Besan Laddoo

California is surrounded by the fire disaster right now. There are 2 fires and thousands of people missing. I became aware of the smoke outside when I went to my apartment balcony early morning last friday. The sun felt weak and the instant reaction as soon as I took a breath - it feels or rather smells exactly like how it use to in India after Diwali. Once I reached office, my coworkers started asking if its good to bike and that was the moment when I actually came to know about the fires. Ignorance was bliss! May be this is what grace looks like that we are sitting in between 2 fires and still able to breathe.

Its sad to see the damages that have happened with the fire, the number of people missing and a lot more suffering. Whatever may be the real cause, but it is time to rethink the amount of damage we do to mother nature. Its also a good time to remember to not be too proud of your achievements and donate what you can - nobody gets to take anything with them!

Coming back to Besan Laddoo, I have a funny memory related to besan laddoos. It was one of the year during my undergraduate in Pilani, 2004 I think. My photographic memory shows me a picture of me in my Malaviya bhavan room where we spent our last year. I had a jar of besan laddoos packed with me from home when the fall semester started in July/August. By the time laddoos reached pilani, they had all merged into each other due to the hot weather and the enormous amount of ghee so it was one big besan laddoo stuck in a jar. May be they all were meditating all throughout the journey from home to Pilani that by the end of it they just forgot their bodily boundaries and merged! I think I just used a spoon to eat laddoos after that :-)

Ingredients:

1. Besan (I used a mix of fine besan and coarse laddoo besan) - 3 cups

2. Ghee - 2/3 cups

3. Sugar - 1 cup

Steps:

1. Heat a pan and dry roast the besan and set it aside.

2. Heat ghee in the pan and add besan to it. Keep stirring it so that it doesn't burn.

3. Keep roasting until you can smell the roasted ghee and besan and the besan has turned brown.

4. Add sugar and mix well.

5. Take the mix off the heat and let it cool a bit. 

6. Make Laddoos by taking the mix in the palm and pressing it. 

7. Final trick to make them smooth and shiny is to just roll them inside the palm as you would normally do with the dice before rolling them. 

Kasaar

Oct 24, 2018 (Sharad Poornima)

'Kasaar', the word is not something native to my language but then this is what people around me use to call it growing up. I think we simply called it 'आटे का प्रसाद'. I also noticed that there is a similar dish name in Nepal and the recipe is also similar. Whatever the name but I am sure most folks have had it in some form or the other.

Its full moon day today! Somehow the moon never fails to amaze every single time. I have so many different memories with moon. We grew up singing 'चंदा मामा दूर के, पुए पकाये बूर के। .... ' that I am sure moon was wondering how come he got so many sisters. My 'real' name means moon or rather moon phases/moonbeams. All throughout our childhood full moon use to be a special day for us - mom would do the fast. We would listen to the satya narayan katha. My brother was responsible for reading it and my sister was responsible for blowing the conch. After that we would go see the moon and eat the prasad. Some days the moon would be hiding behind the clouds but we still got to eat the prasad. It would then be distributed to the neighbors as well. I made it today but in a healthy way to avoid overdose of sugar.

On multiple occasions I had the chance to see the Moon in the sky on one side while the Sun was rising on the other side. All so normal for both of them as if wishing each other a good night and good morning but the sight is absolutely mesmerizing!

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour (Aata)

2. Sugar or Gud (used Gud)

3. Ghee

4. Dry fruits (optional)

Steps:

1. Add a few teaspoons ghee to a heated pan.

2. Add the atta to it and keep stirring.

3. Add the cut dry fruits (fox nuts, almonds).

4. Keep stirring.

5. When it turns light brown, add sugar or gud to it.

6. Keep stirring and then take off the heat when the color is brown. 

Homemade Ghee

They say stories can create positive emotions! May be that's the reason people tell bed time stories to kids? So I will add my Ghee stories in this post. I guess the Ghee recipe is probably well known so nobody will care about that.

I have been making Ghee at home for quite some time now and eat it regularly. Something common with my parents who would boast about eating so much Ghee in their times. I have some good childhood memories associated with Ghee.

My mom use to make extra rotis during lunch when we were in school so we could eat those to get past the 3pm slump. We will eat those rotis as the lunch energy disappeared and my favorite was to eat them with 'ghee-cheeni'. It was a thing! Put good amount of Ghee on the roti and then spread sugar all around on the roti and them roll it up so that the sugar won't fall. I realize that I had a great affinity to sugar back then where I would put spoonful of sugar in the mouth when bored - the activity was called 'cheeni-phankna' :-). I remember how I never ate yogurt without sugar but then taste changes and now my taste is much more healthier.

