Mahanandi

Did you see Stephen Colbert on C-span’s televised Correspondents’ Dinner, last Sunday night? His comedy skit was breathtaking in its boldness. Charming, clear and ironically straightforward – his comic delivery was a sight to behold. Finally it took a pretend journalist to state the obvious – the little emperor has no clothes and of course that made the ‘real’ journalists and the guest of honor spitting mad. If you enjoy political satire or like Colbert style, don’t miss out his stellar performance and checkout this site for transcript and video link. One has to admire his chutzpah.

Coming back to cooking, here is a traditional recipe where plantain and moong beans are cooked together in water and seasoned with green chilli-coconut paste. Rural in origin and often served with sorghum roti, this favorite curry of mine is a hearty, flavorful and filling meal, also one of the ways that I cook plantains aka green bananas.

Presoaked Whole Moong Beans, Green Chilli-Coconut Paste and Plantain cubes

Recipe:

1 plantain (green banana), peeled and cubed
2 cups of presoaked whole moong beans (soaked in water overnight)
6-8 green chillies
1 tablespoon of finely sliced fresh coconut
¼ teaspoon of turmeric
½ to 1 teaspoon of salt
For popu
1 tsp of mustard seeds, cumin, few pieces of dried red chilli and curry leaves

Take the presoaked whole moong beans, about 2 cups in a big vessel. Add 4 cups of water, quarter teaspoon of salt and cook them covered on medium-high heat for about 15 minutes undisturbed. Presoaked moong beans cook easily and can be done without using the pressure-cooker. It tastes somuch better cooked in this old style. Meanwhile do the prep work. Peel and cut plantain and make a smooth paste of green chillies-coconut.

After 15 minutes of cooking, check the moong beans. They must be tender by now. Add plantain cubes, turmeric and also water if needed. Cover and cook them on medium heat again for another 10 minutes. Plantains cook fast unlike potatoes and by the end 10 to 15 minutes of cooking, plantain cubes will be tender and the moong beans will be falling apart. That’s what we want. At this stage, stir in green chilli-coconut paste and cook for another 5 minutes.

Just before turning off the heat, heat a teaspoon of peanut oil in small vessel, add and toast the popu or tadka ingredients. Add this to the curry and stir. Turn off the heat. Serve and enjoy the best tasting curry, the kind you’d find in a humble Indian home (never in a restaurant). Usually served with chapati, sorghum roti or with rice.

Moong Bean-Plantain Curry with Chapatis ~ Our Simple Lunch

Kitchen Notes:
Prepare the curry little bit on the watery side.
The gravy of this curry comes from watery, overcooked moong beans and the greenchilli-coconut paste.
I’ve also added one banana pepper to this curry.

Pancake ponganalu or Ebleskivers is one of the recipes that I prepared last weekend for JFI-Mango event. By the way, event hosting is a very time consuming thing one can do, I can tell you that. I have more respect for the bloggers who host this type of events month after month. They must really love doing this.

How did you do it Indira? Enquired few future hosts of JFI. The way I did it was gathering all entries in one place, arranging them in neat piles and then did the write-up. Adobe photoshop/picasa(free) helped a lot with image resizing. Instead of following the traditional roundup style filled with adjectives and superlatives, I chose a different, practical approach for my recap. Also in a proper Indian way, I returned the courtesy by thanking all my participants individually. If you ever plan to host or have already committed to host this kind of event, expect to dedicate one full day to do the roundup. Of course, it all depends on the number of responses the event generates; still it takes minimum one day. So, plan ahead my peeps. 🙂

Few weeks ago, when I posted ponganalu– a unique south Indian breakfast preparation, the post generated interesting comments with links to almost similar type of Danish breakfast preparation called danish pancakes or Ebleskivers. In Danish version, they mix the pancake flour with eggs and milk and prepare the rounds and serve them with fruit jam or sauce. I am a big fan of fluffy pancakes so thought to try this version; also I already have the well-seasoned special type of iron skillet that’s needed to prepare them.

