Aate Ki Kadhi (आटे की कढ़ी)

Hiya friends,


Today I am bringing just something very simple as kadhi and that too with a little twist. You all must have eaten "Besan ki Kadhi" all the time, this is made with Aata or wheat flour. If anyone has any kind of problems with "Besan" can use this alternate. Once the kadhi is prepared, you can hardly tell the difference.


I first ate it when my sister-in-law "Anjana" made it and it was super yummy, so I had to get it to you guys as well. Thanks "Anju didi" for this delicious recipe of yours.


Aate Ki Kadhi (आटे की कढ़ी)

Ingredients
Chaaj (Buttermilk) - 2 cups (people usually prefer it to be little sour for the best tasting kadhi)
Dry Ingredients
Aata (Wheat Flour) - 2 tsp
Dry Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - As per taste
For Seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing (asafoetida) - 1/4 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch piece nicely (make paste)
Garlic - 5 cloves (make paste or crush them well)
Oil - 2 tsps


Preparation
Add all dry ingredients in buttermilk and mix well such that there are no lumps and the resultant liquid is very smooth in texture. Now add oil in a deep bottomed pan and add seasoning items one by one (add ginger/garlic paste at the end). Let the seeds splutter and a nice aroma out of ginger/garlic come. Then add buttermilk mix and keep stirring (maintain the gas stove from medium to high) till it starts boiling (it is very important to keep stirring without fail or else your curd will curdle and the kadhi won't look good). Once it starts boiling reduce the gas to low setting and let the kadhi boil for about 20-30 min. That's all, your kadhi is ready. Decorate it with finely chopped cilantro.


Serving
This is well received with either roti/paratha/naan or with white steamed rice. But, mostly prefer it with rice. Hot kadhi and hot rice, yum combination.


Many people also like to add (usually onion) pakodas to it to enhance the taste. My husband and son also prefer to add "Dry Boondi" right before eating to their kadhi, so that the boondi has crunch and enhances flavor as well.


Once the kadhi is almost ready, you can even add various things to enhance it flavor even more. For example, I like to add baby or chopped spinach, little methi leaves, finely chopped onions (yes raw chopped onions cooked for few min. before you finish kadhi) are some to name. So, go ahead and do your own experiment and tell me what you like the best with it.


So, try it out and let me know how it is.


Bye till next recipe :)
~ Priya

Meethe Gulgule

Friends,


Yesterday, I posted Nameekn Gulgule (नमकीन गुलगुले) and so I thought why not post the sweeter version of it as well, which is very commonly eaten in Rajasthan (at least in my family...lol)


Meethe Gulgule (मीठे गुलगुले)

Ingredients

Aata (Wheat Flour) - 1 Cup
Crushed Saunf (Fennel Seeds) -  1tbsp
Gud (Jaggery) - 1 cup
Oil - to deep fry
Method
Mix gud with little water and microwave it (or you can soak gud in hot water till it melts) for a minute. Then mix the melted gud with aata and saunf in a bowl. Add extra water as needed to make it the consistency of thick batter (such that it can be shaped and poured in oil to fry). Now, add a spoonful batter (in a round ball shape or so) in hot oil and deep fry it till it becomes right brown.
Serving
This can be eaten just like that without any condiments.


Enjoy and let me know how you liked it :)


Till next post, take care,
Priya

Namkeen Gulgule (नमकीन गुलगुले) - My baby is 5 months old today !!!

Wow, a real big milestone, completed 5 months of his earthling life :) He is a smart baby now enjoying his new gift "Exersaucer" from mommy and daddy. 


Wow, it has been a week since I posted, got little too busy at home and office front.


Today, I am going to post a very easy appetizer which can be prepared in about 15 min. time and is loved by all - kids and adults the same. I learnt this from my mom and now everyone I know loves this :)



Namkeen Gulgule (नमकीन गुलगुले)

Ingredients
Aata (Wheat Flour) - 1 cup
Hing (asafoetida) - 1/4 tsp
Dry Red Chili Powder - 1 - 1.5 tsp (increase the quantity based on how much hot you would like it to be)
Cumin Seeds - 1 tbsp
Dahi (Yogurt) - 2 cups (the sour curd makes them even tastier)
Oil - to deep fry


Method
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl (except oil). It should be of such a consistency that you can use a spoon (or your hand) and pour spoonfuls in the hot oil (so, not too runny and not too thick). Now, heat the oil in a deep frying pan or kadahi and fry the gulgules till they are light brown.


Serving
Take them out in a bowl/plate and serve with your favorite condiment - ketchup or some yummy coriander/tomato chutney. Enjoy and post your comments !!!


Now, in my next few posts, I will give some of mine and my family's Holi (होली) Favorites.

Aate ka Halwa (आटे का हलवा) - Happy Valentine's Day to All !!!

