Beetroot Pulao

Its universally known fact that Girls love Pink and Boys love blue. :)

Of course it goes more for kids. As kids most of the girls love pink and in due course the favorite color changes. Mine was initially pink too and later it kept changing that by now I have named almost all the colors as my favorite sometime of my life :P

What so ever! Pink was my first favorite color and I still love it :) Anything in pink makes me feel girly girly and soft.

So a freaking pink rice can never be denied by me or any kids ;) isn't it?

The subtle taste of saunf and the light sweetness of beets makes this rice so yummy :)

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Beetroot - 2
Onion - 1 large
Green chillies - 2
Saunf/fennel/sombu - 1 tsp
Salt - for taste
Curry leaves

Method:

Wash, peel and cook the beets in microwave or pressure pan. Once cooked, grate and keep it aside.

Chop onion finely.

Wash and soak rice for half an hour. Pressure cook with two cups of water. Once done allow it to cool on a plate. Add a tsp of ghee to the rice and separate the grains.

Take a pan and add a tsp of oil, drop in the curry leaves and saunf followed by chopped onions and split chillies. Fry till the onion turns golden brown. Now add the grated beets along with some salt and fry just for few mins.

Now mix in the rice along with the vegetables thoroughly.

Yummy, simple and pinky betts pulao is ready to eat :)

Enjoy making :) Freak your kids with pinky pink rice :)

Note:

You can add gharam masala powder or the spices(bay leaf,cloves and cinnamon) directly as well to give it additional flavoring.

You can powder the saunf and add it to avoid kids removing it from the rice.

Written by: Nithya
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Diwali Dhamaka #5 - Celebration

Wish you all a very happy Diwali.

May this year bring more of joy and prosperity to you and your family :)

My celebration this morning started with a hot oil bath followed by pooja to god.

Then dressed up in new clothes and burst the crackers. The best part of diwali is to call up and receive calls from all our friends and relatives :) My call list exceeded 30 today :)

The last but not the least was sharing diwali sweets and savories. I distributed the dishes to our neighbors and got lots in return too :)

My diwali was fantastic. :) How was yours???

Written by: Nithya
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Diwali Dhamaka #4 - Alo Jilo / Elo Jhelo

Diwali, as you all know is the festival of lights. Its an occasion to enjoy and celebrate.

We had seen about the Hindu's belief of the festival as well as the Jain's reason for celebration in the previous posts. Now lets know a little about the celebration by the Sikhs. :)

Diwali is particularly important for the Sikhs because it celebrates the release from prison of the sixth guru, Guru Hargobind Ji and 52 other princes from the Gwalior Fort in 1619. This occasion is also called "Bandi Chorr Devas".

The Mughal Emperor Jahangir had imprisoned Guru Har Gobind and 52 other Hindu princes fearing the Guru's growing power. The Emperor was asked to release Guru Har Gobind which he agreed to do. However, Guru Har Gobind requested that the Hindu princes to be released, too. The Emperor agreed, but said only those who could hold onto his cloak tail would be allowed to leave the prison. This was in order to limit the number of prisoners who could leave.

However, Guru Har Gobind had made a cloak with 52 tassels and so each King was able to hold onto one tassel and leave the prison.

The Sikhs celebrated the return of Guru Har Gobind by lighting the Golden Temple and this tradition continues even today. :)

Alo Jilo!!! Yup, I know the name sounds funny :) I am still trying to track the origin of the name ;)

Got reminded of this sweet when I visited my friend, Lakshmi aunty for Golu. Since then I have been waiting to make it at home :)

Just like its cute name, the dish is as such cute looking and extremely yummy :)

The shape makes it very interesting for the kids and ofcourse young hearted grownups like me love it too :P

Enjoy this diwali with delicious, crispy and crunchy Alo Jilo :)

Ingredients:

Maida(All purpose flour) - 2 cups
Vanaspati(Dalada) - 2 tblsp
Salt - a pinch
Cooking soda - 1/4 tsp
Powered Sugar - 1 cup
Oil - to fry

Method:

In a broad basin rub vanaspathi and soda together till it forms a frothy paste. Mix flour to this and blend well with finger tips till the mixture become crumbly.

Now add water little by little and kneed into a dough. leave it alone for ten mins.

Then, roll small balls of dough and flatten it out like roti. Now make around 5 slits on the roti using a sharp knife leaving alone a centimeter on the top and bottom. Carefully fold it twice and twist both the ends using your fingers. Hope the picture on top helps you to understand the pattern.

Make such pattern with all the dough you have made and leave them on a plastic sheet.

Now take oil in a pan and once it is medium hot, drop the alo jilo into the oil and fry them until they turn light brown on both the sides.

Spread powdered sugar on a flat plate. Drop the fried alo jilo on the powdered sugar and coat them with sugar on both the sides. Do this as soon as you take it out of the oil.

