Today’s entry to the weekly marathon is going to be a quick one – chana masala which is a staple at our home.

1. 1 cup black chana/desi chana, soaked overnight or for 6-8 hours and pressure cooked
2. 1 onion, finely chopped
3. 1 tomato, finely chopped
4. A few springs of coriander leaves, finely chopped
5. 1 tsp of rai (mustard seeds)
6. 1/2 tsp of ajwain
7. 1/2 tsp of haldi pdr (turmeric)
8. 1 tsp of freshly crushed ginger-garlic
9. 1 tsp of red chilly pdr
10. 1 tsp of garam masala
11. 1 tsp dhania pdr (coriander)
12. 1 tbsp of kasuri methi
13. 2 tbsp of oil

Heat up the oil and add mustard seeds. When they pop, add ajwain and chopped onion. Saute till slightly brown, add crushed ginger-garlic, kasuri methi and the tomatoes. Saute till tomatoes are soft and oil separates. Add the boiled chana  and adjust salt. Mix everything well and switch off the stove. Garnish with coriander.

Eat it/serve it as a snack or with hot phulkas.

————————————-

As 2009 draws to a close, I want to wish all of you a new year filled with love ,health, happiness, warmth and lots and lots of good food!!

Also, my special thanks go out to Nupur, for doing such a great job of organizing the week long marathon where all of us participants posted one recipe per day for a week. Frankly, I didn’t expect to last that long. But with a few minutes of extra effort everyday, I managed to post a new recipe everyday. I started looking forward to Nupur’s creatively written daily roundup posts  She read each and every entry daily, and posted a new recipe on top. Even a bad plumbing problem at home couldn’t stop her. Must say I have a lot of recipes from the marathon that I’ve bookmarked for trying out.

Oh and this marathon has given me a good reason to revive this blog, that has been dormant for a long time. It introduced me to some cool bloggers and got me comments!!! :) Thanks to all the fellow participants -

Anna Parabrahma: Anjali

Home Cook’s Recipes: Lavi

Food for Survival: Unpredictable

Daily Musings: Indosungod

Soup and Dessert: Radhika

Cook’s Hideout: Pavani

The Singing Chef: Raaga

Susvaad: Ramya

Blink and Miss : blinkandmiss

Malabar Spices: Mallugirl

Soulful Creations: Abbhirami

Pieces of paper, squiggly lines: Lavanya

My Foodcourt: Madhuli

Seven Spice: Sonia

Food, Travel, Books and More: Vinaya

Konkani Foodie: Ashwini

Ruchikacooks: Ruchikacook

A Homemaker’s Diary: Sayantani

Le Chaim: Mathangi

Kitchen Gossip: Kanchan

Out Of The Garden: Linda

The World according to Rujuta: Rujuta

Kiss the cook: Manasi

Asankhana: notyet100

Cooking with Koki: Koki

Siri’s Corner: Siri

Eats, Eats & Eats: Sheetal Kiran

Ruchii: Madhu

Jugalbandi: Jai & Bee

Once again, happy new year guys!!

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Yo! Today it’s gulab jamun time, my favouritest dessert of all times. One of the best gulab jamuns I’ve had was from a famous shop in the narrow streets of Jaisalmer, where I had gone on a “study tour” from college. They were huge, and cost a whopping 10 Rs per piece (this was more than a decade ago, circa 1997). Though nothing really beats my mother’s gorgeous home made gulab jamuns. She says she got the recipe from a friend’s dad who ran a professional catering business. And this recipe is the real deal. All of my extended family have been using this recipe for years and it has always given us perfect gulabjamuns that are juicy and soft (to the core). I like my gulabjamuns, both hot and cold (Ya, I’m greedy that way).