Wow, what a day. The day when all lovers (married, unmarried both.. lol) express their love to each other and promise to love each other for the lifetime.


For me, this day is even more special as I got engaged to my wonderful husband Nisheeth 8 years ago on this same day. A very memorable day indeed. 


Therefore, on this very day, let me share both our favorite and very basic dessert that can be made anytime in just 5 min. maximum from start to finish. This is very commonly made and preferred in Rajasthan all the time for any occassion rather than "Suji ka halwa".


Aate ka Halwa (आटे का हलवा)

Ingredients
Gehun ka Aata (Wheat Flour) - 1 cup
Ghee (Clrified Butter) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 2 cup
Mixed nuts and raisins - per your liking (Tip: Don't add too many nuts or else you won't be able to enjoy your halwa...lol)


Preparation
Take a wide pan, add ghee, let it get heated. Now, add aata and roast it till it is light brown and a nice aroma is emitted. Add water slowly while mixing with aata. Once all water is absorbed then add sugar and mix (do not add sugar before adding water or it crystallizes and becomes hard). Lastly add nuts and raisins and mix (roast the nuts and raisins, all separately in ghee before hand).


Serve
Delicious halwa can be served as dessert with any kinf of Indian menu. This is also made as prasad for any puja occassion.


One other way of serving the halwa is to take a flat baking sheet and spread the halwa immediately after it is done in flat about 1-1.5 inches thick layer. 


Now cut it into rectangular pieces. Don't separate them yet. Let it cool down and then enjoy the pieces. (Tip, this way you can portion your intake, i.e., if you are watching diet... :))


You can also make it into laddoos and enjoy them. So, see how many ways of eating this yummy dessert. YUM.

Sending this to Celebrate Sweets - Halwa event of Nivedita.

Enjoy and take care till we meet again.


Bye,
Priya

Methi ki Launji (मेथी की लौंजी) - Happy Mahashivaratri To All !!!

Mahashivaratri Festival or the ‘The Night of Shiva’ is celebrated with devotion and religious fervor in honor of Lord Shiva, one of the deities of Hindu Trinity. Shivaratri falls on the moonless 14th night of the new moon in the Hindu month of Phalgun, which corresponds to the month of February - March in English Calendar. Celebrating the festival of Shivaratri devotees observe day and night fast and perform ritual worship of Shiva Lingam to appease Lord Shiva.

Thus following my tradition, I am keeping a fast today and will make Poori, Aloo/Paneer ki Sabzi and Kheer in the evening to break my fast. This is my usual food to break fast. A lot more things are made today, but as I am "trying" to watch my diet, I will keep it to minimal, plus this is the favorite thing of Aryan as well, so works best for me :)


Wishing everyone a wonderful महा शिवरात्रि festival !!!


I also need to mention here and give credit to my wonderful sister-in-law "Manju" for most of the Rajasthani recipes that I am posting here as I learnt them from her. Thanks didi for teaching me all this and many more to come :)


Today, I am going to post recipe of  "मेथी की लौंजी" that she makes deliciously and I love it. It is a bitter/sour/sweet curry of fenugreek seeds.


This is also an entry in Event – Cooking With Seeds – Fenugreek Seeds and Cooking With Seeds~~Announcing A New Event

Methi ki Launji (मेथी की लौंजी)

Ingredients

Methi (Fenugreek) Seeds  - 100 gm (soak for 2 hours)

Dry Red Chillies (Whole) - 50 gm

Kishmish (Raisins) - 50 gm

Khajur (Dates) - 50 gm

Mustard Oil - 3 tbsp (or more based on how long you want to preserve this curry)

Gud (Jaggery) - 75 gm

Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp (or per your taste)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Jeera (Cumin) Seeds - 2 tsp

Salt - as per taste

Amchur (Dried Mango Powder) - 2-3 tbsp (depending on how much sourness you like)

Sugar - 2 tsp

Water for making curry - 1 cup

Preparation

Wash methi seeds and pressure cook it with dry red chillies, kishmish and khajur for 15-20 min ?(or 3-4 whistles). Once the cooker has cooled down, strain everything and let the bitter water drain.

Now, heat mustard oil in a pan, add jeera and let it splutter. Then add cooked methi/kishmish/dates mixture to it. After mixing for 1 min., add haldi, red chilli powder, salt, amchur, gud, sugar and little water. Once it starts boiling, add garam masala and mix it. The curry is all done. Make sure that there is no running gravy. This should be close to a dried curry, but not completely dry.

