Oats Tutti Fruiti Cookies

Oats Tutti Fruiti Cookies

I prepared these ‘Oats Tutti Fuiti Cookies’ topped with Ferero Rocher for this Halloween. Though we don’t celebrate Halloween, I wanted to prepare something nice for the kids who come trick or treating to our house. I had been frequently baking these cookies which I got from Sharmi’s Passions. This time I prepared with a small twist – I added 1/4 cup of coconut flakes and really liked the subtle taste of coconut in the oats cookie. As it was for kids, I placed a Ferero Rocher truffle on the cookies. You can use any other truffle or even skip the chocolate. Its very nice way to get kids and adults take oats. This cookie recipe is a keeper.

This year we also tried our hand at ‘Pumpkin Carving’. DH came up with an innovative idea of carving Lord Ganesha on a pumpkin. Take a look at the final outcome. Looks great, right?

 

Ok, back to the cookies recipe.. Here you go..

 

Ingredients:

Oats – 3/4 cup
Wheat Flour – 1/4 cup
Coconut flakes – 1/4 cup
Unsalted Butter – 1.5 tbsp
Milk – 2 tbsp
Demera Sugar – 1/4 cup
Tutti Frutti – 1/3 cup
Vanilla Essense – 1/4 tsp

Topping:

Ferrero Rocher or any other truffle for topping (Optional)

Preparation:

1. Grind Demera sugar, if using (Normal white sugar works well too). Mix oats, wheat flour, coconut flakes, sugar, tutti fruiti, vanilla essence

2. Add butter and mix well without lumps

3. Add milk and mix well to form a tight dough

4. Make even sized balls out of the dough

5. Pre heat oven to 350 F. Grease a cookie tray with butter.Flatten the dough balls into cookies. With your thumb make a small indent on the cookies so that the chocolate can be kept after the cookies are done.

 

6. Place the cookies in the greased tray

7. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes.

8. Once the sides start to brown, remove the tray from the oven. Before the cookies cool down, place the chocolate truffle on the cookies

9. Within a few minutes the chocolate will melt slightly, Once the cookie comes to room temperature, enjoy cookies with a cup of coffee or milk.

Kalakand/Qalaqand /Kalakanu ~~ Deepavali Special

Kalakand

Happy Deepavali to all my readers! Deepavali means sweet.. Carackers..happiness… joy. When I grew up in Chennai I used to eagerly wait for Deepavali to taste the milk sweet from ‘Sri Mithai Sweets’. My mind mom’s office would give her a packet of Kalakand from Sri Mithai which at that time was a rarity in other shops. That so soft grainy textured sweet cooked to perfection that would melt in the mouth was such a sweet pleasure. To me Sri Mithai meant Kalakand n Kalakand has to be had only from Sri Mithai..

Years later, this year I surprised my family by preparing this addictive sweet. I used only 1 ltr milk and got 8 pieces.yes, its that rich.

Ingredients:
Milk 4 cups
Sugar 1/4 cup and 2 tbspn
Ghee or butter to grease the plate

Preparation

1. Heat 2 cups of milk in a saucepan. If you are using a stainless steel pan, pour a spoon of water before adding milk. This will help with the milk not sticking to the sides of the pan (pic I)
2. When the milk comes to a roaring boil, add 2 spoons lemon juice and let the milk curdle (pic II)
3. In a strainer lined with cheese cloth, filter off the whey and retain the fresh paneer (pic III)
4. Wash the paneer in cold runny water and let it hang in the cloth for an hour (pic IV)
5. In another pan, heat 2 cups of milk in med- low heat till it reduces to 1/2. It took me almost 45 mins (pic IX)

6. Now crumble the paneer and add it to the boiling milk (pic X)
7. Keep stirring for another 15 to 20 mins (pic XI)
8. Milk thickens and you will be see the bottom of the vessel as you stir (pic XV)
9. Now add the sugar. The thick milk will turn watery as sugar melts (pic XVI)
10. In another 15 mins, it comes together like a jelly (pic XVII)

11. Now switch off the flame and transfer the contents to a greased pan
12. Adjust the sides so that its a perfect square. Garnish with thinly sliced pista and saffron soaked in milk (pic XVIII)
13. Cut into slices. You can serve after 15 mins

Happy Deepavali! What sweets did you prepare this year?

