Puffed Wheat Balls (Laddu)

I came across these puffed wheat when i was shopping at near by grocery store.Reached house and tasted the puffed wheat.Puffed wheat is really good for making ladoo and mixture.Love the shape and nutty wheat taste.Since my childhood I am seeing my mom and grand mom making puffed rice mixture,puffed rice (plain,tamarind) upma,puffed rice balls aka borugundalu .We used to have this Crunchy one at evening times as after-school munchies.borugundalu.We used to have this Crunchy one at evening times as after-school munchies.Yum Yum.... So,I tried with puffed wheat and we liked these laddus too.

Ingredients:
Puffed Wheat - 3 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Honey - ½ tspn
Ground nuts / Peanuts - ½ cup
Cashew nuts - 6 or 7 no,chopped
Sesame seeds - ½ cup
Raisins - ¼th cup
Black Cardamom - 2 no,crushed


How I made:
Roast sesame seeds in a pan until they start splutter.Roast the peanuts for golden brown color.Roast raisins in low flame until they double.Grind 2 spoons of sesame seeds and 1 tspn of pea nuts to coarse powder from original quantity.
Take a large sauce pan and add jaggery and water.Make thick syrup in low flame.Add a drop of jaggery syrup into a bowl of water to check the string consistency.Drop should solidify immediately.Remove from fire and add puffed wheat,raisins,cashew nut pieces,pea nuts,sesame-pea nut pwd,cardamom pwd,honey and mix well to coat jaggery syrup evenly.While still warm,shape the syrup-coated puffed wheat into round laddus.Allow to cool and keep open to dry, before storing in containers.
Note:Wet palm while shaping laddus to prevent burning.
See here for Puffed Wheat Snack

Thai Coconut Soup

Today weather is gloomy and wet.So, its time for some soup.Once we tried thai coconut soup from Thai restaurant named Aruneehouse , which is few blocks away from our place.Their coconut soup was excellent with galangal,lemongrass,lime and mushrooms.We really enjoyed their delicacies.Here goes my thai coconut milk soup (original recipe name is tom kha gai )
Ingredients:
Coconut milk - 1 tin
Ginger root - 6,thinly sliced (original recipe calls for Galangal)
lemon grass stalks - 1
onion slices - 4 no
kaffir lime leaves - 4 no, torn into pieces
celery - ½ stalk, sliced thinly
cilantro - 2 sprigs
button mushrooms - 5 or 6 no,sliced
green chillies - 3 no,chopped
Dried red chillies - 2 no
Sugar - ¼ tspn
vegetable oil for frying
lime juice - 1 tbspn /lime - ½
Vegetable stock or Water - 1½ cup
Salt and pepper according to taste



How I made:
Heat oil in a large saucepan and add sliced onion,sliced lemon grass,sliced ginger,sliced celery ,chopped green chillies ,kafir lime leaves,and sauté, stirring, for 1 minute and uncovered.Add sliced mushrooms and sauté for a 1 minute.Add coconut milk,lemon zest to the pan and bring it to boil.Bring soup to simmer and cook for 7 to 10 minutes in low flame.Add salt,pepper and lime juice according to taste.Garnish with cilantro leaves.

I felt this soup can be taken without any croutons so iam participating in
Lisa of Lisa kitchen's no-croutons-required event.

Birthday Cake

Cake for a birthday is always special for me.Dad used to bring cake for us on our birthdays.Sometimes mom used to make and decorate with icing.
This year for a change I baked a cake for my birthday though it is simple but homemade.Being a chocoholic I glazed cake with chocolate ganache.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3 cups
Sugar - ¾ cup
Eggs - 2 no
Vegetable oil - ¾ cup
Baking powder - 1 tspn
Dried golden raisins - ½ cup
Dried cranberries - ½ cup
Vanilla paste - ½ tspn
Water - ½ cup
Butter for applying


How I made:
Pre heat oven to 350°
Butter the cake pan and lay parchement paper on it.Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy.Add oil,vanilla paste and whisk until mixed.Add sifted flour ,raisins,cranberries in batches and mix at low speed until combined evenly.Pour the batter into the cake pan and place in the middle rack of the oven.Bake for 30 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean in the center of the cake.Remove from the oven and cool it for 30 minutes.Transfer the cake to the cooling rack.Remove parchement paper and allow it to cool for another ½ hr.
Making Chocolate ganache:
Heavy cream - 2 cups
Cocoa powder - 1tbspn
Bitter sweet chocolate - 8oz,Lindt

Melt chocolate in a double boiler and add heavy cream ,cocoa pwd to it.Whisk until smooth.
Glazing cake:
Use serrated knife to slice the top layer of the cake slowly.Pour the chocolate ganache on it and spread evenly on top and sides of the cake with spatula.
Dust with powdered sugar or decorate with fruits like strawberry,raspberry,orange.I used banana.Refrigerate the cake to set the ganache for 30 to 45 minutes.
Thought of making plain one but ended with a simple goodlooking cake.