These days restaurants, shops and even at homes, people microwave the gulab jamuns to heat them up, and I absolutely HATE that. You can easily tell when a gulab jamun has been nuked, because it is sure to actually burn your tongue or at least numb it a little and ruin the experience. The core of microwaved jamuns is always unrealistically hot, which I can never be prepared for. Anyway I digress, getting back to the gorgeous gulab jamuns,

To make gulab jamuns (makes 28-30 pieces), you’ll need

1. 250 gms unsweetened mawa/khova/khoya (Buy the freshest mawa that you can get. Ask for “gulab jamun mawa” or unsweetened mawa.)
2. 62 gms of maida (Rule: 1/4 weight of mawa. I didn’t have a weigh scale so I used the cup equivalent – 1/4 cup and it was perfect)
3. 30 pieces of sakariya (opaque sugar balls often used for prasad. Please refer to the first picture below)
4. 30 pieces of elaichi seeds (You can throw the cardamom peels in your chai patti jar. Gives a nice flavour to chai)
5. 1 tsp of rose water
6. Baking soda
7. Oil for frying

For the sugar syrup

1. 500 gms of sugar (Rule: double the weight of mawa. I tried to make do by using just 2 cups, but I had less syrup and the jamuns were crowded.)
2. Water (Same volume as that of sugar. If you’re using 3 cups of sugar, use the same amount of water)

Pass the mawa through a fine sieve (the one used to sieve flour), by rubbing it on the sieve using your thumb or palm. This will remove any granules or lumps in the mawa for sure (unlike the kneading method which is vague and requires good expertise). Mix the mawa and maida and turn into a dough (no water or anything). Cover it with a damp kitchen cloth.

To make the sugar syrup, heat the water and sugar till you get a syrup of 1 string consistency. When you test a drop of syrup between your thumb and index finger, you should see a small and thin string form between your fingers, for the fraction of a second. Switch off the stove immediately. Add the rose water.

Heat the oil on low-medium flame. Pinch out a portion of the dough (I used 1/4th of the total dough at a time) from under wraps. Dip the face of your thumb in water and then in the baking soda. Your thumb will be covered with soda. Now knead the portion of the dough that you pulled out, with the soda on your thumb for a minute. Divide into 7-8 portions. Press each portion gently between your palms and make a ball. With your finger make a small dent in the ball and put one sakariya and one elaichi seed into it. Roll it back into a smooth ball, so that the sakariya and elaichi are sort of in the centre and fully covered with dough.

You need to fry these 7-8 jamuns in low-medium hot oil. To check if the temperature is right, throw a tiny piece of dough into the oil. If it floats on top immediately, the oil is too hot. At the right temperature, it should settle at the bottom and take about two seconds or so for it to float on top. Stir the oil gently with a wooden spatula and slowly add the jamuns. Keep stirring the oil with the wooden spatula, while avoiding touching the jamuns. This is so that they get evenly coloured. In about 8-10 minutes, they will get a perfect dark red colour. If they’re done too early, they’ll be uncooked inside. Drain the jamuns and dunk them into warm sugar syrup. If the syrup has turned cold, heat it on low flame to keep it warm. Lather rinse repeat for the remaining 3/4th of the dough. Keep the jamuns dunked in sugar syrup for about an hour and a half.

While the sugar syrups permeates the jamuns from the outside, our little sakariya would’ve melted and will also work its magic from the inside. This ensures that the core of the jamun too gets even sweetness. When you eat the jamun, there will be no trace of the sakariya, just sweetness and a grain of elaichi for subtle flavour.

Close your eyes and pop in a jamun. It’s sure to give you a glimpse of heaven. :)

I am sending these gulab jamuns as the 29th December entry for the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove.

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What’s a Christmas without gorging on rich moist yummy plum cakes! Come December and the husband takes it upon himself to hunt down the perfect Xmas plum cake and picks up plum cakes from all over the town. In Bangalore the only perfect plum cake I’ve had is that from the Taj’s Sugar and Spice available at the overseas women’s club (OWC) Christmas bazaar. The regular cakes available in the stores are too dry and the ones available at bakeries are too chyawanprashy. And none of these are eggless.

Every year I attempt baking eggless plum cakes but they never turn out perfect. Well, this time around I already had this Kerala style plum cake recipe in mind and was itching to try it out since months. This recipe is from Ammini Ramachandran (who single handedly led me to admire the rich vegetarian legacy of Kerala) who was invited as a guest at show me the curry.

I modified the recipe to make it eggless by using flaxseed powder as an egg substitute and the eggless plum cake turned out soft, moist and full of fruits and nuts – just the way a Christmas plum cake should be. Ignore the bad photographs because my zero photography skills don’t do any justice to this gorgeous eggless plum cake, more so because good eggless cakes are really so rare to get.