Alo jilo is ready to eat :)

Store it in an air tight box.

Alternative:

You can replace powdered sugar with sugar syrup.

Take 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a pan and allow it to boil till one string consistency.

Drop the alo jilo into the sugar syrup and coat it allover with syrup. Then remove it and keep it aside on a plate for a while. Alo jilo is ready :)

The quantity mentioned above gave me around 70 of them. :)

Happy making :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Diwali Dhamaka #3 - Cashew Murukku

Diwali reminds me of fireworks as the first thing. The next would be new dresses, savories and sweets. :)

This time I decided not to burst much of crackers. I am not sure if its a kind of maturity or lack of interest on them. I still remember good old days when I wouldn't even sleep the night before diwali just because of the immense interest I had in bursting crackers. I even used to be an early bird to burst the first one and wake others in the apartment. But, things have drastically changed now :) I have grown up :P(isn't it a good reason to hide my fear for them?! :P )

Coming to the savory of the day,"Cashew murukku" is definitely a different and rich murukku that we can ever imagine. If you are a person who likes roasted cashews, then this murukku is definitely a treat to you :) Its so flavorful and crunchy :)

Other than Hindus, Jains and Sikhs also celebrate Diwali in a grand manner for their own reason. Lets look into the Jain way of diwali today.

Diwali has a very special significance in Jainism. It is said to be the day when Lord Mahavira, the last of the Jain Tirthankaras, attained Nirvana or Moksha.

The Jain year commences with pratipada subsequent to Diwali. Hence Jain businessmen conventionally launch their accounting year from Diwali.

The way Jains celebrate Diwali is different in many respects. There is a note of asceticism in whatever the Jains do, and the celebration of Diwali is not an exception. They celebrate Diwali during the month of Kartik for three days. During this period, devoted Jains observe fasting and chant the Uttaradhyayan Sutra, which contains the final pravachans of Lord Mahavira, and meditate upon him. Some Jains visit Pavapuri in Bihar where he attained Nirvan.

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups
Cashew - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tblsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt - for taste
Oil - for deep frying

Method:

Soak cashews in water for 15 mins and grind it into smooth paste by adding some water to it. Take the paste, rice flour, chilly powder and salt in a bowl and mix well. Slightly heat the ghee and add it to the mixture and mix well. Now add water little by little and mix until it forms into a dough.

Heat oil in a wok. Now fill the dough in the muruku maker and squeeze it directly in the oil and fry till it becomes crisp. Maintain moderate flame throughout the process to get evenly cooked murukku.

Cashew murukku is ready to eat :)

Happy making :)

Note:

You can skip using chilly powder and make it as classic salt murukku.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Diwali Dhamaka #2 - Nippat / Nippattu

The Diwali theme has brought a lot of enthusiasm in me. I have been researching on how Diwali is celebrated in different parts of India and the reasons they give behind the celebration.

Each of them quote a very different history of how the festival commenced!!!! :)

This is called "unity in diversity" :P be it whatever reason, the celebration is on!! and the fun never ends!! :)

According to hindu mythology, the other reason behind the celebration of Diwali is "The return of Lord Rama from exile".

Lord Rama was a great warrior King who was exiled for 14 years by his father Dashratha, (The King of Ayodhya) along with his wife Sita and his younger brother Lakshman.

Ravana the king of Lanka, was a great Pundit, highly learned but still evil dominated his mind. Hence Rama put an end to Ravana which denotes the victory of good over evil.

Rama returned to Ayodhya after completing 14 years of exile. In Ayodhya, the people welcomed them by lighting rows of clay lamps. So, it is an occasion in honor of Rama's victory over Ravana or say truth's victory over evil.

Hence the day of his return is celebrated as Diwali :)

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 3 cups
Maida - 1/2 cup
Roasted gram(Pottu kadalai) - 1 cup
Ground nuts - 1 cup
Sesame - 1/4 cup
Chilly powder - 2 tsp
Oil - 2 tbl sp
Salt - For taste

Method:

Powder the roasted gram and peanuts coarsely.

Take rice flour, maida, sesame and powdered roasted gram and peanuts, salt and chilly powder in a plate and mix well. Heat 2 tbl sp of oil and pour it on the flour mixture and mix well.

Divide the flour into 4 parts.

Take one part of the flour and add water little by little and make thick dough. Roll out small balls from the dough and press them between two greased plastic sheets to make flat nippat.

Fry these in hot oil. Maintain medium flame throughout and roast them until they turn golden brown on both the sides.

Continue the same process for the other three parts of the dough as well. Don't skip partitioning, we do that to avoid the dough becoming dry and dark.

Finally drain the nippat on tissues and store them in air tight containers.

Note:

I made them in small size, hence I dint have any issues of the nippat puffing up.

But if you are planning to make them large, then do poke some holes on the nippat using fork before you fry them in oil. This will give them a flat surface and would avoid puffing up.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.