Shevyancho Saano (Shevai sheera)

Ending this month on a sweet note with my fav breakfast dish. Yes I have a sweet tooth.
I will be on a blogging hiatus for a few months. Till then enjoy the recipes here…

Ingredients:
1 cup Sevai/Shevai/Shevyo
3-4 tbl spn freshly grated coconut
3-4 elaichi
1/3 cup sugar ( as per taste)
1 cup water (approx)
1 tea spn ghee
salt to taste

Method:
Crush elaichi pods to powder. Keep the water for boiling.

Heat ghee in a non-stick pan. Fry the Shevai till it’s light brown.
Add hot water to it. Keep on medium heat.

Add the sugar and salt to taste, stir well.
When the shevai is cooked and the water has reduced, add the coconut and elaichi powder. Mix well. Remove from heat.
Cover and keep for 5 mins before serving.

Serve as snack in the evening or for breakfast

 

Caramel Egg Pudding

Served and eaten by me

Yummy aint’ it Made it yesterday.

This how my mom makes the egg-bread pudding . It’s so famous in my family that for any in-home party they want it to be present! No matter how many other dessert dishes may be there!!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 bread slice
250 ml milk (approx)
8 tbl spn sugar (vary as per taste)
1 tea spn vanilla essence

Serves : 3-4
Method:

Boil and cool milk.
Make small pieces of the bread and soak in the milk. Also add 6 spoons of sugar.
Crush the mixture with hands till no bread lumps remain. Soak for 10-15 mins.

Beat the eggs finely and add to the milk-bread mix. Also add in Vanilla essence.Beat the mix properly.

This pudding is cooked on steam, hence when selecting a final container choose a round steel one, which will fit in the cooker and can be easily removed.
Heat a steel flat-bottom vessel, add 1 to 1 1/2 tbl spn sugar. The sugar melts and turns into light brown liquid - caramel. Remove from heat.
Using a pair of tongs, spread the caramel at the base of the vessel. Allow to cool for 10-15 mins.

Now pour in the pudding mix(egg-bread-milk) into this vessel. Cover with a plate.
Use a pressure cooker, with enough water in it. Place the vessel in the cooker and steam on medium heat for around 20 mins. Do not use the whistle.

Allow it to cool down. Test if the pudding has cooked properly - using your finger gently touch the pudding, it should not stick to the finger.
If it’s not done, steam for few more mins.

Use a knife gently along the circumference of the pudding, to separate it from the vessel at the sides. Place a plate on top of the vessel and turn around, so that the pudding is on the plate. This is to be done only once the pudding has cooled.

Refrigerate for an hour. Serve chilled for dessert

Here’s how Pooja’s makes the Pudding. 

Tip: You can optionally put pieces of dry fruits on the caramel before pouring the pudding mix for more tastier version.

 

BhauBij, 2 gifts and a cake

Bhaubij (known as Bhai duj in North India) is a celebration of the Brother-Sister relation and is celebrated 2 days after Diwali.

BhauBij this year was on Sunday and luckily my brother was with me after many many years!

We usually do a ovalni (a special puja) in the evening on that day. The thali used for ovalni usually consists of a diva, gandh (kumkum with little water) for tika, 2 rounds of wheat dough, any gold item, nane (currency coin). Ovalni means to do puja of the person with the thali just setup, after which the brother gives the sister a gift.

I got 2 gifts from my bro after the ovalni - a futura cooking pan and a borosil baking bowl with lid

Without wasting more time, I prepared the Healthy, Eggless and Microwave Cake I had set my eyes on!

All Credit goes to Mansi for this wonderful recipe

My only changes were :
1. I skipped adding milk powder, cookies and chocolate as I didn’t have them
2. I used 3-4 teaspns of Drinking chocolate powder instead of cocoa.
3. I added more milk, so that the cake batter forms ribbon when dropped using a spoon.
4. Instead of adding powdered sugar, I added normal sugar.
5. Kept the batter for around 15-20mins after mixing all ingredients so that the lumps are easily removed and the sugar mixes properly.

Even after so many changes, the cake turned out Awesome My brother just loved it!

I complete 50 posts on this blog with this one and what a coincidence to describe about Bhaubij

 

Shankarpalyo

Shankarpalyo is a sweet usually prepared during Diwali in Goa. It forms one of the long list of sweet & spicy food that are on the menu those days.
Shankarpalyo is one of my favs.

Here’s how my mom prepares it…

Ingredients:
4 cups wheat flour/maida
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup home made ghee
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method:
Melt the ghee and add to milk. Add sugar to the milk and keep on low flame till the sugar melts.
Take the flour in a big thali and add the salt. Mix well. Knead using the warm milk-sugar-ghee mix to a soft round (like chapati batter). Adjust the maida and milk as needed to form this batter. It should not be sticky. Set aside this round for an hour.

Take a large ball and roll like a thick chapati on the polpaat. Using a chinnkatne (used for nevryo also) cut into diamonds.
( We didn’t find the chinnkatne and used a pizza cutter instead ) Chinnkatne is a spoon with a pizza cutter like edge.

Heat oil in a kadai. Test by adding a small bit of the dough. If it rises to the top as soon as you drop it, the oil is ready.
Fry the diamonds in the oil till light brown. Remove on tissue paper.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Bet, you can’t eat just one

 

Diwali Special - Pithyache Ladoo

Pithyache means ‘made of flour’. Basically wheat flour is referred to as ‘Pith’ (pronounced as : pe-ee-th)

This is my fav ladoo.. only the ones which my mom or my grandma would make. All other variety does not entice me!

