Narali Bhaat (Sweet Coconut Rice)

Ingredient:

• Basmati Rice: 1 Cup
• Sugar: 1 Cup
• Freshly Grated Coconut: 1/2 Cup
• Cardamom Pods: 3-4
• Cloves: 3-4
• Saffron: 3-4 Strings
• Nutmeg Powder: 1/4 tsp
• Cashews: 5-6 (Cut into 2-3 pieces)
• Raisins: 5-6
• Yellow Food Color: 2-3 Drops (Optional)
• Ghee: 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Wash rice and soak in water for 1/2 hour. Then drain water and keep aside.


2. Heat ghee in a kadhai or pot. Then add cloves, cardamoms, cashew and raisins. Fry them very well.


3. Then add rice and saute for 3-4 minutes. Then add grated coconut, mix well.


4. Then add 2 and half cups of hot water, food color, saffron and nutmeg powder. Mix well and let it cook for a while.


5. When rice is 90 % done, add sugar and mix well. Cover the pot with lid and let it cook till rice is cooked well.


6. Serve this rice when it's hot.

This is my entry for Easy Craft's Mixed/Flavoured Rice Variety and Suganya's AFAM: Coconut events.

Pani Puri

Pani Puri is my favourite Street Food. When ever I go to India Pani Puri is the first dish that I eat. Pani Puri that we get in India have a very different taste that I like. I tried this at home, my friend's house, in restaurants but taste is not very close to Indian Street Side Pani Puri. Now I am going to India in August I will have these when ever I want. Till then I am enjoying this home made pani puri. This time I tried Latha and Laxmi's version. You can find original recipe here. For my convenience I am adding same recipe here.



Ingrdients:
For Pani
Dates: 2
Tamarind: One 3 inch piece.
Jaggery(Gur): 2 tsp
Black Pepper Corns: 1 tsp
Cumin (jeera): 1 tsp
Coriander Leaves: 2 twigs
Green Chilli: 1
Mint Leaves : 10
Black Salt: 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste.

For Puri
Rava(Sooji): 1 Cup
Maida( All Purpose Flour): 1 Cup
Wheat Flour: 1 Cup
Ghee: 1 tbsp
Salt to Taste
Oil for deep frying

For Filling
Kabuli Channa (Whole White Gram): 1 Cup
Potato: 2 Medium Sized
Onion: 2 Medium Sized (Finely Chopped).
Carrot: 1 - Grated (Optional)
Finely Chopped Green Chillies: 2
Finely Chopped coriander 2 twigs.
Thin Shev
Salt to taste.

Procedure:
For Filling

• Soak the kabuli channa over night or eight hours in 3 cups water. Wash well and pressure cook for 10 minutes with water . Boil the potatoes also along with the channa.
• Peel the potatoes and dice. Drain the water from channa and add the ingredients for the filling except Shev and mix well. Transfer to a serving bowl.
  

For Pani

• Soak the dates and tamarind in warm water.
• Grind along with all ingredients for the pani to a paste.
• Add 2 cups water and strain. Transfer to a serving bowl.

For Puri

• Mix the flours and rava with salt and ghee. Make a dough adding required water. Leave for 15 minutes.
• Knead the dough again and divide into portions convenient to roll. Roll into rounds and stamp out small rounds (2 inch diameter) using any lid or container rim.
• Heat oil in a deep kadai, drop a small piece to check the temperature of the oil, it should rise immediately, the oil is ready for frying.
• Keep the oil in medium flame and drop the puris a few for every batch. Press slightly with the back of the laddle so that the puris rise up. Turn and fry till the puris are light brown on both sides. Drain and place on a tissue paper to remove excess oil. Transfer to a serving bowl.
  

Serving

• Serve puris in a plate and the pani and channa in two cups.
• Make a hole on the puri, fill with 1 teaspoon channa and 2 teaspoons pani and just eat. Sprinkle some thin shev, red chilli powder and decorate with coriander leaves.

This is my entry for Sia's MBP: Street Food



My friends Sireesha and JZ gave me 'ROCKING GIRL AWARD'. Thank you very much Sireesha and JZ.

10 Foods For Flattern Belly and Award

Here is very interesting video that I saw on MSNBC




My Friend Meera awarded me with 'Blogging with a Purpose' award. Thank you very much Meera.

I would like to pass this award to

• JZ of Tasty Treats
• Manasi of Fun n Food
• Sia of Monsoon Spices
• SMN of Cookspot
• Anjali of Anna Parabrahma

Enjoy the awards.

