Patal pohe chivda (Flattened rice chivda)–

Ingredients –

Thin Poha (flattened rice) – 4 cups

Roasted chana daal – 4 Tb-spoons

Raw Peanuts -1/4^th bowl or as per taste

Dry coconut's thin pieces – 1/4^th bowl or as per taste (you can skip these if you wish)

Coriander powder – 1 Tb-spoon

Roasted cumin powder – ½ Tb-spoon

Red chilli powder – 1 T-spoon

Powdered sugar and salt as per taste

For seasoning –

 Oil – ½ cup

Mustard seeds – 1 T-Spoon

Asafoetida – 1 T-spoon

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Green chillies as per taste (in ½ inch length)

Turmeric powder – 1 T-spoon

Garnishing –

Fried cashews

Procedure –

1.  Sun dry poha for a whole day or alternately heat in microwave oven for 3 minutes. Stirring after 1 minute.

2. Heat oil in a pan. Add peanuts and fry them for a minute. Take the peanuts out.

3. Add cashews in the pan and fry them for ½ minute and take it out.

4. In the same oil add mustard seeds and asafoetida. Let them splutter. Then add curry leaves and green chillies and turmeric powder. Add red chilli powder as per your taste.

5.  Add roasted chana dal and stir for a minute. Turn off the heat.

6. Add the seasoning, fried peanuts and fried cashews along with powdered sugar, salt, coriander seeds powder, cumin seeds powder to roasted poha. Mix well by hand.

7. Store in a air tight container or zip lock bags. It does not need to refrigerate.

Besan Laddoo (बेसनाचे लाडू) -

Yeppeee! Its a festival time. Diwali is here and time to make wonderful sweets and

namkin. Now I am posting few Diwali goodies in advance.

 

Besan Laddoos - 

 

Ingredients –

Besan/chana dal flour (coarsely ground) – 4 bowls

Sooji (fine) – 1/4^th bowl

Powdered sugar – 2 bowls

Green cardamom powder  of 5-6 cardamom

Milk – ½ bowl

Pure ghee/clarified butter – 1 bowl

Golden resins and almonds and cashews for decoration

Procedure –

1. Take a heavy bottom pan. Heat ghee in pan. Add besan and fine sooji to it.

2. Roast flour on a low heat till it becomes golden brown in colour.

3. Turn off the heat and add milk and sauté for a while.

4. Take the roasted flour in a bowl and before it gets cool down completely add powdered sugar to it.

5. Add nutmeg and green cardamom powder and dry fruits you wish to add.

6. Knead it very well. Let it cool down while kneading.

7. Make laddoos out of dough and decorate with cashews or chopped pistachios or

silver foil.

Tip –

1. You have to roast the besan nicely, let it change the colour.

2.   Shape the ladoos when they are little warm, so that you will get soft laddoos.

3. Besan has to be coarsely ground. Otherwise laddoos can become little sticky. If you

don’t get coarsely ground besan then add little more sooji.

Rasam Powder -

Ingredients -

Coriander seeds – 1 cup

Cumin seeds – 1/4^th cup

Turmeric powder – 1 tb-spoon

Black peppercorns – 1 cup

Asafoetida – 1/8^th cup

Red chilli powder – 1 cup

Toor Dal – ½ cup

Oil for frying

Procedure –

1. Heat 1 Tb-spoon oil in a frying pan.

2. Add coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns in kadhai and roast till they change their colour. Take all whole spices out in plate and let them cool down.

3. Take 1 T-spoon oil in frying pan and add red chilli powder and asafoetida and roast for a minute. Mix them into other roasted whole spices.

4.  Add 1 T-spoon oil in frying pan and roast toor dal for a minute.

5. Let all the ingredients cool down completely and then grind in a mixer grinder.

Store in a air-tight container.

Kashmiri Masala -

Black cardamoms - 2

Black cumin seeds - 1 T-spoon

Green Cardemoms - 4-5 

Cloves – 8-10

Funnel seeds – 4 T-spoons

Coriander seeds powder - 2 T-spoons

nutmeg powder – 1/4^th T-spoon

dry ginger powder – ½ T-spoon

cumin seeds - 1 T-spoon

Cinnamon - 4 inch length

Black peppercorns – 1 T-spoon

Bay leaves - 2

Procedure –

1.  Dry roast all the ingredients except coriander seeds powder, nutmeg powder and dry ginger powder, one by one in a pan. Let then cool down completely.