Turnip Pickle

Ingredients:
Turnip - 1 no, small in size ,peeled and chopped into ½ " size pieces
Fenugreek seeds - (Menthulu/Methi/Vendhiyam)- ½ tsp,
Mustard seeds - 2 tbspn
Cumin seeds - 2 tspn
Red Chilly pwd - 5 tspn
Asafoetida - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp
Ginger -1" size,chopped
Green Chillies - 5 no,slitted and soaked in salt and lemon juice for 15 days
Sesame oil(Nuvvula nune/Til oil)- 2cups
Salt to taste
Refined Oil for frying
How I Made:
Heat oil in a saucepan and fry turnip pieces until light golden brown colour.
Remove from fire and transfer to a dry mixing bowl.Fry ginger for a light golden brown colour.
Grind mustard seeds,fenugreek seeds,cumin seeds for a fine powder.
Add ground spice mixture ,red chilli powder,turmeric,salt ,soaked and dried green chillies,fried ginger to the fried turnip pieces.
Combine well with a wooden spatula until spice mixture coats turnip pieces evenly.Add sufficient sesame oil and mix well.Transfer to an earthenware and cover with a muslin cloth and leave for 2 weeks.Make sure to stir once in a week with dried wooden spatula.We liked the turnip pickle as a good condiment .It goes well with the hot rice or curd rice because of its spicy and tangy taste.

Cashewnut Doughnut

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 ½ cups, sifted
Butter - 4tbspn
Sugar - 1 cup
Yeast - 1 packet
warm water - 2tbspn
Milk - ½ cup
Ground nutmeg - ¼ tspn
Whole cashewnuts - 25 no,powdered in blender
Egg - 1 no
oil for frying
How I Made:
Bowl 1:Mix yeast with the warm water.Leave for 5 to 10 minutes until yeast foam and bubbles.
Bowl 2:Melt the butter in microwave.Do not overmelt but butter should be in dissolved stage.Add warm milk and mix well.
Bowl 3:Whisk the egg and sugar until the sugar is dissolved.Transfer the bowl 2 mixture and whisk.Add bowl 1 ingredients and combine well.
Bowl 4:Mix flour,nutmeg ,cashewnut powder by adding the bowl 3 ingredients with spoon.Knead into soft dough.Apply vegetable oil and cover with a cloth or airtight container and keep in
a warm place to rise for 2½ hours.
Sprinkle flour on a wooden board and roll the dough into a ½" thickness.Cut the dough with the heart shaped cookie cutter.Sprinkle flour on a parchment paper and place the doughnuts and cover them to rise for 30 minutes.Preheat the oil and drop one doughnut at a time and fry light golden color in medium flame.Turn and fry to get the same color.Strain the doughnuts on a paper towel.Roll the doughnuts into the regular sugar or confectionary sugar.Serve warm .



Chocolate glaze :
Butter - 2tbspn
Cocoa - 2tbspn
Hot Water - 3tbspn
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla extract - ½ tspn
Melt butter in a pan in low heat.Add Cocoa and water.Stir with ladel until mixture is thick.Remove from fire and add powdered sugar,vanilla extract and stir well.

Dip doughnuts into chocolate glaze. Lay parchment paper under the wire rack and place coated chocolate doughnuts on wirerack.Coat with toasted nuts at this stage.optional)

Brandysnap baskets is one of the recipe which I got inspired by lovely Haalo.
Hazelnut doughnuts(Haalo's) came in my mind when i came to know about tartelette's Time to make doughnut event but I have shelled one so decided to do with cashewnuts.
Love the taste of cashewnutty doughnuts glazed with chocolate.Made sufganiyots filled with cran pom jam tasted great.
Here goes my CashewnuttyDoughnut Hearts to Time to make doughnuts event by Tartelette.

Green Garbanzo with Magda Squash

Ingredients:
Green Garbanzo/Hare chole - 2 cups
Magda Squash - 1 no,chopped
Onion (big) - 1 no,chopped
Tomatoes - 1 no ,chopped
Tomato paste - 1 tspn
Green chillies - 2 no,
Garlic - 3 no,crushed
Ginger - 1" size,chopped
Bay leaves - 2
Cloves - 4 no,crushed
Red chilli pwd - 1 tspn
Dhaniya pwd - 1 tspn
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt to taste
Milk - ½ cup
lemon juice - 2 tspn
Mint for garnishing
Oil for cooking
Water for cooking.



How I Made:
Heat Oil in a big sauce pan fry chopped garlic and crushed ginger in low flame
until raw smell leaves.Add bay leaves stir for a while and chopped onions,slitted green chillies and saute well.Add diced tomatoe ,salt,turmeric and cook in medium flame.Add chopped squash ,tomato paste,dhaniya pwd,red chilli pwd,crushed cloves and stir evenly.Sprinkle ½ cup of water and cook by covering with lid for 5 or 8 minutes.Add hare chole and stir to coat the spice mixture evenly.Sprinkle 4 tspn of water and cook in medium flame.Add milk to the pan and stir well to mix in the gravy and cook for 3 minutes in low flame.Adding milk gives the creamy texture to the gravy.Garnish with mint leaves and serve hot with chapathis.
Squeeze lemon juice according to taste at the time of serving.