Murukku

Murukku is an Indian snack served along with coffee or tea. It is generally prepared with rice flour and a gram flour.

Xav loves murukku with coffee like anything. So, I specially made it for him.
Here is the murukku I prepared for hubby as my Christmas gift.

I know, making murukku is not a big deal for anyone who loves to cook. But I have not ventured myself in this art for quite a long time because of my fear on hot oil:( There are so many ways to make murukku, but I planned to follow my mother's recipe , which has never disappointed me at any point of time :)

I started by 10.30 Am and completed successfully by 12 noon. So it took just 1.30 hours totally and voila my secret gift for Xav got ready 2 days before Christmas. But I could not be so hard-hearted to hide it from him till the Eve:)

Roasted Urid dhal:



Kneaded murukku dough:



Murukku before frying:



(At this stage the murukku should not have much cracks. If so add some more water and knead the dough again to check for the uninterrupted flow. This will yield smooth and crispy murukku).


Fried murukku:



Ingredients:
Rice flour - 4 cups
(If you have a flour mill in your vicinty (just like Indian flour mills), then soak 4 cups of unboiled rice (pacharisi) for 2 hours, drain the rice and prepare flour. Otherwise we can use store bought flour also. But the ratio should be always 4 : 1)
Urid dhal (Black gram) - 1 cup (without skin)
Butter - 5 tbsp (1 tbsp / rice + dhal mix)
Cumin - 1 tbsp
sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
Hing (Asafoetida) - 1/8 tsp
Salt per taste
coconut milk - 1/2 cup (optional)
Water for mixing - (nearly 3 cups of water)
Oil - to deep fry (500 ml)

Method:
Heat a wok and dry roast the urid dhal till it we get a nice flavor and starts to turn golden (not red). Keep aside and let it cool. Then dry grind it to a fine powder using an Indian mixer.

In the same wok , dry roast the rice flour for about 10 minutes . When we touch it , we should feel it like river sand. Then let it cool.

Put both the flours in a large mixing bowl . Add cumin, sesame, asafoetida and butter. Mix well.

Take 2 cups of water and add 3/4 tsp salt for every cup of flour. Mix this salt water along with coconut milk with the flour and knead to a soft chapathi dough consistency.

Now check salt and add more mixing with water,if necessary.

Fit a 3 hole plate in the murukku mold and fill it with dough.

In the mean time heat the oil in a wide pan till smoking point. Then reduce flame and press the murukku in circular shape into the hot oil.
Flip once after one side is done.

After the hissing sound and bubbles subdue, drain and remove the murukku. Place them on paper towel and store them in air tight containers after they get cool.


Murukku is ready!

Note:
Makes 15 big size murukku or 30 murukku of our palm diameter.

Creamy pasta.

This pasta dish is a favorite one in our house. With very few steps and lesser time we can get a delicious meal. Hope you all like it.
Just for my reference , I have written the brands I used, hope it will be interesting to look back:).



Cooking the pasta:
Rotini Pasta (or)any big size pasta - 1.5 cups (uncooked)
(I used whole wheat rotini pasta , ShopRite store brand)
Water - 5 cups
First bring the water to boil and add the pasta and cook al dente. (Al dente means cooked completely but firm)
Drain water and run it under cold water.

Preparing the vegetables:
Ranch dressing - 6 tbsp
(I used less calorie fit active brand)
Shredded mozzarella cheese - 1/4 cup
Broccoli / spinach - 1 cup
Red onion - 1/4 cup (chopped)
Green beans, fresh peas, carrot, olives - 1 cup (together)
garlic - 2 cloves
olive oil - 1 tbsp
Italian seasoning - 1 tsp

Chop the vegetables into big pieces.
Heat oil in a wok. Add the crushed garlic followed by the onion and chopped vegetables.
Add salt to taste. Sprinkle some water and cook covered till they turn tender crisp.
Switch off flame .

Method:
Mix the sauteed vegetables with cooked pasta and olives. Stir well.
Add shredded cheese while the pasta is hot.
Mix the ranch dressing before serving.

Serving suggestions:
Serves two.
Garnish with a few drops of tomato sauce.
Some protein rich sides like boiled eggs or baked chicken can make this meal a wholesome one.

You may also like:
1.Have a glance at how my friend Gita prepared the chicken fry in oven.
2.My chicken kickers.

