POHA MODAK

Hi friends, Ganesh Festival is on and I am sure I am not late to post this recipe.  We all are aware of making various kinds of modak or modakam for ganesha the destroyer of obstacles  known as vignaharta too.

I keep one and half days ganpati at home and do the pooja like Maharashtrians as well as South Indian.  Pooja is performed the way we perform chanting the 108 mantras of  Ganesha.  Aarti I follow the Maharashtrian style.

The idea came to my mind to keep Ganesha for 3 years in 2009.  When I expressed my views at home, my son said not this year, next year.  I was bit disappointed and had to agree with his views.  Unfortunately that year my mother in law passed away.  But the Ganesha had to come to our house.

You will wonder how?  My husband used to listen to the radio programme in which Malishka, the RJ announced that the third and ninth caller will get an eco friendly ganpati.  My husband was the third caller and we got the ganpati and was brought  home.  It was such a beautiful ganpati.

 However, we started  bringing the idol and performing pooja from 2010 onwards.

Till today, however, I am continuing by the grace of god though I had planned to keep only for 3 years.

Coming back to the recipe.  For neivedyam I was thinking what to make and tried this modak which was not very sweet but liked by everyone.

BITTER GOURD MILAGAI PODI

Bitter gourd milagaipodi is made with little fried bitter gourd and milagai podi.  If you have liking for bitter gourd then only you try this as it tastes slightly bitter.

This can be served with Idli, dosa and with steamed rice, ghee or seasame oil too.

RAVA DHOKLA

RAVA DHOKLA is an easy recipe shared with me by  SARASWATI.  It was easy to prepare and tasted good.    She shared the recipe with me recently  and I prepared the next day.    Dhokla is a steamed dish prepared by Gujaratis.  You can add veggies if you wish to make it more healthy.

ALOO TOKRI CHAAT

Tokri means katori, wati,  bowl  or basket you can call it.  The tokris are made either with maida or with aloo.  here I am giving the recipe of aloo tokri.

I happened to have this item in one of the mall when we along with our neighbour, went out with the kids.  It was quite filling and yummy and since then I wanted to try this at home, but somehow, I could not do so till today.

Today I do not know somehow I felt, I must complete this task and decided to try  my hand on this.  Since I am preparing this for the first time, I was bit nervous as to whether it will come out perfectly or not.  Yes I did spoil the first two baskets and rest came out very well.

I prepared the chaat and gave to my daughter and had myself, I could not believe that I prepared this so nicely.  video link:  how to make   aloo tokri,  and  alooo tokri chaat.

Now let us look at the recipe now:


Yield: 6-7 depending upon the size of the strainer.
time taken: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 potatoes (old potatoes or wafer potatoes)
2 tbsp corn flour
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
salt

for the filling:

1/2 cup moong sprouts boiled in salt water for 3-4 minutes
1/2 cup chopped tomatoe
1/2 cup chopped onion
Sweet chutney
green chutney
1/2 cup curd with 1 to 2 tsp sugar mixed in it.
chaat masala
chopped coriander leaves
1/2 cup nylon sev
2 tbsp pomegranate (optional)
boiled and mashed potatoes (optional)
oil for deep frying

Other things you need:

2 tea strainer
(1 small and the other  small (should be able to keep inside the bigger one)

Method:

Wash, peel and grate the potatoes directly in water. wash them three to four times in fresh water and squeeze out the extra water.  Then put it in kitchen towel to remove excess water.



Now put them in a bowl, add the corn flour, salt, black pepper powder and mix well.  Heat oil in kadai.  the oil should be medium hot.  put the potato mix in the strainer and spread evenly.  Now press with the other strainer (smaller one) and put the strainer in the hot oil.  after a minute just lift the smaller strainer and see whether it  is sticking to the potato mix.   fry it till you get a light golden brown colour tokri.  remove from the oil, wait till the oil is strained and turn it and tap on the outside portion to remove the tokri or with the help of knife you can lightly push them out and remove the tokri.  Repeat the process for the remaining aloo mix and fry them.  keep it in airtight container.

In the ingredients picture, you can see the fried potatoes. the first batch did not come out properly and was broken.  This I used while making the chaat.

Now let us look at the preparation of chaat.

Place one tokri in a plate.  put some sprouts, onion, tomato.  put green chutney, sweet chutney, curd.  sprinkle some chaat masala on top of it.   put the fried potatoes, nylon sev.  garnish with pomegranate seeds, coriander leaves.  If you want more chutney and curd, add and serve immediately.  repeat the process for the remaining baskets.

Note:  since fried potatoes were there, I did not use the boiled ones.

We can also prepare the baskets with maida dough which we use for the samosas.
If you do not have the strainer, you can use steel /aluminium katoris for making the baskets  with maida dough and can bake it.

RIPE MANGO SHARBAT

Mangoes - liked by all is the king of fruit.  Apart from eating mangoes as its is, it is used to make mango pulp means aam ras,  mambazha pachadi, mambazha rasakalan,  mambazha sambar,  mango icecream,  mango jam, mango burfi,  mango chutney,  mango falooda with chocolate, mango kadhi,  mango pak, mango milk shake, mango rasam, mango sheera, mango tender coconut drink, mango lassi,  fruit compote etc. sharbat also can be made with it like we make the aam ka panha with raw mangoes.  many more recipe are there in the blog.

