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Swetha's Fusion
Where there is Fusion there is Creation!

Halasina Hannina Mulka - Jackfruit Fritters

Friday, June 26, 2020
Here is one more traditional sweet snack from my kitchen to yours. This is a common snack during Jackfruit season in South Canara (Western Ghats of South India) region. Try this yummy recipe and enjoy it with your family.
You may also try Banana Mulka

Ingredients:
  • 10 to 12 - fully ripe Jackfruit pods/arils
  • 1 cup - whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup - grated coconut (may be grounded too)
  • ½ cup - jaggery or brown sugar or liquid  jaggery 
  • ½ tsp - cardamom powder
  • 3 tsp - milk or water - as & if needed to get the right consistence.
  • Oil for deep frying
Optional Ingredients:
  • 1 tsp - honey 
  • 1 tsp - cashew nut powder
  • pinch of baking powder or Eno fruit salt
  • pinch of nutmeg pdr, cinnamon pdr, cloves pdr or black-pepper pdr ( I use bit of cloves and pepper powder when prepared as snack, slight hint of spice goes well with evening tea/coffee)
  • pinch of salt
Method for extracting the jackfruit arils and separating the seeds from the flesh:
  1. Apply oil on your hand, cutting board and knife. Also a good idea to spread a newspaper for easy cleanup. As when fruit is pruned, the inner part (core) secretes a sticky, milky liquid, which can hardly be removed from the skin, even with soap and water. Applying oil ahead helps the clean-up. 
  2. Separate each firm yellowish aril (seed coat, flesh), which has an intense sweet taste.

  3. Slit open each aril and reach in to pull out the seed and its coat - thin, waxy, parchment-like and easily removable testa (husk) and a brownish, membranous tegmen.
Steps to make Mulka:
  1. In a blender or food processing grind the Jackfruit pods/aril to a smooth paste.
  2. In a deep bowl, add the ground Jackfruit paste. 
  3. Add coconut, jaggery and cardamom powder Jackfruit paste, and mix it all together. Optional ingredients other than the baking powder may be mixed together at this stage.

  4. Start adding the wheat flour little by little and see how much you need. ( If baking powder is used, add it along with the flour)  The consistency should be of thick cake or pakoda batter. If it is too runny, add more wheat flour. If it is too hard, add bit of milk or water and mix.

  5. Pour oil into a frying pan and place our medium-high flame. Once the oil is hot enough, take out small portion of dough and slowly place them in hot oil. If you are not comfortable with hand, use a table spoon to carefully put the dough in the oil.  Don't worry about the shape of the mulkas. Fry them in small batches and keeping the flame in medium-low.  Use a slotted spoon to turn the mulkas so that they cook evenly on all sides. They are ready after 2-3 minutes or as soon as they have a rich, dark golden color. Take them out from oil. Place them on kitchen paper tissue to drain excess oil.
  6. Mulkas are ready to eat. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Also try my Banana Mulka recipe.

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~ Halasina Hannina Mulka - Jackfruit Fritters ~
Posted by Swetha @ 6/26/2020 02:43:00 PM :: 0 comments

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Crispy Lavash Rolls - Substitute for Vegetable Puff

Hello, welcome to one more of my blog-post. This recipe I came up with by accident ..say about 15 years ago. A new small Mediterranean grocery store opened next to the craft-store I usually visit.  I just dropped by to check out what they had. Besides all the dry-fruits, there were many interesting things I had never seen before. Since, there were no other customers, I asked plenty of questions for the storekeeper who was more than happy to answer me. I walked out with lots of dry-fruits, a bottle honey, box of baklava, some veggies and a pack of Lavash bread.  The bread was in huge rectangle shape, I cut them into smaller pieces and warmed them on tawa to have for dinner with curry. But as I warmed it, the bread turned crispy and brittle like papad. Hmm! this is not good. Well I had to come up with something to use the bread. 15 years ago, internet was not filled with information or recipes as it is now. Did not find much online. So I came up with idea of making roles. Of course, now, when you search up on internet you will see so many recipes using Lavash bread, most commonly Lavash bread warps. So here is what I came up with.... an healthy alternative for Vegetable Puff you get in Indian bakery.
Ingredients:
  • Lavash bread 
  • Dry curry - I usually use onion and potato curry or any other curry will do
  • Butter - 2 tbsp
  • Garlic - 2 cloves
  • Spices and Herbs for flavoring 
Method:
  1. Cut Lavash bread into  about 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle pieces
  2. Warm up the curry if it is cold
  3. Melt butter.
  4. Chop and crush garlic in to course paste in a mortar. Add it to the melted butter.
  5. To the butter-garlic mix, add other spices and herbs of your choice. I add black pepper powder, oregano, parsley etc. Keep aside.
  6. Lay the Lavash bread piece. spoon some curry on one corner. Roll the bread. Apply bit of water on the other end so that the bread sticks and holds the shape (as shown in the picture)
  7. Prepare the rolls with rest of the Lavash bread pieces
  8. Heat a flat tawa (griddle). I am using an electric tawa here.

