SURUL POLI - SOUTH vs NORTH CHALLENGE

Most of you know that there is a event going on named 'South vs North Challenge', which is a brain child of my dear friend Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook....there are two teams South and North. Each team challenge each other in every month. I am so happy to complete this month's challenge recipe. The challenged recipe, 'Surul Poli' is given by my dear friend Shama Nagarajan from easy2cookrecipes. Where as me challenged to my South Indian friends with 'Labongo Latika'. 

'Surul Poli' is a crispy sugar coated roll with coconut filling. This is an authentic preparation of Kaveri delta region, Thanjavur sweet. A very special dessert for festive occassions. I made little changes, but the main flavour and process is almost same. Such a tasty delicious sweet it is, my full family enjoyed it whole heartedly. Thank you so much Shama for sharing this delightful festive sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE OUTER COVERING OF THE POLI:

½ Cup All Purpose Flour (Self Raising Flour / Maida)

½ tbsp Clarified Butter (Desi Ghee)

Pinch of Salt

Water as required

½ Cup Oil for deep frying

FOR THE FILLING:

¼ Cup Roasted Chana (Pottu Kadalai)

¼ Cup Sugar

1 tsp Clarified Butter (Ghee)

2 tbsp Freshly Grated Coconut

2 tbsp Cashew nuts

3-4 Pods Cardamom

1 tbsp Raisins

4-5 Chopped Dates

FOR THE SUGAR SYRUP:

½ Cup Sugar

½ Cup Water

FOR GARNISHING:

3-4 Cherries

1 tbsp Tutti Frutti

METHOD:

Heat 1 tsp clarified butter in a pan, ghee roast grated coconut and cashew nut for 2-3 minutes or until coconut releases aroma and turns slightly brown. Mix ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup roasted chana, coconut, cashew nuts and cardamoms in a chutney jar. Grind in a mixer into a fine powder. Set it aside.

In a large bowl, combine all purpose flour, ½ tbsp Clarified butter, pinch of salt. Knead it to make a soft smooth dough by using little water. Divide into 5 equal sized balls. Cover with a wet cloth and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat ½ cup water and ½ cup sugar in a saucepan. Boil till it forms string consistency. Remove from heat and set aside.

Now take a small ball from the dough and spread it like a poori (approx 3” diameter). Heat ½ cup oil in a pan, deep fry poori in oil. Drain poori on paper towel to absorb the excess oil. While it is still warm, dip it in the sugar syrup and place it immediately in the plate with dusted powder. Spread 2 tsp of grinded powder along with few raisins and chopped dates over it. Roll them immediately. Repeat the same for the remaining dough.

While serving, pour extra syrup and grinded extra powder on the top of the polis. Garnish with cherries and tutti frutti. Serve warm. You may store the remaining in an air-tight container.

Sending to: Shama's easy2cookrecipes

Sending to: Chandrani's Holiday Recipes

LABONGO LATIKA - SOUTH VS NORTH CHALLENGE

First of all wishing all my co-blogger friends, readers, visitors A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR, 2014. South vs North challenge completed its one year and running gloriously, which is today known by each and every co blogger friend, is a concept and brain-child of our sweet friend Divya Pramil of You too can cook Indian Food. Truelly a great going event where she divided this Indian Cuisine in two geographical parts: Northern Cuisine and Southern Cuisine. Food-bloggers have been placed in this event on the basis from where they belong to. A member from North team and a member from South team respectively will challenge the opposite team members with an authentic recipe from their respective zone and opposite team have to publish the same on their space with a month. Wish to join in SNC, no further delay, just mail to divya.pramil@gmail.com

Feeling proud to be a challenger in this month. Thanks a ton Divya dear for giving me this opportunity. Welcoming South team dearies and here is my lovely challenge to them............"LABONGO LATIKA". This mithai or sweet is made by Bengali's on very special occasion of Durga Puja or Makar Sankranti.

