Bridal Shower for Nithya - Badam Kheer / Almond Milk

What is a celebration without a traditional drink. Badam Kheer!! This is an easy to make Almond drink which tastes great when warm and still better when served chilled. And what are we celebrating?? Nithya's (virtual) Bridal Shower. I bet you would very well know Nithya of 4thsensecooking. For those of you who don't, Nithya is a lovely blogger and an excellent photographer. Do check out her space for some beautiful food clicks. 
We are celebrating this joyous occasion by having a bridal shower. And what better way to celebrate than to cook up, and by cook up we mean literally with food our common interest. To make it even more interesting we decided to make dishes from her space itself. I am bringing Badam Kheer and Tollhouse Cookies. Do check out Nithya's recipe here.
Also do check out who else are participating in the celebration. And for you come join the fun!!

Ingredients:
Serves - 4
Milk - 500 ml (approx 2 cups)
Almonds/Badam - 20 to 25
Sugar - 4 tbsp
Saffron strands - 5-6
Hot water - 1 cup

Method:
Soak the almonds in hot water for an hour. Peel the almonds by just pressing hard with the thumb and index finger. The skin would just come off easily. Puree the almonds in a mixer using little water until it becomes a smooth paste. Heat the milk and sugar until it boils. Take about a tbsp of hot milk and add the saffron strands. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the ground almond paste and allow it to boil for another 5 mins. Remove from heat and add the saffron milk. Serve warm. You can also refrigerate for 2-4 hrs and serve chilled. 

Also do check out the virtual bridal shower party also being hosted at:

Anamika - Taste Junction
Archana - Mad Scientist's Kitchen
Priya Mitharwal - Mharo Rajasthan Recipes
Priya Mahadevan - Priyas Now Serving
Priya Suresh - Priya Easy n Tasty Recipes
Priya Sreeram - Bon Appetit
Radhika - Tickling Palates
Radhika Vasanth - Food for 7 stages of life
Reva - Kaarasaaram
Rupali - Recipe Grab Bag
Sanjeeta - Different Strokes
Vardhini - Zesty Palette

Bridal Shower for Nithya - Toll house Cookies

The day a girl becomes a bride, is like no other. It is one of the few most cherished moments of life. It is the day she embarks the new journey of life. Holding someone's hand, with dreams in heart and sparkle in the eyes. Having mixed feelings of missing her mother's home, excited and anxious about the new home. It is indeed a special day for her!! Very soon one of our friends, a lovely blogger and a beautiful photographer, is going to enter into wedlock. I believe you would have guessed who it is by now. For those who are still wondering, it is none other than Nithya of 4thsensecooking who is getting married this November.

Thanks to the advent of technology, the world has become very small. Though nothing can equal the joy of celebration in person, we all would want to wish her and celebrate with her, the most joyous period of her life. Here we are all, united, to wish her all the best and a very Happy Married Life. So today we are throwing this virtual bridal shower for Nithya to express our happiness and to celebrate with her.

And what could be a better way to celebrate than with food, the quintessential subject, that binds us all... So we decided to cook it up, literally and that too Nithya's own dishes from her own blog - 4thsensecooking. I chose this Tollhouse Cookies and Badam Kheer(do check out this space in a few hours). Hope she likes the recreation of her own favorite dishes and gets a taste of it through the world wide web. See Nithya's recipe here.

Ingredients:

Makes - about 3 dozen cookies
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2
Pure Vanilla Extract - 3/4 tsp
NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels - 1 cup + 1/4 cup for topping

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift the all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt together. In a  mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars with a hand mixer or whisk until the sugars gets dissolved. Add the eggs one my one mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in 3 or 4 batches, mixing well after each addition. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and fold in using a spatula. Take one tablespoon measurement of the dough and place in the cookie sheet, each at least 2 inches apart. Top the cookie dough with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 mins. Repeat for remaining dough. Serve with a cup of milk.
I made these cookies specially for Nithya's Bridal Shower.
This is for you Nithya and for all those visiting this virtual bridal shower!!

