Mohanthal / Gram Flour Fudge

Mohanthal is a very popular Indian sweet which is a part and parcel of the festive season. This is a traditional Gujarati sweet with rich flavor and melt in mouth texture.

The ghee fried gram flour is later mixed with sugar syrup and served in desired shapes. A perfect sweet which will be liked by all and can be prepared for any occasion. It can be prepared within less time if the sugar syrup and the frying of gram flour are done at the same time. The addition of cardamom powder and saffron strands gives an enticing aroma.

I was planning to make this mohanthal from so long, but the usage of ghee and sugar made me back off. But as my kids were asking for some dessert I thought of making this by compromising sugar and ghee. By reducing the sugar and ghee this tasted awesome. Hope you will like this. Try this out and let me know.

Ingredients:

1. Chickpea Flour- 2 Cups
2. Milk- 2 tbsp
3. Sugar- 1/2 Cup
4. Water- 1/2 Cup
5. Saffron- a pinch
6. Clarified Butter/ Ghee- 1/4 Cup
7. Cardamom Powder- 1 Tsp
8. Mixed Nuts- 1/4 Cup

Method:

1. Grease a rectangular glass dish with oil.
2. Take the flour in a bowl and add the milk and 2 tbsps of ghee. Mix well-using hands, keep this aside for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, sieve and keep it aside.
3. Make sugar syrup by adding sugar, saffron strands, and water on a medium flame. Stir in between. The consistency should be of 2 thread. Switch off the flame.
4. Meanwhile, heat a pan and add the sieved chickpea flour, cardamom powder, and remaining ghee. Mix on low flame, till the raw smell disappears and nice aroma of the flour emanates.
5. Take off the roasted chickpea flour from the stove, add the sugar syrup into the ghee roasted flour. Mix well and pour this mixture into greased rectangular glass pan. Spread evenly and with the back of a spoon level. Sprinkle the nuts and press them on top and let it cool at room temperature.
6. Once when it cools down, cut into square pieces or desired shapes and enjoy.

Pani Puri with Homemade Puris

Pani Puri is one of my favorite chaats from childhood. Whenever we go out, we used to thoroughly enjoy the chaat from the roadside street vendors. In every nook and corner, you can see a pani puri stall. We used to have competition, as who will have more puris. Every Indian like pani puri to the core. It is said that this not only satisfies your taste buds but also keeps the kid in you alive.

Once during fasting time, in Bangalore, after breaking the fast I had 30- 35 pani puris without eating anything. I like to have them anytime of the day.

After coming to the US it has become very rare to find pani puri. We will get the pani puri kit in all the Indian stores. I started making it from scratch as we don’t find the puris most of the time in stores. My daughter loves it a lot. She won’t eat anything else if pani puri is there for snacks.

Pani puris have different names like the puchkas, gol gappas and so on. Pani means water and puri are the fried puffed dough balls.

Yesterday was my son’s 3rd birthday and so I called two of my friends and families for a small get together. The menu everything was well decided but got stuck with starters. Then the thought of pani puri came to me as everyone likes them and so I decided to serve pani puri as starters. I made everything ready and before the guests came, I filled the puris with the potato- garbanzo stuffing and kept it along with the mint- coriander water. When they came it was easy for them, just to dip the puris in the water and gulp it. I didn’t make the water spicy as the kids would find it difficult to have. I didn’t make the tamarind- dates chutney as this starter was planned at the last moment and so no time to buy dates. But without that chutney also this tasted perfect. Everyone enjoyed the starters well.

I didn't make the puris for the birthday, as its the last minute idea of making the starter. I got it from the store. I have posted the recipe of puris, which I made last time. Go, make it and eat it. You will feel much better….