So why make Ghee at home? If you are just bored doing nothing, it can keep you engaged for an hour or so - probably not the best motivation though. Here are some others:

Saves money - $4.69 for 1LB(450gm) butter which produced approx 375ml of Ghee. The same amount of readymade organic Ghee would cost more than $15 I guess. Talking about saving, its in my blood I guess to optimize and get the max value out of the money I spend. My parents never wasted anything to an extent that I have a few funny stories that I still tease them on how could they save so much. I didn't see any impulsive purchases happening around (except few ;) ) so it has really come to me mixed in the genes.

You know what you are eating - I mean you really know what happened to that butter and how it turned into Ghee.

Tastes great - I have a couple of old Indian store Ghee bottles lying around with some Ghee in it. I think I stopped liking it after a while. Homemade Ghee reminds me of old days when we use to sometimes get fresh cow milk (freshly milked from the cow in front of you!) and it tasted so good that I understood why I didn't like the normal buffalo milk taste. Freshness and purity made all the difference. Those raw experiences really help me appreciate a number of things in life more.

You get more! - The left over brown colored milk solids can be eaten with sugar like a cool dessert. We use to eat them as kids but not I just throw it away. Remember to throw it in the trash and not in the sink drain as it can clog it.

********************

For those who really wanted to read the recipe here is mine (nothing fancy).
Ingredients:
Unsalted Organic Butter - 1LB

Preparation:
1. Empty the butter sticks into a pan and put it on medium low heat.
2. Let the butter melt. Soon the milk solids will start separating from the fat which is ghee.
3. Keep heating on low heat, stirring it in between and let the milk solids become brown and settle at the bottom of the pan.
4. Once you see the clear ghee, turn off the heat.
5. Let the Ghee cool down.
6. Keep a bottle handy and use a paper towel or a thin cotton cloth as a funnel to filter the ghee.
7. Store the Ghee at room temperature.

Panjeeri

Adding a post to this blog after over 2 years. Reason? I made Panjeeri on Janamashtami and then some Laddoos on Ganesh Chaturthi for a friend. She liked the Laddoos and asked for the recipe so I decided to write it up. I am sharing my mom's (dad's? I always found both of them in the kitchen together on festivals so I am not sure who's recipe it use to be) Panjeeri/Ladoo recipe. I wish they could just write all these precious recipes down or better make videos. Since childhood we have been used to eating different kinds of Panjeeri on Janamashtami and making these brought back all those raw memories.

Ingredients:
1. makhane (fox nut)
2. badam (almonds)
3. kajoo (cashew)
4. bheej (melon seeds)
5. posta (poppy seeds)
6. kishmish (dried grapes) (optional) (I forgot to add them so I am putting it as optional :)
7. dry coconut powder
8. sugar
9. water

Preparation:
1. Heat a pan. Add 1/4 cup beej and roast them till they start to splutter. Keep them aside.
2. Now roast 1/4 cup posta till it's light brown or you can smell the roasted smell.
3. Add 1 cup makhana, 1/2 cup badam, 1/2 cup kajoo and add the beej and posta to this.
4. Now grind this mix and add some coconut powder and some cut kishmish to it.
5. Heat a pan and take 1/2 cup of sugar for each cup of the above ground mix.
6. Add the sugar and add 1/2 cup of water for each cup of sugar.
7. Now stir this to make sugar syrup with one 'taar'(wire between your index finger and thumb when you touch the sugar syrup). you keep stirring and heating and checking by your index finger and.thumb. take off the heat when you can find one 'taar' forming between your index finger and thumb if you move them apart
8. Now heat a pan and heat some ghee. Add the ground mix to this and then add the sugar syrup. Stir till the mixture leaves the pan.
9. Let the mix cool a bit (make sure it's not fully cooled down or it will get tough to make Ladoos)
10. Take the mix in your hand and make Ladoos by pressing it inside your fist.
11. Garnish by rolling the Ladoos on dry coconut powder.

If you want to make Panjeeri (cut into barfi style), then add the mix to a flat plate and then flatten it to an appropriate height as per your need. let the mix cool a bit and then cut them into polygons as per your desire.

