Veg Hakka Noodles in Instapot

I’m probably joining in late to this Insta pot craze culture :) To be frank, I was not that impressed.. It’s good, it is convenient, but instant? Not really.. my pressure cooker does the same thing.

I admit, I haven’t explored it much… just been using it to make big batches of something. Well, it surely has its advantages, like vegetables aren’t mushed like in a pressure cooker, and you don’t need to babysit..etc. Currently I am exploring more and understanding why everybody is going gaga over it..

So recently I tried Hakka noodles and wow! was it convenient. Everything happened in 1 pot - no separate pot for cooking hakka noodles, then strainer for straining, then again a wok for making it... As easy as dump everything and cook. But aren’t you supposed to strain starchy water.. like for health reasons.. or is it just for rice? gah, I don’t know.. I’ll stop pretending to know :) 

Taste wise, it was good, vegetables were neither mushy nor crunchy. In the original recipe, vegetables are sautéd and taken out before cooking the noodles, keeping them crunchy, but I just put everything together. Noodles were starchy when hot, but was good after cooling down a bit. 

Do try! 

Kayi Kadubu - Sweet dumplings for Ganesha Chaturthi

With Ganesha habba only few days away, I want to share how to make kayi kadubu recipe. 

Kayi kadubu is traditional sweet made for Ganesha specially during Ganesha habba. Rice flour dumplings filled with coconut-jaggery filling. My favorite sweet! 

It requires certain skill to pat thin shells with your hand and make sure they don’t break while steaming. The ones I made used to break. As usual my mom came to my rescue and gave few tips which saved my kadubus. I’ve shared the details below. Either shape them like kadubu or modak, recipe is the same. You can also make sweet undlakka - more like inside out kayi kadubu… maybe I’ll save the recipe(method) for next year :D

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi everyone!