Avalakki Oggarane - Poha - (No onion)

 Generally in Avalakki oggarane one cannot skip onions. Onions is one of the main taste giving ingredients to the dish. But this particular recipe is made without onions, without impacting the taste much. The chef uses a paste of green chilies and coconut, instead of adding them separately, and roasts it nicely, which gives this dish a unique flavor. 

Avalakki can be made this way for festivals, also for no rice diets. 

Enjoy! 

Happy Dussehra! 

Masala Vade

 Masala vade is basically fritters made from chana dal. Recipe is fairly easy.  You can skip onion and increase other masala if making for festivals. 

Happy Ugadi! 

Tutti Frutti Cookies/ Karachi biscuits

 Enjoy these wonderful tutti frutti cookies(Karachi biscuits) this holiday season! 

 

This recipe is from this popular blog(link given below) which is my goto blog for baking. She has so many foolproof and wonderful recipes and I love how she explains things so thoroughly. Do try! 

Happy holidays!!  

KadleKaaLu(kaala chana) Usli

 Happy Ganesha Chaturthi! 

Usli is a popular “prasada” at temples and made during festivals. It is basically cooked beans/legumes + spiced oggarane(tadka). I personally love them all, the one made with kadle(brown chickpeas) is my favorite. 

This also makes for a great after school snack. Do try! 

 

OraLu Chitranna/ green kaayi saasive chitranna

 We also make kayi sasive chitranna, but differently. This masala uses green chilies and the ingredients are roasted before grinding. I really loved the flavors and the convenience of making this. You can keep the gojju(masala paste) ready beforehand and mix it with rice (just like puliyogare gojju) whenever needed. This is ideal for festivals. Enjoy! 

GasaGase Payasa/ Poppy seeds payasam

 Happy Ugadi! May all of you have a blessed year! 

We celebrate Souramana Ugadi and not Chandramana Ugadi. But in our house there is only one way of celebrating, so it doesn’t matter which one we celebrate..  because the only way we celebrate any Hindu festival is prepare special food and then eat. I keep it in front of God, light the lamp, prostrate, that much I do.. 🙏

Coming to the recipe, gasagase payasa is our family favorite. Grinding gasagase is little bit tricky, water should not be added all at once, but little by little for it to grind properly. This is my mother’s recipe, with tips and tricks as she taught me. Enjoy! 

Badam Katli in InstaPot

 Making Indian sweets/ barfis is always a daunting task for me. Bringing sakkare paaka(sugar syrup) to one string consistency is where I get stuck mostly. 

Thanks to my friend Anusha, I got this recipe which uses InstaPot to make sugar syrup. She shared it along with some yummy katlis, which gave me more confidence to try them myself. 

I remember my other friend’s words here that more the gadgets you use in the kitchen, less is the skill required :) 

Earlier cooking needed skill/ experience, now everything seems to happen at a touch of a button - electric rice cooker, InstaPot, Bread machine, Rotimatic.…  

I’m not complaining. This recipe is so easy and fool proof and it turned out extremely good. Make syrup in InstaPot, mix almond flour from Costco, let it cool and done!  

You can make this for any festival/potluck without breaking a sweat. 

Do try! 

Happy Holi! 

Gulkand Barfi

 Happy Deepavali!!

Presenting an easy peasy barfi recipe which can be done in no time and tastes like store bought ones. I clearly need to work more on how they look :)

It doesn’t need any major prep work other than buying ingredients and it must’ve taken me like 15 min from start to finish. 

I saw this recipe on Oggarane dabbi cooking show long time back. It needs 3 main ingredients - Khoa, Sugar and Gulkand. The original recipe uses sweetened khoa, but since it was not available here, I added powdered sugar. 

Do try! Happy Deepavali once again! 

Godi nucchina payasa/ broken wheat payasa(kheer)

Godhi nucchina payasa - a sweet dish made with broken wheat and jaggery.  My family is a big fan of these kind of payasas. This can be made with other pulses and grains in a similar fashion. Ideal for functions and festivals. Enjoy!

Mavinakayi Chitranna - Raw Mango rice 2

I’ve already posted a recipe for mavinkayi chitranna(raw mango) which can be found here. Mavinkayi chitranna and lemon rice are very similar, one uses raw mango for sourness and other uses lemon.

I came across another unique way of making mavinkayi chitranna(link given below). A special blend of spices is roasted and ground and added along with mavinkayi. It tasted more like a mix between puliyogare and chitranna. Very tasty. Do try! 

Idiyappam

Idiyappam - is basically rice flour noodles from Kerala, a variation of our very own ottu shaavige(Karnataka). Traditionally ottu shaavige is made in “shaavige oralu”. Making ottu shavige is time consuming and frankly speaking very cumbersome. I only love eating part of it. 

Idiyappam on the other hand is mini version and can be pressed in Chakli press. I don’t know if traditionally it is made this way. May be it was similar to ottu shaavige before but over the years became mini.. no idea.  But anyways the recipes I saw online seemed very doable compared to ottu shavige.

I made 2 batches. First one clicked, second one flopped. I was nervous before making the first batch and prayed to God. While making second batch I was confident and hence didn’t pray. I think that was the major reason for failure :). In this particular recipe, you mix rice flour with hot water. In other recipes I’ve seen online, you cook rice flour in boiling water till it comes together as a dough. That can make a difference in the texture too. 

