Due Credits

This blog serves the purpose of recording and sharing traditional recipes passed on to me by my Grandmother,Mother and MIL.Sometimes I stumble upon recipes in cookbooks,magazine arcticles, and more often then not at various blog sites which become an integral part of my cooking.



In  "SINCERLY YOUR'S" section I would like to record all the recipes (which after trials and errors that go into the recipe and my own variations to it , to suit the taste of my family) ,that are either taken as it is or inspired by any article,magazine,cook book or another blog with due recognisation to the source and author of the recipe.

Sabudana khichdi

It is difficult for me to mention sabudana khichdi without my friends veena and vidya,and with them comes lots of memories of a joke shared over a coffee,a recipe exchanged over an evening phone call or a lunch had at ATITHI.

A bunch of great friend that they are  knowing how much I enjoyed southindian cuisine sometimes they got me a tiffin to take home filled with delicious lemon rice,tamarind rice,puliyogere rice,tomato rice,dosas with chutney powder,rave idli,upma,curd rice(my favourite), a variety of palyas and the list continues...

There comes the tricky part.Since childhood I have seen my mother never returning any neighbour's vessel or a friend's tiffin empty.She used  to return the vessel or tiffin filled with home cooked delicious dishes,sometimes if the person was in a hurry to take his/her tiffin and leave and there was no time to prepare anything, she used to fill it with chocolates but never empty.Having learnt that how could I return my dearest friends tiffin empty.So the solution-SABUDANA KHICHDI.

The first time I made it for veena's tiffin I was skeptical.I went ahead and made it anyways.At lunch time I returned the tiffin with much trepidition not wanting to see veena's reaction incase she is not found of sabudana khichdi(becasue hubby dear is not).To my relief and surprise she was much excited to see the "SABUDANA KHICHDI",infact I had not seen her this excited since finishing the herculean task of correcting lab papers of ACCESS :).So after that,it became a norm to return her tiffin with just and just sabudana khichdi.Enter vidya -she too liked it and most of the times I ended up returning her tiffin too with sabudana khichdi.

knowing that I have my food blog (which remains devoid of any posts most of the times) vidya has been insisting me since long to put up sabudana khichdi recipe,being a lazy bone that I am when it comes to blogging I have been avoiding it for as long as I remember :).

what made get out of my slumber and put this recipe? well two things :

First:Vidya requesting it yet again and

Second:I call up veena at bangalore from seattle after fifteen days,which is by our standards way too long not to talk and this is the first thing veena has to say:"I tried making sabudana khichdi and it turned out all lumpy,I miss your sabudana khichdi.."both of us burst out laughing and I had a hearty laugh with my friend after a long time,not because the sabudana khichdi was all lumpy but that she was missing sabudana khichdi more than anything else...
So here is it for my dearest friends VEENA and VIDYA.

Ingredients:

1.  1 cup sabudana.
2. 1/2 cup coarsely pound peanuts.
3. 2-3 green chillies.
4. 2 tbsp grated ginger.
5. 1 tbsp of lime juice.
6. 2 tbsp oil.
7. 1 tsp cumin seeds.
8. 1 tsp tumeric powder.
9. Salt and sugar to taste.
10. Chopped coriander leaves to garnish.

INGREDIENTS

Method:

1. Soak the sabudana in water for about 4-6 hours or overnight.
2. Drain excess water.
3. Add salt and tumeric to sabudana before cooking it,mix it lightly.
4. Heat the oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
5. Add green chillies when the cumin seeds start to crackle.
6. Toss sabudana in the pan.
7. Add ginger paste and lime juice,mix lightly.
8. Take care not to mix sabudana often.
9. Add the crushed peanuts(Add sugar to peanuts before crushing).
10. Garnish it with chopped coriander.

SABUDANA KHICHDI

Variation/Tip:

• Add sugar to the peanuts and then crush them,this will ensure sugar is powdered too.
• Most of the time if the water is in excess quantity while soaking the sabudana then,the sabudana khichdi turns lumpy.keep water just enough for them to puff up and become tender.Something like this:

WATER QUANTITY USED TO SOAK SABUDANA

SOAKED SABUDANA AFTER 4 HOURS

• Stirring sabudana khichdi all the time leads to a sticky sabudana khichdi.Hence it is always better to add salt and tumeric to the sabudana before cooking it:

SALT AND TUMERIC ADDED SABUDANA:This will go in to the pan.

Basundi

Basundi is one sweet that can never go wrong.It is nothing but sweetend milk...ah and it tastes heavenly.I have made this number of times and each time it turns out tobe amazingly delicious.It is one sweet that is easy to make,requires minimal ingredients, but is a little time consuming,yet anyone who has ever tasted "Basundi" will agree to the fact that the end product is worth the effort and taste.All that is reqiured in the making of "BASUNDI" is patience and a little time.

Lots of recipes that I have come across calls for adding  lime juice into the milk,but I have never used it.For all those friends and family who have had this sweet at my place and loved it,here is the recipe ,specially for Uzwal,Ram,Suresh and of course purvi and pratikbhai :).