In Bengali 'Labongo' means CLOVE, simply an aromatic Indian spice, which I love a lot. Today, I am here with a very famous and traditional Bengali sweet "Labongo Latika", sweetened khoya or mawa encased in a crisp pastry and sealed with a clove, frying and soaking in the thicken sugar syrup. In my childhood days I saw my Grand Ma made this fingerlicking good sweet and all of us enjoyed and relished it too much. Hope you will like this yummilicious Bengali sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR OUTER CRUST:

2 Cups All Purpose Flour / Self Raising Flour (maida)
2 tbsp Sugar (preferably powdered)
1/4 tsp Salt
Pinch of Baking Powder
Pinch of Saffron, Soaked In 2 tbsp Warm Water
3 tbsp Clarified Butter (ghee)
Little Warm Water To Knead The Dough
1 Cup Refined Oil for Deep Frying
20 Cloves

FOR FILLING:

200 gm Mawa / Khoya
3-4 tbsp Sugar (according to taste)
1/8 tsp Nutmeg Powder
1/3 Cup Warm Water

FOR SUGAR SYRUP:

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
1 tsp Rose Essence / Rose Syrup

METHOD:

TO MAKE DOUGH:

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, 2 tbsp sugar, saffron water, clarified butter  and salt. Mix well. Add water little by little. Knead it to make a smooth dough. Cover with a wet cloth and rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 20 portions, by which make 20 equal flat balls and set those aside.

TO MAKE FILLING:

In a pan, crush mawa or khoya. Add ½ Cup warm water, nutmeg powder, Sugar in it. 

Heat the pan now and keep stirring continuously for about 6-7 minutes or till the mixture thicken. Switched off the flame now. 

Add raisins, mix nicely. Keep it aside and let it cool down a little.

TO MAKE SUGAR SYRUP:

Heat a sauce pan. Add 1 cup sugar and ½ cup water in it. Mix rose essence and let it boil. Two String consistency of syrup is required for this sweet.

HOW TO MAKE LABONGO LATIKA:

In the mean time, flat a ball by sprinkling little flour and make poori approx 4” diameter circle or oval. 

Take a spoonful filling and place at the center of the circle. Fold from two opposite sides. 

Lastly, with your wet fingertips, fold from the remaining opposite ends to make a pocket. Wrap the edges with little water and insert a clove to seal the pocket, so that the pocket won’t open easily.

Heat enough oil in a wok for frying labongo latika on medium low flame. Slowly add 4-5 pockets in it. Fry slowly till both sides turn into golden brown.  

Remove them from the oil and dip in thick sugar syrup for 4-5 minutes. Make sure that both sides of labongo latika are getting drenched in sugar syrup. Remove from syrup and arrange on serving plate. 

Always serve after a couple of hours at room temperature. You may store in an air-tight container and refrigerate for a week. Enjoy this lipsmacking good Bengali sweet!!!

Sending to:  Cook with Comfort ~Blog Anniversary Event, Holiday Recipes ~ 3rd Blog Anniversary Event

Hellow! My dearies from South Team, link your post with gorgeous clicks here...........

GULAB JAMUN - SN CHALLENGE

Today I am going to post this challenged recipe as I am the part of famous SNC team. South vs North Challenge doesn't require any introduction, which is created and owned by our sweet friend Divya Pramil. I am a part of Northern Team, triedout the recipes challenged by Southern Team arround the year. 

This month SNC completed 1 year, so this is the 'month of celebration' where Divya suggested to cook any of the 24 challenged recipes. All over India, people are in festive mood, our main festival 'Diwali' is knocking the door. This is the special time for all Indians for some special treats. Thus, I choosen the recipe "GULAB JAMUN", challenged by Pallavi Purani. This is a very famous traditional Indian sweet and really a very toothsome dessert as we all love it..."Yeh dil mange more....", thanks Pallavi for this awesome dish.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Powdered Milk
1&1/2 tbsp Semolina (sooji/rava)
3 tbsp Wheat Flour / All Purpose Flour (maida)
1/3 tsp Baking Powder
4 tbsp Clarified Butter (ghee)
1/2 Cup Cream
Oil / Clarified Butter To Fry

FOR SYRUP:

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Water
1/4 tsp Saffron (kesar/zaffran)
5-6 Cardamom Pods (lightly crushed)

METHOD:

Sift milk powder, wheat flour, semolina and baking powder in a bowl. Add clarified butter in it and mix thoroughly. Knead it nicely by adding cream to make a soft smooth dough.