 

2. Grind all spices in a mixer grinder and keep in a air tight container.

आंबट चुक्याची चटणी (Green sorrel leaves chutney) –

Ingredients –

Green sorrel leaves (आंबट चुका) – 2 bowls roughly chopped

Green coriander leaves – 1 bowl roughly chopped

Green chillies – 3 to 4

Cumin seeds – 1 T-spoon

Sugar and Salt as per taste

Procedure –

1.  Grind green sorrel leaves, green coriander leaves, green chillies and cumin seeds together in a mixer grinder.

2. Add salt and sugar as per taste.

Note:

You can add mint leaves if you wish.

तीळ आणि कांद्याची चटणी (Sesame seeds and onion chutney) –

Ingredients -

Finely Chopped onion – 1 bowl

Roasted sesame seeds – 1/4^th bowl

Tamarind pulp – 2 Tb-spoons or as per taste

Red chilli powder – 1 Tb-spoon or as per taste

Salt to taste

Oil – 1 Tb-spoon

Mustard seeds – 1/4^th T-spoon

Asafoetida – 1/4^th T-spoon

Procedure –

1. Mix chopped onions and sesame seeds together and grind into a fine paste in a mixer grinder.

2. Add tamarind pulp, salt and red chilli powder to it.

3. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. Let them splutter and then add asafoetida. Turn of the stove and let the mixture cool down completely.

4. Add seasoning to the chutney and and mix well.

Note :

If you wish, you can add jaggery and chopped green coriander leaves to it.

Handvo –

This one is all time favourite Gujrati snack, especially tea time snack. It is a savoury and spicy Indian cake made with mix dals, rice and vegetables. Handvo traditionally cook into a special Handvo pot. However these pots are not available in everyone's kitchen and further it requires more oil than we require in this particular recipe. Baking in oven is good option.

Ingredients:

Long Grain Rice – 1 cup

Channa Daal – ¼ cup

Toor Daal – ¼ cup

Urad Daal – 1 Tb-spoon

Yogurt – ½ cup

Green Chilies – 1 t-spoon or to taste

Ginger Paste – 2 tsp

Garlic Paste- 2 tsp (approx 3 large cloves)

Bottlegourd/Doodhi – 1 and ½ cup, shredded and packed

Salt – 2 tsp or to taste

Ajwain/carom seeds – 1/2 tsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp

Eno Fruit Salt – 1 tsp

Sesame Seeds – 2 Tbsp

Oil – 3 Tbsp (divided)

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

Asafetida (Hing) – 1/4 tsp

Red Chili Powder – 1/2 tsp

Curry Leaves – few

Method:

1. Wash Rice and all Daals and soak them overnight (for at least 7 hours)

2. Drain water from Rice and Daal and coarsely grind them in a mixer grinder with Yogurt (if possible, do not add any additional water while grinding).

3. Take a large bowl, add rice and dal mixture and add ginger, garlic and green chilies paste, Salt, Sugar, ajwain/carom seeds, turmeric powder and bottle gourd, doodhi/Lauki. Mix well.

4. Heat 1 tb-spoon oil. Add Curry Leaves and Red Chili Powder. Add this seasoning to the above batter and mix well.

5. Cover and let this batter rest for 6-7 hours or overnight.

6. Add Eno Fruit Salt and mix well to make the batter foamy.

7. Pour the batter into greased cake pan/muffin pan.

8. Sprinkle Sesame Seeds over the top of the batter.

9. Heat remaining 2 tb-spoons of oil in a small pan.

10. Add Mustard Seeds and let them splutter. Switch off stove.

11. Add Asafoetida to the oil.

12. Drizzle this oil seasoning over the top of the sesame seeds.

13. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake at 350F (180C) for 40 minutes.

14. Remove foil and broil on High for approx 10 minutes until a light golden crust forms.

15. Let the handvo rest for 10-15 minutes before eating.

16. Serve warm with green pudina chutney, tamarind chutney or sauce or just eat as it is.

Note:

You can bake this in independent muffin treys. It looks good and you can serve it in your kitty party as a Indian savory muffins.

