Vanilla Cookies

 

These are easy to bake delicious cookies and kids love them.

Ingredients

3 cups refined flour for 35 cookies

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup solidified ghee (it should not be melted)

1 ½ cups sugar

1 Egg

 1 tsp vanilla essence

Instruction

-          Preheat oven to 190 degrees

-          Sieve refined flour, baking powder and baking soda

-          Beat sugar and ghee until smooth

-          Beat in egg and vanilla essence

-          Gradually add spoonfuls of flour mixture and blend well

-          Roll dough into gooseberry sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto oiled aluminium foil or ungreased  baking sheets.

-          Bake in the preheated oven for about ten minutes until the edges turn golden

-           Cool slightly, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

 

 

Tender Jackfruit Sabji Sri Lankan Style

 

This is a very delicious accompaniment for chapatis, also  good with boiled rice.

Ingredients:

2 cups of skinned, pressure cooked (for 4 minutes), and shredded tender jackfruit

1 medium sized onion thinly sliced

1 twig of curry leaves
2 dried red chillies, broken into two
2 tbsps of mustard oil
1 bay leaf
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
¼ tsp crushed pepper
¼ tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Instruction:

• Heat the oil, when it starts smoking, add the bay leaf, jeera, fenugreek seeds, and crushed pepper
• Add the sliced onion and curry leaves, reduce the flame and keep stirring.
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• When the onion lightly browns, add the shredded jackfruit, salt and red chilli powder.
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• Keep stirring till it turns brown and crispy.

 

Ragi Drink

 

This is a very healthy and soothing drink. It is taken hot during cold season and cold during summer. A very popular drink of Karnataka. 

Ingredients

2 tsps ragi flour

4 tbsps butter milk

1 tsp grated ginger

500 ml water

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Mix the ragi flour and grated ginger in the butter milk and leave it overnight.

-           Boil 500 ml of water, now add the ragi mix and stir nicely.

-          Let it boil on low flame for about ten minutes, when nice aroma spreads. Remove from fire. It will stay for two days at room temperature.

-          Can garnish with cut coriander leaves.

-          Serve hot if it is cold season and refrigerate and serve cold in summer.

Sweet potato curry (Madhura kizhangu pulinkary)

 

This is a nice curry that goes well with boiled rice. I have had it during childhood in Kerala.

Ingredients

2 cups peeled, cleaned, diced sweet potatoes

A small ball of tamarind, soak in half cup water for 2 hours, mix and squeeze out and discard the tamarind remains

A small onion cut fine

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

Salt to taste

2 cups water

To temper

1 tbsp oil

1/3 tsp mustard seeds

1 red chilli broken to pieces

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Add the cut onion, salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and the tamarind water to the diced sweet potatoes. Pour water into this and keep on high flame.

-          When it boils, reduce the flame and partly cover it. Let it simmer till well cooked, which will take about 10 to 15 minutes.

-          Remove from fire and add the seasoning.