Diwali Treats - Ragi Laddoos, Sooji ka Halwa and Quick bhadang

Hope everyone had a happy and joyous Diwali!

Diwali is the festival of lights and joys, of great food and fun times with the people you love! Diwali is also the time when, having stayed away from India for so long, we miss our parents and relatives the most...

We have been fortunate to have plenty of friends around to share the festivities with on most years and this year too we celebrated Diwali with some good friends here in Rotterdam. We had the traditional Laxmi pujan, lit up lots of candles, played cards and shared lots of laughs during dumb charades and of course had a wonderful potluck dinner of Dal bukhara, Shahi Gobhi, Chane-Aloo, Naan and Gulab Jamuns! I don't have any pictures of the food unfortunately.. we were all too busy eating and forgot to take any pictures! :)

Besides an elaborate dinner, usually I make besan laddoos for Diwali. This year I didn't have much besan left.. but had Nachani / Ragi flour which my mom had got in the summer. so I made Ragi laddoos this time..

I made them just as I make Aate ke Laddoos. This flour was already roasted..so I didn't even need to roast it for long! Just combined with hot ghee, boora and dried fruits and made some mouth-watering laddoos!

For prasad, I made Sooji ka Halwa with banana in it (called Kelicha sheera in Marathi). I found a great recipe here which I used as is with the only exception of using ripe Banana instead of mango pulp. Turned out so much better than plain sooji ka halwa! :)


Here's the recipe for quick reference

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups Sooji/Rava/Semolina (medium coarse)
1 ½ cups Milk
1 ½ cups water
1 ripe Banana sliced
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp homemade Ghee

For the garnishing:
6-7 Cashewnuts chopped
6-7 golden raisins
Few strands of Saffron, soaked in warm milk

Method:
1. In a heavy bottom Kadai/wok heat 2tsp of the ghee. Fry the cashew nut pieces and raisins in it, drain and keep aside.
2. In the same ghee, roast the sooji till it turns golden brown and you get a nice aroma. Remove in a plate and cool.
3. In the same Kadai mix milk and water and bring to a boil. Add the roasted sooji and cook stirring continuously so that no lumps are formed. Cook on low flame for some time stirring in between.
4. Once the sooji is half cooked add sugar. Mix properly and cook for a few minutes more, stirring in between.
5. Now add the banana slices and mix with the halwa, mashing them slightly.
6. Add the remaining ghee (optional) and the saffron strands dissolved in warm milk. Mix properly. Cover and cook for a 1-2 minutes.
Garnish with the fried Cashew pieces and golden raisins. Delicious halwa is ready!

I also made some Quick bhadang this diwali! I used Nupur's recipe with some modifications and the result was a wonderful, delicious, crunchy snack.


Here's the recipe, again repeated here for my own reference..

Ingredients:
6 cups puffed rice
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup peanuts
8-10 curry leaves
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1-2 green chillies chopped

Method:
1. Heat oil in a large pot. Add mustard seeds and let them pop.
2. Add peanuts, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and saute till the peanuts are nicely browned.
3. Add salt, sugar, turmeric and chilli powder and saute for a few seconds.
4. Add the puffed rice and raisins and saute on low-medium heat, stirring often till all the puffed rice is coated. Turn off heat after 3-5 minutes.

Cool and store in an air-tight container.

These entries go to Srivalli's JFI-Festival Treats
Also sending this to Priti's Festive Food -Diwali event

Pude / Gulgule

Last Friday was Karwa chauth .. the one day in the year when I fast. This is a fast married women, mostly from north India, keep for long life of their husband by going without food and even water from sun up till moon rise.

I have a fixed menu for this day.. nothing too complicated - Aloo ki rasewali sabji, Poori, Kheer and one dish without which Karwa chauth is incomplete - Pude (or Gulgule as its called by some).


Pude are very easy to make and wonderful to taste. Here is the recipe I follow. Adapted from here

Ingredients:
1 cup Atta (Wheat Flour)
1/2 cup Sugar
Pinch of Black Pepper powder
1 tsp Saunf
Oil to fry
1/2 cup Water
1/4 cup Milk

Method:
1. Mix the atta with sugar, saunf, pepper pwd, milk and water to make a flowing batter. The batter should be of the same consistency as that for pakoras.
2. Keep it aside for about 1 hour - this makes the pudas softer.
3. Heat oil for frying.
4. Take a tablespoon full of smooth batter and let it flow into pan. Allow it to take the shape.
5. Deep fry until brown on both sides. You can fry 4-5 pudas at the same time.
6. Remove and drain excess oil on paper towel.

Pude are ready. These taste great with kheer especially after that long fast!

