Zaiqa

Healthy and nutritious, badaam ka harira used to be enjoyed as a regular breakfast durng my childhood in Hyderabad. Ammi served harira along with warm parathas, which were torn and soaked in it. Roasted flour in ghee gives a distinctive taste to the harira and also helps thicken it.

Badaam ka Harira – Thick Almond Milk

During fall/winters I prepare this quite often to warm up my body and nourish it. It is also immensely good for kids and expecting mothers for its nutritional benefits.

Badaam ka Harira – Thick Almond Milk
Makes – 1 cup

Ingredients:

Ghee – 1 tsp
Durum wheat flour – 1 tbsp
Almonds/Badaam – 1/4 cup, finely powdered (you can also use pistachios/pinenuts/walnuts etc)
Milk – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Almonds – roughly chopped, for garnish (optional)

Method:

Pour ghee in a milk saucepan at medium heat, and as soon as it is warm, add the flour and roast it for a few seconds in the ghee stirring frequently using a spoon until it is biscuit colored. Pour in milk, little by little, whisking it well so that it does not form lumps. Add sugar and mix well. Let the milk boil once. Add the powdered almonds and lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, garnish with chopped almonds and serve warm along with Roti or Paratha, or sip it as it is.

Badam ka Harira goes to Health Nut Challenge 3, which Yasmeen of Healthnut is hosting on her wonderful blog. Do mail her your entries before January 2010.

Luv,
Mona

Rote (also referred to as roat), are baked~cooked on dum, sweet and crunchy semolina flat cookie sort of delicacies made especially in Hyderabad city, which are deliciously crunchy from the outside, but soft in the center. This confection has the all goodness in them, including exotic saffron, nuts, khoa and glorious ghee.

Semolina -Sooji rawa (fine variety)

The following is one of my friend Saba’s recipe, which I have changed just a little bit here and there. My hubby loved these rote a lot الحمد لله and I plan to make them again soon inshallah.

My mother-in-law’s version is simpler. Inshallah I will post my Mother-in-laws version for this confectionery sometime in the future.

Dum ke Rote – Baked Sweet Semolina flat breads
Makes: 13 large rote as shown in the picture below

Ingredients:

Almonds – 3/4 cup
Pistachios – 1/2 cup
Saffron threads – 2 pinch
Semolina/Sooji (fine variety) – 3 cups
All-Purpose flour – 3 1/4 cup
Granulated Sugar – 3 cups
Baking powder – 1 1/2 tbsp
Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
Homemade Khoya – 3/4 cup
Ghee – 1 cup, warmed
Warmed Milk – 1 cup

Dum ke Rote

Method:

1. Soak the almonds and pistachios together in cool water overnight. The next day, peel them and keep aside. In a blender container pour in 1/2 cup warmed milk and the peeled nuts and grind to a smooth paste. Keep aside in a bowl.
2. Add the khoya and the remaining warmed milk in a blender container and blend to a smooth paste.
3. In a mixing bowl, add semolina, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and cardamom powder. Using a whisk, mix well. Add the nuts+milk paste, and the khoya+milk paste and ghee and mix well. Knead to form a dough. Cover and keep aside for 1 hour for it to rest. Later, knead again until dough is pliable and cover again and let rest for 1 more hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F and knead the dough a final time. Pinch out fist size balls from the dough and shape into smooth balls. Using your fingers flatten them into discs (approx 6 inches in diameter) and arrange on greased foil lined baking sheets leaving 2 inch space all around each of the discs. Gently press few sliced almonds on top of each disc. Place the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the sides and base are nicely browned (but not burnt). Keep a close eye. Immediately switch to broil on low setting for 2-5 minutes until the tops are browned (but not burnt) and the nuts are toasted. Keep a close eye.
5. Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Leave to cool on tray for 5 minutes. Using a flat spatula transfer them to wire racks until they are cooled completely. Store in an air tight container at room temperature. Finish within 3-4 weeks.

If you prepare this delicacy at home too, feel free to send me your recipe for Dum ke Rote. I will be happy to try it out.

Luv,
Mona

Light and fluffy, tender and slightly tart buttermilk pancakes, what better way to start a lazy weekend morning.  This classic American breakfast/brunch will surely delight you and your family.

Buttermilk Pancakes
Recipe Source: Chatelaine
Makes – 12

Ingredients:

Unsalted Butter – 1/2 cup,melted and cooled + extra for cooking
Buttermilk – 2 cups (or mix 2 cup milk + 2 tbsp lemon juice and let stand 5 minutes until it thickens)
All Purpose flour – 1 cup
Whole wheat flour – 1 cup
Granulated Sugar – 1/4 cup
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Eggs – 2, large, at room temperature
Vanilla powder – 1 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. In a bowl, add eggs, buttermilk (or the milk+lemon juice mixture), butter and vanilla.
2. In a bowl, using a fork mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and add the above wet mixture. Mix until just blended. The flour should be lumpy in texture for fluffy pancakes. Mix as little as possible.
3. Pour little butter in a non-stick frying pan at medium high heat. As soon as it warms up, pour 1/3 cup batter into the pan. Make 1 or 2 pancakes at a time depending on the size of the pan. Cook until bubbles form on top of pancake and edges begin to brown, 2-4 minutes. Using a flat rubber spatula, flip and cook the other side until the other side is golden-brown, 2-3 minutes. Do not press or they will not be fluffy.
4. Serve right away. To keep warm, keep them stacked in a warm oven until all are cooked. Drizzle with maple syrup and serve.