Serving
This can be served with practically anything - rice, roti, poori anything that you can eat a curry with.
Anyone who is not used to fenugreek, may find it a bit bitter initially. You need to develop taste for it. One more note is that sometimes it helps to drain water once in the middle while soaking fenugreek seeds, just to reduce the bitterness. Also, feel free to increase the dates/kishmish quantity if want to make it sweeter. But, I would suggest, for the first time, make it the way suggested and then increase or decrease any ingredients depending on how you would like it to be.
Enjoy the bitter/sweet/sour curry of fenugreek seeds. It is super yummy.
This can be refrigerated for 2-3 weeks easily. Increase the quantity of mustard oil slightly for preserving longer.
This is very good for people who have gas (वात) issues and also who have some aches in their joints.
That's all for now. I will be back with more recipes later. Till then, bye and take care.
Priya

Choorma (चूरमा) - A Little About My Rajasthan and Royal Cuisine of Rajasthan

Rājasthān (Hindi: राजस्थान, pronounced [raːdʒəsˈtʰaːn]  ( listen)) is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert), which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan. The state borders Pakistan to the west, Gujarat to the southwest, Madhya Pradesh to the southeast, Uttar Pradeshand Haryana to the northeast and Punjab to the north. Rajasthan covers an area of 132,150 sq mi or 342,239 km². The proportion of the state's total area to the total area of the country is 10.41 per cent. (Taken from Wikipedia)


Rajasthan has always been a state of rajas and rajwadas Always very royal with all kings. Rajasthani cuisine mostly includes cooking daals (lentils) in various forms and ways. It includes a lot of spices as you all may remember the movie "Mirch Masala" of 1985 *ing Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and many more. It is a land of various spices and thus, the cuisine is also full of spices. Yummmm... Spicy Food... My kind :)


Today, I will list one of the very first things I tried from Rajasthani Cuisine, which is one of the parts of the famous Rajasthani trio of "Daal - Baati - Choorma". In short, it is fried and grounded wheat flour mixed with ghee and sugar.


Choorma (चूरमा)

Ingredients
Wheat Flour - 4 cups
Sooji - 1/2 cup
Besan - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 4 cups (Less or more depending on how much sweet your prefer the dish to be)
Ghee (Clarified Butter) - about 2-3 cups (again you can increase it based on your health consciousness or preference)
Mixed Nuts like Kishmish (Raisins), Kaju (Cashew), Badam (Almonds) and Pista (Pistachios) per your preference


Preparation
Mix wheat flour, Sooji and besan with about 1/2 cup of ghee and water. Mix it hard and make very small flatted balls out of the dough. Heat a mix of ghee and oil (you can use only ghee here as well) and fry these balls. Once the balls cool down a bit, grind them to coarse powder in reuglar mixie.


Now, add about 1-1.5 cups of ghee and the sugar (mentioned above) along with all the nuts (leave some mixed nuts for garnishing) in the grounded powder.


Serving
Take the above prepared mixture in a serving bowl and garnish it with some mixed nuts. This is usually eaten with Panchmel Dal (I will cover this preparation in future posts) and is super yummy !!!


Some people also prefer to serve it as Choorma Laddoo (चूरमा के लड्डू), In order to do this, add little more ghee to the prepared Choorma powder and make desired shaped balls out it. It is that simple. Once done as Laddoos, these can be just eaten as any other laddoos. As, I like to eat my Choorma with Daal, I prefer just the powder.


Anyone who has never eaten it before, the recommendation is to take little amount of Choorma in a small bowl and then pour daal over it (Please do taste choorma without dal as well) and then eat it as you mix them both. 


Hope you like this Recipe and try it out. Once prepared this can be kept in refrigerator for about 2-3 weeks easily (or even more, I think I have tried 1.5 months... and it was still good), so you don't have to finish them all in one day... :)


Enjoy !!!


I will be back with another recipe again. Till then, take care,
Priya

Mharo Rangeelo Rajasthan

Hello Everyone who is reading this blog !!!

This is my very first attempt in blogging. My name is Priya and I am happily married to my wonderful husband Nisheeth for 8 years and have 2 beautiful boys, Aryan (5 years old) and Atharv (5 months old).

Now, one would wonder, why another blog when there are many such blogs already on recipes. So, here is a genuine reason (or so I would think :)). I did not find a single decent blog on authentic Rajasthani recipes. Therefore, I thought of putting all the recipes I have tried that I found from various resources (I will be giving credit to the person I get it from, I promise) in one central place for everyone like me who loves Rajasthani food. It will also be a new thing for many people who have either never tried Rajashani recipes as I know authentic Rajasthani dishes are not available in any restaurants that I know of or have been to. So, here is my small attempt to do so.

Hoping that anyone who reads this will use word of mouth to distribute the blog address and thus I will get more inspiration to add more and more recipes.

I will also try to add some other recipes that I love besides Rajasthani just for fun and good addition.

And for people who do not know much about Rajasthan, I will also be giving some nice information to learn and know :)

So, with this, I end this post and will start posting recipes from tomorrow onwards.

Good night and take care,

Priya