Gobhi Parathe

Long weekend (Thanks to Martin Luther King) had been going great, with a lot of sleeping. I am not sure when I am going to get out of the jet lag mode. The cold weather acts like a catalyst to the sleep! Yesterday was the day when I cooked all meals. Wanted to avoid eating leftovers from lunch in dinner and thus the paratha plan. I have never made gobhi parathe myself so a trial was the plan. They turned out to be great (my expectations from myself were pretty low today).

Here is my recipe which is mostly similar to the several others available online:

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour
2. Oil
3. Water
4. Cauliflower 
5. Salt
6. Garam Masala
7. Green chili
8. Coriander leaves (I forgot to add these but you shouldn't)
9. Ginger
10. Amchur (mango) powder

Preparation:

1. Mix 1/2-1 teaspoon of oil (I use olive oil for almost everything in cooking) in the flour and some salt (as per taste) and make the dough (I usually use hot water) and set it aside.
2. Wash cauliflower and heat the flowers in microwave for 2-3 minutes to make them soft.
3. Grate the cauliflower and add finely chopped green chili and chopped/grated ginger.
4. Add salt, garam masala and mango powder. Add finely chopped coriander leaves as well.
5. Take 2 small balls of dough. Roll them each to about 3-4" diameter. 
6. Add the stuffing on top of one and place the other on top of this. 
7. Make sure to seal all around it. Roll and make it bigger based on your thickness preference.
8. Roast the paratha with oil on a pan. Ready to serve with anything you prefer. I like curd with paratha. You could also add some butter on top of the paratha but I am not a big fan of adding more calories on top of calorie heavy food on a lazy weekend.

Pahadi Raita

Pahad means 'hill' in Hindi and this raita recipe comes from the hills of Indian state Uttarakhand - my native. This is made in almost every festival in our homes and people love it in variety of tastes. Every time I taste Wasabi I get reminded of this raita. Even though I don't like cucumber, I like this raita. You would be surprised to know that there are specific small restaurants run by locals when you travel to Kumaon hills which are specifically famous for delicious raita and Aloo-ke-gutke.

Yesterday was a lazy day for me. I ended up making Kichdi for lunch and then remembered the saying: 'Kichdi ke chaar yaar, dahi, mooli, ghee, achaar' (4 sides are good to enjoy kichdi - yogurt, raddish, ghee, pickle). Luckily I had a cucumber so I made the raita in no time. Absolutely enjoyed the lunch.

I need to learn food photography!

Ingredients:

1. Cucumber
2. Yogurt
3. Mustard seeds
4. Salt
5. Green chili
6. Turmeric
7. Coriander leaves
8. Water

Preparation:

1. Soak mustard seeds ( yellow or black both will do). with little water and grind it to make fine paste. Keep it aside.
2. Peel cucumber and remove the seeds from inside.
3. Beat yogurt in a bowl and keep it aside.
4. Grate cucumber, squeeze all water from grated cucumber and add it (cucumber) to the yogurt. 
5. Add turmeric, finely chopped green chili, red chili powder and salt to this.
6. Add the mustard paste to it. Start by adding in small quantity as it takes about 30-60 min for the mustard flavor to rise.
7. Add chopped coriander on top.

Matar Paneer

Back after long time. No, no, I didn't stop cooking. I just could not post everything. Made stuffed eggplant (bharva baigan) and egg kadhi (yes kadhi!) recently. I also bought a nutribullet recently and trying different smoothies these days. Thanks to the friend who encouraged to not buy a juicer and instead get nutribullet.

So the lazy sunday started with a big glass of smoothie and then I was so full that I avoided eating anything else. 11am ginger tea is a must have on weekends for this tea addict but the worse effect of tea on me is that it makes me full for another hour or two. So I go in the kitchen at 12pm and find this paneer in the fridge. I had to finish this paneer if I really wanted to avoid letting it go in the trash can next week (ya the next full fledged cooking will be only next weekend). Somehow the paneer reminded me of the so called 'vegetable and paneer biryani' in office cafe. The irony is that most of the time there is no paneer in it and only potatoes in the name of vegetable. the other day I was thinking that they should just cook biryani and keep paneer cubes separately and just put one in everyone's plate. So here is the recipe for matar paneer. Nothing fancy or special.

Ingredients:
1. Paneer
2. Tomatoes - 2 (I had put 1.5 medium size tomatoes).
3. Onion (I used very less)
4. Ginger
5. Green chilli. 
6. Oil
7. Coriander powder
8. Turmeric powder
9. Garam masala
10. Salt, Jeera, fresh coriander leaves.