Ingredients :

1. 1/2 Gallon Whole Milk.
2. 1 pint heavy whipped cream.
3. 2 Parle -G Biscuits powdered(optional).
4. 5 tbsp Elaichi powder.(can be added according to the taste).
5. 3-4 strands of kesar(optional).
6. Sugar to taste.
7. PATIENCE.(Not optional)

Method:

1. In a thick bottomed pan pour about half a cup of water and then the milk.Water prevents the sticking of milk to the bottom of the pan.
2. Heat the milk on slow flame till it is reduced to half.Stir occassionally.It will take time for the milk to reduce to half.
3. At this point add the cream,biscuit powder and sugar as per the taste.Adding of these things will increase the quantity of the already reduced half milk.
4. Keep on heating the milk on slow flame till it reaches it original half reduced quantity,make sure to stir occassionally.
5. Add elaichi powder and kesar to it and allow it to cool at room temperature.
6. Once at room temperature refrigerate in a clean container for 10-12 hours.
7. Tastes best when refrigerated for 10-12 hours,though it can be had without refrigerating too.

BASUNDI

Variation/Tip

• For metric conversion take 1 litre milk and 250 gms of cream.Rest ingredients remain the same.
• The adittion of biscuits gives it a nice flavor.Though it can be excluded in the recipe.
• One may add dry fruits as they want like almonds,pista and cashewnuts.Avoid adding raisins.
• To add kesar take a little quantity of warm milk and add kesar to it.Let it stand for sometime till the kesar melts and the milk turns yellow.Add this kesar milk to the plain milk of basundi.Adding kesar directly to the basundi may not let kesar to dissolve completely.

Raiwala Marcha

Raiwala marcha is a pickle that can be found in every gujarati's house...well..its almost a year and this is just my second post though one of my last years "NEW YEAR" resolution was to post atleast one recipe each week on the blog...inspite of my best intentions week became months and months became a year...though through out the year i kept on cooking and clicking the pics but had yet to find time or at the least energy to post them.

Moreover it was my personal obsession to post this recipe as my second one.My sister-in-law whose inspiration can be seen in lots of things that i do(blogging being one of them),likes this pickle a lot and requested the recipe long time back...I could not bring myself to post anythig else before posting the recipe of this pickle.I took almost a year to learn and post this.All said and done,this is for you Dee.

Ingredients :

1. 100 gms Indian green chillies(long and slit into halves).
2. 1/2 teaspoon Asofoetida.
3. 1/2 teaspoon tumeric.
4. 3-4 tbs oil.
5. 5 tbs rai na kuria(crushed mustard seeds).
6. 1 large lemon.
7. salt to taste.

Method:

1. Slit the green chillies into half.(Apply oil in both the hands before doing so,this will help prevent the burning sensation due to chillies).
2. Apply salt liberally over the chillies and let them stand ovenight or for atleast 10-12 hours.This will help drain out the excess water from the chillies and will help them stay fresh for longer,however if the quantity is less this step might be excluded.
3. Drain out the excess water from the slit chillies.
4. Heat oil in a pan to a temperature where it is not smoking hot but is warm enough.Swithch off the gas as soon as oil reaches the desired temperature.
5. Add Asofoetida ,tumeric and Rai na kuria immediately into it.
6. Rai na kuria will emit a smell typical to its flavor and will start dancing in the oil at this point pour the oil on the slit green chillies.
7. Add lemon and mix them well.
8. Adjust salt according to the taste.
9. keep them refrigerated in an airtight bottle.
10. These chillies taste best after a day or two.

RAIWALA MARCHA

Variation/Tip:

• The green chillies can always be cut into small pieces then cutting it lengthwise.This helps save time. :)
• If Rai na kuria is not available(which is nothing but split mustard seeds ),one can always take whole mustrad seeds and grind it to powder for use,instead of Rai na kuria.

Rava No Sheero/Shiro

Gujarati food is normally made up of an assortment of dishes and side dishes.A Normal gujarati lunch will have rotli,dal,bhaat(rice),shaak(vegetable),kachumber(salad),sambharo,farsaan and mithai(sweet).The dinner will consist of mostly khichdi,bhakhri,chaas(buttermilk) and some sort of pickle.

I'll start my blog with posting a mithai "RAVA NO SHEERO".This generally reminds all gujaratis of "satyanarayan ni katha" ,which cannot be imagined without this prasad at end.This is also made as a prasad for Navrati, on AATHAM(eight day of the navratri festival) with channa puri for kuwarikas(little girls).I make it for AASHTAMI every year.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Rawa.
2. 1 cup Sugar.
3. 1 cup Ghee.
4. 3 cups Milk(Boiled).
5. 2 table spoons elaichi powder(cardamom).
6. 1/2 cup blanched badam(almonds),cut into thin strips.
7. 1/4 cup blanched pista(pistachio),cut into thin strips.
8. 1/4 cup kaju(cashewnuts).

Method:

1. Mix 1 cup Rawa and 1 cup Ghee in a pan and roast it over slow flame stir the mixture continuously.
2. Add sugar and milk to the roasted rava and stir continuosly on a slow flame.
3. After some time the milk and sugar will get mixed with the rawa.
4. At this point add all the dry fruits(keep some aside for Garnish) with powdered elaichi and mix well.
5. Garnish with the dry fruits and serve hot.

RAVA NO SHEERO

Variation/Tip:

• The milk in the recipe can be replaced by water.
• The rava in the recipe can be replaced by "ghaun no lot" (wheat flour).If the sheero is made with wheat flour it is called "ghaun na lot no sheero".
• To get blanched almonds and pista soak them overnight remove their skin and cut them into thin strips.If you forget to soak them overnight then,take some hot/boiling water in a bowl,soak almonds/pista and cover the lid of the bowl.soak them for half an hour.
• The quantity of dry fruits can be increased or decreased as per individual's taste.