Also do check out the virtual bridal shower party also being hosted at
Anamika - Taste Junction
Archana - Mad Scientist's Kitchen
Priya Mitharwal - Mharo Rajasthan Recipes
Priya Mahadevan - Priyas Now Serving
Priya Suresh - Priya Easy n Tasty Recipes
Priya Sreeram - Bon Appetit
Radhika - Tickling Palates
Radhika Vasanth - Food for 7 stages of life
Reva - Kaarasaaram
Rupali - Recipe Grab Bag
Sanjeeta - Different Strokes
Vardhini - Zesty Palette

All-Purpose Tomato Thokku/Pickle/Chutney | Side Dish for Idli Dosa

I had been recently trying to make jams and chutneys to preserve and to come in handy for that very-hungry-want-food-immediately days. After my successful attempt at the Dates and Figs jam, I made this Tomato thokku from Denny's site. This all-purpose thokku is a great side to idli/dosa/upma/Adai and also to bread/chapathi/parathas/rotis/curd rice. The below proportions lasted for a couple of weeks for me and I am making a batch again today as I am typing this. 
For my new readers, Denny of Oh Taste N See and I are college buddies who share the common interest of food blogging. I always wonder how she manages to cook up a storm every week. Yes, she has guests or friends over for lunch/dinner every weekend. If she is not having guests for a weekend, she goes to some potluck :). Do check out her space for a colorful treat!

Ingredients:
Yields about 2 cups of finished thokku
Crushed Tomatoes - less than 2 cups - I used half of a 28 oz can of organic crushed tomatoes (Check out what I made with the remaining half of the canned tomatoes here)
Onions - 2 cups - approx one big onion halved and thinly sliced
Garlic - 3 cloves - sliced thin
Gingelly oil - 2-3 tbsp (available in Indian grocery stores)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Split Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 - 3/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig - optional - I didn't add
Salt - to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a wide non-stick pan over med-high heat. Add the mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves (if using). When the urad dhal changes color, add the sliced onion, garlic and a dash of salt. Cook till the onions turn soft and golden brown, stirring once in a while. Reduce the heat to medium and let the onions caramelize, about 5 minutes. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and garam masala and fry for a minute. Add the canned crushed tomatoes and salt to taste.
Allow the mixture to boil and check for salt/seasoning. Here comes the "be patient" part. Reduce the heat to med-low to allow the tomato to cook slowly (uncovered). Stir every 5 mins and cook for about 30 to 40 mins until all the water has evaporated and the chutney comes as one big mass and starts leaving the sides of the pan. At this stage the oil would start oozing out of the mixture. Add the lemon juice and fold to mix. Remove from heat and let it cool. When cool transfer it to a sterilized container. This can be stored in the fridge for weeks. Serve with idli/dosa/chapathi/bread/rice or anything you wish. As the name indicates this is an all-purpose side dish.
Note: Always use dry spoon when taking the chutney. Do not compromise on gingelly oil while making this chutney. It enhances the taste and acts as a natural preservative. If the canned tomatoes you use already has added salt, keep a check on the salt you add to the dish.

Ennai Kathirikkai Kuzhambu - II | Indian Curry Recipes

As I said long before earlier, I am here with the second version of the Ennai Kathirikai Kuzhambu. DH likes this version better because this was the one which I made first. This Kuzhambu/Curry takes longer to cook but the whole process is worth the effort when you taste this one with hot steamed rice. I had bookmarked this recipe months ago. I would never miss to pick up some cute baby indian eggplants when I see them. And 99% of the time it goes into making this kulambu. Now to the recipe..

Ingredients:
Serves - 2-3; Preparation time - 10 mins; Cooking time - 45 mins;
Recipe from here
Baby Indian Eggplants/Brinjals - 6-8
Oil - 1 tsp + 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Tamarind - size of a lime - soaked in warm water
Salt - to taste
Spice mix powder - 2 tsp + as needed for stuffing (recipe below)

Method: 
Extract about 2 cups of tamarind water from the soaked tamarind. Wash and pat dry the brinjals. With the stems intact slit the bottom to a 'X' shape with a paring knife. The slit should be halfway through the brinjal. Make sure you dont slit it open reaching the stem. Use a teaspoon to fill the slits with the spice mix powder. Stuff as much powder as it can hold to all the brinjals. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wide pan and place the stuffed brinjals. Cook it by turning over once in 4-5 mins until all sides are cooked and soft. Have the heat in medium flame all the time. The brinjals would be done in about 20 mins. When done remove from heat. In another pan heat a teaspoon of oil and splutter the mustard seeds. Add the turmeric powder and the cooked brinjals with the tamarind water, 1 cup water and salt. Allow it to boil and add the leftover spice mix powder (about 2 tsps heaped). Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the kuzhambu to simmer for 20 mins until it thickens. Serve with hot steamed rice.
Note: I had reserved about 2 tsps of the spice mix powder to season my Vazhaikai Podimas. 

