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moong dal dhokla

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Nidhi

Moong dal Dhokla- Dhokla is best snack to serve kids whenever they are hungry. They can have it as breakfast, evening sanck or even as dinner in my house They can take it in their lunch box also. My kids love to take suji dhokla in their lunch box.

I used to make this dhokla many year back but as my son is very fond of suji dhokla somehow this dhokla took a back seat. This is a very healthy recipe especially for kids who are not very fond of having dal.

I have made dhokla with moong dhuli dal we can make this with moong chilka also. Process is exactly same.

Moong dal dhokla is very healthy nutritious and tasty. Dal/lentil is a good source of protein which is essential for growing kids. No lunch is complete without dal in our house. I use leftover dal to make paranthe or pakode which my kids absolutely love.

These dhokla are best served hot. These taste a lot like dal ka cheela.

How to make Moong Dal Dhokla
preparation time: 5 minutes
soaking time: 3-4 hours
Cooking time: 12-15 minutes
serves 4

Ingredients:
1 cup Moong dhuli dal
1-2 green chillies
1 tsp ginger

1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
a pinch asafetida/heeng
¼ tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste
1 tsp oil

1tsp eno fruit salt

For tempering:
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp rai/mustard seeds
1 tsp til/sesame seeds
2 green chillies cut length wise
a pinch asafetida/heeng

Chopped coriander leaves to garnish

To make Moong Dal Dhokla

Wash and soak moong dal for at least 3-4 hours.

Blend the soaked dal in blender with green chillies and ginger.

Add sugar, haldi, Heeng, red chilli powder, salt and oil to the batter. Mix everything.
Get your steamer ready and grease the thali/pan in which you are going to steam the dhokla.

When steamer is hot and ready add Eno to the batter. Mix it nicely and immediately shift to the greased thali.

Steam the dhokla for 12-15 minutes. Let it rest for 2-3 minutes in steamer and then take out.

Now prepare the tempering. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a kadai. When oil is hot add rai and til and cook for 2 minutes. When they start crackling add green chillies and heeng and cook for another minute.

Switch off the flame and pour the tempering on prepared dhokla.

Cut into pieces and serve.

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Posted in Appetizers, breakfast, For beginners, Gujarati, healthy, Homemade, indian, quick and easy, Recipe, snacks, Summer food, winters food | Tagged appetizers, dal, dhokla, healthy, indian, quick and easy, snacks, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Peanut chikki

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Nidhi

Peanut Chikki

Here is another easy recipe for MakarSankranti- Peanut chikki. Its method of preparation is quite similar to Murmure ki chikki.

Peanuts are a really good source of proteins and gur is also very healthy. It is rich in Iron and gives energy.

How to make Peanut Chikki
Preparation time: 2minutes
Cooking time: 5-7 minutes for roasting peanuts + 7-8 minutes for Gur

Ingredients:

1 cup Peanuts
200 grams gur
1 tsp ghee
1 tsp saunf/fennel seeds

To make Peanut Chikki
First of all prepare your surface for spreading Chikki. Clean your kitchen counter and grease some area with ghee.

Dry roast peanuts in a heavy bottomed pan for 5-7 minutes.

Rub the peanuts with your hands so that their cover separates. Crush them lightly with belan.

Now in the same pan cook Gur.

This is the color of gur we start with.

This is how dark Gur should turn.

It will turn dark brown after 5-7 minutes and its aroma will also change. Add ghee in the melted gur.

Add saunf and roasted peanuts in the cooked Gur.

Mix everything quickly.

Spread the peanut chikki mixture quickly on the greased surface.
It sets real fast. You can break the pieces later on with hand easily.

Peanut Chikki is ready. Store in a dry container and Enjoy

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Posted in Festival sweets, For beginners, healthy, Homemade, indian, Indian Sweets, Kids, No bake sweets, Nuts, quick and easy, Recipe, sweets, winters food | Tagged chikki, Diwali Sweets, Gur, healthy, indian, kids, nuts, peanuts, quick and easy, sweets | Leave a comment

Murmure ki Chikki

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Nidhi

Murmure ki Chikki

Happy Lohri and Makarsankranti to all you lovely readres!!!

Makar Sankranti is celebrated with lots of zeal and enthusiasm in Rajasthan. Whole sky is covered with colourful kites and you can hear ‘vo kate’ regularly. People are quite passionate about this festival.

People spend all their time on roof and til and gur sweets are prepared on this festival.

