Vineela's Cuisine: October 2007

Onde onde : Malaysian and Indonesian Dish
Ingredients:Sweet Potato -1 no boiled,Glutinous rice flour -2 cups,grated coconut - 2 cups,Enough Water to make dough
Stuffing: Jaggery - 1 cup,Pista - Walnuts - 3 tspn ,crushed

Cook and peel of the skin before mashing sweet potatoes.
Break the jaggery (gula Melaka )into small pieces.
Sieve glutinous rice flour into a large bowl and add mashed sweet potatoes and sprinkle 1 spoon of water.One can add food color to this dough. Original recipe (Authentic Onde Onde)says to use pandan juice and green color but i substituted with little bit of water.Mix well and knead into a dough.Make dough into small balls.Flatten each ball and fill with a 1/4 th spoon of gur and nuts mixture.Roll again to make it into a ball .Boil water in a large vessel , add the dough balls one by one.Make sure the balls doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel.Cook in medium heat.Take out the ballS with a perforated laddle when they float to the surface of the water.Place on a plate of grated coconut.Roll the cooked balls over the coconut.Serve warm!!
Recipe Source:Onde Onde

Janthikalu/Muruku:
Rice flour - 3 cups
Urad dal flour -1 cup
Til seeds/nuvvulu - 1 tbspn.
Jeera -1 tbspn
Chilli powder -2 tsp.
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp.
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Oil as required
Salt to taste

Mix rice flour, urad dal flour,ghee, cumin seeds,sesame seeds and salt and form a dough.Put the dough in a murukku mould and Press the handle to make a 3 to 4 concentric circles for one muruku on a wax paper.Do the same way with the whole dough.Leave it for 15 minutes.Mean while heat sufficient oil in a kadai for deep frying.Deep-fry the spirals until golden brown color on both sides.Once cool keep in air tight jars.
Mal pua:
Maida - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 tspn
Baking soda - pinch
Sufficient Water to make thick batter
Oil for frying
Sugar Syrup:
Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Garnishing:
Ground cardamom - 1 TSPN
Saffron strands - 2
Sunflower seeds
Almond flakes
Pistachio crushed
Sugar syrup:
Put sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes till thick syrup is formed.
Method :
Sift Maida,Add sugar,baking soda and water to form smooth, medium thickness batter and keep aside for 30 min to set. Heat oil in a shallow flat bottomed pan.Deep fry one table spoonful of batter at a time into the oil.The batter spreads to make malpuas.Fry mal puas to golden brown color for both sides.Remove from kadai and place on a paper towel to remove excess oil.Dip mal puas in the sugar syrup.Take out from the syrup and garnish with almonds flakes, pista,sunflower seeds,saffron strands,sprinkle ground cardamom seeds before serving.Serve warm or cool!!!

‘Bommala Koluvu’ during the ‘Navaratri’ days where the display of dolls of various gods and godesses will give the children to show interest on indian mythology.We grew up by performing this custom since my childhood.For me ,i feel this festival is filled with Lots of creativity.We used to sing devotional songs in the evenings infront of bommala koluvu.Neighberhood ladies are invited to take tamboolam which consists of Kumkum,Turmeric,Betel leaves with betel nuts,fruits,flowers and prasadam .My mom makes different kind of sundal, which is made out of pulses, and offer as prasadam to the God for 9 days.