Hyderabadi Double ka Meetha ~~ Deepavali Special

Hyderabadi Double ka Meetha

Hyderabadi double ka Meetha is a very popular and easy sweet to prepare.

Double ka meetha (Urdu: شاہی ٹکڑا) is a bread pudding dessert of fried bread slices soaked in hot milk with spices, including saffron and cardamom. Double ka meetha is a dessert of Hyderabad. It is popular in Hyderabadi cuisine, served at weddings and parties. Double ka meetha refers to the milk bread, called “Double Roti” in the local Indian dialects because it swells up to almost double its original size after baking.

The dish is similar to Shahi Tukda which has its roots in Pakistani cuisine and is a famous dessert in Mughlai cuisine. It is particularly prepared during the festive month of Ramadan and on Eid. The recipe uses bread, condensed milk, and dry fruits.

I had tasted this sweet few years ago in an office potluck. For the first serving I didn’t bother to try this sweet thanks to its nonchalant looks. A colleague of mine casually remarked how awesome the ‘Hyderabadi Double ka Meetha’ was. That’s when I turned to look at the small placard reading ‘Hyderabadi Double ka Meeta’ at the corner of the table. One bite was all it took to convert me into an instant fan. I told myself that the person who prepared this should have woken up at probably 4 in the morning and should have spent quite a long time in front of the range to make this sweet. – I didn’t quite guess the simplicity of the recipe at that time

A week or so later I read about this recipe in Chefinyou’s blog and was surprised by the easy recipe. I decided to prepare this high calorie sweet some day. Time passed by and the ‘to do’ was still in the ‘to do’ list. This Deepavali I finally gave in and prepared this wonderful sweet. Its easy to put together and consumes very less time (both to prepare and to disappead ;-)) . Why not try this easy sweet for Deepavali?

Ingredients:

1. Bread – I used 7 pieces cut into triangles

2. Ghee to deep fry

Sugar Syrup:

3. Sugar – 1 Cup

4. Water – 1 Cup

Sweetened Milk

5. Milk – 1 Cup

6.  Sugar – 1/2 cup

7. Saffron threads – few mixed in 1 tbspn of hot water

8. Roasted nuts

Preparation:

1. Cut bread into triangles. Heat ghee in a pan and deep fry the bread into golden brown color

2. Place the bread pieces in a bowl

3. Mix sugar and water for sugar syrup and heat till they mix well and boil

4. Pour the sugar syrup on the bead pieces. Let it stay for 10 minutes till the bread absorbs all of the sugar syrup

5. Meanwhile in a pan , combine milk, sugar and saffron threads and boil to prepare the sweetened milk

6. When the milk reduces to half , switch off the flame and pour on the bread pieces

7. Let it sit for another 10 minutes and the bread will absorb all the milk

8. Garnish with toasted nuts. I served it by adding a spoonful of sweetened milk on the dry bread pieces

Rasmalai ~~ Deepavali Special

Rasmalai 

I always consider the the last 6 months of the year are not for calorie counting as there are so many festivals starting from Varalakshmi vratam in July and so many sweets.;-) Deepavali is the most famous and most celebrated of them all. This year Deepavali  falls on the 23rd of October this year. Starting today, I am going to post several Deepavali sweets and savories on this blog. One of the sweets I tried earlier this month was this very sweet and soft ‘Rasmalai’. Rasmalai originated from Odhisha, an Eastern State of India, from where it moved on to ‘West Bengal’ along with its elder sister, ‘Rosogulla’. If ‘Rosogulla’ is sweet, ‘Rasmalai’ is the sweetest! The preparation of ‘Rasmalai’ is similar to ‘Rosogulla’.  Unlike Rosogulla, we need to shape the chenna as round discs. You have to prepare chenna just like Rosogulla and boil it in sweet water. For Rasmalai, we also have to prepare a sweet sugary milk called the ‘Ras’ in which the chenna balls are soaked. Delectable isnt it?  If Deepavali is the ‘King of Sweets’, then this is the most fitting sweet for the king 🙂

