Lemon sevai

I always had been making sevai with idiyappam mix. My friends have told about the instant rice noodles but somehow I missed to try it for a long time. Finally I got these instant rice noodles from a chinese super market and made lemon sevai. To my surprise it tasted same soft as the regular idiyappam sevai and even more separate. Since rice noodles cook very quick, this can be made very fast. This can be eaten as breakfast or even as a snack or tiffin, no waiting around time to cook! I used to even make this for my hubby lunch box, since it is quick to cook in the morning.

Ingredients:
1 cup rice noodles
1 tbsp peanuts
1/2 tsp chana dal
1/4 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds1 Green chilli
1/2 tsp grated ginger
Few curry leaves
1 tbsp oilsalt to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 cup lemon juice (to taste)

Method:
Cook the rice noodles according to package OR Boil water in a pot, Add salt. Add the noodles and cover for only 3-4 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
Add oil in a pan and heat it up.
Add the peanuts and saute for about 30 seconds.
Add the chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds and jeera.
Add the curry leaves, green chili and ginger. Add the turmeric powder.
Add the drained rice noodles and saute along with some salt. (remember you added some salt before)
Add the lemon juice, little by little, so that it doesn't become too sour.At this point taste to see if you have to add more salt or lemon juice.
Serve hot with chutney or pickle.
Enjoy!!!

Badusha

 
Its Diwali and the perfect time for sweets. This time I had Badusha in my sweet list and I got so inspired by looking at the pictures at Raks Kitchen. Also last year my friend made this and my husband  liked it so much and so I wanted to give it a try this time. Its quite easy but have to take care of certain steps. I cudn't make it as exactly in raks kitchen but had tried out my best. I think I should have added little more water to knead and because of less water some of my badushas changed shape while frying. And also it absorbed too much of sugar. But the inside tasted good and flaky and the sugar was okay for my family as we love sugars. I tried to make the doughnut shape instead of curving the corners. But I would like to do that one sometime soon.

Ingredients:

Maida/All purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 cups
Butter+oil - 1/4 cup+1/8 cup
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Curd - 1& 1/2 tsp
Cooking soda/sodium bi carbonate - 2 pinches
Water - 1/4 cup (approx.)
Oil - for deep frying

For Syrup:
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water- just to immerse the sugar
Elachi powder - 2 pinches
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Melt butter and add oil,sugar,curd and baking soda to it and use a whisk to mix well,to make it almost frothy.Add the flour to it.

Mix well to make it crumbly. Add water to make it dough,please be careful when adding,the 1/4 cup is what I used,it was just right,still you adjust accordingly. Make it to a smooth dough without any lumps

Keep on kneading for sometime to get a smooth dough..may be 10 mins,I made 11 small lemon sized balls out of it. You can adjust the size accordingly. 

Now take a ball and pinch the edges and fold it inwards to make rims decoratively as shown in the picture.  Repeat to finish everything and keep covered.

Meanwhile add sugar to a pan and just add water to immerse it and boil till one string consistency ,i.e; if you pour in little water,it should not dissolve and it should lay a fine thread. Add saffron,elachi if desired and squeeze the lemon juice lastly. Heat oil just enough,check it by adding a pinch of batter,if it rises immediately,then its just right. Dont let the oil fume at any point.

Add some five badushas,we prepared ,carefully in to the oil. Remove from fire and let it get cooked in the pre heated oil. Approximately it wud take 5 mins.

At  one stage the badushas float, then again keep the kadai on fire and cook in medium-low flame,adjust heat at the end to make it golden brown,for me it took around 5-8 mins.

Drain in a paper towel and immediately add to the hot sugar syrup,to cover the badusha ,I did this in batches 2-3 at a time.  Leave for a minute and then drain the badushas to a greased surface

After it cools down,the sugar syrup should have turned non sticky,transfer to an clean container. 

Have a colorful Diwali!!!


Points to note:

Knead the dough to a dough consistency. This helps in avoiding it becoming too porous as it excess absorbs oil and sugar syrup.

Sugar syrup should be of one string consistency

Drain the badushas on paper towel before dropping in the sugar syrup. This avoids the sugar syrup getting too oily.


Am sending this recipe for the Navartri - Diwali event happening at Simply food and Festive food at Cuisine Delights.

Spicy Maida Biscuits

This is a simple savory biscuits made of All purpose flour. Its simple to make and can be made for any occasions. Though its called as biscuits, its not baked but instead deep fried in oil. Traditionally this is made as sweets and sometimes chilli powder is added to prepare the spiced versions. This time I made the spiced version and every time I make this it disappears while I fry them. Its so melting on the mouth and very tempting too. I saw some versions of these biscuits with the addition of ginger garlic paste, but I've never tried it and will do it next time.

 

Ingredients:

Maida / All purpose flour - 2 cups
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Salt - as required
melted butter / hot oil - 2 tbsp
water - as needed
Oil - to deep fry

Procedure:

Mix the dry ingredients one bye one and add melted butter/oil to it. Slowly add water and knead it well as a soft chapati dough.

Now make small balls of this dough and roll them as thin as possible.

Now using knife / pizza cutter to cut them to desired shapes. Usually its made as diamond or square shapes. Now keep the cut pieces separately so that they don't get sticked together.

After you have finished cutting them all you can deep fry them. (u can deep fry parallely too if you get a helping hand to roll and cut the biscuits).

Fry them in medium hot oil until it turns nice golden brown color. Drain the oil well and cool it.

Store them in airtight containers and serve it during tea-time.


Variations:

Add sugar instead of salt and chilli powder to get the sweet version

Ginger garlic paste, coriander leaves or mint leaves can be added to get different flavors of the spiced version

Wheat flour/rava (Sooji) can also added in same proportion as maida to get a different taste.

Am sending this recipe for the Navartri - Diwali event happening at Simply food and Festive food at Cuisine Delights.