ahmi

From the day one i first saw Raks Jangri, i wanted to try. Every diwali i open up her blog and go to her jangri post and drool at her jangris:) Thank You Raks for the inspiration!!

Yields - 25 jangris
Soaking time - 1 hour. you can make whole batch of jangris in 1 hour.

Ingredients:

Whole Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Sunflower oil - 2 cups
Orange red food color - 2 pinch (or) 1/4 tsp

Method:

Wash the urad dal in water for about 5 times, till you see clear water. Soak the urad dal in water for about 1 hour.


Drain the urad dal and grind it in your mixie jar with little water. grind it smoothly. make sure you grind into a fine paste. it would take 2 or 3 minutes to grind finely. you should see the batter bubbling and going off.


Once the urad dal batter is done, transfer it to a bowl. add orange red food color to it and mix well. If you have a zip lock cover, spoon in the batter into the cover and make a small hole like we make for our mehendi cones. (remember the hole should be small, the batter expands and you get a little thick jangris in oil) i had my cup cake frosting kit and i used it.


To make sugar syrup, measure 3/4 cup of sugar and add 1 cup of water. dilute the sugar and bring it to boil. Do not go for string consistency here. its enough if you get to the stage as we get for gulab jamun. we call it as sticky stage or pisukku padham in tamil.


Heat a wide bottomed pan. add 2 cups of oil to it and heat it. Oil should be off medium hot. switch off the flame and draw jangri patterns in oil with your hand some 7 - 10 cms above the oil. after drawing the jangri patterns. switch on the flame to low heat. using a chopstick or paniyaram kuchi, slowly turn the jangri's. it will get cooked in less than a minute. slowly pick the jangri and soak it in sugar syrup for 2 minutes and then transfer it to a clean plate. (do not use kitchen tissue).

Eat and Serve the Jangri Hot/Warm to your loved ones.

Tricks:

1. Urad dal should be washed well before it is soaked. i washed it for 5 times.

2. Maintain low heat or switch off the flame while making jangri patterns and then you can switch on the flame immediately.

3. Make sure your urad dal batter is not so thick or watery. refer stepwise pics to get the idea of the batter. make sure you grind the batter smooth. you can use grinder, if you are used to grind batter for vada in it.

4. You can use a normal cover or ziplock cover to fill the batter.

5. Do not make sugar syrup with single string consistency. sugar syrup should be little thicker than we get for our gulab jamun.

6. Jangri get cooked very fast. do not fry for longer time.

7. You need not use Raw rice or Rice flour or corn flour along with urad dal. just urad dal gives great jangris.



What all mistakes i made earlier-

1. First i grinded the urad dal batter into a very thick one. no it should be of correct consistency as we do for our vada.

2. I drawed jangri patterns in hot oil. then in medium flame, then in slow flame. all got expanded and lost its shape in oil. i switched off the flame and drawed jangri patterns. then i switched on the flame to low flame. finally it worked.

3. Before i used to make single string consistency and it did not work for me. as i said it should be off pisukku padham or sticky sugar syrup consistency.

4. Before i have added rice flour, corn flour, soaked raw rice to the batter to get crispy jangris. without all these jangri came out well today. i consider washing the urad dal well, makes the jangry more crisper. here i reveal my secret for soft idly- i just wash my urad dal once to get soft idly.

Ingredients:

• Baby Aloo - 1/2 kg
• Fresh Curd - 1 cup
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Garam masla - 1/4 tsp
• Ghee - 2 tsp's
• Bay leaf - 1
• Cinnamon stick - 1 ' inch
• Cloves - 3
• Black Cardamom - 2
• Corriander leaves - to garnish

For grinding the spices:

• Kashmiri Dry Red Chilly - 5
• Cardamom - 2
• Corriander seeds - 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Cook the baby potatoes in pressure cooker for up to 4 whistles. Oncecooked, peel off its skin and prick them with a fork. Now heat a pan, add 1 tsp of oil and roast the baby potatoes for a minute or two.