Gulab Jamun.

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New year my friends!

After a short vacation , I am very glad to present a well known Indian dessert , the Gulab Jamun.

Gulab means Rose flower and Jamun means a dark colored fruit called Naval pazham (Tamil). Mostly they soak the fried khoya dough balls in oil and soak them in rose scented sugar surup or honey or cardamom + saffron mixed sugar syrup.

The traditional method is to prepare / buy sugarless paal kova (khoya in Hindi / extremely condensed milk in form of creamy white semi solid) and mix it with maida flour to make jamuns.

It is my mother's technique to make gova at home by evaporating milk with lot of stirring, then add a tsp of rice flour + sugar to get the finishing touch. (For making GulabJamun we need not add sugar in ghova.) Then she would knead the gova (if we leave them behind ..hi hi) with careful addition of All purpose flour, baking soda ....mix them to get the small balls..fry them in ghee ..soak in sugar syrup....OMG! a lot of work ..huh!

But for me the easiest way is to buy a readymade Jamun mix. Anyways it still needs some technique to get a flawless one and I am giving out my procedure.



Ingredients:
Gulab jamun mix - 1 1/4 cup (250 ml)
(I used Gits brand)
water - 1/4 cup (Check instructions in your package carefully)

ghee / oil for deep frying - 100 ml

Sugar - 2 cups (400 gms)
water - 2 cups (equal measures of sugar)
Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp
saffron - few strands.

Method:
Pour the mix from sachet in to a mixing bowl.

Using your hand gently break down all the lumps.

Immediately add all the water given in the instruction (adding little by little will create lumps and we may need more time to straighten it).
Mix well. At this stage the dough may seem a little sticky.
Allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Now the dough will become hard like chapathi dough.
Divide it into 20 equal parts and make smooth balls of 1 inch diameter with your hand.
Apply ghee / oil to make crack-less balls.
(If our dough is perfect ,we won't need oil to make it smooth).

Prepare sugar syrup in a wide vessel. Boil it for 10 minutes to get a single thread consistency.
(Single thread - If we pour the syrup by using a spatula , the last drop should fall as a single drop/ thread)
Add cardamom and saffron to it. Keep it in low heat.

Heat oil in a wok. Reduce flame to minimum and slowly fry the balls to a reddish brown color.
Drain oil and put it in hot syrup.

Take off the heat for sugar syrup now.

Likewise continue for all the jamuns and add them to the syrup.

Now leave it open till the gulabjamun gets cooled. Let them soak overnight or atleast 5 hours.

GulabJamun is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve it in small bowls with a generous helping of sugar syrup.
Decorate it with slivered almonds , pistachio (if desired).
Serve chilled as dessert after a grand dinner.

Tips:
The secret to get flawless gulabjamun lies in the dough and ball preparation. If we see any crack in the ball before frying, then redo it with very little ghee.
The diameter of the ball before frying should be 1 - 1.5 inches.

Important points:
One of the biggest challenges we face is to get a correct water + flour mixture.
So fry one ball, immerse in sugar solution and wait for 10 minutes to see if we get the correct taste. It is a must , if we make large batches.
If the jamun seems not cooked at center, then reduce the flame. Because high flame leaves the center raw.
If the jamun has more water content, ADD milk powder. NEVER add maida or any flour to suck the extra water added. It is very important hint in getting successful gulabjamuns. So keep some milk powder handy (Milk powders never go waste...hi..hi).
If the jeera is not absorbed properly, then increase the thickness of syrup by adding more sugar and heat to get a thicker sugar syrup.

Carrot Halwa

Halwa means a fudge like sweet / dessert. Indians make a wide variety of halwa using flours, nuts, fruits, vegetables and the halwa gets the name of the main ingredient. Among them all, the carrot halwa is very popular worldwide. It is served as dessert during Indian weddings, festivals like Diwali , Christmas, Eid and in restaurants.
Halwa or halva came to India through the traders from Middle East during the Mughal period in India.
Other popular halwas are :
Flour based - sooji ka halva (rava kesari),  wheat halwa, coconut oil muscat halwa, besan halwa
fruits halwa - banana halwa, pine apple kesari halwa
vegetable halwa - pumpkin halwa, carrot halwa, white pumpkin kaasi halwa, beetroot halwa
milk and nut halwa - milk halwa (pal kova), badam almond halwa, pistachio halwa

Here is a well known simple but delicious Indian dessert. There are so many ways to prepare carrot halwa. My recipe includes a milk based carrot halwa, but we can make it with lesser milk too. I am sure you all will love this recipe. Try this and let me know.