Bring the dough together and with a palm greased with ghee make a ball and place in a bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it sit for 30 minutes.

On the other side, to make sugar syrup, bring the sugar and water to boil. Add saffron and cardamoms in it. Let sugar dissolves completely and boil it for 8-10 minutes on medium flame.

Make small balls out of the dough. Mean while you can fry the rolled jamuns. Heat sufficient oil on full flame in a pan . Once it smokes, reduce the flame to medium. After the smoke disappears, add one dough ball first. If it turns black instantly, you must reduce the flame to low-medium. We are looking for an inviting brown color on the dough balls. Be sure to constantly rolling the balls in the oil so that they get an even color, don't dump the jamuns so many in oil.

Remove jamuns from oil by using a slotted spoon when gulab jamuns are evenly golden and browned and add them directly into the sugar syrup. Keep the jamuns in the sugar syrup for atleast 3-4 hours before serving, which will make the jamuns soft and sweet from inside.

Warm in the microoven, serve gulab jamun hot with topped with little cream or pistachios. But I personally love to have warm gulab jamun topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

A FESTIVAL FULL OF SWEET CHILDHOOD MEMORIES,

SKY FULL OF FIREWORKS,

MOUTH FULL OF SWEETS,

HOUSE FULL OF DIYAS AND HEART FULL OF JOY

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI!!!!

Sending to Priya Suresh akka SN Challenge

Sending to Festival Treats, Diwali Bash 2013

PAASI PARUPPU PAYASAM / PAYATHAM PARUPPU PAYASAM / MOONG DAL KHEER

May lord Krishna

Show you the way in your life

As he has shown the way to
Arjuna in kurukshetra
May lord Krishna bless you on your way.

HAPPY JANMASHTAMI TO ALL....

I am very happy to take part of this interesting SNC event. A great going event started and organished by our sweet friend Divya Pramil from YOU TOO CAN COOK - INDIAN FOOD RECIPES. This is a monthly event where two teams, Southern and Northern team have to challenge each other with their authentic and regional dishes.

This month North team got a challenge to prepare Paasi Paruppu Payasam / Moong Dal Kheer from Divya Pramil and South team is challenged with Kesar Pista Kulfi by Shruti.

'Paruppu Payasam' is an easy payasam of specially Tamil Nadu, which is made with moong dal or chana dal. Here I added raw rice to it, that is purely optional. It is a jaggery based sweet. Getting the right consistency is difficult part, as it should not be too thick nor too runny. Milk adds richness and enhances the taste. Thanks Divya for this delicious kheer, we relished your recipe dear.

INGREDIENTS (FOR 6 SERVINGS):

100 gm / 1 Cup Split Green Gram Lentil (yellow moong dal)

25 gm / ½ Cup Raw Rice (pacharisi)

250 gms  Jaggery / Achu Vellam

10-15 Cashew Nuts (slitted)

5-6 Almonds (chopped)

1 tbsp Raisins

4 Pods Cardamom

2 tbsp Grated Coconut

1 Cup Milk

2 tbsp Clarified Butter / Ghee

METHOD:

Wash moong dal and raw rice in water and set aside.

Grind grated coconut and cardamom pods. Keep it aside.

In a pressure cooker add moong dal and raw rice with 300 ml water. Pressure cook for 10 minutes on low heat. Open the lid after the pressure drops.  Mash well the cooked dal and rice.

Pour milk in it.

Mix well and place the pan on heat again. Cook for several minutes on low heat. This consistency is very perfect, so extra water in not necessary here. (But if you think your dal is thick even after adding milk, add little water in it)

Pour jiggery in it and stir nicely. Check the sweetness, add more jaggery if necessary. 

Add coconut – cardamom powder here, keep stirring for another 2 minutes on medium heat.

In another pan / tadka pan, add clarified butter (ghee). When it starts to melt, add cashew nuts, almonds and raisins. Fry for 2 minutes on minimam heat, don't fry on high heat, nuts will burn quickly.