In fact, today, I made mango mastani and after cutting the mangoes for the same, i added 1 cup of water in the seed (gutli) and squeezed out the pulp with hand.  then put in the mixer  along with 3 two tsp sugar and a pinch of salt and got the puree out of it.  strained it, boiled and cooled. then added some ice cubes and served with bit chaat masala and chopped pudina.  it was a lovely drink.  This was made with the best out of waste.  Yield two glasses.  Now let us look at the proper recipe with full mango.

MOONG SZECHUAN ROLL

Moong  szechuan roll   batter can be made within 45 minutes and the rolls and  crepes can be made immediately.  No need to ferment the batter.  It is tasty and healthy too.  Those who cannot consume rice and urid dal, this is an alternate recipe for them. 

We can also make the crepe with oats.  this can be served with any kind of chutney, sambar, sauce and must serve hot.

moong sezhuan roll video

TOMATO PARATHA

like other parathas, tomato paratha is also equally tasty and good to eat hot hot.  I had the packet of Knorr tomato soup and  half the packet was left over as the half had consumed for soup.  Though I do not normally buy the same as fresh tomatoes are always available and can make it easily.

I utilised the remaining half soup powder to make the paratha.

Must be eager to know how I did it.  Let us look at the recipe now:

tomato paratha video

PANEER RASAM, ROSE WATER RASAM

Paneer poo or paneer rose plant I always plant in the pot. The fragrance of the flower is unable to describe as you have to feel it.  You will not believe after leaving my native place, I used to wander to the nurseries for this particular plant and always managed to get one from them.

The season's first flower I had posted in the FB.  One of my friend and distant relative aunty who saw the photo told me to make the rasam with rose water as she knows that I always try to make something extra out of the box.

Though I have not tasted the same anywhere so far, I thought I will try as I had the dried rose petals and the rose water with me.

It is quite tasty like the normal rasams but you must get the original rose water and here is the recipe for you.

LOTUS SEED SUBZI

Lotus flower is offered to Goddess Lakshmi and you can see her sitting on the Lotus flowers.

The lotus flowers, seeds, young leaves and rhizomes are all edible.  In Asia, the petals are sometimes used for garnish, leaves are used as a wrap for food.  Various parts of the Lotus are also used in traditional herbal medicine.  The fruits are conical pod with seeds contained in holes in the pod.  When the seeds are ripe, they become loose in the pod and then tips down towards the water releasing the seeds.

The lotus stem is eaten in almost all parts of India by making pickles, subzis, vattal etc.

Lotus seed subzi yet another invention of mine today along with the soup.  The subzi was quite tasty with phulka and rice too.  A short note on lotus flowers and seeds.
Now let us look at the recipe now:

other recipes with lotus stem:  lotus stem subzi,  lotus stem chips, lotus stem pickle,  lotus-seed-soup, lotus seed subzi

LOTUS SEED SOUP

Lotus seed soup for the first time I made and it was quite tasty.  Since I have not tried any recipe with the seeds so far, I was bit hesitant how it is going to taste.  But it tasted good and liked by everyone at home.

During our childhood, we used to fight for the lotus seed as it was quite fascinating for us to remove the seeds from the conical shaped pod.  Then the alli (stamen)  it is known as in malayalam  surrounding the pod, we used to eat both these stuff.

The Tamarapoo ie. lotus flower is collected after the Bhagatseva or from the temple and the seeds are removed and it was quite fun.

We performed Bhagatseva at home on 17.07.2015 Friday, Aadi month began on this day, and it was so special for me as it was my husband's birthday.

He brought flowers from Dadar as a lot of flowers are required for this Pooja and 10-12 lotus flowers too among other flowers.

Hence I thought of trying some recipes out of it and made soup and subzi which was good.  on YOUTUBE: Lotus seed soup

Other recipes:   lotus stem subzi,  lotus stem chips, lotus stem pickle,  lotus-seed-soup, lotus seed subzi

The lotus is edible and has many curative properties; its use in traditional Asian medicine is as old as history. The flower is used to brew lotus teas, which relieves cardiac complications and helps to stop bleeding. The roots of the plant help in getting rid of the body’s toxic wastes and in strengthening the lives; it also helps in reducing body heat. The roots and rhizomes are useful in treating small pox, throat complications, pigmentation problems in skin, and diarrhoea.

The cooked lotus root is good for the stomach and the reproductive organs. It also helps to contract the blood vessels and prevents blood loss and complications such as coughing blood and blood in stools. The stem helps in the healthy growth of the foetus and also used to treat tightness of the chest. The lotus seed is used to tone the spleen and the kidney and is also used as food. Soups are also made from the seeds. The large leaves are used as cold bed sheets to treat high fever and for the treatment of summer heat and further they are used to things. The things that are thus wrapped remain fragrant for a long time. In short, it can be said that the lotus is a panacea.