Cocadas -From Bolivia /or/ Macaroons from Italy (Coconut Candies)

Labels: Baking, condensed milk, Holidays, Sweet

Chicken Kebab / Chicken Kabob

Labels: Appetizers, Chicken, North Indian dish, Side-Dish

Hummus

Hummus is a popular food throughout the Middle Eastern countries. Its basic ingredients are Garbanzo (chickpeas), Tahini (sesame paste), lemon, and garlic. Hummus is high in iron and vitamin C and also has significant amounts of folate and vitamin B6. Like other combinations of grains and pulses, it serves as a complete protein when eaten with bread. Hummus is served as an appetizer and dip or accompaniment with other Middle Eastern food like Falafel, grilled chicken, fish, or eggplant.

In my house, besides hummus being scooped up by Middle Eastern flatbread, pita bread or pita chips, I serve Hummus with crackers, tortilla chips or potato chips. I also use hummus has a spread on my sandwich or tortilla wrap – a healthier substitution for Mayonnaise ;)

Garbanzo = chickpeas/Kabul Channa(hindi)/Kadale(Kannada);
- if you don’t want to use canned Garbanzo, Soak 1 cup dry Garbanzo in 5 cups of water over night (about 10 to 12 hours) and use.

Here is my version of easy & delicious middle-eastern hummus recipe.

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients
. Canned Garbanzo – 1 Can (drained, rinsed)
. Garlic – 3 cloves, crushed
. Olive oil - 100ml
. Chilli powder- ½ tsp (or to your taste … I like it spiced up)
. Ground cumin - 1/2 tsp
. Juice lemon – from 1 lemon
. Tahini paste - 2 tbs (optional)
– I don’t use tahini, for some reason I stay away from Sesame

Method:
1. Place all the ingredients -Garbanzo, garlic, olive oil, chilli powder, tahini paste, cumin and ½ of the lemon juice in a food processor and process until combined. Add 1/4 cup (60ml) of water and process again until quite smooth.

2. Now for extra flavor( my fusion version), add salt, cilantro or coriander, dried basil and parsley. Pulse couple of time to mix them all. Do a quick taste and add more lemon juice if needed. Since nature has made lemons in different sizes, I don’t want you to blame me if your hummus turn out overwhelmingly lemon-ish.

3. Spoon hummus in a bowl and top it with a table spoon of olive oil and cut olives.
Serve with toasted Turkish bread, pita bread wedges, pita crisps, bagel chips, tortilla chips or potato chips.

It's amazingly quick and super easy to make, delicious, and healthy. No cooking involved. Good summer cooking, I hate standing near the stove on a warm day. Just grab the blender and you are good to go.

Labels: Appetizers, Dip Recipes, Snack, Vegetarian

Weekend Beading - III

Labels: Beading, Jewelry making, Weekend Hobbies

Karjikai - Karanji - Sihi Kadabu

Karjikai is a South Indian traditional sweet. It is like a samosa but it’s sweet! Karjikai is made during Ganesh Charthuthi, Ugadhi, or Deepavali. Depending on region of South India it is referred to by different names. This is my mom’s recipe; she always used dry ingredients for the filling so the dish would keep for a long time ….as long as some mischievous hands didn’t eat it away by then! I mention other versions of the filling at the end.

Ingredients:
. All purpose flour 2 cups
. Sooji Rawa 1 cup (Semolina)
. A pinch of salt
. Ghee (purified butter) 3 tbsp
. 1/2 cup warm Water to make dough
. Oil for deep frying

For Filling:
. Chickpeas ½ cup
. Grated Dry coconut ½ cup
. Sugar ½ cup
. Cardamom pdr ½ tsp (from 3 – 4 pods)
. Any dry fruit [Optional] Cashew or Almond (roasted and powered coarsely); or Raisins.

Method:
1. Mix the flour, Semolina and salt together. Heat 3 tbsp ghee in low flame, pour the boiling ghee into flour mix. Carefully blend the mixture.
2. Add enough water to make a stiff dough. Keep aside covered in a wet cloth or paper towel for half an hour.
3. Knead well again to make the dough soft and pliable.
4. In a blender, powder Chickpeas. Remove the content into a separate bowl.
5. Add grated dry coconut, sugar, cardamom powder and dry fruit. Mix all together and keep aside. – for filling
6. Make small balls from the dough. Roll and flatten each ball into thin circles (about 4 to 5 inches in diameter).
7. Spoon in the filling on one half of the circle and fold along the center. Seal the ends with some water or milk. As you see in the picture I have taken the edges and overlapped to form a design. Start from one corner, take both edges together from the tip of your finger, fold it over and press a bit; repeat the step until you reach the other end. This sounds like a lot of work, but believe me it is not. After practicing on couple of karjikai, your fingers will move very fast. In this way you are sure you have sealed the pouch well. You don’t want the filling to come out while deep frying. Hint: Give this job to the kids (or your husband :P) it will keep them busy and help develop their fine motor skills :D
8. Deep fry the Karjikai in oil on medium flame till crisp and golden. Since Karjikai puffs up while frying, fry 1 or 2 at a time.
9. Remove from oil onto paper towels and allow them to cool completely before storing.

Filling Variation 1 - with jaggary
Dry grated coconut - 2cups; Jaggary ¾ cup(grated); Sesame 4tbsp(roasted & crushed); Cardamom powdered ½ tsp.
Heat a thick bottom pan and add coconut and grated jaggary, fry them together for 6-7 mins, then add crushed sesame and cardamom powder and mix well, again fry for 2-3 mins then turn of the heat.
Filling Variation 2 – with milk
Grated Coconut-1 cup; Sugar-3¼ cups; Milk-1½ cups; Few Almonds; Few Raisins; Cardamom powder ½ tsp; 1 tbsp poppy seeds
Cook grated coconut (use fresh or dried), sugar, milk, chopped almonds and raisins, cardamom powder, and poppy seeds (optional) till the milk evaporates.
Filling Variation 3 – with cashew and melon seeds
Cashewnut – ½ cup; Musk Melon seeds – ½ cup; Powdered sugar – 1 cup; Cardamom powder – ½ tsp.
Dry cashewnuts, melon seeds under hot sun for one hour -- or microwave for 20 seconds :D --and let it cool. Powder separately, and mix together with powdered sugar and cardamom powder.
Filling Variation 4 – With Koa
Crumble sugarless thick milk Koa (if necessary put in a hot pan and keep on low flame and stir for a minute) and mix it with equal measure of powdered sugar, finely chopped cashews, raisins, cardamom powder and grated dry coconut.

Labels: Festive Food, Traditional Sweet