Recipe Fundas!-Simple,Tasty, Healthy Vegetarian recipes for a Vibrant Living!

 I had tried Poli for a few times but got the best after listening to Ms. Revathi Shanmugam's video. I am capturing what I tried here in my online cookbook. Ingredients: 1. Channa dhal- 1 cup 2. Maida- 2 cups 3. Turmeric- a pinch 4.Jaggery- 1cup 5.Ground nut oil- around six spoonful 6. Ghee as needed 7. Salt- a small pinch 8. Coconut- 1/2 cup (optional). Adding coconut enhanced the taste and I liked it this way. Soak channa dhal in water for 4 hours and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. Cool and blend in mixie. Add jaggery to a wide bottomed pan and add 1/4 cup of water. When jaggery starts to boil, add channa dhal, grated coconut and a scoop of ghee. Keep stirring until it becomes thick. Keep the stove in medium flame. The stuffing (pooran) is ready. Take a wide bowl, add maida, salt, turmeric and oil. Mix well with your hands. Sprinkle little water and make a soft dough. Do not add any cooking soda. Do the maida mixture only at the time of making Poli. If you store maida batter in ...

Add about 2 cups of All purpose flour (Maida). Add a pinch of baking soda, 2 tbsp of yoghurt, 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of sugar. Mix well adding little water. It is best of you have hand held blender to whisk the batter well. This is key to ensure that the sweet does not crack when fried in oil. The dough should be like chapathi batter. Make small balls and leave aside for 5 mins. Then take the small balls and press with your palm and fry in oil. Dip in powdered sugar and serve. Preparation Time: 20 mins

This tasted like the apple crumble, we get in McDonalds,but in a very fine texture. I peeled one big apple and finely grinded the apple pieces in a blender. Then, in a sauce pan, I added this mixture and equal quantity of sugar and 3 tablespoons of clarified butter and kept stirring. I also added orange food color and a small pinch of cardamom, to get that Indian touch. This is really fast!!!

I remember my schooltime days, of Gokulashtami. We used to rush home from school, compete for putting krishna's footsteps with Riceflour and await the yummy yummy, seedai murukku etc amma and paati made for us. Every single festival of Hindu religion has some distinct food flavours to it. Kozhakattai for Ganesh Chaturdhi, Pori urundai for Karthigai etc and I think the reason was " Its easy for children to adapt to religious traditions when they get some yummy food as well". However, making vella cheedai was not an option for me with a 6- month old baby in hand. Hence I decided to give Krishna, a yummy sweet but a simple one. Here is how I did Srikandh. Thick Yoghurt- 2 cups Pista and Badam- sliced (3 tbsp) Cardamom- 1/2 tbsp Sugar- 1 cup I strained the yoghurt using a cotton (muslin) cloth and put it in the refrigerator for about 4 hours. It came to butter consistency after this. Then, I added sugar, cardamom and the nuts and mixed well. I am sure ...

Coconut Burfi is a common sweet in states like TamilNadu. Ingredients needed: 1.Grated coconut- 1 cup 2.Condensed milk- 1 cup 3.Elaichi or Cardamom powder-1 tbsp 4. Ghee- 4 tbsp Take a thick bottom container and add grated coconut and condensed milk and mix well. Add 4 tbsp of ghee and cook in slow flame and keep stirring constantly. Add the elaichi powder and let this mixture thicken and when its reaching the consistency of cake, transfer the contents to a plate (greased with ghee). Let it cool and cut into square pieces.

This is a very special sweet and can be prepared with less effort. Take 1 medium sized winter melon. Peel off the skin and the seed portions and grate it finely. Now,measure this grated winter melon and take equal quantity of milk and sugar. Take 1 pinch of food color; mix it with 3 tbsp of water and keep aside. Now, take a thick bottomed wok and add winter melon and milk and let wintermelon cook in milk in medium flame. Then add sugar and food color and mix well. Now add about 10 tbsp of ghee and keep mixing well. As you keep cooking, this mixture will turn to halwa consistency and the ghee will start separating. You can garnish with cashews and raisins and serve hot/cold. This halwa should be consumed within 1-2 days of preparation.

