Atta Halwa

When I was a kid, my neighbors who are originally from North India, would make this dessert for festivals or as an offering to God during puja. I never knew the name of the dish, but this dish had captured my heart. Recently my mom mentioned about a brown sheera that she had eaten during a community Ganesh Chaturthi festival and I was overcome with nostalgia. In my attempt to find the name of the dish, I searched the internet and found recipes for a brown sheera called "Atta Halwa". I gave it a shot and the result - I rediscovered a long forgotten sweet from my childhood.

Atta Halwa or Wheat Halwa or Brown Sheera is a dessert that just melts in your mouth. Here is the recipe I found on the internet.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Ghee - 0.5 cup

Wheat Flour (Atta) - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Water - 2 cup

Dry Fruits (Cashew and Almonds) - 5 each (sliced)

Preparation:

1.) In a pan, heat ghee and add the dry fruits to it. Once the dry fruit turns slightly brown, add the atta and let it cook until it turns brown color.

2.) Meanwhile in another vessel, take water and sugar and heat it till it bubbles (boils). We are not making sugar syrup, so make sure you switch off the gas once the sugar water bubbles.

3.) Once the atta mixture turns brown and starts to ooze a bit of ghee, add this hot bubbling water slowly. Mix well so that there are no lumps formed.

Atta Halwa is ready to be served hot!

Banana Mulka

Mulka is popular dish in Konkan cuisine. Its traditionally made with Jackfruit, but you can also use Banana to make this yummy dessert. This is usually prepared during Ganesh Chaturthi and is also called Banana Modak. It looks like a fritter and is a healthy snack for kids. Here is the recipe from my mom in law and I hope you enjoy making this awesome dessert.

 

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Banana - 3

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Jaggery - 1 small ball (or a small cup)

Salt - 0.5 tsp

Semolina (Sooji/Rava) - 1 cup (or as much required to thicken the batter)

Oil for deep frying

Preparation:

1.) Mash some banana in a bowl and mix it with grated coconut, crushed jaggery and salt. Make it into a fine paste by mixing well with hand.

2.) Next add rava to the above mix and mix well till it thickens.

3.) Heat oil for deep frying. Then take small portions of the batter and drop it in hot oil. Cook till they turn brown.

Hot hot Banana Mulka is ready to be served.

KhatKhata

 Khatkhata is a Maharastrian specialty made from 21 or more vegetables. This curry is made on the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi and is very nutritious and healthy. My mom in law shared this recipe with me and we love it so much that its now made frequently at home. My kid especially loves eating corn cobs from the curry. Here goes the recipe for this amazing dish.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Green Chilies - 7

Fresh Coriander Leaves - 1 small cup

Toor Dal - 3 tsp or 1/2 vati*

Peanuts - 3 tsp

Grated Coconut - 1 small cup

Tamarind - a small marble sized ball

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Hing - pinch

Vegetables: Take 21 or more vegetables of your choice. Take small portion for each vegetable.

Slow Cooking Vegetables: To be Pressure cooked

Raw Banana

Raw Papaya

Elephant Yam (Suran)

Chayote Squash

Ivy Gourd (Tindora)

Snake Gourd (Padwal)

Round Cucumber (Dosakai)

Turnip 

Radish (Mooli)

Sweet Potato

Corn

Carrot

Green Peas (or black dry peas)

Cluster Beans (Chitmitki)

Taro Root (Arbi)

Fast Cooking Vegetables: To be boiled in vessel separately so that they don't get mashed in the pressure cooker.

Drumstick

Red Pumpkin

Brinjal (White, purple, long green or any variety or a combination)

Ridge Gourd (Ghosale)

Bottle Gourd (Dudhi)

Green Beans

Cucumber

Potato

Green Tomato (Optional)

Preparation:

1.) Take toor dal, peanuts, the slow cooking vegetables and water and pressure cook them.

2.) Heat oil in a vessel, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add hing to this and the fast cooking vegetables and water and cover it with lid to boil them.

3.) After it boils, add the pressure cooked vegetables to it.

4.) In a mixer, take some coconut, tamarind, green chilies, coriander leaves, salt and water and grind it into a smooth paste.

5.) Put this paste in the vegetable mix and let it boil well.

Khatkhata is ready to be served with rice.