  9. Place the prepared rolls and grill them on medium low 
  10. Using a brush, apply the butter mix over the rolls. 
  11. After the bottom-side cooks and turns to golden color, turn over the rolls
  12. Apply the butter mix on the now top-side and cook until golden brown. 
  13. Once done, remove from the tawa.
  14. Serve hot with a dip of your choice (like ketchup, hot-sauce, chutney, hummus or flavored cream-chess/yogurt)
Enjoy Crispy Lavash Rolls with your family. This is also a good option for kids meal and  for their lunch box

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~ Crispy Lavash Rolls - Substitute for Vegetable Puff ~
Posted by Swetha @ 6/26/2020 12:07:00 PM :: 0 comments

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Pathrode | Pathravade | Patra | Colocasia Leaves Rolled Fritters

Thursday, June 25, 2020
Pathrode or Pathravade or Patra  is vegetarian dish from India. It is made from Colocasia leaves (chevu in Tulu, taro, kesuve or kachu or arbi) stuffed with rice flour and flavorings such as spices, tamarind, and jaggery(Wikipedia). Patram in Sanskrit and Patha in Hindi means leaf, Vade means fritters. Both combined makes the word Pathrode or Pathravade.


Patrode is my father's one of the favorite dish. So naturally, he makes sure we had good supply of Colocasia leaves in our terrace garden. He has 'Green thumb' and grows them in pots (picture below). The plant gives a nice green tropical touch to garden too. In fact, it is  everyone's favorite snack in our house. We all pitch-in to help prepare this dish and eat as well ;)  I should say, it does get messy during preparation, but  who cares, it is so delicious and has an unique taste, once you taste it you would want more. Usually made in the afternoon to have it for evening snack and side-dish for dinner. Here I am sharing my mother's Pathrode recipe.


 WARNING: The Colocasia plant contains an irritant which causes intense discomfort to the lips, mouth and throat. This acridity is caused in part by microscopic needle-like raphides of calcium oxalate monohydrate. It must be processed by cooking, soaking or fermenting – sometimes along with an acid like lime or tamarind before being eaten. (Wikipedia). Hence it is better to harvest tender leaves. My father knows when exactly to harvest the leaves. If left them for long the itchy irritant gets worse. Note: it is important to use ample tamarind in the recipe and also apply (coconut) oil on hands while handling the raw leaves. 

Also check out my version of  Palak/Spinach Pathrode recipe

Ingredients:
  • 20 - Colocasia leaves
  • 1 cup - Rice 
  • 1 cup - Whole Moong | Mung Beans | Hesaru Kaalu
  • 1 tbsp - Toor dal | Pigeon-peas
  • 2 tbsp - Dhania | Coriander seeds
  • 1 tbsp - Jeera | Cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp - Methi | Fenugreek seeds
  • ½ tsp - Mustard seeds
  • 2 tsp - Urad dal | Black gram
  • 2 tsp - Channa dal | Split chickpeas
  • ½ cup - fresh grated coconut.
  • 20 - Red chillies or depending on how spicy you want use the amount chillies . I use Byadgi red chilli which is on the milder side. May choose to combine Kashmiri and Byadgi chilli to achieve desired spice.
  • 3 tbsp - Tamarind paste
  • 1 tbsp - Jaggery 
  • 1 tsp - turmeric pdr
  • Salt - as per taste.
  • ½ cup  - Oil for shallow frying. I use coconut oil, which gives authentic flavor.

Preparing the Leaves:
  1. Cut off the stem. To trim off the thick veins off the Colocasia leaves, put the leaves on its back on a flat surface, use a knife in an angle and slide it to remove the thick veins. The thick veins has more irritants and will give more itchiness, besides it will be easy to fold with the hard veins gone.
  2. Soak the Colocasia leaves in water (with handful of salt) for about 10 to 15 minutes. 
  3. Remove the leaves from water. With a kitchen towel, dab and wipe the leaves dry.

Preparing the Masala:
  • Soak rice, whole mung beans and Toor dal overnight or for at least three hours.
  • In a pan, dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds. Transfer it to a blender.
  • In the same pan, now dry roast, urad dal, channa dal and red chillies. Add it to the blender.
  • In the same pan, dry roast grated coconut. Add it to the blender along with other roasted ingredients.
  • To the blender, add tamarind paste, jaggery, turmeric pdr and salt. Add 2 tbsp of water and grind. If needed, add more water. Grind it into a smooth paste.
  • Drain soaked rice, beans and dal. Add it to the blender and grind it into slightly course paste. 
  • Keep the ground paste aside. 
Prepping and cooking the Pathrode:

- This part gets messy, spread a clean newspaper or a big plastic sheet.
- Place one big leaf face-down on the sheet.
- Evenly apply the ground masala on the leaf.