Disclaimer: I picked this from a TV show and yet to try. :)- Ingredients: 1. Cashew- 10 2. Badam- 10 3. Pista-10, Raisins-6 4. Dates- 5-8 5. Apple- 2 (cut into small pieces). 6. Banana-2(cut into small pieces). 7. Green grapes- 2 handful 8. Honey - 4 tbsp 9. Fresh cream- 1 cup. In a pan, heat 3 tbsp of butter. When the butter melts, add cashew, badam, pista and raisins and mix well. Add dates and mix again, then add all the fruits and toss again. Then, add 1 cup of fresh cream and mix well. Then, add honey and mix again. Cool this and serve as dessert.

Ingredients: 1. Ragi Flour- 1 cup 2. Sugar- 1.5 cup 3. Ghee- 1 cup Procedure: 1. Mix 1 cup of ragi flour with 1 cup of water and keep it in a thick bottom pan. 2. Add 1.5 cup of sugar and mix well. 3. Once the sugar dissolves, add ghee and keep stirring continuosly. 4. You can add the food color (aft.mixing with water) and this is optional. 5. Once the ghee starts to separate, the Ragi flour or Kezhviragu Halwa is ready. This will taste like Kaashi Halwa.

Many of us would not have noticed this popular snack, available in Indian backeries. It is cube shaped, and is neither too sweet/nor salty, but very crispy. I just looked for this and made for Diwali. All my Chinese friends, who dont like Indian sweets enjoyed this. How to make: I did not have the diamond shaped cutter. so i just made them as balls. Maida - 1 cup, Sugar- 1 tbsp; Butter- 1-2 tbsp. Mix Maida, sugar and butter and make a dough and make balls out of these. Deep fry in oil and store in airtight container

Though no one needs guidance on how to make gulab jamun, its in the interest of first timers, I am uploading this recipe. I bought MTR Gulab Jamun Mix. For 1 cup of the flour, use 2 cups of sugar. How to make Sugar Syrup: Add sugar and water in a pan in 1:1 proportion and heat it in medium flame. Once the sugar has dissolved fully, the sugar syrup will be ready. How to make gulab jamun: Add lil water to the flour and make a dough. Grease your hands in ghee and make balls. Leave aside for 10 mins. Deep fry the balls in oil and soak them in sugar syrup. Requires 10 hours of the balls in sugar syrup, before serving.

This is another easy sweet, I made for Diwali. 1.Just dry roast slightly 1 cup of pottukadalai 2. Grind this, sieve and measure. 3. Grind 1.5- 1.75 cups of sugar and powder the sugar and mix with the sieved pottukadalai powder 4. Now heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews and keep adding the ghee and make balls. The balls can be made only when the ghee is hot. So,I heated 2 tbsp of ghee at a time. This will last for about a week, if you store it airtight.

1.Roast 2 cups of sooiji in 1-tbsp of ghee for a minute. 2.Add 1 cup of sugar to this and grind this as finely as you can in the blender. 3.Heat Unsalted butter (4 tbsp) in a dry pan, slowly this will become ghee. 4.When the ghee is ready, add cashew nuts, raisins and add ghee to this sooji and sugar mixture little by little and try to make balls. Note: Balls can be easily made only when the ghee is hot.

1.Roast 2 cups of moong dhal in a dry pan until it turns red and let this cool. 2.Add 1 cup of sugar to this moong dhal and grind this as finely as you can in the blender. 3. Heat butter in a dry pan, slowly this will become ghee. When the ghee is ready, add cashew nuts, raisins and add ghee to this moong dhal and sugar mixture little by little and try to make balls. Note: Balls can be easily made only when the ghee is hot. This is a healthy evening snack.

Simple Recipe with Milk, Sugar and Saffron. 1.Take a thick base stainless container and start heating full cream milk (Amul). 2. Add measure of sugar (1:1 = Milk: Sugar). This recipe usually takes a longer time to complete. 3.Sim the milk and at one stage, milk will start reducing and will turn yellowish. 4.Take a spoon and keep moving the layer on top to the side. Once it reaches the consistency of how its served in the hotel, switch off, add saffron and serve chill Tip: Pls.keep stirring the milk and dont leave it unattended in the stove.