2. First Dry roast Kashmiri red chilly, cardamom, corriander seeds and cumin seeds in slow flame till they change into light brown color.


3. Cool and Grind the spices into a fine powder and set aside.

4. Whisk a cup of curd well. add the grounded spice powder, ginger garlic paste and garam masala to the curd and mix well. set this aside.



5. In a Pan, add ghee, when its hot add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom and cloves.



6. Slow the flame and add in the curd mix. add salt according to your taste. Once the curd is added to the ghee, give a mix. it will  look like the curdled. but you need not worry. You can add 1/2 or 1 cup of water based on which consistency you need this curry. Then just simmer the flame and close the pan with its lid for 5 minutes and switch off the flame.


7. Rest the pan for about 5 minutes and then remove the curry from pan to a serving bowl. garnish with corriander leaves.

When i was pregnant with my son i used feel very hungry. i would make one thick egg cheese dosa in  2 minutes and get out of the kitchen. those days i hated to stand near the stove. One thick dosa is well enough for a meal. This egg cheese dosa, ragi adai, chapathi wrap with soy granules and noodles used to be my food during my pregnancy. Now i make these egg cheese dosa for my son after he comes home from school. he likes it very much. This is such a long due recipe from my side.

Ingredients:

•  Dosa Batter - 1 cup
•  Cheese slice - 1 / Processed cheese - 2 tsp's (grated)
•  Green chilly - 1(chopped very finely)
•  Egg - 1

 Method:

Recently  when we went to a restaurant i noticed chilli idly as the days special item. out of curiosity i ordered it. even the person who took the order said me, that its newly introduced and i should try it for sure! I thought it will do for me, so i did not even think of placing order for the other items. So when i saw my chilli idli coming in a small bowl, i was clean bold! It was just 5 mini idli's coated with milagaai podi.

Ingredients:

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Green peas - 1/4 cup
• Green chilly - 1 (very finely chopped)
• Mustard - 1/2 tsp
• Idly Batter - 1 cup
• Ghee - 1 tsp ( to grease idly plate)

Method: 


Serve these peas idly with chutney of your choice. i served with tomato chutney.

Snake gourd is always cooked as kootu at home until i found this recipe. This Raita recipe is simple and also tastes good with just plain rice. When i tried this raita for first time, me and hubby loved it a lot and it was finger-licking delicious!

You can either saute the snake gourd or steam cook and add it later to the curd. What makes this raita different is thick curd and the spiciness of the sauteed green chilies.

                                                          Podi Idly

Ingredients:

Ghee / Butter - 1 tsp + 1 tsp
Idly - 3
Big Onion - 1
Idly podi - 3 or 4 tsp's
finely hopped corriander leaves - 2 tsp's (optional)

Method of Preparation:


Heat a dosa tava. add 1 tsp ghee. place the idy in the centre and roast the idly in slow flame for about a minute till you get a light golden crust on the base of idly. likewise flip the idly and roast the other side too. Remove the roasted idly to a plate.


Add 1 tsp of ghee to the tava in slow flame, add finely chopped onions and saute it till it turns translucent.


In slow flame, add in the idly milagaai podi and mix well with the onions. add corriander leaves and mix. This should all get done less than a minute. else the podi and corriander leaves will get browned.


Switch off the flame and spread the onion podi mix over the idly on one side or either side.

This was the long break i took in blogging. I slowly detached myself from this place. I should not have done that, but blame my least interest in cooking. i very rarely tried new dishes in this break. but my blogging aspiration was always there in me. i kept telling me that i should start again. and here i am. Today i want to thank my two friends Sharmilee and Nirmala. They both bothered and asked me to resume blogging. I Owe you both a tight Hug! even my Son asked me to blog. He is proud of me for blogging and keeps checking the site, for the number of visitors and their countries. this way he could recognize few countries flag!  

This Methi Paneer is one that was sleeping in my desktop for some time. today when i saw a paneer recipe somewhat similar to this recipe. my interest kindled and here i am sharing it with you all.