HOMEMADE HAKKA NOODLES SAUCE - NO COOK

Preparation Time - 10 minutes

Serving Size - 1/3 cup

This is my first try with hakka noodles. I din't see any sauces or spice packet for hakka noodles yet. I surfed many sites and finally I got this recipe for hakka noodle sauce from my co-blogger's space. It came out well and I altered slightly according to my taste buds. Its very yummy and so I want to share this to my readers and friends.

Ingredients

Sri racha Red chilli sauce - 2 tbsp
Tomato ketchup - 1 1/2 to 2  tbsp
Garlic - 5 pods
Ginger - 1/2" grated
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp

Method

• Grind all the ingredients and store it in the air tight box. Keep it in the refrigerator.

Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge - BASUNDHI / BASANTHI - TRADITIONAL GUJARATHI SWEET

Serving size - 5 to 6 persons

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Cooking time - 2 hours

Basundhi is an authentic rich and delicious dessert from Gujarat which is similar to Rabdi. I love this thickened milk dessert to the core. It is very simple to prepare and no way to go wrong. For the first time, I made this yummy cold dessert for my friend Gayathri on her birthday to make her day special.

Now coming to the Shhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge (SCSC) which is started by Priya Suresh akka from Priya's versatile Recipes. This is the first post of this challenge. My Partner for March month is Prathima Shivaraj from Prathu's food. She gave me 2 secret ingredients which are milk and cheese.

 I have to choose any one or both. I have taken milk as my secret ingredient and also I want to start this challenge with sweet. So I made this wonderful creamy dessert as my first post of this SCSC. This is the logo for shhhhh cooking

Let me share this delicious recipe which I got from my grand ma(Ilamathi Paatti). When I was pregnant, She made this favorite dessert specially for me.

Ingredients

Milk - 6 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
saffron - 10 to 12 strands
Almond - 1 tbsp
Pistachio - 2 tbsp
Cashew - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp

Method

• Take milk in a wide mouth and heavy bottomed vessel, allow it to boil.
• Once the milk started to raise up, reduce the flame to low and  stir occasionally.
• In the mean time, chop all the nuts I have mentioned.
• There is a thin layer formed on the top of the milk. You should  remove those layers into a small bowl and keep it aside for future use. Repeat this step until the milk is reduced into 1/2 of its quantity.
• Add all the nuts, cardamom powder and crushed saffron to the reduced 1/2 quantity.
• After 5 minutes, just stir the milk and add the removed layers from the milk which are stored in the small bowl for the future use. 
• Keep on stirring occasionally and scraping the sides until the milk reduced to 1/3 of the quantity.
• Basanthi is ready now. Allow it to get cool and store it in the refrigerator. 
• While serving, garnish it with nuts again and serve chill. It will be more delicious.

NOTE

• Here I used the traditional method to made this delicious sweet. You can also use the combination of milk and condensed milk to prepare quickly.
• But I always love this traditional method. It gives the fabulous taste than the quicker method.
• Please make sure don't allow the milk to get burn in the bottom.
• The flame must be low for the whole process. 

VAZHAI POO / BANANA FLOWER THUVAIYAL

Serving size - 1 small bowl

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - less than 5 minutes

Vazhai poo is one of the healthiest veggie to eat. I usually do usuli, kootu and kola urundai kuzhambu using vazhaipoo. But I heard from my friend that we could also prepare thuvaiyal too. I got this recipe from my friend Gayathri. I love this thuvaiyal to the core. Even my little one likes to eat this thuvaiyal with white rice. I would really thank Gayathri for sharing this wonderful recipe with me.

This is the first time, I tried vazhaipoo thovaiyal. So that I made only little amount but it turns out very yummy.

Ingredients

Vazhaipoo/ Banana flower - 1 cup
Water -1/4 cup
Red chillies - 2
Urad dal -1 tsp
Mustard seeds -1/4 tsp
Hing powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - a bit
Salt - as needed
Oil -1 tsp

Method

• Add one cup of banana flower in the 1/4 cup of water and allow it to cook for few minutes. Once it has done, please keep it beside until it will get cool.
• In the mean time, heat oil in a pan,add mustard seeds,urad dal, hing powder, red chillies one after one. Keep it beside for sometime or until they come to normal room temperature.
• Its the time to take out the blender, add all the roasted ingredients, salt & tamarind and blend it for less than a minute. Finally add chopped vazhaipoo to that mixture and blend it nicely.
• Vazhaipoo thovaiyal is ready and it will goes with rice rice as well as for idli dosa too. 

Note

• Please make sure that the banana flower taste good or bitter. If its bitter, please add urad dal, chillies and salt more.
• While cleaning and cutting banana flower, please add small amount of buttermilk to the water and store the chopped banana flower in that water to avoid blackening.
• You can also slightly fry vazhaipoo/banana flower in the pan with little oil. To avoid using excess of oil, I used to cook that in the boiling water.

MAWA GHUJIYA - SNC -16

Serving size - 10 to 15 pieces

Preparation time - 30 minutes

Cooking time - 1 hour

Mawa Ghujiya is a very popular north Indian sweet during their festive time. But it is also more famous in south India as somas. But the filling is different. I like this sweet very much , but I din't try this yet. Because in our families there is no habit of doing this kind sweets. I used to eat this sweet from my friend's home. I love this to the core. 

This Mawa ghujiya is the 16th challenge of SNC from our north team friend Santhosh Bhangar from Santosh's Kitchen.  Actually SNC is the event run by Divya Pramil from YOU TOO CAN COOK. IF you want to be the part of this event from now, please visit SNC CHALLENGE. 

Lets go to the recipe,

Ingredients

For Filling

Milk solids/ khoya - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Almonds - 6 (grated into flakes)

Sugar - 1/3 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

For Ghujiyas

All Purpose flour - 2 cups

Water - 1 + 2tbsp( I used)

Hot oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Oil - for deep frying

For Sealing

All purpose flour - 1 tsp

Water - 1 1/2 tsp

Method 

For Filling 

• Fry Khoya in a pan until it gets brown color. 
• Add grated coconut, almond flakes, sugar and cardamom powder into the brown khoya and mix well.
• Keep it aside for filling.

For Ghujiyas

• Mix the flour, salt and hot oil and then add water to knead a smooth dough.
• Cover the bowl and keep it for atleast half an hour.
• In the mean time, make a paste for sealing the ghujiyas by mixing flour and water in a small bowl.

MAWA GHUJIYAS

• Make the dough into small balls and make them into thin round using rolling pin.
• Keep enough filling on the center of the round and apply the flour paste on one side of the thin round sheet, then fold it.
• close it strong and press it using fork for more strong.
• Do the remaining dough balls into ghujiyas and keep them under the wet cloth.
• Heat oil in a pan, pls don't over heat because the ghuijays will be in light brown not dark brown.
• Once the oil gets ready, please add 3 or 4 ghujiyas and fry until light brown. Do the rest as the same and store them in the air tight container.

Note

• Actually I made thicker sheets, so it went bit harder not much. 
• It also takes much time to get cook, so it turns dark brown color. Please keep these points in your mind while doing this sweet.
• But this is the first time I tried this kind of sweet, so hope I will be better while making somas. Let me share that experience with you in the future. 

I am going to link this to SNC host of this month from north team Santosh's Kitchen