Recipes

Besan Oats Ladoo Recipe

Published

3 years ago

August 10, 2022

Diaspora

SERVES: Makes 10 ladoos

TIME: 30 Minutes

Besan Oats Ladoo Recipe is a healthy twist on the popular festival favourite – Besan Ladoo. Packed with the goodness of oats, they are relatively more nutritious than regular ladoos and are delicious too. Serve this on any of the upcoming festivals or pack it in your child’s snack box too. They are easy to make, use regular everyday pantry ingredients and result in yummy ladoos minus all the extra calories.

Equipment used: Kadai, Mixer-Grinder

Note: Dry roasting the besan is a critical step in this recipe. Take care to do this on a medium-low flame and continuously toss the besan. Once it is roasted, the besan will begin to burn from the bottom, so be careful to watch for the toasted aroma and colour change, and take the besan off the heat as soon as it is roasted.

Ingredients

1 cup besan (chickpea flour/ gram flour)
1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tablespoon cardamom powder
1/4 cup ghee
1-2 tablespoon pistachios, coarsely powdered

Directions for Besan Oats Ladoo Recipe

To begin making the Besan Oats Ladoo Recipe, first dry roast the oats in a kadai on a medium heat. This should take about 2-3 minutes, tossing the oats gently. Transfer the roasted oats into a plate and set aside to cool.
Once cool enough, put the oats in a grinder and make a fine powder.
In the same kadai, on a medium heat, dry roast the besan too. Take care to continuously stir the besan, to avoid burning it. You will know when the besan is roasted fully when the raw smell goes away, and the besan begins to smell toasted. This usually takes about 10-12 minutes and the colour will change a little bit. Do make sure you roast the besan on low to medium heat to avoid it getting burnt.
Take the besan off the heat, add the roasted powdered oats, powdered sugar and cardamom to it and mix gently using a wooden spoon. Set this mixture aside.
Melt the ghee in a bowl. You can either do this in short bursts in the microwave, or over a medium heat in a small pan.
Add the melted ghee, one spoon at a time, into the mixture of roasted besan, roasted oats powder, powdered sugar and cardamom and fold till it comes together. The mixture will get clumpy and resemble wet sand.
By now the ladoo mixture would be cool enough to handle. Grease your palms with ghee and using your fingers bring the besan ladoo powder and ghee together. Gently shape the mixture into ladoos of the size you desire.
Sprinkle the Besan Oats Ladoo with coarsely powdered pistachio or any nut of your choice and arrange on a festive platter.
Serve The Besan Oats Ladoo on any of the upcoming festivals or store in an air-tight box for later use. They make excellent additions to your child’s snack box too!

Recipes

Vegetable Fried Rice Recipe

Published

1 year ago

October 1, 2024

Diaspora

Prep Time : 15 mins

Cook Time : 30 mins

Total Time : 45 mins

Ingredients

For cooking rice

1 cup basmati rice or long grained rice – 190 to 200 grams
4 to 4.5 cups water
½ teaspoon salt or add as required
2 to 3 drops toasted sesame oil or any neutral oil

Other ingredients

3 tablespoons oil – any neutral flavored oil
1 star anise
¾ to 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic or 3 to 4 small to medium garlic cloves
½ teaspoon finely chopped ginger or ½ inch ginger – optional
¼ cup chopped spring onion whites (scallions)
¼ cup finely chopped french beans
¼ cup finely chopped carrots
¼ to ½ cup finely chopped cabbage – optional
¼ cup chopped bell pepper or capsicum – red, green or yellow
1 cup chopped button mushrooms
1 tablespoon finely chopped celery – skip if you do not have
3 tablespoons soy sauce (naturally brewed) or tamari – can add as required
1 teaspoon rice wine or rice vinegar
½ teaspoon black pepper powder or add as required
2 tablespoons chopped spring onions greens
salt as required

Instructions

Cooking rice

Rinse rice very well till the water runs clear of starch. Soak rice in water for 30 mins. Drain and keep aside.
In a pot, bring water to a gentle boil with salt and 2 to 3 drops of toasted sesame oil.
Add the soaked and drained rice to the hot water.
On a low to medium to medium-high heat simmer rice without the lid.
When rice becomes al dente or just about cooked, remove the pot from the heat. Strain the rice in a colander or sieve.
You can also gently rinse cooked rice in water so that they stop cooking and don’t stick to each other. Cover the cooked rice and set aside until the rice cools completely. You can even refrigerate rice with a covered lid for 30 minutes.

