RedCurrant Lassi

Ingredients:
Red Currant - 12 no raceme ,puree and deseed
Demerara Sugar - 3 tspn
Green cardamom - 1 no,crushed
Home made Curd - 2 cups,refrigerated
Cold Water - ½ cup

Lassi :
Puree Red Currant with little amonut of water and strain out the seeds.
Add yoghurt/Curd ,sugar,crushed cardamom to the blender and blend till foamy.
Pour into the glasses and serve.

Information about Red Currant.
Colorful RedCurrant tea cakes by lovely Béa of latartinegourmade.

Rye Rice flour Pappuchekkala Sandwich

Last weekend While shopping for veggies my attention went on one specific flour which i never used and saw in india .It is labled as
Rye flour.For a while i was thinking whether it contains raagi flour but rye is quite different from raagi flour.Came back and opened the pack eagerly to see the flour.Decided to make pappu chekkalu by adding rice flour from my moms advice.Mom used to make jonna roti and muruku with sorghum flour /JONNA PINDI.So,moms best idea worked well with rye flour too.My next recipe with rye flour is rye bread.Rye flour is bit sticky but adding rice flour gave the enough crispiness to pappu chekkalu.
Ingredients:
Rye flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
thai Green chillies - 5no
Ajwain seeds /Vamu ginjalu - 2 tspn
Groundnuts/Peanuts - ½ cup
Dalda/vegetable shortening/vanaspathi - 1tspn
Soaked chanadal - 2tspn
Salt to taste
Enough water to make dough
Oil for frying


Preperation:
Grind green chillies - ajwain ,peanuts by adding 2tspn of water by using mortar pestle.Combine both flours with dalda,salt,ground mixture,soaked chana dal,water and knead into a chapathi dough.Divide dough into small balls.Heat oil in a deepfrying pan.Press the balls on a greased parchment paper into disc by greasing palm either with water or oil into ¼ th "thickness.Drop slowly into the oil and fry both sides for a goldenbrown colour.Remove and Strain on a papertowel.Allow
Pappuchekkalu to cool and Store in an airtight container.
Had fresh veggies in hand so the taco idea came in my mind and my evening snack is ready on table with the hot cup of masala chai.
Sandwich:
shredded Cabbage - ¼ cup
shredded Carrot - ½ cup
diced tomato - ½ cup
chopped onion - 2 tbspn
Chopped cilantro - &frac 12 cup
diced cucumber - ¼ cup
lemon juice - ½ tspn
Fresh Red chilli flakes - 4 or 5
Salt to taste

Toss well and place on pappu chekka and cover with another pappu chekka.Get ready for a delicious crunchy bite along with a sip of hot masala chai.

Lotusroot Red Bellpepper Moong dal stir fry

Ingredients:
lotus roots/kamal kakdi - 12 slices
thai green chillies - 4 to 5no
Red Bell pepper - 1 no,small in size ,chopped
mustard seeds for seasoning
turmeric,red chilli powder,salt to taste
onion - ½ ,bigsize ,chopped into pieces
Moong dal - ½ cup,soaked in water
coriander powder - 1 tspn
oil for cooking
chopped coriander leaves - 3 to 4 sprigs


Making:
Pressure cook the chopped lotus with a pinch of turmeric.cook the soaked moongdal
(pesarpappu) in microwave with sufficient water in high for 12 to 15 minutes.moongdal should not loose its original shape but it should be cooked to bite.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds,green chillies,onions one by one and saute
well.Add boiled lotus root pieces and add salt and redchilli powder,dhaniya powder
and cook for 5 minutes uncovered.Add bellpepper pieces and cook until tender.Add moongdal to the pan and stir well to mix into the curry.cook for a while by sprinkling some water.Stir in chopped coriander and transfer to a serving bowl.Serve with steamed rice with a dollop of ghee.

Here goes my recipe to this wonderful event by Zorro's

IWD EVENT.

Starfruit Juice

Starfruit is really colourful with excellent shape and texture.
Once we had this type of tropical fruit while visiting elephanta caves in bombay as a vacation with our family.Dad bought from the vendor who was infront of caves which is a cut fruit was green in colour dusted with salt and red chilli powder on it.I didnt remember the name of the fruit exactly.But it was tangy,sour,little bit sweet one.Loved the taste but never found that fruit later in A.P. After coming to US ,I found the same friut which i was looking for since my schooldays.Googled about that and came to know it is called carambola/starfruit.

Starfruit juice
Ingredients:
Starfruit/Carambola - 3 to 4 slices,deseeded
lemon juice - ½tspn
Crushed ice cubes - 3 or 4no
Cardamom - 1 no,crushed
Sugar - 2 tspn
Mint for garnishing

Preperation:
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.Add excess water to adjust the taste and pour into chilled glasses.Serve by garnishing with few mint leaves and starfruit slice.

Perfect juice to quench the thirst on a sunny day.

Puffed Wheat Balls (Laddu)

I came across these puffed wheat when i was shopping at near by grocery store.Reached house and tasted the puffed wheat.Puffed wheat is really good for making ladoo and mixture.Love the shape and nutty wheat taste.Since my childhood I am seeing my mom and grand mom making puffed rice mixture,puffed rice (plain,tamarind) upma,puffed rice balls aka borugundalu .We used to have this Crunchy one at evening times as after-school munchies.borugundalu.We used to have this Crunchy one at evening times as after-school munchies.Yum Yum.... So,I tried with puffed wheat and we liked these laddus too.

Ingredients:
Puffed Wheat - 3 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Honey - ½ tspn
Ground nuts / Peanuts - ½ cup
Cashew nuts - 6 or 7 no,chopped
Sesame seeds - ½ cup
Raisins - ¼th cup
Black Cardamom - 2 no,crushed


How I made:
Roast sesame seeds in a pan until they start splutter.Roast the peanuts for golden brown color.Roast raisins in low flame until they double.Grind 2 spoons of sesame seeds and 1 tspn of pea nuts to coarse powder from original quantity.
Take a large sauce pan and add jaggery and water.Make thick syrup in low flame.Add a drop of jaggery syrup into a bowl of water to check the string consistency.Drop should solidify immediately.Remove from fire and add puffed wheat,raisins,cashew nut pieces,pea nuts,sesame-pea nut pwd,cardamom pwd,honey and mix well to coat jaggery syrup evenly.While still warm,shape the syrup-coated puffed wheat into round laddus.Allow to cool and keep open to dry, before storing in containers.
Note:Wet palm while shaping laddus to prevent burning.
See here for Puffed Wheat Snack