Recipe is simple to follow. Mix pancake flour with milk and I went with mashed ripe banana instead of eggs. Prepare the Danish pancakes, ponganalu style and serve them with homemade or storebought type of mango sauce. Delicious! They were like fluffy round pillows; delicate crust outside and insides are like biting into a warm cloud. You want to float forever in these clouds. I loved and had them dunked in Nirav mango pulp/sauce whereas Vijay went with the classic, the maple syrup. Anyway you prefer they are worth a try.

Pancake Ponganalu (Ebleskivers, Danish Pancakes) With Mango Sauce

Recipe:
1 cup of pancake flour (I used Aunt Jemima brand mix)
Peeled and smoothly mashed, half banana
1 to 1½ cups of milk
Ponganala Skillet and
Mango Sauce
Take the flour, milk and mashed banana in a vessel, whisk them thoroughly without any lumps. Consistency of batter must be like condensed milk (store bought), little bit tighter than the batter for regular pancakes. Heat a ‘ponganala‘ skillet and follow the photo-steps outlined here in my previous post about “ponganalu‘. Serve them hot with mango sauce.

No other fruit is as delicious and magnificent as mango. Now is the mango season in India and I thought mango would be the right ingredient to start the JFI. I was little bit nervous and was not sure how the response is going to be, since this is the first time I am hosting an event in my blog. The responses I received showed how dear this fruit is to all of us. Mango is not just a delicious fruit; most of us also have very fond memories related with it. That might be the mango tree in the back yard, or might be one of those summer vacations at grand parents’ house where we enjoyed the fruits, or might be the avakaaya preparation that we did with mother… so many precious mango memories!

I would like to thank all the participants, fellow bloggers and readers for your exhilarating enthusiasm, participation and interest. I am humbled to receive such a vivid variety of recipes for this event. Each one of these entries is excellent and I enjoyed them all and am sure you’d do too.

Following are the entries that I received for the JFI ~ Mango event.

Recipes with Green, Unripe Mango

Ambe Dal By Nupur of One Hot Stove Grated Mango, Chana Dal, Coconut, Cilantro and Tadka

Mango-Spinach Dal By Mythili of Vindu Mango, Spinach, Toor dal, Chilli Powder and Tadka

Mamidikaaya Chutney By Lakshmi of Flavors of Indian Rasoi Unripe Mango, Ginger, Chilli Powder

Mango Tokku By Menu Today Grated Mango, Gingelly Oil, Jaggery

Raw Mango Raita By Shilpi of Memoirs From My Kitchen Unripe Mango, Yogurt and Tadka

Vadu Maanga Pickle By Srikala of Mango Mirattals Whole Tender Mangoes, Mustard and Red Chillies

Uddamethi By Ashwini of Food For Thought Unripe Mangoes, Black Gram, Fenugreek

Mango Thokku (Grated Mango Pickle) By Karthi Kannan of Kitchenmate Grated Mango, Gingely Oil, Chilli Powder

Mamidikaya Pachi Pulusu By Love2Cook of Cooking Medley Unripe Mango, Onion and cilantro

Methamba – Sweet & Savoury Mango Relish By Vaishali of Happy Burp Mango Cubes, Jaggery, Chilli Powder

Mamidikaya Putnalu Pachadi By Santhi of Me and My Kitchen Mango, Dalia, Red Chillies and Jaggery

Aamer Chatni (Green Mango Chutney) By Sury of Lima Beans and Delhi Chaat Mango, Sugar, Ginger and Panch Phoron

Vendhaya Manga By Menu Today Unripe Mango Pieces, Red Chilli Powder, Hing

Green Mango in Jaggery Syrup By Anthony of Anthony’s Kitchen Green Mango Pieces, Jaggery

Raw Mango – Methi Chutney By Padma of Vantalu Unripe Mango, Methi seeds, red chilli powder

Mango Pickle (Aavakaaya) By Tanuja of Kodalis Kitchen Unripe Mango, Fenugreek, Mustard and Red chilli powder

