The Right Write Taste

Sharing about food, apart from its recipe's and its image's here is exciting me. Like most girls, i started reading cookbooks right from age 12. I mostly read Mallika Badrinath's Book's. Apart from her book's, my grandmom's and her mom's recipe book was very interesting for me to read. I would really admire their handwriting skills and writing the recipe in a clear cut form with exact measurements.

I can approximately estimate, that my grandmom's mom's recipe collection should have been written in early 1970's. Those days were the days, there were no Televisions and no magazines sharing recipes. But my grandmom's have collected various recipes across the states. Rava Upma, was one such, they managed to get the MTR instant Upma Mix alike recipe.I still wonder how they managed to do that. My Grandmom's were living in villiage and thereby no access to xerox machines nearby. sure they should have spend more time on copying others recipe collection wih just Candle Light. Not even they wrote, they have also tried most recipes from their recipe collection. I remember my Grandmom's mom trying variety of pickles.
If you ask me to write down the recipes from my blog to a Notebook, iam sure i cant.

other than this, i really love to read the restaurant food review and watch shows relating to that.
In Tamil, There is a writer called la.sa.ra. His books normally have food combos, which makes us drool, on just reading his recipe told in a different fashion.

One such food combo that i tried from his book was Vendhiya Kuzhambu, Urulai Kizhangu podimaas. the combo was excellent. pairing such combos is one i should note down and try from now on.

These are all the food writings i enjoyed and read. Now iam sending this to Sra'a The Write Taste. Thank You Sra, Now at the end of this post, iam really happy, that i wrote this post. This is one post, that is going to be close to my heart from this blog.

Cashew Roll / Kaju Roll - Easy Diwali Sweet

Thank You all for appreciating my Kaju Katli. It is really worth trying it out so do try for this diwali. Kid's liked my Kaju katli's a lot. Now coming to the colourfull cashew roll, i made this on the same day i made kaju katli's. its just the roll shape of kaju katli's. since i didn't want to overpower you all with many variety on the same day, i thought of dividing the post seperately for Kaju Roll.

Three Different variety of kaju sweets, with the same basic preparation.


check the video i made on makiing cashew roll to help you

How to Preapare Kaju Roll / Cashew Roll

First Prepare Kaju Katli Dough. then you can shape the dough into rolls or any desired shape.

Ingredients:


1. Cashews -  1 cup (8 oz)
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Water - just to the level of sugar immerses ( 4tbsp)
4. Ghee - to Grease your Palms.
5. Milk - 2 tsp's
My Cashews were Big in size, when i powdered them i got about 1 cup.

- Wash and dry your mixer, without any wet.
- Grind the Cashew to the powder form.The Ratio between Cashew Powder and Sugar is 2 : 1

How to Make Sugar Syrup for Kaju Katli?

Take half cup sugar(3 oz.) in a thick bottomed pan, and pour water till it get immersed (say 4 tbsp of water).

Keep checking every half minute..

1. Soon after the sugar water starts to boil, have a little in a spoon and touch it with your fingers. it will be very sticky to your fingers.( pisukku patham)

2. Second stage is, just drop a drop of sugar syrup on a plate, and tilt the plate, sugar syrup will start flowing.

3. Third and required stage for Kaju Katli is

Drop a drop of sugar syrup, on a plate, it should get set and not move, when the plate is tilted. 



When the syrup attains the third stage, put the cashew powder to the syrup and keep stirring it to avoid lumps. even break the lumps if any formed.

Keep the flame Low and keep stirring for at least 3-4 minutes.

When you see bubbles coming and blowing off from the cashew burfi and when you take it with a slotted spoon ( Jalli Karandi ), and tilt the spoon, The cashew burfi should start sliding vertically like paper and flat. switch off the flame and remove from the stove. (just takes 3 - 4 minutes in slow flame, dont exceed this time, if you are a beginner)

Let it cool for about 10 to 15 minutes in tha kadaai / Pan itself. Let it Cool till your palms could bear the heat for kneading.



Grease some ghee on your palms and knead the cashew burfi dough for about a minute or 2, till they all come out to a big ball shape. (Kaju Dough is ready). 

Add 1 or 2 tsp's of milk while kneading, so that the kaju dough gets its elasticity, which we need while making rolls.

Grease your palms and fingers with ghee/butter/oil (for vegan's). Divide the Kaju katli dough into two parts.

Add Kesari Colour / apple green colour / Red Colour to one portion of the kaju katli dough.

Knead the dough well, to make sure the colour spreads evenly.

Grease your palms again.

Now take a small ball of the plain dough and roll it with your rolling pin or flat it with your palms.