I’ve also listed other reasons I think might’ve caused the problem, below in notes. Do try!

Happy Makara Sankranti! Happy New Year!!

Inside Out kayi kadubu

This year Ganesha Chathurthi is falling on Labor day. Everybody can take it easy with the preparations.  

Anyways, when you make kayi kadubu, there is a very good chance that some extra dough is remaining; if it’s stuffing you can eat just like that. Or it can be just that you find making kayi kadubus extremely tiresome and tedious and you don’t even want to venture into it. Or you just don’t have the time or patience to make kayi kadubus.

Yet, you want to eat it or want to make something for habba - then this recipe is for you. 

I don’t know what it’s called or if it is even made anywhere else. I call it inside out kayi kadubu. My mom gave me this procedure for finishing up remaining dough. I found this extremely easy and tasty. It isn’t exactly quick, but chances are of it going wrong are very small. Do try! 

Happy Ganesha Chathurthi everyone! Happy birthday dear blog!  

Gojjavalakki/ Spiced Poha

Happy Krishnashtami! 

Gojjavalakki is basically crushed poha mixed with puliyogare-like masala. One of the very popular devara-prasadas served in temples. Very simple to make. This particular recipe makes masala from scratch. You can also use any other puliyogare mix instead of the masala below. 

Do try! 

Easy eggless brownies

Enjoy this Christmas with some homemade eggless brownies…  

I have used flax meal as an egg substitute. Flax meal(ground flax seed) is such a wonderful egg substitute, it has no odd taste, it is good for health, and texture of the brownie comes out soft and fluffy. 

This recipe is extremely easy. Mix everything and bake, as simple as that. Do try! 

Happy holidays!! Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!

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!

HuLi Avalakki/ Udupi style Spiced poha

Avalakki is considererd “shreshta”(rough translation: superior) to Lord Krishna. HuLi(literally sour/tangy) avalakki, is a sweet and tangy tasting avalakki - tasting very close to gojjavalakki. 

This is generally made during festival times as an evening snack along with some kadle usli(channa stir fry) and badam milk, for no-rice diets. In Kota community this is popularly made during engagement-ceremonies, or as one of the breakfast items during weddings.  

This is one of my favorite dishes. My mom makes it best, very close to the ones made by Adige battru(cooks in marriages) :)

This is her recipe. 

Do try!

Happy Krishnashtami!! 

Avalakki(Poha) bisi beLe bath/BBB

This recipe is again from Oggarane Dabbi cooking show. 

This is one flavorful dish made with fresh spices and vegetables. It is also much lighter on the tummy since it is made with poha and moong dal. There is onion in the recipe. But you can easily skip it for festivals. Original recipe makes everything in the cooker directly, but I made it separately. Have it with some ghee, chips/boondi. 

Enjoy!

KodbaLe

Kodbale is a fried snack made during festivals. My mom makes this for Ganesha chaturthi. This is my mom’s trademark recipe. It is slightly different than regular kodbale. My favorite. My daughter’s favorite too. 

It is a little time consuming, and you don’t get enough quantity for the whole lot of work you put in, but the taste makes up for it.  

And it’s Ganesha habba season again! Happy birthday to my dear blog!!

Make this kodbale for this festival season and enjoy!

Happy Gowri and Ganesha habba!!!

Mavinakayi Chitranna - Raw Mango rice

I only knew one way of making mavinakayi chitranna, which is make tadka with mustard, urad dal, chana dal, hing, peanuts green/red chili and turmeric, add grated raw mango, sauté and mix with cooked rice. But I recently got to know about this recipe (through a Kannada sangha we are involved with), which is slightly different, but definitely more delicious than what I make. The recipe uses methi seeds, which makes it unique. I particularly loved the subtle methi taste + tanginess of raw mango. 

This recipe is from another favorite food blog of mine, which has many authentic Karnataka recipes. 

Make this delicious mavinakayi chitranna for upcoming festival season and enjoy!      

Eggless Fruit Cake

It’s impressive how our elders insist on fresh food all the time, even on bakery items, which have pretty good shelf life. I remember, whenever we craved for some bakery food in the evenings, my mom would send my brother to get some freshly made stuff from the bakery. Fruit cake was always on my list. My mom would specifically instruct my brother to ask for fresh loaf of bread or any stuff; if it were an old batch he may not buy it. Packaged food was never appreciated. After coming to US, of course, all my “fresh food” privileges got hit. The packaged fruit cake available here in Indian stores doesn’t even come close to the fresh ones I used to gobble up back home. They were/are so bad that one would just give up the idea of eating it, than getting used to the taste of it. Few years back, when I came across this fruit cake recipe, I was more than eager to try it out. Who knows, if it clicks then I don’t have to wait to go to India to eat it again. And it did click! Actually it came out better than my expectations. Since it is eggless, many of those who don’t prefer a strong egg smell(particularly in fruit cakes) can also enjoy it. 

Only after coming to US did I realize that this cake is associated with Christmas. 

Make one right now and enjoy your holidays! 

Merry Christmas!!!