Eid delicacies

Eid mubarak to all!!
I'm sorry for the delay in belimma's and soufanammai's recipes but I'm sure this post will be followed by them. So here is the eid menu:

Breakfast:

Pattal/Rice rotis

Meenappam/Fish patties

Spaghetti

Kalthappam/Rice cakes

Kadambu/Rice balls in chicken gravy

Beef chilli

Mutton curry

Snacks:


Baeke' porichhe/Banana fry

Date rolls

Baatpattal/Rice snacks

Clock-wise from right below: Kadala pozhichhatu,cigarette appam,acchappam,date cake

Umma's special date cake

Since eid is nearing and the kitchen is busy with eid preparations, I decided to post something prepared by the ladies in the house. So the date cake will be followed by something prepared by belimma and soufanammai. These date cakes are something that has been served for eid and praised by the guests since the past 2 years. 1 thing i like about the recipe is that it does not use butter. So there is no need to wait for the butter to melt. The dates are also soaked for hardly 15 minutes, making this a quick and easy cake.

Ingredients:

25 dates
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup maida
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar

Method:

• Sift maida and baking powder together.
• Soak dates in milk for some time.
• Grind sugar and soaked dates in a blender.
• Add oil.Mix well. This needs a lot of patience.
  
• Slowly add maida. Mix.
• Pour into a greased pan and bake at 375 degree celcius.
• Remove from oven after 30-35 minutes or if a skewer comes clean when inserted into the cake.
  

Gobi Manchurian

Besides chaat, another Indian street food that I miss is the crisp gobi manchurian dipped in very little gravy. I tried to make them in India but they just wouldn't come crisp. When I came to know that the secret behind crisp gobis is rice flour, I knew I had to give a try to this dish one more time.And so, I began preparing it today for iftaar. Everybody enjoyed the dish.

For the manchurian:


Ingredints:

1 cauliflower,cut into florets and soked in warm water for some time
5 tbsp corn flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 tbsp gram flour
salt, to taste
3 tsp soysauce
2 tbsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp chopped ginger

Method:

Combine all the ingredints except cauliflower in a mixing bowl. Add enough water to make a thick paste. Add some rice flour if the batter gets watery. Add caulifower and marinate for 1/2 hour.Fry the gobis util golden brown.


For the sauce:


Ingredints:

1 tbsp oil
1 medium sized onion, very finely chopped
2 jalapeno, finely chopped
1/2 capsicum, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp hot sauce
2 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 springs coriander leaves
salt, to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Saute onions until they lose their colour.Add jalapenos. If you are using capsicums, you can add them now. Add all the sauces and salt. Mix well. Add coriander leaves and cauliflower. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and mix well.Serve immediately.

Charmuri

There is nothing better than eating chaats from the gaddi and topping it with sugarcane juice.Uhhhh.my mouth is watering.This time when I went to India, I went twice to the gaddi opposite st. alousious college in light house road.However, I did not taste their famous charmuri as I was not sure whether they will taste good(somehow, chaat and puffed rice dont fall into the same category).But when soufanammai told me that charmuri is one of the best chaats, I wanted to taste it.Since there is no "gaddi" in qatar, I decided to prepare charmuri at home. With a little research in the internet and soufanammai's advice on the major ingredients, I prepared them and they came out really good. The only problem is that puffed rice gets soggy very fast.Anyway,herez the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 cups puffed rice
2 handfuls of congress kadlekai
2 onions, chpped very finely
1 tomato, chopped very finely
1 raw mango, chopped very finely
2 green chillies,sliced vertically
lemon juice, to taste
salt, to taste
red chilli powder, to taste

Method:
Mix all the ingredients and serve IMMEDIATELY.

Tips:
Congress kadlekai is skinned and roasted peanuts mixed with a little oil, turmeric, hing, chilly powder, pepper and salt.
You can remove the green chillies before serving.

Almond falooda

Recently our bangalorean neighbor called us to say that she was sending us falooda. Belimma was not sure what she meant since falooda is a drink. But this is what they brought. A sweet made of almonds and china grass. They are soft and taste very good. In no time the sweets began to vanish. Fearing that Noora and Naila wouldn't get their share since they were in school, belimma asked me to prepare these sweets. They came out very good. It is best to use original saffron coz it really gives out the smell and flavour. The only time-consuming task in this recipe is skinning and grinding the almonds. besides that, it is very easy.

Ingredients:

1 ltr milk
1c sugar
3/4 c milk powder
Rose water
Saffron, a pinch, soaked in water
1/2 c almonds
china grass, soaked in water for 45-60 min

Method:

• Soak almonds in hot water. Peel their skin.
• Grind the almonds, leaving behind a few almonds for garnishing.
• Make a paste out of the almonds and further grind it in milk so that the almonds are finely ground.
  
• In a saucepan, boil the china grass with a little water on medium flame.
• When the china grass dissolves, add all other ingredints except saffron and the almonds kept for garnishing.
• When milk boils, lower flame and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Switch off flame and pour faloodas into a greased tray(I used steel tray and so I did not have to grease them).
• Sprinkle saffron over the falooda and garnish with almonds.
• When it cools, refrigerate until they become firm.
• Cut them into diamonds before serving.