HOW TO MAKE CHURMA LADOO'S

These ladoo's looks so yummy!! I can Polish of the Whole tray!! What you guys say???

This was yesterday made by my very close yahoo friend named Zaynab. Though we have huge age gap between us, but when you start making friends in yahoo and facebook, there is no age bar. I can call her aunty yess!! Aunty but since we used to join in conference of all age group people I made sure I call her as Zaynab ji With loads of love and Respect To maintain Uniformity!! Giving respect to elders is the core mannerism I look forward to!!  And Zaynab ji is the best lady I have come across. She is strong in her own ways and yess she is a wonderful cook :D 

Basically she is from India but living in UK since she got married, many years have passed by but her taste remains total Hindustani. From what I know she likes more of NAMKEEN - Salted items, And she gives all the sweets n desserts part to her daughters to make. So this churma recipe is exceptional from her i'll try to Rip more of her specialty recipes. Hope she is free to share it with us. When she posted this in her timeline yesterday, yeh I was ready there to grab her and ask her to send me recipe to Blog!!

 I'am Such a Gud Recipe Stealer you see!! One has to agree with me if they really been following my blog, how much ive taken recipes from others, specially non bloggers. yess I love to display their talents. So Today is Zaynab ji's post here for all of us. 

This is her Dadima's Recipe which she is been following since years, so I can really sense the authentic taste and flavor it carries...

Ingredients:

Fine Semolina(rawa) - 500gms

Plain Flour (maida) - 500gms
Warm milk to knead the dough - 3/4th cup

Cooking oil - 1/4th cup

Ghee - 500gms

Pista Crushed - 2 -3tbsp

Badam Crushed - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 and half cup

Handful of each - kishmish (Raisins) ,khaskhas(poppy seeds), dessicated coconut, charoli or chironji

1 tsp Ground  elaichee (cardamom)

Oil for frying

Method
- In a large bowl add semolina, flour and 1/4th cup oil. Lightly rub all ingredients in between palms, to make it resemble like bread crumbs
- Add milk and knead it to make a soft dough.
- Shape this into balls size and deep fry it till golden brown in low medium heat.
- Let it cool slightly and crush it 1st. Then blend it in processor / mixer till finely powdered!! Incase you feel there is bigger lumps sieve it and blend again.

- Now add sugar, kishmish, khaskas, dessicated coconut, charoli & elaichi Powder and mix well.
- Heat ghee and add to the above mixture. 
- Mix it well and thoroughly and immediately shape it into small hard balls.
- Allow it to cool before serving!!
- Enjoy these yummy ladoo's

Notes:
- Fry the balls in low medium heat so inside is cooked well
- If your skeptical above the inside of balls not cooked well, after you powder it, dry roast it one more time in low flame till u get nice aroma.
- Incase you feel granule sugar may not melt in hot ghee, then use powdered sugar which will work more nicely.

This is a wonderful recipe, and Im surely going to try it someday :) 
Thank you zaynab ji for sharing your daadima's recipe with us!!
Looking forward for more recipes from you, for all of us :)

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Kaddu Ka Halwa - Indian Pumpkin Dessert

Bored up with normal suji ka halwa? Then try this you will really fall in love with the combo, texture and taste!!

    Dum roat ka halwa is famous in southern part of India, and I guess very few people know about it. In Chennai, we get the best dam ka roat halwa in Basha Sweet shop, triplicane. Honestly nothing can beat his authentic taste which he is been carrying since so many years. These days Dum ka roat halwa is made and exported to other places too, If by chance you come across this halwa? do not hesitate to purchase a small box just to taste on how it is.

       It was when I was eating dum roat halwa which my relatives has brought, I started thinking what could be the recipe? how is it made? what are the ingredients? and yes then came the next step to Google!!! I wanted to check out for the recipes and landed to a blog which showed a recipe of dum roat ka halwa it did sound interesting, but still clueless upon the authentication, uncle ji had made it according to what he has tasted in udipi krishna bhawan balepet, Banglore. He made a close try though, And I tried to try his trial, omg a long process im crazy at times!! But I was positive even if I cannot reach the dum roat halwa effect atleast close by??? atleast something new???  Oh my mom is supportive in such cases I love her for this. I told her abt the recipe she said try lets see!!