Green chilli and peanut chutney (हिरव्या मिरचीचा ठेचा) –

Ingredients -

Chopped Green chillies – 1 bowl

Garlic pods – 10

Peanuts – 1 bowl

Cumin seeds – 1 Tb-spoons

Oil – 1/4^th bowl

Salt to taste

Procedure –

1.   Dry roast peanuts in a pan and keep aside.

2.  Heat oil in the same pan and add chopped green chillies and fry. Turn off the heat.

3.  Add garlic and roast while pan is hat. Then add cumin seeds, roasted peanuts and salt. Mix well.

4.  Grind into a mixer grinder and serve.

Note:

You can add freshly grated coconut if you wish.

Chicken Kheema Pulao –

Ingredients -

Chicken Kheema – 1 Kg.

basmati rice – 2 bowls

Green chilli paste – 1 T-spoon

Ginger-Garlic paste – 1 Tb-spoon

Cloves – 4

Cinnamon sticks – 2

Green cardamoms – 2

Black peppercorn – 4

Black cumin seeds – 1 T-Spoon

Finely chopped onions – 2

Puree of 1 tomato

Fried cashews – ¼ bowl

Red chilli powder – 1 T-spoon or as per your taste

Garam masala powder – 1 Tb-spoon

Ghee –4 Tb-spoon or as per taste

Turmeric powder – ½ T-spoon

Salt to taste

Green coriander leaves

Water – 1 ½ bowl

Oil

 

Procedure –

1.   Soak rice in water for ½ an hour.   

1.   Heat oil in a thick bottom pan. Add black cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon, black peppercorn and green cardamom to the oil. Let is splutter for a minutes. Don't let it burn.

2.  Add chilli, ginger and garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes. Then add finely chopped onions and fry till golden brown.

3.  Add puree of 1 tomato and sauté it till it gets completely cooked and start leaving sides of the pan.

4.  Add red chilli powder, garam masala powder and turmeric powder and roast for a while.

5.  Add chicken kheema into it and sauté for 5 minutes.

6.  Add green coriander leaves and salt to taste and sauté. (Add salt for kheema and rice both)

7.  Add soaked basmati rice and roast for 2 minutes.

8.  Add water and ghee and cover the pan with lid. Cook rice on a low heat for 20-25 minutes.

9.  Check if the rice is cooked and turn off the heat.

10. Garnish with fried cashew nuts and serve hot.    

Doodh Masala – (For kojagiri masala doodh)

Ingredients -

Pistachio – ½ cup

Almonds – ½ cup

Cardemom – 10 peeled and powdered

Nutmeg – 1/4^th , powdered

Jaypatri powder – 1 pinch

Saffron strands – 1 t-spoon

Charoli – 1 tb-spoon

Procedure –

1. Take a small wok and warm a little on cooking stove.  Turn off the heat and add saffron strands. Crush saffron strands little bit to get the flavour out.

2.  Mix together all ingredients except saffron and charoli and grind together.

4. Add saffron and charoli to it and store in a air-tight container.

Basundi (Milk dessert) -

Vijaya Dashmi  (Dassera) is here and basundi-poori is favourite Maharashtrian feast on this occasion. So here is a traditional basundi recipe.

Ingredients –

Full fat milk – 1 litre

Sugar – as per taste

Charoli/Chironji – 1 tb-spoon

Cardamom powder – 1 t-spoon

Garnish –

Blanched and chopped pistachio.

Procedure –

1.   Take a non stick pan. Add milk into it and start boiling milk.

2.  Stir continuously. Don't let the milk stick to the bottom of the pan.

3. Stir till it becomes half of the quantity i.e. ½ litre.

4. Add charoli/chironji and sugar to the milk and boil for another 10 minutes till it becomes thick.

5. Turn off the heat and add cardamom powder.  Garnish with blanched and chopped pistachio.

6. Serve basundi hot with puri.

Note :

1.  You can add rose essence instead of cardamom powder and serve cold with garnishing of rose petals.

2.  You can add saffron along with cardamom powder.

However the recipe above is a very traditional version of 'basundi'.