Ram Ladoo/Moong dal  Pakoda Chaat

I believe this is a chaat from the streets of Delhi.  I have never been there nor had this till date.  When I was browsing some channels on street food, I came across this.  The name said ladoo and it was a chaat.  That drew my attention and searched up a little bit on this.  After searching different methods of making this chaat, here is my version :-)
If you are from Delhi or have had this chaat and feel this is not the authentic Ram Ladoo, please pardon me 😬 I am open to trying variations so do leave a comment if you have any :-)
However, I personally loved this chaat and recommend you to try

Preparation Time - 4-6 hrs for soaking
Cook Time           - 30 mins
Serves                  - 3 to 4

Measurements & Ingredients:

For the Pakoda:

Mung beans/Moong dal/ Hesaru bele - 1 cup(before soaking)
Ginger                              - ~1.5 tsp grated
Green chilies                    - 2 (or as spicy as you want)
Salt                                   - to taste
Eno fruit salt (no flavour) - 1 tsp (optional)
Oil                                     - enough to deep fry

For the topping:

Radish                   - 1 or as needed
Coriander leaves    - a handful
Black Salt               - as needed
Chaat masala          - as needed
Green chutney        - as needed
Sweet chutney        - as needed
Curd/yogurt            - as needed

Method:

Soak the moong dal for at least 4 hours.  Drain all the water out and grind it into a smooth paste along with green chilies and ginger.  Add maybe just a couple of Tbspn of water if needed.  We want a thick batter and not a watery one.







To this add salt and Eno fruit salt.  When you mix you will see the batter turns light and fluffy.  Do not over mix.











Mix and make tiny pakodas(bite size) by deep frying them in hot oil.

While the pakodas are frying in oil, grate the radish and squeeze out the water.  We do not need the radish water for this chaat.  Chop the cilantro and mix it with the grated radish and keep it aside.  Beat the yogurt/curd to have a smooth pouring consistency.  

To plate - arrange a few of these pakodas, top it with the radish-cilantro mixture, a little of the curd, top it with green chutney, sweet chutney and sprinkle a little black salt and chaat masala.







Ta-Da!! Your Ram Ladoo is ready to be served....or eaten...😊

Notes:

• If you do not have Eno fruit salt, add baking soda.  
• Eno fruit salt or baking soda is optional.  It will absorb quite a bit of oil when frying.  But the pakodas will be crispy and light.
• Do not skip the radish.  Trust me, I was really wondering how would it taste in a chaat.  But it blends so well that...ohh.. you should experience that feeling...rather than me trying to explain :-)
• Making bite size pakodas made the dish more enjoyable I felt, instead of it being bigger in size like a bonda or regular pakoda.

Eggless Waffles

Preparation time - 5 mins
Cook Time         - approx. 4 mins for each waffle
Makes                - 4 waffles

Measurements & Ingredients:

All purpose flour(Maida) - 1.5 cups
Salt                                   - 1/4 tsp
Oil                                    - 3 Tbspn
Baking powder                - 3 tsp
Baking soda                     - < 1/2 tsp
Sugar                                - 2 tsp
Warm milk                       - 1.5 cups

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients - Maida, salt, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and keep aside.

In another bowl, mix the oil and warm milk and to this add the dry ingredients mixture and gently mix preferably using a whisk to get a lump free mixture, but do not over do the mixing.  Because of adding the baking powder and baking soda, you could see the air bubbles in the batter.

You should be getting a batter of thickness like that of somewhere in between dosa batter and idly batter.

Now pre-heat the waffle maker.  Once it is pre-heated, grease the maker with some oil and pour a cup full of batter in the middle and let it spread out by itself.











Close the waffle maker and let it cook till it is ready.


Serve with powdered sugar!








Notes:

• You can use 1/2 maida and 1/2 whole wheat flour or totally substitute with whole wheat flour.  I have tried with whole wheat flour as well, the taste was still good except for the fact that I felt it was denser.
• You can substitute oil with butter
• Do not beat the batter, just mix only enough to mix liquids and dry ingredients well.
• Each waffle maker has it's own temperature setting so please check the user manual for your waffle maker.
• A few other serving suggestions are maple syrup, honey, chocolate syrup, banana or blue berries, whipped cream.
• Do not fill the batter up to the brim because it will overflow as we have added baking powder and baking soda.

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.

