Kara sevu

Karam - spicy hot; sevu - fried noodle like crispies.

Chevu or sev is a very common spicy snack in the rural areas of Tamilnadu. We can get two versions of it. One belonging to the villages of Southern Tamilnadu, the very spicy HOT 'kovilpatti kara sevu' and the next one is called 'lala mittai shop's butter sevu'.
I prefer the  'spicy kara sev' better. It is a very simple recipe and won't demand much skills as we need for a murukku. My mom used to make them for us in a very spicy manner, which my elder brother exclaims as smoky HOT and I am sharing her recipe here. It is a ritual nowadays in our house to make some snacks before weekend, that too a must during winter:) I have to stock up a small batch for hubby's snack needs before he buys home whatever he sees.

Kara sev stacked.

Ingredients:

Besan flour (bengal gram flour) - 2 cup
rice flour - 1/4 cup
salt - as per need
oil - to deep fry

To grind:

dry red chillies - 6
ajwain (bishop's weed / omam) - 1 tsp
whole black pepper - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
garlic - 4 cloves

Utensils:

A murukku press.
A wide wok to deep fry.
slotted spatula

Method:

Grind the items in a blender to a medium coarse texture.
Mix that masala with the flours, add salt and 2 tbsp of hot oil.
(Adding hot oil reduces oil absorption while frying).
Add required water and knead into a soft chapathi dough consistency.
Fill the 'murukku press' with the prepared dough.
Heat the oil in a wok.
Press the dough in circular form as shown below.

Kara sev after frying.

Flip once and take out after the bubbles disappear.
Drain excess oil and place over paper towels.
Kara chev is ready!

Tips:

Perfectly prepared kara sev should not be oily.
Always keep the gram flour in refrigerator,this will result less oil absorption.
Add some hot oil while kneading the dough to get a crispier sev without much oil.

Serving suggestions:

Break it into long pieces.
Allow it to cool completely and store in air tight container.
Serve as snack with tea.

Event:
Though this kara sev contains very little ajwain (omam), it will have much flavor from ajwain.
So I am sending this kara sev to 'Cooking with seeds event - Ajwain' hosted by Kavita of 'seasoned and dressed' . The event is the brain child of 'Priya.' of  'Priya's easy and tasty recipes'. Happy hosting dear!

Rasmalai

Happy New year to all!
Here is a famous and delicious Indian dessert to welcome the New year.  Usually rasmalai is prepared from scratch.  But  I have used Gits ready made rasmalai mix here and explained the authentic method too.

The pack contains two sachets. One is for the chenna and the other contains nuts / thickeners to add to milk. Prepare chenna as per directions and make flat balls. Cook them in hot water (in LOW HEAT and kept open). In the same time prepare sugar syrup and immerse the cheese balls in it for 10 minutes.

Now start boiling the required quantity of milk in a broad vessel and add the contents of next sachet. Add the soaked rasgullas to the milk mixture and let it cool.Yields 16 rasmalai. Keep refrigerated overnight and serve chilled.

                    Authentic method:

Below is the traditional procedure I follow. The readymade version will not call for much effort, whereas this authentic procedure will yield more stiff and delicious rasmalais:)

                         Step 1

Ingredients:

Milk (full fat) - 1 litre (5 cups)
AP flour (maida) - 2 tsp
Lemon - 1
(or)vinegar - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Rose essence - 3 drops
(or)cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Boil milk in a vessel.
Squeeze the lemon and mix 1/2 cup water to the juice.
Add the lemon juice / vinegar to the boiling milk and stir slowly.
Put off heat.
Now the milk gets curdled to form paneer (a cheese variety).

Place a cheese cloth / new white cloth over the strainer and pour the curdled milk.
Pour some cold water to remove the lemon's sourness.
Squeeze out all the water and make a bundle using the cloth. Place it on the strainer or hang over a kitchen sink to loose all the water content.
Let it remain in this position for 45 mins to 2 hours , depending upon the quantity.

The hard cheese we get is called chenna. We can buy it in Indian grocery stores also.

Now knead the chenna to make a smooth dough. Add flour and knead again.

Make small balls of equal size of 1.5 cm diameter approximately, flatten it slightly and keep aside.

In another vessel mix sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to boil.

Once it starts boiling add the chenna balls and cook covered for 30 minutes (with lid partially open and in LOW HEAT).

The rasagulla will become double the size.

Drop one ball in cold water and if it sinks to the bottom , then it is cooked well.
If not so , then cook for another 5 minutes.

Switch off flame.

                    Step 2
Whole Milk - 1/2 liter
condensed milk - 4 tbsp
sugar - 6 tbsp
cardamom (powdered)- 5
pistachio - 5
Almond - 10
saffron - few strands

Soak the almond overnight and remove the skin. Grind it to a fine paste.
Bring the milk to a boil, add the almond paste. Switch off and add the cardamom powder, sugar, chopped pistachio and saffron.

Take the rasgulla from sugar syrup and immerse them in this milk sauce. Refrigerate overnight and serve chilled.

Serving suggestions:

Makes 20 rasmalai (approximately).
Place one rasmalai in a bowl along with a generous helping of milk sauce.
Serve as dessert.



*** world4art.com - Orkut New Year scraps, graphic and comments ! ***