Spice mix powder:
Oil - 1 tsp
Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp
Dry Red Chillis - 7 or 8
Toor dhal - 3 tsp
Urad dhal - 3/4 tsp
Chana dhal - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Method:
Heat oil and fry all the ingredients (except salt) in medium heat for about 5-7 mins. When roasted well, allow it to cool and grind to a fine powder in a mixie/coffee grinder adding salt. Make sure that the mix is salty because we are not going to add salt to the brinjals separately. 

Sending this to HLI-Eggplant event by Kalyani.

Cholafali for Indian Cooking Challenge / Chorafali Step-by-step with pictures

The chosen recipe for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge is Chorafali - A Gujarati snack. Having not seen or tasted Chorafali is not much of an issue when I have not even heard of the name before now. But that aspect of trying out an unknown snack was the challenge really. Lataji's step-wise recipe was very helpful for a newbie like me. The recipe called for besan and mathia flour. When I tried googling I came to know that mathia flour was the one used to make papad like deep fried crispy snack (Nasto) popular in Gujarat. However I used the mathia flour substitution given by Lataji. I halved the original recipe and here is my recipe and notes.

Ingredients:
Using Standard cup measurements
Besan/Chick pea/ Garbanzo beans flour - 1 cup
Urad dhal/Black gram dhal flour - 1/2 cup
Moong dhal flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Soda Bi-carb - a big pinch
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Lukewarm Water - To make the dough
Oil - as required to pound the dough and to grease while rolling
To sprinkle on the fried cholafalis
Salt - 2 tsp (Original recipe calls for black salt, but regular table salt worked fine for me)
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp

Method:
Making the dough:
Sieve the flours and the soda bi-carb together. In a small pan heat the 1/4 tsp of salt until warm and add to the sifted flours. Add the ghee and mix well. Now add the warm water slowly and mix well to form a stiff dough. The dough should be tight and not pliable.

Softening the dough:
Now comes the challenging part (well, for me). Oil a flat surface, I used a cutting board. Take lemon sized portion of the dough and place it on the oiled surface and beat with a wooden rolling pin. When all the dough (of the small portion) is flattened, apply oil over it and fold (or roll) it. Beat again with the rolling pin. Repeat the oil, fold and beat process until the dough becomes soft, pliable and lighter in color. Repeat with the rest of the dough in parts.

Rolling out:
Take a small lemon sized portion of the dough and roll it very thin. Cut into rectangles of size 1 in x 3 in (approx). It should be so thin that you should be able to see the surface (cutting board n my case). If you are not able to roll out thin then the dough needs more pounding.

Fry and Serve:
Heat the oil for deep frying in medium-high heat. Too much heat will make the cholafalis turn brown faster. Drop the cut out pieces in the oil and try to hold in down in the hot oil with the slotted spoon. This way the the cholafalis will try to puff up. (Remember making pooris, same concept). Turn over once and fry for few more seconds. Drain and remove with the slotted spoon to a plate lined with tissue paper to remove extra grease. Sprinkle the salt and chilli powder mixture as soon as it is out of the oil. Allow to cool and start munching. Can be stored in an air-tight container for a couple of days.

Notes:
1. If you do not have a wooden rolling pin use any hard object that would pound the dough well.
2. Always keep the dough covered to prevent drying out.
3. The thinner the dough is rolled and cut, the crispier your chorafalis would be.
4. I used homemade urad dhal flour and moong dhal flour. I dry roasted both lightly until it changed color. Allowed it to cool and used a mixer grinder to make fine flour.
5. Make sure the besan used is free of lumps.

Do check out all my fellow participators in the Challenge for this month in Srivalli's page.