2015 Special|Kashi Halwa|Ash Gourd Halwa

    A sweet end to the year 2014 that started with karupatti paniyaram.A sweet start to the year 2015 with this kashi halwa ...I am sure this coming year will bring all the joy and all the goodness you want.I will post recipes with very good pictures,my new year resolution.What is your resolution for the new year?
      Lets get started with Kashi halwa Its a very popular dessert served in udupi-konkani marriages,recently i saw this recipe in samayal samayal when chef venkatesh bhat told he learned the recipe from chettinad palace.

Different names of ash gourd:
      Ash gourd is called by so many different names, for those who browse by the names "vellai poosani" in Tamil,"elavan or kumbalanga in Malayalam" ,"kumbalakkai" in kannada,"boodha gummidikkai" in Telugu.Don't guess this halwa is made only in kashi a city in benaras. kashi phal -in Hindi means ash gourd so this halwa is called kashi halwa.

Medicinal Benefits of ash gourd:
       Kashi phal has got 95 percent water content and high calcium content .Ash gourd is good for weight loss and it helps to maintain blood pressure as well.
What all  you can make with kashi phal:
         You can make arachuvitta sambhar, regular sambhar,moru curry or kootu with kashi phal..apart
from making this wonderful kashi halwa.
How to choose Pumpkin for kashi halwa:
             Ash gourd has to be heavy and also it should not be soft .that means its mature and its good for making halwa.If its soft there is a chance that you get very less ash gourd after filtering the water or it may get mushy while cooking.Texture of the halwa is very important..

Masala Dosa|Dosa Recipe

    Masala Dosa-A very famous dosa among Indians and in places where Indians live.Masala dosa is a south Indian speciality.Its a dosa with crispy outer layer and soft sweet and spicy potato filling inside..It is really easy to make masala dosa at home if you have idly-dosa batter.Dosa batter is readily available at Indian stores .If you can't make it at home, get some before you start making this dosa.Make potato masala, stuff them inside dosa  and enjoy.
    Key thing to note here is masala has to be little sweet compared to poori bhaji,so be careful not to add too much spice.I added carrot and red onion to make it sweet ,if you are short of carrots you can ad fresh or frozen peas to make the masala.Otherwise add some sugar to make the masala sweet .Dosa layer has to be crisp,to do so leave it tava/pan for some more time after the dosa is done.If its too much crisp it will spoil the masala dosa texture.Here is how to make masala dosa ?

Gujarati Kadhi|Side Dish For Roti

       Gujarati kadhi-is a yogurt based sweet and spicy curry with chickpea flour along with spices and tempered with ghee.Its an authentic Gujarati preparation served along with phulkhas,roti,kichdi etc.Even though there are varieties of kadhi's like Punjabi kadhi,rajathani kadhi.This Gujarati kadhi has it unique flavours and taste.If you have some leftover curd or at times when there is no vegetable available this Gujarati kadhi comes to rescue..
     My landlord is Gujarati and she makes many yummy Gujarati dishes, i never tried to make any of them..few days back when i wanted to make something with homemade curd which got little curdled not smooth, i thought about making this kadhi.This recipe is adapted from tarladalal but altered to our taste buds..
    This Gujarati kadhi is the base of any other kadhi recipe like kadhi pakora,kadhi bhindi,methi kadhi etc.This kadhi resembles few of the south Indian dishes like Moru curry a yogurt based curry
 with ground coconut and spices and a andhra yogurt curry menthi majjiga which is a tempered yogurt gravy.I love both these south Indian curries alike when it comes to rice. This Gujarati kadhi we had with methi thepla, its the best combo ever..If you want to have it for rice add more green chilies and avoid adding sugar to it.You should think of adding red chilies too while tempering.
   
Believe me its so tasty and will be ready in just 15-20 minutes.
 

How To Make Chocolate From Scratch|Homemade Milk Chocolate

What type of chocolate is this?  
     In this post I describe how to make milk chocolate using regular butter and cocoa powder.I used milk powder too to make it a milk chocolate. I used brown sugar so the chocolate tasted and looked like caramel. You can use regular sugar instead. Mine set after two days just when I thought I failed in my attempt to prepare chocolate. I made chocolate tofu pie using the chocolate. Reduce the water that goes in here to make it set early.You can also try grinding the dry milk to fine powder and follow this same procedure. I used carnation non-fat dairy milk powder.
 How to be careful, if it fails how to fix?
  Getting the single thread consistency of the sugar syrup is very important. Make sure you grease the plate for molding completely before adding the chocolate mixture. If you get runny chocolate don't panic make it set in refrigerator for few more hours or days.

Other methods of making chocolates :

     Some people use cocoa butter instead of regular butter for preparing chocolate(Cocoa butter is a butter made with cocoa beans). Chocolate can be prepared by grinding the cocoa beans too. But this seems to be bit long and complicated process.You can use cocoa powder only to prepare regular chocolate.You can also use milkmaid but the chocolate won't hold its shape(just roll them and dip in nuts and set in refrigerator).So my preference is this simple milk chocolate recipe.

How to do variation in this milk chocolate recipe?

• Add chopped nuts like cashews, badam/almonds
• Add cardamom powder.
• Add cinnamon powder.
• Add nutmeg powder.

HomeMade Dinner Rolls|Pav Recipe

 Homemade dinner rolls or pavs -is a bread used to make Indian street food vada pav.
         Lately, I am into baking bread ..My long time dream..I failed many attempts of wholewheat bread baking.But succeeded somehow my oven makes me think twice before I start the bread preparation.
     My little one was asking me for burgers, so I am determined to do it. I tried whole wheat burger buns, but not satisfied with the texture of it.This time, I thought I would do half by half ( half whole wheat and half all purpose).
      Pavs turned out to super soft and delicious without eggs and with 50 % goodness of wholewheat..I baked the buns in a circular plate that's why they are circular.If you use rectangle or square plate for baking, pav buns will be rectangle.
     The secret of making the soft and perfect bun is Knead until elastic, make them rest and rise.Bake them until brown ..Inspired from Vegrecipes.