Mysore Pak

Mysore Pak is mostly made for Deepavali festival. Preparation process of this sweet is believed to be tougher.

Ingredients:
Besan - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 1/4 cups
water - 1/4 cup for every cup of sugar
Ghee - 2 to 2 1/2 cups

Preparation:
Take a tray and spread few drops of ghee on it. Keep this ready before you start preparing the sweet, so that hot content can be poured on it once done

Mix besan well with a spoon of ghee until you get rid of all lumps
Sieve besan and keep nice flour aside to use
Dissolve the sugar in water and boil it until single string consistency. In this stage, sugar water would have boiled well and slightly foamy
Heat ghee parallely in another burner
Add flour slowly to sugar water and stir continuously
when the mix bubbles out, start adding hot ghee laddle-by-laddle and continue stirring (Use help from another person for this step)
Mix will become frothy with addition of hot ghee. This will create perforation in mysore pak and indicates correct consistency
continue adding ghee and stirring until the frothy content blends well, starts to solidify and comes out of the pan without sticking
Now pour this content on tray. Don't level the content as it will remove perforation and crispy texture
After a minute, cut it out with knife. Just make lines but don't take out pieces yet
Leave it to cool down for 30 mins to 1 hr, as the ghee inside the mixture will be still hot and cooking it
Take out pieces. It should break easily. you will notice the centre layer of the sweet slightly turned brown in color. This is a sign of perfect Mysore pak !
Store it in air tight container for better shelf life

Servings:
20 Pieces

Coconut Barfi

This sweet is mostly made for Deepavali festival. Its simple and easy to make.

Ingredients:
Grated coconut (ground)- 1 cup
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
water - 1/4 cup
cardamom powder - 1/4 spoon
Ghee - 4 spoons

Preparation:
Take a tray and spread few drops of ghee on it. Keep this ready before you start preparing Barfi, so that the hot content can be poured on it once done

Dissolve the sugar. Stir it well
When it boils and slightly become foamy, add coconut and stir well
Let it boil, add 2 spoons of ghee and stir well
Mixture will become foamy and slightly changes color. Add Cardamom powder at this stage
Add another 2 spoons of ghee, when the contents start to solidify
Stir well until the contents blend well and come out without sticking to the pan
Now pour this on tray. After a minute, cut it with knife. Just make lines but don't take out pieces yet
Leave Barfi to solidify well and cool down for min 30 mins and then take out pieces and store it in air tight container

Servings:
15 pieces

Nalla Karam Podi

This Podi (Powder) recipe is hot and spicy. This is from Andhra Cuisine. Powder might be light / dark in color depending on the Black dal, curry leaves addition.

Ingredients:
Black Gram dal - 2 1/2 spoons (heaped)
Coriander seeds - 1/2 cup
chenna dal - 1 1/2 spoons
red chillies - 10
cumin seeds - 1 spoon
tamarind - 1/4 teaspoon
salt - 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves dried - 5 twigs (optional - i didn't add it)

Preparation:
Dry fry all the ingredients except salt, in a pan
When they turn golden brown and aroma releases, stop frying
Allow it to cool for 10 mins and powder it with Salt.

Usage:
Serve it with Idli / Dosa / Hot steamed rice. Have it with Ghee or Gingelly oil, as it is very hot & spicy powder

Tomatillo Verde Salsa

This is a greeny hot Mexican salsa !

Ingredients:
tomatillo - 5
red oninon - 1
black pepper powder - 1 sp
garlic - 2 cloves
salt as needed
green large jalapeno pepper - 2
olive oil - 3 sp

To blend:
lime - 1
cumin powder - 1/2 sp
sweet red pepper - 1
cilantro - 10 sprigs
honey - 1/2 sp (optional)

Preparation:
grill jalapeno on stove top until the top layer is roasted black. cool it for sometime and peel the outer layer to get nice smoky pepper
sautee cut tomatillos, chopped oninon and garlic cloves in oil. Cook for sometime with salt and black pepper powder
Blend the cooked ingredients with the other for a green Salsa

Guacamole

Ingredients:
Ripen gaucamole - 2
lime - 1/2
cilantro - 3 sprigs
Salt as needed

To grate:
red onion - 1/2
garlic - 2 cloves

Preparation:
Blend all the above ingredients to get Guacamole

Red Pepper salsa

Ingredients:
red oninon - 1
sweet red pepper - 2
cilantro - 10 sprigs
fresh bay leaves - 2
garlic - 1 clove
salt as needed

Preparation:
Blend everything to make marination or salsa

Butter Biscuits

Ingredients:
Maida or All purpose Flour - 2 cups
Powdered Sugar - 1 Cup
Butter - 150 gms
Salt - a Pinch

Preparation:
Prepare a dough with all the above ingredients. Knead well for some time. Nicely process the dough with hand. No need to add water.
Turn the dough into big rectangular cake.
close the container.Leave it untouched for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, cut the dough into smaller pieces (to a thickness of normal cookie)

Preheat the oven to 380 deg for 30 minutes. Do this before cutting the dough.
Arrange the cut pieces in baking tray or Aluminium sheet with some distance.
Bake it in 375 deg for 15 minutes. You will see the biscuits are turning golden brown in edges and nice buttery smell is coming out.

Now take the tray out of oven. Biscuits will be soft as soon as it is out of oven. So let it cool for an hour to harden.

Yummy home made biscuits are ready for your evening snacks !!

Servings:
18 Biscuits

Onion Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:
To Grind:
Onion - 1 large
Tomato - 1 large
Green chilli - 2
Red Chilli - 3
Salt - 1 spoon or as needed

To Temper:
Oil - 5 spoons
Mustard - 1/4  spoon
Hing

Preparation:
Grind all the ingredients in "To Grind" section, in Mixi.
In a pan, heat oil and temper mustard seeds with hing.
Pour the ground paste in tempering. Add 1/4 cup of water to it.
Let the mixture boil until the raw smell goes off. Switch off the flame when chutney thickens and starts separating oil.

Serve with Hot Idlis or Dosas !