Ingredients:
carrot (shredded) - 4 cups
whole milk - 3 cups
condensed milk - 6 tbsp (or) make paneer from 2 cups of milk.
(Click to see my paneer preparation)
sugar - 1 cup
cardamom - 1/2 tsp
saffron - a few strands
ghee - 2 tbsp
almond - 10
cashew - 10
raisin - 10

Method:

Shredding:

Wash and scrape the skin of carrot.Discard the ends. Grate it in bigger teeth of the grater. I don't prefer vegetable chopper for this, as we won't get the restaurant touch by using it.
(Anyways the halwa is going to increase my calorie intake and no harm in giving some exercise by manual shredding..he..he..)



Halwa:
We may need a non stick vessel or a heavy bottom wok.

Fry the nuts and raisins in 2 tbsp ghee. Keep aside.
In the same pan add the shredded carrots and fry till raw smell vanishes.
Now add milk to it.
Wait till the milk is absorbed. Add the saffron now.

After that add sugar and let all the water in carrot gets evaporated.

Add condensed milk / paneer and mix well.
Stir continuously in medium heat till the carrot halwa starts leaving the sides.

Now add the fried nuts, raisins and put off fire. Mix the cardamom powder.

Carrot Halwa is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot or cold as dessert.
It would be an excellent choice for a tea party along with vadai, masala chai and this halwa:)
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merry Christmas !








Wish you all a Merry Christmas
as well as
beautiful, Prosperous and Blessed
Happy New Year!


Love,
Viki.


------------------------------

Update:

 April 25, 2012 (Wednesday) Carrot halwa I made for International food festival in hubby's office  

This time I improvised my earlier recipe and got it more delicious.

Ingredients:

Carrot - 2 kg
condensed milk - 1 1/2 tin
whole milk - 3/4 liter
whole milk - 1 cup
ghee - 1/2 cup
sugar - 2 cup
cardamom - 1 tsp
bay leaf - 2
cloves - 4
cashew, pistachio, almond, raisin - 2 tbsp each
home made fondant flowers - to decorate

Method: 

Shred the carrot in bigger side of mandolin. Fry them 1/4 cup ghee with bay leaf.
Add 1 cup whole milk and cook well. after it is cooked (10 minutes), add sugar, condensed milk.
 Let all moisture evaporate (1 hour) in low heat and constant stirring.

Boil the milk and add juice from 1/2 lemon and boil for a minute. Strain and get the cheese (cheena). (Reserve the whey water for cooking rice or face wash).

 Remove all liquid from chenna and add to the carrot halwa. Mix well. Fry the raisins and nuts in 1/4 cup ghee and add to the halwa. Heat till the carrot halwa leaves the edges. Add cardamom powder. Keep in serving tray. Garnish with shredded almond. Decorate as per need.

 Takes almost 2 hours.
Makes more than 30 - 35 generous serving.

Sweet note:
Thanks to hubby dear, I made it easy, as he shredded the carrots for me:)

Muttai kuzhambu (poached)

Muttai kulambu is again a simple curry prepared in Indian households.
(Muttai means Egg and Kuzhambu or kulambu means gravy).

A touching novel (I can't remember the title) explains like this while describing a lower middle class Indian family...In India Sundays are the family days and we can smell great flavors in air through almost all the chimneys in the street. A poor mother in that novel tries to make something special for their Sunday lunch and finally fixed a tasty meal within their budget. She tells like this....'Dry fish curry can be equated to the real fish curry and muttai kuzhambu for chicken curry' what a lovely thought ..right! Happiness is purely a choice and we get what we choose !!!! Some stories like this leave a permanent mark in our hearts .....

Muttai kuzhambu is always my first choice whenever I run out of ideas or time or chicken:)

Egg curry can be prepared in numerous ways. I know many who prefer hard boiled egg curry along with biryani. That would be very attractive and easy to serve as well. I will post mine soon.