Tips: Pour batter into the pan, gently push in a few seasonal fruit slices (sliced banana, peaches, or berries), pinch of spices (like cinnamon powder, cardamom or nutmeg etc) or you can also add a few chopped toasted nuts (pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds or even shredded coconut) or chocolate chips into the pancake batter before you flip it.
Freeze leftover pancakes in a freezer bag and reheat it when fancied in a toaster or toaster oven.

Luv,
Mona

I have been enjoying some winter treats from the past few days, first~a light and delicious Pumpkin halwa, then some spicy Besan ke Murkul.

Murkul, or Murukul, are delicious savories that are made with rice flour, or lentil flour or gram flour, etc. There exist various varieties of this crunchy snack. This variety of Murkul is easy to prepare, doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, and at the same time, satisfying.  They are usually prepared at home and stored in air-tight containers for eating. They are also available ready made in Indian stores.

murkul press, with various attachments for different shapes of the murkul

To prepare these savory addictive crunchy snacks at home, special molds are required to press the dough into desired shape into the hot oil to be deep fried. These molds are inexpensive and are available at Indian stores and called as ‘Murkul press’ or ‘Murukku press’. These molds come along with many attachments for different shapes for the murkul. Today I have used the star shaped attachment.

Besan Murkul – Savory Crunchy Gram flour Coils
Makes- about 20 Murkul

Ingredients:

Gram flour/Besan – 3 cups
Cumin seeds – 3 tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 1/2 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Water – 2/3 cup
Canola oil – to deep fry

Murkul, along with a cup of warm tea on a gloomy autumnal afternoon

Method:

1. Heat oil to deep fry in a kadai.
2. In a mixing bowl, add all the above ingredients and mix thoroughly to form a sticky dough like paste.
3. Fill the murkul press with the prepared dough and press into hot oil forming coils. You will get the hang of it with practice. Deep fry a few murkul at a time in the kadai until browned on both sides. Remove using slotted spoon onto a paper towel lined platter. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Once they are all completely cooled, transfer them to an air-tight container to store. Serve as snack.

Tip: Grease the back of the slotted spoon with oil, and press the dough using the mold into circular ring. To fry the murkul, gently invert the spoon over hot oil so that the murkul drops into the oil in perfect shape.

Luv,
Mona

Looks like Fall/Autumn has finally arrived in Toronto. Strong cold winds, falling leaves, and the beautiful red, orange and yellow hues on the tree leaves indicating that a new weather has commenced.

Frozen Moment #5 – Vivid blue sky against Autumn leaves

This summer seemed very short to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed and made use of the beautiful sunshine with whatever little gardening I was able to do in my backyard. Now, my lovely tomato plant is slowly dying, and raspberry plants will soon be asleep. Herb pots have all be brought indoors to adapt to the scanty indirect sunshine.

Bed of Fallen Leaves

This kind of weather leaves me craving for warm baked goods. Mornings are commenced with warm coffee or tea, and something baked fresh from my oven. Today I baked these delicious muffins using dried cranberries which I bought from Bulk barn and some walnuts that I had lying in the refrigerator from a long time.

Toasted and chopped Walnuts & dried Cranberries

I really enjoyed the raisin like dried cranberries with a hint of tartness bursting in my mouth with every bite.

Dried Cranberry-Walnut Muffins
Recipe adapted from: Cakes – 1,001 recipes from around the world

Ingredients:

All-Purpose flour – 2 cups
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Cinnamon powder – 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Dried Cranberries – 1 cup
Walnuts – 1/2 cup, toasted & chopped (you can also use any other nuts you like)
Buttermilk – 1 cup
Brown Sugar – 1/2 cup, firmly packed
Eggs – 2, large, at room temperature
Butter – 1/4 cup, melted

Warm, freshly baked Cranberry-Walnut muffins cooling on rack

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin pan, or line with aluminium foil or paper baking cups.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg and salt into a large bowl. Stir in cranberries and walnuts.
4. Beat buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, butter in medium bowl with an electric hand mixer at high speed.
5. Stir the egg mixture into dry ingredients. Spoon the batter into muffin cups filling each 2/3 full.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffin pan on rack.

My friends of Northern hemisphere, enjoy the fall weather and keep warm!

Luv,
Mona