So I am sharing today Murmure ki Chikki. Really Really easy to make and loved by kids.

How to make Murmure ki Chikki
Preparation time: 2-3 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes for roasting murmure + 7-8 minutes for Gur

Ingredients:

2 cup Murmure/puffed rice
250 grams gur (Chikki was a little towards sweet side so you can use 200 grams also)
1 tsp ghee
1 tsp saunf/fennel seeds

To make Murmure ki Chikki

First of all keep a well greased thali and belan ready.
Note: You have to break pieces immediately after setting. You can also clean your kitchen counter and grease some area for spreading chikki. It is easier to break it this way.

Check murmure and remove impurities/black murmure if any. Dry roast murmure in a thick bottomed karahi/pan. Takes around 3-5 minutes and these should turn crisp.

Remove murmure and cook Gur in the same pan.

It will turn dark brown after 5-7 minutes and its aroma will also change. Add ghee in the melted gur.

Add saunf and roasted murmure in the cooked Gur.

Mix everything quickly.

Spread the mixture quickly on the greased surface.

It sets real fast so after 2 minutes start breaking the pieces. If it sets in the thali you will have problem in breaking pieces.

Keep in a dry container and Enjoy

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Posted in Festival sweets, For beginners, healthy, Homemade, indian, Indian Sweets, kids lunch box, No bake sweets, quick and easy, Recipe, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged Gur, healthy, indian, kids, Murmure, quick and easy, sweets | Leave a comment

Coriander Chutney

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Nidhi

Coriander Chutney
Winter season means we can indulge a little. Have some fried food, pakode, chole bhature and kebabs. And what better thing to accompany all these dishes than coriander chutney.

Coriander chutney can really add taste and flavor to any dish. you can have it with stuffed paranthas, sandwiches, aloo poori, peas pulav almost anything.

And it is healthy too. Coriander is the most extensively used herb in Indian cooking. Its seeds, stalks, leaves all parts are used.

We all know about its digestive and anti oxidant properties.
I add peanuts and amla to this chutney. Amla is full of vitamin C and antioxidants and give this chutney the sour taste. peanuts help in keeping our body warm and good source of proteins.

How to make Coriander Chutney:
preparation time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup washed coriander leaves
1 large or 2 small amla/Indian gooseberry grated
12-15 peanuts
1 tbsp green chilli chopped
1 tsp ginger grated
1 tomato roughly chopped
Salt to taste

Note: I do not use red chilli powder. If you want it spicy you can add as per your taste)

To make Coriander Chutney:
First of all put tomato pieces, ginger, green chilli, peanuts and grated amla in your blender. Make a smooth paste. This helps in getting smooth chutney.
Now add all the coriander leaves and puree. You might have to open tha jar in between and mix it all.
Note: Always switch off the mixie and remove the jar from it before opening the lid.
Add salt according to your taste
you will get a thick smooth flavorful coriander/dhania chutney.
Store in a glass jar in fridge. It can last upto one week in fridge but flavor is best on first 3-4 days.

you can have it with
Paush Bada/Moong dal pakode

Dahi Kebabs

Samose

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Posted in Appetizers, Chaat, Dips/ Chutneys, For beginners, healthy, Homemade, indian, No cooking required, quick and easy, Recipe, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged accompniments, Amla, appetizers, breakfast, chutney, coriander, healthy, indian, pickles, quick and easy, snacks, tomato, vegetarian | 3 Comments

Vegetable stir fry

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Nidhi

Vegetable stir fry
Vegetable stir fry is perfect for days when you do not want to eat heavy lunch or dinner. These are light, healthy and nutritious.

I love Broccoli in stir fry but it is not easily available in my area. In winters whenever I manage to get my hands on broccoli I make this stir fry.

We either make a roti wrap with it or eat this with butter toast. And if you have a glass of warm vegetable soup to go with it then its absolute bliss.

I add shallow fried potato wedges to stir fry because this is the only way I can tempt my kids to eat so many vegetables. Sometimes instead of potato wedges I add fresh cottage cheese also to this.

Pineapple also tastes very nice in stir fry adding contrasting taste. If you do not have pineapple you can add raisins.