Here’s my eggless version of Christmas plum cake.

For Eggless Xmas special plum cake, you’ll need -

1. 2.5 cups of flour
2. 2 cups of sugar
3. 150 gms of unsalted butter, at room temperature
4. 2.5 cups of chopped nuts and fruits – I used cashews, almonds, walnuts, sultanas, raisins, figs, tutti fruti, black currants, apricots.
5. 3/4 cup of pitted and chopped dates
6. 1 tbsp of chopped candied ginger
7. 1/2 cup of rum or brandy
8. 4 tsp of flaxseed powder, mixed in 1 cup of water
9. 1 tsp baking powder
10. 1 tsp vanilla essence
11. 3 cloves, powdered
12. 1/2 tsp of nutmeg powder
13. 1 tsp of cinnamon powder

For the caramel

1. 6 tbsp sugar
2. 3 tbsp water
3. 1 tsp of lemon juice
4. 1/2 cup of boiling water

Pour a couple of spoons of rum over the chopped dried fruits and nuts and store them in a jar overnight. If you have the time, you can soak them in enough rum to cover the dried fruits and nuts, for weeks or even months like it is done traditionally. But I personally didn’t find the taste compromised because of the overnight soaking.

Next day, take 1/2 cup of rum in a pan and add the chopped fruits and nuts and heat everything for a couple of minutes, while mixing it well.

For the caramel, take 6 tbsp of sugar and 3 tbsp of water in a pan and heat it till the sugar dissolves and turns into caramel (approx 6-7 minutes). Do not use a spoon or spatula, just keep swirling the pan as necessary. Once it turns into a nice golden brown caramel colour, gently add 1/2 cups of boiling water. Be very careful while doing this, as boiling hot caramel can cause some serious burn injuries.

I find it difficult to powder small amounts of spices, so I added 2-3 cloves, one small piece of cinnamon, one small piece of nutmeg in the jar with the sugar while making powdered sugar. Beat the softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla essence and flaxseed powder dissolved in 1 cup of water together using a hand blender or whisk till light.

Sift the flour, baking powder and slowly fold it into the butter and sugar, adding a little at a time and whisking it well. Again whisk this mixture well and finally add in the fruits and nuts.

Grease the pans well with butter, specially the corners and dust it lightly with a little flour. Pour the cake batter in the pans and bake it in a preheated oven on 180 C till the top turns golden brown or a when a skewer comes out clean. Invert on a wire rack and let it cool for 30 minutes. Then gently tap the bottom of the mould.

Voila – take a fork and dig in!

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I have baked these gorgeous cookies called Nan Khatai from Nupur’s Happy Burp many times and they have always turned out perfect! I didn’t let the dough rest for a few hours as the original recipe suggests without any problem.

To make nan khatai, you’ll need

1. 2 cups of maida
2. 3/4 to 1 cup of powdered sugar or bura sugar
3. 1 tsp of elaichi powder
4. Ghee or Plain butter
5. 1 tsp of baking soda

Sieve the maida, sugar and soda. Add elaichi powder and keep adding melted ghee till you have a pliable dough (i.e you are able to make golf sized balls that don’t fall apart).

Preheat the oven. Line the baking tray with butter paper and arrange the slightly flattened dough balls, 2 inches away from each other. Bake at 180 C till the bottom is slightly browned. Let it cool completely.

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To make ghughra, you’ll need

For the filling
1. 3 cups of grated kopra (three kopra halves)
2. 1 cup of bura sugar or powdered sugar
3. 1 tbsp khuskhus (poppy seeds)
4. 1 1/2 tsp elaichi powder (cardamom powder)

For the crust
1. Maida
2. 1 tsp salt

Oil for deep frying

Roast the grated kopra in a thick bottomed pan for a few minutes on low to medium heat. Take it off the stove and add sugar, khus khus and elaichi powder.

Mix the maida, salt and knead it into a stiff dough. Let it rest for half an hour. Make a small puri and keep about 1 tbsp of filling on top. Fold the puri into half. Seal the semi-circular edges using a little water. Optionally, you can make a pattern on the edges as is traditional or use a fork to seal the edges.

Deep fry on low to medium heat. They stay fresh for about 10-15 days without refrigeration.