Preparation:
1. Cut onion and tomatoes. 
2. Toss onion, 1/2 inch cube of ginger and green chilli into oil and fry it till the onions are brown. Add tomatoes and let them turn soft.
3. Put the above in a blender and blend it into smooth paste.
4. Heat 1tsp oil and add jeera (and heeng) to it. 
5. Add the onion-tomato paste to it. 
6. and add water as needed.
7. Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala (as per your taste).
8. Add green peas and paneer cubes to it. 
9. Add salt.
10. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Thai curry

I have changed my routine where I only cook on weekends now. A weekend trip to the produce market is sometimes a feeling like it might be for a kid to go to a toy store. I decided that every weekend I will try to get some ingredient which I have never used before. This time I got habanero peppers. Along with that I picked up mushrooms, bell peppers and string beans. So I decide to make Thai curry with coconut milk. I head to the indian store and picked a can of coconut milk. Here is my recipe:

Thai curry

Ingredients:

1. Coconut milk - 1 can
2. Red and green bell pepper - 1 each
3. String beans - 6-7 beans
4. White mushrooms - 5-6
5. Tomatoes
6. Green onion - 1/2 bunch
7. Firm tofu - 2 inch cube
8. Spices - turmeric, coriander powder
9. Green chillies - 1-2
10. Mint leaves - 7-8
11. Coriander leaves
12. Lemon juice - 3 tsp. spoons
13. Olive oil - 1 tbsp. spoons
14. Cumin and mustard seeds
15. Ginger and garlic

Preparation:

1. Cut vegetables into pieces. Cut the bell peppers along their length.
2. Make puree out of mint and coriander leaves
3. Heat oil in a pan
4. Put cumin and mustard seeds
5. Now put long cut green chilli, small cut ginger and garlic. I also added few small cut pieces of habanero pepper. (Caution: use only small amount of habanero pepper. Its super hot)
6. Let the ginger garlic be light brown
7. Now add the small cut green onion and fry them for a minute
8. Add cut tomatoes
9. Add all the cut vegetables and mix well
10. Add turmeric and coriander powder
11. Add salt
12. Now add the mint and coriander puree
13. Add the lemon juice and mix everything well
14. Add 1/4 to 1/2 can of coconut milk
15. Add cubes of cut tofu and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes

Serve hot with rice. I got some rum cake as well and it went well as a desert after the thai lunch.

Dahi-Vade

Dahi-Vade

Holi is over this year but it cannot be complete without having dahi-vade. Since childhood I am so used to having dahi-vade on holi.  This was my first time making them myself.


Ingredients:
1. Urad daal - 1 small bowl
2. Tamarind - 1/4 small bowl
3. Oil
4. Salt
5. Red chilli powder
6. Roasted cumin seeds powder

Preparation:
1. Soak urad daal overnight  (I added a small amount of moong daal as well)
2. Soak tamarind in water in a bowl for an hour
3. Mash tamarind, keep the pulp and discard the rest.
4. Boil the tamarind mix and then add sugar (or jaggery), some salt and a bit of red chilli powder to it.
5. Boil till it thickens. Keep the tamarind chutney aside.
6. Grind the urad daal into a fine paste beat it a little.
7. Make vade with hand (add a piece of green chilli or a raisin) in between and deep fry them till light golden brown.
8. Heat water in a pan and add 1 tsp salt to it.
9. Add the cooled down vade to the hot water and keep for 10 min.
10. Remove the vade from the water and squeeze out extra water by putting them in between palms.
11. Beat curd in a bowl and add some water to it to make it little thin.
12. Add curd to the vade and add tamarind chutney on top.
13. Sprinkle salt, cumin powder and red chilli powder on top and serve.

Khajoor-Badam Laddoo (Dates-Almond balls)

Khajoor-badam laddoo

I tried Whole foods Dates-pecan rolls a while back at cousin's place. Wanted to make something sweet for Makar Sankranti so thought will try something healthy this time. Made a trip to whole foods specifically for the dates. Here is the simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Dates - 1 bowl
2. Almonds - 1/2 bowl
3. Dry grated coconut

Preparation:
1. Add dates and almonds in the grinder and fine grind it.
2. Make small balls out of this mixture.
3. Roll these bowls over the dry grated coconut to remove the stickiness.
4. You can also garnish with some dry fruits on top.

So far the easiest recipe in my list!

Guacamole (Avocado Sauce)

Guacamole

During lunch I remembered that I have 2 avocados sitting happily in my fridge. I got them to make guacamole last week and forgot. So I decided to do the honor before dinner and below is the recipe. Remember to make it in small quantity as it turns brown (due to oxidation) quickly and you don't want to eat discolored guacamole.

