Special News w Bandaru Laddu

Wishing all my friends and readers, a Happy and Joyous New Year!!


Along with this, I have some special news to announce and that is ..

We are expecting a baby in May (our first one)!! And we are so thrilled to bring this news to you. We have sent number of cards to all our well wishers and friends about this on this New Year and seeing their responses made our day terrific.

On this occasion, I bring you a dessert, which most of us cherish. I think it should be called Besan Laddu instead of Bandaru Laddu, but I got this recipe from a TV channel, E-Tv and the chef named it as Bandaru Laddu. The procedure for Bandaru Laddu is elaborate and demands a lot of time and attention, but this can be done in less than 30 mins. So, this is not an authentic Bandaru Laddu recipe instead a twisted one. The taste was close to Bandaru Laddu though.

2 cups Besan/Gram Flour
3T ghee
1 cup sugar
1t cardammon powder
1/2 cup milk

1. Heat ghee and fry Besan until golden brown.
2. Add sugar, cardammon powder and mix.
3. Add 1/2 cup warm milk and mix.
4. The whole mixture leaves the sides of the pan and the whole mixture becomes a ball.
5. Mix for a minute or two and remove.
6. Make laddus and let them cool down.

To decorate, garnish with dry fruits of your choice.

Palak Kadhi

A simple and nutritious kadhi loaded with iron, protein and calcium. Very easy to make.

Heat oil, add cumin, rai and few red and green chillies. After they splutter, add Palak/Spinach and cook until done. Add ginger garlic paste, turmeric and cook for a minute. On the side, mix Besan/Gram flour with Dahi/Yogurt with enough water. Add that Dahi, Besan mixture to Palak/Spinach and cook until the curry becomes thick. Add salt before removing and eat hot with rice.

Forgot to add, this was made by my brother when I was busy doing other things in the kitchen.

Beerakaya/Ridge Gourd Rice

Since I love Ridge gourd, I keep trying different ways to make dishes with this wonderful vegetable and each time I make something different, my love for it increases more and more. This is so versatile and goes with anything or everything anytime. This dish too, surprisingly turned out very tasty but eat it when it is hot to enjoy the right taste. Add a bit of ghee for that extra taste, but beware of extra calories too!

1 ridge gourd, peeled and cut into small pieces

1 cup cooked rice

1 onion, cut length-wise

3 tbsp sesame seeds

3-4 dried red chillies

3 green chillies, cut into small pieces

few curry leaves

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt to taste

3 tbsp oil

few cashews

coriander leaves for garnishing

1. Fry sesame seeds and red chillies without adding any oil until golden brown. Cool them and grind to powder.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add onion, green chillies, curry leaves and fry until onions turn brown.
3. Add ridge gourd, salt, turmeric and cook on low flame until ridge gourd pieces turn soft.
4. Add rice and the sesame, red chilli grounded powder.
5. Garnish with coriander leaves and friend cashews.

Serve hot with plain yogurt or raita.

Alternately: Without adding rice, you can use the same thing as curry and eat with Chapatis.

Sabudana/Tapioca Pudding

Yes, I have finally come back to Blogosphere, I was gone missing for long :-)

We had been to California all of last week (almost 10 days trip) and we had a terrific time with a bunch of friends. It was so exciting to see them all after almost 4 or 6 years. We were wondering how our old friends would be now after all these years but we picked up where we left and we felt that the gap was not much. We all had similar thoughts as before and similar mode of enjoyment. Overall, it was a great trip and such overwhelming response definitely needs to be celebrated with some sweet.

Also today happens to be our friend Sreedhar's birthday, so wishing him happiness and joy for the coming year ahead. Now that he is married and has a wife beside him, I am sure the celebration would bring him extra fun.

This Sago pudding I made is very easy to make. Soak some half cup Sabudana in water for half hour. Remove and leave them for 2-3 hours. Heat 2 cups milk in microwave, add 1/2 cup condensed milk, 1/2 cup evaporated milk,little ghee and little sugar (according to your taste buds) and heat again for 2 mins. Add Sago and keep heating in microwave (in intervals of 1 minute or 30 seconds) until the pudding thickens a bit. Fry dry fruits in ghee and add to the pudding. Enjoy it hot or cold.

Finally, a birthday card for Sreedhar!