Gulgula

Gulgulas are like lightly sweetened mini donuts. In India these are made for special occasions. This is a quick and easy  recipe to make when you are craving for something sweet. It's the first time i made gulgulas for diwali and they turned out very well. Thanks to my mom for this wonderful and yummy recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1 tsp oil
1/2 cup lukewarm water (use as needed)
pinch of baking soda
oil to fry

Method:

1: Mix wheat flour, sugar, fennel seeds, oil and baking soda, add water slowly as needed to make the thick consistency batter. Leave the batter aside for half an hour.

2:  Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat.

3: The frying pan should have about 1inch of oil. (To check if the oil is ready, put one drop of batter in oil. The batter should come up but not change color right away).

4: Slowly drop 1 teaspoon of batter at a time in to the oil. Don’t over crowd the frying pan as the gulgulas expand double in volume.

5: Fry the Gulgulas golden brown all sides, turning them occasionally. It will take 2 to 3 minutes.

6: Remove the gulgulas and place over a paper towel so the excess oil is absorbed.

Note:

1: If oil is not hot enough gulgulas will stick to the bottom of the frying pan.


Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.

Diwali Recipes- Diwali Snacks Recipes -Diwali Sweets Recipes

This year (2011) Diwali/Deepavali falls on October 26th. Food serves an important part in the Diwali celebration. Sweet Dishes are the most popular dishes of diwali. The ladies distribute special Diwali sweets made by them on this occasion to their friends and neighbours. Although these days people mostly buy them from shops instead of preparing them in home. Here you will find a few  Diwali recepies  both snacks and sweets. These mouth-watering preparations are easy to cook and all are tried and tested recipes by Archana.

Diwali Snacks:

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Mathri - Salted Crackers

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Nan Khatai

Diwali Sweets:

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Shakkar Para

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Gulab Jamun

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Rasgulla

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Ras Malai

Archana's Kitchen- Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Chum Chum


More recipes will be added as when it is posted. Stay tuned.Thank you for visiting Archana's Kitchen.

Puri

Puri is a fried and puffed flat bread, served with a variety of side dishes. Made on special occasions and it is very popular in India. Its mouth-watering!

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup water (lukewarm)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oil
oil for deep frying

Method:

1: Mix whole-wheat flour and salt . Add water as needed to make firm dough.

2: Oil your palm and knead the dough until it is pliable. Dough for puri should be firm but smooth.
3: Set the dough aside and cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes or longer.

4: Divide the dough in 10 equal parts. Take couple of drops of oil on your palm and roll the dough in balls and press it between your palms.


5: Roll the dough into about 7-inch circle. If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin or rolling surface, put couple of drops of oil on the rolling pin and a couple of drops of oil on the surface.

 6: Heat the oil in a frying pan on high heat; frying pan should have atleast 1 1/2 inch of oil.

7: Place the puri in the frying pan and press it with a skimmer, puri should puff right away. Turn puri over. Puri should be light creamy brown from both sides.

8: Take the puri out and place it on paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

9: Serve puri hot or store in covered container after they cool to room temperature.

Note:
You can roll 4 to 5 purees before you start frying, but do not roll all the purees at once as they begin to dry and not puff.

Since my hubby likes crispy puri, i fried it golden brown in color.

 

Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.

Cabbage Chutney / Cabbage Pachadi

Cabbage is rich in vitamin k.Most of the people hate cabbage for its odour.When cabbage chutney is prepared,the dish is really out of its odur but still remains healthy. Some kids they dont like cabbage, so you can prepare chutney for them. This is an Andhra Style of cabbage chutney which tastes good with rice, roti, chapati etc....

Ingredients:

250 gms cabbage, finely chopped
3 tbsps oil
4-5 green chillies
3 red chillies
2 tbsps chana dal
2 tsps urad dal
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp whole dhaniya
tamarind (lemon size)
salt to taste
5-6 garlic pods
few curry leaves

Method:

1: Heat 1 tbsp oil, fry chana dal, urad dal, dhaniya, cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds until they turn to golden colour. Add green chillies and 2 red chillies and fry for few seconds and remove all the ingredients in to a bowl and let it cool.


2: Now in the same pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil, add cabbage, salt, tamarind, close the lid and cook in a low flame until the cabbage is done. Remove it into a bowl and let it cool.