Upvaasache (Vrat) Thalipeeth

Ingredients:

• Upvaasachi Bhajani: 2 Cup
• Boiled and Mashed Potatoes: 1 Cup
• Roasted Peanut Powder: 1/4 Cup
• Finely Chopped Green Chillies: 3-4
• Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves: 1/2 Cup
• Lemon Juice: 2 tsp
• Salt to Taste
• Ghee for Shallow Fry

Procedure

1. Mix together bhajani, potato, peanut powder, green chillies, coriander leaves, salt and lemon juice. Add little water if required and make a soft dough. Keep aside for 20 - 25 minutes.
2. Make small balls of the dough. Take one plastic sheet and apply some ghee on one side. Flatten one ball in the palm of your hands and sheet. Pat the ball with palm and the fingers to make a round flat disc. Dip fingers in water to make the patting easier. Make 2-3 small holes to thalipeeth so that they can cook evenly.
3. Heat non-stick tava or griddle. Apply some oil. Remove thalipeeth from sheet gently & place it on the tava.
4. Apply some oil to the edges and through holes. Cover it with lid. Cook it from both sides.
5. Serve this hot thalipeeth with curd or any type of pickle.

Variation:
Soak Sabudana for 6-7 hrs in water, remove water & use that for thalipeeth instead of bhajani flour.

This is my another entry for Srivalli's Roti Mela

Click For Bri : Khandvi

This click is for you Bri. This is Khandvi very famous snack of Gujrath. For recipe click here. Thank you very much Jai & Bee for hosting such a nice event.

This is an appeal on behalf of a group of food bloggers who are friends of Briana Brownlow @ Figs With Bri.

Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her own war against breast cancer. More about it here.

She is going through intensive chemo and other treatments and needs to focus single-mindedly on healing and finding what treatment works best for her. Her health insurance, unfortunately, does not cover holistic alternatives which she would like to try. Bri and her husband Marc have enough on their plates right now in addition to worrying about her medical bills.

The team organising the JUNE edition of CLICK at Jugalbandi has organised a fundraiser to help Bri and her family meet her out-of-pocket medical costs for ONE YEAR.

Yellow is the colour of hope. Through the work of the LiveStrong Foundation, it has also come to signify the fight against cancer.

The entries can be viewed HERE. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2008. The fundraiser will extend until July 15, 2008.

The target amount is 12,000 U.S. dollars. We appeal to our fellow bloggers and readers to help us achieve this. Bri deserves a chance to explore all options, even if her insurance company thinks otherwise.

There’s a raffle with exciting prizes on offer. After viewing the list, you may make your donation HERE or at the Chip-In button on any participating site.

Your donation can be made securely through credit card or Pay Pal and goes directly to Bri’s account.

This month’s photo contest also has some prizes. Details HERE.

You can support this campaign by donating to the fundraiser, by participating in CLICK: the photo event, and by publicising this campaign.

Steamed Modak

Makes: 6-7 Modaks

Ingredients
For Cover

• Wheat Flour: 1 Cup
• Oil: 2 tsp
• Salt to Taste
• Water

For Stuffing

• Fresh Grated Coconut: 1 Cup
• Grated Jaggery / Gur: 1 Cup (Adjust as per your taste)
• Cardamom / Elaichi Powder: ½ tsp
• Finely Chopped Cashews, Almonds and Raisins: 1 tbsp
• Ghee: 2 tsp

Procedure

1. Mix salt and small amount of oil in a wheat flour very well. Then add some water and knead the dough. The dough should not be too soft. It should be just like Puri dough. Then add remaining oil and knead the dough. Cover this dough with clean pot or wet cotton cloth and keep aside for at least half hour.


2. For stuffing, heat ghee in kadhai. First fry all dry fruits till golden brown. Then add coconut and jaggery. Cook this mixture on a low flame till the jaggery melts and the mixture comes together. Then add cardamom powder and mix well. Keep this mixture for cooling.


3. Make small balls of dough. Apply some oil on a rolling board and roll these balls in small puries . These puries should not be too thick and too thin.


4. Place small amount of stuffing in the middle of puri. Merge all the sides of puri to make in the shape of a fresh fig. Prepare all modaks.




5. Boil water in a steamer or big kadhai.
   
6. Take a steamer plate or colander; apply some ghee or oil to it. Place all modaks on plate or colander and keep this plate or colander on steamer or kadhai. Cover with lead. Cook these modaks for 15 – 20 minutes.



7. Serve these modaks with warm milk or just eat like that.

Other Stuffing Options

• 1 Cup roasted sesame Seeds , 1/2 Cup shredded jaggery, Cardamom / Elaichi Powder ,Charoli. --> Make powder of sesame seeds. Then add all other ingredients and mix well,
• 1/4 cup finely chopped Cabbage, 1/4 cup finely shredded Carrot, 2 tbsp steamed Peas, 2 tbsp finely shredded Spring Onion, 2 tbsp sliced Onion, 2 tsp finely shredded Garlic, 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder, 1 tsp Soya Sauce, 1 tbsp Tomato Sauce, 1 tbsp Oil, small amount of Ajinomoto, Salt to tast ---> Heat oil in kadhai. Then add sliced onion. Fry till golden brown. Then add all other ingredients. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Then let it cool. (Serve these Modaks with any Sauce.)
• Boiled mashed potatoes, Aamchur powder, Coriander seed powder, Jeera Powder, Garam Masala, Red Chilli Powder, Sugar, Finely chopped Coriander, Sesame seeds, Oil, Salt to taste ---> Mix all ingredients except oil. Heat oil in kadhai and add potato mixture. Mix well for 2-3 minutes. Let it cool.
• Steamed Green Moong, Finely chopped coriander, Finely chopped Onion, Red Chilli Powder, Coriander seed powder, Jeera Powder, Garam Masala, Chat Masala, Lemon Juice, Salt to taste ---> Mix everything very well.