Take a small ball of the colored ball and roll it with your both palms to get a cylindrical shape.

Place the Cylindrical shaped colour dough onto the start of the rolled plain dough.

Gently fold and cover the coloured dough completely.

Tap the Roll with your finger on either side of the roll, to make the roll into a shape.

Roll it gently to make them into a proper roll shape.

Trim the edges of the roll, so that the stuffed colour dough is visible.

Yummy Colourfull Kaju Roll is Ready.

Are you wondering How i got the line of colour on cashew roll, i just didn't fold the roll completely, thereby i got my favourite beautifull orange colour lines on the roll.

Different Ideas to Try:

The dough is so flexible, and we can try many variety in it.

Try 3 layered roll.
Stuff the roll with nuts.
If you know carving, try to make like an apple.
Prepare Kaju Pista Roll in the same way, with kaju dough and pista dough.

If you prepare once, you will get so many ideas.

It just took me two hours, including running behind my son and feeding him. if you have an helping hand and ideas, you can blast them with all colours.

Have a Colourfull Fun Filled Sweet Filled Diwali!!

Kaju Katli / Cashew Burfi For Diwali

Diwali is just a week away. i want to try many sweets. Today i tried kaju katli and it turned out excellent. since i have watched my grand mom making kaju katli and badam halwa, i rightly got the trick on sugar syrup consistency. Those tricks helped me today and the burfi turned out pretty perfect.

The String Consistency for Sugar syrup is very important in making these Kaju Katli. The other important fact is, when to switch off the flame. if you overcook, then you will end up in hard katli's. so these two facts are to be learned and followed exactly.

check how i made kaju katli in this video

Kaju Katli

Prep Time: 05 mins 

Cooking Time: 15 mins  
Serves: 12
Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Recipe Type: Sweets

Ingredients:


1. Cashews - 30 / 1 cup (125 gms)
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Water - just to the level of sugar immerses ( 4tbsp)
4. Ghee - to Grease your Palms

The Ratio between Cashew Powder and Sugar is  2 : 1. if you know this ratio, you can prepare kaju katli in huge quantity! I just used some 30 cashews. They were Big in size, when i powdered them i got about 1 cup / 6 oz.

- Wash and dry your mixer, without wetness.
- Grind the Cashew to the powder form.

How to Make Sugar Syrup for Kaju Katli?

Take half cup sugar(3 oz.) in a thick bottomed pan, and pour water till it get immersed (say 4 tbsp of water).

Keep checking every half minute..

1. Soon after the sugar water starts to boil, have a little in a spoon and touch it with your fingers. it will be very sticky to your fingers.( pisukku patham)

2. Second stage is, just drop a drop of sugar syrup on a plate, and tilt the plate, sugar syrup will start flowing.

3. Third and required stage for Kaju Katli is Single String Consistency. Drop a drop of sugar syrup in a bowl of water, it should get set on bottom of the bowl. when touched, it should not dissolve in water.

When the syrup attains the third stage, put the cashew powder to the syrup and keep stirring it to avoid lumps. even break the lumps if any formed.

Keep the flame Low and keep stirring for at least 3-4 minutes.

When you see bubbles coming and blowing off from the cashew burfi and when you take it with a slotted spoon ( Jalli Karandi ), and tilt the spoon, The cashew burfi should start sliding vertically like paper and flat. switch off the flame and remove from the stove. (just takes 3 - 4 minutes in slow flame, dont exceed this time, if you are a beginner)

Let it cool for about 10 to 15 minutes in tha kadaai / Pan itself. Let it Cool till your palms could bear the heat for kneading.

Grease some ghee(1/4 tsp) on your palms and knead the cashew burfi dough for about a minute or 2, till they all come out to a big ball shape. (Kaju Dough is ready) - Refer here to make Kaju Roll.

Roll them evenly of thickness 1/4' inch. or just pat them with your fingers like we do for Poli.

Cut them into squares or diamonds and store them in air tight container.

Notes:

If the dough is too hard to knead or it gets cracked on rolling, add 1 or 2 tsp of warm milk to the dough and knead well.

Do not grind the cashews for long time, keep checking in short intervals, whether they are powdered fine or not. if over powdered they may form lumps and it makes lump formation, when added to sugar syrup.

It was just like the ones that we get from Sri Krishna sweets. My hubby dear believed that i got from Krishna sweets. Now this is big success for me!

Try this and fall in Love. Its very easy to try. so do try this for Diwali. I also tried cashew rolls with the same cashew katli dough, will post making of Cashew Roll's in 2 days. Keep Waiting.

