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. 

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.

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!

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

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.