Ingredients:

For Puris:

1. Semolina/ Sooji- 1 Cup
2. All Purpose Flour- 1 Tsp
3. Salt- as required
4. Baking Soda- ¼ tsp
5. Water- as required for kneading
6. Oil- 2 tbsp deep frying

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, take the semolina along with salt, all-purpose flour, 2 tbsp oil and mix well using fingers, so that everything gets incorporated well.
2. Add water little by little and begin to knead. Semolina absorbs water, add water accordingly and knead well.
3. The dough is not too hard or soft. The texture of the dough should be important. After kneading well the dough will form elastic. Gluten strands need to be formed.
4. Cover the dough with a moist cloth, let it rest for 30 minutes. Roll the dough on a clean countertop. Roll it very thin.
5. Cut into small rounds, using a small lid or a cutter. Keep this aside. Roll the remaining dough and repeat the same process till everything is finished.
6. Heat oil and deep fry the above made small round puris. The oil should hot then only the puris will puff. Once they puff up, cook over a medium flame until crisp.

Preparing for Pani Puri:

• Puris- 20- 30 nos
• Tamarind- dates Chutney- 1 small bowl (optional)

For the filling:

1. Potatoes- 3 big nos (boiled and peeled)
2. Garbanzo- 1 Cup (boiled)
3. Onions- 2 nos(Chopped)
4. Chaat Masala Powder- 1 tbsp
5. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
6. Amchur Powder- 1 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Red Chilli Powder- 1 tbsp
9. Coriander leaves- 2 tbsp (chopped finely)

Method:

• Mash the potatoes and garbanzo together. Take all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well and keep this aside.

For the Mint and Coriander Water/ Pani:

1. Coriander Leaves- 1 bunch
2. Mint Leaves- 1 Bunch
3. Ginger- 1 tbsp (grated)
4. Lemon Juice- 2 tbsp
5. Salt- as required
6. Green Chillies- 3 nos
7. Cumin Powder- 1 tbsp
8. Chaat Masala Powder- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Grind the coriander leaves, mint leaves along with green chilies, ginger and lemon juice by adding little water.
2. When they become paste, Pour this in a big bowl along with 3 Cups of water.
3. Mix along with cumin powder, salt, and chaat masala powder. Let this chill in the refrigerator for some time.

Assembling the pani puri:

1. Crack top of the above-made puris carefully with your thumb.

1. Add 1 tbsp of the potato- garbanzo filling in the puri. Drizzle a drop of tamarind-date chutney. (adding this chutney is optional. Without this chutney also the pani puri will taste amazing)

1. Stir the mint- coriander pani and pour a tbsp of the water in the puri and enjoy an amazing delicious chaat.

1. Repeat the above process with the remaining puris and serve immediately.

Hummus

A simple and delicious hummus can be made within minutes, by using soaked chickpeas, sesame seeds, garlic and olive oil. To prepare hummus, chickpeas is a must and so it should be soaked overnight. The best way is to buy canned garbanzo beans and anytime we can make this mouthwatering dip at home.

Hummus is a middle eastern dip, which is famous worldwide. I love my hummus along with roasted or grilled chicken, salads or simply like that. To make this hummus, tahini is an important ingredient. Tahini is nothing but sesame seed paste. As I didn’t have tahini at home, I added sesame seeds to the chickpeas in the food processor. If you don’t want to add tahini, just make the hummus with soaked chickpeas, it will be little liquidy. The taste won’t differ. It will be delicious.

It is said that chickpeas are the most popular legumes consumed in the world, because of lots of protein, zinc, and iron and which are very good replacements for meat.

This month for the MFB challenge, we have to choose any dish from the blog Shab’s Cuisine and so here I am with the simple and everyone’s favorite hummus. Shab’s Cuisine has many different varieties of dishes. The food pics are drool worthy. Hope you all like this and try it out.

One more thing, I have made this hummus for dinner and so I used my light box for the hummus pics.

Ingredients:

1. Chick Peas- 1 Cup
2. Garlic Cloves- 5- 6 nos
3. Sesame Seeds- 2 tbsp
4. Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
5. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
6. Water- 1- 2 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Smoked paprika Powder- 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash and soak the chickpeas overnight. Pressure cook the soaked chickpeas along with garlic cloves till they are cooked and soft.
2. When they are cooled, grind to a fine smooth paste along with salt and sesame seeds.
3. Transfer this to a serving bowl and add the lemon juice, olive oil, and mix. On top sprinkle the smoked paprika and enjoy with pita bread

An InLinkz Link-up

Falafel with Tahini sauce

While I am writing this post, my kiddo is all over me. He crawls here and there, takes out everything, making me busy behind him. Nowadays it take approximately 2- 3 days for me to write a blog post. So please excuse me for the delay.