Other Cover Options

• You can use same ingredients for cover but just instead of steaming you can deep fry these modaks.
• 1 cup Maida, Salt and 2 tbsp Oil ---> Heat oil and add it to maida. Mix it very well till all the maida gets the oil. Add salt and water to make it a very stiff dough. Use same procedure for filling modaks and deep fry them.
• 1 cup rice flour, 1 cup water, 1 tsp ghee, 1/2 tsp salt ---> Boil 1 cup of water. When it has reached a steady boil, add ghee, salt and oil. Now immediately add the rice flour and stir quickly so as to remove all lumps. Cover with a lid for some time. Remove the lid & stir again & again, cover again. Now remove pan from the heat. Take off all the mixture on a flat plate. Knead it thoroughly while hot. Make a soft dough. Keep covered aside. For preparing modak, grease the palms of your hands well. Take a ball of dough. Flatten the dough to form a cup shape. Place about 3/4th teaspoon coconut filling into this cup. Dip thumb & index finger in the oil & make 5-6 small pinches side by side on the outside edges of the cup. Bring them together on top and join to form a peak. Steam for about 15 minute (Source: Cusine Cusine -- I never tried this type of cover. This is just for information)

This is my entry for Suganya's AFAM: Coconut

Now some awards.

Shubha of 'Chutki Bhar Pyar' gave me 'Nice Matter Award'. Thank you very much Shubha for passing me this award. I would like to pass this award to

• skribles of 'Food with a Pinch of Love'
• Lavnya of 'Cookery Corner'
• Purnima of 'Fantasy Cooking'
• Srivalli of 'Cooking 4 all Seasons'

JZ of 'Tasty Treats' and Andhra Flavors of ' For Spicy Love' gave me 'Rockin Girl blogger'. Thank you very much JZ and Andhra Flavors for passing me this award. I would like to pass this award to

• EasyCraft of 'Simple Indian Food'
• Sireesha of 'Mom's Recipes'
• Srivalli of 'Cooking 4 all Seasons'
• Namrata of 'Finger Licking Food'
• Pavani of 'Cook's Hideout'
• Sandeepa of 'Bong Mom's CookBook'
• Saswati of 'Potpourri'

Wait one more award is here. Neha of 'Tasty Recipes' gave me' Yummy Blog Award'. Thank you very much Neha for passing me this award. I would like to pass this award to

• SASHREE of 'A Warm Welcome to all the foodies....... '
• Usha of 'Veg Inspirations '
• Lavi of 'Home Cook's Recipes'
• Pallavi of 'All Things Yummy'

You will find logo on side bars. Enjoy your awards.

Multigrain Cucumber Vada

Ingredient

• Thick Grated Cucumber: 1
• Ragi Flour: 1/4 Cup
• Rice Flour: 1/4 Cup
• Jawar Flour: 1/4 Cup
• Besan (Chickpea Flour): 1 Cup
• Finely Chopped Green Chillies: 2-3
• Finely Chopped Coriander: 1/2 Cup
• Turmeric Powder: 1/2 tsp
• Coriander Powder: 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds: 1 tsp
• Ajwain: 1 & 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil for Frying

Procedure

• Add salt, all powders, cumin seeds, ajwain to grated cucumber. Mix very well. Keep this aside for 10 -15 minutes.
• Then add remaining ingredients to cucumber mixture. Add cucumber will leave water you may or may not need water to knead the dough.
• Make small lemon size balls of this dough.
• On a plastic sheet, shape vadas with these balls.
• Heat oil in the kadai and fry these vadas till it ger little bit red on medium heat.
• Serve these hot vadas with any sauce, ketch up, chutney or curd.

This is my entry for Manasi's Monthly Mingle: Appetizers & Hors'Doeuvres event.

Source:
Anjali of Anna Parabrahma

Very Interesting MeMe

Sireesha of Mom's Recipes tagged me for very interesting MeMe '10 Things That You Hate'. Here are 10 things that I hate.

1. Smoking and people who smokes.
2. Drinking and people who drinks a lot.
3. Family dramas of hindi TV Channels.
4. Selfish ,Egoistic and dishonest people.
5. Gambling and people who gambles a lot.
6. People who wants everything in their life by not doing anything and just blaming to their fate.
7. Emraan Hashmi and his movies.
8. Indian Summer, Maharashtrian Electricity Problem.
9. Violence.
10. Waiting when I am on time.

Now I would like to tag

• Sowmya of Creative Saga
• Purnima of Fantasy Cooking
• Pallavi of All Things Yummy
• Uma of Essence Of Andhra

My blogger friend Kamala gave me 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' award. Thank you very much Kamala.