Mango Curry By Bilbo of Smorgasbord Unripe Mango, Green Chillies and Tadka

Cut Mango Pickle By Smitha of Andhra Food Network Unripe Mango, Tamarind and Tadka

Recipes with Ripe Mango

Mango Sago By Rokh of Tham Jiak Mango, Sago Pearls and Milk

Mango, Coconut and Ricotta Tartlets By Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything Atleast Once Mango cubes and Puff Pastry

Mango Gazpacho By Mika of The Green Jackfruit Mango, Orange Juice, Evoo and Peppers

Mango-Pineapple Salsa by Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries Mango, Pineapple, Shallot and Bell Pepper

Mango Cake By Revathi of En Ulagam Mango, All Purpose Flour, Egg Whites and Raisins

Mini Mango Cheesecake By Saffron of Saffron Hut Mango, Cheesecake Mix, Walnuts and Milk

Maampazha Pulisseri By RP of My Workshop Mango, Yogurt, Coconut and Tadka

Mango-Ginger Chutney Rosie –What’s The Recipe Today Jim? Mango, Onion, Ginger and Garlic

Simple Mango Mousse By Ilva of Lucullian Delights Mango, Fresh Cream and Gelatin

Johnny Cake with Mango-Rhubarb Sauce By Linda of Out Of The Garden Mango, Rhubarb Stalks and Cornmeal

Mango Chaat By Gini of Salt and Pepper Mango, Grapes, Peanuts and Chaat Masala

Mamuang Kao By Susan of Porcini Chronicles Mango, Thai rice, Coconut milk, Sugar

Mambazha Kutan with Soy By Vidya of Today’s Menu Mango, Coconut, Soy, Buttermilk and Spices

Mango, Corn, Jicama Salad By Gabriella of Reluctant Housewife Mango, Corn, Jicama and Vinaigrette

Mango Pancakes By Nandita of Saffron Trail Fresh Grated Mango, All purpose flour, ginger, all spice and buttermilk

Mango Cupcakes By Marie-Laure of Ô Délices Mango, Millet, Milk and Coconut

Mango Tofu Curry By Mandira of Ahaar Ripe Mango, Tofu and Veggies

Recipes with Mango Puree/Pulp

Rice Pudding with Mango By Santhi of Me and My Kitchen Mango, Basmati Rice, Milk and Cardamom

Mango Creme Brulee By Yum of Record of What I’m Eating Mango, Heavy Cream, Egg Yolks and Chilli Powder

Mango Mousse By Archana of Spicyana Mangoes, condensed milk, Eggs and Whipped Cream

Spiral Mango Pastries By Gattina of Gattina Mango Puree, Macadamia Nut and Ricotta Cheese

Mango & Glutinious Rice Kuih By Puspha of Pusiva’s Culinary Studio Mango, Glutinious Rice, Coconut Milk

Mango Payasam By Ramya of Cooking Within My Grasp Mango, Milk, Sugar

Aam Ki Lassi (Mango Lassi) By Priya of Sugar and Spice Mango, Yogurt, Sugar and Orange Juice

Mango Crème Brulee By RP of My Workshop Mango Puree, Egg Yolks, Heavy Cream

Mango Pie By Vee of Past, Present and Me Mangoes, Creamcheese, Gelatin

Mango – Cracked Wheat Cake By Arjuna of Krishna&Arjuna’s World Mango Pulp, Cracked Wheat, Butter

Mango Pudding with Coconut Sago By Sam of Sweet Pleasure Mango Puree, Milk, Heavy Cream, Gelatin, Coconut Milk, Tapioca Pearls

Mango Pudding By Nandita of Saffron Trail Mango Puree, Evaporated Milk, Sugar and Gelatin

Kesar Mango Cheesecake By Rainee of la_pgal Mango Pulp, Tofu, Green Tea Fresh Mango and Cherry Topping

Sweet Mango Bobbatlu By Vineela of Vineela’s Cuisine Mango Pulp, Jaggery, All Purpose Flour and Ghee

Mango Payasam By Sailaja of Sailu’s Food Mango, Milk, Rice and Cardamom

Mango Shrikhand (Aamras) By Manasa of Sanjose, CA Mango Pulp, Yogurt, Sourcream and Sugar