From sooo long, I was thinking of making this falafel, but due to something or the other I couldn’t try this out. This Ramadan, for iftar snacks I finally got the opportunity to try this out and it tasted amazing.

Falafel is a deep fried middle eastern fried balls or patties. This is a wonderful and amazing evening snack which will be loved by all. These falafels are usually round fried balls but I made them as patties for my little one who loves cutlets a lot.

There are so many places where we get falafels in Bangalore, I tried one of these and loved it. Falafels when eaten along with tahini sauce will be mind blowing. Tahini sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 months in an airtight container.

Ingredients:

1. Chick peas- 250 gms
2. Onions- 2 nos
3. Green Chillies- 3 nos
4. Coriander leaves- 3- 4 tbsps
5. Garlic- 7-8 cloves
6. Red Chilli Powder- ½ tsp
7. Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
8. Salt- as required
9. Cumin Powder- ½ tsp
10. All Purpose Flour- 1 tbsp
11. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
12. Oil- for deep frying

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight and next day boil these till soft. When cooled, drain and keep this aside.
2. In a blend throw in the onions, green chillies, garlic cloves, coriander leaves, red chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt and the drained chickpeas. Blend well, till everything gets mixed.
3. Transfer this in a bowl and add the flour, lemon juice. Mix well with hand and make small balls or patties.
4. Heat oil for deep frying and drop these patties in this and fry till both the sides turn golden brown in colour. Drain on kitchen towel.
5. Serve falafel hot along with tahini sauce.

Tahini Sauce:

Ingredients:.

1. Sesame Seeds- 100 gms
2. Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
3. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Dry roast the sesame seeds till they splutter.
2. When it cools down grind this along with olive oil, and salt. Grind for 2 min. Check for consistency. this should be thick. Add more oil till it reaches the desired consistency and serve.

Easy Chick peas/ Chana / Kadala Curry without Coconut

Being the kind of lazy person I am, I really dont like spending time grating, roasting and grinding coconut and to add to that, my husband doesn’t like coconut in any currys. So always I will be looking for gravies which does not require coconut.

Once for breakfast, my friend made a chana curry without adding coconut. Usually Keralites like to make varutharacha kadala curry i.e chick peas using roasted coconut curry along with puttu. So when my dear friend made this easy kadala curry and also that it tasted exactly like the one which we make by adding coconut, I thought that this is my kind of dish and I noted down the ingredients and when I got a chance, I made this for breakfast along with puttu. This is not at all time consuming and can be made easily.

The flavours in this dish is really enhanced when the crushed garlic along with onions and tomatoes are roasted and added to the cooked chick peas. The thickness in the gravy is obtained by adding ground chick peas.

Just try this out and you will never forget the taste.

Ingredients:

1. Chana / Kadala- 1 Cup
2. Cinnamon- 1 small stick
3. Cloves- 3 nos
4. Cardamom- 3 nos
5. Onions( chopped)- 2 nos
6. Tomatoes (chopped)- 1 no
7. Garlic (crushed)- 2 tbsp
8. Curry Leaves- few
9. Oil- 2 tbsp
10. Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
11. Red Chilli Powder- 2 tbsp
12. Coriander Powder- 2 tbsp
13. Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp
14. Fenugreek powder- ½ tsp

Method:

1. Soak the chana overnight and pressure cook the next morning until it is done.
2. Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods and curry leaves. Stir well.
3. Add the chopped onions and crushed garlic, stir till it turns translucent.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and mix till it turns mushy.
5. Meanwhile from the cooked chickpeas take about a handful and grind coarsely. Keep this aside.
6. In the above onion, tomato mixture add the powders one after the other, mix well till the raw smell disappears.
7. Add the cooked chick peas along with water and the ground chick peas, mix well. Boil well and let it simmer. Serve along with hot with puttu.