     The star ingredient here is Ash gourd. You can use yellow pumpkin / bottle gourd too all these three in common are called kaddu which belongs to melon family with difference is size shape and taste. With lots of water content in them and very gud for health.

Preparation time - 30 mins
Cooking time - 30-40 mins
Servings - 10-15 people

Ingredients:

Kaddu/ pumpkin - 2.5 - 3kg 

Suji/ semolina/ cream of rice - 1 to 1.5 cups (grind it to fine powder)

Sugar - 2 cups

Mawa / Solid milk fat- 200gms

Ghee/ clarified butter - 150- 200 ml as needed

Elaichi/ Cardamon - 5-6 (seeds crushed to powder)

Almonds - 8-10 Grounded or chopped

Water - 4 cups
Food color used - yellow a pinch or more

Method:

- Grate kaddu and squeez all its extra water. Save the water for further use.

- In a kadai take 2-3tbsp of ghee and dry roast kaddu till it turns golden or cooked. Now add the kaddu water which you have saved into the kadai and close the lid, cook it nicely for 5-10 mins in medium flame it all the water gets absorbed. Keep it aside

- In another kadai take 2-3 tbsp ghee add suji and roast it in low medium flame till light golden brown and nice aroma of ghee comes.

- Boil 4cups water side by side.

- Once suji is roasted, add boiled water to suji and mix it well.

- Quickly add cooked kaddu, mawa, extra ghee, elaichi, sugar & yellow food color, mix it well!

- Keep mixing till everything gets blended well. (oops my hands ache) I got a better alternative to this (SEE NOTES) do all this in medium flame.

- Close the lid and allow it to cook, keep stirring time to time. till it starts moving as a mass nicely polished kind of appearing will come. preferably use a nonstick pan for the effect. (takes 15-20 mins)

- Add in some nuts and raisins if you desire.

- You will really get to know when its fully done. Switch off the flame

- Serve it warm or in room temperature both taste really awesome!!

My Recomendations:

- Since I worked out as per the recipe but honestly I felt only a man can become halwayi. Its not a female job to keep stirring with full efforts. My hands started aching real bad. I even called my brother to help me lolzz. The reason was suji was getting lumpy now and then, I had to make real efforts to break the lumps and allow a gud mix throughout for a homogeneous mixture.  

So the alternative I can fix here is when you boil water, add in kaddu, sugar, mawa, elaichi and ghee to it, let it come to another boil when everything gets mashed up. Then add suji from top and cook in low flame. This method will really save ur hand muscle efforts. Also it will not form any lumps.

- I added mawa just like that as you see in pics. But it will be much better if you can blend it in mixer with little milk or water and then add this to halwa. It will also help in easy mixing!!

Notes:
- Dont avoid suji it helps give some texture to the dessert. Though it may get lumpy (I dint face any problem), but still it can be managed by adding more ghee to make the halwa soft.
- If you dont have mawa, you can replace it with 1 tin of condensed milk. (adjust sugar accordingly)
- If you feel sugar is less, you can add it at any point while cooking but make sure its mixed throughly.
- I did not add raisins and cashews. You may add for extra crunch and flavor.
- Original recipe suggests adding camphor and kesar. If you like the combo go ahead for flavorings, but we do like camphor in our food, any north Indian wont!! Ive seen south Indian adding it to their prashad I dont know the reason though!! But it will for sure change the flavor and taste of this dessert. 
- Each time you reheat add some ghee this will keep the softness and flavors intact!!

***You can half the amount for less servings, But you also you can store it in fridge for later use. can keep gud for 2-3 weeks when stored in well refrigerated condition. Will show another dessert with left out halwa soon!!

When my brother tasted it, after few seconds said very close by!! Oh that was satisfying though. I felt the same!! it was too close, but that punch was missing. Yet this halwa was too delicious with lovely texture as we eat little by little at a time. Dont try to gulp in a big spoonful into the mouth, you will miss the taste and texture it carries. 