Recipes with Dried Mango

Mango-Almond Oatmeal Cookies By Baking Fairy Dried Mango, Oatmeal, Almond

Some of My Recipes with Mango

Mango Pulihora (Mango Rice) By Indira of Mahanandi Grated Unripe Mango, Rice and Seasoning

Mango Dal By Indira of Mahanandi Unripe Mango, Toordal, Chilli Powder and Tadka

Mango Halwa By Indira of Mahanandi Mango Cubes, Semolina, Sugar and Cardamom

Fruit Tart with Mangoes By Indira of Mahanandi Fresh Mangoes, Strawberries, Cherries, Tartshell and Walnuts

Yogurt Rice with Mangoes By Indira of Mahanandi Mango cubes, Rice, Milk and Yogurt Culture

Homemade Mango Jam by Indira of Mahanandi Mango, Sugar and Lemon Juice

Mango Memoirs – Short Essays

‘‘Every summer in Madras was filled with the sumptuous, succulent, luscious king of fruits, the intricate and sweet mango,’’ Maitri remembers. ‘‘How I love thee… How many white T-shirts I have stained with your inimitable juice,’’ she asks in mock humour.”
– Mango Fool by Tilotamma of “Apropos of Nothing“.

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‘‘On the courtyard of my mother’s house in a quiet sunny seaside town of Cherthala (Kerala), stood a large, shady mango tree, on which, as kids, we used to have swings for Onam, and other celebrations. Come April- May, that blessed tree is all drooping down with a heavy load of mangoes, with the finest form and color.”
–In a Mango Mood by Archana of Spicyana

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‘‘When I was a kid, we had 4 different kinds of mango trees in our compound. We never had to buy a mango. Baby mangoes, sour mangoes, unripe, ripe, sweet mangoes were all lavishly available during the season. We, the kids, loved to eat baby mangoes with salt. I remember taking baby mangoes in my schoolbag to distribute among my friends.”
– Mango Adventures by RP of My Workshop

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‘‘The story goes like this … Sage Naradha once brought a Mango Fruit as an offering to Lord Shiva and there was a fight between Lord Ganesha and Lord Muruga as to who would get the fruit. Lord Shiva told them they have to go around the world thrice and whoever comes first would get the mango . Lord Muruga at one flew in his peacock around the world. Lord Ganesha cleverly went around his parents thrice indicating that they were his universe. So he won the Mango Fruit.”
– Food of Gods by Priya of Sugar and Spice

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‘‘We will replace our full-fat buffalo milk, that we grew up on, with 2%. We will melt unsalted butter and pretend that it is asli desi ghee. Heck, we will even pretend that tofu is a vegetable. Eventually, we will get used to all of that and stop craving for the original. One thing we will never be able to replace or stop missing is the indian mango.”
– For Jihva by Vee of Past, Present and Me

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‘‘I remember how those mangoes tasted: rich and ripe, filled with honied juice and a heady flavor that was unlike any other fruit in the world. Grandpa would liken them to bananas mixed with peaches and cantelope melons, but I never thought he was right. There was nothing that tasted like them, nothing. They were sweet, like the scent of honeysuckle in high summer, and they were smoother and butterier than a peach. They were so good, I always thought that people who said that the fruit Eve tempted Adam with was an apple were dead wrong. “
– It Had to Have Been a Mango – By Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries.

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Thank you for participating and see you all again on June 1st at Baking Fairy’s “JFI-Strawberries” event.

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So, what are your favorites? If you try any recipes from this JFI-Mango roundup, let me know how you like them. Thanks.

Yogurt rice with mango is a nostalgic meal for me. Usually, after dinner, the leftover rice is mixed with warm milk, a spoon of yogurt culture is added, mixed and kept covered overnight in a tiffin box. By next morning, milk would turn into yogurt and is already mixed with rice – school lunch box would be ready. My mother used to prepare yogurt rice in this way and would also add small cubes of mango for mid-day meal, during our hot summer school days.

