Boondi Ladoo Recipe

Ingredients

• Besan flour (kadala mavu) : 1 cup
• Water : 1/2 to 3/4 cup (adjust to get a flowing batter)
• Orange food color : a small pinch
• Cardamom : 2 powdered
• Cashews & Raisins : just for garnishing
• Ghee : to deep fry

For sugar syrup

• Sugar : 1 1/4 cups
• Water : 3/4 cup

Method

1. Sieve besan flour and add water little by little to form a thick paste. Then add more water to form a flowing batter. Add orange color and mix well.
2. We need 2 ladles, one for making boondis and another one for draining them from oil. We need to be very careful about batter consistency, if batter consistency is not perfect the balls will not be round and it will have tails. To check if the batter is in correct consistency, first take a spoon and dip the backside of the spoon into batter and hold it over the heated oil. If it drops as perfect rounds then the batter is perfect. Otherwise dilute the batter and check again.
3. Pour one ladle of batter over the ladle with the hole for making boondi. It will drip down by itself, you can even spread it using the ladle in circular motion. It should not be crispy, we must take it in the just cooked stage. Drain it using the second ladle and remove to a paper towel.
4. Repeat to finish the entire batter.
5. At the same time take sugar with water in a wide pan and heat it up. Boil until one string consistency. Check for one string consistency by taking a drop between your thumb and index finger, you can see a single string forming between your fingers. Take care while doing this, wet your hands before checking. Otherwise hot sugar syrup will burn your hands. You can check the cosistency by adding drops of sugar syrup in a bowl of water. If it is in right consistency sugar syrup will form a soft ball in the water. Now off the flame and set aside.
6. Add cardamom powder into the sugar syrup and add boondis into it. Mix it well and wait for sometime to make ladoos.
7. When its still warm enough to handle with your hands shape them into ladoos. 
8. You can garnish this laddos with fried cashews and raisins. Enjoy!!

Mushroom Pulao

 

Belated Eid wishes to all. I was hoping to post this on the Eid day, but things did not work the way it was supposed to be. The guests who were expected to come on the Eid day came yesterday only. So we celebrated Eid with a simple "Nawabi Biriyani" accompanied with "Pineapple Payasam". Yesterday was the real feast. I served a five-course meal for them. There was mushroom pulao,  bhatura, naan, chicken mughalai, mutton roganjosh etc.,. etc.,. for the main course. I am posting mushroom pulao recipe this time, other recipes will be published soon.
Off to the recipe...

Ingredients

Mushroom : 15 (1 packet)
Basmati Rice : 2 cups
Cardamom : 3
Onion : 2 sliced
Mint Leaves : 1/4 cup
Coriander leaves : 1/4 cup
Green Chilly : 2
Sugar : a pinch
Butter : 4 tbsp
Salt : to taste
Lemon juice : 1 tsp

Method

• In a pressure cooker heat 2 tbsp of butter, then add cardamom. Add cleaned basmati rice into this, saute for few minutes till all the moisture in the rice leaves out. Add water.
• Add salt and few drops of lemon juice. Cook the rice till one whistle. Wait till all the steam goes out.
• Thinly slice the mushrooms and onions after washing it nicely.
• In a pan, add 1 tbsp of butter and add the onions. Add little salt and saute them till they turn pink. Add the thinly sliced mushrooms. Mushrooms tend to cook and oozes out water too.
• When done add this to the rice.
• Make a fine paste of coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chillies.
• In another pan, add little butter and add this paste and add a pinch of sugar. Sugar is added to retain the color. Saute for a while and add this to the rice.
• Mix this gently and evenly.
• Mushroom pulao is ready to serve.

Spicy Chicken Curry With Chilly Garlic Sauce

This chicken curry is very easy to prepare and there is no grinding or any other complicated steps involved. The only time consuming part would be sauteing onions. Using kashmiri chilly powder is very important for this recipe because that gives the nice red color to this gravy.

Ingredients

Chicken small pieces(with bones) : 1 kg
Onion(thinly sliced) : 3
Garlic paste : 1 1/2 tbsp
Ginger paste : 1 1/2 tbsp
Tomatoes(chopped) : 2 big
Turmeric powder : 1 tsp
Pepper powder : 1/2 tsp
Kashmiri chilly powder : 2 tsp
Coriander powder : 1 tsp
Garam masala : 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida : a pinch
Chilly garlic sauce : 3 tbsp
Curry leaves : 2 sprigs
Oil : 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method

1. Take 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp Kashmiri chilly powder, 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste and salt in a bowl. Add cleaned chicken pieces into it and marinate for at least 1/2 hour.
2. In a deep wok, heat oil and add sliced onion and salt. Saute until onion become translucent.
3. Add remaining ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell goes.
4. Add tomatoes, cover and cook till tomatoes become mushy. Then add all the powders and saute for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the marinated chicken pieces to this gravy with 2tbsp of chilly garlic sauce, mix well and cook for 8-10 minutes. Mix in between so that it will not stick to the bottom. Then add 1/2 cup of water, cover and cook until the chicken completely done.
6. Off the flame and garnish with curry leaves and chilly garlic sauce.
7. Serve hot with Ghee Rice.

Recipe adapted from here

Elaneer Payasam / Tender Coconut Kheer

Elaneer payasam recipe is very simple and less time consuming, but it's tastes heavenly. 

Ingredients

Tender Coconut water : 3 cups ( 2 tender coconuts )

Tender coconut flesh : flesh from 2 tender coconut
Coconut Milk : 150 ml

Milk : 1 cup
Condensed Milk : 150 ml

Elaichi ( cardamom powder ) : a pinch

Method

Boil whole milk then pour condensed milk, when it becomes thick switch off the flame. Allow it to cool, then add coconut milk and cardamom powder into it and mix well.

Grind 3/4 part of coconut flesh along with enough coconut water, add this paste to the milk mixture.

Cut remaining coconut flesh into small pieces and add to the mixture. Now add remaining coconut water (adjust the amount of coconut water so that the payasam does not become too watery)

Chill the payasam atleast for 30 minutes and serve.