MODAK - BUT THIS TIME ITS FRIED

As I have already mentioned on my blog that Lord Ganesha is my favourite God and we do Puja on Sankashti Chaturthi every month and offer HIM piping hot Steamed Modak . For past few such chaturthi's my steamed modak were not turning the way it has to be , thanks to the store brought rice flour . Last Chaturthi I decided to prepare fried Modak. We thought even Bappa needs some change in taste. (Bappa or we ? Anyways) . So I logged on to my favorute marathi site Marathiworld.com to find a recipe. The site is in marathi. So those who can not read the same in marathi , following is the translation :-

Fried Modak:
INGREDIENTS :
Grated Coconut :- 2 cup
Jaggery :- 1 cup
Cardamom Powder :- 1 tsp
Maida :- 1 cup
Semolina ;- 1 cup
Pinch of salt
Hot Oil :- 2-3 tsp
Cashew Nuts :- Optional (Since I belong to konkan , i always have a good supply of cashews so i keep using the same in many of the recipes in which it will add flaour to it)
For Frying :-
Oil or Vanaspati or Ghee
Recipe:-

• Mix the jaggery , a bit if ghee (clarified butter) and scrapped coconut in thick bottomed pan till the mixture is uniform and has no lumps of jaggery.
• Mix Semolina , salt and Maida thouroughly and add 3 tspn very hot oil to it and mix well . Knead the flour , preferable in milk or water and cover and keep it aside for an hour.Knead the flour well and make small puris.
• Take the puris on your palm and put the filling on it and bring together the ends in form of plates and form a tip and seal the same. Repeat the procedure for rest of dough balls.(Cover all the modaks with wet cloth to avoid drying resulting in cracking)
• Fry all the Modaks in oil or ghee or Vanaspati till light golden.

Modaks were really good and tasted amazing. A must try for those who are not lucky enough with Steamed Modak.

YELLOW BUTTER CAKE

One such Sunday evening , wanted to prepare something for snacks and what is better than a coffee cake. I have already had Yellow butter cake in mind which I had seen on one of my favorite baking site "Joy of Baking" . This is kinda a easy fix cake . I skipped the chocolate frosting. Earlier I had prepared this cake with frosting and my husband was of opinion that cakes for snacks shall be without frosting so this time i had avoided the frosting. And to my utter surprise this cake was really a winner as Tea time cake. I took half of all the portions from initial recipe and prepared the cake in loaf tin . Both of us finished the cake in no time . Deifinitely need a try.

MASALE BHATH - A QUICK FIX & GREATER SATISFACTION..

Sometimes when i get bored of eating plain rice and daal. A quick fix pulav or masale bhat is on my list to do. This is not a authentic recipe for Masale bhat but as per my convenience and taste .

INGREDIENTS :

Ambe Mohar rice/ Basmati rice :- 1 cup

Tendli :- 10-12 (each cut into 4)

Brinjal :- 1 finely cut

Onion :- 3 big size (2 finely chopped and 1 finely cut)

Green Chillies :- 4-5 chopped

Goda Masala :- 2 tablespoon (I used Bedekar Goda Masala)

Salt :- As per taste

Cashews :- Optional

Black pepper :- 6-7

Cloves :- 4-5

Cinnamon :- 1 small stick

Bay leaf :- 1 2

RECIPE :-

• Wash and drain the rice and keep it aside for 1 hr.
• Chop the 2 onion and chillies finely.
• Heat the sufficient oil or ghee in thick bottomed pan. Add Black pepper, cloves , cinnamon stcik and bay leave. Then add onion and chilli and suate till the onion turned transluscent.
• Add Tendli, brinjal and cashwes and fry thourughly.
• Then add 3/4th Goda masala and stir fry again for 1 mins.
• Then add rice and mix it properly and add 2 cups water. Add salt as per taste and remaining goda masala .Somebody has mentioned to me that adding goda masala after adding water gives the aroma of Masala to rice. Keep it covered till done. Reduce the heat to simmer . Towards the end place it on a hot griddle till properly cooked.
• Fry the finely cut one onion on oil till golden brown and crisp. I prefer to serve the masale bhath with fried onion (Biryani style) and coriander leaves and scrapped coconut.

Hot masale bhath is ready to serve with some hot curry.

KANDA BHAJI - KHEKADA BHAJI - ITS RAINY SEASON

This year rain played a good hide and seek in Western Maharashtra. When it was raining cats and dogs in Malvan(Incidently my father happened to be in Malvan and had to cancel his plan to come to pune twice thanks to incessant rains ) , we were praying for good rain in Pune. Fortunately I stay in PCMC area where there was no water shortage but those who staying in pune suffered very badly beacuase of poor water supply. The vegetable rates just touched the sky. Amidst all these things finally rain god showed his mercy and it started raining. When its raining , for me better way to express my feelings of happiness is preparing something which will go with the mood. and what's better than garamagaram KANDA BHAJJI and hot piping CHAI. Sitting in the terrace and enjoying the rain. It's just heaven on earth. Watching the rain embracing earth with such passion. It's highly romantic. That's all rainy season is all about. Those who are from Pune can definitely understand and agree that the most romantic idea in rainy season to go to Sinhgad and have Kandabhajji. Its amazing and truly romantic!!!!! But whats life without little romance in it.
RECIPE:-
INGREDIENTS :-
Onions :- 2-3 (Can increased depeding upon the quantity required)
Green Chillies :- 2-3 finey chopped (If you want a spicy kick can increase 2 more)
Bengal Gram Flour:- As per required quanity
Ajwain :- 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander ;- a bunch
Turmeric Powder :- 1/2 teaspoon
Salt :- As per taste
Oil :- To fry and little for batter
RECIPE :-