The quote, ‘Looks can be deceiving’ applies to this one. Even though, the whole thing looks homely and common, the taste is simply unique and very satisfying. Rice soaks up milk and when milk turns into yogurt, the rice also changes. It looses its biting kind of inner resistance, turns into soft, supple kind of grain. Addition of fruit, like mango, as a topping makes it even better. The meal is not only nutritional, also follows the ayurvedic principle of balancing the food ingredients, hot ones with cold one. Mango is famous for its heat generation where as yogurt is known for its cooling properties on human body. Combination of them together, makes this, a well-balanced, simple meal/dessert kind of food.

Adding yogurt culture to warm rice-milk mixture

Recipe:
1 cup of cooked rice
2 cups of warm milk
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste
Fruit Topping
I ripe mango – peeled and cut into small cubes
Mix the rice with milk. Add a tablespoon of yogurt culture and mix lightly; cover the vessel with lid and keep it in a warm area overnight. By next morning, the milk will be turned into yogurt. Stir in salt to taste. Sprinkle the mango cubes on top. With each spoon, take a small portion of yogurt rice and one cube of mango. Enjoy the sweet mango with creamy rich yogurt rice.

This is my contribution to the event “Jihvā For Mangoes”. I am very excited to host this event and thank you all for your enthusiastic participation with wonderful mango recipes. I am planning to do a recap of all the entries that I received, by tomorrow.

For this weeks’s Indian Kitchen:
Mango Juice
Mango Pulp
Slice of Fresh Ripe Mango
Slice of Unripe Green Mango
Dried Mango Pulp Cubes
Amchur Powder (Dried, Unripe Mango Powder)

Looking forward to receiving your entries via email, for tomorrow’s JFI ~ Mango event.

Marvels of Mouth-Filling Pleasure ~ Maamidi Tandra or Dried Mango Pulp Bar

For some, mangoes are exotic fruits. For me, mango jam is exotic. Cooking the ripe fruit with sugar until they are mush and set, may be an age old technique of fruit preserving, but I never did that with mangoes until now. As part of JFI-Mango Event on May 1st, I’ve decided to try some new recipes and feature some of my old favorites with mangoes. This is one of the recipes that I selected to write about.

Who doesn’t love jam toast in the morning? It’s quick and easy. The type of breakfast many of us here, prefer on a weekday morning for that rush hour energy boost. But, often store-bought fruit preserves are loaded with more cheap corn syrup than the fruit. Preparing jam at home means controlling the sugar quantity that is added to the fruit to our liking.

My recipe for mango jam is simple. Pick ripe mangoes, peel and cut them into small cubes. Add little bit of limejuice to give that extra acidic edge and cook the fruit with sugar until it turns mushy and comes together like firm, yet moist solidity. Store it in a clean glass jar and refrigerate. Buy or bake bread and you don’t have to worry about “what’s for breakfast?” question, at least for few days.

Recipe:
(for about 1 cup of jam)

1 big, ripe mango
(Peeled and cut into small cubes – 1½ cup of cut fruit)
¼ cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of lime juice

Take them all in a clean pot. Cook on medium heat, stirring in-between. The sugar will melt and the fruit will break down. Within 15 to 20 minutes, The soggy, watery mass will come together into solid, moist lump, like halwa or kova and set. Turn off the heat. Let it cool completely and store in a clean jar.

One cup of mango jam lasted for 4 toasts for us. We couldn’t resist the quiveringly tender, rich yellow-sapphire like mango jam and consumed half of it even before cooling.

Recipe Notes:
My version is low sugar preserve.
For sweet commercial type of jam taste – increase the above sugar quantity to half cup.
Mango jam sets easily because of pectin content in mangoes. But if you are planning to prepare this jam on a big scale, adding some commercial pectin might be helpful.