Ingredients:
1. 2 ripe avocado
2. Small red Onion
3. Tomato
4. Lemon Juice
5. Black pepper
6. Salt

Preparation:
1. Cut Avocado in half and then remove the seed. Use a spoon to take out the inside stuff in a bowl.
2. Mash the avocado in the bowl.
3. Add a pinch of black pepper in it.
4. Add finely chopped 1/2 onion in it.
5. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice in it.
6. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt in it.
7. Mix the ingredients in the bowl.
8. Finally add a small chopped tomato to it before serving.
9. Serve it with corn chips or you can also have it with roti or bread.

Avocado

Nan Khatai (Butter cookies)

Nan Khatai

It feels like ages since I have updated this blog. Yes I was lazying around with no motivation to do anything! My sisters tried making Nan khatai and i was tempted to eat those but unfortunately only got to taste it virtually. At 8:30pm I go into my kitchen to try my hands on making some nan-khatai. I checked several recipes online and then made my own version with ingredients I had available. By 9:30pm my cookies as well as my dinner was ready.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
1. 1/2 bowl Flour (Maida)
2. 1/2 bowl Semolina (Sooji)
3. 1/2 bowl Gram flour (besan)
4. 1/2 cup butter
5. 1/2-3/4 bowl powdered sugar
6. Baking soda (I used a pinch of Eno as a replacement)
7. Almonds, walnuts (optional)

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven at 375 F.
2. Mix sugar and butter in a bowl (Caution: Do not melt the butter. Let the butter soften on room temperature)
3. Beat the butter and the sugar mix.
4. Mix the flour mixture in the butter-sugar bowl.  (I added a pinch of Eno as well)
5. Knead the mix so that its soft. It might be a bit sticky. I tried putting the mix in refrigerator for 15 min to let it settle.
6. Make small balls out of the mix.
7. Flatten the ball a bit and place it on the oven sheet.
8. Sprinkle some fine cut almonds and walnuts on top. (this step is optional)
9. Bake the cookies for 15-16 min or until they are brown on the sides.
10. Let the cookies cool for a bit and then store them in an air tight box.

Just out of the oven

Palak ka Kaapa (Spinach Saag)

Palak ka Kaapa

Friday evenings are usually lazy for me. So today also I wanted to cook something quick and healthy so decided to cook something with spinach. The first thing which came to my mind was Kaapa which I wanted to make since some time but could not. A little background about this dish for those have no clue what this is. 'Kaapa' is a specific dish of Kumaon (part of Uttarakhand where I come from in India). There are many more savory dishes from Kumaon and I will focus on them from time to time when I try them. Palak ka Kaapa is made of spinach, curd and flour. It goes well with rice or roti. So heres the recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Spinach (250gms)
2. Curd ( 1/2 small bowl) (Beat it a little to make it smooth)
3. Rice paste (1/2 small bowl)
4. Cumin seeds (Jeera)
5. Asafoetida (Heeng)
6. Turmeric
7. Red chili powder (I use paprika powder instead of red chili powder in my cooking)
8. Oil
9. Salt
10. Water
11. Some hot spices (according to your own taste)

Preparation:
1. Wash and chop spinach. Boil it and keep it aside
2. Soak rice in water for 2 hours and then make paste out of it. (Of course I was lazy so I just heated the rice in water for some time and made a paste out of that)
3. In a pan, heat the oil.
4. Put heeng, jeera to it.
5. Now put turmeric and red chili powder and let the spices to get roasted.
6. Now add the boiled spinach to it. Save the water for later use from the boiled spinach.
7. Cook this for few minutes.
8. Add curd to it and keep mixing. Now add the rice paste and water from the boiled spinach to it.
9. Cook it for some time and keep mixing otherwise the rice paste can form lumps.
10. Add Salt and some garam masala (Hot spices) to make it.
11. Serve it with rice or roti.

Dont forget to eat some oranges ( and get vitamin C) to absorb all the iron you just got from Kaapa :)

Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna

I had bought all the ingredients for making lasagna last week but ended up using some of them for baking pizza twice. So finally I thought today is the day! Essentially it turned out to be an Italian food weekend. Now I feel all cheesy cheesy :) Hopefully next time I will plan to make something with less fat and more protein!