More In dept knowledge on what is dum ka roat halwa:
     With more of my research towards dum ka roat Reema shared that authentic halwa is made only by suji and mawa, no pumpkin involved. Yea it was shocking on how smooth and nice halwa is obtained just with suji and mawa as star ingredients. Further she said, it is a slow cook process made on charcoal fire. And im sure after cooking it is also baked!! If one notices charred marks on the halwa tray's in sweets shops?

Sharing some pictures from other websites.

From Basha Halwa!! Yess I loved the burnt side of halwa more. Its so flavorful....

This is click from the website I took the recipe. Well yess very late I found this post n click. This pic again shows the product is cooked & baked in charcoal fire.

I know my post must be disappointing to ones who wanted to try about dum roat ka halwa at home like me. But since the procedure is too different and difficult too, it cannot be made at home just for a little gathering.

So for now you can try this pumpkin halwa which is a close by end result to dum roat ka halwa!!

Until then cya bubye :)

Hope you enjoyed reading my post. Do leave back your valuable comments n feed backs, any quire?? do not hesitate I'll make sure I answer it at my possible best quickly :)

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Boat Ka Halwa

Muslim weddings are incomplete without this sweet

Ok now this is something very interesting I came across and sharing it here with other bloggers and readers!!

Another interesting and unique recipe from my lovely friend Reema, Who's Andey ki meethai is still the most popular post in my space!! This kheer consistancy halwa which is served in South Indian Muslim wedding is made up of 2 main ingredients Almonds & cashews. It is served along With buns which is shown in pics, which we call it as naan's widely available in local bakery shops here.

Unfortunately I haven't tasted this yummy looking halwa till the date. But now that I know that this exists I will for sure make it in some occasion next!!

Alrite now there is no boat in the recipe or servings but what we got to know from the comment section of Rimzy's Kitchen was Boat means top of index finger, which is best described to eat this halwa. (I can imagine people dipping their tip of index finger into the sweet and lovingly taking it towards your mouth to lick it lol......) And it is called halwa instead of kheer is because it is sweet!! Well people of olden days, their languages, ways of talking and describing things for sure gave a good mysterious contribution towards naming of so many dishes which now we cannot make out why was it named so...... unless and until if someone was too gud at listening to stories of what their granny's, grandpa's & elders had to share.

Yes Apart from what I know Reema from internet I can talk more of her personality now!!

I met her last week along with my 2 other facebook friends Biji aunty and Mubeen sultana. Here I should tell you age dosent matters, I was the youngest among all. But it never showed it was our 1st meet, and by the time we left I already started missing them. I wished we had more time to spend with each other!

I loved the way she talked and went about! I couldnt stop myself from complimenting her for the confidence she carries. And what I learnt from her was if she likes a food she will not leave the cook until he / she shares their recipes to her. Imagine in a shopping mall she asks the shop owner how to make fruit punch OMG I cannot imagine, but she can do it!! And she does!! so here on im going to stay tuned to everything unique she shares in her page and grab here to my blog :D

Cooking Time - 25mins

Ingredients

Almonds - 200 gms

Cashews - 100 gms

Ghee - 50 gms

Khoya or mawa - 100 gms

Sugar -400 gms ( add more if required )

Water - 1 cup ( I added more hot water before serving

Saffron - a pinch

Orange colour - a pinch

Method

1) Peel the skin of almonds by soaking in hot water and make paste of almonds and cashews( coarse paste ,you need to add little water )

2) In a non stick pan add water and sugar and once the sugar dissolves and it starts boiling ( it takes 5 minutes ) add all the other ingredients and mix well

3) The mixture starts to boil and keep stirring ( 10 minutes ) till the desired consistency of kheer is got ,remove from flame .

4) Serve with bun

Note : If the halwa consistency gets thick ,add little hot water and cook for 2 minutes ,you can use almond and cashew powder instead of paste ....

Reema had taken this recipe from her friend zarina's mom and also clubbed it with what her mom had noted down. And the end result she says was like "I was sitting in marriage hall"

If you try do let us know how it turned out!!