But here is another method called the Poached egg curry or 'udachi oothina muttai kulambu' (Tamil).The raw eggs are simply poured into the boiling curry and cooked in that flavorful masala . This will arouse more flavor because of the great combination of egg and masala.

This is my mom's favorite version.



Ingredients:
Egg - 3
Onion - 1
tomato - 2
oil - 2 tbsp
fennel (sombu) - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
Turmeric - a pinch

To fry and grind:
channa dhal - 1 tbsp
coriander seed - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp
cashews - 5 (optional)
dry red chilly - 6
black pepper - 10 numbers
cinnamon - 1 inch
cloves (kirambu) - 4
cardamom - 2
fennel seed (sombu) - 1 tsp
shredded coconut - 1/4 cup

To grind:
cilantro - 3 stems
mint leaf - a handful
ginger - 1 inch
garlic - 3 pearls


Method:
Slice the onion into small pieces. Chop the tomato finely keep aside.

Grind the ginger, garlic , cilantro and mint together.

Heat a tsp oil in a wok and fry all the items given above except coconut.
Grind them to a fine paste.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok and add the fennel seed.
Now goes the chopped onion. Fry till it becomes tender.

Add ginger garlic paste and saute till raw smell vanishes.
Then add the chopped tomato and fry till oil oozes out.

Grind the items given and add it to the fried items in wok.
Add salt and let it boil for five minutes.

Then reduce flame. Carefully break and pour the eggs one by one without overlapping one another into the hot curry.
The eggs should not touch one another. Do not stir after this stage , till eggs are cooked.

Now close the vessel and reduce flame to minimum.

Let it remain there for 10 minutes. Switch off after the egg gets completely cooked.

Muttai kuzhambu is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve with rice / roti.
Today I prepared cabbage peas poriyal as side dish along with hot rice to go with this spicy egg curry.

Note:
we can add hard boiled eggs or omelet also instead of poaching.

A pleasant award and an event entry.

Last week my friend Jaleela of Samayal Attakasangal presented me a blogger appreciation award.
It is so touching to receive this award from a noble blogger like her. She has a stunning blog filled with knowledge and tips on house administration and cooking.
Should I tell more on a blogger with 20 years of cooking experience ? The photos itself will speak for the flavor and taste of her dishes.
I adore her biryani recipe , nonbu kanji and house keeping tips (especially the chudithar stitching tips) very much. She is so pious and We can learn a lot on Islam from her other blog too. Her blog has a very homely touch and I really felt at home there.


Thanks Jaleela!
This award means a lot to me and I feel honored to get it from a very pleasant person like you.



I would like to pass this 'Smart chef' award to Jaleela. Congrats dear!

Event:
In my last post I wrote how to make an Icecream cake and here is how we should not. You can read my adventures and mishaps about an Icecream cake in this post, which I am sending for Malar's Kitchen Mishaps event. I usually do not photograph my spoiled dishes. So I could not send her a snap, but here is the story behind.
If you want to see my perfect recipe, click here.



I am a person who believes in the proverb 'Failure is the stepping stone to success'.
Here I am narrating how I climbed my stepping stones to land at this delicious ice cream cake. After that heavy turkey biryani on Thanks giving day , a scoop of this cake made me tell ....wow... Worth the effort !

The plan:
Last month I planned to prepare an Icecream cake for our Thanks giving celebration.
Hubby was pestering me to do this for an year and somehow I got some courage to try this time consuming cake.

Adventure:
The major problem I dealt was with the melting time of the ice cream and my frosting speed. You all know , I am not a professional baker, so my skills on frosting (according to me frosting means - apply cream on cake) the cake was so limited.

My 3 layers were very perfect. So I was kind of floating ....guess what happens now:)

Havoc:
I had the guidance of a website, which told me to take out the ice cream to melt before we start applying. I had it on my counter top, finished dinner and even did my dishes and started the icing process....hi hi..what could you expect! Mindless viki poured all the ice cream over the cake just like a heavy cream and stashed it in to the freezer. After all my bed-going rituals, when I opened it there was a huge shock....all the ice cream I poured and leveled were on the freezer floor....myself started panicking:(

Plan B:
Then I somehow made up my mind ....started doing the research. Took out the cake, kept it in fridge area, cleaned the freezer and again kept it in freezer.
Now I figured out that the website didn't tell me the timing to freeze it.

