Ariselu

Ariselu is the famous sweet of Andhra(Telugu) people. It is especially made for festivals like Sankranthi(Pongal) and in Kaartheeka Masam. This snack can be stored for atleast ten to fifteen days. This sweet should be made out of wet rice flour which we have to prepare at home by using soaked rice. Let's see how this should be made.

Ingredients:

1. Rice – 5 cups
2. Jaggery – 2 cups
3. Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
4. Ssame seeds– 1/2 cup
5. Ghee – 3 tbsp
6. Oil – for deep frying

Method of Preperation :

1. If you are planning to prepare ariselu, you have to soak rice 24 hrs before. Means rice have to soak for atleast one day for ariselu recipe to be taste good.
2. Wash and soak 5 cups of rice for 24 hrs in enough water. 1 hr before preparing ariselu you have to make the rice flour to be ready.
3. For this drain the water and spread the rice on a cloth. Leave it for about 30 minutes till the cloth absorb all the moisture. Grind this wet rice into fine powder in an indian blender. (be careful that there should not be water. otherwise it will become a paste).
4. If you think that the flour is not smooth, use a fine sieve, so that only the flour will go through the mesh & the ungrinded rice will be left in the sieve. Again grind that rice to a smooth flour. Cover this rice flour with wet cloth or tissue.
5. Heat a cup of water and boil . Add grated jaggery to it and boil till a thick syrup is formed. You have to check for the consistency of the syrup by dropping few drops of jaggery syrup in a bowl of cold water. If it forms a thread it means you have to boil it for some more time. If it forms a thick lump or ball in the water then consistency is correct. (In telugu this is called as unda pakam).
6. Now immediately switch off the flame. Otherwise the syrup will become much thicker which should not happen for this recipe.
7. Slowly add rice to it and keep stirring. Add ghee and cardamom powder, mix well and leave it to cool. For 2 cups of jaggery this recipe will consume about 4 cups of rice flour. Keep the remaining rice flour aside and you can dry up this flour for 1 day on a cloth, and can use as normal rice flour.
8. Heat oil in a wide pan. Make small balls of big lemon size and press into small puris on a plastic sheet . Apply oil on the sheet and for your palm to avoid sticking of the dough. Put these pressed puris into hot oil and fry till golden color on both sides on medium heat.
9. For Nuvvula ariselu, soak sesame seeds in 2 tsps of water for 5 min. Take small all from the dough, and roll in the sesame seeds so seeds will stick to the ball and press it on a sheet with little oil. Same as above, fry it till it gets the golden color on both sides.
10. Press each puri between two ladles to remove the excess oil. Otherwise, if you have steel colander, you can place the fried puti into it and press the puri with a steel bowl or a steel glass. So excess oil will be removed.
11. Keep it in a plate to cool. Store in airtight box. You can store it almost for fifteen days. But if the ariselu comes out tastier, I am sure that you will not let them to be there for 15 days.

Tips for the ariselu recipe:

1. While making the jaggery syrup, you have to be careful not to over boil once the syrup gets the consistency to form a lump. You have to immediately switch off the stove. If you over cook the syrup, ariselu will become hard. 
2. Don't add too much of rice flour in the jaggery syrup. You have to get the dough consistency to form a smooth ball. If you add too much rice flour, when you try to press the ball on the plastic sheet, it will be broken.
3. The dough will become harder after sometime. So try to cover the dough in a bowl with a plate on it, and take some portions to make balls. If the dough became herder to make the balls, just microwave it and warm for few seconds or a minute. So it will become softer and you can make balls easily.
4. Don't fry more than 2 ariselu for a single batch otherwise they don't fry properly.

Don't wait till next Sankranthi. Try this recipe as soon as you can and enjoy andhra ariselu. Don't forget to add comments.

Wheat Rava Laddoo

Normally we know that Rava Laddoo is made out of Suji (Semolina) Rava. But this time I wanted to try wheat rava laddoo. You can buy wheat upma rava or cracked wheat rava in Indian grocery store.
Try it out, this laddoo also came out well.