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Jammy French Toast

Nothing can be prepare so quickly and easily, yet be so filling and delicious!! Yes All my votes go to french toast!!!

Preparing french toast is versatile, be easy in making it, with any kinds of variations you like. Serving it is again so easy!! I dont need anything else to compliment it with. I can gulp down french toast just like that. 

Suddenly when I was about to make french toast yesterday I thought of applying jam as filling and try out with 2 bread slices just for myself

And as usual when I try a new food with each bite I start feeling and describing it in my own mind which I will be raving about in the end of the recipe. Next thing I knew was, I should not miss blogging about this recipe. 

Preparation Time- 2 mins 

Cooking Time - 2 mins 

Serving - For 1 person

Ingredients:

Sandwich Bread slices - 2 

Egg 1

Sugar - 3 fat pinch

Salt - 2 fat pinch 

A dash of cinnamon Powder (optional)

Milk - 1 tbsp

Jam - Any flavor ( I used mixed fruit)

Oil / butter to cook

All these ingredients will be readily available in your pantry for sure.

Method

- Applying jam in bread slices each. Either fold each bread slice / keep both slice together (jam filling side of bread facing each other) make a triangle or square cut as you wish. Keep this ready

- In a fry pan add little of oil or butter as you like and allow it to heat in low flame. 

- Mean while whisk up egg, salt, sugar, cinnamon & milk 

- Dip each jam filled slices of bread into the egg and toast it in medium heat. Flip the bread to other side and allow it to cook till both the sides are golden brown. 

- Remove it from the pan and you are all done!!

- Serve Hot / Warm 

Notes:

- Make sure you just Dip the bread into the bread and quickly place it into the cooking pan, Dont allow it to soak up.

- In case the bread has soaked more eggs you will know it easily. While cooking the bread will start bulging up from the center. In such case you make sure, you cook it for more time in low flame so that inside of the bread which has absorbed extra eggs get cooked well.

- Applying jam just to moderation according to your sweet tooth would be best.

- Any jam would go best along with this recipe!! Will try next with pineapple jam :)

My Ravings After Eating This:

- It is highly kids friendly

Any fussy kid who refuses to eat eggs can be ditched easily with this preparation!! When we eat, the smell of cooked eggs are not noticeable at all. Flavors of jam dominates and the whole combo feels really different.

- Busy moms can take pleasure to serve this as morning breakfast / to pack lunch for their kids. 

- Can be served as healthy evening snacks for kids 

- Why only kids should have all yumms?? :P Yes we can take privilege to enjoy with them as well.

Doesn't It Looks Appetizing???

My Love For French Toast Is Like Sea Waves, It keeps Coming every now and then with differences and variations!! 

As for now you can also check out

French Toast (Details Of Basic French Toast)

50- 50 Toast  (My all time favorite way to have french toast)

Tandoori French Toast (Must Try Its really different) 

Until next post Cya Bubye!!

Do let me know your feed backs If you have your own variations!! I would love to try :)

Linking back to Haffa's 1st blog event Back To School Lunch Ideas

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Badam Milk - A Royal Treat

Badam Milk lovers Treat Your Self At Home With This Simple Recipe.

Badam milk sounds so yummmyyy!! I love it!! But I do not intake it often. Yes its so good as a treat alone, when you have it some times and feel great!! 

If you are the one who go to restaurants/ sweets shops and find the price hiked up in the menu each time, then finally you give a big sigh and drop your plans to visit the place again. Then I would say great idea!! make your own in much cheaper price and enjoy with your entire family

I made this badam milk long back but to my bad luck our house shifting had backlogged my blogging very badly. Im still unable to get back to the normal blogging routine and activities like before. But yes I'm making sure I blog at least once a week to keep my baby fed nicely!!

Many of us know badam milk as summer cooler. A chilled sip of badam milk can cool you down , But when you take it warm, its great for Winter too. Warm sips of badam milk can lift up your souls when you are down!!

