Vegetable Kurma

 

There is this wonderful dish of vegetable kurma that is served in restaurants with puris and Mysore buns. I just love its aroma and was so happy when I made it at home last week. Here is how:

Ingredients:

½ cup peeled and cubed carrot

½ cup peeled and cubed potato

½ cup green peas

½ cup flowerets of cauli flower

3 baby corns split lengthwise and cut into ½ inch pieces (optional)

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

A few curry leaves

2 cardamoms

A small cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

1 onion sliced

2 green chillis

2 tsps ginger garlic paste

1 tomato cut fine

Salt to taste

3  cups water

To grind

¾ cup grated coconut

A few mint leaves

¾ tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp poppy seeds

A few cashew nuts

2 cloves

Instruction

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add cardamoms, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cloves and stir.

-          Add curry leaves and sliced onion. Saute for some time, when the onion turn transparent, add green chillis and ginger garlic paste.

-          Stir for two minutes and add the cut tomato. Keep stirring in between and when the tomato turns mushy, add carrot pieces, then potato, baby corn pieces, cauli flower, and green peas.

-          Saute for two minutes, add salt and water. When it comes to boil, cover it, reduce the flame and cook for ten minutes.

-          Meanwhile grind all the ingredients with some water to a smooth paste and mix it in to the cooked vegetables. Add more water if needed, mix well and simmer for five minutes.

-          It is ready to be served with chapatis.

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