Ingredients :

1. wheat rava - 1 cup
2. sugar - 1 cup
3. shreded coconut(Kobbari turumu) - 1/2 cup
4. ilachi powder - 1tsp
5. ghee - 6 tsp
6. cashews - 2 tsp
7. warm milk - 1/4 cup

Method of Preperation

1. Put a wide pan on the stove and put 2 tsp of ghee and let the ghee melt. Roast cashewnuts until they turned light golden brown color.
2. Then add 1 cup wheat rava and roast it on medium low flame. Keep mixing rava, and make sure not to burn rava.
3. Approximately after 10 to 15 min, rava get light golden brown color the raw smell will be gone.Shift the rava into a plate or bowl.
4. Now put 1 more tsp of ghee in the pan and add shredded coconut, and roast it for 5 min. Make sure to roast on medium low flame.
5. Now switch off the stove. And in the pan, add roasted rava, 1cup sugar, and ilachi powder. The mixture will be little hot. Mix all the ingredients well. Keep warm milk ready for making laddoos.
6. Put remaining ghee on the mixture and by mixing smaller portions make laddos by sprinkling warm milk on the mixture.
7. When you use warm milk to make laddos store the laddoos in refrigirator after 2 or 3 days. Or else if you want to keep laddoos outside only, try to use more ghee to make laddoos instead of warm milk.

Hope you will try my wheat laddoos, and don't forget to add comments.

Oatmeal Cup Cakes (Muffins)

I bought Quaker Oatmeal packets for breakfast. But i did not consume them. And i wanted to make some recipe out of that. I planned to make healthy cup cakes. So i tried it using Oatmeal, Brown Sugar which is healthier when compared to White Sugar. In the original recipe I am supposed to add 2 cups of All Purpose Flour (Maida Flour). But for healthier recipe i replaced half of the flour with Wheat Flour(Chapathi Flour). So i used 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup Wheat Flour. They came out very well. So today I wanted to share this recipe with all of you.

Ingredients :

1. 2 cups oats
2. 2 cups milk
3. 2 eggs
4. 1 cup brown sugar
5. 1 cup vegetable oil or butter
6. 2 cups flour (My Choice : 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup wheat flour) one can use 2 cups of All Purpose Flour)
7. 2 tsp baking powder
8. 1/2 tsp salt
9. 3 tbsp raisins
10. 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) : I replaced them with Chopped Almonds(Badam)

Method of Preperation :

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. In a small bowl, combine milk and oats, let them soak for 15 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, oil or butter, stir in oatmeal mixture. Add both the flours, sugar, baking powder, milk, and salt. Try to beat with egg beater for the ingredients to be mixed well. 
4. Finally add raisins and chopped almonds and mix well with a spoon.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full.
6. I added the remaining batter into another baking pan which is greased with oil.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Once they are done cool them for a while and they are ready to eat. Raisins bring special taste and almonds bring crounchy taste when you are eating the miffin.

Hope you will enjoy my Oatmeal Muffins. Try it out, and don't forget to add comments.

Photos :

Cup Cakes batter ready :

After adding raisins and chopped almonds

Fill the Muffin pan

Muffins and cake are ready:

The other side of the Muffins : Nice Color uhh...

 

My Cake in the other pan

Gobi Manchurian

Last weekend we had a potluck with our friends. So my husband told that preparing Gobi Manchurian will be the best option as an appetizer for the potluck. So this was the second time of preparing our Gobi manchurian recipe. This time the taste came out Superb !!! Credit goes to my Husband Vijay. Because he involved a lot in the preperation. So lets take a look how to prepare delicious Gobi manchurian. It will take some time to prepare but its worth the effort.