Since monsoon is around and already im feeling low with sinusitis and sneezes, Im sure there are few others like me with low climatic change resistance. I post this drink which can be taken hot / cool depending on your health & climatic conditions 

Ingredients
Milk - 1 liter
Almonds - 25 
Elaichi / cardamon - 1/2 tsp powder / 2-3 pods (see notes)
Saffron - 1 pinch or more 
Sugar - As needed
Pistachios - for garnishing (blanched & sliced) 

Method:
- Blanch almonds either by boiling it in water or by microwave.
- Grind almonds into smooth paste using milk/ water
- Soak saffron in milk for sometime
- Boil milk, once it boils add saffron, elaichi and almond paste to the milk and cook for few mins till you feel all the flavors are fused nicely this should be about 3-5 mins in boiling over medium heat.
- Add in pistachios 
- Serve it Warm or Chilled - Enjoy!!

In the pic above, Do u see the richness it carries? It is clearly visible at the edges :)

Notes:-
- You can always adjust the consistency of this by adding extra milk or boiling it for more time and reducing it. Choice is yours. But reducing the milk might make it feel more rich and difficult to drink. Check on how you like better
- If you don't have saffron you can skip that and go only with cardamon.
- Some people like rose flavor you can add in some drops of rose water too.
- Pistachios can be considered optional too. But if you are serving your guests then it surely boosts up the outlook of the drink!!
- In case you are looking out for that typical badam drink yellow color which we find in sweet shops and other places. I would say it highly depends on the quality of saffron being used / add yellow coloring for a brighter look, we never know what happens there during preparation. 
This is another reason I like to prepare most of the things at home rather get it from outside. Advantages of preparing food at home is more higher you just rightly know what goes in, than to get from outside and u never know what really went in. Minus those lazy days when u really need a break and get food from outside :D

Another super quick idea for flavoring would be Everest Milk Masala. 

Do use what ever you please for flavorings but the star ingredient will be Badam & Milk Alone!!

Try out in your own styles and enjoy this drink the way you like!!

Remember Summer Or Winter This drink is going to be your ROYAL TREAT


Do try and let us know how it turned :)


Happy Independence Day To India & Pak
This drink has all the three colors of flag of both the nations and hence forth sending this drink as entry to my dearest friend Monu's

Celebration Of Freedom Do visit her blog and link up ur entries :)



Until then bubye 

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Carrot Milkshake

This could be the best way to make your kids intake carrots!!

I wanted to have something healthy as I was fasting and what could be much better than a glass of carrot juice. But since I was fasting my inner conscious was not allowing me to intake this healthy veg only as juice. I thought of trying with milk and was really surprised by the taste. I was so hungry in front of this yummy Glass of drink oh I cannot express :D

Though this was my 1st try and was wondering its a nice way to make kids have carrots in their daily diet. Mothers these days have to be tricky to feed their kids and being such such elder sis to my little cousins I understand how fussy kids can be, its really difficult to impress them with taste. 

So here goes the post on quick notice for my dearie friend Ruveda and her lovely little kids :D

Ingredients 

Carrots - 2 large

Milk - 1-2 cups

Water - 1 cup

Sugar - as per needed

Vanilla essence - 1tsp

Marie biscuit - 2

Method:

- Wash and peel carrots pressure cook them for a whistle with water

- Allow the pressure to release on its own.

- Take out the carrots and blend it along with milk, sugar, marie biscuits and vanilla essence. 

- Blend it until every thing is smooth and even!!

- Serve it chilled!!

Notes:

- Since carrots have their own sweetness, make sure you add in the sweetener accordingly just perfect to your taste
- Do not throw away the water in which you pressure cooked. Just in case you find the milkshake too thick after blending you may add this water. You can add milk too instead. 

- If you are health conscious and want more of nutrients out of carrot then just boil the carrot for 5- 7 mins, blend it along with its water and milk. There will be change in texture. It will not be very smooth because you can feel the fibers when you drink!! But its nutrients will not be lost much. (will give you roughage if you face constipation problem)

- For kids its better to pressure cook as it will give best of texture for their taste and likeness.

Variations:(some healthy options)

For texture:
- Use 2-3 tsp of oats instead of marie biscuit.