• Chop the onion . Chop the green chillies finely and coriander. Add salt, turmeric powder and Ajwain to it. Let it stand for sometime.
• Due to addition of salt to onion , onion leaves enough water. To this only add bengal gram floor .Do not add extra water and 2 teaspoon hot oil. It gives a crunch. Some people prefer to add pinch of soda bi carb to it. But i avoid the same.
• Now heat the oil well and put the small dumplings of batter in oil and fry till golden brown and enough crunchy.
• Place on abosorbent paper to drain the excess oil. Serve hot with tomato sauce and piping hot tea.

Enjoy the monsoon with KANDA BHAJJI .......

TANDLACHE WADE - ACCOMPANIMENT TO SAGUTI (CHICKEN GRAVY)

"Chicken curry" and "Vade" is a special Malavani dish. Mostly "Vade" is a accompaniment for Chicken gravies . Every year on 7th June , if it is a day when we eat nonvegetarian food , the chicken gravies (Rassa and Sukka Chicken) are prepared to celebrate the "MIRAG". "MIRAG" is the starting of the Monsoon. It's a heaven on earth to eat the piping hot Chicken gravy and garamagaram TANDALACHE VADE. Simply mindblowing!!!!!
I ll post the Chicken Rassa recipe some other time. But here , is the recipe for Tandlache wade which is also called Kombdi Wade.
INSTRUCTIONs:-
Wash & soak the Ukada rice in water for 2-3 hrs. Then dry the rice in sun . Grind it.
RECIPE :-

• Mix the rice flour and wheat flour in 3:1 proportion.
• Add salt to eat as per taste.
• Knead it with sufficient water and oil and cover it with dampen cloth and leave it for 1 hr.
• Knead it again and divide the dough into equal sized balls.
• Apply little water to your palm and press the dough with ur right palm on the kitchen surface.
• Deep fry in hot oil.
• Garamagaram Vade are ready to savour with Chicken curry.

These Vades can also be used as accompaniment for "Kalya Watanyachi Usal"(Black Peas Curry)

Coffee Butter Cake - Sinful Indulgence in butter, Chocolate and Coffee

Since the time I have started baking , my husband is one helluva enthusiast to try different types of cake. According to him , by doing so , he is actually perfecting my skills at baking. Such a supportive husband !!! . But mostly he prefers cake without any kind of icing on them . Mostly I bake cake on Sunday evening for tea/coffee time. On sunday , i was wondering which cake to prepare. I browsed through most of the baking sites including my fvaourite , Joy of Baking , Passionate About Baking and Madhuram's Eggless Cooking . Since my MIL and BIL are vegetarian , there is a major task to strike a balance between veg and non-veg food. But after going through many recipes and inspecting the pantry for the ingredients I settled on Deeba's Coffee Butter Cake . I prepared the same in a loaf tin with half the ingredients in the main recipe by Deeba. It was just a perfect cake, perfectly baked, moist and tasty. I poured the left over chocolate ganache which was waiting to be used . This is actually a sinful indulgence only when it comes to amount of chocolate and butter in cake... But once in a while its okay. Just Chill and enjoy the cake.

AAMRAS - MANGO , MANGO & MANGOES.........

"Aamras & Puri " . Such a beautiful combination and a very quick sweet dish or dessert. I am a kinda person who enjoys eating mangoes with both the hands with mango squeez running along the hands. It has its own magical ,mysticals( whatever u call sort)taste. This can be attributed to my upbringing in Malvan , where as a kid we had all the liberty to pick the mangoes from the trees and eat it like that without even caring to wash it. Some may find it really awful but i have sincere suggestion for those to shed all the inhibitions of the sophisticated social world and live only one day out the reach of the fast city life . You ll enjoy and your souls will be refreshed. Thats the reason a summer holiday in Malvan is must for me & my husband just to refresh our senses.
This year the mango crop was not so good attributed to untimely rain.One can say it was a recession in Mango field also. But still we (my husband specifically)enjoyed the season thanks to my father. He made sure that we are no where affected by the recession in Mango field.
He is perfect at preparing the AAMRAS. The bowl full of Aamras which u are seeing in picture is prepared by him.He not only gets the mangoes for me and my brother but also takes a stock of them in every 1-2 days(.Since sometimes becuase of heat the mangoes get rotten inside the box .) That's major advantage for me staying nearer to my brother's place. Usually the AAMRAS is prepared by sqeezing the mangoes with hand and combing it with sugar as per your taste.But my father's recipe is as follows :
INGREDIENTS :
Mangoes :- 2-3 fully riped
Sugar :- As per taste
Milk :- 2 tablespoon
Cashews :- 3-4
Cardamom :- for flavour
RECIPE :

• Peel off the riped mangoes and squeez it in grinder.
• Add sugar, milk , cardamom powder and cashews.
• Grind it till smooth.
• Chill well .

Aamras is actually served with PURI'S in Maharashtra. But we prefer to have it as a dessert.

Full mango flavour is on.....