These ladoos come with a note “Handle with Care”

Ingredients:
4 cups Wheat flour
2 cups Sugar
2 cups homemade pure ghee/ Gharave Tup
1 tbl spn elaichi powder

Method:
Grind the sugar into a fine powder. Grind the elaichi also into a fine powder. Make sure no lumps are present.

If using home made wheat flour, sieve the flour and use only the fine wheat flour. Use only homemade Pure Ghee as this will bring in a nice aroma.

Heat a pan and add the ghee into it. Keep on low heat all through.Wait till the ghee melts. Now add the wheat flour and fry in the ghee. Keep moving a wooden ladle through this mix, till the wheat flour turns slightly brownish and will have a nice aroma.

Remove from heat and move into a large plate. Now add the Sugar and mix well using the ladle. Add the elaichi and mix well.

The mix has to be warm for making the ladoos. hence mixing of sugar and elaichi has to be fast.

Take a small amount of the mix in your palm and press using the other hand. Keep rotating the mix and pressing, to form a round ball. This round ladoo will be made of powder and will break easily, hence exercise caution.
Carefully keep the ladoo in another plate. Repeat procedure to form more ladoos.

Serving Instruction : The best part is the way the ladoo is served.
I will try to take snaps today of this if my mom hasn’t finished with the wrapping!

Buy coloured paper (thin), atleast 3-4 varieties. (The one we would use for making Kandils’, this is called as Foli in Goa.)

Cut into squares such that you can cover the ladoo in it properly. The below description will help.

Place a ladoo in the center of the paper, and fold the paper around it and join the paper at the top. This will look like a modak cover. Now twist the paper at the top, so that the ladoo is secured inside!

Now repeat the wrapping of other ladoos using remaining colors!

Imagine the colors on your plate when you serve! ( Till i have a snap :D)

The paper is wrapped as the ladoo are very fragile and break when you try to eat them.

This is my entry for Jihva Special Edition for Diwali hosted by Vee.

Wishing you a Very Happy Deepavali!

 

Mangalore Buns with a twist

In an earlier post I had mentioned my addiction to Mangalore buns, you can see them here and here. What’s better than using up ripe banana’s?

My husband doesn’t like eating whole jeera in the buns and also wanted to make the buns a little healthier, hence crushed the jeera and added honey instead of sugar

So here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
3 yellaki bananas (ripe)
2 cups wheat flour
2 tea spn sugar
2 tbl spn Honey
2 tbl spn curd/ 1/2 cup yogurt
1 tea spn jeera
1/2 tea spn cardamom (seeds)
1/2 tea spn baking powder
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method:
Crush jeera and cardamom using mortar-pestle and keep aside.

In a wide plate/pan, mash the bananas. Add jeera-cardomom powder, baking powder, curd/yogurt, honey, sugar and salt. Mix well. Now add 1/2 cup of the wheat flour and mix well to form a dough. Slowly add the remaining dough and form a chapati like batter. If required add some water or flour to get the batter.

Apply a little oil all over the dough. Cover and keep overnite or for 4-5 hours in a cool place. (Bangalore is cool currently, so can leave it out as well )

Take a small piece of the dough and roll into a thick puri. Since the dough may be sticky, apply some oil on dough. Heat oil in a kadai and fry like you do for making puris.

Enjoy it as a good breakfast or as a snack

Note: This version is mild sweet. To increase the sweetness, add more sugar.

 

Rava Paniyaram

‘Rava Paniyaram‘ is a sweet variety of the traditional Paniyaram and is generally prepared for any festival in South India.

Paniyarams are traditionally made as a spicy breakfast using the idli batter. For making them, a Paniyaram pan is usually used. (This version does not require a Paniyaram Pan).

Although this sweet is a little late for Dussera and a little too early for Diwali! but…it’s Festive Season all around

Thanks to Shubha (my colleague) for this recipe!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Rava or Fine Sooji
1/3 cup Maida
1/2 cup Sugar
Oil for deep frying

Makes around 10 small paniyarams.

Method:
Mix Rava and Maida well. Add a little water to make a dough. (Do not make dosa like batter neither should it be a chapati batter ).
Cover this batter and keep aside this mix for 1/2 hr.

Add Sugar and mix well. Cover and keep for around 10 mins.

Heat oil in a kadai. When the oil is heated enough, take a medium ladle and put a round of the batter into the oil.
Fry like a normal bhajji till it turns golden brown. Remove on tissue/paper.

Enjoy the deliciously tasty sweet

This is my entry for RCI – Tamil Festivals hosted by Viji for celebrating the

Festival of Lights - Diwali

 

Belated Wishes for Dusshera and Advance Wishes for Diwali

 

Mangalore Buns Yet Again!!!

Well.. I agree I am addicted to this wonderfully yummy dish! So this was the third batch in 2 weeks

Some snaps:

 

Kanagachyo Nevryo (Sweet Potato Nevryo)

Had a sweet potato lying idle in my kitchen and dreams of eating these tasty nevryos which my mom makes!
So made an attempt to make them myself!

Followed the recipe from Ashwini’s blog and enjoyed!

Only changes were :
I used atta instead of maida and I forgot to cook the coconut mixture (called ‘chunn‘ in konkani)! But they still turned out tasty

Here are some snaps from the trials :