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 ! ***

Happy New year,

Lets welcome the New year with joy,
with lots of prayers and well wishes,
May every day be filled
with happiness and peace,
May every face on earth live happily forever,
with all our needs satisfied,
May every life lives peacefully
with all our dreams come true,
May every child gets love and care,along
with all the toys they want:)
May God shower His abundant love on all of us,






Wishing you all a
beautiful, Prosperous and Blessed
Happy New Year and Happy blogging!
Love,
Viki.

Christmas celebration : Event entry

Here are some snaps from our Christmas celebration.

I am Sending the below entries for Shamas's Christmas and New year event , 2010.

Happy hosting Shama!

A Birthday cake for Child Jesus:

Its a tradition in our house to bake a cake for the 'Baby Jesus'. This year I made a fruit cake and did icing with home made 'butter cream frosting'. I like the way the roses and color combo came out. After attending the mass we cut this cake and shared with friends and family.

The Christmas tree:

This is how we decorated the Christmas tree, this year.

Snacks for Santa:

Putting out cookies and chocolate drink for Santa is an American tradition. I added all the items I prepared for Christmas. The platter has thengai paal murukku, athirasam, butter biscuit, fruit cakes and Ovaltine milk. Also I left a bunch of cilantro for His Reindeers. We leave this platter near the Christmas tree and expect the Santa to give us all our favorite gifts. Yes, Santa came to our house really and we got a lot of gifts:) On the Christmas day, I got up very early and found a beautiful pair of earrings in my stockings:) Also, Xav got his favorite movie dvds and a shirt under the tree:) Thank you Santa! We all love you so much!

Reposts and event entry

Hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and waiting to celebrate the New year along with your yummy creations.
I have not participated in many of your events for almost an year, because of my laziness:) One of my New year resolutions is to send at least a few entries once in a month. So as a beginning here are my reposts for Sameena's Cookies and cakes for Christmas event.

Cakes:

1.Christmas plum cake (fruit cake)

2.Easter Carrot cake.

Cookies:

1.Butter biscuit

2.Sugar cookies


Happy hosting dear!

Merry Christmas,

Wishing all my friends and readers a  blessed happy Christmas,
May all our dreams come true.

Banana halwa (vazhaipazha halwa)

A chewy sweet resembling fudge prepared using ripe plantain (long banana/ yetham pazham/ Ethampazham / ethan pazham / nenthram pazham).

I tasted it for the first time (as a child) , when Sr. Janet Mary (whom we consider as a great guidance in our family) presented us a pack of Banana halwa from Kerala, then she told us that this is a famous sweet in Tuticorin also. Then it became our favorite next to macaroons of Tuticorin. One can buy this  in  bakeries of Tuticorin (Thoothukudi), Tamilnadu, India. It will be sold as a circular shape piece of nearly 5 inch dia and 1 cm thickness. The proper color should be more darker than what I got. If you want to get that color add more ghee while making this halwa. I used 1/4 cup butter only, but 1 cup will be good for the authentic taste.
After that mom tried to make it  once or twice at home but I am not sure of the recipe. So I referred Mahanandi's Nenthram pazham halwa. It came out well. Thank you dear!  (I have made some variations for my convenience, so click the above link to see her beautiful snap and the original recipe).

Ingredients:
Ripe plantain (long version) - 4
(pureed to 2.5 cups)
sugar - 1 cup
butter - 1/4 cup (1/2 of a bar)
lemon juice - 1 tsp
All purpose flour / maida - 1 tbsp
water - 2 tbsp
chopped almond or cucumber seeds or cashew - a handful

Method:

Steam cook the banana. Peel the skin and remove the seeds. Puree it.
Take a thick bottomed wok, large enough to stir the halwa.
Pour the puree to the wok. Add the sugar, butter, lemon juice and mix well.
Start heating. After sometime the banana will start bubbling, then reduce the heat and stir in medium fire.
After the halwa starts leaving the sides, say in 10 minutes, mix the maida with water and pour over the halwa. This step is optional only. we can do the halwa without maida also.
Then stir continuously for another 10 minutes or till halwa starts becoming thick and tend to form a ball. Now add the nuts and stir well. Put off fire.
Grease a container (lesser height but wide) with a drop of ghee and pour the mixture.
Spread a little ghee on top to prevent drying.
Using a spoon or knife flatten it to get a glossy surface.
Allow it to cool. After cooling the halwa will become more thick and easy to slice.
Slice and serve as dessert.

Banana halwa is ready!

Serving suggestion:

If prepared with more ghee (enough to ooze out), this sweet will remain good in room temperature for more than a week.
Serve hot/cold as dessert or snack.