See Kadubu

The preparation for Ganesha festival starts off a week in advance. I remember my mother soaking rice for the preparation of Kadubu dough a week previous to the festival. The main offering to Ganesha on the festival is this Kadubu (also known as modak). There are different kinds of modak, deep fried, steamed and just stuffed. The recipe given below is for the plain stuffed kadubu. For preparing the rice flour for this recipe, rice needs to be soaked for 3 hours, strained and then spread on a clean muslin cloth for drying. Dry this in shade for 1 whole day. Next day it is powdered very fine. My mother, aunt and me would sit and make kadubus with our hands without moulds, when the dough was still hot. Now that moulds are available and i'm the only hand to make kadubus, i use a mould. The kadubus should be made when the dough is hot.

SEE KADUBU:




Ingredients:

For the stuffing
1 cup fried Bengal gram powdered roughly (hurikadale)
1 cup white sesame (fried and roughly powdered)
1 cup jaggery powdered
1 cup dried coconut, grated.
1/4 cup poopy seeds (fried)
6-7 elaichi (seeds powdered)

For the dough:
2 cups rice powder
1 and 1/2 cup water ( adjust according to necessity)
a pinch of salt


Method of preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing and keep it in an airtight container.
2. Boil water and add a pinch of salt, as the water starts boiling, add the rice flour till all the water is absorbed.
3. Keep mixing with a thick spatula (preferably wooden) to avoid lump formation.
4. As you keep mixing, bring the whole flour together into one huge dough.
5. Make lemon sized balls of the dough when it is still hot.
6. Pat this ball flat and put it into the kadubu mould and fill the stuffing powder into it and make hot hot kadubus.
7. You can further steam this kadubu or eat it without steaming.

Rave Unde (Rava Laddu)

It has been very long since i have posted on my blog, most important reason being my settling down in a new place, school for kids, a minor accident. Now i'm back to the comfort zone in my new place and back to browsing the net and continuing my internet activities.....
Ganesh festival celebrations are so extensive in mumbai and it was very nice to witness it first hand after listening about it all these years. In my mom's house we treat Ganesha with a huge spread of home made goodies for the festival. The preparations start a week in advance. I too prepared a simple fare for the Lord starting 3 days in advance. I made Rave Unde, Kodubale, Chakkli, Ellu Unde, Nippattu and Kadubu (with Kadubu pudi).

Rave Unde (Rava Laddu):



Ingredients:

2 cups chiroti rava (very fine variety)
1/2 cup milk (warm)
1 and 1/2 cup sugar (powdered) (You can alter it as per your taste)
3 tblspns cashew and raisins (fried in ghee)
4 tblspns ghee
4 pods cardsmom (powdered)

Method of preparation:

1. On medium flame fry the cashew and raisins in 2 tblspns ghee and remove.
2. In the same kadhai with the left over ghee, add another tblspn ghee and fry the rava. U need to keep stirring it continously to avoid burning.Fry till it gives out a pleasant aroma. This will take around 5-6 minutes.
3. Take this into a large mixing bowl and add cashew and raisins, powdered sugar, cardamom powder and warm milk and mix well.
4. Grease your hand and make rava laddus.

This stays good for 15 days at room temperature but the stock has never lasted beyond a week at my place.

Gulab Jamun

My favorite sweet dish since i was a kid. I like the jamun served in hotels and sweet stalls better than the ready mix jamuns prepared at home..... Would always wonder why both are different in texture. So, i tried to make jamuns with paneer, khoya and maida instead of the instant jamun mix, like always. And...... voila!!!!!!!! i got the same texture as in sweet stalls........ and the taste was yummy. I have added rose petals from rose grown at home to this which enhanced the taste even more.


GULAB JAMUN:


Ingredients:

200 gms khoya (unsweetened)
100 gms paneer
5 tbsp maida
a pinch of cardamom powder

for the sugar syrup:

4 cups sugar
4 cups water
7-8 strands of saffron
cardamom powder from 8 cardamoms.
petals from 1 rose (i used 1 medium sized rose, it had around 15 petals)

Method of Preparation:

1. Crumble paneer and grate the khoya.
2. Mix the paneer and khoya to a smooth dough.
3. Mix in the maida and cardamom powder (at this point you can add soda-bi-carbonate if needed)
4. Make a smooth, lumpless dough of the above ingredients.
5. For the syrup, mix the water and sugar and bring it to a boil. Add the cardamom powder, saffron strands and rose petals to the syrup and switch off the flame after a minute.
6. Make small balls of the dough ( i made oval shapes as well) and fry these till reddish brown in ghee/oil. (Pic shown below)




7. Put this into the sugar syrup.

Serve this hot or cold and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beetroot Halwa

Yesterday, being sunday, my kids were in the mood to eat something sweet prepared by me (nothing from out, my son insisted). I wanted to prepare something fast and less tedious, so, decided on carrot halwa. There were less carrots in the fridge but found beetroots instead. So, here is my halwa recipe with beetroot which turned out very good, good enough to be cleaned off completely, instantly.

BEETROOT HALWA

Ingredients:

1/2 kg beetroot
1/4 ltr milk
50 gms unsweetened khoa (optional)
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp ghee
cashews and raisins for garnish (optional, i did not use them)

METHOD:

1. Peel the beetroot and grate it.
2. Boil the beetroot in the milk till the beetroot is cooked and milk is completely absorbed by the vegetable.
3. Heat the ghee and add the khoa, stir fry for a minute and add the cooked vegetable.
4. Stir in the sugar and fry this for 1-2 mins till the sugar is dissolved completely.
5. Add the ghee fried dried fruits for garnish.