Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Khajur-walnut Roll (Date-walnut Roll)

It is a well-known fact that dates have several health benefits, but besides that they say it is good to consume them especially in winters. This is an extremely simple recipe and probably takes only about 15 minutes to make. My husband and I love to snack on these any time of the day, we also carry these to work.


Ingredients
1. 4 cups of chopped pitted seedless dates (I usually buy these from BJ's - http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=1279011&prrfnbr=1659839&pcgrfnbr=1647234)
2. Sweetened condensed milk
3. 1 cup walnuts
4. 1 tb sp Ghee (optional), and some more to make the rolls
5. Almond powder (optional)


Method
Take the ghee in a heavy bottom non-stick pan. Add the almond powder if you have it on hand else you could skip it. Add the walnuts and roast them in the ghee for like a minute. Add the chopped dates. Pour condensed milk over the dates + walnuts just enough to cover them completely. Be careful not to pour excess condensed milk since it could make it too sweet and sticky. Then keep stirring until the dates soften a little, dissolve and become like a solid mass and until all ingredients have mixed well.


How to make the rolls
It is important to roll these while the above mixture is warm. Take some ghee on your palms. Take some of the above mixture and roll it into cylindrical shape. Repeat this for the rest of the the mixture. Put these cylindrical rolls into an airtight container and freeze them. After an hour or two, remove these from the freezer and cut them into rounds. Store these khajur rolls in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  


The condensed milk gives it a great taste, you can snack on these whenever you crave for something sweet! 







Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Potato puff (Aloo puff)

Here is my first recipe. This is a quick recipe and can be put together in 15-20 mins (excluding the baking time).

Ingredients

1. Pepperidge farm puff pastry sheets (http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/ProductDetail.aspx?catID=767), usually found in frozen section in grocery stores
2. Potatoes (2-3 medium ones), boiled.
3. 2 medium green chillies (chopped, can add more if you like it spicy)
4. 1 inch ginger (grated or chopped)
5. 1 clove garlic (grated or chopped)
6. salt
7. chilly powder
8. garam masala
9. dry chilly-garlic chutney
10. lemon juice
11. chopped corriander

Method

For the filling --

Mash boiled potatoes, add the dry chilly-garlic chutney (which is usually eaten with vada paav, also available in Indian stores). Add fresh grated ginger, garlic, chopped green chillies, lemon juice, salt, garam masala and chilly powder. You could add whatever spices/masalas you want. Then add chopped coriander.

To make the puffs --


Thaw the pastry sheets by keeping them outside at room temp for about 45 minutes (or just follow the directions on the packet). Then take a strip, cut it into 2 or 3 rectangular pieces, fill the potato filling and fold them so as to pack them well, be sure to seal the edges. (You could make triangular or rectangular shapes). Then bake according to packet instructions, I usually pre-heat the oven to about 350 or 400 F and then place all the rolls in a baking tray (you may grease the tray with oil, but usually I just rely on the oil in the puff pastry sheets), keep watching them, and turn them from time to time so all sides are equally baked. They should be crispy like "Khaari".

Tip - You can alternatively use paneer or veggies for the filling to make paneer or veg puff.

Serve as an appetizer/snack with ketchup or chilly sauce. Enjoy!

Hello world!

Hello "bloggees"! Hmm, is that even a word? My editor's spell checker underlines it red, so I am guessing it is not a word "yet". However if "facebooking" can be a word, then why not bloggee? I could define blogee as the one who reads people's blogs, so that makes all you guys out there reading my blog - bloggees :)


This is my first attempt at blogging and the very first post, so I just wanted to say hello and introduce my blog. I plan to use it to share recipes/experiments that I try out in my kitchen. I would love to get your feedback/comments and hear about any recipes that you may want to share. As of now, I have plans to post recipes pretty regularly; meaning at least once a week, so we'll see how well do I stick to my plans :)


Oh by the way I am a vegetarian, so you will only find vegetarian recipes here. 


Thats all for this post. Will share my first recipe soon.