I followed the ‘Rosogulla’s recipe from Srimathi Meenakshi Ammal’s cookery book and adapted it to prepare the ‘Rasmalai’. Since the preparation is similar to Rosogulla, I re-used the preparation photos.

Ingredients:

Chenna:

Whole milk – 1 litre(4 Cups)

Sugar for Chenna balls – 1 Cup

Water – 2 cups

lemon juice from 1 whole lemon

Ras:

Whole milk – 1 cup

Sugar – 1 cup

Saffron strands – 5 to 6

Elachi powder(Cardamom powder) – 1 tsp

Roasted pistas for garnishing

Preparation:

1. Boil 1 litre (4 Cups) of whole milk in a wide vessel. When the milk comes to a roaring boil, switch off flame and add the juice of one whole lemon while constantly stirring.

2. The milk will separate into cheese and whey. Using a tea filter, filter out the whey. Now wash the retained chenna in cold running water to remove any trace of lemon.

3. Hang the chenna in a cheese cloth for 1 hour. You should also keep a heavy object on the cheese cloth so that the pressure gets the water out.

4. While the chenna is getting dried, prepare ‘Ras’ by boiling 1 cup whole milk in a vessel along with 1 cup sugar, saffron strands, elachi powder. The milk has to reduce to half. Switch off the flame and set it aside

5. After one hour, using the paper towel, wipe out the any moisture. Now the chenna will look crumbly. (refer pic 1)

6. Spend the next 10 minutes in kneading the chenna to a fine dough (refer pics 2,3)

7. Make small round balls of chenna and then flatten them to form round disc. Keep the size small as they will double their size after boiling

8. Heat a mixture of 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar in a pressure cooker (preferably pressure pan). When the sugar water comes to a boil, carefully add the chenna discs one by one. Close the pressure cooker and let it cook for 1 whistle. After the first whistle, switch off the flame and let the pressure release on its own

9. When the pressure is released, open the cooker. You will notice that the chenna discs have doubled in size. With a ladle, carefully take a chenna disc. With another ladle lightly press the disc so that the sugar water is expelled. Now place it in a clean serving bowl

10. Repeat this for all other discs. Now spoon the prepared ras on the chenna. Garnish with roasted pistachio. Keep it chilled for a hour.

11. After an hour, you can serve the rasmalai in a serving bowl topped with roasted pistachios as a dessert.

• 1 litre of milk yields almost 20 medium sized rasmalais

Navarathiri Day 9 – Black Chickpeas Sundal

Black Chickpeas Sundal

This is the last one on my Navarathiri series. Check out the nine different sundals from day 1 to day 9, here. This black chickpeas sundal is traditionally prepared on ‘Saraswathi Pooja’ day.

Ingredients:

1. Black Chickpeas – 1 Cup

2. Salt to taste

3. Oil to temper

4. mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp

5. Coconut powder – 1/4 cup

6. Red Chilli – 1

Preparation:

1. Soak black chickpeas overnight in a deep vessel. The next morning, pressure cook black chickpeas with required salt and water for 2 to 3 whistles. You should be able to squish the black chickpeas between your fingers,

2. In a pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds followed by red chilli, coconut and cooked black chickpeas

3. Stir and transfer to a serving bowl.

Navarathiri Special Day 8 – Yellow Pattani Sundal

Yellow Pattani Sundal (Yellow Peas Sundal) 

