Kaju Katli

Wishing all my friends and readers a happy and blessed Varalakshmi Nonbu!

Hope many are busy with the Varalakshmi Nonbu pooja preparations. Here is an extremely easy dessert to make this day more special and let it be a good start.

Cashew burfi or kaju kathli is a famous dessert available in almost all the sweet stalls of India. It will be the first choice for many who do the snack shopping while planning to meet a friend or family.

Memories: Mom would buy some broken cashews (the powdery one we get for making kuruma) and do this. Her method involves soaking the cashews in milk for a couple of hours and make a fine paste out of it. Then She would prepare a sugar syrup of 2 string consistency and add this cashew paste,  little ghee. Then she would stir it in low heat till it starts leaving the sides and pour them on a ghee greased plate to make slices.
I have tried this before and I am sure it will be extremely delicious.

But I am describing a much easier version which I got from my friends. I think this is a short cut and much prevalent than my mom's:) Anyways we won't go wrong with any of these methods.

A box full of happiness and smile......Kaju katli:)

Ingredients:

Cashew nut (broken) - 1 cup
sugar - 1 cup
ghee - 1 tsp
water - 1/4 cup

Method:

Powder the cashew to a fine state.

Pour the water and sugar in a wok and start heating. Let it come to a boiling stage. Then reduce flame and heat till we get a single thread consistency.
Now add the cashew powder and mix well. Reduce flame to the lowest and stir continuously till it starts leaving the sides. Switch off.
Let it cool slightly. Now knead it like chapathi dough with ghee and place it over a clean plate / countertop. If powdery add a few drops of milk (or) if it is loose them MW it / stir in low flame again. It should be like a dough and much workable.
Press with a rolling pin and flatten it to 1/2 inch thick sheet. Make diagonal lines and cut that into 2 inch diamonds.

Place them on a greased plate and cool completely. Store in a clean dry vessel.

Kaju katli is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Makes a rich dessert.
Number of slices: Can't remember that:) so please count them from the picture and lemme know :)

Event:

kaju Katli goes to 'Mehjabeen Arif's Iftar night' event.

Wishing you all a blessed ramadan too. Happy hosting dear!

Brinjal Raitha

When it comes to vegetable shopping, I can't finish without a  few eggplants. I am always excited to see the purplish ones (big American variety) but also love those with thorns (rare Vellore variety), green round brinjal with crunchy seeds (Thai variety), long purple brinjal (Chinese eggplant), the white buttery brinjal (Tirunelveli Vennai kathirikkai), white with purple stripes (Madras variety) .....OMG! I love all of them:) Click to read how this brinjal lover admires it and its origin:)
So I try as many recipes as possible with them till hubby thinks of other plans to stop me:)
Here is my favorite brinjal pachadi or raitha. Hope you all like it.

Broiled brinjal.

Ingredients:

Eggplant - 1 (100 gm / medium size)
onion - 2 tbsp
green chilly - 1
cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
plain Indian yogurt (fat free) - 1 cup
salt - to taste
curry leaf - 1 sprig
cilantro - 1 plant
mustard - 1/2 tsp
olive oil - 1 tsp

Method:

Apply a drop of oil all over the brinjal and stick a skewer to it.
Show it over burning flame and cook in that open fire till the eggplant's skin gets charred. We can do this in broiling mode in oven also, but it will take more time.
Let it cool.

Peel the skin and coarsely mash it.

Add finely chopped onion, green chillies, cilantro along with require salt and curd.

Heat a wok with a 1/2 tsp oil, splutter the mustard seed, curry leaves and pour over the raita. Sprinkle some cumin powder.

Brinjal raitha is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve with roti while making channa masala or any dal based curry.
Can be used as a dip also.

Tips:

Brinjals are low in calorie with more fiber. Good for intestines and relives gas problems. So traditionally they cook the lentils/ dals with brinjal.....e.g., brinjal sambar, mochai kathiri kulambu etc.