.
• To prepare the filling, in a pan add  ghee,cashews, fry a min until they become light brown.
• Now add coconut, fry till the raw smell of coconut goes. Donot burn the coconut.
• When the coconut becomes light brown, add the sugar and mix well.

• Fry this for 2-3 mins.
• Mix this well sprinkling little by little water at a time until the sugar melts well and mixes with coconut.
• Atlast add cardomom powder,give a mix and switch off the pan.(you must be able to make balls out of this mixture, else sprinkle more water and fry well again)

Cool the filling and make balls out of it.
Make some 6 smooth balls out of maida dough also. Roll each ball like a small circle, place the filling ball in it, cover and roll any desired size poli. Ensure filling doesn't come out.
Now take a pan and cook each poli on both sides applying ghee until golden brown.

Star your festive season with these tasty Polis..

Paruppu Thengai POLI

Ingredients:

1 cup Maida
1 cup jaggery(cut into small pieces)
pinch of turmeric
1 cup chana dal
3-4 spoons of grated coconut... add more if needed
1/2 spoon cardamom powder
1 spoon veg. oil (for dough)
ghee for making POLI

Preparation:

• Mix maida, veg oil, turmeric in a bowl.. add water to form a smooth dough.You may need nearly 1/2 cup water...
• Set this aside for 20-25 mins.
• Meanwhile in a pan, boil chana dal with two cups water until the dal becomes soft.
• Drain the water from the cooked lentils well.
• Now add jaggery, coconut, cardamom powder to the cooked lentils and heat till all the jaggery melts and all the ingredients in the mixture come together.
• Cool this lentil mixture for a while, then blend it without adding water.
• Now take a small size ball from the dough made, roll it into a small circle..Use maida for easy rolling..
• Similarly make a small ball from the lentil mixture and place this ball in the middle of the dough shaped into a circle
• Bring the end of the dough to the center on top of the lentil mixture, then press it down.
• Now lightly roll it into a circle (thick or thin as you desire)
• Now place it in a heated flat pan, add some ghee around it, turn and cook until golden brown.

      Delicious poli is ready...

CARROT HALWA

I learnt step by step procedure from:

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/04/26/gajar-ka-halwa-carrot-halwa/  

Ingredients:

(For 2 persons)

unsalted butter - 1 spoon

5-6 long carrots (shredded)

boiled milk - 1cup

sugar - 1/4 cup

cashews/almonds/raisins - needed amount

ghee - 1/2 spoon

Preparation:

• Add butter to the tava 
• After the butter melts, add the shredded carrot and stir for the next 8-9 mins...until you see a little brownish kinda color on the carrot pieces..
• now add the milk to it and stir well for the next 8 mins..
• Once the milk has been completely absorbed by the carrot, add the sugar and mix well
• Let the above mixture get heated till the sugar dissolves (say for the next 3-4 mins)
• Now in another pan add some ghee and roast the cashews/almonds
• Atlast mix the nuts/raisins to the halwa ...

Points to be noted:

• Do not over roast the shredded carrots... maintain the above said time limits.. so that the consistency of the halwa would be correct...