I am racing with time to finish up the blog posts on Navarathiri. We prepared the ‘Yellow Pattani Sundal’ (Yellow dried peas) on the 8th day. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Yellow pattani – 1 Cup

2. Oil to temper

3. Mustard Seeds – 1/4 tsp

4. Coconut powder – 1/4 cup or lesser

5. Red Chilli – 2

Preparation:

1. Soak the peas in a deep vessel overnight

2. The next morning, pressure cook the dried peas with necessary water and salt for not more than 2 whistles

3. Let the steam release on its own

4. In a pan, heat oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, red chilli, coconut powder and the cooked peas

5. Carefully stir without breaking

6. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves

Navarathiri Special Day 7 – Sweet Karamani Sundal

Sweet Karamani Sundal

We are celebrating Navarathiri in my household by preparing different sundals for each and everyday. Check out how we celebrated day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6. For day 7, we prepared a different sweet karamani sundal (sweet black eyed peas) instead of the usual savory version. I soaked the black eyed peas in water overnight.

Ingredients:

1. Karamani (Black Eyed Peas) – 1 Cup

2. Jaggery – 1/2 Cup

3. Coconut – 1/4 Cup

4. Oil to temper

5. Salt to taste

6. Mustard Seeds – 1/4 tsp

7. Red Chilli – 1

8. Coriander Leaves to garnish

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook the soaked black eyed peas along with required salt for 1 whistle in a pressure cooker. Once its done, open the cooker and check the consistency of the peas. You should be able to easily crush it between your fingers. If its not done, cook for one more whistle

2. In a pan, heat oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, red chilli and the cooked black eyed peas. Add powdered jaggery and mix well. Finally add coconut powder and mix the sundal well

3. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves

Navarathiri Special Day 6 – Pachaipayaru Sundal

Pachaipayaru Sundal

We are celebrating Navarathiri in my household by preparing different sundals for each and everyday. Check out how we celebrated day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5. For day 6, we prepared pacha payaru sundal (green gram sundal). I soaked green gram in water overnight.

Since I soaked the green gram for almost 8 hours, I had to pressure cook for only 1 whistle.

Ingredients:

1. Pachapayaru (Green moong dal/ green gram) – 1 cup

2. salt to taste

3. Oil to temper

4. Mustard Seeds – 1/4 tsp

5. Red Chilli – 1

6. Coconut powder – 1/4 cup or less

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook pachapayaru for 1 whistle along with required salt. Open the cooker and check the dal. If you press it between your fingers, it should disintegrate. That’s the consistency

2. In a pan heat oil. Once the oil is hot, temper mustard seeds, red chilli, coconut.

3. Drain the water from the dal and add it to the pan. Carefully stir without breaking till its mixed well with the mustard and coconut

4. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves

Navarathiri Special Day 5 – Chickpeas Sundal (Vellai Konda Kadalai Sundal)

Chickpeas Sundal

Its day 5 of Navarathiri and we prepared white kondakadalai sundal (chickpeas sundal). I soaked the white chickpeas overnight in a deep vessel with a lot of water.

Navarathiri Celebration at home

Ingredients:

1. Chickpeas (Kondakadalai) – 1 Cup

2. Salt to taste

3. Oil to temper

4. mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp

To roast and grind:

1. Oil to temper

2. Bengal gram dal – 1/2 tsp

3. Red chilli – 1

4. Coconut powder – 1 tbspn or less

5. Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook overnight soaked chickpeas for 3 whistles with required salt

2. Roast and grind the ingredients mentioned to ‘roast and grind’

3. In a pan, heat oil. Once the oil is hot add mustard seeds. Once mustard splutters add coconut and the chickpeas and the roast and ground powder. Mix well

4. You may optionally add finely shredded carrots.

5. Transfer to a serving bowl and add fresh coriander leaves