3: Grind all the ingredients coarsely in a mixer adding garlic pods and little water. Remove  chutney in a bowl.


4:  Heat 1 tbsp oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chillies. When mustard seeds starts spluttering switch off the flame and add the thadka to the chutney and mix well.

5: Cabbage chutney is ready..........

Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.

Dear friends,

If you love reading my recipes or my recipes helping you in any way, then become the member of my blog or leave your comments and yummy likes. This helps me to know what you all like. This also helps me to plan future posts.

Thank you for your time.Have a good day!

Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.

Sabudana Khichdi

Sabudana also known as Tapioca makes a traditional Indian khichdi, famous with Gujaratis and Maharashtrians and is mostly used during fasting. Sabudana khichdi is low fat, healthy, great for breakfast and also a snack and it tastes delicious.

Sabudana / Tapioca

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup sabudana
1/2 cup peanuts, roast, peel and ground into coarse powder
2-3 green chillies, slit lenghtwise
1 whole red chilli, break into pieces
1 tsp cumin seeds
few curry leaves
3 tbsps oil
salt to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
coriander leaves, for garnishing

Method:

1: Gently wash then soak sabudana in about 1/2 cup of water for 6 to 8 hours. keep mixing it from time to time and sprinkle some water so sabudana is not completely dry.

2: Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, green chillies, red chillies, curry leaves and stir for few seconds.

3: Add the soaked sabudana and stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes.

4: Add salt and stir fry on medium heat continuously until sabudana becomes translucence, looks like pearls. Stir gently and making sure sabudana doesn’t get sticky and stuck to each other. This should take about 6 to 7 minutes.

5: Add peanut powder, lemon juice and stir gently.

6: Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve hot!!!!!

Note:

1: While making khichdi, do not cover the pan, else it will turn into an elastic ball. Khichdi tastes excellent if tossed continuously while cooking.

2: To save time soak the sabudana in warm water for about 2 to 3 hours.

3: In last pic, instead of green chillies, i used red chilli powder.


Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.

Spicy Puffed Rice / Vagrani / Susheela

"Spicy Puffed Rice / Vagrani / Susheela" is a quick breakfast /snacks dish - a Maharashtrian recipie which is quite uncommon on the internet !  It can be served as breakfast or as afternoon snacks with tea.

Ingredients:

4 cups puffed rice / murmura
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tbsps oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves
pinch of hing
2-3 green chillies, slit lenghtwise
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
2 tsps dalia powder
coriander leaves, for garnishing

Method:

1: Take the puffed rice in a large bowl and add water to it. Leave it for about 2-3 minutes, then squeeze the water out of it and keep aside.

2: Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, hing, turmeric powder, onions and saute for few minutes.

3: Now add tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes.

4: Then add soaked puffed rice, salt, red chilli powder, lemon juice, dalia powder and mix thoroughly. Cook it on a medium flame for about 2 minutes.

5: Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Puffed rice....

Note:

1: You can use vegetables like green peas, grated carrot or finely chopped potato also......

2: Sprinkle aloo bhujia or any sev on it and serve, it tastes good.

Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.

Mathri - Salted Crackers

Mathri is a common Rajasthani snack served with tea/coffee and even tastes better with spicy pickles. This popular 'any time' snack can be stored for several days. Rajasthanis are fond of storing large jars of mathris which they can munch at any time of the day. The fun part is that you can make this in any shapes you like. In india my mom use to make this specially on diwali with other goodies also.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
1/2 cup sooji
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ajwain
4 tbsps oil
3/4 cup lukewarm water  (use as needed)
oil for deep frying

Method:

1: Mix all the ingredients except the water.

2: Add the water little at a time, kneading into a firm dough.

3: Cover the dough and set aside for 15 minutes or more.

4: Divide the dough into about 40 equal parts.

5: Take each part of the dough and make a flat ball shape. Roll them into 2 inch circles.

6: Prick each mathri with a fork in 5 to 6 places on both sides, so the mathris do not puff when frying.

7: Heat oil in a pan on medium heat and deep fry mathris till it is crisp and light golden brown.

8: To make the above shape, make a big ball out of the dough and roll it in a big circle. Now take a knife and cut it vertically first into a thin strips and then horizantally.

8: Drain it on paper towel and let it cool down. Store it in an air tight container.


Meet you all again with another interesting recipe, till then it is bye from Archana.