Jackfruit Cookies

 

These are awesome cookies, crispy, crunchy, with awesome aroma and flavour, an excellent accompaniment to tea or coffee.

Ingredients

¾ cup refined flour

½ cup wheat flour

½ cup sugar

¾ tsp cardamom powder

1/4 tsp dried ginger powder

½ cup finely chopped jackfruit

⅔ cup ghee

¼ teaspoon salt

Instruction

-          Mix together the flours, sugar, salt, dried ginger powder and cardamom powder.

-          Add the ghee and knead well, adding the finely cut jackfruit pieces too.

-          Roll this dough into a log, wrap in cling film and freeze for 20 minutes.

-          Preheat the oven to 250 degrees celcius.

-          Take out the dough from the freezer, cut into ½ inch thick slices.

-          Place them on a greased aluminium foil about 2 inches apart and bake for 20 minutes at 250 degrees. The top will be golden in color and the sides brown.

-          Take out from the oven and let them cool completely.

-          Store in airtight container.

 

 

Caramelized Jackfruit Cake

Jackfruit season is the time I want to do something new with this amazing fruit. Last year I made Panache Dhonas, this year I tried caramelized jackfruit cake. Sent some of it to a friend, who is a great cook herself, and she said, “It was so delicious. I give you 200 % marks.” Coming from her, it was a great complement to me. Here is the recipe, in case you want to make it and enjoy! I was having many things to do on the day I baked it, so couldn’t take too many photographs. You can watch the steps from this video for the caramelizing part, I adopted the core recipe from HERE. 

Ingredients

½ cup sugar to make the caramel syrup

¼ cup water to make the caramel syrup

½ cup sugar

1 cup wheat flour

2 tbsps semolina (this is optional, you can replace it with wheat flour)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

2 eggs

½ cup oil

¾ tsp vanilla essence

1/3 tsp dried ginger powder(this I add to every jackfruit preparation as it doesn’t cause any stomach upset in prone people)

10  deseeded bulbs of jackfruit

1 tbsp cashews

1 tbsp raisins

Instruction

-          Keep ½ cup sugar in a thick bottomed pan on low/medium flame and let it liquefy, stirring in between. When it is totally liquefied, slowly and carefully add the ¼ cup water (be careful, it will splatter). Make the flame low and keep stirring till the caramelized portion dissolves completely. Keep aside for it to cool. Caramelized sugar gives a wonderful color to the cake.

-          Grind the jackfruit pulps into a paste

-          Sieve together the wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the dried ginger powder and semolina. 

-          Beat the eggs, add vanilla essence, sugar and the oil in sequence, mix well.

-          Mix in the caramelized syrup, jackfruit pulp, and finally add the flour in spoonfuls, mixing in thoroughly.

-          Mix a little dry flour with cashews and raisins, fold this in gently into the batter.

-          Grease a baking vessel, pour in the batter. 

-          Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

-          Cool and cut into pieces.

 

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Mysore Puris

 

I learned the recipe of Mysore Puris in Manipal way back in 1985, and prepare this at least once a year . Usually it is served with potato tomato curry and raita.

Ingredients

2 cups refined flour (for 12 puris)

3 small potatoes boiled peeled and mashed

4 bread slices

2 tsps ghee

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tbsps water

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Dip bread slices in water, gently squeeze and keep aside for 15 minutes.

-          Knead together the bread slices, mashed potatoes, ghee, salt and water into a smooth dough

-          Divide into 12 balls, roll each ball between palms smeared with ghee, applying some pressure

-          Heat oil, keep on medium flame, spread each ball into round and fry on both sides

Mysore puris served with pumpkin sabzi and potato tomato curry

Chamcham that I learned in Libya

In the late 1980, we Indians in Libya were very closely knit and used to have many gatherings. Once I tasted this chamcham and took the recipe. My younger daughter liked it so much that I taught her how to make when she was around 5 years of age, as in our house, if somebody liked a dish, he/she should learn how to make it.

