Chocolate Ladoo

Shhh...it does not have any chocolate directly added in it...keep it a secret! :-) It doesn't always have to be exactly what the name says.  This one has a couple of secret ingredients and will be loved by children and adults.

Preparation Time - 2 mins(if you have chapathi/roti)
Cook Time           - 5 mins
Makes                  - 10 small

Measurements & Ingredients:

Leftover chapathi/roti - 1
Bournvita                    - 1-2 tbspn
Sugar                           - 1/2-1 tbspn
Cardamom seeds         - from 1 pod
Dry shredded coconut - 1 tbspn
Ghee(clarified butter)  - 2 tsp
Dry fruits(optional)cashew, almonds, pistachios, walnuts - 1tbspn

Method:

Make the roti into small pieces.  Add these roti pieces, bournvita, sugar, cardamom seeds, dry fruits powder, shredded coconut and ghee into a blender jar and blend until you see all of it coming together such that you can make balls.  Initially you will feel it is just getting powdered, but eventually the oil from coconut and the ghee will help in getting it together.


Take it out from the blender jar and form the ladoos.


Notes:

• I suggest that you first make the powder of the roti pieces and then add the rest of the ingredients to get a smoother ladoo.  
• If you add oil/ghee to your chapathi/roti, then the additional ghee is not required while blending.
• You can of course use fresh rotis
• You can adjust the sugar as per your taste because Bournvita also will have sugar
• You can substitute sugar with jaggery
• I suggest to make in small quantity so that it can be stored at room temperature and be consumed in a day.  If you have lot of rotis left which makes many ladoos, then share the sweet treat with friends and family :-)

Puliyogare Gojju(Iyengar style)


Preparation Time - 15 mins
Cook Time           - 45 mins to an hour

Measurements & Ingredients:

For basic gojju

• Tamarind - a generous handful 
• Black sesame seeds - 1/3 cup
• Jaggery - depends on the sourness of the tamarind
• Rasam powder - 4 to 5 tbspn
• Salt
• Oil - 3/4 cup

For powder to sprinkle at the end

• Kadele bele/Bengal gram - 2 tbspn
• Menasu/Black pepper       - 1/2 tspn
• Jeerige/Cumin seeds        - 1 tspn
• Rasam powder                 - 1 tspn

For seasoning

• Oil                     - 3 tbspn
• Mustard seeds    - 1 tspn
• Split black gram - 1 tspn
• Curry leaves       - 1 sprig
• Peanuts              - a handful
• Hing

Other

• Dry shredded coconut(optional)

Preparations:

Soak the tamarind in about 1/2 ltr of water for either a few hours OR if you don't have time warm the tamarind and water bowl until it is hot and cover and leave for 15 mins.

Meanwhile, dry roast the black sesame seeds.  Once cool, powder it and keep it aside.

Coming back to the soaked tamarind, squeeze the tamarind water to extract the juice from the tamarind.  Once extracted, keep that extract in a different bowl and again pour some water to the already squeezed tamarind and squeeze the juice from it.   Repeat this for a few times until you see there is no more juice which can be extracted.

Method:

In a pan, take the tamarind juice which is extracted and let it come to a boil.  Make sure the heat is not more than medium.  Once it starts boiling, lower the temperature to low medium and add let it reduce to half the quantity.  Once reduced, add rasam powder, salt and boil for about 5 minutes.  Then add the jaggery and black sesame seeeds powder, mix and let it boil for a couple of minutes.  By this time the consistency would be turning to a gojju consistency.  Now add the 3/4 cup oil.  Mix well and let it cook till it reaches a paste consistency and you can see the oil absorbed and a shine is seen in the gojju.  Switch off the heat when you see this and let it cool completely.  Once cooled, you can store it in an air tight container.  

For the spice powder, dry roast bengal gram, cumin seeds and black pepper.  Then grind all these along with rasam powder.  This is the powder to be sprinkled when mixing the gojju with rice.  Store this also in an air tight container.

For seasoning, Heat oil.  To it add mustard seeds, split black gram, hing, peanuts and curry leaves.

Making the Puliyogare:

Add the needed amount of gojju, the spice powder, dry shredded coconut and oggarane/seasoning to rice.  Mix it and enjoy!

Notes:

• It is suggested not to replace Black sesame seeds with white ones.  That being said, adding sesame seeds is highly recommended and I suggest not to skip it.  For any reason you have to skip black sesame seeds, I would say use the white.  Something is definitely better than skipping!  But I recommend the black sesame seeds.
• The rice should not be mushy.
• I have not tried with store bought tamarind pulp, so not sure how it would be if you use that.
• If you feel the spice is less when you mix the rice, add a little more of the spice powder.  So, the more powder you add, the more spice the puliyogare will be.
• Make sure to stir in between while making the gojju.

Huli Pudi  (Sambar Powder)

There are so many versions of huli pudi.  So here is one.  Planning to try a few variations and will post my views on how each one has turned out and which is my preference :-)

Preparation Time - 5 mins
Cook Time          - 30 mins

Measurements & Ingredients:

• Bengal gram (Kadale bele)      - 1/4 cup
• Split black gram (uddina bele) - 1/4 cup
• Cumin seeds (Jeerige)              - little less than 1/4 cup
• Coriander seeds (dhaniya)       - 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds (menthya)     - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds (sasive)             - 2 tsp
• Black pepper(menasu)             - 1 tsp
• Asafoetida (hing)                     - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder                     - 1/4 tsp
• Dried Red chillies Byadige        - 5 generous handfuls
• Dried Red chilies Guntur          - 2 generous handfuls
• Oil                                           - 1 tbspn

Method:

Heat a large pan on medium flame.  To this add oil and let it heat.  To this add kadale bele, uddina bele, jeerige.  Lower the heat to low and fry it for about 5 mins.  Then add menthya, sasive, menasu, hing and fry it for another 3-4 mins.

 Then add dhaniya and red chilies and fry all the ingredients until you get a good aroma and see that the color of the grams and dhaniya have changed color.  Finally add turmeric powder and switch off the flame.  Let it cool completely.

Once cooled, powder the ingredients in batches in a blender jar.  Take out the powder in a large container and after all the batches are done give the entire mixture a good mix.  Leave it open until you feel it is completely cool because in the blender the mixture would have got some heat as well.

  
Once completely cooled, store it in an air tight container.








Notes:

• You can add dry shredded coconut to the ingredients.  If you do so, add the coconut at the end just before you switch off the flame.  Because we do not want to burn the coconut by frying it for a long time.
• If you add dry coconut the taste will of course be enhanced, but the shelf life will decrease, so you will have to refrigerate it.
• Add turmeric powder at the end so that you can make out the change in color of the grams and dhaniya.
• You can substitute guntur chilies with spicy chili powder and byadige with kashmiri chili powder, in case you don't have either of it.
• Use a large pan for the frying as once you add the red chilies, it will need a lot of space to be tossed around.  Do not go by the quantity of  the grams, go by the quantity of the red chilies to choose the pan.