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Amla (Gooseberry) Candy

Amla (Gooseberry) is a fruit which is rich source of vitamin C. It has many health benefits related to hair, eyes, diabetes and heart related disease. Generally this fruit is available during Winter in India.  You can get it from Indian stores fresh or frozen. Obviously fresh ones would taste much better than frozen. There are various recipes which you can make from Amla like pickle, khati meethi chatney, murrabba, jam or candy. This recipe is to prepare khathi meethi Amla candy which you can just eat like that as part of you daily routine. The recipe is prepared by grating the Amla and cooking on a low flame either with sugar or honey with certain spices. Amla candy can to stored in refrigerator for long term use.

Amla Candy_

Tandoori Tangdi 65

Tandoori Tangdi 65 is a variation of original recipe of chicken 65. Generally chicken 65 is prepared using deep fried chicken with 65 spices however if you don’t want to deep fry the chicken, you can use this recipe to prepare a grilled chicken 65. The recipe came out pretty well without having to deep fry the chicken. Tandoori is basically chicken marinated with yogurt, tandoori masala and spices for over night and grilled into clay oven. Roasted chicken into clay oven gives a authentic flavor and taste but you can make them into electric oven. This recipe has long passive time so you need to plan ahead.The chicken requires about marination for 6-7 hours however overnight would be best. You can adjust the spiciness based on your taste. You can also use leftover tandoori chicken for this recipe.

Achari Chili Tofu Roll

Achari chili tofu roll is a yummy veggie roll also known as a kati roll. Kati roll is popular snack item in northern part of India especially in Kolkata. This recipe is prepared using colorful bell peppers, onion, tofu which is flavored with achari masala and spices. The tangy filing rolled in a wheat flat bread (roti) makes it a perfect dish.  For this recipe I have used homemade Indian flat bread or roti but you can also use store bought Tortillas for roll. You can customize the recipe by changing the filling content according to your taste. You could add grilled fish, chicken and paneer instead of tofu as part of the filling. Achari chili tofu roll is supper easy and it can be packed for kids or adult lunch boxes. It’s a very good recipe for travel, you can pack it and carry and eat on the go.

Motichoor Ladoo

Motichoor ladoo is a delicious mouthwatering sweet which is famous in Northern part of India. Ladoo is commonly offered to GOD during worship as well as served on festival or occasions. These ladoos are all time favorite of my kids favorite. The ladoos are made from batter made of besan flour and deep fried in oil/ghee, then simmered in sugar syrup to thicken for final preparation. The laddos are flavored with rose essences and cardamon powder. The most important part of the recipe is the batter consistency and temperature of oil/ghee. Batter consistency should be medium thin so that it easily pass through Jhara. The process is little complex as you need to tap Jhara over the heated oil/ghee pot at a consistent speed to get the boondi shape. To make fine boondi you need Jhara with fine holes.

Motichoor laddo and boondi ladoo are little different with each other as boondis for motichoor is much finer than boondis of boondi ladoo. Preparing these ladoos is a bit time consuming and involved process and requires little practice and patience to get it perfect. I was able to get it right in my second attempt. I prepared these for Diwali and it came out perfect.

 

Baked Bhakarwadi

Bhakarwadi is a tea time snacks item which is traditionally a spicy Maharashtrian snacks prepared using hot spices and deep fried in oil. In this recipe instead of deep frying, I have baked it in oven however both of them tastes similar. The fillings for the Bhakarwadi can be customized to your taste. Generally it has sweet and sour taste and nice aroma of spices. The outer crust is made either from all purpose flour or a mixture of  besan and regular wheat flour. If you don’t like the baked one, you can just deep fry instead of baking. Bhakarwadi can be store in a air-tight container for weeks and goes well with cup of tea.

Strawberry Chum Chum

Chum chum is delicious Bengali sweet similar to Rasogulla which is prepared using home made paneer balls soaked in to sugar syrup. Chum chum is little different as it has mawa filling and then rolled into desiccated coconut. Chum chums is generally made in oval shape. This recipe attempts to give a fruit flavored taste to Chum Chum using strawberry. If you don’t like strawberry, you can use any other fruit or skip that too. The recipe uses homemade mawa for chum chum filling. You can buy ready made mava from the store although homemade is always fresh and tastes better.

Dahi Chane Ke Kabab

Kababs are mouthwatering appetizer which everyone loves. There are varieties kababs both veg and non-veg. Dahi (yogurt) chane ke kabab is a delicious appetizer which is so soft that it melts in your mouth. This recipe is made using hung curd, boiled black chana (chickpeas) with flavorful Indian spices. This recipe is very simple & easy to make & slightly different than dahi ke kabab recipe. In the whole process the most time consuming part is preparing hung curd. For this recipe hung curd should be very thick otherwise you will not able to make kabab with good texture. This yummy kabab can be served with date & tamarind or/and coriander-mint chutney. You can pack it as side item for lunch boxes along with some tomato sauce.

Mix Veg Pakora

Pakoras are mouthwatering snacks and everyone loves it. Pakora recipe is very simple recipe. Mix of veggies coated with besan (gram flour) & spices batter and deep fried. Specially on a rainy day it goes very well with a cup of masala tea. There are varieties of pakora recipe like Poi Leaves Pakora, Spinach Pakora, bread pakora, onion pakora, paneer pakora, chili pakora and so on.  The process of making all of them are similar however with little tweak depending on main ingredient. This recipe uses mix of vegetables like Lauki (bottle gourd), Baingan (brinjal), Zucchini, Potato, Bhindi (okra) for pakora. You can add any of your favorite vegetables. Pakora can be prepared on any occasion or just as a tea time snack. Adding rice flour makes pakora more crispy. The spicy pakora when served with tamarind & mint-coriander chutney tastes awesome.