Boondi laddu/ ladoo

 

This festive season, try your hands at the very popular Indian sweet "Boondi ladoo" and bring a variety in your sweet-meat list.  I am sure your guests too will love this homemade ladoos.

So, how do you go about making the ladoos? It is not wrong to say that the method is a bit tricky and requires some level of expertise in cooking.However, with a little bit of practice, you will definitely get it. After all, practice does make one perfect.

Let us get the ingredients together and then move on to the method. The ingredients listed here are measured in cups and spoons to help you alter the amount as per your preference. Take a look.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups Besan (gram flour) 
2. 2 Green cardamom (choti elaichi) , powdered 
3. 3/4 cup water for the syrup
4. 3 tbsp Cashew nuts (kaju),chopped 
5. 2 tbsp Raisins (kishmish) -
6. 1/2 tsp Nutmeg powder
7. 2cups Sugar
8. yellow food colour or turmeric powder
9. a big pinch of kesar
10. Oil for deep frying
11. 2 Tbsp of Ghee

Method

To Prepare The Boondi:

1. Put oil to heat in a frying pan, while the oil heats up prepare the batter.
2 In a deep bowl, add besan and turmeric powder, whisk together. Now pour water bit by bit and mix.
3. The batter should be of pouring consistency but not very runny. You can pour a drop in the oil and check.
4. When the batter is ready, place one perforated ladle over the oil and pour some batter through the ladle. Drops of the batter will fall in the oil and form boondis.

5. Fry just enough to cook the batter. Remove from oil and place in a separate plate.

If the boondis are too big or out of shape then take some boondis at a time and  coarsely grind in a mixer,then add this to the sugar syrup. 

 To Prepare Sugar Syrup:

1. Take sugar in a deep and heavy bottom saucepan, add 3/4th cup water and bring to a boil. Add in kesar.

2. Stir at regular intervals, when the syrup comes to a boil, lower the flame and allow to boil for another 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Take a teaspoon of syrup and allow to cool. To check the consistency, press between one finger and the thumb. When pulled apart, one thread of the syrup should form.

4. If the thread does not form, boil some more and check again. Take care that the syrup does not get too thick. Once prepared, set aside.

  To Prepare laddus:
 

• Add all the boondis to the hot sugar syrup and keep aside for an hour. In this one hour, the sugar syrup will be well absorbed by the boondi.
• Add the dry fruits, nutmeg powder,crushed cardamom and Ghee to the boondi.
• Mix all the ingredients well and begin with making balls.
• Laddus are ready to be served. Have a sweet festival time!

Note: 

• Mixture should be slightly warm to allow the formation of balls.
• Don't make the boondi crispy or golden as it becomes hard and cannot absorb the syrup well
• Give your laddus any size you wish and sit back and admire your skills!

Ragi Rotti and Mangalorean style chicken curry/kori gasi/ ghashi

Healthy Ragi rotti with a delectable mangalorean kori gasi/ ghashi .This dish is spiced up with a unique and aromatic roasted spices, the coconut milk  gives a slight sweetness and the slow cooked chicken that just melts in your mouth, is out of this world.  Trust me when I say you will hum in joy once you make and taste this chicken curry.

 

Ingredients For kori gasi/ chicken curry

For the masala paste:

1. 1 tsp coconut oil
2. 3 tsp coriander
3.  6-7 fenugreek seeds
4. 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
5. 8 pieces of pepper corn
6. 1 tsp mustard seeds
7. 2 tsp cumin seeds
8. 10 red chillies
9. 2 cups grated coconut
10. 2 sliced onions
11. 10 cloves of garlic,crushed 
12. 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

 

For the main dish:

1. 2 Tbsp coconut oil
2. 2 sliced onions
3. 1-2 spring curry leaves
4. 2 chopped tomatoes
5. 800 gm curry-cut chicken
6. Salt to taste
7. 1 marble sized ball of tamarind,soaked in warm water. 
8. 1 cup coconut milk

1.  
   
   
   Method

•  Heat oil in pan. Add coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, pepper corn, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and red chillies and dry roast them.
• Now add grated coconut, turmeric powder, onions and garlic.Saute till the onion turn light brown.
• Then add water and grind them together to smooth paste. The masala is ready.
• Heat oil in pan. Add sliced onions, curry leaves and saute the onions till it turns light pink or translucent.
• Then add chopped tomatoes, curry cut chicken, prepared masala paste, salt, tamarind paste and coconut milk. Mix it well.
• Cover the pan and cook for about 20 minutes.Kori ghashi/gasi is ready to eat.

Churmuri/Puffed Rice Laddoo.. a Microwave recipe

churmuri Laddoo

Churmuri/puffed rice laddoo is a traditional sweet I grow up eating and thought it exist only in my native . I came to realized that I could not be more wrong later when i shifted to Belgaum. They too, have a very similar version of this laddoo, though slightly different in ingredients.
actually i love traditional sweets and I am a sucker when it comes to Gud/Jaggery! Just couldn't say no to the earthy smell and taste of it!

Puffed rice laddoo

Ingredients：
4 cups Puffed Rice/churmuri 
300 gms Jaggery/Gud
1/4 tsp Cardamom/elichi powder   
1 tbsp ghee
3-4 tbsp water

Method:

• In a microwavable bowl, whisk together jaggery, sugar, ghee and water.
• Microwave on high for 3 minutes, take it out and stir well, repeat this for 1 more time or till the jaggery melts completely. If it looks dry while stirring, add 1-2 tsp of water. The total cooking time should be not more than 4-5 minutes.
• Remove from the microwave, add the puffed rice and cardamom powder mix well.
• Prepare the laddus while the mixture is still hot.
• Applying some melted ghee to hands helps preparing the laddus
• Now grease both the palm with ghee and gently take some mixture and roll into to balls.
• While making the laddoos if the mixture becomes hard then reheat the mixture in microwave on a low heat and proceed.

Note：Not all microwave created same, you may want to adjust cooking time according to your microwave wattage.

Chana upkari .

chana Upkari

Upkari is a dry dish usually stir fried.You can use any type lentils or beans or vegetables to prepare this easy and tasty dish.Normally we konkanis prepare this on Friday's combination with beaten rice /pova chutney or Godu povu(sweet beaten rice) for breakfast.This is also served in temples as prasad.I prepared this on krishna janmashtami along with some other dishes as a prasad to Lord Krishna. You prepare this with a combination with sweet potato or cooking plantain which is really a deadly combination

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Ingredients

• 1 cup Bengal gram
• 1tbsp Grated coconut
• 1tsp Mustard
• 2-3 Red chilly (dried cut into pieces)
• 1/2tsp Asafoetida/hing
• 1 spring curry leaves
• 2-3 tsp coconut oil/veg oil

 

Cooking Directions

• Soak chana/chik peas overnight in 4-5 cups of water( In winter season add a pinch of baking soda while soaking for that extra softness )
• Now pressure cook chana /chick peas 3-4 cups of water for 3 whistle.Do not forget to add salt while cooking chana for better taste.
• Now heat a kadai/wok add in some coconut oil or any other oil ( we konkani's prefer coconut oil specially for this upkari ).
• Now add some mustard and wait till it crackles .
• Now add red chilly pieces followed by curry leaves and little hing/asafoetida.Stir it well .

• Now add Cooked chana/chick peas.
• Add little salt if necessary and cook till the dish is almost dry.
• Finish it with  grated coconut and mix it well for a minute and switch off the gas.
• Chana upkari is ready to serve.

Krishnashtami parasad