Update: This entry goes to FIC Brown hosted by sunshinemom
and to JFI-festivals hosted by Srivalli


BTW for Kheer I use Anita's recipe from here which is indeed the last word on kheer! I just halve all the quantities but otherwise stay true to her recipe. Couldn't explain it any better than she did there!

Here's what my kheer looked like... and I must say it was pretty well received! :)

Rasgulla, Rasmalai & Tulips!

My hubby (G) loves Rasgullas and has been pretty spoilt having grown up on the K.C. Das Rasgullas in Bangalore which you get in those cute Matkas! In US (as well as here), all we got were the Haldiram canned Rasgullas. They were very dry and no fun. While Bengali recipes were floating around in the food blogosphere for RCI Bengal, I too tried my hands at making Rasgullas.

I used the recipe from Manjula's kitchen. She makes it look so simple in her video that I thought why not. But it ain't that simple! My Rasgulla's didn't quite turn out the way I expected. I followed the recipe to the T (so I am not going to repeat it here). But when I opened the cooker, I saw no balls, the paneer was all scattered out!!! Now there was no way I was gonna let all that effort go to waste.. So I scooped it out with a Tea Strainer, made the balls again and let it cool.. Then put some of the sugar syrup on top of it and put it in the fridge. What I got was a cross between Sandesh and Rasgulla and didn't taste bad! and most of them were gulped down by G in one single day :)

Not a pretty picture.. but still worth putting it here I think!

When I discussed my attempt at Rasgulla making with my mom, she said I should put some Maida in the paneer while making the dough.. I'll probably try that next time.. coz I did feel that the dough was not smooth enough and was little brittle... maybe I didn't rub it for long enough?

Anyways, I made Rasmalais after a few days.. but this time I used a shortcut and just got the Gits Rasmalai packet. I used to make these in US as well.. but some times they used to be hard in the center. So this time I let them boil in the water for 20 mins (double the time given in the recipe on the box). They came out real well! all fluffy and soft. Take a look!


The best Rasmalais I've had? Nah.... That award would go to (no not K.C. Das) but Vik's Chat Bhandar from Berkley!!! Yeah they were the best Rasmalais I've ever had. Sigh, how I miss California :(

But Rotterdam is not bad nowadays! The tulips are flowering and its getting sunnier! yay! here are some pictures I took today.. Thought I would share these even though they have nothing to do with my "culinary" adventures ;)

Aate ke Laddoo

Update: I am submitting this entry for Jhiva for Love which is being hosted by Jigyasa and Pratibha and would like to dedicate it to my mom. I love my mom and of course her cooking - there is nothing better than "mummy ke haat ka khana"! She is the one who inspires me to cook and before I started this blog it was with her that I shared all my culinary adventures - good or bad!


Aate ke laddoo bring back fond memories of my childhood. I can clearly picture my mom roasting the flour in a big kadhai, the home filling up with heavenly aroma and then all of us, my dad included, sitting around in a circle and making the laddoos together. Then comparing the sizes of the laddoos and laughing coz of course mine would be the smallest! This was a regular occurrence several times over the winter coz those laddoos used to get over in a jiffy!

Besides so many other things, I missed the laddoos a lot once I move to the US. Mom used to make and send them to me whenever she found anybody coming over from India to US and of course whenever I visited India, the laddoos were always ready, to eat as well as take. We always relive the laddoo making sessions when we are together, and had one even in summer at my place when my parents visited me.

This winter was the first time I tried my hands at making them on my own. When I ask my mom for the proportions, she never has it coz she makes it "Andaz se". So I had to look up the recipe and I found one at bawarchi which got my mom's approval. I, however, used only the proportions of the ingredients from the recipe and used my mom's way of making it.

So here's my version of the recipe

Ingredients

4 cups wholewheat flour
2 cups powdered sugar or बूरा (sorry don't know the English equivalent)
1 1/2 cups ghee
1 tsp. cardamom powder
2 tbsp. slivered almonds
1 tbsp. chopped cashews
1 tbsp. raisins

Method

1. Melt ghee in a large pan.
2. Add wheat flour, stir continuously, till light brown.
3. Roast flour on very slow flame. Roast it until its dark brown and ghee starts to separate from the flour. This takes a long time and you have to stir frequently to avoid burning.
   
4. Once the flour is dark brown, take the pan off the heat.
5. Add बूरा now. - the advantage of using बूरा is that it does not leave water. while if you are using powdered sugar, you have to wait till the flour is colder else it leaves water.
   
6. Now add the dry fruits and cardamom powder.
   
7. Mix well and shape into laddoos while its still warm. - good time to involve DH here!
   
8. Cool completely before storing in airtight container. Enjoy!

I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted the laddoos that they tasted very much like my mom's! DH agreed too. I think I made around 25-30 of them and they were all gone within 2 weeks!