Add nuts as well as clarified butter in payasam. Fold nicely and remove from heat. (when it will cool down, the payasam will be thicken. If so, add little more milk or water and re-heat a little and stir well)

Garnish with few nuts and raisins on the top. Serve as a mouth watery dessert. 

Sending to Divya's "SNC Challenge"

CHETTINAD PAKODA KUZHAMBU - SNC CHALLENGE # 9

South vs North Challenge is a concept and brain-child of our lovely friend Divya Pramil of You too can cook. Most of our blogger friends are definitely known about this event. If you are really interested to join SNC, just mail to: divya.pramil@gmail.com. There are two groups in SNC, which are regionally divided into South and North. Every month a member of each group challenged each other with their authentic regional dishes. 

This month Priya Suresh, (who does not require any introduction in this food blogging world) from Priya's Versatile Recipes challenged North team a very authentic Tamil Nadu dish, Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu, a savoury curry made in Chettinad style. Where as Chandrani Banerjee Challenged South team a traditional mouthwatering Bengali dessert, Chanar / Paneer Jalebi.

'Chettinad cuisine' is the cuisine of the Chettinad region, which is located Southern part of Tamil Nadu state in South India. Chettinad cuisine is very famous for its unique flavour and use of variety of spices in cooking, specially hot, pungent with pound fresh masalas and coconut. Most of the dishes eaten with rice and rice based accompaniments such as idlis, dosais, appam, idiyappams and adais. This was my first attempt to make a chettinad veg curry and it came out a truly delish and tasty curry. We can have pakoda itself as a perfect crispy and yummy tea-time snack. Thanks a lot Priya akka for this wonderful and lipsmacking good kuzhambu recipe. Me and my whole family relished this Chettinad delicacy. Truely, we are in love with this amazing veg dish!

INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PAKODAS:
1/2 Cup Chana Dal / Bengal Gram (kadala paruppu)
2-3 nos. Dried Red Chillies
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
A Sprig of Curry Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

HOW TO MAKE PAKODAS:
Wash and soak Bengal gram for 2 hours. Put soaked dal, dried red chillies, fennel seeds, curry leaves and salt together. Grind with very little waterand make a coarse paste. Set it aside.

Heat oil in a wok for frying. Once hot, take a golf sized ball of pounded mixture and pinch gently a small quantity of this mixture as shapeless pakodas and drop into the hot oil and fry. Fry pakodas until they turns golden brown. Drain the excess oil with a paper towel and set aside.

INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING GRAVY:
2 Onions (finely chopped)
2 Tomatoes (finely chopped)
2 Green Chillies, cut into slits
6 Pods of Garlic (minced)
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tbsp Coriander Powder
1/3 tsp Turmeric Powder
Few Sprigs of Coriander Leaves (chopped finely)
3-4 tbsps Oil
Salt to taste

FOR SEASONING:
2 nos. Cloves
2 nos. Green Cardamoms
1" Cinnamon
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
2 Bay Leaves
A Sprig of Curry Leaves

TO GRIND:
1 tsp Poppy Seeds
4 tbsps Grated Coconut
6 nos Cashewnuts
1 tbsp Toasted Chanadal / Dalia (Pottu Kadalai)

HOW TO MAKE GRAVY:
Grind all the ingredients which are given under the list 'to grind' as fine paste by adding 2 tbsps of water. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in wok/kadai, add the whole spices given under 'for seasoning' and fry until they turns brown.

Add chopped onions, green chillies, tomatoes, garlic and salt. Saute till the veggies gets well cooked.

Now the pounded paste to the cooking veggies, fold well and cook in simmer for 2 minutes.

Add 5 cups of water, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder in it. Give a nice stir and cook in medium flame. Close the lid, cook for 5 more minutes. Keep the gravy watery. (Add the water if needed, once you add pakodas, they tend to absorb the gravy and finally no gravy will be left when the pakodas get well cooked in gravy. So keep the gravy enough watery.) Once the oil gets seperates slightly from the gravy, add the pakodas immediately to it. Don't stir the gravy after adding the pakodas, bring boil the gravy once and switch off the stove now. Finally add chopped coriander leaves to the gravy. Give a nice stir now. Switch off the heat.

Serve hot with steamed rice and enjoy this chettinad delicacy!

Sending to Priya akka.