Chopping veggies

When the cooked rice is cooling, chop the veggies finely and keep aside.
Remember to chop the french beans very finely. They take more time to cook than other veggies. You can also blanch them first and then cook. Another option is to add the beans first and then add the other vegetables.

Making fried rice

Heat oil in a wok or a pan. First add the star anise and fry for a few seconds or until the oil becomes fragrant.
Add the garlic, ginger and sauté for some seconds. No need to brown the garlic.
Add the spring onions whites and sauté for about 2 minutes.
Then add finely chopped french beans.
Stir fry french beans for 2 to 3 minutes over medium to medium-high heat.
Add the remaining finely chopped veggies, including mushrooms and celery. Increase the heat to a high to thoroughly cook all of the vegetables.
You have to continuously toss and stir while frying so that the veggies are uniformly cooked and do not get burnt.
The vegetables have to be stir-fried, until they are almost cooked and yet retain their crunchiness and crispiness. Stir-frying vegetables on high heat takes about 4 to 6 minutes.
Add the soy sauce, salt and pepper. Stir quickly and add cooked and cooled rice. Stir fry for a few minutes until the sauce has coated the rice well. Keep a check when adding salt, as soy sauce already has salt in it.
Serve the fried rice hot as it is or with with your favorite Chinese side.

Serving suggestions

Though fried rice tastes great on its own, you can pair it with Veg Manchurian, Gobi Manchurian, Chilli Paneer, Spring Rolls or Chilli Mushroom. More side recipes for veg fried rice are linked and listed in the main post.

Storing fried rice

Vegetable fried rice stays good for a couple of a days. But I would recommend it to be eaten as soon as you can since many days old rice is not good for health.

Recipes

Methi Matar Malai Recipe

Published

1 year ago

August 4, 2024

Diaspora

Prep Time : 10 mins

Cook Time : 20 mins

Total Time : 30 mins

Ingredients

For the paste

⅓ cup chopped onions or 1 medium-sized onion
¼ cup cashews – whole cashews
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon chopped garlic or 4 to 5 medium-sized garlic cloves
1 teaspoon chopped ginger or 1 inch ginger
1 teaspoon chopped green chilies or serrano peppers or 1 to 2 green chilies

Other ingredients

2 tablespoons oil or ghee
1 cup chopped fenugreek leaves (methi leaves)
½ cup water or the stock/water of boiled green peas – add as required
½ cup green peas – boiled or steamed
½ cup light cream or low-fat cream, check notes below for whipping or heavy cream
½ teaspoon sugar or add as required
salt as required

For garnish

1 to 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
1 to 2 tablespoons green peas boiled or steamed – optional

Instructions

Preparing the ground paste

In a grinder jar or blender, add cumin seeds, chopped onions, cashews, garlic, ginger and green chilies.
Blend or grind to a smooth paste withput adding any water.
If you are not able to blend, then you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water.
For cooking the green peas, you can either boil them in a pan with 1.5 cups water for 7 to 8 minutes until tender or steam them in an Instant pot for 3 to 5 minutes adding about 1 to 1.25 cups water in the steel insert.
You can also boil the green peas in a stove-top pressure cooker for 5 to 6 minutes. Reserve ½ cup of the cooked water if you have boiled the peas.

Sautéing ground paste

Heat ghee (clarified butter) or oil in a pan or kadai.
When the ghee melts or becomes lightly hot, add the ground paste.
Sauté the paste for 6 to 7 minutes on a low heat until you see the fat separating from the sides.
Stir often when sautéing so that the paste does not stick to the pan. You should see fat releasing from the sides and the paste will also have a nice aroma.
You will see the paste coming together and becoming glossy. Do not brown the paste.
If the ground paste sticks to the pan or gets browned add a few splashes of water. Mix, deglaze and continue to sauté.