I started out my weekend with a plan. The plan was to prepare the famous Andhra mango pickle, ‘avakaya’, for next week’s JFI. You know about pickles. To prepare and present it, you need to make it at least one week in advance. So, I went to Pittsburgh and picked out the greenest mangoes available at one of the Indian grocery stores. The mangoes were very green and hard and so I was confident that they were unripe. On Sunday, I was in full pickle making mode. Cleaned out the kitchen, dried out any signs of moisture from counter tops and prepared all the essentials – mustard seed powder and red chilli powder. I was all ready to make pickle. But alas…

As often happens with the best laid out plans, things went awry. In this case, green, hard and thought to be unripe mangoes, when cut open, were ripe inside. The flesh was pale yellow and the taste was not very sour. I had to drop my plan to make pickle. Instead of going down the path of questioning my life in US, where I can’t even prepare my favorite pickle, I picked up my spirits and quickly found a use for my not so green, not so ripe mangoes. I remembered Mika’s comment about her way of preparing mango rice with coconut and also her recently blogged mango rice recipe. I had all the ingredients, including a fresh, decent coconut. Viola… the life in US looked much better.:)

I tried out the mango pulihora with coconut and mustard powder. Between the tangy sweetness of mango+coconut and the sharp, zesty flavor of mustard+chillies, the taste of pulihora was so unique and irresistible. I was glad that I tried this recipe, this one is a keeper. Thanks Mika.

Fresh coconut, Green Unripe Mango, Mustard Seeds and Green Chillies

Recipe:
(steps written in order of preparation)

Cook Rice:
1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water.
(I prepared it with Sona Masuri Rice)

Finely Powder:
2 teaspoons of mustard seeds – using a spicemill or coffee grinder

Make a Paste:
1 medium sized green unripe mango – peeled and cubed
½ cup of finely chopped fresh coconut
8 to 10 small green chillies

Grinding the mango, coconut and green chillies

Heat and Toast:
1 teaspoon of peanut oil, in a big sauté pan.
¼ cup of peanuts to golden brown color and remove.

Do the Popu or Tadka:
Add another teaspoon of oil or ghee to the same pan. Do the popu by toasting one teaspoon of each – cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, few pieces of dried red chillies and curry leaves.

Sauteeing the ingredients

Add and Sauté:
To the popu, add the
Mustard seed powder,
Smooth mango-coconut-chilli paste,
1 teaspoon of turmeric and salt.

Stir and sauté this mixture for 3 to 5 minutes on medium heat, until the mango paste leaves its raw smell. Don’t overcook, that would kill the precious mango flavor completely. Stir in the toasted peanuts that were kept aside. Switch off the heat.

To this sautéed mixture, add the cooked rice. Mix thoroughly and serve. The pulihora should taste little bit tartly because of unripe mango, sweet due to coconut, spicy strong because of chillies and mustard powder.

Mango-Coconut Pulihora

Mango Pulihora – Andhra Style

Menthi (Methi, Fenugreek) Sprouts (Planted on March 10th)

Menthi growing in a container (On April 22nd)

Closeup of baby menthi

I did the sprouting thing with methi to try methi sprouts salad last month and found that the salad was very bitter for my taste. I planted the leftover methi sprouts in a container. (Sprinkled the sprouts on soil and covered them loosely with soil.) Watered them daily and kept the container in direct sunlight. After a month, they are now at this size, growing healthy and in a beautiful shade of green. So pretty to look at.

I’ve plans to plant mint, coriander,tomato and peas. So what are you planning to grow this spring/summer?

Kittaya enjoying the spring afternoon

Checkout very naughty Kiri and all other cute kitties of food blogging world at Clare’s Eat Stuff.

Vegetables which are at normal prices at our local grocery store now are banana peppers and baby red potatoes. Banana peppers are mildly hot and the new crop, baby red potatoes are mildly sweet. These two are cooked in tomato gravy thickened by the addition of creamy-white, rich poppy seed (khus-khus, gasa gasalu) paste. The taste of the curry is like that of made with almond paste.