 - Now place another leaf (face-down) over the first one and apply the masala. 
- Due to the masala on the first leaf, the next leaf will stick to it and stay put.

- Repeat the steps with couple of more leaves.
- Now folder over the two sides to give an even edge. 

-Apply masala over the folded area. 

- Now fold-in bottom 1/4 section and apply masala

- Do the same with the top 1/4 section.

- Now fold-over the half to form a nice evenly shaped rectangle.
- Note: you may want to shape your Pathrode so it fits in your steam-cooker.  If you have a small cooker use less leaves to form small bundled shape. It just needs lot of layers to give that flaky texture. 

Tie it with a (thick) cotton yarn/thread to help hold the shape.

- Repeat the steps with rest of the leaves to make more bundles.

- Now Pathrode is ready to be cooked.

-On a steam cooker stand or idli stand place the bundled Pathrode as shown in the picture

-Add water to the bottom section of the steam cooker (or pressure cooker)
- Bring the water to boil
- Place the stand and rest of the Pathrode bundles.
- Cover and steam cook on medium flame for about 25 to 30 minutes until done
- If using pressure cooker, don't place the weight (just like cooking idli)

- Once cooked and flame is turned off, let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Cut off the thread and cut the Pathrode into 2 cms roles.
- On a flat tawa, shallow roast on both sides applying coconut oil. This step is optional but it gives that extra bit of crunchiness on the outer layer. 

Serve hot as a snack or as a side dish. 
Enjoy one of the unique and exotic vegetarian dish from Coastal South India.

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~ Pathrode | Pathravade | Patra | Colocasia Leaves Rolled Fritters ~
Posted by Swetha @ 6/25/2020 11:40:00 AM :: 0 comments

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Dudhi halwa / Lauki halwa / Sorekai halwa / Bottle gourd halwa

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Bottle gourd is one of vegetable I stay away from, not a big fan of it when used in curry. But do love the halwa made out of it. The halwa just melts in your mouth. Nobody can guess halwa is made out of Bottle gourd.  Due to its cooling nature, this halwa can be included for the Jaundice patient's diet - keep in mind to use Jaggery instead of sugar and no nuts, raisins are ok.
Halwa recipesCarrot halwaFalooda and China grass halwaDuddi HalwaSuji Pineapple halwa and Kashi Halwa.

Ingredients:
  • 1 - Bottle gourd 
  • 1½ cups - Milk
  • 1 ½ cups - Sugar 
  • 1 ½ tbsp - Ghee 
  • ¼ tsp -  Cardamom(Elaichi) powder 
  • Sliced Almonds or Cashew-nuts and raisins - as per taste
  • 1 tbsp - condensed milk (optional)
Method:
  1. Wash and peel the bottle gourd skin. Use a large hole grater to grate. If the Bottle gourd is tender use the center core with seeds or else discard it. 
  2. You may squeeze grated bottle-gourd to remove the liquid , but l don't mind using it to cook the bottle-gourd as I want to keep all the nutrients. It will just take few extra minutes to thicken while cooking
  3. Add milk to grated bottle-gourd and cook in a heavy bottom sauce-pan or pressure cook till one whistle.
  4. After the cooker is cooled, transfer the mixture to a heavy bottom vessel and cook it on stove on medium flame.
  5. Mix sugar(or jaggery) to the mixture and keep stirring.
  6. When most of the liquid is gone, mix ghee and almond and raisins (and slightly roasted cashew) to the mixture. Stir for a minute and turn of the flame.
  7. Stir in the Cardamom powder.
  8. While it is still warm transfer the halwa on to a serving tray and apply edible silver leaf for garnishing. (optional)
  9. Bottle-gourd halwa may be served warm or cold.
Variation:
. Add 2 Tbl.sp of crumbled plain khoa when halwa is three fourth cooked.
. Reduce the amount of sugar and add sweetened condensed milk for a rich taste.

Halwa recipesCarrot halwaFalooda and China grass halwaDuddi HalwaSuji Pineapple halwa,  Kashi Halwa and Badam Halwa

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~ Dudhi halwa / Lauki halwa / Sorekai halwa / Bottle gourd halwa ~
Posted by Swetha @ 6/23/2020 08:51:00 PM :: 0 comments

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Weekend Beading - Creations by my Daughter

Sunday, June 21, 2020
My daughter had some free time during her winter-break, so she pulled out all my beading supplies to work on some beading project. She also found my silk embroidery thread collection and voila, she made some pendents and earrings. Some to keep and some to gift. 


