Badusha

Badusha

INGREDIENTS :

Maida – 1.5 cups

Butter(Unsalted)  + oil –  1/4 cup + 1/8 cup

Sugar  - 1/2 tsp

Curd -  1.5 tblsp

Cooking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) – 2 pinches

Water – 1/4 cup (approx.)

Oil – for deep frying

For sugar syrup :

Sugar – 1/2 cup

Water – Just to immerse the sugar

Elaichi powder – 2 pinches

Saffron – A pinch (optional)

Lemon juice – 1 tsp

PROCEDURE :

Melt butter and add oil, sugar, curd and cooking soda to it and use a whisk to mix well to make the mixture frothy. Add the flour to it.

Mix well to make it crumbly. Add water to make it dough (be careful while adding water). Make a smooth dough without any lumps. I kept on kneading for 10 mins.

Make lemon sized balls (I did 12 lemon sized balls) out of the dough. Shape the balls to look like mini donuts.

Take a pan add sugar and water to it. Boil it till one string consistency. Add saffron, elaichi to it. Add lemon juice to this lastly. Lemon juice is added so that the sugar doesn’t crystallize.

Heat oil just enough, check it by adding a pinch of dough. The dough should rise immediately, then it’s just right. Don’t let the oil fume at any point.

Add some 5 badushas carefully to the oil. Switch off the flame and let it get cooked in preheated oil. Approximately it would take 5 mins.

At one stage badushas float, then again keep the kadai on fire and cook in medium-low flame, adjust heat at the end to make it golden brown, for me it took around 5-8 mins.

Drain in a paper towel and immediately add to the hot syrup to cover the badushas.  Add in batches of

2 – 3 at a time. Leave it for a minute and then drain the badushas to a greased surface.

Hyderabadi Vegetable Dum Biryani

Vegetable Dum Biryani

INGREDIENTS:

For the rice:

Basmati rice washed and soaked in water for 15 mins – 1.5 cups
Cardamom - 1
Bay leaves - 2
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon – 1/2 inch

Star anise - 1
Salt to taste
Water – 4 cups


For the vegetable gravy:

Ghee or oil – 4 tblsp 
Onions sliced – 1 + 2
Ginger garlic paste – 1.5 tsp
Green chillies – 2 (slit lengthwise)
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1.5 tsp
Biryani masala – 1.5 tsp
Lime juice – 1 tsp
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp

Chopped carrot + beans + potato + cauliflower + fresh green peas - 1 cup
Curd – 3/4 cup

Cashews

Raisins
Salt to taste

For garnishng:

Chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves – less than 1/2 cup
5-6 saffron strands soaked in 2 tblsp milk(you can also use saffron colour)

PROCEDURE:

Boil the water and put the soaked rice,salt and spices in it and cook the rice till it is cooked by 75%. Drain all the water and put in a strainer  and cool it.

In a pan heat oil or ghee and fry the 1 onion slices till dark brown and keep aside.

In same ghee add fennel seeds and put the remaining onion slices and saute till transparent.

Add ginger garlic paste, green chillies and fry for 3-4 mins.

Put the veggies and cook with a lid covered.

Add salt to taste, cashews, raisins, all spice powders,lime juice and mix well.

Now add the curd and mix well.

In a handi (I have used pressure cooker here since I didn’t have handi) add the masala. Add few coriander and mint leaves. Now spread some rice on this masala, add fried onions, 1 tblsp saffron milk, chopped coriander and mint leaves. Make a layer of rice on this and add chopped corriander and mint leaves along with fried onions. Add saffron milk to this. Repeat these steps for remaining masala and rice.

For the dum :

Cover the pressure cook with a wet cloth and place a lid on this. Place a heavy object on this. I used the grinding stone here. Keep this in low flame for 15 mins. Now place a tawa on stove and keep this pressure cooker on it. Cook in low flame for another 10 mins. Tawa is used here so that the base of biryani doesn’t get burnt. If you are confident enough then you need not keep tawa. Place the handi on direct flame for 25mins.

Vegetable dum biryani is ready J J Serve hot with any raita.

Rasgulla

Rasgulla is popular bengali sweet. This sweet is loved by all age groups. :) :)

Ingredients :

Milk (full cream) – 1 litre

Lemon juice – 3 tblsp

Sugar – 2 cups

Water – 3 & ½ cups

Elaichi powder – pinch

Ice cubes - 10

Nuts (Optional) – For garnishing

Method :

Heat the milk and when it starts to boil, simmer the flame, add the lemon juice and stir properly.

Heat further until the whey water clearly separates. Put off the flame.

Add the ice cubes and mix well. Ice cubes is added to prevent chenna to become hard.

In a muslin cloth pour the curdled milk.

Wash the chenna well in running water to remove the lemon smell and sourness.

Squeeze the excess water gently and hang it for 30 mins.  Else place the grinding stone on the mixture and keep it for 30 mins.

After 30 mins take out the paneer in a bowl. It will now look crumbled in texture.

