Besan Ke Laddu /kadala maavu orandai / farina de pois chiche boule

I Like these laddus for their crunchiness. Hope u would enjoy them too...on ur big and small occasions.

Ingredients:

1. 200 gms Besan/ Gramflour/ chichpeak flour .
2. 2 cups of sugar .
3. 100 gms of ghee/nayyi/clarified butter.
4. 50 gms of oil.
5. 2-3 pods of ilaichi/elakai/cardamom.
6. 10 - 15 kaju/ mundri /cashews halves.
7. 10-15 dried grapes/ draksh.

Method:

1. Take the seed out from the cardamom pods and grind them to powder using pestle. Keep aside.
2. Take a wok or pan, heat it on a low-medium heat.
3. Add ghee and oil mixture to pan/wok.
4. When u can smell the ghee, add cashew halves to it.
5. now keep stirring and observe the color of the cashews.
6. Add besan when the cashews turn light golden brown.
7. mix besan, dried grapes, ghee+oil and cashew mixture well.
8. cook this mixure till the besan changes its color and u see the ghee separating from the besan slightly.
9. Take the pan/wok off the flame and allow it to cool till the mixture cools down(warm to touch).
10. now add the cardamom powder and sugar to the mixture .
11. mix everything well so that cardamom and other things are uniformly distributed.
12. Take some amount of this mixture in ur palm and form balls.
13. place them in a small plate and allow it to cool completely.
14. store in a dry and air tight container.
15. Enjoy!!!!!!!

My Recommendations:

1. Keep a close watch on the besan while cooking.
2. Keep stirring to avoid burning besan.
3. Buy a coarse variety of besan for these laddus (I have tried these laddus with both smooth and coarse besan ..I like coarse besan better ...as it gives more depth to laddus)

Chatpate Dahi Vadas

Dahi Vada or Yogurt Dumpling (sounds funny and absurd) is one of the most common chaats made in any north indian household. I have very fond memories of eating dahi vadas in my friends' birthdays.. it is one of the most ubiquitous items in kids' birthdays other than chhole puri , cake and gulab jamuns. One obvious reason for its popularity is it is very easy to make and store.
Ingredients:

1. Dhania/Coriander/ Cilantro.
2. Tamarind-Date Chutney.
3. Dahi/Yogurt (beaten).
4. Vadas(soak them in normal water when hot).
   
5. 1/2 Teaspoon Red chillies Powder.
6. 1/2 Teaspoon of Toasted Jeera/Cumin seeds powder*.

Assembling:

1. Squeeze water out of 2 vadas into a bowl.
2. Mix yogurt , salt (as per your taste), sugar (as per your taste).
   
3. Add generous amount of yogurt and 2-3 tablespoons of tamarind- date chutney.
4. sprinkle some red chillies powder and jeera powder in the bowl.
5. garnish with dhania.

(*) - take a skillet and heat it . When it is hot, add jeera and toast it till it is golden brown in color. grind it using a pestle or by crushing it with the back of a table spoon.

My Recommendation:
- mix the yogurt, jeera powder, chillies powder, salt , sugar to sort of make yogurt chutney.

Vada

Ingredients:

1. 1 .5 cup Urad dal (split and without husk).
2. salt.
3. black or white pepper powder.
4. 500 gms oil.
5. coriander/ cilantro/dhania leaves.
   

Equipment:

1. Blender.

Method:

1. soak dal in water for about 5-6 hours.
2. separate the soaked dal and water .
3. grind the dal in blender, also add coriander leaves. Add as less water as u can add to get a thick paste.
4. add the salt and pepper powder as per ur taste to the dal paste.
   
5. heat the oil in wok.
   
6. when u see slight smoke coming out the heated oil..then add small portions (golf ball) of this paste into the oil.
7. remove when golden brown in color.
   

Tamarind-Date Chutney

Ingredients:

1. Base ball size amount seedless tamarind.
2. Base ball size amount date-palm paste .
3. 1/4 teaspoon red chillies powder.
4. 1/2 teaspoon sugar.
5. pinch of salt.
   

Method:

1. Soak the tamarind in about 4-5 cups of warm water for about 15 min.
2. Squeeze out the pulp in the water using the hands till u feel all the pulp is in the water and only tamarind skeletons are left in water.
   
3. filter out the skeleton using hands.
4. now transfer the water with tamarind pulp in a bowl and put it on the stove over medium heat.
5. add to this tamarind water the date paste, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon chillies powder.
6. allow it to boil for about 20 mins (but keep stirring continuously).
7. remove from heat when it has reached a consistency of beaten yogurt or thick consistency.
   
8. stain the little by little this whole liquid using a medium sized strainer by using a spoon into a new bowl.
9. see the bottom of the stainer it would have a lot of pulp ...do not discard this swipe this using the spoon and add to the strained liquid.
10. taste it and if u feel that u need any thing like chillies powder , salt or sugar add according to ur taste.
    

Party Recommendation: Add little amount of cinammon and clove powder to make it smell good and different.

Chocolate Brownies with Almonds..Yummm!!!!!

Mummmm.....Brownies...I think a good part my adult life has been spent being a chocolate addict..I can eat almost anything that has chocolate in them. Whenever and wherever I have a craving for eating or buying something to eat I usually end up buying chocolate. Chocolate brownies are a big part of this spiritual saga. As I have been splurging good part of my money on brownies, I thought of trying to make some of my own. So guys lets get going .......

Ingredients:

1. 12 oz. Hershey's semisweet chocolate.
   
2. 1 stick butter (unsalted).
3. 2 eggs.
   
4. pinch of salt.
5. 1 cup of all purpose flour.
6. about half cup of chopped almonds.
7. 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract.
   
8. 1 1/3 cup of sugar.
9. 2-3 toothpicks.
10. one 8x8 cake pan.
11. 2 medium sized bowl for mixing ingredients.

Method:

1. Start the oven to heat to about 350 degrees F.
   
2. Fill some water in a medium sized vessel.
3. heat this water almost to boil.
4. take it off the fire.
5. put the stick of butter( leave some small portion to butter the pan) and about 6 oz of chocolate pieces in a small china bowl.
6. place this bowl in the bath of water. (Make sure the water is low enough and would not get mixed with the butter and chocolate. keep stirring the contents in the bowl occasionally & till the whole chocolate and butter mixture melts down.
7. Now add all the sugar to the chocolate and butter mixture but keep mixing the sugar...to form a uniform smooth liquid.
   
8. add vanilla extract to this mix.
9. now add eggs one by one into this chocolate butter mix...but beat the eggs into this mixture before adding the next one.
   
10. in another bowl sieve 1 cup of all purpose flour and the pinch of salt.
11. now add this flour to the chocolate and butter mix slowly and keep folding the flour to mix it in with the chocolate and butter evenly.
12. Grease the 8x8 cake pan with the left over butter evenly.
13. pour the whole batter into it and place it in the preheated 350 degree oven ...medium rack for about 25 min.
14. add the remaining chocolate pieces and chopped almonds into the mixture and mix well.
    
15. After 25 min check the brownies by inserting the toothpick in the middle to see if the brownies are almost done* ...
16. take the pan out and let it cool for about 1 hour .
17. take out the brownie and cut it into pieces to eat.
    

(*) - if u see chocolate liquid on ur toothpick-NOT DONE
- if u see moist lumps of chocolate on ur toothpick-ALMOST DONE
- if u see a clean tooth pick -OVER DONE

NOTE: Keep the brownies outside the refrigerator to keep them soft and moist.
Variation: add walnuts or pecans or pistachios....