Luckily I started doing this experimentation by Monday....3 more days left for Thanks giving day. So I used another pack of ice cream and finished doing it by Tuesday.

Lesson learned:
1.Always have some back up plan and extra groceries if you plan a new recipe.
2.Start preparing the time consuming dishes very ahead.
3.Stick to the recipe and be sensible if we follow any newer dish.

Hope this suits the event. Happy hosting dear!

Ice cream Cake

In my home town there is a very beautiful ice cream parlor called 'Arasan ice cream'. It is famous for its Ice cream , chocolate cakes, falooda, Ice-cream cakes and desserts. The interiors are so cool and creative. No need to say it is always crowded by youngsters and couples. It is my most favorite spot even now and we have tasted almost all the varieties there:)
Whenever I talk about those lovely days, hubby has always expressed his craving for this icecream cake. So I planned to do it for our Thanks giving party (2009).

I could not get a complete procedure through internet. I coined my own version and had some challenges like the melting ice cream and timing sense etc:) But I managed to get a perfect one and we finally got our native style ice cream cake.

Icecream cakes can be made in two ways. One by crushing the cookies and pressing them to form a cake and top it with ice cream . The next method is to bake a cake and freeze it with ice cream

Mine belongs to the second variety.

I always prefer to incorporate some store bought goodies to reduce my cooking time. So if you are looking for one from scratch , then you need to research more. But I am sure this recipe won't disappoint you . Here is the ice cream cake and get ready to surprise your guests with this delicious cake.

Ice cream cake:




Ice cream cake served:



(Pardon me for my unprofessional icing)


You may need:
Ice cream (French vanilla flavor) - 1 liter.
A cake mix (white cake mix) - 1 packet
(I used Betty crocker super moist white cake mix )
Cake frosting mix - 15 oz tin
(I used Pillsburry funfetti frosting mix)
A fruit jam - 1 cup
(I made my own strawberry preserve)
A flat plate
Sharp knife.

To prepare strawberry spread:
Strawberry - 10
Sugar - 1/4 cup

Chop the strawberry and cook it with 2 tbsp water and sugar till it gets a preserve like consistency.
Cool and store it in refrigerator.
(We can use a store bought preserve also).

Cake frosting Method:
Bake two square shape cakes from the above said cake mix, as per instructions in your box.

Cool them completely. Keep them in refrigerator overnight for better cooling effect.

Level the cake with a sharp knife by removing the dark surface.

Slice each cake into two , so that we can stack up the icecream, frosting and strawberry preserve as layers.

Now place one slice of the cake on a flat plate. Spread the cake frosting mix.

Take out the ice cream from freezer and spread 3 scoops over the frosting mix.
Immediately keep the ice cream inside freezer.

Place another slice of cake over it. Spread the Strawberry jam we made uniformly.

Place another slice of cake over the strawberry spread.
Now spread the frosting mix and ice cream above this slice.

Finish all the above procedure within three minutes. This is very very important.

Immediately place the next slice above it and keep in freezer for nearly an hour.

Then take it again do cover the top of the cake completely with cream frosting mixture.
Again let it cool for another 15 minutes inside the freezer.

Now take out the cake and icecream , carefully cover the whole cake with ice cream....starting from the bottom sides.

If you feel it is melting then cool it inside freezer for 10 minutes and finish it.

After 5 hours sprinke the sugar balls or decorate as per the need.

Ice cream cake is ready!

Note:
This procedure may seem very difficult. But if you imagine layering a sandwich then it will be an easy breeze.

Always keep the ice cream in side the fridge before we start decorating the cake.
During frosting process, for every 3 minutes outside keep the cake and icecream inside the freezer for 10 minutes and continue decoration. Otherwise everything will melt down and we may need to recreate.

Event:
Sending this Ice cream cake for Saraswathy Iyer's cakes n cookies event.
Saraswathy has completed 3 years in blogging and celebrating an anniversary through this beautiful event.
Congrats saraswathy!Your blog really rocks! You have so many unique recipes and I love them very much. Your delicious wheat dosa has helped me much in the diet plan.
Thanks and happy hosting dear!

My other entries are as follows:-

1. Butter biscuit

2.Christmas plum cake.

3.Easter bunny's carrot cake

4.Frosted sugar cookies.