You can make wraps also. Just spread some stir fry on a roti. Top it up with Homemade Mayonnaise, mustard sauce and tomato ketchup. Roll it and enjoy

How to make Vegetable Stir Fry

preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 5 minutes (for potato wedges) + around 10 minutes (for vegetables)
serves 4

Ingredients:
2 broccoli cut into bite size pieces
3 carrots cut diagonally
10-15 French beans cut into long pieces
2 onions sliced
1 capsicum cut into big pieces
2 tbsp roasted peanuts/cashewnuts
1 tbsp raisins (optional)

3 boiled potatoes (I add these to tempt my kids into eating stir fry. If you do not want you can avoid these)

Salt to taste
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp chaat masala or juice of ½ lemon

2 tbsp olive oil

To make Vegetable stir fry

prepare all the vegetables as mentioned in ingredients.

Cut potato wedges and shallow fry in 1 tbsp oil until brown and crisp on both sides. It will take around 5 minutes. Sprinkle a little salt on potato wedges.

Take a large pan/wok and heat rest of the oil. Add onions and cook for 2 minutes till onions are soft. Now start by adding hard vegetables first. French beans take maximum time to cook. So first add French beans to the pan and cook for another couple of minutes. Turn the flame to high.
Now add Carrots and capsicum and keep on stirring continuously. Add a little salt and keep on stirring.

After 2-3 minutes add Broccoli florets to the pan. Vegetables should be crunchy and a little soft. We do not want to cook them fully. Add salt, pepper and chaat masala to the stir fry. Add roasted peanuts and potato wedges in the end.Give it a good stir so that all the vegetables are coated with salt and pepper.

Taste it and adjust the salt and spices according to your taste.
Serve hot with toast or roti.

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Posted in Appetizers, bread, For beginners, healthy, main meal, Nuts, quick and easy, Recipe, salads, under 10 minutes, Vegetables, winters food | 4 Comments

Vegetable soup

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Nidhi

Vegetable soup
There is no way we can survive winters without these yummy healthy nutritious soups. There are so many verieties of soups you can make. There is vgetable soup, pumpkin soup, roasted tomato soup, corn soup, hot and sour soup and so on. Best point kids know these are made with vegetables still enjoy them

These soups were a must in winters in our house. My mother used to rotate all the vegetables in the soup and soup used to taste different daily and we as kids used to love them.
I have added vegetables that I had at home. You can always add or remove any vegetable as per your taste and preference.

Two things I would suggest to always addd to your vegetable soups. One is ginger adds a wonderful taste to the soup. And second is beet root. The color after adding beetroot gives the soup a new look and the red color is soooooo tempting. Isn’t it

You can add cream, croutons, coriander leaves to the soup to enhance its taste. I have served it the way my family likes it. Plain and simple.

How to make vegetable soup
preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time : 5 minutes
serves 4

Ingredients:
3 medium sized tomato
½ beetroot
1 carrot
2” piece lauki/bottle gourd
small piece of ginger
1 onion
4-5 cloves garlic

Salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Variation: you can add cabbage to the soup. My mother adds 1 amla also. You can omit onion and garlic if you do not eat them.

To make vegetable soup

Wash, chop all the vegetables. Pressure cook these with 2 cups of water and half the salt. About 2 whistles. Let it cool a bit. Puree it in your blender and pass through a sieve. Add water according to how dilute you want it.
Add rest of the salt, pepper and sugar.
Serve hot with croutons.

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Posted in Drinks, For beginners, healthy, Homemade, indian, quick and easy, Recipe, under 10 minutes, Vegetables, winters food | 1 Comment

Homemade Chocolates

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Nidhi

Chocolates are loved by both kids and adults. There is nothing better than homemade chocolates.

Christmas is just two days away. Kids are bursting with excitement. Winter holidays are about to start. If you still have not decided what to make on Christmas then I have perfect recipe for you.

Made with easily available ingredients at home you can add hundreds of variation to this basic recipe to ger different flavor. These hardly take any time to make.
THis is my husband’s recipe. he is the one who generally makes Chocolates at home. I have made some slight changes to the recipe.

Homemade chocolates make the best gift believe me. If you want to gift me something this Christmas season I would strongly recommend chocolates (I hope hubby is reading this )

So wrap them beautifully and make someones day

How to make Homemade Chocolates

Preparation time: 2 minutes
cooking time: 10 minutes
setting time: 2 hours in freezer

Ingredients:
1 cup butter

1/2 cup drinking chocolate + 1/2 cup Cocoa ( Axat uses only Cocoa. I did not have enough at home so I added half drinking chocolate)
1 tsp Vanilla essence

To make sugar syrup:
1 cup sugar
¾ cup water

2 tbsp Roasted Nuts of your choice cut into small pieces

To make Homemade Chocolates

Add sugar and water to a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame and let it simmer till the syrup reaches one string consistency around 5-7 minutes.