Banana Pepper, Baby Red Potato, Poppy Seeds(Khus Khus, Gasa Gasaalu)

Recipe:

Heat in a big saucepan, over medium-low heat:
1 teaspoon of peanut oil

Toast to do the popu or tadka:
1 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and few curry leaves

Add and Saut�: (listed in order)
1 onion – chopped
4 juicy tomatoes- chopped
8 baby red potatoes -peeled and cubed
4 banana peppers – cut into small rings crosswise

Stir in:
¼ cup poppy seeds(gasa gasalu)-finely powdered using a spicemill/coffee grinder
1 tsp of ginger-garlic-coriander paste
2 tsp of cumin-coriander seed-clove-cinnamon powder
1 tsp of salt
½ tsp of red chilli powder and turmeric

Add 2 cups of water and mix well. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring in-between. When the gravy reaches the consistency you desire, turn off the heat. Let the curry sit for 10 minutes and serve warm.
Tastes superb with chapatis or with rice.

Banana Pepper- Baby Alu Curry with Chapatis ~ Our meal today

The recipe that was in my mind to be tried is Sury‘s sweet potato dessert or Ranga Alur Puli. The fabulous food blogger, Sury from Delhi, not only writes about food but also studies American English. She recently published her first book “Making Out in America” on American vernacular. Congratulations Sury!

Few weeks ago, she blogged this recipe in her blog. The name of this sweet, the way it was prepared and the traditional Bengali aspect, all captured my interest. When I read her recipe, I did imagine the taste and I couldn’t wait to give it a try. Finally today I prepared this delicious sweet.

I did change the recipe little bit. Instead of adding flour and sugar to sweet potato pulp, I mixed it with gulab jamun powder. Also in addition to traditional coconut-milk-sugar fudge filling, I added some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, just to create variety. I’ve been preparing gulab jamuns in this way, so I applied the same idea here.

Steam-cooked sweet potato (yam)

Recipe:
(for 15 pieces)
For Dough
1 medium sized sweet potato (yam)
1 packet of gulab jamun powder (100g)
For Filling
½ cup of coconut fudge (coconut-milk-sugar halwa)
¼ cup of chocolate chips – plain and butterscotch
To Deep Fry
2 cups of peanut oil or ghee
For Sugar Syrup
1 cup sugar
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of rose water
¼ teaspoon of powdered cardamom

Chocolate Chips, Coconut Fudge, Sweet Potato-Gulab Jamun Dough & Dough balls

Preparation:
1. Cook the whole sweet potato on steam until just tender. Remove the skin and mash the sweet potato to smooth paste.

2. Take gulab jamun powder in a vessel. Mix it with sweet potato paste. The moisture of sweet potato is enough to prepare a firm dough. After a rest period of 15 minutes or so, divide the dough into big marble sized rounds.

3. Make a dimple by pressing the dough ball with your thumb. Fill the dimple with a teaspoon of coconut halwa(fudge) or with chocolate chips. Cover the hole with dough from the sides; roll into smooth round ball. Prepare all the dough balls like this and keep them ready for deep-frying.

4. Meanwhile prepare sugar syrup. Take sugar and water in a big pot. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for few minutes (5 to 10 minutes maximum on medium heat). Have a taste and add more sugar if needed. This is just plain sugar syrup, do not thicken the syrup and do not cook it for longer period. Just before turning off the heat, stir in rose water and cardamom powder.

Deep Frying the Jamuns

5. Heat oil in a kadai or in a saucepan. Deep-fry the jamuns until golden on medium-low heat. One tip is, keep the heat medium and do not overheat the oil. Deep-fry the jamuns, slowly. The color changes from light gold to much deeper color gradually within 3 to 4 minutes. If the colour changes to brown immediately after dropping into oil, it is a signal that the oil is too hot. In that case, reduce the heat or turn off the heat for few minutes. You need to cook these slowly on moderate heat because the dough should get cooked evenly inside also.

6. Remove the jamuns and place them on a paper towel to dry off any oil that’s attached to them. Quickly and gently drop them into sugar syrup. Take care not to spill the oil into sugar syrup.

7. Keep them soaked in syrup for about 15 to 30 minutes. Jamuns will absorb the syrup and will increase in size a little bit. I would like to serve gulab jamuns cold, so usually, I keep them in the refrigerator for one hour before serving.