Making methi matar malai

Add in the chopped fenugreek leaves and sauté further for 2 to 3 minutes.
Then add ½ cup water or the stock/water in which the green peas were cooked in two parts. Mix thoroughly and simmer the gravy for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir at intervals.
Add the boiled peas and cream.
Simmer the gravy for 5 to 6 minutes on a low heat.
Finally add the sugar and salt. Mix again. At this step, you can opt to sprinkle 2 to 3 pinches of garam masala powder.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve methi matar malai hot or warm with naan, paratha or roti.

Recipes

Rava Idli | Suji ki Idli

Published

2 years ago

May 28, 2024

Diaspora

Prep Time : 35 mins

Cook Time : 12 mins

Total Time : 47 mins

Ingredients

For frying & roasting

2 tablespoons Ghee (clarified butter)
14 halved cashews
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon chana dal (husked and split bengal gram or split & husked chickpeas)
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
10 curry leaves – chopped
1 pinch asafoetida – optional
1 teaspoon or 1 inch finely chopped ginger
1 green chilli – finely chopped

For batter

2 tablespoons finely grated carrots – optional
2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
½ teaspoon salt or add as required
1 cup or 175 grams cup rava (sooji, semolina, cream of wheat)
½ cup Curd (yogurt)
½ to ¾ cup water or add as required
1 teaspoon eno (fruit salt) or ¼ teaspoon or 2 to 3 pinches of baking soda

Instructions

Frying & Roasting

Heat 2 tablespoons ghee in a pan. Keep the heat to low or medium-low. Add the halved cashews. Stirring often fry the cashews till golden. Remove fried cashews with a slotted spoon draining the ghee and keep aside.
To the same pan add mustard seeds and let them begin to splutter. Keep the heat to low or medium-low
When the mustard seeds begin to splutter add the chana dal. Stirring often fry chana dal till they look golden and crunchy. Then add the cumin seeds and fry for 4 to 5 seconds.
Now add the chopped curry leaves, asafoetida, finely chopped ginger and green chillies. Mix well and fry for 10 seconds. Keep the heat to a low.
Next add rava (cream of wheat, suji, semolina).
Mix well and stirring often roast the rava till they become aromatic, change color a bit (but should not get browned or golden) and the grains look separate. Roasting rava will takes about 5 to 7 minutes depending on the thickness and heaviness of the pan, and the flame intensity. Once the rava is well roasted, keep the pan aside. Let the rava become warm.

Making Batter

To the roasted rava, add 2 tablespoons finely grated carrots, 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves and ½ teaspoon salt or add as required.
Next add curd (yogurt) and water as required. Depending on the quality of rava and the thickness of curd, you can adjust the water from ½ to ¾ cup. If the curd is liquid and has whey in it, then add ½ cup water. If the curd is very thick, then add ¾ cup water. Basically you need to get a medium consistency batter.
Mix very well and let the batter rest covered for 20 minutes. The rava idli batter is neither thick nor thin in consistency and has a medium consistency.
Brush oil or ghee on the idli pan moulds. Place a fried halved cashew in the center of the moulds. Also heat 2 to 2.5 cups water in a pot. Keep a small length trivet stand or a rack in the pot. Heat the water till it comes to a boil.
After 20 minutes this is the consistency of the batter after resting. If in case the batter looks thick, rava idli batter looks thick, then add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to get a medium consistency. Rava absorbs water and so the batter might thicken after 20 minutes. If the curd is thick, then also you may need to add more water. If you have added more water in the beginning, then you may not need to any water at this step.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon eno or ¼ teaspoon baking soda evenly over the batter. Quickly mix very well.

Steaming

Pour the batter in the idli moulds. Place them in the pot with the hot water. Cover with a lid and steam rava idli for 10 to 12 minutes.
To check the doneness, a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted in the rava idli should come out clean. Remove the idli plates carefully and let them rest for 3 to 4 minutes. Then with a spoon remove the rava idli.
Serve the steaming hot rava idli with sambar and your favorite coconut chutney.