- Blend it along with cornflakes 

- Use a Slice of bread / plain vanilla tea cake

- You can club it with any other fruits like banana or apple too (but taste may vary)
- If you dont want to use any of the above, just let blend in carrots with milk without thinning it much!!
For Flavors: 

- Using of Pitted dates instead of sugar (will give gud texture also)
- Using honey instead of sugar.

- Using cardamon powder / cinnamon powder / vanilla essence 

- Adding cocoa powder / chocolate drinking powder 

- Adding toasted almonds while blending

- Adding raisins will also give a mind blowing difference (if your kids like raisins)

- Serve it with choco chips. 
For Richness:
Though health is kept in mind but if you desire to give much richer and creamier version of carrot milkshake please go ahead adding cream or 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream :)

Let your imaginations run wild!! Club up ingredients according to your taste and Njoy!!

If you have carrots sitting in your fridge dont wait just go ahead and treat yourself!!

Cyaaaaa

Until then bubye 

                                                                                                      Love

                                                                                                                 Aara

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Chicken Shorba - Pressure Cook Method

Chicken Shorba is a deliciously quick to make recipe for any occasion. 

Pressure cooking makes it all easy and more yummy too. Chicken Shorba can be Prepared in almost 15-20 mins of time duration. So you can be sure, if you have a sudden guest and you really dont understand what do then just close your eyes and blindly go for this recipe. 

Why???
Honestly it does not consume much of your time, make it for your guest or make it as your lazy days treat either of ways this shorba is going to win every ones heart by its simplicity and wonderful taste!!

Before I could post I had a doubt about naming it as stew or shorba. At my home we call it as chicken shorva or Surva :) Call it anything choice is yours!! As long as the dish is yumm yumm to taste and enjoyable, name is the last thing which comes to mind hehe

Ingredients:
Chicken with bones - 750gms
Onion - 3 medium Sliced
Tomato - 3-4 medium sized roughly chopped
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp heaped
Cumin Powder - 1tsp heaped
Coriander powder - 1and 1/2tsp heaped
Ginger garlic paste - 2-3 tsp heaped
Oil - 1 to 2 tbsp
Whole spices ( 2 cardamom, 2 cloves & 1 stick cinnamon)  
Garam masala / tandoori masala - 1/2tsp (Optional)
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves - 2tbsp chopped

Method:
- Heat oil in a pressure cooker add in whole spices.
- Once it splutters add in onion and cook till it starts changing its color.
- Add in ginger garlic paste and saute it for a min in medium flame making sure it does not stick to the bottom of cooker.
- Add in Chicken pieces, all dry spices, salt and tomatoes mix it all well. 
- Add in water aprox 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups and stir well again.
- Pressure cook for 2-3 whistles in medium flame or 4-5 whistles in high flame. 
- Allow it to release its pressure on its own. You will see all the fats on top. 
- Add in coriander leaves and boil more if you feel its still watery. (see notes)
- Once done Serve it Warm
- Best Goes With Pilaf Or Steaming Hot Rice. 

Notes:
- You may see fats floating on top, But Does not matter we have used very little oil Chicken pieces also hold some amount of fats which gets released while pressure cooking. Since it is shorba you can easily remove the excess oil seen on top. 
- Along With Water Chicken will also ooze out some of its own juices, which may make the shorba more runny, you can always boil a little further more if you feel like. But as the shorba drops its temperature you may find it showing some thickness. 
- Garam masala can be omited as we have already used whole spices in the 1st step.
- Chicken when emits its own juices into the gravy makes it more flavorful.
- Do not stir it after pressure cooking, this may result in meat pieces fall of the bone. 
- Be careful with how much salt you add, we can add more salt in later part if required. In case you add more salt than needed then I worry there is no way out to adjust the shorba with anything else, it may change the taste.
- You can make this in a normal pot/ karai too, that is how my mom used to cook so long. But I love the pressure cook method personally because I like soft pieces of chicken rather the ones which get too hard by over cooking and becomes too much chewy.

Now we find pressure cook method is much better in all the ways :)

All ingredients will be easily available in every kitchen pantry.

There are variation to this for flat breads which is little thicker in consistency.  I shall update soon!!

Until then cya
bye bye

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