Heat butter in a nonstick pan. Add cocoa and cook for 1 minutes.

Add essence and sugar syrup. Mix nicely. It will start thickening. Switch off the flame. Add nuts to the mixture. Cool it a little.

Lightly grease a plate. You can also line it with butter sheet/foodwrap which makes it easy to take out chocolate to cut.

Keep it in freezer for 2-3 hours so that the chocolate sets nicely. I keep the chocolate pieces in fridge and take them out only before serving so that it does not melt.

Take out and cut in the desired shape.

I have joined blog hop organised by shruti from Artsycraftsymom.com where many bloggers are sharing there Christmas posts. There are some recipes blogs, some craft blogs and book review blogs too. So please take a look at links to other blogs in the end of the post and visit the ones you find interesting

Come join a set of fabulous bloggers sharing their Christmas moments – Easy Holiday Crafts, DIY ideas, Recipes , Decor ideas and book recommendations with you .

Starting from today till Christmas and beyond, each one of us will be writing a post related to Christmas.

Participating blogs

ArtsyCraftsyMom - munniofalltrades - hfareensspace - roohiscollections - hellomommyhood - attachedmoms - totschooltotallyawesome - Themomviews - bumpsnbaby.com -

rugsoflife - oneandahalfminutes - shishuworld - ruskandtea - aspoonfullofideas - orangekitchens - obsessivemom - rachnaparmar - parentingmantras -

onboardthemommyship - kwikdekoblog - thekeybunch - momzspace - whatscookingmom - coloursdekor - happypeopleevents - beingzoesmom - fantastic-feathers

So sit back, relax and check out all the fabulous Christmas Bonanza posts from our participating blogs in the linky. Support us by sharing our posts using the hash tag #ChristmasBonanza

This Linky is for participating blogs only, but We would love to see your Christmas Crafts too. Come & link up your Christmas post at ArtsyCraftsyMom.com

An InLinkz Link-up

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Posted in chocolate, Festival sweets, For beginners, Homemade, No bake sweets, Nuts, quick and easy, Recipe, sweets, under 10 minutes | Tagged chocolate, christmas sweets, desserts, Diwali Sweets, homemade pasta, kids, quick and easy, sweets | 14 Comments

Dahi ke Kebab

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Nidhi

Rich, creamy, crisp on outside and soft inside. Dahi ke kebab is really interesting and contradicting snack I would say. A hot snack made from cold thick curd.

Hung curd tastes just like cheese and it is hard to tell that these kebabs are made from curd one of the healthiest ingredients.

Dahi ke kebabs are a very light and healthy snack/appetizer especially in winters when we can not eat much curd. So that you can get all the benefits of curd. These can be cooked in about 1 tbsp of oil.

These are perfect to serve in parties as you can do everything beforehand. Just cook before serving. These take very little time to cook.

How to make Dahi ke Kebab

Preparation time: 5 minutes
cooking time : 5-10 minutes
makes around 10 (depends on size you make)

Ingredients:

1 cup hung curd( see notes to make hung curd)
2 tbsp roasted besan/gram flour
1 small onion finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped green chilly
1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
¼ tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste

1-2 tbsp oil to shallow fry

2 tbsp plain flour/maida

Note: to make hung curd hang 2 cups of regular curd in a muslin/cotton cloth in a strainer. Keep a bowl under strainer to collect the liquid. Keep this curd with strainer in the fridge for 3-4 hour. So that all liquid separates from the curd and you get a thick cheese like curd called hung curd. Keeping it in fridge ensures that the curd does not get sour.

To make Dahi ke Kebab

Mix all the ingredients except maida and oil.

Give round or oval shape as per your choice. Hung curd should be cold while making kebabs otherwise it will be hard to give shape.

Take maida/plain flour in a plate coat kebabs on both sides in maida. If you are not going to cook these right away keep them in fridge and take out just before cooking.

Heat about 1tbsp of oil in a non stick pan. You can add more if required. Cook the kebabs on both sides till they are light brown. It does not take much time.

Serve hot with coriander chutney. Tastes YUM!!!