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The system works fine and the husband and I squabble over who’s turn it is to put the coupons tonight. Yes, we are two very cheap and lazy people. Thank you. So one day, we both happen to be in a nice mood and TADA!!! The next morning we are stuck with double the milk. We could have refrigerated it and used it the next day blah blah, but I went ahead and made this very simple and gratifying dessert – Basundi!

So here goes, for Basundi (Gujarati style), you need:

1. 1 litre of milk (any milk other than the skimmed, low fat one)
2. 7-8 tsps of sugar
3. A handful of almonds (badam)
4. A smaller handful of pistachios
5. 10-12 elaichis (cardamoms)
6. 1 tsp charoli (chironji)

Warm a little water and soak the almonds for about half an hour. While the almonds soak and their peels soften, take the milk in a large thick kadhai or any thick bottomed pan. Heat the milk till it boils and then keep stirring it continuously on minimum till it reduces to about half its volume.^*

Add the sugar and simmer it for a couple more minutes. Peel and cut the soaked almonds and pistachios into slivers. Crush the elaichi into a fine powder.^**

Add the elaichi powder, the chopped nuts and charoli into the milk and you’re done! For a kesar variation, you can add 5-6 strands of saffron, soaked in a tbsp of lukewarm milk for 5 minutes, to the basundi.

I prefer my Basundi to be a little warm, while the husband likes it cold. Whichever way you like to have it, this is one easy to make yet very gratifying dessert.

^*The key to a sure shot perfect basundi is not to run any other parallel errands while the milk is getting reduced. Keep stirring the milk continuously. A lapse second can and will give your hard earned basundi that nasty burnt milk smell and ruin your experience.

^**You can crush the elaichi in the stone mortar with hand, but it takes both time and patience. A short cut way is to mix a little sugar with the peeled elaichi to increase the volume and then grind it in the chutney attachment of the mixie.

Edited to add: There is this porcelain disc sort of thing available, especially to make basundi. It is about 2 cms thick and 7-8 cms in diameter. Strange as it may sound, it is NOT a dish to serve the basundi. This basundi disc is added into the milk while reducing it, so that you do not need to stir it continously. I don’t know how, but it prevents the milk from sticking to the vessel. It makes the cooking such a breeze. Now only if I could find one in Bangalore.

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As promised, I am back from a hiatus. Had a nice vacation at home and this recipe of a sweet called Malpua is going to mark the beginning of a series of recipes, all by my mother. Every time I visit home, I am reminded of at least a couple of delicacies, that were fairly common at home but have been forgotten by me over time.

Malpua is a very old and traditional sweet preparation. It is very common to see temples where Malpuas are served as prasad. My mother mentioned the other day that Malpuas and doodhpaak is a favourite combination for some people. The ingredients that go into making Malpuas are very easily available in any Indian household and theoretically, the recipe too is quite simple. If you haven’t got a chance to ever have Malpuas, I suggest you eat it somewhere first and then give the recipe a shot. Malpuas are pure indulgence, so dont look at the dripping ghee and enjoy the bliss!

Malpuas (makes 10-12)

Ingredients

1. Wheat flour – 1 cup
2. Jaggery – 3/4 cup, finely grated
3. Pepper corns – 1 tsp
4. Fennel seeds – 2 tsp
5. Ghee, for deep frying

Method of preparation

1. Take the wheat flour, add finely grated jaggery to it and make a batter that is slightly watery than that of dosa.
2. Add pepper corns, fennel seeds and set it aside for 10 mins. Check if the jaggery has dissolved completely.
3. Take enough ghee in a thick bottomed, flat frying pan (as shown in the pictures) and heat it.
4. After the ghee is hot, take the batter in a small katori/bowl and pour it quickly into the frying pan, from about a foot’s height. As you pour the batter, it will automatically take a roughly round shape and develop small holes in it.
5. Fry one malpua at a time, each malpua of the size of a puri or a small fulka roti. Fry both the sides till the edges turn reddish and a little crisp.

Malpuas are ready to be gobbled. You can serve them with basundi or doodhpaak or rabdi, the traditional way. However, they taste equally good by themselves. If you face problems with the malpuas being too thick or too hard, the key trick is getting the consistency of the batter right. Also make sure that there is enough ghee for deep frying.

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