Ingredients

10 heaped tablespoons of Milk powder

1 small egg

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp baking powder

For syrup

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

For the covering

3 tbsps milk powder

Instruction

-          Keep the sugar and water on low fire.

-          Knead the first four ingredients to a stiff dough. Sprinkle water if needed. I didn’t have to add water today.

-          Make 21 balls by rotating between moistened palms with some pressure and keep on an oiled plate.

-          By the time you finish this, the sugar would have dissolved completely in the water.

-          Drop each ball slowly into the sugar syrup kept on low fire. Keep sprinkling some sugar over this every five minutes or so.

-          When the sugar syrup is almost finished and the balls have become double the size (takes about 15 minutes), remove from the fire, drain the balls and spread on a plate to cool.

-          Take some milk powder in a plate, roll each ball in this to coat all the surfaces. Can be served now, but it tastes better after refrigeration.  

Broken Wheat Laddu

 

This is an easy to prepare, delicious sweet which tastes similar to boondi laddu.

Ingredients

1 cup broken wheat (for 7 laddus)

2 tbsps ghee

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp raisins

4 cups boiling water

A pinch of food color

¼ tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of nutmeg powder

Instruction

-          Heat ghee in a kadai and add broken wheat. Keep stirring on medium flame till the color changes and aroma comes. Meanwhile put the water to boil.

-          Add the sugar, raisins, and boiling water to the roasted broken wheat. Mix well, cover it, and reduce the flame. In between open and stir it a couple of times.

-          When it is somewhat thickened, add food color, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.

-          When all the water has evaporated, remove from fire and let it cool.

-          Make laddoos and enjoy!

Thepla

This is a very nice snack/breakfast/lunch item.

Ingredients

-          2 cups wheat flour (for 6 theplas)

-          1 ½ cups finely cut fenugreek leaves

-          Salt to taste

-          ¼ tsp red chilli powder

-          ¼ tsp turmeric powder

-          A pinch of garam masala powder

-          1 green chilli finely cut

-          ½ tsp grated ginger

-          1/3 tsp ajwain  seeds

-          1 tbsp oil

-          ¼ cup beaten curds

-          Water

Instruction

-          Mix all the ingredients except water first. Then slowly keep adding water and kneading to get a soft dough.

-          Smear oil on the surface of the dough and keep covered for about 20 minutes.

-          Divide the dough into 6, roll each portion into thin rounds, cook on a hot thava, drizzling some oil on both sides

-          Serve with pickle and curds, or with any sabzi.

                    Here, thepla is served for breakfast, with cabbage peas sabzi and water melon

Banana Coconut Cake

Two ripe bananas were eyeing me from the dining table. I moved to the kitchen and the grated dried coconut (copra filings) looked at me longingly. Yes, I got the message – time to bring them together in a cake. So that’s what I did. And it turned out to be such a delicious one, with the divine aroma of nutmeg and cardamom! The lightness it was imparting, was it because of the added butter milk? No idea.

Ingredients

-       ½ cup wheat flour

-       ¾  cup refined flour (maida)

-        ½  tablespoon baking soda

-       A pinch of salt

-       ¼  tsp nutmeg powder

-       ¼ tsp cardamom powder

-       ¾ cup  sugar

-       ¼ cup ghee

-       1 egg

-       2 ripe bananas, mashed

-       ¼ cup grated dry coconut (you can omit this item too)

-       ½ cup buttermilk

Instruction

-Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease and flour the baking dish, or just line with baking paper, which I do.

- Sieve the flours, baking soda, and salt together, add the nutmeg and cardamom powder and keep aside.

- Mix together sugar and ghee in a large bowl till it becomes fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.

- Mix in mashed bananas and grated coconut.

- Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, mixing well after each addition.

- Pour batter into the prepared dish.

- Bake in the preheated oven until cake springs back when gently pressed, or a tooth pick inserted deep comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack or towel. Slice when cool and serve with tea/coffee. Be ready to get complements J