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Posted in Appetizers, breakfast, curd, For beginners, healthy, Homemade, quick and easy, Recipe, Summer food, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged appetizers, besan, breakfast, curd, dahi, gram flour, healthy, indian, kebabs, kids, quick and easy, snacks, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Coconut Burfi with Gulkand

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Nidhi

I made this Coconut burfi with Gulkand on diwali but for some reason or other I was not able to post the recipe. The burfi is so juicy and rich in flavor (because of Gulkand of course) that you can not eat just one piece. It has a very cool effect on your throat and very pleasant to taste buds.

This Diwali Hubby asked me to make different dishes i.e. regular recipe with a twist. So I added Gulkand to my regular Nariyal Ladoo recipe to make this burfi and I also made burfi with apple pie filling. Didn’t click any photographs of apple pie burfi so can not share

Anyways Back to Burfi, this recipe is a keeper. Ratio of burada, milk and sugar is so perfect that I do not even taste it before serving to check if it is okay. This recipe has never let me down.

Addition of Gulkand definitely adds a twist to the Burfi and that too a pleasant one. Gulkand also has many health benefits because of its cooling properties, it improves digestion, it is a powerful antioxidant, reduces acidity and anxiety. It is considered an ayurvedic tonic.

That is why whenever we eat Gulkand we get this feel good type of feeling. Don’t we :-)

How to make Coconut Burfi with Gulkand

cooking time: around 30 minutes

Note: you can half or double the recipe as per your wish just keep the ratio same.

Ingredients:
4 cups milk
3 cups nariyal burada/dessicated coconut powder
1 cup sugar

2 tbsp Gulkand

To make Coconut Burfi with Gulkand

Process is same as that of making Nariyal Ladoos

Mix all the burada/nariyal powder, sugar and milk in a wide non stick pan and keep on high flame stirring in between. After 4-5 minutes reduce the flame to low and let it cook for around 25- 30 minutes on low flame.

Mixture should become thick and milk should not be visible at all.

Let it cool for some time. Divide the mixture in two parts.
Grease the utensil lightly with ghee in which you want to set burfi. Or you can line it with parchment paper/clean wrap as it makes handling and cutting of burfi easy.

Spread half of the burfi mixture in a thick layer.

Spread Gulkand over it uniformly. As gulkand is quite strong in flavor I have spread a thin layer of it. Spread rest of the burfi mixture over gulkand.

Keep it in fridge for about an hour to set the burfi. Cut into desired shape.
Keep the burfi in fridge and it tastes good as long as 1-2 week. It tastes best when fresh so it is better to consume it in first week.

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Posted in Diwali Sweets, Festival sweets, healthy, Homemade, indian, Indian Sweets, milk, No bake sweets, quick and easy, Recipe, sweets | Tagged desserts, Diwali Sweets, gulkand, healthy, indian, nariyal Burfi, quick and easy, sweets | 13 Comments

Chand Baori Step wells

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Nidhi

Chand Baori Stepwells, Abhaneri, Rajasthan
We visited Chanbaori stepwells 2-3 months back. About 90 kms away from Jaipur these are situated in Abhaneri village, Dausa district Rajasthan. Opposite it is the Harshat mata temple to whom these stepwells were dedicated. We were amazed by the scale and symmetry of the stepwells.

Chand Baori step wells were built around 8th or 9th century in by king Chand or Chandra, a Nikumbh Rajput of Chahmana dynasty. Hence the name Chand Baori.

Abhaneri or ancient abhanagri name is given because the village used to look really beautiful in moon night. Abha means glow and neri means nagri/city

Stepwells were constructed to harvest rain water to survive draughts which were quite common in Rajasthan. These are one of the deepest and largest stepwell. The stepwells are so symmetrical that you can’t stop marveling at the craftsmanship of that period.
This is the earliest Baori in Rajasthan.

Baori has steps on three sides and summer palace for king on the fourth sides. As summers can be quite harsh in Rajasthan kings used to come here for some respite from scorching heat. Cooled air would entre the pavilion from step well and act as natural air conditioner.
This was a place for cultural meets and religious ceremonies also.

Some of the beautiful sculptures at chand Baori stepwells

Water is not fit for drinking now but it is believed that these baoris were in use as late as 19^th centure.My younger son was really delighted to see turtles in the water.

Many movies have been shot in this Baori. Paheli and rise of the dark knight to name a few.

Opposite Chand Baori is Harshat mata temple. Built around the same time as step wells by Raja Chand Harshat mata is believed to be godess of joy and happiness.