Foodies den

Christmas delights

Spirit of Christmas!!! – Tabita Fernandes

What can I say about “Christmas time” which hasn’t been said before… It’s the best time of the year.

Peaceful family time and this year it has been quieter than ever….

However the all-time favourite Christmas cakes continues to bring an added sweetness to our celebrations.

The preparations begin mid November though. The fruits, raisins, cherries etc. are chopped neatly and soaked in a secret concoction so that it is all prepped in time to bake for Christmas. These fruits have to get into the spirit of the celebrations to give us the best results. The aroma of these fruits give you the feel of Christmas well ahead of time. These cakes turn out the best in taste because of all the prepping and hard work, but the secret ingredient is the “excitement that we carry in our hearts” when baking them.

Wishes for a wonderful and safe Christmas and on this note lets bid 2020 a farewell and welcome happiness and prosperity in 2021.

Diwali delicacies

Chefs delights – recipes shared by Parimal Sawant

Shankarpali

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup Ghee or butter
  • 1/4 cup Sugar
  • 1/4 milk
  • 1 1/2 cup All purpose flour
  • Oil for frying
  • pinch of Salt
  • 1 tsp Sooji

Method 

  • Heat milk and ghee together till warm for 1 minute then add sugar to the above mixture and stir well
  • After this mixture cools down start adding all purpose flour, sooji and start kneading the dough to make very soft but little bit stiff dough
  • Now cover and keep the dough for 30 minutes
  • Make small balls from the dough and roll like thick paratha
  • Reomve the edges by using knife or pizza cutter
  • Now cut in to desired shape and deep fry till it gets light brown color

Store in air tight container or zip lock bag once it cools down

Karanji

Ingredients

For Dough

  • 1 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida
  • 1/4 cup Sooji / Rawa
  • 2 tsp Oil
  • 1/2 cup warm Milk
  • pinch of Salt

For Filling

  • 1 tsp Poppy Seeds / KhasKhas
  • 1 tsp Sooji / Rawa
  • 1 cup Dry Grated Coconut
  • 1 cup Powdered Sugar
  • 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
  • Assorted Nuts

Extra

  • 2 tsp Rice Flour
  • 2 tsp Ghee
  • Oil for frying

Method

For Cover / Coating

  •  Heat up 2 tsp oil. Mix all purpose flour, sooji, salt in to a bowl and pour hot oil over it. Mix well till the time mixture becomes crumbly
  • Pour warm milk slowly to make medium consistency dough, not too hard and too soft
  • Cover and keep the dough for 30 mts

For Filling / Stuffing

  • Dry roast sooji and poppy seeds separately till the time they get light brown color
  • Add coconut to dry roasted sooji and poppy seeds, add sugar, cardamom powder, dry fruits and mix well

To make Karanji

  •  Take the dough and again knead to make it smooth. Divide dough in to 3 equal parts. Roll them in to three thin roti
  • Mix rice flour and ghee to make it smooth and creamy
  • Now take one thin roti, spread rice flour mixture evenly on it, place another roti on the top of it, again spread rice flour mixture
  • Now place third roti, roll it evenly from all the sides to make it little thin. Again spread some rice flour mixture
  • Now start to roll these three rotis together like Swiss Roll
  • Stretch it out little bit, now divide it in to equal parts
  • Take ball and roll like poori, add stuffing, apply milk around its edges and seal the karanji well
  • Use fork and make some design around karanji
  • Now deep fry till the time it gets nice golden color

Chakli

Ingredients

  • 4 cups Chakali bhajani
  • 1 3/4 cup water
  • Red chilli powder
  • 1/4 tsp Ajwain / Carom seeds
  • 1 tbsp Sesame seeds
  • Salt to taste
  • Turmeric powder
  • 2 tbsp Oil
  • Oil for frying

Method 

  • Heat water in a pan
  • In a bowl, take chakali bhajani. Add red chilli powder, ajwain, sesame seeds, salt and turmeric powder. Mix everything well
  • Add oil and mix it well with bhajani. The flour should be crumbly
  • Add boiling hot water. Mix well. Cover and give it a standing time of 10 minutes
  • Knead it into dough. If you find the dough a bit dry, you can add hot water to it. The dough should be thick
  • Take a ball out of it. Make roll of it and put it into chakali mold. Chakali mold has chakali disk in it
  • Cut wax paper into small pieces. You can put the chakali in oil easily with the help of wax paper
  • Press the dough well into the mold and make chakalis on wax paper
  • Seal the outer and inner end of the chakali well
  • Heat oil in a pan. The oil should not be too hot. Or the chakali remains raw inside
  • Fry the chakali on medium heat until it turns brown. Flip over after 3-4 minutes
  • Cook for 3-4 minutes from another side. While these chakalis are getting fried, prepare new chakalis from the mold
  • When the chakali starts getting reddish color remove it from oil
  • After removing from hot oil, the cooking process continues and the color of it changes in a while
  • Drop the next batch of chakali into hot oil and fry
  • Chakalis are already

Recipe for homemade bhajani flour

Ingredients

  • Whole Coriander- 50gm
  • Whole Jeera- 10gm
  • Rice-250gm
  • Whole Wheat- 250gm
  • Jowar (Sourghum)- 125gm
  • Bajra  (Pearl Millet)- 125gm
  • Chana Dal- 100gm
  • Whole Moong- 100gm
  • Split urad dal- 100gm

Instructions

  • Roast all grains and spices individually lightly. Don’t brown them.
  • Mix all together after roasting and cool down for 20mins.
  • Grind it in a mixer at home or you can send it for grinding to your local mill.

Sweet beginnings

Maggi, chai, maggi, chilli toast and more chai. Sounds familiar? A staple diet while  studying/working away from home….

The recent lockdown, opened up new avenues. With more time on hand and being cut off from our usual foodie haunts, we tried our hand at a selection of desserts. We had many an adventure along the way, but slowly and surely our mission was accomplished. Voila, here is our very own selection of home made desserts for your viewing pleasure.

We hope that you enjoy this visual treat…