Sweet Potato Gulab Jamuns (Ranga Alur Puli) ~ For this week’s “Indian Sweets 101“
They tasted great, just like I’ve imagined, particularly the coconut halwa filled ones (shown above) and the ones filled with butterscotch chips.

This is my contribution to “Blog Party – Bite Sized Desserts” hosted by dear Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness.

Wheat flour dosa (Godhuma Dosa) with Peanut Chutney

Easy, breezy and lacy – that’s how I’d describe wheat flour dosa. I prepare this traditional, lace like, instant dosa when I am low in appetite, ya that happens sometimes, or short on time, aren’t we always?

Recipe is really simple. Mix a cup of wheat flour (atta/chapati flour) with 2 to 3 cups of water. Stir in a teaspoon of black pepper powder and salt. Thoroughly mix the batter without any lumps. The consistency of batter must be like thick buttermilk, not too watery or not too tight. Don’t let the batter sit for long time, it will become gooey mass, and resulting dosas won’t be pretty.

To prepare dosas, lightly oil the dosa tava and rub it with a cut onion. Heat over medium-high. When the tava is hot, pour a ladleful of batter steadily from a height of 3 to 5 inches onto the tava. Allow it spread on its own in a thin lace like layer. Because wheat flour batter is very sticky, trying to shape the dosa with back of the spoon like we do for regular dosa won’t work. Please resist the temptation to shape and allow it to spread on its own. Sprinkle a half teaspoon of ghee or peanut oil and on high heat, cook. Within a minute or two, bubbles start to appear on the surface. Wait until the underside of dosa turns golden and then gently turn it to the other side. Cook for another minute or two. Remove and serve hot with peanut or coconut chutney.

Wheat flour batter spread in a thin lace like fashion

With 4 plate-sized dosas like these, expect to get stuffed royally.

Yay… spring has definitely sprung here! Plenty of sunshine days have arrived finally. Even the yeast is ready for some action. When I mixed a packet of yeast with warm water, zoom… it rose to the sky as if it was trying to kiss the sunshine. See.

Yeast in Action

Recipes that need good fermentation like preparing bread, idlies, dosas and yogurt, are going to be easy from now on. Last weekend, I tried a recipe for sesame buns from my recipe book. I used to note down the western bread and cake recipes that caught my fancy in a notebook. That was before I knew about the foodblogs. I wasn’t even aware of copyrights etc., at that time, so I’m not sure where I got this recipe from, but definitely from a cookbook, or might be from TV. I am not sure. Whatever the origin, I am very fond of this recipe. Adding a bundle of sesame, gives the bread that nutty taste I like and the buns are great with soups, salads or for homemade simple sandwiches.

Recipe:
(Makes about 8 to 10 medium sized buns)

3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup quick oats
½ cup watermelon seeds (My addition)
1 tsp of salt and honey to your taste or ½ cup
Warm milk or water for mixing the dough into a ball
Yeast:
¼ ounce packet of active, dry ‘quick rise’ yeast or 2 tsp
Take 2 tablespoons of water in a cup, stir in a pinch of sugar. Pour the contents of yeast packet and stir. Keep it in a warm place and wait for it to turn bubbly, usually 5 to 10 minutes.

Method: Take all the above ingredients in a big bowl and mix them thoroughly. Knead the dough for at least 5 to 10 minutes. Cover and let it rise. Takes about at least one hour. I’ve kept it for about 3 hours.

Take the dough out and on a clean board, sprinkle in some flour, and deflate and knead the dough again. Do it for at least 2 to 5 minutes. Divide the dough into small balls, shape them into buns. Place them on a greased baking pan; leave space for them to expand. Wait for another 30 minutes for them to rise.

While the shaped buns are rising, preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the baking pans with buns in the oven and bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and let cool.

Sesame bun and dried soya chunks-eggs omelet sandwich.

Prize money is 250 dollars!
Go checkout the “VCC Q1 2006 – Appetizers” and vote for your favorite.

Passionate Food blogger – Mylinh of Khmer Krom