Cinnamon Cookies - My First Cookies

I baked Cookies for first time, and it came out okay. it got crispier texture out and little crumble texture in. But we all liked it a lot. I was not so dare enough to try chocolate cookies or choco-chip cookies, as this is the first time, fearing that it would not turn good. Using Cinnamon was also easier, the flavour and taste was really good. so any first time bakers reading this, Just go ahead with Cinnamon cookies, if you are baking cookies for the first time.
I referred lots of website's and took bits and pieces from each recipe. and now presenting what i did.

Ingredients: (10 -14 cookies)

1. All Purpose Flour /Maida - 1 1/4 cup (10 oz)
2. Sugar - 1/3 cup
3. Butter - 100gms
4. Cinnamon - 1' stick
5. Egg - 1
6. Vanilla Essence - 2 tsp's
7. Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
9. Salt - a pinch

Method:

1. Bring the Butter to Room Temperature.

2. Grind the Sugar and Cinnamon to fine powder.

3. Beat the Egg with Vanilla Essence and keep aside. (Give a pulse in your mixer)

4. Mix salt, baking soda and baking powder to the flour and sift the flour twice.

5. Beat the Butter and Sugar. I use hand mixer and beated it for about 2 minute's.

6. After Beating Butter and Sugar, add Egg-vanilla mix and mix well with a wooden spoon.

7. Add Flour and mix with the wooden spoon very slowly.

8. The cookie dough will be very soft now, so cover the dough and refrigerate it for 1 hour.

9. After 1 hr refrigeration, cookie dough gets firm and now its ready to get baked.

10. Line Baking Plate with Baking sheet. apply pinch butter on four cornours of baking plate, before lining with baking sheet, this keeps the sheet unmovable. I would recommend double lining, if you want your cookies little browned at the bottom.

11. Pre-Heat the oven to 350F / 180C.

12. Rub your hand with some flour and take a small ball of cookie dough and flatten in on baking sheet. likewise place cookie dough balls with enough space for it to expand on the baking sheet.
with fork make some designs if you wish.
i gave very little space and ended with many shapeless cookies.

13. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes and see, if the edges got browned, if not, bake it for another 2 or 3 minutes.

14. Cool them completely for about 15 minutes and then shift to air tight container.

Melt some chocolate and drizzle over the cookies and cool it for a while.

It was so perfect for Tea. My first cookie impressed us a lot.

These Cinnamon Cookies are leaving for Monthly Mingle - High Tea Treats hosted by Aparna.
Glad on joining them on tea party with my first time cookies.

Friends Please Help me on how to get crispier texture on cookie, and any suggestions on how can i improve? Love to hear from you all.

Broken wheat upma / Godhumai rava upma

It was another long weekend for us in India. Preparing Breakfast for the weekend will be a big challenge for me, as i wake up (very) late. i need to prepare breakfast other than easy kanji/porridge, cornflakes. Many times, it used to idli-corriander chutney. my puttu maker got a worst shape after its bad time with my son, bcoz of which i could not prepare our favourite puttu, which we normally used to have on week-ends.

This Cracked Wheat Khichdi is one we both love, also i find it easy to prepare. it also tastes different from upma. and a healthy break-fast.

Ingredients:

1. Cracked Wheat / Godhumai Ravai - 2 cup
2. Oil - 2 tbsp's + 1 tsp
3. Cardamon stick - 1' inch
4. Cloves - 2
5. Red Onion - 2
6. Chopped Vegetables - 1 cup (Carrot, Green Peas)
7. Water - 3 cup's
8. Green Chilli's - 2 (slitted vertically)

Method:

Heat a Pan, add a tsp of oil and heat it. Roast the Cracked Wheat for about 3-4 minutes / or when you could see a slight colour change in the rava. let it cool.

Boil the 3 cup's of water along with chopped vegetables.

Heat 2 tbsp's of oil in a pan, add cardamon, cloves and fry them for half a minute.
- add the chopped onion's and fry them till they turn half-translucent.
- add slitted green chilli's and saute it along with onions.
- add salt to taste.
- add the roasted cracked wheat and mix with the onion and chilli.

Lower the flame.

Add carefully the Boiling water with vegetables to the cracked wheat on the pan.
- stir well.
- add a tsp of oil and mix well.
- let the khichdi get thick.
- close the pan with a lid and rest the khichdi in low flame for about 3 minutes.
- add chopped corriander leaves as garnish and switch off the flame.
- close the pan and do not disturb it for another 3 minute's.

Serve it with chutney powder / idly milagaai podi or with sugar or with coconut chutney.

My choice is with chutney powder.