Monday 30 March 2015

Baklava



Baklava is a rich middle east sweet dessert layered with Phyllo sheets and filled mixed nuts and honey.

I bought and tasted Baklava for the first time in Dubai airport. We got addicted to these. My husband who is a frequent traveler to Dubai always brings these for us .

I have been thinking of trying this at home since so many months and finally I did. You can make the filling with nuts like Walnuts, Pistachios, Cashews, Almonds etc. I just added cashews and almonds one cup each. It tasted so good. You can add 2 cups of mixed nuts.

Try it. You will love it .



Ingredients

1 cup Almonds
1 cup Cashew nuts
1 teaspoon Cinnamon Powder / 1 small Cinnamon Stick
1/2 teaspoon ground Cloves / 2 Cloves
1/2 cup melted Butter
1/4 cup Honey
1/4 cup Sugar

Directions

  1. Take Phyllo sheets out from freezer, leave them at room temperature for 25 -30 minutes. Cut 10 pyhllo sheets to 30 cm X 15 cm rectangle. Filling which I made is just enough for this size sheets. Make coarse powder of Cashews and Almonds, Cinnamon stick and cloves. If you have cinnamon and clove powders at home , directly add these to the cashew and almond powder instead of adding stick and cloves. 
  2. Take the powder into a bowl, add sugar, honey and butter. Mix all these well. This is your filling. Pre- heat the oven at 180 degrees. Brush the baking sheet with butter and place 5 sheets of phyllo sheets on top of each other. Spread the filling all over the sheets evenly. Now place 2 sheets, brush it with butter all over, and place 2 more sheets, brush these with butter again. Finally place the last sheet, pour 2 teaspoons of honey on it and spread it evenly.
  3. Now cut the sheets into squares or diamonds with a sharp knife till the bottom of baklava (I forgot to do this so I did this after baking). Bake them for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden and crisp at the top. 
  4. Heavenly, Yummy dessert for you.


Tuesday 24 March 2015

Tamarind Rice - Andhra Pulihora



Happy Ugadi  and Sri Rama Navami!!!! 

On Ugadi we make Ugadi Pachadi and Sri Rama Navami  we make Panakam and Vadapappu. 

Click on the links for recipes :

On all festive day along with main prasadam  we also make few traditional recipes on this day like Paravannam, Pulihora. Nimmakaya Pulihora (Lemon Rice ) and Chintapandu Pulihora (Tamarind Rice) are the varieties which we normally make.  Pulihora actually means Tamarind Rice (Puli means Tamarind) and also known as Andhra Pulihora. This is tangy and sweet. 

This Andhra Tamarind Rice (Chinatapandu Pulihora) is a very common preparation in our house. We can eat Pulihora almost everydady. This tastes more good the next day.


Ingredients

1 1/2cup Basmati Rice
1 lemon sized Tamarind
3 teaspoon of Oil
1 teaspoon Channa Dal
1 teaspoon Urad Dal
1/4 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1/4 teaspoon Mustard seeds
2 tablespoon Groundnuts
1/2 inch Ginger Piece
2-3 Green chillies
2-3 Red Chillies
1 sprig Curry Leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
1//4 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1 big pinch hing / Asafoetida 


Directions

  1. Boil tamarind with 1 cup of water for 10 minutes and let it cool. Pressure cook rice with 3 cups of water for 3 whistles. Spread the rice on a wide plate or a bowl and let it cool. Squeeze out and discard tamarind.
  2. Heat Oil in a pan, add Channa Dal, Urad Dal, Cumin Seeds, Mustard and ground nuts, saute till dals turn golden brown, add green chillies, red chillies, curry leaves and hing. Saute for 2 minutes. Add tamarind pulp.
  3. Let it boil. Add Salt and turmeric powder. Boil it till oil oozes out. Mix it in between.
  4. Add this to rice and mix it well with a big spoon. 
  5. Very tasty, tangy andhra's traditional rice item. 





Thursday 12 March 2015

Bhel Puri - Indian Street Food



Bhel Puri an Indian evening snack and a sweet and tangy chaat item. It is a very popular street food mainly on beaches. Bhel Puri is made with Puffed Rice and some vegetables. In this recipe I just added onion and tomato, but you can also add raw mango pieces and grated carrot too. There are two ways in which you can make Bhel Puri, one is dry bhel puri and another wet bhel puri in which chutneys are added. 

Some people dry roast puffed rice before making bhel puri for more crispiness. You can garnish it with broken papdis, sev, ground nuts etc. to make it more crisp. 



Ingredients

2 cups of Puffed Rice
1 Onion 
1 Tomato
3 tablespoons of chopped fresh Coriander 
1 tablespoon Coriander Chutney / Green Chutney
2 tablespoons of Tamarind Chutney / Sweet Chutney
1 teaspoon Sugar
Salt to taste
1/4 cup of Sev to garnish

Directions
  1. Cut onion, tomato and fresh coriander to small pieces. Keep aside some cut onion and corianer to garnish. Add coriander chutney, tamarind chutney, salt and sugar to the cut vegetables.Mix it thoroughly. 
  2. Add Puffed Rice. Mix it again. 
  3. Now this whole thing into a bowl or a plate in which you want to serve. Garnish it with sev, onion and coriander.
  4. This has to be served as soon as it is made. It becomes soggy if you serve it after a couple of minutes and you won't be able to enjoy it.





Thursday 5 March 2015

Carrot Rice



A quick. flavourful and nutritious rice item. It is best suited for kids and is healthy too.
I make it quite frequently for my kids lunch boxes and they just love it.

Carrot Rice is sweet because of carrots and ghee and bit spicy too because of the cinnamon, cloves and cardamoms.   



Ingredients

1 1/4 cup Basmati Rice
1 cup Grated Carrot
1/4 cup Sliced Onion
2 tablespoons Ghee
1 Cinnamom Stick
2 Cloves
4 Peppercorns
2 Cardamoms 
2 1/2 cups of Water
Salt as needed


Directions

  1. Wash and keep rice in water for 10 mins. Drain the water and keep it aside. Heat a pressure pan with ghee, add cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns and cardamom. Saute for a min. Add sliced onion. Saute till onion turns traslucent. Add grated carrot, saute for a min. 
  2. Add water,rice and salt. Mix it well, close it with the lid and pressure cook it for 2 whistles.( If you are not using pressure pan, transfer this into a pressure cooker and cook it for 2 whistles).
  3. A very tasty lunch box recipe for kids. Try it.