Chivda

Diwali / Deepavali ( festival of lights) was here and neighbors brought in a sweets and snacks. Chivda was one among other snacks that is made for diwali and shared with friends and neighbors . This is a traditional maharastrian snack, made during festive times. Even otherwise you can make chivda, store it in air tight containers and snack on it, when ever you want to.

Ingredients

6 cups - Thin Poha / Rice flakes
1/2 cup - Roasted unsalted ground nuts
1/2 cups - Roasted dalia / puttukadalai
2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 tsp - Coriander seeds
2 tsp - Fennel seeds
1 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
6 to 8 - Green chilies, chopped
1/4 cup - Curry leaves
1/2 to 3/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 to 1.5 tbsp - Sugar
About 1/2 cup - Vegetable oil
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) In a big kadai / wok, dry roast rice flakes in batches on medium heat. Rice flakes will start curling up a bit and will get crisp. Take off kadai and transfer into a big plate. If the ground nuts are not roasted then dry roast ground nuts till done and transfer to another plate to cool. Now add puttukadai into the kadai and lightly warm it. Transfer to the same plate ground nut is in.

2 ) Now heat oil in the kadai, add mustard and allow it to pop, then add coriander seeds, fennel, jeera, green chili, curry leaves and let the coriander seed brown lightly. Then add ground nut, puttukadalai, turmeric powder and stir for a second on low heat. Then add salt to taste and mix in well in oil, then add rice flakes and stir in well from all sides and mix all the ingredients well.Turn the stove off, then add sugar and mix in well.

Serve with tea and snack on some chivda.

Note - You can add dried coconut /copra flakes to this mixture, after lightly roasting it. Also sev can be mixed after the chivda is made.

Go easy , when adding salt..too much of salt will spoil the taste.

Pal Khova - Peda

Relatively an easy way to make pal khova / Peda, from the tedious way of stirring milk for a long time to reduce and thicken the milk. The taste is so delightful and makes a great sweet treat !

Ingredients

15 oz (425 g) - Ricotta cheese

1/2 cup - Blanched almond

1 cup - Milk powder

3/4 cup - Brown sugar

Method

1 ) Powder almond to a fine powder and set a side.

2 ) To a non stick saucepan, add ricotta cheese. Keep the pan on a low heat, let the ricotta cheese loosen up and when the bubbles start forming, add almond powder. Cook ricotta and almond. When it is half cooked, add milk powder, stir and mix well. Stir and cook till it starts leaving the sides of the pan and start balling up.You get to see a change in the color .

3 ) Add brown sugar, stir and let the sugar melt. Stir well till it starts leaving the sides and balls up. Take off the stove. When it cools done a bit, take a small amount and roll into round balls.

Serve as a dessert.

From sweet peda to a "Nice matters award" that has been presented to me by the lovely and ever so nice Sig of " Live to Eat ". I feel so touched and happy to receive this award, sig. Thank you so much!

“Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”

Now i would really like to pass this award to all the blog buddies whom i have come to know, but then this can be passed on to only a few and some of you have already got this award. So i would like to pass this award to those of you, who haven't.

Mallugirl of "Malabar Spices", RP of "My Workshop", Bhags of "Crazy Curry", Seena of " Simple and Delicious", Seema of "Everyday cooking recipes from my kitchen", Easy crafts of " An Easy Cooking blog" Purnima of " Fantasy Cooking"

Murukku - Chakli

Murukku / Chakli is a savoury snack, popular in southern part of India. With a cup of tea, i munched on some of the murukku that my friend prepared and got the see how this snack is prepared.

Ingredients

2 cups - Rice flour
1 cup - Besan flour / Gram flour
1 tbsp - Ajwain / Carom seeds
1 tbsp - White sesame seeds
1 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Hing powder / Asafoedita
1/4 cup - Melted butter or Margarine
About 2 cups - Lukewarm water
Salt to taste
Oil to fry ( Peanut oil )

Method

1 ) Sieve rice and besan flour together to a mixing bowl. Add ajwain, sesame seeds, red chili, hing, salt and mix together. Pour the melted butter and mix.

2 )Add water little at a time and make a chapati like dough. Dough should not be too stiff nor too loose.

3 ) Shown in picture below, is the murukku presser. Take little of the dough and fill into the murukku mold.

4 ) With the murukku presser, press and shape the murukku to a plate with paper napkin.

5 ) Make a bunch and keep ready to fry in oil.


6 ) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Carefully slide shaped murukku dough into the hot oil. Fry both sides on a medium high heat, till crisp and golden.

Take off the oil and drain on a paper towel.

Serve as a evening snack with tea or coffee.

Sending this recipe to the event "Fun in the sun" hosted by Anupama of "Food-n-more" and also to the event "WYF- Snacks" hosted by hima of "SnackORama"

Update

You can also make with this proportion, that is 2 cups of rice flour and 1/2 cup Besan. Since besan fries faster than rice flour, with this proportion you will get even cooking.