Loaded Nachos

Preparation Time - 8 hrs
Cook Time           - 20 mins
Serves                 - 8

Measurements & Ingredients:

• Corn chips/Tortillas - 1 big pack
• Sour Cream Or thick yogurt
• Salsa (Or Onion, tomatoes, cilantro cut into small pieces and lemon juice)
• Grated mixed cheese

To make the Refried beans:

• Pinto Beans - ~2.5 cups
• Oil - 5 tbspn
• Taco seasoning - 6 tbspn
• Salt
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Method:

If you want to know what pinto beans is, then this is how it looks.  But in case that is not available, you can substitute with Kidney Beans(Rajma).



As a part of preparation, soak the beans overnight or for 6 hrs and cook it with a little salt till it is tender.  I used a pressure cooker to speed up the process but you can cook it in an open pot too,but that would take a while.  In pressure cooker I let it cook up to about 4 whistles.

Once the beans are ready, the process begins. 

In a pan,heat the oil, preferably olive oil. To it add the boiled beans along with the water. If you have too much water then store the water for later need in case.

Add little Salt(remember you would have added salt while boiling the beans as well), Cumin powder and the taco seasoning.  Mix it. Cover and let it reach a boil. 

Then, using a potato masher mash the beans quite well.  It need not be fully mashed like a paste. 






Mix it again, close the lid and let it simmer for 5 mins.  The refried beans is ready.

All we have to do now is to plate everything.





First, arrange a few chips on a plate.  Add the grated cheese on top of the chips. 








Then add the warm refried beans, the salsa and sour cream. 









Sit back and enjoy your hard work! :-)

Notes:

1. If you do not have Taco seasoning, just substitute with Cumin powder, Chili powder, salt, black pepper, onion powder.
2. Instead of store bought salsa, you could add chopped onions, tomatoes, cilantro and lemon juice.
3. Wondering yogurt as a substitute for sour cream?? Yes, often when I run out of sour cream just when I needed it, I use thick yogurt.  I feel it doesn't make a big difference.

 

Eggless Ice Cream

Preparation Time - 1/2 hr
Cook Time - 8 hrs
Serves - 15

Measurements & Ingredients:

• Heavy whipping cream - 475 ml
• Whole milk - 1 cup
• Milk powder - 1/4 cup
• Sweetened condensed milk - little less than 1/2 cup
• Powdered sugar - little less than 1/2 cup
• Vanilla essence - 2 tbspn

Method:

As a part of preparation:

1.  keep 2 vessels (sizes such that one would fit in the other) and the whisk in the freezer for 30 mins before starting (If using an electric whisk keep only the attachments - the whisk, in the freezer and not the entire machine :-)).  Also keep the whipping cream in the freezer for the same time.  Chill a bowl of water in the refrigerator.
2. Heat the milk and to it add the milk powder and mix well ensuring there are no lumps.  Let it heat up well but do not let it boil.  Once you see the smoke rising up, it's time to switch off the flame. Add Vanilla essence and the sweetened condensed milk to it and let it cool to room temperature.

After 30 mins, take out the vessels, whisk and the whipping cream from the freezer.  In the bigger vessel add some ice cubes and the chilled water.




In the smaller container add the whipping cream and place this container in the bigger container which has the ice cubes and the chilled water.



Start beating the whipping cream.  If you have an electric whisk it would be a help to your arms :-) but you could use a regular whisk as well to beat the cream but it would take a longer time. 

This is how it looks at the beginning when you start to whisk. 

You will know you are almost done whisking when you could see a clear trail of the whisk.  You can see the difference of the trail in the 2 pics.

Continue whisking until you see soft peaks which means when you lift the cream with the whisk you should see peaks standing up.

Now add the milk mixture and powdered sugar to it and whisk it just until it mixes.  Remember not to whisk it for too long.

At the end of this you will have a flowing consistency ice cream mixture and this is how it is expected to be.

Pour the mixture into an air tight freezer safe container, close the lid tight and freeze it for 6-8 hrs.









After 8 hrs...what are you waiting for? ;-)
Serve and enjoy :-)


Note:

• Do not skip freezing the utensils
• Make sure it is an air tight freezer safe container.  If it is not air tight, you will have ice crystals formed inside the container and the ice cream will not be smooth and creamy.  If you feel it is not fully air tight, put a plastic wrap before you close the lid.
• You can have any variations in this, like adding mango puree to get mango ice cream etc