Gobi Manchurian Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 medium sized cauliflower, cut into florets, placed in salted hot water for 10-12 mts, drained
2 tbsps maida/all-purpose flour
2 tbsps corn flour
1/2 tbsp rice flour
kesar orange or red color
1 tbsp ginger-garlic-green chilli paste
1/2 cup water
salt to taste
oil for deep frying gobi

For sauce:
1/4 cup spring onions, finely chopped,
1 1/2 tbsps finely minced garlic
1/2 tbsp finely sliced ginger
1 tsp green chilli paste
1 tsp red chilli pwd (preferably Kashmiri)
2 tsps soya sauce
2 tsps vinegar
3 tbsps tomato sauce
salt as required
1 1/2 tbsps oil
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves

1. Heat oil for deep frying in a heavy bottomed vessel. 
2. In a bowl, combine maida, cornflour, rice flour, salt, ginger-garlic-green chilli paste and water to make a thick paste. Put some Kesar Orange or Red color in that mix(This kesar orange color which generally we used in Rava Kesari to get the kesari orange color.To get the gobi bright red color).
3. Dip the washed and drained florets into the batter such that its well coated. Place each floret that is well coated with the batter into the hot oil. Do not crowd the vessel. Reduce flame and deep fry till the gobi is almost cooked. Increase the flame towards the end of the cooking process and fry the gobi till it turns golden brown. Remove onto absorbent paper and keep aside.
4. Heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a large wok and once the oil is hot, add the chopped garlic, ginger, chilli paste,  and chopped spring onions, and fry on high for a few seconds.Spring onions should retain their crunch.
5. Reduce to medium heat and now add soya sauce, tomato ketchup, and vinegar. Combine well and cook for 2 mts.
6. Add the deep fried gobhi and combine. Toss on high flame for 1-2 mts. Turn off heat. Garnish with the chopped spring onion greens and coriander leaves.

Guacamole Recipe With Avacado

Guacamole Recipe

Guacamole, a dip made from avocados, is originally from Mexico. The trick to perfect guacamole is using good, ripe avocados. Check for ripeness by gently pressing the outside of the avocado. If there is no give, the avocado is not ripe yet and will not taste good. If there is a little give, the avocado is ripe. If there is a lot of give, the avocado may be past ripe and not good. In this case, taste test first before using.

Perfect Guacamole Recipe
Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
1/2 red onion(small size), minced (about 1/2 cup)
1-2 finely chopped chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
1 tablespoon cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 ripe tomato, chopped into very small pieces

Method

1. Cut avocado in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avacado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl. (See How to Cut and Peel an Avocado.)
2. Using a fork or spoon, mash the avocado. Add the chopped onion, cilantro, lime or lemon, salt and pepper and mash some more. Chili peppers vary individually in their hotness. So, start with a half of one chili pepper and add to the guacamole to your desired degree of hotness. Keep the tomatoes separate until ready to serve.
3. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it. Refrigerate until ready. For best taste eat immediately.
4. Just before serving, add the chopped tomato to the guacamole and mix.

This Guacamole, you can eat with Tortilla chips as a dipping or with burritos.

Rava Pakodi

Rava/Sooji Pakodi Recipe


Ingredients

Sooji/Rava - 1 cup
Sour Yogurt - 1 cup
Sabudana(Saggubiyyam) - 1/4 th cup
Onion - 1 cut into long strips
chilly powder - as per requirement
Salt

How to make Rava/Sooji Pakodi

1. Soak Sabudana in just enough water for about 3 hrs. Drain excess water if any.
2. Cut onion into thin strips.
3. Mix soaked sabudana, sooji, onions, sour yogurt, salt and chilly powder.
4. Mix all the ingredients well. It should neither be too soggy nor too dry/hard.
5. Heat 1 cup oil. When it is hot enough for deep frying, simply just drop small lumps of the batter into hot oil & allow it to take its own shape,it makes the pakodis more crispy.
6. Deep fry until pakodis turn golden brown.
7. Pakodis are ready. Serve Hot with Ketchup or Coconut Chutney.