Omapodi

Easy and tasty snack made from besan  !

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Besan/Gram flour- 1 cup
Rice flour -1/4 cup
Omam/ajwain seeds - 2 teaspoon
Oil - 3 tablespoon
Turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Water - as required
Oil for deep frying

METHOD:

1. In a vessel , add 1/4 cup of water and soak omam/ajwain seeds for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Now grind the omam with 1 to 2 teaspoon of soaked water. It may not be grinded properly as the quantity is very less. But it is ok. Now extract the omam water from the ginded omam.

3. Now in a bowl, add besan , rice flour, turmeric powder,salt,red chilli powder,2 tablespoon oil ,omam water and mix well. Add water gradually and mix them well to form a smooth and thick dough.

4. Heat oil in pan. Prepare your murukku/chakkli maker. Grease the inside of maker with oil.

5. Fill the murukku maker with dough .

6. Cover the murukku machine and press it directly on the oil in circular motion. Keep moving the murukku maker around the oil. Else the omapodi will overlap each other .

7. Gently flip them on other side and once they change color, take it out from oil.

SEE ALSO: Tape Murukku, Butter Murukku

Fried Gram Ladoo

An easy and healthy sweet.. Fried gram ladoo / pottu kadalai urundai !

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Fried gram/pottu kadalai - 1 cup
Desiccated coconut powder - 1 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 ccups
Cashews - a handful chopped
Cardamom powder -1 teaspoon
Ghee - 1/4 cup

METHOD:

1. Dry roast fried gram in a pan, till it is hot to touch. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, dry roast coconut powder, till nice aroma comes. No need to fry till they change colour. It should be white in color.Set aside.

3. In the same pan, add some ghee and fry chopped cashews till they change colour.

4. Now mix fried gram,coconut powder,cashews and powdered sugar . Grind them all together in to fine powder. Sprinkle some cardamom powder.

5. Heat ghee well in a kadai.

6. Pour hot ghee on the flour and mix gently with a spoon. The ghee should be really hot when you pour it.

7. Wait for some 5 minutes. When it is warm enough to touch, apply some ghee on your hands. Take some flour and make round shaped ladoos .

8.Fried gram ladoo/pottukadalai urundai is ready !!

Maida Burfi

Tasty Maida Burfi 💙💚💛💜💓

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Yields : 40 pieces

INGREDIENTS:

All purpose flour/maida - 1 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2 3/4 cup
Water - 1 cup
Ghee - 3/4 cup
Cashews - a handful
Food colour - a pinch
Vanilla essence - 1/4 teaspoon(optional)

METHOD:

1. Prepare all ingredients and set ready. In a large plate, place an aluminium foil and grease it with ghee.

2. In a pan. Add ghee. Allow it to boil and when it is heated well, add chopped cashews. Then slowly add maida in one hand and keep stirring on the other hand. Stir continuously without any lumps for 2 to 3 minutes, until you get a paste like texture as below. The maida should be fried well in the ghee . Switch off the stove.

3. Now in a vessel, add sugar. Add water just to cover the sugar. I added about 1 cup of water . Allow to boil, till you get a one string consistency . It takes approximately 9 to 10 minutes. Pour a drop of sugar syrup on a plate. When it is warm, press the syrup between forefinger and thumb and when you pull apart , you get one string.

4. Now add food color and vanilla essence to the syrup and switch off the stove.

5. Now pour this sugar syrup on the maida mixture which we prepared in step 2. Keep stirring continuously. Remember this stirring is done not on the stove. No need to heat this mixture. Just without turning on the gas stove, keep stirring the syrup and maida mixture. In 4 to 5 minutes, it slowly thickens and starts leaving the sides of the pan. The mixture thickens and comes together.

6. Pour this mixture on the greased aluminum foil. Spread it evenly. spread some ghee on the back of metal cup and press it gently on the mixture.

7. Wait for about 5 to 10 minutes. When it is warm, flip the burfi on the other plate and slowly remove the aluminium foil. Grease a knife with ghee, and cut them in to square shapes.Do not allow to cool down completely. You need to cut them in to desired shapes when it is warm.

