Indian Cooking Challenge-September Challenge--Jantikalu or Muruku

Muruku is one of the Traditional Snack.I never knew that making muruku is very easy.I couldn't belive myself that I made them on my own.You all may be knowing that I'm in India on vaccation and I hardly enter the kitchen and prepare food but to send this entry to Indian Cooking Challenge event by Srivalli as I have missed to participate in last two months challenges due to some personal reasons and I promised her to do it this month.My parents were really shocked seeing these Murukulu WOW! did u made them all your own...dats really great...This is my dad's expression.Thanks Srivalli for the recipe and the wonderful challenge every month.

Preparation Time : 20 - 30 mins

Cooking Time : 20 - 30 mins

Makes : app 250 kg of Muruku

Cuisine: Andhra & Tamil Nadu

Utensils needed:

Muruku /Chakli Press

Kadai

Ingredients Needed:

Raw Rice - 4 cups

Urad Dal - 1 cup

Water - app 1/2 cup or more

For Seasoning:

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Sesame seeds- 1 tsp

Asafetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Butter - 75 gms

Method to prepare:

1.Wash and drain the rice. Shade dry the Rice for 1/2 hr.

2.Dry roast the Urad dal to light brown. Allow it to cool.If you are using more quantity, you can get it ground in rice mil, else use your mixie to grind both Rice and Urad dal.

3.First grind rice into a fine flour, keep it aside. then grind the urad dal to fine powder.

4.In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.Whether you use Asafetida powder or the solid ones, you got to mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the muruku, there are chances for the hing to burst our due to air bubbles.Mix in the hing to the flour and finally add the butter. Gather everything well and you will get more of a crumbling mixture.

5.Now slowly add water and knead a dough which is little more softer than the puri dough.

6.Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame.

Take the Muruku Aachu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls.

7.Fill the Muruku maker with the dough. You can either press it directly over the flames or press over a paper and gently slide it down the hot oil. But since the quantity mentioned here is less, you can press it directly over the kadai.Cook over medium flame, using a slotted spoon, turn it over to other side to ensure both sides turn golden colour. You will know by seeing the colour that its cooked. Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.

This normally stays good for weeks, provided you forget about these which hardly happens!

I used a plastic icing decoration bag and a Star Tip(#21) to make the muruku.I never used muruku acchu before and I thought using this decoration bag will make my work easy.Ofcourse I got this Idea from Mints and followed her method.Finally Muruku came out well.

Jilludukayalu---Ganesh Chathurthi Special Sweet

Ganesh Chathurthi is one of my favourite festivals,do u know why???I love the tratidional food we make to offer as Prasadam to Lord Ganesh.Usually we make lots of dishes with Rice Flour and Roasted Upma Ravva,ofcourse they are different dishes which we make in different regions.We make Jilludukayalu,Kudumulu,Undrallu,Dhanam Pettelu(Cash Box) as Prasadam.I was in USA for last year Ganesh Puja and this year also,I tried making Jilludukayalu but they didnt turn out perfect...its just like something better than nothing.

Today I ate these Jilludukayalu..Learnt how to make them perfect.I wanted to share that recipe here.

JilluduKayalu:

Ingridents:

For Dough:

Rice:1 cup(Raw Rice)

Salt:A Pinch

Water:2 cups

Oil:2 spns

For Stuffing:

Grated Coconut: 1 cup(Preferably Fresh Coconut)

Sugar:1.5 cups

Elachi Powder:A Pinch

Procedure:

For Making the Stuffing:

1.In a Pan place the grated fresh coconut and add in the sugar,mix well.After 3-4 mins the sugar will start melting,now cook the coconut in this sugar syrup on low flame.

2.Sprinkle elachi powder,mix well and cook till the coconut and sugar mixture becomes dry.

3.Swtich off the flame and now the stuffing for making Jilludukayalu is ready.

For Making Dough:

1.Soak the rice for 4-5 hours,after that drain the water and make it to a smooth paste.Add water if needed.Use water from the measure of 2 cups mentioned earlier.

2.In a heavy bottomed pan add the remaining water and bring it to boil and now add 2 spns of oil,pinch of salt and stir well.When the water comes to full boil then kindly pour the rice flour paste into this boiling water,make sure that you stir it continously so that no lumps are in the dough.

3.Cook the dough on low flame,keep stiring it continously for 5 mins.By now a smooth dough of rice flour is formed.Let it cool down.Put this dough in a napkin/towel which is wet so that the dough will not become hard.

4.When the dough is cooled and easy to handle,apply little oil to the hand and knead the dough well to make a smooth dough.

5.Now the dough is ready to make Jilludukayalu.

Assembling n Cooking:

1.Knead the rice flour dough very well and take a small portion of it and make a disc out of it.

2.Now take a spoon full of Coconut stuffing on one half of the disc,now fold the other half and seal the edges.

3.You can make a small design while sealing the edges else you can find a mould in Bed Bath Beyond or Walmart u can use these mould to make the Jilludukayalu.

4.In a pan pour water and bring it to a boil so that these jilludukayalu can be cooked on steam.

5..Now Take a plate/idly stand apply little oil to the plates and carefully place these Jilludukayalu,place them in the pan with boiling water and cook them on steam for 5-10(or till steam comes out).

6.When Done switch off the flame and careully remove them from plate and serve them.

These Jilludukayalu is one of the favourite prasadam which we offer to Lord Ganesh.

I made Lord Ganesh with Wheat Flour to do this year Ganesh Puja.Here is the pic of My Cute Ganesha.

Ganesh Puja Decoration 2009 .This is my second handmade Ganesh Idol For Puja.This year I tried making Palavalli for which we can hang fruits.U can see that in the above pic.

Wilton Cake Decoration--Course 2

A Biggg HELLOOOO to my fellow bloggers and friends..First of all Sorry for not being regular in blogging my cooking experiences...These days I fell in love with other activites like Beading and Cake decoration classes and then now I'm in India,reached here yesterday and will be here for 2 month vacction and happy to spend time with my family n relatives.I just wanted to inform u all that I may not be active posting things in these 2 months but I promise that I'll come back with new recipes learnt from my MOM n MOM-IN-LAW.

In month of August I joined Wilton Cake Decoration Classes Course 2 and completed it successfully.I enjoyed making different kinds of Icings rather than the regular butter cream icing.In this course they will teach us how to make different kinds of flowers with Royal Icing and a Basket weaving techenique with Butter Cream Icing.Our Final cake was Awesome and the only expression is WOOOOOWWWW did I do dis???Would u like to see my Final Cake...Chalo here comes it...

Here is another lovely cake I made with the Pansy flowers I learnt in course 2 and surprised my hubby with this cake on our 18th month(1.5 yrs) wedding day.He loved the color of the cake and the rich look of the pansy flowers on the cake.I even Made a simple handmade greeting card for him..

Hope u loved my cake pics...Thank u frens I will come back soon with new recipes...Have a nice weekend..Enjoy :)