Kneed this for 7-10 mins gently to make it like a soft and smooth dough.

Make smooth equal sized small balls. I made some 22 balls. You can adjust the number according to the size of rasgullas you need because the rasgullas double in size while boiling.

In a pressure cooker add sugar, elaichi and water and boil it.

After the sugar gets dissolved completely and the syrup boils, add the balls made carefully one by one.

On medium flame pressure cook for a whistle. After a whistle simmer to low flame and keep for 5 mins.

Put off the flame and let the pressure gets released by itself, then open the lid to see the rasgullas – by now it would have doubled in size. If you think sugar syrup is too thin and not sweet enough, boil again in low flame until you get desired thickness of the syrup.

Cool down and refrigerate and serve chilled!!

Notes :

Don’t add excess lemon juice to the boiling milk. You can use curd instead of lemon juice.

The kneading part is very important, knead smooth and soft with patience.

Taushe Idly / Cucumber Idlies

Taushe Idly

Ingredients :

Grated cucmber - 1 (medium sized)
Rice rawa - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup grated (you can add jaggery as per your taste)
Fresh coconut - 1/2 of whole coconut ( add only white part)
Salt - 1 tbsp

Method :

Grate the cucumber after removing the seeds and keep aside.

Roast the rice rawa until the aroma comes out and cool it

In a mixie jar add coconut, jaggery and salt and grind little bit. The jaggery should blend well with the coconut.

In a bowl mix rawa, coconut paste grated cucumber and mix well. Keep this mixture aside to set for 30 mins.

Grease the idly moulds with little ghee and fill in the above mixture and steam for 25 mins.

Have the idlies hot with ghee :)



Note : The cucumber gives out water when the mixture is let to set for 30 mins. Still if the mixture looks dry you can add water. Restrain from adding access water to the mixture.

Duddalis / Arrowroot Halwa

Duddali

Ingredients :

Kuve peeta (Arrowroot powder) - 1.5 cups
Milk - 1.5 cups
Water 1.5 cups
Cardamom powder - pinch
Ghee - 1 tbsp + less than 1/4 tsp for greasing the tray
Sugar - 1.25 cups (you can adjust the sweetness as per your taste)

Method :
 
In a wok add milk and water and boil it. Add sugar to this mixture. In the meantime take arroroot powder and mix it with little water (you can use milk too). Make sure no lumps are formed while mixing. Keep aside this mixture.


Once the milk gets boiled add arrowroot mixture and keep stirring continuously for 15 - 17 mins untill the mixture forms a sticky mass. (Make sure that you keep stirring well since arrowroot might form lumps easily after adding to the hot milk.)


Now add elachi and ghee and mix well for 2 mins.


In a greased tray pour the mixture and allow it to cool. You can cut the halwa in desired shapes and serve :)


Note : U can add any fruit pulp to this mixture to make the halwa more colourful and tasty :)

Mix Vegetable kurma

Mix Vegetable Kurma

I got this recipe from one of the food page in facebook. Thanks to Shyamala Shenoy for this yummilicious recipe.

Ingredients  :

Chopped n cooked veggies of ur choice- 1 1/2 to 2 cups ( I have used the frozen veggies like carrot beans green peas cauliflower)

Onion -1 big
Tomato – 2 medium finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste – 1.5 tsp
Green chillies – 2-3
Fresh Coconut – 2 tablespoon

Cashew nuts – 6-8
Fennel seeds- 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1tsp (optional)
Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves- 1/2 cup
Oil for cooking

Spices : 

Bay leaf – 1

Cloves- 2
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cardamom- 2

Method :

Cook the veggies and keep aside.

In a kadai, heat 2 tsp oil, add ¼ tsp fennel seeds, slit green chillis, ginger garlic paste, half of the chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, and fry for 2mins.

Add coriander leaves and fry for a while. Let it cool . Grind into a smooth paste.

Grind cashew nuts and coconut into a smooth paste.

Heat little oil in the kadai, add remaining ¼ tsp fennel seeds, bay leaf, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon for tempering, then fry remaining chopped onions for a min., add ground masala, garam masala powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder (only if u want your gravy spicy). Fry for 2 minutes.

Add cooked n fried veggies, salt as per your taste, mix well.

Now add coconut, cashew paste, mix well, add ¼ cup of water, Cook at low flame for 2-3 minutes or till the gravy reaches desired consistency.

Ghee Rice

Ghee rice 

Ingredients :

Basmati rice – 1 cup

Ghee – 3 tbsp

Onion – 1 chopped lengthwise

Water – 2 cups

Salt – as required

Spices :

Bayleaf – 2

Cardamom – 3

Cloves – 3

Star anise – 1

For garnishing :

Carmelised onion

Method :

Soak the rice in water for 30 mins and wash well.

In a pressure cooker heat ghee and add onions and sauté until the onion turns transculent. Add in the spices and saute well for a min.

Now add rice to this and mix well. Add water to this and salt as per taste.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Ghee rice is ready J J

Garnish with carmelised onion and serve to your loved  ones.