Also, scroll down to see earrings she made for me from seashells she found during one of our trips to the beach. Enjoy!










Sea Shell Earrings
My daughter found this identical mini conch shells during one of the trip to the beach. She made holes, applied thin line of gold nail polish at the top and bottom, applied clear (top-coat) nail polish to the shell to give it a overall shine and made earring for me - mother's day gift.



Atom Pendent
Here is one more of my daughter's creation she made in her 3D-Art class and gave it as Mother's day gift few years back. One of my favorite and my priceless treasure.  I wear this beautiful pendent on a long (32") chain and never fail to receive compliments. 

Here is a proud story behind the pendent. On that particular year, she had signed up for too many advance classes, especially multiple science classes. I was worried she would get stressed out with all her school work and convinced her to drop at least one class, which she did. She drop AP Physics and planned to take it next school year. Since she had one free period, she signed up for 3D-Art class. Well, the Atom- pendent was one of her project from 3D-Art class. She designed, cut, buffed and polished the metal pendent and presented it to me on Mother's Day.

Beauty of the story ... "I made her drop a Science class, but not the Science out of her"



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~ Weekend Beading - Creations by my Daughter ~
Posted by Swetha @ 6/21/2020 11:59:00 AM :: 0 comments

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Mixed Vegetable Sagu

Friday, June 19, 2020

Mixed vegetable sagu (Saagu) is a Karnataka dish. In Karnataka, most of the local restaurants, when you order Poori (Puri), it comes with mixed vegetable sagu unlike in North India, where they would serve Aloo bhaji(potato curry) or chana (chickpeas) masala. It will be even listed as Poori Sagu on the menu, and in some restaurants there is the option of ordering poori bhaji too. It is also served with chapati and dosa along with chutney and/or sambar.  There are many variations of sagu recipes. Some don't use onion and some even add garlic. I am sharing the recipe the way I make. Hope you like it.
Sago is usually served with breakfast bread like poori, dosa or chapathi. It is a very simple and easy to make dish, but delicious. If you ignore the poori, sagu on its own is very healthy. In other words, you can feel less guilty eating the fried poori :P
In my opinion, using Chayote makes the Sagu taste better. They are very rich in nutrition. Chayote has many names, depending on which part of the world you are, you will have to learn a new name. I grew-up knowing it as Seeme Badanekaayi in Kannada, and Chou Chou in Tamil. 

Ingredients:
  • 1 - Big Potato
  • 1 - Chayote [ Seeme badanekaayi ]
  • 1 - Long Carrot
  • 1 - Medium size Onion
  • 1 cup - String Beans 
  • 1 cup - Green Peas fresh (or dried peas- soak overnight and pressure cook with salt)
  • Salt - as per taste
  • 1 tbsp - oil
  • ½ tsp - mustard seeds
  • pinch - Asafoetida / Hing
  • 10 - curry leaves


Ingredients for Masala:
  • ½ cup - grated coconut
  • 1 tbsp - fried Split Chickpeas/ Hurigadale/ Roasted Channa dal
  • 1 small - onion -cut
  • 1 inch - ginger chopped
  • 4 - 5 - Green chillies
  • 1 tsp - Poppy seeds
  • 1 handful - Fresh coriander/cilantro leaves, 
  •  Optional: Cashew( 4 to 5), cloves (3), cinnamon (1") 
Method:
  1. Wash all the Veggies. 
  2. Peel the skin off of Potato, Carrot and Chayote. Cut them into small cubes
  3. Cut Onions into big chunks to be cooked along with veggies 
  4. Cut string-beans into 1 cm long pieces.
  5. Shell green peas and keep aside. If using dried peas, you need to soak it for at-least 8 hours and cook. I usually cook them separately in pressure-cooker with salt. 
  6. In a sauce pan, add all the veggies, 2 to 3 cups of water and salt. Cook on medium flame. I first add potato, carrot and Chayote as it takes longer to cook, then after a while I add onion, beans and peas.
  7. Meanwhile, with sufficient water, grind all the Masala ingredients to a smooth paste.
  8. Once the veggies are half cooked, add the ground Masala, mix and cook further on low-medium flame.
  9. Once veggies are cooked, turn off the flame
  10. Seasoning: Heat oil in a small seasoning pan, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. As the mustard seeds start to sputter, add Asafoetida and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning over the Sagu.
  11. Serve hot Sagu with Poori, dosa, chapathi or rice. 


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~ Mixed Vegetable Sagu ~
Posted by Swetha @ 6/19/2020 10:31:00 AM :: 0 comments

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