8. Maida burfi is ready ! Refrigerate them after a day.

SEE ALSO:  Mysore pak, Padar peni, Rava kesari

Sweet Somas

Tasty sweet made with maida and with a filling of coconut,fried gram and sugar. It is also called kajjikayalu in andhra pradesh, karanji in maharashtra .

Preparation Time : 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Yields - 20-23 nos of somas.

INGREDIENTS:
All purpose flour/Maida - 3 cups
Rava/Sooji - 1/2 cup
Oil - 3 tablespoon
Salt - a pinch

FOR STUFFING:

Fried gram/pottu kadalai - 1 cup
Desiccated coconut powder - 1 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 cups
Cashew nuts - A handful chopped.
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon

Oil for deep frying.

METHOD:

1. In a pan, dry roast fried gram , till it is hot to touch. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, dry roast coconut powder till you get nice aroma. Don't over roast. The color should not change and should be white.

3. In the same pan, add some ghee and fry chopped cashews.

4. Now, grind the fried gram in to a coarse powder.

5. Now mix the grinded gram with coconut powder, powdered sugar and roasted cashews. Mix them well. The stuffing for somas is ready !.

6. Now in a large bowl, add maida, salt and 3 tablespoon of oil. Mix them well. Add water gradually and knead them  to form a thick dough. The dough consistency should be as like we make for poori.  Cover the dough with wet cloth and allow it to rest for 2 hours.

7. Now take small lemon sized ball and flatten it to the size of poori. Do not make it too thick . Else when you fry, the outer layer gets too thick. Make it slightly thin. Now using any metal vessel bottom, press it on the dough to get a perfect circular shape. I used approximately 4.5 inch diameter sized vessel. By this way, we get same sized somas.

8. Now keep about 1 to 1.5 teaspoon of stuffing in the center of the dough.

9. Apply some water on the edges of half of the circle and close it . Press it well , so that the fillings wont come out when you fry. This is very important. Else, when you deep fry, the fillings would come out . You can also decorate the edges using a fork.

10. Now deep fry them in oil, till they change to golden brown.

11. Sweet somas is ready !. Do try and leave your comments !

NOTES:

1. If you have leftover stuffing , you can add some ghee to it and roll them to round shape. They are  called fried gram ladoos !

2. SEE ALSO: Carrot halwa, Poori payasam, Milk powder Gulab jamun

Milkpowder Burfi

For this diwali, spend just 15 minutes to make this delicious burfi  with milk powder,milk,sugar and ghee !

Preparation Time: Under 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Yields - approx. 15-18 no.s

INGREDIENTS:

Milk powder -2 1/2 cup
Sugar -1/2 cup( If you want more sweet, you can add more)
Whole milk - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Chopped almonds - a handful
Vanilla essence - 1/2 teaspoon(optional)
Cardamom powder - as required

METHOD:

1. Prepare all ingredients and set ready.

2. In a pan, add whole milk and ghee and heat it briefly till it is warm.

3. Now keep the flame low. Add milk powder . Also add sugar and mix all the ingredients well. Keep stirring constantly. Add vanilla essence.

4. The mixture slowly thickens. Keep the flame low and keep stirring constantly. The sugar gets completely dissolved and mixture thickens and comes together as a dough. It will take approximately 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the mixture looks like below picture and dough will not stick to the pan. Switch off the stove and add cardamom powder and mix well. Do not cook more than 10 minutes, as the burfi would turn chewy.

5. Now grease a a aluminium foil with ghee and put the dough in the pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on the burfi and press the almonds gently on the dough using back of a metal spoon or metal cup.

6. Allow it to set for two hours. Now cut them in to big square pieces. Put them in small cupcake wrappers, so that burfis dont get stick to each other. Refrigerate them.

NOTES:

1. You can chop/powder almonds and pistachios finely and sprinkle on the dough before it sets and then after two hours, you can cut them in to square pieces.

2. SEE ALSO: Wheat Ladoo, Badam Halwa, Choco Burfi