*vati = idli vati

Hinddi (Konkani Style Mango Pickle)

Pickles are a very important accompaniment to every Indian meal. No meal is complete without a spoonful of this tangy, salty  and spicy goodness. Each household has their traditional recipes for making these amazing pickles. Here is one from my home - Hinddi or Hindi. Its a grated mango pickle infused with all the spices and very easy to make. I grew up eating this every year during the mango season and this recipe from my mom helped me relive those memories once again.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Raw Mango - 1 (Grated)
Chilly Powder - 1/4 small cup
Salt - 1/8th small cup
Oil - 1 tsp (for tempering)
Methi Seeds (Fenugreek seeds) - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/8 small cup
Hing - 2 tsp (powdered)

Preparation:

1. Grate one whole raw mango along with the skin and keep it aside.
2. In a pan, heat oil, ad mustard seeds and wait till it crackles, then add methi seeds and hing. Switch off the gas and let it cool down.
3. Next take this tempering into a mixer jar and grind it.
4. Add this to the grated raw mango, along with chilly powder and salt. Mix it well and store it in a airtight container in the refrigerator.

A spoonful of this pickle makes for a great accompaniment to your every day lunch or dinner.

DIY Cupcake Molds

Inspired by this video, I decided to make my own cupcake molds for baking the chocolava cake. Turns out, they were sturdy enough to hold my cake batter.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Take an aluminium foil and fold it. I folded it just once.
2. Take a glass and trace the shape of the aluminium foil on it. Fold the edges and make it even. 
3. And there you go - you are all set for baking cupcake!

Choco Lava Cake

A cake with liquid chocolate in the center always made me curious on how one would bake such a thing. After having made this for the first time (and with success), I realized that it is the right baking technique that gives this cake the form. Although I must admit, this is a cake only for the special occasion as you can get your sugar levels very high!
Long long ago, when pizza was my favorite Wednesday dinner, I always used to order the chocolava cake as a side from dominos and would be in awe looking at the chocolate ooze from the cake. It somehow seemed very difficult to do. But having learnt the recipe, I must admit, this was definitely a "cake" walk 😊

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour (Maida) or Pancake Mix - 1 cup
Cocoa - 4 tbsp
Sugar - 0.5 cup (powdered)
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup
Chocolate squares - 6
Butter - 4 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp (for greasing the molds)


Preparation:

1. In a bowl, add the pancake mix, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and mix well.
2. Add half cup milk and mix it thoroughly.
3. Take the chocolate squares and butter in another bowl and microwave it. Add this liquefied mixture to the above cocoa mix and stir well. (If you don't want to liquefy the chocolate squares, you can also place them in the mold after pouring the mixture from step 2 - be sure to add butter to the mixture though).
4. Add the remaining milk and make it a smooth texture.
5. Grease the molds with oil and pour this mixture into each mold. I had 1 ceramic container at home and I handmade 4 aluminium molds using these steps which I found to be very creative and enjoyed making them.
6. Preheat the oven at 355 F for 10 mins. Once the oven preheats, place the filled molds into it.
7. Bake for 12 minutes. After that taken the molds out and let it cool down for 3 mins. Tear away the aluminium foil for the aluminium molds and keep the cake on a plate. For the ceramic one, slide a knife through the side so that the cake comes off easily and then invert it onto a plate, tap it gently and the cake should come off.

When you cut the cake, you should see the chocolate oozing out. Yum!!

Chocolava cake is ready to be served.

Bread Roll

Your choice of stuffing rolled inside a bread and pan fried and voila- you have the bread roll. A very simple snack that makes up for a great accompaniment to your Chai time, you can get very creative with the stuffing each time and never get bored of this dish. Here's a stuffing that I tried with paneer and it was a hit at the home.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Grated Paneer - 1/2 bowl
Coriander leaves - handful
Green Chilly - 1
Ginger - small piece
Garlic - 2 cloves
Salt - as per taste
Milk - 0.5 small cup
Bread - 5

Preparation:

1. In a mixer jar, take coriander leaves, green chilly, ginger, garlic and salt and grind it into a fine paste.
2. Add this paste to grated paneer and mix well.
3. Take half the milk quantity from the ingredients and add it to the paneer mixture. The mixture should not be too dry nor too wet.
4. Take a bread slice, roll it using the rolling pin to make it a very thin layer.
5. Take some mixture and spread it evenly on the thin bread layer.
6. Start rolling the bread and then apply some milk to the edge to seal it. 
7. Repeat this process for all the remaining bread slices
8. In a pan, heat some butter and place these rolls to fry. After each interval, keep changing the side so that the roll cooks evenly on all sides.

Bread roll is ready to be served with ketchup.