Before making lasagna, I spent some time reading about the way its made and I found that there is no one particular way. All the recipes were different.  So here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Vegetables (bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, tomato, green beans, cauliflower)
2. Garlic (1 clove)
3. 1-2 cup Pasta sauce
4. Dried basil
5. 1 cup mozzarella cheese
6. 1 Egg
7. 1 cup ricotta cheese ( I am using less than normal cheese)
8. Dried basil
9. Lasagna noodles
10. Olive Oil (2 tablespoon)

Preparation:

Sauce

Cheese sauce

1. Mix mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese and egg in a bowl and keep it aside.
2. Cut all vegetables in finely.
3. In a pan, heat oil and fry all the vegetables for 5 min.
4. Add the pasta sauce to it. Add 1 teaspoon basil to it. Let the mix simmer for 10 min.
5. Preheat the oven on 350 F.
6. In a deep oven pan, spread a layer (thin) of the above created vegetable sauce. Top it with the lasagna noodles. make sure that the noodles are on top of the sauce. spread a layer of the cheese sauce on top. Put another (thick this time) layer of the vegetable sauce on top. Repeat the layering. The last layer will be of the cheese sauce.
7. Cook this in the oven for 30-40 min.

8. Leave it to cool for some time.

9. Serve pieces with some salad as side.

After baking

Vegetable Pizza

Vegetable Pizza

It had been raining this whole week. It did not rain today but there was storm and even now I can hear the sound of wind and the trees waving outside. Overall a lazy weekend so while grabbing some stuff from Trader Joe's I decided to buy pizza dough. I wanted to avoid spending too much time making dinner tonight and I think pizza worked very well.

Ingredients:
1. Pizza dough (I used garlic and herb dough. You can even make it at home, Google more for that)
2. Small cut vegetables
3. Cheese (I used mozzarella cheese)
4. Marinara sauce
5. Small quantity of flour (to spread below the base)

Preparation:
1. Preheat the over at 450/500F for about 20-30 min
2. Spread a layer of flour on a flat pan
3. Put the dough ball on the pan and spread it so as to make a circle of around 12 inch diameter.
You can also use a roller to do so

Pizza dough spread on a flat pan

4. Spread marinara sauce above the base
5. Spread a layer of cheese above the sauce on the base
6. Spread the cut vegetables (green bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms etc) on top of the cheese

Marinara sauce spread on the base

Before putting toppings

Before baking

7. Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 min
8. Serve pizza hot with coke

In oven after baking

Gujiya

Gujiya

It was Holi last week so I decided to devote this weekend to the famous sweet of Holi celebration : Gujiya. People in North India make gujiya in different ways. I wanted to make Khoa gujiya and had been thinking since yesterday that I will go to Indian store and get some khoa and then the start of day light saving screwed up the whole schedule. So finally at 4pm today I started to make gujiya with some homemade khoa. Here is my recipe (modify the quantity according to the number of gujiyas you want to make). I made around 6 of them. 

Ingredients:
1. 1 bowl of flour (Maida)
2. 1/2 small bowl of Almonds
3. 1/4 small bowl of Cashews
4. 1/4 small bowl Raisins (kishmish)
5. 1/4 small bowl Sooji
6. 2-3 tablespoons Sugar
7. Shredded dry coconut (I did not use it but its also used in the filling)
8. Milk
9. Ghee
10. Khoa

Preparation:
Making Khoa:
I used milk to make khoa. Boil 2-3 cups of milk in a pan and keep stirring in between. Add 1 spoon of lemon juice to make it faster. Let the milk become dry to a granular mix (khoa)

1. Cut almonds and cashews into fine pieces
2. Cut the raisins into half and add to the above mix
3. Roast the sooji and keep aside
4. Add 1 tea spoon ghee to a pan and add the above prepared mix of dry fruits to it
5. Add the khoa and sooji also to it
6. Roast it for a few minutes and then add sugar and keep aside

Filling mix

7. Now prepare the dough for the gujiya shells
8. Add ghee to the maida and mix it well. Add water to the dough and knead it to make it soft
9.  Now make small balls of this dough and make round circles of about 4 inch diameter
10. Since I did not have a gujiya mould available, I just made them myself. I used a paperclip to stick the corners together.  Use maida mixed in few drops of water to stick the corners so as to make a half circular gujiya
11. Make all the gujiya and keep them aside.

Before frying

12. Heat oil/ghee to fry (I did not use ghee to fry) in a deep fry pan
13. Deep fry previously made gujiya on low to medium flame

Serve them hot or on normal temperature. You can even store them for few days.